I have two pictures by the Rhineland mystic, abbess and thoroughly good egg Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). One is of the Trinity as she saw it in a vision. There are two spheres, one gold, one silver and in the middle stands the figure of a man. Sometimes one is more prominent, sometimes another. There is about the whole a fluidity that allows each person of the Trinity to dominate, but not totally. The other vision is called The Trinity and the Macrocosm with the Figure of Man. In this God the Father holds the circle of Creation, God the Creator; inside is a circle of flames from which spring winds and creatures and fish, God the Sustainer of Life; in the centre, once again, is a Man, symbol of the Humanity of Christ that we share with him; we are represented by Christ Jesus and drawn by him into the creative whole, God the Redeemer. Of course they are only pictures. Each one of us has our images of God, and we draw inspiration from the visions of others, even from those of a twelfth-century nun! Today’s Gospel (Matthew 28.16-20) comes from the end, the very end, of Matthew’s account of the Ministry of Jesus. He has stressed all along that Jesus is a second Moses and yet much more, the Son of God. His Gospel stops at this point. Like Moses Jesus vanishes - he ‘is taken up’. His earthly ministry is complete. It is finished for him, and the disciples are charged to carry it on into the whole world. The charge that Jesus gives the eleven disciples applies to us too. ‘Go and make disciples of all nations.’ This is pretty hard to do under present circumstances, of course. In quiet, private ways it is still doable. By the way we are with our friends and neighbours and the members of our families we show our fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ. The second part of of Jesus’ command is to baptise the disciples we have made ‘in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.’ Once again it is impossible to do this at the moment. What joy when we will be able to baptise once again! Surely it cannot last much longer. Some of you remember your own baptism or that of your children and grandchildren. We must soon be able to share that joy with others. Soon, I say, very soon. The Gospel finishes with a promise, which I certainly need to hear at this time. It is a promise to be with us ‘to the end of the age’. Through all that we have experienced and are experiencing we can hold on to that promise. ‘I am with you until the end of the age.’ Hang on to that! Today’s Epistle comes from Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13 vv11-13. It finishes with the words ‘The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.’ That is another short prayer, full of the promise of God’s presence with us through all our lives. One definition of ‘grace’ is ‘the love of God active in our hearts and minds.’ This prayer promises us that God will continue to work in our lives through the love he has for us. Holy God, faithful and unchanging: enlarge our minds with the knowledge of your truth, and draw us more deeply into the mystery of your love, that we may truly worship you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorCanon John Green Archives
May 2021
Categories |