visible rhetoric

Our belief in the grace of God in our life is central to our faith as Christians.  Salvation after all is a grace.  We are sustained by grace.  We will attain eternal life through grace.  Grace is a benefit freely granted by God to his creatures.  The important words in the definition of grace are “freely” and “gratuitously”.  These words are opposed to what is due or to anything I can rightfully claim.  It is something we cannot rightfully claim as our own, and it is something that is not due.  In other words it is given to us by God even if it is unmerited or undeserved.  This is an important outlook which we need to recover otherwise we cannot understand the Christian attitude.  Why is this? Some look at God as a good businessman, and like a good businessman, God never gives anything for nothing.  And so I have to pay for God’s goodness.  This kind of relationship with God destroys the very concept of grace as so...

Tonight we have welcomed our new brothers from the grade VII, from the pre-college and from the special Philosophy.  We have also welcomed Fr. Maynard who will join us in the formation team starting this year.  We have also welcomed our new teacher Sir Bernie and also our new auxiliary personnel, Hubert.  Tonight this is the beginning of our getting to know each other.  Now it is just faces and names and addresses.  When the grade seven had their retreat they were made to go around and had all of us including priests and personnel sign up in their notebooks with our names and work. In the weeks and months to come we will come to know stories behind those faces and names.  This acquaintance is simply to acquaint us with one another, initially, but this will not make us community yet.   It will take some time for that to happen.  It is my hope then that we go beyond fun, that we go beyond faces so that we can become a real community....

Our reading tonight is about David picked five smooth stones from the brook before fighting Goliath.  Whatever giants we are facing, like David, picking up and arming ourselves with these five stones will help us overcome them.  What are these five stones of which we should arm ourselves with?

GK Chesterton, that famous catholic author once said that he became a Christian because of its belief in the Trinity.   So what, you may ask?  If Christianity, he said, was only made up of human beings with a human intellect and a human understanding, then he could not have thought of a concept that is not only difficult but even impossible to grasp or explain: the idea that God exists as one but in three persons. This is one of the things the Trinity reminds us about ourselves today.  Our belief in the Trinity reminds us that there is truth in the world that we do not and cannot fully understand.  Our belief in the Trinity reminds us that our understanding is limited, that there are things in this world that will always remain hidden and mysterious, truths beyond our conceptualization, truths beyond our imagination even, and truths beyond what our language can capture and describe.  Many times if you notice our experiences of God are far richer t...

Salt is not useful to itself and so it is never valued for its own sake.  Rather salt is valued because of its application on other things.  It puts flavor on food, it acts as a preservative and it is a good conductor of heat.  Light is not useful to itself that is why you do not light a lamp and put it under a basket.  Like salt it is not valued for its own sake.  Rather light is valued because it can light the darkness – we can see and we can be seen when we have light.  Again light is useful because of its application and function. 

Jesus raised his eyes to heaven and said, “Father, the hour has come.   Give glory to your son, so that your son may glorify you.”  What is glory?  What is the glory of the Son?  What is the glory which the Son renders to the Father?  When we read the gospel of John, glory and glorification refer to the cross for it is in the cross where Christ reveals the depth of his love for the Father and for us.  In times of great crisis those who receive and give the greatest honor are not those who survive but those who give the supreme sacrifice of their own lives for  others .  Love is always proven by how much you are willing to sacrifice for others.