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