Coming Together As One

Homily for the closing Mass of the Parish Mission to Sacred Heart & St Oswald’s, Peterborough, on the 7th Sunday of Eastertide.

“Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you, so that the world may believe it was you who sent me.”

Jesus prayed for his followers to be completely united! But in a broken world marked by friendly rivalries as well as toxic jealousies, how can such a thing be possible?

In the Catholic Church, we have one leader for the whole world – Pope Francis. We believe that the Holy Spirit guides the Pope – working through the various departments of the Vatican – to teach the message of Jesus to the world today; this is why the Bride, representing the Church, speaks with the Holy Spirit in our second reading.

We need a Pope because we can ask new questions which wouldn’t have made sense when Jesus was alive – questions about human embryos or nuclear weapons. Sometimes the Church offers a clear answer: threatening to kill innocent human beings is never moral, so weapons of mass destruction or any decision to discard embryos are never an option for followers of Jesus. Other times the Church leaves us free to discern our own personal calling: so one Catholic might choose to be a pacifist and anti-war campaigner, while another becomes a soldier or a military chaplain; both are permissible for Catholics in good conscience. Sometimes the Pope even says things are unclear and cannot be put into writing with the clarity we might hope for!

It’s the job of the Pope to give universal guidance about what is permitted or forbidden for all Christians. It’s the job of a parish priest to make practical decisions about what happens in the local church. In any Christian community, there will be limited resources and more good ideas than can be put into practice at the same time. So every parish priest, after listening to ideas from his people has the right to say – YES, we will do this, WAIT, we can’t do that yet but maybe next year, and NO, that’s not appropriate here.

What do we do when we don’t like his decision?

When I was at seminary, someone said, “With your bishop, you can have every word except the last.”

The same applies when you are a parishioner. If you think your priest has made a poor decision, go to him privately and say so. BUT – in public, back whatever decision he makes. You don’t have to agree that his decision is the best one; you only have to say, “This is what our leader has asked us to do, let’s get behind it.”

I once heard about a Christian organisation where the deputy leader coveted the leader’s position, and did everything he could to undermine him. A visiting pastor came along and told the two men to stand back to back. He spoke to the deputy and said, “Sir, the Lord is commissioning you to watch your brother’s back.” The leader was delighted, because he received this as a blessing of unity. The deputy was moved to tears. He knew that God could see the jealousy in his heart. When the deputy was able to speak privately to the visiting pastor, he confessed his jealousy and asked God’s help to be a good support to the leader.

St Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian Church, knew that he was called to stand up for Jesus even when the people around him ridiculed his faith. He received his reward in heaven. He knew exactly why he had to do what he did – he was a follower of Jesus, who rose from the dead.

Do we know why we do the things we do for this parish? It’s easy to take our eyes of Jesus and look at what makes us comfortable – this is the familiar way we do things – or even our own position – “this is my job and I’m not sharing it with anyone else”! But Jesus calls us to wash away our sins and be like him in every regard – sacrificing oneself for the needs of others. A healthy parish shares the work that needs to be done with every member who possesses the right gifts. A healthy parish gets behind its parish priest, gives him the benefit of the doubt, and comes together as one. A healthy parish is a sign to the world that Jesus is alive and changes lives today.

Throughout the last week, we have gathered for mission events in this parish under the title Coming Together that we are One. Our one-ness, our unity, comes from our decision to accept the teaching of Rome and the leadership of our Parish Priest. It also comes from our choice to come together each Sunday to receive Holy Communion. When Jesus said “do this in memory of me”, it was an instruction to come together to celebrate the Eucharist. Sometimes we cannot leave our homes, but when we join a livestream we are stronger than when we pray at different times. When it is possible for people to come together, we are even stronger! When we gather for Mass we hear God’s word and receive the Bread of Life, but we also have a chance to offer our own gifts and talents to make this community strong, and to spend time getting to know one another. If we do not know one another, we cannot love one another!

Last weekend, you may have heard the letter from our bishops inviting all Catholics to return to the habit of attending Mass in person every Sunday, now that the danger of covid is receding. There is always a temptation to skip a Sunday, but when we give in to that temptation, two things happen. The first is that we dishonour God – because if we make a free choice to miss Mass when it’s possible to come, we’re telling Jesus that he is not the most important thing in our life this week. The second thing is that this parish becomes weaker, because any parish is only as strong as the combined gifts of all its members – that is, the members who come and contribute.

