The giant afterschool workshop: the giant pumpkins 2020 01 24

A 'green' question to ourselves

What is our motivation for saving the planet and tackling with climate change? At last, there is a cause which brings masses to the streets. It is important that we can give a collective response. Yes, people have come out from their 'bubbles' and are ready to demand and take action.

For us Christians, it is an opportunity for self-critical discernment. What are the main motives behind the individual and mass-reactions? Or, to be more precise, what is the existential motive governing our new insurgences? Are the newly emerging voices based on examined life? There is no reason to doubt that the new green-political-social actions are governed by a genuine care for nature.

Yet, we can fear this won't be enough. Examined life is the precondition for effective action. Without it, we can end up in a collective depression and the climate of paralysing fear. The digital echo chamber in which we live can only give a free flow to 'what is unexamined' in us. The shadow side of our culture can easily surface together with the intention to redeem the situation.

The Christian discernment can be helpful here. Is our motive a genuine readiness for 'self-sacrifice'? When we are ready to restrain radically the demands of our egos regimented to consume? Are we ready for kenosis, the self-emptying and re-training of our insatiable desires?

Or, our climate marches and activisms are merely prompted by our 'fear of death'. That is, by the ego's natural refusal of being deprived of the life we possess right now. It would be a narcissistic and natural reaction; yet that of an unexamined life. Surely, we don't want to remain at the level of mass fear of extinction. Unexamined fears can liberate destructive forces – and unleash them to the streets and into our already fragile democracies. I do think, an educational element, examination of life, is needed.

For us, Christians, it is time to re-read our spiritual classics, like Saint Francis de Sales, who analysed how love, will, reason, and passions interact in our lives. Let us hope that facing the challenges of the ecological crisis and honest self-scrutiny will go hand in hand.

'How often do we hate pleasures that our sensual appetite delights in and love spiritual goods in which it finds disgust! In this consists that war which we daily experience between spirit and flesh, between our outer man, who is subject to the senses, and the inner man, who is subject to reason, between the old Adam, who pursues the appetites of Eve, his spouse, that is, his concupiscence, and the new Adam, who follows close after heavenly wisdom and holy reason!' There is a long way, even for us, disciples of the Lord, to root our actions in 'a simple feeling that the soul has for God's truth and will and its acquiescence therein.' (St. Francis de Sales, Treatise on the Love of God, Vol I, Tank Books and Publishers, Illinois 1975, p.65)

22.01.2020

Art for Wellness - Margarets' bird and still life Tuesday 2020 01 21 11 ...

‘Johnny goes to Hollywood’

 

The prophets' task is to call the people to repentance. This is the pendulum of sacred history. There is a compulsive force in us which wants to turn away and forget its dependence on our origins.

We can put it in a different way. The sign of this oblivion is too much 'we-talk' in history. 'The world is ours.' 'It is my world.' 'It is our property.' 'It is my right, it is our right', it is 'our democracy', etc. And we act and consume according to this principle of autonomy. The problem is that autonomy which ignores the fact that life is framed by laws outside the 'we'-s and the 'I'-s, ends up in a painful confusion.

In the light of the crisis of our planet, one can but agree that the vast extension of the 'ego' into nature and the cosmos needs to be stopped. Our endless 'we'-talks and selfish actions must be corrected, otherwise the pendulum of history will swing to the opposite extreme, as prophet Micah warns. 'Therefore, I will make Samaria as an heap of the field, and as plantings of a vineyard: and I will pour down the stones thereof into the valley, and I will discover the foundations thereof. And all the graven images thereof shall eb beaten to pieces, and all the hires thereof shall be burned with the fire, and all the idols thereof will I lay desolate.' (Micah 1:6-7)

But can the age of our expanding 'narcissistic ego' be stopped? Can we correct our sickly autonomous mindset and arrive to saying: this is God's world, too? At least, that God is also a habitant in this city and culture of ours, with His own rights in it? Still, we have our churches, as God's embassies, from which our awakening might come: 'Hear, all ye people; hearken, O earth, and all that therein is: and let the Lord God be witness against you, the Lord from his holy temple' (Micah 1:2-3)

Perhaps, imperative to listen to God's rights is a further meaning of the sabbath-law of which Jesus speaks. The sabbath was made for man, not man for the sabbath. The correction of our 'we-talks and actions' comes from befriending the ego with the Authority lying behind it: 'the Son of Man is master even of the sabbath.' (Mk 2:28) It's time for untamed ego-s to return from Hollywood.

