Captain of the Red Team

Homily at the Unbound Team Day at Sion Community for Evangelism, 13 March 2022

When I was 10 years old, I entered the top class in primary school. My school had four House Teams, and each was headed by a top year pupil. The form teacher explained there were four vacancies for House Team Captains, and set out what would be needed if anyone wished to volunteer for this role. Many hands went up, but at first, mine did not. Then the teacher explained the difficulties of the role, the sacrifices which needed to be made, the tasks to be done, and the example to be set. Many hands went down at that moment; but mine went up.

The task was going to be difficult and challenging – ah, so here was a task which might be worth taking on. And so I became captain of the Red Team.

To be a Christian is to take on a way of life which is challenging. Part of the challenge comes from misunderstandings within our own church. In St Paul’s day, the biggest headache was conflict about foods which should or shouldn’t be eaten – does a follower of Jesus have to follow Jewish kosher food laws? Or at the other extreme, if a Christian is offered some meat which a pagan neighbour has dedicated in a ritual to some Roman god, must the Christian refuse? The simple Christian answer is that “All food is good, as long as grace is said for it.” That indeed sets a precedent that as Christians we can adopt practices which have their roots in other cultures, even other religions, as long as there’s nothing which explicitly invokes a false god or expresses ideas contrary to Christian faith.

But if St Paul were writing a letter today, I don’t think he’d be concerned about food. Who would be the Enemies of the Cross of Christ today? It would be anyone who claims to be a Christian, but refuses to put Christ, or His Cross, at the centre. And let’s face it, it’s tough being both a follower of Jesus, and a member of the Catholic Church as it exists in the West today. I’m not talking about the baggage of heavy-handed leadership, or the abuse scandals which have rocked secular and religious organisations alike. I’m talking about a much more insidious problem. Do we belong to an organisation which loves and serves Jesus, or do we belong to a club of people who like to meet together in their own building and do familiar things? In the West, it seems to me that most of the people who worship in a Catholic parish are people who love their community, cherish the building where they meet for Mass, but haven’t yet had that deep inner conversion which allows them to say: “What is most important to me is that I am a follower of Jesus.”

Jesus is the true Captain of the Red Team. If we follow him, there will be blood, sweat and tears. During Lent, we turn repeatedly to meditate on the Way of the Cross. It is Christ’s own suffering which has the power to save the world, and the suffering is properly his. Yet Jesus loves us enough to share His suffering with us, are we not members of his own body?

There’s a famous line in scripture which says that God allows us to face troubles in the world so that we can help others who have experienced the same troubles. Whenever I read that I find myself thinking that if only God could stop the trouble in the world, I would not need to have troubles, because there would be no one else in need of my compassion. But that is fanciful thinking. For as long as the human race has been recording history, there have been wars, natural disasters, and personal tragedies – and there always will be, until Christ comes again. History does not give us the choice of believing in a God who will protect us from all harm. The only kind of God left, which we could sensibly believe in, must exist alongside the suffering of this world. In Jesus we see God’s response to pain and suffering – not avoiding it but entering into it and drawing every last ounce of good from what seems tragic and painful. 

So yes, there will be days when we too will cry out, “Who will save me from this wretched body?” We cry partly because within our flesh is concupiscence, that terrible tendency to sin which we have to learn to fight against, which Lent challenges us to face anew. But we cry out also because our bodies are limited; they age, they start going wrong, and can be easily damaged by external events. God has a plan to deal with this: Body 2.0 is waiting for you in the Resurrection. But for this human lifetime we have only these wretched bodies, together with a promise that God will one day transfigure them. The trailer for this coming epic feature, which never ends, has been shown to us in the Transfiguration on Mont Tabor!

There is another wonderful promise in Scripture, that God turns all things to the good for those who love Christ Jesus. I once went on a Christian Communications school where we were asked to choose a favourite passage of scripture and boil that down to the shortest possible text message. I chose that verse, and my end product was: ALL WELL 4 XTNS.

I think mother Julian of Norwich had an insight into the same thing when she wrote with confidence that “All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.” But the journey to that place of wellness is none other than the Way of the Cross. Those who suggest that religion should offer a way of life in this world which is free of pain and suffering, are the enemies of the Cross of Christ. We know there will be pain, but even so, let us follow the Captain of the Red Team as he carries his Cross, for he is the only one who can lead us all the way to heaven.

Freedom?

Homily at the FaithLift Day at Sion Community for Evangelism, 12 March 2022

Brothers and sisters, what is our freedom for?

We are asked to use our freedom to make good choices.

