Seeing our world differently

The new year often beckons us to make new resolutions about how our life will be different. The can be an anticipation that this will be the year when I engage more intentionally on a project which has been alluding me. That this will be the year that I succeed and be able to tick off another accomplishment from my to-do list. Yet too often we become frustrated because all of our plans seem to require us to do more rather than being present to what is fundamental to our lives. We want to be different but we see it all expressed in external actions.

Mary faced the same dilemma, but she engaged with it differently. She saw that the birth of a child, in the person of Jesus changed the world and not just her life. She saw that the centre of gravity had shifted. She noticed how many were astonished and amazed by what was happening. Yet she did not ground her life on what others thought but allowed herself to ponder on their meaning. This is the central gift that I believe she brings to us. At the end of each occasion, she sought to discover what brought life to herself and others. How she could be present differently in the light of these experiences and then take the next obvious loving step. May the peace of Christ disturb you!

The Vulnerable God

There is a natural sense of anticipation we encounter at Christmas. All of our planning, presents and presence come to a meeting point. We are called to be open to the place where God encounters us as we are and not as we think we should be. He opens up our hearts to the reality that God is intimately vulnerable and available to us. He places his life in our hands so that we may discover the gift of our own lives. He surrenders himself to us, so that we may surrender our lives to him.

The incarnation challenges us to recognise that in his person heaven and earth are wedded together. All life is sacred and this changes the way we see our world. It calls us to recognise the fundamental dignity of human life and all of creation. There is a sense in which the focus is taken of our own needs and on to God’s desire for us. The Gospel story is fundamental one which shapes us to be people who receive and offer God’s love. This is not just a warm fuzzy feeling but a recognition that how we live changes our world. It calls us to see each encounter we have as one of graced presence. That each person is made in the image and likeness of God. May the peace of Christ disturb you!

Dream of what his life may be for you

The time of waiting is almost over and we make the final preparations for Christmas. As we make these preparations we come to an awareness that God becomes present in ways that are often unexpected. We here this in the story of Joseph, a righteous man, who seeks to encounter God in the midst of his daily life. He wants to do the right thing by God and by Mary. He seeks to understand what is happening in the midst of a sense of confusion. The central question is what does God expect of me and how should I respond?

This question hangs on our hearts as well. Life often can be shaped very differently than we would have planned it. We want to do this right thing by others and by ourselves. This often can lead us into the tension of balancing the contradictions that we encounter. This means that we need to come to a place where we can be honest before God about what is happening. We need to have a heart for what brings life for ourselves and for others. We need to be attentive to how God does open doors for us and leads us step by step. We also need a trusted person with whom we can share our way of being present to the question. May the peace of Christ disturb you!

Life is more than reality television

In the midst of Christmas preparations, we seem to gain daily doses of reality television. We try to distinguish between what we have heard and what we hope for. We become so conditioned to respond to news stories that we do not know how to act thoughtfully.  We can become consumed by a way of being present to others which focus solely on our own needs. Yet the Gospel speaks to our hearts and opens our eyes. It challenges us to see the signs of God’s grace present in healing the sick, in befriending the poor and in making room for the people that society rejects. This is at the heart of our preparations for Christmas it calls us to recognise that the incarnation of Jesus changes the way we are present to the world.

The presence of Jesus seeks to reconcile the divisions in our own hearts and in the heart of our community. This is a gospel of life which says that every person is valued and is made in the image and likeness of God. How we become present to others in our prayers and actions allows us to prepare a way for the Lord which acknowledges this. As Christians, we are called to be people who reflect on the Gospel and live it with joyful hearts. This is not just about wishful thinking but actively seeking to put it into practice. Reconciliation is never just about ourselves but it is a way of life which seeks to put the Gospel into action. May the peace of Christ disturb you!

Who we are is what we see!

When we go to the doctor it is usually either for a general check-up or because we are starting to notice symptoms which either cause us pain or discomfort. The better we are able to describe these symptoms, the better the doctor is able to diagnose what it happening. Yet the most important thing is how we respond to the diagnosis and what questions we need to ask. How we become present to our own health concerns helps us to become involved and engaged in the process of receiving appropriate treatment. It helps us to know that our health touches on physical, psychological and spiritual aspects of our lives. The ability to work holistically with the people who provide us health care can produce a good outcome.

In a similar way, our spiritual health calls us to be present as a whole person. Advent is not just a time for confessing sins, hoping that the chaff will be burnt away, it is a time for a review of life which looks below the surface and seeks to listen to the voice of God. This is not just a time to go through the motions but to seek out what God is calling us to. Reconciliation is not simply about squaring ourselves away with God but a deeper call to produce the fruits of the sacrament we receive. It calls us to open our lives to God’s grace in a way which does not just take notice of the symptoms which distance us from God and from each other. This calls us to allow God to enter into our own hearts so that we can see our lives differently.

Often we focus on what we want more than what God wants, we can easily miss the mark. God wants us to go to the heart of the matter. A relationship which can sustain us and helps us to grow closer together in faith. By seeking to be reconciled with God helps us in our reconciliation with others and inside ourselves. It helps us to become people who are more open to God’s grace which seeks to heal and reconcile all of our humanity. By showing our willingness to renew our faith in reconciliation, to become less cynical and chastened by our own coarseness, we open our hearts to become disciples. May the peace of Christ disturb you!

Christ has a plan, do you?

We know that this is the beginning of Advent and we start planning for Christmas. There are gifts to buy, cards to be sent, meals to be prepared and guests to be invited. In the midst of the preparations we also attend pre-Christmas functions, which look back to celebrate the year and to say thank you. Yet with all these celebrations how do we prepare to receive the person of Christ in our midst. This is very much the focus of this weekend’s readings if we do not pause and reflect that the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.  This seems counterintuitive. We know when Christmas Day is and we plan accordingly. Yet the important part of these celebrations is that we allow Christ to meet us. Just as we are called to be Bush Fire ready we need to alert and aware of how we are called to meet Christ each day. Christ has a plan, do you? By setting aside some time at the beginning and end of the day we can prepare and reflect on where God is at work in our lives. It helps us to be attentive to seeing Christ in the people we meet and in the things we do. It allows us to be receptive to those graced moments where Christ is present. 

Who is our King?

The desire to give our lives for the good of others is at the heart of the call of servant leadership. It runs counter to many other forms of leadership which seeks to gain power, position or success for the person. At the heart of Jesus’ leadership, we see a person who seemed powerless, whose life seemed to end in failure and whose position on the cross stands in sharp contradiction to all that we seem to admire in others who lead us. The cross casts a long shadow over our civilisation and our world. It calls us to consider what truly matters in life and how we are called to find eternal value in what we seek to become.

At the heart of this year we have sought to discover the mercy which was at the heart of Jesus’ life. It calls us to discover how we are called to become people, who open up our hearts to God by opening our hearts to each other. This is not just by working harder and longer hours but by adopting an attitude to others which is truly merciful. This seeks to discover how we become a people who take reconciliation seriously. This is not just by an individualistic view of forgiveness but a genuine desire to surrender our lives over to God who calls to make us disciples of mercy. We cannot simply be saved by our own efforts but allowing ourselves to bear our own wounds, which are transformed by Jesus life, death and resurrection. We are called to allow Christ to become our King.

