Text: Bishop Paul Mason at Farewell Mass for Stella Maris CEO

Bishop Paul Mason. Image M Mazur

Bishop Paul Mason, Trustee and Bishop Promoter of Stella Maris, gave the following homily at a special Mass in St George's Cathedral Southwark on Wednesday, to mark the departure of CEO Martin Foley.

The sea is a great inspiration for the Arts. In literature, anyone here may have read The Old Man of the Sea by Ernest Hemingway, movies - the first one that comes to mind I suppose is Titanic, and when it comes to music we all know Rod Stewart's 'I am Sailing, Stormy waters, across the sea' (don't worry, I won't start singing). Very romantic images these things conjure but the Bible too is inspired by images of the sea. As I say, not quite so romantic. The sea in the Bible is something that people are afraid of. Ships at the time were built rather flimsily by today's standards and wouldn't tend to go out to sea, they would hug the coast because to go any further out into the sea was to put their own lives and livelihoods in danger. In fact, if we look back through the images of the sea in Scripture, we can start to see that the sea can be seen as being hostile to the purposes of God. Let me give you some examples.

In Genesis, it starts off with the formless void, the watery deep, so it's a formless watery void at the start of Genesis. But the Spirit hovers over those waters and brings order. Another example where it tries to stop God's purposes is the people of Israel leaving Egypt, so they're escaping. What happens to them, well they come to the Red Sea. The Red Sea seems to be standing to thwart God's purposes. So, through Moses the sea is opened and the people of Israel go through. Jesus walked on the water, that shows God's power over the water, and today we heard of the calming of the storm. And one more example in the Acts of the Apostles, St Paul is trying to get to Rome but of course was shipwrecked in Malta. But undeterred, he ends up making it to Rome a few months later where he spends at least two years in ministry preaching the Gospel, so determined he was. So, the sea storms threaten, but God finds a way through the sea.

Now more metaphorically, of course, the storms, as we know, reach all of us. All sorts of things can happen in our lives and the storm waters can breach the walls that we may have built. We can see this very often, through the example of the lives of seafarers and fishermen. The things that they suffer may resonate with, perhaps, our own experience. They can suffer great isolation, being away for months at a time. A relationship breakdown back at home, there's nothing they can really do about it, they feel utterly helpless. Their own sickness or an accident on board, or the sickness of a loved one back at home, again they are helpless. Some may even suffer injustice on board, or the loss of a loved one and that can be a most terrible thing for them to have to undergo. And of course literally they can be afraid of shipwrecks, they do go down, ships are lost every year. So how does God help us weather the storms that can come. I want to give an examples of two sailors, one from the Old Testament, one from the New Testament.

First one, it's got to be Noah. What did Noah do to try to follow God's will to be safe from the sea. Well, he built the Ark. That Ark was covered in pitch, a resiny black material that fills the cracks and all of the seams to stop the water getting in.

The Ark served three purposes: to give people a place of safety in a stormy world; to take them on a journey somewhere; and then ultimately to disembark and to bring life to the place where they disembarked. As we know, the Ark is a great metaphor for the Church. The Church is a place of safety, we journey together, and we hope to bring life when we leave the Church 'go and announce the Gospel of the Lord' we say at the end of Mass.

It's no coincidence that the very buildings themselves are designed like ships - that's the Nave, from 'Navis' ship. Less than half a mile from here is the beautiful example of Westminster Abbey with its flying buttresses - what are they? They are the oars of the ship. It's a good reminder that we get on board a ship, the ark, when we come to Church. So sad today that the concept of freedom seems to be a desire to be a solo swimmer. Can you imagine jumping off the ship in the middle of the storm to paddle on your own with your own definition of freedom being to do my own thing is going to be any help. Of course so much of the culture nowadays tells us that to do things on our own is what it means to be free when of course it's the quickest way to go and drown.

What can the point be of this Ark, our Church, in the modern world. People might say, we live in this secular desert, what is the point of the Church. In a way, when Noah was building his Ark, he built it in the middle of the desert and people said to him, what on earth are you building an Ark for in the middle of the desert? And Noah said, well yes but the storms are going to come. He knew the storms were going to come but there was the Ark to give protection and safety to take people on a journey. How can we build that Ark, how can we do it together? Building the Ark, we do it through the Sacraments, we do it through our prayers, regular attendance at Mass, The spiritual and corporal works of mercy - we often don't hear of those, the Commandments, all of these things keep it watertight, all of these things are the pitch in the seams and the hole of the hull which can develop. We need all to have a share in doing that. That's the first sailor, Noah.

The second sailor, in the New Testament, well it's the second Noah, Jesus. We've got that story today, there He is, asleep in the boat. When Jesus was asleep in the boat, whenever we see him in a boat, whenever he's with the disciples in a boat, it's a metaphor for the Church and that's what we have today. It's a metaphor for the Church. Jesus says Cross over to the other side, it's going somewhere and of course ultimately we know he gives us a great commission. So Jesus comes and there He is asleep. Two interpretations for this, don't know which you prefer. The Fathers of the Church talked about Jesus being asleep as being about a place of calm that we all have within us. Finding a place of calm where the Lord is, that will give us the confidence. John of the Cross called that place the inner wine cellar - I quite like that. If that place we can find, then we can live out our faith from that safe place where we find the Lord. St Peter was able to follow the Lord even to the point of walking on water when he was focussed on Him. As soon as his eyes were taken off the Lord of course, down he goes. So that's the first interpretation that the Lord there is asleep within us and we find him and that is the place where we find the strength.

St Augustine had another understanding of this, St Augustine says why is the Lord asleep in the boat, it's because we've let him fall asleep in our lives and he needs to be woken up. The refrain is often we have let him fall asleep and we have lost trust.

So which of those we take, he's asleep there presence of he actually needs a good shake I think we can use any of those depending on where we find ourselves. So there's two sailors

Stella Maris is part of the fleet, Stella Maris is its supporting Ark. It provides the security, people who might be feeling vulnerable arrive at a port somewhere to see the Stella Maris vehicle, t-shirt or hat or something that says Stella Maris, they know that means something secure, something safe. Taking on a journey, there are around 300 different places in 50 countries where Stella Maris operates. We journey with the seafarers and fishermen wherever they end up and of course the mission of Stella Maris is to bring Christian faith hope and love to the people of this earth

For 13 years Martin has been at the helm, Peggy has been a very good pair of hands on deck and Father Bruno has been offering navigation advice from Rome, so we thank you. Three great supporters and we are very sad to be losing you from Stella Maris as they move on to new endeavours. Stella Maris during that time, it has kept the pitch in the seams and the cracks with their leadership; it's weathered some storms and kept and maintained a steady course. I have even had some storms in my own time with Stella Maris and it's not always easy to navigate but it's been done extremely well under this leadership, under Martin's leadership and we have served seafarers and continue to serve seafarers and fishermen in prayer in word and in action. So we thank you all, Martin, Peggy, Father Bruno, for doing your Christian duty and it just remains for me now to say I wish you a fair wind and a following sea in your new endeavours as you go forth. Thank you.

LINKS

Stella Maris: www.stellamaris.org.uk/

SouthwarK: Stella Maris Mass and Reception: www.indcatholicnews.com/news/46821