Today the Church remembers St. Mark the Evangelist, who is the traditionally ascribed author of the Gospel of Mark. Mark is this one of four Evangelists, or writers of the Gospels.
Ora pro nobis.
Mark was born c. 5 AD in the city of Cyrene, in modern Libya. He is said to have founded the Church of Alexandria, one of the most important episcopal sees of early Christianity.
According to William Lane (1974), an “unbroken tradition” identifies Mark the Evangelist with John Mark, and John Mark as the cousin of Barnabas. However, Hippolytus of Rome in On the Seventy Apostles distinguishes Mark the Evangelist (2 Tim 4:11), John Mark (Acts 12:12, 25; 13:5, 13; 15:37), and Mark the cousin of Barnabas (Col 4:10; Phlm 1:24).[5] According to Hippolytus, they all belonged to the “Seventy Disciples” who were sent out by Jesus to disseminate the gospel (Luke 10:1ff.) in Judea. According to Eusebius of Caesarea (Eccl. Hist. 2.9.1–4), Herod Agrippa I, in his first year of reign over the whole of Judea (AD 41), killed James, son of Zebedee and arrested Peter, planning to kill him after the Passover. Peter was saved miraculously by angels, and escaped out of the realm of Herod (Acts 12:1–19). Peter went to Antioch, then through Asia Minor (visiting the churches in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, as mentioned in 1 Peter 1:1), and arrived in Rome in the second year of Emperor Claudius (AD 42; Eusebius, Eccl, Hist. 2.14.6). Somewhere on the way, Peter encountered Mark and took him as travel companion and interpreter. Mark the Evangelist wrote down the sermons of Peter, thus composing the Gospel according to Mark (Eccl. Hist. 15–16), before he left for Alexandria in the third year of Claudius (43 AD). According to the Acts 15:39, Mark went to Cyprus with Barnabas after the Council of Jerusalem.
According to tradition, in AD 49, about 19 years after the Ascension of Jesus, Mark travelled to Alexandria and founded the Church of Alexandria – today, the Coptic Orthodox Church, the Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria, and the Coptic Catholic Church trace their origins to this original community. Aspects of the Coptic liturgy can be traced back to Mark himself. He became the first bishop of Alexandria and he is honored as the founder of Christianity in Africa. According to Eusebius (Eccl. Hist. 2.24.1), Mark was succeeded by Annianus as the bishop of Alexandria in the eighth year of Nero (62/63 AD), probably, but not definitely, due to his coming death. Later Coptic tradition says that he was martyred on 25 April 68 AD.
Evidence for Mark the Evangelist’s authorship of the Gospel that bears his name originates with Papias. Scholars of the Trinity Evangelical Divinity School are “almost certain” that Papias is referencing John Mark. Catholic scholars have argued that identifying Mark the Evangelist with John Mark and Mark the Cousin of Barnabas has led to the downgrading of the character of Barnabas from truly a “Son of Comfort” to one who favored his blood relative over principles.[24]
Identifying Mark the Evangelist with John Mark also led to identifying him as the man who carried water to the house where the Last Supper took place (Mark 14:13),[25] or as the young man who ran away naked when Jesus was arrested (Mark 14:51–52).
The Coptic Church accords with identifying Mark the Evangelist with John Mark, as well as that he was one of the Seventy Disciples sent out by Christ (Luke 10:1), as Hippolytus confirmed. Coptic tradition also holds that Mark the Evangelist hosted the disciples in his house after Jesus’s death, that the resurrected Jesus Christ came to Mark’s house (John 20), and that the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples at Pentecost in the same house. Furthermore, Mark is also believed to have been among the servants at the Marriage at Cana who poured out the water that Jesus turned to wine (John 2:1–11).
According to the Coptic tradition, Mark was born in Cyrene, a city in the Pentapolis of North Africa (now Libya). This tradition adds that Mark returned to Pentapolis later in life, after being sent by Paul to Colossae (Colossians 4:10; Philemon 24. Some, however, think these actually refer to Mark the Cousin of Barnabas), and serving with him in Rome (2 Tim 4:11); from Pentapolis he made his way to Alexandria. When Mark returned to Alexandria, the pagans of the city resented his efforts to turn the Alexandrians away from the worship of their traditional gods. On 25 April AD 68, they placed a rope around his neck and dragged him through the streets until he was dead.
Almighty God, by the hand of Mark the evangelist you have given to your Church the Gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God: We thank you for this witness, and pray that we may be firmly grounded in its truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
11 “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. 12 The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So, when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it. 13 The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me— 15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. 17 The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”
Jesus is continuing a dialogue with the Pharisees. He has been using parables to speak about himself, using the language of shepherding sheep to try to teach them about who he is and the mission that God the Father has given to him. The Pharisees continue to not understand him because he claims to be uniquely the Good Shepherd, the Son of God, the one way to the Father. This is the sticking point with the Pharisees: how could one born of a woman be the Son of God?
In this morning’s Gospel, Jesus continues to speak of himself as the Good Shepherd, a pastoral image that would have been entirely familiar to his listeners that were intently listening to his dialogue with the Pharisees. The setting for this parable is that Israel is a conquered territory, a people subject to foreign rulers and a constant supply of false messiahs, each of whom claimed to be the one who would liberate the people of Israel from foreign domination. There were others claiming to be the messiah at the same time that Jesus is claiming to be the Son of God. The Pharisees were busy trying to discern who among this crowd of pretenders might be the hoped-for messiah. They have been particularly intent on their dialogues and disputes with Jesus because Jesus, unlike all the others claiming the title, was actually doing wonders and miracles, even raising the dead. No one could make the same claim, not since the time of the ancient prophets. The Pharisees, even though they have all the evidence in front of them, are having a hard time believing.
