Catholic Homilies By Fr Linus Clovis

Our Lord had just spoken about the period for His second coming and how it would be like the days of Noah, the days of Lot and then He gives the warning that those who have made the spiritual progress should not think about material things, that is those on the housetop should not come down to save the things that must perish and likewise those who are working, the field that they should not look back and that whatever we do, two in the bed or two grinding in the mill, whatever we do we must ensure that our intention is pure, that we do it to please God because without faith, it’s impossible to please God. And so the Lord says, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find any faith on earth or will there be any who are really pleasing to God”. And so by hearing how dangerous these times are, the Disciple might have reason to despair, how can we be sure that we are in fact doing what we are supposed to be doing. And so the Lord gives us the remedy for this: prayer. He spoke to parable about the need to pray contin

We are in a very important period in the Church a liturgical period, Advent. Advent and Lent are what we call strong times in the liturgical calendar. They’ve got different themes. In the first week of Advent, I tried to talk about, it’s meaning, the different comings of Christ and the importance of being prepared for these comings. In the second week, we presented in a corresponding manner to the readings in the second week. The readings were focused on repentance, we tried to show that, this repentance, particularly through the sacrament of reconciliation is perhaps the best way to make that preparation for the coming of Christ, for the coming of God. Besides examining and looking at the different elements which are present in a good confession, like examination of conscience, cultivating sorrow in our heart for our sins, the act of humility when we confess those sins to a priest, the good will in carrying out the penance that he gives us, we also see that important element, resolution. Leaving the c

The reading from St. Paul’s epistle, first epistle to the Thessalonians , “Brethren we give thanks to God always for you, making remembrance of you in our prayers without ceasing, being mindful of the work of your faith and labour and charity and of the enduring of the hope of Our Lord Jesus Christ before God and Our Father. Knowing brethren beloved of God, your election for our Gospel have not be on to you in word only but in power also and in the Holy Ghost and in much fullness as you know what manner of men we have been among you for your sakes and you gave and you became followers of us, and of the Lord; receiving the word in much tribulation, with joy of the Holy Ghost so that you were made a pattern to all who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia. For from you was spread abroad the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia, and in Achaia, but also in every place, your faith which is towards God, is gone forth, so that we need not to speak anything. For they themselves relate of us, what manner of entering

In todays first Sunday of Advent, I’d like to briefly in a certain context talk about the meaning of Advent. In the second point to examine what is our relationship to Advent. Advent coming from the Latin word Adventus – meaning coming, coming of our Saviour, coming of Christ, to see if we are prepared for that coming. In the sacred scripture there are clearly three comings of the Lord, traditionally we talk about two, but really there’s three. There is coming in humility, the little Baby comes to Bethlehem. There’s a coming in the Eucharist, in charity, on our altars. Thirdly, the definitive coming of our Lord in glory and majesty at the end of the world. Now the first Advent is past. The Eucharist advent is here in our present. The final coming is in our future. Let’s analyse these briefly. Our Lord came in humility as a defenceless little baby in the poor stable of Bethlehem. He didn’t come with fireworks or glory or trumpets. Why is this? I think certainly one of the answers to this question

This parable we just heard is similar to the parable of the talents, but different. Different in its sense and its meaning and to some extent in details. When our Lord speaks a parable we have to understand the context and to whom He is speaking. Of course He is always speaking to us but the time that He first spoke the first parable we look at those people who heard Him and what they would have drawn out of what He would have said. We heard our Lord was going to Jerusalem and that He passed through Jericho. He approached the town and then He was in the town and now He’s left and He’s continued up to Jerusalem. The crowds are following Him, many of them have seen the miracles. There is a sense of expectation, He is the Messiah, He’s finally going to get rid of the foreigners, the Romans in particular. He’s going to re-establish the House of David, the Kingdom of Israel and everything will be great because now we will finally be independent which is what God always wants for us. This is what the people are

