24th January, 2021.
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My dear friends,

Last week I drove to Great Dunmow – my nearest town –to buy a few things I had run out of and could not get in Great Bardfield Co-Op. I went for a short walk along the High Street – the first time I had been there for almost a year – and was much struck by the change in its appearance. A few food shops and chemist’s were open, but all the other shops were closed. In one shop, the proprietor could be seen through the window dusting and hoovering, ready for the day when they could open to the public once more. All the others were deserted. If I said it felt like a ghost town, I would be exaggerating – but not by much.

I imagine this is true of high streets in towns all over Essex. Although much carries on as before, many other aspects of daily life have been put on hold by the Coronavirus pandemic. Many people I speak to are anxious about their jobs and the future. To begin with, life at home during the lock-down wasn’t too bad: they could get on with the various decorating and gardening jobs they had long meant to get around to. After a while, many people discovered – sometimes to their surprise – that they actually missed going to work.

“What do you do?” we ask strangers when we meet them. Our work is a big part of our identity, and this is perhaps one of the reasons we miss it and the people we work alongside. This is entirely understandable; but I should like to suggest that our personal identity is made up of many interwoven strands. For a start, I believe that our identity comes primarily from our relationship with God, who loves us more than we can ever imagine. Other important factors are our family, where we live, our gifts and skills, our experiences – both good and bad – as we have gone through life, our hobbies and interests. For us, one important element is our membership of St John, Pro fide et pro utilitate hominem, for the faith and for the benefit of humanity.

Perhaps we might look out for people around us who are anxious, or who are missing their work. A kindly word might go a long way: a friend of mine told me he was going to suggest to someone he knew was a bit down in the dumps that they might go for a little Covid-safe walk together in the fresh air. Little things can sometimes have a lasting impact. We might also, of course, suggest that people might like to think about joining St John Ambulance and tell them what it means to us.
Many of you will remember the Right Reverend John Waine, Bishop of Chelmsford 1986-1996 and Prelate of the Order of St John until 2007. Bishop John died on 29th December 2020 aged 91 and his funeral was held last week at Bury St Edmunds. I am sure you will join me in remembering Bishop John and his family in your prayers.

​​With my prayers and all good and warm wishes,

The Rev. Dr ROBERT BEAKEN, County Chaplain
EPIPHANY 3 – 24th JANUARY 2021.
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Gospel: St John, chapter 2, verses 1-11
I was much struck by a magazine interview with Brother Guy Consolmagno SJ, the director of the Vatican space observatory in the Arizona desert. Brother Guy is a very clever man with several degrees in astronomy. He also came across as a very humble man. Brother Guy argued persuasively that there is no fundamental clash between faith and science; and the assertion that you can either believe in faith or in science, but that you can’t believe in both together owes much to clashing social and political ideologies.
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As Brother Guy spoke of his work in the observatory, he radiated excitement and enthusiasm. He spoke very movingly of the discoveries of science, and particularly in his own field, astronomy. To paraphrase: he was deeply moved to think that behind all the stars, mighty galaxies, and all the other wonderful and sometimes puzzling things revealed by science, stands God, who is the Author and Sustainer of all there is. Moreover, it is profoundly moving and humbling to think that this wonderful Creator God cares deeply for each of us human beings; so much so that He sent His only Son Jesus Christ into the world to save and redeem us.

I guess that for most people, the biggest hurdle to overcome is accepting that Jesus is the incarnate Son of God – fully divine and fully human together – and not just some nice carpenter from Nazareth with some interesting observations. Once we have accepted Jesus Christ’s divinity, all the other bits of the story start to fall into place.

And so we come to today’s Gospel reading about the Miracle at Cana. Like a good book, this tale of Christ helping an embarrassed bride and groom at their wedding feast, does not yield up all its meaning at the first reading. There various layers of significance.

            For a start, this is a clear announcement to those who have the eyes to see it of the divinity of Christ. “Do whatever he tells you,” Mary said to the servants. She knew the true identity of her Son. Ordinary men cannot turn water into wine. The change is quite miraculous. Clearly, if Christ can perform a miracle of this sort, he is not just an every-day carpenter from Nazareth. The aim of this miracle is to get us thinking.

            Secondly, this miracle took place at a wedding. This was the first miracle which Jesus Christ worked, at the very beginning of his public ministry. The Church has always believed that if the first thing Jesus did to show us his divinity was at a wedding, then, in God’s eyes, marriage and married life must be very important.

            Thirdly, Jesus Christ turned water into wine in the miracle. This is the first of a series of miracles involving food and drink. On two separate occasions Christ multiplied loaves and fishes to feed large crowds. All these miracles involving food and drink are preparing the way for a much greater miracle still: the Last Supper when Christ took ordinary bread and wine and worked another miracle, turning them into his sacramental Body and Blood.

It is quite clear when we look at the original Greek words describing the Last Supper in the New Testament, and also Christ’s words in St John’s Gospel, that the Lord does not mean the bread and wine merely symbolise his Body and Blood. Rather, Jesus Christ speaks of his actual Body and Blood. He feeds us with himself – with his sacramental Body and Blood – in order that he may enter into us and into our daily lives, with all his wondrous love and grace. Christ worked the earlier food miracles – water into wine, the multiplication of loaves and fishes – to prepare the way for this greatest miracle, which we call his ‘Real Presence’ in the bread and wine of the Eucharist. The other miracles could all be seen. The Real Presence may only be perceived by faith. Perhaps Christ knew that unless he led up to the Last Supper gradually, it would all be too much for his disciples and they would not believe.

            Lastly, there is the significance of the quality of the wine. All the poor bride and groom have been able to afford is cheap plonk. Christ gives them good, rich wine of the best vintage, and plenty of it. Why such beautiful wine? Well, perhaps the wine is symbolic, representing all the good things that God wants to give us through marriage and the family.

If we are not careful, we can sometimes misrepresent Christianity to be what is sometimes dismissively called ‘pie in the sky’ – all about experiencing God in the future, in Heaven. Well, Heaven will be wonderful, but the whole thrust of Christianity is that we may know God in this world, here and now, in our daily lives and relationships. The beautiful, rich wine symbolises all the wonderful things God wishes to give to His children, if only we will let Him, and receive them with faith.

            And what, I wonder, became of the couple who got married at Cana? We shall never know. I daresay only a few people saw what had happened, the waiters, the bride and groom, and Jesus himself. I imagine most people just got on with drinking the wine and didn’t bother where it had come from. But Mary remembered, and perhaps some of the disciples who’d been there, and they passed on this lovely tale to the first generation of Christians. And today, nearly two thousand years later, we still read about that little country wedding, and the importance for us of what Jesus did there