Since I returned on 23^rd August 2018, I have celebrated about 100 funerals, 240 First Holy Communions, 250 baptisms, 20 marriages, and confected the Eucharist 2000 times, to say nothing of countless Confessions and anointings.

Under the notion of ‘six degrees of separation’ I have been with many of you for significant moments in your family’s spiritual journey, this being a great privilege of the life of a Parish Priest to accompany you and lead you to Paradise.

It is the priest’s primary duty to make real Ezekiel’s vision by administering the ‘well spring of the Church’s sacramental life’, especially Baptism, the Eucharist and Reconciliation, revitalising every soul they meet. ‘The Lord be with you’, sings the Priest, to which we reply, ‘and with Your Spirit’, recognizing that it is the Holy Spirit, who through priestly hands, gives life to ‘dry bones’.

The ‘Spirit’ dwells in the Baptised; God makes his home in us, so one day we can ‘dwell in the Lord’s own house for ever and ever’. Such a recognition of God’s presence and the promise of eternal life spurs us onwards to heaven and awakens a horror of sin that separates us from the communion of saints.

Today, the Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica, is the 6^th anniversary of my induction as Parish Priest in which I made a ‘profession of faith’ and ‘oath of fidelity’, to teach and uphold the Catholic and Apostolic faith. To borrow and adapt a phrase from John Lewis, ‘I have never knowingly been heretical’.

This feast reminds us that the ‘Church founded by Christ subsists in the Catholic Church’. The Basilica of St John in the Lateran is the Cathedral Church of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope and successor of Peter. From here, the Bishop of Rome ‘teaches, sanctifies and governs’ his diocese, making the Lateran Basilica the Mother Church of Rome and the World: ‘Most Holy Lateran, of all the Churches in the city and the world, the mother and the Head’.

At my Induction, there was another promise I made before the bishop, which was done privately in the sacristy because it was, in his view, less exciting – this was about protecting the temporal resources of the parish. Over the past 6 years, however, I have come to think it should also have been made publicly.

‘Don’t make any significant changes in your first year’ I was advised by other priests. Well, in the first six months, I was forced to get a grip of our parish’s finances, which led rapidly to an urgent restructuring of our parish – and just as we were getting a handle on this, COVID struck and changed everything.

As we have said already, Holy Baptism made us a living ‘Temple of the Holy Spirit’, and so, each member of the parish are the ‘living stones’ of the Church. Even if we had to meet in a tent in the carpark, the Sacred Mysteries of our Salvation could be celebrated and the gospel of life proclaimed.

Since the publication of the pastoral plan, Deacon Simon and I have been preaching sustainability and self-sufficiency. We are all relieved that the bishop has appointed a replacement priest for Bexhill. Fr Stephen will come with his own strengthens and weaknesses and look and rely on you for support.

Each of us, priest and people together, must play our part in the work of salvation – giving of our resources, time, talents, and money to support the mission of the Church. The salvation of souls is only possible if Christians accept their commission to go from here and announce the gospel of the Lord.

Go, then, my brothers and sisters, claim your baptismal dignity to build up the kingdom of God. Proclaim to society ‘Christ crucified and risen’; tell them of your joy in encountering Jesus in the parish – remind others that ‘outside of the Church, you can find everything except salvation’: ‘I rejoiced when I heard them say, let us go to God’s house’.

THE EVENING MASS OF THE LORD’S SUPPER

Our annual celebration of the ‘paschal mystery’ has begun, and over the next three days we celebrate the ‘high point’ of the Church’s liturgy – which is not a pageant or drama – but the work of the whole people of God: ‘we your servants and holy people’ once more offer Jesus to the Father for our salvation.

Theses Masses, commemorations and vigils see the interweaving of the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ, and in these moments where Jesus is at his most vulnerable, we see God’s glory most clearly. If our children do not see and recognize the value of sacrifice or understand that Christ gives himself to us fully, body, blood, soul, and divinity, then we still have much work to do.

Tonight, we express our deep gratitude for the gifts of the Holy Eucharist and the Sacred Priesthood instituted at the Last Supper so that we may have tangible access to the sanctifying grace of our redemption, the ushering in of the ‘New and Eternal Covenant’ which, perhaps, we never dreamed possible.

Lord, give us the ‘bread of life’ always! We are so hungry for God that he comes ‘under the form’ of bread. He so wishes to fulfil our joy that comes ‘under the intoxicating form’ of wine. He desires for us to have ready access to him and so, He anoints the hands of an order of priests so he may continue to feed us.

The ‘Amen’ (the assent) we express to the Eucharist Sacrifice and Meal tonight (and at every Mass) is not just a ‘yes’ to ‘body of Christ’ as a theological exercise but a commitment to be the ‘body of Christ’ truly present in and outside of these walls. Our participation in the Eucharistic Sacrifice does not end with the dismissal but with a commission to announce the good news of salvation.   

On this ‘night he was betrayed’, we consider the interplay between fidelity and betrayal. Only a friend is capable of betrayal, one who has been chosen, loved and trusted rejects ‘the everything’ that is on offer for ‘something’ less perfect because, in the moment of doubt and temptation, it seems more believable.

For Christ, he gave up his precious body and blood. This ‘pure victim, this holy victim, this spotless victim, the holy Bread of eternal life and the Chalice of everlasting salvation’ pours himself out so that we may have life and have it in abundance. What might we give up in return? It should be something precious to us; perhaps, then, as the diocese implements a pastoral plan, we might fittingly make the declaration: ‘This is my time, Lord, which is given up for you’.

In these days of the Sacred Paschal Triduum, we are called to sincerity, truthfulness, and fidelity to the word of God ‘who has called us out of darkness into his wonderful light’. Such virtues are expressed in sacrificial service of the community, the body of Christ, the Church following the example of the Head who ‘came not to be served but to serve and give his life as a ransom for many’.

This call to ‘fraternal charity’ begins again in ‘the washing of the feet’, with the priest performing an act of fatherhood to the community entrusted to his pastoral care. This sign is strengthened when the volunteers come from a cross section of the parish, from the three Mass communities and our various parish groups.

Here, throughout the Paschal Triduum, is a sign of the unity of the body of Christ found in the parish of Our Lady of the Rosary who have come together in ‘faith hope, and love’ to celebrate the sacred mysteries of our salvation. ‘Grant us, O Lord, that we may participate worthily’ in these days of the Lord’s Passover, ‘so that the work of our redemption may be finally and fully accomplished’.

We are, though, far from perfect – yet. On this night, the disciples fled in fear, here is a question for us: ‘are we weak enough to be a Christian?’ Will we rely on our own merits for salvation or allow, in these days, Christ to heal us of our burdens? ‘The chalice of salvation I will raise, I will call on the name of the Lord’.

If the disciples had not run, there would only be room for heroes, no room for people like us, who fall and thus need the reconciliation of the Lord’s Holy Cross.

