Parting

Nunraw - 'Nun's Walk'

Homily for 6th Sunday of Easter, 2011

This time of year in the liturgy we are living through the resurrection experience of Jesus. We are being shown how that burst of new energy and life was put into his followers.

We are being made more aware, at the same time, of Jesus’ imminent leave-taking. All departing can be difficult. Members of families leave the maternal home to set up a place of their own; loved ones go abroad, perhaps never to be seen again; and, there is the final parting of death.
Whenever we do experience a parting, a change takes place in those who are left behind. Parents must allow their children stand on their own two feet and look to the future. The young ones need to explore the world for themselves, hopefully with the experience and earlier training their parents gave them to guide them. Young married couples must be left to live their new life together and to learn from their own mistakes. In the case of death in a family, there is the responsibility of creating a new centre of focus for the family’s future.

Today in the gospel reading, Christ tells his disciples he must leave them. They had gone through the trauma of his death on the cross but he had come back to them. Now he tells them that he is now really going away for good. They had lost him but had found him again. Now they were going to lose him once and for all. Life is full of uncertainties and sometimes of false hopes. The disciples seem to have had more than their fair share of those. But human hope springs eternal. That is what the disciples have learnt through the Lord’s resurrection and ascension to his Father. We too have to learn that lesson.

We know now that death is a gateway to a fuller life. That all departing is another beginning for those who leave but also for those who are left behind.

The risen Lord had to go back to the Father. He had come from the Father. His return however was different because he took with him his risen human nature. And that difference allowed him to prepare a place so that we could be with him and with the Father.

After Jesus’ ascension his disciples were empowered to take his message of hope, love and service to their hearts. They would now grow in their understanding of their mission. Now they began to really understand what Jesus had taught them. Through their new-found conviction Jesus would speak through their words and live through their lives. They learned themselves as they preached to others. They would preach the message of reconciliation with God and with one another after sin had cut them off from each other. They proclaimed the good news of peace and joy that comes from hearing and putting into practice what Jesus had taught them before his death. The disciples realised that they had to die to self and put their lives at risk if they were to be faithful to the truth that he taught them. That truth is a golden stone that needs to be handed on and lived by if the world is to be saved and to become one in mind and heart.

Being with friends is a heart-warming experience. In taking leave of them we normally plan to meet again. That lessens any sorrow there may be in the parting. Christ’s going to the Father gives that same, but deeper, dimension to our lives. There is a feeling of losing something in the leave-taking but we have the assurance that what we will receive later will be immeasurably greater than what we seem to have lost now.

Jesus himself said that if he did not go the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, will not come to us. We might think of it as Jesus’ physical appearance which has to give way so that we can receive the Spirit which in some mysterious way is the risen Lord’s inner presence in us. The life of the risen Jesus dwells in our deepest being. When we are given that then we will truly live with him and speak for him. That is how we will be able to give his message to the world.

Annunciation of the Lord 25 March, 2011

Annunciation - Solemnity 2011

Community Chapter - Sermon by Fr. Mark

In the early sixties, on a visit to Nunraw, Dom Jean Leclercq remarked that monks make bad librarians. That was because, he said, their minds were attuned to seeing the connections that any subject had with many others. So, for example, a number of books by Newman may be classified variously under the title Scripture, Theology, Patrology, Pastoral, Spirituality, and so on, depending on how you care to think about it. It is good to be able see all the possible connections but that can give headaches to a professional librarian.

When we come to celebrate the major feasts and solemnities of the liturgy, it is helpful to try and see the connections and to avoid the ‘Classification’ instinct. Today’s Solemnity of the ‘Annunciation of the Lord’ is a case in point. Many of us have been used to think of today’s celebration as a feast of our Lady. It is of course! But it is also about our Lord.

The whole purpose of the Annunciation is to tell of the imminent coming of the Lord in the flesh. So the feast is of our Lady but it is much more about the Christ, about the One who was to come and save his people. Mary appears in the foreground of the play; Jesus, her son, waits in the wings. Jean Leclercq’s monk would want to go further and to include those of us who are watching the play and who want to see what it means for us.

