LITURGY NOTES FOR TRINITY SUNDAY

or

the way you glanced at Peter after his denial, 

……  family goes well beyond blood lines. Family is the human community, the Christian community, and we must learn to love one another as a family.

Cardinal Joseph Bernadine, The Gift of Peace, p. 70.

Reflections for the feast of the Trinity

Today’s readings take us on a story of discovery – the discovery of God – the discovery of who God is, what God is like and what God offers us and calls us to be in relation to one another and our world and its people. The readings do not ‘explain’ the Trinity but celebrate God's wonderful ways of interacting with us. This feast is a song to God’s relationship with us and the whole of creation. God’s creating Spirit has been sent into all circumstances, all places, all perceptions, and all time.  This feast reminds us that as we come to know this God we find that we must repudiate any spirituality or teaching that disconnects from the concerns of the world. God is social. God is a God of relationship. God is not ‘up there’ but in us, within us and between us.  Paul also reminds us that the relationship that exists within God, which we celebrate today, also reflects the relationship - mutuality and support, of love and respect - that should exist within us as a human community. It cannot be divorced from any of our social concerns today: people seeking asylum, people who are unemployed, people who are homeless, sick, lonely and marginalised.  Living in a community where there was tension and conflict, Paul reminds the Corinthians that because they worship ‘the God of love and peace’ they should attempt to ‘live in peace’ despite inevitable disagreements notwithstanding.

In the gospel we see that God travels with us not to condemn but to love. Again this is what we are called to embody every day in our lives. God is a social and we are called be social. God is a God of relationship. and we are called  to be in relationship with one another. In the Gospel, Jesus spoke about change and a new birthing - here and now. ‘Eternal life’ means a life lived now. It is not what many saw as a prize for diligent observance of God's commandments or good behaviour. It can be a relief not having to earn God's favour by slavishly observing rules and regulations. It refers to the quality of our life - a quality characterised by generosity and availability to others and the world. ‘Heaven’ exists where there is a community of love: no divisions, selfishness or deceit. Eternal life is knowing we are loved now by God and are being transformed daily as we become more loving, patient, self-giving, forgiving, willing to endure pain and rejection for our faith in Jesus, desirous to stand with the needy and rejected. This is not always reflected in our way of living or our views: people hesitate to send their children to some schools because they have large numbers of Aboriginal children or children from Middle Eastern nations; people make up all kinds of reasons for not admitting asylum seekers among us who seek our protect; people still marginalise gay and lesbian people, people living with disabilities and mental illness…. Not much of a Trinitarian dance!

Today’s feast has social implications. It involves us in a community of mutual support and discovery. It involves values that we share in common. It involves us with the issues of the world and daily life. It involves us in justice and peace. It focuses us on the common good. It directs us to a God who is in all people and in all of creation; who has a special concern for the poor, the vulnerable, the stranger, the person who is marginalised by others by political, economic and ecclesiastical power. Because God is in all of creation, our concern should be to protect it from destruction or over-consumption and support use of renewable resources rather than those that destroy. It means being concerned with domestic violence as well as the violence and war that is taking place in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, the Ukraine, Nigeria, and so many other places. 

We can live differently. We can cross the crucial borders of life and realise that there is little time and perhaps we must take a chance before there is no time left. Forgiveness comes to us out of nowhere. A door opens where things seemed solidly shut - and we sense that we are... still... free... to choose. We can take a chance, strike out boldly and bravely, becoming something we have always wanted to become, doing something we have always dreamed of doing rather than continuing down the path of dull, bland and fearful living. As T.S. Eliot said: ‘The journey, not the arrival, matters’. Or as Mark Twain said: ‘twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore Dream. Discover.’

INTERVIEW WITH BEN ALFORQUE MSC ON JUSTICE, PHILIPPINES

Filipino group Rise Up for Life and for Rights.

Father Benjamin E. Alforque msc is convener of the church-based Filipino group Rise Up for Life and for Rights. Alforque was interviewed via email in February by Eric Stoner.

Eric Stoner: Was there a tipping point that set Rise Up in motion?

Benjamin Alforque: The tipping point was when the killing of the poor started to include poor farmers and peasants who were leaders of the justice and peace groups and organizations, but who were [falsely] charged with being drug users or pushers.

Are people’s opinions of the drug war and extrajudicial killings changing? Many people thought it was okay to kill drug addicts and pushers. People felt safe that they could leave their homes at night to do their jobs without fear that a drug addict would barge into their huts and small homes, rape women, and kill families just to get money for drugs. They favored immediate execution because, after all, we have no rehabilitation facilities, the jails and prisons are full, and government has no money to spend for their incarceration and rehabilitation. But now, with the extent of the killing of the poor, many are fearful. They fear that they could be the next victim, because the police have a quota of drug-related deaths, and they could be the next one to fill the quota.

Do you see the Catholic Church taking a more active position? On Feb. 18, the church mobilized some 10,000 people to Walk for Life. Bishops have come into the open, telling the president that death is not the answer to the proliferation of drugs and addiction. This show of force by the Catholic Church against extrajudicial killings related to drugs [is also against] the move in Congress, with executive approval, to revive the death penalty.

The church could do more. It can open its facilities and resources for the positive care of drug addicts. In its pastoral program, dioceses, parishes, and church-based institutions could strengthen catechetical approaches and family life ministries to address the real social roots of addiction and other related maladies.

But more important, the church should walk with the poor in their struggle for substantial radical social transformation. She must fully give witness to the Vatican II documents, especially becoming more fully the church of the poor through basic ecclesial communities as agents of transformation. She must strengthen her pastoral program with the poor and not make her identity revolve around the sacraments and the liturgy that are emptied of their original social content for liberation-salvation. If the church lives more fully with the poor, then she can protect the poor while at the same time being a target with them. That is her cross and her martyrdom. There also lies her genuine participation in the resurrection of Jesus.

Where do you find hope? In my sermons I say, “You must rise up together and assert and protect the gains of the resurrection of Jesus, the gains that he has in store for all of us who believe in him!” The mass movement of the poor is where I find hope. They incarnate the passion-death-resurrection of Jesus. They relive the pristine experience of early Christianity in various ways for the event of God’s reign.

Reconciliation week Prayers

Reconciliation Prayer

Holy Father, God of Love,

You are the Creator of all things.

We acknowledge the pain and shame of our history

and the sufferings of Our peoples,

and we ask your forgiveness.

We thank you for the survival of Indigenous cultures

Our hope is in you because you gave your Son Jesus

to reconcile the world to you.

We pray for your strength and grace to forgive, accept and love one another, as you love us and forgive and accept us in the sacrifice of your Son.

Give us the courage to accept the realities of our history so that we may build a better

future for our Nation.

Teach us to respect all cultures.

Teach us to care for our land and waters.

Help us to share justly the resources of this land. Help us to bring about spiritual and social change to improve the quality of life for all groups in our communities, especially the disadvantaged.

Help young people to find true dignity and self-esteem by your Spirit.

May your power and love be the foundations on which we build our families, our communities and our Nation, through Jesus Christ our Lord.

(Wontulp Bi-Buya Indigenous Theology Working Group 13 March 1997 Brisbane, Qld).

National Reconciliation Prayer

Creator Spirit,

All creation once declared your glory,

Your laws were honoured and trusted,

Forgive us our neglect as our country approaches

the most critical moment in its history.

Listen to our prayer as we turn to you,

Hear the cry of our land and its people,

Just as you heard the cry of Jesus,

your Son, on the Cross.

Help us to replace our national shame

With true national pride by restoring the

dignity of our First People whose antiquity is

unsurpassed.

May our faith and trust in you increase.

Only then will our nation grow strong and be

a worthy place for all who wish to make their home in our land.

Amen.

© Elizabeth Pike, September 1997

Aboriginal Catholic Ministry, Melbourne.

The Dawn is at Hand

Dark brothers, first Australian race,

Soon you will take your rightful place

In the brotherhood long waited for,

Fringe-dwellers no more.

Sore, sore the tears you shed

When hope seemed folly and justice dead.

Was the long night weary? Look up, dark band,

The dawn is at hand.

Go forward proudly and unafraid

To your birthright all too long delayed,

For soon now the shame of the past

Will be over at last.

