To be a vibrant Catholic Community
unified in its commitment
to growing disciples for Christ
Resident Seminarian: Br Cris Mendoza Mob: 0408 389 216
chris_mendoza2080@yahoo.com
Postal Address: PO Box 362, Devonport
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 Prayer
Heavenly Father,
We thank you for gathering us together
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
You have charged us through Your Son, Jesus, with the great mission
of evangelising and witnessing your love to the world.
Send your Holy Spirit to guide us as we discern your will
for the spiritual renewal of our parish.
Give us strength, courage, and clear vision
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
We entrust our parish family to the care of Mary, our mother,
and ask for her intercession and guidance
as we strive to bear witness
as we strive to bear witness
to the Gospel and build an amazing parish.
Amen.
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 13th - 16th December, 2016
Tuesday: 9:30am
Penguin … St Lucy
Wednesday: 9:30am
Latrobe … St John of the Cross
Thursday: 10:00am Karingal
Friday: 11:00am
Eliza Purton
Mass Times Next Weekend 17th & 18th December,
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
Eucharistic
Adoration - Devonport: Every Friday 10am - 12noon,
concluding with Stations of the Cross and Angelus
Benediction
with Adoration Devonport: -
first Friday of each month.
Christian
Meditation: Devonport, Emmaus House - Wednesdays
7pm.
Prayer
Group: CCR Prayer meeting currently in
recession, recommencing Thursday 2/2/2017. Enquiries phone Michael Gaffney 0447
018 068
Ministry Rosters 17th & 18th December, 2016
Readers: Vigil: A McIntyre, M Williams, R Baker 10:30am J Phillips, P Piccolo, K Pearce
Ministers of Communion: Vigil
T Muir, M
Davies, M Gerrand, M Kenney, D Peters, J Heatley
10.30am: B & N Mulcahy, L Hollister, K Hull, S
Samarakkody, R Batepola
Cleaners 16th Dec: K Hull, F Stevens, M Chan
23rd Dec: K.S.C.
Piety Shop 17th Dec: H Thompson 18th Dec: O McGinley Flowers: M Breen
Ulverstone:
Readers: D Prior Ministers of Communion: B Deacon, J Allen, G Douglas, K Reilly
Cleaners: M Swain, M
Bryan Flowers: G Doyle Hospitality:
M & K McKenzie
Penguin
Greeters: G Hills-Eade, B Eade Commentator: Y Downes Readers: J Garnsey, A Guest
Ministers of
Communion: T
Clayton, J Barker Liturgy: Sulphur Creek C Setting Up: F Aichberger
Care of Church: M Murray, E Nickols
Latrobe:
Reader: P Marlow Ministers of
Communion: Z Smith,
M Kavic Procession: Parishioner
Port Sorell:
Readers: G Bellchambers, E Holloway Ministers of Communion: L Post Clean/Flow/Prepare: B Lee, A Holloway
Readings this Week: Third Sunday of Advent – Year A
First Reading: Isaiah 35:1-6, 10
Second Reading: James 5:7-10
Gospel: Matthew 11:2-11
PREGO
REFLECTION:
I go to my place of prayer and allow myself to become still
before God. When I am ready I read the Gospel slowly, pausing from time to
time. I use my imagination to let the scene become alive in my mind. Perhaps I
see myself as one of the messengers of John, a disciple, or as one of the
people that Jesus turns to and talks to about John. What do I see and hear? How
do Jesus’ words make me feel? What would I ask Jesus? I share with Jesus my own
life circumstances and faith. What signs am I aware of where I live of the Good
News being proclaimed in the world? Is there anything I need to do to prepare
for Jesus bringing the Good News into my life, so that I may share his joy with
others? I talk with Jesus about this time of prayer as I would to a close and
loving friend… and I take time to sit and listen. I close my prayer saying
Glory be ....
Readings Next Week: Fourth Sunday of Advent – Year A
First Reading: Isaiah 7:10-14
Second Reading: Romans 1:1-7
Gospel: Matthew 1:18-24
David
Welch & ....
