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23 January, 2012

Homily for Evensong in the week of Prayer for Christian Unity

8:18:00 AM | By Diego
Readings: 1 Corinthians 15 - John 17

The theme for this year’s week of prayer for Christian Unity is “We will all be changed” from the First Letter to the Corinthians. In this passage Paul speak of the resurrected life that awaits all those who live and believe in Christ. He doesn’t write about settling differences amongst believers, nor does he urge the Church in Corinth to pray for unity. Paul simply states that Christ has won victory over death and sin, and that all the believers will be changed, coming to share in the same victory; a victory that will transform even our relationships with one another.

So, I want to put to you that divisions among Christians are necessarily connected to the fact that we are still mortal, still not changed in the image of Christ the Lord. That is to say, that our divisions are caused by sin – which more often than not can be identified as pride.
We break up the Church by sinning against God as we fail to seek Him with a sincere heart that has done away with personal prejudices and agendas; we fail to love God above all things and to love each other as Christ did. We intentionally break up the mystical Body of Christ, setting up churches and refusing to dialogue with other brothers and sisters. We wilfully ignore the Church, her unity and her creed; but most of all, we are content with a lukewarm spirituality which does not long truly for the Kingdom of God and the life of Christ within us.
We will all be changed. Death and sin will have no power over us, and because of this there will be no more divisions among us. This we know from our first reading, but what about now?

Should we keep on behaving as normal, fracturing and breaking up the Church in order to serve our agendas, our pride, and our self-centredness?
Should we not strive instead to live the resurrected life, for what we are capable of, here on earth?
Should we not endeavour to improve day by day on the way that leads to life and unity?
Should we not do our utmost to live the life of Christ, resurrected life, even now in our mortal bodies?
 
We will all be changed and all faithful Christians, from whatever denomination, will be gathered to enjoy the vision of God forever. However, we have a work to do here and this is to heal the wounds of the Church, her fractures and her divisions. In order to do so we must put our old self to death (cf. Eph. 4:17-32) as Paul says; that is, we need to put to death our pride and our selfish agendas, however good or zealous they might seem to us at first.
If the unity of the Church was something that would only happen at the resurrection, would Jesus have prayed to the Father that his followers may all be one(cf. John 17:11) in Him?
And if the resurrected life was something to be experienced only in the next age, would Paul have said It is no longer I, but Christ who lives in me (Gal 2:20)?
 
No. Therefore, let us make every effort to be Christ-like to each other and living in this present age a foretaste of the life and unity we will all experience through the fullness of the resurrection.
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22 January, 2012

Prayers and Devotions before the Blessed Sacrament

10:12:00 PM | By Diego

Lord Jesus, we come to you with deep sorrow for our sins and for all those occasions in which we have failed to act justly.
We ask you forgiveness for all the times we have failed to love our brothers and sisters, for all the sins that divide us,
and for the times we have broken up the unity of your Church.
Forgive us, heal us, break us, shape us and mould us into Your life.
We come to you in faith; Lord, hear us!
  Lord, graciously hear us.

Lord Jesus, we bring before you the needs of your Church.
We pray especially for a greater unity amongst Christians in this land, that we may be true witnesses of your salvation and love.
At this time, we also bring before you our prayers for those who are suffering persecutions because of their faith in You,
particularly praying for Nigeria and the Middle Eastern countries.
We come to you in faith; Lord, hear us!
  Lord...

Lord Jesus, we pray for Christian leaders, pastors and ministers everywhere.
Help them to feed your people and to be faithful shepherds of your flock according to your example and your Sacred Heart.
We come to you in faith; Lord, hear us!
  Lord...

Lord Jesus, as we kneel before Your presence in this Sacrament, we bring to You our own personal prayers and devotions.
(pause)
We come to you in faith; Lord, hear us!
  Lord...

Silence is kept. Then a prayer by John Henry Newman follows,

O most sacred, most loving heart of Jesus,
Thou art concealed in the Holy Eucharist, 
and Thou beatest for us still.
Now as then Thou sayest, "With desire I have desired."
I worship Thee, then, with all my best love and awe, 
with my fervent affection,
with my most subdued, most resolved will. 
O make my heart beat with Thy heart.
Purify it of all that is earthly, 
all that is proud and sensual, all that is hard and cruel,
of all perversity, of all disorder, of all deadness.
So fill it with Thee, that neither the events of the day 
nor the circumstances of the time
may have power to ruffle it; 
but that in Thy love and Thy fear it may have peace.
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21 January, 2012

Rosary Poster?

1:29:00 PM | By Diego

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This Sunday - Third Sunday of Epiphany (B)

10:21:00 AM | By Diego
Some of the Apocryphal texts of the New Testament report that Jesus worked miracles since His earliest childhood. However, for John, Jesus’ first miracle takes place in Cana of Galilee, at a wedding feast.
As the water in the jars, normally used for ritual cleansing, is transformed into wine we see that this sign shows forth Jesus as the Son of God and the One through whom the entirety of creation came into being (cf. John 1:3).
 
A new creation is heralded into the world by Jesus and a new religion is born out of Jewish practices: a religion that focused on cultic rules and ritual cleansing (symbolized in the water) is transformed in one which nourishes the faithful, offers the perfect cultic sacrifice, gives joy to the heart, and still has power to wash away all stains (symbolized by the wine in the cleansing jars). This later idea will be more and more important as we journey towards the celebration of Lent and Holy Week.
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17 January, 2012

Benediction Poster?

9:33:00 PM | By Diego

I've just made this on my phone. Cheesy, I know. Though I am actually thinking of using it in the parish...
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Truro Cathedral Choir in Concert at St Ives Parish Church

3:27:00 PM | By Diego
 

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15 January, 2012

Homily for the Second Sunday after Epiphany (B)

12:44:00 PM | By Diego

‘You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’ John 1:51

As a theological students first and as a member of the clergy now, I have often being engaged in conversations with every sort of people who affirm that Jesus was only as a great man ahead of His times, and that He was killed because of the what He preached. In fact, this kind of thinking is not alien to some church goers either; quite often you’ll find similar arguments used in mission, as people who have never approached Christianity seriously are told to behave like Jesus, and to obey his commandments even before having faith in Him. 

Today we see in our gospel reading that this behaviour was there right from the very beginning. Philip has been with Jesus for less than a day as, full of enthusiasm, he approaches Nathaniel and says, We have found him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth (John 1:45). However John, who is narrating the story, knows how to put in a little irony in Nathaniel’s response; Can anything good come out of Nazareth? (John 1:46).

Philip is one of the first disciples and although he has grasped that Jesus is the Messiah, he hasn’t quite understood everything about Him. For the evangelist, Philip has missed out another important part, which is Jesus, the Son of God; something that Nathaniel himself will affirm after speaking to Jesus. 
In this passage John is making two important points about Jesus and about society’s approach to Him. First, John insists on the centrality of Jesus as we read that He decided to go to Galilee, that He found other disciples (John 1:43), and that He saw Nathaniel even before Philip called him (John 1:48). For John, Jesus is in control of the situation wherever He goes; He is the one to call the disciples, and He is the one who reveals Himself through signs and miracles. Even Philip’s missionary activity has to be validated by an encounter with Jesus.

Secondly, John believes that Jesus’ role as Messiah is not the only truth about Him, but it is only complementary to the fact that Jesus is the link between heaven and earth, between our humanity and God. The Jews expected a Messiah, who would restore the ancient line of David; but for many, God was the only true King of Israel and these also expected God to come and live among them as He once did when God’s glory dwelt in the Temple of Jerusalem. It is in this frame that after Nathaniel says, Teacher, you are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel! (John1:49), Jesus replies, You will see greater things than these (John 1:50). In many ways Jesus’ actions in the world are these greater things.

So we see that all the different layers in John’s gospel start to come to life. At first, Philip says to Nathaniel that they have found Jesus, the One who fulfils the prophecies about a Messiah; this is good, but really not enough to paint an accurate picture. Then, we hear Nathaniel calling Jesus the Son of God and the King of Israel; this is even better, but still not quite there. Finally it is Jesus Himself who sets the record straight saying, You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man (John 1:51). But what does this mean?

In the book of Genesis, Jacob – the ancient patriarch of Israel – dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it (Genesis 28:12) and John wants the readers to associate Jesus with that stairway to heaven; you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man (John 1:51). The breach between earth and heaven was opened when the Word became flesh (John 1:14) and Jesus becomes the only link between the two places, the ladder we ascend, the way we run to reach heaven. 
Genesis continues, Jacob woke from his dream and said, Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it! […] How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven (Genesis 28:16-17). In this sense, Jesus Himself becomes the sacred space in which we worship, the true temple in which God dwells. 

Next time you’ll hear people talking about Our Lord as just a wise man or even as an important historical figure; I hope you’ll remember Philip and Nathaniel and how both of them, though being right, they were not able see the bigger picture. They couldn’t see greater things than these. Their faith was inspired by signs and miracles, but they still hadn’t spent enough time in getting to know Jesus.

-

One last though, if you meet anyone saying that our liturgy is complicated, tell them that some of our Orthodox sister churches have a liturgical prop to represent this passage of scripture. During the Eucharistic Prayer the deacons pull out some fans that look like sticks with angel figures on top. As the priest consecrates the elements, the deacons wave the fans over the altar symbolising the angels ascending and descending over Christ in adoration. How’s that for liturgical innovations?

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O Jesus, living in Mary,
Come and live in Thy servants,
In the spirit of Thy holiness,
In the fullness of Thy might,
In the truth of Thy virtues,
In the perfection of Thy ways,
In the communion of Thy mysteries.
Subdue every hostile power
In Thy spirit, for the glory of the Father. Amen.