Lent week three year c 11th march 2007

I was speaking with a a friend recently and they shocked me by mentioning in passing: "I worked with one of the men who got killed in that Garuda plane crash in Indonesia" 

 

I was shocked!

 

The man was a federal police officer and he worked with my friend overseas and my friend knew him and his wife . 

 

Tragedies like that are awful yet they seem so unreal.. until the closeness and realness of the tragedy comes too close to home..  

 

It is times like this when we often ask  why lord.  Why does this sort of thing happen…  why is there pain and suffering in the world.   Why couldn’t you make a world where this kind of thing can’t happen.      

 

Why is there illness..  why is their pain..   why do terrible disasters happen..  both natural disasters and human tragedies….  And war…..

 

….. 

 

in the gospel (tonight/today) the exact same question was happening. People were asking Jesus what the meaning of a few recent events could mean….

 

They referred to a terrible accident where a tower had collapsed and killed many people….  And another incident where Pontius pilate had viciously ordered a crowd of worshippers to be put to death in the middle of their religious rituals…..    a terrible act of blasphemy…. 

 

Jesus told them….   These events did not happen because they deserved them…  they didn’t happen as punishment for sins…. Or anything like that….  But they do serve as a reminder that life is short and that we never know what unexpected things might happen… so there is no time like the present for doing what matters in life……

 

I would like to read you a little reflection from a person who was struggling with the reality of sickness and suffering in his family…  and how he was trying to make sense of it in terms of the gospel……. 

 

The writer says……..

 

“I was standing with my sister at the bedside of her son who was dying from cancer. Such a short time before, he had been playing basketball. A tall, cheerful, bright young man. And here, a skeleton covered in skin and sores was dying. It made no sense and I could feel only one emotion – anger.

 

Jay had sung for years in the boys’ choir at his church. And so at his deathbed, we had called his priest, his friend and pastor. And, as the priest came to his bed, I thought, “please don’t try to be helpful. Don’t try to make it right. Because, by God, it is wrong! Pleas don’t say anything helpful.”

 

The man was a priest, but also a friend. He was mourning too. Perhaps also angry. And he did exactly what should be done at such times of anger and pain. – he took his little book and in it found the words we needed. Not little saccharine pieties, but the huge, soul-shaking lamentations of the psalms. With passion and anger in our hearts, he cried to God those vast, eternal, unanswerable questions; he threw at God the anger of our souls; he brought to God the terror in our hearts.

 

And the words he spoke brought peace. Not resolution. Not answers. But peace. A sense that we were part of a community that had known these things before. We were not alone. We were not the first to shout our anger and despair to God.

 

For that moment, it was enough. It took many quiet, sometimes tearful conversations, may prayers, many caring friends and ……. Time, to heal the wounds and make life possible again…..

 

 

The ‘why’ was never really answered. Nor could it be.

 

But God came into my pain to offer hope and healing… It was enough. “

 

 

(reflection by Ralph Milton – ed. Wendy Smallman. Sermon Seasonings – collected stories. Wood Lake Books. Canada. 1997, no.52).

 

+++++

lent 2 year c

Lent Week Two – Year C -  4^th March, 2007

 

Transfiguration:

 

Many of us know of the great “Saint Augustine”  (well known for his tumultuous early life of indulgence and searching…. and his later conversion to Christianity….…   helped by the prayers of his mother, Saint Monica… whose prayers and tears have been remembered for countless generations….   Augustine wrote the famous book “Confessions”   which is really a book not about what he did wrong….but of what he now has come to believe…..

 

Saint Augustine, in that book describes a haunting and beautiful moment……   like a little moment of transfiguration in his own life story…….

 

It happened when Augustine and his mother Monica were talking together….  they were sharing their faith……..    Augustine writes…..

 

   

From Saint Augustine: Confessions (Book nine, chapter 10). [Augustine. Confessions. Trans. R.S. Pine-Coffin. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1961, page 197 (paperback edition).]

 

“My mother and I were alone, leaning from a window which overlooked the garden in the courtyard of the house were we were staying at Ostia. . . .Our conversation led us (to speak of many things)……. our thoughts ranged over the whole compass of material things in their various degrees, up to the heavens themselves, from which the sun and the moon and the stars shine down upon the earth. Higher still we climbed, thinking and speaking all the while in wonder at all that God has made.

