Not just human traditions

It would appear that we are at a tipping point in our history where we are called to examine what is important about our lives and our institutions. We live in an age when more and more people for greater scrutiny and accountability for all our institutions. There is a sense where in many cases it appears that people entrusted their lives to all sorts of institutions whether they be banks, churches, political parties, unions and other organisations in the hope that they would add value to the whole community. Yet somewhere along the way, there has been a growing gap between our everyday lives and the level of governance exercised on our behalf. It is this growing disconnection which acts as cancer within our society causing people to be sceptical and suspicious of the intentions of any organisation. This lack of trust can ebb into our everyday conversations and isolate us from each other. While it is easy to see how this affects us at a global scale it has a more direct impact on how we live our daily lives. We retreat into our private world and close of interest in anything beyond our immediate concern. This can even be fed by social media which actually shrinks our world to only those people we agree with and causes us to become more rigid and inflexible in our acceptance of others. At the very time when we are called to listen to the heartbeat of God, our ears seem to be closed. We live private lives consumed by our own immediate need and intentions.

Therefore, it is important that we look at what we are consuming and what is actually feeding us. It is easy to see how a spirit of destructiveness can creep into our thoughts, into our words and into our actions. There can be a malevolence which can come disguised as a good. We seek to be safe, secure and relevant to our own age. Yet in these very actions, we can start to separate out others who behave differently to us. This can be seen in attitudes where racism, fundamentalism and extremism can breed a sense of intolerance which can fester even in the midst of polite conversation. There can be a growing sense of antagonism, anger and discontent which can breed so easily that it is difficult to contradict. Yet we need to be aware of how parasitical these attitudes can become when they seek to alienate people against each other especially those at the margins of society who have no voice of their own. St James stresses this when he gives emphasis that pure, unspoilt religion, in the eyes of God is this: "Coming to the aid of orphans and widows when they need it, and keeping oneself uncontaminated from the world"

So at the end of each day, we need to examen how we have been present in our world. Have we sought what brings life, hope and joy to others or have we become caught up in a vengeful and destructive spirit contrary to God's creative plan? This may be a time when we come to notice whatever feeds us and draws us closer to the Good News. We may need to look at what we watch on our televisions and internet feeds. Is this actually helping me to discover life for God and for others? It is so easy to become caught up in the traditions of our own age that we miss the life-giving spirit which is so ancient and so new.  In that listening with the ear of our hearts, we can discover how to be present in our current age which seeks to build up rather than tearing down. What helps us to listen to God most clearly and how will we live that voice out for the good of others and ourselves?

You have the words of eternal life

The last few weeks have not been easy as we have read many stories emerging from the United States about the Grand Jury report in Pennsylvania about abuse of children by clergy. The message of these reports runs so contrary to the Gospel that we wonder how it could develop in such a catastrophic and endemic way which touches not only the lives of those who have been abused but also their families, the whole Catholic community and the world to which we are called to witness. In many ways what has been revealed echoes much of what we have heard emerging from the Royal Commission in Australia.  Our faith is shaken and we wonder whether anything will help restore people's trust not only in the Church but more profoundly in the person of Jesus Christ on whom it is founded. Many commentaries have been written and will probably still be written. It is easy to see why people would walk away from the Church with disappointment, anger and rage. They seem to have expected so much and they seem to have received so little.

Yet in the midst of this catastrophe, we still believe that there are good people hanging on by their fingertips to the promise that Jesus provides the words of eternal life through our Eucharist. This should not just depend on wishful thinking or wringing of hands but a profound choice that we need to enter into our own dark places. This cannot be done alone and we start to realise that our Church needs to provide leadership which listens to the heart of Christ in our current age. I believe that there are three things that we need to develop in the life of the Church. 

We need to be a people who are serious about prayer and its transformative power. I believe that this is at the heart of Pope Francis' call to penance and fasting. We need to have hearts and minds that are open to God's saving grace which nourishes, restores and heals communities and individuals. This is mostly portrayed in our sacred liturgies where we seek to encounter the God who meets us in our weakness and ambiguity of life. There is a call to recognise that we need to have a common prayer which unites us with God and with each other. We cannot appear to be people who have made it just because we worship in Church. We are a broken people who seek healing and nourishment not by our own efforts but by our utter dependence and surrender to a God who shares our disappointments and failures. 

We need to be people who are serious about building resilient communities who recognise the call to grow in holiness and wholeness as intentional disciples. This means that we need to take seriously the call of being one in Christ Jesus. All people need to be engaged in the task of responding with love and compassion. This is not something that can be specifically reserved to clergy or even trained professionals, it needs to be at the heart of every community that we establish a culture which enables and empowers people to be formed in the Gospel and give expression to charisms present for the good of the community. There is a call for greater collaboration which is focussed on the mission of living the Gospel by seeing what builds up and restores people in hope, faith and love.

