The Annunciator Newsletter of the Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary Anglican Patrimony within the Catholic Communion Canadian Deanery of St John the Baptist Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter 289 Spencer Street Ottawa ON K1Y 2R1 613-722-9139 www.annunciationofthebvm.org Vol. 19 No.5 – April 2017 **************************************************************************************** Homily for the Requiem Mass for JOHN PATRICK MOLONEY Saturday, March 18th, 2017 Job 19:1, 23-27; I Corinthians 15: 20-26, 35-38, 42-44, 51-58; John 11:17-27 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. It always hurts when someone we love dies; there is always an empty space and a sense of loss. It does not matter if the person was old or young, had been unwell for some time, or if the end was quite abrupt & unexpected. Yes, it’s a greater shock when it’s someone young & the death came suddenly; but even when we think we’re ready, it always means the closing of a door in this life, and often there’s so much more we wanted to say, if not to do as well; there rarely seems to have been enough time. Sometimes we feel like God has let us down—we weren’t ready!—it can be really hard to let go. Still, the Gospel, the Good News of God in Jesus Christ, assures us that this is not the end; death does not have the final word—not simply that there’s something yet to come—some further undefined existence; something spiritual after this earthly sojourn—but rather that there’s SOMEONE. Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and the life he who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” He promises us life with Him and in Him, if we would believe in Him; but “believe” here is not so much giving intellectual assent to principles about Him—although it does matter that we know and believe what is true—rather it’s more about trusting—entrusting our lives to—Him, sometimes adding the words of that desperate father, who came to Jesus so long ago, “Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief.” Mark 9:24. It is our confidence that, as Jesus has been raised up from the dead—not just resuscitated, as was Lazarus, who would subsequently one day die again, but resurrected into immortal life—what’s mortal is subject to death; immortal means He’ll never die again—as He has been raised, so we trust that we will be raised with Him to share in His eternal Life: i.e. life like His, with Him into eternity. Jesus once told a parable of a Sower, who scattered seeds over the ground; and how they grew depended upon the quality of the soil into which each fell. As He explained it, the Seed was good, for it was God’s Word, the Word of His Kingdom; human hearts and lives, and their readiness, or lack thereof, to receive that Word determined the fruitfulness of what followed. However, when St. Paul speaks about our resurrection life in Christ (I Cor. 15), he turns this around.. It’s as though our lives are the seeds, whose end in this world is to die in order for the plant to grow up, (and of course, we begin Lent with the words, “Remember that thou art dust, & to dust shalt thou return”). These seeds must die and fall to the ground; what matters is the soil into which we fall; and with Jesus, we are drawn into the Good Soil of God’s love & His promises in Christ Of course, we might say, “But, if the seeds are our lives, then the seeds might not be good—at least not as Jesus is—but rather sinful, unworthy of producing Life like His!”; but every human life has been made in the Divine image; sin is the husk which encases it, stifling growth. If we cling to that covering—counting on having made ourselves worthy, having earned our spot—it becomes a shell; the roots can’t break through; and that’s to choose death without growing up into plant life and fruit, i.e. Hell. However, if we let go into the good continued, p.2,… Soil, the Perfect Love of God—let go ourselves and let Him break away the shell to expose the kernel— our roots will go down into grace and we’ll grow up into Life eternal. Does it not matter then what we’ve done? How we’ve lived? How good we’ve been? On one hand, yes it does, for it determines how hard the “nut is to crack”—so Catholics talk about Purgatory—but, on the other hand, Based in Houston, Texas, this Ordinariate has more than NONE of us is good enough in and of him or herself; we 40 Roman Catholic parishes and communities across the United States and Canada. all need the grace offered, as we follow Jesus, confessing and repenting of all that separates us from Him, letting all The Ordinariate was created to provide a path for things go into the Father’s hands— groups of Anglicans to become fully Roman Catholic, which, frankly, is far easier to do when our lives are while retaining elements of their worship traditions and constantly disposed toward that end, for then the spiritual heritage in their union with the Catholic Church. The Ordinariate is a key ecumenical venture Kingdom Life has already taken hold & become manifest exemplifying the Second Vatican Council’s vision for to some degree in and through us. Christian unity, in which diverse expressions of one faith are joined together in the Church. John Moloney was profoundly aware of his own failings and unworthiness before God, deeply concerned about not The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter was having done enough, well enough. He never finished established in response to repeated and persistent grieving over brokenness in his family, and concern lest inquiries from Anglicans who over time, have come to identify the Catholic Church as their home. Those they fail to know, not just his love, but that of their joining the Ordinariate have discerned they are truly heavenly Father; yet I know that I wasn’t alone in being Catholic in what they believe and desire full encouraged greatly by him: his devotion and faithfulness; membership in the Catholic Church. his perseverance in prayer and determin-ation to just There are three Personal Ordinariates in the world: Our keeping going whatever the odds. I was always amazed at Lady of Walsingham in the United Kingdom; the Chair his mobility and willingness to be out and about in all of Saint Peter in the United States and Canada; and Our sorts of weather (“If the angels wake me up…”). I remember Lady of the Southern Cross in Australia. him remarking in the early days of our acquaintance, “I Parishes and communities in the Ordinariates are have been marking my 39th birthday for 50 years!” It took a fully Roman Catholic, but retain elements of Anglican few minutes of assessment before I allowed that well, it traditions in their liturgy, hospitality and ministries. might be true; maybe he was that old! In the Second Vatican Council’s Decree on Ecumenism He had learned to offer his own pain and struggles as a (Unitatis redintegatio), the Catholic Church specified sacrifice with that of Christ on Calvary, praying earnestly what it would look like to bring all Christians together for family, whom he loved so deeply, especially those into communion. The Council said Christian groups would bring their own distinctive traditions to the estranged from him. I will miss his enthusiastic responses Catholic Church; they would not be suppressed or in the Liturgy, and his humour, stories and snatches of absorbed. The Vatican’s remarkable ecumenical gesture song (albeit sometimes groan-worthy); likewise his in establishing the Ordinariates affirms the Catholic willingness to attend to and assist others in whatever Church’s view that the patrimony of differing Christian small way he could. He had become a welcome part of our spiritualities and liturgies is a treasure meant to be community here at the Annunciation and, for me, a friend shared within the Catholic tradition. and brother in Christ. Martha said, “Lord, if you had been Called to be gracious instruments of Christian unity, here, my brother would not have died.” Well, frankly, I am members of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. confident that He was there when John Moloney died, Peter are led by a bishop who is appointed by the calling Him home—not just angels this time calling him Pope. Bishop Steven J. Lopes is the first bishop of the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter. from bed, but Jesus inviting the seed to cast off the husk and be buried in the Good Soil, confident of growing up Like other bishops in the United States and Canada, the into the full, fruitful life—eternal Life—with and in bishop serves under the direct authority of the Pope to Christ. build up the Catholic Church through mutual mission and ministry. Well done, thou good & faithful servant. The bishop is a full member of the United States “O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?” The Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Canadian sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.