Paul's Reflections 27th June, 2010 Thirteenth Sunday of the Year - C

27th June, 2010      Thirteenth Sunday of the Year - C

 

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The gospel this weekend shows various people coming up to Jesus and giving reasons why they can’t follow him immediately, but why they say they intend to follow him as soon as possible.

 

I think the key to this gospel is the first words of the passage….  “as the time grew near for Jesus to be taken up to heaven.”   In other words…  there was no time left…. There was an absolute urgency and immediacy to Jesus’ last days. There was no time but the present and there wasn’t time for hesitations and excuses and delays…. It was now or never……  so…  the reasons given by people may have been good.. they may have been weak, but they must not be allowed to stop the mission of Christ from being accomplished… one needs to get their priorities right…

 

It is a reminder that, when it comes to thinking of reasons to put off the urgent demands of the gospel of Jesus…  the requirements that go along with calling ourselves ‘followers of Jesus,’  there are weak excuses and also fairly good excuses for not putting Jesus’ message first…. But that irrespective of the reasons… Jesus’ gospel has an urgency that demands first priority…….    And we must not let the many reasons frustrate that plan… because there will always be good reasons to put off until tomorrow (or later) what really needs to be done today….  And of course.. tomorrow may never come….

 

We are also reminded not to spend out time looking back to the past…..  There is an example of a person who sold their property….  Their home was so nicely kept…  esp the gardens…   after this person sold their property… they made the mistake of continuing to drive past their old property to see how it was going.. and it was going badly… the new owners were trashing the property… it looked terrible……   it must have been heartbreaking….  It would have been better to move on.. look forward keep going… not look back…..

 

Similarly… there is the true story of a Russian Olympian who was given all sorts of special privileges.. such as a Mercedes and the likes, for being an Olympic champion… but they wanted to defect to the west….   When they finally decided to do so… it was only by literally turning their back on their car and their priveleges and moving forward with the only possessions they had in the world being the small suitcase they carried….  If they had tried to take anything more it would have alerted the authorities and the plan would have failed and ended tragically… 

 

The gospel today also raises the really important question of the extent to which we are capable of fooling ourselves…  and self-deceiving ourselves…   it can be a very subtle but effective thing….  Jesus wants us to be honest and clearsighted about our lives and our motives and priorities… it can be so easy to be self-indulgent but gloss over this by making up all sorts of noble excuses and reasons…. Which really are not authentic… 

 

Let us never underestimate the power of self deception…  it is in opposition to the light and openness and generosity of the gospel of Jesus…

 

Connected to this..  I have been reading on the subject of self-deception.. because it is such a powerful dynamic in the lives of so many…  one book, entitled “don’t believe everything you think… the six basic mistakes we make in thinking….   ‘ says that , on the whole.. people prefer stories over statistics…..   people often seek to confirm their own ideas as opposed to question their ideas…..   we rarely appreciate the role of coincidence in shaping our lives….  We sometimes misperceive the world around us…  we often tend to oversimplify our thinking and even if we think we have a good memory…  we often have faulty or selective memories…… 

 

The more we can accept that we have a tendency to self-deceive and self-justify., the more we will be open to Jesus’ call to follow him and place our priorities at his service… and be wary of the trap of self-serving justifications…

 

 

 

 

 

 

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REFERENCES:

 

·          FR. PAUL W. KELLY

·          MISSION 2000  – PRAYING SCRIPTURE IN A CONTEMPORARY WAY. YEAR c. BY MARK LINK S.J.

·          2010 – A BOOK OF GRACE-FILLED DAYS. BY ALICE CAMILLE.

·          SHARING THE WORD THROUGH THE LITURGICAL YEAR. GUSTAVO GUTIERREZ.

 

 

 

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Fr. Paul W. Kelly

Parish Priest of Saint Mary's Catholic Parish, Maryborough.

269 Adelaide Street

Maryborough Queensland

Australia. 4650

 

Office:  (07) 4121 3701

Fax: (07) 4121 2829

 

Fr Paul's Mobile Phone:  041 778 6456

Please visit our website: www.marycatholic.com

 

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Paul's Reflections 12th Sunday Ordinary Time C. 20th June, 2010 .

20th June, 2010      12th Sunday Ordinary Time C

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There is a really beautiful line in the first reading….  It is striking and wonderful……….   “I shall pour out (upon the people)  a spirit of kindness and prayer…..”    (or…..  as another translation says…  “compassion and supplication.”      Or as yet another version says,….  “I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer”…..   and repentance…. “  It is a reminder that God always takes the initiative…   and has created within us a new “interior attitude” of attentiveness to God, of graciousness.. pleasant-ness…. And forgiveness …….  Which others can sense and to which they are inspired to respond positively.