The Israelites of old were about to cross the River Jordan into the Promised Land, when God asked them to make a good choice – the choice to listen to his voice and follow his commandments. But what is the Voice of God saying today? What are his commands?

Some of God’s laws are about worship. The Israelites sinned gravely when they made a golden calf to worship. We, as followers of Jesus, are asked to choose to worship by attending Mass, for our Master said “Do this in memory of me.” God gave a commandment to rest from labour on the seventh day – our bishops ask us to choose to attend Mass every Sunday and Holy Day whenever we are free to do so.

Some of God’s laws are about caring for one another. These days, as we have a greater understanding of how the global climate works, we know that caring for one another includes living lightly on the Earth’s resources. Saving fuel, recycling, and shopping locally all make a positive difference. Pope Francis and Pope Benedict ask us to make these things part of our examination of conscience, alongside more traditional questions like “Have I done what I can to help my needy neighbour?” and  “How have I loved my enemies and blessed those who oppose me?”

And some of God’s laws call on us to guard our thoughts and not to be swayed by the values of the world around us. In particular, Our Lord warned us on many occasions against the dangers of lust, and reminded us that God had a plan from the beginning – a man and a women were to become one flesh in a lifelong covenant, and remain faithful to one another. Any other kind of intimate relationship is born of a temptation to follow our fallen flesh rather than the Law of the Lord.

Here we find ourselves at odd withs the world around us, and I’d like to invite us today to open our eyes to what’s going on.

We see all too clearly on the news, the horror of the battle between East and West being played out in the Ukraine. The East represents control, repression, and falsehood. In Russia, a person cannot even call what is happening in Ukraine a “war” without facing jail – or worse. But before we rush to congratulate the West for being the champion of freedom, let’s recognise that the West is morally flawed, too. We would like to think that unlike those terrible Russians, our Government would never restrict our free speech. But let’s not be too hasty. 

There’s a bill currently before Parliament in London which, if passed, could fine an individual protester up to £2,500 for holding a placard or using a loudspeaker, if they don’t follow instructions from the police about what they can or cannot do. It would also become a crime for any protester to fail to follow restrictions the protesters “ought” to have known about, even if they haven’t received a direct order from a police officer. The Government says this is because protesters sometimes cover their ears and close their eyes when police try to give instructions. But the proposed new law doesn’t just cover those who wilfully resist receiving instructions from an officer – it is broadly drawn to cover anything a protester “ought to have known”. Do we want our police to have such powers? If not, you may think it worth writing to your MP.

I also want to mention two particularly sensitive topics – transgender rights and same-sex marriage. I’m doing so today because the scripture we’ve heard invites us to “listen to the voice of God”. Not everyone hears the voice of God clearly on these matters – even Bible scholars who try to balance the meaning of different texts may come up with different conclusions. But perhaps one thing we could agree on is that we need freedom to debate these topics, a freedom so wide that it embraces those who only have eyes for the command to “love one another” at one end of the spectrum, and those who quote Bible verses affirming that God created two sexes and condemns all same-sex intimacy, on the other. Once, it was a crime in the West for many kinds of sexual desires to be lived out in practice. But now we face the opposite danger where it becomes a crime for a counsellor or a Christian minister to help a person who wishes to resist some kinds of lustful desires. Last year Canada passed a law which will have that effect; and our own Parliament is now considering a similar piece of legislation.

Now, I would be the first to admit that there have been many harmful attempts, some of them by religious people, to forcibly change someone’s intimate feelings. I am not here to defend those. But any law written so broadly that I cannot offer a supportive prayer with a person who wants to resist temptation, would be a deeply concerning piece of legislation.

Brothers and sisters, in the West or in the East, freedom doesn’t just happen – we have to fight for it. I don’t usually preach a sermon like this, which feels quite “political”. But what I see in Western society worries me. With gay pride and transgender rights added to the catalogue of divorce, abortion, and the threat of euthanasia coming soon – it becomes harder to live out our Christian values, and much harder to find wholesome entertainment in films and television today.

What is our freedom for? If we are not free to help one another resist temptation and heed the voice of God, then we have no freedom worthy of the name. But in fact we are free, free to disagree with the society around us, while the price we will pay for this is still small. We will feel conflict within us now, between the Voice of God and the knowledge that heeding that voice will lead us to some measure of stress and conflict. 