 

21.01.2020  

‘The Spirit coming down on him…’ (John 1:29-34)

Today’s Gospel can be summed up in this simple way: ‘Jesus is special!’ What makes him special is the Spirit’s coming down upon him. Let this scene from today’s Gospel play in our imagination.

First, let us see the encounter between the two. What is John’s life like now that he is has met Messiah? What are his emotions as Jesus is approaching for his baptism? ‘Seeing Jesus coming towards him, John said, “Look, there is the lamb of God!...I saw the Spirit coming down on him”!’ Imagine John’s joy! Is not this the same joy, which Elisabeth shared with Mary, when she visited her? ‘My child has leapt in joy in my womb’. Now this joy is felt again by John. The difference is that now, with an adult mind, he gives expression to this joy. Now he is fully aware of its meaning. John was able to recognise what Jesus meant for him and the world, because of his preparation for this very encounter.

Let this joy plain in our imagination and become a reflection in our coming week. If you were John, how would you prepare and mature your mind to be able to recognise Jesus – whenever he comes unexpectedly. Is Jesus special in your life?

Second, John invites us to explore in what sense Jesus is special. Now imagine what Jesus is like in this scene. Can we see in him the special joy that he came to us? Can we perceive the goodness in his heart for all of us? Can we join John’s faith and believe that his heart goes out to everyone? Imagine the outpouring beauty in this heart, which only we, Christians can see.

‘Yes, I have seen, and I am the witness that he is the Chosen One of God’, says John. He knows that from that moment, after his baptism, Jesus will heal us. He will heal the lepers, the broken hearted, those who are stricken with sorrow or are refused by others. Hold the image of the hovering dove above him. In the movement of the wings, the heartbeats of Jesus, his goodness for us is expressed. His heart goes out to all of us. When we listen to these ‘heartbeats’, we understand our call. ‘Christians are called to develop a heart like Jesus’ ­- a heart that goes out to people who are suffering. In today’s holy communion, as a community, we might want to ask Christ to help us to develop a heart like his, that feels compassion, that eagerly seeks to reach out and help.’ (Pray-as-you-go 16 January entry)

Why living this meditation, and putting it into practice is so important? Let the following quote challenge and motive us. ‘The world does not listen to the Church, it no longer listens to us; for Christians don’t speak out.’ Listen to the sound of the Spirit’s wings above the goodness of your heart. Our task is so obvious, isn’t it?

19.01.2020

19.01.2020

‘Talking about it freely’ (Mk 1:40-45)

 

The leper Jesus heals today is our existential image. Contemplating the story further reveals that it is not the healing from leprosy which is the central event. Instead, his regained ability to speak deserves attention. Julia Kristeva (and the whole of the psychoanalytic tradition) speaks of us as the 'speaking being'. The ability to tell one's story – pains, traumas, hopes, desires, and joys – makes us 'alive'. This is always the first step towards our truer self.

Let us meditate on the leper's regained ability to speak. Despite Jesus' instruction that he should keep silence until he is seen by the priests, 'the men went away, but then started talking about it freely and telling the story everywhere.' So, can we go a step further than psychoanalysis? Can we raise the idea that there is a second, deeper ground of what makes us genuinely 'speaking beings'? The leper's uncontrollable urge to share what happens to him shows this. This very event is the conversation with Jesus. To be more precise, it is verbalising his desire to open that part of his life which needs healing. 'If you want to you can cure me', he said. Reaching the threshold of self-expression before our Healer-God, and stepping over it, is 'the moment'. When our whole being starts to speak. When, as it were, we 'flow into ourselves', into where we supposed to be, who we are supposed to be.  

