Yesterday I touched the 'big bell' from the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament. It has been rescued from the rubble and is on its way to the "Quake City" exhibition soon to open at Canterbury Museum.
Michael Hanrahan’s account of the Churches of the diocese, “Built in Faith”
mentions the bells:
“The bells, which are the result of a bequest of
the late Nicholas Quinn, of Timaru, consisting of a two-ton tenor (the heaviest
bell in New Zealand) and a chime of three other bells, all of Belgian
manufacture and hung in the north tower.” (p.
60. Details for the purchase of “Built in Faith” can be found by
clicking on the book image below)
The funeral tolling of this "big bell" has accompanied the last journey of family and friends, priests and parishioners as they are carried from the Cathedral on their last earthly journey.
I had the opportunity today to see some parts of the Cathedral up close as work continues to preserve as much of the art and history as can be saved.
The door to the bell-ringing room is now on the ground.
Over the years people have added their names and comments to the door. A few of these are below. But the one that really captured my interested today was this one:
When I got home I googled the date - 9 March 1929 and found the quake referred to at exactly the right time 10.50am. Take a look at these links...the quake was centred in Arthurs Pass and was just a few months before the better-known Murchison quake. http://www.teara.govt.nz/en/historic-earthquakes/5
I was introduced to Tolkein's "The Hobbit" forty years ago. I was in Standard Four (equivalent of Year 6 today) at Marist Brothers Intermediate school in Timaru.
We had a great teacher, a young American woman in NZ for the year: Ruthanne Scofield. (I wonder if anyone knows where she is now? I would love to let her know that of all my teachers, she was one of the best).
Back to The Hobbit: Mrs Scofield would read to us. In the first week of the year she began the book, on many days she would read a little more to us. Before the end of the year together we completed the book. It was a real treat.
Today I still enjoy being read to - even more than watching a movie. For this reason I listen to books downloaded from audible.com as I drive around the Hurunui parishes. I am listening to The Hobbit this week.
It was years later when in Antarctica (for a 3 week Chaplaincy stint) when I moved on to Lord of the Rings.
Tomorrow night Peter Jackson's movie The Hobbit premiers in Wellington. The occasion brings back great memories for me: 1972, relaxing head-on-desk, listening to Mrs Scofield read to us.
There is a great Cecil Spring Rice poem that is better known for the Gustav Holst music it is often sung to. It is an appropriate anthem for today's feast of Christ the King.
Take a moment before listening to the hymn, to reflect on the poem. The first two verses, (especially the second) presents an earthly kingdom - the achievement of human efforts and military stealth and might.
The third stanza presents a different kind of kingdom, and it is this focus of today's feast: "her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her paths are peace."
I vow to thee, my country, all earthly things
above,
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my
love;
The love that asks no question, the love that
stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best;
The love that never falters, the love that pays the
price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.
I heard my country calling, away across the sea,
Across the waste of waters she calls and calls to
me.
Her sword is girded at her side, her helmet on her
head,
And round her feet are lying the dying and the
dead.
I hear the noise of battle, the thunder of her
guns,
I haste to thee my mother, a son among thy sons.
And there's another country, I've heard of long
ago,
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them
that know;
We may not count her armies, we may not see her
King;
Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is
suffering;
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds
increase,
And her ways are ways of gentleness, and all her
paths are peace.
The recording I have chosen is taken from Princess Diana's funeral. The melody is from Holst's Jupiter from the Planets Suite. The connection is a helpful reminder...on earth Diana had all the privilege of earthly royality and kingdoms. But for all of this she did not seem to find the happiness she sought.
At her funeral (no problem that they left out the second verse) the singing of this hymn brought a message of great hope: "and there's another kingdom..."
This is what we celebrate today: the feast of Christ the King.
In 1925 Pope Pius XI spoke strongly against secularism. The secularist wave then (as now), promotes worldly achievement and wealth as the ultimate human success. Following the difficult years of World War I, the 1920’s brought renewed hope. This new age promised prosperity.
However there was a sinister, powerful and pervasive element in this new ‘vision’. The hope promised by flourishing ideologies was no longer seen as eternal life gifted by God. Instead anyone who shouted loudly enough into the vacuum, became a saviour. These idealogues promoted worldly structures and achievements as the only real hope for the people.
In the opening days of 1925 Mussolini powered his way into position as dictator of Italy. He promised a kingdom better than any before. In July 1925 Hitler published “Mein Kampf”. This autobiographical manifesto outlined his plans for a new world that would bring ‘salvation’ for all those whom he considered to be deserving.
