That's your opinion

We live in a time when a person's opinion tends to matter more than who they are and who they are called to be. Many of our reflections on other people are caught by sound grabs which seek to put the person in a positive or negative light. We can become accustomed to receiving this fast food or what a person thinks or says in this brief 10 seconds. We seek to sum up who they are and whether we can trust them with our lives. Therefore, it is good, to sum up, the ten second grabs which are presented to us on a regular basis, "Take this, all of you, and eat of it, for this is my Body, which will be given up for you." and "Take this, all of you, and drink from it, for this is the chalice of my Blood, the Blood of  the new and eternal covenant, which will be poured out for you for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this in memory of me."

These words which we hear at each Mass during the consecration calls us to reflect on what it means to receive the Body and Blood of Christ into our own lives. This is more than just a person's opinion of what will be good for us. It is the offering of his life for our life. To experience him at the most profound, simple and intimate moment where he wishes to share his whole self with us. This allows us to encounter his mercy by the way he offers us in profound vulnerability so that we may know in ourselves how deep is his love for us.

At each Eucharist, we are called to meet Jesus who is present in each celebration. We are called to encounter him with our lives as he offers his life to us. This is an experience where he takes what seems ordinary and every day in bread and wine and blesses it. He allows his body to be broken and shared with us so that we may take his life into our own. In this way, we take his life out to a broken world in our own bodies. 

This is Good News and helps us through this encounter to become people who are able to be present to others as Jesus is present to us. In the ordinary events of our lives, we offer ourselves to others that they may encounter a blessing. This is by allowing our lives to be broken open and shared. Each day we can discover the person of Christ in our Eucharist. May this encounter be at the heart of our Christian lives.

Come and join the dance

I am always struck by Michael Fallon's reflection in which he uses the image of the dance, the dancer and the dancing to notice the three persons of the Trinity unified as One God. While it is never possible to fully annunciate what we are called to comprehend in this mystery we can find ourselves caught up in the divine dance. Just as when you look at a person dancing at one moment your focus is on the person, the next is on the motion present and then to actually the method of the dance. Yet while we can appreciate all at the same time we cannot freeze time without missing the essential divine love which is ever creative and ever new.
The same is true of our own lives especially when we are in prayer. We find ourselves drawn into a mystery which is not about putting our lives at the centre but rather being invited into the dance. Often we pull back because we feel clumsy or awkward, we miss the beat and we find that we don't know the steps. Yet each day God holds out a hand to us and invites us to embrace the life which catches us in movement and grace. This is the joy of the divine dance where we are embraced by a God who has loved us into being and invites us to take the next step.
In the same way, this is not about becoming a perfect dancer but rather a willingness to engage with the way we are led in the dance. I myself would much rather watch others dance because I fear to make a fool of myself on the dance floor. Yet this is what we are called to become people who do not just observe the Christian life but are prepared to live. This is a risk that people may make fun of the way we dance, or that they may judge that we are dancing incorrectly or that it does not have the flare of a professional dancer. Yet what makes the difference is that we respond to the God who touches our hearts, who engages us in action and guides us in our thinking. We are called to become participants in the divine life, not just observers.
This calls us to be more ourselves by surrendering ourselves to God's grace and to become more who we are called be,  to become missionary disciples who listen to the beat of God and join the dance. This creative spirit of life helps us to be people who live the Gospel rather than just speak about it.

Life in the Spirit!

Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of your faithful and enkindle in us the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit and we shall be created, and you shall renew the face of the earth. O God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, instructs the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in his consolation, through Christ our Lord. Amen

At the first Pentecost, the disciples were gathered in the same room where they had celebrated the Last Supper. This is a reminder to us of how Christ is present to us both body and soul through the Eucharist. It helps us to hear the Word spoken to us and come into communion with him through this profound act of thanksgiving where his life becomes at one with us and we become at one with him. It is a sign that receiving the Holy Spirit has tangible signs of his love being spread out through the world wherever people gather to celebrate Mass.

