We are now halfway between Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, and the highest point of the Christian year, Easter Sunday.

There are six Sundays in Lent. Today is the fourth.

Entering the second half of Lent, a person should check his progress.

 (1) Every Christian must make his Confession at least once during Lent. Do that today or sometime this week.

(2) We should also make some sacrifice (e.g. giving up meat) and do something extra to help others (e.g. sponsoring a poor child).

(3) We should also make regular PRAYERS.

* * *

One prayer used for centuries during Lent is the Prayer of Saint Ephrem — traditionally said morning and evening.

It is in three parts. After each part, kneel briefly and reflect for a moment before going on:

“O Lord and Master of my life! Take from me the spirit of sloth, faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.  (kneel)

“Give me instead the spirit of chastity, humility, patience, and love. (kneel)

“Yes, O Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother; for Thou art blessed forever and ever. Amen (kneel)

* * *

The great thing about this prayer is how practical it is — a three-part check-list.

* What sins most distract us from preparing to celebrate Our Lord’s Passion? Aren’t they sloth (laziness), faint-heartedness (apathy/despair), lust for power (worldly ambitions) and idle talk (gossip)?

* This prayer reassures us that God wants to give us the virtues needed to overcome our weakness.

* Finally, we must abandon pride — knowing that only with God’s help can we please him.

* * *

The KNEELING is important.

We pray, not only with our minds, but also with our body.

Our body contributes to our sins. Now let’s conscript it into the fight against sin.

Kneeling is “psycho-somatic” evidence of our real desire to lose our pride and humble ourselves before Christ — by whose Passion our salvation is made possible – and our celebration of Easter a reality.

Last October, when Mary MacKillop was canonised, everyone was talking about miracles.

Before recognising a new saint, the Church waits until two miraculous cures following prayers to the saint are investigated and found genuine.

Mockers of the Catholic Faith despise miracles.

David Marr, in the Sydney Morning Herald:

“Let me whisper this from the back of the crowd gathering for the celebrations in Rome: miracles don’t happen.”

Mr Marr is a real believer.

He believes in infallibility — not the Pope’s infallibility — the infallibility of David Marr.

“Miracles don’t happen”. How do we know? Mr Marr said so. End of story.

Marr is, in fact, a fundamentalist. Whatever the evidence, his belief is fixed. Nothing can shake it.

* * *

The Bible records 34 miracles done by Jesus.

The gospel writers simply recorded what they saw.

Christ’s enemies never denied his having done miracles.

The High Priest, Caiphas, suggested they were “works of the devil”, but he knew better than to deny the miracles themselves.

The people he was talking to had seen them with their own eyes.

* * *

At Mass today, the Gospel reading describes a miracle known as the Transfiguration:

Jesus took Peter, James, and John up into a high mountain: and he was transfigured before them.

His face shone like the sun: his garments white like  snow.

And there appeared Moses and Elias, talking with him.

Peter said to Jesus: ‘Lord, it is good for us to be here: let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias.’

As he spoke, a bright cloud overshadowed them. And a voice: ‘This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him.’

The disciples hearing it,  fell upon their faces.

Jesus came and touched them, saying, ‘Arise, and fear not.’

As they came down from the mountain, Jesus told them: ‘Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of man be risen from the dead.’

* * *

Jesus was saying that an even bigger miracle was coming – the Resurrection.

It came. The apostles who witnessed it based their whole lives around this greatest miracle — the one we celebrate at Easter.

Easter is unique.

Don’t waste it.

Use it as a time of relating to God — not just as a holiday weekend.

Find a few spare minutes and try to focus on God and communicate with him.

In your mind, draw up a contract or an agreement or a deal with God.

Say to him:

Dear God, I will think of this New Year as a white page on which you will write day by day whatever your loving will has planned for me . . . .

I will now write at the foot of the page the words, “Lord, do with me whatever you want.”

Then last of all, one word, “AMEN”.

That word which signifies “So let it be”.

* * *

A resolution recommended by Saint John of the Cross was that our desire should be to:

“Renounce and remain empty of any sensory or bodily satisfaction that is not purely for the honour of God.

“Do this out of love for Jesus Christ . . . .

“Love of pleasure usually fires the will toward the enjoyment of things . . . .

“A more intense enkindling of another, better love (love for God himself) is necessary for the subduing of the appetites . . . .”

* * *

To please God, we need his assistance and strength:

Lord give me the graces I will need to be accepting of all the sorrows, joys and hardships that this year will bring.

Whatever happens, it will be your will – or at least it will be what you, in love, permit.

