hard sayings

In the Sunday liturgy over the last month we have jumped (from Mark) into the sixth chapter of John's gospel.  

Next Sunday we leap back to Mark. Today the gospel verses are from the end of John 6:

As a result of this,many of his disciples returned to their former way of lifeand no longer accompanied him.Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?"Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go?You have the words of eternal life.We have come to believeand are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."

These verses always strike me as extraordinary.   So often my own projects and attempts at good works seem to come to nothing. My efforts appear to bear no fruit. I am left feeling disappointed and frustrated. At times I even begin to fear that I am not up to the task of evangelization.

And then I read these words from John's gospel: "many of his disciples returned to their former way of life, and no longer accompanied him."

This is hard to believe. Jesus, the master evangelist. Jesus, the maestro missionary.  And yet many people walked away from him.

It is also significant that Jesus made no effort to entice them back.  He certainly did not compromise his "hard sayings" to make the life of faith more easily digestible for them.  Jesus seemed to be completely unconcerned with the growth in numbers of his group of disciples. 

The heart of the missionary method of Jesus was his acceptance of the fact that personal intimacy with God is the only place of life.  Everything else is the fruit of this relationship.  

We can plan programmes, form pastoral plans and undertake new evangelization endeavours. But all of these well-intentioned efforts will come to nothing if we do not seek personal intimacy with Jesus above all else. 

As we live this life in harmony with God, some people will be attracted, but many others will leave us, even persecute us.  In the midst of this strife and loneliness we stay, since we know that

"You have the words of eternal life.We have come to believeand are convinced that you are the Holy One of God."

friendship

If Pope Benedict were asked to summarise his teaching in one word, it is quite possible that he would name "friendship" as the heart of his message.

He would then stress that friendship with Jesus Christ is the heart of a person's healthy human existence.

In April 2005 his first homily as pope concluded with this message of friendship with Jesus Christ:

Are we not perhaps all afraid in some way? If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to Him, are we not afraid that He might take something away from us?...And once again the Pope said: No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation....When we give ourselves to Him, we receive a hundredfold in return. Yes, open, open wide the doors to Christ – and you will find true life.

If we focus on friendship with Christ as the heart of our human life, then (and only then) do human friendships become something beautiful, great and liberating.

If we give human friendship the central place in our lives, (that is the place that belongs to God), then our human friendships will falter and fail.

Earlier this week Pope Benedict sent a greeting to the Rimini Meeting for Friendship amongst People. 

In this message he said that despite human's trying to escape this fundamental relationship with God, the human heart is still in search of the infinite, albeit in the wrong direction.  We begin a frantic search for a sterile and false infinite that leads to dangerous places: to drugs, sexuality lived in a disorderly manner, success at any cost, and even deceptive forms of religiosity.'

You can read the complete text of the pope's brief message to the Rimini meeting at this link.

This is an extraordinary gathering of people. Last year 800.000 people took part in the gathering; people attracted by beauty and truth, people seeking the infinite.

The theme of this year's gathering is "By nature, the human person is relation to the infinite".

Yesterday I spent time in conversation with a Buddhist monk. Later in the day with more than 8000 people (mostly much younger than me), I was in an auditorium to hear a 93 year old Cardinal (Julien Reis) in dialogue with a Buddhist monk.

You can discover more about the Rimini meeting at
http://www.meetingrimini.org/eng/

or get a taste of the gathering with these clips:

let's light(en) up!

I think I will take up smoking.

My new desire was motivated by the lead story on yesterday's BBC world service. The Australian government has passed legislation to ban brand colours and logo advertising on cigarette packets.

A couple of years ago while on vacation in Italy, I blogged about smoking. Take a moment to read my August 2010 comment here. It will help you to understand the comments I offer today.

I am not disputing that smoking is a risk to health. However I find it irrational that a government claims a right to use legislation to promote health in some legislation, while enabling death with other laws. 

An example: How can a legislation be rational when parents have the "freedom" to decide if the life of their newly conceived child is less important than their own wishes? 

Parents (supported by the courts) can decide that the death of their child is murder (if a stranger attacks the mother killing the in utero child). But they can also call the death "pro-choice freedom" (if they decide that the child is an embarrassment or an inconvenience and opt for abortion).

From the child's point of view this parental game of linguistics makes no difference. Either way s/he dies. 

