A BREAK-IN

 

A BREAK-IN

There are break-ins and break-ins. When people want change, they try to break into the system and reform it. The break into Congress in the United States on 6 January has horrified America and people around the world. Frightening as it was, it still showed that dissatisfied people will sometimes take extreme action to express their frustration. It will be an awesome task for Joe Biden to begin the healing of America when he is sworn in as President next Wednesday. 

We celebrate another type of break-in as we begin a new year in the scripture readings of the Church. In today’s readings God breaks into young Samuel’s world and the boy takes time to understand what is going on. Jesus also breaks into the complacent world of some fishermen, a tax man and a bunch of others. He has a big impact for we are told ‘they left everything and followed him’.

Breaking into someone’s life can change everything and the follow through from Christmas alerts us to the work that is only just beginning. We can dust down the crib and stow it away for another year but it would be good if we could also stow away in our hearts the message that crib contains. Jesus broke into the world in order to bring to perfection the work already begun. For centuries people had felt their way towards the divine but now the divine had come to dwell among them.

This would make all the difference but, like Samuel, people don’t get it – at least not at first. If we can look in the mirror, we realise how contaminated we are. Peter and the others may have been called but the gospel tells us how slow they were to understand. In their faltering steps we recognise ourselves. We are not converted. We have not allowed God to break into our lives. If we did, we would experience ‘peace flowing like a river’ (Is 66:12). But we don’t and we haven’t. I think of Matthew and the way he seems to have totally surrendered to the break-in. He accepted it and never looked back.

I also think of Franz Jägerstätter who was the only person in his village in Austria to vote against the Anschluss, the proposed union of Austria and Germany, in the plebiscite of 10 April 1938. He was dismayed that many Catholics in his village supported the Nazis, writing, "I believe there could scarcely be a sadder hour for the true Christian faith in our country". He was eventually arrested, tried and executed by guillotine for refusing to take the oath to Hitler. His last recorded words before his death were, ‘I am completely bound in inner union with the Lord’. It took his fellow Austrians a long time to understand his heroism. Even after the war he was considered a traitor to his country and a deserter of his family; his wife and three young daughters. His wife lived to see her husband beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007 and she died only in 2013.   

Jägerstätter was one of the many through the centuries who allowed the Lord to break into their lives. As we start this difficult year, we may draw courage from him and those like him who welcome this sort of ‘break-in’.

17 January 2021          Sunday 2 B     1 Sam 3:3-10, 19         1 Cor 6:13…20           Jn 1:35-42

A FEW DROPS OF WATER

 

A FEW DROPS OF WATER

The more we acquire the power to destroy our earth the more, happily, we acquire the ability to do something about it.  Just think how we would be if Covid 19 had crept up on us and we did not know what it was and how it had arisen! As it is, we do know and what is more we know how to prevent it. We have found, it seems, a vaccine. ‘Follow the science’ has become the wise counsel which has borne fruit and politicians who have ignored science for political gain have endangered the lives of their people.

So here we are in a scientific forum which tells us how we got into this and how we can get out of it. But scientists know the more they advance the more they become aware of their limits. ‘Getting out of it’ requires human cooperation and that cannot be engineered by scientists. Science is becoming a more humble discipline and is ever more open to a mystery beyond their ability to understand.

Here is a mysterious saying from St Hippolytus in the third century:

‘The boundless river that gladdens the City of God is washed by a few drops of water. The source without limits that engenders life for all mankind and is beyond all understanding is covered by the poor waters of this world’.

Hippolytus is referring to Baptism and more specifically to the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan. John’s action, pouring ‘a few drops of water’ on the head of the Messiah, triggered the whole drama that soon unfolded in the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus. ‘The whole world lies in the power of the Evil One’, but that is about to change. Something very small – ‘a few drops of water’ - is going to set off a process which over the years and centuries will transform humanity.

That little vaccine, contained in a few drops of water, has the power to comfort and protect all humanity and the connection between these drops of water and the waters of baptism is becoming ever more blurred. As science is losing its confidence it can solve all problems, even as it solves some, so religion is losing its confidence it can provide the answer to all human grief.

