26TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR – 2016

The great G.K. Chesterton once made a telling distinction between the imagery of Buddhism and Christianity. If one looks at an image of the Buddha, he says, it is generally of a rounded, sleek figure with its eyes closed. The sayings of the sages of the East have tended to be lofty and inspiring. If one looks the poverty at large tracts of the East, however, their wisdom seems to have made little difference to the world in which they lived, from which, in many cases, they separated themselves. The holy men of the east are to be found in high, quiet, clean places, engaged in lofty contemplation, awaiting those in search of enlightenment to come to them.

The medieval image of a Catholic saint, on the other hand, is an emaciated figure with burning eyes wide open, staring searchingly on the world about. The Christian saint marches out to call the world to conversion, to live a life worthy of God. “Thy will be done” is their inspiration; to embody the holiness of God in their very lives. The saints of Christendom do not sit in lofty isolation, waiting for the world to come to them; they go down into the stews to search for men, to bring the Good News from on high to earth’s lowest places; there they are to be found, washing the feet of the lowliest, as did Jesus, who humbled himself and did not grasp at equality with God. It is through the saints of Christendom that the world has been irrevocably changed.

One of the distinguishing marks of Christianity is its concern with reality. For Cardinal Newman, it is the key to the true Christian Church. He pointed out continually that a Christian life is not one moved periodically be lofty thoughts, such as can be inspired by sermons, which then goes out to live its more or less pagan existence until moved by the next lofty inspiration. It is a life lived out in constant daily faithfulness to God through prayer, charity and sacrifice. It is persistence in faith rather than intensity of feeling that marks out the way of a Christian. This is the meaning of St. Philip Neri’s ordinary way to holiness; it is also the meaning of Jesus’ calling to take up of one’s cross daily and follow him. Or his words at the end of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel: “It is not those who say ‘Lord, Lord!’ who shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but those who do the will of my Father in heaven.” Or, finally, in the profound words of the Lord’s Prayer: Thy Kingdom come! Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!”

The challenge to us is to live for Christ, to do his will. Day by day, we must strive for God and his kingdom through prayer and the sacraments, through self-discipline and self-sacrifice; through doing his will. It is not good enough to feel inspired by lofty words, and then to go out and continue in the same old way. We must go out from here and actually do what he asks. And if we sometimes do it grudgingly, it is of the utmost importance that we do it nevertheless.

Fr Phillip

ODEIN SCHOOL OF MUSIC — ORGAN WEEK

In 2016, the annual SAKOV meeting & bursary competition will collaborate with the OSM to present a joint initiative with the activities of the Liesbeth Schlumberger Organ Chair.

The Liesbeth Schlumberger Organ Chair was founded in 2015 by the Odeion School of Music, UFS (OSM) and is positioned under the auspices of the OSM International Artistic Mentorship Programme (IAMP). 

The main objective of the IAMP is the establishment of partnerships with musicians (soloists, chamber musicians and pedagogues) who enjoy established international careers. On par with international tendencies the aim is to deploy these experts as instructors, coaches and mentors OSM students; this compliments the work of complimentary to the residential OSM performance faculty.

The main event of the Chair is an annual two-week intensive tuition programme given by Liesbeth Schlumberger that aims to mentor and tutor South African organ students and organists. A long-term aim is that talented OSM organ students will have the opportunity to study for a semester or more under Ms Schlumberger in France.

SOME HIGHLIGHTS OF THE EVENT:

CONCERTS

22 September 17:30 – 18:30

Liesbeth Schlumberger
German Lutheran Church St Paulus (Ott Organ)
Programme: works by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck, John Bull, Georg Böhm
Free entrance

22 September 22:00

Late Night Concert with work by Olivier Messiaen Concert
Eljee Du Plooy (Phd Performance) & Gerhard de Bruin (MMus Performance) students from the OSM Organ Class of Dr Jan Beukes
Sacred Heart Catholic Cathedral, Bloemfontein (Allen Organ)
Programme: Olivier Messiaen: L'ascension & La Nativité du Seigneur
Free entrance

23 September 19:30

Liesbeth Schlumberger in Concert
Odeion (SAOB Organ rebuilt by Elsenaar J, Protea Orrelbouers)
Programme: works by César Franck, Maurice Duruflé & Julius Reubke
Tickets at Computicket or at the door.

24 September 13:00 - 14:00

Lunch Hour Concert
Kovsie Church (Marcussen Organ)
Free entrance

24 September 19.30

SAKOV Bursary Gala Concert
Odeion (SAOB Organ rebuilt by Elsenaar J, Protea Orrelbouers)
Tickets at Computicket or at the door.

25 September 9:00

Morning Service accompanied by Liesbeth Schlumberger
German Lutheran Church, St Paulus (Ott Organ)


 OTHER EVENTS

22 September 14:00 - 16:30

Organ Marathon
Dutch Reformed Church, Langenhovenpark

24 September 14:30 - 17.00

Organ Safari, commencing from the Kovsie Church (Marcussen Organ)

25th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR — 2016

Some years ago now there was a well-known British actor, who seemed to have everything: fame, looks, popularity, publicity, wealth, friends and charm. Yet to everyone’s shock, he one day, quite unexpectedly, committed suicide. His reason? As he put it in his suicide note: “I was so bored.”

What does it mean, to be so bored that life is not worth living? To have the world at one’s feet, and to find it bland and tasteless? This curious and rather sad story has a link with the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s gospel.

“You are the salt of the earth.” That is part of the essence of Jesus’ message. Yet what a wealth of meaning and profundity is contained in this apparently simple phrase. Consider first what salt means in our lives. Anyone who has been put on a low-salt cardiac diet will understand precisely the implications of this question, because for all the inventive substitutes science has offered, like potassium salt, there is no substance to compare with sodium chloride, good old-fashioned table salt, for bringing life and taste to food. 

