Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year B)

Mersey Leven Catholic Parish

Parish Priest: Fr Mike Delaney mob: 0417 279 437;

email: mdelaney@netspace.net.au

Assistant Priest: Fr Alexander Obiorah

Mob: 0447 478 297;

email: alexchuksobi@yahoo.co.uk

Postal Address: PO Box 362, Devonport 7310

Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street, Devonport 7310 

Office Hours:  Tuesday, Wednesday,Thursday 10am-3pm

Office Phone: 6424 2783 Fax: 6423 5160 

Email: mlcathparish-dsl@keypoint.com.au 

FaceBook: Mersey Leven Catholic Parish

Weekly Newsletter: mlcathparish.blogspot.com.au

Weekly Homily Podcast: podomatic.com/mikedelaney

Parish Mass Times: mlcpmasstimes.blogspot.com.au

Parish Magazine:  mlcathparishnewsletter.blogspot.com.au

Secretary: Annie Davies/Anne Fisher

Pastoral Council Chair:  Mary Davies

Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au for news, information and details of other Parishes.

Weekday Masses 4th  – 8th May 2015   

Tuesday:       NO MASS                         

Wednesday:  9:30am - Latrobe  

Thursday:     12noon - Devonport                       

Friday:          9:30am – Ulverstone

                             

Next Weekend 9th & 10th May 2015

Saturday Vigil:  6:00pm Penguin & Devonport

Sunday Mass:   8:30am Port Sorell 

                        9:00am Ulverstone

                       10:30am Devonport

                      11:00am Sheffield    (LWC)                                                                      5:00pm Latrobe 

Eucharistic Adoration:

Devonport:  Every Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus

Devonport:  Benediction with Adoration - first Friday of each month.

Prayer Groups:

Charismatic Renewal – Devonport Emmaus House Thursdays commencing 7.30pm

Christian Meditation - Devonport, Emmaus House Wednesdays 7pm.

Ministry Rosters 9^th & 10^th May 2015

Devonport:

Readers Vigil: P Douglas, T Douglas, M Knight 

10.30am:  J Phillips, P Piccolo, K Pearce

Ministers of Communion: Vigil: B&B Windebank, T Bird, J Kelly, T Muir, Beau Windebank

10.30am: J DiPietro, S Riley, B Schrader, F Sly, M Mahoney, M Sherriff

Cleaners 8th May: B Bailey, A Harrison, M Greenhill 

15th May: K Hull, F Stevens, M Chan

Piety Shop 9^th May:  R Baker 10^th May: K Hull  Flowers: A O’Connor

Ulverstone:

Reader: S Willoughby 

Ministers of Communion: B Deacon, J Allen, G Douglas, K Reilly

Cleaners: M Swain, M Bryan Flowers: M Webb 

Hospitality: M Byrne, G Doyle

Penguin:

Greeters: J Garnsey, S Ewing Commentator:  J Barker 

Readers:  E Nickols, A Landers

Procession: A Hyland Ministers of Communion: J Garnsey, S Ewing

Liturgy:  Sulphur Creek C Setting Up: M Murray 

Care of Church: G Hills-Eade, A Landers

Latrobe:

Reader:  P Cotterell Ministers of Communion: M Kavic, B Ritchie Procession: M Clarke & Co Music: Jenny & May

Your prayers are asked for the sick:

Bob McKay, Geraldine Roden, Tony Hyde, Fr Terry Southerwood, Sr Gwen Dooley ssj, Declan Banim,

Terry McKenna, Robert Windebank, Marlene Mary Xuereb, Reg Hinkley, Adrian Brennan, Kath Smith & …

Let us pray for those who have died recently: the victims of the Nepalese Earthquake and Queensland Floods, Emily Sherriff, Marie O’Connor, Fr Jim Stephens, Rita McQueen, Noelene Britton, Betty Martin, Dawn Ashman, James Keegan, Dorothy Ross,  Peter Ray, Sr Patricia McNeil, Leith Cowley, Millie McCulloch, Betty Weeks and Victoria Obiorah.

Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time:  29^th April – 5^th May

Brian McCormick, Michael Harvey, Michael Pankiv, Matthew Keen, William Cloney, Catherine Johnson, Julie Horniblow, Aileen Harris, Nell Kelleher, Peter Rae, Mary Edmunds, Robert Cooper, Fr Dan McMahon, Donald Breen, David O’Rourke, Robert Charlesworth, Delia Soden, Lorna Woods, Aileen O’Rourke and Courtney Bryan.

May They Rest In Peace

Readings Next Week: Sixth Sunday of Easter First Reading: Acts 10:25-26. 34-35. 44-48

Second Reading: 1 John 4:7-10   Gospel:  John 15: 9-17

Mersey Leven Catholic Community

would like to wish Fr Mike

a very happy Birthday this Sunday 3^rd May.

We pray that you will bless our dear friend, Fr Mike, as we give thanks for the wonder of his life and for all the stages and seasons he has been
through.

We ask for your blessings on his future as you continue to walk with him as his great guide and friend,

 and may You grant Fr Mike the strength 

to blow out all those candles on his cake!!!

WEEKLY RAMBLINGS:

Last weekend we celebrated ANZAC Day and people all around our country and around the world remembered the sacrifice of so many people to preserve our freedom and way of life and there was a sense of unity. During this week we saw the execution of 8 prisoners in Indonesia and there has been an outcry against what many consider a cruel and unnatural punishment. I have celebrated two funerals this week, three last week, and have shared something of the sadness of families mourning the loss of a loved one. For some people these last two weeks may have none or only some of the sadness nor the experiences that I have shared but all our stories have value and need to be listened to.

Over the past few weeks I have been preaching about the need for us to better witness to being disciples in our families and in our parishes. Like all communities we have occasions when our witness is Christ-like and bears much fruit and other times when we fail and there are tensions that hurt the body of Christ. How do I/we react when challenged about an attitude to a person or situation? Am I able to acknowledge that I might not be in the right and that my behaviour might be hurting others?

There was a principal of a school in Hobart who used to call girls to the office about some issue that had happened on the way home the previous evening and she would end by saying: I know who you are! After which the girls would arrive at her office and own up to some infraction never realising that in fact she didn’t know. If there are tensions in our community and there is the possibility that I might be the cause, or even part of the cause, what am I prepared to do to make amends or to heal divisions? (I do know who you are!!)

This weekend we continue the journey with the young members of our Parish who are preparing for the next stage of their initiation as members of the Church – we celebrate with them this step and pray with their families that this will be a chance for all of us to understand what being a disciple really means.

Until next week, please take care on the roads and in your homes. 

CARITAS AUSTRALIA – NEPAL SPECIAL APPEAL:

We are working with our Caritas Nepal team to coordinate rescue efforts and our immediate emergency response. Caritas Australia, part of the second largest humanitarian network in the world, has worked in Nepal for decades. Assessments are coming in and Caritas teams in country are organising the response. "Rescue is still the main priority at the moment. 

Lots of people have lost their homes and are out on the street or in open spaces, so we will be looking to provide them with food and temporary shelter," said Fr Pius. The international Caritas network has been procuring emergency relief materials such as tarpaulins/shelter kits and water, sanitation and hygiene materials. Tarps and dry food have already been distributed to families in need.

Mersey Leven Parish will be holding a special collection this weekend - Please help Caritas by donating today!

SACRAMENTAL PROGRAM:

We continue to pray for, and with, our parish children journeying through the sacramental preparation program.  This weekend the children will receive a copy of the Lord’s Prayer during Mass, with the words:  My dear young people, the community now hands on its life of prayer to you.  Join us now as we pray together in the words our Saviour gave us. 

The children and a parent will also spend the day together at Sacred Heart Church in preparation for Confirmation.  They will participate in a variety of activities and lessons to help them contemplate the gift of Confirmation and the Holy Spirit in their lives and be able to recognise the gifts of the Spirit in each other and our community.