The truth is, no one can talk you into faith. Belief, yes, even intense belief. But faith is something entirely different from belief. The Pharisees believed that his miracles were true, but they could not make the leap into the realm of faith. And Jesus exhausts himself out of his great love with for them, and for us, trying to help them make that impossible transition from belief to faith, I say impossible because we are not able to make that transition on our own. It is only made possible by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus does all that he can do to lead us to the Father to lead us to a place where the Holy Spirit has room and time to speak to our hearts so that we might be transformed.
Now, Jesus says that those who are being transformed by the Holy Spirit will recognize that he is the good shepherd. He says that he is the good shepherd who dies for his sheep, something that none of the other potential messiahs will do. Jesus says that all of these other messiahs do not care enough to save the sheep from the “wolf”. Jesus rightly points out that all of these false messiahs are thieves and bandits, in it only for themselves. He alone will lay down his life for the sheep, something that they will only see after his crucifixion. Here, Jesus echoes the Old Testament prophets who spoke of leaders of Israel in the same terms, so Jesus probably speaks of them here – shepherds who are not worthy of the name. Many do listen to these other messiahs, only to be abandoned. We do the same today. We listen to so many voices promising us freedom, liberty, safety. Like the would-be political saviors of his day, our political leaders are thieves and bandits, and offer false freedom, false liberty, and false safety for our allegiance. How is it that we still listen to them and believe them?! How can we not see that not only are false saviors thieves, but they are also murderous…willing to destroy anyone and anything to gain power over others, to seduce people into turning to them for entrance into paradise?
But Jesus is the true shepherd, the only one who can offer salvation, the only one who can lead us to the Father. Only in Jesus may we find true life. Only in Jesus can we hope for salvation. Only Jesus offers us true sustenance, giving us his most precious Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist.
We are no different from the people of Israel at the time of Jesus’ earthly ministry. We are seeking saviors, both in the realms of politics and religion. America is not the only country facing intense political and cultural division. The promises of false saviors can be heard in every nation, and we can see the devastation caused by them in many nations. Why are we so susceptible to false shepherds? Why do we believe politicians who claim to be able to save us? I wish I knew the answer.
But I do have the answer about who is the one true Good Shepherd, who is the only one who will lead us to the Father. Only Jesus, the one who laid down his life for us and was raised again from the dead, is our savior. Only Jesus, among all the competing would be leaders and saviors from the beginning of the world to our present political and religious context, only he laid down his life for us and was raised to life again to sit at the right hand of the Father. Only Jesus can save us. Only Jesus can bring us into the pasture of God. Only in him can paradise be found.
My friends, Jesus is calling to us to follow him. Many others are also calling to us to follow them. Jesus said that his sheep will know his voice and follow him, and will flee from those who are false. My prayer is that the Holy Spirit will find welcoming hearts in each of us, that we might be transformed by the renewing of our minds, the renewing of our hearts, and be given the grace to run to Jesus and to flee from the false promises of worldly saviors.
O God, whose Son Jesus is the good shepherd of your people: Grant that when we hear his voice we may know him who calls us each by name, and follow where he leads; who, with you and the Holy Spirit, lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Today the Church remembers St. Anselm of Canterbury.
Ora pro nobis.
Saint Anselm of Canterbury, (born AD 1033/34, Aosta, Lombardy—died April 21, 1109, possibly at Canterbury, Kent, England) was annItalian-born theologian and philosopher, known as the father of Scholasticism, a philosophical school of thought that dominated the Middle Ages. He was recognized in modern times as the originator of the ontological argument for the existence of God (based on the idea of an absolutely perfect being, the fact of the idea being in itself a demonstration of existence) and the satisfaction theory of the atonement or redemption (based on the feudal theory of making satisfaction or recompense according to the status of a person against whom an offense has been committed, the infinite God being the offended party and humanity the offender). There is incomplete evidence that he was canonized in 1163, though some scholars contend that he was canonized by Pope Alexander VI in 1494.
Early Life And Career
Anselm was born in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy. His birthplace, Aosta, was a town of strategic importance in Roman imperial and in medieval times, because it stood at the juncture of the Great and Little St. Bernard routes. His mother, Ermenberga, belonged to a noble Burgundian family and possessed considerable property. His father, Gondolfo, was a Lombard nobleman who intended that Anselm would make a career of politics and did not approve of his early decision to enter the monastic life. Anselm received an excellent classical education and was considered one of the better Latinists of his day. His early education impressed on him the need to be precise in his use of words, and his writings became known for their clarity.
In 1057 Anselm left Aosta to enter the Benedictine monastery at Bec (located between Rouen and Lisieux in Normandy, France), because he wanted to study under the monastery’s renowned prior, Lanfranc. While on his way to Bec, he learned that Lanfranc was in Rome, so he spent some time at Lyon, Cluny, and Avranches before entering the monastery in 1060. In 1060 or 1061 he took his monastic vows. Because of Anselm’s reputation for great intellectual ability and sincere piety, he was elected prior of the monastery after Lanfranc became abbot of Caen in 1063. In 1078 he became abbot of Bec.
