St Peter-Le-Poer

Christian Inessentials

What is Holy Water? Why Incense? Why Vestments? Why the Cross? Why Statues, Icons & Images?

Why do so many Anglican Churches have candles on the altar? What’s the point of incense? Why do Priests wear different robes? And what’s the significance of lighting a candle at the feet of Mary? In this section we take a look at the meaning behind these rituals and show why it’s so important to keep these ancient traditions

What’s the point of Holy Water? Holy Water is tap water which has been blessed. It has 4 important functions. 1 We use it to protect us from evil. 2 We use it to bless things like houses and religious objects. 3 We sprinkle the coffin with Holy Water at the beginning and end of a funeral, as a reminder that the dear departed person was baptized into Christ 4 But the most common use of Holy Water is when we enter Church and dip a finger or two into the Holy Water just inside the door and bless ourselves with the sign of the Cross. Why do we “Cross” ourselves and what does it mean? This simple action reminds us of our baptism and links us to Jesus, who was also baptised. When Jesus began his public ministry he could have joined the religiousJews, the Pharisees, and become famous as a teacher and keeper of the Law. He could have supported the extremely powerful Sadducees and become a person of great influence. Or he could have joined the Zealots and become a political revolutionary. Instead, he asked John the Baptist to baptize him in the River Jordan. And at that very moment, he offered his life to be used by God and followed a path of total obedience, pain and suffering in order to atone for the sins of God’s people. After his baptism, Jesus went out into the desert to be alone to fast and pray. During that time, the Gospels tell us, he experienced 3 temptations. The 1st temptation was to turn stones into bread. Just think how much influence Jesus might have had if he had fed the hungry and made poverty history, or simply given people what they needed. But no. His life was offered to God. The 2nd temptation was to throw himself down from the Temple. This would obviously have gained him major attention. Would have made him a huge success and attracted vast numbers of followers. Instead, he chose 12 not-very-bright apostles and a handful of women. Because his life was offered to God, not to success. In the 3rd temptation Jesus was shown all the Kingdoms of the world and realised how much he could do if he had worldwide power and influence. But Jesus had offered his life to God. So he humbled himself, became a servant, washed the feet of his friends and emphasises how important it is to be selfless. Many times, Jesus must have been tempted to do things differently. John’s Gospel tells us that when he spoke about the need to eat His flesh and drink his blood, countless followers took exception and walked away. He didn’t call them back or run after them. He didn’t change his teaching, or water down the truth. Because his life was offered to God. What’s more, as opposition from the Jewish leaders increased and people turned against him, he still travelled to Jerusalem, knowing that it almost certainly meant death. Jesus knew that his baptism signified his death. But his life had been offered to God and there was no turning back. Every time you bless yourself with Holy Water you are remembering your own Baptism. And you are also blessing and thanking God that at your Baptism “You were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus” Holy Water points us to our Blessed Lord and it reminds us that as his life was totally offered to God, so we should no longer live our lives thoughtlessly, selfishly and solely for ourselves - but for Him.

