The Child was laid in a manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes. These were the clothes in which the Jewish dead would be buried. They were kept in the stable so as not to be within the realm of the living. “His death cast a shadow over His birth, because his death was the reason for His birth.”
The martyrs of His octave, the first of the martyrs, Deacon Stephen, the Anglican Archbishop Becket, the host of the Innocents, the children who died for the comfort of a King, the Apostle whose failed martyrdom led to the Apocalyptic exile on Patmos, these are the ones who accompany our Christmas thoughts, and remind us of the cost of following the Child of Bethlehem.
These are appropriate thoughts in this year’s Octave when the bishops of our Communion receive their formal response to their petition for communion with the Bishop of Rome and those in communion with him in East and West. To be a splinter is not a virtue, it is an irritant destined to fester. A branch unconnected to the vine withers and corrupts.
The sad thing, in view of the almost fawning comments about Abp Hepworth by Deacon Fournier in the intro to the quoted Christmas Message, is the fact that should Apb Hepworth avail himself of the Apostolic Constitution “Anglicanorum Coetibus” he will be stripped not only of his episcopal robes but also of his priestly collar. As a former Roman Catholic priest who got married he is ineligible under the constitution to continue to function as a married priest.
It is little things like this which disappoint in this otherwise rather generous initiative from the Pope.
If Archbishop Hepworth wishes to become a Roman again, I wish he would do it and be done with it. I have no desire to be brought t4o the edge of the Tiber with the declaration to jump in, the water’s fine. This passion for Roman Catholicism makes it difficult for me to remain part of the TAC, which is otherwise a good place to be. Larry
I’d think twice about this, were I Archbishop Hepworth.