Turn again!

Sermon for Septuagesima

It has been about twenty years since Our Lord spoke. Then He was a child of about twelve reminding us that He must always be found in His Father's house. Now He's back and beginning His ministry to declare His Good News to the people whom He loves. And what is His first word?

It is "Repent!"

Not the most compelling start is it?

[PAUSE]

The trouble is, when we hear the word, "Repent!" we automatically see it as something negative. The word "repent" is nearly always followed by the mention of our sins. This is why repentance is always rejected by the World because of its undeniable connection with sin; and sin is a concept that the world both hates and encourages simultaneously.

However, if "repent" is the beginning of God's Good News for us, then it really cannot be a negative thing. We should be welcoming, indeed even begging for, the opportunity to repent!

[PAUSE]

"Repent" comes from Latin meaning "to seek again". It translates a Greek word which literally means to change one's mind, and this is exactly what repentance is - a change of mind so that we focus on God. In all cases, repentance is a positive, active and compelling search for the One Who created us, Who has always wanted to create us, and Who longs for us to seek Him out of our own free choice.

In repentance, our focus is not to run from Sin, but to run to God. This might surprise you. However, we do have to be careful. Remember, we simply cannot get to Heaven by our own effort. Each one of us is affected by sin whether we commit it or suffer the effects of it. We are weakened by sin and there is nothing that we can do of ourselves that will free us from it. When the Lord talks about removing the plank from our own eye so that we can see to pluck the speck in our brother's eye, He is telling us that each one of us does not possess the vision to rid ourselves or each other of sin. This is why so many of us waste our Lent in trying to remove sin from our lives by ourselves. We seem to think that we can repent by looking back at our sin. Our Lord has some harsh words to say about that!

No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Our repentance has to be a positive action. It is not a retreat from Sin, but an assault on Evil itself. In choosing to repent, we do the greatest thing that we can do for ourselves - admit that God is our righteousness and that His way is so much better for us than our own perceptions of it.

The Salvation that God promises to His Church is effected only by the Incarnation of Our Lord Jesus Christ. It is His grace - His active presence with us - that He offers to all men. All we have to do is to turn ourselves to Him and receive it. By seeking first the Kingdom of God, we literally turn our back on our sins. That's true repentance and we have to ask God for help in this.

St Paul shows us that the business of repentance is not easy work. Try holding the rudder of a ship steady in a force nine gale! St Paul urges us to train ourselves to run a race. He bids us prepare ourselves to fight a battle - not against Evil, but simply to hold the course to reach God. This is the beauty of Lent:  it gives us the opportunity to focus our attention on how we are turned to God in each aspect of our lives.

[PAUSE]

Repentance is thus the cause of joy in Heaven. Those who have no need of repentance either have no need of God, or they are the very saints in Heaven whose eyes are permanently fixed on the Beatific Vision of the presence of Almighty God Himself sitting upon His throne. This is why we should beg for repentance, and why we beg Blessed Mary Ever-Virgin, Blessed Michael the Archangel, Blessed John Baptist, the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul, Our Holy Father Benedict and all the saints to pray for us when we confess our sins to God. And Sin has no claim on us when our eyes are truly focussed on God Himself!

Revealing Wise Opinions

Sermon for the Third Sunday after Epiphany 

While you are deep in prayer, it seems that a still, small voice whispers in your ear, "Here the word of the Lord. The world will end on Thursday! "

What do you do?

[PAUSE]

Clearly, you have received a revelation but is it a revelation from God? Well, being a good Christian, you take this revelation with a pinch of salt and remember that St John urges us to test the spirits to see if they be of God. So you go straight to the Bible and read:

"But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only."

But why did you go to the Bible? Surely the voice was convincing enough. Perhaps that Bible verse doesn't really mean that no man knows the hour. If you're female then perhaps you really do know the hour.

It's quite possible for you to start to reinterpret the Bible to support the voice that you heard.

If you can do this, what's to stop others from reinterpreting the Gospel to support what things they hear in prayer?

In fact this is where many Christians today fall down. They develop an opinion which they believe to be the same as God's and change meanings to suit them. They become wise in their own opinions.

[PAUSE]

It's a horrible fact that people are even willing to say that "love thy neighbour" doesn't apply to people who are black, or female, or suffer same-sex attraction, or who aren't Christian. They have used this to justify violence and cruelty against people whom God has created. The Bible is clear: neighbour means anyone who is nearby. This includes anyone you pass as you walk down a crowded street just as much as your parents or your spouse. St Paul says that we must not render evil for evil. We must always be ready to bless and to serve and leave all judgement of our neighbour to Him remembering that He will surely judge us with the same standards of righteousness. 

However, what if the voice says to you, "God has called you to be a priest"? What now? 

[PAUSE]

Again, we have to test the spirits. The Catholic Church has received no authority to ordain women: women priests can not be found in Scripture or Tradition. In fact the Bible is clear that women cannot be priests. This is despite Our Lord's clear esteem for women in the way that He treats them in contrast to the religious society of the day.

If God has called you to be a priest, then He will also make it clear to the Church which is charged with administering His grace on all whom He ordains. A man simply cannot declare himself to be a priest just because he has heard a voice telling him so.

God is not the author of confusion, but of order. He simply will not contradict the teaching that He has given the Church because He wants all human beings to be saved whoever they are, wherever they are, whenever they are. The message is the same today as it was in 1534, 1054, 315, 33AD or 738BC. The revelation of God is not something that can be reinterpreted to fit the day and age.

[PAUSE]

While deep in prayer, you hear a voice. If it distracts you from your prayer, then it's unlikely to be from God. However, if you have any doubt, don't worry. Bring your message to church, and then be prepared to accept what is revealed.

Writing the Epiphamy

Sermon for the Second Sunday after Epiphany

Did you put chalk on your door on the Day of Epiphany? It's not compulsory, just a happy little tradition in which each householder gives their priest a piece of chalk to bless and then writes something like 20 + C + M + B+ 18 on the frame of the main entrance to the house.

What purpose does it have? Well, it's a blessing. CMB stands for Christus mansionem benedicat which means, "may Christ bless this house." CMB also stands for Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar which are the traditional names for the Three Wise Men, though Holy Scripture is actually silent about that. However, this tradition links the blessing of the house with the visit of the Magi and, in so doing, our house becomes a reflection of that first house, that poor meagre dwelling, in which Our Lord is found lying in a manger.

In writing on our door frame, we are participating in the Epiphany of Our Lord.

[PAUSE]

It is important to remember that there isn't a single Epiphany in Holy Scripture. At Epiphany, we remember three things - the visit of the Magi, the Lord's Baptism and the first miracle at the wedding of Cana. In these three events Our Lord reveals Himself to be God. It is our duty to Him as Christians to carry that revelation to the world.

Notice that it doesn't matter how you write on the door frame. Your handwriting may be neat or scruffy, or the surface of the door frame may be uneven which distorts the way you normally write. As long as you write the same thing, you are being part of the Epiphany tradition.