You will be welcomed mateship-wise

In industry and in enterprise;

No profession will bar the door,

Fringe-dwellers no more.

Dark and white upon common ground

In club and office and social round,

Yours the feel of a friendly land,

The grip of the hand.

Sharing the same equality

In college and university,

All ambitions of hand or brain.

Yours to attain.

For ban and bias will soon be gone,

The future beckons you bravely on

To art and letters and nation lore,

Fringe-dwellers no more.

Oodgeroo of the Noonucal Tribe

Companion Prayer

Lord, we are companions on a journey

Only you Dear Lord

know the identity and depth of me

You know my hurts and pains

those frustrations I feel in this land

So please, I ask you take my hand

and comfort me

Reconcile and guide me in justice and in faith

For we’re on our way to Alice (Springs)

where you expressed your love for me

Lord, set me free

and let me be the servant I want to be

Lord, I thank you

for hearing and understanding me

For Lord, You are always on my mind

and on my lips and in my heart

And there’s simply no other way

that it could be.

NATSICC © November 2004

 Additional Prayers from Murri Ministry (QLD)

Ritual of Reconciliation

Music: Didgeridoo / Bush or nature sounds

Location: Bush setting- Beach setting-Open Air if possible

Welcome to Country ... (by an Indigenous person present) ....

Leader: (Acknowledgement of Land, Traditional Owners and Community Elders if only non-Indigenous people present)

We acknowledge the traditional owners / caretakers who have walked and cared for this land for thousands of years, and their descendants who maintain these spiritual connections and traditions.

Let us observe a minute of silence to reflect on the millions of footprints that travelled the Dreaming pathways and our own loved ones who have gone before us.

Opening Prayer:

O God, Creator of all peoples, we thank you that you are found and worshipped in every land, in dance and community, in suffering and peace-making, in silence and singing and in the faithfulness of your people.

We especially thank You for the gift of Your servant, Pope John Paul, who came to our land twenty years ago and met with the first peoples of this country. We recall his challenges to us and commit ourselves to work together to become the Church that Jesus wants us to be, to be a Church where Indigenous people are able to make their contribution to her life and where that contribution is joyfully received by all.

Forgive us when we have failed to heed the Pope's call, when we tie our own hands through prejudice or an ungenerous spirit. Lead us, together, to value our many traditions and to listen to the wisdom that we can offer each other. Give us new hearts to be people of reconciliation in the spirit of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

L: We pray for a truthful mind and heart. May we listen with care to the stories of the peoples of this land. All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after.

L: May we listen with wonder to the story of endless generations of Indigenous human presence and cultural activity in this land.

All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after.

L: May we listen openly to the painful story of conflict, dispossession and suffering that followed the invasive arrival of our European forebears and the taking of the land.

All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after.

L: May we hear in our hearts the determination of those who survived and the courage of those few new arrivals who opposed the violence of these times.

All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after.

L: May we hear with excitement all those who in our own day work together to build a more just and respectful community for all Australians.

All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after.

L: We pray for the gift of respect for one another. May we welcome and appreciate every person whom we meet and value all that makes us different from one another.

All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after.

L: We pray for a commitment to justice. May we grow in our understanding of the rights and responsibilities of all the people who make up our community.

All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after.

L: May barriers of race, culture, suspicion, misunderstanding and fears be overcome. All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after

L: May we all seek to be agents of God's justice, love and reconciliation. All: Justice and peace shall embrace and peace will follow after.

L: As a sign of our desire for reconciliation we join with all who seek the same reconciliation by saying together the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation's Vision and by passing to each other the Message Stick as a symbol of our passing on the Spirit of reconciliation to all we meet.

All: We desire ‘a united Australia which respects this land of ours, values the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and provides justice and equity for all’.

Suggestions For Use With Eucharist.

Penitential Rite

You call us to be one human family, united in love. Lord have mercy.

You hear the cry of the poor and the dispossessed. Lord have mercy.

Your love opens the door to true peace and reconciliation. Lord have mercy.

Final Blessing

May the God who dances in creation, Who embraces us with human love, Who shakes our lives like thunder, Bless us and drive us out with power To fill the world with justice and with peace; And the blessing of God almighty, the Father, the Son and the Holy spirit, be upon you and remain with you always Amen.

Some suitable songs from ‘As One Voice’

50: Act Justly, 91: Prayer for Peace, 121: Love Will Bring Them Home, 157: Mother Earth, 158: A New Heart for a New World, 162: Be Reconciled As One

LITURGY NOTES FOR THE SUNDAY OF THE ASCENSION

Feast of the Ascension

May 28^th 2017

Suggested formula for recognition of indigenous people and their land.

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand

We pay our respects to them for their care of the land

May we walk gently and respectfully upon the land.

or

I acknowledge the living culture of the ……..people,

the traditional custodians of the land we stand on,

and pay tribute to the unique role they play in the life of this region.

or

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land where we are now gathered,

(the ……)  and recognise that it continues to be sacred to them.

We hail them: as guardians of the earth and of all things that grow and breed in the soil; as trustees of the waters – [the seas, the streams and rivers, the ponds and the lakes] - and the rich variety of life in those waters.

We thank them for passing this heritage to every people since the Dreamtime.

We acknowledge the wrongs done to them by newcomers to this land and we seek to be partners with them in righting these wrongs and in living together in peace and harmony.

Ascension Blessing

It is a mystery to me
how as the distance
between us grows,
the larger this blessing
becomes.

As if the shape of it
depends on absence,
as if it finds its form
not by what
it can cling to
but by the space
that arcs
between us.

As this blessing
makes its way,
first it will cease
to measure itself
by time.

Then it will release
how attached it has become
to this place
where we have lived,
where we have learned
to know one another
in proximity and
presence.

Next this blessing
will abandon
the patterns
in which it moved,
the habits that helped it
recognize itself,
the familiar pathways
that it traced.

Finally this blessing
will touch its fingers
to your brow,
to your eyes,
to your mouth;
it will hold
your beloved face
in both its hands

and then
it will let you go,
it will loose you
into your life,
it will leave
each hindering thing
until all that breathes
between us
is blessing
and all that beats
between us
is grace.

Readings

Reading I Acts 1:1-11

Responsorial Psalm Ps 47:2-3, 6-7, 8-9

Reading II Eph 1:17-23

Gospel Mt 28:16-20

Penitential Rite

·         Jesus, you call us to be your witnesses to the ends of the earth. Jesus, have mercy.

·         Jesus, through your body you have opened a new way for us. Christ, have mercy.

·         Jesus, you clothe us with your power from on high. Jesus, have mercy.

or

·         Lord Jesus, you promised to be with us always: Lord, have mercy.

·         Christ Jesus, you promised your Holy Spirit’s presence in our lives: Christ, have mercy.

·         Lord Jesus, you promised to prepare a place for us in your kingdom: Lord, have mercy.

Opening Prayer

Ever-present God, 

Jesus, who lives in your presence

is near to us through the Spirit,

Clothe us with the power promised from high,

and send us forth to the ends of the world

as his witnesses

by helping to build up your Reign

of justice, truth and compassion.

Prayer of the Faithful

Introduction: Jesus has entrusted his work to us. Let us pray to God who is with us and acts through us.  We now pray: Send us your Spirit, O God.

·         May the Indigenous people of this country continue to explore their personal histories and stories in the ongoing journey of healing and feel that their pain is understood by the wider community, we pray: Send us your Spirit, O God.

·         May the Spirit be poured out over the leaders of nations that they may be people of vision where their foremost concern is the human dignity of people and the integrity of creation, we pray: Send us your Spirit, O God.

·         May all the peoples of the Holy Land and the Middle East recognise that they are sons and daughters of Abraham and begin to treat one another with respect as sisters and brothers, we pray: Send us your Spirit, O God.

·         May our Christian communities be alive to Christ and the Spirit as they build and confirm others in hope and service, we pray: Send us your Spirit, O God.

·         May our communities seek less to preserve their own interests and privileges and foster the growth of those that suffer from inequality and injustice, we pray: Send us your Spirit, O God.

·         May religious leaders and all people of good will hold our governments accountable when they neglect the poor and vulnerable, or blame them for their situations, and increase military expenditure whilst cutting foreign aid, we pray: Send us your Spirit, O God.

