Yesterday I conducted my first two weddings, not that I told them that until it was all over!
As I prepared for these last week I was struck by the privilege of being able to preside at such joyous occasions, the beauty of the language and how marriage stands as an enduring sign of faith, hope and love.
In stark contrast none of us could open our newspapers this week without having been struck by the grief of families affected by war, the spread of swine ‘flu and the latest figures on the state of our public finances.
It’s hard to know where these two realities meet and one wonders whether they can both be true at the same time? In my wedding preparations, however, I found a prayer that seemed to address this very question and which offers marriage as a sign to the world;
Almighty God, in whom we live and move and have our being,
look graciously upon the world which you have made
and for which your Son gave his life,
and especially on all whom you make to be one flesh in holy marriage.
May their lives together be a sign of your love to this broken world,
so that unity may overcome estrangement,
forgiveness heal guilt,
and joy overcome despair;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
Corpus Christi
This last week the Church celebrated ‘Corpus Christi’, a day of thanksgiving for Holy Communion. As I approach presiding at my own first Mass, it is a sacrament that I have been reflecting on much recently.
Down the centuries, the Church of England has not wanted to restrict believers to one interpretation. Indeed, our differing words for the sacrament witnesses to its richness of meaning. For some it is the ‘Lord’s Supper’- a memorial of Jesus’ Last Supper with the disciples, for others it is ‘Holy Communion’- a place where we meet God in a very special way, others use the term ‘Eucharist’- a word that comes from the Greek for thanksgiving and still others use the Word ‘Mass’- from the Latin words at the end of the service which sends us out into the world.
In a typically diplomatic observation Elizabeth I famously said, “His was the word that spake it, He took the bread and brake it; and what His word doth make it, that I do believe and take it.” In many ways each of these understandings have something to offer us as we hear of Christ’s actions of taking bread, blessing it, breaking it and giving it to his disciples.
Like me, you too may have had moments at the altar rail that have been particularly powerful yet which you struggle to define. And so, as we mark Corpus Christi, I would not worry too much about exact definitions but would commend to you the advice of Cyril of Jerusalem (c.350AD) who encouraged communicants to, “Make your left hand as a throne for your right hand, as you prepare to receive a King.”
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