14th February, 2021.
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My dear friends,

The Coronavirus pandemic has had an impact on the work of the St John Eye Hospital Group in Jerusalem, as it has on the rest of the work of St John. Much medical care at St John Eye Hospital has had to be curtailed, though it has been possible to continue a certain amount of emergency work. More worryingly, the Hospital’s income has greatly diminished during the pandemic. St John Eye Hospital is run on a shoe-string and is very dependent on donations. You’ll see in my sermon below that I am fundraising again in Essex this Lent in aid of the Hospital. Any donations you can spare would be very greatly appreciated and will help to save someone’s sight. Imagine a father or mother who, for the first time in years, is suddenly able to see their children clearly, or to go out and earn a living and put food on the table. No amount is too small, and every penny will help. The postman brought me the first cheque for £30 today, which I thought was a very good and encouraging start to this Lent’s collection. You can find out more about the wonderful work of the St John Eye Hospital Group at: www.stjohneyehospital.org

I am sorry to have to report the death on 4th February 2021 of Sam, Lord Vestey, who was Chancellor of the Order of St John 1988-1991 and then Lord Prior 1991-2002. He led the transition from the Grand Priory to the establishment of the Priory of England and the Islands and of our Grand Council with the governance of the Order, involving all of the Priories across the world. He also served as Master of the Horse to H.M. The Queen 1999-2018, and could be spotted riding behind the Queen each year at Trooping the Colour, wearing the black riband and white Maltese Cross of the Order of St John. I am sure you will join me in remembering Lord Vestey and his family in your prayers.

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

The Rev. Dr ROBERT BEAKEN, County Chaplain
1 BEFORE LENT/QUINQUAGESIMA – 14th FEBRUARY 2021.
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Gospel: St Mark, chapter 9, verses 2-9
One day when I was the Vicar of a parish in Colchester, I went to see a priest colleague in the town and found him in rather an emotional frame of mind. His old mother had died, and, clearing out a kitchen drawer, he had found her hand-written book of recipes, including a fish dish which had been his favourite as a boy. He explained to me that he and his brothers had been sent to a boarding school in Scotland. He used to become upset whenever the school holidays finished and he had to return to the boarding school. Once he got there, he was alright; but leaving home and his parents was an ordeal. In order to sweeten the pill, his mother used to let him choose what the family ate for supper on the last night of the holidays, and he always chose his favourite fish dish

            Now, clearly it is not an exact parallel, but in today’s Gospel about Jesus Christ’s transfiguration we see God the Father doing something a little bit similar. Christ experienced a wonderful, sustaining, spiritual experience on Mount Tabor. He was clothed for a while in divine glory, and shone brightly. His disciples were terrified. And then, it was all over.

            The timing is the key to this incident, and in particular, what happened next. Jesus descended from the mountain and began his journey to Jerusalem, which would end forty days later with him freely accepting death by crucifixion in expiation for the sins of the world. It can’t have been easy, making your way to Jerusalem, knowing you were going to die horribly at the end of it. Yet Jesus went, in love for mankind. Before he set off, there came this wonderful, experience of the Transfiguration. The point is that God the Father gave Jesus a glimpse of His glory, a foretaste of what would happen after Resurrection. It was a sign of the Eternal Father’s love for His Son; and, reassured by that love, Jesus set off on the road to Jerusalem.

            The Church has chosen this passage about the Transfiguration today because next Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, when we commence the season of Lent, the forty days of preparation for Easter. It is a little glimpse for us of the spiritual riches that await us at the end of a Lent well-kept.

In the early Church, Lent was originally a forty-day period of intense prayer and spiritual preparation for those adults who were to be Baptised at Easter. As time passed, Christians who had already been baptised, and who had got a lot out of their final Baptism preparation, began observing the forty days of preparation before Easter alongside that year’s Baptism candidates. Thus the special season of Lent began. But what’s it all for? Well, our age is familiar with the ‘detox’: people go on special diets to detoxify their bodies of all the nasty things that have built up inside them as a result of their diet or lifestyle. Lent is a bit like this, except that it is our souls and spiritual lives that we are cleaning out.

