Credo 5 - ... Maker of heaven and earth ...

To confess that God is the ‘maker of heaven and earth’ is to say everything that is owes its existence to the creative act of God. Although creation is - in a sense - an ongoing process, and we are still awaiting its perfection, the very fact that things ‘are at all’ is solely through God’s action.

It is not a surprise that the article about God’s creation of the universe appears so early in the creed, just after belief in the oneness of God has been expressed. Let us explore briefly the reasons for its actual place in our confession of faith and its meaning.

Firstly, anything that exists is either God or God’s creation, so this is, in a sense, why this article of faith comes second. Why does it have to be an article of faith, one may ask? Can’t we see things around us, can’t we touch and smell and taste? Isn’t creation a matter of science rather than faith? Well, frankly... no. To say that ‘the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them’ (Exodus 20:11) is a confession of faith, not a scientific statement. It must be so, because the idea of creation ‘out of nothing’ is beyond science, and even beyond our understanding. We cannot have a properly shaped idea of what it means to create, because it is impossible for us to think it. We can only confess it.

Secondly, to confess that God is ‘Maker of heaven and earth’ just after our affirmation of the oneness of God, follows systematically the pattern of the Old Testament revelation: ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth’ (Genesis 1:1). It is worth noting that the Hebrew verb ‘he created’ – bara – is only used in the context of God’s action. It represents, in a sense, a divine attribute. This revelation has always been interpreted (in the Christian tradition) through the opening verses of the Gospel of John: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God; all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made’ (John 1:1-3).

Thirdly, creation is a work of the one God, that is to say, of the Father through the Son with the Spirit. It is not an exclusive work of either the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit: whenever God is acting, the whole Trinity is involved.

see the previous posts on the creed

'the Father and I are one'

Fourth Sunday of Easter

Readings: Acts of the Apostles 13:14, 43-52; Psalm 99; Revelation 7:9, 14-17; John 10: 27-30

When getting to grips with the extracts of scripture the Church presents to us in the Liturgy it’s often useful to look at what the compilers of the Lectionary have left out, whether in breaking the material down into manageable proportions to emphasise a point or by ineptitude. Today’s readings are a case in point.

We’re told that Paul and Barnabas have arrived at the synagogue in Pisiddian Antioch. In the bit we don’t hear Paul preaches a sermon in which he runs through the history of salvation, culminating in Jesus’s rejection by the leaders of Israel at Jerusalem and his exaltation by God in the Resurrection. This arouses both interest and controversy, and crowds “almost the whole town” come to hear Paul’s message. I think we’re meant to assume that the newcomers are predominantly Gentile, not Jewish. Paul, in typical stroppy style, makes no attempt to conciliate the Jews, but rather announces a ”turn to the pagans”: they have had their chance; their rejection of God’s message mirrors the rejection of Jesus by the Chief Priests and Elders of Jerusalem, just as Paul’s rejection by (some of) the Jews mirrors Jesus’s rejection by his townsfolk in Nazareth (but not his disciples); Luke’s concern here is to emphasise that Paul, inspired by the Spirit, is following closely in Jesus’s footsteps, is doing what he has done. Now, therefore, God’s promise, his covenant, is extended to all the nations. This is further emphasised in the reading from the Apocalypse, where the innumerable number from all nations – not just Israel – are now the people of God, fulfilling the promise made to Abraham of descendents “as many as the stars of heaven”. Paul, then, is made a light for the nations, so that the Lord’s salvation may reach the ends of the earth.

May even reach us, if we will respond to him. How are we to do that? In the verses preceding the Gospel extract we’ve heard, we’re told Jesus was in the Temple at the feast of the Dedication. The Temple was the sign of God’s presence among His people. Jesus, questioned about his Messianic status, answers that he is the good shepherd – (a frequent symbol for the Davidic king, hence he implicitly claims messianic status). This, again, splits his audience: which prompts Jesus’s reply: “the sheep that belong to me listen to my voice”. If “the Jews” do not follow Jesus, it is not because he is not a shepherd, but because they are not sheep, as Chrysostom once said. Those who insist on seeing Jesus in their own terms, not his, do not hear, and are lost. Those who do hear, who accept Jesus on his terms, in terms of loving service to each other, will have life; because the sheep are given to Jesus by the Father, by God, and no-one can ever snatch the sheep from the Father’s hands; Jesus acts for the Father, as one united with the Father, so “no-one will ever steal them from me”, because “The Father and I are one” that is, Jesus himself is the visible presence of God among them; those who have faith in Jesus’s word – who recognise in it the revelation of God - can be sure that they are in the Father’s hand, that they are in union with God “for “the Father and I are one”.

