Mersey Leven Catholic Parish
Parish Priest: Fr
Assistant Priest: Fr Alexander Obiorah Mob: 0447 478 297; alexchuksobi@yahoo.co.uk
Postal Address: Parish Office:
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Secretary: Annie Davies / Anne Fisher
Pastoral Council Chair: Jenny Garnsey
Pastoral Council Chair: Jenny Garnsey
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.
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Weekday Masses 9th - 12th August, 2016
Monday: 12noon Devonport ..Mary MacKillop
Tuesday: 9:30am Devonport ..(125th Anniversary Celebration - OLOL School)
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe …St Lawrence
Thursday: 10:30am
Eliza Purton ..St Clare
12noon Devonport
Friday: 9:30am
Ulverstone
Mass Times Next Weekend 13th & 14th August,
2016
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin (L.W.C)
Devonport - Confirmation
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell (L.W.C)
9:00am Ulverstone
-
Confirmation
10:30am
Devonport (L.W.C)
11:00am
Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
Every
Friday 10am - 12noon, concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Devonport: Benediction with Adoration - first Friday of
each month.
Legion of Mary: Sacred Heart Church Community Room,
Ulverstone, Wednesdays, 11am
Christian Meditation:
Devonport, Emmaus House - Wednesdays 7pm.
Prayer Group:
Charismatic Renewal
Devonport, Emmaus House - Thursdays 7.00pm
Meetings, with Adoration and Benediction are held each
Second Thursday of the Month in OLOL Church, commencing at 7.00 pm
Ministry Rosters 13th & 14th August 2016
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: Confirmation Ceremony
10:30am F Sly, J Tuxworth
Ministers of Communion: Vigil
B & B Windebank, T Bird, J Kelly, R Baker, Beau Windebank
B & B Windebank, T Bird, J Kelly, R Baker, Beau Windebank
10.30am: S Riley, M Sherriff, R Beaton,
M O’Brien-Evans, D
& M Barrientos,
19th August: K.S.C.
Piety Shop 13th August: L Murfet
14th August: D French Flowers: A O'Connor
Ulverstone:
Reader: Confirmation Ceremony
Ministers of Communion: B Deacon, J Allen, G Douglas, K Reilly
Ministers of Communion: B Deacon, J Allen, G Douglas, K Reilly
Cleaners: G & M
Seen, G Roberts Flowers: G Doyle Hospitality:
M & K McKenzie
Penguin:
Greeters: J & T Kiely Commentator: E Nickols Readers: T Clayton, A Landers
Procession: Fifita Family Ministers of Communion: A Guest, J Garnsey
Liturgy: Penguin Setting Up: E Nickols Care of Church: Y & R Downes
Port Sorell:
Readers: V Duff, L Post Ministers of Communion: E Holloway
Clean/Flow/Prepare: G Bellchambers, M Gillard
Readings this Week: 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: Wisdom 18:6-9
Second Reading: Hebrews 11:1-2, 8-19
Gospel: Luke 12:32-48
PREGO REFLECTION ON TODAY'S GOSPEL:
Slowly, I ready myself for prayer. I become alert and
attentive while trying to remain calm. I read the gospel passage a few times. I
pause wherever I feel drawn. I may like to approach this gospel imaginatively.
What is it like to be dressed, ready for action? Do I find it easy to wait,
patiently but ever ready? How do I feel not knowing the time or the hour?
Again, using my imagination, I see the Lord approaching. I hear his knock on
the door. I feel the door handle. As I open the door, how does he greet me? I
watch as he puts on an apron, sits me down and waits on me. How does this
feel—to be served by the Lord? I might like to speak to the Lord, thanking him
for coming to me not to be served but to serve. Perhaps I could ask him to help
me to be ready to serve others as he did. I end my prayer by saying slowly but
confidently: Our Father…
Readings Next Week: 20th Sunday in
Ordinary Time – Year C
First Reading: Jeremiah 38:4-6, 8-10
Second Reading: Hebrews 12:1-4
Gospel: Luke 12:49-53
Your prayers are asked for the sick:
Jean Boweden, Little Archer, Graeme Wilson, Reg
Hinkley, Taya Ketelaar-Jones, Haydee Diaz &..........
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Barry Stuart, John Thomas, Bebing
Veracruz.
Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 3rd
– 9th August
Cavell Robertson, Kevin &
Doylie Robertson, Bruce & Michael Ravaillion, Shirley Fraser, Helena
Rimmelzwaan, Thomas Hays, Mary Sherriff, Sydney Dooley, John Fennell, Pauline
Taylor, Ellen & Stan Woodhouse, Terry O’Rourke, Janice Nielsen, Dorothy
Smith, Kevin Breen and Jean Stuart. Also Santos & Herondio Makiputin,
Rengel Gelacio deceased members of the Castles and Astell Families and Bruce
Smith.
May they Rest in Peace
WEEKLY
RAMBLINGS:
The
next few weeks will be really important for the Parish and the local community.
