Be not afraid

 Traveling back to Sydney on Saturday afternoon, I reflected on the ordination of the two young men to the priesthood and a gathering of Cursillistas at a country retreat centre. Both were joyful encounters where people gathered to celebrate the risen Christ who seeks to bring life and hope to our world. Amid these occasions, we were all shocked by the senseless murder of innocent shoppers in the Bondi Junction shopping centre. We pray for those who lost their lives, for those who are recovering from the injuries they suffered, and for the families who seek to support them. We pray for the first responders and the many brave people who sought to support people traumatized by this event. Then just as we sought to make sense of this tragedy we heard of the fresh attacks arising in the Middle East. This seems to be a never-ending story of violence and retribution that haunts us still.

Yet amid these stories of violence and senseless killing, we witness Jesus enter the upper room and proclaim peace be with you. This paradox of his presence addresses our deeper fears that we are doomed to death and destruction. There is a fear that we can become isolated in our upper room when the eddies of destructive fear whirl around us. Jesus helps to recognize that the resurrection is actually an encounter with the divine person who seeks to share life with us. This is not an abstract concept but rather a real encounter with the person who can bring hope to our world. Who holds out the promise of reconciliation and forgiveness. This seems almost impossible to be true yet it is what we are called to witness in our lives.

Thus on Sunday morning, we gathered at St Mary's Cathedral to pray for the unborn and to witness the sanctity of life in the March for Life to NSW parliament. The gospel speaks to us that in the face of a culture of death that seeks to make the weakest and most vulnerable voiceless we are called to proclaim a culture of life that cares for them. This often means entering into the messiness of life where people confront the issues of suffering, isolation, and death. Yet we witness many Christian people who accompany these vulnerable people to make choices not just for themselves but for people placed in their care. Good stewardship is found in supporting women who have difficult pregnancies, providing palliative care for those at the last stage of life, and providing shelter to those who seek refuge and protection. As a culture, we are called to inculturate the Gospel in our current age by proclaiming that Jesus is Risen. The proclamation is made in the concrete events of our daily lives. Bringing healing to those whose lives have been torn apart and forgiveness that sends to reconcile broken hearts.

Doubt and Belief

 We live in a skeptical age where everything is questioned and everyone is believed! This paradox of thinking and trusting in the goodness of another seems to be disturbed each day. Who speaks the truth confronts us at every turn. We look for vested interests and no longer take things at face value. This can breed a certain cynicism that distrusts everything and everyone which is unhealthy for the individual or the community in which they live. Yet we see so many examples of how power can be misused, where influence can mislead and opinion can misrepresent. This is almost our constant fair that we are fed through our media, our conversations, and our reflections.

Yet amid this confusion and uncertainty we meet the risen Christ with all our living questions. We seek life to be different but do not want to invest our belief in another blindly. We need to experience it with our own eyes and our own hearts. Into this scene walks Thomas who seems to ask the most plausible of questions, unless I see it for myself and touch the reality I refuse to believe. I think we can all have a heart for Thomas as he is called to touch the living heart of Jesus. We live in a very material age where we are called to touch the reality of what is true. There is a hunger to understand and experience things for ourselves. We know how easy it is for our lives to be manipulated for the interests of another that we have a longing to experience it for ourselves. It is the discovery of being present to what is real.

This is at the heart of our Easter journey because unlike Thomas we are called to believe without seeing and touching the wounds of Christ. However, we know that the wounds that Jesus experienced can be discovered even in our own age. The innocent suffer, people are unjustly condemned, people can be exploited for what they have not for who they are, and we are confronted with the reality of evil almost daily. It would be easy to lose heart and retreat into our own castles. Jesus, however, liberates us from what imprisons us. Jesus seeks to meet us with compassion that touches our fears and our doubts. It is this radical honesty that allows us to see our questions in a new light. It calls us to meet Jesus as the risen Lord who frees us to live a new life. A life that takes our questions seriously but transforms them into a compassionate life of belief. It calls for our minds and hearts to be in sync with each other. No longer are we abandoned to our own devices but we discover Jesus who listens to our inmost prayers. He enters into that locked room and offers us peace to touch his wounds. May we trust in him who can even appear in the places where we try to shut out the world. In that place where we discover who we are called to be for the good of the world.

The scandal of the cross and the shock of the empty tomb!

 The preparations for the Easter Triduum are entering their final stages and we are called to ponder how we enter into the central part of the Kerygma of Jesus Christ. The fact that God cares so much for us that he is willing to undergo suffering and death so that we may experience resurrection. This seems to run contrary to our expectations of God in that we seem to encounter one on the cross who seems powerless, poor and destitute. This is not how we would want God to be. We would much prefer a God who appears powerful, wealthy and in control. This is the scandal of the Cross that changes how we relate to God and how we pray. No longer are we relating to a God who holds us at arm's length but rather a God who holds us close in our suffering, pain and uncertainty? When we encounter God in this way it changes our own way of living because we experience a level of intimacy that does not abandon us and leave us to our own devices.

Yet we know this is only half the story. The Paschal mystery does not end on Calvary but draws us into a deeper silence. The profundity of this experience is that we are rendered speechless when everybody else seeks to explain what happened. This way of being led into what appears darkness shows us that even in the darkest night his light may shine. We are called to wait upon the Lord in places where we feel afraid and uncomfortable with what may come next. The experience of the echoes of the empty tomb seem to match our own when we have lost someone we loved who has died. There is an aloneness that no one else can fill and we long to be filled. Yet this loving emptiness allows us the opportunity to make space for the Risen Lord. It is the place where we can surrender ourselves to a God who brings a deeper appreciation of what brings faith, hope and charity at the centre of our living.

