The Sabbath

The Gospels report that Jesus conflicted with the Jewish leaders several times over Sabbath issues. Jesus rejected the restrictive traditions of the elders. He allowed his disciples to pluck grain, he healed, he taught, and he told a man to carry his sleeping mat (Matthew 12:1-12; Luke 14:1-6; John 5:1-18).  Jesus noted that priests worked on the Sabbath, that animals could be rescued or taken to water, and circumcisions could be performed (Matthew 12:5-6, 11; Luke 13:15; John 7:22). Jesus claimed to have authority over the Sabbath, to set people free on the Sabbath, and to work on the Sabbath (Matthew 12:12; Luke 13:16; John 5:17).


But Jesus did not break the Sabbath, since he was born under the law and lived under the old covenant requirements (Galatians 4:4; Hebrews 4:15). His activities broke Pharisaic rules, but not the law of God. Early Christian writers did not claim that Jesus broke the Sabbath.

The first disciples of Jesus were pious Jews in a Jewish culture. They apparently kept the Sabbath according to contemporary Jewish customs. Luke tells us that some female disciples rested on the Sabbath in obedience to the commandment (Luke 23:56), and that the apostles taught in the temple courts (Acts 3:1; 5:12, 25). Paul customarily preached in synagogues on the Sabbaths (Acts 13:14; 16:13; 17:2; 18:1-11).

We are also told that the disciples met daily (Acts 2:46), and that Paul preached daily (Acts 19:9). There is no record that Paul taught his converts to keep the Sabbath. Actually, he taught that special days were something about which Christians should not be judged (Colossians 2:16), and he asked the Roman Christians to tolerate differences in worship practices having to do with foods and days (Romans 14:5).

The New Testament gives us examples of Christians meeting on the first day of the week. The risen Jesus appeared to the disciples on two Sundays (John 20:19, 26), but there is no mention that he gave any command for a weekly commemoration of the resurrection. Paul’s traveling party once stayed seven days at Troas, and met on the first day of the week (Acts 20:7), but this was an unusual farewell meeting, not necessarily indicative of normal practice. Paul told the Corinthians to set aside an offering on the first day of each week (1 Corinthians 16:2), but this may also have been an exceptional practice rather than a normative one. John had a vision on “the Lord’s day” (Rev 1:10), but some debate whether this is a reference to Sunday. Moreover, the verse does not say that this was a day on which Christians should meet.   None of the texts can be used to prove that Christians regularly met on any particular day of the week.
But there is good reason to believe that some Jewish Christians, especially in Palestine, continued to observe the Sabbath.

Contemplation

The secret of Christian contemplation
is that it faces us with Jesus Christ
toward our suffering world
in loving service and just action

Catherine of Siena

________________________________________

The Beatitudes- Glenstal Abbey Ireland

I live, yet do not Live in Me - John of the Cross

The following poem expresses the intensity with which John of the Cross longs to be united with his Love, Father God.  The language is very emotive and calculated to move the reader to understand something of the passion with which John feels about this.   The author of The Dark Night of the Soul conveys something of the searing and tearing existence which separation from union causes him.  He can find no peace, he can know no rest; he is dying because he does not die.


I live yet do not live in me,

am waiting as my life goes by,

and die because I do not die.

No longer do I live in me,

and without God I cannot live;

to him or me I cannot give

my self, so what can living be?

A thousand deaths my agony

waiting as my life goes by,

dying because I do not die.


This life I live alone I view

as robbery of life, and so

it is a constant death -- with no

way out until I live with you.

God, hear me, what I say is true:

I do not want this life of mine,

and die because I do not die.

Being so removed from you I say

what kind of life can I have here

but death so ugly and severe

and worse than any form of pain?

I pity me -- and yet my fate

is that I must keep up this lie,

and die because I do not die.


The fish taken out of the sea

is not without a consolation:

his dying is of brief duration

and ultimately brings relief.

Yet what convulsive death can be

as bad as my pathetic life?

The more I live the more I die.

When I begin to feel relief

on seeing you in the sacrament,

I sink in deeper discontent,

deprived of your sweet company.

Now everything compels my grief:

I want -- yet can't -- see you nearby,

and die because I do not die.


Although I find my pleasure, Sir,

in hope of someday seeing you,

I see that I can lose you too,

which makes my pain doubly severe,

and so I live in darkest fear,

and hope, wait as life goes by,

dying because I do not die.

