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A Reflection for November

I once heard God compared to a mother who took her three young children to the seaside on a summer’s day. The children spent most of their time on the beach playing in the sand. Each of them built a sandcastle, according to his or her ability. When they had finished their work, their mother came to look at what they had done. She praised each of them individually for their achievements. On returning home the mother fed her children, washed them and put them to bed. Then she sat down to relax. She was happy with the day at the seaside; pleased that her children enjoyed themselves on the beach and that they were safe. And in the meantime the tide came in and washed away the sandcastles her children had built.

It is November. It is the month when we remember the dead and when we think about our own death. For all of us life is passing; it is transient. Death is inevitable. We have here no lasting city. The thought of our mortality at this winter time gives us an opportunity to get things in perspective.

A way of getting things in perspective is to ask ourselves some questions. One question we could do to ask ourselves during November is this: What will we have to leave behind us when our earthly life is over? Among the things we will definitely leave behind are the sandcastles we have built. Our sandcastles are more than the buildings we own. They are our projects, our investments, our businesses, our wealth, even our achievements. All these things may have preoccupied us in life, but they will be of little benefit to us in death.

Another question November brings is one that gets to the heart of the meaning of life. What will we take with us when our time in this world is over? The poet William Blake provides the answer: “We are put on earth a little space that we might learn to bear the beams of love.” What will endure are the relationships we have built, including our relationship with God. Relationships are the most important thing in life. It is the investment we make in relationships that we will take with us into God’s other world beyond the grave. It is love and only love that will last. When we meet the Lord face to face in death the thing he will look for is the love in our hearts. So, “if you tend to get overly serious about your work and your responsibilities remind yourself that the most common deathbed regrets have to do with neglected relationships, not unfinished business” (The Little Book of Calm).

Two Invitations

The religion of Jesus begins with the word come. “Come to me all you who labour and are overburdened.” “Come and see where I live.” “Come and I will give you rest.” Jesus asks us to open the door of our hearts to him. He wants a personal relationship with each one of us. He wishes to satisfy the deeper longings we have within.

If the religion of Jesus begins with the word come it also ends with the word go. “Go, teach all nations.” “Go, baptise in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” “Go out to the whole world and proclaim the good news.” Jesus wants us to share our faith experience, to tell others what he has done for us, to pass on what has been passed to us, to give what we have received.

There are of course different ways of sharing the good news of Jesus. Some leave home for Jesus; most stay at home for him. Some are what we can call frontier missionaries; the majority are local missionaries. Whether we travel for Jesus or remain at home for Jesus, we witness to him by what we say and by what we do. The words we speak are important. They are an expression of what is dear to us. In a culture that is becoming increasingly secular it is not easy to acknowledge our faith in Jesus and in his values. But we can no longer be shy about our religious convictions and be private about our beliefs. Jesus asks us to be courageous, to tell the world about him. And the world needs to hear what we have to say.

Of course, it is what we do more than what we say that has the greater impact. Actions do speak louder than words. Actions reveal the authenticity of our words. As followers of Jesus, we must be willing to walk the walk as well as talk the talk. We best proclaim the gospel of Jesus by the witness of our lives, by the way to live. There is no better add for Christianity than a life well lived. William Wordsworth once wrote, “The best portion of a good man’s life is his little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.” It is not necessarily big achievements and projects that best witness to our faith. There are very few who have opportunities to do great things. For most of us, it is our little acts of kindness and love.

The religion of Jesus begins with the word come and ends with the word go. It is a dynamic religion, a constant flow of life and love. It is built around two movements, one of receiving, the other of giving. We need to participate in both. If we do we will experience a peace and joy the world cannot offer us.

A Down to Earth Mystic

A religious reformer, writer, mystic, Doctor of the Church, founder of seventeen monasteries and, perhaps most importantly of all, a charming and wholesome human being. Who can I be referring to? The sixteen century Carmelite called Teresa of Avila. Here is a little taste of her life and spirituality.

Teresa of Avila was a woman who was down to earth and full of practical common sense. She was a mystic who had her feet firmly planted on the ground. When one of her more pious Carmelite sisters criticised her for enjoying a well-cooked bird, she immediately replied, “Sister, there is a time for penance and a time for partridge.” Teresa believed that the Lord can be found among the pots and pans. Her spirituality was not detached from everyday things and everyday living. It was an integral part of everyday things and everyday living. Her God was a God who was personally involved in the business of her life. She believed that the God, who revealed himself in and through the humanity of Jesus, was revealing himself in and through her humanity too.

