Time to take my leave

While a deacon in Sydney, during 1986 and 1987, my mentor, the full of life and fun loving Fr Maurice O'Connor, taught me something that I have always remembered.  He would often say that ministry may be more about needy priests, looking to meet their needs through serving those to whom they busily minister.  So he would highlight the value of the Ministry of Absence, and not just the Ministry of Presence alone.  For him, the two stood together.  There is truly a ministry in being present to others, but there is also a real ministry in our being absent.  

After five years of constant presence in My Bangkok, it is time to exercise my Ministry of Absence, and go home to Brisbane, for the first time in five years so as to touch base with my family and valued friends and Order.  Going home is important.  I do so with a sense that I never want to lose touch with so much that truly matters in my life.  I hope it will also renew my sense of experiencing life within a healthy and measured perspective, which is something you lose when you are caught up in one situation for too long.  Finally, as they say, absence makes the heart grow fonder.  

Being absent will show me anew that the bonds that join us are much deeper and stronger than whatever may divide us.  If only the world knew that.  Maybe we need more absence from what is and more presence with what could be?    

No matter what...

I happily receive the monthly newsletter of the Jesuits, in Myanmar, which always impresses me by how much they do in the midst of a frightful revolution.  They are amazing agents for good in the midst of darkness, true builders of the Kingdom.  Two stories in the last newsletter stay with me.  

One shared the reflections of their novices, on completeing an intensive, five day spiritual exercise, named the Sadhana experience. One reflection was:

Fasting and hunger made us mindful and aware of our fragility and imperfections. 

Another was: 

A weak body makes my soul strong. ...  All of us have learned that the soul or the inner self is the core of mind, emotion and body.  

Here, they are getting to the heart of what really matters in life, namely spirituality, which is at the heart of who we are, generating energy, purpose and direction for our lives.  

The other story was a reflection of a Jesuit, on his new parish assignment, within his war torn country.  

On Trinity Sunday, I reached my new mission. ... For two years, the two catechists and the three Sisters of St Theresa have walked with the faithful of St St Francis Xavier's parish, on their journey of life and death.  So far, 38 missiles have been fired upon the village, destroying houses, but killing no one.  I stay alone at the clergy house.  My early guests are centipedes, cockroaches, mice, spiders, snakes and scoripons. 

On reading this, I was aghast, sitting in awe of such a man, a true man of God, dedicated to building God's Kingdom here and now, no matter what.  The spirituality, previously expressed by the novices, is at the heart of their fellow Jesuit's dedication to mission.  It is nourishing his faith, feeding his courage.  

This mission to build the Kingdom does not just belong to brave Jesuits in Myanmar; it is entrusted to all people of faith and continues through us.  As Church, together we are builders of the Kingdom.  This is the continuation of Jesus' mission, aimed at realizing God's vision for all humanity and fulfilling the purpose of God's creation.  This mission is the lived expression of love who is God.  This mission drives us and gives us hope for the better world, willed by God.  No matter what, we are Church.  

The truth is God's love is unconquerable, his Kingdom is here, it cannot be stopped.  

It's all so simple but we don't get it.

Last week, a neighbour posed a 'meaning of life' question - .  He asked, "Why did God create man and woman, as we are so destructive of each other and the planet?"  My reply was that it is simply explained by the nature of God who is love.  Simply put, creation is an act of love.  

My good neighbour did not get it and kept on his line of argument of how cruel we can be to our own kind.  I get that and understand it, but that is not the end of the story.   That cannot be the end of the human narrative, nor is it.  

We know how the cruelty of humanity overshadows all the good in our midst.  Within a busy, inner-city parish, that is 10am mass at Assumption Cathedral, the message that strikes a chord is to identify the good in our lived experience, while naming the challenges we face in a complex and conflicted world.  

Within all that we know and face, the answer is simple, but do we get it?  The way to follow is simply laid out by the prescription of love.  The difficulty is living it out.  People yearn for a simple life, appreciating basic principles for life.  Trouble is we make it unnecessarily complicated.   .Will we ever get it?  

Well, by Sunday, I met a woman who did get it.  What was the secret for her?  She did not seek to control or she knew control did not work.  I not know which.  It is all mystery.  We neither accept nor follow blindly.  We just know and accept the mystery.  I share with a true sense of how little I know.  

We all need people

We all need people in our lives, but what do we do? 

We keep busy; we avoid; we act to control and use others; we be arrogant; we are afraid of revealing too much.  Basically, too often, we do anything but connect.  So we act against dialogue and encounter, as Pope Francis describes the way to achieve human connection.  People yearn for community but our world fails too often.  We just seem unable to act for our own good.  

Rather we stick to power games, staying on top, keeping the other in the dark and at an arm's distance.  So our crazy world just goes on and on, even if we don't want it to continue as such.  And so, we ever engage in conflict, division and abuse of the goodness of others.  How tiring!  Pride, greed and control remain as killers of good life and relationships.  How destructive!  

We may full well know that the ways of peace and love are the way to human fulfilment.  Why don't we engage more then in meeting and experiencing each other?  Care and concern for our brothers, sisters and planet; using power to create and build up will achieve much more than focusing on the Ukraine situations of our world, of our coomuniites and our relationships. 

The way to go is summed up in the words of St Irenaeus (2nd Century, Lyon);  

The glory of  God is man and woman fully alive. The glory of God gives life: those who see God receive life."