Sermons
July 23, 2017
The pre-occupation of humanity has always been: “Why evil and sin and why its rapid growth and why does it spread?” “Why doesn’t God intervene? Why not separate the good ones from the bad ones? Destroy the evil and let the good prosper?” God’s response: • The good and the bad must live alongside one another. Thus – the patience of God. • Salvation is for the good and the bad but we must all work for it in solidarity with one another. • The good must help the bad to become better persons. While on their part, the bad should abandon their evil ways and turn to God in order to experience his love. Saint Paul reminds us: We are in need of God’s spirit; without which we are vulnerable to stumble and turn away from God. Therefore, the good must support the weak; while on their part the weak must work for their good. The Book of Wisdom tells us that “God is the God of all”. That is why God is patient to the weak and supportive to those who struggle to be good. God is lenient. We too must be kind and supportive and understanding. Ready to correct not be the judge. Remember Christ’s invitation: • “Be compassionate just as your father is compassionate. Do not judge and you will not be judged”. (Lk 6:37) • “Does this mean to be passive to evil and sins?” No! But rather, it is the duty of every Christian to reach out to those who do bad and evil with an attitude of winning them over to God”. It is an invitation to appreciate and to be “Good and merciful as your father in heaven is good”. (Lk 6:36) It is a process and a journey of life that we must strive for.
Fr. Vincent Karatunga
July 16, 2017
In 1982 a small group of young people began to come together in the Nikolai-Church in the city of Leipzig to pray for peace and reflect and discuss about peace. Slowly, these regular peace prayers every Monday attracted others, even non-Christians. Over the years the meetings became more political. Prayers were followed by peaceful demonstrations. It became a movement and spread to other cities of Eastern Germany. Eventually what started as a small prayer group became a mass movement that brought down the Berlin wall in 1989. Those who started them had no idea what effects their action would have. But they continued it against growing resistance by the authorities. Eventually their prayers and dreams became a reality. These Monday Peace Prayers still go on today. What has this to do with the readings of today? In the story of the sower Jesus tells us his own life story. He is the sower who spreads the good seed of the word, his message that the kingdom of God is at hand. Some listen and forget it straightaway. Others seem interested for a while, but are too busy with other things. The few who remain get scared when the authorities turn against Jesus. Eventually, he asked even his closest friends: “Do you also want to go”? His mission seems a complete disaster. But then Jesus adds something surprising to his story. Although all seems lost he makes a tremendous act of faith: God will bring in his harvest 30, 60, 100-fold. He knows that God’s word cannot fail, as Isaiah said in the first reading, even when humanly speaking there is not a trace of hope left. Jesus will make this act of trust again at the end of his life. Hanging on the cross when all is definitely lost, Jesus entrusts life and his mission to His Father. We know that his hope was not disappointed. Paul lives in a similar spirit of unshakable hope in God’s promise. He meets a thousand obstacles in his mission. He is persecuted and put in prison, beaten up and almost stoned to death. He struggles with divisions in the Christian communities and is abandoned by his friends when it comes to his court trial. Yet, he stubbornly goes on preaching to everybody convinced that Jesus’ message will eventually bear fruit. Paul sees, in all the situations of chaos and confusion he lives through, the “birth pangs” of a God’s new creation. It is a hallmark of all truly great people that have brought about positive change, people like Mandela, Martin Luther King or this extraordinary young Pakistani girl Malala who was almost shot by the Taliban and goes on pushing the education of Muslim girls all over the world. They were convinced that they had a mission and they went on with it against all odds. Sometimes, we could get discouraged when we look around at the chaos, the violence and conflicts in today’s world, and where our leaders are at a loss as to how to get out of the mess. At times, we may face situations in our personal lives where we are completely lost and see no way out. The good news of today wants to assure us that God will succeed in the end, with our world, with the church and also with me. It may not be as I now wish or imagine. It will be a 100-times better than anything I can think of. We have good reason to stick to our hope when all human hope is gone. The day our doctor says, “There is nothing more I can do for you”, will be the very moment when our birth pangs will come to an end and we will at last be set free.
Fr. Wolfgang Schonecke, MAfr
July 9, 2017
The three scripture passages today seem to have a strong “counter-cultural” message. They challenge us to look at our world and its values in a critical way. They invite us to move beyond greed and selfishness. They invite us to learn from others and they invite us to connect with others. I am sure this is a good topic for this Sunday: yesterday and the day before yesterday, the G20 summit took place in Hamburg where world leaders discussed about the future of our world. Some thoughts that might arise when we see the news about the G20 summit and when we parallelly read the biblical readings. Our culture seems to value power and control. However, the scripture passages today give us a different image of a savior: the savior they present comes with humility, “meek and riding on an ass”. Our societies are often overwhelmed with greed and large scale corporate abuse. In this context of our 21st century societies, the scriptures remind us of a different way of living, they remind us of virtues that are essential for a “simplicity of life” and for a “gentleness of spirit”. Wealth, control, and domination are not the central values of Jesus Christ. They cannot be the central values of the friends of Jesus Christ, they cannot be our central values. In a world that is choking on greenhouse gases, that is killing the life of the oceans, and that is over-consuming all kinds of resources, we are invited to respect our planet, we are invited to cherish the gifts we have been given - by living simply and responsibly. In a world filled with the weapons of war and spending on the ways of violence, the scriptures speak of a savior who banishes the horse, the chariot and the warrior’s bow – all means for war and violence. The scriptures certainly challenge our world and our world leaders which invest so many resources into fighting wars and procuring weapons for war. We live in a world where the international trade system and the world economy seem to disadvantage those who have little. In this world, we are reminded that “if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if you live by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” – or in a different translation: “We must not live to satisfy our desires. If we do, we will die. But we will live, if by the help of God’s Spirit we say “No” to our desires.” This is what Paul writes. “We will live, if by the help of God’s Spirit we say “No” to our desires.” A focus on wealth and money and control and domination will certainly “kill” the spirit of God, will certainly kill the freedom God wants to offer us, kills the “life in abundance” we are promised. The gospel reminds us that its counter-cultural message is a message of liberation. As we let go of all the craziness of our culture, we will find “rest” and finally really be alive. Then, when we are really alive, then justice and peace can truly take over, or in biblical terms: by our actions “the kingdom of God” comes nearer.
Fr. Wolfgang Felber, SJ