Teresa had a great sense of humour. For her religion should make us cheerful. She once exclaimed, “May the Lord protect us from sour-faced saints!” As she travelled throughout Spain founding new Carmelite monasteries Teresa had to put up with plenty of inconvenience and hardship. On one occasion when all of this was obviously getting her down she complained to the Lord, “If this is the way you treat your friends, no wonder you have so few of them!” Towards the end of her life Teresa agreed to have her portrait painted by a Carmelite brother by the name of John. When she saw the finished product she turned to Brother John and said, “God forgive you Brother John for you have made me fat and bleary-eyed!” It is refreshing to meet a saint who did not take herself too seriously.

Without doubt Teresa of Avila’s most important contribution to the Christian tradition has to do with prayer. She is the great teacher in the art of prayer. Teresa is clear and adamant: If we want a relationship with the Lord then we must spend time in personal prayer and do this regularly. Her teaching on prayer is perhaps best summed up in these words, “In my opinion, prayer is an intimate sharing between friends; it means taking time frequently to be alone with the one whom we know loves us.” For Teresa, prayer is about the experience of friendship, a friendship that satisfies the longing in our hearts for unconditional love. Teresa knew the Lord as an intimate friend and she wants us to experience his intimacy too.

Belonging to the Kingdom

Even a brief look at the gospels reveals that a constant theme in the teaching of Jesus was the Kingdom of God. Jesus made it clear that he had come to establish the Kingdom of God in the world. His mission was to practice and preach the Kingdom. The ministry of Jesus was to bring about the reign of God in our lives.

For Jesus, the Kingdom of God is not a place or a territory. It has nothing to do with geography or nationalism or indeed political power. It is clear from the example and teaching of Jesus that the Kingdom of God is a way of life; it is about the values we chose to live by. In particular, it is about the way we relate to each other. In a word, it is about love.

Who then belongs to the Kingdom of God? It would seem those who are sincerely trying to live what is known as the beatitudes in their daily lives. These are the peacemakers, the gentle, the humble, the merciful, those who work for justice, those who are persecuted in the cause of right, those who have mellow and grateful hearts. Jesus preaches a religion of the heart and his religion is about developing attitudes that create a right relationship with ourselves, other people, the environment and of course God.

It is important for us to realise that those who belong to the Kingdom of God may be members of the Church, but they may not. We cannot limit the Kingdom of God to the Church. To do so would be exclusive and misleading. Obviously the Church is a community where we are meant to experience the Kingdom of God, but there are many people who belong to the Kingdom of God who do not belong to the Church. Indeed, there might be people who belong to the Kingdom of God and who do not have a conscious awareness of God in their lives. We call these ‘anonymous Christians.’ Kingdom people are sincere people who show kindness and seek to do good. They try to make the world a better place, often working quietly in the background. Kingdom people are a leaven in society. They may not have a public profile but their positive influence is significant, reaching well beyond themselves and beyond even what they dare to imagine.

Towards the end of St Matthew’s Gospel (chapter 25) Jesus makes it clear that we will be judged by the way we treat our neighbours, especially those who are struggling and suffering. Surely this is the same yardstick for deciding who belongs to the Kingdom of God.

The Power of Love

Of all religious symbols I think it is fair to say that the most familiar and perhaps most popular is the cross. Christians are baptised with the sign of the cross. They begin their prayer with the sign of the cross. The cross is hung in church buildings and religious institutions. It is placed on top of monuments and displayed in many of our homes. It is even worn as a piece of jewellery around the neck and in the form of a broch.

So why does the cross have such significance for us? To quote the words of a well-known song by the late Johnny Cash, ‘This thing called love.’ For Christians the cross is above all a symbol of love. It is the symbol of the love we all hunger for, desire and need.

We cannot separate is the cross from love. The cross makes no sense apart from love. Jesus changed the cross from a symbol of failure and death to a symbol of victory and hope by his radical love. Jesus lived by the ‘rule’ of love and he died in fidelity to this love.

“God so loved the world that he gave his only Son” (John 3:16). These are perhaps the most quoted words of scripture, displayed in all sorts of places and for all sorts of gatherings. The greatest and most powerful revelation of God’s love was the death of his own beloved Son on the cross. The cross is the symbol of the unconditional love that God has for each and every human person. As we gaze at the cross how could we doubt that we are infinitely loved, how could we refuse to accept that we are cherished, precious, valued? Through the symbol of the cross God says to each one of us, “I love you.”

