Being Ready, Being Wise
Reflection for 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Gospel given to us this week presents a contrast between those Bridesmaids that were ready and those that were unprepared, those who were wise and those who were foolish. In this parable Jesus is saying that wisdom is very much tied up with ‘being ready’. The first reading from the Book of Wisdom suggests the same sense of readiness when it counsels ‘watch for [wisdom] early and you will have no trouble, you will find her sitting at your gates.’
The RCIA as we know is a journey of faith that ‘includes not only the periods for making inquiry and for maturing, but also the steps marking the catechumens’ progress, as they pass, so to speak, through another doorway…’ (RCIA 6). As we accompany those who are preparing to cross the threshold of faith and belonging to the community of the Catholic Church it is a great consolation to know that as we do we will find wisdom already there, sitting at our gates, present at the place of encounter and change. Wisdom is already in operation in those who are seeking God. For us too as catechists it is only with wisdom, with that sense of readiness, that we can fruitfully accompany them as they seek to enter the family of faith. As the Gospel puts it: ‘those who were ready went in with him to the wedding hall…’
So what resources do we have that can help us to be ready and wise?
We are offered the wisdom of the Rite itself in which is contained and distilled the wisdom of the community which has been initiating members for centuries. As well as the Rite itself we have resources that draw on that wisdom such as those found on the RCIA Network website www.rcia.org.uk , newsletter and the events such as the study days and conferences where collective wisdom and experience can be fruitfully shared. If you haven’t yet come along to an RCIA conference why not make the next in summer 2012 your first? (RCIA Network Conference,3rd-6th July 2012 at High Leigh, Hoddesdon, Herts. Please see website for more details)
Finally this Gospel passage is a reminder that through our own life of prayer we can get in touch with the gift of wisdom given to us by the Holy Spirit. This special gift, to the extent that we are open to it, enables us to be ready for each and every situation that we may find ourselves drawn into. Perhaps in our own prayer we can reflect on how ready and wise we are or to what extent we need to grow in wisdom and readiness. Perhaps we can take this opportunity to seek the Lord’s gift of wisdom anew for our lives since, as todays first reading tells us ‘she is found by those who look for her.’
Welcoming the Newcomer
A Reflection on the Gospel for the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time
A few years ago while on a family holiday abroad my wife and I sought out a Catholic Church on Sunday morning. We eventually found the local parish Church and entered, we had arrived fairly early and so were prayerfully waiting for the next Mass to begin. A few minutes later a woman arrived looking rather disgruntled. Though there were only a handful of us in this rather large Church she made her way over to the exact pew in which we were sitting and headed straight for us. We didn’t speak the language but by her body language she made it very clear that my wife was sitting in her seat and so she squeezed herself as near to her normal seat as she could, squashing my wife and half sitting on her leg during the service. Needless to say, later in the Mass at the sign of peace, this lady was distinctly frosty!
As well as this personal experience some time ago I heard of a Church that was so effective at evangelisation and welcome that it was attracting significant numbers of new people to its congregation. As a result of this some of the more longstanding members of the congregation were beginning to feel left out and neglected claiming that the newcomers were getting all the attention at their expense- and they made this known in no uncertain terms to their priest!
In the Gospel passage given to us this Sunday Jesus addresses those who grumble against God’s welcome and generosity head on through the parable of the workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16). He makes it clear that there is no preferential treatment for faithful service, no long service award. Rather he tells us quite explicitly that ‘the last will be first, and the first, last.’ This can challenge us and be a stark reminder that God’s way of thinking is so unlike ours, as the Word of God says through the prophet Isaiah ‘Yes, the heavens are as high above earth as my ways are above your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.’(Isaiah 55:9)
Fundamental to the RCIA process, to the life of the Kingdom and to our calling as Church is to be a people of welcome. The reality of this is costly. In our parish communities and on a personal level are we willing to embrace the cost of being a people of welcome? Are we willing, really willing, to be ‘last’ so that newcomers may be ‘first’?
Jesus tells us that at the last judgement he will welcome those who made him welcome in the stranger. The stranger can, among others, be the newcomer in our parish or in our RCIA group. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if their experience was one of unconditional welcome and support? Would each of them say of us and our parish communities:
‘I was a newcomer and you made me welcome’?
