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
Priest in Residence: Fr Phil McCormack Mob: 0437 521 257
Postal Address: PO Box 362
Parish Office: 90 Stewart Street
(Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday 10am - 3pm)
Office Phone: 6424 8383 Fax: 6423 5160
Secretary: Annie Davies / Anne Fisher
Pastoral Council Chair: Jenny Garnsey
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)
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.
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Archdiocesan Website: www.hobart.catholic.org.au for news, information and details of other Parishes.
Parish Prayer
Heavenly Father,
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
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
Weekday Masses 23rd - 26th May, 2017
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Ministry Rosters 27th & 28th May, 2017
Devonport: 
10.30am: M Sherriff, T & S Ryan, D & M Barrientos, M
O’Brien-Evans
Ulverstone:
Penguin:
Port Sorell:
Readings this week – Sixth Sunday of Easter
Prego Reflection:
I may have set aside some quality time to spend with the
Lord, or I may only have a few snatched minutes.
Whatever is the case, I start
by taking a conscious deep breath and then breathe normally, aware of the
presence of the Lord around me, within me.
Slowly, I read the whole passage or
stop at the sentence or phrase which resonates with me.
I ponder.
Maybe I
notice the link between loving and keeping his commandments: What emotions
arise in my heart?
I tell the Lord whether loving and following his teaching
comes naturally to me or whether I struggle to be obedient.
He knows, he
understands.
In what ways do I express my love for the Lord in my daily
encounters with others?
How do I feel when I reflect on Jesus’ promise of help
and comfort through the Spirit of truth?
I consider my faithful companions:
Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit, and the intimate relationship which links
them to each other and to me.
Perhaps I am moved to speak to each of them in
turn from my heart.
It may be that I need help to truly appreciate what they
offer me.
If so, I tell them simply in my own words and I listen.
In time, I
bring my prayer to a close: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the
Holy Spirit .....
Readings next week – Ascension of
the Lord – Year A
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Victoria Webb, Victor Slavin, David Welch & …,
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
May they rest in peace
Weekly
Ramblings
In my homily this week I am reflecting further on the
challenges that face us as we are called to grow as a Parish. I know for many
people that whenever I speak about change it causes some concern – please be
assured that my only reason for having a vision is for us to grow as a Faith
Community. My hope is that we might become more intentionally the kind of
Church/Parish/Faith Community that people, your families, your friends want to
be part of. Thanks for the support I’ve received already – as we move forward
the PPC and I will continue to make information available to you about any
recommendations, requests for suggestions or whatever as soon as is possible.
In a fortnight we will be gathering at Our Lady of Lourdes
for the Whole of Parish Mass to Celebrate Pentecost. This is an important step
on our journey towards growing as a faith community but we need your support to
make it work. There is a list at the Church Door at all our centres inviting
people to assist with catering. There is a rehearsal for people involved in the
Liturgy on Sunday 28th May at 2pm at OLOL Church. On the day we will be
encouraging people to share in our celebration in all sorts of ways so please
come prepared to be part of something special – Mass, yes but a celebration of Parish
as well.
There are two things that are coming up in the near future.
The Euthanasia Bill will be presented in the Tasmanian Parliament shortly –
material is in the newsletter today – please note the need to respond to a
local member asap. The second is the Book of Life which is available in
Sheffield and Latrobe this weekend (and will be there for the next week). If
you would like to include an intention please do so by next week – the books
will be moved to another centre after next week.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
MACKILLOP HILL
Don’t miss a lively discussion over morning
tea! Invite a friend!
123 William
Street, Forth.
Phone: 6428:3095
No bookings necessary.
MACKILLOP HILL LIBRARY
CARE AND CONCERN: “Siloam” is the name of a group
which meets under the banner of Care and Concern. “Siloam” focusses on aspects
of grief and loss often experienced following the death of a loved one. The
Siloam image (John 9:7) suggests healing and refreshment. Our group “Siloam”
takes its inspiration from John 9:1-41 – Jesus anointed the man’s eyes with the
clay, saying ‘Go wash in the pool of Siloam’ so he went and washed and came
back seeing.
Felicity Sly is asking for support with the Pentecost Sunday Luncheon at Our
Lady of Lourdes with the following;
- Help to set-up the Parish Hall on Saturday 3rd
June (time negotiable)
- Getting food ready and served on Pentecost
Sunday morning from 10 am
- Cleaning up after the luncheon.
If you are
available to help with any or all of these please contact Felicity Sly on
6424:1933 (please leave a message), 0418 301 573 as either a call or sms; or by
emailing fsly@internode.on.net.
MT ST
VINCENT AUXILIARY:
HOSPITALITY
TEAM OLOL:
THANK YOU:
I would like to say a huge thank
you to all who sent flowers, cards, came to visit, kept an eye on my garden, and
baked for me. I really appreciate your kindness and support and feel very
blessed to have you all in my life. Regards,
Paddy McKinnon.
ASSIST A
STUDENT:
FOOTY
TICKETS: Round 8 (12th May) footy
margin 8 – winners; Toni Muir, Ivana Doyle
BINGO - Thursday Nights - OLOL
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE
ARCHDIOCESE:
WALK WITH CHRIST – Hobart City, Sunday 18th June 1:15pm to 3:00 pm.
EUTHANASIA BILL: A
Tasmanian bill on euthanasia will be debated Wednesday 24 May. Please write a
letter or contact your MPs urgently to oppose this bill. Pamphlets available
from all Mass Centres.
COMING FULL CIRCLE –
FROM STORYBOOKS TO SPIRITUALITY
and calling us to serve as your disciples.
as we use our gifts to serve you.
as we strive to bear witness
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
Prayer Group: Charismatic Renewal – meetings will be held on Monday evenings in the Community Room, Ulverstone at 7pm.
Weekday Masses 23rd - 26th May, 2017
Tuesday: 9:30am Penguin
Wednesday: 9:30am Latrobe Thursday: 12noon
Devonport
Friday: 9:30am Ulverstone … St Philip Neri
Next Weekend 27th & 28th May, 2017
Saturday Vigil: 6:00pm Penguin
Devonport
Sunday Mass: 8:30am Port Sorell
9:00am Ulverstone
10:30am Devonport
11:00am Sheffield
5:00pm Latrobe
Ministry Rosters 27th & 28th May, 2017
Devonport:
Readers: Vigil: A McIntyre, M Williams, C Kiely-Hoye 10:30am E
Petts, K Douglas
Ministers of Communion:
Vigil M
Heazlewood, B Suckling, M O’Brien-Evans, G Lee-Archer, M Kelly, P Shelverton
10.30am: M Sherriff, T & S Ryan, D & M Barrientos, M
O’Brien-Evans
Cleaners 26th
May: K.S.C. 2nd June: M.W.C.
