Fr Peter's newsletter notes - February 2004

4th Week of Ordinary Time - Sunday 1st February 2004

Two weeks ago I was given a gentle reminder by the Prior of Downside Abbey as to the date of publication for the Centenary lecture which he had delivered last summer. "Soon", I replied, knowing that little had been done so far. However it gave me the necessary impetus to visit the Guildhall Library and examine their archives relating to the Church, and their map collection in particular. I was seeking a 19th century Ordinance Survey map that would show the exact site of the previous Church. (situated at the corner of Finsbury Circus and Eldon Street). The map showed a lot more and revealed that the present Church was built on a site of 'Dog Houses' whatever they might have been. Behind the Church was a warren of streets including various non-conformist Chapels, small workshops and numerous dwellings. Much of this was swept away when Broad Street Station was built in the 1880s by the London and North West Railway Company. The station was situated adjacent to Liverpool Street Station, and possessed its own marshalling yards at the bottom of Eldon Street, with a large warehouse directly behind the Church. All this in turn has been demolished and replaced by the Broadgate centre. All that is left on the north side of Eldon Street is a small block of 19th century buildings that include the present Church. Viewing the maps made for a fascinating morning and reflected the evolving pattern of the city.

Later returning to the Presbytery I discovered on the internet a society dedicated to the preservation of the memory of Broad Street Station. Unfortunately there were no pictures that included the Church. Though the city has evolved, and those under 40 will hardly remember the old station, such a society shows the longevity of the collective usage of a 'Proper Name', in this case that of Broad Street station. It is because people used and 'remembered' the proper name that it is still usable today. This might seem a childish point, but the wider consequence has profound philosophical and theological implications.

We as believers can use the Proper Name, 'Jesus Christ', and know to whom it refers, because we are but a tiny part of a collective chain of believers who have used this name from the very first moments of Simon, Andrew, James and John encountered Jesus at their workplace. The Gospel of Mark makes explicit that the content of his Gospel is how Jesus, is to be called Christ and Son of God. The existence of the Church allows us therefore to continue to use and mean what we say, and so live under the name of Jesus Christ. Just being part of the chain does not mean we understand the full content of the name, nor the full implications for our life and death. It is however the essential start, and the Church far from being a barrier to faith, as believed by so many, becomes the only place where the growth in faith is possible.

5th Week of Ordinary Time - Sunday 8th February 2004

I think it was in one of those famous early 1980s books of pop-sociology such as 'Sloane Ranger Handbook' that divided the world into roundheads and cavaliers. Such books, as the above and including the neo-Georgian handbook, defined a certain part of a generation. Despite their glib distinctions, they contain a grain of truth, but obscure much of what could be common to both sides. The human mind has to distinguish in order to understand, but too often it becomes easy to fix on the differences and forget the connections. Two people can look at the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Anglican communion in very different ways; one can see the sharing of a common baptism, the other the large differences in sacramental practise and Church government.

It seems to me that the Church can be divided into 'Chaplaincies' and 'Parishes'. The Church needs both, and what unites them is the most important, the celebration of the sacraments. However there are some major differences. Chaplaincies throughout the Church especially in Universities seem to be the best ground for recruiting vocations, the development of catechetical and spiritual practises. Likeminded people coming together will sustain each other in the faith, and generate a natural unforced community life. This is certainly my experience both as a Chaplain at University, in school, and with different professional groups. In central London most Churches are kept going by these 'Chaplaincies' and not by their resident populations who would be too small to sustain a living Parish. Indeed their Mass figures include sometimes quite large national Chaplaincy groups.

