Articulating Christ's Body

Sermon for the Sunday in the Octave of Corpus Christi

"The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper

was not by Christ's ordinance

reserved,

carried about,

lifted up 

or worshipped."

Does that sound familiar?

And yet,

we do reserved the Body of Christ,

we do carry it about,

we do lift it up

and we worship Christ

in the Most Holy Sacrament. 

Are we being wrong?

Are we being idolatrous?

Are we blaspheming?

[PAUSE]

One reason why 

we Anglican Catholics 

do not regard 

the Thirty-Nine Articles

as being authoritative 

is because of their ambiguity.

They were designed to appease

polarising factions 

within the Church of England.

They were designed

to stop the struggle 

for the Soul of England

to be a war within the streets.

And that's why 

the Articles have 

a historical importance 

that has allowed 

Anglican Protestants 

to walk with Anglican Catholics 

until comparatively recently.

So they are necessarily ambiguous. 

And this Article 

about the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper,

which we Catholics 

commonly call the Mass,

is deliberately ambiguous. 

It's true to say

that Our Lord

at the Last Supper

does not tell His Disciples

to reserve His Body

nor to carry it about

nor to lift it up

nor to worship it.

Neither does He expressly 

forbid it

even though He knows full well

the tendency of human beings

to fall into Idolatry.

He remembers the Golden Calf incident 

all too clearly.

And He does not forbid 

the reservation,

the carrying around,

the lifting up

or the worship

of His Body.

Why not?

Why does He not forbid it?

[PAUSE]

There is three underlying factors

behind how we Catholics

treat the Sacrament of the Mass.

Simply, it's Faith, Hope and Love.

By our Faith in Christ

we believe that 

what we behold

in the Sacrament of the Altar 

really, truly and fully 

is the Body and Blood

of Christ.

It is what He promised:

His flesh and blood

so that we might have life within us.

By our Hope,

we believe that showing people 

the Body and Blood of Christ,

displaying our faith

that what seems to be 

a disc of unleavened bread

is truly the Body of Christ,

we may stir in the hearts

of people hungry for hope 

the truth of Christ's presence with us.

By our Love, 

we reserve that Sacrament 

so that those who are unable 

to come to Mass 

may partake of the Body of Christ

and we carry it

to those who are too sick

to receive it.

And we do not worship 

bread and wine

because we believe 

that they have been transformed 

into the true Body and Blood of Christ,

Body, Soul, Mind, Humanity and Divinity

all that pertains to

the Person of the Son.

And the Son is God

and God is to be worshipped 

for our benefit

not His.

[PAUSE]

No. Christ does not command

that we should take the Sacrament 

of His Supper

and reserve it,

carry it about,

lift it up

and worship it.

He does not command that

but He does give us Himself

to be present with us

and to be consumed by us

so that we might love God

and neighbour.

We reserve the Love of God 

for our neighbour to eat.

We carry about the Love of God 

to our neighbour in his frailty.

We lift up the Love of God

for our neighbour to see.

We worship the Love of God

for our neighbour to share.

This is why

we put the Consecrated Host

into a monstrance 

for people to see

and be blessed 

so that one day they might receive.

[PAUSE]

The Articles of Religion 

are not authoritative 

for us Anglican Catholics 

especially when they give the impression 

that what we do is not 

part of the Catholic Religion. 

We don't need to hold them now

because, we pray,

we know better than going to war

with Anglican Protestants

whom we love despite our separation.

Nonetheless,

the Real, Objective and Physical Presence 

of Our Lord in the Most Holy Sacrament 

should draw us closer to Christ

in faith, hope and love for our neighbour.

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From the top

Sermon for Trinity Sunday

We know that Jesus can speak Greek.

Greek in Israel for Jesus

is like English is for us.

It's a language 

that everyone knows

but often not well.

Indeed, 

some older people

who have taken up English

later in life sometimes struggle

to say what they mean.

And even now,

we hear that confusion

and it is a confusion

that still affects the way

that people translate

Holy Scripture from Greek 

to English.

St Nicodemus hears our Lord say

that we must be born anōthen

- that's the Greek word.

It's a word that describes

the garment taken from Our Lord 

at His Crucifixion:

that seamless garment

woven from the top.

So anōthen is a word 

that we could translate

as "from the top".

The trouble is

that there are two meanings

to the phrase "from the top".

[PAUSE]

It could mean,

afresh or again,

and this is what St Nicodemus hears.

St Nicodemus hears

Our Lord say

we must be "born again"

which is why he gets confused 

and thinks that his poor mother

is going to have to suffer 

a terrible fate.

But that's not what Jesus means.

He us using the other meaning 

of "from the top".

He is talking about

being born from above 

from Heaven,

by the power of God

This is why He talks about us

being born of water and the Spirit.

It's a clear indication 

of our need for Baptism.

It is through the waters of Baptism

that we are born from above

into the Kingdom of God

and thereby into Eternal life.

This birth from above

is not from this world.

It is a birth that lies beyond

our experience in life

and why it is given to us

as a Sacrament. 

