Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
Mob: 0417 279 437; mdelaney@netspace.net.au
Assistant Priest: Fr Alexander Obiorah
Mob: 0447 478 297; alexchuksobi@yahoo.co.uk
Postal Address:
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street , Devonport 7310
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Office Phone: 6424 2783 Fax: 6423 5160
Email: mlcathparish-dsl@keypoint.com.au
Email: mlcathparish-dsl@keypoint.com.au
Secretary: Annie Davies / Anne Fisher
Pastoral Council Chair: Mary Davies
Pastoral Council Chair: Mary Davies
Parish Mass Times: mlcpmasstimes.blogspot.com.au
Weekly Homily Podcast: mikedelaney.podomatic.com
Parish Magazine: mlcathparishnewsletter.blogspot.com.au
Year of Mercy Blogspot: mlcpyom.blogspot.com.au
Our Parish Sacramental Life
Baptism: Parents are asked to contact the Parish Office to make arrangements for attending a Baptismal Preparation Session and booking a Baptism date.
Reconciliation, Confirmation and Eucharist: Are received following a Family–centred, Parish-based, School-supported Preparation Program.
Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults: prepares adults for reception into the Catholic community.
Marriage: arrangements are made by contacting one of our priests - couples attend a Pre-marriage Program
Anointing of the Sick: please contact one of our priests
Reconciliation: Ulverstone - Fridays (10am - 10:30am)
Devonport - Saturday (5:15pm– 5.45pm)
Penguin - Saturday (5:15pm - 5:45pm)
Care and Concern: If you are aware of anyone who is in need of assistance and has given permission to be contacted by Care and Concern, please phone the Parish Office.
MERSEY LEVEN CATHOLIC PARISH
Holy Week & Easter Ceremonies 2016
DEVONPORT: Our Lady of Lourdes Church
Good Friday: Commemoration of the Passion 3.00pm
Holy Saturday: EASTER VIGIL 7.00pm
Easter Sunday: Easter Mass 11.00am
PORT SORELL: St Joseph’s Mass Centre
Good Friday: Stations of the Cross 10.00am
Easter Sunday: Easter Mass 8.00am
LATROBE: St Patrick’s Church
Good Friday: Stations of the Cross 11.00am
Easter Sunday Easter Mass 9.30am
SHEFFIELD: Holy Cross Church
Good Friday: Stations of the Cross 11.00am
Easter Sunday: Easter Mass 11.00am
ULVERSTONE: Sacred Heart Church
Holy Thursday: Mass of the Lord’s Supper 7.30pm
(Adoration till 9pm followed by Evening Prayer of the Church)
Good Friday: Commemoration of the Passion 3.00pm
Easter Sunday: Easter Mass 9.30am
PENGUIN: St Mary’s Church
Good Friday: Stations of the Cross 11.00am
Easter Sunday: Easter Mass 8.00am
Reconciliation
Monday 21st March - Our Lady of Lourdes 7pm
Wednesday 23rd March - Sacred Heart 7pm
Weekday Masses 1st – 5th March, 2016
Tuesday: 9:30am - Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am - Latrobe
Thursday: 12noon - Devonport,
Friday: 9:30am
- Ulverstone & Devonport
Saturday: 9:00am - Ulverstone
Next Weekend 5th & 6th March, 2016
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin &
Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am
Devonport
11:00am
Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
Devonport: concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Devonport: Benediction with Adoration
Legion of Mary: Sacred Heart Church Community Room
Ulverstone, Wednesdays 11am
Prayer Groups:
Charismatic Renewal – Devonport Emmaus House
Thursdays commencing 7.30pm
Christian Meditation - Devonport, Emmaus House
Wednesdays 7pm.
STATIONS OF THE CROSS: 7pm each Friday of Lent at Our Lady of Lourdes Devonport, Sacred Heart Ulverstone, St Mary’s Penguin & St Pat’s Latrobe. Also Sacred Heart Ulverstone 10am on Tuesdays.
Readings This Week - Third Sunday of Lent
First Reading: Exodus 17:3-7
Second Reading: Romans 5:1-2,5-8
Gospel: John 4:5-42
PREGO REFLECTION:
Unfortunately because we are using the Readings from Year A there is no Prego Reflection this weekend
Readings Next Week: Fourth Sunday of Lent
First Reading: 1 Samuel 16:1, 6-7, 10-13
Second Reading: Ephesians 5:8-14
Gospel: John 9:1-41
Ministry Rosters 5th & 6th
March, 2016
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: V Riley, A Stegmann
10.30am:
A Hughes, T
Barrientos, P Piccolo
Ministers of Communion:
Vigil D Peters, M Heazlewood, S Innes, M
Gerrand,
P Shelverton, M Kenney
Cleaners 4th March: M.W.C. 11th
March: P & T
Douglas
Piety Shop 5th March: R McBain 6th March: P Piccolo No Flowers: Lent
Ulverstone:
Reader: B O’Rourke Ministers of Communion: M Mott, M Fennell, L Hay, T Leary
Cleaners: M Swain, M
Bryan Flowers: Lent Hospitality: M McLaren
Penguin:
Greeters: J & T Kiely Commentator: J Barker Reader: T Clayton
Procession: Y & R Downes Ministers of Communion: E Nickols, M Murray
Liturgy: Sulphur Creek J Setting Up: F Aichberger Care of Church: J & T Kiely
Port Sorell:
Readers: P Anderson, E Holloway Ministers of Communion: T Jeffries
Clean /Prepare/ A
Hynes
Your prayers are asked for the sick: Pauline Burnett, Pat
George, Anne Garlick, Eleanor Mazengarb, Nora Holly, Glen Halley, Joe Allison,
Geraldine Roden, Joy Carter, Kath Smith &...
Let us pray for those who have died recently: Thomas Beard, Neil Cranny, Ali Drummond,
Daphne Fraser, Sheldon Broomhall, Fr Elio Proietto, Denzil
Sheehan, Jan Siejka, Peta Enniss, Bev Atkinson, Charles Holliday,Lance Cox,
Lachie Berwick, Robert Hatton, Barry Aulich and Brian Barrett.
Let us pray
for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 24th February – 1st March
Kristine
Morgan, Thea Nicholas, Reginald Alderson, Irene Kilby, Richard O’Neill, Mary
Mann and Michael Sturgess. Also Santos Makiputin, Asuncion Carcuevas, Ceron
& Petronilo Fat and Rengel Gelacio.
May they Rest in Peace
|
We welcome and congratulate ….
Holly Ling and Riley-Jo Best who are
being baptised this
weekend.
WEEKLY
RAMBLINGS:
We
received an email this morning (Thursday) alerting us to a Windows update that
crashed our Word or other Office applications – and so we don’t feel so bad
that things went haywire last week (but that’s definitely hindsight
speaking!!). Apologies to anyone inconvenienced by the wrong readings last
weekend as well as anyone who might have prepared the readings for this weekend
from last week’s newsletter. If anyone else is using Office 2013 – please see
me and I’ll tell you how to deal with the problem – and it doesn’t involve
destroying your computer!!
This
week (and for the next few weeks) we are using the Readings from Year A as we
have Candidates preparing to be baptised at Easter and so we are using the
readings associated with the Scrutinies, part of the Liturgical preparation for
Easter. Please keep these candidates in your prayers over these coming weeks.
