Sermons
Corpus Christi , May 29, 2016
In some moments, we will bring bread and wine to the altar. And Jesus Christ will be present when we commemorate his words: “This is my body, this is my blood, do this in memory of me.” We see bread and wine and we know that this bread, that this wine is different from the rest of our daily food products. We see bread and wine transformed into the presence of Christ – and we re-ceive this bread, this wine – we eat and drink. This is what we call “communion” - a sign, an ex-pression of a relationship between me and Jesus, between us and Jesus. For 2000 years this small piece of bread has been nourishing people. There are those yearning for love, those crying for justice, those dreaming of a world without weapons and without malice, those searching for God, those asking for the meaning of their lives, those looking for a spiritual home in the church of Jesus Christ. To all these men and women and children Jesus says: “I am the bread for your hunger, the bread for your longing and for your questions. With me and together with me you will find life that never ends. Through me you will become yourself bread for others.” Time and again, Jesus shared meals with people, he ate bread with them. By his sharing of the bread, his disciples recognized him after Easter. This sharing of the simple bread with Jesus brought them something they had missed so much: this sharing of bread brought them life, future, hope, courage to persevere, brought them faith in the presence of Jesus. And we continue to share this same meal; we continue to eat this same bread. It is no recompense for the fact that we are so good and that we go to church so often. This bread is given to us for free, because we are appreciated in the eyes of God, because God wants us to satisfy our hunger. We can find this in the letter of Pope Francis “Evangelii Gaudium”, the Joy of the Gospel from the year 2013: The Church is called to be the house of the Father, with doors always wide open. Everyone can share in some way in the life of the Church; everyone can be part of the community, the doors of the sacra¬ments should not be closed for simply any reason. The Eucharist, although it is the fullness of sacramental life, is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak. Frequent¬ly, we act as arbiters of grace rather than its fa¬cilitators. But the Church is not a tollhouse; it is the house of the Father, where there is a place for everyone, with all their problems. This meal, this Eucharist is no ‘recompense for the fact that we are so good and that we go to church so often. This bread is given to us for free, because we are appreciated in the eyes of God, because God wants us to satisfy our hunger. God wants us to satisfy our hunger for life, future, hope, courage and faith with this bread and not with all other kinds of things. We receive this bread so that we live, and we are invited to hand it over, to share it so that others may live. To us all Jesus says: “Take and eat”. Jesus says this to all of us, to the whole humankind, he excludes no one; everyone should be able to eat enough, to satisfy his or her hunger. Then what St Augustine says becomes true: “Become what you receive, receive what you are – the body of Christ” The All Saints community is part of this body of Christ – we are invited to share the bread we receive so that others may live. “Become what you receive, receive what you are – the body of Christ”
Evangelii Gaudium 47 The Joy of the Gospel 2013
Fr. Wolfgang Felber SJ
The Most Holy Trinity, May 22, 2016
At the end of their formation, Jesuits do what we call ”tertianship”, usually nine or ten months abroad. It is a kind of “third year” of the novitiate, that’s where the name comes from: tertianship, third year. I did mine in Australia – and the Jesuit father who accompanied my group had one sentence that did remain with me: “Keep it relational”. Whatever you do, whatever you think, keep it relational, relational to yourself, to others, to God.
Today we celebrate Trinity Sunday. God is Trinity. God is relational. And we are like God: we are all connected as a community of faith, hope and love, we want to be a community of justice and peace, a community that hopes to be one family, a community that brings rich and poor together. The Spirit of God is part of that community.
Let us have a look at the three readings we just heard:
The Book of Wisdom includes two themes which I really like: The first is: the Spirit of God was present in creation from the very beginning: The Wisdom of God cries out aloud (chapter 8): “22 From the beginning, I was with the Lord. I was there before he began 23 to create the earth. At the very first, the Lord gave life to me. 30 I was right beside the Lord, helping him plan and build. I made him happy each day, and I was happy at his side. 31 I was pleased with his world and pleased with its people. “ The sacred and secular are connected. There is no separate space only for the sacred. In other words, God is found to be intimately connected to the world. We can find God in creation and we hear God’s call to respect creation. Ignatius of Loyola said: “Find God in all things”.
The second theme is: God takes “special delight in the human race”, God is pleased with the human race (Prov 8,31) or in other words, every human person has a special dignity and goodness. The wisdom of God says: “I was at play everywhere in his world, delighting to be with the sons and daughters of men.”