Unconditional love is the greatest power in the world. It has the power to motivate, to liberate, to heal, to transform. It even has the power to change death into life. The power of the cross is the power of unconditional love. This is why Jesus said, “When I am lifted up on the cross I will draw all people to myself” (John 12: 32). It is why the followers of Jesus continue to find hope and comfort in the cross. And it is why the cross will always be the most used and most popular religious symbol of all.

Lord Jesus, each time I bless myself with the sign of the cross may I remember that you love me personally, intimately and unconditionally.

Some Advice

We know from the gospels that Jesus gave the people he had chosen as his companions a share in his ministry. He sent them out to preach the good news, to proclaim the Kingdom. To help his inexperienced disciples in their mission Jesus gave them instructions. Carrying out these instructions would ensure that their ministry would bear fruit. In the advice Jesus gave his disciples three things stand out.

1. The disciples were not to travel on their own, but in pairs, two by two. Jesus knew the importance and value of companionship. Indeed, the first thing he did when he began his ministry was to gather a group of companions around him. We need people in our lives who give us encouragement and support, people who lift us when we are sad and celebrate with us when we are glad. We also need people with whom we can have soulful conversations, people who know us at a deep level and who accept unconditionally the stories of our lives.

2. The disciples were to take no excess baggage, only the things they needed for their work. Jesus did not want unnecessary things cluttering the lives of his young missionaries. He did not want them to lose their focus, to get distracted especially by material possessions. One of the traps we can fall into is accumulation. Accumulation only clutters our lives and pulls us away from what is essential. Jesus’ life and work were focused on the building of relationships. It needs to be the same for us. Our focus too needs to be on creating and sustaining caring and compassionate relationships.

3. The disciples were to bless in a special way those who offered them hospitality. In the Jewish tradition hospitality was a sacrament; indeed it was the primal sacrament. By welcoming others, both friends and strangers, and inviting them to sit at table the Jews believed they were welcoming and feeding the Lord himself. There are two types of hospitality. One is hospitality of the table. This focuses on our material needs. We are asked to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless and care for the sick. The second is hospitality of the heart. This responds to our emotional needs. We are invited to listen to those who need to talk, affirm those who feel inadequate and comfort those who feel lonely. Both hospitality of the table and hospitality of the heart put flesh on the care and companionship of Jesus. Together they are a powerful sacrament of the presence of the Lord in our lives.

A Feast in August

A number of times each year the Christian community remembers Mary, the Mother of Jesus. One of these occasions occurs on 15^th August. This celebrates what happened at the end of Mary’s earthy life. It is known as the Feast of the Assumption.

From earliest times there was a conviction among the people of God that when Mary’s life on earth came to an end her body did not experience corruption and the decay of death. In other words, when her earthly was over, Mary was taken as she was into the glory of heaven. It is significant that Mary does not have a tomb. There is no burial place at which to venerate her.

The Feast of the Assumption proclaims Mary as our beacon of hope. Where she is now, we one day hope to be. Her destiny is our destiny; her destination is our destination. The Assumption of Mary offers us an opportunity to remember that we are a pilgrim people. We have here no lasting city. Our true homeland is in heaven. Our big thing is in the future; the best is yet to come. The truth is we will not be happy until we get to where Mary is, until we experience what Mary is experiencing, until we share fully in the life and love of God. God has made us for himself and our hearts are restless until they rest in God.

The Feast of the Assumption of Mary affirms that she was taken up body and soul into heaven. Her body was sacred and as she left this world it was immediately transformed into a glorified body. In the Apostles’ Creed we profess our belief in the resurrection of the body. Like Mary, our bodies will also be included in our experience of resurrection, not immediately, but eventually. For this reason it is important that we respect our bodies and take good care of them. Taking care of our bodies means a healthy diet, proper sleep and regular exercise. It means not taking risks that may harm our own bodies and the bodies of others. Taking care of our bodies also means listening to them for they often reveal what is going on inside of us, especially what is happening in our emotional life.

Reminding the young church at Corinth about the sacredness of the body this is what St Paul said: “Do you not realise that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you and whom you received from God? You are not your own property, then; you have been bought at a price. So use your body for the glory of God” (1Cor 6:19-20). The feast of the Assumption reminds us that Mary used her body for the glory of God. It is an invitation to us to do the same.

