SHE PONDERED ALL THESE THINGS

PRAYER PAUSE

Tuesday 1 January 2019

SHE PONDERED ALL THESE THINGS

Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading.  “As for Mary, she treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.” (Luke 2:16-21)

Reflection.  The birds around my window seem to be extra feverish this New Year’s morning.  Do they too sense that a New Year is a moment to begin again, to start to live in a new way?  Eight days after Christmas we too ponder what it all means; that God “was born of a woman” (Galatians 4:4).  It took 400 years for us to come up with a title for the woman: Mary is the Mother of God, (Council of Ephesus 431).  It takes some pondering for it to sink in that God has bridged the divide between the divine and human.  We are invited to walk across that bridge this New Year in our own “feverish activity” and let the divine light into our own lives.  What does this mean?  Well, it is to ponder each day how I am welcoming the guidance of the Spirit.  Do I allow his “sound of silence” (2 Kings 19:12) to change my way of thinking?

Prayer.  Lord, help us to enter this New Year with joy and hope.  Help us to be attentive to the silence in which you speak to us.  May Mary, your Mother and Mother of all who know you, draw us closer to you. Amen.

AN EARLIER HEAVEN

AN EARLIER HEAVEN

Viewed from a satellite in space, especially at night, an erupting volcano on earth can be clearly visible. Even a bush fire can be seen. If the satellite had a high precision camera it could pick up the smaller fires of families cooking in the open.  And we can imagine a lens that identifies the smallest flicker of flame on earth.  Perhaps we can go further. With the eye of the spirit, we can see (in the words of Gerard Manley Hopkins) the world

          …. charged with the grandeur of God.

          It will flame out, like shining from shook foil.

This perspective from space can serve as a parable.  There are the people and the events that appear in our headlines and sound bites.  There are also those revealed in the more modest reaches of the social media.  But the majority of people and events are hidden from everyone except the handful immediately concerned.  Yet the tiniest human effort, even if only known to one person – the one who experiences it, does not go unnoticed.

Among the ripples that swirl around Christmas is the family.  Jesus was born into a family.  Despite its unique nature it had all the marks of what we know as family.  Nothing much is spelt out for us but we quickly pick up the intensity of the mother’s care and the prodigious alacrity of Joseph.  True, the few details we are given tell us this is no ordinary family – if our child went missing we would not expect to find her sitting among a bunch of university professors, “listening to them and asking them questions” – but for the most part they led an ordinary life.  They were like any other family in Nazareth, a town – by the way - so unknown it appeared in no contemporary records.    

On the first Sunday after Christmas we celebrate this family and we celebrate our own families, which vary in a spectrum from immensely happy to extremely dysfunctional.  A good family gives us a great start in life but we can survive and surmount a dysfunctional one.  Lots of people have. 

We have this moment to celebrate family – this amazing human institution where we find ourselves in our love for each other, where even our tiniest words and gestures have an impact – and are held by the One created this universe and designed the first family.   “A happy family is but an earlier heaven.” (George Bernard Shaw).

30 December 2018                  the Holy Family

Ben Sira 3:2 … 24                   Colossians 3:12-21                  Luke 2:41-52

HE LOOKED FORWARD TO THE CONSOLATION

PRA

Monday 29 October 2018

PRAYPRA                    PRAYER PAUSE

Saturday, 29 December 2018

HE LOOKED FORWARD TO THE CONSOLATION

Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading.  “Simeon was righteous and devout and looked forward to the consolation of Israel.” (Like 2:22-35)

Reflection.  There is intensity in the way Simeon looks at Mary, and Mary returns the look, in the painting of the Presentation in the Temple by Giovanni Bellini (c.1470). Without words, the painting tells us Simeon is aware of the struggle about to begin. “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many.”  The time has come.  From now on there will be division and judgement.  Everyone will have to choose.  There will be suffering and there will be consolation and Mary will experience both as she accompanies her son on his mission.  We place ourselves in this scene and allow ourselves to experience the intense drama. We are part of it.

