“This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.”
The Christian Faith is one that is not simply a matter of intellect understanding a proposed idea – it is a Faith that is lived and experienced. Jesus, the Lord of all creation, God incarnate became man, took on flesh – he lived a fully human life. St John writes about this in his first Letter, taking up again some of the themes contained in his Gospel. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life – the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.....”
One of the problems that emerged with the rise of protest-antism and was compounded by the Puritans was the emphasis on how we experience God simply through the Scriptures. There was a loss of what we call sacramental experience – that is how Christ comes to us in the Sacraments. I have little doubt that some of you will have attended churches in the past or know other Christians who seem to have a view of the Bible which places it above all else. Now of course the Bible is important – in it is the record of the history of God’s revealing of himself to mankind over several thousand years culminating in the fullness of that revelation in Jesus Christ. Through its pages we can hear God speaking to us today and within the Church it forms part of the way in which the Holy Spirit guides the whole Church into all truth. But the Bible is a document belonging within the Church. The Church decided what would be contained within it and therefore simply appealing to Scripture as though it was the ultimate authority is not what Catholic Christians do. The Bible belongs to the Church and it is The Church that Jesus Christ came to found and there is a very real and important understanding that we must embrace of how the Holy Spirit works within the Church to guide her. The Scriptures and the Tradition have always been seen as of joint importance, for the Church through its Tradition guards the deposit of Faith as recorded in the Scriptures and proclaims the same Faith afresh to each generation.
In the Church we understand that Word and Sacrament are both important. Christianity isn’t to be made complicated and made out to be a deep intellectual exercise (although there is much to keep the brain occupied!) – for essentially it is one that is experienced through ordinary things: bread, wine, water, oil, and hands. It is these five things “bread, wine, water, oil and hands” that are part of parcel of the Sacraments of the Church and of how Jesus Christ comes to us in them.
In two weeks time the Blessed Sacrament will be returning, after a gap of 41 years into the main body of the Parish Church. As I have written in today’s Newsletter, “Of course, many of us in our time at St Mary & St Giles have never known it be anywhere else but in the former Choir Vestry and, along with the continuing numbers of new people to Milton Keynes, may not understand the importance and significance of the Sacramental Presence of Christ in our midst. In such circumstances it is the role of the Parish Priest to teach why we reserve the Consecrated Host for veneration as well as for those who are too ill to come to Mass whether they are in Hospital or convalescent/housebound in their own homes. Just because people do not understand something is no reason to keep it out of their sight, for we can all be brought to understand if it is explained to us.”
Over the next two weeks I want to give some teaching on the Sacramental Presence of Jesus and why the Church reserves the Blessed Sacrament, why it venerates the Sacred Mysteries of Christ’s Body and Blood, and of how Christians behave in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament. But this week I want to look at some background to the idea of Sacraments before answering those questions next week.
It is helpful that today’s Gospel comes from St John’s Gospel. St John records so many things about our Lord and places a great emphasis on “signs”. Whereas the other Gospel writers often talk of “miracles” St John talks of “signs.” These signs point to who Jesus is. They are practical demonstrations, they lead to faith and are vehicles by which we are brought into the life of the divine. St John has a great emphasis on the incarnation, that is of God becoming man. As you will have noted from the quote I used from St John’s First Letter we read that St John states quite categorically that he and others heard, saw with their eyes, looked upon and touched with their hands Jesus himself.
St John’s experience wasn’t simply an intellectual exercise – it was a physical experience. His is the Gospel where ordinary things are taken by Christ who then does extraordinary things with them: “bread, wine, water, oil and hands.” Christ even takes mud to heal a blind man and you can’t get much more practical or ordinary than that.