In an age where we seem to be scandalised by the trivial and consumed by so many things these three days allow us to ponder who God is calling us to become. We are called to enter into the mystery of Christ who sustains us even in our deepest fears and in our greatest uncertainties to build a world that is not our own. God draws us closer and loves us more deeply than we can imagine. God allows us to live in a new way.   

Who is welcome at our door?

 When a guest comes knocking at our door will we let them in? We see this contrasting expectation in Jesus' entry into Jerusalem. Initially, he is welcomed and the crowds gather to anticipate a new beginning. However, this quick turns to isolation, rejection, and death. At the heart of the Easter mystery, we see it played out so often in our everyday lives. We know of instances where people who can gather the crowds, appeal to the apparent immediate needs and promise results they cannot deliver. Yet Easter is not just about opinion polls but about who helps us encounter God who can love even in the face of isolation, rejection, and death. We discover a God who will walk with us even when many shy away from encountering us in our deepest struggles.

This is a God willing to act as a servant and wash our feet, as a person who discovers the anguish of discovering their true self, who can bear the departure and betrayal of close friends and be falsely accused and humiliated by others. This person helps us not focus solely on the cause of our sufferings or even how we are called to endure suffering but rather on the loving presence of one who carries the weight of that within oneself. We discover through the Easter Triduum a person who makes sense of nonsense and counters the argument that only death can relieve the pain of living with contradictions. He is in the words of Ireneus a man who is fully human and fully alive who seeks to break the chains of slavery that can bind us. He seeks to show us how even in the scandal of the cross he becomes most fully himself.

The scene played out at Calvary is never more important, especially in an age where people are only valued by their utility rather than by their personhood, by what they can do rather than who they are, and by their opinions rather than their intrinsic worth. In a world that can seem turned upside down Calvary turns things the right side up. It helps us to encounter God who cares more deeply than we can imagine. A person who frees us from what imprisons us even from our greatest fears. May we walk more closely with each other on this pilgrim path from sorrow to the joy of Easter.

Learn to know the Lord

 We live in a society where literacy is taken for granted. The ability to read and teach others is a skill that helps people learn more quickly and grow in confidence to apply what they have learned. Yet in a society that can know so much there often needs to be a greater level of discernment about what we read and whether it helps us to grow in our relationship with God and with others. It is all too easy in an age where information is prepackaged, edited, and targeted to particular audiences that we can lose a critical element of our own ability to know what is good for us. We can discover that others can deluge us with information, especially through social media, television, radio, and other mediums that we often want to push the pause button.

This is where the Gospel passage we start to notice a longing to meet the person of Jesus. Not as a prepackaged commodity but as a true encounter that helps our hearts to expand in fidelity and integrity in discovering the truth about God. This is where we need to become people of prayer who can study our environment and act in a way that reflects that relationship. God seeks for us to allow ourselves a quiet space where we can be alone with the Word of God and reflect on how we will live that daily.

As we come closer to the end of Lent, the world slows down for a short while. We can pause to take a breath and look at how we commit ourselves to discovering the person of Jesus who walks close by our side. In these moments we start to discover that our lives are called to grow in that relationship especially when we struggle to make sense of the world in which we live. Trust in God that we can learn to know the Lord not just know about him.

We are God's work of Art

 Often when I visit an art gallery or an exhibition it is hard to know what you are looking at. Our eyes have been trained over time to be engaged by movement and action whereas an art piece like a painting or a sculpture can seem fairly static. When we look at a piece of art if it does not immediately engage us we often quickly move on or when we are caught by a particular image the crowds move us on. We don't have the time to pause and soak it in.  There can also be an inner reaction that questions what message an artist may be sending us. We are drawn occasionally to that which makes us comfortable and at peace rather than what challenges us to become one with the peace of art.

Recently, I was part of an exhibition about the artwork of David Hockney. What stays with me is his insight into reverse perspective when we gaze upon art. Often we look at art from our own perspective rather than that of the artist. In reverse perspective, we are drawn to see how we are part of the artwork and it draws us to participate and become with what we gaze upon. This is present especially in Iconography where the artist writes an Icon to draw us to contemplate how we are drawn into the heart of God. This is a way in which our gaze draws us to the centre and allows us the opportunity to notice how God leads our hearts to contemplate how we participate in this divine life.

This is at the heart of what we celebrate in Lent. God seeks to shift our focus from that which disfigures, disguises, and disembodies the reality of how God created us to be in a loving relationship. Too often we can become conscious of what obscures or misdirects in life to seek our own path. God gently draws us back not by focusing on our sin, weakness, and vulnerability but rather by reawakening with us what we truly desire. God seeks to enlighten us so that we can see clearly with fresh vision.

God sees us to view the whole of creation with wonder and grace. This is by spending time relishing how we are God's work of art. This may mean that we spend time restoring, renewing, and repairing what causes us to doubt that God sees us in this way. God adjusts our vision and our perspective to draw us closer to be present with our whole self and not just with a passing glance at who it is that brings us life and meaning.