Prayer.  Lord, help us to know that we are involved in this great struggle for the peace of all people, a peace that searches into our own hearts for the courage to seek justice in all things. Amen.

PRAYER PAUSE

Friday, 28 December 2018. The Holy Innocents

HE HAD ALL THE MALE CHILDREN KILLED

Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading.  “Herod was furious and had all the male children killed who were two years old or under.” (Matthew 2:13-18)

Reflection.  Mathew builds on the links with the Old Testament: Egypt, the place of slavery, and the slaughter of the Jewish male children by Pharaoh. He does not record that God, seeing all the suffering Jesus was causing from the moment of his birth, regretted the Incarnation.  The scriptures are clear that God knows that this great enterprise of sending his Son into the world is going to cause havoc.  There will be a great price to be paid by Jesus and all those who will be associated with him.  Christmas is a time of great joy.  But it is also a time when we place our struggles within the context of the great plan of God to purify his people so that they may be capable of receiving the life he offers.  

Prayer.  Lord, as we mourn the death of the innocent children in Yemen, Syria and other places, help us to understand your plan and labour that children everywhere may have a better life. Amen.

CHRISTMAS

CHRISTMAS

I showed my visitor ticket to the Two Oceans Aquarium in Cape Town at the barrier. When it was returned it was stamped in bold red letters: REDEEMED.  One day I will show my permanent resident ticket at another barrier and I hope it will be similarly stamped.  I have been thinking of religious language straying into, and finding a home in, normal converse and this is an example. Redeemed?

Christmas is like the rings of Saturn.  On its periphery there is the shopping and the tinsel.  Moving inwards, on the next ring there are the staff parties and the pantomimes.  Moving further in there are the family get-togethers and the sharing of presents.  And deeper in are the Christmas themes – enjoying Handel’s Messiah or King’s College carols. And finally there is the planet itself: here, an image of Christmas, the birth of the Redeemer.  A small percentage of humanity stop in homage at that manger in a small provincial town a long while ago.

They know that something extraordinary happened. The four and a half billion years of the universe had been leading up to this moment.  The beautiful reality of life had grown and developed and was seen in many species of animal and plant.  Even the mountains and hills, the sea and sky, heat and cold – all were a celebration, a symphony, of this experience we call life.  Then came the time when life gave birth to choice and that is when things started to go wrong.

Good choices were made but so were bad ones and the latter clogged the ways of the former. The peak of life, the human person, was stuck in the swamp of their own choices.  Their advance, their development, stalled and there seemed no remedy.  But, at the same time, the human person was aware of their longing to break the bonds that held them, while being equally aware it was beyond their power to do so. 

There had to be a way forward.  It was written in their bones: life had to achieve its goal.  But it needed the author of life to intervene.  He was divine but he chose to become human to lift his brothers and sisters out of the swamp.  He was born in that manger and grew to contest those bonds.  It was a battle and he seemed to lose it for he too was buried in the swamp.  He shared everything of human life, even its end. But there was one thing different.  He wasn’t just a human; he was a divine human.  That made all the difference.  The swamp could not hold him; he escaped its grip and in doing so he opened the way for life to resume the task of advancing. And this time there would be no limit.  This time the divine human showed the way to move beyond the limits and enter a world that would satisfy, not just the confused longings of their limited feelings and imagination, but a totally new reality they could not even dream of. They would be ‘redeemed.’

25 December 2018      

PUSHING OUT THE BOUNDARIES

PUSHING OUT THE BOUNDARIES

I joined a score of geriatric white hill walkers recently on the Cape peninsula and was happy to discover I could keep up.  The scenery was magnificent with the Atlantic on one side and the Indian Ocean on the other.  To my initial irritation my companions kept stopping, not to wonder at the distant scene but to gaze earnestly at the tiny plants about our feet.  Purple, blue and dazzling white flowers were everywhere among the predominant scrub.  But the prize find was a Schizaea Pectinata, otherwise called a toothbrush fern. The fronds of this tiny plant are packed together and the plant itself is rarely noticed.

