The Rite of Election approaches – are we ready?
On Sunday next, 1st Sunday of Lent, our catechumens and candidates from across the Diocese will gather in the Cathedral, and be presented to our Bishop with the words :
'They have found strength in God's grace, and support in our community's prayers and example. Now they ask that after the celebration of the scrutinies, they be allowed to participate in the sacraments of baptism, confirmation and the eucharist'.
Those who have journeyed with them to this point find them 'to be sincere in their desire. They have listened to the word of Christ,and endeavoured to follow his commands; they have shared the company of their Christian brothers and sisters and joined with them in prayer', and so the Bishop announces to all present 'that our community has decided to call them to the sacraments', and then once again, he seeks the opinions of the godparents:
'As God is your witness, do you consider these candidates worthy to be admitted to the sacraments of Christian initiation?'
'Have they faithfully listened to God's word proclaimed by the Church?'
Have they responded to that word and begun to walk in God's presence?
Have they shared the company of their Christian brothers and sisters and joined with them in prayer?
And then speakly directly to the catechumens, the Bishop invites them to 'express your response clearly and in the presence of the whole Church', after which they are declared 'members of the elect'. The whole Church are charged with acceptance of these 'chosen of the Lord', and asked to continue to sustain them through 'loving care and example'
Quite a responsibility. Are we ready?
Lent is offered as a gift for the healing, encouragement and renewal of all - the catechumens, candidates, both adults and children, and the whole community:
- to grow in love
- to overcome hesitations and trust in Christ
- to find joy in daily prayer and reflection on the scriptures
- to acknowledge faults and work to correct them
- to share with others the joy found in faith.
In other words, as described in the Rite (RCIA 125-126) it is more about interior reflection than catechetical instruction - a time intended to purify and enlighten minds and hearts through a deeper knowledge and experience of Christ. So let go of anxiety about 'have we given them enough doctrine'/'do they know enough' - after all, the Rite of Election reminds us very firmly that this is a process of initiation - and relax, and allow lent to be the time of 'retreat' and deepening of relationship with Christ.
A friend offered me this Lenten Prayer which may help us to get the focus for Lent right!
Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ dwelling within them. Fast from emphasis on differences; feast on the unity of all life. Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the realityof light. Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify. Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude. Fast from anger; feast on patience. Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism. Fast from worry; feast on trust. Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation. Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives; fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer. Gentle God, during the season of feasting and fasting, gift us with Your Presence, so we can be gift to others in carrying out your work. Amen.
At the Turning of the Year
Readers in the UK will know that many people are beset with huge problems caused by storms and what meteorologists have called a "once-in-a-thousand-year-rainfall-event". For those waiting to go home to see just how bad the damage to their homes has been - for the rescue workers and emergency services - for engineers trying to ensure the safety of highways and bridges - for teachers and students wondering whether schools should risk reopening - for all of these folk, the reality of the next few weeks as we approach the Christmas festivities will be bleak indeed. It all probably feels pretty apocalyptic - echoing some of the readings that the Church puts before us at this time of year. For all of us in the northern hemisphere, the nights are going to draw in still further until we reach the winter solstice - the weather will get colder - possibly wilder, windier and wetter - winter really is strengthening its grip ... and for some of us, the idea of hibernation for humans seems an increasingly good idea!
But the Gospel messages of the weeks ahead will be "Stay Awake!" "Be ready!" Rather than curling up somewhere cosy and letting the world go by until the warm weather returns, we are exhorted to stay awake - to be ready - to read the signs - to keep faith.
Many places will be preparing to celebrate the Rites of Acceptance and Welcome, marking a new stage in the journeys of faith of catechumens and those preparing to be received into the Church. It often seems appropriate to mark the beginning of a new Church Year by honouring this new beginning for them. And, in the midst of deepening darkness, this shared looking ahead to the new life of baptism and Easter is a powerful sign of faith and hope - for those at the "receiving end" and for the parish communities witnessing it.
The Christian message is that, when things seem at their darkest, there is hope -the promise of light. Unless people have walked in darkness there is no need for a prophet to assure them that they will see a great light. If people have not known oppression (in one of its many forms), there is no reason for them to long for liberation. If we have not experienced the weariness of journeys (actual or of life itself), how can we welcome the promise that rough places will be made smooth for us, paths that seem to be going nowhere will finally show us the way forward - that insurmountable obstacles will be laid low and valleys of despondency raised up? Life's experience takes us through the dark as well as the light. We have four more weeks of days getting shorter to get through - and several more months of wintry weather - but in these days, we know things are on the turn. We have the witness of people who have found in our communities something that has been as a light to them - something (or rather Someone) they have chosen to follow.
