Message of Abbot Paul - Sunday 11th September 2022

Message from Fr Paul for Sunday, 11th September 2022

 Twenty-one years’ ago today, the terrifying events of 9/11 took place, a veritable apocalypse. We remember in prayer those killed, injured, bereaved and traumatised for life. We continue to pray for the persecuted Church in Nicaragua and Nigeria and for the flood victims of Pakistan, and we pray urgently for an end to the war in Ukraine and for peace for the Ukrainian people. I found the ceremonies surrounding the proclamation of King Charles III yesterday deeply moving, but unreal. I kept expecting the Queen to appear at any moment! 

 Today’s Gospel passage comes from Luke, (Lk 15: 1-32), the three parables that explain the goodness and mercy of God and the joy there is in forgiveness, especially for God who goes in search of sinners and wants only to embrace and forgive them and reconcile them to himself and to others. However, there are two phrases in the second reading from the first letter of Paul to Timothy, (1 Tim 1: 12-17), that I would like to stop and look at. He begins by saying, “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, and who judged me faithful enough to call me into his service.” This is how Queen Elizabeth saw her vocation as monarch chosen by God to guide and protect the United Kingdom, the Commonwealth and all those with whom she came into contact on her visits all over the world. I found President Macron’s tribute to Her Majesty and his message to the British people particularly moving and revealing. Then St Paul writes, “The grace of our Lord filled me with faith and with the love that is in Christ Jesus.” For me, these words sum up our Queen and her vision of the monarchy and her own life in particular. Grace, faith and love filled her heart and overflowed to us in all she said and did. She was in deep communion with God and very much a disciple of Jesus and an apostle. She was touched by God and became a channel of his grace, love, mercy and peace. As we give thanks to God for her life and pray for her eternal rest, so too we ask that our new King be blessed in the same way and walk firmly in the footsteps of his mother as he begins to fulfil his royal duties.