8th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

Mersey Leven Catholic Parish

          To be a vibrant Catholic Community

                  unified in its commitment

              to growing disciples for Christ

Parish Priest:  Fr Mike Delaney   Mob: 0417 279 437;   mike.delaney@aohtas.org.au

Priest in Residence:  Fr Phil McCormack   Mob: 0437 521 257

Postal Address: PO Box 362, Devonport 7310

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

Secretary: Annie Davies / Anne Fisher

Pastoral Council Chair:  Jenny Garnsey

Mersey Leven Catholic Parish Weekly Newsletter: mlcathparish.blogspot.com.au

Parish Mass times for the Month: mlcpmasstimes.blogspot.com.au

Weekly Homily Podcast: mikedelaney.podomatic.com  

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 sick or in need of assistance in the Parish please visit them. Then, if they are willing and give permission, could you please pass on their names to the Parish Office. We have a group of parishioners who are part of the Care and Concern Group who are willing and able to provide some backup and support to them. Unfortunately, because of privacy issues, the Parish Office is not able to give out details unless prior permission has been given.

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

Parish Prayer

Heavenly Father,

We thank you for gathering us together 
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.

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

 to the Gospel and build an amazing parish.

Amen.

                                                                                                                         

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

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

Legion of Mary: Wednesdays 11am Sacred Heart Church Community Room, Ulverstone

Christian Meditation: Devonport, Emmaus House - Wednesdays 7pm.

Prayer Group: Charismatic Renewal – Devonport Emmaus House – Thursdays 7pm. Meetings with Adoration and Benediction are held each Second Thursday of the month in OLOL Church, commencing at 7pm. 

Weekday Masses 28th February – 3rd March, 2017                                        Next Weekend 4th & 5th March, 2017

Tuesday:    9:30am Penguin                                                       Saturday:         9:00am Ulverstone

Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe ... Ash Wednesday                                Saturday Vigil:   6:00pm Penguin 

              12noon Devonport ... Ash Wednesday                                                           Devonport

              7:00pm Ulverstone ... Ash Wednesday                              Sunday Mass:   8:30am Port Sorell

Thursday:  12noon Devonport                                                                         9:00am Ulverstone

Friday:      9:30am Ulverstone                                                                       10:30am Devonport

                                                                                                           11:00am Sheffield

                                                                                                             5:00pm Latrobe

                                                                                                                                       

                                                      Ministry Rosters 4th & 5th March, 2017

Devonport:

Readers: Vigil: V Riley, A Stegmann, M Stewart 10:30am E Petts, K Douglas

Ministers of Communion: Vigil 

D Peters, M Heazlewood, T Muir, M Gerrand, P Shelverton, M Kenny

10.30am: F Sly, E Petts, K Hull, S Arrowsmith, S Samarakkody, R Batepola

Cleaners 3^rd March: M.W.C 10^th March: M & L Tippett, A Berryman

Piety Shop 4^th March: R Baker 5^th March: P Piccolo No flowers during Lent

Ulverstone:

Reader: S Lawrence Ministers of Communion:  P Steyn, E Cox, C Singline, C McGrath

Cleaners: G & M Seen, C Roberts Hospitality:  S & T Johnstone

Penguin: 

Greeters: S Ewing, J Garnsey Commentator: Y Downes Readers:  M Murray, T Clayton   

Ministers of Communion: J Garnsey, S Ewing Liturgy: Sulphur Creek J Setting Up: S Ewing 

Care of Church: M Murray, E Nickols

Latrobe:

Reader: H Lim Minister of Communion: M Eden, M O’Brien-Evans Procession of gifts: Parishioners

Port Sorell: 

Readers:   P Anderson, L Post Ministers of Communion:  T Jeffries Clean/Flow/Prepare:  V Youd

                                                                                                                                        

Readings this week 8^th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A)

First Reading: Isaiah 49:14-15 

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 4:1-5 

Gospel: Matthew 6:24-34

PREGO REFLECTION ON THE GOSPEL:

As I come to my place of prayer, I remember that God loves me and welcomes me. 
I become still in whatever way seems right for me today. 
However long or short a time I have, I do not rush. 
When I am ready, I read the Gospel slowly, noticing … and perhaps pausing ... whenever a word or a phrase particularly strikes me. 
I share what I am thinking and feeling with our Lord. 
Perhaps I reflect: what takes my time and energies? … Or … what am I worrying about today? 
I allow the Lord to listen to my concerns. 
What has he to say to me? 
Maybe I ponder: what would I like to be free from in order to have the freedom to “set my heart on his kingdom first”? 
I ask the Lord for whatever grace I need. 
I end my prayer with gratitude … Our Father...

