Homily for the Epiphany of the Lord 2013

Homily (Sermon) – Epiphany of the Lord 

Reading
Old Isaiah 60:1-6
Psalm Psalm 71
New Ephesians 3:2-3, 5-6
Gospel Matthew 2:1-12
[These readings can be found at www.universalis.com for the next few weeks.]

As they entered the stable they fell to their knees and offered the gifts they had brought. The gifts were rare and valuable gifts and it may be that the wise men had no idea of the prophetic nature of the gifts. But a prophetic nature they had.

Gold for the kingship of Christ, David's heir, the expected leader of the Jewish race. Frankincense, a sweet smelling spice, used in incense, representing Christ High Priest, the Priest who would offer the ultimate sacrifice for us to God, and Myrhh another spice this time for use in preparing a body after death, here Christ's death as the sacrificial lamb, is foreshadowed.

The words in the hymn We Three Kings couldn't describe better the treasures they gave and the meanings they had. Next time you sing the words, think about them. It's a wonderful lesson set to music.

King for ever, ceasing never, over us all to reign.
Prayer and praising, all are raising, Worship him God most high.
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying. Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.

There is a line in Proverbs (25:2) “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” And with that phase in mind and the story of the wise men, or Kings, in our hearts, I want you to consider, that you, by your baptism, are a member of the Royal Priesthood of the Church. It is your glory, to search for Gods concealed treasure, and when you find them, in your moments of epiphany, it is your honour, to offer them in worship and homage to Christ.

Christ offers you adoption into His royal family. You are a King, a Queen, a Prince, a Princess, you are royalty! You are a member of the royal family of Christ

What do you intend to do with this gift. The wise men that we heard about in today’s Gospel spent their lives studying and searching for Christ. Will you do the same? They were the first gentiles to see Christ, to worship Him, to bring Him gifts. You are called by your baptism to do the same, but you are also called to stand beside Christ, to work with Him. To take His message, His promise, His Gift out to the world. That’s what being part of this Church means.

This year we celebrate a Year of Faith, a yearlong celebration for the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. Vatican 2 was unique, unlike all the councils before, Vatican 2 was called not to address a spreading heresy, but to look at the Church, and to look at the role it needed to play in the modern world.

One of the first documents that Vatican 2 produced was Lumen Gentium, so called because Lumen Gentium are the first words, in Latin, of the first sentence.

“Christ is the Light of nations. Because this is so, this Sacred Synod gathered together in the Holy Spirit eagerly desires, by proclaiming the Gospel to every creature, to bring the light of Christ to all men, a light brightly visible on the countenance of the Church.” 

Lumen Gentium, describe the Church and the role of the Church. Chapter 4 is all about you, the laity. I want to read you a beautiful paragraph from Lumen Gentium, about you, about your life, about your calling.

“The laity, by their very vocation, seek the kingdom of God by engaging in temporal affairs and by ordering them according to the plan of God. They live in the world, that is, in each and in all of the secular professions and occupations. They live in the ordinary circumstances of family and social life, from which the very web of their existence is woven. They are called there by God that by exercising their proper function and led by the spirit of the Gospel they may work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven.”

Isn't that a beautiful!

Do you know what a leaven is? Leaven is a raising agent; yeast in bread is a leaven. Without yeast your loaf of bread would be flat like a pitta or nan bread, but add yeast to the mix and the bread rises into a soft and delicious loaf. The yeast works from within. That’s the comparison the Church uses to describe your work. You are to be led by the Holy Spirit to work for the sanctification of the world from within as a leaven.

As you go about your lives this week, I want you to think about ‘ordering the daily events of your life according to Gods plan’, and ‘about sanctifying the world from within.’

You were given a wonderful job 50 years ago, what are you going to do about it this year?

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About the Author - Deacon John Scanlon
Homily Index

Mystery

There is a something hidden at the back of the cupboard, covered in dust and hardly recognisable for the treasure it really is. This golden treasure has been forgotten, it's meaning lost as time moves forward. I have opened the cupboard and spied the treasure, recognised it for what it might be. I have taken it, cleaned it, gazed in wonder at its meaning, and now I share it....

My treasure is a word. My treasure is the true meaning of a word. The meaning that has been lost, forgotten. My treasure is the real meaning of the word Mystery.

When we think of mystery we think of something confusing, a puzzle, something we can't understand. We might think about an Agatha Christie novel, or an episode of Scooby Doo. If we describe something as a mystery we mean we don't fully understand it, it is something we desire to know but don't. In fact these description of the word Mystery can be found in a modern dictionary, but there is another meaning, an older meaning, a greater meaning. Want to know what it is?