Starting
on Monday Our Lady of Lourdes School will begin their 125th Anniversary
celebrations. Running through the week we have Mass with the Archbishop on
Tuesday at 9.30am and the celebration concludes on Friday night with a Cocktail
Party.
Next
weekend (Saturday Vigil & 9.00am Mass at Ulverstone) Archbishop Julian will
be here in the Parish to confer the Sacrament of Confirmation for the children
of the Parish for 2016. The Archbishop will be here for a few extra days
because on Tuesday 16th he will be the main celebrant at the Catholic Education
Week Mass to be celebrated at St Brendan Shaw College.
We
also welcome back the young people who have been to World Youth Day and look
forward to hearing something of their story. The Divine Renovation books that I
had ordered have arrived and we will be able to start the discussion groups
soon.
A
further update on the Alpha Gathering. Lorraine McCarthy will be here in the
Parish on Sunday, 21st August from 1.30pm at the Community Room at Sacred Heart
Church, Ulverstone. This will be an opportunity for parishioners to get an
understanding of what might be involved in us running Alpha Courses in the
parish and what we need to do to make it happen.
Please take care on
the roads,
Mersey Leven Catholic Parish would like to
congratulate the following parishioners on their
60TH Wedding Anniversary.
Athol & Mary Bryan
- celebrated
2nd
August
John
& Aileen Reynolds and David & Ruth Munro
Both
couples celebrating on 11th August
MESSAGE FROM FR ALEX:
Greetings from Nigeria. I got home safely on Wednesday (27th
July), had two days at Lagos before heading East to meet the rest of my family.
Thank you for your prayers. I am fine and smiling.
Warmest regards Fr Alex.
CARE AND CONCERN: - Bereavement following the loss
of a family member or friend:
The next gathering will be held this Tuesday 9th
August at 2.00 pm at Neville Smith’s home – 120 Nicholls Street Devonport. Afternoon tea will be provided. If you are
able to attend or would like further information about the gathering, please
contact Mary Davies 6424:1183/ 0447 241 182 or Neville Smith 6424:3507.
KNIGHTS OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS:
The Mersey Leven Branch of the Knights of the Southern
Cross have received a request from the International Alliance of Catholic
Knights to join in praying the rosary for Peace, Reconciliation and Harmony in
our world during the 9 days from Saturday 6th August till the Feast
of the Assumption of our Blessed Mother on 15th August, 2016.
At Fatima Our Lady asked us to recite the Rosary every day
to obtain peace in the world and end war. We have also been asked to invite our
local parishes and their communities to join in this either as a group or as an
individual over the coming 9 days.
ST PATRICK’S LATROBE CHURCH CLEANING ROSTER:
We
are in urgent need of volunteers to join our cleaning roster at St Pat’s
Church, Latrobe. If you are able to assist please contact Irene Campbell
6426:2128 – (more hands, lighter the work
load!!)
FOOTY POINTS MARGIN TICKETS:
Round
19 Geelong won by 25 Points Winners: Tom Jones, Elma Lynd, Val McCarthy.
BINGO
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall,
Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
Callers for Thursday 11th
August – Tony Ryan & Merv Tippett
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au for
news, information and details of other Parishes.
Our
Tasmanian WYD16 pilgrims returned home on Friday after an incredible and
inspiring encounter with our universal Church and with the person of Christ.
This immersion in the rich history and culture of our spirituality and faith
has been an experience our pilgrims will not soon forget.
Thank
you for your prayers and support, it would not have been possible without them!
The journey has not ended for our pilgrims, the process of integrating such a
large, unique and powerful experience takes time, along with continued
reflection and prayer. Please continue to pray for and support our young
pilgrims, and all young Tasmanians. We look forward to sharing the stories, the
energy, and the gifts of World Youth Day with you soon. In the mean time you
can check out photos, videos, stories and thoughts from the pilgrimage at: www.facebook.com/taswyd16
ST VIRGILS OLD SCHOLARS LUNCHEON: will be held at Pedro's Restaurant near
the Wharf at Ulverstone on Saturday 3rd September starting
at 12:30pm for a 1:00 pm sit down. People wishing to attend can
ring Terry Leary 0487 771 153, Peter Imlach 0417 032 614 or Mark Waddington at
St Virgils College Austins Ferry 6249:4569.
JOURNALING PRAYER RETREAT – FR RAY SANCHEZ: will be running a two day live in retreat at Maryknoll House of Prayer on October 15th and 16th 2016. This is the most precious gift you can give yourself. Journaling prayer is a process and resource to help you reach a psychologically and spiritually healthy you. If you wish to enquire about attending please phone Anne on 0407704539 or email: journallingretreat@iinet.net.au
OUR FEAR OF HELL
From an article by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. The original article can be found here
Hell is never a nasty surprise waiting for a basically happy person. Hell can only be the full-flowering of a pride and selfishness that have, through a long time, twisted a heart so thoroughly that it considers happiness as unhappiness and has an arrogant disdain for happy people. If you are essentially warm of heart this side of eternity, you need not fear that a nasty surprise awaits you on the other side because somewhere along the line, unknowingly, you missed the boat and your life went terribly wrong.
