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homily – October 8

Sunday, October 8th, 2006

Trinity Sunday

On Trinity Sunday we celebrate the mystery that the inner life of God is a life of relationships – The Father eternally begets the Son and the Spirit of love binds all three together. It’s a reality we really can’t get our heads around but as I mentioned before a mystery is not something of which we can know nothing, it is something of which we cannot know everything.

The 15 billion year history of our universe manifests that all creation is bound in relationships – solar systems relating to solar systems, planets to planets – species to species – cells to cells – atoms to atoms into the very depth of reality.

In today’s Genesis story of creation we see this same manifestation of relationship – it is not good for man – for anyone to be alone – because God is never alone – so in this story we see God trying to cure Adam’s loneliness by offering him helpmates, partners. Adam’s very naming of animals and birds forms a relationship with them – but they are not enough for Adam’s interpersonal needs. So we have the poetic imagery of God taking Adam’s rib and forming woman – flesh of his flesh, bone of his bone – so that these two could have a loving and life giving relationship – the two become one in mind, one in heart and one in affection. It is in and through our loving and life giving relationships – with one another and with God’s creation that we are in relationship with God.

As I mentioned last week we hope that through our prayer and praise in this ‘green’ church we come to our own greening, in the sense that we become more sensitive to and aware of our relationship, our kinship with all the life forms that share planet earth with us.

Today’s gospel is always a difficult one to deal with. In it Jesus takes us back to the beginnings and His insistence on holding on to God’s original dream of human relationships – the two become one. The words of Jesus are demanding – no divorce – if you remarry you commit adultery. Marriage in the days of Jesus is far removed from our reality of marriage – yet the ideal remains the same – til death do us part.

Often we romanticize the past, we think back on the golden age when divorce was a rarity. But the truth of the matter is – there were all kinds of marriage breakdowns even though society did not tolerate marriage break ups.

Yet just about every family deals with the harsh reality of divorce – not only the reality but the hurt and disappointment of divorce. Divorce is a form of death and we grieve for those who die. Divorce shatters the lives of husband and wife and children and the whole extended family. Divorce lets loose anger and resentment, rage and revenge – it rips apart the fabric of so many lives. We know that the ones who suffer the most are the children – I hate it when people who split tell me the children are coping very well – it’s wishful thinking. They are in denial.

Marriage is supposed to be a community of life and love – but what to do if a relationship becomes physically or emotionally abusive – if it becomes death dealing instead of life giving, destructive instead of creative? No one should be expected to stay in such a relationship.

But how should we see people who have divorced? First of all we can’t stand in judgment of their decision to end their relationships. They are still family, they are still church and they are always welcome here. They need our understanding and our support. We can pray for them that their wounds heal and that they find a new life giving love.

The gospel and Jesus quoting Genesis and ‘in the beginning God made them male and female’ brings us to the divisive issue of gay marriage. People have strong feelings about this matter. The fact is the government has the obligation to protect the rights of all its citizens – rights to housing and jobs and freedom from discrimination and the freedom to enter into honest and committed relationships, relationships that are protected by law – even if we can’t understand such relationships. Contrary to common perception, our Bishops have always recognized that obligation. It is their belief that the government made a mistake in extending to such relationships the title of marriage. I believe common sense tells us this is not so. The British has the wisdom to name such relationships – civil unions – with all the civil and legal rights of marriage. And all the emotional stress and strain of being faithful to their commitments as husbands and wives have to be faithful to their commitments.

As we continue to celebrate this Mass we thank God for all the stable, healthy life giving relationships that exist within our parish family – we pray for those who are in troubled relationships – we pray for those who have suffered the breakdown and breakup of their relationships, and we pray that they may know healing and find new love.



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homily – October 1

Sunday, October 1st, 2006

New Church

I won’t be preaching on the scripture this Sunday rather I’d like to bring you up to date on our new home. We’ve been in our new home over a month now. As you can see behind me they are still demolishing our old home. It’s a home that holds many memories for all of us. I was away the days they demolished the church – that’s such a harsh word – demolish. I was spared the experience. But the other week Father Steve Dunn and I watched as they demolished – there’s that word again, the monastery chapel, our recreation room and our refectory. The machine looked like a giant, hungry dinosaur tearing apart our home. That monastery was our home for many years – it’s loaded with memories – it’s been rough celebrating morning Mass and watching them tearing the place apart. I know many of you have had the same sad feelings as you saw the gradual disappearance of our old church. I know a lot of tears were shed.

But as the song sings – that was yesterday and yesterday’s gone.