Incense—’A life acceptable to God” What is incense? It’s an expensive powdery substance made from the gum of certain trees. The grains look a bit like coffee sugar and they are burned on red hot coals to give off smoke and a sweet fragrance. Why is it important? The Jewish people used to burn incense on the altar as their morning and evening sacrifice to God. The prophet Malachi wrote: “From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same… incense shall be offered to your name “ (Malachi 1.11) And Psalm 141.2 says in those lovely words: ”Let my prayer rise before you as incense: the lifting up of my hands be as an evening sacrifice.” In other words, as the smoke of this fragrant offering goes up, may it symbolize our prayers which we hope will be pleasing and acceptable to God. The problem was that so often the people’s worship was not pleasing and acceptable to God. They would go through the outward motions of offering their incense, but their lives were wrong. They were lying and cheating and stealing and committing adultery. Which is why you find prophets like Isaiah savagely condemning this meaningless worship. God says, “ I am sick of your sacrifices; bring no more empty offerings before me; your incense fills me with disgust. Cease to do evil, learn to do good; search for justice and help the oppressed; be just to the orphan and plead for the widow.”(Isaiah 1: 11-18) And God says to the prophet Ezekiel: “when the people serve me (that is truly with their lives) THEN I will accept you with the sweet fragrance of your incense. (Ezekiel 20: 40-41). On the Cross, Jesus made the offering which poor sinful humans were never able to make. One of our Eucharistic Prayers says he made there, a “full, perfect and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world” But long before Jesus made his sacrifice on the Cross, his whole life was pleasing and acceptable to God. Why? Because of the person he was and the way he lived and behaved. Jesus did no evil, he went about doing only good. When people were sick he touched them and made them well. When they were weighed down with sin, like the paralysed man lying on his bed, he raised them up with words of encouragement and forgave them. When they were oppressed by the burdens of society and religion like Mary Magdalene, he set them free. He was kind to widows, like the poor widow of Nain who had lost her only son. When despised foreigners like the woman of Canaan, the Roman soldier and the Samaritan leper needed him, he helped them. He hated injustice and had no time for hypocrites. At the end, when he was falsely accused, he said nothing. When he was insulted he didn’t answer back. When he was unjustly condemned and crucified, he prayed for his murderers. During his life Jesus prayed and he did his religious duty. However, he didn’t go about being terribly religious. Most of the time he was criticised for not being nearly religious enough, because he ate and drank and mixed with people who were not considered respectable. But his life was acceptable and pleasing to God because he was so intensely HUMAN; because he cared and because he loved. It’s funny how we apply the language of smell to indicate our disapproval. What do you think of our politicians? I think they all stink. I don’t trust them they’re all ‘rotters’, i.e., smell like bad eggs? Maybe that’s why we spend so much money on perfume and eau de toilette and after shave lotion etc – because to smell nice is to be good? Paul thought the same way. Because Our Lord’s whole life was so pleasing and acceptable to God, Paul thought of his life as a sacrifice of sweet- smelling incense. He says in Ephesians 5.2: “follow Christ by loving as he loved you and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering to God.” Our Lord’s life, like the grains of incense, was poured out on the red-hot coals of his Passion and as the smoke drifts upwards, so his sacrifice ascended to the Father in heaven. When you see the smoke of the incense at Mass rise up to heaven (in the morning sunlight) and ask yourself: Are my prayers and my life acceptable to God? “O Lord, let my prayer be set forth in your sight as incense.” And when you see the altar being censed at Mass, remember the offering of incense by the Magi (The Wise Men) and offer Christ your worship. When you see the Priest being censed, pray for him, that he may be worthy. And when you are censed just before the Eucharistic Prayer, remember to offer yourself body and soul as a living sacrifice joined to Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross and in the Mass’. Paul says: “We are the incense of Christ to God” (2Cor2.15). Let the costly gift of incense point you to our Blessed Lord and remind you of his life, a life that was in all things pleasing and acceptable to God.

