St. Peter’s Day
June 29, 2025

Wherein ye greatly rejoice, though now for a season, 
if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: 
that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold 
that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise 
and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ….
(1 St. Peter i. 6,7) 
 

Concerning the Saint whom we celebrate today – St. Peter – we know more than about the other Apostles or even the Mother of our Lord. We don’t know anything about Saint Peter’s wife, except that he had one, and that her mother was once sick and Jesus healed her. Saint Peter’s original name was Simon. He was the son of Jonah, had a brother named Andrew, came from the village of Bethsaida, and had a fishing business along with James and John, the sons of Zebedee. Simon was later called Peter. The word in Latin is Petrus, derived from the Greek Πετροσ and related to the Aramaic word for kepa, which became, again in Greek, Κηφασ, all basically meaning rock. So we read of either Simon Peter or Cephas in the New Testament as the rock upon whom Christ Jesus intended to build his Church. 

The rest of what we know of Simon Peter can be read in the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of St. Paul, and St. Peter’s own Epistles. Suffice it to say that St. Peter was an eyewitness of the adult life of Jesus Christ, denied the Lord whom he knew, witnessed His Resurrection, received the Holy Ghost at Pentecost, and then went on to contribute in no small way to the conversion of the nations. Tradition has it that he died a martyr at Rome, crucified upside down by the Emperor Nero between 64 and 67 A.D. He was crucified upside down because he did not deem himself worthy to be hung right-side-up like his Lord. 

What is most remarkable about Saint Peter is this. Far beyond the miracles that he performed or any details of his personal life that the Scripture reveals, Saint Peter came to embrace the living Christ fully in his heart after much trial and tribulation. His faith was tried with fire. (idem) We know that Peter was full of impetuous and impulsive energy, whose passions too often overran wisdom.

St. Peter’s faithful zeal and passion for Christ needed to be moderated by prudence before he could become a true disciple and shepherd of the embryonic Church. The Peter who should be the rock on which the Church would be built had to be completely broken and ground to powder before converting truly to Christ. When later, Peter exhorts his friends to come to Christ, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious (1 St. Peter ii. 5), he speaks as a man who had at one time denied Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, that precious stone, the head of the corner, had been to him a stone of stumbling, a rock of offence, because he had stumbled at the Word [of God in Jesus Christ], being disobedient. (Ibid, 8)

St. Peter, chosen by Christ, knew only too acutely and piercingly his own sin against the Master. When Jesus was undergoing interrogation for crucifixion, Peter denied that he knew the Lord three times, and when the cock crowed, Peter went outside and wept bitterly. (Ibid, 62) Jesus prophesied that Peter would deny him, but He said also, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you as wheat.  But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers. (St. Luke xxii. 31) Satan would try Peter’s faith much in the same way that he had tested Job’s.
        
So Peter did, as prophesied, indeed turn back to the Lord; he repented, waited, watched, and finally was converted through Christ’s Resurrection and the descent of the Holy Ghost into his soul. Like the woman who bathed Jesus’ feet with her tears, Simon [whose] sins which [were] many, [were] forgiven; for [he] loved much. (St. Luke vii. 47) But St. Peter’s conversion would be an ongoing process, in constant need of readjustment and reform.
What is most remarkable about Saints Peter’s faith is that it was accompanied by humility. Holding tenaciously onto his old Jewish religion, St. Peter had to learn to humbly cede Jewish tradition to Christ’s Grace. The nature of his eventual mission to the Gentiles came only once his prejudicial bigotry was wholly conquered. That the Gentile Christians were to be treated as equals, fellow sinners in need of Christ’s redemption, equally capable of revealing Christ’s power, came to St. Peter slowly.

What St. Peter learned was in large part due to the conversion of St. Paul. Following his conversion and baptism at the hands of Ananias in Damascus, St. Luke tells us that Paul proved his courageous faith through preaching. He began to preach Christ in the Synagogues, that Christ was the Son of God…increasing in strength and confounding the Jews at Damascus. (Acts, ix. 20, 22) Paul escaped from Damascus by the skin of his teeth. St. Barnabas brought him to Jerusalem and presented him to the Apostles. Peter and his fellow Apostles were skeptical of Paul’s conversion until Barnabas revealed that he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. (ibid, 27) When Paul began to debate with the Hellensistic Jews of Jerusalem, the Apostles saw that his faith in Christ was unwavering since the Jews sought to kill him, requiring the Jerusalem Church to send Paul home to Tarsus for a season. The Church was beginning to realize that Paul’s mission might very well be to the Gentiles.

