Into the depths

I think there is something significant about Jericho being the lowest city on earth, obviously Luke didn't know that, but he did know that from Jerusalem it was a long, long steep descent, down to Jericho.

The Lord goes into the depths to seek to seek who he might find. Zacchaeus, the shortest man, in the depths, is the lowest in the lowest place.

For Jesus, Zaccheus climbs a tree, for Zaccheus Jesus will ascend a tree.

Jesus looks up at Lazarus, not to condemn but to save, he enters into his house.

"They" object, because they can't see in Zaccheus what Jesus sees. For them he is a sinner, they have no hope of either his redemption or theirs. For Jesus, he is a son of Abraham, Jesus see what he is and can become, what God has made him, not what he has made himself, God does not create anything to hate it.

In the loving look of Jesus, Zaccheus with joy changes his life, not for fear, but for love.

Now, can Jericho stand for Hell, is Zacchaeus a substitute Adam ...?

Death is HORRENDOUS!!!

I do dislike this, in fact it would not be an overstatement to say I loathe it:

Death is nothing at all. I have only slipped away into the next room. I am I, and you are you. Whatever we were to each other that we still are. Call me by my old familiar name, speak to me in the easy way you always used.
Put no difference into your tone, wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow. Laugh as you always laughed at the little jokes we enjoyed together. Play, smile, think of me. Pray for me.
Let my name be the household name it always was. Let it be spoken without the shadow of a ghost in it. Life means all that it ever meant. It is the same as it ever was. What is death but a negligible accident. Why should I be out of your mind because I am out of your sight. All is well, nothing is lost. One brief moment and all will be as it was before.

It was written by a Canon of St Paul's Cathedral, I can only think he had very few occasions when he was called to a hospital in the early hours, to be with a mother whose baby had died and who was literally tearing her hair out with grief.

Maybe he had never met an old man who loved his deceased wife so much that he felt his body had been torn apart, and wanted only death himself.

It seems as if he had never meditated on the Cross and God's taking on the ultimate human experience, and the horror of the death of the Man-God himself.

This is trite saccharine pap; we do people, and the doctrine of the Incarnation, no service by this sort of thing and not acknowledging death is horrendous!

The Biggerstaffian Initiative

Lewes is known for its bonfire celebrations, to commemorate the Protestant martyrs killed during the 16th century. No popery banners go up, an effigy of the pope is burnt, and there is a sense of malevolence in the air but the rest of the time Lewes is a rather posh Sussex town.

Father Richard Biggerstaff, the urbane parish priest of Lewes, captured here behind bars, started a catechetical initiative with posters going up around town called "Know Popery".
That is witty, isn't it?

November Chant

Dies Irae


In Paradisum

It was the doctrine of Purgatory that first made me think about the Catholic faith, as a teenager it struck me as glorious that God's mercy and healing extends beyond the grave.

Holy Souls: Let us not presume

photograph from Hallowed Ground

I love All Souls Day, I celebrated an early Mass, in Latin, ad orientem, wearing a rather splendid black chasuble, with unbleached candles. My the second Mass ad populum was the man Mass really, there were about 50 or 60 people there, tonight there is an hours Exposition of the Blessed, followed by our normal, weekly ad orientem Mass, I am always surprised at how many young people come, I would like to celebrate more Masses facing the same direction as the people.

Younger people seem to like the prayerfulness of it.

All Souls Day, apart from Christmas day, is the only time priests "may" celebrate three Masses. I am going a little later to the end of the road to the ancient pre-reformation cemetry of Brighton to gain the Indulgence for the faithful departed.

The reason that I do like this day, is that I have got to that stage in life where I know more people who are dead than alive! Like all feast days or days of commemoration the Church draws out a strand of Christain faith and asks to penetrate its mystery. At Eastertide we certainly commemorate the faithful departed but today we do it differentl, we are confronted with the sorrow of death, the stark reality of skulls and bones, of the debt of sin, and even of doubt that we might not actually be ready for heaven.

Holy Souls day reminds us that there is Judgement, that Salvation actually depends on God Himself, that we will one day be dependant on the Church Militant and the Church Triumphant, when we join the Church Suffering. I like the idea that the Church mourns for the death of my mother and my friends, as Jesus wept for his dead friend Lazarus.

Parish visiting

To celebrate All Hallows day, I went off to Shoreham to have lunch with Fr Sean Finnegan, after which we for a little stroll and happened to bump into one of his parishioners, she is building a new house, on a boat, a former nay supply barge, a houseboat.

She invited us aboard, it was a real treat. In Brighton house prices are measured in 1/4 millions and planning laws are so restrictive, it was a real pleasure to see people being really inventive and adventurous. Some house boats are quite eccentric, like "Verda" others a little less so.

On the barge, I think this theirs which I found on the net, they are building their own living accommodation, it is going to have fantastic views, with huge windows, below there is a huge living space, at the moment lit by portholes.

I was vulgar and asked how much it cost, it was £10,000 plus another £2,000 to have it towed around the coast from Southampton, they already owned the mooring and obviously the structure they are building themselves on deck and the dividing of the hull up into bedrooms is going to be more, but I suspect it is still going to cost less that a decent one bedroom flat in this parish, and certainly it will be more interesting.

All Saints Day

A thought:

Being a Saint starts with baptism, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

There, at the very beginning, is the centre of the Communion which the saints belong to.

We are Saints because of what we are, rather than what we do. What we are, comes from the sacraments, in which we become Sons (and Daughters).

Our relationship with God, or rather God's relationship with us, is what sanctifies us. It is what grows from this relationship which sanctifies us or makes us Saintly.