LITURGY NOTES FOR THE 26th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Dear friends,

I have just returned from Rome this morning but in the interests of getting to some of you who may have been wanting some resources for this coming weekend I have put these together which are somewhat briefer than usual. I am sorry that some did not notice that I said that I would be away for four weeks and were left without any notes. I hope these help today but please be aware that mistakes today could be due to tiredness and onset of jet-lag.

Peace

Claude Mostowik msc

Twenty Sixth Sunday of the Year

October 1, 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.

Homes, not jails  Neighbours, not strangers

Readings for the Day

Reading 1 Ezekiel 18:25-28

Responsorial Psalm Psalm 25:4-5, 8-9, 10, 14. R. (6a) Remember your mercies, O Lord.

Reading 2 Philippians 2:1-11 or Phil 2:1-5

Gospel Matthew 21:28-32

Penitential Rite

Christ Jesus, you the Word of God made flesh in our world: Jesus, have mercy.

Christ Jesus, you are the Word of God present in our hearts: Christ, have mercy.

Christ  Jesus, you are the Word of God active in this community: Jesus, have mercy.

Opening Prayer

God of mercy,

you desire life for all your people.

You know that we are weak and fragile

yet keep forgiving us.

May we have the mind and heart of Jesus

so that with him we may say our ‘Yes’ to you

with the deep love of those who have been forgiven

and be merciful to others.

Prayers of the Faithful

Let us pray for the needs of our all our sisters and brothers here and everywhere in the world who are victims of unjust systems. Let us say: R/ Guide us by your word, O God.

§  May all members and leaders among the people of God by guided by the mind and heart of Jesus in serving God and people faithfully, we pray: R/ Guide us by your word, O God.

§  May we, as we commemorate the International Day of Nonviolence this week, take the difficult road every day of seeking to hear the other and embrace the other as a brother and sister so that we can have a just peace in our families, communities and nation, we pray: R/ Guide us by your word, O God.

§  May the leaders of nations learn from the humble Jesus to use their power to serve the common good and work for peace rather than to abuse and destroy, we pray: R/ Guide us by your word, O God.

§  May we, as commemorate the end of this Season of Creation and the feast of St Francis, be aware more and more how we show our reverence for God’s revelation in, and gift of, creation by the way we share, consume, and respect all that lives and breathes on the earth, we pray: R/ Guide us by your word, O God.

§  May we, despite government controls in the face of terror threats, continue to reach out to one another in respectful relationship with people who are unfairly vilified because of their ethnic, social and cultural background or religious beliefs, we pray: R/Guide us by your word, O God.

§  May we be challenged to look critically at the systems within society that do not bring life and find constructive alternatives that lead to greater social cohesion, we pray, R/ Guide us by your word, O God.

§  May the peoples of Africa undergoing drought and famine receive food, water and basic facilities as the rich nations evaluate the true causes of such events and their responsibility, we pray: R/ Guide us by your word, O God.

§  May all who work in the mass media, recognise their responsibility to respect people and the truth so that peace and understanding may be better served, we pray: R/ Guide us by your word, O God.

§  May leaders of nations; church leaders; pastors, employers, doctors and nurses, all in their own way be mindful of their responsibilities for the well being of those they serve, we pray: R/ Guide us by your word, O God.

§  May all who are sick: those in hospital, in nursing homes, or confined to home by illness or infirmity, and those who feel forgotten be remembered by their families and friends both in prayer and in loving care, we pray, R/ Guide us by your word, O God.

Prayer over the Gifts

God of mercy,

we bring before you this bread and wine

which will become for us the body and blood Christ.

May our offering express that our willingness

to enter into his dispositions

of total loyalty to you by service to all people.

Prayer after Communion

God of mercy,

your Son Jesus has broken for us

his bread of peace as a friend at table,

and spoken your word of forgiveness.

May we show that forgiveness to one another

and encourage each other

to be mindful of your presence in all we meet.

Notices:

October 1 International Day of Older Persons

October 1 Bali bombings were 20 people were killed and over 100 injured in 2005

October 2 International Day of Nonviolence

October 4 Feast of St Francis of Assisi

It is time to knock down the walls of social exclusion.

Further Resources

The Church of Christ must be an inviting Church, a Church with open doors, a warming, motherly Church of all generations, a Church of the dead, the living and the unborn, a Church of those before us, those with us, and those after us, a Church of understanding and sympathy, thinking with us, sharing our joy and sorrow, a Church that laughs with the people and cries with the people, a Church that is not foreign and does not act that way, a human Church, a Church for us, a Church that, like a mother, can wait for her children, a Church who looks for her children and follows them, a Church that visits the people where they are, at work or at play, at the factory gate and at the football stadium, and within the four walls of the home, a Church of those in the shadow, of those who weep, of those who grieve, a Church of the worthy, but also of the unworthy, of the saints and the sinners, a Church not of pious pronouncements, but of silent helping action.

Cardinal Franz König, former Archbishop of Vienna. König spoke these words two years before his death in 2004 at the age of 96.

In our world's history, peace has never prevailed where justice was absent. Injustice is the garden that nourishes terrorism.

Tom Feeley

I was called a terrorist yesterday, but when I came out of jail, many people embraced me, including my enemies, and that is what I normally tell other people who say those who are struggling for liberation in their country are terrorists. I tell them that I was also a terrorist yesterday, but, today, I am admired by the very people who said I was one.

Nelson Mandela

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Edmund Burke (1729 - 1797)

Evil when we are in its power is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty.

Simone Weil (1909 - 1943), Gravity and Grace, 1947

The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis.

Harold Pinter, 2005 Nobel Lecture

If you're going to care about the fall of the sparrow you can't pick and choose who's going to be the sparrow. It's everybody.

Madeleine L'Engle

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God … It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same.

Marianne Williamson

One cannot be aware both of the history of Christian war and of the contents of the gospels without feeling that something is amiss.

Wendell Berry, from his introduction toBlessed are the Peacemakers

Whatever God does, the first outburst is always compassion.

Meister Eckhart

It isn't enough to talk about peace. One must believe in it. And it isn't enough to believe in it. One must work at it.

Eleanor Roosevelt,in a 1951 radio broadcast

"If we choose to live nonviolently, we will have to do more than pledge never to kill another. Our nonviolence must push us to reject every weapon of mass destruction, every war, and every gun right down to the refusal even to slight another person. This way of active nonviolence will enable us to change our unjust political structures and redistribute the world’s goods equally. From now on, we will uphold the sanctity of life and treat everyone with the deepest respect." 

Mairead Maguire

Compassion is a verb.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Reflection on the readings

This week we see Jesus in confrontation with the temple priests, who demand to know by what authority he teaches what he teaches. ‘Who do you think you are?’ What gives you the right, Jesus, to do and say these things in this holy place? Jesus turns the tables on those who challenge his authority by posing a difficult question. He turns their question back at them by asking if John’s baptism was from God or by human authority. They avoided answering by saying they didn’t know. Jesus then leads into today’s parable of the story of the father with two sons whom he asked to work in the vineyard. One says No, he won’t, but later goes to work. The other says Yes, he will, but does not. When asked by Jesus, which one did the will of the father, they answer the first.  Here again Jesus astonishes or shocks them by saying to the religious leaders that prostitutes and tax collectors will enter heaven before you do, for you couldn’t recognise John’s righteousness, but they could, right away. And even after you saw it, you wouldn’t change your mind.

As we face the nuclear threat concocted by the USA and North Korea we might ask ourselves whose side will we be on. There is obviously no good side to be on. We have faced in this country and also the USA and other countries people who have not been considered as those who did the work in God’s vineyard. Might not these have been the people who protested the war and refused to serve in the military but took on other tasks assigned to them as medics. They were asked to do an overwhelming task which felt wrong to many of them when they were called to dehumanise other people (the so-called ‘enemy’) which would enable them to kill and kill. Might not the people who have stood up, in various ways, to the inhumane treatment of asylum seekers and refused to enter into the dehumanisation of desperate people seeking asylum whilst risking vilification and abuse themselves. Who are those knowingly or unknowingly doing the will of God who sees all as beloved sons and daughters. The people who resist and say ‘no’ to war and yes to ‘just peace’, who say ‘no’ to abuse of vulnerable people and ‘yes’ care and justice have taken sides. They do not believe in simple answers from the government (and this applies to governments the world over) that is often sinful and immoral, racist, wasteful and bullying whether it is in choosing solutions that violent when dealing with conflict or violent when dealing with desperate and vulnerable people who seek help, care and security in the face of oppression in their home countries. The priests in the gospel refused to take sides. Their actions reflected on which side they were on. Silence kills. Inaction kills. They kill people or break their spirits.

Jesus had already spoken of the importance of doing God’s will. Merely proclaiming, ‘Lord, Lord’ (7:21), is not enough. Words need to go with actions where our response means being reverence to God and all of God’s creation, but respectful and act with compassionate service to our neighbours, our sisters and brothers. It is not only talking about, but doing, the will of God. It is about ‘walking the talk’. Pious feelings and beautiful words do not cut it. We would not expect it from those so-called prostitutes and sinners spoke about. We cannot be smug as followers of Jesus. From my experience, around us have been, and still are, people who have no explicit faith profession or adherence to a Christian community, yet do what we might associate with God’s reign: they sit in solidarity with the poor; they stand in the rain or challenge unjust and inhumane structures; we have seen how undocumented people, Jewish people, or even LGBTI people who helped people in recent US disasters were asked to not come back by some Christian church groups. I have seen the same people year in and year out at rallies to stand with people facing eviction from then tenancies, or calling for peace in our world. But I have been told that they are raggedy bunch of people, often very left wing people or socialist types and not to be associated with. But these are often the ones present. In terms of today’s gospel, these might be the ones who have by their lives said ‘yes’ to a reign that is compassionate, humane and spirit filled. According to Paul, as we also see in the gospels, Jesus’ constant ‘yes’ was always something that had flesh on it.

Jesus hammers the point home: notorious sinners—those who had originally said ‘no’ to God—will take their place with God in God’s reign. The religious elite are still outside the fence. I wonder if there might be some of this in the present same sex marriage debate – a debate that is not about changing Church teaching but changing the law of all in this land. Two bishops have cut their ties with other bishops by calling for respect, compassion, justice and fear, but are being treated as recalcitrant. It was said recently that one of the bishops was concerned about people who have not bed whilst others are concerned with who people share their bed!! There is has been little about the real justice issues of peace vis-à-vis the nuclear threat, the genocide being committed against the Rohingya people, the homelessness that many young and old have to endure Who is saying ‘yes’ to God and who is saying ‘no’?

Each one of us has to ask ourselves who we identify with in the Temple court that the gospel refers to. Gospel. What Jesus asks of us does not come naturally. It can be costly. It can also be costly if we not do what is asked of us. Love is a choice. It calls for determination. It might mean standing alone at times but it helps to have others in the community in solidarity with us. Like water that flows into any crack it can find, and difficult to be controlled or contained, God’s reign appears in surprising places, and flows into the lives of those that we might prefer to keep out of God’s reign.  May we be challenged and inspired by the radical, offensive inclusivity of God’s reign. God’s life – God’s living water – can flow into any person’s life that has even the smallest crack open to it. So today’s gospel again touches on the essential question of political, economic and religious systems: who is in and who is out. Jesus makes it clear that God’s love –that living water – is available to all even those who are least likely to find a places to belong. Going back to Paul, it was Christ’s compassion and his solidarity with humanity where he took on everything that was human in order to show us what we are invited to become.

LAY MSC NEWSLETTER   AUGUST 2017.

Contents

From the Director                 

Third International Conference of the Laity of the Chevalier Family   

Chevalier and the Organization of the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family             

FROM THE DIRECTOR

An international meeting of the Lay MSC was held in Sao Paulo in Brazil in July.  At that meeting Alison McKenzie from Australia was elected as the first General Secretary of the Laity of the Chevalier Family.  The group includes not only those who share the charism of the MSC, but also of the OLSH Sisters and the MSC Sisters.  Our warm congratulations to Alison.

This newsletter will include only a copy of the paper given by Hans Kwakman at the meeting and a summary of the meeting by Fred Stubenrauch who was the other Australian representative at the meeting.

May God’s blessings be with all of you.

                        Jim Littleton MSC

Countries represented included Australia, Brazil, Republic of Congo, Senegal, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Dominican Republic, United States, Paraguay, Peru, Ecuador, Korea, Philippines, France, Belgium, Germany, Netherlands.

The Tri-Generalate was represented by Sr Merle Salazar (OLSH), Fr Wahyudi (MSC) and Sr Bonaventura (MSC Sisters)

Each day began with a reflection presented by a different country and each day ended with the celebration of Eucharist again by a different country.

Speakers presented talks on several topics and a lot of time was spent discussing the “Guidelines” document and voting for nominees for the position of General Secretary.

NOTE: The “Guidelines” document is titled “General Guiding Principles and Statutes of the Laity of the Chevalier Family”. This document was approved by the assembly of those present and will be published widely in the near future.

The General Secretary of the Laity of the Chevalier Family together with the International Council will have responsibility for overseeing the development and organisation of the Laity of the Chevalier family.  Alison McKenzie was elected to this position and together with her deputy, Doris Machado (Brazil) will begin the process of selecting an International Council early next year.

Travelling to Brazil was quite an event as our flight from Australia scheduled for Sunday 16^th July was cancelled. I was lucky enough to be accommodated overnight in Sydney but our OLSH and PNG friends not so. They spent some 36 hours on planes and in airports.

Tuesday 18^th

Rita Cleuren gave an overview of the development and growth of Laity of the Chevalier Family over the past 20 years, from the first International Gathering in Issoudun in 1999 to Santo Domingo in 2008 and Brazil in 2017.  Much of this development has been guided by Rita and other members of the European Committee.

Most of the remainder of the day was spent in getting to know other people present and in exploration of the theme of the conference.

Wednesday 19^th

The topic for the first session was “In What Way was Jesus a Border Crosser?”.

This was presented by Sr. Merle Salazar an OLSH sister from Philippines who is now attached the Generalate in Rome.

Jesus crossed, ignored, went around, and used borders. He left some intact, some changed, some destroyed and made some new ones.

She reminded us of a story Nick Harnan MSC told at the meeting in Santo Domingo :  (something like this)

             After he died Jesus called people from all countries together. “How will what I have commenced be continued?” A person who was a good preacher said, “I will do that”.  So the Dominicans were begun.  Another said “ I care about the creatures of the Earth and about the very poor so I will look after that aspect”.  So the Franciscans were born.  After many spoke up about continuing some aspect of Jesus’ nature he said, “And who will spread my love as answer to the ills of society?”  A quiet parish priest from Issoudun said,  “I will do that”. So Spirituality of the Heart was continued.

In the afternoon session, Sr. Mercy Mejia Benitez MSC from Guatemala, presented a talk “ Jesus’ Image of God and His Spirituality”.

Images of God can be counterproductive to our understanding of God sometimes in conflict with our images of Jesus. She used texts from New Testament to describe Jesus. Images of light to the world, good shepherd, resurrection and life, way of life, the true vine, meek and humble of heart.

Thursday 20^th

The Brazilian Laity led us on a pilgrimage to the basilica at Aparaceibo about 2 hours bus trip away. It was the 300^th anniversary of the discovery by a fisherman of a headless statue of Mary in the river.  In the time since many miracles have been attributed to the statue. Originally a small chapel was built and it has over the years grown into a massive structure – very imposing with decorative tiling and many impressive statues. There is a TV studio, a huge canteen, many eating areas, candle shop, a gift shop, parking for hundreds of buses and cars plus a whole shopping centre with massive food hall and kiosks that sell all sorts of things!!! I was even able to buy a phone charger there!  Mass was a spectacular affair with a MSC bishop and 30 MSC priests presiding. Music was good with enthusiastic singing and announcements similar in volume to those at a rock concert. There were literally thousands in attendance and this was supposed to be a quiet day!

Friday 21^st

This is to be our (Australia) day!

We started with very moving liturgy prepared by Alison during which the video of Anne Gardner OLSH receiving her recognition as Senior Australian of the Year was shown.   The topic of my presentation was  “Fr. Chevalier’s Vision: A Mission Without Borders”.  It seemed to go well with some positive comments after and a few wanting a copy!

Alison’s followed with a presentation on the above theme from Australian context and it was very well received.  After her talk Alison provided two questions that generated much discussion especially about how to involve young people in the lay MSC movement.

NOTE: We will provide our presentations by separate email to any who would like them – just send me an email request.

There followed a presentation by Hans Kwakman MSC “ A New Concept for Organisation of the Lay Family;  The Role of Laity in the Chevalier Family”

Note: This paper is included in this edition of Lay News

Saturday 22^nd

We were divided into language groups and encouraged to reflect on the topic

 “The Future and Vision of the Laity of the Chevalier Family”.

Later in the day we voted for the acceptance of the “Guidelines”. They were accepted unanimously. One person from each country plus four members of the International Committee were allocated voting rights.  There followed several reports of formation in some (selected) countries. I will write more about this for a later edition.

Sunday 23^rd

We were taken on a pilgrimage that began on a bus at 7:00 am to Mass at Notre Dame du Sacre Coeur – about 1 hour drive. This was a huge event. As we arrived the first Mass was coming out – more than 1000 people.  Once again it was an ‘event’ with great music and singing. All the Ministers of the Eucharistic wore a grey uniform and looked very official. After Mass we were fed downstairs and then travelled to the OLSH Provincial House – very neat with vegetable gardens and many quiet places in the grounds. The sisters run a school there for disadvantaged people teaching English and practical skills. More food and entertainment followed!