THE EASTER VIGIL IN THE HOLY NIGHT

‘This is the night!’ a phrase repeated throughout the Easter Proclamation.  

It so happens that ‘this is the night’ when the clocks ‘go forward!’  Too often, we are consumed by time, especially the lack of it. The blessing of the Easter Fire and ‘Paschal Candle’ remind us, though, that ‘all time’ belongs to Christ.

This includes the darkness of the night, for ‘while it is still dark’, Jesus Christ ‘breaks the prison bars of death and rises victorious from the underworld’. Darkness cannot overcome him, and the light from this candle has penetrated the darkness of death, to be a symbol of our new and resurrected life.

When we think that darkness has overcome us, look deeply into the gospel, and see Christ at the centre ‘dispelling wickedness, washing faults away, restoring innocence to the fallen, giving joy to mourners, driving out hatred, and fostering concord’ amongst his people. ‘This is the night’ we gather around this flame, who is Christ, present to refresh the covenant between the Head and the Body.  

Tonight, this ‘Vigil’ is the time to find our identity and the place to discover where we belong. Our identity does not come from anything we do or from anything we possess, rather it is rooted in the person of Jesus Christ who was crucified for us, who is now risen and the one whom we should love above all things.

The Lenten Season, now completed, with its priority on penance, makes no sense without a renewal of our baptismal identity. The ‘Apostles Creed’, which forms the basis of this identity, is the symbol of the Roman Church in which we have communion. The Easter Candle, then, is a symbol of Christ who unites us.   

The candle is an image of sacrifice, its ‘raison d’etre’ is to burn itself out, an offering bringing togetherness and the light of truth. Throughout Lent, God has shown us our weaknesses, and in repentance, we see our Resurrection already begun, which our Candidates have experienced in their 1^st Confessions.

In renouncing sin and picking up our cross to follow Jesus Christ to Calvary, we let go of those actions and choices that have no real consequence in our life. In grasping hold of the cross, which has every consequence, we can ‘pass-over’ with him ‘this night’ into the garden of the resurrection, the place of eternal life.

The ‘Elect’ are now just moments away from their ‘First Reconciliation’ with God, when he washes away, in his blood, their original and personal sin. And while we cannot always see and understand this, we do appreciate the effects of sin all around us, from disordered desires to the ‘sadness of the certainty of death’.

The ‘sanctifying grace of this night’ found most especially in Holy Baptism reaches into the depths of our soul, freeing us from the power of sin. Baptism is for us what the cross and burial were for Christ; but with a difference: Christ died physically, He was physically buried, whereas we ought to die spiritually.

The ‘Sacraments of Initiation’ we celebrate tonight and throughout the year are not isolated moments, but continual encounters with Jesus Christ which encourage us to a life of service. Like a candle we are called to offer and burn ourselves out for the sake of the gospel. And in truly living out our ‘baptismal promises’ we shall become all light which shines brightly for others. That, perhaps, is the Easter Message St Mark wishes to covey to the Church: ‘Go!’

‘Evangelisation’ is the Christian ‘apostolate’ that the Lord’s people are commissioned for, the taking of the gospel to their brothers and sisters, who remain in the ‘darkness of sin’. Whether they realise it or not, they are searching for Jesus, and we must bring them here to the Church so they may find him.

Our danger is when we only look inward, consumed with maintenance, whereas we must be mission orientated, going out, meeting people where they are, but not leaving them where we find them; instead, we bring them home into the light of the risen Christ. ‘This is the work of the Lord, a marvel in our eyes’.

EASTER SUNDAY OF THE RESURRECTION

The Easter Gospel presents three characters with whom we may have affinity.

Mary Magdalene, who is ‘co-principal patron’ of our Parish, is stricken with grief – a spiritual darkness – which leads her to the wrong conclusion that ‘someone has taken the body’. Her all too earthly expectations prevent Mary from recognizing Jesus, knowing that He is dead, she mistakes him for the gardener.

She, like many who are bereaved, is in need of a ‘ministry of consolation’ to help her see that Jesus’ death is not the final act of his ministry but the beginning of his glorification. Mary, then, needs an encounter with the Risen Christ. It is only when Jesus calls her by her name: ‘Mary!’ She recognized him then.

Loss can affect us in a way that means we cannot see God’s plan clearly. We may need some accompaniment – which our parish ‘ministry of consolation’ team can provide – to help us to a clearer perspective that at death, ‘life is changed and not ended’, and that ‘all the ties of friendship and affection that knit us together as one throughout our lives does not unravel with death’.

Peter, ever impulsive, runs right into the empty tomb. As the leader of the Apostles, he feels he must take charge, to try and sort it all out, even though there is really nothing that he can do. Here too, is a man consumed by guilt and is desperate to know what has happened to his Lord and Master.

Peter has partial faith because he has yet to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Like the Apostles before us, we use these next 50 days to prepare for a fresh manifestation of the Holy Spirit in the parish community, and the 1^st reading from ‘Acts’ shows what happens when we live out the ‘Life of the Spirit’.

Gosh! Is this the same Peter who denied Christ three times, now professing that Jesus is the Messiah? He gives witness to all he has seen and necessarily includes a Resurrection Appearance and the gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. At Pentecost Peter’s preaching is so eloquent that ‘three thousand people’ request baptism. Last night, we baptised 5 Adults, receiving 3 more into the Church. May our preaching have similar clarity that, like Cornelius’ household, other family members will want to join us next year at the Eucharistic Banquet.   

At the end of the Mass, we are ‘sent out’ to announce the good news that the ‘Lord is Risen!’ And while this is no longer factually a surprise to us, it should still fill us with the same joy and amazement. As we look back on our life, we can see the blessings that God has bestowed upon us, the greatest of these was our Holy Baptism when we first entered the depths of the paschal mystery – dying and rising with Christ – our souls ‘transfigured’ and raised to eternal life.

John, the beloved disciple, sees with the eyes of love and because of his ‘virginal purity’ he has a clarity that allows him to simply ‘see and believe’ in the Resurrection. John was the only one of the twelve not to abandon him in his time of trial. And in taking Mary into his home, he is for us an ‘Apostle of Charity’, a virtue learned from leaning on Jesus’ breast at the Last Supper. By being attentive to Jesus’ Word, he wonderfully presents ‘the Word who is Life’ to us.

John’s presents the Resurrection as a mirror to Genesis. Christ emerges naked from the tomb, divested of his burial robes, ushers in a new creation of innocence. Jesus is the gardener (not because he tends flowers) but because as the New Adam he restores the communion lost by Adam & Eve in the garden.

The Sabbath (the day of rest) ‘passes over’ to the Sunday. Today, is the first day of the new creation, having the effect of God gathering his people to himself.  This makes every Sunday a mini-Easter Sunday, the day for us to responds to the Lord’s Command to celebrate the memorial of His death and resurrection.

Mary Magdalene, Peter, and John, teach us the meaning of Easter. Triumph!

Of life over death, of good over evil, and of hope over despair.

