It was an amazingly historic day yesterday in Houston, Texas. I was present for the inaugural Mass for Msgr. Jeffrey Steenson as the first ordinary of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter.
It was a time to meet old friends and make new friends, and always a great chance to meet readers of this blog. It was very moving to see the warm welcome given by the two cardinals–Wuerl and diNardo–to the new Ordinary. Mass was then celebrated according to the Anglican Use, and it was quite something to see two cardinals of the Catholic Church kneeling with us to recite the Prayer of Humble Access…”Lord we do not presume to come to this Thy table, trusting in our own goodness, but in Thy manifold and great mercies…”
Music was provided by combined choirs of the Catholic community in Houston led by the eminent organist and composer Dr. Kevin Clarke, himself a convert from Anglicanism–now an organist of St Theresa’s, Sugarland. Among the classic pieces of English music was Byrd’s Mass for Five Voices, Parry’s great anthem, I Was Glad, O Sacrum convivium by Thomas Tallis, and Bl. Cardinal Newman’s great hymn Praise to the Holiest in the Height.
Appropriately, for the establishment of the Ordinariate of the Chair of St Peter, the readings were the passage from Isaiah about the steward of the King, I Peter 5. 1-4, in which St Peter encourages his bishops to be ‘fellow shepherds’ and Matthew 16 on which Christ founds his church on Peter the Rock. Msgr. Steenson’s homily was fitting with his status as a patristics scholar. He spoke on the controversy in the early church on the reception of those who had apostatized. The Pope was generous and made it as easy as possible for them to come back into full communion. That same generosity was seen in the warmth and humility of the Cardinals–representing the Holy Father–as the Ordinariate was established.
All in all, it was a most moving and historic day, and what a great privilege to be part of it.
A British excavation has struck archaeological gold with a discovery that may solve the mystery of where the Queen of Sheba derived her fabled treasures.
A British excavation has struck archaeological gold with a discovery that may solve the mystery of where the Queen of Sheba of biblical legend derived her fabled treasures.
Almost 3,000 years ago, the ruler of Sheba, which spanned modern-day Ethiopia and Yemen, arrived in Jerusalem with vast quantities of gold to give to King Solomon. Now an enormous ancient goldmine, together with the ruins of a temple and the site of a battlefield, have been discovered in her former territory.
Louise Schofield, an archaeologist and former British Museum curator, who headed the excavation on the high Gheralta plateau in northern Ethiopia, said: “One of the things I’ve always loved about archaeology is the way it can tie up with legends and myths. The fact that we might have the Queen of Sheba’s mines is extraordinary.”
An initial clue lay in a 20ft stone stele (or slab) carved with a sun and crescent moon, the “calling card of the land of Sheba”, Schofield said. “I crawled beneath the stone – wary of a 9ft cobra I was warned lives here – and came face to face with an inscription in Sabaean, the language that the Queen of Sheba would have spoken.”
On a mound nearby she found parts of columns and finely carved stone channels from a buried temple that appears to be dedicated to the moon god, the main deity of Sheba, an 8th century BC civilisation that lasted 1,000 years. It revealed a victory in a battle nearby, where Schofield excavated ancient bones.
Although local people still pan for gold in the river, they were unaware of the ancient mine. Its shaft is buried some 4ft down, in a hill above which vultures swoop. An ancient human skull is embedded in the entrance shaft, which bears Sabaean chiselling.
Sheba was a powerful incense-trading kingdom that prospered through trade with Jerusalem and the Roman empire. The queen is immortalised in Qur’an and the Bible, which describes her visit to Solomon “with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices, and very much gold and precious stones … Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices.”
Although little is known about her, the queen’s image inspired medieval Christian mystical works in which she embodied divine wisdom, as well as Turkish and Persian paintings, Handel’s oratorio Solomon, and Hollywood films. Her story is still told across Africa and Arabia, and the Ethiopian tales are immortalised in the holy book the Kebra Nagast.
Hers is said to be one of the world’s oldest love stories. The Bible says she visited Solomon to test his wisdom by asking him several riddles. Legend has it that he wooed her, and that descendants of their child, Menelik – son of the wise – became the kings of Abyssinia.
At the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart yesterday:
During the mass Reverend Jeffrey Steenson was installed as the first Ordinary, or head, of the Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter and given the title of Monsignor.
“Behold how good and joyful a thing it is, for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Ps. 133:1).
With all our hearts, let us thank Pope Benedict XVI for this beautiful gift, the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter, and let us pray that it may further the goal of Catholic unity. When Cardinal Wuerl told me that the Holy Father would establish the Ordinariate under this name, I truly rejoiced, for it goes to the heart of what our mission should be. And it helps us to understand why our Lord entrusted His Church to St. Peter in the first place.
