Fr Dominic’s Homily

Today is Laetare Sunday. Rejoice Sunday. Joy is its theme because we are halfway through Lent and so very close to the joy of Easter. That's why we wear rose-coloured chasubles today.

We hear today that Jesus explains to Nicodemus that the "Son of Man" must be "lifted up" to bring God's forgiveness and healing to the world.

Now Nicodemus was a leader of the Jews. He was a man of good standing. He knows that Jesus is a holy man, but he can't quite understand why or how.

John's Gospel is all about light and darkness. In other words, the spiritual battle between good and evil. Nicodemus is just starting to reach the light...

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Fr Dominic’s Homily

Today’s gospel is set during the Jewish Passover. If you remember this Jewish feast celebrated and recalled the exile in Egypt and the escape of the Israelites from Pharaoh and so we know that this feast took place in spring.

And this connects this Gospel passage with us today as we are also now are well into the season of spring. As the Bishop reminded us on Wednesday in Cheddar the word lent actually comes from the old English word for spring.

So we hear that Jesus was going into the temple where he found the people selling sheep and pigeons and the money changers with their stalls. So these were the people who sold animals for sacrifice in the temple. At this time of year over a million Jews would arrive at the temple to celebrate this feast of the Passover.

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Fr Dominic’s Homily

On the first Sunday of Lent we heard about Jesus being in the desert where he was tested by the devil. The desert being a place of testing, a place of discernment, a place of temptation, a place of spiritual growth and a place of listening to God.

Today on this second Sunday of Lent we hear about Jesus being on a high mountain with Peter, James and John. This was probably mount Tabor not far from Jerusalem.

Mountains, of course, are places that allow you to see things from a higher viewpoint. They bring clarity and can give perspective on things. They are also places of listening. Important things always happen on mountains in the Old Testament: think of Noah and his ark. Think of Abraham and his son Isaac who was a pre-figurement of Jesus.

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Fr Dominic’s Homily

This gospel of 1st Sunday of lent is St Mark’s version of the temptation of Jesus in wilderness. It’s unlike Matthew’s and Luke’s with all the details of how the devil tempted Jesus. But it’s still powerful.

We hear that the spirit drove Jesus into the desert where he was tempted by the devil. Why on earth would the Holy Spirit do this? The Holy Spirit always encourages discernment. It was a time of testing and discernment for Jesus.

We know that Jesus is fully human. Like us in all things but sin. So he was tempted. But actually temptation can have value. Crisis is the mother of change. Temptation can strengthen and clarify who we are. This confrontation with Satan only clarifies for Jesus what his mission is.

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Fr Dominic’s Homily

Today we mark ourselves with ashes as a sign of our humility in front of God and that we will return to him at some point. We came from him and we will return to him. And this should form how we live our short span of life in this world.

And lent is a time of fasting when we think about maybe giving something up or taking something on that is good. 6 weeks or just over 40 days. 40 having significance of spiritual preparation in the Desert in the scriptures. We allow ourselves to enter the desert a little.

Lent of course is the old English word for spring. Because we have the lengthening of days. And Lent is a time to remind us of our complete dependence on God and not on other things.

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Fr Dominic’s Homily

This Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. It’s a time when we can think about giving something up or taking something up in order to mortify ourselves a little on the run up to Easter.

Bishop Declan reminds us that Pope Francis recommends giving up gossip and slander within the parish and community and family life for lent as it can be so damaging. And instead maybe read a small passage of scripture every day.

This enables us to open the door of our hearts to God’s grace and listen to what he wants to tell us rather than listening to voices that can be unhealthy, detrimental and cause separation in our community.

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Fr Dominic’s Homily

On this fifth Sunday in Ordinary time we continue into the gospel of Mark. As we learnt last Sunday Jesus is showing is authority not just in his teaching but in his command over demons who all know exactly who he is. And with Mark we hear that things happen immediately and quickly in respect to the ministry of Jesus. There is a dynamism and sense of urgency in relation to his mission. He is intent on bringing the Kingdom of Heaven wherever he goes.

We hear a little about the personal life of Simon Peter today when Jesus goes to visit his Mother in Law. This reminds us that Peter was married at some point. It is thought that his wife must have died early and so Peter was a widow and someone who had suffered before he became a disciple of Jesus. Otherwise his wife would have been welcoming Jesus and the others rather than his Mother in Law because hospitality was a deeply cultural aspect of family life at that time. Just as was honour and shame that we often hear about in the gospels.

