Reflection on the Progressive Spirituality conference

I went to the progressive spirituality conference with Peter Terry and Helen after having coffee with Peter and Terry on Easter Sunday.

I had this question within me about where does justice fit, where does engagement with the world around us has it place in this emerging language of progressive spirituality that we are hearing.

The question of How do we have both our personal spiritual journey with who we are in the world we live, and especially in relation to those who are disadvantaged and or vulnerable  by both the structural arrangements of our society and their personal circumstances?

And

How do we recognise the different phases of our life, that influence how we engage in both our spirituality and our actions in the world?

I have read all the books that Peter and Terry have been referring and I understand there value in relation to the nature of our church doctrine and our expressions of spirituality.

However  as a person, like many of you I have been also formed in my faith as a Christian and Catholic in the traditions of social justice – tradition which placed the historical Jesus in connection with his world and the political, social, economic and religious contexts of his day.

So  I ended up with was no answers to questions but  Peter asking me to share the presentation with him … so that we could present how justice, and in particular the development of  Micah as an organisation  has been such an integral part of who we are as a community….

Would just like to add that the term progressive spirituality it one I have some difficulty with – contempory yes but I think it is so important for each of us to respect how personal, and unique each of our journey is as we live with

• the tensions that arise from our catholic tradition
• the behaviour of the  hierarchy the church
• our individual experiences of that tradition and
• who we want to be as witnesses to our faith today

We need to really value that here is no one way or one pathway – it is a combination of so many realities in our life that respect for  and the valuing of our diversity  are really fundamental principles to who we have been and who we  are as a community.

So I am sharing with you the thoughts that I presented at the common dreams spirituality conference.

Micah Projects as you know has its origins with a decision by St Mary’s leadership team in the 100 year celebration of St Mary’s as a Catholic community to follow the tradition of the Hebrew’s in Jubilee concept of releasing prisoners, forgiving debt, and especially tithing.  The decision was made to allocate 10% of the income of the community which was $10,000 to developing a collective social justice response.

Many of us were involved in our individual work and commitment to social justice, and we were being challenged about what was our collective expression of our commitment to social justice as St Mary’s. After engaging in  a process which took over a couple of years it was decided to create a not for profit organisation not to differentiate us from the community but to be independent of the social response structures of the Archdiocese which at the time were changing radically.

I have heard a lot of anxiety about the connection between Micah and St Marys’ sin exile and I really want to assure you – nothing has changed – you are integral to who and what Micah does we just don’t have the church building which gave our connection visibility.

If fact your support during the last year has been fantastic and the smooth transition would never have happened with out you and I want to thank you for that – whether it was an anonymous donation, time to assist in the move, the phone call saying you were thinking of us, volunteering— all combined demonstrated our sound foundations as a community

People who work at Micah are regularly part of the liturgy and as are some of those we work with – we just don’t have labels to identify us – and nor do we need them.

The conference

In presenting at the conference I shared some reflections of how Micah has developed as an organization in a different way to some traditional mission orientated responses of faith communities?

Right from the beginning the themes were clear

… which are also the guiding principles of St Mary’s from the prophet Micah: act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with your God

In our reflections about what we could do or would do themes emerged

Act justly: as many issues as people were identified ranging from experiences of discrimination and injustice in the church to the issues of world wide poverty, refuges, but clearly the most pressing issue at the time was homelessness – as many a time people had to walk around people to actually get into the church. There were over a hundred people sleeping in and around the church at one point in time… It is great to say that we continue to support some of those individuals today in their home.

Love Tenderly issues connected to our most intimate relationships such as domestic violence, sexual abuse, issues of gender equity, discrimination against people in same sex relationships , the horror of family members at the response of the church to their adult children who lived committed lives in same sex relationships and of course the shattering of lives by sexual abuse of priests across denominations and in church and state run institutions –

But also there was this tension amongst us about how we valued our nurturing and caring roles as acts of justice and not only valuing of the actions of justice which take us away from family  with endless meetings, protests, etc.

Walk humbly

• Need to engage people in their own solutions, in advocacy and in developing partnerships walk with people
• Respect for the personal spiritual journey of each person, as well as the wisdom across denominations and faiths
• Balance between our own desires to create justice in the raising of children, caring for elderly in our families, being active citizens engaging in activities for social change…
• Being an organisation that is not faith based in how we work according to the doctrine of the church but rather an organisation that values and know the importance of faith in all its dimensions and expressions.

Decision making process

We came to primarily three foundational agreements to guide the formation and decisions of Micah as an organisation

A)   we wanted to engage directly with people who were affected by issues of disadvantage such as the  homeless, people living in poverty, or people presenting to the community seeking assistance by being responsive

B)   we wanted to involve people in advocacy and work with them through the democratic process in creating justice and social change rather then from a position of a charity or church

C)   wanted the involvement of St Mary’s community members in responding to the presenting issues and not duplicate existing initiatives

We have consistently been able to maintain these agreements as we grown the organisation.

The process

Creating a not for profit organisation, included  electing a board, creating  a constitution based on what other parishes in Australia had done, in Victoria, but we decided against the right of the priest to veto decisions.

We choose to name the organisation Project Micah and later re registered a name change to Micah Projects Inc.

Some of my reflections about how we have developed the organisation over time that are relevant to how a community engages with the disadvantaged or a community with the poor are:

• The words act justly, love tenderly, walk humbly go beyond any one faith tradition, doctrine or faith. They are guidance for decisions, for reflection. They challenge and they are intensely personal yet enrgerising for collective action, personal growth and social change.

• Within Catholicism there always has been tensions between spirituality and social justice.. This was again evident in the conflict between the Archdioceses when the Archbishop would say yes it is all very well to be doing good works – but is Jesus really present…

It is my reflection that slowly the integration between spirituality and social justice as emerged within our community

• the difference between ourselves and others has been lessened particularly around the Eucharistic table – the poor are not the other separate to us
• Respecting and holding diversity are principles we hold close
• A fundamental belief that we are all equal in our humanity …
  • and therefore have to make an option to seek solutions to redress  inequality
  • We have to actively work and make our option for bringing people into community rather then a challenge that we need to make a preferential option the poor, and diminish the importance of the lives we live with our families, friends, workplaces and neighbours
  • The quality of our support work and engagement with people who access our organisation is at the heart of what Micah is and what we do

What we shared for so many years was the combination of

• the church building
• the people who we are
• The words of our liturgy, the Eucharist prayer
• The music
• The open space
• The welcoming atmosphere so  full of relationships
• The pubic comment, debate and lens of faith

All these together made the connections to create something that was beyond any prescribed formation of what a parish or a community of faith should be.  We have only lost the church building – and we should hold onto what a great gift we are to each other as we move forward

As an organisation Micah Projects has positioned ourselves firmly

• within the community sector, alongside committed people and organisations in every neighbourhood across Brisbane rather then in the church or charity sector but we work with church and faith organisations
• we align ourselves with the UN declaration of Human Rights
• We acknowledge the we have the ability to create justice in how we relate to each other, those we love, and the world around us

AND we firmly believe and act on our ability

• To respond to injustice as we see it, experience it, and work to redress it with other.
• Last year we connected across Brisbane with over 2,000 people, 400 families including 1000 children who were homeless resulting in 22,000 contacts.
• We have been able to maintain our commitment over 8 years that no child would sleep on the streets of Brisbane if they presented or we came into touch with them through outreach.   This commitment has only been achieved thanks to the donations and support of this community

• 85 young families resulting in over 3,000 contacts

• We have provided over 45,000 of support to people with a disability

• In the last 10 years we have had contact with over 3,000 people who have experienced abuse in church and state run institutions as children and or in faith communities by clergy as children and or adults.

