How do we fill our jars!

When I undertook the Ignatian exercises, I was called to reflect on the scene from the wedding in Cana. I recall that I came to Jesus with a long list of complaints saying that I did not have to fill six jars but over 37 jars with water. As soon as I finished filling the last one, the others were exhausted from their contents. I remember staying with this prayer at the time and even now. We seek to fill many jars with our natural gifts and are left feeling spent that there are never enough hours in the day to achieve what we desire. The focus is on ourselves and the demands that are placed upon us. We wrestle with the fact that there are only 24 hours each day and seven days a week. Where will I find the time to be all I want?

As I stayed with this scene, I was reminded that I had only been asked to fill six jars with water. Also, it was not my actions that turned the water into wine but the graceful presence of Jesus. This experience can become a sobering insight when we believe our salvation is achieved through effort and hard work. Sometimes, we have to realise that we are called to be people who cooperate with the Holy Spirit through the gifts we have to share. We are called to grow in a partnership with God and each other. Our spirituality grows through a relationship of mutuality that does not seek to change the world into our image and likeness but allows us to rejoice in God's creative plan.

Thus, what do I feel God is prompting us in our current age? The first is six days for work and one day for rest. Each day brings challenges, and we are called to fill our jars with the natural gifts and talents entrusted to us. It is also important to realise that by surrendering ourselves to God's grace, Jesus turns the water into wine. We enjoy not just any wine but the finest wine. So when we reach the end of the day, we can look back with thanksgiving for how we noticed God's graced presence that day. Then, on Sunday, it allows us to become present to a God who can rest with us and rejoice.

Review of Life

 As we approach a new year we can start to reflect on how we want to enter into 2025. There seem to be many things that can grab our attention about becoming our best self.  When we seek to make intentions we can focus on things that will produce that best self whether it is exercising more, seeking to loose weight, studying a new language, or focusing on a particular project. This can cause us to set goals that may be achieved. However, the question is who will we become as we seek the benefits of these activities? I think what motivates us to achieve these goals is probably more fundamental to whom we become.

The Holy Family helps us to reflect on the importance of how we build relationships with each other. This helps us to notice how we build up a community that can be sustained against the uncertainities of life. We seek to notice how we are called to become people who act justly, love tenderly and walk humbly with our God. The gifts that we produce in each relationship allows us to give praise to God and bring hope to others.

As we enter into the new year we seek to live in a way that daily reviews how we become a people who seek God together. This is by seeking what builds each other up rather than tear each other down. We can witness too easily how easy it is to destroy life rather than seeking to build that which builds life. We are called to be people who seek the good of God in which every person is considered as a child of God.

Visitation

 Travelling overseas I have witnessed how many families are travelling with young children. This mass movement of people reflects much of what we have seen at the first Christmas when Mary travelled with Joseph from Nazareth to Bethlehem. We know that travel brings its own difficulties and trials along the way. The same is true whether we travel vast distances or just next door. We need to be prepared for what we may encounter along the way. We need to look out for fellow travellers who may experience difficulty. Ultimately, we also need to practice patience to arrive in a way that benefits others.

As we celebrate this Holy Season we ask that God may bless us with peace, hope and joy. Especially for those who cannot travel freely, those who find themselves homeless at this time and those who struggle to afford the necessities of life. Christmas calls upon us to refocus our lives on the person who seeks to bear poverty, rejection and isolation with an anticipation that every human life has dignity. Our hearts need to be open so that we can direct efforts that produce ways in which people can discover freedom of movement, shelter for their families and meaningful work that provides a living wage. 

As we celebrate another Christmas may we remember the peace of Christ that disturbs us!

Make the Paths Straight

Once again we listen to the teaching of John the Baptist. He reminds us to reach out to those in need and not to exploit our positions for personal gain. As we come closer to Christmas I pray that our hearts not be corsened. Have a peaceful preparation for the remainder of Advent.

From here to there

 I remember reading a book from Here to There, a story by Jon Faine about his travels with his son Jack overland from Australia to England. It related their real-life experience and encounters along the way. Often the countries they visited are ones that we would not normally overfly as they went through China, the "stans" and Iran. As we journey along the way we can often see the hassles of modern-day life that seem to beset us. Usually, there are many forms to fill out, tasks to be undertaken, and opinions to be taken into account. There can be a growing impatience that arises within us that wants to speed up the journey to our destination. But when we arrive we wonder what happened along the way?

