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Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, October 11th 2008... Preached at the Walsingham
Proto-Shrine Festival at + In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen I…
I am not going to stand here and rehearse for
you the history of this feast. As important as Walsingham is to
our Anglo-Catholic tradition, it would be as they say, "preaching
to the choir". I think if you are here for this feast on a
Saturday in October you already know its history and importance
to our Anglican heritage. Neither do I feel a homiletical call to
speak to you in proofs texts from Holy Scripture, nor of some sweet
spiritual 'by & by' notion of the Holy House of Nazareth, seen
by Lady Richeldis, now being built in our hearts. I may wear lace
on my cotta, but my style is not saccharine and lace! (Although
some might call it vinegar and lace!) And as tempted as I was, I
decided not to preach on Confession. Oh, I could. The old Anglo-Catholic
priests that raised me said; you can always find a way to preach
on Confession. For example on Palm Sunday- Father said "Palms
come from trees, trees are made of wood; Confessionals are made
of wood, this sermon's about Confession". Or even on Christmas-
"St. Joseph was a carpenter, Carpenters work with wood; Confessionals
are built of wood, this sermon's about Confession". And easily
for Walsingham- "the Holy House was made of wood, Confessionals
are made of wood"…well you get the idea. But that old
priestly advice led me to think that in the present situation and
climate of The Episcopal Church, what we all need & seem to
be lacking is real teaching & real knowledge of Christian Doctrine.
Just what are the beliefs of our Church? Many seem confused, even
those in high places who use titles like "The Most Reverend". II…
Well I hit the ceiling like a thurible released
from its chains and immediately typed off a short response to the
Cathedral priest who wrote the article. I think it ended up 2 pages;
I'm sure more than he wanted to hear. So instead of preaching on
the Doctrine of the Sacrament of Holy Penance, I propose to you
that we seek to understand what the Catholic Faith teaches about
Our Lady's Conception and Death. For they really are essential in
resolving the chaos of our present situation in The Episcopal Church.
First then, her Immaculate Conception. This doctrine teaches quite
simply that at the moment of her conception, which was a normal
human conception, God preserved or removed from Our lady's soul
the stain of Original Sin. Now there are 2 reasons why this is essential
for Catholic Christians. But first let me say that it does not,
as the priest in the cathedral newsletter claimed, make her less
than fully human. Think of it for a moment. Even our Lord was fully
human and He was conceived by the Holy Ghost. That doctrine we call
the Incarnation. And let's not pretend by celebrating only her Conception
and not her Immaculate Conception on Dec. 8th. I've seen this in
several parishes which is redundant, because if it was not immaculate,
there is no point of celebrating it at all. This misunderstanding
should not surprise us. A recent survey showed that 65% of Roman
Catholics thought the Immaculate Conception referred to Jesus' conception,
not Our Lady's. III…
So why do I say this is essential to our beliefs
as Catholics? First, and this is so apropos of today's Episcopal
Church, because the Immaculate Conception preserves the very balance
of Creation God intended from the beginning, with the creation of
Adam and Eve. They were created without original sin. They had free
will, but it was not yet corrupted by evil. So for God to undo what
the first Adam & Eve brought upon us, the sin of rebelling against
His Will, He planned salvation to be reflective of the first creation;
it would again balance the male and female. No Adam & Steve
in this plan. In the first creation he started with the male, now
in salvation's plan he starts with the female, who would undo what
Eve would bare, children of Original Sin. Now a new woman would
bare the Eternal & Living Word, the second person of the Blessed
Trinity. So the plan is a reflection, as the first Adam brings forth
the first Eve, so the New Eve bares the Second Adam. Are you beginning
to see why we as Catholics cannot go along with the changes they
propose for the Sacrament of Holy Matrimony? It would cease to be
reflective not only of creation, but of our Salvation in Jesus.
He is born of a woman. He is conceived without Original Sin being
present. He can and does correct the Fall. He is also espoused to
a woman. His bride is the Church, who is freed from Original Sin
by Baptism. And so His Mother is ours, Mother of the Church. This
doctrine is also essential for it has to do with Holy Baptism and
even our current fight over the necessity of baptism to receive
Holy Communion. St. Paul adheres to the holiness code of the Old
Testament, that the unholy may not touch the holy without first
being made holy. You can see this in the Old Testament, when the
unholy try to touch the Ark they are zapped dead. St. Paul teaches
the same about the Holy Eucharist. In First Corinthians he even
says- "that is why some of you are sick and dying". We
first need to be made holy. Baptism does that for us because it
takes away the stain of Original Sin. As this applies to the Doctrine
of the Immaculate Conception, God first made Holy, Pure and free
from Original Sin the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary in order to
receive the Holy, Eternal Word. Otherwise the Incarnation would
have utterly destroyed Our Lady when the Holy Spirit conceived the
Son of God in her womb. That feast we call the Annunciation. It
was a nun, who some 40 years ago, first explained to me that the
Immaculate Conception was quite simple: God did for the Blessed
Virgin Mary at the moment of her conception, what he does for each
of us at the moment of our Baptism. And as Our Lady needed that
particular & singular grace to receive the Incarnate Lord into
her womb, so we need that same grace of Holy Baptism to receive
Our Lord in the Holy Eucharist. +In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit... Amen For complete copy of Homily Download PDF |