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Sermons and Reflections: Saturday
after 3 Lent A Reading from Isaiah 59: Holy Wisdom, Holy Word. Brukhah at Yah, ein ha-chayim, asher moshah divrei Torah mi-mayim chayim b'rachamim rabim. Blessed are You, Yah, Fountain of Life, who draws words of Torah from living waters with overwhelming mother-love. Amen. Today we remember our baptisms. The sacrament that unites us in the family of God. We are one, one family, one blood. [Walk] We have brown skin and beige skin and golden skin and pink skin. We have curly hair and straight hair and grey hair and no hair. We have scrawny bodies and brawny bodies and hunky bodies and chunky bodies. But according to the vision of the founders of this institution and the architects of this chapel the holy people of God are white and male. [Look at them.] This is Women's History Month. Today is our remembrance of baptism into the one family of God. And today is also the commemoration of the martyrdom of the African saints Perpetua, Felicity and their companions. Neither our surroundings not the scripture designated by tradition bear witness to these things. Today I invite youto reflect on the iconography of Robert Lentz and the Passion of the Holy Martyrs, Perpetua, Felicity and their companions as we consider what it means to be baptized in water and in blood. Saint Perpetua left us one of the earliest pieces of literature
written by a Christian woman. She kept a journal of her conversion and
imprisonment up to the moment of her death that was widely read in the
centuries following her death. One of her companions added the details
of her death on 7 March 203 before his own death. Some Christians were
surprised to find that their bishops did not receive Perpetua's Passion
as scripture. Perpetua in her own words writes that: God may be glorified and humanity may be strengthened... She begins with the scripture that Peter uses to explain that the 120 souls in the Upper Room under the influence of the Spirit of God on Shavuoth, Pentecost, included the eleven surviving male apostles, Miriam, Mary, the mother of the Messiah along with his sisters, brothers and certain women. There were, by this account, 105 anonymous women under the influence of the Spirit and Peter, like Perpetua after him, turned to Joel. In the last days, says the HOLY ONE, I will pour out my spirit upon
all flesh, and their sons and daughters shall prophesy; and on my men
servants and on my women servants I will pour out my spirit…. Perpetua continues: We also, by whom both the prophecies and the new visions promised are received and honored, and by whom those other wonders of the Holy Spirit are assigned to the service of the Church, to which also was sent the same Spirit administering all gifts among all… do write… And Perpetua writes that: There were apprehended the young catechumens, Revocatus and Felicity his fellow servant, Saturninus and Secundulus. With them also was Vibia Perpetua, nobly born reared in a liberal manner, wedded honorably; having a father and mother and two siblings, one of them also a catechumen, and a son, a child at the breast; and she herself was about twenty-two years of age. What follows here shall she tell herself; the whole order of her martyrdom as she left it written with her own hand and in her own words… One of the most poignant moments that Perpetua relates is the attempt of her father to make her renounce her Christian faith that she might live. In response to his pleading, she writes: Father, Do you see this vessel, a pitcher or whatsoever it may be? And he said, I see it. And I said to him, Can it be called by any other name than that which it is? And he answered, No. So can I call myself nothing other than that which I am, a Christian…. A few days later she and her companions were baptized. A few days after that, they were arrested. She writes: I was much afraid because I had never known such darkness. O bitter
day! There was a great heat because of the press, there was cruel handling
of the soldiers. Lastly I was tormented there by care for my child.
Tertius and Pomponius, the blessed deacons who ministered to us, obtained with money that for a few hours we should be taken to a better part of the prison and be refreshed… I nursed my child that was now faint with hunger. And being concerned for him, I spoke to my mother and strengthened my brother and commended my son to them. I grieved because I saw they grieved for my sake. Such cares I suffered for many days; and I obtained that my child should stay with me in prison; and immediately I became well and was lightened of my labor and care for the child; and suddenly the prison was made a palace for me, so that I would sooner be there than anywhere else… Perpetua knew that her death was immanent. For like the prophets of old she received visions from God, and writes: This was shown me: I went up, and I saw a very great space of garden, and in the midst a man sitting, white-headed, in shepherd's clothing, tall milking his sheep; and standing around in white were many thousands. And he raised his head and beheld me and said to me: Welcome, child. From the curd he gave me a morsel; and I took it with joined hands and ate it up; and all that stood around said, Amen. And at the sound of that word I awoke, yet eating I know not what sweetness. And at once I told my brother, and we knew it should be a passion; and we began to have no hope any longer in this world… Perpetua's father visited her in the prison, to beg her to renounce Christ and to sacrifice to the emperor: Perform the Sacrifice; have mercy on the child. And Hilarian the procurator… Spare your father's grey hairs; spare the infancy of the boy. Make sacrifice for the Emperors' prosperity. And I answered: I am a Christian. And when my father stood by me yet to cast down my faith, he was bidden by Hilarian to be cast down and was beaten with a rod. And I grieved for my father's harm as though I had been beaten myself... Then Hilarian passed sentence upon us all and condemned us to the beasts; and cheerfully we went down to the dungeon. Then because my child had been used to being breastfed and to staying with me in the prison, immediately I sent Pomponius the deacon to my father, asking for my child. But my father would not give him back to me. And as God willed, no longer did he need to be nursed, nor did I take fever; that I might not be tormented by care for my child and by the pain of my breasts… The last vision that Perpetua recorded before her death, before her baptism in blood, was that of "a font full of water…" The next words we have of her are from the hand of an eyewitness: As for Felicity, she too received this grace... because she was now gone eight months (being indeed with child when she was taken) she was very sorrowful as the day of the games drew near, fearing lest for this cause she should be kept back (for it is not lawful for women that are with child to be brought forth for torment) and lest she should shed her holy and innocent blood after the rest, among strangers and malefactors. Also her fellow martyrs were much afflicted lest they should leave behind them so good a friend sojourner on the road of the same hope. So with united groaning they poured out their prayer to the Lord, three days before the games. Some time after their prayer her pains came upon her. And when by reason of the natural difficulty of the eighth month she was oppressed with her travail and cried out, there said to her one of the servants of the keepers of the door: You that cry out so now, what will you do when you are thrown to the beasts, which you brought on yourself when you would not sacrifice? And she answered, I myself now suffer that which I suffer, but there another shall be in me who shall suffer for me, because I am to suffer for him. So she was delivered of a daughter, whom a sister in the Way reared up to be her own daughter… On the day before the games… they made not a Free Feast but a Love Feast… (choosing a Eucharistic meal for their last supper). Now dawned the day of their victory, and they went from the prison into the amphitheatre as it were into heaven, cheerful and bright of countenance; if they trembled at all, it was for joy, not for fear. Perpetua followed behind, glorious of presence, as a true spouse of Christ and darling of God; at whose piercing look all cast down their eyes. Felicity, rejoicing that she had borne a child in safety, that she might fight with the beasts, came now from blood to blood, from the midwife to the gladiator, to wash after her travail in a second baptism… Perpetua began to sing… The soon to be martyred eyewitness writes: For the women the devil had made ready a most savage cow, prepared
for this purpose against all custom; for even in this beast he would
mock their sex. They were stripped and made to put on nets... The people
shuddered, seeing Perpetua, a tender girl, and Felicity, her breasts
full of milk from her recent childbearing… Beloved, in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. Amen. The Rev. Wil Gafney |
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Truth is lacking, and whoever turns from evil is despoiled.