Unfortunately for many us, the preaching and catechesis of our youth sometimes schooled us in the idea that you could tragically miss the boat without knowing it and that there was no return. You could live your life sincerely, in essential honesty, relate fairly to others, try your best given your weaknesses, have some bounce and happiness in life, and then die and find that some sin you’ve committed or mistake you’d made, perhaps even unknowingly, could doom you to hell and there was no further chance for repentance. The second of your death was your last chance to change things, no second chances after death, no matter how badly you might like then to repent. As a tree falls so shall it lie! We were schooled to fear dying and the afterlife.
But, whatever the practical effectiveness of such a concept, because it really could make one hesitate in the face of temptation because of the fear of hell, it is essentially wrong and should not be taught in the name of Christianity. Why? Because it belies the God and the deep truths that Jesus revealed. Jesus did teach that there was a hell and that it was a possibility for everyone. But the hell that Jesus spoke of is not a place or a state where someone is begging for one last chance, just one more minute of life to make an act of contrition, and God is refusing. The God whom Jesus both incarnates and reveals is a God who is forever open to repentance, forever open to contrition, and forever waiting our return from our prodigal wanderings.
With God we never exhaust our chances. Can you imagine God looking at a repentant man or woman and saying: “Sorry! For you, it’s too late! You had your chance! Don’t come asking for another chance now!” That could not be the Father of Jesus.
And yet, the Gospels can give us that impression. We have, for example, the famous parable of the rich man who ignores the poor man at his doorstep, dies, and ends up in hell, while the poor man, Lazarus, whom he had ignored, is now in heaven, comforted in the bosom of Abraham. From his torment in hell, the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus to him with some water, but Abraham replies that there is an unbridgeable gap between heaven and hell and no one can cross from one side to the other. That text, along with Jesus’ warnings about that the doors of the wedding banquet will at a point be irrevocably closed, has led to the common misconception that there is a point of no return, that once in hell, it is too late to repent.
But that’s not what this text, nor Jesus’ warning on the urgency of repentance, teaches. The “unbridgeable gap” here refers, among other things, to a gap that remains forever unbridged here in this world between the rich and the poor. And it remains unbridged because of our intransigence, our failure to change heart, our lack of contrition, not because God runs out of patience and says: “Enough! No more chances!” It remains unbridged because, habitually, we become so set in our ways that we are incapable of change and genuine repentance.
Jesus’ story of the rich man and Lazarus actually draws upon a more ancient, Jewish, story that illustrates this intransigence: In the parallel Jewish parable, God does hear the rich man’s plea from hell for a second chance and grants it to him. The rich man, now full of new resolutions, returns to life, goes immediately to the market, loads his cart with food, and, as he is driving home, meets Lazarus on the road. Lazarus asks for a loaf of bread. The rich man jumps off his cart to give it to him, but, has he pulls a huge loaf of bread from his cart, his old self starts to reassert itself. He begins to think: “This man doesn’t need a whole loaf! Why not just give him a part! And why should he have a fresh loaf, I’ll give him some of the stale bread!” Immediately he finds himself back in hell! He still cannot bridge the gap.
Kathleen Dowling Singh submits that in making a series of mental contractions we create our own fear of death. That’s true too for the afterlife: By making a series of unfortunate theological contractions we create our own fear of hell.
3 TIPS ON REACHING THE CULTURE OF SPIRITUAL COMFORT
Taken from the blog by Fr Michael white, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Balotimore. the original article can be found here
What’s more challenging (and annoying) to Christians than outright hostility? Indifference. And that’s exactly the attitude of most of the unchurched people in your community (the hostile one’s are just louder).
The truth is, most unchurched people you encounter do not feel morally or even spiritually bankrupt. Actually, they’re spiritually quite “comfortable.” Reaching this group will be increasingly important if we want to see our churches succeed for the next generation. So how do we do it?
Reality- The unchurched of the mega-church movement were called “seekers.” They were cultural Christians seeking something beyond their own religious traditions. The rising generation of unchurched are no longer seeking anything.
Response– Think outside the Church.
Although Catholic parents and grandparents still influence their families to receive the sacraments, the truth is, even that is a dying culture. Kids are now being born into families that are already two generations of the unchurched. How can they find their way “back” to a place they’ve never been?
Church members must increasingly invest in the community outside the parish. And that means, hosting too many church programs actually draws parishioners away from the local community they are called to serve and engage. Encourage parishioners to balance life in and outside the church.
Reality- Most in our culture believe everything for a fulfilling life can be found outside the Church.
Response– Speak to your successes.
Most people are really pursuing what they think is best for themselves and their families, and often it’s positive (like kids sports programs). Assume the best about the unchurched. Don’t demean or demonize their choices. Instead, affirm the good, but question whether there might be more to life. Don’t harp on what they don’t have, but what you do have. It’s more important to speak to your church’s successes than assume their personal failures. What added value does your church offer? Speak to that. Beginning with common ground and empathy opens people to an invitation.