Next we travelled by small bus to the parish of San Miguel. The MSC had asked the bishop for a parish in a poor area, in the slums (not a favelo we were quickly reminded). Very poor housing and crowded. Our guide explained that people are attracted to Sao Paulo as a ‘dream’ place to be and when they get there find that things are not as they imagined. We visited three churches and each one provided some sort of ‘school’ and food bank.  At the last one we were fed (again) and entertained by a band and dancers – a bit like square dancing.  The parish priest later told us that the people were grateful for our visit as most people try to avoid them.

Monday 24^th

Election of  the General Secretary:  Each nominee was announced and spoke.  Nominees – Doris Marchado (Brazil); Lynn Ditlow (USA); Silvi Barghon (France); Maribel Lopez (Guatamala); Hipolito Rosario (Dominican Republic); Ingrid Manzano (El Salvador); Alison McKenzie (Australia)

Election: There were 23 eligible to vote (1 each country and 4 International committee). Majority was to be 50% plus 1 i.e. 13.   After two rounds of voting Alison was declared elected with Doris as deputy.

Tuesday 25^th

Sr Marisa Aquino, OLSH from Brazil gave a lecture connecting “Pope Francis and Spirituality of the Heart”.  She drew many comparisons between Jules Chevalier’s charism and that of Pope Francis and made the point that Jules and Francis are separated by time but connected in Spirituality.

Evaluations followed and our then final liturgy. It was very moving as you can imagine.  We began the conference as strangers but ended as friends and confreres.  I returned to Australia

enthused about the future of the Laity of the Chevalier Family. There are many things to consider and much to do over the next years.

The next General Assembly of Laity will be in six years in a country to be  decided. Guatemala has offered but I fancy Korea but will probably be too old to go by then.  A wonderful enriching experience that strengthened my feeling that we are part of a thriving worldwide movement of great promise!!

Chevalier and the Organization of the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family 

                                                      by Hans Kwakman MSC, Sao Paolo, July 2017

The Chevalier Family will only have a future if it remains faithful to its identity as shaped by the charism of Fr. Chevalier. By saying so, I just repeat what, more than a century ago, has been said in other words by Fr. Piperon MSC: “If a religious family does not wish to perish, it must lovingly preserve the spirit it has received from the Founder.” What Fr. Piperon called “the spirit of the Founder,” today we would call “the charism of the Founder”. The charism or spirit of our Founder included the foundation of the Chevalier Family as a spiritual union of religious fathers and brothers, secular priests and groups of laity or individual lay persons as well.

In the first part of the following presentation, I’ll try to indicate Fr. Chevalier’s original intentions in erecting his Society of the Sacred Heart as being open for religious, secular priests and laity. Following generations misunderstood Chevalier’s intentions, but the renewed MSC Constitutions of 1985 restored Chevalier’s initial project. In a second part I’ll show that, just as in Chevalier’s time, today as well, the Chevalier Family needs a clear structure that will support the mutual responsibility of the three branches for each other, with special attention to the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family.                                                                                                                                    

The Chevalier Family will only have a future if it remains faithful to its identity as shaped by the charism of Fr. Chevalier. By saying so, I just repeat what, more than a century ago, has been said in other words by Fr. Piperon MSC: “If a religious family does not wish to perish, it must lovingly preserve the spirit it has received from the Founder.” What Fr. Piperon called “the spirit of the Founder,” today we would call “the charism of the Founder”. The charism or spirit of our Founder included the foundation of the Chevalier Family as a spiritual union of religious fathers and brothers, secular priests and groups of laity or individual lay persons as well.

In the first part of the following presentation, I’ll try to indicate Fr. Chevalier’s original intentions in erecting his Society of the Sacred Heart as being open for religious, secular priests and laity. Following generations misunderstood Chevalier’s intentions, but the renewed MSC Constitutions of 1985 restored Chevalier’s initial project. In a second part I’ll show that, just as in Chevalier’s time, today as well, the Chevalier Family needs a clear structure that will support the mutual responsibility of the three branches for each other, with special attention to the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family.                                                                                    

Part I: Chevalier’s original intentions in erecting a Lay                               Branch of the Society of the Sacred Heart

Someone, who clearly understood the originality of Fr. Chevalier’s charism, was the Jesuit Fr. Ramière, a friend of Fr. Chevalier and a sincere supporter of his works. He was the director of the “Apostolate of Prayer” in France and Editor in Chief of the French edition of the “Messenger of the Sacred Heart”.  In 1869, Fr. Chevalier needed the approval of the Archbishop of Bourges and the Vatican for his first draft of the MSC Constitutions. In these Constitutions, Chevalier did not only describe the spirituality and rules of the MSC Congregation, but also included a place for the Association of Secular Priests and the so-called Third Order of lay people.

In a letter to a lay-member of this Third Order, Fr. Ramière wrote: “In case the Vatican is not prepared to include secular priests or laity in these Constitutions, then the MSC Congregation will in no way differ from “one hundred and one” already existing Congregations.” Fr. Ramière understood that Fr. Chevalier was searching for something that in those days was new. Chevalier wanted to establish a Society in which people of different ways of life would come together, being inspired by the same charism and mission, either as religious men and women or secular priests or lay people. Chevalier really wanted to cross the boundaries of what was normally practiced in the Church of his day.

While remaining in their parishes and dioceses, the Secular Priests of the Sacred Heart would carry out the same mission as the Religious of the Sacred Heart. The lay people, united in a Third Order, would perform that mission, while staying in secular society and continuing to perform their daily occupations.  By officially approving Fr. Chevalier’s design of the Constitutions, both the Archbishop of Bourges and the Vatican accepted his wide-ranging plan for this new kind of Society.

From an earlier correspondence with some Jesuits in Paris, it became clear that Chevalier was searching for a structure which should function as an umbrella for people living either in or outside religious communities, with or without vows, while the religious Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, would form the core group of this big Society. The Jesuits offered a general plan for such a society, but recommended Fr. Chevalier, as the founder, to draft a more detailed plan himself.

So, in 1864, Fr. Chevalier came up with his own “Plan of the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart,” in which he pointed out a basic principle of his vision: “In order to fulfill its mission the Society must spread as much as possible, but it will spread only so far as it answers the various aspirations of the people.” Chevalier wrote several documents in order to explain this vision in detail.

Each document opened with a description of the ills of the time. This fact clearly shows

Chevalier’s conviction that each of these three “branches” should participate in the same mission, in such a way that their presence and activities would be relevant to the renewal of society.  In a comment on this, Fr. Murphy notes: “Reading his early publications, about the nature and mission of his Society, I have the strong impression that (Fr. Chevalier) would have found it unthinkable, or perhaps even impractical, to speak of changing the world and its values without involving laity, for they were the ones more intimately immersed in that world. Religious priests, brothers, sisters, together with secular priests, had an essential role to play, and Father Chevalier stressed that. But if Christ’s mission was to be continued in the world on all levels of society, the role of the laity was at least equally as essential and at times even more essential.”

Chevalier emphasizes that the members of the Third Order should remain in their families, while continuing to occupy their regular positions in secular society. If those who were single would like to form communities, they should avoid "anything that gives the appearance of a religious house …, as being against our aim and harmful to the sort of good that this work is called to do.”

In March 1869, the Vatican granted the MSC Congregation a “Decree of Praise”, and by doing so, officially acknowledged the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart as a pontifical, religious congregation, with “the Association of Priests of the Sacred Heart” and “the Third Order of the Sacred Heart” as integral parts. In the first MSC Constitutions of 1877 the Association of the Laity is included in the chapter, entitled “The Aim of the Society of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart”.  That means, as Fr. Murphy notes that Fr. Chevalier, “wanted to incorporate laity into the specific life and mission of the Society.”

During the rest of his life, Fr. Chevalier attempted to carry out this broad vision with unflagging energy. In January 1878, he could write: “Today, (the Third Order) numbers about three hundred members spread through ... France, and also in Italy, in Belgium, England, Austria and Canada: every day new people join up.” However, Chevalier had to admit that his own confreres did not always understand the importance of the Third-Order. In a letter of 1900 to the Superior of the Province of the North, who complained about a certain confrere who did not support the Third Order in the Netherlands, Chevalier expressed his amazement by writing: “I wish that in our provinces and in our houses, everyone supports the Third-Order of the Sacred Heart... It would be more than strange that Missionaries of the Sacred Heart refused their collaboration and dedication to our works of the Sacred Heart.”

In spite of difficulties in finding confreres, who were willing to become “directors” of the groups of lay-associates, Fr. Lanctin MSC, the new General Superior, in a letter to the Vatican of 1904, could report that at the time the Third Order of the Sacred Heart numbered “nearly two thousand members spread throughout most of the Catholic countries of Europe”.

However, in 1907, a far-reaching change happened. An extraordinary General Chapter - not attended by Fr. Chevalier, due to reasons of health - introduced a comprehensive revision of Chevalier’s Constitutions, in use since 1877.  In two ways this revised version of the MSC Constitutions deviated from Fr. Chevalier’s original Charism and intentions. First, no longer was the Devotion to the Sacred Heart presented as a remedy for the ills of the times; and second, no place was given to the accompaniment of secular priests and lay people, who wanted to share in the charism and mission of the religious members of the Chevalier Family. Due to these radical changes, the laity were no longer seen as fellow members participating in the same mission and practicing the same Spirituality. Fr. Ramière’s fears had come true: the MSC became a congregation that in no way differed from so many other existing congregations that carried the title “Sacred Heart” in their name.

Finally, after the Second Vatican Council, the MSC Constitutions returned to the original inspiration of our Founder: “Our Founder wanted the fullness of mission to be realized in a global project with religious men and women, diocesan priests and lay people. He especially wished to have an association of lay people closely united with the professed members in their spirituality and mission (Constitutions of 1877). For this reason the Provincial Superior will promote this Association of Lay MSC. He will also encourage the members of the Province to collaborate in this work. He will appoint a coordinator to help in the development of this Association in relation to us, while respecting its lay character.”

In 2009, the three General Administrations of MSC men and women and the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart together with the Coordinator of the Laity of the Chevalier Family, issued a “Joint Communiqué” in which formation is indicated as a top priority of the whole Chevalier Family. In this document “the religious are encouraged to continue to devote time and energy to the formation of the laity.” In the same Communiqué the hope is expressed “that more and more laity themselves will become formators  for lay members of the Chevalier Family.” Totally in line with Fr. Chevalier’s intentions, the “Joint Communiqué” emphasizes that what is especially needed is “formation in our common spirituality,” a Spirituality of the Heart.

Part II:  The Organization of the Lay Branch of the                                                       Chevalier Family

In a document of 1865 concerning the Lay Branch, Fr. Chevalier stated that everyone,

married or not, who, in accordance with her or his social status within the world, wants to grow in love, is welcome as member of the Association, also called the ‘Third Order’. Members of the Third Order will attend an initial program of formation in a Spirituality of the Heart, and observe some basic rules. However, they should remain in secular society, with or without vows or promises, either as a single person, family member or in community.

Regarding the organization of the Third Order, Fr. Chevalier speaks of Directors and Superiors. The General Superior of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart or his delegate is the General Director. There might be also a need for diocesan and local Directors.  The directors have only an advisory function and are chosen from among the religious or secular Priests of the Sacred Heart. The administration of the Third Order consists of a General Superior as well as diocesan and local Superiors, each with their own councils, all chosen from among the lay-members.

In relation to Fr. Chevalier’s view of the organization of the Third Order, we should take into consideration that he wrote this document regarding the Third Order in 1865, at a time when the Congregations of the Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and the MSC Sisters did not yet exist, and the MSC Congregation had not yet been divided in provinces. For us it is important to notice that, in spite of many difficulties, Fr. Chevalier made continuous efforts to get the Third Order off the ground.  MSC would be responsible for the well-being of the Lay Branch by accompanying it on all levels; and the Lay Branch itself would be structured with a strong organization, supported by the laity itself.

Taking into consideration the developments of the Lay Branch in our day, it is appropriate that the role envisioned by Chevalier in the past and entrusted to the MSC, will now be played by the three Chevalier Congregations. That means that they will assign Spiritual Directors or Advisors, while the three General Administrations together will function as General Director. The laity itself will provide for the administration of the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family.

Today the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family is spread all over the world where MSC men and women as well as Daughters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart are present. Groups of lay people of all cultures, orientations and compositions feel themselves a part of the Chevalier Family. Some are more closely connected to MSC fathers and brothers, others to the Daughters, others again to the MSC Sisters. Some groups are more devotional in their orientation, others are more socially oriented, others again put emphasis on reflection, meditation or deepening of faith, while for all the groups socializing is an important element of their gatherings as well.  In any case, they all want to follow the way of the heart as shown by Jesus Christ who loves with a human heart. 

Fr. Chevalier’s basic principle is clearly in the process of being carried out.  After all, he wrote: “In order to fulfill its mission the Society must spread as much as possible, but it will spread only so far as it answers the various aspirations of the people.” We are pleased to see that at present the Chevalier Family is able to offer an answer to “the various aspirations of the people.”  Or, to paraphrase a saying of Jesus in St. John’s Gospel: not only in the Father’s house, but also in the house of the Chevalier Family, there are “many rooms” (John 14: 2) available.

So, by proposing a well-constructed organization for the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family, it is not our intention to create boundaries or to restrict the variety of activities of the groups. The only intention is to give the “many rooms” of the Chevalier Family a solid roof, supported not only by our lay brothers and sisters themselves, but also by the religious members of the Chevalier Family: the MSC men and women and the Daughters.

Therefore, a central element in the proposed organization of the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family is the National Board (which may go by any other name). This Board consists of a representative of each Local Group in the country, along with the Provincial Superiors (or representatives) of the Congregations of the Chevalier Family, present in a certain country. Until now such a body only exists in a few countries. Some lay-groups are still dependent on the commitment of some religious and run the risk of disappearing, when the involvement of these persons comes to an end. In other countries, there does not yet exist a well-organized collaboration between the Chevalier Congregations in relation to the accompaniment of the local lay-groups. 

The main responsibility of a National Board would be to support a continuous presence of lay-groups in the country and guarantee the on-going formation regarding a Spirituality of the Heart of its members as well, “while respecting its lay character.”  A National Board will also be the body qualified to send official representatives of the lay groups of a certain country to the General Assembly, with the right to vote and to take part in elections. The establishment of a National Board needs the support and collaboration of the Provincial Administrations in each country.

Already the General Assembly came together twice before, namely in Issoudun and the Dominican Republic. This year (2017) it meets again in Sao Paulo. The intention is that the General Assembly will become a body which officially represents the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family, with the right to take binding decisions. Therefore, at least a part of the participants should be formally appointed, either by election or nomination, as official representatives of the laity of a certain country. 

At present the International Board or Executive Board only consists of representatives of European lay groups and meets twice a year. It is normally accompanied by        

representatives of the Tri-Generalate and a Spiritual Advisor. The proposal is to make it into an intercontinental, executive body of the General Assembly. To that end, at least some of its members should be elected by the General Assembly, e.g. the General Secretary and the first assistant. They should be given the right to invite some other people to become members of this Executive Board, preferably from different continents, in order to guarantee the intercontinental character of the Lay Branch of the Chevalier Family. We imagine that, due to the distances, communication among the members of the International Board will mainly be carried out by communication media, such as email, Skype and WhatsApp.

Finally, regarding our Spirituality and Mission, we purposely propose Guidelines, which are very basic. Every family of national lay-groups or even a local group might feel free, if they want to do so, to formulate their own Guidelines in agreement with their own cultural customs, as long as they remain faithful to the basic orientation of these general Guidelines.  In fact, our common Spirituality and Mission, inspired by Fr. Chevalier’s charism, is what brings us together, all over the world.

                                                                        Hans Kwakman, MSC 2017

LITURGY NOTES FOR THE 20th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Twentieth Sunday of the Year

August 20^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.

“Interred beneath the runways and the sea are the sites of some of the first encounters between Indigenous Australians and British marines and convicts; places where they approached one another with ‘emotions of pleasure, astonishment, curiosity and timidity’ – exchanging gifts and gestures of introduction, touching hair, skin and clothes – each searching tentatively for proof of the others’ humanity.”

(Professor Mark McKenna From the Edge: Australia’s Lost Histories)

Readings

First reading: Isaiah 56:1, 6-7

Second reading: Romans 11:13-15, 29-32

Gospel reading: Matthew 15:21-28

Penitential Rite

1.       Christ Jesus, Son of David, you revealed to us the God of all people: Jesus, have mercy.

2.      Christ Jesus, you came to free all people and you died and rose for all: Christ, have mercy

3.       Christ Jesus, you hear the prayer of all who feel themselves marginalised and make yourself known to all those who seek you: Jesus, have mercy.

or

• Jesus, you healed all who called upon you: Jesus, have mercy.
• Jesus, you sat at table with sinners: Christ, have mercy.
• Jesus, you call us to love each other as you have loved us: Jesus, have mercy.

Opening Prayer

God of all nations,

you chose the people of Israel

to make you known to all the nations.

Your Son, Jesus, made it clear

that forgiveness and fullness of life are offered

to all who believe in him.

May your Church be truly a place of encounter

for all those who seek you,

where all obstacles and barriers are removed

and a place where the riches of all nations and cultures

reveal the thousand faces your goodness and love.

or

God of all nations,

all are invited to your table

where no one is a stranger.

Satisfy the hungerings

of those gathered in this house of prayer,

and extend to all the peoples

the joy of liberation, justice and peace.

or

God of all nations,

you see beyond our diverse races and creeds

to the value of each individual.

Remove from our minds and hearts

the prejudice that clouds our judgments

and degrades our capacity to love others.

Prayer over the Gifts

God of all nations,

you have prepared a welcoming table

for all who wish to come to you

from the diversity of the human family.

As we offer this bread and wine,

may we learn from Christ Jesus

to give generously to all those who ask

the food of love, mercy and peace.

