It may seem odd that,
in amidst the days of Christmas
we should pause
and honour a saint who,
these days,
is relatively obscure.
The fact is that,
from 1173 to 1537,
today was always
an important feast for
the Church in England
and the feasts which fall
on this day
are really rather more modern additions.
Why should we look back
and honour St Thomas Becket
so importantly?
[PAUSE]
Briefly,
we remember that
this "turbulent priest"
Is murdered in Canterbury Cathedral
in a particularly gruesome manner.
But few people
remember why.
They have some idea
that St Thomas is
a good friend of King Henry II
but opposes the King's policies
leading to the friends
falling out and,
subsequently,
the King's rash call for
St Thomas' death.
The reason mainly
is that King Henry
sees the Church
as a institution
comprised of his
lawful subjects
and so he believes
appointing bishops and abbots
should be his responsibility.
St Thomas disagrees,
saying that the Church
is not a secular institution
and that bishops and abbots
must be ministers of God first
before ministers of politics.
He thinks that
only the Church should
appoint bishops and abbots.
In a way,
both King Henry
and St Thomas are right:
Holy Scripture says that
we must honour the king
but also that
we must be in the world
and not of it
preferring to serve God
and not Mammon.
We have to live
in a society where
not everyone believes
in Jesus
but we cannot
live in a way
that denies
Jesus' authority
over His Church.
The situation is complicated
and the negotiations delicate
to the extent that
both King Henry
and St Thomas
appeal to the Pope for judgement
on the issue.
When the King
has his son Henry crowned
as heir apparent in York
by the Archbishop of York
and the bishops of London
and Salisbury,
he is showing disregard
to the Church order
in which the Archbishop of Canterbury
has the duty to crown kings and princes.
This sounds trivial
but Henry has allowed
his disagreement with St Thomas
to disrupt the order of the country
- a country which is still recovering
from the war between
Henry's predecessors:
Stephen and Mathilde.
In order to re-establish that order,
St Thomas is forced
to excommunicated the three bishops.
This is when King Henry
issues his outburst against
St Thomas.
What neither King
nor Archbishop count on
is that four knights
completely misread the situation,
think they understand
the right course of action
and murder St Thomas
in his own cathedral.
These knights
do not understand
the situation fully.
They think it is a simple problem
and that a simple removal
of the Archbishop will
solve the issue
once and for all..
St Thomas dies
defending the Church
as a Heavenly institution
at the hands of
those who are ignorant
of the full facts.
[PAUSE]
Christopher Hitchens
is wrong about many things.
Especially,
the idea that Religion
poisons everything.
It doesn't.
Nor does politics poison everything,
though it's more poisonous
than "religion"
whatever that is.
It is ignorance that
poisons everything,
especially acting
without being in full possession
of the facts,
or accepting that
we cannot possess
all the facts.
This sort of ignorance
comes from pride -
the assumption
that we know what's what
and therefore have
the right,
the authority,
and the duty to act.
The knights
have none of these
and it demonstrates
how one careless remark
from the King
in the ears of those
who assume they have it right
can destroy a life
and make a Martyr.
[PAUSE]
The same is true for us.
Especially when we think
that we can do
a better job
of running the country
than our politicians.
The same is true
of our politicians
when they think
they have a simple
solution to
Society's problems,
and are ignorant
of the truth.
When a politician says
that we must lay aside
our religious belief
in order to make a decision
that affects the lives
of everyone in the country,
they display the ignorance
of the fact
that we Christians believe
that God's rule of us all,
whether we like it or not,
tells us how to make that decision.
[PAUSE]
It is prideful ignorance
that is the enemy
driving a wedge
between Church and State.
We cannot solve that in others
but rather keep prayer going
for all.in authority
and fir all who desire authority.
We can solve it in ourselves,
first by admitting
our ignorance of the full situation
and then by learning
as much as we can,
remembering that
we do not necessarily
have the right or access
to all the relevant information.
Where we are ignorant,
we must learn humility
and consider carefully
how to vote,
how to protest the wrong decisions
of government,
and how to accept prayerfully
the status quo
when there us nothing
that we can do.
At all times,
our political decisions
must be rooted
in our lives of prayer
and faith working in love.
That's what St Thomas does,
resigning his political office
of Lord Chancellor
in order to accept the duty fully
as Archbishop of Canterbury.
[PAUSE]
St Thomas shows us
that we must first
render to God
that which is God's
before rendering to Caesar
that which is Caesar.
The lives of people
are God's
and therefore
must be rendered
to Him
before rendering
those aspects of our lives
that are under
the Rule of the Government.
That is the proper order
and the order for which
St Thomas Becket will pay
with his Earthly life
before being rewarded
with Eternal life
in Heaven.
St Thomas Becket,
pray for us and the United Kingdom.
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