1980CHRISTMAS IN MY LONDON DAYS. THE PASCUAL
SERMON OF THE ARCHIBISHOP OF CANTERBURY. HOW I MET HIM WHEN HE WAS A
NORMAL PRIEST ATTENDING A LONDON CONGREGATION AT EMPTY CHURCH.
Antonio
Parra
Sadness
and drabness empty streets with echo of cheering bells. I remember
one Christmas Eve in Saint Chads Parish South Kensington. The
Anglican priest officiated for a congregation of two people an old
lady with hat the prayer book in her hands and myself. Congregations
those days like now were scarce. Nearby the shop of Harrods was full
to the brim.
Él vino a los suyos
y los suyos no le recibieron, says John in the last evangel. The
priest wore a cassock of Henry the VIII days but the cannon was
intact. Te igitur clementissime pater but the magnificent Latin
translated to archaic English words and there he was with alba and
the maniple and the cincture of chastity. That evening it was a cold
day and a grey light dropping tears of rain went through the gothic
windowpane words and benedictions only for the old lady and me.
He
wore the red ornaments of the martyrs. It was saint Thomas Becket
day. There I found that the church is eternal. Although empty. The
solitude of Christ confirms that part of the great mystery.
The
priest let me sing the epistyle from the rostrum and my voice
resounded in the empty aisles with the recite of the Gospel of
Nativity.
In
those magic words (prasepium, no room for them in the inn) were
concealed the mysteries of incarnation. In mundo erat et mundum per
ipsum factum est et mundus eum non cognovit. In propia venit et sui
eum non receperunt. Quodquod autem receperumt eum dedit eis
potestatem filios Dei fieri, his qui credunt in Nomine ejus qui non
ex sanguine neque ex voluntate carnis neque ex voluntate viri sed ex
Deo nati sunt (genuflexion)
High
theology in a few phrases. I felt the joy and the sadness of
Christianity. It reminded me of my own life and my own sins. Faith is
to believe in something that we never saw or have seen.
I
was looking for my daughter Helen and I found her but my in laws and
my ex did not want to receive me. The sons of the spirit are higher
that the sons of the flesh. In propia venit et sui autem non
receperunt. I came to my people and I found the doors of the inn
complete closed. No body answered my calls like the poor family of
Nazareth. No place for me poor sinner in the diversorium. No room no
inn. That was also part of the mystery of my Xmas Days. The rules of
the blood are different from the rule of the Holy Spirit. That was
the reason. That was the key. Christmas usually is sad melancholy
day. Because of that. We are sons and daughters of God no sons and
daughters of the blood and flesh.
What
I did was to pray for my little one. She was a tug of war child. And
also I pray for my ex. She had undergone an operation to extirpate a
cancer from her throat. She came well and now she lives in Cornwall a
retired old lady like the one who attended Mass with me at that
Christmas Eve many a year ago, 35 years have gone. I am still trying
to contact them. But still all I have is rebuke. No. No. Still I pray
God asking to keep them well. Great sins have I ought committed to
deserve such an ill treatment. A father who is denied access to his
daughter. That is no a human right? We live in the age of paradox.
My
daughter is a neonatal nurse. Works as a matron in a London hospital.
My ex an school master lives in retirement. Still there is the
sadness, the joy of the nativity of out Lord and the melancholy of
the evening London light coming through the altar where that priest
with an air of boredom and tiredness consecrated the body and the
blood of Christ. That young parson later on became the actual
Archbishop of Canterbury.
Hoc
est enim corpus meum.
In
a way that Anglican presbyter fascinated me by his parsimony he has a
vivid stare and eyebrows like an owl and I always was very interested
by the Church of Canterbury. Great archbishops men of learning and
prayer occupied the See created by saint Austin an occupied by St.
Thomas Beckett. Canterbury always has had an independent leaning
toward the secular power.
Politically
the head of the Church of England is the Queen by the spiritual power
lays on the primate of Canterbury and also in the See of York. I
remember Dr Runcie and Ramsey and also Dr. Fisher. They called him
the Red Archbishop only because he tried to establish a pact of no
aggression with Russia.
Nowadays
the actual successor of Saint Austin has criticized vividly the usury
and lack of sensibility of Capitalism towards the underdog and the
ones in need, those who bear the crunch of the big crisis. Christ is
true has spoken through the mouth of His eminence. Dr Cowan is gaunt
big and lean man highbrows that make him look like an owl.
His
homilies and sermons need to be taken in consideration by a
materialistic society. And hit the first pages of the tabloids, He is
a great theologian. And also a reflection; while Rome according to
its tradition always alleged with the powerful of this earth other
churches try to preserver the real tenets of the Gospel. Spiritus ubi
vult expirat and Dr Rowan Cowan has spoken in the line of the real
ecumenism. God bless him.
Today
I have officiated with him as a deacon the great mass of the nativity
in the solitude of my room. He came to his own and he was not well
received by them. Why? Because he proclaimed the Truth.
Thursday, 25
December 2008