Keeping God at arm's length

 One of the realities of Lent is that God comes close, sometimes closer than we expect, and more than we desire. We discover a God who cares passionately about our own welfare and seeks to cross the barriers that we put in place. He seeks to revolutionize our relationships by seeking to cross that divide. In particular, God wants us to notice the ways that we can trivialize our relationship by seeing it as transactional rather than life-changing. When we are used to buying things that we want when we want them it is possible to approach our relationship with God in the same way. 

Yet God seeks us out in unexpected ways and overturns the tables in our temple. God seeks to deepen our relationship by understanding us and how we can seek to hide our deepest needs. God wants to consume us rather than turn us into consumers of grace. This trust of our lives in the person of Jesus seeks our belief that liberates us from that which binds us to our own limited vision of God. We discover a God who seeks to remove the barriers that we erect to that relationship. 

As St Paul notices when we discover the foolishness of God and the presumed weakness of God we notice a profound wisdom and divine power at work at the heart of creation. We notice a God who seeks to love us with a passionate and heartfelt desire to enter into the heart of the lawgiver. This is not just following a set of instructions or seeking a magical solution to our problems rather it is the freedom to notice how deeply God cares for our salvation. Just as God is at the heart of all things there is a longing not to just go through the motions of Lent but to fall into God's warm embrace. 

Wrestling with the reality of heaven and hell

 CS Lewis in his book, "The Great Divorce" wrestles with the reality of heaven and hell. As we notice in the Letter of St Peter Christ dies to save people from prison. The text can be read in many ways but it refers explicitly to Spirits. The commentators offer many plausible explanations of this scripture that can refer to the condemnation of the fallen angels, those who refused to go into the Ark and then repented, or whether it is simply those who have died before the resurrection who are to be freed from the reality of hell or alienation from God. 

CS Lewis uses the image of waiting at a bus stop in a drab place known as Grey Town waiting for a bus to take them to their final destination. When on the bus they are brought to a cliff that overlooks a beautiful valley with majestic mountains in the distance. When they get off the bus they notice that the grass is not moving and feels sharp and painful to walk on and people are torn between returning to Grey Town or crossing the river.

As they experience this reality there is a biting spirit that can cause doubt, confusion, anxiety, and torment that God can actually offer eternal life and love. The Paradox is that some people prefer to be miserable rather than humble and grow attached to the things of life: their own personal property or talent, their own ability to have influence over others, or simply an attachment to grief or the by-products of sin that seem more real than God.

God desires for us to be free and not shackled to a reality of our own creation that is not real. This is where we notice Jesus entering the desert to confront the temptations that we all wrestle with. He does not want us to be blackmailed by evil spirits into believing we are beyond redemption. God reaches out to us this Lent to not doubt the Covenant that he does not seek our destruction but our liberation. This promise is born out whenever we see the rainbow in the sky. We are called to be people of faith, hope, and love who seek the Kingdom of God.

Avoiding contagion

 Over the last years of the pandemic, we have been very conscious of seeking to protect ourselves and our communities from a virulent disease. This saw people being isolated from each other through lockdowns and the inability to make meaningful contact with others. After these years of enforced isolation, we can some of the trauma and fears that caused people to shape their lives around outbreaks of the disease. Yet even as we emerge from those days we can still be conscious that while the disease has disappeared we have adopted a very different lifestyle. While there is less suspicion of each other there can be a lingering doubt of how we are called to live in this modern age. 

In the reading from Leviticus, there is the belief that moral corruption led to physical illness that caused people with leprosy to be pushed to the margins of their community. The belief that a person suffered sickness due to sin can still linger in our own imagination. We know from modern medicine that there are some links between lifestyle and disease but they are not as explicit in identifying a person with their disease. This can be seen that there have been many public health campaigns to change people's behavior that bring into focus the dangers of what we allow to enter our bodies. Yet it is a person's choices that make the greatest difference. What emerges from a person's heart most shapes their own commitments and how they think through issues that affect their own health.

This is probably why the virtue of mercy is at the heart of faith. Jesus sees the heart of the person who desires to be clean. He acknowledges the desire to be cured. Yet as we see in the Gospel this is not just seeking Jesus as a healer of sickness but a person who calls people to a profound encounter with God. In our own age, this is a challenge for our own times. How do we seek out the good of another that acknowledges the need for healing at all levels of society, personal, social, and communal? The call is to be people who not only recognize our humanity but how we are called to model ourselves on Christ. To see the divine life that sustains our human life. This allows us to be people who rather than focusing on the cause of suffering can seep into the heart of the person and isolate them but rather see the heart of the person who seeks to alleviate suffering. In this, we see the transforming power of the love of Jesus who seeks to heal the person rather than see them consumed by their suffering.

With Every Breath I Take

 Starting a new year we can sometimes need to pause and take a breath. There seem to be so many things that are added to our agenda that our minds might feel like exploding with information and tasks that we need to undertake. There can be a focus on the many things that besiege us and that seek to question where we find our worth. Is it the years we have lived, the money we make, or the experiences that we have accumulated? They can be a sense in which we are dragged along from morning to night just taking on one thing after another. Yet it raises the question of what we focus is it on suffering or what makes us joyful.