At the same time, curiously enough, St. Peter’s faith was being tried and tested to align with St. Paul’s wisdom. Peter was called up to the newly established Christian community of Lydda. There he met a Hellenistic Jew named Aeneas, who kept his bed for eight years and was sick of the palsy. (ibid, 33) Peter would engage Christ for Aeneas. He said to Aeneas, Jesus Christ maketh thee whole: arise, and make thy bed. And he arose immediately. (ibid, 34) Aeneas means praiseworthy in ancient pagan Greek and carries our minds to the great Trojan warrior who founded Rome.

Next, the church in Joppa had petitioned Peter to come to them because a Hellenized disciple of Christ named Tabitha, full of good works and alms deeds, (ibid, 36) had died. The church at Joppa had washed her body and laid it in an upper chamber. (ibid, 37) These early Christians had not buried her immediately because they had hoped that Peter might come to work a miracle to bring her back to life.  Peter arrived at Tabitha’s home, where he found the mourning widows. But Peter put them all forth. (ibid, 40) Peter would not seek his own vainglory by performing before the whole congregation. This was a time for prayer and solitude with Christ. Peter kneeled down and prayed, and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise. And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up. (ibid, 40) Tabitha means gracious. Contact with both Aeneas and Tabitha was considered proper by St. Peter. Aeneas was a Jew who was healed for conversion; Tabitha was a Jewish Christian whose service of the Gospel would continue.

But St. Peter’s faith needed further strengthening. Twelve miles north of Joppa a Hellenized pagan or righteous Gentile, a Roman Centurion, a leader of the Italian band was stationed. His name was Cornelius. Cornelius would be the first Gentile on record to have become a Christian. Cornelius received a vision from God because he was a devout pagan, who served God with all his house, gave alms to the poor, and prayed constantly. (ibid, x. 2) An angel of God instructed him to send for Simon Peter, who was at Joppa. The next day, we find Peter going up to pray at noon, overcome with hunger, and falling into a trance. Peter, too, received his own vision. A great sheet descended from heaven with all manner of birds and beasts upon it, both clean and unclean in his Jewish eyes. He heard a voice saying, Peter, rise, kill, and eat. (ibid, 13) But St. Peter’s Jewish blood resisted contamination with anything unclean. Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean. (ibid, 14) God responded, what God hath cleansed, that call thou not common. (ibid, 15) In Christ, Peter would be called to see that nothing that God has made is common or unclean, beyond cleansing, be it food to eat or a Gentile to be converted. In Christ, Peter would be called to welcome the Gentile embassy and travel with them to meet the righteous Cornelius and bring him to baptism. St. Peter was called to make contact with what his Jewish sensibilities forbade. He had to see that the Gentiles were neither common nor unclean, but as equally in need of Jesus Christ as any sinful Jew.

From St. Paul, St. Peter would learn about the universality of the Gospel and the need to go forth and teach all nations. Through a trial by fire, the spiritual facts challenged his cherished Jewish prejudices. Cornelius was sent by Christ to Peter that Peter might learn that the Gentiles would also have their share of Christ’s redemption. Peter’s loyalty to Christ’s promises made to the Jews would need to expand beyond racial and cultural boundaries. Peter needed to learn that Christ is the source of greater promises for all men. In the end, since Cornelius was commanded to send for Peter, he would press Peter for his share in the Gospel truth with a desire for Christ that would overcome Peter’s sinful judgment of the Gentiles. Peter learned that what he called common and unclean could be cleansed.
        
As tradition has it, Saints Peter and Paul would be exiled from Israel, their own native Jewish land, where God’s own chosen people persisted in rejecting Christ. Both would learn, too, that not all Gentiles welcomed the Gospel. Christ was as offensive to Caesar and the Jewish Rabbis alike. Gentile and Jew alike could accept or reject Christ. St. Peter, with St. Paul, was tried by fire. St. Peter would learn that if he would be faithful to Christ, he must never deny the benefit of the salvation to any man, be he Jew or Greek. For before his eyes the Holy Ghost descended upon Cornelius and his Italian Band, unloosing tongues that glorified God and desired Baptism, which Peter could not deny but would hereafter offer to all willing.
Today, let us give thanks to God for the life and witness of St. Peter, for his repentance, honesty, and willingness to have his faith increased and perfected for redemption of the Jews and conversion of the Gentiles beginning in Jerusalem and continuing in Rome, for the West and beyond.
 