MACKILLOP HILL SPIRITUALITY CENTRE:

SPENDING TIME WITH THOMAS MERTON – * 20th Century spiritual master * gifted religious thinker * writer of remarkable insight * social commentator of courage & conviction. Tuesday 5th May, 7.30pm - 9pm; MacKillop Hill, Forth, $15 donation.    Bookings ph. 6428 3095 / mackillophill.forth@sosj.org.au

                   

MOTHER’S DAY LUNCH 

Early Mother’s Day Luncheon to be held Friday 8^th May at MacKillop Hill Forth at 12noon. Soup, Sandwich, Sweets. $10 per head. Bookings by Monday 4^th May, ring Mary Webb 6425:2781 or MacKillop Hill 6428:3095.

HEALING MASS:

Catholic Charismatic Renewal are sponsoring a HEALING MASS at St Mary’s Church Penguin Thursday 14^th May commencing at 7.30pm. All denominations are welcome to come and celebrate the liturgy. After Mass, teams will be available for individual prayer. Please bring a friend and a plate of food for supper to share. If you wish to know more or require transport please contact Celestine Whiteley 6424:2043, Michael Gaffney 0447 018 068, Zoe Smith 6426:3073 or Tom Knaap 6425.2442.

PENTECOST SUNDAY CHILDREN’S MASS:

Families are particularly invited to the Pentecost Sunday Children’s Mass on Sunday 24^th May at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Devonport at 10.30am. You are invited to wear something red or orange and since Pentecost is commonly thought of as the Birthday of the Church please stay for cake and craft activities in the hall afterwards.

FOOTY POINTS MARGIN TICKETS:

Round 4 – Melbourne won by 32 points. Winners; Lyn Rose, Stewart Ritchie, Kevin Hayes.

Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall, D’port.

Eyes down 7.30pm. 7^th May Callers Jon Halley & Merv Tippett.

NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:

Fr Chris Hope will present four sessions at Maryknoll in Blackman's Bay on Jesus in Mark and Before Mark On Mondays May 4, May 11, May 25 and June 1 Each session begins at 10am and concludes at 12 noon. Please contact Sr Margaret RSM for details and notification of attendance 0418 366 923           mm.henderson@bigpond.com

WORLD YOUTH DAY 2016 INFORMATION SESSION:

Are you interested in joining with great young people from around Tasmania on a life-changing journey of faith? What about with millions of energetic and faith-filled young people from right around the world in the largest gatherings of young people in history?  Catholic Youth Ministry will once again be coordinating the Tasmanian Pilgrimage to World Youth Day in July 2016 which will be hosted by the Archdiocese of Krakow, Poland! WYD is open to young people aged 16 – 35. If you are at all interested in this amazing opportunity, don’t miss Information Session on Wednesday 20th May, 7.00pm at Sacred Heart Church, Ulverstone. More Info contact Rachelle: rachelle.smith@aohtas.org.au or 0400 045 368   

ST SCHOLASTICA'S COLLEGE, Glebe Point, NSW is holding its annual re-union at the College on Sunday 24th May 2015 commencing with Mass in the Chapel at 12 noon followed by a light lunch. All ex-students are warmly invited to attend.

For more information contact Karen Debenham: 029460:4462, 0419999084 - email: karendebenham@optusnet.com.au

RACHEL’S VINEYARD TASMANIA: – Fundraising Luncheon for 10th anniversary in Tasmania. Guest speakers and a 2 course lunch will be held at the Harold Gregg Centre on June 6th 2015. Tickets $50, numbers are limited, please RSVP May 10th by emailing Anne Sherston at rachelsvineyardtas@aapt.net.au or phone 62298739. Your support is greatly appreciated. 

Evangelii Gaudium

“It is essential to draw near to new forms of poverty and vulnerability, in which we are called to recognize the suffering Christ, even if this appears to bring us no tangible and immediate benefits. I think of the homeless, the addicted, refugees, indigenous peoples, the elderly who are increasingly isolated and abandoned, and many others. Migrants present a particular challenge for me, since I am the pastor of a Church without frontiers, a Church which considers herself mother to all. For this reason, I exhort all countries to a generous openness which, rather than fearing the loss of local identity, will prove capable of creating new forms of cultural synthesis.”

