Here we are entering the week of Christmas. It came so fast for most of us, but for our littlest ones it was undoubtedly painfully slow. As we begin this week, it is time to reflect a bit on what it is that we celebrate with this feast day and the season around it. Christmas is one of our significant feasts. It ranks with Easter at the foundation of our Christian faith.

The figure of Mary looms large as we come to this season. She is the Bearer of God. It is through her that the mystery of the Incarnation takes place. In the Incarnation God reaches out to touch our humanity. The wonder is the way in which God has done this, for divinity and humanity have come together in the person of Jesus. In the Incarnation, Mary becomes an instrument of God’s plan, the one who bears God into our world.

Mary is also often regarded as the first disciple of Jesus. As mother, it was she who raised him and saw him into manhood. As he carried out his ministry of announcing the Reign of God, she was part of the disciples who heard the proclamation and learned its meaning. In John’s Gospel, we see Mary identified among those who stood with Jesus at the cross. She was a faithful disciple of her Son to the end.

Each year on the fourth Sunday of Advent our attention turns to Mary. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke all present us with the figure of this woman of faith and of courage. In doing so they set out the good news that God has a plan that we could never possibly have imagined. Luke tells of Mary visiting her cousin Elizabeth (Lk.1:38-45). There, the news that is shared takes us into the story of Christmas and the Incarnation.

With Mary we can be surprised by the way God comes to us. We will not always understand it, but we can certainly be amazed by it.

In the Old Testament God reached into Israel’s story through prophets and people of all kinds. In the New Testament, God steps into our history in the Incarnation. God surprises us in the way he does it.

The surprise of the Advent-Christmas season has one of its briefest and most direct expressions of it in the Prologue, the beginning of the Gospel of John (1:1-18). This is the Gospel we read on Christmas morning. In verse 14 of this passage, we hear these works: The Word was made flesh, he lived among us (an alternate translation reads: “he pitched his tent among us”). What an image of our loving, life-giving God for all humanity – God lives among us.

Beginning with Mary, we see that God’s attention is directed to the whole of humanity, from the least to the greatest. The stories we will hear and celebrate at Christmas will be of people and places that are small and ordinary. Mary, Joseph, Nazareth, Bethlehem. These are not the great of their time. But God has chosen to be with the small and the vulnerable. In doing so, He has called us, like Mary into a relationship of care and compassion for all the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of our world.

Can I be a disciple of Jesus - an advocate for peace, compassion, justice and mercy in my world?

The Feast of Christmas is around the corner. Central to this celebration and to our whole Christian faith is that God lives among us. Are there ways that we can express this basis of our faith? Sometimes we use the word “mystery” to describe such wonders of our faith. It is important that we do not confuse this term as something beyond our understanding. Instead, it is a word that allows us to accept that we are referring to a truth that is so great and full of meaning that we can never fully define or exhaust it. It will ever have a meaning for us that is inexhaustible.

The First Letter of John captures some of this inexhaustible “mystery” of our faith: My dear people, let us love one another since love comes from God and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God (1 Jn. 4:7). If we were to understand what we are celebrating with this Feast of Christmas, then perhaps there is no better starting point than this brief statement from John’s letter. With it, we glimpse the “mystery” as it touches our lives. Surely, this is Good News.

Our English word, Gospel comes from the Anglo-Saxon, god-spell or glad tidings. These glad tidings or good news or gospel are the story of God’s presence acting among us. What a wonder! This is good news that is so important, so wonderful that from the earliest times Christians told and retold the story, again and again. At some point in the first several generations it was decided that this oral story of the message and mission of Jesus should be written down. This writing down occurred in numerous Christian communities and was shared around their world, as the glad tidings, the gospel.

With the Feast of the Incarnation, we celebrate the glad tidings of God’s coming among us, to all humanity. It is the beginning of the Paschal Mystery and truly gospel, good news. How do we know and experience God among us? How do we discover that God has a love that brings the divine to live among, to live with the human?

In the reading from Luke’s Gospel (Luke 3:10-18) we meet another John - the Baptist. John is often seen as the last of the Old Testament prophets and at the same time, the first of the apostles of Jesus. As prophet, he calls on people to change, to prepare for the advent of God into our lives. As apostle, John calls for us to recognize and acknowledge that God is now among us.

Listening to this prophet and apostle, how can we grow in our own awareness of this wonder of our faith? Perhaps it is in a very active way.

Hearing John, repeatedly people ask him the question what should we do? John’s responses are varied, but they all call for an attitude of compassion, respect, justice and peace. Paul, writing to the Philippian community of Christians (Phil.4:4-7) reveals the same message: live with gentleness to all, that God’s peace may be with you.

As we continue to move closer to the Feast of the Incarnation both John and Paul help us to find a response to our question. How can we tell that God is among us? It is by recognizing and acknowledging God’s presence in those we encounter – acknowledging that God is indeed among us and acting towards others in ways that reflect this presence.

The Old Testament prophet Zephaniah presents us with the ultimate result of such a vision of God’s active presence when we are told:

Rejoice and exult with all your heart,...The Lord, your God is in your midst, God will rejoice over you with gladness, You will be renewed in God’s love. (Zeph. 3:14-18)

Last weekend, while filling in at a local parish, I noticed something very striking. My hometown has become significantly more multi-cultural. Increasingly, it has become the place of many people from other countries and continents. The same picture has emerged in other parishes around the city. We are much richer and full of life because of this. It is one of the blessings of our country. And this has long been the story of our country.

Most of us are the descendants of peoples that migrated here in t he last 2-3 hundred years. We continue to struggle with our treatment of the indigenous peoples who already were here. We often struggle as well with new immigrants who are currently arriving. It seems that we struggle with change and with creating new and open relationships with others who challenge our long-held customs and practices. Yet to be complete we need others and differences in our lives

Almost 500 years ago, an English poet, John Donne wrote a poem that began with these words:

  No [person] is an island, entire to [themselves],

  Every [person] is a piece of the continent,

  A part of the main.

Donne’s words are a reminder that we rely on one another, that we are not alone in this world and our lives and well-being depend on the efforts and help of others. Significantly, who we are is the result of many who in love and care have made us who we are today. No one gets through life alone.

The Advent-Christmas season draws us into reflection on who we are and how we have become. In our Scriptures we discover the great love that God has for all creation, all humanity. We also encounter the challenge of what we are called to be as God’s presence comes to be seen in our midst.

John the Baptist as well as the prophet Baruch are figures of the Advent season. Their cry dominates the story of what we are becoming in and for our world. John’s call is clear as Luke presents it: Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight…. and all flesh shall see the salvation of God (Luke 3:4-6).

Both the prophet Baruch (5:1-9) and John the Baptist, issue a clarion call for the coming of a new world that expresses the peace, justice, freedom and harmony of God’s reign among us. What was proclaimed by each of these prophetic voices, was expressed in the message and mission of Jesus. It has been passed on to us as a mission for the whole world, for all humanity. The Spirit of Jesus draws all humanity to God’s dream of openness, justice and peace, freedom and harmony.

We are to live as the prophetic voices of God’s dream in our own age - open to all peoples, nations and cultures. Our message is one of hope and joy,… for all.

