Dona Nobis Pacem

Earlier this month, on the Holy Land pilgrimage, 20 pilgrims from Christchurch, New Zealand prayed our way around the Holy Land.   

We travelled not as tourists, but as pilgrims. We were a diverse group, but united in our desire to seek God together.

Every day of the pilgrimage we prayed for friends and family, for those who had asked for our prayer, for the Catholic Diocese of Christchurch, and for the world.  Our most frequent prayer was the canon "Dona Nobis Pacem".


This little canon is sung in three parts. Each part has it's own melody that, when sung alone, sounds like a completely different tune bearing little resemblance to the other two parts.  This is symbolic of our diversity. 


When the three parts are sung together, a harmony and unity exists that is much more beautiful than any of the three parts alone.  A reminder that together we are much more than any of us has the power to be alone.


This was the great gift of travelling together as pilgrims. While we were 20 diverse individuals, together we were ONE community.


This was most evident each day when we celebrated the Mass.

This morning our guide, Adrian, uploaded his recording of our group praying this hymn in the 12th century Church of St. Anne in Jerusalem, a church known for it's fine acoustic.

You can visit Adrian's site on Facebook at:

https://www.facebook.com/adrian.weisberg

or on my page at:

https://www.facebook.com/johnchchnz

(if someone knows how to get the video from the Facebook Timeline onto this blog entry let me know.)

Pentecost, Orvieto, light, alabaster

A couple of years ago I spent a few days in the Umbrian hill town of Orvieto.  The town's cathedral is a remarkable building.  There are so many 'bloggable' reflections that this Duomo inspires. But I will leave these for future blog entries.

For today, just one aspect.

The nave of the Cathedral is constructed in strips of 'black' and 'white' marble. The windows from the outside are a bit distracting. It seems as though the spaces for the glass have been filled with plywood, as if the glass had broken and the glazier hadn't got around to the repair yet. Perhaps the plywood  is a temporary measure to stop the weather getting in?

And then I went inside.

The interior of this magnificent building is flooded with light. There is no plywood. The windows are a most natural colour and design.  Clearly an artist has been at work. No plywood, but the most exquisite glass work.

After my visit, which was the first of many visits, I sat at a little cafe reading a brochure about the Cathedral.

I had presumed that the 'plywood' windows, were in fact glass. But I was wrong. These windows are alabaster. This stone is sliced paper-thin to create the windows that flood the dark interior with light.


And it is this Orvieto memory that comes to mind as I celebrate Pentecost.  Let me share the reason.


The disciples of Jesus were gathered together, probably out of fear. They had good reason to be fearful. The Romans were on the warpath. They had crucified Jesus. Perhaps their little group would be next?


But within moments, at the arrival of the Holy Spirit, they realised that because the Spirit of Jesus was with them, they had no reason to be afraid.  They then boldly left the room and lovingly confronted the powers they previously feared.  


Because of Pentecost, things are rarely what they seem. What appeared to be plywood, then I presumed was glass, was in fact stone.


What seems to be a cause for fear, in the light of the presence of the Spirit of Jesus with us, is in fact an opportunity for greater intimacy with Jesus who dissolves all fear.


And now, this Pentecost vigil, I remember the Holy Spirit window in St. Peter's basilica in Rome. The window appears to be the most exquisite work of a glass-crafter.


But it is in fact... alabaster.

Catholicism

Tonight in my Pentecost Homily at Hanmer Springs I mentioned the eight-episode "Catholicism" series produced by Fr. Robert Barron.  I will also refer to the series tomorrow at the Amberley, Culverden and Cheviot Masses.

If you are interested in finding out more about the series:

Promotional youtube clips

• Reviews at this link

• How to buy the series, at this link

I purchased my copy a few months ago - and missed out on the two for the price of one deal that is being offered at the moment.

If you purchase and watch the series, let me know what you think.

newsletter

Weekly newsletter for the Catholic Parishes of the Hurunui District and the Chatham Islands.


http://www.catholichurunui.co.nz/newsletter_27_May_2012.html

preparing for Pentecost

Last week I read a reflection from the Constitution on the Church in preparation for this Sunday's feast of Pentecost. There was a line there I had not noticed before: The Holy Spirit "enables the Church to grow young..." 


