Rugby World Cup - here’s hoping

Our rugby nation has been treated to a feast of the great game in recent weeks. I have already made plans to ensure that I get to watch the final live on the Chathams on Sunday night. I was Assistant Priest in Greymouth when David Kirk led us to World Cup victory in ‘87. I look forward to celebrating an All Black victory with Chatham Islanders on Sunday night.

but what if...

We have been in this pre-final situation of hope before. We thought we were on the verge of victory, but it did not happen. Yes, once we did succeed. But five times we have missed out.

It is a natural to want to win a battle. But at a level much deeper than our natural instincts, our human desires transcend the instinctual need to overwhelm a competitor. If we do win the cup we will applaud for a few hours and celebrate for a few days. But the demands and anxieties of our lives will soon once again be uppermost in our minds.

there is an answer

The ultimate challenge exists for ‘post-Christian’ people of our western world. We live in a secular environment. Our ancestors knew that God’s preferred place of working was in human loss and suffering. Therefore even in the midst of grief and distress, people knew that God was with them. All was never lost. 

In fact sorrow and failure were the place where humans were most open to God’s love and God’s action in human life. In victory and success we have little felt awareness of our need for God. We even forget to give thanks for these gifts and achievements.

vulnerability

The human person is vulnerable at the best of times. If we rely on human events and personal achievements to satisfy us, we are taking a great risk. No human achievement or victory can satisfy the longings of the human heart. The longings of the heart are built into us by God. These desires are the compass orienting us beyond earthly existence to divine life.

Too often we use entertainments and encounters as escapes from the struggling reality that we do not know how to deal with. Perhaps this is a reason why statistics show an increase in domestic violence in the hours after an All Black loss?

and so to the game

So what does this mean for our enjoyment of an important rugby game?

We are most ready to really enjoy a rugby game or a concert, a new job, a course of study, or an encounter with friends most fully, when we see these entertainments and employments for what they are.

Our hope is that on Sunday night the All Blacks will show us once again that our small nation is able to produce a team of the best sportsmen in the world. We rightly share in this victory since we (as our ancestors before us) support the All Blacks in every way.

But we remember too that whatever happens at Eden Park, a greater and more stable reality is available to us: God lives among us, and desires to satisfy us fully in every moment of both victory and loss.       

Battle For Basilica

This morning's TVONE documentary is available at this link.
Battle For Basilica

an inspiring website

Each year, the bishop of every diocese arranges a retreat for the priests of his diocese.

A bishop will always endeavour to choose someone to lead the retreat who encourages the priests in their commitment to God as priests.

This year Bishop Barry Jones has arranged for Fr. Robert Barron to lead the retreat for the priests of the Christchurch Diocese.

Fr. Barron is internationally recognised as an inspiring and sound teacher. He has, perhaps more than any other, heeded the call of both Pope John Paul and Pope Benedict for priests to use technology in the mission of spreading the Gospel.

You can find his sermons, and other teaching on his website http://www.wordonfire.org/

His sermon for last Sunday is at this link.

an article over a beer

Over a beer this afternoon I read the article below.

Many of you have heard me speak about the beauty of Gregorian Chant. I much prefer jazz or classical music when I go to a concert. But Liturgical music is different. 

In Liturgy the purpose of music is not to entertain. Gregorian Chant is THE music of the liturgy of the church. I have struggled to explain this to parishioners. At Our Lady of Victories we have certainly tasted the beauty of this prayer.

And then I found this article. You might like to set aside 15 minutes to ponder the content. You might think as you begin that it is a bit beyond you. But this is not true. If you are able to follow a cooking recipe, understand a car manual, or make sense of the ingredient list on a supermarket product, (none of which I can do) you are certainly up to understanding and appreciating this piece.

Jonah Lynch presents the most robust, comprehensive and relevant appreciation of the contemporary music listening experience that I have ever heard or read.

And you will appreciate immediately the nature of Liturgical music as a live experience rather than a recorded objective perfection.

Let me know what you think.

http://www.communio-icr.com/articles/PDF/lynch36-4.pdf

full days, or busy days?

A good friend of mine is well known for quoting his favourite scripture verse. John, chapter 10, verse 10: "I have come that you might have life, and have it in abundance"

Note that the verse does not read? "...and have it to the busiest"

Why is it then that most people feel that they are very busy, and do not feel as though they are living fully or abundantly?

I have been pondering this a lot in these weeks.

For me, every day in the past month has been full. But, even though I have had little time to myself, I would not say that these weeks have been busy. For one week I was with 500 others in La Thuile. The week before this I was in Rimini for a meeting that drew 100.000 people every day. The week earlier I was with 300 people for a full 7 days in the Dolomite mountains. Every moment of these weeks has been filled with good company and conversation. This is the reason why the blog entries have been a bit more sparse than usual.

