Why Nationalism and anti-Nationalism can lead to an unhealthy Church.
Monday, October 20, 2025
Saturday, October 18, 2025
The nature of Love
Of the 613 commandments
of the Jewish Law
you know the top two,
don't you?
Love the Lord thy God
with all thy heart and soul
and mind and strength.
Love thy neighbour
as thou lovest yourself.
Right?
Yes?
No!
[PAUSE]
The first commandment is correct.
The second isn't,
but the difference is subtle.
It isn't,
"Love thy neighbour
as thou lovest thyself"
it's
"Love thy neighbour as thyself."
Same difference?
Just different phrasing?
It's so much deeper than that.
[PAUSE]
In this day and age,
we see ourselves
as individuals
each doing our own thing.
More and more people
are choosing to live alone
so that they can live
their life by their rules.
We see people challenging
even the most obvious
and basic facts about the world
so that they can live
how they want to live.
The temptation that we have
is that we are in control
of our identity
and no-one,
not even society,
biology,
logic
or even God
has a right to say who we are.
We define ourselves,
on our terms
based on what
we feel ourselves to be.
We are always looking
for what makes us distinct
from other people
particularly those
with whom we disagree most.
In this vision,
the human race
becomes nothing
but a collection of individuals
with no connection to each other,
no relationship of any depth
beyond the emotional,
no responsibility to each other
than just following the law.
There is no love there
apart from the feeling
of warmth and niceness
about someone.
And when that feeling ebbs away
so does love.
[PAUSE]
Love thy neighbour as thyself.
The Lord is challenging us
to look for the connection
that unites all humanity.
He invites,
not forces us
to see ourselves
in other people
that,
at the very depth of our being
we share something,
something fundamentally human.
The Lord invites us
to see that the good
that we want for ourselves
is the good that we want for others
because we share human nature
and God loves human beings.
The depths of God's love for us
is cross-shaped
- we know that so well.
But in being made man,
Christ unites each of us
in His humanity
so that we can be united
in His divinity.
If we are each united in Him
then we are each united
with each other.
The happiness we wish for ourselves
is the happiness that God wants for us,
and is the happiness that
we must wish for our neighbour
precisely because,
whether we like it or not,
we share our humanity with them.
To paraphrase Dorothy Day
our love for God
is measured by the love
we have for the one we love least.
[PAUSE]
It also means that
we are worthy of love,
just by existing.
No-one is unloved
even if we feel it,
even if we sit in the darkness
of the misery of our fallen lives.
We are loved
and that love is always
close to us in God.
Let us, then,
let that love be close to others
in our lives and relationships
with them.
Monday, October 13, 2025
An Anglican Catholic Priest in the Terror Cellar
Why ghost stories are important, even for Christians.
Sunday, October 12, 2025
Equalising equality
What does equality
mean for you?
We often hear
quoted to us
St Paul's words
to the Galatians
that,
"There is neither
Jew nor Greek,
there is neither bond nor free,
there is neither male nor female:
for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
So, we are all equal
in the eyes of God,
is that right?
If that's true,
why are we all different?
We can understand
that being a slave or a master
or being rich or poor,
or even Jew or Gentile
are products of human society.
But,
if we are all equal,
why did God Himself
create us
Male and Female?
Why are these
not interchangeable,
especially when
having children is concerned?
[PAUSE]
Our Lord speaks
of how we should attend
a wedding banquet.
We are to go to the lowest room,
the lowest place,
so that we can be invited up,
and then find honour
in the eyes of the other guests,
whereas those
who take the best place
get told to move down.
There seems to be
a pecking order
at this banquet.
One room is higher
than another.
One person seems to be
regarded as more important
than another.
Does this mean
that, at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb
there will be higher and lower places?
Does this mean
that Our Lord
is saying that
human beings are not equal?
Of course,
the answer is yes!
[PAUSE]
Think about it.
In the Revelstion to St John
there are the four and twenty elders
who sit crowned on thrones
next to the Throne of God.
Do we really imagine
that in Heaven,
we shall sit next to St Peter
or St Paul,
or even at Our Lord's right hand?
Remember,
we're human beings
and human beings have bodies,
so we shall.be physically present.
We shall have a place in Heaven,
but will it be a place
that's of honour?
Will it be a place
near to Our Lord's throne?
Or will it be nearer the door?
We know that it's common sense
that Our Lady will be closest to Our Lord.
She must have a place very near Him.
Our Lord Himself teaches
"Honour thy father and thy mother."
He must surely honour her
by giving her a place beside Him
in glory.
And He also says that
"For whosoever
shall do the will of my Father
which is in heaven,
the same is my brother,
and sister,
and mother."
[PAUSE]
Just like any wedding,
the Heavenly Feast
is ordered by relationship.
It is those whom
the Bride and Groom love most
who sit nearest to them
at the wedding.
