10:30am Solemn Mass at St Mary's Cathedral, Sydney - First Sunday of Lent - 6th March 2022

so [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] hey [Music] oh [Music] ah [Music] ah [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] r [Music] hey [Music] in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit [Music] brothers and sisters i welcome you to the cathedral this morning for our solemn mass in this mass of course our hearts are directed towards the praise of god who is merciful and we invoke that mercy of the lord not only upon ourselves for our own sins but in a particular way for the people of ukraine at this time as well as all of our own compatriots who have been affected so badly by the floods in queensland and in our own state of new south wales his grace the archbishop this morning is attending the divine liturgy at saint andrews ukrainian catholic church at lidcombe as a testimony to our support for all of our ukrainian catholic ukrainian orthodox indeed all the ukrainian people now let us acknowledge our sins and so prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries i confess to almighty god and to you my brothers and sisters that i have greatly seen in my thoughts and in my words in what i have done and in what i have failed to do through my fault through my fault through my most grievous fault therefore i ask blessed mary ever virgin all the angels and saints and you my brothers and sisters to pray for me to the lord our god may almighty god have mercy on us forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life [Music] [Music] hey [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] let us pray grant almighty god through the yearly observances of holy lent that we may grow in understanding of the riches hidden in christ and by worthy conduct pursue their effects through our lord jesus christ your son who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the holy spirit god forever [Music] a reading from the book of deuteronomy moses said to the people the priest shall take the pania from your hand and lay it before the altar of the lord your god then in the sight of the lord your god you must make this pronouncement my father was a wandering aramaian he went down into egypt to find refuge there few in numbers but there he became a nation great mighty and strong the egyptians ill-treated us they gather gave us no peace and inflicted harsh slavery on us but we called on the lord the god of our fathers lord heard our voice and saw our misery our toil and our oppression and the lord brought us out of egypt with mighty hand and outstretched arm with great terror and with signs and wonders he brought us here and gave us this land a land where milk and honey flow here then i bring the first fruits of the produce of the soil that you lord have given me you must then lay them before the lord your god and bow down in the sight of the lord your god the word of the lord [Music] my [Music] oh [Music] r [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] maybe a reading from the letter of saint paul to the romans scripture says the word that is the faith we proclaim is very near to you it is on your lips and in your heart if your lips confess that jesus is lord and if you believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead then you will be saved by believing from the heart you are made righteous by confessing with your lips you are saved when scripture says those who believe in him will have no cause for shame it makes no distinction between jew and greek all belong to the same lord who is rich enough however many ask for his help for everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved this is the word of the lord [Music] [Music] me [Music] days [Music] oh [Music] [Music] the lord be with you a reading from the holy gospel according to luke filled with the holy spirit jesus left the jordan and was led by the spirit through the wilderness being tempted there by the devil for forty days during that time he ate nothing and at the end was hungry then the devil said to him if you are the son of god tell these sterns tell these stones to turn into a loaf but jesus replied scripture says man does not live on bread alone then leading him to a height the devil showed him a moment of time all the kingdoms of the world and said to him i will give you all this power and the glory of these kingdoms for it has been committed to me and i give it to anyone i choose worship me then and it shall all be yours but jesus jesus answered him scripture says you must worship the lord your god and serve him alone then he led him to jerusalem and made him stand on the parapet of the temple if you are the son of god he said to him throw yourself down from here for scripture says he will put his angels in charge of you to guard you and again they will hold you up on their hands in case you hurt your foot against a stone but jesus answered him it has been said you must not put the lord your god to the test having exhausted all the ways of tempting him the devil left him to return at the appointed time this is the gospel of the lord we have begun the holy season of lent and our season of of penance and renewal is marked in the liturgy by a sort of relative austerity no solo organ music no flowers at the altar we omit the great word of praise before the gospel in our lives also each day it should be marked by a certain austerity an austerity that's aimed at helping us to grow closer to the lord but in the midst of that austerity nevertheless the glory of christ shines through in the midst of darkness his light guides our path and gives us hope and in the midst of the dark events which the world is submerged into the light of christ is our guide and our hope in the gospel for this first sunday of lent is that of the temptation of christ in the wilderness after his baptism in the river jordan sin luke tells us that the holy spirit drives him as it were impels him leads him into the wilderness and there the communion of father son and holy spirit which was manifest at jesus baptism with the words of the father and the appearance of the holy spirit that unity that trinity that communion is experienced in the solitude and in the deprivation of the desert and there we glimpse that struggle of the forces of evil against the fulfillment of god's plan god's plan for salvation which the son of god came to proclaim and to bring about and so the temptations of jesus in the desert and today i want to consider those temptations those three temptations through the lens of the first letter of saint john chapter 2. in your homework after master days to go home and read the second chapter of the first letter of saint john but i just want to read a few parts of it now because the three temptations of christ which saint luke writes about in his gospel correspond to the three things that john writes of in this letter his writing to encourage perseverance in in faith strength he's encouraging those who read him to walk in the light of the light which is christ and so he writes and i'm starting from it's beginning to sound like a protestant sermon here but nevertheless i'm starting from verse 10 of chapter 2 of the first letters in john anyone who loves his brother remains in light and there is in him nothing to make him fall away but whoever hates his brother is in darkness and is walking about in darkness not knowing where he is going because darkness has blinded him i think we can see how this applies to so many circumstances in our lives but particularly in the world at this time and especially on the other side of the world so john goes on i'm writing to you children because your sins have been forgiven through his name and in lent we are reflecting on our sins we may be aware of the sins of others even great and terrible sins but our lent nevertheless is really about our own sins whatever about the sins of others let us look at our own sins whatever about the darkness that is out there let's consider the darkness in which we are walking ourselves i'll take it up from verse 15. do not love the world or what is in the world if anyone does love the world the love of the father finds no place in him because everything there is in the world disordered bodily desires disordered desire desires of the eyes pride in possession is not from the father but is from the world and the world with all its disordered desires is passing away but whoever does the will of god remains forever the three things that are mentioned there disordered bodily desires disordered desires of the eyes pride in possession in this translation or in others we might read of them as being lust of the flesh lust of the eyes and pride of life and these are the three temptations that are manifest in our lord's temptation in the desert the lust of the flesh in this sense it means seeking to satisfy something which may in itself be a perfectly acceptable thing such as if we are hungry of course we want food and any of of the passions which might in themselves be not bad maybe good and yet we say well i want this it's only natural i want it and i'm going to use my power to get what i want and i'm going to do it no matter what the circumstances because i want it not because i'm keeping the commandments of the lord in this regard but because i want this the lust of the flesh which shouldn't only be understood in the usual way in which we talk about lust of the flesh although it should be understood in that way but really all of the passions jesus overcomes this he rejects this temptation to satisfy his hunger with the words of scripture it is written man does not live by bread alone which we know continues to say but by every word which comes from the mouth of god the temptation to put what we want ahead of what god wants is strong it's strong in all of us a bit like quoting from the movie you know the force is strong in this one well uh the temptation to put our own wants ahead of god's law god's commandments is strong but it is overcome by faith and trust in god and that strength which comes from knowing no i will do what the lord wants and the penances of lent are very much training and reinforcement of that voluntarily undertaken the second of the temptations of our lord in the desert and relating to the first letter of saint john too is what he calls lust of the eyes and there in the gospel jesus is shown by satan the power and the glory of the kingdoms if you bow down before me everything will be yours and this corresponds of course to in us this lust of the eyes corresponds to that desire to possess and the disordered desire to possess mean in itself the possession of goods is is good it's something desired by god he he created the world and then entrusted it to us and actually in the first reading today it begins by an offering of the fruit of the soil the gifts that god has given us the goods that we have received through his blessing and mercy the problem is not possessing things it's that desire to possess the legitimate desire for goods which we need in order to live is changed to a lust by by this lust into a craving for possession and a desire to possess in order to possess to have it to just to have it not because we need it or because it's good for others and ourselves but to have it having becomes more important to us than being the second vatican council in in guardian space talks about human development says if well understood this is a human development if well understood is worth more than external riches than be can be accumulated man is worth more it's not gender inclusive language but you know what i mean man is worth more for what he is than for what he has and if we could only realize that more fully in our lives yes of course there are things we need naturally and goods that we need but our value our greatest interest our destiny if you like what we were made for is not these things that is to live in communion with god and who we are is so much more important than what we have notwithstanding that we need things again our lord rejects this temptation quoting scripture again that only to the lord your god you should bow down he alone you should worship because the cost of acquiring possessing is submission to the devil to satan to evil not submission to the will and love of our god the third temptation of jesus corresponding then to watson john writes about the pride of life satan leads jesus to jerusalem to the parapet of the temple and not just any tall building of course but the temple of god itself and that says well if you are the son of god throw yourself down because the devil heaven having been thwarted by jesus quoting scripture at him the devil quotes scripture back at him that's why i'm hesitant to start quoting scripture actually because even the devil can quote scripture the devil quotes scripture back at him and says he will give orders for you to his angels that they will keep you they'll support you with their hands so that your foot does not is not hurt by a stone pride of life well it's an obvious trap in a way that satan has set for jesus and we should think it should be an obvious trap for us too in our lord's case he defeats satan once again using the words of scripture he says it has been said you shall not tempt the lord your god and we can understand this in two ways firstly you shall not tempt the lord your god meaning that we should not put god to the test in order to satisfy our own pride and our own desires examples of that for us might be when we pray and say to god if you do this for me i will do that for you