Through the process of having a Board, having people from this community and others beyond take on the role of governance we

• have created an organisation of people who rather then “being called”   to give up everything and work for the poor – the traditional role of religious life in Catholic Church are ordinary people who through
  • employment,
  • a decent wage
  • skills and commitment can work with the disadvantaged whilst
  • Being able to  pay their rent or a mortgage
  • have a quality of life  in line with their lifestyle choice
  • have access to personal and professional development and most importantly
  • not compromise their time and commitment to family and friends.
  • Have flexibility to meet parental responsibilities

A group of ordinary people has greater capacity to achieve extraordinary change rather then searching for one extradionary person who is called to change the world and have others follow.  We see this lived out in so many organisations and alliances.

• We work and contribute to the issues and advocacy with partners and all not for profits who share a vision we have advocated not from a position of privilege or status as church but rather as citizens through the democratic process with people whose lives have been impacted on by the inadequate policy and practices of government or who are invisible in their communities and neglected by policy

• We aspire to acknowledge the human spirit in each other, and in each person   we work with, as we have the privilege to journey with people in dealing with their joys and aspirations but also the challenges of grief, loss, trauma, violence, poverty and inequality and poor health.

• We aspire to respect the beliefs and spiritual journey of each person alongside their requests and needs for practical assistance.

Our proudest achievement is that we have been able to maintain

• a whatever it takes approach
• for as long as it takes
• with no exclusion policies and
• our advocacy with people such as Forgotten Australians, Young Mothers for Young Women, and Homelessness.

We have achieved this through commitment, consistency, problem solving and a partnership approach which aims to support people in achieving their aspirations for their life, their family. We have the backing of  a network of people where we can all play our role. Not everyone can be engaged in the work we do , and the people doing the work need to support and backing of a community so it is sustainable, effective and life giving to both workers and people we work with.

The most recent outcome of our work has been the announcement of Common Ground – and our successful tendering for the support services.

It has been announced that the Federal and State government are committed to building a common ground project in Brisbane. The land has been purchased in Hope Street – just down the road where Gambaro’s Seafood Shop was.

As many of you know this has been the centre of a lot of advocacy, research and learning about how to respond to homelessness so that we can end it rather then simply manage and leave people trapped on the margins of our communities.

Without the vision of our Board over many years, the interest of this community we would never have been able to sustain our advocacy or be in the position we are in to be actively engaged in bringing the reality of this project to Brisbane.  We have enjoyed our work  alongside government, Grocon as construction company and those who have formed the board of Common ground Qld.

We thank you for you support. As I said we all have our different roles to play in creating change, and all at Micah are proud of our place within this community.  Whether people ever come or not they know that they will be always welcome… and they know without you we would be a very different organisation.

Personal Reflection :  Mothers Day

In reflecting on my journey as both a woman and a mother it has been closely integrated with my role within Micah and as a member of St Mary’s and I have had the privilege to be here over the many years.     I have shared the same joy of being a parent as many of you, as well as the challenges and the disappointments.  Of course as we all know having the opportunity to have a flexible workplace when parenting is a gift.  I have been very fortunate that my journey has been in the midst of a journey that we have made as a community in our collective response to acting with justice.

We and I  have also had to learn to balance this vision alongside that of loving tenderly those we love and who are so integral to who each of us are as a human being – our children.

In celebrating mother’s day it both honouring ourselves as mothers and those who mothered us but it is also honouring that nurturing and loving tenderly is strengthened when we belong to a community. St Mary’s has been such a community.

We need as mothers and as women  to belong to a community that can hold us with the tensions and challenges that such responsibility of motherhood brings into our lives.

The life of this community has been such an integral part of who I am and how I have experienced both the highs and lows that come with parenting

‘

I have always valued the simple connections of those of us who have shared the journey of parenthood over the years as each week passes and we connect with how our lives change as our children grow.

I have personally and professionally been sustained by our life as a community. The rhythm of life, of the weekly Eucharist with people who are also on   a journey, where faith is not simply about what we believe but also about what we do has been a gift to me.

The diversity of our community and our relationships and the words to act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly reflect what is common amongst us both in aspiration and in practice. How we do it – there has never been one way- it is personal and it is communal and I hope for all of us its continues into the future.

by Rev. Henri Boulad, S.J. Graz, July 18th 2007

(translated from the French by Richard Cros)

Dear Holy Father,

I am addressing you directly because my heart bleeds at the sight of the abyss into which our Church is sinking today. Please excuse my frankness that is filial and dictated both by the “freedom of the children of God” to which St. Paul has called us as well as by my passionate love for the Church. Perhaps you will excuse the alarmist tone of this letter, for I believe that it is already the eleventh hour and that confronting the present situation must not be further delayed.

Introduction

Let me first of all present myself. I am an Egyptian-Lebanese Jesuit of the Melkite rite. Soon I will be 7- years old. For three years I have been the rector of the Jesuit College in Cairo after having served in the following capacities: superior of the Jesuits in Alexandria, regional superior of all the Jesuits in Egypt, professor of theology in Cairo, director of Caritas-Egypt, and vice-president of CARITAS INTERNATIONALIS for the Middle East and North Africa.

I know the Catholic hierarchy of Egypt quite well, having participated in its gatherings for several years in my role as President of the General Assembly of Religious Superiors in Egypt. I have very close personal relations with each of them – some of whom are my former students.

Furthermore I personally know the Coptic Pope Chenouda III whom I frequently visit.

As for the Catholic hierarchy in Europe I have had many occasions to meet personally this one or that one of its members such as Cardinal Koenig, Cardinal Schoenborn, Cardinal Martini, Cardinal Daneels, Archbishop Kothgasser, the diocesan Bishops Kapellari and Küng, other Austrian bishops, and bishops from other European countries. These meetings took place during my participation at annual conferences in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Hungary, France and Belgium. During these events I spoke to various groups as well as to the media (newspapers, radio and TV). I did the same in Egypt and the Middle East.

I have visited some fifty countries on four continents and have published over thirty works in fifteen languages, especially French, Arabic, Hungarian and German. Among my thirteen books in German you have perhaps read Gottessöhne, Gottestöchter that your friend Father Erich Fink from Bavaria gave you. I do not say all of this out of vanity, Holy Father, but to tell you simply that my proposals are founded on a real knowledge of the universal Church and its situation today in 2009.

The Purpose of This Letter

I come now to the purpose of this letter in which I will try to be as (a) brief (as possible, as) clear and objective as possible. First of all, a list of a certain number of realities – by no means exclusive.

1. Religious practice is in constant decline. The churches of Europe and Canada are only

frequented by an increasing number of aging people who will soon be gone. There will be

nothing left to do but close churches or transform them into museums, mosques, club houses

or municipal libraries – something that is already under way. What surprises me is that many

churches are already in the process of renovation and modernization at great expense in order

to attract the faithful. But it is not such things that will stop the exodus.

2. Seminaries and novitiates are emptying at the same rate and vocations are in freefall. The

future is rather somber and we must wonder who can take up the work. More and more

European parishes are actually being taken up by Asian and African priests.

3. Many priests are leaving the priesthood. The small number of those who still continue their

ministry and who are well past the retirement age have to serve multiple parishes in an

expeditious and administrative manner. Many of them, both in Europe as well as in the Third

World live in concubinage – in full view and knowledge of their parishioners who often approve

them, and their bishop who can do nothing about it given the shortage of priests.

