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Sunday Evangelium

Weekly Sunday homilies by Father Marcus Holden and Father Andrew Pinsent, who were ordained Catholic priests in September 2005. Together they've founded the Evangelium project.

_{Many thanks to Edwin Fawcett for the gift of his music.
You can subscribe to this podcast / download the free mp3s here from Totus2us's web feed & here on itunes. Plus, you can download the audio mp3s individually by right clicking where you see this diamond   ♦}

_{Here below are the Evangeliums for this liturgical year B (which began on the 1st Sunday Advent). You can listen to all the recordings (this podcast began on the Feast of All Saints 2010) by season: Advent, Christmastide, Ordinary Time, Lent, Eastertide & then Special Feast Days.}

5th Sunday of Lent

by Father Marcus Holden       ♦

_{"There’s no cheap grace in this world, there’s no easy Christianity, no pain – no gain, no cross – no crown, no mortification – no sanctification, no-sacrifice – no resurrection. There is indeed joy and it is a deeper joy than anything else in this world can give, there is glory greatly than all the kingdoms of the world, there is love more profound than any human relationship, there is life and without end – but it all comes through the cross, through trustful and obedient acceptance. The Greeks could get what they really wanted, that real beauty and lasting goodness, but it required the acceptance of the cross. That is the challenge for every Christian, that is our challenge of the next 12 days as we prepare for Good Friday itself."}

_{Readings: Gospel: John 12: 20-33: ... Jesus replied to them: 'Now the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you, most solemnly, unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest. Anyone who loves his life loses it; anyone who hates his life in this world will keep it for the eternal life. If a man serves me, he must follow me, wherever I am, my servant will be there too. ..'}

1st Sunday of Lent

Penance by Father Andrew Pinsent       ♦

_{"The reason why treating our relationship to God as a contract is so abhorrent is that what God wants is for us to enjoy a relationship with him that is second-personal, not third-personal, of an 'I' to 'Thou', not an individual to a remote benefactor. In other words, God wants us to love with him what he loves, and sacrifice with him what he sacrifices, as happens at every Mass. In today's First Reading, this relationship is spoken of as a covenant not a contract, a union of soul as in the Christian sacrament of marriage and not just an exchange of goods, and this is also the context in which, I think, we should understnad how we are meant to use this opportunity of Lent. Our goals in Lent should not be to increase our credit balance with God, which is abhorrent and impossible anyway, but to repent of what you might call our adulterous spiritual liaisons, those times in which we give our souls, in effect, over to what is not of God, especially the false gods of pride, envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony and lust."}

_{Readings: Gospel: Mark: 1, 12-15: The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him. After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: this is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.}

6th Sunday of the Year (B)

by Father Andrew Pinsent       ♦

_{"An extreme version of this fear of illness and suffering seems to be much of the inspiration for the increase in suicides today and the drive to promote the practice of euthanasia, the killing of those deemed unfit to live. Many saints, by contrast, have made a special point of overcoming their natural repulsion or fear for some of the worst diseases, especially leprosy. They've looked beyond the disease to see the person suffering as a beloved child of God. For St Francis of Assisi, a major turning point in his path to extreme holiness was when he embraced a leper. St Damien, who died in 1889 after caring for lepers for many years, is the first officially recognised saint of Hawaii. What then inspires people like St Francis, St Damien and many others, who are largely unknown, to care for the sick and outcast in this way? The most straightforward answer is that, by surrendering to the love of God, they were given the gifts that they needed to accomplish great deeds. Their lives show the fruit of the Holy Spirit called benignity, which is like a holy fire by which a person melts to relieve the needs of others. They also had a special form of courage. The source and keystone of this courage was not a confidence in their own physical survival, indeed St Damien himself died of leprosy, this courage is a gift of the Holy Spirit, a confidence in attaining heaven, the only goal that really matters, so long as one remains in personal union with God. "}

_{Readings: Gospel: Mark: 1, 40-45: A leper came to him and kneeling down begged him and said, "If you wish, you can make me clean." Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, "I do will it. Be made clean." The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.}

5th Sunday of the Year (B)

by Father Marcus Holden       ♦

_{"Our task therefore is to awaken our age out of its apathy and indifference to consider that life may be worth living, that there may be some meaning to our being born into this colourful world, that there might be something a little more profound about those whom we love than a random mutation of chemicals, that death may be questioned and need not be seen as the end. This is the way of Job. There is perhaps more to people than the next pleasure, the next honour, the next victory. Our job is to convince people to see further, to question more, to offer the goodness that St Paul speaks of. ... I invite you, finally, to listen to the words of Pope Benedict: 'Only where God is seen, does life truly begin. Only when we meet the living God in Christ do we begin to know what life is. We are not some casual and meaningless product of evolution. Each of us is the result of a thought of God: each of us is willed, each of us is loved, each of us is necessary. There is nothing more beautiful than to be surprised by the Gospel, by the encounter with Christ; there is nothing more beautiful than to know Him and to speak to others of our friendship with Him."}

_{Readings: 1st Reading: Job 7:1-4, 6-7: My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle; they come to an end without hope. Remember that my life is like the wind; I shall not see happiness again. "}