We need to be people who seek to live a sacramental life. This takes hard work and I believe it challenges us to look at who it is that we encounter in the sacraments. I think for too long we have trusted that if we prepare people well for the sacraments that they will be able to live an efficacious and affective Christian life. Yet we know this is not true in any other area of life. We do not train people for other walks of life hoping that they have enough knowledge and wisdom to engage with all the problems they will encounter. People need ongoing support, encouragement and training in how to respond to the challenges of our current age. I believe that if we put all our energies into focusing solely on how to provide this for clergy we may actually reinforce a sense of clericalism by placing the stress on their formation at the expense of how a whole community needs to be formed. This does not underplay the important role of leadership for which clergy are formed but it cannot be held or considered in isolation from the parish communities they are called to serve. We need to ensure that we are building a Church which is truly missionary.

In saying all this there is a recognition that clergy do need to ensure that they do not act as lone rangers riding into town believing it is only they who bring all the wisdom and knowledge to people in desperate need. There need to be support structures which are well established in every community which provide pastoral councils and finance committees which are fundamental to considering the good governance, sanctification and formation of parish life for the good of spreading the Good News. In this context, the priest is there not just to manage the good ordering of a parish in this work but to become a person who aids that formation of others. He is called into a life of service so that others may grow in faith. A priest does need this practical support but he also needs to ensure that he does not neglect what is important to his own calling, to grow in relationship with God, to grow to be a loving presence in the community in which he lives and to develop healthy relationships with others. This cannot happen by chance but by providing support in the way of spiritual direction, supervision and guidance which sustains him and the community of which he is a part.

In saying all this I hang on the words at the end of this week's Gospel when Jesus says, "What about you, do you want to go away to", and Simon Peter responds, " Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe; we know that you are the Holy One of God."

Take me as I am!

The Gospels present a great dilemma, how can a person share their whole life with us. Often we become used to people speaking or writing to us. With modern technology, this has an immediacy which wasn't always present in the past. So much so that we have difficulty processing all the information and become selective in what we read or what we choose to hear. Certain words can strike home for us while others become background noise. This may be especially true when the people ask Jesus, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" and he replies, "If you do not eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you will not have life in you. Anyone who does eat my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I shall raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I live in him." The words challenge us because there is something happening here which meets us in our everyday reality which disturbs us and causes us to stop in our tracks. Is this truly an encounter with the person of Jesus or is it just a symbolic representation?
When we seek to understand Eucharist we actually encounter his real presence which becomes part of us when we receive the Body and Blood at communion. The reality is not that he becomes part of us but we are also drawn into union with him. It is this profound union which lies at the heart of this reception where we start to see that this is a meeting so direct, so personal and so intimate that we are drawn into his human and divine presence. We are transformed by this reception which is a living remembrance of how he shares his life with us. This also allows us to come into closer communion with each other and which missions us to live that life in our world. In becoming one in the Eucharist we are called to be Eucharistic in our world by what we have received during the celebration of the Mass.
It is this living memory that we hear people talk about especially in the reception of organ donation where a person starts to remember things which have not been part of their life. Therefore, in our gathering together at each Mass and in the reception of communion we are called to encounter the living memory of Jesus. This is a profound sharing of his life which basically says take me as I am!

Taste and see the goodness of the Lord!

Taste and see the goodness of the Lord! The psalmist seeks us to engage us both body and soul. These reflections build on Elijah's' calling to announce the goodness of the Lord and not to worship our human-made Baals. He has just fled for his life from the anger of Ahab and his spirit seems to be emptied of any hope. He is tired of running away from a tyranny of human hands that he has come to a point where he feels like death is the only reward he can hope for. Yet into the midst of his despair and anguish the Lord comes and says get up and eat of the journey will be too long for you. There is a flicker of not just receiving human food but coming into a living relationship with God. This does not happen immediately and he has to be reminded a second time to get up and eat. After a long journey, he lets sits down in a cave and awaits God's voice which does not come in a dramatic cataclysmic event such as a storm, an earthquake or a raging fire but in the quiet zephyr which passes before him. It is in this quiet reflective moment that he encounters the God who will sustain him and enliven him in the realities of life he faces each day.

