A little while

A little while

Bethlehem is just 10 kilometres from Jerusalem. You’d walk it in a couple of hours. It took Jesus thirty years and more, years that led him to Egypt as a refugee, Nazareth as a child and a carpenter’s apprentice and then a packed life of proclaiming the reign of God to a resistant people. A few stayed with him to the end, regrouping after being scattered by the events leading to his death. These witnessed his final appearances after he rose from the dead.

Neither Matthew nor John mentions it but there was a tradition that he finally left them by dramatically withdrawing from them, ascending to heaven. This is recalled in our creeds and it is expanded in the letter to the Ephesians into a final exaltation of him as “ruler of everything … far above every Sovereignty, Authority and Power not only in this world but in the age to come.” It is always dazzling to me how soon the early Church made this transition from Jesus of Nazareth to ‘ruler of everything’ in just a few years.

And what is more, they recognised that the barriers were broken down between heaven and earth. This is a key to our understanding of the Ascension; one moment Jesus is with those he calls “my friends” and the next he is withdrawing from them into heaven. No wonder John was to write many years later, “You will see the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man” (1:51). At its best, religion leads us to the compassionate heart of God and a discovery of his longing to share his life with us.

How far this is from the grotesque news we heard this week of the young pregnant woman in Pakistan stoned for following the love of her heart. Religion, all religions, can be used to build barriers and shut out the friendship God offers. We have a right and a duty to be outraged at any form of abuse of relationships which is so contrary to God’s purpose. The message of the Ascension is the direct opposite of any form of manipulation and control which blocks access to a loving God.

We have work to do. The disciples had work to do. They had been told about “a little while” (John 16:16) in which they would not see him. This applied, firstly, to his death and their seeing him again. But it also applied to that time when they would carry out their mission and we would carry out ours. We don’t have much time. Wherever you look there are urgent things to address; global warming, human trafficking, oppressive traditions (as with the woman in Pakistan) and many others on our own door step. This is no time for “staring into the heavens” (Acts1:11) but of engagement in the issues staring us in the face.  

1 June 2014                 Ascension Day A

Acts 1:1-11                 Eph 1:17-23                            Matt 28:1-20

A VISIT FULL OF MEANING

PRAYER MOMENT             

Saturday 31 May 2014

A VISIT FULL OF MEANING

Pause. Be still in the presence of Mary and El;izabeth

Reading: “Blessed is she who believed that the promise made to her by the Lord would be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:39-56)

Reflection. We meet people all the time and most of our meetings are soon forgotten. But there are meetings when some new electricity is generated! Something happens. We come away feeling renewed. I have come across the expression ‘the sacrament of meeting’, meaning some life changing grace is generated. Mary, we are told, ‘hurried’ to meet Elizabeth. She could not wait to tell her the news. Elizabeth knew in her heart something big had happened and expresses her blessing. Mary in her turn acknowledges the event and breaks into a song of praise which would be repeated in the Church all over the world ‘from this day on.’ God made all his plans dependent on the consent of a humble obscure girl in a remote village.

Prayer. Lord, we honour your Mother and ours on this day of her visit to her cousin. We thank you for the gift of Mary and pray that she may help us to come close to you. Amen.

David Harold-Barry SJ

A GREAT MANY CORINTHIANS BECAME BELIEVERS

PRAYER MOMENT             

Thursday, 29 May 2014

A GREAT MANY CORINTHIANS BECAME BELIEVERS

Pause. Be present in Corinth with Paul.

Reading: “A great many Corinthians who had heard him became believers and were baptised.” (Acts 18:1-8)

Reflection. After being frustrated in Athens Paul finds a warm welcome in Corinth. He was to write three letter to them later, though one is lost. And later in the century Clement, one of the early leaders of the Church of Rome, was to write a further lengthy letter to them. So here we have a truly vibrant early community full of joys and quarrels! The enthusiasm and the imperfections of the church through the ages are already present in Corinth. Many groups have broken away from the church over the centuries seeking a “purer” more perfect church but not finding one. There is no escaping the rough edges of our human Christian communities. The great thing is to relish the core which is the presence of Jesus in his church.    

Prayer. Lord, we never cease to thank you for the energy and self-giving of St Paul and the wonders of the early communities on which we are built. Help us to build one another today with kindness and compassion. Amen.

David Harold-Barry SJ

IN HIM WE LIVE AND MOVE AND EXIST

PRAYER MOMENT             

Wednesday, 28 May 2014

IN HIM WE LIVE AND MOVE AND EXIST

Pause. Be present in Athens as Paul speaks before the Council.

Reading: “Yet in fact he is not far from any of us, since it is n him we live and move and exist, as indeed some of your own writers have said; “We are all his children.” (Acts 17:15ff)

Reflection. The description of Paul’s dramatic missionary journeys brings us to Athens, the proud centre of Greek culture and learning. He tries to meet them on their own ground by paying respect to their traditions and monuments but the general reception is hostile. He shakes the dust from his feet and moves on to Corinth. What can we say? The more educated the harder to convince? Maybe! But the choice is always free. Dionysius and Demaris accepted Paul and others didn’t. Why? We cannot rush to give our answer. We can only look into our own hearts and wonder where I come in.   

