Tonight we put the clocks back an hour. It is the end of 'summer-time' in New Zealand.
It is really only in the twentieth century that 'daylight saving' was seen as necessary. You can read a little of the NZ history of daylight saving at this link.
Monks in monasteries have always practiced 'daylight saving' by going to bed when the sun sets, and rising with the sun.
The invention of electricity changed our need to live in harmony with the rhythms of the earth. We can blur the distinction between night and day, and between the seasons of the year.
People today don't sleep as much as our ancestors. There is no positive side to this. Very few people get the sleep they need in order to function well.
It's now 7.30pm and I have just celebrated the first Mass of Palm Sunday.
This weekend's palm branch procession and reading of the Passion of Jesus begins our move into Holy Week.
It is most helpful to see these days before Easter as a week of retreat. While we continue our family, school and work routines our focus is guided beyond. In these days let us look together to Jesus.
We remember the last days of Jesus' life: suffering unjustly and death as a criminal. We recall these events that gave us new life.
When we think of something that happened a long time ago – especially when it happened before we were born, it is easy to slip into an academic recall, or a romantic nostalgia about the past.
In this mode we recall what has happened, knowing that it has already happened. It is over.
While this mode of memory can help us to learn from the mistakes and methods of the past, this is not the memory the church calls us to in Holy Week.
Perhaps it is helpful to consider an example.
From history many of us have learned of the Battle of Waterloo. We know that this event happened. We have no doubt since our knowledge has come to us from many independent sources.
For the families of the (almost) fifty thousand soldiers that died, this event was unforgettable. Now, for the descendants of these families, to have an uncle who died in the fighting has become a badge of family honour.
But the death of Jesus is not such an ‘historical’ memory for the disciple.
The difference is that whereas Napoleon and his soldiers are now dead, Jesus is alive. The blood on the battlefields of Belgium is no longer visible. But the suffering of Jesus continues. The life, death and resurrection of Jesus are not simply moments of history. These events are the present reality of the life of the twenty-first century disciple.
Jesus is alive and present. Napoleon is dead and gone. The community of Jesus is alive and thriving today, not because of our successful pastoral plans, but because Jesus is alive.
I invite you to immerse yourself fully in the events of Holy Week. You have begun by being at this Palm Sunday commemoration of the Passion of Jesus today. You might continue this week by taking the opportunity for the Sacrament of Penance.
If you are apprehensive about this sacrament, or have not been for many years, do not be afraid – just come. Tell the priest that you are not sure what to say and he will guide you.
Tomorrow (Monday) evening join with the bishop and priests of the diocese who gather to celebrate the Mass of Chrism. This will be held at 7.30pm at Christ the King Church, Greers Road, Burnside.
From Thursday we enter the Triduum with the events of Holy Thursday, Good Friday leading us to the resurrection.
As we walk this journey together we do so not as distant spectators or students of history, but as struggling Christians sharing (in our own lives) in the suffering and death of Jesus.
We know the promise too, that those who walk this path, confident in the presence of God, will share in the glory of the resurrection.
A growing number of people of the Catholic parishes of Hurunui read the weekly newsletter online.
This week we are experimenting with an addition: the online newsletter is a bit more interactive. In some sections of the newsletter, if you run your mouse over the text, you can click to view extra information and related links.
The T.V. series M.A.S.H. is accepted by many as one of the greatest TV series of all time. I have little doubt that this will still be the case in 50 years.
I am biased due to my addiction to M.A.S.H. re-runs. I have seen all of the episodes at least a dozen times.
Perhaps the reason for the success of the series is that it deals with reality (the Korean war in the early 1950's) in such a way that all aspects of that tragic human reality are visible. The Comedy channel plays reruns as comedy. But the series also has as much drama, tragedy and documentary as the best of any other channel.
The series is on my mind especially this week as I watched the episode of the happy departure and tragic death of Henry Blake.
And also on my mind because I read this article on a silent and tragic aspect of war. Tap here to read.
Let's offer a prayer tonight for all who die as a result of war. And, as Hawkeye and the team often remind us; we long for peace. Tonight, let's pray for peace in every part of the world torn apart by war.
Today we celebrate the feast of the Annunciation. (shifted from yesterday when the Sunday takes precedence).
Take a
moment to appreciate this Millet masterpiece. Even if you have
never seen the image before, you will guess that these peasants are
praying.