The
letters to the Schools inviting children to be part of our Sacramental Program
went out this week – will most probably be mentioned in their newsletters next week.
Extra copies of the letter are available today if you wish to ensure that a
member of your family gets a copy.
Also
today I got an email to say that there is now a possibility of 4 pilgrims going
to WYD in Poland in July. We will be looking at ways of raising some funding to
assist them - more details next week.
Generational poverty has led to many challenges in
Dominic’s community, including gender inequality, alcohol abuse and violence.
Since receiving training in the Caritas Australia supported community
Conversations program, Dominic has learnt communication and problem solving skills
to lead his community towards a more peaceful, prosperous future.
Please donate to Project Compassion 2016 and help empower
communities in Papua New Guinea to lead their own development and create more
harmonious futures.
Caritas Australia’s partner Peoples Community Network (PCN)
in Fiji, works in informal settlements where many of the poorest and most
marginalised have been impacted. PCN are urgently assessing the damage but
initial reports indicate these low-lying communities have been hit hard.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with all the communities,
friends and partners in Fiji and the region where the tropical Cyclone Winston
has made landfall. We remain in close contact with our partner organisations on
the ground, ready to provide support where necessary.
After responding to immediate needs following the cyclone, Caritas Australia is committed to accompanying Fiji and Tonga and other Pacific nations that remain vulnerable through the cyclone season. “We are encouraging our supporters to raise funds for our current Project Compassion Lenten Appeal which helps vulnerable Pacific communities such as Tonga and Fiji respond to emergencies build back stronger and prepare for future disasters,” said Ms Lalor. Donate today to www.caritas.org.au/projectcompassion.
LITURGY MEETING: OUR LADY OF LOURDES:
The liturgy meeting will be held Thursday 3rd March. If there is anything you would like the committee to discuss, please call Kath Pearce 6424:06504 or Felicity Sly 6424:1933.
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall, Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
Callers for Thursday 3rd March are Jon Halley & Alan Luxton.
WORLD DAY OF PRAYER:
Friday 4th March at St Pauls Anglican Church East Devonport at 1:30pm. All welcome!
CWL ULVERSTONE: Meeting scheduled for Friday 11th March has been cancelled. Please bring Easter eggs for raffle on Sunday 6th March.
MT ST VINCENT AUXILIARY:
Committee members will be selling Lucky Shamrocks for $2.00 each after Mass on Sunday 6th March in the Community Room, Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone. First prize $50, second prize $30 and third prize $20.
CWL EASTER RAFFLE:
Committee members will be selling tickets each Sunday after Mass, Tickets $1.00 each. Prize: Easter Basket. Raffle drawn 20th March.
Please remember to bring your spare change to help out both fundraisers and buy a shamrock or ticket (or two)!!
VINNIES STORES;
Volunteers are urgently required at our Penguin, Ulverstone and Latrobe Stores. If you are able to assist please contact 6427:7100 or call in at one of our popular outlets.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
WORLD YOUTH DAY 2016: RETREAT (REGISTRATIONS CLOSING SOON!)
The first state-wide preparation retreat for Tasmanian World Youth Day 2016 pilgrims will be held 19th-20th March in Westbury. This is an event for ALL Tasmanian WYD16 pilgrims and we are excited to be getting the whole group together for the first time! If you have not yet applied to join the Tasmanian Pilgrimage to WYD Krakow - NOW IS THE TIME TO DO IT!! You will need to be registered before this first retreat so you can join with your fellow pilgrims. Don’t miss the chance to travel to Italy, Poland and Czech Republic with millions of young people from across the world and Pope Francis in an experience of faith, friendship and fun that will impact your life in ways you cannot imagine.
Check out the info at: www.wydtas.org.au and contact Rachelle Smith ASAP on 0400 045 368 or rachelle.smith@aohtas.org.au
MOURNING OUR BARRENNESS
An article by Fr Ron Rolheiser. The original article can be found here
Several years ago, while teaching a summer course at Seattle University, I had as one of my students, a woman who, while happily married, was unable to conceive a child. She had no illusions about what this meant for her. It bothered her a great deal. She found Mother’s Day very difficult. Among other things, she wrote a well-researched thesis on the concept of barrenness in scripture and developed a retreat on that same theme which she offered at various renewal centers.
Being a celibate whose vows also conscript a certain biological barrenness, I went on one of her weekend retreats, the only male there. It was a powerful group experience, but it took most of the weekend for that to happen. Initially most everyone on the retreat was tentative and shy, not wanting to admit to themselves or others the kind of pain the loss of biological parenthood was creating in their lives. But things broke open on the Saturday night, after the group watched a video of a 1990s British film, Secrets and Lies, a subtle but powerful drama about the pain of not having children. The tears in the movie catalyzed tears within our group and the floodgates opened. Tears began to flow freely and one by one the women began to tell their stories. Then, after the tears and stories had stopped, the atmosphere changed, as if a fog had lifted and a weight had been removed. Lightness set in. Each person in the group had mourned her loss and now each felt a lightness in knowing that one might never have a child and still be a happy person, without denying the pain in that.
Barrenness is not just a term that describes a biological incapacity to have children or a life-choice to not have them. It’s wider. Barrenness describes the universal human condition in its incapacity to be generative in the way it would like and the vacuum and frustration that leaves inside lives. Karl Rahner summarizes that in these words: In the torment of the insufficiency of everything attainable we ultimately learn that here, in this life, all symphonies must remain unfinished. No matter if we have biological children of our own or not, we still all find ourselves barren in that for none of us is there a finished symphony here on earth. There’s always some barrenness left in our lives and biological barrenness is simply one analogate of that, though arguably the prime one. None of us die having given birth to all we wanted to in this world.
What do we do in the face of this? Is there an answer? Is there a response that can take us beyond simply gritting our teeth and stoically getting on with it? There is. The answer is tears. In mid-life and beyond, we need, as Alice Miller normatively suggests in her classic essay, The Drama of the Gifted Child, to mourn so that our very foundations are shaken. Many of our wounds are irreversible and many of our shortcomings are permanent. We will go to our deaths with this incompleteness. Our loss cannot be reversed. But it can be mourned, both what we lost and what we failed to achieve. In that mourning there is freedom.
I have always been struck by the powerful metaphor inside the story of Jephthah’s daughter in the biblical story in the Book of Judges, chapter 11. It captures in an archetypal image the only answer there is, this side of eternity, to barrenness. Condemned to death in the prime of her youth by a foolish vow her father made, she tells her father that she is willing to die on the altar of sacrifice, but only on one condition. She will now die without experiencing either the consummation of marriage or the birthing of children. So she asks her father to give her two months before her death to “mourn her virginity”. Properly mourned, an incomplete life can be both lived in peace and left in peace.
Tears are the answer to barrenness, to all loss and inadequacy. Marilyn Chandler McEntyre, in her book, A Faithful Farewell, has this to say about tears: “Tears release me into honest sorrow. They release me from the strenuous business of finding words. They release me into a childlike place where I need to be held and find comfort in embrace – in the arms of others and in the arms of God. Tears release me from the treadmill of anxious thoughts, and even from fear. They release me from the strain of holding them back. Tears are a consent to what is. They wash away, at least for a time, denial and resistance. They allow me to relinquish the self-deceptive notion that I’m in control. Tears dilute resentment and wash away the flotsam left by waves of anger.”
