When I was preparing this homily I was struck by a parish priest’s description of what happened in his parish.
The altar servers at Holy Family Church, are a sight to behold. In their cottas and black cassocks — red for special feasts like Christmas and Pentecost — six carry candles, while others process in with the cross, Sacramentary and incense, thurible and boat. Between 12 and 20 altar servers assist at every Mass, every Sunday. On special feasts, the head count jumps to more than 30. And the most astonishing facet of the scene: All of the altar servers are boys. It’s a sight that must put a smile on the heavenly face of St. John Bosco (1815-1888), the great priest-mentor who promoted the banding together of boys in religious activities.
Well, we might be thinking that was then and things are very different now. But no, that is a description of a Parish Mass happening every Sunday today.
Time was when GSS was a recruiting ground for the priesthood. How many priests have found there vocation while serving at the altar? I would imagine that the answer is far too many to count. For it is at the altar that the boy server sees a priest in action, where he develops a love of the liturgy and the Sacraments, but most importantly he learns that our love for Jesus is expressed in our worship and that this love then flows from the altar into our everyday lives and our work with those around us. Clearly, reverent worship of God the Father through Jesus Christ in the liturgy is a calling card for vocations.
Of course there are other ways in which people assist during the Mass, for Lectors and extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist serve the people. However, the altar boy serves the priest. He’s the hands of the priest. He is a would-be apprentice, either in a real or symbolic way, for the priesthood.
We must also stress what good, attentive and devout serving does for the parish as well as the servers in lifting people’s hearts to God. The cottas, cassocks and reverential ceremony are what the Lord Jesus deserves. This reverence, beauty and example brings people into the reverence and glory of the Mass by having these altar boys not only as servers but as examples.
However, it is also true to say that the altar server should also be formed in the Faith and not simply attend Mass when he is serving. Servers must be prepared to grow in their faith, knowledge and love of the Lord Jesus.
Many of the problems that have beset the CofE of late have been because there has been a tendency to ditch orthodox faith and morals in favour of a culture of relativism. All too often parishes are prepared to accept heretics as their priests – those who do not serve Christ, but promote their own version of the Faith; and lay people have acquiesced and even embraced these strange doctrines not sometimes not even realising that they are not being taught the truth about Christ and His Holy Church.
Eleven and a half years ago the then Rural Dean just before my institution as Incumbent said to me; “Ross it’s good to have with us. You and I are the only Parish Priests in the Deanery who believe in the Resurrection of Christ.” A few years later his successor as Rural Dean said in front of a clergy Chapter that he was fed up of “Credal Statements” and even the archdeacon thought it was funny. There was only one priest present who didn’t think it so funny. I could tell you tale after tale of heresy and the ways in which good, holy, and orthodox priests are being hounded out of the Anglican Communion simply because they will not embrace the nonsense that others are seeking to replace the Christian Faith with.
The time is coming when we will have to decide whether we are going to follow Christ and the “faith once delivered to the saints” or whether we are going to follow the new religion that is being foisted upon us and which, in truth, could not save a fig.
The Guild of the Servants of the Sanctuary has from time to time been affectionately known as “The Guild of the Serpents of the Sanctuary” and unfortunately, in our modern age, with the popularity of Harry Potter that may bring to mind the House of Slytherin. Now none of us, I hope, wish to desert Christ and follow the enemy, but the time is coming when we will no longer be able to trust the whim of the Sorting Hat and we will have to make a decision for ourselves as to where we belong. I am afraid that there are wolves at the door of the sheepfold and worse, some of them appear like shepherds. As St Paul says “even Satan is arrayed as an angel of light.”
Today on this Solemnity of the Birth of St John the Baptist we would do well to recall how, just before his martyrdom, St John sent to Jesus to ask whether he was the Christ or whether they should expect another. The answer Jesus gave clearly indicated that he was the Christ, and that there was no other to be expected. Like St John the Baptist we are not to expect another. Nor are we to expect another, different Gospel than that which has already been given. As John the Baptist leapt in his mother’s womb at the voice of Mary so we must all be attentive to the Lord’s presence. As John the Baptist was faithful to his mission as the one who was to prepare the way for Christ so we must all seek not to advance ourselves, but Christ and his Gospel.
Ultimately, altar servers assist the priest in offering the Sacrifice of the Mass in which the sacrifice of Christ on the altar of the Cross is made present. In so doing the altar server is permitted to draw near to the Sacred Mysteries. These Sacred Mysteries are not to be cheapened, debased or denied in any way. For the Mass is the “Family Service” of the Church – what are deemed “Family Services” are rarely worship in the real sense and many are simply cheap entertainment that is not worship at all. The Sacred Mysteries of the Mass are to be held as holy and undefiled, as pure and unspoilt, as unchanging and always efficacious. The same is true of the faith once delivered to the saints that underpins them. The time is fast approaching when, like Joshua, we will need to decide whom we will serve. Pray God that GSS and all its members like Joshua will declare: “as for me and my house we will serve the Lord.”