Ferns do not flower and there was no particular attraction in this small hidden inhabitant of the wild.  So why the excitement?  Each one who stopped to look has an answer.  For me the excitement was that we actually stopped to look. We did not pass by oblivious.  I only knew one of the people on that walk but I doubt if many of them would describe themselves as spiritual, still less religious.  Yet the act of stopping, looking and valuing something seemingly insignificant is an act on the threshold of reverence.

The words that we often associate with religion – worship, adoration, sacred, martyr and so forth – are finding their way into ordinary converse.  They are no longer the exclusive property of religion.  The boundary between religious language and everyday experience is blurring.  For example, while we still have many we call martyrs today who have died for their faith, we have many - perhaps many more – who have died for the truth.  I am thinking particularly of the 71 journalists killed in 2017 for reporting what they witnessed.

These people showed extraordinary courage in investigating events and then reporting on them.  Their work took them into highly dangerous situations and they were prepared to risk their lives to tell the world what they saw and heard.  And the world is a better place for knowing the truth.  Journalists are particular about what they observe.  They too look at details. Often they will start their report with the story of one person: a Syrian widow who is grieving at the death of her child or the body of a migrant child washed up on a Greek beach.  Details move us where generalizations pass us by.  The gospels are full of individuals; Bartimaeus, Zaccheus and the woman at the well.  Stories of people tell us about ourselves.  Observing plants and animals tell us about our planet, our only home.  We need both.

16 December 2018

AN INCLUSIVE JESUS

The BBC brought us a long press conference this week in which the leader of the United States ducked many questions. At one point he said, we must help the rest of the world, but only when we have helped ourselves first. The virtual leader for the opposition, Nancy Pelosi, also gave a long press conference and, though a Democrat, quoted the epitome of Republicanism, Ronald Reagan, as saying America was built on the talents of immigrants and should always be a land of welcome.

A politician can build support by appealing to the best in human nature, compassion for others, or to the worst, exclusive self-interest.  The best raises the minds and hearts of people to see that this planet is for all of us and we are to include all people at our table. It is in the best interests of individuals – and countries – to seek the common good if they are to seek their own good.  Climate change is the glaring modern illustration of this.

Towards the end of the gospels the writers gather up the message of Jesus and this week we read of the shepherd who goes in search of one sheep which was lost, the woman who searches for her lost coin and the father who looks out for his lost son.  Jesus tells us that God is inclusive.  No one is left out. No one is screened at the border.

-o0o-

My eyesight has deteriorated to the point where writing these weekly columns has become an arduous task which I cannot keep up. And so I sign off with this, the 684^th! I am grateful to Wilf and Trish Mbanga who set me on this road more than ten years ago. This year, a selection of early pieces were published by Weaver Press under the title “Beyond Appearances” and there are copies available.  Thank you for journeying with me.  I trust that we will all continue to seek that which is beyond our reach.

David Harold-Barry SJ

Harare,  8 November 2018

WELL SPOKEN

_{WELL SPOKEN}

_{As a recent arrival in Zambia, I had not heard of Anderson Mazoka until two days ago. He is dead now. The one who told me of him said he could have been a great leader for Zambia. “He was compassionate,” he said. It struck me as an unusual complement to mention in one of our leaders.  We normally speak of their competence in politics or their understanding of economics and so on.  But that a leader is compassionate?  That he “suffers with” the people? That seemed new.}  

_{Towards the end of Mark’s gospel the opposition to Jesus mounts. But there is a sudden mention of a scribe who understands. He is “one of the scribes”, and so influenced by what his colleagues hold. But here he is speaking for himself.}

_{He asks Jesus what is the greatest thing in the law.  What is the basic element that holds our society together?  Jesus replies> “It is to love God and love one another”  The scribe replies,  “Well spoken, teacher”, and he repeats what Jesus had just said as if to emphasise his complete agreement. Then Jesus says to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.”}