The End is Nigh?

When we read in the news about growing tensions around the world, natural disasters, the results of a highly divisive election, the suffering of people in Mosul and Aleppo, people drowning at sea and the rattling of sabres between countries we naturally become afraid. These events quite naturally can have a direct impact on our thinking and on how we act. We can start to overemphasise how our salvation depends more on ourselves than on the Kerygma of Jesus Christ. It is easy to become distracted about events beyond our control and beyond our reach. The one thing that we need to do is the work that God has entrusted us with and gifted us to do.

The call of the Gospel calls us not to be afraid. In fact, these words are often repeated when Jesus speaks to his disciples. When our lives are driven or controlled by fear we are either paralysed into inaction or reaction. Our lives are no longer our own. Our prayer can try to be manipulative of God. We seek what we want and proclaim what we want to hear rather than listen to God in the silence of our hearts. Our response should always be one which seeks to heal, reconcile and proclaim that the Kingdom of God is very near to us. It is how we live and breathe the Holy Spirit in a troubled world.

Remember!

One of the hardest things in life is going to the funeral of a person who has loved us and whom we have loved. Even when a person’s death is expected it is never easy and we can come with all sorts of mixed emotions. We feel the loss and the numbness inside which we cannot quite put into words but we are also embraced by the words of those who mourn with us. The support of a community is vitally important not just because we hold a person up in prayer but also people need to witness to the prayer that has legs, in the people who gather with us. This silent and powerful presence allows us to know that we are not alone in our grief.

The funeral service allows us to pay respect to the living and to the person who has died. It helps us to be reassured that through a Christian community that our life has a value to others. It allows us to farewell a person with dignity and to assist them on their final journey with our prayers. I think the hardest thing about the funeral are all the questions which we are left to ponder afterward when our conversation is filled with the silence of that loss which no one else can replace. We look for tangible reassurance that they are remembered. This is why during the month of November we remember all those who have died and as they have been close to our hearts, that they may be close to the heart of God.

Being present as I am not as others think I should be!

There can be a natural tendency to look at a person’s faults and to emphasize the errors they have made in life. The difficulty with this approach is that it magnifies our failures while ignoring the moments of grace that can transform a person’s life. These moments of grace are not immediately obvious because we can become so accustomed to a person’s story or our way of perceiving that person that we are no longer open to change either within ourselves or within that person. Zacchaeus was well known within the community as a wealthy person but also an awareness that this was achieved at the expense of others. No wonder people were muttering behind his back when Jesus went to stay with him for supper. How could Jesus not know what this person was like? Yet this is the point, he did and still he wanted to eat and drink with this person. Faith is not a popularity contest it calls for the person to encounter God as they are and as they are they can be transformed and be present to others. Faith has this profound combination of private conversion and public witness. Our faith is deeply personal and communal. It calls us to grow in our personal relationship with God and with each other which demonstrates how our faith transforms us and the communities in which we live. It is no longer just about my own private salvation but how God reaches to others through being present as I am.

Lord Jesus Christ, Have mercy on me a sinner

There can be times when we can treat our prayer as though it was a frequent flyers card. We can see it as clocking up prayer miles rather than strengthening of a relationship with God. This is evident about this weekend’s gospel which compares the Pharisee with the publican. The Pharisee basically lists out a whole list of activities he has undertaken to live a faithful life but he misses out on one essential element, being receptive to the merciful heart of God. The Publican, on the other hand, puts no claims on God but simply presents himself as a person in deep need of God’s mercy. In many ways, he is no different to all of us. None of us can make claims on God to love us more or less. God simply reaches out to embrace and love us. On our part, we just need to be present to that love, which can engage us far more than we imagine or think that we deserve. This is not about making ourselves right in the sight of God but echoing the words of what has been commonly known as the Jesus Prayer, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner”. 

Be persistent and consistent!

Do we find God or does God find us? This is often the dilemma which can confront us when we seek to live our faith in the world, do we reach out to God or does God reach out to us? Living a faithful life is not beyond our reach. It does call us, however, to be consistent and persistent in being open to the promptings of God. Ultimately, this is about becoming a person who is present to the promptings of God. It calls us to become the message we seek to proclaim. We become a living word formed by God. Our lives are called to be sacramental in the way we encounter Jesus Christ in each other. The same reverence we show to Jesus in the reception of the sacraments is called to also be present in the way we receive and listen to others. It also calls us to recognise the importance of scripture as the Living Word. This is not just an add-on to our sacramental encounter with the person of Jesus Christ. When we listen to scripture we learn how to be guided in our lives to become holy and to avoid what diminishes us. This is why we should be as hungry to listen to the Word as we are to receive Eucharist. At the heart of the prayer of the people gathered is the need to listen to that Word and to allow it to be received and proclaimed by our lives.

Open our hearts to gratitude

God listens to our prayers not as a disinterested observer but as an active participant in our lives. He seeks what is for our good and what is within our reach. The lepers who approach Jesus are given a simple instruction to go and present themselves to the priest. In this turning around of their lives, they discover healing. However, healing is never just for the person concerned but for the community of which they are a part. Often the healing is twofold it is not only a physical healing but also a social healing, The people who were held at arm's length and excluded from the community were brought back into communion. The same is true of us we are called to be people who are able to welcome back those who have experienced exclusion. There is also a sense of gratitude in the person for this healing which is not an artificial response but a heartfelt liberation of the person to give praise to God. In this way, we do not treat God like a slot machine or an atm. God calls us into a living relationship which liberates us to praise him with our lives.

All called to the table in faith

Often we have a belief that our faith is always dependent on what we do rather than on how we respond. There can be a tendency in which we put God to the test by believing that if we only had something more or were given a deeper insight that everything would fall our way. We can live as though God was not already present to us and our needs. If only we were able to discover the magic formula, the right words or the right actions we would be able to bend God to our every whim and desire. Yet the call is already placed on our hearts inviting us to serve at the table. This is not as the Gospel seems to imply that our lives are simply hard work and that God is a hard task master. It is rather a faithful listening to the voice of God which invites us to be present to what we can do and not what we can’t. The invitation is to see God in our everyday lives inviting us to the table of thanksgiving. By offering what we have rather than what we don’t, we allow God to bless the work we do perform with a sense of thanksgiving and generosity. God gives us the ability to respond in faith with our lives

God calls us out of our cocoons!

There are times when it is possible to cocoon ourselves away from the problems of the world. Our daily exposure can numb our sensitivity to others in great need. Even when they are on our doorstep we can pretend to ignore them or dismiss them as someone else's concern. We can tend to shrink our world to what interests us or offends us. Even worse we can try to move the offence from our sight by isolating the poor and people not like us from our consciousness. We can seek their removal from our communities just so that we can have a quiet life. There is a sense of the diabolic which sense the demons at war in our world but not within ourselves. Yet Jesus uses the story of the rich man and Lazarus to challenge us to a sense of solidarity with every person and especially with those living in poverty. He calls us to recognize our common humanity and that our Christian spirituality is deeply incarnate. Our call to justice is not just about doing good for others but seeking to live in a way which makes room for others to be at home with us so that we can be at home with them. 