Suggested ritual for the Turning of the Year
Either on your own - or with a group - reflect back on the year just gone... and name some of the blessings received.
Dim the lights - if possible aim for total darkness - and reflect and, where appropriate, name some of the dark things that have affected you and the world over the year (and, possibly, longer). Simply let the words drop into the darkness - don't judge or, if in a group, comment or engage in conversation about them ...
When you feel ready - or people in the group have shared all they wish to, light a taper or candle (a lit tee-light tucked out of sight can make this a little less obtrusive than lighting a match!). You might like to use a psalm - part of Ps 27 or 43, for example, or the second of the Opening Prayers for next Sunday's Mass;
Father in heaven,
our hearts desire the warmth of your love
and our minds are searching for the light of your Word.
(At this point, you might wish to light a candle, perhaps the first in an Advent wreath)
Then continue (perhaps have the words below printed for the group to join in)
Increase our longing for Christ our Saviour
and give us the strength to grow in love,
that the dawn of his coming
may he find us rejoicing in his presence
and welcome the light of his truth.
Amen.
You Can’t Be Serious!
Over the past couple of Sundays the foot stamping antics of the bold John McEnroe questioning the referee decisions at Wembley seem very appropriate. It is easy to imagine Peter and the other disciples talking among themselves saying “He can’t be serious?”
“How could He possibly mean that the whole adventure will end in total failure? – on a Cross! Surely not!”
“And what does he mean by saying we must become like a stateless child, one who has no say and that’s the way to leadership!”
“And we must work with others who are outside our group and not shut them up!”
He can’t be serious – but maybe He is.
A number of years ago with a small group we visited the Basilica of St Francis in Assisi – it was a most moving occasion. What stayed with me, however, aren’t the beautiful frescos by Giotto or even the image of Francis himself but the question put to us by the American Friar who led us around the building. “Before we begin, can I ask you; “Are you here as tourists or pilgrims?” Rather shame faced we replied “Pilgrims”. Then he said “Great – I will try to bring you into something of the experience of Francis.”
The question has continued to haunt me. Am I a tourist or a pilgrim? – The tourist goes on a journey and tries to capture the moment taking the photo before even looking at the scene, trying to capture the moment - a journey of refreshment and hopefully excitement but essentially the tourist doesn’t change. The adventure just adds to his or her levels of experience and possible knowledge. The Pilgrim on the other hand sets out on a journey where hopefully he or she will experience change, possibly radical change, and come back seeing with different eyes, becoming, in the words of St Paul, a new creation.
These past few weeks are definitely an invitation by the Man Himself to get off the tourist journey into becoming an Adult Christian and move away from a rather shallow discipleship – away from the pick and mix of many a market based media approach to spirituality with instant formation and preference. The invitation is to step into deeper waters, to reflect and grapple with the riddles and ambiguities of the Man from Galilee – a task not just for one or two evenings but for years to come.
How is it possible to die and rise again – to be open to complete failure– and make that a creative way of life?
If we are caught up in the language and behaviour of “Who is the greatest?” what hope is there for true peace?
The great Mohammed Ali, used the phrase “I am the Greatest” not simply as a sign of personal vanity but as a profound challenge to the prejudices and bigotry of his own nation at a time when black people were very definitely second class citizens. Is it possible to use the language of dying and rising, becoming like a child, working with those outside of our group, beyond the pale, in a similar imaginative way?
The challenge to catechists, inquirers and catechumens is to allow the gospels of these weeks to find a deep home within and to resist the temptation to water down these radical sayings of Jesus and like the disciples to hide behind: “We don’t understand what he’s saying and we’re afraid to ask”. Or like the disciples in the Garden of Gethsemane to simply run away.
Surely! He can’t be serious?
YES – AMEN
Tomorrow is the 16th June. In Dublin it is a special day. The 16th June is known as Bloomsday – the story of one day in the life of the characters in James Joyce’s amazing novel Ulysses along with a celebration of the city of Dublin itself. The book opens with one of the characters, stately plumb Buck Mulligan, climbing a tower with his dressing gown , ungirdled and sustained behind him by the mild morning air holding aloft his shaving bowl and intoning “Introibo ad altare Dei”.
