In this week’s Sunday Gospel, we see how Jesus was immersed in His Father’s affirming love by the words spoken from heaven following his baptism in the Jordan “You are my Son, the beloved.”

The Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit signified by the dove, were present at this event.

What does this mean for Christians?  Christians are resident aliens in this world. We are the children of God, brothers of Jesus imbued with the Holy Spirit. At baptism we become members of God’s family the Church and are commissioned to play our part in transforming the world.

Our family characteristics can be summed up in the Fruits of the Spirit in St Paul’s letter to the Galatians 5.22 – 23. Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Trustfulness, Gentleness and Self Control.  

These fruits are transformative and run counter to war, greed, indifference to the plight of others and such qualities  challenge the world to find a new way as we face climate change with the threat it poses to our God given home – planet earth.

Jesus emerges from his baptism as the light of the world which the Church has just celebrated in the feast of the Epiphany and as brothers and sisters of Christ and members of the family of God we can reflect this light which has the power to put an end to darkness and give new hope.  

When Christians make the sign of the cross we can recall the baptism of Jesus and the greatest act of love ever which opens for us the way to eternity.

Continuing the theme of human rights, just last week the House of Lords passed unopposed the second reading of the assisted dying bill – a euphemism for assisted suicide, which has now gone to committee stage. I pray it may never see the light of day.

As with the 1967 Abortion Act which gained sympathy due to the horrendous and illegal practice of back street abortion and worst case scenarios such as rape and which has led to routine abortion of healthy babies – the assisted dying bill, whatever the supposed good intentions of the proposer and supporters, is likely lead to widespread euthanasia threatening the right to life of the old and those with incurable disabilities.

Does the Christian Church want this bill?

Is it in line with our Christian heritage?

Is it part of God’s plan for society?

Emphatically NO!

Those whose ideology or mindset is characterised by a lack respect for human life from birth to death will welcome it.

Life is sacred.

People of faith must make their voice of reason and rationality based on the premise of the sanctity of human life clear – this is not of us, our community, and our world.

In the Gospels Jesus reached out to the poor, outcast and disabled.

God loves everyone, the unborn, and the disabled, those who suffer.

Human rights are for all.

Let’s mitigate and relieve suffering by better palliative care for all.

A suicide pill will not address the problem of a lack of love and palliative care championed by Cecily Saunders, pioneer of the hospice movement who said, “The way we die lives on in the memory of those who survive.”

It is a human right to die with dignity, not a suicide pill.

Heidi Crowter, a young woman with Downs Syndrome lost her High Court challenge to the Government over a law that allows abortion up to birth for a baby with Downs Syndrome. The High Court judges deferred responsibility for the law that allows discrimination against people with Downs Syndrome back to Parliament.

The court refused to declare the relevant law, the Abortion Act of 1967 as amended by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act of 1990, as being contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights and the Human Rights Act.

This is not “unlawful discrimination” says the High Court.

My nephew with Downs Syndrome is a wonderful Man and valued and loved by all the family. Always full of fun, great conversation, thoughtful and deeply spiritual praying each day and participating reverently in the Eucharist. Not long ago he gave an extemporary blessing over my daughter and son in law at their wedding reception in front of us all.

Rory belongs to a singing and dance company and has been in several performances and I pay tribute to the organisers and theatre staff and production team and the funding stream who make possible.

There are many people who have helped Rory to reach a high level of literacy and I pay tribute to them all. My nephew loves life, the family, friends, TV, reading, dancing, singing and acting. If only we could all be as happy as he is.

That Down Syndrome babies can have their lives ended up to birth is an abomination and blatant discrimination not only against people with Downs Syndrome all those with disabilities detected before birth.

Moving on from this –

Mary Onuoha, a nurse I know personally is suing a London NHS Trust for being forced out of her job for wearing a cross. She says she was “treated like a criminal.” She is being supported by the Christian Legal Centre. Her lawyers argue that the Trust has breached her freedom to manifest her faith under Article 9 of the European Convention of Human Rights and the Equality Act – ring any bells?

The Trust says it was a beach of the Trust’s dress code and uniform policy and therefore a risk to her and to patients. Yet the Trust welcomes the wearing of saris, turbans, kirpan, skullcaps, hijabs, kippahs  clerical collars. This is welcoming diversity.

It seems that human rights do not apply to Christians or to those with disabilities in Britain.

    

President Biden said on September 3^rd he doesn’t agree that life begins at conception, when speaking about the Texas Heartbeat bill.

