Message of Abbot Paul - Wednesday 19th April 2023

It’s been a great joy having Abbot Nicholas stay with us for a few days. How we miss him, but understand that he is doing great work with the Downside Community, at present living on the campus at Buckfast Abbey, discerning where their future lies. All monastic communities do that as a matter of course, trying to figure out through prayer and discussion what it is the Lord wants us to do and how he wants us to do it. The same goes for the Belmont Community and for our brethren in Peru. We all want to do what is best for the monks and for those we serve in any way. Most of all, we want to do God’s will through the gift of his grace and the power of his love. Ultimately, we can want nothing else.

 Today’s Gospel passage can help us all understand what God wants of us and what he is willing to do for us. We continue listening to Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus as found in John, (Jn 3: 16-21). We begin with some of the best known and best loved words of Scripture.

“God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost

but may have eternal life.

For God sent his Son into the world

not to condemn the world,

but so that through him the world might be saved.”

Perhaps the version we know best in the anthem from Stainer’s Crucifixion, which at one time was performed in many churches during Holy Week. What better or greater gift could God give us than his own beloved Son, and given up to death on a cross for our salvation and the forgiveness of our sins? We are all called to faith, a faith that will bring us, through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, to eternal life, life in God. What God wants above all is our salvation and no sacrifice was too great for God to accomplish that and invite us to believe and accept Jesus as Saviour.

 Yet sadly, as we know too well, not all believe. They have refused, “to believe in the name of God’s only Son.” In fact, “though the light has come into the world, men have shown they prefer darkness to the light, because their deeds were evil.” Christ is the light of the world, even so, many reject that light and prefer darkness to light. However, all is not lost, for we know that people do often turn to God when the end comes. When they see eternal darkness beckon them, repentant, they turn to the light for acceptance and forgiveness. “The man who lives by the truth comes out into the light, so that it may be plainly seen that what he does is done in God.” It is never too late to turn towards the light and seek reconciliation with God, acknowledging that 

“God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son,

so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost

but may have eternal life.”