Deliver me from death, my God,

and give me life; now you have wound

a rope about me; harshly bound

I ask you to release the cord.

See how I die to see you, Lord,

and I am shattered where I lie,

dying because I do not die.

My death will trigger tears in me,

and I shall mourn my life: a day

annihilated by the way

I fail and sin relentlessly.

O Father God, when will it be

that I can say without a lie:

I live because I do not die?

Always begin with a prayer

We must begin with a prayer before everything we do, but especially when we are about to talk of God. We will not pull down to ourselves that power which is both everywhere and yet nowhere, but by divine reminders and invocations, we may commend ourselves to it and be joined to it.



(The Divine Names, Pseudo-Dioynsius, late 5/early 600 CE) cf. Acts17:34)

Sudden Death, Sudden Mercy

Anyone who has heard of the terrible tragedy on the roads of Donegal last Sunday evening will feel their heart go out the parents, families and friends of the 7 young men and one man senior in years who died.  One other young person, the driver of one of the vehicles, is in a serious condition in hospital.   It is a 'head-shaking heart aching' tragedy of enormous proportions. The wider communities in which these men lived have been devastated by what has happened.  Inter-twined and close knit, many many people know the families if not the lads themselves.

When something like this happens, it is natural that we ask questions?  How and why could this terrible thing happen?  Why does God allow tragedies such as these happen?  Couldn't God have prevented this needless suffering of such magnitude?     There are no easy answers.  In fact there are no answers that can satisfy our natural sense of shock and questioning adequately.   We are left saddened and bereft of meaning and purpose.

We live in a Universe that is free to unfold and take its course.  We believe it is free just as we believe reality and human existence takes place within a context that everything is radically free from pre-determination or manipulation.   Could it be that the price we pay for existing in this radically free universe is that the possibility of tragedy, personal and corporate suffering must be included in the nature of reality?

We do know that God understands suffering from the inside.  The Son God sent to redeem and save us was cruelly rejected, tried and crucified. We believe that our own suffering somehow is linked to the suffering of Christ which in turn touches the suffering of the whole world.  The cross is the only emblem needed to show how God experienced suffering and that we have a suffering God who suffers alongside the broken and bereaved.

But full, convincing and satisfactory answers as to why things like these happen remain unavailable to us.  It belongs in the realm of mystery and that which we will only fully grasp at a later point in our journey.   In the meantime, it may help to remember the old saying - 'sudden death, sudden mercy' to reassure us that, whatever else remains unexplained, the mercy of God must surely be granted instantaneously in circumstances such as these.  May they have Eternal Rest.

Scripture

All scripture is inspired by God and can be profitably used for teaching, for refuting error, for guiding people’s lives,

and teaching them to be holy.

2 Timothy 3:14–16

The Invitation

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes!"
It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

The Quest

High, hollowed in green

above the rocks of reason

lies the crater lake

whose ice the dreamer breaks

to find a summer season.

'She will plunge like a plummet down

far into hungry tides'

they cry, but as the sea

climbs to a lunar magnet

so the dreamer pursues

the lake where love resides.

              by Denise Levertov

Come to me (Matt 11:28-30)

28 Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

What is Christian Spirituality?

Christian Spirituality is rooted in the person of Christ. He is at the centre and is the focus of all our striving and searching. This truth has serious consequences i.e. we must come to know him as well as come to know about him. This means that Christian Spirituality is not something we can study at a distance as simply a phenomenon of the human quest. It means we need to engage with and enter into the Mystery that is God and Christ in union with the Holy Spirit.


The Paschal (Easter) Mystery – that Christ has suffered and died on the cross, and rose from the dead lies at the core of Christian spirituality.

Also Christian Spirituality is deeply dependant on the Word of God. "Ignorance of the scriptures is ignorance of Christ", wrote St. Jerome. Learning to read, understand and love the word of God expressed in the inspired texts of the bible is essential to Christian Spirituality.

There are more but I will leave them to another time. But I want to mention something I feel is very important in the whole debate about spirituality.

Many of the contemporary spiritualities emphasis EMPOWERMENT. Now dont misunderstand me please. Empowerment is very important and a necessary element if we are to have a just and inclusive society. But in Christian Spirituality, the ultimate experience is that of SURRENDER.

