Welcome, to the God of Love

The celebration of the feast of the incarnation is one of the most profound experiences we can have as Christians. Sadly, we tend to confine our celebration and appreciation of it to the festivities over the few days of the Christmas season, when in all truth, it should be centre stage for everything we do. If we really think about It, we begin to understand just what an awesome revelation the incarnation is. The sheer strangeness of what has happened is hard to take on board, because it seems so preposterous. God becomes as we are. Why? The whole realisation of what has taken place causes us to ask the deep and important questions about life, relationship, and purpose.

We live in a contingent world of cause and effect. We are not therefore isolated nor remote from our surroundings or from each other. We cannot survive without being connected and interactive with all that is around us. We influence others and others influence us. We could of course seek to ignore that influence and at the same time negate the effect we have on others. We could try and live without a thought for anyone or anything else and simply live in our own bubbles but what a sterile and awful place such a world would be. It would be a world without love, a world without compassion, a world devoid of feelings and a world in which everyone and everything was vying for their own needs and ignoring the plight of the other. Such a world would never flourish. It would through its own ignorance perish.

The gift we have been given and through which we are able to overcome our own ignorance is the incarnate love of God made visible in the person of Jesus. In the prologue to his Gospel, the evangelist John portrays with deep insight and comprehension, that God’s love is not time bound or restrictive. But that for a moment in our history, it became enfleshed, in Jesus, his Son who lived out the fulness of this love, offering and showing it to the world in all its different and diverse ways. His life is the revealing of God’s love. His every thought, act and deed, are the expression of how we are called to come to understand the meaning and purpose of relationship, both with God and with each other. And that through him, every thought, act and deed, are extensions of Gods’ love reaching out into the world and into our lives.

It begins, as with every act of love, with a birth. Let us welcome the new born love once again and continue to welcome it as it grows in us, through us and around us, in all that we say and do, for the Word is made flesh and lives amongst us.
Happy Christmas

EXPECTING, PREPARING, WAITING, COMING

This week’s Advent word is “Coming”, and we have entered the period of the pre-octave of Christmas when the gospels of the days from now to the 25 December unfold the mystery of the incarnation as the coming of Christ in the flesh is told. The preface of the Mass also, now changes its emphasis from speaking of the coming of Christ in the fulness of time, to telling of his coming as the child in the manger. But the scripture readings from the Old Testament too are full of anticipation. Something wonderful is about to happen. ‘Gather round and listen’ is how the Book of Genesis introduces us to the week. We have a story to hear, and we must attune not just our ears but our whole selves to the importance of what we are about to be told.

As so it goes...’See the days are coming – it is the Lord who speaks’ proclaims Jeremiah, evoking our understanding that it is God who is directing and relating this story to us. It continues with three stories of unusual birth narratives – a barren woman receives an annunciation from an angel and is told she is to conceive and bear a son. A maiden is with child and will soon giver birth to a son whom she will call Emmanuel, Hannah a childless wife for many years becomes pregnant and in thanksgiving she sings a joyous song extoling and exulting the Lord God. The prophet Zephaniah calls on the people of Israel to ‘shout for joy, for the Lord is in your midst’. The finale climaxes with Malachi prophesying the coming return of Elijah, followed by the account in the Book of Samuel of how the Lord, through the Davidic line, will erect a House or a lineage that will be established forever.

I find all this so compelling, pointing as it does, to the moment when the gospel at the Vigil Mass of Christmas presents us with the lineage of Jesus, son of David, Son of Abraham. All those names of long forgotten ancestors of Jesus; Salmon, Obed, Abijah, Tamah, Rahab and many more. It’s only by knowing the back story as told, that we come to fully understand why Matthew has made such a play of the lineage of Jesus ending as it does with Joseph, the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, the anointed one.

St Paul understood this like no other, such that in his letter to Titus read at Midnight Mass, he tells us that ‘God’s grace has been revealed and has made salvation possible for the whole human race...with the appearing of our great God and saviour Christ Jesus.’ This revelation is the incarnation, the Word made flesh, dwelling amongst us. Luke in the gospel puts it thus:

Today in the town of David, a saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.

May his advent, his coming, now be upon us

EXPECTING, PREPARING, WAITING, COMING.

This week’s Advent word is “waiting”. Waiting can be a deeply frustrating experience. For example, I am writing this whilst my computer is on a go slow for some reason. Each time I type a letter on the keyboard it seems to take an age before registering on the screen. As I write the words they don’t appear, and it plays havoc with my train of thought as I wait for the sentence to materialise before my eyes. I think that sense of frustration is recorded in the gospel reading of today. The disciples of John the Baptist have been sent to ask Jesus if he is the one to come or must they wait for someone else. The answer they get is priceless. Go back and tell John what you hear and see. Jesus tells them that the prophetic deeds which they are witnessing are all the evidence they need. Before their very eyes, Isaiah’s words are being fulfilled. Jesus ends with a beatitude: Happy are those who do not lose faith in me.

This is at the heart of what our “waiting” is all about in Advent. Like the disciples of John and like me with my snail-paced computer we can all feel frustrated that we are having to wait for what we want. Why do we have to wait and how long will it all take? Such attitudes can and do cause annoyance and lead to upset. And when it’s the “big” questions for which we are seeking answers then we become all the more impatient, and often compelled to wonder if what is being promised is ever going to happen. We ask ourselves what is the point of all this waiting, and will it ever come to fruition?

Let’s look again at what Jesus said to John’s disciples and what, through them, he is saying to us. Happy are those who do not lose faith in me is how the Lectionary translates it. The actual word used has a more literal meaning: Happy are those who are not skandalised by me. This may give us a better understanding of why our waiting is not going to end in frustration. It is the word Jesus uses to describe Peter’s desire to frustrate Jesus with his own agenda when he wanted to prevent him from going to the cross. It reminds us once more that our discipleship is deeply embedded within the context of “waiting” no matter how frustrating it may seem. The mission of Jesus is to bring forth the kingdom in all it fulness and the mystery of the cross is at the core of his mission. It is only when we fully understand this, that our waiting will be over, and this will happen when we finally have put aside all our own agendas and are at last “in Christ”. And oh yes, my frustration with my computer didn’t last long – its working fine now.

Come thou long awaited Jesus, come. Happy Gaudete Sunday!

EXPECTING, PREPARING, WAITING, COMING

This week’s word is preparing, and the gospel leaves us with no doubt about what we are to be preparing for – the kingdom of heaven. How interesting it is that the words are proclaimed by John the Baptist. How then are we to understand them and how are we to prepare ourselves for this coming kingdom? The gospel we know is full of references to the “kingdom of heaven” and these all flow from the teachings of Jesus. What though does John the Baptist offer as preparation for the coming of this kingdom? I think we have two clues to help us unfold the meaning of what he is saying.

Firstly, John proclaims his message in “the wilderness”, a place of unfamiliarity and dissonance. It is quite possible that we may feel somewhat disconnected from our society today. How can we prepare properly when we are so distracted or confused about our surroundings? Different and diverse elements can be unsettling, and we need to re-appraise or re-adjust our minds and thoughts to recognise how we can preach the gospel. We need to see these experiences not as negative factors, but as new openings that call for enlightened and new attitudes. We are constantly being called to prepare and adapt to the new landscape which we are being invited to explore. To change the wilderness into fertile pasture. Perhaps we should look at our new parish in this light? Am I prepared for the changes that are to happen? What is it that God is calling me to take on board with how the Church herself is adapting and preparing for what is coming.

The second clue comes with the word “repent”. It is a word that signifies action. We can’t sit passively and just expect repentance happen to us. We must get up and actively prepare ourselves for it to engage us. What or who is it that actively animates me and acts as the catalyst to motivate the change within me? John identifies the elemental necessities by citing the coming of the Holy Spirit into our lives by baptism. The fire he speaks of is a fire that burns within us – did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road – the words of the two on the road to Emmaus as they trudged through the wilderness that they felt they were entering following the death of Jesus. Their hearts were prepared and changed by the active presence of the one who walked alongside them and whom they recognised in the breaking of the bread.

This was their moment of change, of repentance. This was their moment when the wilderness became the fertile land into which the seed of the gospel was to be sown. This was when they began to proclaim the gospel, the coming of the kingdom of heaven. Let it be ours too and let us prepare ourselves in like manner.

EXPECTING, PREPARING, WAITING, COMING

It's a new liturgical year and so I have decided to restart this blog. I hope I can keep up with writing it each week and that you will enjoy them.

Today we begin the Season of Advent and with Christmas falling on a Sunday, we are treated to the Season in all its fulness and that is a great joy for us. The four words which appear as the title to this reflection will act as headings for each Advent Sunday. So as this is the first Sunday of Advent, we are going to be thinking about Expecting, looking at what the gospel says, and how we, as a worshipping community, can explore the meaning and implication of expectation as a way of gaining deeper insights into this beautiful Season.

If we look at today’s gospel, we are confronted with two different, but at the same time connected facets of expectation. The first is the imperative to stay awake. It clearly implies a feeling of excitement. It introduces the idea that something is afoot and is about to happen. Something which is going to enact change and transformation. Our minds and thoughts are thereby put on notice about what this change and transformation will be and what it will bring. Staying awake so as not to miss this moment is the chal- lenge, and we recognise how hard this can be. We know that our excitement can be dimmed when we feel that expectation is not being satisfied, but the gospel spells out what is to happen – the coming of the Son of Man. Understanding what this means, draws us into the second aspect of expectation; when will it come about?

The strange, almost parable like, account in the gospel of a burglar breaking into a house may sound startling. It seems to beg the question why compare the coming of the Son of Man with a burglary? I think the answer lies with the earlier reference in the gospel to the people in the days before the Flood. We are told they weren’t prepared for it as they refused to listen to the warnings of Noah about the coming deluge. Similarly, with us in our times. Have we prepared ourselves spiritually for the reality of the coming of the Son of Man? The burglar we know comes with stealth and takes from us our material goods, everything that we feel is necessary and essential for our living. We have no idea of when he will come but when he does, he leaves us with nothing, But if all we are is what we own, then we are lost. What the gospel is describing is the final judgement, and we will never know that time for that, all we can say is that the Son of Man will come in the fulness of time, even though we have no sense of when this will be. But if we are expecting it and have stayed awake, his coming will be transformative for us.

Advent thus begins with the expectation of the arrival Son of Man and not the babe of Bethlehem. Let us help and assist each other prepare for this coming. Let us encourage one another with our prayers and make sure we are ready and expectant.