RUSTING IN THE UNDERGROWTH

A mad thought wandered in off the street the other day and sat down in this very chair as if it owned the place. It was still there when I looked earlier today and is clearly making itself at home. What should I do? 

When stuck, I was told years ago, "consult the people". I'm not sure the Dogma professor really meant what he said but here I am anyway, in the language of today, "sharing" with anyone willing to give me a hearing. I told you it was a mad thought, but I'm too uncertain to actually expel it from the premises and then discover it had had some good parts, I thought I'd leave it to you to decide what was best.

The mad thought that has lately come  to be part of this  place is this: 
 "The church should throttle back on religion, ease up on ritual, let people live their own lives."

I think the Mad Thought saw its chance when it heard me saying how impressed I was by the bit in the Gospel that says the crowds were impressed by Jesus precisely because, "he spoke with authority, not like the scribes and pharisees." Mad Boy saw the door was open and made its move. Let this be a warning to the rest of us.


Mention of the Scribes and Pharisees seems to have been the trigger. After all "religion" really was their business. They owned it. "Greeting each other obsequiously in the market squares and having people call them Rabbi." Nothing they liked better than telling people the requirements of the Law, giving their decisions on matters of tradition or mere custom. 

At dodgy times when folk seemed uncertain, the doctors of the law could be relied upon to have their say. And don't blame me too much for leaving the door ajar, please. I can clearly remember how in my younger days, the mere laity would sneak into the sacristy after Mass for a quiet word with Father. "We're going out next Friday, Father, would it be alright if we ate meat?" And they waited for the answer from someone half their age. When it came, it came with the whiff of an authority the scribes and the Pharisees would have envied. 

Meantime the laity, the heart's core of the living church, armed by God almighty with conscience as their guide but lacking the confidence to use this gift, rusted in the undergrowth like devalued remnants of the people they were called to be.[ Wow! Big sentence that].  

How Jesus must have maddened the authorities of his time, the very guardians of the traditions he had been taught in his home in Nazareth. It wasn't just that he was disobedient, he wasn't; it was worse than that, he kept referring to something called "fulfillment" which had not occurred to most of his hearers. Keeping the law was everything. Fulfillment didn't come into it.

No wonder then that their last word on Jesus was, "Crucify him".  That's vested interests for you.

It would be nice to think that I have overstated the case. Vatican 2 has shown us better ways. And in any case we seem to have a Pope now whose vision is wider, deeper, and further than mere adherence to the regulations of religion.

It would indeed be nice to think that we have learned our lesson and that now at last we have reset our compass bearings. And yet almost daily we hear of efforts to immerse the local church in religion as it was a thousand years ago. We hear too of people longing for the so-called certainties of the good old days. Why? Are we unwilling or indeed unable to decide for ourselves?

What a disaster that would be, for in spite of appearances that approach would seriously damage the church we say we love, hole it below the water line. The spirit-driven call of the church is to help people live lives that are truly human. And what could be more fitting for the dignity being human than the courage to use our conscience in living our lives?

And the church? Must it now take its turn at rusting in the undergrowth, just an object of curiosity for visiting tourists. Certainly not according to our present Pope, Francis. In the recent document on "Family Life" Amoris Laetitia, he tells us quite clearly what he regards as the role of the church in modern society. Far from retiring to the long grass, he says " the Church is called to form consciences not replace them" (Amoris Laetitia, 37)

A different role then for the church. No longer just dishing out the rules but certainly not rusting in the undergrowth either.

This article is currently included in the discussion items, on the Facebook private page "Welldoers".

AND SO TO LENT

AND SO TO LENT
"Memento Homo, quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris" (Remember man that you are dust and unto dust you shall return")

• Today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent

• We put ashes on our foreheads to remind ourselves that there is something deeper to life than just enjoying ourselves, so today we started out
• To concentrate on growing inside
• During Lent we will try to do three things to help us grow inside and so closer to God. Here are the three things
1. Prayer
2. Fasting
3. Almsgiving
Each one is important in its own way.
If we fast but don’t pray, then we may be only dieting to lose weight and that will not help us grow inside.
If we pray but don’t fast we may just get lost in our own thoughts and not really think of God and that would be a waste of Lent.
And if we Pray and Fast, but don’t give alms, then we may be self centred and thinking we are better than we are, so
We need all three

LENT 2017

Most of us have an instant personal plan for Lent, consisting of the big three:


1.Prayer, 
2.Fasting
3.Almsgiving.

But the church has an actual plan for Lent based on a plan OF Lent. It would be well worth our while getting to know this plan in much the same as it  is good to see the wood as a whole as well as the individual trees that go to make up the wood.


What would be the point, for instance, of a football manager having a Master Plan to help his team win the game if his players simply concentrated on their individual skills and ignored the manager's master plan? The poor chap would have to face the Cameras after the match and try to explain why his team had crash-landed on the field of play.

The trouble is, as most of us know, parish workers including Parish Priests, often sound and act as if they've never even heard of a plan, being too busy with prayer intentions and rules for fasting and abstinence. But in fact the Church's master plan for Lent is no big secret; it's there for all to see in the way the Sunday Gospel readings are arranged. Watch.

The first two Sundays of every Lent are ALWAYS, the same; the temptations of Jesus, followed by the Transfiguration. 

The next three Sundays vary according to which year of the Liturgical cycle we're in, but again are always the same for that particular cycle.
For instance, this year we are in Cycle A and after the first two Sundays the Gospel readings are (as always in this cycle),
1. The Woman at the Well meets Jesus
2. The cure of the man born blind
3. The Raising of Lazarus
Then, of course comes the Sunday of the Palms (now called Passion Sunday) followed by Holy Week and Easter.  
Simple, clear, easy to follow, yes, but how does it help?

If you find yourself asking that question then for an answer think "vision". A master plan, if it's to be worthy of that name must have a vision. 
Those of you with the R,C.I.A running in your parish will know already where I am heading. The Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults uses the scripture readings of the Sundays of Lent, especially year A, to receive new converts into the church. And there is the plan for Lent at its clearest. Lent is about receiving new converts into the church AND converting again those already in the church.  
Now, believe it or not, I have a plan in writing these little pieces which is to keep them to around 400 to 500 words. So let's pause there and we'll finish it later, certainly before Lent starts.

CONTINUING LENT 2017

Key Phrase For This Lent

" I AM HE "

The church has an overall plan of Lent which is aimed at two sets of people,

1. New converts to the Faith

2. Those who long to be encouraged all over again by the faith they place in Jesus and the Gospel.  

This blog suggests that it would be helpful for us to use the Church's plan of Lent in making our own personal plans for Lent.

TWO FOR OPENERS
The first two Sunday Gospels of Lent, (always the same two,) Temptations and Transfiguration, can represent for us the poles or possibilities between which we live out the journey of life 

THREE MOMENTS OF TRUTH
The next three Sunday Gospels tell of three people coming to faith in in Jesus in very different ways.
 a)The woman at the well comes to Jesus through souls-searching and discussion. 
b)The man-born-blind comes through the courageous steps of facing the truth. 
c)Lazarus and his sisters come by way of having no where else to turn.

Jesus' self revelation is central to all three. In sometimes different wording, he says to each of the three, "I Am He".

LONG - TERM PLANNING

LENT: TRYING TO BE GOOD

The rub of the ashes simply gets our repentance in first.

Neither "success" nor "failure" does justice to our relationship with God.

* Passiflora caerulea: Passion Flower, claimed in some countries to bear the marks of Christ's passion

You may consider the start to this piece a bit "corny". Bear with me.

“Can I come in? he whispered She was nervous. "Just for a minute?" he persisted. Oh, dear! Trying hard to be assertive, she managed to ask, " will you be good?" The classic Bar room quip teetered on his lip, “Good? I’ll be magnificent” but he didn’t risk it. 