Whether or not you participate in this, you are certainly called to participate in making Christ known to the world. We must all be seeking to commit a glorious bit of Christian graffiti by writing, "may Christ bless this" on God's creation especially our brothers and sisters whomsoever they may be.

[PAUSE]

God gives us the chalk and we must write His blessing on this world which forgets Him through the activity of Evil. How we write does not matter but we must all write the same thing for it is the same Christ who blesses as the Christ who revealed Himself in Bethlehem, in the Jordan and in Cana.

We may not alter what we write but we can and must write it with our own handwriting.

Revealing Revelation

St Paul is responsible for the majority of the content of the New Testament. His ministry begins when Our Lord reveals Himself to him in a bright light which blinds him.

How do we know it was Our Lord? If it wasn't, then huge parts of our Faith could be in doubt. Can we be sure that the revelation to St Paul is true?

[PAUSE]

This will always be a matter of faith for us in the same way that scientists have to have faith that their methods work in making their discoveries.

However, the Epiphany of Our Lord gives us opportunity to reflect on the fact that God doesn't just exist but actively wants to be known by everyone. What we Christians have been given is a record of how God reveals Himself to His people.

And look what happens.

Without fail, each of the principal witnesses to God's revelation is transformed. Enemies of Christianity become its greatest defenders overnight. Ill-educated fishermen become eloquent in their testimony. People become willing to die for this testimony.

[PAUSE]

These days, people seem to demand proof which is stricter than can be given. Some have dismissed the Gospels and in doing so have dismissed eyewitness testimony that would be considered convincing in a court of law. What they want is almost a mathematical proof - an absolute proof - before they will be convinced. That's their problem.

But what if we doubt in God's revelation?

[PAUSE]

The first thing we do is ask God.

St Paul tells us that God's word "is now revealed unto his holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit". We believe that the Holy Ghost speaks through the prophets.

Then we remember that the saints form a cloud of witnesses to the Truth. We remember that even pagan writers speak of Jesus as a real human being. And we remember that Christians have always been prepared to die for their testimony.

In the balance of probability, we are unlikely to see a star in the East. We are unlikely to hear the voice from Heaven or see the Holy Ghost descend like a dove. We will probably not taste the water turned into wine. But we can still receive God's revelation.

How will we know it's Him?

Because He will not contradict Himself. 

What He says will be what the Church has already received over the age of ages. The Montanists will say that God gives us a new revelation every day, but this revelation is false because it contradicts the testimony of the Church which God has already given.

This is why Christians must read Holy Scripture and must listen to the Church Fathers. That way, we can all learn to hear God's voice and recognise Him when He speaks to us.

[PAUSE]

The word Epiphany means a revelation that descends upon us. It is God-given and not man made.

All we need is the patience to wait and to listen. God will give us this as well if we let Him.

Currants and Raisins: a response to Fr Chadwick

I am always very grateful for the level of support I receive from Fr Anthony Chadwick who shows much pastoral concern for one in a similar boat (no, not that kind, Father) as himself. One who does not know me as well might ask why I kick up such a fuss about things that don't really have much consequence. Why should I care about what the American ACC and Continuing Anglicans feel about the way I conduct myself?

Perhaps it doesn't matter. It's not as if I exercise authority in the Church other than at a parochial level.

But it does matter, and the events of October's Joint Synod show why. If our concordat means anything, it means that I, in my tiny diocese with my insubstantial mission, am very much part of a greater organic whole and that my actions and attitudes are affected  by those of my confraternity across the world and they also must be affected by mine.

I, therefore have a case to answer to justify myself to those whose hard work not only brought the concordat into reality but also were the architects of Continuing Anglicanism itself. It matters because I, despite my geographical, historical and cultural distance, am linked organically and spiritually with the Congress of St Louis.

It is this commitment that has been called into question by those who define what it means to be Anglicanism by Prayer Book alone (solus Liber Precum Publicarum?) and this included some loud and honourable clergymen of many years' standing and many years' struggling against institutional heresy.

I thus have a duty to them and to myself to answer that question in order to stand in the solidarity of communion with them despite our differences in the light of the Affirmation and the unity of the Concordat.

That is why I bother and stir up what others might see as mere storms in a teacup. It is for this reason that I have concentrated on my raison d'etre in order to find community with those who hold the same faith as me yet express it differently.

Yet, I  am as Fr Anthony suggests, an English Catholic. I ought to say a Canterbury Catholic given the tendency of Catholics to refer themselves to the archetypal See. In many ways I see Bishop Damien as the legitimate Bishop of Canterbury even though his parish has moved to Painters Forstal from Canterbury City Centre. He is the orthodox bishop of the Anglican tradition and it is from him that I, Fr Chadwick, and all my confraternity derive our orders and heritage.

However, as I say, now is the time for developing the Benedict Option here in the UK, promoting stability, obedience and conversatio mores which can only flourish in a state of doctrinal orthodoxy. This is a good use of my oblation, and I pray that God may help me to do so in fidelity to him.

There is much to think about. One problem that seems to dog Christianity is the relationship between being and doing. How does what we do play a part in our salvation? Can it be that while Christ saves us, we determine the 'us' that is to be saved by Him through what we will to do? I am especially interested in the role of consciousness in developing the Christian experience of God as David Bentley Hart (brother of an ACC priest) would write. I have often wondered whether our consciousness is the way our sense of identity extends across the multiverse. It would mean that our subjunctive self is as existent as our indicative self. This is speculation, though - pure courant.

My hope, however, is that whatever the nature of existence is, I in my splendid isolation still have some deep and real connection with all my brethren within the Catholic Church through my walk towards the Divine light. My hope is that my critics find in me someone who, though challenging their definitions, will also stand alongside them in the Faith against the current of Hell-bound indifference to God and true humanity.

My previous title - Currents and Raisons - is my customary love of punning. My current puns are shocking, which makes me as nutty as a fruitcake. Yet I hope in my playing with words - as Wittgenstein might enjoy - I hope I make myself clear at least in intention if not in expression.

Currents and Raisons

The first post of the New Year!

I fully expect my readership to drop again since I have left Facebook probably for good. There is only so much one can take of memes, cultural Marxism, voyeurism for the sake of mawkish sentimentality and infectious reactionary behaviour. This year, I really do want to address my tendency to open my mouth before I think. This needs to be done with a cool mind and a loving heart. I have a tendency for a loving mind and a cool heart.

This leads me to this blog. What is it for?

Thinking on my earlier post and the new raison d'etre of Fr Anthony's blog, I do see it as vitally important for the encouragement and education of all Christians.

I recently had a heated discussion with one of my brother clergy in the US about my "cavalier attitude" towards the prayer book. I explained why I don't use it but, what was difficult for him to understand is that I am not American. The 1928 Prayer Book is an alien species to me. The Venite is "wrong" and there are strange words in the Te Deum which don't make sense to me. For me, our Affirmation of St Louis must be read in the light of the collapse of the Established Church rather than the collapse of a member of its communion through the equally heretical Scottish Episcopal Church.

