Reflection – 24th June 2020Today is the Feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist and, as such, is an ideal opportunity to consider how we, in our own age, are being called to serve God – not least in these new and trying circumstances in which we find ourselves. St John, of course, served God as his prophet, the Forerunner of the Messiah and the one who, more than any other, summoned the people of Israel to repentance of their sins and to a life worthy of those who are being called to live as members of the Chosen People. We also are being called by God to serve him, albeit in different times and in a different manner.In the first place, we are called by virtue of our baptism, to be Children of God. It is through baptism that we are adopted into this filial relationship with our creator. In baptism, we are made co-heirs of the Kingdom and are therefore summoned to live in such a way that we reflect something of the nature of God in our lives. As God is love (1 John 4:8), we are required to reflect that love in our lives. This is not a mere romantic love, still less is it liking; rather, it is a self-giving sacrificial love, expressed in service. It participates in and reflects that love of God which we find supremely in the all-encompassing love of Jesus Christ, who became incarnate purely out of love for us.Of course, the expression of such a love, even in the form of a pale reflection of that divine love, cannot merely be an act of will, although the will is certainly involved. We cannot just decide that we will always show God’s love in our lives. Rather, we require the grace of God to enable us to do so. Therefore, we must always ask God to give us that grace, for we constantly have to battle against our own sinful and selfish tendencies, our own failings and vain desires. Yet God’s grace is not magic; always we must work with it. This is not just a matter of agreeing with God’s will; work requires actual effort, and effort can be hard going. As often as not, we must admit, we will fail, we will mess it up and fail to show God’s love. Yet, if we persevere in this task, we will discover that God’s grace never fails us, no matter that we constantly fail him!If we are called to show the love of God in our lives, how is this to be done? Just as Christ showed his love in practical ways, so must ours be shown. Jesus cared for the sick, the outcast, the lonely, the bereaved – and so must we. Over the centuries, the Church has taken on itself the ministry of caring for these, and other groups. Schools, hospitals, hospices, care homes, orphanages and so forth largely have their origins in the efforts made by Christians to act out their love in the most practical ways possible, quite often at the lost of their own treasure and lives. More usually, and in our own case most usefully as a model, they have shown the ordinary kindnesses of caring for the elderly and sick by visiting them, doing their shopping and so forth – the little acts of kindness and compassion which are, each day, placed in our own way.However good it is to show our participation in God’s love in this way, there is something much, much greater – to be able to lead a person who is not a Christian into the knowledge and love of God. To give practical aid is undoubtedly a good thing, as is to seek to do good at any institutional level, but to be able to help bring someone to faith is far, far greater. Practical help brings the recipient benefits in and for this life; bringing someone to faith enables them to embark on the journey to eternal life. This is what God has created us for and to be able to share in this creative and redemptive work of God by helping a person towards faith is a tremendous thing to be able to do. The gift of sharing in the nature of God himself is the greatest thing we can give to another human being – and, in any given case, it may be that it is our task, and ours alone, to play this part.So, when we wonder how we are to best serve God, let us not forget that, although we may have neither the gifts nor the opportunity to be a great revealer of the love of God in our lives through the practical works of love and mercy, we all have the opportunity to give that greatest gift of all – the invitation into the Church, which is nothing less than the life in Christ. As the Church moves forward in its life after the pandemic, it may be that we shall all be needed more than ever to help foster the love of God in our neighbour and thus share ever more fully in the work he gives us to do.Father David
A Welcome ReturnMonday 15th June, saw St Francis’s church once more open for private prayer, with the Blessed Sacrament exposed on the High Altar of the church. It was really good to see a steady number of people come back to their parish church to pray, whilst we are still in the midst of this pandemic and after a three month absence. Of course, there have had to be changes, in line with both Government and Church of England regulations to allow us to open. The most obvious of these is the new seating arrangement. Gone are the rows of chairs, to be replaced by little more than a dozen, scattered at suitable distances around the nave. Hand sanitizers are placed at the entrance and exits, I would ask that you make use of these. Kneelers are in the process of also being removed and we ask that you enter by the main door and leave by the side door indicated, in order to maintain distancing.Nevertheless, in spite of these constraints, it was fantastic to see people who have perhaps not seen each other for many weeks, be able to at least come back to church to pray before the Lord. Although, at the moment, we are unable to gather to worship the Lord as we are accustomed to, it as at least a welcome first step in the right direction!
