Beyond the Ho! Ho! Ho!

Back home, this time of year is called "the silly season", for this is both Christmastime and major holiday time, during which ones may indulge themselves in far too much fun, or even in unsafe behaviour.  Among the clergy, this is enjoyed as an "off time", as so many are away on holiday.   

Christmas Day is celebrated and it is time to let the "Ho, Hos" go and start the serious business of living Christmas, for Christmas is not for Christmas Day alone, but for every day of the year.  Let us never forget that "the Word became flesh", thus telling us where to find God - here nd now.  

Surely, our world does not encapsulate the fullness of divine reality, but let us neither underestimate that here is very much part of the divine, defined by it. We may not easily see this reality in the midst of our corporate mess and confusion, but whose fault is that? 

God became human so that we become like God, children of God.  Our very being, our worldly vocation are God like, sacred.  The divine and the human are one, not divided.  Do we get it?  

If we get it, we show it by living life to the full now, forgiving those we hurt, loving all, offering hope to the hopeless, being ever kind, building the Reign of God.  So our Christmas joy is real, is grounded, going beyond fantasy and merriment.  

God is good.  Do we appreciate by how much?  Life is mystery.      

Have a Happy and Holy Christmas

 

It struck me as we approach Christmas during ongoing, extraordinary times, that this is a community event.  No one is left behind.  It is all or none.  It is enjoyed, celebrated, accomplished together, never alone.  Together, we leap for joy when recognizing a world full of miracles.  Together, we know happiness when sharing goodness and kindness.  Together, we know fulfilment when we appreciate we have done all we can and keep doing it.  

2,000 years ago, a young woman was bewildered and excluded, thanks to the God of mystery, placing an unbelievable challenge before her.  He response was to believe in the Mystery, be humbled by love and accept her calling in life.  So the Word was made flesh.  

We follow the same path - believe in the Mystery, be humbled by love and accept our calling.  So our God turns everything upside down, challenging us to participate more fully in the Reign of God.  What a great adventure is life, when it is fully appreciated, not being limited by our control, domination or narrow vision.     

Christmas is a wondrous and attractive time, full of memories, images and story, that bespeak the goodness of life, the joy of humanity, the vision of creation and the mystery of God.  

Have a happy and holy Christmas.     

No Ho Ho?

Santa Claus in Rome (Matteo Nardone - Guardian - Dec 2021)

My motto at this time of year during during an ongoing pandemic is - 

"Christmas matters.  No matter what, Christmas is coming."  

Nothing can stop Christmas - neither pandemic, disaster, loss nor disbelief.  I am not being naive, nor selfish, nor insensitive, when I say this.  It is actually, just the opposite, because my stance is based on a primary premise that Christmas is neither defined nor captured, by a society ruled by consumerism nor individualism; nor by a world tearing itself apart.  Still, I sadly acknowledge that a failing world has had its powerful influence over Christmas.  This does not diminish Christmas.  Rather it motivates me, for the sake of joy and goodness flourishing in our world, to uphold Christmas more than ever.  

I was brought up on Christmas.  Growing up in my family, it was that time of the year, when I expeerienced excitement and expectation, fun and coming together, givng and receiving.  As I look back, they are all themes for nourishing and building a wholesome life, a holy life.   

The question is often asked - Do you believe in Santa Claus?  Well, why not?  As named by a Catholic diocese in Italy, his story speaks of  "giving, generosity, sharing", important themes of Christmas.  Why then be mean and deny Christmas, or worse, give it a bad name with our loss of faith or focus?   

Christmas touches into mystery, the mystery of life, the mystery of God.  We ask, "How can this be?"  Simply, it can be, and is, even during a pandemic and whatever strikes us along the way.  God is truly mystery.  We will never understand, but God always will be with us, no matter what.  "God is stranger than we know, stronger than we feel, weaker than we think, wider than we imagine." (Graham Kings) 

As Cardinal Bo shares in his 2021 Advent Message to his suffering people in Myanmar: 

"The manger of Bethlehem ultimately won over the might of Rome.  Let that be our hope."

it's looking a lot like Christmas

As Christmas approaches, we have a few exciting Sundays at church, celebrating the Sacraments of Baptism, Penance and Eucharist with our children.  Sacraments themselves are exciting, for they allow us to be church at our best, while opening us to seeing, hearing, touching, smelling God in the midst of our daily lives.  

Amazing?  Much more than amazing, for they take us to the very depths and extremities of our human reality.  They take us where we could never imagine, for they reveal to us the mystery of God.  This mystery is ultimately revealed to us through Jesus, the Son of God and the Son of Mary.  This happens as his life shows us that the human and divine come together in the midst of our reality.  This is all due to God's choosing and action.  Mystery has become a powerful word for me, as it so captures who we truly and fully are, so captures all that is the essence of life.  

The great Teresa of Avila sums up the mystery of the human and divine.  She wrote - "The journey to union with the Beloved is a journey home to the center of ourselves. ... The human soul is so glorious that God himself chooses it as his dwelling place.  The path to God, then, leads us on a journey of self-discovery.  To know the self is to know God."  

Creation is a reflection of God.  We discover and taste God in human reality.  We show God through the lens of that same reality.  This speaks of the beauty of life.  Life, full of the divine, is itself exciting.  Sacraments grant us entry to these divine mysteries, the deeper and richer meaning of life in the midst of the everyday.  This is all so invigorating for sacraments continually reaffirm the divine message that the whole world is sacred.  

A New Year Begins

With the start of Advent, another year begins in the Church.  It is time to remember with thanks and joy the life we share, to savour the life that is and to wallow in the journey that is continuing.   

This Church Year is featuring Luke's Gospel.  For me, the great appeal of Luke is that he presents a clear vision based on the teachings of Jesus. 

He appreciates that the end of the world is not nigh.  Reality is we are in for the long haul.  So let's face it head on.  Our aim then is to recognize that the Kingdom of God is here and now with us, who, as followers of Jesus, are entrusted with building it up in the midst of our world, being assured of its ultimate fulfilment.  This Kingdom is thus the impetus for us as Church.  It is a Kingdom for all, shown so clearly in God's mercy and compassion, embracing the sinner and the other.   