Piety Shop 27th
May: R Baker 28th May: K Hull Flowers: B Naiker
Ulverstone:
Reader/s: M & K
McKenzie
Ministers of Communion: P Steyn, E Cox, C Singline, C
McGrath
Cleaners: V
Ferguson, E Cox Flowers: M Bryan
Hospitality:
Filipino Community
Penguin:
Greeters: Fifita Family Commentator: J Barker Readers: Y Downes, J Garnsey
Ministers of
Communion: M
Hiscutt, T Clayton Liturgy: Sulphur Creek J
Setting Up: T Clayton Care of Church: Y & R Downes
Port Sorell:
Readers: G Bellchambers, P Anderson Ministers of Communion: B Lee
Cleaners/Flowers/Prep: A Hynes
Readings this week – Sixth Sunday of Easter
First Reading: Acts 8:5-8, 14-17
Second Reading: 1 Peter 3:15-18
Gospel: John 14:15-21
Prego Reflection:
I may have set aside some quality time to spend with the
Lord, or I may only have a few snatched minutes.
Whatever is the case, I start by taking a conscious deep breath and then breathe normally, aware of the presence of the Lord around me, within me.
Slowly, I read the whole passage or stop at the sentence or phrase which resonates with me.
I ponder.
Maybe I notice the link between loving and keeping his commandments: What emotions arise in my heart?
I tell the Lord whether loving and following his teaching comes naturally to me or whether I struggle to be obedient.
He knows, he understands.
In what ways do I express my love for the Lord in my daily encounters with others?
How do I feel when I reflect on Jesus’ promise of help and comfort through the Spirit of truth?
I consider my faithful companions: Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit, and the intimate relationship which links them to each other and to me.
Perhaps I am moved to speak to each of them in turn from my heart.
It may be that I need help to truly appreciate what they offer me.
If so, I tell them simply in my own words and I listen.
In time, I bring my prayer to a close: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit .....
Whatever is the case, I start by taking a conscious deep breath and then breathe normally, aware of the presence of the Lord around me, within me.
Slowly, I read the whole passage or stop at the sentence or phrase which resonates with me.
I ponder.
Maybe I notice the link between loving and keeping his commandments: What emotions arise in my heart?
I tell the Lord whether loving and following his teaching comes naturally to me or whether I struggle to be obedient.
He knows, he understands.
In what ways do I express my love for the Lord in my daily encounters with others?
How do I feel when I reflect on Jesus’ promise of help and comfort through the Spirit of truth?
I consider my faithful companions: Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit, and the intimate relationship which links them to each other and to me.
Perhaps I am moved to speak to each of them in turn from my heart.
It may be that I need help to truly appreciate what they offer me.
If so, I tell them simply in my own words and I listen.
In time, I bring my prayer to a close: Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit .....
Readings next week – Ascension of
the Lord – Year A
First Reading: Acts 1:1-11
Second Reading: Ephesians 1:17-23
Gospel:
Matthew 28:16-20
Your prayers
are asked for the sick: Victoria Webb, Victor Slavin, David Welch & …,
Let us pray for those who have died recently:
Martin Healey, Fr Mark McGuinness, Anne Watson, Elaine
Milic, Ivan Walsh, Beverley
Cloney, Beverley O'Connor, Clare Kuhnle, Margaret Cameron, Alfred Grieve, Susan
Reilly, George
Archer.
Let us pray
for those whose anniversary occurs about this time: 17th – 23rd
May
Mary Stevenson, Kathleen Laycock, Kit Hayes, Lance Cole,
Richard Delaney, Patricia Down, Paul Sulzberger, Betty Broadbent, Phyllis
Fraser, Kathleen Hall, Alfred Nichols, Mariea McCormick, Margaret Bresnehan,
Bernard C. Marshall, Margaret Murphy, Harry Maker and Bonifacio Rahinel.
May they rest in peace
Weekly
Ramblings
In my homily this week I am reflecting further on the
challenges that face us as we are called to grow as a Parish. I know for many
people that whenever I speak about change it causes some concern – please be
assured that my only reason for having a vision is for us to grow as a Faith
Community. My hope is that we might become more intentionally the kind of
Church/Parish/Faith Community that people, your families, your friends want to
be part of. Thanks for the support I’ve received already – as we move forward
the PPC and I will continue to make information available to you about any
recommendations, requests for suggestions or whatever as soon as is possible.
In a fortnight we will be gathering at Our Lady of Lourdes
for the Whole of Parish Mass to Celebrate Pentecost. This is an important step
on our journey towards growing as a faith community but we need your support to
make it work. There is a list at the Church Door at all our centres inviting
people to assist with catering. There is a rehearsal for people involved in the
Liturgy on Sunday 28th May at 2pm at OLOL Church. On the day we will be
encouraging people to share in our celebration in all sorts of ways so please
come prepared to be part of something special – Mass, yes but a celebration of Parish
as well.
There are two things that are coming up in the near future. The Euthanasia Bill will be presented in the Tasmanian Parliament shortly – material is in the newsletter today – please note the need to respond to a local member asap. The second is the Book of Life which is available in Sheffield and Latrobe this weekend (and will be there for the next week). If you would like to include an intention please do so by next week – the books will be moved to another centre after next week.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
There are two things that are coming up in the near future. The Euthanasia Bill will be presented in the Tasmanian Parliament shortly – material is in the newsletter today – please note the need to respond to a local member asap. The second is the Book of Life which is available in Sheffield and Latrobe this weekend (and will be there for the next week). If you would like to include an intention please do so by next week – the books will be moved to another centre after next week.
Please take care on the roads and in your homes,
MACKILLOP HILL
Spirituality in the Coffee Shoppe:
Monday 22nd May,
10.30am – 12 noon.
Don’t miss a lively discussion over morning tea! Invite a friend!
123 William Street, Forth.
Phone: 6428:3095 No bookings necessary.
Don’t miss a lively discussion over morning tea! Invite a friend!
123 William Street, Forth.
Phone: 6428:3095 No bookings necessary.
MACKILLOP HILL LIBRARY
Library opening hours 10am – 5pm
Monday to Friday.