Most Parishes are not like this, and remain the spiritual home of residential populations of Catholics where they may celebrate the sacraments that sustain them throughout their lives. A residential population sustains a different sort of community life. The weakness of so many Parishes has little to do with the quality of Priest, nor with the talents of the congregation, but with the realities of modern life; transitory existences in terms of housing, shopping, going away for the weekend, etc. Every Parish has to 'compete' against so many other attractions. The true answer to these realities remains opaque at the moment, and the Church has had to suffer too many 'false prophets' in recent years, sincere people who have latched onto all too human solutions to these issues. One of the saddest sights is of Churches reordered in purely functional terms where all sense of transcendence and mystery is removed in the vain hope of seeking clarity and participation. This unfortunate pursuit of minimalism has reinforced what might be politely called the 'boring aspects' of Mass; inaudible readers, scrums of Eucharistic ministers, etc.

Perhaps each Parish has to rediscover the 'Chaplaincy' dimension within her midst, whether it be school, common workplace, retirement home, etc. Every Parish can derive so much from such a 'Chaplaincy'. The main Chaplaincy at St Mary Moorfields is oriented to the City's daily workforce. I see the parish as drawing much spiritual strength from the many Catholics who attend Mass here, or who drop in to say a prayer during the day. Another 'Chaplaincy' is for those who watch the Blessed Sacrament each week, allowing for perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in our Church. St Mary Moorfields also serves the small residential community in the surrounding neighbourhoods, so is also partially a residential parish, and they provide for another 'Chaplaincy'.

6th Week of Ordinary Time - Sunday 15th February 2004

Fixed to the wall of a non-descript 1970s office block' by the Stock Exchange' is a blue plaque marking the site of Cardinal Newman's birthplace. It is a testimony to the great physical and social changes that have taken place in the City over the last two hundred years since his birth in 1801. There have probably been four different buildings on the site since his house, and judging by the pace of development in the city, the present edifice will soon be demolished.

Much more importantly the plaque commemorates England's most famous Victorian convert to Catholicism. Cardinal Newman's conversion in 1845 and his reception into the Church at Littlemore near Oxford by Blessed Dominic Barbieri was final stage in an intellectual and spiritual journey that had begun in his youth. His path of conversion has set a pattern and been the inspiration for many other English converts since then, and in particular his gradual move from Evangelicalism through High Church Anglicanism (the Oxford Movement) to Catholicism.

Many of the converts that I have received as a priest into the Church, have travelled along the same path. Originally they had been attracted by that immediate emotional rapport with Christ and knowledge of the Scriptures that Evangelicalism offers, but found that the lack of systematic doctrine and a regular liturgical life failed to satisfy their inner religious longings. These converts bring to Catholicism a love of the Bible and are living witnesses to St Jerome's dictum, that 'ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ'. The Catholic understanding of the Bible as the inspired and foundational document of an existing Church, and the authority of the Church to interpret Scripture can sometimes make us forget the richness of the Scriptures. They are the 'soul of theology', and the basis for any systematic understanding of the Church's faith.

The second season of the Diocesan Renewal programme addresses this question of conversion, not just to those becoming Catholics from other denominations or none, but to ourselves who were baptised soon after birth. To convert is not only a once in a lifetime action, but rather a continuous process of renewal in understanding and commitment to Jesus Christ in His Church. This second season covers the Lenten season, which is the time for repentance and renewal. Everyone has their own unique path of conversion, with their favourite parts of Scripture, forms of liturgy, and different saints. Though our paths are all different, general patterns do merge, and the Diocesan programme tries to reflect this fact.

The first session is given the rather abstract title 'willingness', but please do not be put off as the invitation is to be open to the promptings of God so that we may live the morality of the Beatitudes in His Church through the Scriptures and the Sacraments. Each session will be based on the following Sunday's Gospel. I do hope some of you might be able to attend the sessions.