This is "life and death" stuff.  It gives purpose and meaning to life.  It turns everything upside down in our world.  It leads to a new way of being.  It challenges people to building new social orders, based on a God who loves all, and so based on social inclusion and human dignity.  The gospels transform us and our world.  If not, we must ask ourselves a serious question.  What don't we get?  

The gospels put life in perspective.  It is not that I am important but that we all are important.  They take us beyond our narrow worlds to see the big picture.    

A new year signalled by Advent is a gifted time for starting again.  Its central theme is that we wake up and get on with it.  Stand proud and tall, for God is with us, offering us liberation.  Hope is real and alive, no matter what the world throws at us.  

I have to finish with an anecdote.  After mass yesterday, someone told me - 

'Very few priests preach hope, like you do." 

I will leave it at that.  

Make a wish.

  

Another Year Ends

Loy Krathong

Yes, it is the end of another Church year.  And what is our gospel theme at this point in time?  Power.  

This is a volatile topic which many neither want to own nor even touch.  Reason is that this can be dangerous territory.  No matter what, reality is we all have power.  In dealing with this reality, we best own our power, for unclaimed power can be destructive. 

We experience power in many ways, too often negatively.  In any sphere of our life, we may suffer under the power of the bully, of the ruthless, of the greedy and self-centred.  We too often experience power as acting over us or against us, thus being harmful to our well-being.  Let us look to the gospel.  What does that tell us? 

Jesus is before Pilate, the Governor, for final judgment.  The gospel scene of John shows Pilate and all the other characters arguing over whether Jesus is the king of the Jews.  That is none of Jesus' concern.  In the midst of approaching suffering and death, he stands calmly, keeping his ground, maintaining his focus on his mission - building the Kingdom of God here and now. 

In doing so, the Jesus of the gospels shows us the way to assert power.  Power exists with us and for us.  Power lies at the grassroots of any community, for all to exercise as equal partners, each playing their role and exercising their responsibility. It is for the good of all.  It is shared with the other.  In tune with the present Synod on Synodality, power is exercised through living three verbs with others - encounter, listen, discern.  

It is not about power being misused and abused in our spheres of influence.  It is about building up inclusion, not enforcing exclusion.  It is about building up creation for the sake of the well-being of all.  It is about building up the Kingdom of God.  In the spirit of the beautiful Thai festival, Loy Krathong, it is about letting go of all hurt and harm, and starting ever anew together for good.   

  

Oriens morior, moriens orior

I am no Latin scholar, but a good friend shared this motto with me, and it so spoke to me, as it did to him.  It says: "Rising I die; Dying I rise". 

This short line says so much.  It is mystical, capturing a mystery of life.  Mystery is becoming more and more a key theme in my life.  It tells me that I do not have to explain everything.  This is not an excuse for an escape into the world of the irrational.  Rather we live with mystery and allow it to speak to us.   

This line is so powerful for me during the time of a pandemic and as we approach the end of another year.  Yesterday's gospel at mass had an underlying theme of be ever watchful; don't sleep through life.  Life is too precious and too short to miss.  As Mark in his gospel keeps emphasizing, we are ever on the journey of life.  We keep failing; so often not getting what life is really about, but still we keep going in the direction, shown by our faith in Christ crucified.  

Failure, poverty, suffering become the great humanizer, the great leveller of humanity on the way.  The problem is we too often lack the ability to listen, to see and to act, for maybe we are too sleepy, too fearful or just don't care.  Let us heed the cry of a woman in Fiji, as she spoke out about the dilemma of climate change. 

"Let us not be a generation of people who are evr hearing, but never understanding; ever seeing, but not perceiving.  Let us not be callous in heart and close our eyes and ears to the violence against God's creation."   

We made it

Happy and smooth re-entry.  

This Sunday, we happily moved back into the cathedral after over six months of lockdown. It was a happy and smooth re-entry which all can enjoy together, whether through physical presence or live-streaming, thanks to communio.  Yes, we never left each other.  We have remained together in deeeper ways, and I pray our bonds grow even deeper though these extraordinary timnes.  

As we came together at the cathedral, we thanked young Matthew, for being our symbol, our reminder of who we are in these shared, tough times.  For six months, little Matthew joined us for mass with his family at home through live-streaming.  His mum told me how he would sit there each Sunday and wai to me at the beginning of mass.  How cute!  So I would greet Matthew and Junior, another young member of our faith community, at the beginning of each mass.  It became our welcome ritual for mass for, as I greeted the two young boys, I greeted all of you.  

Hence they became a symbol for us.  This was truly about much more than being cute.  In their own way, they shared a message with us that helped sustain us as a community, and it was all so simple, for it was about offering a greeting and acknowledging each other.  This is hospitality, which is at the centre of eucharist.   

What si a symbol?  A symbol is the outward sign of a meaning in life that is so much more and much deeper.  Truth is that this is not about Matthew. It is about us, for each of us is a symbol for each other.  Like a national flag, we are a symbol to others, but we are much more than a flag.  An amazing gift from the God with us..  

We are living symbols to each other, living symbols of hope.  Let us know how, through faith, we are living signs of hope to the other.  We are so important to and for each other, sustaining and nourishing each other through our ongoing presence and commitment to each other, and so we are church.  

These extraordinary times highlight this, and so much more.  Alleluia!

As we joyfully gather again in the Cathedral, let us know we were never apart.

Since mid-April, due to the pandemic, we have celebrated mass in camera, being livestreamed for public participation.  For me, these six months have proven to be an extraordinary experience during extraordinary times. 

I have found it a profoundly spiritual time , knowing and experiencing communio with those who, by necessity, share eucharist via YouTube.  It is a feeling thing, but much more.  There have been the messages and emails sharing life's tragedies and struggles.  There have been the messages of hope and of gratitude for personal advancement or for just getting to the end of the day.  

It has been a time full of meaning for we have shared so much together.  I know now that communio is much more than a theological concept or a spiritual gift.  It is real.  I know it is real through my lived experience.  I know communio in my heart and my gut.  It is a true treasure that I carry with me for the rest of my days.    

As we ponder such a gift of God and move back into the cathedral to enable physical presence at eucharist yet again, let us never lose sight of the communio that we share through our one Lord.  This union is deeper and more sustaining than we can ever imagine, for it is all gift from our loving God.  This is what first and foremost makes us who we are, so that then we can celebrate eucharist together, wherever we may be.  

