This year, at the outset of the Paschal Triduum, the sacred Three Days of the Lord’s Passion, Death and Resurrection, most of us look like those Israelites in Egypt. On the night of the Holy Thursday, gathered around our family tables rather than our church altars we also witness a plague brining the world to a standstill like the Egyptians plagues brought that powerful empire into a standstill. In this worrying situation we, like those ancient Israelites, realise our powerlessness and the future which is a mystery.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! Bombarded with the news about the spread of the coronavirus we turn to the Lord and after the Psalmist we profess: ‘My deliverer is my God. I take refuge in him, my rock, my shield, my saving strength, my stronghold, my place of refuge.’ That’s why, even if what we are going through at present, and what lies ahead of us, is a mystery to our minds our Christian faith opens our eyes to this mystery as filled with the active presence of God.
The night of the Passover, as we could hear in the First Reading, was filled with the presence of God liberating his people from the exterior slavery they were subjected to.
The night of the Last Supper, as we could hear in our Gospel reading, was filled with the action of the Son of God liberating his disciples, not only those gathered in the Cenacle but also you and me, from our internal slavery to sin and all its consequences. St John wrote: ‘Jesus knew that the Father had put everything into his hands, and that he had come from God and was returning to God.’ What a knowledge it is! To know one’s origins in God and one’s ultimate destination in God too. That’s why it is the knowledge Jesus wants to fill us with. The knowledge which comes to us through faith. This faith is of God’s making. It is the gift of the Holy Spirit which arises and sustains in us the total surrender to God working powerfully in our midst.
When the firstborn of Egyptians were dying the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who had become slaves in Egypt, celebrated the Passover meal. The liturgy they held in their homes wasn’t a magical spell to keep the destroyer away. The blood of the pure lamb on their doors wasn’t a talisman protecting them either. In the midst of the plague the descenders of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were reconnecting with God of their ancestors so that they could follow him like their forbears did. What happened before that night was over was a great exodus, heading away from the slavery. However it was also a great eisodus, heading toward the freedom of the children of God. From the midst of the Egyptians plagues the Israelites were heading toward God.
            When the conspiracy against Jesus was being finalised Christ celebrated the Passover meal with his disciples. However what began in the form of a Passover meal ended as the Eucharist, which Jesus has incorporated in his own great exodus: coming from the Father and his great eisodus: coming to the Father. Therefore he has merged the situation of every generation, marked by sin, suffering and hopelessness, with his own exodus and eisodus. He has drawn us in to the bosom of the Holy Trinity.
            My Dear Fellow believers! Not many of us can gather around our church altars this night physically. In some places only bishops, priests and deacons will be present in churches. Still, this Paschal Triduum, which we have begun tonight, is the celebration of us all. The Church is not an organisation, or an institution. The Church is the Body of Christ. We are members of this Body. As I am looking forward to celebrating the great mysteries of our faith, our salvation, our exodus and eisodus in Christ I don’t feel more privileged than you, who cannot come to church. More than ever, I find myself that as a Christian and a priest I will be listening to the Good News for you too. I will receive the Body and Blood of Christ for you too.
Our civil authorities tell us to practice social distancing. However our Lord and Saviour will distribute the blessings of our Sacred Liturgies not only to the few present in our churches but through them, in the mystery of the Holy Spirit, he will distribute those blessing to all of you the members of his Body, the Church. The world maybe in a standstill but the Lord Jesus is not. His saving activity is not subjected to any restrictions.
This year, at the outset of the Paschal Triduum, the sacred Three Days of the Lord’s Passion, Death and Resurrection, we are not simply dispersed or separated from each other. In our families and small gatherings we are called to be sprinklers spread all over the place to provide the influx of hope, faith and charity into the suffering world of 2020.
The Word of the Lord. Amen.
The Gospel of the Lord. Amen.
The Body of Christ. Amen.
The Blood of Christ. Amen.

            Jesus is entering the Holy City of Jerusalem. TODAY!!!
            My Dear fellow Christians! Believe that it is happening. TODAY!!!