Amen.
©wjsmartin

 
 
    
 
 
  

Trinity I
June 22, 2025
 
Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst 
thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: 
but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
(St. Luke xvi. 25)
 
Last week we were invited to contemplate the life of God the Holy Trinity, one God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. We have entered Trinity Tide. Trinity tide is all about belief that grows into God’s Wisdom and Love. Trinity tide is about entering the life of God the Father, through His Wisdom in the Son, and by the Love of the Holy Ghost. Our season of Trinity is the longest in the Church Year because it mirrors our lives, the span of which must be devoted to the constant and habitual return of our hearts and souls to God.
Being born again into the life of God, discerning God’s Wisdom and applying His Love to our lives takes time. In the seasons prior to Trinity, we behold the facts of Christ’s most holy Incarnation. We move from His birth, through childhood, into His adult ministry. We see that He has taken on our human nature to reconcile it with the Father through the Spirit. We discern that nothing, even unjust and unmerited suffering and death would stand int the way of His determination to defeat sin, make death into the seedbed of new life, and put Satan in his place. From Christmas to Pentecost, we study the life of Christ, which begins and ends with God. Christ rose from the dead and remained with His friends for a mere forty days. He ascended to the Father and sent the Holy Ghost into the Church. And this is where we find ourselves today.  

But Trinity Tide cannot begin without a keen sense of God’s goodness and our need for it. In Christ alone we find God’s goodness. In Christ’s enemies, namely the Pharisees, we find its contrary. Prior to today’s Gospel, Jesus has issued a warning: Ye cannot serve God and Mammon. (St. Luke xvi. 13) Mammon means both riches and possessions in both the Hebrew and Greek. It can also mean that in which one trusts. Throughout the New Testament, we learn that while the Pharisees lived austere and puritanical lives, their chief sin was covetousness. They did not value God’s goodness enough. Their hearts were set on this world and their earthly power. Their faith was weak, and they took refuge in their view that the Law brought them closest to God. They jealously coveted their hold on God through the Law, as a result, they enviously resented God’s Wisdom and Love in the life of Jesus Christ.

So, Jesus gives them a parable. There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day….(St. Luke xvi. 19) St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that the worship of Mammon is here illustrated in the prosperity of the wicked by way of temporal success. (St. TA: Hom. Trin. I) The Pharisees were rich with worldly power. They were attired in the fine and costly garment of the Law. They feasted on it as what enabled them to lord God’s power over all other men.

We read also that there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. (Ibid, 20,21) Against the Pharisees, we have the image of Lazarus. His name is mentioned because his name is written in the Book of Life. Lazarus means the one whom God has helped. He is a beggar because every poor Christian soul needs God’s goodness and pleads for His mercy. He was full of sores (Idem) because his life is forever wounded by the Devil. He is laid at the rich man’s gate (Idem) because the rich man’s gate should men the door that leads to Heaven. Lazarus longs to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table since in time and space every Christian soul needs only the fragments that fall from Christ’s table. That only stray dogs came and licked his sores, reveals that the Christian will be rejected by most men.

So, we find a great contrast between the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man, like the Pharisees, has no little acquaintance with God’s goodness. Lazarus, the true Christian, desperately needs it. Lazarus symbolizes the poverty of spirit that is a prerequisite to God’s Grace. Unless fallen man knows his spiritual poverty, he shall never be made rich in soul with God’s goodness. St. Thomas says the life of a Saint is found in contempt of this world. ‘Lazarus was laid at his gate.’ ‘We are made as the filth of the world and are the offscouring of all things unto this day.’ (idem, 1 Cor. iv. 13) If men follow Christ, they will be ignored, abandoned, and left half dead at Heaven’s gate by the world. They will endure bitterness of tribulations and afflictions –‘Full of sores.’  But the Christian remembers also, whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. (Hebrews xii. 6)

