Homily for Easter Day, April 2012

Easter Day, 2012

St Mary’s, Cadogan Street, Chelsea

 

Christ is risen! And today St Paul tells us, “You must look for the things that are in heaven” (Colossians 3.2).

He is recalling the words of the Lord himself, who said in his Sermon on the Mount, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his justice” (Matthew 6.33). So we could be forgiven for thinking, at first, that we ought to disregard this world, oblivious of its sins, its problems and even its joys, while we scan the spiritual horizon for signs of another world, another reality. After all, St Paul goes further. “Set your affections on the things that are above,” he says, “not on the things that are on the earth.”

But looking beyond the world to look for heaven is to miss the point: the event and its effect are here and now. After Jesus has told us to seek first the Kingdom of God and his justice, he goes on to say that the Father will add to us, what we need and lack today. “Take no thought for the morning,” he says, “for the morning has enough evils of its own. The morning will think for itself.” What does this strange saying mean?

Well, so much of what Jesus says to us – and we have to imagine we are not looking back over history so much as standing there among his first hearers – is about the sheer force of living that belongs to him as God – the living that is God among us from the first moment of his conception in the womb of Mary, Mother of God; and the force of living that human birth, life and death could never contain; the force of living that would come into their own, unbounded and free of death, in their natural outcome: the Resurrection. So, when Jesus speaks of seeking first the “sovereign rule” of God, he knows that it must needs come to light by taking the force of his living through suffering for our sakes, because that “suffering Servant” is inseparable from what God could possibly look like, inseparable from the form that his kingdom could possibly take, and inseparable from the effect that God’s justice must take, when he appears in the world - truly God among us. Some who had expected a Messiah wanted Jesus to be an all-powerful earthly king; others a magician, or a military hero. But “God among us” appears in the way that is characteristic of the God who takes human flesh – born in a stable, a wanderer, a convicted usurper, a discredited holy-man, a disproved leader,  consigned to the Cross and physically destroyed. This God neither fits not suits people’s expectations; but he alone is the Lord. Thus he knows that he will die of the sufferings to which he subjects his life, because that, too, is inseparable from how God will appear before his people. He also knows that the next morning - the “morning with enough evils of its own” - he will lie dead, beyond reach on the Sabbath, apparently inert and powerless. Yet beyond that, he knows, too, that the morning will think for itself; and by the following morning something  of his own will be “added” to all humanity – eternal life. He will rise again, and all will be changed. “Destroy this Temple,” he says, “and I will rebuild it in three days” (John  2.19).

So it is that the angels say, “Why do you seek the living among the dead?” Mary Magdalen has come to seek the dead among the living. She does not yet realise she should look for the things that are in heaven. Inadvertently she runs away from them. She finds Peter and the other disciple and they run together towards the empty tomb. Still they do not understand. Still they search for the dead body among the lives of mortals in the world. But St Paul, writing later with all he had heard from these people still ringing in his ears, from St Mary Magdalen and her encounter in the Garden, from St Peter and St John, and with his own vivid memory of the Risen Lord’s blinding impact upon him on the road to Damascus - St Paul sees where the living of Christ is to be found.  He says, “Your life is hid with Christ in God”.

In other words, heaven is not another world, a mere after-life, a better place beyond the clouds: heaven is not there if it is not here and now. It is not some Utopia that we have to try and live up to. That is fantasy, make-believe, a counsel of despair, because we know we can never achieve it. Instead, the heaven that lies beyond us is begun as the heaven that is truly within – in the midst of life we are in the Lord, risen from the dead. And this, our life, is hid with Christ in God. So it is that the bearing of Christianity and the kingdom of God on us and the world, come not from outside of it, with a merely external pressure, but from inside humanity itself. The kingdom of the resurrection is not a Christian pipe-dream, but nature’s true state of affairs now, to which the world must reconcile itself, or lose itself in unreality and futility.

