The Saints and the Cloud of God’s Presence: Homily for the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

This past week I was arrested by the first few words from the second reading:

Since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses,

St Paul is teaching here about the fact that we should have no need for fear, since we are surrounded by this cloud of witnesses, and must therefore

rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us
and persevere in running the race that lies before us
while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus,
the leader and perfecter of faith.

But it was the words “cloud of witnesses” that held me captive.

This phrase is normally used to describe the statutes of the saints that crown the two colonnaded arms that embrace the great piazza of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. And this usage is correct; when Saint Paul refers to the great cloud of witnesses, he is referring to the saints who must inspire us forward on the holy road of sanctity – the race that we are called to run after our baptism.

One of the reasons this word held me captive is because (once again!) I heard two (Catholic) priests disparage the Catholic practice of venerating the saints. Both priests suggested that the Church ought to be Cristo-centric, and that our devotion to the saints was distracting at best, and erroneous at worst. It is a pity when Catholic priests hold these opinions, since this only does damage to the faithful who look to them for teaching, and is in fact contrary to the teaching of our Holy Mother Church.

Examining the words of St. Paul, we can discover how deeply and powerfully they communicate the truths of God’s Kingdom to us.

The first significant reference we find to clouds in the Old Testament is in the Book of Exodus (13: 21), when God appears to the Israelites in the form of a cloud, and guides them out of Egypt. This cloud was, as we should know, the cloud of the glory of the Lord (Ex 16:10). This cloud would go on to do much more, however, for later in Exodus (19:9)

the Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, in order that the people may hear when I speak with you and so trust you ever after.”

The attentive Christian will see in the reference to the dense cloud of Exodus, the great cloud that Saint Paul refers to – I will develop this idea a little later. In any case, the attentive Christian should already see this verse from Exodus as a prefiguring of the way in which The Father would recognize the Son at His Transfiguration when we read that:

a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, “This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him!” (Lk 9: 34-35)

This overshadowing of the apostles, and their entering the cloud, is an echo of Moses entering the cloud where God was (Ex 24:18).

My dear brothers and sisters, after this breakneck consideration of scripture we are in a better position to reconsider St. Paul’s reference to the “great cloud of witnesses.” But, not before a word from St. Ambrose who teaches that

If anyone therefore desires to behold this image of God, he must love God so as to be loved by him, no longer as a servant but as a friend who observes his commandments, that he may enter the cloud where God is (emphasis provided).

In other words, my dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the words the cloud of witnesses refers not only to the saints, those who have given testament of their faith, whether through their lives or their deaths, but refers also to the communion of the saints. This is to say, these men and women, have, like Moses, and the apostles Peter, James and John, entered into the cloud that is God.

The density of the cloud of God is a density that refers not only to the intensity of the presence of God, but refers to God in all His glory. The same glory that was manifested so often over the Ark of the Covenant, and the Temple in Jerusalem. Listen to the words of Our Lord as regards His second coming:

Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory. (Mt 24:30)

In other words, when He comes in glory Our Lord will not be alone, not only will He be densely attended by His angels, who have been His for all time, but He will also be attended by these witnesses who have entered the cloud.

My dear brothers and sisters, we should tremble at the words “great cloud of witnesses”, because understood correctly, we can see a whole new meaning to this phrase.

We must not, therefore, hesitate to venerate the saints, because they are beloved of God, and live with Him, and will return with Him when Our Lord comes in glory. A right relationship with the saints – and I stress a right relationship – can, and always will, lead us to Our Lord and Saviour. To follow the saints is not the opposite of being Cristocentric, on the contrary, it is the well-trodden oath towards being Cristocentric. One can only be Cristocentric if one imitates the saints.

May the Saints intervene for us as we:

rid ourselves of every burden and sin that clings to us
and persevere in running the race that lies before us
while keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus,
the leader and perfecter of faith.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

(This homily was preached to the faithful gathered together at the altar of the Weeping Cross, Convent of Santa Monica, Old Goa on 16 Aug 2025.)

(Image reference: The Last Judgment Polyptych, Rogier van der Weyden, 1445–1450, Hôtel-Dieu of Beaune, Burgundy, France.)

Where Heaven and Earth Meet: Homily on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin

Today, as you well know, we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady. This feast commemorates the end of her life here on earth, and the start of her life in heaven. It is on this interaction between the earthly and the heavenly, the natural and the supernatural, that I would like to preach on today, since I have been invited to preach on celebrating the sacraments and liturgy worthily for our spiritual growth. The liturgy is that part of our earthly, or natural life, which – if done worthily – can help us not only for our eventual supernatural lives, but, more importantly, help us to experience the supernatural even here on earth. But more about this later.