CARE AND CONCERN: “Siloam” is the name of a group
which meets under the banner of Care and Concern. “Siloam” focusses on aspects
of grief and loss often experienced following the death of a loved one. The
Siloam image (John 9:7) suggests healing and refreshment. Our group “Siloam”
takes its inspiration from John 9:1-41 – Jesus anointed the man’s eyes with the
clay, saying ‘Go wash in the pool of Siloam’ so he went and washed and came
back seeing.
The next meeting will be Tuesday 23rd
May at 2.00 pm.
Please note change of venue to
Mackillop Hill, 123 William Street, Forth.
If your require transport please
phone Mary Davies 6424:1183 or 0447 241 182.
PENTECOST SUNDAY LUNCH
Felicity Sly is asking for support with the Pentecost Sunday Luncheon at Our Lady of Lourdes with the following;
Felicity Sly is asking for support with the Pentecost Sunday Luncheon at Our Lady of Lourdes with the following;
- Help to set-up the Parish Hall on Saturday 3rd
June (time negotiable)
- Getting food ready and served on Pentecost
Sunday morning from 10 am
- Cleaning up after the luncheon.
If you are
available to help with any or all of these please contact Felicity Sly on
6424:1933 (please leave a message), 0418 301 573 as either a call or sms; or by
emailing fsly@internode.on.net.
MT ST VINCENT AUXILIARY:
Will be holding a ‘Craft and Cake
Stall’ after 9am Mass in the Community Room, Sacred Heart Church on 11th
June. Bring your spare change along and pick up some delicious home cooking and
home-made craft!
HOSPITALITY
TEAM OLOL:
In response to Fr Mike's and the
Parish Councils Vision for the Mersey Leven Parish, I am hoping to organise
hospitality teams to commit to hosting a ‘cuppa’ after each Mass at Our Lady of
Lourdes. If you are able to commit to one Mass per month, or even every second
month, I would like to hear from you. We can start with whichever Masses we can
cover, and build from there. We have the hospitality requirements already
stored in the foyer, so there's no heavy lifting or transporting of cups etc.
required.
To discuss this request please contact
Felicity Sly 6424:1933
(please leave a message), call or sms 0418 301 573 or email fsly@internode.on.net.
THANK YOU:
I would like to say a huge thank
you to all who sent flowers, cards, came to visit, kept an eye on my garden, and
baked for me. I really appreciate your kindness and support and feel very
blessed to have you all in my life. Regards,
Paddy McKinnon.
ASSIST A
STUDENT:
Pamphlets are available at the rear of the Church to allow
you to take the opportunity to become a donor towards this program. 100% of
your donation goes to the student’s education for one year. Your student may be
from a secondary or post-secondary institution. The cost is $70. You will
receive a certificate with the students name country and course of study.
St Vincent de Paul encourages participation in this program
as it reflects the mission statement of the Society – Serve the Poor with the
love, respect, justice, hope and joy.
FOOTY
TICKETS: Round 8 (12th May) footy
margin 8 – winners; Toni Muir, Ivana Doyle
BINGO - Thursday Nights - OLOL
Hall, Devonport. Eyes down 7.30pm! Callers for Thursday 25th
May – Merv Tippett & Tony Ryan.
NEWS FROM ACROSS THE
ARCHDIOCESE:
WALK WITH CHRIST – Hobart City, Sunday 18th June 1:15pm to 3:00 pm.
Celebrate the Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ by
walking with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament through the city of Hobart. Be at
St Joseph's Church (Harrington St) by 1.15 pm, and walk with us to St Mary's
Cathedral for Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction concluding at
3:00. There will be a 'cuppa' afterwards. If you can't do the walk
come to the Cathedral at 2:00 for prayer and Adoration. Experience our
rich Catholic heritage in solidarity with Catholics all over the world and
through the ages, by bearing public witness to our Lord and Saviour. Can't join
us in person? Prayer intentions written in the 'Book of Life' in your parish
will be taken in the procession and presented at the Cathedral.
COMING FULL CIRCLE –
FROM STORYBOOKS TO SPIRITUALITY
EUTHANASIA BILL: A
Tasmanian bill on euthanasia will be debated Wednesday 24 May. Please write a
letter or contact your MPs urgently to oppose this bill. Pamphlets available
from all Mass Centres.
COMING FULL CIRCLE –
FROM STORYBOOKS TO SPIRITUALITY
Taken from the archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. The original article can be found here
My first love was literature, novels and poetry. As a child, I loved storybooks, mysteries and adventures. In grade school, I was made to memorize poetry and loved the exercise. High School introduced me to more serious literature, Shakespeare, Kipling, Keats, Wordsworth, Browning. On the side, I still read storybooks, cowboy tales from the old West, taken from my dad’s bookshelf.
During my undergraduate university years, literature was a major part of the curriculum and I learned then that literature wasn’t just about stories, but also about social and religious commentary; as well as about form and beauty as ends in themselves. In classes then we read classic novels: Nineteen Eighty-Four, Lord of the Flies, Heart of Darkness, The Heart of the Matter, East of Eden. The curriculum at that that time in Canada heavily favored British writers. Only later, on my own, would I discover the richness in Canadian, USA, African, Indian, Russian, and Swedish writers. I had been solidly catechized in my youth and, while the catechism held my faith, literature held my theology.
But after literature came philosophy. As part of preparation for ordination we were required to do a degree in Philosophy. I was blessed with some fine teachers and fell into first fervor in terms of my love of philosophy. The courses then heavily favored Scholasticism (Aristotle, Plato, Augustine, Aquinas) but we were also given a sound history of philosophy and a basic grounding in Existentialism and some of the contemporary philosophical movements. I was smitten; philosophy became my theology.
But after philosophy came theology. After our philosophical studies, we were required to take a four-year degree in theology prior to ordination. Again, I was blessed with good teachers and blessed to be studying theology just as Vatican II and a rich new theological scholarship were beginning to penetrate theological schools and seminaries. There was theological excitement aplenty, and I shared in it. In Roman Catholic circles, we were reading Congar, Rahner, Schillebeeckx, Schnackenburg, and Raymond Brown. Protestant circles were giving us Barth, Tillich, Niebuhr, and a bevy of wonderful scripture scholars. The faith of my youth was finally finding the intellectual grounding it had forever longed for. Theology became my new passion.
