Fully alive

 ‘…And glory has come to me through them’ (John 17:10)

From John 17:11-11 (Year A: Easter 7)

A need to glorify is deeply embedded in each of us.  From primitive beginnings human beings created images and glorified a higher being or reality. In more recent times some extraordinary examples of the human need for glorifying have presented at rallies and other manifestations. From Nuremberg to Red Square a figure head or an ideology is glorified. Nature has always abhorred a vacuum.

The prayer ‘Glory be to the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit …’ is said by Christians over and over again. What does it mean to glorify in this way? Does a god or Our God feel a need to be glorified?  The dense discourses in the Gospel of John – especially from the 14^th chapter to the 17^th are packed with references to Glory, the Spirit, the Father-Son relationship as well as all the other Johannine themes of reciprocal love, unity, faith, light, joy and peace. But, glory is something that cuts across human reality. What we hear in the opening of the 17^th chapter is a powerful affirmation of the unique privilege of being human. A glory ascribed to God alone is realised in us. Writing in the second century St Irenaeus said ‘The glory of God is a living human person; and the life of a human person consists in beholding God’. Some translate this simply as ‘The glory of God is humanity full alive’.

Whow! The glory of God is ordinary human beings like you and me fully alive. Not just alive but fully alive. Better than any prayer. It is prayer to be so.

Putting the kettle on

 ‘…But why am I so favoured?’ (Luke 1:43)

From Luke 1:39-56 (Year A: Visit by Mary to Elizabeth)

In this passage visiting was in a world where communication, speed and travel were very different to what they are today.  A curious aspect of life today is a negative correlation between speed of travel and frequency of visiting neighbours, friends and acquaintances. We make less time for meaningful conversations while seeking to travel faster, produce more, consume more and grow more – our information, our contacts, our ‘friends’ in the new social media. Where visiting happens it is often by prior arrangement. The days where people just dropped in, unannounced, seem to be gone. But, visiting and being visited is a grace-filled occasion when we deepen and renew friendships and acquaintances. They are opportunities to share, converse and reach out. Without knowing it or planning it we might find that a visit makes a huge difference to our well-being. Mary and Elizabeth found joy and meaning in their visitation. Someone within them stirred them to joy. In Irish culture the kettle goes on and the chat starts.

Business planning while waiting for Pentecost

‘…It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority ‘ (Acts 1:7)

From Acts 1:1-11 (Year A: Ascension Thursday)

Trust and patience each sit uneasily with modern-day business planning. We may try to programme every minute, every day and every week identifying key objections, performance outcomes and strategies to deliver. However, it is not for us to know the time or dates of the day ahead. Of course we need to make plans. But, everything is tentative, uncertain, provisional. Our lives are in the hands of a loving God as we wait, pray and break bread with the disciples in the upper room.

Seeing all things new

 ‘…I will not leave you as orphans’ (John 14:18)

From John 14:15-21 (Year A: Easter 6)

Widows and orphans occupy a privileged position in many passages of scripture. God’s heart is drawn to those who, for one reason or another, are left without support or family company. The writer of the letter of St James writes: ‘Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress..’

In the passage from St John Jesus speaks of a friend who will live within us and with us. This is more than just a passing feeling, a pious thought or a wishful outcome. It is the real and living presence of a power that springs from a compassionate heart that is God. How can I be open to this precious presence? The preceding lines of this passage provide a clue:

‘If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you for ever – the Spirit of truth’

So, keeping commandments is more than just complying with a list of don’ts. It means an active, continuing and authentic practice of compassion – revealed in practical actions.

If we seek light, insight and companionship then this is where it starts: compassion exercised in practical daily actions. Dorothy Day, a founder of the Catholic Workers Movement once wrote:

“True love is delicate and kind, full of gentle perception and understanding, full of beauty and grace, full of joy unutterable.  There should be some flavour of this in all our love for others. We are all one. We are one flesh in the Mystical Body as man and woman are said to be one flesh in marriage. With such a love one would see all things new; we would begin to see people as they really are, as God sees them.”

