Starlings, true to their nature, know their time to come to their feeding places and roosts. Jeremiah laments that God’s people are not true to their human nature, but turn away from their Creator and do not pick themselves up when they fall, nor do they turn about when they are on the wrong path. They come to believe their own lies.
Maybe Judas was believing his own lies? He must have had some way of justifying his approach to the authorities. Did they suspect his wrong-doing, exposing himself to their blackmailing, while trying to keep his plans ‘confidential’ from his Lord and his fellow disciples? Spy Wednesday this day was once called.
You shall say to them, Thus says the LORD: When men fall, do they not rise again? If one turns away, does he not return? Why then has this people turned away in perpetual backsliding? They hold fast to deceit; they refuse to return. I have paid attention and listened, but they have not spoken rightly; no man relents of his evil, saying, ‘What have I done?’ Everyone turns to his own course, like a horse plunging headlong into battle.
Even the stork in the heavens knows her times, and the turtledove, swallow, and crane the time of their coming, but my people know not the rules of the LORD.”
Jeremiah 8: 5-8.
It is all too easy to believe the stories I tell myself about my deeds or misdeeds, my mixed motives and thoughtlessness, my lack of reflection. Lord, give me the patience to take a few minutes of quiet at day’s end to consider the graces given, the graces ignored, and to remember that I am not here to ‘do it my way’ but your way.
Here is one of my favourite images from the book of Jeremiah, the Watchful Tree. It was saddening when, for no good reason, neighbours felled one that I could see from our front room window. We need our urban trees. This one is at Saint Mildred’s church, Canterbury and has been in blossom right through the winter.
And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see an almond branch.” Then the LORD said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.”Jeremiah 1:10-11, ESV.
A few words of encouragement for the beginning of Lent. The name for an almond tree in Hebrew is very like the word for watchful, and the almond tree is one of those that flower early in the spring before the leaves unfold, as we see here with a closely related winter-flowering cherry. There are always little messages, signs of the times, if we but open our eyes.
The Lord will watch over us and speak his word to us in the six weeks of Lent and beyond. Speak, Lord, your servant is listening!
We are almost in Lent and this year we’ll be reflecting on the book of Jeremiah the prophet. To get us started here are the opening verses. They make clear the determination of Jeremiah or his editors to tell the reader that all that follows happened in real time – measured by the reigns of successive Kings – and in real places. Today God calls us in real time – measured by Years of Our Lord, and in the real places where we find ourselves.
The words of Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah, of the priests that were in Anathoth in the land of Benjamin: To whom the word of the Lord came in the days of Josiah the son of Amon king of Judah, in the thirteenth year of his reign. It came also in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the end of the eleventh year of Zedekiah the son of Josiah king of Judah, unto the carrying away of Jerusalem captive in the fifth month.
Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Then said I, ‘Ah, Lord God! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child’.
But the Lord said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak. Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord.
Then the Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.
The life of a priest was comparatively secure, an inherited position with known, none too onerous duties (once he got accustomed to killing animals) and fresh food provided by the temple worshippers. But Middle Eastern politics was going to bring changes; Jeremiah’s reading of the signs of the times would incur the anger of Judean society. He had every reason to be afraid.
Let’s pray that we, in our here and now, may cast off fear this Lent and leave it behind when the season closes.
To an alehouse: met Mr. Pierce the surgeon, and Dr. Clerke, Waldron, Turberville my physician for the eyes, and Lowre, to dissect several eyes of sheep and oxen, with great pleasure and to my great information. But strange that this Turberville should be so great a man, and yet to this day had seen no eyes dissected, or but once, but desired this Dr. Lowre to give him the opportunity to see him dissect some. The Diary of Samuel Pepys.
Samuel Pepys had an orderly, enquiring mind, which helped him to excel as a senior civil servant in King Charles II’s Royal Navy, as well to compose his diary in code. It was a great sadness to him that in middle age he was losing his sight. He eventually gave up his diary as he did not wish to dictate it, nor to self censor.