Paul reflects on this in his letter to the Corinthians where he examines what we preach with our lives. This is not just about trying to measure the worth of the Gospel by how much we work, how much we earn, or how much time we spend on a particular project. Rather he looks at how we surrender ourselves each day to the Good News that frees us up to grow in relationship with God and each other. This helps us to reexamine each day what it is that we are seeking to live in our daily lives. That we are called to share in the blessings of the Good News.

In the Gospel, we notice a similar reflection on whether it is the busyness of daily life or how we find space to focus on what is important not just what is urgent. Thus we do not find our worth just in who seeks us out but in the time when we can be renewed and recreated each day. Thus we seek to become people who prayerfully reflect on who we are called to be and how we can become present in our activity. In allowing us to be at home with God our lives do not become an endless list of tasks or activities. We open ourselves up to God who transforms our lives into Good News.

Peace on earth in the midst of conflict

 There is often a seeming contradiction when we welcome the Prince of Peace into our midst on Christmas Day when the world seems to be torn apart by many ancient conflicts. Our current age is no different when we look at the armed conflicts around our world when we see families torn apart and people forced to flee. There are also natural and human disasters that can beset us through fire, flood, and storm. The world seems to rage with wild tempests that can threaten to destroy us or isolate us from one another. Yet it is in this contradiction that we see the Christ child born.

This is not false hope or a retreat into a private religious view of the world. God seeks us out and labors for us not as a powerful overlord but rather as a vulnerable child who is placed in our hands. Like any child, this changes how we live in the world. No longer are our lives called to centre on our own needs but rather on God's desire to nourish, heal and forgive the ancient wounds that are opened around us. God knows that when left to our own devices our vision becomes clouded and opaque. We miss the reality of our calling to be formed in the image and likeness of God. By taking the form of a young child he gives us pause for thought to see how we wish to live our lives.

This may be the divine pause that we need between Christmas and New Year. Not to make new resolutions that place ourselves at the centre but rather to see how we are called to centre our lives on God who draws us closer together. Our prayer of this age needs to allow us to become a people of prayer who live prayerfully with others. It calls us to be people who reflect on how we live in our own environment in a way that draws us closer together. We are called to act with a spirit of faith, hope and charity that embodies Christ for others. May this be a blessed season for us where we seek to reset our priorities in the light of Christ. May the peace of Christ disturb us!

Allowing my garden to grow

 During the year I have consciously tried to maintain a garden of pot plants on the veranda. I have had mixed success as some of the plants are more thirsty than others. There can be a tendency on my part to over water but also know that at times the plants go for significant periods when I need to be away. I find that this gardening is a profound act of trust that they will grow in their own good time. I have also tended to find plants that are not as thirsty and can survive our long hot summers.

When we encounter John the Baptist once again he seeks to not point towards himself but to Jesus. This witness seeks to not put the emphasis on who he is but rather on the person who is coming. This is a bit like myself as a gardener the emphasis is not on my own abilities but on the plants that can bring joy to passers-by who witness their beauty. 

This is also emphasized by Paul in his letter to the Thessalonians. God entrusts us with gifts of peace that enable us to learn how to be good and avoid evil. The element is that our prayer is one of constant thanksgiving that calls us to make this journey towards Christmas.

So as we journey towards Christmas take time to smell the roses and give thanks for the many blessings that you will encounter today. So often we are in a rush to justify ourselves through our own efforts rather than seeing how God desires for us to discover our own holiness. Allow this time to be an advent of anticipation of all that leads you to a safe harbour that allows you to enjoy and give thanks for all that is good. 

Make the Paths straight

 As we meander our way towards Christmas we can find our spirits being diverted by many different things. This is not just about our own personal preparations but also how events in the world can intrude and beset us with many fears, worries, and anxieties. When we turn on the television, read the news on the internet, or listen to the radio we can become besieged by events beyond our control. Whether it is the stories of wars, the climatic changes, the everyday struggles of managing a budget, or seeking a deeper meaning in our daily activities we can search for a way of being present that liberates rather than imprisons us.

In the readings for this weekend, there is a longing for everything to be straightened out so that we can more clearly recognize the voice that brings us Good News. What we seek is a relationship that will sustain us each day and make all things new. I believe that in Advent we make preparations for a renewal of that relationship that is not just lip service but a genuine desire to meet our Lord who will embody our hopes and dreams. This is not a fantasy where all the disturbances will magically fall away from us but rather become solid ground on which we can build a faithful life. It calls us to abandon ourselves to God's love so that we discover how we can love others and ourselves.

One of the Advent practices is to recognize how we can place the focus on ourselves rather than on Jesus Christ. We seek recognition for our own efforts to be good people but discover that we can often be distracted by the way we seek to possess good things and experiences. There is a sense that we can miss the mark and not use the gifts entrusted to us to a good end. Sinfulness at its essence can cause us to become more self-centered even at the moment that we seek to become more charitable. This internal battle needs to be recognized because it cannot be won simply by our own efforts. We are called to trust even this reality to God in reconciliation. This is not therapy or punishment but rather a genuine desire to allow Jesus to guide us in our deepest struggle. When we feel abandoned to handle it all on our own we can tend to dig a pit that only grows larger. However, when we realize we are in the pit Jesus sits down by our side and listens to our story. This is not to judge us or condemn us but rather a lifeline that can embolden our spirit. To discover that we are cherished and that we are worth the effort.

Over this season may we discover a God who beckons us to discover a deeper meaning that will make the paths straight. This is not by ignoring the reality of our own darkness but rather by allowing Jesus to become our homing light. May we follow that light to discover how God walks with us straight when all we see are crooked lines.    

