No God before me!

There can be some confusion which can strike us in the middle of Lent where we can try to juggle the things of God around our relationship with God. The readings strike at the heart of this over the weekend. We are called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, all our soul, all our strength and all our mind and love our neighbour as ourselves. The Ten Commandments remind us that our lives are not just our own to do with as we like but rather an act of sharing a commonwealth which is for the good of all. The question relates to how easy it is to privatise faith to my own private realm or to what I am doing and consider important.

When we gather for worship this is not just a private act created so that I can feel good but rather a liturgical gathering which seeks to discover a God who reaches out to all people over all time. There can always be a temptation to make an act of prayer which is accessible to all available only to a select few. When we celebrate Mass we encounter a God who welcomes us where we are with all our gifts and frailties. It is the place where we can bring ourselves before God and listen to the same Word spoken to us. We can offer ourselves to God so that along with the bread and wine that we can be taken, blessed, broken and given for the good of ourselves and the good of others. In receiving communion we enter into a divine communication which links us together in the Body of Christ. It is that as that body we are commissioned as disciples to take the good news to the world by our lives.

What then is our mission? It is to allow others to discover the God who draws us together. To witness with our lives the transforming power which renews us and strengthens us. In the Eucharist, we give thanks that God seeks to open the doors of our hearts for a greater good and a greater glory. By allowing God to be at the centre of our lives we can allow the life that has entrusted to us to be renewed and enlivened. May our Lent be an encounter which allows us to see how we seek to the heart of the matter and not just become consumed by the incidentals of prayer that can distract us from growing closer to God.

This is my beloved son, listen to him!

There can be times when we go aside for a time of peace and quiet. This may be during our holidays or maybe a weekly "sabbath" experience where we can be at one with God. These times becoming increasingly precious not just because they allow us to encounter our own silence but also because it allows us to attend to those moments when God is with us. There can be fleeting moments when we seem to strike gold or have a profound insight where we are caught up in a moment where heaven touches the earth. These can be times where we are caught up in God's glory and start to notice that our lives are not shaped by our own concerns. We are enwrapped by a mystery which strikes us both with awe and fear that what seems so much beyond us becomes an imminent reality which transforms us. There can even be a sense that when we leave that quiet place that we are called to re-enter "normal life"!

Lent helps us to recognise the things that seem to capture our attention and which can seem to drive our lives. There seems to be so much pressure on us to be successful, impressive and present to day to day lives of others that we can feel forced to consume what is not our own and that which may be reserved for another. In a media age when things should be becoming simpler, we find that our lives are actually becoming more complex. We not only have to attend to our own lives but find that we become caught up in a maelstrom of trivia which besieges us and demands our attention. No wonder we become so confused and anxious about how we are living. We find that we do not have the time to attend to our own wellbeing let alone the wellbeing of others. We become increasingly superficial and distant from ourselves that we pine for something more but we do not know what that more looks like.

Yet in the story of the Transfiguration, we encounter the reality of Jesus talking to Moses and Elijah who allow us to encounter the truth of a God who is present to us throughout the ages in the Law and the Prophets. There is an age-old wisdom which encourages us to be present to the mystery in which we are enfolded. This is part of the reason why during this season we are called to pray, fast and give alms, not as extra activities which are built into already busy lives but rather to reset our priorities. To discover who it is that we are actually listening to. Who has the primary call on our hearts and on our lives. This can seem to overcome us not by adding a fresh burden to us but allow us to be transformed at the heart of our being where God is all in all. Each day we need to reflect on where we have been and what has brought us life. For like Abraham we need to hear the voice of God clearly and encounter moment by moment the glory that surrounds us. In this, we are transformed from the inside out and we discover Jesus who stands hidden in plain sight. Who encounters us in the reality of who we are and who we are called to become.

Shaped by what we consume!

Lent is upon us and we commence our journey to Easter this Wednesday. This is a time of penance, fasting, and almsgiving. Where we are called to discover that there is a connection between our internal life and our external actions. The calling is to an integrated and incarnate way of living which allows us to be prayerfully attentive to God, to ourselves and to others. We are called to love the Lord our God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our strength and with all our mind; and love our neighbour as ourselves.