Readings next week First Sunday of Lent

First reading: Genesis 2:7-9, 3:1-7 

Second Reading: Romans 5:12-19 

Gospel: Matthew 4:1-11

Your prayers are asked for the sick:  Sr Joy Hanrahan, Willhelm Kramer, David Welch, Connie Fulton & …,

Let us pray for those who have died recently: Ingeborg Schleich, Aileen Reynolds, Annenaka Kramer,

Nell Nettlefold, Joy Griffiths, Bill Masterton, Terri-Anne Horne.

Let us pray for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 22^nd – 28^th February

Collin Morgan, Michael Duggan, Rita Sullivan, Laurence Duggan, Kristine Morgan, Thea Nicholas, Glen Clark, 

Reginald Alderson, Irene Kilby, Richard O’Neill, Mary Mann, Thomas Beard.

May they rest in peace

                                                                                                                                                                                       

Weekly Ramblings

This weekend is Project Compassion Sunday – envelopes and Project Compassion Boxes are available and I would encourage all parishioners to take the material with you. Each week there will be material included in the newsletter which highlights the theme for that week.

A reminder that Ash Wednesday and Good Friday are days of Fast and Abstinence. The law of fasting binds those who have completed their eighteenth year, until the beginning of their sixtieth year; but the law of abstinence (no meat) applies to everyone over the age of fourteen.

Each week I upload the newsletter to the internet - mlcparish.blogspot.com.au – and I usually add some extra articles that provide an opportunity for deeper reading and reflection. Last weekend and this I have included an extract from a blog by Fr Val Farrell, a retired priest friend from England. Both are reflections on Lent and are well worth reading. For anyone else wanting to read his reflections you can go to evalfarrell.blogspot.com.au – he has some quite wonderful reflections and thoughts.

On Tuesday evening those who completed the 1st Alpha Program will be gathering for a celebratory meal in the Community Room at Ulverstone. This will also be the first meeting of Parishioners who are joining us for the 2nd Season of Alpha – still in the starting phase of the program which we hope will be in full swing later in the year.

Please take care on the roads and in your homes, 

Ps – Happy birthday to the Old fella!

                                                                                                                                                                                       

 Dear Friends,

I invite you to join with us in preparation for Project Compassion 2017.

Our theme this year is “Love your neighbour”. 

The six stories we share with you for the six weeks of Lent reveal some of the ways lives can be transformed when we follow Jesus’ instruction to “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Matt. 22:39). The call of Jesus shakes us out of preoccupation with ourselves. Christ asks us to acknowledge in our lives that we are all members of the one human family. Each one of us is equally worthy of respect and compassion.

In Project Compassion 2017 we will demonstrate how love for our neighbours can transform lives. When mutual respect is fostered, communities become stronger and more resilient. This can only lead to a better future for our world, the world that Pope Francis has recently called “our common home”.

For more than 50 years, Caritas Australia has been privileged to work together with our neighbours – our most vulnerable sisters and brothers in First Australian communities and in many other countries. Working with our partner agencies in those communities, we have developed the strength to combat poverty, promote justice and uphold the dignity of every person.

 “To love God and neighbour is not something abstract, but profoundly concrete: it means seeing in every person the face of the Lord to be served, to serve him concretely. And you are, dear brothers and sisters, the face of Jesus” – Pope Francis, 2013

Thank you for supporting Caritas Australia this Lenten Season. 

My blessings to you all

                                                                                                                                                                                        

KNIGHTS OF THE SOUTHERN CROSS: meeting this Sunday 26^th February from 6.30pm. This will be a members and partners get-together and dinner at the Lucas Hotel Latrobe – all welcome!

MACKILLOP HILL

Spirituality in the Coffee Shoppe: Monday 27th February, 10.30 – 12 noon. Don’t miss an interesting discussion over morning tea!  123 William Street, FORTH.    Phone:  6428:3095   No bookings necessary.

MACKILLOP HILL LIBRARY:

Library opening hours 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday.

LENTEN PROGRAM 2017:

A Lenten Program is planned to begin Thursday 2nd March starting at 10am until 11:30am at Emmaus House, 88 Stewart Street Devonport. We will meet for six weeks finishing on 6th April. If you would like to join the group contact Clare Kiely-Hoye 6428:2760

WORLD DAY OF PRAYER:

Christian Reformed Church, Penguin: Friday 3rd March at 10am. Everyone Welcome!

Salvation Army William Street Devonport: Friday March 3rd at 1.30 pm. All welcome. A plate please.

MT ST VINCENT AUXILIARY will be holding a garage sale early April. The auxiliary would be very grateful for any donations which can be dropped off at 2/16 Jermyn Street, Ulverstone or phone 6425:1712.

SACRED HEART CHURCH ROSTER:  

If you are interested in being a reader, minister of communion or able to help with church
cleaning, flowers or hospitality please phone the Parish Office on 6424:2783 or contact 
Barbara O’Rourke.

                                                                                                                                                                                       

Thursday Nights - OLOL Hall, Devonport.  Eyes down 7.30pm!