7th Week of Ordinary Time/Ash Wednesday Week - Sunday 22th February 2004

The command to 'love your enemies' has always been seen as the distinctive Christian contribution to the moral life. Christian ethics revolves around the truth of faith that 'God loves'. Pope St Clement wrote in the AD90s that the love of enemies was a witness to the 'extra-ordinary goodness of the Christian. Yet he continues, 'when they see that we do not only not love those who hate us, but do not love those who love us they laugh us to scorn, and the name is blasphemed'. The commands, 'to love', will always remain a challenge. The Greek word used to describe this love is 'agape'. It is very different to 'philia', friendship that describes the reciprocity between two equals, as demonstrated in the expression 'pair of friends'. It also differs from 'eros', which expresses the demand of our unreasoning passion and desire, an experience that George Melly described as 'being chained to a lunatic'. 'Agape' is a rational love, it sets great store in the other, and holds the other in high esteem. The actions of 'agape' do not remain hidden but are visible signs of charity. The loving thoughtfulness and concern of 'agape' ultimately transcends all human distinctions and so is the best description of God's love for the world.

This divine 'agape' sets the context for the 'Golden Rule', 'Treat others as you would like them to treat you'. God's respect for His creation and fallen man is seen in the biography of His Son Jesus Christ. God shows us in Christ how to treat others. It was an invitation that led to His death on the Cross, but which did succeed in the establishment of a community, the Church, where this love is kept alive. This community does fulfil the second half of the rule, 'would like them (i.e. us) to treat you (i.e. God) The Golden Rule is the great sign of hope, it anticipates a desirable reaction from the other and recommends actions based on this anticipation.

'Agape' is a rational love because it requires free will, and the desire to seek a proper response even from the enemy. The examples given by Jesus in this Sunday's Gospel are ways of eliciting a response from the enemy. To 'turn the other cheek' is to invite not another blow, but a potential sign of peace, and so break the cycle of violence. They require individual courage and the support of the community, the Church. This may seem all very abstract compared to the tensions and disturbances of our daily lives. However we all know that the best way to resolve any long-standing dispute is to take the initiative and speak to 'the enemy'. This requires personal courage from each of us, but we can rest assured that should we take such a step then we will be participating in some small way in God's agape, and in His mysterious benevolence 'to good and bad men alike', not just to accept evil as a fact, but the evil person as a potential good person.

First Week of Lent - Sunday 29th February 2004

The heroine of Rose Macaulay's 'Towers of Trebizond' laments the fact that. 'this important part of human life, the struggle that almost every one has about good and evil, cannot now be talked of without embarrassment'. It was not always thus, since much of ancient philosophy and mediaeval theology was about living the 'good' life whether for the present day or for reward in the afterlife. It might be considered politically incorrect to argue right and wrong in morals, but it is yet more difficult still to speak about sin. Sin has a wider ambit than simply wrong actions. It is a guilt that is inherited and shared. The Church understands that all people to be living in the consequences of original sin which pre-exist all choices whether right or wrong.

The problem for the modern mind is of thinking that the human will, a faculty or power of the person, chooses right or wrong in a vacuum, without any outside influence. This would be the will of the solitary person, who in choosing gains either merit or damnation depending on his/her choice. It is easy from here to see that a battle of wills can develop between God and ourselves. Submitting to God's will, would mean denying our own, and make us open to the charge of humanists that the Christian way of subjection is a denial of our humanity. Radical feminists would argue that liberation also entails throwing off the shackles of patriarchy. Rebellion against God's will is traditionally seen as the sin of pride, the worst of the mortal sins.

This sort of pride is a mortal sin because it is a form of idolatry, and against the First Commandment, the replacement of the living God by a mistaken image of God, namely myself. The trouble with the above analysis is that it accepts an erroneous understanding of both God and the human person, and makes God into the image of the proud human being. Sin can really only make sense when seen in relation to both the creation and the ultimate victory achieved by Jesus Christ through His Resurrection. The recognition of sin is one of facets of conversion. The gift of the Holy Spirit not only make us recognise this situation and understand sin, but also makes the human person free to choose God, to enter into a relationship with Him. The Holy Spirit is like a superior force which influences the directions of our will, the inner force in us to choose the ways of God. Thus our will can coincide with God's will and His purposes come about.