In a similar way, St Paul speaks to the Ephesians about not grieving the Holy Spirit. He counsels them as though he would counsel children in drawing a contrast between a life which causes disruption and antipathy between people and one which enables people which enables us to befriend each other and befriend ourselves. He speaks powerfully of the voices that cause to hold grudges, to lose our temper, to raise our voices, to call each other names and to foster a spirit of spitefulness. He realises that the violence and hatred we can bear to others can be fostered from within. He urges us rather be kind and forgiving to each other. There is a sense wherein seeking the good for the other we also discover the good for ourselves rather than the other way around. In allowing others to be considered as an encounter with Christ we start to learn what it is to be more human and more diving in the way we pray, think and act.

Our central teaching is not just learnt from a textbook but rather from a person. We are called to learn that Jesus central method of teaching was to come to him and learn. We are called to be people who encounter Jesus in our prayer, our study and our action. This is calling us to be deeply incarnational not compartmentalising these three encounters into separate events but seeing them as essential to any fruitful relationship. He enables us to discover what truly feeds us and tastes good for the body, soul and mind. It is why he reflects that our Eucharist enables this direct encounter with his life. He says, "Anyone who eats this bread will live forever and the bread that I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world." It is this most intimate of moments when we discover that the calling of God touches the deepest part of us which longs for the still moment of being present to the presence. In this place, we discover the eternal now, Jesus Christ, who brings life and hope to our world and echoes the words of the psalmist, "Taste and see the goodness of the Lord!"

Eating to your hearts content

There are regular messages which are seen on our televisions encourage us to learn more about how to eat more healthily. As we walk down the aisles of the supermarket, or sit down at a cafe, or even when we occasionally look at the menu at fast food restaurants we are bombarded with facts and figures. Trying to figure out the difference between kilo joules and calories can only be one of the daily tasks. What seems to be fundamental is not just what will satisfy our hunger but more importantly what are we hungering for? The search for the correct balance between what we eat and the life we desire is a delicate one and it is more than just what we weigh, although that may be part of it. Most fundamentally it is what draws us into a relationship with others. Food is not just about feeding ourselves but how when we sit down how it prompts us to move beyond ourselves into a relationship with others.

Jesus focuses on that when people coming to him after the multiplication of the loaves and fish. They want more of the same. Their hunger has been filled but somehow they also experience the deep emptiness in the pit of their stomachs. They dislike that feeling and what someone else to fill them again. Yet Jesus talks to them and to us about the importance of Eucharist. It is not just something given out so that we can walk away. It is a call to enter into a deeper relationship inside ourselves with the person of Christ. St Paul in talking to the Ephesians describes this as a spiritual revolution, so that in discovering God's way we discover goodness and holiness of the truth. As Jesus describes it is the discovery of what brings life to our world. He then goes on to say, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never be hungry; he who believes in me will never thirst."

What I believe that Jesus is inviting us to is to look beyond mere externals towards an inner conversion of heart. This is not just achieved through willpower but a receptiveness which acknowledges our need for a life which longs to be filled. This is not achieved by hard work or even severe asceticism where we seek to manufacture hunger. It is actually allowing us to encounter our daily hunger for God in what is needed for this day and this moment. This is not a hunger which just seeks to satisfy ourselves or our own needs but prompts us to see with the heart of God which draws us into a deeper relationship which seeks to fill the deep hunger of the human heart for substance and meaning.

At a time of drought in Australia and the reality of deep hunger in our world, we are called to seek what will sustain not only in times of plenty but also in times of famine. This is not just a wishing the other well or hoping that somehow God will provide. It is examining how we can cooperate with the whole of God's creation to create environments in which we care for our land, our people and for our neighbours.  There is a need to seek what God plants in our hearts which will bear fruit for our world. This deep hunger is not just to be fed with physical food but a desire to see that others do not go without. It is only at the times when our lives are shaken by the realities of our frailty and dependence on the goodness of our cooperation with that creation and the gifts entrusted to us that we discover an inner generosity which supports people in need. We see this in the many who contribute to the need of farmers by helping to provide fodder for their livestock. This builds deep connections between those in the city and those on the land. Yet in the same way, we need to work with others in our global community to ensure that they have what they need to lead their daily life. We can see a similar generosity at times of great need but we also need to discover through our knowledge of how to care for the land how we share with others ways of improving agricultural sustainability which empowers people to produce what is needed in a time of global change. 

The challenge of our times is not to just focus on our own hunger for material satisfaction but what will open our minds and hearts to how God sees our world. Without this deeper reflection, we will only see what feeds us for today and then tomorrow and then the next day. God calls us to look deeper to see how our relationship with Jesus moves deep within us to find what brings life and what brings hope. To discover how our lives can be Eucharist by who we are in a relationship with and what he invites us to share with others.