That's a great thought...'growing young!'


With the passing of every year we notice the aging process in ourselves. We can no longer move as fast or jump as high. The mind lets us down. We think we don't look as good as we did just a few years ago.

The offer of a fountain of youth is very attractive. The elixir is not to be found in face creams, exercise and hair colour. The key to 'growing young' is found in life in harmony with the Spirit of God. This is what keeps the human heart beating young.

We don't have to believe this simply because the Constitution tells us. A simple experiment will give a more personal experience of the life that is on offer.


one week


Set one week in which you seek to live in harmony with all you know God to be asking of you. (much of this will have come to you through the gospels and the teachings of the church. Some of these teachings you may struggle or even disagree with. Whatever, for one week, just do it!)


pray


We know that prayer is an essential relationship in the life of the Christian. 


Notice that I call prayer a relationship. Prayer is not the reciting of incantations in order to please and appease God. Prayer is awareness of my desire to be connected to God.


Sometimes this desire is expressed in formal prayers and spoken or silent expression. At other times I am just aware of my hunger and longing for God. This fundamental human need for prayer is the most significant mark of our healthy humanity. 


This is good news for the person who is struggling and who knows their weakness. It is a bit of a challenge for the person who thinks they are doing pretty well on their own! 


As a part of your week, set regular time for prayer. Ten minutes morning and evening. One minute every time the traffic light turns red. Two minutes during the tv ads...


make good change


If you suspect God might be nudging you to change your behaviour in some way, then commit to making this change - at least for one week. For example we know that Jesus taught us to love our enemy. This is a bit of a challenge since my enemies do not deserve my love. But, for a week try it! Think too of the teaching of Jesus and the Church on care for the needy, justice and honesty, sexuality...   In each of these areas, do not be afraid to make the changes you know God to be asking of you.  You have nothing to lose.


There are many other challenges that the Gospel and scriptures put before us. These are communicated with more explanation in the teaching of the Church. It is common for Catholic's to treat these teachings as a smorgasboard of suggestions and to live only those that come most easily. The invitation of this Pentecost feast is to put yourself, one hundred percent, in the disciples Pentecost upper-room of waiting. 


When the disciples did this, their main motivation was fear. That's a good enough reason to open up to God. Perhaps you have a fear of growing old, and sickness and death? The Holy Spirit is waiting to grow you young.


time for the review


At the end of your week (or at bedtime on day two if that is all you can manage), ask yourself if you are more happy with yourself than you were a week ago. If you are happier, then keep the rhythm of life you have set going for another week. God created us to be happy, and the Spirit if given to us to enable us to live happily, and to give us eternal youth.

stress reduction

Some years ago I picked up a little book with a captivating title. The book: "Wherever You Go, There You Are".  

The author, Jon Kabat-Zinn, is an American doctor who operates a "Stress-Reduction Clinic."  Once I knew about his clinic I was hooked and opened the book.

The first paragraph fluently expresses the general theme of my blog entry yesterday. 

"Guess what? When it comes right down to it, wherever you go, there you are. Whatever you wind up doing, that's what you've wound up doing. Whatever you are thinking right now, that's what's on your mind. Whatever has happened to you, it has already happened. The important question is, how are you going to handle it? In other words, "Now what?"

The remarkable thing about the action of God two thousand years ago, is that God started to use a 'new method' in relating to the human family.  


Throughout the Old Testament the people knew that God lived in the heavens, where humans did not live. The task of humans was to 'climb the mountain of the Lord' (through prayer and good works) in order to dwell with God.

At the moment of the Annunciation God entered human reality in a remarkable and unprecedented way. Previously a god (of the Romans or Greeks) or the God (of the Jewish people) was by definition not human.  


Now, in the womb of Mary, and nine months later in a shepherds cave in Bethlehem, God, in Jesus, took on everything involved in being fully human.


This is the shift in divine method: now we no longer need to 'journey to God' since God has come to us.


Our task is to be where and how we are, and to desire that God will find us in the personal 'stable' of our stress.  


As the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Vatican II) begins:

The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ.