Here we are in our new home – we’re still moving in, its a work in progress. We still have to get used to our new seating arrangement – an arrangement that is totally different from what we are used to. It’s call antiphonal seating and is based on monastery choirs when the monks stood opposite one another as we do and chanted the office back and forth. There is a reason for our seating arrangement.

The church is not the building, it is people. Recently a bishop had dedicated a new church. He remarked to the pastor, you have a magnificent building here – to which the pastor replied, yes and we have a wonderful church ie wonderful people. In his letter to the Corinthians Paul talks about their coming together as church – they had no church buildings in Corinth – when they came together in homes, they were the church. That’s why we chose this form of seating to give you a better sense of community – of being here with other people – people you can see. We all know Christ is present in the Blessed Sacrament but the truth is Christ just as present in this gathering – in you good people. Again it will take a bit of getting used to this but I’m sure we all will. I like to suggest you don’t get squatter’s rights – sitting in the same pew every Sunday – move around – mix it up – get another sense of the space, another sense of the church, the people.

Our beautiful stain glass windows are being restored and will be in place as soon as possible. The five windows from the arches in the old church will be placed in the five windows next to the doors of the church – the others will be displayed as banners as the occasion arises. This too is a work in progress. You’ll notice we’ve used much of the glass from the front doors of the old church as we could.

To have a sense of continuity we brought as much as possible from the old church – the pews – the marble for the altar, the pulpit, the baptismal font. Our tabernacle has been refurbished and has a new altar. The space in which the tabernacle is placed will be a chapel of ease – there will be chairs for your use when you come for a visit – it will provide its own ambiance of peace and quiet and privacy. New lighting will highlight the cross and tabernacle.

We brought with us our beautiful statues of the Sacred Heart and St. Gabriel. To tell you the truth I love our statue of the welcoming Christ. He was usually hidden by all the trees on the lawn of the old church – now Christ is very visible and very welcoming.

As I said, we are a work in progress. The chairs for the priests and servers have yet to arrive as well as the chairs for choir. And our reconciliation rooms which are on either side of the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament have yet to be furnished. There will be a book of appreciation, which will list the donors and the gifts they’ve provided to our new home.

In the old church we had little if any space to gather and socialize as we entered or left the church. Our new gathering space gives us a wonderful open space – it is graced by our living wall of live plants. This living wall is meant to purify the air in our gathering space. This gathering place will help us be more church to one another – as we take our time coming and going. The underground parking is working out very well and thanks for your patience and co operation in your parking. We’ll appreciate it all the more when the snow falls. Just one thing, spaces marked ‘car pool parking’ are for cars that have more than two people in them.

As you can see our restored stations of the cross grace our west wall. I know some people feel the walls are stark – they are. Someone referred to our cement walls as the elegance of simplicity. You can see this especially when they awash with the colors that come from the stain glass skylights. Our walls speak to us of the earth – sand, water and lime, slag and sludge and they are reinforced by recycled steel and our glass wall opens us up to the world around us – so that even in our worship we won’t be wrapped up in our own space but are open to and aware of the beauty and the fragility of creation.

We are called Canada’s first green church. Every church creates its own atmosphere – it has its own feeling. Our old church offered us a real sense of tranquility. Our new home has its own atmosphere too – we just have to get used to it, let it grow on us.

The goal of all those involved in the planning and building of this new church that the praise and preaching done in this new space will facilitate the greening of those who worship here. Greening in the sense that we all will come to a deeper sense the human family’s oneness with the rest of God’s good creation. Greening in the sense that we all come to a deeper awareness of the truth that ‘we did not weave the web of life, we are strand in the web and what we do to the web we do to ourselves’ – Greening in the sense that we face the truth, ‘the earth does not belong to us, we belong to the earth and what we do to the earth we do to ourselves’.

As we continue to celebrate our Eucharist we can pray for ourselves and for each other that our time spent in our new home will be blessed by God, bring us closer to each other and to the wonders of God’s good creation.



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homily – September 24

Sunday, September 24th, 2006

Entrance Antiphon

I’d like to say a few words on what is called the Entrance Antiphon for today’s Mass. We usually don’t say this antiphon because we have an entrance hymn. It goes, “I am the savior of all peoples, says the Lord. Whatever their troubles I will answer their cry and I will always be their Lord.”

The other night I was watching Billy Graham’s daughter on TV. She’s written a new book and was being interviewed on it. The gist of her message and book was – unless you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior you cannot be saved. That’s it. She kept quoting Scripture — I am the way the truth and the life – No one can come to the Father except thru me. The interviewer asked, does that mean everyone else is lost. Her response was, “these are not my words, these are the words of Scripture – Jesus is the way – the only way to come to salvation.”