or if you really are prove it to me by solving this problem now the problem itself may be very real and very significant if you really are god heal me from this cancer for instance well of course we're going to pray to god to heal us far from discouraging that i want to encourage it but it's the first part of that if you really are do this for me for instance if you really are god stop the floods if you really are god stop the war if you really are god make me win [Music] that lottery whatever it may be if you really are god get me this job now we're going to pray please lord get me this job please lord heal me please god of course but it's the putting the lord to the test it's that wanting to force his hand wanting to make god the author of all that exists the loving creator and father of all wanting to make him prove himself prove his love for us prove that he's divine prove that he's all-powerful that's the great sin you shall not put the lord your god to the test the other meaning for this in the case of jesus overcoming satan is of course you shall not put to the lord your god to the test to satan he is saying in another way i am the lord your god do not put me to the test you won't win the victory is christ's so in these days of lent trends as we look out on a world of trouble should see with even greater clarity the need to overcome those tendencies within ourselves that desire to put ourselves and what we want ahead of what god wants we can see the fruits of that in the world the danger can be that we concentrate on seeing it out there and we don't see it in here and yes our lent and our christian faith impels us to call out to the lord grant us what we need o lord and grant peace and grant help and healing to those who need it yes we pray for that we call out for that we intercede for that but we do so not with putting some conditions on god and we do it not only for what is out there we should call out to the lord for mercy and forgiveness for our own sins and lent of course very much about ourselves our prayer and our fasting and our arms giving are there in order that we might grow closer to the lord that we might do more and more the lord's will to recognize the lord's will to to live according to his commandments at the same time as we are doing good for our brothers and sisters there is darkness in the world and there is darkness if we are honest in our own lives too now most of us are not all that bad we might say we're not as bad as what's out there but in fact any darkness within us any sin within us is such an offense against the goodness of god and this is what lent helps us to realize so as we call out to the lord for peace and as we call out to the lord for help for all of those who are suffering at this time let's remember more and more intensely to call out to the lord for mercy and forgiveness for our own sins for this is what a good lent means let us make a profession of faith together i believe in one god the father almighty maker of heaven and earth of all things visible and invisible i believe in one lord jesus christ the only begotten son of god born of the father before all ages god from god light from light true god from true god begotten not made consubstantial with the father through him all things were made for us men and for our salvation he came down from heaven and by the holy spirit was incarnate of the virgin mary and became man for our sake he was crucified under pontius pilate he suffered death and was buried and arose again on the third day in accordance with the scriptures he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the flood he will come again in glory to judge the living of the dead and his kingdom will have merit i believe in the holy spirit the lord the giver of life who proceeds from the father and the son who with the father and the son is adored and glorified who has spoken through the prophets i believe in one holy catholic and apostolic church i confess one baptism for the forgiveness of sins and i look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come amen the gospel tells us that our lord went to face his temptations in the wilderness filled with the holy spirit let us pray to the father filled with that same holy spirit of strength and confidence pope and bishops the pilgrim church may proclaim the word that is the faith let us pray to the lord lord hear our prayer for an end to the war in ukraine and for all the refugees from the invasion especially mothers and children let us pray to the lord lord hear our prayer that we will never put god to the test let us pray to the lord lord hear our prayer for all those affected by the floods in queensland and new south wales that they may be helped in every good way to recover from the disaster that struck them let us pray to the lord that those who will be elected as catechumens this lent will grow in faith and complete their journey to the saving waters of holy baptism let us pray to the lord r lord hear our prayer that our dead may dwell forever in the shelter of the most high especially those whom we call to mind at this mass let us pray to the lord father of mercy you gather us here to offer the atoning sacrifice of your son we ask you to hear the prayers which the holy spirit inspires us to make through christ our lord [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] so steady [Music] [Music] space [Music] oh [Music] is trees [Music] [Music] [Music] dc christ [Music] space [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so foreign [Music] pray brothers and sisters that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to god the almighty father give us the right dispositions o lord we pray to make these offerings for with them we celebrate the beginning of this venerable and sacred time through christ our lord [Music] the lord be with you r [Music] let us give thanks to the lord our god [Music] it is truly right and just a duty and our salvation always and everywhere to give you thanks lord holy father almighty and eternal god through christ our lord by abstaining forty long days from earthly food he consecrated through his fast the pattern of relent and observance and by overturning all the snares of the ancient serpent taught us to cast out the lever of malice so that celebrating weatherly the history we might pass over at last to the eternal paschal feast and so with a company of angels and saints we sing the hymn of our pray of your praise as without end we are [Music] uh [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] in me [Music] to you therefore most merciful father we make humble prayer and petition through jesus christ your son our lord that you accept and bless these gifts these offerings these holy and unblemished sacrifices which we offer you firstly for your holy