Jeremy Taylor on the Ascension, the Holy Sacrifice, and Jesus our great High Priest

Alleluia! King eternal, 

Thee the Lord of lords we own; 

Alleluia! born of Mary, 

Earth Thy footstool, heav’n thy throne: 

Thou within the veil hast entered, 

Robed in flesh our great High Priest; 

Thou on earth both priest and victim 

In the Eucharistic feast. 

(William C. Dix, 1867) 

Today's celebration of the Lord's being "taken up in the cloud" as our Great High Priest into the heavenly sanctuary (see my post for Ascension Day 2017 HERE) is a thanksgiving for the unity between our High Priest's sacrifice of love, his ongoing intercessory ministry, and the Church's Eucharist. 

This was a major theme of the 17th Century Caroline Divines, many of whom suffered enormously to preserve the Catholic Faith within the Church of England. One of them, Jeremy Taylor (1613-1667), was a chaplain to King Charles I. He is still well-known for his devotional books, Holy Living and Holy Dying. Following the martyrdom of the King, Taylor was imprisoned a number of times. Eventually, he was allowed to live quietly in Wales, where he became the private chaplain of the Earl of Carbery. The Catholic life of the Church of England was driven underground during this Commonwealth period, and at great risk to themselves, clergy like Jeremy Taylor exercised their ministry in a clandestine way, protected - and sometimes even hidden - by lay people who dreamt of a restoration of their Church. When the Restoration came, Taylor was made Bishop of Down and Connor in Ireland and became vice-chancellor of the University of Dublin. His teaching on the Eucharist and the priesthood of Jesus draws heavily on the Scriptures, as well as both Eastern and early Latin sources. The following is from his book, The Great Exemplar: 

"… whatsoever Christ did at the institution, the same he commanded the Church to do, in remembrance and repeated rites; and himself also does the same thing in heaven for us, making perpetual intercession for his church, the body of his redeemed ones, by representing to his Father his death and sacrifice. There he sits, a High Priest continually, and offers still the same one perfect sacrifice; that is, still represents it as having been once finished and consummate, in order to perpetual and never-failing events. 

"And this, also, his ministers do on earth; they offer up the same sacrifice to God, the sacrifice of the cross, by prayers, and a commemorating rite and representment, according to his holy institution. And as all the effects of grace and the titles of glory were purchased for us on the cross, and the actual mysteries of redemption perfected on earth, but are applied to us, and made effectual to single persons and communities of men, by Christ's intercession in heaven . . . 

"As Christ is a priest in heaven for ever, and yet does not sacrifice himself afresh, nor yet without a sacrifice could he be a priest; but, by a daily ministration and intercession, represents his sacrifice to God, and offers himself as sacrificed: so he does upon earth, by the ministry of his servants; he is offered to God, that is, he is, by prayers and the sacrament, represented or 'offered up to God, as sacrificed'; which, in effect, is a celebration of his death, and the applying it to present and future necessities of the church, as we are capable, by a ministry like to his in heaven. It follows, then, that the celebration of this sacrifice be, in its proportion, an instrument of applying the proper sacrifice to all the purposes which it first designed. It is ministerially, and by application, an instrument propitiatory; it is eucharistical, it is an homage, and an act of adoration; and it is impetratory, and obtains for us, and for the whole church, all the benefits of the sacrifice, which is now celebrated and applied; that is, as this rite is the remembrance and ministerial celebration of Christ's sacrifice, so it is destined to do honour to God, to express the homage and duty of his servants, to acknowledge his supreme dominion, to give him thanks and worship, to beg pardon, blessings, and supply of all our needs." 

The picture below is the work of Thomas Noyes-Lewis  (1862-1946) who for many years was a worshipper at my parish church - All Saints' Benhilton in the south of London - and, indeed, a server at the altar. He was a professional artist, an illustrator of prayer books and children's books. His passion was to help people catch a glimpse of what is really happening in the Mass when as we gather at our earthly altars we are swept into the heavenly worship with Jesus, our great High Priest and sacrificial Victim, risen, ascended and glorified.   

And here is the hymn, expressing these great truths, that we would have sung during the distribution of Holy Communion had we been able to gather for our Sung Mass today:

Once, only once, and once for all 

His precious life he gave; 

Before the cross in faith we fall, 

And own it strong to save. 