When
the one who commissioned this painting in the mid- 1800’s failed to buy the
finished painting, Millet added a church bell tower and renamed his work
“Angelus”.
Many of
us remember the convent or church bell tolling at midday and early evening at
6. (the 6am bell was often not rung at the request of neighbours). Whatever the
Catholic locals were doing when the the bell tolled, at the distinctive
3,3,3,9 ring, all would stop, mid sentence, mid activity. Catholics
would stand to pray.
The bell was the the call to prayer, and the
only introduction necessary before the proclamation heralding the incarnation:
“The angel of the Lord declared unto Mary.” This is the moment of the Annunciation.
This
prayer of incarnation interrupts our routines and busyness. While it may be
difficult to find others to pray the Angelus with, there is nothing to stop us
praying alone.
Perhaps the near-midday ring of a
nearby phone, or the moment of inserting the key in the car ignition could
be for you an 'Angelus Bell'.
The
message of the angel interrupted Mary’s daily routine and life’s dreams to such
an extent that ‘she was greatly troubled’. “But how can this be...”.
From the moment of Mary’s response “be it
done unto me, according to thy Word”, Mary life was fulfilled. This does not
mean that Mary lived in blissful earthly happiness every subsequent moment.
Jump ahead 12 years to her search for a missing son, or 33 years later to the
moment when she held her dead son. But always, in the depth of her heart,
she was at peace in God.
This depth of peace, at a deeper level than
all daily demands and regular routines, is also the deepest desire of every
human person. This peace is our "default setting".
There
is a challenge in allowing God to enter our lives. It is not a simple or easy
birth. In the moment of deepest desire for the fulness of God’s life, we also
feel the pain of having to let go of our old attachments.
While we know that
our personal dreams, projects and likes can never deliver the depth of joy and
peace we desire, their is a deceptive and superficial comfort in these familiar
traps.
But deceptive and superficial is not enough for souls who seek Truth and the life of the depth of the heart. In the Annunciation we celebrate the fact that this life is not our own discovery or achievement, but has come to us in Jesus.
I was a bit nervous for a couple of reasons. The first is that when I watched the video and took the test last night, I got two answers wrong. As a result I wasn't confident about my own ability to be one hundred percent safe with the new rules.
The second reason for my anxiety was that even if I do know the new rules and keep them to perfection, I have no guarantee that everyone else on the road will keep the new rules.
You will appreciate that I had good reason to be anxious.
Our society has little regard for anything to do with rules imposed by an external authority. But we also know that when we go out on the road, we hope and pray that every other road-user is committed to keeping the letter of every road rule. One person disregarding even a single road rule creates chaos and life-threatening danger. Clear rules, and law-abiding road-users, make the roads a place of real freedom: people are able to travel from A to B without fear.
A country puts systems in place to try to get people to keep these rules of the road. The police watch carefully and anyone who is caught breaking a rule gets a punishment. The system is the best that humans are able to devise and enforce. It is based on fear. Most of us watch our speed primarily so that we won't get a ticket.
Unfortunately humans have pretty much perfected the fear technique. Fear appears to be effective, but only if the aim is nothing more than to get the army to march in step and shoot on queue. Army 'boot camps' are a classic example. The boss shouts and screams and the soldiers jump. You never hear the Sargeant Major gently encouraging the soldiers to love each other!
TV reality shows adopt the same technique: the TV chef is loud and offensive in the kitchen and the weight-loss trainer hurls threats. 'If you don't do it you will be punished'.
And this is where the fear technique runs out of puff. Humans (in our fallen and weak state) might settle for obedience to the letter of rules. We even take this to an extreme and become legalistic and moralistic. But this is not really living at all. Humans are created for freedom and for life. Human life is fully lived only by those who reject any compromise of the ideals of God's law for human life.
The law of God, as revealed in scripture and communicated in the teachings of the Church, is not a human creation. Instead we accept that this law is given by God as the key to happiness; the method leading to all we most deeply yearn for.
Obedience to the letter of the law might be able to achieve a degree of physical safety. (I would not dare to drive on the road if there were no rules). But in the depth of our hearts, healthy humans know that they long for much more than fear-driven obedience to the letter of any law.
This is
the heart of today's Old Testament. RememberJeremiah
31:31."I will place my law within them and write it upon their
hearts".
Blessed Pope John Paul made this point vividly in hisTheology of the Body. Many
Catholics are negatively disposed towards Catholic teaching and doctrine. John Paul does not see this negativity as ultimately problematic AS LONG AS the person listens to the law planted in the depth of their hearts.