Not insignificantly, tears are salt water. Human life originated in the oceans. Tears connect us to the source of all life on this earth, within which prodigal fecundity trumps all barrenness.
To counsel the doubtful
An article produced on the Thinkingfaith.org website. The original article by Sr Margaret Atkins can be found here
In St Augustine’s description of his ministry, he said that: ‘The turbulent have to be corrected, the faint-hearted cheered up, the weak supported; the Gospel's opponents need to be refuted, its insidious enemies guarded against; the unlearned need to be taught, the indolent stirred up, the argumentative checked; the proud must be put in their place, the desperate set on their feet, those engaged in quarrels reconciled; the needy have to be helped, the oppressed to be liberated, the good to be encouraged, the bad to be tolerated; all must be loved’. (Sermon 340) Sr Margaret Atkins sees this as a wonderful summary of the Spiritual Works of Mercy, which we are exploring in Lent through the lens of Laudato si’. Sr Margaret considers how the encyclical itself is an exercise in counselling the doubtful: ‘As our doubts disappear, our responsibilities come into focus,’ responsibilities which call us to be counsellors ourselves.
In 1995 I wrote a Catholic Truth Society pamphlet entitled, Must Catholics be Green? Recently, I revised and republished it in the light of Laudato si’, under the title Catholics and Our Common Home: Caring for the Planet We Share. Twenty years ago, I had felt out on a limb, both in the Church and in society at large. That was so even though John Paul II was already giving a courageous lead. It wasn’t so much that people explicitly disagreed with him, they were simply ignoring what he was saying. I had felt myself in a tiny minority in openly urging people to take the ecological crisis seriously.
Nowadays we all want to save the planet – or at least we all say that we do. But in fact the doubts and the doubters remain. Pope Francis’ first encyclical is in itself a spiritual work of mercy:Laudato si’ aims precisely to counsel the doubtful. Its six chapters (beautifully summarised in §15) each address a specific kind of doubt.
Is there an ecological crisis at all? The first chapter draws on ‘the best scientific research’ to argue that there is. Our faith requires us to use our God-given reason, and the evidence is clear that pollution, climate change, water depletion and loss of biodiversity have reached critical levels. Moreover, it is the poor who will suffer the most from it all. In short, ‘we need only take a frank look at the facts to see that our common home is falling into serious disrepair’ (§61).
But has ecology got anything to do with the Church? Yes, the pope continues, because God is the Creator. All of creation belongs to him, and is shared with us, in love, as a gift. ‘Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God’ (§84). Our task is to share in the reconciling work of Christ, through whom all things were made, and in whom all will be reconciled (Colossians 1:16-20).
Then how we should tackle this crisis: do we need a high-speed technological fix, or a total rejection of the modern world? Technology has brought us many gifts; the great danger it brings, however, is a technological mind-set, which aims at domination and control. Land and water, animals and plants, and worst of all weaker human beings, are then exploited in the interests of the powerful. ‘Our immense technological development has not been accompanied by a development in human responsibility, values and conscience’ (§105). The wisdom of faith, by contrast, teaches us the true value of human worth and human work.
But don’t we have to make choices: between being ‘green’ and being pro-life, or between justice for the poor and concern for animals? Here Pope Francis develops a simple but profound idea from his two predecessors: integral ecology. Under God, all aspects of our well-being – physical, emotional, spiritual, social, economic, political, ecological – come together. Damage one and you damage them all. Care for one and you care for them all. Take the simple example of walking to school instead of going by car. It gives children exercise; it calms them down and cheers them up before and after school. It makes them healthier and happier. They make friends and greet the neighbours. They learn to value the natural world, and the local community. Parents organise themselves to supervise the children, and make friends themselves. Walking saves money and it reduces pollution. Whereas cars reinforce status differences, the experience of walking is shared by rich and poor. ‘Everything is interconnected’, as the pope repeatedly insists.
But how can we live in ecologically friendly ways, when we are trapped by systems, of politics and commerce, of social organisation and expectations? Laudato si’ recognises the difficulty. In line with Pope Benedict’s Caritas in Veritate, Francis calls for dialogue and fresh thinking. We need new approaches to international, national and local politics. We need to rethink economics. ‘Put simply, it is a matter of redefining our notion of progress’ (§194). In fact, a lot of exciting new work is being done in these areas by experts who take seriously the ecological limits of the planet. As Catholics we are being called to open ourselves to new ideas and be prepared to ask radical questions of those in power.
A final doubt is born of fear: how will we manage to give up our comfortable lifestyles? Won’t our ‘green’ future in fact be grey and grim? Far from it, answers Pope Francis. He calls each one of us to ‘ecological conversion’ and appeals for the education that will make this possible. In doing so, he can call upon centuries of Christian teaching on detachment from, and the sharing of, material possessions. This, as the lives of the saints have repeatedly shown, brings joy and peace, to individuals and to communities. The final message to the doubters is thoroughly biblical: Do not be afraid! Enjoy life to the full!
There are devout Catholics who have doubts about concern for the environment. There are zealous greens who doubt the existence of God. There are those who believe in both God and the ecological crisis, but have doubts about what to do. Laudato si’ speaks to all these three groups. But it is not enough to be persuaded. As our doubts disappear, our responsibilities come into focus. We are called to inform ourselves of the facts and to ponder our place in creation under God. We are to open ourselves to new ideas, to support necessary change, to convert our ways of life and to teach our children. In other words, we too are called to counsel the doubtful, by the witness of our words and our actions.
Sr Margaret Atkins CRSA runs residential summer weeks for Catholics aged 20s-40s at Boarbank Hall in Cumbria.
LEADING WITH HUMILITY
From the weekly blog posted by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore USA. The original post can be found here
Right now our Lenten message series at Nativity, called “Attitude Adjustment,” is all about the virtue of humility. Of course, the more you think you have it, the less you really do. Even blogging about it is a little awkward. I’ve heard it quoted that humility isn’t thinking less of yourself; humility is thinking of yourself less.
It’s a particularly challenging virtue for anyone in a leadership position, but for that reason all the more necessary. Humility and leadership are two words not often associated. Especially in churchworld, we need to change that. Here are five important points I’ve been trying to keep in mind as our team at Nativity moves together through our series.
Slow Down
One of the hardest things for a leader invested with responsibility is to slow down. Slowing down means letting go of some control and learning to trust others. At Nativity, one way we do this is by having regular staff retreat days where we get off-site to pray, cast vision, and just relax and get to know each other better. Consider going on a staff retreat- you would be amazed how much motivation and great ideas might come of it.
Listen
The more task oriented you are the more difficult it is. But just simply listening can change your whole perspective on an issue. It’s also important so as not to become out of touch with the real needs and issues in the pews or organization. That happened to me the first time I really listened to Rick Warren while attending his conference. It was painful, even a bit humiliating- but listening that day changed my whole approach to doing church.
Be a Leader Who Learns
Many leaders develop pride by thinking they were tasked with authority because they know the solution to every issue. Although leaders should be knowledgeable, a leader who never learns will never grow personally or professionally. Make time to learn on a daily basis- read books, blogs, talk to people inside and outside your field.