Soon, it will be Lent, the season when we try to be good. The time for getting the ash upon our foreheads 
That holy smudge reminds us of our own basic "Good Intent". The modern incantation goes something like, "Repent and believe the Good News", but the old one sounds better. It seems to recall some hidden dread that exercises a magnetic charm even as it threatens. " Remember man that you are dust and unto dust you shall return". Woman too.  How we love to be frightened. 

Of course, like watching horror on television, it need only be a passing moment.We can change our minds and soften our intentions as easily as changing channels.

Is there some built-in obsolescence in our promises or was it never more than a seasonal ritual, the kind of thing we do at that time of year? 

Lent; promising to be good, while not expecting to be perfect. To err is human. We are bound to slip up now and then. The rub of the ashes simply gets our repentance in first.  "Whatever I may do that is wrong, will be just a mistake". Ash Wednesday pleads our defence even before we get to court.

But wait a minute, we're not dealing with manufactured objects coming off an assembly line, we're dealing with God. Not even "dealing", more "relating", to a living God who is, and wants to be, involved in my life. Neither "success" nor "failure" does justice to this relationship. That may be the language of competition, but hardly of love. We must look again at the words of Ash Wednesday'

"Repent and believe the Gospel."  Does it seem a bit tame, watered down, less frightening and therefore less likely to bring about change? Maybe, or maybe we need to remember just what Gospel is.  Time and time again,Sunday after Sunday, the passage chosen for Gospel reading commences with the words, "Jesus said to his disciples." Often as not, those words are not actually part of the chosen text, but are inserted to remind us where the Gospel belongs, in discipleship.  In the hearts of those who, rather than tread again the tired old road of resolution, success, failure, false confidence, equally false despair, prefer to follow Christ.

Calling his first followers, Jesus gave us clear evidence of the results of discipleship. He promised that Simon the fisherman would become Peter the rock. They would each  cast their nets in deeper waters and become "fishers of men".  That's what discipleship does for people. Following Christ gives Him the chance to change us, to make something of us.

Doesn't it all come down to the same thing in the end? No, for often as not we define good and bad, success and failure, in our own terms, with horizons limited by our vision, or lack of it. Christ can open our eyes to new horizons and take us on journeys we simply did not know about, but only if we are his disciples. 

"Believing the Good News" is far from being some holy anesthetic that dulls the pain of trying to be good.  So long as we follow him, Christ can deal with our failures and our successes far better than we can. He can make something of us. Better by far we make a new start with Jesus, than that we indulge ourselves in a yearly fantasy about guilt and goodness. "Repent" yes, we should and we must, but we won't if we fail to "believe the Gospel".

BLUE-COLD TUESDAY

Standing there in the wind of that Tuesday morning, without so much as a sheep in sight, Irtons' centuries-old cross looked as abandoned as the landscape.

For over a thousand years it has kept its watch with few to ask why and just the wind for company. Later in the pub, people told us how our faces glowed from the wind's smart kiss but now, years later, I can't help wondering if there wasn't more to it than January's icy bite.

Is it fanciful to recall the words of St Paul in chapter 3 of second Corinthians, "and we, with our unveiled faces reflecting like mirrors the brightness of the Lord, all grow brighter and brighter as we are turned into the image we reflect"?

Fanciful? Surely not. And yet I cannot now recall either of us remembering those words then, or later. Perhaps we needed the years that have passed, with their joys and sorrows, their comfort and pain before Paul's words could cross the centuries and take hold. Does it matter that my companion of that January morning has long since left this life to enjoy the glory whose reflection I now try to imagine? Perhaps not. It just seems sad, that's all, especially as I am unlikely to visit Irton again. And in any case would it be the same? Would it repeat the near ecstasy of the memory or simply remind me of my own human frailty?

Irton cross has many companions scattered about these islands. Some I have visited much more often and photographed in greater detail, not least the famous Cross of Kells near my birthplace in Ireland. But for me Kells like others, now has too many neighbours; too many buildings, too much traffic and too many people. Irton, I think, will always have the edge, perhaps especially as the memory of it is now such a big part of it's very name, certainly for me. Ninth century Irton, silent about those who have come and gone during that time, content to leave its story to the wind