4. The language of the Church is out of date, anachronistic, boring, repetitious, and totally unsuited to our age. It is not at all a matter of going with the flow or of accommodation, because the message of the Gospel ought to be presented uncooked and to the point. What is needed rather is to move to that new “evangelization” to which John Paul II called us. Contrary to what many people think, it consists in not repeating toothless old stuff, but rather in innovating and (the) inventing a new language that recasts the faith in a pertinent and meaningful way for men and women of today.

5. None of this can happen without an in-depth renewal of theology and catechesis that has to be rethought and reformulated from top to bottom. A priest and German religious I recently met told me that the word “mystical” was not mentioned once in the New Catechism. I was flabbergasted. It is clear that our faith is very cerebral, abstract and dogmatic. It speaks little to the heart or the body.

6. As a result, a great number of Christians are turning to the religions of Asia, to sects, to New Age, to evangelical churches, occultism and more. Why be surprised? They are seeking elsewhere the nourishment that they don’t find with us, for they have the impression that we are giving them stones instead of bread. The Christian faith that once gave meaning to people’s lives has become for them today an enigma, the leftovers of a dead past.

7. In the matter of morality and ethics, the injunctions of the Magisterium, repeated ad nauseam on marriage, contraception, abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, clerical celibacy, divorce and

remarriage, etc. touch nobody and only engender weariness and indifference. All these moral and pastoral problems deserve more than preemptory declarations. They deserve an approach that is pastoral, sociological, psychological and humane approach in a way more in keeping with the Gospel.

8. The Catholic Church, which has been the great European educator for centuries, seems to have forgotten that this same Europe has grown up. Adult Europe today refuses to be treated like a child. The paternalistic style of a Mater et Magistra Church is definitely off the mark and no longer fits the bill today. Our Christian people have learned to think for themselves and are not about to swallow whatever comes along.

9. The nations once most Catholic – France, “the eldest daughter of the Church,” or ultra-Catholic French Canada – have made a 180 degree turn toward atheism, anti-clericalism, agnosticism and indifference. For a number of other European countries the process is on-going. One notices that the more a people have been nurtured and mothered by the Church the greater is the reaction against her.

10. Dialog with other churches and religions is today in a disquieting decline. The remarkable

advances realized over the past half century seem at this time compromised.

Faced with this rather overwhelming situation the Church’s reaction is twofold.

- It tends to minimize the gravity of the reality and consoles itself by considering a certain renewal taking place in its most traditional wing as well as in the Third World.

- It invokes confidence in the Lord who has sustained the Church throughout twenty centuries and who will be able to help it overcome this new crisis as He has done in ages past. Doesn’t the Church have His promises for eternal life?

My response to this

It is not by collecting shards under the buttresses of the past that one will resolve the problems of today and tomorrow. The apparent vitality of the Church in the Third World is deceptive. In all likelihood these new churches will sooner or later pass through the same crises as old Christian Europe. The road to modernity cannot be by-passed and it is precisely because the Church has forgotten this that we have such a crisis today. Vatican II tried to make up for the four centuries it had lost, but today one has the impression that the Church is in the process of once more closing the doors that had been opened and is tempted to turn back to Trent and Vatican I rather than Vatican II. We should recall the injunction repeated several times by Pope John-Paul II: “There is no alternative to Vatican II.”

How long are we going to engage in the politics of the ostrich and bury our heads in the sand? How long will we refuse to look things in the face? How long will we keep trying to salvage the façade at any price – a façade that deceives no one today? How long will we continue to cringe and take aim at any criticism rather than seeing in it a chance for renewal? How long are we going to put off till doomsday a reformation that is imperative and has been avoided far too long?

It is in resolutely looking to the future and not the past that the Church will accomplish her mission of being a “light to the world, salt of the earth, leaven to the dough.” What we see today unfortunately is that the Church is dragging behind our times, after having led the world for centuries.

I must repeat what I said at the opening of this letter: It is the eleventh hour! fünf vor zwölf! History is not waiting, certainly not in our era when time is galloping at an ever rapid pace.

When people notice something wrong or dysfunctional in any commercial enterprise they immediately question what’s happening, call in the experts, make corrections, and mobilize all their forces to address the crisis.

Why can’t the Church do the same thing? Why not mobilize all her living forces for a radical

aggiornamento? Why?

Could it be just sluggishness, cowardice, pride, lack of imagination and creativity, culpable passivity – all in the hope that the Lord will take care of things and that the Church well knows about such things, from its past?

Christ warned us in the Gospel: “The children of darkness are much more adept in managing their affairs than the children of light.”

What then must be done?

The Church today has an urgent and demanding need for the three-fold reform.

1. A theological and catechetical reform to rethink the faith and reformulate it in a coherent

manner for our contemporaries. A faith that no longer means anything, that does not give

meaning to human existence, is simply an ornament, a useless superstructure that falls under

its own weight. This is the case today.

2. A pastoral reform that rethinks from top to bottom the structures inherited from the past. (see

my suggestions in this matter).

3. A spiritual reform to give new life to the mystical dimension, and a rethinking of the sacraments in view of giving them an existential dimension, and anchoring them to new life. I would have much to say on this.

The Church of today is too formal, too formalistic. One has the impression that the institution stifles charisma and what ultimately counts is external stability, superficial respectability – a kind of façade.

Don’t we risk seeing ourselves one day treated as “whitened sepulchers” by Jesus?

Conclusion

To conclude, I suggest the calling together, at a universal level, of a general synod in which all

Christians participate – Catholics and others – to examine, in all frankness and clarity, the points

made here as well as all else that would be proposed. Such a synod, which would last three years, would culminate in a general assembly (let’s avoid the term “council’) that would bring together the results of this synod and draw some conclusions.

Finally, Most Holy Father, asking you to forgive my frankness and audacity and begging your paternal blessing. Allow me to say that I lived these days I live in your presence, thanks to your remarkable book, Jesus of Nazareth, which is the object of my spiritual reading and daily meditation.

Sincerely yours in the Lord,

P. Henri Boulad, sj

ADDENDUM

Rethinking the Church’s Pastoral Approach in Today’s World

1. Restructuring the parish

Before being a Christian community, the parish, first of all, ought to be a human community; that is, an organic entity that exemplifies a certain number of social relationships as in a large family. This large family once was “the village” where everyone knew everyone else and where the pastor knew everyone personally, his or her past and present history. The pastor then lived the way Jesus described the Good Shepherd: “I know mine and mine know me.”

This is possible in a grouping of a hundred people or at best a hundred families. Beyond such a

number there is no longer community, but an anonymous group that defies unity and structure.

The parish ceases to be a large family and the pastor can no longer be someone who “knows each one of this flock by name.” He becomes an administrator who manages this gathering by the computer, by numbers and statistics with an Internet program. Or he concentrates on a small number of persons to the detriment of the rest.

Our country parishes of former days have changed in their dimension, becoming mega-churches with thousands of faithful. To insist on maintaining the present structure that is inherited from the past is an absurdity.I believe a parish of ten thousand inhabitants ought to be divided into a hundred mini parishes in order to become communities at a human level. I can already hear the objection: but where are you going to find a hundred priests to serve these new communities when we are having all the trouble in the world to recruit just one priest for the actual parishes? The reply is simple, so very simple.

2. Make an appeal to mature and proven men (viri probati) to take over these individual communities and give resident pastor the title of bishop of this new ensemble of parishes. In each group of homes or neighborhood the Church would single out a serious Christian, having proven himself – preferably a retired person in good health, with a decent pension and sufficient leisure time for him to assume the pastoral charge of his community. In these days when we see that people are living longer and retire earlier it would not be hard to find such a person. His human, theological and spiritual formation would be completed through intensive courses for a period of six months. This would also be a period of probation. Once completed, the person would be ordained.

