LITURGY NOTES FOR THE SECOND SUNDAY OF ADVENT

We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.

Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965), American Broadcast Newsman during the McCarthy era, whose work was depicted in the film, Good Night and Good Luck.

I believe there are more instances of the abridgement of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.

James Madison 

No man is great enough or wise enough for any of us to surrender our destiny to. The only way in which anyone can lead us is to restore our belief in our own guidance.

Henry Miller (1891-1980) The Wisdom of the Heart, 1941

Live truth instead of professing it. 

Elbert Hubbard

The first step in a fascist movement is the combination under an energetic leader of a number of men who possess more than the average share of leisure, brutality, and stupidity. The next step is to fascinate fools and muzzle the intelligent, by emotional excitement on the one hand and terrorism on the other. 

Bertrand Russell, Freedom, Harcourt Brace, 1940

It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.

Alfred Adler

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 Tolstoy.

Good intentions will always be pleaded for every assumption of authority. It is hardly too strong to say that the Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good intentions. There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters. 

Noah Webster

The government is the potent omnipresent teacher. For good or ill it teaches the whole people by its example. Crime is contagious. If the government becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. To declare that the end justifies the means -- to declare that the government may commit crimes -- would bring terrible retribution.

Justice Louis D. Brandeis

A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of America than the whole force of the common enemy.... While the people are virtuous they cannot be subdued; but once they lose their virtue, they will be ready to surrender their liberties to the first external or internal invader.... If virtue and knowledge are diffused among the people, they will never be enslaved. This will be their great security. 

John Adams

Our government has kept us in a perpetual state of fear -­ kept us in a continuous stampede of patriotic fervour -­ with the cry of grave national emergency. Always, there has been some terrible evil at home, or some monstrous foreign power that was going to gobble us up if we did not blindly rally behind it. 

General Douglas MacArthur

Whenever a people... entrust the defence of their country to a regular, standing army, composed of mercenaries, the power of that country will remain under the direction of the most wealthy citizens.

A Framer 

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

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.

Edward R. Murrow, (1908-1965), American Broadcast Newsman during the McCarthy era.

The convention which framed the Constitution of the United States was composed of fifty-five members. A majority were lawyers not one farmer, mechanic or laborer. Forty owned Revolutionary Scrip. Fourteen were land speculators. Twenty-four were money-lenders. Eleven were merchants. Fifteen were slave-holders. They made a Constitution to protect the rights of property and not the rights of man’.

Senator Richard Pettigrew, Triumphant Plutocracy (1922)

The vested interests - if we explain the situation by their influence – can only get the public to act as they wish by manipulating public opinion, by playing either upon the public's indifference, confusions, prejudices, pugnacities or fears. And the only way in which the power of the interests can be undermined and their manoeuvres defeated is by bringing home to the public the danger of its indifference, the absurdity of its prejudices, or the hollowness of its fears; by showing that it is indifferent to danger where real danger exists; frightened by dangers which are nonexistent.

Sir Norman Angell 1872 - 1967

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is hard business. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.

Rudyard Kipling, (1865-1936)

Protection, therefore, against the tyranny of the magistrate is not enough; there needs protection against the tyranny of the prevailing opinion and feeling, against the tendency of society to impose, by other means than civil penalties, its own ideas and practices as rules of conduct on those who dissent from them.

John Stuart Mill, 1806-1873, English philosopher and economist, On Liberty, 1859

I believe that any man who takes the liberty of another into his keeping is bound to become a tyrant, and that any man who yields up his liberty, in however slight the measure, is bound to become a slave.

H. L. Mencken

LITURGY NOTES: FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT

First Sunday of Advent

Year B

December 3, 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.

The presence of

the incarnate word

shines at the heart

of all creation.

Teilhard de Chardin

A HIV-person in Bangladesh      

Readings

First Reading:              Isaiah 63:16-17, 19; 64:2-7

Responsorial Psalm:  Ps 80:2-3, 15-16, 18-19

Second Reading:         1st Corinthians 1:3-9

Gospel Reading:          Mark 13:33-37

Penitential Rite

·         Jesus, you awaken us to your presence and come to our help: Jesus, have mercy.

·         Christ, you let your face shine on us and free us: Christ, have mercy.

·         Jesus, you give us life so that we may give life to others: Jesus, have mercy.

or

• Jesus, you were born into the world to reveal God’s love for us: Jesus, have mercy.
• Jesus, you promise to be with us until the end of time: Christ, have mercy.
• Jesus, you are born again in each of us and in your community. Jesus, have mercy.

Introductory Prayer [Instead of the Penitential Rite]:

We gather to prepare for Christmas,

hearing prophetic voices announcing

the promise of God's reigning.

The texts of the Advent season

help us to begin to let go

of our old, familiar, failing world;

to deal with the dismantling

of any system of meaning and power

into which we might have invested

our personal time and effort.

These ancient voices challenge us

to trust anew the One for Whom we wait!

The season of Advent challenges us

to see God's vision of what is yet to be;

to hear God's voice calling us anew;

to smell God's scent in our world.

Reader 1:

The Spirit of God is among us,

breaking down old barriers

and building a new world.

Prepare a way for the coming of God:

ALL: PREPARE A WAY FOR THE COMING OF GOD

Reader 2:

The Spirit of God is among us,

seeking out truth both new & old,

creating a just world.

Prepare a way for the coming of God:

ALL: PREPARE A WAY FOR THE COMING OF GOD

Reader 3:

The Spirit of God is among us,

moving in the air, the land & the waters,

making our world whole.

Prepare a way for the coming of God:

ALL: PREPARE A WAY FOR THE COMING OF GOD

Be among us now,

O holy Spirit of God.

Bring us to wholeness & peace.

Bring to birth among us the One

who is God-with-us,

Christ, now and always. AMEN

Alternative Resources from the World Council of Churches: Image Peace

First Sunday in Advent: VISUALIZING PEACE

Gathering

Latin American Psalm

The feet of the people of the world today tread the asphalt of the city’s violent streets,

but the hearts of the humble are stronger than cannons and bombs.

Peace for human beings will not come from outside,

neither will it be built by means of nuclear weapons,

nor will it come by agreements between governments.

Peace is present in the heart of the universe

and everything is moving towards peace.

It will come as a new dawn to this abused and weary world.

It will come from the simple, the humble and the poor of the earth.

It will be announced by the voices of children,

and the stirring music of the young.

Silence

The Child of Peace is coming to be born.

But into what sort of a world are we welcoming him?

We have made this world a violent world.

Today we confess, before the Lord,

how we have contributed to this situation,

as individuals, as a community of faith, and as a society.

‘End and Beginning’ © Jan Richardson

[No Gloria]

Opening Prayer

Ever-coming God,

may we be away to recognise Jesus

who is the light of our lives.

May he build up among us and with us

a world and a reign of peace and love

where we serve you in one another,

as we move forward in hope together.

General Intercessions

Introduction: Let us pray that we may be alert to Christ’s presence and his light in the world. We pray in response: Come and be our freedom, O God.

1.       Enrich your Church with a compassion that comes from deep listening to its members, especially those who feel marginalised by its power and where those who seek will find their way, where sinners find understanding and compassion, and the poor a place of refuge, we pray: Come and be our freedom, O God.

2.       Enrich world leaders with your wisdom so that they may be convinced of the effectiveness of seeking peace through nonviolence and bring peace and justice to all nations, we pray: Come and be our freedom, O God.

3.       Enrich those countries that oppress their own peoples or others with a sense of the sacredness of the person, we pray: Come and be our freedom, O God.

4.       Enrich with your spirit of courage where we might dissent injustices perpetrated by government and business corporations, not only when one’s personal rights are threatened or infringed but to be solidarity with all who suffer, especially the unemployed, refugees, single parents, Aboriginal people and youth, we pray: Come and be our freedom, O God.

5.       Enrich our communities with a love that is expressed in justice and a fair go for all;  that we may respect and appreciate one another; be united in all our diversity;  and attentive to each other's needs, we pray: Come and be our freedom, O God.

6.       Enrich with your strength all those who live with any form of physical or mental illness; we pray especially for all women, men and children who live with HIV/AIDS and their carers, we pray: Come and be our freedom, O God.

Concluding Prayer: Jesus Christ, you are the one who is coming to renew us and our world. Be our joy, our peace, all our hope, now and for ever.

Prayer over the Gifts (based on Pope Paul VI's ‘80 Years Later’)

Ever-coming God,

we pray that as Jesus comes in the bread and wine,

we may be inspired by  the power of his Spirit,

sustained in hope, and fully committed

to build up among people a city

that is human, peaceful, just and fraternal.

Prayer after Communion

Ever-coming God,

we have received from Jesus the bread of hope.

Help us to bring to our world

the warmth of his love, friendship,

compassion and integrity.

Parish Notices

December 2 International Day for the Abolition of Slavery,

December 3 International Day of Disabled Persons,

Advent Resource

Maryknoll Office for Global Concerns (Reflections for the four Sundays in Advent)

https://maryknollogc.org/resources/advent-reflection-guide-2017-season-welcome-stranger

‘Welcoming others means welcoming God in person.’

Pope Francis

Ignatianspirituality.com (Reflections for the four Sundays in Advent)

https://www.ignatianspirituality.com/advent

Further Resources

Various prayers for people living with HIV/AIDS

Hear our prayer, O God of mercy and love,

for all who live with HIV or AIDS.

Grant them loving companions

who will support them in the midst of fear;

give them hope for each day to come,

that every day may be lived with courage and faith.

Bless them with an abundance of your love,

that they may live with concern for others.

Pour on them the peace and wholeness,

which you alone can give.

Through Jesus Christ, our Saviour,

who came to give us abundant life. Amen.

Vienna Cobb Anderson (shortened version) in Prayers, Litanies and Liturgies, Diocese of the Highveld, South Africa

Dear God, we ask you to walk with us in our HIV/AIDS filled world.

We pray expecting your presence among us!

Be with all who live with the effects of this disease.

Be with those who wait to die because they have no access to medication.

Be with children who received HIV as a legacy from their parents.

Be with orphans and families who have lost loved ones.

Be with countries who have millions of citizens with HIV/AIDS.

Be with all who are stigmatized and ignored because they have HIV/AIDS.

Be with politicians and corporate executives who control access to affordable medications.

Be with researchers and scientists who work to find a cure.

Be with healthcare workers and caregivers who comfort and encourage.

Be with all who have lost hope because of HIV/AIDS.

Lord, we hear the angel's song of peace!

Fill the hearts of people around the world with good will

so that together we can work for justice and healing

for all who suffer from HIV/AIDS.

Amen.

Carol Penner of Vineland, Ontario for Peace Ministries

A prayer for those affected by conflict

God of refuge, the rock in whom we trust,

watch over our sisters and brothers in ……...

Bring comfort to those who grieve,

shelter to those who are homeless,

and sustenance to those who hunger and thirst.

God of mercy, open our hearts to your grace,

so that we are filled with compassion and a generosity of spirit,

and inspire us to take action.

Spirit of love, pour out your peace like a healing balm,

which brings hope in place of despair.

Amen

© Catherine Gorman/CAFOD

If you do not have a place at the table, then you are on the menu

Unknown but quoted by former President Tong, Kiribati

The general public is viewed as no more than ignorant and meddlesome outsiders, a bewildered herd. And it's the responsible men who have to make decisions and to protect society from the trampling and rage of the bewildered herd. Now since it's a democracy they - the herd, that is - are permitted occasionally to lend their weight to one or another member of the responsible class. That's called an election.

Noam Chomsky

As a child I had no mother’s arms to hold me. No father to lead me into the world. Us taken- away kids only had each other. All of us damaged and too young to know what to do. We had strangers standing over us. Some were nice and did the best they could. But many were just cruel nasty types. We were flogged often. We learnt to shut up and keep our eyes to the ground, for fear of being singled out and punished. We lived in dread of being sent away again where we could be even worse off. Many of us grew up hard and tough. Others were explosive and angry. A lot grew up just struggling to cope at all. They found their peace in other institutions or alcohol. Most of us learnt how to occupy a small space and avoid anything that looked like trouble. We had few ideas about relationships. No one showed us how to be lovers or parents. How to feel safe loving someone when that risked them being taken away and leaving us alone again. Everyone and everything we loved was taken away from us kids.’

Alec Kruger, Us Taken-Away Kids: Commemorating the 10^th anniversary of Bringing them home report

Blessing When the World is Ending

Look, the world
is always ending
somewhere.

Somewhere
the sun has come
crashing down.

Somewhere
it has gone
completely dark.

Somewhere
it has ended
with the gun
the knife
the fist.

Somewhere
it has ended
with the slammed door
the shattered hope.

Somewhere
it has ended
with the utter quiet
that follows the news
from the phone
the television
the hospital room.

Somewhere
it has ended
with a tenderness
that will break
your heart.

But, listen,
this blessing means
to be anything
but morose.
It has not come
to cause despair.

It is simply here
because there is nothing
a blessing
is better suited for
than an ending,
nothing that cries out more
for a blessing
than when a world
is falling apart.

This blessing
will not fix you
will not mend you
will not give you
false comfort;
it will not talk to you
about one door opening
when another one closes.

It will simply
sit itself beside you
among the shards
and gently turn your face
toward the direction
from which the light
will come,
gathering itself
about you
as the world begins
again.

Jan Richardson

Ever tried.  Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. 

Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) Irish playwright, novelist, poet; winner of the 1969 Nobel Prize in

It would be so easy to say, 'Well I'm going to retire, I'm going to sit around, watch television or eat bonbons,' but somebody's got to keep 'em awake and let 'em know what is really going on in this world.

Dorli Rainey,  84 year old activist talking about her experience getting pepper-sprayed by the police during an Occupy Seattle demonstration

Take one more step out of your comfort zone.

Jackie Hudson

A great revolution in just one single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a society and, further, will enable a change in the destiny of humankind.

Daisaku Ikeda, Japanese peace activist and Buddhist leader

Campaigns don't change politics and a president doesn't change the United States. It is up to us to take back our country. 

John Perkins

We have it in our power to begin the world over again.

Thomas Paine, American revolutionary

The worst forms of tyranny, or certainly the most successful ones, are not those we rail against but those that so insinuate themselves into the imagery of our consciousness, and the fabric of our lives, as not to be perceived as tyranny.

Michael Parenti

What does labour want? We want more schoolhouses and less jails; more books and less arsenals; more learning and less vice; more leisure and less greed; more justice and less revenge; in fact, more of the opportunities to cultivate our better natures. 

Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor 1915

A great revolution in just one single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a society and, further, will enable a change in the destiny of humankind.

Daisaku Ikeda  - Japanese peace Activist and Buddhist Leader of Buddhist organization Soka Gakkai International, b.1928

War is when the government tells you who the bad guy is. Revolution is when you decide that for yourself.

Author unknown

Be true to yourself and you cannot be a traitor to any good cause on earth.

Eugene Debs

It is the minorities who have made the history of this world. It is the few who have had the courage to take their places at the front; who have been true enough to themselves to speak the truth that was in them; who have dared oppose the established order of things; who have espoused the cause of the suffering, struggling poor; who have upheld without regard to personal consequences the cause of freedom and righteousness. It is they, the heroic, self-sacrificing few who have made the history of the race and who have paved the way from barbarism to civilization. The many prefer to remain upon the popular side.

Eugene Debs

Walk lightly

Each leaf, each petal,

each grain, each person,

sings your praises,

Creator God.

Each creature on the earth,

all the mountains and great seas

show your glory,

Spirit of love.

And yet the hand of greed

has patented and plundered

your splendour,

has taken and not shared

your gift,

has lived as owner of the earth,

not guest.

And so

the ice is cracked

the rivers dry,

the valleys flooded

and the snowcaps melt.

God our Father, show us

how to step gently,

how to live simply,

how to walk lightly

with respect and love

for all that you have made.

Amen

© Linda Jones/CAFOD

I do not see a delegation

For the four-legged.

I see no seat for the eagles.

We forget and we consider

Ourselves superior.

But we are after all

A mere part of Creation.

And we must consider

To understand where we are.

And we stand somewhere between

The mountain and the Ant

Somewhere and only there

As part and parcel

Of the Creation.

Chief Oren Lyons

Source: Steve Wall and Harvey Arden, Wisdomkeepers, Beyond Words, Hillsboro, 1990, p. 71.