Being faithful in small things

There can be times when our lives are driven by how much we earn and the bills we have to pay. This can cause anxiety for people especially when there seems to be more money going out than coming in. In an age of easy credit and the ability to respond instantly to purchase something off the television, the internet or even tap and go it is possible to quickly find ourselves trapped into patterns of behaviour which we would prefer to be free from. We do not simply work to pay bills. We are called to discover something which brings substance and meaning to our lives. When our lives become driven by something beyond our grasp or our decisions are based solely on what they cost we lose sight of the treasure that lives deep within and what truly brings value. The gospel calls us to reflect on this, we are called to be people who discern what God is calling us to and then see what is necessary to reach that end. When we allow money to be the sole determiner of what is good and worthwhile we lose a sense of ourselves and our calling to be formed into the image and likeness of God. We are called to use money not money using us!

God never abandons searching us out!

What consumes our time and energy shape our lives. When we lose something we tend to spend our time thinking about it and seeking it out. It can become all consuming and exclude every other activity. Accompanying this search are our feelings of guilt and loss. How could we have lost it in the first place? Where have I been where I might have lost it? Will my life ever be the same without it? Often these feelings accompany our ownership to material things but probably, more importantly, how we use these things to relate to others.
The search for the lost sheep and the lost coin, however, translates this into our search for God or rather God's search for us. There can be  times when we can feel lost or abandoned by God. There can be a sense that we want God to find us but we cannot stop running or be being concerned about many things. God can become squeezed out little by little that we do not notice the absence until we encounter a deep emptiness inside which no material thing, no activity or project can fill. We can no longer be distracted from becoming present to the God who dwells within. The Good News is that God never abandons searching us out and leading us back to the place where we can celebrate our lives with joy!

What do we actually possess?

Every spring is an opportunity to review what is important in our lives and to empty out our closets. It may be that the lengthening of the days or the change in the way that the light is present to us that we are called to see things differently. This taking stock allows us to discover what truly brings us joy and what burdens we carry. This is not just about material things which can clutter up our lives but also those attitudes which hold us back. Fundamentally it calls us to reflect on what draws us to the light and what drives us away from that light? How are we called to live in the light of the Gospel and the dream that God has for us? This is not by making us in our own image and likeness but allowing God to mould us into what we are truly called to be. This is not solely our own work but our cooperation with God who seeks to create through us more than we can ask or imagine. It calls all of us to discover what truly brings life to us and our communities. 

Playing games with God

The Eucharist is at the centre of our lives who seek to enter into a relationship with Jesus. This is not just simply a matter of receiving him in communion but by becoming what we receive. This is not just a reward for the good but a way in which we are called to come alive in Jesus. His flesh and blood is called to course through our veins. This is where we can struggle to be ourselves. We often think that either we have to be someone else or that we are not worthy of such a gift. We can start to play games with God. We can try to hide from this gift, we can walk away from what is on offer or we can pretend that we do not need this gift. Even when we are present to God in the Eucharist we can tend to distance ourselves from what is offered to us. We tend to sit at the back of churches for fear that the relationship may become too real or too demanding. We arrive just in time and leave as soon as we can. Yet if our Eucharist is the source and summit of our lives it calls all people to a deepening relationship with God and each other. It calls us to see Jesus not only in ourselves but also those who seem to be far away from Christ. Eucharist changes the way we see life and how we are called to live. No longer is it centred solely on what we want but on what God desires for us: to be in communion with God and with each other.

What is God's dream for us?

How do we open our hearts to Jesus? One of the questions that I often wrestle with is how do I help Jesus to know me? There can be a tendency to work hard at doing the things that Jesus did but without a personal relationship with the person who is at the heart of the work. It is why our faith is sacramental, it engages both our bodies and our spirits. There is an importance in recognising that our work as Christians flows from this living relationship with Jesus. Too often we think that it is by working harder that we draw closer to Jesus. The truth is that it is when that we draw close to Jesus that our work has purpose and thinking.

This relationship is called to be intentional where we set aside regular times to be present to Jesus in prayer. This calls us to establish a routine where we join with each other at Mass but also discovering where we can present to Jesus in our own prayer time. There is also a call to act in a way which lives out of that prayer in way we are present to others and how our actions cooperate with the charism entrusted to us for the whole of the community. By discovering how God is present to us in our prayer and in our reflective action we discover where we find life. By living our lives to the full we discover a God who sustains us and works with us. The place where we are known by God and can cooperate with God’s dream for us.

God will wake you up not put you to sleep!

The Gospel is a living word which is called to wake us up not put us to sleep! We live in such a literate age that often reading can become solely a way of receiving information or opinions. The words become shifted and reshaped until they suit us rather than what the author intended. However, the living Word of Jesus is called to strike our hearts, wake us up and set us on fire with God’s dream for us rather than our dream for God. This can often be deeply disturbing because it stirs up old certainties on which we have relied to give us meaning. God does not want to limit our vision but expands it beyond ourselves. If our God is there solely to make us comfortable, peaceful and relaxed we will cocoon ourselves in our own private world. Yet God calls us persistently and insistently into a relationship which is great than our own needs to discover a deeper longing which cannot be bought and sold.

In our own world, we can often rely on things that substitute for this living relationship with God. We can start to manufacture our own idols which we worship but leave us feeling empty and alone. God does not want us to experience this destitution or poverty of heart but to discover what truly brings life to our world. We have never been abandoned by God but he does want us to wake up from our own dreams and to live his dream for us.

Like a thief in the night

At times we can become fearful of people breaking into our homes. Initially, we put locks on the doors, then alarms and finally maybe even video cameras. We want to ensure that what we own is not taken from us and that we want to make sure that our life is secure. However, we are aware that in many cases these are only deterrents. If a person is determined enough they will find a way in. This sense of invasion can bring with it a sense not only of intrusion but also that the place we call home has been violated by the presence of another.

Yet this is the image that the Gospel presents to us. That God will come like a thief in the night and break in at a time not of our own planning. This sense of intrusion into the normal events of daily life can deeply disturb and unsettle us. It may be something that we had not planned to happen and at times we feel incredibly vulnerable. Yet the Gospel calls us to stay awake and alert to these times when God may break through our hard built defences. This is an intrusion which is not called to rob us of something but rather to show how much we are loved and known by God. The preparation for these times is not difficult. We need to be people of prayer who listen for his voice. In our prayers, in scripture and in our daily life. By sitting and waiting on the Lord we become more awake and aware of how God may already be present. The places where God has taken residence in the home of our hearts.

Where our treasure is our heart will be also.

I am a bit of a bibliophile. I love books. Part of the desire is to look for what makes sense of the world and to make connections. In looking for patterns and what fits I find myself in an ongoing search for what is real and lasting. However, at times I also need to remember that books are a way of engaging with the thinking of others and to have conversations with them but they are not an end in themselves. They are a way of assisting us to learn about life but they are not a replacement for engaging with what sustains life.