_{It is a striking scene.  One might even not notice it in the headlong rush to condemn Jesus and all he stood for in the closing pages of the gospels. Yet there it is: Jesus in harmony with a leading Jew approving the central faith of the Jewish people and making it his own.  Those of us who are Christians are reminded once again how much we owe to our Jewish roots. The fundamental stance is love and the way we show love is through compassion.  The gospels are full of examples; the woman by the well  and the parable of the prodigal son are among the best known.}

_{Nurtured in this tradition we can only stagger in amazement at the news from Pakistan this week. Some people have threatened violence against their own judges because their High Court has set aside a death sentence against a Christian woman, Asia Bibi, over something she inadvertently did that offended Muslims. “We just want her to be killed,” they said}

_{4 November 2018                                                                   Sunday 31 B}

_{Deuteronomy 6:2-6}                                           Hebrews 7:23-28                                                 Mark 12:28-34

I SAW A HUGE MUMBER

PRAYER PAUSE

Thursday 1 November 2018, All Saints

I SAW A HUGE MUMBER

Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading ”After that I saw a huge number, impossible to count, of people from every nation, race, tribe and language.” (Revelations 7:2-11)

Reflection. November 1 is a moment to think about the nillions who have inhabited and will inhabit this earth. They are “impossible to count.” Theses are God’s people, destined to live with him in a way that totally fulfils their deepest lomgings.  We are that people and the Lord has given us a time and a place to live where we can prepare, personally and as a people, bound to one anotrhe,  We are to work at this astonishing project  and rejoice in the striving of millions so that we all achieve this goal.

Prayer. Lord, as we rejoice with those who have gone before us we ask that we too will be “of that number” and  will use our time now to prepare the way. Amen.

TRY YOUR BEST

PRAYER PAUSE

Wednesday 31 October 2018, Alphonsus Rodriguez

TRY YOUR BEST

Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading ”Try your best to enter byythe narrow dor.” (Luke 13:20-30)

Reflection. As Jesus journeyed steadily towards Jerusalem and the contest that awaited him thre, people were beginning to sense that the coming of the kingdom of God was not goig to happen easily.  Jesu reinforces this perception.  Many, he says, presume they can follow their own agenda and that somehow that will fit with God’s plan for his kingdom. Well, it might.  But then, again, it might not!. A person has to strive to test his or her way of life and see if it really does accord with the coming of the kingdom.  If it doesn’t, we are not going anywhere.  So, as Jesus draws closer t Jeusalem his message is: Do not presume. Test your way of proceding and see if it is aligned with the Spirit of God.

Prayer. Lord, help us to be sensitive to our own way of life and give us the courage to change where change is needed. Amen.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS LIKE YEAST

PRAYER PAUSE

Tuesday 30 October 2018, Dominic Collins

THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS LIKE YEAST

Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading ”The kingdom of God is like the yeast a woman took and mixed with three measures of flour.” (Luke 13:18-21)

Reflection. Jesus gives us two simple parable: the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed or like yeast or leaven. Brief pictures packed with meaning. Once the woman starts mixing the yeast it disappears.  It becomes one with the flour and transforms the flour,  God’s action in the world is not easily seen.  It is there constantlytransforming people and society but you hardly notice it.  It is an image that gives us huge confidence.  Things often look pretty bleak.  We seldom turn from hearing the daily news with a feeling of elation.  Quite the opposite.  But despite it all, God is at work, silently transforming everything through the hearts of all those who welcome his mixing.

Prayer. Lord, help us to receive the leaven of you presence in our relations and actions. Amen.