Continuing on from what I was saying last week….  Our prayer must include contemplation upon the person and message of Jesus…. And this shows in the Gospel today…..   Jesus is in deep, solitude and prayer….  And from within this space of prayer comes his question to his disciples….   Who do people say I am….  Who do you say I am….   Who am I…..  you must know who I am and what I am doing…… 

Once he has made that point… he goes on… who I am.. what I am doing necessarily means the way of the Cross….  Who I am is the one who must walk the way of Calvary… and so must anyone who follows me……

And, as the first reading says…  prayer and compassion and forgiveness must go together… or else its distorted….  Prayer shows us the one who suffers because of the values God has and because of the opposing values of the world that others can have…

The power of Christ’s Cross is a constant challenge to our thinking and understanding….  How can the way of the CROSS be the way to fullness of truth and life……  it seems such a difficult concept to grasp and handle…..

But we believe the path of the Cross is the power and wisdom of God……  

We know by bitter experience… that for some reason God does not remove the crosses that we carry in life…. (God the loving father could not even remove the cross from his own beloved son’s shoulders…..   because it was necessary that he walked this path…………// God does not remove these crosses ,,, but its not because God wants us to suffer… not that suffering can’t be something that threatens to destroy us and destroy our hope…..   /  but what God always does in answer to our crosses… is to pour out his grace and love upon us….   To transform what we are experiencing ..  (by God’s faithfulnes and love)… to assure us that God is there with us .. especially in times of suffering and trial….   

Jesus’  message of the Cross reminds us that “God has a vivid memory for the least and most forgotten people.” – the people at their lowest…  those who are bowed down…..

God is wanting to affirm life and  be faithful to us especially when poverty, violence or tragedy are sowing death.”  

IF God does not appear to stop some of the tragedies and suffering and crosses in life, God certainly takes away the final meaning of these events and changes them into opportunity for grace, compassion and abiding love……… [Jesus said,]

Someone once wrote that

"God uses broken things….//

It takes broken soil to produce a crop,

broken clouds to give rain,

broken grain to give bread,

broken bread to give strength.

It is a broken alabaster jar

that gives forth perfume....

It is Peter weeping bitterly,

who returns to greater power."

True spiritual strength

lies not in holding on to things

but in letting go of them. (Writer: Vance Havner)

Only by "letting go and letting God"

can we open ourselves

to a greater power than our own.

The paradox of Christianity is, indeed,

we are strongest when we are weakest. Even if this is so challenging to know and understand.

May the Lord give us the courage to let go and give GOD total control of my life.  This does not mean we lose responsibility of our lives and actions and choices….  We still need to cooperate, but we become a willing sailing boat… open to the direction the Spirit leads us to …filling our sails and guiding us where God wants….  

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REFERENCES:

FR. PAUL W. KELLY

MISSION 2000  – PRAYING SCRIPTURE IN A CONTEMPORARY WAY. YEAR C. BY MARK LINK S.J.

SHARING THE WORD THROUGH THE LITURGICAL YEAR. GUSTAVO GUTIERREZ.

Paul's Reflections 13th June, 2010 11th Sunday Ordinary time C

13th June, 2010      11th Sunday Ordinary time C

 

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The beautiful image in today’s Gospel of the woman anointing Jesus with her tears, and with perfumed oil……   it must have been an extraordinary sight…  It is such a powerful incident that it is one of the very few events that are recounted, (in one form or another), in every one of the Gospels.  

 

So much is happening in this incident….  But not in words……    but in actions and gestures……  

 

The woman, who is apparently known as a sinful person, does this wonderful act of love and repentance and gratefulness…   with no words….   But it is clear that she knows that God loves her, she knows that she has been forgiven, and also that Jesus, who shows the love and forgiveness and welcome of God, will not turn her away….  But accepts this moving and humble act of reverence……….   She ‘gets it’  when others who are expert in the law, miss the point….   

 

In the silence…  her actions speak so much louder than words……   the lady Knows and understands Jesus message better than she can explain it in words……..   because Jesus’ message has inspired her to action.

 

Jesus, seems perfectly comfortable with this stillness and relative silence… broken only by the sobs of the woman….  Others watching it were clearly very uncomfortable and wondering what would happen and what Jesus’ reaction would be… but Jesus calmly, silently accepts this act of devotion in the spirit it was intended…. 

 

Jesus also invites the Pharisee to think about what he was doing…  why did he invite Jesus to this meal….  Why was he hosting a meal at all…  was it just a meaningless activity?   Was it just another excuse for a party?....  or was the meal what it always should be and what other things always could be…   a chance to engage with our fellow brothers and sisters and show real love and kindness and graciousness in practical hospitality and sharing of a meal…..  To Jesus, meals represented inclusion, love, kindness, reconciliation and forgiveness and so much more….