Nonetheless, the 1928 Prayer Book is a vital text which has preserved much that the 1662 does not. I do wish to reassure my American brothers and sisters that I have not the slightest disdain for their beloved and fundamental version of their Prayer Book - very much the opposite - but must ask that they read the Affirmation again and allow me to use the "Certain Variations Permitted" in order to be true to the Faith that I received here in Blighty AND to grasp their hand firmly across a wide expanse, rejoicing in our shared communion.

This is where I do need to educate myself. I always try to be engaged in some form of study, though child-rearing has cause rather a deceleration of my plans. On my to-do list is another read-through of the 1928 BCP with a view to getting a better sense of culture and the Spirit of St Louis. It will never be "in my blood" nor can I in conscience use it for my prayers, but it can be, perhaps, a text that I can use as a spiritual translation tool by which I can get a greater sense of solidarity with my brethren in "the Colonies".

That is my personal commitment for the year.

For my blogging intentions, I must focus on the encouragement and spiritual upkeep of my dear readers. I know I have only a few but I  do actually care about what they read. I have been far too negative, especially about the CofE, though I have just cause given the decisions of its government. I must leave them alone.

Given that faithful Christians now have to fight a battle against strong social opposition and ostracism which infects even ecclesial establishments, I wish to present myself as part of the Benedict Option that my Diocese seeks to promote. I wish it to be known that I offer myself as a form of paraclete for all who find themselves out of harmony with the secular mores, and if I possess any resource that is amenable to Traditional Catholic Christianity, then I humbly present it for the use of those who will be vilified for holding to that Traditional Catholic Christianity.

This will be my little blog's direction for the present. I hope that it will be an instrument of the love of God in bringing true hope back to the world. Given its reduction in readership following my departure from Facebook, I would be grateful if people would make others aware of this blog if they find any worth in it.

Christmas Time, Christmas Space

Sermon for the Sunday in the Octave of the Nativity.

Do you lose track of time between Christmas Day and the New Year? It's almost as if Time loses some of its meaning. We forget which day we're in and lose some of the rhythm of the week.

It is this period of time where it is the date that matters and not the day. Christmas Day is followed by St Stephen's Day, then by St John's Day, the Holy Innocents and St Thomas Becket. The Sunday in the Octave - today - can fall anywhere and even coincide with these feasts. It's a day when people are most likely to forget to come to Church and in which the clergy are trying to get their heads around all these feasts.

Today seems like a befuddlement.

[PAUSE]

If you think about it, the date is a fixed part of the year, and so is determined by our position relative to the Sun. The days of the week are not. They are determined by our position relative to the Moon. Christmas Day is fixed according to the Sun and Easter with the Moon.

Before you worry that we are going to fall into the sin of astrology, it's worth pointing out that our understanding of time is determined by the Sun and Moon. The mystery of the Incarnation is how God, who created Time, Sun and Moon, allows Himself to become subject to them by being born in Time.

How the great Eternal can become Temporal is a mystery. We can attempt to think about it and come up with theories, but we cannot understand this until the Sun and Moon cease to mark Time for us. All we know is that God took our humanity into His Divinity. It seems reasonable, then, that He takes our Time into His Eternity.

What does this mean for us?

[PAUSE]

We celebrate Christmas Day on 25th of December. And we do well to do so. Yet, we cannot separate Christmas Day from any other day because Christ is always with us on every day of the year. We feel this more keenly on Christmas Day but refreshed in our understanding that the Word became Flesh and dwelt among us, we carry this throughout out year.

In the same way, we know Christ always to be present with us. We know that Presence more keenly and with greater clarity and focus in the Sacrifice of the Mass. We take that Presence with us out into our space.

[PAUSE]

Ultimately, we are promised that, upon our resurrection, we will not need the light of Sun and Moon because God Himself will be our Light. He will also be our Time as we worship Him in His glory.

This is why we need to bear Christmas and Easter in our hearts all year round, for doing do we carry Our Lord Jesus Christ with us to hallow our Time and our Space.

Blogday 2017: The beautiful feet of the Laity

And now we are 12. Blogging, apparently, is a dying form which makes this, as usual, a thing of increasing archaism.

It's been a turbulent year which has seen an upheaval of large proportions for the purpose of a greater good.

Dealing with the loss of a chapel and parish is hard, especially when that parish was established well before my return to the Catholic Church. I miss my old congregation and the freedom that I had to perform my duties as a priest.

Yet, I now have opportunities which are yet to emerge but I can see buds forming.

One thing that often does the rounds on Social Media is a rhapsody on the beautiful hands of a priest. My hands are certainly far from beautiful but I understand the sentiment even though it does lend itself too far to idolisation of the clergy. My hands become beautiful only when they bear God's grace to those who need it. They shine with the beauty of the hands crucified which obscure the hands which I have shamefully used for sin. The priest must take "the beautiful hands of a priest" with a grain of salt remembering that it should shame rather than make one feel grand. There is nothing grand about a priest in themselves: they must aspire to reflect Christ.

The hands of the priest are for washing the feet of the Laity.

And these feet are beautiful because in them we see the purpose of every Christian :

"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!"
(Isaiah lii.7)

Each one of us is a bearer of the Gospel. The fact that the proclamation of the Gospel is an elaborate rite at Mass reflects the earnestness and respect that we should have for proclaiming that Gospel in our lives. We walk barefoot on hard mountains with the joyful message, "repent! For the kingdom of God is at hand."

To a world which is comfortable in sin, these words burn which is why we are assaulted for bearing them. However, these words bear the reality of God's love for us generally and in particular. This is why it is an uphill struggle.

It will be a long time before the Provisional Mission of St Anselm and St Odile is up and running. It must begin with those who are prepared to invest in its growth which will be slow and difficult before it can ever hope to become a parish devoted to theological enquiry which seeks to preserve the Orthodox Faith in a changing world by instilling that Faith into hearts as well as minds.

This is where this blog may have its purpose by continuing what it has always done. The priesthood exists only for the Laity. If the Laity see beauty in their priests then they must know that this is a beauty which goes into serving them. They must also know of their own beauty which seeks to proclaim Good News to the world even if that world finds beauty offensive.

Let us strive to be beautiful.

St Thomas of Canterbury, pray for us!

... and it was very good!

Sermon for the Feast of the Nativity at Midnight

"Heaven and Earth shall flee away when He comes to reign."

The baby is born, and nothing seems to happen. The baby is born, and Heaven and Earth remain unmoved and indifferent. The baby is born, and the man on the street says, "so what?" before putting his turkey in the oven. Heaven and Earth take no flight but remain as they always have.

Has the baby come to reign?

God becomes Man, so His Eternity is still there and hidden. His vast power concealed in His flesh. His crown covered by a baby's soft skull, vulnerable and small. His Kingdom is already here but obscured by the day-to-day business of the flesh.

At this instant of birth, Heaven and Earth cannot be the same again. Here at this birth, God's Creative power works a miracle that spreads back and forth through all Time and all Space. Here the cracks in Existence caused by the Fall are cleansed so that, from the pinnacles of Eternity, God still looks on all He has made and declares it, "very good".