But there is something even more profound as part of 'the moment'. It is Jesus' desire to give the final impetus to the 'speaking being': 'Of course, I want to [cure you]!' Without this ability to express our innermost existential desires to Him – we live as silent beings. And through these personal silences, our whole culture remains silent before God.

So, can we say, God is our ability to speak? That God is closer to us than our speech?

 

16.01.2020

Keys (1 Samuel 3:1-10, 19-20; Mark 129-39)

The keys of reconciliation with God

Synagogue, teaching, healing, and prayer. Jesus' life hinges on them. Through them, Jesus enters our very history. We should really ask him, 'Lord, how did encountering the whole of our story, as we are, feel?' For through these four activities Jesus meets not only the individual. Through every person he encounters, he also teaches, heals, and prays for our collective history. Like an operating surgeon he knows this vast ocean of human affairs from the inside. He 'operates from within'. That is why it is interesting to see that while 'they brought to him all who were sick and those who were possessed by devils', 'the whole town came crowding round the door.' The whole town. So, the individual healings form also a collective centre. The whole of human history is queuing up for healing and guidance.

The key is this 'all' and 'whole'. We miss the point of our Christian religion if we lose sight of Christ as the redeemer of all and the whole of human history. As a kind of parallel to this, we should pause for a moment, right now. If we can't use the social media as a means (and opportunity) to recover the sense that the human family is one, instead of being a blessing, it will become a curse. We can rightly fear that if this sense is severed from our 'internet consciousness', our lives will be regimented by the most powerful force and authority humans have ever created.

So, the stakes are high. The dice can easily turn both ways with the opposite results. If, through our modern culture, we become aware our unity as the one and indivisible human family – the parallel desire for a personal encounter with the Messiah will also arise. If we don't, then our age will be mentioned in the book of history as one where 'it was rare for the Lord to speak in those days; visions were uncommon.' (1 Samuel 3:2)

16.01.2019

The original excitement of our faith (Matthew 3:13-17)

'After the Lord was baptised, the heavens were opened, and the Spirit descended upon him like a dove, and the voice of the Father thundered: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.' (Entrance Antiphon to the feast, Cf. Mat 3:16-17)

What kind of miraculous sign would make us shiver? What event, related to God, would bring masses, if not all the people, to the streets? (I have scenes of the Netflix film, The Messiah in my mind.) What would make again people 'erect', looking upward? For the Greek word for the human being is anthropos, meaning 'a being looking upwards.' It is the specific name for humans. This name sums up our most important characteristic: we are dependent on a higher power, Life and Love. Only humans can contemplate the sky, and most importantly, God's abode, Heaven. It is said that all the other animals, like the dogs or cats, most of the time look downward. There is sadness in their being. The happiest our pets can get when they see us on whom their life depends.

So, what kind of sign would bring people to the streets, looking upwards? What sign from God would make us 'upward looking' again? Who live with an uplifted heart, with a burning desire for that very life which comes from the open gates of Heaven?

I have found such a sign in the writings of Saint Francis de Sales. His metaphor of the dove invites us to 'feel' the significance of this feast. It is a very positive image which shows the beautiful life which we are given in the Lord's baptism. It is an apt illustration of the 'open heavens' and the beauty what comes from it. Saint Francis compares the wisdom and richness of Christ's teaching to the coloration of feathers on a pigeon's neck. This is one of the most mesmerising collection of colours on earth. The plumage of the feathers plays in crimson, purple, magenta, purple light. For every step of the bird a new living stream of colour is created for our delight – and the delight of his fellow birds!

Jesus' baptism was a similar burst of colours into our lives. It was a big event. A sign of signs. It was a genuine breaking news. The expression 'heavens were open again' gave the chosen people a shiver and utmost joy. They celebrated the fact that there was prophecy and divine teaching given again ‒ after long centuries of God's silence. It was a heavenly phenomenon: though 'invisible' yet the most spectacular sign in the skies.