In the previous year (1077), Anselm had written the Monologion (“Monologue”) at the request of some of his fellow monks. A theological treatise, the Monologion was both apologetic and religious in intent. It attempted to demonstrate the existence and attributes of God by an appeal to reason alone rather than by the customary appeal to authorities favoured by earlier medieval thinkers. Moving from an analysis of the inequalities of various aspects of perfection, such as justice, wisdom, and power, Anselm argued for an absolute norm that is everywhere at all times, above both time and space, a norm that can be comprehended by the human mind. Anselm asserted that that norm is God, the absolute, ultimate, and integrating standard of perfection.
Under Anselm, Bec became a centre of monastic learning and some theological questioning. Lanfranc had been a renowned theologian, but Anselm surpassed him. He continued his efforts to answer satisfactorily questions concerning the nature and existence of God. His Proslogion (“Address,” or “Allocution”), originally titled Fides quaerens intellectum (“Faith Seeking Understanding”), established the ontological argument for the existence of God. In it he claimed that even a fool has an idea of a being greater than which no other being can be conceived to exist. Such a being, he argued, must really exist, for the very idea of such a being implies its existence.
Anselm’s ontological argument was challenged by a contemporary monk, Gaunilo of Marmoutier, in the Liber pro insipiente, or “Book in Behalf of the Fool Who Says in His Heart There Is No God.” Gaunilo denied that an idea of a being includes existence in the objective order and that a direct intuition of God necessarily includes God’s existence. Anselm wrote in reply his Liber apologeticus contra Gaunilonem (“Book [of] Defense Against Gaunilo”), which was a repetition of the ontological argument of the Proslogion. The ontological argument was accepted in different forms by René Descartes and Benedict de Spinoza, though it was rejected by Immanuel Kant.
Appointment As Archbishop Of Canterbury
William the Conqueror, who had established Norman overlordship of England in 1066, was a benefactor of the monastery at Bec, and lands in both England and Normandy were granted to Bec. Anselm made three visits to England to view these lands. During one of those visits, while Anselm was founding a priory at Chester, William II Rufus, the son and successor of William the Conqueror, named him archbishop of Canterbury (March 1093). The see had been kept vacant since the death of Lanfranc in 1089, during which period the king had confiscated its revenues and pillaged its lands.
Anselm accepted the position somewhat reluctantly but with an intention of reforming the English Church. He refused to be consecrated as archbishop until William restored the lands to Canterbury and acknowledged Urban II as the rightful pope against the antipopeClement III. In fear of death from an illness, William agreed to the conditions, and Anselm was consecrated on December 4, 1093. When William recovered, however, he demanded from the new archbishop a sum of money, which Anselm refused to pay lest it look like simony (payment for an ecclesiastical position). In response to Anselm’s refusal, William refused to allow Anselm to go to Rome to receive the pallium—a mantle, the symbol of papal approval of his archiepiscopal appointment—from Urban II, lest this be taken as an implied royal recognition of Urban. In claiming that the king had no right to interfere in what was essentially an ecclesiastical matter, Anselm became a major figure in the Investiture Controversy—a conflict over the question of whether a secular ruler (e.g., emperor or king) or the pope had the primary right to invest an ecclesiastical authority, such as a bishop, with the symbols of his office.
The controversy continued for two years. On March 11, 1095, the English bishops, at the Synod of Rockingham, sided with the king against Anselm. When the papal legate brought the pallium from Rome, Anselm refused to accept it from William, since it would then appear that he owed his spiritual and ecclesiastical authority to the king. William permitted Anselm to leave for Rome, but on his departure he seized the lands of Canterbury.
Anselm attended the Council of Bari (Italy) in 1098 and presented his grievances against the king to Urban II. He took an active part in the sessions, defending the doctrine of the Filioque (“and from the Son”) clause in the Nicene Creed against the Greek church, which had been in schism with the Western church since 1054. The Filioque clause, added to the Western version of the Creed, indicated that the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and Son. The Greek church rejected the Filioque clause as a later addition. The Council also reapproved earlier decrees against investiture of ecclesiastics by lay officials.
The Satisfaction Theory Of Redemption
When Anselm left England, he had taken with him an incomplete manuscript of his work Cur Deus homo? (“Why Did God Become Man?”). After the Council of Bari, he withdrew to the village of Liberi, near Capua, and completed the manuscript in 1099. This work became the classic treatment of the satisfaction theory of redemption. According to this theory, which is based upon the feudal structure of society, finite humanity has committed a crime (sin) against infinite God. In feudal society, an offender was required to make recompense, or satisfaction, to the one offended according to that person’s status. Thus, a crime against a king would require more satisfaction than a crime against a baron or a serf. According to this way of thinking, finite humanity, which could never make satisfaction to the infinite God, could expect only eternal death. The instrument for bringing humans back into a right relationship with God, therefore, had to be the God-human (Christ), by whose infinite merits humanity is purified in an act of cooperative re-creation. Anselm rejected the view that humanity, through its sin, owes a debt to the Devil and placed the essence of redemption in individual union with Christ in the Eucharist (Lord’s Supper), to which the sacrament of baptism (by which a person is incorporated into the church) opens the way.
After completing Cur Deus homo? Anselm attended a council at the Lateran (papal palace) in Rome at Easter 1099. One year later William Rufus died in a hunting accident under suspicious circumstances, and his brother Henry I seized the English throne. In order to gain ecclesiastical support, he sought for and secured the backing of Anselm, who returned to England. Anselm soon broke with the king, however, when Henry insisted on his right to invest ecclesiastics with the spiritual symbols of their office. Three times the king sought an exemption, and each time the pope refused. During this controversy, Anselm was in exile, from April 1103 to August 1106. At the Synod of Westminster (1107), the dispute was settled. The king renounced investiture of bishops and abbots with the ring and crosier (staff), the symbols of their office. He demanded, however, that they do homage to him prior to consecration. The Westminster Agreement was a model for the Concordat of Worms (1122), which settled for a time the lay-investiture controversy in the Holy Roman Empire.