Vestments— The vestments worn by the priest at Mass point us to Our Lord Jesus Christ and remind us that his life was a life hidden with God. Gucci, denim or ancient robes why does it matter what a Priest wears? In fact, these vestments are descended from the ordinary clothes of a Roman Citizen in the Second Century. When fashions changed and clothes became shorter the conservative Church carried on using the long flowing robes of an earlier age. The long white alb underneath was the tunic of a Roman citizen and the outer chasuble was his travelling cloak. In the Early Church they would use the best robes they possessed for celebrating Mass. And over many years the shape became stylised with different colours to signal the various seasons of the Church’s year. Purple or Violet for the gravity of Lent and Advent Red to symbolize the fire of the Holy Spirit and the blood of the Martyrs Green for the growth represented by the ordinary Sundays White or Gold for the great feasts of our Lord like Christmas and Easter Most clergy feel it is a great privilege to wear the Church’s vestments, which have been used for so many hundreds of years as they serve as a reminder of the continuity of faith. And reinforce the intention at Mass to do- not something they have just thought up – but what the Church has always done. The invisible man? Most clergy find it a relief on Sundays not to have to consider what to wear. Will it be the Christian Dior suit with the polo shirt? Or should I wear my silver three-piece outfit with the Gucci shoes? Or should I be more casual? No, when the priest puts on the vestments he becomes, in a sense, anonymous. He’s not a star preacher or a famous evangelist wearing expensive personal clothing. He is just a priest of the Church representing, not himself, but Christ Our Lord whose life was hidden with God. In the book of the prophet Isaiah there’s a strange verse which says, “Truly you are a God who hides himself”. And when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, the image of the ‘invisible God’, as Paul calls him, hid himself by taking on our human nature. Indeed, in our Christmas hymn we sing “Veiled in flesh the Godhead see”. But at the time no-one could see that God had put on the vestment of our humanity - that robe of virgin flesh which he will wear for ever. And for the first 30 years of his life Jesus continued to hide himself by living in total obscurity, working, we can imagine, in the carpenter’s shop in Nazareth, reading, learning, praying, discovering God’s will for his mission in life. For most of us who can’t bear not to be noticed and recognized, or who feel what we do is of no importance, the idea is intolerable. Our Lord’s life was hidden with God. And this idea of his hidden life has exercised a strong fascination for all sorts of Christians. From St Simeon who chose to live on top of a pillar and stayed there for more than 35 years praying and facing his God, to Charles de Foucauld, a rich young French soldier, who gave up everything to go and live the hidden life of Nazareth in the deserts of North Africa. And what about his followers today, the Little Brothers and Sisters of Jesus who live in slums and work in supermarkets. Jesus wore no distinctive clothing; no-one knew who he really was. “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” Some say John the Baptist or one of the prophets! But you, who do you say that I am?” “You are the Christ, the Messiah”, said Peter, “you are the Son of God!” “Blessed are you Simon, son of John, because flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.” Our Lord’s life was hidden with God. And he would go apart, or sometimes up a mountain to be alone with God, so that he could come down transfigured by grace and silence and do what was needed. Jesus taught us when we pray to go into our room and shut the door. We all need time and space to be alone, to think and read and take stock. That great priest Thomas Merton, wrote these words, “He who acts and does things for others or the world, without deepening his own self-understanding, freedom, integrity and capacity to love, will have nothing to give others. He will communicate nothing but the contagion of his own obsessions, aggression, his ego-centred ambitions and delusions” Jesus, whose life was hidden with God, gave us this pattern of withdrawing from the world to be with God so that we can come back and have something to give to the world. This is not least why we have Quiet Days and Retreats and Meditative Prayer. Christians wear no distinctive clothing. We don’t wear long hair and turbans like the Sikhs, or a Fez like the Muslims, or a Yamulkah like orthodox Jews. Like Our Lord, no one knows who we are, except by the way we behave, the way we treat people. We are anonymous, incognito. And yet we have put on an invisible vestment: “All of you,” says Peter, “all of you, clothe yourselves, wrap yourselves in humility to serve one another.(1Peter 5.5) “All of you”, says Paul, “all of you who have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ, you have clothed yourselves in Christ. Because you have died, your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Colossians 3:3) We come to Mass on Sundays to learn and know, that our real life is hidden with Christ in God. We do this so that we can go home and back to work and do what is right with new strength and understanding. In Benjamin Britten’s “War Requiem” the beautiful words and music of the Mass are interrupted by the soloists who sing of the horrors of war and who plead for sleep while the choir sings of eternal rest and light. It’s the same with us. Our Mass on Sundays is, in a sense, accompanied and interrupted by the tormented cries of a suffering and defeated world. But because we have put on the vestment of Our Lord’s compassion and holiness, and because our life is hidden with Christ in God, we hear those cries. And we pray that our sacrifice of the Mass may be acceptable to God, and help us and all those for whom we offer it.