Since the days of Tertullian, a contemporary of Hippolytus, who famously asked ‘what has Athens to do with Jerusalem?’ meaning what has the city best known for philosophy and science to do with the city where Christianity was born, people have argued over the claims of reason and faith. We live in exciting times where this argument is being resolved. Science today is much more open than before to the deepest claims of faith. And faith, too, is much more aware of the necessity of science for the growth and perfection of the human person. And a few drops of water have bridged the gap.     

10 January 2021          The Baptism of Jesus     Is 42:1-7       Acts 10:34-38              Mk 1:7-11

THE DIAPHANY OF THE DIVINE

 

THE DIAPHANY OF THE DIVINE

I like the suggestion of Teilhard de Chardin that the word Epiphany, for the feast where Jesus shows himself to the wise men from the east, be changed to ‘Diaphany’. Epi-phany means ‘showing upon’, that is the ‘showing’ of God who has come ‘on’ earth. The wise men made a long and hazardous journey, symbol of our life, to come to this fulfilment of their quest and their reward was to ‘see’ the child whom they came to know as a great king and ‘light of the gentiles’. That is our joy too as we celebrate the Epiphany rounding off the Christmas season.

We can, though, move on to say that this coming of God to ‘dwell among us’ is for the purpose of completing creation: ‘recapitulating’, that is, ‘gathering up all things under Christ as head’ (Eph 1:10). Everything is touched by the divine. Everything. And especially every person. ‘Dia-phany’ captures this as it means ‘showing through’. We are more familiar with the word ‘diaphanous’ and its use to describe a type of dress but even that use illustrates what is meant. We can see its meaning in great artists, musicians, sportsmen and the like. We call them ‘inspired’ and they are given their gift to raise our hearts. Seeing or hearing them takes us ‘through’ them to a glimpse of the divine.

This expansion of the word ‘epiphany’ leads us to be on the watch for sparks of the divine in others and in creation. There is no single person on earth who does not reflect in some way that divine life. To brush any person aside, to ignore the suffering of any woman or man, is to trample on the divine, now ‘shown’ to be on earth. It is to turn away from the light of which the Christmas readings are full. The light comes into the dark but the dark tries to snuff it out. We saw this in 2020. We became aware of the generosity and the courage people showed to others as we wrestled with the virus. Compassion and solidarity pushed their way forward as dominant virtues across many parts of the globe.

Yet the darkness fought back and is now trying to regain its ancient ground. It wants us to retreat to ‘normality’ with the help of a vaccine. We want the skies full of planes again and the cities clogged with cars. We want ‘the standard of living to which I am accustomed’ back again.

Or do we? There are so many signs that people are waking up to climate change and Covid will be seen one day to have contributed to this awakening. It is maddening for politicians to have to put their great plans on hold while they deal, at great expense, with the crisis under their noses. But a new electorate has appeared in many places that demands action in creating a sustainable planet.

That is our great hope: that a great multitude will discover their voice and demand a new world where the divine life ‘shows through’.    

6 (3) January 2021      The Epiphany     Is 60:1-6            Eph 3: 2…6           Mt 2:1-12       

 

 

     

 

 

CHRISTMAS

The word ‘Christmas’ is appearing less and less in countries where people think the word imposes a private belief on another person who may not share the belief. So, instead of saying ‘Happy Christmas’ many prefer to say, ‘Happy Festive Season’. This latter greeting avoids mention of why one should be happy. It implies that it is good to have a time to relax, meet family and friends and celebrate with food and drink. That itself is sufficient.

People who are inclined that way have a good reason. Why wish someone a Happy Christmas if you do not know what Christmas is? It is more honest to simply wish them a happy time and leave it at that. Maybe our world is becoming more honest, more sincere? And maybe it is teaching us too to be more honest about our faith? Yesterday, I was given a link to Oxford where a group of people put on a concert as a way of expressing their gratitude to the teams of researchers who had come up with the vaccine against Covid. This will save lives and open up the economy and restore the conviviality people have missed since March.