Action
- Reflect on the ministry of welcome in your parish.
- Reflect on how you offer welcome in and through your RCIA process. Consider asking people who have experienced RCIA with you if they felt welcomed and what helped them feel part of the community. Was there any part of their experience that made them feel alienated or unwelcome? What can you learn from their perspective and experience?
- Scripture instructs us to make hospitality our special care (Romans 12:13, Hebrews 13:1-2). What are the practical aspects of hospitality you could develop further in your parish or RCIA group?
Building Good Foundations
A Reflection for the 9th Week in Ordinary Time
Our next door neighbours are currently having a house extension built. For the past few weeks the builders have been busy digging the foundations. Being wise builders they are spending a lot of time doing this properly, they are even re-routing pipes! They know the importance of good, solid foundations for what is to come. We too, as disciples, need good foundations as we seek the Kingdom of Heaven in our lives.
The key to entering into the Kingdom, according to the Gospel given to us in the 9th week of Ordinary Time is to do the will of God. Jesus says,
“It is not those who say to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ who will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the person who does the will of my Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21).
This will of the Father is revealed in Jesus own words, the words of the Gospel.
“Therefore, everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man…” (Mt 7:24)
So we are challenged to both listen to and obey these words of Jesus because they really are for us the key for entry into God’s Kingdom, they are a sure foundation for us.
How well do we listen? How well do we obey?
As people involved in the RCIA process many of us are probably fairly used to hearing Scripture. Perhaps we can ask ourselves about the quality of that hearing. Jesus makes clear that both hearing and obeying are necessary. In the parable those compared to the wise and foolish both listen to the Word, the distinction is that only some act on what they hear.
“everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them will be like a sensible man who built his house on rock.”(v24)
“everyone who listens to these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand.”(v26)
Perhaps I can ask myself today…
- What is the quality of my listening to God’s Word?
- To what extent, in all honesty, do I act on what I hear?
In the parable, storms come to both houses. Storms are inevitable. It is not a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’.
When the storms come, the quality of our foundations will be revealed.
Like the builders next door let’s encourage each other to build good foundations now.
A Reflection for All Saints
Holiness- A Gift Offered to All the Baptised
Once again we are invited to celebrate the Solemnity of All Saints. We can admire and be inspired by the example of all the saints and be aided by their prayers. But as we celebrate we can also be challenged, challenged with the invitation to become one of their number!
Our reaction to this may take many forms, perhaps it is ‘Lord, I am not worthy...’ or alternatively we may share the sentiments of Groucho Marx who famously said “I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.” And yet the challenge and the invitation remain. By God’s grace we are called to become saints.
Many will know that this theme was emphasised at Vatican II and again significantly at the turn of the Millennium with these words:
“stressing holiness remains more than ever an urgent pastoral task. It is necessary therefore to rediscover the full practical significance of Chapter 5 of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, dedicated to the ‘universal call to holiness’. The Council Fathers laid such stress on this point, not just to embellish ecclesiology with a kind of spiritual veneer, but to make the call to holiness an intrinsic and essential aspect of their teaching on the Church. The rediscovery of the Church as ‘mystery’, or as a people ‘gathered together by the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit’, was bound to bring with it a rediscovery of the Church's ‘holiness’, understood in the basic sense of belonging to him who is in essence the Holy One, the ‘thrice Holy’ (cf. Is 6:3). To profess the Church as holy means to point to her as the Bride of Christ, for whom he gave himself precisely in order to make her holy (Eph 5:25-26). This as it were objective gift of holiness is offered to all the baptised.”(NMI 30)
This striking last sentence deserves some consideration, it tells us clearly that the gift of holiness is offered to all the baptised. This gift of holiness is offered therefore to us and to all those that we journey with on the RCIA process, all seeking baptism and full belonging to the Church. It reminds us that we are all on a journey. Some of us may be on a journey of initiation, but all of us are on the journey towards holiness. On this journey we accompany each other. And it is ultimately, from an eternal perspective, it is the only journey that really counts.