·         May governments around the world cease to persecute people who advocate for peace with justice, people who seek freedom, independence and human rights, and work creatively with all community leaders to achieve a just peace through nonviolent means, we pray: Send us your Spirit, O God.

·         May people who continue to suffer terrible ethnic violence, where women and children are continually violated in war, in the streets and in the home, experience God’s message of justice, truth and compassion rather than silence and neglect, we pray: Send us your Spirit, O God.

Concluding Prayer: Ever-present God, as we celebrate the Ascension of Jesus, we ask that you give us the strength and love of your Spirit, that we might be faithful disciples in the service of  your Reign of justice, love, and peace.

Prayer over the Gifts

Ever-present God,

through our offerings

may we be open to receive from Jesus his Spirit of strength

that we may not keep staring at heaven

but look at the world by committing ourselves

to make it more and more your world.

Prayer over the Gifts [Alternative]

Ever-present God,

in these signs of bread and wine

Jesus is with us always.

May he live and grow in us,

and animate us by the power of the Holy Spirit

to be his body to the world

and to make disciples of all nations.

Prayer after Communion

Ever-present God,

you touch us in the Eucharist

and have entrusted to us

the mission of Jesus to be his present in the world.

Help us to follow him with love and compassion

by our reverence for creation

and see in it signs of your presence everywhere.

Prayer after Communion [Alternative]

Ever-present God,

you have entrusted to us

the mission of Jesus, your Son,

to be his presence to the world.

May people see that Christ is alive through our service

and recognise in us his body offered to the world.

Final Blessing

·         May we be God’s messengers of hope by the way we live the gospel. AMEN.

·         May we continue to make Christ visible to the people of our time and place. AMEN.

·         May God’s Spirit of wisdom be with us as go and serve the people around us. AMEN.

Further Resources

The world is overcome not through destruction, but through reconciliation. Not ideals, nor programs, nor conscience, nor duty, nor responsibility, nor virtue, but only God's perfect love can encounter reality and overcome it. Nor is it some universal idea of love, but rather the love of God in Jesus Christ, a love genuinely lived, that does this.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Meditations on the Cross

Idolatry is the practice of ascribing absolute value to things of relative worth. Under certain circumstances money, patriotism, sexual freedom, moral principles, family loyalty, physical health, social or intellectual pre-eminence, and so on are fine things to have around, but to make them the standard by which all other values are measured, to make them your masters, to look to them to justify your life and save your soul is sheerest folly.

Frederick Buechner, Wishful Thinking

Intense prayer, yes, but it does not distract us from our commitment to history: by opening our heart to the love of God it also opens it to the love of our brothers and sisters, and makes us capable of shaping history according to God's plan . . . A spirituality of communion means, finally, to know how to 'make room' for our brothers and sisters, bearing 'each other's burdens' (Gal 6:2) and resisting the selfish temptations which constantly beset us and provoke competition, careerism, distrust and jealousy.

Pope John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte, #43

We have a lot of work to do. Every time we reach out and assuage someone's hunger, and do that in memory of Jesus, a sense of Eucharist will bring to consciousness the Spirit and the real presence of Jesus--in us, through us, among us. That Spirit alone is capable of transforming us and the world.

Miriam Therese Winter, MMS

The only way to peace is forgiveness. To accept and give forgiveness makes possible a new quality of rapport between people, interrupting the spiral of hatred and revenge and breaking the chains of evil which bind the heart of rivals . . . To love the one who offends you disarms the adversary and is able to transform a battlefield into a place of supportive co-operation.

Pope John Paul II, Message for Lent 2001

Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?

Kahlil Gibran

….voluntary poverty means non-participation in those comforts and luxuries which have been manufactured by the exploitation of others…

Dorothy Day

All wars, all struggles, all problems that are not resolved, with which we face, are due to

a lack of dialogue…. When there is a problem, dialogue: this makes peace. And this is what I wish for you in this journey of dialogue: that you may know how to dialogue; how this culture thinks.

Pope Francis August 21, 2013 to a group of Japanese students.

I make a forceful and urgent call to the entire Catholic Church, and also to every Christian of other confessions, as well as to followers of every religion and to those brothers and sisters who do not believe: peace is a good which overcomes every barrier, because it belongs all of humanity!......... It is neither a culture of confrontation nor a culture of conflict which builds harmony within and between peoples, but rather a culture of encounter and a culture of dialogue; this is the only way to peace.”

Pope Francis Wednesday audience, Sep 1, 2013

All real living is meeting

Martin Buber (1878 - 1965) Jewish Religious Philosopher, I and Thou

I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man's life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience.

Martin Buber (1878 - 1965) Jewish Religious Philosopher

I have to tell it again and again: I have no doctrine. I only point out something. I point out reality, I point out something in reality which has not or too little been seen. I take him who listens to me at his hand and lead him to the window. I push open the window and point outside. I have no doctrine, I carry on a dialogue.

Martin Buber (1878 - 1965) Jewish Religious Philosopher

There are three principles in a man's being and life, the principle of thought, the principle of speech, and the principle of action. The origin of all conflict between me and my fellow-men is that I do not say what I mean and I don't do what I say.

Martin Buber, (1878 - 1965) Jewish Religious Philosopher, The Way of Man

By launching those attacks, are we creating more militants than in fact we are killing?

Robert Grenier, Former head of the CIA's counter-terrorism center

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.

George Orwell

Conquered states that have been accustomed to liberty and the government of their own laws can be held by the conqueror in three different ways. The first is to ruin them; the second, for the conqueror to go and reside there in person; and the third is to allow them to continue to live under their own laws, subject to a regular tribute, and to create in them a government of a few, who will keep the country friendly to the conqueror

Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Every war when it comes, or before it comes, is represented not as a war but as an act of self-defense against a homicidal maniac.

George Orwell

If certain acts of violation of treaties are crimes, they are crimes whether the United States does them or whether Germany does them, and we are not prepared to lay down a rule of criminal conduct against others which we would not be willing to have invoked against us.

Justice Robert Jackson, Chief of Counsel for the United States at Nuremberg

An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it

Mohandas Gandhi

There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious-makes you so sick at heart-that you can't take part. You can't even passively take part. And you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.

Mario Savio, Berkeley, December 2, 1964

In the democracy of the dead all men at last are equal. There is neither rank nor station nor prerogative in the republic of the grave

John James Ingalls

Where is the justice of political power if it executes the murderer and jails the plunderer, and then itself marches upon neighboring lands, killing thousands and pillaging the very hills?

Kahlil Gibran

Prayer

Lord, Jesus Christ

who reached across the ethnic boundaries between

Samaritan, Roman and Jew,

who offered fresh sight to the blind and freedom to captives,

help us to break down the barriers in our community,

enable us to see the reality of racism and bigotry,

and free us to challenge and uproot it from ourselves,

our society, and our world.

Help us to find you in all things and all people.

Amen.

Prayer

Embrace me Jesus. Hold me tight.

Keep me from fearing evil,

and from fleeing confrontation with those who distort your word

and narrow the scope of your love.

Release me Jesus.

Send me from the safety and comfort of your embrace,

so I may, in your name and for your sake,

embrace those whose authentic selves have been threatened

and whose love is forbidden.

Make your joy complete in us.

In your holy name, Amen!

Blessing

In the leaving
in the letting go
let there be this
to hold onto
at the last:

the enduring of love
the persisting of hope
the remembering of joy

the offering of gratitude
the receiving of grace
the blessing of peace.

Jan Richardson

Reflection

As we probe the mystery of Jesus, Matthew, who does not mention Jesus’ Ascension reassures us that of Jesus’ ongoing presence: ’I will be with you.’ Though having been put to death, he will be experienced as being alive – with them and with us, in them and in us. Luke in The Acts tries to impress upon his community of the urgency about Jesus’ words: ‘You will be my witnesses and you will witness to me in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, even to the ends of the earth. You will be my witnesses.’ Yet this was not happening as expected. When asked ‘Why are you standing around doing nothing? Why are you looking up to the heavens?’ the disciples might ask where should we be looking. Those words are also addressed to every generation as to the Acts’ community.

