R and R

Having come to the end of the school offered by Luke, in his Gospel, it was now time for revision.  As it turned out, Pope Leo offered the perfect revision text with his Message for Grandparents and the Elderly Sunday.   

On reading it, I was excited to see he used the word "revolution".  No, don't start writing in letters of protest or shaking your heads in disbelief.  This is not about revolution in the tradition of Lenin or Mao.  This is not about death and destruction.  Rather this is about rising up for the gospel and for life for all, in good and healthy ways that build up the Reign of God on earth.  

In line with Francis' call to the revolution of tenderness, of love, Leo is carrying on with this gospel based challenge, calling forth the "revolution of gratitude and care".  He wants to see us reaching out to and spending time with the lonely, the housebound, the excluded.  Amazingly, he goes even further to offering an indulgence to those making a purposeful visit to the elderly, the lonely, by our "making it a pilgrimage to Christ present in them".  This in itself is a revolutionary concept, as everyone simply associates indulgences with saying set prayers, but not so for Leo, who includes pastoral action.   His creativity is spot on.  

Again, he is spot on when he stresses, that "Christian hope always urges us to be more daring, to think big, to be dissatisfied with things the way they are".  To be people of faith, we are called to be true to who we are in the eyes of God.  To be so, as Erik Varden rightly says, we are all called to the "radical Christian life".  Let us neither falter nor shudder in fear, for we are called to be revolutionary.   

So revision proved to be an intense and powerful exercise, most worthwhile and life giving.  Thank you, Leo.   

   

The Curriculum

On these Sundays, school is definitely in session.  Thanks to Luke's Gospel, the curriculum is expanding to include so far mission, love and prayer.  It is a school on life well lived, thus nourishing the soul.  Prayer sounds a bit dry or obtuse?  Well, no way, for I picked up my textbook and read:  

"There is no life without prayer.  Without prayer, there is only madness and horror." 

Now that is definitely not boring.  

I was enlivened to be affirmed in believing that prayer is much more than reciting words.  It goes much further and deeper to our being the prayer.  St Francis of Assisi said - "We should seek not so much to pray but to become prayer". 

Prayer is life.  It is grasped with passion, with the passion we have for life.  If we have no passion, our life will be dry and dull.  The school of Luke is about giving us that passion for life and for continuing life, full steam ahead .  It is about never giving up, never believing the best days are over, for the next adventure awaits.  .Failure is part of life but does not direct life for, after the failure, we get on with the next challenge.  Prayer is all part of this as it builds up our strength and nourishes our life, as it is meant to be - lived with God and for the other.     

Listen to the wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers.  

"When talking about prayer, it is about the struggle.  Life is a struggle. And we are immersed in that struggle, as we immerse ourselves more and more in prayer.  ...  God demands everything from us. ...  Do you wish to be saved when you die?  Go and exhaust yourself, go and labour.  ....   The present age is not a time for rest and sleep, but is a struggle, a combat, a voyage.  Therefore, you must exert yourself and not be downcast and idle. ...  Nothing comes without effort.  The help of God is always ready and always near."  

The curriculum is definitely expansive and life giving.  

School is in

We never stop learning.  This may be an often spoken adage, but it is true nevertheless.  

As I reflect on the last two Sundays, Luke, in his gospel, has been taking us back to school, inviting us to eneter the School of Mission and the School of Love.  In both schools, Luke shows himself to be the gifted head teacher.  Yes, as we listen to his gospel stories, we could say that we have heard them so many times.  So why do we hear them again?  Okay, but then ask why we have not perfected them in practice.  Fact is that we still don't get it.  Just reflect on our lives.  After 2000 years, we still need to listen and learn.  We still need to go to school.  Will we ever learn?  

Luke's lesson objectives seem simple.

1)  The Kingdom of God is here and now  So we keep on the mission.  Success or failure, it does not matter.  We are energised, motivated by the reality that God is with us and that a full life is God's will for all.  This is Good News.  

2)  God is love.  God created us out of love.  We are loved by God.  This love is for all to live and enjoy.  God's love has no boundaries.  We share it freely and without cost, remembering those most wounded and hurting in our world.  End of story! 

No matter how simple the curriculum may seem, we remain students, novices, in both fields of life.  We seem to never learn.  We keep making mistakes.  We remain entrenched in self-interest and greed.  Often we don't even try.  Why do we make it so comnplicated?  Maybe it is because we do not want to be taken where do not want to go.  Maybe we wish to guard our comfort at all cost.  Maybe we just don't care, because it is all too difficult.  

Whatever the reason, school has never stopped.  We still struggle to comprehend.  What matters most is action.  So what do we see in action?  We look around at us and our world and wonder - whatever happened?    

Thus, comprehending core learning remains ever the challenge of the Schools of Mission and Love. 

1)  The social meaning of existence.

2)  The fraternal dimension of spirituality.

3)  The inalienable dignity of each person. 

4)  The corporate nature of life, loving and accepting all our brothers and sisters.  

I think that school will be in for as long as humanity exists on earth, for we are slow learners.  

   

Success is not the point

The point is that we keep at the task, we keep trying.  

We live in a world ruled by power and control, where the aim is to be the one who succeeds, the one who is on top.  The reality is that we are imperfect beings in an imperfect world.  If I have learnt anything, it is that we cannot truly appreciate the strength of our humanity, until we first appreciate our vulnerability and weakness.  It is then knowing our fragility that we can assume our strength.  

This relfects how we live life in the midst of a paradox.  I looked up the word "paradox", and it is explained as -

"a statement or propisition that, despite sound reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless or self-contradictory".  

The challenge is that we keep being true to ourselves, doing the right thing, being good, for no other reason than that is who we are meant to be, as people created by a good and loving God.  Sometimes this just makes no sense in the midst of a life filled with difficulty and suffering or when surrounded by pure evil.  

In life, I have also learnt that we don't just assume the goodness of humanity, for until we appreciate the evil within us and not just in the world, we cannot fully stand up for the goodness of humanity and live that goodness.  This reflects that we are part of the basic struggle between good and evil, not divorced from it.  Thus we partake in the greatness and goodness of humanity.  

Going back to where I begun, we keep living the good fight not because we succeed in our daily endeavours, but becasue we know who we are and know the truth of human existence, that God is with us, as we are, and for a purpose.  So we just keep going, as believers in the the Kingdom of God, here and now, a kingdom immersed in our reality, as it is.  Life can get messy, but that is okay.