Homily by Deacon Robert Kinghorn - March 26, 2020

I don't know if you've ever thought
about making a movie of your life.

I don't mean one of these short little
5-minute things but a an extravaganza a
90-minute movie of your life. You could
even choose the main actor, right in the
movie.

So there you are. You make the
movie of your childhood, growing up,
teenage years, adolescence, and your life
up until now, and then you go to your
hometown; it's opening night.

You are going to be the star official and the
people are all the seats are waiting to
see it and you've got your celebrity seat.

What rating do you think a movie
would have? Would be family viewing or
maybe it'd be a little bit restricted?

But then when the movie's over you start
hearing what people are saying about it.

But it's only one person that you want
to hear from and that is Jesus, who's
watching it with you.

What would you ask of Jesus at that moment?

Would you ask for justice in your life
or would you ask for mercy?

I think I would ask for mercy.

So today is about mercy and
justice in these readings.

We heard about Moses going up the mountain
to be with Jesus; the mountain where he had received
the Ten Commandments.

And the mountain where he came face-to-face with the Lord
of Israel.

Where he brought the people out of exile;
had saved them so many times; through the Red Sea,
through the Passover,
for giving them food in the desert.

Yet people kept turning
against Him; but he was in this great
presence of God.

And then God said to him:
"Look at the people now. Their navarre,
they've turned against me again. They've
even made this golden calf and they're
worshipping it."

Imagine worshiping
something we've made ourselves and then
Moses started pleading with God.

Mosses had said, "Don't show them justice,
please show them mercy." and it says God
relented and showed the great divine
mercy for his people.

You know, I don't know if you know Bono;
the lead singer of U2, but there's a story
where hs has been interviewed once and the
interviewer said to him: "You've done a lot of good
things in your life and you've had a
good life. Do you believe in karma? Is
because of the things you've done you
have some good coming back?"

And Bono, who's a Christian said,
"No I, I don't believe in karma because I'm a Christian.
If I believed in karma I wouldn't have a bad life
because I've done a lot of bad things in my life but
I believe in the grace and mercy of Jesus.
That's what I believe in! That's
why I know I will be saved!"

You know sometimes I think we think about karma
as well. As we looked back in the
movie of our life, say well maybe if I
didn't do this; things wouldn't have
happened like this, maybe I wouldn't be
sick, maybe whatever it is in life.

But we don't believe in karma,
we believe in grace.

And sometimes we even feel we've taken the wrong path
in life. We've taken this path instead of
this path. Which is how do we ever get back.

Here it is the great mercy of Jesus
that we trust them and we remember the
forgiveness and mercy and healing of Jesus.

This is what these readings are
about, because in the gospel we had our
Jesus took this man had been waiting for 38 years
to be healed and Jesus brought
him to the healing waters and healed the man.

That's what happened just
before this reading today and that's why
the accusers, the people leaders of
Israel were saying, you shouldn't do this
it's a Sabbath and yet Jesus said:

"What I've come for is mercy."

And this reading today we had
in the gospel is perhaps the clearest
indication of Jesus saying:

"I have come from the father, the Father and I are one.
I am a Father's mercy personified."

So we see this, this what we get from Jesus,
this beautiful mercy. 

When we look at our life and we wonder
about things we always look to Jesus
and we know we have His mercy there.

You know Jesus and His life took
all of the feelings, all of our hurts in
our life on His shoulders and He took
them to the cross.

That's why we can trust in Jesus for everything.

And this Eucharist we're celebrating today, it
reminds us that God never gives up on us.

This Eucharist that we're celebrating
reminds us that we can always come to Jesus.

He is here to protect us, to strengthen
us, when our faith maybe is starting to
falter a little bit, like the people of Israel.

God will always bring us back with His great mercy,
this beautiful gift of the Eucharist.

And John, in this reading as well today,
in the earlier passage reminded us,
this great reading we see so often at sports events:

"God so loved the world that He gave His
only Son."

He didn't come to judge the world but
the world He came will be saved through Him.

This is what the readings are about
today; the great mercy of God, the mercy
for you, the mercy for me, for mercy for
everyone.