8th August, 2010 ST PAULS AND ST MARY’S ECUMENICAL EVENT. AT ST MARY’S CATHOLIC CHURCH. 8AM.
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Cooperation and goodwill between the churches in this town goes right back to the very opening of this church in Feb 1872. The opening Mass was celebrated here on that day, by Fr. Paul Tissot, assisted by the Fathers..J and M. Horan, Fr McGuiness and Fr Julian Edmund Tennyson Woods….. the mentor of Blessed Mary MacKillop …..(soon to be Saint Mary MacKillop, whose feast day is today…..and who surely visited her order of nuns staffed the parish school)
Records of the time show that the “choral portion of the service was taken from Mozart’s Twelfth mass and was very efficiently rendered by the choir, who were ably assisted by the kind services of several members of other denominations. The sermon was preached by J.E.T.Woods……… I thought to myself….. mmmm… J.E.T. Woods….. could that be???? And yes…. It was….. the Very Rev. Julian Edmund Tennyson Woods (Mentor to Blessed Mary MacKillop) whose sermon was described as “a most eloquent and impressive discourse”
One Hundred and thirty-eight years later, we gather together to continue to celebrate what we have in common. We are one people, all disciples of Christ, sharing prayer and praise of the One God, and praying for eachother’s communities. It is wonderful, and its God’s grace at work in our communities and in the hearts and goodwill of all…
It is so wonderful to be here today. Thank you so much to Fr Jim and the St pauls’ community for being with us today and celebrating our common discipleship in Christ… and thank-you to Fr Jim for his friendship and enthusiasm always…
The readings for our ecumenical celebration today are extraordinary and beautiful….. They speak of God’s deep and abiding faithfulness to us…. And of God’s wisdom and God’s ways that are not like our human ways of thinking……… We humans do find it so difficult to comprehend the depth and extent of God’s love for his people…… in fact we can only marvel at the mystery of it………. And we humans do find it difficult to understand the many ways in which God does not think as humans do……….
So, we humans…. Struggle with God… we wrestle with God….. until we finally come to the point where we realise that God knows what God is doing…… God loves us…. Blesses us and has a big –picture plan for us…. If only we would cooperate and not resist… if only we can allow God’s grace to transform us… and not let our narrow vision.. our pride and our desire to do it our way… get in the way of what God is doing….. because God is making something beautiful….. in thw world and in our lives…… its new… its different….. its divine…..
I have always been fascinated by this passage, our first reading today… of Jacob wrestling with God …. Its amazing… and beautiful……. And it reminds me of a true story that I would like to share with you…… (my apologies if I have told this before, but it is, I think, a rather interesting example of our wisdom wrestling with God’s wisdom….)
One of our lecturer’s in my sabbatical a few years ago tells a story of a visit he made to a village while he was in the missions. The local theatre people did a play enacting the "lost son" but in their version of the story they unwittingly neutralised the message of Jesus and replaced it with a frightening message of worldly wisdom we can see all too often ://… in their version, when the lost son is walking home, the father sees him and yet does not move. Then the servants come out of their huts with sticks in their hands, run up to the son and start 'beating him with the sticks' until the father eventually walks up and say 'okay he has had enough!' when our missionary priest asked why the troupe had changed Jesus' parable, they said "you cannot let this story run as it was. The rascal must not be able to get off free. If God doesn't punish him, then we will" !!!!
“IF GOD…. Doesn’t punish him,…. Then WE …. WILL!!!!’…..
My goodness……. That is very telling… about human nature… and God’s absolutely unconditional love for us, his beloved people….
It so important to let the parable of Jesus speak to us, challenge us, transform us with God’s unworldly wisdom.
This example, and the example of Jacob.. wrestling all night with a mysterious person, whom he KNOWs is God. Jacob won’t let go of God…. He can’t win, in one sense.. if he continues to hold on to God when the sun comes up, he will see God’s face and die… and so God is trying to save him… but God also allows him to wrestle with him.. God gets right in there with Jacob.. not just standing t a distance.. and allows Jacob to engage with him very deeply…. Jacob is stubborn and filled with zeal.. so in the end God can’t get Jacob to release his grip and so blesses him… and names him… Israel.. meaning, in this context “Strove with God.” I love this image… Jacob comes out of it limping, but renewed and ready to face anything in life, because in a sense, God never leaves him.. Jacob will cling to God forever now.. and it is God who will never let him Go….. but Jacob still wrestled.. wanted things his way.. and we can do that too…
St Peter… in the gospel.. so loyal, so passionate.. so faithful to Jesus.. and also very human and weak at times… he denied Jesus but still rushed to see him when he returns…… St Peter had to learn that he must follow God’s ways and not his own thinking.. and he learns that lesson well….
In the context of our ecumenical relations and so many other worthwhile endeavours.. we need to keep looking at what God wants… what God’s wisdom calls us to.. and not merely our own personal vision or pride… we can do this with God’s help.. and we have seen wonderful progress.. which I know will continue…
And the path is via ecumenism… as opposed to non-denominationalism…. Two big words but meaning two different things… non-denominationalism is where we take what we have in common and overlook (so to speak) what we do not agree upon.. and move forward.. that has its advantages… … but ecumenism… is acknowledging and celebrating what we have in common… and also acknowledging and exploring what we disagree with… and moving forward in this…. A respectful, open, dialogue and journeying which seeks not just the lowest common denominator of agreement.. but the highest.. the most full… that journey is difficult and painful, but it’s the journey of wholeness that we are invited to embark upon…
May God, who bends close to be with us and engage with us… who even lets us wrestle with him as we come to see God’s unworldly wisdom and vision…. Stubbornly coming around to God’s ways and not our ways… May this God of faithfulness.. God of the journey bless us and guide us, now and always… amen..
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REFERENCES:
· Catholicism in Maryborough. History Book, 1980. Edited by Fr Denis Martin.
· Fr John Fuellenback, SVD. Lectures in Sabbatical in Rome. (my personal notes). See also his book “Throw Fire”.
· The New Interpreter’s Bible. Volume I. Abingdon Press. On the Genesis chapter.
· FR. PAUL W. KELLY
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