This reality is the heart of the Gospel, and the ultimate stress-reduction technique.

When we accept that where we are, is actually where we are, that what we are thinking is what we are now thinking, and that all has happened is the reality of our unchangeable past, then we are truly 'where we are'.

The greatest journey of all time is not the human journey of a mountaineer, the polar explorer's trek to the ends of the earth, or even the mission of the astronaut to the 'heavens'.

The greatest journey of all history is the mission of God, in Jesus, into the joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of stress-filled people.

And this is why we call our faith Good News.

not up there but down here

It has been a pleasure to arrive back in the parishes of the Hurunui district after the Holy Land pilgrimage days.

Tonight I celebrated Mass for the people of the Scargill / Greta Valley area in the home of parishioners. 

In the moments of silent reflection after communion, as we basked in the reality of Jesus presence with us in the Eucharist, my mind wandered back to last week's celebration of the Mass...

• on  the shores of the Sea of Galilee
• in the garden of Gethsemane
• at the first Station of Jesus' Way of the Cross
• at the Church of Peter's denial of Jesus
• in the Basilica of the Annunciation Nazareth
• in a cave-chapel of the shepherd's fields, Bethlehem

...to name just a few significant points on our pilgrimage journey.

The holy places I have listed above seem in some ways a world away from the nine little communities of the Hurunui, and the Chatham Islands.

Last Sunday we celebrated the feast of the Ascension. The angel said to the disciples: 'why do you stand here gazing up into the sky'...

How often we fall into thinking that we need to be somewhere or someone else if we are to really be with God. Perhaps a trip to the Holy Land will bring me closer to Jesus? Maybe when I overcome this sin I will feel the presence of God? 

Such thinking is a serious obstacle to our recognition of God-with-us.  

Our task is to allow God to come to us where we are, not to seek God where we are not.  We are here gazing up into the sky, and the angel tells the disciples that Jesus will meet them not up there, but down here, on earth, in the midst of today's geography, climate, sufferings, anxieties and moods.

If you ever get a chance to visit Israel, jump at the opportunity. But keep in mind that if you really want to meet Jesus, the place where you walk and talk, weep and toil today, is the holy land where God is waiting for you.

Ascension

Last year I led a retreat for priests in a beautiful part of the Australian countryside. I had a few hours to kill in Sydney on the way over from Christchurch so I took the train into the city. There I called into the Catholic Shop (www.paulinebooks.com.au) in Castlereigh St.   Pope Benedict’s book “Jesus of Nazareth” (part II) was on the shelf and I bought a copy.

One of my favourite things to do in Sydney is to spend time at Circular Quay.  The atmosphere and view here is stunning. The Harbour Bridge to the left and the Opera House to the right, the diversity of performers entertaining throngs of locals and tourists, the busyness of commuters rushing for ferries and busses, those who are just relaxing, with an 11am beer, - and me with my new book and an espresso.

I was a bit apprehensive as I opened the book.  I had read the pope’s first volume: “Jesus of Nazareth” (part I). To be honest, that work was a bit of a struggle for me academically.  In some ways the first volume was a ‘technical’ work as the pope redirected the reader to a right method of scripture study.  

The pope’s well-founded concern is that over the last 100 or so years, scripture scholars have made the mistake of examining the texts of the Gospels simply as historical documents. This is a problem, since while the Gospels certainly are the product of their time and place, to make a distinction (as many scholars do) between the ‘Jesus of history’ and the ‘Christ of faith’, is a serious misunderstanding of both the purpose of the Gospels, and the reality of the person of Jesus Christ. 

The study of the scriptures is effective only when a person of faith comes to the texts as a pilgrim seeking to encounter Jesus who is the living word.  Without this desire to encounter God in the texts, the scholar will reduce the scriptures to tales of a wise teacher, healings of a kind magician, or the stirrings of a political activist.

Back to Circular Quay and my new book. In the first volume, published in 2007, the pope reflects on Jesus' ministry from his baptism in the Jordan up to the Transfiguration. In volume two he begins with Jesus’ Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem concluding with the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven.