Yesterday the Church around the world is celebrated the feast of all saints. That is all of those men and women who throughout the ages were faithful to Christ. Those who overcame enemies of our salvation; the world, the flesh and the devil. They, rank upon rank are finally in the Father’s house. But there are still others on their way, those who have left us, but are still on their way. They also like us have struggled against the enemies of our souls, and they have fallen, they have been wounded. God who is merciful and desires the salvation of all, wishes to crown His gifts in them, in their efforts in cooperating with those gifts. This place of purification, where what remains of sin is purged away, is what we celebrate today, those souls who linger in purgatory. They themselves are glad to be there, the alternative is too terrible to contemplate. They know that their Father’s house is open for them. They still lack the wedding garment, they still have to be purged of their attachment to sin. A

In the days in which we live, the idea of kingship is somewhat strange. It is regarded as antiquated, different kind of government and I would imagine few people would want to go back to the age of kings. But then when we look at the alternative, that of democracy, we see that even that is not exactly ideal. In fact we could even say, considering the current political landscape that democracy is not such a good idea after all, because we find that the rule of the majority is not necessarily and indeed in our time, is not exactly mesh with the law of God. Fallen human nature, seeks liberty, freedom from every law and every restrictions. Whereas that of the reign of the kings was very much different, that didn’t mean that the kings were exempt from faults as we well know, many of them were tyrants. In God’s plan, kingship had a particular purpose. The king was responsible for his people and he was to ensure that there was administration of justice and the people were lead in righteousness. This meant es

Today we celebrate the feast of all saints. On one occasion, someone asked our lord a question, “Lord will there be many saved?” and our Lord’s response was “Enter by the narrow gate.” The question of course is foolish in itself; but as we heard in the first reading there was a huge crowd impossible to count of those who are praising God. Whether many are saved or a few are saved, is not really the question to ask. The question that we have to ask is “Will I be saved?”. When we celebrate the feast of all saint or indeed when we celebrate the feast of any saint, we are not contributing anything to the saint. We cannot give the saint anything, because the saint has everything. They have Christ, they’re in heaven, their salvation is secure and the beatific vision is fully occupying them. But honouring the saint is for us, it’s for us in as much as, we are keeping our eyes on those of our brothers and sisters who have gone before us. Those who have overcome the enemies of our souls, the world the flesh

God is rich in mercy, says the psalmist and this mercy of God is echoed throughout the Scriptures both in the Old Testament as well as in the New. Yet we sometimes get the impression from the Old Testament that God is vengeful, that He is a hard task master, that He is ready and eager to punish. When in fact God doesn’t punish so much that we earn the misfortune that comes our way because of our rebellion against God or because we are ignorant of what God wishes for us or because of the weakness of our nature that attracts us to sin. In the classical form, we sin either because of weakness, the concupiscence that’s in our flesh or we sin out of ignorance, that we rarely do not know what we are doing and then a few out of what is called malice, deliberate habit of sin within no desire to change. But whatever the category or the kind or the class of our sin, God is always rich in mercy, always eager to forgive us the wrong that we do, in fact He has created us for life, He has created us for Himself and He cal

On Sunday May 13th 1917 the children were pasturing their flock as usual at the Cova da Iria, which was about a mile from their homes. They were playing when suddenly a bright shaft of light pierced the air. They described it as a flash of lightning. Frightened by the flash, the children looked around at the sky that was clear and bright without the least spot of a cloud. No breeze stirred, the sun was strong, and there was no hint anywhere of a storm that might be responsible for a flash of lightning. The children, however, thought that they had better head home in case it might start raining. As they descended the hill. Another flash of lightning took them by surprise. Panicky with fear, they took a few steps and looked towards the right. There, standing over the foliage of a small holmoak, "a lady dressed all in white, more brilliant then the sun, shedding rays of light, clear and stronger than a crystal glass filled with the most sparkling water, pierced by the burning rays of the sun". The lady spoke to

