Weekly Reflection: First Sunday of Advent, Year B

Reading references:

First Reading: Isaiah 63:16-17;64:1.3-8
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 79:2-3.15-16.18-19 R. vs. 4
Second Reading: Corinthians 1:3-9
Gospel: Mark 13:33-37

Advent is a very beautiful season of our Church’s year. It is a time when we are invited to be reflective about our lives knowing that “God is the potter and we are the clay”. It is a time when we are challenged to become more aware as we wait for our God to “visit this vine and protect it”. It is a time when we pray to “stay awake” and to be more in touch with our hunger and longing for God (for Love) knowing that God can come so “unexpectedly”.

Advent really is and invitation to deepening prayer and a reminder of the life giving importance of prayer in our lives.

Prayer has many faces. There is liturgical prayer when we come together as a community to offer praise and thanksgiving. There is formal verbal prayer such as the rosary etc. There is reflective prayer where we spend time examining our lives. While these are all important, the prayer we are reminded about during this advent season is the prayer of communion – the prayer that profoundly draws us into this relationship with our God in a most personal and empowering way, so that we stand before God in absolute awe.

This contemplative prayer has been largely misunderstood or even ignored within our faith communities. We can absorb ourselves in the prayer where we do all the doing/saying – we say all the daily prayers and we attend the daily liturgies etc, but this is only a small part of the prayer journey to which we are invited to be part of. When we respond to the call of contemplative prayer we can do nothing except stand in awe of what surrounds us and it is then when we will allow God to do all the doing within us. We must allow prayer to transform us and to bring to life the birth of love within our hearts – this is what Advent is about.

We will come to learn that what is required of us is our silence, not our verbal utterances. But we must allow God to lead us on this journey of deepening Love and that is often the hardest thing for us to do because it requires us to let go instead of holding the reigns and directing our prayer.

When we are drawn into this contemplative prayer we can often feel helpless and wonder if our prayer has perhaps been a waste of time. But we must be careful of this temptation. Teresa of Avila gives us some great words of wisdom about this when she says that our prayer cannot be judged by how much we do, but it can be judged by how much we love. So our loving is the fruit of our prayer, and how ever hard we are finding prayer, if we remain and grow in love then we know that God is working within us.

Contemplative prayer is confusing for many. But a small example might help our understanding. It is a very limited example because any example given can never capture God, it can only give us a glimpse to help our understanding.

Recently I was walking along the beach front with my family and the sun was going down in the west. The sky was streaks of reds and pinks – it was spectacular - and this great ball of yellow sun was just about to meet the surface of the ocean on the horizon, and we all stopped and never spoke a word and just watched the sun disappear beyond the horizon. We were in awe of the beauty before us. There was no speaking just silence for those few minutes as we watched and pondered this magnificent scene.

Think of times in your own life when you have been totally captivated by something in this way. They are not times when you just keep talking about whatever, or thinking about whatever else. You become absorbed by what is before you and silence is a natural reaction.

Well if we can have this experience with various aspects of nature then how much greater will this experience be when we open our hearts and come to truly know something of the immensity and mystery of God. This is contemplation, to stand in faith before God in awe and wonder and silence, and coming to know my own powerlessness before this great mystery. One of the greatest tragedies in our prayer lives is to limit God to our own understanding and when we do this we will not know the awe of God.

Let’s pray in the coming week that we will have a renewed commitment to prayer and ask that our hearts will be ‘awake’ to discover a deepening understanding of prayer as we await the birth of Jesus/the birth of Love breaking into our world and into our own hearts.

Weekly Reflection: Our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King - Year A

Reading references:

First Reading: Ezekiel 34:11-12.15-17
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 22:1-3.5-6. R. vs. 1
Second Reading: Corinthians 15:20-26.28
Gospel: Matthew 25:31-46

In one of our Opening Prayers in our liturgy for this Sunday it says: ‘Open our hearts, free all the world to rejoice in his peace, to glory in his justice, to live in his love.’ This is what our ‘king’ offers us today. ‘King’ is quite a difficult and unhelpful image for many people to relate to because firstly: the imagery puts forward the exclusivity of a male God and secondly: because history reveals to us that a number of kings have been ruthless power mongers who have cared nothing for their citizens on many levels. But for us to engage this very beautiful celebration of Jesus the universal Christ we must endeavour to not allow ourselves to be bound by the limitations of our language and to be open to see what is at the heart of this wonderful feast.

The universality of Jesus is something we often don’t understand. We can be tempted to see Jesus as our own personal messiah and see very little beyond this. Or various religious groups can claim Jesus as their own and exclude others, thinking they and no others possess the truth of Jesus. These are gross misunderstandings and distortions of who Jesus is for us.
When Jesus was hanging on the cross and cried out ‘Father, forgive them for they know not what they are doing’, he cried this prayer out for the whole of humanity – he cried it for us.