Anselm spent the last two years of his life in peace. In 1163, with new canons requiring approvals for canonization (official recognition of persons as saints), Archbishop Thomas Becket of Canterbury (1118?–70) referred Anselm’s cause to Rome. It is possible that Anselm was canonized at this time, for the Canterbury records for 1170 make frequent mention of the pilgrimages to his new shrine in the cathedral. For several centuries after his death, he was venerated locally. Clement XI (pope from 1700 to 1721) declared Anselm a Doctor (teacher) of the Church in 1720.
O God, by your Holy Spirit you give to some the word of wisdom, to others the word of knowledge, and to others the word of faith: We praise your Name for the gifts of grace manifested in your servant Anselm, and we pray that your Church may never be destitute of such gifts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Today the Church remembers st.Alphege of Canterbury, Archbishop, Monk, and Martyr.
Ora pro nobis.
St. Alphege, also known as Ælfheah, was born around 953 AD, supposedly in Weston on the outskirts of Bath, and became a monk early in life.”He first entered the monastery of Deerhurst, but then moved to Bath, where he became an anchorite. He was noted for his piety and austerity and rose to become abbot of Bath Abbey. Indications are that Ælfheah became abbot at Bath by 982 AD, perhaps as early as around 977. He perhaps shared authority with his predecessor Æscwig after 968.
Probably due to the influence of Dunstan, the Archbishop of Canterbury (959–988), Ælfheah was elected Bishop of Winchester in 984,l and was consecrated on 19 October that year. While bishop he was largely responsible for the construction of a large organ in the cathedral, audible from over a mile (1600 m) away and said to require more than 24 men to operate. He also built and enlarged the city’s churches, and promoted the cult of Swithun and his own predecessor, Æthelwold of Winchester. One act promoting Æthelwold’s cult was the translation of Æthelwold’s body to a new tomb in the cathedral at Winchester, which Ælfheah presided over on 10 September 996.
Following a Viking raid in 994, a peace treaty was agreed with one of the raiders, Olaf Tryggvason. Besides receiving danegeld, Olaf converted to Christianityl and undertook never to raid or fight the English again. Ælfheah may have played a part in the treaty negotiations, and it is certain that he confirmed Olaf in his new faith.
In 1006, Ælfheah succeeded Ælfric as Archbishop of Canterbury, taking Swithun’s head with him as a relic for the new location. He went to Rome in 1007 to receive his pallium—symbol of his status as an archbishop—from Pope John XVIII, but was robbed during his journey. While at Canterbury, he promoted the cult of Dunstan,lordering the writing of the second Life of Dunstan, which Adelard of Ghent composed between 1006 and 1011. He also introduced new practices into the liturgy, and was instrumental in the Witenagemot‘s recognition of Wulfsige of Sherborne as a saint in about 1012.
In 1011, the Danes again raided England, and from 8–29 September they laid siege to Canterbury. Aided by the treachery of Ælfmaer, whose life Ælfheah had once saved, the raiders succeeded in sacking the city. Ælfheah was taken prisoner and held captive for seven months. Godwine(Bishop of Rochester), Leofrun (abbess of St Mildrith’s), and the king’s reeve, Ælfweard were captured also, but the abbot of St Augustine’s Abbey, Ælfmær, managed to escape. Canterbury Cathedral was plundered and burned by the Danes following Ælfheah’s capture.
Ælfheah refused to allow a ransom to be paid for his freedom knowing the poverty of the people, and as a result was killed on 19 April 1012 at Greenwich (then in Kent, now part of London), reputedly on the site of St Alfege’s Church. The account of Ælfheah’s death appears in the E version of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle:
… the raiding-army became much stirred up against the bishop, because he did not want to offer them any money, and forbade that anything might be granted in return for him. Also they were very drunk, because there was wine brought from the south. Then they seized the bishop, led him to their “hustings” on the Saturday in the octave of Easter, and then pelted him there with bones and the heads of cattle; and one of them struck him on the head with the butt of an axe, so that with the blow he sank down and his holy blood fell on the earth, and sent forth his holy soul to God’s kingdom.
Ælfheah was the first Archbishop of Canterbury to die a violent death. A contemporary report tells that Thorkell the Tall attempted to save Ælfheah from the mob about to kill him by offering everything he owned except for his ship, in exchange for Ælfheah’s life. Ælfheah was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral. In 1023, his body was moved by King Cnut to Canterbury, with great ceremony. Thorkell the Tall was appalled at the brutality of his fellow raiders, and switched sides to the English king Æthelred the Unready following Ælfheah’s death.
When the Dane Cnut (Canute) became King of England in 1016, he adopted a policy of conciliation, and in 1023 he brought the body of Alphege from London to Canterbury, where he was long remembered as a martyr.
O Almighty God, by whose grace and power thy holy martyr Alphege triumphed over suffering and was faithful even unto death: Grant us, who now remember him with thanksgiving, to be so faithful in our witness to thee in this world, that we may receive with him the crown of life; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
What are we to make of the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection, and what do we think these Gospel accounts are endeavoring to teach us?
