Catholic Homilies By Fr Linus Clovis

In Part 2 Anthony continues on the general theme on the parallels of the holocaust and Abortion. We now see in society that there is an intolerance for the support of the pro-life view. Politicians and ordinary people shy away from expressing any positive view in defending the child in the womb should the mother not want it. Further the pro-life advocate is regarded as an extremist with views that cannot be supported by populist politicians

Anthony, comments on the parallels between the Holocaust of the 1930's and the current killing of children in the womb throughout the world by Abortion. He shows that the abortion industry is by its very nature equivalent to the holocaust, the context may be different but the aggregate act is the same but far more numerous. The systematic mass slaughter of innocent human beings today through abortion in most Western society is regarded as a right.

Having presented to us the three eminent good works, fasting, alms giving and prayer, our Lord goes on to tell us the manner by which we should pray. Namely the things that we should pray for and the way in which we should make our pray. The first thing He says is do not babble like the pagans. How do pagans pray? Well pagans who basically are polytheist, they believe in many gods, and they presume that these gods need to be placated, they need to be enticed, they need to be encouraged, to be favourable. The gods of the pagans are not gods of love, they do not care for their people, they certainly will assist them but often they expect to be served by them. It doesn’t really matter which pagan society we look at. Whereas the God of Abraham, in the eyes of the Jews, someone remote, a master who cared for them, who was interested in what they did, but who also demanded from them, obedience. Whereas Christ has revealed to us that the God whom we serve is a Father, and will and wants our greatest good. N

Four times our Lord calls Himself the bread from heaven. The forth time He said I am the living bread which has come down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever and the bread I shall give is My flesh for the life of the world. As long as He called Himself the bread, whilst it was difficult to accept nonetheless the Jews didn’t grumble. They still hoped that somehow there was a metaphor, there was some symbolism, some figurative speech and that He would give them the manna. They came to Him for the manna. They wanted to be fed again as He did on the other side of the lake. Our Lord indeed wants to feed them as He wants to feed us. But He wants to give us not bread that perishes but the bread that gives eternal life which is Himself… For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies

So far our Lord is speaking of His divinity; He’s now in the second part of His discourse going to speak about His humanity. In the beginning of St. John’s gospel we heard ‘…in the beginning was the word, the word was with God and the word was God…’, we read that ‘…the word was life and the word was the light of men, and that he enlightens all those who come to him…’. We read that ‘…the word was made flesh and he dwelt amongst us…’. Then we read whilst Moses gave us the law, it is Christ who gives us truth and grace. Our Lord is speaking to the crowds and He insists they believe in Him, which is really a claim to divinity, because the only person we can truly believe in without fear is God… For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies

We recall that the miracle of the loaves occurred just before the feast of the Passover. That’s why there were so many people around because they were making their way up to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover. So the only way to get there was by foot and so they were walking and they encountered our Lord who taught them at some length. He fed them with the five loaves and the two fish, He cross the sea on foot, He came to Capernaum, the crowd followed Him. They hungered for the bread that He had given. They had eaten as much as they wanted. But our Lord was offering them something more than bread for the belly. So begins the great discourse about the Eucharist.… For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies

There is a reference to St. Mark whose feast we celebrate today and St. Paul who associates him with his first missionary journey. We know very little about the lives of the apostles beyond what is related in the gospels and certainly the same for the Evangelists. What information we have, we depend upon the tradition to give us most of it. We know that Mark was closely associated with St. Peter and in some places St Irenaeus calls him St. Peter’s secretary. St. Peter preached and it’s interesting for the fact that St. Peter was the prince of the apostles; we only have 2 letters from him. He preached extensively in Antioch and then later in Rome, then according to St Irenaeus the people of Rome begged Peter to put down something, to write a gospel about the life of Our Lord, which Peter didn’t do. Mark did and so Mark expresses the life of Christ as seen by St. Peter.

Our Lord, according to St. Johns Gospel had gone up to Jerusalem and there He cleansed the temple. This was the first cleansing of the temple, He cleansed it twice. That is He cast out the traders from the temple precinct on two occasions, once at the very beginning of His ministry and this is the one St. John records and at the end which the other three Evangelists record. When He did it the first time, the authorities said, what sign will You give for what You have done. We have given the permission for the sale of animals in the temple precinct. What sign will you give to show this is wrong… For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies

We are obliged to believe that the Holy Scriptures written by the Holy Spirit are true. And even though they have been written by the Holy Spirit or perhaps especially because they have been written by the Holy Spirit they need someone to interpret them. Just as with great literature Shakespeare, Dante or even Caesar, they have written works but they need to be interpreted, they need to be explained. We can easily pick up Shakespeare read it and get nothing from it, because we have not been trained either to interpret or because the difficulty of the language or because we just don’t have that ability or gift. So we have scholars who spend years just examining human works, how much more so must it be for the Scriptures. But the Lord has made things very easy for us in as much as he has given us the interpreter of the Scriptures namely the Church which speaks with the Holy Spirit… For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies

Today there are many sceptics who doubt the resurrection of Blessed Lord. In fact there was a few years ago, when the bishop of Durham the Anglican denied the resurrection and even among Catholics Bishops there some have expressed doubt about the reality of the resurrection. Well they are not original because the Apostles doubted the resurrection of our Lord. The Holy women, who were blessed to see Him first even before the Apostles, doubted the resurrection of our Lord. When Peter at Pentecost Sunday stood up and preached to the Jews, he had great difficulty in convincing them of the reality of the resurrection. In fact we heard as he was preaching, he spoke to them for a long time using many arguments and he urged them to save themselves from this perverse generation… For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies

Our Lord worked His first miracle in Cana, Galilee that was the changing of water into wine. He works His last miracle in Galilee, the miraculous catch of fish. Of course there is a connection because in Cana, He was told they had no wine and here in the sea of Tiberius they have no fish. And so we learn that Christ is the only one who can provide for our needs, whatever we lack. Simon Peter, with the other apostles weren’t sure when they would next see our Lord… For more homilies from Fr. Linus Clovis please visit www.adjesum.org/homilies