The Hesitant Disciple

Imagine that you are one of the Eight Disciples.

You are not Peter, James or John – you were not there on the mountain of Transfiguration to see Jesus glow with divine light.

But you are one of those Jesus sent out to heal the sick and drive out demons, and proclaim that the Kingdom of God is close at hand.

Jesus has taught you to pray “Our Father” and you know that heaven has declared Jesus is the Beloved Son – with Him the Father is well pleased.

You have lived through the agony of the crucifixion – though you fled from the foot of the Cross – and you have known the joy of meeting the Risen Lord. You were there at the Last Supper when Jesus declared bread and wine to be his own Body and Blood. Now, you sense that things are shifting. This is not just another appearance of the Risen Lord. Some of those around you are awestruck and are bowing down, actually offering worship to Jesus! But you are a good Jew. You know that there is only One God, and you must never worship a creature. If you bow down with the others, you are declaring that Jesus is God, even though Jesus speaks of God as his Father…

Do you stand tall? Do you bow down? Do you make that final surrender of saying that Jesus is actually God in human form?

You are one of the first to ask the same question that followers of Jesus will ask for centuries to come: is Jesus actually God, or only the unique Son of God? Deep debates in the fourth century resulted in the Creed we now say at Mass: Jesus is True God from True God, of one being or ‘consubstantial’ with the Father.

Perhaps for us as 21st Century Catholics, Adoration – worshipping Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament – is so normal for us that “Should I honour Jesus as God?” is not even a question we would ask. But for a Jew in the first century, or an Arian in the fourth, it was a real stumbling block! If Jesus is Son of the Father, doesn’t that mean that in some meaningful way, he is lesser than the Father?

When Queen Elizabeth of England dies, her successor, presumably Prince Charles, will become King. He will hold exactly the same authority that she held before him. Right now, Prince Charles has authority to carry out certain duties on her behalf. He can bestow honours and knighthoods – but under her authority. Of course it’s possible, if unlikely, that while still alive, she could abdicate. If that happened, the new King would hold the authority which once belonged to the Queen, even though she is still living. So exactly the same authority is passed on by death or abdication – but a lesser authority by delegation.

St Paul wrote to the Roman Christians that we, the children of God, are “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ”. It’s a wonderful and terrible thing to know that there is an inheritance waiting for you. Do you wish your benefactor to die, so you can receive and enjoy your inheritance? The Prodigal Son did just that, by demanding his inheritance from his living father! The grumpy elder brother was then reassured by the Father “Everything I have is yours!” The younger son is also given the Ring of Authority when he returns home. Imagine what would have happened next in that household when the Father, Son and Elder Brother all tried to spend money or command servants, each following their own different agendas? This is why, in any human organisation, the best we can do is have one central authority structure, which can then delegate budgets or a limited set of responsibilities, to particular members.

You hear Jesus speak: “All authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.” Given by whom? By the God whom Jesus called Father, the author of all creation. Does this mean the Father has abdicated? No indeed! Does that make it a lesser authority? No – it is ALL authority, as surely as if the Father had abdicated, even though it is given, it is not less in status! But such a sharing of authority is only possible because Jesus is always of one mind with the Father.

In his divinity, Jesus always wants what the Father wants! In his humanity, he always chooses to align his human will with that perfect vision of what the Father is doing. It is only because of this perfect alignment that the Son can share total authority without the Father relinquishing it. We are co-heirs with Christ – but we are heirs only so far as we are yoked with Christ and willing to walk with him. St Paul said that our spirit and the Holy Spirit bear a united witness – but this can only happen if my human spirit is surrendered entirely to the Holy Spirit.

Jesus IS consubstantial with the Father, and always has been. By your baptism, you are a co-heir with Christ, and when you enter heaven you will experience this in its fullness. But why wait for heaven? If only our human spirit could be perfectly aligned with the Holy Spirit, we would make heaven present on earth as powerfully as Jesus himself did. But like the Eleven of old, we are hesitant disciples. There are doubts within us.