We all need this gift of the Holy Spirit as it breaks our bondage to sin owing to the Fall. No-one can evade the consequences of Adam's sin, except Our Lady, as prophesised in the Book of Genesis (3:15) who was preserved from the all stain of sin through the merits of Her Son's. Sin is thus more than an external choice but an internal disorientation that becomes personal through wrong choices. Without the grace of redemption, sin precedes and preconditions individual freedom, and makes all our choices skewed in relation to right and wrong.

Readings from the Second Book of Samuel and First Book of Kings, 4th Week of Ordinary Time, Year C, Cycle II

David is in danger of losing his kingdom to his Son, Absalom. His first action after retreating from Jerusalem is to undergo a penitential journey to the Mount of Olives to seek forgiveness from God by admitting that his sinful actions have brought about this situation. In this vein he understands that the curses of Shemei are to be endured as part of God's providence. (Monday, replaced by the Feast of the Presentation)

The anguished cry of David, 'O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom' shows him at his most distraught. The death of his son brings forth all the sorrow and grief attached to such a tragedy but also the understanding that he is responsible. The prophecy of Nathan continues to be fulfilled as the descent into violence consumes his own family. The sensitivities of fatherhood have to take second place to the realities of kingship. (Tuesday)

The compilation of the census and the establishment of the numbers of fighting men takes the initiative from God with its implicit reliance of human strength. David recognises he has sinned again and seeks God's mercy, though he accepts that any punishment would be just. The consequences of the king's sins are visited upon the people. (Wednesday)

David's death-bed instruction to his son centres on the enduring status of the covenant established with Moses. The king is not above the law, and Solomon will survive by remaining faithful as well. David's ready acceptance of his own sinfulness is key to such fidelity and is the necessary prelude to being recalled by God to reassume his role as shepherd to people. (Thursday)

David lived within the grace and power of God, who sustained his good actions, the defeat of the Philistines, the composition of psalms and the encouragement of cultic practices, and who also readily forgave him for his sins. It is through the acceptance of forgiveness that David maintained his greatness. (Friday)

Readings from the Second Book of Kings, 5th Week of Ordinary Time, Year C, Cycle II

The prophet Nathan predicted that it would be David's son, Solomon, who would construct the Temple, but it remained God's choice to 'tabernacle' there. In no way is the Temple a trap for God. The Temple contains no image of God except the tablets of stone on which the 10 commandments were written. (Monday)

The Temple as the place of worship cannot contain God, but is the place where God's presence might be known, and the place where the needs of the petitioner coincide with the willingness of God to respond. Solomon recognises the sovereign choice of God for His chosen people, and the need to follow His ways. (Tuesday)

Today's reading records the famous visit of the Queen of Sheba to Solomon. No content is given either to Solomon's wisdom or to the Queen's difficult questions. This wisdom has traditionally been associated with good governance, administration of a splendid court and organisation of worship, but at the heart of all this must be the knowledge of the living God. (Wednesday)

Twice Solomon is compared unfavourably with David his father, not about the nature of their personal shortcomings but their fidelity to the covenant. Solomon mixed in multi-cultural society and succumbed to that particular temptation of religious relativism. This expressed itself in his building of foreign shrines, some provocatively near Jerusalem. (Thursday)

The prophetic action of Abijah shows that God remains faithful to the covenant with his chosen people and their king, but not at any price. The kingdom is to be spilt and the northern kingdom eventually to fade into historical memory alone. The kingdom of Judah will survive according to God's promise, through the Fall of Jerusalem, the Exile and return. Its consummation will be in Jesus Christ as Son of David. (Friday)

Readings from the Letter of St James, 6th Week of Ordinary Time, Year C, Cycle II

The Letter of St James was written in Jerusalem towards the end of his life. It consists of a series of exhortations to the Jewish-Christian Churches of the region and its content is heavily influenced by the books of wisdom in the Old Testament. The great reversal at the end of time will see the poor raised up, and the rich, who are forever distracted by their wealth in this life, disappear. The devout Christian will recognise now his/her own poverty and will ask with a pure heart to overcome temptation. (Monday)