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Udofia John Okpon, Mathilda Luyks, Robert Shepherd, Bernadette Maguire, Jim Suckling, James McLagan, Katrina Wilson, Doreen Traill,
Udofia John Okpon, Mathilda Luyks, Robert Shepherd, Bernadette Maguire, Jim Suckling, James McLagan, Katrina Wilson, Doreen Traill,
Let us pray for those whose
anniversary occurs about this time:
7th - 13th December
7th - 13th December
Murray Soden, Theo Kurrle, Vera Sherston,
John Davis, Guy d’Hondt,
John Gibbons, Elsie Williams and Kath Last. Also
Gregory & Damian Matthews and relatives and friends of the Cunningham family.
May they Rest in Peace
WEEKLY
RAMBLINGS:
As I’ve been mentioning in my homilies over these past few
weeks there are a number of values which underpin my Vision for the Parish.
These are – having a Relationship with Jesus, Growing Disciples, Community and
Justice. In my prayer time this week one
of the challenges presented in my Advent readings was the question: What are
some of the Catholic Stories in my Community? It made me stop and think and
gave me real pause for reflection. I checked back through the past few day’s
newspapers and saw photos of Gr 10 & Gr 12 Graduates of SBSC attending
Dinners and an advert for Bingo!
Whilst not knocking either mentions I have to say that this
isn’t what I meant when I said that I believe we are called to be a VIBRANT
CATHOLIC community. So what are the Catholic Stories of our Parish? I would
be more than happy to hear what people think these stories are – but could you
please put them in writing or email to me as I have a limited ability to
remember what people tell me just after Mass!!
Please
take care on the roads and in your homes,
Mersey Leven Parish Community welcome
and congratulate ….
James Willoughby son of Julian &
Alison
who is being baptised this weekend.
FR ALEX
APPRECIATION MORNING TEA AT OUR LADY OF LOURDES:
Morning Tea will be held in the Parish Hall after the 10.30am
Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes on Sunday 18th December. This
will be an opportunity for us to farewell Fr Alex as a community before he
takes up his new appointment in 2017. Please bring a plate of morning tea style
food to share. If anyone is able to assist with set-up and clean-up, please
contact Felicity Sly on 6424:1933 or fsly@internode.on.net.
EMPTY CRIB:
The empty crib has been placed in Our Lady of Lourdes
Church Devonport and baskets in the foyer of Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone for
the donation of non-perishable goods and gifts to be distributed by St Vincent
de Paul Society. Your contribution of food or gifts will be most welcome and
appreciated.
ST MARY’S PENGUIN 17th DECEMBER:
· Ulverstone: from 9am. Bring your gardening tools to a
working bee to tidy up the gardens in readiness for Christmas. The KSC are
inviting anyone who can help!
·
Penguin: from 9.30am. Anyone who can help for an hour
or two will be most welcome. A BBQ will be held after Mass (17th Dec). Please
bring a salad and/or sweet. Meat will be provided. We hope you can join us!!
SACRED
HEART CHURCH CHILDRENS MASS - CHRISTMAS EVE:
All children are welcome to
participate in the Children’s Mass (nativity play), 6pm Christmas Eve. Practice will take place starting this Sunday
11th December during 9am Mass. For more information please phone
Charlie Vella 0417 307 781.
KARINGAL MASS:
10am Thursday 15th December. All parishioners welcome to join
fellow Karingal parishioners and residents for Mass and a Christmas ‘cuppa’
afterwards.
CHRISTMAS EVE SUPPER AT OLOL:
A Supper will be held in the Parish
Hall after the 8 pm Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes on Christmas Eve. Please take
this opportunity to celebrate this season with the Parish community. Please
bring a plate of food to share. We would also appreciate help with the set-up
and clean-up. Please contact Felicity Sly on 6424:1933 or fsly@internode.on.net
SACRAMENTAL
PROGRAM:
Families with children in Grade 3 or above are invited to
participate in our family-centred, parish-based and school-supported
Sacramental Program to prepare to celebrate the sacraments of RECONCILIATION,
CONFIRMATION AND EUCHARIST in 2017. Information Sessions to explain the
preparation program will be held on: Monday 20th
February 7.00pm at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Stewart Street, Devonport and Tuesday 21st February 7.00pm at Sacred Heart Church, Alexandra Road, Ulverstone.