Prayer. Lord, you offer life in so many ways. Help us to open our hearts to your coming each day, each moment. Amen.

David Harold-Barry SJ

THE SUFFERINGS OF PAUL

PRAYER MOMENT (Apologies for the break due to internet problems)

Tuesday, 27 May 2014

THE SUFFERINGS OF PAUL

Reading. “The crowd joined in and showed its hostility to Paul and Silas, so the magistrates had them stripped and ordered them to be flogged.” Acts 16:22-34

Reflection. The last days of Easter time are laced with the promise of the Spirit which would enable the disciples to understand and act as Jesus did. Led by the Spirit Paul and Silas reach Europe and receive a warm welcome from Lydia. Then things turn nasty and they are dragged before the magistrates for driving out a particularly lucrative spirit. We are told they are flogged and thrown into prison. Paul was flogged and stoned and shipwrecked many times and it is astonishing to recall what he “had to suffer for my name” (Acts 9:16). Sometimes we descend into gloom and self-pity when suffering comes to us. Paul was proud of suffering for the name.

Prayer. God, our Father, teach us not to panic when suffering and frustration come our way. Teach us that this is “the way” we grow into you and reflect in our life the creative Spirit of your Son. Amen

Monday, 26 May 2014

SHE WOULD TAKE NO REFUSAL

Reading: Lydia saidto Paul, “If you really think me a true believer in the Lord, come and stay with us.” And she would take no refusal. Acts 16:11-15

Reflection. “The eternal Father’s plan was to dignify men and women with a participation in his own divine life.” So opens the most central document of Vatican II (Lumen Gentium). God reaches out to his creation and invites us to share in his life. Lydia’s response, in one of the most moving passages in the Acts, was to insist with Paul that, yes, she wanted this share. It is the beginning of Paul’s ministry in Greece, in Europe, and it finds immediate acceptance in this woman whose name has been preserved by the early church, She was gripped by the gospel on day one and she is one of those countless women down the ages who welcomes the Father’s plan with joy and determination and oopens the way for others. It is something to celebrate on Africa Day.

Prayer. Lord, give us that same enthusiasm for the good news that we see in Lydia. Help us to welcome your into our house and “take no refusal” in excuses and half measures. Amen. 

Family matters

Family matters

“Do not let your hearts be troubled.” Jesus says these words to us, but sometimes they are hard to take. Every age seems to have its share of troubles. Today, we are concerned about the family. Pope Francis has called two meetings, a year apart, to reflect deeply where we are today. Archbishop Ndlovu of Harare told a recent meeting of church leaders at St Paul’s, Musami: “We used to talk of a husband, wife and children when we talked of a family but no longer.”

The archbishop went on to remind us that many children have a single parent or grand- parent or no parent at all. “Some single parents might have been left by their spouses who went off to the diaspora and don’t return.” From both the legal and the church point of view the spouse, nearly always the wife, is left high and dry. And the children suffer. The archbishop, echoing Pope Francis, calls us to understanding, compassion and care, not condemnation or judgement.

Family life is a beautiful reality when it is lived intentionally; focused on each other and not on self. We have all seen countless families where the father, no matter how often drawn away by work, constantly returns in this hearth as to the centre of his life. Children do not feel abandoned even though there are periods when one or other parent is away.

An idealistic view of family serves no one and sometimes the “Holy Family” of Jesus, Mary and Joseph is portrayed as such. It is surely likely that there were all the worries and heart aches of any stretched family there in Nazareth. It would have hardly been human if there were not moments of irritation, anger or impatience. Jesus in his adult life was driven to the limit by his disciples. “Do you still not understand? Are your minds closed? Do you not remember?” (Mark 8:17)

It is how we deal with the emotions, tensions and frustrations that arise in the family that marks it out as a happy family or a dysfunctional one. The Christian message of commitment, “till death do us part,” serves as anchor to hold us from drifting too far. We come back again and again to this foundation so that the rough and smooth in family life eventually produces that contentment and peace that we often see in old people.

So, ‘do not let your hearts be troubled’ is sound advice here as in many other ways.

18 May 2014               Sunday 5 of Easter A

Acts 6:1-7                   I Pet 2:4-9                   Jn 14:1-12      

TO HAVE SEEN ME IS TO HAVE SEEN THE FATH

PRAYER MOMENT               

Saturday, 17 May 2014

TO HAVE SEEN ME IS TO HAVE SEEN THE FATHER

Pause. Be present at the last supper of Jesus and his disciples.

Reading: “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? To have seen me is to have seen the Father.” (John 14:7-14)

Reflection. What would Philip have made of this answer? What do we make of it? When Jesus is alone with his closest friends at the climax of his mission, he reveals to them, insofar as they can grasp it, the relationship between himself and the Father. “I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” John’s gospel takes us far along the road to knowing God in a way the ancient Jews had never conceived of. The thunder and lightning of Mount Sinai is replaced by a gentle intimate presence accessible to human beings. In Jesus, we can know the Father through the Spirit, given to us. We rejoice and we tremble. And it gives us urgency every time we say, “Our Father … your will be done!”  

Prayer. Lord, you reveal the Father to us. Help us to relish this knowledge and do his will in all things. Amen.

David Harold-Barry SJ