Tag: Jesus Christ

Angelus Domini

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A.M.D.G.
S. Petri ad Vincula
Commemoratio: Ss. Martyrum Machabaeorum

Carissimi,

angelus“… the Angel of the Lord…” How wonderful it is sometimes to discover whilst visiting foreign parts that the Angelus is still rung and how unifying the Catholic Faith is that we share! That despite being in a different place and often time-zone, that same Faith is expressed in ringing symbols uniting one with  Christians throughout the ages who knew that sound, that symbol, that Faith which the Angelus bell proclaims?!

It’s all about “hallowing the day to day life” of our humanity as Christians with the mystery and significance of the Incarnation. It reminds us of the reconciliation of Creation with the Godhead through Jesus Christ that is not immediately obvious to and easily forgotten by us, disguised as it is by our fallen condition i.e. sin (particularly pride/vanity); but in these signs and symbols utilising blessed material objects and actions, it is presented and reminded to us. The sonority of the bells, whether harmonious or clapped(!) alert us to the central mystery of our Faith and its purpose. They call us to prayer, to reflection, to the remembrance of our citizenship of Heaven over our worldly existence.

They also proclaim Jesus Christ as King, however irksome or disconcerting their sonorous interruption to our day might be. They wake us up out of the mundane and recall to mind the consideration of Heaven! The three bells remind us of the Trinity; the nine bells remind us for each three groupings of each person of the Trinity; the final bells… nine is also superfluous to seven, reminding us of the infinite graces from God poured out towards us in the Incarnation.

annonciation-originalThe Angelus is rung traditionally at 6am, Noon and 6pm. The Angelus often begins morning Mass whether 6am or otherwise because it recalls the Incarnation we are about to behold in the mysteries of the Mass re the Blessed Sacrament to be confected. Also, in this way is the “third hour” commemorated and our minds drawn to reflect on the possibility of the “Second Coming” that we are “watchful” and “waiting” for The Lord when He comes… day or night. Noon of course is observed and generally 6pm at the beginning/end of Vespers. Thus three times during the day do we remember the “Golden Legend” i.e. the “Annunciation” of the “Incarnation” (“Golden Legend” because the illuminated manuscripts of the monks used gold to record/highlight the account of the Annunciation in the illuminated Gospel books); r

eminding us of the ‘humility in charity’ of the Triune Godhead who in the second Person of Jesus Christ in cooperation with the Holy Ghost at the Will of God the Father, humbled Himself to share in our humanity, that we might become one with Him and share in His Divinity.

The devotion employs the “Angelic greeting” (sometimes called the “Angelic Salutation”) which are the words of the Archangel Gabriel to Our Lady, “Hail Mary, full of grace, The Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women and is blessed is the fruit of thy womb.” This prayer is recited three times after each versicle and response, recalling the “Annunciation”, the “submission of Mary” to God’s will and the “Incarnation”.

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Incidentally, church bells are also “baptised” and “chrismated” [with oil, “confirmed”, if you will] and traditionally named at their “baptism” like “Big Ben” at Westminster and “Big Peter” at Yorkminster! Of course, bells were not really Baptised (the sacrament is reserved for people), but the rite bore many similarities to the sacrament: the bells were exorcised, washed with holy water, anointed with the holy oil of the sick (outside) and chrism (inside). In some places, they even had a sort of godfather. The bishop prayed that ‘at their sound let all evil spirits be driven afar; let thunder and lightning, hail and storm be banished; let the power of Thy hand put down the evil powers of the air, causing them to tremble at the sound of these bells, and to flee at the sight of the holy cross engraved thereon’ – a rather beautiful sacramental!

Catholicism is all about realising the reconciliation of God’s Creation in Christ. Anything “blessed” is made “holy” to be used for His purpose, literally realising the reconciliation of all things in Christ, the “Second Adam”. So that, though it be manmade or natural, by blessing it is “made new” which is why Holy Water is usually used to bless things, signifying the graces and benefits of Baptism instituted and made efficacious through Jesus Christ, the Incarnation etc. so things are “baptised” by Holy Water like a kind of Baptism that we as persons receive. So that which was made “unholy” by sin is made “holy” by the invocation of the Christ… the “logos”…the “ruach”…the “Word”… etc

So it is devotional and an act of worship, recalling to our minds the Trinity and the Incarnation. It is instructional as it reminds us of the meaning of the Incarnation, that we like Mary should humble ourselves to the Will of God that the significance and purpose of the Incarnation may be realised in us (the divinisation of humanity). And it is prophetically practical, drawing us to remember that we should be “ready” always to greet The Lord whenever He should come.

Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro nobis.

‡Jerome OSJV

Deus avia: a pastoral letter on the Feast of St Anne 2013

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A.M.D.G.
S. Annae Matris B.M.V.

Carissimi,

Jesus, Mary & Anna
Jesus, Mary & Anna

“…God’s granny” is the affectionate colloquial term used by devotee’s of today’s saint, St Anne and follows a certain, perhaps over familial but logical consequence resulting from the decree of the  Council of Ephesus in 431 of Mary as “Theotokos” i.e. the “Mother of God”. If Mary is “Mother of God” than the mother of Mary must be “God’s grandmother”!

