We are more than what we do

There is a saying that if you want something done ask a busy person. However, this can be a double-edged sword because a person who is busy may find it difficult to reflect on what occupies their time and whether it gives full expression to who they are called to be. Unrelenting activity is not healthy for any person and at times can actually lead them away from the very person they want to be. They start to identify more with what they do rather than who they are called to be. An unreflective life calls us to be caught up in the winds beyond our control rather than harnessing those winds to give direction and purpose to our lives.

The Gospel of Martha and Mary is often presented as a contrast between the contemplative and active life. However, what seems to be stressed is the importance of the one thing that gives our lives direction and meaning. Mary in listening to Jesus is not finding a way out of work but rather a way of being present to the work she may be called upon to perform. Her life discovers meaning in listening to and becoming familiar with the voice of Jesus. So too for us, our lives are not necessarily solely about what we do but how we are present to what we are doing. By listening to the voice of Jesus we find what brings us life so that we can bring life to all that we do.

Living from a compassionate heart

Our lives can at times be so focused and busy that the rest of the world can fade into the background. The priorities we set ourselves can be moved by what we consider the most urgent and worthy of our time. We become preoccupied with what is happening next that we forget to live in the present. Our lives become controlled by things that have not yet happened that we do not see the people we encounter along the way. The story of the good Samaritan touches into the heart of living of the present moment and encountering God in the life of another. This recognizes that our faith is not just about getting things right and living according to the law but discovering the creative power of God which reaches out to all people in all situations. In fact, the story of the Good Samaritan shows us it is the heart which moves us to make the right move at the right time. It is mercy, that produces good law and good action. It unites us in concern for those in greatest need. In living from the compassionate heart of Jesus we live those powerful words, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself." A fountain welling up to eternity.

God makes an election for us

When we reflect on where God is present to us in lives we often look at whether people make us welcome or unwelcome by the way they treat us and choose to be present to us. The Gospel is not simply about being nice to others but considering what is fundamentally important to us. This will probably play out in our hearts and minds as we examine the results of votes taken both in the United Kingdom, Australia, and Spain. Each seems to deliver more uncertainty and answer a particular question but not the fundamental question of how we are called to be present to others. They can reframe reality but they do not change who we are called to be.

What is considered important is to remember that God makes an election for us. “Peace to this house” and if a person of peace lives there it will be accepted and if not then the peace will come back to you This changes in how we are called to become aware of God’s spirit at work in us and within our communities. What brings us consolation rather than desolation. This view strongly echoed in the Gospel is that we take hospitality both in what we have to offer and in what we have to receive. We can be a leaven within our community which seeks to become aware of how in working for peace and in offering hospitality to all, we encounter that God’s kingdom is very close to us.

Do we seek the common good or our own interest?

Do we seek the common good or our own interest? We are often called to consider what is our next step in life and we have to consider this central question. What seems to be of immediate benefit to me and what is the best way of living my life. It is the difference between the urgent and the important. We know that there can be many things that press in upon us and demand our attention. These can at times seem to overwhelm us and consume our energy.

However what acts as the foundation of our lives can be the touchstone of who were are called to be. As Pedro Arrupe SJ reflects in Finding God in All Things: A Marquette Prayer Book published in 2009 by Marquette University Press:

“Nothing is more practical than finding God, than falling in Love in a quite absolute, final way. What you are in love with, what seizes your imagination, will affect everything. It will decide what will get you out of bed in the morning, what you do with your evenings, how you spend your weekends, what you read, whom you know, what breaks your heart, and what amazes you with joy and gratitude. Fall in Love, stay in love, and it will decide everything.”

Who do you say I am?

We do not enter into a relationship with Jesus as a theoretical concept or as an idealised person. The encounter with Jesus draws out what is best in us. It calls us to ask questions of who we believe him to be. He encounters each person as they are, not as they think we should be for him. This encounter can be life changing because it starts to recognise that we do not have to measure up to an arbitrary standard of behaviour before he will love us. He loves us so that we can discover what will bring hope and life to our hearts so that we can share it with others. This often means allowing him to struggle with us against believing the world revolves around me to discovering that our lives are called to be centred on God. This loving surrender to his guidance can often feel like losing the things we hold on too tightly to a discovery of what we can truly value. Our way of life is one of constant surrender to a life which is held lightly and not grasped as our own possession. In discovering this freedom we enter into a deeper communion with God and with each other. This is not done by comparison with each other but a willingness to companion each other on the road.