 

At length we came to our own souls and passed beyond them to that place of everlasting plenty, where you (Lord) feed Israel for ever with the food of truth. There …..life is “that Wisdom by which all these things that we know are made”, all things that ever have been and all that are yet to be. But this Wisdom is not made: it is as it has always been and as it will be for ever . .

 

... And when we spoke of the eternal Wisdom, // longing for it //and straining for it with all the strength of our hearts//, for one fleeting instant //we reached out //and touched it. //Then with a sigh . . //. we returned to the sound of our own speech, //in which each word has a beginning and an ending //- far, far different from your Word, our Lord, who abides in himself for ever, yet never grows old and gives new life to all things.”

 

 

this is like an echo of the transfiguration of jesus on the mountaintop… where Jesus divinity shines through for an instant and then everything returns to normal/….. and seems as ordinary as it was before………

 

we have seen a glimpse behind the curtain… and it is truly beautiful….

 

God gives us these occasional glimpses of divinity……   a divnity that surrounds us always but we can always see it……..   most times don’t recognize it…..

 

these glimpses… these moments are special……. they spur us on….

 

the trouble is….   when we get these special moments…. it is understandable that we would want to settle there… the grasp the experience and stay with it forever………….

 

perhaps its part of the human condition….  we clutch at the messenger as if they are the message itself………

 

that’s exactly what the disciples did on the mountain top…. this experience was scary..  it was extraordinary… it was beautiful……. so… let us stay here… let us build three tents and remain in this moment forever…….    

 

we too can be tempted to settle for momentary encouragement in place of the wider picture…

 

 

Jesus made the disciples snap out of their misunderstanding….  no… they can’t stay on the mountain.. there is much to be done… and at the end of the road……  unavoidable …. is calvary………… 

 

I hesitate to say this to myself…  because I too tend to want to hold on to moments of grace… moments of encouragement……..    mountaintop moments where we glimpse divinity… and experience the extraordinary………   but it is as if Jesus is saying….  accept these moments…but don’t cling to them……    the journey continues……..  

 

Could it be that our life, on this earth, whilst it need not be misery…  may always be an experience of ‘divine doscontentment’…….   that is …  in “not-quite satisfied”  … maybe if you or I feel this from time to time, this is not a completely alien or horrific thing……………   Is the way of Jesus deliberately teaching us that we are on a journey of dissatisfaction…….   because if we were ever entirely satisfied in this life…. then we would stop where we were…. the journey is ended… the goal is attained……….  the tents are put up and there we shall stay…….. yet jesus constantly reminds us that the journey is not finished…… (don’t get me wrong… time and time again… I long for nothing more than utter and complete contentment here and now…..   and for always…  beginning now………… and many (including myself) can say that many times….  perhaps a lot of the time … we can describe ourselves as contented…….   as relatively happy as one could be in a life of constant surprise and change…)…….Yet…  the many graces and joys….. this place too…… is an oasis on the way…… and we must not be utterly satisfied…  we cannot reach perfect contentment until the ultimate goal of the fullness of union with God and with each other in God’s kingdom is attained…… 

 

perhaps it is some small comfort to know that whilst God does not want us to suffer misery and torment…or to be torn by deep feelings of discontent and dissatisfaction…….…   God is constantly reminding us of what Augustine himself wrote as well….….   despite that wonderful moment of grace he described in his writings… he also wrote something even more profound….  "Loving God…….You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You."

 

Lent 2 year c

Lent Week Two – Year C -  4^th March, 2007

 

Transfiguration:

 

Many of us know of the great “Saint Augustine”  (well known for his tumultuous early life of indulgence and searching…. and his later conversion to Christianity….…   helped by the prayers of his mother, Saint Monica… whose prayers and tears have been remembered for countless generations….   Augustine wrote the famous book “Confessions”   which is really a book not about what he did wrong….but of what he now has come to believe…..

 

Saint Augustine, in that book describes a haunting and beautiful moment……   like a little moment of transfiguration in his own life story…….

 

It happened when Augustine and his mother Monica were talking together….  they were sharing their faith……..    Augustine writes…..

 

   

From Saint Augustine: Confessions (Book nine, chapter 10). [Augustine. Confessions. Trans. R.S. Pine-Coffin. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1961, page 197 (paperback edition).]