If we look upwards, we too can be imbued with the rays of this dazzling miracle. We can spot the star of redemption which the Three Kings followed. We can bath in the beauty and richness of the opened sky above Jesus. His baptism was and is a life-giving waterfall of Life. Do we see it? Are we able to perceive it right now?

In order to enable us, today's feast reminds us of two things. First, our personal involvement in Jesus' baptism. We died to sin and were raised to life when we were baptised. Our baptism in the Lord ‒ in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit ‒ left an indelible mark in our soul, invisible to us but not invisible to God. He with his angels will recognise us though this mark in our soul. We have become children of God again, part of God's life through the grace of our baptism ­- linked to the power of today's feast.

However, there is a second element in this feast. It asks us: how can we make really ours this most beautiful sign in Heaven? Namely, to 'feel' with our whole being that Jesus has come for our redemption, to be with us. That we may share his personal friendship, teaching and love.

The answer lies in the teaching ministry of Jesus which begun with his baptism. We must find the means of joining his teaching tours, to be on his side, daily. This time, we are not walking physically with him, from town to town. Yet we need to join him in the most real way through the toiling work of prayer. It is a laborious work, in many forms, which we should discover in the 'ordinary time' of the church year which begins today. It is through daily prayer. It is via joining the regular prayer times of the Church. These options remind us of Saint Francis' vision of the plumage of the dove, the many 'throughs'. So, it is through regular holy communion. Through confession, when saying sorry for Jesus, on a regular basis. Through charity: not good deeds in general or by random, but purposefully offered to God before the deed. Then we will see what Jesus saw, what it meant that the heavens were open. The open skies were open by God's life, by God's peace, and God's joy. Though this self-giving, He wants to lift us up, to make us 'upward looking' again, prayerful and charitable persons. To begin our daily toiling, St Francis provides us with a practical wisdom, too. 'Half an hour's meditation each day is essential, except when you are busy. Then a full hour is needed.'

11.01.2020

Grace-travelling (‘Space travelling’)

(1 John 4.11-18; mark 6:45-52)

 All things considered, is not John's Gospel about journeying in love? The beloved disciple continues his journeys with his Master, Jesus. Now, it is not the long distance walks from town to town. The writer of the fourth Gospel shows us how to join Jesus on his missionary tours in a different way. It is journeying through a meditation on love. It is a call to experience how divine and human love interact. John shows the example of a laborious active prayer. And there are so many transforming insights through these 'inner missionary tours.

John's toiling at understanding the Word and our own daily prayers aim at the same: joining the historical teaching tours of Jesus. Following him via the church's prayer life, like the Morning and Evening Prayers, or the daily mass and the Lectio Divina is the way to the original excitement of Jesus' teaching. John shows us the laborious way of becoming a contemporary of Jesus.  

John's letter continues the theme of 'mirroring' God's Love. This time, his focus is how our love is enriched by his love. We can see the extra power our love acquires. Human love can be strengthened to the extent that 'we can face the day of Judgement without fear.' This is precisely the experience of the first disciples, when meeting and listening to Jesus. 'Because even in this world we have become as he is.'

This transformation (Jesus becoming real for us, our becoming real for Jesus) reminds us of another journey with which our age is preoccupied. Our decadently rich culture's obsession is space-travelling. We Christians ­- as disciples - know that the ultimate distance where we can travel to is overcoming our fears. 'In love there can be no fear, but fear is driven out by perfect love.' In other words, God's love toward ourselves (journeying) towards us to explore our truer self. In this journey, 'love will come to its perfection in us'. Love will come to its perfection in us 'when we can face the day of Judgement without fear.' This kind of space (grace!)travelling is the most challenging of all expeditions. It can reward us with the most staggering, and at the same time most joyful discovery.: 'No one has ever seen God: but as long as we love one another God will live in us.' This is the fuel of our spaceship, our long distance heart.

08.01.2019