As we listen to Jesus making His last will and testament, it is clear that He does not see His upcoming death as a disaster. Notice how His words, far from being fearful or desperate, deepen His relationship with His 'Abba'. His prayer, includes all those who share His light. To them He bequeaths eternal bliss.
Don't be misled by the phrase, 'He looked up to Heaven'. Heaven is neither up nor down, what matters is that He opens Himself to the Sacred Presence who is present everywhere. For Jesus, praying is a relational response, not an attempt to make contact. Jesus reveals Gods' name and through this revelation allows Divine Life to flow into the world. All who are already responding to God, hear Jesus and gravitate towards Him. As they listen also to Him, He energises them to share His teaching with others. Now their Mission is clear. A new community is coming to birth. His disciples will witness to this most clearly when they are One, as the Father and the Son are One. I wonder if it is important that we think about our own ending in the world. None of us are here for a long time and embracing this truth can be very liberating. The problem seems to be that in most instances, death chooses us. Even if we have all our 'affairs' in order, death interrupts us. Think of all the things that tie us to this life! Will we ever be ready to let go? But it does not matter. Even if we tell ourselves that the world couldn't possibly go on without us in it, or that it will be too difficult and we won't be able to do it, it happens anyway. Walking around Easthampstead Cemetery provides a great lesson on how easy it is to die. Will we be able to say that we accomplished what we were sent to do? It might help us to remember that from every social point of view Jesus was a failure. The so called religious authorities did not accept Him, or His message. He was betrayed, denied and abandoned by those who should have known better. He was executed with terrorists and mocked by soldiers, priests and his own community. If we look at His death in this way, how can He claim that He accomplished anything? Perhaps, from a social point of view, everyone's death is a failure. Even if we are propped up, pain free, surrounded by our trophies, applauded for our successes, with loved ones around us and leaving an abundant inheritance, we still die incomplete. Why? because who we really are cannot be found here. On a social level, there is no good, never mind a perfect death. However, if we look through the Sacred Lens and do some radical reworking of how we see life and what counts as success, we might see more clearly. From Jesus we hear that the whole point of you and me is to release Sacred Love into the world. Every person is a beloved child of God. We cannot believe that God is our Father and not believe we are all sisters and brothers. When we activate and begin to frame ourselves in this spiritual identity, the hour of death starts to look very different. This prayer of Jesus is astonishing because it evaluates life from a consistent Godly perspective. He steadfastly upholds the infinite preciousness of every person. He speaks of a spiritual reality that lies hidden within us but which is harder to see when we are busy playing the game of life. We are not on a mission, we are a mission of Love, meant to stir love in others. When this happens, God is glorified, our work is accomplished, our life complete. Could this possibly be true?
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Whenever someone is chosen for the office of Bishop, they usually create a coat of arms which is filled with the signs and symbols of their heart. Our own Bishop has the star of the sea, indicating his devotion to the blessed mother, the hart that yearns for and finds living water, and the cross of Jesus. Beside these symbols, there is usually a declaration of the Bishops' understanding of himself, and of the way he intends to move. Bishop Philip, has the motto, 'In Corde Jesu' - 'In the heart of Jesus'. He hopes that this is where we will find him. But we can only find him if we are there too.