Western Christianity: Protestant, Reformed, and Roman Catholic alike, has slowly turned the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ bodily Resurrection, and the Transformed nature of his resurrected body, into the story of what we are to expect about our life after death. But if this the point of the Resurrection narratives, it is extremely strange because at no point do they mention the future hope of the individual Christian. This is, of course, counter-intuitive to most western Christians, Catholic and Protestant, conservative and liberal. We have 1500 years of writing thousands of hymns and untold numbers of sermons, poems, icons, and liturgies, all focused on ‘winning a bodiless, spiritual life after death’ for ourselves as the defining issue which drives the entirety of the Holy Scriptures. But the Scriptures do not support this narrowed focus, narrowed by our self-obsession. The resurrection of Jesus is certainly about us, and our future, but it is about more than just us. It has to do with the future of all of creation. Insofar as it is about the Body of Jesus, all those baptized into his death and life, what does the resurrection of Jesus have to say for us, how are we to live our lives, and what are we to believe and expect?
English bishop and New Testament scholar NT Wright likes to talk about “life after lifer after death”, that is, the true aim of the Christian hope is more robust, more amazing than our fuzzy ideas about bodiless post-mortem existence. What will be our true destiny in Jesus in life after life after death, and what is the destiny of all creation?
We are assured that upon our mortal death we will be with the Lord in Paradise, and that is admittedly a little vague, and does not present us with much to go on, hence the many bizarre ideas about what happens to us at death. But the heart of the Christian hope is that we will one day physically share in the bodily resurrection of Jesus in a new creation, when heaven and earth become one conjoined reality, rather than some ghostly existence somewhere “out there”. Until then, we are presented with an open-ended commission within the present world: ‘Jesus is risen; therefore, you have work ahead of you.’
So, what are the Scriptures endeavoring to teach us?
The story, from Genesis to the Revelation, is that God has an intended purpose and goal for his creation, a purpose that cannot be thwarted. And that goal has always been the new creation, heaven and earth made one, and the human family finally freed from sin and death through Jesus Christ. In the time between the cross and the new creation, the time in which we now live, God’s plan is for all people to be fundamentally transformed in this mortal life through the forgiveness of our sins given to us in Jesus Christ, forgiveness from our sinful, broken human and unwavering drive towards self-worship and self-destruction.
Now, our human plans for creating a new Eden has long relied upon violence and war, in slavery and enforcing some human socio-economic-political scheme upon others, and getting rid of those who will not share in our schemes. But the Gospel of Jesus Christ tells us that violence, slavery, and war, as legitimate means of shaping the world and guiding human destiny, died with Jesus on the Cross. Jesus refuted the option of violence when he told Peter to put away his sword when the mob and Temple hierarchy came to arrest Jesus. Mounting a violent insurrection in order to liberate Jesus and his followers from the violent injustice of the Empire and their collaborators in the Judean aristocracy and Temple hierarchy would have been a just war — but Jesus refused to engage in any violence, much less a war, even a just war. The reason is that the kingdom of heaven will not come to be through human endeavor…and we hate that. We desire to be in charge, to rule and to be obeyed.
Jesus chose instead to bear witness to the truth that God is love, and God is fulfilling his purposes for his creation in his own manner and timing, so that all glory and honor shall be given to God. Jesus chose instead to forgive those who were murdering him, and to die that we might be forgiven for our sins. Jesus took the death of our world, a world hijacked by human desire and framed by war, into his body, and he and that nightmare vision of the world both died together. Jesus was buried and with him was buried the old world devoted to sin and death. And on the third day Jesus was raised to new life, transformed, resurrected life, the firstborn of the new creation, and a new world came into being, born in love. Of course, the old world of death still lingers around us, but in the midst of it, the world to come is being born.
The first person to meet Jesus on that morning was Mary Magdalene. She thought he was the gardener. She wasn’t wrong. Jesus is a gardener — the true gardener, the gardener Adam was meant to be. John’s story is, after all, about the dawning of the New Creation.
Jesus is the firstborn of the new humanity — a redeemed, transformed, resurrected humanity of gardeners turning garbage dumps into gardens, swords into plowshares, and waging peace as the children of God. The resurrection of Jesus is not just a happy ending to the gospel story; it is the dawn of a new creation.
G. K. Chesterton, that brilliant writer, wrote in the close of part one of his classic work, The Everlasting Man,
“On the third day the friends of Christ coming at daybreak to the place, found the grave empty and the stone rolled away. In varying ways, they realized the new wonder; but even they hardly realized that the world had died in the night. What they were looking at was the first day of a new creation, with a new heaven and a new earth; and in a semblance of the gardener, God walked again in the garden, in the cool not of the evening but the dawn.”
So what does all this mean for you and for me? On what course and towards what destination is Jesus ever working to set us on our earthly pilgrimage? It begins with trust, that God is indeed working out his good purposes for our human family, and for all creation. If we will but trust in God, we can live without fear, fear of anything, neither death nor life, powers and principalities, nothing in all creation. That’s what the passion, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus is offering to us, a life so filled with loving trust in our Heavenly Father, that we will courageously begin to live as peaceful gardeners in a violent, divided, and broken human world. As Jesus commanded us all as he was ascending to the right hand of the Father, “As you go into all the world…this frightening, war torn, burning, polluted, dangerous world…make disciples of Jesus of all peoples, baptizing them and teaching them to obey all these things which I have commanded you, beginning first in our own back yard in over the fence conversations, at the check-out line, at work, in our towns, cities, and throughout the whole world.”