This reality is a great leveler and unifier.  We are not just going back to mass, as we were never parted.  This time highlights much more, about who we are as church and as members of the human family.  

"Keep the love of God before you.  The love of God within cannot be overcome."  (S. Teresa of Avila)    

Time for a Synod

"The first is that discernment and decision-making are the business of the whole body, not just of the few entrusted with governance. In his landmark October 2015 synod speech, Pope Francis quoted an ancient maxim: Quod omnes tangit, ab omnibus tractari et approbari debet (“what affects everyone should be discussed and approved by all”). And because, as St. Benedict notes in his seventh-century rule, God sometimes speaks through the youngest in the community, enabling participation means paying special attention to the timid edges, to the unlikely places, to those outside." 

So writes Austen Ivereigh (Commonweal, October 21, 2012) on the 'Synod on Synodality', which is happening right now in the universal church and will continue its process for two years to come.  

This is a time for everyone in the church, from Pope to laity in the street, to be heard on what they see as a vision and reality for church, focusing on the three themes - communion, participation mission.  It is time to gather, to share, to listen, to discern, to move forward together.  

This a truly Vatican II moment.  In the spirit of John XXIII, it is opening the windows of the church and letting the Spirit in.  

Coffee Time

I discover that Ethiopian coffee is a delight.  My discovery was made as I host my Ethiopian friend to dinner at his favorite Ethiopian restaurant each year for his birthday, which was this Sunday. The place is so friendly and I do look forward to my annual visit.   

My Ethiopian friend is such a good guy.  Despite all his troubles, he is ever helping others.  His story is that he fled his homeland 12 years ago as he was suffering cruel persecution at the hands of the government.  Here, he remains without a place in the world to call home.  Still his spirits remain high and he remains committed to helping others in need, while he himself is in need.  Put simply, his plight does not deter him from helping any neeeding help in his sphere of imfluence.  

So he accesses his church and good people in the wider community to achieve his aim of helping others.  I counsel him to look after himself as well, and all he does is keep forging forward to help the poor in his world.  He teaches me so much.

I often say that, if I was ever a refugee in the world, I would want someone like him around to help me.  Our shared vulnerability and suffering truly have so much to teach us about life and who we are with each other.  .  

Communion, Participation, Mission

"Stay with me, and then I shall begin to shine as Thou shinest: so to shine as to be a light to others.  The light, O Jesus, will be all from Thee.  None of it will be mine.  No merit to me.  It will be Thou who shinest through me upon others.  O let me thus praise Thee, in the way which Thou dost love best, by shining on all those around me.  Give light to them as well as to me; light them with me, through me.  Teach me to show forth Thy praise, Thy truth, Thy will.  Make me preach Thee without preaching - not by words, but by my example and by the catching force, the sympathetic influence, of what I do - by my visible resemblance to Thy saints, and the evident fulness of the love which my heart hears to Thee."  

         (Cardinal John Henry Newman, 19th Century England)  

This past Sunday, during mass in Rome, Pope Francis opened the two year Synod, named as the Synodal Path, which is directed by three key themes - communion, participation, mission..  Here follows part of Francis' homily.   

"A certain rich man came up to Jesus “as he was setting out on his journey” (Mk 10:17).  The Gospels frequently show us Jesus “on a journey”; he walks alongside people and listens to the questions and concerns lurking in their hearts.  He shows us that God is not found in neat and orderly places, distant from reality, but walks ever at our side.  He meets us where we are, on the often rocky roads of life.  Today, as we begin this synodal process, let us begin by asking ourselves – all of us, Pope, bishops, priests, religious and laity – whether we, the Christian community, embody this “style” of God, who travels the paths of history and shares in the life of humanity.  Are we prepared for the adventure of this journey?  Or are we fearful of the unknown, preferring to take refuge in the usual excuses: “It’s useless” or “We’ve always done it this way”?

 Celebrating a Synod means walking on the same road, walking together.  Let us look at Jesus.  First, he encounters the rich man on the road; he then listens to his questions, and finally he helps him discern what he must do to inherit eternal life.  Encounter, listen and discern.  These are the three verbs that characterize the Synod."

Francis is showing us the way.  Maybe John Henry Newman, priest, pastor and intellect of the 19th century church, can also help us find the way, for he actively contributed to the synod of his day - the First Vatican Council.  For all his good work, he was to be later made a Cardinal.  I would recommend his prayer shared here for helping us walk the path of our present Synod.  

Vaya con Dios!  

16 Years

A kind woman graciously helped me get home, with loaning me her umbrella.

I not know why but I always remember the day I arrived in Thailand to stay.  It was 5th October, 2005.  This means Tuesday this week, I have been here 16 years.  Knowing me, I find it amazing that I have stayed in one place and one post for so long.  What has kept me here?  

There is no simple or one answer.  Like every westerner living in Bangkok, I have a story, and that story sure keeps expanding.  For one who is naturally, critically reflective of his reality, it is good to stand still sometimes and just smell the roses.  In the past few days, I have had two such occasions to do just that and be thnakful..

On Saturday, I was nearly home from running my errands, when a tropical storm hit.  I was close to home, bur not close enough without an umbrella and with wearing good shoes.  So I sought shelter by a food stall.   After 20 minutes of waiting, the woman owner of the food business gave me an umbrella so I could get home.  I was so touched by her simple kindness. Deo gratias! 

The next day, as I approached mass and a meeting afterwards, I reflected how good and essential it is to have ones who are a part of the task and the vision, and happily share the load.  There is no future in standing alone.  Going it alone is no way to go nor way to be church.  I am so grateful for having ones who share my lot.  Deo gratias!

And why am I still here?  I came with a passion which lives on; I have people in my life who really matter and support me; God never stopped calling me and the mission lives on.  I know this is not about me.  I surely not stand alone. Deo gratias!

You're Italian, aren't you?

Just this week, I was asked by a sophisticated Thai woman, I know from a distance through a close, mutual friend, where I came from.  I said Australia.  She was shocked as she always thought I was Italian, as our mutual friend, Nando, is an Italian.  She had just assumed for so long that, like Nando, I was Italian.  It just goes to show how easily we can assume and be mistaken in our assumptions, when approaching the other. 