 

“My mother and I were alone, leaning from a window which overlooked the garden in the courtyard of the house were we were staying at Ostia. . . .Our conversation led us (to speak of many things)……. our thoughts ranged over the whole compass of material things in their various degrees, up to the heavens themselves, from which the sun and the moon and the stars shine down upon the earth. Higher still we climbed, thinking and speaking all the while in wonder at all that God has made.

 

At length we came to our own souls and passed beyond them to that place of everlasting plenty, where you (Lord) feed Israel for ever with the food of truth. There …..life is “that Wisdom by which all these things that we know are made”, all things that ever have been and all that are yet to be. But this Wisdom is not made: it is as it has always been and as it will be for ever . .

 

... And when we spoke of the eternal Wisdom, // longing for it //and straining for it with all the strength of our hearts//, for one fleeting instant //we reached out //and touched it. //Then with a sigh . . //. we returned to the sound of our own speech, //in which each word has a beginning and an ending //- far, far different from your Word, our Lord, who abides in himself for ever, yet never grows old and gives new life to all things.”

 

 

this is like an echo of the transfiguration of jesus on the mountaintop… where Jesus divinity shines through for an instant and then everything returns to normal/….. and seems as ordinary as it was before………

 

we have seen a glimpse behind the curtain… and it is truly beautiful….

 

God gives us these occasional glimpses of divinity……   a divnity that surrounds us always but we can always see it……..   most times don’t recognize it…..

 

these glimpses… these moments are special……. they spur us on….

 

the trouble is….   when we get these special moments…. it is understandable that we would want to settle there… the grasp the experience and stay with it forever………….

 

perhaps its part of the human condition….  we clutch at the messenger as if they are the message itself………

 

that’s exactly what the disciples did on the mountain top…. this experience was scary..  it was extraordinary… it was beautiful……. so… let us stay here… let us build three tents and remain in this moment forever…….    

 

we too can be tempted to settle for momentary encouragement in place of the wider picture…

 

 

Jesus made the disciples snap out of their misunderstanding….  no… they can’t stay on the mountain.. there is much to be done… and at the end of the road……  unavoidable …. is calvary………… 

 

I hesitate to say this to myself…  because I too tend to want to hold on to moments of grace… moments of encouragement……..    mountaintop moments where we glimpse divinity… and experience the extraordinary………   but it is as if Jesus is saying….  accept these moments…but don’t cling to them……    the journey continues……..  

 

Could it be that our life, on this earth, whilst it need not be misery…  may always be an experience of ‘divine doscontentment’…….   that is …  in “not-quite satisfied”  … maybe if you or I feel this from time to time, this is not a completely alien or horrific thing……………   Is the way of Jesus deliberately teaching us that we are on a journey of dissatisfaction…….   because if we were ever entirely satisfied in this life…. then we would stop where we were…. the journey is ended… the goal is attained……….  the tents are put up and there we shall stay…….. yet jesus constantly reminds us that the journey is not finished…… (don’t get me wrong… time and time again… I long for nothing more than utter and complete contentment here and now…..   and for always…  beginning now………… and many (including myself) can say that many times….  perhaps a lot of the time … we can describe ourselves as contented…….   as relatively happy as one could be in a life of constant surprise and change…)…….Yet…  the many graces and joys….. this place too…… is an oasis on the way…… and we must not be utterly satisfied…  we cannot reach perfect contentment until the ultimate goal of the fullness of union with God and with each other in God’s kingdom is attained…… 

 

perhaps it is some small comfort to know that whilst God does not want us to suffer misery and torment…or to be torn by deep feelings of discontent and dissatisfaction…….…   God is constantly reminding us of what Augustine himself wrote as well….….   despite that wonderful moment of grace he described in his writings… he also wrote something even more profound….  "Loving God…….You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You."

 

Lent Sunday Week One

Here is the full text of Archbishop John Bathersby’s Lenten Pastoral Message

LENT, my dear people, is a time of prayer and fasting.

This Lenten practice is a well known spiritual formula that was once used universally at this time of the liturgical year, but has now sadly fallen into disuse.

In fact I doubt whether the season has ever been less marked by prayer and fasting than it is at the moment.

Influenced by the hyperactive culture that surrounds it, the Church today might well be accused of too much action and not enough prayer.

If this is true we need to challenge this development by returning once again to Jesus Christ in whose footsteps we seek to walk.