 

Our faith calls us to create times and places of stillness and silence…..  We live in a world…. In a society that is filled with noise and busyness……   there is hardly a time or a place when people stop and have silence and stillness….  And yet it is something we need more than ever….   You don’t have to look far (or listen far off) to hear a continuous stream of noise and music…  hustle and bustle…..  constant movement….   Mobile phones, internet…  // The party never seems to stop….   And I say that not as a party pooper…  not wanting to rain on anyone’s parade… but just to say… it’s always good for us all to just weigh up what is going on and what is being created……..    and whether the balance is being struck……//…. In a way, our world is at risk of being overstimulated….  And of course.. there would be some people whose lives are continually filled up with background music… and noise….   But there is a risk that God’s voice… found in the ‘sounds of silence’ and the ‘still small breeze’  could be effectively drowned out…. //….I can’t help but think of King David…  in today’s first reading…   He went off the rails….   He let his own personal desires and ‘wants’  to get the better of him…..   he pursued pleasure and self interest in such a horrible way that he deliberately put one of his soldiers in the thick of a battle (whilst staying home when he should have been out there with his troops)….  And the solider was killed, just so David could marry his wife…   it’s an horrific incident…   totally self-centred…  and God is shown as absolutely disgusted by this act of complete malice and selfishness….   But David repents.. and God forgives him.. not because David deserves it, not because he could ever make amends….   And not because David has earned his forgiveness… but simply by the nature of GOD’S love..  David must continue to face the consequences of his actions… but God chooses not to abandon him…  because of God’s goodness, not David’s.    David will spend the rest of his life facing the inner sinfulness that he can see in his heart…..   the huge gaps in his soul that have led to his terrible actions and lapses of judgement.

 

It is so important that our church and our faith provides us, and the wider community, with an oasis of stillness, prayer and silence…..   In fact, I wonder if it could be said… that our prayer life must also include regular (integral) space for silent and still meditation, lest we fail to leave room for the action and voice and surprising re-directions that God can be creating in our lives……   the precondition and essential element of a holistic prayer life must be not only classic prayers and words but silence and deep contemplation on the nature and person of God… and God’s values and priorities.

 

There is a time for everything, says the bible…..  so there is a time for busyness…   laughter…  light-heartedness and celebration……… it’s the spice of life……but we have to be careful not to ‘over-season’….. //  And  at times, one wonders if we as a society are stuck in hyper-drive….//    rolling from one good time to the next with almost a desperation…  like people who are playing musical chairs..  frantic not to miss out if the music stops………   rambling in an aimless kind of fashion…. With parties for little or no reason but just to fill the gap…….  Disconnected from the integrated pattern of life and discipleship that we are presented with by Jesus….    Unaware of our absolute need for God, and for forgiveness and for God’s love…….. and replacing it with self-actualisation…. Jesus reminds us that there are parts of his message and God’s will for us that are not all “good times”…..  and none of us have it all together.. so there is a need to, (with God’s loving/ guiding hand to reassure us, heal us, encourage and forgive us)….face the wounded areas, the gaps and the unpleasant parts of our lives…. with courage….

 

As parts of our modern society roll from one party to the next, one busy thing to the next, never daring to pause, lest it sense a gap, something missing….  A void…….. Jesus invites his disciples to be present in life, anchored to the values and actions that are substantial… and can stand up in the still, quiet, calm light of day.

 

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REFERENCES:

·       FR. PAUL W. KELLY

·       Phil Fox Rose

 

Paul's Reflections The Feast of the Body and Blood of CHrist

6th June, 2010      Corpus Christi - C

 

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This is such a beautiful feast day, the Body and Blood of Christ…. Or Corpus Christi, as it is also known…..

 

The Eucharist is so central to our church and to our faith…..

 

A priest I knew once described regular Eucharist as like the piers on a bridge….  With the bridge length our weekly lives….   We need that support to keep the whole thing standing…  on our journey….   We need regular supports along the whole length of our journey or it all caves in….

 

It’s so fitting to be celebrating this feast the weekend after our first communion and confirmation students have been fully initiated into the life of the church…  and the SIGN of their full initiation is that they receive communion…  and by receiving communion are ONE with Jesus … united with God… and united with us all .. ‘in communion” of heart and mind and soul with God and eachother….. 

 

I love to tell the First communion candidates that

“ There is only one thing better than first holy communion, and that is second holy communion, and there is only one thing better than second holy communion and that is third….. this sacrament does not make sense if this is the first and last time you ever come to communion… this is starting a pattern that calls you to participate in the community of the church regularly, to experience the fullness of your membership as a disciple of Jesus.”

 

God comes to us in a tangible… ‘touchable’ form and that is a gift of priceless value that we need to cherish by participating in regularly….

 

I remember when I was only about five or six….  In church at Canberra…  even then, though I got a little confused about things….  I KNEW that Jesus came to us in the Mass..  and made his home in our hearts….   I may have mentioned before that I somewhat confusedly   thought that Jesus was released into our hearts when they went to open the tabernacle…  that Jesus was in there captive and at communion time they would go and unlock the tabernacle and Jesus would fly out and fill our hearts…  Well.. I didn’t connect that the host given and the cup handed to people was Jesus coming into our hearts..  in a real way..  as real nourishment…  it’s wonderful that God knows that we are physical beings who need tangible ways of connecting to God who is bigger than we can see or touch…. 

