Holy Thursday 2007

HOLY THURSDAY  -  2007

 

Cardinal Jean Danielou, in his book entitled “Prayer. The mission of the church”, states that the basic reality of life centres around LOVE.   He writes: “ because of the relationship of persons that exists within God, and then between God and us, and finally among us….all things come down to the following three realities……. ‘God is love; God loves US (and we are in a relation of love with God); and finally, we must love one another, lay down our lives for each other.  If we base our lives on these three realities, they acquire infinite meaning; and whatever ups-and-downs in life may arise, we will always be encompassed by love.”

 

Tonight’s gospel reading is all about love….. love is GIVEN, LOVE RECEIVED; LOVE IS ESTABLISHED AND ENJOINED…  

 

ON THE EVE of his passion and death, Jesus did what every human being does, on the point of death… he zeroes in on what is ESSENTIAL in life. One could never improve on what he did and said and gave us on that tragic evening.   ( taken from 365 days with the lord)

+++

There is something very beautiful about the three holy days………. of Holy Thursday…. Good Friday and Holy Saturday….   known as the Sacred Triduum……

 

Our liturgy over these three days shows this most profoundly….. these three ceremonies are not three distinct liturgies……….. they are the one seamless garment of a single liturgy…   extended and stretched through time over three days…..

 

this is shown by the fact that this ceremony tonight does not have a specific ending…(no final blessing…not the usual sign of the cross at the end… no words of dismissal ………but rather… it simply trails off into silent vigil…..  only to softly Fade back up at ….. tomorrows good Friday ceremony… continuing where it leave off tonight…….…without any real introduction….no defined greeting…..   since it is merely a continuation of what we begin tonight….  and it again trails off into expectant silence….  only to re-gather without any specific beginning on Holy Saturday night……     one single liturgy… over three days……   it is unique in the church’s calendar… and rightly so……

 

and so to tonight’s readings………TIME AND TIME AGAIN…..  WE HEAR JESUS OFFERING A RADICALLY DIFFERENT DEFINITION OF POWER….  OF AUTHORITY….. OR KINGSHIP…  OR VICTORY…. OR DOMINION……………OF LEADERSHIP……..   ….  IT STANDS IN DIRECT CONTRAST WITH THE WIDER WORLD’S STANDARD DEFINTION OF SUCH WORDS…..

 

My question tonight is this……..   Do you ever think the world will buy it?...........  the definition for these things…..   as Jesus defined them…..  evoked laughter and scorn in Jesus time…. and even more so today……

 

just try and tell the super powers that true power is revealed in weakness and in vulnerability……….   if we are not laughed at….  it may cause a reaction of fear……..  

 

the truth is….  we are all vulnerable….. we are all weakm deep down…….  and this is at the heart of Jesus message…. he is only saying what is profoundly true…. those who use power in terms of domination and oppression…   will do so very effectively…. very powerfully……    they may go through their whole lives showing that no one is stronger than they…..but underneath… they are still vulnerable….. still ever-vigilant against surprise assailants……..   because they are not and cannot be inherently secure…..    because they base their lives and their values on things that ultimately do not last…..

 

Jesus does not say that POWER and domination and oppressive tactics is not a seductive and attractive option…….   he faced the temptation to use force to do good…. but realized that this was a lie that must be resisted……… 

 

Jesus took all his energy and put it into the areas that were thoroughly authentic……..  he stood entirely and without armour…. on the truth of his relationship with God….. on the validity of his good news message…. and the absolute power of love, of graciousness, or forgiveness and of inclusion… and stood by that right to the end……. (and beyond)……  and it proved to be authentic….

 

  he showed that power…. is always a relationship….. that true leadership is about service…….  and that true community must be about including all others, and not about segregation and separation and silencing of minority voices out of fear……

 

Jesus established a kingdom where there is an open table …where all are welcome…..  this is a great mystery thought,   ..  an open table does not mean anything goes…..   there are values to be shared here… that must be shared by all…….   but there is also openness, dialogue, forgiveness, honesty, charitability, graciousness and inclusion…….    these are not just the table manners expected….but somehow these values become the way of living in everyday life as well…….  

 

and again…  I cannot avoid coming back to the theme that echoes in my head every year…..    the image of a table where everyone sits down…  is an image of reconciliation…  it is impossible to sit down and share a meal with someone at the saem table when we are fighting…..  when we are alienated… and at war….. to sit down and share a meal…   not only share food…   requires of each of us a melting of grudges…. and a putting aside of hurts…….   to eat as equals…who share a common space, a common condition… and a common roof…….