Prayer after Communion

God of all nations,

in this Eucharist

we are  called to become one

in Jesus Christ your Son.

May his likeness be reflected

in the face of each person

and not marred or divided

by our prejudices and fears.

General Intercessions

Introduction: Let us pray to the God of all nations whose heart and presence is open to all who seek peace, goodness, love and justice. The response is: Listen to your people, O God.

·         That as we face ongoing tensions in our region, we may have the power to be gentle, strong in our forgiving, and have the vision to see and believe in a world that can be emancipated from violence, injustice and unnecessary suffering to others, and threat, let us pray: Listen to your people, O God.

·         That all people who work to build peace in their communities may inspire others by their example and continue to be strengthened to continue despite difficulties and apparent lack of results, let us pray: Listen to your people, O God.

·         That all people who have been affected by violence may find ways to rebuild their lives and find it in their hearts to move forward in peace and forgiveness, let us pray: Listen to your people, O God.

·         That the church throughout the world; and believers who pray in every known language, may offer a generous welcome to all those who seek a home in the church, let us pray: Listen to your people, O God.

·         That the nations of the world will seek nonviolent solutions to their differences, let us pray: Listen to your people, O God.

·         That the people of Iraq, Gaza and Israel, Afghanistan, Syria, Nigeria, (and………..) will be comforted in their afflictions, healed of ethnic tensions, liberated from foreign domination so that the land will be renewed, let us pray: Listen to your people, O God.

·         That children who are forced to leave their homes because of poverty, violence or environmental disaster will find a safe home and a future filled with hope, let us pray: Listen to your people, O God.

·         That the people who have languished on Australian offshore detention centres may eventually be granted freedom and security in a place they can call home amongst people who welcome them and befriend them, let us pray: Listen to your people, O God.

·         That Church leaders may be attentive to the life and needs of today's world especially women and youth, and discover in all the aspirations, what leads toward hope in their lives, let us pray: Listen to your people, O God.

·         That there may be room for the cultural riches of various peoples in the Church and in our own lives, which through many languages and forms of expression manifest the goodness and beauty of God, let us pray: Listen to your people, O God.

·         That all of us here may be concerned about those who are not present because they are estranged from the Church: may our words and actions reveal Christ’s inclusive love to them, let us pray: Listen to your people, O God.

·         That we realise that God is God of all people: may we especially in this time of uncertainty and fear: accept all people as our sisters and brothers with openness and without discrimination because of the destructive actions of a minority, let us pray: Listen to your people, O God.

·         That our approach to people who are different in whatever way may be continually one of acceptance and welcome, let us pray: Listen to your people, O God.

Concluding Prayer: God of all peoples and lands, listen to our prayers today and give us the Spirit of Jesus so that we may be open to all people and their needs.

Notices

August 23 International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and Its Abolition

August 26 The 2001 rescue of 433 asylum seekers by the Norwegian vessel MV Tampa, and the subsequent prevention of their disembarkation by Australian troops

August 27 Death of Dom Helder Camara osb in 1999

August 27 Refugee and Migrant Sunday Resources:

http://www.acmro.catholic.org.au/resources/migrant-refugee-kit/booklet

Further Resources

I'm going to speak to you simply as a pastor, as one who, together with his people, has been learning the beautiful but harsh truth that the Christian faith does not cut us off from the world but immerses us in it; the church is not a fortress set apart from the city. The church follows Jesus, who lived, worked, struggled, and died in the midst of a city, in the polis.

Archbishop Oscar Romero

The road to holiness passes through the world of action.

Dag Hammarskjöld, UN Secretary-General killed in the Congo on September 18, 1961.

God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.

Dag Hammarskjöld

’Freedom from fear’ could be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights.

Dag Hammarskjöld

Life's most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?"

Martin Luther King Jr.

I should like to be able to love my country and still love justice. I don’t want just any greatness for it, particularly a greatness born of blood and falsehood. I want to keep it alive by keeping justice alive.

Albert Camus

What is it to be a companion of Jesus today? It is to engage, under the standard of the cross, in the crucial struggle of our time: the struggle for faith and that struggle for justice which it includes."

Ignacio Ellacuria

Creator God, ground of my being and goal of my journeying,

I believe in You.

I believe in you more than I believe in my own complaints,

                                more than my anxieties and midnight fears,

                                more than my puzzlement and doubts.

Christ Jesus, source of my healing and joy of my desiring,

I believe in you.

I believe in you more than the boasts of the arrogant,

                                more than the duplicity of the cunning,

                                more than the cynicism of the embittered.

Holy Spirit, breath of my hoping and fire of my loving,

I believe in you.

 I believe in you more than the myopia of the clever,

                                more than the evasions of the cowardly,

                                more than the apathy of the negligent.

Holy God, you are far too big for our minds yet humble enough

                                to reside with the meek and the poor

                                and to craft beauty out of disasters.

I believe in you.

Yes! I believe in You!

Bruce Prewer

Cats are intended to teach us that not everything in nature has a function.

Garrison Keillor

God writes a lot of comedy... the trouble is, God's stuck with so many bad actors who don't know how to play funny.

Garrison Keillor

Going to church no more makes you a Christian than standing in a garage makes you a car.

Garrison Keillor.

Another world is not only possible,

she is on her way.

On a quiet day I can hear her breathing.

Arundhati Roy

Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729-1781) German Dramatist

A man should never be ashamed to own that he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet

He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves, and sharpens our skill. Our antagonist is our helper.

Edmund Burke(1729-1797) Irish-born British statesman, parliamentary orator, and political thinker

Everything we shut our eyes to, everything we run away from, everything we deny, denigrate or despise, serves to defeat us in the end. What seems nasty, painful, evil, can become a source of beauty, joy, and strength, if faced with an open mind.

Henry Miller (1891-1980) American writer

The path of least resistance and least trouble is a mental rut already made. It requires troublesome work to undertake the alternation of old beliefs. Self-conceit often regards it as a sign of weakness to admit that a belief to which we have once committed ourselves is wrong. We get so identified with an idea that it is literally a ‘pet’ notion and we rise to its defense and stop our eyes and ears to anything different

John Dewey

It is hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head.

Sally Kempton

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

We exact your elements to make cannons and bombs

But out of our elements you create lilies and roses.

How patient you are earth and how merciful!

Kahil Gibran

Each person has inside a basic decency and goodness. If he listens to it and acts on it, he is giving a great deal of what it is the world needs most. It is not complicated but it takes courage. It takes courage for a person to listen to his own goodness and act on it.

Pablo Casals

... when we seek guidance in terms of discernment and decisions we need to look not just to God in heaven, but also to what is being pointed out to us by the Body of Christ on earth, namely, our families, our friends, our churches, and our communities. ...  God does not speak to us through séances, and the most important things that God wants to say to us are not given in extraordinary mystical visions.  The God of the incarnation has real flesh on earth and speaks to us in the bread and butter of our lives, though things that have skin - historical circumstance, our families, our neighbors, our churches.

Ronald Rolheiser, The Holy Longing,

At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols.

Aldous Huxley:

Wars throughout history have been waged for conquest and plunder... And that is war in a nutshell. The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles.

Eugene Victor Debs

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

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, ‘Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security.

Albert Einstein - (1879-1955) Nobel Prize 1921

Until we go through it ourselves, until our people cower in the shelters of New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere while the buildings collapse overhead and burst into flames, and dead bodies hurtle about and, when it is over for the day or the night, emerge in the rubble to find some of their dear ones mangled, their homes gone, their hospitals, churches, schools demolished - only after that gruesome experience will we realize what we are inflicting on the people of Indochina

William Shirer, author 1973

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 civility of no race can be perfect whilst another race is degraded. It is a doctrine alike of the oldest and of the newest philosophy, that man is one, and that you cannot injure any member, without a sympathetic injury to all the members.

Ralph Waldo Emerson. 1844

As I watch government at all levels daily eat away at our freedom,

I keep thinking how prosperity and government largesse

have combined to make most of us fat and lazy and indifferent to,

or actually in favor of,

the limits being placed on that freedom.

Lyn Nofziger - [Franklyn C. Nofziger] Press Secretary for President Reagan

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies,

You may tread me in the very dirt

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops.

Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard

'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines

Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,

You may cut me with your eyes,

You may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I dance like I've got diamonds

At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame

I rise

Up from a past that's rooted in pain

I rise

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,

Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear

I rise

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise

I rise

I rise.

Maya Angelou

It is never too late to give up our fears and prejudices.No way of thinking or doing, however ancient, can be trusted without proof.What everybody echoes or in silence passes by as true today may turn out to be falsehood tomorrow, mere smoke of opinion, which some had trusted for a cloud that would sprinkle rain on their fields.What other people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

Henry David Thoreau

Making Peace

A voice from the dark called out,

‘The poets must give us

imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar

imagination of disaster. Peace, not only

the absence of war.’

But peace, like a poem,

is not there ahead of itself,

can't be imagined before it is made,

can't be known except

in the words of its making,

grammar of justice,

syntax of mutual aid.

A feeling towards it,

dimly sensing a rhythm, is all we have

until we begin to utter its metaphors,

learning them as we speak.

A line of peace might appear

if we restructured the sentence our lives are making,

revoked its reaffirmation of profit and power,

questioned our needs, allowed

long pauses. . . .

A cadence of peace might balance its weight

on that different fulcrum; peace, a presence,

an energy field more intense than war,

might pulse then,

stanza by stanza into the world,

each act of living

one of its words, each word

a vibration of light--facets

of the forming crystal.

Denise Levertov

I will not play at tug o'war.

I'd rather play at hug o'war,

Where everyone hugs

Instead of tugs,

Where everyone giggles

And rolls on the rug,

Where everyone kisses,

And everyone grins,

And everyone cuddles,

And everyone wins.

Shel Silverstein, American Cartoonist, Children's Author

Listen to the mustn'ts, child. Listen to the don'ts. Listen to the shouldn'ts, the impossibles, the won'ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me... Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.

Shel Silverstein

How many slams in an old screen door? Depends how loud you shut it. How many slices in a bread? Depends how thin you cut it. How much good inside a day? Depends how good you live 'em. How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give 'em.

Shel Silverstein

Anyone can slay a dragon, he told me,

but try waking up every morning

and loving the world all over again.

That’s what takes a real hero.

Brian Andreas, American Artist and Storyteller

For it isn't enough to talk about peace.

One must believe in it.

And it isn't enough to believe in it.

One must work at it.

Eleanor Roosevelt American First Lady

I'm fed up to the ears with old men dreaming up wars for young men to die in.

George McGovern, United States Senator, 1972 Presidential Candidate

Where there is faith, there is love;

Where there is love, there is peace;

Where there is peace, there is God;

And where there is God; there is no need.

Leo Tolstoy, Russian Novelist

True peace is not for the spineless or self-absorbed. It has nothing to do with passivity or resignation. Peace demands honesty. It entails the burden of duty. Peace requires deeds of love.

Johann Christoph Arnold

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.

Jimi Hendrix American Musician, Guitarist, Singer, Songwriter

We have all taken risks in the making of war. Isn't it time that we should take risks to secure peace?

J. Ramsay MacDonald, British Prime Minister

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 are not clothed.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States

Give me the money that has been spent in war and I will clothe every man, woman, and child in an attire of which kings and queens will be proud.  I will build a schoolhouse in every valley over the whole earth. I will crown every hillside with a place of worship consecrated to peace.

Charles Sumner US Senator from Massachusetts

The direct use of force is such a poor solution to any problem,

it is generally employed only by small children and large nations.

David Friedman

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 Buddhist Monk, Peace activist, Author

Civil disobedience is not our problem. Our problem is civil obedience. Our problem is the numbers of people all over the world who 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. Our problem is that people are obedient while the jails are full of petty thieves ... [and] the grand thieves are running the country. That's our problem.

Howard Zinn

An Outsider’s Faith

Matthew 15:21-28

He came unto this alien shore,

this weary Christ.

He looked to work no wonders here,

just take some rest.

My neighbours saw him as a crank

a weirdo priest.

I saw him as my one last hope

to save my child.

And followed him along the street

with my face veiled.

I needed to get close to him

and would not yield.

His friends thought me an unclean thing

too foul to touch.

They asked him to get rid of me

a pagan wretch.

I flung myself down at his feet

within his reach.

He placed his hand upon my head,

all heaven was there.

I told him of my daughter’s plight

and felt his care.

He send me dancing down the street

light as the air!

Ó B D Prewer 1996

There is nothing that war has ever achieved

that we could not better achieve without it.

Havelock Ellis, English Psychologist

I Refuse

for Camilo Mejia [U.S. Citizen Imprisoned Without Trial or Charges for over 3 Years]

I refuse to be used as a tool of war.

I refuse to kill on order.

I refuse to give my life for a lie.

I refuse to be indoctrinated or subordinated.

I refuse to allow the military to define all I can be.

I refuse to abdicate my responsibilities as a citizen of the world.

I refuse to deny the human rights of any person.

I refuse to suspend my conscience.

I refuse to give up my humanity.

I refuse to be silenced.

Do you hear me?

David Krieger, president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

All Aboard

On the Underground

passengers killing time between places,

the doors open

an Asian guy

fear burning his eyes out

stumbles in

while pursuing cops throw him down

to the subway's floor

and

automatically shoot him to death,

a public execution

carried out

at Prime Minister Poodles order

at killing times between places.

Stew Albert

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.

Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ, She Who Is

A day will come when a cannon will be exhibited in museums,

 just as instruments of torture are now,

and the people will be astonished

 that such a thing could have been.

Victor Hugo, French Author & Novelist

Women are equally created in the image and likeness of God, equally redeemed by Christ, equally sanctified by the Holy Spirit; women are equally involved in the ongoing tragedy of sin and the mystery of grace, equally called to mission in this world, equally destined for life with God in glory

Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ, She Who Is

I pledge allegiance to the world to cherish every living thing,

to care for earth and sea and air,

with peace and freedom everywhere.

Source unknown

Violence never again!

War never again!

Terrorism never again!

In God's name,

may all religions bring upon earth

justice and peace,

forgiveness, life and love!

Pope John Paul II, January 24, 2002

Reflections on the readings…..

The painful reality of people seeking asylum and people who are undocumented has caused some people remind us, at least Americans, of the saying on the Statue of Liberty, the “Mother of the Exiles’:

‘Give me your tired, your poor,

Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,

The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,

I lift my lamp beside the golden door!’

It suggests a challenge to actually cross the borders of the mind, the heart and into the world toward the ‘other’. A poetic remix of the words on the Statue of Liberty could be: ‘Give me those you consider dogs. Send these to me: the refugee, the alien, the foreigner, and more. Send the wretched refuse, the ailing daughters of ostracised women, because they yearn to be free.’ (Unknown source). We see this in the gospel story today.

One must wonder why Jesus would leave his familiar, comfortable territory and people—the disciples and the Pharisees—to enter a sort of red-light district, a place most people would not dare to go. Going there is socially unacceptable; it’s where the so-called outcasts, unclean, and undesirables live. The gospel passage is certainly uncomfortable and disturbing with Jesus’ response to the woman. We only speculate why the story was even told and what we are to learn from it, but we discover that the outsider finds a place on the inside of the heart of God.

A woman, a mother, gets in Jesus’ face to get him to heal her daughter when the pleas of the two blind men and the father of the epileptic boy received quick responses. Jesus has not ignored anyone before who pleaded for compassion. When he finally speaks with her, he insists he has nothing for her and that his mission is only to his own people.

If she only sought healing for herself, she might have given up, but she is a mother and usually nothing fuels a mother’s audacity more than concern for her child’s well-being. She kneels before Jesus but also blocks his way and his response is terribly insulting.

Unfortunately, she is one of the ‘dogs’ - a disparaging metaphor and derogatory term popular for describing gentiles. Whilst we might sentimentalise and befriend dogs but positive references to dogs in the scriptures are very rare… and often portrayed as scavengers. In many African countries, in Asia and in even Aboriginal communities, there are many dogs that are running loose. Nearly all are scrawny and roam around sifting through rubbish looking out for food. They seem barely tolerated or ignored.

In the gospel, the unnamed Canaanite woman reaches out to touch the door of God’s heart so that her daughter may be free. Mothers who have little enough to feed their children don’t toss sausages and crusts to the dog. That’s the worldview from which Jesus makes his comment to the woman in our Gospel. She asks him to heal her daughter to which he responds, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel... It isn't right to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.’ Jesus’ attitude reflected the racial prejudice of most other Jews of his day. There was little positive to be expected from Canaanites who were demonised by the Jews much in the way that Muslims amongst us have been demonised in recent years.

We can grateful that Matthew included this moment where Jesus seems to act churlish. Through the bold words of a stranger, his mind and heart were changed. What seems a shocking story as it seems to portray Jesus mouthing prejudice; the story was told and retold because Jesus abandoned his apparent narrow view of his mission in favour of compassion and inclusion. The gospel writers portray him as saying what many people of his time would have: Israelites are God’s children; Gentiles are like the dogs. The good news is that Jesus did not remain bound by such distinctions. Though he allowed himself to be persuaded by this woman – it is not often the case in the church where women, gays and lesbians, people of colour, people from different cultures are concerned.

She will not back down. She continues to ‘nip’ at his heels. She takes Jesus’ metaphor and turns it back on him. Even the dogs get to eat the children’s crumbs; even the pets get the scraps that fall from their master’s table!’ She argues that that even on his own terms, there has to be something from him for someone like her.

