New Year Thoughts

CONTINUING through Saint Anthony’s Sermons for Festivals, this month we look at three Festivals: New Year’s Day (the Feast of the Circumcision), the Epiphany, and the Conversion of Saint Paul. Before considering the topics in themselves, it is worth noticing that in the first of these Sermons our Saint quotes copiously from the Sermon of Pope Innocent III for the same festival.





Feast of Circumcision





Innocent had been the pope who had first welcomed Francis, and given verbal approval to his rule and way of life in 1209. In 1215 he called the Fourth Lateran Council, attended by more than 1200 prelates, for the reform of the Church. Although he died the following year, his influence on his time was enormous. The young Canon Fernando, later to take the name Anthony, was a student at Coimbra at this time, which must have been as exciting as the period of the Second Vatican Council was to those of us who were students then.



Nowadays the Feast of the Circumcision, the Octave of Christmas, has been renamed in honour of the Motherhood of our Lady. In some ways this is a pity, because the old title drew attention to two facts that it is unfashionable to emphasise today – Our Lord’s Jewishness, and his masculinity. Saint Luke mentions the circumcision of the infant Christ eight days after his birth, in order to make clear that he and his mother obeyed the Old Law and fulfilled it perfectly. This, from the time of Abraham, was the sign of the covenant between God and His people. “Born of a woman, born a subject of the Law,” says Saint Paul, He was sent by God “to redeem the subjects of the Law.”



At the same time, He was given His name Jesus, the Saviour. “Name of sweetness, name of delight, name comforting the sinner and full of hope!” Anthony writes, and he quotes Innocent again, “This name, then, is holy and glorious, and it is invoked upon us; nor, as Peter says, is there any other name under heaven whereby we must be saved.” The Franciscan tradition, for instance in Saint Bernardine of Siena, has loved to extol the Holy Name of Jesus.





The Epiphany





Where Luke gives prominence to Mary’s story, and the Jewish family life of Our Lord, Matthew shows how from the beginning Christ was manifested even to the Gentiles. Anthony quotes Innocent again, who in turn refers to an old legend, concerning the Roman Temple of Peace built by Caesar Augustus. Enquiring how long it would last, they received the oracular reply, “Until a virgin gives birth.” They took this to mean “for ever”, but at the very hour of the Lord’s birth the foundations crumbled. Although there seems to be no basis for this story, it represents the way that the basis of pagan religion was undermined by Christ.



Anthony asks the significance of the three gifts brought by the Magi. They can be taken to symbolise royal power, divine majesty and human mortality; that is to say, they represent the character of Christ Himself. But they can also be taken as expressing our own character in relation to God. True to his Franciscan understanding, gold now means not earthly riches, but holy poverty, which the friars offer to the Lord. Incense is prayerful devotion, which mingles contemplation of divine truth with charity towards neighbour. Anthony in passing condemns the corruption of devotion in clergy who expect monetary reward for prayers. Finally, myrrh represents the awareness of judgement and of the certainty of death.



Anthony concludes his thoughts on human wretchedness with an encouragement to think also about the mercy of God. “At this time of divine kindness and mercy,” he says, “the gift of penitence is brought by sinners to Jesus Christ... You too, beloved, should bring your gifts with the three Magi: the gold of contrition, the incense of confession and the myrrh of satisfaction, so that you may receive the gift of glory from Jesus Christ Himself in heaven.”





The Conversion of Saint Paul





On January 25 we commemorate the conversion of Saint Paul. The zealous Pharisee, who had thought Jesus to be a fraudulent Messiah, and had seen it as his duty to persecute his followers, was by the Lord’s merciful plan shown that Jesus was indeed the Risen Lord, the true Messiah. From that moment, he set out to share this good news, this Gospel, with both his fellow Jews and with those of other nations.



In the Gospel of the day (as it was in Saint Anthony’s day), Peter tells the Lord, “We have left all things and followed you.” Accordingly, Anthony concentrates in the first part of his sermon on the wholeheartedness of the apostolic life. In order to be sent out by Jesus Christ, a person must first have accepted the call to abandon everything and follow Christ. This may not mean, as it did for Francis and his friars, the literal renunciation of possessions, but it does mean for all the abandonment of possessiveness. The person who thinks of the gifts God has entrusted to him or her, “This is mine, and therefore not yours,” has lost the way. The Christian way is a life of sharing, of concern for the needs of others, of self-giving.



In the later part of his sermon, Anthony recalls that Paul was of the tribe of Benjamin, and he considers the ancient Patriarch as an image of Paul. He also considers the story of Paul’s conversion as a model for that of every believer. Paul thought he could see clearly what God required, but had to be taught that he was spiritually blind. God then opened his eyes to the truth, and from then on his only desire was to share it with all.





Unity of Christians





Nowadays, the Feast of the Conversion of Paul marks the end of the annual week of prayer for the unity of Christians, a fulfilment of our Lord’s desire that all His followers should be one in faith and love. The scandal of disunity existed in Anthony’s day, and it is good to recall how Pope Innocent dealt with it. As regards Catharism, an anti-Christian heresy that denied the reality of the Incarnation and the goodness of God’s creation, he was severe. But there were other ‘separated brethren’, such as the Waldensians, whose protest had been against corruption in the Church, which Innocent himself recognised and sought to reform. If they were prepared to be reconciled, he allowed them to return to Catholic unity while retaining their own community life. He even allowed them to preach after the manner of the friars, on the need for a reformation of morals.



Innocent was admired by Anthony. He was a great pope, sometimes thought of as a hardliner, but in reality concerned to seek reconciliation if at all possible. His example may have something to teach us today!