Sermon: An Apostle, a Church and a Community in Rome

Sung Eucharist

May the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts be now and always acceptable in your sight, O Lord my strength and my redeemer.

A year ago, at the Cathedral Precentors' Conference in Rome, I stood in the Basilica of St Bartholomew on the Tiber Island, before the high altar, where Roman tradition states, the relics of the Apostle and martyr are enclosed in an altar adapted from a Roman Bath.  I have more to say about that Church presently.

Of Bartholomew himself, we know little.  He is mentioned in the list of the Apostles in the Synoptic Gospels and in Acts, but there is no other reference to him. We don't even know his familiar name: Bartholomew simple means Son of Tolmai.  He is sometimes identified with Nathaniel of the 4^th Gospel - the man Philip brought to Jesus, the Israelite in whom there was no guile, but this is merely conjecture, although the readings at Evensong today pick up that tradition.

What we can say is that like the other Apostles, Bartholomew was with Jesus during his earthly ministry, he was chosen to be one of the Twelve; he was present in the Upper Room at the Last Supper, he was a witness to the Resurrection, he received the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, he undertook the apostolic work of preaching, teaching and evangelising, with the planting and establishing of Churches.

Tradition states that he travelled to Armenia and was flayed alive at Albanopolis; he is thus held in great veneration by the Armenian Church as a proto-martyr. His relics were reputedly brought to Rome in 983, which brings me back to the Tiber Island and my visit to St Bartholomew's Basilica last year.

But St Bartholomew's basilica is not merely yet another gracious Roman Church with a link to Christian antiquity. For Pope John Paul II dedicated this Apostolic martyr's shrine to the memory of all Christians who have given their lives as witnesses in the context of the wars and persecutions of the 20th century and the early years of this century.  The various side chapels and altars of the Church are dedicated to such modern martyrs, and commemorated on a glorious icon. Among them are

Archbishop Oscar Romera, Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Salvador, murdered as he was saying Mass in 1980.  He was an outstanding opponent of the violence and corruption endemic in El Salvador and champion of the poor and especially all the victims of the civil war of his day.

Franz Jegerstatter, an Austrian executed on 9 August 1943 because of his refusal to undertake mandatory military service because of his opposition to Nazism. He regarded serving the Third Reich as being incompatible with his Christian profession.

Father Andrea Santoro, an Italian priest working with the small Christian minority in Turkey, murdered in his Church in February 2006.

But there is also a strong ecumenical dimension. For also included are memorials to

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German Lutheran Pastor who was executed tragically at the Flossenburg concentration camp on 9 April 1945 because of his courageous stand against in the Nazis in the name of Christ.

Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow, appointed head of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1917 at the time of the Russian Revolution.  Because of his stand against the confiscation of Church property and the persecution of believers, he was imprisoned and deposed in 1923; the effects of State action and on-going persecution are regarded as hastening his death in 1925, and so he is recognised as a martyr.

And wonderfully, for a group of Anglican Precentors, Archbishop Janani Luwum, Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, martyred in February 1977 on the orders of Idi Amin because of his protest against the state-sponsored murder taking place in the Uganda of his day.

The icon includes scenes recalling the Armenian genocide which followed the First World War in the Ottoman Empire, and religious persecution in atheistic Albania in the post-war period. .

Pope John Paul dedicated this Basilica to the care of the Sant'Egidio Community in Rome.  Many of you will have heard of it. Founded in 1968 by a teenager, Andrea Riccardi, it has grown to an international community of some 50,000 members working in 70 countries. Riccardi was inspired by reading the early Chapter of Acts - passages such as the first reading this morning, and the example of St Francis of Assisi. From the beginning, there was a strong emphasis on serving the poor, and children, and so the community began work in Trastevere, then, unlike now, a deprived area of Rome. The founding principle was to listen to the Gospel and then put it into practice.  At the Precentors' Conference, we had the privilege of meeting with a member of the Community, and then joining with members of the Community in their daily worship at the basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere.  We heard how the Sant'Edigio community is based on five common commitments

• a commitment to prayer, corporate - there is a very strong emphasis on members of the community meeting together for prayer and Bible Study - and individual
• a commitment to communicate the Gospel in word and deed
• a be a community without borders or walls: hence, the spread of the community throughout the world, but also as a means of witnessing to the unity of the human family
• a commitment to serving the poor, where the parable of the sheep and the goats is fundamental, hence, the community is involved in many social concerns and projects
• a commitment to peace and reconciliation.

It's a marvellous example of practical Christianity, and for that reason authentic, attractive Christianity.

Hence, the Basilica of St Bartholomew has become a kind of symbol.  The 20^th century martyrs stand against a background of human sin and division. The sin and division which causes war, denial of human rights, evil political systems, scape-goating and persecution of minorities, racism and racism in its most vicious and evil forms, totalitarianism, corruption.   The authentic Gospel, however, is to overcome these evils with good.

So, Pope Benedict, visiting the Basilica of St Bartholomew in April of this year, to celebrate the 40^th anniversary of the Sant'Egidio community, said in his homily:

Dear friends of the Community of Sant'Egidio, turning your eyes to these heroes of faith, strive to imitate their courage and perseverance in serving the gospel, especially among the poor. Be builders of peace and reconciliation among enemies and people who oppose each other. Nourish your faith by meditating and listening to the Word of God, through daily prayer, by actively taking part in Holy Mass. Authentic friendship with Christ will be the source of your mutual love.

‘Authentic friendship with Christ will be the source of your mutual love.' We don't know very much about St Bartholomew.   But I had the sense that, though dead two thousand years, his work is still continuing. For he belonged to a community that, inspired by and filled with the Holy Spirit, set out to change the world.  And that is the vocation of the Sant'Edigio community. And that is our vocation, too. And it starts today.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.