The more deeply I search for the roots of the global environmental crisis, the more I am convinced that it is an outer manifestation of an inner crisis that is, for lack of a better word, spiritual... what other word describes the collection of values and assumptions that determine our basic understanding of how we fit into the universe?

Al Gore

Source: Al Gore, Earth in the Balance, Plume, New York, 1993, p. 12.

The Indians feel…but they cannot help. They are too small in culture.

They are too small in the essence of the world. Their help is their being and culture.

Combined they are a minority. In combination they are faith—a faith of earth.

Let them push their being, their earth and their love of themselves

to help those who took their earth and their being’

Anonymous

Source: Ricardo Humano, The New Book, SOAR Ediciones, Cusco, Peru, 2000, p.23

livesimply

Compassionate and loving God,

you created the world for us all to share,

a world of beauty and plenty.

Create in us a desire to live simply,

so that our lives may reflect your generosity.

Creator God,

You gave us responsibility for the earth,

a world of riches and delight.

Create in us a desire to live sustainably,

so that those who follow after us

may enjoy the fruits of your creation.

God of peace and justice,

You give us the capacity to change,

to bring about a world that mirrors your wisdom.

Create in us a desire to act in solidarity,

so that the pillars of injustice crumble

and those now crushed are set free.

Amen.

© Linda Jones / CAFOD

We believe…

We believe in God

who gave us a world to share

in friendship, equality and peace.

We believe in God

who created all people and our world out of love.

We recognise that the world is unequal and unjust

and that we are individually and collectively

responsible for being good stewards

and for working with hope and love

to restore God’s kingdom on earth.

We believe in Christ, living, suffering, dying and rising,

the life force in the whole of creation.

We believe in one world, one people,

fed from one table.

We believe that we are all vital parts of Christ’s body,

reflecting his love,

by and through our actions, compassion, attitudes and choices.

We believe we are God’s instruments

through which by faith, prayer and action

we will change the world.

We believe in a God of love,

who calls all of us to listen to each other,

to actively share and treat each other as equals in humility and hope.

We believe that within God’s circle of love, faith and trust

we all share in a worldwide hunger for justice

as brothers and sisters in Christ.

Written by a group of CAFOD volunteers

But it will be necessary above all to abandon a mentality in which the poor--as individuals and as peoples--are considered a burden, as irksome intruders trying to consume what others have produced. The poor ask for the right to share in enjoying material goods and to make good use of their capacity for work, thus creating a world that is more just and prosperous for all. The advancement of the poor constitutes a great opportunity for the moral, cultural and even economic growth of all humanity.

Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus

A person who is concerned solely or primarily with possessing and enjoying, who is no longer able to control his instincts and passions, or to subordinate them by obedience to the truth, cannot be free.

Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus

We wish to listen to one other: we believe that this itself is already a sign of peace. In listening to one another there is already a reply to the disturbing questions that worry us. This already serves to scatter the shadows of suspicion and misunderstanding. The shadows will not be dissipated with weapons; darkness is dispelled by sending out bright beams of light.

Pope John Paul II, Assisi, January 24, 2002

In order to overcome today's widespread individualistic mentality, what is required is a concrete commitment to solidarity and charity.

Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus

Too many people live, not in the prosperity of the Western world, but in the poverty of the developing countries amid conditions which are still 'a yoke little better than that of slavery itself.

Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus

Ah yes, truth.

Funny how everyone is always asking for it

but when they get it

they don't believe it

because it's not the truth they want to hear.

Helena Cassadine

Truth resides in every human heart, and one has to search for it there, and to be guided by truth as one sees it. But no one has a right to coerce others to act according to his own view of truth.

Mahatma Gandhi

Our men . . . have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives, active insurgents and suspected people from lads of 10 up.... Our soldiers have pumped salt water into men to ‘make them talk,’ and have taken prisoner people who held up their hands and peacefully surrendered, and an hour later. . . stood them on a bridge and shot them down one by one, to drop into the water below and float down, as examples to those who found their bullet-loaded corpses.

Philadelphia Ledger newspaper in 1901 [from its Manila (Philippines) correspondent during the US war with Spain for the control of the Philippines].

The truth that makes [men] free is for the most part the truth which [men] prefer not to hear.

Herbert Sebastien Agar

 ... the United States, for generations, has sustained two parallel but opposed states of mind about military atrocities and human rights: one of U.S. benevolence, generally held by the public, and the other of ends-justify-the-means brutality sponsored by counterinsurgency specialists. Normally the specialists carry out their actions in remote locations with little notice in the national press. That allows the public to sustain its faith in a just America, while hard-nosed security and economic interests are still protected in secret.

Robert Parry, investigative reporter and author

The only place you and I disagree . . . is with regard to the bombing. You're so goddamned concerned about the civilians, and I (in contrast) don't give a damn. I don't care…. I'd rather use the nuclear bomb…. Does that bother you? I just want you to think big.

Richard Nixon to Henry Kissinger on the Watergate tapes

War:

first, one hopes to win;

then one expects the enemy to lose;

then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering;

in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost.

Karl Kraus (1874–1936)

War, we have come to believe, is a spectator sport. The military and the press ... have turned war into a vast video arcade game. Its very essence - death - is hidden from public view.

Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter for New York Times

Throughout history, 

it has been the inaction of those who could have acted;

the indifference of those who should have known better;

the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most;

that has made it possible for evil to triumph.

Haile Selassie

Television is altering the meaning of ‘being informed’ by creating a species of information that might properly be called disinformation... Disinformation does not mean false information. It means misleading information - misplaced, irrelevant, fragmented or superficial information - information that creates the illusion of knowing something, but which in fact leads one away from knowing.

Neil Postman

The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western world. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity - much less dissent.

Gore Vidal

If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional.  Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our own nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective.  No individual can live alone; no nation can live alone, and as long as we try, the more we are going to have war in this world.  Now the judgement of God is upon us, and we must either learn to live together as brothers [and sisters] or we are all going to perish together as fools….it really boils down to this; that all life is interrelated; we aren’t going to have peace on earth until we face this fact.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

As human beings and Christians – or people following any of the great spiritual traditions – our task is to make conscious and embrace all aspects of ourselves (even the most undesirable) with a Christian charity which extends even to the most dangerous enemy, the one within: for left to itself, out of touch with human consciousness, this enemy within is the source of all the woes that beset humankind.  This demands an attitude which is neither puritanical nor self-indulgent, but deeply aware of and accepting of all that is within us, all the contrary aspects of our nature.  Jung advocates patience and ‘being Christian on the inside’ (i.e., in loving the enemy).  One needs to accept the pattern of one’s personality and fulfill it – even accepting one’s sinfulness.  This deep self-acceptance mellows the personality, and ‘the gold begins to glow…(for) people who can agree with themselves are like gold’.  Because one has made peace with oneself, one doesn’t need to act out destructively in the outer world and so one lives much more ethically than the person who is at odds with him or herself.

T. McBride, (1997). Forward. In Dreamworks: A meeting of spirituality and psychology

O Prince of Peace,

whose active presence we seek in our lives,

come this day and show us

how to beat our swords into plowshares,

tools of life instead of instruments of fear.

May your love strip us naked

of all weapons and strategies of conquest,

which are not the tools of lovers,

wise ones and God's children.

Let us not lust for power

but rather strive for the insight

to be guided on the Way of Peace.

Let us not yearn for a victory

that requires a sister's sorrow

or a brother's shamefaced defeat.

With tears, black suits and dresses

and tolling funeral bells,

let us attend life's victory parties

that are won at such a cost.

Let us be peacemakers,

hammering swords into shovels,

filling holes and leveling peaks.

for only through such open hands and hearts

can The Peacemaker come.

AMEN.

A Peace  Pslam based on chapter 31of the Tao Te Ching from Edward Hays’ Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim.

Voices

When you keep

all the hate,

all the worry,

all the fear,

all the loathing,

all the guilt,

all the passion,

all the confusion,

all the pride,

all the jealousy,

all the strength,

all the forgiveness,

all the compassion,

all the hostility,

all the pain,

all the hesitation,

all the wishes,

all the desires,

all the aspirations,

all the faults,

all the wild ideas,

all the nightmares,

all the dreams,

all the doubts,

and all the love,

inside.

Your voice

becomes

so small.

Find your voice

Wabano Centre for Aboriginal Health Ottawa, ON, Canada

An Advent Credo

It is not true that creation and the human family are doomed to destruction and loss

This is true: For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life;

It is not true that we must accept inhumanity and discrimination, hunger and poverty, death and destruction

This is true: I have come that they may have life, and that abundantly.

It is not true that violence and hatred should have the last word, and that war and destruction rule forever

This is true: Unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, his name shall be called wonderful councilor, mighty God, the Everlasting, the Prince of peace.

It is not true that we are simply victims of the powers of evil who seek to rule the world.

This is true: To me is given authority in heaven and on earth, and lo I am with you, even until the end of the world.

It is not true that we have to wait for those who are specially gifted, who are the prophets of the Church before we can be peacemakers

This is true: I will pour out my spirit on all flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions and your old men shall have dreams.

It is not true that our hopes for liberation of humankind, of justice, of human dignity of peace are not meant for this earth and for this history -

This is true: The hour comes, and it is now, that the true worshipers shall worship God in spirit and in truth.

Fr Daniel Berrigan, sj, Jesuit, peace activist, poet (1921-2016)

From Testimony: The Word Made Flesh, by Daniel Berrigan, S.J. Orbis Books, 2004.

Reflections on the Readings….

Most would remember when a school teacher needed to leave the classroom, and would do so with a ‘I’ll be right back, so you better not misbehave.’ Of course, no did for a few minutes, but the longer the longer the teacher was out of the classroom, the more trouble that ensued. And then there trouble. Mark was trying to avoid this by wanting everyone to be in his or her place, doing exactly what the ‘returning’ Jesus expected. Mark uses the images of being asleep or being awake; being conscious or being oblivious to what’s happening around us. The key virtue for Christians around the year 70 is simple: ‘Be watchful! Be alert!’ Be doing what Jesus expects you to do when the door of the Parousia suddenly opens. Yet more than 2000 years later, though we no longer expect his imminent return, alertness still remains a key virtue because for Jesus God was present and effectively working in everyone’s life. He tried to make others aware of God’s kingdom among them; that they be alert to a presence most people did not seem to notice. 

The cosmic imagery Mark has used just prior to this passage suggests upheaval, destruction of the Temple, images of war, earthquakes, famine and family betrayal.  Great words for the preachers and prophets of doom!  It can come as a shock that a season perceived to be about joy and peace begins with the end of the world. As Advent approaches, Jesus’ words come less as a shock but as something familiar. This last year up to a couple of months ago, there were a number of times when my world ended in a small way. Nothing like the End of the World Jesus describes here, but a gap left with the death of my mother, the death of my 16 year old feline companion, the death of a friend. I see these ending as part of the many endings that people all around me experience. They are all connected and the coming of Christ at the end of time somehow shows me that he inhabits and is present in ending we experience. Advent calls us to be on the lookout for the presence of Christ who inhabits our every loss, who is present in each devastation, and gathers us up when our world has shattered, and offers healing now. On another level, the destruction might not be of the world but the ruin of the status quo. It might point to how harsh the world is, but also how it can be when we are ‘alert’. The emergence of new ways of thinking, feeling, and acting can threaten the established order. We have seen this in various social movements. People calling for a new way of doing things. Something new is possible and we are being offered an alternative way to be human. Ingrained habits, and mindless and oppressive ‘business as usual’ is being challenged. The old world of the 1%, the world of corporate greed is challenged more and more. Some will accept the changes and others will struggle against it. Christ’s words are those of comfort and presence despite pictures of darkened skies and falling stars and suggestions of violence which jump-start Advent.

It is necessary to both work and watch. It means to be a servant (‘each with his or her own work’) and a doorkeeper (‘on the watch’). This work is a cooperation with the One who is active and at work bringing about a new humanity. We are being invited or lured into collaborating. Can we live engaged in God’s world and be open to the arrival of the new? We are called to be fully present to the moment, immersed in the present, and looking to the future.  This waiting is not passive but an active waiting… whilst listening, discerning and doing.

Jesus did not wait around. Nor was he always patient. A call to patience, like the call to ‘obedience’ or ‘loyalty’ can subvert being active; people can be lulled into accepting an unjust status quo. Institutions [commercial, political or religious] thrive when we are sleepy, passive, obedient and impressionable. We can be uncritical [asleep] about the rantings of people [advertisers, politicians and shock jocks] about the world, our country, or the church. We see then when the drone goes on about the need for further military involvement in the Middle East or the so-called threats to our security by people who seek our protection.

Former member of parliament and courageous advocate for asylum seekers and other people suffering injustice,  Petro Georgiou, said: ‘In life, do you know how many things you'd like to walk past and not notice?...Lots. But sometimes you do notice, and when you notice, you have to do something.’  The global financial crisis has awakened some to look at our values. Climate change is waking us up to how we deface the earth and how our action or lack of action harms our Pacific neighbours.  We do not always wake up to the fact that an Israeli death is just as tragic as that of Palestinian. When our Government continues to change the rules to hurt voiceless and helpless people, especially children, who seek our protection from violent situations, will we wake up to what is meant by a ‘fair go’. Or, do we drift of back to sleep.

Patience and waiting do not change the world. It is a call to engagement. Otherwise those who are poor, lonely, elderly, sick, have to wait even longer.  The poor wait for an end to their suffering in a world where medicine is patented. World AIDS Day commemorated on Friday continues to prompt us to remember those who still struggle to obtain even generic and affordable medication for their illness. Indigenous people and gay people still wait for justice, equality and freedom. And when it is achieved, it is given grudgingly and with conditions. Is God silent because we are asleep?

In a cry from the heart, Isaiah [520 BCE] pleaded for an end to God's silence. God seemed remote or absent at a time when the nation was in ruins and the Temple desolate. Now we wait for God’s servants to be near, active, healing and gathering.

People in the Pacific wait for us to listen and respond to their situation of climate change; people in Syria and Afghanistan want their countries back from the foreign forces and insurgents that attack them over and over again with impunity; the people of Zimbabwe have waited for 37 years for some measure of relief from oppressive and corrupt government but will there be change; people on Manus Island cry out for us to listen to their pleas for security and freedom but who is listening? people living with HIV/AIDS in developing countries still ask what the future holds for them when medicines are unavailable due to the ‘profit motive’; West Papua still cry out for respect, for human rights and autonomy in the face of ongoing repression and violence, but is the world listening; Palestinians remain imprisoned in Gaza and endure daily hardships few of us know about. All are God’s children and all are vulnerable and ‘vulnerability’ means ‘waiting to be wounded’ again and again. If God cares, we need to join Isaiah who demands God’s face be shown again – a face that is shown in our presence, our solidarity and our care and compassion.

 Advent invites us to be in solidarity with all that groans and who groans under the birth pangs of the new creation. In the movie, The Way, four men set out alone to do the Camino - pilgrimage/walk to Compostella. They aim to go alone but fall in together during the walk. The Way begins with the story of Daniel, a young man, who was somewhat estranged from his father, Tom (played by Martin Sheen). When Daniel is killed in an accident not long after beginning the pilgrimage, Tom flies to France to identify and reclaim Daniel’s body. Here Tom learns that his son had embarked on the ‘Camino’ in order to ‘find himself’, and so decides to complete the pilgrimage in his son’s memory. Intending to keep to himself and his own thoughts, Tom finds himself in the company of three other men – all with personal reasons for taking the 800 kilometre journey. An extrovert Dutchman who only intended to lose excess weight discovers within himself a depth of kindness and joy he had not appreciated earlier. An embittered Canadian divorcee was on the journey to quit smoking but finds forgiveness and acceptance. An Irish writer looking for a story for a novel rediscovers his faith. And Tom, who intended to scatter his son’s ashes at the end of the journey, ends up with a new understanding of, and a deep respect for, the son he had lost. In this story of gradual, quiet and personal transformation, the four men, in their interaction, discover the difference between ‘the life we live and the life we choose’.