As we continue on our journey to Christmas we are called to make the paths straight. This may be noticing where we try to cut corners or seek preference paths that have been marked out by others. Yet we need to find where we are called to be truly present to God who walks with us in these daily encounters. What gives us a clearer sense of purpose that enables us to see people as God sees them.

In reflecting on the news cycle we can often gain a sense of deja vu that we have been here before. Often many old conflicts can reemerge in new guises and new forms. We are called to hear again the voice of John the Baptist make the way straight to allow God to guide us truly along the way we are called to follow.

Sleepwalking into Christmas

 So many things need to be done as we prepare for Christmas. There are cards to write, decisions about buying gifts, menus to plan and people to visit. There can be a sense that we are caught up with so much frenetic activity that we have no time to sit back and contemplate who we are called to become. Suddenly, the day approaches and we try to wrestle our way into vacant parking spaces, reply to unexpected greetings in cards and wonder whether we will find time to rest.

Yet amid all this activity we need to take time aside to become present to the person at the heart of all this. By setting time aside for prayer and reflection we can find greater clarity to our activity. Rather than being faced with a tsunami of activity, we can discover those hidden graces that shape our day. We need to find space where we can be ourselves. God wants us not to sleepwalk our way into Christmas but with open hearts.

As we are guided along the way. I pray that you may find time to experience the places where the peace of Christ disturbs you.

Who do I listen to?

 We are besieged by information, opinions, and ideas that seek to grab our attention. This constant wave of ways of living, solutions to our problems and analysis of almost every human situation can create a crisis of trust. This crisis is reflected when people start to question and doubt even the most basic of human instincts and inclinations. The foundation of society is built around the belief that we share common values and aspirations. It is on these foundations that we choose people to govern us who share those ideals. Yet so often we can be disappointed because there is an appearance that they shape the world in their image and likeness.

The Feast of Christ the King helps us engage our imagination with God's vision. In proclaiming this feast, he does not seek to be a person who amasses wealth, power, and popular approval.  Rather he seeks for us to discover and share the vision that every life has fundamental worth. That each person is loved by God and that we can discover who we are called to become as people created in God's image and likeness.

As we approach the end of the Church's liturgical year this can give us pause to reflect on how we are called to listen to the voice of Christ in our daily lives. To make room for prayer so that our hearts may enlarge to embrace the vision and the people we encounter. May we be blessed to become a people who can listen to the voice of Christ.

The End is Nigh!

We live in interesting times and it is natural to be shaken by the unfolding calamities that seem to appear daily on our television screens and news feeds. They can naturally cause us to fear the future and wonder what will unfold. There seems to be a rush into highlighting differences between nations, stoking the fires of conflict and retreating into our own castles. Almost daily we are called to navigate the opinions of others who seek to offer solutions or point to fresh problems. In an age where everything is questioned, we wonder whose voice we will listen to and trust.

As we draw towards the end of the year we can believe that it is only those who seek to seize control of the situation, remedy the ills of society with instant solutions and who seek to smell the breath of popular opinion who will guide us through uncertain times. Yet we are called to surrender ourselves to divine providence that is called to engender a sense of trusting obedience to the voice of God. This discernment of direction means that we need to know the limits of power and wealth to transform the situation of the heart. There is a need to be people who are open to the movement of the Holy Spirit and seek to remain in the presence of God.

This is not undertaken by a fatalistic vision that abandons hope but rather builds hope through the accompaniment of each other. This seeks to be people of faith who seek Christ who offers his life to us so that we may not become lost in our own fears. As we review the year may we learn how God is present in our times and calls us to trust that we are not abandoned.

What do we value and what is our net worth?

  The Gospel readings for this weekend seek to examine how we become good stewards of the possessions that we are entrusted with for the good of the whole creation. How we use these possessions seeks to determine whether we own them or whether they own us. How we use our own possessions for the good of another determines how our characters are shaped and what values we seek to uphold. The Gospel provides the contrast between a narrow focus on our own needs in isolation to the greater needs of another. Often, we can become focused on building and preserving our wealth, achieving a particular position, or having status within society. The danger is that when we focus on these external signs of success, we can become slaves to that which is under our control, what makes us look good or causes us to see our value determined by the opinion of others. We become shaped by our wealth, status, or power. Yet all of these can be taken from us suddenly due to sickness, poverty, or loss of employment. 

This is where our prayers need to be a place where we discover what truly brings life. This is not just that we become people who say prayers, but we discover how our prayer shapes our responses. This is where we are called to notice how our response to the generosity of another may be shaped by the quantity, they give more than the quality of their giving. Jesus brings this into his reflection on the widow's mite compared to the giving of others who give vast amounts to the treasury. The emphasis is on the wholehearted response of the widow who trusts God is more generous in sharing than those who give just what is left over. This reflects the abundance of the goodness of God who does not measure a person's worth by how much they own but through the goodness of their life.