-          Par 210 from Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis, Nov. 24, 2013

Saint of the Week – Blessed Edmund Rice (Tuesday, May 5)

He might not be a saint but the Blessed Edmund Rice is a prominent figure in the life of the Catholic Church in Australia, particularly through his impact on the education sector.

“If Edmund Rice stood out among his contemporaries, it was because of the deeply personal aspect of his charity. Moved by the stark contrast between his own affluence and the sorry lot of the poor slum dwellers, he did more than give money to the needy. He gave them his time, his hospitality, and finally his life. Of special concern to him were the wild and uncared for boys who gathered around the timber stacks on the quay. He brought them to his home in Arundel Lane and provided them with food and clothing.

“For many years, even after he founded a religious institute, Edmund's solicitude also extended to the prisoners in the Waterford county jail. He visited them and, in the case of those sentenced to death, assisted them to make their peace with God. Traumatic as the experience must have been for him, he met condemned men on the morning of their execution and accompanied them to the scaffold.”

PRAYING FOR THOSE NOT OF THIS FOLD – AN OPEN LETTER TO ROMAN CATHOLIC BISHOPS
The original can be found at http://ronrolheiser.com/praying-for-those-not-of-this-fold-an-open-letter-to-roman-catholic-bishops/#.VUHHsiGqpBc

Dear Bishops,

I write to you as a loyal son of the Catholic Church, with a particular request: Could you make an addition to our present Eucharistic Prayers to include an explicit invocation for other Christian Churches and for those who lead them?

For example, could the prayer for the Church and its leadership in our various Eucharistic Canons have these additions: Remember, Lord, your entire Church, spread throughout the world, and bring her to the fullness of charity, together with N. our Pope and N. our Bishop, together with all who help lead other Christian Churches, and all the clergy.” Might our Eucharistic Prayers have this kind of inclusivity?

Why? Why pray for other Churches inside of our Eucharistic Prayer? For three reasons:

First, we should pray explicitly for other Christian Churches during our Eucharist Prayer because Jesus did. In John’s Gospel, Jesus prays explicitly for those who hold the same faith but are separated, for whatever reason, from the community to whom is speaking at that moment. He prays for “other sheep that are not of this fold.” (John 10, 16) Raymond Brown, perhaps the most-respected scholar on John’s Gospel, among others, submits that at the time when John’s Gospel was written (somewhere between the years 90 and 100 AD) there were already divisions within the Church, akin to our denominational divisions today, and that Jesus’ prayer for “other sheep that are not of this fold” is in fact a prayer for other Christians who were separated in theology and worship from the community within which John places this particular saying of Jesus. And Jesus, with a heart for everyone and not just for those who are members of this particular community, prays for those others: “I must lead these too. They too will listen to my voice, and there will be only one flock, one shepherd.”

Second, if we, like Jesus, in fact love those who share the same faith with us but from whom we are separated, it should be painful for us that our Eucharistic table is not complete, that some of our family are not at table with us, that our table has empty places. Roman Catholics are not a whole family. Protestants are not a whole family. Evangelicals are not a whole family. Free Christian Churches are not a whole family. Only together do we make a whole family. A Eucharistic Prayer that prays only for ourselves as a community and for our Pope and our Bishops is somehow incomplete, as if we had no need to acknowledge and feel the real absence of so many sincere persons who are not with us as we celebrate the real presence of Christ on our table and experience the intimacy this gives us. It is joyful to celebrate with each other at the Eucharist; but we need, I submit, to acknowledge, and at a central place in our prayer, that we long for, wish well to, and pray for, those who no longer share the family table with us. And such a prayer should not be seen as a concession to our separated brothers and sisters. Its intent should also be to keep us, Roman Catholics, from being content with a family that is fractured, as if we have no need for those who are not with us.