The birth of this baby restores a link to the Divine that we had lost. As one umbilical cord is cut, another is reconnected, supplying the constant stream of the grace of God back into a humanity slumbering in a degradation of its own making. In this Birth and in His later death, our life begins again for all who will be stirred and admit themselves to be shaken into that life.

Heaven and Earth do flee away. They flee from the perception of souls who awaken to the Divine light and the Divine smile. They flee away from the lives of those who let them go so as to grasp the Hand of God which has become flesh precisely so that we may indeed grasp it. They flee away, because He comes to reign, not in that poor, lowly stable, but in the hearts of those who dare to have their hearts broken just so that He may enter.

His birth is the hour of our creation and, behold, it is very good.

A taste of Heaven

i

Sermon for the Fourth Sunday of Advent

Here's the thing. Christians know what Heaven is not. We know that we don't magically transform into angels with wings and halos, playing harps just as the inhabitants of Hell have horns and hooves,  and, according to Gary Larsen, play accordions.

Yet, neither is Heaven going to be a place of do-as-you-please. We're not going to be idle on cloudy sun-loungers, supping angelic pina-coladas and watching reruns of Morecombe and Wise.

We know what Heaven is not. Do we know what it is?

[PAUSE]

There is a famous setting of the words "This is the Record of John" by Orlando Gibbons. It is most often sung with a solo by a male alto. Sometimes it is sung by a female alto, and others by a tenor.

It is beautiful music, but there are some who cannot stand the male alto voice. There are others who won't listen to it if it's sung by a tenor. If this is true, and our personal taste varies so much, how can everyone hope to enjoy the music in the presence of God?

You could say that God will only allow into Heaven those who prefer the female alto voice to sing this anthem. If this were so, there would have to be a reason why found in the doctrine of the Church. Since this anthem was written in the Seventeenth Century, and such choral music did not exist as far as we know in the Early Church, it seems unlikely that God would make appreciation of a particular music a condition for salvation. If it were, we would have known about it from the beginning.

It is clear that a matter of personal taste is not going to factor into our Eternal Life with God. However, if our personal taste is something that is part of us, an expression of who we are, how can we expect this Eternal Life with God to be something that we enjoy? We will be not be allowed to be isolated from others as demonstrated by the great multitudes who praise God in St John's Revelation. What if Eternal Life with God is full of grime music, chewing gum and deely-boppers?

[PAUSE]

This is our problem. We tend to think about Heaven, that is our Eternal Life with God, using our own experiences of life. We see, hear or taste something that makes us feel wonderful and we say, "how heavenly!" and expect Heaven to conform to it.

This makes some sense; Our Lord says that the Kingdom of Heaven is within us. God does not despise His Creation at all, so why would we expect Heaven not to be the best of what we know now.

Our personal tastes and preferences can then become an obstacle to Heaven because we believe that everyone who goes to Heaven must share the same experiences of life. How can we deal with this?

[PAUSE]

St Paul tells us, "Rejoice in the Lord alway and again I say rejoice." The reality of the Kingdom of Heaven is to allow Jesus to be the King. We ought to discipline ourselves to rein in our taste and preferences so that we can divert the energy that we spend indulging then in rejoicing in God Himself.

This means that we have to stop worrying about the hymns of the Church because of their tunes, but because of how they present the praises of God the King according to what the Church teaches about Him. It means that we have to stop worrying about the Church decor in favour of presenting a space devoted to the worship of God as we have received through the centuries.

Indeed, to see Heaven is to find the same joy in everything God has created that He does. We need to seek out that joy in what we find delightfull according to our personal taste and also, contrary to it. If God created it, then there is goodness within it.

[PAUSE]

But the world is a dark and evil place, isn't it?

Only the Devil would want to convince you of that. Yes, the Devil's handiwork is always around us, but as we have seen these past few weeks of Advent, the time and influence of the Devil are limited. Advent reminds us of hope. Advent reminds us to rejoice in the Lord at Christmas and always.

 Tomorrow, we shall see how Heaven and Earth will effectively become the same place, and it all begins with the birth of a baby.

Ero and Vero: a cras response

In previous years, I have reflected on the Great O Antiphons of Advent - see for example, my reflections in 2013. This year it strikes me that we do need to reflect on their totality as well as their individuality.

It is well-known that, reading backwards, we have:

O Emannuel
O Rex Gentium
O Oriens

O Clavis David
O Radix Jesse
O Adonai
O Sapientia

We see the acronym ero cras - tomorrow, I shall be! I have written that our so many times before. However, this comes from my use of the traditional Benedictine office. Were I to be a follower of the Sarum Rite, like my dear friend Fr Chadwick, I would have started a day early so that I would say the final antiphon, O Virgo virginum on the 23rd. If we look at the acrostic formed by the Sarum Rite, we then have Vero cras - tomorrow indeed!

Of course, there are many who dislike O Virgo virginum on the grounds that it does not address Christ Our God as the other do. We appeal to God with us, God the King of the Nations, God the Dawning Light, God the Key of David, God the Root of Jesse, God Our Lord, God the Eternal Wisdom, and we appeal to Him for the dawning of our salvation. Does not the presence of the prayer to Our Lady pander to the idea that she is  Co-Redemptrix?

We remember that Our Lady is a redemptrix only insofar that she is an instrument, not a source, of our redemption. In saying, "be it unto me according to thy word," she has agreed to be an instrument and thus the efficient cause of our salvation in born into the world through her "yes!" to Almighty God. Given that we participate in our own salvation, we can only be regarded as "co-Saviours" insofar as we are instruments used for the purpose of salvation. The sacraments are not mine: they are issued at my weak and trembling hands, but I find myself blessed by that grace which flows from them. That is the promise of God effected in little me, and indeed in every Christian soul who is called to be an instrument and agent, but not source, of God's saving power.

O Virgo virginum is a response to Almighty God. We see Him petitioned in the Seven O's and then, we remind ourselves that we have to respond - we have to participate in the Salvation that God offers us by an act of choosing to become.

In the Benedictine Rite, God says ero cras! in response to our petition to cease being infected with sin and Evil.  In the Sarum Rite, we say vero cras! with the greatest joy, knowing that God is entirely faithful.

While, for the sake of Benedictine stability, I remain with the former rite, I am overjoyed that there are those who pray the Sarum Rite on my behalf to and assist me thereby in making that joyful response to God's promise to be with us.

A blessed Sapientiatide to all of you, whichever Rite you use!

Virtually Nine Lessons

By way of an experiment, I have put together a version of the Office of Nine Lessons and Carols. Since the Provisional Mission of St Anselm and St Odile is really in a process of formation, I thought it might be nice to share with my readers something of the late Advent, pre-Christmas season in the hope that we may all feel uplifted for the Feast of the Nativity. Perhaps you will join me in praying and enjoying music written for the glorification of God and for the gladdening of men's hearts.

Essentially, this consists of some YouTube links to carols and music interspersed with the Nine Lessons as read by yours truly. Yes, there will be mistakes and blips on my part, for which I crave your and God's forgiveness. I hope they do not detract from an approximation to an experience of which I was once blessed to be part. The readings will only be available for the next 88 days, but the moment by then will surely have passed!