But after theology came spirituality. After ordination, I was given the opportunity to do a farther graduate degree in theology. That degree deepened immeasurably my love for and commitment to theology. It also landed me a teaching job and for the next six years I taught theology at a graduate level. These were wonderful years; I was where I most wanted to be, in a theology classroom. However, during those six years, I began to explore the writings of the mystics and tentatively launch some courses in spirituality, beginning with a course on the great Spanish mystic, John of the Cross.
My doctoral studies followed those years and while I focused on Systematic theology, writing my thesis in the area of natural theology, something had begun to shift in me. I found myself more and more, both in teaching and writing, shifting more into the area of spirituality, so much so that after a few years I could no longer justify calling some of my former courses in Systematic theology by their old catalogue titles. Honesty compelled me now to name them courses in spirituality.
And what is spirituality? How is it different from theology? At one level, there’s no difference. Spirituality is, in effect, applied theology. They are of one and the same piece, either ends of the same sock. But here’s a difference: Theology defines the playing field, defines the doctrines, distinguishes truth from falsehood, and seeks to enflame the intellectual imagination. It is what it classically claims itself to be: Faith seeking understanding.
But, rich and important as that is, it’s not the game. Theology makes up the rules for the game, but it doesn’t do the playing nor decide the outcome. That’s role of spirituality, even as it needs to be obedient to theology. Without sound theology, spirituality always falls into unbridled piety, unhealthy individualism, and self-serving fundamentalism. Only good, rigorous, academic theology saves us from these.
But without spirituality, theology too-easily becomes only an intellectual aesthetics, however beautiful. It’s one thing to have coherent truth and sound doctrine; it’s another thing to give that actual human flesh, on the streets, in our homes, and inside our own restless questioning and doubt. Theology needs to give us truth; spirituality needs to break open that truth.
And so I’ve come full circle: From the story books of my childhood, through the Shakespeare of my high school, through the novelists and poets of my undergraduate years, through the philosophy of Aristotle and Aquinas, through the theology of Rahner and Tillich, through the scripture scholarship of Raymond Brown and Ernst Kasemann, through the hermeneutics of the Post-Modernists of my post-graduate years, through forty years of teaching theology, I’ve landed where I started – still searching for good stories that feed the soul.
The
Beatitudes
Be Receptive
(or Be Open)
This week Cynthia Bourgeault, one of CAC’s
core faculty members, reflects on Jesus’ eight blessings given in his Sermon on
the Mount. The original material comes from the Daily Email from Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can subscribe to receive these emails by clicking here
If you were
raised Christian, you are probably familiar with the Beatitudes (Matthew
5:1-12). They’re one of most commonly memorized texts in Sunday school (along
with the Ten Commandments and the Twenty-third Psalm). These eight short
sayings (called “beatitudes” because they all begin with the phrase “Blessed
are . . .”) lay out Jesus’ core teachings in a wonderfully concentrated and
compelling format. Let’s consider each of these nondual teachings in turn.
From a
wisdom perspective (that is, from the point of view of the transformation of
consciousness), “poor in spirit” designates an inner attitude of receptivity
and openness; one is blessed because only in this state is it possible to
receive anything.
There’s a
wonderful Zen story that illustrates this teaching. A young seeker, keen to
become the student of a certain master, is invited to an interview at the
master’s house.
The student
rambles on about all his spiritual experience, his past teachers, his insights
and skills, and his pet philosophies. The master listens silently and begins to
pour a cup of tea. He pours and pours, and when the cup is overflowing he keeps
right on pouring. Eventually the student notices what’s going on and interrupts
his monologue to say, “Stop pouring! The cup is full.”
The teacher
says, “Yes, and so are you. How can I possibly teach you?”
In one of
his most beautiful insights, the contemporary Christian mystic Thomas Merton
once wrote, “At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is
untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which
belongs entirely to God.” [1]
From time
immemorial wisdom teaching has insisted that only through that point of
nothingness can we enter the larger mind. As long as we’re filled with ourselves,
we can go no further.
References:
Be
Comforted, Be Gentled
From a
wisdom perspective, this second Beatitude is talking about vulnerability and
flow. When we mourn (not to be confused with complaining or self-pity) we are
in a state of freefall, our heart reaching out toward what we have seemingly
lost but cannot help loving anyway. To mourn is by definition to live between
the realms. “Practice the wound of love,” writes Ken Wilber in Grace and Grit,
his gripping personal story of loss and transformation. “Real love hurts; real
love makes you totally vulnerable and open; real love will take you far beyond
yourself; and therefore real love will devastate you.” [1]
Mourning is
indeed a brutal form of emptiness. But in this emptiness, if we can remain
open, we discover that a mysterious “something” does indeed reach back to
comfort us; the tendrils of our grief trailing out into the unknown become
intertwined in a greater love that holds all things together. To mourn is to
touch directly the substance of divine compassion. And just as ice must melt
before it can begin to flow, we, too, must become liquid before we can flow
into the larger mind. Tears have been a classic spiritual way of doing this.
“Blessed are
the meek, for they will inherit the earth” is how the third Beatitude is
usually translated (Matthew 5:5). A better translation is “Blessed are the
gentle,” and perhaps an even better one is “Blessed are the gentled.” Remember
that wonderful passage from The Little Prince when the prince asks, “To tame
something: what does that mean?” The fox teaches him, “It means to form bonds.
If you tame me, we’ll need each other. You become responsible forever for what
you have tamed.” [2]
That’s the
ballpark this beatitude is working in. Blessed are the ones who have become
spiritually “domesticated”: the ones who have tamed the wild animal energy
within them, the passions and compulsions of our lower nature. In the Gospel of
Thomas we see this process described as “devouring the lion”—because otherwise
the lion will devour us! [3] Only when we have dealt directly with our animal
instincts, and the pervasive sense of fear and scarcity that emerge out of our
egoic operating system, are we truly able to inherit the earth rather than
destroy it.
References:
Be Connected
The key to
this fourth Beatitude lies in understanding what the word “righteousness”
means. To our post-Puritan, post-Victorian ears, righteousness is a synonym for
virtue. It means being moral, behaving correctly. But in Israel of Jesus’
times, righteousness was something much more dynamic. Visualize it as a force
field: an energy-charged sphere of holy presence. To be “in the righteousness
of God” (as Old Testament writers are fond of saying) means to be directly
connected to this vibrational field, to be anchored within God’s own aliveness.
There is nothing subtle about the experience; it is as fierce and intransigent
a bond as picking up a downed electrical wire. To “hunger and thirst after
righteousness,” then, speaks to this intensity of connectedness.