 

as we allow Jesus, the one who comes among us not as master, but as friend….. and who is amongst us as one who serves…… to wash our feet as a sign of service and humility……   let us affirm the Christian definition of some very special words….

 POWER….  (a respectful relationship)……OF AUTHORITY (truth and integrity, respect and mutuality)….. OR KINGSHIP…  and leadership (service, love),……VICTORY…  (through sacrifice and love)……. OR DOMINION…… (by graciousness and gentleness)…..

 

Pope's world youth day message 2007

MESSAGE OF THE HOLY FATHER

BENEDICT XVI

TO THE YOUTH OF THE WORLD

ON THE OCCASION

OF THE 22nd WORLD YOUTH DAY, 2007

 

 

 

“Just as I have loved you, you also

should love one another” (Jn 13:34).

 

 

 

My dear young friends,

 

On the occasion of the 22nd World Youth Day that will be celebrated in the dioceses on Palm Sunday, I would like to propose for your meditation the words of Jesus: “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (Jn 13:34).

 

Is it possible to love?

 

Everybody feels the longing to love and to be loved. Yet, how difficult it is to love, and how many mistakes and failures have to be reckoned with in love! There are those who even come to doubt that love is possible. But if emotional delusions or lack of affection can cause us to think that love is utopian, an impossible dream, should we then become resigned? No! Love is possible, and the purpose of my message is to help reawaken in each one of you - you who are the future and hope of humanity-, trust in a love that is true, faithful and strong; a love that generates peace and joy; a love that binds people together and allows them to feel free in respect for one another. Let us now go on a journey together in three stages, as we embark on a “discovery” of love.

 

God, the source of love

 

The first stage concerns the source of true love. There is only one source, and that is God. Saint John makes this clear when he declares that “God is love” (1 Jn 4: 8,16).  He was not simply saying that God loves us, but that the very being of God is love. Here we find ourselves before the most dazzling revelation of the source of love, the mystery of the Trinity: in God, one and triune, there is an everlasting exchange of love between the persons of the Father and the Son, and this love is not an energy or a sentiment, but it is a person; it is the Holy Spirit.

 

The Cross of Christ fully reveals the love of God

 

How is God-Love revealed to us? We have now reached the second stage of our journey. Even though the signs of divine love are already clearly present in creation, the full revelation of the intimate mystery of God came to us through the Incarnation when God himself became man. In Christ, true God and true Man, we have come to know love in all its magnitude. In fact, as I wrote in the Encyclical Deus caritas est, “the real novelty of the New Testament lies not so much in new ideas as in the figure of Christ himself, who gives flesh and blood to those conceptsCan unprecedented realism” (n. 12). The manifestation of divine love is total and perfect in the Cross where, we are told by Saint Paul, “God proves his love for us in that while we still were sinners Christ died for us” (Rm 5:8). Therefore, each one of us can truly say: “Christ loved me and gave himself up for me” (cf Eph 5:2). Redeemed by his blood, no human life is useless or of little value, because each of us is loved personally by Him with a passionate and faithful love, a love without limits. The Cross, - for the world a folly, for many believers a scandal-, is in fact the “wisdom of God” for those who allow themselves to be touched right to the innermost depths of their being, “for God’s foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God’s weakness is stronger than human strength” (1 Cor 1:25). Moreover, the Crucifix, which after the Resurrection would carry forever the marks of his passion, exposes the “distortions” and lies about God that underlie violence, vengeance and exclusion. Christ is the Lamb of God who takes upon himself the sins of the world and eradicates hatred from the heart of humankind. This is the true “revolution” that He brings about: love.

 

Loving our neighbour as Christ loves us

 

Now we have arrived at the third stage of our reflection. Christ cried out from the Cross: “I am thirsty” (Jn 19:28). This shows us his burning thirst to love and to be loved by each one of us. It is only by coming to perceive the depth and intensity of such a mystery that we can realise the need and urgency to love him as He has loved us. This also entails the commitment to even give our lives, if necessary, for our brothers and sisters sustained by love for Him. God had already said in the Old Testament: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself” (Lev 19:18), but the innovation introduced by Christ is the fact that to love as he loves us means loving everyone without distinction, even our enemies, “to the end” (cf Jn 13:1).