We heard last week that the ‘advocate’, the Spirit of truth would be offered as comfort but also as challenge – comfort and courage. Consolation or comfort would not be the kind that wraps us up in a warm, fuzzy cocoon where we can feel safe forever but can be compared to the loving nudge a mother bird gives her fledglings in the nest to make them take flight. Fr Timothy Radcliffe says, ‘This is what the Holy Spirit does, thrusting us out of our ecclesiastical nest into mission.’ Recall that in John's gospel, Pentecost occurs when the risen Jesus bears his wounds and breathes the Spirit upon the fearful disciples who were locked behind closed doors (John 20: 19-23). Today’s readings tell us, as the gospels do continually, that this is not where we are meant to be. We are not meant to be locked behind doors in our churches, traditions, nationalism, patriarchy, elitism, clericalism, self-righteous our self-centredness as individuals or as a nation. We are not meant to keep safe and comfortable behind closed doors but looking outwards to where people and planet are. Pope Francis says that each Christian and every community must discern the path that the Lord points out, but all are asked to obey the call to go from our own comfort zone in order to reach all the 'peripheries' in need of the light of the Gospel. [The Joy of the Gospel #20.]

Where life is still somewhat comfortable, climate change can seem remote as can the plight of our neighbours in the Pacific, Asia and beyond, as can the needs of unemployed or homeless people. Homelessness is real as is unemployment, climate change, poor health and poor education. They are in our faces but we can turn away, look up into the sky rather than be in solidarity with those in need. They can be off the radar for many of who live lives of comfort and safety.

Jesus told us to go and spread the Word and usher in the Reign of God whilst remembering that he is with us till the end of the world. Since Holy Thursday we have been reminded that the great commandment is to love as we are loved. This love is not a warm glow or feeling but has arms and legs and voices. Like hope and hospitality and compassion it has arms and legs or it is nothing.

This is the essence of God’s reign. This is what makes God’s reign take flesh. On a feast such as this, we must remember that Jesus continues to have flesh. His ‘glorification’ happened in a body. He treated other ‘bodies’ like they mattered: when encountering sick bodies, he healed them; when encountering hungry bodies, he fed them; when encountering bodies that had been pushed to the margins, he brought them back to the centre. The body matters because it is the human being, the locus of human activity and experience…. And the God who took on human flesh and Jesus reveals to us that flesh is good, and flesh is how the Reign of God comes.

The body that Jesus ascends with is not an ideal body but has holes in his wrists and his feet. That body has a spear wound in his belly. His scars are real and it is through those scars and a broken heart that the world enters. Here we have the risen Jesus making good on the promise and declaration that God would be with us.

Those scars are superimposed on our world and the planet that is groaning. Jesus' wounds show us that our wounds, our disability is a way of being human in the world. As the wounded Jesus is the image of God, so are we. If people with any form of disability have been treated as if they are different from other human beings, we are being told today how like Jesus they are. We have a God who bears wounds and scars and this is the only God that matters because it is the only God who is able to be with us.

How is this Reign evident in our lives today? Where can we find the faith of those living the Reign of God? We see it when people put their reputations on the line; when people realise that they not only have too much stuff and share it but also realise that that stuff might be the result of exploitation; when people continue to care for a person who is difficult to live with or work with despite lack of gratitude or acknowledgment; when people protest the harm done to people seeking asylum and whose past wounds and scars are re-opened; when people see what is happening to the environment and traditional lands of First Nation people when mining companies come on the scene, and stand in solidarity and oppose destructive mining; when people call our leaders to account for cutting foreign aid or social security for the vulnerable but spend more and more weapons and the military; when people find the courage to challenge vilification of people in their dining rooms, restaurants, canteens, supermarkets, classrooms or at barbecues for their economic, social, sexual or religious background. Where were they looking? We cannot respond if we look up or away.

Martin Luther King did not look up at the sky when the day before his assassination [April 3, 1968] spoke with passion and hope of a time where the civil rights of African Americans would be respected. Archbishop Oscar Romero did not look up at the sky when moments before his assassination reminded the oppressive government and military of their obligations towards El Salvador’s poor. The people who stood with the Sioux Indians in South Dakota or the Indigenous people whose lands and culture are threatened by mining interests did not look up but at the world around them. These were attempts to incarnate Christ in our world today. Like King and Romero many have and do speak out, write letters, protest, march in the streets, challenge the system, critique prevailing attitudes and stand along aside others who need encouragement. Instead of looking up to the sky, the Spirit has led them down the mountain to engage with the waiting world of people below.

We cannot allow ourselves to remain in relative safety. Jesus never enjoined his followers to keep apart from the world or remain at a safe distance and critique the world. We are to engage in it and sometimes enter ‘hell’ with others so that they might also rise up.

We are not sent out with a rigid ideology or a fully spelled out set of rules, but rather with a spirit and heart that is open to all, that proclaims God’s acceptance and embrace of all.

God has kept Jesus’ promise today: the Spirit has come with power to keep the vision of God’s welcome and acceptance before the church. It has come to make that vision a reality in our hearts and our world as well. .This promise crosses time and space and continues to be realised in the most unlikely places and unlikely ways and unlikely people. There is no need to crane our necks in order to gaze into the heavens waiting for God to do something. It is not about ascending to heaven but of bringing some of the things of heaven to earth, where we desperately need to glimpse of God’s reign.

Rather than craning our necks we need but look around and see the face of Jesus in the cashier at the supermarket who might have nothing to smile about because of her/his low wages, the bus driver who does not respond because he or she expects abuse or being ignored; the person from a different ethnic background who is uneasy amongst us and withdraws. The Spirit will empower us as it did the early church to spread the good news of salvation and liberation to ‘the ends of the earth’. The good news of God's love and embrace in Christ Jesus was, from the beginning to be shared with and open to all people.

The call to baptise is less about numbers, but of awakening in people their dignity, their connectedness with God, their capacity and agency to change the world and their responsibility to be in partnership to bring healing and reconciliation; peace with justice; compassion and sharing. Jesus’ God is not ‘up in heaven’ but in a creative, liberating, and supporting partnership with us. If we want to find God we have to look in the places where the Spirit works in people creating, liberating, and helping. We cannot look to Jesus to do the liberating, making the peace, feeding the hungry or sheltering the homeless. It is our responsibility. Building God’s reign is about building a new world. Building that new world might be struggling to get governments out of the war business; not putting our own above others; not allowing ourselves to be part of the violation of the life another person; and to give back to God what belongs to God - all of human life, all of creation, all in its future.

Our spirituality is not one that looks to get out of the world and its challenges. It is a spirituality connected to the world around us - the world of people and nature - a world with rich and poor, men and women, young and old, nature and grace, conflict and reconciliation, war and peace, human rights, conflicts in the law, and complexity in issues of justice.

LITURGY NOTES FOR THE SIXTH SUNDAY OF EASTER 2017

or

ANZAC DAY REFLECTION AND RETROSPECT: CLAUDE MOSTOWIK MSC

Anzac Day Reflection

Tuesday 25 April

10.30am and 11.30am

Richardson’s Lookout – Marrickville Peace Park

Notes used for Reflection Father Claude Mostowik msc

Listening to the news, it would seem that religion is more often used as a pretext for violence than peace. But, the Scriptures and our faith traditions contain a strong mandate for compassion and peace. Together they offer a radical reshaping of human relations if we accept them.

Recently when US Tomahawk missiles attacked Syria, the media cheered. One MSBC reporter said, “We see these beautiful pictures at night from the decks of these two U.S. Navy vessels in the eastern Mediterranean.” We need to let that sink in. Beautiful? In what way can a missile attack be called beautiful? How can anything be called beautiful when connected to war and violence, to the deaths of people in relationship, people with faces? This was not the first time the media applauded the destruction of life in the Middle East.

Let’s not forget the lies that drove into war on Iraq. The media might as well have thrown a parade. And when we don’t see applause, we often see nothing. This is the case with Yemen, which has endured, and continues to endure, so much destruction in the wake of US-supported Saudi bombings. A Yemeni child dies every 10 minutes from malnutrition. This is the result of bombs like the ones that MSBC reporter, Brian Williams, called ‘beautiful’—children starving to death, children dying from falling bombs and missiles. This is the news we are not being shown but is the news the world deserves to see. When we know the story, we can begin to change the story. We can tell the media that they must be covering the humanitarian crises in Yemen rather than wax poetic about the beauty of Tomahawk missiles. They should in the USA, and in our country, be calling for budgets that support children, education, and the environment over military spending, bombs and war.