In 1960's, an out of touch Church offered a new view of itself and its mission: ‘The joys and hopes, the sadness and pain of human beings in our time, above all, of the poor and all who suffer, are also joys and hopes, sadness and pain of Christ’s disciples. There is nothing truly human that doesn’t find a place in his heart……’ (Gaudium et spes. 1). It needs to continue to struggle with this as it finds that this is not possible unless it is accountable, allows for diversity, embraces the world,  seeks to serve rather than defend its power structures, and seeks healing and justice rather than defending its image. This takes us back to last Sunday’s gospel: ‘Whatever you did to the least of these you did it to me!!’

As with Isaiah, we too need God to ‘rend the heavens and come down,’ to rend, rip away the indifference and egoism that separates country from country, race from race, male from female, rich from poor, young from old, religion from religion, healthy from sick, etc. More importantly however, we need to pray that we rend our hearts and be part of the change that we want to see.  God is already in the action. God has been embracing us with love all along. The Eucharist reminds us that God is bound to us and bound up with the whole of creation.

Yes, there is serious pain in the world, in our community. There are wars and rumours of wars. There's strife within families, and even within the Church and between churches, those called to be one in Christ. God’s name continues to be profaned, used as a political prop to assert power over the powerless when God’s name is really the name of the one who is compassionate, a servant, who feeds the hungry, lifts up the lowly, frees the prisoner. We know this as well as Mark’s readers did. God’s reign is not late in coming, it has not been derailed. It is here. We know the God of Jesus is love, and love [our love] drives out fear.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin wrote of the connection between the spiritual life and the human condition in his book The Phenomenon of Man: ‘We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.’ Despite the images in Mark’s Gospel, we are bombarded with so many distractions such as catastrophes in the form of hurricanes and typhoons, political unrest, illness, family/work stressors, violence and addictions that distract us from living fully human/spiritual lives.  Mark tells us that we must ‘Watch’ – not what others are doing or be in judgement of them, but to watch and be alert to what we are thinking, doing, feeling, giving and taking. Do our actions and interactions and engagements with others align with those of Jesus – his loving and healing presence? We need to trust that others will benefit from our loving presence.

Panic and fear, like sleep, keeps us from watching and listening, from the ability to respond to another person, and with that, the ability to love. Keep watch and respond with love. Let’s not nod off when the attractions and comforts of life in one of the richest nations of the world attempt to lull us into complacency: keep watch, and respond with love. There will be earthquakes and wars and famines, as well as more personal catastrophes of betrayal, but there is nothing that can derail this train, so people, get ready: Jesus is here, and always has been. Keep watch, and respond with love

As Advent begins, can we help one another to discover the difference between ‘the life we live and the life we choose’? Can we try to make of our lives a journey where every person we meet and every circumstance we find ourselves in are a revelation of God’s presence in our midst? God is both the road we travel and the destination of the pilgrimage on which we have embarked.  Advent reminds us to be alert along the way and to be open to the unmistakable signs of God present in the people we meet and the events that happen to us. God’s work began in Jesus’ ministry, and it continues in our midst and with us. We are faithful disciples not when we focus on the future and obsess about the end of the world but when we commit our lives, here and now, to the great work of God, repairing this world, shaping a new creation of beauty, grace, justice, and joy, leaning into the reign of God.

Don’t Just Give Thanks: Pay It Forward One Act of Kindness at a Time

John W. Whitehead Dissident Voice November 22, 2017

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.

— John F. Kennedy

It’s been a hard, heart-wrenching, stomach-churning kind of year filled with violence and ill will.

It’s been a year of hotheads and blowhards and killing sprees and bloodshed and take downs.

It’s been a year in which tyranny took a step forward and freedom got knocked down a few notches.

It’s been a year with an abundance of bad news and a shortage of good news.

It’s been a year of too much hate and too little kindness.

Now we find ourselves approaching that time of year when, as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln proclaimed, we’re supposed to give thanks as a nation and as individuals for our safety and our freedoms.

It’s not an easy undertaking.

How do you give thanks for freedoms that are constantly being eroded? How do you express gratitude for one’s safety when the perils posed by the American police state grow more treacherous by the day? How do you come together as a nation in thanksgiving when the powers-that-be continue to polarize and divide us into warring factions?

It’s not going to happen overnight. Or with one turkey dinner. Or with one day of thanksgiving.

Thinking good thoughts, being grateful, counting your blessings and adopting a glass-half-full mindset are fine and good, but don’t stop there.

This world requires doers, men and women (and children) who will put those good thoughts into action.

It says a lot (and nothing good) about the state of our world and the meanness that seems to have taken center stage that we now have a day (World Kindness Day) devoted to making the world more collectively human in thoughts and actions. The idea for the day started after a college president in Japan was mugged in a public place and nobody helped him.

Unfortunately, you hear about these kinds of incidents too often.

A 15-year-old girl was gang raped in a schoolyard during a homecoming dance. As many as 20 people witnessed the assault over the course of two and a half hours. No one intervened to stop it.

A 28-year-old woman was stabbed, raped and murdered outside her apartment early in the morning. Thirty-eight bystanders bystanders witnessed the attack and failed to intervene. The woman, Kitty Genovese, died from her wounds at the locked doorway to her apartment building.

A 58-year-old man waded into chest-deep water in the San Francisco Bay in an apparent suicide attempt. For an hour Raymond Zack stood in the shallow water while 75 onlookers watched. Police and firefighters were called in but failed to intervene, citing budget cuts, a lack of training in water rescue, fear for their safety and a lack of proper equipment. The man eventually passed out and later died of hypothermia. Eventually, an onlooker volunteered to bring the body back to the beach.

A homeless man intervened to save a woman from a knife-wielding attacker. He saved the woman but was stabbed repeatedly in the process. As The Guardian reports, ‘For more than an hour he lay dying in a pool of his own blood as dozens walked by. Some paused to stare, others leaned in close. One even shook his body and then left, while someone else recorded a video of the entire proceeding.’

This is how evil prevails: when good men and women do nothing.

By doing nothing, the onlookers become as guilty as the perpetrator.

‘If I were to remain silent, I’d be guilty of complicity,’ declared Albert Einstein.

It works the same whether you’re talking about kids watching bullies torment a fellow student on a playground, bystanders watching someone dying on a sidewalk, or citizens remaining silent in the face of government atrocities.

There’s a term for this phenomenon where people stand by, watch and do nothing—even when there is no risk to their safety—while some horrific act takes place (someone is mugged or raped or bullied or left to die): it’s called the bystander effect.

Psychological researchers John Darley and Bibb Latane mounted a series of experiments to discover why people respond with apathy or indifference instead of intervening.

Their findings speak volumes about the state of our nation and why ‘we the people’ continue to suffer such blatant abuses by the police state.

According to Darley and Latane, there are two critical factors that contribute to this moral lassitude.

First, there’s the problem of pluralistic ignorance in which individuals in a group look to others to determine how to respond. As Melissa Burkley explains in Psychology Today, ‘Pluralistic ignorance describes a situation where a majority of group members privately believe one thing, but assume (incorrectly) that most others believe the opposite.’

Second, there’s the problem of ‘diffusion of responsibility,’ which is compounded by pluralistic ignorance. Basically, this means that the more people who witness a catastrophic event, the less likely any one person will do anything because each thinks someone else will take responsibility. In other words, no one acts to intervene or help because each person is waiting for someone else to do so.

Now the temptation is to label the bystanders as terrible people, monsters even.

Yet as Mahzarin Banaji, professor of psychology at Harvard University points out, ‘These are not monsters. These are us. This is all of us. This is not about a few monsters. This is about everybody. It says something very difficult to us. It says that perhaps had we been standing there, we ourselves, if we were not better educated about this particular effect and what it does to us, we may fall prey to it ourselves.’

Historically, this bystander syndrome in which people remain silent and disengaged—mere onlookers—in the face of abject horrors and injustice has resulted in whole populations being conditioned to tolerate unspoken cruelty toward their fellow human beings: the crucifixion and slaughter of innocents by the Romans, the torture of the Inquisition, the atrocities of the Nazis, the butchery of the Fascists, the bloodshed by the Communists, and the cold-blooded war machines run by the military industrial complex.

So what can you do about this bystander effect?

Be a hero, suggests psychologist Philip Zimbardo.

‘Each of us has an inner hero we can draw upon in an emergency,’ Zimbardo concluded. ‘If you think there is even a possibility that someone needs help, act on it. You may save a life. You are the modern version of the Good Samaritan that makes the world a better place for all of us.’

Zimbardo is the psychologist who carried out the Stanford Prison Experiment which studied the impact of perceived power and authority on middle class students who were assigned to act as prisoners and prison guards. The experiment revealed that power does indeed corrupt (the appointed guards became increasingly abusive), and those who were relegated to being prisoners acted increasingly ‘submissive and depersonalized, taking the abuse and saying little in protest.’

What is the antidote to group think and the bystander effect?

Be an individual. Listen to your inner voice. Take responsibility.

‘If you find yourself in an ambiguous situation, resist the urge to look to others and go with your gut instinct,’ says Burkley. ‘If you think there is even a possibility that someone is in need, act on it. At worst, you will embarrass yourself for a few minutes, but at best, you will save a life.’

‘Even if people recognize that they are witnessing a crime, they may still fail to intervene if they do not take personal responsibility for helping the victim,’ writes Burkley. ‘The problem is that the more bystanders there are, the less responsible each individual feels.’

In other words, recognize injustice. Don’t turn away from suffering.

Refuse to remain silent. Take a stand. Speak up. Speak out.

This is what Zimbardo refers to as ‘the power of one.’ All it takes is one person breaking away from the fold to change the dynamics of a situation. ‘Once any one helps, then in seconds others will join in because a new social norm emerges: Do Something Helpful.’

‘I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation,’ stated Holocaust Elie Wiesel in his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in 1986.  ‘We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. Sometimes we must interfere. When human lives are endangered, when human dignity is in jeopardy, national borders and sensitivities become irrelevant. Wherever men or women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must – at that moment – become the center of the universe.’

Unfortunately, as I make clear in my book Battlefield America: The War on the American People, too many Americans have opted to remain silent when it really matters while instead taking a stand over politics rather than human suffering.

That needs to change.

I don’t believe we’re inherently monsters. We just need to be more conscientious and engaged and helpful.

The Good Samaritans of this world don’t always get recognized, but they’re doing their part to push back against the darkness.

For instance, earlier this year in Florida, a family of six—four adults and two young boys—were swept out to sea by a powerful rip current in Panama City Beach. There was no lifeguard on duty. The police were standing by, waiting for a rescue boat. And the few people who had tried to help ended up stranded, as well.

Those on shore grouped together and formed a human chain. What started with five volunteers grew to 15, then 80 people, some of whom couldn’t swim.

One by one, they linked hands and stretched as far as their chain would go. The strongest of the volunteers swam out beyond the chain and began passing the stranded victims of the rip current down the chain.

One by one, they rescued those in trouble and pulled each other in.

There’s a moral here for what needs to happen in this country if we only can band together and prevail against the riptides that threaten to overwhelm us.

Here’s what I suggest.

Instead of just giving thanks this holiday season with words that are too soon forgotten, why not put your gratitude into action with deeds that spread a little kindness, lighten someone’s burden, and brighten some dark corner?

I’m not just talking about volunteering at a soup kitchen or making a donation to a charity that does good work, although those are fine things, too.

What I’m suggesting is something that everyone can do no matter how tight our budgets or how crowded our schedules.

Pay your blessings forward.

Engage in acts of kindness. Smile more. Fight less.

Focus on the things that unite instead of that which divides. Be a hero, whether or not anyone ever notices.

Do your part to push back against the meanness of our culture with conscious compassion and humanity. Moods are contagious, the good and the bad. They can be passed from person to person. So can the actions associated with those moods, the good and the bad.

Even holding the door for someone or giving up your seat on a crowded train are acts of benevolence that, magnified by other such acts, can spark a movement.

Imagine a world in which we all lived in peace.

John Lennon tried to imagine such a world in which there was nothing to kill or die for, no greed or hunger. He was a beautiful dreamer whose life ended with an assassin’s bullet on December 8, 1980.

Still, that doesn’t mean the dream has to die, too.

There’s something to be said for working to make that dream a reality. As Lennon reminded his listeners, ‘War is over, if you want it.’

The choice is ours, if we want it.

Constitutional attorney and author John W. Whitehead is founder and president of The Rutherford Institute. His new book Battlefield America: The War on the American People (SelectBooks, 2015) is available online at www.amazon.com. Whitehead can be contacted at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Read other articles by John W..

LITURGY NOTES FOR THE FEAST OF CHRIST THE KING/ HEART OF THE UNIVERSE.

Solemnity of Christ, Heart of the Universe

[Feast of Christ the King]

November 26, 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.

Blessed are you peacemakers

Blessed are you peacemakers,

who say no to war as a means to peace.

Blessed are you peacemakers,

who are committed to disarm weapons of mass destruction.

Blessed are you peacemakers,

who wage peace at heroic personal cost.

Blessed are you peacemakers,

who challenge and confront judges, courts & prisons.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who help those who are hurting.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who befriend perfect strangers.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who open doors for acting justly,

loving tenderly and walking humbly with God

and all people of good will.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who welcome, encourage and inspire.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who offer hope and healing.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who care and comfort.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who help find answers.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who provide stability not insanity.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who help restore faith and love.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who delight in creation, art & creativity.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who see the good in others.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who never give up.

Blessed are the peacemakers,

who give and give and give.

Fr. Paul Milanowski Grand Rapids, Michigan

Reading

First Reading:                      Ezekiel 34:11-12, 15-17

Responsorial Psalm:          Ps 23:1-2, 2-3, 5-6

Second Reading:                1st Corinthians 15:20-26, 28

Gospel Reading:                 Matthew 25:31-46

Penitential Rite

1.       Christ Jesus, you looked for the lost ones, bandaged the wounded and made the weak strong. Jesus, have mercy.

2.       Christ Jesus, you came to gather together those scattered in the mist and the darkness:  Christ, have mercy.

3.       Christ Jesus, you identified with the hungry and the sick, with strangers and with those in prison: Jesus, have mercy.

or

1.        Jesus, you came to be the servant of all people, who are sick, vulnerable and marginalised. Jesus, have mercy.

2.       Jesus, in your total commitment to love, you laid down you life for all. Christ, have mercy. .

3.        Jesus, you did not seek power and privilege, but established your Reign on truth and love. Jesus, have mercy.

Opening Prayer

God of the poor,

Jesus, your Son, was born among us.

Open our eyes, our hearts and our hands

and may our love free, bold and inclusive

as we welcome him in those who are hungry and thirsty,

in those who are abandoned and lonely,

in refugees, the poor and the sick.

or

God and Heart of the Universe

the mystery of Jesus’ reign

over every age and nation illumines our lives.

Open our hearts, and remove from us,

every desire for privilege and power

and direct us in the love of Christ

to care for the least of our brothers and sisters.

Prayers of the Faithful (Intercession)

Introduction: Brothers and sisters, let us pray today for those Jesus calls the least ones, and as we pray, let us also ask God for the grace to recognise opportunities to act on behalf of those for whom we pray.

Response: Heart of the Universe, may you reign in us.

1. Make your Reign visible in those who cry out for justice and hospitality when people who are driven from their homes because of war and civil strife, let us pray: Heart of the Universe, may you reign in us.

2. Make your Reign visible in all whose voices cry out on behalf of those who  hunger for food, thirst for justice and those stripped of their human dignity, let us pray: Heart of the Universe, may you reign in us.

3. Make your Reign visible in all  who are prisoners of conscience, those who are persecuted for their beliefs, all the defenders of the environment and those who struggle for their freedom, let us pray: Heart of the Universe, may you reign in us.

4.       Make you Reign visible in our political and religious leaders so that they will listen in order to speak words of peace and make concrete gestures of peace in our world, let us pray: Heart of the Universe, may you reign in us.

5. Make your Reign visible in the Church, that it may always follow in the path of Jesus, who did not come to be served but to serve, let us pray: Heart of the Universe, may you reign in us.

6. Make your Reign visible in all who exercise power and authority in this world, that like Jesus, they may accept power as a means to a service that is more universal and effective, let us pray: Heart of the Universe, may you reign in us.

7. Make your Reign visible in people who cannot to see the God of love and diversity in their lives, and in those who attempt to impose a religion that present an intolerant and demanding God, let us pray: Heart of the Universe, may you reign in us.

