Cleanse the Temple! Homily for the Twenty seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

He will put those wretched men to a wretched death
and lease his vineyard to other tenants
who will give him the produce at the proper times.

My dear brothers and sisters in Our Lord Jesus Christ, the vineyard of the Lord is the Kingdom of Heaven which we are commanded to tend. We are charged with preaching the kingdom, through our words and deeds, so that this vineyard will flourish. And each Sunday, and at other times, we are called to offer sacrifice to God, to praise and worship Him.

The Kingdom of God is made available to us primarily through the office of the priest, who offers us the sacraments that allow us to access this Kingdom. Without the sacraments, we would be unable to resist sin, and realise the great promise of salvation that has been made to us. Priests, therefore, are central to the tasks of the vineyard, not only because they lead the house of Israel in proper worship, but also because they make available to us the sacraments.

It is for this reason that the fall in vocations to the priesthood, and to religious life in general, is a matter of concern. It is for this reason that we are asked to pray for vocations to the priesthood. And yet, it is my firm conviction, that these prayers are misplaced, because the drought in vocations has been willed by our Lord Himself, displeased as he is with us, the wretched tenants of His vineyard, who fail to give him the produce of our work at the proper times.

I refer to the way in which we worship Him. The Holy Father, Pope Leo has himself, on multiple occasions raised this concern, of priests who do not follow the rubrics when they celebrate the Mass. Of worship that has lost sense of solemnity and dignity. How often, are our Masses a celebration of ourselves, the community, and not of God, tailored to His dignity? Listen to the words of the psalm in today's lectionary:

Why have you broken down its walls,
so that every passer-by plucks its fruit

There is one location that I am personally aware of, where the faithful – if they can truly be called such – use the sanctuary and the sacristy as thoroughfares to get to the parish office. Indeed, the ample sanctuary of this church was used by the lay volunteers to count the money offered during Mass! The words of Our Lord: “It is written, ‘My house shall be called the house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of thieves” (Mt 21: 13) come to mind. Both the sanctuary and sacristy are holy places, where one should fear to tread; that we do not think twice to do so is a statement of the disrespect we afford to these places and ultimately to Him to whom they belong.

he sent his servants to the tenants to obtain his produce. 
But the tenants seized the servants and one they beat,
another they killed, and a third they stoned. 

The problem does not exhaust itself among the lay faithful. Indeed, the problem begins from within the priesthood, from which - despite the presence of very many holy priests - great evils have sprung. It is not as if there are a lack of vocations to the priesthood. There are, in fact, many men (and women) who seek to enter into priestly or religious life. They do not, however, find places that match their desire for houses burning with zeal for the Lord. How often are those in religious life seized upon, not to spend time in contemplation and worthy worship, but to operate as cogs in an administrative wheel dedicated to running hospitals, schools and other social services? The love of our brethren is an important commandment, but it cannot be placed over the commandment to love God!

When we speak of the servant who was stoned, one can think of the many young pious men across the world who enter seminary, and find that their piety, instead of being viewed positively, are scorned and mocked. In too many houses of formation across the world, piety and an attention to right worship – ortha doxa – is seen as a defect that must be corrected. And so, such men are hounded, until their spirit is broken, or they leave the seminary, because their ortho-praxis is simply seen as unacceptable.

Finally, he sent his son to them, thinking,
'They will respect my son.'
But when the tenants saw the son, they said to one another,
'This is the heir.
Come, let us kill him and acquire his inheritance.'

I know of one man, whose journey in the faith convinced him that the reception of communion on the tongue, and whilst kneeling, was the way in which he could best honour (and respect) the body of the Son that he was being offered. And yet, abandoning this practice – sanctified by the saints across the ages and a sure method to grow in devotion to the Blessed Sacrament – was made a requirement if he should continue on the journey towards priesthood.

 And so, my dear brothers and sisters, while we continue to pray for vocations, perhaps our prayers should be directed towards obtaining the graces so that right worship is once again restored.

Once again, O LORD of hosts,
look down from heaven, and see;
take care of this vine,
and protect what your right hand has planted,

Then we will no more withdraw from you;
give us new life, and we will call upon your name.
O LORD, God of hosts, restore us;
if your face shine upon us, then we shall be saved.