Reality- People don’t believe the church understands their modern lifestyle.
Response– Make the message relevant and down to earth.
In the Internet age, when any answer is “google-able,” many people are pretty savvy about finding answers to anything they care about. What they don’t necessarily get is how it is relevant to their lives. Most aren’t necessarily looking for a theological argument or profound spirituality, just something practical and useful. Often people don’t think they need God because they don’t realize how they’re life and faith are interconnected. Put your theology to work by making those connections for them.
COMMUNITY
This article is collated from a series of daily emails sent by Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can subscribe to the email service here
The Body of
Christ
The template
of all reality is Trinity: "Let us create [humanity] in our own
image," the creation story says (Genesis 1:26). God is essentially shared
life, life in relationship. In the beginning is relationship, we might say.
Within the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit perfectly love and are perfectly
loved. We come to know who God is through exchanges of mutual knowing and
loving. [1]
God's basic
method of communicating God's self is not the "saved" individual, the
rightly informed believer, or even personal careers in ministry, but the
journey and bonding process that God initiates in community: in marriages,
families, tribes, nations, events, scientists, and churches who are seeking to
participate in God's love, maybe without even consciously knowing it.
The body of
Christ is our Christian metaphor for this bonding. It seems to be God's
strategy and God's leaven inside the dough of creation. It is both the medium
and the message. It is both the beginning and the goal: "May they all be
one . . . so the world may believe it was you who sent me . . . that they may
be one as we are one, with me in them and you in me" (see John 17:21, 23).
Thomas
Merton writes, "The Christian is not merely 'alone with the Alone' in the
Neoplatonic sense, but he is One with all his 'brothers [and sisters] in
Christ.' His inner self is, in fact, inseparable from Christ and hence it is in
a mysterious and unique way inseparable from all the other 'I's' who live in
Christ, so that they all form one 'Mystical Person,' which is 'Christ.'"
[2]
There is no
other form for the Christian life except a common one. Until and unless Christ
is experienced as a living relationship between people, the Gospel remains
largely an abstraction. Until Christ is passed on personally through
faithfulness and forgiveness, through concrete bonds of union, I doubt whether
he is passed on by words, sermons, institutions, or ideas.
References:
[1] This
will be the subject of my next book, The Divine Dance, on the mystery of
Trinity, coming later this year.
[2] Thomas
Merton, The Inner Experience: Notes on Contemplation (Harper San Francisco:
2003), 22.
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, Near Occasions of Grace (Orbis Books: 1993), 49-51.
Embodiment
While Paul's
writing includes philosophical and poetic passages, it's not esoteric. Paul's
teaching is incarnational. He sees that the Gospel message must have concrete
embodiment. Concrete embodiment is Jesus' idea of church, too. Jesus' first
vision of church is "two or three gathered in my name" (Matthew
18:20). This is why he insists that the message be communicated not by the lone
evangelist but sent the Twelve out "two by two" (Mark 6:7). The
individual is not a fitting communicator of the core message, and I am not
either. (A lovely little team makes these daily meditations possible at several
levels!)
During
Paul's lifetime, the church was not yet an institution or structural grouping
of common practices and beliefs. The church was a living organism that
communicated the Gospel through relationships. This fits with Paul's
understanding of Christ as what we might call an energy field, something in
which you live inside and participate organically.
Paul's
brilliant metaphor for this living, organic, concrete embodiment is the body of
Christ: "For as in one body we have many parts, and all the parts do not
have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ and
individually parts of one another. Since we have gifts that differ according to
the grace given to us, let us exercise them" (Romans 12:4-6). At the heart
of this body, providing the energy that enlivens the community is "the
love of God that has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy
Spirit" (Romans 5:5).
This Spirit
is itself the foundational energy of the universe, the ground of all being. As
Barbara Brown Taylor writes, "At this point in my thinking, it is not
enough for me to proclaim that God is responsible for all this unity. Instead,
I want to proclaim that God is the unity--the very energy, the very
intelligence, the very elegance and passion that make it all go." [1] In
fact, modern physics and molecular biology are making this quintessentially
clear. Union is not just pious rambling or pretty poetry, but the concrete work
of God in love-making. Paul writes, "Now you in your togetherness are
Christ's Body" (see 1 Corinthians 12:27). In our connectedness with this
luminous web, this vibrational state of love, we are participating in the
embodiment of God. We witness this every time we see a flower bloom, a horse
nuzzle, a dog come to be petted, a research scientist care, or the sun again
agree to shine (for no payment or return!).
Paul's
communities are the audiovisual aids he can point to, giving credibility to his
statements about new life. To people who ask, "Why should we believe
there's a new life?" Paul can say, "Look at these people. They're
different. They've been changed." As Jesus said, "This is how all
will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one
another"(John 13:35).
For Jesus,
such teachings as forgiveness, healing, and justice are the clear evidence of a
shared life. When we do not see this happening, religion is "all in the
head." Peacemaking, forgiveness, and reconciliation are not some kind of
ticket to heaven later. They are the price of peoplehood--the signature of
heaven--now.