“He was speaking about the Temple that was His Body”

(c.f. Gospel for 3rd Sunday of Lent, B – John 2:13-25)

The Temple:

Last month, Canterbury Cathedral held a ‘silent disco’. In the Church of Saints Augustine and Thomas Beckett, they invited young people to put on headphones, and party, in the hope that would engage them in Christianity. Honestly, it seems a desperate attempt to win over a disengaged group. This is, perhaps, an issue with Cathedrals today, they have become museums and tourist attractions, rather than ‘houses of prayer’.

Our Sunday Gospel speaks of the treatment and lack of respect for the Temple. At the end of Seminary formation, we went on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, through Bethlehem, Galilee, and in Jerusalem, we had a moment of reflection and respect at the Wall of the Temple, all that remains of what the Jewish people believe once held the presence of God’s glory on earth.

The Dominican Aiden Nichols explains that the Jewish people contemplated God through the lens of His Temple Presence in Jerusalem. Those needing any form of spiritual uplift would make a pilgrimage to the Hill of Zion, and the psalms speak of it as the place to which the nations would look to and be gathered into.

The Temple was the place where God has established his glory, but this was not the Temple built by Solomon, but a second one reconstructed after the peoples’ return form Exile in Babylon, no longer containing the Ark of the Covenant, now lost to the people. However, the Second Temple remained a privileged place of encounter with God, and yet, it was not being respected.

Jesus, himself, showed a deep respect for the Temple, for it was in this place that Mary and Joseph presented Him forty days after his birth, and at the age of 12, he decided to remain behind, so He could be about his Father’s business.

Each year he would have visited the Temple for the Feast of the Passover, and he would have paid the Temple Tax to enter, and the gospels speak of his public ministry patterned around his pilgrimages to Jerusalem for the great Feasts.

Jesus cleanses the Temple because the money changers were tainting that glory by narrowing true worship only to those who had purchased their sacrifice using the Shekel. Whereas Jesus wants the Temple to be a ‘house of prayer’ for all, with true worship purchased by the sacrifice of his body and blood.

Later, Jesus predicts that the Temple would fall, and in AD70 it is raised to the ground during the first Jewish-Roman War.

His Physical Body:

The Gospel is clear, it is Christ’s body that is the true sanctuary of God’s presence on earth. As Christians, while we understand the necessity of a building for worship, ‘The Church’ is not a building, it is made of ‘living stones’, the ‘Ecclesia’ being the gathered assembly of God’s people.

As Jesus’ body is ‘The Sanctuary’, the Altar (during Mass) is our primary symbol of Christ in a church. It should not be obscured by flowers, chairs, Christmas cribs or Easter Gardens. These are good things, but they should be off to one side. Yes, they are blocking a side altar, but this begs a question of whether there should be more than one altar in a Church, but that’s another talk entirely!  

God has assumed a human body to give us a tangible means to receive him and respond to him. In ‘building the Church’ as His Body, God provides us with an accessible place to access his glory. By setting Himself free, by the Holy Spirit, it is a sign of how the gospel is to be communicated to the world world.

It is not that He could not do this before, but we were not ready receive such a revelation of his presence. Of all the regions, Christianity is marked out by the ‘Incarnation’, that God chose to dwell on earth as a human person, in a physical body. He is ‘fully man and fully God’ and because his conception is of the Holy Spirit he is without sin, showing us that sin is not an authentically human.  

There have been many heresies about Jesus, such as ‘Docestism’ that taught Jesus only appeared to have a physical body, or ‘Apollinariansim’ saying that Jesus had a divine mind, not a human one or ‘Monophysitsim’ saying Jesus was a hybrid, neither fully human or fully divine.

All these devalue or nullify the redemption won by Jesus on the cross. As sin is an infinite offense against God, humanity is incapable of dealing with it. Justice, however, demands humanity atones for its crime. To explore this in more detail, we can consider the theology of Anselm; in brief, Jesus had to be fully human and fully divine to deal with humanity’s sinfulness, bringing us to the Mass, the representation of the cross: ‘this is my body which is given up for you’.

The one sacrifice of Calvary brought about the ‘atonement’, the ‘at-one-ment’ with ‘God the Father of mercies, [who] through the death and resurrection of his Son, has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit amongst us for the forgiveness of sins. Through the ministry of the Church may God grant you pardon and peace…’ and in Confession, we hear Christ say:

‘…I absolve you of your sins…’

In the Old Temple, on the ‘Day of Atonement’, the High Priest entered the sanctuary, the ‘holy of holies’, performing atonement rituals for the people’s sins, but these had to be repeated each year. By his death, Jesus, the true High Priest has entered the heavenly sanctuary. His Last words on the cross are ‘it is finished’, but what is finished? The atonement, our reconciliation with God.

His body, blood, soul, and divinity:

John 6 is essential in understand the significance of Jesus’ body. At the Annunciation and Christmas, we celebrate that ‘the Word became flesh and dealt amongst us’. The second person of the Blessed Trinity, who is consubstantial with the Father brings the substance of God into our humanity.

Just as God, pitched his tent amongst his people wandering in the desert, now God in Christ ‘tabernacles’ himself amongst the ‘living stones’ of the Church, feeding, and nourishing his people ‘in Word and Sacrament to strengthen us and make us holy’. John 6 dismisses any symbolic interpretation:

‘I am the bread of life; he who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me will never thirst’.

Some people could not accept this, because they could only see Jesus as the ‘carpenter’s son’. Despite the ‘signs’ (miracles) they cannot see past his weak human body. Sadly, they stopped following him from this point. Sensing their hesitation, Our Lord turns to his disciples, ‘do you want to go away too?’ Peter, speaks up, ‘to whom shall we go, you have the message of eternal life’.

In instituting the Holy Eucharist, Jesus Christ takes the bread of the Passover and elevated its meaning. He is the ‘bread which has come down from heaven’, and his blood, poured out from his body on the cross, is how the new and eternal covenant is initiated for his people, of which the Eucharist is its fitting memorial:

As St Paul says to the Corinthians, ‘The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a participation in the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ?’ Surely, participation is not passive, but a profound sharing in the life, passion, death, and resurrection of Christ, in fact an initiate sharing in his body.

“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. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven’.

The Eucharist is a sublime gift, feeding the divine life given in Baptism. “Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof (of my body), but only say the word and my soul shall be healed”. Each time we receive Holy Communion we know we are receiving Jesus, ‘body, blood, soul, and divinity’, and so, we should be properly prepared and disposed, to make the encounter fruitful.

We appreciate this communion is temporary as we await the summons to join Him in heaven and participate in the banquet of the Lamb of God, of which the Mass is a foretaste, all the incentive needed to fulfil each Sunday, the Dominical command: ‘Do this in memory of me.’

Jesus abides with us even as we leave the Church, but and this is a big but, only if we have received Holy Communion in a ‘state of grace’, our souls free from mortal sin, those actions that explicitly or implicitly infringe the Ten Commandments, which remains at the heart of the moral code of God’s people.