Having accepted such a proposition, he would obviously consult with his wife who in turn would

become his right arm and indispensable collaborator in running the parish.

The role of this pastor would consist in getting to know each of the families and each individual

personally. This is done by home visitation, celebrating anniversaries, different get-togethers,

meetings for reflection and all this through his own initiative and the suggestions of his parishioners.

There would be Eucharistic celebrations in the home as needed, and on Sundays people would

gather in a large hall for mass followed by an agape of refreshments.

This priest would be responsible for everyone in his parish – believers and non-believers. Without imposing anything it would be up to him to find the right formula to put everyone at ease. Thus there would be parishes of variable size. This is a challenge that would demand of the pastor tact, a right approach, discretion, flexibility and creativity.

Given such a perspective,

3. Married men would be ordained, just as is the case in the Eastern churches, Orthodox and Uniate, and as has been the case for centuries in the rest of Christianity. The practice of celibacy has always been reserved to individuals – monks and religious – who freely chose this lifestyle that supposes a supportive community. It is from these that one would choose the bishops.

But to impose celibacy on all priests without distinction under the pretext that this constitutes for some a valuable and viable path is tempting God. The consequence of this is that there are an impressive number of priests living in concubinage both in Europe and the rest of the world.

Is it not unreasonable to demand that a man, who does not have the calling to celibacy, live year after year in isolation, alone within the walls of his rectory? Didn’t God Himself say in the opening pages of the Bible “It s is not good for man to live alone”?

The stubbornness of the Western Church in this matter is beyond explanation and is in contradiction with the ancient tradition of the Church. It is about time that the Magisterium of the Roman Catholic Church stop its fidgeting and open the door to a married priesthood in consort with an optional celibate priesthood.

Given the perspective of this pastoral reorganization that I propose,

4. A vocation would be less a calling by God than a direct call by the Church to an individual.

A person would be completely free to accept or refuse this call. Having said this, one must not

exclude a direct call; from God to the soul.

A final point.

5. Aside from the geographic parishes I have described, one would also envision parishes that are socially selective; that do not depend so much on where one lives as on one’s profession or sphere of interests. Such parishes would be created according to the needs and function of the existing groups of people.

The idea here is to start with a group that is already established and help it pass from a naturally

human community to a Christian community. The Christian element should not be superimposed on the already existing community but act as a leaven in the dough to animate it from within. In conclusion, I would say that the Spirit today calls us to reflect, to invent and innovate: to come out of our preconceived notions and our set categories; to risk a new pastoral approach that responds to the needs of our day. No more timidity, no more caution, no more hesitation. “Fear not” said John-Paul II; “Fear not” say the Lord throughout the Bible.

We must once again find the creativity and boldness of Saint Paul.

Will we remain prisoners of the past forever? Will we know how to invent the future?

P. Henri Boulad, sj

henriboulad@yahoo.com

Jesuit Residence

298, Port-Saïd Street – Cleopatra –

Alexandria – Egypt

Tel : + 20.3.5423553

Graz, July 18th 2007

His influential but low-key theological dissent inflamed the Vatican

For the past three decades, the leadership of the Catholic church has displayed a particular intolerance of theological dissent. Some of the otherwise loyal priest-teachers who have been targeted by the Vatican have reacted to their very public rebukes by courting the press and liberal Catholic opinion. Hans Küng and Leonardo Boff, for instance, have become prominent examples.

By contrast, the Flemish Dominican Father Edward Schillebeeckx, who has died aged 95, responded to being hauled over the coals by the Vatican in 1984 with characteristic understatement. Though second to none as a theologian in 20th-century Catholicism, he lived out his remaining years away from the limelight out of his enduring loyalty to the church – despite the rough justice handed out to him.

At issue was Schillebeeckx’s questioning, in dense but academically influential writings throughout the 1970s, of a too-literal reading of the New Testament. To the Vatican’s evident irritation, he queried the relevance to the modern age of church teaching on the virgin birth and resurrection. So did many others, but Schillebeeckx (pronounced Schill-e-bex) had been one of the leading theological lights at the great reforming Second Vatican Council (1962-65). So his efforts in Jesus: An Experiment in Christology (1974) and Christ: The Christian Experience in the Modern World (1977) to build on the council’s updating of Catholic thought by relating the gospel message to contemporary experience could not simply be overlooked. “I do not begrudge any believer the right to describe and live out his belief in accordance to old models of experience, culture and ideas,” he once said, “but this attitude isolates the church’s faith from any future and divests it of any real missionary power.”

He was summoned to Rome in December 1979 to explain himself to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith – the office that had run the Inquisition. He likened the experience to being a naughty schoolboy sent to the headteacher’s study, but still went. Küng, under scrutiny at the same time, refused a similar summons, saying that he would not submit to a medieval trial. As a result, while Küng had his church licence to teach theology in Catholic universities removed by the Vatican, Schillebeeckx survived to continue as professor of dogmatic and historical theology at the Catholic University of Nijmegen, in the Netherlands.

Rome had not, however, finished with him. A fresh dispute arose over his comments that, in extreme circumstances, lay people could take on the place usually reserved for the priest in consecrating the eucharist. He was again called to Rome, this time in July 1984, when he was supported in person by the head of his religious order, Damian Byrne, the master-general of the Dominicans. His inquisitor was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later to become Pope Benedict XVI. On condition that he drop the reference to lay ministry from any subsequent publications, Schillebeeckx again avoided official censure.

It was a remarkable escape, given the climate of the time, with Pope John Paul II determined to assert his authority over all theological discourse. Küng claimed that Schillebeeckx was spared only because nobody on Ratzinger’s team could read his texts in the original Dutch. Yet Schillebeeckx had hardly hidden his distaste for the new appetite for Roman centralism. “Rome puts the accent on restoring ‘the Sacred’ and hierarchical structures,” he wrote. “It seems to me that they want to return to the ancien regime of sacrality without passing through the French Revolution.”

His final, very public, act of rebellion came in 1989 when he joined other leading Catholic theologians in signing the Cologne Declaration, prompted by the pope’s appointment of an unpopular and extreme traditionalist as the Archbishop of Cologne, the second wealthiest diocese in world Catholicism. The declaration spoke of popes “overstepping and enforcing in an inadmissible way” their authority over doctrine. It highlighted in particular the papal ban on Catholics using artificial methods of birth control. Though much reported, and applauded by many Catholics, the declaration did not appear to have any effect on either the pope or his successor.

Schillebeeckx was born in Antwerp, Belgium, of Flemish parents, the sixth of 14 children. He went to mass every day with his devout father and was educated by Jesuits. He chose to enter the Dominican order of preachers, with its unique synthesis of academic, practical and spiritual endeavours. He served briefly in the Belgian army until the Germans overran his homeland in the second world war, returning to his studies and ordination in 1943.

His time in Paris, in the immediate postwar years, shaped his thinking. Schillebeeckx came under the influence of nouvelle théologie and its leading proponents, the Dominican theologians Marie-Dominique Chenu and Yves Congar. He carried their emphasis on engagement with the modern world into his academic work at Nijmegen and also into his role as a key adviser to the Dutch bishops. He was a key figure in drafting their pastoral letter in the run-up to the Second Vatican Council, rejecting the efforts of Vatican officials to restrict its remit and pushing the case for the far-reaching reform which eventually resulted. He attended the council as an adviser to the Dutch bishops and gave a series of influential briefings on the draft documents emerging from it.

For Schillebeeckx, the Second Vatican Council was the start of a reform process. The Dutch church largely shared this view and it began to experiment in the late 1960s with new structures that increased lay involvement and generated great enthusiasm in parishes. But such radicalism alarmed the incoming John Paul II when he was elected in 1978, and, as well as clamping down on theological dissent, he steadily replaced progressive Dutch bishops with men made in his own more traditional image.