If Jerusalem was the religious, social and political centre of the people who claimed to be the descendants of Abraham and the descendants of those whom God led out of the Egyptian slavery, the time of the Passover feast was the height of the year in the Holy City. It is estimated that Jerusalem had 100 thousand inhabitants however more than a million people would flock to the city for the Passover. There was no vacant spot in and around the city. Definitely the Passover festivities were not a silent retreat. What we are recalling and sacramentally celebrating on this Palm Sunday is the entry of our Blessed Lord Jesus Christ to the hustle and bustle of the Holy City. The enthusiastic crowd waving their palms and singing: ‘Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!’ gives us a glimpse to the thrill filling the city.
For years as we have been coming, as communities of believers, to begin the Holy Week we were putting ourselves in the shoes of those people who welcomed the Lord Jesus waving their branches of palms. We too, for years have been gathering at the outset of the Holy Week carrying our branches of palms.
This Palm Sunday is different…
We are dispersed. We cannot be a crowd. Do we need to hang our heads in resignation? Do we need to lower our palms in defeat?
My fellow believers! Indeed we cannot be a crowd this year! We must be the BODY OF CHRIST this year!
When we meditate on the mystery of this day we discover that there was the triumphant crowd and Jesus ‘our king… humble and mounted on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of an ass.’ It looks like two different worlds, paralleled worlds. The noisy world watching the world of God in the person of the Son of God. Five days later, as we heard in the long Passion Narrative proclaimed TODAY, the noisy crowd mocked the Crucified Lord. Again, two worlds, paralleled worlds. Where are we today?
It is obvious that this year we don’t resemble that crowd with palms. This year we are marked by death, suffering, illness, isolation, fear, doubt, uncertainty, etc. This is what we, the disciples of Jesus, share with the rest of the human family. However the pandemic which has halted the hustle and bustle of our country, as well as other countries, has put us in the shoes of Jesus. St Paul in the second reading wrote about Jesus: ‘His state was divine, yet Christ did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave and became as men are.’ Today we have become like men are too sharing in the tragedy of the pandemic. However there is another TODAY. It is TODAY of Jesus Christ. It is TODAY of him who is entering our world right now to suffer, to die and to be risen to new life. He is going to accomplish it not abstractly but concretely: in us – his Body in order to save the women and men of our era. That’s why we cannot be observers like the crowd from the Gospel. In the midst of the pandemic, like the great Prophet Isaiah, we are called to accept that the Lord has woken us to hear, to listen like disciples.
If you are ill, if you are suffering you are in the shoes of Jesus Christ who suffered then and in you is suffering now for the salvation of the human family. You are not in a crowd. You are a member of his BODY, TODAY.
If you are going through isolation, fear, doubt, uncertainty you are in the shoes of Jesus Christ who went through all this then and in you is going through this now for the salvation of the human family. You are not in a crowd. You are a member of his BODY, TODAY.
My Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ! Few of us will hear this week the words ‘The Body of Christ” however let me proclaim to you what the great St Augustin used to say to his fellow believers when they were coming to receive Holy Communion: ‘You are the Body of Christ. Receive who you are.’
TODAY we must be the BODY OF CHRIST. So let us lift up our heads and let us put up our palms because TODAY in us Jesus is entering into the Holy City which is this world of women and men in need of salvation.

​            Some time ago I was in the high country planning to climb a mountain. There was also a group of high school students with their teacher. When we got to a clearing from which we could see the path leading to the summit the young people stopped. After looking at the mountain one of them said to the teacher: ‘Miss, you can go there. We will wait for you here.’
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! After you have heard God’s words: ‘Be holy, for I, the Lord your God, am holy’ and ‘You must therefore be perfect just as your heavenly Father is perfect,’ do you feel now like those youngsters? Do you think: ‘This is for people like Mary Mackillop, John Paul II, and Mother Teresa of Calcutta, St Francis, and the Little Flower but not really for me’? Do you think that it is an extremely high benchmark?
            Let me first tell you of an event from the life of St Albert who was a saint dear to St John Paul II. As a young man Albert joined the Jesuits. He truly made a big effort to sort out his life. He quitted smoking. He worked hard on his character. He pushed himself to pray well, to study diligently and to work productively. He was a gifted artist so he decided to spend his free time to improve his technique. One day he was in the town where he saw a man dropping a cigarette. Albert picked it up and started smoking like crazy. When he finished it hit him what had just happened. He was weak. He failed his resolutions. It broke him mentally, emotionally and spiritually. He ended up suffering from depression. He left the Jesuits and for months lived in a dark place. Do you think that the cigarette was a problem? The cigarette was not a problem. What was in his head and heart was a problem, the way he thought he should be holy and perfect. It was a problem. It was all about his efforts, him trying hard, him pushing himself. When he faced his weakness and failure it overwhelmed him.