 

The other thing I remember as a little child was the words of the priest…  “the lord be with you…  and also with you…. Lift up your hearts…”  and I, as a five year old would strain to lift up my chest as high as I could…  I wanted to lift up my heart to the lord SOOO  high……   

 

Even as adults…  we want to lift up our hearts and lives to the Lord…  we have so much to be grateful for…  inlcuding our parents and grandparents and other influential family members and friends who by their lives and their example have done what saint Paul has done in the second reading…   We hand on what we in turn have had handed on to us … the message of Jesus.. the gift of Holy Communion….  And membership as God’s sons and daughters…..    May the blessings of the sacrament fill our hearts and lives… so that what we profess with our lips will be proclaimed by the loving ways we live our lives…..   We become what we eat…  as we take in the Body and Blood of Christ, we become more and more the body of Christ ….  A real sacrament and sign of God’s constant care and presence amongst us….always…

 

 

 

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REFERENCES:

 

·          FR. PAUL W. KELLY

 

 

Paul's Reflections 23th May, 2010 Pentecost Sunday - C

23th May, 2010      Pentecost Sunday - C

 

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The Gospel today, from Saint John, tells us about the coming of the Holy Spirit.  It is clear again that these early followers were hiding behind closed doors, feeling very, very fearful.  The coming of the Holy Spirit takes their fears away.  These first followers seem to need peace, because that is the first greeting of the Lord to them:  Peace be with you!  May we (too) know the peace of Jesus in our own lives!  With peace comes the capacity to forgive the sins of others.  This forgiveness is clearly a gift of the Lord who loves us.  This gift is given to each of us individually and also to the Church, through its ministry. 

 

At the heart of our Christian life, fear is taken away, peace and forgiveness are given.  May we dispel the fears of others and proclaim the peace and forgiveness given to us in Jesus. 

 

In the first reading too…   the disciples were (again) described as being fearful……  They were still afraid to speak publicly and to proclaim Jesus to others… even though they now knew he was Risen and Ascended to the Heavenly Father.  They had to wait for the Holy Spirit to take hold of them and give them courage in the face of doubt, persecution, ridicule and rejection.  Perhaps at times we too may be shy about proclaiming our faith in the Lord Jesus.  Perhaps today we can pray for this Spirit to come on us and to give us courage so that our faith becomes so much a part of ourselves that its so natural and easy to speak of our faith, in an unforced manner.

 

Our gifts are different, each person having different gifts.  We need all the gifts that each person has so that we can continue the work of Christ in our world.  How different our world looks when we begin to recognize that each person brings his or her own gifts and that we need those gifts to live in the fullness of Jesus Christ. 

 

In the front of the newsletter..  I have placed one of my favourite quotes about the Holy Spirit…  there is something about this text that I do believe captures the truth about the power and action of the Holy Spirit in our lives…..   it is by the brilliant Jesuit writer, Karl Rahner……….  He writes:  “ Did we ever do a kindness to a person from whom we could not expect as much of a shadow of gratitude or appreciation, while at the same time we had not even the compensation of feeling that we had acted unselfishly or decently in doing so?  Let us look into our lives, then, and see if we can discover whether any such experience ever came our way. If we find that it did, we may be sure that the spirit was at work within us then, and eternity and ourselves had a brief encounter, that the spirit means more than an ingredient in the make-up of a transient world. That explains the remarkable lives of the saints… They know well that God’s grace can also bless the dull round of daily tasks well done, and bring the doers a step nearer to God…. When we Christians… experience the action of the spirit, it means that we are, in point of fact, having contact with the supernatural, although that contact may be scarcely perceptible.” (Karl Rahner SJ, 1904-1984, In Belief Today, 40-41).

 

 

I love that quote…. Because to me it says very powerfully, and in an example that is very ‘everyday’ and unexceptional, that we KNOW the Spirit is at work in our lives especially when the love and sacrifice we show is clearly coming from a loving hand bigger than our own lives and our own limited motives and actions 

 

When we do actions that are loving and unselfish, we are deeply aware that there is a power and a loving presence at work in us that is outside of just ourselves.  ….Transcending our limitations … and not explainable by our own actions… but bigger, ……. And “of which are just a cooperating part….” 

It is God, …. It is God’s Spirit at work in and through us.  At work in the world.   A power of unselfish, sacrificing love and service. Unconditional love. That is at the heart of creation.

 

Finally…  just an interesting insight that I hadn’t thought of before…  we often read this text about how (after the Spirit descended) people of different languages and cultures could all hear and understand….. but what is interesting is…   the people were not speaking the same language… they were still speaking in the language of those different cultures…..  but even so… they could understand….  This is a reminder that the Spirit brings not uniformity, but diversity and variety…. But we are all one in that diversity, because the common language we speak is the language of God… and that is LOVE….. 

 

 

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REFERENCES:

 

·       FR. PAUL W. KELLY

·       MISSION 2000  – PRAYING SCRIPTURE IN A CONTEMPORARY WAY. YEAR B. BY MARK LINK S.J.

·       SHARING THE WORD THROUGH THE LITURGICAL YEAR. GUSTAVO GUTIERREZ.

·       MONASTERY OF CHRIST IN THE DESERT. ABBOT’S HOMILY.

