FOR A BETTER WORLD

 

FOR A BETTER WORLD

I knew a man who had a farm and towards the end of his life we were talking about what he had achieved. ‘I want to leave the place better than I found it,’ he said. I have often thought of that simple ambition. He had no desire to make excessive money or make a name for himself in the locality. He just wanted to make improvements on the farm before handing it on to the next generation.

Jesus had a story about people with a variety of talents or gifts. They react differently. Two of them – though one more gifted than the other – used their opportunities fully and were rewarded for their efforts. A third fellow panicked and made no effort to use his gifts. He just sat on his hands and did nothing and gained nothing.

As in all Jesus’ stories, the teaching is obvious: use the abilities you have – whatever they are. Easily said, but still true. ‘Unless I am qualified, I cannot do anything!’ Not true. There is always something people can do. Even the most severely wounded can do something. Once, in the Ivory Coast, I met 20-year-old Innocente who lived with severe intellectual and physical disabilities and just lay on a mat on the floor all day.

But everyone in the house knew, if you wanted cheering-up, all you had to do was sit with Innocente for a while. You would speak a few words to her but she could not say anything. Then she would look at you and a huge smile would come over her and light up her face. People tried to describe the experience and one person called it a ‘window opening briefly into heaven.’

Innocente did not live long – perhaps until she was 25 – but she ‘left the place better than she found it.’ These are two examples – one strong man with a farm and another a young girl with nothing but her heart – but there are so many people who can neither work not smile. They are broken by the poverty that surrounds them every day.

How can you talk about using your talents when people are frustrated by a tsunami of blocked opportunities where ever they turn? A few days ago I met wave after wave of girls walking home from school in their blue and yellow uniforms. They were laughing and joking in the joy of being alive but I could not avoid thinking of their future. How will it be for them?

Yet people are amazingly resourceful. Despite all the obstacles in their path, most people do manage to use their talents as best they can. They leave this place better than they found it.

19 Nov 2023    Sunday 33A                 Prov 31:10…31            1 Thes 5:1-6           Mt 25:14-30

 

TEN BRIDESMAIDS

 

TEN BRIDESMAIDS

The parables describe obvious situations which are not difficult to interpret and most people are either encouraged by them to keep going or shocked into questioning their own lives. But it can happen that they are twisted to fit a current way of thinking that is not obvious and which can distort them.

The story of the ten bridesmaids or virgins is an example. The obvious interpretation is that the wise ones were ready for the bridegroom when he came while the foolish ones had not thought he might come at an unexpected hour and were not ready. This story can be twisted to mean the foolish ones were the poor and marginalised and the wise were selfish in not sharing what they had. To interpret the parable in this way is to avoid the glaringly obvious intention of Jesus.

The parable is about being ready, being alert and not putting off what I need to do now. Jesus is not here talking about compassion and social justice. There may be all sorts of reasons why I postpone taking steps but at least I can acknowledge that I am avoiding doing what I know I should do. That’s a start. I can look at myself, gently, and ask why I am ‘in denial’ as the saying goes.

The ‘oil’ in my lamp then becomes my agenda. What do I need to do? Well, to begin with, I might see myself sitting with Jesus and the disciples on the Mount of Olives – the setting for this parable. They were obviously looking at him. Romano Guardini asked in one of his sermons: ‘What does it mean – to look at Jesus?’ All religions search for God. We Christians say God has revealed himself to us - in Jesus. So what do we see when we look at him? Because he is the revelation of God. His words and stories mean nothing if they do not tell us about God. We cannot analyse them apart from him.

And we cannot analyse them apart from the community he founded. I can give my opinion but I have to test it in the stream of the interpretative tradition of the Church. I have my beliefs but I want them to be in harmony with the tradition I have inherited. I can come up with fresh insights into a text and so can you. So can anyone. We have to look at Jesus and ask what he, in the community he founded, says.

This ‘looking at Jesus’ is the heart of the matter. ‘We would like to see Jesus’ (John 12:21). It is encouraging for us to watch the disciples with Jesus, day in and day out, and yet – for a long time - they did not really ‘see’ him. Maybe we too are in a bit of ‘a daze’ (Mark 10:32) about him at times. We are to be alert, awake, ready to see him any time – maybe when and where we least expect.                                                                                                                                                                                                   12 November 2023

   

SAINTS AND SINNERS

 

SAINTS AND SINNERS

Cambridge historian Eamon Duffy has written a marvellous book on the history of the popes called Saints and Sinners. It touches the lives of significant figures among the 263 ‘servants of the servants of God’ in the past two thousand years. All were sinners. Some were saints.

This week we celebrate All Saints, the commemoration of all the sinners who became saints and enjoy the fullness of life with God. We also tack on All Souls, the remembrance of all those who, in a way unknown to us, are still on the journey and we pray for them.

In the Mass for All Souls we read, ‘what proves God’s love for us is that Christ died for us while we were still sinners’. To be human is to be a sinner. In a way that the Church strives to explain since the day the Book of Genesis was written, the human family appeared on the planet incomplete, unfulfilled, and the word chosen to describe this was ‘sinful’.

Yet, like every plant and animal, a human being spends its life groping, searching, for fulfilment. Think of a street vendor in Harare or a famous comedian like Matthew Perry who has just died as a result of drugs. Whoever we are, we are – mostly – trying our best to make a go of things. We are on the move from being sinners to being saints.   

We are celebrating the feast of All Saints, a moment to rejoice with all those who have made it to the fulfilment of our home in the Blessed Kingdom. We remember the famous ones, Peter and Paul, Teresa and Catherine and all the ones we recall in the litany of the saints. We also remember all the great people, many we have known, who do not have St before their names.

And we are not just remembering them. We know that we are on the way following them and where they are is where Jesus told his disciples he wanted us to be too.  ‘Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am’ (John 17:24). That is where we are going. We have a little time here, a time of personal preparation but also of communal concern for others. The two are one as we saw in last Sunday’s gospel

All Saints is a feast of the gathering of the people of God in every place and time. We imagine ourselves in the presence of God and the whole gathering of heaven. It is a moment of consolation. But we cannot remain ‘standing there looking into the sky’ (Acts 1:11). We have work to do. We have less happy gatherings to sort out, like the people of Gaza crowded into a confine space without food, water or care, almost without hope.