According to the Protoevangelium of James (Christians whose tradition is only five hundred years old won’t be familiar with this work) generally attributed by scholarly consensus to the second century, the parents of Mary were Anna (anglicised to Anne) and Joachim. Though other members of Mary’s family are mentioned in the canonical Gospels, (e.g. her cousin, Elizabeth Lk 1:36, 39-40) the early date of the Protoevangelium of James and the fact that Mary was well known among the early Christian community in Jerusalem (Acts 1:14), has generally lent some authenticity to this tradition concerning Mary’s parentage and childhood and the work was very nearly included in the later codified New Testament canon (mid-4th Century).

Though the idea of “God’s granny” may perhaps be a little too “cutesy” for some, and the concept of God having a grandmother too difficult for others to comprehend without the  “Incarnationis Mysterium”, the tradition has helped many saints over the centuries develop a personal affinity to Our Lord through His earthly holy family. Afterall, we can relate to and more easily appreciate those things about which we are ourselves familiar, and the notion of family is certainly something the majority of us can relate to (sadly, even if our families themselves have been lacking in cohesiveness let alone holiness). Afterall, are we not by virtue of our baptisms, called “children of God” (John 1:11-13), “sharers in the Divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), “co-heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:14-17)?

All this refers to our “divinisation” which was the purpose of a) our existence and b) our salvation through Christ. For we are (humanity was) created by God to “know Him, love Him and serve Him in this world, and be happy with Him forever in the next” as our Penny Catechism once taught us. Though “made in the image and likeness of God” we lost our corporeal immortality which God had first intended for us when He made the world, through the disobedience of Adam and Eve and so sin, which is a “deliberative will” (θέλημα γνωμικόν) in opposition to the “natural will” (θέλημα φυσικόν) created by God, necessitates our salvation and affects our reconciliation with God. As St. Justin Martyr tells us “[Men] were made like God, free from suffering and death, provided that they kept His commandments, and were deemed deserving of the name of His sons, and yet they, becoming like Adam and Eve, work out death for themselves; let the interpretation of the Psalm be held just as you wish, yet thereby it is demonstrated that all men are deemed worthy of becoming “gods,” and of having power to become sons of the Highest.” [“the Psalm”, 82:1-7]  But as the Penny Catechism says, “Our Saviour suffered to atone for our sins, and to purchase for us eternal life.” The manifestation of God’s love for us in Christ through His salvation on the Cross not only “restores” creation but “reconciles” us spiritually to God our Father, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are!” (1 John 3:1) and ultimately restores our corporeal immortality (i.e. “the resurrection of the body”) for the “life of the world to come” (the Creed) as the apostle Paul declares: “If the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished” (1 Cor. 15:13–18).

As various of the Church Fathers attest, the Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature”: St. Irenaeus of Lyons “For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.” St. Athanasius of Alexandria “For the Son of God became man so that we might become God.” St. Clement of Alexandria “The Word of God became man, that thou mayest learn from man how man may become God.” St. Cyril of Alexandria says that humankind “are called ‘temples of God’ and indeed ‘gods’, and so we are.” St. Gregory of Nazianzus implores humankind to “become gods for (God’s) sake, since (God) became man for our sake.” St. Basil of Caesarea stated that “becoming a god is the highest goal of all.” and St. Thomas Aquinas “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.”

So this title of affection for the “mother of the Mother of God”, reminds us that our Christian faith is “incarnational” i.e. focusing on Jesus Christ, the Word made Flesh, God made man, who humbled Himself to share in our humanity (Phil. 2:8). It reminds us that Jesus was human – as we are – and as a human He had a family – just as we do. The great claim of our Faith is that Jesus was not just a man but was also God and that we too may become like Him.  One of the great differences between the Christian Faith and other religions is that God in Christ interacted deliberately in our existence, in our timeline; that God is not “remote” and “aloof” and “disdainful” of His creation but rather so loves what He created that He desires us to be one with Him (cf John 3:16) and became one of us. Jesus was a real person, situated in a particular time and place and social environment, as various independent and objective historical sources aside from the sacred writings of the Christians of the Apostolic era attest. The remembrance then of “God’s granny” reminds us of this incarnational truth about Jesus and that we too are indeed God’s children through His baptism, and thus have “received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15)

As the “family” of God then, united as we are to Jesus through our baptism and to the saints who’ve gone before us in the “communion of saints”, let us “keep the feast” and honour another who, like us, was created to serve and love God and in so doing played her part in the history of the world’s salvation. For those of us with fond affection for our own grandmother’s, let us take inspiration in the knowledge of the love that Jesus must surely have had for His grandmother and in like fashion, and in obedience to His Divine Will, let us so honour our own grandparents as we do our parents and ultimately our Father in heaven. That we may each play our part in the salvation of the world, through loving discernment and respectful acquiescence of our own individual vocations to realise God’s desire for us to live in love and union with Him for eternity.

Sancta Anna, ora pro nobis.

‡Jerome OSJV