No matter what persecutions we face, even great ones, even costing our lives, we can never be separated from God unless we choose not to hear, choose to turn away.

To Praise, to Bless, to Preach!

This Sunday, the World Day of Prayer for Vocations, we would like to share with you a video exploring the gift of a Dominican vocation produced by our brothers in St Joseph's Province, U.S.A.



Their other videos, available here, are also well worth a look.

We ask you please to pray with and for our Order:

Blessed Jordan, worthy successor of St Dominic,
in the early days of the Order,
your example and zeal prompted many men and women
to follow Christ in the white habit of our Holy Father.
As patron of Dominican vocations,
continue to stimulate talented and devoted men and women to consecrate their lives to God. Through your intercession,
lead to the Order of Preachers generous and sacrificing persons, willing to give themselves fervently to the apostolate of truth.
Help them to prepare themselves to be worthy of the grace of a Dominican vocation.
Inspire their hearts to become learned of God,
that with firm determination they might aspire to be
champions of the faith and true lights of the world. Amen.

Credo 4 - ... the Almighty ...

When we say God is 'the Almighty', do we mean that He possesses the greatest power amongst a field of rivals? Is the clause inserted in the creed in order to assert that God will suffer no competition?

The power that is located in God is not simply greater than all the powers in the material universe. Rather, through His act of creation, all creatures live, move and have their being through the power of God. When God creates, his activity is not analogous to a builder who constructs a wall that, once built, can sustain without the builder's interference. God's act of creation is constantly sustaining the life of the universe. God creates me now as directly as he did at my conception. If God ever stopped creating, all things, no matter how long they had had being, would cease to exist. Julian of Norwich perceived this when she envisioned God holding the world in being, as Julian herself could hold a hazelnut in the palm of her hand.

The title of 'Almighty' for God, acknowledges God's creative power. The title is not 'Most mighty', as if something other than God could bring about life and being. To name God 'Almighty' is to assent to the belief that all strength and potency in the universe has its origin in God's own power and creative will. To express firm belief in this clause is to marvel again at the generosity of God in giving creatures His own strength, the better to serve Him.

see the previous posts on the creed

Dominican Vocation film clip (1964)

Our Dominican brothers in Washington, D.C. have recently put up this video on the Dominican vocation. It is taken from a 1964 film entitled And the world looks at us. Some aspects of the Dominican liturgy and some customs of conventual life have changed since then but our life is still essentially the same: dedicated to preaching for the salvation of souls, a preaching nourished and supported by prayer, contemplation, study and fraternity.



For a contemporary account of the call to Dominican life read Br Bruno's story.

Is God calling you too?

St George, Patron of England

Martyrdom is now an ambiguous and misunderstood phenomenon. If it simply means 'dying for what you believe', what makes that laudable and holy? It is certainly not laudable and holy if such a demise inflicts suffering and death on others, or if it is a deliberate taking of one’s own life removed from the context of threat and persecution in faith.

For the Catholic Church, the content of what is believed bears upon whether or not individuals are to be venerated as martyrs. In Oxford, for example, there is a ‘Martyrs Memorial’ which commemorates men who died for Protestantism under the Catholic Queen Mary during the Reformation. The Church, however, venerates Thomas More and John Fisher as saints and martyrs from this same period because they died upholding the Catholic faith. John Paul II re-defined martyrdom when he canonised Maximilian Kolbe who died as a martyr of charity rather than a martyr of faith. Even more controversial was his canonization of Edith Stein as a martyr: she died because she was Jewish by race and Catholic in her faith. Martyrdom, as a holy and sanctifying example, must be carefully understood.