While we keep our distance and remain that other, we don't meet; we don't talk; we don't engage.  So we miss out on so much, not realizing a rich potential for friendships and for bettering our world.   We are the world; not a bunch of I's, sharing the same planet.  We need each other and care for each other, co-existing as good neighbours to build up our world, ever better and stronger.    

"Holy, beloved Father, your Son Jesus taught us that there is great rejoicing in heaven whenever someone lost is found, whenever someone excluded, rejected or discarded is gathered into our “we”, which thus becomes ever wider. 

We ask you to grant the followers of Jesus, and all people of good will, the grace to do your will on earth. Bless each act of welcome and outreach that draws those in exile into the “we” of community and of the Church, so that our earth may truly become what you yourself created it to be: the common home of all our brothers and sisters. Amen."

A Prayer of Pope Francis for World Day of Migrants and Refugees - 26th September, 2021  

Our Power is in embracing Our Powerlessness

A Celtic blessing prayer of love

We prayed this blessing prayer at mass this Sunday for a lovely copule celebrating and remembering 25 years of committed love.  What a wondrous remembrance at any time, but especially as we suffer the rigors of a pandemic.  

I would propose that it is the unknown brings upon us grave and shared concerns.  With the unknown, come fear, accompanied by rising insecurity and anxiety.    In the midst of life's ever chaos and struggle, we are best to acknowledge and hold onto enduring and life-giving love as our sure anchor to weather any storm.  .

What more to say?  Love, the gift of God, endures all storms and sustains the human spirit.  

It is all an Illusion

 

Life is an illusion.  Illusion is defined as when something "is likely to be wrongly perceived or interprted by the senses".  So one holds a false idea or belief.  

Plato reflected upon the nature of reality using the scene of looking into a cave, within which a group of people was gathered around a fire.  He could see the shadows of the group upon the wall of the cave but, from the shadows, he asked if  he could he tell the reality of that group within the cave.  Thus he used this to pose the question - What is real?  

The same philosophical question remains ever with us. 

Our present age seems to be full of illusions.  We live under changing conditions within an ongoing pandemic and present lockdown, but what does that mean in reality for us?  Where is this time leading us in society and church?  Many questions arise and remain. We are entering a new era but what will it look like?  I have no definite answers.  Who does?  No one, really.  We all just have many questions. 

We have just remembered the 20th anniversary of 9/11.  We know what followed.  Now with the withdrawal of western forces from Afghanistan, we see part of the outcome of the western response to 9/11.  The same still question arises - what is real?  

I feel assured of one reality.  9/11 saw many heroes arise from its ashes and from among ordinary citizens.  I never knew at the time, that when with the Franciscans in 1999 in New York, I had met one hero among many of 9/11, Fr Mychal Judge.   A message is that any of us can be a hero when facing the challenges of the true reality, not the illusion, before us.   

Lord, take me where You want me to go;                                                                                                  Let me meet who You want me to meet;                                                                                                           Tell me what you want me to say, and                                                                                                              Keep me out of your way.                                                                                                                                         (Mychal Judge, Franciscan priest and New York Fire Department chaplain who died at                                   World Trade Center on 9/11, while anointing a dying fireman.)

Good Attracts Good

Jesus pulling up a struggling Peter

We build back better together. 

We are in this together.

It is not over until we all come out together. 

We leave no one behind.

These are some of the cathch phrases for the present pandemic.  They capture both the truth and a vision.  The pity is to see how the reality does not match the vision. 

"I have but one desire - to be lost in the secret of God's face."  (Thomas Merton) 

What does this mean?  God is mystery.  Let us be lost in the mystery that is ever in our midst, and so much so that we express the mystery through our humanity and our bodiliness.  As we are, so we live out the mystery in physical ways, in ways that truly express the divine.  

As we live with the mystery, thus we build up the good in the world and be the co-creators God ordains us to be.  That is at the core of the mystery.  So good builds upon good and the bad, that we so readily focus upon, is diminished.  This is God's doing and choice through us.  

A God reality is so often identified by many as being unreal because this world is not a place for such things as living ideals of love and justice..  Faith tells us oherwise.  Despite all that goes wrong in our world, the perceived unreal within the world's reality becomes real through good building upon good, through our acts of kindness, through human love lived and shared.  

So we enter the unreal, the new era that Pope Francis points us to within a post-pandemic world.  

Red Lines Matter

As I remember, the term "red line" was first sensationalized for me when hearing Obama proclaim that his red line had been crossed in the Syrian war, with Assad's use of chemical weapons.  This was so serious that sharp consequences would definitely be applied.  

A red line is defined as "a limit beyond which someone's behaviour is no longer acceptable".  

It is not only US Presidents who hold red lines.  Hopefully, we all have our red lines as they give witness to our being authentic and decent human beings.  Primarily, they are not used to judge others.  Rather they are upheld so we may be true to what we know to be true, right and just.    

I find that this is part of my make-up, of my own personal and shared culture as a Catholic.  Holding my red lines in life is primarily about me, about being true to myself, about remaining committed to my responsibilities in life.    

In the last week, I had occasion to hold one of my red lines.  The context was my being in the same public space as two adults acting offensively.  Both parties happily partook in their action which was demeaning of them and of those who may happen to come their way, like me.  This public space was the business area of a good friend whom I often greet on my way into my apartment building.  I was there to await a food delivery, use the wi-fi and greet my friend.  

I found I naturally had a strong internal reaction to what I was witnessing, purposefully choosing to ignore it.  Still, within I could feel I was making a powerful stance to hold my red line for no one should have to put up with such behaviour in public.  Internal or external forum, holding one's red line is always important.  My chosen way was deliberate so as not to offend unnecessarily innocent others, friend or otherwise.  My stance and chosen way were about showing respect for myself and others.      

My simple action was not just for me.  It was for the sake of self and others.  People deserve better.  My stance was made because all people matter.  We must be aware of how our actions affect others and how we have responsibility for each other.  We do not live on selfish, isolated islands.  Human solidarity matters.  

Those three key learning for humanity given to us by the pandemic just keep arising for me - respect, responsibility, solidarity.  They do matter for holding onto them makes us better human beings.     

