St John the Evangelist, Burgess Hill Transfiguration of Our Lord 6 August 2023

God has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6b)

The radiance of Jesus lightens the mind, warms the heart and energises the will.

Just as dynamite contains within itself potential energy that can be released to give light, heat and a surge of momentum so it is with Jesus Our Lord.

The Feast of the Transfiguration provides first disclosure of that radiant energy central to Christianity which is at the heart of its forward momentum flowing from ‘the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ’.  

Christianity goes forward today by radiant energy as we come again and again before Jesus in word and sacrament and in the hearts of his faithful to see our minds, hearts and wills irradiated.

As Fr. Bull, one of the great Mirfield Fathers put it, the glad tidings of Christianity are in what Jesus Christ did for men and in the abiding energy of that work.

We gather at the eucharist this morning to be caught up afresh into the radiant energy of Jesus which shines from today’s scripture with an invitation to seek a fresh illumination from the truth that is in Jesus (Ephesians 4:21), a fresh warming of our hearts by his Sacred Heart and a fresh energising for active service from the working of his great power (Ephesians 1:19b).

All of this will flow from the radiance of Jesus, what the Apostle calls the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 

As dynamite is ignited to release its potential energy into light, heat and momentum so our faith ignites the radiance of Jesus to light up our lives and through us light up a world so desperately in need of that irradiation.

I want to suggest that this ignition process has three dimensions – intellectual, devotional and practical. 

There is an intellectual challenge to lay hold afresh on Christian basics so we better answer for our faith. I wonder when you last read a book about the Christian Faith.  Or even the Bible itself? If someone asked you why you thought Christianity was true would you be able to argue for the truth of the resurrection? 

Just a few questions to get us thinking about what’s called apologetics - not apologising but working at thinking through our faith so as to be able to give a better ‘apologia’ or reasonable defence for believing as Christians. I have brought a few copies of my own book itself entitled Elucidations - light on Christian controversies. (Show) It costs just a fiver if any of you fancy summer reading about  topics ranging from self-love to unanswered prayer, Mary to anti-Semitism, suffering to same-sex unions, charismatic experience to the ordination of women, hell to ecology and why we should trust the Church.

The radiance of Jesus lightens the mind. It also warms the heart to an overflow of love.

A radiant Christian is more than someone buzzing with ideas about Christ. There’s something out of this world streaming through them. To gain the radiance of Jesus we need to be exposed to his radiant love. Christian friends, holy priests, all of them help – but nothing can replace our own individual business with God. Welcoming the radiance of Jesus into our hearts is a life-long struggle because of our fallen nature. We need a regular time of prayer, a discipline of self-examination and confession, a resolve to intercede for others, to give a proportion of our income to God’s work and so on. You may have a chance in these summer days - or with greater opportunism the odd rainy day - to review and renew your Christian rule of life, maybe even plan a retreat. Anne and I are discovering Worth Abbey’s monthly Quiet Fridays. Ask one of our clergy if you want advice on planning a Retreat or Quiet Day. 

The radiance of Jesus lightens the mind, warms the heart and then, lastly, it energises the will.

Where would our study and prayer be if it never led us into action, to be part of what Fr. Bull called the abiding energy of the once-for-all work of Jesus Christ?  We are here at the eucharist to gain that energy. 

To go back to the physics analogy, just as the potential energy in an explosive is released to give light, heat and a surge of momentum so all Jesus attained through his life, death and resurrection is given to be celebrated and released so as to give power and direction to our lives. Send us out in the power of your Spirit to live and work to your praise and glory we pray.

How have we acted to transform our environment to be more as Christ would want it since last we met at the altar? How have we acted in recent weeks to change the world around us for Christ? Inasmuch as the radiant energy of Jesus is in us, we find ourselves raiding the kingdom of fear with love, encouraging those who are down, forgiving those who come against us harshly and providing for those in need from our own resources. This energy carries our lives forward to work for the kingdom of this world (to) become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ (Rev 11:15). 

For such energising of will, warming of heart and illumination of mind we lift our hearts to the Father at this Transfiguration Mass seeking our own transfiguration through the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

 

St John the Evangelist, Burgess Hill Pre-Lent Sunday 27 February 2022

And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white…(and) a cloud came and overshadowed them Luke 9 

Years back when I was a student at Oxford a coach taking pilgrims from my church, St Mary Magdalene’s, to the Shrine of Our Lady at Walsingham crashed and someone died. The Sunday afterwards the parish priest preached his sermon with reference to this Gospel and I will never forget Fr Hooper’s sermon.

He presented to us, as I now present to you, how the mystery of the glorious Transfiguration is set under the dark cloud.  After Our Lord’s clothes became dazzling white… St Luke records a cloud came and overshadowed them.

