27.05.2013
Christ Church Cathedral Celebrates Patronal Festival
The Patronal Festival of Christ Church Cathedral took place yesterday, Trinity Sunday, and was celebrated by The Archbishop of Dublin, the Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson. The preacher this year was the Revd Nancy Gossling who is from Glastonbury, Connecticut, and who has been visiting the cathedral for three months as part of a year long sabbatical. In her sermon she spoke of friendship in the context of the Holy Trinity. Her address is reproduced in full below.
The service was followed by the annual salmon and strawberry lunch for the Friends of Christ Church Cathedral which took place in the Crypt. The annual general meeting of the Friends’ took place afterwards in the Chapter Room.
Trinity Sunday, May 26 2013, Christ Church Cathedral
Sermon Preached by the Revd Nancy E Gossling
Proverbs 8:1–4, 22–31; Psalm 8; Romans 5:1–5; John 16: 12–15
In the name of our One God, may we always be spiritual friends in Christ. Amen.
It is Trinity Sunday, the patronal feast day of Christ Church Cathedral; and it is with gratitude that I stand in the pulpit today in the spiritual heart of Dublin. I give thanks to God, our Father, who created us, to Jesus, His Son, who redeemed us, and to the Holy Spirit who gives us the gift of life each and every day. In fact, I think it was Holy Spirit who made me a “blow–in” to Ireland! The Spirit will blow, we know not where it comes from and where it will take us; and so whoever you are and wherever you come from, on behalf of Christ’s Church Cathedral, and in the name of Christ, I welcome you today as a friend!
Your Dean was most gracious in responding to my “query” about serving here for part of my sabbatical year. Truly in him, I have found a soul brother, a spiritual companion, and a friend in Christ. In my opinion, you are most blessed to have him as your Dean. During this time, your Archbishop, a man of great intellect and visionary leadership, not only permitted me to serve as a priest among you, but he also washed my feet on Maundy Thursday! I do love to see men on their knees in prayer and humble service!
I also thank God for the Dean’s wife, who has endured my “talking shop” with the Dean over many delicious meals and therapeutic walks. Her gifts of hospitality, spiritual friendship, and warm welcome are a witness to Christ’s love. The residential priest vicar has been brilliant as well, often standing aside to allow for my presence. He has opened his home to me and endured a gazillion questions about things Irish. His dog, Zac, is also a model of radical welcome; and I shall miss having his “nose in my yard” at breakfast!
I’d like to offer a “shout out” to the cathedral staff, the vergers and lay assistants, to choir members, diocesan readers, canons of the cathedral, board and chapter members, archdeacons and clergy in the dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough, and of course the Friends of the Cathedral. How blessed I have been to meet so many wonderful and gifted people during my sabbatical time here in Ireland. Indeed, it has been my privilege to experience cathedral life, and to see all those intersections between the sacred and the secular, and between our human and divine endeavors. Like Jesus, I think that Christ’s Church is 100% human and 100% divine!
The Spirit of this place is truly varied and awesome; and as they teach us in seminary, the space always wins. Indeed, the spaces of Christ Church Cathedral win in magnificent ways: from the physical beauty of the building itself, to the various chapels and diverse furnishings within it. From the bottom of the crypt, all the way to the top of the bell tower, there are sacred spaces and human places for God to meet us as spiritual friends.
The Friends of the Cathedral have contributed an enormous amount of time, talents, and treasure to enrich the lives of thousands of people who have come here over the years. Not least being the hospitality that they provide in the crypt on Sunday mornings, they have offered pilgrimages, organized social events and lectures, as well as contributed handsomely to the finances, furnishings, and fabric of this historical Church. Strawberries, salmon, and spirits await us even yet!
In the crypt below us and in this church every day, I have found good food and drink, beautiful music, and prayers offered for healing and peace. In the living bodies and the old relics, encased in human flesh, clear glass, and ancient stone, I have found spiritual friends. In the cathedral, I have met fellow pilgrims from all over the world. Christ has been in mouth of friend and stranger, beside, beneath, and above us, binding us together in Spirit.