Before that he tried to get a cure or some alleviation but that was not forthcoming. Here we find him eager for more, potentially useful knowledge from scientific investigation at an alehouse. Not many locals today would tolerate dissections alongside the dart board!
At the dawn of the scientific age, his optician, Dr Turberville, had not examined an eye in this way, and lacked the equipment that today makes the examination of the living eye so awesome. But as Sir Isaac Newton would put it, we are ‘standing on the shoulders of giants’, the giants who opened the way to the better understanding that might have saved Pepys’s sight.
Today is Candlemas, when we close the Christmas season with the story of the presentation of the infant Jesus to God in the Temple. This character is Simeon who proclaimed the little baby to be the Salvation his people had been waiting for: the truth sent from above, The truth of God, the God of love. See Luke 2:22;37.
Jesus now drops out of view for Luke, until the next episode in the Temple, when he was found amid the teachers. But he was learning how to trim wood, and how to choose words. This old carol, collected by Cecil Sharp a hundred years ago, is a good way to end the season and close my Christmas song!
1. This is the truth sent from above, The truth of God, the God of love; Therefore don’t turn me from your door, But hearken all, both rich and poor.
2. The first thing, which I do relate, That God at first did man create The next thing, which to you I tell, Woman was made with him to dwell.
3. Then after this, ‘twas God’s own choice To place them both in Paradise, There to remain from evil free Except they ate of such a tree.
4. But they did eat, which was a sin, And thus their ruin did begin; Ruined themselves, both you and me, And all of their posterity.
5. Thus we were heirs to endless woes, Till God the Lord did interpose For so a promise soon did run That He’d redeem us with a Son.
6. And at this season of the year Our blest Redeemer did appear He here did live, and here did preach, And many thousands He did teach.
7. Thus He in love to us behaved, To show us how we must be saved And if you want to know the way Be pleased to hear what He did say.
8. Go preach the Gospel new, He said, To all the nations that are made And he that does believe in me, From all his sins I’ll set him free.
9. God grant to all within this place True saving faith—that special grace, Which to His people doth belong— And thus I close my Christmas song.
We will be sharing reflections on God’s Creation in the course of this year. Today we have a thought from Mary Colwell, an extract from a recent article in The Tablet on Saint Francis’s Theology of Creation. Follow the link to the original article.
St Francis’ wealth was measured in spiritual enlightenment, gained on his journeys through Italy and beyond, where he gave and received love in abundance.
Francis’ witness changed the world. His God was earthy and visceral, a deity as soiled by mud and rain as glorified by golden sunshine. Francis’ God sang the song of birds, churred with cicadas, raged in storms, tinkled in brooks, scurried with ants, and cast a silvery hue on to night-dark forests. As Francis lay on the ground and looked at the stars, he saw all celestial pathways leading to a heavenly God, but one who was also manifest in the lowliest of life.
Francis of course can have had little conception of the sheer size of the Universe as we know it today, nor of the microbes that abound in our bodies and make life possible for us. Let’s pray for the grace to treat our planet with love, the love with which our Creator spoke it into being.
Dear reader, the Laudato Si Movement would like to share the following prayer with you.
A Prayer for all of Creation
By Pope Francis All-powerful God, you are present in the whole universe and in the smallest of your creatures. You embrace with your tenderness all that exists.Pour out upon us the power of your love, that we may protect life and beauty. Fill us with peace, that we may live as brothers and sisters, harming no one. O God of the poor, help us to rescue the abandoned and forgotten of this Earth, so precious in your eyes. Bring healing to our lives, that we may protect the world and not prey on it, that we may sow beauty, not pollution and destruction. Touch the hearts of those who look only for gain at the expense of the poor and the Earth.
Teach us to discover the worth of each thing,to be filled with awe and contemplation, to recognize that we are profoundly united with every creature as we journey towards your infinite light.
We thank you for being with us each day. Encourage us, we pray, in our struggle for justice, love and peace. Amen.