If there’s something in your heart which could get in the way of the health of this parish, if there’s anything that tempts you not to “come together” each Sunday, give it to Jesus. Give it right now, in a moment of prayer! And with God’s help, you will succeed in coming together that we are one and the world – or at least Peterborough – will believe!

Resources for Sacred Heart & St Oswald’s

The parishioners of Sacred Heart & St Oswald’s in Peterborough met on 27 May to consider possible future activities in the parish. The following resources may be particularly helpful in the light of the discussion.

VOLUNTEERING

The parish recognised the need to recruit more volunteers for the various tasks which need to be accomplished. Parishes often fall intro the trap of banging square pegs into round holes. Sometimes there are jobs which just have to be done, but as far as possible it’s important to help people to volunteer according to their strengths. For a great case study of how a Catholic parish handled volunteers well, check out Albert Winseman’s Growing an Engaged Church.

It may be useful to take a parish survey which includes questions about the gifts and abilities of each member. Some people won’t volunteer unless approached directly, but a survey can make it much clearer who might be the best person to approach. The survey can be used to create appropriate tags in a parish management database such as ChurchSuite.

YOUTH

In common with many parishes, parishioners here are concerned that it is difficult for the Catholic Church to retain young people. It is important to recognise that there is a huge difference between “doing things for the young people” and “doing things that will retain young people”.

If a parish chooses to put on sports clubs, music events, social activities or other things aimed at young people, this should be done as an act of service to meet the needs of young people. The secular world can often do these things better than church volunteers, so any such activity should reflect the availability of suitable volunteers and resources in the parish so that something can be done well. But just doing such things will not retain young people as worshipping Catholics. There is evidence-based research for two things which are more likely to retain young people: encouraging Dads to return to church, and providing some kind of “Messy Church” experience.

A book called Rebuilt explains how an American parish adopted a twofold mission: reaching the lost and growing disciples. Starting with 1500 worshippers, they grew to 4000 by gearing the welcome, music and preaching to their target audience – a 40something lapsed Catholic middle-class male. By exhorting and enabling people to “get involved” they developed a culture where parishioners naturally gave of their time, talents and treasure; so resources do not need to be directed into running fundraisers or seeking reluctant volunteers to fill gaps. Some questionable statistics oft-quoted from page 111 of “The Promise Keeper At Work” claim that a practicing Dad will keep his children at church 93% of the time; a different and likely more reliable source based on a Swiss survey suggests that there’s a 38-44% chance of retaining children if the Dad is regular at church (I have contacted the author to seek attribution for the Swiss survey).

Anglican research shows that having some experience, however thin, of religious community as a child was a strong predictor of whether an adult would attend a place of worship; congregations were most effective at attracting children aged under 16 when they employed a ‘Messy Church’ approach. Messy Church is “a form of church for children and adults that involves creativity, celebration and hospitality, primarily for people who don’t already belong to another form of church.” Children and adults gather together for a gathering which includes a creative activity exploring a message from the Bible, and also includes a shared meal. This is not an addition to church – for the families who take part, it is church.

This wouldn’t fit so well into a Catholic context – unless a radical priest dispensed families from Sunday Mass to do Messy Church instead – but there are innovations which can work in a Catholic context such as the Cardiff toddler Mass.

Divine Renovation ministries recently produced two webinars on moving from a mentality of “running courses” to asking “What promotes conversion?” – part one dealt with First Communion and part two with Confirmation.

Sion Community can offer some resources and activities to support young people:

• Our coming Youth event, D Weekend on 17-19 June, for young people in school years 7, 8 and 9, has the theme of “The Journey” and reflects on what we can learn from the Israelites’ 40 years in the wilderness. Watch our new trailer!
• Young people who will enter school Year 10, 11 or 12 this September can now book for theASCENT, a three-year discipleship program to form young people as mature members of the church.
• Mount Sion Family Camp, four days of faith and fun for the whole family to share together, runs 28-31 July. Our theme this year is: “The house of God – the gate of heaven!” All meals are provided as part of the package; accommodation is by camping in the grounds of our residential centre (bring your own tent).
• It may be possible for Sion Community members to train parishioners to run Family Days (a kind of Messy Church day which could run monthly alongside Sunday Mass) or to train parishioners to run Youth Alpha; Sion Community members could facilitate online groups via Zoom or come to run a retreat day for young people. We also offer primary and secondary school missions.

Make It Real

Homily for the Fifth Sunday of Easter, Year C, at Fisher House.