My Surrender Prayer

Abba God,
I welcome everything that comes to me today.
I welcome all persons and situations, thoughts and feelings.
I let go of my need to accumulate.
I let go of my need to be busy.
I let go of my need for approval.
I let go of my need to feel important.
I let go of my need to be in control.
I let go of my need to change others.

Abba God,
I accept your unconditional love.
Help me to recognise your presence in my life.  Amen.

See the Good

There are two sides to every story. There are also two sides to every person; the good side and the not so good side. Unfortunately, often the not so good side tends to dominate. We have a tendency only to see the bad and the good becomes blurred, indeed neglected.

In the Gospel we meet a little man called Zacchaeus who was a victim of the tendency in human nature to see the bad (see Luke 19:1-10). His fellow Jews saw him as a tax collector and therefore as a traitor and a thief. For them he was a bad person, someone to be shunned, isolated and rejected. We can have no doubt that Zacchaeus was hurting inside.

When Jesus met Zacchaeus he too saw a tax collector. But he also saw something more, something better, something good. He saw the capacity for generosity and care in Zacchaeus’ heart. Instead of rejecting Zacchaeus, Jesus accepted him. He chose to dine in Zacchaeus’ house. Jesus’ attitude to Zacchaeus changed his life. He became a different person. His potential for good was awakened and he put his wealth at the service of the poor.

So what about us? When we look at other people what do we see? Do we see the good or the bad, the positive or the negative? If we see the good in others we open up a world of opportunity for them, we bring out the best in them. If we see the bad in others, we limit them, we imprison them, we confine them to a black hole.

And when we look at ourselves what do we see? When I look at myself do I see the good or the bad, the strengths or the weaknesses, the successes or the failures? Is my picture of myself a positive one or a negative one? It is a fact that many people carry within themselves a poor self-image and low self-esteem. There are obviously reasons why some people do not feel loved and lovable. But the objective truth is that everyone is made in the image of God, everyone is loved unconditionally by God and everyone is offered the same friendship of Jesus that Zacchaeus was offered. Each one of us is a good but weak human being. While we have a tendency to focus on the negative, Jesus always focuses on the positive.

The challenge for each of us is not to allow the imperfections, the flaws, the weaknesses to dominate the way we see ourselves, others and indeed the world around us. Human nature may be full of imperfection and failure, but it is essentially good and, in the end, the good will prove victorious.

From the Inside Out

For many people religion involves keeping rules and regulations. It is about duty and obligation. Keeping rules and doing our duty does of course have some merit, but this can make religion an external thing lacking inner conviction. The truth is external religion may not serve us well in times of suffering and struggle. Furthermore, it may not be very appealing to those who are searching for a life-giving faith. If religion is identified with observance of the law it is likely to be off putting and unattractive.

Jesus didn’t have a problem with the role of observance in the practice of religion; he knew laws are necessary. However, Jesus did have a concern if our observance of the law is not an expression of what is in our hearts. This was his issue with the group known as the Scribes and Pharisees. For these ‘religious people’ observance of the law was mainly for show, it was to get notice and attract attention. The Scribes and Pharisees didn’t practice their religion for the right reasons. Their religion wasn’t genuine. In fact, it was often hypocritical.

Jesus had the ability to spot when there was some disconnect between our inner and outer lives. He knew that public behaviour didn’t necessarily reflect inner character. It was our inner lives that Jesus was most concerned about. Jesus would say, ‘Of course what we do matters, but what matters more is where this doing is coming from.’

The religion of Jesus is a religion of the heart. It invites us to explore our motivation. What is our motivation for keeping the commandments? Why do we go to church? What is the real reason we pray? Why do we respond to people who are in need? It is our motivation that defines who we really are. This is why it can be said that the Christian life is a purification of motive. It is what is in our hearts that influences the way we live and the way we act. The best way to change our behaviour is to change our hearts.

On many occasions Jesus encouraged his listeners to explore the reasons for their behaviour. One of these occasions is known as the Sermon on the Mount. This sermon is an invitation to discover the spirit behind the law and to act in an intentional way. Ultimately, it is a request to live from the inside out. To be a follower of Jesus two transformations are necessary. One is personal, the other is social. Personal transformation needs to come first. The truth is we cannot change the world unless we first change ourselves.