As I prepared to begin the retreat later that day, we had just celebrated the feast of the Ascension. Reflection on this feast was to be the starting point for the retreat. So, after ordering a coffee, I jumped to the end of the book and began  to read the Epilogue: “He Ascended into Heaven – He is Seated at the Right Hand of the Father, and He Will Come Again in Glory.”

With the first few sentences I saw that this book is much easier to read than the pope’s first volume. I was captivated. This epilogue is a powerful and refreshing insight into the depth, beauty and significance of the Ascension event.


Most people think of the Ascension of Jesus as being a ‘departure’ moment. ‘Jesus was here and now he is gone’. This is not what we celebrate in this feast. We know this from the response of Jesus’ disciples who had witnessed the event. This moment was in no way for them a funeral ‘wake’.  At a funeral we grive and mourn. We are sad because the one we love is no longer with us. However the pope reminds us: “Luke says that the disciples were full of joy at the Lord’s definitive departure”.

It is essential that we understand what the Ascension does mean, and that we know what it does not mean. 


It would be easy to wrongly think that in his ministry showed us how to build the city of God on earth, and now He has gone and the mission is left  to us.  This is the error in (so-named) “Liberation Theology”.  In this well-intentioned and zealous endeavour, we might sing that “we are building the city of God.”   


In fact Jesus has not left this mission to us alone. Our mission is always Jesus’ mission. The work is always the work of Jesus. HE is the missionary. We are little more than loved servants. We are the tenderly embraced instruments of His love. The hymn we now sing is of Jesus' building. We sing of God’s reign.


True liberation is both instigated and gifted by God. When humans respond and co-operate with this divine initiative, real freedom becomes an earthly reality.


It is only when we relax into God’s love for us, and the enduring and intimate presence of Jesus with us in every situation and every moment, that we become effective disciples of the Master Missionary. 


Because of the event of the Ascension, Jesus is with us even more intimately. When we live in intimate relationship with him, our efforts bear fruit.


This time last week I was in Jerusalem, Israel with a Christchurch group of twenty pilgrims. Perhaps we think that if we were to be in that Holy Land we would be more likely to encounter the risen Jesus. Before the Ascension of Jesus it would have been true that He was more in Jerusalem than in Christchurch. But now I can personally vouch for that fact that Jesus is as much alive in NZ (or Australia) as in Israel: at Circular Quay, in Cheviot, Chathams, Culverden...


We are never alone. Jesus is with us.

+++

A few quotations from Pope Benedict's "Jesus of Nazareth", Part II

“Let us turn, then, to the end of Luke’s Gospel. Here it is recounted that Jesus appears to the Apostles gathered in Jerusalem, who have just been joined by the two disciples from Emmaus. He eats with them and issues instructions. The closing lines of the Gospel are as follows: “then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple blessings God” (Luke 24:50=53) 

"The conclusion surprises us. Luke says that the disciples were full of joy at the Lord’s definitive departure. We would have expected the opposite. We would have expected them to be left perplexed and sad. The world was unchanged, and Jesus had gone definitively. They had received a commission that seemed impossible to carry out and lay well beyond their powers. Hos were they to present themselves to the people in Jerusalem, in Israel, in the whole world, saying: “This Jesus, who seemed to have failed, is actually the redeemer of us all”? Every parting causes sadness. Even if it was as one now living that Jesus had left them, how could his definitive separation from them not make them sad? And yet it is written that they returned to Jerusalem with great joy, blessing God. How are we to understand this? 

"In any case, it follows that the disciples do not feel abandoned. They do not consider Jesus to have disappeared far away into an inaccessible heaven. They are obviously convinced of a new presence of Jesus. They are certain (as the risen Lord said in Saint Matthew’s account) that he is now present to htem in a new and powerful way. They know that “the right hand of God” to which he “has been exaulted” includes a new manner of his presence; they know that he is now permanently among them, in the way that only God can be close to us. 