Amor est in via

The debacle that is 20 years of war in Afghanistan seemingly has reached its natural and ultimate climax - utter chaos.   Syria's war rolls on but is forgotten.  The world was continually being told by the UN that Yemen caught up in war was doomed to famine but whatever happened?  With its women having suffered such barbaric atrocities, war in Ethiopia remains on the boil.  Above all this, due to the incompetence, or worse, of humanity, the pandemic is wreaking havoc on the world.  

So the world continues on its way.  Is there not another way?  Yes, there is. 

One of my great heroes, St Bernard of Clairvaux, was a Carthusian monk of the 12th century, abbot and preacher.  He was a powerful voice supporting the Second Crusade of the 1140s which proved to be a complete failure.  This saddened him with all responsibility cast upon him.  Little is known of this troubled part of his life but there was obvious remorse.   

We move on to see that Bernard was so much more.  He spoke passionately on God's love for humankind.  He described how God's love is expressed for us through God's own kiss of love.  

We are drawn into this kiss between the Father and the Son through the power of the Spirit.  

God is in love with us.  

God creates us out of love and God's passion for us sustains us.  

This is just mind blowing.  Take it in.  This is threatening stuff but it is real and is for us to make our lives burst open with love.  

There is another way.

"Amor est in via."  (Bernard of Clairvaux)  

The tree or the roof?

Ripping out the green in my street

On Sunday past, I walked out of my apartment building to see what had been a lovely bit of remaining green in my street going, and then gone.  I was in shock.  This was being done under the direction of the owners of my building.  This wa's my turf.  I had to do something but what?  

I literally walked back and forth pondering.  I decided to bite the bullet and approach someone in authority of my building.  Determined, off I went and expressed my sadness at what was happening and that this was not right.  The response was that the trees were being cut down to save the roof, but this roof is old.  So why not put in a new roof and save the trees?  But - No - and nobody was going to listen to me.  It was to be the trees or the roof and all along the decision by owwnership was clear - sacrifice the trees.   

The day before, I was shocked yet again to hear the oficial forecast for the path of the virus in Thailand.  The prediction was for continuing higher infection rates into September, rising double or triple.  My thought was - what is happening? 

Then later that day, I read that the government authority responsible for decisions on how to respond to the virus was considering needed new responses to counter this ever growing rise in the virus.  Great but these included re-opening shops in the shopping malls.  Huh?  Now, I was confused.  I just could not understand this particular response.  

I don't get it.  Sacrifice trees to save an old roof in a street with so little greeen left, all taken over by condo and apartment buildings?  Open shops as part of an overall programme to counter rising infection rates within a pandemic? 

We must care for each other .  We must care for our planet.  That is the only way to help ensure a fruitful life for all.    Respect - Responsibility - Solidarity always.  

 

 

Lunch

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair.”
― Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Dickens so aptly presents the eternal, cosmic conflict between good and evil, poignantly capturing the nature of life, of history that keeps repeating itself.  It is never either or, but always both sides in constant opposition.  

My experience of a pandemic is that it highlights what is already good and bad in our world, serving to magnify these two sides of our existence.  Sadly, if even understandably, humanity tends these days more towards stressing the bad over the good.  Enough of that for now!  

Truth is I am seeing a lot of good.  I see people concerned for their fellow human beings; I see people reaching out to help; I simply experience ordinary human kindness.  Yes, it still exists, despite what ones may say.  

In the past week, a friend wanted to cheer me up in a pandemic.  So he bought me lunch and had it delivered by motor bike, which is the way of these times in Bangkok.  It was yum.  The chips were real chips.  Beyond all these delights was the kindness yet again, unreservedly offered to me by another human being, letting me know that someone cares.  That is the message that stays with me and that is what is most important.      

Human kindness and goodness do exist and continue to thrive, no matter what else is happening in our world.  Full stop.  Thank God.  

Respect Matters

St Augustine  

Respect, responsibility, solidarity are THE WORDS of this pandemic for me.  They encapsulate the lessons I am learning about life in these extraordinary times.  

My experience of dealing with people and sharing life is that respect is the key building block of the three.  For how do you stand with others when you don't respect them or they not respect you?  For how do you fulfil your responsibilities when there is no respect given or received?  

The answer to both is you still must but something is lacking.  Without respect, the picture just will not come together.  What is failing in the picture without it?  Dignity for all.  The bottom line may be summed up as "how do I stand up for the rights of others, when I don't stand up for my own?" 

Being a person in the world is not being an actor.  Life is not simply a performance.  Life goes much deeper.  It has to, so that it has purpose and meaning.  Life is not purely functional.  It is not about being a nice, nor even a good person.  It is about much more.  At the core of all is who I am and who we are.  

I may respect others no matter what but the demand is also that I respect myself.  In respecting myself, I stand up for myself, not accepting a lack of respect from others.  This challenging better behaviour from others helps build a better world and needs no other justification than my own self-respect matters.  

By building up respect, we build up responsibility and solidarity.  Respect has two children: my respect for others and my respect for myself.  It is a two way street.  Respect matters.     

Wasting Time Productively

Last week, I read an article by the New York Times journalist in Sydney In which he was reflecting upon an afternoon walk along the beaches of Sydney.  His point was that we live in a world centred on busyness and achievement.  Whatever happened to just living life for the sake of life itself?  Why do we need a reason to live the day?  This theme arose for him during a pandemic when he was forced to stop and wait awhile.   

Here he was in a Sydney lockdown, an enforced time which may make anyone stop and think upon the deeper questions of life.  The 19th century American writer, Thoreau, reflected how so many just waste life.  His great line was something like - we need to suck out the marrow of life.  Powerful!

Here we are in lockdown in Bangkok.  After three months, masses continue online from a rarified atmosphere.  If we are still watching Sunday mass on YouTube, that says something about who we are and what we believe.  Is it not time to start asking some of the deeper questions about who we are as church?  

So as we gather as church online every Sunday: 

Does it matter to you that you cannot receive the eucharist sacramentally at this time?  

Does the experience of doing without the normal routine of life make you appreciate more fully who we are?  

What keeps you going as who you are?  

What nourishes your spirit? 

As we social distance, what do you miss and not miss, and what does that say?  

What is this experience of online mass like?  

God is real.  This is more than words.  What does it mean?  

Eucharist is about much more than receiving communion.  It has to be or else why keep watching mass online?  Mass focuses upon sharing our story and remembering Jesus, the Lord.  Without story and memory, we are empty vessels.  So questions are worth asking and pondering.  Taking time to reflect upon the mystery of life is essential.  