Finally, there is too a practical consideration, sensitivity and hospitality: More and more, whether it be at funerals, weddings, interdenominational retreats, or other such events that draw other Christians into our Roman Catholic Churches, we are celebrating the Eucharist in situations that require, or at least should require, a keener ecumenical sensitivity. In these situations, personally, as a priest, I find it awkward and not fully-hospitable to pray for our Catholic community, for our Pope, our bishops, and our clergy, without any solicitude for, or mention of, other Christian Churches, their leadership, and their struggles for community in Christ. I think that hospitality asks of us (dare I say, demands of us) a greater ecumenical sensitivity than we have been offering at present. Wouldn’t everyone benefit if we did this? Wouldn’t other Christians, we ourselves as a community of love and hospitality, and the whole Body of Christ (which is wider than our particular historical community), be enriched if we, in this prayer that is so central to us, would pray explicitly for those who share the Christian faith with us, but are separated from us? Wouldn’t this be a gracious gesture of hospitality?

What would we be compromising by doing this? What are we protecting by not doing it?  Would we not be more sensitive to the Gospel and Jesus’ words and actions by doing this?

So this is my straightforward plea: Please add an explicit invocation within each of our Eucharistic Prayers that prays for other Christian Churches and their leadership.  You will be on safe ground. Jesus did this.

I offer this suggestion in all respect, as a loyal son of the Church.

(Fr) Ron Rolheiser OMI

____________________________________________

The Story of Paul (Continued)

Taken from a series of emails from Fr Richard Rohr

Paul as a Contemplative Practitioner

As a teacher of the contemplative mind, Philippians is probably my favorite of Paul's letters, because it describes how we need to work with the mind. Paul writes his letter to the Philippians during one of his many imprisonments. He even speaks of being "in chains," and yet ironically this is the most positive and joy-filled of all of his letters. The very fact that he can be so happy during such hardship tells us he had learned what to do with the rebellious and angry mind. We have had no training in that for centuries, and we see the sad results on the streets and in the Congress of America.

In a most succinct and perfect summary, Paul says that you should "Pray with gratitude, and the peace of God which is beyond all knowledge, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:7). First, you must begin with the positive, with gratitude (which might take your whole prayer time). Second, you need to pray however long it takes you to get to a place beyond agitation, or to find "peace" (whether five minutes or five hours or five days). Third, note that he says this is a place beyond "knowledge," beyond processing information or ideas. Fourthly, you must learn how to stand guard, which is what many call "creating the inner witness" or the witnessing presence that calmly watches your flow of thoughts (mind) and feelings (heart). Finally, you must know what the goal is: your egoic thoughts can actually be replaced with living inside the very mind of Christ (en Cristo). This is not self-generated knowing, but knowing by participation--consciousness itself (con-scire, to know with). This is major surgery, and Paul says it all in one condensed verse!

Paul then goes on to suggest that we fill our minds "with everything that is true, everything that is noble, everything that is good, everything that we love and honor, everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of praise" (Philippians 4:8). Norman Vincent Peal calls this "the power of positive thinking." I call it "replacement therapy." If you don't choose love and compassion, the human mind naturally goes in the other direction, and a vast majority of people live their later years trapped in a sense of victimhood, entitlement, and bitterness.

We are not free until we are free from our own compulsiveness, our own resentments, our own complaining, and our own obsessive patterns of thinking. We have to catch these patterns early in their development and nip them in the bud. And where's the bud? It's in the mind. That's the primary place where we sin, as Jesus himself says (Matthew 5:21-48). Any later behaviors are just a response to the way our mind works. We can't walk around all day writing negative, hateful commentaries about other people in our mind, or we will become hate itself!

Adapted from  In the Footsteps of St. Paul (published by Franciscan Media, 2015)

The Evolution of the Temple

The brilliant Anglican theologian, N. T. Wright, in his two-volume study of St. Paul, concludes that we have largely missed Paul's major theme. After Luther, many thought Paul's great idea was justification by faith (Protestants) versus "works righteousness" (Catholics). It makes a nice dualistic split that fundamentalists just love. But Wright says it missed Paul's much more foundational point. He believes the great and supreme idea of Paul is that the new temple of God is the human person. In this insight, he offers us a superb example of thin-slicing the texts and finding the golden thread. Once you see it, you cannot not see it.

