Brave New Year!

I wish each of you a very happy, hopeful and brave New Year!  Why do I add the word 'brave' to the list?  Well, it seems to me that we are on a new journey, and for that we need most of all, courage!  They say that even the longest journey starts with the first step, and it is that first, tentative step into the unknown that requires courage.  The second thing we need for our journey into 2013 is support - people around us whom we can trust, companions who will be there for us and see us through the bad times and laugh with us in the good times.  Together we can do great things.  I believe that, don't you? 

To be an optimist is not usually to be naive, although of course it may be, but essentially it is to look at the reality of our situation and find a path through it that is possible to traverse safely.  Optimists look at possibilities and take risks. Pessimists see only the negative side and are afraid to risk being wrong!

We need role models don't we, leaders who have the courage to take the first step on a new, untried road, and beckon us to follow. 

There are many role models we can take through this New Year, many saints, many people in our own lives, perhaps.  I'm going to ask you to take a fictional character, a figment of a gifted writer's imagination, if you like. And when I tell you who he is, don't say "But he isn't a real person!"  He is an intrinsic part of an allegory, and allegories are very important in showing us something about ourselves.  Jesus used that device in his teaching - we call them parables.



JRR Tolkien



Have you seen "The Hobbit"?  If you haven't, do try to do so  The film version of Tolkien's "Unexpected Journey" is really three stories intertwined and focuses on one character in its title, a hobbit.  Let me tell you how a genius's mind works.  This genius was a lecturer at Oxford.  He was correcting some student's essays. When he got to the last one in the pile, he found that  there was a blank page at the end of the examination paper, which this particular student had not filled in.  Absent-mindedly, Tolkien scribbled something on the paper.  When he looked at it, he realised that it had nothing whatever to do with the essay he was supposed to be marking.  He had written:

In the earth was a hole and a hobbit lived in it...

He looked at it,  bemused.  But, being Tolkien, he wondered "Hole?" "Where is it?"  And he proceeded to find out what a hobbit was, and where he lived. He peopled his world with amazing characters - dwarves, wizards, magicians, the stuff of fantasy.  But he gave us Middle Earth, The Lord of the Rings, and now this Unexpected Journey we call The Hobbit for screen purposes. You may not like fantasy films, I don't think I like them usually, but this one, like the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe series, says something important, especially for us facing a new beginning, an adventure if you like.

The Hobbit

The main character is called Bilbo Baggins, who is the hobbit.  He lives in Bag End, and he loves nothing more than to sit by his fire quietly enjoying his solitude or entertaining his friends. He was shy and not very charismatic, if you know what I mean.  Then one night, he is visited by thirteen noisy and demanding dwarves, and Gandalf, who asks him to go on a journey with the dwarves to regain their lost kingdom.  He is an unexpected hero, yet the story is about his finding in himself the ability to lead and to find the lost home of the dwarves, and also to fight the dragon who guards it.  He is a hopeless fighter, and in the beginning has no confidence in himself. Yet he succeeds. One might say that he was naive.  Yes he was, but what he had was a sense of adventure and a growing belief in his mission. As well as that, he had unselfishness. After all, he had a home which he loved, and didn't want to leave, but he felt sorry for the dwarves who had lost theirs, and he wanted to help them to regain it. 

He also held on to his beliefs.  He arrived at the end, battered and bruised, almost dead, but he held on to the ring.  Maybe Tolkien saw that ring as not good.  I don't know.  But if we are looking for an allegorical meaning, then we can say that, to be faithful to what we believe in is good, and to hold on to what we have been given to guard is life-giving for us.  Tolkien was a devout Catholic, and he too believed that faith is very important, and without it we live a half-life.  Little Bilbo Baggins believed that someone was helping him to keep going on a journey that was well-nigh impossible, and he clutched the ring as a talisman. 

In our Congregation we have what we call our charism which is the spirit and values which our Founder, Mother Magdalen lived by and passed on to us.  We try to pass them on to others as Good News.  To be faithful to them is our challenge. We are Christ-bearers to the people of our time, being asked to bring Christ to every situation, especially where there is conflict or lack of forgiveness.  In his own way, little Bilbo did the same, although he would not realise what he was doing.

The Hobbit is also something of an allegory of leadership.  Perhaps we are reading too much into it, but I can see what people mean when they say that.  No one with any judgement would choose Bilbo Baggins as a leader, still less would they have confidence in his ability to lead others through hard times, and show them the way forward.  Yet he did it where others failed. 