As I make my transition from full–time parish ministry to a new call, I’ve had a lot of time to think about my family and friends, about my God and your God, and about my Church and yours. Over a period of many years and various relationships, I have discovered that good friendships include qualities like hospitality, mutuality, and sacrifice. These relationships depend upon trust, honesty, and forgiveness. They require acceptance of each other just as we are, a willingness to speak the truth in love, and the courage to change. Of course love is essential; for spiritual friendships are grounded in God; and God is love.
There is a popular story about a fox and a scorpion. The fox and the scorpion both stand on one side of the River Liffey, wanting to cross over it in order to attend Sunday worship at Christ Church Cathedral. The scorpion, who cannot swim, asks the fox if he might have a ride. Could he climb aboard his head as the fox swims to the other side? The fox agrees to help. Unfortunately, once they have arrived safely on the other shore, the scorpion stings the fox. Having just done the scorpion a kind and good deed, the fox is hurt and asks him why he did what he did. The scorpion replied, “It’s just part of my nature.”
This cathedral, also known as the Cathedral Church of the Holy Trinity, was founded upon a monastic community. Down river, the Fransciscan friars were medieval pilgrims who reputedly sought alms from the local community and became spiritual friends to the monks. At the cathedral, the monks affectionately called them the foxy friars. Their caricature can be found in the tiles of our floors, on the backs of our cathedral chairs, and in the name of our coffee shop. Good humor, so evident in the Irish people, is an essential ingredient to spiritual friendships.
Like the fox, the monks, and the friars, this cathedral’s mission has been one of helping pilgrims on their journeys. As friends in Christ we welcome the stranger, we worship together, and we witness to God’s generous, forgiving, and inclusive love. And yes, even today, we still carry each other, we still sting each other, we still forgive each other, and we still love each other. It is our human and divine nature in Christ.
St. Aelred of Riveaulx was a Cistercian monk and an abbot from the 12th century who is famous for his book entitled Spiritual Friendship. At that time, friendship was discussed as a symbol of the divine life of the Trinity. St. Aelred was perhaps best known for his claim that “God is friendship” and that in loving our friends, we truly love God.
St. Aelred speaks directly about the nature of friendship. He writes that spiritual friendship “springs directly from God, who in the overflowing of his love, created humans (in order) to share God’s love.” Indeed, the Holy Trinity has been described as a perichoresis, or the great dance of love between the three persons of the Trinity.
God’s dance of love is so great, so joyful, and so generous that it cannot help but overflow into our world in order to create the heavens and the earth. God’s love is so great, so joyful, and so generous that it actually became human flesh in order to show us the way, the truth, and the life. God’s love was so great, so joyful, and so generous that it enlivens our dance of spiritual friendship, with our Father who created us, the Son who redeemed us, and the Spirit who guides us into all truth.
In the gospel of John, we all have a friend in Jesus. Despite the knowledge that he would be betrayed by Judas, denied three times by Peter, and doubted by Thomas, Jesus still offered them forgiveness. Despite the fact that that he was insulted by his family, friends and colleagues, attacked by local authorities, and stabbed in his hands, feet and side, Jesus offers us hope even today. His spiritual friendship connects us to the love of God and to each other even now.
True spiritual friendships endure and never cease. They boast in their sufferings, knowing that “suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us.” In Christ, we are eternal and spiritual friends with God and each other forever.
Jesus promised his disciples that their friendship would never end. “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you; and this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
Are you a friend of Jesus? Then listen to him because “he still has many things to say to you.”
Thank you for being my friend these past three months. I shall miss you; and I hope that we will continue to be spiritual friends in Christ, wherever the Spirit may take you, and wherever the Spirit may lead me. May this Cathedral’s dance of Trinitarian love continue now and forever. Amen.