8. Make your reign visible in all churches and faiths through inter-religious dialogue and that people may be strong in their love, service and compassion, let us pray: Heart of the Universe, may you reign in us.

9. Make your reign visible where people are in need and pain, especially as we approach World AIDS Day, that people in Africa, Asia and the Pacific who still live with HIV/AIDS; and may we all work to overcome fear, shame, ignorance and injustice against them, let us pray: Heart of the Universe, may you reign in us.

10.    Make your reign visible in those women and men who strive to eliminate violence against women and children which devastates lives and families, and fractures communities, let us pray: Heart of the Universe, may you reign in us.

11.     Make your reign visible for the media-forgotten people of West Papua, Western Sahara, the Horn of Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Iraq and Afghanistan, the people of Palestine – Jewish and Arab, and all people who suffer persecution of any kind……. [a moment of silence]……… let us pray: Heart of the Universe, may you reign in us.

12.    Make your Reign visible in our country as people seek responsibility, honesty, fairness and all that is necessary to live in peace with each other and with all nations of the world, let us pray: Heart of the Universe, may you reign in us.

13.     Make your Reign visible in those who cannot be with us today: those who are ill, in pain or living with a debilitating condition; let us pray: Heart of the Universe, may you reign in us.

Concluding Prayer: Heart of the Universe, you sent us your Son Jesus as a servant to establish your reign among us. Grant us the strength and all that we need to live as members of that reign by promoting a dialogue of love, justice, truth and life for all and live out your Gospel message here on earth. We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Prayer over the Gifts

God of the poor,

this is the bread you give us

to share with the poor

and the wine you call us to drink

in solidarity with all who suffer.

In these signs, may Jesus come among us,

give us the love and the strength

to meet him in our world.

or

God and Heart of the Universe,

show us your living presence

in Christ Jesus, your Son.

As we offer these gifts,

may the Spirit sustain our hope

and inspire us to generously build up

a world that is human, peaceful and just.

Prayer after Communion

God of the poor,

in this Eucharist

we have given thanks and praise to you

and acclaimed Jesus, as heart of our lives.

May the bread we have shared

gather us as your people

and strengthen us to serve you in the other

so that we may be to the world,

a sign of your presence.

or

God and Heart of the Universe,

in this Eucharist,

we recognise Jesus, the Centre of our lives,

May we respond by becoming, like him,

people who live for others,

by being instruments of your healing

and turn us into makers of peace

where your peace reigns in the hearts of all people.

Parish Notices

November 29 UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People

November 29 Death of Dorothy Day, Found of the Catholic Worker Movement, 1980

November 29 Meeting of Pope John Paul ll with the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People, Alice Springs, 1986

December 1 World AIDS Day The national World AIDS Day theme for Australia in 2017 is: HIV is still here - and it's on the move.

Further Resources

If you are thinking a year ahead, sow seed.

If you are thinking ten years ahead, plant a tree.

If you are thinking 100 years ahead, make people aware.

By sowing seed once, you will harvest once.

By planting a tree, you will harvest ten-fold.

By opening the minds of people, you will harvest 100-fold.

Chinese proverb

I believe in aristocracy…… not an aristocracy of power, based on rank and influence, but an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate, and the plucky.  Its members are found in all nations and classes, and through all the ages, and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet. They represent the true human tradition, the one queer victory over cruelty and chaos.

E.M. Forster

The guaranteeing of basic justice for all is not an optional expression of largesse but an inescapable duty for the whole of society.

US Bishops, Economic Justice for All, #120

Poor and vulnerable people have a special place in Catholic social teaching. A basic moral test of a society is how its most vulnerable members are faring. This is not a new insight; it is the lesson of the parable of the Last Judgment (see Matthew 25). Our tradition calls us to put the needs of the poor and the vulnerable first. As Christians, we are called to respond to the needs of all our sisters and brothers, but those with the greatest needs require the greatest response.

U.S. Catholic Bishops, A Century of Social Teaching, 6-7

Today in our situation the authenticity of the people of God goes by way of poverty and justice: they are the touchstone of the truth of the faith that is professed and of the genuineness of life as it is lived out: poverty, which involves incarnating all our efforts and incarnating ourselves in the reality of the oppressed majorities, and that will necessarily entail a voluntary impoverishment and abnegation on the part of those who wield power; justice, which involves giving to the people what belongs to the people and struggling to uproot injustice and exploitation, and to establish a new earth, wherein the life of the new human may be possible.

Ignacio Ellacuría SJ, martyred in ElSalvador in 1989

For if every [man] were to regard the persons of others as his own person, who would inflict pain and injury on others? If they regarded the homes of others as their own homes, who would rob the homes of others? Thus in that case there would be no brigands and robbers. If the princes regarded other countries as their own, who would wage war on other countries? This in that case there would be no more war.

Hillel, first century A.D. rabbi

There are no boundaries in this struggle to the death. We cannot be indifferent to what happens anywhere in the world, for a victory by any country over imperialism is our victory.

Ernesto Che Guevara

The World Peace Prayer

Lead me from death to life

From falsehood to truth

Lead me from despair to hope

From fear to trust

Lead me from hate to love

From war to peace

Let peace fill our hearts,

our world, our universe

Unknown

Tell me the truth about war

A coalition of the willing declared war

but did not explain why,

or the reasons they gave

were not the real reasons

and something called a dodgy dossier

became as smelly as the exam papers

of a schoolboy who cheated.

One leader is an evangelist,

another a true believer,

each hooked on the catechisms of their convictions

and would be lost without reference to their God

though non-believers

have questioned the sacred texts

and have asked for evidence.

An evil man was supposed

to be able to destroy his opponents

with mighty weapons in forty-five minutes

but the leaders who wanted to eliminate a dictator

also needed to throw their weight around,

use their weapons

to convince the world of their truth:

by killing people to protect them

they would be welcomed in the streets,

by installing puppet governments

their armies could demonstrate democracy at work,

which was another good reason for having a war.

Stuart Rees, Director, Sydney Peace Foundation

How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.

George Washington Carver, 1864-1943

Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder.... the working class who fight all the battles, the working class who make the supreme sacrifices, the working class who freely shed their blood and furnish their corpses, have never yet had a voice in either declaring war or making peace. It is the ruling class that invariably does both. They alone declare war and they alone make peace....They are continually talking about their patriotic duty. It is not their but your patriotic duty that they are concerned about. There is a decided difference. Their patriotic duty never takes them to the firing line or chucks them into the trenches.

Eugene Debs, 1855-1926

To care for anyone else enough to make their problems one's own, is ever the beginning of one's real ethical development.

Felix Adler

....when we finally know we are dying, and all other sentient beings are dying with us, we start to have a burning, almost heartbreaking sense of the fragility and preciousness of each moment and each being, and from this can grow a deep, clear, limitless compassion for all beings

Sogyal Rinpoche

The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only object of good government.

Thomas Jefferson

In the struggle of Good against Evil, it's always the people who get killed.

Eduardo Galeano

Another nation is made out to be utterly depraved and fiendish, while one's own nation stands for everything that is good and noble. Every action of the enemy is judged by one standard - every action of oneself by another. Even good deeds by the enemy are considered a sign of particular devilishness, meant to deceive us and the world, while our bad deeds are necessary and justified by our noble goals, which they serve.

Eric Fromm

Christmas is a time when kids tell Santa what they want and adults pay for it. Deficits are when adults tell the government what they want and their kids pay for it.

Richard Lamm [Richard Douglas ‘Dick’ Lamm] (1935- ) American politician, lawyer, governor of Colorado (D) (1975-1987), 1996 US presidential candidate for the Reform Party

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it... Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Martin Luther King, Jr., (1929-1968), US civil rights leader

We have no more right to consume happiness without producing it than to consume wealth without producing it.

George Bernard Shaw, 1856-1950,

We have no reason to harbor any mistrust against our world, for it is not against us.

If it has terrors, they are our terrors;

if it has abysses, these abysses belong to us;

if there are dangers, we must try to love them. . . .

How could we forget those ancient myths

that stand at the beginning of all races,

the myths about dragons that

at the last moment are transformed into princesses?

Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses

who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage.

Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence,

something helpless that wants our love.

Rainer Maria Rilke

May people learn to fight for justice without violence,

renouncing class struggle in their internal disputes,

and war in international ones.

John Paul II, Centesimus Annus, 23

The individual today is often suffocated between two poles represented by the State and the marketplace. At times it seems as though the individual exists only as a producer and consumer of goods, or as an object of State administration. People lose sight of the fact that life in society has neither the market nor the State as its final purpose.

John Paul II, Centesimus Annus,

We must repeat that the superfluous goods of wealthier nations ought to be placed at the disposal of poorer nations. The rule, by virtue of which in times past those nearest us were to be helped in time of need, applies today to all the needy throughout the world. And the prospering peoples will be the first to benefit from this. Continuing avarice on their part will arouse the judgment of God and the wrath of the poor, with consequences no one can foresee. If prosperous nations continue to be jealous of their own advantage alone, they will jeopardize their highest values, sacrificing the pursuit of excellence to the acquisition of possessions. We might well apply to them the parable of the rich man. His fields yielded an abundant harvest and he did not know where to store it: 'But God said to him, ‘Fool, this very night your soul will be demanded from you.

Paul VI, Populorum Progressio, 49

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.

George Bernard Shaw

When a whole nation is roaring patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Find out just what people will quietly submit to, and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

Frederick Douglass, African-American slave, and later abolitionist.

To plunder, to slaughter, to steal, these things they misname empire; and where they make a wilderness, they call it peace.

Tacitus

Throughout the history of the United States, war has been the primary impetus behind the growth and development of the central state. It has been the lever by which presidents and other national officials have bolstered the power of the state in the face of tenacious popular resistance.

Bruce D. Porter

An elder Cherokee Native American was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them: ‘A fight is going on inside me...It is a terrible fight, and it is between two wolves. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, pride and superiority. The other wolf stands for joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. This same fight is going on inside of you and every other person too.’

They thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, ‘Which wolf will win?’ The old Cherokee simply replied...’The one I feed.’

The crucified Jesus embodies the exact opposite of the patriarchal ideal of the powerful man, and shows the steep price to be paid in the struggle for liberation.

Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, She Who Is, 159-160

Today in our situation the authenticity of the people of God goes by way of poverty and justice: they are the touchstone of the truth of the faith that is professed and of the genuineness of life as it is lived out: poverty, which involves incarnating all our efforts and incarnating ourselves in the reality of the oppressed majorities, and that will necessarily entail a voluntary impoverishment and abnegation on the part of those who wield power; justice, which involves giving to the people what belongs to the people and struggling to uproot injustice and exploitation, and to establish a new earth, wherein the life of the new human may be possible.

Ignacio Ellacuría SJ, martyred in El Salvador 1989

Peace is not merely the absence of war.

Nor can it be reduced solely

to the maintenance of a balance of power between enemies.

Nor is it brought about by dictatorship.

Instead, it is rightly and appropriately called 'an enterprise of justice' (Is. 32:7).

Peace results from that harmony built into human society by its divine founder,

and actualized by men and women as they thirst after ever greater justice.

Second Vatican Council, The Church in the Modern World, #78

Peace and international law are closely linked to each other: Law favors peace. Democratic governments know well that the use of force against terrorists cannot justify a renunciation of the principles of the rule of law.

Pope John Paul II from a statement on the 2004 International Day of Peace

We have adopted the incredible decision of preemption. With this system of preemption and the unilateral nature of it as practiced by the administration, we have established a foreign policy which is unsustainable in a world that we hope will be governed by peace rather than by war. As a consequence, we are on a very dangerous course not only for the US, but for civilization.

Walter Cronkite,  2004

It has been said that there is no true person unless there are two entering into communication with one another. The isolated individual is not a real person. A real person is one who lives in and for others. And the more personal relationships we form with others, the more we truly realize ourselves as persons.

Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, English bishop within the Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate

The most lovable quality any human being can possess is tolerance.... It is the vision that enables one to see things from another’s viewpoint.... It is the generosity that concedes to others the right to their own opinions and their own peculiarities... It is the bigness that enables us to let people be happy in their own way instead of our way.

Unknown

It is the basic principle of spiritual life that we learn the deepest things in unknown territory. Often it is when we feel most confused inwardly and are in the midst of our greatest difficulties that something new will open. We awaken most easily to the mystery of life through our weakest side. The areas of our greatest strength, where we are the most competent and clearest, tend to keep us away from the mystery.

Jack Kornfield

From the Incarnation springs the whole doctrine of sacraments — the indwelling of the mortal by the immortal, of the material by the spiritual, the phenomenal by the real… A sure mark of Catholic Christianity is the honoring of the ‘holy and glorious flesh,’ and indeed of all material things, because they are sacraments and symbols of the Divine glory.

Dorothy L. Sayers

Be true to yourself and you cannot be a traitor to any good cause on earth.

Eugene Debs, 1855-1926

‘It is the minorities who have made the history of this world. It is the few who have had the courage to take their places at the front; who have been true enough to themselves to speak the truth that was in them; who have dared oppose the established order of things; who have espoused the cause of the suffering, struggling poor; who have upheld without regard to personal consequences the cause of freedom and righteousness. It is they, the heroic, self-sacrificing few who have made the history of the race and who have paved the way from barbarism to civilization. The many prefer to remain upon the popular side.

Eugene Debs, 1855-1926

It's easy to blame the poor for being poor. It's easy to believe that the world is being caught up in an escalating spiral of terrorism and war. That's what allows George Bush to say, ‘You're either with us or with the terrorists.' But that's a spurious choice. Terrorism is only the privatization of war. Terrorists are the free marketers of war. They believe that the legitimate use of violence is not the sole prerogative of the state.

Arundhati Roy From lecture upon receiving the 2004 Sydney Peace Prize 2 Nov 2004

The salvation brought by Christ is continually being offered to us, that it may bear abundant fruits of goodness in keeping with the plan of God who wishes to save all God's children, especially those who have gone away from God and are looking for the way back. The Good Shepherd is always going in search of the lost sheep, and when he finds them he puts them on his shoulders and brings them back to the flock. Christ is in search of every human being, whatever the situation!

Pope John Paul II, Jubilee Message for those in Prisons, July 9, 2000

The guaranteeing of basic justice for all is not an optional expression of largesse but an inescapable duty for the whole of society.

U.S. Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice for All, #120

The arc of history is long, but it bends toward justice.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

There is also a danger of using this story in too simplistic a way. Most people will recognize themselves as being both ‘sheep’ and ‘goats.’ Most people have at some time answered the call to respond to those in need. Most people at some time have also failed to respond to those in need.

All of us are called to be aware humbly of both realities in our personal life and in the life of our culture and our nation. Otherwise, we will fall into the trap of condemnation and ideology. We might then judge the world in unfair categories of us and them--good people and bad people. If we do this, we run the risk of simplifying the gospel message and preventing it from having its full power. We would also forget that judgment ultimately belongs to God. Our awareness of the injustices of our world will empower us to grow and change and be filled with life in solidarity with God and others, ‘so that God may be all in all.’

I'd rather be a naive fool than be cynical. I don't mind being called a fool if I'm foolishly believing in a better world.  It sounds cheesy, but why else be alive?  Honestly.  What else is there?  It's worth living to be happy, to have a nice house, to have a good marriage, and to raise kids, and I want to do those things.  But the bigger question...what's the point of being alive if you're not hopeful that you can do a little something to make the world a little better?

Greg Halpern, as told to Studs Terkel (‘Making Their Voices Heard,’ HOPE magazine, November/December 2003, Number 40, page 16)

From the Republic of Conscience

When I landed in the republic of conscience

it was so noiseless when the engines stopped

I could hear a curlew high above the runway.

At immigration, the clerk was an old man

who produced a wallet from his homespun coat

and showed me a photograph of my grandfather.

The woman in customs asked me to declare

the words of our traditional cures and charms

to heal dumbness and avert the evil eye.

No porters. No interpreter. No taxi.

You carried your own burden and very soon

your symptoms of creeping privilege disappeared.

Fog is a dreaded omen there but lightning

spells universal good and parents hang

swaddled infants in trees during thunderstorms.

Salt is their precious mineral. And seashells

are held to the ear during births and funerals.

The base of all inks and pigments is seawater.

Their sacred symbol is a stylized boat.

