Inherit The Earth

Regal tenant: Elizabeth I claims the world for herself

In our Gospel today we are told by Jesus that he has come to save the world, not to condemn it. It is an interesting teaching that should lead us to reflect on our place in the world. We often hear about the "values of the world" and how we should not make them the foundation of our lives, and that is true. The "values of the world" are those grounded in the merely materialist, eschewing the divine and transcendent, fallen human values rather than those of God. But, in a way, these "values of the world" are actually alien to the world, since the world was made by God and he has impressed his divine artistry on it. The world is passing away, but rather than turning into itself, as the "values of the world" do, it points to something greater than itself, to the Creator whose signature we see in the beauty of nature, in the wonder of the stars, in the fascinating host of creatures. 

As Christians we can tend towards shunning the world, we keep to ourselves in order to be pure - we might think we have to sit it out and await the Second Coming. Well, St Paul tackles that attitude in his letters to the Thessalonians - we cannot and should not withdraw from the world, we must live in it. And living in it, we are to change it. Let us not forget that the world belongs to us - it was made for the children of God and so it is ours - Jesus reminds us of this in the Beatitudes when he says that the meek shall inherit the earth. We do not make the world our basket (again, the meek - they are the ones who can see things correctly), but we make this world a better place, a forum in which our souls are prepared for heaven and all those wonderful gifts given to us by God can be used for his glory and the encouragement of our fellow pilgrims. We never forget that we are passing through, but as on every pilgrimage, the journey is important too.

Of course we cannot forget that the tenants have taken over the vineyard and many many times down the centuries the tenants have tried to dispossess the children of God. The tenants are themselves children of God, but in their way of life they have turned their back on him and so renounced that status. They take the world for themselves and seek to change it to suit themselves and those who still adhere to God's plan and way of life are alienated. It is through these tenants that the "spirit of the world" and the "values of the world" come into being. On conquered land they establish the city of the world while the children of God struggle to maintain the city of God, if I may use Augustinian terms. But our task, as children of God, is to reclaim our inheritance, our world, and Jesus announces this mission in our Gospel today. However we have to  be careful and discern as we engage in a mission of reconquest - it is not for the sake of the world, but for the souls of the tenants. They have built their cities, their fortresses, but they are more akin to prisons where they hold themselves captive lest the transcendent get them. It is like a gang of pilgrims who hijack the bus on the way to Lourdes and won't let any of us proceed to the shrine because they want to stay at the roadside cafe, but nobody gets anywhere then, and we'll eventually run out of tea!

Why such thoughts today? Well, looking around us in Ireland I see the tenants are building walls to keep us all in their fortress. The children of God are being dispossessed and alienated, there is now an insistence that we conform to the values the tenants have devised for themselves. 

I am reminded of Queen Elizabeth I's religious revolution. She said at the beginning of her reign that in terms of the religious question, she could not see into the consciences of men, nor did she intend to. It seemed as if she was going to tolerant of Catholics, but not so. She established the Church of England and then expected all of her subjects to conform regardless of their conscience, those who did not paid for it either through fines that impoverished them or with their lives. She replaced the Virgin Mary with herself, establishing the cult of Gloriana, and everything was to revolve around her and her desires, secular and religious. We see the same today. The tenants tell us that we can believe what we like as long as it is private, yet they do not mean what they say: they will expect us to conform in every way to what they decree, even at level of our conscience which must be violated if they see fit. This is how they mean to dispossess the children of God.

But the meek shall inherit the earth, the Lord has come to redeem the world, and our task is to participate in that mission. We are not cower in the trenches or privatize our faith and values, but we are to go out into the world and live them and live by them even if it challenges the tenants, even if it means we may have to suffer. This will require a good dose of courage (cardinal virtue!), stamina (they will try to break us down), love (for we do it for love of them, for the salvation of their souls as much as our own) and ingenuity (the wily wisdom of the serpent married with the innocence of doves), but the Lord will give the grace to do this. Of course prudence is important, but we must be careful not to turn prudence into a vice, an excuse to feed our fear. There are too many Christians in the trenches cowering beneath a white flag, trying to appease the tenants and announcing peace in our time for the sake of a quiet life. 

At prayer this morning I remembered that Archbishop Oscar Romero will be beatified on the 23rd May, the day after the gay marriage referendum here in Ireland. Is that a coincidence or a God-incidence? The ballot takes place on the feast of St Rita (a necessary patronage there), but if the tenants win, then Oscar Romero's life and struggle may well be an example and inspiration for us: he too had to stand up to a corrupt regime and unjust laws, he had to defy them. He knew that the world belonged to the children of God and they should not be dispossessed of that which God has given them. Yes, they are pilgrims, but they do not walk on another's property, they tread the path their Father laid for them. We should never forget this. May the soon Blessed Oscar intercede for us in these times and obtain from the Lord the courage, wisdom, prudence and zeal we need to face the challenges that lie ahead.