This is also noticed in the life-and-death discussion of Elijah and the woman. On the surface, this just is about the practical needs of sharing a cup of water and a piece of bread. This dialogue draws both into a more profound trust that God will meet us at the time of our greatest need when we have little to share. This abandonment to God's providence allows the person to see that their value is not determined by what they own but by the person they are called to become. Sometimes we can be people who hoard God's gifts or squander them on what satisfies us rather than trusting that we might be in the right place, for the right time, and for the right purpose.

 God seeks to reframe our way of living so that we spend our time, treasure, and talent on what brings life to others and not just ourselves. This is a challenge for all of us to examine how we spend our time and money. Our diaries and our bank accounts become Theological statements that show what we truly value. This is where we allow God to meet us in the practical events of daily life. Not ignoring our responsibilities but not ignoring the needs of the other. It is often those who have the least who appear the most generous. How do we trust God to provide what is needed for the good of another and not just to make us feel good? This frees us to make steps in faith to allow God to be at the centre of our giving and receiving. To seek who I am called to be for this day and this time.

 

Rearranging our priorities

 When we hear Jesus's commandment to love God and our neighbour, we can subtly mishear them. He does not draw on any new text but refers back to the book of Deuteronomy. What we tend to hear is that we need to love God with all our strength, all our mind, all our soul and all our heart and to love ourselves as our neighbour. This way of listening to God puts all the emphasis on our own efforts and abilities. Yet we discover in our prayer that God gently reorders our priorities. This lets us notice that our initial entry into prayer observes what we can see and how we feel about these observations. It helps us become aware of what we are thinking and how it directly affects our lives. Yet as spend time in prayer it is almost as if our thoughts are shed and we are drawn to a deeper appreciation of what nourishes us. This quietening of our minds and hearts helps us to enter a place where we can encounter God in a silent place. This way of being present can appear timeless. It is from this timeless place that we can be renewed and discover what truly nourishes us. This allows us to clarify our thinking and our actions.

Thus we start to see how the commandments are actually written and called to be lived. We are called to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and all our strength and love our neighbour as ourselves. This gentle reordering shapes our priorities to a rule of life that is simple and liveable. This is not about working harder or longer but allowing us to cooperate with God's way of being present in our lives. 

This is important to how we structure our days. We are called to encounter God wholly as ourselves. Our holiness is not something that is added on but emerges from the inside out. This way of being present then helps us to look at the context in which we are called to live and how our lives make a difference to others through our actions. This allows our prayer to become truly incarnate by being aware of the environment in which we live and acting in a way that embodies what our hearts desire in union with God and each other. 

Compassion

 The ability to walk in the shoes of another requires empathy for the difficulties that another person lives with. This is more than just being distressed at the suffering it is an actual identification with the person who suffers. Thus when we can be distressed by many things then move on to another subject. Empathy allows us to be present to the other for their good. This is an essential part of our humanity, that we can accompany others suffering. 

Yet in itself, we notice how compassion is the next step. This is the scene played out in the Gospel. A blind man cries out for help and the crowd seeks to silence him. His persistence grabs the attention of Jesus and he calls the man to him. The crowd then is healed as well as they call the blind man forward. They seek to encourage the man to have courage and stand up. The man trusts both the call of Jesus and the encouragement of the crowd. He is healed and then follows Jesus along the road.

Similarly, we are called to be healed of our infirmities by a person who can identify with our weaknesses. Jesus calls us each day to come to him not because we have it all together but because we know our own limitations and struggles. Each day as a community we are called to encourage each other to stand up, come to him and be healed. 

The Mystery of the Cross

The mystery of the Cross is brought into sharp relief in the readings for this weekend. We may be familiar with the reality of the Cross in daily life. Suffering seems to be a part of our daily life whenever we turn on the television, surf the net or read our newspapers. There seem to be many instances where people suffer violence from the ravages of war, the reality of how this impacts our own lives and how the images can distress us. Even locally we can become aware of those who need our prayers for healing, those who wrestle with division in their own homes and how inner conflict can isolate us from each other. There seems to be so much that can overwhelm us that the burden can seem impossible to bear.