Listening or watching the news today, we can easily be disappointed with our world and find ourselves depressed with our future. Whether it is with climate and global warming, an economy in which prices keep rising beyond the capacity of many in our population or political and social unrest which in areas around the globe results war, our world seems determined to destroy itself. It is easy to lose hope in humanity. It might appear that we have lost our way.

Getting lost is a common human experience. How often have we reached a turn in the road and had to make a choice on which turn to take. We might end up where we did not plan to go. That might not be good. On the other hand, it can be very good. It might offer us something new, a discovery. Life is full of such moments of discovery, times that are new beginnings.

Advent is always a new beginning, a move into a future yet unknown. Our Scripture stories start again, but in a new year. We go back to how our Christian story began but in the setting of a new personal story and a different community story. Again, we are called to anticipate our future with Christian hope. We hold to our faith in a God who loves us enough to come and share life with us.

The readings of this First Sunday of Advent reveal the difficulty of choices and changes. In the Old Testament reading from the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah (Jer.33:14-16), Israel is waiting for God’s action in their lives. God has promised never to desert them and to be with them even if they are in exile and bondage. The prophet utters words of encouragement. Though the future cannot be known, he calls on God’s people with words of hope. Like the dry branches in the desert or for us like the leafless trees as we enter winter, life will come again.

What seems lifeless contains the seeds of new life and so we wait with hope.

This Sunday, in Luke’s Gospel, we hear Jesus issuing an exhortation to his disciples. He calls them to remain in hope for the growing of God’s reign among them. It may seem that all they had around them was ending and they may look “with fear and foreboding” at what is happening. As discouraging and threatening as an unknown future may be for us, we cannot stay where we are. We must decide to move forward in hope, for we are God’s People and our God is with us always, bringing the promise of new life.

As disciples of Jesus, our role in all of this is to live as a faith-filled community of hope. Especially in a world facing many challenges, we are to be the voice of hope to all. By both word and action, our call is to build the kingdom, marked by justice and peace, compassion and care, healing and love. This is the foundation for a new world – God’s Kingdom.

Are we a church, a community of hope-filled faith? Can we move forward into an unknown future with hope and trust? Do our lives and actions reveal our trust in a loving God?

Sometimes to know where we are, we must know where we came from. The message and the mission of Jesus is to proclaim the Kingdom, the Reign of God. This is what he lived throughout his life. And it is what he shared with his disciples and the people who surrounded him. As followers of Jesus, this is what we are to reflect. But what does this mean, for us, in our lives, at this time in our own world?

On the Feast of Christ the King last year we listened to a piece from Matthew’s Gospel (Mt.25:31-46). Its focus was on living the reign by reaching out to the needs of the vulnerable among us. Next year, we will hear from Luke, as he tells of Jesus’s sacrifice of his life for all (Lk.23:35-43). This year we turn to John’s Gospel (Jn.18:33-37). Appearing before Pilate, Jesus asserts his life’s mission as a relationship with God and his call to testify to that relationship for the world. It is to announce the Reign of God among us all.

This testimony by Jesus is not new in the Gospels. As Mark speaks of Jesus beginning his mission and calling his disciples, Jesus proclaims: The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe the good news (Mk 1:13). Matthew expresses this good news as Jesus speaks to the crowds in the Sermon on the Mount (ch 5-7). John’s Gospel presents Jesus responding to a Pharisee named Nicodemus (Jn.3:1-21). In the course of the encounter, Jesus reveals the purpose of his mission: For God so loves the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life (3:16). The reign of God permeates the Gospel message of Jesus.

The Feast of Christ the King comes at the end of the cycle for our church year. Next Sunday, we enter the new year with the Advent season.  It seems like the Feast of Christ the King provides us with an opportunity to reflect on what Jesus was all about and what his message and mission was to effect in our world. Jesus the Christ reveals God’s dream for us, for all creation, God is ever among us.

Jesus’s incarnation is God’s love coming to live among us. In him the reign of God has come near. Calling his disciples to follow him, he gave them a message that called them to share the good news of God’s love universally. It is for all humanity. A message of the heart, like the dream and visions of Daniel in the Old Testament (Dan.7:13-14), it is a message for all ages and all peoples.

This was the message expressed in the last major proclamation of the Second Vatican Council, Gaudium et spes. Vatican II was a pastoral effort to bring the good news to the whole of humanity and creation. If Pope John XXIII saw the council as an opportunity to “open the windows of the church” to the world this document expressed this open vision of God’s reign as the council was ending:

The joy and the hope, the grief and the anguish of the people of our time, especially of
those who are poor or afflicted in any way, are the joy and the hope, the grief and the
anguish of the followers of Christ as well. Nothing that is genuinely human fails to find
an echo in their hearts. For theirs is a community composed of people who, united in
Christ and guided by the Holy Spirit, press onwards towards the kingdom of the Father
and are bearers of a message of salvation intended for all. (Gaudium et spes, Preface, 1)

Change is a challenge. It is also universally necessary. Whether we talk personally or communally, we constantly face changes in our life. The same is true for our church. Change is an ever-present need for us all. And it always makes demands of us. Thus, it comes as no surprise that we have a tendency to fear, oppose and resist change as we meet it.

Reluctance to accept and work with change is part of the story of our faith community. The idea of our church as “unchanging” and an anchor in our changing world has long been a commonly held view. More than a century ago, in 1910, an Irish priest in Brooklyn NY, Msgr. Edward J. McGolrick, captured this view in a very popular book: The Unchangeable Church.

This perspective was still held by many who resisted the changes of Vatican II, in the 1960s and 70s. At a local retreat in the 1970s, the retreat director, focusing on the changes called for by the Council noted this resistance. He drew attention to a musical work by the Austrian composer Franz Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) called: “The Seven Last Words of Christ”.

At the retreat, we were asked if we had ever heard of “The Seven Last Words of the Church”? His response when none indicated they had heard of it – “We Never Did It This Way Before”.

Pope Francis has expressed this same thought in a number of ways when reflecting on the resistance to change which haunts our church faith community. In the first year of his papacy, 2013, Pope Francis issued an apostolic exhortation to the whole church on proclaiming the Gospel to all humanity (The Joy of the Gospel). He called for a whole new energy, changing how we do things. He called on the community “to abandon the complacent attitude that says: ‘We have always done it this way.” (EG 33)

Such attitudes of resistance at all levels of our faith community are blocks to dynamism and openness in the mission we have been given as disciples. Speaking to a community of Jesuits several years ago, Pope Francis commented: “The Catholic Church suffers from a temptation to return to attitudes and practices of the past,… the ideology of going backwards.” It is an attitude that stems from fear of what is new and uncertain. Any new step poses some risks. We are ever in need of courage to move forward.

The synod process in which we have been, is the work of the Spirit as we seek to read the “signs of the times” and to bring the Gospel into our times. Much as we did for Vatican II, the Synod on Synodality demands that we rely on the Spirit and the Gifts of the Spirit for our church. Our church, our faith community will depend on the Spirit’s gifts: Wisdom, Understanding, Counsel, Fortitude/courage, Knowledge, Spirituality and Fear of the Lord/Awe.