Please do click on the links in sequence to get the full intended affect. You might also like to listen by candlelight as well and, if you like, sing along with the carols. If you do find this in any way complementary to your experience of the season, please have a mince pie and a cup of mulled wine on my behalf after the benediction.

Hope this works!

Organ Prelude: Noel cette Journée - Jean-François Dandrieu.

Carol: Once in Royal David's City (605 in The English Hymnal)

Introduction and opening prayers.

The First Lesson

Adam Lay Ybounden - music by Boris Ord

The Second Lesson

Carol: Wake, O Wake! With tidings thrilling (12 in The English Hymnal)

The Third Lesson

The People that walked in Darkness from Handel's Messiah

The Fourth Lesson

Carol: O Little Town of Bethlehem (15 in the English Hymnal)

The Fifth Lesson

I sing of a Maiden that is makeless - music by Patrick Hadley

In the Bleak Midwinter -  music by Harold Darke

The Sixth Lesson

This is the Truth sent from above - music by Ralph Vaughan Williams

The Seventh Lesson

Carol: A Great and Mighty Wonder (19 in the English Hymnal)

The Eighth Lesson

There shall a star from Jacob come forth - music by Felix Mendelssohn

The Ninth Lesson

In Dulci Jubilo - music by Robert Pearsall

Carol: Lo He comes with clouds descending (7 in the English Hymnal)

Collect and Benediction

Carol: O Come, O Come Emmanuel (8 in the English Hymnal)

Postlude: Toccata on Mendelssohn by David Wilcocks

Hell on Biscuit Barrel

Sermon for the Third Sunday of Advent

You are enjoying your favourite biscuit and then one of your friends comes along and tells you not only how many calories are in it, but also what else it contains including which parts of the sheep have been used in cooking it.

Suddenly, the biscuit changes. No longer is it a joy to eat, but rather it becomes an object of disgust.

However, nothing about the biscuit has actually changed. It is still the same biscuit that you used to enjoy, but now it's a horrible thing which you are very tempted to bin. Can the biscuit be saved?

What would it take to bring the biscuit back?

[PAUSE ]

It is a peculiarity of many Christians to deny the existence of Hell and the Devil on the grounds that they are unjust or superstitious nonsense. That is something the Devil truly loves because without knowing what is Evil, we cannot fully know what is Good. If the writing in a book was the same colour as the page, what use would the book be? In order to know where Germany starts, we need to know where France ends. 

We can only truly know the truth of our salvation once we know what it is we're being saved from. If there is nothing to be saved from, what is the worth of salvation. Why bother to suffer on the Cross if it doesn't really do anything?

[PAUSE]

The fact that Jesus suffers and dies for us on the Cross shows us first that there is something that we need to be saved from - something truly terrible, something that God hates. Secondly, it shows us that God believes that we are worth being saved from this terrible fate. He is not indifferent to what happens to us when we die. This means something important that we often forget: each human being is created inherently good. If we are worth saving, then our fall from grace through Sin does not destroy that inherent goodness. 

We can still see that today in this world. There are so many people, often unknown to the media, who are living lives trying to demonstrate the goodness that God gives us in our creation through acts of charity and mercy for no other reason than they just enjoy doing good for other people.

Satan will come along and show us our sins in the hope that we will hate ourselves, hate other and hate God and abandon hope. He seeks to suck the joy out of our existence as being truly human by convincing us that we are merely a shadow and that we should just please ourselves in order to enjoy a dark and dull life. Should we fall for this (and we all do this somewhere along the line), then we actively reject God and turn away. If we do not think that there is anything to be saved from, then we stand in danger of never knowing God, and thereby can never live with God.

[PAUSE]

Here is the importance of Christ's Cross, and indeed, through His Cross, our own personal crosses and suffering. In recognising sin in ourselves, we can choose to be transformed. We can beg for God to make us better, to heal us, to stop us from being just a pale shadow of what He wants for us. We can beg God to give us a sense of what is good in us so that sin does not reign any more in us. And God will give us what we want, because He is a good Father to us.

Alternatively, we can accept ourselves as we are. We can choose to try and change the world around us to fit what we want it to be so that what is wrong in us disappears because we say that it is right. The consequence is that we lose our vision that we are not our own but God's. We lose sight of the True Good in favour of our own personal "good" which is nothing but our own will. And then, the sin that is hidden from us through our own blindness becomes part of us. Because we demand to be accepted as we want ourselves to be, we find ourselves separated from the vision that God sees in us and wants for us. How can we be saved then, if sin actually becomes part of who we are?

[PAUSE]

What, then, is Hell?

Forget the medieval paintings of devils poking people up the bottom with pointed sticks. Hell is worse than that. Like the biscuit, Hell is life as we know it, but with no joy, no purpose, no light, no love, no meaning and, crucially, no death. The person in Hell still retains the same goodness that comes with being human, but it is a goodness separated from God, that hungers for God and yet cannot know Him because it will not know Him. It is this hunger for God that burns within the Hell-bound. It is this hunger that produces the agony because it can never be filled. 

And that is the true terror of Hell. 

This means something crucial. If Christ dies a horrible death to save us from Hell, then it must be truly horrible indeed. Yet, if we are truly to love our neighbour as ourselves, then it means that we have a duty to live our lives so that we, too, can help people escape Hell. This is why the Church has such an important mission to bring the Faith, Hope and Love of Christ into a world that is both dark and light at the same time. Our duty is to help people see the light.

[PAUSE]

We are told "Keep thy mind in Hell and despair not." As Christians, we must recognise the existence of this terrible place and remember that it is ultimately our own choice and our own fault to  end up there, because we create it ourselves. All we need to do is to turn to God our Father, and, through His transformation of our very selves, we will find the joy that He promises.

Hooray for the Day of Judgment!

Sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent 

Which is worse for you, the fear of dying or the fear of what comes after death?

Let's face it. Many people today think that death is the end and that all life stops there. One wonders whether many people do not believe in life beyond death precisely because they are actually afraid that there may be something there - something that is permanent and means that they might not escape everything left behind in this life.

If there were no life beyond death, then what would good and evil mean? We've seen men and women who have committed terrible acts and enjoyed committing those terrible acts who then commit suicide and thus escape justice. They die in their glee in the belief that they will never be brought to account before men.  They die in joy while their victims die in pain and misery.

If there is no life beyond death, then how can we blame them? They get exactly what they want and do not suffer for it. If there is no life beyond death, how can there be any form of good and evil? We can make up the rules as we go along and die without consequence. Good becomes whatever makes us happy, evil whatever makes us sad. If our rule in life is that everyone should be happy, then this means that we have to allow people who enjoy committing horrible deeds to do them so that they can be happy.

How can there be good and evil if there is no life beyond this one?

[PAUSE]

As Christians, we strive hard to believe in the Resurrection wholeheartedly. The acts of evil in this world do test our faith, sometimes almost to breaking point. Nonetheless, there is historical evidence for Our Lord's Resurrection in the Gospels and in the testimony of the Church from the very beginning. The existence of a Church that will suffer and die for faith in the Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ is evidence of that Resurrection. Our Lord Jesus Christ is very clear that He shall come to judge the living and the dead.