But what kind of concert was it? It was a deeply religious one in which all the pieces expressed sentiments and desires Christian people associate with Christmas. One piece was specially written for the occasion; a carol for St Joseph composed by John Rutter. If you google him you will hear his advice, ‘Compose what is in your heart’. Don’t try to be ‘in fashion’ or worry ‘what will people think’. I take him to mean, ‘listen to your inmost self’. Thirty seconds with a violinist playing your music, he says, is worth more than three years of seminars.

People today are trying to be authentic, true to themselves. They would say; use the word ‘Christmas’ if you mean it and it comes from your heart. Otherwise use some other word. Jesus came to expose our hearts: is there truth hiding there trying to come out? Or is there hardness which bears fruit in hypocrisy: I present myself as good and caring but, at base, I am driven by desires for money and status.

I am always moved by the weakness of Jesus, the fragility of his circumstances. Like a migrant, he is born far from home and then his parents have to hurriedly flee with him out of the country. And in his adult life he has no great strategy, no five-year plan. He reaches out to people one at a time; a woman at a well, a tax-collector at his desk. He just wants them to look into their heart and see what is there.  Time and time again he unlocked something in the human heart – one person at a time.

That was all a long time ago. Then he could only reach a few people in a few places over a few years. But he began a community and lives in that community which carries on his work – in every age and every continent. We are part of that community today, still trying each day to allow him to unlock out hearts and let ourselves be loved.     

Christmas Day 2020               Is 9:1-6            Titus 2: 11-14              Luke 2: 1-14

DISTURBED BY THESE WORDS

 

DISTURBED BY THESE WORDS

In 1954 Iris Murdoch published her first novel, Under the Net. It is about a man who is searching to understand himself and other people. The story is about four people; two men and two women. A love B but B does not love A; she loves C who in his turn loves D. And D loves A! It is not a triangle of love but a diamond. The title of the novel refers to the network of relationships of which we are all part – some of them link us to one another while others we use to keep people at a distance. Murdoch wants to get under this net. She writes:

What I speak of is the real decision as we experience it; and here the movement away from theory and generality is the movement towards truth. All theorizing is flight. We must be ruled by the situation itself … it is something to which we can never get close enough, however hard we may try as it were to crawl under the net.

In 1954 no one thought of ‘the net’ in the way we do today where we can be in touch literally and immediately with people anywhere on the planet and even beyond in space. But are we any closer to understanding ourselves or one another? Do we get ‘under the net’? Has the ease of communication, the thickening of the net, made this harder? Have our relationships suffered as a result of the constant stream?  

These thoughts come as we approach Christmas. Malcolm Guite has written in a poem that celebrates the ‘O’ antiphons of Advent, ‘O Word beneath the words with which I speak’. All our words, all our efforts at communication, are expressions in some way of our desire to relate. We want to move closer to people or we want to keep them at a distance. There is a place for chatter, banter and even gossip! Harmless gossip! But these should only be the decoration, not the substance, of our relationships. It would not be good if our constant chat ends up being ‘normal’ and our only way of communication. Our chat is the surface of the well. It hides the clear still waters of our depths. These waters are there for us to draw and quench our aching hearts in times like Covid and economic struggle as well as personal difficulties.

The glitter of Christmas is fine but it too is only the surface. We are to go deeper to know the Word beneath our words, to get under the net. Mary was ‘deeply disturbed by the words’ of the angel Gabriel. She could not understand the message hidden in the words she was hearing. She had to ‘ponder’ and come to believe and find her own words, ‘let what you have said be done to me.’

20 Dec 2020    Advent Sunday 4 B     2 Sam 7:1…16    Rom 16:25-27         Luke 1:26-38

‘HOPE IS NOT THE SAME AS OPTIMISM’

 

‘HOPE IS NOT THE SAME AS OPTIMISM’

This observation, by the Czech playwright and president, Václav Havel, is quoted by Fr Diarmuid O’Murchu as opening a door to understanding where we are called to go in a future after Covid. It has been said many times, and most emphatically by Pope Francis, that we cannot go back to pre-Covid days as if nothing has happened. Some politicians are leading their people to think that if we can just get a reliable vaccine – and it seems we now have one – we can get ‘back to normal’ and, most importantly, get the economy going again.