Jesus at the wedding of Cana in Galilee took water – a vast quantity of it and changed it all into wine. He took one of the most basic of all human requirements and did something extraordinary with it. He made of it a “sign” to reveal himself – to reveal to his disciples who he was. “He manifested his glory,” St John says. The word “manifest” is interesting – on the one hand it has a route in the Latin “manus” which means “hand”, and “festus” which means “struck.” This “sign” is one where the disciples are suddenly struck with the implication of what this means – one of those moments in our lives when the truth suddenly strikes us and we raise our hand to our mouth and say “oh”. So it is in the course of something outward and visible that the invisible reality is made manifest. And what were we all taught as part of our preparation to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation? Perhaps you can say it with me: “A Sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.” The inward and spiritual grace of the Sacraments is mediated to us today by Jesus Christ. As the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews states: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” Jesus changed bread and wine into his Body and Blood in Jerusalem and wishes to do so today, he healed the sick then and wishes to do so today, and he released people from oppression then and wishes to do so today. He wishes us to experience his manifesting of himself to us today under the veils of bread and wine, and in all of his Sacraments given to the Church for the continuation of his ministry among us.
Catholic and Orthodox Christians believe that Jesus is truly present in the Consecrated Host and Consecrated Precious Blood. We see the truth of this when we read the 6th Chapter of St John’s Gospel: Jesus states there; “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” This is what the Church believes about the Eucharist – it is what happens – the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of the Lord. For some this has become intolerable teaching and they will deny it and still claim to be Christians, but the Gospel ends with such people saying the same thing to Jesus and he ends up asking his disciples if they wish to go away as well. It is St Peter who replies: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Some weeks or months later at the Last Supper they are to see this teaching put into practice when Jesus takes, blesses, breaks and gives bread saying, “This is my Body” and then takes, blesses and gives wine saying, This is my Blood” and then commanding them (as the Church gathered there) “Do this in remembrance of me”.
This is not something that we remove from sight or refuse to explain to those who do not understand – it is fundamental to who we are as Christians. Next week I shall explain the reasons for Reservation, what we mean by veneration and say a word or two, by way of instruction, as to how we behave before the Sacramental Presence of Jesus. But for now I want to conclude with two things: firstly, a story from Holy Scripture: you may recall the story of the commander of the army of Syria, Naaman, who was afflicted with leprosy, who being informed of a prophet in Israel who could cure him travelled and eventually found his way to the prophet Elisha, who told him to bathe in the River Jordan seven times. Naaman in his pride said that he could just as well bathe in the rivers of Damascus and turned away in a rage. But his servants pointed out that if the prophet had asked him to do something difficult he would have done it, so why not do as the prophet asked? Then Naaman did as Elisha asked and was cured. The point of this is that human pride often gets in the way of God manifesting himself to us. Too often we make the Christian Faith an intellectual exercise, when in reality all we need is to accept that God wishes to manifest his glory to us through the ordinary things: bread, wine, water, oil and hands. Pride cannot accept this – it believes it has to earn or achieve what God wishes to give freely. But to those who are humble enough to accept that God wishes to use what is ordinary he manifests his glory.
Secondly, I want to end with a few quotes from well known and loved Eucharistic Hymns to remind us of what Christians have always believed, and therefore sung, about the Blessed Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood.
“Therefore we before him bending, this great sacrament revere”
“Alleluya, Bread of Angels, thou on earth our food, our stay; alleluia, here the sinful flee to thee from day to day”
“All for Jesus! at thine altar thou dost give us sweet content; there, dear Saviour, we receive thee, in thy holy sacrament”
“and having with us him that pleads above, we here present, we here spread forth to thee”
“he will give to all the faithful his own self for heavenly food”
“Soul of my Saviour, sanctify my breast; body of Christ be thou my saving guest, blood of my Saviour, bathe me in thy tide, wash me with water flowing from thy side.”
And of course:
“Sweet Sacrament Divine, hid in thine earthly home, lo round thy lowly shrine, with suppliant hearts we come”
And for me the one that says it all:
“Within the pure oblation, beneath the outward sign, by that his operation – the Holy Ghost divine, - lies hid the sacred body, lies hid the precious blood, once slain, now ever glorious, of Christ our Lord and God.”