The angel Gabriel and our Lady have the main speaking parts. We move closer to them to learn what they have to tell us about our Lord and Saviour. What each says to the other tells us much about the graciousness of God who is now fulfilling what has been only hinted at from the beginning of time. Mary’s response as the story of God’s message unfolds and her acceptance of her part in the process is also our learning process. We learn from her how to be open to God as he reveals himself to us.

Each of our vocations is a kind of parallel image of Mary’s at the moment the annunciation was made by the angel Gabriel. What she did then, because it was a heartfelt response and an acceptance of God into her life, has become a kind of template of what our lives should be. No one of course can have an identical life to any other person, but we can see how she left herself open to God’s word. We can learn how she quietly and undramatically followed that Word. She lived on earth before her son was born in the fullness of time. But it was she who followed after him as the first disciple. We who come later in time, after both mother and divine Son, can enter into that mystery, learn from it and renew our appreciation of what we have been given.

It is obvious from the story of the Annunciation that Mary had in her earlier years been well coached in the life of the Spirit. She would hardly have been so prompt in accepting this revelation and its consequences if she had not been. That inner sensitivity could only have helped her deal with the awkward position in which she found herself when she became pregnant of the Holy Spirit. Just imagine what interior anguish she must have felt about Joseph’s reactions to her condition. How was she going to tell him about her vision of the angel? Would he believe her? Would he happily go along with a situation he did not himself fully understand? Would he now feel unwanted as a father and a husband? All, or some, of these feelings must have passed through his mind. Both he and Mary were human like us. But they did not rush into major decisions when caught up in these uncertainties. Such precipitous actions can alter lives sometimes with long-lasting effects. So, these two important figures in Jesus’ life show us that, even in extraordinary events as these, we can learn to live quietly through what we cannot easily understand at first. In God’s hands, our problems will be resolved and our lives strengthened, given time.

St Joseph Solemnity - Mark

Homily at Mass for St Joseph, 19 March 2011

St Joseph is renowned as a man of honour. In the bible that means he had firm beliefs and that he strove to do what was right in God’s eyes. It means also that he wanted to be just and yet to act with fairness and love. He had a great respect for Mary’s character and yet couldn’t understand how she had become pregnant.
The problem for us is to understand Joseph’s predicament and to interpret properly what scripture says about him and all the incidents we find in the early chapters of Mathew and Luke. Even modern biographers, when they have plenty of source material at their disposal, can find it difficult at times to explain clearly every aspect of their subject’s life.
Some think that Joseph was left in the dark about Mary’s condition; others that, Joseph knew either intuitively or from Mary’s own lips how she had conceived a child, even before the angel’s message in a dream. There are many gaps in the infancy narratives. Scripture Scholars and theologians have tried to piece together the various strands of Jesus’ infancy with greater or lesser success. I suppose we all tend to look at the story of this unique family with the critical historical eye of the twentieth and twenty first centuries. But that was not the way chapters one and two of Matthew and Luke were written. They were put together to show us the story of Jesus’ birth and of Mary’s and Joseph’s place in that life. And the two gospels look at the birth of Jesus from different angles. In varying degrees each one points out Jesus’ ancestry and reveal how he was the one through whom God’s love and the story of mankind’s future would unfold. Historical accuracy was not of particular importance to the early Church writers when it came to the things of God, but the theological implications most certainly were.
So we find many gaps in the infancy narratives. But what comes in between the gaps are the bits which are important for our understanding of God’s designs for our future.
Whatever Joseph knew about Mary’s condition, his initial reaction was to protect her from any innuendo and especially from severe retribution from the religious extremists who would have punished her according to the strict letter of the law. We might think Joseph’s plan of action would not have saved his betrothed. But his instinct was of the highest level and the true measure of the man.
Something unique happened when Gabriel announced that Mary would conceive without human intervention and give birth to the ‘Son of God’ who would save the human race for the glorious future that lay in store for them. He was the one who would show us human nature as it was meant to be. The experience of human love at its deepest level finds its meaning in this fusion of the human and divine. In Jesus, in God, human love and divine love meet and intertwine. That, at heart, is what true love and human life is about. In the child conceived in Mary, God reveals himself and puts his stamp on our lives. What to an outsider may appear to be natural love at its best is, in fact, the sign of God’s immersion in our human life.
We know from our study of theology that in the real world in which we live there is no such thing as a purely natural life. From the beginning of time God destined us to live in a higher dimension. And Jesus is the reason why that is so. Through him we are destined to be raised up to a life with God. If Joseph had any inkling of this as he reflected on the mysterious things that were happening to this young woman that he loved, perhaps it’s no wonder he wanted to put her away. He knew somehow that she wouldn’t have betrayed him, but he must have been very afraid of the implications this would have for him.
No one is born a saint. Joseph may have been afraid and feeling very insecure in the hole he found himself in. This is an understandably natural human reaction. But, when the angel of the Lord came to Joseph in a dream during the night, his attitude changed. It was Joseph’s response which made all the difference and made him worthy to be the father of Mary’s son. In spite of his feelings, Joseph accepted God’s call. That is where sainthood begins.
Joseph is a fitting father on earth of this amazing child. His example of obedience and faithfulness to God’s beckoning, even in the strangest of situations, is one that we can and ought to follow.

