HOPE and the Incarnation
Bishops, clergy, monks, nuns and lay people gathered at Tintern Abbey on Sunday 7th September for the annual service of ecumenical Sung Vespers. Dom Aidan Bellenger, Abbot of Downside, preached the homily. His theme of Hope and Incarnation is as relevant to Advent and Christmas as it was to the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady:
This statue of Our Lady and Child was carved for Tintern Abbey by the Welsh sculptor, Philip Chatfield, inspired by the fragments of a medieval statue which survive there. It is now installed in the south aisle of the abbey church.
Benedictine abbeys (like Downside) tend to be built on high places, Cistercian abbeys (like Tintern) tend to be found in valleys. I hope that Benedictines do not have their noses in the air and that they keep their feet firmly on the ground. When I look southwards from my room at Downside I see distinctly; on a clear night the heavens twinkling with starlight. If I look northwards all I can see is the anonymous half-light of the cities of Bath and Bristol. So much of our world seems to be artificially illuminated that it can be difficult to distinguish night from day. Despite this (or because of this) our world can seem a gloomy place. Stress and depression seem more prevalent than ever and the optimism (however misplaced) of our ancestors has been replaced by a sense of perplexed puzzlement and pessimism. No wonder the fixed grin of the professionally cheerful seems so out of place.
I am not talking about personal disposition. I remain, by nature, an optimistic person. Nor do my thoughts reflect the dull and wet weather which has dominated our summer. I suppose we can reflect, in a respite from the rain, on the wonderful greenness of this valley and the richness which moisture brings to the beautiful dry bones of this wonderful place. We must not forget that the sun still shines behind the clouds.
The author of the book of Revelation saw the heavenly Jerusalem as a well-watered place, the river of life giving it comfort and plenty. Medieval monks liked to think of places like this as the earthly pattern of the heavenly city and the practical utopianism of the monastic ideal remains one of its abiding lessons. St John sees a new world replacing the old but the world we live in, the here and now, must reflect that infinite ideal. Place and time are important, but above all else, as Christians we are called to mirror that charity which sustains our life together.
The Cistercians who built Tintern Abbey saw themselves at the end of time and viewed this beautiful valley as only a prelude, a threshold of the world beyond. They were far more exposed than us to the extremes of nature but their pre-romantic attitude of positive affirmation towards the Creator and the created order of things reveals their soundly incarnational theology. If love, Caritas, was at the heart of Cistercian spirituality, it was a love made incarnate. Their love of Christ’s humanity, and by extension their love for the Mother of God to whom, like all Cistercian places, Tintern was dedicated, made them celebrators of the Incarnation and poets of Creation. As, at this evening hour, we celebrate the birthday of the Mother of God, our thoughts and prayers are brought back to the incarnate heart of our faith – the gift of God’s only son which gives renewed meaning to all creation and should dissipate, in true Christian hope, any gloom – or doom – ridden anthropology or nihilistic psychology.
The face of the earth, both the high places and the low places, will be transformed if we see things in the light of the Incarnation and rejoice in the humanity of Jesus as his brothers and sisters. He dispels encircling gloom.
The Incarnation is the doctrine that allows us to see that the saviour is fully human and to appreciate that his humanity reflected by his passion, death and resurrection, is a new order of life for us all which elevates our time-tied lives to eternal value. The hope of a complete and eternal life is present in Jesus’ life and in the life of all those who follow him. The hope which all mothers see in their children, which Mary most triumphantly and humbly saw in her son, is the hope which promises eternal happiness. There is no place in Christian hearts for despondency or gloom. The value of each living person is of an eternal preciousness which reflects an all-loving God. True Christian hope is firmly rooted in God’s loving presence within us. Hope is the dynamic which makes our lives as Christians possible.
The monks who came to this place prepared through prayer, patience and vigil for the coming of the Lord. In their round of prayer and simple community life they attempted to live Gospel and Kingdom values. Their life was animated by faith, hope and love. Their benchmark was the kingdom to come and in it is that hope that all Christians rejoice. However broken and divided we may seem we are all called to be citizens of the Heavenly Jerusalem. Evening falls on the face of the earth but hope remains. ‘And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the Lamb.’