So here's a little game. Imagine you have been chosen to be a Bishop and now you have to create your own coat of arms and define the motto of your life. What would it look like I wonder? In the Gospel for the Sixth Sunday of Easter, Jesus is talking to His disciples about what happens when we enter His Sacred Heart. Our ability to love one another depends on us entering and staying there. It is when we leave that things go wrong. So loving Jesus and staying in communion with Him is the key to Faithful Discipleship. You might ask, “how can we do this since He is no longer with us in the same way?” It's a good question! The Saviour would answer that, like all who have gone before us into heaven, He is with us in a different way. Departure through death is not a total loss. It provides for a different way of being present. What is more, the shatterer of death also brings an unbreakable communion with Himself and His Father into the hearts of all who believe. The point seems to be that the more we act out of love for Him, the more deeply we experience that Love through the Spirit, the more intensely we experience the Love of the Father. For Jesus, there is no doubt that the quality of our mission depends completely on the quality of our relationships. The way that we make or break affectional bonds takes on a new seriousness. Now that we are moved by the Spirit of God we are in for a wild ride. A ride that does not allow us to sin. In The Four Quartets, T.S. Eliot put it beautifully. "We must be still and still moving - into another intensity - for a further and deeper communion...". The reality of this relationship is eternal and is not subject to loss or time. It is a dance that survives death. Perhaps this is why the Holy Trinity is best described as dancing. But more than that, we are being asked to join in the dance. To enter the flow of life that goes round and round without beginning or end. This is the Love I am talking about when I talk about Love. The dance is going on right now beneath our feet. The music is playing, and as we listen to Jesus we sense our feet beginning to tap to His music ![]() .Love can bear temporary loss, but hearts break when the loss is final. And just like the disciples in this week’s Gospel, we are not very good at endings. Yet, Jesus, seems to think that the ending has been there since the beginning, and that every ending is a new beginning. He talks of secrets hidden in the heart of death and of how His nearness to His Father in Heaven allows Him to be near to us. For Jesus, the Fathers embrace is as wide as the universe, and in Love’s House, it seems, that there is room enough. There is a love that has no regrets. There is a love that loves to breaking point. But here's the thing - there is a love that is without end. We touch this huge love when we are in the presence of Jesus and His Father. It changes us. The Poet and Scholar, John O'Donoghue, wrote this Blessing 'for death' in his book, Benedictus p88. Read it. Pray with it. Enjoy it: From the moment you were born, Your death has walked beside you. Though it seldom shows its face, You still feel it's empty touch when fear invades your life, or what you love is lost, or inner damage is incurred. Yet, when destiny draws you into these spaces of poverty, and your heart stays generous until some door opens into the light, you are quietly befriending your death; So that you will have no need to fear when your time comes to turn and leave. That the silent presence of your death would call your life to attention, Wake you up to how scarce your time is And to the urgency to become free And equal to the call of your destiny. That you would gather yourself And decide carefully how you now can live The life you would love To look back on from your deathbed. Even if it isn't always clear to us, the life that we are living has a huge impact on all the people around us. The words that we speak, the silences we hold, our actions and our failure to act, send ripples of life or death through the community we are struggling to build. As we stand, wherever we are standing on planet earth, the struggle for community must engage everything that we are. Our sisters and brothers, whose lives are destroyed by the theft of the worlds resources and by the horrific actions of terrorists depend on us being faithful to the Good News. Remember how Pilate stood the Beloved Son of God before His own and placed a terrorist whose name was Beloved Son of God (Bar Abbas) by his side and asked the people to give freedom to one?
In today's Gospel, Jesus paints the same choice in stark colour. Sadly, there are some whose presence in the community is destructive. They are like 'thieves' who steal by craft and deceit. Worst still are the 'robbers' who steal with violence. As they move through the community, the light fades a little. They take things away from people, depriving them of resources they need. Thieves and robbers always leave people less than when they found them. Good leaders, or shepherds, on the other hand, leave people more than when they found them. They can do this because they have realised that the personal and the eternal are one. Everyone is known by their name and labels are disallowed. The voice of the good shepherd resonates within them and within the inner world of the community. What is more true, leaders walk ahead of the community bringing all to green pastures, to places where they can find strength and nourishment. Good shepherds are artists of relationships. And passing through the 'gate' of Jesus they become life givers. Notice how Jesus describes himself as this never-ending flow of life for others. He is the Bread of Life, He is Living Water, He is the True Vine, He is the Resurrection and the Life. Each of these beautiful images speak of life flowing through him and entering others. In today's Gospel, this Good Shepherd, this Gate of the Community, states His Mission and Purpose so clearly that we have to hear it, believe it and make it our own. 'I have come so they may have life and have it to the full,' (Jn.10,10) As we consider the moments when we have awakened or enriched the life of another we can see that this has only happened because we passed through the gate of the heart of Jesus and Moved to build up the life of that sister or brother. I suppose the question remains, when we leave, are those we left more or are they less for our being there? |
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November 2020
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CATHOLIC PARISH OF ST JOSEPH & ST MARGARET CLITHEROW
St Joseph’s Church. 39 Braccan Walk, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 1HA (Directions)
Tel: 01344 425729
Email: stjb@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
South Berkshire Pastoral Area
The parish is part of the Diocese of Portsmouth.
Portsmouth Roman Catholic Diocesan Trust registered charity 246871
St Joseph’s Church. 39 Braccan Walk, Bracknell, Berkshire, RG12 1HA (Directions)
Tel: 01344 425729
Email: stjb@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
South Berkshire Pastoral Area
The parish is part of the Diocese of Portsmouth.
Portsmouth Roman Catholic Diocesan Trust registered charity 246871