This is the day that the gospel of Jesus goes to the dogs. Where those in power saw an outcast - Jesus sees a woman’s faith and love, and heals her daughter. God’s circle of love, mercy and compassion is expanded to include those once considered outsiders. The day the gospel went to the dogs is the day it came to us. We are the ‘dogs’ who have received the good news of the gospel! This marginal woman who is outside the field of Jesus’ ministry (‘It's not my job. I’ve got others to care for. I do not come from here’) challenges his ideas about his calling. He is not to set limits to it. Despite the double whammy being both a Canaanite and a woman, she is not afraid to confront this Jewish man named Jesus, who she knows can help her in her desperate need.  She goes against social and religious norms to obtain healing for her child. She speaks up and out to this man she calls ‘Son of David’ for mercy, not knowing what his response will be. She takes a stand, a risk, and crosses a borderline without knowing what his response will be. he seems to be short on empathy because he, like those who follow him, are concerned only with exclusivity in favour of their own people.

Despite resistance, she does not give up. No doubt she is accustomed to being treated this way, and continues to speak until she gets what she wants. She is not willing to allow the norms that might prohibit her approaching Jesus be normative. She goes against them and shows her humanity to Jesus: ‘Lord, help me.’ She is a human in need like any other human and so is her daughter. This woman shows how a person can be bold and brave in approaching God without fear. She has her eyes on the prize of the healing of her daughter, and nothing can deter her—not even an apparent insult from Jesus. Society’s strikes against her do not limit her faith, or her tenacity to reach beyond existential borders. Silence is not an option, only salvation and healing. She believes that her daughter deserves healing—health care—like any other person.

Despite initial resistance, Jesus gives in to this foreigner and embodies God’s mercy for all. Through engagement with the other, it is possible to learn of their human need—that is, that they are not dogs but humans, who have feelings, needs, and children, who desire mercy and healing like everyone else. Through this encounter, it is possible to see—even if the disciples do not—that we are more alike than different, that we are all children of God.

The gospel illustrates a new inclusiveness. Faced with human need, Jesus is persuaded that people matter most. No one is excluded. No one can be treated like dogs. There are many ‘dogs’ in our community who know what it is like to be shut out, told to wait, given second best, or even neglected. This woman gives them a voice. And Jesus listened! The challenge for us is to hear the questioning voice of God through this woman’s (or anyone’s) demand for attention and dignity.

Isaiah warns us about boundaries and how we can treat people as ‘dogs’ either in word or action. Isaiah points to God's invitation to outcasts, including sexual outcasts (for some reason this was left out in the text!!) and foreigners, to the messianic banquet: women are still deprived of full ministry in the churches and many other people [gays] are still alien in most churches, mosques and synagogues. Their liberation is still of no great concern to many bishops, rabbis and mullahs who cannot imagine such people amongst them. But they are persistent, though on the margins, and seek God’s liberation and intimacy. Paul too saw a special place for ‘outsiders’ in God’s plan beginning with those who were non-Jewish. If Christ died for all - then no one can be dismissed; no one can be considered a ‘dog’, no one can be excluded from God's all-embracing and relentless love.

Today, God’s questioning voice might come through the challenge to Israel’s exclusivism and territorial claims over Palestinian territory or US and Australian exceptionalism. That questioning voice might come through the faces, cries, heartbreak and deep losses experienced by people seeking asylum. That questioning voice might come through the child who wants reassurance that she or he is unconditionally loved. We see in the pagan woman of the gospel voicing her prayer, ‘have pity on me, Lord.... My daughter/son/grandchild is tormented’ through parents, friends, loved ones for those who are addicted to drugs, alcohol, or experienced abuse or found themselves mixing with the wrong crowd.

Jesus, like the prophets, encourage us to live differently. They try to take us beyond the narrow confines of our lives in order to respond to those whose spirits are crushed by poverty, trauma, and abuse, whose intellect and imagination could lift whole families and villages out of poverty but for the lack of education; whose bodies are wounded or killed by hunger, disease and violence. Those narrow places today are clearly visible in the resistance to climate change, to accepting asylum seekers, to seeing people who are different to us in looks, culture, religion or ethnicity, to seeing other ways of dealing with conflict rather than violence. That might be particularly relevant as we are quick to condemn Muslim people for any misdeed of others.

Jesus continues to go beyond the narrow places in his many encounters as also with the woman in the gospel today. We are not always good at listening. We give quick answers, justifications, rationalisations and clichés to dismiss the suffering of others. What a difference it would make if we and our leaders were open to listening to others. How might things be different if we had tried to listen to the Muslims in the world rather than embarking in a crusade against them? If we had listened we might have understood how they see things and then related to them interacted differently. Like the Wall through Gaza, we can psychologically build walls that keep others at a distance or out of our lives. Walls divide us but do not protect us. Walls are broken down by listening to those on the ‘otherside’. Getting close enough to see, hear, touch, smell and taste the reality of others makes the difference. By listening to the stories of those different from us, we find similar but unexpressed voices within us. Listening to another’s story is the beginning of a new understanding and the beginning of compassionate action. People who have been blatantly racist, prejudiced, homophobic have allowed walls to be broken down when they get to know another whom they have dismissed: an Aboriginal person, a Muslim person, a gay person, a drug addict. They have found that there is another story and another reality.

We need to attend to the voice of the nameless, the outsider, the refugee and the ‘other’. If one theme is calling to us is that of welcoming of the stranger. There is much to do in discovering and learning from the variety of cultural gifts within our nation. We can grow together as Jesus allowed himself to be open and changed in his view through the stranger, the Gentile woman.

We meet ‘possibilities we have never dared to dream’ of when God is allowed to speak to us through strangers especially those vulnerable strangers within Australia today are made up of asylum seekers and refugees (terrorist, Muslim, dog) We can engage with the other by sharing stories that transform our hearts and enable us to see things differently. In the gospel story, through dialogue and the sharing of stories and perspectives led into a transformative healing experience for herself, for her child, and for Jesus. The call to follow Jesus demands that we go beyond labels and stereotypes to recognise that each one of us is a child of God. An the tipping point for us is where orthopraxis (correct action) overrules orthodoxy (correct doctrine).

A brave and faithful woman challenges Jesus, and he discovers, and we discover too, that it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Canaanite from Tyre or Sidon or anywhere else. All those boundaries and barriers we make so much of: ethnicity, class, nationality, upbringing—so many barriers, so many divisions—none of them matter.  What matters is the person before God—every single person.  The 'dividing wall of hostility' is broken down in Christ.

LITURGY NOTES FOR THE 18TH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR/ FEAST OF THE TRANSFIGURATION.

Eighteenth Sunday of the Year/ Feast of the Transfiguration

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

Reading I Is 55:1-3

Responsorial Psalm Ps 145:8-9, 15-16, 17-18

Reading II Rom 8:35, 37-39

Gospel 14:13-21

Penitential Rite

1.       Jesus, you are the bread that gives life to the world: Jesus, have mercy.

2.      Christ, you are the bread that strengthens us on the journey of life: Christ, have mercy.

3.       Jesus, you are the bread that gives us fullness of life: Jesus, have mercy.

or

1. Christ Jesus, you nourish us with your word: Jesus, have mercy.
2. Christ Jesus, you feed us with your own body: Christ, have mercy.
3. Christ Jesus, you call us to proclaim your word and share bread with others: Jesus, have mercy.

Opening Prayer

Compassionate God, [or: Abundant God]

Jesus, your Son,

gave food to all who were hungry.

Make us compassionate

and able to see the needs of those

who hunger for dignity, justice, and liberation

and as we work to bind their wounds

and appease their hungers

so that others may recognise that it is you

who nourishes us with your food and drink.

Prayer over the Gifts

Compassionate God, [or: Bountiful God]

we thank you for this bread and wine

which become for us

signs of Jesus’ presence in our midst.

May this bread of life strengthen us

and the wine of joy give us hope.

Preface

Let us lift up our hearts.

........We lift them to God.

Let us give thanks to the Living God.

........It is right to give God our thanks and praise.

It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,

for you offer us the banquet that feeds us abundantly

and fills us with your presence.

You strove against the darkness and chaos,

and you prevailed,

bringing forth creation in all its miraculous abundance.

You challenged your servant, Jacob, face to face,

and gave him your blessing and promise.

From his family you formed your covenant people,

in whom your glory, your law, and your worship

were revealed to the world.

But now, in these last days,

your Messiah, Jesus, has emerged from among them,

bringing your compassion and healing to all.

Though he was cursed and cut off for the sake of his people,

you raised him from death.

Now in him you offer food for our deepest hunger,

and it is in holding tight to him

that we see your face and receive your blessing.

Therefore with .....

©2002 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net

Deliver Us   [after ‘The Our Father’]

Deliver us, Abundant God, from every kind of evil.

Keep us free from all kinds of judgment or condemnation of others.

Help us to accept and appreciate each other

and to prepare together in joy and hope

the full coming among us

of Christ Jesus, our Savior. .

R/ For the kingdom..

Breaking of the Bread

We break this bread

as a sign that Jesus himself was broken

to give us his life.

Let this breaking also be a sign

that each of us is willing

to share one's food and life with others

and to live together in peace with all.

The peace of Christ Jesus be with you always. R/ And also with you.

Prayer after Communion

Compassionate God, [or: Abundant God]

As Jesus multiplied the bread to feed the hungry,

multiply in us a capacity to love

so that we spread your peace with justice.

May we strive to act justly

by sharing generously the gifts we have received.

General Intercessions

Introduction: We pray in the spirit of the Jesus whose heart was filled with compassion for those who were hungry and thirsting.  We pray in response: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

1.       For the pope, bishops and priests: that they strive to satisfy without compromise the people's hunger and thirst for the Good News – a news of love, justice, truth and hope, we pray: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

2.      For those in authority: that they will make decisions that service humanity through peace and development rather than military spending that is designed to destroy human life and the life of the planet, we pray: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

3.       For people who continue to suffer the effects of nuclear weapons in Japan; Agent Orange in Vietnam; and white phosphorus and depleted uranium in Iraq, we pray: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

4.      For political leaders, scientists and economists of the world: that they may generously cooperate to solve the problem of hunger in the world and bring to a hungry world not only food but also dignity, justice and peace, we pray: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

5.       For all our leaders that they may satisfy the hungers of the human family, particularly those hungering for freedom, understanding and human dignity, by proclaiming without compromise the Good News, we pray: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

6.      For the sick and the lonely, those living with disabilities and discouragement: that our love and concern may be signs to them that God does not abandon them, we pray: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

7.       For all of us here: that we may not concern ourselves alone with the immediate needs of ourselves and our families, but hunger for the higher goods of God's word and for the Eucharist, , we pray: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

8.      For the whole church, that it may assist people everywhere to discover and express their deepest aspirations and enrich them with the values of the family, let us pray to the Lord: Lord, satisfy our hunger for you, we pray: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

9.      For people who are sick and lonely, for people living with disabilities and with HIV/AIDS, for people who are discouraged, for people who hunger for love and acceptance, that our concern and love may be a sign to them of God's closeness, we pray: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

10.   For our world that hungers for peace, that as we commemorate Hiroshima Day today,  we may join with all who live in conflict to remind them of our common humanity, we pray: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

11.   For all people who do not have enough of what they require to sustain life, especially the people at the moment in the Horn of Africa, we pray: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

12.   For all present here today, that we may occupy ourselves with immediate needs of family as well as hungering for your word in our lives by our generosity towards those we encounter, we pray: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

13.   For all those who hunger for shelter, for work, and for food, for all those who hunger for justice and equality - that they not lose their dream of living one day in a community where each person is given according to his or her need, we pray: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

14.   For all those in our worldwide community who have died of starvation and for the millions of women and men who have not even a piece of bread to eat - that the world's abundance will be shared equitably, we pray: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

15.   For all people whose pain is unknown to anyone and who suffer without anyone to care for them, and for the people who care for other people without acknowledgement, we pray: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

16.   For all those people and institutions who continue to use language that discriminates, leaving to one side ‘women and children’ - that we all might make greater efforts to be respectful with our language, we pray: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

17.   For those who have loaned vast sums of money without due care to developing countries and yet refuse to lift from them the eternal yoke of debt - that they may recognize the terrible burden debt places on families in these countries, we pray: Satisfy our hunger, O God.

Concluding Prayer: Abundant God (or: Generous and loving God), gift us not only with a deep hunger for you, but a hunger for love, justice, freedom and compassion for all.

Parish Notices

August 6 Feast of the Transfiguration

August 6 Hiroshima Day

August 6 Anniversary of the death of Pope Paul VI

August 9 Nagasaki Day

In the face of the man-made calamity that every war is, one must affirm and reaffirm, again and again, that the waging of war is not inevitable or unchangeable. Humanity is not destined to self-destruction. Clashes of ideologies, aspirations and needs can and must be settled and resolved by means other than war and violence.

Pope John Paul II, Appeal for Peace, Hiroshima, Japan.

Nuclear deterrence as a national policy must be condemned as morally abhorrent because it is the excuse and justification for the continued possession and further development of these horrendous weapons.

US Catholic Bishops, The Morality of Nuclear Deterrence

The time has come to rid planet Earth of nuclear weapons-all of them, everywhere. Nuclear weapons, whether used or threatened, are grossly evil and morally wrong.

Cardinal Danneels, Statement to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Preparatory Committee

‘.the arms race is an utterly treacherous trap for humanity, and one which injures the poor to an intolerable degree.’

Second Vatican Council Gaudium et Spes [Church in the Modern World]

This Conference resolves to call upon our respective governments to urge all nations to agree by treaty to stop the production, testing, stock-piling and usage of nuclear weapons and to press for an international mandate for all member states to prohibit nuclear warfare.

Archbishop Martino, Apostolic Nuncio, UN

We must all pray that no human hand will ever again do what has been done here.

Mother Teresa, Nagasaki, Japan.

(Today) excessive nuclear arsenals, their continued spread, and proposals to further develop and use them underscore the need for much deeper cuts in nuclear weapons and ultimately a global nuclear ban.

US Catholic Bishops 2003

Further Resources

Faith in an incarnational God will not allow us to ignore the physical world, nor any of its nuances.

Barbara Brown Taylor,

We do not detach ourselves from things in order to attach ourselves to God, but rather we become detached from ourselves in order to see and use all things in and for God.’

Thomas Merton

If you are coming to help me, you are wasting your time.

But if you are coming because your liberation is bound up with mine,

then let us work together.

Lilla Watson, Aboriginal Elder and activist

At its core, global climate change is not about economic theory or political platforms, nor about partisan advantage or interest group pressures. It is about the future of God's creation and the one human family.’ You can read more about what we as Catholics can do at this website: http://www.catholicsandclimatechange.org/

U.S. Bishop's Statement on Climate Change (2001)

May I say to my Christian friends as powerfully as I can,

the Gospel of Jesus Christ is about love not hate,

acceptance not rejection.

It celebrates the essence of one's humanity.

It calls people beyond the prejudices

of tribe, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation.

It challenges those who have elevated their religious convictions

to the realm of infallible or inerrant truth.

But even more powerfully it calls

those of us who claim to be disciples of this Christ

to stand at the side of those our world would victimize,

to counter the rhetoric of religious prejudice,

to risk our lives for justice,

and to do it quite publicly.

Bishop John Spong

We learn to see the face of Christ - the face of Christ that also is the face of a suffering human being, the face of the crucified, the face of the poor, the face of a saint, and the face of every person – and we love each one with the criteria with which we will be judge: ‘I was hungry and you gave me to eat.’

Archbishop Oscar Romero

This is the duty of our generation as we enter the twenty-first century –solidarity with the weak, the persecuted, the lonely, the sick, and those in despair. It is expressed by the desire to give a noble and humanizing meaning to a community in which all members will define themselves not by their own identity but by that of others.

Elie Wiesel

We kill at every step, not only in wars, riots, and executions. We kill when we close our eyes to poverty, suffering, and shame. In the same way all disrespect for life, all hard-heartedness, all indifference, all contempt is nothing else than killing. With just a little witty skepticism we can kill a good deal of the future in a young person. Life is waiting everywhere, the future is flowering everywhere, but we only see a small part of it and step on much of it with our feet.

Hermann Hesse, German poet and novelist.

…...most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some one of these communities of opinion. This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars, authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars. Their every truth is not quite true. Their two is not the real two, their four not the real four; so that every word they say chagrins us, and we know not where to begin to set them right.

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Self Reliance, 1841

He who would do good’ wrote William Blake, ‘must do so in minute particulars. General good is the plea of the scoundrel, the hypocrite and the liar.’ It is also the plea of most political ideologues who do not hesitate, and often in the name of ‘the People’, to persecute in minute particulars for the sake of the general good.

Jeremy Taylor's, Ag Pleez Deddy, - a South African musician

Independence…. [is] middle-class blasphemy. 

We are all dependent on one another, every soul of us on earth

George Bernard Shaw

Believe nothing just because a so-called wise person said it. Believe nothing just because a belief is generally held. Believe nothing just because it is said in ancient books. Believe nothing just because it is said to be of divine origin. Believe nothing just because someone else believes it. Believe only what you yourself test and judge to be true.

Buddha, Hindu Prince Gautama Siddharta

I am a part of all that I have met

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Let us not measure the church by the number of its members or by its material buildings…. Many buildings have been stolen from her and turned into libraries and barracks and markets.  It doesn’t matter.  The material walls here will be left behind in history.  What matters is you, the people, your hearts.

Archbishop Oscar Romero

Respect for human dignity and belief in the equal dignity of all the members of the human family demand policies aimed at enabling all peoples to have access to the means required to improve their lives, including the technological means and skills needed for development. Respect for nature by everyone, a policy of openness to immigrants, the cancellation or significant reduction of the debt of poorer nations, the promotion of peace through dialogue and negotiation, the primacy of the rule of law: these are the priorities which the leaders of the developed nations cannot disregard. A global world is essentially a world of solidarity!