The Christian Faith is one that is not simply a matter of intellect understanding a proposed idea – it is a Faith that is lived and experienced. Jesus, the Lord of all creation, God incarnate became man, took on flesh – he lived a fully human life. St John writes about this in his first Letter, taking up again some of the themes contained in his Gospel. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life – the life was made manifest, and we saw it, and testify to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us.....”
One of the problems that emerged with the rise of protest-antism and was compounded by the Puritans was the emphasis on how we experience God simply through the Scriptures. There was a loss of what we call sacramental experience – that is how Christ comes to us in the Sacraments. I have little doubt that some of you will have attended churches in the past or know other Christians who seem to have a view of the Bible which places it above all else. Now of course the Bible is important – in it is the record of the history of God’s revealing of himself to mankind over several thousand years culminating in the fullness of that revelation in Jesus Christ. Through its pages we can hear God speaking to us today and within the Church it forms part of the way in which the Holy Spirit guides the whole Church into all truth. But the Bible is a document belonging within the Church. The Church decided what would be contained within it and therefore simply appealing to Scripture as though it was the ultimate authority is not what Catholic Christians do. The Bible belongs to the Church and it is The Church that Jesus Christ came to found and there is a very real and important understanding that we must embrace of how the Holy Spirit works within the Church to guide her. The Scriptures and the Tradition have always been seen as of joint importance, for the Church through its Tradition guards the deposit of Faith as recorded in the Scriptures and proclaims the same Faith afresh to each generation.
In the Church we understand that Word and Sacrament are both important. Christianity isn’t to be made complicated and made out to be a deep intellectual exercise (although there is much to keep the brain occupied!) – for essentially it is one that is experienced through ordinary things: bread, wine, water, oil, and hands. It is these five things “bread, wine, water, oil and hands” that are part of parcel of the Sacraments of the Church and of how Jesus Christ comes to us in them.
In two weeks time the Blessed Sacrament will be returning, after a gap of 41 years into the main body of the Parish Church. As I have written in today’s Newsletter, “Of course, many of us in our time at St Mary & St Giles have never known it be anywhere else but in the former Choir Vestry and, along with the continuing numbers of new people to Milton Keynes, may not understand the importance and significance of the Sacramental Presence of Christ in our midst. In such circumstances it is the role of the Parish Priest to teach why we reserve the Consecrated Host for veneration as well as for those who are too ill to come to Mass whether they are in Hospital or convalescent/housebound in their own homes. Just because people do not understand something is no reason to keep it out of their sight, for we can all be brought to understand if it is explained to us.”
Over the next two weeks I want to give some teaching on the Sacramental Presence of Jesus and why the Church reserves the Blessed Sacrament, why it venerates the Sacred Mysteries of Christ’s Body and Blood, and of how Christians behave in the Presence of the Blessed Sacrament. But this week I want to look at some background to the idea of Sacraments before answering those questions next week.
It is helpful that today’s Gospel comes from St John’s Gospel. St John records so many things about our Lord and places a great emphasis on “signs”. Whereas the other Gospel writers often talk of “miracles” St John talks of “signs.” These signs point to who Jesus is. They are practical demonstrations, they lead to faith and are vehicles by which we are brought into the life of the divine. St John has a great emphasis on the incarnation, that is of God becoming man. As you will have noted from the quote I used from St John’s First Letter we read that St John states quite categorically that he and others heard, saw with their eyes, looked upon and touched with their hands Jesus himself.
St John’s experience wasn’t simply an intellectual exercise – it was a physical experience. His is the Gospel where ordinary things are taken by Christ who then does extraordinary things with them: “bread, wine, water, oil and hands.” Christ even takes mud to heal a blind man and you can’t get much more practical or ordinary than that.
