Dear Brothers and Sisters, it’s some four months since we had an ordinary “Green” Sunday. That was early in March. Since then, a Pope has died and another has succeeded. Since then, we have kept Lent and Easter and Pentecost. In this cathedral, we have had the joy of baptisms, confirmations, first communions. Many confessions have been heard and absolutions imparted. On Corpus Christi, we had a Eucharistic procession down Union Street. On the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, Aidan Matheson was ordained a priest here, and we have been remembering the silver jubilee of Fr Keith’s ordination. Looking ahead a little, we keep the Solemnity here of Our Lady of Aberdeen on Wednesday, and in August comes the next great feast, the Solemnity of our Lady’s Assumption, the patronal feast of this Cathedral church, the mother church of the diocese.
I want to recall all this from a full heart – grateful to the Lord who is always at work, grateful to all of you who worship here, grateful to the laity and clergy who keep this Cathedral working, contributing in such a range of ways.
The Introit today captures it perfectly: “O God, we have received your mercy in the midst of your temple.” Surely, that’s our experience here. And the First Reading, talking of Jerusalem, says it even better. The prophet Isaiah envisages Jerusalem as a place of motherly consolation for the people of Israel, with peace flowing like a river and our thirst slaked; a place where “the hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants”. “As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.”
Yes, the Lord is among us and is at work among us. His great work is gathering scattered humanity into the body of his Son, and this is still proceeding. Christ’s Body is growing, with its many diverse members, serving one another and the mission of the Church.
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Our First Reading gives us a beautiful image to grasp this divine work: that of the river. “I will extend peace to her – Jerusalem – like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream”. This is the not the Nile, the Tigris, the Euphrates or the Jordan. This is the river that rises eternally in the heart of the Father and through his Son flows into his creation as the Holy Spirit giving life. A Psalm (Ps 46:4) talks of the waters of a river that give joy to God’s city. The prophet Ezekiel (ch. 47) has his vision of the water flowing out of the Temple in Jerusalem, the water rising, becoming a river flowing into the barren lands around the Dead Sea, fish abounding in the water, fruit-bearing trees on either side, bearing fruit every month. It’s all suggestive of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus begins his ministry beside the River Jordan (Jn 1:29ff). He promises the Samaritan woman an inner spring of water welling up to eternal life (John 4:14). He says that out of his heart will flow rivers of living water, meaning either his heart or the believer’s heart, or both (John 7:38). And when his side is pierced on the Cross, out of the temple of his body flow blood and water (Jn 19: 34). It is the one same river, flowing now from the open heart of Christ in the sacramental life of the Church and the action of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus tells his disciples to go out into the world to make disciples and baptise in the name of Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Mt 28:19), he’s unleashing the river into the world. And the book of Revelation ends, gathering up these allusions, with a vision of the river of the water of life, “flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev 22:1), proceeding as the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son, healing the nations and giving the fulness of beatific life: humanity gathered home into the Trinity.
This is the river that is always flowing – in creation, in the life of the Church, in every open soul. If we think of ourselves as fish, as the early Christians did, this is the river we want to swim in; out of it we die. If we think of ourselves as piloting through life, each of us, our own little boat, this is the river on which we want to sail and so reach the ocean of eternal life. If we think of ourselves as trees planted beside the bank, this is the river we want to water us, so we will bear fruit throughout our lives and grow leaves for the healing of the nations.
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Today Jesus sends out 70 or 72 disciples, a second mission after that of the 12. This is the flowing river of the mission of the Church. Notice there’s no places mentioned by name here. The disciples go out from Jesus and return to Jesus. The new Jerusalem, the Church, is being built around him. The disciples flow out two by two to flow back with “the glory of the nations” in tow, believers from everywhere. And so God’s work goes on, flows on, and we can each and all be part of it in prayer, in service, in everything good we do and say.
St Mary’s Cathedral, Aberdeen, 6 July 2025