Schillebeeckx bore in silence the pain of witnessing many of the reforms he had supported and promoted being undone. Yet his reputation throughout the Christian churches and beyond as a prophetic thinker could not be dented by papal disapproval. He greeted plaudits – including the Erasmus prize (1982) for his contribution to European culture, the first theologian so honoured – and admirers with humility and an old-fashioned courtesy.

He may just have allowed himself a wry smile when he looked back on a 1968 declaration, published in Concilium, the still flourishing progressive theological journal that he helped to set up, which insisted that the Pope “cannot and must not supersede, hamper and impede the teaching task of theologians as scholars”. His own name was there among the signatories, as was that of the then Father Ratzinger.

• Edward Cornelius Florentius Alfonsus Schillebeeckx, Dominican priest and theologian, born 12 November 1914; died 23 December 2009

Luke 4:1-13

At the very core of what it means to be a Christian, a spiritual person, or
whatever term you would like to describe yourself, is a connection to an essence, an
awareness, a sense of other, something more – God.  Call it what you may.

Almost every religion, which has this at its heart, often has set Periods of time to encourage people to become more focused, more connected to this source.

•    Such times as Ramadan, people of Islamic faith,
•    Seasons of Earth/times of Equinox for people of Wicca and Pagan Religions
•    Dadirri – Miriam Rose Ungunmerr – Baumann
•    Time away as Bus/Women – Bus/Men
•    Lent and Advent for Christians.
•    The weekly Sabbath for the Jews, Sukkoth a week long
•    Yom Kippur – day of fasting and prayer, Jewish Day of Atonement.

It is connection to this source that makes sense of life, adds depth and meaning to
everything.  It is the epode (hymn of triumph) to move out, to serve, to connect.

•     “ the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, to bring good news to the poor, freedom     to captive”  (Isaiah 42)
•    “This is my Son the Chosen One.  Listen to him” (Lk 9:36)

In today’s Gospel Jesus is filled with this Spirit, this connection.
Jesus goes into the wilderness to strengthen this connection and it is here we learn of
the THREE  OBSTACLES to overcome in order to maintain this connection.
We see these obstacles in the three temptations of Jesus.

The first obstacle:

The devil, the personification of temptation, begins by trying to place DOUBT in the
mind of Jesus.  Doubt whether there is any connection to this divine essence at all.
He says, “If you are the one born of God, do ……” We can all recognize this doubt in ourselves.

We can all doubt our innate inbuilt goodness, the sacredness of our very being, always connected to the ONE SOURCE and hence our oneness with all of life. Something within the human “animal” forgets this, wants to separate off, be disconnected, or at least doubt the connection.

The essence of Jesus’ whole teaching about the Reign or Dream of God was to set
people free from thinking poorly of themselves in relation to God.  Yes, we are all
sons and daughters of God – however people imagine God.  Jesus’message was not
to fear God but to call God Abba “Daddy”.

All of us have equal access to God, there was no need for a religious middle management in order to access God.  This presence of God was not a commodity that

people with special religious powers could control, make possible, or deny.
It was this teaching that ultimately lead to his death.
The first obstacle for maintaining the connection is to get caught up in doing.
“If you are the one born of God, tell this stone to turn into bread…”.  What a spectacular feat to perform. The false self – marvelling at what it can achieve.  Getting lost in its achievements.  “Look at me, how good am I?  What an enormous trap this is for each of us, particularly in Western culture where we define ourselves by doing.
It is a big obstacle to maintaining our connection to our Source, our Divine Essence.

It is why as a Judeo Christian Culture we have in place a Sabbath Day, the 7th day, a Sunday, where there is an attempt to refrain from doing and to place this time
aside to nourish our relationship with the Source.  It is why we have Lent and Advent,
why we have a long tradition of Christian going on retreats, pilgrimages, to move away from the achieving, the doing, which gets in the way.

The second obstacle:

The tempter takes Jesus out onto a great height and shows him the world, that he
could have all this and give up this connection with the Essence.
In a culture which is so centred in consuming, where we have to define who we are,
where we get a sense of how important or non important we are and where our sense
of worth comes from, we say to ourselves “If I can only have this, this job, this
degree, this place of honour, this house, this car, if only I was in a better relationship,
then I would be complete, happy.

Everywhere we turn, another advertisement is re-enforcing this sense of incompletion. And completion will be achieved when I attain.  In our materialistic culture this obstacle is never ending – one where we have to be constantly on our guard.

The third obstacle:

In the third temptation Jesus is taken to the Holy City and made to stand on the very
parapet of the temple.  It is the position of social aggrandizement, social advancement, power, and a place where you will be looked up to and admired.  Who of us is not seduced by power, prestige and celebrity status, or simply concerned with what other people think of us?

This is most surely a trap for the false self.  Jesus refuses it.  He responds by saying
the angels of God will hold him up, being in the Presence of the Divine, being
connected, will hold him up and nothing he can do or what the tempter can offer him
can ever hold him up.  He says he has no fear of falling down, for he knows that it is
in falling down is where often our greatest lessons are learnt.

At the end of the gospel we hear  “Having exhausted all these ways of tempting Jesus,
the devil left to return.”

Emphasising that the temptations, these obstacles are always with us.  We need to
always be on our guard.

We need all the help we can get to support and encourage us.  Hence times of retreat,
Sabbath days, Lent and Advent. We begin this Lent with new resolve to place our relationship and connection to our deepest self, the Divine, the source of our being at the centre of our lives.  This relationship is the most important thing in our lives.

In a moment we will be invited to Ash ourselves and others.  We use Ash to remind
ourselves that all forms are temporary -  just passing… our bodies, our relationships,
our homes, families, friends, are all passing.

There is something beyond, something bigger than us, something eternal, forever
mysterious which holds us.

So let us Ash ourselves and one another to remind ourselves of all that is temporary and that we also inhabit an eternal world forever mysterious.

Dr. Val Webb © Copyright belongs to author. This cannot be reproduced/published without author permission.

Last month, when John sent me today’s Gospel reading, the timing was perfect.  The fig trees in our orchard were bulging with ripe, purple figs and we were eating fresh figs, stewed figs, figs with cheese, fig salad and fig jam.  However, one of our trees has stubbornly refused to bear fruit for even longer than the three years recorded in this parable from Jesus, and so the reading grabbed my attention in a practical way.

This parable isn’t just a simple story – they never are, although we often tell them as if they were cosy little stories affirming how we already act.  The parables that Jesus told were all about subverting the status quo and challenging myths perpetuated by the dominant and powerful in society as to how life is.  Despite Christian art depicting Jesus working with his father in a well-appointed carpenter’s shop, Jesus’ family were at the bottom of the social class – they were landless Galilean peasants and basic labourers, perhaps building scaffolding for stonework on construction sites.  Remember the derisive words when he taught in his hometown and the locals took offense — “Where did he get his wisdom and healing powers — Isn’t this the carpenter’s son whose parents and siblings we know?”  This makes it all the more pertinent when Jesus tells parables about reimagining a world that subverts powerful religious, political and social norms.  When the Samaritan became the hero in the “Good Samaritan” story, the Jewish audience would have been outraged because of their established myths about the despised Samaritans.  And so, if we are to understand this parable of the fig tree, we need to search for clues in the story that tell us what dominant Jewish myth is being challenged by Jesus in his turn-the-world-upside-down style.