So much ink has been spilled over the interpretation of these words of our Gospel, which Jesus spoke to Peter in Caesarea Philippi – “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church” (Mt. 16:18). Of course, for Catholics, the authoritative interpretation was provided at the First Vatican Council. But we must honestly acknowledge that Christians have read this text in different ways. Even amongst the church fathers there was not unanimity over what “On this Rock” means precisely. The great Augustine himself said that the reader must choose – Does this Rock signify Christ or Peter? (Retract. 1.20). But Augustine quite properly would not have thought this a matter of either/or. For Peter brings everything to Christ. The trajectory is clear. We are Christ’s and Christ is God’s (I Cor. 3:23). I am grateful that, over the course of my ministry, the teachings of Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have been so clear on this point – the Church exists to bring souls to Christ. But, as our text plainly affirms, Jesus has invested Peter with a ministry of fundamental importance. And he does so by employing three verbs in the future tense – I will build my church … the gates of hell will not prevail against it … I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. When Jesus speaks in the future tense, he draws all things to himself; we know then that this commission does not end with the historical Peter. The whole life of the Church on earth until the end of time is anticipated in this moment.
In this context, listen to St. Anselm, the 37th Archbishop of Canterbury, perhaps the greatest theologian ever to grace England’s green and pleasant land: “This power was committed specially to Peter, that we might therefore be invited to unity. Christ therefore appointed him the head of the Apostles, that the Church might have one principal Vicar of Christ, to whom the different members of the Church should have recourse, if ever they should have dissentions among them. But if there were many heads in the Church, the bond of unity would be broken” (Cat. Aur. Mt. 16:19).
The first time we find Matthew 16:18 specifically applied to Peter’s successors, the Bishops of Rome, came amidst a controversy between Pope Stephen and Cyprian of Carthage in the middle of the third century. At the risk of sounding pedantic, I hope that you will permit me to speak briefly to this, because it is very relevant to the Ordinariate. In the Anglican tradition, the church fathers are held in high esteem; here is where we were taught to find our bearings on theological questions.
The third century popes are heroes to me, because they were courageous pastors who sought to restore those brethren who had broken or fallen away to the full communion of the Catholic Church. At a time when many bishops were very severe and uncompromising about the purity of the Church, God gave us popes who understood that welcoming back the wandering and the fallen is of the very essence of the ministry that Jesus gave to the Apostles. In the letters of St. Cyprian there is a remarkable and revealing correspondence from St. Firmilian of Caesarea about Pope Stephen (Ep. 75, ca. 255) – Can you believe it, Cyprian? Stephen actually thinks that he sits on the chair of Peter as he orders us to accept the baptism of these separated groups! He actually wants us to regard these people as Christians!
I think this is the important context in which to understand what Pope Benedict is saying to us in Anglicanorum coetibus. Some will argue that the Catholic Church makes Christian unity a difficult thing to achieve. Look at what is being asked of those who are considering the Ordinariate! – Anglicans have not only to be received but even confirmed, and their clergy ordained in the absolute form. Is this not asking them to begin all over again? Certainly not! From Zephyrinus to Callistus to Cornelius to Stephen – these third century popes, most of whom laid down their lives as martyrs, who governed the Church at a time when it seemed as though the gates of hell really might prevail, threatening to destroy her essential unity – the Catholic Church simply asked that the bonds of charity be restored sacramentally by invoking the presence of the Holy Spirit. These are brothers and sisters, returning home.
The first principle of the Ordinariate is then about Christian unity. St. Basil the Great, the Church’s greatest ecumenist, literally expended his life on the work of building bridges between orthodox brethren who shared a common faith, but who had become separated from one another in a Church badly fragmented by heresy and controversy. He taught that the work of Christian unity requires deliberate and ceaseless effort. Like an old coat which is always being torn and is difficult to mend, the unity of the Church must never be taken for granted but requires great diligence and courage from her leaders (Bas. Ep.113). St. Basil often talked with yearning about the archaia agape, the ancient love of the apostolic community, so rarely seen in the Church of his day. This love, he taught, is a visible sign that the Holy Spirit is indeed present and active, and it is absolutely essential for the health of the Church. I can’t think of a better illustration for this homily than Bernini’s great sculpture of the Chair of St. Peter in the apse of St. Peter’s Basilica: Peter’s chair is upheld by the great fathers of the Church; and, hovering over it all, the luminous alabaster dove, the Holy Spirit, bathing everything in the radiance of God’s love.
There is so much to be celebrated about the patrimony of Anglicanism, its liturgical, spiritual, and pastoral traditions, which the Catholic Church welcomes as a treasure to be shared. But let us be clear about our first principles. So many people during the 477 years that Anglicans have been separated from Rome have prayed fervently and made great sacrifices for this day to come. In obedience and trust they embraced whole-heartedly all that Jesus’ prayer for the unity of his disciples requires (Jn. 17:21). It is surely no coincidence that this reconciliation should come at the very time Pope Benedict has put the new evangelization at the top of the Church’s agenda. To be converted and conformed to the image of Christ means that his Church will be transformed and renewed through and through. I so much appreciate how our Chancellor, Dr. Margaret Chalmers, puts it: “Our patrimony is people.” We thus open our hearts, in humility and love, to all Christians divided by culture and circumstance and misunderstanding. We extend our hand in friendship to all who seek the Truth. These are our companions along the way. We begin with a strong faith that God has given us Peter, his hand firmly on the tiller, returning us to Jesus, “the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls” (I Pet. 2:25).
Fr Dwight Longenecker who was there shares his impressions:
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