After a 6 month absence, I think I have become organized enough to be able to commit myself to writing at least one per week. But first, I wish to share with you what amounts to a book, called Making the People of God.” In origin this was a series of weekly inserts into the Parish Program. It was made available for other parishes, with a sugggested price of $100/month plus $0.25 per copy printed (even though I would make it available for less or even for free.) It begins with Dom Gregory Dix’s great qoute from The Shape of the Liturgy, “Was ever such a command . . .”
The purpose of the writing is to give a different view of the history contained in the Bible, to show how we arrived at where we are now. As I re-post these now, I will rewrite them somewhat — and look for comments. The first one, however, will follow and will be unchanged.
Blessings, Perren
Making the People of God
The Holy Eucharist
Was ever another command so obeyed? For century after century, spreading slowly to every continent and among every race on earth, this action has been done, in every conceivable human experience, for every conceivable human need from and before it to extreme old age and after it, from the pinnacles of earthly greatness to the refuge of fugitives in the caves and dens of the earth. Humans have found no better thing than this to do for kings at their crowning and for criminals going to the scaffold; for armies in triumph or for a bride and groom in a little country church; for the proclamation of a dogma or for a good crop of wheat; for the wisdom of the parliament of a mighty nation or for a sick old woman afraid to die; for a schoolboy sitting an examination or for Columbus setting out to discover America; for the famine of whole provinces or for the soul of a dead lover; in thankfulness because my father did not die of pneumonia; for a village headman much tempted to return to fetich because the yams had failed; because the Turk was at the gates of Vienna; for the repentance of Margaret; for the settlement of a strike; for a son for a barren woman; for Captain so-and-so, wounded and prisoner of war; while the lions roared in the nearby amphitheater; on the beach at Dunkirk; while the hiss of scythes in the thick June grass came faintly through the windows of the church; tremulously, by an old monk on the fiftieth anniversary of his vows; furtively, by an exiled bishop who had hewn timber all day in a prison camp near Murmansk; gorgeously, for the canonization of S. Joan of Arc – one could fill many pages with reasons why we have done this, and not tell a hundredth part of them. And best of all, week by week and month by month, on a hundred thousand successive Sundays, faithfully, unfailingly, across all the parishes of christendom, the pastors have done this just to make the plebs sancta Dei – the holy common people of God.” The Shape of the Liturgy, Dom Gregory Dix. Page 744, fourth impression 1949As one looks backward through the 2000 year history of christianity, there are two things which strike the mind.
First, that there in fact should be a christianity at all. That a young Jewish man could teach of the kingdom of God, be found guilty on a political charge, be publicly executed, have his small band of associates scattered, and still leave behind him a faith structure that endures to this present moment is in deed a miracle. Yet, unlike the others who thought they had a messianic calling to redeem Israel from the hated enemy, at his death those who surrounded Jesus did not disband. Disheartened, disoriented and discouraged, they saw their dead leader alive. The fact of the Resurrection transformed this motley group into leaders who began a process that has profoundly affected the course of human history. That process has enriched the lived of countless multitudes. That we have just concluded – hopefully – a joint effort of a number of nations in which another nation was not permitted to persecute and destroy another group, is a reflection of the impact of the Resurrection. From the Resurrection flows, ultimately, the love of God, who has created all persons equal. It is not just a “religious” truth that one talks about but does not expect to see in fact: it has become of the warp and woof of our civilization. (Even those who find it amazing that one could conceive of using bombs to create peace have to admit that at least the ultimate goal flows from the love of God.) From the cross flows the beginnings of the real New Age. All humans can be freed from those demons that plague their lives. Those societal mores, those judgmental hypocrites, those breakers of spirit, those destroyers of creativity, those forces of conformity,, and the rest of them: have been defeated by the power of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus. Humans are entitled to freedom and love and respect.
The Resurrection ensures the victory of God, the love of humanity.
Equally amazing is the nature of those who brought this victory to our world. Starting with fisher-folk and some unattached women, no one of any correct’ background – indeed, even Jesus himself comes from the wrong side of the tracks, so to speak. No great victor such as Alexander the Great or William the Conqueror made others conform to the message of the Loving Creator-God. All were asked to use their own skills and abilities to look at the history of God and see for themselves: they were to be partners with God. Raised up by God, they are invited – indeed, welcomed – into a fellowship of love and family where “force is not of God.” At the very heart of the Resurrection experience (as Luke shows it on the road to Emmaus) is the eucharistic action. So simple, utterly simple. Take, bless, break and give bread; take, bless and give a cup of wine: thus did this young Jewish man with his friends on the night before his death. He told them that this was to be done for the anamnesis of him – for his recalling. And so it has been from the very beginning: the Eucharist.
Dom Gregory writes another paragraph that fits in here:
“To those who know a little of Christian history probably the most moving of all the reflections it brings is not the thought of the great events and the well-remembered saints, but of those innumerable millions of entirely obscure faithful men and women, every one with his or her own individual hopes and fears and joys and sorrows and loves – and sins and temptations and prayers – once every whit as vivid and alive as mine are now. They have left no slightest trace in this world, not even a name, but have passed to God utterly forgotten by humans. Yet each of them once believed and prayed as I believe and pray, and found it hard and grew slack and sinned and repented and fell again. Each of them worshipped at the eucharist, and found their thoughts wandering and tried again, and felt heavy and unresponsive and yet knew – just as really and pathetically as I do these things. There is a little ill-spelled rustic epitaph of the fourth century from Asia Minor: – “Here sleeps the blessed Chione, who has found Jerusalem for she prayed much.” Not another word is known of Chione, some peasant woman who lived in that vanished world of Christian Anatolia. But how lovely if all that should survive after sixteen centuries were that one had prayed much, so that the neighbors who saw all one’s life were sure one must have found Jerusalem! What did the Sunday Eucharist in her village church every week for a life-time mean to the blessed Chione – and to the millions like her then, and every year since? The sheer stupendous quantity of the love of God which this ever repeated action [eucharist] has drawn from the obscure Christian multitudes through the centuries is in itself an overwhelming thought. (All that going with one to the altar each morning!) The Shape of the Liturgy, Dom Gregory Dix. Page 745, fourth impression 1949It is this mystery that has brought us here to our parish church. It is this mystery which we shall leave as our heritage to those who follow us. It is this mystery that is the subject of this Eastertide series of The Skeptic for this spring. I originally prepared this for another congregation. I hope you will enjoy it and find that it feeds your faith.
E. Perren Hayes