References:
[1] Barbara
Brown Taylor, The Luminous Web: Essays on Science and Religion (Cowley
Publications: 2000), 55.
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, Great Themes of Paul: Life as Participation (Franciscan Media:
2002), disc 9 (CD); and
Near
Occasions of Grace (Orbis Books: 1993), 51.
Community as
Alternative Consciousness
If the
Trinity reveals that God is relationship itself, then the goal of the spiritual
journey is to discover and move toward connectedness on ever new levels. The
contemplative mind enjoys union on all levels. We may begin by making little
connections with other people and with nature and animals, then grow into
deeper connectedness with people. Finally we can experience full connectedness
as union with God. Remember, how you do anything is how you do everything.
Without connectedness and communion, we don't exist fully as our truest selves.
Becoming who we really are is a matter of learning how to become more and more
deeply connected. No one can possibly go to heaven alone--or it would not be
heaven.
Of course,
we won't become vulnerable enough to connect unless we learn to trust over and over
again. Einstein is said to have claimed this to be the most important question:
"Is the universe a friendly place or not?" The spiritual experience
is about trusting that when you stop holding yourself, Inherent Goodness will
still uphold you. Many of us call that God, but you don't have to. It is the
trusting that is important. When you fall into such Primal Love, you realize
that everything is foundationally okay. Unfortunately, this is often absent in
our secular world today.
Foundational
love gives us hope and allows us to trust "what is" as the
jumping-off point toward working together for "what can be." The
life, death, and resurrection of Jesus shows us what's fully possible. God will
always bring yet more life and wholeness out of seeming chaos and death. In the
words of Timothy Gorringe and Rosie Beckham, "Faith in the resurrection is
the ground on which Christians hope for a different future, a transition to a
society less destructive, more peaceful and more whole. Living in this hope grounds
the Christian ethic of resistance and calls ekklesia to live as a 'contrast
community' to society." [1]
Building
such communities in contrast to the surrounding society of emperor-worship was
precisely Paul's missionary strategy. Small communities of Jesus' followers
would make the message believable: Jesus is Lord (rather than Caesar is Lord);
sharing abundance and living in simplicity (rather than hoarding wealth);
nonviolence and suffering (rather than aligning with power). Paul was very
practical. He taught that our faith must take form in a living, loving group of
people. Community was everything for him.
Paul seems
to think, and I agree with him, that corporate evil can only be confronted or
overcome with corporate good. He knows that the love-transformed individual can
do little against what he calls "the powers and the principalities."
Today we might call powers and principalities our collective cultural moods or
mass consciousness or institutions considered "too big to fail." We
are mostly oblivious to this because we take all these things as normative and
absolutely needed. It is the "absolutely" that gets us into our
blindness and idolatry. Because we share in this collective evil, it doesn't
look like evil. For instance, I've never once heard a sermon about the tenth
commandment, "You shall not covet your neighbor's goods," because in
our culture that's the only game in town. It is called capitalism. The
individual is largely helpless and harmless standing against the system. Paul believes
cultural blind spots can only be overcome by a group of people affirming and
supporting one another in an alternative consciousness. Thankfully, we're
seeing many people, religious and secular, from all around the world, coming
together to form alternative systems for sharing resources, living simply, and
imagining a sustainable future. The "Transition" initiative is one
contemporary example of this. As Todd Wynward, a former intern at the CAC,
writes, "A Christian discipleship community aligned with the Transition
movement and following the Way of Jesus could become a beacon of resilience,
spreading good news and [much needed] social and environmental justice in its
community." [2]
References:
[1] Timothy
Gorringe and Rose Beckham, Transition Movement for Churches (Canterbury Press:
2013), 79.
[2] Todd
Wynward, Rewilding the Way: Breaking Free to Follow an Untamed God (Herald
Press: 2015), 192-193.
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, Near Occasions of Grace (Orbis Books: 1993), 51;
Creating
Christian Community (CAC: 1994), MP3 download; and
Great Themes
of Paul: Life as Participation (Franciscan Media: 2002), disc 9 (CD).
The Loss of
Community
Unfortunately,
for centuries the Christian vision of church was narrowed to what we have
today--a preoccupation with very private salvation. Our "personal
relationship with Christ" seems to be with a very small notion of Christ.
We've modeled church after a service station where members attend weekly
services to get their faith fix. We've commodified the very notion of salvation.
No wonder church attendance and membership is down, while there's a dramatic
increase in the "Nones" and the
"Spiritual-but-not-religious"--those who don't identify with a
particular religious tradition at all.
People want
something more from church; they long for a spirituality that connects with
their whole life, not just on Sunday morning. The very nature of our lifestyle
and our church teaching must point to the goal: the communion of saints, a
shared life together as one family, Trinitarian relationship, the "Reign
of God." Church is meant to be a place that nurtures and supports
individuals along their journey toward this goal.