Deflect Praise
Humility means thinking of yourself less, especially when it comes to success. Learn to praise those around you first. Don’t put yourself down- false humility is just another form of pride or fishing for compliments. But lift others up. Notice how every post-game interview of an athlete who put up a great performance always deflects to the team. You know they were outstanding, but they always praise their teammates. All the more necessary for leaders in the Church. It’s always about winning together as the parish body and Church.
Say Thank You
For every ministry “win,” there is always someone to thank. St. Paul said, “Encourage one another and build each other up,” (1 Thess. 5:11). Don’t embarrass people or dwell on it, but don’t let that stop you from publicly and privately thanking volunteers who exhibit great dedication or creativity in their ministry. A thank you, especially from someone in leadership, means a lot and keeps spirits lifted.
Incarnation - Week 2
From the daily email by Fr Richard Rohr. You can subscribe and receive these emails by clicking here
Love God in What Is Right in Front of You
The God Jesus incarnates and embodies is not a distant God that must be placated. Jesus' God is not sitting on some throne demanding worship and throwing down thunderbolts like Zeus. Jesus never said, "Worship me"; he said, "Follow me." He asks us to imitate him in his own journey of full incarnation. To do so, he gives us the two great commandments: 1) Love God with your whole heart, soul, mind, and strength and 2) Love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12:28-31, Luke 10:25-28). In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus shows us that our "neighbor" even includes our "enemy" (Luke 10:29-37).
So how do we love God? Most of us seem to have concluded we love God by attending church services. For some reason, we thought that made God happy. I'm not sure why. That idea probably has more to do with clergy job security! Jesus never talked about attending services, although church can be a good container to start with, and we do tend to become like the folks we hang out with. The prophets often portray God's disdain for self-serving church services. "The sanctuary, the sanctuary, the sanctuary" is all we care about, Jeremiah shouts (7:4). "I hold my nose at your incense. What I want you to do is love the widow and the orphan," say both Isaiah and Amos (Isaiah 1:11-17, Amos 5:21-24), as do Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, Micah, and Zechariah in different ways. The prophetic message is absolutely clear, yet we went right back to loving church services instead of Reality. I believe our inability to recognize and love God in what is right in front of us has made us separate religion from our actual lives. There is Sunday morning, and then there is real life.
The only way I know how to teach anyone to love God, and how I myself can love God, is to love what God loves, which is everything and everyone, including you and including me! "We love because God first loved us" (1 John 4:19). "If we love one another, God remains in us, and [God's] love is brought to perfection in us" (1 John 4:12). Then we love with an infinite love that can always flow through us. We then are able to love things in their "thisness" as John Duns Scotus says--for themselves and in themselves--and not for what they do for us. That takes both work and surrender, and the primary work is detachment from our selves--from our conditioning, our preferences, our prejudices, our knee-jerk neurological reactions. Only the contemplative and trustful mind can do that.
As our freedom from our ego expands--as we get ourselves out of the way--there is a slow but real expansion of consciousness so that we are not the central reference point anymore. We are able to love in greater and greater circles until we can finally do what Jesus did: love and forgive even our enemies. Most of us were given the impression that we had to be totally selfless, and when we couldn't achieve that, many of us gave up altogether. One of Duns Scotus' most helpful teachings is that we should seek "a harmony of goodness," which means harmonizing and balancing necessary self-care with the constant expansion beyond ourselves to loving others in themselves and for themselves. Imagining and working toward this harmony keeps us from giving up on impossible and heroic ideals. Now the possibility of love is always right in front of us and always concrete; it is no longer a theory, a heroic ideal, or a mere distant goal.
So how do we love God? Most of us seem to have concluded we love God by attending church services. For some reason, we thought that made God happy. I'm not sure why. That idea probably has more to do with clergy job security! Jesus never talked about attending services, although church can be a good container to start with, and we do tend to become like the folks we hang out with. The prophets often portray God's disdain for self-serving church services. "The sanctuary, the sanctuary, the sanctuary" is all we care about, Jeremiah shouts (7:4). "I hold my nose at your incense. What I want you to do is love the widow and the orphan," say both Isaiah and Amos (Isaiah 1:11-17, Amos 5:21-24), as do Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, Micah, and Zechariah in different ways. The prophetic message is absolutely clear, yet we went right back to loving church services instead of Reality. I believe our inability to recognize and love God in what is right in front of us has made us separate religion from our actual lives. There is Sunday morning, and then there is real life.
The only way I know how to teach anyone to love God, and how I myself can love God, is to love what God loves, which is everything and everyone, including you and including me! "We love because God first loved us" (1 John 4:19). "If we love one another, God remains in us, and [God's] love is brought to perfection in us" (1 John 4:12). Then we love with an infinite love that can always flow through us. We then are able to love things in their "thisness" as John Duns Scotus says--for themselves and in themselves--and not for what they do for us. That takes both work and surrender, and the primary work is detachment from our selves--from our conditioning, our preferences, our prejudices, our knee-jerk neurological reactions. Only the contemplative and trustful mind can do that.
As our freedom from our ego expands--as we get ourselves out of the way--there is a slow but real expansion of consciousness so that we are not the central reference point anymore. We are able to love in greater and greater circles until we can finally do what Jesus did: love and forgive even our enemies. Most of us were given the impression that we had to be totally selfless, and when we couldn't achieve that, many of us gave up altogether. One of Duns Scotus' most helpful teachings is that we should seek "a harmony of goodness," which means harmonizing and balancing necessary self-care with the constant expansion beyond ourselves to loving others in themselves and for themselves. Imagining and working toward this harmony keeps us from giving up on impossible and heroic ideals. Now the possibility of love is always right in front of us and always concrete; it is no longer a theory, a heroic ideal, or a mere distant goal.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Franciscan Mysticism: I AM That Which I Am Seeking (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2012), disc 2 (CD, MP3 download).
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Franciscan Mysticism: I AM That Which I Am Seeking (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2012), disc 2 (CD, MP3 download).
The Dance of Breath and Soil
The whole process of living, dying, and then living again starts with Yahweh "breathing into clay," which then becomes "a living being" (Genesis 2:7) called Adam ("of the earth"). A drama is forever set in motion between breath and what appears to be mere soil or earth (humus, human, adamah). The Formless One forever takes on form as "Adam" (and in Jesus "the new Adam"), and then takes us back to the Formless. Each form painfully surrenders the small self that it has known for a while and returns to its original shape in the Great Self we call God. "I am returning to take you with me, so that where I am you also may be," says Jesus (John 14:3). This changing of forms is called death and resurrection, and the return is called ascension, although to us it just looks like loss.
After the resurrection when Jesus "breathed on" the fearful disciples and said, "Peace be with you. . . . Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:21-22), he was making a clear connection with the first creation of Adam. Jesus is now re-created. He is mimicking the creation story. Adam represents the great human forgetfulness and fragility. Christ is the great divine memory and strength. Humanity is being re-animated with what it always forgets; breath and soil, spirit and matter are again reminded that they are in fact one. God is again breathing into "the clay of the earth" (Genesis 2:7) and reminding it that it is never just earth and clay. This, of course, makes resurrection a foregone conclusion, because in fact Spirit can never die "and as we have borne the likeness of the earthly one, so we shall also bear the likeness of the heavenly one" (1 Corinthians 15:49). Jesus' resurrection is not a one-time anomaly, but the regular and universal structure of reality revealed in one person.