‘One offering, single and complete,’ 

With lips and hearts we say; 

But what he never can repeat 

He shows forth day by day. 

For as the priest of Aaron’s line 

Within the holiest stood, 

And sprinkled all the mercy-shrine 

With sacrificial Blood. 

So he, who once atonement wrought, 

Our Priest of endless power, 

Presents himself for those he bought 

In that dark noontide hour. 

His manhood pleads where now it lives 

On heaven’s eternal throne, 

And where in mystic rite he gives 

Its presence to his own. 

And so we show thy death, O Lord, 

Till thou again appear, 

And feel, when we approach thy board, 

We have an altar here.

(William Bright, 1866)

Holy Week 2020 at All Saints', Benhilton - Easter Vigil Mass

THIS IS THE NIGHT

Don’t you love those war movies that show prisoners in concentration camps planning their escape! The big day comes, and the prisoners go about their duties as they nudge one another and whisper “THIS IS THE NIGHT.” 

You feel their sense of expectancy!

It seems to have been like that for the Israelite slaves as they got ready to escape from Egypt. On Thursday night we read Exodus 12, all about the preparations that had to be made. Do you remember how each family had to kill the Passover Lamb and put its blood on the doorpost and lintel of their house, eat the Lamb together and be ready to leave quickly? 

THE GREAT ESCAPE

The saga of this great escape through the waters of the Red Sea, then the long journey through the desert to the Land of Promise, is the backdrop that has ever since defined the Jewish people as well as the “new Israel” the Church, the community gathered around Jesus.

Well, I want to tell you: THIS IS THE NIGHT!

As we stood here in the darkness, at the start of this service, around the paschal candle, holding our own candles with their new flickering flames, an ancient chant from around the year 400 was sung. Did you notice that four times those words were sung: “THIS IS THE NIGHT”? 

THIS IS THE NIGHT when God freed the people of Israel from their slavery and led them dry-shod through the Red Sea.

THIS IS THE NIGHT when the pillar of fire banished the darkness of sin.

THIS IS THE NIGHT when Christians throughout the world, freed from worldly vices and washed clean of sin are led to grace and grow together in holiness.

THIS IS THE NIGHT when Jesus broke the prison bars of death and rose victorious from the underworld.

THIS IS THE NIGHT!

SET FREE BY JESUS 

The early Church saw the saga of those slaves escaping from Egypt as picture of you and me, slaves of sin, being set free by Jesus, who is the true Passover Lamb - the Lamb without blemish. (See 1 Corinthians 10). In fact, did you notice that the blood on the door posts and lintel of the houses marking out the families that would be rescued was smeared in the sign of the cross? 

THIS IS THE NIGHT! 

The waters of the Red Sea are a sign of OUR journey to freedom when we followed Jesus through the waters of baptism.

So, you see, we are liberated slaves!

And even the big Paschal Candle represents the pillar of fire that led the Israelites through the darkness as they made their escape – another sign of Jesus, who, risen from the dead, is our light in the darkness, around whom we gather . . . Jesus, who leads us and guides us as we make his light our own.

THIS IS THE NIGHT! Not  a history lesson, but an actual experience of God’s mighty power.

THIS IS THE NIGHT of our salvation. The stone is rolled away. Jesus is Risen. Sin and death are conquered. 

THIS IS THE NIGHT when many thousands of people around the world are making their escape from slavery to the powers of evil through the baptismal waters.

THIS IS THE NIGHT when we renew our baptismal promises and are sprinkled with water from the font, recalling that wonderful moment when we were plunged with Jesus into that watery grave, buried with him in his death, and then raised with him into the love, power and wonder of his new life.

THIS IS THE NIGHT 

      THE NIGHT OF MIRACLES. 

      THE NIGHT OF FREEDOM. 

      THE NIGHT OF LOVE. 

      THE NIGHT OF 

              NEW BEGINNINGS. 

THIS IS THE NIGHT!

A SUPERNATURAL COMMUNITY

There is so much war and violence in our world. So much disease and despair. You - the community born and reborn tonight - have a huge role to play as the body of the wounded but risen Jesus in this world, reaching  out with his love and healing. 

As an Anglican missionary in the Middle East wrote a couple of years ago: 

‘Christianity is built on the conviction that out of the most radical and disastrous despair, God turned the tables on the Empire and the Temple that killed his Son, and his resurrection was nothing less than the victory of God. 

