All Saints' Church, East Finchley
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Homily - First Sunday of Lent
"Man does not live on bread alone."
+ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
This almost Apocalyptic story reminds us of the profoundly supernatural nature of our faith. So far, so obvious, you might be thinking. What is Fr Christopher on about? of course our faith is supernatural! If you are thinking that, then good, because that is what you should be thinking. We Christians live in a place where this world of created things, the world of the senses, opens up into the Kingdom, the presence of God himself. The drama of that is hidden, most of the time, but sometimes it becomes manifest. It is manifest in this confrontation between the presence of God in Jesus and he who would deny him, the devil. It was manifest throughout Jesus' ministry, and particularly in the experience of the Transfiguration and in the resurrection appearances of the Lord. In a lesser way, it is manifest whenever the sacraments of the Church are celebrated or the life of prayer properly lived. As we carry out the duties of our faith we make present the presence of God and confound the one who would deny him.
This Lent I am inviting you, asking you, challenging you, indeed, to bring to the act of coming to church a conscious awareness that you are in a special place, undertaking a very special task. It can be easy to forget that, particularly if you go to a church which is as friendly and welcoming as this one. We can fall into the error of treating it as just a sort of social club. Now, that's not a bad thing in itself, provided that that is not all that it is. Indeed, this church is a wonderful place for social interaction and fellowship because it is a church. It is a door opening onto the Kingdom. If you come into a place full of people who are committed to love of God and neighbour, who are passionate dreamers of the kingdom of justice, love and peace and who are dedicated to the service of their brothers and sisters, then it is not surprising that it should be a warm and welcoming place. What I am putting to you today is that we can make it better still by making a special effort in our prayer, and in our personal participation in the work and worship of this church. We can bring added value to our own lives and to the community by the enhanced quality of our response.
The teaching of the Church is very clear. Provided that it is not celebrated in mockery, then any mass is a good mass. However it is celebrated, good things happen. In the jargon, these are the so-called general fruits of the mass. If you come to church with empty heads, arriving late and thinking about your stamp collection, good things will still result from the celebration of the mass. Good things will result if the priest comes to mass with an empty head, arriving late and thinking about his stamp collection. But the church is also very clear in teaching that the fruits of the mass, the spiritual and material benefits that flow from it are enhanced by the quality of our participation. If I say the mass carefully, devotedly and with proper preparation, then better things happen to me and to those for whom I have offered the mass. And the same is true of your offering of the mass. If you offer the mass with the priest carefully, devotedly and with proper preparation then better things will happen to you and to those for whom you pray. These so-called 'special' fruits of the mass are the privilege and task of the people of God. That is why I have asked you that we should make a special effort this Lent to come to mass early, and to spend some time in silent prayer. There will be no music for five minutes before the mass begins: it is a time for you to be in your place and be settling down to make your offering. What offering? Well, you should make sure that you know what the public intention of the mass is - at the parish mass on Sunday, it will always be for the community which we serve; you will also have your own prayers and concerns - for friends and family members, for the needy in our community and elsewhere, for peace and justice, for the salvation of the world - God will have put it in your heart to have a care for people and situations, and you need a time to gather it together and offer it with the general offering of the people of God. And, let's go mad a little! Let's think that we might come to church even earlier than five minutes before mass and allow a brief time for God to speak to us apart from the shopping list of intentions that we have already collected. If we give time to listening to God, who knows how many blessings might come our way, how many comforts, how many inspirations? And then there is the simple human need that we have to centre down calmly in order to worship, so that we can concentrate on what we are doing and focus, so that we can remember that the Church is offering the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the salvation of the world and that we have an important part to play in that offering. Now, if you arrive late in a great agitation and use the mass to calm yourself - it certainly works, but you are a 'taker' rather than a 'giver' on that occasion, and we need a huge majority of 'givers' so that the Kingdom can break out here in all its splendour. Of course, sometimes you will come with children who will want all your attention, or with some great psychological or spiritual burden, and on that occasion, you will, quite rightly, be a net 'taker' from the mass. That will happen sometimes, but there must be a great pool of people feeding the people of God with their positive, selfless ministry of prayer. You sometimes hear people say, 'the mass is the mass, however it is celebrated' - well, on a certain level, that's true, but the fruits of the mass, the effectiveness of our worship depend on us to bring the gifts of God to this place and this community. Let us come to mass this Lent with a new seriousness and a new joy, committing ourselves to discipleship of heart and mind, so that we may be upheld by faith should we, or our community, one day encounter the Devil in the desert.