These points are relevant to the remembrance of England’s patron, because St George as a martyr and as a soldier remains significant across Christian denominations seventeen centuries after his execution. He is venerated in the Church of England, the Catholic Church and particularly the Eastern and Orthodox churches. This is extraordinary considering nothing is known about him for certain. Thought to have been tortured and put to death in 303 under the Emperor Diocletian for refusing to participate in the persecution of Christians and counting himself among them, he is said to have been a tribune in the Roman army and came from what is now Turkey. But even these pieces of information are vague, even legendary. It is interesting to note that as early as 496, Pope Gelasius includes George as one of the saints ‘whose name is rightly reverenced but whose actions are known only to God’.

It is thus extraordinary that his patronage is linked to so many countries and situations. It is not only England who asks for his prayers but Aragon, Catalonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, Germany and Greece; also Moscow, Istanbul, Genoa and Venice (second to St Mark). Why is an unknown, Turkish soldier, living and dying before many of these places gained their identity, revered as a national, identifying patron?

I think we must return to the careful examination we have made of martyrdom. George, in the face of darkness and persecution, chose the light and followed his Lord Jesus. As a soldier he would have known battle, faced the possibility of death. This is not the issue. His submissive, passionate action, defying soldier’s orders, maintained compassion in the face of tyranny and justice at the risk of dishonour and treason. This is the example that so many have found in our patron saint, that sudden rush of love that falls on those born again in the Spirit, that at the last, changes one’s life.

But what of the identity that the patronage of George the Turk brings to England? Ireland’s Saint Patrick brought the light of Christ to their nation, defining the country’s soul; St David was a saintly Bishop, shepherding his people in Wales in the Christian life. They identify with and bring identity to their nations. But St George is patron of England, not because he defines who England is, but because he exemplifies what we should be: compassionate, honourable, Christian.

'I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit; and, upon this charge
Cry God for Harry, England and St George!'.

Henry V: Act 3, Scene 1

* * * * *

St George is depicted above in a rare 14th-century wall painting from the parish church of Hornton, Oxfordshire.

Witness

Third Sunday of Easter

Readings: Acts of the Apostles 5:27-32, 40b-41; Psalm 30; Revelation 5:11-14; John 21:1-19

Courage speaks for itself. This is why so many people converted to Christianity, when they saw Christians martyred, seeing their blood shed not in a violent opposition and conflict but in a courageous witness to their faith. The blood of martyrs waters the faith of the nations.

I've always thought that martyrdom is the most paradoxical expression of our faith - an expression that shatters all cosy and lukewarm systems of value. It is also the most quiet and yet the most attractive witness, to lose one's life in order to spread life-giving faith and, ultimately, to win back one's life in eternity, to be able to live forever with 'the Lamb, who was slain'.

We see the germinal growth of this witness in today's readings: Peter's threefold confession of love will lead him to become an extremely courageous preacher whose blood will be shed for Christ - not through a violent fight but in a quiet and firm stand. Jesus anticipates that all this will happen to Peter, when he says:

'Truly, truly, I say to you, when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go' (John 21:18).

Now Peter’s love and faith are mature. He has indeed ‘walked where he would’: after the crucifixion of Christ Peter fled Jerusalem and went fishing with his friends. He was greatly disappointed, I guess, that things went the wrong way. He must have been terribly afraid. Yet the threefold confession of love and his acceptance of the mission to ‘tend Christ’s sheep’ enables him to come back to the community of disciples which he deserted. Peter now has the courage to bear witness.

As he stands with other apostles in front of the Sanhedrin, Peter has already ‘grown old’, and when challenged to stop preaching he strongly affirms the apostolic mission: ‘we must obey God rather than men’.

It is impossible to be a Christian and not to bear witness to one’s faith. Christianity is never anonymous. It is firmly based in community. Its preaching and works of mercy are its witness: the fruit of common faith and God-inspired love. Christians are prophets by the very nature of their faith: they are living signs, witnesses to Christ’s saving death and resurrection. It is because we are rooted in Christ’s body that we are able courageously to bear witness to our faith.