Jesus
promises that when the hunger arises within you to find your own deepest
aliveness within God’s aliveness, it will be satisfied—in fact, the hunger
itself is a sign that the bond is already in place. As we enter the path of
transformation, the most valuable thing we have working in our favor is our
yearning. Some spiritual teachers will even say that the yearning you feel for
God is actually coming from the opposite direction; it is in fact God’s
yearning for you. “The eye with which I see God is the same one with which God
sees me,” said Meister Eckhart, one of the greatest Christian mystics,
stressing the complete simultaneity of the energy of connection. [1] When we
yearn, we come into sympathetic vibration with a deeper heart-knowing. The
heart is an organ of alignment; it connects us. Yearning is the vibration of
that connectedness.
In this
Beatitude Jesus is not talking about doing virtuous deeds so you’ll be rewarded
later; he is talking about being in connection with your fundamental yearning.
References:
Be Merciful
In this
Beatitude Jesus again returns to the idea of flow. Notice that there’s an
exchange going on here: we give mercy and we receive mercy. And this is not
coincidental, for the root of the word “mercy” comes from the old Etruscan
merc, which also gives us “commerce” and “merchant.” It’s all about exchange.
Usually we
think of the mercy of God as a kind of divine clemency, and we pray, “Lord have
mercy upon us” as a confession of our weakness and dependency. (Because these
qualities are distasteful to a lot of modern people, the “Lord have mercy”
prayer has gone a bit out of style.) But in this other understanding, mercy is
not something God has so much as it’s something that God is.
Exchange is
the very nature of divine life—of consciousness itself, according to modern
neurological science—and all things share in the divine life through
participation in this dance of giving and receiving. The brilliant young South
African teacher Michael Brown writes in The Presence Process:
Surely Jesus
knew this as well, and his teaching in this Beatitude invites us into a deeper
trust of that flow. Exchange is at the very heart of his understanding of “no
separation.”
References:
Be Whole-Hearted
This may
well be the most important of all the Beatitudes—from the perspective of wisdom
it certainly is. But what is purity of heart? This is another of those concepts
we have distorted in our very morality-oriented Christianity of the West. For
most people, purity of heart would almost certainly mean being virtuous,
particularly in the sexual arena. It would be roughly synonymous with chastity,
perhaps even with celibacy. But in wisdom teaching, purity means singleness,
and the proper translation of this Beatitude is, really, “Blessed are those
whose heart is not divided” or “whose heart is a unified whole.” Jesus emerged
from his baptism as the ihidaya, meaning the “single one” in Aramaic—one who
has unified his or her being and become what we would nowadays call
“enlightened.”
According to
Jesus, this enlightenment takes place primarily within the heart. When your
heart becomes “single”—that is, when it desires one thing only, when it can
live in perfect alignment with that resonant field of mutual yearning we called
“the righteousness of God,” then you “see God.” This does not mean that you see
God as an object (for that would be the egoic operating system), but rather,
you see through the eyes of non-duality: God is the seeing itself.
So this
Beatitude is not about sexual abstinence; it’s about cleansing the lens of
perception. It is worth noting that Jesus flags this particular transformation
as the core practice of the path. Somehow when the heart becomes single
(undivided, whole), the rest will follow.
Reference:
Be Peaceable, Be Free
This
Beatitude follows as the logical consequence of all that has been laid out so
far. When our hearts are gentled and single, when we’ve tamed the animal
instincts, we become peacemakers. We are no longer wielding the sword of the
binary operator that divides the world into good guys and bad guys, insiders
and outsiders, winning team and losing team. When the field of vision has been
unified, the inner being comes to rest, and that inner peaceableness flows into
the outer world as harmony and compassion. This is what we mean by
contemplative engagement: right action in the world stemming from inner
attunement. Only from the unified perception of the heart can we discern what
action is required of us to lovingly and effectively serve our hurting planet.
“Blessed are
those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.” —Matthew 5:10
Jesus is not
talking about martyrdom here, but about freedom. The Gospel of Thomas records
this Beatitude with a slight but telling variation that captures the very
essence of Jesus’ meaning here and in fact, throughout all the Beatitudes:
Talk about
freedom! Whatever this elixir of pure liberation may be, it is what the journey
is all about. And it is attained gradually within us—distilled drop by drop
from the terror and turmoil of our egoic selfhood—as we learn to let go and
entrust ourselves to the Divine Mercy. Situations of persecution (or anything
else that shakes us out of our egoic comfort zone) can become great teaching
tools if we have the courage to use them that way.
Do the
Beatitudes appear differently to you against this wisdom backdrop? In these
eight familiar sayings we can now see that Jesus is talking about a radical
transformation of consciousness, embraced through an attitude of inner
receptivity; a willingness to enter the flow; a commitment to domesticate those
violent animal programs within us; and above all, a passionate desire to unify
the heart. This is a very powerful fourfold path. It has both a modern
sensibility and a timelessness to it—not unlike the teaching you would hear
today from the Dalai Lama and other great spiritual masters who have dedicated
their lives to increasing the quality and quantity of human consciousness.
References:
Taken from the archives of Fr Ron Rolheiser OMI. The original article can be found here
My first love was literature, novels and poetry. As a child, I loved storybooks, mysteries and adventures. In grade school, I was made to memorize poetry and loved the exercise. High School introduced me to more serious literature, Shakespeare, Kipling, Keats, Wordsworth, Browning. On the side, I still read storybooks, cowboy tales from the old West, taken from my dad’s bookshelf.
During my undergraduate university years, literature was a major part of the curriculum and I learned then that literature wasn’t just about stories, but also about social and religious commentary; as well as about form and beauty as ends in themselves. In classes then we read classic novels: Nineteen Eighty-Four, Lord of the Flies, Heart of Darkness, The Heart of the Matter, East of Eden. The curriculum at that that time in Canada heavily favored British writers. Only later, on my own, would I discover the richness in Canadian, USA, African, Indian, Russian, and Swedish writers. I had been solidly catechized in my youth and, while the catechism held my faith, literature held my theology.
But after literature came philosophy. As part of preparation for ordination we were required to do a degree in Philosophy. I was blessed with some fine teachers and fell into first fervor in terms of my love of philosophy. The courses then heavily favored Scholasticism (Aristotle, Plato, Augustine, Aquinas) but we were also given a sound history of philosophy and a basic grounding in Existentialism and some of the contemporary philosophical movements. I was smitten; philosophy became my theology.