Imagine that you are one of the Eight Disciples. Will you worship Jesus as God? Will you surrender to the Holy Spirit? This is more than saying “come and release your gifts in me”. This is saying, Spirit of God, command me! May I do nothing but the will of God! Now you are ready to go and make disciples, teaching others to do the same. And know that Christ is with you!

Renew the Face of the Earth!

Homily to members of Sion Community and LiveStream Viewers on Pentecost Sunday, Year B.

Send forth your Spirit, O Lord, and renew the face of the earth!

One of the things I’ve had to get used to about living in community, is that I might walk into the common room, and find some of the women wearing facemasks. Not the kind we all have these days because of covid, but the other kind – the paste you cover your face with, to unblock your pores and tone your skin.

Renewing your face requires a little effort, a little time, and a decision that it’s worth doing in the first place.

I have to admit, I find the masks a little scary. I might not want a conversation with someone wearing one. And I probably wouldn’t try one myself. But in life we’re challenged to do things which are less comfortable, and for the best of reasons. The Holy Spirit comes with gifts which enable us to speak out, even to be unpopular, in the noblest of causes. Each one of us, like the apostles on the day of Pentecost, is called to renew the face of the earth. How? We can invite many people to become followers of Jesus, and to know him in a deeper personal way through prayer. Sion Community exists to speak out the good news of Jesus Christ across the British Isles, and sometimes even abroad.

Today is an ending and a beginning. For the Apostles, it marked the end of their time gathered together in Jerusalem, and the beginning of their mission to the ends of the earth. For Sion Community, this time is a new beginning of our work of visiting parishes and hosting residential groups here at our Brentwood centre – which means we’ll no longer be available at 11 am each Sunday to broadcast a Mass. But we rejoice that the face of the church has been renewed in the last year, with many Catholic Masses now available online. And maybe for one or two of you, this is a sign that, strengthened by the gifts of the Spirit, it’s time to return to a nearby church for Mass in person.

We cannot be credible witnesses for Christ unless we are seen to be people who care. Our bishops wish to remind us this weekend that we are called to care about our environment – the very earth over which the Holy Spirit hovered. There’s a link to their full Letter for this weekend in the chat. I will simply remind us that living responsibly on the face of the earth needs a renewed commitment from all of us. Some decisions are best made by politicians, but others are down to us! It’s actually a win-win situation when we work out how to use less water, gas or electricity in our own homes. It also takes little more than goodwill to make better decisions in our weekly shopping, when there’s an easy choice between those products which do or don’t have green credentials. Perhaps you’re doing these things already and taking the next step requires further effort – but this is precisely what you are inviting the Holy Spirit to do in you when you ask him to come and renew the face of the earth.

How does God renew the face of the earth? Literally, through volcanos! When heat from the heart of the earth reaches the right place, molten stone is spewed out and it settles on top of the old rocks… as the lava sets, new land is formed, pushing down the old which might eventually reach such depths that it melts away.

It’s easy to sing about God melting our hearts of stone – but what God really wants to do is release a volcano inside each one of us! When we receive the Sacrament of Confirmation, the Church in fact prays for God to place a volcano within us, heated by the fire of the Holy Spirit, to empower us to do God’s work! But there’s a catch. Volcanos are scary things, and God has given us the ability to cap them. We can keep the fire of the Spirit on the inside, but then all our volcano will do is give us a nice warm glow. That’s not God’s plan. In fact, just keeping this gift for our own enjoyment would be self-indulgent, which is clean contrary to what the Spirit comes to do. We need to give God permission to release what is within us, to flow out of us, and transform the face of the earth. At the end of this homily, we’ll have a moment of prayer when you’ll be able to give God permission to do this in you – perhaps the for the first time!

Taking the environment seriously isn’t about putting green masks on our faces – it requires fire in our hearts and actions with our hands. In the same way, spreading the Gospel requires that inner fire which brings us both joy and determination. The good news is that this is exactly what the Holy Spirit seeks to bestow upon us. Millions of Christians around the world have had the experience of a personal Pentecost, or what is sometimes called “Baptism in the Holy Spirit.” This may come in the form of a deeper inner knowledge that you are loved by God; it may come in the form of giving God permission to work through you and uncapping that volcano which is already dormant within you. You might even pray in words the Holy Spirit gives you, as the Apostles and Blessed Mary did on the Day of Pentecost. If you’ve already experienced this, you can always ask the Holy Spirit for a new and deeper release of His fire today. Yes, renewing your face requires a little effort, a little time, and a decision that it’s worth doing in the first place – a decision to ask the Holy Spirit to unblock your spiritual pores and flow through them!

