Rules are made to be broken

"Rules are made to be broken".  That sounds somewhat radical or rebllious.  It speaks of me but, as I hear it, I wonder what happened to John, the rebel.  Hss he been lost?  Whatever happened to my favourite James Dean poster - "Rebel without a cause"?  I took it with me wherever I went, when I lived in Australia.  It both spoke to me and of me.  "Ever the rebel!" would be my cry.  I think it is time to regain my past. 

Why does this theme arise in my life just now?  Once I was told by a wise person not to think too much, but I keep thinking, trying to understand life.  That is who I am.  Am I simply too introspective?  Am I just a comfortable yet challenging thinker?  Karl Marx's dictum was that the task of philosophers was to change the world.  So hopefully I reflect on life and the questions arise. 

Life goes on and on, going where?  My life has a routine, getting the same results time and again.  So I think, is it not time to change something, especially if it is not working?  

I want to achieve so much.  So why don't I just go out and do it, before it is too late?  What holds me back?  

I guess it all boils down to asking if there isn't more to life than my everyday and where I find myself in it.     

I identify that I live life within somewhat stritly defined circles.  This is not me.  I don't know if that is anyone in the world, as control does not work.  Life needs boundaries but not endless rules and demands placed by outside forces.  

Rules have a purpose, they deserve to be respected, but they don't always work and they aren't meant to squash the human spirit.  Flexibbility is also good, allowing rules to be broken at good times and for good reasons.  For what purpose do we confine ourselves within tight circles, when we know there is so much more to life, so much more to give, but all we do is ever passively suffer the absurdities of life?  Why?  Thus have we made the world.  So let us change it.  

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The Lord may be risen, but I am tired

As it is Easter, I might be expected to be enlivened, energetic and positive in life.  Truth is I just feel tired.  I am neither pessimistic nor dispirited.  I am simply tired from ever trying to help people, getting nowhere.  I feel this after my latest attempt to help another western national in Bangkok.  In the end, nothing changes, but you can't see the person penniless, when alone and lost in a foreign environment.  

Still, this is where they chose to be, despite their issues and brokenness, which weigh heavily on them.  My friend of the last few days does not stand alone.  There surely are a number of westerners who are lost souls, choosing to live isolated in Bangkok.  They eventually get into trouble - money, health, misfortune -  and need a Fr John, going nowhere, except their harsh or fantastical Bangkok.  I often wonder what it is about this place.  

Their plight is endless, going nowhere.  They know where they want to be.  Whatever their reality may be, they want to be in Bangkok.  So helping is tiring as what do I achieve?  Help and their plight just goes on and on and on.  This same narrative is repeated time and again, helping any broken people, thus helping can be a thankless and tiring task.  So what to do?  The response is in the season.  I am asking the wrong question, for it is not about what I achieve.  It is about much more than my little world.  

Our world is transformed by the resurrection of Jesus.  Do I get that?  That new heaven and the new earth have exploded into our world.  Do I get that?  In approaching the mundane, the routine, the daily slog, I too easily lose sight of the transcendental.  Life is determined by much more than my concerns, achievements, successes, failures and feelings.  It is energizing to remember that I am part of a project so much bigger and much more important.  The project for life!  So keep going, don't tire.  .  

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Love explains it all

The full moon is the great symbol of Easter.  Maybe this is so because no matter what is happening on earth, nor where we are, we can all look up into the sky and easily see this sign of wonder and beauty, graciously reminding us that life goes on, even despite us.  

We can be a cruel lot, a selfish anomaly stuck in the midst of the beauty of creation, but none of that ultimately defines us, for we are defined by higher values.  Sounds good?  Some may simply say - Easter, so what?  Do I even get it?  To be honest, I get it so far, but then there is a huge gap in my understanding.  

I was just at yet another work meeting where ones think they are saving the world.  By this time in my life, I just tend to sit and watch, coming in at poignant moments of concern, thinking this is somewhat a theatre of the absurd..  

It is within this context of an absurd world, with all its divisions, conflicts and destruction, that it becomes challenging to fully capture and appreciate the ultimate goodness of the world.   What is this ultimate goodness?   I read it is love.  I agree, but surely not love on human terms.  

Of course, not!  It is love wihin the realm of the divine.  For is not God love?  Love for God is quintessentially expressed in creation.  So love creates, going out and making God's realm the realm of all, taking all into the embrace of the Divine.  So we are caught up in the love of God   Even in the midst of the absurd, love is all.  Love explains it all, at all times. 

Lent is over. Now, we get the full picture.

For anyone who follows my blog, there may seem to be a present lull, but that is far from the truth.  Rather, it is the opposite, as my life has been full of concerns and issues, arising in my everyday existence.  The individual issues do not matter here as this is not a forum for clearing complaints.  

In fact, in facing this time, I have kept in mind a motto posted by my hero, Pope Francis.  It basically stated - "Keep complaints outside my office".   This highlighted his focus was to keep an eye on the possible and moving forward.  

Well, present experience shows me yet again that we more easily deal with moving forward, when pressing concerns and issues, no matter how minor, are put behind us.  Keeping focus on the possible and moving forward is all good philosophy, when looking back in hindsight, but not so when one is caught within the seemingly overwhelming demands of the immediate moment.         