 

 

Paul's Reflections 16th May, 2010 Ascension - C

16th May, 2010      Ascension - C

 

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Today’s feast of the Ascension is really the fulfilment of God’s ultimate promise to us……   and the hope of our final destiny….  To be WITH God in Heaven, forever……

 

Jesus, (ascending to Heaven to be with the Father, from whom he came) promises that he will come and make us part of his Father’s Heavenly house…. When our earthly life is completed…..  the Virgin Mary’s Assumption (body and soul into heaven)  is the echo of what Christ has achieved in his Ascension.

 

Today’s feast is really the assurance that, as followers of Jesus,  we are all in the same boat….. 

 

Speaking of boats….  There is a story of a shipwreck at sea…..   and the survivors got into the only remaining life-raft…… //… they were in the liferaft for SO LONG that the ones in the front started calling themselves ‘the front row’  and the ones in the back called themselves ‘the back row.’   And they started organising their day around this reality….    

 

One day, the boat got a hole in it….  And started taking on water….   A person in the backrow said, ‘thank goodness the hole sprung up in the front…and not here in the back…...  Otherwise we would have been in trouble…….  “ 

 

Crazy!!!!

 

They forgot that they were IN THE SAME BOAT….  Our needs and future are interlinked…… 

 

The good news today is that WE ARE ALL IN THE SAME BOAT…  and its Jesus’ boat!!   Jesus is the captain, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and he is taking us on a journey that will end with the Father in Heaven……   Jesus promises to lead us through the blessings and challenges of life….  To the Father’s Kingdom../..

 

Jesus is returning to the Father…  but he is still with us through the Holy Spirit.  .. He now calls upon his disciples… upon us…  to keep his work going …..  to keep spreading his message of good news  and keep living and proclaiming the good news…

 

We are indeed all on the journey to the kingdom in its fullness….. and each of us are in the same boat… we are all brothers and sisters in God’s family…..

 

We often pray, for example in the Lord’s Prayer…  that “Thy Kingdom come”…..    But we are not praying that the world ends…..   we are, rather, praying for a new world where Jesus’ values are fully and completely revealed and lived and experienced…..  We want all of creation to be renewed and recreated in accordance with Jesus’ vision for the world….  All we do and say is directed to helping God’s Kingdom to be established in its fullness… 

 

If Jesus had not returned to the Father, we would still have been saying…   there is is there… or here he is here……   but now…  by returning to Heaven and sending the Holy Spirit to us ….  Jesus is NOW “all IN all”     and Jesus makes his home in our hearts and in our world.    All the while, we work to make our homes, our workplaces and our town into places of Christian values and action…  

 

Through our faithful following of Jesus, the spirit can help us to make Jesus present in the midst of the a reality made of selfishness, of undue privileges, of arrogance .. or political and religious power…. Of indifference towards the poor and of hunger,,,, Jesus ascension tells us …  don’t stand looking up in the clouds..  there is work to be done…  there is no time but the present…  Jesus was in a hurry to bring his ministry to all people….  He now entrusts his ministry to and through us…  there is no time to lose…  God wants us to be about his business…  right now… with the help of the Spirit…

 

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REFERENCES:

 

·        FR. PAUL W. KELLY

·        MISSION 2000  – PRAYING SCRIPTURE IN A CONTEMPORARY WAY. YEAR c. BY MARK LINK S.J.

·        2010 – A BOOK OF GRACE-FILLED DAYS. BY ALICE CAMILLE.

·        SHARING THE WORD THROUGH THE LITURGICAL YEAR. GUSTAVO GUTIERREZ.

 

Paul's Reflections 9th May, 2010 Sixth Sunday of Easter - C

9th May, 2010      Sixth Sunday of Easter - C

 

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This weekend, actually Saturday the  8^th May, its “VE Day”  anniversary….    In 1945, on the 8^th May, the World War II Allies formally accepted the unconditional surrender of the enemy Armed forces in Germany…. // it is reported that greater than one million people took to the streets to celebrate upon the news that the end had come to the European part of the war.  One could hardly comprehend the thanksgiving, joy and relief on this date…  although also all too aware of the enormous job still ahead and the enormous cost of fighting for freedom and for the values that we all cherish…..   It is so important to mark this day’s such as this.

 

This reminds me of a parable I recently read…   a young man goes to visit the war memorial in Canberra…  and he goes in to see the many, many lists of those who have given the ultimate sacrifice….  When he goes in… he sees an elderly man who is weeping uncontrollably….   He gently stands beside him and, after the elderly man regains his composure, the young man asks him, “is one of these your?.....    to which the elderly man relies…  “no!  All of them.” 

 

‘’

 

That is quite a moving thought. Jesus PRAYS that all shall be one, healed of division, etc. he prays that we might love as he loved..  and will all to be saved…..  

 

We pray that the Lord, and particularly the Holy Spirit which makes all of what we do effective./..  that we might HAVE the peace that only God can give….  That God will bless and strengthen us…  and help us to love as Jesus asked….