The first stone temple of the Jewish people was built around 950 BC. On the day of the dedication of "Solomon's Temple," the shekinah glory of Yahweh (fire and cloud from heaven) descended and filled the Temple (1 Kings 8:10-13), just as it had once filled the Tent of Meeting (Exodus 40:34-35). This became the assurance of the abiding and localized divine presence of Yahweh for the Jewish people. This naturally made Solomon's Temple both the center and centering place of the whole world, in Jewish thinking.

When the Babylonians tore down the Temple and took the Jews into exile (587 BC), it no doubt prompted a crisis of faith. The Temple was where God lived! So Ezra, Nehemiah, and Jeremiah convinced the people that they must go back to Jerusalem and rebuild the temple so God can be with them again. Wright points out there is no account of the fire and glory of God ever descending on this rebuilt temple (515 BC). This "Second Temple" is the only temple Jesus would have ever known and loved.

The absence of visible shekinah glory must have been a bit of an embarrassment and worry for the Jewish people. Wright says it could explain the growth of Pharisaism, a belief strong in Jesus' time that if they obeyed laws more perfectly--absolute ritual, priesthood, and Sabbath purity--then the Glory of God would return to the Temple. This is the common pattern in moralistic religion: our impurity supposedly keeps Yahweh away. They tried so hard, but the fire never descended. They must have wondered, "Are we really God's favorite and chosen people?" (This is a common question for all in early stage religion.)

Knowledge of this history now gives new and even more meaning to what we call Pentecost Sunday (Acts 2:1-13). On that day, the fire from heaven descended, not on a building, but on people! And all peoples, not just Jews, were baptized and received the Spirit (Acts 2:38-41). Paul understood this and drew out the immense consequences. He loved to say, "You are that Temple!" (1 Corinthians 3:16-17, 2 Corinthians 6:16, Ephesians 2:21-22), and of course this morphs into his entire doctrine of individual humans as the very Body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:14-30). We are all "walking around like the sun" as Thomas Merton says.

Adapted from an unpublished talk, February 2015 at the CAC

Universal Dignity in a Debauched Empire

Paul offers a theological and solid foundation for human dignity and human flourishing that is inherent, universal, and indestructible by any evaluation (race, religion, gender, nationality, class, education, social position, etc.). He brings a deep new sense of the inherent dignity of every human person. This is unheard of in history up to then--and unrealized even now! Remember that the Acts account of Pentecost goes out of its way to emphasize that people from all over the world heard the Galileans speaking in the pilgrims' individual languages after the descent of heavenly fire and wind (Acts 2:5). At least 17 nations or groups are listed and "about three thousand persons" were baptized and received the Holy Spirit that day. The message is clear: The Spirit of God is clearly and completely democratic and unmerited.

One of the reasons Paul's teachings had so much influence in Asia Minor was that he restored human dignity at a time when perhaps four out of five people were slaves, women were considered the property of men, temple prostitution was a form of worship, and oppression and wholesale injustice toward the poor and the outsider were the universal norm. Into this corrupt and corrupting empire Paul shouts, "One and the same Spirit was given to us all to drink!" (1 Corinthians 12:13). Paul levels the playing field: "You, all of you, are sons and daughters of God, now clothed in Christ, where there is no distinction between male or female, Greek or Jew, slave or free, but all of you are one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26-28). This is quite amazing, considering the culture at the time! In his estimation, the old world was forever gone and a new world was born. This was impossible and frightening to some people, but utterly attractive and hopeful to the 99% who had no dignity in that society. Recent sociological studies say this humanly explains Paul's amazing success in a relatively short time. Who does not want to be told they are worthy and good?

No longer was the human body a cheap thing, degraded by slavery and abuse. Paul is saying, "You are the very temple of God." This affirmation of dignity began to turn the whole Roman Empire around. When you read Paul's teaching on sexuality (2 Corinthians 6:14-18), it really isn't the moralistic message many of us were given. Paul is just saying that your body has dignity, so respect it! Because of this understanding, a woman could claim her own dignity and refuse to give her body away to every man who wanted it. A man could start respecting and being responsible with his body. This is a positive and dignifying message, not a finger-shaking, moralistic one. It gives the ego appropriate and much needed boundaries. Unfortunately, this morphed into guilt-based barriers and prohibitions, which happens in most religions, it seems to me.

