Easter message from Bishop Richard
It has been said and repeated in different ways that ‘the Church does not have a mission so much as the Mission of Jesus has a Church’. The Lord, having gathered to Himself a people, trained them in His methods, and then told them to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15).
The word church is English for the Greek ekklesia or Hebrew qahal - where the whole assembly of Israel gathered to worship the Lord. (see Joshua 18.1)
The Mission of Jesus is Human Salvation. The gospel is the news that “God loves us so very much that He became human to save us from ourselves and our sin and to gather us to Him”. This Good News is expressed differently throughout the ages, but fundamentally remains the same.
Everything we do as a church should be directed towards this mission, since that is why Jesus came to earth and gathered His disciples into His Church, built upon Jesus the Rock and the one He designated as Rocky-Cephas or Peter. Peter and his successors are only Rock in so much as Jesus has made him a partaker in the God-Man. Everything we do as a Christian is a sharing in Jesus Christ. There are different participations in Christ, which leads to different
roles and outcomes.
Easter is that time of year when the Mission of Jesus reaches a climax. Easter is a participation in the Triumph of the Lamb of God, where He defeated sin and death and the power of the devil. God did this in God’s own particular way,
which often leaves us mere humans scratching our heads. In the Old Passover, a passover lamb was slain, blood poured out, flesh eaten, death was avoided (at least for a while) and a gathering of people were brought into the promised land. In the New Passover, God does something similar but way better. Jesus, the Passover Lamb of God, is slain, His blood poured out (with water from His side), His flesh offered to God. Then He rose from the dead and transformed the human tragedy of the cross into a divine object of grace. Through His Death and Resurrection, the Christ of God, shatters the chains of death, and offers us the promise of Immortality.
When we are washed in the water of Baptism, God frees us from sin not in a legal fictional way, (eg. imputation of righteousness), but simply by making each of us, individually, His son or daughter, gifting to us by adoption what Jesus has by nature — divinity with a whole humanity. Through Baptism, we now participate in the Divine Nature of Jesus. In the presence of God, sin flees away, and this is why and how we are freed from sin.
Now, due to our creaturely nature, damaged by sin, this gift from God requires nurturing and growth as well as constant attention and reform. God, knowing all this, established in His Church certain signs that contain, carry, and give us His
all-powerful grace. These things we call Sacraments. They are the means by which God ordinarily and deliberately showers us with His love.
When we eat His flesh that was sacrificed for us, we are made whole. When we drink His blood that was poured out for us, we are washed clean. This Divine Medicine frees us from the corruption of sin, and orients us towards God, our Love and our Life. When we are anointed with oil for healing, we participate in the Love of God, sin is forgiven, healing is offered firstly for the Soul, then - in my experience - for someone (elses’) salvation in body.
“Easter is a participation in the Triumph of the Lamb of God, where He defeated sin and death and the power of the devil. God did this in God’s own particular way, which often leaves us mere humans scratching our heads.”
This Easter there are a good number of people in our Diocese who are experiencing these divine gifts. Some for the very first time. They have spent time in formation, being called into the wonderful light that is Jesus. Many are being baptised, and converted from a son of Adam into a Son of God. There are others who, having been converted years ago — often in some protestant denomination — have been called into a full communion with the Church Christ
established when He first called Peter and Andrew, James and John, and the others to follow Him.
By entering the church this Easter, these new Catholics are committing their lives to the Lord in Faith, in Hope, in Love. Let us who have been here for a while open our hearts, and our lives to our new brothers and sisters. I ask you all
to show them how we follow Christ more closely each day. Join with them in small groups and study groups, so that they do not feel abandoned as they come off the natural high we all get when doing something significant in our
lives. This is a real challenge. We are used to taking people by the hand and leading them to the Sacraments, but we forget that this is a beginning to the Christian Life.
Take an inventory of your parish. Are there small groups studying the Scriptures, are there groups helping the poor, are there groups gathering young mothers, visiting the shutins and other prisoners? Are people volunteering to help at
Seafarers’ mission, hospital visitation, Communion rounds?
After all, most parishes have only one priest, two at the most and in some parishes there are up to 17 rest homes. One priest cannot (and should not) do it all. If the answer is no, then start something, invite the new Catholics, invite the old Catholics to spend time learning how Jesus did it. All catholics have the right to gather to accomplish the mission. It does not have to be in a ‘church space’. Often it is better to meet in your homes, or any other space that works, and then — go and do.