Adopting the Church

Sermon for the twelfth Sunday after Trinity

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

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

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

But often, we forget what this means.

[PAUSE]

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

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

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

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

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

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

[PAUSE]

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

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

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

[PAUSE]

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

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

A viper in the hand is worth two in the fire

Sermon for the eleventh Sunday after Trinity

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

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

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

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

[PAUSE]

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

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

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

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

Why does the viper not poison St Paul? 

[PAUSE]

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

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

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

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

[PAUSE]

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

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

[PAUSE]

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

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

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

[PAUSE]

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

On the firm ground of a shipwreck

Sermon for the tenth Sunday after Trinity

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

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

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

[PAUSE]

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

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

[PAUSE]

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

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

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

[PAUSE]

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

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

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

[PAUSE]

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

This doesn't apply to me

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The wolves behind

Sermon for the ninth Sunday after Trinity

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

[PAUSE]

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

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

[PAUSE]

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

[PAUSE]

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

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

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

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

[PAUSE]

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

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

Who's holding the torch?

A reflection for the Feast of the Transfiguration.

Dreaming of more than in Heaven and Earth

Sermon for the eighth Sunday after Trinity

What is a university for?

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

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

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

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

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

And into this Areopagus walks St Paul.

[PAUSE]

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

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

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

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

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

[PAUSE]

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

That's lazy and it leads to divisions.

The same is true for Christianity.

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

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

[PAUSE]

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

When the spirit of freedom stops the clock

Sermon for the seventh Sunday after Trinity

On our travels with St Paul, St Silas and St Luke, we meet three spirits. The first prevents them from spreading the Gospel in Asia. The second proclaims the Most High God. The third sends these saints to prison.

Only one of these spirits is not the Holy Ghost.

[PAUSE]

It's interesting that the spirit proclaiming the name of God is not the Holy Ghost but a spirit of divination. It is the Holy Ghost Who stops the saints from going into Asia and, by driving out this spirit of divination, has the saints thrown into prison.

It looks like the Holy Ghost is not a spirit of freedom.

[PAUSE]

At critical times in History, people have lifted their heads and said that there was something in the air. Major revolutions have followed with great turmoil and then sighs of relief. The crowd hails the new spirit of freedom; poems are written; statues are carved; pictures are painted. Until the next revolution, of course. Then a new spirit takes over; poems are censored; statues torn down; paintings are defaced.

And round and round we go.

And we Christians worship a Spirit Who constrains us, stops us from doing what we want,  and will even drive out spirits which mention His Name. Is our God not concerned with our freedom?

[PAUSE]

The girl is possessed by this spirit of divination. It might be speaking the truth but there is no way this poor girl is free. Human beings are not meant to be possessed. She is not free to be herself.

Too often we think that freedom means that we can do what we like. We think that freedom means that there is nothing holding us back from getting our desires. We think freedom means answering to no-one, eating what we want, sleeping with whom we want, and so on.

This is not what God wants. We cannot be free like this because God created us to be what He wants to be. And we don't want to be what He wants us to be.

[PAUSE]

We are like a clock - one of those old fashioned proper clockwork clocks with cogs and gears and hands and weights.

In that clock, there is a special device called the escapement. It regulates the clock and is responsible for the "tick-tock" sound. It consists of a wheel that is attached to the weights and a balance which is attached to the pendulum. The balance regulates the wheel: without it, the wheel would spin freely and the clock would be useless.

Without the wheel, the clock would be stuck.

And we are like the clock.

[PAUSE]

God has created us for His purpose, but we have damaged ourselves. Some of us struggle against God's law and are like a clock which throws out its balance. Our lives spin fast and free, but we cease to be what we are meant to be. We lose our very selves in our own pursuit of happiness.

Some of us become infected by evil spirits so that we become like the clock whose escapement wheel cannot turn. We are stuck, rigid, at the pleasure of the Devil. 

We need both the balance and the wheel in order to function for God and so find true freedom.

[PAUSE]

The balance of the Holy Ghost means that St Paul can't travel into Asia but must suffer imprisonment. As a result of his restrictions, a girl is saved from an evil spirit and a gaoler and his family are brought to Christ. The temporary loss of physical freedom is the tick which results in the tock of the spiritual freedom of others. 

