How should Anglican Catholics stand up against inhumane powers?

 

Dare we render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's

It's just one...

Sermon for the third Sunday after Trinity

"Oh it's just one..."

"...just one biscuit 

that's been dropped 

on the floor."

"...just one page 

that's been torn."

"... just one person

who missed the bus."

"It's just one..." is a 

handy little phrase

that we like to use

so that we know 

we don't have to care anymore.

Just one thing 

is lost, broken or won't fit,

so we can put it aside

and worry about

the other things 

that aren't lost or broken

and which fit into our scheme 

nicely.

That surely seems reasonable.

We can't worry 

about every little thing.

If we do

then we will

burn ourselves out

with too much worry,

caring too much about

things we can't control,

sweating the small stuff.

If we worry about 

every little thing

then it hurts us,

we become exhausted

and fearful.

Some of us 

are like that

and they need reassurance 

and care

for a condition that 

afflicted their lives.

Indeed,

the people who worry

so much 

that it becomes 

a disorder

must themselves 

not be written off.

"It's just one

of those people

with OCD."

This makes for

an uncomfortable dilemma. 

Do we care about things

too much

or too little?

[PAUSE]

The Pharisees

care a lot about 

the observance 

of the Law.

They are rigorous

and will let neither

t be uncrossed

or i undotted.

But woe betide anyone

who does not observe the Law,

the sinners, 

the publicans,

the prostitutes, 

even

the leprosy,

the maimed,

the sick.

They are completely 

written off.

"Oh they're just sinners. 

Not worth the time of day."

Human beings

who have no worth?

Human beings

in their God-given complexity 

in their God-given dignity

that have no worth?

And the Pharisees 

are effectively saying,

"Jesus, don't corrupt yourself 

with these sinners.

Just associate yourself 

with us, instead."

These sinners 

have been completely written off.

They have no value.

There is no chance 

of forgiveness,

reconciliation 

or rehabilitation.

Once a sinner

always a sinner. 

Oh doesn't that 

sound utterly dismal?

[PAUSE]

Where the Pharisees 

write people off,

Our Lord seeks to 

write people on.

Anyone 

who comes to Him

will be heard,

will be healed, 

will be loved.

No exceptions.

"Ah," say the Pharisees, 

"you just said,

that it would be 

harmful to care too much

about things."

"Things," Pharisee? 

People aren't "things!"

While we simply 

cannot worry about

the needs of everyone,

we don't see people 

as things.

If Our Lord speaks 

of the joy of finding

a lost sheep,

or a coin,

then how much more joy

can there be

for finding 

just one lost human being?

That joy makes

the Universe rattle

with millions of angelic feet

dancing in jubilation 

on the head of a pin.

And that's just one human being.

Just one human being

returning to God

sets heaven ablaze

with delight.

Just one human being.

Just you.

If that's the joy 

you cause God

when you return to Him

then imagine 

the joy of so many other

people who repent.

There are infinities

too small to contain that joy.

[PAUSE]

It's very true

that we human beings

can care too much.

We can stress,

overwork 

and forget about ourselves 

in order to care for 

absolutely everyone.

We can sweat the small stuff.

But perhaps we just need

to look at what we are valuing.

Just as the Pharisees 

value the Law 

above the spiritual 

and physical needs

of those around them,

so can we value the wrong thing

in helping other people

to the extent 

that we burn ourselves out.

God gives us two commandments

and one is certainly,

"love thy neighbour 

as thyself.

But the first commandment

is to love the Lord our God

with all our heart and soul 

and mind and strength.

Love God before Man.

Why?

Because it is 

in loving God first

with all the faculties 

that He has given us

that we learn to love

our neighbours 

as part of our own being.

And this regulates us.

We cease to dismissal others 

as just one of the crowd

and we cease to dismiss ourselves 

as just one of the crowd too.

In our prayers,

we present ourselves to God

Who doesn't see our prayer

as just one among many

but values it

because He values us

as individuals

and refuses to turn us away.

He possesses every magnitude 

of infinity 

to care intimately 

and fully for

every single human being

in every aspect

of their lives.

And he will not let us go.

In our prayer,

we bring our tears, sorrows,

cries for forgiveness,

cries for justice,

our bitterness,

our grief,

our loneliness

our longing for someone 

to love us just as we are.

And God hears

each of these

and, in the invisible mystery 

of His action

finds us and

brings us home,

not writing us off,

but writing us on His Sacred Heart.

Anglican Catholicism and the Nicene Creed

 Why is the Nicene Creed so precious to the Anglican Catholic Church?

Clearly apostles

Sermon for the Feast of St Peter and St Paul

There is just 

so much noise.

A million voices

ricochet around us

spreading confusion 

and misinformation. 

We hear so much

that claims to be news

but isn't.  

It's fake news.

And that which is called

"fake news"

sometimes turns out

to be true.

And we don't know 

what to believe.

[PAUSE]

We don't know 

what to believe 

until we hear a voice

"Thou art the Christ,

the Son of the Living God."

A moment of clarity. 

The clouds of confusion part.

Not St John the Baptist.

Nor Elias. 

Nor Jeremiah.

Nor another prophet.

But the Christ!

Peter's words

might just be more words

among so many.

Just another statement 

of fake news.

What makes them different?

[PAUSE]

It's the truth!

If Our Lord tells us

that He will rise from the dead

and then does so.

If He preaches,

and then backs up His words

with miracles. 

If He touches the hearts of people

and inspires them to love

and go to their deaths for love, 

then He is telling the truth. 

His is the voice 

that we should believe.

And St Peter 

confirms that with his words.

In St Peter,

there is clarity 

a rock on which the Faith will grow.