If it is our way of living the call to be holy and perfect we will also end up in a similar dark place. That’s why I would like to take you to a brighter place where you can be exposed to holiness and perfection. I mean heaven.
            Prophet Isaiah once was given a glimpse of heaven. There he saw the angels and seraphim worshipping God and saying: ‘Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord. His glory fills the earth.’ Holy is only God. Holiness is God’s lifestyle. God who is Holy, holy, holy as we proclaim it at every Mass, has given us an uplifting assurance in another heavenly vision. Prophet Ezekiel saw in his vision the Jerusalem Temple from which a stream of crystal clear water was flowing. As it few through he desert it turned the dead terrain into a fertile land. This is the image of God’s holiness which overflows and reaches us. Holiness and perfection are not what we do for God but what God has done for us.
            My Dear fellow believers! Believe that the live giving stream of God’s holiness and perfection reaches you too.
The words of the Holy and Perfect God still resound in your heart and mind. You don’t hear about holiness and perfection. The words of the Holy and Perfect God fill you with his holiness and perfection by means of hearing the Word of God.
The Body and Blood of the Holy and Perfect God are given to you. Can you be not holy if you receive the Holy One of God? Love this Holy, holy, holy Lord who fills you with his own holiness and perfection. Contemplate him not yourself. It was what moved Albert out of his dark place. He focused on God by serving the poorest of the poor. It attracted some followers and eventually he founded a religious order of brothers to serve the poor. When he was dying his followers gathered around him to glimpse some of his holiness. Sure they did. Albert knew that there was a brother who despite trying couldn’t quit smoking. It made the brother sad. So in a final act on earth Albert asked for a cigarette, although he was not a smoker any more, and he smoked it to cheer up his fellow brother who was upset by his own weakness. What an example of holiness and perfection! Before his soul left his body it did leave behind his selfishness and self-absorption which are our modern pandemic. The healing of that is not in trying harder but humbly accepting the Holy, holy, holy Lord so that not just the earth but you and me could be filled with his glory.
We are holy because our heavenly Father is holy.

​            When I was preparing this homily I checked what ‘salt of the earth’ means according to some dictionaries. In one dictionary it was explained as ‘being a very good and honest person.’ Another dictionary explained it as ‘an individual or group considered as representative of the best or noblest elements of society.’ After reading these definitions last week I couldn’t help thinking who was ‘salt of the earth’ in the impeachment saga in America. I presume that it would depend on which side of the politics one stands. Or maybe ‘salt of the earth’ are people who stand away from politics.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! I don’t think that anyone can figure it out so let us leave it. Instead let us look into the gathering of people who listened to the words of Jesus from today’s Gospel. Those people were described by Jesus as ‘salt of the earth.’ Although we don’t have an accurate attendance list we can still identify some people listening to the Sermon on the Mount. There was Simon Peter who three times denied Jesus. There were John and James who wanted to be the most important people in Jesus’ Kingdom. They also wanted to bring fire from heaven upon the people who didn’t welcome them. Even if we compered the attendance roll from the Sermon on the Mount and later from the Mount of Golgotha we discover that the later was much shorter. The people abandoned Jesus at this crucifixion. Do the dictionary descriptions fit to those people then? Were those people ‘very good and honest’? Were those people ‘representative of the best or noblest elements of society’? It doesn’t look like, does it? Today Peter would be most likely qualified for an impeachment. Still, Jesus called them ‘salt of the earth.’
            As the modern expression ‘salt of the earth’ doesn’t fit to the people from the Gospel account as the modern appreciation of salt doesn’t reflect that of the Jesus’ listeners. What is the difference between us and them? Processed food, humid climate and the convenience of cars, escalators and elevators. Jesus’ listeners didn’t have that. They didn’t worry about salt intake like we do. For them salt was great. It made food taster and it preserved food for later. (They didn’t have refrigerators either.) Furthermore salt wasn’t cheap and easily accessed.
However the qualities of salt as a taste improver and preservative spoke to their imagination. In their culture salt was used to seal a bond of friendship forever. It expressed their desire to improve the quality of the friendship and to preserve it forever. God used that powerful symbol of salt when he offered them a covenant with himself. It was called a ‘covenant of salt.’ That’s why the People of Israel would sprinkle salt on the sacrifices they offered to God to remind themselves that by God’s faithfulness to them their relationship with him was to last forever.
