Easter Sunday – 31st March 2013

Dear Readers,

My name is Fr. Franz Devantier of Saint Titus, Independent Old Catholic Church (IOCC) of Africa, operating in South Africa, and also creator of this blog.  My background was that of a liberal Catholic Priest, and a Traditional Catholic Priest in South Africa, and then an independent Priest in the Catholic tradition.  I was incardinated into the IOCC by Archbishop-Primate Emeritus Maurice McCormick founder of the IOCC of America.  

IOCC of America

Primate Archbishop George Le Mesurier,  IOCC of America
Primate Emeritus Archbishop Maurice McCormick, IOCC of America
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IOCC of Africa

Bishop George Otieno Odhiambo, IOCC of Africa

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Saint Titus IOCC South Africa

Saint Titus IOCC Newsletter

Father. Franz Devantier, IOCC South Africa

In nomine Patris, et Filii, + et Spiritus Sancti.  Amen   (In the name of the father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen. )

Easter Sunday – 31st March 2013 (Colour of Celebration – White)

Traditional Catholics:

In many modern languages the name given to this feast comes from a Hebraic word Pasch or Passover, which means “Passage through the Red Seas”.  In latin the word is Pascha.

This is the day which the Lord had made; let us celebrate it with transports of joy.

Liberal Catholics:

O God of love, we praise thee, we bless thee, with all our hearts do we thank thee and magnify thy name for this most holy and wondrous festival of Easter, for in the glorious victory which in it is commemorated and symbolized, thou hast given us the sure and certain witness that good shall finally triumph over ill and that death is but a gateway to the ineffable splendour of eternal life in thee, O never-setting sun of righteousness, who livest and reignest God for ever and ever.  Amen.

Roman Catholics: (Twelfth Sunday of the Year)

God is the strength of his people.  In him, we his chosen live in safety.  Save us, Lord, who share in your life, and give us your blessing; be our shepherd for ever.

Commemoration of the Saints

April 2^nd:  St Francis of Paula (Confessor)

-> He founded the order of Minims, whose name shows that they wished to be accounted the least in the household of God.  Summoned to France, he died there in 1508.

April 4^th:  St Isidore (Bishop, Confessor, and Doctor of the Church)

-> He succeeded his brother as Archbishop of Seville.  He was a master of ecclesiastical learning in Spain and a great Doctor of the Church.  He died in A.D. 636.

April 5^th: St Vincent Ferrer (Confessor)

-> A famous Dominican who gave lustre to the Church by his preaching and miracles.  He converted thousands of sinners and heretics.  He died in A.D. 1419.

Announcements:

-> We are in the process of collecting names for Lay-Pastors and Marriage officers, under Saint Titus.  If you would like to become a marriage officer, or a Pastor, or a Priest, under Saint Titus, then please contact Fr. Franz  devantierf@gmail.com

News

We go into Easter weekend with 17 Lay-Pastors and 18 Candidate Marriage Officers.  We thank and bless all of you, and hope that your affiliation to St Titus will be inspiring over the coming years.  We are in the process of making submissions to the department of Home Affairs to register the Marriage officers.

We also have three Candidate Priests, who are ready to start their practical training and move through the minor Orders, and on to the Order of Sub-Deacon.  I have special permission to perform confirmations and ordinations up to and including Sub-Deacon.  From Deacon upwards we will need to fly the African Bishop in from Kenya to assist us.  Hopefully we will be needing the services of the African Regionary Bishop soon.

Sacred References:

Corinthians chapter 5, verses 7-8

Mark chapter 16, verses 1-7

Jeremiah chapter 20, verses 10-13

Romans chapter 5, verses 12-15

Mathew chapter 10, verses 26-33

Corinthians chapter 15, verses 12 onwards

Matthew chapter 28,  verses 1 onwards

Homily:

So by today we have come through Good Friday, Holy Saturday, and are finally into Easter Sunday.  Like most of us because of the pressures of work, and life, we have only managed to give some attention to Easter Sunday itself.  Some of us with young children around may have woken up, and searched for Easter Eggs that the “Easter Bunny”, hid in the house or in the garden.  It is an absolutely wonderful experience to find a hidden Chocolate Easter egg, that is earmarked for you, and to eat it.  So let’s focus on this aspect that most of us have managed to give some attention to, Easter Sunday.

Well I am sure you all know the story.  After the triumphant Palm Sunday, Jesus returns to Jerusalem, but this time to be condemned, and crucified.  Jesus is buried in a Sepulchre, and today’s story really starts about three days after the crucifixion.  The story starts on the morning of the third day, when it is discovered that Jesus the Christ has risen from the dead.  There is a pre-cursor to this story, when Jesus raises Lazareth from the Dead, after he had already been dead for three days.  However back to Easter Sunday, or more correctly Easter day.  At this point in time Jesus the Christ had risen from the dead in his spiritual body, but had not yet ascended into Heaven.  The Christ was walking around and talking to people, and they did not recognize him.

Two of his disciples were walking along on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus, which was quite a walk.  They were discussing the recent events, and seemed to be sad and upset by the proceedings.  You see, they were still of the mistaken impression that Jesus the Christ may have saved the people of Jerusalem from a political perspective.  They could not yet see the spiritual implications of what had just happened.  They were too close, and so could not see the wood for the trees.

