A Living Sacrifice: Homily for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time

I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God,

to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice,

holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship.

Brothers and sisters in Christ! These words of St. Paul were meant to appeal to the hearts of his readers, and they can, and must, also appeal to our own: offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God; offer to him your spiritual worship!

St. Paul reminds us that we are gathered here today, in church, to offer worship and sacrifice to God. The Sunday Mass, we must remember, is not a weekend social gathering of the faithful. It is most certainly not an opportunity to listen to a good homily! We gather on Sunday, the day indicated to us by God, to worship Him, and in thanksgiving, for the week past, and the week to come offer the sacrifice that is most pleasing to Him, His Son. In other words, we come to Mass not for an inspirational fix, but to offer living sacrifice!

Following ancient custom, we consume this sacrifice, which through the mercy of God is not a symbol of the Son, but His very Body and Blood, which conforms us to Him! We leave the Mass, therefore, armed with the grace of Our Lord so that through the rest of the week we may become, like the Son, a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God!

The ancient Christian thinker Origen observed: “We always carry in the body the death of Jesus so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. He calls it holy because the Holy Spirit dwells in it.”

The Christian is, or ought to be, adept at holding things in tension, and Origen points to one such binary: life and death. We must be dead to the world and alive to, and in, the Spirit! This tension is best played out in the virtue of chastity. Through the control of our biological urges, responding to the spiritual laws that have been revealed to us, we are able to hold the world and the spirit together, in this way, the chaste body becomes a living sacrifice!

Too often, chastity is understood as a regime of sexuality. The single person does not have sex until marriage; the married person has sex only within the bounds of marriage, and the religious live celibate lives.

To understand chastity in this manner, however, is to miss the point! Chastity is not about sex, but about love! It is when we understand the practice of chastity as love that we then become more equipped to offer our bodies as living sacrifice!

That chastity is invariably seen as an absence – an abstention from sex – may be a good place to start from. As an abstention, it involves self-control. But self-control rather than a negative is, in fact, a positive – it allows us to master our instincts and passions so that may be exercised for our good. In other words, self-mastery enables us to act in total freedom, not in slavery to our senses. It is when abstain, or sacrifice, our disordered that we can give ourselves, or love, more  wholly to those around us. A love that is not chaste, is no love at all! Understood this way, the classical allegory for chastity, a virgin taming the unicorn – horses are often the sign of the unbridled will – makes sense.

It is when we understand chastity in this way that we can appreciate that chastity is not merely about abstention from sex. It is a guarding of the heart, and our senses, from those things that might derail us and those we love.

St. Philipe Neri, a saint dear to my heart, offered sage advice which is pertinent to our growth in chastity: practice custody of the eyes. This caution is derived from the advice of Our Lord:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’

But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent

has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Mt 5: 27-28)

Framed this way we realise that chastity is, as Bishop Erik Varden points out, not about a mortification, but “a reconciliation of the senses”: bringing our senses into harmony so that we can live freely and without distraction. Since chastity is about life, it is about bringing true beauty in the world. Bishop Varden believes that “To do something beautiful for its own sake, for the intrinsic delight of it, without thought of gain: this, is a way of beginning to live chastely in this world.”

To drive in conformity with traffic rules, to greet a stranger politely, to aim for excellence in our work, these, it turns out, are also features of the chaste life.

And so, dearly beloved:

Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your mind,
that you may discern what is the will of God,
what is good and pleasing and perfect.

Santa Maria, Mater Castissima, ora pro nobis.

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful at the chapel of Our Lady of the Cape, Cabo Raj Nivas, Dona Paula on 30 August 2026.)

(Image reference: Annunciation in a ‘Hortus Conclusus,’ Martin Schongauer & workshop, c1480 Unterlinden Museum, Colmar, France.)