February 7.00pm at Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Stewart Street, Devonport and Tuesday 21st February 7.00pm at Sacred Heart Church, Alexandra Road, Ulverstone.
For further information, or any questions please contact Fr
Mike on 6424:2783 or mike.delaney@aohtas.org.au
Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall,
Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm!
Callers for Thursday 15th
December – All Callers
CHRISTMAS MASS TIMES
2016
OUR LADY OF
LOURDES STEWART STREET, DEVONPORT
Christmas Eve 6.00pm Children’s Mass
8.00pm Vigil Mass
Christmas Day 10.30am
Mass
ST PATRICK’S, GILBERT STREET
Christmas Day 9.30am Mass
HOLY CROSS
HIGH, STREET, SHEFFIELD
Christmas Day 11.00am Mass
ST JOSEPH’S
MASS CENTRE, ARTHUR STREET, PORT SORELL
Christmas Day 8.00am Mass
SACRED HEART
ALEXANDRA ROAD, ULVERSTONE
Christmas Eve 6.00pm
Children’s Mass
Christmas Day 9.00am
Mass
ST MARY’S KING
EDWARD STREET, PENGUIN
Christmas Eve 8.00pm Vigil Mass
RECONCILIATION: will be celebrated in preparation for Christmas at:
Our Lady of Lourdes Church
Devonport on Monday 19th December at 7:00pm
Sacred Heart Church Ulverstone on Tuesday 20th December at 7:00pm
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE:
The Way to St James
Pilgrimage – 6/7 January
Following the highly successful
inaugural pilgrimage, registrations are open for the second pilgrimage, to
coincide with the Cygnet Folk Festival. The pilgrimage commences on Friday 6
January 2017 from Mountain River, overnight Ranelagh, and finishes on Saturday
7 January at St James Church, Cygnet, for a concluding ceremony.
Numbers are limited, so please register soon! (Registration
is essential.) Full details can be found at www.waytostjames.com.au
The Office of
Youth Evangelisation is currently seeking a Director – Office of Youth
Evangelisation on permanent full time basis. Please visit www.hobart.catholic.org.au/jobs
for information on how to apply including the position description.
Applications close at 9am on Monday 12 December 2016.
THE MARTYRDOM OF INADEQUATE SELF-EXPRESSION
An article by Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. The original article can be found here
Art too has its martyrs and perhaps our greatest pain is that of inadequate self-expression. That’s an insight from Iris Murdoch and it holds true, I believe, for most everyone.
Inside of each of us there’s a great symphony, a great novel, a great dance, a great poem, a great painting, a great book of wisdom, a depth that we can never adequately express. No matter our wit or talent, we can never really write that book, do that dance, create that music, or paint that painting. We try, but what we are able to express even in our best moments is but a weak shadow of what’s actually inside us. And so we suffer, in Murdoch words, a martyrdom of inadequate self-expression.
What underlies this? Why this inadequacy?
At its root, this is not a struggle with what’s base or deficient inside us, pride, concupiscence, arrogance, or ignorance. It’s not ignorance, arrogance, or the devil that create this struggle. To the contrary, we struggle with this tension because we carry divinity inside us. We are made in the image and likeness of God. This is fundamental to our Christian self-understanding. But this must be properly understood. We do ourselves a disservice when we understand this in an over-pious way, that is, when we imagine it as a holy icon of God stamped inside our souls which we need to honor by living a chaste and moral life. That’s true enough, but there’s more at stake here, particularly as it pertains to our self-understanding.
What we are forever dealing with is an immense grandiosity inside us. There’s a divine energy in us which, precisely because it is divine, never makes easy peace with this world. We carry inside of us divine energies, divine appetites, and divine depth. The spiritual task of our lives then, in essence, is that of ordering those energies, disciplining them, channeling them, and directing them so that they are generative rather than destructive. And this is never a simple task. Moreover our struggle to direct these divine energies triggers a whole series of other struggles.
