-
17th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Once upon a time there was an old man who lived on the outskirts of a town.[1] He had lived there so long that no one knew who he was or where he had come from. Some said that once he had been very powerful, a king, but that was long ago. Others said no, he was once very wealthy and generous, but without much now. Others said, no, he was wise and influential, and some even said he was holy. But the children just thought he was a stupid old man and they made his life miserable. They threw stones at his windows, left dead cats on his doorstep, ripped up the garden, and shouted…
-
16th Sunday of Ordinary Time Podcast
Our task is to keep the two halves of the story always together. If we keep only the half of God’s love then our religion might become mere sentimentality and lose the energetic, vivifying, healing and transforming power that truly belongs to it. If we focus only on the half of evil and darkness then that half would simply generate itself more and more in random violence around us and we would become simply hapless victims to the darkness around us. https://media.blubrry.com/davidranson/content.blubrry.com/davidranson/16th_Sunday_of_Year_A.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS
-
16th Sunday of Ordinary Time
We don’t need to be following the news for very long without coming to the recognition that evil exists. However, of course, evil not only exists in the situations of notoriety that occur in the world. We also know that evil exists in ourselves, even if in more subtle ways: when we do not treat others as their dignity deserves; when we use others for our own purposes; when we forget the accountability that is placed on each of us to live with integrity and truthfulness. Perhaps when we focus on our own failings, we can tend to underestimate the presence and activity of evil. Evil, though, is a genuine force that we…
-
15th Sunday of Ordinary Time Podcast
God wishes to communicate with us. God’s communication is in many forms all around us. But that message, like any other, is not in some form that it simply injects into our minds. God’s message like any other, in order to be truly heard, means we must listen. And listening is not easy: it is one of the hardest things for us to do. It means that we will need to stop, it means that we will have to give time, it means that we will have to ask questions to get to its full meaning; it means that we will have to let go for a while of all our own resistances. Yet, when we…
-
15th Sunday of Ordinary Time
The Australian social researcher, Hugh Mackay once gave a reflection on how difficult it is to get other people to hear what we are trying to say.[1] As he observed, how many times have we said in frustration, “If I’ve told them once, I’ve told them a hundred times. It just seems to go in one ear and out the other!” As Mackay says, what we may be really saying, of course, is, “Guess what, I know a message that never works. It doesn’t seem to matter how often I say it; it never has any effect on the people I’m talking to. But I don’t give up easily. It’s such a good message that I’m…
-
14 Sunday of Ordinary Time Podcast
Hopefully, the situation of the pandemic over the last months has taught us this – the value of stopping and listening. The challenge will be not to let this opportunity become suffocated as once again the demands of our life begin to encroach upon us. Let us take forward what we have learnt so that our lives become enriched by living in a more centred way. https://media.blubrry.com/davidranson/content.blubrry.com/davidranson/14th_Sunday_of_Year_2020.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS
-
14th Sunday of Ordinary Time
On this first week in July the Church in Australia celebrates National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday. This annual celebration is an opportunity to acknowledge the contribution that Indigenous Australians make to our experience of the Transcendent and to faith in this ancient land. As Deacon Boniface Perdjert from Wadeye, in the Northern Territory, and who passed away last year, commented once “Deep down, we Aborigines are religious people. We did not have many material goods, but we are rich with spiritual goods. It is this strong religious side that made us. It gave us our identity, our dignity, our self-assurance. My People existed here in Australia thousands of years before Abraham. In all…
-
13th Sunday of Ordinary Time Podcast
It is not an easy time to be Catholic. There is a stripping of power and prestige taking place through events, and through the shifts in social mores and trends which increasingly see us as the ‘outsider’. This makes the need to renew our witness of sacrificial love even more pressing if we are to remain faithful to the call of the Gospel. https://media.blubrry.com/davidranson/content.blubrry.com/davidranson/Homily_for_13_Sunday_2020.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS
-
13th Sunday of Ordinary Time
Even the COVID19 pandemic does not seem to have eased negative publicity about the Church. It was curious to see articles recently in the media questioning the Church’s engagement of the Government’s JobKeeper scheme. As a religious practitioner, I am eligible for the Jobkeeper payment. I have also chosen to donate this to our First Collection to supplement the loss of income by the parish suffered because of the pandemic. Though this is entirely legal, ethical and transparent, the media’s attempt to make it into something otherwise shows how the Church struggles both to retain and to promote its credibility in society. In the face of such negative social scrutiny,…
-
12th Sunday of Ordinary Time Podcast
It is not possible, in fact, to live without fear. It is part of our instinct for survival. Yet, it is possible for us to hear our fear and to choose another way. When Jesus says to us, “Do not be afraid”, he is saying to us “Do not stay trapped in fear. There is something more, something more to which your dignity as a child of God calls you. I am calling you beyond your fear.” https://media.blubrry.com/davidranson/content.blubrry.com/davidranson/Homily_for_12th_Sunday_.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS
Homily Podcasts