Ash Wednesday Daffodils

Journey to Easter

Introduction Ash Wednesday and Lent, 2011

‘Come back to me with all your heart, fasting, weeping, mourning.’ So the Lord, through the prophet Joel, welcomes us to the season of Lent.
It is the repentant heart not the torn garments that the Lord seeks from us. It is the inner spirit not so much the exterior appearance that our Lord wants from us, as we heard in the gospel reading.

Lent can be such a positive time in our liturgical year. It’s not that we really are far from God but that we sometimes let the trials of life and our occasional sins and faults get between God and ourselves. We learn only slowly that we have to give control of our lives to God. We do need to keep moving ahead. But we also need to be alert to the prompting of God on the way. We may imagine that we know the road but there are certain twists and turns that we may not be aware of in our particular path home to God.

It helps to do with less at this season. It makes sense to travel light. If we do anything extra we should choose the things which will assist the others travelling with us. They may be too weak to carry what they need and so be grateful for whatever help we can give them. It can help if we set out with a set purpose and a positive plan, though it may be hard to stick to it.

The more we give of ourselves during Lent, the more likely will we reach the end of the journey with fewer mishaps on the way.

We are that wasteful son whom the Father will receive with open arms for he is all tenderness and compassion. The other Son whose life, death and resurrection we prepare to celebrate at Easter will have the Father waiting for him as well. He is the first born, our elder brother. But unlike the elder son in the parable of the Prodigal, Christ will be as delighted at our return as his Father is for us. That is the very reason he undertook his own journey back from the dead.

Christ’s journey and ours are really only one. But his is a pioneering one needed to show us the way for us back to God. Our journey hopefully is one of self-discovery, in which we find our true selves with all their warts and wrinkles. In finding them we realise that we can still go home and find the Father waiting to welcome us.