Confess Him! Homily for the Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time

"You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 

My dear brothers and sisters in Our Lord Jesus Christ; this Sunday we have the privilege to hear with our own ears, what is known as the confession of Peter. In the face of multiple opinions about Our Lord, Simon, son of Jonah, confesses what we know to be the truth of the identity of Our Lord, He is the anointed one – what Christ means – and he is the Son of the Living God.

This confession has various implications for our faith. In the words of Epiphanius the Latin, “If Christ is the Son of God, by all means he is also God. If he is not God, he is not the Son of God.” The confession of Peter, therefore, is the admission of the divinity of Our Lord, and a testament to the relationship between Our Lord and God the Father. You can see here, already the dawning on the apostle that God is one but composed of multiple persons.

If Our Lord is God, then he is not, unlike what the people then, and some today, say, merely a prophet, or a good man, or a great teacher. This is to say, Our Lord cannot be compared with other figures to whom divinity is attributed, or for whom it is claimed. This is because there is one God, and He has but one Son (1 Cor 8:6). It follows, therefore, that divinity is attributed to these other figures mistakenly.

Our Lord’s response to Peter is also critical in understanding what Peter says,

Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah. 
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father. 

In other words, Peter’s confession was not the result of any human wisdom, or insight. This knowledge of Our Lord’s identity was revealed to Peter. Catholic theology recognizes that while it is possible, through natural means, to recognize the existence of God, it is only through revelation that we are able to know His identity – One God in Three Persons. As the Catechism (§237) teaches us:

his inmost Being as Holy Trinity is a mystery that is inaccessible to reason alone or even to Israel's faith before the Incarnation of God's Son and the sending of the Holy Spirit.

Our Lord then goes on to say:

… you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my church

We often believe that Our Lord was referring to Peter as the rock on which He will build His church, and this would not be an error in understanding. However, it would also be appropriate to recognize that “this rock” that Our Lord refers to is not Peter per se, but the confession of Peter. It is on this confession of the identity of Our Lord that the Church is built. The Church is Our Lord’s and it is the union of those who confess His divinity.

It is this confession that is the key to heaven. In other words, those who do not recognize Our Lord as the Christ, the Son of God the Father, who came down from heaven, died for our sins, was resurrected, then ascended into heaven, is seated at the right of the Father and will come, at the end of time, to judge the living and the dead, do not have the capacity to enter heaven.

One final word; the word confession is also the name given to the tomb of the apostle – we have the confessio of St. Peter, in the famous basilica in Rome which holds his remains, the confessio of St. Paul also in the same city. This name of the structure offers us a powerful lesson, that it was not just with his tongue that St. Peter confessed the divinity of Our Lord. He confessed this truth with his body, even unto a painful death. He confessed that Our Lord is the “Christ, the Son of the living God” with his entire body and through the rest of his life. In other words, he embodied his confession. It was not just cheap words, but he incarnated those words, that confession, in his own flesh.

It was because St. Peter, and all the other apostles, believed in this confession that they were able to give up their lives for Our Lord. They knew that the life we look forward to is not life in our material bodies on this compromised earth, but life in our immortal and glorified bodies in the heavenly Jerusalem. There is no other way that these men would have been able to suffer deprivation, and torture, in addition to painful martyrdom, if they did not participate in this confession of Peter.

And so, my dear brothers let us build our own faith, on the rock-like faith of Peter and repeat his words (Jn 6: 68-69):

Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life,

and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end; Amen.

(A version of this homily was first preached at the Children’s Mass at the parish church of Our Lady of the Rosary, Caranzalem, on 23 Aug 2026.)

(Image reference: Christ Giving the Keys to St Peter (detail), Bernardo Castello, 1598, The Louvre.)

On Divine Providence: Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time

My dear brothers and sisters in Our Lord Jesus Christ. The readings this Sunday offer us the opportunity to reflect on the Providence of God:

God delivered all to disobedience,
that he might have mercy upon all.

