The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord

Fr Dominic’s Homily

John the Baptist was very popular. He was well loved and had thousands of followers. People really thought that he was the Christ and the Messiah. The one they had been waiting for and god’s son. But he makes it clear that he isn’t. He says that he isn’t even worthy to be a slave to the one who is to come. He can’t even undo his sandal.

John was baptising a repentance and the forgiveness of sins with water which was really important for the people. Jesus however would soon baptise with the Holy Spirit and with fire because he is divine. He is God.

So Jesus finally meets John and is baptised by him. The whole trinity is present. Jesus as Gods son, God the Father speaks from heaven approving his son. (Remember that it’s very rare that God the Father speaks. It only happens three times during the whole of the scriptures. And this is one of them.) And the Holy Spirit appears visible and rests on Jests as a dove rests on a branch.

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Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord

Fr Dominic’s Homily

Today we celebrate the feast of the Epiphany. When someone has an “epiphany,” it means they’ve had a sudden inspired insight into the deeper meaning of something. It is an experience that changes our hearts.

So why is today’s feast called the Epiphany? Because it presents the reality that the Messiah was not just for the Jews, but is the fulfilment of the whole world.

All goodness, truth and beauty finds its deepest fulfillment in Jesus. The light shining in Israel and on that manger, is meant to be the light for the whole world. Jesus unveils his divinity as the one true king of the universe and saviour of the world.

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Fourth Sunday of Advent

Fr Dominic’s Homily

How often in this life we want to write our own story. We want to become the person we choose to be. We want to be in control and we don’t want anything to restrict us.

We want a sense freedom to be who we want to be rather than having to conform to any regulations – regardless of if they happen to be right.

But the danger is that by doing this we actually lose our sense of living. By doing this we actually become closed in on ourselves – though we would never admit it! And actually that’s not true freedom but a distorted sense of license that we feel we are somehow entitled to.

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Third Sunday of Advent

Fr Dominic’s Homily

Today is the 3rd Sunday of Advent and is known as Gaudete Sunday or Rejoice Sunday. (Similar to Laetare Sunday which marks the half way through lent).  Now it’s time to be a little bit honest. We as human beings aren’t always incredibly joyful! In fact there are even times when we can be utterly miserable!

It’s difficult for us as humans, to always be happy. After all we are walking paradoxes. Half physical half spiritual. All wrapped up in the psychological. Living most of our lives in a weird kind of existential battle often of our own making.

Projecting accusations onto others that it turns out only we ourselves are actually suffering from. Still upset over something our parents told us 50 years ago…And so many factors can affect our mood: stress, light levels, illness, diet, arguments, perceived slights from others and expensive dentist bills And the list goes on…

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Second Sunday of Advent

Fr Dominic’s Homily

So we’ve had storm Darragh. Which seemed to go on for exactly 12 hours 3am to 3pm. Very ominous.

Somebody said that it was God’s response to the assisted suicide bill. I wouldn’t be surprised.

Now what on earth is going on in the Gospel reading today? A list of weird names that at first glance are totally meaningless to us. Just sound very complicated. Tongue twisters. Trachonitis even sounds like a throat condition.

So what’s it all about?

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First Sunday of Advent

Fr Dominic’s Homily

We hear a lot about artificial intelligence. Chat GBT as you know is an online programme. It uses vast amounts of data and processing to give human like and accurate answers to practically any question within seconds. It’s virtually indistinguishable from human responses that would take hours or even days to do the same thing.

You can use it to ask existential questions like does God exist and is there life on other planets. Students use it for essays and this sort of thing. Recently somebody asked it by using all its data to say which religion is the most authentic in terms of all its teaching and historical evidence and within seconds it responded “Christianity”.

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Thirty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fr Dominic’s Homily

Today Jesus is speaking about two things: the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem that will happen within one generation after his death. But also he links this to the end of the world. Why does he do that?

 Well to the Jews the temple represented a mini universe. A microcosm. The Temple building represented the earth, the bronze floor represented the ocean and the huge curtains were painted with stars and represented the sky. So when the disciples ask him about what will happen to the temple he then relates its impending destruction to the end of the world.

 If the Jewish authorities had accepted Jesus and believed in who he was would their temple still have been destroyed? We don’t know. But it was the Romans who completely obliterated it along with over a million Jews and Jesus warned them that this was going to happen.

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Thirty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time

Fr Dominic’s Homily

It is said that whatever you need in this life – give it away first and you will receive it back even more generously.

Jesus teaches today that real giving must come from the heart. A gift that is given with a grudge or simply for effect loses its value. But a gift given out of love, with a spirit of generosity and sacrifice, is precious.

In the Gospel today Jesus contrasts the high status of the scribes with the humility of the widow. We actually have two widows in the readings today – one in the first reading whom the prophet Elijah encounters and one in the temple who Jesus watches as she makes a donation.

They were very poor and vulnerable – they had no inheritance when their husbands died they depended completely on others.

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