Buddhists are looking at the same mystery with a different vocabulary when they say, "Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form," and that all forms eventually return to formlessness (spirit or emptiness) once again. This is observable and needs no specific religious label as such. Christians call it incarnation, culminating in death, resurrection, and ascension. Whatever we call it, this process is about all of us, and surely all of creation, coming forth as individuals and then going back into God, into the Ground of all Being. This cyclical wholeness should make us unafraid of all death and uniquely able to appreciate life. "To God, all people are in fact alive," as Jesus put it (Luke 20:38). We are just in different stages of that aliveness. One of these stages looks and feels like deadness--the phase that demands our greatest trust and surrender. And of course, if humanity is free we must always leave open the possibility that some could choose this permanent deadness, which we call "hell." No one is in that state unless they choose to be.
As hidden as the True Self has been from the False Self, so also has the Risen Christ been hidden from most of history, as the Gospel accounts seem to be saying. Not surprisingly, we cannot see what we were not told to look for or told to expect. So our job is to tell people to look and see! If we were told to look at all, it was for some divine object outside ourselves instead of realizing that the divine presence is also within us. This is the staggering change of perspective that the Gospel was meant to achieve. This realization is at the heart of all religious transformation (transformare, to change forms).
The Risen Christ represents the final form of every person who has walked the human journey on this earth. I know you might have to read this meditation several times to let it sink in, but it is worth it. It should entirely change your life perspective.
After the resurrection when Jesus "breathed on" the fearful disciples and said, "Peace be with you. . . . Receive the Holy Spirit" (John 20:21-22), he was making a clear connection with the first creation of Adam. Jesus is now re-created. He is mimicking the creation story. Adam represents the great human forgetfulness and fragility. Christ is the great divine memory and strength. Humanity is being re-animated with what it always forgets; breath and soil, spirit and matter are again reminded that they are in fact one. God is again breathing into "the clay of the earth" (Genesis 2:7) and reminding it that it is never just earth and clay. This, of course, makes resurrection a foregone conclusion, because in fact Spirit can never die "and as we have borne the likeness of the earthly one, so we shall also bear the likeness of the heavenly one" (1 Corinthians 15:49). Jesus' resurrection is not a one-time anomaly, but the regular and universal structure of reality revealed in one person.
Buddhists are looking at the same mystery with a different vocabulary when they say, "Form is emptiness, and emptiness is form," and that all forms eventually return to formlessness (spirit or emptiness) once again. This is observable and needs no specific religious label as such. Christians call it incarnation, culminating in death, resurrection, and ascension. Whatever we call it, this process is about all of us, and surely all of creation, coming forth as individuals and then going back into God, into the Ground of all Being. This cyclical wholeness should make us unafraid of all death and uniquely able to appreciate life. "To God, all people are in fact alive," as Jesus put it (Luke 20:38). We are just in different stages of that aliveness. One of these stages looks and feels like deadness--the phase that demands our greatest trust and surrender. And of course, if humanity is free we must always leave open the possibility that some could choose this permanent deadness, which we call "hell." No one is in that state unless they choose to be.
As hidden as the True Self has been from the False Self, so also has the Risen Christ been hidden from most of history, as the Gospel accounts seem to be saying. Not surprisingly, we cannot see what we were not told to look for or told to expect. So our job is to tell people to look and see! If we were told to look at all, it was for some divine object outside ourselves instead of realizing that the divine presence is also within us. This is the staggering change of perspective that the Gospel was meant to achieve. This realization is at the heart of all religious transformation (transformare, to change forms).
The Risen Christ represents the final form of every person who has walked the human journey on this earth. I know you might have to read this meditation several times to let it sink in, but it is worth it. It should entirely change your life perspective.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Jossey-Bass: 2013), 81-83.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Jossey-Bass: 2013), 81-83.
Our Destination
Resurrection is simply incarnation come to its logical, certain, and full conclusion. It demonstrates, for those who are ready to see, that this world, this flesh, this physicality is part of the eternal truth and forever matters to God. The early church seemed to get this movement of incarnation as the pathway to divinization much more than we have in later centuries. Read, for example, St. Irenaeus and St. Athanasius in their classic texts from the second and fourth centuries. Irenaeus said, "Jesus Christ became what we are that we might become what he himself is." Athanasius, who is called the Father of Orthodoxy, put it similarly: "For he was made man that we might be made God."
Now please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we are God. We can't live up to that, and we don't want to have to live up to that. I am not saying, "We are the Divine One," however, I am saying that we participate in a very real and objective way in the Divine. That's the whole point of religion: to let us know that what we are drawing upon is already planted within us. We don't create it by good moral behavior or by going to church on Sunday. We may awaken it that way, but we don't self-create it.
Resurrection is saying that matter and spirit have been working together from the first moment of the Big Bang and they are moving toward a positive consummation. Frankly, Christians should have been leading the way in all notions of evolution. It is sadly revealing that we often opposed it instead, showing there was no active sense of the Indwelling Holy Spirit, especially among many fundamentalists who talk about the Holy Spirit the most. Theirs is still a static and inanimate universe and God is still "out there"!
Resurrection is not a one-time miracle to be proven; it is a manifestation of the wholeness that we are all meant to experience, even in this world. Eternal life is not "chronological moments of endless duration" but time as momentous and revealing the whole right now. When "time comes to a fullness" (e.g., Mark 1:15, Galatians 4:4, Ephesians 1:10) as in moments of love, childbirth, union, death, prayer, or exquisite beauty, you have experienced a moment of eternal life. Without such moments, it will either be very hard for you to imagine resurrection or, conversely, you will long for it like no one else, which is surely the meaning of the virtue of hope.
The Risen Christ is the standing icon of humanity in its final and full destiny. He is the pledge and guarantee of what God will do with all of our oppressions, abuses, and crucifixions. This, frankly, allows us to live with hope, purpose, and direction. It is no longer an absurd or tragic universe. Our hurts now become the home for our greatest hopes. Without such implanted hope, it is likely that we will be cynical, bitter, and tired by the second half of our lives. I am afraid this is much of Western civilization, which feels very tired and even in love with futility and death. The amount of mental and emotional illness, addiction, anger, depression, and basic unhappiness is the price we are paying for living in such an empty and meaningless world. The soul cannot live without purpose and meaning.
Now please don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we are God. We can't live up to that, and we don't want to have to live up to that. I am not saying, "We are the Divine One," however, I am saying that we participate in a very real and objective way in the Divine. That's the whole point of religion: to let us know that what we are drawing upon is already planted within us. We don't create it by good moral behavior or by going to church on Sunday. We may awaken it that way, but we don't self-create it.
Resurrection is saying that matter and spirit have been working together from the first moment of the Big Bang and they are moving toward a positive consummation. Frankly, Christians should have been leading the way in all notions of evolution. It is sadly revealing that we often opposed it instead, showing there was no active sense of the Indwelling Holy Spirit, especially among many fundamentalists who talk about the Holy Spirit the most. Theirs is still a static and inanimate universe and God is still "out there"!