 

This weekend at the different masses, we have our young ones who are continuing their preparation to receive their Confirmation and first holy communion …..  

 Jesus encourages us to walk the path of love, and loving service……..Jesus walks along with us on our life journey… he is always interested to hear us tell him of our hopes, our fears… our disappointments and our failures… and he is there to reassure us and give us strength and to assure us that if we keep trusting in him, the love of God has the final word in our life….    and it lasts forever…..

 

whenever we gather at Mass, we come together as disciples and friends of Jesus and we break the bread and drink from the cup….and we believe that this is not just a SIGN of our connection to Jesus, that God forgives us, renews us and commissions us… we believe that Jesus comes to us in what looks like bread and wine, that Jesus is really present in this sacrament,  and that Jesus comes into our hearts and we become more and more part of Jesus’ life…. and then we go out into our daily lives to live his commandments to show love and care for each other…    

 

 

 

 

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REFERENCES:

 

·          FR. PAUL W. KELLY

·          MONASTERY OF CHRIST IN THE DESERT. ABBOT’S HOMILY.

 

Paul's Reflections Fifth Sunday of Easter - C

2nd May, 2010      Fifth Sunday of Easter - C

 

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The gospel this weekend, goes right to the heart of our discipleship…. 

 

Jesus tells us what it really means to BE a follower of his…..  to be someone who calls themselves “Christian”  a follower of the ways and values of Jesus the Christ.

 

And it is all about LOVE.  

 

Whatever else we might think being a Christian, a follower and friend of Jesus,  it is really all about LOVE.  God’s love for us, and our living of God’s love to all we meet. 

 

Above all, (above all our creeds, the ten commandments and every action and liturgy of the church) , love must be the foundation and the end to which all our efforts and actions are directed…. As St Paul so wonderfully put it once…   If I had the faith to move mountains…  and if I were to give up my body to boast…  but did not have love, it would do me no good whatsoever….

 

Others will KNOW we are Christian, not by what we say, but by the love that we show….

 

//  ….“see how they love one another”  become the response….

 

All our prayer, all our good works….   All our worship and teaching….   Every bit of it, is directed to fostering in us an ever deeper love of God, love of neighbour and love for oneself.   If we are not becoming a more loving, more compassionate person with the passage of time, then something is not going right…….

 

Of all the things we could spend our time and energy doing,…… asking God to foster in us the Love with which God sees the world ……   this would be the best thing ever….. 

 

SO much regret can occur when we look back and see the times we may have chosen to act in a way that was achieving an end  that was not primarily about doing the most loving , most gracious, most compassionate response in the circumstances…..   as opposed to the most successful, the most decisive and the most self-serving response….

 

Our church, and our community, is utterly transformed when love is the centre of our actions and priorities…  because God is love….  So, let us love one another as Jesus has loved us… and model that in our actions…

 

 

 

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In the second reading…   it says…..  “Behold, I make all things new.”    The Book of Revelation tells us what happens to us if we have grace and believe:  we are made new.  Not only are we made new, everything around us is also made new because we begin to see with eyes of faith, to hear with ears of faith, to live with a new power which is the grace of God.”  Let us walk in this new life now and always…    and in times of darkness…  let us walk on in trust and hope…..

 

 

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Jesus sends us the Holy Spirit who gives life and effectiveness to everything we do…..    and this Spirit gives us special gifts to help us to achieve what God is wanting to build in our lives and our world.

 

In our sacraments, there is a special sign of the giving and descending of the Spirit upon us and that is the sign of the 'laying of hands.'  where the priest or bishop holds his hands over the person or object to be blessed and prays that the Spirit may come down upon them to give them the effectiveness to do what they need to do, the become what they are called to be….   

 

Each sacrament of the church has this sign of the 'laying of hands, and the calling down of the spirit, and I do invite the young people to watch for when these signs occur in our prayers….    in confirmation, Bishop Finnigan will place his hands on your head… and pray that the Holy Spirit be poured down upon you, and give you special gifts… spiritual building blocks to help you live as good disciples of Jesus….   

 

Traditionally, the church sees that there are seven gifts of the holy spirit, and the young ones preparing for confirmation and first holy communion are learning about them:

the spirit gives the gift of : 

 

wisdom - the gift of being able to see things the way God sees them. To accept my life from God and be able to learn and grow through all that happens to me.

 

understanding  - the gift of being able to capture the meaning of God's message. To listen, to think things through and to be able to put myself in others' shoes

 

right judgement - the ability to see what to do in a given situation. to be able to choose and act for what is right and good and true.

 

courage - the ability to be able to keep doing something we know to be right and good even when it is difficult. to accept difficulties and challenges in my life cheerfully and firmly and strongly.

 

knowledge - the gift of knowing that God is the Father and that Jesus is his son,  and knowing about what God teaches us. to willingly learn about and develop my relationship with God and other people.

 

 

reverence - a deep respect, gentleness and care shown towards God, God's creation and people.. To have respect and care for myself, all people and all things of our world.

