Listen again to these words from our 2nd Reading. (1 Peter 1:3-9) I hope they apply to you: “You did not see him, yet you love him; and still without seeing him, you are already filled with a joy so glorious that it cannot be described” You can see and hear me give this Homily on Youtube (Ignore the adverts that come first!). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpFg4Jb34vY&t=7s
Well the first bit certainly applies to all of us, as I don’t think any of us have actually seen Jesus; but the second bit that “You love him,, without seeing him” may not ring true to everyone who reads or hears this, because you may be reading or hearing this this for any number of different reasons. All I can tell you is that it certainly applies to me. You see I wasn’t brought up as a Christian, so it didn’t apply to me back then; indeed if I thought about Jesus at all it was to see him as a person from the past with some quite good ideas on being a good person. As for God, that was just a fairy tale. Then came a moment, when helped by some Christian friends I realised that Jesus could be a real power alive for me now, that I did not have to see him in order to believe in him, and so I decided that I wanted to follow him, and yes, I began to love him.
It was only a few days later that I was sitting in a garden beside a stream as it rippled over some stones with the sun dappling the water, that I was suddenly overwhelmed by the beauty of it all, and said to my friend “Oh look!” He had no idea what I was talking about. Had I seen a rare bird or animal? But no, all I had seen was beauty, and it had taken me beyond what I could see with my eyes to a reality beyond any human eyes, the reality that is God. This vision has always stayed with me, even in moments of trouble, of doubt, and of grief. It was a moment when I was indeed like St Peter, “Filled with a joy so glorious that it cannot be described.”
Recently, over 60 years later, I was meditating on the two great symbols of Easter – light and water. Both are especially visible over Easter with the candles and the holy water, and of course they are also the visible and outward signs at every Baptism. What I suddenly realised was that my vision of God back then, with the light dappling the stream, had the same two elements – light and water – two of the things that are essential to life. We may sow seeds this Spring, but unless they have light and water, they will never turn into living plants. How wonderful it is that the mystery that is life in one form or another, can move us with a beauty which reveals invisible things beyond words and facts. It’s why I love the poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins which begins “Glory be to God for dappled things.”
So the message for us today is to remember that things we cannot see are very important, and perhaps the most powerful thing that we cannot see are our thoughts and the thoughts of others. I can send a thought to you, by speaking words, or by gestures of care and love, or disdain and hatred, but the thoughts themselves in effect float invisibly between us. They are invisible, yet immensely powerful for good or ill. This is what convinces me of the reality of God, of an unseen invisible power that underlies the universe – a power that we can link ourselves too, or attempt to ignore, but a power nevertheless that will affect us whether we believe or not.
Thomas in our Gospel (John 20:19-31) is of course somewhat indignant that his friends have actually seen the risen Jesus, but when Jesus does reveal himself to Thomas, he almost immediately says “Happy are those who have not seen and yet believe.” Our beliefs, whatever they are, are just an invisible set of thoughts; but we must not forget that the set of thoughts that are our beliefs can make a very big difference not just to us but to the world around us. Hitler’s beliefs led to millions of innocent people dying! My belief that God has made a beautiful world that we must care for makes me pick up litter and pay taxes to support my country’s Health Service. We cannot see such beliefs but we can see the effects they have!
This is why we aim to be at Mass every Sunday. Jesus gave us this way of meeting together to reinforce the good thoughts and beliefs that we have; for as we meditate on his way of love we are built up in love ourselves, as we offer ourselves to him and proclaim, and perhaps receive, his invisible living presence, we are drawn into his love, a love that is so much greater than ours can ever be. That is why Baptism is so important, where outward signs of water and light (things we can see) convey to us the invisible presence of God, and in doing so make us part of his body. His body is of course the Church, but again not the visible organisation that we can see and moan about, but the invisible family of people all over the world who like us try to love him the way he loves us. I must stress this again, the invisible family, the people of God, is made visible as the organisation called the Church, but we must never confuse the organisation, with all its faults and failings, with the body of Christ that we belong to, and which every person joins when they are baptised.
One of the things I always say to parents as they have their child baptised is to remember not just to pray regularly for them, but to pray regularly with them; and to start by sharing with them things to thank God for – Thank you God for my Teddy – for my time in the Play Park – and I remind them to add something they want to say thank you for themselves, so that their child knows that they are praying too. Prayer is after all simply thoughts addressed to God, and if thoughts are invisible yet powerful, prayers are even more so, not least because they change us. The more we give thanks, the more thankful we are, and the more that thankfulness rubs off on other people. As St Paul says “Whatever is true …. whatever is lovely… whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.”
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