“If you would be my follower", Jesus said, "renounce yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” It is in surrendering to God that we find the goal of our spiritual life. And that practice of surrender is one that is carried out every day in the simplest and most ordinary ways. To be a spiritual person is to surrender to the Mystery that beckons us into the deepest and most fulfilling life in God; to find Christ in one another; and to realise our total and utter dependence on someone who is greater, higher and most holy in whom the goal of all our striving is to be found.

The Context of the Spiritual Search Part I

One evening I opened the local newspaper and I saw a full-page advertisement for a health and beauty clinic which read – “Get Pampered, Get Treated, Get Spiritual”!!


So why is there this huge interest in spirituality at the present time?

Well. One could point to the prevalence of Materialism in Society and 21st century living in general. While we have and own so much “stuff”, there is a malaise, an uncomfortable sense that things are not right; that there is more to the human being than our capacity to possess and consume. We have a gnawing awareness that none of this will help us to address some of the more fundamental, central questions of human life and experience. Equally, people are looking for depth, guidance and wisdom in the way they live their lives to counterbalance the emphasis they find, on material comforts and possessions.

Another factor is the opening up of geographical and ideological barriers through the broadening of mind sets that has taken place from exposure to alternative lifestyles, philosophies and moral values. (There is a story about a man living in a remote area of Donegal who claimed that in his time, it would have been impossible for him to commit adultery since he didn’t own a bicycle).

Some would point to the process of Orientalization which has swept across western Europe, bringing knowledge of Eastern values, its vision of life and its’ purpose, and practices such as Zen meditation and Taoism. Forms of exercises, discipline and sources of healing such as Tai’chi, Reiki, Qigong and types of head and body massage have now also become familiar features and experiences in our part of the world.

There is little doubt that the steady decline of traditional religious faiths, ideologies and practices has been a strong influence in the rise of interest in spirituality. It is very common today to hear people say, “I am spiritual, but I’m not really religious.” This is usually intended to convey that while the person has departed from or rejected the notion of ‘organised religion’ i.e. attendance at a service or celebration of the sacraments in church; acceding to a set of moral principles and lifestyle promulgated by an authority; or the embracing of dogmatic and normative beliefs held in common with a likeminded community or organisation; they nonetheless hold ideals, principles and a way of life which is the result of reflection, appreciation of nature and the environment; and perhaps, the guidance of a spiritual leader or teacher whose teachings offer a further dimension to their lives.

The present scandals and revelations about the abuse of children by some priests and members of religious orders and congregations and by some workers and the regimes in state homes and institutions, has led to people leaving the Catholic Church and seeking their salvation elsewhere. Disturbed and dismayed by what has become known of the actions or lack of actions on the part of bishops and leaders in dealing with these issues, many people are shocked and stunned and confused as to what is happening to their faith and religious world.

In the middle of all this we have all of the troubles and challenges of living in this moment in history, the 21st century. When we look around we become conscious of the struggles and defects of the postmodern world. (Or as some say, the post-postmodern world.) - Fragmentation, alienation, lack of meaning, loss of community and cohesion; and a sense of being alone in a God-forsaken Universe. The meta-narrative by which we understood our existence and were supported in our vision of life, has disappeared. Some would attribute the rise is crime against the person, particularly with the kind of cruelty or finality which is everyday news now, to this vanishing of the glue which held things together for so long.

Surrender!

God gave us faculties for our use; each of them will receive its proper reward. Then do not let us try to charm them to sleep, but permit them to do their work until divinely called to something higher.

We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can - namely, surrender our will and fulfil God's will in us.

 (Teresa of Avila, 1515-1582)

Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me

Eucharist is to give thanks. It is a recognition of our dependence on God and our lack of the ability solely on our own part, to find salvation. It is to remember Jesus in the paschal mystery, in his passion, death and resurrection. Our experience of the gift of his saving love leads us to recall his sacrifice and receive his flesh to eat and his blood to drink. And to offer him back to the Father.


“In memory of his death and resurrection, we offer you father, this life-giving bread this saving cup.
We thank you for making us worthy to stand in your presence and serve you.” In his Presence we are healed.

Eucharist is a process of being made worthy to stand in the presence of God.