Just as this time of year is a good time to have a ‘spring clean’, we should also have a deep dive into our souls, ‘examining our conscience’ to see where we have fallen short of the glory of God and resisted grace from entering our hearts.

Christ is the Head of the Body the Church:

St Paul, writing to the Corinthians, uses the metaphor of the body to speak of the Church, saying each part of the body, the eyes, ears, nose, hands, feet etc have a particular function, contributing to the life of the body. As the scripture scholar Tom Wright says, we can extend this metaphor to mean all members of the body of Christ have gifts that they must use for the common good of the mission and that we should not look down on another member, who at face value, has a minor role, but only when we are looking through earthly eyes.

In discussing our Vision, the parish ‘core team’ reflected on the story of the moon landings, and particularly, when a janitor was asked about his role, he said he was there ‘to put a man on the moon’, that the cleanliness of the NASA site was an integral part of the mission; he had completely bought into the vision. In the same way, a person who stacks the chairs and washes the floors is an integral part of the Church’s commission to ‘make disciples of all the nations.’

Without the Sacred Liturgy, however, the Church is reduced to a charity. We must not forget a person is a unity of body and soul, and it is via our senses (sight, taste touch and smell) that we experience the world around us. This is true of the liturgy, that ‘work’ of God’s people that defines the Church. As Pius XII said, the language of the liturgy is ‘signs perceptible to the senses.

Scott Hahn says on his book on ‘Signs’ that the Mass is often described in terms of ‘smells and bells’. The Liturgy, then, should be beautiful to give us a ‘sense’ of heaven, present on earth in the celebration of the Mass. Bells are wrung to herald Lord’s appearance and incense is offered altar and ambo as a sign of ‘our prayers rising to heaven’ and, perhaps, to obscure our vision, for if we truly saw what was happening we might be overwhelmed if we were to see and stare directing at the Lord’s ‘power, glory and presence’ that is moving in this place.

The Mass is our ‘source and summit’. Thus, we must not pigeon-hole our faith to an hour a week. It is our source into an hour a week. The Mass is the ‘source’ because it provides the impetus: ‘Go, you are sent to announce the gospel’ and it is our ‘summit’ because we bring the fruit of our apostolic labours back to it in thanksgiving and praise. Mass starts with a confession, through our fault, through our fault, through our most grievous fault’ where we have not done this.

St Paul says, ‘never let one part of the body say to the other I do not need you’. As ever, the Church needs all the baptised to step up and play their part in the mission and maintenance of the Church. We must, though, discern our role, and amongst the quality of each member, there remains a diversity of function. We must never, as Our Lord warns his disciples, ‘Lord it over’ one another.

At Baptism, we became a ‘Temple of the Holy Spirit’. As St Irenaeus says, ‘where the Spirit is, there is the Church and every grace’. St Paul also teaches us about the various charism needed to preach the gospel.

Providing we are humble, there is a role for everyone, from those who love their neighbour practically or spiritually, through an increase of wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, prophecy, discernment, and the various tongues as a manner of spreading the revelation of gospel. The graces given by the Holy Spirit are for the benefit of the Church; they are not to be presumed upon but discerned by the Church’s shepherds to ensure they are used for the common good.

If one person of the body suffers, we all suffer. Hence, the ‘corporal works of mercy’ are an integral part of the community’s mission. Here is also an opportunity for our ecumenical spirit, for we can work together in service of endeavours like the Food Bank or the Homeless Unity Group, here in Bexhill.

There is, of course, only one Church, and we must be ‘one body, one spirit in Christ’ and while doctrinally we cannot speak of ‘Churches’, we can acknowledge that elements of our mission can be found in other ‘ecclesial style communities’ who can put us to shame in the work of evangelisation and charity.

The Glorified Body:

Our redemption is not completed until we get our bodies back. While we are still in Lent, we must have an eye on Easter. As heard last Sunday, the ‘Transfiguration’ gave the disciples a glimpse of Jesus’ glorified body to prepare them for the scandal of the cross, the acceptance of which leads to the garden of the resurrection, our new creation in Christ, and our ultimate reality of personhood. Our first ‘transfiguration’ was baptism, when the old creation was washed away, and we became this new creation in Christ. Now, we await our final transfiguration, a complete renewal of our body in the resurrection.

Our identity is to be a citizen of the ‘new heaven and the new earth’ when God will live with his people. Being after the Resurrection, this is when there is no more sin or death, where our creation in God’s image is fully realised as we ‘see God face to face and will be like him for all the ages’.

As the ‘bride of Christ’ there is a mystical union of with Christ, the head. The betrothal was the Cross; now, the bridegroom has gone to his ‘Father’s house’, to prepare a room for his bride. Like ‘wise virgins’ waiting for His return; we keep vigil with our ‘lamps of faith’. When the bridegroom arrives, we are taken into house, where there is the great banquet of heaven (c.f. Cana a sign of this).  

Mary and the Body of Christ: A final word about Our Lady who had the first and most intimate experience of the Body of Christ, carrying Jesus in her womb. At the prompting of the angel, she carries out the first ‘Corpus Christi’ procession in the ‘Visitation’. As Mary and Elizabeth meet, they have a natural encounter, Jesus and his forerunner have a supernatural encounter, John ‘leaping for joy’ at the presence Christ. As the Diocese implements a Pastoral Plan, we must take Jesus into the community, inviting them to come and encounter the body of Christ, his Church.

7th October 2023: Homily for the Solemnity of Our Lady of the Rosary and the 130th Anniversary Mass:

Our 130^th anniversary brings us together in praise and thanksgiving for the past, but also enables us to discern the future. May the Lord continue to bless us now and forever: ‘our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth’.

A parish’s identity is lacking without the Eucharist. Centred around the ‘Word of made flesh’, we come to invoke, thank, and praise God. Invocation is a joyful ‘remembrance’ of the wonders worked by God, making ‘Do this in remembrance of me,’ an ongoing participation in Christ’s death and resurrection.

Thanksgiving prevents us taking for granted the blessings received from God. ‘Thanks be to thee, my Lord Jesus Christ for all the benefits thou hast given me, for all the pains and insults they have borne for me!’ Praise begins the process of sharing in God’s glory, now, and for eternity. May ‘our participation at the Altar’ enable us to ‘be filled with every grace and heavenly blessing’.

The Liturgy is the work of priest and people together, ‘we, your servants and your holy people, offer to God’s glorious majesty from the gifts that he has given us, the pure victim, the holy victim, the spotless victim, the holy Bread of eternal life and the Chalice of everlasting salvation’. And as Vatican II stressed in its constitutions, the Mass should be sung, especially the psalms and antiphons, themselves grounded on Sacred Scripture. As St Augustine said, ‘he or she who sings well, prays twice’.

What does the parish pray for? Many, various things, but Our Lady shows it is for the courage to consent to the ‘Word’, and to be of service to God; but service without love of him, is merely a hobby, and at worst ‘lording it over’ others.

