IGNITE ZEAL - PENTECOST NOVENA SERMON 2021 (Day 3)

 

 

Notes taken from sermon by Rev Fr Terrance Kesavan

Day 3 of Pentecost Novena 2021 (Saccre)

 

- IGNITE ZEAL

What is zeal?

• It is about desire.
• Zeal in the dictionary - It is a strong feeling of interest and enthusiasm that make someone eager and determined to do something.
• Zeal in the Gospel
• John 2:17   His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”
• John 2:13-16 Jesus's cleansing of the temple - the zeal of Jesus.
• Zeal can lead us into positive things, influence the way we live our lives
• A person who is zealous is one who is enthusiastic, who has passion.

How do we know whether we have zeal?

• We look at how we live our lives... what we spend our time and energy on
• Things we are willing to make sacrifices will tell us where the zeal in our life is

Zeal without love

• Relationship with God is important, faith is important.
• If we don't have a relationship with God, then the zeal for us to things is one without love
• 1 Cor 13:1 - if I have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal 
• Faith leads us to love, love leads us to act - to go out share with zeal.

We need to ignite zeal

• Zeal is not just an individual personal thing, not enough to attend mass, pray. 
• Zeal must be expressed: evangelistic zeal

Hardships and miracles spark zeal

• Eg The disciples' experience at Pentecost - no longer fearful but were fired up with a zeal to spread the Good News despite persecutions.
• Eg Saul was a zealous defender of the Jewish faith, and then upon his encounter with God, he became Paul, a zealous evangeliser for Christianity to the Gentiles when there is persecution in our lives
• Eg The Korean martyrs continuing to spread the faith despite persecutions
• When things are too comfortable, we may lose zeal

How do we ignite zeal

(1)    Sharing

• Share and tell other people about what we believe in.
• Sharing is not just on a social level, but to share our testimony - how God has touched our lives, share hope we received so we can inspire others.

(2)    Group together

• We are called to community, to live out our faith with the community to support us. 
• Coming together to support each other, living against the world view becomes easier
• Jesus sent two by two, how are we coming together?

(3)    Be infectious

• laughter, joy - if our faith is a good news, isn't it wonderful?
• It would attract people - why is this person so joyful, so peaceful, so hopeful even in hardship
• Our faith becomes attractive.

(4)    Variants - the varieties

• Are we zealous for the kingdom, for Jesus, for the faith, the church, or are we zealous for a particular method? 
• Eg If I were to be zealous about healthy living - I would share about a range of subject that leads to a healthy life style:  sleep well, drink water, exercise - because there are so many aspects that lead to a healthy life. 
• This is the same with faith - in church we can be so caught up with one thing - be it spirituality, methodology, a certain retreat, charismatic renewal, or about the Latin mass, meditation, rosary, social justice etc....living out the gospel values is not one dimensional.   
• Are we zealous for the conversion of others, or is our zeal misplaced in only a certain spirituality that we like.
• The church is so rich in diversity, spirituality, in the way we pray, the way we share....having more variants will touch more people and help more people to encounter God.

(5)    Multiply and cultivate

• Do we just share the zeal and stop there? 
• We are called not just make disciples but to be disciple makers. 
• Our zeal has to multiple, we need to tell people not just about the faith, but to go share the faith.