COME AND BE HEALED ON WEEK-DAYS

PRAYER PAUSE

Monday 29 October 2018

COME AND BE HEALED ON WEEK-DAYS

Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading ”There are six days when work is to be fone.  Come on one of those  and not on the Sabbath.” (Luke 13:10-17)

Reflection. When the synagogue official said these words there must have been an outburst of laughter.  Imagine a notice at the entrance to a hospital COME ON WEEKDAYS ONLY. Luke is ridiculing the attitude of those who would not budge from theirstance of tight control of the social political order.  Any breach, any suggestion of change and the whole thing would come crasking down.  Jesus had not come to detroy but to help people change and see that their traditional ways were only a preparation fo something much better, something that would bring them true freedom.  But the controllers wouldn’t budge.

Prayer. Lord, help us break down the barriers in ourselves and in our society that oppose change and development. Amen.

ONE ZAMBIA

ONE ZAMBIA

It is Independence Day.  Zambians are celebrating 54 years of freedom. There is pride but also a knawing sense of unease.  Where are we now?  They have not been years of rapid advance. More like the lumbering pace of an unwieldy creature of the wild. Less like the stride of an impala. More like the waddle of a hippo. 

There has been progress – in education and health and those intangible things; confidence and identity. Yet there is also a feeling of helplessness.  People do not believe the government is there for them but for itself and its close associates. The people it was elected to serve do not feel they are served,

This is a diagnosis not only of Zambia.  It is a default position in much of the continent.  People have no sense of their power.  In other countries leaders, who do not listen to the people who chose them, are dismissed by the voters.

Yes, it takes time to develop civic leverage among voters. But 54 years?  What is that essential ingredient that fires up a government to deliver justice to its people? What is it that shifts a people from passivity to engagement?

Recently I walked to the local shopping mall. They are adding a filling station and the builders’ barrier encroach on a busy road.  A walker has to navigate between the rush of cars and the barrier.  In another country the builders would be brought to court.  But we shrug our shoulders and laugh at the hazards of walking in Lusaka.  We continue to “improve” our roads for vehicles and drainage. But the humble walker continues to negotiate the thin line between car and ditch.

There is a story in Mark’s gospel about a blind man sitting by the side of the road. He hears commotion and is curious. He is told to keep quiet but he refuses. “He shouts all the louder.” And he is heard.  Can we learn from him?

28 October 2018                     Sunday 30 B

Jeremiah 31:7-9                       Hebrews 5:1-6               Mark 10:46-52

     

INTERPRETING THESE TIMES

PRAYER PAUSE

Friday 26 October 2018

INTERPRETING THESE TIMES

Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading ”You know how to interpret the face of the earth and the sky.  How is it you do not know how to interpret these times?” (Luke 12:54-59)

Reflection. The whole life of Jesus is one urgent drive to get across to people that a new age has come: an age of fulfilment of all their deepest hopes and desires. There is now an opportunity to bring to birth the hidden, unformed, confused longings  of the heart. “Our hearts are restles …” But,  “Come to me and you will find rest.”  Yet we are often satisfied with a superficial non-threatening interpretation.   What the saints do is to show us the radical nature of what Jesus is calling us to.  We cannot get there by our efforts alone.  He promises to show us the Way.

Prayer. Lord, help us to follow the way you are inviting us. Amen.

THE SERVANT OF CHRIST’S MISSION

PRAYER PAUSE

Wednesday 24 October 2018, Zambia Independence Day

THE SERVANT OF CHRIST’S MISSION

Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading ”I have been made the servant of the gospel by a gift of grace from God.” (Ephesians 3:2-12)

Reflection. We are completely dependent for the Good News – or any good news – on the commitment of others to us.  In prison I meet people who seem to have no idea that there is another world other than the drudgery and fear which are their constant compamions.  Today is Zambia’s 54th Independence Day and the reflection naturally arises why does it take so long for the good news of freedom to enter the spirit of people? There is another bridge to cross before the external freedom gained on 24 October 1964  becomes rooted in a confidence that demands and struggles for a society that is truly just. Those of us who know something of the Good News are called to hasten that day,

Prayer. As we celebrate the gift of freedom,Lord, help us commit ouselves to creating it in reality in or society. Amen.

