In the presence of the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Archbishop John Wilson KC*HS, Archbishop of Southwark and the Grand Prior of the Lieutenancy of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre in England and Wales, has expressed his solidarity with the Church and people of the Holy Land.
“We must create solidarity, not manufacture barriers. We need to promote unity, not division,” he said. “War destroys lives and homes. It tramples dreams and steals hope. We stand united with you, Your Beatitude, and, through you, with the suffering Church and people of the Holy Land.”
The Archbishop was presiding and preaching at the Investiture Vigil at Arms with Benediction at St George’s Cathedral on the eve of a Mass of Investiture for the Lieutenancy’s new Knights that will also take place in St George’s.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, presented promotions and awards to members of the Lieutenancy at the vigil.
In his homily, Archbishop Wilson quoted from the Prophet Isaiah “Enlarge the place of your tent,” asking the congregation to consider its meaning:
“Enlarging the tent is a work of justice in the service of peace. Anything less makes the tent of humanity shudder and collapse in destruction.”
The Archbishop of Southwark solemnly encouraged prayers for peace:
“As we keep vigil before our Eucharistic Lord Jesus, we pray fervently for peace. We hold before Our Lord the people, places, and Church of the Holy Land. We, members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, with our new Knights to be invested, commit ourselves to praying without ceasing for an end to war and a new beginning.
Is 54:1-10; Jn 12:1-11
Dear and beloved Cardinal Pizzaballa
Dear Members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem
Dear brothers to be invested as Knights
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ
The words of the Prophet Isaiah ring loud and clear: ‘Enlarge the place of your tent.’ Take a moment to allow that directive to resonate within you. And ask yourself what you think it means – for you personally, for our Church, for society in which we live, and for the Holy Land?
‘Enlarge the place of your tent.’ In other words, stretch out the fabric and lengthen the cords. Make your tent wide enough, and high enough, to include others.
Scholars tells us that tents in biblical times were made of three-foot-wide strips of cloth, woven from goat hair. When the size of a family increased, extra strips of cloth were stitched to the existing tent. The enlarged tent provided greater space, more shelter, and improved safety. The pole at the centre was strengthened and extended. The ropes that came from it were elongated to stretch further. This is how, in reality, a growing family was accommodated. But, importantly, it’s also an image for our shared humanity and our peaceful co-existence.
Pope Francis has said repeatedly that we should construct bridges, not build walls. We must create solidarity, not manufacture barriers. We need to promote unity, not division. War destroys lives and homes. It tramples dreams and steals hope. We stand united with you, Your Beatitude, and, through you, with the suffering Church and people of the Holy Land.
Enlarging the tent is a work of justice in the service of peace. Anything less makes the tent of humanity shudder and collapse in destruction. For the sake of everyone in the homeland of the Lord Jesus, many who are so dear to our hearts, in communities we know and love, the tent must be widened to embrace lasting peace.
This image of the tent takes on definitive meaning when the ‘word becomes flesh,’ when God ‘pitches his tent among us,’ when he ‘tabernacles’ with us, in his Son, the Lord Jesus. We do not make our spiritual home under canvas, moving from place to place. No, we find our true home definitively, and beautifully, in the heart of Christ, ‘the dwelling place of love.’ (Dilexit Nos, 21) ‘It is only by starting from the heart,’ says Pope Francis, ‘that our communities will succeed in uniting and reconciling differing minds and wills, so that the Spirit can guide us in unity as brothers and sisters. ‘Reconciliation and peace,’ the Holy Father reminds us, are ‘born from the heart.’ (DN 28)
We gain insight into what this means from the Gospel events described by St John. Bethany was a home for the Lord Jesus, a place where the tent had been enlarged to welcome him. Mary’s lavish generosity – anointing his feet with costly ointment – contrasts with the mean-spirited selfishness of Judas. Mary widens the tent. Judas narrows it. So, a choice is set before us about how we honour the Lord and how we honour others. We can either stitch a larger tent through big-heartedness. Or we can fasten shut the entrance through selfishness. Both individuals and nations have to make this decision. One choice opens us to life, the other traps us in the tomb. By raising Lazarus from the dead, and by his own glorious resurrection, it seems clear what Christ is asking of us. The tent of our heart, the tent of our Church, the tent of our communities and of our world must be expansive, not constricted. It must bring life, not death. It must breathe hope, not despair.
To help us ponder this a little more deeply, consider, for a moment, the ‘expensive ointment’ Mary used to anoint Ours Lord’s feet. The Gospel says it weighed a pound, which, for the Romans, was about twelve ounces. This was worth a small fortune, around a year’s average wages. It was generous to excess. The specific description for this ointment is ‘spikenard,’ an expensive aromatic oil made from flowering plants grown in Nepal, India, and China. In her extravagant act of enlarging the tent, Mary embraces something from a different place, from another culture. If we have the heart and mind and will to do so, it is possible to extend the tent to include others, others who are different from ourselves, with whom we can live in peace.
Writing in his recent Encyclical, On the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ, Pope Francis says, ‘it was in the Eucharist that [St John Henry] Newman encountered the living heart of Jesus, capable of setting us free, giving meaning to each moment of our lives, and bestowing true peace.’ (DN 26)
As we keep vigil before our Eucharistic Lord Jesus, we pray fervently for peace. We hold before Our Lord the people, places, and Church of the Holy Land. We, members of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre, with our new Knights to be invested, commit ourselves to praying without ceasing for an end to war and a new beginning.
Let St John Henry Newman’s sentiments accompany us through our time of Adoration:
“O most Sacred, most loving Heart of Jesus, Thou art concealed in the Holy Eucharist, and Thou beatest for us still … I worship Thee then with all my best love and awe, with my fervent affection, with my most subdued, most resolved will.
O my God, when Thou dost condescend to suffer me to receive Thee, to eat and drink Thee, and Thou for a while takest up Thy abode within me, O make my heart beat with Thy Heart. Purify it of all that is earthly, all that is proud and sensual, all that is hard and cruel, of all perversity, of all disorder, of all deadness.
So fill it with Thee, that neither the events of the day nor the circumstances of the time may have power to ruffle it, but that in Thy love and Thy fear it may have peace.” (DN 26) Amen.
Archbishop John Wilson, Grand Prior of the Lieutenancy of England and Wales
You will find an image gallery documenting the events of the Patriarch’s visit on our Flickr channel.
CAFOD, the Church’s aid and development agency in England and Wales, has a Middle East Humanitarian Appeal that helps fund the work of Caritas Jerusalem.