See how these Christians love one another!

Tertullian, Apology Ch .39

The ancient writer Tertullian, living 200 years after the dying and rising of Christ, places these words on the lips of astonished pagan observers.

Back then the Christians were a misunderstood minority in the Roman Empire, sometimes persecuted, sometimes tolerated. There was no welfare state, no social security, no automatic payments from the treasury for those who had no work. But for those who followed Jesus and gathered for worship each Sunday, there was a common fund; widows and orphans were cared for, and those sent to prison or hard labour for being known as followers of Jesus were the subject of their special care.

Fast forward to our own age. A quick glance at the Fisher House website will make it clear that many among this community go out to serve poor and needy people in different ways. When we go into a needy world to do works of charity, we must be excellent and exceptional in the quality of our love. The fact that we do it speaks volumes – the way that we do it speaks louder! And indeed we must help our neighbours in need as best we can, for Scripture makes it clear we will be judged on how well we serve the hidden Christ in those hungry and thirsty, imprisoned or indigent.

But that is not our text for today. Rather, the Lord’s command here is the way we – his followers – love one another. And that is a question about this group of Christian people, gathered here to worship today. Can it be said of us, as it was said of old, “See how these Christians love one another?”

If I step into this community of believers, as a fellow-believer, will I be accepted and cherished?

We are not equal at our gifts at making friends. If you are endowed with the winning combination of physical beauty and personal charisma, your greatest problem might be rationing yourself among the people who flock around you. But what if you are socially awkward yet desperate to belong? Some of us are gifted with a deep sensitivity which attunes us to the needs of others, yet others might struggle to pick up subtle cues. How do we build a Christian community where no-one who longs to be included is left out?

Tertullian noted that the Christians of old would share their lives, their homes – everything except their spouses with one another. If I invited myself to dinner with you today, how would you feel?

Don’t worry – I am expected for lunch here at Fisher House! But just imagine, for a moment if I – or the person sitting next to you right now – could expect to casually call round and be welcomes to a place at your table today, whether in Halls or in a private home? If that thought fills you with dread, notice that. What would need to change in order for you to be able to love at this level?

But let’s start with something simpler – the art of connecting with another person.

Look around you, and catch the eye of someone you don’t know very well. If possible, someone whose name you don’t even know. When you’ve made eye contact with somone, nod at each other in acknowledgement. This may be especially helpful if you’ve been plucking up the courage to ask someone out since Michaelmas Term – the year’s almost over!

Now – this is very important – break your gaze. Eyes front! There’s good scientific evidence that if you gaze into someone’s eyes for 4 minutes you’ll fall in love with them, and I haven’t passed this sermon through the University Ethics Committee!

You’ve just made a connection with someone who has chosen, today, to be part of our worshipping community. Jesus is asking you, not to fall in love with them, but to love them. Four times in today’s Gospel, Our Lord uses the Greek word agape, self-sacrificing love which is the choice to put the need of another person before our own comfort or convenience. Don’t worry, I’m not going to ask you to invite your new contact home for dinner! But perhaps, before you leave Fisher House today, you could have a conversation with one another over a cuppa. If you don’t know what to talk about, once you’ve learned each other’s names, perhaps you could ask each other one thing you could pray for during the next week. In fact, if one of you doesn’t have time for a cuppa, you can still ask if there’s something you can pray for before you leave!

If you’re joining us via YouTube, please don’t feel left out! If you’d like to be acknowledged, say hello on the live chat and hopefully another viewer will be able to do the same to say hello to you!

St John of the Cross famously said “At the evening of life, we shall be judged on our love.” Our Lord made it clear that this includes the way we treat the needs of our neighbours – the people whose needs we stumble over in our journey through life – but it also includes the way we approach each other as fellow-members of the Church. Another John, the author of the Book of the Apocalypse, beheld a vision of heaven, a city without mourning or sadness. Every Christian congregation is a suburb of the new Jerusalem, an attempt to build heaven on earth. It’s not posible, in this earthly life, to build a community totally free of sorrow and suffering – but if we choose to do so, we can at least make sure that this congregation is a place where everyone who walks through the door leaves feeling appreciated, upheld and loved. That’s not simply the task of the Chaplains – it’s the task of every follower of Jesus who comes here to worship. And this will call us out of our comfort zone – if the early Christians had not gone above and beyond in their loving, there would have been nothing to astonish the pagans.

See how these Christians love one another! If Tertullian visited Fisher House today, what would you want him to see in you?