There was an old man named Bob, stayed in our village in the 1970’s. He was a man of the roads, and in his late sixties, though he looked a lot older. As he made his way along, pushing the old pram in which he carried his meagre possessions, he was followed by children and dogs, who seemed to extract an excitement out on its own, when Bob went walkabout. He often dropped in to the Priory church beyond when it was relatively empty, and would walk around praying muttering indistinctly at the statues and crucifixes. But when he reached the altar, his prayer changed. He would announce his intentions in a loud voice: “Five Hail Mary’s now that Bob will get a job”. Having completed this obligation, he would then announce, “10 Hail Mary’s now that Bob WON’T get a job.”

But he had one prayer which he repeated time and time again in front of the altar. It was very simple yet as these things often are, very profound. “I’m very thankful to Jesus”, he would pray. “Im very thankful to Jesus.”

His prayer reminded me of the prayer of the Pilgrim in "The Way of a Pilgrim."
 (Image Books:Doubleday) cf Amazon.com

Who can fail to be struck by the opening words of "The Way of a Pilgrim"?

“By the grace of God I am a Christian man, by my actions a great sinner, and by calling, a homeless wanderer of the humblest birth who roams from place to place. My worldly goods are a knapsack and some dried bread in it, and a Bible in my breast pocket. And that is all.”

And the advice the starets or holy guide gives him on how to pray what became known as “The Jesus Prayer”;

Sit down in silence. Lower your head, shut your eyes, breathe out gently, and imagine    yourself looking into your own heart. Carry your mind, that is, your thoughts, from your head to your heart. As you breathe out, say, "Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me." Say it moving your lips gently, or simply say it in your mind. Try to put all other thoughts aside. Be calm, be patient, and repeat the process very frequently.

A wonderful school of prayer in itself.

The Do-It-Yourself-Mass

It is Sunday morning in a small “church”, in Maraval, near Port of Spain in Trinidad. It is 8.00 am and the church which consists in an old derelict garage with many holes in the roof to let in the rays of the early sun is already almost full to its crumbling walls. Led by a choir and a single guitarist, the congregation are singing and praying as they have for the past half hour. Down at the makeshift sacristy which doubles as a confessional, the liturgical leader is filling me on who will be doing what during the celebration. I am still in a state of mild bewilderment having been driven at speed up the narrow mountain passes by an enthusiastic sister whose concept of a jeep does not seem to include the presence of a break. As I approach the altar the choir and congregation are just moving into 3rd gear. How great thou art – a difficult one to do at any time of the day – resounds among the tiny houses and sparse hills of the surrounding heights. I am overwhelmed by a sense of occasion – that this act about to begin is very important to the people gathered. Looking down at this congregation, despite the early hour, I see ladies smiling and their shrill and happy voices fill the church. The men, more subdued, dot the landscape of the further reaches, quiet but attentive and ready to join in a sacrament they hold most dearly. I will let the liturgy speak for itself this morning too. Only on this occasion I will have the much valued opportunity to let it speak to me too, as I hear the Word of God read and see the ministries of care and service being enacted before me and to me. Whatever we may be at other times, this morning we are the Christian, Priestly people of Maraval and we are all in this – together.   Its a do-it-yourself-Mass because everyone is playing their part and understand the celebration as theirs.  It won't happen unless they do. 


As you will read below, I describe two very different experiences of a Sunday celebration. There are cultural difference and practices but one aspect comes home to me quite deeply. While in Tallaght, as priest, the task of animating the gathering is mine, in Trinidad, I slot in to the preparation and prior planned roles, organised by the representatives of the community and experience a sense of Church which I believe is, if not lost, then very much diluted in the Ireland of today.

"I'm very thankful to Jesus"

It’s Sunday morning in St. Dominic’s. Its 11.20 and I am in the sacristy getting vested for Mass. Outside in the church there is an audible buzz of low conversation as people meet and greet one another as they wait. The Folk Group are tuning up and the collectors , who double job as ushers are busily plying their trade with pride and importance. Then one of the altar servers trips over the bell and everyone stands up as the folk group break into a startled and hasty first verse of “Here we are, all together as we sing our song, joyfully.” The procession stumbles majestically into the church and the 11.30 is underway. On reaching the sanctary, I reverence the altar and head over to the chair from which I will open the Mass. Looking down, I see a few faces that are actually ‘joyful’ looking. Many are tired, impatient with the cries and wandering of the children around their seats and kneelers, and most are probably anxious with me to get on with it. Those who were coming on time are now ‘late’ and they look around with annoyance for a pew. Where will I find the words to acknowledge; encourage; inspire; renew these good people’s faith and Christian Life? I will try to let the liturgy speak for itself.

Continued above