Mark’s Gospel (Mk.13:24-32) expresses the fear that can paralyze us humanly and bring discouragement, despair and inaction in the face of challenge and the need to risk. In response, comes the saving action of Jesus the Christ (Hebrews 10:11-14, 18) and the shining light of God’s love and glory (Daniel 12:1-3). As church and disciples, we can trust in Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians (13:13) “Now faith, hope and love abide…, and the greatest of these is love.”

The Gospels tell many Jesus-stories. They were part of the faith memories of Jesus shared by the earliest Christian communities. In chapter 12:38-44, Mark relates two contrasting stories. The first recounts what Jesus sees in the scribes. The second story tells of a poor widow.

Like all of the stories in the Gospels, these two are lessons on the Kingdom of God, the reign that was at the centre of Jesus’ life and mission. In this sense, the Good News, or the Gospel is a proclamation of who we are as church, as a community of faith. What Jesus calls his disciples to was not either of the two stories, but rather to recognize in ourselves that in a way we are both. The scribes in the first story meticulously followed the law. They sincerely sought to be seen as holy and to be honoured in the Temple as examples of holiness. The widow in the second story had little, but she held a sincere relationship with God and expressed it by her generosity and integrity.

As church, we are indeed, both stories. In fact, we are many stories and over the centuries we have had to acknowledge that we are an evolving community of faith. In 1962-65, the Second Vatican Council addressed the question of how open we are to evolving as church in the midst of the changing world of the 20th Century.

The Council called our church to take on a prophetic role in the world of our time. Now in the 21st century Pope Francis calls us to a synod of the whole Catholic community. We are being asked once more to be a prophetic church, to be the community of disciples that Jesus the Christ established, a communion of people who can take up our call to live and share the Good News.

As a prophetic community, Pope Francis has called us to a conversation in the Spirit. It is intended to involve the whole church in considering who we are in the 21st century. The entire church is called to this journey through reflection, discernment and action. This synod process has its roots in the Second Vatican Council, which Pope John XXIII saw as an effort to bring about an openness of the church to the world through reflection on “the signs of the time”.

Like John XXIII and Vatican II, Pope Francis has turned to the ancient and traditional assembly or synod to address “the signs of the time” now. The journey began with the opening on October 9, 2021. There were two initial years in which local churches (dioceses) were asked to engage in listening to the Spirit, to their sisters and brothers in their home communities and parishes/dioceses. During this time, we were asked to reflect, speak and above all listen to one another, i.e. to all the baptized. What were we listening for? What were we to hear with the help of the Spirit?

In local churches around the globe, through conversation in the Spirit, women and men, laity, clergy and religious expressed their hopes and dreams as well as the hurts and challenges we face. As we did so, it was and remains important that we recognize that we are a global church. We are many cultures and peoples and at the same one church, one community of faith.

These initial two years prepared our faith community for the two-session synod itself, the first session in October of 2023 and the second, which just concluded in October 2024. Held in Rome, these two sessions included delegates from around the world from laity and clergy, women and men. Perhaps more than the details of the sessions and the topics addressed is the structure of these session. Our church is a global community. It has recognized in the synod that all baptized members have a voice in discerning who we are and what we are about. All are responsible for sharing the message and mission of Jesus the Christ. The seed has been planted, the work of nurturing it in the local churches begins.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the Communion of Saints. These words and what they express are part of the Apostles Creed a gift to us from our earliest ancestors in the Faith. It comes down to the 21st Century from the Christian community of the 1st and 2nd Centuries. Among the things that are central to our faith and that we find in this creed is the testimony of our faith in the communion of saints. Creeds like the Apostles Creed or the Nicene Creed are more intellectual expressions of belief. They are descriptors of who we are and who we are to become.

What is this communion of saints and what does it mean for us today? The early Christians had a deep sense that their relationship with God and with Jesus was something that drew them into a community of faith. To be a disciple of Jesus was to live and work and pray with other disciples. In fact, so strong was the bond that drew these believers together that it did not end with death. Their sense of being a community of believers included those who had died and gone before them. In addition, it included those who had not yet been born but would be future disciples.

It is not unlike what we experience in our families. We fondly remember our grandparents, our uncles and aunts and all those of our family who have gone before us. We have an interest, a curiosity about our roots and the origins of our family. We tell many stories of these roots. At the same time, we are excited and rejoice when a new person enters our family, whether by a birth or a marriage. The basis of our family relationships is a bond of love that draws us together and allows us to identify with one another.

The communion of saints shares a similar bond. It is a community tied together by a shared experience of God who loves us into life, who sustains us in life and who ultimate draws us to an everlasting life of love with God’s own self. We do not know how this all takes place, but we trust in faith that the love of God never dies, never ends and never leaves us.

Mark’s Gospel describes Jesus in a debate with some of the authorities in the Temple (Mark 12:28-34). One of them, a scribe asks Jesus a fundamental question: “Which commandment is the first of all?” This is a basic question for all of us. How do we do what is right and good? How do we live in relationship with God who made and sustains us in life?  In response, Jesus tells the scribe that at its heart, our relationship with God is one of love. Our response to God’s love is to love God in return and to do so in how we love one another. This is the bond and the meaning of the communion of saints.

This past October, we witnessed the second and final session of our Synod on Synodality. This was not the first such gathering of the whole church, nor will it be the last. Synods have their root in the early Christian community. They express the same effort to open the Church to the challenges of the present time that was the focus of the Second Vatican Council.

The Synod on Synodality, had a particular emphasis. It sought to bring together representatives of all parts and people of the Church. The Synod delegates included laity and clergy, women and men from around the world. The task before this gathering of the “communion of saints” was to discern the direction of our church living in the present world and speaking the Gospel in a global community of many cultures. A unique feature of this synod has been to explicitly focus on listening to the Spirit speaking through the many voices of our faith community. In this, the Synod set a pattern that is to be replicated in the local communities of our church, in parishes and dioceses around the world.

Vision is an amazing thing. In some ways it is a bit like dreaming. Always, it is about hope. In Mark’s Gospel, there is a story of a new vision that is part of God’s dream expressed by Jesus (Mark 10:35-45). Mark relates how two of the disciples came to Jesus asking him to give them places of honour when he comes in glory. This would be a reasonable expectation in the culture of the time – followers of the leader would be honoured when the kingdom was established.

Jesus offers a new and different vision: “Whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” In every era, our church, our Christian community, has been called to this vision. In every age it is a vision that demands looking at ourselves and who we are, in the light of the world of our time. Such visioning offers a dynamic, living view of church. We might call it a prophetic view.

This prophetic view was what was expressed nearly 60 years ago when Pope John XXIII called the whole church to come together in a general or ecumenical council. This was the Second Vatican Council (1962-65). It has often been stated that it takes a century for the full implementation of an ecumenical council. As much as Vatican II took place some 60 years ago, its implementation is still taking place.

It is the implementation of Vatican II that we can see in the current Synod on Synodality, the first session of which took place last October. Now we are witnessing the second Session of the Synod. Through a process of what is referred to as “conversation in the Spirit”, our Church is seeking to become a global community marked by active listening. It is attempting to become a “listening Church, to see and hear the Spirit speaking in every single baptized person, laity and clergy, women and men. As well, its aim is to hear the voices of all humanity, particularly the most vulnerable.

