Liturgies

John's Gospel teaching is about our mission to the world - affirming a new way of life - loving one another - "a person can have no greater love than to lay down their life for their friends" - being witnesses to the Spirit of truth - to love one another.

The image I chose for today is of a little 4 year old boy hugging his two year old sister in Nepal after the earthquake - it is an image that conveys timeless innocence, love, belonging, grief, abandonment, loss, terrible distress and vulnerability.... What matters is the love between brother and sister - that is all they have left in the world!

The first reading from Mary Oliver's poem The Journey -  is a poem of self compassion and the recovery of innocence - we have so much innocence when we come into the world..... Like those two Tibetan children in the picture.

Jesus often talked about coming home - Mary Oliver is leaving the house she's living in in order to make the journey to come back home - Innocence is a vital force that lives within us and must be kept alive if we are to grow younger towards death - this is a poem about a woman struggling towards her innocence in order to return home to her destiny in the world - to be found by the world:

"As you strode deeper and deeper into the world

Determined to do the only thing you could do

Determined to save the only life you could save."

The second reading is a poem I wrote that reflects on what we discover about a new way of life - our mission in the world - to bear witness to the truth of our Calling in life - that arises out of the ashes of suffering and death:

"We need to die

In order to live

To lose love

In order to love

To hate

In order to forgive

To cry

To find joy

To lose sight

In order to see

To go deaf

In order to hear

To embrace sorrow

To be forgiven

To be hurt

In order to find

Compassion.

Then our heart

Awakens

Living truth

Unfolds

Peacefulness

Descends.

We can love one another. "

Once we have looked death in the eye - we really appreciate life with a fresh innocence, and when we lose the one we love - we really appreciate having been loved like we never did before, and we truly know forgiveness when we have lived in anger for years and years, and we appreciate sight and hearing after we have lost both ....

"The purpose of suffering
Is to release our song
Our breath of life
Our unique melody
Composed by our experiences
Enabling us to listen
To the music of others
For the song of the planet
arising from our touch
with the earth

Submit
Be courageous
Let our wounds be openings
Embracing this journey
This moment
This feeling
This sorrow

Turning sorrow into song...."

Suffering is a gift that can release our song - our unique melody  - enabling us to hear the great song of the planet to transform - to herald in a new way of living - to bear witness to the truth of loving one another.

To illustrate this truth, I want to share a personal story:

I grew up as the oldest son of 7 children to an immigrant family - my mother an 18 year old when she arrived with her parents in 1951 as 10 pound poms, and my father a refugee from Prague, living in Italian refugee camps. My parents met in Roma.

I grew up being fearful and terrified of my father - running in fear of beatings from a leather dog lead when in trouble - hiding - keeping the windows open at night when in bed - ready to jump outside fearing dad might come in with his gun and shoot us all!

Dad used to beat my mother - I remember him hitting her in the bedroom and the sounds of her crying and the rising anger and hatred in us kids.

About the age of 15 I punched my father in the face and fled home - hitchhiking from the Western Downs to the Gold Coast where my grandparents lived. My brother followed.

I hated my father - resented what he did to mum and us kids. I would be triggered by his criticism when I visited home over decades - talk about him negatively with my siblings - blame him for what went wrong in my own life.

45 years later I had a transformative experience - I attended a Landmark Forum in Brisbane and it challenged me to have an authentic conversation with my father. I did - I confronted him with what he did to us - how we lived in fear and terror - how we hated him. He had no idea what I was talking about.

It was then that I realised I was carrying the pain - it was I that was suffering all these years - I was still back there - I was stuck! He had no idea what I was talking about!

This realisation suddenly made me forgive him - not that what he did was ok - it wasn't - it was wrong - but forgiving him enabled me to love him and let go of my pain and anger and suffering. It was a powerful, liberating moment that has endured since. I am no longer triggered by his comments. I sit down with him and go through old photo albums identifying ancient relatives. We go through records of old Czech music and sing a few songs. I now love him with an open heart. He is 87 this year.

Sorrow has turned into song - a new way of life has followed suffering.

"Each new wave arrives

And as it reaches shore

Merges into the one underneath

So that each wave

Is part of the

One living lake

One shore

Immovable

One water

Ever in motion

As are we while alive

Hastening to our graves

Losing the life of each moment....

Instead of living it

Celebrating it

Counting the blessings

Merging into peace

As we reach

Our own shore."

Each of us can herald in a new way of living.

Each of us can transform our suffering into a new way of being.

Whatever part of life that weighs on us - that brings out our most difficult fears - can help us see compassion and love  with new eyes - can allow the deep grain of love to come to the surface of our faces - can let the flaws come to the surface - can help us grow younger towards death every day and gather all our flaws in celebration ...

So what is our mission to the world that we transform our suffering to accomplish?

I wonder what I am in the world for
As debris floats by
Storm leftovers
Crashing waves
Turbulent waters
Then quiet
Silence
To whence we return.

What am I here for?
To be still?
To create?
To feed the hungry?
Welcome the stranger?
House the homeless?
Clothe the naked?
Comfort sorrow?
Heal the sick?
Visit the imprisoned?

What does this world call me to?
To be present
To listen and hear
To act
To be brave
To be authentic
To dance with life
Feast on each day
Sing the great song
Climb each mountain
Listen to the breeze
Hear the complaint
Exhale each breath
And let the world ring out its call....

See it
Hear it
Feel it
And follow.

Matthew 25 spells out our mission to the world - what we are here for:
"I was hungry and you gave me food

I was thirsty and you have me drink

I was a stranger and you made me welcome

Naked and you clothed me

Sick and you visited me

In prison and you came to see me"

How we treat each other - the least of my brothers and sisters - is the theme of active love - love that is alive and responsive - that forgives and opens our hearts - that listens and puts others ahead of our own needs - that lets us lay down our life for another....

Let us love one another ..... Like the 4 year old brother and 2 year old sister following their devastating losses in Nepal.

Let us bring our hands in prayer to our hearts, inhale a deep breath - and breathe out love, breathe out peace, and breathe out compassion to everyone we meet this night/today.

Namaste - may the God in each of us greet the God in each other!