Two years ago, the Holy Father came to Britain to tell the Church that it must give the world a convincing account of our hope in the Risen Lord, in answer to the world’s most fundamental questions. On this ground, he spoke of the bearing of faith and virtue on society and public life. The Prime Minister agreed how vital these considerations are. Quoting Blessed John Henry Newman, Mr Cameron reflected on how society finds its unity and purpose not simply in the coincidence of separate interests making a concerted effort, but through the shared identity and values that arise from a common life and faith. He identified that with Britain’s historic faith and Christian civilisation. Since that time, however, we have seen the exclusion of Religious Education as an academic subject in the new secondary education syllabus for the English Baccalaureate at the 16-plus level. This has led to a marked decline in taking up RE as an option for GCSE, after many years of its growth as a popular subject for serious study. And, because it is not seen as part of the academic core, there has been a consequent collapse in funding, provision and take-up of RE teacher-training, at just the time when society needs to understand better the bearing of religious faith in personal identity, social belonging and international affairs - and to understand better the truth that our spirituality, whatever we believe, is not just a hobby for the religious but an integral part of who and what everyone is. In a supposedly Christian country, the unlearning of this wisdom, something that has been part of our national birth right for 1500 years, is a deliberate secularisation for which there was no mandate, and which will have a destabilising effect on our society for decades. In another sphere, a reasoned quest for all people’s civil equality has been turned into an argument against the definition of marriage as the lifelong union of a man and a woman to the exclusion of all other for the procreation of children, which surely no one is interested in undermining. We also see the steadily pursued opposition in local authorities, public services, the world of commerce, voluntary work and even social settings, of the right of Christians to free speech as individuals, and their right of association as the Church for their voice, their values and their service to make its legitimate and respected contribution, just as it has throughout our civilisation’s history. The Church’s protests at these developments are not about lobbying for power and influence from outside, or for bolstering up some historic privileges for our institution like so many other vested interests; nor are they special pleading for the Christians. Instead, they stand as an urgent reminder that the spiritual dimension of all of us is no mere personal sense of other-worldliness, but constitutes an integral part of all human nature, the societies it forms, and the humanity we all share. For our civilisation, this is inescapably Christian. And in this context, our life is not just our own; it is hid with Christ in God. And so the things that are in heaven are to be found in no other place that within us. If the Kingdom of God is not the Resurrection from within humanity – all of us - it is coming nowhere and to no one.

Thus Christ Jesus’ Resurrection comes to us in the last place we were looking – not just a remarkable event in a cave 2000 years ago; not just an isolated incident in the life of one astonishing person; nor an import from outside, however much it offers us an electrifying new existence for all the creation. No – the Resurrection has come not from beyond us, but entered from within humanity. This is why Jesus tells us to seek first the Kingdom of God that has already come upon us (Matthew 12.28); this is why St Paul tells us to look for the things that are in heaven, because he had seen them in Jesus “manifested in the flesh” (I Timothy 3.16). These “things that are in heaven” are all found beginning here, in the reworking of creation, the reworking of human lives, the reworking of sin, the reworking of injustice, the reworking of us as new human creations, through gifts of faith and hope and love. They all begin with Emmanuel, the God among us, Christ with our life hidden in God, or even God hidden in Christ as much as he revealed him, just as he was hidden in that one lost morning, just as Mary at first thought the emptiness of the tomb concealed his disappearance, instead of pointing to his the appearance of a new humanity; just as Christ is hidden among us in his Real Presence in the Eucharist, so that he lives within us who are “his Body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way” (Ephesians 1.23).

So, there is no need to look away from the world to look for the things that are in heaven. For while you are not yet in heaven, yet heaven is in you. It may not easily be discernible from the surface of us. It may not be so readily apparent to us, or to those who know us only too well. But your life is indeed hid with Christ in God. The Fathers used to gaze out from their hermit-caves on the desert and realised that the true desert where God was waiting for them lay within. So here now is Christ risen from the dead to be found; here we look for the coming of the Kingdom to begin its work. Here is found the way to our true homeland; here is where we are transfigured to be glorious like him (Philippians 3.20), not just in spirit, but in every aspect of our selves, our souls and our bodies.

For, as Christ has shown us, in that subtle resurrection, this new life lies not in the emptiness of a tomb, or the great imponderable beyond, but arrives to exert its full effect from within - the last place we expected, but the only place where hearts and minds, and all human hopes and love can be converted, and rise to life - on earth as it is in heaven.