The Cross— The Cross which we see in Church, and the Sign of the Cross which we make, point us to Jesus, our divine Lord and show us life in death. There are a number of crosses and crucifixes in our church and they all take more or less the same form. In the very Early Church they used only a plain empty cross, because people were still being crucified at that time and the church thought that the figure of Jesus nailed to a cross was not the best way to attract converts. They were right! Sometimes the emblem of the Lamb was superimposed on the cross and then, later on, the figure of Jesus was either naked except for a loincloth, or fully vested as either a priest, or a king, in long flowing robes. Keep it real! At first the figure stood upright, with no sign of pain or death. But gradually crucifixes began to be more realistic with our Lord’s body bending and his head drooping in death. The Cross had ceased to be a symbol of the Incarnate Word; it was now the pathetic image of the Son of Man. Some theologians regret this change to realism. But I’m sure it’s true that as someone said: of all the symbols to stimulate our faith and take us out of our daily preoccupation with ourselves, the cross with the figure of the dead Christ, is the most powerful. For most people death comes as a sad or tragic interruption of our life or work. There is nothing like this about the death of Jesus. His death was completely consistent with the non-violent way he lived. And that is why the Cross is such a powerful image. Because it is the symbol of a life offered completely to God. The Jewish people had had great experience of suffering; they knew what it was to be defeated and broken. And you can see their pain in Holy Scripture., especially Psalm 22: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” And in those mysterious passages in Isaiah about the innocent servant of God who suffers for his People. Strength in weakness The Jews longed for God to act powerfully and they believed and hoped that one day he would send his Messiah, his Anointed and Chosen One, to save them. But they never connected the Messiah with suffering. Jesus did. At his baptism when he offered his life to be used by God he accepted the vocation of that innocent suffering servant who would bear the sins and carry the grief and sorrows of the world. And again and again he spoke of going up to Jerusalem to suffer and die, so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled. His disciples couldn’t bear it. Suffering would be weakness. Death a meaningless failure. “No, Lord,” said Peter, “this must never happen to you!” And our Lord is so fiercely determined to drain that cup of suffering that he says to that great Apostle, our Patron Saint: “Get behind me Satan”. The disciples couldn’t see, any more than we can normally see, that suffering love is not weakness, it is the most amazing strength, that death need not be a failure if it comes about as life consciously offered to God. They didn’t understand, just as we too struggle to understand what it means when Jesus says those frightening words: “If you want to hang on to life at all costs, you will lose it. If you let go, you will find life.” Jesus was on his way to death. It was a straight line from the River Jordan to the Cross of Calvary. And yet he was never morbid or depressing about this inevitable journey. “More than any other”, says Neville Ward, “he was a man exposed to the joy and humiliation of experience. Born to love and to suffer, to articulate the deepest longings of human beings. Jesus saw life as haunted by an extraordinary urgency, as though heaven is always just down the road from you. Just a few steps and you would be there, sobbing with joy in the great forgiveness. He saw the mistaken choices people make in the urgency of their longing for joy and tried to persuade them to free themselves from the tension of that search and have only one care, to want and trust God.” Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. It is finished; it is accomplished. Is it any wonder that in the early preaching of the Gospel Paul should say: ”The preaching of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God”. Perhaps remembering the way Christ was taunted on the Cross, “if you are the Son of God come down from the Cross and we will believe you” Paul also said: “The Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for Wisdom, but WE PREACH CHRIST CRUCIFIED”!(1Cor 1:18 & 22). And in another place he says: “God forbid that I should boast of ANYTHING but the Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world”. (Galatians 6:14) The Cross has become that most powerful symbol of a life offered to God, of life in death, and of one who lived and died wanting and trusting God. The Cross shows us how Jesus identifies with US in our weakness and sinfulness, in our pain and in our deaths. It shows us to what extent he laid down his own life, and laid aside his own will in order to centre himself in another. No wonder we sing: “When I survey the WONDROUS Cross”. Or that we say: “We adore you O Christ and we bless you because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world” When our Lord died on the Cross he said: “It is finished”. But in one sense what he did, what he lived and died for, is far from being finished. It still has to be carried on and completed by us, who must learn to allow the Cross to so affect our lives that we too enter completely into his self-offering and, like him, live and die wanting and trusting God. So, when we wear a cross round our neck, when we kiss the wood of the Cross on Good Friday, when we bow to the cross or bless ourselves, we should never do so mechanically. But rather always with a sense of grateful wonder that love so amazing, so divine should be given to us in this unique way.