 

Witnesses to the love of Christ

 

I would like to linger for a moment on three areas of daily life where you, my dear young friends, are particularly called to demonstrate the love of God. The first area is the Church, our spiritual family, made up of all the disciples of Christ. Mindful of his words: “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn 13:35), you should stimulate, with your enthusiasm and charity, the activities of the parishes, the communities, the ecclesial movements and the youth groups to which you belong. Be attentive in your concern for the welfare of others, faithful to the commitments you have made. Do not hesitate to joyfully abstain from some of your entertainments;  cheerfully accept the necessary sacrifices; testify to your faithful love for Jesus by proclaiming his Gospel, especially among young people of your age.

 

Preparing for the future

 

The second area, where you are called to express your love and grow in it, is your preparation for the future that awaits you. If you are engaged to be married, God has a project of love for your future as a couple and as a family. Therefore, it is essential that you discover it with the help of the Church, free from the common prejudice that says that Christianity with its commandments and prohibitions places obstacles to the joy of love and impedes you from fully enjoying the happiness that a man and woman seek in their reciprocal love. The love of a man and woman is at the origin of the human family and the couple formed by a man and a woman has its foundation in God’s original plan (cf Gen 2:18-25). Learning to love each other as a couple is a wonderful journey, yet it requires a demanding “apprenticeship”. The period of engagement, very necessary in order to form a couple, is a time of expectation and preparation that needs to be lived in purity of gesture and words. It allows you to mature in love, in concern and in attention for each other; it helps you to practise self-control and to develop your respect for each other. These are the characteristics of true love that does not place emphasis on seeking its own satisfaction or its own welfare. In your prayer together, ask the Lord to watch over and increase your love and to purify it of all selfishness. Do not hesitate to respond generously to the Lord’s call, for Christian matrimony is truly and wholly a vocation in the Church. Likewise, dear young men and women, be ready to say “yes” if God should call you to follow the path of ministerial priesthood or the consecrated life. Your example will be one of encouragement for many of your peers who are seeking true happiness.

 

Growing in love each day

 

The third area of commitment that comes with love is that of daily life with its multiple relationships. I am particularly referring to family, studies, work and free time. Dear young friends, cultivate your talents, not only to obtain a social position, but also to help others to “grow”. Develop your capacities, not only in order to become more “competitive” and “productive”, but to be “witnesses of charity”. In addition to your professional training, also make an effort to acquire religious knowledge that will help you to carry out your mission in a responsible way. In particular, I invite you to carefully study the social doctrine of the Church so that its principles may inspire and guide your action in the world. May the Holy Spirit make you creative in charity, persevering in your commitments, and brave in your initiatives, so that you will be able to offer your contribution to the building up of the “civilisation of love”. The horizon of love is truly boundless: it is the whole world!

 

“Dare to love” by following the example of the saints

 

My dear young friends, I want to invite you to “dare to love”. Do not desire anything less for your life than a love that is strong and beautiful and that is capable of making the whole of your existence a joyful undertaking of giving yourselves as a gift to God and your brothers and sisters, in imitation of the One who vanquished hatred and death forever through love (cf Rev 5:13). Love is the only force capable of changing the heart of the human person and of all humanity, by making fruitful the relations between men and women, between rich and poor, between cultures and civilisations. This is shown to us in the lives of the saints. They are true friends of God who channel and reflect this very first love. Try to know them better, entrust yourselves to their intercession, and strive to live as they did. I shall just mention Mother Teresa. In order to respond instantly to the cry of Jesus, “I thirst”, a cry that had touched her deeply, she began to take in the people who were dying on the streets of Calcutta in India. From that time onward, the only desire of her life was to quench the thirst of love felt by Jesus, not with words, but with concrete action by recognising his disfigured countenance thirsting for love in the faces of the poorest of the poor. Blessed Teresa put the teachings of the Lord into practice: “Just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me” (Mt 25:40). The message of this humble witness of divine love has spread around the whole world.

 

The secret of love

 

Each one of us, my dear friends, has been given the possibility of reaching this same level of love, but only by having recourse to the indispensable support of divine Grace. Only the Lord’s help will allow us to keep away from resignation when faced with the enormity of the task to be undertaken. It instills in us the courage to accomplish that which is humanly inconceivable. Above all, the Eucharist is the great school of love. When we participate regularly and with devotion in Holy Mass, when we spend a sustained time of adoration in the presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, it is easier to understand the length, breadth, height and depth of his love that goes beyond all knowledge (cf Eph 3:17-18). By sharing the Eucharistic Bread with our brothers and sisters of the Church community, we feel compelled, like Our Lady with Elizabeth, to render “in haste” the love of Christ into generous service towards our brothers and sisters.