Next, we read, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. (Ibid, 22) Lazarus is a vision of the Saint who dies and is taken to Paradise. We learn also that the rich man died and found himself in Hell whence he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. (Ibid, 23) St. Thomas reminds us, Lazarus was received with honor and glory by the Angels. The rich man was buried with honor and glory by unnamed earthly men...only to end up in Hell. (Idem) Lazarus’ name is written in Heaven, and we hear no more from him because God’s goodness is now his treasure. The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God and there shall no torment touch them. (Wis. iii. 1) But the Rich Man, like the covetous Pharisees, is left out. His soul and body are tormented because he coveted his share of earthly goodness but neglected to see that all goodness comes from God. To make matters worse, he has a vision into the Paradise he rejected and knows that Lazarus is in a better state, having been relieved of his spiritual suffering and poverty. So, he cries, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. (Idem, 24) The Rich Man cries out for relief because, still, he maintains his earthly importance and believes that Lazarus is now most fit to become his slave.

The parable gives us a vision of the hard truth of God’s goodness. Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. (Ibid, 25) They who settle for earthly goodness end up in Hell. They alone who suffer, struggle, and are poor in spirit can receive God’s goodness for eternal happiness. Men have one life to live, and at death they shall be judged. When a man dies, he is either taken up or cast down. If he is taken up, he cannot descend to help his lost brothers; if he is cast down, he cannot ascend. At the end of life, man’s relation to Christ shall be rewarded with Heaven or Hell. The rich man, realizing his fate, calls to Abraham to rescue his earthly family. Send Lazarus to my brethren that he might serve up the truth to them (Ibid, 29), for if they see Lazarus risen from the dead, they will believe. (Ibid, 30) Abraham assures him that they will not be persuaded though one rose from the dead since they did not hear Moses and the Prophets. (Ibid) Even a vision of Christ’s Resurrection seldom saves covetous ‘good men’. For I say unto you that unless your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. (Matt. V. 20) We have a vision of this in Christ on His Cross where, though He became Lazarus, poor and abandoned, in the poverty of His death, He was already hard at work doing for poor fallen men what they could not do for themselves.

In this life, Lazarus was poor, but he is now rich in Paradise. The rich man is now poor in Hell, clinging arrogantly to the vision of God that rejects His Wisdom and Love in Jesus Christ. The rich man is destined to live forever in the illusion of his own goodness. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for God is love. (1 John iv 8) The rich man, the Pharisee, could not see that God is Love. The rich man, the Pharisee, did not realize that God’s goodness is found in Jesus Christ, and
that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 
(ibid, 9,10)
 
Today, by God’s Grace, let us acquire a vision of ourselves in poor Lazarus, reaching out to Christ alone, knowing that we cannot pass through Heaven’s gate unless we obtain Heaven’s mercy, ‘hoping to obtain crumbs that fall from [God’s] table. We detect a deeper symbolism. Lazarus, full of sores, is like Christ on His Cross, longing to make His death into new life. In Lazarus and in Christ, we desire to eat of the crumbs that fall from [God’s] table. Like Lazarus, if I have no strength of will, no nobility of disposition, no excellence of character, Christ says, “Blessed are you”, because it is through this poverty that I enter His Kingdom….I can only enter His Kingdom as a pauper. (O. Chambers, August 21) Lazarus the pauper is a vision of Christ who became poor, that [we] through His poverty, might be rich. (2 Cor. viii. 9) Lazurus is you and I.

Amen.
©wjsmartin
 

After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. (Rev. iv. 1)
 
            
Today is Trinity Sunday, the beginning of Trinity Tide. Trinity means three, and Trinity Tide is an invitation to enter the threefold life of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. On Trinity Sunday, a door is opened from Heaven to earth, and we are summoned to go up or to move above ourselves into the source of all reality and goodness.
Christianity is a religion founded on the facts of Divine Revelation. Its God is a God who wishes to be known. (The Christian Year, p. 142) Heaven’s door is opened to man in God’s revelation of Himself. Christians believe in one God. The Bible teaches us that one God lives, knows, and wills. The substance and nature of God is one and simple. But the same God who wishes to be known reveals Himself to the minds of men. God is being or life; He is the I Am revealed to Moses. God is Word, Logos, or Truth; I Am informs all life with meaning and purpose. God is Spirit, the lord and giver of life. The life is the Father, who begets His truth – the Son, by the Spirit. The Spirit proceeds from the Father to the Son and from the Son back to the Father. Through the Spirit of love, the Father lives to think, and Son thinks to live. One God is life and thought through love. One God is Father, Word, and Spirit. There are not three gods but one God. The inner relations or operations of the Godhead we call Persons of the Trinity.