Adapted from an unpublished talk, February 2015 at the CAC

The Indwelling Spirit

Paul develops a marvelous theology, really the very first one, of the Holy Spirit, or what I often call the Internal Witness. His theology is best summarized in Romans 8:16: "The Spirit joins with our spirit to bear common witness that we are children of God." What a succinct statement of first stage contemplation! This is experienced when our spirit learns how to calmly join with the "Always, Already Awareness" of God--who is forever observing us and loving us objectively and compassionately, just the way we are. Only when our spirit joins with God's Spirit do most of us find the strength to stand guard over our hearts and minds (Philippians 4:7). It is almost impossible to do this alone and unaided, unless one has immense discipline and will power. (Buddhists seem to be trained in this much better than followers of most other religions.)

Paul understands that Jesus left us his Indwelling Spirit as a permanent, strengthening gift. So the Christ, for Paul, is not out there; the Eternal Christ is in here, inside us in the form of his Indwelling Spirit. I cannot say this strongly enough. God has implanted in us a true "homing device" that we can depend upon. Paul believes that we've all been given a source for a true inner knowledge, which becomes a calm inner authority whereby we know spiritual things for ourselves (see 1 Corinthians 2:1-16). We have been so afraid of this in most churches; most religious people have been told to look outside instead of inside. Only the mystics grab onto it with fervor and conviction.

Such a knowledge of the Indwelling Spirit creates the foundation, not just for Paul's mysticism (and ours), but for the egalitarian and charismatic church that Paul is establishing. This church doesn't depend upon patriarchy and hierarchy to generate itself, because everybody's got the Spirit. Everyone can call upon this Indwelling Witness. Humility is the giveaway that they are relying upon a Source beyond themselves. So leadership really has nothing to be afraid of here. The Spirit creates lovers, not rebels or iconoclasts (1 Corinthians 13). Only God's Spirit-with-us can fully forgive, accept, and allow reality to be what it is.

Adapted from In the Footsteps of St. Paul (published by Franciscan Media);                                               

and Jesus as Liberator/Paul as Liberator (MP3 download);                                            

and Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi, p. 77

Justification by Faith

"To show how infinitely rich God is in grace, you are all saved by a total gift and not by anything you have done, so that nobody can ever claim the credit. You are God's work of art--to live the good life as God meant us to live it from the beginning!" (Ephesians 2:8-10). This is my summary translation of perhaps my favorite passage from the Pauline letters.

Paul deeply accepted that he was saved "while yet a sinner," as we all must eventually do (Romans 5:8). He knew he was saved by God's free choice, mercy, and election. God's infinite love has nothing to do with good works or deservedness. Paul was on his way to do more cruel and murderous things when Christ stopped him on the Road to Damascus (Acts 9 and 22). God wanted "to reveal his Son in me" as Paul brilliantly puts it (Galatians 1:16). The formerly "outer" God has become an inner identity for Paul, and even his deepest self-identity. It will be the same for you if you stay on the journey.

This necessary breakthrough that Paul received and allowed moved him beyond his early reliance upon obedience to laws and requirements (mere ego achievements) for his self-validation. We all usually begin with law, but as Martin Luther saw in Paul's movement toward "justification by faith alone," we must move there too. Luther himself grew into grace after trying so hard to be a good and perfect monk (as I once did too). N. T. Wright perceptively points out that what Paul intended was to distinguish Judaism from his new "Christian" experience, which was then later used to distinguish "Works Righteousness Christians" (who were supposedly Catholics) from "Grace Christians" (who were supposedly Lutherans and, later, Evangelicals). It was all too tidy and totally dualistic.

All people and religions at the early stages try to justify themselves by some form of performance and achievement--Lutherans, Catholics, and everyone in between. Sometimes that "achievement" is my heroic act of faith itself. All religion, if it matures, will move the soul from the performance principle (any form of meritocracy) to the pure realm of grace. But this always takes many years of growing, testing, and ever more practical trusting in God, and many deep surrenders to grace. One emotional experience of "giving your life to Jesus" is a good but very small start-up exercise. You have no idea what that means or what it will ask of you yet, just as a young couple has no idea what their sincerely stated marriage vows will eventually require of them. God mercifully doles out our life in doses. Grace is too much for a moment.