Callers for Thursday 2^nd March Jon Halley & Merv Tippett

                                                                                                                                                                                     

NEWS FROM ACROSS THE ARCHDIOCESE

THE JOURNEY CATHOLIC RADIO PROGRAM:

This week The Journey Catholic Radio program will bring you the weekly Gospel reflection from our very own Fr Graham Schmitzer.  We have Bruce Downes, The Catholic Guy encouraging us to be listening to God’s call, and Francine Pirola in SMART loving giving us great tips for choosing to love.  This is woven together with some wonderful Christian music and you’ve got a show that is all about faith, hope love and life.  Go to www.jcr.org.au  or www.itunes.jcr.org.au  where you can listen anytime and subscribe to weekly shows by email.

FATHER EDWARD ZAMMIT OFM 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF ORDINATION:

Our Lady Star of the Sea Parish Pastoral Council invites all parishioners to a Thanksgiving Mass on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary of Ordination of Father Edward Zammit OFM Saturday 11th March, 11.00am at Our Lady Star of the Sea Church, 33 Goulburn Street, George Town. A light luncheon will follow in the parish hall. RSVP would be appreciated to assist with catering to Fr Edward on 63 82 1489 or Mrs Wendy Harrap on 6304:2829 or email Mrs Wendy Fittler - wfittler@bigpond.com. In keeping with the Franciscan tradition, no gifts please. 

YOUTH PILGRIMAGE TO ST PATRICK’S, COLEBROOK

On the weekend of 18th/19th March, Archbishop Porteous is leading a Youth Pilgrimage from St John’s Richmond to St Patrick’s Colebrook. For more information and a copy of the brochure, please contact Helen Smith at the Archdiocese of Hobart on phone 6208:6223.

                                                                                                                                                                                     

Birthday blessings Fr Phil

on your 80^th (as you keep telling everyone!!)

74^th (really) birthday, Saturday 25^th February.

From all at Mersey Leven Parish xx

                                                                   

OF WINNERS AND LOSERS

Taken from the web archive of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. You can find the original article here 

Our society tends to divide us up into winners and losers. Sadly, we don’t often reflect on how this affects our relationships with each other, nor on what it means for us as Christians.

What does it mean? In essence, that our relationships with each other tend are too charged with competition and jealousy because we are too infected with the drive to out-do, out-achieve, and out-hustle each other. For example, here are some of slogans that pass for wisdom today: Win! Be the best at something! Show others you’re more talented than they are! Show that you are more sophisticated than others! Don’t apologize for putting yourself first! Don’t be a loser!

These phrases aren’t just innocence axioms cheerleading us to work harder; they’re viruses infecting us so that most everything in our world now conspires with the narcissism within us to push us to achieve, to set ourselves apart from others, to stand out, to be at the top of the class, to be the best athlete, the best dressed, the best looking, the most musically talented, the most popular, the most experienced, the most travelled, the one who knows most about cars, or movies, or history, or sex, or whatever. At all costs we drive ourselves to find something at which we can beat others. At all costs we try to somehow set ourselves apart from and above others. That idea is almost genetically engrained in us now.

And because of that we tend to tend to misjudge others and misjudge our own meaning and purpose. We structure everything too much around achieving and standing out. When we achieve, when we win, when we are better than others at something, our lives seem fuller; our self-image inflates and we feel confident and worthwhile. Conversely, when we cannot stand out, when we’re just another face in the crowd, we struggle to maintain a healthy self-image.

Either way, we are forever struggling with jealousy and dissatisfaction because we cannot help constantly seeing our own lack of talent, beauty, and achievement in relationship to other’s successes. And so we both envy and hate those who are talented, beautiful, powerful, rich, and famous, holding them up for adulation even as we secretly wait for their downfall, like the crowd that praises Jesus on Palm Sunday and then screams for his crucifixion just five days later.  

This leaves us in an unhappy place: How do we form community with each other when our very talents and achievement are cause for jealousy and resentment, when they’re sources of envy and weapons of competition? How do we love each other when our competitive spirits make us see each other as rivals?

Community can only happen when we can let the talents and achievements of others enhance our own lives and we can let our own talents and achievements enhance, rather than threaten, others. But we’re generally incapable of this. We’re too infected with competitiveness to allow ourselves to not let the achievements and talents of others threaten us and actualize our own talents in a way so as to enhance the lives of others rather than to let ourselves stand out.

Like our culture, we too tend to divide people into winners and losers, admiring and hating the former, looking down on the latter, constantly sizing each other up, rating each other’s bodies, hair, intelligence, clothing, talents and achievements. But, as we do this, we vacillate between feeling depressed and belittled when others outscore us or inflated and pompous when we appear superior to them.