            When Jesus said to his disciples, to whom he had just revealed the secret of happiness in the Beatitudes, ‘you are the salt of the earth’ he assured them of his commitment to them, of his love for them. They were the salt of the earth not because they were extraordinary good and honest or the best elements of the society. They were ‘the salt of the earth’ because they were loved by Jesus, because he had bound himself to them by a new covenant. This love, of which he assured them, made them distinctive. They welcomed Jesus life-giving, though challenging, message. They trusted him to strive for more than what was accepted in their society. However when they sinned, when they failed to live up to the Gospel, they didn’t despair but turned to Jesus’ forgiving love.
            Should we be surprised that the word of God in the Acts of the Apostles, tells us that after his Resurrection, for forty days Jesus was sharing salt with his disciples as he ate with them? They were broken people, self-condemning themselves for deserting Jesus, for not believing him. How much assurance they needed to accept that God could still love them! This assurance was given to them when the Holy Spirit ascended upon them on the Day of Pentecost. Jesus sharing salt with the Apostles was bonding with them and them with each other. Sharing salt made for a deep, personal and enduring relationship. How much they needed that symbolism to cure the memories of their past shortcomings!
            We, the disciples of Jesus living in the Twenty-first century, may have a different approach to salt consumption but we too need Jesus’ salt of loving forgiveness so that in the midst of our own Australian society we can be distinctive like salt is to improve and preserve what is good and holy in our society. This assurance we are given when we come together to celebrate the Eucharist. Here Jesus shares salt with us so that we can be ‘the salt of the earth.’

​            Try to imagine this: You are shopping. As you are pushing your trolley along someone taps you on the shoulder and says: ‘Leave it and follow me.’ What would be your reaction? ... If we are here today, participating in this Holy Eucharist, it is partially because some two millennia ago, when a stranger approached Peter and Andrew, James and John, and said to them: ‘Follow me’ they did it. Why didn’t they laugh at him? Why didn’t they call security to remove this stranger from their personal space?
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! I believe that you get why, because on this glorious summer day, in this spectacular seaside town filled with a holiday buzz, you have chosen to come to worship Jesus with your fellow believers. Today you have chosen Jesus like those fishermen did that day in Galilee. That’s why I believe that I can take you on a trip to the place where Jesus’s way and our way merge. Are you ready to take off? By the way did you know that the early name in the Scriptures for what is known today as Christianity was the Way? Jesus’ way and our way. One way.
            The Gospel of Matthew for today is dynamic. Jesus keeps moving. The previous passage showed him in the desert tempted by the devil. Today we see him passing through his town of childhood and young adulthood – Nazareth and coming to a lakeside town of Capernaum. There he begins preaching his message: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’ If you are about to scratch your head wandering what it may mean hold on because Jesus will show what repentance is all about.
As he is walking by the beautiful lake of Galilee he says to Peter and Andrew, James and John: ‘Follow me.’ Repentance preached by Jesus is first and foremost about turning to him. That’s when his way and our way merge. This is the moment and the place when the ancient prophecy of Isaiah about breaking the heavy yoke is fulfilled. The yoke can be understood as a burden but it also means being paired like a mentor and his trainee, like a rabbi and his disciple. It results in accepting and embracing the worldview of the mentor or the rabbi. It means looking at the world one sees and the world one senses the way their mentor and rabbi does.
In the fullness of time God sent his Son, Jesus Christ, who said: ‘Take my yoke upon you and learn from me.’ Which means: Come and see my worldview. See the world the way I see it. Embracing Jesus’ worldview frees us from our self-focus and from the fear of death.
            St Francis of Assisi once heard this voice in his heart: ‘Think that it is bitter what you find sweet. Think that it is sweet what you find bitter.’ As he was pondering what it meant he came across a leper, before Francis would take a detour to avoid lepers. He couldn’t even look at them. This time he went up to the leper and kissed him. His worldview had been changed. His worldview was now that of Jesus Christ. Jesus’ way and Francis’ had merged.
            My Dear Fellow believers! What did those four disciples hear that day by the Lake of Galilee that they left what they were doing, what they were accustomed to, and followed Jesus? They heard the Word of God. Jesus didn’t cast a spell on them. Jesus didn’t hypnotize them. They followed Christ which meant committing themselves every day to following him. Their new yoke didn’t make them slaves, addicts, frightened or isolated. They saw the world the way Jesus did. What a view it is!