 

“wonder and awe”  in God's presence. Gift of being able to appreciate and enjoy and be aware of all the amazing beauty that is in our world and the ability to see that God is at work still in our world.. to be deeply impressed and in amazement about all the wonders God has done for me, and for others and for the world and for the things that happen in life, big and small.

 

May we all be open to the gifts of the Holy spirit, and say 'yes' to God building us up into living stones in God's house of kindness, practical action and love…

 

 

(bless the candles of the children preparing for confirmation and communion)

 

Paul's Reflections Third Sunday of the Year - C. 24th January, 2010

24th January, 2010      Third Sunday of the Year - C

 

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I was really Impressed by the words of reflection given by Abbott Philip in his monastery community of Christ in the Desert, in New Mexico,…  he writes, on the readings this weekend…

 

Today’s Gospel says so simply:  my sheep hear my voice!  No one can take them out of my hand.

 

SO, we are invited and challenged to hear the voice of the Lord Jesus today.  It is by listening to His voice and recognizing His presence and believing in Him that we are saved. 

 

[[pwk]]….But surely (just as importantly….  Just as essnentially……)   listening to him and believing is not the end….. but only the beginning……   Sometimes we hear people…..    speaking of “all we need to do is believe in Jesus as Lord….”    It is certainly true that believing in Jesus as Lord is important….   But that does not make sense unless the kind of “believing” we are referring to is not just holding some ‘concept’  or intellectual understanding of who Jesus is…..  but an ACTIVE kind of believing…..    when (BECAUSE) of who we belive Jesus is…..  it means we Believe in what he DID…. And we believe in his message….  And we accept that message … and LIVE IT…. In practical, concrete ways…….  Otherwise….  If we just say…  yeah, I do accept Jesus is God’s son… but don’t live in the reality of what that means for our lives… and how we act …. And our priorities….  Then it becomes a veryhollow platitude…………   [[pwk]]

 

So…  “we have to respond to that voice,……  though (true)…… only believing in Jesus gives us the strength to act from faith and live that reality…….

 

The first reading today, from the Acts of the Apostles, tells us about preaching the word of God.  Only if we have heard that word ourselves can we preach it effectively.  Again the challenge of this Sunday is to hear the voice of the Shepherd, to hear the voice of Jesus and to let it touch our hearts and our minds.  If we ourselves are not converted, we shall never be able to inspire others by the truth of Jesus ……. We will never be able to draw others to the Lord.

 

I mean week in and week out … we preach that Jesus is Lord… and he makes us all brothers and sisters in God’s family…..   believing this changes everything about how we act….   We don’t make distinctions in the dignity of the people we relate to……   because of this belief….   We try to avoid acting as if there are different classes of people….  Who are treated differently from others…..   no we respect and treat everyone with the same dignity and love…. Or else we have totally missed the point of who Jesus is and what he was here to do…..

 

 

The second reading today, from the Book of  Revelation, speaks of the countless numbers of people who hae borne witness to Jesus’ message, many of whom have paid the ultimate price for their belief in the values worth standing up for…… 

 

[[This is fitting on this Anzac weekend, where we remember those who put their own lives last…  in the defense of family, friend and stranger…   because of their beliefs in the lasting value of things…..  We shall never forget this sacrifice… no greater love has a person than to lay down their life for their friends…..    and also…   there are many ways people lay down their lives.. the ultimate.. is the loss of their physical life… and in addition many have laid down the quality of their lives, due to the sacrifices they made……   their health and peace of mind, effected by what they sacrificed.. we remember them too….   ]]

 

Sometimes we surely ask ourselves:  how do we listen to God and let His word transform us?  There is no easy answer.  We can read the Scripture every day and sometimes it seems not to penetrate us.  We can try to meditate and at times, all we have is inner emptiness.  We can ask God to possess and yet at times we sense only abandonment.

 

In all of this, we must persevere.  We must continually ask God to touch our hearts and our minds, even when we find ourselves resisting Him.  We must continue to read the Scriptures even when they seem not to touch us….. ….

 We must continue with meditation, prayer and contemplation even when nothing seems to happen.  Perseverance over many years of knocking at God’s door is the only answer.  He may give us small glimpses at times or He may leave us in darkness for years. [[ we cannot demand how and when God touches our lives….  We let go in trust… and ask God for patience and wisdom…for God to act in God’s own time… which is different… so very different from ours]]

 

We are invited to hear the voice of our Good Shepherd.  We know that He is with us, even when we walk in the valley of darkness.  May our profound awareness of His presence lead us onward, believing that in the end, He will give us light and let us hear His voice.  Let us sing alleluia to the Lord.

 

 

(Abbot Philip, OSB; with additions in brackets by Paul kelly

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REFERENCES:

 

·        MONASTERY OF CHRIST IN THE DESERT. ABBOT’S HOMILY.

·        FR. PAUL W. KELLY

 

 

Paul's Reflections EASTER SUNDAY 3-4TH APRIL, 2010.