It is the same with God
that it is those who love Him most
will sit nearer to Him
in Heaven.
The more we love
the nearer to God we are
because God is Love.
Those who care more about
their status,
their rights
and entitlements,
their nation and culture
cannot have a higher place.
In God,
human beings are equal
in their salvation
in their opportunity
to love each other.
We all have the same opportunity
to sit at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb
regardless of
our race, our status and our sex.
It is how we view that opportunity
that matters.
We are not created
to be identical
nor to be interchangeable,
but to have the same opportunity
to know and love God
as the person He has created.
[PAUSE]
Political equality
is concerned
about ensuring people
are the same under law.
This is where the language
of rights,
benefits,
entitlements
and duties comes in.
These may have their beginning
in justice and the desire for good,
but we see them become
ends in themselves:
rights to be clung to,
benefits that are rightfully ours,
entitlements that we must fight for.
Political equality
quickly loses faith,
because people trust their rights
rather than God;
it loses hope
because when entitlements are not met,
life is somehow not worth living;
and it loses love
because we focus more
on the right to be loved
rather than the duty to love.
The Pharisees
with their sense of entitlement
move further down
from the place of honour
because the Heavenly seating plan
is based upon love of God
and neighbour,
not social or political entitlement.
[PAUSE]
We should not care
where we sit in Heaven,
for wherever we sit,
we shall know the love of God:
it will be the same feast
that we enjoy together.
He invites us all,
equally,
to join Him in the Feast,
and, wherever we sit,
we shall be in good company
for it is a company based on love.
Monday, October 06, 2025
Saturday, October 04, 2025
Rehabilitating the dead
When was
the last time
you visited
a cemetery?
They're not as busy
as they used to be.
These days
more and more people
are choosing to be cremated
and have their ashes
scattered to the four winds
rather than be buried
in a cemetery.
As a result,
fewer people
enter cemeteries
to pay their respects.
If that continues,
the cemetery will become
a place where
the dead are forgotten.
Doesn't that strike you as sad?
[PAUSE]
Maybe you don't think so?
Maybe,
ending up forgotten
is just part and parcel
of our daily lives.
After all,
we don't spend our days
wishing
our great-great-great-great-great grandparents
were still here.
That's because
they died a century or two
before we were born.
We can't be expected
to remember those
who died
before we were born.
So it seems
our ultimate destiny
in life is to be forgotten.
[PAUSE]
The trouble is
that the widow of Nain
faces the same fate.
With her son dead
she, too, is as dead.
She has no income
no one to care for her
in her old age.
No daughter in law
no grandchildren.
In taking her son
out of the city
to the cemetery,
she may as we stay there
among the dead,
after all,
everyone else whom
she has loved
and who have loved her
are there.
Yes, she comes out
to bury her son
with many people of the city,
many people mourning
with her,
standing with her,
and showing compassion
for her.
But,
they will have to go back
to their own lives
and loves,
and leave this widow.
whose heart is buried
in the cemetery,
silent and forgotten.
[PAUSE]
As we watch this poor woman
and the people of the city
walk solemnly
to the place of the Dead,
we see another crowd coming,
bustling with wonder
and curiosity
about a man
who nor only preaches
wonderful things
but can heal people
even from a distance.
Their conversation
is nor about death
but a new lease of life
that has been given to them
by this new rabbi.
Life meets death.
Our Lord shows
that he does not just heal
but he raises the dead
and makes it look easy.
In a moment
the funeral ceases to exist.
The journey to the cemetery
is abandoned.
And the cemetery itself
forgotten once more.
The place for the Dead
does not receive
another set of visitors.
[PAUSE]
Our Lord shows us
that cemeteries
are places to be forgotten.
Let's not get confused.
In Christ,
the cemetery is forgotten
because
they are empty
when the dead are raised to life.
Cemeteries
are just temporary arrangements
because we look for
the Resurrection of the Dead.
And all will be raised.
No-one will be forgotten.
For God knows us all.
He remembers
even those whose graves
are unmarked
snd forgotten.
And He will raise them
because He loves them
just as He will raise us
because He loves us.
God is not a God of the dead
because the dead
cannot respond to Him.
A dead body loves God
about as much
as a stone does.
God is God of ths living
so that the living
respond to Hiim
Love requires a response.
And so God makes sure
that all who have lived
will still be able
to respond to the love He shows them.
And if that means raising the Dead,
well, that's not a problem.
[PAUSE]
Our destiny
is not the cemetery
or crematorium.
God makes sure of that
and as a sign of that destiny,
He gives the Christian funeral,
where the crowds of disciples
meet the crowds of mourners
in compassion for the loss
but also as bearers
of the witness that Death is not the end.
O Death, where is thy sting?
O Grave, where is thy victory?
In Christ,
the vistory of the Grave
is to be forgotten.
There won't be anyone left
In there to remember.
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