Let us happily waste time productively.  Let us be church to the full.   

It's for Everyone

Karl Rahner sj (1904-1984)

Most would associate being a mystic with Teresa of Avila or John of the Cross, or one of the other great saints of the church but not with ordinary citizens; not with the likes of you or me.  Karl Rahner, one of the great theologians of the last century disagreed.  He was not confined by such normal human constructs, plainly prophesying about us - "the Christian of the future will be a mystic or will not be a Christian anymore."  

As far as I can estimate, Rahner made this statement in the 1960s.  It is such an apt challenge for the time of a pandemic that I ask myself what made him say this?  It now reads as a perfect prophecy for Christians today, caught in unending lockdowns.   

Rahner could identify the infinite possibilities of humanity for God is part of who we are.  God is not far away.  The two, the human and divine, are one joined together in life by a God who chooses to be intimately united with his creation.  

We don't have to try and dissect this as God is mystery, being neither defined nor limited by the human.  God is part of the fabric of who we are.  That is the way it is.  So we are called to intimate union with God.  This union is open to everyone of us, deepening our humanity, sustaining it and giving it ever greater purpose.

But do we even know this precious opportunity exists for each and every one of us?  How sad, if as Christians regularly practising Church ritual, we never experience God as our intimate lover.  Christianity is not defined by institutions.  It is here to enable us to live our faith, to know and love God as one so intimately part of who we are.  We are limited by our human condition but our human potential is limitless due to the divine with us.  

The great insight of Rahner for us is that God calls us to join the essential human quest for an experience of the sacred here and now.  This fulfils our human longing.      .      

It's the Little Things that Matter

I tend to go on and on.  That is how I feel this week as I face an upsetting moment or two in life.  I remember once meeting Margaret Whitlam at an evening where her husband, Goiugh, had spoken.  By then, he was ex-PM of Australia.  Of course, both now are well and truly with God.  I congratulated her on what a great speaker Gough was, to which, she replied:  "He does go on a bit, don't you think?"

In the midst of a pandemic, that seems to be going on a bit too long, what is needed is more simplicity.  Enough of long tirades or exposes.  Enough of trying to pull everything apart.  Deal with the little things of life so that the bigger things may seem less daunting.  

I must follow my own philosophy in life - find your little corner in the world and give it all you've got from there.  What more can one do?    

What a priest should truly do

Crossword

This week, a family asked me to bless their house and rental property.  So off I went on a guided tour of Bangkok.  My guides for the trip were the mum and their 11 year old son, home on holidays.  The morning finished with lunch at the family home.  
 

After lunch, I judged my duty was done until the son asked me to play Crossword.  How could I say No?  Even if somewhat reluctant, I joined him for a game.  On getting into the game, I discovered that it was fun.  At the end of the game, I judged that this was good work of a priest.  To spend time with a 11 year old lad playing Crossword, while his mother was keeping score, was a special way to encounter a family.  I would hope that this simple encounter would leave a good memory and build better relationships.   

Is this not at the core of being church?  We are about simple, human experience leading to deeper realities.  Our ministry does not always have to be theological and heavy and complicated.  Just having good fun with people is every bit as important.  There is not enough of that simple fun.    

By the way, I did not win but I would say that it was time well spent as a priest and I so enjoyed the game.   As they say, the best things in life are free.  I would also say the best fun is simple fun.    

Do we get it?

Keep calm

The first line of Thomas Merton's essay, "The Christian in Diaspora" (1964), reads: "It is no secret that the Church finds herself in crisis, and the awareness of such a fact is 'pessimism' only in the eyes of those for whom all change is necessarily a tragedy."

He continues, "It would seem more realistic to follow the example of Pope John and to face courageously the challenges of an unknown future in which the Christian can find security not, perhaps, in the lasting strength of familiar human structures but certainly in the promises of Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit. After all, Christian hope itself would be meaningless if there were no risks to face and if the future were definitively mortgaged to an unchanging present."  

This comes from a National Catholic Reporter article by Daniel P Horan, enttiled "Thoms Merton's wisdom for a church in crisis" (23rd June, 2021).   

I am reflecting a lot on this theme lately thanks to a webinar scripture course and various articles.  What is a key learning for me is that this sense of crisis is not caused by the pandemic alone.  Crisis is obviously nothing new.  Rather the crisis was already here, with the pandemic exacerbating it.  

Basically, the crisis facing the Church today has no one source.  There are the scandals of sexual abuse, corruption and abuse of power eating away at the moral standing of the church in the world.  There are the cultural warriors in the church battling to keep everything as they judge it should be.  There are the growth pains of a church struggling with the realities of contemporary and changing societies.  There are the challenges from the strong leadership of Pope Francis for us to come to terms with being Church in today's world.  There is all this and along comes the pandemic and whammy!  The perfect storm!  

It is within our sitz im leben over 50 years later that Thomas Merton speaks to us yet again.  The basic challenge before us as a faith community is not to be distracted nor lulled into a false sense of security by the past but to face with confidence the reality of the present that opens us up to a future with all the risks and opportunities it holds.  Church as an institution and as lived is not an eternal given.  Rather, as Church, we remain at the beginning of the new dawn offered to us in faith through a God of love with us and a lasting hope based on the resurrection.   

As my friend, Nando, always says - Padre John, siempre avanti.  

A Timely Reminder

Tom P Perriello is the U.S. executive director of Open Society Foundations, a former diplomat and member of Congress.  He wrote an opinion piece for The New York Times on Saturday,19th June 2021, entitled "The Bishops Betray a faithful President". 

Within his article, he spoke of his Catholicism and his experience of the Church.  I found his testimony inspiring.  Without breaking copyright, I share his insights as a fellow Catholic.  Note that I do not share to engage in the presenting issue of his article but simply to let others see a great public witness given by a fellow Catholic.  Here goes. 

"Growing up around Charlottesville, Va., I spent every Sunday hearing priests sermonize about the horrible atrocities committed against innocent civilians — even nuns — in Central America and about our own government’s complicity. We heard about extreme poverty, with a clear message that a failure to devote your life to addressing these injustices might lead to eternal damnation. 

I have a joke about my career in peace and justice: that I came for the guilt and stayed for the joy. This calling would eventually bring me to Honduras, Sierra Leone, and Afghanistan, as well as struggling communities back home.   

The Catholic lay leaders and clergy who inspire me are often the ones living the Gospel every day, ... . When I visit the border or opioid-ravaged parts of Appalachia, I witness Sister Beth Davies or Sister Norma Pimentel living the Gospel with their every breath. ... As the U.S. special envoy to the African Great Lakes region, I stood with courageous Congolese bishops who risked everything to defend human rights and convinced the Vatican to sponsor peace talks that forged the framework for the country’s first peaceful democratic transfer of power.  

Catholic bishops in El Salvador, the country where Saint Óscar Romero was assassinated for standing with the poor and vulnerable, ... chose to take a courageous position against President Nayib Bukele’s move to consolidate power and create impunity for corruption." 

I share this as both an inspiring and contemporary witness to faith and Church.  Sometimes I wonder if we truly appreciate the core place we have in our world as Catholics and the invaluable contribution we are challenged and able to make.  Put simply, we can underrate ourselves.  Here is a timely reminder for us as Church.    

Where can I learn to use a gun?

This was a question recently posed to me a by a strong, young, spirited Burmese woman, whom I know and admire.  I was quite taken aback, and not just because of the nature of the topic.   

She was not talking to me lightly as she was talking about her country, her people, her family, all of whom she loves and for whom she has a deep and sincere concern.  She hates seeing what is happening in her country.  She was talking to me as Fr John, someone she knows and respects.  

I reflected that in my over 34 years as a priest, I have never had a woman ask me about contraception and now I have a woman ask me about using a gun.  Over the years, my experience has changed and deepened my understanding of  the world, as it has changed and deepened my understanding of Church.  

She was not asking me because I know about guns but because she trusts Fr John.  Knowing her strength and goodness, her question may be from left field but, like asking about contraception, if that ever happens, it shows an equal level of trust in the Church through healthy relating with one of its ministers.     

I must say that I was not expecting such a question ever coming directly to me.  I have no expertise on the topic and seek none.  Non-violence is the way to go.  So my thinking took me somewhere else - to Church today and my role in it.  I asked myself, is this a sign of the times?  By being with people in their struggles and vulnerabilities, you are faced with not just the usual demands and questions, but cutting edge challenges and dilemmas faced by them, meeting them where they are.  .     

You may be wondering what was my response.  Well, my response is not the issue.  What this gave me was an insight into a rapidly changing world and how we as Church best stand as relevant in its midst.  Is it not a tremendous human act for a human being to ask us as Church the difficult questions, no matter what that question may be?  

And a Year Later

Corpus Christi June 2020 at Assumption Cathedral -
Standing inside looking out.  

Corpus Christi June 2021 at Assumption Cathedral - 
A year later on the same day, standing outside looking in. 

  

The pandemic first impacted Thailand in March 2020, leading to a total lockdown.  This meant mass was to be celebrated online, with limited, live participation, defined by ministerial need.  This continued for sometime such that Corpus Christi was celebrated online with the challenge of how to do a traditional, annual  celebration within a new and unknown dynamic.  

We never thought at the time but a year later, we are in the same situation again.  Where do we now find ourselves?  Let the photos tell the story this week.   The only clue is that this is a spiritual exercise for a spiritual time.  

What do the photos say and  show?  Where are we as Church?  Where do we want to be as Church?  

I met a hero, but first I met a gentleman

Mary, Untier of Knots

Last Friday, I had another first in my life.  It was going to the US Embassy for their annual Memorial Day Service to give the prayer to begin their service remembering American war dead.  

So there I was, seated in the front row beside a polite and kind man in uniform.  I did not think much else of it, until he gave his address.  As I heard him speak, I realized that this man was worth a movie.  He had seen action in Bosnia, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Philippines. This guy was a tough guy, done the hard yards. He was a true hero.  

Then as he spoke of the loss of his men, he stopped and cried.  He could do no other.  The tough, hardened soldier, as he remembered good men he knew who had fallen in battle, was simply and naturally moved to tears.  I realized instanteously I had met a gentleman, who was the toughened soldier, but who was first and foremost a truly decent human being,    

I subsequently reflected to be a brave man or woman, you first need to be a good human being.  Therein lies the key to being a person of courage.  A hero sat beside me that day.  I knew it not just because he shared his history of military duty.  Moreover, I knew it because he shared his history so as to remember his men who never returned home, to remember them with love, honour and tears.  As a real hero, he stood and cried with true humanity and dignity for ones he knew, respects and will never forget.  Real heroes do not just fight.  They feel for humanity.  .  

So Pope Francios finished May, his proclaimed month of devoition to the rosary, with leading the rosary in the Vtaican before the image of Mary, Untier of Knots.  Francis prayed that Mary might untie the knots of wounded relationships. of unemployment, of violence, of sickness and uncertainty, of all that stands in the way of our doing good.  

Mary, Untier of Knots; pray for us.  

Pope Francis, May 2021 - Laudato Si’ Action Platform

Pray, Reflect and Act; Pray, Reflect and Act and keep going

One way of looking at life is that it is a never ending circle.  We are people of habit, making the same mistakes, continually acting in the same old, known ways.  History repeats itself over and over.  We may ask if we ever learn.  However, habit and routine do serve a good purpose, for they allow us to assume a manageable way for approaching life. The older I get, the more I appreciate that routine matters.  We may apply this paradigm for living life to a better purpose, for achieving better, life giving and desired outcomes.

  

The pandemic is showing up our world for what it is and what is lacking in it.  This makes us realize that this is a time not simply to wait and regroup when it is over.  Rather, as Pope Francis is pointing out, this time of the pandemic is calling forth overdue and needed change for the sake of humanity, is calling forth the new era.  

Change is possible but it is not easy for it challenges us to step outside of our routine.  This is risky stuff.  Maybe change could be defined as our creating new routines or as our being flexible with life routines.  So do we just undo how we normally do life and do life in new and better ways?  This may sound easy, but it is not.    

How then to reform for the new era?  Apply the cyclical nature of human behaviour to a new paradigm that can become our new routine?  Adopt and live the Pastoral Cycle?  Let our life's circle of routine be spiritually and radically reformed to be one of praying, reflecting, acting.  Think about it.   

