Adopting the Church

Sermon for the twelfth Sunday after Trinity

In the UK, Credo Care has just celebrated its twentieth birthday.

It is a foster care agency that seeks to place disabled children with families who will care for them and meet their special needs. Although they are not an adoption agency, they allow for little ones who struggle with the basics of living to find a place to be and to grow. 

And St Paul would say that this is exactly what the Church is like, for he says that God has "predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will."

But often, we forget what this means.

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There are those Christians who say that God did not want to form the Church, and that all we need to do is accept Jesus as our personal Lord and Saviour in order to be saved. 

We do need to accept that Our Lord Jesus Christ is our Saviour but we need to do more than just say that He is. St Paul is clear: God intended that we should be adopted in Him through Jesus Christ. We are to belong to Him. This is what "church" means: that which belongs to the Lord. If we belong to the Lord, then we are part of the Church. We are meant to be adopted to God in Christ. That is God's will for us. It means that we are supposed to be part of a family of God. 

What we often get wrong is that we so get too focussed on Christ being in us that we forget to be in Christ. This means that we get obsessed with our personal salvation. We become a group of individuals, each with our own individual lives and individual relationships with Our Lord Jesus Christ. This is not what God wants.

A family is not just a collection of people with the same surname. It is a group of people who are related by blood and who love each other because of that relationship even if they don't like each other very much at times. 

The Church is a family because we are all related by the Blood of Christ. We are related by His Name. We are related because we are commanded to love each other and it is that love that holds us together. 

We are not saved as individuals we are saved as a Church, as a family. That means working at those relationships, demonstrating our love for one another, not just for show but for creating a habit of love. We need to work at a clear change of heart from the selfishness of our individualism to seeing ourselves as part of one family.

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But we are not part of that family by nature. While we are infected by sin, we are separated from God. This is why we need to be adopted, just as someone from outside the family becomes part of that family. This is the importance of Baptism because it is the means of God's grace whereby we become part of God's family.

This isn't just by a change of name but a true change in who we are whereby we live the life of Christ.

Of course, we all require special needs according to our weaknesses and frailties but that's what the Church is for. We are here to be together, receive God's promised grace together through His sacraments, heal together, live together, love together and be saved together.

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We must give thanks to God for adoption agencies and foster care agencies, especially Credo Care which seeks to ensure that those who struggle with living find somewhere in which those struggles are met with love, warmth, tenderness and support.

And then we must remember that we are part of the Church and must seek to do exactly the same for our brothers and sisters.

A viper in the hand is worth two in the fire

Sermon for the eleventh Sunday after Trinity

There are a few churches in the United States where snake-handling has been part of worship services. The idea is that it is a test of one's faith in Christ.

These folk see the viper attach itself to St Paul's hand only for him to cast it into the fire with no ill-effect.

There is a big difference between the two situations which might not be appreciated. St Paul's attachment to the viper is caused by the viper. Any attachment of the viper to the hand of a snake-handling Christian is caused by the snake-handling Christian!

The fact is we are told specifically not to put the Lord our God to the test. Now under what circumstances have we heard those words before?

[PAUSE]

We see Our Lord standing at the very top of the temple and hear those words:

"If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone."

Who says these words but the Devil, the very serpent who tempted Adam and Eve and caused them to fall from Grace? This is the snake that has fastened itself to the hand of all mankind with the intent of poisoning us to death. 

St Paul stands for all humanity in being bitten by the viper upon his hand. The barbarians say that St Paul must be a criminal to have been bitten. They have it the wrong way round. We humans have been bitten and thus we are poisoned by sin which infects us. We may not be born sinners, but we are born poisoned by sin which will manifest itself in our sinful activity in our lives.

Why does the viper not poison St Paul? 

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St Paul will be the first to admit that he is a sinner and we have seen his sins and how serious they are. But surely we do love him dearly for his repentance and his desire to promote the Faith he once persecuted. 