Resurrection is not a one-time miracle to be proven; it is a manifestation of the wholeness that we are all meant to experience, even in this world. Eternal life is not "chronological moments of endless duration" but time as momentous and revealing the whole right now. When "time comes to a fullness" (e.g., Mark 1:15, Galatians 4:4, Ephesians 1:10) as in moments of love, childbirth, union, death, prayer, or exquisite beauty, you have experienced a moment of eternal life. Without such moments, it will either be very hard for you to imagine resurrection or, conversely, you will long for it like no one else, which is surely the meaning of the virtue of hope.
The Risen Christ is the standing icon of humanity in its final and full destiny. He is the pledge and guarantee of what God will do with all of our oppressions, abuses, and crucifixions. This, frankly, allows us to live with hope, purpose, and direction. It is no longer an absurd or tragic universe. Our hurts now become the home for our greatest hopes. Without such implanted hope, it is likely that we will be cynical, bitter, and tired by the second half of our lives. I am afraid this is much of Western civilization, which feels very tired and even in love with futility and death. The amount of mental and emotional illness, addiction, anger, depression, and basic unhappiness is the price we are paying for living in such an empty and meaningless world. The soul cannot live without purpose and meaning.
References:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Jossey-Bass: 2013), 83-84; Franciscan Mysticism: I AM That Which I Am Seeking (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2012), disc 4 (CD, MP3 download).
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Jossey-Bass: 2013), 83-84; Franciscan Mysticism: I AM That Which I Am Seeking (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2012), disc 4 (CD, MP3 download).
Heaven Is First of All Here
It is no accident that Luke's resurrection account in the Gospel has Jesus saying, "I am not a ghost! I have flesh and bones, as you can see" (Luke 24:39). To Thomas, Jesus says, "Put your finger in my wounds!" (John 20:27). In other words, "I am human!"--which means to be wounded and yet resurrected at the same time. Jesus returns to his physical body, and yet he is now unlimited by space or time and is without any regret or recrimination. That Jesus' body still carries his wounds is telling and important symbolism. It was quite a feat to communicate the full message in such a subtle and refined way, which is precisely the power of symbol and story. "Our wounds are our glory," as Lady Julian of Norwich puts it. This is the utterly counterintuitive message of the Risen Jesus.
The major point is that Jesus has not left the human sphere; he is revealing the goal, the fullness, and the purpose of humanity itself, which is "that we are able to share in the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4), even in this wounded and wounding world. Yes, resurrection is saying something about Jesus, but it is also saying a lot about us, which is even harder to believe. It is saying that we, like him, are larger than life, Being Itself, and therefore something good, true, and beautiful. Our code word for that is heaven.
When we take the resurrection symbol and its meaning absolutely seriously, it moves us far beyond the stripped-down literal meaning where both atheists and fundamentalists flounder. I do believe in the "bodily" resurrection of Jesus--or my basic premise of body and spirit being one does not stand! (Please tell that to any of your friends who think I am a liberal heretic. I am actually quite orthodox.) But resurrection does not just mean an eternally enduring life in the future; rather, it first means "a present life of eternal significance." Surely it means a life of goodness and love, both of which have an eternal quality to them. For many of us, it is a life of "divine adoption," to use Paul's phrase, whereby we all fully share in Jesus' divine inheritance as "heirs of the same promise" and true brothers and sisters on the great journey Jesus also walked.
I am so saddened that much of Christian history has read these same metaphors, yet seems to have had so little inner experience to trust that it could really be true--and true for them. We believed in resurrection in Jesus but not in ourselves. Once you know there is an implanted and positive direction to creation, you can go with the primary flow (faith); eventually you will learn to rest there (hope); and you can actually live this outflowing life with gracious trust (love). You are at home both here and forever. What else could salvation be? Heaven is first of all now--and therefore surely later. If God loves and accepts us now in our broken state, why would the divine policy change after death? It is the same God before and after our death. Why not jump on this wonderful bandwagon and enjoy heaven now-without fear? Salvation for me, and for many of the early Eastern Fathers of the Church, was not a question of if--but only a question of when--and how much you want it. As Jesus said, "In my Father's house there are many mansions, and I have gone ahead to prepare a place for you. . . . I shall return to take you with me so that you may be where I am" (John 14:2-3). God, that's good!
The major point is that Jesus has not left the human sphere; he is revealing the goal, the fullness, and the purpose of humanity itself, which is "that we are able to share in the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4), even in this wounded and wounding world. Yes, resurrection is saying something about Jesus, but it is also saying a lot about us, which is even harder to believe. It is saying that we, like him, are larger than life, Being Itself, and therefore something good, true, and beautiful. Our code word for that is heaven.
When we take the resurrection symbol and its meaning absolutely seriously, it moves us far beyond the stripped-down literal meaning where both atheists and fundamentalists flounder. I do believe in the "bodily" resurrection of Jesus--or my basic premise of body and spirit being one does not stand! (Please tell that to any of your friends who think I am a liberal heretic. I am actually quite orthodox.) But resurrection does not just mean an eternally enduring life in the future; rather, it first means "a present life of eternal significance." Surely it means a life of goodness and love, both of which have an eternal quality to them. For many of us, it is a life of "divine adoption," to use Paul's phrase, whereby we all fully share in Jesus' divine inheritance as "heirs of the same promise" and true brothers and sisters on the great journey Jesus also walked.
I am so saddened that much of Christian history has read these same metaphors, yet seems to have had so little inner experience to trust that it could really be true--and true for them. We believed in resurrection in Jesus but not in ourselves. Once you know there is an implanted and positive direction to creation, you can go with the primary flow (faith); eventually you will learn to rest there (hope); and you can actually live this outflowing life with gracious trust (love). You are at home both here and forever. What else could salvation be? Heaven is first of all now--and therefore surely later. If God loves and accepts us now in our broken state, why would the divine policy change after death? It is the same God before and after our death. Why not jump on this wonderful bandwagon and enjoy heaven now-without fear? Salvation for me, and for many of the early Eastern Fathers of the Church, was not a question of if--but only a question of when--and how much you want it. As Jesus said, "In my Father's house there are many mansions, and I have gone ahead to prepare a place for you. . . . I shall return to take you with me so that you may be where I am" (John 14:2-3). God, that's good!
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Jossey-Bass: 2013), 85-86, 90.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Jossey-Bass: 2013), 85-86, 90.
From Love to Love
No matter what your definition, we all want resurrection in some form. And I do believe "the raising up of Jesus" (which is the correct theological way to say it, conveying a relational meaning between Jesus and God, and not a self-generated "I can do this") is a potent, focused, and compelling statement about what God is still and forever doing with the universe and with humanity. Science strongly confirms this statement today, but with different metaphors and symbols, like condensation, evaporation, hibernation, sublimation, the four seasons, and the life cycles of everything from salmon to stars--constantly dying and being reborn of the same stardust. God appears to be resurrecting everything all the time and everywhere. It is not something to "believe in" as much as it is something to observe and be taught by.