But after philosophy came theology. After our philosophical studies, we were required to take a four-year degree in theology prior to ordination. Again, I was blessed with good teachers and blessed to be studying theology just as Vatican II and a rich new theological scholarship were beginning to penetrate theological schools and seminaries. There was theological excitement aplenty, and I shared in it. In Roman Catholic circles, we were reading Congar, Rahner, Schillebeeckx, Schnackenburg, and Raymond Brown. Protestant circles were giving us Barth, Tillich, Niebuhr, and a bevy of wonderful scripture scholars. The faith of my youth was finally finding the intellectual grounding it had forever longed for. Theology became my new passion.
But after theology came spirituality. After ordination, I was given the opportunity to do a farther graduate degree in theology. That degree deepened immeasurably my love for and commitment to theology. It also landed me a teaching job and for the next six years I taught theology at a graduate level. These were wonderful years; I was where I most wanted to be, in a theology classroom. However, during those six years, I began to explore the writings of the mystics and tentatively launch some courses in spirituality, beginning with a course on the great Spanish mystic, John of the Cross.
My doctoral studies followed those years and while I focused on Systematic theology, writing my thesis in the area of natural theology, something had begun to shift in me. I found myself more and more, both in teaching and writing, shifting more into the area of spirituality, so much so that after a few years I could no longer justify calling some of my former courses in Systematic theology by their old catalogue titles. Honesty compelled me now to name them courses in spirituality.
And what is spirituality? How is it different from theology? At one level, there’s no difference. Spirituality is, in effect, applied theology. They are of one and the same piece, either ends of the same sock. But here’s a difference: Theology defines the playing field, defines the doctrines, distinguishes truth from falsehood, and seeks to enflame the intellectual imagination. It is what it classically claims itself to be: Faith seeking understanding.
But, rich and important as that is, it’s not the game. Theology makes up the rules for the game, but it doesn’t do the playing nor decide the outcome. That’s role of spirituality, even as it needs to be obedient to theology. Without sound theology, spirituality always falls into unbridled piety, unhealthy individualism, and self-serving fundamentalism. Only good, rigorous, academic theology saves us from these.
But without spirituality, theology too-easily becomes only an intellectual aesthetics, however beautiful. It’s one thing to have coherent truth and sound doctrine; it’s another thing to give that actual human flesh, on the streets, in our homes, and inside our own restless questioning and doubt. Theology needs to give us truth; spirituality needs to break open that truth.
And so I’ve come full circle: From the story books of my childhood, through the Shakespeare of my high school, through the novelists and poets of my undergraduate years, through the philosophy of Aristotle and Aquinas, through the theology of Rahner and Tillich, through the scripture scholarship of Raymond Brown and Ernst Kasemann, through the hermeneutics of the Post-Modernists of my post-graduate years, through forty years of teaching theology, I’ve landed where I started – still searching for good stories that feed the soul.
The
Beatitudes
Be Receptive
(or Be Open)
This week Cynthia Bourgeault, one of CAC’s
core faculty members, reflects on Jesus’ eight blessings given in his Sermon on
the Mount. The original material comes from the Daily Email from Fr Richard Rohr OFM. You can subscribe to receive these emails by clicking here
If you were
raised Christian, you are probably familiar with the Beatitudes (Matthew
5:1-12). They’re one of most commonly memorized texts in Sunday school (along
with the Ten Commandments and the Twenty-third Psalm). These eight short
sayings (called “beatitudes” because they all begin with the phrase “Blessed
are . . .”) lay out Jesus’ core teachings in a wonderfully concentrated and
compelling format. Let’s consider each of these nondual teachings in turn.
“Blessed are
the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” —Matthew 5:3
From a
wisdom perspective (that is, from the point of view of the transformation of
consciousness), “poor in spirit” designates an inner attitude of receptivity
and openness; one is blessed because only in this state is it possible to
receive anything.
There’s a
wonderful Zen story that illustrates this teaching. A young seeker, keen to
become the student of a certain master, is invited to an interview at the
master’s house.
The student
rambles on about all his spiritual experience, his past teachers, his insights
and skills, and his pet philosophies. The master listens silently and begins to
pour a cup of tea. He pours and pours, and when the cup is overflowing he keeps
right on pouring. Eventually the student notices what’s going on and interrupts
his monologue to say, “Stop pouring! The cup is full.”
The teacher
says, “Yes, and so are you. How can I possibly teach you?”
In one of
his most beautiful insights, the contemporary Christian mystic Thomas Merton
once wrote, “At the center of our being is a point of nothingness which is
untouched by sin and by illusion, a point of pure truth, a point or spark which
belongs entirely to God.” [1]
From time
immemorial wisdom teaching has insisted that only through that point of
nothingness can we enter the larger mind. As long as we’re filled with ourselves,
we can go no further.
References:
[1] Thomas
Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (Image Books: 1968), 158.
Adapted from
Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind—A New
Perspective on Christ and His Message (Shambhala: 2008), 42-43.
Be
Comforted, Be Gentled
“Blessed are
those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” —Matthew 5:4
From a
wisdom perspective, this second Beatitude is talking about vulnerability and
flow. When we mourn (not to be confused with complaining or self-pity) we are
in a state of freefall, our heart reaching out toward what we have seemingly
lost but cannot help loving anyway. To mourn is by definition to live between
the realms. “Practice the wound of love,” writes Ken Wilber in Grace and Grit,
his gripping personal story of loss and transformation. “Real love hurts; real
love makes you totally vulnerable and open; real love will take you far beyond
yourself; and therefore real love will devastate you.” [1]
Mourning is
indeed a brutal form of emptiness. But in this emptiness, if we can remain
open, we discover that a mysterious “something” does indeed reach back to
comfort us; the tendrils of our grief trailing out into the unknown become
intertwined in a greater love that holds all things together. To mourn is to
touch directly the substance of divine compassion. And just as ice must melt
before it can begin to flow, we, too, must become liquid before we can flow
into the larger mind. Tears have been a classic spiritual way of doing this.
“Blessed are
the meek, for they will inherit the earth” is how the third Beatitude is
usually translated (Matthew 5:5). A better translation is “Blessed are the
gentle,” and perhaps an even better one is “Blessed are the gentled.” Remember
that wonderful passage from The Little Prince when the prince asks, “To tame
something: what does that mean?” The fox teaches him, “It means to form bonds.