There is a great contrast between the divine initiative of God and the blind force of human desire. God's perfect gift of life should be consciously brought to fruition through grace and good works. This will involve trials and endurance but will ultimately lead to the crown of life. The opposite is not the work of God and involves a rapid decline from the yielding to passion through sin to death. (Tuesday)

The word implanted in our hearts refers to the faith received and accepted at Baptism. To accept baptism is to accept a vocation from God, to become His adopted sons and daughters. This vocation is nurtured through life by a continuous series of free and charitable acts that reveal the true nature of our faith. (Wednesday)

The partiality shown by the Christian assembly to visitors can only be done on a superficial basis, that of appearances. God does not choose this way. The poor, owing to their present sufferings, have a special place in His heart, which every Christian has a duty to recognise. The universality of the love of neighbour is a constant reminder not to be partial when it comes to judgement of others. (Thursday)

The acceptance of faith entails a certain vocational understanding of the human person. He or she is called by God and completed by God. This process is not automatic but requires our free co-operation in following the laws of the Church. This co-operation is called 'works'. Hence faith and works is called a living faith. To have no 'works' is to reject the implicit vocational structure of the Christian and so possess a 'dead' faith. (Friday)

Readings from the Letter of St James and the Lenten readings, 7th Week of Ordinary Time and Ash Wednesday week, Year C, Cycle II

The pursuit of wisdom and understanding whether of the world or ourselves is only possible through the simultaneous pursuit of the holy life: intelligence and holiness are intimately connected. God is both Creator and Redeemer. The experience of holiness reveals the 'inside' of God's creation, pure, peaceable and gentle. (Monday)

The inner turmoil of our random desires can so easily spill forth as violence. The failure to seek and ask for what we truly need as commended to the disciple by Jesus Christ makes us reject God. The believer should cultivate a spirit of humility instead that allows God to give grace. He is always on the point of doing so, though we so foolishly often make it impossible. (Tuesday)

The word ' return', used by the prophets to describe our path back to God is 'is very different to a mere remembering of past wrongdoing. To return involves making a journey, which might be long and painful. Reflection on the past requires time as does cultivating new habits that will keep us close to God. There are grounds for confidence that our return journey will be matched by God's pity, as he remains faithful to His chosen people, though this may never be presumed. (Wednesday)

The cultic setting of this speech by Moses to the people emphasises that religious is a stark choice between life and death. It is God that brings and maintains life. To return to God will involve developing a new insight into the question of justice, and so recognising injustice wherever it may be. (Thursday)

All religious practises requires more than outward conformity but an inward change of heart. The exterior form of fasting by itself however dutifully performed will not suffice. The end point of all fasting is to make 'space' for God through the pursuit of His ends, which is the establishment of justice and peace in His creation. (Friday)

The First Readings, First Week of Lent, Year C, Cycle II

The search for holiness is at the heart of our faith, and which reveals itself in our ethical behaviour. God is the source of all that is holy, and we participate in this holiness when we live according to his commandments. This particular passage fleshes out the implications of the last three commandments concerning our neighbour. Belief in God is mirrored in the ethics of everyday life. (Monday)

The mysterious workings of God will be achieved and His Kingdom will be established. The water animates what would otherwise be dead, but the form of growth is the creative potential of the seed. The seed, the human person is brought to completion by the power of this spiritual water. (Tuesday)

The second attempt by God to send Jonah to Nineveh met with outward success. The Ninevites readily convert after hearing God's word. Their conversion 'allows' God to spare the city, though we as readers of the story know how Jonah hoped they would not convert. The simple act of conversion is all that is needed. (Wednesday)

Queen Esther addresses God as the one true king in her and her people's hour of need. She remembers the covenant established between God and the chosen people, as the source of help and protection. She hopes that God will commit Himself to His chosen people, and will turn her tribulation and ours into joy. (Thursday)