Genuine service includes saying ‘yes’ to proclaiming the gospel ‘in and out of season’, knowing they are the ‘words of eternal life’ and an expression of God’s own love for all humanity He wishes to save. It is also a saying ‘no’ to sin which only separates us from God’s love, preventing us flourishing as a child of God.

In the Mass, the Church repeats the Angel’s greeting to ‘announce’ the gospel and begin the Eucharistic Prayer: ‘The Lord be with you’ is an affirmation that Christ is present with us, filling our soul. If we have dealt with our sin and opened our hearts to grace, the Lord will take shape in us, making us ‘full of grace’.

Surely, this elicits the same response as Mary: ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour’, so when we are dismissed and told to ‘go’, we pass on our joy of encountering the Lord and magnify his presence to others.

What does the next 130 years look like? It is impossible to tell, but history shows us it will be a mixture of faithfulness and infidelity. When we are faithful, we enjoy blessing (not the same as happiness) and prosperity (not the same as money). Instead, it is a clarity in perceiving who God is, that He is present to us, and that our identity is understood only in reference to Him, and his plan for us.

The ‘Acts of the Apostles’ reminds us to remain in communion with the Apostolic Faith. Gathered in the ‘upper room’ with Mother Church, we persevere in prayer together, with Our Lady whom the disciples made room for her in his home. Five Hundred years ago when the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary was instituted, we ‘remember’ how Christianity was at risk from invasion from the Ottomans.

The Christian Fleet was greatly outnumbered, but the night before the battle the people of Rome held them in prayer, going in procession, praying the Rosary, attributing their victory to Our Lady’s Intercession.  Today’s battle is not a Naval one, but a real battle for souls. To exclude Christianity from our society does not bring a secular humanism; instead, it opens the door for Islam to take hold.

In the next 130 years, we must recapture our Tradition; we must cherish and hand on the lives of the saints, the Church’s devotion, and liturgy, all of which are examples of holiness, which will leave the next 130 years in good stead.

8th October: Homily for 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A (part of the 130th Anniversary Weekend):

130 years ago, in 1893, the Rosminians believed ‘Bexhill’ would be a fertile hill to plant a vineyard: a presbytery, to which were later added Churches and Halls.

And although the parish has undergone significant change over the years, there is still evidence of a fruitful harvest, for instance, the Chancellor always commends the number of RCIA applications he received from us each year.

We should never take such fruitfulness for granted. Our ‘History of Salvation’ teaches that when the people put their trust in God, they flourish; but when they are unfaithful, they experience hardship, even exile from the Promised Land.

So, never take your parish for granted: invest in it, with your prayer, time, and money, so that in another 130 years the parish will still be playing its part in the salvation of souls for the eternal life. The Church is compared to the vineyard; a piece of land to be cultivated, ‘rooted and grounded’ in Scripture and Tradition.

Always and everywhere, we proclaim Christ crucified and risen from the dead; principally by celebrating the Eucharist together as a perpetual memorial of Jesus’ death and resurrection which brings about humanity’s reconciliation with God and is the means by which we pass-over with Christ from death into life.

It has been said that Bexhill means ‘windy hill’, although there is no universal agreement on this. For Christians, this wind is the Holy Spirit who ‘ignites’ a fire in our hearts, making us ‘zealous’ in blowing the seed of the gospel around the vineyard, pollinating, and refreshing this section of the vineyard in A&B.

Thus, we are only part of the whole, so what happens in Bexhill and Little Common is not in isolation to the situation in the Diocese, itself a microcosm of Western Europe. We will experience more change moving forward; some a consequence of a loss of the faith which once converted the known world.

May we allow the Holy Spirit to direct our actions, corrects our faults, guide our conduct, make us holy and order our life to God’s will. Today at 4pm, there is an event in St Mary Magdalene where our parish groups will introduce themselves to us, speak of their particular charism and tell us how we can get involved.

Brethren, never doubt that ‘the Lord is near.’ St Paul encourages us to rejoice that the Lord promises to come again; indeed, he comes to us in prayer, in word and in sacrament, especially in the Holy Mass. Many of the people of the early Church lived in environments hostile to the gospel and despite the real danger to their lives, they put their trust in Jesus as their Lord and Saviour. In the Roman Empire, this was enough to get you martyred for it was seen as a denial of the Emperor’s own ‘divinity’.

Prayer help prevent anything robbing us of peace and joy and helps us deal with life’s challenges with fortitude and grace. People say their prayers, but do we stop and listen to God’s response? Maybe he is calling us to a particular service, vocation, or sacrifice ‘for our good and the good of all his holy Church’.

Through the Church, Jesus continues to instruct us in what is good, holy, and true. The people of the past 130 years had a decent grasp of their Catholic faith. Today, in what some might call a ‘post-Christian era’, many are deficient in their grasp of Christianity; and so, moving forward, we must commit to on-going formation, which does not stop after receiving Confirmation!

Even your parish priest needs ongoing formation, that is why I was at Douai Abbey for the clergy on-going formation retreat, listing to eight conferences on sacred scripture to help improve my preaching. Here is my challenge to you all, when was the last time you went on retreat? Never? A long time? It would be very beneficial if you did, perhaps at Worth Abbey which is not far away and regularly runs retreats for people. Or if that is too much, how about attending our short Advent talk later in December!?

As we move into a time when the number of priests returns to levels we had prior to the Second World War, the Apostolate of the Laity will more important than ever. To keep the faith alive, we will need to know what we believe as Catholics, otherwise the ‘spirit of the age’ risks undermining truth and virtue.  

The Parish of Bexhill is a choice vineyard, which belongs to God. We have the immense privilege of tending to it, and so, today, we recommit to bringing in the Harvest, so when the Lord comes, he may collect His fruit, ‘fruit that will last’.

Homily for Vespers (Evening Prayer II) of 27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (c.f. 1 Peter 1:3-5):

Without the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, not only would we not be celebrating our 130^th parish anniversary, but we would also not even be Christian. The Resurrection is an event that regenerates our faith and provides hope that death will not be the last word in our life, that instead, the word of God himself shall command that we rise up and live with him in the new heaven and earth that is to come, one that will not be spoilt by sin or fade away.

The remarkable revelation of Jesus Christ is that God is Father. In the ancient pagan world, ‘gods’ are to be feared and appeased with sacrifice. Instead, Jesus invites us to come close and enter into a personal relationship with God, who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Through Holy Baptism, we have become sons of God in the Son, Jesus Christ. Our goal is to become so Christ like, so that when we stand before the Father at our personal judgement, all God sees starring back at him is an image of his beloved Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hope in our eternal inheritance allows us to carry our cross, which through the Resurrection, we no longer see as an instrument of torture and execution but the sublime image of God’s love for the world. And so, Jesus says, ‘come to me all you who are overburdened, and I will give rest for your souls’. My dear brothers and sisters do not be afraid to take up your cross daily and follow the Lord; he promises us all the graces and strengths necessary for us to pass-over with him into the garden of the Resurrection.

