Nothing Known to the Senses. Goodbye Shaftesbury. 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Heb 12:18-19.22-24
Today I'd like us to consider our second reading, from the letter to the Hebrews, and consider “what [we] have come to” (Heb 12:18) by coming to Mass.
As the unbelieving world sees it, this is a gathering of human individuals.
As the world sees it, there are a hundred people here in a stone building, facing an empty space.
As the unbelieving world sees it, we are gathered to utter words to a Being that is not here.

“What [we] HAVE come to” (Heb 12:18), in fact, is not something capable of being seen.
What we have come to is some ‘Thing’ beyond the realm of the seen.
We have come to the One who is the Creator, as we say in the Creed, of things “visible and invisible”.
We are here because we recognise that there is more to the world than what is seen, there is more to the world than can be known by the senses, more to the world than what my touch and taste and sight can tell me.
And, and this is the crucial point: we are here because we recognise that this ‘Thing’ that cannot be seen or sensed is actually what gives meaning and purpose to everything that we CAN see and sense.
We are here because knowing and meeting the Creator changes how we experience the world of the senses.

How did our second reading put it?
“What you have come to is nothing known to the senses: not a blazing fire [unlike Moses, who had God speak to him from a burning bush],
or a gloom turning to total darkness, or a storm; or trumpeting thunder or the great voice speaking which made everyone that heard it beg that no more should be said to them [unlike the children of Israel wandering in the wilderness who had the Lord manifest Himself to them in such external glory].”(Heb 12:18-19)
He continues, “You have come to come to God Himself”(Heb 12:23).
That text made many allusions to the Jerusalem and Temple of the Old Covenant, and when we read those words in the Mass, the liturgy of the NEW covenant, it should remind us that God is present HERE.
In the Old Testament He was manifested in power in the Temple, but He was not present in the flesh.
In the NEW Testament, however, as a result of Him having instituted the Mass, He IS present in the flesh, is present “in His physical reality”(Paul VI, Mysterium Fidei, n.46)

BUT greatness of His presence, His reality, so far exceed our capacity to see Him that He has taken a small insignificant thing, bread, and made it into Himself. So that we don't confuse worldly glory with His real glory.
But He IS present. Recognising that is a crucial part of realising that there is more to life than the senses.

Let me put that another way, in thinking of the fact that the most important things in life are the things that cannot be seen:
What is more important, the house your family lives in, or, the love in your family? The love, obviously. But love is an unseen thing, though real. Seen in its effects, but not seen in itself.
Even more, this is true of God: He’s the unseen reality that gives meaning to the seen.

(Pause)
Today, as most of you know already, is my last Sunday in Shaftesbury. I've been here 9 years and I've been thinking about what I've done in those 9 years, in the light of this text from Hebrews.
I've not built anything visible. Some priests build new churches, or church halls, or schools. But I'm not leaving the parish with any changed or new building. Any change I have left here will be in the realm of the unseen. But, actually, that's fine. That's actually the more important things.

What have I built unseen?
For a priest, especially, that’s a difficult question to ponder, because any REAL work I've done actually hasn't been MY work, but God’s work.
And, any REAL work I've done, similarly, isn't my work but YOURS –your allowing God to work in you.
That said, I've known in my time here many cases when I've been privileged to a PART of that, to be a help in that happening, to be an instrument in the Lord being active in your lives.
The most important examples are things I can never speak about, which is typically the case for a priest. But, again, that's ok. I deal with the realm of the unseen. I deal with the more important realm.

Thank you, for letting me be a part of your lives, and a part of your encounters with the Lord.
Thank you for your support and encouragement in the apostolate I've sought to work among you and in you.
It's been a pleasure to be here. I feel this is a great parish, and it does a lot, especially for such a relatively small rural congregation.

To return to where I began this sermon: “what [we] have come to” (Heb 12:18) by coming to Mass.
We have come to God Himself.
We have come to Him whose Presence and working are beyond the realm of the seen, beyond the realm of the senses.
He works THROUGH the senses: He takes sensible bread to become Himself.
But He is more than what our senses are capable of detecting.
And what is unseen, be it love, or the presence of God, it is the unseen that is the most important and gives meaning to everything else.