Statues & Images- Images, Icons and statues also point us to Our Lord Jesus Christ, for they teach us that his life was a life lived in Community. At St Peter-le-Poer, we have two major images in our Church. The statue of Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the entrance to the Lady Chapel and the statue of our Patron Saint, St. Peter. And I have heard people ask, aren’t we breaking the 2nd Commandment which says you must not make any graven image or bow down and worship it? No, we’re not. The Commandment actually forbids us to worship idols. It says nothing about making statues of Winston Churchill or Nelson, or the making of images when you take a photograph. But t The Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Peter are not idols or false Gods. And we don’t worship them anyway. We pay them respect by lighting candles and putting flowers in front of them. Christians have always venerated the images and the 2nd Council of Nicaea in 787 said it was quite right to do so. But we worship only one God. But do the statues distract our attention away from God? No, they don’t. Instead they teach us the most important truth. You cannot be a Christian all by yourself. Because you are baptised into Christ you belong to him and to all the other members of his Body. That’s the Church on earth, the Church beyond the grave in paradise, to Mary and St. Peter and all the Saints triumphant in the Church in Heaven. So when you light a candle at our Lady’s image and say a prayer for some sick child or a departed loved one, you are putting into practice your faith in the Church as Community. First you show love for Mary the Mother of Jesus and then, by asking for her prayers, you show that mutual intercession is the life blood of the church. When you light a candle at the statue of St.Peter for some young man or woman in the army or the emergency services and pray for their safety and protection , you are remembering that we worship together with angels and archangels and the whole company of heaven. We pray the public prayers of the Church together. We worship as the community of Christ’s people. You are not alone Our Lord’s life on earth was a life lived in Community. First there was the Holy Family of Jesus, Mary and Joseph at Nazareth. And the love that existed in that simple earthly home reflects the eternal love of God the Father for his Son, the self giving love of the Son for his Father, plus the Holy Spirit as the bond of love uniting them in the Holy Trinity. When Jesus began his public ministry he started by gathering round himself not admirers or adherents, but disciples, followers. Some people have said Jesus never meant to start or establish a Church. This is nonsense. Out of all his disciples, women and men, he deliberately appoints 12 men to be the Fathers of his Community, the new Israel of God. “You did not choose me,” he says to them, “No, I chose you and appointed you. “As the living Father sent me, I am sending you.” In the dark days he says to them – and perhaps he says to us - “Fear not, little flock, it is the Father’s pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” And he says to them: “ I do not call you servants because a servant does not know his Master’s business. I call you friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you”. And in his life you see how our Lord has friends and makes friends: Martha and Mary in their home in Bethany where he eats and enjoys hospitality, and Lazarus their brother, our Lord’s dear friend at whose death he weeps. He makes friends with the most unlikely and despised people: Zaccheus the crooked tax collector, the woman who was a sinner, Nicodemus the great Jewish leader. With all of these people he is intensely human and accepting; breaking down the barriers of religious stuffiness and best behaviour. He is making friends; he is rescuing people from loneliness and isolation; he is creating a new community of faith and forgiveness. At St. Peter le Poer we’re quite an odd collection really. Ex-bankers, teachers and architects; housewives and business women; nurses and boys and girls at school; and retired folk. “Once you were not a people at all. But now, in Christ, you are the People of God. Some living in the Parish boundaries and a good number from outside. And we are never more the Church than when we come together to make Eucharist. Our Lord Jesus Christ is telling us one thing. Learn to live together as the new Community of my people, transcending all your natural suspicions and shyness and dislikes of each other. “Once you were not a people at all. Once you were outside. But now, in Christ, you are the People of God.” (1Peter2:10) Once you were outside God’s mercy . But now you have been shewn mercy. We have our roots in that first People of God – the Jews. Their Scriptures are our Scriptures. Abraham is our forefather in Faith as well as theirs. But we are also human beings. And we have even deeper roots in the human race, the Family of Man with its wonderful science and technology, its enjoyable books and music and art, its hopes for peace in the face of terror. We have been called into Community and Chosen, not for privilege, but for responsibility, to make the Church the instrument of God’s healing and unity in an unhappy and divided world. A friend of mine was once in the Orthodox Church in Paris. Two little boys came in with their Grandmother; they lit their candles and kissed the Icons of the Saints, and then they turned and embraced each other. He asked why. And the woman said: ‘That is the Orthodox faith- first we greet our family in heaven, and then we greet each other!’ And so the images of Blessed Mary, and the Saints, and Angels; in this and every Church – in stained glass or statue form – they all look down and smile at us. They encourage us to know that we are not alone. We have their prayers in the great work which is set before us: to live life in Community and by so doing to lift our World to God.

The Week Ahead to 13th March

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Christian Inessentials

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Thanksgiving for a Child & Baptism

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Peggy Day retires as organist