Our parish mission must include the preaching of Christ crucified and risen from the dead. His Death and Resurrection is the qualifying criteria for being a Christian, the fulfilment of all the salvific promises made to God’s people since the fall of humanity in Genesis chapter 3. From the risen Christ, we are born again by water and the Holy Spirit.

Hence, why we called this weekend ‘ignition’, to let the Holy Spirit ‘enlighten the eyes of our minds so that we can see what hope God’s call has for us’.

Then, we too, must be prepared to take this good news of salvation to others so that they may share in our faith, hope, and love in the gospel. May our 130^th Anniversary be another Pentecost moment in the life of our parish; may we find a new language of truth and virtue that can penetrate the dullness of this modern society so obsessed with a return to the darkness.

As has been said, ‘we are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song’; like the Apostles before us, we are aware of our human limitations, but God’s grace, especially the gifts of the Holy Spirit given at Confirmation allow us live out a bold martyrdom, a living witness to Christ: ‘we proclaim your death, O Lord, and profession your resurrection, until you come again’. In a changing world, the gospel stays the same; and he promises to be with us, yes, to the end of the age.

This is the witness of countless saints, holy men and women who have given their lives for the sake of the gospel, by living out the corporal and spiritual works of mercy in their communities. Because Christians are of Christ, they can bring the same hope of Christ to the world; in fact, it is not a suggestion but a duty.

Only by finding Christ in his Holy Church can people’s hearts be truly satisfied; but surely, we can find Christ at home alone!? Yes, indeed that is true, but when an individual member cuts themselves off from the ‘Body of Christ’, they will struggle to find the necessary nourishment of the Eucharist: ‘his body, blood, soul, and divinity’; in other words, the fulness and totality of God in Christ. This is why the apostolate of the SVP and our Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion is so vital because it allows the housebound to remained connected to the Body of Christ.

Whatever our parish may look like over the next 130 years, it must include the celebration of the Holy Mass, itself a powerful and joyful proclamation of Christ’s Death and Resurrection. All the other liturgies and the devotions that the Church has in her ‘arsenal’, are an important part of our life and mission but can never be seen as a satisfactory substitute for the ‘re-presentation’ of the sacrifice of Calvary that takes away the sins of the world, and therefore, leads to life.

In this second Lent talk, we consider the benefit of the light of the gospel (c.f. 5th Sunday of Lent).

On hearing that Jesus wishes to visit Bethany, the disciples are concerned because of the threat to his life. He rather cryptically replies: ‘are there not twelve hours in the day? A man can walk in the daytime without stumbling because he has the light of this world to see by, but if he walks at night he stumbles because there is no light to guide him.’

The people of Jesus’ time were much more a tune to the rhythm of the day from sunrise to sunset, adjusting their day according to the season. Work, therefore, while it is light, for when darkness comes no-one can work. In our magnificence of technological advancement, we have lost some of this rhythm and tend to over-work and despite the benefits of artificial illumination, we may have lost our equilibrium.

And so, perhaps, we need to look a bit deeper into what Jesus is saying. He is using day and night as an allegory, to say that the daylight hours equate to human life, and night-time to death.

Jesus received his mission from his Father and there is not a moment to waste in bringing the good news of salvation to the people. There is, then, an encouragement to us not to waste the daylight; in other words, not to waste our life, for when darkness falls it may be too late. We too have been commissioned to bring the gospel to others; and there remains an urgency to our mission.

A reminder or perhaps a warning, John the Baptist came as a witness to bear witness to the light; he was not the light, only a witness for the light. This is a reminder of our share in the gospel; we do not serve to enhance our own position or status in life. We serve, always, so that Jesus may increase, meaning we must decrease – not in our activity, but in our egos!

Although the disciples are concerned for Jesus’ safety, He is not, because he knows that his ‘hour’ has not yet come. When his hour does come, however, darkness will cover the whole land – this being the description of the evangelist in his passion narrative.

Jesus, perhaps, is also warning us of how our opinions on life are easily swayed from one hour, from one day to the next. It is an invitation to illumine our conscience so that we know how to think and act in any given circumstance, but especially those concerning faith and morals.

Light and faith complement each other. Jesus announces that He is the light of the world, but the people already saw the Torah, the law and scriptures as the light given to the world,  so Jesus claim is very bold indeed. Not only is he taking this light to himself, but he is also even suggesting that the Law was in darkness.

This he implies also in Matthew gospel when he speaks of people placing their light under a bushel. No, the light must be put on the lampstand for all to see, and that a city on a hilltop must be a beacon for all to see. As such, Jesus is claiming to perfect the old feast of Tabernacles which celebrated the Temple as the Light of Jerusalem.

Therefore, when Jesus tells us: ‘I am the light of the world’; he is making a definitive statement of his divinity, By using the ‘I am’ statement,  He is appropriating for him self the divine name ‘I am who I am’. By saying that He is the ‘light of the world’, He is telling us that it is not possible for the ‘light’ to fail. Even at his appointed hour, He is not failing because no one takes his life from him. He is offering his life, so that we might have life and have it in abundance.

The presence of the light of the world, as the Father continues to be revealed, will not be limited to the historical life of Jesus; it will continue in the presence of Jesus and his associates; in other words, it will continue in the Church. Without the gospel, the world is in darkness, a moral darkness that can be very deep. Perhaps, our biggest problem is that there are too many ‘undercover Christians’, not in a secret service idea, working behind the scenes but in the sense that many people tick a box on Sunday and do not ‘go and announce the gospel of the Lord’.

‘Your grace is enough for us.’ The power of God’s grace is being equated with the light of the sun; and yet, we know how dangerous it is to look directly into the sun, so is the power of God’s grace to conquer the ‘night’; to raise the dead to life! The light of the gospel, then, is sufficient for us to place our faith in the resurrection.

In the Prologue, the beloved disciple, tells us that ‘the Light’ shines into the darkness and the darkness cannot overcome it. However, in our first Lent talk we were aware that not everyone likes to be brought into the light because it exposes us, especially our imperfections!

And so, we have another allegory for day and night, the struggle between good and evil. Judas brings the temple guards at night time for evil often works at night when there are less people to see what is going on and object to it.

However, we know that darkness is not a thing in itself, it is the absence of light, and even the tiniest beam of light will penetrate the darkness. In the same way, cold is the absence of heat, and evil is the absence of goodness.

Therefore, we have seen this, all it takes is one small gesture of goodness to penetrate cold and dark hearts. Goodness leads to goodness. It is the same principle of building good habits, in other words, we train ourselves in the practice of choosing virtue over vice: to choose truth over falsehood, chastity over promiscuity, forgiveness over keeping grudges; to always keep justice and mercy in perfect balance, to tackle and alleviate the poverty and keeping our greed in check. Our light shines when we walk uprightly and speak the truth with love, without compromise.