My easy submission to the trials of life appears at the very end of Lent, when our focus is on surmounting much graver matters of life.  I look around and I see a world overcome by war, conflict, suffering of all sorts.  So what of my little concerns?  Nothing, it would seem. Is not life about achieving much greater heights and dealing with real challenges facing humanity?   I am so easily pulled down by the minutiae, losing sight of the big picture, of what truly calls forth our shared call to greatness.  Life is meant to be transformative, not an exercise in survival.    

Whare has our Lent gone?

Haven't they been showing us the way?   This picture was taken at the beginning of Lent, at the Vatican.  It was the time when Bishop Erik Varden, a Trappist, was leading Pope Leo, an Augustinian, on a Lenten retreat.  For me, this could easily be the photo of the year for it shows two great men together in a most revealing pose, one of listening, of engaging in real conversation.  Isn't this a pose of leadership in a world where people just shoot from the hip, full stop.  

In his last reflection, Varden prophetically shared.  

"Christ calls us to communicate hope to the world. To have Christian hope is not necessarily to be an optimist. A Christian forswears wishful thinking, making a determined option for the real. Demagogues promise that things will get better. They claim demiurgical power to change communities within an electoral term, distracting the masses from felt disappointments by hand-outs of bread, tickets to circuses, and defamations of adversaries. 

How different are Christ’s words. He tells us, ‘The poor you will always have with you.’ He affirms that nation will rise against nation. Persecutions will come. A man’s enemies will be members of his own household. There is no lame resignation in these statements. The Lord obliges us, his disciples, to labour without respite for a new, healthy humanity formed by charity, in justice. He tells us to ‘cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons’. We are to enact the beatitudes, making the glory hidden within them shine. But as we go about this we are reminded: ‘Without me you can do nothing.’  

Christ is the light of the nations.  He alone, doing the Father’s will, acting in the Spirit, can renew the face of the earth. In him we put our trust, not in passing stratagems.  He can act through us if we consent to being patient. Lent shows us that God, suffering the wound of his philanthropy, is at his most active in his Passion. The hope he entrusts to us is not hope in a finally modernised, digitised, sanitised Vale of Tears. Our hope is in a new heaven, a new earth, in the resurrection of the dead.  

The time in which we live is hungry to hear this hope proclaimed." 

I read this and am left speechless.  What can I add to that?   What do I need to add?  Words are not needed.  It is time rather to continue our Lenten fast for time is left and there is much to ponder, much to do. Happy Lent!

Slainte!

This week sees St Patrick's Day.   On this day, I am always reminded of Pat Codd, our novice master, who would tell us - "Gentlemen, St Patrick's Day is a non Lenten day for the Irish.  So enjoy."  

Some traditions of Church should never be lost, especially ones that are so human and show us how to be human towards each other.  The little traditions like a school picnic on a feast day, an ice-cream on a special anniversary, all these make a difference, telling us that life is special and worth living    

In our world, we get caught up in so many -isms that tell us how we should be and who we should we be.  Truth is that none of them works. 

Materialism tells us it is about what we have that gives us worth.  

Individualism tells us that we are more than enough on our own.      

Secularism tells us that we go it alone in the universe. 

Colonialism tells us that we have control over others.

Imperialism tells us that we have power to do whatever we want. 

These, and more, are all alive in our world, and even our Church may I venture to consider. 

None of this is to say that this is a bad world, for it is not.  Good religion ever puts the message before us, in lights, that this world is a good place to be.  Can we see that?  Or we blinded by the ignorance and foolishness so often pushed forward in our world?  

The simple things matter.  The simple things counter the '-isms' that rule our world.  The 'Pat Codds' of our life, telling us to enjoy life in little, friendly and good ways, remind us of this and that life is good.  We share a destiny.  Life has a meaning and a purpose.  These big and serious truths cannot be lost by our thinking we are too important, too comfortable, too busy, too overcome in our '-ism' ruled world to make time for the small joys of life.  Remember the simple joys make life what it is - a gift from God, a time to be enjoyed.  Slainte!       

Life moves on

Life does move on, and must.  It runs on its own dynamic, neither determined by nor centred upon me or anyone else in the world.  I have been blessed with a miracle.  I am having time to stand back in life, even stand still a little.  This is a life enriching time.  I feel so good.  Then I remember that none of this is going to last forever, but it may be a forever moment, a moment that will carry me into the future.  

A strong part of this whole experience is that it has involved so many people.  Friends, family, our cathedral community, doctors, nurses, chaplaincy - they have all been a part of this miracle.  As I say, life is not a solo Olympic event.  A powerful symbol of this is my walking stick, which has become my constant companion.  It is my symbol of both receiving and giving kindness.  Receiving kindness for, on seeing my need, people have been very kind to me.  Giving kindness for, as I get stronger, I give kindness in return.  Truly, life is a team event.  

By nature of being vulnerable, one is humbled and feels humble. I know this too well.  My formative moment in humility was being bathed by the nurses each morning in the hospital.  Humility is an invaluable and inescapable gift for life's journey.  

Life does move on.  It is hard work and it is challenging.  It is full of falls, but it is also full of opportunity to do good, to make something worthwhile of our lot, and never alone.  And what I have found is that there is surprise after surprise, after surprise. It does move on, but in ways we never imagine possible.  So we know that God is our ever sure companion.