Yet amid so much suffering  we meet the suffering servant, Jesus who seeks to take what seems to crush us upon himself. This can confuse us as we seek to make sense of our own anguish and navigate paths through this suffering. As we gaze upon the Cross our attention is often drawn to the cross that causes the suffering or the person who suffers. There is a sense of compassion and bewilderment at times about why a good man needs to suffer. Yet is the person who suffers who helps us to make sense of our own suffering. He does not do this out of duty or obligation but out of a profound outpouring of love and compassion, Jesus accompanies us even in our suffering and does not abandon us. He seeks to show us how mercy can be found at the time of our greatest need. 

This evangelisation of others helps us to encounter a person who will not abandon us but allow us to witness to holiness,mercy and life. As a Christian people this witness is best lived out when we seek to alleviate suffering and address the causes of suffering out of love and compassion. Our community grows together as we gather, especially at times when we challenged by the reality of suffering. We can become a people of God who are healed through the Sacrament of Anointing, reconciled through the Sacrament of Penance and nourished through our sharing of the Eucharist at Mass. God does not abandon us but offers his very self so that we can be healed.

In this we witness the suffering servant who came to serve not be served. Who witnesses to the compassion of Christ who offers his very self to us. This is where we acknowledge how all the baptized are called to preach all the Gospel to all the people all the time. 

Wisdom, Discernment and Providence

 How do we trust everything to God? This is not just an abandonment of responsibility for our actions but rather a considered approach to the way we live our lives. We are called to be people who are prayerfully attentive to the situation in which we live. This is noticing how we are present in the world in which we live while also considering how we listen to the voice of God. This incarnate way of living centres the way we see things to be in harmony with God's creative nature which is ever ancient and ever new. We are people who not only hear the Word of God but seek to allow that Word to be written upon our hearts. This allows us to become people who seek to live that Word in whatever environment we are called to live.

Our discernment seeks for us to think, feel and sense ourselves into what brings all things before God daily. The first step in our prayer is that we think about many things and we need to sift them to distinguish the dross from the pearl. This process allows us to not only think about the pearl but to allow all our senses to become curious about what we are called to hold on to. This application of the sense helps us to appreciate how the Word engages us practically and not just theoretically. It allows the Word to sink deeper into us. Allowing us to notice how it becomes one with us there can be a sense of nourishment that is not just based on our hunger but by a deeper encounter with what truly fills us. This allows us to notice how through this simple pattern of prayer we can start to look at our lives differently and attend to things more readily.

By allowing this to become a daily practice we trust to rely on what comes to hand rather than fretting about the future or being anchored in the past. There is a growing confidence that God can help us to be present in this moment and this place. Even when we have difficult choices to make or the circumstances constrict us with possibilities there can be a clearer understanding of the next obvious step. This is not blind faith but a disposition that we can be guided to trust that God will show us the way. 

What makes us teachable

 We live in an age where we know much about life but struggle to live an integration of that life. Every day we can be bombarded with self-help programs to discover who we are called to become by doing things differently. There can often be a discomfort inside ourselves that this becomes overly complex and we look for a way that is simple and achievable in our own lives. Nowhere is this felt more often than in relationships, particularly where the focus is on marriage. The pressure that people can feel is that they need to be perfect rather than transformed. This can often be the tension that can develop where we expect someone to be different from who they are. When we look back on the Saints who have guided us through the week I believe they can give us some hints about how to develop a relationship founded on Christ.

St Jerome reminds us that ignorance of scripture is ignorance of Christ. I believe this is not just about reading scripture but allowing us to be absorbed by scripture into the heart of Christ. This is the starting point for all prayer as it seeks to discover how God faithfully communicates with us through the written word. This written word is not just to be written on the page but is to be written on our hearts.

St Therese of Lisieux in reading through the first letter of St Paul to the Corinthians in Chapters 12 and 13 discovered that her vocation was to love rather than undertaking a particular role or function. This is not a self-serving love that sought to obtain special preference for herself but a self-giving love that sought unconditional love for the good of the other. This allows us a vision that sees ourselves encountering the love of God through our everyday encounters with each other.

The Guardian Angels remind us that in each sacrament of life both in Marriage and Priesthood there is a guardian angel and an empowering angel. This guides us to safeguard what brings life to the other while also encouraging us to witness God's love in daily life. They help us to not just focus on our own needs but on how we encounter others and become detectives of grace.

The last word probably belongs to St Francis of Assisi which is best proclaimed in his prayer.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness,  joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek

to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Especially in our current age and as we prepare for the Feast of the Holy Rosary on Monday we are called to be people who pray and fast for each other and for our world. To seek the peace of God that is at the heart of all creation. 