I do not ask to understand why things happen.

I simply ask for the humility to live in your presence in simplicity and docility — and in detachment from all desires that are not inspired by you.

* * *

As always, the graces most likely to be needed — and the hardest to sustain — will be the virtues of modesty and humility.

Last year, various political celebrities commemorated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

German chancellor, Angela Merkel, escorted leaders, including the Russian president, the French President, the British Prime Minister and the US Secretary of State, through the Brandenburg Gate.

“Today marks a truly happy moment of German and European history,” she said.

Nicely put.

* * *

Then, would you believe, President Barack Obama made a “surprise” video address to the celebrants.

“This anniversary is a reminder that human destiny will be what we make of it,” he announced.

Plus more of the same, like, “Human destiny is what human beings make up.”

From the sublime to the ridiculous.

To learn anything from the Berlin Wall, let’s start by admitting that human destiny is NOT what we make of it.

Human destiny is what God makes of it.

* * *

Christmas is a good reminder of how absolutely we are dependent on God — for our destiny here on earth – and in the hereafter.

Christmas might be a good time to try to get our minds in tune with reality.

Attend church on Christmas Day.

Start making some kind of personal sacrifices.  Go without some luxury — no sugar in your tea, no junk food, anything . . . .

Any sacrifice, even a small one, can help us to become humble as Our Lord was.

God says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit (the humble who rate themselves insignificant) for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”  (Saint Matthew’s gospel, chapter 5)

Today, Sunday 28 November 2010, is the First Sunday in Advent.

“Advent” as in an arrival or a coming.

In Australia, by coincidence, we seem, this day, to be looking at the “advent” of a new Victorian Premier — the result of yesterday’s state election.

* * *

For Christians, however, today is significant as being the first day of the Church’s traditional season of Advent — the four-Sunday period leading up to Christmas Day.

Advent is a time for preparing one’s mind and soul to celebrate of the birth of Jesus Christ 2010 years ago . . . .

Literally the advent of God himself into this world in a particular place, at a particular time, in the person of a particular baby, Jesus, the son of Mary.

* * *

It is advisable to attend Church every Sunday during Advent.

Starting today.

You will notice that there are three advents referred to in the Bible readings at Mass during the Sundays between now and Christmas.

(1) The first advent of Christ was the birth of the baby in the stable at Bethlehem in the historical past — God making his advent amongst us in humility and weakness.

(2) The second advent is the presence of Christ Our Lord in the Holy Communion received by believers at Mass in the historical present.

(3) The third advent is yet to occur — the final coming of Christ in almighty power at the future end of  history.

* * *

Each one of these advents makes it easier to understand the other two.

The practical point for us today is this:

God offers us, through these advents of his Son, a supernatural relationship with himself . . . .

A relationship which promises to revolutionalise us personally . . . .

And to change the world . . . .

More than any election result can change it.

Deaths of Australian soldiers in Middle East war zones are increasing.

Recently three — Corporal Jared McKinney, Private Grant Kirby, and Private Tomas Dale  — were killed within three days.

We admire these men for their bravery. We feel for their distressed families.

It seems almost rude to ask the unavoidable question — what point was there to them being there anyway?

Will their sacrifice ultimately help anybody?

* * *

We must, of course, respect their sacrifice.

Many of us doubt whether we could find the courage to do what they did.

Every ANZAC Day our whole nation goes into a state of perplexity.

We all want to pay our respects . . . .

We all want to avoid glorifying war . . . especially war against those who aren’t a direct threat to Australia’s sovereignty.

* * *

Inside Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance is a “Stone of Remembrance”, engraved with the words “Greater love hath no man”.

Every year, at 11am on 11 November — the hour and day of the Armistice which ended World War I – a ray of sunlight shines through the roof, lighting up the word “LOVE”.

Those words come from the Bible — words of Jesus Christ predicting his own death — nothing to do with soldiers or war.

John’s gospel, chapter 15:

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends, if you do the things that I command you.”

* * *

The Christian message is that the Passion of Christ is the one redeeming sacrifice.

Humanity (you and I) are enslaved by sin (disobedience to God) – meriting for us punishment, as demanded by God’s justice.

Christ’s Passion has infinite merit, such that it was a kind of ransom — covering the price of redeeming us from that debt of punishment.

No other sacrifice is in the same league.

Not the death of any soldier, however courageous.

Not the deaths of however many millions of Jews in the German Holocaust.

* * *

The Catholic Church teaches that Christ’s Passion is unique, literally.

Many people find that hard to believe.

Everybody finds it hard to understand.

Even harder to explain in words.