Because we carry divine energy within our very make-up, we should expect that, this side of eternity, to struggle perennially with four things.
First, we will struggle, at some level, always, to keep a balance between the pressures inside us pushing towards creativity and other voices inside that are telling us to keep a firm grip on our own sanity. We see this played out large in the lives of many artists in their struggle with normalcy, to keep their feet solidly planted within what’s ordinary and domestic because their push for creativity is also pushing them towards the dark, rich chaos that lies more deeply inside. All of us, according to more or less, struggle in the same way as do great artists. We too are lured towards the rich chaos inside us, even as we fear for what it might do to our sanity.
Second, we will struggle perennially with an overstimulated grandiosity. The divine fires inside of us, like all fires, easily flame out of control. In a world where everything is shown to us on a screen in our hands and where the successes, beauty, achievements, and talents of others are forever in front of our eyes, we are forever being over-stimulated in our grandiosity. This is felt in our restlessness, in our sense of missing out on life, in our jealousies, in our anger for not being recognized for our talents and uniqueness, and in our constant dissatisfaction with our own lives.
Third, because there is an innate connection between the energy for creativity and sexuality, we will struggle with sexuality. The algebra is clear: Creativity is inextricably linked with generativity and generativity is inextricably bound up with sexuality. No accident, great artists often struggle with sex, which doesn’t give them an excuse for irresponsibility but helps explain the reason. In sharp contrast, many religious people are in denial about this connection. Unfortunately that only serves to drive the struggle underground and make it more dangerous.
Finally, we all struggle perennially to find that equilibrium between inflation and depression. We are forever finding ourselves either too full of ourselves or too empty of God, that is, either identifying with the divine energies inside of us and becoming pompous or, through false humility, over-sensitivity, and wound, not letting the divine energy flow through us and consequently living in depression because we have stunted our own creativity.
James Hillman suggests that a symptom suffers most when it doesn’t know where it belongs, and so it is important that we try to name all of this. Divine energy living inside of fallible human beings is a formula for tension, disquiet, and, yes, for martyrdom; but it’s meant to be a creative tension, a mystery to be lived not a problem to be solved. Proper naming doesn’t take away the pain and frustration, but at least it affords us a noble, poetic canopy under which to suffer.
Mirroring
This article is taken from the Daily Series of Emails posted by Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can subscribe to receive these emails by clicking here
Contemplative knowing intuits things in their wholeness,
with all levels of connection and meaning, and perhaps how they fit in the full
scheme of things. Thus, the contemplative response to the moment is always
appreciation and inherent respect (“to look at a second time”) because I am now
a part of what I am trying to see. Our first practical and partial observation
of most things lacks this respect. It is not yet contemplative knowing.
Frankly, when you see things contemplatively, everything in the universe is a
mirror.
The originating mystery of Trinity both names and begins the
mirroring process, allowing us to know all that we need to know by the same
endless process of mirroring and reflecting. We know things in their depth and
beauty only by this second gaze of love. “Ever since the creation of the world,
God’s invisible attributes of eternal power and divinity have been able to be
understood and perceived in what God has made” (Romans 1:20).
A true mirror first receives an image and then reflects it
back truthfully—but now so that I can see myself, too. The all-important thing
is that you find the right mirror that mirrors you honestly and at depth. All
personhood is created in this process, and our job is always to stay inside
this mirroring. Our task is to trustfully receive and then reflect back the
inner image transmitted to us until, as the apostle Paul expressed, “All of us,
gazing with unveiled face on the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into
the same image from glory to glory, as from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2
Corinthians 3:18).
This is the whole spiritual journey in one sentence! All
love, goodness, and holiness is a reflected gift. You take all things into
yourself by gazing at them with reverence, and this completes the circuit of
love—because this is how creation is looking out at you. The inner life of the
Trinity has become the outer life of all creation. The divine mirroring will
never stop; mirroring is how the whole transformation process is personally
initiated and finally achieved.