That’s a far cry from “I am the savior of all peoples – whatever their troubles I will answer their cry – I will always be their Lord.” It’s scary the way some people take ownership of God and God’s love and mercy. The TV news is overloaded with pictures of radical Moslems rallying and protesting and calling for the death of anyone who does not see God as they see God. Calling peoples of other faiths, infidels – basically lost souls.

But Christians have people of the same ilk. Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior or you’re done for. Accept God, accept Jesus as we do or you’re lost – damned forever and that’s not just for those who are non-Christian but other Christians as well. There was a time when we were taught ‘outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation’ – thank God we’ve moved beyond that.

For so many people it’s so difficult to deal with diversity – to relate to people who are different, ideas that are different, cultures and faiths that are different. Diversity is what makes the world go round – diversity permeates creation.

Hundreds of years ago St. Thomas wrote – we must say that the distinction and multitude of things – comes from the intention of God – Who brought all things into being. Because God’s goodness could not be adequately represented by any one creature alone God produced many and diverse creatures so that what was wanting to one in the representation of the divine good – might be supplied by another. For goodness, which in God is simple and uniform – in creatures is manifold and divided – hence the whole universe together – participates the divine goodness more perfectly – and represents that divine goodness better – than any single creature – because the divine wisdom is the cause of the distinction of all things.

The diversity we see around us in the multitude of species – in the diversity of peoples, cultures and faiths – all these are manifestations of the divine goodness.

Some one has said that the religions of the world should be focusing on what we have in common instead of what divides us. What we have in common is our belief in a supreme being – God, creator of all. What we have in common is a commandment of love. What we have in common is a command to care for our neighbour – what the many religions in the world could have in common is the project of working for world peace, ending poverty, promoting the dignity of every human being, promoting reverence for creation and working toward the healing of the earth.

Last Wednesday we had a wonderful gather of people. It was sponsored by a group called “faith and the common good” This group has a new project called ‘greening sacred spaces’ Our church was their flagship. They are encouraging temples and mosques and churches to be more efficient in their use of energy, to refit themselves to be more energy efficient and to encourage their people to be more conscious of their use of energy and their consumerism.

Our concept of Islam must reach beyond the images of enraged people protesting and burning images of the Pope or whoever else they feel insulted their faith. We would not want non Christians to see us as those who basically tell them they are lost if they do not accept Jesus as Lord and Savior.

Diversity in all creation, diversity in the human family springs from the love of our creating God. That’s why it is important to remember the words “I am the savior of all peoples, says the Lord. Whatever their troubles I will answer their cry and I will always be their Lord.



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homily – September 17

Sunday, September 17th, 2006

Mark 8:27-35

The question Jesus asked Peter is a question we all must answer – ‘who do you say I am?’ We have to answer it but from a different perspective than Peter and the others. Peter named Jesus the Messiah, and he was right. At the same time Peter was wrong. His idea of the Messiah was the common one at the time – the Messiah would be a liberator who would free the Jewish people from Roman occupation and restore the Jewish nation to the glory days of King David and Solomon.

This was not how Jesus saw himself. He upsets not only Peter but all those in His hearing when he bursts their bubble of their expectations by telling them, “the Son of Man must undergo great suffering and be rejected by the powers that be, He will be put to death but in three days rise again.”

Peter can’t handle this. In Matthew’s gospel we hear Peter say, ‘far be this from you Lord, this must never happen to you.’ Jesus ends up by calling Peter Satan. That’s pretty strong language. Satan. Maybe Peter’s attempt to turn Him from His task reminded Jesus of His encounter with Satan in the desert at the beginning of His public life. We know this encounter as ‘the temptation in the desert’. Don’t be hungry, Satan had said, don’t be weak, don’t be unknown. Make yourself some bread out of that rock. Rule the kingdoms. Make God your tool to force the angels into catching you when you fall. You don’t need to suffer. You are the Christ.

Christ was not interested in riches, honors and control. He entered totally into our humanity, like us in all things. He accepts and experiences suffering, as we do. He accepts rejection, betrayal and death because these are human realities.

Peter’s confusion and disappointment of Jesus’ prediction of His future speaks to the fact that Peter and the others were expecting their Messiah to be a leader not a loser.

Neither the temptation in the desert not the cajoling of Peter would turn Jesus away from his appointed task; to suffer and die and reconcile the world to God – making peace by His death on the cross. That’s why the church applies the words of Isaiah to Jesus – ‘the Lord opened my ear – I did not turn backward – I gave my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who plucked out my beard – I did not hide my face from insult and spitting – I set my face like flint.’ These words speak of determination. Isaiah knew he had a task to do – and no matter what the obstacles he would accomplish it because he was convinced He who vindicates me is near.