Medical science recognises that the heartbeat begins at 5 weeks.

A fertilised ovum will develop into a baby in the womb.

A baby in the womb will develop into a new born baby.

A baby will develop into a child.

A child will develop into a teenager.

A teenager will become an adult.

An adult will become and old person.

An old person with expire and go to eternal life.

Life is a continuum unless it is interrupted by abortion, illness, starvation, war or disaster through climate change or euthanasia.

How then can conception not be the beginnings of life??

“The Texas law (effectively banning abortion past six weeks when the baby’s heart can be detected) will significantly impair women’s access to the health care they need, particularly for communities of colour and individuals with low incomes,” says President Biden.

Two points arise here. Firstly, abortion is about the greatest act of self harm a woman can inflict upon herself, leading to physical, emotional, mental and above all spiritual harm.

Secondly, if poverty and low incomes are among the pressures which cause women to take the life of their unborn child – not to mention coercion – surely these causes of abortion are what should be targeted.  

President Biden, who although a professed Catholic, does not accept the teaching of the Catholic Church that life begins at conception. How can this be? Does he know better than the Pope, Christ’s vicar on earth, the hierarchy, and the teaching of the Church he professes each time he recites the Creed at Mass?

Here again we see the impossible position American Catholics are in. Vote for a socially progressive political programme and at the same time the killing of babies in the womb or vote for a conservative programme which damages individuals, society and the world in so many ways and yet speaks up for the unborn.

The question often posed to young people in youth ministry is WWJD?

Christian young people faced with the question of abortion know only too well what Jesus would do.

Let’s pray for women and young girls who are seduced or coerced into this greatest act of self harm.

Let’s pray for a fair, just and moral society where all have what they need for a decent and dignified life. This would make taking the lives of the weakest and most vulnerable members of society unthinkable.  

The wonderful truth of Faith

We have received as gift such a wonderful Creation in all its aspects.

The beauty of nature so pleasing to the eye and so potentially productive for the needs of all.

The harmony of a loving family bringing personal fulfilment and thereby fulfilling humanity which is a family of families.

Familial love which brings nurture and creativity to children empowering them to go forth to transform – to mould a future of unimagined dignity for all.

How awesome to be created in the image of God – to have a God shaped hole or space in our being which only God can satisfy.

The Truth of Reality

How sad the contradiction. The destruction of our planetary home through greed and ignorance bringing climate change and pandemic.  

The Truth of Syntheses

The clarion call from God to protect life in every way from conception to death.

To cherish family life as ordained by nature in the Creator’s plan.

To esteem and value all Creation, animal vegetable and mineral.

This is to accept the Father’s song.

To accept Creation’s symphony.

To acknowledge Eternity written on my heart.

Heaven’s perfect melody.

Listen to “The Father’s Song by Matt Redman on You Tube

Martin Luther King once said, “If a man hasn’t found something worth dying for then he isn’t fit to live.”  Ultimately King paid the price for speaking out for the rights of black Americans.

Today we remember another person who spoke truth to power and paid with his life, Thomas More, whose feast day it is in the Catholic Church.

On the block before he was beheaded he spoke the words, “I die the Kings good servant but God’s first.”

Thomas More, who this blog is named after, was born on the 7^th February 1478 and executed 6^th July 1535. More, a lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted renaissance humanist and author of Utopia had been Lord High Chancellor under King Henry VIII.

He refused to take the Oath of Supremacy and was convicted for treason. He refused to accept Henry VIII self proclaiming himself head of the Church in England in place of the pope regarded by Catholics as the successor to Christ on earth. Henry wanted a divorce from Catherine of Aragon which Rome refused, so that he could marry Anne Boleyn.

What King Henry VIII did changed the political and religious landscape of the country right up to the present.

Thomas More proved himself one of the greatest Englishmen of history.

Today’s celebration of the life and death of Thomas More is a reminder that speaking truth to power is as important as ever. Yes racism in all its forms must go, but so too the killing of innocent life in the womb. The immutable plan of God for family life, upon which the health and well being of humanity is dependant, is under threat. The destruction of our eco systems through climate change threatens the planet and the trampling down of human dignity by ideological and power obsessed oligarchies is all too real.

“Truth crushed to the earth will one day rise again.” Martin Luther King

“One of the greatest problems of our times is that many are schooled but few are educated.” Thomas More.

 “To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him the greatest human achievement. The measure of love is to love without measure.”