 And this becomes ever more difficult to overcome as we become more obsessed with our need to stand out, be special, to sit above, to make a mark for ourselves. We live in a chronic, inchoate jealousy where the talents of others are perennially perceived as a threat to us. This keeps us both anxious and less than faithful to our Christian faith.

Our Christian faith invites us not to compare ourselves with others, to not make efforts to stand out, and to not let ourselves be threatened by and jealous of other’s gifts. Our faith invites us to join a circle of life with those who believe that there is no need to stand out or be special, and who believe that other people’s gifts are not a threat, but rather something which enriches all lives, our own included.

When we divide people into winners and losers then our talents and gifts become sources of envy and weapons of competition and superiority. This is true not just for individuals but for nations as well.

One of these competitive slogans within our culture tells us: Show me a good loser and I will show you a loser! Well, seen in this light, Jesus was a loser. People were shaking their heads at his death, and there was no championship ring on his finger. He didn’t look good in the world’s eyes. A loser! But, in his underachieving we all achieved salvation. Somewhere there’s a lesson there!

                                                   

Lenten reading

Denis Blackledge SJ recommends two titles that you might want to have at your fingertips throughout the season of Lent this year: the Archbishop of Canterbury challenges us to make money serve grace; and Denis McBride leads us through a visual meditation on how the Stations of the Cross manifest themselves in today’s world. This article can be found on the Thinking Faith website by clicking here

Dethroning Mammon: Making Money Serve Grace

by Justin Welby

The Archbishop of Canterbury has done us all a good and timely service with a carefully crafted little masterpiece. With a foreword by Jean Vanier, who dubs the book ‘beautiful and important’, and whose life and thought are referred to throughout the book, Welby has sculpted six chapters which are shaped mainly by the Gospel and Revelation of St John.

The front cover, a painting by Daniel Bonnell of the finding of the pearl of great price, provides the author with his introduction, based on the parable at Matthew 13:45-46. He then names his six chapters: ‘What we see we value’; ‘What we measure controls us’; ‘What we have we hold’; ‘What we receive we treat as ours’; ‘What we give we gain’; and ‘What we master brings us joy’. The chapters take us, in order, to encounter: Lazarus; Zacchaeus; Mary who anoints Jesus extravagantly; Jesus washing his disciples’ feet; Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus burying Jesus; and finally, the Message to Laodicea and the Fall of Babylon. The chapters are peppered with delightfully fresh insights.

Whilst the book is ideally meant to be used in Lent, either individually or as a group – there are questions dotted throughout to enable discussion – this is a set of prayer material to ponder at any time of the year. And it has a practical aim, stated in its subtitle: to make money serve grace, a challenge to all of its readers!

(Bloomsbury, 2016; 192 pages; ISBN: 9781472929778)



Stations of the Cross – then and now

by Denis McBride

Denis McBride is a true wordsmith, and a new book sets his skill with the written word alongside the superbly chosen work of south German artist Curd Lessig and contemporary photography. All three combine to offer a new way of travelling along the traditional Stations of the Cross in a simple, six-stage format. 

Each Station begins with a passage from scripture; follows that with the accompanying painting from Lessig’s ‘Way of the Cross’; and then offers a two-page reflection from McBride on the Station in the light of the scripture and the painting. What is deeply striking, though, is that the reader is subsequently presented with a photograph representing a modern day instance of suffering, then a two-page meditation on that image; and finally a prayer.

What McBride has produced twins ‘then’ with ‘now’.  His aim is for the reader both to celebrate the memory of Jesus’s Passion and to become more alert to the passion of so many around us who struggle under the burden of their own cross. Each photo reflects a contemporary parallel of the particular Station of the Cross, and has been selected with great sensitivity. The shooting of Pope John Paul ll, for example, has been chosen to echo the third station, the First Fall of Jesus; and, perhaps most poignantly, the Pietà, the thirteenth station, is paired with the now infamous photo of an aid worker tenderly picking up the small body of a drowned child, Alan Kurdi, from a Turkish shore. The two interpretations of the thirteenth station grace the front cover.

This is a book to ponder and pray, not to read. Whilst it is especially relevant for Lent and Holy Week, it is a book full of insights and blessings to keep in your daily prayer corner for any day or night of the year.


(Redemptorist Publications, 2016; 118 pages; ISBN: 9780852314722)

                                            

The Cosmic Christ - Week 2

This article is taken from the daily email series by Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can subscribe to these emails by clicking here

The Second Coming of Christ

Christ is the radiant light of God’s glory and the perfect copy of God’s nature, sustaining the universe by God’s powerful command. —Hebrews 1:3, Jerusalem Bible

Christ is not Jesus’ last name. The word Christ is a title, meaning the Anointed One, which we so consistently applied to Jesus that to us it became like a name. But a study of Scripture, Tradition, and the experience of many mystics reveals a much larger, broader, and deeper meaning to “the Christ.” Frankly, it is a metaphysical concept more than a religious one, although almost all people today would see it as a religious name for Jesus.