So this New Year is about facing whatever comes with courage, even with a spirit of adventure, like Bilbo.  It is about helping others on the journey and finding enough courage within ourselves to pick ourselves up when things go wrong, and start again.  Those are New Year challenges!

I wish each of you once more a lovely 2013 and a special Year of Faith.  Think of Bilbo. He set out on a journey of adventure, probably found it terribly hard, but kept on, didn't turn back and came to the end of his journey stronger, more in tune with himself and others, and more at peace!  I wish the same for each one of you and for myself and each member of my Congregation.  See you next year!

(Photos courtesy of http://thehobbit.sqpn.com/, http://biographyonline.net)

(Photos/Graphics courtesy of Sr. Agnes Kavanagh and BMJL)

Living in other people's shoes

Many years ago I had a walking holiday in the Lake District, youth hostelling from place to place as the custom was in those days.  I remember standing by Lake Ullswater one fine morning after an open-air breakfast of freshly caught fish which a young fellow in our group caught for me and presented to me the night before to gut and clean!! But they were delicious.  I gazed about me with delight.  It was breathtaking. The air was crisp and smelt of woodsmoke and salty air.  Then I heard a conversation taking place in a nearby group.  I think they were Americans, very friendly and hospitable as Americans are.  One young man said to his girlfriend: "Isn't this wonderful? What a view!"  I waited for the girl to say something equally complimentary about the view or the changing scenery of this gem of the North, but she said this:" I'd rather be in a trash can in New York city!!"

I felt let down and very mad for a few moments.  "What a  thing to say," I mused.  "A lovely place like this and she wants to be in a trash can in New York!!" and I dismissed her as a Philistine, although at that age I didn't really know what a Philistine was but I judged her all the same.  When I think of that occasion now I realise that she was just homesick.  She wanted the familiar sights of home - the people she grew up with, the sights and sounds of a city that never sleeps - lights, noise, familiar accents, familiar smells.  They could keep the beauty of the Lake District as far as she was concerned.  Haven't you felt like that at times?  I know I have. But I couldn't at that time, put on her shoes and see how she felt. I was too young with all the sharpness and decided opinions of youth.

That incident set me thinking about how often we fail to walk in other people's shoes - see things their way. 

I read once about a man who suffered from a crippling condition called locomotor ataxia which made it very difficult for him to control the movements of his limbs.  He went to the local presbytery looking for food as he was homeless.  He was refused and sent away as they thought he was drunk.  It was only much later that they discovered their mistake. He couldn't explain himself so he was dismissed as a drunk and left to starve.  That was an extreme case, but it jogged in me a memory of a similar incident in the place in which I was working at the time.

It is so easy to dismiss people. We refuse to consider other possibilities or to try to see below the surface.  At least I often do.  It is failing to walk in the shoes of others because they are ill-fitting and uncomfortable for us.  Have you ever felt like that?

Blog photos from Microsoft Clip Art and by B Lally and A Kavanagh

Follow Me!

Yesterday we were asked to put a special emphasis on what it means to be called by Christ to live fully.  That doesn’t mean what many people think it does, for example, what we sometimes call ‘living it up’ – having a good time while the money lasts, having as much fun as we can.  At least what we call fun until the headache kicks in! 

What Jesus meant was to live a meaningful Christian life, allowing the Holy Spirit to guide our choices in life, being in touch with ourselves through prayer and the sacraments, reaching out to the poor and the disenfranchised, taking each day as a gift rather than a burden to be endured.  That was how he himself lived.

Remember the Gospel passages when the first disciples met Jesus?  They are so simple, and yet so inspiring.  Let’s look at John Chapter 1 v. 29 - -34

The next day, seeing Jesus coming towards him, John said: ”Look, there is the lamb of God.”  Hearing this, the two disciples followed Jesus.  Jesus turned round, saw them following, and said “What do you want?”  They answered “Rabbi” – which means teacher – “ where do you live?” “Come and see”! he replied.  So they went and saw where he lived, and stayed with him the rest of that day.

So begins the story of the calling of the first two apostles. What did they do?  They spent time with Jesus, got to know him a little, loved it and immediately told their friends about it.  One of them was called Andrew and we know that he rushed out and told his brother Simon Peter, not in words we might have expected him to use like “We stayed with that preacher called Jesus – you remember him – he comes from Nazareth – and it was great. He really has something!”  but simply “we have found the Messiah”.  Then he took his big brother to meet Jesus.  The rest of the story is history....