As we gathered in St Mary Mags that Sunday we were reminded how God’s glory can shine brightest of all through the cloud of bereavement. We gather Sunday by Sunday to celebrate the glory of the risen Lord with pain, the pains of the church and its divisions, of the world in its godforsakenness, especially with the invasion of Ukraine and the pains of those of in our circle which are most inscribed on our hearts. Then - the glory of the Lord shines over us as we take, bless, break and share bread!

Christianity is about suffering and the supernatural - these are the two things that keep us close to Christ - the two things Lent reminds us of.

We the baptised are a dying and rising people of a dying and rising Lord.

We are a people losing ourselves to gain the Holy Spirit.

Paul expresses this beautifully in the second reading: ‘All of us, with unveiled faces, seeing the glory of the Lord as though reflected in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord, the Spirit’ (2 Corinthians 3:18)

Made in his image we are being transformed into his selfless likeness …from glory to glory.

Made to know ourselves, love ourselves and forget ourselves - a good motto for Lent! Know yourself, love yourself, forget yourself’ 

Know yourself - for that is the other side of the coin to knowing God. 

Love yourself - as you recognise again and again how much you are loved by God who made you. Then - and here is the struggle - forget yourself as Christ forgot himself on Calvary so he could die and rise and give us the Holy Spirit!

Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people unprepared to forget themselves, people wanting instead to be important as seems the case with President Putin. 

As Raniero Cantalamessa writes: ‘70% of the human body is made up of water, but perhaps even more than 70% of man’s spirit is made up of pride...We all long to be noticed. If we could visualise the whole of humankind as it appears in the eyes of God, we would see the spectacle of an immense crowd of people all standing on tiptoe, all pushing one another in the attempt to make themselves seen and all shouting, ‘I’m here too, I’m here in the world too!’. All this pride is, of course, just smoke that death dissipates day by day. ‘Vanity of vanities’...but its consequences are...dreadful’.

There is so much wastage in life and that does not exclude the Christian life. So much of our energy, even though we be Christians, gets dissipated in the instinctive serving of our desires or attending to our fears. The energy we put into this subtracts from all we are able to offer the Lord for building his kingdom. Our Lord needs more of our energies directed to his ends and not our own, our wills more and more directing our lives to his praise and his service.

Self-forgetfulness is a real gift of God which balances self-worth and self knowledge. I find that juggling around with these three is what the deepening of spirituality is all about. The supernatural and suffering play their part as well from God’s side…

Sometimes we need to know ourselves better, sometimes to pay attention, to be kind and loving to ourselves. There are times to concentrate and affirm the self. There are many other times when we are best off getting to work on forgetting ourselves.

As we approach Lent the Church presents to us in today’s scripture the radiant and transfigured humanity of Christ illuminated and filled right through with the life of God coupled to the invitation to be transformed likewise into a heavenly new creation. 

The Transfiguration of Christ preceding his death and resurrection provides disciples then and now insight into the beauty, glory and wondrous life of the world to come and courage to keep heading there. We are not there yet but rather in the vale of tears yet sufferings in that vale are destined to be lost in the ultimate praise and glory of heaven. 

We are the dying and rising people of a dying and rising Lord, a people losing ourselves to gain the Holy Spirit, made in his image to be transformed into his selfless likeness …from glory to glory, made to know ourselves, love ourselves and forget ourselves…so Christ may shine in us now and always! 

A happy and holy Lent!

St Bartholomew, Brighton Feast of Transfiguration 6.8.21

 

The whole Christian world rejoices, East and West, in the Feast of the Transfiguration of Our Lord Jesus Christ we anticipate today.

We mark the ascent of Jesus with Peter, James and John up a high mountain. While praying there the Lord’s face glowed with the brightness of the sun and his garments became white as snow.

The splendour of Christ’s divinity penetrated through his human body as the Son of God appeared in his splendour and glory.

This Feast is especially dear to the eastern Church. Whereas holiness in the west in saints like Francis links to the passion marks called stigmata in the east holiness is more linked to luminosity. 

St Symeon who lived in 10th century Constantinople describes a day at work in the emperor’s court in Constantinople and going to his lodgings for prayers at home when he poured out tears and prostrated. He was saying the Jesus Prayer but with mind more than heart, and then had a bright light shining at him on every side and was wholly united with non material light and felt greatly exalted. In another light close at hand there appeared a holy old man equal to the angels teaching him. When he came to himself he was filled with joy and wept with all his heart and his tears were filled with joy. The Constantinople bells rang for morning office so he turns to say psalms which means he has ended up praying through the night. 

One of St Symeon's hymns expressing devotion to the divine light of God in Christ runs: ‘O light in three persons non can name, with many names at work in all things, light one in will and thought, strange energy dissolving rocks and hills by your very sight - how do you mingle yourself with grass (humanity) in a union without confusion transfigured yet unchanged?

In the Feast we’re keeping, the disciples were shown as much glory as they could bear. Saints like Symeon build the expectancy of experiencing God as light yet in a way that builds our faith. 