EASTER SUNDAY 3-4^TH APRIL, 2010.  FR PAUL KELLY

 

Jesus is risen…  he is with us….   We do not look for him among the dead….  But he has gone ahead of us, into the town… into the places everyone lives, works and socialises….   It is here we will continue to meet him……

 

There is a lot of running going on in the gospels for Easter weekend…….(Holy Saturday and the Easter Sunday morning gospel too)……  for example…Mary of Magdala runs to see the disciples when she finds the tomb empty…. The disciples.. peter and john run back to see for themselves this amazing claim…..    And no wonder they run… its Extraordinary…  it is incredible…  they cannot comprehend what has happened……    The news is so AMAZING that the gospel says that the disciples did not initially believe the women’s story because it sounded like nonsense….   So they raced to see for themselves…… 

 

And wonderfully…  the first piece of information that shows them something amazing has happened..  is they they find an empty tomb…   finding nothing doesn’t sound like a lot at first glance… but it’s it’s the start… // it’s the first thing…./  His body is not where it should be…   the cloths are removed…  and, in another gospel account of the Resurrection,  it says “the cloth for the head-covering was folded up in another place”… not something that would have happened if the body had been simply moved or stolen….//they knew this was the first of series of things that confirmed.. that he had risen.. he was alive… beyond teir wildest expectations…..  and better than any faint hope…

I love the symbolism of Easter….  So many wonderful signs and symbols that all point to the reality that God is faithful to us… that God wants to walk with us through our whole life journey….and will never cease to love us as beloved sons and daughters …….

The most impressive and striking symbol of Easter… and it continues through the Easter season and also in many of our celebrations during the year…. the Easter candle…..   symbol of Christ… the light of the world… who scatters the darkness of sin and death and shows us the way……   

I love how in baptism and also in renewing baptismal promises…  in the reception of RCIA candidates and in confirmation and communuion ceremonies and first reconciliation…..we light a little baptismal candle and give it the candidate… (or the parents/godparents who receive it on behalf of a child if they’re too young to hold it themselves..)……   the baptised child becomes a child of God..  a child of light….    We carry the light of Christ with us wherever we go… we are like  a “little light of Christ” to all we meet…  it’s the same light as God’s… it takes nothing from God, we are linked by the same light within us…….  We have been called from darkness into God’s wonderful light… we will now walk as children of the light always….   With Christ as our guide….

 

The flame of God’s love (and life) cannot be put out… it lives on..  it rises to new life… and this is what we celebrate this Easter and every day of our lives…

 

The image of light and dark.. features heavily in the Holy week….   Mary Magdelene and the other women.. went to the tomb on the first Easter Sunday so early that it was still dark…   the dawn had only just occurred, and the light had not yet illuminated the world…   that is a beautiful image….   Jesus is risen… but the light of Jesus has not yet ascended to all places and all people..   so we, like Mary Magdelene and the other disciples walk in the truth that the dawn has come, but the light has not fully shone in all parts of our world or (for that matter)..in all parts of our own hearts and lives.. but it has well and truly begun and cannot be stopped…..   //the Light of Christ will rise and shine on all things and all people… putting an end, (eventually), to all things of the darkness..// all sin and all injustice….  We walk and live in this hope….and our actions and priorities strive to match this vision … this hope….

And, as College principal, Joy Massingham writes in her Easter newsletter…. “On a personal level, Easter reminds us that even when hope seems as if it is dead and buried, Christ is there.” That is so true….  God has the final say… God is at work bringing life even out of the darkest moments….In so many ways, Christ’s resurrection is the highest example of the all the little resurrections and new beginnings that God does work in our lives ….  New life, just when we thought hope seemed dead…. Or we thought we were stuck in a situation without hope of a change… and suddenly something happens.. a light dawns.. and a new path opens up.. and we walk on in wonder and awe and how this could have happened……

 

Congratulations to the members of the rite of Christian initiation of adults….   Who are being welcomed into the church this Easter….   Tonight.. we have Jeannie S., //….. and also Tia and Rachel, who are being confirmed and receiving first communion tonight, to complete their initiation into the church……  ….   We have also welcomed into the church recently..  Tracey S. and Joy W... (both of whom can’t be here with us tonight.. but they are both in our prayers and best wishes)….    You are celebrating tonight that we are all called to be followers of Jesus, people of hope and thanksgiving.. and people who carry the light of Christ to all we meet, in everything we do and say…..// Thank you for your affirmation of faith which renews and encourages us all in our faith journey too)

 

AND THANKS TO Tom and Anne Metcalfe  who are having their baby, Stella Rose,  baptised in mass Easter Sunday morning… // as I mention.. Easter Sunday is the ideal day for baptism…    just as we go into the water of baptism.. and come out newly reborn… so too we remember, in this Easter message, that we too go into the tomb with Jesus so that we can rise to new and everlasting life.. and all the promises that Jesus makes to us, that Easter Sunday shows to be true and forever valid… 

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May God bless everyone with peace.. and may we always walk as children of the light…   people of hope and people of thanksgiving…   determined to ensure that our lives and actions match the hope we are called to…