The fig tree was symbolic in biblical times – it meant peace and prosperity with its sweet fruit and its shady leaves, but it was also a symbol for the Jewish people themselves.  In another story in two of the Gospels, Jesus looks for fruit on a fig tree out of season and curses it because it had none – a strange story that referred to the Jews — but this parable is the opposite of that story.  According to our Gospel reading, people had come to Jesus to tell him that some Galileans had been murdered by Pilate, assuming that this tragedy happened because of their sinfulness, that same belief that led people to ask Jesus about the blind man “Who sinned, he or his parents?”  Who knows – since Jesus was Galilean, perhaps this was also a cheap shot at Galileans.  Jesus comes straight back at them.  Trying to make direct links between sin and consequent suffering is wrong and totally misses the point, which is that everyone is capable of missing the mark and thus all need to repent our damaging actions.  To prove his point, Jesus pulls in another example.  Apparently some fortification tower had fallen and killed a group of people, and Jesus made the point that, whether a natural disaster like this or deliberate evil like people being murdered, neither was punishment for human sin, but all of us need to repent our wrongs.  It’s also good to remember that repentance was more about corporate repentance in Jesus’ day, rather than individuals counting out the many sins they needed to confess.  Repentance was about collective guilt, about changing one’s mind and ways and coming to a new way of thinking and acting as a people – bringing in God’s reign.

The fig tree parable challenges the Jewish myth that poverty, illness and suffering are the result of sin; and wealth, health and success were signs of righteousness, a theology preached openly in Victorian England and still believed internally by many people today who refuse to address homelessness, poverty and powerlessness.   It’s interesting to imagine who they players are in this parable – Jesus doesn’t tell us, expecting that we can work it out.  It is the owner of the orchard that comes to check the trees and found this non-productive tree.  The owner tells the gardener to cut it down.  Although in the long run, it is about economics – who wants a fig tree with no fruit to sell or eat – the reason given here is “Why should it exhaust the soil?” or, in other words, why should something unproductive be a drain on resources that could be put to better use, namely to support those that are productive.  Does this sound a bit like some of today’s arguments – why pump money and resources into welfare systems or prop up unproductive members of society or, as a corollary, let’s give incentive payments to those who produce results and millions to CEO’s who will get the most profit out of the soil?  It’s the old argument of the best use of limited resources, an argument that always pushes some off the lifeboat.  So who is the owner of the orchard in the story?

It’s the gardener, the hired hand, who stops the hand of the owner, saying that this is not the only solution.  The gardener is passionate about the trees and the soil.  “If you’re worried about exhausting the soil,” the gardener says, “I shall cultivate the ground around the tree and fertilize it so that it has a better chance to bear figs – leave it for another year while I try.  If not, you can cut it down.”  The gardener argues for a reprieve, offering nurture and special care of this unproductive tree by providing better resources which add rather than take away from the whole.  The gardener is not about to give up on it or the exhausted soil.  The story is actually not about the either/or of one fig tree, but about how to nourish all life — the interdependence of soil, air and all the trees – so that everything and everyone flourishes.

I’m so glad that this was the Gospel reading assigned for today because it made me look more closely to see what Jesus might have been saying about the worldview of his time.  I hadn’t noticed how contemporary the parable is, which is exactly what parables are for – metaphors and stories drawing on common life that arrest us with their vividness or strangeness, such that we have to stop and tease them out.  We could think through this parable for all its meanings for hours and not exhaust it – make it your meditation for the coming week.  What does it say about sharing resources?  What about people we think of as “unproductive” or a drain on society’s resources?  How do we measure productivity in people?  Why is it so much about economics in our society?  Who deserves the best care, the extra fertilizer and digging around their roots?  What does it say about mercy, new life, hope, the patience and commitment of the gardener?

So who are the players in the parable?  Interestingly, the owner of the orchard is not God – or at least we don’t imagine so.  We need to give God the compassionate role, the merciful role, that of the gardener who tenderly cares for the plant – and yet we are making that assumption, it is not spelled out as that.  What if the orchard owner is God, the God with whom the Jews who questioned Jesus would relate – didn’t they assume that suffering and death was God’s punishment on sin which, in the case of a fig tree, meant not bearing fruit?  Wasn’t that their original assumption that Jesus challenged – the direct relationship, 2 + 2 = 4 between sin and punishment?  They would be thinking that God was the orchard owner until, wait, the gardener stands up to this God and stays the Divine hand, desiring mercy not death.  So is the gardener the “other” God, the God of the transformed way of living, the God whose “reign” Jesus is all about bringing in?  Is this about the conflict between the ways we have imaged God as the punishing Judge who comes from outside the orchard to give orders, control and to destroy – and the God who gives and operates within the garden, the gardener who nurtures the soil, cares for the trees and promotes the flourishing of everything within the universe, seeing the unique worth of each?

Dare I bring the metaphor even closer?  You’re allowed to do anything with parables.  There is more to life than figs.  In biblical times, the fig tree was valued as a beautiful shade tree, something essential for hot climates.  The leaves were used as medicinal poultices for healing the sick and fig leaves were incorporated into the Genesis story in order to hide the nakedness and shame of Adam and Eve.  They are also a symbol of peace and prosperity – all this without even the need for fruit.  Perhaps the owner of the orchard is the institutional church who only judge the usefulness of a fig tree or congregation by the homogenous crop of traditional fruit or believers it produces.  The orchard owner had to search for fruit on the tree which suggests it had a healthy mass of leaves under which they might be hidden.  St. Mary’s has been about the leaves – sheltering people from the heat of an unforgiving, merciless world; spreading its leaves such that peoples’ fear and nakedness will not be exposed to cruel judgment; making leaf poultices that heal the body as well as the soul; and offering a cool haven of peace and calm in a hostile world where all questions can be asked and discussed.  The orchard owner sees only figs as the point of the tree, but this community has recognized so much more and thus the Spirit of the community, the gardener, asks that it be allowed to grow, to be cultivated and fertilized to see what it can actually become, something beyond the institutional vision.

When I started pondering this parable, I saw nothing of this – it was a fig tree story with a generic idea of God’s care, but it gets deeper and deeper and wider and wider as we apply our own particular experiences and context to it.  This is the beauty of parables – they are free of baggage about truth, doctrine and form, because they loudly proclaim themselves as fiction and thus we are free to take them on board and let them speak to our own situation – Jesus said after one of his parables, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”  He was also reluctant to explain his parables when the disciples found them troubling for exactly this same reason – let them simply speak to where the hearer is in their life.  Some might say, why bother about these old stories?  We can come up with similar examples in our own day, but when so much of the Bible has become outdated with its cosmology, patriarchy and violence and when so much of what is good in it has been smothered by institutional baggage and medieval interpretation, even the person of Jesus himself, it is refreshing to be able to take these stories which, according to contemporary scholars are more likely than other material to have come from the lips of Jesus, and thus feel we are responding to what he saw as the transformed way to live in the world and with each other.

Where do you find yourself in this parable?  Are you part of the soil that nourishes life, or the gardener who never give up on anything or anyone – God has no hands but our hands, so the cultivating and nurturing is ours to do.  Or the fig tree that had a series of bad years and has been rendered unproductive and dying of thirst and nourishment, needing some good soil around you to support and strengthen you – or even simply not to give up on you?  Or do you find yourself more in the role of the orchard owner, striving for profit and success, and valuing everything and everyone around you by the bottom line?  Or, perhaps you are one of the other trees in the orchard, disdainful of the one squandering the soil without giving anything back, or alternately, thankful for a gardener who sees value and potential life in every tree?