A Mystery is, a truth that is unknowable except by divine revelation. You see we have focused on the first half of the sentence for to long. We must take back the second part “Except by divine revelation.” For Christians 'Mystery' is divine revelation, it is the truth, the answer, not the question.

Christ is Mystery. Christ is divine revelation, God visiting us, introducing Himself to us, teaching us and ultimately giving Himself for us. Christ's life on earth was divine revelation, the revealing of God to us, the revealing of truth. Christ is Mystery not a mystery.

The proverbial cupboard I found my lost treasure in was a 50 year old document describing the Church. It's first chapter is called 'The Mystery of the Church' and I was surprised and inspired by the wonders I found while reading it.

“Christ inaugurated the Kingdom of heaven on earth and revealed to us the mystery of that kingdom. The Church, or, in other words, the kingdom of Christ now present in mystery, grows visibly through the power of God in the world.”

The Church as described here combines us all in this earthly life through baptism with the heavenly kingdom. We are the Church, a royal priesthood, a consecrated people, all of us not just the ordained, the people, the laity and ordained together form the body of Christ. “A people made one with the unity of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.” But it does not stop there, Christ is the head of His Church, active it in. He sent His Spirit to help, guide, love and console us. His Church spans earth and heaven, exist through all time, “While it slowly grows, strains towards the completed Kingdom and, with all its strength, hopes and desires to be united in glory with its King.”

The Church is Mystery, it is divine revelation, it is God making himself known to the world. If we are the earthly part of the Church, and we are, we need to look at our role and how we live in this world, how we effect this world and how we make Christ present in this world. That's the Mystery we are part of, it not an unanswerable question, but it's the answer to all questions, its Truth.

The document I have been reading and talking about is Lumen Gentium, “Christ the Light of Nations” and was written during the Second Vatican Council. It a beautiful document that I urge you to take a look at, you can find the full text here Vatican Archive - Lumen Gentium

Fifty years ago the council recognised a changing world, a world they briefly described in the open paragraph.

“The present-day conditions of the world add greater urgency to this work of the Church so that all men, joined more closely today by various social, technical and cultural ties, might also attain fuller unity in Christ.”

Reading the description written 50 years on you can't help but feel the document was written for us today in 2012, and that my friends is the Mystery, the truth, the divine revelation of God to our modern world.

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More Posts about the Documents of the Second Vatican Council

The journey in faith talks are free to all and held in at 7:30pm on Thursday eveings at:
St. Augustine of Canterbury Parish Hall, Boscombe Crescent, Downend, Bristol, BS16 6QR.
Tel: 0117 983 3939

Year of Faith - The Second Vatican Council

Journey in Faith

The Autumn 2012 Journey in Faith program at St. Augustine of Canterbury is looking at the documents of Vatican II in preparation of the Year of Faith. Where possible I'll be posting notes, comments and presentation by the speakers at these meetings.

Yesterday Deacon Mike opened the series of talks with an introduction to Vatican II. The journey in faith talks are free to all and held in St. Augustine of Canterbury Parish Hall, Boscombe Crescent, Downend, Bristol, BS16 6QR.

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Notes from Deacon Michael Belt's Journey in Faith talk for the 20th September 2012

Pope Benedict XVI has proclaimed the coming year, beginning on 11th October 2012, and ending on the Feast of Christ the King, 24th November 2013, a “YEAR OF FAITH”.

This Year of  Faith marks the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, in Rome on 11th October 1962. It also, incidentally, coincides with the 20th anniversary of the publication of The Catechism of the Catholic Church, a work that Pope Benedict has described as “an authentic fruit of the Second Vatican Council”.

It was Pope John XIII who, early in 1959, less than three months after his election as Pope, announced that the Council would take place. Vatican II was the twenty first general or ecumenical council of the Church. It was the only general Council to be convened in the 20th century, and only the second general Council since the 16th century Protestant Reformation. It is regarded by many as the most significant religious event since the Reformation, and it was certainly the most important religious event of the 20th century.

Pope John XXIII’s principal aim in calling the Council was to ensure that the sacred deposit of Christian doctrine be guarded and taught more effectively. In his opening homily at the Council, he encouraged the Council fathers to work out ways and means of proclaiming these truths in a manner more consistent with a pastoral view of the Church’s teaching office. In addition, he urged the Council fathers to work for the unity that Christ so desired.

The Second Vatican Council met at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome for four separate sessions, which took place over four years. At the beginning, 2,540 council fathers — bishops from every corner of the world — met in the nave of the basilica, joined by 1,000 superiors of religious congregations, official observers, theologians and other experts.

