Holy Week is the central part of the Christian Year and, owing to the restrictions in place due to the virus, cannot be celebrated in church this year. I have looked into streaming the masses I celebrate here in the Vicarage but, alas, our phones are too old to manage to video anything over 5 minutes. However, all is not lost! The Society, of which we are a member parish, is organizing professionally-produced reflections and live liturgies for the season. To access these, merely look at the following page:https://www.sswsh.com/fullposts.php?id=284 Please look at this now, to put the details in your diaries. Please be assured that, in so far as it is logistically possible, the full Holy Week liturgies will be celebrated in the Vicarage.Fr David
Reflection – 31st MarchOne of the joys of using a Catholic edition of the Bible, as opposed to the more readily available Protestant version, is that it will contain the full, ancient, Canon of Scripture: that is, is will have all the books of the Bible used by the Church of the first centuries. Although, or perhaps because, these ‘apocryphal books were written at a comparatively late date is Old Testament times (though many contain much older material), they often betray a range of influences drawn from cultures around Judea, although that can also be true of much earlier books.In today’s Morning Prayer, the Old Testament canticle is taken from one such work, the Book of Tobit. Although comparatively little-known, it is a book full of wisdom and encouragement. As the extract used this morning makes clear, even in the most testing of circumstances we remain in the hands of God. We, as mere mortals, cannot see the whole picture, merely a little part of it – and that in a partial and confused way. God, on the other hand, sees the whole picture and not only sees it but, despite appearances, remains fully in control of it.In times such as these, it can be hard for us to see the goodness of God. Yet we should recall that, even in times when we rejoice in the good that God is providing, there remain many in the world who are suffering whilst we have cause to rejoice. Yet God is still ‘in charge’ of the situation! It can be hard to trust in God when things seem piled up against us and we are suffering greatly. I have no doubt, reading the Gospels, that Jesus himself understood this temptation, both in the Garden and on his way to meet his death! The fact that he has experienced the pain and loss of control that our society is experiencing provides us with the knowledge that God himself walks with us along what is, even for him, a familiar path.In spite of all the sadness, despair and trouble of these days, as Christians we remember that God is in control, the God who reigns is with us and nothing in life or death, as the Apostle Paul reminds, can separate us from the love of God. As we go through these dark days in this strangest of Passiontides, let us do our utmost to keep this fact before us, remaining firm in that love which has conquered all enemies, and which upholds us for ever.Father David
Reflection – 30th MarchAs we enter these last two weeks of Lent, the season known as ‘Passiontide’, we have an opportunity to follow more closely in the way of Christ’s suffering, which is the meaning of ‘Passion’, perhaps more closely this year than at any other time in the recent past. Suffering has, in a very real way, come upon the world, in the form of a nasty, invisible disease, which strikes seemingly at random and is particularly cruel to the elderly and vulnerable. Truly, because many of the symptoms can easily be confused with a simple cold, it is hard for people to know if they have, or have had, the virus, or not.The media often portray our struggle to overcome this virus as a battle between life and death. There is perhaps some truth in this, but it also makes it all too easy to forget that this is a ‘battle’ which, ultimately, we all lose. Even Jesus Christ, the Son of God, had to accept death as the sad but inevitable consequence of humanity’s alienation from God.Yet, whist it is understandably easy to become sorrowful in the face of mortality, we must not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by it. Christ has, in dying and rising again, conquered death on our behalf and has promised us eternal life, if we but accept him as Lord and God! This promise is true and is attested by many witnesses who saw the Risen Lord. The truth of the promise and the reality of God’s love are experienced in our lives in so many different ways. We must not despair, for the Lord holds out eternal life to us!Five years ago, I had the great joy and privilege of travelling to Turin, Italy, to stand before the awesome and mysterious Shroud of Christ, thus fulfilling a lifetime’s ambition. I was overwhelmed by being in the presence of that cloth which wrapped Christ’s entombed body and which no attempt to disprove its authenticity has show itself to be credible. Yet, however much one venerates the cloth which bears the marks of a crucified dead man, what I find to be so wonderful is that it is the first ‘witness’ to the Resurrection and, for those ‘in the know’, is far from being a mute witness. God doesn’t leave us to rely on ‘blind faith’, but rather provides us with evidences which cannot but fail to impress us and lead us to, or confirm, our faith in him.As we walk with Jesus over the next days, let us reflect on the fact that, whilst we will experience the sorrow of his betrayal, the agony in the Garden of Gethsemane and the horror of the execution by crucifixion, we know that the story does not end on a Roman cross on a hill outside Jerusalem. Rather, because of Christ’s rising on the third day, the story never ends, and it extends to include our stories, too. We are invited into this story of risen life, the Life which conquers death, so that it becomes our story in Christ.So, in spite of all the darkness in the world, which at times threatens to overwhelm us, let us recall in these days of the Passion that it is through death and in spite of death, that we are given the gift of true, eternal life with God – and, in these dark days, gives us the source of true joy – something, indeed, to a smile on our faces!Father David
Spiritual Reflection – 28th MarchIn the Gospel passage appointed for Mass today (John 7:40-52), we find ourselves following Jesus as he very definitely has to deal with the hostility of his nation’s leaders, who steadfastly refuse to accept him, even as their own paramilitary police confess that ‘No man ever spoke like this man’ and avoided having to arrest one who they instinctively, it would seem, recognized as possessing an authority which was above that of the priests and scribes.We, too, recognize that authority in Jesus but, unlike even the sympathetic people of his own day, recognize that authority as being Divine. We know that Jesus is not merely a good man or even a prophet, but the God who created all things, who has chosen to become incarnate for our salvation!CS Lewis, one of the most perceptive Christian communicators of the 20th Century, once pointed out that Jesus could not possibly be merely a good man, a great moral teacher. On the contrary, he either had to be ‘mad, bad or God’, as no good man could go around claiming to be divine, as Jesus did, when he was a mere mortal. If he was deluded into thinking he was divine when he was only human, then he was mad, and no trust should be placed in the deluded ravings of a madman. His enemies certainly did not think he was a bad man, although some of them certainly thought he might be possessed by demons (John 8:48). However, no serious and impartial witness believed he was in any sense mad or possessed and his recorded words give the lie to that notion! That leaves only the option of accepting that Jesus was, indeed, who he claimed to be – that is, God become Man, the Word Incarnate! As such, for God cannot, by definition, be either deceived or lie, his word is true and his teaching, however strange or difficult to accept, is absolutely true and to be trusted at all times and in all places.Thus, when we find Jesus teaching that all those who follow him, who believe and trust in him, will inherit eternal life with him in God’s Kingdom, we can have faith that his words are Truth itself. Even in the most testing of circumstances, even in the face of the certainty of our death, we can be sure that the promises of him who has overcome death because he is Lord even of Death, are certain and sure.As we begin to follow ever more closely the Way of the Cross over the next two weeks, we are not reflecting merely on a series of long-gone historical events. Rather, we meditate on the events which have won our immortality and life with God, that have made possible our theosis, our ‘divinization’, whereby we are made fit for life with Christ in the Kingdom. This, not ‘Easter Bunnies’, the ‘greening of nature’ with newly-awakened Springtime life or the lifting of the gloom of winter is the true message of Easter, to which these are merely mute witnesses.As we walk in the footsteps of Jesus over the holy fortnight ahead, let us trust in him, meditate on his holy Passion and seek to serve him here as he would have us. Trusting in him, let us recognize in this dusty Galilean of long ago our eternal and true God who indeed spoke as no other person has ever spoken, for he has the Words of Eternal Life.Father David