If you tame me, we’ll need each other. You become responsible forever for what
you have tamed.” [2]
That’s the
ballpark this beatitude is working in. Blessed are the ones who have become
spiritually “domesticated”: the ones who have tamed the wild animal energy
within them, the passions and compulsions of our lower nature. In the Gospel of
Thomas we see this process described as “devouring the lion”—because otherwise
the lion will devour us! [3] Only when we have dealt directly with our animal
instincts, and the pervasive sense of fear and scarcity that emerge out of our
egoic operating system, are we truly able to inherit the earth rather than
destroy it.
References:
[1] Ken
Wilber, Grace and Grit: Spirituality and Healing in the Life and Death of Treya
Killam Wilber (Shambhala: 2000), 396.
[2] Antoine
de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince, trans. Richard Howard (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt:
2000, ©1943), 59, 64.
[3] The
Gospel of Thomas, Saying 7, trans. Lynn Bauman (Oregon: Whiteland Press, 2002),
18.
Adapted from
Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind—A New
Perspective on Christ and His Message (Shambhala: 2008), 43-44.
Be Connected
“Blessed are
those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.”
—Matthew 5:6
The key to
this fourth Beatitude lies in understanding what the word “righteousness”
means. To our post-Puritan, post-Victorian ears, righteousness is a synonym for
virtue. It means being moral, behaving correctly. But in Israel of Jesus’
times, righteousness was something much more dynamic. Visualize it as a force
field: an energy-charged sphere of holy presence. To be “in the righteousness
of God” (as Old Testament writers are fond of saying) means to be directly
connected to this vibrational field, to be anchored within God’s own aliveness.
There is nothing subtle about the experience; it is as fierce and intransigent
a bond as picking up a downed electrical wire. To “hunger and thirst after
righteousness,” then, speaks to this intensity of connectedness.
Jesus
promises that when the hunger arises within you to find your own deepest
aliveness within God’s aliveness, it will be satisfied—in fact, the hunger
itself is a sign that the bond is already in place. As we enter the path of
transformation, the most valuable thing we have working in our favor is our
yearning. Some spiritual teachers will even say that the yearning you feel for
God is actually coming from the opposite direction; it is in fact God’s
yearning for you. “The eye with which I see God is the same one with which God
sees me,” said Meister Eckhart, one of the greatest Christian mystics,
stressing the complete simultaneity of the energy of connection. [1] When we
yearn, we come into sympathetic vibration with a deeper heart-knowing. The
heart is an organ of alignment; it connects us. Yearning is the vibration of
that connectedness.
In this
Beatitude Jesus is not talking about doing virtuous deeds so you’ll be rewarded
later; he is talking about being in connection with your fundamental yearning.
References:
[1] Johannes
Eckhart, Meister Eckhart’s Sermons, Sermon IV, “True Hearing,”
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/eckhart/sermons.vii.html, 32-33.
Adapted from
Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind—A New
Perspective on Christ and His Message (Shambhala: 2008), 44-45.
Be Merciful
“Blessed are
the merciful, for they will receive mercy.” —Matthew 5:7
In this
Beatitude Jesus again returns to the idea of flow. Notice that there’s an
exchange going on here: we give mercy and we receive mercy. And this is not
coincidental, for the root of the word “mercy” comes from the old Etruscan
merc, which also gives us “commerce” and “merchant.” It’s all about exchange.
Usually we
think of the mercy of God as a kind of divine clemency, and we pray, “Lord have
mercy upon us” as a confession of our weakness and dependency. (Because these
qualities are distasteful to a lot of modern people, the “Lord have mercy”
prayer has gone a bit out of style.) But in this other understanding, mercy is
not something God has so much as it’s something that God is.
Exchange is
the very nature of divine life—of consciousness itself, according to modern
neurological science—and all things share in the divine life through
participation in this dance of giving and receiving. The brilliant young South
African teacher Michael Brown writes in The Presence Process:
“Giving-is-receiving
is the energetic frequency upon which our universe is aligned. All other
approaches to energy exchange immediately cause dissonance and disharmony in
our life experience.” [1]
Surely Jesus
knew this as well, and his teaching in this Beatitude invites us into a deeper
trust of that flow. Exchange is at the very heart of his understanding of “no
separation.”
References:
[1] Michael
Brown, The Presence Process (Namaste Publishing: 2005), 246.
Adapted from
Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind—A New
Perspective on Christ and His Message (Shambhala: 2008), 45.
Be Whole-Hearted
“Blessed are
the pure in heart, for they will see God.” —Matthew 5:8
This may
well be the most important of all the Beatitudes—from the perspective of wisdom
it certainly is. But what is purity of heart? This is another of those concepts
we have distorted in our very morality-oriented Christianity of the West. For
most people, purity of heart would almost certainly mean being virtuous,
particularly in the sexual arena. It would be roughly synonymous with chastity,
perhaps even with celibacy. But in wisdom teaching, purity means singleness,
and the proper translation of this Beatitude is, really, “Blessed are those
whose heart is not divided” or “whose heart is a unified whole.” Jesus emerged
from his baptism as the ihidaya, meaning the “single one” in Aramaic—one who
has unified his or her being and become what we would nowadays call
“enlightened.”
According to
Jesus, this enlightenment takes place primarily within the heart. When your
heart becomes “single”—that is, when it desires one thing only, when it can
live in perfect alignment with that resonant field of mutual yearning we called
“the righteousness of God,” then you “see God.” This does not mean that you see
God as an object (for that would be the egoic operating system), but rather,
you see through the eyes of non-duality: God is the seeing itself.
So this
Beatitude is not about sexual abstinence; it’s about cleansing the lens of
perception. It is worth noting that Jesus flags this particular transformation
as the core practice of the path. Somehow when the heart becomes single
(undivided, whole), the rest will follow.
Reference:
Adapted from
Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind—A New
Perspective on Christ and His Message (Shambhala: 2008), 45-46.
Be Peaceable, Be Free
“Blessed are
the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.” —Matthew 5:9
This
Beatitude follows as the logical consequence of all that has been laid out so
far. When our hearts are gentled and single, when we’ve tamed the animal
instincts, we become peacemakers. We are no longer wielding the sword of the
binary operator that divides the world into good guys and bad guys, insiders
and outsiders, winning team and losing team. When the field of vision has been
unified, the inner being comes to rest, and that inner peaceableness flows into
the outer world as harmony and compassion. This is what we mean by
contemplative engagement: right action in the world stemming from inner
attunement. Only from the unified perception of the heart can we discern what
action is required of us to lovingly and effectively serve our hurting planet.
