黃謙善神父 – 主日講道


Were you ever lonely as a child? If so, do you remember how often? A while back, I saw some students at our school waiting to be picked up by their parents; they were the last ones to be picked up, and there were very few of them. It reminded me of the times when I was at school and didn’t have many friends. And then I remember that I had very few birthday parties to go to, and was bored and empty during the summer. I felt so left out.

Happy Easter, everyone! I have two questions for you, please. First, who enjoys gardening? Everyone knows gardening has grown in popularity since COVID began. Second, if you’re like me and still don’t have an interest in gardening, do you enjoy visiting gardens? I love the peace and the beauty given by the harmony of water, trees, flowers, and grass.

“Simon, Simon, listen! Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your own faith may not fail” (Lk 22:31-32). Let’s talk about the sin of giving up on Jesus, and, more, importantly, how Jesus prays that we stay faithful to Him! No one right now is going to kill us for following Jesus, but that time may come in the future.

Today we’re going to talk about presumption, when we think we’ll automatically go to heaven, even if we don’t change our lives or go to Confession. Most of our culture is presumptuous regarding heaven: People think everyone’s going there—I think they just don’t know that they need a saviour.

Today, let’s talk about vanity, specifically the way we worry about and focus too much on our appearance. Have you ever realized how much we look in the mirror? We sometimes even do it when there’s no reason, such as before going to bed. Sometimes we do it over and over, as when we pass by car windows. It’s not malicious. But it’s superficial, right? It’s connected to our insecurity, our need to feel accepted and loved.

The invasion of Ukraine and our entering the sacred penitential season of Lent both affect each other: The invasion influences the way we pray over the Readings, and the Readings influence the way we respond to the invasion. The summary of the message that I’ve received in prayer is this: What’s in your heart? Will you overcome evil?

Someone recently told me that I should be focusing more on spiritual matters, and less on political realities. It’s true that the focus should be the spiritual, and, if you add everything I’ve said in the past year, you’ll find that it’s spiritually focused. I also understand if people aren’t accustomed to moral comments about political realities.
