This week opens with the Feast of Ss Thomas More and John Fisher. The reading for Morning Prayer is particularly apt when one thinks of the terrible choices such men had to make at the beginning of the religious upheaval initiated by King Henry VIII.

“Anything illuminated turns into light. That is why it is said: ‘Wake up from your sleep, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.’ So be very careful about the sort of lives you lead, like intelligent and not like senseless people.” (Ephesians 5:14–15)

Both layman and bishop were executed in the same year, 1535. More is the universal patron of statesmen and politicians and, as Pope St John Paul II declared at the beginning of this millennium, he is witness to the truth that “man cannot be sundered from God, nor politics from morality”.

The Gospel for the day drives the point home: “And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:38–39)

Another great English saint is celebrated on June 24, St Etheldreda (the beautiful medieval church dedicated to her memory still stands in the heart of the City of London). Although the readings for Tuesday of the 12th week in Ordinary Time are used, Psalm 48 reflects the motivation of this early Saxon queen turned Religious.

“Great is the Lord and highly to be praised
in the city of our God.

His holy mountain rises in beauty,
the joy of all the earth.”

The next day is the Feast of the Nativity of St John the Baptist (he has two feasts, as befits this great prophet, close relative and forerunner of Christ). As the introduction to the Mass tells us: “John is the last of all the prophets. Not only his message but his life itself proclaims the coming of Christ. John the Baptist’s mission in life, the purpose of his God-given existence, was to prepare the way of the Lord:

‘Behold, the Lamb of God!’

And John the Baptist’s joyful leap in his mother’s womb reveals what God desires for all of us: to be transformed by the presence of Jesus and Mary.”

His Mass opens with a spine-tingling invocation from his own prophetic forerunner, Isaiah: “Listen to me, O coastlands, and give attention, you peoples from afar. The Lord called me from the womb, from the body of my mother he named my name. He made my mouth like a sharp sword; in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me a polished arrow; in his quiver he hid me away. And he said to me, ‘You are my servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified.’” (Isaiah 49:1–3)

The beautiful meditation for the day comes from Abbot Prosper Guéranger OSB. “Jesus alone is light, the light without which earth would remain dead; and John is but the man sent from God, without whom the light would have remained unknown. But Jesus being inseparable from John, even as day is from dawn, it is by no means astonishing that earth’s gladness at John’s birth should partake of something of that gladness of the coming of our Redeemer. The Nativity of St John the Baptist is celebrated with so much pomp because it seems to enfold within itself the Nativity of Christ, our Redeemer. It is, as it were, midsummer’s Christmas Day…”

The following day (Thursday of the 12th week) carries a telling meditation on the Gospel (Matthew 7:21–29) by the most recently canonised saint of the British Isles, St John Henry Newman. “Had we any proper insight into things as they are, had we any real apprehension of God as He is, of ourselves as we are, we should never dare to serve Him without fear, or to rejoice unto Him without trembling… He it is who brings into religion the true devotion, the true worship, and changes the self-satisfied Pharisee into the broken-hearted, self-abased Publican… We are contented with ourselves till we contemplate Him… [The Christian] knows that One alone is holy, and that His own creatures are so frail in comparison of Him that they would dwindle and melt away in His presence did He not uphold them by His power. All things are nothing before Him; the highest beings do but worship Him the more; the holiest beings are such only because they have a greater portion of Him… This is the reason why every sort of man, whatever be his degree of holiness, whether a returning prodigal or a matured saint, says with the Publican, O God, be merciful to me…”

The week ends on Sunday, June 28, with the Feast of Ss Peter and Paul, the Gospel reading (Matthew 16:13–19) recounting the great profession of faith of the first Pope: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The second reading is from the Second Letter of St Paul to Timothy: “The Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth. The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory for ever and ever.” (Timothy 4:17–18)

The prayer of Saint Thomas More that we read earlier in the week witnesses to this same confidence in the Lord. 

“Give me thy grace, good Lord, 
To set the world at naught;
‍To set my mind fast upon thee 
And not to hang upon the blast of men’s mouths; 
To be content to be solitary,
‍Not to long for worldly company…
Gladly to be thinking of God
‍Piteously to call for his help; 
To lean unto the comfort of God, 
Busily to labour to love him… 
To bewail my sins past, 
For the purging of them, patiently to suffer adversity; 
Gladly to bear my purgatory here, 
To be joyful of tribulations;
‍To walk the narrow way that leadeth to life, 
To bear the cross with Christ… 
To pray for pardon before the judge come, 
To have continually in mind the Passion which Christ 
suffered for me; 
For his benefits unceasingly to give him thanks… 
To think my most enemies my best friends, 
For the brethren of Joseph could never have done him so 
much good with their love and favour 
as they did with their malice and hatred. 
These minds are more to be desired of every man 
than all the treasure of all the princes 
And kings, Christian and heathen, were it gathered 
and laid together all upon one heap.”

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