Such a vision demands readiness to hear the voices of our times with an openness to change. This is a significand challenge for us. Several years ago, Pope Francis noted in conversation with the Jesuit community in Slovakia that there are times when we seem to be moving backwards. He noted that we often long for the security of the past, what we are used to. We fear the new issues and questions of the present and the future. Faced by such issues, we often find it easier to repeat the “tried and true” responses of the previous era.

For Pope Francis, this reluctance to move forward flies in the face of what the Spirit calls for in our Church. Vatican II and the Synod call for a Church that is ready to read the signs of the times, that is a dynamic church prepared to address the issues of our day. Pope Francis has strong words for resistance to this dynamism: “This is the evil of this moment: namely to seek the path in rigidity and clericalism, which are two perversions.” Our Church can be more.

Two Popes, John XXIII in the 1960s and now, Pope Francis have called us to a pastoral and caring vision for our times. This is the vision of listening and openness to the world, a Church with confidence to move forward. As Pope John put it: “It is time to throw open the windows of the church so that we can see out and people can see in.” Such openness in our Church means that we live not in fear and judgement of our world, but as servants in our world, reaching out with care and compassion to heal and love as Jesus does. Then the blessings of God’s Reign can truly live among us. What a hope!

Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?...
You lack one thing; go, sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.
(Mk.10:17,21)

A person comes to Jesus and asks him this crucial question. He is really asking “What must I do to have meaning in my life.” Jesus ‘response is to remind him of the basic good that he is called to in the commandments. When the person presses further, Jesus offers a further response.

The further response is direction to make life meaningful now and to truly live the message and mission of Jesus. It is the message of the Kingdom of God, a reign of God for the benefit of all, especially for the poor and the vulnerable.

The Kingdom is a call to every Christian, in fact it is a call to all humanity to accept the message of love and compassion that is to be found in God’s reign, God’s dream for our world. It will demand a great openness from each person and each nation, a readiness to accept that we are all people of God born of God’s creating, life-giving love. Thus, we are truly our sister’s and brother’s keepers, called to care and compassion for all.

In Mark’s Gospel both the person asking the question “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” and the disciples who were following Jesus found themselves challenged by his response. Their thinking was transactional, i.e. they must do something in order to receive something. How often do we find ourselves with the same thinking?

As the conversation continues, Jesus shocks them (and us?). For the disciples (and us?), heaven and the prospect of gaining God’s love has to be earned or won. As Jesus advises them to sell what they have and give the money to the poor, it appears to be more than they could possibly do.

Jesus’s response to their shock is to show he understands their quandary: “For humans it is impossible, but not for God; for God, all things are possible.” This is reassurance for all. Heaven is not earned, nor is God love. All is gift. Gods love is unconditional. It is not about winning or losing, it is about being open and receptive of this love.

Perhaps all of this is at the base of our challenge. Often it is difficult to receive love, particularly if we have a transactional mentality. We behave in a way that allows us to justify or pay for the love we receive. As Mark tells the story, the person who asked what he needed to do to inherit eternal life could not grasp the response. The openness to Jesus response and the demand he heard was beyond him.

The spiritual writer, Anthony de Mello. Song of the Bird tells this story. In the 19th century, a tourist from the States visited the famous Polish rabbi, Hafez Hayyim. He was astonished to see that the rabbi’s home had only one single room filled with books. The only furniture was a table and a bench.

Rabbi, ‘where is your furniture’? asked the tourist.

‘Where is yours?’ replied Hafez.

‘Mine? But I’m only a visitor here.’

‘So am I.’ said the rabbi.

Quoted by, John Shea. The Spiritual Wisdom of the Gospels for Christian Preachers and Teachers Year B 250.

As we celebrate our Thanksgiving this weekend, may we express our gratitude to God for all of life and love as gift. May we respond to the call that makes God’s dream of the fullness of life available to all.

Our church is currently in the midst of a synod. The first session took place last October. The second session begins this month. The synod, taking place in Rome, is a gathering of the whole church, laity and clergy, women and men. It has its roots in the Second Vatican Council which took place some 60 years ago. That council was an effort to discover the pastoral mission of the global Catholic church in our era. The Synod on Synodality, seeks to carry this task forward now in the 21st century. It might help us to look at a little of the history that has brought us to this time.

Our faith community has a story, in fact many stories. These stories constitute our history, how we became the community of faith that we are today. The history is not static and unchanging. Like all life, our Church is continually evolving, changing in response to the place, culture and needs of the time in which we are living. Right from the very beginning, the followers of Jesus (disciples) were called upon to take the Good News (Gospel) out and share with their world and its peoples.

It was through their sharing of the Gospel in the places and among the people of their own time that the first disciples began their mission to build the Reign of God as Jesus had done. This had been the mission of Jesus. Now, after the Resurrection, it was the task of new disciples, in fact of many new disciples.

Over the course of more than 2400 years, the world has changed. In fact, it is no longer anything like the world in which those first disciples began to share the message and mission of Jesus. One of the ways in which our church sought to adjust and respond to the changing world was through synods and councils.

Looking at the history of the Catholic Church’s general council reveals to us how for some 20 centuries they have been the church’s way of responding to the challenges and opportunities of the times in which it lived. In some ways the first 20 general councils responded with a common format. They attempted to define doctrine and establish practice in the church. The 21st such council, the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, faced the challenges and possibilities of the 20th century in a different way. Its was pastoral.

The church of Vatican II sought to speak to the peoples of the 20th century in the light of their current environment, addressing their concerns with sensitivity.

It was from these roots in Vatican II that Pope Francis came to summon the current Synod on Synodality. In his opening address to the first session, he identified the connection. He noted the character which should mark the synod: The Synod has three key words: communion, participation and mission. He then went on to express the hopes for the synod. In brief these hopes included: That of moving not occasionally but structurally towards a synodal church…where all can feel at home and participate…. That we become a listening church… that we listen to the Spirit [and] to our brothers and sisters speak of their hopes and of the crises of faith present in different parts of the world, and of the need for a renewed pastoral life. Then he went on with a final hope for the Synod: It offers us the opportunity to become a church of closeness. [That we] keep going back to God’s own ‘style’, which is closeness, compassion and tender love.

As we enter the second session of the Synod on Synodality, perhaps our thoughts and prayers over the next weeks could be for the many delegates in Rome as they enter into conversation in the Spirit for us all. At home, in our own local communities, may we undertake the same openness, listening and sincerity, with faith and courage.

Sometimes we find ourselves in settings which are threatening to us. Currently our church finds itself in a context, a world that for many seems to be a threat. It is marked by a distance from things spiritual, where church, prayer and faith seem to count for little. This world is sometimes referred to as “secular” and is viewed as hostile to church and to things spiritual. It is a world in which there often seems little place for church or spirituality. But perhaps this is not quite accurate.

Father Timothy Radcliffe is a Dominican priest and the former general superior of the Dominican Order. He is also a thoughtful and inspirational speaker and writer. Just before the first session of the Synod on Synodality opened in October 2023, the participants, laity and clergy, women and men took part in a 3-day retreat with meditations offered by Sr. Maria Grazia Angelina O.S.B. and Fr. Radcliffe. This time of feeding the Spirit before entering into the work of the Synod it seems proved to be influential in how the first session unfolded.