Just as in a transit of Venus across the sun years back people were warned to view the event indirectly so it is when God shone in Jesus on the earth and as he sometimes shines in holy lives. Disciples fall to the ground and hide their faces.

At the heart of Christianity is a yearning to see God as he is. This has sprung up from the days Jesus walked and shone on earth with the promise we could see God. 

Not with mortal eyes but in the resurrection.

The Transfiguration of Our Lord anticipates both his Resurrection and our own. As children of God we are heading for the full, glorious sight of God and we gain glimpses of that radiance on earth..

Beloved we are God’s children now; what we will be has not been revealed Saint John writes. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is (1 John 3:2)

Lord may we see you glory, become like you and praise you for ever. Amen.

St Bartholomew, Brighton Quinquagesima 11.2.18

God has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6b)

The radiance of Jesus lightens the mind, warms the heart and energises the will.

Just as dynamite contains within itself potential energy that can be released to give light, heat and a surge of momentum so it is with Jesus Our Lord.

On the cusp of Lent we’re aware of the forward movement in the church calendar, with personal resolutions and the stripping away in the Liturgy present since Septuagesima.

Christianity goes forward by radiant energy as we come again and again before Jesus in word and sacrament and in the hearts of his faithful to see our minds, hearts and wills irradiated.

As Fr. Bull, one of the great Mirfield Fathers put it, the glad tidings of Christianity are in what Jesus Christ did for men and in the abiding energy of that work.

We gather at Mass this morning to be caught up afresh into that energy which shines from today’s Gospel of the Transfiguration when Our Lord’s clothes became dazzling white.

As we prepare to best keep Lent here’s an invitation to seek fresh illumination from the truth that is in Jesus (Ephesians 4:21), fresh warming of our hearts by the Sacred Heart and fresh energising for active service from the working of his great power (Ephesians 1:19b).

All of this will flow from the radiance of Jesus, what the Apostle calls the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6b). As dynamite is ignited releasing potential energy into light, heat and momentum so our devotion can ignite a radiance from Jesus to light up our lives and through us light up a world so in need of that irradiation.

I want to suggest this ignition process has three dimensions – intellectual, devotional and practical and to encourage our preparation for Lent to be shaped accordingly.

First we seek irradiation - light - for the mind. We’re all students in church this morning.

I wonder when you last read a book about the Christian Faith.  Or even the Bible itself?

How can you hope to be a better witness unless you know your faith? If someone asked you why you thought Christianity was true would you be able to argue for the truth of the resurrection?

Our religion above all others is based on historical events we should be able to explain and defend. Have you looked at the trustworthiness of the New Testament resurrection accounts, all slightly different in their detail and so adding a ring of truth to things? How can we obtain the mind of Christ unless our minds are irradiated by the word of God?

The radiance of Jesus lightens the mind. It also warms the heart.

To gain the radiance of Jesus you need to be exposed to his radiant love. Christian friends, holy priests all of these help – but nothing can replace our individual business with God.

When did you last sit in church before the Blessed Sacrament? Has anyone ever commended to you the practice of quiet adoration in church of the reserved Sacrament? It’s a sort of extension of the sacred time of Holy Communion. ‘I look at Him and He looks at me’. That light that burns by the Tabernacle signals the radiance of Jesus. As we sit before the Lord present before us in the consecrated Bread there is not just a warming inside but a burning out of evil. I’ve heard it described as ‘spiritual radiotherapy’.

To welcome the radiance of Jesus into our hearts is a life-long struggle because of our fallen nature. We need a regular time of prayer, a discipline of self-examination and confession, a resolve to intercede for others, to give a proportion of our income to God’s work and so on. For all of us as St Bartholomew’s there’s the challenge to pray as best we can concerning the future of our parish.

The radiance of Jesus lightens the mind, warms the heart and then, lastly, it energises the will.

Where would our study and prayer be if it never led us into action, to be part of what Fr. Bull called the abiding energy of the once-for-all work of Jesus Christ?  We are here at Mass to gain that energy.
Just as the potential energy in an explosive is released to give light, heat and a surge of momentum so all Jesus attained through his life, death and resurrection is given to be celebrated and released so as to give power and direction to our lives.

It’s a good question to ask yourself as part of regular self-examination ‘how have I acted to transform my environment to be more as you, Lord, would want it in recent weeks? What have I done in my little way to change the world for good?

If the radiant energy of Jesus is in you, you should find yourself raiding the kingdom of fear with  love, encouraging those who are down, forgiving those who come against you harshly and providing for those in need from your own resources. This energy carries our lives forward to work for the kingdom of this world (to) become the kingdom of our God and of his Christ (Revelation 11:15).

For such energising of will, warming of heart and illumination of mind we lift our hearts to the Father in this Mass. May the Son of God catch us afresh into his radiance as we lift our heart to the Blessed Trinity to whom, Father, Son and Holy Spirit be glory now and for ever and to the ages of ages. Amen.