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Sent from the Father

Jesus is an immortal diamond. There are so many sides to him, so many ways of seeing him and of understanding the meaning of his life and mission. But no matter how we chose to understand Jesus we can never separate him from his Father. The life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth only make sense when seen in relation to God the Father, the one Jesus called Abba. The Father is not just the best prism for gazing at Jesus. He is the only prism.

There are many reasons why Jesus was sent into the world by the Father. Here are three:

Firstly, Jesus is the one who reveals the Father. St John the Evangelist writes: “No one has ever seen God. It is the only Son who is nearest to the Father’s heart who has made him known” (John 1:18). Jesus, the Father’s Beloved Son, has first-hand experience of the Father. He knows the Father personally and intimately. He knows who the Father is. He knows the contours of the Father’s heart and he knows the love that the Father has for humanity. There is no one better ‘qualified’ to reveal the Father than Jesus.

Secondly, Jesus is the one who leads us to the Father’s house; he shows us how to find our way back home. This is what he means when he says, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). In the Letter to the Hebrews Jesus is described as the pioneer and perfecter of our faith (see 12:2). He is the one who leads us in our faith and brings it to completion. If we did not have the guidance of Jesus we would find ourselves wandering around in a wilderness, lost and confused. Jesus is our compass. It is he who keeps us focused on our destination. And our destination is the house of the Father, the place where we will know that we are accepted, cherished and safe.

Finally, Jesus is our companion. Not only does he show us the way to the Father’s house, he also accompanies us on our journey there. Jesus is not a detached authority figure who tells us what to do from a distance. He is our brother who walks alongside us. In the Incarnation Jesus made himself one with us. He entered into solidarity with us, sharing our joys and our sorrows, our successes and our failures, our hopes and our fears. And because of his resurrection Jesus continues to be present to us and in us as our invisible companion. On our journey home to the Father’s house we have the faithful friendship of Jesus.

Waiting

During the season of Advent we are reminded that the Jewish people had to wait for the coming of the Messiah. Indeed during the season of Advent we are drawn into the experience of their long years of waiting. God makes his chosen people wait for the fulfilment of their longings.

Waiting is a holy thing, but it may not be an easy thing, or a popular thing. Our contemporary culture has no time for waiting! It is an instant culture; instant food, instant coffee, instant communication. We want everything now, immediately. This puts our contemporary culture at variance with the spiritual life. The spiritual life is a process of waiting. Spiritual growth does not happen overnight. There are no microwave mystics; no instant saints. Spiritual growth is a gradual process. It takes time, a lot of time. It involves patience and it involves perseverance. The two P’s.

We say that God’s ways are not our ways. It is also true to say that God’s time is not our time! In Advent we are being invited, like the Jewish people, to wait patiently on God to fulfil his plan for us, in us; for me, in me. We see this spirit of waiting in John the Baptist, one of the great Advent figures. John sent messengers to Jesus to ask if he needs to continue to wait. “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” (Luke 7:19) Jesus assures John that he has to wait no longer. The Kingdom of God is now at hand. John’s waiting is over and it has been rewarded.

Why God makes us wait for what is good for us is not easy to understand. Perhaps it is one of those mysteries that we may just need to accept. What is clear is that waiting increases our desire and kindles our longing. It makes us grateful and helps us to appreciate what has been given to us. It also deepens our trust in God and the deeper our trust in God the freer God is to work in us and through us.

Hope

We all need some hope in our lives. People look for hope in different places. One place to look is the Gospel. During the few weeks into Christmas we celebrate the season of Advent. The season of Advent is often called the season of hope. So what kind of hope does Advent offer us?

Advent is clear that no matter what we are going through, no matter what difficulties and problems we are dealing with, things will eventually get better. Sooner or later things will improve. There is a brighter future. According to Advent, God will see to it that the good will win out, that light will dispel the darkness, that rough ground will become smooth. The reason for this hope is the utter fidelity of God. God is faithful to his creation, especially to his people. God is not going to abandon what God has created and redeemed. The coming of Jesus into the world is proof of that.