God is preparing to walk amongst us again in the garden of the new creation, and is calling each and every one of us to be renewed today by the power of the Holy Spirit, and through receiving Jesus again in the most Blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood, that we, being transformed by grace, may take up our cross, God’s supreme gardening tool, and participate as joyful, fearless, Jesus loving and Jesus proclaiming gardeners in this new creation that was born on a morning like this so long ago. So as we wait for that great and glorious day to dawn when heaven and earth are made one conjoined reality, and we are clothed with immortality, let us come, dear people of God, come to the altar of grace to be restored, revived, and empowered to be faithful witnesses and co-laborers of Jesus as God is working through us to fulfill his loving purposes for us, all humankind, and all of creation. Come with glad and joyful hearts to find our freedom from fear. Come to be clothed with new garments washed clean of all stain. Come to Jesus again today with hearts wide open to the love that casts out all fear. Come.
Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ overcame death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: Grant that we, who celebrate with joy the day of the Lord’s resurrection, may be raised from the death of sin by your life-giving Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Today the Church commemorates Holy Saturday and the Great Vigil of Easter.
Holy Saturday
Holy Saturday is the final day of Holy Week, between Holy Thursday and Easter Sunday, when Christians prepare for the great Feast Day of the Resurrection of Jesus, the Son of God. The day commemorates the Harrowing of Hell while Jesus Christ’s body lay in the tomb.
On this day, Christians believe that Christ “rested” physically in the tomb, but spiritually he performed in Spirit the Harrowing of Hell, his descent into the world of the dead, breaking down the gates of hell and bringing all the faithful departed with him into Paradise. The icon of the day shows Jesus standing on the broken Gates of Hell and taking Adam and Eve by the hand, raising them and all the faithful departed to Paradise.
Christ’s descent into the world of the dead is referred to in the Apostles’ Creed and the Athanasian Creed (Quicumque vult), which state that Jesus Christ “descended unto the dead” and raised up to Paradise all those who had died in faith before his Incarnation, liberating all those who had been held captive by the bonds of sin and death.
Holy Saturday lasts until nightfall, after which the Easter Vigil is celebrated, marking the official start of the Easter season.
The Great Vigil of Easter
The Great Vigil of Easter is the liturgy that leads to the official celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus. Historically, it is during this liturgy that people are baptized and that adult catechumens are received into full communion with the Church. It is held in the hours of darkness between sunset on Holy Saturday and sunrise on Easter Day – most commonly in the evening of Holy Saturday or midnight – and is the first celebration of Easter, as days are traditionally being considered to begin at sunset.
Among liturgical Western Christian churches including the Roman Catholic Church and the the Anglican Communion of Churches, the Easter Vigil is the most important celebration of the Holy Eucharist of the liturgical year, marked by the first use of the exclamatory word of praise, Hallelujah! – Praise the LORD! – (or Alleluia!), a distinctive feature of the Easter season, since the beginning of Lent, when exclaiming Hallelujah is omitted. The Holy Scriptures are read, recounting the story of God’s plan of salvation from the the creation of the universe in Genesis to the promise of salvation as proclaimed by the Prophets and the Resurrection of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels.
The Roman Missal states: “Of this night’s Vigil, which is the greatest and most noble of all solemnities, there is to be only one celebration in each church. It is arranged, moreover, in such a way that after the Lucernarium, or the lighting of the new fire, and the “Exsultet”, a song of praise for the victory of the light over darkness and life over death through Jesus Christ. Then comes the Easter Proclamation (which constitutes the first part of this Vigil) when the Holy Church meditates on the wonders the Lord God has done for his people from the beginning, trusting in his word and promise as the great day of the Resurrection approaches. New Christians are reborn in Baptism and the whole Church is called to the table the Lord has prepared for his people, the memorial of his Death and Resurrection until he comes again.
O God, who made this most holy night to shine with the glory of the Lord’s resurrection: Stir up in your Church that Spirit of adoption which is given to us in Baptism, that we, being renewed both in body and mind, may worship you in sincerity and truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Today the Church remembers St. Richard of Chichester, Bishop.
Ora pro nobis.
Richard was born in Burford, near the town of Wyche (modern Droitwich, Worcestershire) c. AD 1197 and was an orphan member of a gentry family. On the death of their parents Richard’s elder brother was heir to the estates but he was not old enough to inherit, so the lands were subject to a feudal wardship. On coming of age his brother took possession of his lands, but was required to pay a medieval form of death duty that left the family so impoverished, that Richard had to work for him on the farm. His brother also made Richard heir to the estate. According to Richard’s biographers, friends tried to arrange a match with a certain noble lady. However Richard rejected the proposed match, suggesting that his brother might marry her instead; he also reconveyed the estates back to his brother, preferring a life of study and the church.
Educated at the University of Oxford, Richard soon began to teach in the university. From there he proceeded to Paris and then Bologna, where he distinguished himself by his proficiency in canon law. On returning to England in AD 1235, Richard was elected Oxford’s chancellor.
His former tutor, Edmund of Abingdon, had become archbishop of Canterbury. Richard shared Edmund’s ideals of clerical reform and supported papal rights even against the king. In 1237, Archbishop Edmund appointed Richard chancellor of the diocese of Canterbury. Richard joined the archbishop during his exile at Pontigny, and was with him when the archbishop died circa AD 1240. Richard then decided to become a priest and studied theology for two years with the Dominicans at Orléans. Upon returning to England, Richard became the parish priest at Charing and at Deal, but soon was reappointed chancellor of Canterbury by the new archbishop Boniface of Savoy.