Jesus at the wedding of Cana in Galilee took water – a vast quantity of it and changed it all into wine. He took one of the most basic of all human requirements and did something extraordinary with it. He made of it a “sign” to reveal himself – to reveal to his disciples who he was. “He manifested his glory,” St John says. The word “manifest” is interesting – on the one hand it has a route in the Latin “manus” which means “hand”, and “festus” which means “struck.” This “sign” is one where the disciples are suddenly struck with the implication of what this means – one of those moments in our lives when the truth suddenly strikes us and we raise our hand to our mouth and say “oh”. So it is in the course of something outward and visible that the invisible reality is made manifest. And what were we all taught as part of our preparation to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation? Perhaps you can say it with me: “A Sacrament is an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace.” The inward and spiritual grace of the Sacraments is mediated to us today by Jesus Christ. As the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews states: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.” Jesus changed bread and wine into his Body and Blood in Jerusalem and wishes to do so today, he healed the sick then and wishes to do so today, and he released people from oppression then and wishes to do so today. He wishes us to experience his manifesting of himself to us today under the veils of bread and wine, and in all of his Sacraments given to the Church for the continuation of his ministry among us.
Catholic and Orthodox Christians believe that Jesus is truly present in the Consecrated Host and Consecrated Precious Blood. We see the truth of this when we read the 6th Chapter of St John’s Gospel: Jesus states there; “I am the living bread which came down from heaven; if anyone eats of this bread he will live for ever; and the bread which I shall give for the life of the world is my flesh.” “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.” This is what the Church believes about the Eucharist – it is what happens – the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of the Lord. For some this has become intolerable teaching and they will deny it and still claim to be Christians, but the Gospel ends with such people saying the same thing to Jesus and he ends up asking his disciples if they wish to go away as well. It is St Peter who replies: “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life; and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” Some weeks or months later at the Last Supper they are to see this teaching put into practice when Jesus takes, blesses, breaks and gives bread saying, “This is my Body” and then takes, blesses and gives wine saying, This is my Blood” and then commanding them (as the Church gathered there) “Do this in remembrance of me”.
This is not something that we remove from sight or refuse to explain to those who do not understand – it is fundamental to who we are as Christians. Next week I shall explain the reasons for Reservation, what we mean by veneration and say a word or two, by way of instruction, as to how we behave before the Sacramental Presence of Jesus. But for now I want to conclude with two things: firstly, a story from Holy Scripture: you may recall the story of the commander of the army of Syria, Naaman, who was afflicted with leprosy, who being informed of a prophet in Israel who could cure him travelled and eventually found his way to the prophet Elisha, who told him to bathe in the River Jordan seven times. Naaman in his pride said that he could just as well bathe in the rivers of Damascus and turned away in a rage. But his servants pointed out that if the prophet had asked him to do something difficult he would have done it, so why not do as the prophet asked? Then Naaman did as Elisha asked and was cured. The point of this is that human pride often gets in the way of God manifesting himself to us. Too often we make the Christian Faith an intellectual exercise, when in reality all we need is to accept that God wishes to manifest his glory to us through the ordinary things: bread, wine, water, oil and hands. Pride cannot accept this – it believes it has to earn or achieve what God wishes to give freely. But to those who are humble enough to accept that God wishes to use what is ordinary he manifests his glory.
Secondly, I want to end with a few quotes from well known and loved Eucharistic Hymns to remind us of what Christians have always believed, and therefore sung, about the Blessed Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood.
“Therefore we before him bending, this great sacrament revere”
“Alleluya, Bread of Angels, thou on earth our food, our stay; alleluia, here the sinful flee to thee from day to day”
“All for Jesus! at thine altar thou dost give us sweet content; there, dear Saviour, we receive thee, in thy holy sacrament”
“and having with us him that pleads above, we here present, we here spread forth to thee”
“he will give to all the faithful his own self for heavenly food”
“Soul of my Saviour, sanctify my breast; body of Christ be thou my saving guest, blood of my Saviour, bathe me in thy tide, wash me with water flowing from thy side.”
And of course:
“Sweet Sacrament Divine, hid in thine earthly home, lo round thy lowly shrine, with suppliant hearts we come”
And for me the one that says it all:
“Within the pure oblation, beneath the outward sign, by that his operation – the Holy Ghost divine, - lies hid the sacred body, lies hid the precious blood, once slain, now ever glorious, of Christ our Lord and God.”
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