YOU TOO ARE BEING BUILT INTO ONE BODY

PRAYER PAUSE

Tuesday 22 October 2018

YOU TOO ARE BEING BUILT INTO ONE BODY

Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading ”All grow into one holy temple in the Lord; and you too, in him, are being built into a house where God lives, in the Spirit.” (Ephesians 2:12-22)

Reflection. With historical hindsight it is clear that humanity is evolving towards unity.  500 years ago we hardly knew of other parts of the world, leave alone the people living there.  Today, we know everywhere and have contact, if we wish, with everyone.. And there is a political and economic dynamic towards unity.  Brexit and Trump seem abberations, and will be seen in time as temporary halts in the powerful trend towards unity. For those who believe in God’s plan, it is all written there in our DNA and our scriptures.

Prayer. Lord, help us to welcome every movement that brings us together.  Teach us to be patient with one another on the way and open our hearts to welcome one another. Amen.

I WILL PULL DOWN MY BARNS AND BUILD BIGGER ONES

PRAYER PAUSE

Monday 21 October 2018, John Paul II

I WILL PULL DOWN MY BARNS AND BUILD BIGGER ONES

Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading ”I have not enough room to store my crops. I will pull don my barns and build bigger ones..’” (Luke 12:13-21

Reflection. Is it not astonishing how we sometimes allow wills to break our relationships with one another - especially in families?  A will is disputed and as a result people don’t talk to one another.  Jesus calls it avarice. One can think of softer words like”just claiming what is due to me.”  But it all takes us very far from Jesus other wrods, “Blessed are the poor in spirit,” where he wants us to be free of anything that gets in the way of reelationships. Money, land, houses can do that.  And these desires can sicken the soul and taint our whole life. 

Prayer. Lord, while we may have disputes  among us, may they never be allowed to break down realtinships between us. Amen.

WILLINGLY

Why, suddenly, in October, do we have a Good Friday reading?  We have “done” Good Friday for this year.  We have put it behind us and got on with normal life.  Well, I am obviously being playful.  We are never “done” with Good Friday;  it follows us through the year.

The “offending” reading is, “The Lord has been pleased to crush him with suffering” (Isaiah 53).  I do not know what the original Hebrew says but the Lord is never “pleased” to crush us.  But he is pleased to see us win against the sting of suffering, to “measure ourselves against the obstacle.”  A priest friend of mine visited a sick person this week and, after anointing her, he asked her if she could offer her suffering in union with Jesus for the sake of others? “Willingly”, she replied. My friend was touched by her instant response.

God did not invent suffering.  Nobody really knows where it came from. The Adam and Eve story is hardly satisfying. What we do know is that it can be, if we can accept it in the right frame of mind, healing and purifying. Just this week people have been shocked by the apparent murder of an Arabian journalist and his alleged killers are scurrying around in an unseemly effort to explain it away.  But they are rattled and his death may have a profound effect for good in the end.

I was thinking of this recently when I heard from someone who knew John Bradburne well of his (John’s) fury when he first saw Mutemwa.  The people with leprosy were an appalling sight then (1969).  Yet John knew instantly that he would stay there with them and that it would lead to his violent death. Though there were bright moments, the next ten years were dominated by struggle, suffering, rejection and finally he was shot dead.  Since then countless people have been drawn closer to God through the witness of John.

We will never fully understand it but suffering releases something in us and opens us up – or can do – to the great reality with which we are surrounded (Hebrews 12:1) but which is often hidden from us. John could have walked awy that day in 1969 and we would have known him simply as a deeply spiritual man, nothing more. But he opted to stay, “willingly” though his nature rebelled against it, and in staying he opened the door to many.  And in the process he is now on the way to that honour the Church gives, for the sake of others, to her heroes of the spirit; public acknowledgement as a saint..<       