 

Towards the encounter in Sydney

 

On this subject, the recommendation of the apostle John is illuminating: “Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. And by this we will know that we are from the truth” (1 Jn 3: 18-19). Dear young people, it is in this spirit that I invite you to experience the next World Youth Day together with your bishops in your respective dioceses. This will be an important stage on the way to the meeting in Sydney where the theme will be: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you will be my witnesses” (Acts 1:8). May Mary, the Mother of Christ and of the Church, help you to let that cry ring out everywhere, the cry that has changed the world: “God is love!” I am together with you all in prayer and extend to you my heartfelt blessing.

 

From the Vatican, 27 January 2007

 

BENEDICTUS PP. XVI

extra

Hi again,

the following links are to the Vatican museum and Borghese Villa sites, further to my previous email log. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vatican_Museums

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michelangelo_Merisi_da_Caravaggio

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gian_Lorenzo_Bernini

 

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2005/02/15/davinci050215.html

 

http://artxchangenetwork.com/gallery%5CC%5CCaravaggio_Michaelangelo_Merisi_da%5CCaravaggio_St_Jerome2.jpg

 

I have also updated some extra pictures on my photo log:  www.mysteriousthree.com

regards,

PK

Lent Five year C 25th March 2007

This is surely one of the most beautiful Gospel passes in all of Scripture. It is as if this one account of how Jesus actually treated this woman gives a clear picture of the whole meaning of the Gospel.

 

There is no doubt that the woman is guilty as charged. There is no doubt about what the law said to do with her. Jesus, however, puts the whole relationship of sin and punishment into a new light: mercy and compassion.

In God’s eyes, it is never just about the law and justice and how we have acted in relation to that…..  Jesus, time and time again has reminded us that we are whole human beings…..    and Jesus calls us to wholeness…..   so we do not do ourselves much good focusing on actions or even sins unless we see them in the broader context of who we are as humans created by God in love………….  Its also about love and mercy and compassion….

                                                  

Perhaps many of us believe that we also would like to live that mercy and compassion in our lives. Lent is the time to reflect on our own relationships with others. We no longer (in this country) …..stone people for breaking religious laws, but let’s face it…. There are other ways of striking people down for their mistakes and sins and weaknesses………..   we have probably all seen examples where a persons’ sin or weaknesses have been thrown back in their face by others…  even in situations where the sin or weakness is actually not relevant at all the issue at hand…….   A person’s fault and sins….are a powerful sword that is all-too-tempting for people to use against them.

 

Lent is a time to reflect on our own calling to live as Jesus Christ lived: with love and compassion for everyone and for all creation. What an enormous challenge!

Whenever we might be tempted to reject another person, we could benefit from thinking of this Gospel passage and realize that we actually condemn ourselves if we reject others. This kind of thinking clearly does not condone the sin. Just as Jesus is clear at the end of this Gospel passage: “Go, and from now on do not sin any more.” There is no sense that what the woman has done is acceptable— (although we often rightly ask….  Where is the other party… this situation is terribly unjust… the woman is being brought forward for punishment whilst the man is nowhere to be seen…….)……

 

In any case….the woman herself is a child of God and needs love and compassion.

How many situations today reflect the need for clear moral thinking. Today everyone is afraid to say out loud: “this or that action is immoral!” We are constrained by the cultural thinking of our present age. Our Catholic teaching, however, is clear. Some actions are objectively wrong and it would be not good to water that down……. Today, so many of us are ill at ease in speaking like this. We don’t want to reject anyone—and that basic instinct of not rejecting anyone is a good and sound instinct.

In the Gospel, Jesus is not afraid to call a sin what it is. Yet a clear idea of what is right and what is wrong…..   a clear sense of sin in no way leads to a rejection of the person……… Jesus does not reject this woman. We are challenged in Lent to find ways to speak clearly about immorality and immoral actions and yet not reject other people. This is not easy to accomplish.

 

In fact,  I have a little test I often ask myself……    if you can’t say it with love and positively….don’t say it at all… it will do no good…….   Can’t say I always follow my own advice…..  but it is a reminder of the message of this gospel…. There is more at stake than right and wrong… there is ultimately our relationship with a loving God and our relationshiop with others who are all loved by God as indeed we are ………..

 

In the first reading from the Prophet Isaiah, we could even say that learning to speak clearly and yet with compassion and mercy, is a way of announcing the praise of God.

If we look at the second reading from the Letter to the Philippians, we can honestly say that we must keep our eyes on the goal, which is living in Christ Jesus and living as He lived in every aspect of our life. We will encounter a cost and certainly a fair degree of pain,  for trying to live as Jesus lived, but we will also be transformed.