The essential element of this journey is that it is not a 40-day boot camp which has to be endured but rather a way of drawing us into a deeper union with God as disciples of Jesus Christ. It calls us to become what we consume. This is part of the reason for its penitential nature. We know how easy it is to become a consumer of life rather than a participant. There is a tendency in which our mind, heart and body are disconnected. We know lots of things, we desire many things and we eat many things. There is a sense in which our mind, our hearts and our bodies are recipients of life. We start to consume others thinking, feelings and prepackage food. Our lives have become so busy that we are open to anyone who will make life more easy and comfortable. The danger with this is that we surrender part of ourselves to another assuming that they have the best intentions in mind for us rather than for themselves. Yet we know that often we battle the same essential dis-eases of being untrusting, overburdened and weighed down by life.

This season of Lent is to journey with God to see what we need to fast from. It is all too easy to take someone else's opinion or way of life as our own. To uncritically to assume that their confidence, good looks and success can be our own. The drive to be powerful, successful, and relevant can drive us into a life which is not our own. Fasting allows time to slow down and examine what we consume and what effect it is having on us. This is not just about giving things up but rather noticing the impact they have on us and on others. This may be in choosing food or drink, but in our media-driven world, it could be looking at what opinions that we take as our own without considering where they are leading us. It can also examine what shapes our daily life and whether it rings true to our relationship with God. Is how we are living prayerfully attentive to what is the need for this day and this moment.

Lastly, Lent is not just a self-improvement exercise. It calls us to consider how I can be attentive to how God calls me to intentional discipleship with gifts for the good of others. This can be through a contribution to a charity. But in the age of fantastic plastic, this can be done all too quickly before we move on to the next activity. The critical gift to examine is how do I become present to others with my time. This is not about quantity of activities but rather my attentiveness to the person or activity I am engaged with at the moment. It also notes what disturbs us and distracts us and confuses us. By allowing ourselves to become attentive to these moments we start to grow in our relationship with God, with ourselves and with others.

My hope and prayer for you this Lent is that you discover a God who loves you more than you love yourself. Who draws you closer so that you can discover what brings you life. To be formed by your prayer and by God's Word so that you can journey with others in faith, hope and love.

All for the glory of God!

Often we can hear this phrase and wonder how to live it with our own life. As we hear Paul say in 1 Corinthians 10.31-11.1, "Whatever you eat, whatever you drink, whatever you do at all, do it for the glory of God." There is an element of seeking the advantage of others and not just our own benefit. The sense of this is to have Jesus as our model. Yet this can be somewhat confusing because we can start to copy or imitate his way of life without actually entering into a deeper relationship with him. We can start to make our lives our own work rather than a way of cooperating with the love of God that dwells within us. I believe that what Paul is proposing is that we are intentionally present to the other by seeking what God would seek for their good and not just to suit ourselves.

This is a radical call to action because it asks us to be present to God not just in our prayer but with our life. This intentional living seeks to allow our relationships to founded on that desire to be prayerfully present at all times. The danger is that we can start to believe this is all our work and that we have to become overly pious and pretentious in appearing to be holy. This is not what Paul is asking us to do. Essentially, I believe it is by becoming more fully human and fully alive in the way which may be unique to ourselves and our way of life. 

We see this in the gospel where Jesus reaches out to the leper and cures him so that he may be integrated back into his community. The concern here is not that he does a good thing for the person who comes to him for healing but he actually seeks the deeper need of the person to be loved back into life. So often we hear about situations where people are called unclean or untouchable. Where people exclude others and push them to the fringe of society where they can be easily forgotten or overlooked. Out of sight and out of mind! Yet Jesus brings them back to the centre and challenges us to recognize their humanity. To see them as created in the image and likeness of God. This I believe is at the heart of this weekends readings and the heart of our prayer. That we take on the compassionate heart of God and live out of that place in a way which gives glory to God in everything we do.