The above passage from Hebrews says that Christ “sustains the universe.” Christ is a religious concept because it can be used to describe reality in an archetypal, symbolic, and profound way. But it names the shape of the universe before it names the individual who typifies that shape, the one we call Jesus Christ. All of creation first holds God’s anointing (“beloved” status), and then Jesus brings the message home in a personal way thirteen billion years later!

This is a different way of thinking for most of us. The three Synoptic Gospels are largely talking about Jesus, the historical figure who healed and taught and lived in human history; whereas John’s Gospel presents the trans-historical “Christ” (which is why so very few stories in John coincide with Matthew, Mark, and Luke). This Christ is frequently making universal “I AM” statements and claims (see John 6:35, 48; 8:12, 24, 58; 10:9, 11; 11:25; 14:6; 15:1), mirroring the unspeakable name of the Holy One in Exodus 3:14. This is very different than the Jesus of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Among the four Gospels, we have both Jesus and Christ.

Paul also never met the historical Jesus and hardly ever quotes Jesus directly. In almost all of Paul’s preaching and writing, he is referring to the Eternal Christ Mystery or the Risen Christ rather than Jesus of Nazareth before his death and resurrection. The Risen Christ is the only Jesus that Paul ever knew! This makes Paul a fitting mediator for the rest of us, since the Omnipresent Risen Christ is the only Jesus we will ever know as well (see 2 Corinthians 5:16-17).

Jesus’ historical transformation (“resurrected flesh”) allows us more easily to experience the Presence that has always been available since the beginning of time, a Presence unlimited by space or time, which is the promise and “guarantee” of our own transformation (see 1 Corinthians 15:1-53). In Jesus the Timeless Christ became time bound, so we could enjoy the personal gaze, as it were (see 1 John 1-2).

Whenever the material and the spiritual coincide, there is the Christ. Jesus fully accepted that human-divine identity and walked it into history. Henceforth, the Christ “comes again” whenever we are able to see the spiritual and the material coexisting, in any moment, in any event, and in any person. All matter reveals Spirit, and Spirit needs matter to “show itself”! I believe "the Second Coming of Christ" happens whenever and wherever we allow this to be utterly true for us. This is how God continually breaks into history—even before the first Stone Age, humans stood in awe and wonder, gazing at the stars.

 Reference:

Adapted from Richard Rohr, The Cosmic Christ, disc 1 (CAC: 2009), CD, MP3 download.

Bigger than Christianity

The “Christ Mystery” is much bigger than Christianity as an organized religion. If we don’t understand this, Christians will have little ability to make friends with, build bridges to, understand, or respect other religions or the planet. Jesus did not come to create a country club or a tribe of people who could say, “We’re in and you’re out. We’ve got the truth and you don’t.” Jesus came to reveal something that was true everywhere, for everyone, and all the time.

Many Christians have a very limited understanding of Jesus’ historical or social message, and almost no understanding of the Cosmic Christ—even though it is taught clearly in Scripture (see John 1, Colossians 1, Ephesians 1, 1 John 1, Hebrews 1:1). Christ is often taught at the very beginning of Paul’s and other New Testament authors’ writings, yet we still missed it. But you can't see what you were never told to look for. Once you do see the shape and meaning of this cosmic mystery of Divine Incarnation, you’ll be able to see that the Presence is everywhere—and the archetypal Jesus will not be such an anomaly, accident, or surprise.

God is saving everything and everybody, it is all God’s emerging victory, until, as Paul says, “God will be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). If Christ is truly the “savior of the world” (see John 4:42), then God’s shape, form, meaning, and message are all far bigger than any single religion. Talking to the intellectual Athenians, Paul is wise enough to say: “God is not far from any of us. It is in him [sic] that we live and move and have our very being” (Acts 17:28).

St. Augustine writes that through love we come to be in “the frame of the body of Christ” so that in the end “there shall be one Christ, loving himself.” [1] You are chosen in Christ (see Ephesians 1:4), and the purpose of being chosen is to let everyone else know that they too are chosen! We are not making a triumphal statement about the Christian religion here, but we are making a triumphal statement about the nature of Divine Love—which will finally win the day!

Loving both Jesus and the Christ is essential to a Christian’s growth and transformation. You might begin with one or the other, but eventually you should be drawn to love both. Too many Christians have started and stopped with Jesus, never coming to know the Universal Christ. Many who are not Christian have started with the Christ by some other name—after all, there is only One God, One Love. I have met Hindus and Jews who live happily and fruitfully inside this hidden Christ Mystery, and I have met many Roman Catholics and Protestants who are running away from any notion of an all-pervading, loving Presence. Their stinginess and exclusivity gives it away.

You can have the right words and not the right experience, whereas if you enjoy the right experience, the right words are of much less importance. God did not become Incarnate Love in the universe to create “word police” and debating societies.