This method (listening to the depth of my own heart) works, since if something is objectively true (i.e. if something is the intention of God for humans), this Truth is also placed in the depth of every human heart. "I will place my law within them and write in upon their hearts."
This is why obedience to the law of God enables the life of the heart to flourish.
Too often we reduce God's law, as determined by scripture and communicated by the Church, to a smorgasboard of optional extras which one can take or leave. As a result we find ourselves not only dabbling in the Catholic faith, but also dipping just our toes in the real living of abundant life.
If we step back from this adventure of life, we constantly feel as though we are existing, coping, enduring, managing and surviving, but never truly LIVING.
A difficulty we face is that there are many noises and voices overwhelming us in every moment. The pressure of such a cacophany makes it difficult to hear the deepest desires of our own hearts. Too easily we settle for what the majority are doing or for what is most acceptable in our culture or in our families.
This lure to conformity is deceptive, since after we have done everything we think we should do (in the hope of feeling connected (to culture or family for example), we are left with a tenuous connection to family, friends, society, and (most distressing of all) we don't even feel close to ourselves.
There comes a wonderful moment of maturity when we realise that our goals are limited and fantastic (as in fantasy), and our methods (human energy, adventure and planning) are flawed and futile.
In this moment of awakening I realise that I am little different from the suitor trying to manipulate affections from the would-be lover.
How much easier to let the adventure of healthy happy living ready me for the unexpected, overwhelming and all-transforming experience of falling in love. Such an encounter bears the immediate fruit of freedom. In this event my heart is awakened, and the law of God written on my heart becomes both my motivation and energy for life.
Now I am no longer keeping rules in order to obtain a reward. Instead I am living in an intimate friendship with Jesus Christ who is God. My keeping of the law is now the behaviour that flows from this ultimately satisfying relationship.
This perspective is the heart of Catholic life. Tragically we have too often fallen into the trap of using fear to motivate people to keep the commandments and follow the teachings of the Church. The fruit of fear is never more than an external observance of the letter of a law.
The call to a New Evangelisation is a opportunity to touch anew the hearts of Catholics who may have not had the beauty of the life of God within the Catholic Church presented to them in an attractive and meaningful way.
In this way the life of God within the Church will be appreciated by all "people of good-will"
On Facebook this morning a friend posted a picture of a sign. The gaps in the words on the sign were very unclear meaning that some words ran together forming new words. The meaning of the sign was quite different that what the writer intended.
I would upload the picture here but it was a bit indecent. It is not the message of the sign that is important here but the point I would rather we focus on!
The pope highlights silence as the secret in good communication between people. It is not only the words we use, but the space between the words and moments of silence to listen to the other, that enables effective communication.
This is one of the points the pope makes:
"Silence is an integral
element of communication; in its absence, words rich in content cannot exist.
In silence, we are better able to listen to and understand ourselves; ideas
come to birth and acquire depth; we understand with greater clarity what it is we
want to say and what we expect from others; and we choose how to express
ourselves. By remaining silent we allow the other person to speak, to express
him or herself; and we avoid being tied simply to our own words and ideas
without them being adequately tested. In this way, space is created for mutual
listening, and deeper human relationships become possible. It is often in
silence, for example, that we observe the most authentic communication taking
place between people who are in love: gestures, facial expressions and body
language are signs by which they reveal themselves to
each other. Joy, anxiety, and suffering can all be communicated in silence –
indeed it provides them with a particularly powerful mode of expression."
And then the pope goes on to give me a bit of encouragement for this little blog:
"Attention should be paid to the various types of
websites, applications and social networks which can help people today to find
time for reflection and authentic questioning, as well as making space for
silence and occasions for prayer, meditation or sharing of the word of God."
I'm not sure if the pope reads this blog, but many of the things he says suggests he is getting good material from somewhere.
The Christchurch Press this morning carried an article about a new priestly recruitment drive in Spain. The bishops of Spain are using the high unemployment in their country as an opportunity to get young men to consider priesthood. The pay is not great, they say, but the job security is good!
Well done Spanish bishops. We need to do whatever we can to ensure that young men consider priesthood as the viable and attractive life choice that it is.
I can't understand a word of the bishops' Youtube clip (in Spanish) below. So I'm not sure whether or not they make this key point: too many people settle for a job or a career when there is a better option available.