Several years ago, Timothy Radcliffe wrote an article entitled “The Shape of the Church to Come.” The article discussed the manner in which our church has addressed the reality of living in a world that is secular, a world where faith, religion, church and Christian life seem unimportant. For some, this is a threatening world, but not for Radcliffe.

Fr. Radcliffe sees our world not as a threat to Christianity and the church, but the ground in which we work - where we sow the seeds of the Good News. For him, living in a secular society in the 21st century challenges us to see and proclaim the Good News in a new light. He holds that our sharing of the Good News has much to offer to our secular society, not to correct it, but to build upon it.

Radcliffe offers advice to us on Christian moral vision and life in the 21st century secular world.

[As church and society] we need a moral vision that neither locks us in a ghetto nor assimilates us to society.... We need a moral vision that engages us as people of the 21st century and leads to our flourishing. Many Catholics understand morality in a way that reflects an Enlightenment (i.e. 18th century) culture of control, obligation and prohibition. To be a Catholic is to accept the rules, starting with the Ten Commandments.... Commandments have always, obviously, had a role in Catholic morality, but with the Enlightenment they became central, rather than being part of our formation as people who seek our happiness in God....

The renewal of virtue ethics, especially in North America, promises a way beyond a voluntaristic morality. It is not so much about acts as about becoming the sort of person who finds happiness in God. By practicing the cardinal virtues of prudence, courage, temperance and justice, we can become pilgrims on the way to holiness. With the theological virtues of faith, hope and love, we are given a foretaste of the end of the journey. A morality founded on virtues [rather than commandments] is about the transformation of our desires rather than their control.

Mark’s Gospel, relates this spiritual openness as foundational for Jesus’ disciples (Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48. The disciples were to see that the Spirit speaks in a host of voices. Both Vatican II in 1962-65 and now, the Synod on Synodality both in general have adopted this perspective on our Catholic Church.

Mark’s Gospel relates a story of Jesus and disciples traveling through Galilee (Mk 9:30-37). He overhears a conversation among his followers about who among them was the greatest. Jesus response to this is telling: “Whoever wants to be first must be last and servant of all.” He then focuses on a little child in their midst, pointing to the child as the greatest expression of God’s attention for the most vulnerable. To welcome the most vulnerable is to be open to God and a sign of God’s love for all.

The disciples who followed and listened to Jesus were to discover that what they heard was not just for themselves. The message was always to be shared. Their mission was the mission that Jesus himself lived. With the gift of the Spirit, their small circle would grow into the Church that we are today. Down through the centuries, each generation of disciples took on the mission of sharing Jesus’ Good News broadly, creating an open and inclusive community of faith.

Over these centuries, Christian community found itself in a culture and society that was ever subject to evolution and change. Each era raised new questions of doctrine and of practice. Since the church was rooted in the culture and the society, it could not ignore the questions, nor could it reject the culture. As a Church, the community sought to respond to the change world and the cultures around it. Councils and synods are one of the ways in which our church, now a global community, has attempted to speak to and bring the faith to each successive era with its unique questions and multiple cultures.

We are now in the midst of such an experience, the Synod on Synodality. Each such experience shares the same goal, to share our faith with the people and cultures of each era. Each era and each culture is unique, and how we as a faith community respond is unique. We are to share the common Good News in ways that can reach the peoples and cultures of our times.

Three years ago, Pope Francis called for this Synod on Synodality. He recalled the experience of the 2nd Vatican Council (1962-65). Pope Francis expressed his hope and confidence for this synod of our global church: I am certain the Spirit will guide us and give us the grace to move forward together, to listen to one another and to embark on a discernment of the times in which we are living, in solidarity with struggles and aspirations of all humanity.

For 2 years, parish communities and national groups of dioceses prepared for the first session of the synod. It was an effort to involve laity and clergy, women and men from around the world. When the first session began on October 4, 2023 it gathered women and men, laity and clergy in Rome. They were there representing us all. The common identity that they shared was their common baptism into the Christian community. As it was expressed more than once, their baptism constituted their passport for their presence.

Back in 2021, when Pope Francis initiated this synod process, he expressed three hopes that we might have as church. First, that of moving not occasionally but structurally towards a synodal Church, an open square where all can feel at home and participate. Second, that we might become a Listening Church, break out of our routine and pause from our pastoral concerns in order to stop and listen. Third, [the synod] offers us the opportunity to become a Church of closeness. This is what Francis refers to as “God’s own ‘style’” – filled with compassion and love.

Now, one year later, we are beginning the second session of the Synod on Synodality. As it begins, there are the same hopes and dreams that we may listen to one another and dream with each other as Church. With our shared baptism and common dreams, the laity and clergy, women and men at the second session (October 2-27, 2024) are call to hold to the same hopes for our whole, global faith community. We pray that our community may be a beacon of peace, justice and love for all peoples of our times.

Faith is a curious thing. It’s like other experiences of trust. Most frequently we discover a relationship of trust by our encounters with others. I often ask couples who are getting married how they met their partner. So often the response is the same. They discovered their spouse by meeting them through others. A friend introduced them, a classmate suggested they contact this person, the person was part of a group they were in. Many persons play a part in planting and nurturing our relationships. Faith is one of these relationships. Who has played a role our own relationship with Jesus the Christ? Who has brought us to our faith community? Who supports us in this faith?

In the Fall season, the activity levels in our Christian communities rise. This is not simple busyness. It is a recognition that our Christian communities are human communities. We live in many relationships, families, friendships, work colleagues, neighbours. One of our most significant ties is seen when we realize that life takes on meaning as a community of disciples of Jesus the Christ. In this community we have a call to share the Good News and nurture the faith of one another.

The Gospel writer Mark helps to discover how we encountered our faith and how it is nurtured over the years. Most explicitly, Mark, in chapter

8:27-35 draws us to see that for Jesus the Good News of the Kingdom he proclaimed was lived out in his actions, actions of sacrifice for others. When he asked his followers: “Who do people say that I am”? A host of response were reported – from John the Baptist to the Old Testament prophets. Peter finally hit the nail on the head. “You are the Christ.” Jesus is the Messiah, the one whom Israel, the prophets and the many figures of the Old Testament were awaiting. He is the one who is the sign that the Kingdom of God is among us.

Mark goes on to tell of Jesus announcing his ultimate rejection, suffering and death,….for the sake of the Kingdom. The Kingdom will fall on deaf ears for many. They will not realize or understand that the transition to the Kingdom includes a dying to self for the sake of others. In Jesus we see that to be a follower of Jesus, involves sacrifice, i.e. living and acting for the good of others. As he puts it in Mark: “[The one who would be his disciple,] let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

The Good News is full of episodes in which Jesus reveals the Kingdom as present in the compassion and care of his own life.

The ultimate giving of his life follows on innumerable instances where Jesus in his actions, is giving his life for others in their needs. Often, we view Jesus’s actions of healing, forgiveness and outreach to the isolated and rejected, as miracles. We fail to recognize that these wondrous acts are above all signs of the Kingdom of God alive in our midst.