Much of
formal church has been unable to create any practical community. Yet today we
see the emergence of new faith communities--many para-church structures--that
seek to return to this foundational definition of church. They may not look
like obvious "church," but they exemplify the kinds of actual
community that Jesus, Paul, and early Christians envisioned. People are gathering
in neighborhood associations, collective gardens, social services, and
volunteer groups to share resources, support each other, and nurture
connection. They're coming together, seeking creative ways of healing and
whole-making. The invisible church might be doing this just as much, if not
more, than the visible. The Holy Spirit is both humble and anonymous.
In the 1970s
and 80s I witnessed and participated in a similar movement of building
community called the New Jerusalem Community in Cincinnati. Many communities
that evolved during this time failed, I believe, because they talked, met, and
worried themselves to death. After years of in-house and seemingly cyclical
conversations, many movers and shakers decided to move on. Usually they later admitted
that community was an excellent school of growth, character, and conversion.
But it was too often not a permanent "home" for many reasons.
It's all too
easy to project unrealistic expectations on our community. No group can meet
all our needs as individuals--parenting, marriage, therapy, and emotional,
mental, and physical well-being. The human psyche needs space and healthy
boundaries. Even in marriage, you cannot meet most of your partner's needs; in
the end you still remain a profound mystery to one another. Expectations of
false and impossible intimacy make practical community very difficult, and
sometimes even counterproductive. The thousands of disillusioned and alienated
former community members are a judgment not only on the limits of their communities
but also on our own narcissistic expectations. But imperfect community can
still be a good school!
So what
makes a good community? The remainder of this week we'll look at a couple of
factors that contribute to healthy, whole communities. Our very survival as a
faith tradition and as a species might just depend upon this. Remember, the
isolated individual is fragile and largely helpless to evoke long-term change
or renewal.
Reference:
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, Near Occasions of Grace (Orbis Books: 1993), 14-15; 50-51.
Universal
Reality
Almost all
primal and traditional societies, which is most of humanity since the beginning
of time, have believed that meaning is not created or manufactured by the
individual; meaning is discovered, and because it is universal, it will be
discovered by many others too. That is the basis for community and the good
meaning of Tradition. It's already there. All you have to do is recognize it
and surrender to it. This essentially describes the contemplative worldview.
The contemplative mind knows that I don't create the patterns, nor do I have to
understand them. I simply must be willing to stand in awe, readiness, and
humility before the patterns of reality until they reveal themselves--because
they're already there, shared by other true seers or contemplatives. It is an
enchanted universe fraught with meaning. This relieves the psyche of a great
deal of anxiety and gives the soul hope.
Much of
Western culture is saddled with the conviction that humans must rationally
create and explain all meaning for themselves. But this task is impossible, and
so the search for meaning inevitably collapses into nihilism. The seeker gives
up, assuming, "Since I can't figure it out, everything must be absurd and
meaningless. There is no meaning, except what I manufacture, what I decide to
believe." No civilization or community can be founded on this
individualistic worldview, because it is simply a collection of competing egos
fighting for their dominant story based on private individuals' experience,
hurts, perception, and education. This is most of North America and Europe
today.
Our lives
must be grounded in awareness of the universal patterns, the big story. The
best any community can do is align itself with the foundational reality that
already exists rather than try to construct some new, artificial source of
meaning. Shane Claiborne puts it this way:
God is doing
something fresh and new, but it's also good to be reminded that it's not a
fleeting trend. Renewals like the Franciscan movement remind us that we are not
the first. My friend, Chris Haw, has an analogy that helps me. At first I
thought I was in a kayak, riding the wild rapids of a river. Then I realized
it's more like being in a rowboat, facing backward as I move downstream. You
have to look backward in order to go forward. [1]
If we look
at the great myths of religious and secular history, we see that events,
historical trials, and concrete circumstances are themselves the primary
teachers. For the Jewish and Christian tradition, God is specifically
encountered in history and relationships, not in analysis. Community and
experiencing life together in the context of human history--which is longer and
wider than our individual lives--help us trust reality and grow into fullness.
We must help
people connect to The Story, the mystery of God and the universe, so that they
can understand the significance of their lives as part of the body of Christ
and the Great Pattern, what Jesus calls "the kingdom of God." More than
ever before, our species must discover a common meaning, a shared story, to
give our lives purpose and harmony. Perhaps cosmology and science itself can
help bring us all together toward a common meaning, saving our planet and
ourselves, because most are in such reaction against the smaller Jewish and
Christian readings of their own history. Wouldn't it be humbling if the
"invisible believers"--those not associated with religion--understood
and lived the message at a much higher rate than the visible ones? God is used
to operating invisibly.
References:
[1] Shane
Claiborne, the Mendicant, Vol. 5 No. 2 (Center for Action and Contemplation:
2015), 5.
Adapted from
Richard Rohr, Creating Christian Community (CAC: 1994), MP3 download; and Near
Occasions of Grace (Orbis Books: 1993), 15-16.