Pope John Paul II, Audience with President Bush, July 23, 2002

When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall--think of it, always!

Mahatma Gandhi

What our leaders and pundits never let slip is that the terrorists -- whatever else they might be -- might also be rational human beings; which is to say that in their own minds they have a rational justification for their actions. Most terrorists are people deeply concerned by what they see as social, political, or religious injustice and hypocrisy, and the immediate grounds for their terrorism is often retaliation for an action of the United States.

William Blum, US writer

For what is the crime of burglarizing a bank, compared with the crime of building one?

Bertolt Brecht

God of Justice,

open our eyes

to see you in the face

of those who are poor,

those who are oppressed and marginalised..

Open our ears

to hear you in the cries

of those who are exploited,

those considered to be nothing,

those abandoned and dismissed.

Open our mouths

to defend you in all places:

in public places,

at our work,

in our schools and universities,

in our workplaces and our streets,

as well as in our private deeds.

Remind us that what we do

to the least ones,

we do to you.

Amen.

C.M

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

Prayer for Peace

May we be filled with the strength to seek peace.

War will not end when the guns are silent.

Violence can never lead to peace.

May we be filled with the courage to seek peace.

We grieve for the harm to our own country.

The degradation suffered here and in Iraq.

The contagious of fear and distrust,

The restriction of freedoms,

The quashing of dialogue and dissent.

We grieve the terrible wounding

of those sent off to fight in a war

that is questioned all over the world.

We grieve the rupture of families here and in Iraq.

May we be filled with the compassion to seek peace.

We are members of one human family.

We grasp the horror of war in all its forms.

And we struggle to embrace the suffering of all

with love and compassion.

May we be filled with the endurance to seek peace.

Recognizing our weakness.

We call on the God of mercy and compassion

to guide us in the days ahead.

May we be filled with the vision of peace.

Dominican Sisters, Houston, Texas.

O God,

you came to bring peace,

to offer reconciliation,

to heal the separation between people,

and to show how it is possible

for men and women to overcome their differences

and to celebrate their unity.

You revealed your God as a God of all people,

a God without resentments or desires for revenge,

a God who cares for each one of His children

with an infinite love and mercy

and who does not hesitate to invite them into His own house.

But our world today does not look like a world that knows you.

Our nations are torn by chaos, hatred, violence, and war.

In many places, death rules.

O God,

do not forget the world into which you came to save your people;

do not turn your back on your children who desire to live in harmony

but who are constantly entangled in fear, anger, lust, violence, greed, suspicion, jealousy, and hunger for power.

Bring your peace to this world,

a peace we cannot make ourselves.

Awaken the consciousness of all peoples and their leaders;

raise up men and women full of love and generosity

who can speak and act for peace,

and show us new ways

in which hatred can be left behind,

wounds can be healed,

and unity restored.

O God, come to our assistance.

O God, make haste to help us.

Amen.

Adapted from A Cry for Mercy, by Henri J.M. Nouwen

Why is this man in the White House? The majority of Americans did not vote for him. Why is he there? And I tell you this morning that he's in the White House because God put him there for a time such as this.

Lt Gen William Boykin, speaking of G. W. Bush, New York Times, 17 October 2003

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. On the other hand, they do less easily move against him, believing that he has the gods on his side.

Aristotle

It is not what a lawyer tells me I may do;

but what humanity, reason,

and justice tell me I ought to do.

Edmund Burke

Reflections on the readings

It is hard to read the Gospel story of the crowd which is fed without thinking about the reality of poverty in our world. When the hungry Oliver Twist asked, ‘Please, sir, I want some more,’ he had obviously not imbibed the culture of the work-house which Charles Dickens described as a place ‘without the inconvenience of too much food.’ The plaintive cry for ‘more’ is getting louder in East Africa as countless people experience hunger, water shortages and concomitant diseases. 16 million people are on the brink of starvation desperately needing food, water and medical treatment whilst we have the ‘burden’ of so much choice in our supermarkets, water flowing from our taps and high-quality medical care. This alone would make it almost impossible for us to relate to the millions of people just existing in deplorable and desperate conditions on the other side of the world.

The readings tell us that God hears the cry of the poor. Jesus hears that cry, too. Does the church and society in general hear the cry of world and of creation? Jesus’ hearing the cry of the poor is come out of his humanity and ability to connect with people, especially those who most marginalised and oppressed. It is this kind of seeing and hearing that results in the silencing of prophets and ultimately Jesus himself.

Failing to avoid the crowd, whilst trying to find an isolated place to grieve the killing of John the Baptist, Jesus responds with ‘compassion’ for a people left poor, excluded, isolated, leaderless and needlessly dying for political reasons by an oppressive system. There is also ‘rage’ or ‘fire in the belly’ because this is not how the world should be or how people should relate to one another. The Bible is filled of stories of refugees and the hungry, like today, where much of the population of antiquity lived on the razor’s edge of food insecurity, lack of shelter and the threat of exile or extinction. The number of displaced people in the world just hit a record high exceeding 65 million. One in every 113 people on the planet is now a refugee. Around the world, someone is displaced every three seconds, forced from their homes by violence, war and persecution. More than half the world’s refugees are children, many travelling alone or in groups in a desperate quest for sanctuary, and often falling into the clutches of people traffickers.’ 

The miraculous that occurred in the gospel was not a ‘popcorn miracle’ where five loaves became 5000 or two fish multiplied by 3000. The woman, the mothers in the crowd, must have followed Jesus’ example. What mother would not on leaving home for a day in the wilderness not pack food for her husband and children? They opened up what they had and shared with the people they had just encountered. It was a ‘miracle of enough.’ Everyone shared. So even the improvident were able to eat with plenty left over – 12 baskets Matthew tells us. But this miracle was not just about food. John Dominic Crossan says that the ‘miracle of loaves and fishes’ was not just about food but about just distribution. That is how God reign operates. God gives food, drink – the earth itself – to all without cost. This is what Jesus’ followers are called to imitate here and now. Today’s readings are not just about food and drink; they’re about just food and drink. They’re about sharing God’s free gifts rather than turning them into commodities to benefit the 1%.

Jesus feelings of compassion and rage guide his actions, choices and responses. They give birth to an alternative hope which is acted out by Jesus in making the love of God visible and present in our world. Jesus, being with people, shows that God is with people. Not just the men counted but the women and children, the elderly and poor, sick and even disreputable people, and today with indigenous people, people with various sexual orientations, the asylum seekers and the stranger. Here before Jesus, and us, is humanity. The gospel sets for us what discipleship involves – ‘you give them something to eat; don’t send them off to get food; don’t blame them for not having enough, or being unemployed, or for any other predicament. The central message is: ‘You give them something to eat yourselves.’ The intention is to model the whole gospel and his life for us.

When we hear the phrase ‘Not counting women and children’ various reactions are possible. The feeding story—and, in a quite different way, Jesus’ later encounter with a Canaanite woman—highlight the importance of women, surplus food, and children. Matthew often, does not highlight the known insiders (such as Peter) but nameless women, and today a generous child, who will represent the model of faithfulness. But bad things happen when women and children are not counted – they are actually more and more marginalised. As we reflect on this phrase we are reminded that our nation had its own version of ‘not counting’. Until 1967, it applied to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were not counted in the census. Now in 2017, they demand to have a voice too.

In 2011, Archbishop Desmond Tutu told an audience that God calls us to be partners in changing a ‘crazy’ world of extreme economic inequality. ‘Dream God’s dream. Dream as you go out into a world that is so unequal. Dream of a different world.’ He said, ‘When someone is hungry we do not see samosas floating down from heaven. If that hungry person is to be fed, this omnipotent God waits on us to be God’s partners so that the miracle of feeding the hungry happens.’

Tutu spoke out strongly against the current state of the world and its ‘obscene’ inequality where children die of preventable disease because they cannot afford very cheap vaccines; where many go to bed hungry when others wonder what they are going to do with their surpluses; where we spend billions on defence budgets when a small fraction would enable children everywhere in the world to have clean water to drink, enough food to eat, decent homes and affordable healthcare. Tutu told university graduates, ‘We need you to dream God’s dream of a world, a different kind of world, a compassionate world, a caring world, a sharing world. God says ‘I have no-one, except you.’ God says ‘Help me, please help me to realise my dream'‘.

To respond effectively as disciples, we need to have a contemplative attitude if we are to see deeply and respond humanly to the needs of others. To see more deeply can cause a wound within ourselves. To see, to recognise, to be aware, must inform all that we do – our relationships with others and our response to our world. It is also being open to surprise. People often not given a voice or left marginalised often can enrich us when we least expect it. Those who have lost the most, those who have paid the greater price in terms of lost hopes and dreams, those who are the so-called ‘losers’ know things about the world that those who are considered ‘winners’ or privileged do not. ‘From the lowest rung, you see things that aren’t visible from the top or the centre…. The unlucky know more of the world and its vulnerabilities than the lucky; the weak have a far better sense of that than the strong.’ [Mark Peel]. In many ways, the solutions to their problems and their needs are found within themselves and among themselves. And in the gospel today, Jesus hears the cry of the poor and puts their needs above his own – whether it be acceptance, companionship, friendship, presence, intimacy, respect, or food. These are the ones we are called to respond to: those not counted, not valuable, not respected, not numbered or included and often not even remembered. How we respond, how we rage at the injustice becomes the measure of our faithfulness and a sign of our friendship with Jesus and the quality of our worship.

The task can seem enormous. The gospel tells us about the many thousands who were fed by a little bit of bread and fish. The point of the story is precisely the hopelessness of this equation. The resources of the Gospel always seem hopelessly dwarfed by the world's power, the world's hunger, the world's sin, and the resources that the world itself seems to offer.

We are reminded that we are with the bread of life. We have what we need to feed the world. We do not need to go anywhere to buy anything. We have the resources already even though they often seem over matched, hopeless, dwarfed, nonsensical, even wishful thinking. We might feel puny and pathetic, not up to the task of feeding a hungry, greedy world. The point of the gospel today is to take up the challenge to roll the dice on the reality of the gospel. It is adequate to the task, both of feeding the world and defeating ‘empire’

Speaking of today’s Gospel, Henri Nouwen referred to the value of small things (Jesus, A Gospel, Orbis Books, Maryknoll, N.Y.: 2001). God chooses the small things that seem insignificant to the world, whereas ‘worldly wisdom’ prefers what is large, quick, efficient, impressive and elaborate. The little we have was/is enough for Jesus. In the feeding, according to Nouwen, a great mystery becomes visible. This is the way of God who will take the small things, like the little love we have, the little knowledge we have, the little advice we have, the few possessions we have, and multiply them. Another writer puts it this way: ‘each drop of empathy waters the flower of peace’ (Simon Baron-Cohen, Zero Degrees of Empathy: A New Theory of Human Cruelty, AllenLane, London, 2011).

Mother Teresa tried to impress upon her sisters that ‘Charity begins today. Today, somebody is suffering. Today, somebody is in the street. Today, somebody is hungry. Our work is for today. Yesterday has gone, tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today to make Jesus known, loved, served, fed, clothed, sheltered. Do not wait for tomorrow. Tomorrow, we will not have them if we do not feed them today’ (The Joy of Loving, compiled by Jaya Chalika and Edward Le Joly, Penguin Group, New York: 2000).

It may be comforting to think of Jesus working a miracle with bread and fish. If Jesus doesn’t do the same for ‘those starving people,’ then how can they be our problem? But what if St. Teresa was right: Christ has no hands but ours? What if Jesus’ words to the disciples — ‘Give them some food yourselves’ — are words meant for us today? Whatever happened on that hillside so long ago, the lesson is this: There is more than enough. Whoever says otherwise is the devil speaking. There is abundance, and all we have to do is believe it and live as if we believe it. Then we will have the deep satisfaction of knowing that because of us, a stranger on the hillside of this world is also fed.

God’s gracious covenant with humanity is a challenge for us to recognise the dignity and humanity of all people, and to ensure that our attitudes, our ethics and our worship are free from exclusionary or diminishing language and practices, from dominance and power abuses, and from compliance with any system that unfairly oppresses or disadvantages some in favour of others. Essentially, we are called to become the people of God, welcomed at God’s table, and living as global citizens with a world-centric perspective and a God-inspired longing for healing, justice, peace and inclusion of all. It’s a dream, perhaps, but one worth striving for.

Jesus’ words to the disciples continue to ring through the centuries to us: ‘You feed them’. There is an old African concept – ubuntu – which simply translates as ‘human kindness’, but its scope really extends to (in the words of Liberian peace activist Leyman Gbowee) ‘I am what I am, because of who we all are’. We are one human race, more interconnected than we can even realise. While we may feel removed from this crisis in the safety of our island home, we are nonetheless part of a global community. May Australians fill their hearts with ubuntu, exude compassion and humanity in the face of this crisis, and show humanity to others. (Phoebe Williams This is not 'natural selection': east Africa is in the grip of a famine emergency The Guardian July 24, 2017)

Reflections for the Feast of the Transfiguration [August 6]

Today’s mountain-top scene is an important turning point in the Gospel story. It is a threshold moment, which makes a new alternative future possible.  God calls us beyond the boundaries of our comfort zones whether that space is physical, cultural, religious, racial or one’s own family. As we focus beyond ourselves the impossible becomes possible.  God’s word subverts our familiar world.

The Transfiguration for us, as for Jesus, is a matter of getting close to who we are, who we are meant to be, who we are meant to become. It was a transforming moment. The truth is that there is more to Jesus than the disciples thought.  Where they had been enmeshed in the give and take of life, where survival means knowing what is what and looking out for number one, Jesus points to a different way of relating. There is no room for mere observers but entering into a circle of giving and receiving.  The prophets often pointed to a vision of a transfigured world.  Jesus lived that in his life, death and resurrection. It is an image of humanity as it was meant to be.  

The ‘cloud’ in the gospel conceals and reveals. Clouds can conceal shapes, and can reveal shapes. 62 years ago a new kind of cloud took on an ominous meaning for the world in the shape of a mushroom. There was a blinding flash in the gospel story which was transfiguring. There was also the blinding flash of Hiroshima and Nagasaki which was disfiguring. This flash can enlighten us and give us an insight into what we are capable of: the capacity for evil and the capacity for good. 

We are called to see that the basic power of the universe is not the atom’s destructive power but the power revealed in Jesus: God’s steadfast and binding love for each and every creature in the universe. This love holds us together, sustains us at every moment, and will come again to transfigure all things; the love that submitted to death for sake of all creation; the love that the forces of division and hate, of war and destruction cannot ultimately withstand.   Jesus seems to always climb a mountain when he needs a new horizon - when the human struggle was draining, the demands great, the misunderstanding of his mission - the day to day blindness to the greater visions of the prophets - the dreams of God. 

At its best, the church is the place to come to regain perspective - stretch the vision of our horizons beyond the day-to-day fickleness of joys and disappointments.  There is a cry for a faith that makes sense in the streets, face to face with the concrete needs of others.  The experience on the mountain gave the disciples a glimpse of the glory that got them out of the pressing crowds, away from the angry voices of the threatened, past the personal satisfaction of being part of a healing or miracle. It was to stretch their imaginations and desires beyond the limited roles of healers, miracle-workers, and teachers to see that they were part of a much larger picture. They were the instruments of a divine justice and compassion which would require a lot more courage than they imagined. Today's feast is a powerful opportunity to hold out to us and to others the hope-filled image of God’s transforming power.

Jesus’ experience on the mountain is put at the centre of the gospel. Jesus is in dialogue with history: Moses and Elijah, in one moment, and his sleepy disciples in the next. It was here that he was given the heart, the courage, to make it possible to take the way of the Cross: to send Judas from the table of the last supper with a kiss, to look Pilate in the eye, to forgive the mindless cruelty of the soldiers and the betrayal of his own friends.  The transfiguration changed the shape of his understanding; it was consciousness-raising for him. Might not suffering of the poor and oppressed in history still be an unmitigated disaster if Jesus had not had this experience?  If we look at the shocking photos of famine in East Africa, the ongoing torture of prisoners in Iran, Iraq and Afghanistan, the human rights abuses still perpetrated at Guantánamo Bay, the devastation of cities in Iraq and Syria, and so many other places such as the Mediterranean Sea and near to home on Manus Island and Nauru we see the suffering of Christ, the Human One [Son of humanity].

Our history continues to be a holocaust of human hatred and the slaughter of innocent people.  George Bernard Shaw, in Don Juan in Hell has the Devil ask,

‘Is Man any the less destroying himself for all this boasted brain of his?  Have you walked up and down the earth lately?  I have; and I have examined Man's wonderful inventions.  And I tell you that in the arts of life man invents nothing; but in the arts of death he outdoes Nature herself, and produces by chemistry and machinery all the slaughter of plague, pestilence, and famine.  The peasant I tempt today eats and drinks what was eaten and drunk by the peasants of ten thousand years ago, and the house he lives in has not altered as much in a thousand centuries as the fashion of a lady's bonnet in a score of weeks.  But when he goes out to slay, he carries a marvel of mechanism that lets loose at the touch of his finger all the hidden molecular energies, and leaves the javelin, the arrow, the blowpipe of his fathers far behind.  In the arts of peace, Man is a bungler. . . there is nothing in Man's industrial machinery but his greed and sloth: his heart is in his weapons. This marvellous force of Life of which you boast is a form of Death:  Man measures his strength by his destructiveness. . . Man, the inventor of the stake, the gallows, the electric chair, of sword and gun and poison gas. . . above all, of patriotism, and all the other isms which even those who are clever enough to be humanely disposed are persuaded to become the most destructive of all destroyers.’ 