Who would ever have thought?

We "embrace the imperfection and even the injustices of our world, allowing these situations to change us from the inside out.  This is the only way things are changed."  (Richard Rohr ofm)  

During this pandemic which has highlighted so poignantly how our world is plagued by so many other pandemics of injustice and violence, I am mesmerized by the view that this is not simply a time for change in our world but to change our world.  I wrestle with this.  Is it possible or not?  This is a question that vexes me, while I ever hold dearly to hope for real change in our world?  Then I read this from Richard Rohr.  

My hope is not unique.  Pope Francis is my inspiration as he continually pushes that this pandemic will definitively change our world.  He plainly says: "We do not come out of a crisis the same, we either come out better or worse."  He clearly points the way to our being on the verge of  entering a new era.  I believe in my heart that we are but is that just me being me?  Will our world be better or worse following this pandemic?  All this, Francis would posit, is up to us.    

Being an idealist, I hope we enter into a new era where all will be better.   The realist in me sees ongoing divisions, injustices, conflicts and catastrophes in our world, and I wonder if it is possible.  

Idealist or realist is not the point.  What matters is who I am.  My life is rooted in the experience of looking after the little guy who has no one to look after them, to give those going nowhere a hand.  Justice is key to who I am.  It has made me who I am.  My times of failure to put that into action have taken away from who I am.  I must never forget that I became who I am in the Church because she is truly my Mother, having given me life and opportunity in real ways and through real people when I was most vulnerable.  

To live a life based on a sense of giving back is not lifelong nourishing or sustaining.  Justice and the people in my life who live it, the Oscar Romeros, nourish and sustain me, making me who I am in life - a priest and religious - even in my knowing how I fail and fall short.   That is what my life is about.        

As Kierkegaard (1835) so aptly captures it:  "What I really need is to get clear about what I must do, not what I must know, except insofar as knowledge must precede every act. What matters is to find a purpose, to see what it really is that God wills that I shall do; the crucial thing is to find a truth which is truth for me, to find the idea for which I am willing to live and die."  

Integrity matters.  Live who I am.  Failures and risks challenge.  Never compromise my integrity.  Who would ever have thought that a pandemic would challenge so much fertile matter for life?

Our First Response to Trouble is Criminalization?

Following the Australian issue I raised last week, there has been a significant development with protests and challenges being made from many significant quarters, even within the government, against their current ruling prohibiting Australian citizens in India returning home during the present pandemic catastrophe there.  That is good news as it confirms all people matter and have rights.  That is good news because it confirms I do not stand alone.  

My question then is why are we so ready to demonize the other, when difficulties and differences arise?    Demonize the other because they are not acting as we would wish or command, because their actions or possible actions threaten us?  Is it that simple?   

We see this demonization all the time in migration.  People are on the move to escape conflict, violence, poverty and hardship; to find a life and a living.  That is their right and need but, in doing so, they may disturb us or make us uncomfortable.  To their plight, what is more and more an ever ready response of the mainstream world?  They are the other.  Are they?  They should not be doing that.  Really? So we go on to victimize them, even criminalize them.   

This is happening too often in our world on the big issues.  We can cope with that.  Can we?   On reflection, what arises for me as being truly frightening is how we do the same in our own little worlds.  We see a crisis, we see a threat and our first reaction is fear.  The walls go up.  We keep out the other, demonizing, victimizing, criminalizing in our little ways.  Why?  Couldn't we do better?  

Think about it as do I.  I assure you, I do.  Happy reflecting.    

What about me?

In these extraordinary times, I matter too.  Or better put, we all matter, whoever we are and in whatever time.  Where does this line come from?  

It is spurred on by news from Australia that, with the present Covid catastrophe in India, the Australian government has made it illegal for citizens to return home from there.  If they land back home, they will be subject to a hefty fine and imprisonment. 

I cannot use a photo this week as it is a news story and I will not break copyright.    

As an Australian living long term outside my country, I have my views.  I do appreciate the seriousness of the situation and agree totally on looking after life but this is not achieved by sacrificing the few for the sake of the masses.  Every life matters. 

To achieve the desired outcome of safety for all and caring for all, there must be other options available than simply consigning the few to staying in a dangerous environment.  

This pandemic is affecting the world's citizens, all of whom deserve our attention and care.  So one may ask some questions in response to such a specific initiative.  Where is our concern for humanity?  Is it lost in our concern solely for ourselves?  

We all have rights.  There are declared rights that inherently belong to all and can never be denied.  One such right is the right to citizenship and a home.  To deny this right or any such basic right, even in a crisis and temporarily, is a grave matter, setting a dangerous precedent.  Once a precedent of this nature is set, it can reappear and be used against less powerful and more vulnerable people to uphold the rights of a privileged class.  

The three point Mission Statement that I name as set by the pandemic - respect, responsibility, solidarity - says it all.  We are in this journey of life together for the good and the bad, for better or worse.  Together we stand.  We all have rights that matter and that cost us all.  They act to safeguard life for all, no matter who we are.  

We all matter 

 

Let the Wine of Friendship Never Run Dry

Soul friend

Life is a mystery.  To be wholesome, we must remain truthful to our vulnerable complexity.  We need to hold the interior and the exterior, visible and invisible, known and unknown, temporal and eternal, ancient and new, together.  To be holy is to be natural.  

This is pure wisdom I am reading as I plunge into a book, entitlted in English - "Spiritual Friend".  Be a spiritual friend to oneself and know not to separate the human from the divine.   Herein is the basic theme given in its introduction.  

As we enter a third wave of the pandemic here, being accompanied yet again by the cessation of public masses, I approach this time, as before, as a spiritual time, as a retreat.  Being the third wave, I must say I am better prepared and so readily take up my chosen companion.   

The worse thing for me during this time would be to simply see it as time off, to let loss of purpose rule the day, and so, close myself off from the world.  That path would be self-defeating, the easy way out for me.  Rather this time is a concrete reminder that busyness is not what matters and that there are more important things in life than completing tasks.  We are so much more.  We are not what we do.  More basic, what we do gives expression to who we are.    

So be a spiritual friend to oneself.  As Shakespeare named it in Hamlet, "To thine own self be true".  As they sing so passionately in Les Miserables, "Let the wine of friendship never run dry".