‘THE POWER OF LIFE IN THAT RESURRECTION FLOWED OUT INTO A COMMUNITY CALLED OUT BY GOD, THE CHURCH. That community was called to be a sacrament of secret life and an imperfect but real embassy of God’s reign, which, like yeast in dough, spreads and leavens.’

- Abu Daoud  in St Francis Magazine Vol 8, No 2 April 2012

In the resurrection of Jesus a good God is bringing us to victory, the God who has wept with us so that we can laugh with him. The joy he gives us is an undercurrent of new life even in these dark days when there seems so little hope for our culture and civilisation.

Every Sunday proclaims it. Every baptism sees another person plunged into the dying and rising of Jesus. Every Mass takes us to the Bridal Chamber with Jesus, the Church’s risen Bridegroom. In fact, everything in our faith is seen in the light of Jesus’ Resurrection. The whole of the Church Year is based on Easter Day. The Paschal Candle is by far the largest in the church.  

THIS IS THE NIGHT! The Resurrection is huge. It is supernatural, and its power breaks into your life and mine right here in this world. Just ask our Eastern Orthodox brothers and sisters! Their direct focus on the Resurrection of Jesus is what got them through seventy years of persecution at the hands of totalitarian atheists in the old Soviet Union and its satellite states. 

And in the dark days to come for OUR culture, the power of Jesus’ Resurrection surging through our lives and parish communities will see us through. 

We are heralds of the new creation and we see Jesus, tonight, crowned with glory and honour, risen from the dead, triumphant over sin and death. United in love with him in his dying and rising, we are ‘more than conquerors’ (Romans 8:37), and ‘neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39).

THIS IS THE NIGHT!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

IF WE WERE IN CHURCH

This ‘Mass of the Resurrection’ uses ancient symbols, to take us to the heart of ‘The Paschal Mystery’ - the saving death and resurrection of Jesus. 

1. THE SERVICE OF LIGHT: The church  is in darkness. A fire is lit near the main door symbolising the power of the Holy Spirit to bring new life. The fire is blessed and the big ‘Pascal Candle’ is lit from it.  This Candle represents the Lord risen from the dead. It is carried through the church and raised three times, while ‘The Light of Christ/THANKS BE TO GOD’ is sung. The people’s candles are lit from the Paschal Candle, and then the ancient ‘Easter Proclamation’ is sung.

2. THE WORD OF GOD: As many as 9 Scripture passages are read, telling of the great things God did to deliver his people, culminating in the resurrection of Jesus. The sermon, as usual, follows the Gospel.

3. THE LITURGY OF BAPTISM: We process to the font as the Litany of the Saints is sung. Water is blessed, and there are usually baptisms. Then all the people renew their baptismal promises and are sprinkled with the baptismal water. This part of the service concludes with the intercessions.

4. THE EUCHARIST: Mass continues as usual, and we receive Holy Communion. Eastertide has begun. ALLELUIA!

The Paschal Candle, a sign of Jesus’ resurrection, stays in the sanctuary until Pentecost, the climax  of Eastertide, when it is put by the font - a sign of the relationship between the resurrection and Baptism. It is also put by the coffin at funerals as a sign that Jesus shares his victory over death with all his people.

Our Sister and our Mother in glory - Today's great celebration

From the Queen of Heaven stained glass window
in S. John's Horsham, Victoria, Australia.

Anglicans and Roman Catholics who love Our Lady must be grateful for the final document of ARCIC-II "Mary - Grace and Hope in Christ." Mind you, I think that the document does contain echoes of the theological paranoia not unknown in some Anglican traditions, as well as a slightly skewed interpretation of our history in relation to Marian theology. It is as if the Anglican representatives at that time on ARCIC-II were either prejudiced against or ignorant of the growing evidence for belief in "the Marian dogmas" of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption in the Anglican tradition . . . I suspect the latter. That having been said, however, it is significant that in Section 78 the ARCIC-II document is able to affirm:

- the teaching that God has taken the Blessed Virgin Mary in the fullness of her person into his glory as consonant with Scripture, and only to be understood in the light of Scripture (paragraph 58);

- that in view of her vocation to be the mother of the Holy One, Christ's redeeming work reached 'back' in Mary to the depths of her being and to her earliest beginnings (paragraph 59);

- that the teaching about Mary in the two definitions of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception, understood within the biblical pattern of the economy of hope and grace, can be said to be consonant with the teaching of the Scriptures and the ancient common traditions (paragraph 60);

- that this agreement, when accepted by our two Communions, would place the questions about authority which arise from the two definitions of 1854 and 1950 in a new ecumenical context (paragraphs 61-63);

- that Mary has a continuing ministry which serves the ministry of Christ, our unique mediator, that Mary and the saints pray for the whole Church and that the practice of asking Mary and the saints to pray for us is not communion-dividing.