Adapted from Great Themes of Paul: Life as Participation, discs 3 and 8 (CD)

The Pattern for Everything

Jesus becomes for Paul the standing image of "Everyman" who both reveals and identifies with humanity in all its stages, and even reveals the trajectory of all history--at its beginning, at its lowest points, and at its fulfilled end. Jesus, the Christ, illustrates "The One, Single New Man" (Ephesians 2:15), an Archetype, a Stand-In, a Corporate Personality, a Living Icon for all of humanity all at once (1 Corinthians 15:21-28, 45-49; Romans 5:15-21, 8:3; Colossians 3:10-11; Ephesians 2:15-22). In fact, I would say that this is one of the most central and yet one of the most undeveloped insights of Paul. Its neglect has made Christianity into another competing religion instead of a universal map for the humanity of any and all peoples.

Here is the map of the pattern which is true both for Jesus and for each human being:

1) At the beginning, in both Jesus and you, the soul is already one with God. Just as Jesus is the Son of God, you also are a son or daughter of God from your conception. The big difference is that Jesus' unique and "only begotten" sonship includes you along with everyone and everything else. He is the full Includer, the very fullness of all inclusion. You and I are the included. Yet this divine conception is hidden, even and most especially from you.

2) There is a moment, or several of them (Jesus' baptism experience, Peter's "Confession," the Transfiguration) where Jesus "gets it," just as we often do when we are really listening. But we do not always listen deeply, we forget our truth, or even deny it; whereas Jesus never denies his deep identity, and always listens to God perfectly (John 8:26,28b). That is precisely what defines and reveals his unique divinity. Jesus' inclusivity means that he believes for us, with us, through us, and in us.

3) Even the Gospels seem to jump over Jesus' thirty years of uneventfulness, paralleling midlife for most of us, during which all the seeds are planted for a later sprouting. Jesus increasingly encounters many human trials and hostility, just as most human lives do if lived with integrity. He thus identifies with humanity at its lowest point, in the place of rejection, betrayal, immense suffering, and even crucifixion. That's the bottom, the place of powerlessness, the place of emptiness as the separate ego allows itself to die, the place where transformation usually happens. Here God says to all of humanity, through Jesus: "I'm with you. I understand. You are not in the least alone." And this lowest point is in fact the beginning of the highest point, as a new symbiotic relationship begins between the soul and God.

4) At such a low point, you are one step away from either enlightenment or from despair. Without faith that there is a Bigger Pattern and choosing to surrender to that Bigger Pattern, most people will move into despair, negativity, or low-level cynicism. You need a promise, an assurance, a hopeful direction, a future outcome revealed at this point, or it is very hard not to give up. You have not yet learned what transformation feels like or looks like. Someone--perhaps some loving human or simply God's own embrace--needs to hold you now because you cannot hold yourself. When you experience this radical holding, and even deep loving, this is salvation!

5) Jesus reveals and identifies with the final chapter of the human journey at its promised and now fulfilled form. He becomes the goal personified--the Risen Christ! This is where we are all heading: to resurrection. What humanity fears, hates, destroys, pollutes, kills, and crucifies (which is the plot of almost all who have ever lived), God promises to transform and raise up. Every springtime reveals that "life is not ended but merely changed," which is what we say in the funeral liturgy.

6) And ultimately, again almost quietly and unrecognized, the circle comes to completion in what we call the Ascension of Jesus (Acts 1:9-11). We all return where we first started, with the great school of life and death ushering us back home. (Yet, the full text always holds out the very real possibility that we can refuse this journey. Otherwise we are not free. "Hell" is the universal metaphor for this necessary possibility.)

The disciple John shares in this Life Map understanding of Jesus, and says it in condensed form in this way: "My dear people, we are already the children of God. . . . All I know is that when the whole pattern is revealed, we shall all be like him" (1 John 3:2).

Adapted from Great Themes of Paul: Life as Participation, disc 10 (CD)