            Have you ever heard this: ‘You remind me of someone.’? My prayer for you, and for myself too, is that we may hear this: You remind me of Jesus Christ. You walk like him. You talk like him. You think like him. You act like him. You love what he loves. You disapprove what he disapproves.
            To finish I would like to quote a sentence from a song of an American music band called the RainMakers. They were popular in the late 1980s and early 1990s.  This is the song: ‘You remind me of someone I don’t know.’ As we celebrate the Australia Day this song captures the situation of this beautiful sunburnt country, the country where many don’t know Jesus Christ.  However they can come to know and love him, and subsequently to follow him, through our own paring up with Jesus. If we let them see the world the way we see it, the way Jesus sees it.

​Over the last few days we have been given reports about the rain which has brought a much needed respite to the bushfire and drought ravaged regions of our country. Isn’t amazing that in this high-tech society of ours such a simple and primeval thing like rain can still bring so much excitement and joy? We, who claim to be so advanced and progressive, in face of the bushfires have realized that even the best and the most modern accessories were inadequate to handle the extend of the cataclysm. All the efforts which were employed aimed at slowing the expansion of the fires while waiting for rain. Praised be the Lord for the rain.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! John the Baptist, who put all his efforts to call his fellow country men and women to repentance and the subsequent baptism, breathed a similar sigh of relief when he saw ‘Jesus coming towards him.’ The Baptist knew that his preaching and baptizing couldn’t solve people’s sinfulness. He was holding the front line because with hope he was waiting for the ‘Chosen One of God’ to come to ‘take away the sin of the world.’ Praised be the Lord for coming there and then.
St John the Apostle, who was first a disciple of the Baptist, didn’t describe Jesus’ baptism in his Gospel.  Instead he wrote down the testimony of his first mentor, John the Baptist, who witnessed that event: ‘I saw the Spirit coming down from heaven like a dove and resting on him… Yes, I have seen and I am the witness that he is the Chosen One of God.’
John the Baptist was not only a messenger or a reporter. What he had heard and seen changed his perception of Jesus. He was a relative of Jesus but in his testimony he reveals: ‘I did not know him myself.’ He says this not once but twice. How come that he didn’t know Jesus? He did not know that Jesus, his relative, whom he knew well as a family member, was the Chosen One of God, the Messiah, God himself. For this discovery one needs to have a revelation from above. On our own we can come to appreciate God as Almighty, Creator, powerful, all wise, etc. but to treasure God as God-Man who chooses to appear in the dirty water of the Jordan, in the midst of sinners, we need to have a revelation. It can come directly from God. It was the case of John the Baptist. I can come from the witness of the Church. It is our case. However whether it comes directly from God or through the witness of the Church it doesn’t make it easier to accept it. John the Baptist still struggled to agree to baptize Jesus in the same way and in the same dirty water he used for sinners. We also may struggle to accept that Jesus is God when he refuses to use his powers to fix up our messy world straight away.
My Dear Fellow Strugglers in faith! Even if at times, seeing what is happening around us, we may be astounded, we always hear at Mass the words of the Prophet from the Jordan: ‘Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world.’ As Jesus appeared in the murky Jordan as he appears in the murky world of ours. Behold, which is an invitation to contemplation and wonder, doesn’t freeze us though but it moves us.
Firstly it moves us to say: ‘Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say a word and my soul will be healed.’ Have you ever thought what someone who has never been to church could think at the moment? How strange, these people talk to a white disc! You may have grown used to this but remember that if you do talk to this white disc, if you call it your Lord, it has been revealed to you by the Church, by your participation in the life of the Church. The Church who for two millennia loved and worshipped Jesus in the Bread and Wine, has infused this faith in you and me. Praised be the Lord for revealing himself to us through the witness of the Church.
Secondly it moves us to make our way to the altar. There we encounter our Lord and Saviour, the Lamb of God, who comes to us ‘to take the sins of the world.’ How does he do that? By giving himself to us? ‘The Body of Christ. Amen. The Blood of Christ. Amen.’