In accepting regulation by the Holy Ghost we operate better as servants of God and find the freedom to do what we are meant to do, just as the clock is meant to tell the time.

[PAUSE]

Too often, what we think is freedom is anything but. False freedom leads to enslavement by our own short-sighted view of reality which leads us to reject God. True freedom accepts limitations so that we become what we are meant to be.

 And God alone tells us what we are meant to be. We are meant to be happy in Him.

A Hymn to God the Father

Apologies for the odd lengthening of some notes. I had to turn my own pages which is not easy!

Credit where credit is due

Sermon for the sixth Sunday after Trinity

Your job as a waiter in a restaurant is going well. The customers are nice and the chef is just the right side of demanding. The food is good and the company genial.

Just before closing, you approach a man to settle his bill. He takes out his wallet and from it produces a shiny gold credit card. "I have this!" he says proudly, "it's accepted by all the best places!" Immediately, he gets up and tries to leave. 

Has the bill been paid?

[PAUSE]

Of course, you protest that you haven't put the bill onto the card and that just waving the card at you doesn't pay the bill. There has to be sufficient credit on the card in order to pay.

As you run his card through the machine, there is a beep and the card is declined. It doesn't matter how flashy the card is, if there is no credit on it, it is no good.

[PAUSE]

And that's the attitude that the Apostles are up against. They are faced with Jewish Christians saying that, in order to be saved, all men must be circumcised. This is why the very first Council of Jerusalem gets called by St James: how do gentiles become Christian?

St Paul tells us that circumcision availeth nothing and uncircumcision availeth nothing. Using a bodily scar as proof of your salvation is like the shiny credit card. It doesn't work if there is no credit. We cannot expect salvation without a change in our hearts. This is why St Paul tells us to circumcise our hearts.

[PAUSE]

The conclusion of the Council is that gentiles do not need to be circumcised but they do need to live lives of chastity and not eat food sacrificed to idols. For many gentiles in Jerusalem, this will be a big deal because it involves a change in lifestyle. It means turning away from sin and idolatry and towards Christ. These are painful and demanding changes that will put these gentile Christians directly at odds with their culture and their families. It is every bit a commitment to the church as circumcision is to the Jews.

[PAUSE]

It is only in Christ that we are saved from the debt of our sins. He is the credit on our cards: it doesn't matter if those cards are gold-plated or not. Nonetheless, we have to live lives of faith in order to recognise the value of this credit. We will not be saved by outward gimmickry but by knowing and loving God.

[PAUSE]

When the Day of Reckoning happens, will there be enough on your card? How do you know?

Return to care of the community

Reflecting on the solemnities of St Benedict, St John Gualbert and St Bonaventura and how the Religious Life contributes to the healing of a sense of community.

Gospel? What a riot!

Sermon for the fifth Sunday after Trinity

No good deed ever goes unpunished.

You've heard that saying and probably have first hand experience as to what it means. All you want to do is a little kind, noble and helpful act of generosity and you end up causing mayhem.

The Apostles certainly feel that way. All Paul and Barnabas want to do is preach the Good News and they manage to cause civil unrest in Iconium. All they want to do is heal the sick and they inadvertently whip up the people into a pagan frenzy. 

But then what would you want to happen? 

What has to happen for things to ran smoothly for once?

[PAUSE]

You approach a town that has never heard of Christ. You preach the Gospel. What then? What do you want to happen?

Ideally, we would want everyone to say, "I believe!" change their lives, build a church, find a priest, and start the business of preaching the Gospel themselves. 

That would be wonderful but it seems too easy. If people are so ready to drop their beliefs for Christianity, what will stop them from dropping Christianity for the next popular religion?

If anything it is the people who resist the most who will take Christianity most seriously. We see this in St Paul, himself. It may look as if St Peter, St James and St John turn to Christ at the drop of a hat, but they do struggle with Jesus' teaching and even abandon Him at His arrest in Gethsemane.

Christianity comes with a struggle.

[PAUSE]

Our Lord points out the reality of preaching in His parable of the sower. Some people just won't get the Gospel at all. Some people will treat it as a fashionable idea. Some people will only hold onto the Gospel for as long as it is convenient. Some will hold onto it, wrestle with it, question it, be hurt by it but will grow and grow and grow so that not only is the good news thoroughly received but will not be lost.

