Almighty and everlasting God,
who, of thy tender love towards mankind, hast sent thy Son, our
Saviour Jesus Christ, to take upon him our flesh, and to suffer
death upon the cross, that all mankind should follow the example of
his great humility: Mercifully grant, that we may both follow the
example of his patience, and also be made partakers of his
resurrection; through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
The Sunday Next Before
Easter
The Book of Common Prayer
(1662)
THIS prayer which, like a number of
the collects in the BCP, comes from an early liturgy, is set for
the day usually called Palm Sunday, and the days in Holy Week until
Good Friday. It is thus associated in our minds with processions,
palm crosses, and the dramatic reading of the Passion story, but it
is powerful for all seasons, and for personal as well as public
devotion.
It opens with a confident assertion of God's love towards his
creation, so great that the Son came to take our human nature upon
him and to experience every aspect of our existence, even to death.
Divinity, all-powerful and all-knowing, accepted the extreme
humility of a life without privilege, often despised, ultimately
betrayed and forsaken.
Christians have too often been divided between making much of
virtuous living in this world, God's Kingdom on earth, and
reflecting too little on the things eternal; or else of focusing on
individual salvation at the expense of social duties.
This tension is an example of the "either-or" arguments that
have often harmed the proclamation of the gospel and been at the
root of many heresies. Was Christ's nature divine or human? Are we
saved by faith or works? Such disputes have torn Christians apart,
and brought the Church into disrepute.
In this prayer, we can find the "both-and" understanding that is
the wholeness of our faith. Christ is our example for life day by
day in this world, and also our guide and hope of eternal life
after death. In following the example of his humility, we are also
to share in his patience.
This is a word that means much more than trying to keep
good-tempered while we are waiting for something. It keeps its
classical meaning of suffering; it is the achievement of calm
acceptance of sadness and injustice - the virtue that we honour
when we follow the way of the cross. It is a call humbly to accept
the will of God in all things.
There is something more: the challenge and the hope are extended
to all people, to "mankind", understood in its meaning for the
whole human race. This is not a select invitation to Christians,
but a message of salvation for humanity, cutting though any idea
of spiritual privilege.
We are called to look to the cross, but also to look beyond it,
to the resurrection, through which we, too, have been granted
eternal life. St Paul reminds us that "As in Adam all die, even so
in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15.22, KJV).
The grace that enables us, however imperfectly, to practise
humility also frees us from the burden of our mortality. The
prayer ends, as our prayers should, with the ascription of Christ
as the Lord who brought salvation through his sacrificial love. In
praying this prayer, we celebrate the ultimate of love and the
ultimate of humility. It confirms our assurance that through the
incarnation we have a strength that is not our own.
The Revd Dr Raymond Chapman is Emeritus Professor of English
in the University of London, and a vice-president of the Prayer
Book Society.