It is to say the least a slightly irreverent opening as the action of the ‘stately plump’ figure and his action mirrors the action of the priest, as he would have celebrated the Mass of the Tridintine Rite, holding the host aloft with the altar server holding the priestly vestments behind him. And, of course, the words ‘Introibo ad altare Dei’ were the introductory Latin words of the Mass, as it was celebrated, when the book was written. However, apart from the irreverence perhaps a deeper message is being offered to us!
In the old rite when the priest and the server entered into the sanctuary of the church to celebrate Mass – the gates were closed. Symbolically the priest was entering into the presence of God where only the ‘holy’ could enter. The rest were present, looking on from a distance, often with heads bowed. Behind the altar rails was where God was to be found. In Joyce’s novel the ‘altar of God’ is not enclosed but out in the open air. The altar of God is found in the strange, imaginative, complex, even seedy lives both of the characters and city. In the course of one day, a day which takes over 930 pages to describe, the final word to all the complexity, richness and imaginative lives of the characters and city is YES. Yes to life. Yes to the altar of our lives. It is such a great word – Yes. In the words of the poet Brendan Kennelly
“I am always beginning to appreciate
The agony from which it is born.
Clues from here and there
Suggest such agony is hard to bear
But is the shaping God
Of the word that we
Sometimes hear, and struggle to be.”
Both James Joyce and Brendan Kennelly are, knowingly or unknowingly, reflecting the most profound insights of St Paul who, writing to the church in Corinth, has much to say about Yes. “For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you, Silvanus and Timothy and I, was not “Yes and No”; but in him it is always “Yes”. For in him every one of God’s promises is a “Yes.” For this reason it is through him that we say the “Amen” to the glory of God.” (2 Corinthians 1:19-20). Learning that God’s word to us is “Yes” and that that “Yes” finds its fullest expression in the person of Jesus of Nazareth is not necessarily easy. Yet it lies at the heart of the celebration of the feast of Corpus Christi, which we celebrated yesterday. When we are offered communion during the Eucharist, the Priest or Minister of the Eucharist holds out the host and says “The Body of Christ” and we answer “Amen” – What we are saying is “Yes! – this is the body of Christ” But we are also saying “Yes – ‘I am’ the body of Christ and ‘we are’ the body of Christ.’
YES – AMEN – let us go into the altar of God – the God of our lives
EUROCAT 2009: when strangers meet
For us, it’s twenty-one years since the publication of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults in English(1988),and some forty-four years since the Vatican II call for the restoration of the catechumenate (Decree on the Missionary Activity of the Church, Ad Gentes Dec 1965). At the end of this week there is to be European gathering of representatives involved in the catechumenate (‘Eurocat’), with delegates expected from 22 countries, east to west, north to south. Each delegation is asked to provide a ‘poster’ of statistics from their context, together with a written report, and will have the opportunity to speak about the state of the catechumenate and the challenges faced.
So what are the good things? And the challenges? Although we do not have a ‘desk’ for the catechumenate at national level, as many countries do, the RCIA Network for England and Wales does have membership in most dioceses. Together we build on the good work that many dioceses are doing, and aim to encourage and share resources, both people and materials. From Network conference and study day participants over the years, and from those working in advisory roles, we hear that although many dioceses have identified ‘mission’ as important, this model is not always connected with RCIA. Statistics are available as to the numbers attending the Rite of Election in each diocese, as well as adult baptisms and receptions. Do these provide a full picture of catechumenal activity? What proportion of parishes in each diocese see themselves as initiating communities? How are those already graced through Baptism received into full communion in our parishes? How do we begin to integrate candidates and catechumens into the life of the community from the very start?
At the moment you may be aware that the Network is engaged in producing material that will support formation of parish ‘teams’. There are Network study days this year on the Role of the Assembly, with workshops on Receiving the Baptised and Formation of Teams. Work is also being done in collaboration with the Bishops Conference Department for Christian Life & Worship on Guidelines for Christian Initiation of Children of Catechetical Age.
The Eurocat conference theme is ‘Integration’ looking at what happens when strangers meet, and the psychological aspects of integration of newcomers into existing social systems. Please remember the conference in your prayer – perhaps with echoes of today’s Gospel in mind. There will be much telling of stories of ‘what has happened on the road’ in different lands, and perhaps some ‘agitation and doubts’. But above all, hearing Christ speak ‘It is I’ in all of these.