[PAUSE]

The Church has to expect resistance and allow for it. In times of civil unrest, the Church needs to be utterly uncompromising in preaching God's message even though it offends those who have not yet heard what is really being said. Even if preaching the Gospel becomes against the law, it will never be against God's Law provided that it is His Gospel that we preach. Thus even if we are commanded to keep silence, we must follow the Apostles' example and disobey in order to bring the Fact of Everlasting Life in Christ Jesus to a world that needs to hear it. If people see just how committed to the Gospel we are in the face of being countercultural, the more they will realise its importance and relevance.

[PAUSE]

If St Barnabas and St Paul cause riots just by telling people how much God loves them, should we not expect the same and give thanks for it?

There's none as blind...

Sermon for the fourth Sunday after Trinity

Today Saul becomes Paul.

Saul, this convert to Christ, is a Roman Citizen. This means he has two names, a Hebrew name and a Roman name. This is quite common: the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus has the Hebrew name Joseph Ben Matityahu. It is something that Saul/Paul shares with Elymas BarJesus.  

Saul and the sorcerer Elymas share something else. They are both struck blind by God.

Why?

[PAUSE]

We see Saul converted from persecuting the Christian Faith. He seeks to destroy the Church through using the civil authorities to enforce Jewish teaching. He is struck blind on the Road to Damascus and sits in darkness until Ananias comes with God's authority to restore his sight.

And what about Elymas?

Here we have a sorcerer using his skills to impress and influence the Roman authorities in order to disrupt the Christian message and prevent it from being heard. And what happens? He is struck blind - temporarily, we are told - and has to search for someone to guide him. And we never hear from him again.

 Clearly blindness is the consequence of both Saul and Elymas' persecution of the Church, but why?

We have to see this blindness as a mercy from God. The consequences of our actions can be grave. We need only look at Pharaoh who hardens his heart to the Hebrews only to find that he cannot soften it again. We need only look at Judas Iscariot who regrets his betrayal and yet cannot face the One he betrays, ending his own life in an attempt never to remember Jesus again.

For Saul, blindness is an opportunity to see his own blindness to the truth. With his sight removed, he has to sit and reflect on the light that blinded him. He is not distracted by sights but has to sit and wait for Ananias. Ironically, outward blindness gives him better focus and a cure from being inly blind. 

With his inward vision corrected, his sight can be restored and he enters on to a great ministry.

What about Elymas?

[PAUSE]

All we know is that his blindness is temporary. What happens when his sight is restored is not told. The proconsul Sergius Paulus is converted at Elymas' blindness, so it seems reasonable that we would be told if Elymas converts. It seems we must still wait for that.

[PAUSE]

If we want to see where we are going wrong, we need to become blind in order to reflect more deeply. Obviously, this is not necessary for us to become physically blind but rather that we need to remove distractions. If we sit in silence with our eyes closed, we hear better and are better prepared to listen. If we fast and pray, then we clear our vision from denying earthly pleasures and we can see better spiritually. This is why it is good to go on retreat.

Just as the apostles fast and pray before ordaining St Paul and St Barnabas, we too should seek ways of becoming blind to the world in order to see God's will better. It is better to become blind for a little while than to see oneself falling away from God and not knowing what to do about it.

[PAUSE]

We are destined to see God in all His glory at the wedding feast of the Lamb. To be blind to that would be a terrible tragedy.

Chants for Anglican usage

I have just created a playlist of chants for traditional Anglican usage in a domestic setting. 

I will try to add to it, so if there are any requests, please let me know.

Merbecke's Benedicite

As requested.

Pointing the finger

A reflection on St John Baptist, St Peter and St Paul.

Sometimes people point in different directions to the same thing.

Creeping out from under the sheet

Sermon for the third Sunday after Trinity

It's a fact that babies have to learn disgust. What we may find disgusting is largely due to what our parents tell us is disgusting. Daddy won't eat the half-chewed biscuit tells Baby that you just don't eat food that someone else is eating.

Breaking disgust, then, is going to be a difficult matter.

