Our tainted nature’s solitary boast - William Wordsworth

This is the third line of The Ecclesiastical Poems written by Wordsworth in the early 1820’s. Although not known as a very religious man, Wordsworth wrote several religious poems in which he speaks of his emotion when looking at the world around him, which reminded him of a hidden deity whose hand was upon everything and who was behind the beauty and the life of our planet.  He was, of course, a worshipper of nature; he almost gives the impression in his poems of being pantheistic at times, but he has a genuine respect for Mary as a woman to be admired for her faith and her unique position as the one sinless creature in a world darkened by selfishness, greed and idolatry.

 

In the anticipation of the feast of the Annunciation on the 25^th March, we too reach out in love and in joy to her whose courageous “yes” brought Christ to our world as one of us and, in doing that, opened the way to salvation, to hope and to blessedness. When we remember that she was only a young teenager at the time, we can only think of her great trust in God, and her courage in facing an unknown future. As a young woman from a small, isolated village, she knew what would happen to her when her neighbours realised that she was pregnant before she married Joseph. She understood the pain of knowing that they could throw her out of the village, or even have her stoned to death.

For Joseph, it must have been a terrible time of shock and consternation. He would have to make the decision to deal with the situation as the law allowed.  He loved Mary and did not understand what had happened.  He must, at first, have thought that she had been unfaithful to him. What else could he think?

We have the benefit of hindsight, and we know what happened – the salutation of the angel, the “yes” of Mary which changed human history for all time, the embrace of the Holy Spirit which brought life to Mary’s youthful womb, the wonderful peace and joy that filled her whole being as a tiny, pulsating embryo within her  -  the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob – took up its earthly existence. It was the “still point of the turning world”, the moment when, for the first time, Heaven and earth were joined together in the flesh of a young girl from Nazareth, that most despised of villages. The time when the hearts of Jesus and Mary were joined together in a union that was never to be broken. A time of reprieve for us, of hope for every son and daughter of Eve, of freedom and saving grace for the whole of humanity and of the vast reaches of the created world. Its repercussions are still being felt, and will continue to do so for all time.

As you know, March 25^th is our special feast, celebrating as it does the birth of God’s greatest gift to us – his Son.  As Mary brought Christ to our world, so we perpetuate the Incarnation event by carrying Jesus spiritually to all those in need, all those who long for him, yet still sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.

When we celebrate this feast, let us remember those who are living lives of pain and misery, those who don’t yet know Jesus or experience his great love, those who are ignored and given no part in other people’s lives; those who are lonely, bereaved or without hope.  Jesus came to our world to show us how much we are loved.  He came to give us dignity and worth, to make us feel good about being human. 

We can celebrate too by remembering to respect the dignity of others, especially those who are handicapped, old, vulnerable or poor. That way we can thank God and his Mother in the best way possible, by showing how much we appreciate the gift of the Incarnation.

Have a lovely feast. We will remember you all in our prayers.

 

A Fish Out Of Water

This is not a lesson on the vagaries of the English language. That would take more than a blog.  It is, however, a look at what we mean when we use well-known expressions.  They tell us something about ourselves!! 

Let's take this one.  “A fish out of water.”  Have you ever seen a stranded fish?  It struggles, flips its tail about, looks desperately for help, which, sadly, is usually not forthcoming.  This is because of course a fish out of its element will soon die.  It cannot breathe, ingest or move about. It is imprisoned, afraid and eventually just one of a crowd in the net;  unnoticed, non-functioning, paralysed;  just another fish preparing to have its life and vitality choked out of it in order to be displayed on a marble slab for the greedy, the curious and the indifferent. 

In English-speaking countries, we use these expressions which we call idioms, to say something about the way we feel.  It is usually a picturesque way of describing our situation.  We find ourselves, for instance in a country which is unfamiliar to us;  the people speak a language we do not understand, the food is different, the customs are strange, the weather is either too hot, too wet, or too cold, depending on what we are used to.  We feel different, alien, out of our element.  That is a bit exaggerated of course - we may love new experiences, we may be able to slough off our old skins as easily as we divest ourselves of extra clothing in the warmer weather, but nonetheless, we have all experienced at times the feeling of being out of our depth, not at home with ourselves, as the saying is.  It isn't the most comfortable place to be.  I remember, some years ago now, being with a group of people who were what we then called the computer literate. They used a language that was, to say the least, unintelligible, at least to people like me, who found it difficult to manage the keyboard let alone the intricacies of the mighty chip! They talked endlessly of cyberspace and bytes and blogs until I began to think that I was born much too early on to master it. I felt like a fish out of water!!!

 That was a while ago, but I have always thought how awful it is to feel like a has-been, an anachronism, the ghost of Christmas past when in a situation like that. I felt some sympathy for the lovely, gleaming, darting fish that was caught, and held in an element completely foreign to it.  Part of life, of course, and necessary for the food chain to function efficiently, but, all the same a pity, at least for the fish! A fish out of water – what is that element like for the fish?  Flowing, life-giving, supporting, creative, thirst-slaking, cool, clean, regenerating, healing, safe.  Well at times...

Water and fish come into the Gospels a lot, don't they? Jesus knew the Sea of Galilee well as his first disciples were most of them fishermen.  Their old, much - mended nets were always around, drying in the morning sun after a hard night's fishing.  Their boats, equally old and in need of constant patching up, were used by him to preach his first homilies, to gather the people around the lapping water as they sat on the sandy beach around him.  He walked on that water one dark night towards the incoming fishing fleet, to the consternation of Peter and co.  That is, until the young teenager John shouted out: "It is the Lord!" Then there was fun! Peter sinking and being rescued by Jesus when he tried to imitate his Master, the lovely smell of cooking fish on the brazier by the shore which Jesus was using, the talk and laughter and fun, the falling asleep on the sand after a wonderful breakfast in the open air.  Then there was what we call the miraculous draught of fish! Hundreds of them which they had only caught by taking Jesus' advice and putting down their nets on the 'wrong' side of the boat.... 

And what about the time Jesus fell fast asleep in the boat in the middle of a storm?  What a lot of bustling about then!  "We're drowning and he's fast asleep!" they yelled to each other over the noise of the thunder and howling wind.  "Wake him up, Peter!" But of course he didn't.  He knew he would get a telling-off which he did anyway.  "Where is your faith?" Jesus asked him sternly. "Didn't you know you'd be safe?" Of course he didn't - these men knew the treachery of those waters. But Jesus wanted something more from them, just as he does from us today.  "Where is your faith?"  "Don't you know I am always with you, especially when you feel just like one of those gasping fish in the net?"  And he reaches out to us as he did to those long-ago fishermen to reassure us that no matter how bad our situation seems to be, we are never alone.  Never!

He offers us too the living water of the Spirit to allay our thirst. "Come to me, all you who are thirsty and drink!" he urges us.  Just as he assured the Samaritan woman at the well that the water he would give her would be life-giving and eternal, so that she would not thirst again, he tells us gently to come close to him, to ask for the living waters of the Spirit to refresh us, particularly when we are tired, dispirited, lonely or feeling like that lovely silver fish pulled out of its natural element and looking about desperately for a rescuer.  He is our rescuer, our friend.  And he too knows what it is like to be a fish out of water.  After all, he left the glories of Heaven to come to our cold, dark, inhospitable, alien world. Just for love.  To rescue other fishes darting about in dangerous waters or having their life half-choked out of them because they couldn't find a way to change things.  He can!  And he does! 

Have a good mid-January!  And when you think you are out of the water, jump in again! Even if, like me, you can't swim.  Take care.



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