Easter Sunday – A Reflection
Easter1988 I had the privilege of being present at the Holy Fire Ceremonies at the Holy Sepulchre Church in Jerusalem. The ceremony of the Holy Fire belongs to the Orthodox Churches. As a member of the
Western Roman Tradition it was necessary for me to be in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre from early morning. After the celebration of our Eucharist I managed to stay by going up the stairway onto the roof of the building. I stayed there along with an Israeli soldier until the ceremonies were about to begin in the early afternoon. (This could not happen to-day)
Watching the process down below was fascinating. Each time one of the Patriarchs of the Coptic or Armenian Churches arrived the doors were opened followed by a great rush to get into the Church before the doors were closed again. Eventually the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church arrived and the doors were opened and closed for the last time before the ceremony began.
I came down to find the church packed with people. There was a real sense of carnival singing, dancing, drum-beating. Each one present carrying bunches of candles, often in carrier bags to be brought back home and distributed to friends and neighbours alike. When the official chant began a deep silence descended on the crowd. The Patriarchs entered the Tomb and the door of the tomb was closed. Everyone stretched out their hands, full of candles, towards the tomb of Christ. The silence was pregnant with expectation and profoundly moving – one of those extended moments which lasted, in reality for three or four minutes, but stretched into eternity and like Jacob’s ladder of old moved between heaven and earth. Then the door of the tomb opened and the Greek Patriarch emerged with a lighted torch and the words CHRIST IS RISEN. Words taken up by the whole group shouting Christ is Risen. The light passed to runners who circled the church three times, everyone trying to stop them to have their own candles lit – and within moments the interior of the church which was in darkness became bright with the light of Christ. Eventually the doors of the Holy Sepulchre were opened and the light entered the square. The shout went up even higher ‘Christ is Risen’. (The light from the tomb is flown in a protected container to Athens where the paschal fire there is lit from the fire in Jerusalem).
The following thought hit me: ‘If the fire from the tomb had been blown out by some freak occurrence– some people would literally have died.’ The whole experience was so powerful. And I instantly regretted our more prosaic approach to the world of symbol- take it or leave it. That evening I joined our own Easter Vigil celebrations at St Anne’s Church. The Paschal Fire was lit overlooking the pool of Beth-zatha where Jesus had healed the man waiting thirty-eight years to be put into the waters. The setting was and is elemental. That night there was a fairly strong breeze and the Paschal Candle was blown out three times before we reached the doors of St Anne’s Church. Each time it was just lit again and we all smiled. It was a beautiful ceremony yet unlike the afternoon celebration I had no sense of our lives depending on it. The thought I came away with, which still haunts me, is the need to develop a deeper sense of the power of symbol in our lives and liturgy. I hope that for all of us who have taken part in the Easter Vigil and Mass the experience may echo that of the poet Elizabeth Jennings.
“And in the cold night underneath the stars
I felt something like love and nothing of fear
For here was the holy ground and rising day
And it was right to be there.” (Elizabeth Jennings – Easter Vigil and Mass)
Cheap Grace?
In Journey in Faith groups we are always preparing. We prepare ultimately so that choices about life and eternal life can be made and we prepare to celebrate the rites of Christian initiation along the way. Constantly we prepare, in ourselves and with others to live continually the consequences and responses to the ‘sign posts’ of the road we follow.
The celebrations of the rites for which we help others prepare seem always to be an experience beyond the expected for them. Words always seem to fail to express this experience of God’s action in the liturgies. Time after time, like so many others, I have glimpsed the bright sparkle in the eyes [the soul?], the intake of breath [the Spirit?] and the comparatively limp: “That was good” or “I enjoyed that”. The words usually carry some surprise because of the nervousness felt beforehand and because whatever was expected it wasn’t the response that struggles so much for words.
Moreover, the rites that are celebrated within the parish community don’t only take the candidates to unexpected places but affect everyone. Interest, encouragement (given and received), prayer and the reaching out to the new candidate/catechumen seem to overflow more each time, along with an increasing sense of responsibility. Those attending the Rite of Election and the Call to Continuing Conversion in the Cathedral last week report their exultation too. One sponsor claimed that she was “On a high” all the way home and couldn’t stop talking about it when she got back. The candidates’ experiences went beyond their ability to convey.
We seem to be given so much to delight in for the ‘planting’ and planning that we do so that God can give the increase! What a privilege to be instrumental in preparing for the possibilities of moments when the Spirit of God moves over the waters of our lives.
Like Jesus in the gospel account for Lent week 3, year B, we long to clear a way for God, so that God is given space and time – so that honour can be given – so that all can experience the love offered and hear God’s desire for our love in return. In a bustling market that excludes those to whom the space belongs, that is, the Gentiles in the outer precincts of the temple, God has no point of contact because they are pushed out. In our preparation tasks we don’t usually make whips and throw tables around! We do, however, have times when we too are driven a zeal for what and who belongs to God. We fight to hold on to “Christ, the power and wisdom of God” (1 Cor 1, 2nd reading). This could be a stumbling absurdity in presenting a crucified Christ, if it weren’t for the fact that he is a real and living presence in our parish communities: witnessed in the ‘bits and pieces’ of life’s struggle. God’s way with and for us – be it called a law, rule, reign or dream – is simply a way of love
We know that being simple does not make it easy and we challenge those who inquire about our Way of living with the cost of discipleship, as we ourselves are challenged. There’s no cut price, no easy route. We find out the tough way the meaning of Jesus’ offering of a “yolk that is easy and a burden that is light”. It costs; it is not cheap. As Dietrich Bonhoffer wrote in The Cost of Discipleship:
“Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a [person] must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a [person’s] life, and it is grace because it gives a [person] the only true life.”
On the other hand, Bonhoffer’s thoughts on ‘cheap grace’ is a warning that we too could set up stalls where they ought not to be found and so put up the stumbling blocks that Paul writes of.
“Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves. Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession.... Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. “ ditto
May our Lenten journey keep us true to the cross that gives us true living with Christ in God. In our preparation to enter the Paschal mysteries this Easter may the foolishness of God, in all its wisdom, be with us.
You are warmly invited…..
Lent! and it begins with a blissful invitation 'Come back to me with all your heart'. At the beginning of this period in the ritual text is the quote 'The water that I shall give will turn into a spring of eternal life'. That sounds mysterious......
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RCIA 125: 'In the liturgy and liturgical catechesis of Lent, the reminder of baptism already received or the preparation for its reception, as well as the theme of repentance, renew the entire community along with those being prepared to celebrate the paschal mystery..... for both the elect and the cmmunity Lent is a time for spiritual recollection.'
We are being drawn into an ever-deepening experience of who Christ the Saviour is for us personally and communally. Through the Word, in Sunday Gospels, in scrutinies and presentations, we are invited to come closer and be touched by the one who has given us living water to quench our thirst, light for our path, and the freedom to live life to the full, in love and service of others. Its an opportunity for each of us to be reminded of who we are and who we are becoming, and to renew our resolve to hold fast. We might take time in these next six weeks to look at the initiation rites for ourselves, and through the lens of these promises, our intimate covenantal relationship can take on new meaning and hope. The whole purpose of the Gospel of John, proclaimed in the scrutinies, is our union wth Christ through the Spirit - so no academic pursuit this! No requirement to learn or acquire or achieve or posess - but simply to open, and allow for what is happening amongst the people in the Gospel narratives to happen among us in our communities. These are not rituals instituted and left behind by a departed Jesus, but Jesus risen and present in and around us now.
So with a double-awareness of Jesus in his time and history, and Jesus in similar movement in our lives, we respond to the invitation, the question:
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What is your thirst? What darkness or blind spots are in your life? What causes you to remain bound up in 'deathly' attitudes?
We read the gospel differently when we are hungry, says Gustavo Guttierez. You could by extension say we read the gospel differently when we are thirsty, blind or bound up with troubles? And we discover that Christ meets us right where we are, with living water, light for our path, new life full of hope and meaning.
So yes, I am looking forward to Lent and I pray to be open to both personal and community renewal.
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Lord God, You created the human race and are the author of its renewal. Bless all your adopted children and add these chosen ones to the harvest of your new covenant. As true children of the promise, may they rejoice in eternal life, won, not by the power of nature, but through the mystery of your grace. We ask this ghrough Christ our Lord. Amen (RCIA 122, B, Prayer over the Elect)
"A Day in the life ..."
The Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Last week’s gospel and the gospel for Sunday 8 February are two halves of a whole: a Sabbath day in the life of Jesus of Nazareth which begins in the synagogue, moves to a domestic setting and ends with a restless, sleepless night prompting a search for a place to be alone in prayer. When the disciples find Jesus again they find a man resolute and clear about the mission assigned to him. Verses 29 – 39 of this first chapter of Mark’s Good News can be very easily looked at in three sections or movements and there are many different ‘ways in’ that could be used. Here’s just one of them.