Scripture

When we search the scriptures seeking direction from Jesus about prayer we find that Jesus had some very interesting things to say both in word and deed.

The most startling perhaps is Luke 4:15 when Jesus cured a man sick with leprosy.

After describing the miracle the scripture notes, “But so much the more the report went abroad concerning him; and great multitudes gathered to hear and be healed of their infirmities. But he withdrew to the wilderness and prayed.”

We might well ask, “If Jesus had the power to cure sick and suffering people why would he leave them, to pray?”

We can only guess at His reasons.

Perhaps at that time in His ministry prayer was more important than healing the multitudes, or perhaps without prayer His mission might have become unbalanced, just as our mission often becomes unbalanced.

It is the type of question whose mystery will only be revealed when we meet Jesus face to face.

Nevertheless the action of Christ is an indication of the importance of prayer for Him, the very same importance prayer should have for each one of us.

In seeking answers we must always focus on the knowledge we learn from the prayer life of Jesus, manifest in the scriptures.

In the same gospel 10:38-42, when Christ visits Mary and Martha, Mary sits at his feet while her sister Martha is busy about the house.

When Martha protests about this situation Christ indicates that Mary had chosen the better part and that it will not be taken from her.

It is an interesting comment on what Jesus seems to see as a necessity for those who seek to know him better, namely spending time with Him.

In chapter 11 of the same gospel, when the apostles, impressed by Christ’s skill at prayer, ask him to teach them to pray, he responds with his magnificent prayer, the “Our Father” – the prayer of the Kingdom, well summed up in its key petition “may your Kingdom come, may your will be done”.

Although we can say the prayer by ourselves, of its very nature it demands to include others.

We do not pray “My Father”, but “Our Father”, conscious that we are praying with others, whether together or separated.

The “Our Father” is always a communal prayer in which we acknowledge our membership in a worldwide community of faith whose spiritual power is immense.

It is a prayer we should pray every day, precisely because it is the Lord’s prayer and therefore filled with a power that only the Holy Spirit can give.

We pray this prayer always knowing that the Kingdom of God has already come in Christ but yearning for its completion in the future that can only happen through the power of God, and at a time known only to God.

There is a certain logic to all prayer, and the Lord’s prayer is no exception.

This logic suggests that if we succeed in praying individually for the healing of others as most of us do, usually with a certain amount of success, then how much more might we achieve if we pray with a larger group for the coming of God’s Kingdom.

As St Ignatius of Antioch said in his Letter to the Ephesians, “If the prayer of one or two individuals has such efficacy, how much more powerful is that of the bishop together with his whole Church”.

Prayer Campaign

In 2006 I started a prayer campaign in this archdiocese to call down the Holy Spirit upon the archdiocese so that it might be renewed totally.

I did so because the greatest scandal in the Western world at the present time is lack of worship.

How can so many people say, “I believe in God but do not worship?” The statement seems a contradiction in terms.

Surely if we truly believe in a God of love who loved us into existence and loves us every moment of our existence, then we need to love God in return, first of all by worship and then by action.

But unless we help people understand who God is and what belief in God means then the drift away from the mainstream Churches will undoubtedly continue.

People need to return to worship for their own sake, for the sake of the Church, and for the sake of God’s Kingdom.

In his recent book, On the Way to Jesus Christ, Pope Benedict wrote, “the primacy of worship is the fundamental prerequisite for the redemption of mankind”.

He goes on to describe the destructive effects of the Enlightenment on religions today, and continues, “deprived of their best elements – (they) live on as subcultures and can harm people body and soul, as systems of superstition”.

None of us ever wants to belong to a religion that might be described as a “system of superstition”, and this will most certainly not happen if we recognise worship as the very essence of our Christian religion.

Worship needs to be the priority of all people who call themselves Catholic.

The greatest challenge therefore for our archdiocese today is the need to educate people about Jesus Christ and about the relationship of Jesus Christ to worship, because Jesus Christ and worship can never be separated.

Worship and Liturgy

Nevertheless, although lack of understanding or lack of faith is the major reason why people don’t worship, there are certain other reasons that need to be considered.

One would be the quality of friendship and hospitality at worship, another the quality of the liturgy itself. The liturgy of worship must always be aesthetically pleasing, and planned as skilfully as possible, if it is to attract people, especially young people.

At the same time, even if liturgy does not display the life and vitality characteristic of Jesus Christ it is still an act of worship, and its lack of vitality should never be an excuse for refusing to worship.