Reference:
Adapted from Richard Rohr with Mike Morrell, The Divine
Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (Whitaker House: 2016), 51-52. This
book is available for pre-order at thedivinedance.org.
FACING AN UNEXPECTED CRISES
5 FACTS TO HELP MOVE FROM FEAR TO FAITH
From the weekly blog by Fr Michael White, Pastor of the Church of the Nativity, Baltimore. You can find the original blog here
Storms in life will happen. It’s not a matter of if but when. We don’t pray for them to come, and yes, they can be disruptive and even destructive. But through our storms, we can learn and grow and be better prepared to face them with greater wisdom and faith the next time they come around. It’s no accident that one of Jesus’ most profound teachings about faith happens during a storm when the disciples are seized by fear and confusion. Jesus’ action and teaching in Matthew 8:23-27, the Calming of the Storm at Sea, tells us 5 things we should know about keeping faith when facing an unexpected crisis in life.
1) Crises are Inevitable: Crises are inevitable. You’re going to have them. The letter of James 1:2 says “When you face trials…” No one has an easy time through life. We all have to deal with the storms life throws at us. Even in times of calm, it’s important to simply acknowledge that crises will follow us wherever we go, there’s no escaping them. When we pray for greater faith, we’re not praying for an escape from the problems of life. We’re praying for a way out; we’re praying for a way forward.
2) Crises are Variable: Crises are different depending on circumstances, people involved. Some crises are external and arise from forces outside our control (like the weather, a storm at sea). Other crises are relational- between people or a community. Others are emotional and happen inside of us. Being able to tell the difference can help bring some clarity into the confusion.
3) Crises are Impartial: It might sound obvious, but crises happen to believers and nonbelievers alike; it is part of our human condition. Jesus’ closest followers, the Apostles, are subject to a storm sitting right next to him! Sometimes we get into the belief that because we are close to God as Christians bad things won’t happen to us.
But some problems come in spite of the fact that you’re doing the right thing. Jesus told the disciples to get into the boat and they obeyed and they sailed right into a storm. They were obedient and experienced a crisis. Most crises we face are not partial. What God gives you is the power to respond and overcome with truth and peace.
4) Crises are Unpredictable: Crises often happen unexpectedly. They take us by surprise- that’s almost the definition of a crisis. The Gospel story says, “Suddenly a violent storm came up” (Matt 8:24).
None of us can predict tragedy. That’s what scares us about it. You don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow, next week, next month, next year. You can’t predict it but when you hit it, it will hit you.
5) I Can Choose my Response to Crises: When it comes down to it, there are two options when facing a crisis situation. You can be filled with panic (like the disciples), or you will be filled with peace like Jesus. Faith is not “wishful thinking” like some critics say. Faith is a conscious and active decision to trust God when we can’t see past the storm.
Theology and Candles
Original Sin and Immaculate Conception
The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception honours the doctrine that Mary was conceived without original sin. Philip Endean SJ delves into the mystery at the heart of this feast. What questions does it pose about sin and the human condition, and can we answer these questions with theology? The original article can be found here
In the early 1980s, the late and much loved Kevin Donovan SJ went part-time on the faculty at Heythrop College in order to become a parish priest in north London. The opening line of his first lecture after the move ran: ‘Now that I’m working in a parish, I’m coming to realise that theology is as important as candles.’
Just let that line sink in. It might mean that theology is trivial, a waste of time; it could be suggesting that theology at its best is an act of worship. The irony hints at how churchy activity of any kind is always dealing with far more than it can really handle. And yet the juxtaposition also jangles: life with candles and life with high theology, as in different ways both Kevin and his students were realising, do not quite fit together.
When we speak of Mary as conceived without original sin, we are using a theological idea—original sin—to name a reality of faith more naturally expressed by lighting a candle. And the theology does not quite work.