For decades we have lived with the reality that we have the capacity to destroy every life form God so lovingly created. This is an extreme, dramatic example of how we on earth can treat one another, how fearful we can become when we are threatened, how easily we can forget why we were created, despite what God desires and longs for us to become. It illustrates how easy it is for us to pervert the energies God has created. The Gospel reminds us of a deeper reality - that God insists always on having the last word. The dazzling, blinding white light cast on the mountain declares that God insists on transfiguring hell into heaven. God will not let the hell of Hiroshima be the last word. God will not let the selfishness and inhumanity of nuclear annihilation win out. The power of God can transfigure the events of August 6, 1945 into a level of restraint in the way nations settle differences. The power of humanity to destroy and dehumanise one another is ever before us but we do things differently – we can negotiate with North Korea, we can end the state of war that has existed for decades, we can listen to their concerns of fear and the memory of extreme violence during the Korean War and after.

On the mountain top and at the bottom of the mountain [our world] God’s voice can be heard: Listen to Jesus! We are to listen to him to understand what true religion is about.  It is the religion at the bottom of the mountain and which engages with our world – not the ‘shrine’ religion that Peter wants to establish [three tents]. This suggests the ghetto, remaining in the boat, keeping away from the world and from people in their need. This message is that religion is to be about the active engagement of the people of God with the gospel of liberation.  It is not about settling down to build shelters, practice cosy fellowship, building maintenance organisations, etc.

Jesus does not point away from the world.  He is the incarnation of God, the embodiment of God's love.  The one who is transfigured will soon be disfigured and points to the disfigured in the world.   The brokenness of humanity, the parts we all experience and the parts we are responsible for, must be taken into the divine life.  But we cannot stay on the mountaintop.  Jesus draws us into the human drama of brokenness and healing.   We look back to the transfiguration and look ahead at our world.   We are on a journey - a relationship with God and each other.  God lives within us and calls to us ‘You are a child of God.  You too are God's beloved.’  It is inclusive of all.

Peter wants to build a permanent dwelling place for each right there on the mountaintop, so that this wonderful moment might be captured and preserved.  In this context they hear: ‘This is my Son, the beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!’  We cannot let our religion stay at mountain top level. The human project – peace with justice, liberation for all people – cannot remain in hibernation on the mountain, or settle down into irrelevancy, or settle with ‘personal’ religion where it is just me and Jesus and no one else.

In today’s terms we must see Jesus on the mountain not only with Moses and Elijah, but also Muhammad, Gautama [Buddha] if we are to have a future of peace. We must be willing to make space where the ‘mountain’ of God is not a shrine for the past but a meeting place to envision a future of peace and justice on our planet. The gospel says that this cannot occur unless we listen: listen to Jesus, and listen to each other – especially ‘the other’.

People of faith know that lying beside the power to destroy is the power of God -- a force that will rise in human consciousness, intersecting our human ways, and unleashing the dazzling white power of love that can transfigure us.

As we remember August 6, 1945, the image of the mushroom-shaped cloud comes to consciousness. But Christians who remember that August 6 is the Feast of the Transfiguration know, too, that another cloud overshadows the mushroom-shaped one. It is the cloud of the mountain from which the voice of God reminds us that Jesus is God’s chosen one to whom we must listen.

PAX CHRISTI CONFERENCE

Poster and program for the Conference.

LITURGY NOTES FOR THE 17th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR.

Seventeenth Sunday of the Year

July 30, 2017

World Day Against Trafficking in Persons

Suggested formula for recognition of indigenous people and their land.

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

......... 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.

Let us also acknowledge this living culture and its unique role in the life of Australia today.

Finally, let us 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.

(based on Acknowledgement of Country NSW Dep of Education Learning and Leadership)

or

We respectfully remember the first people that live in our own respective areas and in honouring the memory of the traditional custodians we acknowledge with sorrow the immeasurable suffering caused to them and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by European colonisation.

We recognise with shame that such 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.

(Adapted from an acknowledgement used by the Sisters of Mercy, Parramatta)

or

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.

       Other images removed due to size

First Reading:             1 Kings 3:5, 7-12

Responsorial Psalm: Ps 119:57, 72, 76-77,127-128,129-130

Second Reading:        Romans 8:28-30

Gospel Reading:        Matthew 13:44-52

Penitential Rite

§  Christ Jesus, you have brought us the treasure of God’s love: Jesus, have mercy.

§  Christ Jesus, by your death you have won for us the treasure of forgiveness and life: Christ, have mercy.

§  Christ Jesus you have left us in the Eucharist the treasure of your presence and strength: Jesus, have mercy.

Or

• Christ Jesus, you came to reveal to us the Reign of God: Jesus, have mercy.
• Christ Jesus, you are wisdom made perfect: Christ, have mercy.
• Christ Jesus, you reveal to us the hidden treasure of our hearts: Jesus, have mercy.

Opening Prayer

God of Wisdom,

our hearts remain restless

until they find your peace in Christ Jesus.

As we place our trust in the Good News of Jesus

and the Reign he came to build among us,

may we be receptive, attentive and wise in heart

to keep seeking your presence in our world

and the challenges it brings.

Opening Prayer [Alternative]

God of wisdom,

you alone impart the gift of right judgment.

Grant us an understanding heart,

that we may value wisely

the treasure of your Reign

and possess its fullness

of peace, justice and right relationship.

General Intercessions

Introduction: We have been entrusted with a ministry of service, peace and reconciliation with all peoples.  Let us pray that others may discover the ‘reigning of God in Christ’ through our lives.  The response to each petition: May your compassion and justice come among us all, O God.

v  For the leaders of nations: that as they work for prosperity and progress of their peoples, they may not lose sight of the fact that people and their deepest human values are essential, let us pray: May your compassion and justice come among us all, O God.

v  For the developed countries: that they may mindful of developing nations and they engage in fair and just trade and be respectful of local culture, let us pray: May your compassion and justice come among us all, O God.

v  For the sick, the poor and neglected among us: that they may discover in the respect and loving care of people they encounter the goodness of God, let us pray: May your compassion and justice come among us all, O God.

v  For young people: that their needs, values and aspirations be listened to without prejudice and judgment by their parents and the Church, so that they will find their unique ways of serving God and people, let us pray: May your compassion and justice come among us all, O God.

v  For the Republic of South Sudan: that the people will find peace and freedom from fear of neighbouring countries, famine and hunger and come to be seen as a people who have come through with courage and determination, let us pray: May your compassion and justice come among us all, O God.

v  For peoples seeking and equal share in resources and also a say in the political process: we remember specifically the people in Syria, Malaysia, Yemen, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, let us pray: May your compassion and justice come among us all, O God.

v  For all victims of terrorism - the injured, families of loved ones killed, especially those who are hidden from us: may they find comfort in knowing that they are remembered by others who strive in their daily lives to work for peace with justice, let us pray: May your compassion and justice come among us all, O God.

v  For those in the path of war: may those who have lived so long with conflict and the those who have experience the violence of poverty find hope in their own efforts to change their situations and the efforts of others, let us pray: May your compassion and justice come among us all, O God.

v  For asylum seekers and refugees: that we who engage in military activity in others parts of the world realise that they contribute to the number of asylum seekers and refugees in the world and that we thus have a responsibility to assist them, let us pray: May your compassion and justice come among us all, O God.

v  For people fearful of deportation to their countries: we remember the people who have been deported from Australia back to danger and have suffered imprisonment, torture and death, and we pray that those in power will exercise compassion in determining the lives of people among us, let us: May your compassion and justice come among us all, O God.

(the following prayers may be used specifically to remember people who are trafficked)

v  For people who are the innocent and vulnerable in society: foreign students, runaway girls and boys, homeless and the transgender youth, migrants and the refugees, who are trapped, tricked and abused by traffickers who prey on them, let us pray: May your compassion and justice come among us all, O God.

v  For people who are persuaded by promises of legitimate and legal work, educational opportunities, and a better life, and finish up living in bondage, let us pray: May your compassion and justice come among us all, O God or May we be one with our trafficked sisters and brothers.

v  For people who have been moulded into child prostitutes, child soldiers, sex workers, domestic slaves, and forced laborers, and have been told that they are owned and that no one cares what happens to them, let us pray: May your compassion and justice come among us all, O God or May we be one with our trafficked sisters and brothers.

v  For people who have been burdened with layers of fear; deprived of food and sleep; forced under the lash of beatings, rape, torture, and imprisonment; and striped of their self-dignity and trust in humanity by the traffickers, let us pray: May your compassion and justice come among us all, O God or May we be one with our trafficked sisters and brothers.

v  For individual entrepreneurs and large corporations that grow rich from bringing into the average home websites where, in minutes, pimps, stalkers, and those suffering with sex addiction have access to millions of images and videos of sexual exploitation of women, teens, and children, let us pray: May your compassion and justice come among us all, O God or May we be one with our trafficked sisters and brothers.

v  For trafficked women, children, and men who cry out in anguished prayer: ‘How long will our cries for help fall on deaf ears? How long will we be forgotten?’,let us pray: May your compassion and justice come among us all, O God or May we be one with our trafficked sisters and brothers.

Concluding Prayer: Loving God, God of Wisdom, you hear our prayers. As we listen to your Son may we  listen to his words and follow his deeds of peace so that all forms of terrorism may vanish from this earth and be replaced by universal peace, expanding justice, and progress toward freedom.

Prayer over the Gifts

God of Wisdom,

come among us in Jesus Christ

through this Eucharist and in our daily lives.

Live fully in us

so that may manifest in our lives

your forgiveness, enlightenment and goodness.

Prayer after Communion

God of Wisdom,

in this Eucharistic celebration

you give us Jesus, your Son.

As we are nourished

may we work to promote the growth of your Reign

by opening our eyes to the goodness of this earth

and respond to your daily call to us.

Prayer

Jesus, Companion of the Trafficked,

Show us how to be one with our trafficked sisters and brothers.

Breathe into us their sorrows and losses.

Breathe into us their fears and despair.

Breathe into us their exhaustion and hunger.

Breathe into us their shame and humiliation.

Breathe into us their shattered trust in humanity.

Breathe into us their fragile hope to remain alive.

Jesus, Companion of the Trafficked,

As we carry their suffering

May we be more vigilant protectors

Of all trafficked victims and survivors.

May people from every corner of the world

Work to hold traffickers and consumers accountable

For this crime of modern day slavery. Amen.

Education for Justice (Center of Concern)

Notices

July 30 World Day Against Trafficking in Persons

For more resources: Australian Catholic Religious Against Trafficking in Humans https://acrath.org.au/  Anti-Slavery Australia http://www.antislavery.org.au/

August 7-13 Homelessness Week 2017 http://www.homelessnessaustralia.org.au/

For more resources Homelessness Australia http://www.homelessnessaustralia.org.au/index.php/research-resources

Homelessness Australia fact sheets http://www.homelessnessaustralia.org.au/index.php/about-homelessness/fact-sheets

August 6 Feast of the Transfiguration and Hiroshima Day

Other Resources

There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people for a purpose which is unattainable.

Howard Zinn, U.S. historian

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 voice of protest, of warning, of appeal is never more needed than when the clamor of fife and drum, echoed by the press and too often by the pulpit, is bidding all men fall in and keep step and obey in silence the tyrannous word of command. Then, more than ever, it is the duty of the good citizen not to be silent.

Charles Eliot Norton, (1827-1908) American scholar

Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.

Mother Jones

My only sense of 'mission' now was to show others that they, too, could feed and touch and heal and love, without fear. To catch them up in the desire to see more, taste more, without caring if they got doctrine right or became a regular at my church.

Sara Miles, Take This Bread: A Radical Conversion

People must not only hear about the kingdom of God, but must see it in actual operation, on a small scale perhaps and in imperfect form, but a real demonstration nevertheless.

Pandita Ramabai, Indian Christian and reformer

Jesus sowed his seed in our hearts, then off he went.... He knew things would not be ideal. There were the birds and the droughts, the weeds and the insects, the parasites and the blights. But there was also the power of the seed itself.

Joseph G. Donders, teacher and chaplain at the University of Nairobi, Kenya

The pearl of justice is found in the heart of mercy.

Catherine of Siena

It is curious that people who are filled with horrified indignation whenever a cat kills a sparrow can hear that story of the killing of God told Sunday after Sunday and not experience any shock at all

Dorothy Sayers

Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it.

Noam Chomsky

It is the function of the CIA to keep the world unstable, and to propagandize and teach the American people to hate, so we will let the Establishment spend any amount of money on arms.

John Stockwell, former CIA official and author

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

Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children. ... No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until ‘justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

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

Author unknown  

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

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

Many Indians have told me that the most basic difference between Western and indigenous ways of being is that Westerners view the world as dead, and not as filled with speaking, thinking, feeling subjects as worthy and valuable as themselves.

Derrick Jensen

The global industrial economy is the engine for massive environmental degradation and massive human (and nonhuman) impoverishment.

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

Question : What book would you give to every child?

Answer: I wouldn't give them a book. Books are part of the problem: this strange belief that a tree has nothing to say until it is murdered, its flesh pulped, and then (human) people stain this flesh with words. I would take children outside and put them face to face with chipmunks, dragonflies, tadpoles, hummingbirds, stones, rivers, trees, crawdads. That said, if you're going to force me to give them a book, it would be The Wind In The Willows, which I hope would remind them to go outside.

Derrick Jensen

This is the key to understanding the difference between indigenous and civilized warfare: Even in warfare the indigenous maintain relationships with their honored enemy. This is the key to understanding the difference between indigenous and civilized ways of living. This is only one of many things those we enslave could tell us, if only we asked: They, too, are alive, and present another way of living, a way of living that is not - in contradistinction to our God and our Science and our Capitalism and everything else in our lives - jealous. It is an inclusive way of living. They could tell us that things don't have to be the way they are.

Derrick Jensen, The Culture of Make Believe

The responsibility for wars falls solely upon the shoulders of these same masses of people, for they have all the necessary means to avert war in their own hands. In part by their apathy, in part by their passivity, and in part actively, these same masses of people make possible the catastrophes under which they themselves suffer more than anyone else. To stress this guilt on the part of the masses of people, to hold them solely responsible, means to take them seriously. On the other hand, to commiserate masses of people as victims, means to treat them as small, helpless children. The former is the attitude held by genuine freedom fighters; the latter that attitude held by power-thirsty politicians.

Wilhelm Reich, The Mass Psychology of Fascism

He who dares not offend cannot be honest.

Thomas Paine

To change masters is not to be free.

Jose Marti y Perez

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

.....if by a liberal they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties.. if that is what they mean by a ‘liberal’ then I am proud to be a liberal.

John F. Kennedy

The civility of no race can be perfect whilst another race is degraded. It is a doctrine alike of the oldest and of the newest philosophy, that man is one, and that you cannot injure any member, without a sympathetic injury to all the members.

Ralph Waldo Emerson.

I sat there in agony thinking about all that had led me to this private hell. My idealism, my patriotism, my ambition, my plans to be a good intelligence officer to help my country fight the communist scourge - what in the hell had happened? Why did we have to bomb the people we were trying to save? Why were we napalming young children? Why did the CIA, my employer for 16 years, report lies instead of the truth?

‘I hated my part in the charade of murder and horror. My efforts were contributing to the deaths, to the burning alive of children - especially the children. The photographs of young Vietnamese children burned by napalm destroyed me.

Ralph McGehee former CIA intelligence analyst

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher- ups. This is typical with everyone in the military service.

General Smedley Butler. USMC (Ret.)

Until we go through it ourselves, until our people cower in the shelters of New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles and elsewhere while the buildings collapse overhead and burst into flames, and dead bodies hurtle about and, when it is over for the day or the night, emerge in the rubble to find some of their dear ones mangled, their homes gone, their hospitals, churches, schools demolished - only after that gruesome experience will we realize what we are inflicting on the people of Indochina.

William Shirer author 1973

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

A society whose citizens refuse to see and investigate the facts, who refuse to believe that their government and their media will routinely lie to them and fabricate a reality contrary to verifiable facts, is a society that chooses and deserves the Police State Dictatorship it's going to get.

Ian Williams Goddard

One of the greatest delusions in the world

is the hope that the evils in this world

are to be cured by legislation.

Thomas B. Reed - (1839-1902) Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, 1886

What our leaders and pundits never let slip is that the terrorists -- whatever else they might be -- might also be rational human beings ; which is to say that in their own minds they have a rational justification for their actions. Most terrorists are people deeply concerned by what they see as social, political, or religious injustice and hypocrisy, and the immediate grounds for their terrorism is often retaliation for an action of the United States.

William Blum

I swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

Elie Wiesel

Protest that endures...is moved by a hope far more modest than that of public success:  namely, the hope of preserving qualities in one's own heart and spirit that would be destroyed by acquiescence.

Wendell Berry

Out beyond the ideas of

wrongdoing and right doing

there is a field.

I'll meet you there.’

Rumi

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

Margaret Mead

Perhaps it is this specter that most haunts working men and women: the planned obsolescence of people that is of a piece with the planned obsolescence of the things they make. Or sell.

Studs Terkel

The life I touch for good or ill will touch another life, and that in turn another, until who knows where the trembling stops or in what far place my touch will be felt.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.   

Frederick Buechner

Lying is done with words and also with silence.

Adrienne Rich

The most basic and powerful way to connect to another person is to listen. Just listen. Perhaps the most important thing we ever give each other is our attention…. A loving silence often has far more power to heal and to connect than the most well-intentioned words.

Rachel Naomi Remen

One is left with the horrible feeling now

that war settles nothing;

that to win a war is

as disastrous as to lose one.  

Agatha Christi

It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for them…. Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say.

Thomas Merton

Peace is not the product of terror or fear.

Peace is not the silence of cemeteries.

Peace is not the silent result of violent repression.

Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all.

Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity.

It is right and it is duty.