Christ the chief cornerstone of the Church

and Peter the rock.

And to St Peter 

are given keys 

the authority to bind 

and loose sins.

That authority 

isn't given to St Peter alone 

for St John tells us

that it is given to all the Disciples

when the Lord 

breathes the Holy Ghost on them.

St Peter has the truth

as do the other apostles.

And as does St Paul.

[PAUSE]

St Paul,

the zealous Pharisee

is given the truth 

that blinds him for a while.

He is blinded to 

the cacophony of sights

which,

like the noise,

disrupt and confuse our lives.

The blindness of St Paul

helps him to be

refocused on the truth,

a truth which he once thought

unpalatable 

but now defends 

with his every breath,

with his every word.

And to him

is given authority 

to bind and loose sins

as he becomes 

one of the first bishops 

to receive episcopal consecration 

at the hands of the Apostles.

He is given the authority 

of the Truth

to cut through the swathes

of falsehood 

through the doctrine 

he has received through

the grace of Christ.

[PAUSE]

For us,

the noise is louder than ever.

False gospels are being preached.

The truth is supposedly 

being debunked.

The saints are still being 

contradicted

and even vilified.

For us, 

there is much confusion

and disharmony. 

But for us,

there is also truth

a truth which grounds our Faith.

Our Faith begins

when we say with St Peter

to the face of the man Jesus

"Thou art the Christ

the Son of the Living God."

That is where we put our trust.

That is where we ground 

our knowledge,

our belief, 

our faith.

And we grow 

by reading the first writte documents

of our faith

which are the letters of St Paul:

Gospel written before

the gospels.

This is how we cut through

all the noise.

We shut it out

and listen to the Holy Apostles 

for they speak with greater clarity

than the world can know 

and yet wants to prevent us

from knowing.

Jesus truly is the Christ

the Son of the Living God.

Why did the Anglican Catholics leave the Church of England?

 Contrary to what one commentator says, we show why we could not have stayed.

Articulating Christ's Body

Sermon for the Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi

"The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper

was not by Christ's ordinance

reserved,

carried about,

lifted up 

or worshipped."

Does that sound familiar?

And yet,

we do reserved the Body of Christ,

we do carry it about,

we do lift it up

and we worship Christ

in the Most Holy Sacrament. 

Are we being wrong?

Are we being idolatrous?

Are we blaspheming?

[PAUSE]

One reason why 

we Anglican Catholics 

do not regard 

the Thirty-Nine Articles

as being authoritative 

is because of their ambiguity.

They were designed to appease

polarising factions 

within the Church of England.

They were designed

to stop the struggle 

for the Soul of England

to be a war within the streets.

And that's why 

the Articles have 

a historical importance 

that has allowed 

Anglican Protestants 

to walk with Anglican Catholics 

until comparatively recently.

So they are necessarily ambiguous. 

And this Article 

about the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper,

which we Catholics 

commonly call the Mass,

is deliberately ambiguous. 

It's true to say

that Our Lord

at the Last Supper

does not tell His Disciples

to reserve His Body

nor to carry it about

nor to lift it up

nor to worship it.

Neither does He expressly 

forbid it

even though He knows full well

the tendency of human beings

to fall into Idolatry.

He remembers the Golden Calf incident 

all too clearly.

And He does not forbid 

the reservation,

the carrying around,

the lifting up

or the worship

of His Body.

Why not?

Why does He not forbid it?

[PAUSE]

There is three underlying factors

behind how we Catholics

treat the Sacrament of the Mass.

Simply, it's Faith, Hope and Love.

By our Faith in Christ

we believe that 

what we behold

in the Sacrament of the Altar 

really, truly and fully 

is the Body and Blood

of Christ.

It is what He promised:

His flesh and blood

so that we might have life within us.

By our Hope,

we believe that showing people 

the Body and Blood of Christ,

displaying our faith

that what seems to be 

a disc of unleavened bread

is truly the Body of Christ,

we may stir in the hearts

of people hungry for hope 

the truth of Christ's presence with us.

By our Love, 

we reserve that Sacrament 

so that those who are unable 

to come to Mass 

may partake of the Body of Christ

and we carry it

to those who are too sick

to receive it.

And we do not worship 

bread and wine

because we believe 

that they have been transformed 

into the true Body and Blood of Christ,

Body, Soul, Mind, Humanity and Divinity

all that pertains to

the Person of the Son.

And the Son is God

and God is to be worshipped 

for our benefit

not His.

[PAUSE]

No. Christ does not command

that we should take the Sacrament 

of His Supper

and reserve it,

carry it about,

lift it up

and worship it.

He does not command that

but He does give us Himself

to be present with us

and to be consumed by us

so that we might love God

and neighbour.

We reserve the Love of God 

for our neighbour to eat.

We carry about the Love of God 

to our neighbour in his frailty.

We lift up the Love of God

for our neighbour to see.

We worship the Love of God

for our neighbour to share.

This is why

we put the Consecrated Host

into a monstrance 

for people to see

and be blessed 

so that one day they might receive.

[PAUSE]

The Articles of Religion 

are not authoritative 

for us Anglican Catholics 

especially when they give the impression 

that what we do is not 

part of the Catholic Religion. 

We don't need to hold them now

because, we pray,

we know better than going to war

with Anglican Protestants

whom we love despite our separation.

Nonetheless,

the Real, Objective and Physical Presence 

of Our Lord in the Most Holy Sacrament 

should draw us closer to Christ

in faith, hope and love for our neighbour.

Food for thought?

Or food for prayer?

An Anglican Catholic Priest reacts to the vote to decriminalise abortion.

 

What this recent vote in parliament means for the human person.