Jesus makes us uncomfortable so that we can discover a living relationship with God

There is a story of an alcoholic who was well known in town. People would make fun of him and talk behind his back. Occasionally he would try to go dry but this would make people uncomfortable because he would no longer be the butt of their jokes. Then he would fall back into old ways and people would be happy to talk about him again. We know that the 12 steps program helps people to find ways of living with their own weakness and vulnerability. But an important part of the program is a friend and mentor who walks with them. This person can be like Jesus to them as they do not put on airs and graces but love the person as they are not as we would have them be.

This is precisely the situation that we read in the gospel for this weekend. We can become comfortable with another person’s sin because it stops us from reflecting on our own. We can start to become proportional in our approach to God when we start to say that at least we are not as bad as another person. Yet Jesus does not look at our sins but how he has the greater gift of inviting us into a living relationship with God. This is about responding in faith to God’s love which is abundant. By discovering that we are loved by God our hearts are enlarged so that we can love others and walk with them.

What can make us whole?

A sudden and unexpected loss can devastate the life of a family and a community. We see this not only in the history of our own families and communities but also in the life of many people around the world. This loss come about through the effects of nature, through the actions of people or simply through our own mortality. This trauma and ruction in the fabric of what appears normal can cause as to ask questions of ourselves and our society. How do we stand by those in great need? How do we find life in the midst of what seeks to bring about destruction and death? What can we do differently to address those forces which we know can wreak such havoc?

Jesus is not immune to such events in his own life and in the life of the communities in which he walked. He did not seek to add moral judgement to these circumstances but sought to respond to the immediate need of the person. By seeking compassion and mercy as the touchstone of our Christian lives we can start to see our own response to such events. We are called to see the person first and respond to them with concern for what will make them whole.

Taken, blessed, broken and shared

When a person receives the Body and Blood of Christ in communion this is more than just mere food. There is a profound link with the person of Jesus. His life and memories start to be blended with our own. The importance of this communion is not just a spiritual reality but a physical one. We are linked into the heart of the Trinity and into the midst of his living Body, the Church. This communion recognises that our humanity and the sharing of life with each other is the visible sign of an invisible reality. We become one with each other in the person of Christ.

As Christians this becomes a reality in the way our lives are taken, blessed, broken and shared. Our life is never just our own and our mission is never just to be in a solitary relationship with God. The communion recognises that we are bound to each other to live the Good News of Jesus Christ through our faithful pilgrimage with each other. This is truly food for the journey. A food which nourishes both body and soul. We are that living memory that Jesus walks with us and shares his life with us.

Encountering God in the divine dance of creation

In a time of scientific enquiry, we become use to the advances which are made by understanding the data we can collect about the environment in which we live and the way we can influence it for the good of all. This dynamic flow of discovery and application allow us to grow both as individuals and communities. Trinity Sunday allows us to discover that this dynamic flow of creation is at the heart of all creation. Our understanding of God as Trinity can often cause some confusion. But I think that the idea of God as the dance, the dancer and the dancing engages with the dynamic and creative power we witness in the universe. God can never be analysed at just one moment of time or in one movement over time. There is a deeply engage life of God which seeks to engage us in a divine relationship which captures all three aspects of God which acknowledge a trinity of persons, as the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This seeks to understand a God who is ever new and ever creative; a God who seeks to draw us into relationship, and who gives gifts which make it possible to experience God’s life giving potential in our own time and place. We celebrate that our lives are caught up in this divine economy of love and life in which nothing is lost and which seeks all for the good of all.

The transforming power of God

We are called and gifted to understand how God entrusts us with charisms for the good of the whole community. At Pentecost, we recognize both the affective and effective ways of being a disciple. The gifts of the Holy Spirit entrusted to us at Pentecost allow us the opportunity to grow in a personal relationship with God through wisdom, understanding, counsel, internal resilience, knowledge, piety, and reverence. This would be seen as the personal desire of God to know us from the inside out. However, as disciples of Jesus, we are also entrusted with gifts for the good of the whole community which are not solely for our own good but which help to build people up in faith. They help us to acknowledge that each of us is part of a community for its good and never just our own. The signs of a charism are that it has a timeless quality which feels like prayer when we are living it out, it has an ability to respond to the deep seated need of another and it produces grace-filled fruits which are never just the result of hard work. By allowing God to work through us we experience a prayer which draws us into action and an action which becomes our prayer. 

Transformed from the inside out

Our lives will always witness to what we consider of true value. What are we prepared to let go of to discover our own mission? This is not meant to alienate us from our community or from ourselves but to ask, how does my life become a catalyst for change? This is not a change which diminishes our humanity, but it is a journey of discovery which allows us to be most ourselves. This is not a call to just observe life but rather a call to participate in the heart of life. It calls us to discover how our lives witness what we truly value and consider of greatest worth. What brings the greatest glory to God in the way we live and act? Our lives are never just our own. They have an ability not only to inform others or to form them in ways of being present to God. Ultimately, they call for a deep intuitive sense that we are transformed from the inside out. That we become truly ourselves when our interior lives match our exterior actions. Each person is called to be a witness of faith to others by the life they live. Listen to how God calls you to bring the good news of his life and forgiveness to others.

Where do I feel most at home?

When we return from a long trip there can be a natural desire to want to be home. It is like a beacon which grows warm within us when we are in the proximity not only of the destination but also the people who will welcome us. Jesus calls us to be at home with ourselves wherever we may be. This is not always easy because our minds and hearts can be distracted by things or places that draw us away from our natural self. In our own age, it is possible to travel to destinations far away without leaving our armchairs and become absorbed in questions which are not our own. This can consume much of our thinking and our way of being present to the world. They can at times become burdensome and seem to clutter up our lives with thoughts and feelings and questions which do not really matter. Our prayer time and our study are essential if we are to discover that place where we can be truly ourselves, unencumbered by considerations beyond our scope to solve. It calls us to live with the one central question, where do I feel most at home and how does that bring substance to my life? What is it the question that God most places on my heart and how will I live that, for the good of the world?

How do we share our life with others

How do we share our lives with others? We can at times become focused or besieged by the demands of the Christian life which confront us. Modern technology can reveal to us many good works and charitable endeavors which are all worthwhile. Like Therese of Lisieux we can want it all because we see the tremendous good which eventuates from people’s selfless actions. Yet this is not the primary call that is placed on each person’s heart. We do need a Christian community which produces tangible fruits, but we also are called to recognize that we are co-dependent upon each other. No one person has all the knowledge or all the gifts, we are called into a living relationship which shares our lives and our gifts with each other. In this giving and receiving, we realize a God who forms us into a community where all gifts of the spirit need to be present. Discipleship is not about personal advancement but a profound sharing of what has been entrusted to us for the good of all. When we hold on too tightly to the gifts we have been given, we diminish not only ourselves but also the whole community with whom we are called to share these gifts. Our lives are never just our own but how people discover the God who calls us to be present to others.

Know thyself!

Knowing ourselves can seem to be a lifelong task. Yet in the Interior Castle written by Theresa of Avila it is the essential place in which we grow in our relationship with God. Sometimes, I am haunted by the word of Jesus when he echoes the words, I do not know you. There can be a feeling if I do not know myself how can I become real to God? In a world where we can pursue phantoms of appearance or mirages of success, it is easy to become lost on another person’s journey other than our own. Jesus calls us to encounter him as our true self not as the person we believe that will be acceptable to him. It means that we need to drop the masks in prayer and in our conversation with God so that we can identify who we truly are. This does not mean that we have to engage in profound self-analysis or profound quests of self-discovery. We just need to be true to what brings us life and what avoids death for us. This is not focusing solely on ourselves but it is an understanding that we cannot live in a way which has not been gifted to us from God. Our best reflection is to look at each day and see what I can give thanks for and what brought life to me and others? By discovering what brings life we can discover who we are called to be and discover the person God knows us to be. 

Is this all there is?

There is a universal sense of a call which is more than what we are called to do with our lives. There are questions in life which are not answered, which move beyond the superficial. We know how easy it is to classify people by their work, by their successes or by what they own. There is something which allows us to be familiar with the arena in which we work, which provides us with some security and sense of worth. However, this can be sorely tested if we are asked the question about whether this is all that we are called to be? When our life is too closely identified with our occupation or our daily activity. We can start to think that we only have value when we are doing things which appear worthwhile. Yet the deeper question that Jesus asks is, who do we love when we do what we are doing? This is more than just being lost in activity but allowing us to discover that our humanity is expressed in who we love, so that we can love what we are doing. How do I understand this call that Jesus places before us?

Will we touch the wound that heals us?

The reality of Easter is that Jesus enters into our deepest wound by touching what hurts us the most. This is at the heart of forgiveness and calls us, to be honest to ourselves and to God. Often we can shy away from this area because we are too vulnerable and believe our humanity is at most risk. When the wound is touched, it brings forth a whole heap of deep-seated emotions of anger, disgust, fear and loathing. There is a sense in which we stand naked before God and that nothing can hide us from this rawness and these feelings, that we have somehow been complicit in being wounded. Yet it is when we touch the wounds of Christ, when we acknowledge our fundamental distrust, that anything can change, that our act of forgiveness moves beyond mere words. It is a reality which strikes us at the core of our being which causes us to become people who are freed from the sin that binds us and holds us prisoner to our own thoughts and suspicions. Only when we come to this place can we ever experience healing which calls us to become disciples, not from the moments when we are totally in control, but from the times when we have been most deeply wounded. Will we accept Jesus’ invitation to touch that wound?

Where heaven meets earth

Are we missing the point? Lent calls us to encounter the person of Jesus in the journey of our lives. It recognizes that our faith only makes sense if we move beyond our initial impressions of Jesus into a life and death struggle with God. Unless he meets us where we are, our faith is always read in a text book or learnt by rote. This deeply personal encounter is mediated through the sacramental life of the Catholic community. We encounter the risen Christ through the sacraments which capture the place where heaven meets earth in our humanity. We are nourished, healed and forgiven; we are caught up in a life which is not our own. It calls us to become disciples who proclaim the Good News that death is not the answer but how we live is the constant question. The resurrection of Jesus Christ comes at a time not of our choosing but as a response to our deepest desire. This is why the Paschal Mystery which we celebrate over the three days of Easter is at the centre of our Christian life and the centre of our faith. It asks three fundamental questions: What are we prepared to live for? Who are we prepared to die for? How do we share what we have received with others?

Transforming suffering through the life of one person!

There is a growing indifference to faith when it does not provide the instant sugar hit or the answer that we have chosen as the solution to our problems. We want a faith which is powerful, spectacular and relevant. Something that will change the government of nations, entertain our inner poverty and provide proven results. Instead we receive a person who seems broken, powerless and irrelevant. Jesus does not match our model of a Saviour. He seems too human against the tide which has turned against him. He makes no answer to the accusations flung against him. He gradually takes all the insults, hatred and violence into himself. The journey to the cross seems to be another failed mission, an admission that nothing will or can change, and the inability of humanity to believe in anything but itself. We have seen this played out in Lent not only in our own prayers, but also in our community and in our Church. Everything seems to be more Good Friday than Easter Sunday. There seems to be more suffering, hurt, anger and hatred. Yet as we approach this Holy Week, it is a time to turn in silence and to wait. This is never easy in a world which wants to distract us from poverty and pain. Which seeks us to dance when we should be mourning. Which seeks to find answers for ourselves rather than living with the question. Who can bring us life and why do we follow him?

What would you do to save a person’s life?

What would you do to save a person’s life?

The story today can see played out in many forms in media but also in small town gossip. A person may not be stoned but they can be ostracized, isolated and demonized. Their actions can be seen as the sum of the person. Worse still there can be a disassociation where the person is treated as a non-person. After a person is dehumanized it is possible to hurl abuse at them and essentially sentence them to death in our minds and hearts.

The gospel writer highlights this by not naming the woman at the centre of today’s drama nor does he name members of the crowd. Essentially, the story involves both but points at an essential difference. Jesus does not hold our actions against us nor condemn us for our sins. He waits, he listens, he understands. He recognizes that conversion only happens when a person knows that they have no one else to turn too, when forgiveness is not conditioned by what other people think or how other people behave but from a life giving encounter with a person who loves them unconditionally.

It also points to sin not as a thing which lives outside a person or a disease which can be easily eradicated if only we had the right medicine. The story of the conversion deals with a person accepted totally for who they are. The story of conversion does not mean that a person will not sin in the future but their reason for sin is lessened. There are no short cuts to God. Reconciliation is not simply a rubbish bin where you get rid of the bits you don’t like. It is taking on the mantle of God’s love and mercy which changes not only how we act, but also how we think and how we are called to relate to God. Reconciliation changes everything. It calls us to be transformed from the inside out.

Some of you may not have been to reconciliation for months or years. There may be a feeling that you have not committed any mortals or that God understands our failings. This is a true to a point but all our sacraments call us to a point of conversion. They call us to be people who are transformed into God’s image and likeness. You do not need to come to reconciliation with a whole shopping trolley of sins trying to pick the best ones out. It is more about saying that Jesus calls us to become people of mercy, who want their minds and hearts enlarged. None of us are too old or too young to become disciples who carry that mission of mercy into our world. If we reduce the sacraments to ourselves only rather than as opportunities to become one with Christ, then we miss the point.

Jesus calls us to become truly one with God so that we can be transformed. When we see the world and God only about ourselves then we live a privatized faith and a privatized religion. God asks us to be a missionary disciple who through our own conversion become authentic witnesses to what we believe, not because someone has told us, not because we have read it somewhere, but because it becomes life and bread from us at the core of who we are. We are loved and forgiven so that we can be missionaries of God’s love and forgiveness for our world.

Everybodies life matters!

This weekend we have the distressing scene of the woman who is dragged before a crowd who want to stone her. It is more distressing not because of the accusations that are hurled against her but that she is being used to bring accusations against the person of Jesus. She is simply seen as a means to an end. Yet in the face of torrents of abuse, Jesus simply bends down and writes on the ground. Many people have speculated about what he wrote. I guess we will never know. However, when he straightens up he asks the person without sin to cast the first stone and then bends down again. The people accusing the woman drop their stones starting with the eldest and walk away. Eventually, all the accusers have left the scene and Jesus is left alone with the woman. He asks if any of those who accused her remain. She states that none are there. He then says go and sin no more.

 What is essential to this gospel passage is that we are not brought to the point of conversion by coercion, abuse or gossip. The only way to experience that conversion is to encounter love in the person of God. It is only in the realization that we are loved by God that hearts can change. This is at the centre of Gospel it is not by pointing the finger but in liberating the person from their slavery that lives can change. What enslaves us from living a life which God desires for us? What assists us to love others who are struggling with an addiction to sin?

Building bridges not walls

Sometimes our reflection on life can hold God at arm’s length. We try to relate to God as other and more than ourselves. This can objectivize our relationship with God into the third person. I am me and God is God. However, this way of relating to God puts a distance between us which cannot be easily bridged. This weekend’s Gospel of the Forgiving Father displays the closeness of God to each one of us. The younger son takes the gift of God’s grace as his own possession while the elder son takes the gift of God’s grace as a reward for his work. Both fall short of what is on offer which is the free and unconditional love of God which sees all as beloved.

The central part of the Gospel is how we seek to enter into discussions which build bridges and not walls between each other. It is easy to recognize difference but it takes a forgiving heart to be present to a person as they are and not how we perceive them to be. God seeks to move our conversations beyond ourselves into actions which reconcile, heal and strengthen our relationship with God and each other. It is never just about ourselves but how our relationships display God’s love and mercy. How does my life centre on God’s offer to bridge the gap and how do I seek to bridge the gap with others?