We have just celebrated Our Lady's great day, when she, having come to the end of her earthly life, was taken up "body and soul" into heaven. It is a day for celebration, for music, art, poetry, and - in some places - even fireworks! It is a celebration that as one of us, by God's grace, Mary shares fully in the victory of her Son over death, a victory that we, too, will fully experience in the General Resurrection on the last day. The Assumption of Our Ldy reminds us of the profound sense in which the task of all our theologies - even papal pronouncements - is to "catch up" with the instinctive convictions of the Church down through the ages. That was the case historically, in terms of this Solemnity, and it is certainly the case for Christians journeying from an "anti-Marian" perspective to the fulness of faith in our time. 

So, today, I simply want to share with you some quotes that might enrich your meditation.

ST JOHN OF DAMASCUS  (d. 749)

"On this day the sacred and life-filled ark of the living God, she who conceived her Creator in her womb, rests in the Temple of the Lord that is not made with hands. David, her ancestor, leaps, and with him the angels lead the dance."

BISHOP THOMAS KEN (1637-1711)

Heaven with transcendent joys her entrance graced,

Next to his throne her Son his Mother placed;

And here below, now she's of heaven possest,

All generations are to call her blest.

HANS URS VON BALTHASAR (1905-1988)

From: You Crown the Year with Your Goodness: Sermons through the Liturgical Year, 186, 190-191

What . . . is the Church celebrating today? That a simple human body, inseparably united to its soul, is capable of being the perfect response to God’s challenge and of uttering the unreserved ‘Yes’ to his request. It is a single body – for everything in Christianity is always personal, concrete, particular – but at the same time it is a body that recapitulates all the faith and hope of Israel and of all men on earth. Consequently, when it is taken up into ultimate salvation, it contains the firm promise of salvation for all flesh that yearns for redemption. For all our bodies long to participate in our ultimate salvation by God: we do not want to appear before God as naked souls, ‘not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life’ (2 Corinthians 5:4); and God, who caused bodies to die, ‘subjecting creation to futility’, has subjected it ‘in hope’ that it ‘will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God’ (Romans 8:20f). So we are celebrating a feast of hope; but, like all the New Testament feasts, it is celebrated on the basis of a fulfillment that has already taken place.; that is, not only has the Son of God been resurrected bodily – which in view of his life and death, is quite natural – but also has the body that made him man, the earthly realm that proved ready to receive God and that remains inseparable from Christ’s body. Today we see that this earth was capable of carrying and bringing to birth the infinite fruit that had been implanted in her. Today we celebrate the ultimate affirmation and confirmation of the earth.

GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS (1844-1889)

From: The Blessed Virgin compared to the Air we Breathe

'Through her we may see him

Made sweeter, not made dim,

And her hand leaves his light

Sifted to suit our sight.'

DR ERIC MASCALL (1905-1993)

From: The Dogmatic Theology of the Mother of God in The Mother of God, E.L. Mascall ed. (London: Dacre Press, 1949), p. 43

The relation of Mary to the Church is (as the modern logicians would say) the relative product of two more fundamental relations. The first of these is Mary's relation to her Son; he is still man and she is still his mother. The second is his relation to us and to the Church; we are his members and the Church is his body. Therefore Mary is our mother and we are her children by adoption into her Son. This is not an exuberance of devotion but a fact of theology.

JOHN DE SATGE

From Mary and The Christian Gospel p. 79

Surely it is possible to think of her Assumption as the end of the great Pauline series (Romans 8:28-30 Cf. 1 John 3:2). Mary, the woman whose predestination has been advanced to its full term of conformation into the image of God's Son and hers; Mary who was called and who responded totally; Mary who was justified and rejoiced in her salvation; Mary who has been glorified? If it may be so taken, and Mary may be seen as the one of us who has already 'got there', then it gives great force to the insistence of the Vatican Constitution that Mary is a sign of sure hope and solace for the wandering People of God; and it makes her a splendid trophy of the Gospel's grace and power.