In 1244 Richard was elected Bishop of Chichester. Henry III and part of the chapter refused to accept him, the king favouring the candidature of Robert Passelewe (d. 1252). Archbishop Boniface refused to confirm Passelew, so both sides appealed to the pope. The king confiscated the see’s properties and revenues, but Innocent IV confirmed Richard’s election and consecrated him bishop at Lyons in March AD 1245. Richard then returned to Chichester, but the king refused to restore the see’s properties for two years, and then did so only after being threatened with excommunication. Henry III forbade anyone to house or feed Richard. At first, Richard lived at Tarring in the house of his friend Simon, the parish priest of Tarring, visited his entire diocese on foot, and cultivated figs in his spare time.
Richard’s private life was supposed to have displayed rigid frugality and temperance. Richard was an ascetic who wore a hair-shirt and refused to eat off silver. He kept his diet simple and rigorously excluded animal flesh; having been a vegetarian since his days at Oxford.
Richard was merciless to usurers, corrupt clergy and priests who mumbled the Mass. He was also a stickler for clerical privilege. Richard’s episcopate was marked by the favour which he showed to the Dominicans, a house of this order at Orléans having sheltered him during his stay in France, and by his earnestness in preaching a crusade. After dedicating St Edmund’s Chapel at Dover, he died aged 56 at the Maison Dieu, Dover at midnight on 3 April 1253, where the Pope had ordered him to preach a crusade.
His internal organs were removed and placed in that chapel’s altar. Richard’s body was then carried to Chichester and buried, according to his wishes, in the chapel on the north side of the nave, dedicated to his patron St. Edmund. His remains were translated to a new shrine in AD 1276.
In Chichester Cathedral a shrine dedicated to Richard had become a richly decorated centre of pilgrimage. In AD 1538, during the reign of Henry VIII, the shrine was plundered and destroyed by order of Thomas Cromwell.
We thank you, Lord God, for all the benefits you have given us in your Son Jesus Christ, our most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother, and for all the pains and insults he has borne for us; and we pray that, following the example of your saintly bishop Richard of Chichester, we may see Christ more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Today the Church commemorates Good Friday, the Friday of the Crucifixion of Jesus.
Good Friday is the Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death on the hill of Calvary just outside the gates of Jerusalem. It is observed on Friday during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum, the Great Three Days leading up to the Sunday of the Resurrection, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of Passover.
The date of Good Friday varies from one year to the next on both the Gregorian and Julian calendars. Eastern and Western Christianity disagree over the computation of the date of Easter and therefore of Good Friday.
Biblical accounts
According to the accounts in the Gospels, the royal soldiers, guided by Jesus’ disciple Judas Iscariot, arrested Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. Judas received money (30 pieces of silver) for betraying Jesus and told the guards that whomever he kisses is the one they are to arrest. Following his arrest, Jesus was taken to the house of Annas, the father-in-law of the high priest, Caiaphas. There he was interrogated with little result and sent bound to Caiaphas the high priest where the Sanhedrin had assembled.
Conflicting testimony against Jesus was brought forth by many witnesses, to which Jesus answered nothing. Finally the high priest adjured Jesus to respond under solemn oath, saying “I adjure you, by the Living God, to tell us, are you the Anointed One, the Son of God?” Jesus testified ambiguously, “You have said it, and in time you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Almighty, coming on the clouds of Heaven.” The high priest condemned Jesus for blasphemy, and the Sanhedrin concurred with a sentence of death. Peter, waiting in the courtyard, also denied Jesus three times to bystanders while the interrogations were proceeding just as Jesus had foretold.
In the morning, the whole assembly brought Jesus to the Roman governor Pontius Pilate under charges of subverting the nation, opposing taxes to Caesar, and making himself a king. Pilate authorized the Jewish leaders to judge Jesus according to their own law and execute sentencing; however, the Jewish leaders replied that they were not allowed by the Romans to carry out a sentence of death.
Pilate questioned Jesus and told the assembly that there was no basis for sentencing. Upon learning that Jesus was from Galilee, Pilate referred the case to the ruler of Galilee, King Herod, who was in Jerusalem for the Passover Feast. Herod questioned Jesus but received no answer; Herod sent Jesus back to Pilate. Pilate told the assembly that neither he nor Herod found Jesus to be guilty; Pilate resolved to have Jesus whipped and released. Under the guidance of the chief priests, the crowd asked for Jesus Bar Abbas, who had been imprisoned for committing murder during an insurrection. Pilate asked what they would have him do with Jesus, and they demanded, “Crucify him”. Pilate’s wife had seen Jesus in a dream earlier that day, and she forewarned Pilate to “have nothing to do with this righteous man”. Pilate had Jesus flogged and then brought him out to the crowd to release him. The chief priests informed Pilate of a new charge, demanding Jesus be sentenced to death “because he claimed to be God’s son.” This possibility filled Pilate with fear, and he brought Jesus back inside the palace and demanded to know from where he came.
Coming before the crowd one last time, Pilate declared Jesus innocent and washed his own hands in water to show he had no part in this condemnation. Nevertheless, Pilate handed Jesus over to be crucified in order to forestall a riot, and ultimately to keep his job. The sentence written was “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.” Jesus carried his cross to the site of execution (assisted by Simon of Cyrene), called the “place of the Skull”, or “Golgotha” in Hebrew and in Latin “Calvary”. There he was crucified along with two criminals.
Jesus agonized on the cross for six hours. During his last three hours on the cross, from noon to 3 pm, darkness fell over the whole land. Jesus spoke from the cross, quoting the messianic Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
With a loud cry, Jesus gave up his spirit. There was an earthquake, tombs broke open, and the curtain in the Temple was torn from top to bottom. The centurion on guard at the site of crucifixion declared, “Truly this was God’s Son!”