And this is what causes many to fear and cry out that there cannot be a resurrection of the dead. It is the fear of being judged for our sins.

However, if the murderer cannot escape justice for his sins by suicide, how can we expect to escape justice for ours. Resurrection means that we will be in the presence of God and where He is, no Evil can be. We will be judged. We don't have a choice.

And that's fantastic news!

[PAUSE]

As Christians, we know ourselves to be sinful. We are affected by sin and we commit sin. Every sin takes us away from God. It is because we are beginning to know God that we know that we are sinful. The more clearly we see God, the more clearly we see our sins that separate us from Him. If we truly want to be with God then we need to open ourselves up to Him to be transformed in Him so that our sins are blown away.

What does the Christian have to fear from judgement?

Shame, yes! But Shame shows us and God that we truly recognise that what we have done us sinful.

Grief, yes! But Grief shows us and God that we are sorry for our sins.

Hatred of what we have done, yes! But that is the goodness that God has put into us becoming pure and free from evil.

While we fear grief, shame and loathing, they are not eternal but are signs of our ever-growing closeness to God. We must accept them and have the hope that lies beyond them. This is the hope that Holy Scripture possesses. This is the hope the Church professes.

[PAUSE]

God's judgement gives us justification. In Him we are made right and made righteous. In letting go of our evil, we embrace God. But whatever happens to us if we do not? We must look at that next week.

The Conception of Our Lady 2017

This feast seems to provoke much disagreement between the various Catholic groups, and yet, it is a truly wonderful thing to celebrate.

Today, we celebrate the beginning of the life of a human being whose simple "yes" allowed her to become the instrument by which Almighty God could change the world. Is this Conception Immaculate?

If one doesn't ascribe to the doctrine of Original Sin as an inherited guilt, then we are all immaculately conceived and there is no peculiarity.

If one does ascribe to a form of St Augustine’s view that we all bear Adam's guilt, then there is a case to answer. Certainly, the Church Fathers do present a clear case for the sinlessness of Our Lady. How far back into her life this sinlessness can be traced must remain something of a mystery.

Like anyone else, if the Blessed Virgin has sinned, then her sin would be something that must remain between her and her Creator. She needs salvation from the Fall that fractures Creation whether or not that Fall infects her internally. This Immaculate Conception cannot therefore be a belief necessary for salvation. It is a belief that we are free to hold or reject as our Christian conversation with God dictates.

Why bother with it, then?

We bother with it because it is a sign of hope. If Our Lady can be sinless, then so can we - not by our own effort but rather through the Grace of God given to us to use in our lives.

Our Lady is conceived as a human being possessing only human substance and human nature. Yet she uniquely presents Christ to the world through her own self. This makes her fundamentally different from the priest offering Christ at the Altar: she does not present Christ as victim for the sins of the world - only Our Lord can do that. Rather, Our Lady presents Christ as the Hope of the world. Thus we see here as an ikon of the Church. In celebrating her Conception we are drawn to the day of Pentecost and the birth of the Church.

It is through her Conception, that Our Lady stands with us in our common humanity and is thus able to offer prayers uniquely to her Son. We do her honour as befits the Queen Mother of Heaven, but her Conception allows her to stand with us and her in adoration and worship of her son Who is God.

The difference between Birth and Death

Sermon for the First Sunday in Advent

Death will always be a difficult topic to discuss. Even at the mention of the word, we immediately think of those who have died this year, those who are dear to us and who have gone, and those who have suffered much before they have died and whose suffering we remember with pain and sorrow.

First, let us remember our loved ones who have died and remember that Almighty God is infinitely merciful and does not forget even the smallest sparrow.

[PAUSE]

Why do Christians allow death to affect us like this? If we have Eternal Life in God, shouldn't we think of death as being a minor inconvenience? Shouldn't we see it as many of the Church Fathers did as the gateway to Eternity with God?

Is it because, deep down, we don't believe in salvation? 

Is it because, deep down, we are afraid of losing everything, even our own selves?

[PAUSE]

To our friend who has lost his wife, all we seem to be able to say is a feeble "I'm sorry for your loss." It never seems enough. Death is indeed a loss. When our loved one dies, our relationship cannot continue as it once did and we miss that person in ways more profound than we ever really understand. Our relationship is bigger than the two of us, and as a result we find out just how much we loved them because we face the jagged edges of our lives from which they have been torn away.

And what of our own death?

Sometimes, that may seem easier to bear than the death of the one we love. In that case, we're the one who is not carrying on. Yet, in approaching Death, we approach the loss of simply everything and everyone we hold dear.

What will remain of us if we lose everything?

[PAUSE]

According to T.S. Eliot, one of the Magi visiting the Christ Child says, "I had seen birth and death,But had thought they were different; this Birth was Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death."

He's right. Birth is as much of a loss as Death. As far as we are aware, we lose everything that we hold dear. At the painful moment of birth, the baby loses a relationship with her mother that neither can ever retrieve. The womb, once full of life, is empty. All that sustains the baby in the womb, connecting her to her mother is cut off and discarded. The previous life is ended and the new one must begin.

In preparing for the Nativity of Our Lord, we are reminded of His procession into Jerusalem that will end with His death. Palm Sunday must always lead to Good Friday. In it, we see Our Lord pass through a series of devastating losses before He loses His life on the Cross. 

And we remember it here, on Advent Sunday!

Why?

[PAUSE]

Here, at the beginning of the Liturgical year, we face the death of the old year and the beginning of the next. We see birth and death and we wonder whether they are different. Now is the time to look at what we have lost and whom we have lost. Now is the time to think about what does remain if we lose everything.

Surely, if we lose everything, then we are nothing! We become utterly nothing.

This is true, unless God tells us that we are something. This is true, unless God shows to us that each and every human being is actually something and is capable of bearing things that are truly Eternal. St Paul tells us that there are three things that last forever: Faith, Hope and Love.

We have faith in God that, at our Death His Son shall shine as He shines now and as He has always done. We trust God whose divine life cannot be blotted out by any death. We trust Him not to forget us, nor to forget anything about us. 

We have hope in God that, at our Death, we shall find Birth that cannot be proven by the Scientific method, because this birth is a death to all that we can know and a birth into knowing even as we are known by God.

And we have Love.

It is Love that causes the pain of Death, because we lose our loved ones. It hurts so much precisely because we love. If we want the pain to end, then we may be asking for the love to stop. Rather, we need to ask to be able to bear the pain with joy in amidst our sorrow. In the midst of life we are in death and that's a good thing because the more pain we feel, the greater is our love. The challenge we face is how we are to continue in this pain and suffering whilst taking great joy in it.

And that is what Christmas is. 

[PAUSE]

As we prepare for Christ's birth, we prepare for His death. As we prepare for His death, we must prepare for our own death - death to ourselves. If we die with Christ, then we shall live with Christ. The more we love the little baby in the manger, then the more we must love the broken body on the Cross. It will be precisely this Love that will carry us through our own losses and deaths into Eternity with Him. Let us feel the pain of loss and allow it to help us find true joy in Christ.