We live in a world marked by life, but also marred by death. There is an ultimate death, but also many “little deaths” - hatreds, rejections of others, wars, broken relationships, injustice, intolerance and domination. These are all evidence that our life is wounded.

Into this world of woundedness Jesus has entered with the message and mission that the Kingdom of God is present. Yes, it is a message of the full and ultimate eternal life. But the message and the mission of Jesus brings life to where there is any instance of death. Just a glance of how Jesus acts in the Gospels reveals his love and compassion bringing healing, reconciliation and peace where he reaches out and cares for and about others. As his disciples, our call is to “take up his cross and follow.” This is to build the kingdom of justice, love and peace where we walk. To live as Jesus has done.

The Gospel writer, Mark provides us with a host of stories presenting Jesus as the teacher for those who are following him. In chapter 7:31-37, Mark describes Jesus moving through the Decapolis region. This is a Greek, Gentile area. We see Jesus encountering a man who is both deaf and unable to speak. He is in many ways closed off from his world. Jesus heals the man and opens the way for him to the world around him. This is a story of Jesus as the healer – the one who brings wholeness, completeness to the man and his world.

Mark’s story is more than a miracle story. As always in the Gospels, the writer is presenting us with one of the many signs of the Kingdom that Jesus brings in word and in action. Every healing, every reconciling of relationships in the Gospels is a sign that Jesus brings the presence of God’s Kingdom, God’s dream into the world. Jesus is releasing the strength of God’s loving Spirit, a gift of God to all. This gift of Spirit lives in all Creation. In Jesus, Creation is coming to that state of wholeness and fulfillment that has been God’s dream from the very beginning.

The story in Mark leads us to a reflection of how as disciples or followers of Jesus, we bring his Spirit to life in our world. It is a little manual of discipleship for us. The steps of discipleship might be seen in the unfolding story of Jesus’ encounter with the deaf and mute person.

Step 1: Jesus goes beyond his comfort zone. He takes a risk to reach to the Decapolis, a Greek and Gentile area, outside of his familiar space of synagogue and Jewish communities.

Step 2: Jesus encounters a crowd who are expecting a miracle, a wonder to astound them.

But Jesus, respecting the man takes him apart, in private, to allow him to receive a cure from within.

Step 3: Jesus puts his fingers into the ears of the man, taking him further from the outside world and leading him inward to his heart.

To do so is to respect the inward strength and dignity of the man himself.

Step 4: Jesus then spat and touched the man`s tongue. He conveyed something of his own heart, his own Spirit to the heart of the man.

Step 5: Then, Jesus speaks in very simple terms: Be opened. ``Immediately the man`s ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly.`` The man can hear and speak. He is no longer cut off from his world. He has received the gift of God`s Spirit from Jesus and now lives in wholeness, a sign of God`s reign in all its fullness.

What we see in Mark’s account of Jesus is the story of every disciple who brings Jesus’ Spirit into the world, respecting the other and conveying something of the Spirit within us to others. It is how each of us lives as a disciple and a sign of the presence of God’s dream for our world. To follow this “little manual of discipleship” is to work at the call to bring healing, wholeness, reconciliation and peace to a wounded, fractured and divided world. God bless you and all disciples.

For the past few weeks, in our liturgies, we have focused on the theme of Jesus as “the bread of life” as presented in John’s Gospel, chapter 6. Now we return to Mark’s Gospel and reflect on what it means to be disciples of Jesus. In doing so, we become more aware of what it means to call ourselves a Christian community of disciples. Often, we speak of this as being church. The Synod, which will resume in Rome this Fall is intended to be an opportunity for our global Church to reflect on what all this can and does mean for our world-wide community. Discovering who we are, in whatever the context in which we live, is important. And the readiness to respond to the needs for new vision in response to our changing context is significant for our Church.

Local churches are urged to spend time in reflection on how they can grow awareness of what is taking place at the Synod in Rome. An example of this will take place in our own diocese on September 14 when Dr. Michael Higgins launches his new book: The Jesuit Disruptor: A Personal Portrait of Pope Francis, in Fredericton. The launch will take place at a presentation by Dr. Higgins on “The Synod on Synodality”.

The synod is an expression of the role Pope Francis is playing in the growing awareness by our church of the need to listen to all the baptized - laity and clergy, female and male. It is founded on our shared baptismal call. This presents all of us with the challenge of change, which is part of all life, in a host of settings. Mark’s Gospel reveals this challenge facing Jesus and his disciples as they shared the Good News. It is not a new challenge, nor does it ever go away.

In some cities across Canada, until very recently there were city by-laws which demanded that hotels and inns provide stabling facilities for the horses of their guests. In its time, this was a response to the needs of the time, a way of offering hospitality to guests. The by-law remained on the books even though virtually no guest came to the hotel on a horse. No one bothered to change the by-law.

It is a very human trait to resist change or at the very least, be uncomfortable with it. Humanly speaking, change is a constant challenge for us. The world develops, circumstances change and at times we do not keep up with the change. This is something of what we see Jesus working against with the Pharisees in Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23.

The fundamental call of Jewish faith was quite simple, to love God and to love neighbour. This is the basic tradition of Judaism. As time passed and life evolved, the people of the Old Testament developed other traditions, customs and practices which adapted this basic or fundamental tradition to particular circumstances of life. In this way the many ritual laws and practices of Judaism were developed – e.g. the washing of hands, cups, pots, and bronze kettles as well as many other ritual laws.

As these laws developed, they made sense. They had a connection with the core tradition as a way of expressing honour to God and respect for neighbour. But as life and circumstances changed the ritual laws continued even though the connection with the basic or core tradition was no longer evident. The ritual laws took on a life of their own and even obscured the core tradition. Meticulously saying the right words and performing the correct actions appeared as more important than the loving, communal action of the People of God.

This was the challenge faced by Jesus when he encountered the Pharisees – “You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.” The Pharisees were not bad folk. In fact, they were zealous and committed followers of the Law. But in their zeal, they forgot the core tradition, or at the very least obscured it. Jesus’ words and actions were a call to return to the core tradition of loving God and neighbour. The ritual laws got in the way of seeing this fundamental call. Lip service to the Law got in the way of living God’s call from the heart.

Living the core of God’s plan with the heart is what discipleship to Jesus is all about. This is who we are as Church. Being Church, living as disciples is a matter of the heart and the simple double commandment of love God and love neighbour. Here is the challenge - how we love evolves and changes over time as our world and our circumstances change. The laws, rules and rituals are simple ways of responding in particular times and are subject to change. The heart is the constant in discipleship and in being Church.

The present experience of the Synod on Synodality offers an opportunity to look at the heart of who we are as Church. Are we ready to accept change, in order to speak to the world in which we live at our time in history?

Speaking at the opening of the First Session of the Synod on October 9 2021, Pope Francis uttered a prayer calling on the Holy Spirit. He began the prayer with these words:

Come, Holy Spirit! You inspire new tongues and place words of life on our lips: Keep us from becoming a “museum Church”, beautiful but mute, with much Past and little future….