It is the same with many things which can become a security for us, whether it is money, possessions, the work we engage with, relationships or our favourite hobby. These are all important ways of seeking to find meaning in life but they do not substitute for what lies at the heart of life. We are called to seek a relationship which lies at the heart of all relationships. We are called to be people of prayer who prayerfully engage with our world. This is a call to be attentive and present. To listen for what is important for this day and this moment. It calls us to be real and in tune with the heart of God who seeks us out. In discovering what is real we find what is the treasure which sustains us.

God love us as much as we love our worst enemy.

The most challenging of prayers is the one that we say each day. The Our Father calls us to come together with a common desire to discover a relationship which lies at the heart of all relationships. It seeks to draw us into a life which gives meaning to our own. It is a way of being present to the world as God recreates it and not as we would have it. The desire is not to possess others but to be open to the creative spirit which always seeks life, not death.
In our own hearts, we can become so fearful of what may happen in the future that we are no longer present to this moment and this day. It calls us also to remember how our lives can be drawn into past hurts which we can carry with us. The heart of this prayer is not that we force ourselves to forgive but that we experience the love of God in the places where we most struggle to forgive. This allows us to be open to a graced life which is not of our own making or achieved through our own efforts. When we experience those hurtful memories or feelings it is good to ask God to transform us with life-giving words.  We are called to live life differently from a place where God meets us at our deepest need so that we can reach out to others with compassion and grace.

We are more than what we do

There is a saying that if you want something done ask a busy person. However, this can be a double-edged sword because a person who is busy may find it difficult to reflect on what occupies their time and whether it gives full expression to who they are called to be. Unrelenting activity is not healthy for any person and at times can actually lead them away from the very person they want to be. They start to identify more with what they do rather than who they are called to be. An unreflective life calls us to be caught up in the winds beyond our control rather than harnessing those winds to give direction and purpose to our lives.

The Gospel of Martha and Mary is often presented as a contrast between the contemplative and active life. However, what seems to be stressed is the importance of the one thing that gives our lives direction and meaning. Mary in listening to Jesus is not finding a way out of work but rather a way of being present to the work she may be called upon to perform. Her life discovers meaning in listening to and becoming familiar with the voice of Jesus. So too for us, our lives are not necessarily solely about what we do but how we are present to what we are doing. By listening to the voice of Jesus we find what brings us life so that we can bring life to all that we do.

Living from a compassionate heart

Our lives can at times be so focused and busy that the rest of the world can fade into the background. The priorities we set ourselves can be moved by what we consider the most urgent and worthy of our time. We become preoccupied with what is happening next that we forget to live in the present. Our lives become controlled by things that have not yet happened that we do not see the people we encounter along the way. The story of the good Samaritan touches into the heart of living of the present moment and encountering God in the life of another. This recognizes that our faith is not just about getting things right and living according to the law but discovering the creative power of God which reaches out to all people in all situations. In fact, the story of the Good Samaritan shows us it is the heart which moves us to make the right move at the right time. It is mercy, that produces good law and good action. It unites us in concern for those in greatest need. In living from the compassionate heart of Jesus we live those powerful words, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself." A fountain welling up to eternity.

God makes an election for us

When we reflect on where God is present to us in lives we often look at whether people make us welcome or unwelcome by the way they treat us and choose to be present to us. The Gospel is not simply about being nice to others but considering what is fundamentally important to us. This will probably play out in our hearts and minds as we examine the results of votes taken both in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Spain. Each seems to deliver more uncertainty and answer a particular question but not the fundamental question of how we are called to be present to others. They can reframe reality but they do not change who we are called to be.

What is considered important is to remember that God makes an election for us. “Peace to this house” and if a person of peace lives there it will be accepted and if not then the peace will come back to you This changes in how we are called to become aware of God’s spirit at work in us and within our communities. What brings us consolation rather than desolation. This view strongly echoed in the Gospel is that we take hospitality both in what we have to offer and in what we have to receive. We can be a leaven within our community which seeks to become aware of how in working for peace and in offering hospitality to all, we encounter that God’s kingdom is very close to us.

Do we seek the common good or our own interest?

Do we seek the common good or our own interest? We are often called to consider what is our next step in life and we have to consider this central question. What seems to be of immediate benefit to me and what is the best way of living my life. It is the difference between the urgent and the important. We know that there can be many things that press in upon us and demand our attention. These can at times seem to overwhelm us and consume our energy.

However what acts as the foundation of our lives can be the touchstone of who were are called to be. As Pedro Arrupe SJ reflects in Finding God in All Things: A Marquette Prayer Book published in 2009 by Marquette University Press:

“Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”

Who do you say I am?

We do not enter into a relationship with Jesus as a theoretical concept or as an idealised person. The encounter with Jesus draws out what is best in us. It calls us to ask questions of who we believe him to be. He encounters each person as they are, not as they think we should be for him. This encounter can be life changing because it starts to recognise that we do not have to measure up to an arbitrary standard of behaviour before he will love us. He loves us so that we can discover what will bring hope and life to our hearts so that we can share it with others. This often means allowing him to struggle with us against believing the world revolves around me to discovering that our lives are called to be centred on God. This loving surrender to his guidance can often feel like losing the things we hold on too tightly to a discovery of what we can truly value. Our way of life is one of constant surrender to a life which is held lightly and not grasped as our own possession. In discovering this freedom we enter into a deeper communion with God and with each other. This is not done by comparison with each other but a willingness to companion each other on the road.

Jesus makes us uncomfortable so that we can discover a living relationship with God

There is a story of an alcoholic who was well known in town. People would make fun of him and talk behind his back. Occasionally he would try to go dry but this would make people uncomfortable because he would no longer be the butt of their jokes. Then he would fall back into old ways and people would be happy to talk about him again. We know that the 12 steps program helps people to find ways of living with their own weakness and vulnerability. But an important part of the program is a friend and mentor who walks with them. This person can be like Jesus to them as they do not put on airs and graces but love the person as they are not as we would have them be.

This is precisely the situation that we read in the gospel for this weekend. We can become comfortable with another person’s sin because it stops us from reflecting on our own. We can start to become proportional in our approach to God when we start to say that at least we are not as bad as another person. Yet Jesus does not look at our sins but how he has the greater gift of inviting us into a living relationship with God. This is about responding in faith to God’s love which is abundant. By discovering that we are loved by God our hearts are enlarged so that we can love others and walk with them.

What can make us whole?

A sudden and unexpected loss can devastate the life of a family and a community. We see this not only in the history of our own families and communities but also in the life of many people around the world. This loss come about through the effects of nature, through the actions of people or simply through our own mortality. This trauma and ruction in the fabric of what appears normal can cause as to ask questions of ourselves and our society. How do we stand by those in great need? How do we find life in the midst of what seeks to bring about destruction and death? What can we do differently to address those forces which we know can wreak such havoc?

Jesus is not immune to such events in his own life and in the life of the communities in which he walked. He did not seek to add moral judgement to these circumstances but sought to respond to the immediate need of the person. By seeking compassion and mercy as the touchstone of our Christian lives we can start to see our own response to such events. We are called to see the person first and respond to them with concern for what will make them whole.

