One of the worst things about inviting an outsider is that often he just tells you what you already know. I am sure you all know the story of St. Alban the Roman soldier who is the patron of your church. He swapped his clothes to disguise and rescue a Christian priest, was converted to our Holy Catholic faith and was beheaded at Verulam, which is now St. Albans just outside London. St Albans grew around the great Benedictine Abbey of St. Alban’s.
The next part of the story is told by the Venerable Bede, the Father of English History, who tells us that St. Germanus of Auxerre visited the shrine of St. Alban and swapped some relics of St. Alban for some relics of the blessed apostles, and took the relics to Rome. Then in the 10th century the Holy Roman Emperor Otto II was getting married to a Byzantine princess called Theophanu, you know how hard it is to choose a wedding present, so the Pope thinking what can I give them? gave them the bones – the Holy Relic of Alban. Since the 10th century, they have remained in a Benedictine Abbey in Germany. After the Second World War some of the relics were given to Farnborough as a pledge of reconciliation after the war and when they opened the chasse they found two packages of bones, one corresponding closely to those revered at St. Albans before the reformation destroyed the shrine.
So today we share with you a little of our treasure. When we venerate the relics of the saints, we do a whole host of things – we acknowledge the incarnation – that since God was made man in Jesus Christ, material things can speak to us of holiness. When we venerate the relics we give thanks to the witness of Alban who held the same faith as we do now and whose voice echoes down the centuries to us today. When we venerate the relics we make concrete the words we say in the creed, that we believe in the resurrection of the body. When we venerate the relics, we join the queue of those ancient pilgrims who came to St. Alban’s shrine in the hope of healing, peace or consolation. To venerate the relics is an act of communion with the whole church on earth and in heaven.
The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church. Wherever the blood of Christians is shed, martyrdom does not rid the world of Christians but is the cause of more and gives us hope for the future. It reminds us of the power of the cross, the efficacy of sacrifice as the holy martyrs often with astounding focus and interior peace, unite their offering to that of Jesus Himself. The language of sacrifice isn’t used much these days. Jesus said there is no greater love than that a man lays down his life for his friends. (John 15:13). And yet the world today says me, me, me. Push yourself forward, promote yourself! Often we find this attitude even in the Church. Often when young men come to monastery, they will ask about the holiday allowance, mobile phone usage and try to negotiate a vocation. But when we come to the service of the Lord he asks for everything. He asks us to sign a blank cheque and then He fills in the amount He will ask of us.
We may not be asked to be martyrs, though in our day we are seeing a resurgence of the hatred of the Faith and of persecution. We may not be asked to shed blood but we are at least asked to live sacrificially, to put others first, to put ourselves last. To embrace the cross of whatever difficulties, contradictions, inconveniences, sufferings and loses this life throws our way.
There is a story that a nun approached st. Francis de Sales and said, “what must I do to be saved?” – I think this nun liked the drama. She was probably hoping for a dramatic answer and the holy bishop answered, “Well I think you can start by closing the doors more quietly.” In other words our sacrifices, by which we increase the treasury of grace in the Church, start with the little things. Little sacrifices of tie and resources and prayer for the good of others. By this we can all become little martyrs because ‘martyr’ means witness, and every Christian is called to witness to Christ and to bear testimony to the joy of the resurrection.
So today, we rejoice in Alban, and all that he is to us, and we rejoice in the tangible presence of his relics here. And from now on, our little monastery in Farnborough and your parish here are linked – not just by the M4, but with a new bond of prayer, of history and communion. Holy Alban, protomartyr, pray for us to God, and by those prayers win an abundance of grace for this parish and for the Oratorian community which cares for it.