For whom the Bell tolls

  Sermon given at St John the Divine, Kennington Fr Charlie Bell The Feast of the Nativity of the BLM, in time of mourning for Her Late Majesty Queen Elizabeth II   There is a tension to today’s Mass – a tension, perhaps a contradiction. Like so much of the human condition, we hold what seems like an impossible, an incongruous paradox in the palm of our hand, and despite everything, this paradox makes more sense of the world than any neat and simplistic attempt at an overarching and unifying human narrative. The world we inhabit is live, is fizzing with contradiction, however we wish it weren’t. And in our hearts, we know that that is – and has always been – the life of the Christian.   For today, after a tumultuous week, there is not only one but two queens in our mind’s eye. We gather today to celebrate the birthday of the Queen of Heaven, Mary our mother, Mary the virgin, teenage mother of Bethlehem, of no human account and yet destined to be the Queen and mother of us all. And we g