Without rain the fires would continue ravaging the eastern states. Without the Body and Blood of Christ evil would ravage our souls and the world. By believing and receiving Jesus we, his Church, his Body on earth, allow Jesus to transform the landscape of the earth. It doesn’t mean that we are better than the other people. We are the people who hope for better by placing our faith in Jesus ‘the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.’
Today and every day, like those farmers and firefighters, we also breathe a sigh of relief because faced with messiness of our lives and the messiness of the world we still believe that we are not on our own. Jesus has come into this messiness of ours.
Praised be the Lord for coming to us here and now.

​What did happen in the Gospel for this Sunday? Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan. That’s how this Sunday is called: the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. That’s what most of the pieces of art capture. Jesus stands in the river and John pours the water on him, or immerses him in the water. Although some of those pieces are truly beautiful they fall short at presenting the mystery of this event. I believe that this great event of the Baptism of Jesus needs to be proclaimed orally rather that presented visually if we want to preserve its richness and dynamism.
            This year I would like us to focus on just one aspect which is usually overlooked in the art and subsequently in our Christian imagination. I believe that it impoverishes our faith as much as it impoverishes the appreciation of what happened when John baptized Jesus.
            Most of the presentations of the Baptism of Jesus have our Lord and the Baptist alone. It looks like a prearranged appointment to have a family baptism. Jesus and John were cousins after all. However let us remember that Jesus didn’t come to a cozy chapel where he could have a private baptism. Instead he came to the place where everyone could come and in fact where people did come to be baptized by John.
Although it was a river it served as both a baptismal font and a confessional for those who had been moved by John’s preaching on repentance. People went down to the Jordan River; they confessed their sins and John baptized them there. If you have ever been to the Holy Land you may remember that the water of the Jordan is murky. It is not the crystal clear water we get from our taps. However the eyes of faith allow us to see that the water at that time was even murkier, dirtier because it carried all the sins which the people were confessing there in hope of obtaining forgiveness.
How shocked John must have been when he saw his pure and innocent cousin, Jesus, queuing up among the sinners and descending into the dirty water of the Jordan, the water which was also ‘polluted’ by the sins of those who were baptized there. We read in the Scriptures that Jesus ‘bore our sins in his body on the cross.’ When he went down into the dirty waters of the Jordan, he, as God and Saviour, in a mysterious but effective way, absorbed the sins of those who were baptized before him, but also the sins of all people who in the generations to come would be baptized. My sins were there and your sins were there too. It was right and just for Jesus to have gone down to the Jordan to collect our sins. Before he took up the cross, before he began his way of the cross, from that moment of his baptism he was burdened by our sins. Should we be surprised then that after all those things we remember today were completed Jesus went to the desert to be tempted by devil? My dear fellow sinners, isn’t it what marks our life? This deceiving lure of sin? Jesus was not carrying our sins in a tight jar. He was carrying them in his own body. That’s why he knows the power of temptations and the desolation which comes after.
            After this Mass I invite you to come to the baptismal font in this church. Immerse your whole hand in the water, make the sign of the cross and say loudly: ‘Thank you my Saviour.’ In this way remind yourself that whatever may inflict you, doesn’t matter how crushing and humiliating it may be is something you don’t bear alone. Jesus took it upon himself when he was baptized in that dirty water of the Jordan.
What did happen in the Gospel for this Sunday? Our Lord took upon himself what we would like to get rid of but are unable to.
            Thank you my Saviour.

​Have you ever wondered why the Wise Men first arrived at the King Herod’s palace? Now think about this situation: You are invited to a party for a baby to be the future king of England. Which place would you go to? It would be the Buckingham Palace in London, wouldn’t be? You wouldn’t be searching through the surrounding hamlets.
            My Dear Sisters and Brothers! The Wise Men used reason to process the information they already had. Reason allowed them to discover the star and to recognize it as a pointer to divine. The Wise Men didn’t see any angels, but by using their scientific knowledge they figured it out. That knowledge got them very close to Jesus. Bethlehem is only 10 kilometers from Jerusalem. However their great knowledge failed to get them to the manger. Their reason was fine but they needed faith. ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews? they asked.’ That was not only the correct question to ask but it was also the correct attitude to have because as we are reminded in the Scriptures ‘faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.’ What did the Wise Men hear then? They heard the Word of God, a passage from the Bible, from the Book of the Prophet Micah to be precise: ‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah you are by no means least among the leaders of Judah, for out of you will come a leader who will shepherd my people Israel.’