In December Pope Pius XI closed the 1925 Holy Year by issuing an encyclical letter announcing a new feast of Christ the King. This letter was a powerful reminder that human persons are not created to rule the earth as dictators as of right, but to serve. Our maker is our true monarch.
The Pope was speaking from the heart of Catholic (and therefore human) truth: it is of the nature of the human person to be subject to God. The problem that Adam and Eve had in the garden was that they grasped at the role of God. They attempted to dominate and control what did not belong to them. While this sin may have been original at the time it is now the oldest and most serious failing of all.
With tragic consequences we reject the beauty of human existence and grasp at the divine role. After all our work we end up like the newborn baby in the pilot’s seat of the 747. The passengers are ready for the journey but there is no way this thing is going to move until the real pilot is found.
Pius XI speaks to this paralysis directly by reminding us of the only method capable of delivering the life we yearn for:
“When once people recognize, both in private and in public life, that Christ is King, society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony. Our Lord's regal office invests the human authority of princes and rulers with a religious significance; it ennobles the citizen's duty of obedience. (par.19)
Almost ninety years after the first celebration of the feast of Christ the King, it is timely to consider if we have made any progress. I see many signs of hope, even more now than in the latter years of last century. However progress is hindered when worldly glamour and successes continue to be promoted as the default desires for human existence.
In these early years of the third millennium, we who embrace a life of faith, live a life of subjection to Christ, and pray with the Church every Sunday, are considered to be a bit odd. However we are responding to THE truth: religious belief and practice is of the nature of the human person. We are made for God. We cannot live without God.
As we celebrate this feast of faith we acknowledge that, by the generosity of God, we are the subjects of Christ the King. Life in this Kingdom (both eternally and present) frees us from having to make divine decisions: we can let God be God and relax into the natural human position of being loved by God and led by God. We are as helpless and as erratic as sheep. But our shepherd will carry us.
Here the teaching of Pius XI is of one voice with Benedict XVI. There are no surprises in this since both popes (and all between) know that human health and happiness, liberty, discipline, peace and harmony is ours only when we live as servants and subjects of Christ THE King.
The source and summit of
every parish activity is the Sunday celebration of the Mass. Without the Mass our efforts become
burdensome and produce only superficial and passing fruit. In the Mass, the
action of God transforms us and we become instruments of divine activity that
always produces and abundant and eternal harvest.
As I grew in my own appreciation
of the Mass in my early years as Parish Priest of Our Lady of Victories, I
found in Carey Haines one who was eager to discover more about the meaning and
beauty of the Mass, and who wanted to help parishioners to participate more
fully and consciously in the Sunday Mass.
Carey travelled at his
own expense to take part in two weeks of a formation programme in the United
States. On his return we began to work
together to ensure that the worthy celebration of Sunday Mass was the heart of
parish life at Our Lady of Victories.
This was a challenge for
the parish since it involved a more intensive focus on the Mass as the action
of God given to us through the Church. Our task is to celebrate not to create
the Mass.
Carey appreciated this fact,
and worked with the priests and people of Our Lady of Victories toward a more
dignified celebration of the Mass as the action of Jesus Christ in our midst.
I
discovered, often by chance, that Carey was taking time to research not just
what happened in the Mass, but the deeper meaning: why the Church leads us to
celebrate each part of each rite in specific ways.
Carey’s commitment to the
liturgy is centred on his life of prayer. In the time of Adoration of the
Blessed Sacrament before each Mass, Carey spends time in silent prayer, himself
aware that the Mass is primarily a divine relationship, not a human activity.
Fr. Kevin Burns and
myself are grateful for Carey’s support and leadership in the preparation of
every detail of liturgies in the parish.
Visiting priests always comment with gratitude for Carey’s dignified presence
and sound guidance. Parishioners who take part in the ministries of the Mass
find in Carey a reliable and generous mentor. All who worship at Our Lady of
Victories discover a liturgy that encourages their full and active
participation, and focuses clearly on the beauty and power of the action of God
in our midst.
While many people and
priests have encouraged Carey in his role, we are especially grateful to Carey himself, who has accepted a call to service of God in the Liturgy, not simply as a job,
but as an opportunity to grow in personal relationship with God.
On behalf of the parishioners of Our Lady of Victories I
nominated Carey for this award, and I am delighted that the Holy Father also
accepts Carey Haines as a worthy recipient of this award, for the Church and
for the Pope, the Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice Cross.