"The joy of the disciples after the “Ascension” corrects our image of this event. “Ascension” does not mean departure into a remote region of the cosmos but, rather, the continuing closeness that the disciples experience so strongly that it becomes a source of lasting joy. 

 pp.280-281

“the departing Jesus does not make his way to some distant star. He enters into communion of power and life with the living God, into God’s dominion over space. Hence he has not “gone away”, but now and forever by God’s own power he is present with us and for us. In the farewell discourses of Saint John’s Gospel, this is exactly what Jesus says to his disciples: “I go away, and I will come to you” (John 14:28). These words sum up beautifully what is so special about Jesus’ “going away”, which is also his “coming”, and at the same time they explaint he mystery of the Cross, the Resurrection, and the Ascension. His going away is in this sense a coming, a new form of closeness, of continuing presence, which for John, too, is linked with the “joy” that we saw in Luke’s Gospel. 

"Because Jesus is with the Father, he has not gone away but remains close to us. Now he is no longer in one particular place in the world as he had been before the “Ascension”: now, through his power over space, he is present and accessible to all-throughout history and in every place. 

pp283-284

"Let us return once more to the ending of Luke’s Gospel. Jesus led his followers into the vicinity of Bethany, we are told. “Lifting up his hands he blessed them. While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven” (24:50-51). Jesus departs in the act of blessing. He goes while blessing, and he remains in that gesture of blessing. His hands remain stretched out over theis world. The blessing hands of Christ are like a roof that protects us. But at the same time, they are a gesture of opening up, tearing the world open so that heaven may enter in, may become “present” within it. 

"The gesture of hands outstretched in blessing expressed Jesus’ continuing relationship to his disciples, to the world. In departing, he comes to us, in order to raise us up above ourselves and to open up the world to God. This is why the disciples could return home from Bethany rejoicing. In faith we know that Jesus holds his hands stretched out in blessing over us. That is the lasting motive of Christian joy. 

pp292-293

Reviews of the pope's book

http://www.integratedcatholiclife.org/2011/03/barron-book-review-jesus-of-nazareth/

http://www.ignatiusinsight.com/authors/cardinalratzinger.asp

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9488716-jesus-of-nazareth-part-two

newsletter

The weekly newsletter for the Catholic communities of Hurunui district (Amberley, Cheviot, Culverden, Hanmer Springs, Hawarden, Scargill, Waiau) and the Chatham Islands (Chatham and Pitt Islands) has been uploaded at www.catholichurunui.co.nz 

Ephesus & home

Yesterday the Holy Land sector of the pilgrimage ended with me and one other pilgrim returning home to NZ, a couple of others taking their own direction, and the remainder heading to Ephesus in Turkey.

I will continue to upload any images the pilgrims send through to me.

I have enjoyed preparing the blog entries each day, and I have appreciated the for the many comments that have been sent through to me.  

I hope too that many of you who have joined the blog for the pilgrimage might continue to follow the regular updates.  

Jerusalem - last afternoon

Next to the Bethesda pool is the Church of St. Anne.  Just inside the door is a sculpture of St Anne with a young Mary.

This Church of St. Anne is renowned for its acoustic.  As I mentioned in an earlier blog, our pilgrimage theme song has been "Dona Nobis Pacem".  Our tour guide recorded us singing this in the Church. When Adrian sends it I will upload the recording to this blog.  One group of pilgrims hearing us sing this a few days ago asked Adrian, 'where is this choir visiting from?'  

Digital cameras have become passe for pilgrims.  ipad 2's everywhere.  

It is a bit difficult to read the sign, but here are Mary, Mary and Monika at "The Nun's Ascent," alongside the 'first station of the cross'.

Beneath the Sisters of Zion convent, on the site of the old Antonia Fortress are the ancient water cisterns and parts of the original street that were probably part of the way of the Cross for Jesus.

en route to lunch, through the streets of the Armenian Quarter of the Old City

and to lunch

The last Jerusalem group photo taken just before Mass at the Ecce Homo Church.

Jesus alive and active then, and NOW

After the Emmaus visit on this last day of our time together in the Holy Land, we returned to the Old City of Jerusalem.  Outside the walls of the Old City life appears much the same as in many other major world cities.

But in the Old City, within the ancient walls, there is a rich diversity of colour, cultures, religion and lifestyle. The four 'quarters' of the city (Jewish, Armenian, Muslim and Christian) provide a commercial, spiritual and residential home to people of the three great monotheistic faiths: Judaism, Islam and Christianity.