3rd Sunday of the Year (B)

by Father Andrew Pinsent       ♦

_{"Many Christians however still live with divided hearts, adding some practices of the City of God to lives that are still shaped to some degree by the City of Man. As a result many Christians are less effective and fruitful in this world than they should be. The step which most Christians find difficult is to surrender all things to God as revealed in His Son Jesus Christ, and to surrender things to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. This surrender may or may not involve a physical abandonment of our possessions, as the Apostles did in today's Gospel, by abandoning their fishing nets and following Christ. But this surrender does involve putting God first, whatever our walk in life, to devoting significant time to daily prayer and the Sacraments, to following our God-given vocation and seeing the passing things of this world from the perspective of our true home which is in heaven."}

_{Readings: Gospel: Mark 1:14-20: After John had been arrested, Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God: This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel. As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, "Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men." Then they abandoned their nets and followed him."}

The Creed

by Father Andrew Pinsent       ♦

_{"In preparation for the Year of Faith beginning on 11th October 2012, I would like to devote some homilies this year to a systematic exploration of the faith, beginning with the Creed. As we have just celebrated Christmas, it is also appropriate to focus on the central section of the Creed, devoted to Jesus Christ. The words of the Creed are of course familiar to all of us who attend Sunday Mass but that very familiarity means it is tempting perhaps to recite the words without thinking about them. But these words are like gold, and just as gold is purified by fire to burn away dross, these words were chosen, tested and purified through centuries of debate and considerable suffering, in order to assist in our salvation."}

by Father Marcus Holden       ♦
_{Carol - Away in a Manger}

_{"We're made for the lights of eternity, we're made for God. God became man, born that man no more may die, born to raise the sons of earth, born to give them second birth. He became one with our humanity, not with an animal, a plant or even a planet. He became one with us and it tells us about ourselves that we're made for him and our hearts will be restless until they rest in him. Lets allow him on this night to subvert us! To enter clandestinely as a warrior into our soul, to break down and topple all those idols, all those false things that hold us back, because he will bring light. O Christian realise tonight in the wonder of the manger your nobility. Amen."}

_{Readings: Gospel: Luke 2:1-14: .. And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family of David, to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child. While they were there, the time came for her to have her child, and she gave birth to her firstborn son. She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn. Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields and keeping the night watch over their flock. The angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were struck with great fear. The angel said to them, "Do not be afraid; for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For today in the city of David a saviour has been born for you who is Christ and Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger." And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel, praising God and saying: "Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests."}

4th Sunday of Advent

by Father Andrew Pinsent       ♦

_{"Yet throughout all these centuries of tribulation, the promise of God in the first reading remained, namely that God Himself would make a house in which to dwell, and that the sovereignty of David's line and throne would be established forever. And this is the background against which the events of Christmas are highlighted, like a light set in the darkness, like a mystery at last revealed, in the light of which the whole history of the Old Testament is seen as a foreshadowing and a prefigurement. For what St Paul describes as the Good News is something genuinely and uniquely new in the world, namely that God has become man and dwelt among us. The temple that God has prepared is not the gold and stone of the Temple of Solomon, but the body and blood of Jesus Christ himself. The ark of the covenant is no longer a casket overlaid in gold, but the Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Conception, who held the living Word of God. And when God lies in a manger so that we can at last see him face to face, he is not come to us through the plans and works of a man, but through the loving obedience of a woman who gives us, in a few simple words, the entire key to holiness and to glory: "I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let what you have said be done to me."}

_{Readings: Gospel: Luke 1:26-38: The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the house of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. And coming to her, he said, "Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you." But she was greatly troubled at what was said and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. Then the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of David his father, and he will rule over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end." But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" And the angel said to her in reply, "The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. ..'"}

3rd Sunday of Advent

Confession - by Father Marcus Holden       ♦

_{"There's one thing that can separate us from the joy that has been offered - one thing and one thing only. We often think it’s a situation that takes it away or a person or some suffering or something we don't have, but none of those things really matter, in fact they can be turned to benefits. Nothing can separate us from the love of God in that regard: there's one thing and it's  personal sin. The Holy Father said recently that the only evil in the Church is sin; all the other problems can be traced back to this. And while the other things have a certain importance, they only have a relative importance. Sin is the thing that really separates us, freely chosen sin, but it has a remedy. However big that sin is, however blinding, however blocking it can be for the love of God, for the joy of our souls, that sin can be eradicated. and its remedy - confession. At this time, preparing for Christmas, we're called to return to that sacrament of reconciliation. There's nothing more important."}

_{Readings: Gospel: John 1:6-8, 19-28: A man named John was sent from God. He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. '"}

1st Sunday of Advent

by Father Marcus Holden       ♦

_{"We get to Christmas and when we've eaten all the food and opened all the presents and all the guests have gone home, we could easily say 'What was the point of all that?' As Shakespeare has written: 'Life is but a poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. Tis a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.' Without Christ, without eternal life, without heaven, everything can seem as nothing and would be as nothing. The very dissatisfaction at the core of our being with everything, which makes us so different from all other creatures on earth, may be teaching us something. It may not be pointless after all. Is God teaching us that we're made for a love that lasts, for a truth that holds firm, for everlasting life - we're made for God. Advent is the season to put our waiting, our hopes, our desires in order."}

_{Readings: Gospel: Mark 13:33-37: Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come. It is like a man traveling abroad. He leaves home and places his servants in charge, each with his work, and orders the gatekeeper to be on the watch. Watch, therefore; you do not know when the lord of the house is coming, whether in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or in the morning. May he not come suddenly and find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: 'Watch!'"}