Liturgies

Then Jesus said to them,

“Watch, and be on your guard against avarice of any kind, for people’s lives are not made secure by what they own, even when they have more than they need.”

We all need to hear this again and again particularly those in rich countries like Australia, both as individuals and as a nation. Never more so than as we discern the plight of asylum seekers to our country.

Did anyone watch the replay of a very fine documentary on Tuesday night “GO BACK to where you came from, Series 2” on SBS Television? I did not get to see it all but one part in particular touched me deeply and it fits with what I want to say today.

In the documentary six prominent Australians are taken back to various countries where the majority of those seeking asylum to Australia by boat are from. At one stage one group was taken to an overcrowded refugee camp on the Sudan-Ethiopian border. They met a Sudanese woman whose husband and several of her children had been killed in Sudan’s civil war. She still has four children, the eldest being 9 years old. The group had been asked to accompany her and her children to another refugee camp. These camps are in the middle of dry, dusty, flat, barren plain lands where water has to be brought in on a regular basis from elsewhere.

The children have never been in a car before and are anxious. The Australians try to comfort them. They arrive at a similar looking camp and are taken to their new location. They are given a small white tent about 4 metres square with absolutely nothing in it. The mother weeps for joy, she is so grateful for this new tent. The Australians are moved by her embracing such a simple thing – for them a disaster that all she and her family have in this world is a tiny tent to live in. A valuable lesson is given just in this small part of the program.

This woman is so grateful for this simple gesture- how much more should WE be grateful for the abundance that we possess. Asylum seekers have much to teach us in our wealthy country. Maybe we are afraid to know that we don’t need as much wealth as we have to be happy. Maybe they will show us that people’s lives are not made secure by what they own.

Why are we so afraid of sharing or do we really believe we as a country are doing it tough and there is not enough to go around?

Or do we really think at all; are many of us living distracted lives?

Recent research published in last month’s TIME Magazine from the USA where neuroscientists, Sylvia Morelli and Matt Lieberman used MRI’s (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) to study how empathetically people responded when they were looking at happy or sad images of other people. The volunteers looked at the pictures either when they were free to focus on them completely or when they were trying to memorize an eight-digit number the researchers had assigned them.

Consistently, the people operating under that so-called cognitive load (remembering a number) showed reduced empathy reactions, with neural activity down across four different brain regions. People with uncluttered brains processed and felt things more deeply. They found being distracted reduces our empathy for others and blunts responses in the brain. Memorizing an eight-digit number is hardly something you do every day, but juggling emails, meeting deadlines and worrying about the next round of lay-offs is , and that takes its toll.

We in the Western, so-called developed world, are living much more distracted lives than we did 30 years ago or even 10 years ago. Technology, thought to be our savior, has taken over many of our lives, and it is changing life by the minute.

We barely get used to a mobile phone or a new computer before the next, younger generation of equipment is on the market. My T-shirt shows the development of the human race “Something, somewhere went terribly wrong!”

A recent TV programme on burnout showed that more and more people use their mobile devices in bed, when having a shower and in other previously private situations.

I love the cartoon where two parents are on the computer “Dear Andy: How have you been? Your mother and I are fine. We miss you. Please sign off your computer and come downstairs for something to eat. Love, Dad.”

It is not unusual to go out to a restaurant or anywhere and people supposed to be spending time together are all on mobile devices.

We receive emails and text messages, and unless we respond more or less immediately, people think something dreadful must have happened to us. Many of us are driving our vehicle, as it were, constantly in fourth gear, and many end in a breakdown, whether a burnout or stress-related depression.

Many people have lost the ability to SIMPLY BE, and to enjoy the moment, having just a cup of tea or eating lunch without continually watching TV or reading the newspaper or working on the computer (this homily is for me). We have to stop multi-tasking and working in auto-pilot, and choose to be in the moment. To simply enjoy what we have, to savour it, be with it, and maybe we will not want as much because we realize we already have an abundance.

Like the Rich man in the Gospel wanting more and more and not content with what he has. Unable to appreciate what he has, fearful that he does not have enough he goes to work hoarding more and more for himself instead of making himself, as Jesus says “RICH in the sight of God”. Could this simply mean savouring what he has, realizing he has more than enough and sharing what he has with those who do not have?

Could this be a Gospel speaking directly to the Australian people at the moment caught up in a debate about how we should treat asylum seekers?

Maybe if we could choose to be less distracted and allow that empathetic compassionate side to blossom, we may be able to sing the second verse of our National Anthem with authenticity.

“And for those who’ve come across the seas we’ve boundless plains to share. With courage let us all combine to Advance Australia Fair.”