[PAUSE]

St Peter sees a sheet from God containing animals that Jews would call unclean. St Peter feels disgust at seeing these and being told to eat them. His upbringing has taught him this disgust. His reaction comes from the gut. And yet God Himself tells Peter that he can eat these animals.

You can imagine a bit of a conflict going on in St Peter. His upbringing and his faith in God are at odds. How would you feel about having to eat a mussel for the first time. Peter knows that, for love of God, he must overcome his disgust.

And then Cornelius' envoys arrive.

[PAUSE]

St Peter probably does not feel disgust at entering a Gentile's house, but his upbringing tells him that there is something not right about it. Jews and Gentiles are not meant to mix. 

Yet St Peter knows he must overcome this reaction because God tells him that Cornelius is to be accepted into the Church. In one fell swoop, God condemns racism by showing that all races may become Christian and worship Our Lord Jesus Christ.

But wait! Didn't God Himself say which animals were clean and unclean. Didn't God create St Peter's disgust? Didn't God tell Jew to separate from Gentile? Didn't God thus bring about racism?

[PAUSE]

We have to understand the Old Testament carefully. At the time of Moses, the races of the Gentiles identified with their pagan gods. To these Gentiles, the Lord God was just a god of the mountains, and one among many. These Gentiles engaged in orgies and even sacrificed their babies to their false gods. And God, Our Lord God, made it clear that the Jews were to have nothing to do with them. They were not to be like them. 

To show their separation, they had to demonstrate their cleanliness by washing, by eating the right things, and by living a code of moral cleanliness. This is how Israel was supposed to be a holy people. This is why the Jews of St Peter's time make much show of their purity, even by showing that they have purely Jewish ancestry.

And then in comes Cornelius. .

[PAUSE]

Cornelius is not like other Gentiles. He worships God. We know he worships God because the Holy Ghost shows St Peter, and shows us too, that Cornelius is truly worshipping God. He deserves to be baptised; he deserves to be allowed to come to Christ.

Cornelius is not a Gentile who worships a false god and so God separates him out into His Church at St Peter's hands.

[PAUSE]

God destroys racism by showing that anyone who truly worships Him is part of the Church. Jew, Gentile, Male, Female, Slave, Free - all may enter the Church and be welcomed in by hands and a heart that have been pierced just so we might enter in. 

What doesn't happen, though, is that Evil become Good, and God makes that clear. Only those who worship Him may enter the Church. Those who go against His will through hating Him or hating neighbour need to repent and worship God - not for His sake, but for theirs.

The animals on the sheet were not evil: they were different. What God calls clean we should not call unclean. If we do then it is the Evil that creeps out from under the sheet that will consume us.

Being right in the com-box

I felt rather sorry for the administrators of a certain Sarum-based Facebook group.

Consider a parishioner asking about the Sarum Rite in behalf of his female priest in ECUSA. All goes very well until some smarty-pants comments with "She?"

The meaning is very clear. Smarty-Pants does not believe that women can be ordained. As far as I am concerned, he is spot on: women cannot be ordained Catholic priests - the Church has spoken authoritatively on that. Yet there are those who believe otherwise for the best of intentions if not the best of reasons. The point is that Smarty-Pants has missed the point. So monoscopic is he that he wants to be right in every single com-box, even when it is not the issue.

The question was about the Sarum Rite and its execution, not on the finer points of Catholic Dogmata.

What irks me most about Smarty-Pants is that I know that I am little different and am just as likely to derail an com-box conversation in order to press an unnecessary point. 

I saw another post in a Gary Larson cartoon group in which a DIY-evangelist posted a picture of Samson along with a form of sermon. The reaction was as expected and it seemed many were driven away from Christ rather than invited to come to him.

This is the difference between invitation and coercion. From what we understand of the parable, we are invited to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. God does not force us to the feast with a battalion of angels armed with red-hot pokers. At all times, we are respected and the context of our social intercourse is due that respect. If we want to invite people, then we have to invite them at a time in which the invitation is appealing, in a way in which makes the invitation appealing. Treading on people's conversations shows a level of contempt for their integrity as human beings.

But then, perhaps social media does not help. it provides too much anonymity, too many hiding places and too little accountability for our words. I saw another FB post which said, "only num-skulls post in com-boxes" and I have some sympathy with that.