Are we ready for Christmas?

 There can be a fear that Christmas comes too early and we are not ready. While the shops seem to be decorated with the trimmings much earlier each year we can lose a sense of the natural rhythm that leads us into this Advent season. We start humming Christmas carols before the day is actually upon us. Yet this may be a time to actually ponder how we prepare for Christmas. This is more than preparing the meal, buying presents, or posting cards but rather taking time to notice where our hearts are amid all the flurry of activity.

It would be good to spend some quiet time each day reflecting on what type of person we want to be in the hurry of the marketplace and on our way to work. To intentionally carve out times in the morning and evening when we make an appointment with God and put it in our diaries. 

To find ways in which we can reflect on the environment in which we live and discuss how we can become people of faith, hope, and love in our community. Considering what will assist others to seek a deeper meaning to their life, to provide encouragement for those in need, and to undertake practical acts of charity. 

Then calling a blessing down a blessing on each person we encounter whether in the checkout queue, when we are looking out for a parking spot, or when we are considering the needs of those around us. When we seek Christ in our daily lives he will find us quicker than we expect.

To whom do we trust our lives?

 The Solemnity of Christ the King allows us time to reflect on whose voice we listen to when seeking guidance for our lives. In an age where personal autonomy is king, there can be a sense of alienation towards bowing down to an external authority. Each person can tend to work within their system of government by paying taxes, obeying the local law, and participating in elections when they are held. Yet in many cases, we are not called to love our rulers rather we learn to accept them as a necessary part of life. Yet the feast we celebrate is not just about accepting external structures of governance but rather an interior conversion of heart towards the person of Christ. There is a call to holiness that abides with us so that we can become teachable and governable.

I believe this lies at the heart of the recent Synod on Synodality. It is not just about a new external structure of Governance but rather a way of being present to God with listening ears. The call is to seek out the voice of God that is ever ancient and ever new. The voice that echoes through our liturgical prayer that gathers us together as one body. This is not just an effective manifestation of the presence of Jesus but also an affective presence that guides us still. The call to fall more deeply in love with God who has already fallen deeply in love with us. By seeking God in our daily life we discover what it is to be prayerfully present to the issues of our day that seek for our hearts to beat in tune with God's. This is not just seeking warm comforting feelings but rather a deeper desire to recognize the authentic voice of God spoken to our age.

This process of sanctification allows us to seek holiness in a way that does not abstract us from the real problems of our age. It draws on the wisdom of our tradition, the insights into scripture, and the discernment of theologians to witness the golden thread that bears an authentic teaching that can be received for our time. This is not just about changing with the times but rather a reading of the signs of the time. It examines a line of inquiry that seeks to build on what is already known and allows for fresh insight of Christ into the teachable moments of our lives. 

Through this call to sanctification and becoming teachable the Church seeks to provide governance as an apostolic witness to the person of Christ. As a pilgrim people of God, we seek to journey together as people who through baptism are gifted with both the charism of Office and the charism of Mission. We seek to become people who articulate with our lives what we already believe that Christ is with us. Thus as we celebrate this solemnity do we entrust our lives to Christ in whom we discover who we are and become evangelised by his life.

Return to sender address unknown!

 Each of us is entrusted with gifts and talents for the good of the whole creation. We live in a country that has been blessed not only by great natural beauty but an abundance of opportunity. Yet this is not just for our private consumption or personal pleasure. We are part of a commonwealth that is called to share the goodness we have received for the common good. Each of us has a part to play in renewing the environment in which we live and caring for those who have been entrusted to us. We are called to entrust all things to God for the good of the whole community.

This is especially necessary when we become aware of the forces that tear at that unity of purpose. When we see people seeking to profit from conflict, hatred, and violence the humanity of all is diminished. It recognises that we are called to profit in virtue not just external wealth that can be here today and gone tomorrow. This calls for an integrity of life that seeks to see all things as entrusted to us by God for a good purpose. In a world that seeks to emphasize personal autonomy at the expense of corporate responsibility, we can notice the attitude that creeps into the daily life of every person for themselves. 

Yet in the Gospel, we see a daily examen that calls us to reflect on how we have used these gifts to produce good fruits. This act of surrender is about a belief that everything is given to us for a good purpose. It calls us to a prayer that entrusts our whole life to God, seeks to discover in our own square meter what we are called to do today, and acts in a way that gives and receives with open hands.

As we enter this Sunday this weekend we need to ensure that we do not just send the gifts entrusted back to sender unused. Our reason for being is to develop a healthy detachment that allows us to discover God at work in all things!

Running on empty

 When we set out on a journey there is always a need to ensure that we have enough fuel to reach our destination. This ensures that we make proximate plans to ensure that we know our time of departure and our time of arrival. If we are travelling by car we seek to prepare the car so that it is roadworthy and that if it is a long distance we plan adequate stops or have a co-driver to share the driving. If we go by some other form of transport we trust our lives to another but we still need to make sure that know when we have to leave, how long it will take, and what we can expect when we arrive. This shows that we do not travel by chance but with a destination in mind.