Letting our light shine is, then, no abstract concept; it involves concrete behaviour, and active choice in the time of behaviour we put out there. For instance, the sacrament of matrimony is an image of Christ the bridegroom and his bride, the Church. The martial life, then, is permanent and faithful and it is fruitful.

God is glorified when our light shines, especially in the vocational state to which he has called us: whether that be in the single life, the married life, the consecrated life or in Holy Orders; all of us accept the means by which God wishes us to make his presence felt in the world: ‘my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour’.

Pentecost was most certainly a moment of light in the Church, taking a small Church of disciples who were timid and afraid and releasing them upon the world as a public enterprise. The symbol of fire for the Holy Spirit shows that the third person of the Blessed Trinity provides light for us to see by. Just as the pillar of fire and cloud led the Israelites through the Red Sea, so the Holy Spirit continues to lead the way from death to life.

Ignorance, contempt and disownment of truth are the cause and root of many an evil in our world because they disturb individuals and communities. Therefore, the Holy Spirit speaks, leads, warns, decrees, teaches, chooses, calls and send, so that no one may be left in doubt that Jesus is Lord.

The Sacrament of Confirmation provides the gifts of the Holy Spirit to sustain us in the moral life: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and fortitude, of knowledge and piety, and a spirit of the fear of the Lord. They help to complete and perfect the virtues of those who receive them.

It is a shame that the number of teenagers coming forward for Confirmation are dropping off significantly, and that those who do receive them see this last sacrament of initiation as a completion or sacrament of exit, rather than the impetuous to begin their missionary adventure.

The fruits of the Spirit are perfections that the Holy Spirit forms in us as the first fruits of eternal glory: the tradition of the Church lists them as: charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and chastity.

A final word, as always, to Our Lady, who as Star of the Sea illumiates the darkness of the night, so that we may find a safe harbour: the Church and later heaven. Our Lady always points us in the direction of Her son, helping us navigate the sometimes-rough waters of the world, and even our own passions.

As Saint Bernard of Clairvaux tells us, ‘if the winds of temptation arise; if you are driven upon the rocks of tribulation look to the star, call on Mary; if you are tossed upon the waves of pride, of ambition, of envy, of rivalry, look to the star, call on Mary. Should anger, or avarice, or fleshy desire violently assail the frail vessel of your soul, look at the star, call upon Mary.’

Mary, as star of the sea, directs us to safety, to salvation, to life beyond survival. She points us to peace. She is a promise that we will never be lost, that the storms of life will never spell disaster. And so, we place ourselves in her hands:

‘Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary, that never was it known that anyone who fled to thy protection, implored thy help, or sought thy intercession, was left unaided. Inspired by this confidence I fly unto thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother. To thee do I come, before thee I stand, sinful and sorrowful. O Mother of the Word Incarnate, despise not my petitions, but in thy mercy hear and answer me’.

The Second Sunday of Lent is also called ‘Transfiguration Sunday’, for the Gospel speaks of Jesus taking Peter, James, and John up the Holy Mountain, where he is transfigured in their sight. As part of our parish mission, to ‘let our light shine’, we consider the Transfiguration, as an inspiration to let our own light be seen.

In 2013, when I visited the Holy Land, I had dinner in the house on Mount Tabor, served by a community of recovering drug addicts and alcoholics. What better place than the Mountain of the Transfiguration for these young people to discover the truth of who they were and the ‘emptiness’ of addiction to worldly vices.

Mount Tabor, itself, was the site of a battle between Israelite army against the Canaanite King, for it had strategic importance in controlling the crossroads where the Galilee’s north – south route met with the east – west highway. Descending from the mountain, the Israelites attached and vanquished the Canaanites. In the second temple period, it was the custom to light beacons to inform the northern villages of the Jewish Holy Days and the beginning of new months.

It seems most appropriate, then, that Jesus would become radiant there, shinning with bright rays of light, to the north, south, east, and west. And, in the Transfiguration, Jesus lets us glimpse his true nature. His appearance changes, and his glory is seen by the disciples, announcing the beginning of something new.

He lets them see the inner light that he experiences when He spends time in prayer with his Father: his face shone, and his clothes were radiant with the splendour of the divine person of the Incarnate Word.

When we pray the ‘Lord’s Prayer’, the ‘Our Father’, we too are given a glimpse into the very heart of God. This prayer enlightens our intentions, showing us how to pray and what to pray for, and a means by which we learn how to think, love, and receive God’s love. We trade in our hard and wounded hearts for his compassionate and Sacred Heart, so that we may be perfected as the ‘body of Christ’.

With the appearance of Moses and Elijah on the Holy Mountain, Peter wished to make three tents, highlighting to us the true feast of tabernacles has appeared. The ‘Feast of Tabernacles’ remembered God’s provision in the wilderness but also looked forward to the Messianic age to come, when all the nations will flow to Jerusalem to worship the Lord.

The disciples learn that Jesus is the living Torah, the ultimate lawgiver, and the complete word of God. In seeing Christ transfigured, it is hoped that the disciples will be strengthened for Christ’s passion to come. This means that the erecting of tents is inappropriate because they are not meant to live in this moment but look forward to a future reality to come.

St Thomas Aquinas calls the Transfiguration ‘the greatest miracle’ because it shows baptism and the perfection of the life in heaven; Christ alone is the true home of the Christian, who the Creed says is ‘light from light, true God from true God’.

Indeed, on the holy mountain, this is the place where human nature meets God: the meeting place of the temporal life with the eternal life, and Jesus is the connecting point between the two, if you like, a bridge between heaven and earth. And so that we are not left in any doubt that Jesus is the fulness of the law and the prophets, we hear a voice announce from heaven, ‘This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him’.

In Christ, the words of Sacred Scripture become clear, transparent, and bright. Truly, as St Jerome said, ‘ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ’. May we always worship and teach with the mind of the Church, which is the mind of Christ.

On Good Friday, we will hear that it was for ‘the truth’ that Christ came into the world, and ‘all those who are on the side of truth should listen to his voice’. The only voice we should be following is the one who will go up to Jerusalem and lay down his life so that we ‘might have life and have it in abundance’.

The Transfiguration is, then, a preview of the Resurrection to come, which will be our own post-death transfiguration. In the Resurrection, there will be another intense light which burns into the burial shroud, and immense power of re-creation that turns death into life.

The ‘Turin Shroud’, whose authenticity has taken on a new lease of life in recent years, seems to show the energy produced in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The image on the cloth seems to have been burnt onto it by a massive burst of radiation, emitted in a fraction of a second. This is the intensity of energy needed to conquer death, the one reality that we all share.

But what is that energy compared to the fire of the Holy Spirit poured out on the Apostles at Pentecost and to the Church in the Sacrament of Confirmation, as the Spirit is given to us so that we may let the renewed nature of our baptism – which was our first transfiguration – be seen by the world.