Many people don’t describe themselves as Christians, but they say that they believe in God. We ask a fair question, what kind of God do you believe in, can you describe this God to me. And most of the time you’ll get an answer along the lines of, well I believe in a spirit, a force, an influence in the universe that manifests itself in human beings and their religious aspirations. Well these people are wittingly or knowingly believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit that we’ll talk about today. But they don’t believe in the Father and the Son. But this wouldn’t be the first error about God or the Trinity or the Holy Spirit, we’ve talked about these in the past, we’ve talked about Tritheism which says that the Holy Spirit is just one of three different god’s each operating in their own sphere of influence. We’ve heard about Subordinationism and Aryanism where the Holy Spirit and indeed the Son are inferior to God the Father subordinated to Him. We’ve heard about Modalism which states that the Holy Spirit is

When we hear the Gospel, I hope two things we should do; we should pray and we should try to apply it to ourselves, to our daily life. We should pray that we could understand what God Himself is saying to us because in the Gospel’s, it is God Himself, God Incarnate, the second person of the Blessed Trinity who is speaking to us. Our Lord had said that He is the truth; He also said that He is the only way that can approach the Father. The Scriptures also tell us that there is no salvation in any other name than that of Jesus, and therefore the words that Our Lord speaks to us are critical to our salvation because one, He is the truth, two, there is no other way, no other name by which we can be saved and three, He Himself says that to come to Him is to come to the Father, no one can approach the Father, except through Me. Now when He speaks as He has spoken to us today, if we think if we hear what He says, we will sometimes be shocked because it’s not quite what we would expect and certainly today’s Gospel is

Our Lord had found Himself in conflict with the authorities. There was concern for His life according to Saint Mark, His brothers thought that He was beside Himself, that He was mentally ill and so they came to take charge of Him. Saint Matthew doesn’t give us that particular detail; he simply says that the mother and brothers of Jesus appear. Our Lord is in the midst of teaching the crowds and the messenger comes in saying, “Your mother and your brothers are outside and they want a word with you”. Now from this simple text, those who are less trusting of the Church will immediately say that Our Most Blessed Lady was not a virgin, that Our Lord had other children. As Christians, the first and foremost thing we must do is trust the Church because being founded on the Apostles and being the ark and pillar of truth she cannot possibly err and if she teaches us dogmatically and definitively that our Lady was a virgin before the birth, a virgin during the birth and a virgin after the birth of Christ, our first dut

Jesus’ teaching today is about real Christian Discipleship. Principally the Cross or the ability to bare the Cross, to bare ones burdens for the love of our neighbour because we love our God. This is an important aspect of the faith that we’d like to talk about today using two of the very important texts or messages that Jesus gave us in the Gospel today. The first text: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, even his own life he cannot be my Disciple”. That’s super strong, right? Two things to have clear though, what Jesus does not mean by this and what Jesus does mean by this, otherwise it’s a very powerful statement. What Jesus does not mean is that we’re not meant to take this absolutely completely literally. Remember, Jesus is talking to Eastern people in an Eastern culture and they’re way of making important points was to use very, very vivid images. You remember other occasions when Jesus made other statements like this, “If your hand ca

How many of us really appreciate the gift that Our Blessed Lord has given us of Himself in the Holy Eucharist. How many of us realise that we do not receive something in the Eucharist. We do not receive bread in the Eucharist, nor do we receive wine in the Eucharist, we do not receive any created thing in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, we receive someone. We receive a Person, the second Person of the Blessed Trinity Who said, “Whoever eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life. Whoever eats Me lives in Me and I in him. My Flesh is real food, My Blood real drink. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood lives in Me and I will raise him up on the last day as the living Father has sent me and I live because of the Father , so whoever eats Me will live because of me.” In all of this, there is no suggestion that we’re receiving something, but we are receiving Someone. Someone who has given Himself entirely to us. His body, His blood, His soul because He died for us, and His divinity because He rose from