As Christ indicated, where two or three are gathered in His name He is present in their midst, and this is true every time we gather to celebrate Eucharist.

At the same time a friendly, welcoming community and good quality liturgy must be the priority of every parish if it is serious about bringing people back to worship.

Conclusion

My greatest desire in my last five years as Archbishop of Brisbane is to continue asking the Holy Spirit to renew our archdiocese and lead people back to the Mass and to worship.

This year our archdiocese has developed an excellent study program called “Everyday with Jesus”, that focuses on Jesus Christ and helps us to better understand His vision and our role in it.

However, before all else, we need to know how to make contact with Jesus Christ in and through the Eucharist.

The study program will certainly help us in this regard and I recommend it to each and every one of you.

There is no doubt, as Pope Benedict said, that our faith is under pressure today, largely from the secular culture in which we live.

Nevertheless the answers we seek are there if only people will reject the false gods that surround them and once again become people of God who worship.

May God bless our future attempts to “return from exile”, and may Mary, the Mother of God, St Stephen patron of our archdiocese, Blessed Mary MacKillop, and St Mary Magdalene assist us in the journey that lies ahead.

I thank you for what you all do in this archdiocese. It is deeply appreciated.

I ask the support of your prayers in my role as archbishop and pray that the season of Lent will bring you every possible grace and blessing.

Archbishop John Bathersby
Archbishop of Brisbane

Sunday 18th Feb 2007, Sunday week 7. Ordinary time C

The first reading is a rather moving scene where the great David is at war with King Saul…  Saul, insane with jealousy for his once favourite warrior, has persistently tried to kill David…..   I have always had a soft spot for this whole part of the bible….   Poor King saul…. It is the epitomy of a type of ‘love/hate relationship’ ….  Saul gets jealous of david and tries to kill him…  then he realizes his sin and is terribly repentant and david and he reconcile…. And then saul gets jealous again… and tries to kill him..   and then he repents and they make up…. But then, saul gets insanely jealous again and tries to kill david … and on and on and on……  It is a testament to the ambivalence that can affect so many people’s lives.,.,..    life is clearly not just full of those who love .. and those who hate… it is also full of people who are caught halfway between …   in a state of ambiguity…. And tension……    which can be torture for all involved…..

 

The first reading makes it clear that God values mercy and the preservation of life over and above retribution….. 

 

Recently on the occasion of the ‘world congress on the death penalty held in Paris last Thursday through Saturday,’ and attended by several Catholic institutions committed to the defense of human life, the Vatican made a statement that said: 

"Public opinion has become sensitized and has expressed its concern for a more effective recognition of the inalienable dignity of human beings, and of the universality and integrity of human rights, beginning with the right to life.

"The Holy See takes this opportunity to welcome and affirm once more its support for all initiatives that aim to defend the inherent value and inviolability of all human life, from conception to natural end."

The statement continued: "In this perspective, it is worth noting that the use of the death penalty is not just a negation of the right to life, but also an affront to human dignity."  Difficult to justify

Though the Church "continues to maintain that the legitimate authorities of state have the duty to protect society from aggressors," the declaration explained that in the modern world, the death penalty is difficult to justify.

States now have new ways "of preserving public order and people's safety," which include "offering the accused stimuli and encouragement" to mend their ways, the Holy See continued.

It added that non-lethal means of prevention and punishment "correspond better to ... the common good and conform more to the dignity of the human person."

"Any decision to use the death penalty involves many dangers," such as "that of punishing the innocent, and the temptation to foment violent forms of revenge rather than true social justice," the declaration said.

It is also, the Holy See continued, "a clear offense against the inviolability of human life ... and, for Christians, an affront to the evangelical teaching of forgiveness."

The Holy See reiterated its appreciation to the organizers of the congress, to governments, and to everyone who works "to abolish the death penalty or to impose a universal moratorium on its use."

 

This weekend’s gospel is also rather special too…..   it is a reminder how counter-cultural the invitation to follow Jesus’ good news really is.

 

I find this gospel really challenging…  if we think about it… how often do we respond based on how others respond to us…… 

 

Someone is nice to me, so I am nice back… 

 

Someone is rude and hurtful to me and they get the same back….