Joseph of Arimathea, a member of the Sanhedrin and a secret follower of Jesus, who had not consented to his condemnation, went to Pilate to request the body of Jesus. Another secret follower of Jesus and member of the Sanhedrin named Nicodemus brought about a hundred-pound weight mixture of spices and helped wrap the body of Jesus.l Pilate asked confirmation from the centurion of whether Jesus was dead. A soldier pierced the side of Jesus with a lance causing blood and water to flow out and the centurion informed Pilate that Jesus was dead.
Joseph of Arimathea took Jesus’ body, wrapped it in a clean linen shroud, and placed it in his own new tomb that had been carved in the rock in a garden near the site of the crucifixion. Nicodemus also brought 75 pounds of myrrh and aloes, and placed them in the linen with the body, in keeping with Jewish burial customs.They rolled a large rock over the entrance of the tomb. Then they returned home and rested, because Shabbat had begun at sunset. Matt. 28:1 “After the Shabbat, at dawn on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to look at the tomb”. i.e. “After the Sabbath, at dawn on the first day of the week,…”. “He is not here; he has risen, just as he said….”. (Matt. 28:6).
Almighty God, we pray you graciously to behold this your family, for whom our Lord Jesus Christ was willing to be betrayed, and given into the hands of sinners, and to suffer death upon the cross; who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Today begins the Triduum, the three days leading up to the Sunday of the Resurrection. The Triduum begins with Maundy Thursday.
The Gospel reading and a reflection:
John 13:1-17, 31b-35 (NRSV) “Now before the festival of the Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart from this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end. The devil had already put it into the heart of Judas son of Simon Iscariot to betray him. And during supper Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going to God, got up from the table, took off his outer robe, and tied a towel around himself. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and to wipe them with the towel that was tied around him. He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?” Jesus answered, “You do not know now what I am doing, but later you will understand.” Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no share with me.” Simon Peter said to him, “Lord, not my feet only but also my hands and my head!” Jesus said to him, “One who has bathed does not need to wash, except for the feet, but is entirely clean. And you are clean, though not all of you.” For he knew who was to betray him; for this reason he said, “Not all of you are clean.” After he had washed their feet, had put on his robe, and had returned to the table, he said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord—and you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have set you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you. Very truly, I tell you, servants are not greater than their master, nor are messengers greater than the one who sent them. If you know these things, you are blessed if you do them. Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Today’s and yesterday’s readings do an odd thing: yesterdays reading was taken right out of the middle of today’s. It can make it feel like two separate events, when I’m fact it was only one. Taking the story of the betrayal of Judas out as a single event does make a certain narrative sense, making it stand out as the heinous act it was. But it loses something, too, of the impact because it is easy to forget that he left just before Jesus washes his disciples feet, as he does in today’s reading.
The scene is very intimate. It is also filled with irony. Only Jesus and Judas know what will happen next: the arrest and trial of Jesus. The eleven are still basking in the hazy reverie of men thinking that they are soon to become powerful figures in the coming kingdom. And they are, just not in the manner they imagine. They will begin to become great in the kingdom over the following decades as they themselves learn to carry their own crosses as the missionaries of the Gospel, each of them dying as a martyr, just as Jesus died.
Though they still do not understand the importance of it, Jesus is preparing his followers for his death by equipping them with the one tool, the one attitude, the one spiritual path that will enable them to endure what is to come: a spirit of loving humility, of emptying oneself for the sake of others. It took the Resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit before any of them began to understand. The same is true for us, as well.
In that culture, servants usually washed the feet of guests before a meal; but here, it is Jesus, the Son of God, who does so and he does it “during supper”. Peter is scandalized by it. How could the man about to lead an armed revolt and be declared king act like a servant or slave!?! Peter remonstrates him.
Imagine that, telling the Lord of creation that he’s doing it all wrong! How often do we do that, my friends, telling God who he must be rather than listening for God to tell us who we are? Jesus answers: only if I wash your feet can you “share” with me in the Kingdom. Still thinking in earthly terms, Peter wants more than a little bit of the kingdom! “If washing my feet means I get a little, wash my whole body because I want it all!” Back in Matthew 20:21-23, Jesus asked if his disciples could drink from his cup in much the same manner, and they pridefully boast “Yes!” because they think of earthly power and glory. And they will all of them eventually drink from his cup, the cup he asks his Father if it can be done another way.
With Jesus, we must always answer “Not my will, but yours be done.” Jesus attempts again to explain. As he, “Lord and Teacher” has been a servant to them, so each one of the disciples is to be a servant to every other; they are to follow his “example”. God is glorified by the revelation in Jesus of God’s servanthood and humility. Jesus is now on the path to the cross. He gives them “a new commandment” (from which is derived the word Maundy – short for commandment): Jesus is his follower’s example of how to love. This mutual love will show who truly are his disciples. May his love so dwell in us that others might see Jesus. It is after this that Jesus institutes the Holy Eucharist, the Most Blessed Sacrament of his Body and Blood. Jesus, our Servant Savior gives us his all, his everything, his flesh and blood even as he washes our feet.
Almighty Father, whose dear Son, on the night before he suffered, instituted the Sacrament of his Body and Blood: Mercifully grant that we may receive it thankfully in remembrance of Jesus Christ our Lord, who in these holy mysteries gives us a pledge of eternal life; and who now lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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