Holy Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for us.

(Image reference: The Cleansing of the Temple, Burlison and Grylls, 1881, St. Peter’s church, Nottingham, photo by Fr. Lawrence Lew O.P., 2015.)

Follow the Third Son! Homily for the Twenty Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

My dear brothers and sisters in Our Lord Jesus Christ, in the parable of the two sons the Gospel today offers us, at first glance, two models of living and offers us the opportunity to reflect; which one of them do we embody? On the one hand we have the first son who initially refuses, but later has a change in heart and goes to work in the vineyard. Initially disrespectful and disobedient, he is moved by love and respect for his father and fulfills the tasks asked of him. The second son immediately responds in the affirmative to his father – can you see the reference here to God our Father – and yet, fails to fulfill the command. Which son are we?

Too often, especially those of us who are pious, who go to Mass on Sundays, we are the second son. We fulfill the outward commands of the Church; but refuse to go deeper into the law of love that Our Lord commands us to. How many of us, for example, being regular Mass goers, still practice contraception, despite knowing that this violates the teachings of the Church?

"Amen, I say to you,
tax collectors and prostitutes
are entering the kingdom of God before you.

Contraception is one of the teachings of the Church that too many of us are most willing to take issue with. Rather than recognize that the teaching of the Church is tough, and calls us to heroism, we make materialist and worldly arguments: “only those who have money can have many children.” Or, the standard, “it is easy for priests to talk, what do they know about married life;” the dishonest, “what if the child is conceived as a result of rape,” or the indignant, “who is the Church to tell us how to run our lives?” Or, in keeping with the worship of the untrammeled self which is the true religion of our hearts, “What gives the Church the right to control our bodies!”

The words of the prophet Ezekiel answer all of these questions in the first reading:

You say, "The LORD's way is not fair!"
Hear now, house of Israel:
Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?

The teachings of the Church are not about some power struggle, where the Church – seen by the materialists as an institution controlled by frustrated old men – is trying to ruin the party for the lay faithful. Rather, the Church, our Holy Mother, following the teachings of Her Master, handed down to Her from the Apostles, constantly calibrating them for the times we live in, is merely pointing to the way of virtue and justice:

When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies,
it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die.
But if he turns from the wickedness he has committed,
and does what is right and just,
he shall preserve his life;
… he shall not die.

We are at liberty to accept, or deny the teachings of the Church; but as the prophet Ezekiel reminds us, these actions have consequences; life in heaven, or the fires of hell.

If we have problems with these teachings it is often not because they are wrong, but because we are, caught up as we tend to be in the zeitgeist of the moment: the worship of the self, unhinged from any restrictions – even if these restrictions are for our greater good.

This refusal to recognize the primacy of God, that we live our lives best under the directions of God, who has revealed to us His ways, throughout history, and finally through His Son, is the perfect example of pride. And it is for this reason that St. Paul appeals to us today, as he did to the Philippians:

Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory;

rather, humbly …

Have in you the same attitude
that is also in Christ Jesus.

The attitude of Our Lord Jesus Christ offers to us the option of a third son. One whose yes means yes (Mt 5: 37), whose way is of humility, bowing to the wishes of His Father in heaven, who desires only that we should be saved from our own arrogance, which leads us into sin and away from life in the Holy Trinity.

My dear brothers and sisters in Our Lord Jesus Christ, when Our Lord walked the earth, it was not the people who were convinced that they were following the Law who were saved, but rather persons who were convinced of their own sinfulness; who repented, converted their hearts and were saved. Let us, therefore make the prayer of the psalm today our own, and listen to our Holy Mother the Church who communicates the paths of Our God:

Your ways, O LORD, make known to me;
teach me your paths,
guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my savior.

Mary, Mother of the faithful, pray for us.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful at the parish church of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception, Pangim on 27 September 2026.)

(Image reference: Christ carrying the Cross, unknown Austrian artist, c. 1460, Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia.)

Cross of Christ, Tree of Life: Homily for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

My dear brothers and sisters in Our Lord Jesus Christ; the reading from the book of Numbers, about the placing of the serpent on the cross never made any sense to me for the longest time. We cannot possibly be saying that Our Lord was like the serpent? Why would the people of Israel look upon the serpent in the same way that they looked, and still look, upon Our Lord on the Cross?