The main ingredient in being an ambassador for Christ is humility. The moment that we cultivate a certain smugness for being right, the moment we believe that we are the champions for orthodoxy, the moment we assume the prophet's mantle, the further down the ladder we descend into the grasping hands of the Evil One.

We are living in a world in which polarization threatens to tear us apart and destroy the love that we need to have for our neighbours. We can be more orthodox than St Athanasius but if we have no love and spew our orthodoxy into the face of everyone in every situation and in answer to every question, we are nothing, have nothing and will receive nothing from God because we will have shut Him out of the temple of our own idol of our smugness.

God save us all from com-boxes so that we might become human beings again!

Forgiving before the fact

Sermon for the second Sunday after Trinity

After Our Lord, one name dominates the New Testament and it is not St Peter.

St Paul not only features in the Acts of the Apostles, he is credited with the authorship of more books of the Bible than anyone else from the lofty epistle to the Romans to the little epistle written on behalf of of a runaway slave.

Yet, when we first meet him, St Paul - or Saul as he is then - is a persecutor of Christians. 

Saul becomes a Christian: he is saved from his sins. 

What justice is there for those he persecuted?

[PAUSE]

The fact of the matter is that St Paul is an accessory to murder. He consents to the death of St Stephen; He works to have Christians arrested; he delivers them up to the authorities who will torture and kill them. That means that the guilt of their blood is on his hands. Where is justice for the persecuted? If God forgives St Paul doesn't this make a mockery of the sufferings of those whom he persecuted?

[PAUSE]

First, we must note that before he is even converted, Saul is forgiven. St Stephen cries out for his forgiveness at the point of death. This is something Christians do. They forgive, and they are ready forgive not for their own psychological benefit but for the good of the person who wrongs them. The Lord's commandments are clear: love means forgiveness. It means abandoning pursuit of personal justice so that God can bring good out of evil. 

St Stephen's murder is not justified. It doesn't somehow become good just because God uses his murder to bring St Stephen home to heaven and to bring Saul to Christ. All sin is abhorrent to God and murder is sin. Yet this is God's victory over sin and evil. This is His victory over the Devil, that the intentions of those who perpetrate evil are thwarted when God brings about something greater. From the death of St Stephen comes the conversion of St Paul. From the conversion of St Paul comes much of the New Testament and, from the witness of the New Testament, more come to Christ. Those who seek to perpetuate evil find that good will spring forth. The trap that they have laid for others, they have fallen into it themselves.

There is only one unforgivable sin and that is to sin against the Holy Ghost. It is the hardened wilful act of denying the truth, calling evil good and good evil. If we refuse to come to God then He, out of love not insisting on its own way, will respect that decision. Saul does not commit the Unforgivable Sin.

But what about justice for the people he persecuted? They may have forgiven Saul, but can we forget? Can the horrendous acts of genocide that we witnessed in the last century be forgiven? Can all that pain and sorrow, that fear and bloodshed, that humiliation, degradation, and pitiless indifference to the humanity of others just be swept away in an act of forgiveness?

If we think God will forget all that misery then we have failed to hear his words to Saul: why persecutest thou Me? When we injure another person, when we hate another person, when we commit any form of inhumanity against any one of our brothers and sisters, we do the same to God Himself in the person of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Every blasphemous act committed in the Holocaust was as much committed against God as it was against any Jew, any homosexual, any non-conformist, any Roma, any Jehovah's Witness or disabled person.

God's justice is not like our justice. We can only try a criminal, find him guilty and sentence him to be punished. But we cannot make wrong right. We cannot mete out perfect justice. How can we find justice for the millions who suffer because of the actions of one man?

We cannot.

God can.

The best we can do is forgive and ask God to bring about His good in the lives of even the most ardent criminal. In recognising the humanity of criminals, in recognising criminals as our brothers and sister, we stop the Devil's intention to separate us from God and from each other.

This is hard.

But all sin is against God, and God is ready to forgive. The more that we forgive the more that we become like God. And still further, God promises to wipe every tear from our eyes. All will be well and all will be well and all manner of things will be well. 

One heart to bind them all

A reflection for the feast of the Sacred Heart. Why we need to reflect on the mending of society by destroying "white superiority" with an "unEnglish" feast.