MSC Magazine | Issue 4 | Summer 2020

Page 10| Missionaries of the Sacred Heart TO BE ON EARTH THE HEART OF GOD (Reflections of a talk given by Chris Chaplin msc to the Parish at Henley Beach) By Dr John Wallace During September we celebrated the leg- acy left to us from all past MSC. A week of reflection and sharing was conducted over five nights, with the Tuesday night set aside for the Memorial Mass for Fr Frank and Fr John who both died 12 months earlier. Over the other four nights, our guest speak- ers reflected on different aspects of the call — and to help us to understand the commitment of parishioners — to be “missionary disciples”. The final reflection by Fr Chris Chaplin MSC Director Ministry Formation, Rome, ex- plored the charism of the MSC and the continued encouragement it gives us to search for the “Heart of the Sacred”, in the confused and challenging context of life today. This reflection provided a thought provoking bookend to a wonderful, prayer- ful week. Chris took us into our call as MSC to be on earth the heart of God . Fr Chris started with the premise that the Church in the West is a Church in decline, with decreasing numbers and aging popu- lations; clergy sexual abuse and the short- age of clergy and so on. We tend to try and manage the decline rather than look to where the Spirit is leading us. We were presented with the challenge of Spirituality of the Heart. We were reminded that the Spirituality of the Heart is a way to live our lives…death is greater than change [in our lives] — Change is not pain- ful, it is the resistance to change that is painful. In Revelation we hear that Jesus is knocking that he may come in, so that he can draw us out. Fr Chris though thinks of the times when Jesus knocks from within ‘… so that we will let him come out.’ And [truly] living a Spirituality of the Heart means that we must ‘walk the talk’ [with respect to a focus beyond the four walls of the Church building where we worship]. Listening is at the centre of Heart Spirituality and we hear the voice of Jesus through others. If you can’t hear the voice of oth- ers who you can see, how can you listen to the voice of Jesus who you can’t see? The MSC Leadership, Fr Chris tells us, have been developing an approach to listening which Chris presented to us called Accom- paniment . It is a ‘walking together’ without interjecting and imposing our own views or experience on the other. E.g. ‘I had that same issue when…’ or ‘that reminds me of a time…’ For example, the road to Em- maus story is an example of accompani- ment. Jesus listened to their story without interjection. Accompaniment starts with encounter of the other person and moving through each of the stages depicted in the diagram be- low Encounter (appreciating) Intimacy (envisioning) Conversion (letting go, co - constructing) Mission (sustaining) Source: Fr Chris Chaplin reflection 2020: To be on earth the Heart of God Accompaniment: from Encounter to Mission