The media is the voice of our culture and we can use our own voices to help shape their message. We can show them what beauty is. The beauty of people coming together to demand truth and justice and fairness and peace. The beauty of resistance.

ANZAC Day is a day in which we as Australians and New Zealanders can acknowledge the wounds deep in our countries and acknowledge the failure of war. But let’s not forget that this must include those who like the Irish, French and Indians who also fought at Gallipoli as well as the Turkish soldiers who defended their country – and who had never posed any threat to us.

A day such as today glosses over many anomalies. We commemorate but do we remember what our alliances have meant for ourselves and other people. Our leaders try to instill fear in us and the need for security which is often tenuous. We must refuse to listen to different voices to those who would make us more fearful and less than we can be in acting justly and loving tenderly. We need to listen to different voices. Listen to those who dare us to care, to open our arms out to a world desperate for compassion and healing. We can be more. How we are in the world, to be present and recognise the struggle and pain of people around us.

What do we hear and see on this ANZAC Day? Fear has been instilled in people around the world that led them to support war and seek greater security. If anything, on this day, as the drums of global war are beating louder without apparent opposition. One would think that this is the time to reflect on the sheer wastefulness of armed conflict but also on the alliances that lead us to war in 1914, 1945, 2003, and the possibilities again in our alliance with the USA. One would think that might be the perfect time to reflect on the sheer wastefulness of armed conflict

Christians have just celebrated Easter and we are still in the Easter season. Easter means many things but above all it is about life and doing things differently. Let us try to do things differently. ANZAC Day should be a call for us to remember and invite us to do things differently – to work to build a culture of peace. As we do that, we must not just remember those who died overseas allegedly to defend this country, but the First Peoples who paid in blood to defend their lands, this land that we stand, from invasion.

The contemporary focus on this sacred day is changing from an inherent opposition to militarism since the 1920’s to a sudden reinvigoration of ANZAC which seems to contribute to a new militarism and nationalism. ANZAC Day means different things to different people but we must also recognise that we are all part of ‘the dark ecosystem of violence’ – whether towards Aboriginal people, refugees, asylum seekers, the Earth or peoples we have never met. ANZAC Day should remind us and call us to do life differently.

For those who follow the teachings of Jesus, we hear a call to listen to his voice and ‘try it my way’ in the face of hurt, suffering, violence, etc… try it my way with nonviolence, with forgiveness, with compassion and generosity. ‘Try it my way’ so that you do not become like the one you might consider the enemy. He showed us that we transform the world through the power of love - not through violence, not through war, not through killing.

Too often the churches have through the centuries rejected or ignored Jesus’ teaching. They have made a pact in history with forces that promoted violence. Are these not a betrayal of the one who stands amongst us as the representative of the God of nonviolence? They also fail to denounce what is happening in this country: invasion of another country; the moral credence given to war; racism, sexism, corporate greed; obscene accumulation of property and wealth.

There is hope. War and violence are human problems. They can be changed because we have created them. They begin in the sanctuary of our heart. And humanity can change, not by force or threat, but by creating safe places to be heard and to hear and accept others’ rights to their own point of view. Peace is possible – whether with our neighbour or beyond. It has to constantly worked at. It is happening in Gaza, Palestine and Israel, in Afghanistan. In Australia and beyond.

There is another form of patriotism: to the planet and humanity. The really fundamental changes in history have not come by government dictate, or battles, but groups of people taking little steps and sometimes doing it in response to Jesus’ words ‘try it my way.’

On this Anzac day, any alternative to war, any act of peace, however small, is a tribute to those who have died for this country.

Resolutions: Father Claude Mostowik msc

Introduction: Let us desire and work so that leaders of nations promote the freedom and dignity of their people, and place justice and quality of life above wealth and power,

• That we may value all life on earth, seek greater understanding and solidarity among people and languages, and be at peace and friendship with all.

• That people in religious and political leadership continually proclaim the good news of peace and justice without fear or compromise.

• That the people of Australia and Aotearoa-New Zealand on this ANZAC Day remember who those who have died in war, may remember all who have died in all wars, and the people who continue to be affected by war.

• That the voices of those who speak out for peace and solidarity among people also be listened to.

• That parents, teachers and educators through their generosity and service see their work as a way of building a new human and compassionate society.

• That the people living in places of war and conflict may see that vengeance produces more violence, trauma and greater insecurity.

• For all people, known and unknown, who witness for peace and reconciliation in conflict situations: may they not be disheartened when ridiculed by political leaders for their stand.

Conclusion: Let us give thanks for the lives of all prophets, teachers, healers and revolutionaries, living and dead, acclaimed or obscure, who have rebelled, worked and suffered for the cause of love and joy. We also celebrate that part of us, that part within ourselves, which has rebelled, worked and suffered for the cause of love and joy. Amen.

Michael Leunig

LITURGY NOTES FOR THE FIFTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

Fifth Sunday of Easter

May 14, 2017

Suggested formula for recognition of indigenous people and their land.

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand

We pay our respects to them for their care of the land

May we walk gently and respectfully upon the land.

or

I acknowledge the living culture of the ……..people,

the traditional custodians of the land we stand on,

and pay tribute to the unique role they play in the life of this region.

or

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land where we are now gathered,

(the ……)  and recognise that it continues to be sacred to them.

We hail them: as guardians of the earth and of all things that grow and breed in the soil; as trustees of the waters – [the seas, the streams and rivers, the ponds and the lakes] - and the rich variety of life in those waters.

We thank them for passing this heritage to every people since the Dreamtime.

We acknowledge the wrongs done to them by newcomers to this land and we seek to be partners with them in righting these wrongs and in living together in peace and harmony.

Reading I Acts 6:1-7

Responsorial Psalm Ps 33:1-2, 4-5, 18-19

Response: Lord, let your mercy be on us, as we place our trust in you.

Reading II 1 Pt 2:4-9

Gospel Jn 14:1-12

Penitential Rite

1.       Jesus, the Way to God is open to all. Jesus, have mercy. 

2.      Jesus, the Truth can be learned by all, Christ have mercy.

3.       Jesus, the Life lived by all. Jesus, have mercy

or

1.       Christ Jesus, you are the Way that leads us to the life we desire: Jesus, have mercy. 

2. Christ Jesus, you are the Truth that convicts us when we fail: Christ, have mercy.

3.       Christ Jesus, you are the Life for which we long: Jesus, have mercy. 

Opening Prayer

Living God,

you led your people to freedom,

and sent Jesus to be our way to you.

Deepen our faith

so that the words of your new song

may be echoed in our lives by our service

to all people in all times and places.

Or

Risen Christ,

you prepare a place for us,

in the home of the Mother-and-Father of us all.

Draw us more deeply into yourself,

through scripture read, water splashed, bread broken, wine poured,

so that when our hearts are troubled,

we will know you more completely as the way, the truth, and the life.

Amen.

General Intercessions

Introduction: Let us bring before God the needs of the Church and of the world as we pray: R/ You open your house to us, O God.

1.       We pray for all whose focus in life is the human dignity and the human rights of each person around the globe: may God’s mercy be reflected in them, we pray: You open your house to us, O God.

2.      We pray for all whose deepest concerns are for those in poverty, those living with HIV/AIDS, those in prison, and those who challenge unjust social structures and systems affecting the poor: may God’s compassion be experienced in them, we pray: You open your house to us, O God.

3.       We pray for those who in their everyday lives reject violence and strive to make peace in their communities: may God’s inclusive love be seen in them, we pray: You open your house to us, O God.

4.      We pray for all those who in their lives have a vision of the common good and in their dealings with others place greater value on human dignity rather than profits so that all can participate in building God’s reign: may God’s graciousness be evident in them, we pray: You open your house to us, O God.

5.       We pray for our Mother Earth: may we commit to a greater responsibility to take more steps to nurture the environment which reveals to us the presence of God, we pray: You open your house to us, O God.

6.      We pray for those who have died … (names) especially those who have died in war, conflict and preventable diseases… (Gaza and the West Bank, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tibet, Afghanistan, Syria, West Papua, Iraq, South Sudan, Nigeria):may those in mourning and overcome by grief find comfort in friends, those who minister to them, we pray: You open your house to us, O God.