Taken, blessed, broken and shared

When a person receives the Body and Blood of Christ in communion this is more than just mere food. There is a profound link with the person of Jesus. His life and memories start to be blended with our own. The importance of this communion is not just a spiritual reality but a physical one. We are linked into the heart of the Trinity and into the midst of his living Body, the Church. This communion recognises that our humanity and the sharing of life with each other is the visible sign of an invisible reality. We become one with each other in the person of Christ.

As Christians this becomes a reality in the way our lives are taken, blessed, broken and shared. Our life is never just our own and our mission is never just to be in a solitary relationship with God. The communion recognises that we are bound to each other to live the Good News of Jesus Christ through our faithful pilgrimage with each other. This is truly food for the journey. A food which nourishes both body and soul. We are that living memory that Jesus walks with us and shares his life with us.

Encountering God in the divine dance of creation

In a time of scientific enquiry, we become use to the advances which are made by understanding the data we can collect about the environment in which we live and the way we can influence it for the good of all. This dynamic flow of discovery and application allow us to grow both as individuals and communities. Trinity Sunday allows us to discover that this dynamic flow of creation is at the heart of all creation. Our understanding of God as Trinity can often cause some confusion. But I think that the idea of God as the dance, the dancer and the dancing engages with the dynamic and creative power we witness in the universe. God can never be analysed at just one moment of time or in one movement over time. There is a deeply engage life of God which seeks to engage us in a divine relationship which captures all three aspects of God which acknowledge a trinity of persons, as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This seeks to understand a God who is ever new and ever creative; a God who seeks to draw us into relationship, and who gives gifts which make it possible to experience God’s life giving potential in our own time and place. We celebrate that our lives are caught up in this divine economy of love and life in which nothing is lost and which seeks all for the good of all.

The transforming power of God

We are called and gifted to understand how God entrusts us with charisms for the good of the whole community. At Pentecost, we recognize both the affective and effective ways of being a disciple. The gifts of the Holy Spirit entrusted to us at Pentecost allow us the opportunity to grow in a personal relationship with God through wisdom, understanding, counsel, internal resilience, knowledge, piety, and reverence. This would be seen as the personal desire of God to know us from the inside out. However, as disciples of Jesus, we are also entrusted with gifts for the good of the whole community which are not solely for our own good but which help to build people up in faith. They help us to acknowledge that each of us is part of a community for its good and never just our own. The signs of a charism are that it has a timeless quality which feels like prayer when we are living it out, it has an ability to respond to the deep seated need of another and it produces grace-filled fruits which are never just the result of hard work. By allowing God to work through us we experience a prayer which draws us into action and an action which becomes our prayer. 

Transformed from the inside out

Our lives will always witness to what we consider of true value. What are we prepared to let go of to discover our own mission? This is not meant to alienate us from our community or from ourselves but to ask, how does my life become a catalyst for change? This is not a change which diminishes our humanity, but it is a journey of discovery which allows us to be most ourselves. This is not a call to just observe life but rather a call to participate in the heart of life. It calls us to discover how our lives witness what we truly value and consider of greatest worth. What brings the greatest glory to God in the way we live and act? Our lives are never just our own. They have an ability not only to inform others or to form them in ways of being present to God. Ultimately, they call for a deep intuitive sense that we are transformed from the inside out. That we become truly ourselves when our interior lives match our exterior actions. Each person is called to be a witness of faith to others by the life they live. Listen to how God calls you to bring the good news of his life and forgiveness to others.

Where do I feel most at home?

When we return from a long trip there can be a natural desire to want to be home. It is like a beacon which grows warm within us when we are in the proximity not only of the destination but also the people who will welcome us. Jesus calls us to be at home with ourselves wherever we may be. This is not always easy because our minds and hearts can be distracted by things or places that draw us away from our natural self. In our own age, it is possible to travel to destinations far away without leaving our armchairs and become absorbed in questions which are not our own. This can consume much of our thinking and our way of being present to the world. They can at times become burdensome and seem to clutter up our lives with thoughts and feelings and questions which do not really matter. Our prayer time and our study are essential if we are to discover that place where we can be truly ourselves, unencumbered by considerations beyond our scope to solve. It calls us to live with the one central question, where do I feel most at home and how does that bring substance to my life? What is it the question that God most places on my heart and how will I live that, for the good of the world?

How do we share our life with others

How do we share our lives with others? We can at times become focused or besieged by the demands of the Christian life which confront us. Modern technology can reveal to us many good works and charitable endeavors which are all worthwhile. Like Therese of Lisieux we can want it all because we see the tremendous good which eventuates from people’s selfless actions. Yet this is not the primary call that is placed on each person’s heart. We do need a Christian community which produces tangible fruits, but we also are called to recognize that we are co-dependent upon each other. No one person has all the knowledge or all the gifts, we are called into a living relationship which shares our lives and our gifts with each other. In this giving and receiving, we realize a God who forms us into a community where all gifts of the spirit need to be present. Discipleship is not about personal advancement but a profound sharing of what has been entrusted to us for the good of all. When we hold on too tightly to the gifts we have been given, we diminish not only ourselves but also the whole community with whom we are called to share these gifts. Our lives are never just our own but how people discover the God who calls us to be present to others.

Know thyself!

Knowing ourselves can seem to be a lifelong task. Yet in the Interior Castle written by Theresa of Avila it is the essential place in which we grow in our relationship with God. Sometimes, I am haunted by the word of Jesus when he echoes the words, I do not know you. There can be a feeling if I do not know myself how can I become real to God? In a world where we can pursue phantoms of appearance or mirages of success, it is easy to become lost on another person’s journey other than our own. Jesus calls us to encounter him as our true self not as the person we believe that will be acceptable to him. It means that we need to drop the masks in prayer and in our conversation with God so that we can identify who we truly are. This does not mean that we have to engage in profound self-analysis or profound quests of self-discovery. We just need to be true to what brings us life and what avoids death for us. This is not focusing solely on ourselves but it is an understanding that we cannot live in a way which has not been gifted to us from God. Our best reflection is to look at each day and see what I can give thanks for and what brought life to me and others? By discovering what brings life we can discover who we are called to be and discover the person God knows us to be. 

Is this all there is?

There is a universal sense of a call which is more than what we are called to do with our lives. There are questions in life which are not answered, which move beyond the superficial. We know how easy it is to classify people by their work, by their successes or by what they own. There is something which allows us to be familiar with the arena in which we work, which provides us with some security and sense of worth. However, this can be sorely tested if we are asked the question about whether this is all that we are called to be? When our life is too closely identified with our occupation or our daily activity. We can start to think that we only have value when we are doing things which appear worthwhile. Yet the deeper question that Jesus asks is, who do we love when we do what we are doing? This is more than just being lost in activity but allowing us to discover that our humanity is expressed in who we love, so that we can love what we are doing. How do I understand this call that Jesus places before us?

Will we touch the wound that heals us?