Keep Calm and Carry On

 ‘…Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God’ (John 14:1)

From John 14:1-12 (Year A: Easter 5)

‘Don’t worry’ is a common turn of phrase and advice to someone who is very anxious. It is easy to advise it when the one saying it is not faced with redundancy, sickness, an awaited medical result or some other source of acute anxiety. Worry is part of life and is impossible to avoid. However, we can manage our worrying by focussing on the positive and not just the negative. One way of doing this is through faith – understood as a loving, trusting and binding relationship with others or with Other. Trust as a term is even more relevant here than simply believing in this or that truth. Belief that shows itself in a calm, trusting stance in the middle of bedlam, conflict and great uncertainty is a gift. We just need to be open to it.  However, there is something that flows from trust and it is this – God will act at the right time and in the right place and in the right way.

In Psalm 37 it is written:

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act.

The following lines are from a poem by Louise Haskins and quoted by King George VI in one of the darkest hours of history (December 1939):

“I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the Year,
‘Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.’
And he replied, ‘Go out into the darkness, and put your hand into the Hand of God.
That shall be better than light, and safer than a known way.’”

Listening to that Voice

 ‘…they know his voice’ (John 10:4)

From John 10:1-10 (Year A: Easter 4)

Recognising voices and faces is a skill.  Habits of a lifetime can help or otherwise.  Sometimes, there is too much to process. Too many faces, too many voices and too many messages.  Facebook, email, twitter are wonderful means of connecting and staying connected. But, we can drown in a sea of voices and images. Listening is at the core of what it means to be human. It is more than hearing. It is about entering into a relationship – even fleeting – with someone or something else. It can mean noticing, responding, feeling, acting. It can change us. Aude alteram partem is a Latin phrase which means ‘Hear the other side too’. Now, that does not come necessarily so easy especially when we think we know we are right and the other is wrong – always. A lot of reconciliation work is about giving space to others to tell their story. Much of the suffering undergone by those who suffered abuse at the hands of institutions was greatly worsened because they were never listened to. And even when they got some type of hearing it was not acted upon. In other words, authorities were and still are not listening enough or at all.

Listening to the other is possible if we listen to ourselves. This may seem counter-intuitive – even contradictory because following our own voices is often the very blocker that prevents listening to others. However, a failure to really hear and listen to the other can be born out of a failure to attend to that tiny, simple voice deep within each of us. Being still and taking the time to be open to those inner sources is important – even essential to becoming better listeners.

Ausculta fili – Give ear O Son (Proverbs 31.2) – the very opening words of the Rule of St Benedict (or the familiar phrase ‘Éist a Mhic’ in Irish) makes the point – we need to listen to the Voice of the One who can give life and give it to the full.

Too often  we settle for less than the full life that is on offer because we don’t take time and space to listen  - really listen to ourselves, to others and ultimately to that continuing voice of Love which whispers to us every day in events, persons, emotions, thoughts, failures, joys and sorrows.

As one writer put it: ‘All that is asked of me is rapt attention, here, now, to others. And I’ll find the good life.’
[But How do we know that Voice? How? It has three marks: Gentleness, Kindness, Inviting (more than compelling).]

Fired from inside and led forward together

 ‘…Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us ?’ (Luke 24:32)

From Luke 24:13-35 (Year A: Easter 3)

The surest sign of God’s holy spirit is the joy that is placed in our hearts. It is like a burning fire that lights one step ahead and protects from the steps behind. However, discernment, care and spiritual companionship are essential to test every fire. Not every fire leads to God or comes from God.  Jesus reveals himself to two disciples who walk together on a journey. The explanation, the opening of the scriptures and the company is in the context of two or three gathered together in search of a common destination. The resurrection stories nearly all involve an encounter between the Risen Lord and a group of disciples. The Risen Christ is revealed in the new communion called and blessed by his Name.

We never walk alone. We walk onwards with others and for others just as others do for us. That is the surest way that God’s holy fire enters into our human hearts and lightens the way forward – one step after another until we reach Emmaus. There we will be nourished and renewed.