The Gospel shows this in great detail when it notices that the time of our departure is not known but the destination is. How do we prepare for a journey when we are called to entrust ourselves to another. This is the heart of the words spoken by Jesus, we need to be ever-ready and have our house in order. This brings the readings of the last few weeks into sharp relief. Often it seeks to live our life on our own terms rather than on God's. When we have so many seeming demands on our time we can discover our energy being spent planning for the future or resolving historical events. Both these approaches to life while necessary can distract us from being present to what will happen today. We can become distracted by anxiety or angst about what seems urgent but unimportant.

This is where we are called to exercise wisdom that allows God to direct our attention on to what is important but not urgent. It calls us to become present to what is within the locus of our own intentions and within the ambit of our own environment. So often we can become focussed on external events that demand urgent attention but are beyond our control. They can prevent us from being open to the ways that we can and need to be present. Our lives can seem to be out of control and devoid of meaning and purpose. This is where our lives are dispirited and we can seem to have spent all our oil on what does not enlighten us.

As we reflect on the Gospels we are called to examine what keeps our lamps burning brightly and whether we provide ourselves with the best opportunity to have our flasks refilled. This is where we are called not to abstract ourselves from daily life and the challenges it can bring. It calls us to be prayerfully aware of how God is present in our own reality and how we are called to tend to our environment with God's heart and eyes. The danger is when we do not examine our own lives that we can become heavily influenced by the conflicts of others. We can be drawn into hostilities, conflicts, and violence that draw on history or animate our own anxiety about our own future. Thus we can be drawn into reflections that focus on a deterministic view of the world that places ourselves at the heart of any conflict. We know that this is a recipe for disaster because even with the best will in the world often it needs to be recognized that we need to reframe the question about how we should live in our world. 

When we allow that question to emerge from within us, from the heart of God our way of living changes. It calls us to see what we need to live by and how this becomes a rule of life for us. No longer are our lives shaped solely by our own desires but rather by the loving call of God who seeks us out and comes at an hour we do not expect. It allows us the possibility that only God can fill our lives with meaning when we have an expectant longing that we are invited to sit down at the table and enjoy the banquet of life laid out for us. 

Listening to God with our whole lives

 The reflection this weekend looks at how the office that a person occupies can be confused with who the person is. In an egalitarian culture such as Australia, there has been an essential recognition that a person is taken on their merits rather than on the position they occupy. Authority tends to be hard won and easily lost when a person acts differently from what they say. I believe that this is important when we seek to reflect on the role of people who occupy ecclesial offices and how they can be perceived as speaking for God rather than about God. I believe this can be at the heart of any Christian life or in fact any religious person that they need to hold this balance of what they can speak about definitively and what they can speak about from their own reflection. I believe this is what lies at the heart of the Gospel text that notices the subtle distinction between proximity to the Holy and closeness to the Holy One.

I know from my ongoing reflection that it is important that I seek to live a life of closeness to God in my prayer and in my prayerfulness. I cannot presume that I am close to God simply because I exercise an office with the Church. I am only too aware of the apparent contradictions within my own life between what I say and what I do. Almost like St Paul, I seek to do good but often find myself doing the very thing I hate. It is important that at the heart of our life that we abide in a living relationship with God not just our own perceptions of holiness. We are called to be formed into the image of the Divine Master who is ever creative and ever new.

This calls us also to ponder on how we seek to live the Word of God in our daily lives. This is not just through a familiarity with scripture but rather an absorbing the word and allowing our hearts to be transformed by what we hear. There is a need to have a heart that is teachable and tenderized. This is not a blind pounding of noise but rather a softening attentiveness to the quiet breeze of God. We listen to the life that lies at the heart of all life and allow ourselves to be taught.

It is in this spirit that we gather to be present to God who presides over our life with mercy and compassion. We become formable and present to the guiding hand that entices us to draw closer. This is not through our own merits but rather our deepest need. God demonstrates love for us by seeking broken hearts and earnest longings. We discover that we are indeed close to the heart of God who reaches out to us long before we reach out to God.

The Golden Rule

 The word "must" stands out to me as the translation in Matthew's gospel echoes the words from Deuteronomy 6.5. This gives an indication that the imperative to love God is not an optional extra or a nice ideal but the central teaching of all scripture. In saying that we are called to love God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our understanding we start to gain a glimpse of what is at the heart of religious life. This is not just following a law to love but rather finding the heart of God that is always turned outward towards the love of another.

Unpacking each of these elements we start to see that the three elements are wisdom, understanding, and knowledge. By learning things by heart we are not just called to a rote way of living but rather an appreciation of applying what we have learned to the situation in which we live. At the heart of wisdom is the ability to notice what is necessary for this moment and this time. What might fit for one person or culture may not be appropriate for another. It is a call to be immersed into the culture with the heart of God that seeks to inculturate the Gospel for others. 

In a similar way, our understanding is a willingness to commit our life to God and others not just to do our own thing. This commitment helps to notice that our life has an influence on others and can transform their life by witnessing to what God has entrusted us. This is calling us not to be alienated from God or from each other. We are  called to be soulful in the way we are present to God's grace that lies at the heart of our creation

Then we apply our minds and our strength to how God is manifest in daily life. This is not thinking God into being but rather noticing how our belief in God shapes our way of being present to the world. There is an integration of belief that builds on solid foundations. It helps us to recognize the language with which God has written the universe that is writ large for those who seek what sustains life. We are called to be people of faith and reason. Detectives of God in a world that seeks light over darkness, substance over triviality, and depth over dissipation. 