One of the official observers was Frank Duff, the founder of the Legion of Mary.

Provisions were made for the media, governmental representatives and also 80 official attendants from other Christian churches. They, apparently, had the best seats in the Basilica!

In contrast, there were only 737 council fathers at the First Vatican Council in 1869-70. That was still significantly more than the 259 bishops who, at various stages, attended the Council of Trent (1545-63). Trent was the last general council before Vatican I and was enormously important for the Church.

The much greater attendance at Vatican II was, I am sure, due to the development of somewhat better means of transport since the time of Vatican I.   Vatican I was dominated by Europeans, many of them being European bishops who were pastors of dioceses in mission lands, such as those in the African continent. By the mid-20th century the bishops of most of these dioceses were natives of those lands.

Among the bishops eligible to attend Vatican II were 1089 from Europe, 489 from South America, 404 from North America, 374 from Asia, 296 from Africa, 84 from Central America, and 75 from the Pacific region.

All the speeches made at the Council were in Latin. A bishop from the USA, Cardinal Cushing, had offered to pay for a simultaneous translation system, similar to the one that was in use in the United Nations, but, for some reason, his offer had been declined!

The Council was, however, the first in history to have electric light, telephones, typewriters and other “modern” forms of communication (although it did not yet have access to the computers, satellite technology and other forms of electronic communication that are part of our everyday lives today). It was also the first Council to be covered by newspapers, magazines, radio and television from all over the world, although the news media were not allowed into St Peter’s during the sessions, but they had to rely on press hand-outs and on the reports of friendly bishops and observers.

The Council was unique in its stated purpose as well. Unlike many of the previous Councils, Vatican II had not been called as a matter of urgency in order to combat heresy or to deal with any serious threat to the unity of the Church. On the contrary, in his opening address, Pope John said that the Council’s goal was to eradicate the seeds of discord and to promote the peace and unity of all mankind, not to repeat traditional doctrinal formulations or to condemn errors.

The preparation of the agendas for the four Council sessions was the most extensive and democratic in the history of the Church. Some 9,300 proposals were submitted, and these were sifted by eleven preparatory commissions appointed by Pope John. These commissions, which were composed chiefly of “safe” Rome-based theologians, met between November 1960 and June 1962. Finally, in July 1962, seven comprehensive documents were issued to the bishops of the world in preparation for the opening of the Council in the October. These documents were concerned with the sources of revelation, the moral order, the deposit of faith, the family and chastity, liturgy, media, and unity.

The first Council session (in 1962) was a very dramatic, stormy and controversial one. It mainly concerned the refusal of the bishops to accept the Roman Curia’s organisation of conciliar commissions, the initial debate on the document  on the liturgy, and the initial debates on the document on the Church and the document on revelation.

The three subsequent sessions (1963 to 1965) were, at times, less stormy.  Pope John died in June 1963 and was succeeded by the progressive Cardinal  Montini, who took the name Paul VI. His address at the opening of the second session, on 29th September 1963, listed four aims of the Council: the development of a clearer idea of the Church, its renewal, the unity of all Christians and dialogue between the Church and the world.

The results of Vatican II fit into one paperback volume. There are 16 documents in all, including four significant “Constitutions”. It is striking that the documents in their final form were passed with near-unanimity by the Council fathers. The scope of the subjects debated by the Council is also striking: from liturgy to ecumenism, and from priestly formation to religious freedom. These subjects have been explained and developed over the past 50 years under the guidance of successive Popes.

Some of the major works that have followed Vatican II are:

• The revised Rite of the Mass
• The Catechism of the Catholic Church.
• The revised Code of Canon Law
• The revised version of the Divine Office.

There are numerous other revised rites and countless books.

Finally, in preparation for the coming Year of Faith, the Bishops of England and Wales have recommended that we revisit some of the major documents of Vatican II, and they have specifically asked that we study the four documents that we ourselves will be looking at in the coming months, namely, the Constitutions on the Church (Lumen Gentium), Divine Revelation (Dei verbum), the Sacred Liturgy (Sacrosanctum Concilium), and the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et spes).

Next week, we will begin with the Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium), and hopefully discover something of the Mystery of the Church and its members – The People of God.

Post by Guest Author Deacon Michael Belt

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More Posts about the Documents of the Second Vatican Council

The journey in faith talks are free to all and held in at 7:30pm on Thursday eveings at:
St. Augustine of Canterbury Parish Hall, Boscombe Crescent, Downend, Bristol, BS16 6QR.
Tel: 0117 983 3939