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?