Diversity in
Community
Most of our
churches are rather homogeneous. Yet church, of all places, should be inclusive
and reflective of our diverse and complex world. Shane Claiborne describes the
all too familiar scene:
We are
always most comfortable around people who are like us. I think that's true of
almost any human being. For those who have been in a majority population as
white, middle class folks, we have to be extra deliberate about putting
ourselves in places where we are a minority. Maybe we should worship where
we're a minority, where we can hear the Gospel with new ears. Martin Luther
King, Jr., lamented that eleven o'clock on Sunday morning is the most
segregated hour in America. That must break the heart of God, that we often
reinforce segregation rather than the reconciliation and the diversity of the
Kingdom. Some of that doesn't change in our congregations until it changes in
our living rooms and at our dinner tables. We really have to begin having relational
friendships that stretch us. And we also have to challenge the systems of
privilege and racism. [1]
Christena
Cleveland, one of our presenters at this year's CONSPIRE conference,
acknowledges that diversity is challenging. Cleveland writes, "In racially
diverse churches, I can't control the environment. . . . People might worship
in ways that make me uncomfortable. . . . People might not be able to relate to
my experience as a black woman. . . . People might hold perspectives that
shatter my worldview." [2] Being in community with those who are somehow
different than us challenges our familiar ways of knowing, doing, and being in
the world. It forces us to see things differently and thus to change our
attitudes and behaviors.
Diversity in
community also helps us recognize our own selfish preferences for ease and
comfort. If we're truly going to follow Jesus, the way will not be easy or
popular. As Cleveland writes, Jesus "was so passionate about creating a
diverse family with us that he crossed metaphysical planes, abdicated his
privilege, morphed into physical form, and spent 30 years on earth just hanging
out with us--all the while knowing that his pursuit of diversity would
ultimately cost him his life." [3]
Observing
nature, we see that diversity is essential to balance, wholeness, and
resilience. Ecosystems thrive when a variety of species of plants and animals
nourish each other. Diverse environments are much stronger and less susceptible
to pests and disease than mono-crop fields. The world is a relational system
full of complex inter-dependence among very different creatures. If we want
sustainable communities, we must always welcome the "other" and learn
to see our neighbor as ourselves. Without it, we do not have community at all,
but just egoic enclaves.
References:
[1] Shane
Claiborne, The Francis Factor: How St. Francis and Pope Francis are changing
the world (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2015), MP4 video download.
[2]
Christena Cleveland, "3 Reasons Why I Hate Diversity," Christianity
Today,
http://www.christianitytoday.com/edstetzer/2015/february/3-reasons-why-i-hate-diversity.html.
[3] Ibid.
Mystagogy and the Synoptic Gospels
An article by Fr James Cramsey sj. The original article can be found here
I think it was Xavier Léon-Dufour back in 1971[1] who first pointed out the importance of the Emmaus story for the shaping of our life, prayer and worship. This longest of the narratives of a resurrection appearance appears in Luke 24 and occurs on Easter Sunday, as do all the resurrection appearances in Luke, including the Ascension.
You can see the structure of the Emmaus story as a skeleton for the Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius. You can see it as an example of the Pastoral Cycle. However, what is most obvious is how the narrative has the shape of the Eucharistic liturgy. The two disciples with sore hearts are the nucleus of the gathering of the community, and provide a narrative version of Jesus’s saying in Matthew 18:20: ‘For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’ And Jesus is among them, even if they do not recognise him. Their sore hearts are what they bring, looking for the steadfast love of God to heal them.
Jesus begins a conversation with them (the Greek word for having a conversation is homileo the word from which we derive ‘homily’) and we have the interesting dimension of the disciples telling Jesus about Jesus because, in common with most of these narratives, Jesus is not recognised at first. Jesus’s response is to take their story and align it with his own statement about himself: ‘Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?’ (Luke 24:26) This proclamation is underpinned by scripture (Moses and all the prophets) to give a concrete, contextual authority to his own account of himself.
The invitation to stay – the offer of hospitality – parallels the offering of the gifts, while the breaking of the bread clearly invokes the Eucharist: blessed, broke and gave, those three indispensible words. The return of the disciples to Jerusalem is their understanding of the mission, the sending out at the end of the liturgy which compels them to proclamation.
The climax is the moment of recognition in the breaking of the bread. But it is important to recognise that there are a variety of presences in the narrative: at the beginning Jesus is present in their shared grief; he is present in the unveiling of the scriptures; he is present in the breaking of the bread; and he is present in their proclamation that Christ who died has risen, even as he is absent.
It is this last point that takes us into the mystagogy of the title. Mystagogy is the fourth phase of the RCIA which itself is a journey into faith. The Catechism describes mystagogy as ‘proceeding from the visible to the invisible, from the sign to the thing signified, from the sacraments to the mysteries’.[2]
One thing is clear from the Emmaus account: as the visible Christ becomes the invisible Christ, he is no less present in a relationship with the disciples that moves them to mission and proclamation. The breaking of the bread is the visible, prophetic, life-giving gesture of Jesus which actually takes shape in the lives of these disciples. Something like this is at the heart of what is called mystagogy. The invisible takes shape in the disciple. By this shall everyone know that you are my disciples. One could speak about the death and resurrection of Christ as the DNA of the Christian. It is what is also called grace, that God-shaping of us by the divine goodness.