References:

[1] St. Augustine of Hippo, “Homily X,” section 3, St. Augustine: Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1, Volume 7, ed. Philip Schaff (Christian Classica Ethereal Library),

 http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf107.iv.xiii.html.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology, & Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See (CAC: 2010), MP3 download;

The Cosmic Christ, discs 1 & 2 (CAC: 2009), CD, MP3 download; and

Eager to Love: The Alternative Way of Francis of Assisi (Franciscan Media: 2014), 225.

All-Inclusive, All-Pervading

Human beings are programmed to love all other living beings. We fall in love with persons and creatures, not so much with concepts or energies. We need “interface.” And so the Word or the Blueprint became flesh—one humble human, a Jewish Nazarene, called Jesus. Though it seems he was not particularly attractive, and many people despised and rejected him (see Isaiah 53:2-3 or Mark 3:21), Jesus in his full humanity was still alluring. We can relate to his suffering, his kindness, his friendship, his constant inclusivity.

Jesus is the microcosmic moment of the macrocosm, the Christ. Whatever we say about the Christ pertains to the whole universe. Christ holds everything together. He is the ultimate transcendence brought to earth and the ultimate inclusion of everything in God’s plan. In Christ everything is reconciled in heaven and on earth (see Colossians 1:15-20).

Christ is the name for the very shape and meaning of the universe. Jesus reveals this wonderful message in human form, showing us the full meaning of our own lives—in a way that we could love and admire.

By recognizing and honoring the Christ, I'm not downplaying Jesus. Quite the contrary, Jesus Christ is Jesus a hundred times over! But now Jesus can no longer be used as the mascot for our little club or to justify racism, imperialism, punitive behavior, or any form of shaming and exclusion. When we say that we believe in both Jesus and Christ, we are precisely including everything: the historical Jesus, plus all of creation, and ourselves too. “He is everything and he is in everything” (Colossians 3:11 JB), and “when he is fully revealed—and he is your life—you too will be revealed in all your glory with him” (3:4 JB).

When we understand this, matter itself becomes a holy thing. We worship God by walking with love and respect on this planet and with all other creatures.  What a simple, universal, and wholehearted religion this would be! If this sounds like “the two great commandments” to you (see Mark 12:30-31), you’re right. This is truly “All Saints’ Day”!

References:

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology, & Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See (CAC: 2010), MP3 download; and

The Cosmic Christ, disc 1 (CAC: 2009), CD, MP3 download.

One Great Act of Giving Birth

Humanity alone is called to assist God. Humankind is called to co-create. —Hildegard of Bingen [1]

For of his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. —John 1:16, NASB

The Greek word here for “fullness” is pleroma, which Paul also uses in his writings (see Ephesians 1:23, 3:19; Colossians 2:9) to describe a historical unfolding. It is an early hint of what we now call evolutionary development, the idea that history, humanity, and yes, even God are somehow growing and coming to a divine fullness. And we are always in on the deal. What hope and meaning this gives to all life!

In his letter to the church in Rome, Paul writes: “From the beginning until now, the entire creation, as we know, has been groaning in one great act of giving birth” (Romans 8:22, JB). This view of creation is very feminine, by the way; maybe that is why men historically were so opposed to it. Just that line should be enough to justify the theory of evolution for Christians. Wouldn’t it make sense that God would give such autonomy and freedom and grace to creation to continue self-creating, just as any mother or father desires for their children?

Creation did not happen once by a flick of the divine hand and now it's slowly winding down toward Armageddon and tragic Apocalypse (which is the hopeless universe inside of which many fundamentalists live). Creation is in fact a life-generating process that’s still happening and winding up! We now know the universe is still expanding—and at an ever faster rate, which means that we are a part of creating God’s future. That is what Love always does for all that it loves (see Romans 8:28, in fact most of Romans 8). What a different future than one of a threatening courtroom scene or an eternal torture chamber for the bad guys (as if we are not bad guys too!).

Humanity is creation come to consciousness and freedom (although many humans are still quite unconscious). Animals “know,” even bread and wine “know” what they are, but we humans also know that we know, and that is a huge leap forward. The French Jesuit geologist and paleontologist, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955), shared these inspired words: “‘The world is still being created, and it is Christ who is reaching his fulfillment in it.’ When I heard and understood that saying, I looked around and I saw, as though in an ecstasy, that through all nature I was immersed in God.” [2] That was full consciousness!

The common Christian understanding that Jesus came to save us by a cosmic evacuation plan is really very individualistic, petty, and even egocentric. It demands no solidarity with anything except oneself. We whittled the great Good News down into what Jesus could do for us personally and privately, rather than God inviting us to participate in God’s universal creative work.

