Sunday, 27 May 2018

CLOAKED IN GLORY


CLOAKED IN GLORY
Pope Francis has made another of his bold moves.  He has talked this time - not about migrants or climate change or family issues – but about holiness. This is hardly a headline grabber and people are not queuing up to buy his book, entitled Rejoice and be Glad or, in its Latin original, Gaudete et Exsultate.  He is simply saying, if Christians would be Christians they would have a powerful leaven impact on the world.
Trinity Sunday!  We believe that within God himself there is motion: a relationship between Father and Son and Holy Spirit.  There is a dynamism that is communicated to us and our relationships.  Our primary relationship is between man and woman and children – another trinity.  (The Two Trinities are caught in one picture of this title by the 17th century Spanish painter Bartolomé Murillo).  This basic dynamism, which we learn at our mother’s breast, gives birth to all our relationships.
Holiness, Francis tells us, is living in tune with the Beatitudes, which are the “identity card” of the Christian (# 65).  They are Jesus’ “election manifesto”, his fundamental statement about the qualities needed for the Kingdom, which he is announcing, to take root and flourish.  Fundamental to this manifesto, this identity card, is the first statement, “Blessed (or happy, or holy – it is all the same) are the poor in spirit.”  These six words, which go in the opposite direction to the flow of life in the world today, say everything.  They ask us to be truly open to life and tune our own values, plans and desires to the will of God, which is our happiness.
A recent article in The Atlantic describes the opposite; values which appear to be held by the present occupants of the US White House; “Blessed are the proud.  Blessed are the ruthless.  Blessed are the shameless.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for fame.” 
To live the Beatitudes of Mathew 5 today calls for “boldness”, Francis tells us (#129), as we will be going against the current. This is holiness.  The pope encourages us to realise that all our actions, which are grounded in truth and compassion, are ways in which we live out holiness. The whole papal letter is simply saying: happiness, holiness – call it what you will – are attainable to ordinary people – you and me – if we try each day to live out of truth and mercy.  “ We need to live humbly in his presence,” he says (#51), “cloaked in his glory (and) once we stop trying to live our lives without him the anguish of loneliness will disappear.” (cf. Ps 139:23-24)
27 May 2018                                       Trinity Sunday
Deuteronomy 4:32…40                                   Roman 8:14-17                                    Matthew 28:16-20


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