In the Bleak Mid-Winter

It is the first of December, and for the Church in England, today is the feast of one of her most illustrious martyrs: after SS John Fisher and Thomas More, St Edmund Campion is a star of the English Church.  I have a great regard for the English martyrs, while in Ireland we have many who gave up their lives for their faith, here Catholics were in the majority, and our people hid our priests, so we managed to save many of them. In England, however, Catholics were a minority and it was harder to protect their priests.  There are many heroic stories of laypeople even sacrificing themselves to protect their priests. St Margaret Clitherow, St Anne Line and St Margaret Ward, the three women martyr saints among the Forty Martyrs of England and Wales, are heroic examples of devotion to the priesthood, even to the point of laying down their lives to protect it.  My own connection to these martyrs is St Edmund Arrowsmith, a Jesuit priest from Lancashire, executed in 1628 for his priesthood. He was betrayed by Catholics in an irregular sexual union after he had defended marriage.   I have had a devotion to him for many years.  More about him another time.

St Edmund Campion's life story is most interesting, and he has a connection with Ireland.  St Edmund was born in London on 25th January 1540.  He was brought up in the Church of England, and he emerged as a  brilliant scholar and orator.  He studied at St John's College in Oxford.  There he came to the attention of a number of members of the court, and thus began relationships which brought him to the attention of Queen Elizabeth I.  He was persuaded to become a Protestant minister, seeing it a means of promotion: he was ordained a deacon.  Thanks to his abilities and benefactors, he was soon seen as a possible future Archbishop of Canterbury.  Things, however, were about to change.

In 1569 he came to Ireland as tutor to the son of the Speaker of the Irish Parliament. Here was involved in founding the University of Dublin (more famously known as Trinity College).  By this time he was having serious doubts about Protestantism, and was inclined to Catholicism.  Rumours of this had being circulating before he left for Ireland, and when in Ireland those rumours grew to a point that he needed the protection of a Mr Barnewell to escape capture, torture and interrogation by certain Protestants in Dublin.  During this time in Barnewell's house he wrote his History of Ireland.

In 1571, St Edmund managed to escape from Ireland and went to Europe.  He had heard of the English Catholic seminary in Douai, and making his way there he sought to be received into the Church and accepted as a candidate for the priesthood.   He was accepted and studied for his theology degree there, while teaching rhetoric.  In 1573, however, he left and went as a pilgrim to Rome.  There he encountered and then entered the Society of Jesus.  He was ordained priest and served in Rome, Vienna and Prague.  In 1580, the Jesuits began their mission to England, and St Edmund was keen to return.

Accompanying the new superior of the Society in England, Fr Robert Parsons, St Edmund entered England on the 24th June 1580, feast of the birth of St John the Baptist - it would prove prophetic.  From the start, the zeal of the man was unbounded, and very soon his fame spread throughout England.  A gifted writer, he wrote several works defending the Catholic faith and revealing the shortcomings of the new State Church.  The most famous of his defences, his Challenge to the Privy Council became known among his enemies as Campion's Brag.

He was soon the most sought after man in England: by Catholics for his preaching and holiness, by Protestants for his head - by Queen Elizabeth by his betrayal.  Elizabeth I knew how to hold a grudge, and those who offended her would feel the fire of her wrath - she was saving it up for Edmund Campion.   On the 15th July 1581, he was caught in Norfolk by a spy and arrested.  Sat up on a horse, hands tied, he was paraded to London wearing a paper hat which bore the slogan, "Campion the Seditious Jesuit".

St Edmund expected no mercy from Queen, Privy Council or judges, and he received none.  He was interrogated before Queen Elizabeth who asked him if he acknowledged her as the rightful Queen of England - he said he did.  Thinking she could win him over, she offered him wealth and titles if he only rejected his Catholic faith: he refused.  After months of torture, he was brought to Westminster Hall where he was condemned to death: it was there that he delivered one of the greatest speeches in the English language where he reminded his accusers: "In condemning us, you condemn all your own ancestors, all our ancient bishops and kings, all that was once the glory of England -- the island of saints, and the most devoted child of the See of Peter."  He was hanged drawn and quartered on the 1st December 1581, at Tyburn, in London.   He died with two other priests that day, both of whom have also been canonised and share his feast day: St Ralph Sherwin, a secular priest, and St Alexander Briant, also a Jesuit.  Though we are in the bleak mid-winter, these Saints and their faith light a comforting and, yes, a challenging fire for us in these times.