As we heard from St Paul on Ash Wednesday, we are ‘ambassadors for Christ’; in fact, we are to be an ‘Alter Christus’, another Christ for the world. Now that Jesus has risen from the dead, we are able to tell everyone about ‘the things that we have seen’ in the Apostolic Church.

As the Apostle John will tell us in the first verses of his first letter,

‘That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched – this we proclaim concerning the Word of Life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our joy complete’.

The Church continues to be the outward and visible manifestation of God’s Kingdom, and so, the kingdom is here and not yet. The Church lets people see Jesus, especially when ‘two or three gather in his name’, but especially in the celebration of the Mass and the Sacraments.

The kingdom will only be completely experienced when Christ comes again in glory, a glimmer of which is shown to us in the Transfiguration. However, this should be our motivation to ‘make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all the commands that Christ has given us’, remembering his promise that he will be with us, yes, indeed, ‘even to the end of the age’.

We will, however, experience resistance to the good news of salvation, as the prologue of John tells us, that some ‘prefer the darkness to light’. Just as modern analytical science tries to shine a bright light on the object that it wishes to study, we too shine a light into the depths of a person’s soul.

The turn toward the light is not an easy move. The darkness tries everything it can to distract us. But the darkness can never overcome the light. Christ’s radiance will never dim or lose brightness, ‘for in him was life, and that life was the light of men!’

The light is a magnet for your soul. And like science, which takes apart the object of study, we find that the light of Christ, penetrates the depths of our being. And so, it can be easier and more comfortable to stay in the darkness because when God shines his light upon us, he shows up all our imperfections.

Perhaps the reason why the Enlightenment Period failed, is that a light capable of illuming every aspect of human existence cannot come from within; to keep us honest, it must come from God, the author of all life. Even the Old Testament was insufficient to find salvation; yes, the prophets were good and holy men, but they could not illumine us sufficiently, so God sent us his only Son.

It is Jesus who says, ‘I am the light of the World’. He who is like us in all things, but sin, is a light so bright that he doesn’t just light us up skin deep, but instead shines right into our hearts. When we are trapped and enslaved by sin, we are immersed in the darkness, unable to move, almost chained to it. It’s as though the darkness has arms, reaching out to consume your whole being.

Then, the hands of Christ, first stretched out on the cross, and then through the hands of the priest, stretched out over our heads in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is Christ who says: ‘I absolve you’, and we feel the weight of the cross leave our shoulders and our heart is again light.

In knowing that we are at ‘pardon and peace’, we begin to feel the warmth of God’s light consuming us, drawing us to take a turn towards God, a turn to the ‘right’. We are clean, pure, and filled with God’s grace.  We are no longer blinded by the darkness as God calls us onwards to continue our movement, our pilgrimage home.

In this movement from the darkness of sin into the light of God’s grace, we experience the spiritual journey of repentance. In turning away from sin, we have moved 90 degrees from darkness. But what comes next? God doesn’t only free us from the clutches of sin, Christ is calling us to live in the freedom of the Gospel.

We can say sorry to a friend for all the ways we have hurt them, but total repentance comes in our purpose of amendment and the conscious decision to love them better from this day forward. The danger is that the 90 degree turn we once made turns into complacency; it feels like a safe place in comparison to the previous darkness but once our attention becomes distracted, sin can creep up to us unexpectedly from another side.

This is also a symptom of one who has become lukewarm in their faith; for sin is still beside you and not behind you. ‘Get behind me Satan!’ so that always we may have Christ beside me: ‘Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, king of my heart; Christ within me, Christ below me, Christ above me, never to part!’

This Holy Season of Lent, may we be ever attentive to the near occasions of sin, and take steps to avoid them. Sin still beckons us, distracts us, and tries to steal our joy. Even just turning our eye to steal a glance at sin is all it takes to turn back to the left and what we should have left behind when we were first baptised.

Staying in the light of Christ, especially in times of great temptation of struggle is recommended but we are less likely to sin when it is on show for all the world to see. The season, we pray for full conversion, to turn completely away from sin and find the true freedom and joy of the gospel.

The ‘light of Christ’ calls us to share the love and mercy that has been shown to us; to live out that love once and for all: ‘Go, and announce the Gospel of the Lord’.

“The Life of Pi: A fanciful whimsy?”

A consequent thought came which may be usefully reflecting the story of ‘The Life of Pi’.
The film tells a (possible fantasy) story of a boy shipwrecked on a boat wherein he finds a tiger also landing. The tiger is plainly a threat and Pi realizes that he cannot tame the tiger and so decides (successfully) to train it—even giving a name ‘Richard Parker’. This results is a somewhat uneasy but real modus vivendi and both survive. At the end the tiger somewhat emaciated and not particularly grateful slinks off into the jungle.

The current coronavirus provokes thoughts and in particular what and why it is? Fundamentalist preachers believe plainly that it the wrath of God on wicked sinners. But we cannot believe this. Our God is not Zeus hurling down thunderbolts nor ‘thundering Jove’ (Horace Book 3 Ode 5 ‘Regulus’). We know who God is like because we have had Jesus Christ, the reality in our midst of Love—giving everything on the Cross to save us, not to zap us!

It is we who have caused trouble in our world by sin and although I do not really know what this virus caused, it is not impossible that somehow through our ill treatment some damage in the environment/ecology has triggered the virus. That is only a whimsy. But there is no doubt that the virus is likely to remain with us for some time. There are a number of Plagues in History—Athens in 430 BC: The Black Death 1348: The Great Plague 1665: none of these disappeared in one: the plague in Athens went on for several years as did the Black Death and (for one year) the Great Plague. This is what we may have to live with.

So the questions should not be ‘Why is all happening to us?’ but ‘What can we do about it?’ Despite the horrors of the Virus there have been many benefits—the quick and advanced advance in technology for connection etc: the great generosity and courage of so many people (as in the War): the chance of time to reflect (Easter has been the most prayerful and reflective celebration for me for many years) Things will be very different and, let us pray, for the better. Back to Pi and Richard Parker. It is hoped that a vaccine will be found to allay the Virus—may it be so! It is unlikely that it will totally zap the virus—and Nature when thwarted can find her own way back! So why not ‘train the tiger?’ If we go with Nature she often responds. We may well decide how to live with the Virus and work in tune with nature. We may not like it but we may get used to it. Look at opportunities for the present rather than either try to recover the past—or give up!

Some ways in which to change. Firstly let us respect the environment and its ecology and look after the planet and cherish it (Genesis 2). Let us remain being kinder and generous. and enable the poor and needy and oppressed have their rightful share. Let us value and develop the changing technologies for the better and enable us to share and care in unity. Let us be humbler and realize that the world (and its poor) do not belong to us. In these days we have found new refreshing ways of recreation, social life and meditation: let us develop them. There are other options—find your own! Above all remember that God is our Loving Father and Good Shepherd with the gifts of The Spirit, and turn to Him and learn from Him how we can love Him and each other. And the tiger may not only be trained but may we grow in love.

Fr Boniface Moran, 1st May 2020.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton