Let a new year begin

As they say in the movies, bring it on!  As a new liturgical year of the Church begins with this First Sunday of Advent, I say the same.   Advent leads right into Christmas and so unfolds my favourite time of year, a time full of expectation and excitement, with Christmas Day as its climax. Thjs time of year acts like a rocket booster for life in my annual calendar, reminding me how good life could be and should be.  This time happens during Advent when a key gospel message for us is to stay awake.  

This 'stay awake' is a good reminder call, telling us to live life to the full, to treat it as a banquet, not as a food snack, taken on the run.  Truth is we can too often be so mean in life, being overcome by all that is wrong in the world, sharing a communal sense of despair, not enjoying what is on offer in our world.  This line of thinking is not to define life.  Life is not limited by what is measured out by others, nor by what we passively accept or are forced to accept.  It is beyond all that weighs us down.  I keep telling myself this and know it to be true.  It must be so. This is not the thought of some deluded idealist.   

Yes, life is a struggle, but it is not defined by the struggle, mess or chaos we may know in our reality.  Life is so much more.  This is revealed to us when approached within the perspective of the grand, human narrative, the divine narrative, and not confined within my own, small narrative.  Let us take the risk, step out of our narrow worlds, engage the wider world, encounter others.  Life is an adventure, a journey.  Carpe diem!  Happy New Year!  

 

As another year ends

The welcome band at the House of Compassion

Yes, it is already the end of another year - the Church, liturgical year. This happens because the Church likes to do things differently, and so it has its own calendar.  Like the end of any year, it is a good opportunity to think back and reflect.  I will not bore you with photos and stories galore from the past year.  Instead, I just share one memory that stands out for me.  

It is from my recent visit to CLUMP (Communal Life of Love and Unity of the Mountain People), a mission of a devoted, Thai, religious brother up in the north of Thailand.  It was a rich time of learning from one man's Gospel vision.  It is a vision that inspires and nourishes him, as he lives it out, by helping the poor and marginalized.  For me, it was a time that was simply inspirational and life-giving.  

It was here, I visited the House of Compassion, a rehabilitation centre for males suffering drug addiction.  Yes, I mentioned it last week, but in a different context.  It was such a powerful experience.  I name it as the memory of my past year, for it is an enduring sign to me of God's compassion.  As always, the goodness of the vulnerable is an incredible voice for procliming the goodness of humanity, for witnessing to the presence of a God of love in the midst of our crazy, even ridiculous, world.  

A simple song lovingly offered by these young men, in the midst of their struggles, deeply touched me and so stays with me.  Their music, their singing, their presence resonate in my heart.  It was pure surprise and gift which continues to impact me with God's love.  

God is truly God with us.  We know this in the midst of our poverty as we humbly open up to God, who chooses to speak to us and touch us, using whomever he chooses.  

He looks on us, his servants, in our lowliness.       

 

Being Poor is Freeing

"What we need to consider is the value that we put on money: it cannot become our absolute and chief purpose in life. Attachment to money prevents us from seeing everyday life with realism; it clouds our gaze and blinds us to the needs of others. Nothing worse could happen to a Christian and to a community than to be dazzled by the idol of wealth, which ends up chaining us to an ephemeral and bankrupt vision of life."   (Pope Francis - Message for World Day of the Poor, 2022)

Last week, it was my great honour and privilege to visit a rehabilitation centre for males suffering addictions, run by the church. I went there, with my two travelling companions, where we were treated royally by the young, male residents, who happily shared their talents with a musical performance.  The whole experience touched me, for here were men being torn apart by the pain and emptiness of their addiction, but not being held back in reaching out to us, welcoming us, entertaining us.  Their kindness brought a tear to my eye.  Their actions told me that, in the midst of despair, lives hope.  

We can too easily be overcome by what weighs us down, addiction is one such weight.  Reading Francis' message, I think of wealth as another weight.  Wealth is not bad in itself, but, if abused, it can also weigh us down, oppressing us, making us into who we are not meant to be.  Wealth, power, addiction, anger - the list can go on - can blind us to the simple goodness and joys of life.  In Proverbs, we read that the people without a vision will perish.  

Let us not perish, blinded by despair or all that does not reallly matter.  Let us focus rather on what matters in life, that we are all together in this world and can act ogether to make life and our world so much better, so joyous.  Why don't we?  

Maybe, we are too easily weighed down by the woes of the world and life.  Instead, let us keep our eye on the Christian Project, which is based on human optimism. Its message is clear.  Let us not be dazzled by what is false.   

Fascinated, but disconnected

"Sister Wendy entertained complex and competing opinions about Merton. She was fascinated by him, constantly reading and rereading his writings and admiring his wisdom and brilliance. But always she detected something “obtuse” and “fragmented” in his relationship with God". 

Sister Wendy Becket was an English, Carmelite nun and hermit, who hosted her popular, 1990s television program, “Sister Wendy’s Odyssey”, which looked at the history of art.  I remember her as engaging, quaint, insightful and smart.  Reading her just now on Thomas Merton, I am made aware of another side to her.  Like Merton, she was a unique person of deep sprituality and wisdom.    

As for Merton, a Trappist monk, who died in 1968, he was a man who spoke to the post-WWII, western world.  That presents a context that goes beyond his chosen world of medieval monasticism, into a new age.  Maybe his writings reflect this new dichotomy.  His life was a struggle.  His gift was that he shared his life so openly and freely.  I often have thought that maybe he shared far too much, but he was the writer.  He was much more than a monk.  As I read briefly Sr Wendy's assessment of Merton and his life as a monk, I was put in touch with so much about me.  

As one who also struggles in church and religious life, I identify with Merton.  Sr Wendy would probably find me, as a religious, somewhat contorted or complex. That is okay and that is what I would expect.  

I can honestly say that living alone in Bangkok, I have found my place in my Order and feel more an Augustinian than ever, an Order, whose key charism is community life.  Maybe this reflects what I often share with my fellow Christians, that God and life are a mystery.  I am a mystery.    

Part of my mystery is that I am often challenged by my fellow Christians and their life stances.  That is good for me and to be expected.  As I am challenged, I often reflect upon a God of mercy and love?  Isn't God here in all of our here and now?  Why compartmentalize God?    

Pastoral situations faced by me often present such healthy pastoral and theological questioning and reflection.  I continue to face these core questions that both challenge and nourish my spiritualtiy.  They take their toll on me.  However, no matter what, they will continue to be the compost for deepening my faith and spirituality.  The sheep need a shepherd.  I surely need a shepherd.  So we shepherd each other along the journey of faith, in the midst of mysteyr and paradox.      

What am I saying?  I so identify with Merton and understand why his writings seem so confused or contradictory to Sr Wendy.  That is life, that is the beauty of Merton.  He shared life as he experienced it, no holds barred, in a spiritual context.  So, in Merton, we have what we have.  So we are who we are.  Relish the mystery, roll around freely in its fertile soil.