Sermons
Did I during Easter time, when all churches were locked and I followed liturgies on TV, did I really miss something.?
In our lives, we need the real thing where all our senses are involved. Is this so when we are at mass here on Sunday? There are many reasons why people come to church: maybe it is simply a habit or some are being inspired by the homily. I know a very lonely person who comes from far away to church, just for the coffee after mass, his only time to meet and communicate with people. Why then is it that often we do not feel a vital need for the Eucharist? I think on reason could be that we have not fully understood our Christian vocation.
At Pentecost the church prays: “Come Holy Spirit… and renew the face of the earth.” God wants to renew the world, but God cannot not transform the world without us, we cannot do it without God. The key word is renewal, transformation. But we cannot transform the world unless we are transformed ourselves. Eucharist, encountering Jesus in his word and his supreme act of self-giving, is a gradual lifelong process of transformation. We have to be transformed, so that we can transform the world around us. How does the Eucharist transform us?
- The first thing is to remember that God is the source of all that is good and thank and praise him for all his gifts. But also realise how inadequate we are to live our vocation and ask for forgiveness for our failures and weaknesses.
- When we listen actively to the reading, especially the Gospel, we reconnect with the vision of Jesus which is so easily lost in our secular world.
- Offertory is not about bringing to God bread and wine, which He does not really need. Nor is it in the first place putting some money into the collection box to support our community and help the poor. The offering, represented symbolically by bread and wine, is nothing less than bringing ourselves, our lives, our world before God that He may transform them by the Holy Spirit.
- The core of the Eucharist is the consecration. We are with him at table at His last supper and taking in his words: This is myself; this is my life given up for you. And the invitation: Do the same in your own life, make it a gift for others so that they may life.
We often forget that before and after consecration there is a prayer to the Holy Spirit, asking Him first to transform bread and wine into Christ’s body and blood, make the risen Christ in his fullness present among us. After our gifts have been transformed, we ask that the same Spirit may transform us so that we “become one body and one spirit in Christ.”
So the mass is about transformation: transforming our hearts and our lives so that at the end we are ready to be sent out to transform the world, our little world where God has placed us.
This cooperation, this kind of team work between God and us, is well expressed in a prayer that was read out at the burial of the martyr and saint Oscar Romero:
"The kingdom is not only beyond our efforts, it is even beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work… We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own."
Fr. Wolfgang Schonecke (at his last Eucharist at All Saints)
Corporate Prayer of Confession
Lord of power and compassion, we are so overwhelmed in these times with fears.
We fear that we will not have enough of whatever we need to survive.
We fear the anger and hostility that abides in the world, in our own country, in our own neighborhoods.
All around us is anxiety about living.
And we draw into ourselves as a response to the needs.
We want someone else to take care of those in need.
We want someone else to fight our battles for us.
We want someone else to stop the darkness.
We feel as though we are drowning in the depth of despair.
But you, O Lord, are the bright light, the power to heal, the reassuring hand of comfort and strength.
You offer to us healing love, strength for our exhausted souls, courage to face whatever comes, with the full confidence that you are with us in all these times.
Forgive our weakness and our little faith.
Give us hearts of strength and hope.
Enable us to be among those who would reach out to others with welcome, healing, forgiveness, and love.
For we ask this in Jesus’ Name.
Pastoral Prayer
Life swirls around us, O Lord.
So many things are happening in our lives, in our neighborhoods, in our country, in your world.
We can be so easily distracted and overwhelmed by the needs and difficulties.
Remind us again that you are with us, offering compassion, strength, courage, hope.
Help us to place total trust in you as we offer our prayers for healing, comfort, and hope this day.
Place your healing hand on our hearts and spirits and encourage us to rise and be strong in hope for the needs of others.
Enable us to be partners in ministries of peace and justice in this world of darkness.
Bring your light and power to us, for we pray in Christ’s Name.
AMEN.
cf www.ucclife.fi/sermon/2020/3/1-regaining-perspective-7ynkf
The corona virus has shown us how vulnerable we are. We are going towards a new time. Most people who have had a serious illness are now more thankful for life than before their illness. Once the corona virus disappears, we hope that we will appreciate everyday life more than before. And maybe we will also feel more compassion for our sick and elderly, they are currently most threatened by the virus. We fear that we might lose them. And fear is not the worst feeling we can have. Fear says something about our love: if we like someone, we will also suffer if this person suffers. God loved us and therefore God suffered with us, until the death on the cross.
The corona virus has shown us that it is nice when nothing happens. It WAS nice when nothing happened. The service here in the church is quiet and calm from start to finish. Is it boring therefore? Many think that there should be something more going on in a liturgy. Many think that there should be something more going on in their existence. But why? OK, there is not so much going on in our existence. And thank God for that.
We generally do the same things every day. We get up, go to the bathroom, read the newspaper, come home from work, go to bed and have sometimes strange dreams. Times without “diagnosis” are good times. One of the obsessive ideas of our time is that something always has to happen. “Change” is the magic word. But it is wonderful to live in an uneventful time. We currently have the coronavirus - medically too much is happening in the world right now. If only nothing would happen!
What a fantastic time it is when we can content ourselves with opening the newspaper, content ourselves with reading what was going on on TV and read that the Chancellor made a speech. What a fantastic time this is!
But with the Corona epidemic, it became clear to many that one was living a lie: it is a lie of life if we imagine that we can control our existence counting only on our own help. We don't control life alone. We cannot do it ourselves. On the part of the Church, in view of the corona virus, we should not only ensure that we follow the advice of the health authorities. Charity also means washing your hands and not going to church if you feel infected. But we should also ask God to help us stop the epidemic. We cannot do it ourselves.
We are currently in Lent. Some do without meat and milk and wine. OK! Others do without television and cell phones. Even better! But the best thing to do during Lent is to refrain from lying and tell the truth. Those who say that Corona is inflated by the press and say Corona is a harmless flu are slowly disappearing. God suffers with us; he demands our solidarity with each other. Let us give solidarity to each other, just as God shows solidarity with us.
Wolfgang Felber sj
cf: www.theologie.uzh.ch/static/wp/das-coronavirus-der-alltag-und-die-fastenzeit/