No Sermon this Weekend

Fr Dylan is away

Trust and Faith, 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, Shaftesbury

Heb 11:1-2.8-19
I want to say a few words about faith, because people often say odd things about faith.
People sometimes say that faith is a kind of vague thing, or that is a ‘leap in the dark’.
Actually, it’s something simple and concrete.

If we want to know what faith IS we should look at someone who had faith.
This what we heard St. Paul do in our second reading from Hebrews –and he looks at Abraham.
Abraham and Sarah were old, beyond the age of childbearing.
Yet, God promised Sarah she would have a child.
And, God promised Abraham he would be the Father of a great nation
He told Abraham to leave the land he was happily living in, and go to a new land.
A better land that God promised him. The Promised Land.
What shows that Abraham had faith?
It was how he RESPONDED to what God told him that showed his faith:
He TRUSTED in the promises God gave him -this is what faith is all about.
And, What showed that he trusted? He fact that he went out WITHOUT YET SEEING the promised land

The Catechism gives us the same simple truth about the nature of faith:
‘Faith is man’s response to God’ (CCC 26) –response to what He has told us

What does this mean for ourselves?
It means that we, too, must respond to what God has said
We, too, must trust in His promises

That raises the question of “What are His promises?”
I’d suggest two mistaken approaches to faith in our own lives,
First, we can let our faith be too vague –‘we don’t know what God wants us to do’
-‘we don’t know what God’s really like’
-faith is just a feeling, ‘I’m a trusting kinda guy’
This empties the Gospel of content, empties it of its power to save
Second, we can falsely imagine that God’s promises are about things He hasn’t actually said:
“I’m going to get that promotion, God want me to get that promotion, I BELIEVE I’m going to get that promotion”
“God wants my husband to stop being a useless couch potato, just sitting there, I BELIEVE he is going to change”
-I’m sorry, God did not make these promises, so, it’s not a matter of FAITH
-these are good things to pray for and beg God for,
but they are not a matter of Faith –there was no promise

Right now, I’d like to know whether what my new parish will be like:
will I enjoy it? what will the people be like? how much harder will I have to work?
But God hasn’t promised to show me these things.
There ARE things He HAS promised me, and has promised you:
Heaven as the end goal, if we love Him, if we trust Him, if we seek His forgiveness daily
To be with me and strengthen me: ‘I am with you always’; ‘I will not leave you orphans’
That all things work to the good of those who love the Lord
What He asks is that I trust Him now. That I accept that His mind is bigger than my mind, that He knows better than I know.
Just as He promised Abraham the Land, but Abraham did not yet see it
He has not shown us every detail of our own futures
–we know the end destination of those who trust in the Lord: Heaven
-but, we do not know the pathway by which He will lead us there

Faith isn’t a leap in dark. Faith is our response to the promises God has made,
and what ‘having faith’ means is that we trust in His promises.

18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C, Shaftesbury

Lk 12:13-21; Eccles 1:2;2:21-23; Col 3:1-5,9-11
“Vanity of vanities, all is vanity. What does a man gain for all his toil under the sun?” (Eccles).
Ecclesiastes is one of my favourite books of the Bible, because it is a remedy to many mistaken views of what it means of be a Christian.
Often, the impression is given that being a Christian means having your brain extracted and wandering with an unexplained grin. ‘Jesus wants you for a sunbeam’. You MUST be happy if Jesus loves you!

In contrast, the book of Ecclesiastes (also known as Qoheleth, or the book of ‘The Preacher’, a book that is part of every Christian’s Bible) faces the harder realities of life. It’s a book that was written by someone having a really BAD day. It progressively looks at every aspect of human existence, and says that it is ALL meaningless, all pointless, ‘all is vanity, and a chasing after the wind’.
Pleasure –is not enough
Youth and beauty –seem nice, but they fade
Money –brings as many difficulties as reassurances, and can all be lost
Whatever a man builds, ultimately turns to dust.
Or, as Jesus said to the rich man in the parable, when you die, ‘whose will your money be then!’