No doubt, this doctrine is confusing and difficult to comprehend. God is a mystery. In this life, we can never hope to understand God as He understands Himself. But because we worship a God who intends to be known, we must struggle to understand something about Him. St. Paul says we know in part (1 Cor. xiii. 9) St. John tells us that No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath made Him known. (St. John i. 18) For Christians, the knowledge of God comes through the Father’s revelation of Himself in the life of His Son, His Word made flesh, Jesus Christ. A door is opened from Heaven to earth in the life of Jesus.

In Jesus Christ, we begin to learn that God not only exists or lives as the Father but knows as the Son and loves as the Spirit. In Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, we come to know the Son of the Father by the Spirit. In coming to know the Son, we discover our own place in relation to God the Father, as His potential children. We were made to become the sons and daughters of God the Father. In Jesus, we can come to see and know who and what we must become if we would be God’s offspring once again. In Jesus, the knowledge of God is made man. This knowledge as the way, the truth, and the life enables us to return to God.
 
Christians believe that the God of Scripture intends not only to be known but to be loved. Christians believe that God the Father sends His Son in the flesh to repair, redeem, and return Man to himself through the Spirit of His love. This morning, Jesus reveals to us the way of return. We read that a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews, named Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. (St. John iii. 1) We all come to Jesus by night, under the darkness of our own fallen human condition, in the quiet of the truth about our sinful selves, neither seeing nor knowing how to be reconciled with God. St. Thomas Aquinas tells us that coming to Jesus at night symbolizes that honest state of obscurity and ignorance in the Christian soul who seeks to know and love God. (TA: Comm. John iii.) In the night, Nicodemus approaches Jesus. Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. (St. John iii. 2) But Jesus, sensing Nicodemus’ ignorance, insists, verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. (St. John iii. 3) Man must be born again, a second time, from above, and by the Spirit, if he would know the way home to our Father. Nicodemus is confused: How can a man be born again when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb? (Ibid, 4) Nicodemus knows that he exists, knows, and wills in an earthly manner, but cannot fathom how he can be born again and live, know, and will in a spiritual way.

Jesus tries to help Nicodemus to understand what moves and defines His life. Jesus will help Nicodemus move from the flesh to the Spirit. Jesus continues, verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (St. John iii. 5-7) As Water cleanses the body, the Spirit must cleanse the soul. As water cleanses Christ’s body, Spirit forever keeps him spiritually pure with God. Man is born of the flesh, is a fallen son of Adam, and must be cleansed of his filth by Water. Man is a spiritual creature and so must be made pure inwardly by the Spirit to become a son of the Father once again.

Jesus continues, Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. (St. John iii. 8) Jesus says that the wind comes and goes mysteriously like the air we breathe and can never be traced or captured. The Spirit is invisible also and moves in secret, hidden ways. Jesus says, If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? (St. John iii. 12) Nicodemus is a religious ruler in Israel who should remember that the Father informs the world through His Word and moves it by His Spirit.

We speak of what we know, and bear witness of what we have seen. (Ibid, 11) The Word of God made flesh, the Son, knows all things from the Father by the Spirit. Nicodemus does not yet know that no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. (Ibid, 13) Man has fallen from God; he cannot know or will the good. The Son of Man must come down from Heaven to take on man’s fallen flesh and redeem it with the Spirit’s Love on the Cross. That which is born of flesh is flesh; that which is born of Spirit is Spirit. (Ibid, 6) Man’s flesh can return to the Father only if he is born of the Spirit to embrace Christ’s Death as what alone conquers sin, to be born again, to know and will the good, and to be lifted into Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension for reconciliation with the Father. Behold a door is opened, as God makes all things new.

God, the Holy Trinity, invites us to participate in His life through the very faculties we use daily to exist, know, and will much lesser goods. Behold a door is opened. Cardinal Von Balthasar reminds us that only on the basis of the Divine Trinity can there be something like Grace in our lives. (H.V.B. Sermon on the Trinity) Our God, the Holy Trinity, offers us His Grace to conquer sin through the knowledge of the Son and the quickening of the Spirit to return to the Father. This calls for nothing short of our willingness to born from above. Being born again means that we can exist, know, and will to be redeemed and saved by one God. The Father, who is God, lives to reveal Himself to us in the Son through the Spirit. The Son, who is God, knows us as the Father’s potential children through the Spirit. The Spirit, who is God, desires and wills the Father’s goodness in us in the Son. As such, we shall be saved by the only source, meaning, and activity capable of making something abundantly good out of our fallen natures through the intimate life, light, and love of God the Holy Trinity.   