But no, says the seemingly still minority opinion, it is not medicine only we need but conversion. We simply cannot go back to where we were where we squeeze nature to serve our interests regardless of the consequences. We can repeat the adage: God always forgives; men and women sometimes forgive; nature never forgives. But nature will bounce back if given a chance. The destruction of the ozone layer has been halted and is slowly reforming and fish have returned to the no longer polluted rivers of Europe. But we, and especially the young among us, now know that the planet will continue to warm up unless we take action. And a consensus is slowly accumulating to support that action, even to demand it.

And so we continue with the question: can we return to what we considered our normal way of life in a post-Covid world? What the mounting number of voices is telling us is ‘no’. We have to ‘lose our life if we are to find it’. We have to put a limit on our lust for power and wealth if we and our children are to have a good life on this earth. The human body has a built-in immunity as a gift of nature. But in the world of the spirit immunity is not built-in. It has to be chosen freely. The gift of the human spirit is that we construct our own ever evolving immunity by our choices. The vaccine, like any medicine, does not affect our choices. It just does its job, like air in a tyre or fuel in an engine.

We need another kind of immunity as a result of the scare both Covid and global warming are giving us. And this is where Václav Havel comes in. We find no solution in optimism which is often defined as ‘hoping for the best’ but which, in practice, means looking forward to things returning to normal. That is not hope. Hope is being open to a new future which will reveal itself when we preserve the best of what we have achieved while avoiding those things we now know to be harmful to us and our planet.   

In Advent, O’Murchu tells us, we focus on God coming to us but we would do well to invert the focus to one of us coming to God.  Covid is like John the Baptist: it comes to warn us to ‘make straight the ways’ and that means to pay attention to what we have to do to make sure this planet will still be around so that our children and our children’s children have ‘life to the full’.    

13 Dec 2020    Advent Sunday 3 B     Is 61:1-2, 10-11           1 Th 5: 16-24      Jn 1:6-8, 19-28  

 

 

 

 

 

 

ADVENT TAKES US BEYOND OURSELVES

 

ADVENT TAKES US BEYOND

Advent takes us beyond ourselves. There are times when we glimpse this, especially when we are young. I am old now but I remember moments which are indescribable when I was filled with wonder and anticipation. We would visit my grandmother and there was something about the pantry – and the lemonade - which went way beyond the grandest restaurants and the finest wines. We lived far from the sea but when we did go there the excitement went far beyond geography; the smell of the sea, its constant motion and its infinity – all spoke to me of mystery beyond my puny ability to understand.

In Advent we are called to stop and dwell on the mystery which we are. We can be tyrannised by the demands of each day and collapse exhausted on our couch at night. Yet if we can find moments to pause and soak in the poetry of Isaiah we will open a door that takes us beyond reason, beyond technology. We are not meant to make our home here for ever.  ‘Console my people, console them’, he cries this Sunday and it is not going to be the consolation of money or status or some other good thing of life though such things are good and have their place. It is the consolation of trust solidly placed in one who is beyond us and always faithful.

Last week I wrote of Fr Augustus Law dying in a lonely place without medical care and without those he was with understanding why he came. His mission was a total failure in terms of result based planning but his last written words in his diary before he died were, ‘I don't think that I could ever despair, even if I tried'. This week I listened to an interview with Jewish South African artist William Kentridge and at one point he said, ‘Follow through what happens at the edges’. An enigmatic piece of advice perhaps but when you think of Jesus noticing the widow putting her few pence in the temple collection plate you begin to see what he means. She gave all she had for something greater than herself. Jesus noticed her. Probably he was the only one who did. Our moments of attention to what is beyond us are pregnant with blessings.

‘Some times it was as if a chink had opened

Upon a scene unforeseen and enterable –

Seamus Heaney, The Real Names

The kingdom, the gospels insist, is ‘close at hand’. It is round the corner. But we have to notice it, to welcome it. We are to be alert to every person we meet or see. Advent is a kind of institutional ‘Rinse your eyes, stay awake’ time!

6 Dec 2020 Advent Sunday 2 B     Is 40:1…11   2 Pet 3: 8-14                  Mk 1:1-8