The parents can take the life of their child, but in our 'out-of-control politically-correct-society' we frown on them if they light up a cigarette.

Many examples from history prove that societies that legislate only for their own needs (as determined by whims of current fashion and contemporary political-correctness) without giving centre stage to God and the health of the human soul, will flounder and founder.

It is clear that New Zealand is on the path to follow this new Australian legislation.  It won't be long before cigarette smoking will be illegal in New Zealand.

At least marijuana will be legalised about the same time and parents will be able to take up a newly legal relief from the stresses of child-rearing.

Last night I marked the new Australian legislation with fine food and wine, good friends, and a quality cigar. I liked it.

Tonight I plan to do the same.

+++

Link here to August 2010 smoking blog.

happy in your work?

I am not at all surprised by the news at this link!

http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/09/12/the-ten-happiest-jobs/

Assumption

missing the point

Each day I receive by email and text message several commentaries on the scriptures of the day. 

Sometimes these inspirations and encouragements come from the saint of the day as in the earlier days of this month when the Church celebrated St. Dominic, St Clare, St. Maximillian Kolbe & St John Vianney. On on other feasts the reflections come from great teachers of the faith to help us to appreciate feasts such as the Transfiguration (last week) and today's feast of the Assumption.

One of the daily refiections that I received by email this morning really caught my eye. It was headed up: "Feast of the Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven, 15 August". However in the couple of hundred words of reflection there was no mention of Mary, God, Heaven, body or soul. The content was encouraging, but it had nothing in particular to do with today's feast of the Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven.

For a while this puzzled me. Why would a good Catholic writer allow themselves to 'miss the point' and to avoid the heart of the feast.

I wonder if it is because the Feast of the Assumption (like the Feast of the Transfiguration last week) is beyond our normal routine experience of human existence. These events are more divine than human, so how can we put them into words.

At this point I have every sympathy with the writer of today's 'missing the point' reflection. If I am going to write about the significance of the Assumption of Mary, body and soul, into heaven, what do I write?

The key point is that since the Church presents us this doctrine as a central reality of our faith, we cannot ignore it. We need to engage with the reality. We accept that there are many many things that are beyond our limited human grasp. And instead of being frustrated by this, we delight that there are some realities that only God understands.

On this feast we are focussed on the beauty of the life and ministry of the Virgin Mary. We are also drawn to the beauty and life of heaven.

The years we spend on earth ("seventy or eighty for those who are strong" Psalm 90) are most often a time of anxiety and stress to say nothing of struggle and suffering. But we are created for more than this. We are made for God, who has not only created us for eternal life and happiness, but who seeks to carry us today through valleys and tears.

In the feast of the Assumption we celebrate the reality of Mary, body and soul, being carried by God into the fulness of the life she was created for.

This point is too essential to miss. Knowing that we too are invited to this divine life is the whole point of human existence. To miss this point, is to miss the whole point of life.

'same-sex marriage'?

The Catholic bishops of NZ have have issued a clear and encouraging letter to the young people of NZ.

While the 'Kiwi's of Generation Y" are their target audience,  this letter highlights the key aspects of the current 'same-sex marriage' debate for all Catholics and for all New Zealanders.

From the Beginning of Creation

Pastoral Letter from the Catholic Bishops of New Zealand 

to young New Zealanders.

Dear Kiwis of Generation Y

As the people who entered adulthood in this millennium you are being wooed by politicians and advertisers. Your choices will help shape our nation. One such choice is the present legislation about amending the definition of marriage to include same-sex couples. The lobby that promoted and achieved the Civil Unions bill now say that this does not go far enough.

We would like you to consider carefully the wider implications of this major social change.

Why should you care?

Marriage is a fundamental structure in our society. Every one of us was born into a family, each of us has parents. The legal status of married couples is a long-established recognition by society of how important the family unit is, most especially to the children who grow up in that family. How marriage is defined affects us all; changing that definition will have many consequences, including with respect to adoption and throughout the education system. Some consequences will be unexpected and  unintended. This is no small matter, nor quibbling about words; this is an attempt to re-engineer the status and structure of family life in New Zealand and elsewhere.

Why oppose?

