The Feast of Pentecost

The outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit, long promised and hinted at in the Scriptures, finally came to pass in most dramatic fashion on the day we have come to know as Pentecost. A mighty wind shook the house in which the disciples were gathered – a symbol of God’s power and strength – followed by tongues of fire coming to rest on the heads of each one of them. God was being true to his promise, the Church was born, and the story of Christ would now be taken to the peoples of the earth. A remarkable and marvellous part of that sequence of events was the fact that those pilgrims, present in Jerusalem from every part of the known world, could hear the Apostles speaking to them of God’s wonders in their own language. The disunity brought about by the many languages resulting from the sin of the Tower of Babel was now being reversed. We learn that the Spirit is the source of oneness, of unity among peoples.

For all its fragility, even sinfulness in its members, the Church spread throughout the world, yet one in faith, hope and charity, offers us a vision of God’s plan for the human race. Through the work of the Holy Spirit, the Church draws together men and women of every language, race and land and creates them as one in Christ.

While he was on earth Christ spoke often of the One who would come after him, who would be with the apostles and disciples as a friend and comforter. He is called the Paraclete, the One who defends us and leads us into the full truth of all that Jesus said and did. Christ loved his own too much, and us as well, to abandon us and leave us like orphans. In future, he would be with us in a different but no less real way, through the presence of the Holy Spirit.

We rightly rejoice on today’s feast, often called ‘the birthday of the Church’. The coming of the Holy Spirit brings Christ’s work of redemption to completion, and God’s message of salvation is now freely offered to Jew and Gentile, slave or free, without exception. As the Holy Spirit rested, flame-like, over the head of each disciple, so on this Pentecost Sunday we pray that the same Spirit will once more refresh and renew the Church, and descend gently upon each one of us. Come, Holy Spirit!

+Michael Campbell OSA
Bishop of Lancaster

(from the Diocesan website)

Seventh Sunday after Easter – Feast of the Ascension

With the feast of the Ascension the Church marks the final appearance of the risen Lord to his disciples. From now on his presence would be of an entirely different order. The work of the apostles and disciples was now beginning, a work that would need the power and inspiration of the Holy Spirit to give it impetus and sustain it in the course of history. When we try to picture the Ascension our powers of imagination fail us. Even the New Testament writers, such as Luke, were consciously aware that the Ascension, together with the Resurrection, belongs to that category which is ultimately indescribable. What they did proclaim, however, was the solid
truth that Christ had now taken his place in heaven with his Father, that he commissioned his apostles to be bearers of his gospel, and that he would one day return again in glory to judge the living and the dead.
Through his resurrection and Ascension Christ is Lord of the whole universe, and his full identity as Son of God has become manifest. He has left us in his body so as to be with each believer in any part of the world. No longer is Christ confined to Palestine and Galilee, but is present to his Church in every part of the world. The redemption which he has gained for us is ours through our faith in him as the crucified and risen One. It is the task of the Church to mediate that salvation to each generation. When we encounter that salvation through the sacraments and other means, we are encountering Christ himself. He has passed beyond our sight, but remains very much with us!

+Michael Campbell OSA
Bishop of Lancaster

(from the Diocesan website)

Sixth Sunday of Easter 2009

John the Evangelist has a rare gift for expressing profound religious truths in simple language, as is evident in today’s gospel passage. The setting is the Last Supper room where the Lord Jesus is sharing intimate moments with his apostles just before his arrest, passion and death. His words represent something of a final testament and hence all the more precious for that. Love, joy, friends are words which frame Christ’s farewell discourse. The unique love which he enjoys from eternity as the Father’s only Son is nevertheless a love which he wants his disciples to know and experience. In theological terms, Jesus is referring to the mystery of the Holy Trinity, which is love itself. That love far surpasses all human love; it is a divine love, of which we believers are privileged to be part. Words are inadequate to describe the mystery of God’s love which Jesus came to reveal to us. In the midst of the difficulties and tribulations of life we can often forget the joy which is so characteristic of the message of Christ. Here he speaks explicitly of his desire to see his disciples’ joy reach full completion. By his cross and resurrection he would defeat the ancient enemies of sin and death. In all that lay ahead of them they were to be joyful in heart, because their master’s victory would be theirs as well. In the complex world of the twenty-first century where we find ourselves we can feel overwhelmed by the pace of change and technological progress. The recent economic and financial setbacks can engender a sense of pessimism, even foreboding where the future is concerned. At such moments we need to ponder and cherish those words of Jesus, that he wants us to be filled with the joy he gives, a joy that is complete. Theologians speak of the mystery of God’s revelation, of how Jesus Christ brings us truths about God we could not otherwise know. The Lord in our gospel expresses this to his disciples in another way: we have now passed from being servants or slaves to an entirely new relationship with the Son of God. We have become his friends. And he has let his friends into the secrets of heaven! This is the wonder of the Christian faith which springs from the incarnation of God’s Son, speaking to us of divine things in language we are able understand. However, and here lies the challenge, our friendship with Jesus implies that we be friends with one another. In the Lord’s own words, Love one another as I have loved you. It’s a humbling thought to realise that there can be no love of God worthy of the name without an equal love for our neighbour.