PENTECOST

Chapter Sermon, Pentecost Year C, 2010 We have begun to celebrate the feast of Pentecost. The gospel reading for the Mass of the day is very interesting. It might well have been chosen for the feast of the Blessed Trinity. In it Jesus says, If anyone loves me he will keep my word and my Father will love him, and we shall come to him and make our home with him. Those who do not love me do not keep my words. ...My word is not my own; it is the word of the one who sent me. I have said these things to you while still with you; but the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name will teach you everything and remind you of all I have said to you. (Jn 14:23-26) We have some understanding of what Jesus is saying because we have some inkling of what a human father is. And yet theologians warn us that in speaking of God we have only a hint of what we are trying to understand. There is in, as you already know, a stream of thought in the Eastern Church that says in trying to describe God the opposite of what you are trying to say may be more true of God. God is so different from our ordinary experiences that there is more mystery than clear light when we try to understand what God is in essentials and in our lives. Jesus says that the Spirit will teach us everything. We often think that we understand clearly the truth of what we are being taught. But the test of that is if we can repeat what we have been told in our own words. If our new knowledge has become part of us, then do we truly know what we have learnt and can use it to live by. The Holy Spirit came to help the disciples recall what Jesus had told them so that they really understand what he was telling them about the Father and of himself as God’s Son. Jesus told them the Spirit, would come down upon them to make sure they grasped the fact that the Father and he himself would remain within them. The Holy Spirit would guide them to this fuller knowledge. Without Jesus saying as much, this means that the Spirit himself would be in them. This I suppose is the sort of thing the controversies of the early Church were dealing with when the Fathers and theologians of the time were trying to describe the meaning of the Three Persons and the one Nature in God. This mystery of God is a deeply personal one for us in our own time, not so much in the area of abstract concepts, but in our own intimate relations with Christ. It’s not possible to have such a relationship with him without also having one with the Father and indeed with the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of both Father and Son, uniting them with each other and also joining us in that union. The truth is we don’t know in practice what our life with God is from moment to moment. Indeed do we know what any of our ordinary relations are like with anyone? We are normally on firm ground in our relationships with our friends and acquaintances. And yet, because of the human condition, our lives are in a process. Each of us is in a flux of change. We are either growing closer together in knowledge and trust or growing apart for other reasons. True fellow feeling or friendship grows with time and with the sharing of commonly held beliefs and interests. If there is no love or other common bond then the ties we thought we had with them fade and die away. What Jesus is sharing with the disciples, and us, is something so intimate to him and to all who would follow him that it cannot but grow and be life enhancing. This was worth Jesus becoming flesh and dying for. It is so difficult for us to understand, ‘to unpack’ as the saying goes. We need to give the Holy Spirit the opportunity to work on us and to draw us into the heart of the feast of Pentecost. But the spirit of Pentecost is not just a one-day event. It is a living reality and we need to let the message of the gospel seep into our hearts day by day. We become new persons ─ Spirit-bearers and Christ-bearers for own selves and for all who would be sharers in this Good News. That is what the season of Easter and the feast of Pentecost is all about. We are called to be followers of Christ ‘from the heart’ so that we may be ready receivers of the Holy Spirit and mediators of this great mystery of God to the world.

Ash Wednesday

---- Forwarded Message ----
From: Mark Caira
Sent: Wed, February 17, 2010 6:58:12 PM
Subject: fror Abbot's blog/ ash Wednesday

Homily for Ash Wednesday 2010 We come to the beginning of Lent, yet again! It doesn’t seem all that long since we began Lent last year. That is often the feeling we have when Ash Wednesday comes round. Perhaps we can’t be blamed too much for that because we find something of that feeling when we read St Benedict’s chapter on Lent. He says that the life of a monk ought to be a continuous Lent. But, Benedict continues, because we haven’t the strength for that we should at least keep Lent when it comes round. However, when Benedict spells out what we should do in these days of Lent, it is not any energy-sapping exercises or heroic deeds he asks of us but such things like devoting ourselves to prayer, to reading, to compunction of heart and self-denial. These can all be done in ways that are very demanding of human nature. But they are also the stuff of ordinary everyday living. So we can live through Lent doing these things in a quiet and serious manner without them making us drawn or exhausted. To keep doing the right things in life are not arduous in themselves but may well be when we try and do them all the time. It’s when we are weak or caught off balance that our true character, our Christian pedigree, comes to light. That perhaps is why Benedict asks us to do more ─ to train more, if you like ─ so that our inner selves are tested and strengthened. Then we will the more truly be ready to enjoy the coming of Easter. For, of course, Benedict does not overstate the penitential side of Lent. He does, however, place before us the behaviour he desires of us. He asks of us to listen to his words, take them to heart, and correct what is wrong or sinful in our lives. As we begin this Lent we recognise its arduous side but also should remember the weakened state of the community’s health. At the present moment we have not really recovered from the bug that has been picking off the community one by one over the past few weeks. In this condition we already look forward to, and pray for the strength and joy of, Easter When that time comes we will surely walk more steadily in the brightness and length of days of Eastertide. St Benedict is not soft; he is revered for his balance and moderation. Whatever the situation in the monastery, he sees that the little flock that is his community must not be overburdened or the weak broken. In the end it will be the positive attitude of each of us which will bring us through the desert of Lent happily to the day of resurrection. It is by setting our mind on the goal of Easter and not on the hardships of the journey there, that will make us true disciples of Christ and of Benedict. Let us with joy, therefore, `and with a light heart gird up our loins for the six weeks’ journey to ‘holy Easter with joy and spiritual longing’ (RB 48.7).