Catholic Homilies By Fr Linus Clovis

In Part 2 Anthony continues on the general theme on the parallels of the holocaust and Abortion. We now see in society that there is an intolerance for the support of the pro-life view. Politicians and ordinary people shy away from expressing any positive view in defending the child in the womb should the mother not want it. Further the pro-life advocate is regarded as an extremist with views that cannot be supported by populist politicians

Anthony, comments on the parallels between the Holocaust of the 1930's and the current killing of children in the womb throughout the world by Abortion. He shows that the abortion industry is by its very nature equivalent to the holocaust, the context may be different but the aggregate act is the same but far more numerous. The systematic mass slaughter of innocent human beings today through abortion in most Western society is regarded as a right.

Marxists gradually realized they could dismantle Western, Christian, Civilization from within by destroying the father of the intact married family --- the “Patriarch”--- through “sex gone wild”. The key to rebuilding is for each father to take charge of his sons’ formation in the fullness of sexuality.

Having presented to us the three eminent good works, fasting, alms giving and prayer, our Lord goes on to tell us the manner by which we should pray. Namely the things that we should pray for and the way in which we should make our pray. The first thing He says is do not babble like the pagans. How do pagans pray? Well pagans who basically are polytheist, they believe in many gods, and they presume that these gods need to be placated, they need to be enticed, they need to be encouraged, to be favourable. The gods of the pagans are not gods of love, they do not care for their people, they certainly will assist them but often they expect to be served by them. It doesn’t really matter which pagan society we look at. Whereas the God of Abraham, in the eyes of the Jews, someone remote, a master who cared for them, who was interested in what they did, but who also demanded from them, obedience. Whereas Christ has revealed to us that the God whom we serve is a Father, and will and wants our greatest good. N

Four times our Lord calls Himself the bread from heaven. The forth time He said I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever and the bread I shall give is My flesh for the life of the world. As long as He called Himself the bread, whilst it was difficult to accept nonetheless the Jews didn’t grumble. They still hoped that somehow there was a metaphor, there was some symbolism, some figurative speech and that He would give them the manna. They came to Him for the manna. They wanted to be fed again as He did on the other side of the lake. Our Lord indeed wants to feed them as He wants to feed us. But He wants to give us not bread that perishes but the bread that gives eternal life which is Himself… For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies

So far our Lord is speaking of His divinity; He’s now in the second part of His discourse going to speak about His humanity. In the beginning of St. John’s gospel we heard ‘…in the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the word was God…’, we read that ‘…the word was life and the word was the light of men, and that he enlightens all those who come to him…’. We read that ‘…the word was made flesh and he dwelt amongst us…’. Then we read whilst Moses gave us the law, it is Christ who gives us truth and grace. Our Lord is speaking to the crowds and He insists they believe in Him, which is really a claim to divinity, because the only person we can truly believe in without fear is God… For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies

We recall that the miracle of the loaves occurred just before the feast of the Passover. That’s why there were so many people around because they were making their way up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. So the only way to get there was by foot and so they were walking and they encountered our Lord who taught them at some length. He fed them with the five loaves and the two fish, He cross the sea on foot, He came to Capernaum, the crowd followed Him. They hungered for the bread that He had given. They had eaten as much as they wanted. But our Lord was offering them something more than bread for the belly. So begins the great discourse about the Eucharist.… For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies

There is a reference to St. Mark whose feast we celebrate today and St. Paul who associates him with his first missionary journey. We know very little about the lives of the apostles beyond what is related in the gospels and certainly the same for the Evangelists. What information we have, we depend upon the tradition to give us most of it. We know that Mark was closely associated with St. Peter and in some places St Irenaeus calls him St. Peter’s secretary. St. Peter preached and it’s interesting for the fact that St. Peter was the prince of the apostles; we only have 2 letters from him. He preached extensively in Antioch and then later in Rome, then according to St Irenaeus the people of Rome begged Peter to put down something, to write a gospel about the life of Our Lord, which Peter didn’t do. Mark did and so Mark expresses the life of Christ as seen by St. Peter.

Our Lord, according to St. Johns Gospel had gone up to Jerusalem and there He cleansed the temple. This was the first cleansing of the temple, He cleansed it twice. That is He cast out the traders from the temple precinct on two occasions, once at the very beginning of His ministry and this is the one St. John records and at the end which the other three Evangelists record. When He did it the first time, the authorities said, what sign will You give for what You have done. We have given the permission for the sale of animals in the temple precinct. What sign will you give to show this is wrong… For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies

We are obliged to believe that the Holy Scriptures written by the Holy Spirit are true. And even though they have been written by the Holy Spirit or perhaps especially because they have been written by the Holy Spirit they need someone to interpret them. Just as with great literature Shakespeare, Dante or even Caesar, they have written works but they need to be interpreted, they need to be explained. We can easily pick up Shakespeare read it and get nothing from it, because we have not been trained either to interpret or because the difficulty of the language or because we just don’t have that ability or gift. So we have scholars who spend years just examining human works, how much more so must it be for the Scriptures. But the Lord has made things very easy for us in as much as he has given us the interpreter of the Scriptures namely the Church which speaks with the Holy Spirit… For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies

Today there are many sceptics who doubt the resurrection of Blessed Lord. In fact there was a few years ago, when the bishop of Durham the Anglican denied the resurrection and even among Catholics Bishops there some have expressed doubt about the reality of the resurrection. Well they are not original because the Apostles doubted the resurrection of our Lord. The Holy women, who were blessed to see Him first even before the Apostles, doubted the resurrection of our Lord. When Peter at Pentecost Sunday stood up and preached to the Jews, he had great difficulty in convincing them of the reality of the resurrection. In fact we heard as he was preaching, he spoke to them for a long time using many arguments and he urged them to save themselves from this perverse generation… For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies

A crisis is a moment of decision, a time of testing. That the Church is currently in a state of crisis is clear for all to see. The daily unfolding scandals of clerical sexual immorality from priests to cardinals, the financial chicanery enveloping the Vatican Bank, the institutional cover-ups, the shrinking congregations, the open opposition between bishops, the undermining of settled doctrine all point to a time of testing and of answering the question “Why be Catholic”.

Our Lord worked His first miracle in Cana, Galilee that was the changing of water into wine. He works His last miracle in Galilee, the miraculous catch of fish. Of course there is a connection because in Cana, He was told they had no wine and here in the sea of Tiberius they have no fish. And so we learn that Christ is the only one who can provide for our needs, whatever we lack. Simon Peter, with the other apostles weren’t sure when they would next see our Lord… For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies

Christ has truly risen as he said He would. St. Paul in the letter to the Colossians, tells us we should keep our eyes fixed on heaven where Christ is. Christ is our head, and one thing we know about the Head is that it has a body and in particular we speak about the mystical body of Christ, of which we are members. We are the branches that have been grafted onto the vine. What the head suffers the body likewise suffers. What the body suffers the head also suffers. We have our Lord’s own word for this in the case of the latter He says what the body suffers the head suffers and the classic example of this is Saul on the way to Damascus… For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies

In the sequence there’s that little verse ‘death and life fight they contended a combat strangely ended. Life itself is slain yet lives to reign.’ Always when we celebrate the sacred mysteries we need to recall all these realities. That’s what they are, they maybe mysterious but none the less they are realities, constantly to mind. In this way our own spirits will remain buoyant and full of hope. The disciples of our Lord didn’t expect His resurrection though He had spoken of it on many occasions. Even though it had been prophesised by the prophets of old and we heard St. Peter speaking of this on Pentecost Sunday, he says David had prophesised… ... For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies

The first sorrowful mystery describes the agony of our Lord in the garden and it’s interesting that the three of the evangelists speak about the agony of our Lord. First of all he takes a journey down to the garden which St. John describes. Arriving at the garden He leaves eight of the apostles at the entrance to the garden He takes the other three to the inner most part of the garden. The three that He took were privy to several of His miracles in particular the resurrection of the girl from the dead; secondly they were privy to the transfiguration which was to strengthen them for the scandal of the cross... For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies

Rediscovering our Eucharistic faith is key to evangelisation. The Sacred Host is God present among us, without Whom we can do nothing, let alone evangelise. The deeper our Eucharistic faith, the more fruitful our witness to the world. The Church grows from the Eucharistic Sacrifice, Presence and Communion. Committed Eucharistic adorers will foster lasting evangelisation.

Our Lord has taken the disciples to Caesarea Philippi and He asked them the question, who do people say the son of man is? The Apostles gave varying answers; some say John the Baptist, others Elijah, Jeremiah, one of the Prophets. But you, He said, who do you say I am? You who have been with me these past few years, you who have seen the miracles, you who have been present at the multiplication of the loaves, the healing of the sick, the restoration of the sight to the blind, the healing of paralytics, the raising of the dead. Who do you say I am?... For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies

“The gates of hell shall not prevail” against the church, not even the hell of sexual abuse. How did we get there? How do we get out? By inspiration, conversion and purification. The beautiful plan of God for man and woman, sex, marriage and family is the answer to the longing in every human heart.

As we celebrate Mass we begin by thinking what we are about to do namely to celebrate the sacred mysteries. In the opening prayer this morning we prayed that, may your people exalt forever o God in renewed youthfulness of spirit. So that rejoicing now in the restored glory of our adoption we look forward in confident hope to the rejoicing of the day of the resurrection. So we have the restored glory of our adoption. We haven’t had anything new, but rather what was new, what we had originally… For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies