Debutantes 2006..

My friends…….

It is a great honour to be here tonight to receive the debutantes 0f 2006……………….. 

Congratulations to you and your partners.

 

You have put in so much preparation and spare time to be ready for tonight…. And that preparation has been completely worthwhile....….    because tonight, this special night…….Your graciousness and elegance is a credit to you……… 

 

I would also like to send a very special thank you for the debutante organizing committee and everyone who has been involved in making this night so special……an enormous amount of care, love and attention to detail..   has made tonight very beautiful…….well done…….   and congratulations….

 

There was a time, not that many years ago… when all around the country…  people were quietly wondering whether debutante balls might be losing their popularity…. their relevance……   This fear turned out to be unfounded…..  because a new generation has re-discovered the secret of what makes events such as this so beautiful….    and of continuing relevance…… In the last few years, the Debutante Ball has gone from strength to strength…..

 

There is always a place for events such as this… which culture in us, nurture within us and celebrate ………. dignity, grace…..    poise….  and “taking time” to give different occasions the dignity and solemnity that they deserve… that is fitting…….   Nights like tonight, celebrate attention to detail and formality…..   of showing ourselves and each other the respect that we each deserve……. And as we witness to night….  it is special and nice to dress in our best …  our finest…  because you are worth it……..you are graced and wonderful human beings.. with profound dignity and priceless…. irreplaceable…..

 

Tonight, you this younger generation has claimed for yourselves, the special gift of things “formal as well as casual,” // taking time to slow down and savour the journey, over and above just rushing to the destination……//   you have brought out of the treasure house, things both old and new……   and this is good to celebrate….

 

Finally, my thoughts turn to that constant guest who is present in all of our life’s journey’s and special mile-stones….    a person who was comfortable both in formal as well as casual occasions….  and who embodies in all his words and actions…. the  dignity, respect and graciousness that a night like tonight symbolizes…..   Jesus…. who is graciousness personified…  May you be blessed, by our gracious Lord, as you walk with dignity, grace and respect through all the important and varied occasions of your life……..   and as always.,….  as you go……   remember this……   each one of you…. and all of us here…   are a gracious and treasured gift – worthy of the care, the time and respect that is given to you, and from you……..… I know you will continue to enjoy your special night…… and God bless you always…

 

Fr Paul

www.marycatholic.com

 

 

20th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B (20th August, 2006)

When I was at the Seminary, we had the option to learn a little bit of Latin. A few of us felt that since this was part of the tradition of the church, that we should at least have an opportunity to have at least a bit of a grasp of it.

 

I am glad I did this…  but really, how I learnt any Latin is a mystery of religion. It was so difficult. There were so many irregular verbs, and declensions… my mind boggled. And I didn’t put enough preparation in before the next classes, so I would worry that I wouldn’t be able to answer any questions about it. Mysteriously, though, several things deep seep into my brain, like a form of osmosis…. Just by being immersed in the language of Latin, some things did stay with me…

 

Like pronunciation, and the general structure and basic vocabulary…..     and also, a few phrases really struck me, some for silly reasons…..   

 

Like, our lecturer would present us with old Latin hymns and get us to pronounce the latin in them……   I was intriguied one day when we were reciting an old hymn set to the words of Thomas Aquinas, one of the great Doctors of the Church……   It was a hymn to Jesus….  And the mysterious Latin words echoed out….   “O Pelicanus”…..

 

I thought to myself…. How odd…. That sounds like… it looks like…….  Aquinas is saying to jesus…..   O Pelican !!

 

How odd…. Surely I have mistranslated…. But no… I had not…….    But why a pelican…..    why would a pelican be a symbold of Jesus…….

 

And here lies an interesting story….. 

The symbolism of the mother pelican feeding her little baby pelicans is rooted in an ancient legend which is much older than Chrstianity. There is a legend about the humble pelican which is borne of a misunderstanding of what an observer thinks they are seeing………..   Legend has it that in time of famine, the mother pelican wounded herself (‘vulns” herself… as in another latin word from the same origin as the word ‘vulnerable.” Able to be pierced……, striking her breast with the beak to feed her young with her blood to prevent starvation. Another version of the legend was that the mother fed her dying young with her blood to revive them from death, but in turn lost her own life.  This legend, as I mention, comes from a slight observational confusion…..   a pelican feeds her young by regurgitating food it has stored in its upper throat.. by…   lowering its neck onto its breast… hence what looks like it piercing its breast and lfuid flows out which the young then feed…… but even though it’s a misunderstanding… the symbolism is still clear……

Given this tradition, one can easily see why the early Christians adapted it to symbolize our Lord, Jesus Christ. The pelican symbolizes Jesus our Redeemer who gave His life for our redemption and the victory over sin and death he made through His passion and death. We were dead to sin and have found new life through the Blood of Christ. Moreover, Jesus continues to feed us with His body and blood in the holy Eucharist.

This gospel today reminds me about this…  because jesus is using very clear and very dramatic and almost unpleasant words to explain how he intends to be made present to us and to allow us to draw life from him by partaking in eucharist… which is clearly a sharing in the body and blood of Christ so that we might be united in Christ’s life.

The other little latin that has stayed in my head, almost like a little jingle….  Is the words of a saying, again from good old Saint Thomas Aquinas…..  Christ is “non confractus, non concisus”    ……     It’s a strange little saying, but an important one….  When the eucharist is celebrated, we break the bread… and Christ is present in his body and bllod in the euchartic bread….  But ….  Christ is not broken, nor is he chewed, (non confractus, non concisus)…..even though we receive him in this special way…. Jesus is not parceled out or divided, by the sharing of the bread….  We each receive Jesus, and draw life from him as we take this food of grace….. I reminds me when I, and I am sure many others were told similarly…   when I was preparing for first holy communion, the nuns preparing us reminded us…  don’t chew the host, or else you are biting Jesus…..   …..  now…. It would have been helpful for me to know a little latin back then….   Yes, we do believe we are receiving Jesus in what looks like bread and wine….  It is Christ present….however….   even if we were to chew the host.. and it is fine to do that….    we are not chewing jesus… it doesn’t work that way…. Nor are we breaking him or dividing him……. 

Jesus had the problem of conveying the meaning of the eucharist to his followers, and it was very hard… he MEANT them to understand the dramatic reality of the action of the eucharist, whilst at the same time not wanting them to be so literal that they would be repelled by the idea of eating flesh and blood……   somewhere in the middle is the truth….

But all that matters, and I am forever grateful to my long-suffering Latin lecturer for this….   Is that Christ gives his life and body and all for us…. And wants to to enter into a relationship of faith and life with him that is so close that we are to be united with Christ… and what we celebrate here in this eucharist.. is the tangible expression of the life that we share with God made flesh… for the life of the world…….   The pelicanus… who’s chest was pierced and his own life force flowed out… so that we might have life……  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paul W. Kelly

 

 

 

THE BREAD OF ETERNAL LIFE - 13TH AUGUST 2006

They cannot be taught if their hearts are not open, they cannot be taught who are not open to learn…..

 

The gospel makes it clear that Jesus himself is to be the teacher…. God teaches the disciples personally………     if only we are open to receive the lesson……

 

It has been said, that for John’s gospel, there is only one real sin……   and that is unbelief…….  all other  sins are capable of receiving God’s grace and forgiveness and renewal……….   but refusing to believe cannot be forgiven because it prevents the formation of relationship with the God from whom grace and forgiveness flow….

 

The grumbling of the people in this gospel today, is an echo of of the grumbling that occurred in the wilderness when the people grumbled against God and against Moses….  they were short of food and tired and hungry and were regretting putting their faith and hope in God and his servant moses.

 

God gave the people manna in the desert to sustain them….. 

 

In this gospel passage, the grumbling people get Jesus, the bread of life……..

 

but unlike the wilderness experience….   Jesus gives them eternal life…..  not just short term satisfaction…

 

 

It is good, n the face of this gospel for each of us to ask ourselves some important questions….

 

•        are there things about our lives //or about how we stand with God // that are a source of grumbling or discontent. Are there aspects of our lives where we are tempted to lose heart and not trust in the goodness and faithfulness of God and that God does care about us,…  does want the best for us……   does want us to thrive.. and experience eternal life….   to the full…

•        In what ways might we be invited to more open….   more willing to learn from God…..   How might we allow an even more open attitude to being taught by God…… //  as with any student/ teacher relationship…..    we can learn the most if we are willing to put aside our preconceptions, and be challenged and look at things in a new way…  in ways different from the usual attitudes and approaches we have habitually taken…. 