Look at Pius IX’s 1854 Apostolic Constitution, declaring that this long-established devotion was ‘a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful’. Pius begins by evoking ‘the lamentable wretchedness of the entire human race which would have resulted from the sin of Adam’. Then he tells the gospel story of Christ becoming human, a member of that race.
Pius’s rhetorical skills—in ways that do not come through in the standard English translation—enable him to dodge talking directly about Jesus’s humanity, and indeed about Mary’s. What God prepares is referred to, not as a female of the human species, but as a ‘Mother in whom the Son of God would become incarnate … ever absolutely free of all stain of sin, all fair and perfect’. Carefully, Pius and his officials are steering round what in plain language could only appear a contradiction: All humans are caught up in Adam’s sin; Mary is human; but Mary is not caught up in sin.
Typically, devotion to Mary is candle stuff: you do not ask too many questions. Whether articulated through sublimely beautiful expressions of high culture, or through more popular, even mawkish forms, it centres on feeling: ‘Lady, flow’r of everything’; ‘Virgin most pure, star of the sea/Pray for the wand’rer, pray for me.’ Such veneration goes back early in the Church, at least to the Council of Ephesus (431), which proclaimed Mary as the theotokos—‘god-bearer’. Then translation into Latin gave us something warmer and even more provocative: ‘mother of God’. Before we knew where we were, we were caught up in de Maria numquam satis: loosely, ‘nothing is too good for Mary’.
In Western Christianity at least, however, such Marian exuberance had to live alongside another strong tradition, one driven more by theory and the head. Shortly before the Council of Ephesus, and independently, St Augustine was reflecting on the scope of Christ’s saving work, and its relationship to our good behaviour. Starting from the practice of infant baptism, he developed a theology of original sin. This was a matter of logic: baptism is for the forgiveness of sins; we baptise babies; babies cannot actually sin; therefore babies—however much we want to coo at them—must be tainted by an inherited sin.
For Augustine, and many figures subsequently, original sin affected Mary like everyone else. Perhaps because the Augustinian teaching was so pessimistic about the general human condition without Christ’s grace, a counterbalancing impulse about goodness focused strongly on Mary. At any rate, officialdom only intervened when the tensions started causing problems.
Initially, these interventions were minimalist. In 1483, Sixtus IV noted that certain Dominicans, while accepting a liturgy centred on Mary’s conception, were claiming that it was heretical or sinful to claim that this conception was ‘without the stain of original sin’. Sixtus condemned this negative teaching, and encouraged belief in the Immaculate Conception. But significantly, he stopped short of a positive affirmation; the critics of the doctrine were merely showing ‘irresponsible boldness’ rather than being wrong. Sixtus was simply keeping options open: the matter had ‘not yet been decided by the Roman Church and the Apostolic See’. For its part, the Council of Trent, while reaffirming the effect of Adam’s sin on all humanity, declared ‘that it is not its intention to include in this decree dealing with original sin the Blessed and Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of God’. On both these occasions, the Church’s teaching office was recognising a logical problem and steering round it. And when Pius IX in 1854 finally declared the doctrine to be revealed by God, his fulsome rhetoric, as we have already noted, avoided being explicit on how the problem could be resolved. Maybe it was just a Vatican variant on the proverbial marginal note to sermons: ‘argument weak, shout louder’; maybe Pius, or one of his theologians, was pointing up subtly the need for further theological work. Such official codedness is an important skill of Church government.
Be all that as it may, Pius’s decision has been received and accepted, at least within Roman Catholicism. It seems somehow right that the early part of Advent should include a feast honouring Mary—even if journalists and some churchgoers become confused and think we are celebrating Jesus’s conception. The doctrine of original sin has become difficult, not just because of the contradictions between its main thrust and Mary’s freedom from it (to say nothing of Jesus’s), but also because of evolutionary theories, and a heightened sense of individual moral responsibility. Moreover, ecumenical and feminist concerns have tempered ultramontane Marian enthusiasms. Nevertheless, mainstream Catholics seem broadly comfortable with celebrating Mary’s creation. We look at the beautiful pictures; we hear the gospel of Mary’s receiving the angel’s message; and we quietly ignore the nagging questions arising about genetics. We light the candles anyway, and set the theology aside.