We see the external water

and know that,

through the covenant with God 

we are born in the Holy Ghost.

Our Baptism is Baptism by the Holy Ghost.

And our birth in Him

can only be known

in this world

through the water in the font.

And what on Earth 

has all this to do 

with Trinity Sunday?

[PAUSE]

What on Earth?

Well, that's the point exactly.

If we are born from above,

then we are aware of things above

which have only pale shadows 

here on Earth.

And our God,

The Triune God,

The Three-in-One,

Father, Son and Holy Ghost

Whom Earth and Heaven adore,

is not a thing of the Earth.

He is not created -

His Incarnation took

our Human Nature 

into His Godhead

- He is not created.

And this means 

we cannot expect

to understand 

with minds of Earth

the Truth from above

that God is Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

We know it 

because He shows it to us

in the words of Scripture and the Fathers

and the rational intelligence 

that draws its Holy conclusions

from the words of Scripture and the Fathers.

We know it by His revelation,

not by looking at shamrocks

or ice-water-steam 

or one flame on three wicks.

They are imperfect illustrations 

and even the most complete

theological understanding 

by the greatest Doctors of the Church

is like straw

compared with the reality of God

that is revealed from the top down to us.

[PAUSE]

If the world gives us grief

because it does not understand 

the Holy Trinity,

that is not our problem 

because the world listens 

with ears of clay

to words born from on high.

Our task is to spread the news

of Our Lord Jesus Christ,

and to baptise as many of those

who believe 

so that they may be born

from the top.

A greater feast

Sermon for Whitsunday

"My Father is greater than I"

Those who hate Christianity 

love to trot out this verse.

"If the Father is greater than Jesus,"

they say,

"how can Jesus be God?"

The most obvious answer

is that Our Lord is speaking

of Himself as a man,

not in His Divinity. 

Because He does not think it

a prize to be equal in Divinity

with the Father

He humbles Himself

by being made Man,

thus giving a place

for His obedience to the Father

to show us how we must be

obedient to God.

But we human beings

are always thinking in terms

of greater and lesser,

better and worse.

That's the way our mind works.

We might say

that the Father is greater than the Son

because the Father begets the Son.

But the Father cannot be a Father

without the Son.

The relationship between 

Father and Son

reveals their identities

as two distinct persons

but a single God.

But today is Whitsun,

not Trinity Sunday.

Where's the Holy Ghost?

Shouldn't we be focussing on Him?

[PAUSE]

We see the Holy Ghost

sent from the Father 

in the Son's Name,

and yet He is often presented

as an instrument. 

Our Lady conceives by the Holy Ghost.

The Apostles speak in

foreign languages

through the Holy Ghost

Who falls upon them.

Our Sacraments bestow grace

through the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost is described as

the Spirit of God

or the Spirit of Jesus.

The Holy Ghost 

seems more like a pipeline

to the Father and the Son

rather than a distinct person

in Himself.

This won't do. 

It's not enough.

[PAUSE]

The Holy Ghost is a distinct person

from the Father and the Son.

Our Lord Himself

describes the Holy Ghost

proceeding from the Father.

But God is indivisible,

and not made of anything,

so how can anything 

proceed out of God

that is not God Himself?

This procession

shows the relationship

between the Holy Ghost

and the Father.

We sing "breathe on me,

Breath of God"

because that's the best

we little human beings

can understand what

proceeding means.

In this sense of procession

the Holy Ghost 

proceeds from the Father alone.

It is an analogy 

that shows us how

God the Holy Ghost

comes forth

from the Father

to be God in us,

in the same way 

that the Son

is begotten of the Father

to be God with us.

But if there is a relationship

with the Father

there must be 

a relationship with the Son.

And there is.

The Son is conceived by the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost is breathed

upon the disciples 

through the Son.

The Word is carried on the Breath

and the Breath issues forth 

because of the Word.

The Holy Spirit 

is God.

It means that 

we worship Him,

we pray to Him,

we relate with Him.

Indeed,

we relate more with Him

than any other Person

of the Trinity.

Certainly,

we pray, "Our Father,"

and we pray, "Jesu, mercy!"

but our inner prayers

our cries of "Lord, help me!"

those fleeting flicks

of our attention to God

are present directly

to the Holy Ghost.

St Paul tells us

that every time 

we praise God

it is because the Holy Ghost

dwelling within us

gives us the ability

to praise God.

We speak through Him,

we learn through Him.

By His grace, 

He bestows Himself upon us

at our Baptism and Confirmation.

The priest says,

"the Lord be with you."

and we don't say,

the vacuous 

"and also with you,"

but rather

"and with thy spirit"

because we pray

that what our priests 

breathe out on us

is the Breath of God

in the sacraments 

they must distribute.

[PAUSE]

Our awareness of the Holy Ghost

must move away from thinking of Him

as being like spiritual petrol

which reinvigorates our faith,

but rather to recognise

His living in us.

We look upwards

to the Father. 

We look around us

to the Son.

So we must look within us

to the Holy Ghost,

and worship Him

accordingly.

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