Casting out devils and protecting the innocent

 I used to be an avid follower of current affairs but now I am hesitant to listen to the radio, open the newspapers, or turn on the television. It is not just that it seems to report daily the conflicts that beset us but can often cause us to feel powerless against forces beyond our control. There is a poverty or emptiness that seeks to resist being filled with violence and hatred. We discover in this place a humility that allows us to abandon everything to God and not just trust ourselves. The need to discover our original innocence is not a wishing away the problems of the world but rather an acknowledgment of how we can be present to the world differently.

In the Gospel, there is the acknowledgment of the person who gives a cup of water to another because they belong to Christ. This act of charity is not just a reward for being Christian but rather an understanding that all belong to Christ. The law of charity can not be contained to one particular religious group but follows the promptings of the Holy Spirit to reach out to those in need. It also acknowledges how we need to acknowledge daily the obstacles that remain within us that prevent us from seeking to be good to others and not just ourselves. 

There is a temptation at times like these to retreat into our own castles and lift the drawbridge. That seeks to defend ourselves against the ravages of the world and hunker down for a quieter age. Where we become consumers of life rather than participants in something greater. The truth that we often need to appropriate to ourselves is that we are part of the solution not just part of the problem. In an age where trust has been stretched almost to breaking point and credulity has been tested by who we believe we can wonder who will lead us to a life of meaning. I think this is where we need to become a people of prayer not just people who say prayers. 

Our prayer is an honest seeking of who God is in the midst of our current age. This is not just an intellectual pursuit to find the right words or an industrious effort to look busy about many things. I believe it is a discovery of how we can listen to God in a way that slows us down to a walking pace. This allows us to not only become aware of how many of our thoughts and feelings that disturb us do not find their origins in God. It allows a place to sift through the competing demands both physical, emotional, and spiritual that besiege us daily. By providing these oases of grace we can start to appreciate where we can make a difference. Rather than looking for what is falling apart, we discover simple acts that hold things together. These daily selfless acts run contrary to the me-too culture that wants to focus on my problems and wishes to narrow our focus only to what affects me. God seeks to expand our hearts by allowing us to discover in our own emptiness, poverty, and humility that it is the precepts of the Lord that gladden the heart. Sometimes it is important to remember that we need to plant seeds not drop bombs.

Prepared to die or prepared to kill

 The readings for this week notice the two voices that often present themselves in life. Are we prepared to die for another or kill another to get what we want? This sharp contrast between the spirit of life and the spirit of death brings us to become people of prayer who seek to live for God and not just ourselves. This can present itself in many ways in our daily life. How often have we been in a queue waiting for something important to happen? Whether this as the airport waiting to be called on to a flight or simply queueing at the supermarket checkout. There can often be an impatience that starts to creep up within us and before we know it we start to notice the idiosyncrasies of those in the line ahead of us. They start to get under our skin and we wonder why they have not checked in that bag or seem to be taking so long. Before we know it all sorts of stories start to manifest within us and before we know it we can be thinking about what is wrong with the person. We notice how quickly our mood can change towards uncharitable thoughts and actions.

Yet what we notice is that those who are gentle and considerate to others seem to have an easier time of it. Their focus is not just on considering their own needs but the needs of those around them. They seek to assist those who are struggling, whether it is by a kind word, a warm smile or a helping hand. Each encounter is considered to be a meeting with the person of Christ is who seeks to bring peace and shows leadership by a profound giving of self. This is not to draw attention to himself but to draw attention to the love of God that transforms death into life.

As we travel through this week we can notice how each moment is an opportunity to be people who die for others rather than seek to compete with others for what we want. Will we seek to be people who die to ourselves so that others may discover how they are loved by God?

Doing good or being good

 On reflecting on the writings of St James we are presented with the conversation of faith and works. This acts as a counter-point to the discussions between Jesus and Martha about who has chosen the better path. There is also the reflection on the contemplative and the active life. However, I believe what might be lost is that God takes the initiative both in our prayers and our works. When we think that prayer or good works are initiated by ourselves we leave God out of the equation or just come along for the ride. Yet God's goodness is for us to be grounded in a relationship that can sustain us and enable us.

I believe this is at the heart of what St James is seeking us to reflect on. Our prayers or our actions should not be solely self-centered. We are formed to be in a living relationship with God and with each other. Thus our prayer is not just about making us right in the eyes of God but rather a dynamic conversion of heart that offers everything to God as God offers everything to us. Our prayer is not just about self-improvement but rather an openness to God's creative action in our lives. As I read in Psalm 66 verse 18 where there is a purification of heart that takes place, "If there had been evil in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But truly God has listened he has heeded the voice of my prayer." God seeks to draw the good out of us by giving voice to our deepest desire that accords with the divine plan.