See yourself watching that scene – the early morning sun shining down on the sea of Galilee, the fishing nets drying on the shore nearby, the small fishing boats dotted around, John the Baptist pointing out Jesus as he passed and the two disciples following him to where he was living at the time...   See Jesus turn and smile at you, including you in that invitation, “Come and see!” You follow him, perhaps a little hesitatingly, and he encourages you, asking you to tell him about yourself.  He seems so interested as if you were the only one in the world, not just a number but a person whom he loves and who matters to him.  Feel your own eagerness to talk to him and to tell him what you have been doing with your life and what your hopes and dreams are, and see his smile of encouragement.  Receive his blessing before you part company, and then realise that he is with you on the way back home, he is with you always even though you can no longer see him.

Ask yourself: “What does Jesus really want me to do with my life?”  After all you only have one life, so it is a serious matter how you spend it. Perhaps he wants you to marry and bring up a family – perhaps he wants you to find him in your work, by staying unmarried so that you can witness through your single status to what St. Paul  calls “ an undivided attention to the Lord’s affairs.”

Perhaps Jesus is calling you to be a priest or a Sister – that could be as he always calls us  in different ways to serve the Church and to build it up in love.  Pray earnestly that you find out your particular path and then, when you have an idea of what it might be, follow it up by asking the right people about it, by “coming and seeing” as Jesus put it.  It may turn out to be what he wants of you, or it may not.  You’ll never know if you ignore it, or try to follow what you want and not what he wants for you.  They are two different things!!

Let’s resolve to pray not only for ourselves but for others that the Church may be “one whole Christ loving the Father.”   That was Jesus’ dream.  It comes at a cost. 

Meditate on this wonderful hymn and see if you can answer the questions he asks.

Here are the words of The Summons (Will You Come and Follow Me) :

WILL YOU COME AND FOLLOW ME

Will you come and follow me if I but call your name?
Will you go where you don’t know and never be the same?
Will you let my love be shown, will you let my name be known
Will you let my life be grown in you, and you in me?

Will you leave yourself behind if I but call your name?
Will you care for cruel and kind and never be the same?
Will you risk the hostile stare should your life attract or scare?
Will you let me answer prayer in you, and you in me?

 Will you let the blinded see if I but call your name?

Will you set the prisoners free and never be the same?

Will you kiss the leper clean, and do such as this unseen

and admit to what I mean in you, and you in me?

Will you love the “you” you hide if I but call your name?
Will you quell the fear inside, and never be the same?
Will you use the faith you’ve found to re-shape the world around
through my sight and touch and sound in you, and you in me?

Lord, your summons echoes true when you but call my name.
Let me turn and follow you and never be the same.
In your company I’ll go where your love and footsteps show.
Thus I’ll move and live and grow in you, and you in me!
John Bell and Graham Maule.

God bless each of you. We will remember you in our prayers.

The Call of Christ - Vocations Sunday

"Thank God for the blessings of your callling, and let it become more and more precious to you each day."

Mother Magdalen

We are all called by Christ to follow him.  Let us ponder on the way that Christ is leading us even though we each have a unique path they all have the same destination - to Christ.

God will lead us. Pray that we will respond to God's call in our own lives.  Lord, wherever you go I am willing to follow. 

"God is calling all of us to follow him, and to do our best in his service.  The kingdom of God is so close, it is within us. Let us give him a heart wholly his."

Mother Magdalen

For today Pope Benedict XVI has written a letter on vocations:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/messages/vocations/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20111018_xlix-vocations_en.html

"Every specific vocation is in fact born of the initiative of God; it is a gift of the Love of God! He is the One who takes the “first step”, and not because he has found something good in us, but because of the presence of his own love “poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit” (Rom 5:5)."

PP Benedict XVI

Take a leap of faith. Dive in! Let us allow ourselves to be swept away by the grace of God.

Listen to Steven Curtis Chapman song "Dive" on letting go and jumping in with a leap of faith.

Let us conclude with a prayer:

God created me to do Him some definite service.

He has committed some work to me,

which He has not committed to another.

I have a mission.

I am a link in a chain,

a bond of connection between persons.

Therefore I will trust Him.

Whatever I am, I can never be thrown away.

If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him;

if I am perplexed, my perplexity may serve Him;

if I am in joy, my joy may serve Him;

if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve him.

He does nothing in vain. He knows what He is about.

Amen.

 (Prayer of Blessed John Henry Newman on Life's Vocations)

Lord Jesus, we entrust to you the young women and men of the world, with all their hopes and aspirations.  Fill them with a love and desire to follow you with a generosity and readiness to respond to the call.

Jesus is beckoning... will you go?  Will you leave "the nets" and follow him?

Lord, give us the courage to say Yes to follow you

and to renew that Yes every day!