 

Those who affirm and respond to us….  We affirm and respond to them…

 

Interestingly….  Challengingly….    This is not the way Jesus is inviting his disciples to think……..

 

He is challenging us to go into any situation, the way st francis so wonderfully summed up…

 

grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life

 

so……..

 

this is very much ‘the road less travelled’……..    asking us to draw out of our internal well -- graciousness, even in the face of dryness…--

 

to say that this is not easy is an understatement……..   but it is brilliant…  Jesus is wanting to break and smash the old system of ‘you scratch my back, I scratch yours…’  which is great if you are in the circle of benefit….  But for those on the outer… there is nothing ………    ‘you have nothing to benefit me so.. you are out…..’         in Jesus ‘world-vision’.. it’s a case of  ‘don’t ask what you can do for me.. rather.. what can I do for you….’

 

 

It feels like a radical way of living, doesn’t it, not expecting any payoff from out encounters with each other…    but rather making it all about ‘giving graciousness to others no matter what the response…..   and if we get anything in return, that is pure bonus…

 

WEEK FIVE ORDINARY TIME YEAR C. 4/2/07

 

Isaiah looks at himself and says, “I am not worthy”…….so in response…..”God … sends, an angel to touches Isaiah’s lips with an ember and tells him that his sins are purged.”  It is not the place of the great prophet Isaiah to tell God what he is or is not worthy of……….  the same happens with St Peter..

 

Thank goodness the early disciples… the ones we look up to so much…. are also revealed to be people with weaknesses, foibles…. sinfulness……   failure…….    at times lack or trust and faith…..  fear and sometimes even cowardice…….    it revelas how God makes use of what he have to offer and transforms it……. 

 

St Peter, Saint Paul, Isaiah, Jeremiah……   King David… Saul…. Moses…….  the list goes on and on…. of great people… people who did God’s will….. but also who were terribly weak….. who sinned….. sometimes even betrayed their calling…. but nevertheless it was God who called them… and knew them and what they truly could do if they  trusted in God’s promises…..

Again we can reflect on our own experiences of forgiveness, both by the Lord and by others. Being forgiven is a humbling experience, but one that allows us, like Isaiah, to volunteer for the Lord’s work.

All of us are invited to reflect on our own refusals to accept God and His power and His presence. God is not there to frighten us nor to condemn us but to love us. Once we begin to believe and to accept forgiveness for our weaknesses and failings…, then we are able to be given over to the work of the Lord. As with Saint Peter, we can doubt many times and we can deny but eventually, when we begin to believe, our lives can be transformed into a reflection of God’s mercy, compassion and forgiveness.

But there is more……  did Jesus learn something from his previous rejection…. he preached alone and he met with utter rejection.. the crowd almost killed him ….   he narrowly escaped being thrown off a cliff….   now… he goes and calls followers to join him, support him and be company on the journey, and what a hard journey it is………   he calls a community around him……  

 

Simon Peter experiences a great miracle.. in the least expected situation… not on a mountain top somewhere… but in the ordinariness of his workplace…..   and he experiences this amazinf event by listening to someone telling him to do the job he knew so well… in a new and dramatic and trusting and  different way… and the results are huge…….. 

 

this is a reminder to us…..   1. if we do not connect the good news the the ordinary everyday events of life and work then it will not bear fruit… it will not make sense……  2. We . like the disciples need to work together… in unity… community.. like the disciples who were all needed to haul in the enormous catch of fish… and finally…3…   we must take our cuses, as best we can discern them, from Christ… if its all about our effort, it may be misdirected.. it may be fruitless… like the fisherman who laboured all night and caught nothing….. then Jesus asks them to trust him and follow his ways and they catch more than they can hold…….    Jesus ways are not the most ordinary…..not the most logical…. but they are the way of the gospel… and only by following jesus way, which is almost always the road less traveled… can we hope to bear fruit for Jesus good news……

Today let us ask the Lord to deepen our faith and give us the courage to proclaim his marvelous deeds. Let us be able to say: Here I am, Lord. Send me!”

 

(EXCERPTS TAKEN FROM HOMILY from the Abbot, Monastery of Christ in the Desert, http://www.christdesert.org/  ; also thoughts from Gustavo Gutierrez, Sharing the Word through the liturgical year/ also reflection from Madonna Magazine, Jan-Feb 2007).

