Thought for the week - All Saints Day

Some time ago, there was a meeting looking at regularising the rites of deliverance in the Church of England. As most of you will guess, I was at the meeting. I was reasonably quiet, because I had successfully argued for ‘other occasional texts as may be needed’ to be inserted into the Canon, and indeed, ‘Other Occasional Texts’ pretty much sums up the entire liturgy by which I live and minister. At one point, the insurance company were saying that we would be unable to practice deliverance ministry with those under the age of 18, and I kept quieter yet, thinking ‘I hope that nobody mentions that the Rite of Baptism which we all use contains an exorcism’. It’s a little one, but babies are generally little, so it is felt to be sufficient, and you may well have missed it – but just after the oil of Catechumens is applied to the head of the candidate and before the water is blessed and exorcised, the candidate is as well. Life starts – true life in Christ starts – as we may wish it to continue.

During the ordination rite of a priest, the bishop hands him a paten and a chalice, saying, ‘Accept from the holy people of God the gifts to be offered to him. Know what you are doing, and imitate the mystery you celebrate; model your life on the mystery of the Lord’s Cross.’ Knowing what you are doing presupposes knowing who you are—and we are all of us part of the Body of Christ, blessed, consecrated, Chrismated, exorcised and set free. Know what you are doing, that is, know who and what you are, and therefore keep focussed on those things which will deepen our knowledge of God in us, of Emmanuel, God with and within us. The whole of the crib which we will soon erect in the Actors' Chapel is contained within us, an Incarnation in Body and Blood, the co-redemptive power of Mary, the faith of Joseph and indeed the waste of the animals, all that makes for Saints, and all that makes for Sinners. In small matters, not knowing what we are doing might be comical or annoying, but in graver matters it could prove dangerous. Mistaking a minefield for a picnic ground is not generally a good idea. But not knowing who we are is a greater mistake by far. Not recognising the mark of Christ within us and obscuring it by living the lie of self-importance, egotism and self-reliance puts ‘me’ before ‘Him’, and Saints are marked by God within them.

On a larger scale, if the Church did not realise what she is doing, she might think she is in the business of facilitating meetings, of proffering biscuits and pouring tea and fixing pointing and slates, but these things do not make us Saints. But really and truly, she is at war:

‘For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places’ (Ephesians 6:12).

This is not something we are about to face; this is what we are already in the midst of doing—waging war—whether we like it or not. Here we are, and here with Christ we stand, knowing that our power and authority is His, given to His holy church to cleanse and redeem and sanctify, literally, to ‘make Saintly’.

We are at war, and it’s a disaster when we don’t realise it. People seek God in the Church and so often they find compromise, sandwiches, poor quality coffee, fundraising, rotas – anything, in fact, other than clear Biblical truth and encounter with God and an encouragement to live authentic lives of discipleship – to become, in fact, Saints. This is not to say that the other things do not matter, they do. We have to do many things, including wearing clothes and blowing our noses, but nobody became saved because they did so. Let us love people and each other enough to tell them the truth, and to live justly and righteously. If the Church forgets who she is, then she fails to believe sufficiently. Then we would have a travesty of mercy: if sin be no longer sin, why would we need mercy?

We, the Church Militant, need the prayers of the Church Triumphant as we wage this war against darkness: a war of love over fear, of life over death, of grace over sin. Know what you are doing but know first who you are, and thank God for those who have gone before us.

Who are we? I think that each of us discovers that to which Jesus Christ beckons us. It’s to be born. Our identities as people go from one birth to another. And from each birth to birth we’ll end up bringing to the world the child of God that we are. The Incarnation, for us, is to allow the reality of Jesus to embody itself in our humanity. The mystery of the Incarnation remains what we are going to live. We celebrate the vast throng of saints today, each utterly different; each completely themselves by being one in Christ. Know that you are to be one of them.