21 October 2018            Sunday 29 B

Isaiah 53:10-11              Hebrews 4:14-16           Mark 19:35-45

TREADING ON ONE ANOTHER

PRAYER PAUSE

Friday 19 October 2018, The North American Martyrs

TREADING ON ONE ANOTHER

Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading ”The people were gathering in their thousands so that they were treading on one another.’” (Luke 12:1-7)

Reflection. The people were attracted to Jesus and came in large numbers to see him and hear him.  But he was not impressed.  He warns them sharply about the leaven of the Pharisees who enjoyed the honour of the people and wanted an external conformity to law and custom.  The Pharisees wanted a quiet world order where everything would go along nicely and their comfort would not be disturbed.  But Jesus had come to harrow the world and shake it up so that it attains its real purpose.  It would involve contradiction, suffering and death. The Pharisees wated none of this.  The North American martyrs, and every follower of jesus who triesd to live in his spirit, does,

Prayer. Lord, may we understand the fruitfulness hidden in our sufferings and willingly accept them when we have done all we can do to avoid them. Amen.

THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NEAR TO YOU

PRAYER PAUSE

Thursday 18 October 2018, Luke

THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NEAR TO YOU

Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading ”Te kingdom of God is near to you.’” (Luke 10:1-12)

Reflection. Who was Luke and how did he get into the action? Answer: the same way as we all do.  He was drawn to the words of the apostles and joined them and at some point became part of Paul’s staff. He had a amazing talents, Not only did he give us his gospel and the Acts but he did so in a way that enriches our understanding of God’s plan in a unique way. He draws out the link with the Hebrew scriptures  in the figures who introduce the gospel – Zechariah and Simeon and the others – and he follows through into the future with all the characters in Acys culminating with Paul’s arrival in Rome.  And his writing is full of the compassion of God, his forgiveness and healing and he teaches us what it is to be a disciple starting with Mary. It is an astonishing legacy from and otherwise unknown Greek./

Prayer. Lord, as we thank you for the gift of Luke, help us too to use all our gifts in the service of your people. Amen.

IF YOU ARE LED BY THE sPIRIT

PRAYER PAUSE

Wednesday 17 October 2018, Ignatius of A|ntioch

IF YOU ARE LED BY THE sPIRIT

Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading ”If you are led by the Spirit no law can touch you.’” Galatians 3:15-25)

Reflection. The letter to the Galatians is like a shout of Paul at his contemporaries: ‘Wake up! The Spirit can change you.  Stop looking back to the “security” of your childhood, your home, your “Egypt” where you were satisfied with the “fleshpots”.  Realise that God has announced in Jesus  a new world where men and women can achieve the fullness of their own personal lives, their gifts and value!’  The ‘safety ‘ of sticking to secure ways, of accepting things as they are, is so strong for us .  The ‘losing oneself’ in order to find oneself seems so risky. So we settle down for a second class life, comfortable and secure. “Are you Galations so much out of your mind,” Paul cries at one point, that you abandon the inheritance won for you by Christ?

Prayer. Lord, teach us the joy of Christian freedom. Amen.

OLD TATI REVISITED

OLD TATI REVISITED

It was an emotional experience for a Jesuit to be part of the Francixtown diocese celebration at Old Tati, the site of the first Jesuit mission of the 1879 venture to the lands bordering the Zambezi. Anold Moyo and I were selected to respond to the invitation of Bishop Frank Nubuasah to be representatives of the descendants of the two Jesuits buried there.  The bishop wants to honour them as the first missionaries to arrive to preach the gospel, celebrate the Eucharist and open a small school.

The mission lasted just six years but this fragile start to evangelisation with the apparent casualness of the two deaths – Fr Charles Fuchs (40) died of malaria before he did anything and Fr Anthony de Wit (59) was jerked from a horse in a freak accident and broke his neck – did nothing to dampen the spirits of the hundreds who made the journey there on the 13^th of October.

Parishioners from all over the diocese and visitors from neighbouring countries came together in the bush. We followed tracks wandering through the thickets of vicious thorns without a homestead in sight. An industrious retired army man has started a market garden in the vicinity and there is a primary school not far away but these were the only visible settlements in what looked like a desolate land.

