Liturgies

Peter agreed to launch my poetry collection on the condition that I would give a homily. Not being very keen, I had come up with several excuses - but I’ve run out. So here I am. I’m going to talk a little about my poetry and then I’m going to discuss tonight’s readings.

I’m often asked – Why I write poetry. There are a few different reasons.

Often I want to capture a moving experience. I don’t want this experience or this feeling to go by, unmarked, uncelebrated.

For me, there is a strange movement (which I cant explain very well) where it goes from a “that was interesting “ to “it” taking possession of me and “it” having to be written about, captured for me to remember.

I’ll give an example.

As many of you would know, my mother died last year at the age of 96 and I miss her very much. I have spent all my life, ever since I could speak, rushing home (or telephoning asap) to entertain her with all my stories. She loved it. Retelling everything to her was a rich part of the experience – like the icing on the cake!

Last month while overseas, I was enjoying an interesting travelling experience.

I then had a shock realisation. It was quite powerful and “it” demanded to be written down. I’m going to read you the poem.

We were in Thailand, in Northern Khoa Lak in an area devastated by the 2004 tsunami among beautiful Thai people.

The poem is called Then I remembered.

I had a flush of joy

as I made a mental note

to tell you all about this experience.

Then I had a wave of sadness

as I remembered

you are no longer alive.

I miss your listening presence –

your face lighting up with eagerness

your leaning in to catch all the details

your desire to know all the characters

your thirst to understand all the chaos.

It was like you hungered

to be immersed in these stories

to be transported from your armchair

to another world, a bigger life.

You listened with all your being

and I longed to share my life with you

and my longing remains.

An experience that I am sure many of you have had. I just had to capture it and hold it forever!

Other times I end up writing a poem as a consequence of trying to make sense of something that I have read, or heard in a homily. I think about it, meditate about it and then it gets a life of its own and before I finish my walk around Kangaroo Point, it has begun to form. It comes from somewhere out of the back of my head and demands to be scribbled down in the notebook I always carry with me.

Into the depths. is a poem I wrote several years ago when I was trying to understand what surrendering meant in my everyday life. It is in my book, Stitched Pages. I come back to it from time to time because it captures something I want to integrate into my life. I need to inspire myself again.

Into the depths

To live fully

die every day

allow

the falling

down

down

into the depths

of the dark unknown

total surrender

into the humility

of not knowing

not controlling

into the tenderness

of compassionate responding

not judging

into the spirits longing

for a consuming

giving love

into the full experience

of whatever is

pain, joy, peace

and there

at the depths

is the gift of

grace

goodness

god

I have been reflecting on this poem lately, especially on the stanza

into the tenderness

of compassionate responding

not judging

because the Community Forum that was held this morning was about compassionate responding. You will have noticed that all the readings addressed love and compassion so as to provide some focus as we reflected on how well we care for one another in the SMX community.

The Gospel reading is one we are all very familiar with but it is only recently when I was reflecting on it that I realised that it captured the new understandings that I have gained as being part of this community. I’m sure none of it will be new to you – but hopefully it will be a helpful reflection.

We heard in Luke’s Gospel that love is the pathway to fullness of life.

Jesus said “Do this and you will live”! So what’s “this?”

The thing to note about this reading is that Luke is not talking about a small love.

It is a great overpowering love – that flows out from the whole heart

and takes over our mind, our passion, our life and our strength.

It is so huge that ego control is surrendered.

It takes us into a new consciousness, a new way of being.

This is not about a love of those we choose to love or a love of our own neat version of our God.

Neil Douglas-Krotz’s (1990) research on the original translation reveals that what was meant here was an all encompassing love of the One that is in all;

the Divine breath of God that is in all living beings;

the one “I am” at the heart of all creation.

This love is the first creative movement that empowers all love.

Secondly, this love then flows out to others as we love the pure self, the soul, that dwells within.

It is what we mean when we say our hearts go out to the people of Bagdad.

In this deeper consciousness there is no distinction between the divine, the self and others.

The separateness has crumbled. There is only oneness – the oneness of all.

This is reinforced in Matthews Gospel (25:41) where Jesus says “whatever you do for any of these, you do for me”.

Richard Rohr (2009) describes it as

“There is a nonduality between God and the soul. In and with God, I love everything and everyone ”.

It is an unconditional love – free from judgement and expectations.

How each of us arrive at this new consciousness will vary.

Some people are transformed through great suffering.

Others reach new consciousness through meditation, spending time in the wilderness or being immersed in inspiring music or art.

I find that a combination of meditation and writing poetry assists me in coming to a new awareness.

For most of us it is a slow, ongoing process – daily deaths and resurrections.

I have times of stillness and connectedness and then my driven mind takes over and I have to meditate and start again.

Each of us will also experience love in different ways and respond in love in many different ways and we will all have different experiences of joy and suffering as we love. It is the unfolding mystery of our lives.

One of the implications of being in a community like SMX is that from time to time it is good to reflect on how well we reach out to others in love;

how well we “stand with” those who are suffering;

how well we “draw a breath of compassion for the ones mysteriously drawn into our lives”. (Douglas-Krotz, 1990)

Compassion is a beautiful and complex thing.

Meister Eckhart says compassion is not based on feeling sorry for others or taking pity on another but rather is an enlightened awareness of our shared interdependence. (Matthew Fox, 2014)

This being a challenge to our sense of separateness – a mental construct of our own making or a product of our socialisation.

Thomas Merton says “The whole idea of compassion is based on keen awareness

of the interdependence of all living beings, which are all part of one another and all involved in one another.” (Matthew Fox, 2014)

Poet, Angelus Silesus put it plainly in the 17^th century (well before Einstein’s theories)

“There are no objects of compassion because there are no objects”

This is reinforced by postmodern science “All is interdependent.

There are no objects, only subjects interrelating” (Matthew Fox, 2014).

So compassion is love flowing out of the deepest part of ourselves to the other.

Matthew Fox (2014) reminds us that that compassion needs both left and right brain thinking. It requires judgement as well as passion.

Meister Eckhart also challenges us to use all of our faculties in extending compassion “We should be very much on the alert lest the forces of passion and ego dominate our actions.” (Matthew Fox, 2014)

It seems that compassion needs two wings – love and wisdom.

For this reason a Community Forum was held this morning to seek a greater wisdom about how we care for one another.

It had two parts. One was listening to how participants had experienced care by members of the SMX community. There were many moving experiences shared. We then discussed how we could improve our care for another and how we can adapt this care as our community changes. There were many great suggestions presented. We will provide feedback to the community after our next Community Faith Council Meeting.

I wrote the poem Compassion, which was the first reading, earlier this year while providing support to two people in very different circumstances. There were some very moving experiences that just stayed with me - others unbelievably frustrating. They just had to be written down.

In summary as the poem captures:

To be compassionate

is to allow our sense of separateness to crumble

is to be attuned to the suffering of others and the uniqueness of each person

sometimes it is to help lever rocks so that justice can trickle in

other times it is to just stand beside the person suffering

but it is an integral aspect of who we are as human beings

and it is an crucial aspect of this community

for there is no other way that God can be born.

References:

Richard Rohr (2009) The Naked Now (johngarretpublishing)

Neil Douglas-Krotz (1990) Prayers of the Cosmos (Harper Collins Publishers)

Matthew Fox (2014) Meister Eckhart (New World Library)

Margaret Clifford (2016) Stitched Pages