Qoheleth, in the midst of his rantings, does not understand, but he concludes at least with a certain truth: at the end, what is left? To ‘fear God and keep the commandments’.
-sometimes that IS all we can figure out, and it is wise (if cheerless) advice.

The early Fathers of the Church looked at the book of Qoheleth as an example of what life is like without Christ: meaningless, vanity.
The problem Qoheleth poses is this: What does a man gain for all his toil?
The answer is laid out in Colossians, as we heard in our second reading, “You must look to the things of Heaven, where Christ is” (Col 3:1)
And, as our Gospel text recorded, Christ’s parable told us of the pointlessness of trying to ‘store up treasure’ in this world, but He also told us of another treasure: to be “rich in the sight of God” (Lk 12:21).
If a man toils for THESE riches, he will never lose them, they cannot be corrupted.

Life has meaning in Christ because He is the SOURCE of life, the pattern and purpose of it. The world was made for Him.
It is only if we see the divinity of Christ that all life’s toil can have meaning –meaning because it is united to Him.
WORK –He created it, He gave it as one of the first gifts to Adam and Eve in the Eden. He gave it dignity by sharing it as a carpenter in Nazareth.
If we work WITH Christ and FOR Him, offering our work to Him, then it have a value and reward that last forever. The same work we must do for earthly lords we can transform to a higher end by offering it to Him.
AGE, PAIN, and DISCOMFORT –these were not part of God’s original plan for us.
They are with us because of the effects of Original Sin. But because of the Incarnation and the Cross, they are things that point to Christ. As with work, we can offer it to Him, with His strength, as a prayer for ourselves or for others.
JOY too –you don’t have to have a permanent brain-dead grin on your face,
but joy is part of what God wills for us, it is a fruit of love, and a fruit of the love we can have for the Lord –if we do all things with Him and for Him.

‘Vanity of vanity, all is vanity’ –so it can seem, without Christ
‘What does a man gain for all his toil under the sun?”
If he works for himself –little, and nothing when he dies
If he works for his neighbour and family? Hopefully, love
If he works for God, which includes our duty to work for neighbour and family but elevates it to a higher end,
He gains a reward that will never end

No Sermon this Weekend

Fr Dylan is away

Martha and Prayer, 16th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Lk 10:38-42
As I think you all know, I'm moving. And one of the things of have been realising these last few weeks is that moving is hard work, is complicated, and brings plenty of stress. I've been busier these past few weeks than I've been for a long time, and that is presumably going to just accelerate as I head to my September moving deadline. Some of you have told me how you move every two years and have a confident, calm moving strategy; others have told me stories that feel more like mine at the moment.
There is a particular point I want to make about this: at a time of extreme busy-ness, when our time is squeezed, when our thoughts are all jumbled, it can be easy to forget to pray and to forget God. And this temptation is as real for a priest as it is for anyone.
So, what should I do when time is pressed, when it seems impossible to give time to God in prayer? Well, These are the days when it is MORE important to pray, not when it is LESS important. Praying CHANGES our lives. It brings ORDER and CALM to our day. It makes us USE the time we have BETTER.
As a consequence, many saints describe how prayer causes us to GAIN time, not lose it. St Josemaria used to speak of the “multiplication of time” that prayer brings.

The words of the Lord Jesus in today’s gospel text about Martha and Mary are on this theme.
Many of you, like me, feel a strong sympathy for Martha. Stressed, working, feeling that all the burden has fallen to her: “Lord, do you not care that my sister is leaving me to do all the serving by myself?”(Lk 10:40)
People often refer to our Lord’s reply to Martha as a condemnation, but, my theory is that it is actually a word of consolation. Yes, it includes correction, but:
It is a correction that seeks to bring her to the consolation that Mary already enjoys.
It is a correction to bring her to that spiritual recollection that would enable her to work and pray at the same time.
It is a correction that would bring love into her work, not just duty and effort.
It is a correction that would enable her to have the Lord God present in her work, the Lord who loves her present in her work, to have the joy that comes from knowing we are loved –to have this present as she works.
This is correction that aims at consolation.
“Martha, Martha, you worry and fret about so ,any things, and yet few are needed, in fact, only one. It is Mary who has chosen the better part”(Lk 10:41-42).