Instead of believing that Jesus came to personally fulfill you privately, how about trusting that you are here to fulfill Christ? To take your small but wonderful part in what Thomas Merton calls “The General Dance.” [3] That more than enough fulfills you without even trying to “get fulfilled.” You are a part of this movement of an ever-growing Cosmic Christ that is coming to be in this “one great act of giving birth.”

References:

[1] Gabriel Uhlein, Meditations with Hildegard of Bingen (Santa Fe, NM: Bear & Co., 1985), 106.

[2] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, “Cosmic Life,” Writings in Time of War (London: Collins, and New York: Harper and Row, 1968), 60.

[3] Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation (Boston: Shambhala, 2003), chapter 39.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology, & Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See (CAC: 2010), MP3 download.

The Pattern of Evolution

Perhaps the reason it is so hard for us to see the evolution of the Cosmic Christ in our individual lives and in the arc of history is that this groaning and this giving birth (see Romans 8:22) proceeds by a process of losses and gains, and the losses are very real. There is no doubt that history goes three steps forward and two steps backward, but thank God there always seems to be a net gain. Even though we continue to see war, racism, classism, genocide, and ignorance, violence is actually declining. We may be more aware of the world’s suffering now than ever before, but as compared with previous periods in history, we are living in a relatively peaceful time. [1]

Historically and to this day, it seems that when a new level of maturity is found, there is an immediate and strong instinct to pull backward to the old and familiar. Thankfully, within churches and society at large there is always a leaven, a critical mass, a few people who carry the momentum toward greater inclusivity, compassion, and love. This is the Second Coming of Christ: Christ embodied by people who know that hatred and greed are always regressive, and who can no longer live fearfully or violently. There are always some who have touched upon Love and been touched by Love, which is to touch upon the Christ Mystery. This is the shape of “salvation.”

Teilhard de Chardin writes: “Everything that rises must converge.” [2] In other words, higher levels of evolution are always a movement toward greater unity. Along the way there will be differentiation and complexity, but paradoxically, that increased complexity moves life to a greater level of unity, until in the end there is only God who is “all in all” (see 1 Corinthians 15:28). If it isn’t moving toward unity, it is not a higher level of consciousness.

But along with differentiation and complexity there will also be an equal pushback, fear, and confusion. We see this in our current political climate in America and much of the world. The United States has suffered eight years of nonstop gridlock and opposition to any creative governance. It mirrors Newton’s Third Law of Motion that “every action elicits an equal and opposite reaction.” Today many people are reverting to tribal thinking, denial, fear, and hatred, rather than turning to compassionate, creative solutions to real challenges of poverty, climate change, and the many worldwide forms of injustice.

I highly recommend here any of the writings of Thomas Berry, who in many ways brings Teilhard de Chardin realistically forward because he has sixty more years of science, and also sixty more years of planetary push back, to bring to the present conversation. [3] Berry is another prophet in our times.

References:

[1] If you’re curious to see supporting data for the idea that earth is less violent, see Steven Pinker and Andrew Mack’s article “The World Is Not Falling Apart” (Slate: 2014), http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/foreigners/2014/12/the_world_is_not_falling_apart_the_trend_lines_reveal_an_increasingly_peaceful.html.

[2] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, The Future of Man (Image Books: 1964), 186.

[3] I highly recommend exploring Thomas Berry’s writings, such as The Sacred Universe: Earth, Spirituality, and Religion in the Twenty-first Century, The Christian Future and the Fate of Earth, and The Great Work: Our Way into the Future.

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology, & Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See (CAC: 2010), MP3 download.

A New Cosmology

[The cosmos] is fundamentally and primarily living. [1] Christ, through his Incarnation, is interior to the world, rooted in the world even in the very heart of the tiniest atom. [2] Nothing seems to me more vital, from the point of view of human energy, than the appearance and, eventually, the systematic cultivation of such a “cosmic sense.” [3] —Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Thomas Berry have both helped me come to my understanding of the Cosmic Christ. As Paul saw Christ as a single “New Man” (see Ephesians 2:15), as Duns Scotus saw Christ as the Alpha point of history, so Teilhard saw the same Divine Icon as the Omega point of cosmic history—he was both the archetypal starting point and the alluring final goal. The end was therefore already contained in the beginning. History is both emanating from and also seduced by the same force: Divine Love. But do not confuse this with any sentimental notion of love. Teilhard uses the word “love” to describe the cosmic allurement of everything toward everything, a structural, metaphysical shape to the universe, most visible in the basic laws of gravity, electro-magnetic fields, and sexual reproduction.

And yet there is a constant price that must be paid to be faithful to such foundational love. Everything is also fragmented and fighting this very process of reunification. For Christians, this resistance is symbolized by the cross. There is a cruciform shape to reality, it seems, and loss precedes all renewal, emptiness makes way for every new infilling, every transformation in the universe requires the surrendering of a previous “form.” Nothing in the human psyche likes this pattern. It is the big fly in the cosmic ointment!