The sail is an ear, the mast a sloping pen,

the hull a mouth-shape, the keel an open eye.

At their inauguration, public leaders

must swear to uphold unwritten law and weep

to atone for their presumption to hold office –

and to affirm their faith that all life sprang

from salt in tears which the sky-god wept

after he dreamt his solitude was endless.

I came back from that frugal republic

with my two arms the one length, the customs

woman having insisted my allowance was myself.

The old man rose and gazed into my face

and said that was official recognition

that I was now a dual citizen.

He therefore desired me when I got home

to consider myself a representative

and to speak on their behalf in my own tongue.

Their embassies, he said, were everywhere

but operated independently

and no ambassador would ever be relieved.

Seamus Heaney. From the Republic of Conscience, from Opened Ground: Selected Poems 1966-1996

This Holy Earth

In the name of every muscle in our bodies, we beseech you

In the name of the feather, the sun, the mountain, the river, the otter, the salmon, the pine and the stone

In the name of babies, now and forever more, and of lovers, and of sex.

In the name of the breathing, pushing, spreading, decaying, pulsing earth beneath our gills, our roots, our talons, our hooves and our bare skinned feet:

Help us.

Help us easily distracted, heartbreakingly self-centered, brilliant and beautiful big-brained creatures,

Us business-as-usual, new-on-the-planet, slow-moving, deep loving creatures

Help us to remember that this wondrously intelligent orb has generated living art beyond anything we will ever hope to approximate

24 hours a day

For six billion years –

Help us to remember that we can seize the power

That we can raise our voices

That we can flood the courtrooms, the schoolrooms, the boardrooms,

the email, voice mail, letters to the editor, the streets, the banks, the churches and the temples

That we can rise up in power on behalf of all those who live in tree, cave, hive, village, dam, river, ocean, and suburb.

That we can rise up on behalf of all we love and all that keeps us alive.

We beseech you: visible and invisible,

wild and tame, past, present and future.

Have mercy on us human beings.

Help us give birth to the human race.

Libby Roderick Singer and Composer, Turtle Island Records Anchorage, Alaska © 2000

God of justice,

Thank you for reaching through unjust leaders and systems

to remind us that justice is still a possibility in our lives.

Guide us as we follow your lead to build communities

of peace, equality and justice for all.

Amen

(Out in Scripture)

Reflection

Whenever any of us attempt to go into the world of ‘the other’ a confronting question emerges that demands self-awareness and honesty: how does on get past the front gate of one’s own world. To get into that world one needs to really listen to the story of the other whether it is a woman who is being abused; young person with sexual identity issues; the person who is homeless or the person who is seeking refugee and security means leaving our world and going into the world of another. I know from experience it becomes very to hate the ‘other’ because the ‘other’ ceases to be ‘other’ to me. One realises how much we are alike and that there is must to share. But a change in ourselves is required. It means getting past the front gate of my own world with its stereotypes, biases, belief systems and prejudices which imprison us and realise that there is a person at the other end of these stereotypes, biases and prejudice. It seems to be message that Pope Francis is constantly holding up before us. That our contact with ‘the other’ means taking on the ‘smell’ of the other.

Today’s gospel can get us caught up in endless discussions as to who are the poor and who might be most deserving and undeserving where we fall into the trap of blaming people for the situation they find themselves in: they are lazy, they are dishonest, they cannot be trusted, the squander their money, or God forbid, they drink.

The gospel is asking us today – who do we see? Is Jesus saying something about how we are called to approach ‘the other’ as God has done constantly with us and humanity throughout history? It seems that we are called first of all to stand with ‘the other’ and communicate a willingness to be among her or him so that she or he is no long ‘the other’ but one of us. Unfortunately, even church organisations and other non-governmental organisations easily lose sight of the fact that at the end of all our theories and abstractions there are persond at the other end.

Todays reading describe where God’s heart and passion reside and has always been. Jesus shows us the face and heart of God which is moved by the needs of people most often looked upon as ‘other’, as marginalised. In Ezekiel God is depicted as ‘up close and personal’ and attentive to the most vulnerable: ‘I, myself will tend my sheep. The lost I will seek out, the injured I will bind up, the sick I will heal.’ These are the words of One who is intimately affected by those whose well-being is forgotten or abused. In Australia, we could count Indigenous people and asylum seekers amongst these. But are we able to make the connections. Today, that heart also calls us to be attentive to another that is often marginalised – our common home, our Earth – which is also abused and trashed as is the image of God in our sisters and brothers. This God is dynamically active on behalf of suffering people to relieve their misery and bring them to wholeness.

This the context of today’s gospel where Jesus’ identity is revealed in the ‘others’ among us. ‘Whatever you did for the least of my brothers and sisters you did for ME!! God becomes the least among us – even the most vulnerable part of ourselves that needs healing. We are reminded that God in Jesus chooses most to be encountered in those considered as most lowly and undeserving: the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick, the stranger and those in need of healing of any kind. But part of this is that we need to be freed from our own blindnesses where we do not see the divine in those who are most marginalised.

We might ask the same question that the sheep and goats asked in the gospel reading: When did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you drink? Jesus might respond: When you gazed into the eyes of a starving child and decided to contribute to a food bank; when you held the hand of a person dying alone; when you listened to the story of a refugee and worked to create just immigration laws; when you defended the rights of all people regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, or creed; when you realized the violence of poverty, senseless shootings and war and chose instead to become a non-violent, peaceful presence to victims of crime; when you recognized the degradation of Earth and decided to work to renew our planet’s resources so that all peoples could share clean water, healthy food and the enjoyment of creation’s beauty. In God’s world, our choices have cosmic implications.

Catholic social teaching suggests we need not just change individual behaviours but the social structures that create misery for human beings as well as for all life forms on our planet and in our cosmos. We are challenged to take action on behalf of justice that resists powerful vested interests. We are summoned to face political and economic issues and make decisions about the well-being of all who share life with us now and those who will come after us. At the Bonn Climate Conference held a few weeks ago, it was clear that many people from vulnerable nations affected by climate change – whether from Asia, the Pacific Island nations, Africa or Latin America in particular, were calling for a solidarity in commitment to overturn structures that affect the lives of people not only today but very much into the future. We were constantly reminded by these vulnerable and threatened peoples that we (all people) are in the same ‘canoe’. We cannot be indifferent to their pleas as if they do not affect us.

Today’s feast is about the good news of Christ’s presence in all creation. There is a constant call for us to bring into alignment everything that is bent, to protect the vulnerable, and to contribute to its flourishing. We are invited to be a blessing for others by doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God.

For Jesus, compassion is the ultimate and decisive criterion to judge our lives and our identification with him. The only question to be put before us is what have we done for those who suffered in life? And we have seen much rationalising to avoid this question when it comes to the so-called underserving asylum seekers who have entered our country; the gay and lesbian people who seek equity before the law as we saw recently. The dialogue in the gospel suggests there are two ways to respond to suffering people: to be compassionate and be in solidarity with them, or walk away and abandon them. Having just returned last night from the Bonn Climate Conference it is still uppermost in my mind but cannot be ignore. As I indicated as many vulnerable nations sought to be heard for a positive response to protecting our ‘common home’ no such calls came from the ‘big polluters’ – many of which did not attend. But in all this, we the President of the Conference remind people that we are really all in one canoe. Climate change is not just about storms, hurricanes, floods, fires, droughts but about people and other living things. Three years ago, German Chancellor Angela Merkel told our then Prime Minister that climate change ‘won't stop at the Pacific islands’. The real issue is that as soon as people hear about ‘climate change’ they switch off and stop reading or listening. It is going to cost in terms of conversion and money. Pope Francis’ words about ‘market priorities’ apply: ‘Perhaps we have paid too little heed to those who are hungry. It is painful to see that the struggle against hunger and malnutrition is hindered by ‘market priorities’, the ‘primacy of profit’, which have reduced foodstuffs to a commodity like any other, subject to speculation, also of a financial nature….And while we speak of new rights, the hungry remain, at the street corner, and ask to be recognised as citizens, to receive a healthy diet. We ask for dignity, not for charity.’

The challenge for us is where do we find ourselves today? How will we as a nation, as a community and as individuals be known for our compassion, our care for the poor and the earth, providing the basic necessities of life, the demands of justice: food, water, clothing, shelter, medicine, and freedom from oppression? Are we living a gospel of convenience? Do we define religious observance by what we do on Sunday in church? No matter how correct our practice of ‘in-house religion,’ the parable makes clear that worshiping Jesus in church and saying prayers at home must be accompanied by devotion to him in the world. We know from the gospel where Jesus’ priorities are.

In this famous woodcut by Fritz Eichenberg, ‘The Christ of the Breadlines,’ Jesus is depicted as the central figure in a dark line of homeless, hungry and vulnerable people. The list of the vulnerable has only grown since the writing of Matthew’s gospel. It is the billion people who go to bed every night with little or no food; the millions of people worldwide dealing with severe drought; the millions of people infected with the most difficult and pernicious illnesses; it is those people imprisoned in their own countries and Guantanamo Bay, Gaza and people trapped in brutality and corruption. The question is, where is Jesus among the lines of suffering humanity today? We encounter Jesus daily and often we are unaware of it. It occurs in the little acts of solidarity and compassion, the acts of raising our voices, of questioning decisions and dissenting injustices on behalf of others. We are called to stay awake, be alert and have courage; to be part of the movement for peace and justice where they become mainstream rather than being left to a few individuals.

There is a subversive quality to the reality of the reign. Those who see it and understand it better are those from the margins of society rather than the powerful and those at the centre. As Phil Glendenning from the Edmund Rice Centre said recently, ‘The truth of the Gospel will not be revealed at the centre; you have to go to the edges.’

To Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love

All pray in their distress

And return these virtues of delight

Return their thankfulness.

For Mercy has a human heart,

Pity a human face,

And Love--the human form divine,

And Peace, the human dress.

And all must love the human form,

In Heathen, Turk or Jew;

Where Mercy, Love and Pity dwell

There is God dwelling too.

William Blake

LITURGY NOTES FOR THE 33RD SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Thirty Third Sunday of the Year

November 19^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

As we gather today let us acknowledge the local traditional custodians of this land,

and the first people that live in our own respective areas

.........for they have performed age-old ceremonies

of storytelling, music, dance, celebrations and renewal

and along with all Aboriginal people,

hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of Aboriginal Australia.

We acknowledge this living culture and its unique role in the life of Australia today

and acknowledge with honour and respect our Elders

past, present and future and pay our respects to those who have,

and still do, guide us with their wisdom.

Finally, we acknowledge with shame that much suffering

still endures to the present generation.

We pray today with faith and hope

for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and ourselves

that God’s mercy and justice will walk

in our lives, our communities and in the heart of our nation.

Readings

Reading I Pro 31:10-13, 19-20, 30-31

Responsorial Psalm Ps 128:1-2, 3, 4-5

Reading II 1Thess 5:1-6

Gospel Mt 25:14-30 or 25:14-15, 19-21

Penitential Rite

1. Jesus, you came among us to free from all fear: Jesus, have mercy.
2. Christ, you have entrusted us with the transformation of our world and church. Christ, have mercy.
3. Jesus, you have made us free and responsible in the service of God and the world: Jesus, have mercy.

Opening Prayer

Gracious God,

you do not call us servants but friends.

You have entrusted to us,

the future of your reign of justice and love.

Give us the courage to work with you

for the growth of kindness and goodness in the world,

by working to bring reconciliation and joy to everyone.

General Intercessions

Introduction: All that we are and all that we have belongs to God. Let us pray that we may place everything at the service of the people of the world. Let us pray in response: R/ May all our actions praise you, Gracious God.

• That the negotiators at UN Conference on Climate Change just completed (on Friday November 17) will make decisions and seek outcomes that benefit the most vulnerable of peoples threatened by climate change and exercising leadership as world leaders rather than being guided by national and petty political concerns, let us pray: R/ May all our actions praise you, Gracious God.

• That the people harshly treated by our Government on Manus Island and Nauru will have their rights soon restored, their dignity upheld and their concerns listened to, let us pray: R/ May all our actions praise you, Gracious God.

• That the Church may not be fearful of change and renewal so that people today will hear the good news of hope and life, let us pray: R/ May all our actions praise you, Gracious God.

• That all people may share in the earth's resources in justice, friendship and peace, let us pray: R/ May all our actions praise you, Gracious God.

• That the strong and the powerful of this earth may cooperate toward the human and economic development of all nations and peoples, especially those most marginalised and vulnerable, let us pray: R/ May all our actions praise you, Gracious God.

• That women, men and juveniles recently released from prison may find welcoming people to assist them to reintegrate into the community; a church community that embraces them with the love and compassion of Jesus, let us pray:  R/ May all our actions praise you, Gracious God.

• That women may take their rightful place in the Church and in all parts of society, let us pray: R/ May all our actions praise you, Gracious God.

• That people in the path of war and conflict, who live with violence in family and neighbourhoods will no longer live in fear but come to live peacefully and nonviolently, let us pray: R/ May all our actions praise you, Gracious God.

• That those who live with illness and chronic pain, and those who live with the effects of aging may find in those who care for them the respect, compassion and love of Christ, let us pray: R/ May all our actions praise you, Gracious God.

Presider Generous and loving God, hear our prayers this day and give us the grace to offer our suffering, our joys, our gifts and our failures to you so that what we are becomes our gift to you and to the world. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Prayer over the Gifts

Gracious God,

all you have given us is seen

in these gifts of bread and wine

which will become for us body and blood of Jesus.

May we share ourselves with one another

and promote your Reign of peace and justice.

Deliver Us

Deliver us, Gracious One,

from passivity and paralysing fear

to commit ourselves wholeheartedly to others.

May we never stand still

to preserve what we have

but always continue to grow in love

and to develop your gifts in us,

that we may give a good account

to the one who is to come,

Christ Jesus, our Savior.

R/ For the kingdom..

Prayer after Communion

Gracious God,

source of all that is good,

through the gift of your Son Jesus Christ

we sow the seeds of your life and love in the world

Give us the courage to be your transforming presence

through our struggle for peace through justice.

Further Resources

‘If we'd been born where they were born and taught what they were taught, we would believe what they believe.’

• A sign inside a church in Northern Ireland, explaining the origin of intolerance and hate

O (Lord),

open my eyes that I may see the needs of others;

open my ears that I may hear their cries;

open my heart so that they need not be without succor;

let me not be afraid to defend the weak because of the anger of the strong,

nor afraid to defend the poor because of the anger of the rich

And so open my eyes and my ears that I may this coming day

be able to do some work of peace for thee.

Alan Paton

Preferential Option for the Poor

Poor ones, please take the bread. It is yours.

The house with running water belongs to you.

A plot of land, a dignified job – all yours.

Forgive me for offering it.

Charity is no substitute for justice but your children are hungry now.

Spirit of Justice, break open our hearts.

Break them wide open

Let anger pour through

like strong winds

cleaning us of complacency,

Let courage pour through

like spring storms

flooding out fear.

Let zeal pour through

like blazing summer sun,

filling us with passion.

Force of Justice, grant me

anger at what is,

courage to do what must be done,

passion to break down the walls of injustice

and build a land flowing with milk and honey

for God’s beloved,

God’s special love,

God’s Poor Ones.

Spirit of Justice

break open our hearts.

Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB

The contemplative life is about becoming more contemplative all the time. It is about being in the world differently. What needs to be changed in us? Anything that deludes us into thinking that we are not simply a work in progress, all of whose degrees, status, achievements, and power are no substitute for the wisdom that a world full of God everywhere, in everyone, has to teach us.

Joan Chittister, from Illuminated Life

What sort of power is it that really and truly renders the deity present? Human beings automatically think of God as someone who possesses and wields power. Jesus forces people to consider whether that deeply rooted conviction is true or not. In historical terms it is readily apparent that power, left to its own inertial tendencies, tends to be oppressive in fact. So it cannot be the ultimate meditation of God, though human beings might tend to think so.

Jon Sobrino, from Christology at the Crossroads: A Latin American Approach

Living without speaking is better than speaking without living. For a person who lives rightly helps us by silence, while one who talks too much annoys us. If, however, words and life go hand in hand, it is the perfection of all philosophy.