HERBERT O'DRISCOLL (b. 1928)

From: Portrait of a Woman, quoted in Mary in the Church ed. John Hyland Veritas Dublin 1989, p. 93

When the vast repository of beauty and terror which we call Christian tradition, the corporate memory of all Christians before me, tells me of Mary's virginity, of her immaculate conception, and of her assumption into heaven, I believe that truths have been preserved for me which, though I cannot fully explain them nor define then, I neglect to my loss.

PREFACE FOR MARY, MOTHER OF THE CHURCH

From: The Roman Missal

" . . . Raised to the glory of heaven,

she cares for the pilgrim Church with a mother's love,

following its progress homeward

until the day of the Lord dawns in splendour . . ."

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI  (1830-1994)

From: All Saints'

They have brought gold and spices to my King,

Incense and precious stuffs and ivory :

O holy Mother mine, what can I bring

That so my Lord may deign to look on me?

They sing a sweeter song than I can sing,

All crowned and glorified exceedingly:

I, bound on earth, weep for my trespassing,

They sing the song of love in heaven, set free.

Then answered me my Mother, and her voice

Spake to my heart, yea answered in my heart:

“Sing, saith He to the heavens, to earth. Rejoice:

Thou also lift thy heart to Him above:

He seeks not thine, but thee such as thou art.

For lo His banner over thee is Love.

From: Jerusalem and all its Citizens

Who is this that cometh up not alone

From the fiery-flying-serpent wilderness, 

Leaning upon her own Beloved One? 

Who is this? 

Lo, the King of kings' daughter, a high princess, 

Going home as bride to her Husband's Throne, 

Virgin queen in perfected loveliness . . .

Who sits with the King in His Throne? 

Not a slave but a Bride, 

With this King of all Greatness and Grace 

Who reigns not alone: 

His Glory her glory, 

where glorious she glows at His side

Who sits with the King in His Throne. 

She came from dim uttermost depths 

which no Angel hath known, 

Leviathan's whirlpool and Dragon's dominion worldwide,

From the frost or the fire to Paradisiacal zone.

Lo, she is fair as a dove, silvery, 

Is Very Love; to Whom all Angels sing; 

To Whom all saints sing crowned, their sacred band 

Saluting Love with palm-branch in their hand . . .

Bishop Geoffrey Rowell (1943-2017) on the Easter Gospel

Go to CATHOLICITY & COVENANT for a fitting tribute to Bishop Geoffrey, and a couple of quotes from his preaching. I share with you here a stunning piece he wrote in the Sunday Times on Easter Day, 8th April, 2007:

Jesus dies. His lifeless body is taken down from the cross. Painters and sculptors have strained their every nerve to portray the sorrow of Mary holding her lifeless son in her arms, as mothers today in Baghdad hold with the same anguish the bodies of their children. On Holy Saturday, or Easter Eve, God is dead, entering into the nothingness of human dying. The source of all being, the One who framed the vastness and the microscopic patterning of the Universe, the delicacy of petals and the scent of thyme, the musician’s melodies and the lover’s heart, is one with us in our mortality. In Jesus, God knows our dying from the inside.

How can these things be said, and sung, and celebrated, as they will be by countless millions this Easter? Only because the blotting out of life by death is not the horizon. The definitive line is not drawn there. From that nothingness and darkness and the seeming triumph of the darkest powers of evil, new life was born, a new creation came to be. On Easter morning a tomb was found empty, a stone rolled away, and a new order broke into the world. The Easter stories of the Gospels are not about “the resurrection of relics”, but about an amazing new life and transfiguration. It is not the resurrection of a principle but of a person, who calls us by name. In St John’s Gospel, Mary Magdalene hears the calling of her name by the risen Christ, though blinded by her tears she thinks Him to be the gardener. Clutching his feet she tries to pin him down, to shut him up in the old order, but he tells her not to touch, not to seek to hold down his risen life. She is to go and tell the Good News of resurrection, that all may be drawn into the ascending energy of the love of God.

Jesus breathes on His disciples His life-giving Spirit, the divine life of the new creation. “Go and live that life, live out that love”, for “Christ is risen and the demons are fallen”. The principalities and powers are dethroned. They have no ultimate control of our lives. From the nothingness of death and the absence of God and meaning, Christ rises in triumph and love’s redeeming work is done.