This is where we are called to listen to the voice of God in the context of our own environment. The voice of God is not alien to the world we live in. The incarnation shows us that God is well aware of our daily lives and how we are called to bear witness to the goodness of God in our lives. It is this bearing witness that allows us to discover how we can respond creatively to the needs of others. This is not just out of an urge to assuage our guilt but rather a willingness to share how we can share the goodness of God daily with those we meet. This opens our eyes and our hearts to those we meet along the way. The obligation is not one imposed upon us but it is a genuine desire to share the blessings we have received for the good of others. This is for each person to pray each day that they may meet Christ and share what is within our providence to share with another.

You cannot tell a book by it's cover

 As we continue to reflect on St James' writings we can become aware of how we judge people, places, and events by our opinions of their appearance. There is almost an unconscious evaluation of how we should react to their presence and whether they are worth spending time with. They also say this process is in play when people seek to interview another for a position that they are summed up in the first thirty seconds. They say much of the remaining time of the interview is spent trying to affirm our presuppositions. This can be challenging because we want to be considered tolerant, open-minded,  and considerate of those we meet. When we become aware of this inner contradiction we need to pray from that place so that we may act justly.

This just approach to life also helps us recognize when we feel deaf and mute. When we start to either close our ears or feel unable to speak out. There can be a sense that we withdraw into ourselves and close to the world around us. On this Sunday when we consider how we provide an environment that is safe for children and vulnerable people and that nurtures and sustains them. As Christians, we are called to walk humbly with others.

This calls us to notice how our hearts well up with joy within us. This is a courageous approach to life that overcomes our greatest fear. We discover a God who loves us tenderly and desires for our eyes to be open, our ears unsealed and our lips able to sing for joy. In an age when we are shaped by the information that we are called to consume on a daily basis we need to trust that God can open our minds and hearts for the good of ourselves, the good of others, and the good of God. May we pray that we may be shaped into God's image and likeness able to be people who are rich in faith as we touch eternity hear on our earthly journey.

Learning to live by the spirit of the game

 When I listen to others I often ask myself what am I listening for? There is an art in conversation that is more than considering your response but attentiveness to what the other person is trying to express. I often find myself echoing the prevailing wisdom or the latest insight I have heard from others. The difficulty with these responses is that they bounce along the surface and do not seek what I am prepared to live for. We live in an age where opinions are readily available and easily transmitted around the world but do not reveal who we are called to become.

We discover this in the discussion between Jesus, the Pharisees and the scribes. These are people who take the discussion about faith seriously as can be seen when they address the hygiene laws of the day. What is added to this discussion is that not obeying these laws makes a person unclean on the inside. Jesus challenges this viewpoint to not just observe external laws without an inner conversion of heart. Thus we don't just obey laws because we want to look good but we seek to be good that enables us to care for others. 

This conversion of heart builds the foundation of Jesus' life. He does not just want lip service but a way of being present that reaches the depth of our soul. This acknowledges how we allow God into the places that we hide away and give rise to evil intentions, the things that truly make us unclean. By acknowledging this reality we start to find the spirit of the law. We discover how God meets us even in our darkest night and seeks to kindle the flame that burns away the darkness. That warms us from the inside out and transforms our world.     

Come closer but not too close!

 The remarkable miracle of the Eucharist is that God wants to invite us to the table and be met body and soul. So often we find people asking whether people will notice if they are not there on Sunday and quietly slip away. There can be a sense that the profound intimacy offered by God goes stale when there seem to be so many other good things that we can partake of that seem to satisfy that deep longing in our hearts. Yet while we can be involved with many things there can be a sense of a deep emptiness that yearns to be filled. It is in this sense that we long for something or someone who will meet us and come close.

Jesus speaks of this in the crescendo of the reflections in John that disturb those who hear him. He wants to come close to us and be embraced by that divine love that is poured out for us. This is where God's desire for us is often stronger than our response. It is the question that often can resonate in our own hearts about a life that is eternal. We can often be perplexed that we want to partake of this divine love but only rely on our human understanding. Yet this is where God meets us in our questions and our relationships that seek to manifest this divine love.

It is this encounter that can sustain us by holding us close and enveloping us in a loving embrace. God wants to hold our gaze and look upon us. This divine encounter allows us the greatest freedom to be who we are called to be. In each Eucharist, we discover a God who wants to hold us close and come closer. To fill us with a divine love that sustains and nurtures us. Our simple response is to be present and give thanks for such a profound gift that floods our world with life and light!