Isidore of Pelusium

Holiness consists in doing God’s will joyfully. Faithfulness makes saints. The spiritual life is a union with Jesus: the divine and the human giving themselves to each other. The only thing Jesus asks of us is to give ourselves to [God], in total poverty and total self-forgetfulness.’

Mother Teresa, from The Love of Christ

Holiness is not limited to the sanctuary or to moments of private prayer; it is a call to direct our whole heart and life toward God and according to God's plan for this world. For the laity holiness is achieved in the midst of the world, in family, in community, in friendships, in work, in leisure, in citizenship. Through their competency and by their activity, lay men and women have the vocation to bring the fight of the Gospel to economic affairs, ‘so that the world may be filled with the Spirit of Christ and may more effectively attain its destiny in justice, in love, and in peace.

US Bishops, Economic Justice for All, #332

Hence, as Leo XIII so wisely taught in Rerum Novarum: ‘whoever has received from the divine bounty a large share of temporal blessings, whether they be external and corporeal, or gifts of the mind, has received them for the purpose of using them for the perfecting of his own nature, and, at the same time, that he may employ them, as the steward of God's Providence, for the benefit of others. 'He that hath a talent,' says St. Gregory the Great, 'let him see that he hide it not; he that hath abundance, let him quicken himself to mercy and generosity; he that hath art and skill, let him do his best to share the use and the utility thereof with his neighbor.

John XXIII, Mater et Magistra, 119

A Peace Psalm (based on chapter thirty-one of the Tao Te Ching)

Edward Hays Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim

O Prince of Peace,

whose active presence we seek in our lives,

come this day and show us

how to beat our swords into plowshares,

tools of life instead of instruments of fear.

May your love strip us naked

of all weapons and strategies of conquest,

which are not the tools of lovers,

wise ones and God's children.

Let us not lust for power

but rather strive for the insight

to be guided on the Way of Peace.

Let us not yearn for a victory

that requires a sister's sorrow

or a brother's shamefaced defeat.

With tears, black suits and dresses

and tolling funeral bells,

let us attend life's victory parties

that are won at such a cost.

Let us be peacemakers,

hammering swords into shovels,

filling holes and leveling peaks.

for only through such open hands and hearts can

The Peacemaker come.

AMEN.

The problem is not corruption or greed, the problem is the system that pushes you to be corrupt. The solution is not found in the slogan 'Main Street, not Wall Street,' but to change the system in which Main Street cannot function without Wall Street.

Slavoj Zizek, ‘The Violent Silence of a New Beginning’, In These Times, October 27, 2011

The most shocking fact about war is that its victims and its instruments are individual human beings, and that these individual beings are condemned by the monstrous conventions of politics to murder or be murdered in quarrels not their own.

Aldous Huxley,English novelist and critic, 1894-1963

The worst sin toward our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity.

George Bernard Shaw

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.

Alice Walker

Action is the antidote to despair

Joan Baez

People can foresee the future only when it coincides with their own wishes, and the most grossly obvious facts can be ignored when they are unwelcome.

George Orwell

 ... the media in the United States effectively represents the interests of corporate America, and ... the media elite are the watchdogs of what constitutes acceptable ideological messages, the parameters of news and information content, and the general use of media resources.

Peter Phillips, Project Censored, 1998

History is written by the victors.

Winston Churchill

It is curious - curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare.

Mark Twain

We can tell our values by looking at our checkbook stubs.

Gloria Steinem

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

Oscar Wilde (1854 - 1900), Lady Windermere's Fan

He had heard people speak contemptuously of money: he wondered if they had ever tried to do without it.

W. Somerset Maugham (1874 - 1965), Of Human Bondage

If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)

You don't stick a knife in a man's back nine inches, and then pull it out six inches, and say you're making progress.

Malcolm X

The test of our progress is not whether we add to the abundance of those who have much. It is whether we provide enough to those who have little.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Human progress is neither automatic nor inevitable... Every step toward the goal of justice requires sacrifice, suffering, and struggle; the tireless exertions and passionate concern of dedicated individuals.

Martin Luther King

Wherefore, O youth, choose with confidence, me, the better cause, and you will learn to hate the Agora, and to refrain from baths, and to be ashamed of what is disgraceful, and to be enraged if any one jeer you, and to rise up from seats before your seniors when they approach, and not to behave ill toward your parents, and to do nothing else that is base, because you are to form in your mind an image of Modesty:

Aristophanes, The Clouds, Translated by William James Hickie

The fundamental test of an economy is its ability to meet the essential human needs of this generation and future generations in an equitable fashion. Food, water and energy are essential to life; their abundance  …………has tended to make us complacent. But these goods--the foundation of God's gift of life--are too crucial to be taken for granted. God reminded the people of Israel that 'the land is mine; for you are strangers and guests with me' (Lv 25:23, RSV). Our Christian faith calls us to contemplate God's creative and sustaining action and to measure our own collaboration with the Creator in using the earth's resources to meet human needs.

U.S. Catholic Bishops, Economic Justice for All, #216

Because God is the creator, redeemer, lover of the world, God’s own honor is at stake in human happiness. Wherever human beings are violated, diminished, or have their life drained away, God’s glory is dimmed and dishonored. Wherever human beings are quickened to fuller and richer life, God’s glory is enhanced. A community of justice and peace (thriving among human beings) and God’s glory increase in direct and not inverse proportion.

Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ, She Who Is, 14

There is a growing awareness of the sublime dignity of human persons, who stand above all things and whose rights and duties are universal and inviolable. They ought, therefore, to have ready access to all that is necessary for living a genuinely human life: for example, food, clothing, housing . . . the right to education, and work.

Vatican II, The Church and the Modern World, #26

The Synod Fathers stated: 'As an expression of her mission the Church must stand firmly against all forms of discrimination and abuse of women' (178). And again: 'The dignity of women, gravely wounded in public esteem, must be restored through effective respect for the rights of the human person and by putting the teaching of the Church into practice.

Pope John Paul II, Christifideles Laici, #49

Christ's way of acting, the Gospel of his words and deeds, is a consistent protest against whatever offends the dignity of women.

Pope John Paul II

It is never right to do wrong or to requite wrong with wrong, or when we suffer evil to defend ourselves by doing evil in return.

Socrates 469 - 399 BC

The people will eat what the corporations decide for them to eat. They will be detached and remote from the sources of their life, joined to them only by corporate tolerance. They will have become consumers purely-consumptive machines-which is to say, the slaves of producers. What ... model farms very powerfully suggest, then, is that the concept of total control may be impossible to confine within the boundaries of the specialist enterprise-that it is impossible to mechanize production without mechanizing consumption, impossible to make machines of soil, plants, and animals without making machines also of people.

The nascent effort by communities to reclaim local food production is the first step toward reclaiming lives severed and fragmented by corporate culture. It is more than a return to local food production. It is a return to community. It brings us back to the values that sustain community. It is a return to the recognition of the fragility, interconnectedness and sacredness of all living systems and our dependence on each other. It turns back to an ethic that can save us.

[The commercial] revolution ... did not stop with the subjugation of the Indians, but went on to impose substantially the same catastrophe upon the small farms and the farm communities, upon the shops of small local tradesmen of all sorts, upon the workshops of independent craftsmen, and upon the households of citizens. It is a revolution that is still going on.

Wendell Berry, poet, farmer.

I'm often amazed at the way politicians, who spend hours poring over opinion poll results in a desperate attempt to discover what the public thinks, are certain they know precisely what God's views are on everything.

Simon Hoggart

How many does it take to metamorphose wickedness into righteousness? One man must not kill. If he does, it is murder.... But a state or nation may kill as many as they please, and it is not murder. It is just, necessary, commendable, and right. Only get enough people to agree to it, and the butchery of myriads of human beings is perfectly innocent. But how many does it take?

Adin Ballou, The Non-Resistant, 5 February 1845

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, Vietnamese monk, activist and writer.

There have been periods of history in which episodes of terrible violence occurred but for which the word violence was never used.... Violence is shrouded in justifying myths that lend it moral legitimacy, and these myths for the most part kept people from recognizing the violence for what it was. The people who burned witches at the stake never for one moment thought of their act as violence; rather they thought of it as an act of divinely mandated righteousness. The same can be said of most of the violence we humans have ever committed.

Gil Bailie

The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the first and only legitimate object of good government.

Thomas Jefferson

Individual rights are not subject to a public vote; a majority has no right to vote away the rights of a minority; the political function of rights is precisely to protect minorities from oppression by majorities (and the smallest minority on earth is the individual).

Ayn Rand

They wrote in the old days that it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country. But in modern war, there is nothing sweet nor fitting in your dying. You will die like a dog for no good reason.

Ernest Hemmingway

Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism

Martin Luther King, Jr.

A Prayer of Peace

Time has come, the time is now

When love of God may unite us all

Love of life is the universal call

We must recognize we are from the same clay,

Live through the same breath, same God we obey

Where there is religious ego, let compassion prevail

Where there is diversity, let unity excel

Where there is bigotry,

Let there be dignity

Where there is oppression

Set people free

May all people of religion unite, strands intertwined

Like a rope with which we can hang

The big chandelier of Light –

And remove blinders of prejudice from everyone's sight.

Where there is fanaticism,

Let there be hope

Where there is injustice,

Let there be faith

Where there is politics

Let there be peace

Source Unknown

I wouldn't call it fascism exactly, but a political system nominally controlled by an irresponsible, dumbed down electorate who are manipulated by dishonest, cynical, controlled mass media that dispense the propaganda of a corrupt political establishment can hardly be described as democracy either.

Edward Zehr

Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

In order that all men might be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.

Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) - Source: The Rambler, 1750-52

Political correctness is really a subjective list put together by the few to rule the many -- a list of things one must think, say, or do. It affronts the right of the individual to establish his or her own beliefs.

Mark Berley

There never was an idea stated that woke men out of their stupid indifference but its originator was spoken of as a crank.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American Poet

An election is coming. Universal peace is declared and the foxes have a sincere interest in prolonging the lives of the poultry.

T.S. Eliot

Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.

Richard Armour

Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other.

Oscar Ameringer

How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?

Author Unknown

There are men - now in power in this country - who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression as long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit.

John Lindsay

We live in oppressive times. We have, as a nation, become our own thought police; but instead of calling the process by which we limit our expression of dissent and wonder ‘censorship,’ we call it ‘concern for commercial viability.

David Mamet

Resistance is feasible even for those who are not heroes by nature, and it is an obligation, I believe, for those who fear the consequences and detest the reality of the attempt to impose American hegemony.

Noam Chomsky

We are discreet sheep; we wait to see how the drove is going, and then go with the drove.

Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835-1910)

There are times in politics when you must be on the right side and lose.

John Kenneth Galbraith

God of justice,

Thank you for reaching through unjust leaders and systems

to remind us that justice is still a possibility in our lives.

Guide us as we follow your lead to build communities

of peace, equality and justice for all.

Amen

Reflections on the readings

We need to be careful when reading the parables and applying the images to God or Jesus. This story is not a story about Jesus himself or God. We must always keep in mind that we are in the hands of a loving God. One needs to be wary of the image of God where one is not allowed to make mistakes, is not allowed to be foolish or an image of the locked door that will not open for foolish bridesmaids in the middle of the night or of a God who roars: to those who have, more will be given, but for those who have not, even what they have will be taken away. The God of Jesus does not have unbending performance standards; who requires us to work out your own salvation, who says that we have choices to make and they had been be the right ones. This is how much of the world operates and maybe Christianity has at time encourages this.

We have no doubt heard this parable and heard it as an exhortation to see and use our God given talents basically to achieve, achieve, achieve, to get ahead – or else. This is the underlying weapon often used against people who are poor, unemployed, people with disabilities, people out of prison who cannot for any reason ‘contribute’ to the ‘economy’. It can also be used against anyone who does not want to buy into the ‘capitalist’ system.

This parable must not be used to justify ruthless and hardhearted business practices. Most people take the obvious message: reward for the smart and diligent, and punishment for the feckless and hopeless. It is another way of saying ‘God helps those who help themselves’ (an expression never used by Jesus)         – and so if you are successful it’s because God has blessed you; if not successful it is because you are faithless. Pretty simple but pretty wrong! Again, a human standard assuming and usurping God’s standards. What shall we say about our image of the merciful God Jesus proclaims if we see God as the master who throws the steward into the darkness outside? These actions hardly fit Jesus’ image of God. The master seems more like a modern, greedy business person who gains wealth at the expense of others, ‘… harvesting where you did not plant and gathering we you did not scatter.’

Jesus’ world was not like our capitalist system that increases wealth by investment. That world had only limited goods and resources and if anyone increased their wealth, it meant that they were effectively stealing from someone else. Peasants strived to subsist on what he had for his family. So, the rich and famous who are admired in our world for their success and wealth would have been seen as thieves among Jesus’ listeners – stealing from the limited supply of the world’s resources. This might cause us to reconsider who might be the ‘righteous’ person in the story.

Peace, justice and equality are God’s intention for us and we are encouraged to work towards those ends. Reading the passages from the underside help us to resist the dynamics of oppression.

So often in the financial world the rich seek protection whilst the poor lose. Those with privilege try to hang on to it by presenting themselves as victims against those who seek justie and equity.  The poor in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and Australia have lived with a financial meltdown for decades. In Matthew those who fail to do justice are judged as are those who rely on position and power to save them, or those who neglect or exploit the marginalised and vulnerable. Is it that the one who is thrown out does not have a place in God’s reign or is it that he or she does not have a place in the ways of the world: a system that dominates, controls and rides on the back of the poor; that treats people as disposable; where old people sleep in cardboard boxes and children scavenge on landfills?

Jesus hearers would have resonated with the experience of destitution, disenfranchisement and oppression - rather than the challenge to use their gifts and talents. Remember: Matthew’s audience was poor and a talent was the equivalent of our about fifteen years’ wages. The Master does not represent or act like God. The ‘master’ is in contrast to what God is like – unless God is severe, hardhearted and ruthless, but this is not the God revealed by Jesus. He is the only norm.

The gospel story illustrates oppressive ownership issues faced by Jesus’ contemporaries – and people today. What we hear Jesus say depends on what we see and who we are with - whether our perspective/view/bias is from the top or from the underside. The parables are hard-hitting but when we spiritualise them in ways that they lose their edge or bite, even confirm us in the status quo and prop up unjust systems (capitalism) and justify unjust business practices. We are to see the world differently, to see how the world could be. Jesus' images emphasise that God's reign is not other-worldly or removed from our world. Our stance in the world is to be vigilant in confronting injustice. The talents have less to say about our gifts and more how God’s image is so often deformed in our sisters and brothers. Jesus’ audience would have been disgusted at the doubling of the ‘investment’ because greed characterised the rich and powerful who extorted and defrauded others through tax collecting, lucrative trading and money lending at high rates of interest. In other words, the kind of behaviour that still causes the destructive cycle of indebtedness and poverty in or world – in families and in the developing countries.

The third steward who did not cooperate with the Master and the other stewards might be showing his opposition to the unjust and powerful who profit at the expense of the poor. He is a kind of whistle-blower who speaks the truth and confronts injustice: ‘I knew you were a harsh man’ (skleros, 'hardhearted'). ‘You reap where you did not sow, and gather where you did not scatter seed’. That is, ‘your wealth comes from the backbreaking labour of others’. His action is a form of dissent. He will not participate in this exploitation and takes the money out of circulation. At least one more farmer was not dispossessed. The third steward was non-compliant - as was Jesus. Jesus cannot be seen as endorsing this mercenary economics which leads to the inevitable polarisation of wealth. This is not just between the rich and poor of the world, but also between the sexes.

With this in view, the wise and profitable investors who worked for the rich master are like those modern corporations and speculators who push aside the powerless, invest their wealth and earn large profits off the backs of the poor and the environment. And, they are well rewarded as were those in the parable. Sr. Dorothy tried to preserve what the poor possessed and would not, like the steward who buried his talent, collaborate with the system. He and the other stewards all know that the master is a rapacious aristocrat, except that the others know they need to make a 100% profit; that they have to do his dirty work of exploiting others for profit. But the third steward tells the master what all the poor wished they could: the master is a parasite, living off the labour of others without return to the peasants. By burying the money, he takes it out of circulation, where it can no longer be used to dispossess more peasants from their lands by usurious loans.