7.       We pray for peace: may those in danger and live in fear every day eventually find protection, security and peace, we pray: You open your house to us, O God.

Concluding Prayer: God of new beginnings, help us to reflect deeply on the call to justice and peace in our daily lives. 

Prayer over the Gifts

Living God,

Jesus revealed what it means

to be for us the way, the truth and the life

by giving himself for us in this Eucharist.

May we learn to give to one another

our time, compassion, service in the manner of Jesus.

Prayer after Communion

Living God,

may the people around us

see Jesus and You,

when we become for others

the way to hope, justice and love;

the truth that uplifts and reassures;

and the life that is given freely.

Further Resources

Those in power have made it so we have to pay simply to exist on the planet. We have to pay for a place to sleep, and we have to pay for food. If we don't, people with guns come and force us to pay. That's violent.

Derrick Jensen, Endgame: Volume 1: The Problem of Civilization

What if the point of life has nothing to do with the creation of an ever-expanding region of control? What if the point is not to keep at bay all those people, beings, objects and emotions that we so needlessly fear? What if the point instead is to let go of that control? What if the point of life, the primary reason for existence, is to lie naked with your lover in a shady grove of trees? What if the point is to taste each other's sweat and feel the delicate pressure of finger on chest, thigh on thigh, lip on cheek? What if the point is to stop, then, in your slow movements together, and listen to the birdsong, to watch the dragonflies hover, to look at your lover's face, then up at the undersides of leaves moving together in the breeze? What if the point is to invite these others into your movement, to bring trees, wind, grass, dragonflies into your family and in so doing abandon any attempt to control them? What if the point all along has been to get along, to relate, to experience things on their own terms? What if the point is to feel joy when joyous, love when loving, anger when angry, thoughtful when full of thought? What if the point from the beginning has been to simply be?

Derrick Jensen, A Language Older Than Words

In our excessive involvement in the affairs of other countries, we are not only living off our assets and denying our own people the proper enjoyment of their resources; we are also denying the world the example of a free society enjoying its freedom to the fullest.

J. William Fulbright

I do think we'll look back on it [as] a period of horrible shame and regret for how we treated people, how we disobeyed our own law and international law.

Barbara Olshansky

If everyone demanded peace instead of another television set, then there'd be peace.

John Lennon

Liberty and democracy become unholy when their hands are dyed red with innocent blood.

Mahatma Gandhi

Some Einstein Quotes on Peace & War

Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!

The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking.... The solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker.

He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.

We must inoculate our children against militarism, by educating them in the spirit of pacifism.... Our schoolbooks glorify war and conceal its horrors. They indoctrinate children with hatred. I would teach peace rather than war, love rather than hate.

Albert Einstein

Everything, everything in war is barbaric... But the worst barbarity of war is that it forces men collectively to commit acts against which individually they would revolt with their whole being.

Ellen Key

Environmental Prayer

As we breathe the very air which sustains us,

We remember your love, God, which gives us life.

Fill us with your compassion for Creation.

Empty us of apathy, selfishness and fear, of all pessimism and hesitation.

Breathe into us solidarity with all who suffer now

and the future generations who will suffer

because of our environmental irresponsibility.

Move us into action to save our earth

and to build your sustainable Kingdom. Amen.

Jane Deren,Social Justice News, Diocese of Oakland, Ca.

A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys, and all marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all peaceably inclined. Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power?

Henry David Thoreau, On the Duty of Civil Disobedience

Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear.

Bertrand Russell: English logician and philosopher 1872-1970

Fear always springs from ignorance.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, American lecturer, poet, and essayist, 1803-1882

Dress it as we may, feather it, daub it with gold, huzza it, and sing swaggering songs about it, what is war, nine times out of ten, but murder in uniform

Douglas Jerrold

For most people, it is easy to focus on the malevolent misdeeds of one's enemies and to blot out the memory of one's own malevolent misdeeds. For some people, it is easy to do the reverse: bare our hearts to our own evildoing and forget what has been done to us. But only if we can remember both sets of evildoing can we take the steps to end them.

Rabbi Arthur Waskow

The study of history is a powerful antidote to contemporary arrogance. It is humbling to discover how many of our glib assumptions, which seem to us novel and plausible, have been tested before, not once but many times and in innumerable guises; and discovered to be, at great human cost, wholly false.

Paul Johnson

Political history is largely an account of mass violence and of the expenditure of vast resources to cope with mythical fears and hopes

Murray Edelman

Democracy don't rule the world, You'd better get that in your head; This world is ruled by violence, But I guess that's better left unsaid

Bob Dylan,

You have to show violence the way it is. If you don't show it realistically, then that's immoral and harmful. If you don't upset people, then that's obscenity.

Roman Polanski

In violence, we forget who we are

Mary McCarthy, American novelist and critic, 1912-1989

When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing.

Dwight David Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States, 1890-1969

If there’s a world here in a hundred years, it’s going to be saved by tens of millions of little things. The powers-that-be can break up any big thing they want. They can corrupt it or co-opt it from the inside, or they can attack it from the outside. But what are they going to do about 10 million little things? They break up two of them, and three more like them spring up

Pete Seeger

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely, or unhappy is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quite alone with the heavens, nature, and God. Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be and that God wishes to see people happy, amidst the simple beauty of nature. As long as this exists, and it certainly always will, I know that then there will always be comfort for every sorrow, whatever the circumstances may be. And I firmly believe that nature brings solace in all troubles.

Anne Frank, Only One Earth

However tiring, the road….   leads from a sense of discouragement and bewilderment to the fullness of Easter faith. …. As the light of the risen Christ illumines the whole universe, we can only express solidarity with all our brothers and sisters in the Middle East who have been caught in a maelstrom of armed violence and retaliation. The roar of weapons must give way to the voice of reason and conscience: sincere concern for the legitimate aspirations of all peoples and the scrupulous observance of international law are the only way to bring the parties back to the negotiating table and to mark out a path of brotherhood for those peoples.

John Paul II, 18 April 2001

Those who have created the evil are those who have made possible the hideous social injustice our people live in. Thus, the poor have shown the church the true way to go. A church that does not join the poor in order to speak out from the side of the poor against the injustices committed against them is not the true church of Jesus Christ.

Oscar Romero, assassinated archbishop of San Salvador, The Violence of Love

Peace must be built on the basis of justice in a world where the personal and social consequences of sin are evident.

US Bishops, The Challenge of Peace, #56

Technology is so far ahead of human relations! There is such a need for new ways for people to be together, to solve conflicts, to work for peace.  On the level of human relations, we are still in the Stone Age, thinking that power games and fear tactics will settle our problems.  Suicide attacks and military reprisal are such primitive ways to respond to threatening situations. With the technology now at hand, these primitive responses may cause the end of all human life.

More than ever it is necessary for people, who can fly to each from faraway distances within a few hours, to speak to each other about living together in peace.  Now it seems that the smaller the physical distance, the larger the moral and spiritual distance. Why do we human beings learn so much, so soon, about technology, and so little, so late, about loving one another?

Henri Nouwen, The Road to Daybreak, pp 182-183

When we honestly ask which persons in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand.

 Henri Nouwen, Out of Solitude

How do we know that we are not deluding ourselves, that we are not selecting those words that best fit our passions, that we are not just listening to the voice of our own imagination?...Who can determine if [our] feelings and insights are leading [us] in the right direction?

Our God is greater than our own heart and mind, and too easily we are tempted to make our heart’s desires and our mind’s speculations into the will of God. Therefore, we need a guide, a director, a counselor who helps us to distinguish between the voice of God and all other voices coming from our own confusion or from dark powers far beyond our control.

We need someone who encourages us when we are tempted to give it all up, to forget it all, to just walk away in despair. We need someone who discourages us when we move too rashly in unclear directions or hurry proudly to a nebulous goal. We need someone who can suggest to us when to read and when to be silent, which words to reflect upon and what to do when silence creates much fear and little peace.

Henri Nouwen, Reaching Out

[Men] go abroad to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars – yet they pass by themselves without wondering.

Saint Augustine

At the heart of what Jesus says in every act and parable is this: Now, this minute, we can be on the way to the peaceable kingdom. The way into it is simply to live in awareness of God's presence in those around us. Doing that, we learn the truth of what St. Catherine of Siena said: 'All the way to heaven is heaven, because Jesus said, ‘I am the way.’ One could add, 'and all the way to hell is hell.' To the extent I fail to love, hell is in my life already.