Food without salt is about the most boring and bland thing one can imagine! Salt, literally, brings flavour and thus variety to life.

Now consider what would happen if salt were suddenly to lose its flavour. What use would it be to us? Its one great purpose is in bringing out the flavour of food; if it could no longer do that, it would be less than useless to us, in the words of Jesus, “fit only to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.” In Jesus’ words, “You are the salt of the earth.” he says that the disciple has the same function in the world as salt has in food. Just as the task of salt is to bring out the fullness of flavour in food, so the role of the disciple of Jesus is to bring out the fullness of meaning in the world.

The world was created by God, and human beings can only really learn to understand, to love, to care for the world, if we become aware of the meaning and purpose with which God has invested it. When we grasp God’s plan for his creation, it ceases to be a bland or indifferent place, and comes alive with colour, meaning and excitement. In the words of Gerald Manley Hopkins, the English poet and Jesuit priest, “The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”

This is at the heart of Jesus’ message “You are the salt of the earth.” It is God’s plan to reveal the purpose and destiny of his creation through the person of Jesus Christ. We are to be his presence in the world, through whom he reveals God’s presence to mankind. God wants us to be the means by which all men to see the glory, his glory, which shines out through creation, leading us beyond that which we see to the Creator himself.

Do you see yourself as one through whom the “grandeur of God” is revealed to the world? One has the uncomfortable feeling that we can be our own worst enemy in this task. Another British poet, Swinburne, wrote of Jesus: “Thou hast conquered, o Pale Galilean, and the world has grown grey with thy breath.” If this is the image the Church really projects, then we have much to answer for.

For we know of the great Creator of all, who saw that all he had made was good; we have been shown how any ugliness, any dullness in the world is not part of the nature of the creation itself, but the grey and dull ugliness of sin, which we have brought upon it. And we have been entrusted with the glorious news of its redemption through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ “for us men and for our salvation.” Finally, we know that God’s plan is for a renewal of creation, a restoration beyond even its initial beauty and goodness, to something unimaginably beautiful and holy.

If we are to be the “salt of the earth,” we must fulfill our God-given task of communicating the “grandeur of God” to those around us. May God bless each one of us, and may he make us, in word and deed, the “salt of the earth,” so that all men, in the words of the Psalmist, might “taste and see that the Lord is good.” Amen.

Fr Phillip

THE ORDINATION OF REV. STEPHEN ILECHUKWU

The Rev. Stephen Ilechukwu was ordained by Archbishop Nxumalo on Thursday 8th September at 12:00. He was presented by the Rev. Fr. Johnson, Provost-designate of the Bloemfontein Oratory-in-formation. Present was Fr. Henry Ezenwanne from the Port Elizabeth Oratory.

Music was provided by the Portuguese choir and Profs Viljoen from the University of the Free State, the organists of the Cathedral. 

The ordination was followed by a reception in the Donovan hall.   

24th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR — 2016

Paul’s letter to the Galatians gives us his great teaching on freedom. It is summed up in the words, “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom”.

Some of us might remember the resonant Latin phrase: “Ubi Spiritus, ibi libertas.”

In Galatians, Paul makes an interesting contrast. He does not oppose freedom with slavery, or imprisonment, or oppression, or captivity; he contrasts it with self-indulgence. And by self-indulgence he does not mean what we usually mean; gluttony, lust or any of the other modern materialisms we hear about with such regularity. For Paul, self-indulgence means two things; lack of love for neighbour, and failure to be guided by the Spirit of God.

For Paul, we cannot love one another, nor can we live at peace with each other, without the freedom from self-centredness, from self-indulgence, which only God’s Spirit can bring about in us. He uses the most common example of this in our lives; our extreme willingness to find fault with others, to snap at people for the faults they have that annoy us. We recognise how intolerant we can be of others’ weaknesses, and especially of their criticisms. We are outraged that someone should dare to tell us we are wrong about something, especially when that person has faults of his own. And how often do we lash out in kind; we counter someone else’s criticisms by criticizing them, hoping to neutralise their words by revealing to them that, since they are no better than we are, they have no business criticising us. In this way, marriages, families, cities and countries are torn apart or reduced to tattered shreds.

This is what Paul refers to as self-indulgence. It is one of the worst characteristics of human beings. It is one about which we moralise, one which we try to rectify by human means, through endless counseling, group discussions and platitudes.

But there is no real human solution to it. We have no human ways to correct each others’ sins; in fact, we are not going to correct people’s sins at all. Each one of us can help only ourselves, in this regard, with the help of God. But, like God, and with his help, we can learn to live with the sins and weaknesses of others, and to find ways of building them up. We need not to indulge our resentfulness and anger towards others, but to be sources of healing to them. This we will only ever be if we are enfolded in the liberating power of God’s Spirit. Only when we are possessed of the freedom of God’s Spirit will we be truly free, free especially from the self-indulgence of a mean human spirit.

“Ubi Spiritus, ibi libertas.” It was in this Spirit that Jesus died for our sins with the words, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do” on his lips. Paul emphasises this by reminding us that “Christ Jesus died for us while we were still sinners,” in other words, before we had even shown sorrow for our sins. It is also true of the saints; they lived for God, not themselves, and in the same freedom of the Spirit. Through it, they were able to love their neighbour as themselves, no matter what their neighbour’s sins. May we, following the exhortation of Paul, find the source of our strength in God, that we too might enjoy that same freedom in his spirit, and love our neighbour as ourselves. Amen.

Fr Phillip