From what I have read about this community, especially in the recent book published about Father Kennedy and you all, I see you as the gardener, caring for so many people whom the orchard owner would reject, believing in the worth of every living thing, resisting a society that looks only at productivity and the bottom line and, most of all, living in hope that, with a little bit of cultivation, nurture and tender loving care, everyone of us can flourish and no one needs to be overlooked or eliminated. You are believers in the interconnectedness of all life and the Spirit that lives within you and this garden, caring about its survival and flourishing.  May you continue to be so.

St Mary’s Community Ltd, BSB 064-131 10339414

or contact St Mary’s Catholic Community and Micah Projects

PO Box 3449 SOUTH BRISBANE 4101 Ph 3029 7000

www.stmaryssouthbrisbane.com

The new sets of envelopes for the community giving system have arrived and will be available for collection after Masses on the weekend.

The various ways to donate here at St Mary’s include:
1    A cash donation is placed on the collection plate,
2    A numbered envelope is used where amounts can be written according to the contributor’s wishes,
3    A quarterly/half yearly contribution can be given and apportioned according to the members wishes using a plain envelope with details and amount enclosed,
4    Community members may wish to use their own internet banking system to transfer an amount weekly, monthly or quarterly to the St Mary’s account or approach their own bank to arrange a periodic payment to BSB 064-131  Account number: 10332933

Increasingly more members are choosing this fourth option and a form for this purpose is available giving the details of St Mary’s Commonwealth Bank account.  If you are not using prenumbered envelopes we ask that you consider joining this scheme and leave your name and address on the sheet provided at Mass so that appropriate receipts can be issued for the tax deductible portions that are given.

Here at St Mary’s we have only one collection time during the mass. This collection time is just after the Homily and before the Prayers of the Faithful. One amount is given by the those present to cover the traditional first and second collections.

Baptism recertification

‘For Baptism to be valid the Catholic Church requires that the minister must pour the water and say the words in the ritual. This has not always happened in this parish. This certificate attests that a ceremony took place but is not a guarantee that the Baptism was valid. If the one whose name appears on the certificate is preparing for the reception of other sacraments such as the reconciliation and confirmation reception of first holy communion  or wishing to be married in the Catholic Church  please show this certificate to the priest involved in the preparation. He will do what is needed to ensure validity of the baptism.’

Peter Kennedy response

This is an excellent example of what the former Scottish Anglican Primate Richard Holloway calls the “theology of anxiety” which the church imposes upon its people, in the name of orthodoxy”.

It is moreover a nonsense to argue that a baptism is invalid – “read ‘does not work” – because the celebrant uses the words “Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer of Life” instead of “Father, Son and Holy Spirit”. We can only talk about God in metaphor – that which is unknowable, ineffable is always beyond words.

The Leadership of the Catholic Church in this Archdiocese is complicit in encouraging unnecessary anxiety in the minds of some parents. But not many I would suggest.

As Father Eric Hodgers – a priest in the Melbourne Archdiocese – said only last year: “of course baptisms at St Mary’s are valid. All you have to do is apply the ‘duck test’. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it is a duck”.

What Eric Hodgers is pointing out, albeit humorously, is that the INTENTION to baptise is what matters, not the use or non-use of a “magical” formula/metaphor.

The Catholic Church under its current leadership is rapidly descending into farce.

Where are the voices of sanity?

You and your friends are invited to attend the book launch of

PETER KENNEDY: The Man Who Threatened Rome

Flanagan, Martin et al: Peter Kennedy: The Man Who Threatened Rome.
One Day Hill, Melbourne, 2009. ISBN 978 0 9805643 6 5.

If you know of anyone in these locations, please pass on this invitation and information.

Rockhampton – Friday 12th February 7pm
All Saints Anglican Church, Simpson Street, North Rockhampton.
Noel Preston to launch the chaired by Fr Cam Venables.

Canberra – Tuesday 23rd February 12 noon
Parliament House Canberra
Paul Collins is launching the book hat day. If attending please contact Senator Claire Moore’s offices – 02 6277 3447 Parliament House..

Sydney – Tuesday 23rd February 6pm
The Glebe Bookshop 49 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe – (02 9660 2333
Phillip Adams is launching the book.

Melbourne – Thursday 25th February 6pm
Readings Carlton Bookstore 309 Lygon Street, Carlton – 03 9347 6633
Martin Flanagan is launching his book

]]> http://stmaryssouthbrisbane.com/2010/01/national-book-launch/feed/ 0 http://stmaryssouthbrisbane.com/2010/01/homily-by-joan-mooney-st-mary-in-exile-january-23rd-24th-2010/ http://stmaryssouthbrisbane.com/2010/01/homily-by-joan-mooney-st-mary-in-exile-january-23rd-24th-2010/#comments Sun, 24 Jan 2010 21:23:43 +0000 John http://stmaryssouthbrisbane.com/?p=341 HOMILY  by Joan Mooney Jan 23rd-24th 2010

Some years ago one of my brothers was in Ireland researching our family history. One day, not being sure of a destination he asked directions of a bystander. The gentleman replied, ‘Ah well, you go along here, then you turn right, and then you turn right etc etc’. It was all very complicated, and he ended with ……‘but if I was you I wouldn’t be startin’ from here.’

I am calling this talk ‘the way forward.’ One day Thomas, one of the disciples, said to Jesus, “we do not know where we are going, so how can we know the way?’ To get anywhere, then, we need to know not only our destination and the way there, but , most important of all, where we are starting from, where we are now.

TS Eliot puts it-
In order to arrive there,
To arrive where you are, to get from where you are not,
You must go by a way wherein there is no ecstasy.
In order to arrive at what you do not know
You must go by a way which is the way of ignorance.

We live in a very future-oriented world. An article by Kevin Rudd in The Australian this week is entitled – How we can achieve a more productive future. He begins …….
As we enter the 2nd decade of the 21st century, we can be optimistic about our future. But we cannot be complacent.

The catchcry of education today is –prepare them for the future. Then there are the ‘futures funds’, whose meaning escapes me entirely, and countless other futures predictions.

What many are forgetting about, is to consider where we are now, for to know where we are now is to know who we are.

To know where we are now is to know our place in history, for the way forward is the way back. The great contribution of Charles Darwin was to show us our position in the chain of evolution. And history is more than facts and data. That part is easy. History, as the word implies, is story, and story includes experience and understanding. We have all kinds of stories to investigate –more than investigate, we have to enter a story, walk around in it , absorb its message, its wisdom, and translate it into an understanding and a guide for ourselves and our own time. We have all sorts of stories – family stories, literary, ancestral, national, global, universal, cosmic etc. A crucial genre of story, in my view, is our religious story. A person I was speaking to recently dismissed our religious heritage as ‘mere fairy stories.’ Unknown to him, his statement was ironic, for fairy stories also hold wisdom.

Why are our religious stories of such importance? Because they contain wisdom. I am not , of course , speaking of literalism and dogmatism, but of the pearls of wisdom hidden in our scriptures. I beg to differ from the person who recently stated that God did not write the scriptures. Divine wisdom, in my view, is clearly evident in our Christian, as well as in the  scriptures of other religious traditions.

To cut people off from their history, from their story, as happened in the dispossession of land of our own and other indigenous people; in the displacement of peoples through war and exile is to deny them their very humanity.

Of course, we don’t want to get stuck in the past, either, to cling to clearly outmoded practices or world views. The thread that binds us to our history is both strong and fragile, and brings us right down to our present time.

What , then, can we do to answer the question in Drew Dellinger’s poem

my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the planet was plundered

Drew Dellinger is a contemporary American philosopher and poet, recently in Brisbane.