Jim Forest, Measured by Love

Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens

Plato: Ancient Greek philosopher (428/427- 348/347 B.C.)

Military justice is to justice what military music is to music.

Groucho Marx: American comedian, actor and singer, 1890-1977

In war, there are no unwounded soldiers

Jose Narosky

If my soldiers were to begin to think, not one would remain in the ranks.

Frederick the Great

There is an awe and reverence due to the stars in the heavens, the sun, and all heavenly bodies; to the seas and the continents; to all living forms of trees and flowers; to the myriad expressions of life in the sea; to the animals of the forests and the birds of the air. To wantonly destroy a living species is to silence forever a divine voice.

Thomas Berry

Solidarity . . . is not a feeling of vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so many people, both near and far. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to say, to the good of all and of each individual, because we are all really responsible for all.

John Paul II, Solicitudo Rei Socialis, 38

Political language. is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.

George Orwell

You can't deny the other side don't want to die anymore than we do

What I'm trying to say is don't they pray to the same God that we do?

And tell me how does God choose whose prayers does he refuse?

Who turns the wheel, who throws the dice on the Day after tomorrow?

Lyrics: Day After Tomorrow - Tom Waits/Kathleen Brennan 2004

Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody.

Franklin P. Adams, US journalist (1881-1960)

In all history there is no war which was not hatched by the governments, the governments alone, independent of the interests of the people, to whom war is always pernicious even when successful.

Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy, Russian author, 1828-1910

Governments have never learned anything from history, or acted on principles deducted from it.

Hebbel German poet and dramatist, 1813-1863

The biggest lesson I learned from Vietnam is not to trust [our own] government statements. I had no idea until then that you could not rely on [them].

James W. Fulbright: US senator who initiated the international exchange program for scholars, 1905-1995

In order to rally people, governments need enemies. They want us to be afraid, to hate, so we will rally behind them. And if they do not have a real enemy, they will invent one in order to mobilize us.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Contemporary Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist and writer

One way or another, the choice will be made by our generation, but it will affect life on earth for all generations to come.

Lester Brown,Earth Policy Institute

To live now as we think human beings should live,

in defiance of all that is bad around us,

is itself a marvelous victory.

Howard Zinn, historian and author

Solidarity is learned through 'contact' rather than through 'concepts,' and should permeate the sphere of being before that of acting.

Pope John Paul II, May 5, 2000

When the heart is touched by direct experience, the mind may be challenged to change. Personal involvement with innocent suffering, with the injustice others suffer, is the catalyst for solidarity which then gives rise to intellectual inquiry and moral reflection.

Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, SJ, former Superior General of the Society of Jesus

Last Testament John 14

Don’t be troubled,

don’t be afraid,

if you trust God

then also trust me,

I go on ahead

and when you arrive

I will be there.

When you stumble

in the wild tempest,

when you flinch back

from the new frontier,

don’t be troubled,

don’t be afraid,

I will be there.

When you toil long

without much reward,

when you bend low

with sorrow and care,

don’t be troubled,

don ‘t be afraid

I will be there.

When you are tired

of spending your faith,

when you’re alone

with doubt and despair,

don’t be troubled

don’t be afraid,

I will be there

When you are frail

and old eyes grow dim,

when you are dying

leaving those dear,

don’t be troubled

don’t be afraid,

I will be there.

Now comes my cross,

now is my glory,

I’m the beginning

and I am the end,

don’t be troubled

don’t be afraid,

I am your Friend.

©  B.D. Prewer 2001

Your Gain John 14

Do not be troubled

do not be afraid

my going away

is your complete gain.

Do not be troubled

do not be afraid

the lone buried seed

will bear golden grain.

Do not be troubled

do not be afraid

though all becomes dark

it’s light that shall reign.

Do not be troubled

do not be afraid

when I’m in the tomb

foul death has been slain.

Do not be troubled

do not be afraid

at the dawn and dusk

I shall come again.

Do not be troubled

do not be afraid

all things are changing

but I shall remain.

© B.D. Prewer 2001

Unemployment today provokes new forms of economic marginalization, and the current crisis can only make this situation worse. Being out of work or dependent on public or private assistance for a prolonged period undermines the freedom and creativity of the person and his family and social relationships, causing great psychological and spiritual suffering. I would like to remind everyone, especially governments engaged in boosting the world's economic and social assets, that the primary capital to be safeguarded and valued is … the human person in his or her integrity: ‘(The human being) is the source, the focus and the aim of all economic and social life’

Pope Benedict XVI Caritas In Veritate, (2009) Edited for gender sensitivity

Face of God (John 14: 1-14)

We thought you wore the skin
of thunder, spoke in verbs of stormwind,
majestic and mighty as lightning upon summits
yet unreachable
as the cold and silent fire
of distant stars; hidden behind
a curtain in the temple,
an untouchable invisibility approachable
by the highest priest only,
hands freshly blooded
from an altar.

And then somehow the veil was parted:
we gained glimpses of the glory
of the nearness of your love
as the hurting were healed,
the outcast befriended,
the lost restored,
and everywhere the powers of death
had their dominion challenged,
by the son of a Jewish carpenter
from Galilee.

If you have seen me,
said Jesus, you have seen the Father.

And we do see you there,
in the Gospels,
healing in synagogues
and in houses,
feeding the hungry on hillsides,
embracing the lepers and the sinners,
turning over the tables
in the temple,
nailed to a cross of injustice
but risen,
greeting women at
the graveside,
sharing bread with your friends,
the dominion of death
overturned.
Approachable, reachable,
the accessible God,
visible in the skin of Jesus.

But you are not done,
not content to wear
such skin only in the pages
of the Gospels.
The many-coloured, multi-shaped
body of Christ – the Church
wide as the nations of the world –
bears your image where it acts
in your love:
still feeding,
still healing,
still teaching mercy,
making you visible

not in great
structures nor
in high saints alone,
but in the ordinary
persons in the pews,
as here, on a day like any other,
a woman making dinner,
and packing it,
knocking on the door of a neighbour
newly home from surgery for cancer:
the face of the one receiving it
lit with thankfulness,
the face of the one freely giving
like the face
of God.

Posted in Easter, New Poems, Sunday Lectionary

An African Prayer for Refugees

O Brother Jesus, who as a child was carried into exile,

remember all those who are deprived of their home or country,

who groan under the burden of anguish and sorrow,

enduring the burning heat of the sun,

the freezing cold of the sea,

or the humid heat of the forest,

searching for a place of refuge.

Cause these storms to cease, O Christ.

Move the hearts of those in power

that they may respect the men and women

whom you have created in your image;

that the grief of refugees may be turned to joy,

as when you led Moses and your people out of captivity.

from http://peace.mennolink.org/articles/prayafrica.html

Living God, build us into a spiritual house.

Precious Christ, infuse us with the assurance of our preciousness.

Holy Spirit, help us stand as a holy nation,

called to be light to a world living in darkness and fear.

Abba, be Home to all who are rejected

from their families and churches,

and to us who travel roads unknown.

May we stay persistent in prayer,

stand grounded in our identity as God’s own people

and be bold in our proclamation of your love.

Amen.

OutinScripture

Reflections on the readings

I wonder if today’s gospel could make some of us feel smug about being Christian. What more authority do we need to hit others over the head or make one from another faith feel bad?

Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

But one of the biggest questions for a follower of Christ is how our faith interacts with whatever crisis strikes our world, and our engagement with them. It may not be easy to walk the line between the kind of ‘faith’ that makes us feel safe or ‘protects’ us from the world’s problems, and the faith that offers a framework for directing us to fix things. Today’s readings provide another challenge: to participate in God’s reconciling and healing work while trusting God for the outcome in our lives and world. This is not easy.