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The Clifton Diocese Pilgrimage to Lourdes is taking place this year in late August with pilgrims coming from all over the Diocese to embark on this journey. Details can be found on the Diocese website Lourdes | Clifton Diocese or by contacting lourdes@cliftondiocese.com /0117 902 5590 for an information pack.

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Fr Dominic’s Homily

Jesus was born in Bethlehem but then moved back to Nazareth where he grew up and lived for about 30 years. Today we hear about Jesus entering the Synagogue in Capernaum which was a village not too far away.

We hear in this gospel from Mark that he goes into the small local Synagogue on the Sabbath which if you remember is not a Sunday but a Saturday which was the last day of the week. In fact it actually started on a Friday evening which could have been when Jesus had entered.

Now the big temple in Jerusalem was where the main events occurred – in a way it was similar to our Cathedral. People would travel up for big annual feasts but it was also the place where all the animal sacrifices would take place.

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Fr Dominic’s Homily

Simon, Andrew James and John were fishermen. They had probably grown up watching their Fathers and grandfathers on the boats and had themselves been doing the job for many years and so had plenty of time to think about other things whilst mending their nets.

Last week we heard that they had risked spending a day with Jesus after asking who he was and where he lived. So they now knew a lot more about him and saw him as the messiah they had been waiting for.

As Jesus walked by the Sea of Galilee he saw them and called them. He said “Follow me and I will make you into fishers of men.” There is no mention of any discussions, questions or good-byes. They simply “left… and followed him.”

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Fr Dominic’s Homily

This conversation we hear between Jesus and the two disciples seems very simple:

Jesus asks: “What do you want?”
The disciples answer “Where do you live?”
So Jesus says: “Come and see.”

This conversation is so ordinary that you wonder why John ever included it in his gospel.

It sounds at first a bit like someone who is annoyed by some people who are trying to follow him - who then try to ask for his address. However, when you listen to it again you realise that actually it’s an incredibly profound discussion.

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Clifton Diocese in partnership with ‘Light of Truth’ are offering a Lenten retreat: ‘Transformed by Love’ in six online sessions, contemplating God’s grace at work in the lives of six persons, through scripture and artworks. The six sessions begin at 7.30pm on a Tuesday evening:

 20 February, 27 February, 5 March, 12 March, 19 March, 26 March.

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Fr Dominic’s Homily

So today we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus. The Christmas season has now ended and we are starting Ordinary time.

Why did Jesus needed to be baptised? He was fully God and fully human but he never sinned. Mary was the only other human never to have sinned. But in the baptism of Jesus just as the Israelites were liberated from slavery in Egypt Jesus now liberates us from the slavery of sin.

If you remember in the Exodus there was a journey through the parted waters of the Red Sea to an earthly promised land with the help of Moses. However, in this baptism of Jesus, this New Exodus, we have a parting of the clouds and our final destination is into a heavenly promised land which will now be made possible through Jesus who is the New Moses.

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Fr Dominic’s Homily

Just to remind you that:

• The Christmas ‘feast’ ends on the feast of Mary, the Mother of God, on January 1st. Which is usually 8 days.

• The end of the Christmas ‘season’ is today at Epiphany, which means that we have had at least 12 days of Christmas.

• However the official end of the ‘liturgical Christmas season’ is on the Baptism of Our Lord after which Ordinary Time begins. So we keep our nativity scene displayed to this day.

• Though many Churches keep their crib up until the Presentation of Our Lord which is 2nd February. I think that’s a lovely tradition to follow.

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Fr Dominic’s Homily

The council of Ephesus agreed that Mary is the true God bearer in the year 43l.

So Mary is not simply the mother of Jesus but is truly the mother of God. Now when the Church proclaims something like this about Mary it's not really about Mary it's so that the Church can safeguard some truths about Jesus.

In this case it is safeguarding the truth that Jesus is fully human and fully divine at the same time. The Church was going through some difficulties due to some people suggesting that Jesus couldn't be both of these at the same time. So in order to safeguard these truths about Jesus this proclamation was made about Mary - that she was Mother of God. So Mary is the patron saint of safeguarding too!

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