Pope Francis published this prayer in Laudato Si’, and it is meant for sharing with all who believe in our Creator God.We hope that this prayer serves as a north star for you in the new year, guiding your heart and actions as much as it guides us in our work at LSM.
Please keep LSM and all of our members – Laudato Si’ Animators, Circles, Member Organizations, and Chapters – who are fighting for climate and ecological justice in your prayers in the coming year. We ask, if you haven’t yet and are able to, to please consider making a donation to support LSM before the end of year to help us protect and care for climate and nature. Blessings and gratitude,
Tomás Insua Executive Director Laudato Si’ Movement
Christmas cribs might start life as commercially produced figures, but your crib can be your own creation. Families in some European countries add extra figures to their cribs, and so do we! I expect that by the time you read this our family crib will be on the windowsill for the passers-by to see and reflect.
In the big picture the wise men are completing their pilgrimage during an Epiphany evening for a group of us in L’Arche Kent. Here Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar have found their way to the manger, the stable and star borrowed from a Christmas card. The smaller pictures show encounters they had on the way to Bethlehem.
We have a few extra guests who certainly do not appear in Matthew or Luke. Here is one of them, Oskar, named after the family cat who showed up one Christmas after being lost for years. This little resin figure was lost for probably 20 years. He was being played with in the garden, then overlooked and forgotten. Black against the dark soil, he only turned up when I was weeding and recognised him.
God won’t have forgotten us, even if we’ve buried ourselves where we cannot see him. Let’s pray that his light will shine upon us this Christmas and that we will bravely follow his star.
Let us remember too, the L’Arche community in Bethlehem, who have lost their income from hospitality and tourism, and for all the people of the Holy Land at this terrible time.
Your kit sits quietly on your knee
While you brush and groom her silken fur,
Accepts a ribbon around her neck,
Subsides into a contented purr:
A perfect house cat. Yet I saw her
Yesterday, creeping over the verge,
Belly to earth, lifting paw by silent paw,
Living her own life, gripped by the urge,
The killing urge, to do as cats must do.
No prey I saw - no bird, vole or mouse -
But she sprang, clapped paws twice, snapped, and slew
A cricket! Oh, the velvet killer of your house!
Here is another contribution from Rev Diane Webb, a priest of Canterbury Anglican diocese. She writes: this is an article I wrote about St Francis’s Canticle of the Creatures, which you may like, as his feast day is in October (using my own translation of the Italian). I understand that Pope Francis has written an encyclical about the necessity of caring for the Creation based upon Francis’ hymn, called “Laudato Si'”, “Praised Be…” Given the great disturbances in our weather patterns which we are experiencing, this could not be more relevant, so thank you both, Saint and Pope!
A most welcome ecumenical reflection for Saint Francis, Thank you, Diane!
Il Cantico delle Creature
October 4th is the feast day of St Francis of Assisi, who died the day before, on October 3rd, in 1226 – a long time ago, but Francis is very much a saint for our time.
In our time of climate change and the great damage which human activities have wreaked upon our earth, we would do well to learn from, and adopt, Francis’ great love for the Creation. He showed deep reverence and joy in all creatures, speaking of them as his brothers and sisters because, ultimately, we are all created by God. He has left us a very beautiful canticle, or song, “The Canticle of the Creatures”, sometimes known as “The Canticle of Brother Sun” because the sun is the first element of Creation which is mentioned. We know a version of this song as the hymn “All Creatures of Our God and King” (number 9 in our hymn books).
Francis’ Canticle is modelled on Scripture, particularly on Psalm 104 and the hymn sung by the three children in the furnace in the book of Daniel (in the Apocrypha) which we know as the Benedicite in the Prayer Book. The Canticle is written with rhythm, rhymes and assonances, and was clearly meant to be sung, possibly in the style of the jongleurs, or entertainers, of the time – but the music has not come down to us. It is remarkable in that it is written in Italian, in the Umbrian vernacular, and not in Latin, as in Church music of the time, and it is intelligible to Italian speakers today. It was written about a hundred years before Dante wrote the Divine Comedy in Tuscan Italian, which is seen as the forerunner of modern Italian: I think St Francis has a prior claim. He wanted the people around him to be able to understand his song, and perhaps join in in singing it. He wanted their faith to be a living thing, not just lip-service to a Church which had become focussed on its own wealth and power and organisation.