 

Ordinary Time Year c - Third Week

The letter to the Corinthians, the second reading this weekend, expresses very clearly our normal human experience: I do not have all of the gifts of faith but when I relate with others, when we share our gifts and talents together we form a certain kind of wholeness. This is so important to remember today, when there are pressures to see ourselves as individuals who merely exist within a society…   St Paul calls us to a vision of Christ’s good news which sees us as integrally and essentially united in such a way that we are one body… and not just any old body… one body IN christ…….    (as john’s gospel says elsewhere, Christ is in us, and we are in Christ as Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in the son… perfect communion… perfect unity………  one body.... one heart……(adapted from homily from Christ in the Desert Monastry website).

 

In the gospel today we hear probably the greatest, most dramatic and stunning of all hoimilies ever given……  it was Jesus inaugural speech…….   here…..    only just dawning on the people…   was god’s messiah… the anointed one, the Christ…… Jesus….  God’s beloved son……    about to tell people what he was here for, what his prorities would be and what he was going to do…………

 

one commentary asks a very good question at this point…….    what might YOU have expected from God’s first speech ….. and what surprises you about what God’s first speech, in Jesus’ words, actually says…..

 

For myself…..    I suppose I might have expected beforehand, what I suspect the people of jesus day were expecting,,,.. something like John the Baptist’s preaching…..   intense, passionate, an indictment on the many injustices and wrongs that the world has wrought… a calling to order…. a reckoning perhaps……..  

 

what is most surprising.. and it really shouldn’t be, but it is a reminder of just how much humans can underestimate God’s ways……  it is filled with the most moving graciousness, freshness,  hope,  lightness, forgiveness…….    no harshness…. no condemnation……..    a declaration of good news for the poor…….    for people who are experiencing in their loves enmeshment  and imprisonment in some way…..   freedom…….   for …. those who had lost their way, and lost their sense of direction and clarity…….. a return to vision… a re-direction………for for those who had done wrong…. who were outcasts and sinners…….    forgiveness…….   burdens lifted…..    debts cancelled….   guilt and “beholdenness” erased…..………..   and for all…. a time of God’s favour………..…. Amazing… unexpected….. better than we could have imagined……..   

 

the other stunning thing is how Jesus takes a well know text and fires one final shot hope that floors them all…….  this is not just some old text… it is being brought to fulfillment right here, right now… as I speak……… 

 

and of course….. its not just Jesus’ words…..  his actions, his life confirm the truth of what he has just announced…. he not only read this passage out, he then immediately began practicsing what he preached….. and doing what he said…….. and it brought hope to the world…. joy to many…. and sadly hatred out from those who felt threatened and undermined by what Jesus had come to foster….

 

 The readings this weekend show examples of great preachers, who are excellent because they practise what they preach… they live their message…..   there are many people who, have never preached a word in public..  but their whole lives are an inspiration……  their lives, their actions and their whole way of being and relating in the world is a great wordless homily…. I think not only of the holy women and men throughout history, but also the everyday people who have inspired us in our daily lives…..   their lives are an excellent homily in action…….   and as such deeply inspiring and persuasive…. 

 

What then do we do…. we don’t always live up to the standards of these inspiring holy women and men, when we, at times, all fall short of the ‘fullness of the good news of Jesus’  by not always living as we proclaim……     there is an interesting quote by a 7^th Century ascetical writer…. in the famous book “The Ladder of Divine Descent”   “If some are still dominated by their former bad habits, and yet are still able to teach and inspire by mere words, let them teach and inspire with words still…..For, perhaps, being put to shame by their own words, challenged by how their actions are falling short of their words, they will eventually begin to practice what they teach.”    This is a refreshing and interesting new angle on the (at times) high and mighty angle that one usually takes on demanding we be consistent in word and action… naturally we all strive and are challenged to live out the faith we proclaim, to have our actions match our words, the words of Jesus good news…. but we also acknowledge that none of us is perfect, but here still there is hope………. (taken from 365 days with the Lord, 2007).

 

let us allow Jesus words, his good news, his invitation into a new and heroic way of living draw us deeper into the way of living that matches these words……    and if we look inside our lives and see ourselves falling short in this aspect of the Word or that, Jesus invites us to not lose hope, but to continue to proclaim his word, allowing his word to draw any gaps or inconsistencies ever smaller until, with God’s grace, there is little or no inconsistency…… This of course, is a journey of a lifetime, but in faith, we allow Jesus to take us along this unfamiliar path.       