Commitments cost. The commitment of marriage, the commitment of a vowed life, the commitment to social justice. the commitment to truth. The commitment to one’s faith.

There was an article in the Post about a young man named Benjamin Rubin. He is on the Quebec Remparts hockey team. This past Friday they began the defense of their 2006 Memorial Cup championship. Benjamin Rubin who is 17 years old did not play in the opening game, it’s on the Sabbath. Benjamin and his family keep the Sabbath. Imagine the pressure this young man must have under – from team mates, from fans. What’s so awful about breaking the Sabbath, why are you being such a goodie goodie. Don’t you know you’re letting your team down. Let’s have separation of church and sports. To his credit Benjamin stuck to his faith commitment.

Any person who has made any commitment will be tempted – when the going get rough, when things don’t go as expected and there are disappointments – to turn back, to take an easy way out. Jesus was committed to do the will of the Father, it cost Him His life. In the light of His commitment to us, we can look at our commitment to Him and to others in our lives – for all our difficulties – are we faithful?.

As we continue to celebrate this Mass we can pray for ourselves and for each other for the grace to be faithful to our commitments to God, to husband or wife, to our faith in Christ. – may we be graced ‘to set our face like flint ‘ and always be faithful to the Christ, Who was faithful to us – loved us and gave His life for us.



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homily – September 10

Sunday, September 10th, 2006

Mark 7:31-37

Just a couple of words on today’s gospel. Some good friends brought this man to Jesus. He couldn’t hear, he couldn’t speak correctly. They wanted Jesus to do something about it. Mark tells us this good man had an impediment. It’s an interesting choice of words. Impediments are literally those things which get in the way of the feet, from the Latin word pedes meaning “foot”. Freedom of movement is so important for us. The older we get, the more anxious we are about anything that could trip us up and cause us to stumble and fall. We have to watch where we’re going. We’ve come to apply this word ‘impediment’ to anything and everything that limits our freedom or our ability to do what we want to do. Jesus removes the barrier to this man’s freedom to hear and speak – Jesus removes his impediment and liberates the man to hear and speak.

People with impediments – with limited ability to see, hear, speak, walk – usually manage to compensate their limitations in amazing ways – they show us such courage, such determination, such ingenuity as they carry on with their lives. They refuse to allow regret or anger or self pity to be an even greater impediment in their determination to live full lives.

The Apostle Paul tells us we are to grow to full maturity in Christ – we are to put on Christ – we are to have the mind of Christ – as Paul said of himself we are to say of ourselves, ‘for me to live is Christ.’

But like Paul we recognize our own limitations – we can say of ourselves what Paul said of himself. ‘the good that I would, that I do not, the evil that I would not do, that I do.’ Our freedom to grow to our personal maturity in Christ is impeded by our own immaturity, insecurity, self centeredness, selfishness. Our lack of faith in God’s love for us, a love that drove God to send His son to the world, not to condemn us but to bring us to life, this lack of faith can be our impediment to growing to that full maturity to which we are called. Our lack of faith, our lack of trust in Christ’s love for us – a love that drove Him to empty Himself of divinity and take to Himself our humanity – becoming as we all are – a love that drove Him to a horrible death on a cross – this lack of trust in such love can be our impediment to growing to that full maturity to which we are called. If we are honest about it there are so many things in our lives that impede our growing, maturing as persons and as Christians – we struggle with anger and resentments over past hurts and betrayals, we struggle with our own passions and dependencies, we have yet to overcome our prejudices towards good people of other cultures, nationalities, religions, life styles – we have difficulties with people, things and ways of thinking that are different from ours.

Because of all these we are impeded from hearing the word of Christ clearly – love one another as I have loved you. We are impeded from speaking with love and respect to other people, we are impeded from seeing the good in other people, in other ways of thinking and living, we are impeded from seeing Christ in the very person in front of us. We are impeded from grasping the depth and the demand of Jesus Who tells us – ‘whatever you do to one of these brothers and sisters of Mine, you do to Me.

As we continue to celebrate this Mass in which we celebrate the liberating death and resurrection of Jesus, we can pray for ourselves and for each other for the grace to face honestly those ways of thinking, acting, living and relating that are our impediments, that trip us up and cause us to stumble in our efforts to put on Christ and be the Christ like people we are called to be. May we be blessed with honesty and courage to recognize our impediments and bring them to Christ trusting He will touch us as He touched the man in the gospel and free us from all that holds us back from growing to that full maturity in Christ to which we are all called.



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