We walked through into the Old City to reach the pool of Bethesda. 

Take a moment to read the passage at this link.

Sue read this passage for us as we sat gazing into the excavations of the pool.

Many times on this journey I have heard the scriptures with ‘new ears’.  This is the ‘inspiration’ of the scripture at work.  Certainly the writings of those who recorded the events of the life of Jesus were inspired by the Spirit of God. But the activity of divine inspiration is also found in the heart of the reader.  

The words of the Gospel may remain unchanged on the page across the centuries. But the Word of God is not the text of a written page. THE WORD is now a living person: Jesus, who is alive and active.  

We too are alive and active. With each day we are different. We grow and change. The situations and stresses of today are not the same as those I faced (or avoided) yesterday. My moods change. It is the encounter between the reality of my life today and the living reality of Jesus Christ that is the present inspiration of the scriptures.

So back to the pool of Bethesda.  


The significant 'new insight' I received here was that the man was unable to get to the place where he believed he needed to be in order to experience the healing powers of the stirring waters.  But this was no obstacle to the encounter with Jesus who came to where the man was stranded. Jesus did not even use the waters as a part of his healing of the man.

Most people carry in their heads an idea of what God needs or wants them to do or be.  Most often this idea is pretty unhelpful in our relationship with God, since the evidence of the Gospel encounters is that Jesus goes to wherever those in need are. He is forever keeping the company of those known to be sinners.

Living as God calls us to live by loving God and neighbour, keeping the commandments and living in harmony with the life of the Church, is not what God asks us to do under our own steam in order to receive a reward.  Instead this life is the natural fruit of the encounter with Jesus.  

A love that needs to be earned, is not love at all. It is nothing more than a reward or recompense.  The love of God for us is remarkable and divine since God loves us where and how we are - as weak and vulnerable sinners.  

The experience of such unearned love is the high-point of human existence.  Our personal ability to live in harmony with the deepest human desire (that is the fundamental yearnings of the human heart), is our instinctive response to the heart-felt knowledge and experience of the love of God for us. 


So this afternoon, we spent time pondering this reality knowing that once again we are sitting where Jesus once sat and ministered.  But the even greater miracle is that Jesus is alive and active today in Sockburn, Cheviot, Hornby, Burnside, Bryndwyr....

Emmaus

This morning we began our last full day in this Holy Land with a visit to Emmaus.  It seems that there was some confusion about the exact location of this place, where Jesus encountered the two apostles in the ‘breaking of the bread’.


Now, thanks to the discovery of a mistake in distance in an early Latin translation of the bible, and thanks to the vision of a Carmelite nun in the 19th century, we know the most likely place of the encounter between Jesus and his disciples.


Since the discovery the site has been excavated. Now the original church is visible.

I have heard the scripture account of the Emmaus encounter literally hundreds of times before today. Yet in recent weeks this post-resurrection awakening of these disciples has spoken anew to me.

It had never occurred to me just how odd it was for two of Jesus disciples to be walking away from the news of the morning in Jerusalem. As they tell Jesus (thinking he was a stranger along the road), 'some women have this morning returned from the tomb proclaiming that he is alive'.  

Even though they were walking away, Jesus was staying with them.  And at the 'breaking of the bread' there eyes were opened.

This Emmaus site has special significance for pilgrims from the Christchurch diocese.  The site is cared for by the Community of the Beatitudes, who have their only NZ / Australia community in North Canterbury at Leithfield.

our group arrives at the site

Adrian, our guide, explains the significance of the place

Alongside the Byzantine Church that was built here in the early Christian centuries is an early Baptismal font.  It is difficult to get the perspective from the photo, but it is around 1.5 metres deep.   I'll blog more on this font in a day or two.  It is a great teaching tool for our understanding of baptism.

And some tombs from the time of Christ.  Note that people were only buried in these tombs for a year or so. After that time all that remained of the bodies was bones. These would be gathered together and placed in a small coffin for burial elsewhere.

Up the hill, at the monastery of the Community of the Beatitudes.  As they have around the world, here the Beatitudes Community moved into an abandoned monastery.