Christ knocks at the door and waits

 William Holman Hunt drew a picture of Christ the King knocking at the door. The door is overgrown by ivy, and Jesus stands outside in the garden with a lantern. This image invites a more profound reflection: when people viewed it, they noticed there was no handle on the outside of the door. While Jesus knocks at the door, he gazes out into the world, inviting us in. This profound invitation lies at the heart of this solemnity. Christ looks out to us and seeks to enter. What holds us back?

The Gospel reading may hold some clues for us. Jesus presides over the people from the Cross. It is almost like the picture drawn by William Holman Hunt he is frozen in place. We witness people throwing scorn on Jesus. The leaders and the soldiers both misunderstanding this saving act. They understood salvation as a remedy for present ills rather than a divine embrace. It is only the good thief who is able to perceive this embrace when he prays to be remembered in the  Kingdom. 

So our hearts and minds are pierced by this reality that seeks to transform how we see God entering into a relationship with us. This is not a salvation that overlooks suffering but one that seeks to transform it for the good of others and the whole of creation. The answer to the paradox of the Cross is not outside us but how we open our hearts to let Christ enter in.

The coming of the Lord

 Having just started the thirty-day retreat, I am taken back to the experience that I had during my time as spiritual director at the Seminary. I was returning from a rest day in the exercises and as I drew closer to the retreat centre, I could see an ominous cloud of smoke on the horizon. As I drew closer, this only seemed to intensify the sense of danger. When I pulled into the car park, there was a smell of ash and smoke in the air, and all the cars had disappeared. I then found the seminarians happily playing volleyball at the bottom of the hill. Yet the danger remained throughout the retreat; we had evacuation plans in place and times when we had to stay put, awaiting advice from the SES. In the midst of this, the seminarians maintained the silence and more deeply encountered the Lord.

The reality is that, in everyday tasks, we often become overwhelmed by real threats to our lives and livelihoods. Yet in the midst of these adversities, we are called to trust in the Lord who comes to rule the earth. This is so that rather than being distracted by whatever everyone else is doing, we are called to remain focused on what has been entrusted to us. In this way, we quietly go on working and earning the food we eat. 

Jesus echoes this reality when doomsayers emerge in our midst. Calling us to fear the future based on the fact that we know at the moment. Yet we are called to build on firm foundations, knowing that it is in discovering Christ that we make a person who can sustain us against our deepest fear and our greatest peril.  He seeks for us to endure even when we do not know what to say or do. He provides the courage to take the next obvious step.

Crossing the threshold of hope

 Over this last year there has been a pilgrimage of hope that has seen millions of pilgrims pass through the Holy Doors that have been opened for this jubilee. In the city of Rome, there are four major basilicas each of which opened a holy door for the Jubilee of Hope. These are the basilicas of St Mary Major, St Paul outside the walls, St Peter’s Basilica and Archbasilica Cathedral of the Most Holy Saviour of Saint John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, also called St John Lateran for short, it is oldest and is the mother Church of Rome and the whole world.

As we honour the mother Church of the whole world, we are called to ponder the importance of a Church building that is dedicated to the worship of God. It is the Pope’s cathedral and was dedicated in 324. We are called to prayer for how these sacred places shape us into places where we encounter God in a profound way.

Yet it is the liminal space where we stand at the lintel of these holy places that we are called to notice the transition that takes place. We move from the outside to the inside and are often stunned by the beauty that has been preserved over the years. Yet do we notice the beauty that we encounter within ourselves. Any pilgrimage is more than taking photos or record experiences it looks to what lasts rather than what is transitional. As people return home from entering these four buildings and praying there what remains of the experience that is foundational for our Christian life.

St Paul hints at this when he says, “you are God’s building”. Building on the foundation of Christ we are called to discover the sacredness not just of Churches but of people who gather in them. The building in its essence helps us to discover how the Spirit of God is living among us. As he says the temple of God is sacred and you are that temple.

I think this is what provokes Jesus into a rage where he overturns tables, scatters coins and drives out animals. It is trying to block the person’s encounter with the sacred through trading in spiritual goods. We should always have this in our consciousness of how we make it easier for people to develop the sacred space within them.

Ezekiel when he points to how a stream of water flows eastward from the temple. This water seeks to make the sea wholesome. It also allows fruit trees to flourish, produce fruit and leaves that are medicinal. The essence is that what flows into the temple also flows out into the world.

We are called to be people who have the mind of Christ and look at what helps people to thrive. To allow people space to discover holiness and listen to how God is moving in their lives. This is a slow patient process that allows them to be nurtured and watered with life giving water. We are called to become people who proclaim a jubilee of hope.