The fact is that St Paul's sin has been forgiven by God. It is God who has drawn the venom out of St Paul's blood by His own blood shed for us upon the Cross and of which we partake from the chalice. God's blood contains the antidote to the viper's venom. Yes, St Paul still bears the wound of his sin, just as he bears the wound of the viper's bite, but he lives by the grace of God.

The same is true for us: we sin; we repent; God forgives; we are saved.

So why then do Christians think it's a good idea to handle snakes.

[PAUSE]

We have to beware of putting God to the test. This is like putting ourselves in danger deliberately so that God will save us. This shows a contempt for God. It is an attempt to force His hand for the benefit of our egos: it denies His Majesty by attempting to force Him into service.

Yes, Our Lord is the Servant-King but we are each to seek to be servants of one another. To force someone to serve us is an act of contempt, and this is the very venom that the Devil tries to inject into us. If we put ourselves in danger to show off our faith then there will be consequences that follow.

[PAUSE]

St Paul shakes the snake off into the fire. It's interesting to note that the snake tries to escape the fire in the first place. This is the fire that has been assigned to the Devil from the moment he rebelled against God and poisoned his creation.

The Devil's attempt to poison Man results in Man shaking him off back into the fire. Just as the viper perishes in the flames, so does Satan perish in Hell.

We have the opportunity to follow St Paul here to confess, repent and be saved. We can be freed from our sins in the same way and we can shake off the Devil into the fire. This can only happen through Christ and living in His ways.

[PAUSE]

Many people don't realise that they have a viper attached to their hands. Will they see it if we shake our vipers from our hands?

On the firm ground of a shipwreck

Sermon for the tenth Sunday after Trinity

We have a habit of comparing misfortunes with perilous journeys, don't we?

People say that 2020 was a car crash of a year or that the recession was a shipwreck of the economy. Sometimes we use these phrases too lightly, especially when we consider the lives of people who have been greatly affected by a car crash, a train derailment, or a shipwreck.

If we have not suffered from such devastating circumstances, do we have the right to describe difficult times as being a car crash?

[PAUSE]

St Paul is not on the boat with Our Lord and the Disciples when the storm hits. He is not there when Our Lord wakes up, calms the storm and rebukes the Disciples for their lack of faith. Nor is he present when the Lord walks on water during the storm and St Peter nearly sinks while trying to do the same. He is not there when the Lord asks why St Peter doubted, for his doubt caused him to sink.

St Paul may not have been there, but he has learned from his conversion on the Road to Damascus. He has learned from being taught by the Disciples of their experience. His faith has been growing since then and he has realised that, in times of trouble, to focus on Jesus.

[PAUSE]

From a scientific point of view, much of the impact of pain on our lives is emotional. People who are injured experience less pain when they are focused on something away from that pain. The same is true in all kinds of circumstances: the greater the emotion, the more we remember the discomfort and the greater our distress.

The lesson that the Apostles learn is how to have such a great focus on Jesus that the discomfort of their suffering is something they can deal with. Look at St Paul's behaviour in the ship. He has been in prison so long that his focus on Our Lord is pin-sharp. He hears the Lord's words about the turbulent voyage ahead. He encourages his fellows to eat by what seems very like celebrating Mass on the ship. He warns them that if they leave the ship and the focus, they will drown.

As the events and the waters swirl around them, the passengers and crew are saved because St Paul gives them a better focus away from the troubles. That focus is Our Lord. The ship that is being tossed about in the storm becomes a firm ground whereby people are protected from harm because Our Lord is with them. If St Paul really does celebrate Mass on that ship then He is truly present with them as much as He is present in that boat with the Disciples. 

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If we call a situation a car crash then we are speaking about a sudden period of painful confusion after which things might not be the same again. The COVID outbreak has rendered 2020 a car crash of a year because its effects reach far into the future. It leaves us disoriented, in pain, mourning and distressed. 

Yet we have an opportunity to stand on the firm ground of this shipwreck by making Christ present through prayer and especially attending the Mass. We can alleviate the pain by making Christ the focus, remembering His pain and suffering and knowing that He takes ours with Him.