In a recent interview, Andrew Denton asked the distinguished White House journalist, Helen Thomas   ‘what do you see as the future of our species?’
She answered – I don’t care about the future, but I worry about how we are now.   -  people killed by wars, the gas chambers, people discriminated against.’ Among a battery of journalists hers was the only voice to publicly challenge George Bush on the torture of Iraqis by American soldiers She asked later- where were they, where were all the colleagues who should have spoken out in support? When Peter and Terry were dismissed from St Mary’s, unjustly, was there a single colleague, a single bishop, a single priest who came publicly to their defence or support. Where were they? We may well ask.

In a recent talk Drew Dellinger suggests that a way forward for is to listen to the voice of women. There’s no shortage of women’s voices in this community, but in most societies and communities throughout the world, despite the great feminist movement, women are still largely unheard. Most commentators judged the Copenhagen meeting a flop. Penny Wong would have been there, but amidst the large array of men in suits I didn’t notice many women.

Most ages of history have made a specific  contribution to our human story eg the cathedrals of medieval Europe, the plays of Shakespeare, the inventions of modern science etc. Drew Dellinger opines that the unique contribution of our era may well be our embracing of ecology. This is more than planting a few trees, important in a practical way  as that is; ecology implies understanding , entering the story of our earth; going further, to cosmology – the story, not just the scientific, facts, of the universe. Cosmology is recognising the interconnectedness of all things, and therefore treating all creatures, all things, with respect, compassion and love.

‘Lifting millions out of subsistence living should be our moral imperative’, writes journalist John Cox. Development is not necessarily a dirty word. Here again the way forward may well be the way back.  Harry S Truman’s inaugural address in 1949 used the word ‘development’ to commit the US to world economic progress. ‘The present focus on terrorism and globalisation makes me pine for the idealism of the 2nd half of C20’, writes Cox. The fierce opposition in the US to Barack Obama’s proposed health reforms is born of the unwillingness of Middle America to share their wealth with the poor, especially the black poor. They are forgetting that in degrading these people they are degrading their own flesh and blood.

Then we have to wake up the dreamers, the poets, the philosophers, the statesmen, of today. A young boy, Laurie Wallis, topped the NSW HSC English course for a sequence of poems in which he meditates on mankind, nature and language. This is a voice, the voice of youth, which we could well heed.

And we have to wake up ourselves. We are all depositaries of wisdom, but on the whole we don’t know how to access it. We can’t just sit around waiting for sparks of wisdom to come forth, we have to prepare the ground.  The great C16 Spanish mystic, Teresa of Avila, tells us that after spending 20 years meditating, patiently and perseveringly, she experienced a Divine and transforming illumination.  Mozart wrote 41 symphonies. On one occasion he saw in his minds eye an entire symphony. But Mozart, too, had done the hard yards. From the age of three he had studied music, worked at his harmony ezercises. Then there was more more hard work, translating the wisdom of that symphony into a format that others could access. And so we can listen to the great Mozart symphonies today.

On the other hand, the spirit breathes where she will. In our Peace Dance tradition there is a beautiful song and dance. The text is
Suddenly, at any mundane moment, the infinite may come through.

If we are lucky, wisdom may simply strike us out of the blue. As the first reading for today says,

‘wisdom walks about looking for those who are worthy of her.

A pity if we do not recognise her. For Wisdom comes in many guises. She won’t always come as a full-blown symphony.  TS Eliot reminds us–
The only Wisdom we can hope to acquire
Is the wisdom of humility

That, surely, is accessible to us all.

KR urged us not to be complacent; Goenka, a meditation teacher in the Vipassana tradition, says over and over. Every moment is so precious; we cannot afford to lose a single moment.We can glibly dismiss the fleeting moment as  just that, but this moment,  to give TS Eliot the final word,

‘is not isolated, with no before and after,
But a lifetime burning in every moment
And not the lifetime of one man only
But of old stones that cannot be deciphered.

We must seize that moment.

Marg Ortiz, in her infinite wisdom, called the summer edition of St Mary’s Matters “Original Blessing”. In it she writes, “As we come up to Christmas, how can we talk about the incarnation in a language that makes sense in today’s world?  If we have an image of God that is in no way the OUT THERE sort, then we need to consider what incarnation means. If God is an integral part of every part of every atom of matter in the earth – as Tillich said, the Ground of All Being – then we are as much in God as Jesus was”.
What a wonderful thought as opposed to that dreadful concept inspired by St Augustine of “Original Sin”, as most of us understood it from our Catechetical Instructions. In the beginning, all of life is in a state of “Original Sin”. Separated from God until Baptism when through some magic words Original Sin is removed. Unbelievable. If you think this concept of Original Sin is dead and buried / think again.
A story related to me after one of the Christmas masses by some people who had lost their certificate for their child who was Baptised at St Mary’s some years ago. They approached the Archdiocese main office, which now runs St Mary’s, and asked for a certificate in order to enrol their child in the local Catholic school. They received a note explaining that the child was invalidly baptised and would need to be baptised again. The father of the child was annoyed and rang and asked to speak to the priest in charge. When the child’s father spoke of his concern for what effect this would have on his child to tell her she needed to be baptised again, in order to go to school, the priest responded by saying that he should be more concerned that the child is still in a state of “Original Sin”. A concept alive and well in the hearts and minds  of people in high places within this diocese.
It was a concept concocted  by Saint Augustine to maintain the power and control of the patriarchal church. Put simply, you kick everyone out of union with God,  and you call this state of non union, Original Sin, and say that the only way to God is through Baptism, by the patriarchal correct formulae, by a Male celibate priest in the Roman Catholic  Church. Everyone else is excluded. A very important belief designed primarily to favour a celibate, male dominated Church which maintains the only way to God is through this Church.
Original Blessing is quite the opposite to Original Sin. In original blessing all of life is blessed, there is no exclusion, no saying this is sacred and this is profane/ you’re in, you’re out. God / the sacred infuses every atom of matter in the earth. Nothing anyone can say or do can bring this about. In Barbara Fiand’s book “From Religion Back to Faith: A Journey of the Heart”, she has a wonderful story that captures this concept of original blessing:

The story is told of an old monk who one night in a dream was visited by the risen Christ. They went on a walk together in quiet intimacy, enjoying each other’s presence. Finally the old man turned to Jesus and asked: “When you walked the hills of Palestine, you mentioned that one day you would come again in all your glory. Lord, it’s been so long: when will you return for good?”
After a few moments of silence the resurrected and living One said, “When my presence in nature all around you and my presence beneath the surface of your skin is as real to you as my presence right now, when this awareness becomes second nature to you, then will I have returned for good.”
The dream was very vivid and carried the monk into the next day when, deep in thought, he walked again, this time by himself – or so he thought. As he stopped and bent over a small pond to wash his face, he gazed “for a brief but eternal moment” at his reflection and at the images of the trees and the sky reflected in the water as well, and there he heard a gentle whisper: “You are my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.”

In this story, the old monk realises that he is Holy. He is sacred, infused with God, as much as all that surrounded him.
That the second coming is a realisation that there was no first coming. God has been present all along.
I wonder what state our planet would be in today if we had had a concept of Original Blessing instead of Original Sin. Would we have treated the earth as something to be used and exploited for humanity’s gain or would we have a deep reverence for the earth, avoiding the Environmental Mess we have made of our home? I would like to think the latter would have been the case.
The words of our opening song capture something of what I am trying to say, I would like to finish with them,
THE ORDINARY IS MARVELLOUS

“When we ponder on the advent story,
When we contemplate the wonderous birth, let us sing of miracle and glory
Bursting through our history here on earth.
Let us also prize the common
That which happens everywhere and often.

So we treasure all the common graces,
Live each day as precious and unique.
God is present at all times and places,
On the plains ,as on the peak.
Plain yet wonderous,every
hours,
God,within,enriches us with power.