In our own lives as well it helps us to recognise that people from every nation and language can gather and be at one in Christ Jesus. That we share a common foundation which allows us to become one with each other through our sharing in the Holy Spirit which empowers us to live that for our whole community by entrusting gifts to us. This allows us to see that discipleship is not just about what we receive but how this enables to give our lives to God in the place where we live. It is this profound surrender which transforms us and enables us to be more what God envisions for our world.

Thus on this Pentecost may the spirit fall upon us anew to allow us to be people who proclaim his word by the witness of our lives.

Do you know the time?

I recall a scene from West Wing episode "The Fall is going to kill you" when the chief counsel, Oliver Babish asks CJ Craig if she knows what time it is? She goes on to tell him the time. When he responds that she has given her more information than was required. When asked do you know what time it is the answer should be a simple yes? I think that we can be caught in the same dilemma we answer a question which has not been asked and give back an answer which was not required! So the two angels speak to the disciples after Jesus' ascension and ask, "Why are you men from Galilee standing here looking into the sky?" They continue by saying, "Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven, this same Jesus will come back in the same way as you have seen go there."

Sometimes in the Christian life, we can ask where is Jesus or where has he gone? There can be a searching which can wrestle with this dilemma which the disciples had in seeking after someone who seems to have been removed from them. Yet we know from the scriptures and from our living history that Jesus keeps showing up through people who are inspired and transformed by his presence. This is contained within living communities of faith who seek to make him known in every corner of the earth. This is made manifest by the particular charisms which are present in individuals for the good of the whole community.  When asked what gift we have for the good of the communion we look at what we have to give rather than what we do not. It needs a whole community to work together with each of their individual charisms for the good of the whole. No one person has all the gifts and we must listen to the spirit working within us and within the whole community for the good of all.

As Christian Communities we are called to form Intentional Disciples  Sherry Weddell in her book, "Forming Intentional Disciples" points to three thresholds which must be crossed in talking to people about Christ. This first is related to trust and whether the person can feel that we are there for them and not simply on a recruitment drive. The first step is always about friendship which is genuine, sincere and heartfelt. This leads to the second threshold where a person becomes curious about why we would spend time with them and where do we find meaning. It is only at the third threshold that there is an openness to encounter the person that we say loves us. Then we can start to break the silence in a way which seeks God and the kerygma about Jesus with another. Yet we know that often when we seek to communicate this to others we need to be in touch with the reality for ourselves. We need to know that this is the appropriate time to encounter the person who walks with us through the spirit. Not looking into the sky but seeing where he is already at work in our lives.

What is prayer? Who is God?

I was watching a YouTube clip about developments where a robot can chant the Buddhist  Funeral Sutra. It prompts the questions about whether prayer is simply a matter of repeating certain verses in a mechanical way or whether there is an entrainment between us and God which encounters both body and soul. There can often be an attitude where we can approach prayer as an activity to be undertaken rather than as an encounter with the living God. We are aware of how many of the saints call us to pray always and to be aware of how God is present in each of our activities. This can often be a bit disconcerting as we can see ourselves as distinct from God and we can become used to addressing God in the third person. We hear this in our everyday language when we talk about “us and them”. It can be easy to notice that we hold God at arm’s length for fear that too much may be asked of us and that we may not live up to our own expectations of who this God may be.

Yet our dialogue in prayer is called to be more like “I and thou”. This is the language which brings God closer to a conversation which draws us towards someone who wants to relate to us as a person and not as a thing. We see echoes of this in the scriptures where the words that touch us most are those where God meets people face to face with a raw honesty which engages with their lived lives. This is not a God who watches passively from a distance but rather a God who seeks out the human heart and transforms the person. A person is changed by the encounter and we know from the Gospel stories of healing and forgiveness that they find that they are freed to give praise to God with their lives.

The story continues in the some of the poetic books of scripture such as the Song of Songs in which it is hard to tell who is speaking the lover or the beloved. The two seem to be intertwined in a celebration of deep and mutual love which enriches both and in which both are drawn to the other. There is a nuptial quality to this love which sees no separation between the two. There is an ever-deepening communion which allows each to celebrate the life of the other. That God may be all in all.