Ave Maria. As we all know, Our Lady has many titles and under each of these titles, there is only one refrain that we make, “Pray for us”. We are here in the Church, Our Lady Mother of God. Mother of God, pray for us. The first title that she has is that of Holy Mary, Saint Mary, Blessed Mary because everything else depends on this – each one of us is destined to be called Saint. All of us. The title of Saint isn’t just restricted to just a few, for we who are on the pilgrim journey to heaven; we are trying to earn that title, so that we also one day we will be a Saint; Holy. And because Our Lady is Holy and more than Holy, Holy the most Holy creature God has ever created, She has other titles added to this, but each of these other titles are only a reflection or a part of a central title, Holy Mary. She had to be Holy because She was destined Mother to God, She had to be Holy because she was to be the virgin or virgins, She had to be Holy because being Mother of God, She was also the Arc of the Covenant an

There was a parish council, much like our own¬, made up of characters like Anna and John and company. They decided it would be important if they promoted in the parish the virtue of humility, especially in children. They said lets find an award, a prize for the most humble person in the parish. A committee was formed, names were put forward and finally they came up and agreed upon Mr. Jones, a little wee shy man who never took credit for the things he did. That Sunday, he was given a gold badge, which said – most humble man in the parish. However the same committee the following Sunday had to take the badge off him. Why? Because he turned up in the chapel that Sunday with a badge on the front of his blazer for everybody to see. He missed a little bit of the point of humility; he wanted to stay basking in that glory. I mention this, because most of us have the wrong idea about the virtue of humility. I mention this because it’s the central theme in the readings today. That’s what I want to talk abou

Our Lord did not always speak in parables, and we need to remember it’s not just His words, but also His actions that are parables. So for instance when He spat on the ground and made the pace, that was a parable. A parable is essentially a sign or a story that has deeper meaning, one that goes beyond the actual action of the words that were used. So He used to speak plainly and what was the consequence? They said that He was possessed by demons that He acted on the power of the demon. They said that even when He brought people closer to God, this man is not from God. They called him a Samaritan and so on. And so to lessen the gravity of their offense, the Lord speaks in parables. So those that are well disposed, would understand and those that who were ill disposed would not and so would not be judged as seriously as if they had known. So essentially there are those who are unworthy of hearing the truth, then there are those whom are ungrateful because they’ve received the truth and do not appreciate it and

What we’re going to address is to look at Jesus Christ, try to understand a little bit more about Him, in the context of the history of Israel. We’re going to hear a lot of names and different characters which are going to bring back lots of things to us that we’ve remembered and learned over the years about Christ and Israel. Jewish history begins with characters called Patriarchs who are basically the fathers of Israel. We’ve got Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Abraham our young friend here and the other children will remember just being a man with a long beard and a walking stick. But Abraham was a desert chief, and he had about three hundred clansmen and their families who followed him and worked for him. Abraham would have been like any other desert chief at the time. However, if you met Abraham you’d be very surprised to see that he was a man that seemed to have his head and his thoughts in the future. If you met Abraham, he would tell you “In the future all this land is going to belong to my descendants. Do

Our Lord had spoken the parable about the darnel in the field, He said, “The kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field and whilst everyone was asleep the enemy came and saw darnel and made off. Then when the workers went in to the field, they spoke of the darnel and said to the master, ‘Wasn’t it good seed that you sowed?’ How then does the darnel appear and He said, ‘Some enemy has done this.’ They answered, ‘Well do you want us to go and pull up the darnel?’ He said, ‘No, no, leave it till harvest time because you might pull up with the darnel the good seed as well, the good wheat as well, so leave it till harvest time then I will send the labourers and they will gather the darnel and they throw it in to the furnace and the wheat will be gathered in to my barn.’” Our Lord spoke this to the crowds and then as we heard today, leaving the crowds, He went into the house and His disciples came to Him and said, “Explain the parable about the darnel in the field to us.” So the disciples also