It may take us hundreds of years more to move beyond the old story, the ancient cosmology that viewed matter and spirit, light and dark, you and me, as separate entities and life and death as total opposites. Christ is the Living Icon of all Reality and all Reconciliation. His very being says that matter and Spirit are one! Life and death are one! The Christ Mystery is the code-breaker for the human dilemma.

Collectively, we’re moving toward the Omega point; but every time you and I hate, fear, compete, attack, judge, separate—thus avoiding the necessary letting go—we are resisting the full flow of Love, the energy which is driving the universe forward. As the central doctrine of the Trinity has made clear to many of us, there can be no infilling unless there is first of all a self-emptying. The “Three Persons,” who are the template for all of reality (see Genesis 1:26-27), can only pour themselves out because they have agreed to let go, and they can only receive because they have made space for the other. Self-emptying and infilling in equal measure is the only sustainable meaning of Love, growth, and Life Itself. [4] If Christ is the human code-breaker, Trinity is the universal code-breaker.

References:

[1] Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Human Energy, tr. J. M. Cohen (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1969), 23.

[2] Teilhard de Chardin, Science and Christ, tr. René Hague (New York: Harper & Row, 1968), 36.

[3] Teilhard de Chardin, Human Energy, 130-131.

[4] This is much of the thesis in my most recent book (with Mike Morrell), The Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation (Whitaker: 2016).

Adapted from Richard Rohr, Christ, Cosmology, & Consciousness: A Reframing of How We See (CAC: 2010), MP3 download.

                                                

LENT: TRYING TO BE GOOD

The rub of the ashes simply gets our repentance in first. 

Neither "success" nor "failure" does justice to our relationship with God

* Passiflora caerulea: Passion Flower, claimed in some countries to bear the marks of Christ's passion

You may consider the start to this piece a bit "corny". Bear with me.

“Can I come in? he whispered She was nervous. "Just for a minute?" he persisted. Oh, dear! Trying hard to be assertive, she managed to ask, " will you be good?" The classic Bar room quip teetered on his lip, “Good? I’ll be magnificent” but he didn’t risk it. 

Soon, it will be Lent, the season when we try to be good. The time for getting the ash upon our foreheads 

That holy smudge reminds us of our own basic "Good Intent". The modern incantation goes something like, "Repent and believe the Good News", but the old one sounds better. It seems to recall some hidden dread that exercises a magnetic charm even as it threatens. " Remember man that you are dust and unto dust you shall return". Woman too.  How we love to be frightened. 

Of course, like watching horror on television, it need only be a passing moment.We can change our minds and soften our intentions as easily as changing channels.

Is there some built-in obsolescence in our promises or was it never more than a seasonal ritual, the kind of thing we do at that time of year? 

Lent; promising to be good, while not expecting to be perfect. To err is human. We are bound to slip up now and then. The rub of the ashes simply gets our repentance in first.  "Whatever I may do that is wrong, will be just a mistake". Ash Wednesday pleads our defence even before we get to court.

But wait a minute, we're not dealing with manufactured objects coming off an assembly line, we're dealing with God. Not even "dealing", more "relating", to a living God who is, and wants to be, involved in my life. Neither "success" nor "failure" does justice to this relationship. That may be the language of competition, but hardly of love. We must look again at the words of Ash Wednesday'

"Repent and believe the Gospel."  Does it seem a bit tame, watered down, less frightening and therefore less likely to bring about change? Maybe, or maybe we need to remember just what Gospel is.  Time and time again,Sunday after Sunday, the passage chosen for Gospel reading commences with the words, "Jesus said to his disciples." Often as not, those words are not actually part of the chosen text, but are inserted to remind us where the Gospel belongs, in discipleship.  In the hearts of those who, rather than tread again the tired old road of resolution, success, failure, false confidence, equally false despair, prefer to follow Christ.

Calling his first followers, Jesus gave us clear evidence of the results of discipleship. He promised that Simon the fisherman would become Peter the rock. They would each  cast their nets in deeper waters and become "fishers of men".  That's what discipleship does for people. Following Christ gives Him the chance to change us, to make something of us.

Doesn't it all come down to the same thing in the end? No, for often as not we define good and bad, success and failure, in our own terms, with horizons limited by our vision, or lack of it. Christ can open our eyes to new horizons and take us on journeys we simply did not know about, but only if we are his disciples. 

"Believing the Good News" is far from being some holy anesthetic that dulls the pain of trying to be good.  So long as we follow him, Christ can deal with our failures and our successes far better than we can. He can make something of us. Better by far we make a new start with Jesus, than that we indulge ourselves in a yearly fantasy about guilt and goodness. "Repent" yes, we should and we must, but we won't if we fail to "believe the Gospel".

The 2nd in reflections on Lent by Fr Val Farrell. you can access his blog here