When a house becomes a home

 One of the struggles of our time is how we provide adequate housing for people so that they can feel at home within the community in which they live. The emphasis can often focus on the external provision of a building to meet the internal needs of the heart. I think this is where we may need to return to the philanthropist businessmen of past ages who realized that they were not solely in it for the money but for their vision to build a better world. Growing up in Birmingham, I was conscious of the tradition of George and Richard Cadbury who sought to build a model village to improve the conditions of the workers in an environment in which they could flourish. This vision is also present in the suburbs of Glebe and Pyrmont sought to provide not just houses but a community in which people could live.

This also helps us to see that we need to have a certain wisdom that perceives who is welcome at the table. In an age where much of our lives are dissipated on external things to improve our health, our wealth, and our depth we often avoid what brings us home where we are called to spend our time. The media often provides a vision that looks at external pleasure and success rather than what truly nourishes and sustains us. Thus as St Paul notices we become intoxicated with ways of life that dull our senses. Yet we are called to pray in a way that resonates with God and seeks to harmonize with others.

We are called to imbue the life of Christ each time we gather for Eucharist. We are called to participate in the life that Christ offers to us. We are called to become what we eat and drink. It is why our liturgy engages all the senses of sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing. We are called to be transformed by what we receive and not just adopt a consumerist approach to life. This is where we find our true home because God wants to make a home within us. This is not just a transitory home but an eternal home where we can discover who we are and who we are called to become. We are drawn into a life that will sustain us to eternity, the bread of life that is food for the journey.

Having a conversation that matters

 Having a conversation that matters.

We encounter Elijah at his lowest ebb. Having escaped from the clutches of Jezebel he flees into the desert after he has put the prophets of Baal to death. At a time when we witness one of the great signs of the offering of sacrifice to God, we notice the inner turmoil within Elijah. He just wants to die because he fears for his life. Into the midst of this turmoil God enters into the dialogue through providing food for the journey not once but twice. There is a need to move beyond just wishful thinking towards a life-giving encounter that will sustain Elijah to the mountain of Horeb.

In our own lives we are sustained by this food for the journey each time we encounter Jesus’ present in the Eucharist. This encounter meets us at times when we can be on the verge of giving up and the burdens, we carry appear to be too heavy. Especially as we encourage people to return to celebrate Sunday Mass post COVID we need to have conversations that matter. The obligation to attend Sunday Mass is not an extra duty to be fulfilled but a recognition that we need to be fed with the bread of life on a regular basis. We are called to the table of the Lord to celebrate who we are in God’s eyes. This is important especially when people cannot attend Mass because of their illness. That they can be remembered at our Masses and then provided with communion by people who faithfully bring the bread of life to nurture them. This demonstrates that they are not forgotten or alienated from God. Just like the angel visiting Elijah they are provided with the food for the journey.

I think this is especially true for people who are close to death or are faced with a life-threatening condition. Reading through the general instruction on the pastoral care of the sick we can notice some of the instructions about viaticum that involves the three sacraments of Eucharist, Penance and Anointing. Especially in an age where people can be confronted with the reality of suffering and death, we are called to have conversations that do not shy away from the meaning we find in life.  People need to be accompanied so that suffering and death does not have the final word. We are called to see the value of each person’s life through the eyes of God. It is this pastoral care that provides the sensitivity to provide what is on hand to draw a person into a deeper relationship with God. This seeks to alleviate both their physical and spiritual suffering that can so easily cause them to be plagued by fears of their own worth when they feel that they are alone.

Paul also notices this in how we seek to be people who are reconciled with each other rather than diminished by our differences. The call is to be people who sustain each other especially when we notice our own resistances to God’s grace. The Eucharistic presence available to us through confession helps us to notice how God enters our deepest fears. We are not left alone to fight the battle of faith on our own. This anointing also sustains us to influence others even at the moment of death by freeing us from what oppresses and afflicts us.

God does not abandon us to our own fears, our own sins or our own hunger. He provides the bread of life that offers his very self. This encounter sustains us in the journey of life and embraces us with the promise of eternal life. As people who walk with others on this journey we can become pilgrims of faith, hope and love. Who see in each meeting that every life has a deeper meaning, and no prayer is left unanswered.

Do not work for food that does not last but work for food that endures for eternal life.

