Clergy Notes — Seventh Sunday After Pentecost, July 7, 2024

In last Sunday’s Gospel, we read of a woman in a state of constant impurity from which she is unable to escape. Transgressing boundaries of law, custom, and personal safety, she chooses to reach out to touch Jesus’ clothes, in assurance that by doing so, she will be healed. Her act of desperation and hope is a final bid for readmittance into community; even as her scandalous acts mark her as an outsider from it.

Of course, the unnamed woman’s gamble pays off. Jesus does heal her – well, sort of. It is Jesus himself who makes clear that the healing was kind of her idea; indeed, he couldn’t have done it without her partnership of faith. “Go,” he tells her, “Your faith has made you well.”

Perhaps the most succinct definition of a miracle is that is a suspension of the ordinary laws of nature. Since this is something only God can do, performing miracles would have been seen by witnesses as verification of the claims Jesus makes about himself. We see him cast out demons, walk on water, and raise the dead. Throughout all these miracles, there’s never any question that he’ll struggle to make it happen, much less that he might fail.

But it’s different when Jesus comes to work miracles on living human beings. Uniquely with Jesus’ healing miracles, he requires the cooperation (or at least acquiescence) of the subject in order for it take effect. He was, in a sense, the original “faith healer,” insofar as he required an affirmation of faith in order to heal.

In today’s Gospel, we find Jesus in his hometown. In Nazareth, Jesus is disappointed – “amazed at their unbelief” – and so is unable to perform the same works of power as he did with the woman who had touched the hem of his tunic. The vital ingredient for personal transformation – faith – is missing. The locals know their former neighbour for who he was, not who he is as the one commissioned by his Father at baptism in the River Jordan.

What these readings show to me is that the real miracle at work is the miracle of faith: a sense of open acceptance to the actions of God in transforming lives in unimaginable ways. Through that miracle, a world of wonders is unlocked.

Fr Neil Fernyhough

Download the Liturgy at Home booklet for Sunday, July 7, 2024.

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Clergy Notes — Sixth Sunday After Pentecost, June 30, 2024

At our last Diocesan Synod, one of the major tasks was to identify the primary Diocesan priorities for the next few years. The majority of people voted housing and homelessness amongst the top three. Bishop John has taken this directive very seriously and it has most certainly become a major focus of Diocesan efforts over the past year. Clearly we are all concerned about the very real and very dire housing situation in Greater Vancouver and beyond, and especially its impact on those who are most vulnerable.

One of the challenges with this – as with many social issues – is that there are already agencies and professionals who are far better equipped to deal with them on a practical level than the Church is. But, does that mean we are supposed to turn a blind eye and pretend we do not have a voice or a say at all? “Certainly not!” as St. Paul might say.

Social action and Christian faith are a natural partnership. However, when we as Christians engage in the movement of social reform, we must always do so leading with the Gospel. We must remember that – while of course we are called to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc. – it is not to make ourselves feel better about enormous structural issues we simply cannot fix. We need to be realistic about our ability to change things, whilst also having faith that the efforts we make are not in vain. The only way to do this is to remember what our primary reason for existence as the Church is: to proclaim the Gospel in our own time and age.

This is not separate from social justice – quite the opposite! As much as we can and should work towards social reform, we will burn out and fall into despair if we lose sight of the fact that our primary goal as the Body of Christ is to love God’s people as Christ does. If we can do that, in word and action, then we can truly say that we are living into the mission and vision that belongs to us uniquely as God’s holy Church, the Body of Christ. Then, no matter how dire the circumstances may be, there will always be hope, because rather than looking for impossible solutions, we will instead be looking for ways to bring the love of Christ into a desperate world. Then we can embody the hope which does not originate in us or anything we can do, but in Christ alone.

Mother Amanda

Download the Liturgy at Home booklet for Sunday, June 30, 2024.

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