In our gospel today Jesus says: ‘All the nations will be assembled’ and it will be revealed to us what our response has been to the hungry, to the thirsty, to the stranger, to the naked, to the sick and to the imprisoned. Jesus placed himself in every human being when he made these statements to the nations, and this was a great surprise to those who did not respond to the needs of those around them. They did not recognise the universality of Jesus – they did not know Jesus.

We today must ask ourselves if we recognise the universality of Jesus and what the implications of this are for us. If we have a genuine personal relationship with Jesus then we will have that relationship with the world around us. Jesus wept over Jerusalem, but he kept loving, he kept challenging and he kept faithful to the empowering love that welled up within him. So often we hear people say today: “What can I do I am only one person – what difference can I make.” When we give in to this attitude we need to hear Jesus saying to us “For I was hungry and you never gave me food, I was thirsty and you never……..”

None of us want to hear these words, but hear them we will if we refuse to respond to the world around us, if we refuse to see Jesus in our neighbour.

Surely we weep when we see innocent people being murdered in wars. Surely we weep when we see people without food or shelter. Surely we weep when we see political leaders uphold the economy in preference to the well being of the people. Surely we weep when we see alcohol and drugs destroy the lives of many people. Surely we weep when we see the youth suicide at a never seen before level. Surely we weep when we see innocent people jailed and detained. Surely we weep when we see the plight of our aboriginal brothers and sisters. Surely we weep when we see people crippled and manipulated by fear. Surely we weep when we see revenge enacted etc etc etc.

BUT do we weep? Or do we close our eyes and our hearts and pretend everything around us is OK because I think I’m OK?

Peace, Justice and Love are what our universal Messiah offers us. But the world we live in is a word of increasing turmoil, growing injustice and growing hatred. If we say we believe in Jesus we cannot shut our eyes and hearts to what is happening around us – to believe in Jesus is to believe in justice and peace for all. We must challenge our political leaders to produce policies that reflect this justice and peace. We the people have an enormous power to do this but often we selfishly shut our eyes and then we wonder why we find ourselves in a mess. For example a growing trend in our political elections is to vote for whichever party puts the most money in our pockets regardless of how that might impact on others, and regardless of the policies a particular political party might have on any number of justice issues. It would appear that we don’t seem to care and that our main concern is for ourselves. When we think and behave in this way little good will come from it.

Our selfishness and self centeredness is our greatest problem and our greatest challenge. When, as individuals and as a world wide community we can move beyond this and acknowledge our deep longing for peace, justice and Love and respond to it, then we will see the emergence of a world that reflects what Jesus the universal Messiah is offering us.

Then Jesus will turn to us and say: ‘For I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you made me welcome; naked and you clothed me; sick and you visited me; in prison and you came to see me'.

Reading references:

Weekly Reflection: 33rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A

Reading references:

First Reading: Proverbs 31:10-13.19-20.30-31
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 127: 1-5. R vs 1
Second Reading: Paul Letter to Thessalonians 5:1-6
Gospel: Matthew 25:14-30

The response to our Psalm today is ‘Happy are those who fear the Lord.’ How do we understand this word ‘fear’ in this context? It is a very important question because it is often misunderstood and creates all sorts of problems for us. So often we limit God to nothing more than our own understanding and of course this distorts God beyond imagining. But when we come to know something of the immensity of God and we look at Jesus who reveals for us the God of Love, we will know we are standing before sheer mystery. That experience of faith will make us tremble with awe, not with fear as we understand fear today – but with an awe that will free us from what binds us and we will be lovingly drawn into this mystery and we will want to be drawn into the mystery. Our God does not want us to be bound by fear – our God wants us to be free to Love. So, to ‘fear the Lord’ has nothing to do with the fear that permeates our world today – it is to do with Love beyond our imagining and standing before this mystery in absolute awe and wonder.

But in our gospel we are presented with a fear that is destructive, and if our eyes are open we will recognize it all around us and within us. The three servants are given gifts by their master. Two of them multiply the gifts. But one of them hides their gift because of fear and then loses everything. So how does all of this speak to us today?

Every human being is given the gift of Love. Some of us have been badly broken during our lives for a number of reasons but we still have the freedom to make the decision to Love and to let ourselves be loved. When we love we are multiplying the gift that we have been given (as we see in two of the servants today). But what stops us from loving? Mostly it is fear. We are afraid to let ourselves be vulnerable by daring to speak the truth. We are afraid we will be rejected and so we put up a barrier between ourselves and others. We are afraid of what people may think of us so we behave in a way that we think others would want us to behave and we loose ourselves in the process. We are afraid to take risks and in doing so we retard our potential to grow in love. We are afraid we will lose power so we play dangerous games to try and destabilize those whom we think are a threat to us. We are afraid we will lose control and so we exercise control over others through manipulation, violence etc.