We’d like to invite you to pray for a first or deeper experience of the Holy Spirit in your life right now. I’m going to ask you to stand – even if you are following along at home – and to first express your faith in God in the same way that the bishop asks candidates to do at a confirmation ceremony. I hope you will be able to answer each of these five questions with the words, “I do!”

• Do you renounce Satan, and all his works and empty promises? I do.
• Do you believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth? I do.
• Do you believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was born of the Virgin Mary, suffered death and was buried, rose again from the dead and is seated at the right hand of the Father? I do
• Do you believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who through the Sacrament of Confirmation has been given to you in a special way just as he was given to the Apostles on the day of Pentecost? I do.
• Do you believe in the holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting? I do.

Now we’re going to pray for a personal outpouring of the Holy Spirit on each one of us by singing the ancient prayer, “Come Holy Spirit”. You might want to hold your hands open in front of you, palms facing upwards. In your heart, give the Holy Spirit permission to come and live in you, driving out any doubts, fears or other obstacles. Let go and let God. Come, Holy Spirit!

Holy Spirit, Lord of Light,
From the clear celestial height
Thy pure beaming radiance give.

Come, thou Father of the poor,
Come with treasures which endure
Come, thou light of all that live!

Thou, of all consolers best,
Thou, the soul’s delightful guest,
Dost refreshing peace bestow

Thou in toil art comfort sweet
Pleasant coolness in the heat
Solace in the midst of woe.

Light immortal, light divine,
Visit thou these hearts of thine,
And our inmost being fill:

If thou take thy grace away,
Nothing pure in man will stay
All his good is turned to ill.

Heal our wounds, our strength renew
On our dryness pour thy dew
Wash the stains of guilt away:

Bend the stubborn heart and will
Melt the frozen, warm the chill
Guide the steps that go astray.

Thou, on us who evermore
Thee confess and thee adore,
With thy sevenfold gifts descend:

Give us comfort when we die
Give us life with thee on high
Give us joys that never end.

Image by Felix Wolf from Pixabay

Truly Consecrated

Homily to members of Sion Community and LiveStream Viewers on the 7th Sunday of Easter, Year B.

“The Lord has set his sway in heaven!”

That’s a strange thing to say. But has it got you asking the right question?

The wrong question is, “What’s a sway?”

To sway is to rock gently from side to side. From this we get the meaning of “sway” as influence to make something change its position, so “sway” can mean political influence. It’s a poetic way of saying God is Lord of heaven, and nothing against his will ever happens there. But the right question might be, “Why hasn’t the Lord set his sway on earth?”

In St John’s writings, both his Gospel and his Letters, we’re given a strong sense of the “world”, this earthly life, being under the dominion of the Evil One. The Anglican writer, C. S. Lewis, commented that when he became a Christian, he was startled to see how much of the New Testament suggests that our world is indeed under the dominion of a dark spirit. Between coronavirus, conflict in the Middle East, and the more personal issues each of us face, that darkness is all too apparent. Lewis likened Jesus to a warrior parachuting into Enemy territory, coming to raise up a guerrilla army to fight for truth, love and righteousness. Today’s Gospel points us to the commissioning ceremony for the soldiers of Christ.

“Consecrate them in the Truth!”

Jesus prayed this for his apostles. Jesus prayed this for you. And Jesus prayed this for himself. It mut be important!

To “consecrate” is a powerful word. A priest can bless many things – houses, food, rosary beads, and even people – but when bread and wine are brought to the altar, they are not merely blessed; they are consecrated. A man chosen to be a bishop is “consecrated” to his new role. When a woman chooses to give up her right to marry and devote her whole life to God while still living in the world, she becomes a “consecrated virgin”. For a person to be consecrated, that person is “placed with things which are holy” and so set apart from everyday life.