There is another place in the gospels where we can see the mystagogy happening. Discussing the Markan Passion Narrative before preaching on it, someone in my community pointed out that the only unique feature in it was the story of the naked young man. In terms of incident, that is true up to a point. In terms of the drama, Mark especially focuses on the isolation of Jesus as he assumes his kingly power on the cross, culminating in the cry of dereliction, ‘My God, My God why have you forsaken me?’ (15:34). The two thieves are in the places on the right and left of Jesus’s kingly power for which the sons of Zebedee had asked (Mark 10:37).
But as was pointed out many years ago[3], the mysterious naked young man who runs away is balanced by the interpreting figure at the empty tomb, who is described in almost the same words. Not described as an angel, but as a young man (neaniskos) clothed (peribeblemenos) in a white flowing garment (stole leuke), the garment worn by glorified believers in Revelation 6:11; 7:9,13. The garment left behind by the young man as he flees is a linen robe (sindon). Mark tells us that after the soldiers have mocked Jesus, they dress him again in his own clothes. But as Jesus is naked and dying on the cross, his clothes are gambled for and pass to others. Joseph of Arimathea buys a sindon as clothing and shroud. In Mark there is no mention of the grave cloths in the grave.
The mystagogical question that Jesus asks the sons of Zebedee is important, ‘Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptised with the baptism that I am baptised with?’ (Mark 10:38) The interchange of the language of baptism and death is already looking to the cross.
To a community used to the catechumens going down naked into the death-waters of baptism and coming out clothed in a white robe symbolising and proclaiming the life of the resurrection, there may well have been some resonance here. But while it may not be likely that this was in the mind of the evangelist, we can certainly see the possibility of the connection as the robe is discarded. The picture of the fully clothed proclaimer of Easter suggests that the naked young man has entered into the mystery of Christ’s passion, gone down into death with him, and been re-clothed to proclaim the resurrection.[4]
The Transfiguration in Mark is another place where the change in clothes is marked. Not easy to categorise, many scholars think there is something of a resurrection appearance about it: the clothes are white, there is a change in his appearance, Moses and Elijah function in a way similar to the interpreting angel(s). But the major reason that it does not add up that way for me is that in the Transfiguration scene, the Father speaks for Jesus; in the resurrection appearances, Jesus speaks for himself in a remarkable way.
But there is an interplay between the dynamic of death and resurrection, and that of passion prediction and transfiguration. The complex material from Caesarea Philippi (8:27) to the end of the Transfiguration in 9:10 is a major narrative unit and a clustering of the key titles for Mark: ‘Christ’, ‘Son of Man’ and ‘Son of God’. With the confession of Peter that Jesus is the Christ, the disciples are invited to see Jesus’s messiahship in terms of the suffering Son of Man. But it is to be noted that the resurrection is also looked forward to in the ‘passion prediction’. Between the mention of the passion and the acknowledgement of Jesus’s sonship, there is a collection of discipleship sayings which explore the subject of the disciple’s life and proclamation. It ends with a correlative statement:
Those who are ashamed of me and of my words
in this adulterous and sinful generation,
of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed
when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. (Mark 8:38)
The account of the Transfiguration follows immediately. In the western Church, the predominant line of interpretation is to emphasise the scene as revelatory of Jesus’s identity as Son of God. But in the eastern Church where the Transfiguration has always been regarded as part of soteriology, something is also being said about the potentiality of human beings. The Transfiguration reveals that God has shaped and continues to shape Jesus in an extraordinary way. The Transfiguration also reveals that for those who are in Christ there is the potential to set free the divine inside of us, to allow that which shapes us like our DNA to become more and more visible. The proclamation sets out that the human being Jesus, who human beings tried to annihilate, bring to nothingness and oblivion, has been made alive, present and active, and remembered by God. Human beings’ attempt to bind the goodness of God made visible in Jesus has failed. God has succeeded in his attempt to free Jesus from those bonds. The negativity of the Son of Man’s being ashamed is countered by the Transfiguration. Those who proclaim Jesus and his words after the Resurrection are those who are included in Christ and who are dwelt in by Christ. (‘As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.’ [Mark 9:9])
The catechism talks about the shift from the visible to the invisible, but the mission surely is also to allow the invisible to become visible. After all, the invisible becomes visible in the Incarnation.
James Crampsey SJ is Director of the Lauriston Jesuit Centre in Edinburgh.
[1] Xavier Léon-Dufour, Résurrection de Jésus et message pascal. Seuil, 1971
[2] Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1075
[3] Robin Scroggs and Kent I. Groff ‘Baptism in Mark: Dying and Rising with Christ’, Journal of Biblical Literature Vol. 92, No. 4 (Dec., 1973), pp. 531-548
[4] There are other accounts of the naked young man’s narrative role in the gospel, particularly the comparison to ‘the man in the mackintosh’ in Joyce’s Ulysses adumbrated by Frank Kermode,The Genesis of Secrecy, (Harvard, 1979)
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