The Canticle is an ecstatic outpouring of praise to God, who is addressed as “Highest, Omnipotent, Good Lord”, God is worthy of our homage : “ Yours alone are the praises, the glory, the honour and every blessing” (my literal translation as throughout this article). Praise is to be offered “To you alone, as is befitting, and no human being is worthy to mention you.”
After this introduction, there follows follow a string of verses which all begin “Laudato sie, o mio Signore”” – “be praised, my Lord”, the first of which is: “Be praised, my Lord with all your creatures, especially Mr (Messor) Brother the sun, who is the daylight, and you give us light through him. He is beautiful and radiant in great splendour, and he symbolises you, O most High On, Great Lord.” Francis’ religious understanding of the importance of the sun predates Galilei’s scientific understanding by some three and a half centuries.
The song continues with ”Be praised, my Lord for (or by) sister moon and the stars,” which God has created “shining, precious and beautiful” in the sky. Then comes praise for, or by, “brother wind, the air and the sky”, whether it’s cloudy or clear (nebolo et sereno), and every kind of weather through which God supports the life
of his creation. Then Francis gives God thanks and praise for “sister water” which is so useful, humble, precious and pure, and for “brother fire” which gives us light in the darkness. Francis says that fire is “beautiful, joyful, vigorous and strong” After these essential requirements for life on earth, Francis praises God for “Sister, our Mother, the Earth”, which nurtures us and keeps us, and produces different fruits and flowers and vegetables, or herbs (”erba”).
Francis then says that people who forgive others for the sake of love should be praised, as should those who are ill and suffering, and bear it all serenely, because they will be recompensed by God. Francis ends by praising God for the death of the body “which no living human being can escape” – and says that those who die in mortal sin are in trouble (“guai” – woe), but those who find death while doing God’s holy will are blessed, and will not suffer the second death (that is, of the soul). The song ends with commands for our own action to praise, bless and give thanks to God and to serve Him “with great humility.”
We can learn a way of living from this song of Francis, in which we can give thanks and praise in all that happens to us, for everything which surrounds us, and for all our experiences, whether comfortable or not. One example from the Canticle is that Francis does not simply praise God for nice sunshine, as we might be inclined to do, but for all kinds of weather (“ogni tempo”), because weather is a necessary part of the Creation which sustains us. Francis values every aspect of Creation as the work of God, and he uses that little word “per” which means “by” as well as “for” to say that God is revealed to us in the Creation. This is so different to the attitude which sees the Creation as important mainly because it is a resource to be used (and often abused) for our gain. Francis praises those who forgive each other (rather than being judgemental, angry or revengeful, which is so often the case in difficult relationships) because that is the basis of a loving human society. He understands that the condition of human beings is not that we are the most important members of Creation – Masters of the Universe, like the fantasy films – but that we are frail creatures, prone to suffering and prone to sin. And finally, he accepts and praises God for our death, not only as a necessary part of human life, but because it will lead to our ultimate blessedness.
We learn from Francis that we are creatures who are related to every other creature: from the tiniest bacterium or insect to the stars: we are all interdependent, vital parts of the Life of the Creation. He did not know that the stars are made of hydrogen, and we are largely made of water – hydrogen and oxygen – so we are made of the same stuff as the stars, so they are indeed our sisters, and the sun is our brother. Creation is all of a piece, and we are a small part of it.
So at this time of Harvest Thanksgiving, let us lift up our voices and sing Alleluia, as our hymn asks us to do, and may we also give thanks and praise for St Francis, and what he can teach us about how we should value everything that lives with us, our brothers and sisters, on our mother Earth, in our precious and beautiful cosmos.
Tomás Insua
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