What does it mean to be “consecrated in truth”? Half the meaning is that you are “truly consecrated”. It’s emphatic! It’s real! But because we have free will, we must choose to respect that consecration – to keep it real on a daily basis. It’s not enough to be baptised or confirmed. We must also live each day according to the values of heaven, despite the temptations of earth. We won’t always succeed – but when we fail, God mercifully offers us forgiveness and the chance to try again.

The other half is that truth becomes the very thing which consecrates us. As followers of Jesus, we carry the most important truth which the world has ever learned: “Jesus Christ loves you, he died for you, and he walks with you to enlighten, strengthen and free you!” As ministers of truth, we dispel fear, bringing light to the darkness which clouds the thoughts of others, and to ourselves. It is said that “truth is the first casualty of war.” In today’s world where fake news can spread so quickly, we are called to measure twice and cut once before spreading tidings which grab our attention. We must serve the Lord of Truth and not the father of lies who would add fear and panic to any uneasy situation.

Jesus consecrated himself “for our sake”. But Jesus was already the Word of God, the beloved Son of the Father. What more could he do to make himself holy? Since “holy” means “set apart” he could set himself apart from our earthly existence, and return to the Father in heaven – which is precisely what the Church celebrated on Thursday, the solemn commemoration of the Ascension of the Lord. Our journey of holiness will be complete when we, too, enter heaven – but it is the Father’s pleasure that first we live out our lifetime on earth.

To be holy, our free will must become totally aligned to the will of God. We must make the journey of a lifetime, praying “Thy Will be Done” until we actually mean it, until we rejoice to do the thing that God has made clear to us. The battlefield we face is a battlefield of the mind. We are human beings with desires of the flesh, for food and comfort and other pleasures; but we are not God. For Jesus to be Lord of my life, I must surrender control. And his will is not that I be removed from this earthly life and enter heaven immediately, but that I live on earth, consecrated in the truth, faithful to Jesus and resisting all the snares and works of the Enemy.

We are asked to do two things in this earthly life – to live in love, and to acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God. St Paul commented that “no one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.” There is a divine gift of simply knowing that Jesus is Lord, which we call faith, which is planted in us by the Holy Spirit. That same Holy Spirit, dwelling within us, releases gifts to bless other people, and fruits of virtuous behaviour in ourselves. It is always good to invite God’s Spirit to enter more deeply into me and produce more fruit in me – but above all, in this week leading up to Pentecost, Christians all over the world are praying “Come, Holy Spirit” in a great chorus of unity. If you don’t already have it, I recommend downloading an app called “Thy Kingdom Come” so you can join in this week’s global wave of prayer – prayer for many more people to discover the truth that Jesus is Lord.

Strangely, amazingly, wonderfully, you and I are part of God’s plan. We are not victims, waiting to be airlifted to some distant heaven, but soldiers of righteousness, reclaiming this world for God while recruiting others for Heaven’s cause.

“The Lord has set his sway in heaven!” But will you set his sway on earth – and allow him to have his sway in you?

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If you have 15 minutes to spare, I recommend this animated illustration of C. S. Lewis’s script, “The Invasion”.

Unfaded Love

Homily to members of Sion Community and LiveStream Viewers on the 6th Sunday of Easter, Year B.

About 20 years ago, my grandmother was taken into hospital. It was a difficult time for me and my family – we thought we were going to lose her. Fortunately, she recovered her strength and came home, but it could have gone either way. It made me very conscious of the things I did want to say to her before it was too late. But there was a problem – Nanna had become profoundly deaf, and it was impossible to have a conversation with her. So I did the only thing I could do. I wrote her a letter. On one side, I wrote about my own decision to become a Catholic and why it mattered to me. On the other side, I spoke about how grateful I was for all the things she had done for me – cooking the family meals when I was a child, and knitting the brightly-coloured pullovers which I loved wearing wherever I went. I told her how proud I was, that she was my Nan, and that I loved her.