We must not let ourselves be ruled by emotion. Emotions do matter very much, but we should not allow them to be the focus of our experience. Often we make our emotions the idols to which we sacrifice our lives in order to feel better. We must feel them but keep our focus on the One Who is truly real and from Whom we get our reality.

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No, this is not easy. This is why we pray and worship in times of peace and tranquillity when we learn at the feet of Jesus. Then when the storm hits, we will not go down with the ship.

This doesn't apply to me

One thing that has become quite apparent to me over the last few months is that many of the British people seem to have lost the ability to be agreeable.

One such manifestation of this is of a large "charity" beach party in the Romney Marsh area during which social distancing was not observed and after which the beach was utterly covered in litter. The organisers have pledged £750 towards the clean up, but one does question what people were thinking, or weren't thinking.

Clearly the whole pandemic situation has brought much confusion to light in our society. We've had expert pitted against expert; we've had advice which has been denounced; and we've had laws which have been ignored by government officials such as Dominic Cummings. It seems quite clear from the reports of his paper-thin excuse that Mr Cummings thinks that the rules don't apply to him.

The wearing of masks has been required in this country. In the US, the wearing of masks has not received universal legislation but remains as a guideline policed by busybodies and the arbiters of social justice. 

We see here two extremes: one is a law that is being ignored; the other is a recommendation that is being enforced. It is a very tricky situation and it means that we really do have to see where our commitments lie.

Our Lord looks at our hearts to make His judgement of us. Our underlying motives are as clear to Him as the daylight. He will know whether we comply with laws out of commitment to the community or disobey them out of selfishness and some belief that the law doesn't apply to us. He will know whether we insist on a recommendation out of respect for a very particular situation or whether forcing someone to comply is an instance of virtue signalling to make us look morally superior.

The Christian has a duty for the good of his community. This is not just a Benedictine thing; it really is a Church-wide thing. Our motivation can only be for the love of God and for neighbour.

There are those who refuse to wear masks because, "the Lord will protect me. I just need to have faith!" To them, the Lord says, "do not put the Lord thy God to the test." We might be delivered symptoms from the disease but we might pass the disease to others.

There are those who will insist that everyone wears masks whom the Lord will describe as straining a gnat and swallowing a camel. There are perfectly legitimate reasons for not wearing a mask.

The Christian commits to the unity of the Church. The Ignatian idea of the local church as being the people gathered around their bishop is a strong model which bears witness to the Gospel if Christ. It only works when the people obey the bishop and the bishop serves his people. The same is true for the relationship between parish and priest. We have to exhibit that commitment in our church working. If the bishop is celebrating in green then his priests should be celebrating in green out of a genuine desire to effect that sense of unity visually.

Of course, for any rule, recommendation and piece of advice there are exceptions and exemptions: that's reasonable. If we seek to use an exemption then we need to examine our heart carefully to see if, deep down, we want the exemption in order just to do our own thing. We can dress our reason for exemption with many convincing words and careful and clever reasonings but, ultimately, we have to be sure that our exemption would be better for the whole community than not.

Either we pull together or we come apart in the storm. Either we work together to contain the virus or we lose more lives to it. Either we seek the good of the community or the community suffers.

If we want to be truly community-minded then let us be so for the sake of God and of our neighbours. The exemption from Love is Hell.

The wolves behind

Sermon for the ninth Sunday after Trinity

When a clergyman leaves his post there is often great sadness. The good clergyman will be missed and he will receive many goodbyes from those who love him. It is also an occasion of concern: will his replacement be any good? The good clergyman will be concerned with who comes after him. Surely it's none of his business, though. He surely doesn't get a say in how the parish is run after he's gone, does he?

[PAUSE]

St Paul is leaving and will never see Asia again so he calls the priests and bishops of Ephesus together to bid them goodbye and to warn them. There are wolves coming.

The concern of the good clergyman is that his flock will cope with his departure. He knows that he must move on and that his flock must continue without him. He knows that his parish is not about him but must be directed towards God. His departure may be sad but it should not be devastating. 

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The good clergyman will have prepared for his departure by being faithful to God in the exercise of his duty and teaching his flock in the Catholic Faith. The parish that is well-educated, seeks to love God and neighbour, and prays together will know God better. This means that they are protected from the wolves. What wolves?