When Jesus was discussing marriage with his disciples he observed

“From the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.'  'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate." (Mark 10:6-9)

The reality, as Jesus observed, is that male and female pair with each other. Males and females are different and complementary, each has a significant role to play in the nurturing of children. We come from one family and we set out to make another one. Marriage is not merely a human construction, it is the legal recognition of something natural. Civil law reflects and protects human nature. Society promotes and affirms the married state for the sake of the couple and for the sake of their children. The Church considers marriage to be the first blessing from the Creator and celebrates it as a sacrament. Christians did not invent marriage; it has been part of every human society throughout history.  Legislators did not invent marriage; when the laws were written they were taking account of a pre-existing reality. We address this letter to you, rather than only to church members, because of the universality of marriage.

Marriage promotes love and generates life. Love, friendship, and commitment exist in many forms, but only the bond between one man and one woman, intending to live together and hoping to have and raise children, is dignified with the name and legal status of “marriage”. The couple vow to love and honour each other and New Zealand law and custom have responded by recognising that commitment and honouring it with a unique recognition.

Is this simply a question of equal rights?

Marriage is never a universal human right. Not all persons can or should be married. While the immediate focus of the current proposal is whether a marriage must involve a man and a woman, the argument for change applies far more widely.  Claiming “freedom of preference” and a universal “right to marry” would call monogamy itself into question.  This denies the right to the truth about what marriage is, and about what the Church teaches on sexuality and marriage.

For the sake of married couples, their children and society as a whole, we ask you to oppose any change to the legal definition of marriage.

Proclaim II

I am still savouring the inspirations of the Proclaim conference in Sydney last week.  Top of my list for moments of encouragement and focus was the time spent with the six other New Zealanders. Five of us were from the Christchurch diocese, and the other two are originally from our diocese but currently 'on mission' to other parts of New Zealand.

I don't make this comment about these conversations with good NZ company and food and drink lightly.  So often this happens at a conference - the input from inspiring speakers might bring us together, but it is the 'non-organised' time spent socially that is an unexpected highlight.  In this time I think we re-discover that the ONE we seek is not to be found so much in the inspiring speakers who visit from away, as in the friendship 'with brothers and sisters who dwell together in unity.' (Psalm 133)

Having said this, the two keynote speakers for the Proclaim Conference were both challenging and inspiring. 

Archbishop Rino Fisichella was has been appointed by Pope Benedict as the first president of the newly constituted Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization. 

Martha Fernandez-Sardina is the Director of the Office for Evangelization for the Archdiocese of San Antonio in Texas. 

Some longer video clips from Archbishop Rino Fisichella:

and from Martha Fernandez-Sardina

Proclaim!

I have spent the past three days with six other New Zealanders and four hundred Australians at a "New Evangelisation" conference in Sydney.

The gathering was organised by the Australian bishops to prepare the Australasian church for the Year of Faith called by Pope Benedict to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council.

The conference website will give a taste of the life and focus of the gathering.

   http://www.proclaimconference.com.au

I don't think I have ever been to a conference where the focus was so unashamedly on the centrality of personal relationship with Jesus Christ as the purpose of all human existence.

Tragically a significant number of people who have been baptised as Catholics are not aware that this is the non-negotiable heart of both Catholic life and human existence.

While Catholics still reach out to people of no faith or any faith, the specific challenge of the New Evangelisation is to re-present the content of our faith in a vibrant, attractive, creative, relevant way to people who are already Catholic in name..  It is not that the content of our faith has changed - but that tired old predictable methods of presentation are no longer effective in the twenty-first century.

The last workshop I attended this afternoon included this inspiring quotation from the opening of Pope Benedict's first  Encyclical letter, Deus Caritas Est:

Being Christian

is not the result

of an ethical choice

or a lofty idea,

but the encounter with an event

a person

which gives life a new horizon

and a decisive direction.

the greatest gift

background to John chapter 6

readings for 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time

We have all had the experience of receiving a gift from someone, and wishing that we had more of their presence and less of their present. Gifts are important when they express something that is already happening in the friendship. But when a gift is given out of a sense of duty, there is something lacking.

There are other times when we might be the giver of the gift. We are always a bit disappointed when the receiver is so totally focussed on the thing we have given, that they show no gratitude, and later may not even remember who gave the gift. Perhaps the receiver is unable to see that the gift is but a sign of the much greater gift that I am offering, that is my love and my gratitude.