Do what we can do not what we can't

When we see the storms that hit Fiji we can often feel connected and at the same time remote from the disaster. Unless we personally know somebody who lives there, if we have visited Fiji or have some association with the islands we can feel both concerned and distant. This contradiction can disturb us because we want to help and almost feel powerless at the same time. However, each person is created for God’s mission to immerse ourselves in the day to day life and not to become remote from it. We are called to search for the freedom inside themselves which is convicted of God’s joy and life. It calls us to reach out to human beings out of respect and friendship confident that God’s love is displayed in how we become present to the normal events of daily life. Essentially what makes us human and Christian enables us to live out our vocation. This is not only as a person loved by God but as a person who is able to help transform our world and be a messenger of God’s grace. We are called to do what we can, not what we can’t.

Ultimately, it is not by self-perfection that we encounter God. Christianity is not another self-help program. It is a relationship which enables us to become transformed by God’s loving mercy. Thus it is an integration of our whole life which is expressed whenever we gather to celebrate Eucharist. God calls together not people who have made it, but people on the journey.

How does God call me to be present to others this week?

What is God revealing to me about my own life?

What is being transformed in my community by God’s grace?

Do we shape the world or does the world shape us?

The context in which we live does shape our world. Our perceptions of how the world is can influence how we respond to others, where we invest our time and what we consider important.  What attracts our attention will influence what we do and what we seek to be. We only have to consider our news programs and note the ordering of what we view: current events, business, sport and weather. It is good to stay informed but as Christians we are called to view our world through a different lens. All of these things can have an impact on our lives but do they focus on what is urgent and immediate rather than what is important.

During Lent we are called to consider how we respond to the place where we live. There is a need to study our environment as it is not as we would wish it was; we need to be prayerful in being present to God and to others; we also need to act in a way which is considerate of what God and others have placed on our hearts. I think we can be driven by external events beyond our influence and control rather than looking at what God is putting right in front of us. By seeking to be people who pray, reflect and act we start to be present to a world full of God’s grace. The focus shifts of our plans and onto what God’s is achieving with us.

How have I found time to be prayerfully present to God and others?

Where have I spent most of my time?

What am I called to do next?

What brings me life?

The three temptations of Jesus are the same that we each face: to be powerful; to be spectacular and to be relevant. When we are entrusted with the gifts of the spirit it is wise that we are in touch with the giver of the gifts. What can happen is that we start to see the gifts as our own possession and that the world revolves around us and our choices. Lent allows us the opportunity to open our hearts and our lives to God’s mercy. It calls us to recognize the time when we have sought to use the gifts entrusted to us to advance our own status.

In our own age we are called to recognize both what enhances the living of the spiritual life but also what dampens it. Lent does not call us to turn inwards but to recognize the spirit rises like a wellspring within us. The central questions are what brings life to us, what brings life to others and how do we acknowledge that God is at work within our community. By seeing each person as created in the image and likeness of God we can help them to become what God wants them to be.

At the end of each day pause and reflect with God for a couple of minutes

What brought me life?

Where did I move away from what brings me life?

What can I do differently tomorrow?

Say a prayer which reflects this intention

Seeing things differently

We can often encounter a world-weariness where we just seem to be going through the motions. There is sense where our work can lose its savour and purpose. The work is so familiar and every day. We do not see immediate results and there is always a danger to lapse into boredom or listlessness. When we are faced with this crisis we can seek to discover new pastures or new jobs which seem exciting, fresh and new. We are attracted towards people who have the answer to this deep sense of inertia and pain.

The gospel this weekend talks about putting back out into deep water and discovering Jesus anew. Often it is in familiar situations that we are called to find new energy, hope and love. Lent allows an opportunity for us to discover where Jesus is calling us to a fresh insight. This is why during this penitential season we are called to give something up so that we can see through what is blocking us from encountering Jesus in our everyday life. This could be as simple as switching off the TV and spending some time in prayer or reflecting on the scriptures; visiting or calling somebody we have lost contact with or even engaging in some work for a person who is not as fortunate as ourselves. Lent is about seeing differently and allowing Christ to pay out the nets.