To whom do we trust our lives?

 The Solemnity of Christ the King allows us time to reflect on whose voice we listen to when seeking guidance for our lives. In an age where personal autonomy is king, there can be a sense of alienation towards bowing down to an external authority. Each person can tend to work within their system of government by paying taxes, obeying the local law, and participating in elections when they are held. Yet in many cases, we are not called to love our rulers rather we learn to accept them as a necessary part of life. Yet the feast we celebrate is not just about accepting external structures of governance but rather an interior conversion of heart towards the person of Christ. There is a call to holiness that abides with us so that we can become teachable and governable.

I believe this lies at the heart of the recent Synod on Synodality. It is not just about a new external structure of Governance but rather a way of being present to God with listening ears. The call is to seek out the voice of God that is ever ancient and ever new. The voice that echoes through our liturgical prayer that gathers us together as one body. This is not just an effective manifestation of the presence of Jesus but also an affective presence that guides us still. The call to fall more deeply in love with God who has already fallen deeply in love with us. By seeking God in our daily life we discover what it is to be prayerfully present to the issues of our day that seek for our hearts to beat in tune with God's. This is not just seeking warm comforting feelings but rather a deeper desire to recognize the authentic voice of God spoken to our age.

This process of sanctification allows us to seek holiness in a way that does not abstract us from the real problems of our age. It draws on the wisdom of our tradition, the insights into scripture, and the discernment of theologians to witness the golden thread that bears an authentic teaching that can be received for our time. This is not just about changing with the times but rather a reading of the signs of the time. It examines a line of inquiry that seeks to build on what is already known and allows for fresh insight of Christ into the teachable moments of our lives. 

Through this call to sanctification and becoming teachable the Church seeks to provide governance as an apostolic witness to the person of Christ. As a pilgrim people of God, we seek to journey together as people who through baptism are gifted with both the charism of Office and the charism of Mission. We seek to become people who articulate with our lives what we already believe that Christ is with us. Thus as we celebrate this solemnity do we entrust our lives to Christ in whom we discover who we are and become evangelised by his life.

Return to sender address unknown!

 Each of us is entrusted with gifts and talents for the good of the whole creation. We live in a country that has been blessed not only by great natural beauty but an abundance of opportunity. Yet this is not just for our private consumption or personal pleasure. We are part of a commonwealth that is called to share the goodness we have received for the common good. Each of us has a part to play in renewing the environment in which we live and caring for those who have been entrusted to us. We are called to entrust all things to God for the good of the whole community.

This is especially necessary when we become aware of the forces that tear at that unity of purpose. When we see people seeking to profit from conflict, hatred, and violence the humanity of all is diminished. It recognises that we are called to profit in virtue not just external wealth that can be here today and gone tomorrow. This calls for an integrity of life that seeks to see all things as entrusted to us by God for a good purpose. In a world that seeks to emphasize personal autonomy at the expense of corporate responsibility, we can notice the attitude that creeps into the daily life of every person for themselves. 

Yet in the Gospel, we see a daily examen that calls us to reflect on how we have used these gifts to produce good fruits. This act of surrender is about a belief that everything is given to us for a good purpose. It calls us to a prayer that entrusts our whole life to God, seeks to discover in our own square meter what we are called to do today, and acts in a way that gives and receives with open hands.

As we enter this Sunday this weekend we need to ensure that we do not just send the gifts entrusted back to sender unused. Our reason for being is to develop a healthy detachment that allows us to discover God at work in all things!

Running on empty

 When we set out on a journey there is always a need to ensure that we have enough fuel to reach our destination. This ensures that we make proximate plans to ensure that we know our time of departure and our time of arrival. If we are travelling by car we seek to prepare the car so that it is roadworthy and that if it is a long distance we plan adequate stops or have a co-driver to share the driving. If we go by some other form of transport we trust our lives to another but we still need to make sure that know when we have to leave, how long it will take, and what we can expect when we arrive. This shows that we do not travel by chance but with a destination in mind.

The Gospel shows this in great detail when it notices that the time of our departure is not known but the destination is. How do we prepare for a journey when we are called to entrust ourselves to another. This is the heart of the words spoken by Jesus, we need to be ever-ready and have our house in order. This brings the readings of the last few weeks into sharp relief. Often it seeks to live our life on our own terms rather than on God's. When we have so many seeming demands on our time we can discover our energy being spent planning for the future or resolving historical events. Both these approaches to life while necessary can distract us from being present to what will happen today. We can become distracted by anxiety or angst about what seems urgent but unimportant.

This is where we are called to exercise wisdom that allows God to direct our attention on to what is important but not urgent. It calls us to become present to what is within the locus of our own intentions and within the ambit of our own environment. So often we can become focussed on external events that demand urgent attention but are beyond our control. They can prevent us from being open to the ways that we can and need to be present. Our lives can seem to be out of control and devoid of meaning and purpose. This is where our lives are dispirited and we can seem to have spent all our oil on what does not enlighten us.

As we reflect on the Gospels we are called to examine what keeps our lamps burning brightly and whether we provide ourselves with the best opportunity to have our flasks refilled. This is where we are called not to abstract ourselves from daily life and the challenges it can bring. It calls us to be prayerfully aware of how God is present in our own reality and how we are called to tend to our environment with God's heart and eyes. The danger is when we do not examine our own lives that we can become heavily influenced by the conflicts of others. We can be drawn into hostilities, conflicts, and violence that draw on history or animate our own anxiety about our own future. Thus we can be drawn into reflections that focus on a deterministic view of the world that places ourselves at the heart of any conflict. We know that this is a recipe for disaster because even with the best will in the world often it needs to be recognized that we need to reframe the question about how we should live in our world. 

When we allow that question to emerge from within us, from the heart of God our way of living changes. It calls us to see what we need to live by and how this becomes a rule of life for us. No longer are our lives shaped solely by our own desires but rather by the loving call of God who seeks us out and comes at an hour we do not expect. It allows us the possibility that only God can fill our lives with meaning when we have an expectant longing that we are invited to sit down at the table and enjoy the banquet of life laid out for us.