The separation of Church and State

 The Gospel Weekend seems to give a clear differentiation between the sacred and the secular. Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's and unto God what is God's. It seems to be clear-cut where one should not influence the other or vice versa. The danger is that religion is seen only as a private affair that has no impact on the public arena. However, we believe that rather than seeing our beliefs as icing on the cake they are core to our identity and to how we view creation. What we believe influences how we view ourselves and how we act in the world. Thus our beliefs do influence our relationships and how we act as good stewards in the world.

It is with this understanding that there is a sacred underpinning to all life that we seek to interact with each other and how we seek to care for the environment we live. This stance helps us to see that we are both body and spirit. As people influenced by the incarnation of Jesus Christ we are called to see how his life influences our own. The belief that the divine and the human are intimately interlinked helps us to use material things for the good of others not just for the good of ourselves. Thus it is this understanding of the sacred underpinning for all life that shapes who we seek to become.

Thus we seek to serve the common good by respecting both the material and spiritual welfare of the community of which we are a part. We are called to be good citizens in both the earthly and heavenly realms. This helps us to know that our identity as Christians is called to incarnate the Gospel in our own day. In creating a culture that fosters the welfare of others, that displays good stewardship for the people and creation entrusted to our care, and our seeking to be transformed by the Word we display a life that seeks to be authentic and whole. This is at the heart of holiness not that we have a foot in both camps, the sacred and the secular but rather that the secular becomes an expression of that divine imprint that is planted on our hearts. This means that we seek to live in a way that considers who God is and how that influences the way we act for the good of all creation. 

Misreading the signs of the times

 After the week of horror that has confronted us on a daily basis, we can wonder where God is in the midst of this carnage and destruction. In what has shown us the basest of human behavior we can relate well to the passage on how people's priorities can be distorted by their minds and hearts. How violence can ever be seen as a way to peace continues to astound me. It is also easy to see how violence can breed anger, disappointment, and revenge and thus perpetuate the cycle. In the midst of this reality, we see the stark contrast of how God invites his people to the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. It is important that we do not become consumed by those who peddle hatred and vengeance but rather look at opportunities for reconciliation and healing where people can sit down with each other. 

This is the hard work of reconciliation and healing that is not just preached in words but lived out by witnesses. I believe that this urgency of mending broken hearts is not easy or pious talk. Many minds and hearts have sought to understand how this long-standing conflict can be resolved in a way that brings both justice and peace. Often this is by recognizing that all people carry the wounds of this suffering and have longed to consider a place they can call home. Often the question is why people hate each other so much that they cannot see their common humanity. War and its consequences often produce a distorted ingenuity and cruelty to inflict pain on another. However, it can also breed a hope within others to stand in harm's way to protect, heal, and strengthen those whose lives must be rebuilt. 

Our earnest prayer is that as we gather to pray at Mass we do not stand ideally by and wash our hands of making difficult choices. The art of reconciliation seeks firstly to notice how hatred and fear can often fill our own hearts. There is a need to acknowledge this so that we do not become infected by the same parasite that can leap from generation to generation. This is the hard work of prayer because it means that we are not immune to the suffering of others. What afflicts others has an impact on our own lives. There is also a call to be people who reflect on how so easily a conflict in a distant land has the potential to put people at odds with each other in our own. We should not stoke the fire but rather put out the flames. Lastly, we should not act in a way that seeks to isolate ourselves from reaching out to those in great need, those who believe they are excluded from enjoying the banquet of life. We need to seek equity of opportunity not just equality of choice. We are called to become pilgrim people who walk with each other and talk with each other along the way. Cardinal Pizzabella, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, has requested people to join him for a day of fasting, abstinence, and prayer to express our thirst for peace, justice, and reconciliation. 

Called to be good stewards

 Each of us has been gifted with life and entrusted with a way of life that is given not possessed. Each day provides the opportunity to examine how we build on these foundations in a way that gives glory to God, not ourselves. It allows us to notice how our lives become a prayer that echoes the voice of God lived for the good of all creation.

It is important that we listen to the voice of God and not just our own. This is at the heart of the Synod on synodality where we are called to be in the world but not of the world. In our listening, we are called to act justly, walk humbly, and love tenderly in how we are present in our day-to-day realities. 

This is important when we realize that in entrusting life to us God calls us to witness to proclaiming the good news in our own time and space. In a world that often seeks to divide people against each other, we need to seek how the kingdom of God is actually producing fruits in our own age. Will there be a fruit that is rich and juicy or sets our teeth on edge? In all things, we are called to discover the quiet voice that dwells deep inside for the good of the whole of creation.

As we pause to cast our votes on the referendum may we act justly, walk humbly, and love tenderly in the way we care for the land that we call home and for the indigenous people who invite us to share their wisdom.

You can tell a lot about our yes and no!

 In a day of instant marketing, we can be aware of how easily it is to entice people to make a positive response over a negative one. The proposition is that our life would be better off if we see yes to something rather than no. We want to feel good about ourselves. Yet we know that any decision has consequences not only for ourselves but also for others. This is why we should not be rushed into giving a response just to clear the table for what we may consider other important things. We need to make a consideration not only what we think but also what consequences will flow from how we put our thinking into action and whether our hearts are centered on making transitions in our lives. 

