St Mary's

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.

Terry’s homily 26-27 December, 2009

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.

Today is the first day of Advent – Advent is the season of anticipation and of waiting. It is also a strongly feminine season – for obvious reasons – so at SMX we usually have women doing the four homilies of Advent. And speaking of which – I am reminded of a little chap who was in my class when we were preparing our Nativity play – “I know how Mary had her baby,” he announced. Mum told me she had a “miraculous contraption” – be quite a good idea really. Anyway, Advent it is – and I see an analogy between the season and where we are as a community.

We are a community that has been thru turmoil and is now in a sort of hiatus. We are in waiting – but what are we waiting for?

I think we are waiting to find out who we are. All the questions that people ask me, whether it is about our liturgy, our future, our governance, can be reduced to the question “Who are we?” Because once we are sure of who we are – what we will become and how, where and with whom we will become it, are simply resultant on who we are.

In the past we didn’t have to probe this question – we knew who we were – we were part of the Catholic Church – often we were a very unruly part and often we railed against numerous aspects of this church we belonged to. But we knew who we were.

We have been through a period of deconstruction. This has really happened over a number of years.

We began (with the help of the boys – Peter and Terry) to think about our beliefs and we discovered much of what we thought we believed was actually quite unbelievable. Together we realised it was OK to acknowledge the serious doubts we had about most things we believed about God and Jesus.  So we deconstructed dogma.

Then we had to celebrate our liturgy in a way that sat well with our new thinking – so we deconstructed our old form of liturgy.     We did this so well we deconstructed ourselves right out of the church. But we had a liturgy which we could all be a part of, and in which we could be authentic. And one we came to love and were willing to defend.

So now we are rediscovering ourselves. And we are asking questions and talking about this. Perhaps these questions and discussions are the chorus to the verse – the important part – who we are becoming?

I’d like to reveal who I think we are now – I have heard us described as an ‘Intentional Eucharistic community’. For me this is a very good description.

Firstly, we are Eucharistic – as we celebrate the liturgy of the word and of the table.
The word – The homilies (especially those of Peter and Terry) – are especially important, because they help me find out who I am becoming and inform me about things in which I’m interested.
The readings – these support the homily. They may be from Scripture, but need not be. I don’t believe the Scripture is the word of God (as Holloway says –problems arose when people began to believe that God writes books) and I do believe there are inspired people writing today and what they are saying is more relevant to my life and thinking.

Then we have the liturgy of the table – this ritualised meal is equally as important to me. It is in this ritual that I discover the reality of the numinous. It is in the Eucharistic liturgy that I touch the sacred. As we stand around the table, say, and sing those words, I feel so blessed to be a part of it. This is what it is to be Eucharistic.

But we are more than even that. We are intentional. And our most important intention – even more important than the fact that we choose to be here – and the thing that gives us our authenticity and integrity – is our intention of being part of the reign of God here on planet earth – right now.

We are a community who is engaged in this world with the intention of doing what we can to make it more just. This is to do with our mindset. As Peter and Noel said last weekend, it’s about our orthopraxis. What we believe is important, but not as important as what we do. We believe in justice and we do what we can – in big or small ways – to help it thrive. We must be the ones who stand up in our workplaces and give lie to the popular press image of the ‘refugee problem’. We have to be the ones who stand with the people society shuns – stand up for the boat people. We have our own Micah oganisation, and we must support it, we need to get behind the ‘Common Ground’ concept.

The third part of that descriptor is the word ‘community’. I would like to suggest that it is through the small groups that we can develop as a community and so discover who we are. Every person who is interested in the question of who we are and where we are going can and should have the chance to talk about it. . As Spong said in that first reading –“It is not enough to know the truth of this mystical path; it is essential that we actually begin to walk it.”   But we need to walk this mystical path with others. People we know well and trust. People we talk to at more than a casual ‘once a week at mass’ kind of way.

So- those of us who want to be part of this unfolding story – let us all find ourselves a group to belong to. I think in this instance it isn’t just for the usual ‘joiners’ to be a part of – it is for everybody. We do have a number of these clusters (the St Mary’s name for small groups) already getting together. In fact, I can see people here today who are part of one. Please, could the people who are part of a cluster stand up?

We do need to get together and discuss the things that matter to us. We say we would like to be a democratic community. Having a voice is what democracy is all about. But we must be an informed voice. That means we do need to keep reading, listening to the homilies, thinking and talking about what we read and hear – thus educating ourselves.

Also, we must be strong as a community – we need to forge ties that strengthen us – and we can only do this when we know each other better. As Bob (a member of the Camp Hill Cluster) said to me, ‘We can only really do pastoral care in a community as geographically diverse as ours through the small groups”.

In the Gospel reading Jesus is spoken of as saying “Knock and it will be opened, ask and you will receive, seek and you will find”. These are all calls to action – let’s do our knocking, and asking and seeking together as we create little clusters of St Mary’s people all over Brisbane. Clusters who are supporting each other and lighting little fires of justice everywhere. And, incidentally, having lots of fun doing it.

Finally, I would like to unpack the final verses of today’s epistle:
There are three things that last: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love.

The first is faith – or maybe trust -
Tony summed it up for me, saying
“ Well, it’s like this. I go to the TLC every Sunday – I know that there will be a really good liturgy, that there will be an interesting homily, and that I will feel welcome there. I trust the people who make all this happen.”
As Tony said – we must have faith in those people who make it happen

Hope – we keep being optimistic about our future as a community – we are on a good thing here – lets not get niggly about little things that irritate us – keep the big picture in mind.

Love – we get to know each other better, we tolerate each other’s odd ideas, we help out where we can, and we laugh and have fun together.

There are three things that last: faith, hope and love; and the greatest of these is love.

Good morning/evening, my name is Helen Styles and I work at Micah Projects, the social justice organisation that the St Mary’s Community started to respond to those experiencing poverty and disadvantage in our community. One of the key program areas at Micah Projects is homelessness. We provide homelessness services ranging from crisis response to assist people to find housing through to supporting the people when housed to maintain their housing.

On Saturday 25th July I launched a novel written by a Sydney psychoanalyst Maurice Whelan. The book is titled “Boat People”. Well may you ask why a psychoanalyst would ask me, let alone give the impression that he was enthusiastic about my doing it ! Maybe he’s a closet opus dei operative in league with the Vatican!

From Oodgeroo of the tribe Noonuccal

DAWN WAIL FOR THE DEAD

Dim light of daybreak now
Faintly over the sleeping camp.
Old lubra first to wake remembers:
First thing every dawn
Remember the dead, cry for them
Softly at first her wail begins.

NOTES FOR HOMILY

Sunday 6 July 09 – Mark 6,1-6

In the reading today, Jesus situates himself squarely in the tradition of the Old Testament prophets.

A biblical prophet is one who conveys a message from God to a particular time and place. They’re not, contrary to popular belief, people who can foresee the future. They are rather people gifted with an ability to see deeply into the present, to look below the surface of society and see the undercurrents and hidden realities that determine what is happening or will happen.

Michael Duggan has been a long time member of St Mary’s – you will remember how he delighted in being a minister of the Eucharist – albeit from his wheelchair (Though Michael doesn’t see this as necessarily “negative‟; he just sees this as part of the “fallen state” which God in God’s inimitable wisdom permits) Michael is unable to place the host in the hand of the recipient because of cerebral palsy. Many people chose to line up especially to receive communion with Michael.

TOTALLY LIBERATED CATHOLIC
Mark4: 35-4
I love this Gospel story for so many reasons; it is full of apt metaphors and guideposts for living our lives.

It starts  ”With the coming of evening, leaving the crowds, the disciples get into a boat with Jesus to cross to the other side, and while they are crossing a huge storm blows up and the boat is almost swamped.”

Its amazing how often that it is in the dead of night, when one is all alone with one’s thoughts, that things that would in the light of day seem unimportant, take on an importance and significance, they do not deserve, often we spend the night in deep worry and anxiety, tossing and turning, but in the light of day, we wonder how we spent a whole night worrying about something so insignificant.