Spending time at the beach is a favourite pastime during the summer months. Watching the waves come in and hearing the sounds as the sea flows and ebbs is so regular and relaxing. Sitting on the shoreline wrapped up in quiet thought, it is hard to imagine that what we are looking at is so vast and so powerful.

Relaxing on the beach, we do not think much about the bigger picture. The Bay of Fundy can be 52 kilometers across and up to 250 meters deep.

The Atlantic Ocean itself in places is almost 8 kilometers deep and 5000 kilometers wide. It covers almost 20% of the earth’s surface. Now that is big.

Often, what we see in our lives is such a small part of the bigger picture. John’s Gospel in chapter 6 poses this problem for the crowds that followed Jesus as well as for his disciples. As John presents the story he begins by telling us that Jesus is being followed by a large crowd of people, “impressed by the signs he gave by curing the sick” (Jn. 6:2). The Gospel goes on to describe another wonder, as Jesus feeds the large crowd. Struck by this miracle they acclaim him as a prophet and seek to make him king (Jn.6:14-15). He flees into the hills to escape them, while the disciples set out to row across the lake.

The story does not end here. There is another wonder. A storm comes up on the lake and they encounter Jesus walking on the water toward them. The next day the crowds find Jesus and his disciples on the other side. They are baffled and overwhelmed by what is happening. Jesus, points out that they may be following him because of the wonders and signs, but there is more to it than this. John then begins to present Jesus speaking to them with a central truth of his message and mission: “I am the bread of life…” (Jn.6:35-69).

Many in the crowd and even some of the disciples found that the message was too much. They could not accept what Jesus was saying as it was too vast a claim and took them far beyond what their faith tradition would allow them. It was an ocean of meaning. Yet, on the other hand, many stayed with him. What was the attraction?

As John closes this chapter, he reveals what the attraction is. Jesus lives in a relationship with a loving, life-giving God and his mission is to proclaim this to others through his life, words and actions. For many this was a challenge. Their vision of God was focused on God’s transcendence, the distance of the divinity. The disciples were discovering in Jesus signs of the immanence of God, the closeness of the divinity – Emmanuel (God with us) is our acclamation.

“Bread” is a simple and common element of life. Yet for the early Christians who speak to us through John’s Gospel the food and feeding symbolizes the core of life in our world. To eat “the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood” is to receive the life, divine life that Jesus offers to humanity. In doing so we recognize the gift of the life-giving love of our God to all. This is the message and mission of Jesus that we have been given as disciples. We are to share this amazing Good News. Being life-giving to one another is how we share it

Every time we come together for Eucharist, we begin our gathering in the same way. First, we make the sign of the cross that represents the faith we share in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That is what draws us together as one community. Then the priest/presider will say: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be/is with you all. In response the gathered community will say: And with you/your spirit. What are we saying?

What we are expressing is that in the community gathered at Eucharist we see the Real Presence of Christ. As Jesus tells his disciples: Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among you (Matt 18:20). The Real Presence of Christ is not only under the form of bread and wine. It is in the assembly around us as we celebrate together, walk together, share together and commit ourselves to sharing and sacrificing for each other. We are the Real Presence of Christ for our world.

In many cultures, one of the signs of support for life is bread. To have bread means that we can sustain our lives. In the Old Testament Book of Exodus, as the Israelites trekked through the desert, they faced starvation. Their confidence flagged and their faith was threatened. Had God who promised liberation, in fact led them out into the desert to starve? Discovering the manna, bread-like feeding saved both their lives and their faith in their God. Their God was a life-giving and sustaining God.

Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel is a very long discourse or sermon which begins with the wonder of Jesus feeding the crowd of followers around him with bread and fish. It was a miraculous event and the crowd who were fed were impressed by having been fed. They want more. They want another miraculous feeding. In chapter 6, Jesus calls for a faith that the fullness of life will come with the taking on of Jesus’s life: Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood lives in me and I in them (Jn. 6:56).

There is a common saying that might help us to grasp what John is expressing: We are what we eat. Very often we hear this in a very narrow and literal sense. What Jesus calls for in chapter 6 is much greater. The Table, the Eucharist, is a sharing that opens us as disciples to the very mind and spirit of Jesus. Coming to the Table means that we are open to a conversion of life and spirit. We are to become Jesus for one another. More than this, we are to leave the Table that we might bear Jesus to the world in which we live. Each Eucharistic experience is not so much a personal moment for me and my faith, it is more. It is a conversion to take what we have received and become the Real Presence of Christ for our world.

Bread is a very common food and is a staple for many cultures. It comes in a variety of types: whole wheat, banana, white, potato, brown, naan, pita, ciabatta, multigrain and gluten free to name only a few. Of all our foods, bread is perhaps the most common. Like so many other elements of our lives, bread hardly captures any attention. Yet, though common, it has taken on great significance in our lives. So often, bread represents that we are being fed, supported and provided with our basic needs. What is ordinary and common, can be very significant.

In the Old Testament, First Book of Kings, the prophet Elijah, exhausted and despairing in the wilderness, lies down and recalls his ancestors, the Israelites. During their flight from Egypt, they wandered through the desert. Facing starvation, they were fed with manna from heaven. Elijah is described with a parallel wonder as he wakes from sleep and finds bread and water to sustain him (1 Kings 19:4-8). With this simple and ordinary gift from God, the prophet is able to complete his journey.

Chapter 6 of John’s Gospel contains a long discourse on the relationship between Jesus and the Father. The chapter begins with the account of the feeding of 5000 with loaves and fish. The impact of this event created a great stir and people began to flock to Jesus. They hoped for another sign, not understanding that this was more than a simple feeding with bread.

In the discourse, Jesus moves beyond the physical entity of bread to a significance beyond simple feeding of the body. Jesus expresses this deeper meaning with the statement: “I am the bread of life…. Whoever eats this bread will live forever and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” For John, this allusion to his giving of his life indicates that Jesus will ultimately pour out his life for all of us and will do this as a sign of God’s great love for the whole of creation.

For many this was too much. Here was a person they all knew and whose family lived among them. How could someone so common and ordinary make such a claim? As the chapter continues, many who had started to follow him, now began to drift away from him. The sign that had attracted them, ceased to be something they could place their faith in, at least in the way in which they understood it.

Those who remained committed disciples would gradually come to grasp the deeper meaning of the sign that seemed so ordinary. For them, the faith and trust they placed in this Jesus, became more than following a teacher who conveyed knowledge to them or a leader who would help them in momentary struggles.

It became a way of life and an awareness of God’s constant and unconditional love for them and all the peoples of the earth.

In letters he wrote for early Christian communities a later disciple, Paul captured this deeper, faith and trust as a way of living. One of these letters was directed to the Christian community at Ephesus. Paul saw in Jesus, a wonderous expression of God’s love for all and a commitment from God who like a parent would never cease loving us. The way of life for a disciple as Paul expressed it was to imitate Jesus and allow the love showered upon us, to become our way of life with all (Ephesians 4:30 – 5:2).

In his letter, Paul has managed to express what giving “life for the world” means in practical, everyday ways: “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.” This, says Paul is the mark of the Spirit among us. Paul takes us beyond the wonder of marvels to the ordinary expressions of God’s life-giving love in the hearts of disciples. Such disciples are able to trust, and reflect God’s compassion in the moments of daily life.