 We are often told by dieticians and nutritionists that we are what we eat. In a world where diets come in and out of fashion, we are often bombarded with too much information to look after our bodies. There is often a plethora of information about what will make us healthy and what can sustain us. The focus while important can make a lot of money for people who seek to tell us what to do. As a person who has struggled to maintain a healthy weight and be told the mantra watch what you eat and exercise more, I am often confused by whose voice I listen to. I want to be healthy but find that even when I work hard in seeking to maintain a good and healthy balance it often focuses more on externals rather than an internal disposition.

This is where our reflection of this week's Gospel draws us into sharp focus. We so often pay attention to what others tell us is healthy that we do not focus on what endures and sustains us in life. We need to look at things that are nutritious and life-giving but this is not just about the food that we consume but rather the thoughts that fill our minds and hearts. When we look at the Eucharist this is not just about receiving communion but rather an encounter with the person who brings us to life. This is where the Gospel clarifies that working for God is to believe in the one he sent. A  person who can nourish our body and soul. This encounter reshapes how we see ourselves as a person befriended into life.

When we witness our week we are called not to follow illusory ideas that cause us to follow every new "diet" that promises to satisfy us. We are called as St Paul says to the Ephesians to renewed in the goodness and holiness of the truth. So often we are informed about what the issue of the day that needs to be addressed for our good. Yet over the last week, we have recognized that instant media can feed us with counterfeit food. It can also lead us into conversations and debates that waste our time and dissipate our spirits. I think when we invite people to the table we need to choose carefully what it is that we consume. We live in a world that will fill us with good, bad, and the ugly all too quickly we can swallow it whole. Yet we are to be formed by a person who seeks us out for our good and the good of the whole world. This is where each time we gather for the Eucharist we are called to be transformed not just by the host we consume but the person who invites us to the table. We are to work for people who seek to live for the truth that renews us to be people of Good News. In encountering each day as a time blessed by the Lord we discover the person of Jesus who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. 

Achieving little things with great love

 The next few weeks call us to reflect on the importance of our Eucharistic faith. This binds us closer to God and to each other. As we enter the scene, we see Jesus seeking to feed the five thousand from what appears to be very little. When asked to live our faith in a culture that values strength, achievement, and power, this can often be our reaction. We tend to stake our lives on externals rather than the gifts that we have on hand. Some doubts emerge about whether we have enough for the task entrusted to us. There can be a sense in which we pray for what we believe we need rather than praying about what we need. Thus our intentions focus on what we believe we need to finish the job at hand rather than praying on what God desires for us.

The focus on the immediate can overflow into our daily lives. We bounce from one activity to the next trying to cram more into our daily that is physically possible. We start to make impossible demands upon ourselves and upon others. Our lives seem to be so busy that we become intolerant of delay, failure, and ambiguity. Yet St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians promotes selflessness, gentleness, and patience. The need is to become people who seek to build people up rather than tear them down. We are called to be in the race together.

Over the next few weeks, we will witness the Olympics which brings together people from many nations. The aim is to seek to build up unity through friendly competition and respect. Yet we know that from the opening ceremony, it seems that respect was not present to those who see the Eucharist as the summit and source of our life. In an age where tolerance is valued, it is disappointing to witness how little respect the organizers of the opening ceremony had for how this may be viewed by people of faith. Over the next few weeks, we pray that our hearts and minds may be open to finding ways of witnessing to our faith in little ways with great love. 

Like Sheep without a shepherd

 We live in an age in which everyone has an opinion. We notice it almost every day when pundits and commentators seek to inform us of the day's issues. This constant stream of news can catch up in a wave that seems to carry us along with little time to reflect on where we might stand. It may also rob us of the inner freedom to consider what is most central both to our own life and the life of the community in which we are called to live. This barrage of noise can dissipate us and cause us to lose our way. We find it hard to listen to the small still voice that guides our hearts.

This is why we need to spend some time each day where we can listen to God through contemplation of scripture and a review of life. These are precious times when we need to log out of social media, turn off the radio or television, and put aside the magazine or newspaper that covers the latest hot topic. We need the time when our minds and hearts can rest can dive below the surface into the depths of our souls. This quieting presence allows us to be sustained in a world that can often seem chaotic and erratic. It helps us to be still and present what is most important for the moment.

When we emerge from these times of prayer it is possible to notice our own inner compass that gives us direction and purpose. It allows us to listen to the voice of God in daily life and attend to what is necessary not just what appears urgent. This saves us from wasting time on what is beyond our control or our influence. This allows us to seek to trim our sails and be guided in the way that leads to life. A life that shepherds us to be present to God in all that we are and all that we seek to do.