We see this played out with the two people who are called to work in the vineyard. The first makes a quick response which is no and then ponders more deeply and considers that he will actually go to the vineyard. The second makes a quick yes but then does not follow it through. I think this is important whenever we are called to consider an important decision. There is a need to notice any resistance inside ourselves and to bring this before God in prayer. Sometimes we are unsure about why this arises but often it is a balancing of our priorities with how this will cause a change in life to which I need to be deeply committed. Our responses should be drawn from us not by fear or manipulation but rather by a heartfelt consideration of what is both good for me and good for another.

So often in the discussions, we see how these voices seem to besiege us by saying we are too woke or too redneck. The labeling and judging of others can cause us to close off this consideration. There are already too many memes and asides, ten-second sound grabs, and knowing glances to cause us to become uneasy about where we actually stand in life. At the heart of any discussion is where our yeses and nos lead us and leave us. Are they just matters of convenience to safeguard us from deeper commitment to the common good of others? This is the desire to be authentic, whole-hearted, and united in love. 

As St. Paul says in Philippians 2, "Always consider the other person to be better than yourself so that nobody thinks of his own interests first but everybody thinks of other people's interests instead. In your minds, you must be the same as Christ Jesus! His state was divine, yet he did not cling to his equality with God but emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as men are; and being as all men are, he was humbler yet, even to accepting death, death on the cross. But God raised him him and gave him the name which is above other names so that all beings in the heavens, on earth, and in the underworld, should bend the knee at the name of Jesus and that every tongue should acclaim Jesus Christ as Lord, to the glory of God the Father." What will I say yes to in life and how will I put my life on the line.

Do we seek equality or equity?

 The Gospel revolves around a principle we often see present in labour negotiations, a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. Yet we know that certain jobs are valued more than others in terms of how much a person is paid for their employment. Most of this disparity is due to the added responsibility or the level of skills that a person is called to maintain for the good of others. Yet we also know in recent times that there has been a widening gap between people who receive salaries that seem excessive compared to what would appear to be an equitable distribution of wealth. I remember that at one stage the Chief Executive of a British Petroleum company drove a mini while ensuring that his sales personnel were given vehicles that were appropriate to their work. I think what he demonstrated is that we show good care for ourselves by taking good care of those in our employment. He sought to provide an equitable outcome so that they could adequately perform their work. The right tools for the right purpose.

Yet I believe there is a deeper issue at work that the Gospel seeks to demonstrate. We have worth not because of the number of hours that we work or the remuneration we receive but because of the person we are. This calls us to seek God as a person who seeks salvation for all people not just the early birds. God constantly seeks what is good for every person and seeks to witness love in a way that is equitable. It is almost like God is blind to that sense of entitlement that can seem to arise when we have been on the spiritual path for a while. Rather God is aware of the need of each person to be welcomed into God's kingdom. This is not about length of service but rather a responsive heart.

If we seek this equity of endeavour our hearts start to witness to a God who is always on the lookout for others to be welcome. This is not about closing the doors too early but rather opening wide our endeavours to seek what is needed to preach the Good News for our time. The awareness that God welcomes people to the table not solely for our good but for the good of all creation. This gives voice to God's concern that all should hear the Good News and be able to participate in the fruits of the kingdom. This saves us from insisting on our rights to earn a place in the Kingdom but a willingness to share what God has to offer. All should hear that they are worth a Kingdom and God welcomes them to participate in what is on offer.

Agents of Mercy

 In a consumerist age, there can be a tendency to limit the reception of the sacraments to my own immediate needs. We often hear this indicated when people seek to have their children done almost like a sheep dip at baptism. Yet what God seeks through the ministry of the Church is for people to enter into a living relationship that sustains them in life and prepares them for eternal life. What we engage with here is reflected in how we are present to others. It helps us to notice what is most important and where we channel our time and our resources.

This is at the heart of the Gospel about the forgiven and unforgiving servant. He is very conscious of the demands placed upon him and he has fallen short of what was expected. There is no way he can repay the debt and yet his focus is on the money owed and his inability. When the debt is forgiven you would sense the relief that he had cheated prison and was now a "free" man. Yet this is only half the story. While he has been forgiven he has not absorbed mercy into the heart of his life. If anything his heart has been hardened at the very point you think it would be softened. He starts to become harsh to those around him and imposes far greater penalties on those he believes have short-changed him. He lacks forgiveness that we could have assumed would so easily flow from being forgiven himself.

In a similar way celebrating the sacrament of Penance is not just about wiping the slate clean but rather a life-giving encounter with the person who can heal our wounds. In an age where the sacrament seems to have been relegated to the dusty corners of a Church on a lonely Saturday, we can believe that it is all about our sins rather than God who seeks to offer salvation even to the worst sinner. God seeks to enter the broken heart so that the person may become an agent of God's mercy. This is not about just seeking salvation for ourselves but rather a liberation from what imprisons us from destructive and soul-destroying behavior. The celebration of the sacrament opens us to love God and others more deeply with a sincerity of heart that we are broken healers.

This takes great courage and reflection because it is hard to admit that I cannot be saved through my own efforts but only through that life-giving encounter with Christ. In prayer, it calls us to allow God to meet us even in our greatest struggles and our worst sins. This encounter is not just about what we think and how we act but who we become as a disciple of Christ. We embody what makes us whole by discovering what can tear us apart if left unresolved. The holiness we seek is not a self-perfection but rather a meeting of hearts that allows us to touch the wounds of Christ with our own wounds.