I’m glad I did that when I did. A few years later, when Nanna was taken into hospital again and this time didn’t come out, I had the comfort of knowing I had no unfinished business. Mum later told me that Nanna had kept that letter in her handbag – and it had been unfolded and refolded many times.

About ten years ago, a close friend of mine suddenly got engaged. This is always a bitterwseet moment in a true friendship – of course you want someone you care about to find lifelong happiness in marriage, but it also means a change in when and how you can be together as friends. When I went to visit during the engagement, I stayed in her spare room – which of course was also his room before the wedding night, because they were both committed Christians – and there was a little scented heart hanging on the bedpost. A small part of me inwardly sighed and acknowledged that this was a sign of how things would change.

But then a wonderful thing happened. Before I went home, she handed me a little parcel. “We went to a craft fair recently,” she said, “and these are for your bedroom and your guest room.” Two more, identical, scented hearts! For the next six months, as soon as I woke up in the morning, even before I opened my eyes, the first thing I was aware of was a beautiful perfume which reminded me that I had a friend who loved me. Of course, after ten years, that scent faded away, but I still occasionally catch a momentary aroma and smile inwardly.

“Love one another, as I have loved you.” With these words, Our Lord reminds us that love is at the heart of our Christian faith – and not just love, but love-in-action. There are many kinds of love, including charity towards strangers, but today I invite us to focus on the way we show love within our closer relationships.

Who among us has not felt lonely at times?

Who among us has not wished for a token of love from someone we care about?

And yet, although our hearts are crying out to be loved, we are afraid to communicate the love that we feel, to others.

We may be afraid of rejection.

We may be afraid of being carried away by our stronger urges.

We may be afraid of our best intentions backfiring.

To be sure, love can go wrong. I once shared a house with a man who had a bad temper. We weren’t getting along very well, so I decided to make a peace-offering. He loved eating melon for breakfast, so when he went away for a week’s holiday, I made sure there was fresh melon in the fridge for his return. This did not have the desired effect. My gift was rewarded with a small explosion of anger – “That’s not the sort of melon I like, but now I have to eat it!” Truly, no good deed goes unpunished!

But do I regret what I did? Not at all. At the end of time, when all things will be made clear, he will understand that my gesture was meant as a peace offering and an act of love – and I will finally see clearly the pressures he was under at the time, which closed his eyes to the gift.

Showing love is always risky. Yes, we make ourselves vulnerable to rejection. Yes, we must guard ourselves against doing more than is appropriate in a particular relationship where our passions run high. But plainly and simply, Our Lord commanded us to love one another. The Greek word He used, agape, especially includes pouring out our strength for the good of others, seeking no return. If we give food to the Foodbank or send a donation to those suffering from latest overseas disaster, we have shown the highest form of love. But only within our closest relationships can we touch the heart of another in a way which brings lasting joy. Our motives will always be mixed – even Pope Benedict XVI commented that it was impossible to totally separate selfless agape from our own desires to love and be loved – but that’s OK, because it’s human.

We feel lonely and unloved when others do not prioritise showing us that they care. If we want to be loved, we must make time for others, for love always needs to be communicated, and, like a fading scented heart, refreshed from time to time. It is especially at times when things have become routine – many years into a marriage, or many months into a household under lockdown – that we need to renew our committment to show love to one another.

On other Sundays during the last year, I have challenged you to pick up the phone to someone you don’t speak with so often. But today I challenge you to think about the people you are in regular contact with – those who live in your house, or to whom you speak every week. If the scent of your heart has faded, what will make it new again?

Show love, because your love is real.

Show love, because the person you love needs a reminder that they are loved.

Show love, because God asks us to.

Show love. 

The Kindest Cut

Homily to members of Sion Community and LiveStream Viewers on the 5th Sunday of Easter, Year B.

“I’m expecting great things of you, Mr Leyshon! Great things!”

My headmaster in Secondary School, Mr Denis Jones, left me in no doubt of his high expectations. He said so often, in Welsh tones that brooked no argument.

He never said precisely what great things he was expecting, but as a committed Christian and chapel preacher, I think he would have been pleased to learn that I am now spreading the Gospel across the UK and wherever technology will carry it!