It is doubly appropriate that we celebrate the Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady, during the feast of her father, St. Joaquim. Appropriate because there is a pious tradition that along with his wife, Saint Anne, St. Joaquim dedicated Our Lady to service in the Jewish Temple as a child, and she spent her youth weaving garments necessary for the temple liturgies.

In other words, the liturgy is so important, that we should dedicate not just our lives, but also the lives of our children, to ensure that the liturgy is noble, dignified and composed of only the best. Remember, that as per tradition, St. Joaquim and St. Anne, were childless until their old age. Despite this, when they eventually obtained a child, they dedicated their child to service in the Temple. What a great lesson this dedication offers parents who dissuade their children from religious, or priestly, life. And they do so, knowing that we have a crisis in vocations, knowing that the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the transmission of the sacraments are impossible without priests. To those of you who are parents, and those who – through the grace of God – will become parents, may St. Joaquim inspire you, and intercede for you, so that your hearts may be open to this grace.

But let me return to my promise to speak about the Our Lady, the earthly and the heavenly, the natural and the supernatural. Our Lady is an example of where these two, normally opposite, things meet. As we know, through the grace of God, Our Lady was prevented from contracting the stain of original sin. This is to say, she was immaculately conceived. In some way, therefore, she was always associated with the supernatural, she did not suffer from the stain of original sin which marks our nature. Nevertheless, just like our common ancestor Eve, who was also created without the stain of original sin, Our Lady continued to have free will, and could have sinned in the course of her life. And yet, she was always obedient to God, especially when she offered her “Fiat” to the annunciation – “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord, Be it done unto me according to Thy will.” From this moment onwards, and until the birth of Our Lord, she was the Temple, housing the presence of God on earth. In other words, Heaven and the Earth, the natural and the supernatural, met in her body for the first time. And because she continued to remain sinless through the rest of her life, her body did not suffer corruption, but was taken up into heaven when her time on earth was over. This is the feast we celebrate today, the Assumption of Our Lady.

My dear brothers and sisters, in Lumen Gentium, the fathers of the Vatican Council II hailed Our Lady as a "type", “figure”, or “model” of the Church. If heaven and earth, the natural and the supernatural met in her, and her actions allowed for the heavenly to descend to earth, for the natural to be elevated to the supernatural, then this is also what happens in the church, and through the liturgy.  Heaven and earth meet through the liturgy, and our natural selves and filled with supernatural grace. This bears repeating: at every Mass, and other liturgies of the church, heaven and earth meet, and our natural selves are filled with supernatural grace. This is all you need to go away with today, everything else I will now say is only an elaboration of this idea, and what we must do to be worthy of this encounter.

It is because the impossible happens, that the awesome takes place, that the liturgy of the Church must be solemn. Speaking soon after his election to the Pontificate to the Eastern Churches, Pope Leo said:

We need to recover the sense of mystery that remains alive in your liturgies, liturgies that engage the human person in his or her entirety, that sing of the beauty of salvation and evoke a sense of wonder at how God’s majesty embraces our human frailty!

Mystery, beauty, wonder, these are some of the constituents of solemnity. Unfortunately, in our churches in Goa, today, the concept of a solemn liturgy is practically unknown. We do not do in our liturgies anything that we do not do in regular life. We offer the Blessed Sacrament a casual bow instead of a genuflection. We take communion in our hands, and show it scant respect, and sometimes when there are other things in our hands – too often women come with handkerchiefs in their hands and think it acceptable to receive communion on their hands. A man once approached me with his child in his arms, and extended his hand casually to receive communion! After communion, rather than kneeling in prayer until the post-communion prayer, we sit down. When the Blessed Sacrament returns to the tabernacle we continue to sit, instead of standing in respect. Is this the behaviour of those who realise that heaven and earth have just met?

After years of prioritizing Concanim to the exclusion of other languages, and especially the exclusion of Latin; by trying to vernacularize as much as possible, our liturgies have become gaunti, not universal. They have become mediocre, not excellent. We have excluded Gregorian chant from our singing, and sometimes it is difficult to distinguish hymns sung in church from hymns sung at parties or dances. Instead of the dim lighting, that evokes the humble light of candles, that elevates the sense of mystery, we flood our churches and chapels with white light as if they were football stadiums!