He was awake to the rules of the ‘invisible hand of the market’ and of his contemporary world and would not comply with them. It led to dispossession and banishment as with Jesus, who also stands before the rulers and powers, speaks the truth [or blows the whistle on them] and is banished [put to death]. The ‘hell’ experienced is the experience of being ostracised from the dominant culture.  As the so-called ‘lazy’ steward with one talent is thrown out while the others are rewarded, we see a resistance to oppression in the system and refusal to cooperate with the ‘harsh task master’. So, by being thrown out, he is the one who is free. It is in this place of ‘outer darkness’ that we might find Christ.

This connects with next week’s gospel – in the story of the sheep and the goats. We find Christ outside the centres of power, in the marginal areas; on the peripheries; in places of pain and marginality; the places of ‘outer darkness’. This is where the hungry, the sick, prisoners, the strangers and the naked are; this is where the indigenous people, the asylum seekers, the mentally ill, the street people, the drug affected, the vilified gay and lesbian people, the whistle-blowers are. This is where we mysteriously meet Christ. The slave who was cast into the ‘outer darkness’ stands in opposition to the dominant system and culture and is brought close to the one who is at the Heart of the Universe and who lives with the poor and the oppressed.

Gospel living and loving require courage and risk taking. We are reminded today that peace, justice and equality are God’s intention for our lives. They come about by taking the risk of being thrown into the ‘outer darkness’. Some things that appear to be fearless or courageous are not. The kind that is ‘real’ risk being ostracised, come out of an attempt to engage in the world where there is positive action for good, transformation, peace and justice. Real hope fuelled by positive action.

LITURGY NOTES 31st SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Thirty First Sunday of the Year

November 5^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.

Readings

First Reading: Malachi 1:14-2:2,8-10

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 131:1,2-3 R. In you, Lord, I have found my peace.
Second Reading: 1Thessalonians 2:7-9, 13

Gospel Reading: Matthew 23:1-12

Penitential Rite

·         Jesus, you came to serve, not to be served: Jesus, have mercy.

·         Christ, you yourself took up the cross before you asked people to carry theirs after you: Christ, have mercy.

·         Jesus, your yoke is light because you have shown us the way: Jesus, have mercy.

or

• Jesus, you are the Word that speaks to us today: Jesus, have mercy
• Christ, you are the Word that guides us on the right path: Christ, have mercy.
• Jesus, you are the Word that lives within our hearts: Jesus, have mercy

Opening Prayer

God of truth and love,

we have no teacher but Christ Jesus, your Son.

May we listen to him each day and welcome his word

so that our lives conform to the faith we profess.

Preserve us from arrogance and pride,

and teach us the message of Christ’s humility and service.

General Intercessions

Introduction: Let us pray to the God of truth and love for a greater authenticity in our lives, and we pray in response: In you we find peace, O God.

·         That the whole Church, especially its leaders, may with courage and honesty, in a spirit of listening and dialogue, take to heart the task of renewal and reconciliation, we pray: In you we find peace, O God.

·         That leaders in government, business, media and the church, listen to the cries of the First Peoples of this land for a voice in their own affairs and act with integrity in the decisions they make, we pray: In you we find peace, O God.

·         That the poverty and love of Christ seen in poor around us may be reflected in the lives of those who profess to be poor and loving so that Christ may become visible in them and make their teaching credible, we pray: In you we find peace, O God.

·         That justice, human dignity and equality of persons be the concern of politicians and civic leaders, especially for the most vulnerable, we pray: In you we find peace, O God.

·         That all who search for truth and justice and those who seek God, may find that their hunger is satisfied, we pray: In you we find peace, O God.

·         That truthfulness, trust and solidarity with one another become more and more a reality in all our communities, and that it may extend towards those who we perceive have failed or taken different journeys, we pray: In you we find peace, O God.

·         That nations and peoples engage in the true dialogue and understanding so that peace will come among the nations and violence within communities and families end, we pray: In you we find peace, O God.

·         That the Christians and peoples of other faiths all come to recognise that they are sisters and brothers and need each other to rebuild their country, we pray: In you we find peace, O God.

Concluding Prayer: God of truth and love, help us to love and serve one another passionately according to the way of Christ Jesus, your Son. 

Prayer over the Gifts

God of truth and love,

in these signs which we offer to you we remember

the death and resurrection of your Son.

As Jesus showed us the depth of his love,

may our love strive to be genuine

and grow in greater capacity

to forgive each other from our hearts

and be open to your presence in each of us.

Prayer after Communion

God of truth and love,

by our participation in this Eucharist

may we be strengthened

to be humble before, and serving of other people.

May we serve you joyfully

and proclaim what we believe

with deeds of peace, justice and compassion.

Coming up:

November 6 International Day for Preventing the Exploitati0n of the Environment in War and Armed Conflict

Further Resources

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in the beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

Wendell Berry

Building a New World

Here, in the society we have created for ourselves,

we have honoured the great,

the wealthy,

the visible,

the first,

the best;

and we have forgotten the quiet power of humility.

And so now, we face the fruits of our misplaced values:

our leaders falter and we feel betrayed,

our wealth slips away, and we wonder how we will survive,

And across the world people find it harder to buy food,

to stay safe, and to find shelter.

So now we pray for a new heart, for a new way of being,

for the courage and vision to build our world on different values;

humility,

service,

compassion,

generosity,

integrity.

Perhaps it’s a dream, O God, but we believe it is Your dream,

and it’s the only true hope we have.

So, may Your will be done here among us,

within us,

through us.

Amen.

John Laar, Sacredise

We are challenged to rise above the narrow confines of our individualistic concerns to the broader concerns of all humanity... We have before us the glorious opportunity to inject a new dimension of love into the veins of our civilization.

Martin Luther King, JR.

I am not from the East or the West...

I belong to the beloved, have seen the two worlds as one….

Rumi

It is only by confronting evil, violence and injustice that we can ever hope to overcome them.. And while we may never taste the fruit of our labor, we are not required to be successful, we are only required to be faithful.

Martin Sheen, actor, Pax Christi USA

If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we've got to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that he commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don't want to do it.

Stephen Colbert

We can create a world as yet unimagined, a world undreamed, yet dimly felt. We are like the corn. Mysteriously hidden within each of us are the seeds that can germinate into a new society, a new planet. Like the corn, we have hidden deep within our living process a wisdom that reaches back to all knowledge and beyond to all possibilities.

Anne Wilson Schaef

My personal revenge

My personal revenge will be the right

Of our children in the schools and in the gardens

My personal revenge will be to give you

This song which has flourished without panic

My personal revenge will be to show you

The kindness in the eyes of my people

Who have always fought relentlessly in battle

And been generous and firm in victory

My personal revenge will be to tell you good morning

On a street without beggars or homeless

When instead of jailing you I suggest

You shake away the sadness there that blinds you

And when you who have applied your hands in torture

Are unable to look up at what surrounds you

My personal revenge will be to give you

These hands that once you so mistreated

But have failed to take away their tenderness

It was the people who hated you the most
When rage became the language of their song
And underneath the skin of this town today
Its heart has been scarred forevermore

It was the people who hated you the most
When rage became the language of their song
And underneath the skin of this town today
Its heart has been scarred forevermore
And underneath the skin of this town today
Red and black, its heart's been scarred

Forevermore

Tomas Borge and Louis Enrique Mejia Godoy, Nicaraguan writers

You're here because you know something. What you know you can't explain - but you feel it. You've felt it your entire life; that there's something wrong with the world; you don't know what it is, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad. It is this feeling that has brought you to me. Do you know what I'm talking about?

The Matrix, 1999

The terrible, cold, cruel part is Wall Street. Rivers of gold flow there from all over the earth, and death comes with it. There, as nowhere else, you feel a total absence of the spirit: herds of men who cannot count past three, herds more who cannot get past six, scorn for pure science and demoniacal respect for the present. And the terrible thing is that the crowd that fills the street believes that the world will always be the same and that it is their duty to keep that huge machine running, day and night, forever.

Federico Garcia Lorca, Spanish Poet and Playwright, (1898-1936)

What happens is in all of these movements ... the foot soldiers of the elite - the blue uniformed police, the mechanisms of control - finally don't want to impede the movement and at that point the power elite is left defenseless ... the only thing I can say having been in the middle of similar movements is that this one is real, and this one could take them all down ... I can guarantee you that huge segments of those blue uniformed police sympathize with everything that you're doing.

Chris Hedges, Pulitzer Prize winner

One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we've been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We're no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply too painful to acknowledge ~ even to ourselves ~ that we've been so credulous. So the old bamboozles tend to persist as the new bamboozles rise.

Carl Sagan

No one longs for what he or she already has, and yet the accumulated insight of those wise about the spiritual life suggests that the reason so many of us cannot see the red X that marks the spot is because we are standing on it… All we lack is the willingness to imagine that we already have everything we need. The only thing missing is our consent to be where we are.”

Barbara Brown Taylor, An Altar in the World: A Geography of Faith

Prayer for the Environment Common Good

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, Education for Justice

God of justice and compassion,

We ask forgiveness for the widening gulf between rich and poor,

For the use of money as a measure of all things,

For the culture of self-gratification,

For the continuing disparities between those that have so much and those who have so little.

And for the suffering of those people who are excluded from the table of abundance.

Forgive us for our focus on material goods,

And our part in the worship of economic growth

In a world where resources are limited

and where we are already using more than our fair share.

Forgive us for going along with what is easy,

For failing to come to grips with the problems of change

And to engage in the complexity of social issues.

Fill us with a living faith that we may become lively seeds of your kingdom,

Continually growing in your way of love,

Instruments of personal and social reconciliation,

Vehicles for a new dawn when those in poverty

Are welcomed to the table where compassion and justice meet.

Lord, in your mercy,

Hear our Prayer.

Based on a prayer by Alan Litherland, Education for Justice

We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine; and remember that we are not descended from fearful men. Not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate, and to defend causes that were for the moment unpopular. This is no time for men . . . to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities.

Edward R. Murrow

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

George Orwell

He who recognizes no humanity in others, loses it in himself.

author unknown

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.

Margaret Meade

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 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

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed.

Dwight Eisenhower, 34^th President of the United States

... it's real hard to be free when you are bought and sold in the marketplace. Of course, don't ever tell anybody that they're not free, 'cause then they're gonna get real busy killin' and maimin' to prove to you that they are. Oh, yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom. But they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em.

Jack Nicholson, from the movie ‘Easy Rider’

The one gift of salvation coming from God through Jesus-Sophia in the Spirit upends power relationships, transforming all teachers, fathers, masters, great ones into servants of the little ones . . . Jesus’ Abba signifies a compassionate, liberating God…

Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ, She Who Is, p. 82

The solidarity which binds all people together as members of a common family makes it impossible for wealthy nations to look with indifference upon the hunger, misery and poverty of other nations whose citizens are unable to enjoy even elementary human rights. The nations of the world are becoming more and more dependent on one another and it will not be possible to preserve a lasting peace so long as glaring economic and social imbalances persist.

Pope John XXIII, Mater et Magistra, #157

There is a Zen story about a man riding a horse which is galloping very quickly. Another man, standing alongside the road, yells at him, 'Where are you going?' and the man on the horse yells back, 'I don’t know. Ask the horse.' I think that is our situation. We are riding many horses that we cannot control. The proliferation of armaments, for instance, is a horse. We have tried our best, but we cannot control these horses. Our lives are so busy.

Thich Nhat Hanh, Being Peace, p. 65

In the eyes of empire builders men are not men

but instruments.

Napoleon Bonaparte: French Emperor (1769-1821)

The first sign of corruption in a society that is still alive is that the end justifies the means.

Georges Bernanos

The propagandist's purpose is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human.

Aldous Huxley

How you can win the population for war: At first, the statesman will invent cheap lying, that impute the guilt of the attacked nation, and each person will be happy over this deceit, that calm the conscience. It will study it detailed and refuse to test arguments of the other opinion. So he will convince step for step even therefrom that the war is just and thank God, that he, after this process of grotesque even deceit, can sleep better. Mark Twain

We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light

Plato

COWARDICE, n. A charge often leveled by all-American types against those who stand up for their beliefs by refusing to fight in wars they find unconscionable, and who willingly go to prison or into exile in order to avoid violating their own consciences. These 'cowards' are to be contrasted with red-blooded, 'patriotic' youths who literally bend over, grab their ankles, submit to the government, fight in wars they do not understand (or disapprove of), and blindly obey orders to maim and to kill simply because they are ordered to do so-all to the howling approval of the all-American mob. This type of behavior is commonly termed 'courageous.'

Chaz Bufe

Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is that numbers of people all over the world have obeyed the dictates of the leaders of their government and have gone to war, and millions have been killed because of this obedience. . . Our problem is that people are obedient all over the world in the face of poverty and starvation and stupidity, and war, and cruelty

Howard Zinn

All peoples who have reached the point of becoming nations tend to despise foreigners, but there is not much doubt that the English-speaking races are the worst offenders. One can see this from the fact that as soon as they become fully aware of any foreign race, they invent an insulting nickname for it. Wop, Dago, Froggy, Squarehead, Kike, Sheeny, Nigger, Wog, Chink, Greaser, Yellowbelly — these are merely a selection.

George Orwell (1938)

O God,

so many voices would command our allegiance.

Self-help voices, nationalistic voices,

voices of domination and voices of resentment —

they all claim, ‘Thus says God.’

Yet, you are the God of the prophets:

Amos and Isaiah, Elizabeth and Anna,

Nathan and Elijah, the daughters of Philip and the women of Corinth.

Grant us the grace to hear all those voices with responsive ears.

Grant us the wisdom to discern true voices from shallow ones,

from self-serving ones, from deceptive ones.

Grant us the grace and wisdom to heed the voices that point us

toward your way and your community.

In Christ's name — but for our sakes and the sake the world — we pray. Amen.

Reflections for Sunday……..

Matthew's gospel begins by revealing Jesus as ‘God with us’ (1:23-24), and ends with Jesus asserting, ‘I am with you always; yes, to the end of time’ (28:20). These bracket everything that we are called to in the gospel. As these words touch us, we are also called to ask how we are present in our little corner of the world. Does this presence reflect the God who is present among us all and in us all – the God whose image is fixed on every other person.

This month, the gospel has spoken about taxes; caring for immigrants, widows and orphans; banquets; vineyards; and most important of all, about the love of God and neighbor. No where does God’s word coerce us except to challenge us by its truth. ‘The greatest among you will be your servant’. Today’s readings touch on the tendency to patriarchalism and exclusivity, which lead to divisions and a failure to remember that we, as sisters and brothers, have one parent. Ostentation and use of titles can also lead to division. It can lull people into a sense of false deference to authority, and the temptation to clericalism that Pope Francis continues to denounce, and a failure to speak truth to power and speak out in the face of injustice.

The Jewish leaders had worked out laws and observances very burdensome to most ordinary people, but devised clever loop-holes to exempt themselves. Jesus rejected titles mainly because they were used for the sake of ostentation, arrogance or pomposity. In each case, there is the tendency to set oneself apart from others. That was also behind Jesus’ criticism of the Pharisees for some of the clothes they wore in public. The modern equivalent is the cardinal who uses the long capa magna at certain religious events.

Malachi questions ‘priests’ who seek favour with the rich, famous and powerful. He also questions us in a special way today: ‘Why ... do we break faith with each other?’ [Mal 2:9}. Why do marriages and relationships fail and friendships grow cold? Why do we belittle and exploit each other?  Why do we betray one another? Why do we kill each other? Why do we, who were born for loving God and each other, kill love? Our lives become a reaching out for ways to fill or to hide our needs, ways that often lead away from God and people? Why do we fear one another and erect barriers through laws and policies? Why do we not see that the Indonesian; the Iraqi, the Sri Lankan or the Afghan is valued in God’s eyes as one like ourselves?  No one is let off the hook in the scriptures. There is a call to be consistent [authentic] in what we say and do.

Our daily actions or behaviour patterns communicate what we really believe.  Is there a consistency between what we say and do? Respect applies to people and the lives they lead, not their titles. Malachi condemns leadership that leads to inequality in the community. Quite a few years ago, Hugh Mackay, said in an interview that for the first time in our Australian history there are definite social demarcations. At the same time, Clive Hamilton also reported on people that some call the ‘battlers’. He suggested that this had more to do with the fact they were trying to have more of what they do not need or battled to pay for that ‘extra’ car or ‘extra’ room to the house that will not be used.  Both researchers suggested that these ‘drives’ held people back from being there and of service to others, and hold back from compassion for those who have not made it.