Reflecting on this verse from St. Paul’s letter to the Romans, we realise that nothing moves without the will of God, and all that happens to us takes place only because it is permitted by God. In the face of the evil that is all around us, one might well think that this is a perverse God who allows evil to us so that He can show us how wonderful, and merciful He is. But if we realise that God is love, and is goodness, then it becomes clear that God cannot wish evil on us. God did not wish for evil, and the evil that afflicts us is the result of our sins, particularly that flowing from the original sin of our first parents, Adam and Eve. The Father, in His providence, sent His only Son to save us from this sin and the grip of the devil. He permits evil in this world, only to draw us away from the devil, so that we may return to His embrace.

In His providence, He offered to the human race that had sinned against Him, the opportunity to reconcile ourselves with Him once again, through the sacrament of baptism; a sacrament which is, as both the first and second readings make so clear to us, was made available not just to the Jews, but to all the peoples of the world. As we hear through the Prophet Isaiah:

my house shall be called
a house of prayer for all peoples.

One of the rites associated with the sacrament of baptism is the rite of exorcism. Before our baptism, which claims us for Christ, we belong to and are susceptible to the devil. Baptism claims us for Christ, and cleanses us from the stain of original sin. Like the Canaanite woman, our parents too come to the Church and ask of Our Lord: “Have pity on us, Lord, Son of David, our child is tormented by a demon.”

As we dive deeper into the Gospel episode, we appreciate the nature of divine providence more, and what ought to be our own response.

“It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs”

These are the harsh words of Our Lord to the Canaanite woman that should give us pause. By virtue of our baptism, we are entitled to call ourselves, the children of God. However, we must still bear in mind that the Bread of these children may not be thrown to the dogs. In other words, we must be like lambs when we commune, not like dogs. No person who is not in a state of grace may approach the Eucharist! Those who commune without properly preparing ourselves are doing something akin to taking the Holy Bread and feeding it to dogs.

And yet; how many of us go to communion as if it were simply a reward for showing up for Mass? How many have the garment of their soul stained by months, if not years, of not going to confession, and still rock up to receive communion?

The response of the Canaanite woman to Our Lord offers us an appreciation of the depth of Divine Providence.

Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps
that fall from the table of their masters.

The providence of God is such that He has reserved different things for different people. All shall be fed at the table of the Lord, not necessarily equally, but according to their needs, and their place in the economy of grace! The Bread from the table of the Lord is reserved only for children – i.e. those who have humbled themselves before God, have confessed their sins, as does an errant child who seeks to return into the graces of their father.

The rest of us, those unable to communicate, do not go away hungry from the table of the Lord. There are other graces reserved for those who cannot yet approach the Eucharist, graces necessary that they may eventually approach with dignity.

Pope St. John Paul II recommended for those unable to commune physically, the practice of spiritual communion, which can be articulated through this prayer:

My Jesus, I believe that You are present in the Most Holy Sacrament. 

I love You above all things, and I desire to receive You into my soul. 

Since I cannot at this moment receive You sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart. 

I embrace You as if You were already there and unite myself wholly to You. 

Never permit me to be separated from You

The Gospel today teaches us that the Canaanite woman was rewarded for her faith, but it is also true that she was rewarded for her sense of place. She did not presume a right to equality – a great evil of our times – but waited for Divine Providence to determine how she might benefit.

Contemplating Divine Providence, manifest first in the sacraments that reconcile us to God, we realise our own poverty, and recall the words of the poet Christina Rossetti, from her poem In the Bleak Midwinter:

What can I give Him,
  Poor as I am? —
If I were a Shepherd
  I would bring a lamb;
If I were a Wise Man
  I would do my part, —
Yet what I can I give Him, —
  Give my heart.

May Our Lord grant us the grace to trust in Divine Providence and give Him our hearts.

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

(A version of this homily was first preached to the faithful at the anticipatory Sunday mass in the parish church of Our Lady of the Rosary, Caranzalem on 15 August 2026.)

(Image reference: The Seven Sacraments, Antonie Wierix the Younger, 16th Century, Rijksmuseum)