Many do believe in the bodily resurrection, as I do too, but in a way that asks little except a mere intellectual assertion of a religious doctrine. We can go much further than that. I choose to believe in some kind of bodily resurrection because it localizes the whole Mystery in this material and earthly world and in our own bodies, the only world we know and the world that God created and loves and in which God chose to incarnate.
We all want to know that this wonderful thing called life is going somewhere, and somewhere good. It is going to someplace good because it came from someplace good--a place of "original blessing" instead of "original sin." "I know where I came from and where I am going," Jesus says, "but you do not" (John 8:14). So he came to tell us! The Alpha and the Omega of history have to match, or our lives have no natural arc, trajectory, or organic meaning. The end has to be in the beginning, as T.S. Eliot said. In the Book of Revelation (1:8, 21:6, 22:13) it states that Jesus is the Alpha of history, which Duns Scotus called "the first idea in the mind of God," and also the "Omega Point" of history, which was the phrase used by Teilhard de Chardin.
If the original divine incarnation was and is true, then resurrection is both inevitable and irreversible. If the Big Bang was the external starting point of the eternal Christ Mystery, then we know Creation is being led somewhere good, and it is not a chaotic or meaningless universe. Alpha and Omega are in fact one and the same. No one taught this better than the Jesuit mystic and paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin, who has become the champion of evolutionary Christianity. (Pope Benedict XVI quoted him several times in the final years of his Papacy.)
For Teilhard, the Risen Presence is the Prime Attractor that keeps alluring and inviting history forward toward its certain conclusion. The Cosmic Christ is the divine lure, a blinking, brilliant light set as the Omega Point of time and history that keeps reminding us that love, not death, is the eternal thing. Love, which is nothing more than endless life, is luring us forward, because love is what we also and already are. All life is inexorably drawn to the fullness of its own existence. "Like knows like" and, similar to an electromagnetic force, Love is drawing the world into a fullness of love. I firmly believe we will finally be unable to resist the allure. Love will always win. God does not lose.
Many do believe in the bodily resurrection, as I do too, but in a way that asks little except a mere intellectual assertion of a religious doctrine. We can go much further than that. I choose to believe in some kind of bodily resurrection because it localizes the whole Mystery in this material and earthly world and in our own bodies, the only world we know and the world that God created and loves and in which God chose to incarnate.
We all want to know that this wonderful thing called life is going somewhere, and somewhere good. It is going to someplace good because it came from someplace good--a place of "original blessing" instead of "original sin." "I know where I came from and where I am going," Jesus says, "but you do not" (John 8:14). So he came to tell us! The Alpha and the Omega of history have to match, or our lives have no natural arc, trajectory, or organic meaning. The end has to be in the beginning, as T.S. Eliot said. In the Book of Revelation (1:8, 21:6, 22:13) it states that Jesus is the Alpha of history, which Duns Scotus called "the first idea in the mind of God," and also the "Omega Point" of history, which was the phrase used by Teilhard de Chardin.
If the original divine incarnation was and is true, then resurrection is both inevitable and irreversible. If the Big Bang was the external starting point of the eternal Christ Mystery, then we know Creation is being led somewhere good, and it is not a chaotic or meaningless universe. Alpha and Omega are in fact one and the same. No one taught this better than the Jesuit mystic and paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin, who has become the champion of evolutionary Christianity. (Pope Benedict XVI quoted him several times in the final years of his Papacy.)
For Teilhard, the Risen Presence is the Prime Attractor that keeps alluring and inviting history forward toward its certain conclusion. The Cosmic Christ is the divine lure, a blinking, brilliant light set as the Omega Point of time and history that keeps reminding us that love, not death, is the eternal thing. Love, which is nothing more than endless life, is luring us forward, because love is what we also and already are. All life is inexorably drawn to the fullness of its own existence. "Like knows like" and, similar to an electromagnetic force, Love is drawing the world into a fullness of love. I firmly believe we will finally be unable to resist the allure. Love will always win. God does not lose.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Jossey-Bass: 2013), 86-88, 92-93.
Adapted from Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Jossey-Bass: 2013), 86-88, 92-93.
God's Solidarity with Suffering
While resurrection is where incarnation leads, there is one caveat, and it's a big one: transformation and "crucifixion" must intervene between life and Life. Some form of loss, metamorphosis, or transformation always precedes any rejuvenation. We see this throughout the entire physical and biological universe. Nothing remains the same. This is where we all fumble, falter, and fight. The small ego-self hates all change. So someone needs to personally lead the way, model the path, and say this is a good and "necessary suffering." Otherwise we will not trust this counterintuitive path. For Christians, this model, pioneer, and exemplar is Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). [1]
I've often said that the Book of Job is the summit of the Hebrew Scriptures, but it's also the dead end, because there's no answer for how to deal with unjust suffering except surrender. Jesus, the new Job, experienced the worst suffering humanity could inflict: betrayal, unfair judgment, rejection, abandonment, torture, humiliation, and crucifixion. For Christians, Jesus therefore became the answer to Job. The problem of suffering, even unjust suffering, is resolved in Jesus' body on the cross. The One who became incarnate took on our suffering flesh, and took it to the nth degree. As Paul writes, "Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness, and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:5-8).
Many of the happiest and most peaceful people I know love a God who walks with crucified people and thus reveals and "redeems" their plight as God's own. For them, Jesus is not observing human suffering from a distance but is somehow in human suffering with us and for us. He includes our suffering in the co-redemption of the world, as "all creation groans in one great act of giving birth" (Romans 8:22). Is this possible? Could it be true that we "make up in our bodies all that still has to be undergone for the sake of the Whole Body" (Colossians 1:24)? Are we somehow partners with the divine? Of course we are! In fact, I think that is the whole point. [2]
Is this the way that we matter? Is this the price of our inclusion inside of the Great Mystery that God has lived first and foremost? Is God truly and forever a Great Outpouring, as the Trinitarian pattern seems to say? When I see animals and plants and even the stars die so willingly and offer their bodies for another generation, another species, or the illumination of the universe, I begin to see the one pattern everywhere. It is the truest level of love, as each and every thing offers itself for another. Would any of us even learn to love at all if it was not demanded of us, taken from us, and called forth by human tears and earthly tragedy? Is suffering necessary to teach us how to love and care for one another? I really believe it is--by pure observation. [3] Maybe this is why Jesus said, "Follow me" (John 1:43) and "Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:12-13).
Jesus takes on our suffering, bears it, and moves through it to resurrection, which is called "the paschal mystery." We too can follow this path, actively joining God's loving solidarity with all the suffering since the foundation of the world. Jesus does not ask us to worship him. He asks us to follow him by trusting and allowing this entire, scary, and infinitely rewarding journey. [4]
I've often said that the Book of Job is the summit of the Hebrew Scriptures, but it's also the dead end, because there's no answer for how to deal with unjust suffering except surrender. Jesus, the new Job, experienced the worst suffering humanity could inflict: betrayal, unfair judgment, rejection, abandonment, torture, humiliation, and crucifixion. For Christians, Jesus therefore became the answer to Job. The problem of suffering, even unjust suffering, is resolved in Jesus' body on the cross. The One who became incarnate took on our suffering flesh, and took it to the nth degree. As Paul writes, "Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness, and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:5-8).
Many of the happiest and most peaceful people I know love a God who walks with crucified people and thus reveals and "redeems" their plight as God's own. For them, Jesus is not observing human suffering from a distance but is somehow in human suffering with us and for us. He includes our suffering in the co-redemption of the world, as "all creation groans in one great act of giving birth" (Romans 8:22). Is this possible? Could it be true that we "make up in our bodies all that still has to be undergone for the sake of the Whole Body" (Colossians 1:24)? Are we somehow partners with the divine? Of course we are! In fact, I think that is the whole point. [2]
Is this the way that we matter? Is this the price of our inclusion inside of the Great Mystery that God has lived first and foremost? Is God truly and forever a Great Outpouring, as the Trinitarian pattern seems to say? When I see animals and plants and even the stars die so willingly and offer their bodies for another generation, another species, or the illumination of the universe, I begin to see the one pattern everywhere. It is the truest level of love, as each and every thing offers itself for another. Would any of us even learn to love at all if it was not demanded of us, taken from us, and called forth by human tears and earthly tragedy? Is suffering necessary to teach us how to love and care for one another? I really believe it is--by pure observation. [3] Maybe this is why Jesus said, "Follow me" (John 1:43) and "Love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends" (John 15:12-13).
Jesus takes on our suffering, bears it, and moves through it to resurrection, which is called "the paschal mystery." We too can follow this path, actively joining God's loving solidarity with all the suffering since the foundation of the world. Jesus does not ask us to worship him. He asks us to follow him by trusting and allowing this entire, scary, and infinitely rewarding journey. [4]
References:
[1] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Jossey-Bass: 2013), 88.
[2] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps (Franciscan Media: 2011), 122.
[3] Ibid., 122-123.
[4] Rohr, Immortal Diamond, 79.
[1] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Immortal Diamond: The Search for Our True Self (Jossey-Bass: 2013), 88.
[2] Adapted from Richard Rohr, Breathing Under Water: Spirituality and the Twelve Steps (Franciscan Media: 2011), 122.
[3] Ibid., 122-123.
[4] Rohr, Immortal Diamond, 79.
An article by John Allen Jr taken from the Crux Now website. The original article can be found here
It’s undoubtedly an exaggeration to suggest that the entire nation of Australia will come grinding to a halt next Monday at 8 a.m. local time, when Cardinal George Pell is set to begin giving live video testimony before a Royal Commission examining child sexual abuse scandals.
Still, it sort of feels like that here right now.
I’m in Australia this week, not to cover the Pell story, but to speak at several venues. It’s impossible to move around, however, especially in Catholic circles, without the conversation turning sooner or later to Pell and his discontents.
In Australia, Pell has become the public face of what’s perceived as a callous Church response to the abuse scandals. He’s been parodied in a derisive song calling him “scum” and a “coward,” he’s become a staple of news chat, and right now a bright red wagon is being pulled through the streets of the city of Ballarat, where the Royal Commission is meeting, with the slogan, “Pope must act: Sack Pell now!”
In part, the attacks on Pell are about substance: whether at various points in his career he knew about abuse that was going on and either failed to act, or acted primarily to protect the Church’s interests. In part, too, it’s about his pugnacious, strongly conservative public persona and his seeming inability to project the contrition that many Aussies appear to want.
Whether the tidal wave of criticism is fair is the subject of fierce debate, but there’s no denying it’s there.
Pell, 74 and currently the Vatican’s top financial official, will be testifying beginning Monday via video link from a conference room in the Hotel Quirinale in Rome, which will be streamed live on the commission’s website each day. In Ballarat, one of the epicenters of the abuse crisis here and the focus of this hearing, a room has been set aside in the Town Hall for people to watch the webcast.
Pell is from Ballarat, and is expected to be asked about his time as a priest there, including whatever knowledge he may have had of Gerald Ridsdale, Australia’s most notorious abuser priest. Pell briefly lived in the same residence with Ridsdale, who has since been laicized, although Ridsdale in his own testimony has said he didn’t discuss his conduct with Pell.
Pell is also expected to be asked his role as an auxiliary bishop and later archbishop of Melbourne. A group of 15 abuse survivors and family members will be in the hotel conference room in Rome as Pell is deposed, with the costs of their trip paid for by an online crowdfunding campaign.
Pell may not, however, face questions about old accusations, which recently resurfaced, that he personally abused five to 10 boys decades ago, charges which are now the object of a probe by a police task force linked to the Royal Commission. Pell has described the accusations as “utterly false,” noting that they were investigated 15 years ago by a retired judge and not substantiated.
Many of Pell’s defenders smell a political rat, believing the investigation was leaked in order to inflict maximum damage on Pell ahead of his appearance. A spokesman for the commission indicated that since those charges are the focus of a criminal investigation, they may not come up at this week’s hearing.
All told, Pell is expected to testify for roughly four hours a day, for three or four straight days. It would be a grueling experience under any circumstances, made all the more daunting by the fact that given the time difference between Rome and Sydney, Pell will begin his testimony each evening at around 10 p.m. and likely not finish before 2 a.m.
For the record, it’s the third time he will have given testimony to the commission, either in person or by video link.
As an outsider, it’s obviously not for me to assess the merits of complaints about Pell’s record in Australia. I will say, however, that even some Australians I met this week who describe themselves as critics or rivals of Pell from way back expressed concern that in this environment, a fair hearing may be hard to achieve.
What I can comment on is a curious missing element in most Australian discussion about Pell. It’s the role he now plays in Rome, where he serves as secretary for the economy, a position created by Pope Francis in 2014 to lead a charge for financial reform.
There’s an almost Alice-in-Wonderland disjunction between public images of Pell in his home country, and how he’s viewed in the Vatican.
In Australia, Pell has come to be seen as the embodiment of the Church’s dark past, of a corrupt old-guard system of clergy taking care of their own and sweeping problems under the rug. In Rome, however, it’s entirely the reverse — there is a similar well-entrenched clerical old guard in the Vatican, and there, Pell is seen as its mortal enemy.
The divisions in the Vatican over the financial reform Francis wants, and which Pell is attempting to execute, fundamentally have little to do with ideology. Rather, it’s about transparency, accountability, and integrity, about making sure resources serve the Church’s ends and not somebody’s personal agenda.
Granted, those are easy virtues to spout but much harder to implement, and there’s a lively debate about how successful Pell’s financial reform will turn out to be. Some believe that so far it’s mostly smoke and mirrors: great on rhetoric, but with little real change.
At the big-picture level, however, there’s no question that Pell is not on the side of the Vatican’s old guard — he’s the antidote to it.
It’s striking how little that profile is known in Australia, even among active Catholics. Frankly, many Australians will tell you they thought Pell’s appointment in February 2014 was simply a make-work assignment to justify getting him out of the country, and have precious little idea what he’s been up to since.
It’s not clear why that aspect of the Pell story doesn’t resonate much in the Australian discussion, save perhaps for the fact that it simply doesn’t fit the narrative he now carries around.
In any event, Pell’s friends might be well advised to talk more about it.
Naturally, the truth or falsehood of the charges against Pell doesn’t depend on their impact on Vatican politics. Still, it’s a bit of an eye-opener for many people here to learn that the Vatican figures most people would instinctively cheer for — beginning, of course, with Pope Francis himself — are not the ones who would be happy if Pell goes down.