We expect this response from small children. They might be so overwhelmed by the gift they have received, that they are totally oblivious to the person who gave the gift. A child has to be taught and reminded by parents to say thank you to the giver. 

Consider too the wrapping of a gift. The beauty (or sloppiness) of the wrapping is often a good indicator of the care with which the gift has been chosen and given. When a stack of wrapped presents sit under the Christmas tree, the best-wrapped present stirs the greatest curiosity. At best, the wrapping will be an honest indicator of the thoughtfulness and appropriateness of the gift that waits within.

Which brings us to today’s readings. You might take a moment now to read them at this link.


They begin rather startlingly: “The whole Israelite community grumbled against Moses and Aaron”. (Exodus 16:2)  There are always grumbling people in our families and in our communies - and often the grumblers are given the most hearing. Look at the Press reports in the last few days outlining the ‘rebuild Christchurch’ plan launched during the week.  It seems that the response of the people of the city has been overwhelmingly positive, but media coverage sought out the people who were not happy. I don’t blame the media here as much as I do the ‘human’ appetite for the negative slant on a story. 

Our advantage in reading the Exodus story of Moses leading the people from slavery in Egypt, through the desert, to the land of promise, is that we know the full story. Three thousand years later we can see that the Israelites were much better off in their new land flowing with ‘milk and honey’. But at the time, in the struggle of their desert journey, the people are unable to see forward. All they can think is that they were better off as prisoners back in Egypt. So they grumble: "Would that we had died at the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert to make the whole community die of famine!" (Ex 16:3-4)

It seems that God refused to tolerate grumbling. God immediately responds to satisfy their hunger by giving food from heaven: the manna that lay over the ground each morning. The people did not know what this food was until Moses explained: "This is the bread that the Lord has given you to eat." (Ex:16:15)

This Old Testament physical feeding of the people, quietens the grumblers - but only for a while. Before long they are thirsty, then tired and impatient.  No doubt some gave up on the journey and settled in the desert. Others might have decided to return to captivity in Egypt. 

But the heroes of the story are those who kept on keeping onwards to the land of promise. They knew that the bread from heaven, the water from the rock (Ex 17:6), the gift of the law (10 commandments, Deuteronomy 5), and the parting of the Red Sea (Ex 14) were just a foretaste of something that God would do for them in their new land.  

Their worship of God both in the desert, and later in the Temple in Jerusalem, anticipated the coming of the Messiah. It was understandably expected that this Messiah would be a political redeemer bringing from Roman captivity. This is what they saw in Moses as he led the people from Egyptian slavery. The future Messiah would surely be a "new Moses." 

They expected that the saviour would bring them gifts from God. They could never have imagined that God would be so generous as to give not just a well-wrapped gift, (perhaps simple political liberation) - but, in Jesus, to give the fullness of himself to all people of all future ages.

This is the gift we have in the Mass. The first Christians grew to know that Jesus was more fully present with them in the Eucharist, than he had been before his death and resurrection. For the first three hundred years after Pentecost Christianity was illegal in the Roman Empire and many Christians were put to death simply because they were found at Mass. Yet these worshippers, our ancestors in faith, continued to gather for the Mass since they knew (as one martyr proclaimed), “without the Mass we die!”

We don’t have to look back two thousand years to see this kind of Catholic commitment to the Mass. Our ancestors in the Hurunui, the Chathams, and around the world centred their lives on the Mass. They knew that in every Mass, in Cathedrals and in country churches, God gifts himself. They knew that the wrapping of this gift, that is the rituals and texts of the Mass, were important. The form of the Mass did not follow fashion, but sought (in every age) to be an effective vehicle of Divine Life. 

In the Mass we do not seek primarily to express ourselves to God, but to allow God to express himself to us. It is this ONE divine voice that speaks life and hope when our secular NZ environment grumbles with politically-correct opinions and projects.

The Christian is the one who has made a choice not to be motivated by grumbling and negativity. At times we all get caught up in this seductive downward spiral. But every celebration of the Mass reorients us back to Jesus who is the ultimate voice of hope.

Some will look longingly back to the desert. Others will decide the journey is to hard or too long.  All of us might slip into these traps at times. Our regular Sunday gathering for the Mass directs us beyond our struggles to God.

“So they said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst."  (John 6:35)