 

And again, on this Sunday, we give praise to Jesus, our first and greatest teacher and preacher, whose gracious words matched so perfectly with his life and his actions… and whose words continue to be fulfilled in 2007 in our hearing.

 

Epiphany

On this feast of the Epiphany, we celebrate that God’s glory has been reveled to all the nations….  not just the chosen people of Israel but people from every corner of the earth…  of every nation and race…..    generations of people….God’s revelation, God’s invitation is for all people of all times and places….

 

Saint Paul puts it so nicely….   “god had a secret plan…  formed before all ages… and that plan is now revealed and it is this…..’ in Christ Jesus, the Gentiles, people from other religious and cultural backgrounds and nations, are now CO-HEIRS with the Chosen people of Israel, members of one and the same body….  sharers in the promise of God, through the proclamation of the good news…” 

 

Are we becoming one human family, (one commentary (365 Days with the Lord) asks rather relevantly)?    hard to answer….   in some ways, yes., technology, communication, transport, aid to needy nations, multinationals, globalization (which means so much – good and bad)   we are part of something much bigger than the local…. and yet.. in other areas….    nations breaking up into factions, social, ethnic groups, wars, strife…… poverty and starvation in poor developing nations……    the jury is out on how far God’s dream for the world is being fulfilled, so far… but it is not for want of God’s desire, God’s work, God’s calling…..

 

I was given this poem to read the other day….  and it is so very topical to this feast….  it’s the poem by TS eliot….  entitled the “journey of the Magi”…. the commentary says of this poem, but the famous writer, best known perhaps for his poems which formed the inspiration for the musical by Andrew Llyody webber, Cats,  but the commentary says …..  This poem is not one of Eliots most famous….  but it is a very good example of plain and direct language… and very well illustrates the complex and mixed emotions and issues going on for the author prior to his conversion to Christianity …….(“80 Great Poems, From Chaucer to Now”   Geoff Page. UNSW PRESS. Sydney, 2006).

 

in this poem, the Journey of the Magi, he writes..

 

T. S. Eliot's "Journey of The Magi"

 

'A cold coming we had of it,

Just the worst time of the year

For a journey, and such a long journey:

The ways deep and the weather sharp,

The very dead of winter.'

And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,

Lying down in the melting snow.

 

There were times we regretted

The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,

…………………………..And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,

And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly

And the villages dirty and charging high prices:

A hard time we had of it.

At the end we preferred to travel all night,

Sleeping in snatches,

With the voices singing in our ears, saying

That this was all folly.

 

…..Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,

Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,

And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.

But there was no information, and so we continued

And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon

Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

 

All this was a long time ago, I remember,

And I would do it again, but set down

This set down

This: “were we led all that way for

Birth or Death?” There was a Birth, certainly,

We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,

But, had thought they were different;

this Birth was Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death,// our death. //

We returned to our places,// these Kingdoms, //

But no longer at ease here,// in the old dispensation, //

With an alien people clutching their gods.

I should be glad of another death.

   

This poet, Eliot, captures something about the journey of the wise men… it is our journey… its out journey of life… its our religious pilgrimage through life….  its our journey to conversion and beyond…..

 

our journey of faith is not an easy one……    it is filled with challenges and obstacles….. and how many faith journeys have we heard where the critical, negative voices, the voices of doom, the critics, the people who make fun of the direction another needs to take……..     need to be ignored, endured….   moved beyond……….

 

the journey to conversion, the complete commitment of heart and head to Jesus good news..  is a real odyssey… like the journey of the Magi…….   it is like a death…. and a rising to new life…… and we, like the Magi, return to where we came, but by a new way…(in the bible…  a change of path symbolizes conversion……     and how can .. and everything looks different, because jesus invites us to see it all though his eyes.. the eyes of the good news.. the lense of care for those most in need….. ..with the vision for inclusion of all…… how true it turns out to be in every sense…. “behtlehem…   by no means the least of all the cities…..  “like bethlehem….  at first glance.. seemingly slight and insignificant…   lesser…..  yet…  here is Jesus….    humble, vulnerable, poor…..   the poor and the forgotten, may appear insignificant in Jesus time and even our own time, but it is through them that the Lord is coming.”   (from Gustavo Gutierezz, Sharing the word through the Liturgical year).  The Magi realized this and it changed everything.