+Michael Campbell OSA
Bishop of Lancaster

(from the Diocesan website)

Fifth Sunday of Easter

During these days of Eastertide the Lord’s words to us in the gospel seem to ring out with ever greater clarity. The liturgy of this season makes us particularly aware that Christ has risen, never to die again, and that through the ministry of the Church we believers become sharers in that new and divine life he now enjoys. In fact, the Church’s only lifeline is her union with her glorified Lord. Christ’s use of the image of the vine and the branches makes the point in a very striking way. Just as the vine provides the sap and the nourishment for the branch to blossom and bear grapes, so the source of life and fruitfulness for the Church is Christ himself. If the Church ever loses sight of Christ, or seeks salvation and fulfilment apart from him, then like a branch severed from the trunk it withers and dies.

As she makes her way through history, the Church as the community of believers is often tempted to seek quick solutions to her difficulties according to the criteria and outlook of this world. Christ does guarantee success and reassurance, but not in this way. Openness to his word and teaching will alone ensure that the Church remains faithful to her mission of offering God’s grace and salvation to the world. The words of the Lord Jesus today come from the upper room on the eve of his passion and death. The disciples would face an uncertain future without his visible presence, yet he left them a programme which would help them negotiate the perils of rejection and persecution. It is a programme which remains valid for all time.

Jesus teaches us that like a vigilant vinedresser his heavenly Father is ever active in the Church, at work in the lives of believers. We need not fear that he is an absent God! The life which flows from Christ the vine is mediated to us through the sacraments, above all through the holy Eucharist which may well underlay the image of the vine. Union with Christ also brings union with the Father, that indwelling within the Church of the Father and the Son which is truly astounding when we think about it. When the word of Christ takes root within us then we have nothing to fear, and he himself comforts us with the assurance that our prayers to God will be heard. May the depth and manner of our Christian living always give glory to God our Father!

+Michael Campbell OSA
Bishop of Lancaster

(from the Diocesan website)

4th Sunday of Easter

The gospel of John today presents Jesus to us as the supremely good shepherd whose care and love for his flock knows no limits, even to the extent of laying down his life for them. The image of God the shepherd is a much favoured one in the pages of Sacred Scripture and conveys the close and tender bond that exists between God and his people. The public ministry of Jesus Christ and especially his passion and death gives to the shepherd image a new and definitive meaning. By surrendering his life freely on the cross the Lord Jesus revealed the depth of the divine love that he has for us. He was not compelled to die, but of his own accord died so as to bring into unity all God’s scattered children. Through his death and resurrection not only did he prove himself shepherd of Israel; all the nations of the earth became his flock. In his own words there is to be just one flock and one shepherd.

The liturgy of this Good Shepherd Sunday calls us to an ever deeper belief in Christ’s love for us. Nothing can be more reassuring or needed than to know that we are held securely in Christ’s loving arms in a manner which passes human understanding. The First Letter of John assures us that this love is a pledge of that wonderful and unspeakable future which God has in store for us his children. This hope is part of the blessing of Easter peace. Christ mediates all these blessings to us through his Church, and in a particular way through those who minister in his name and share in his office of shepherd: bishops, priests and deacons. Good Shepherd Sunday has now become a traditional day of prayer for vocations to the priesthood, and the Pope always writes a letter for the occasion. We must never tire or underestimate the power of our prayer for vocations. The gospels teach us that prayer can move mountains, provided we have sufficient faith.