God also expects great things of us. In the Parable of the Talents we’re told that we are expected to make a profit for God, not of money but of souls. Today, St John’s letter questions whether our love is real and active, and whether our conscience is clear. But how do we know what great things God is asking of us?

We are to “live in Christ” – he is the vine, and we are the branches. Why does a vinedresser prune a grapevine? Left to itself it will grow lots of small grapes. But the master doesn’t want small grapes, he wants fewer but larger grapes. So he not only removes dead branches, but he also removes some of the perfectly healthy buds which would have formed new leaves, new branches and new fruit. In that way, all the available goodness is channelled into what’s left. So we are to look at what is already bearing fruit in our lives – through the gifts we have been given, and the doors which God has opened around us. Then we must ask how we can ripen this fruit – and what must be pruned to do so?

St Paul experienced a most severe season of pruning. As soon as he had become a disciple of Jesus, he took all that zeal which he had previously invested in persecuting Christians, and preached openly and strongly. This was not at all helpful to the church in Jerusalem! So they sent him home to Tarsus, and there he stayed for more than a decade until Barnabas went to fetch him for what become Paul’s famous missionary journeys, powered by preaching incubated in those years of pruning.

Sometimes we hear lots of place names in our Bible readings, and they mean little to us. It might be helpful to know that the Holy Land is about the size of Wales. So if we superimpose Great Britain on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, we could, loosely, say that Saul of Glasgow was converted on the road into Liverpool, and caused great trouble by preaching in Cardiff, so they took him to Aberystwyth, sent him home to Scotland on a boat, and then the Church in South Wales, North Wales and Mid Wales enjoyed a season of peace. It was only when I visited the Holy Land in 2013 that I realised that the journey from Bethlehem to Jerusalem was a local hop, like Newport to Cardiff, but the journey to the capital from Nazareth was like coming down from Wrexham – on a donkey!

It seems strange to think about such travel while living in lockdown, but we now find ourselves in a time of change. For the last year, our lifestyle has been disrupted. Now we look forward to a reversal of past restrictions, an opening of new opportunities. Many things are becoming possible for us. But perhaps God is inviting us to use our freedom wisely. “Do a few things well!” Maybe our families or our circumstances are making it difficult to do something (like Paul being sent home to Tarsus) – if so, am I angry with God for closing that door, or grateful to God for pruning me in order to make my “one thing” clear? But perhaps I’m in full control of my own actions, and in this case the responsibility falls on me and my conscience. Where does God want me to invest my energies in this coming season? Which of my fruits has the best potential to grow, and which must be sacrificed to achieve thus? What choices do I now have to make? Pruning is never comfortable, but there is joy in seeing fruit become ripe for the harvest.

Pope Francis reminds us that we should rise to this challenge because this is what makes us beautiful! If we live in Christ to the best of our ability, we will “appear as joyful messengers of challenging proposals, guardians of [the] goodness and beauty…” If we listen to the message of Jesus, we will have great wisdom on tap. If we follow his way, we will discover a “life to the full”. If we open our hands before God and truly pray for the help, the grace, which only God can give, we will be enriched. Last week we celebrated Jesus as the good shepherd – but a literal translation would be, “the beautiful shepherd”. This week we rejoice in our call to be beautiful sheep – or rich, ripe, juicy fruit.

So stay connected to Jesus! As our rhythm of life changes again, how important will it be to pick up our Bible and read something daily? How important will it be to make time for prayer, at least at the start or end of the day? Two of today’s readings contain wild promises which seem to say that God will answer every prayer we make – hard for us to believe when millions of Christians have been crying out to God for an end to the pandemic – but these promises come with a catch. First we must “abide in Christ”, we must be so connected to Jesus that we can see what the Father is blessing as clearly as he can. The Lord is expecting “Great Things” from us – indeed, he promises that we ourselves have the potential to do greater things than Christ himself – but first we must abide in him, and when the time is ripe – perhaps, like St Paul after many years – we will bear fruit in abundance. Until then, keep on growing!