Oscar Romero

’He jests at scars, who never felt a wound’

William Shakespeare in Romeo and Juliet

Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could only do a little.

Edmund Burke

The welfare of the people in particular has always been the alibi of tyrants, and it provides the further advantage of giving the servants of tyranny a good conscience.

Albert Camus

The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life ... A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors... Who wields power is not important, provided that the hierarchical structure remains always the same.

George Orwell, 1984

Reflections on the readings…

In 1947 a Bedouin shepherd boy was with his goats on the western shore of the Dead Sea, when one goat strayed and had to be followed up a steep cliff. Passing by a cave he threw a stone inside, but on hearing the sound of something breaking he panicked and ran back to find his friend. Both returned to the cave together and found several large clay jars. Inside these, wrapped in linen, was to be one of the greatest of archaeological discoveries: the Dead Sea scrolls.

The shepherd boys did not realise they had stumbled upon a great treasure. When they tried to sell the scrolls to a merchant in Bethlehem, he refused to give the amount of money they asked for. It was not until the four scrolls came into the hands of the Syrian Patriarch of Jerusalem and three scrolls were smuggled out of the country to the USA that the value of the find came to light. Among the  manuscripts was the rule of the Qumran community and fragments of scripture. Carbon testing on the linen revealed that dated them around 33 AD.

At around that time, a few kilometres north of Qumran, Jesus told the story of a man, who stumbles across a great treasure hidden in the field. On discovering its value, he buries again, and seeks to buy the field. (It is important to note that the metaphors of the treasure and pearl break down if we imply that God’s reign can be bought and owned.) God’s reign cannot be bought - not by good deeds, nor any other commodity. It is a free gift attainable by all. Though not able to be bought, it costs everything – not by obligation or by guilt but a free surrender. It is expressed in the different routes people take in life to discover the ‘value’ and ‘cost’ of God’s reign. Our personal journey many take many detours, face many obstacles, be littered with many failures but there is also the joy of continuing and rediscovering God’s gracious design for us notwithstanding. Those detours and obstacles were faced by St Augustine, Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day and Archbishop Oscar Romero. The desire for God finally prevailed. Some journeys were cut short by evil and hatred of the truth as occurred when Oscar Romero was assassinated along with the many unnamed and unrecognised priests, nuns, lay ministers who witnessed in Latin America as in other places. Each gave a powerful witness to God’s reign and its importance in every person.

When we see the immense suffering of the world, the unimaginable pain of starvation, disease, mutilation, degradation, we wonder what kind of God would be involved in genocide, war, torture, rape or as we see ongoing famine in the Horn of Africa (Kenya and Somalia). The only God there is: the God of love and love does not control or coerce. It only pleads for a for free response. Love creates things and then lets things be what they choose.

The question these last few weeks has been: what is the Reign of heaven like? Jesus attempts to respond to this question using different images. Last week we had the wheat and the weeds, the mustard seed. Today, we find it is like a treasure hidden in a field - a pearl of great value - a net thrown into the sea. We might ask what they all have in common. They are all like the reign of God, right? No. On closer look we see that the actions and the actors are inseparable: seed is sown by a sower, yeast is hidden by a woman, the treasure hunter and the merchant buy and sell, the fishers fish and sort out the fish. God’s reign is not about places but relationships – God and others. Thomas Merton writing to a friend, said: ‘Do not depend on the hope of results…. you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results, but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself. . . .you gradually struggle less and less for an idea and more and more for specific people . . . .In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that saves everything.’ This is manifested in the parable of the net. Those who fished in the Lake of Galilee (also known as Gennesareth or Tiberias) had to work cooperatively. Because of the size of the net, one group of fishermen had to remain on shore to pay out the net, while their partners, working from a boat, carried the net out into the lake, forming a wide circle. Then, working together, both groups pulled the net to shore.

The Reign Jesus announces is subversive, unstoppable, invasive, a nuisance, urgent, shocking, abundant. It requires action and commitment and inspires extreme behavior. Jesus, the Palestinian revolutionary, presents us with a reign that is subversive and messy, and if we want to embrace God’s reign in the life of our communities, we need to embrace the revolutionary nature of the reign and the inevitable mess that this causes. Jesus walked the streets of Israel, the streets of Gaza and the West Bank, and on seeing social injustice and oppression and marginalisation, he spoke out against it. He was a compassionate presence amongst his people and was prepared to die for their liberation. That was his mission and we as a community, as a church, are invited into that same mission. It will be uncomfortable, it will be messy - but that’s God’s reign for you!!

Jesus confronts us with approximations of the way God deals with us and how God is present – a presence that is new and hopeful. In the parable of the net, even though the fish were many, the net did not break. It is a sign that God’s embrace is wide enough and durable enough to draw all people (not the ‘many’ as in the new version of the Eucharistic consecration!) without allowing anyone to slip through a tear in the net and be lost. The fish are only separated when the net is pulled to shore. Thank goodness, it is God alone who chooses!!  We are not to separate themselves, one from the other, or label some as good and others evil. The call is to live with mess and replace our tendency to judge other people with a patient trust in God’s loving kindness. As disciples of Jesus we are to continue to work and serve the needs of all without deciding on who is or is not worthy.

There are many images of God’s Reign. All are true but never complete. Whilst Jesus is the image of the Unseen God, the only other acceptable image of God is the human person. This has implications for our actions, relationships, forgiveness, justice making and peace making.

We see hints of God’s Reign when seeds become wheat; we hear of God's patience when the weeds and wheat are left to grow together. We observe it break into our lives as forgiveness is extended or attempts made at being peacemakers or when we give ourselves in service to others. We see it when we shape our responses to reality based on God’s gratuitousness. God’s Reign is not beyond our world. Some politicians and church leaders would like to think it is when they try to silence religious dissenters, justice and peace advocates. Jesus’ prayer is: ‘Your Kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ God’s Reign is here and now, within us - and what we bring to our world. Some years ago, a courageous Sydney Bishop, Geoffrey Robinson, now a retired, in the in the face of opposition by the hierarchy dared to raise his voice, both in Australia and overseas, about the abuse of power in the Church and its consequences in the abuse of children. His route took many turns. Like Oscar Romero he listened to people who were damaged, hurting, and acted. Both men of love, justice and compassion were and are perceived as threats to the stability of the ‘boat’.

The image of the ‘dragnet’, a primitive way of catching everything, invites us to again reimagine our relationship with God and neighbour. Could it be a call to allow for different interpretations in our living and relationships? for a suspension of judgment? for and an embrace of all people? Today’s parables remind us that different rules operate in God’s reign – and this must be replicated in our church and human communities. Exclusiveness cannot exist in church or human community. Jesus is not saying something new. The ancient world consisted of barriers; there was contempt between and within nations, between different groups and classes of people – as we also witness today.  Jesus invited everyone - clean or unclean, high or low, male or female, native or stranger - to learn how to live according to the reign which consisted of mercy, compassion, peace and love. Human community will always be a mixture; it will always be messy. The church – as our world - is full of imperfect people.

This can be difficult to accept. It is difficult to believe that that ugliness and beauty, good and bad could or should exist side by side.

A contemplative approach enables us to place ourselves in the presence and world of God. Here we learn God’s attitudes in Jesus: compassion, respect for difference, love for the sinner, forgiveness of those who have hurt us, passion against injustice. None of this is easy. But a contemplative approach enables us to more open-eyed in our daily living, look for and see the surprising ways God's presence reveals itself daily. When we place ourselves into that word we realise we too are in that ‘dragnet’. To realise this is to have found ‘a treasure’.

Archbishop Oscar Romero of El Salvador said, ‘Each one of us can make a difference.’ All of us must be instruments of faith in our community and the wider world. Despite the hopelessness and negativity that are so prevalent in the world, we must, as followers of Jesus, spread the enthusiasm of the faith that nourishes us and share the strength that we receive from this faith.

God is truly the God of surprises. God surprises us with the strength to face situations we never thought we could; that the person we took an instant dislike to is really worth knowing when we took to the trouble to spend time with him/her and get to know him/her; the unruly student we might have almost written off but has graduated and dedicated his/her life to the poor; the poor person we would dismiss has a story and experiences that we would never know if they are not shared; the beauty of the smile of an elderly person whose smile reveals something of the pleasures of life we do not yet know; the conversion and courage and determination that one experiences after being in a drab prison or the lifeless immigration detention centre.

The God of surprises opens our eyes to the discovery that what has been dragged in by the net is really a treasure and not rubbish. Where some go for a witch hunt, we are called to go for a treasure hunt. How often we have discovered that when we got to know the asylum seekers, refugees and migrants who have come to this country since the Second World War? Those who were feared, disliked, not trusted came to be seen as a treasure!!

LITURGY NOTES FOR THE 16th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

Sixteenth Sunday of the Year

July 23rd 2017

Suggested formula for recognition of indigenous people and their land.

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

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.

Let us also acknowledge this living culture and its unique role in the life of Australia today.

Finally, let us 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.

(based on Acknowledgement of Country NSW Dep of Education Learning and Leadership)

or

We respectfully remember the first people that live in our own respective areas

and in honouring the memory of the traditional custodians

we acknowledge with sorrow the immeasurable suffering caused to them and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by European colonisation.

We recognise with shame that such 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.

(Adapted from an acknowledgement used by the Sisters of Mercy, Parramatta)

or

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

Reading I                       Wisdom 12:13, 16-19

Responsorial Psalm  Psalm 86:5-6, 9-10, 15-16

Reading II                      Romans 8:26-27

Gospel                             Matthew 13:24-43 or 13:24-30

Penitential Rite

·         Jesus, you give us the courage to be change we want to see in the world. R/ Jesus, have mercy.

·         Jesus, you give us the patience to accept what cannot yet be changed. R/ Christ, have mercy.

·         Jesus, you give us the patience embrace those who are not like us. R/ Jesus, have mercy.

Opening Prayer

Patient and forbearing God,

you alone know the goodness of what you have made.

Strengthen our spirit and temper our zeal,

so that in your own good time

you may produce in us a rich harvest

from the seed you have sown and tended.

Keep us alive in Christ Jesus so that

the gift of your life continues to grow in us

and be a source of life for others

Prayer over the Gifts

Patient and forbearing God,

Jesus, your Son, invites all to his table:

the weak and the strong,

the rich and the poor,

the proud and the humble.

By encountering him,

may the weak become stronger,

the rich humbler,

and the good more compassionate.

Prayer after Communion

Patient and forbearing God,

you reveal your strength by your patience.

We have received Jesus, your Son,

in this Eucharistic celebration,

and so filled us with the power of his Spirit,

that we may encourage rather than condemn,

be constructive rather than hostile,

accepting rather than rejecting and suspicious,

working together rather than criticising

so that we may become more

your people among whom Jesus lives.

General Intercessions

Introduction: The Holy Spirit is within us and expresses our pleas for the good of all and the good of all creation. We pray in response: You are patient and merciful, O God.

1.        We pray for all people in positions of leadership: may they witness to God’s all-embracing love by their service of leadership in church and civil society, let us pray: You are patient and merciful, O God. 

2.       We pray for the people of South Sudan: mindful of its tragic past and ongoing violence, we pray in solidarity with the people who have exhibited much courage, tenacity and hope, let us pray: You are patient and merciful, O God.

3.        We continue to pray for peace over the region of Afghanistan and other parts of the Middle East:  may the Spirit of Peace move in the hearts and minds of all so that peace and reconciliation may come, let us pray: You are patient and merciful, O God.

4.       We prayer for asylum seekers and migrants around the world: may their experiences of oppression and persecution and poverty be heard and acknowledged without judgement; may they find welcome and peace wherever they find themselves; and not be used as pawns in political power plays, let us pray: You are patient and merciful, O God.

5.       We pray for those around the world who are working with people who have been marginalised by society and the church: that they may know God's power as they bring change and hope in culturally appropriate ways, let us pray: You are patient and merciful, O God.

6.       We pray for patience, tolerance, forgiveness and reconciliation in our lives: may the Holy Spirit keep us from judging other people harshly, let us pray: You are patient and merciful, O God.

7.       We pray for hope: may we be filled with a spirit of confidence in the future through those who non-violently resist unjust systems everywhere, let us pray: You are patient and merciful, O God.

8.       We pray for love in all our relationships: that the love of Christ may be made concrete in our relationships, workplaces, families and communities so that all will experience a sense of acceptance and belonging, let us pray: R/ You are patient and merciful, O God.

9.       We pray for the church: may its work in the world to proclaim the Gospel, serve those who are forgotten, heal the sick and tend to the wounded, let us pray: R/ You are patient and merciful, O God.

10.     We pray for those who are in prison: may they find mercy and compassion from those who work with them so that they may discover a goodness within them that they may share with others, let us pray: R/ You are patient and merciful, O God.

Concluding Prayer: Patient and forbearing God, it is your Spirit that strengthens us in live and unites communities in peace and joy. May we strive for the transformation of the world and the breaking in of your Reign.

Resources

Concepts create idols; only wonder comprehends anything. People kill one another over idols. Wonder makes us fall to our knees.

St. Gregory of Nyssa

The shortest definition of religion: interruption.

Johann Baptist Metz, Catholic priest and theologian

[Be] daring enough to be different, humble enough to make mistakes, wild enough to be burnt in the fire of love, real enough to make others see how phony [you] are.

Brennan Manning

In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.

Martin Luther King jr.

A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard. (another version: A riot is the language of the unheard)

Martin Luther King jr.

The ultimate measure of a (man) is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.

Martin Luther King jr.

Life's most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?'

Martin Luther King jr.

I submit that an individual who breaks the law that conscience tells him is unjust and willingly accepts the penalty by staying in jail to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the very highest respect for law.

Martin Luther King jr.

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

Martin Luther King jr.

Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality.

Martin Luther King jr.

Have we not come to such an impasse in the modern world that we must love our enemies - or else? The chain reaction of evil - hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars - must be broken, or else we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation.

Martin Luther King jr.

The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this (man), what will happen to me?’ But... the good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to (him)?’

Martin Luther King jr.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A (man) can't ride you unless your back is bent.

Martin Luther King jr.

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

[Rebellion's] most profound logic is not the logic of destruction; it is the logic of creation … the logic of the rebel is to want to serve justice so as not to add to the injustice of the human condition.

Albert Camus, The Rebel

Mark's story of Jesus' last days … is an intensely political drama, filled with conspiratorial backroom deals and covert action, judicial manipulation and prisoner exchange, torture and summary execution … And we do well not to forget that this very narrative of arrest, trial, and torture is still lived out by countless political prisoners around the world today.

Ched Myers, Binding the Strong Man

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

Justice is conscience,

not a personal conscience

but the conscience of the whole of humanity.

Those who clearly recognise

the voice of their own conscience

usually recognise also the voice of justice.

Alexander Solzhenistsyn

We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.

Martin Luther King Jr.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us

to question the fairness and justice of many of our past and present policies.

A revolution of values will soon look uneasily

on the glaring contrast between poverty and wealth.

With righteous indignation,

it will look across the seas

and see individual capitalists in the West

investing huge sums of money

in Asia, Africa, and South America

only to take profits out with no concern

for the social betterment of the countries,

and say:

'This is not just.'

Martin Luther King Jr., The Trumpet of Conscience

To fight evil one must also recognize one's own responsibility.

The values for which we stand must be expressed

in the way we think of, and how we deal with,

our fellow humans.

Beatrix former Queen of the Netherlands

Love, like truth and beauty, is concrete. 

Love is not fundamentally a sweet feeling;

not, at heart, a matter of sentiment, attachment,

or being ‘drawn toward.’

Love is active, effective, a matter of making reciprocal

and mutually beneficial relation with one’s friends and enemies.

Love creates righteousness, or justice, here on earth.

To make love is to make justice.

As advocates and activists for justice know,

loving involves struggle, resistance, risk.

People working today on behalf

of women, blacks, lesbians and gay men,

the aging, the poor ……

know that making justice is not a warm, fuzzy experience.

I think also that sexual lovers and good friends know

that the most compelling relationships

demand hard work, patience,

and a willingness to endure tensions and anxiety

in creating mutually empowering bonds.

For this reason loving involves commitment.

We are not automatic lovers of self, others, world or God.

Love does not just happen.

We are not love machines,

puppets on the strings of a deity called ‘love’.

Love is a choice –

not simply, nor necessarily, a rational choice,

but rather a willingness to be present

to others without pretense or guile.

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, first US Episcopalian Woman Priest, in Passion for Justice.

We should take care, in inculcating patriotism into our boys and girls, that is a patriotism above the narrow sentiment which usually stops at one's country, and thus inspires jealousy and enmity in dealing with others... Our patriotism should be of the wider, nobler kind which recognises justice and reasonableness in the claims of others and which lead our country into comradeship with...the other nations of the world. The first step to this end is to develop peace and goodwill within our borders, by training our youth of both sexes to its practice as their habit of life, so that the jealousies of town against town, class against class and sect against sect no longer exist; and then to extend this good feeling beyond our frontiers towards our neighbours.

Lord Baden-Powell

Our virtues have become our greatest sin.

They hinder the living God

from doing something new.

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

The disclosure of God transforms our narrow faiths, challenging our preconceptions of divine unity, power and goodness. Whereas we ordinarily seek the transcendent to ratify our cherished beliefs, the God of Jesus Christ is opposed to the idols we make of self, nation, race or economic production. We seek an omnipotence that is like the powers of the world, raised to an ultimate degree, but in Jesus Christ God's power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore ‘revelation is the beginning of a revolution in our power thinking and our power politics.’ We seek a good that will protect our own goods, but find in Christ that the true good empties itself for others.

Douglas F. Ottati, God and Ourselves

Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity but an act of justice.

Nelson Mandela, former South African president at the Africa Standing Tall Against Poverty

The sense of futility is one of the greatest evils of the day...