My dear brothers and sisters, our encounter with the liturgy should elevate us, take us to a place beyond the natural. But too often, this is not our attitude to the liturgy. We have domesticated it so that it is just as ordinary as the rest of our lives. In other words, my dear brothers and sisters, our attitude to the liturgy is marked by the vice of sloth.

In one of his homilies, St. Anthony quoted from the book of Sirach (50:9) and suggested our Our Lady was

like a vessel of hammered gold
    studded with all kinds of precious stones;

Perhaps taking inspiration from such comparisons, and comparisons of Our Lady to the Ark of the Covenant which was made of incorruptible acacia wood and overlaid with gold, our ancestors ensured that the liturgy used only the best and most precious materials. The vestments of the priests, or the altar cloths were made of silks, cottons and linens, instead of cheap synthetic materials. The Body and Blood of God rested on gold and silver, instead of steel and other cheap metals.

My dear brothers and sisters, St. Joaquim dedicated his daughter to the service of the temple, and She dedicated her life so that we may have experience heaven here on earth. Let us, therefore, on this feast day of Our Lady dedicate ourselves, and our children, to granting to the liturgy, the dignity it demands so that we may grow spiritually.

Saint Joaquim, pray for us.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful at the chapel of St. Joaquim, Borda in the course of the novena prior to the his feast.)

(Image reference: The Disputation of the Blessed Sacrament, Raphael, 1509-1510, Vatican Museums, Rome.)

Know Your Master: Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

On previous Sundays I have preached differently from the conventional focus on loving our neighbours. Too often this love has been erroneously elevated to a supreme objective of Catholics. However, one simply cannot love one’s neighbours properly, if one does not first love God. It is only after we love God, and love him properly, that we can then love our neighbour as we should. Indeed, it is the love for God that overflow from our hearts that is then directed towards our neighbours.

Gird your loins and light your lamps
and be like servants who await their master’s return from a wedding,
ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.
Blessed are those servants
whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.  

My dear brothers and sisters, our relationship between Our Lord and ourselves is clear and explicit from this verse from today's Gospel. We are his servants and we are here to do his work. Recollect the words from the first letter of St. Peter (1:18):             

Do not forget that you were purchased from the foolish ways of your ancestors … with the precious blood of the Lamb

My dear brothers and sisters, it is important to remember that we were redeemed, or purchased, or liberated, from two associated masters. The first, is the Devil who is the Prince of this world, the other is the way of our ancestors. To be liberated from the foolish ways of our ancestors is to understand that it refers to our ancestors who were not Catholic, immured in practices that did not recognize the truth of God, and consequently the dignity of the human person. In other words, prior to their baptism, our ancestors were in the thrall of the Devil.

And in some way, our families may continue to be so. Which is why, at baptism, we are also liberated from following the narrow agendas and petty battles of our natal families – the families we were born into.  We belong first to Christ, who redeemed us, to His Holy Mother whose care he gave us to, and to His Saints who intercede for us, night and day before His Throne. It is only after this that we belong to the mothers who birthed us, and the families, and communities that raise us.

Too often one is witness to the way in which we are forced to follow not the agenda of Christ, but the petty battles of our families; emotionally blackmailed through our families and friends to commit to the Prince of the World, rather than to Christ. “Remember the fourth commandment,” our parents and elders threaten us! Recall, however, my dear brothers and sisters, the words of our Lord:

Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. (Mt 10: 34-36)

In other words, love God first! It is not our neighbour – whether family, or friends – that we are called to worship, but God, and God alone! Let us not make family and friendships our gods instead of God.

My dear brothers and sisters, if, for the sake of Christ you leave your “houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands”, then I have no doubt that you are a martyr and will receive the promised reward. For listen to the words of Our Lord this Sunday:

Blessed are those servants
whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.  
Amen, I say to you, he will gird himself,
have them recline at table, and proceed to wait on them.

The rewards of heaven, my dear brothers and sisters, the communion with the saints, will be our reward.

My dear brothers and sisters, we should bear in mind the words of Our Lord this Sunday, when we contemplate the scenario I have laid before you:

Much will be required of the person entrusted with much,
and still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.

We have been entrusted with just one task, and that is to preach the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ. Woe to us, if we do not fulfill that task. Let us pray, therefore, in the words of the Collect this morning:

Almighty ever-living God, whom, taught by the Holy Spirit, we dare to call our Father, bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts the spirit of adoption as your sons and daughters, that we may merit to enter into the inheritance which you have promised. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful at the Cathedral parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Old Goa.)

(image reference: Christ Washing the Feet of the Disciples, Paolo Veronese, 1580s, National Gallery, Prague.)