Stirred but not shaken

Sermon for the Sunday Next before Advent

A church stands silently amid the leafless trees. Its grey stonework contrasts greatly with its snow-covered environment. One window bears a light from the interior. There is no movement, all is still and quiet and peaceful.

And then the earthquake comes.

[PAUSE]

All becomes a torrent of confusion. The little church is rocked back and forth; the snow gusts and whirls around it in a frozen frantic frenzy, almost obscuring the stonework from sight. Yet, still the light in the window burns as brightly not flickering once.

As suddenly as it comes, the earthquake ceases. The snow ends its flurry and begins to settle again in a gentle picturesque manner. The sky clears; the church stands unmoved, unbroken, undamaged; all becomes silent.

Until the earthquake comes again...

[PAUSE]

It's a hard life being a snow globe. However, they have to accept the job-description of being shaken regularly. However, what's the point of a snow globe if the scene inside is not fixed. If that little church had been loose or made out of porridge, then the little scene is ruined forever - it simply cannot remain after such violent shaking.

Today, we hear the words "Stir up" for the last time in this liturgical year and, yet, immediately before the new liturgical year begins as we face Advent once more. Today, we ask God to stir up our wills to bear the fruit of good works. It is now, before the new year begins, that we ask God to wake us up again into action. We ask Him to stir us out of the complacency and habit that we have developed over the course of the old year so that we do not allow ourselves to become utterly fixed in behaviour that we fail to question in ourselves because we have grown used to it. The works that we do need to be good works - they need to come from us having been grown from the goodness of God planted in us.

There is a big difference between being stirred up and shaken.

Watch carefully as Our Lord manages to feed and satisfy five thousand with five loaves and two fish.  How does the world react? How do the disciples react? How do you react?

For the world, this act is nonsense. It can't happen. Miracles can't happen. Yet, for the world to witness this happen in front of them shakes that belief. It causes a whirlwind of confusion as it seeks to understand what contradicts the rule "Miracles cannot happen." As time passes and things settle down, the world is back to where it was, denying what has happened, and sticking with the same old mantra, "Miracles cannot happen."

For the disciples, something does happen. Their view is challenged before their eyes. And something within them changes and stirs up into being. They believe what Jesus says and does, and something good, something of God Himself grows within them. And this thing that grows within them survives any further shaking.

The more they allow their beliefs to be stirred, the more they trust Christ, the more that they take Him at His word when He says, "This is my body" the more permanent do they become. These disciples become able to withstand the horrible shaking of their world around them. They will endure torture and death for that which has been stirred up within them. What is shaken flurries around them, and yet, after all the shaking is finished, there is something beautiful that remains and it remains for the good pleasure of God.

[PAUSE]

Advent is precisely the time in which we seek to be stirred up so that we might grow again as the world shakes us. Traditionally, it is the custom for us to reflect in Advent, on what we're growing into and that means considering the Four Last things: Our Death, Our Judgement, Hell, and Heaven. These are not comfortable things to think about and doing so will help that stirring up to happen. As we approach Advent, let God stir us up and pray for Him to do so so that our feast of the Nativity, our Christmas Day, may find ourselves more solid in the eyes of God.

Revising Anglican Catholicsm

One of the charges that many Anglo-Protestants lay at the feet of Anglo-Catholics is the charge of Revisionism. Essentially, what they seem to be saying (and I'm willing to be corrected in this) is that Anglo-Catholics are trying to present an ecclesiastical picture different from the established historical facts about what Anglicanism is. By and large, Anglo-Catholics are accused of trying to "air-brush" the Reformation out of Anglican thought.

I will admit that I have tried to pay absolutely no attention to "Reformation Sunday" which, in my Ordo, is simply not a thing. It is apparently five hundred years since a Saxon Religious nailed paper to the doors of a Saxon cathedral: I have found no desire to commemorate the fact. In fact, even mentioning it infuriates me as, in order to do so, I have had to pay it some attention. Given that this Augustinian Monk then went on to perform some serious acts of revisionism on Holy Scripture and thus propagate some seriously misinterpretable doctrine which has damaged Holy Church, I find the affair unworthy of celebration.

Oh-oh! Looks like I'm one of these Anglo-Catholic revisionists.

Perhaps I am. I really don't know, nor do I really care. What I do agree is that the Catholic Church needed a reformation and that great things came out of that as a result. But schism has resulted based upon different interpretations of the same things and that has made Protestantism difficult to engage with given its adherence to the five solae.

Like the thirty-nine articles, I see no need to pay the five solae any attention. Where they are right, they will be found in the Catholic Religion. Where they are wrong, they are to be denied. In fact, I would rather pass over them because different Christians cannot agree to what they mean. Indeed, Roman Catholics have seen that they can agree to interpretations of the same five solae. It's a war over semantics.

As an Anglican Catholic (rather than an Anglo-Catholic) I have categorically said that I am not an Anglican. In my eyes, (and I may be wrong about this) an Anglo-Catholic would usually regard themselves as being an Anglican. Anglicans regard themselves as being inheritors of the Catholic Faith through the Book of Common Prayer. I can't agree with that, but I do agree with Anglican principles of always going back to the Primitive Church. While Anglicans put a special emphasis on the doctrine of St Augustine, I struggle to agree that he is worthy of this emphasis and rather set him on the same level as the other Church Fathers, many of whom do not have the same consensus with the blessed Carthaginian.

I think that Anglican Catholicism is indeed revisionist, but in the best way. We always have to undergo a conversatio mores. The Christian life must be filled with repentance, of which revision plays a vital role. We cannot remain on any course that takes us away from the Divine Light. However, any revision that we make must be based solidly on the Catholic Doctrine of the Early Church.

Clearly there is a certain wiggle-room based on belief. The Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church claim to have the same basis in the Primitive Church and yet they believe different things: there are doctrines which are peculiar to each church and denied by the other. This presents us with four positions:

a) neither of them are right in their peculiar beliefs;
b) precisely one of them is right in their peculiar belief;
c) the peculiar beliefs are not matters of Salvation and may be held by any Christian without jeopardising that Salvation;
d) the peculiar beliefs are matters of Salvation but are different and legitimate interpretations of the same theological fact.

Whatever of these is true, we can say with some degree of confidence that where they do agree on doctrine, that is the theological truth. It requires sifting and weighing-up and more tussles with semantics. It means that the Anglican Catholic position of sticking to that period of "agreement" - i.e. the Primitive Church, Seven Oecumenical Councils and the Church Fathers of the First Millennium - is a credible, stable and holy direction towards the Truth. It is to this that we always must turn in our lives of repentance. While Holy Scripture and Tradition are indeed immutable through the immutability of God, it is our duty in the Church to look for the sensus fidelium. This is why the Vincentian Canon makes such a good definition of what it is to be Catholic.

There are concessions to History and Anglican Catholic has to make. First, we do recognise that we have a Patriarch, namely that of the West. This means that we cannot deny the Romanism that is in our blood. This is why Anglican Catholicism really does have to wrestle with St Augustine which it has inherited through our walk with Rome. It is why many of us wear birettas (and Canterbury caps) rather than the kalimavkion, and why bishops wear the Western mitre rather than the Eastern. This walk with Rome means that we have inherited the filioque but our return to the Primitive Church makes us uncomfortable with it - in my case, deeply so.

