Lent 2004
'The
Lord is compassion and love'
Dear Sisters
and Brothers in Christ,
Part
of my preparation for Lent involves looking ahead at the Scriptural
readings that are going to be put before us. They help to define my
thinking and praying on those matters that I want to experience in Lent
and share with you.
This
year we find ourselves in the company of St Luke. Described by some
as the evangelist of God's mercy and joy, he lays particular emphasis
on the love of Jesus for the poor and the sinner. Lent is traditionally
a time of conversion and repentance and so we will feel at home with
what he writes.
The
Gospel teaching that strikes me most forcibly is contained in the
parable of the Prodigal Son, to be read on the Fourth Sunday.
It is an intensely moving illustration of the immense love that God
has for those who drift away, but who come to their senses to return
to the embrace and welcome of the Father.
Many
of you will know that I had a wonderful opportunity last summer
to take a real break from the routine and duty of my work as your Bishop.
It wasn't that I was at the end of my tether or that I was approaching
some great crisis of faith. I was just tired. I needed to rest and pray
in order to recharge my batteries.
To start
with, I thought that I could step aside from my role and function
as a Bishop but I very quickly discovered that I could not do that.
I was, however, able to step away from the relentless discipline of
the diary and the demands on my time. I really needed to do that.
In some
ways, to quote the parable, I did go away "to a far country"
but not, I can assure you, "to squander my money on a life of debauchery."
Nevertheless, it really was a time when I was able "to come to
my senses" and discover again - even perhaps for the first time
- the real person who lay behind the role and the function.
I spent
the first days in retreat. Then, and subsequently, through a routine
and discipline of prayer and study - I became increasingly conscious
that, though the ordained ministry is in many ways my life and love,
my Christian life is rooted in the baptism that we all share.
If these
thoughts were at the centre of my prayer and reflection, at the
same time I needed to reconnect with my roots because of the crucial
human and Christian values to be found in the cherishing of family and
friends. I had neglected them in past years in the name of duty and
I know now that I have been made the poorer for this.
But
if half my time away was spent in this way, I also had a month entirely
on my own and this was a very important time of prayer - a chance to
spend time exclusively with the Lord.
It was
then that I began to realise some of the force of the parable of
the Prodigal Son, which is why it will be such an important feature
of my Lent this year. The phrase in the parable that strikes me more
than any other comes when the son speaks to himself after he has come
to his senses: "I must leave this place and go to my father…"
During
my period of leave, I became increasingly conscious that my life
had become so busy that I was in danger of losing my grasp on the unique
relationship that Christ was calling me to share. I needed to leave
that place - that way of living. My growing awareness of this, and God's
grace to act on it, will, I hope, mark a turning point in my life, not
simply as a bishop but as a Christian person.
In the
starkness of the experience of aloneness, I knew that I was being
called to something new. It was not, thank God, a call to a new job,
but rather, to a new way of living, one in which "being" had
to take precedence over the relentless "doing" which had so
often dominated my life. I needed to come back into the embrace of the
Father to grasp the simple truth that the person who gives little time
to himself and to God, has little to offer to others.
When
the time came to return to Portsmouth, I was more than ready and
eager to come home, though I realised how privileged and blessed I had
been to have been given this time away.
I felt
renewed and refreshed and I felt certain that I was on the threshold
of a new and exciting stage of my Christian journey. With the help of
your prayers, I hope I will be able to make something of whatever lies
ahead in God's providence.
I was
enabled by God to come to my senses, to leave the place where I
was and return to a fuller life in God. I will be able to renew that
journey in this coming season of Lent. By sharing some of my personal
journey with you, I hope that you too will be encouraged to seek and
find that fuller and freer Christian life with the Father who so insistently
calls us and constantly, but patiently, so longs to welcome us into
his arms.
Be assured
that the Lord who calls us is "the Lord of compassion and love,
slow to anger and rich in mercy." He waits to welcome us with open
arms. In this season of Lent, leave where you are, go to the Father
and grasp hold of the new life that the risen Christ offers you in the
celebration of Easter.
May God bless you all.+ Crispian
To be
read or made available at all Masses celebrated on the weekend of February
22nd/23rd,
7th Sunday of the year.