A young person might choose a job or career by weighing up the pros and the cons of a few options that s/he finds attractive.
This prayer announces the difference between a 'job' and a 'life', a 'career' and a 'vocation'. Baptised people need not settle for jobs and careers.
If you are baptised, God is calling you to a vocation, a life.
This life is not so much chosen, as heard and received. A vocational call, whether it is to marriage, single life, religious life, priesthood, or another unique way of serving God, is revealed in the depth of an individual's heart.
The heart is never satisfied with money and success. The soul of every person seeks much more. We are made for LIFE. And VOCATION is the pathway to LIFE.
There are many pressures and fears driving people today to grasp at jobs instead of seeking the desires of the depth of their hearts.
Perhaps a crisis of unemployment could serve as a wake-up call for many. High levels of unemployment are a tragedy for workers and their families. May we never again experience this here in New Zealand.
But we do need to allow the deepest longings of the human heart to be audible to those who seek work. May they never settle for doing a job, when living a life by following their unique vocation is the more available and ultimately satisfying and secure option.
In the Office of Readings for today, the feast of St. Joseph, the reading from St. Bernadine of Siena led me to ponder one central aspect of the life and mission of St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus.
I am thinking of the many men who are loving (as fathers), children who are not their own biological offspring. Today, more men than ever are in this situation.
There are many reasons both good and bad for this reality.
But how these men found themselves as foster fathers is not as important as the fact that they are now called by God to love, as fathers, their foster children.
Many of these men are providing an experience of fatherly love to children who in earlier years were denied this love, or who tragically were mis-treated and unloved by their 'fathers'.
Many foster-fathers are replacing lost fathers, or sharing the role of fatherhood for a few days each week.
Whatever your situation as a foster father, today (the feast of St. Joseph, the foster father of Jesus) we celebrate your feast day.
And today - even more than for the rest of the year - we pray for you.
When most people think of St. Patrick's day they think of the saint who freed Ireland of snakes. Many people celebrate this day wearing green and enjoying good Irish music, Guinness and dancing at an Irish pub.
Such a celebration is great. I enjoy the music and Guinness even if I am not wearing green.
But it is easy to forget that Patrick was a robust follower of God who brought the Good News of Jesus Christ to Ireland. When something is too much for us (either too bad or too generous) we reduce it to what we can deal with easily. So we wear green and drink Guinness, and forget what the beer and colour is helping us to remembering.
We reduce the lives of the saints (as we do the Truths of faith) to ideas that are optional and which don't require us to leave our comforts or to face our fears.
The same reduction has happened with many other saints.
We reduce the feast of St. Francis to pet day at school, or even animal farm at Church. Francis would be scandalised at the reduction. While Francis did have a good encounter with a wolf, his primary love was not the earth and the animals! Francis loved God, and gave his life to serving God. This decision and his life of faith placed him in relationship with the poor, the lepers, the animals and all of creation.
To diminish the life of Francis by focussing on animals or on creation is the same tragic misunderstanding as reducing Patrick to beer and music.
And then there is Valentine. Valentine's day has become a feast of
secular romantic love. We know little about the life of this saint. Pope Gelasius I in the fifth century named Valentine among the saints "... whose names are justly reverenced among
men, but whose acts are known only to God." We do know that St. Valentine was a martyr. He gave his life for God. It is reasonable to assume that Valentine is a bit upset and seeing his sacrifice remembered only in anonymous gifts of chocolate and red roses.
The reduction of the lives of these saints is the pattern of a secular world where even the feast of the Incarnation of the one true and real God is more about the mythical Santa Claus. And the greatest feast of the passion and resurrection of our Saviour at Easter is reduced to hot cross buns and chocolate eggs.
Back to Patrick. On the anniversary of the death of St. Patrick, let's drink good Guinness, wear green and rollick to the Irish music. But let's also take a moment to remember that Patrick is a forefather in faith who taught us that all the colour of dancing, beer and good music cannot begin to match the joy of living with Jesus Christ, now and forever.
Amen!
The prayer traditionally known as St. Patrick's Breastplate:
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through the belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.
I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism,
Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.
I arise today
Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In prayers of patriarchs,
In predictions of prophets,
In preaching of apostles,
In faith of confessors,
In innocence of holy virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.
I arise today
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.
I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me:
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's host to save me
From snares of devils,
From temptations of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone and in multitude.
I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.
Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me abundance of reward.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