In today’s Office of Readings, Catholics around the world are reading a text from the Vatican II document, Gaudium et Spes: “The world of today reveals itself as at once powerful and weak, capable of achieving the best or the worst. There lies open before it the way to freedom or slavery, progress or regression, brotherhood or hatred.” Brothers and sisters, what many people in the world believe is progress, is in fact progress on the road to Hell. Lent is a time for conversion, and Our Lord leaves no room for half-measures. We are challenged to be perfect, as our Heavenly Father is perfect! This Lent we must resist temptation in our inner struggles, but we must also go further. We must stand up for our Christian freedom to disagree with the values of the world around us. We must voice unpopular opinions among our friends and colleagues, because when a majority stay silent, a vocal minority can win. And we may also feel moved to contact our politicians to insist that there needs to be space for unpopular opinions and conscientious objectors on the road to true freedom.

Brothers and sisters, this Lent, will you heed the Voice of God? Will you stand up for freedom to hold fast to God’s values in a world which is taking a different path? Will you enter intro a holy struggle not only with your own temptations but also with the spirit of the age? Friends, the freedom of the West is in your hands. Choose wisely. Choose bravely. And know that if you are on the Lord’s side, the Lord will fight for you, now and forevermore. Amen!

Incomparable

Homily to members of Sion Community at a Regional Day in the SENT Chapel, 5 March 2022.

Do away with the yoke, the angry fist, the wicked word.

Today’s first reading contains many words of advice for us to keep a good Lent, but I am going to focus on the opening verse, which is more than enough for us to meditate on.

You have heard it said, “Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers.” But I say to you, “Do not be equally yoked with another believer!”

It is a terrible thing to be caught up in the yoke of believing you have to be the same as another disciple of Jesus!

Let me give you an example. In today’s Gospel, Levi the tax collector has a great conversion, and throws a party! Many other tax collectors come and dine with Jesus.

What Levi did was a wonderful and terrible thing.

Levi’s party was a wonderful thing, because it was an expression of his joy and repentance. He wanted to bring the people he knew to meet Jesus too. It was an act of love and generosity. What a party!

Levi’s party was a terrible thing, because imagine being one of the other tax collectors among the guests? Perhaps you are moved by the words of Jesus, too. Perhaps your heart is feeling nudged across the oh-so-difficult threshold of “openness to change”. You know you are going to have to find a new profession. You know you too will need to return the illicit profits which have lined your own pockets. But now you face an additional burden. Levi has set a precedent. Now you will have to throw a lavish party, too! You clench your fist. You feel your anger flowing through your veins. How dare this reckless colleague set the bar so high for you!

Or not.

These are wicked words, false words whispered to us by that lower part of our fallen nature which tries to drag us back into the comparison game, telling us we’re no good unless we can keep up with our rivals and role models. These are lies. Throw off the yoke of false equivalence!

If you see someone else do a good deed, that person has done so out of their own resources, their personal relationship with the Lord, and perhaps also some element of personal vanity – since we are all still on the journey to perfection, we are all capable of doing truly good deeds for truly mixed motives. You are under no obligation to do the same thing, even if you have similar means. Throw off the false yoke of obligation!

And if you are about to do a good deed, and you pause because you fear that someone else will feel impossibly challenged to match your generosity, do not pause for too long.

Our Lenten journey leads to the Passion of Christ, a Passion triggered by an act of reckless generosity. A grateful sinner anointed Our Lord with pure nard, and Judas took umbrage at what he thought was a waste of resources. But Jesus affirmed that the woman had done a beautiful thing, something that would be told forevermore in memory of her. It is the spirit of Judas which whispers the wicked words, “Do not do this beautiful thing for God!”

I cannot promise you that your good deeds will not trigger bad consequences. In one way, though she could not have foreseen the horror of it, the woman’s actions led directly to Christ’s crucifixion. But there is no guilt attached to her; on the contrary, the Lord himself declares her to have done a good and beautiful thing. We too must do beautiful things for Jesus, without worrying unduly about the unforeseen consequences. Is it not written that God will turn all things to good for those who love Christ Jesus?

A young soldier called Iñigo found himself confined to bed with little to read but the lives of the saints. He found himself asking, “What if I did the things that St Dominic did? Or St Francis?” But he neither embraced a life of radical Franciscan poverty nor became an itinerant preacher in the Dominican mould. No, he became St Ignatius of Loyola, with his own unique story to tell.

So when wicked words come into your head, insinuating that you are not the equal of a good person who provokes your anger, renounce these words and open your clenched fist. Lift your hand to Jesus and yoke yourself to him, and not to any imperfect saint on earth. He will not condemn you for failing to be someone else! Yoke yourself to him and do only what He is asking you do. You cannot please all the people all the time. You cannot even please some people any of the time. Do not be equally yoked with another believer! But choose to please the one Person who matters, and that will be enough for Lent, for a lifetime, and for everlasting life!