“Blessed are
those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven.” —Matthew 5:10
Jesus is not
talking about martyrdom here, but about freedom. The Gospel of Thomas records
this Beatitude with a slight but telling variation that captures the very
essence of Jesus’ meaning here and in fact, throughout all the Beatitudes:
Blessed are
you in the midst of persecution who,
when they
hate and pursue you even to the core of your being,
cannot find
“you” anywhere. [1]
Talk about
freedom! Whatever this elixir of pure liberation may be, it is what the journey
is all about. And it is attained gradually within us—distilled drop by drop
from the terror and turmoil of our egoic selfhood—as we learn to let go and
entrust ourselves to the Divine Mercy. Situations of persecution (or anything
else that shakes us out of our egoic comfort zone) can become great teaching
tools if we have the courage to use them that way.
Do the
Beatitudes appear differently to you against this wisdom backdrop? In these
eight familiar sayings we can now see that Jesus is talking about a radical
transformation of consciousness, embraced through an attitude of inner
receptivity; a willingness to enter the flow; a commitment to domesticate those
violent animal programs within us; and above all, a passionate desire to unify
the heart. This is a very powerful fourfold path. It has both a modern
sensibility and a timelessness to it—not unlike the teaching you would hear
today from the Dalai Lama and other great spiritual masters who have dedicated
their lives to increasing the quality and quantity of human consciousness.
References:
[1] The
Gospel of Thomas, Saying 68, trans. Lynn Bauman (Oregon: Whiteland Press,
2002), 141.
Adapted from
Cynthia Bourgeault, The Wisdom Jesus: Transforming Heart and Mind—A New
Perspective on Christ and His Message (Shambhala: 2008), 46-47.
The Testament of Mary
Every so often, a novel emerges out of an engagement with the New Testament. Such works are not usually historical novels in a Hilary Mantel fashion, largely because the nature of the engagement is often both less certain and wider in intent; however, they still have the potential to make an impact. In November 2012, Naomi Alderman’s The Liars’ Gospel was the Book at Bedtime on BBC Radio 4, while 2010 saw the publication of Philip Pullman’s extraordinary The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. Colm Tóibín’s very short and fine novella is in this same tradition. It presents a first person narrative by the mother of Jesus situated in the aftermath of the crucifixion: ‘memory fills my body as much as blood and bones’ (p. 4). This article can be found on the Thinking Faith website by clicking here. The author of the article is Brian B McClorry SJ who directs the Spiritual Exercises at St Beuno’s Spirituality Centre in North Wales.
Mary is not named. She can only refer to Jesus as ‘my son’, although Jesus’s disciples say he is the ‘Son of God’. She is badgered and pestered by two impatient and manipulative disciples to give her account of ‘what happened’, and they are angered when what she says does not accord with what they think she ought to say. In her eyes, her son’s disciples and followers are misfits with something missing, who do not mean what they say, ‘men who could not look a woman in the eye’ (p. 9). When they sit in the vacant chair of Mary’s dead and much-loved husband, she offers to knife them.
Mary is close to the young Jesus, sometimes disturbed by the adult Jesus (she cannot really speak to him about the surrounding and growing danger) and yet also senses something extraordinary about him. There was, she says, a ‘power’ which,
made me love him and seek to protect him even more than I did when he had no power. It was not that I saw through it or did not believe it. It was not that I saw him still as a child. No, I saw a power fixed and truly itself, formed. I saw something that seemed to have no history and to have come from nowhere, and I sought in my dreams and in my waking time to protect it and I felt an abiding love for it. (p. 54)
We are given flashbacks to the Sabbath cure at the Sheep Pool, to the wedding at Cana and to the raising of Lazarus, who weeps and howls after being brought back. Mary’s accounts of events are not consoling: ‘this great disturbance in the world made its way like creeping mist or dampness into the two or three rooms I inhabited’ (p. 56). And with numbing brutality, there is the crucifixion. Jesus’s supporters dig a hole for the cross (p. 75). They want him killed for their own salvation. The violent contagion on the hill brings to mind René Girard’s mimetic violence; this kind of scapegoating is not far from our present, blood-spattered world.
‘Unhinged’ (p. 94) by the crucifixion, where she watches and does nothing, Mary flees from the hill before the death of her son, a flight about which she is ill at ease. She dreams that things were otherwise – she stayed and Jesus is alive – yet prefers to keep day and night, what happened and what is dreamed, in their separate places (p. 93). That he is alive is, disturbingly, a dream identical to that dreamed by Mary, the sister of Lazarus. This, however, does not exhaust Mary’s testament. That her son dies for the salvation of all – the disciples’ testament – is unacceptable and provokes the protest, ‘it was not worth it’ (p.102). The brutality of crucifixion and the impossible place in which Mary finds herself also causes her to lament: ‘I want what happened not to have happened’ (p 103). Mary is taken away, somewhat incompetently, by the disciples to Ephesus, where she finds some solace in ‘another Temple’, that of Artemis, better known in Acts as Diana of the Ephesians, whose statue radiates ‘abidance and bounty’ (p.13). There she finds some steadying of her last years. Meanwhile, Jesus’s disciples grow more competent.
The writing is taut and dense, but spacious enough to hold the reader expectantly in place. There is an oddity in that the very few words we get from Jesus (and indeed Pilate) are archaic, full of ‘thees’ and ‘wilts’, which are remote from Mary’s strong expressiveness. But otherwise the language is tellingly evocative and exact. Dark images abound: the Strangler, the man who feeds live rabbits to a caged hawk, the stone carvings of death.
For me, Tóibín’s novel raised two connected points about imagination. Does the imagination of a novelist relate to the use of imagination in praying the scriptures? The activities are clearly not the same (the public use of public language is one difference) but they are not separate. Someone praying the passion narratives in the gospels might respond in ways that resonate with Tóibín’s Mary. There is a careful truthfulness to experience which fits. The second point concerns the connection between Jesus’s crucifixion and the salvation of all. There is a quite particular way of thinking about redemption, a widespread soteriology or attempt to make sense of Jesus’s death, which is represented by the disciples’ grip on the necessity of Jesus’s death for the emergence of a new world order. Such a way of thinking, however, is not mandatory. Tóibín’s book can be taken not simply as a caution against such thinking, but as a sharp-edged incentive to think – and imagine – well. We all suffer when ‘doctrine’ is divorced from narrative.
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