Let us pray today for a deepening of the gift of faith in our lives and for the gift of being able to give witness to our faith by speaking the truths of our faith, but always with compassion and mercy. May God help us! May we hear the and live the words of Jesus in our lives: “Neither do I condemn you.”

 

 

(Taken from the Abbot’s homily –with additions by myself) http://christdesert.org/)

LENT WEEK FOUR YEAR C PRODIGAL

LENT – WEEK FOUR – YEAR C- 18^TH MARCH 2007.

PRODIGAL –

 

Each week, the scene changes on the high altar.. to reflect the gospel of the day… this weekend.. we see the moment when Father and son are re-united… in a heartful embrace…. a hug of joy… of love….  of all encompassing inclusion….. where hurts are forgotten, apology speeches are left unfinished…. and all that seems to matter is love….  and joy……    and what lies ahead…  not the sad road that lies behind them……

 

the true tragedy of this parable is that the older son.. so terribly hurt by the younger sons actions… and his father’s seeming non appreciation…  has lost the ability to rejoice with love and joy when something truly amazing was happening…..     I wonder if the older brother had seen this moment of embrace… if he had gotten caught up in the father and the younger son’s reunion… if the father had grabbed him too and brought him into the hug…..   would he have melted too…   as so many do, under the overwhelming love of the father.. who we know is really God…..

 

This gospel is often known as the parable of the prodigal son….

 

you know what… I always thought that the word prodigal meant…….   something like disobedient…..  or off-the-rails  ….  or…..   lost…..  I was very surprised to learn that the word prodigal…..     comes from the same derivation as the word prodigious…  meaning  enormous…..  extraordinary in size, amount, extent, degree, force, one often hears of an artist or a musician whose talent is prodigious…….   

 

so .. the parable, (if we accept that title for it … and there are many other titles we could call it)…..    the “prodigal son” is…  the story about the enormously reckless, extravagaent  and wasteful son…….  

 

but, something has just occurred to me as I look at this (all-too-familiar) story……..    the recklessness of the son pales by comparison with the reckless, extravagaent and enormously generous actions of the FATHER….

 

this is certainly a story of conversion…..   which also shows that even if we (even just) begin to move back towards right relationship with our loving God… God will pelt down the road to meet us, before we have hardly come into sight…..before we have hardly begun to say sorry let alone mean it or feel the full effects of it…….

 

It is probably why that amazing picture painted by Michaelangelo on the Sistine chapel in rome is so central to the whole scene…..   it is picture of Adam, the first created person…    his reclining…  his hand hardly lifting… and God..by contrast straining and stretching fully to touch his hand and fill him with life and grace…….   God stretches beyond God’s reach…  we respond sometimes with the merest lift of an ambivalent hand…..

 

The ‘wandering and wasteful spending son (in today’s Gospel) is transformed into a loving son by the generous and unimaginable forgiveness of his father…… and through a banquet… not to celebrate or to reward him for his mistakes… but a banquet that symbolizes the re-birth….. the res-establsihment of the young man as the son of his father…..

 

The most extraordinary thing about this gospel story.. and it has not hit me quite like this before now……  is that the father… (and Jesus) seems to be saying….

 

you want to be reckless… you want to be wasteful…  fine…  but its just a shame you chose the wrong priorities….    if only you could be extravagant and wasteful in the following things..

 

absolutely reckless in forgiveness….  forgive extravagantly…   forgive even when you wonder if you should…  forgive even when it is not merited……..     cancel debts when it is against ones better judgement…    be utterly reckless in forgiving…..

 

give… of time and of talent… even to those who – on pausing – one might be able to say… but what have they done to deserve it…    who cares… give anyway…. 

 

love…   even when its not deserved… even when its thrown back in your face……   be extravagaent in love……..

 

The prodigal son’s mistake was that he was wasteful in possessions and spending and apparently drinking and partying and all manner of material things until he had nothing left……..   he should have been extravagant.,..  as should his older brother… in helping and supporting his father on the farm…  above and beyond the call of duty…   utterely wasteful in time and generosity….     utterly uniniterested in getting back something for the price of it….  

 

Be ….reckless in loving….  reckless in forgiveness….  ridiculously generous in support, encouragement, forgiveness, praise and love….

 

the father was…..   Jesus the son followed in his footsteps…..  and suffered terribly for it….  but you know what…   I reckon it was worth it ……

 

 

 

 

++++

 

is it your will that your child be accepted into the extravagant and unconditional love of God the father?

 

is it your will that your child be baptized into the faith of the church which we have professed with you?

 

 

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."