St John, Burgess Hill & St Richard, Haywards Heath Masses 17.5.23

 

There’s some good teaching practice in our first reading where we go with Paul to Athens. The good teacher he was Paul had done his own homework. Though Christianity was novel to the Athenians the apostle saw in their shrine to an unknown God a pretext to say how Jesus Christ fulfils their aspirations in giving a face to the divinity worshipped without a face. He goes on to quote Greek poets and the consensus about God that ‘in him we live and move and have our being’.

I once walked up the Acropolis to the Parthenon in Athens in conversation with a few friends I made there on pilgrimage. We were from Roman Catholic, Anglican, Orthodox and Protestant churches on pilgrimage with some 700 people including 100 bishops and priests under the auspices of True Life in God and there was much helpful dialogue. The pilgrimage meant spending time with people formed in different Christian traditions. Our dialogue with one another happened mainly as we sat in conversation on longish coach journeys to holy places like the Parthenon.

We learn from one another as we get into conversation with one another.  Paul questioned the Athenians about their Unknown God. He quoted their poets. He had researched Greek culture to find an opening for the good news of Jesus. My visit to Athens reminded me Christianity is no monologue, just us speaking of Jesus, but a dialogue in which we listen and speak within our culture. Dialogue takes more humility than monologue. It takes time and patience and, above all, love. Just as dialogue between Christians and non-Christians can be transformative so can conversations among believers of different hue.

One fruit of such conversations on my visit to Greece in the footsteps of St Paul was catching onto the Jesus Prayer used among Eastern Orthodox Christians. This form of prayer repeats the sentence ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner’ constructed from the Gospels. It is one expression of faithfulness to Paul’s call to the Thessalonians to ‘pray without ceasing’ (1 Thessalonians 5.17). The devotion is seen to centre prayer in the heart and cools an over busy mind.

‘In God we live and move and have our being’. The ancient Greeks saw this and Christianity makes this plain. In practising the presence of Jesus Christ we are drawn closer to God through prayerful reflection upon scripture and our entering into the movement of Christ’s self offering in the Mass. In closing I invite you to listen to me say the Jesus Prayer three times and then go on for a minute or so making the same prayer in the silence of your heart.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.

Lord God, at this Mass we ask your help as we help spread the good news of your love. Allow us to see you in all the people and tasks you put before us.

Give us generous spirits to be enthusiastic and sympathetic as we engage with others about you.