Perhaps naming issues such as these is as much as an article like this can sensibly do. The Church’s awareness of the mystery it embodies is, after all, a work in progress. Maybe all we can say is that celebrating Mary’s Immaculate Conception is a matter of collective instinct that we do not fully understand.
Indeed so. Equally, however, we should not be content with such a complacent strategy unless we really have no alternative. As far as possible, we should be able to give an account of our hope, both to our own integrity and to those who ask us. So let us try.
What do we in fact mean by ‘original sin’? Chesterton in his Orthodoxy famously and waggishly claimed original sin to be ‘the only part of Christian theology which can really be proved’. Sin was a fact, ‘a fact as practical as potatoes.’ What needed argument was whether or not we could be ‘washed in miraculous waters’, whether we could move beyond the Christian denial of ‘the present union between God and man’. There was no doubt that humanity ‘wanted washing’.
Confronting Chesterton is a risky, indeed churlish business. Nevertheless he is stating as an obvious fact something which is far from being so. For the fact which really is ‘as plain as potatoes’ is simply that life is often unsatisfactory. But self-evident mess falls far short of the Christian mystery of sin. By calling the mess ‘sin’, we are making a statement of faith and hope: a statement that the mess, all too real though it is, does not thwart God’s purpose. God can deal with it. And this means we can let go of other ways of coping with the mess: blaming ourselves, scapegoating others, compulsive virtue, cynicism, or whatever.
When most of us cradle Christians first learnt the word ‘sin’, it was probably in the context of our being naughty children. Not only had we done something wrong, done damage, upset Mum; we had committed a sin, we had offended God, and we needed to put things right with Him. For all the familiarity here, nothing particularly Christian is yet being said. Human cultures typically use God-language as a sanction mechanism, an emotional blackmail making us feel awful when we do not conform. Very easily the guilt feeling lose contact with objective right and wrong. A certain sort of Catholicism was very good at this, obsessing about doubtful issues of sexual morality, and remaining blind to major issues of truth and justice. As a wise woman once told me, ‘Catholics know a great deal about guilt, and very little about sin’.
The Christian mystery of sin centres, not on questions of moral right and wrong, but on something else: the outrageous faith and hope that God can somehow put the mess right. Thus, any theologically proper move from mess to sin opens up a perspective of hope. We cannot sensibly talk about original sin at all unless we are prepared to imagine life without it. And it is that reality, at least in its beginnings, which the gospel sets before us. ‘Original sin’ makes no sense unless there is a yet more original grace.
Our standard formula, ‘Mary conceived without original sin’ presents Mary in logically negative terms, as someone without a problem. It starts from our difficulties, and takes them as a fixed basis from which we can explore holiness as an exceptional absence. There is, of course, a place for such thinking. Equally, Christianity has gone wrong if such thinking is all we have. For Christianity is about nothing if is not about our problematic selves being changed; as we explore the reality of holiness, it makes a difference to us. The real conundrum is not one about how God can create a Jesus and Mary who do not share our problematic state, but rather about how God’s goodness can co-exist with a problematic creation, one in which the good is lacking.
There is no theological answer to that question. Some theologians have talked about ‘God respecting creaturely freedom’, but not in any way that really works. St Ignatius’s presentation of sin in Spiritual Exercises centres, not on a good confession, or an experience of forgiveness—still less on any sort of explanation. Instead he tries to lead to a place where we cry out in wonder. How can it be that the world has carried on when there has been so much resistance to God? Why has God not just given up or junked us into Hell already? Christianity does not answer these questions. Instead it attests to a revelation: a revelation of divine goodness keeping these unanswerable questions open, a goodness promising hope, a goodness inviting us not really to understand but rather to join in. The light shines in the darkness, a light which the darkness cannot overpower, a light made manifest in Jesus and Mary without sin. Theologies about how and the why fail, but the light—and the candles—remain, beckoningly.
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