Pope John Paul II goes on to stress that the gift of holiness “in turn becomes a task, which must shape the whole of Christian life: ‘This is the will of God, your sanctification’ (1 Th 4:3). It is a duty which concerns not only certain Christians: ‘All the Christian faithful, of whatever state or rank, are called to the fullness of the Christian life and to the perfection of charity’”. (NMI 30)
So as we celebrate together, as we journey together, let us take this opportunity to be open to holiness, to be open to the gift that it is, and open to the task that it entails. And as we do so let us remember that many have trod this path before us, and pray for us to join them.
It’s Great To Be Growing! (Reflections for Corpus Christi)
Recently I planted some bedding plants in the garden ably assisted by my two children. A few days later after the copious amounts of sun, and rain, that we have enjoyed recently the plants had bloomed. Upon witnessing this, the joyful cry went up ‘THE PLANTS ARE GROWING!!!’
It’s great to see growth! It brings us joy and a sense of fulfilment.
When we see growth in the lives of neophytes we have been journeying with, and in our own lives, it too can give us a real sense that the God is truly with us. We can know once more that while we have done our best to be faithful ’planters’ and ‘waterers’ of the seed of God’s Word, it has been God alone who has given the growth.
“What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow." (1 Corinthians 3:5-7)
In the period of Mystagogy that many of us are now experiencing, as well as celebrating the growth that has taken place we can also look ahead with hope for the growth that is still to come. Our hope is that we will see growth in our own lives, in the lives of the neophytes and in the Christian communities to which we all belong. But how can we encourage this growth?
How does the Church grow?
This question was asked by the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council. In response they stated that “as often as the sacrifice of the Cross by which Christ our Passover was sacrificed is celebrated on the altar, the work of our redemption is carried on.” In short they were affirming that the celebration of the Eucharist is at the centre of the process of the Church’s growth (Lumen Gentium 3, Ecclesia de Eucharistia 21).
Pope John Paul II in his Encyclical Letter Ecclesia de Eucharistia remarks that “the Apostles, by accepting in the Upper Room Jesus' invitation: ‘Take, eat’, ‘Drink of it, all of you’, entered for the first time into sacramental communion with him. From that time forward, until the end of the age, the Church is built up through sacramental communion with the Son of God who was sacrificed for our sake.” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia 21). He adds that “incorporation into Christ, which is brought about by Baptism, is constantly renewed and consolidated by sharing in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, especially by that full sharing which takes place in sacramental communion.” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia 22)
As we look back to the joys of our Easter celebrations, it is heartening to know that the grace of those baptisms are ‘constantly renewed and consolidated by sharing in the Eucharistic Sacrifice’.
So the Eucharist constantly renews and consolidates the gift of new life given at baptism, builds us up and enables us to continue to grow in our Christian life. This is captured in the Rite itself where the instruction for the Liturgy of the Eucharist at the Easter Vigil states:
“Before saying ‘This is the Lamb of God’, the celebrant may briefly remind the neophytes of the pre-eminence of the Eucharist, which is the climax of their initiation and the centre of the whole Christian life.” (RCIA 233).
So right at the outset, in the Rite, and in the Easter liturgy itself, the Church is encouraging us to find the source of our life and of our future growth in the Eucharist. These can be deeply encouraging truths and timely for us as prepare for and celebrate the Solemnity of Corpus Christi.
As we look ahead, to future ministry opportunities and new groups of catechumens and candidates we can also receive consolation and support by knowing that “from the perpetuation of the sacrifice of the Cross and her communion with the body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist, the Church draws the spiritual power needed to carry out her mission.” The truth is that “the Eucharist... appears as both the source and the summit of all evangelisation...” (Ecclesia de Eucharistia 22)
So the Eucharist renews and strengthens us, it is the centre of our Christian lives and also gives us the spiritual power we need to witness and share the Good News in many and various ways. Truly we can grow strong and bloom if we can remain true to this great Sacrament.
To end here is a song that I heard some children singing at our local Catholic School, the words are set to the traditional tune Frère Jacques. As we continue to be a Eucharistic people we pray that the truth of these simple and childlike words can become our own as we see the growth that God’s grace will bring in our lives as we share the one bread and the one cup.
"I am growing, I am growing big and tall, big and tall. Growing up for Jesus, growing up for Jesus, big and strong, big and strong!”