I think the difference between a busy life and an abundant life is to do with the depth of my internal motivation and the quality of my personal connection with others. Whenever a day is spent compulsively responding to the demands of others, and attempting to live up to my own self-expectations, I fall into bed exhausted late at night. If a day is lived with a deep awareness that I am little more than an instrument in the divine plan, I can relax.

This is the point made by all good conversation, art and literature. The Italian educationalist Luigi Giussani makes the point well in his "The Religious Sense":

"Nothing is more adequate to the nature of the human person than his original dependence. Indeed, the human being is, by nature created." p.103

When we remember that we are created by God, and held in every moment in God's loving embrace, our fears fade. Our most real and true desires emerge. We seek only what will satisfy this visible longing.

The surprise is that people who are busy feel exhausted and never seem to have enough time. Those who seek to live 'life in abundance' accomplish even more in fewer hours, and they feel as though they are truly living.

This has been my experience in these weeks of friendship.

Tomorrow I travel to Rome where I will spend a week.

Every day I remember specifically in prayer 'the readers of this blog'.

Keep me in your prayer too.

Rimini: friendship among peoples

The Rimini Meeting last week was a feast of faith. It is impossible to covey in words and images the vibrancy of life and energy in the gathering. In these post-meeting days there have been a number of news reports and articles reflecting on the experience. Each day of the meeting over 100.000 people savoured exhibits, commentaries and lectures.

The links below give a tast of the experience.

http://www.ilsussidiario.net/News/English-Spoken-Here/2011/8/27/VIDEO-Last-Day-at-the-Meeting-in-Rimini/2/203154/

http://www.romereports.com/palio/modules.php?name=AvantGo

http://www.ilsussidiario.net/News/English-Spoken-Here/2011/8/27/VIDEO-Last-Day-at-the-Meeting-in-Rimini/2/203154/

joys & hopes, griefs & anxieties

Come in, let us bow and bend low
let us kneel before the God who made us
for we are His people
the flock that is led by His hand
Psalm 94


Every week brings its own joys and hopes, griefs and anxieties. It is inevitable that we hope for a week of joy. We run from grief. We seek to avoid anxiety.

In a moment of reflection you might look back over your life. In the events and experiences, you notice a good dose of anxiety. But there has been joy too. On looking into these moments (with the unpressured perspective of hindsight) you notice that what seemed like a happy event at the time, did not deliver the life-long relief that it promised. Then you notice that the moments you called grief and anxiety, bore rich fruit.

This awareness is a moment of great hope for the human person.

If we are oblivious to this learning, we will become victims of our compulsions. Every word and action will be decided by what seems to promise the most satisfaction. We will be unavoidably driven to steer away from whatever has an appearance of suffering.

Such a life is not a life at all, for this is the existence of a robot. There is no freedom. My instincts and urges have free reign. My fears drive me. My moods are my master.

If you recognise something of yourself in these words, what are you to do? What is the best way to escape this captivity?

Many people who become aware of their lack of freedom seek counselling or therapy. This is a helpful step since it reveals the sincerity of the desire for freedom.

Others discover tools and techniques to retrain themselves in ways of thinking and behaving that are their own choice rather than the impositions of upbringing and culture. Again the depth of desire for freedom is revealed in this commitment to change.

But in these good and well-intentioned projects, it is possible to avoid the central and essential fact. Humans are powerless without God. While discipline and dedication can bring about change in thinking, speech and behaviour, the transformation we seek is a gift from the God who loves us, and who tenderly embraces us and carries us in every moment.

From our own human experience we know that real transformation is effected only by love. In this experience the heart is transformed. Freedom is given and received. Now I move and think, speak and love as one who knows s/he is loved by the ultimate and eternal lover.

If you want to know the extent to which you are dependant on God, just take a moment to find your pulse. Can you feel that beat? You are not doing that? Every breath you take (note 'take' meaning 'receive', you are being given by God.

This awareness is fundamental to human life. We may be able to survive and exist, to cope or to endure without savouring this divine gift, but it is not possible to live oblivious to the fact of this ultimate gift. It is not possible to consider this gift, without being drawn in love to The ONE who has chose to give me this gift.

This awareness is not a thought or a doctrine. It is not a technique or a tool. This life is a relationship with Jesus who is 'God-with-us'.

And this relationship changes everything. We are never alone. We are never unloved.

Now I am unafraid, even in the midst of my griefs and anxieties I have the depth of joy and hope that can never be achieved by humam endeavour. Now, only because of my awareness of this ultimate and real love, I am finally free.

The natural posture for the human person in this awareness is humility. We are delighted to have been invited to 'come in, to bow and bend low, to kneel before the God who made us. For we are His people, the flock that is led by His hand.