Glory to the Lamb!

A friend recently drew my attention to this article in the February 2005 Minneapolis Roman Catholic Charismatic Renewal Newsletter. It was originally a homily preached by  Fr Al Backmann, of Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church in Columbia Heights, Minnesota. Great preaching!!! 

In today’s gospel, John the Baptist says, “Look, there is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” And everybody looked.

Now that phrase is familiar to us, but can you imagine what those people must have thought when John said, “Look, there is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” We hear that phrase all of the time, but for those people it must have been somewhat shocking. Here John was referring to Jesus as a lamb, as an animal. John didn’t say, “Look, here comes the son of Mary and Joseph,” or “Look, here comes Jesus, the Son of God.” Instead he says, “Look, here comes the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.”

I would like to share with you some background about the term “Lamb of God.” In the Second Book of Samuel, Nathan tells a story to David. He says there are two men who are citizens of the same town. One was rich and powerful; the other was very poor. The rich man had a large flock of sheep, more than he could even count; the poor man had only one – one tiny lamb.

But the poor man’s children loved that one little lamb; they played with it all day long, and they even brought it to the table to share their food with the lamb. Nathan says they even taught the lamb to drink from a cup. The lamb was like a member of the family. One day an important visitor came along to the rich man’s house. The rich man didn’t want to kill his own lamb to feed the guest, so he sent his servants to the poor man’s house and took his lamb and slaughtered it to feed the guest. That’s all in the book of Samuel. It’s a marvellous story.

The moving story of the rich man’s cruelty is one of the images John the Baptist had in mind when he said, “Look, there is the Lamb of God.” Nathan’s story of the poor man’s pet lamb fits Jesus. Jesus too was deeply loved; Jesus too was cruelly slain.

There was another image in John’s mind when he pointed to Jesus and said, “Look, there is the Lamb of God.” That is the image of the lambs that were sacrificed in the Temple, the lambs that were daily sacrificial offerings. They were the same sacrifices that God told Moses in the Book of Exodus were, every day for all time, to be sacrificed on the altar: two one-year-old, unblemished lambs, one in the morning and one in the evening. And these daily sacrifices were kept all through the years. When John the Baptist points to Jesus and says, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,” he had in mind the sacrificial lambs that were offered in the morning and in the evening. In effect what John was saying to his disciples is, “We offer lambs daily in the temple for our sins, but ‘this lamb’ is the only one who can save us from sin.”

Now long before John the Baptist, the prophets spoke of a mysterious servant of God who would some day suffer and die like a lamb. That was 600 years before Christ. Chapter 53 of Isaiah says, “..He was treated harshly, but endured it humbly.  Like a lamb about to be slaughtered, he never said a word.” He was arrested and sentenced so that all sins would die. He was put to death for the sins of all people.

In the book of Jeremiah it says, “I was like a trusting lamb taken out to be killed. I did not know it was against me that they were planning evil things.” And so the Lamb of God has these two vivid images: The first one, about Nathan’s story of the rich man and the poor man – and the second one, about the temple and the suffering servant of God.

Now I want to relate the image that has the most importance for us, and yet most of us are not aware of it. It is in the Book of Revelation. Do you know the words “Lamb of God” are used 28 times in the Book of Revelation? Sometimes it is about love and affection – sometimes it is about suffering and sacrifice. Those were the two early images. But there is a third image that I want to talk about that is most important for us, and that image is of “Glory and Triumph.” Chapter 5 in the Book of Revelation is a good example of where the author describes his vision of a lamb on a throne, and the lamb is surrounded by people who were singing and praising the lamb with this song, “You were killed and by your blood you ransomed all people for God from every tribe, and language, and people and nation.” People are around the throne. He is called the Lamb of God. And they are singing to the Lamb of God. And they are singing what we sing.

You know, the reason we call the Mass a sacrifice is because of the “Lamb of God.” The Lamb of God was sacrificed. So when people ask if the Mass is a sacrifice or a banquet meal, the answer is “it is both.” It is a sacrifice because of the Lamb of God. He died for us. But we forget that the better theology and the fuller theology is that he rose! And the fuller theology of the Eucharist is to celebrate. But we were taught only the other one. We weren’t taught much about this tremendous celebration of the Lamb of God who rose. And it says right in the Scriptures, “To him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honour and glory and might for ever and ever! And all the people said, Amen.”