Amen.   
©wjsmartin
 
 
 

The Sunday after Ascension
June 1, 2025
          
Ascension Tide is one of the shortest of Church’s liturgical seasons, lasting only ten days. On the fortieth day after Easter, Christ ascended to the Father. Ten days later, He sends the Holy Spirit into the Apostolic Church on the feast of the Pentecost, or Whitsunday. So we have but a few days to examine the significance and meaning of the Ascension for us.
         
The Ascension of Jesus Christ restores human nature to God the Father. Then, ten days later, Christ will send the Holy Spirit into the newly formed Church in order to incorporate believers into the life of the Holy Trinity. In the simplest of terms, Christ, the Son of God, fully Glorified as the Son of Man, returns to the Father to establish a permanent home for the Saved or God’s Elect. Every aspect of Human Nature in need of repair and restoration has been Redeemed in Christ and now sits at the Father’s Right Hand. Human life is now returned to the Father’s presence in the heaven that Christians will call home. Christ our Saviour now intercedes for us and prays for our salvation. Christ prays the Father that we might freely will to go where He has gone.
         
But back to the Ascension itself. On Ascension Day, we tried to hint at the sovereignty of Christ that is manifested gloriously in His return to the Father. Christ returns to Heaven as its Lord, having subdued the earth, reclaimed it for God, and redeemed His fellow men. Christ had secured His lordship over the souls of His Apostles, His Mother, and the holy women. Now it was up to his followers to persuade the world to submit to His lordship. His Ascension seals the fate of the universe. Christ, who humbled Himself to redeem mankind and creation, would now assert His rule from Heaven until His coming again, to judge both the quick and the dead. The extent to which His followers could convert the nations would depend upon His continued rule of their hearts and souls. Without the rule of Christ in human hearts, His most Holy Incarnation would be left without witness and success. As Paul Claudel writes,

Jesus Christ, the Man-God, highest expression of creation, rises from the depths of matter where the Word was born by uniting with woman’s obedience, toward that throne which was predestined for Him at the right hand of the Father. From this place He continues to exercise his magnetic power on all creatures; all feel deep within them that summons, that injunction, to ascend. (I Believe…159)
 
To be sure, all creatures have always felt the magnetic power of Christ, the Logos, the Word, and the Wisdom of God that defines and perfects all creatures in an imperfect world. No apple tree, no farm animal, and even no man escapes the rational power of God in Jesus Christ to bring each respective creature to its appointed end, in imitation of perfection. The apple tree, following laws written upon it by God, grows to produce fruit and then to drop seeds as it imitates God’s power to reproduce and perpetuate the life that it owns. Farm animals, in addition to providing all manner of nutriment to men, reproduce themselves to continue a cycle of provision to the creation that imitates God’s good will for the earth. Even men, as inclined to wickedness as they may be, at a bare minimum reproduce themselves, no doubt subconsciously deriving some satisfaction in the reproduction of the species. All creation follows the Lordship of Christ by laws written on their natures or with some hint of a higher good found in the desire to make themselves in their children.

But beyond this, for man, there is much more to be discovered in the magnetic power of Christ. For men who are searchers, seekers, and explorers, in Christ the magnetic power is offered from God to them for the deeper satisfaction of their restless souls, which long for union with the divine. St. Peter says this morning that the end of all things is at hand. (1 St. Peter, iv. 7) Something has been accomplished and finished in the life of Christ which promises to carry men away from their earthly limitations, their sin, their death, the ongoing assaults of the Devil, into a lasting peace with God forever. For St. Peter and all faithful followers of Christ, man’s alienation from God has been overcome, his sin has been conquered, his death has taken on new meaning, and Satan has been put in his place. For St. Peter and all faithful followers of Christ, repair, redemption, and salvation have now become a real possibility through God’s Grace. The rule and governance of Christ, the Logos of the universe, now has special meaning for man. Now the human life of Christ is offered to all men as the way home to Heaven and the instrument of deliverance. For those who follow Christ, there is a summons and call to ascend with Christ in heart and mind, and with Him to continually dwell. Thus, above and beyond the contours of human existence in time and space, man is now invited to live above and beyond himself, through Christ, in the presence of God the Father.   