If reason moved them first out of their home in search for God, faith moved them out of the splendor of the Herod’s royal palace to continue their search. That final leg of their journey, those last 10 kilometers, was a huge leap of faith for them. In fact it was their conversion, metanoia. Their mind was challenged and changed to accept that God and King could be found in a manger.
In 1998 Saint John Paul II wrote a letter to the whole Church. The title of that letter was Fides and ratio, Faith and reason, from the opening words of that letter. Let me read the whole sentence: ‘Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.’ What is the other name for the truth? It is the name of the One who said of himself: ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life.’ It is Jesus.
Have you seen a bird with a clipped wing? It is a sorry image. There is this space for the bird to fly high but the bird can only look up with longing and sadness.
The Wise Men, during the first and long leg of their journey, which took them to the Herod’s royal palace, were like birds with a clipped wing. Those final 10 kilometers from Jerusalem to Bethlehem they were flying like sparrows, so fast. They were flying on both wings of faith and reason. When they ‘fell to their knees’ at the manger, as St Matthew tells us on this Day of Epiphany, they were like eagles rising to the highest heights for the human spirit. Their knees were buried in the dirt of the stable but their spirit was flying high.
My Dear Fellow believers! In our society which separates faith from reason, and very often even amputates faith, we are called to bear witness that both faith and reason come from the same source: God. In our society where so many people are like birds with clipped wings we are called to show that both ‘Faith and reason are like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.’
What could we say about the recent bushfires if our wing of faith was clipped? God doesn’t exist. What could we say if our wing of reason was clipped? It is God’s punishment. However while greatly disturbed and horrified at the extend of the bushfires we also profess the presence of the God who knows what suffering is and by his presence offers his grace to transform us anew into a better community closer to each other and closer to him who transformed the Wise Men into Compassioned Believers who ‘returned to their own country by a different way’ because they didn’t want to endanger the Infant King and God to the brutality of Herod.

​       A couple of weeks ago I was looking for some Christian Christmas cards. As I was scanning the cards on display my attention was drawn to a card with the Three Wise Men. They were standing in front of a kangaroo. One of the Wise Men was saying: ‘Definitely we’ve got lost.’
          My Dear Sisters and Brothers, are you here because you have got lost? If not, why are you here? Do you believe that, here and now, among your fellow believers you will find Jesus Christ who was once born in Bethlehem? I do. I do believe that this celebration is not like watching a movie we have already seen ten, twenty or fifty times. I do believe that on this sacred day of the Lord’s Nativity we are sacramentally drawn into this mystery of Christmas, that we are immersed in it. I believe that because the One whose birth has brought us here is God himself.
         In many Nativity Sets found in our churches, homes, shopping centres etc. we find the Baby Jesus who is little but with his outstretched arms he looks like someone who wants to embrace the world rather than a baby wanting to be picked up. This unusual presentation of a baby is an artisan expression of our Christian faith that this Baby is the Redeeming God, our Saviour, entering as a human our little world. That’s why we, his followers, are people of hope rather than optimists. Rabbi Jonathan Sacks , who for some years served as the Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, said: ‘Optimism is the belief that the world is changing for the better. Hope is the belief that together we can make the world better.’ Today we profess that it does make sense because God in Jesus Christ is part of that ‘together’.

​ There is another representation of the Infant Jesus which is known as the Infant of Prague. The Infant is robed in the royal regalia. Of course Jesus never wore them but our fellow believers robed him like a king so that they could always remember and treasure that he is the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Prince of Peace, the Hope of all nations.
         These unusual presentations of the Baby Jesus are in fact deep expressions of faith in him, our God and Saviour. They are for us who at times may struggle to hold fast to this belief that God has entered our world and our history, that his is Emmanuel, God-is-with-us.

​    There are also some other presentations of the Baby Jesus. They draw our attention and thus our faith to his humanity. Like a statue of the Baby Jesus playing with his foot. It is very human, isn’t it? But it also reveals the divine mind of God. It also reveals God’s sense of humour which makes us kneel in awe and gratitude. In the Book of Genesis we find a passage about the sin of the first parents. What led them to sin was because they wanted to be like God. ‘When the fullness of time came’ God wanted to become man. What a divine sense of humour!

