Easter Sunday Morning Mass
http://www.rcdai.org.uk/articles/168/1/Easter-Sunday-Morning-Mass/Page1.html
By Website Editor
Published on 19/05/2009
Welcome to our Easter Sunday Mass, especially to those who are visiting Oban. Many visitors are very impressed by our cathedral here in Oban, dedicated to our patron, St. Columba. Perhaps what impresses most on entering and looking around is the stonework itself – it gives the building a fine sense of grandeur and stability, worthy of any great cathedral. One verse from today’s psalm made me reflect on this building:
“The stone which the builders rejected has become the corner stone.
This is the work of the Lord a marvel in our eyes.”
We believe of course that the rejected corner stone is Jesus, whose cruel passion and death we commemorated on Good Friday, and the marvellous work of the Lord is his rising from the dead, which we celebrate today with great joy and festivity.
It is fitting that we should have built such fine buildings as this cathedral to celebrate our faith in the Risen Lord and to give glory to God therein by our worship together. Buildings such as this have been constructed to stand the test of time, to be a permanent presence calling the people of successive generations to gather here to proclaim their Christian faith. They are as it were a statement that faith matters, that it is something good and necessary, that it has stood the test of time, and that we are the proud bearers of the tradition of faith in the Risen Lord that goes back to Mary of Magdala and Simon Peter and the beloved disciple discovering the empty tomb, to the household of Cornelius, who listened to the testimony of Peter and were baptised, and to the great convert apostle Paul, exhorting us all to find our true life in Christ, now seated at God’s right hand. Just as the apostles who were with Jesus on the mountain as he was transfigured said, “Lord it is wonderful for us to be here”, so always for us gathered today in Oban Cathedral, proclaiming that the Lord has risen and we believe.
But does faith in Christ really matter? Well we do live today in a society in which there has been some rejection of faith, and indeed many now would promote a secular future in which faith is very much a fringe activity. The onus is on us who profess our faith in Christ to show that it gives quality, direction and sustenance to human living, that life is much better when we have faith and that it is a precious gift to hand on to the younger members of our communities. One thing that faith saves us from is centring everything on ourselves, and St Paul quickly grasped the importance of this:
“Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on things that are on the earth, because you have died, and now life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Of course we all have our own lives and concerns to deal with here on earth, but it is good to be reminded that they are not everything and that to be truly at ease with all the many people and in all the things that touch our lives we need also to have this inner deeper part of us that looks beyond our worldly affairs and brings us into contact with God. For us Christians the hidden life in Christ Jesus the Lord makes this possible, and of course we believe this hidden life is sustained and nourished by the community of faith to which we belong and in which we are fed by God’s Word and Sacraments.
Part of our Easter Sunday experience of celebrating this faith is the renewal of our baptismal promises. As we do this in a few moments time we reject evil and the sin of Adam, from which we have been cleansed through our baptism; we profess our faith in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as revealed to us by Jesus, and in whose name the waters of baptism were poured over our heads; we renew our allegiance once more to the Holy Catholic Church, Our Mother, of which we became members through our baptism and through and in which we are privileged to live the faith of the apostles, martyrs, and all the saints through the ages. In accepting then the blessing with the holy water we pray that we may remain faithful to our baptism and be true and strong witnesses to Jesus Christ in our own time and place.
May God bless us all this day and may the peace and joy of the Risen Christ remain with us through the turmoil and strains of human living and bring us to the fullness of eternal life, promised by Our Saviour’s rising from the dead.
Bishop Joseph's homily for the Mass of Easter Sunday morning
Bishop Joseph's Homily
Welcome to our Easter Sunday Mass, especially to those who are visiting Oban. Many visitors are very impressed by our cathedral here in Oban, dedicated to our patron, St. Columba. Perhaps what impresses most on entering and looking around is the stonework itself – it gives the building a fine sense of grandeur and stability, worthy of any great cathedral. One verse from today’s psalm made me reflect on this building:“The stone which the builders rejected has become the corner stone.
This is the work of the Lord a marvel in our eyes.”
We believe of course that the rejected corner stone is Jesus, whose cruel passion and death we commemorated on Good Friday, and the marvellous work of the Lord is his rising from the dead, which we celebrate today with great joy and festivity.
It is fitting that we should have built such fine buildings as this cathedral to celebrate our faith in the Risen Lord and to give glory to God therein by our worship together. Buildings such as this have been constructed to stand the test of time, to be a permanent presence calling the people of successive generations to gather here to proclaim their Christian faith. They are as it were a statement that faith matters, that it is something good and necessary, that it has stood the test of time, and that we are the proud bearers of the tradition of faith in the Risen Lord that goes back to Mary of Magdala and Simon Peter and the beloved disciple discovering the empty tomb, to the household of Cornelius, who listened to the testimony of Peter and were baptised, and to the great convert apostle Paul, exhorting us all to find our true life in Christ, now seated at God’s right hand. Just as the apostles who were with Jesus on the mountain as he was transfigured said, “Lord it is wonderful for us to be here”, so always for us gathered today in Oban Cathedral, proclaiming that the Lord has risen and we believe.
But does faith in Christ really matter? Well we do live today in a society in which there has been some rejection of faith, and indeed many now would promote a secular future in which faith is very much a fringe activity. The onus is on us who profess our faith in Christ to show that it gives quality, direction and sustenance to human living, that life is much better when we have faith and that it is a precious gift to hand on to the younger members of our communities. One thing that faith saves us from is centring everything on ourselves, and St Paul quickly grasped the importance of this:
“Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on things that are on the earth, because you have died, and now life is hidden with Christ in God.”
Of course we all have our own lives and concerns to deal with here on earth, but it is good to be reminded that they are not everything and that to be truly at ease with all the many people and in all the things that touch our lives we need also to have this inner deeper part of us that looks beyond our worldly affairs and brings us into contact with God. For us Christians the hidden life in Christ Jesus the Lord makes this possible, and of course we believe this hidden life is sustained and nourished by the community of faith to which we belong and in which we are fed by God’s Word and Sacraments.
Part of our Easter Sunday experience of celebrating this faith is the renewal of our baptismal promises. As we do this in a few moments time we reject evil and the sin of Adam, from which we have been cleansed through our baptism; we profess our faith in the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as revealed to us by Jesus, and in whose name the waters of baptism were poured over our heads; we renew our allegiance once more to the Holy Catholic Church, Our Mother, of which we became members through our baptism and through and in which we are privileged to live the faith of the apostles, martyrs, and all the saints through the ages. In accepting then the blessing with the holy water we pray that we may remain faithful to our baptism and be true and strong witnesses to Jesus Christ in our own time and place.
May God bless us all this day and may the peace and joy of the Risen Christ remain with us through the turmoil and strains of human living and bring us to the fullness of eternal life, promised by Our Saviour’s rising from the dead.