this one's been out before

indeed I may bring it out again

because I think it has 

something to offer 

Let's give it a new name this time though, this name:

The Jesus Who Waits For us in Lent 

I am a Catholic Priest, retired now and resident in what I like to see as the Departure Lounge of life, St. Winefride's Rest  Home in Blackpool. (Curious spelling, St. Winefride's but correct.) 
 
However, though we who live here are retired, we have not abandoned our calling which is why we don't just sit around waiting for our flight to be called. I for instance run this blog and given that I'm a priest, people should not be surprised if mention of Jesus is never far away. However, retirement does bring a certain freedom which may be why I am sometimes thought to be a bit fresh in my writing efforts.

For instance, I don't want to give the wrong impression but I sometimes wonder if we could get a better hold of Jesus without all this religion around him. Outrageous thought, I know, but could we? Have to be careful here I know, or we could all end up building our own Jesus, the one that suited us and our own desired life style, so what am I really trying to say? 

In the Gospels we read about great crowds following Jesus, small groups too, don't forget. I sometimes wonder what they were looking for, these large crowds and small groups. I'm pretty certain they weren't looking for a new slant on their religious upbringing. They seem to have had enough of that already. "Not like the scribes and Pharisees" remember. (Matt 7.29) They seemed to have warmed to Jesus because he was different and yet it's quite clear that he did teach them, some times for whole days at a time

What was it about Jesus that rang so many people's bells? What made them pack their lunch baskets and head out into the wilds for a day listening to the carpenters son? Sisters and brothers, for a helpful answer we could do a lot worse than listen to the wisdom of the Pop songs. The answer may be right there in the midst of all those crazy drums and mad guitars. M.People put it this way about 20 years ago:

You've got to search for the hero inside yourself,
Search for the secrets you hide.
Search for the hero inside yourself
Until you find the key to your life

Is that it? Are we all looking for a hero to worship, even one inside ourselves? Was it that same old "search for a hero" that got all those people dropping their nets and everything else and risking the criticism of the authorities as they went listening to the man from Nazareth? Nazareth! Can anything good come from that place?

Years ago, as I attempted to teach fourth year boys, I actually used the phrase, "You should make a hero of Jesus". a colleague reprimanded me saying that there are far more important things to know about Jesus than calling him a hero, and of course there are. 

Jesus is God incarnate, the second person of the Blessed Trinity. made Man. And truly I do acknowledge this, have no fear. But when I think of those people leaving everything and crowding round Jesus to hear what he had to say, I can't help feeling that they were a lot like the rest of us, searching for the hero inside.