Second, we do have to recognise that the Reformation happened and that we inherit interpretations of the faith from it. The Book of Common Prayer is the most obvious example. Yet, this book, too has been revised again and again to meet different doctrinal standards which have arisen due to the influx of Protestantism into Anglicanism. This is why, as Anglican Catholics, we accept the Book of Common Prayer before the majority of Protestant interpretations entered. We go to the 1549 BCP with the 1550 Ordinal and measure that against the Primitive Church, not the other way around. Our lex credendi  must be based in the Church so that the lex orandi can be expressed accurately. Given that the 1549 BCP was the Nation's prayer book for at least three years, we cannot say that it did not do the job it was designed for, namely to be a book of common prayer.

Third, we do have to recognise the fact that while we are not ourselves Anglo-Catholics, we owe much of our scholarship from them. Many members of the CofE like Jonathan Clatworthy disparage their work and see their influence on the Anglican Church as invention based upon Romantic principles. However, what he, and people like him, often pass over is that until it walked off into heresy, the Church of England and the Lambeth Communion worldwide, had orders inherited from the Apostles in the same way that the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox have, and that the Anglican Catholic Church together with her sisters (UECNA, APCK, APA, ACA, DHC) have preserved these orders carefully. In that sense, the Catholic Faith has been constant in its transmission through valid Apostolic order. We do have to admit that a significant number of individuals (mainly those of a Protestant leaning) have denied this. The witness of the BCP declares otherwise, as does its constant usage.

The point is this: if we are true to the faith of Primitive Church and seek the Triune God honestly and wholeheartedly through the witness of this Church in the Scriptures and the Tradition that it has received, then any revisions we need to make in Ecclesiastical Polity will always bring us back to that faith. We will know this because we will not have sought to change the sacraments and thus expel the grace of God that they dispense: the unchanged sacraments themselves will be our witness to our continuity with the Primitive Church.

Body beautiful?

Sermon for the twenty-third Sunday after Trinity

People of an age will perhaps remember Charles Atlas' famous slogan, "You, too, can have a body like mine." His advertisements always used to present the contrast between his muscly physique with the "97lb weakling" whose ribs were showing.

Today, body image is a very big thing. You have to look right. Girls have to have curves in all the right places. Boys have to have abdomens which look as if they've slept on their fronts on a cattle grid. More and more, people, especially young people are being afflicted by disorders based on their perceptions of their bodies. Some magazines are only just beginning to see the damage that presenting the ideal body can do. Isn't it just better to be yourself? Is there really an ideal body?

[PAUSE]

St Paul says quite categorically that there is.

For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

So there is an ideal body! One to which we should aspire. St Paul makes it quite clear that while we are loved by God unconditionally, that love wants us to be transformed not accepted as we are now. St Paul calls our bodies vile because they are broken and corrupted by sin - our own sins and the sins of others. God hates all that is Evil and thus does not want us to be so infected by sin. He does not accept us as we are: He loves us as we are AND seeks our transformation into something like His Son.

We can have a body like Our Lord Jesus.

Yet there is a problem here. If our earthly obsession with the body beautiful is causing terrible disorders like bulimia, anorexia and dysmorphia, won't the same happened to us if we obsess about transforming ourselves into Our Lord's body?

[PAUSE]

If we think like that, then we need to listen to St Paul again. It is not we who do the changing, it is Our Lord who changes us.

This is the purpose of the Mass. We receive into ourselves the true Body of Christ. By submitting ourselves to the grace of God, we become more like Him because we learn to co-operate more and more with His grace.

We only develop spiritual diseases by trying to live on our own terms, by setting up for ourselves false ideals and false images of who we think God is and who we think we are. Where Evil is, God cannot be and if we say that we have no sin - if we say that we are not broken as we are now - then we deceive ourselves and the truth is not on us.

Once we accept that we need to be transformed into the person God wants us to be, then we shall be truly happy. Then, we spend our lives looking to be in conversation with God, recognising our suffering now and offering that suffering up to God as a sacrifice for all others in the same boat. As we Christians grow in Christ, the more we will make our pain sacred and thus deprive the Devil of his victory of separating us from Our Lord by making us believe that we are unlovable.

[PAUSE]

It seems that the choice we face is simple: do you want to be accepted by God as you are, or do you dare to accept His love for you? You can't have both!

What rule is this?

Sermon for the Twenty-Second Sunday after Trinity

Would you expect the Chief Executive Officer of a multinational company to be concerned with what one of their employees owes to another?

You might expect the boss of your bank to have some concern about any mismanagement of personal funds of their staff, but is it really any of their business?

Surely, we would only expect them to get involved if there were some massive problem, otherwise they’d leave it to their middle management to sort out.

What does it say about a ruler who worries about the personal finances of their subjects?

[PAUSE]

First of all, and perhaps most obviously, the ruler Our Lord Jesus speaks of wants his example to be practised by his servants. The ruler forgives, so he expects his servants to forgive. Yet this isn’t just forgiveness of a little thing, this is major forgiveness! The ruler forgives the first servant an insurmountable debt with rivals the Gross Domestic Product of a small country. If he really does expect his subjects to be like him, then they must be prepared to be just as extravagant as their ruler.

But there is more about this ruler.

This is a ruler who listens to his staff. It is those who are scandalised by their colleague’s behaviour towards another who complain to their boss. This isn’t some petty tale-telling: the actions of this servant have hurt the community badly, and his fellows clearly feel this hurt keenly. But notice that they trust their ruler to do something about it. This ruler has their respect and they clearly look to him.

This ruler is also not afraid to punish but what does he punish? Disobedience? Or the hurt done to others? His people cry to him for justice, and that is what he gives. The hurt that this unforgiving servant has done to his community has been treated accordingly despite the fact that this man can never pay back the debt he owes. Isn’t that too severe? Is there to be no further forgiveness for this man?

[PAUSE]

In typical fashion, the Lord Jesus leaves so many questions unanswered. His message is clear, God is this ruler and He expects His subjects to be like Him. It is those who refuse to be like Him that He is compelled to punish for the sake of the others who are hurt by the actions of those who reject God. We are to forgive as often as is necessary in order for us to be reconciled with our brother if we expect to be reconciled with God.

So why does the ruler not forgive the unforgiving servant one last time? Has this servant sinned for the four-hundredth and ninety-first time?

What we have not been told is whether there is any further repentance by this man – a recognition that, in being unforgiving, he has damaged his relationship with his fellow servants and his ruler. Until we are told this, there can be no reconciliation. His fellows can’t be given the opportunity to forgive, and neither can the ruler himself.

[PAUSE]

Jesus speaks of a ruler who listens, forgives yet administers justice, and who demands his servants be like him for no other reason than their good. If this ruler is an image of God Our Father, then we see how much our sins hurt the whole of creation and yet, there is always a way back in God if we make serious steps to take it.