People say,

‘What can one person do?

What is the sense of our small effort?’

They cannot see that we can only lay one brick at a time,

take one step at a time;

we can be responsible only

for the one action of the present moment.

Dorothy Day

My call for a spiritual revolution is thus not a call for a religious revolution. Nor is it a reference to a way of life that is somehow other-worldly, still less to something magical or mysterious. Rather, it is a call for a radical re-orientation away from our habitual preoccupation with self towards concern for the wider community of beings with whom we are connected, and for conduct which recognizes others' interests alongside our own.

The Dalai Lama

No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear.

Edmund Burke

If you look carefully you will see that there is one thing and only one thing that causes unhappiness. The name of that thing is attachment. What is an attachment? An emotional state of clinging caused by the belief that without some particular thing or some person you cannot be happy

Anthony de Mello, SJ

God of Us All

You are the God of all of human kind and all of creation,

forgive us for our sins against our brothers and sisters

as well as against your creation.

I ask for your grace to change our hearts

from hatred and selfishness to love and sharing

so that each of us here on earth

will have enough with none having an abundance.

May we all have respect and acceptance

of every other creature.

In your name we pray

and give thanks for all you have given us.

Amen

Catherine Walsh

May I say to my Christian friends as powerfully as I can, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is about love not hate, acceptance not rejection. It celebrates the essence of one's humanity. It calls people beyond the prejudices of tribe, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation. It challenges those who have elevated their religious convictions to the realm of infallible or inerrant truth. But even more powerfully it calls those of us who claim to be disciples of this Christ to stand at the side of those our world would victimize, to counter the rhetoric of religious prejudice, to risk our lives for justice, and to do it quite publicly.

Bishop John S. Spong, former bishop of Newark

Injustice is rooted in a spiritual problem, and its solution requires a spiritual conversion of each one's heart and a cultural conversion of our global society so that humankind, with all the powerful means at its disposal, might exercise the will to change the sinful structures afflicting our world.

Hans Peter Kolvenbach, SJ, former superior general of Society of Jesus

Consequently, the promotion of justice is at the heart of a true culture of solidarity. It is not just a question of giving one's surplus to those in need, but of ‘helping entire peoples presently excluded or marginalized to enter into the sphere of economic and human development.

John Paul II, World Day of Peace Message, 2001

The fundamental sin is exploitation, whether it be expressed in the domination of male over female, white over black, rich over poor, strong over weak, armed military over unarmed civilians, human beings over nature. These analogously abusive patterns interlock because they reset on the same base: a structure where an elite insists on its superiority and claims the right to exercise dominative power over all others considered subordinate, for its own benefit. . . What is being looked for is not simply the solution to one problem, but an entire shift of world view away from patterns of dominance toward mutually enhancing relationships.

Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, She Who Is, 27-28

Violence and injustice in the form of massive poverty, sexism, racism, and war destroy the lives of millions of human beings who die before their time. The radical transformation of crushing structures and murderous situations does not happen automatically but only through human effort that, through active nonviolent resistance, struggles for justice and against suffering . . . In addition to cosmic and social renewal, Spirit-Sophia’s deeds take place when the life of every person is renewed. Jaded, discouraged, hurt, exhausted, worried people have need for comfort, healing and new enthusiasm for life that arises every day. Nonviolently, but persistently, the Spirit who dwells at the center of personal existence creates a clean heart, a new spirit, a heart of flesh and compassion, instead of a stony heart (Ez 36:26).

Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, She Who Is

Renewal is an ever-present need . . . Wherever the gift of healing and liberation, in however partial a manner, reaches the winterized or damaged earth or peoples crushed by war and injustice or individual persons weary, harmed, sick or lost on life’s journey, there the new creation in the Spirit is happening . . . Justice and peace throughout the world of nature and the human world are the effects of the Spirit’s renewing power, coming to fruition whenever human beings find community in mutual relations of sympathy and love.

Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, She Who Is

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

One may sin by greed and the desire for power,

but one may also sin in these matters

through fear, indecision, and cowardice!

John Paul II, On Social Concern, #47

Interfaith Prayer for Peace

O God, you are the source of life and peace.

Praised be your name forever.

We know it is you who turns our minds to thoughts of peace.

Hear our prayer in this time of crisis.

Your power changes hearts.

Muslims, Christians, and Jews remember, and profoundly affirm,

that they are followers of the one God,

Children of Abraham, brothers and sisters;

enemies begin to speak to one another;

those who were estranged join hands in friendship;

nations seek the way of peace together.

Strengthen our resolve to give witness to these

truths by the way we live.

Give to us:

Understanding that puts an end to strife;

Mercy that quenches hatred, and

Forgiveness that overcomes vengeance.

Empower all people to live in your law of love

Amen.

Pax Christi [UK]

The more faithfully you listen to the voice within you,

the better you will hear what is sounding outside.

Dag Hammarskjold

Sculpting Peace

My feet step softly onto the beautiful sand.

Their feet are running in all directions, energized by fear.

Gritty moist earth gently rises up through my toes.

The earth is violently rising, sand is blasting hundreds of feet into the air.

I get down on my knees and thank God for this blessed day.

They pray for protection, hoping to survive this terrifying day.

I walk out into the calm shallow water, a quiet sand drift awaits me.

A mother covers her child's ears as deafening explosions fill the air.

I look up into the blue sky and am warmed by the sun's radiant glow.

The sky is on fire, ablaze with hate and fear.

I take these hands and clutch them together,

Saying a prayer for my brothers and sisters in Iraq.

My heart pulses with emotion, eyes filled with tears, I touch Mother Earth.

My strong hands feel Her pain, I send Her my Love.

Slowly rising up from the Earth, form emerges, a head, shoulders, arms,

Hands.

These are the hands of peace.

These are the sands of peace,

Yearning for a world

Without war.

MaryBeth Weiss [This poem was written on March 20, 2003, the day after the U.S. invasion of Iraq commenced.]

How can we say Our Father?

...when we allow other Children of God to be placed behind razor wire.

How can we say 'Who Art in Heaven'?

...when we allow asylum seekers to be placed in a living Hell.

How can we say 'Hallowed be Thy Name'?

...when we regard our land as too hallowed to admit the persecuted, the desperate, the tortured.

How can we say 'Thy kingdom come’?

...when our 'kings' are selfishness, blindness, materialism and apathy to refugees.

Dare we say 'Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven'?

...when we defy the divine will by refusing mercy to those seeking asylum, thus driving them to the point of self-mutilation and even suicide.

Dare we say 'Give us this day our daily bread'?

...when we give our refugee brothers and sisters stones while we shut our eyes to our exploitation and warlike response to the poorer countries.

Can we say 'and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us'?

...when we detain all who cross our borders without papers as trespassers regardless of their tragic circumstances.

Who can say 'and lead us not into temptation'?

...when asylum-seekers we have imprisoned are cursed as 'queue-jumpers' or 'illegal immigrants' or 'security risks' or 'potential terrorists' and are tempted to sew their lips together or slash their wrists.

What temerity lets us say 'but deliver us from evil'?

...when we commit such evils against helpless people, driving some to madness?

Dare we say 'Amen'?

...to a disgraceful policy of detention that makes its victims cry to the heavens for mercy and justice.

I think not.

Cliff Baxter, Australian Journalist

The Tale of the Cracked Pot

Nobody's perfect, but our imperfections make us interesting.

A water bearer had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water.

At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his house.

Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do.

After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream.

‘I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you. I have been able to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don't get full value from your efforts,’ the pot said.

The bearer said to the pot, ‘Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you've watered them.

‘For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house.’

So, each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are, and look for the good in them.

Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape. Remember to appreciate all the different people in your life!

Reflections on the readings

Liu Xiaobo and his wife, Liu Xia in Beijing, China, 2000. Photo: http://liuxiaobo.eu/

Pondering on the theme of the seed in the gospel with its call to trust and call to courage, the death of the famous Chinese pro-democracy advocate, political prisoner, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Liu Xiaobo came to mind. He planted a seed but what happened. He died of liver cancer and was imprisoned for ‘inciting subversion of state power.’ The long-time leader of the non-violent struggle for human rights, denounced hatred and promoted freedom of expression as ‘the source of humanity, the mother of truth.’  It seems that despite not having achieved his goals, the Chinese government clearly lost because his ideas and dreams will persist, spread, and will, one day, bear fruit. Before being sentenced, he read a statement to ‘tell the regime that deprives me of my freedom …..I have no enemies, and no hatred.’

But did he succeed? Edward Snowden, another courageous dissident and whistle-blower, said ‘Xiaobo died under guard in a world where states still dim our brightest lights…..The law is not justice.’ Twitter quotes from Xiaobo's final statement in court said: ‘I hope therefore to be able to transcend my personal vicissitudes... and defuse hate with love.’ Like the seed that is planted in the ground it does not always seem to achieve its goal. So did Xiaobo fail? We have to remember that he is/was a seed. Not if his courage and dignity was able to inspire courage and dignity in China and globally.

The gospel is a continual call to build a culture of active response in the face of injustice to transform our world and doing relationships differently. That happens when the voices of people committed to exposing injustice are shared. Even highlighting the thoughts and actions of people dedicated to confronting injustice can build courage.  Small incremental actions matter even when the consequences are not immediate or obvious. Even failure in an immediate objective may result in a change to the whole framework that makes broader change inevitable as the story is changed, future activists encouraged, and persistence is made possible.

We witnessed many seeds of transformation in 2016, at Standing Rock, North Dakota, when Sioux people and activists failed to stop the building of a pipeline but succeeded in delaying it and costing investors a fortune. Thought the pipeline still went ahead, the gathering, the largest of Native North Americans ever seen, formatted a radical new chapter to a history of over 500 years of colonial brutality, loss, dehumanisation and dispossession. Thousands of veterans came in defence of the people against the police. Many veterans apologised and sought forgiveness for the long oppression of Native Americans by the US Army by affirmations of solidarity and interconnection. People with little knowledge of native rights and wrongs were educated and inspired and informed young people of much work yet to be done.

Actions often ripple far beyond their immediate objective, even when results are unlikely to be immediate or obvious. Many of our greatest victories are what does not happen: what is not built or destroyed, deregulated or legitimised, passed into law or tolerated. Even losing can be part of the process of change. Attempts to abolish slavery failed repeatedly but the ideas behind them spread until they were passed. So we see, that repeated small, incremental actions do matter even when the results  are not immediate or obvious. The true impact of activism may not be felt for a generation. That alone is reason to struggle, rather than surrender to despair.

The scriptures witness to God’s empowering and faithful presence despite the troubles and traumas that threaten people’s lives and futures. We are reminded that God continues to renew and rebuild us from the ashes of broken trust and ruptured relationships, so that we may take on a new identity as God witnesses in the world. God’s plans cannot ultimately be thwarted by the presence of evil, yet abundant life for many is threatened by systemic evils such as racism, sexism, and prejudices of all kinds. Decency, civility, compassion, kindness, openness to others are often choked by meanness, greed, selfishness and hatred. Thought things will ultimately be sorted out but we should not be surprised at the effectiveness of little actions for justice, kindness and compassion can achieve. We do not have be inactive in the face of negativity.

We may love to design our world as we would like it to be, e.g., a class of students who are respectful, eager to learn and cooperative whilst the the emergence of a bully could be pulled up and discarded like a  ‘weed’. Peace could be restored when all these negative people, the ‘other’, the enemy, could be weeded out.

Our challenge is to see in the face of evil that God is still at work to save and not punish; to love and not to condemn. We are called to learn to live with difference without excluding or removing all the differences from our lives, our communities and our world. These could also be people of colour, or a different religion, sexual orientation, culture or economic status. We can judge people and situations by our own criteria. What is different is evil or backward or old-fashioned. Do we have the patience to allow people to move and grow at their pace, in their own time. We need to be patient with ourselves, others and their difference. God is present even where there is ‘evil’.

The writer of Wisdom tells us that God is lenient and patient. Everything God creates is good - and can be better. The responsorial psalm continues this theme: God is always merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundantly kind, good and forgiving. God is always on the look for the slightest change in people. Our spirituality is not about separation, but of welcome and embrace. Wisdom reminds us of the benefits we enjoy because of the patience of a loving God. Leniency, kindness, justice, mercy and clemency are shown to those whom God loves as very dear children (v. 18). Despite our frequent failings and repeated sins, our patient God gives us what is perhaps the greatest gift of all — time, here and now, to repent of our sins. Anne Lamott says, ‘When we manage a flash of mercy for someone we don’t like – including ourselves – we experience a great spiritual moment.’

Jesus called forth this same non-judgmental quality of patience from his disciples…inviting them and us to deal with others as God deals with us. As it has always been, the good and the bad grow side by side, and it is God’s prerogative alone to judge between them.

This has not always been the case - even in the churches when dealing with an unruly humanity. Yet, how will we ever know God’s kindness, compassion and love - if the ‘wheat’ and the ‘weeds’ cannot grow together? How can the churches be the place where all experience union with God and solidarity with one another? It is a church and world where the wheat and the weeds live side by side that attests to God’s compassion.

Unfortunately, humans have an almost irresistible tendency to clarify, to categorize, to separate, and to judge the worthiness of one another. We have a tendency to label people as good or bad, pretty or ugly, important or unimportant, smart or slow, stylish or old-fashioned. These labels can often stick permanently. They do not allow for the possibility of change, of growth and transformation. Jesus encouraged his disciples to forego the desire to label themselves or others (wheat or weeds; Jew or gentile; servant or free; woman or man) and to work faithfully and fervently to welcome the good seed of God’s word. We divide people according to gender, sexual orientation, skin pigmentation, ethnicity, age, economic status, religious affiliation, language, and so on. In our prayer, we may ask God’s blessing on ourselves and our own, but have no prayer, no patience, no blessing for those whom regarded as enemies, opponents or different. Jesus confronts this attitude with the challenge, ‘Let them grow together.’ The key word here is ‘grow’ — and grow we must in order to be true images of our ever patient God.

The parable of the wheat and the weeds acknowledges that we live in an imperfect world - a world in which good and bad exist side by side and where good and bad will struggle with one another until the God’s Reign becomes a reality. Reflection brings us to realise that there are weeds and wheat within all of us, that every one of us possesses within ourselves a capacity for both good and evil. We all have the inclination to reach out in compassion to others in need and to do good things out of love. We also know how we can behave selfishly, ignore others in need and allow fear to control our thoughts and actions…as we see in the inhumane and cruel treatment of asylum seekers by professing Christians. We’re all capable of taking the moral high ground whenever we think a situation demands it, but, equally, we can find all kinds of excuses to justify our actions when we really know that they are motivated by self-interest. This kind of struggle goes on within each of us and the challenge is for us to be more and more ‘wheat’ for a world that often seems to be being choked by ‘weeds’.

‘Weeding out’ people is alive and well. It occurred in Nazi Germany, in Uganda under Idi Amin in 1960's, in Bosnia's ethnic cleansing, and the Rwandan genocide. It still occurs almost on a daily basis in Pakistan, Iraq,Syria, Afghanistan and now in Gaza where so called ‘insurgents’ are weeded out randomly, along with many innocent people, by pilotless drones and other weapons. In some towns and cities we like to keep Indigenous people and poor people out of sight especially in cities visiting by foreign dignitaries. The Church has always wanted gays and lesbians to be invisible though the weeding out is occurring in a number of African countries, Russia and Chechnya. The ringing truth is: God cares for all… people and creation. It is to be shared with all: good people and otherwise. Knowing this makes for peace and peaceful living.

We are called to approach others with love, patience and tolerance, even when we passionately disagree on issues and matters of faith and its practice. Let us not be so quick to judge whether in our personal lives or as a nation. Let’s not be so quick to decide who is good and who is bad. Only God knows: and God’s ways are not the ways of violence and killing. God’s thoughts are not of hatred and destruction but of peace, forgiveness and love. Let’s not limit God’s care and compassion. Jesus never named anyone an enemy. Leave judgments up to God. Let us work at being more open to other people rather than identifying people according to the ethic group, or racial make up, or sexual orientation.

This parable has often been used as a ‘text of terror,’ as a weapon to threaten people with condemnation or declare God’s inevitable judgment on those whom they oppose for whatever reason.  Such understandings usurp God’s role and ignore the fact that the ‘good seed’ produces wheat in abundance. Goodness, love, compassion, truth, kindness, service of others can never be confused with what others call ‘weeds’.  One never knows what those considered ‘weeds’ might actually achieve or bring about. Which side do you think Jesus would be on? Didn’t he always go with the poor? The Outsider? The stranger? The lonely child? He welcomed the poor to his table. He went and was with them. Where would Jesus be now? How would he be trying to transform this world in which we live in order that everyone could have a full human life?  This is a parable of confidence. God is not indifferent to our struggle. God is guiding us and the church in the process of bringing about a transformation.

I conclude with a letter in The Age: Prejudice against good citizens

I keep hearing that the latest North African refugees are all troublemakers. Well, I can remember, when I was young, waves of refugees and migrants arriving in Australia. The first major wave were migrants from Italy. They were said to carry stilettos and form gangs. They were soon given derogatory names. Then came the Greeks. After that came the Turks and others, through to those from Vietnam.

Australia spends $1billion a year to detain asylum seekers. 

Despite the derogatory names they were given, each national group has gone on to make a great contribution to the development of Australia, from a backwater of 5.5 million people in the 1940s. They helped build the roads, sewers, hospitals and schools that were essential to accommodate our rapid development. Along the way they also created many outstanding local and international business organisations. I expect that the new wave of North Africans will come to make a similar contribution.

Jeffrey Newman, Ivanhoe, Letters, The Age July 16, 2017

LITURGY NOTES FOR THE 15th SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

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