St Richard, Haywards Heath Holy Innocents Feast 28.12.22

Introduction

Our intention at Mass is the repose of the souls of innocent children destroyed in the womb day by day and the worldwide campaign against abortion, infanticide and child abuse.

Though the world clothes Christmas in tinsel the Church’s liturgy and Octave goes in another direction altogether. There is no sentimentality in the day by day recalling of suffering - Stephen, Thomas Becket and today, very troublesome, the mindless slaughter of children by King Herod in his attempt to eliminate the threat to his throne by the King of the Jews announced to him by the wise men. Joy and sorrow are entwined in Christian faith. As we prepare to celebrate this Mass let us call to mind our failure to extend compassion to those who suffer as well as those times when our faith flags before the darkness and evil we see daily on the news.

Sermon

What do we make of the sobbing and loud lament heard in Ramah recorded by Saint Matthew weeks after the birth of Our Lord? Besides its link with the slaughter of the innocent children by King Herod, Ramah has sorrowful association for the Jewish people. Jacob’s wife Rachel died there and in the sixth century before Christ Jews gathered there to set off to exile in Babylon after the Temple was destroyed. What do we make of the Ramah’s set before us today in Ukraine, Afghanistan, Yemen, Nigeria and so on? Last week one of my friends hosting a Ukrainian mother and her children had news that after the recent bombing of their town her husband had escaped to Poland and should soon be with them in Lindfield. We all have stories like that of the horrors around and how they get redeemed to a degree.

‘Time has not softened the sharpness of the impression which is made upon thoughtful spectators by the sight of the sorrows of life’ wrote bible scholar Bishop Westcott. ‘Christ fulfilled man’s destiny, fellowship with God, by the way of sorrow; and the divine voice appeals to us to recognize the fitness of the road. [As Scripture says] ‘It became Him’ - most marvellous phrase - ‘It became Him for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sins unto glory to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings’ (Hebrews 2:10). 

Our Christian faith weaves together suffering and glory. It is convincing because it opens us to the glory of the world to come whilst not devaluing suffering, as in today’s commemoration of the Innocents. It ‘became God’ to be born in poverty, suffer rejection and crucifixion so as to show the possibilities of human nature and Love’s triumph in the resurrection. Christ indeed fulfilled our destiny of eternal fellowship with God by the way of sorrow and invites us to see ‘the fitness of that road’. 

May the Holy Innocents who await fellowship with us beyond the grave implore the grace of God for us that we keep compassion for those who suffer, especially the unborn, whilst having an eye to the glory Christmas opens up to us. Let’s have a moment of reflection enriched by a few verses from St Paul: ‘We are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ - if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him…. The sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies’ (Romans 8:16-23). 

 

St Wilfrid & Presentation, Haywards Heath Book of Tobit 2 June 2021

Participation in weekday eucharists draws us into the fullness of Holy Scripture including the deuterocanonical or apocryphal books as in this week’s reading and digesting of the book of Tobit. The Apocrypha, literally hidden books, are those books received by the early Church as part of the Greek version of the Old Testament. In Anglicanism and other traditions they are not considered divinely inspired but regarded as worthy of study by the faithful as at today’s eucharist. We read yesterday in this tale how Tobit like Job has over the top misfortune as a result of generous service to others including burying the unburied dead. He has his property confiscated, is pooped on by a bird and goes blind. 

Like the story of Job and Jonah the book has downward then upward movement, a seeming death and resurrection. This morning’s passage starts with Tobit’s sorrowful prayer of lamentation. ‘I desire to be delivered from earth and to become earth again. For death is better for me than life. I have been reviled without a cause and I am distressed beyond measure’ (Tobit 3:6). His sorrowful prayer coincides with another prayer of Sarah, also at her wits end with the death of seven bridegrooms. Sarah eventually becomes Tobit’s daughter-in-law through marriage to Tobit’s son Tobias. We read how ‘the prayer of [both Tobit and Sarah] found favour before the glory of God and [the archangel] Raphael was sent to bring remedy to them both’ (Tobit 3:17).

What spiritual profit might be found in our digestion of this strange passage? We might note the complaint against suffering by the innocent which could be allied to the sentiments of many of us or our associates in a variety of different situations. Then we have that brief window into heaven and the healing ministry of the Archangel Raphael sent to advise Tobias on healing his father’s sight. Thirdly, as in the books of Job and Jonah, we have in Tobit a Christ-like figure who descends through suffering and death only to emerge triumphant with prayers answered and a ripple effect in many others having their prayers answered.

As we plead the eucharistic prayer this morning, the priest doing so on our behalf and in the person of Christ himself, we associate our prayer ‘with angels and archangels and all the company of heaven’. Our prayer is voiced in a worldwide pandemic amidst tumult in many nations not to mention our own frustrations. The book of Tobit teaches us prayer to God is never unanswered. Prayer’s mechanics are beyond us though not beyond the angels. With Tobit and Sarah we plead before God. We voice pain and injustice and we don’t do so in vain. As the story continues - do read through the book of Tobit - we find ourselves in a roller coaster of sorrow and joy that we can associate with. The book ends saying ‘God sends us down to the depths of the underworld and draws us up from supreme destruction’ (Tobit 13:2). 

After prayer to God Tobit recovers his sight and Sarah gains a husband. Our casualties and that of our circle are reversible and our entrusting of ‘our souls and bodies as a living sacrifice’ to God in the eucharist in the company of ‘angels and archangels’ is never in vain. Dying, Christ destroys what is deadly, rising he restores our vitality and that of the whole world. In the eucharist we show forth his death and resurrection in joyful hope of his return and the transformation of all things. Lord, by your cross and resurrection, you have set us free. You are the Saviour of the world. [Picture: Archangel Raphael leaving the family of Tobias by Rembrandt (1637, Louvre)] 

Christmas 2020 St Richard’s Midnight Mass & Presentation Christmas Day

Christmas 2020 focus of joy and sorrow the world over. 

These two human realities are merged into our celebration tonight/today just as Jupiter and Saturn have been brought into conjunction in the heavens.

In his orchestral suite The Planets Gustav Holst presents Jupiter as jollity and Saturn as bringer of weariness. Compared with the buoyant music for Jupiter, familiar to us as tune for ‘I vow to me my country’ Holst’s music for Saturn is slow and unsettling.

Weather permitting you may have seen the conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the night sky this week. It happens every 20 years but this year’s has been their closest approach since 1623 and closest observable since 1226. There is talk of the grandest conjunction being the source of the immense light appearing as a guide ‘when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the King’ (Matthew 2:1,2)

The events of that night bring joy and sorrow to godly focus in such a way as to inflame the faith, hope and love that burn in our hearts tonight/this morning.

Of this focussing Thomas Merton wrote: ‘As a magnifying glass concentrates the rays of the sun into a little burning knot of heat that can set fire to a dry leaf or a piece of paper, so the mystery of Christ in the Gospel concentrates the rays of God's light and fire to a point to set fire to the human spirit’.

The movement of Jupiter and Saturn to conjunction lifts our physical eyes into the sky at night. The conjunction of God and the world in Jesus Christ, true God and true Man, sets fire to our spiritual perception building faith, hope and love in the face of the sorrows of 2020.

We find faith in a God who, having made us and put us at risk in the cosmos, brings knowledge of his love for us and for all things to light by taking flesh from the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Child Jesus builds our faith as ‘he concentrates the rays of God’s light and fire to a point to set fire to the human spirit’. ‘He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it’.

We find hope in the Christmas Feast and not just for 2021. If, as the psalmist writes, ‘this is the day that the Lord has made’ so is tomorrow. Tomorrow also is God’s, and ‘tomorrow, and tomorrow unto the last syllable of recorded time’. Many ask where we find hope at this season. Others say the pandemic has underlined the value of religion as keeper of the flame of hope. 

It’s not a matter of where there is life there is hope but where there is hope there is life, life worth living, life with fullness beyond fullness of years. People with hope, especially those caring for others this year against the odds and at risk to themselves, bring to focus what matters ultimately.

We find faith, hope and thirdly love, which is of ultimate significance, kindled tonight/today. As Jupiter and Saturn draw close in the sky, joy and sorrow are united in the humble Crib of Bethlehem - God is made one with us.

To see this we must take the step of receiving and believing invited at the start of John’s Gospel: ‘God in Christ was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God’.

I can set forth arguments for the existence of a God who is love but arguments will only go so far. The story of Jesus in the Gospels is accepted as historical by scholars in a way that is impressive compared to the qualifications they make about the historical claims of non-Christian religions. Even Christ’s resurrection is said by non-believers to have an enigmatic ring of truth. To move from the ring of truth to entering truth, living in faith, hope and love, is a matter of ‘receiving him… believing in Christ’s name… and welcoming power to become children of God.

One of our leading theologians, Rowan Williams, said last week that believers who strive to make rational arguments for the faith in conversation with secularists should have more modest aspirations. Our humble role is to keep a “foot in the door” until a saint comes along. Williams offered the example of Malcolm Muggeridge, a celebrated British journalist and satirist who was attracted to Communism in his youth and later converted to Christianity under the influence of St. Teresa of Calcutta. I quote, ‘it was not argument, but seeing something fleshed out that did it, but Muggeridge wouldn’t have committed without steady engagement over the years with the arguments’.

Christmas 2020 is the focus of joy and sorrow across the world. The conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn in the sky symbolises the bringing to himself God desires for every human being. Our role as believers in advancing this is advanced as our faith, hope and love are refreshed into overflow tonight/today.  

God bless each one of us as we set forth to our circle the argument for Christ and pray for them to embrace what he brings – belonging for the isolated, purpose for the lost, empowerment for the overwhelmed, forgiveness for sinners and direction for those who’re feeling lost. ‘And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth’.