The ultimate source of priestly vocations is the Good Shepherd, Christ himself, and we must believe that he will ensure a sufficient supply of other shepherds to feed his people in his name. Yet humanly speaking vocations are the task of all of us, through prayer, encouragement and example. Our young people need encouragement, but also the generosity of parents and family to nurture and sustain a priestly vocation. Let none of us be found wanting in this regard and the Lord will indeed complete our often faltering efforts. The harvest is great but the labourers are few. So pray to the Lord of the harvest that he may send labourers into his harvest…..

+Michael Campbell OSA
Bishop of Lancaster

(from the Diocesan website)

Third Sunday after Easter

The final words of the risen Christ in today’s gospel, taken from Luke, sum up the task he has left to his Church: to proclaim to the world that he lives, has triumphed over death, and is the Messiah long promised by God in the Holy Scriptures. The resurrection stories in all four gospels stress that Jesus Christ has in truth risen from the dead, the very same Jesus whom the apostles and disciples came to know and revere during his earthly ministry. The Church has been commissioned to witness to the powerful presence and divine reality of the risen Christ to each passing generation. Witness to him is the primary reason for her existence.

The astonishing presence of Christ in midst of his startled disciples, with his Easter message of peace, would transform Peter and his companions. The puzzle that was his life and especially his death now began to make sense, as he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures and to discern how the crucified and risen One was at the heart of God’s plan for the salvation of the human race. Peter and his friends would need time and the assistance of the Holy Spirit to appreciate fully the task which lay ahead of them. The extract from Peter’s early sermon in the Acts of the Apostles is eloquent proof of just how quickly he and the other disciples grew in the knowledge of Christ, the Saviour of the world.

The undertaking of the first generation of believers was one of massive proportions. Yet with what courage and conviction they embraced their mission from the risen Christ! Difficulties, setbacks, rejections, suffering and ultimately even martyrdom did not deter them. Their trials and tribulations can give us a sense of perspective as we strive to bear witness to Christ in our own time. They drew their inspiration from the abiding presence of the One who, with God’s power, proved victorious over sin and death. That same Christ calls us to believe and to trust in the truth of his gospel, for he has promised to be with the Church as long as time lasts.

Often what the Lord asks of us is quiet, unspectacular witness, the testimony of a good life which draws life from his word and sacraments, especially the holy Eucharist. He has told us that we are to be salt to the earth and light to the world. His gracious indwelling will ensure that our lives will be such, if we only cooperate with him.

+Michael Campbell OSA
Coadjutor Bishop of Lancaster

(from the Diocesan website)

Second Sunday after Easter

John the Evangelist has a marvellous gift for portraying an important biblical scene in a few chosen sentences. His description of the first Easter evening in the upper room is masterful and captures our attention at once. The frightened disciples were huddled behind closed doors, afraid that the same fate which cruelly overtook their Master would befall them as well. The fact that they had deserted Jesus in his hour of need would only have added to their misery and dejection. Into this precarious situation comes the risen Lord, and rather than upbraid them for their lack of courage his greeting was one of peace.

Such deeply moving words of peace signal, that with the resurrection of Jesus , a new era in God’s relationship with mankind has now arrived. Christ by his dying and rising has conquered sin and death, that twofold curse hanging over the human race since the original sin of Adam. As he showed them the wounds in his body the disciples realized that the One they had assumed to be dead was now alive, no longer imprisoned by the power of the grave. John tells us that the disciples were beside themselves with joy at the renewed and wholly unexpected presence of Jesus in their midst. In an instant their whole outlook had changed; despair now gave way to unbounded hope. Life would indeed henceforth be worth living.

That first group of disciples would be the nucleus of a new humanity because of the Spirit which the risen Christ breathed on them. Through the power of his death and resurrection peace and the forgiveness of sin would be forever available to those who believe. That little community in the upper room was the beginning of the new creation we know as the Church, the secure home here on earth which Jesus has founded for all of us. By sharing his Spirit with his disciples, Christ was ensuring that no human power would ever prevail against that Church. The abiding presence of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and Son, would guarantee that.

The gospel concludes with the experience of Thomas, who would not be convinced that the Lord had risen unless he himself saw and touched him personally. The Lord graciously acceded to Thomas’s request and proceeded to articulate the truth that those who have not seen him but believe are equally blessed. What a consoling truth! Our faith opens the door for the risen Lord to come into our lives in just as real a way as he appeared to Thomas the Apostle. May our faith this Eastertide in the presence of Jesus bring us an abundance of his peace.

+Michael Campbell OSA
Coadjutor Bishop of Lancaster

(from the Diocesan website)