​What a mystery! God subjected himself to limitations and restrictions. That’s what the first parents wanted to avoid. That’s what we strive to avoid too. When we are children we want to free ourselves from our parents as they are perceived as those who limit and restrict us. At some stage of our life we start thinking that we are completely free and without limits. However this period ends rather quickly. We discover that we don’t have skills to learn five languages. We discover that our character maybe good for quick parties but it is a challenge for relationships. We discover that our health is not as robust as we thought it was. It may be frustrating. But it can also become liberating when learn from the limitless God who embraced human limitations that those limits are like the banks of a river. They keep water running beautifully. Our limits, the limits of our humanity, filled with the life-giving grace of Christ, keep our life running beautifully and thanks to God-Man such life aims at eternity.
           My Dear Fellow Christians! We are here not because we have got lost. We are here because from Jesus Christ we can draw our sustenance. Which image of the Baby Jesus speaks to you today? Take this image with you home. Treasure it because it resonates with something you are dealing with right now. The answer to that can be found in the image of Christ you are attracted to right now.
         I have spoken about God’s good sense of humour. In this turbulent world of ours the last laugh belongs to God like the first word belonged to him too. It puts a smile on our face. It is a smile of joy because the Lord has come.

          There is a fifteenth century manuscript called: The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry. The Duke was the man who commissioned this piece of art. The manuscript is a book with various prayers aimed at sanctifying different hours of the day and the night. Why is it called The Very Rich Hours? It is because most of the 206 leaves of the parchment are stunning miniatures. However they are not only stunning, they are also powerful in the messages they convey.
This Sunday I would like to talk about the miniature presenting the Crucifixion of Jesus. It is the scene we are all familiar with. However the manuscript The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry, which contains many images in vivid colours, shows the Crucifixion as if through a dark veil. Thus it refers to the Biblical account of the darkness which covered the earth when Jesus was dying of the cross. I also believe that it is a way to express a sense of loneliness and abandonment which were not only Jesus’s experience when he said in his native Aramaic language: ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachtani?’ Which means ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?’ This sense of darkness is our experience too. Think about the people who were betrayed by those whom they loved and trusted. Isn’t it darkness? Think about the people facing life threatening illnesses. Isn’t it darkness?
My Dear Sisters and Brothers! In our Second Reading we also heard a testimony of St. Paul about darkness. The Apostle Paul wrote this Letter, which was his last letter, just before his martyrdom in Rome. Listen to a couple of sentences from today’s reading: ‘The first time I had to present my defence, there was not a single witness to support me. Every one of them deserted me.’ This Letter which we have been reading in our churches last few Sundays is like Paul’s last testament. However it is not a litany of complaints or resentments. On the contrary Paul bears witness to what he already written in the Letter to the Galatians: ‘I have been crucified with Christ, and I live now not with my own life but with the life of Christ who lives in me.’ Having Christ living in us is not only about the power to perform miracles etc. It is about the power to relive in our own body Jesus’ way of the Cross, his Crucifixion so that the glory of the Resurrection can be ours too.
This faith St Paul expressed from the misery of his imprisonment: ‘The Lord stood by me and gave me power, so that the whole message might be proclaimed for all the pagans to hear, and so I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.’
There was not prison release for Paul on the horizon so what kind of rescue the Apostle wrote about? It was the rescue of a lamb, which was sent to the wolves or lions, and despite ill-treatment the lamb remained a lamb. It didn’t become a wolf or a lion. Thinking about all the persecution he received from his enemies and the abandonment he experienced from his companions St Paul revealed that all those misfortunes didn’t change him for worse. What he wrote to the Galatians sometime earlier was still valid:  ‘The life I now live in this body I live in faith: faith in the Son of God who loved me and who sacrificed himself for my sake.’ That’s why from the midst of the darkness of his personal situation St Paul wrote to Timothy: ‘I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept faith; all there is to come now is the crown of righteousness reserved for me, and not only to me but to all those who have longed for Jesus’ Appearing.’
The parchment with the scene of the Crucifixion from the manuscript The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry shows darkness but the darkness covers the earth only. Above that earthly situation the author presented God the Father and a glimpse of heaven in the most vivid colours. In fact that colourful reality of heaven appears like a sunrise.
My Dear fellow sunrise awaiters. If you find yourself in a situation of darkness I announce to you the News of Great Joy: the Glory of God is already appearing for you. The New Day is coming. If your senses tell you something different cling to your faith to sense the New Day of our life with God.
‘To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.’