Jesus used these words above to reassure, give comfort, hope and courage to people who are struggling in the face of opposition and threat. And a cursory look at the media with its presentations of tragedy, violence in word and action, neglect and silence before injustice prompt to us suggest that Good Friday is a daily occurrence for many people. Lay people, brothers, sisters and priests and sisters are murdered by guerrilla groups with machine guns or machetes just because they work for freedom or education or belong to the wrong ‘tribe’. Where is the kingdom of heaven in this? Where is Jesus? Has he gone to prepare a heavenly place for us and forgotten to come back? Do our hearts become troubled? Often they do. Many of us might wonder how we can build our faith to the point where we can believe in a different world – where we can see God in the midst of hardship. On this Mother’s Day, the  mothers in Nigeria, whose daughters were kidnapped three years ago come to mind as many still wait for their daughters to be freed. Then there are the parents and families of children and relatives who continue to drown in the Mediterranean seeking security and safety. Then there are the mothers who wait anxiously to find out what will happen to their sons Manus Island or Nauru – will they be taken to the USA, linger in detention centres indefinitely, or refouled (returned illegally) to their home countries to face certain danger. Closer to home, there are the people who have loved ones living for years with Parkinson’s or dementia, and continue to devote themselves to the care of their loved ones.

In the church and society, people can be touchingly human towards  people considered to be deserving [people with disability, children, some poor people, etc.], but inhuman and unjust towards people considered to be undeserving [‘ex-priests’, women, theologians, gay people, people living HIV/AIDS especially in developing countries, people seeking asylum who come to our shores by boat,  etc].

Yet, we find many people are committed to others by working for justice. God’s reign of justice continues to break through in all settings (sacred and secular) often in people and places we least expect: in every neighbourhood; hospices and hospitals; among those who live and work in solidarity with people seeking asylum and though unable to do much for them at least listen to their stories and believe them. As there are many rooms in God’s house, there are many ways of coming to God and serving and loving God and neighbour.

Today’s gospel is often read at funerals. It is not just an assurance of provision after death. It is about us today and our commitments. We are invited to be so grounded, ‘at home’, in our sense of belonging to God that nothing deters us from acting each day with passion and power. It also assures those who do not always feel at home, those rejected, those outsiders, the ‘freedom to believe’ in the One who works through us in ways that many others cannot imagine. We belong in God’s house. Jesus is promising us that he will make room, to make hospitable, liveable, and welcome, God’s reign here on earth. Jesus prepares a place for his disciples - and we are also called to make a place for others.

It seems that Indigenous people, people from the Middle East and Asia, have always understood that a principle responsibility is hospitality and welcome – feeding people and making room for others. It is not mere sentiment. It has earthy dimensions such as place or creating new places, beds and food, touch. This is to be our life. When we think of our Earth as God’s reign, the homeland of the Creator, there is room for everybody if we share. Jesus’ words are no longer words of comfort for the dying, but words of challenge for living communities – and living life to the full. The radical hospitality we are called to invites us to actively make room for the marginalised, the excluded, the vulnerable, and the outsider.

This gospel challenges all of us to make room for others, to recognize in every person, the need for welcome and inclusion. John’s words call us to examine the way in which we make room in our lives and churches for people who are different to us. Jesus calls us to follow him as he makes room for us and for others. And he challenges us to do likewise.

Images from the Easter gospels are very inclusive: space for everyone. Images such as ‘gate’ and ‘nets’ counteract the tendency to prefer one group of people over another: to distinguish between insiders and outsiders that leads to fractures, suffering and violence. They counter the idea of building more walls rather than bridges. The early church was not exempt. The disciples disparaged people by categories: Don't talk to that woman!  Don't help that Roman! Don't get too close to that leper. We can come up with our own modern examples. Paul often chastised communities for closing their hearts to one or other group. He reminds us as does John, there are many rooms in God’s house.

Miroslav Volk, in The Spacious Heart says sin is less about defilement from purity but more about excluding another from one's heart and world. Withholding embrace to one’s brother and exclusion of the other as we saw in the story of the prodigal son might be the greater sin:

‘Sin is a refusal to embrace others in their otherness and a desire to purge them from one's world, by ostracism or oppression, deportation or liquidation… the exclusion of the other is the exclusion of God.’

This touches on the scandalous discrimination in the Acts of the Apostles. Some members of the community were favoured over the poor and vulnerable [widows] who were neglected or unjustly treated.  Charitable giving became scandalous. It caused division, hatred and conflict rather than leading to unity and peace. We are continually made aware that we are to remember Jesus’ attitude that we are sisters and brothers.

Jesus proclaims a God who is near. When see Jesus, we see God at work. ‘Show us the Father’ says Philip ‘and we will be satisfied’. We need only look at Jesus. Jesus’ works reveal God's presence and love. And when we see the disciple with the heart of Jesus, we see Jesus. Belief in Jesus means doing what Jesus does: it means being in solidarity with people excluded by the present economic system and driven into worse poverty, solidarity with those who encounter closed doors and hearts because of their social insignificance [refugees, sick and elderly]. That solidarity entails raising our voices and denouncing unjust situations. Who cannot but applaud the raising of voices against the human rights abuses within Australia and abroad. Our government has more than once been criticised for its lack of leadership on human rights issues, with discrimination against indigenous communities, asylum seekers and refugees. The government has been criticised for failing to respect the human rights of refugees and asylum seekers, not to mention the ongoing failure with the proportion of indigenous people, especially juveniles, in prison; That ‘spacious heart’ Miroslav Volf refers to applies here as we soon approach Sorry Day on May 26 and the Week of National Reconciliation.

Following Christ means we will not allow ourselves be held captive to the old order, but to embrace a path that offers compassion, justice and relationships. We need to free ourselves from our limited perception of things and the lifestyles and agendas that narrow our perceptions. If God's Spirit is to breathe through us, belief involves a radical break from the gods of militarism, nationalism, and materialism. Jesus offers us new notions of power - the power to serve and not master, to die but not to kill, to bring order and not dominate.

When Jesus says, ‘I am the way, the truth the life’ he is challenging the control system of his day. This challenge was manifested by an extraordinary concern for the marginalised and the vulnerable, the unabashed embrace of children, the upholding of women and outcasts, and rejection of the belief that the privileged are God's favoured ones. In Jesus' subversive order, domination, oppression and exploitation, give way to compassion, communion and love of neighbour. When we repay evil with evil, lash out in kind, we guarantee the perpetuation of violence among us. Not all agree with this way of being in the world. But the way of transforming love, the way of Jesus, has a power all its own. It is the only power capable of transforming our violence-laden world.  ‘I am the way the truth and the life.’ As we prepare for the Eucharist, let us remember that this meal recognises the power of transforming love over violent hate, the hope of reconciliation beyond betrayal, and the peace of the people of God, deeper than our desire for retribution, recrimination and retaliation. It is a memorial – a remembering – that we are all connected as humans and creation in Jesus who is the heart of the universe.

‘Do not let your hearts be troubled!’ People do live ‘Good Friday’ each day as we saw earlier. But what ‘troubles’ our hearts? Are our hearts troubled when more and more buckets of money are spent for more buckets of blood? Are our hearts troubled when we go to war based on lies? Are our hearts troubled when we use more and more of the earth’s resources and cause more damage to the environment than most peoples of the underdeveloped nations? Are they troubled when we do not recognise how our history, national policies, and consumerism adds to the suffering of others? Consider the cost to people who grow the flowers we might have bought for Mother’s Day!!  As least in the USA, Americans would have bought over $2 billion worth of cut flowers for their dear mothers, but other worthy mothers - many in Colombia's Bogotá Savanna - will have often produced them, enduring injuries, pesticides, birth defects and obscenely low wages for that beautiful thought and gift. Their children too are affected. Are we troubled that most of the chocolate we eat has blood on it – the blood and suffering of children used in slavery? Are our hearts troubled when we find it difficult to empathise or see or feel the suffering of others or walk away from injustice? Are we able to find strength to practice reconciliation, to look at the hard lessons that others do not want to hear or dare to speak out? Are our hearts troubled when we object to being asked to pay for the pollution we cause?

There is a double edge to the gospel today. It is comforting. It is challenging. Along with Peter it points to our dignity but also the dignity of others which includes God’s gift of creation. It points to the space God makes for us but also that space we are to make for others. It points to God’s passion for humanity but also for our passion in which we find our humanity. It points to the many ways of serving God. Much broader and wider, much more welcoming and expansive than any of us imagined. There is room enough for everyone! Yes, ‘there are many rooms in God’s house.’ ‘God is love’ and Jesus is the replica of God among us.