In the first section we meet Jesus immediately after synagogue where he has astonished and amazed people with his power and authority. It is a lovely contrast that he now goes to a family context: an ordinary domestic scene in the house of Simon and Andrew – perhaps hoping for the equivalent of our Sunday brunch or lunch. Whatever, it is certainly a family context and we can imagine the consternation when it’s discovered that the mother-in law is ill! Jesus’ treatment of her is told with a gentle tenderness by Mark and normal service is quickly resumed.
The next section is a natural extension of a family scene, in which, renewed and refreshed, the doors of hospitality are opened wide to the neighbours, the locals, ‘the whole town’.
Healthy, loving family relationships naturally prompt an open-hearted and compassionate generosity that needs to be shared. Once again we see Jesus in demand: his reputation spreading rapidly.
But the night time brings a restless urge to be alone and in touch, through prayer, with the essential mission of preaching the Good News beyond the boundaries of local expectations. It ends with Jesus and his companions moving on to ‘elsewhere’.
Sunday 8 February is at the start of National Marriage Week and perhaps it would be a good opportunity to explore the importance of marriage and family life from the perspective of today’s gospel. The holiness of everyday, loving marital and family relationships is one which our bishops are eager to promote and excellent resources for doing this are available through the Home is a Holy Place web site: homeisaholyplace.org.uk
In a DVD produced to accompany the resource pack which is available to all parishes throughout England & Wales, one of the sections suggests that home is a holy place because God’s presence graces all creation and shows families making it better for each other in countless different ways: from sticking on a plaster when someone falls and grazes a leg to staying up all night because a child or elderly parent has a fever. This is precisely the image we’re given by Mark in the first section of today’s gospel: a home in which the health of every member matters and in which Jesus’ natural action when faced with illness was ‘he took her by the hand and helped her up’. Let’s encourage one another to give thanks for healthy, committed loving relationships that ground us in our sense of identity and belonging and provide the foundations from which we can set out on the road of our own mission in life – whatever that may be. Let’s also remember all who struggle with such commitment, all who have been damaged by broken relationships and all who work with them to promote healing and wholeness. In whatever way we can, lets’ take time to celebrate marriage and family life this week.
Who says religion and politics don’t mix?
This week sees the inauguration of Barack Obama as President of the USA - just in case you'd missed the fact. He is of course the first mixed race president, with a diverse almost global heritage. It is also quite striking that his inauguration takes place the day after Martin Luther King Day. There are huge (and one would have to say, almost messianic) expectations being laid on his shoulders from around the world. His inauguration is definitely seen as ‘good news'. His name - ‘Barack' does mean ‘blessed' or ‘blessing' (Swahili/Arabic).
Next week, we really begin to get to grips with Mark's gospel. It is worth taking the time to sit down a read the gospel in its entirety before turning to look at how we experience Mark's gospel in the lectionary - its very short, only sixteen chapters and will probably take less than an hour to read. It has a very direct beginning and a most peculiar ending - which most of us tend to miss. But in reading the gospel as a whole, rather than relying on the weekly snapshots in the lectionary, we get a stronger sense of who Mark is and the situation he was writing in and people he was writing for. As Mark was writing for Christians facing terrible persecution in some ways he offers quite a dark gospel filled with moments of conflict and testing. But from the outset, the gospel makes it clear that Jesus really is good news in the darkest of times.
Bringing these two images of ‘good news' together, leads me to ask how is our faith ‘good news for the whole world'. We can be pretty good at spiritualizing or internalizing the good news bit and of course it does have these dimensions. But its also a good news that demands to be lived and proclaimed in the political arena. We've probably all heard the old argument that religion and politics don't mix - and there are things going on in the world that would seem to support that. However, we can't be Catholic and Christian without being political. If it is a way of life rather than a leisure pursuit then faith and politics have to mix. So how does our faith affect our politics? Our voting in elections? Do we vote in a way which is good news for all or good news for me (and I'm asking myself that question)?
This does raise some questions for our practice as catechists. How do we make the connection between faith and politics? How do we share a faith that is ‘good news' both personally and politically?
If you do find time to sit with Mark's gospel this week, see what you notice and what good news it offers you. And then have a look at the table in the front of the missal which lays out Mark in Ordinary time and notice what is added in from John's gospel and what is left out of Mark's.
And do pray for Barack Obama and his family this week as he becomes the 44th President of the United States of America.