catholic church be pleased to grant her peace to god unite and govern her throughout the whole world together with your servant francis our pope and anthony our bishop and all those who are holding to the truth hand on the catholic and apostolic faith remember lord your servants and all gathered here whose faith and devotion are known to you for them we offer you this sacrifice of praise for they offer it for themselves and all who are dear to them for the redemption of their souls in hope of health and well-being and paying their homage to you the eternal god living and true in communion with those whose memory we venerate especially the glorious ever virgin mary mother of our god and lord jesus christ and blessed joseph her spouse your blessed apostles and martyrs peter and paul andrew and all your saints we ask that through their merits and prayers in all things we may be defended by your protecting help therefore lord we pray graciously accept this oblation of our service that of your whole family order our days in your peace and command that we be delivered from eternal damnation encountered among the flock of those you have chosen be pleased our god we pray to bless acknowledge and approve this offering in every respect make it spiritual and acceptable so that it may become for us the body and blood of your most beloved son our lord jesus christ on the day before he was to suffer he took bread in his holy and venerable hands and with eyes raised to heaven to you o god his almighty father giving you thanks he said the blessing broke the bread and gave it to his disciples saying take this all of you and eat of it for this is my body which will be given up for you in a similar way when supper was ended he took this precious chalice in his holy and venerable hands and once more giving you thanks he said the blessing and gave the chalice to his disciples saying take this all of you and drink from it for this is the chalice of my blood the blood of the new and eternal covenant which will be poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins do this in memory of me the history of faith [Music] [Music] therefore our lord as we celebrate the memorial of the blessed passion the resurrection from the dead and the glorious ascension into heaven of christ your son our lord we your servants and your holy people offer to your glorious majesty from the gifts that you have given us this pure victim this holy victim this spotless victim the holy bread of eternal life and the chalice of everlasting salvation be pleased to look upon these offerings with a serene and kindly countenance and to accept them as once you are pleased to accept the gifts of your servant abel the just the sacrifice of abraham our father in faith and the offering of your high priest melchizedek a holy sacrifice a spotless victim in humble prayer we ask you almighty god command that these gifts be borne by the hands of your holy angel to your altar on high in the sight of your divine majesty so that all of us who through this participation at the altar receive the most holy body and blood of your son may be filled with every grace and heavenly blessing remember also lord your servants who have gone before us with the sign of faith and rest in the sleep of peace grant them o lord we pray and all who sleep in christ a place of refreshment light and peace to us also your servants who those sinners hope in your abundant mercies graciously grant some share and fellowship with your holy apostles and martyrs with john the baptist stephen matthias barnabas and all your saints admit us we beseech you into their company not weighing our merits but granting us your pardon through christ our lord through whom you continue to make all these good things oh lord you sanctify them fill them with life bless them and bestow them upon us o him and with him and in him o god almighty father in the unity of the holy spirit o glory and honor is yours forever [Music] divine teaching we dare to say [Music] dreams [Music] is [Music] deliver us lord we pray from every full graciously grant peace in our days that by the help of your mercy we may be always free from sin and safe from all distress as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our savior jesus christ [Music] lord jesus christ who said to your apostles peace i leave you my peace i give you look not on our sins but on the faith of your church and graciously grant her peace and unity in accordance with your will who live and reign forever [Music] the peace of the lord be with you always let us offer each other a sign of peace [Music] oh [Music] me [Music] to jesus [Music] is [Music] behold the lamb of god behold him who takes away the sins of the world blessed are those called to the supper of the lamb lord i am not worthy that you should enter under my roof but only say the word and my soul shall be please [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] hey [Music] foreign [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] [Music] is [Music] oh [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] is is please so foreign foreign [Music] let us pray renewed now with heavenly bread by which faith is nourished hope increased and charity strengthened we pray o lord that we may learn to hunger for christ the true and living bread and strive to live by every word which proceeds from your mouth through christ our lord [Music] we will all i'm sure continue to keep the people of ukraine in our prayers we have a particular place to focus prayers for the ukraine here in in the cathedral in the sacred heart chapel we placed an icon a ukrainian icon of christ our lord the icon itself was given in 1969 to cardinal gilroy here by archbishop the major archbishop of the ukrainian catholic church joseph sleepy a famous figure and a great hero of the church in the time of communist oppression so do think about lighting a candle there in front of the icon and praying especially for ukraine and her people during lent every friday here at the cathedral we'll be having the stations of the cross at 12 15. those of you who work in the city or who have the time to travel might like to join us for the stations of the cross each friday of lent at 12 15. the lord be with you [Music] may bountiful blessing o lord we pray come down upon your people that hope may grow in tribulation virtue be strengthened in temptation and eternal redemption be assured through christ our lord and may the blessing of almighty god the father and the son and the holy spirit come down upon you and remain with you forever 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Channel: St Mary's Cathedral Sydney

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Length: 85min 55sec (5155 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 05 2022