The reality of Easter is that Jesus enters into our deepest wound by touching what hurts us the most. This is at the heart of forgiveness and calls us, to be honest to ourselves and to God. Often we can shy away from this area because we are too vulnerable and believe our humanity is at most risk. When the wound is touched, it brings forth a whole heap of deep-seated emotions of anger, disgust, fear and loathing. There is a sense in which we stand naked before God and that nothing can hide us from this rawness and these feelings, that we have somehow been complicit in being wounded. Yet it is when we touch the wounds of Christ, when we acknowledge our fundamental distrust, that anything can change, that our act of forgiveness moves beyond mere words. It is a reality which strikes us at the core of our being which causes us to become people who are freed from the sin that binds us and holds us prisoner to our own thoughts and suspicions. Only when we come to this place can we ever experience healing which calls us to become disciples, not from the moments when we are totally in control, but from the times when we have been most deeply wounded. Will we accept Jesus’ invitation to touch that wound?

Where heaven meets earth

Are we missing the point? Lent calls us to encounter the person of Jesus in the journey of our lives. It recognizes that our faith only makes sense if we move beyond our initial impressions of Jesus into a life and death struggle with God. Unless he meets us where we are, our faith is always read in a text book or learnt by rote. This deeply personal encounter is mediated through the sacramental life of the Catholic community. We encounter the risen Christ through the sacraments which capture the place where heaven meets earth in our humanity. We are nourished, healed and forgiven; we are caught up in a life which is not our own. It calls us to become disciples who proclaim the Good News that death is not the answer but how we live is the constant question. The resurrection of Jesus Christ comes at a time not of our choosing but as a response to our deepest desire. This is why the Paschal Mystery which we celebrate over the three days of Easter is at the centre of our Christian life and the centre of our faith. It asks three fundamental questions: What are we prepared to live for? Who are we prepared to die for? How do we share what we have received with others?

Transforming suffering through the life of one person!

There is a growing indifference to faith when it does not provide the instant sugar hit or the answer that we have chosen as the solution to our problems. We want a faith which is powerful, spectacular and relevant. Something that will change the government of nations, entertain our inner poverty and provide proven results. Instead we receive a person who seems broken, powerless and irrelevant. Jesus does not match our model of a Saviour. He seems too human against the tide which has turned against him. He makes no answer to the accusations flung against him. He gradually takes all the insults, hatred and violence into himself. The journey to the cross seems to be another failed mission, an admission that nothing will or can change, and the inability of humanity to believe in anything but itself. We have seen this played out in Lent not only in our own prayers, but also in our community and in our Church. Everything seems to be more Good Friday than Easter Sunday. There seems to be more suffering, hurt, anger and hatred. Yet as we approach this Holy Week, it is a time to turn in silence and to wait. This is never easy in a world which wants to distract us from poverty and pain. Which seeks us to dance when we should be mourning. Which seeks to find answers for ourselves rather than living with the question. Who can bring us life and why do we follow him?

What would you do to save a person’s life?

What would you do to save a person’s life?

The story today can see played out in many forms in media but also in small town gossip. A person may not be stoned but they can be ostracized, isolated and demonized. Their actions can be seen as the sum of the person. Worse still there can be a disassociation where the person is treated as a non-person. After a person is dehumanized it is possible to hurl abuse at them and essentially sentence them to death in our minds and hearts.

The gospel writer highlights this by not naming the woman at the centre of today’s drama nor does he name members of the crowd. Essentially, the story involves both but points at an essential difference. Jesus does not hold our actions against us nor condemn us for our sins. He waits, he listens, he understands. He recognizes that conversion only happens when a person knows that they have no one else to turn too, when forgiveness is not conditioned by what other people think or how other people behave but from a life giving encounter with a person who loves them unconditionally.

It also points to sin not as a thing which lives outside a person or a disease which can be easily eradicated if only we had the right medicine. The story of the conversion deals with a person accepted totally for who they are. The story of conversion does not mean that a person will not sin in the future but their reason for sin is lessened. There are no short cuts to God. Reconciliation is not simply a rubbish bin where you get rid of the bits you don’t like. It is taking on the mantle of God’s love and mercy which changes not only how we act, but also how we think and how we are called to relate to God. Reconciliation changes everything. It calls us to be transformed from the inside out.

Some of you may not have been to reconciliation for months or years. There may be a feeling that you have not committed any mortals or that God understands our failings. This is a true to a point but all our sacraments call us to a point of conversion. They call us to be people who are transformed into God’s image and likeness. You do not need to come to reconciliation with a whole shopping trolley of sins trying to pick the best ones out. It is more about saying that Jesus calls us to become people of mercy, who want their minds and hearts enlarged. None of us are too old or too young to become disciples who carry that mission of mercy into our world. If we reduce the sacraments to ourselves only rather than as opportunities to become one with Christ, then we miss the point.

Jesus calls us to become truly one with God so that we can be transformed. When we see the world and God only about ourselves then we live a privatized faith and a privatized religion. God asks us to be a missionary disciple who through our own conversion become authentic witnesses to what we believe, not because someone has told us, not because we have read it somewhere, but because it becomes life and bread from us at the core of who we are. We are loved and forgiven so that we can be missionaries of God’s love and forgiveness for our world.

Everybodies life matters!

This weekend we have the distressing scene of the woman who is dragged before a crowd who want to stone her. It is more distressing not because of the accusations that are hurled against her but that she is being used to bring accusations against the person of Jesus. She is simply seen as a means to an end. Yet in the face of torrents of abuse, Jesus simply bends down and writes on the ground. Many people have speculated about what he wrote. I guess we will never know. However, when he straightens up he asks the person without sin to cast the first stone and then bends down again. The people accusing the woman drop their stones starting with the eldest and walk away. Eventually, all the accusers have left the scene and Jesus is left alone with the woman. He asks if any of those who accused her remain. She states that none are there. He then says go and sin no more.

 What is essential to this gospel passage is that we are not brought to the point of conversion by coercion, abuse or gossip. The only way to experience that conversion is to encounter love in the person of God. It is only in the realization that we are loved by God that hearts can change. This is at the centre of Gospel it is not by pointing the finger but in liberating the person from their slavery that lives can change. What enslaves us from living a life which God desires for us? What assists us to love others who are struggling with an addiction to sin?

Building bridges not walls

Sometimes our reflection on life can hold God at arm’s length. We try to relate to God as other and more than ourselves. This can objectivize our relationship with God into the third person. I am me and God is God. However, this way of relating to God puts a distance between us which cannot be easily bridged. This weekend’s Gospel of the Forgiving Father displays the closeness of God to each one of us. The younger son takes the gift of God’s grace as his own possession while the elder son takes the gift of God’s grace as a reward for his work. Both fall short of what is on offer which is the free and unconditional love of God which sees all as beloved.

The central part of the Gospel is how we seek to enter into discussions which build bridges and not walls between each other. It is easy to recognize difference but it takes a forgiving heart to be present to a person as they are and not how we perceive them to be. God seeks to move our conversations beyond ourselves into actions which reconcile, heal and strengthen our relationship with God and each other. It is never just about ourselves but how our relationships display God’s love and mercy. How does my life centre on God’s offer to bridge the gap and how do I seek to bridge the gap with others?