What has Mary “chosen”?
She has chosen prayer, recollection, to be with the Lord and to focus on Him.
This is what we all need to do too.
And, the only way to do this is to have times and patterns in our day when we dedicate ourselves to prayer and prayer ALONE. Not just praying while driving, not just praying while walking, not just praying while doing other things. But rather, praying for praying’s sake. Praying because it is worthwhile and necessary in itself. To be with the Lord simply in order to be with Him.
I would call on all of you to take the reading of this Sunday’s Gospel as a moment to review what pattern of prayer you have. When in the day and the week do you set aside just for God? 5 minutes in the morning or night? A longer period?
It is only if we have explicit dedicated times of prayer in our lives that we are able to bring that spirit into the other parts of our day, into our work and rushing.
It is only in as much as I have dedicated times of prayer for prayer’s sake, that I am able to ALSO pray while driving, pray while walking, pray while working.
And, in all that, to know the presence of the Lord in my work, to know the joy of being loved by the Lord in my work.

So, when moving, when stressed, when time is squeezed, this is the time to rededicate myself to the importance of prayer. “It is Mary who has chosen the better part” (Lk 10:42) –let us follow her example.

Leaving Shaftesbury, 14th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

Lk 10:1-12.17-20
It's sometimes said that when a priest leaves a parish a third of the people are sad, a third of the people are happy, and a third of the people don't even notice that he's been replaced by a new man!
As you've probably read in the newsletter by now, I’m leaving: the Bishop has appointed me to West Moors, near Bournemouth, leaving September. For me, personally, this is a very sad moment in my life. These have been the happiest years of my life: I love this parish, these parishioners, this church building, and this town. But I've been here 9 years, and it's time for Shaftesbury to have a fresh face, a breath of fresh air, someone new.

Your priest changing is a good time to reflect on why you need a priest here at all.
In the Gospel today we heard of the sending of the 72. They weren't priests, but in many ways they show us aspects of what a priest of Christ is to do for you.
First, we can note that their role is so important that the Lord said, “the labourers are few, so pray to the Lord of the harvest to send labourers to His harvest” (Lk 10:2). So, can I ask you, please pray for your new priest being sent here. He's a good man, a good priest, I know him, I’m glad he's coming here for you –but he needs your prayers if he's going to do good for you.

Second, the 72 didn’t stand in their own right but for the Lord Jesus: their mission was intimately connected with His: They were to go to the “places He Himself was to visit” (Lk 10:1), to prepare the way, to enable Him to come to the people.
They were to bring greetings of “peace”(Lk 10:5) –not their own peace, but that of the Lord.
They were to bring healing –not their own healing, but that of the Lord.
A priest, at an even deeper level, does the same.
He brings peace at the deepest level of the human heart, brings peace between God and man by forgiving sin in Confession.
He brings healing of our deepest sickness: sin, guilt, the corruption of evil.

A priest does this for you by using the instruments that Christ established for His new covenant: the seven sacraments, the teaching office of His Church, and the governance of Christian community.
Christ established these things in stages, and the sending of the 72 was an earlier part of His ministry, but their function in many ways was the same as the fullness of the priesthood: namely, it was about bringing Christ and preparing for Christ.

Let me point out something important here: The role of the 72 had nothing to do with their personalities, their style of speaking, their ability to joke, etc.
Their role was to prepare for Christ and bring Christ’s peace and healing.
It is the same with a priest. What a priest does for you is so important that it transcends the difference between one priest’s personality and that of another priest.

It's about Christ, not the priest.
The priests utters the words of forgiveness in the sacrament of Confession, but it's not the priest’s forgiveness that is given, but Christ's.
The priest utters the words of consecration in the Mass, “This is my Body…”, but it is not the priest’s body that becomes present, but Christ’s.
The priest preaches in the sermon, but the truth He proclaims is not His, but what He has received from Christ and in turn passes on to you.

So, to conclude. One priest is going, and another is coming.
What a priest does for you is not to bring himself, but to bring Christ. This is what makes a priest’s role so important: he's not about Himself, he's about the Lord.
Like the 72, he goes ahead to the places the Lord Himself is to go.