Advent also reminds us that we do in fact already possess a treasure. This treasure is not a treasure made of silver and gold. It is the treasure of love and it is to be found inside us. Inside us there is a Presence living and loving. This Presence is the Presence of Unconditional Love. Because of it we do not need to look for happiness in things outside ourselves, in things like accumulation and achievement and approval. Because of it we can love ourselves as we are and grow in self-esteem. The greatest love of all is to be found inside. Advent invites us to look for it there without fear.

According to Advent another source of hope is in fact our neediness. We must be willing to seek and accept the help of others, including the help of Jesus. Going it alone and attempting to sort out our problems by ourselves does not work. This is called self-sufficiency and it is a form of pride. We need others and they need us. We also need Jesus. There is something liberating about our willingness to acknowledge that we are helpless and powerless. This is the foundation of the AA recovery programme. It is also the basis for creating real community between people. And perhaps this is what we need more than anything else as we face the future – a recovery of the sense of community. We are here to look after each other, not just to look after ourselves. When our lives are built around genuine care and concern for one another then there is always hope.

A Fresh Start

Most of us are usually glad of an opportunity to make a fresh start, to have a new beginning. The reason for this is not just because we are aware of our past mistakes and our failures. It is also, I believe, because we have hopes that have not been realised and dreams that have not been fulfilled.

Every year on the first Sunday of Advent the Christian community makes a fresh start. It is the day the new church year begins. Among the things the season of Advent invites us to do is dream. It encourages us to imagine a better life for ourselves and for our world. Throughout the four weeks of Advent there is a question that keeps recurring. It is a question that is expressed in many different ways. Perhaps the best way to put the question is this: What is it we really long for?

Someone has said that there is a difference between what we long for and what we settle for. During the season of Advent the focus is clearly on what we long for, not on what we settle for. It can take us time to identify what it is we really long for. We may also need help to name our longing. The Advent season offers this help. It suggests things that we might long for. Here are some:

We long to be able to accept ourselves as we are.
We long for reconciliation with members of our families.
We long for someone who will love us unconditionally.
We long to be able to make a difference in the world.
We long for a personal relationship with God.
We long for the healing of a hurt we experienced in the past.

What we really long for may or may not be on this list. If it is, let’s own it; if it is not, we should try to name what ours might be. It is important for us to believe that Jesus wants what we want, what we really want. In other words, the thing we most want for ourselves is the very same thing that Jesus wants for us. After all no one knows the deepest longings in our hearts better than Jesus.

A Compassionate King

If there was one prayer you were given the option to make what would that prayer be? For some people the prayer they would choose is that of the man known as the Good Thief as he hung on the cross next to Jesus on Good Friday, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

That short prayer, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” is both powerful and beautiful. It is a prayer that is inside each and every one of us. It is a prayer that is deep in our hearts. Perhaps this is the reason why some people are not able to express it until the twelfth hour of their lives. “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” is a simple and honest request to Jesus not to forget me, not to neglect me, not to overlook me, not to exclude me, but to grant me a place, any place, in his kingdom.

Why is this prayer made to Jesus? Because Jesus is King of the eternal kingdom which we desire to belong to. Jesus is the one who rules over us. He is the one whom God the Father has appointed judge of the living and the dead. He is the one to whom we will give an account of ourselves when we die. This is why on the last Sunday of the annual church year the Christian community celebrates the feast of Christ the King.

But what kind of judge will Jesus be? We get some idea from his response to the request of the Good Thief: “Indeed I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise.” These are not the words of someone who is critical and judgemental. They are the words of someone who is compassionate and forgiving. Jesus wants us to be with him in his kingdom. Indeed, he will do everything he can to make sure that we will be with him in his kingdom. This is why the poet Francis Thompson described him as the Hound of Heaven.

When we are able to pray the words, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom” with conviction, we can be confident that Jesus, our King, will respond to us in the same way he responded to the Good Thief on the cross, “Indeed I promise you, today you will be with me in paradise.”

Jesus, remember the broken hearted when you come into your kingdom.
Jesus, remember the hard hearted when you come into your kingdom.
Jesus, remember the weak hearted when you come into your kingdom.
Jesus, remember the down hearted when you come into your kingdom.
Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Amen.

November

During the month of November the Christian community remembers the dead. We rejoice with the saints in heaven and we pray for the souls in purgatory whom we call the Holy Souls. Remembering our dead in November is a good thing; it is good for the dead and it is good for the living. In the Christian view of life the living and the dead continue to be present to each other. They also continue to influence each other.

Of course our focus on the dead during the month of November is also a reminder to us that we too will die one day. We have here no lasting city. Our true homeland is in heaven. God’s other world beyond the grave is our destination and our destiny. With its focus on heaven the month of November gently challenges us about our readiness for death. When we meet Jesus as Lord face to face in death will we feel comfortable and at home in his presence? At the time of death will the Lord feel like a friend or a stranger? Surely we do not want the Lord to say to us at the hour of our death: ‘It is obvious that you do not know me!’ If we want to be ready to meet the Lord in death we need to do what we can to become familiar with him in life. There are a number of things that can help us to become familiar with the Lord. Let me mention two: prayer and the scriptures.

Prayer is our communication with the Lord. Communication turns strangers into friends. St Teresa of Avila describes prayer as an “intimate conversation between friends. It means taking time frequently to be alone with the one whom we know loves us.” Making even a little time frequently to be alone with the Lord, the one who loves us the most, helps us to acquire personal knowledge of him; and personal knowledge of the Lord is what we seek and desire.

Perhaps one of the questions the Lord will ask us at the hour of our death is this: ‘Did you read my book?’ If we find ourselves saying ‘no’ then the Lord may insist that we spend our purgatory reading the bible. The bible known as the scriptures is the Lord’s book. It is the Lord’s story. It is the Lord making himself known to us, sharing himself with us, opening his heart to us. In the bible we discover who the Lord is and who we are. The scriptures bring us into direct contact with the Lord. They are a source of encounter with him. If we are to become familiar with the Lord then we need to spend some time reading the scriptures and to do so in a prayerful way.

The Thing that Matters

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 sand castle, 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. She then sat down to relax. She was pleased with the day at the seaside, pleased mainly for two reasons; one, that her children were safe; two, that they enjoyed themselves. And in the meantime the tide came in and washed away the sand castles her children had built.

It is November, the month when we remember the dead. Remembering the dead is good for them and it is good for us. It helps the dead on their journey to God and it helps us to get things into perspective. One way of getting things into perspective is to ask ourselves this question: When our earthly life is over what will we leave behind us and what will we take with us? Among the things we will definitely leave behind us are the sand castles we have built. Our sandcastles are our property, our possessions, our projects. While perhaps good in themselves these things are transient. Like the children’s sandcastles on the beach they will be washed away by the tide of death.

One thing that will not be washed away by the tide of death is the relationships we have built in life. A reflection in ‘The Little Book of Calm’ hits the nail on the head: “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 with unfinished business.” 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.

The poet William Blake once said: “We are put on earth a little space that we may learn to bear the beams of love.” The purpose of life is to learn the art of loving. It is our commitment to relationships that helps us learn the art of loving. When we come before the Lord in death the thing he will be most interested in will be the love we carry in our hearts.

The Temple of God

It is somewhat consoling, even encouraging, to know that Jesus got angry and expressed his anger on occasions. Jesus was a passionate man and he felt deeply about the things that were important. Using the Temple in Jerusalem to make money was something that offended him. His anger was not intended to hurt the money changers themselves, but to damage their trade.

Anger is a human emotion. We get angry. The anger we feel on occasions is natural and cannot be helped. What we have to learn to do is channel our anger in the right way, like Jesus. If we allow our anger to cause harm or hurt to other people then we have lost control of ourselves.

There is of course another more important message in the dialogue between Jesus and the money changers in the Temple. It has to do with the fundamental question about where we meet God. Is there a special place where we encounter God? For the Jews of Jesus’ day it was the great Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple in Jerusalem was holy ground, a sacred place, God’s home on earth. Jesus challenged this belief. While not denying the value of buildings for prayer, Jesus insisted that there is now a new place to find God. “Jesus said, ‘Destroy this Temple and in three days I will raise it up.’ The Jews replied, ‘It has taken forty-six years to build this Temple: are you going to raise it up again in three days?’ But he was speaking of the Temple that was his body” (John 2:19-21).

At the heart of Christianity is the belief that the unique place where we meet God is in the person of Jesus of Nazareth. It is in the humanity of Jesus where we find God. This means that if we are to get to know God we need to get to know Jesus. A Christian can be described as one who has found God in the life, the teaching, the death and the resurrection of Jesus.

Compassion

Abraham Lincoln was once challenged by his supporters about why he reached out to his political opponents and offered them positions in his government. In reply Lincoln said: “When I make friends with my enemies then they are no longer my enemies.” Lincoln’s answer was a simple statement of the obvious. But it required greatness to put the obvious into practice.

If there is one thing we human beings have repeatedly failed to do down through history it is to love our enemies and to forgive those who offend us. As a consequence we have experienced war, after war, after war. There is nothing more futile than war, nothing more destructive, nothing more devastating to the human spirit. Yet we persist in using it as a way of settling disputes, of defeating our enemies and as a means of asserting our power and gaining control.

It is understandable that one of the major concerns of Jesus was the building of community. Jesus offered people a way of living together that would both respect difference and create unity and peace. For Jesus the key to creating community was compassion. “Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate” (Luke 6:36). This one simple instruction is at the very heart of Jesus’ teaching. Some would even say that it sums up his teaching.

Compassion begins with acceptance, unconditional acceptance of others. Unconditional acceptance means that I accept others no matter what their colour, class, culture, religion and sexual orientation might be. Compassion is also about my willingness to understand the experience of others, to listen to their stories, to hear what they are saying, to learn where they are coming from, to stand in their shoes. In its purest form compassion is about my capacity to enter into the life of another at the level of emotion, where my heart knows the heart of the other.

Compassion is what distinguishes the follower of Jesus; it is the mark of a true Christian. It is the way to end war and conflict and create real community among the peoples of the world. Compassion has its source in God who is compassion itself. It is a gift, a gift that we must pray for, and pray for every day.

Prayer

I once had a very wise spiritual director who said to me about himself, “The most necessary thing in my life is sleep; the most important thing in my life is prayer.” I am sure many of us would agree with his first statement about sleep. It would be good if we also agreed with his second about prayer. Prayer was the most important thing in his life because the most important relationship in his life was his relationship with God.

Prayer is an expression of our relationship with God; prayer helps us to grow in our relationship with God. But who is the God whose friendship and help we experience in prayer? Jesus calls him Father; in fact he calls him Abba which means daddy! To call God Abba Father means that God is not someone who is remote and distant from us, someone who is uninvolved and uninterested in our lives. On the contrary, the God of Jesus is a God who knows each of us personally, who loves us unconditionally and who cares for us faithfully. The Abba of Jesus is a Father who wants what is best for us as parents want what is best for their children.

So how should we pray to this God who loves us to bits? Jesus is clear that we should use simple, honest words when we talk to God. There is no need to babble, to use many complicated words. The best words are those that come from our hearts. The best words are those that are an honest expression of what is in our hearts. What Jesus is asking us to do is talk to God as if we were talking to our best friend.

Jesus is also clear that we should ask God for what it is we need and to keep on asking. Jesus insists that we persevere in prayer. Our prayer must be persistent. Jesus assures us that God does answer our prayers of petition, but we must remember that when God answers our prayers he does so in a way that is best for us. God sees the overall picture of our lives whereas usually we only see the immediate, present really. When God answers our prayers God has our true good, our lasting good at heart. It is important that we do not get discouraged if we do not get from God what we ask for. What we ask for may not be what we truly need at the time. Our prayers are never wasted on God. After all God is our Father.