That is in the book of Revelation, but we seem to emphasize more the penitential nature of sacrifice. So people have a tendency, even today, when receiving the Eucharist to omit the other side of sacrifice, the celebration. This is the time to ‘let loose’ from the revelation. Do you know that those words we sing, “Through him, with him, and in him,” are about the same as in Revelation? And then we all respond, “Amen!” That is called the “great Amen.” Amen means “we believe.” And that should always be our response to the doxology—through him, with him and in him. And they all said, “Amen.”

The title “Lamb of God” then, has three images. Suffering and sacrifice – affection and love – glory and praise. Now there are many titles for Jesus: light of the world – the good shepherd – the bread of life, but only one time in the Mass is He the Lamb of God. That’s what we share in the Eucharist. Yes, it is a sacrifice, but don’t leave it there. He rose! We have the book of Revelation, and so we celebrate. It says, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honour and glory and praise.” And every creature on earth, and under the earth, and in the sea said, “Amen.”

So don’t lose track of the dual meaning. When we say, “This is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world,” that is the sacrifice part; “Happy are those who are called to his supper” is the banquet part of the Eucharist.

Consider the words, “who takes away the sins of the world.” Christ died for our sins. It was the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross that removed our sins. On the cross, God piled all of human sinfulness on his only begotten son, in the image of the Lamb, weak and vulnerable. It took only a handful of soldiers and a few sharp nails to kill him. And yet, at the very moment that humankind dumped its worst sin on God by killing the very Son of God, God met that sin with the overpowering spirit of His love.

There is only one power in the universe that is more powerful than sin, and that is God’s power and determination to forgive. In the end, John tells us in the Book of Revelation that, when all of the world’s sin has been removed for all eternity, there stands one solitary victor in the midst of the throne room of God – and that is “the Lamb, Jesus Christ.” In the end, it is the Lamb who is victorious – worthy of glory and honour and praise. And we are reminded of this every time we celebrate the Eucharist. We hold the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ and gaze upon the elements and say those memorable words, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world.” And all the people say, “Amen.”

Language of Kingship?

This is an edited excerpt from Kimberlee Conway Ireton's book, The Circle of Seasons: Meeting God in the Church Year. 

Last Sunday - the last of the church year - celebrated the Kingship of Christ. As we end the year, it is only fitting to celebrate the eschatological reality that Christ will come again, in power and glory, to reign over all the earth. 

I understand that many people cringe at this language of kingship, perhaps because of its connotations of dominance, hierarchy, and colonialism. And I sympathize. Even the best of our earthly kings is fallen, and too many of them have been power hungry tyrants. 

But when I look at the kind of king Jesus was, I see the courageous and loving leader that every earthly ruler should aspire to, and it makes me long for such a king, a King who would come among his subjects to live as one of them and then allow them to execute him rather than calling on the power at his disposal. In Jesus, there was not a particle of dominance, nor hierarchy, nor colonialism. Only love, deep and wide and poured out in life and death. 

On the feast of Christ the King, we celebrate the day when Christ’s great love will be fully realized on earth, the day when our King will return. He will right all wrongs. He will judge the living and the dead. He will bind up the broken hearted. He will give sight to the blind. He will heal the lame. He will set the prisoners free. He will establish justice once and for all, justice tempered with mercy so that all life might flourish under his reign. 

Can I just say: I can hardly wait for that day! I long for that coming, for an end to all that is wrong with the world—all that is wrong with me—and the restoration of all things, all people, all relationships. I long for Jesus to gather all things to Himself, things in Heaven and things on earth and transform them—us!—into the vision He had for us from the beginning of time. I long for this great eucatastrophe. No more sin, no more sickness, no more suffering, no more slavery or exploitation or pain. Only goodness and glory so grand it’s beyond all I can ask or imagine. 

It is this victorious Second Coming that we celebrate on the final Sunday of the church year, a liturgical entering into the eschatological reality of Christ’s return. 

And so we come full circle. We end the church year proclaiming and celebrating the now of Christ’s coming even as we live in the not-yet of waiting for Him to come. Next week, a new church year begins, and we will circle into Advent again, living into our longing for God to come to us, crying with generations of God’s people: Come, Lord Jesus!