MW, Easter 2012

The Riots of August 2011

Now that most sides have offered their analysis and the justice processes are reaching their conclusions, I am posting an edited version of a private briefing I wrote in September 2011, drawn from the perspective of contacts working in charities with young people in affected communities, crime diversion and offender resettlement charities and justice professionals, as well as young people who took part in the rioting and those who refused to, right across the country.

I have only changed the substance of the text to include a note of the interim report from HM government's somewhat limited Riots, Communities and Victims Panel, which was issued in November 2011, followed by a more considered analysis with recommendations in a final report in March 2012. In my view the consultation was not wide enough on the ground, tended to manage upwards towards policy concerns and possibilities, and did not look at the riots in proportion, or in comparison with earlier instances of social unrest (as distinct from political demonstration), from which the necessary lessons from successful preventive measures could be drawn. Neither was there sufficient recognition of the power and effectiveness of a host of voluntary and philanthropic interventions across the rest of the UK which, arguably, contributed to greater social cohesion and peace there, despite comparably adverse social and economic conditions and prospects. The Guardian also offered a searching and sustained reading of the riots, and with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation sponsored a research project at the London School of Economics, which issued a report in December 2011 called, Reading the Riots. At first this appeared limited, too, as it was a thorough presentation of findings from the viewpoints of participants in the disorder, leading to accusations of one-sidedness and of defending the indefensible. But subsequent phases have been consulting the police, prosecutors and judges; and now there are local "Community Conversations" under way, taking into account the grievances of disadvantaged areas and the views of those adversely affected by the rioting of their neighbours. This will lead to a second report, which will doubtless offer, in the light of the first report, a rounded view of causes, events and the solutions that will tend to prevent their recurrence.

The reflection I wrote can be found on the Social Development page, or here.

Homily for Christmas Midnight Mass, 25 December 2011

Christmas 2011

St Mary’s, Cadogan Street, Chelsea at Midnight Mass

 

A little over three thousand years ago, the hero-king David was at last able to settle his people, the Hebrews, in their Promised Land, after ages of exile and strife. He took Jerusalem for his capital and the final destination for the great tent of Israel’s worship in the years of wandering - the Holy of Holies in which was set the very throne of God. This was the place where the King would go in alone to commune with the Lord, intercede for the people as their high priest, and then emerge, shining with God’s own glory and declaring God’s own wisdom, his blessing and forgiveness, his unshakable love. It was David who wrote the songs to accompany this magnificent, life-changing ritual and it was his son, Solomon, who built a permanent Temple to house the Throne of God, the Ark of the Covenant.

David, Solomon and their successors would faithfully repeat the old songs and the time-honoured ceremony. In would go the white-robed King to the sanctuary; in its dancing firelight the people might glimpse him mount the Throne, as he was drawn into the very life of God; all would see him emerge, to represent the coming of the Lord himself among his people. On earth, as it is in heaven. So the people would say, when the King stood before them, newly sent to bring peace and rule with justice, “Emmanuel!” – God is with us.

Even though this great act of enthroning the King each year died out, its meaning stayed alive in the imagination of the people. Faithless kings came and went; foreign rulers and false gods all had their turn; eventually the Romans took charge. There was no longer any sign of glory in the Temple. But people remembered that once their Temple had been filled with light, that seemed to flame from the throne itself; they kept alive a memory of a cloud that filled the Temple, alive with fire. The prophets reminded them of its absence; they taught the people to look for God’s presence to return and meanwhile pleaded with them to keep faith with him and follow his laws. Yet, by the time the Romans were in control, it must all have seemed a distant memory, a pious dream.

