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)

Do Not Be Afraid! Homily for the Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

My dear brothers and sisters in Our Lord Jesus Christ, a week ago I had the opportunity to meet two young women who expressed an opinion that is not uncommon: “why bring another life, an innocent life, into this ugly world?”

How was I, Catholic, and priest, supposed to respond? My immediate response was that their opinion demonstrated a lack of hope, perhaps because these young women lacked faith. Unsurprisingly, these two young women agreed with me, they did not believe.

I request your prayers for these young women, and the many millions of youth across the world like them, who live without faith and consequently without hope. Tossed around the stormy sea of life, without the anchor of faith, they will have no opportunity but to submit to the cynicism and hedonism that marks the contemporary world. We are flush with funds - and dare I say opinions! – but lacking in meaning!

It is, providentially, precisely this situation that the Gospel today speaks to us about :

… the boat, already a few miles offshore,
was being tossed about by the waves, for the wind was against it. 
During the fourth watch of the night,
he came toward them walking on the sea. 

My dear brothers and sisters, the boat can be interpreted variously as us individuals, or all of us as members of our Holy Mother Church; the barque of Peter. Tossed about and threatened by the stormy sea of life, it is precisely when things seem darkest – the fourth watch of the night – that Our Lord comes walking to us, and he says to us:

“Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.”

There is no doubt that our world is facing a particularly dark time. The response of the young women I met is not a bizarre, but a perfectly comprehensible, response. However, it is not a response founded on Christian faith. It is also a response that is based on a fear of commitment. Getting married, birthing and raising a child, saying yes to the priesthood and religious life; these are grave commitments, and, as Pope Benedict XVI observed “each of us was created to make, not provisional and reversible choices, but definitive and irrevocable choices which give full meaning to existence.” But we live in a time marked by the fear of commitment.

At a purely natural level, it is when we make these commitments that we are more committed to changing the status quo and enhancing the common good. On the supernatural plane, we must remember that when we are sinking into the waters and call out to Our Lord, He will stretch out His hand to save us. For remember the words of the Gospel according to John (3: 16):

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son,

that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

The words are God so loved the world. He loves the world in its entirety, the people, the animals, plants, fish, rocks and stones. All of which he has created so that it speaks of His love. The boat, that is the world, may be buffeted by the waves born of diabolical action, but as He has also promised us “the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Mt 16:18). And remember, as has often been pointed out to us, this statement is not about hell attacking us, but the Church attacking hell itself. We are intended to be the offenders! And we will prevail, because when Our Lord is with us, when things are at their bitterest, the winds will calm down.

The lectionary for the past two weeks has given us the opportunity to reflect on the moral virtues: prudence, and temperance. Today, we are offered the privilege to think about the theological virtues: faith, hope and love. These virtues enable us to participate in the divine life of the Most Holy Trinity (CCC 1813). Faith and hope we have spoken about, but in the words of the apostle Paul, the greatest of these is love (1 Cor 13: 13).

God has already demonstrated that He loves us (1 John 4: 19), and he has planted the desire for Him in our hearts. It is now for us to demonstrate our love for Him. And there is no better way that doing so, that going to His Son. Like St. Peter, we too must cry out:

“Lord, save me!” 

But this will only happen if we make a practice of going to Him regularly. Like one goes to one’s lover, to one’s best friend. Meet Him in the daily reading of the lectionary, in long visits to the Blessed Sacrament, through an encounter with the sacrament of confession, and finally, the Eucharist – His testament of love.

And so, my dear brothers and sisters, I make my own, the words of Pope St. John Paul II, who at the start of his papacy encouraged us: “Brothers and sisters, do not be afraid to welcome Christ and accept his power…. Do not be afraid. Open wide the doors for Christ.”

Without loving Him there is no faith in Christ, and without faith, there is no hope, and so I urge you, brothers and sisters when faced with doubts, when you hesitate to commit, repeat these great words of St. Paul to the Philippians (4:13):

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me

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 to the faithful at the parish church of Our Lady of the Rosary, Caranzalem on 9 August 9, 2026.)

(Image reference: Allegory with the three theological virtues faith, hope and love, Okänd Konstnär, 18th/19th century, via Auctionet.com.)