‘Dear brothers and sisters in Christ

 

 It is with great joy and thanksgiving that we celebrate the anniversary of this Church, keeping, in anticipation, tomorrow’s Feast of the Archangels – Michael, Gabriel, and, of course, your patron, Raphael.

 

It is also so fitting to be celebrating the 175th anniversary of the completion of this Church in this Jubilee year of hope. It was certainly as Peregrinantes in spem, as pilgrims into hope, that our forebears in faith worked hard to establish this Church and parish. And if you know your English Catholic history, you will appreciate it took enormous courage to build a Catholic Church in the mid-1800s. Allow me to give you a little history refresher course.

 

Five hundred years ago, the Reformation, running through and beyond the sixteenth century, confiscated Catholic churches and assets. Monasteries were ransacked and destroyed and the Catholic faith was outlawed.

 

After many dark years of persecution, slowly things began to improve. But in 1780, just seventy years before this Church was completed, there were anti-Catholic riots in London, attacking Catholic churches and homes. There was anger about the Catholic Relief Act of 1778 which restored certain civil rights to Catholics, rescinding aspects of previous anti-Catholic legislation, allowing Catholics to join the army and purchase land if they took an oath of allegiance. But it fell short of granting Catholics freedom of worship.

 

Fifty-one years later, in 1829, and just nineteen years before this Church began to be erected in 1848, the Roman Catholic Relief Act was passed by Parliament. Often called the Catholic Emancipation Act, it granted English Catholics the right to vote, full freedom to worship, and participation in political and public life.

 

One hundred and seventy-five years ago tomorrow, Pope Pius XI restored the Catholic hierarchy of Dioceses in England which had been dismantled in the reign of Elizabeth I. With the Metropolitan Diocese of Westminster, twelve other Catholic Dioceses were restored, including our own Diocese of Southwark. Again, anti-Catholic protests saw demonstrations across England with Catholic churches attacked and effigies of the Pope and the new Archbishop of Westminster burned in the streets.

 

Into this complex history stepped Alexander Raphael, a man of deep Catholic faith and extraordinary generosity. He commissioned this Church in 1848 as a thanksgiving for recovery from illness and it was completed in that momentous year of 1850. The very stones of this Church carry within them a story of gratitude, of promise fulfilled, and of mission begun and continuing to this day in you.

 

The Scriptures show us that Christ is the bridge between heaven and earth. In the Lord Jesus, the Word made flesh, God has drawn near to us. In the Lord Jesus, heaven touches earth, and humanity is lifted to God. In the Lord Jesus, each of us is known and called, so that, with Nathanael, we can announce Jesus to the world as the Son of God. My friends, at the very heart of our mission as disciples is our life in Christ, our call to live and love like Christ, and to bring others to Christ, the Saviour of the world.

 

The promise of the Lord Jesus to Nathanael is made to us. “You will see greater things.” In Christ, heaven is opened and in him the angels of God ascend and descend.

The angels are God’s servants who stand before him to do his will. They come to our assistance to remind us what truly matters most: that we are created to belong to God, that Christ is our Saviour, and that we are called into eternal relationship with him. In their different ways, Michael the defender, Gabriel the messenger, and Raphael the healer, each reveal something of the mission of Christ Himself: victory over evil; the Good News of salvation; and the healing power of God’s love. We share Christ’s mission to open eyes and hearts to Good News; to restore what is broken; to defend what is holy.

 

How fitting that this parish is dedicated to St Raphael whose name means “God heals.” And how importantly our world, our nation, our communities and our hearts need healing.

Over the years, countless people have found here in this Church and community healing and hope, strength and consolation. Poor children were taught in schools founded by the Raphael family. Soldiers from two World Wars were buried from this place. The French royal family prayed here in exile. Generations of parishioners have been baptised at the font, married before the altar, and commended their deceased loved ones in this sanctuary. The names of so many faithful disciples — clergy, consecrated men and women, and lay-faithful, and so many others — are woven into the living tradition of this parish. Their prayers, sacrifices, and pastoral care were the hands and love of Christ for this community. And this continues today, sourced Sunday by Sunday, day by day, in the Eucharist, the living heartbeat of the Church.

 

Even the building itself, with its Italianate tower, its stained-glass windows, its gilded cross shining over Surbiton, preaches the Gospel silently in season and out of season. The Greek letters Chi-Rho – the emblem of Christ over the main doors – proclaim that Christ as Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. The stained glass above the high altar unites Raphael with Tobias, Christ in his agony, and Mary at the Annunciation. All point to the beauty of God’s love for us in Christ.  

 

But this anniversary is not only, or even primarily, about looking back. It is about being renewed today as a missionary parish that looks forward. We too are called to greater things, to mission in new ways, always faithful to what we have received, but eager to share the Gospel with renewed conviction. The Church and parish of St Raphael exists to evangelise. You, my brothers and sisters, must be like the angels who stand before God in prayer and worship. You must who go out into the world as his messengers. You must on the armour of God’s love to announce new life in the Lord Jesus and to stand up and speak out in defence of the sanctity and dignity of every person as co-cultivators of justice and peace.

Together we announce that in Christ hope has come. Heaven is opened. He is Emmanuel, God with us and God for us.

 

Above all else, therefore, the anniversary of this church is about Christ. It is Christ who has been preached here for 175 years. It is Christ who has been received in Holy Communion and adored in the Blessed Sacrament. It is Christ who has poured out forgiveness in the confessional.

 

Here, under the cross, heaven has touched earth in every Mass. Here, the angels of God still ascend and descend on the Son of Man. Here, Christ remains the same yesterday, today, and forever.

 

My dear friends, as we celebrate this anniversary, we hear anew the missionary call: to be angels of God for one another, to be witnesses of Christ’s presence, defenders of his truth, messengers of his joy, and, through him, healers of wounds with hearts for the weakest and the poorest.

 

As the golden cross atop this tower shines out over Kingston, may our lives shine with the light of Christ. And may St Raphael, St Gabriel, and St Michael intercede for us, that this parish may continue to be a place where heaven touches earth, where Christ is encountered, and where the love of God is made known to all.’