But then something happened. A solitary star appeared in the East and those who followed its journey say that it came to rest over a little cavern used as a stable for animals in Bethlehem. This was no astronomical phenomenon. It was a sign that something that had long been absent was at last on its way back. The light that had gone out in the Temple hundreds of years before was now beaming over a new Holy of Holies, from which had come forth a new King, straight from the presence of God, to display himself as the living vision of the Lord for all the world to see. This Holy of Holies was the womb of a Virgin; her own body was the new seat of wisdom, on which God’s Son sits to rule in justice and peace; this Virgin Mary, now Mother of God, was the Temple on which the angel of heaven, like a star, was shedding the light of God’s life within her; this Mother was the destination of the wise men who had come to witness the coming of God once more to his people. Mary had seen the same light in the Angel who came to her nine months before; the shepherds, too, had seen the lights of heaven in the hosts who sang Christ’s glory at his human birth. In the years ahead, many more would see the same light in Jesus and the close coming by of the Lord in his miracles, his healings, his luminous words, and those remarkable events, from his Baptism, to his Death, Resurrection and Ascension. All those who saw and heard and touched him knew that, once again, as in the days of David and Solomon, here was the King sent from God, “Emmanuel” – God is with us.

All this is so far away in history, that we could be forgiven for just looking back on it all as an inspirational memory. Yes; its hope for the future we revive each year as we deeply re-enter our faith in Christ’s promises, our belief in his reign of goodness and redemption in the hearts of human beings, and the keeping of his command of love, love above all else. But it is so much more, even than this. Our Prime Minister, Mr Cameron, has recently spoken with some conviction of his own Christian belief, repeating some of the themes he used when he bade farewell to the Holy Father Pope Benedict on his visit to our shores. He has been heard with some respect, as he called upon his fellow citizens to embrace once more the Christian values that have shaped our society to the present day. Pope Benedict during his visit referred again and again to the need for us to recover virtue in public and economic life. So to Mr Cameron hopes that Christian values will renew the way our finances, our public administration and our news media are conducted. On all of them we have been sorely let down. Christian values, too, he believes, will renew the way we treat each other and care for each other as neighbours and fellow citizens; they will help to mend our troubled and even broken community.

But Christian values are not enough. Christianity is not a mere religion, or just a way of life. It is not one option for spirituality among a host of others. It is the resounding impact of one Person on others, that leaves them for ever changed. It is the relationship of human beings with their God among us. It is the impact of the arrival of this Person that completely altered the life and history of the people of Israel. It is the impact of this Person that eventually turned the Roman Empire inside out. It is the consistent impression of this Person on humanity that formed our own civilisation and made us a Christian country in all our origins and present bearings. It is the encounter with this Person that makes us his Church, his own Body in the world. In other words, Christian values are nothing without a constant relationship with Jesus Christ, God among us, and my constant pledge to love, serve, follow and BE AFFECTED by him to the end of my days. Christian values rest upon Christian faith; and Christian faith rests on the adoration of Christ.

The good news about Jesus Christ, coming to be God among us, is that this value, this faith and adoration which he expects from us, is value, and faith and adoration that are returned. He came because the values he has are to give himself in complete self-sacrifice for us. He came to teach us the way to live in the Kingdom with goodness, love and peace and justice - on earth as it is in heaven - because he has more faith in us than we have in him, or even ourselves. He came to us because he adores us.

In a few moments time, the priest will go into our Holy of Holies and announce that God us indeed with us; “the Lord be with you,” he will say. And, before our eyes, by the light from heaven, we will realise that, just as shepherds and kings once realised that that human child was the living reality of God, so bread and wine are transformed into the Body and Blood of Christ, God among us once more. As you adore him, and as you later go to the Manger and gaze on the image of the Christ-Child, remember that he became man so that, by the light from heaven, he may gaze on you; that he whom you adore and long for, adores and longs for you.

May this Christ never be a mere value, personality or ideal for you. May he constantly affect you, inspire you and transform you.  Whatever the world throws at us, and whatever our sins and shortcomings, may you always be alive to the knowledge that Christ’s kingdom of goodness, forgiveness and justice has already come, and that you have come to IT. To those who are dejected, may the Son who is born for us be Wonderful; to those who are uncertain, may he be the Wonderful Counsellor; to those who are hurt and bruised, may he be your Might; to those who are guilty and feel unforgiveable me he be your Mighty God; to those who are poor and oppressed, may his support and solidarity be Everlasting; to those who are let down and even angry, may he be an Everlasting Father; and, as the true light in the lives of every single one of us, may he be the only prince to command us, in ways of love, forgiveness, justice and mercy, the Prince of Peace.

 

MW

Christmas 2011