            We are apt to think of Lent as a bit of a gloomy time, to be endured, if not actually ignored. We couldn’t be more wrong. Lent is a time of growth. In the next forty days we are trying, deliberately and consciously, to get a little closer to Jesus Christ; to know him better, to enjoy his company, to share a bit more of ourselves with him.

There are a number of ways in which we customarily do this in Lent. For a start, we are supposed to do something about our sins. We ought to think and pray about ourselves and our lives. We must tell God we are sorry for our sins and intend not to commit them again. We may do this quietly, kneeling beside our beds, or we may hear God calling us to make a sacramental Confession to Him and receive absolution. In Lent we must seek to be reconciled with those around us: we must not bear grudges. We should apologize and patch things up when necessary.

            Then, having had a good clear out of sin, we must feed and nourish our souls. We do this firstly by praying more often and more lovingly. Remember, we can talk to God anywhere: sitting in the car or on the bus, as well as in our room. God is everywhere, and He is always pleased to hear us.

Then there is the Eucharist. In Holy Communion, Jesus Christ enters right inside our very being with His Real Presence, to give us his strength, guidance and grace. The Eucharist is a motorway of love between God and us. Once the penny has dropped and we grasp the real meaning of the Eucharist – that it is the highest and noblest form of divine worship, given to us by the Son of God himself – our lives are changed forever. I fully realise that during this time of lock-down it is not possible for most people to receive Holy Communion, but you could look at our weekly services on YouTube (search under ‘The Benefice of Great and Little Bardfield’) and make a spiritual communion. Once public worship resumes, we might try to value the Eucharist more highly and receive Holy Communion more prayerfully.

            It is good to read a spiritual book during Lent. I would always recommend reading the Bible. The other side of the coin of the Real Presence, so to speak, is God’s inspiration of the Bible. The Bible, though written by many men, was inspired by the Holy Spirit. When we read it, God speaks to us, whether we sense anything happening in our minds or not. We are being nourished and helped to grow in the faith.

            Next comes fasting and abstinence. We are supposed to eat a bit less throughout the forty days of Lent. The aim is to create a little space for the Holy Spirit to fill. It occurs to me to suggest that we night abstain from a bit of television as well as from food, and use that time to read or pray.

            Lastly comes money. We used to say in a previous form of the service: ‘All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine own do we give thee’. We think our money is our own, but in truth it has merely been lent to us by God, and He watches with interest what we do with it. Part of Lent is to give a little more to God. During Lent we usually have my famous orange buckets at the back of our churches to collect money for St John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem. The hospital is a Christian foundation and is run by the Order of St John. It offers eye operations and care to Christians, Muslims and Jews, irrespective of faith or ethnicity. If the patients are unable to pay, they are given free treatment.  It is run on a shoe-string, and every penny we are able to send will help make a difference to someone’s life. If we are able to resume public worship soon, my orange buckets will appear at the back of church. Otherwise, cheques may be sent to me at the Vicarage made payable to ‘Great Bardfield P.C.C.’ with ‘Eye Hospital’ written on the reverse. It would be wonderful if we could celebrate Easter by collecting enough money to pay for someone to have a free eye operation.
So, there we have it: repentance, prayer, the Eucharist, the Bible, fasting, money. These are the elements of Lent; and I don’t commend to you anything I shall not be doing myself over the next forty day. A good Lent can bear fruit in our lives all year round.

I return to today’s Gospel about the Transfiguration. This was a pivotal moment in the life of Christ. After the Transfiguration he began his journey to Jerusalem, his last journey that would end in his death and resurrection. During the forty days of Lent we shall each be walking alongside him, getting to know him on the journey. The glory of the Resurrection, glimpsed in the Transfiguration, awaits both Christ and us too