St. Augustine of Hippo

“Love one another as I have loved you.” John 15.12

In this Sunday’s gospel, Jesus speaks to his disciples about unconditional love. This is part of his farewell speech.

This is the kind of love Jesus is about to show in his arrest, torture and crucifixion.

Love is what the gospels are all about. God is love. Jesus is God’s Son. All that Jesus says and does reflects the Father’s love.

Unbelievably, Jesus calls his followers friends. Unlike servants they know all they need to know and are “commissioned to go out and to bear fruit,” and then amazingly-  

“Anything you ask in my name.” Jesus says, “the Father will you.” 

Friends speak to each other. This is what prayer is and a good start is to read and understand what Jesus said and did and reflect upon what this means for how to live.

How awesome that Jesus, Son of God has commissioned us to go out and bear fruit. To change people’s lives by bringing them more closely to Him. To transform the world.

I feel gratitude that Jesus gave his life for me so that I could have life in the fullest way possible in the here and now and be immersed in his love for all eternity.

I feel privileged that the God who made me is calling me to change the world so as to reflect his love.

• to honour human life from conception to death
• to put an end to war and nuclear weapons
• to free the world from the chains of ideology
• to share the worlds’ resources including covid vaccines at this time
• to value and esteem the gift of sexuality in the context of a covenant relationship of love

“Love one another as I have loved you.”

Listen to “Such Love/ Lord your tenderness Graham Kendrick/Nicky Rogers on Youtube

We can only be all that we can be by being united to Christ the Vine. Separated from him we can only be a poor second – a shadow of the self that God the Father has in mind for us.

In the gospel this Sunday Jesus says, “I am the vine, and you are the branches.” Conversely, cut off from me you can do nothing,” (John 15: 1-8).

How can anyone be united to Christ? How can we be ‘the difference?’ Through belonging. We show belonging to a particular football team by going to matches, singing the songs, wearing the tee shirt and scarf and going to the pub afterwards either to commiserate or rejoice.

In the same way we show belonging to Christ by meeting his followers in Church for song and worship and by sharing our hopes and struggles joys and sorrows. When life gets tough we turn to Jesus and grow, becoming much more than we were before. As this gospel passage tells us, we bear even more fruit in our lives.

This may not be world changing but can be life changing for us and those we love and care about and those we meet each day.  

In the words of Mother, now Saint, Theresa of Calcutta;

 “We know only too well that what we are doing is nothing more than a drop in the ocean. But if the drop were not there, the ocean would be missing something.”

Rooted in love which comes through Christ, we can be all that God has planned for us since the beginning of time. Rootless what are we and where are we going?

This year will mark a significant wedding anniversary for myself and my wife and is well worth celebrating. Celebration is at the heart of what it means to be human and is therefore important for us all.

Put simply, celebration is showing we are happy about something. Happiness can be expressed in any number of ways.

People of Faith celebrate “Rites of Passage,” birth, coming of age, marriage and death in particular. For many christians this speaks of the sacraments of Baptism, Confirmation, Holy Matrimony and Funerals. For Catholics a Sacrament is a sacred moment which makes real what it symbolises. The presence and power of God is manifested in the moment both in the person and communally in the body of believers gathered for the celebration.

The Christian story is one of celebration which is told in worship, prayer and liturgy. A teenage peasant girl is visited by an angel to announce the greatest event in human history; God the Creator becoming present in his creation. This event contains within itself the promise of the liberation of humankind from degradation and futility brought about by sin and separation from God. Eternal life no less in a resurrected body, made possible by the Jesus’ death and Resurrection which is what Christians have just celebrated at Easter.

What’s more, this saving event upon which all else that really matters is based, is celebrated and made present in the Eucharist offered on altars all over the world each day.

Today the Church celebrates “Good Shepherd Sunday.” Like the good shepherd, Jesus lays down his life for his sheep. That’s not only for the Jews but for everyone – you and me. Jesus wants to reach out to everyone including those who do not value or celebrate life from conception to the grave or oligarchs who do not celebrate democracy or freedom. Mary’s “yes” makes change possible for everyone.

Christians are undergoing terrible persecution throughout the world at this time but we continue to celebrate all that’s good in life.

How sad for those who don’t. Being truly human and celebration are synonymous.

But the victory has been won and there is no going back. Christian martyrs are at the forefront of this new Easter Life both now in the present moment and in eternity. Worth celebrating?

We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song.