Do what we can do not what we can't

When we see the storms that hit Fiji we can often feel connected and at the same time remote from the disaster. Unless we personally know somebody who lives there, if we have visited Fiji or have some association with the islands we can feel both concerned and distant. This contradiction can disturb us because we want to help and almost feel powerless at the same time. However, each person is created for God’s mission to immerse ourselves in the day to day life and not to become remote from it. We are called to search for the freedom inside themselves which is convicted of God’s joy and life. It calls us to reach out to human beings out of respect and friendship confident that God’s love is displayed in how we become present to the normal events of daily life. Essentially what makes us human and Christian enables us to live out our vocation. This is not only as a person loved by God but as a person who is able to help transform our world and be a messenger of God’s grace. We are called to do what we can, not what we can’t.

Ultimately, it is not by self-perfection that we encounter God. Christianity is not another self-help program. It is a relationship which enables us to become transformed by God’s loving mercy. Thus it is an integration of our whole life which is expressed whenever we gather to celebrate Eucharist. God calls together not people who have made it, but people on the journey.

How does God call me to be present to others this week?

What is God revealing to me about my own life?

What is being transformed in my community by God’s grace?

Do we shape the world or does the world shape us?

The context in which we live does shape our world. Our perceptions of how the world is can influence how we respond to others, where we invest our time and what we consider important.  What attracts our attention will influence what we do and what we seek to be. We only have to consider our news programs and note the ordering of what we view: current events, business, sport and weather. It is good to stay informed but as Christians we are called to view our world through a different lens. All of these things can have an impact on our lives but do they focus on what is urgent and immediate rather than what is important.

During Lent we are called to consider how we respond to the place where we live. There is a need to study our environment as it is not as we would wish it was; we need to be prayerful in being present to God and to others; we also need to act in a way which is considerate of what God and others have placed on our hearts. I think we can be driven by external events beyond our influence and control rather than looking at what God is putting right in front of us. By seeking to be people who pray, reflect and act we start to be present to a world full of God’s grace. The focus shifts of our plans and onto what God’s is achieving with us.

How have I found time to be prayerfully present to God and others?

Where have I spent most of my time?

What am I called to do next?

What brings me life?

The three temptations of Jesus are the same that we each face: to be powerful; to be spectacular and to be relevant. When we are entrusted with the gifts of the spirit it is wise that we are in touch with the giver of the gifts. What can happen is that we start to see the gifts as our own possession and that the world revolves around us and our choices. Lent allows us the opportunity to open our hearts and our lives to God’s mercy. It calls us to recognize the time when we have sought to use the gifts entrusted to us to advance our own status.

In our own age we are called to recognize both what enhances the living of the spiritual life but also what dampens it. Lent does not call us to turn inwards but to recognize the spirit rises like a wellspring within us. The central questions are what brings life to us, what brings life to others and how do we acknowledge that God is at work within our community. By seeing each person as created in the image and likeness of God we can help them to become what God wants them to be.

At the end of each day pause and reflect with God for a couple of minutes

What brought me life?

Where did I move away from what brings me life?

What can I do differently tomorrow?

Say a prayer which reflects this intention

Seeing things differently

We can often encounter a world-weariness where we just seem to be going through the motions. There is sense where our work can lose its savour and purpose. The work is so familiar and every day. We do not see immediate results and there is always a danger to lapse into boredom or listlessness. When we are faced with this crisis we can seek to discover new pastures or new jobs which seem exciting, fresh and new. We are attracted towards people who have the answer to this deep sense of inertia and pain.

The gospel this weekend talks about putting back out into deep water and discovering Jesus anew. Often it is in familiar situations that we are called to find new energy, hope and love. Lent allows an opportunity for us to discover where Jesus is calling us to a fresh insight. This is why during this penitential season we are called to give something up so that we can see through what is blocking us from encountering Jesus in our everyday life. This could be as simple as switching off the TV and spending some time in prayer or reflecting on the scriptures; visiting or calling somebody we have lost contact with or even engaging in some work for a person who is not as fortunate as ourselves. Lent is about seeing differently and allowing Christ to pay out the nets. 

What would be the KPI's for Catholics?

What would be the KPI’s (Key performance indicators) for Catholics? This can seem to focus on what we are called to do rather than who we can become. As a sacramental people we are called to see the word made incarnate. This means that the celebration of sacraments is essential to the way we live. We are called to be a people who gather together and recognize that we travel with each other in our journey of faith. We listen to God’s word and allow it to speak to our hearts. We offer our lives in the Eucharist and thanksgiving for how Jesus becomes present to us. We are drawn into a communion with his Body and Blood, and then we are commissioned together to be a people to live as his disciples in our world. So it would appear that we are a people of God when we gather, when we listen, when we give thanks, when we are drawn into communion and when we go out on mission. At each Mass we celebrate what is fundamental to us as people on a journey of faith. We are people drawn into the mystery and the life of Jesus Christ.

What attitude defines our life

We become used to the great speeches which define what is central to a person's life. They have an immortal air to them not only because they speak to the people who first heard them but they speak across the ages. They have an ability to capture hearts and minds in a way which transforms the life of communities. This is especially true of the proclamation made by Jesus in the synagogue. He is not simply trying to capture people's attention but he is trying to say something by the person he is. He seeks to bring freedom to people who are captive to their circumstances, he seeks to bring Good News to people stricken by poverty, he seeks to help people see clearly what it that they need to do and he seeks to lift burdens off people who are trampled down in life. This is at the heart of the jubilee year. It is not simply about acts of charity but being a person who is charitable in the attitude to life; who is not a dispenser of mercy but a person who lives mercy, who does not simply inspire hope but is hope to others. This week we will honour many Australians who help us to discover these attitudes to life who bring the Gospel of this weekend to life within our communities.

Finding my way home

The silence after a death of someone you love can often be one of the hardest moments of grief. Their sudden departure no matter how well you have prepared yourself can shake the certainties of conversations you once had. The working through the practical events of preparing for the funeral, receiving phone calls, cards and messages can often help to carry you through days that seem to be lost in activity and preparations. I wanted to particularly thank the many message of support and prayer which I received on the death of my mother last December. I deeply appreciated the kindness and the support I received at this sad time. I thought I would take this opportunity to share some of my own struggles at this time which may resonate with some of your own.

The immediate impact is the loss of home. This is not just saying farewell to a physical place where Mum used to live but the spiritual connections which that place had for me. There is a sense of connection which resonates in the place where she lived and called home. I recognize that this disorientation can cause a sense of aimlessness and emptiness. There are many things that can remind me of Mum but which are not Mum. There is a feeling of being broken open to the wind and laid bare before the world. You look for things that can continue to guide your footsteps. In cleaning up the unit where she lived it is often hard to let go of things in a hurry for fear that you do it all too quickly and move on.

Then there is the sense of whether you are crying for yourself or for the person who has died. The rupture of that connection lays you open to many phantoms and memories of what is important to life. Am I doing this for myself, am I doing this for my mother or am I doing this for some other reason. There is a call not to manufacture grief but to recognize the ripples of sadness that can seem to overcome you and which lie at the heart of my prayer. There is a call to allow my prayer to become more real and not manufactured. The call is to be myself.