[PAUSE]

Our Lord speaks of the ravening wolves that will attack the flock and St Paul remembers this. These are the fake bishops and priests. They may very well be validly ordained and have all kinds of qualifications; they will be very charismatic and charming; they will appear to be the real deal. They will have only their own interests at heart.

St Paul takes great pains to show that he has worked hard for the Church. He does not live off of charity but makes tents to sell and earn his living. He has been concerned with supporting the weak - those who are poor physically, and those who are poor spiritually.

By this, the Church can recognise a good clergyman. This is not the clergyman who vaunts himself, his clothes, his learning, his connections, or his authority. This is the clergyman who comes to serve, to give God's grace freely, to preach the Gospel and show how to live the Gospel.

In recent years, the good name of "bishop" and "priest" has been sullied by those who live off of those titles, who mislead to their own advantage and who have performed abominable acts on the innocent. The bishop who is not a chief servant is in danger of damaging the flock. Of such a bishop, the Lord says it would be better for a millstone to be tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea.

[PAUSE]

No clergyman is a perfect human being. They are human and not one of them is infallible. The good clergyman will be as ready to confess his sins as those whom he teaches to confess their sins. The good clergyman will be aware always of the responsibility he bears to the Church and will beg for prayers that he may not turn into a wolf but rather serve it to his own detriment.

And he will teach the flock well so that, when his time comes to leave, they are prepared for the possibility of a wolf behind him. 

Who's holding the torch?

A reflection for the Feast of the Transfiguration.

Dreaming of more than in Heaven and Earth

Sermon for the eighth Sunday after Trinity

What is a university for?

You might say that universities are places engaged in a search for knowledge and which impart this knowledge on those who would pay for it.

Yet it seems, at the moment, there are strong opinions on university education. Some see a good university as a place where they can develop their own theories and thus better understand the issues so that they can fight for what's right in Society.

Others see universities as wastes of taxpayers' money studying silly subjects which don't actually mean anything except the prospect of a better future just by having a degree. 

Certainly, Science is being sneered at by some because it is not providing answers to the Coronavirus problem. There seems to be different scientific advice as to whether masks should be worn, how long it will last and whether we will ever be able to stop the social distancing.

There are a lot of answers out there and a lot of squabbling as to who is right.

And into this Areopagus walks St Paul.

[PAUSE]

What does St Paul make of the university? He hears debates, lots of theories and lots of gods. He even sees people hedging their bets by making sure that the unknown god isn't forgotten, just in case.

St Paul points out that the god that everyone has forgotten is God Himself, the Creator of all things.

We hear him speak powerfully about God, of Jesus and about resurrection.

What's interesting is that the learned men aren't convinced. Some laugh, some would hear more, but St Paul is unsuccessful in bringing the Athenian academics to faith compared with his success in Macedonia. Of course, some believe, but there is no mass conversion of the Areopagus.

And that's a good thing. The academics are behaving wisely.

[PAUSE]

One of the main obstacles to know what's going on are conflicting reports. We see this all the time. On Social Media, we see news and fake-news; we see memes and video clips, and we are tempted to listen only to those views which support our beliefs and reject the views which don't as fake.

That's lazy and it leads to divisions.

The same is true for Christianity.

To often, we seek to divide ourselves on issues which may be of great importance. In order to make a better judgement, we have to listen to the other side carefully. Our Lord Himself warns us that we first have to cost out any project before we start.

If we don't think carefully then we can end up hating people from a knee-jerk reaction to what they say. That's not on. We can hate nobody - God says so. If what we hear and see on the news and social media makes us hate others, then there is something deeply wrong. We need to be critical, listen to opposing views and think about them properly, not just give in to who shouts the loudest.

[PAUSE]

When we preach the Gospel, we have to remember that we will not reach everyone straight away. Some people will resist to the bitter end. As Christians, we are part of God's university. We seek to know Him better. We seek to teach people about Him. We have no need for a university degree in order to do this from our hearts - the graduation to Heaven will be enough.