To resolve this conundrum St. Gregory of Nazianzus came to the rescue and explains:

That brazen serpent was hung up as a remedy for the biting serpents, not as a type of him that suffered for us but as a contrast. It saved those that looked upon it, not because they believed it to live but because it was killed, and killed with it were the powers that were subject to it, being destroyed as it deserved.

To repeat the point, the serpent is not representative of Our Lord, but a contrast. It was sin, and the sinful body of man, that was pinned to the Cross. The Son of Man survived the Cross becoming for us the cause of our redemption.

Think of the words of the angels on the Sunday of the Resurrection to Mary Magdalene:

 He is not here; he has risen, just as he said (Mt 28: 6).

Indeed, He is no longer on the Cross, for through His Passion, Our Lord nailed sin to the cross, and released us from the ancient curse, so that, as on Easter, we can say:

My soul like a bird, has escaped from the snare of the hunter (Ps. 124:7).

In other words, through His sorrowful Passion, Our Lord demonstrated that the Cross is the tool through which we too can purge our sinful bodies. The Cross is exalted today, on the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, because it is the remedy for the children of those who suffered the bitterness of being expelled from the garden.

And yet, despite recognizing this fact in principle, too often our behaviour is like those of our spiritual ancestors, the sinful people of Israel, who in their relationship to God

flattered him with their mouths
and lied to him with their tongues,
Though their hearts were not steadfast toward him,
nor were they faithful to his covenant.

Too often, the Cross is not exalted, it is most certainly not the raison d’etre of our lives, but simply an ornament, a decoration.

I will offer you a couple of examples. There have been times when priests are told: “Father, please make sure that the Mass is over by x time, because xxxx have to go to work.”

Behold, brothers and sisters, the exaltation not of the Cross, but of time, and work!

Now the Mass is not long because the priest offers long homilies. It gets lengthened because one takes time with the prayers, so that they are enunciated properly, and make sense to those who may hear them. They are slow, above all, because many of the prayers of the Mass are directed toward God. Could my conversation, could our conversation, with God be rushed?

There is also a complaint that the Mass is lengthened when we use the first Eucharistic canon, which, as you will see today, contains the names of a number of saints. “What does he take the long prayer,” we grumble when we hear this particular Eucharistic prayer. The counter-question that could be posed would be, why are we in such a rush to get the Mass over and done with? Is the Mass such a chore that we want it to be done in as short a time as possible? When we come to Mass, do we realise that we are here to exalt the Master of the Cross? If so, should we not crave to spend as much time with Him as possible?

Moreover, it would be worthwhile remembering that many of the names of the saints in the Eucharistic canon are those who like Our Lord embraced their cross and shed their blood, not just for Our Lord, but for us. It behooves us, therefore, to be faithful to, and cherish their memory!

Indeed, too often, the Mass has become the place where it is not the Master of the Cross that is exalted, but the community, or worse the priest! The community exalts itself by preferring forms of worship that affirm itself – we prefer happy-clappy songs that make us feel good, that raise our spirits, rather than help us contemplate the state of our relationship with Our Lord. Too often, we make the Mass about the rhetorical capacities of the priest, rather than his faithfulness to the rubrics. Too often more time is spent on a well-delivered homily, so that the rest of the Mass, and particularly the canon, the Eucharistic prayer, is rushed through. Too often, we spend more time in thanking the members of the community who have helped in the organization of the Mass, rather than in the Mass itself.

The feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross offers us an opportunity to pause, and to ask ourselves, who, or what, is it that I am exalting in my life? Is it Our Lord, the author of life, who made the Cross the Tree of Life? Or is it the wiles of the serpent who continues to slither among us and drag us bodily into the pits of hell?

Adoramus te, Christe, et benedicimus tibi,

quia per sanctam crucem tuam redemisti mundum

We adore you, O Christ, and we praise you,

because by your holy cross you have redeemed the world!

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful at the parish church of Our Lady of the Immacualate Conception, Pangim on 14 September 2026.)