14 June 2020The Body and Blood of ChristGospel John 6.51-58Jesus said to them, ‘I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live for ever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.’ The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ So Jesus said to them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’HomilyThis weekend the doors of our churches are allowed to open for the first time since late March. Only for private prayer, it’s true, but nonetheless it’s a moment pregnant with promise and hope. Why? Well, cast your minds back. It’s remarkable that the lockdown in our country, has (so far as Christians are concerned) covered almost exactly that part of the Christian year that runs from the feast of the Annunciation on 25 March (two days after the lockdown was announced) until today, the feast of Corpus Christi (when church doors can open again). Our long springtime retreat, so full of prayer for those who have suffered and died, has come to an end with what feels like precision timing.It’s a moment, of course, when we gladly acknowledge our debt to all those who have worked throughout that time, some of them tirelessly, to serve the shared needs of our society. Only because they have borne the heat of the day can the rest of us now begin to re-emerge and play our part in rebuilding our common life. But there it is: while church doors have been firmly locked, Christians have celebrated what the liturgical calendar simply gave us – the whole story of Jesus Christ, from the first stirrings of the Word becoming flesh in the womb of the Virgin Mary through to today’s contemplation of his permanent ascended presence in and through his Church, the living Eucharist. The Word became flesh in Jesus (Jn 1.14); that flesh became bread at his command (cf. Jn 6.51), and that bread gives us eternal life (cf. Jn 6.58).2Today’s gospel passage is one of the most shocking in the New Testament. It is part of a whole chapter that St John dedicates to the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves, the explanation that Jesus gives the miracle, and his answers to the questions of his listeners. It is a dense passage, because it is dominated by five words: eat or eating (which appears seven times), drinking (four times), flesh (six times), blood (four times), life or living (nine times) – all in a mere seven verses. The passage is the climax of the chapter. The whole discussion has been moving to this point; and the scene finally ends in confusion.As the argument intensifies Jesus makes a three-part solemn revelation about himself.• First, ‘I am the living bread, come down from heaven’ (v.51a): that is, ‘I am the living food that contains the very life of God himself’.• Second, ‘If any one eats of this bread, he will live for ever’ (v.51b): that is, this food not only contains but also communicates God’s life to those who eat it.• And third, ‘The bread which I shall give is my own flesh’ (v.51c). In other words, Jesus commits himself, literally gives himself away (Jn 13.1), ‘for the life of the world’.These three statements from Jesus seem to his listeners to be unfathomable even scandalous. He uses raw and realistic language, which had the effect of shocking his hearers either into greater belief, or (most of them) greater disbelief. In the heated argument that follows they ask each other, ‘How can this man give us his flesh to eat?’ (v.52); and ever since the world has debated Jesus’s reply, that ‘Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you’ (v.53). So perhaps we too should reflect on whether we have really understood his message.There’s no time to go into much depth in a short homily like this. But I want to point to one line in the final part of the chapter (a bit we didn’t hear read) that gives us a clue. It turns out that what we heard as our gospel was part of a sermon in the synagogue in Capernaum, and it’s now over. Jesus turns to his disciples and checks with them privately, ‘Have my words offended you as well?’ Well they plainly have, and so he gives them a pointer as to how they should understand his words. ‘What if’, he says, ‘you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? Would that help?’ In other words, it’s no ordinary man that can say he will give his flesh to eat. And it’s no ordinary flesh that contains and communicates God’s own life and commits itself to the limit. Jesus is the Son of Man: he is that man who belongs both to earth and heaven. He is the one that ‘comes down from heaven’, and whose home is the realm of the Spirit.3Over the years Pope Benedict has been very fond of quoting St Augustine describing an incident when, during prayer, he heard a voice saying, ‘I am the bread of the strong, eat me! But you will not transform me, and make me part of you [as happens with normal food]; rather, I will transform you, and make you part of me’ (Confessions Bk 7, 10, 16). This is the crucial point. This is the mystery, the mystery of faith that we proclaim after the words of Christ in the midst of the Eucharistic Prayer. In today’s gospel St John has put together the Resurrection and the Eucharist, which the Fathers call the ‘medicine of immortality’ (St Ignatius, Ephesians 20.2).The body and blood of the Lord are not ordinary bread or wine, which commemorate or signify something meaningful. They are not ordinary, because they really contain, communicate and commit to the world God’s own love and life! They are not ordinary, because they have been transformed by Christ, and when they are given to us they transform us, we do not transform them.They are not ordinary, because they make us missionaries of charity. That is how our individuality and uniqueness is liberated from itself, united to Christ, immersed in the life of the Trinity, and opened up to communion with brothers and sisters, whether they are near or far, whether I like them or not, or whether I am like them or not. As the Lord’s body and blood change us into him, we become members of one another. No longer divided, we are one body one spirit in Christ. The Lord’s body and blood unites me and you not only to the people whom we long to sit beside once more in church, but also to distant brothers and sisters in every part of the world.Dear Friends, in this new moment, as our church doors begin silently to swing open again, let us (wherever we can) visit our churches, and standing, sitting or kneeling before the Blessed Sacrament of the Lord’s body and blood, let us prepare ourselves for that day when we will be able to celebrate the Eucharist together again, and let us offer our souls and bodies to him who transforms us, and makes us able to be missionaries of his charity by giving us his soul and body.Two prayersSoul of Christ, sanctify me.Body of Christ, save me.Blood of Christ, inebriate me.Water from the side of Christ, wash me.Passion of Christ, strengthen me.O good Jesus, hear me.Within your wounds conceal me.Do not be parted from me.From the evil foe protect me.At the hour of my death call me.And bid me come to you,to praise you with your saints for ever.Christ be with me, Christ within me,Christ behind me, Christ before me,Christ beside me, Christ to win me,Christ to comfort and restore me,Christ beneath me, Christ above me,Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,Christ in hearts of all that love me,Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.