We see government’s world wide currently operating through a politics of fear with its citizens. We see it in our own country through the promoted threat of terrorism and all that goes with that. Through this political game we have become very suspicious of particular people without any justification. We have allowed the horrific treatment of refugees and asylum seekers to take place on our own soil because we have been manipulated into thinking that ‘these people’ are a threat to our ‘security’ our ‘democracy’ and our ‘way of life’. It creates division, suspicion and fear – and it further exacerbates hatred and conflict. It puts the rights and freedoms of citizens at a greater risk when we allow ourselves to be manipulated by fear in this way.

We must allow our hearts be troubled by such shocking political games and our eyes and hearts must be open to see that the promotion of fear is always counter productive to love. Fear is the enemy of Love. When we give into fear of any kind in any circumstance we are blocking love. Throughout scripture we are told ‘do not be afraid’ because the crippling and destructive nature of fear is known to the wise. We must pray for the courage to break the cycle of fear that is running rampant around us and within us.

In the coming week take some time to ponder your life and our world. Think of the gift of love you have been given and reflect upon how it has been multiplied in your life. Think of how your own heart has been touched by those who love you. Take some time also to think of where fear has impacted on you and what happened when you gave into this fear or what happened when you were able to go beyond the fear. These wise words by Oscar Romero may help your reflection:

“To each one of us Christ is saying:
If you want your life and mission to be fruitful like mine, do as I.
Be converted into a seed that lets itself be buried.
Let yourself be killed.
Do not be afraid.
Those who shun suffering will remain alone.
No one is more alone than the selfish.
But if you give your life out of love for others, as I give mine for all,
you will reap a great harvest.
You will have the deepest satisfactions.
Do not fear death or threats; the Lord goes with you.

[Excerpt taken from “The Violence of Love” Page 128]

Please note: This reflection may be used in parish bulletins etc but with acknowledgment of its author.

Weekly Reflection: 32nd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year A

Reading references:

First Reading: Wisdom 6:12-16
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 62:2-8. R. vs 2
Second Reading: Paul Letter to Thessalonians 4:13-18
Gospel: Matthew 25:1-13

Our First Reading today speaks of wisdom and says:

“Quick to anticipate those who desire her, she makes herself know to them….”

And our psalmist is filled with longing for God and cries out

“For your love is better than life…”

Our Gospel highlights for us the difference between those who are wise and those who are not and what the ramifications of this will be for us. Let’s explore the bridesmaids and see how they might speak to our lives today.

Like the ten bridesmaids there is no doubt that religious communities world wide want to come and meet God – they want to be part of the kingdom of heaven. But also like the ten bridesmaids some of us will be “foolish” and we will not be known by our God because we took no responsibility for our own preparation on the journey.

What a great tragedy it will be if we don’t recognize ourselves in this parable and begin to turn our lives around and make preparations so that we may be eternally with our God. We are personally responsible for ourselves and it matters greatly how we prepare ourselves. To carry the “lamp” is not enough – we are responsible to keep that lamp lit – we are responsible to provide the oil that will keep it burning. It is not enough to proclaim Jesus to be our light - it is not enough to go to Mass on Sunday – it is not enough to say I want to be with God. All of these things are important, but to give these expressions of faith life, then we must learn to LIVE what we proclaim.

To say or do these things is one thing, to desire God with all our hearts is quite another.

The way in which we choose to live our lives is equivalent to the oil in the lamps. If we continue to ONLY ‘proclaim’ to ‘go’ and to ‘say’ then we will not know our God and our God will say to us “I do not know you.”

If we persist with living lives that say and do plenty but LOVE little then we are walking in very dangerous territory.

It is our Loving, our desire and our longing that is equivalent to the oil in the lamps. We must examine our hearts and our lives very carefully and very deeply and ask God to heal us of our blindness.

Love is what will lead us to the Kingdom of Heaven and Love does not separate itself between religious practice and a life lived in love – if we choose to separate them it is like having a lamp without the oil as we saw in our parable today.

Let us pray in the coming week that our hearts will be open to the Wisdom our God offers us.

We might also ponder these wise words below by Joan Chittister in her book “Heart of Flesh” and think of all the ways in which we separate our religious practice from the way in which we live our lives and the choices we make. We might also think of all the enlightened moments we have had in our lives and pray that we will be open to continuing enlightenment.

“We spend so much time camouflaging reality by prettying up what we do not want to face that only when it is irrevocably unmasked do we come to see what we realize we were intended to see in the first place. We look at so many things and refuse to see them for what they really are. We look at life and divorce it from spirituality.”

Please note: This reflection may be used in parish bulletins etc but with acknowledgment of its author.