However, in the days following Mum’s death there have been consolations which remind me that in the midst of the tears that her spirit rests with God. These have been moments when rainbows appear at crucial moments. They seem ethereal and transitory but they hold the sense of wonder which lay at the heart of my Mother’s search for meaning. I also gain a stronger sense that I can be myself in the face of a world which would seek to redefine me. I think this is at the centre of the spiritual life. We are called to be the person that God calls us to be. We are called to be faithful to that calling which allows us to become more and more transparent to God’s grace. At the time of greatest trial, the words of Julian of Norwich ring true, “All shall be well and all manner of thing shall be well.”

Do we remember when we were baptised?

How many of us can remember the date of our baptism? This may be difficult because it means hunting through our parents records and looking for an elusive certificate. The certificate can reveal to us something important. That our parents considered it important enough for us to be baptised into the person of Christ. We are called to be immersed in a relationship which not only allows to surrender to the wonder of God but live a life which is grace filled. We are born into being so that our lives may reflect God’s glory working ever creatively within us. It places us at the heart of God’s creative plan.

Baptism is not just an entry card into eternal life, it is a call to live that eternal life and to be transformed by God. We are created in God’s image and likeness. As such we can celebrate the life he has entrusted to us. It calls us to become coheirs with Christ in his creative and loving plan. No longer are we alone among the universe but are invited to participate with that creative life and love. We are called to be people transformed by God’s loving mercy. 

Why my faith is important to me (My mother's reflection)

I have two memories from my youth that have periodically recurred to me. The first was a comment from my history master, that the best test of friendship was the ability to be comfortable with one’s friend in complete silence for an hour. At 16 we all thought this was utter nonsense, but now? I wonder! The second was a comment from Tim, one of my science students, a committed Catholic, who shared that it seemed to him that we only begin to know what life was about when it is time to die. I should have given him a much different answer now than the one I gave then, but I then was only some 8 years older than he, and puzzling myself

As a young scientist I had no difficulty in believing in a transcendent Creator God. The excitement of the discoveries in atomic physics, the incredible systems in the human body, the balances in nature, such as the carbon and nitrogen cycles could not have been arrived at by pure chance. And the exciting expansion of space exploration opened our young minds to the miracles of the universe and it’s Creator. And there were many scientific theories, none of which denied a creator; big bang or steady state?

But something was missing. How did humanity, including myself, fit into God’s plan? In the Christian community to which my family belonged much emphasis was placed on the Fall, and it was implicit that as a consequence we had to work and pray hard to earn again the love of the Creator God. An image of God developed, an anthropomorphic inversion of the original  Genesis story ,we ‘created God in OUR own image’ and God appeared as judgemental, punitive , loving us when we were ‘Good’ and removing that love when we were ‘Bad’ A frightening model!.  I pondered also at the past and present cruelties injustices and divisions among people who professed to be Christian. Humanity in the 40’s was struggling with the horrors of the Holocaust and Hiroshima. It seemed the Church had no answers to my many questions. I drifted from the Church and lived for many years following “the Golden Rule” (“do to others as you would have them do to you”) (Mat.7:12) and the prohibitions of the Decalogue (Ex 20.7-17). While a sense of God, though distant, was behind this moral code, still something was missing for me.

          A busy life, concerned mainly with family and scientific and teaching employment, moved on. Parents died, children grew up and employment opportunities brought us to Australia. Two of the children had already found comfort in the post-conciliar Catholic Church, and my work included teaching in Catholic schools both in England & here. In the gap of silence that followed our ‘desert experience’ as if by an invisible magnet, both Bob & I were drawn to the post Vat II Catholic church. Much reading and discussion followed; particularly we talked of the work of some of the Christian Mystics, such as Julian of Norwich, Therese of Avila and from modern times Evelyn Underhill.  The ideas of spiritual journey from blind faith to searching faith recurred and the need for contemplative silence was new to us. Above all we learned of the unconditional love of God and that in the Pascal mystery of Jesus’ death, Resurrection and Ascension, we learned we’d already been saved; so different from my early experiences and instruction.   The mystery of the transcendence and immanence of God came alive as in Luke 17. 21 “The Kingdom of God is within you”        Many experiences of God’s love began to dawn; one which I’ll share was especially powerful. When our 6 year old granddaughter drowned we were numbed beyond words and even emotions; as we farewelled her I felt invisible hands on my head and a profound peace came over me. We were being comforted by God’s love, and this came through our silent closeness to him at that time. This experience was reinforced as we reflected on Rabbi Kushner’s experiences described in “When Bad Things happen to Good People” as he shared his loss of his eldest son and drew benefit from the compassion of God, and he added the thoughts, shared with his communities, that our tragedies are not punishments from God

 Of the seven life-journey sacraments of the Catholic Church, the most powerful for me is the Eucharist. There is experience of Christ’s spirit being present among the community, the awareness that, though not perfect, we are forgiven and loved by God. Spoken and sung prayers of adoration and petition give a sense of both the transcendence & immanence of God; There is the prayer of listening to Scripture, from both Hebrew & Christian Testaments,  refreshed with fresh insights from scripture studies  in the light of modern scholarship. Many of the modern hymns are based on scripture, such as yesterdays from Isaiah 55 “Come to the Water” The newly revived prayer of silence which follows the touch of Jesus in the receipt of the Host gives a chance to experience deeply an awareness of God’s presence. And this Eucharist thanksgiving is celebrated every day in every country in the world. One of the Eucharistic prayers summarised my longing; “May we live in the joy of life in your presence”

One other reflection developed for me , reflecting on Jesus’ promise “ In my Father’s house are many dwelling places” (John 14;2) and this linked with my reading of the Vatican II documents, particularly “Nostra Aetate”, which urged unity between Christians, a deeper understanding of our own faith and an acknowledgement of the beauty and truth in other faiths. When Pope John Paul II invited world religious leaders to meet in 1986 & 1999, in Assisi and Rome to pray for peace together, he finished with the exhortation “Individually and together we must show how religious belief inspires peace, encourages solidarity, promotes justice and upholds liberty” 

  So I have learned that Faith is not static, but searching; experiential not merely intellectual, that there seems to be evidence of God’s spirit moving through and between the various world faiths as we begin to dialogue, and this brings Hope, and sometimes Love; but of the three gifts, Faith, Hope & Love  the greatest is that of Love.

So where I started, with Tim’s statement , I’d found that spiritual life is a journey , unending and that friendship with God can be experienced in the silence of Contemplative prayer as well as in more traditional prayer forms.

     I am 85 earth years old, but probably only half that in hope-of -heaven years, and still learning. Intellectual understanding has been part of the quest, but it is the spiritual longing for a deeper relationship with God is my goal.

A translated poem from the 14^th century Turkish mystic, Rumi perhaps summarises better than I can

                   The intellectual quest is exquisite, like pearls and coral

                   But it is not the same as the spiritual quest

                   The spiritual quest is on another level altogether            

                   Spiritual wine has a subtler taste

                   The intellect and the senses investigate cause and effect

                   The spiritual seeker surrenders to wonder.

                             (Rumi Wisdom; trans. Timothy Freke)