The Letter to the Romans reminds us that this presence and action of the God in our world is a source of hope. The world is fundamentally good, we read: “1 By faith we have been made acceptable to God. And now, because of our Lord Jesus Christ, we live at peace with God. 2 Christ has also introduced us to God's undeserved kindness on which we take our stand. So we are happy, as we look forward to sharing in the glory of God. “ (Rom 5,1)
The gospel according to John reminds us not to forget that it is the very Spirit of God that will guide us through all the complexity of our life. The Spirit that is with us is the same spirit that creates, redeems and sanctifies. The Spirit is present in the challenges of our human life. John writes (chapter 16): “13 The Spirit shows what is true and will come and guide you into the full truth. The Spirit doesn't speak on his own. He will tell you only what he has heard from me, and he will let you know what is going to happen.“
From all of this, it follows that as friends of Jesus
- We are concerned with the issues of the world and everyday life.
- We are concerned with justice and peace and we have hope in the midst of all the challenges and problems of the world.
- We are concerned about any political and economic power that excludes the poor.
- We are concerned about the protection of the environment.
- We are concerned about those philosophies and attitudes that see people simply as consumers.
- We are concerned about domestic violence, the violence in the Holy Land, the wars in Syria and Afghanistan, any violations of human rights, and all forms of violence.
- We are concerned about any spirituality that disconnects us from the concerns of the world.
Our concerns are as big as the world. God is Trinity. God is relational. So are we.
With the Creator, we respect the creation.
With our Redeemer, we work together to heal divisions and promote a more just, a more humane world.
With the Spirit, we are committed to the way of peace and nonviolence in order to change our world.
This is our faith in the Trinity – and don’t forget: “Keep it relational!”
https://educationforjustice.org/resources/lectionary-reflections-trinity-sunday-c-may-26-2013
Fr. Wolfgang Felber SJ
Seventh Sunday of Easter, May 15th, 2016
“In the opening verses of the bible we read: “In the beginning God created heaven and earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the face of the earth and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” (Gen 1:2) The Hebrew word “Tohuwabohu” (formless and empty) could also be translated as “chaos and desolation”. So the world started in a state of chaos and desolation. But then something surprising is said: in that original chaos the Spirit of God is already present and creates out of chaos in a long and of painful process the cosmos, our universe governed by laws and finely tuned forces, and strikes our senses by its harmonious order and breath-taking beauty. Scientists call this process evolution; the bible sees in it God’s Spirit at work. Three chapter further on another Spirit appears on the scene, a Spirit of destruction, a spirit whose whole aims is to undo the order and harmony of God’s creation and turn it back to chaos and confusion. The bible calls that Spirit Satan in Greek “diabolos”, the one who tears things apart. This “diabolos” is remarkably successful. In a series of symbolic stories the bible describes how that evil spirit manages to pull away the human race from its creator (Gen 3) which has disastrous consequences. Violence enters family relationships (Cain and Abel, Gen 4); the harmony between man and nature is disrupted (the Flood, Gen 7); finally, the whole of human family end up in confusion (the tower of Babel, Gen 11). These are not stories of what actually happened in the past, but symbolic descriptions of the state the world is in. But the story of humanity does not end in chaos. God’s never gives up and begins a new creation in the person of Jesus. The Spirit who raises him out of the total chaos of death into new life is poured out on Pentecost on all who believe in him. Pentecost is beginning of a new creation, the birth of a new people, the Church. Pentecost tells us: Be sure that God’s Spirit is already present in any chaos, in the chaos of our own lives, in the chaos of today’s world, when familiar order of things seems to be breaking up everywhere, in the sometimes chaotic developments that are transforming the Church. There is no darkness so dark that will not be penetrated by God’s light. There is no situation so confused that it will not eventually be cleared up by God’s Spirit. God’s creative Spirit will always prove strongest than the powers of death and destruction. The first creation took billions of years to be where it is today. The new creation, too, is a slow process and it is already work in our own hearts. If we open our hearts to the Spirit, the light of the Spirit will gradually lead us into the fullness of truth and the Spirit of love transform our hearts and through us renew the face of the earth. Let us trust in the creative power of the Spirit!
Fr. Wolfgang Schonecke MAfr