Sermons from the Mount

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel according to Matthew 2: 1-12 After Jesus had been born at Bethlehem in Judaea during the reign of King Herod, some wise men came to Jerusalem from the east. ‘Where is the infant king of the Jews/’ they asked. ‘We saw his star as it rose and have come to do him homage.’ When King Herod heard this he was perturbed, and so was the who...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel according to Matthew 2:13-15,19-23 After the wise men had left, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.’ So, Joseph got up and, taking the...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel according to Matthew 2:13-15,19-23 After the wise men had left, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up, take the child and his mother with you, and escape into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, because Herod intends to search for the child and do away with him.’ So, Joseph got up and, taking the...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel according to Luke 2:1-14 Caesar Augustus issued a decree for a census of the whole world to be taken. This census – the first – took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and everyone went to his own town to be registered. So, Joseph set out from the town of Nazareth in Galilee and travelled up to Judaea, to the town of Davi...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel according to Matthew 1:18-24 This is how Jesus Christ came to be born. His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph; but before they came to live together she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit. Her husband Joseph; being a man of honour and wanting to spare her publicity, decided to divorce her informally. He had made up...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel according to Matthew 11:2-11 John in his prison had heard what Christ was doing and he sent his disciples to ask him, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or have we got to wait for someone else?’ Jesus answered, ‘Go back and tell John what you hear and see; the blind see again, and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel according to Matthew 3:1-12 In due course John the Baptist appeared; he preached in the wilderness of Judaea, and this was his message: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is close at hand.’ This was the man the prophet Isaiah spoke of when he said: A voice cries in the wilderness: Prepare a way for the Lord, make his paths straight...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel according to Matthew 24:37-44 Jesus said to his disciples: ‘As it was in Noah’s day, so will it be when the Son of Man comes. For in those days before the Flood people were eating, drinking, takin wives, taking husbands, right up to the day Noah went into the ark, and they suspected nothing till the Flood came and swept them all aw...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel according to Luke 23:35-43 The people stayed there before the cross watching Jesus. As for the leaders, they jeered at him. ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘let him save himself if he is the Christ of God, the Chosen One.’ The soldiers mocked him too, and when they approached to offer vinegar they said, ‘If you are the king of the Je...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans - Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - Gospel according to Luke 21:5-19 - When some were talking about the Temple, remarking how it was adorned with fine stonework and votive offerings, Jesus said, ‘All these things you are staring at now – the time will come when not a single stone will be left on another: everything will be destroyed.’ And they put to him this question:...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans - Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - Gospel according to John 2:13-22 - Just before the Jewish Passover Jesus went up to Jerusalem, and in the Temple he found people selling cattle and sheep and pigeons, and the money changers sitting at their counters there. Making a whip out of some cord, he drove them all out of the Temple, cattle and sheep as well, scattered the mone...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel according to Luke 7:11-17 Jesus went to a town called Nain, accompanied by his disciples and a great number of people. When he was near the gate of the town it happened that a dead man was being carried out for burial, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a considerable number of the townspeople were with her. When...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans - Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - Gospel according to Luke 18:9-14 - Jesus spoke the following parable to some people who prided themselves on being virtuous and despised everyone else: ‘Two men went up to the Temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood there and said this prayer to himself, “I thank you, God, that I am not grasping,...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel according to Luke 18:1-8 Jesus told his disciples a parable about the need to pray continually and never lose heart. ‘There was a judge in a certain town’ he said ‘who had neither fear of God nor respect for man. In the same town there was a widow who kept on coming to him and saying, “I want justice from you against my enemy!” For...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans - Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - Gospel according to Luke 17:5-10 - The apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith.’ The Lord replied, ‘Were your faith the size of a mustard seed you could say to this mulberry tree, “Be uprooted and planted in the sea,” and it would obey you. ‘Which of you, with a servant ploughing or minding sheep, would say to him when he retur...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel according to Luke 16:19-31 Jesus said to the Pharisees: ‘There was a rich man who used to dress in purple and fine linen and feast magnificently every day. And at his gate there lay a poor man called Lazarus, covered with sores, who longed to fill himself with the scraps that fell from the rich man’s table. Dogs even came and licke...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans - Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - Gospel according to John 3:13-17 - Jesus said to Nicodemus: ‘No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Son of Man who is in heaven; and the Son of Man must be lifted up as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him. Yes, God loved the world so...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans - Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - Gospel according to Luke 14:25-33 - Great crowds accompanied Jesus on his way, and he turned and spoke to them. ‘If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple. Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. ‘...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans - Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - Gospel according to Luke 14:1,7-14 - On a sabbath day Jesus had gone for a meal to the house of one of the leading Pharisees; and they watched him closely. He then told the guests a parable, because he had noticed how they picked the places of honour. He said this, ‘When someone invites you to a wedding feast, do not take your seat in...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans - Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - Gospel according to Luke 13:22-30 - Through towns and villages Jesus went teaching, making his way to Jerusalem. Someone said to him, ‘Sir, will there be only a few saved?’ He said to them, ‘Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.' ‘Once the master of the house h...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans -Mount Gambier Catholic Parish -Gospel according to Luke 12:49-53 -Jesus said to his disciples: “I have come to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were blazing already! There is a baptism I must still receive, and how great is my distress till it is over! “Do you suppose that I am here to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division. For from now...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans -Mount Gambier Catholic Parish -Gospel according to Luke 12:32 -48 -Jesus said to his disciples: ‘See that you are dressed for action and have your lamps lit. Be like men waiting for their master to return from the wedding feast, ready to open the door as soon as he comes and knocks. Happy those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. I tell you solemnly,...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans -Mount Gambier Catholic Parish -Gospel according to Luke 12:13 -21 -A man in the crowd said to Jesus, ‘Master, tell my brother to give me a share of our inheritance.’ ‘My friend,’ he replied, ‘who appointed me your judge, or the arbitrator of your claims?’ Then he said to them, ‘Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for a man’s life is not made secu...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans - Mount Gambier Catholic Parish - Gospel according to Luke 11:1-13 - Once Jesus was in a certain place praying, and when he had finished one of his disciples said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’ He said to them, ‘Say this when you pray: “Father, may your name be held holy, your kingdom come; give us each day our daily bread, and forgive u...

Homily by Father Peter Zwaans Mount Gambier Catholic Parish Gospel according to Luke 10:38-42 Jesus came to a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who sat down at the Lord’s feet and listened to him speaking. Now Martha who was distracted with all the serving said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do the serving all by m...