But, as St. Peter continues this morning, Ascension for Christians means more than gazing up into the Heavens. Ascension Tide is a call to be born again, that we might live out a life of obedience to Christ. St. Peter insists that if we would follow Christ home to Heaven, we must be sober and watching unto prayer. (idem) And if the magnetic power of the Ascended Christ is understood as God’s charity made flesh for us, then His love must define our lives in the Church, the new body of Christ. We must have fervent charity amongst ourselves, for charity covereth a multitude of sins. (ibid, 8) The gift of charity is fully expressed in Christ’s death on the Cross, where His love has conquered all sin and made death into the seedbed of new life. The gift of charity is God’s love for us men and for our salvation. This gift is given to be shared with one another. What we speak and what we do are to reveal that the Ascended Christ rules and governs our hearts and souls. Christians are called to reveal the Ascended Christ in thoughts, words, and works. In Ascension Tide, Bishop Westcott reminds us, we are encouraged to work beneath the surface of things to that which makes all things, all of us, capable of consecration. [For] Christ is not only present with us as Ascended: He is active for us. (Sermons…) Beneath the surface of life in the body, we Christians are called to find that love that begins to return our hearts and souls to God.

As our Lord Jesus Christ has ascended back to God the Father to prepare a place for us, we must in heart and mind thither ascend, and with [Him] continually dwell. We must set our hearts on things above and not things of the earth. (Col. iii. 2) Again, with Paul Claudel, we must confess that too long in this low place, we have been the slaves of gravity and the law of matter. Too long have we been at the mercy of chance and vanity. The time has come for us to take our flight, body, and soul, toward our Higher Cause. (I Believe, 160.) In Christ, we must ascend back to the Father. Christ now reigns gloriously in the greatness of His power and majesty and desires us to have our conversation with Him in Heaven, to love His appearing, and to be dissolved into His love. (Jenks, 352) We must ask Him to begin to reign and rule as King Supreme from the thrones of our hearts. We must begin to feel the powerful attraction of Christ’s Grace and Holy Spirit, to draw up our minds and desires from the poor perishing enjoyments here below, to those most glorious and everlasting attainments above where Christ sits at the right hand of God. (Idem, Jenks) 

Of course, the Holy Ghost cannot be of much use to us until we have ascended with Christ back to the Father. We must first ascend if a suitable place in our hearts and souls is to be made ready for the indwelling of the Holy Ghost. If we would ascend with Christ to Heaven, we will have placed ourselves in subjection to Him. Christ who was once an earthly lord to the Apostles is now believed and known to be the Lord not only of life and death, but the Lord of Heaven and Hell. Christians believe that Christ is the Judge Eternal, throned in splendor. In time and space, we continue to fight the good fight of faith for eternal judgment.

Today, Christ promises us that from His Ascended Glory, He will send the Comforter to us, the Spirit of Truth. (St. John, xv. 26) The Spirit will testify or give witness to Christ’s salvific purposes for us. The Spirit will establish the truth of the Ascended Christ’s magnetic power in our hearts and souls. And if we would be ruled and governed by the Ascended Christ, we cannot remain faithful without the Holy Ghost. Christ prophesies that the world and men who forget, disregard, or reject the magnetic power of Christ, will persecute us.

They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service. And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me.

If the Ascended Christ rules our hearts and souls, we should expect nothing less than suffering. Christ warns us that the pattern of suffering, sacrifice, and death is normative for those who would follow Him, imitate Him, and be saved.
        
The Ascended Christ pleads our cause at God’s right hand in Heaven. To be acclimated to this eternal resting place, we must allow Christ’s character to rule and govern our lives. Bishop Whichcote said long ago, heaven is first a temper, and then a place. A temper is a disposition. May our tempers, then, secure us as Christ’s servants, living above ourselves and ruled by Heaven’s ways. For when the Holy Ghost comes to us, we pray that He finds our hearts and minds intending to live in conformity to God’s will, ever longing to reveal to others that the Ascended Christ so rules our hearts and wants to rule theirs also.

Amen.
©wjsmartin