Jesus’ expressed leadership by loving service. This is how he is God with us. Jesus' life was invested in his praxis, his lifestyle, in contrast to some Jewish leaders who manipulated religion to garner social privilege. It is important that the gospel today not be misused as support for anti-Semitism. Jesus’ critique of the religious leaders of his day is not meant to be a critique of Jewish people.  We see in this passage an enduring challenge to demand for all leaders to be authentic and accountable for their just or unjust actions. We are all leaders in some way. The call to authenticity includes practicing what we preach, purifying our hearts’ motives for public ministry, and living in relationships of mutuality. It avoids imposing our own burdens and needs upon others for whom we are responsible.

Our name and identity is that that of ‘friend’ -  of Jesus and of God. This identity is not based on human achievement or merit but given to us gratuitously so that we might be able to see others who also bear this name and identity. Healing and freedom comes when we allow old names/titles be put aside – which carry no weight before God. Paul [in Galatians] says, ‘In Christ …no man or woman, Jew or gentile. We are one in Christ.  We bear his identity.’ It is sad tht this identity is often blurred when it comes to certain groups of people: Muslims, Rohingyas, gay, lesbian, bi-sexual and transgender people, asylum seekers and people of colour. We can notionally say they are our sisters and brothers and bear the identity of God’s image but when they come to our door, or our community, or our church that is another matter.

We have been made new in Christ [through baptism] and any other identity, any pretending, any other way of ‘dressing’ is hollow.  The winner in Jesus' eyes is the one who serves, who becomes what she or he eats at Christ's table. These present the reality of the living Word of God in their everyday lives - teaching, nursing, doctoring, lawyering, mothering and fathering.

Jesus declares an end to patriarchy and oligarchy as domination systems. ‘Call no (man) on earth your father …or your teacher’.  It is patriarchy that leads to oppression, domination, war and violence.

In all the struggles through the centuries over who can be baptised and how, who can be ordained or be married in church, or who can be blessed or buried from the church - in the eye of all the storms, one question lurks: how does our answer expand or constrict our definition of human being, of human identity? How does our language or our praxis serve as an acceptable model for human community - a proper metaphor for the God whose name is Love?

Prophets often railed against religion as commodity, and clergy as entrepreneurs. They railed against church leaders who blessed the status quo, or who made alliances with partisan groups. We see this today where church leaders can be tempted to align themselves closely to a particular political view or party and then fail to speak out on some social issues.

We are called as God's people to declare what is good, just, and break down the barriers and limits that System puts on our charity and justice making so as to exclude from the grace of God and the generosity of God's people the poor - of Cuba, Iraq, Iran, Syria, etc.  Today’s gospel shows Jesus as coming to do a regime change in our midst.

Jesus began a journey away from patriarchy and hierarchy and systems of domination towards a community with inclusive models and metaphors for God (and, itself).  Such a community reflects solidarity with the suffering and the ‘wretched of the earth’ by making it clear that we are sisters and brothers in one human family. It is a new kind of globalisation of hope for the poor, and a communion of saints which is our earthly family in people of God.

The leaders made God look very exacting and demanding. The problems they threw Jesus' way revealed either an inability or a refusal to consider that their beliefs and leadership were in need of a radical renewal. They turned them into barricades that secure their prestige and privilege.

So, the scriptures remind us that we are created by the same God.  It follows that we are called to be of service to one another and live in loving solidarity with each other – not to dominate, oppress or rule over one another.  In today’s terms this perspective can be applied to war and peace; economic injustice; and racism and xenophobia. With war and peace, human beings and their governments work to control others and dominate and so resort to war and violence to gain or preserve positions of power, wealth or control. This is not the way of Jesus.  With economic injustice; human beings and their corporations and institutions work to gain wealth and economic domination. This means that people are sometimes ‘left out.’ Employment conditions are appalling, wages inadequate and unjust. Some have too much and many others have too little. This is not the way of Jesus. Finally, with racism and xenophobia, very rife during this time of the so-called ‘war on terrorism’, human beings can dominate and stereotype others. Sometimes whole groups of people are ‘left out’ and fall through the gaps. Such discrimination can be reflected in laws and policies. We forget that we are sisters and brothers with one common parent. This, too, is not the way of Jesus. Divisions arise when people seek power or control rather than serve the One who is at the heart of the universe who calls us to solidarity and interdependence with one another and all creation.

All of us need to recognise the fortresses or walls of arrogance or fear that prevent us from giving ourselves away. Sometimes this is manifested in being precious about ourselves, our needs, and what we experience as of being more important and worthy of consideration than those of others. It is removed from Jesus’ focal point being community [the Reign of God] and particularly the ‘little ones’ and their needs. 'The greatest among you will be your servant'

LITURGY NOTES FOR THE 30th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR.

Thirtieth Sunday of the Year

October 29^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

As we gather today let us acknowledge the local traditional custodians of this land,

and the first people that live in our own respective areas

.........for they have performed age-old ceremonies

of storytelling, music, dance, celebrations and renewal

and along with all Aboriginal people,

hold the memories, the traditions, the culture and hopes of Aboriginal Australia.

We acknowledge this living culture and its unique role in the life of Australia today

and acknowledge with honour and respect our Elders

past, present and future and pay our respects to those who have,

and still do, guide us with their wisdom.

Finally, we acknowledge with shame that much suffering

still endures to the present generation.

We pray today with faith and hope

for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and ourselves

that God’s mercy and justice will walk

in our lives, our communities and in the heart of our nation

‘We have passed beyond the imaginable limits of violence.

Can we pass equally beyond the imaginable limits of non-violence?’

‘Give peace a chance.’

- John Lennon

Readings

First Reading: Exodus 22:20-26

Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 18:2-3, 3-4, 47, 51

Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:5c-10

Gospel: Matthew 22:34-40

Whispers of Love and Justice

In the noise of ideologies and agendas,

you gently whisper, O God;

In the cacophony of rhetoric and propaganda,

you gently whisper, O God;

In the madness of war, the chaos of power-games;

the crying of grief, the discordance of disease,

the crowding of poverty, the empty echo of wealthy isolation,

you whisper your words of love

to every broken heart,

you breathe your call of justice

to every heartless tyrant.

And we who have heard the gentle rhythm of your voice,

praise you for your quiet proclamation of grace,

and thank you for your gentle presence among us;

even as we offer ourselves to be quiet voices and muted lives

proclaiming in every moment

your whispers of love and justice.

John Laar, Sacredise

Penitential Rite

§  Where is the love when we use the gifts our planet gives us with little care for our wastefulness and destruction. Jesus, have mercy

§  Where is the love when we deny and disdain truths and practices that others hold dear. Christ, have mercy

§  Where is the love when we ignore the sickness, the loneliness, the struggle and the vulnerability of others, because it doesn’t affect us. Jesus, have mercy.

or

• Jesus, you came to call all nations into the realm of God's love. Jesus, have mercy.
• Jesus you came to us in separate ways and through many different people. Christ, have mercy.
• Jesus, you came to love and nurture us as individuals and as nations especially in times of trauma. Jesus, have mercy.

or

§  The child in going through the garbage was you and we did not notice. Jesus, have mercy.

§  The frightened and threatened migrants living among us was you and we did not make them welcome. Christ, have mercy.

§  The family down the street that failed to repay its debts is you but it was too difficult to care. Jesus, have mercy.

Opening Prayer

Listening God,

in the human heart of Jesus

you reveal the extent of your love.

Give us a love that shows itself

in forgiveness, generosity, compassion and gentleness

that we may recognize and welcome Jesus

in our brothers and sisters.

May our hearts reach out first

to the poorest and the least considered,

with the gratuitous love you have given us.

Prayer of the Faithful

Introduction: Let us pray to the God of compassion who listens to the cries of the poor and the oppressed. The response is: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

      We pray for all those in our world who are suffering from injustice: We pray: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

      We pray for our sisters and brothers around the world who are victims of violence: the people of Iraq, Syria, the Kurds, Bahrain, Christian minorities in the Middle East, Tibet, Gaza and the other parts of Palestine: We pray: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

      We pray for those who are discriminated against because of their race, colour, sexual orientation or religion: We pray: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

      We pray for those imprisoned for working to overcome injustice and oppression: We pray: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

      We pray for those who are persecuted for speaking the inconvenient truth: We pray: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

      We pray for those tempted to violence as a cry against overwhelming hardship: We pray: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

      We pray for those deprived of reasonable health and education: We pray: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

      We pray for those suffering from hunger, famine and crippling debts: We pray: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

      We pray for asylum seekers who suffer mental and physical damage and whose lives have been put on hold because of draconian government policies: We pray: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

      We pray for the unemployed who cry out for work but are unable to find it: We pray: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

      We pray that the church will be more and more a community in dialogue with those at its doors and respond compassionately to the poorest amongst us: We pray: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

      We pray that as we are called to make an option for the poor that we acknowledge that women are among the poorest of the poor throughout the world: We pray: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

      We pray that political leaders, political systems and governing powers not become excuses for losing sight of the common virtues of compassion and love that should be the ultimate yardstick by which we seek to measure all our actions:  We pray: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

      We pray that we all recall the value of every human in their various ways, and that seek to always act in ways that uphold the full dignity and value of the human person: We pray: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

      We pray that that the suspicion and hatred evident in the hearts of Buddhist and Muslim people in Myanmar give way to compassion and understanding so that all parties involved in the current tragedy choose the path of dialogue, deep listening and sharing, over violence and hatred to be the guide to a resolution of the plight of the Rohingya people: We pray: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

      We pray for all the parties in the conflict in Myanmar that it may not be fueled by arms sales, and other financially motivated support, and that Australia and other countries in the region recognise the suffering to which they contribute and support by support to the regime and silence in the face of atrocities: We pray: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

      We pray that our religious communities in particular listen with empathy to the voices of women, Indigenous people, LGBTIQ people, youth so that great understanding of their questions may be understood and appreciated before making pronouncements and judgements: We pray: May we be instruments of your love, O God.

Concluding Prayer: God of love and compassion, hear our prayers and give us the strength and courage to live compassionately and justly.

Prayer over the Gifts

Listening God,

in this Eucharist we remember

the self-giving of Jesus unto death.

May our love be creative,

so that we too may not break the crushed reed

nor put out the smoldering wick

but enable the weak to rise up

as we sustain one another in hope.

Prayer after Communion

Listening God,

you have satisfied our hunger for love

by giving us your Son Jesus Christ.

May we never exclude, stereotype

or send anyone away empty.

Help us to build bridges rather than walls

as we risk loving and making you

more and more visible in our world.

Further Resources

‘Love, like truth and beauty, is concrete. Love is not fundamentally a sweet feeling; not at heart, a matter of sentiment, ….. [but]… active, effective, a matter of making reciprocal and mutually beneficial relation with one’s friends and enemies…. To make love is to make justice. As advocates and activists for justice know, loving involves struggle, resistance, and risk. People working today on behalf of women, blacks, lesbians and gay men, the aging, the poor in this country and elsewhere know that making justice is not a warm, fuzzy experience………Love is a conversion to humanity - a willingness to participate with others in the healing of a broken world and broken lives. Love is the choice to experience life as a member of the human family, a partner in the dance of life, rather than as an alien in the world or as a deity above the world, aloof and apart from human flesh.’

Carter Heyward

On any social measure of health and well-being, Indigenous people, my people, are hugely over-represented at the wrong end of the scale. No matter whether you look at life expectancy, health profiles, custody figures, educational outcomes, unemployment, substance abuse, domestic violence, suicide – you name it – the trend is the same.

Professor Lowitja O’Donoghue, At the Cross Roads: Living in a world of change, Address to the National Council of Churches in Australia Triennial Forum, 11 July 2004.

Love for others, and in the first place love for the poor, in whom the Church sees Christ himself, is made concrete in the promotion of justice.

Pope John Paul II, Centesimus Annus

Love of neighbor is an absolute demand for justice,

because charity must manifest itself in actions and structures

which respect human dignity,

protect human rights,

and facilitate human development.

To promote justice is to transform structures which block love.

1971 Synod of Bishops, Justice in the World

In teaching us charity, the Gospel instructs us in the preferential respect due to the poor and the special situation they have in society: the more fortunate should renounce some of their rights so as to place their goods more generously at the service of others.

Pope Paul VI, Call to Action, #23

The church ... cannot be content to play the part of a nurse looking after the casualties of the system. It must play an active part both in challenging the present unjust structures and in pioneering alternatives.

Donal Dorr

No one could tell me what my soul might be; I searched for God and God eluded me; I sought out my brothers and my sisters and I found all three — my soul, my God and all humanity’

Unnamed Persian poet

Selfishness ... feeds an insatiable hunger that first eats up everything belonging to others and then causes a creature to devour itself.

Dom Helder Camara

He is a wise (man)

who does not grieve

for the things which (he) has not,

but rejoices for those which (he) has.
Epictetus

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted;

the indifference of those who should have known better;

the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most;

that has made it possible for evil to triumph.

Haile Selassie

Our country is not the only thing to which we owe our allegiance.

It is also owed to justice and to humanity.

Patriotism consists not in waving the flag,

but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong.

James Bryce

The dissenter is every human being at those moments of [his] life when he resigns momentarily from the herd and thinks for himself [or herself].

Archibald Macleish

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, Vietnamese monk, peace activist and writer.

Speak Out

And a vast paranoia sweeps across the land

And America turns the attack on its Twin Towers

Into the beginning of the Third World War

The war with the Third World

And the terrorists in Washington

Are drafting all the young men

And no one speaks

And they are rousting out

All the ones with turbans

And they are flushing out

All the strange immigrants

And they are shipping all the young men

To the killing fields again

And no one speaks

And when they come to round up

All the great writers and poets and painters

The National Endowment of the Arts of Complacency

Will not speak

While all the young men

Will be killing all the young men

In the killing fields again

So now is the time for you to speak

All you lovers of liberty

All you lovers of the pursuit of happiness

All you lovers and sleepers

Deep in your private dreams

Now is the time for you to speak

O silent majority

Before they come for you

Lawrence Ferlinghetti

Prayer for Leadership

Joan D. Chittister, OSB

Give us, O God,

leaders whose hearts are large enough

to match the breadth of our own souls

and give us souls strong enough

to follow leaders of vision and wisdom.

In seeking a leader,

let us seek more than development

for ourselves —

though development we hope for —

more than security for our own land —

though security we need —

more than satisfaction for our wants —

though many things we desire.

Give us the hearts to choose

the leader who will work with other

leaders to bring safety

to the whole world.

Give us leaders

who lead this nation to virtue

without seeking to impose our kind of virtue

on the virtue of others.

Give us a government

that provides for the advancement

of this country

without taking resources from others

to achieve it.

Give us insight enough ourselves

to choose as leaders those who can tell

strength from power,

growth from greed,

leadership from dominance,

and real greatness from the trappings

of grandiosity.

We trust you, Great God,

to open our hearts to learn from those

to whom you speak in different tongues

and to respect the life and words

of those to whom you entrusted

the good of other parts of this globe.

We beg you, Great God,

give us the vision as a people

to know where global leadership truly lies,

to pursue it diligently,

to require it to protect human rights

for everyone everywhere.

We ask these things, Great God,

with minds open to your word

and hearts that trust in your eternal care.

Amen.

Fellowship of Reconciliation.

Prayer for Charity and a Preferential Option for the Poor

Poor ones, please take the bread. It is yours.

The house with running water belongs to you.

A plot of land, a dignified job - all yours.

Forgive me for offering it.

Charity is no substitute for justice but your children are hungry now.

Spirit of Justice, break open our hearts.

Break them wide open

Let anger pour through

like strong winds

cleaning us of complacency,

Let courage pour through

like spring storms

flooding out fear.

Let zeal pour through

like blazing summer sun,

filling us with passion.

Force of Justice, grant me

anger at what is,

courage to do what must be done,

passion to break down the walls

of injustice

and build a land flowing

with milk and honey

for God's beloved,

God's special love,

God's Poor Ones.

Spirit of Justice

break open our hearts.

Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB