Nothing like a bit of colour

Nothing like a bit of colour, I say, to add to your day.  I must say that this photo that came my way must be the photo of the month.  It shows an African Anglican bishop going about his daily business with visiting politicians, dressed in full robes. as one would.

I must say that what attracted me to this photo was the ridiculousness of the dress.  It actually appeals to my sense of humour.  Personally, I would never be caught dead in such gear. 

Behind the ridiculousness, I see a more serious message.  I would offer that a coping mechanism in today's stressful world is to add colour to our day.  Amidst all around IS, Brexit and a future Trump presidency, there is a need to keep a prespective and a sense of humour, a sense of the ridiculous helps that. 

No matter what, life goes on and we need to live it and enjoy it as best we can.  After all, we only live once, or that is what I believe.  So make the most of it.  Face the challenges, fight the worthy cause for good, look after each other but always keep before us the goal to live life to the full and enjoy the journey.  Never let any cause or any struggle take that away from us. 

A leader in this philosophy of life must be the present Archbishop of Chicago who as a Chicago Cubs supporter made a bet with the Archbishop of Cleveland over who would win the World Series.  The Cubs won and the Archbishop of Cleveland came good on the bet providing Cleveland style food for 100 served by the Archbishop's food programme.  It looked like good fun and all for a good cause.  Archbishops serving pizza to the poor and the Archbishop of Chicago had a Cubs baseball cap for the Pope as well.  Way to go. 

Carpe diem!

A New Chapter in Life

In speaking to prisoners this week at a mass at St Peter's, Pope Francis said:
"By learning from past mistakes, you can open a new chapter of your lives."
Never lose hope was the message.
This would seem a timely statement in our world, and not just for prisoners. 

I say this on the week that sees both the US election and celebrations closing the Holy Year of Mercy. 

The US election needs no introduction.  Many of my friends - American, Australian, English, Irish, Thai, Burmese - were all following the election count with great interest or disbelief.  Whoever wins, this would seem to be a watershed election due to the nastiness of the campaign and all the negative themes that it has opened up in the public forum.  I see this as touching upon reality and reality can be frightening.  As a good American friend tells me, the new norm in our world is chaos.

Well, Trump won and my American friends who are good western liberals like me are sharing common post-Trump victory symptoms- nausea, depression, sadness.  We are in shock mode.  One may reassess that this was an inevitable outcome sooner or later.  Looking beyond shock, the harshness of a divided and chaotic reality is hitting us in the face.  The message is to do something about it and not just keep doing the same thing, following the same old track.  As when we were doing pastoral planning as a Province, the guiding principle was to act to choose our future or else our future would be determined for us and grab us whether we liked it or not.  We might not have done so well at choosing our future but we tried and we did our best at the time.     

In contrast, this past year in the Catholic Church there has been seen a calming effect within a chaotic world with a Jubilee Year celebrating a God of mercy and compassion.  The Church has its own chaos with too often the God being presented into our lives and world by institutional religion being the God of control and judgement.  This is not the God of the Jesus of the Gospels but the God of man brought out to tell us what to do and if we don't do it, watch out.  Primarily, while we know our basic human instincts and where they can lead, the Gospels keep presenting us a God who offers us life and opportunity for true greatness and happiness through ever being a God with us, a God offering us mercy an compassion.  We are being offered so much more than what our basic instincts can ever imagine. 

As Obama said, whatever the election outcome. a new day would dawn and it has.  With a new day comes yet another opportunity to open a new chapter in life. 

Guess who came to greet me in Rome?

Pope francis in the audience hall of the Apostolic Palace in the Vtaican. 

Last week, I was in Rome for a conference of the Santa Marta Group  which is a Church group aiming to stamp out human trafficking.  Well, there I was in the Vatican for this most worthwhile cause and guess who came to say "Hello!"? 

Pope Francis, my hero, no less. 

My story is to simply say that he may be short but what a big man.  He is such a gentleman with a real concern for people. 

He came to greet the conference and show his solidarity on the issue, an issue close to his heart.  After his speech, he greeted each of us personally which was his personal request despite his minders saying that he should only meet a representative number from the conference.  A busy and important man with a strenuous schedule at the age of nearly 80, simply demanded that he meet personally each of the delegates.  So up I went with everyone else and whether he understood me or not, simply shared that I pray for him and thank him.   

A simple and generous gesture on the part of the Pope says it all - never too important and never too busy to show solidarity and kindenss to others.