•        We can believe that God is continually at work, trying to sustain us in our needs…..  like the way God sent an angel to Elijah to touch him and give him a simple scone and water…  to sustain him on his difficult journey to the mountain of God……..   I believe that, in many ways, God sends us angels….    people…  events….   opportunities….  meant to sustain and nurture and encourage us…….   

•        the challenge is for us, to accept the gifts and graces and small miracles of daily life……    when and where they occur….     for the converse if not always true….    God does not always answer our requests and demands in the time and way that we might hope… and this can tempt us to grumble or complain or lose hope…. but God does send us what we need, and most importantly he gives himself to us, to strengthen our life journey…

 

The people in jesus time grumbled, because they doubted Jesus assurance that he would be with them in a real and tangible way…..    as the bread of life…..  as the cup of eternal salvation…………….  but actually, is it such a difficult thing to believe…….

 

There is a saying in the bible…. God spoke and it was created…. So its not so hard to believe that jesus, at the last supper said to his disciples…. I want to give you something that will make me present to you in a real way..,… so… I am saying to you…. Everytime you eat this bread and drink this cup….. you are receiving me… you are encountering me…..  I guarantee it….. and why could not Jesus do that… why would he not do it….. and of course.. this is what he did…..  let us pray that each time we receive Jesus in the Eucharist… it will strengthen us to live as Christ in the world….

 

Transfiguration - 6th August, 2006

 

 

 

 Jesus was transfigured on the mountain top and revealed, to these privelged disciples, a truth that would soon become known to countless generations. Jesus in the only begotten son of God.

The important thing following this is, “did the dicsiples become transfigured (or changed) by this revelation……”   It is important that the eventually did. Because this revelation was for them and us…. To encourage us to look deeply into Jesus life and learn from what it tells us about God…….   Jesus life, his words, his actions, his parables, who he ate with, how he treated sinners and outcasts, his way of living, his way of dying…  shows us just what God is like……     and encourages us to learn and take in the values embodied by Jesus life, words and actions……..  to be transfigured, by his example.

The old testament has the example of Moses, who after speaking with God came away literally glowing….his face shining……. The encournter with the God of transformation made him glow……..   I think we can all think of people who, because of their love, compassion, and energy, appear to be radiant… glowing…..     filled with grace and light…..  such people are contagious…. Their energy, vitality, radiance also is transforming…..

 

Jesus is the best example of them all….. he glows with the divine light of God…… he did this all the time…. Even when this was not physically visible,,,,,  he shone with God’s light in happy times, in times of suffering……….    His life was a transformation, and he invites his followers to walk this difficult path of transformation too….

The feast of the transfiguration is a special one…..   the date also coincides with other world events….   Such as today also being, the 61^st anniversary of the first atomic bomb over hiroshima…. And in this time of suffering and war through the world…. An opportunity to pay to God for a peace that only God can give our hearts and minds….  And tranforming peace…..   peace that brings the light of hope and peace and love into a world strugglign with hatred, violence ansd revenge…..   May God help break the cycle of violence, retribution and counter-retribution and so on…

 

I also note that it’s the anniversary of the death of Pope Paul the VI who died on the feast of the transfiguration in 1978.   Reading his biorgraphy a few years ago…..   anjd being struck by Pope Paul’s passion and love and his vision for the world, including a vision for peace….. it was Pope Paul who ensured that the Vatican Council begun by Pope John the XIII and so transofmring with the spirit the church to address the needs of today….    It was Pope Paul who kept it going after Pope John’s death halfway throuhg the council threartened to derail the work begun……..   they said of Pope Paul,    it may have needed a saintly man like Pope John to laucnh the second vatican counctil. But the spirit seemd to need a man of the vision and clarity of Pope Paul to bring it back to port…….   

This weekend and next weekend is vocation awareness week.. and there are articles in the catholic leader about the important of various catholic vocations.. including the vocation of the people of God, the laity, who are in and amongst thew world working with God’s Spirit to transform it into the world God wants… and of course also religious and priestly vocations too… which we will hear more of next week……  

 

So this weekend… let us pray that God will tranform our heart and minds and transfigure them according to the mind and heart of Christ and his vision for a world made new….