Jesus the Christ explained to them in great detail using the old testament scriptures, all the way from the books of Moses, and all the books of the prophets, about how Jesus the Christ fitted into the picture, and the spiritual role that he had fulfilled.  The disciples were greatly enriched by the teachings, but still could not see him for who he was.  You see they believed that he was dead, and their belief was so strong, that they could not see him, even although he was right in front of their eyes talking to them, and teaching them.

It was only much later, when they had invited Jesus the Christ to eat supper with them, and the Christ performed the Mass, or the breaking of the bread, and the blessing of the bread and wine, that they suddenly were able to see him.  It was a sudden moment of realization.  The Buddhists way of describing something like this, would have been a moment of enlightenment.   As they recognized him as Jesus the Christ his spiritual body disappeared from their physical eyes, and they were not able to see him anymore.

The lessons presented are quite profound.  The teaching is that all of us, will be able to rise from the dead, with a spiritual body instead of a physical body.  You see one of the problems presented in understanding this concept is the time line problem.  We are stuck in linear time, and so the teaching that we will be raised up on the last day, is difficult to understand.  It seems that we will be required to wait for the end of the world to come, before we can be raised up.  If you go back to my homily for Palm Sunday 2013, which was last week, you will find that I speak of multiple dimensions of space and time.  Specifically of three dimensional time.  You see in three dimensional time you can move around in time, as you move around in three dimensional space.  You are no longer stuck to the linear progression of time.

So to be raised up on the last day in your spiritual body really just means that a little after you die in a physical body, you will be raised up in your spiritual body.  It seems to be important that your physical body should die properly, before your spiritual body rises up from the corruption or the dust of your physical body.  So as in the case of Jesus the Christ, he died and was buried, and three days later he rises up in his spiritual body.  In the same way, when we die, we will be raised up again in our spiritual bodies, which may look similar to the physical body that was laid to rest.  However it is common belief that the imperfections in the physical body will to some extent be eliminated from the Spiritual body.  So let’s say that you or somebody else dies today, and after a few days they are officially buried or cremated.  The spiritual body then rises up at the end of days or on the last day, which is in fact a few days after dying, because that is only a constraint of linear time in our physical bodies.  Our spiritual bodies will probably be able to operate in three dimensional time and multidimensional dimensions of space.  So we will not have to potentially wait in our graves for potentially thousands of years, before finally we are allowed to rise up in our spiritual bodies; we will be able to rise up almost immediately in our spiritual bodies, even if this is on the last day from a physical perspective.

For every kind of seed that is planted into the ground, a body of its own is raised up or grows.  From our perspective: that which is sown in corruption is raised in incorruption.  Sown in weakness is raised in power.  Just think of all those people who spend a life of prayer, just praying for others, various causes and themselves.  In some ways people may consider them weak.  However when they rise up in the spiritual bodies they will be beings of power.

Our natural body or our physical body or ashes is sown into the ground, or kept in a place or disposed of in some way.  At any point in time after dying we are free to rise up in our spiritual bodies.  It may be that the spiritual body rises as the physical body goes down, and we explain the timelines with a ball of time, in the new spiritual existence.

Our physical bodies die in mortality, but are raised as spiritual bodies in immortality.  But there is another reality, that is veiled in jokes about the afterlife.  Often we tell jokes about people arriving at the pearly gates of heaven, and trying to gain entrance, by outwitting St. Peter, who seems to be the gate-keeper in many of the stories.  There really is a gate, the gate of death, and a gate-keeper.  The gate-keeper may not be St. Peter, but in reality it may be your own higher self.  When you arrive at the gates of death, you are passing from the physical plains, and into the spiritual plains, which have a completely different set of operating rules.

Although there may be other personalities at the gate of death, you own conscience, your own higher self will probably play an important role in the proceedings.  Consider this, because you are moving into a place with more dimensions of space and time, many of the ground rules will change.  To start with when you arrive at the gate, you will probably be able to travel through the gate on your way to heaven or through the same gate in the opposite direction to another destination.  However the destination will be your choice, and you will be going to the place or the area, that you have chosen, and where you want to go. 

Your life and the deeds that you have done is your ticket to get through the gate of death.  What you have done, and what you have not done, what you have fixed up and what you have not fixed up, will decide which way the ticket will work.

But it is more involved than that, because when you get to the gate of death in three dimensional time, you will have all the time you need to review your life, and decide where you will be happiest.  If that is not enough, you can call on your advocate Jesus the Christ, who will come and argue your case, for in whichever way you desire to go; which may have infinitely more choices than simply going left or right. 

When you get to the gates of death the gates of heaven, you will be able to choose the mansion that you would like to be part of, because there are many mansions in heaven.  One of those mansions will be a fit for you.  You will only have insight on these details when you get to the pearly gates, so although you can’t formulate the exact place that you are going now, you can formulate the general direction that you like to end up in.  This has to be demonstrated in your daily life, and demonstrated to yourself in your daily life.  So that when you rise up in glory in your spiritual body, you will have already influenced the gate-keeper, as to your destination.

Prayer:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name:  Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread.  And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.  And lead us not into temptation.  But deliver us from evil.

[Protestants can optionally add:  For Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever.]

Amen.

Benediction:

The peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and love of God and of his Son, Christ our Lord; and the Blessing of God almighty, the Father, + the Son and the Holy Ghost, be amongst you and remain with you always.  Amen.

Love,

Rev. Fr. Franz Devantier of Saint Titus, IOCC, South Africa,

devantierf@gmail.com

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