News & Events
Homily preached at St Benedict's mass by Father Teyron Williams - 29 September 2007
I want to take you all back to the Penny Catechism. How many of you remember what a sacrament is. 'an outward sign of grace.' As Vincentians you are in many ways sacraments of Christ's love in the world, playing a crucial and pivotal role in the mission of the church.
I'd like to give you a crash course in sacramental theology. Let's start with God. God is transcendent not physical. We couldn't touch God as it were.He is so completely other.out there!
That God out there had a dilemma. He wanted to save what He had created, after humanity had gone off in the wrong direction.symbolised by the Fall of Adam & Eve in Genesis. But because He is so completely other - how could He, the creator communicate with us, His creatures?
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus if you like was the sacrament of God.yes, true God but also true man, as we say in the creed. Jesus was a physical person - you could touch him.he was God in time and space.
And Jesus preached the Good News of the Kingdom of God - He brought love, healing forgiveness and compassion to those whom he encountered - this was the Good News.
Through His Passion, Death and Resurrection, Jesus completed His saving work and reconciled humanity with God. At Pentecost the Spirit was given to the Apostles to go out and preach the Good News, baptising in the name of the Father, Son & Holy Spirit. Thus the church was born.
The Church's mission was to carry out and continue Jesus' saving work. So the church, if you like, is the Sacrament of Jesus. We encounter Jesus within the Church.
So within the Church - the sacrament of Christ - that is Jesus' continued presence in the world, we have the 7 sacraments. Seven special ways in which we encounter Christ. These 7 sacraments use ordinary everyday physical things like water, bread & wine, oil, touch and words.
But through God's grace, these ordinary things are made extra ordinary for through them we encounter Jesus Christ Himself.
We become a part of His life in baptism.
We become empowered to continue His mission in Confirmation.
We encounter and share in His very life & self in the most intimate ways in the Eucharist, in Holy Communion.
We are healed and forgiven in the Confession and Anointing.
We mirror and reflect and express in marriage Christ's love for the Church.
We are ordained for service in the Church
It is against this background that we can fully appreciate more fully that, as Vincentians, you are very much sacraments of Christ's love in the Church. You are not do-gooders or social workers.in a real sense you are ministers.you continue the loving, healing, compassionate and forgiving presence of Christ in the here and now of your communities.
We are all ordinary people, sparked by the charism and spirit of St Vincent , to follow in the footsteps of Christ the foot washer.ordinary people who can and do extraordinary work in our service of the poor:
- You 'baptise' those whom you serve by welcoming them, giving them a sense if value and belonging to the family of God.
- You confirm them as people, in their human dignity - that they have a worth and a value which is not dependent on any material thing.
- In a Eucharistic way, you follow the model of Christ the feet washer, in your self-giving spirit towards your vocation as Vincentians;
- You bring healing to those who are sick in mind and body, to the lonely and bereaved through your friendship and service;
- You reconcile those for whatever reason have made mistakes and have suffered rejection, acknowledging in your approach that Christ always loves the sinner.
- Your charism is that of ministry in the Church, following the example of Christ in the footsteps of Vincent de Paul.
From Old Testament times in the words of the psalmist and the prophets, we know how the Lord always hears the cry of the poor. Jesus in the temple, read the words of Isaiah. 'the Lord has anointed me to bring the Good News to the Poor,' declaring that in Himself - in Christ - the words find fulfilment.
You have been given the grace to hear the cry of the poor, and have been called to continue Christ's saving work, in your ministry as feet washers. The poor to whom you minister encounter in you as Vincentian, the Christ who loved, healed and washed feet.
And you encounter in the people that you serve the abandoned and lonely Christ of Gethsemene and the suffering rejected and lowly Christ of the Passion and the Cross.
But in case we get the wrong idea and become self-righteous - in each of us co-exists the one who ministers Christ's love to others.AND the one who stands in the need of another to wash our feet.
So become aware of our own brokenness and human frailties, let us once again re-dedicate ourselves as sacraments of Christ's love.
[13.11.07]