Anold and I were asked to say some words to mark the Jesuit connection and Rob Burret, archaeologist, historian and one time teacher at St George’s College Harare, gave a brief explanation of the site emphasising we had pitched our tent unknowingly at the very site of the former Jesuit chapel. Later he took a few of us to see the place where the old Jesuit residence stood and I picked up a few shards of coloured glass and some rusted nails as evidence.

The Emeritus 91 year old Bishop of Gaborone, Boniface Setlalekgosi, was also there and spoke movingly, as nearly every speaker did, of the sacrifice of those early men who left home and security for a land they did not know and a people who were strangers.

I sensed a great desire, especially in Bishop Frank, to affirm the link with those early efforts.  They were fruitless to the human eye but they were the seed which dies. At the time the rulers of both the Tswana and the Ndebele were not interested in the gospel, at least as preached by Catholics,  and, in Botswana, they had to wait another forty or more years before the Society of the Passionists arrived. But none of this mattered in October 2018.  The key fact was the starting of a mission by men sent by Pope Leo who wanted the Tswana and the Kalanga to be included fully, as they had long been in preparation, among the people of [D1] God.

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 [D1]Ikly of God.

ALL THE PAGANS WILL BE BLESSED

PRAYER PAUSE

Friday 12 October 2018

ALL THE PAGANS WILL BE BLESSED

Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading ”God said to Abraham, ‘In you all the nations will be blessed.’” Galatians 3:7-14)

Reflection. It is rare for one of us to make life choices before we are out of our teens.  Paul calls this early part of our life “the law”. It is true for each of us and true for humanity.  People – and the Jews were representative- go through life with a code of rules, disobedience to which carried expternal sanxcions..  Paul now in his letter to the Galations explainsd what Jesus did for us in terms of our growing up, making choices, choices that bring freedom, maturity and happiness.  Pope Francis calls it the “Joy of the Gospel” – as distinct from the fear of the law..  Our daily readings constantly call us to make a choice for the gospel over and over again until it becomes part of us and then true freedom and happiness is ours.

Prayer. Lord, help us to choose the gospel as our way to freedom. Amen.

HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME

PRAYER PAUSE

Wednesday 10 October 2018

HALLOWED BE YOUR NAME

Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading ”Our Father, you who are in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come.” (Luke 11:3-4)

Reflection. When Jesus was giving us the Our Father why did he not say, “Our Father, who are in heaven teach us to know you and  love you in all things.” Maybe it was because love is shown in action and he went straight to this: may your reign come. This can only come about through love and forgiveness and so this concise Christian prayer simply consists of praise, prayer for the coming of the kingdom, strength and courage to bring this about and fogiveness of one another along the way.  That is enough.  None of this can be achieved without love and the striving to achieve it is an expression of our love.

Prayer. Lord, grant us the courage and imagination to bring about your reign. Amen.

MARY SAT DOWN AT THE LORD’S FEET

PRAYER PAUSE

Tuesday 9 October 2018

MARY SAT DOWN AT THE LORD’S FEET

Enter into the stillness of God within.

Reading ”Martha welcomed the Lord into her house.  She had a sister called Mary who sat down at the Lord’s feet and listened to him.” (Luke 10:38-42)

Reflection. Implicit in the mission of Jesus was his desire that men and women  would “enjoy life to the full.” People before his time could only develop their humanity to a certain level. Jesus opened out, in his person, the possibility for people to become fully human.  We sense it in Mary, his own mother.  We also sense it here in this woman who reached beyond the everyday cares, which fill our lives, to something beyond which is there as a capacity in each of us but which we often never develop..  Jesus himself was “so human that he was divine” (Ruth Burrows) and he longs to share this complete humanity with us.  We can reach it if we too “sit at his feet and listen.”  

Prayer. Lord, help us to desire to sit at your feet and listen to what you want to say to our hearts. Amen.