A curious question indeed. But it is one that we all ask even when we do not realize it. In chapter 6 of John’s Gospel we hear the story of Jesus feeding a great crowd with a few fish and some bread. After this miracle or wonder we hear Jesus in conversation with people who want him to offer another sign that he speaks and acts for God (John 6:24-35). They want another miracle. That is the language they want. Is it sometimes the language we seem to seek?

Jesus’ response, however is to indicate that it is not in miracles and wonders that God speaks. Rather it is in the kind of loving care and service that he himself has shown them. He is the word that God speaks to them.

In Catholic theology there is a basic teaching that Jesus is the sacrament of God and that the church is the sacrament of Jesus. In other words, in Jesus Christ the divine has touched and taken on our humanity, that we might recognize the divine presence in the midst of Creation. God speaks in all Jesus says and does. More than this, we, the People of God, as church speak and act as the continuing presence of Jesus in our world. When we live this fundamental of faith, we recognize the divine presence in all that is around us.

How do each of us, as church, speak Jesus in our world? Pope Francis has offered some direction on this to us. Perhaps in what Francis expresses we might discover that the language that God speaks is what Jesus has shown us, the language of mercy and of love, of openness and inclusion, of awareness that the divine presence is always among us. We need to hear this language especially in moments when we are our weakest and most vulnerable.

Pope Francis focuses on those who struggle with our church and no longer find it meaningful and supportive, those who seem or sense that they are judged and rejected by our church. He does not blame the culture or harangue against “relativism”, “consumerism” and other “isms” of our times. Pope Francis offer instead, a challenge to us as church – to look inward, that we might reach outward to the whole of humanity and all of creation. What is the language of God that we speak to our world? Is it compassion?

Below: Some Thoughts from Pope Francis: Who are we as church? From two addresses he made in Brazil July, 2013. He bases himself on the story of the disciples meeting the risen Jesus on the road to Emmaus. [Luke 24:13-35]

We need a church unafraid of going forth into their night. We need a church capable of meeting them on their way. We need a church capable of entering into their conversation. We need a church able to dialogue with those disciples who having left Jerusalem behind, are wandering aimlessly, alone, with their own disappointments, disillusioned by a Christianity now considered barren, fruitless soil, incapable of generating meaning....

Are we still a church capable of warming hearts? A church capable of leading people back to Jerusalem? Of bringing them home? Jerusalem is where our roots are: Scripture, catechesis, sacraments, community, friendship with the Lord, Mary and the apostles... Are we still able to speak of these roots in a way that will revive a sense of wonder at their beauty?

A few years ago, we gathered as a group of friends and drove to the Fundy Trail Parkway. This was a great opportunity to stroll, walk, and hike. More than this, it was also a place of wonder. Stretching for c.30 kms along the Bay of Fundy coastline, the Parkway offered trails and vistas reminding us that we live in a world that can hold us in awe.

Among the many trails that offered amazing scenes and vistas was one at the eastern end of the parkway, at Walton Glen Gorge. This steep gorge stretches through the hills from the parkway itself down to the coast. Standing at the top of the gorge, you can see the Bay, off in a distance, framed by the wooded hill on either side. What a wonder of nature, of God’s creation! How often do we seem to take the wonders of life, small and great for granted? Walton’s Glen Gorge and many others are really in the realm of miracles.

Miracle! The root of this English word is found in the Latin word miraculum, its meaning is a “wonder” or “something amazing”. More commonly, we tend to use the word “miracle” for something that reveals an intervention of God, but in a way that seems a suspension of the normal rules of nature. Perhaps this is too limited an understanding.

It would be better to see miracles as more common, as not a suspension of nature, but a heightened awareness of how we are surrounded by a wonder-filled creation, a constant gift of God. In doing so, we begin to recognize that God is very much present and active among us. There is wonder in everything and everyone. Every wonder, every amazing aspect of life, every “miracle” speaks to us of God’s constant presence. Beginning with Creation and life itself, we are constantly surrounded with the touch of God, with the miraculous.

The gospel writer John seems well aware of how Jesus, the Christ expresses this wonder of God. He begins chapter 6 by telling the story of how Jesus feeds a large group of people who surround him. The chapter begins with a miracle/wonder account (John 6:1-15). Jesus proposes to feed the people that are following him, a large number.

Two of his close disciples, Philip and Andrew express some skepticism about this possibility.

As the account unfolds the crowd is fed and with food left over – a miracle. A suspension of nature, perhaps, but perhaps not. Perhaps it was a miracle, a wonder which expressed how the action of God’s love works through us all, naturally and wonderfully. There was a boy in the crowd who had five loaves and two fish. This was the start of the miracle. Jesus blessed the food and the wonder was in the manner in which the crowd shared their food.

The message and the mission of Jesus, the Christ is that the Kingdom of God is near. It is among us. In each one of us is the spirit of this Kingdom, the spirit of Jesus the Christ. With such a spirit we are driven to share God’s love with all we have and with all we do, especially with the most vulnerable, those among us most in need. To do so, is to share creation, life and love in the way that God has done for all of us – a wonder. Working such wonders, such miracles, is what Jesus preached and what we are called to live as disciples.

May we stand in wonder at the miracles that surround us - the compassion and love expressed in times of need, the care and concern revealed in moments of pain, the works of science and service in humanity’s gifts and talents. Thanks be to our loving God for such wonders, such … miracles.

Several years ago, I had the pleasure of traveling with some friends in Arizona. We stayed in an area close to a desert park. Each morning, we took the opportunity to hike the trails there. I had never been in a desert before and was struck by how different and wonderful it was. It seemed to have minimal signs of life, some cactuses and scattered grasses, the occasional small mammal and a few, mostly unseen snakes. That being said, the desert was beautiful, a place for being alone in quiet, for spending time in reflection.

Our scriptures take us to deserts frequently. In the Old Testament, the story of Moses and the exodus of Israel from slavery in Egypt to liberation in the promised land is a flight through the desert. It is a journey plagued by hunger and thirst, a sense of being lost and of losing confidence. But it is also a journey in which Israel as a people discovered who they were in their relationship with God. They were a covenant people, a people brought together by the love with which God held them.

In our New Testament, the desert is where, Jesus found himself after his baptism by John in the Jordan. As the Gospel of Mark relates it, his baptism brought him the Spirit and an awareness as God’s beloved. That same Spirit led Jesus out into the desert and the temptations. With the desert experience, Jesus discovered his mission and the message that he was to share: The time has come and the kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent [Have a change of heart], and believe the Good News (Mark 1:15).

Moved by the Spirit, Jesus began gather disciples around him with the message and the mission to which he was called. The Good News they received was not just for them, it was to be shared widely and Jesus sent them forth to take the message to others and to reveal the active kingdom of God by their own reaching out to others. Periodically, Jesus called these same disciples to a desert, to restore and refresh the message and reenergize their mission (Mark 6:30-34).

This was more than a time of rest. It was a time for renewal and refocusing the message for the mission. Mark points this out by indicating that as they went away, they encountered new people seeking the message. Jesus did not avoid them, but reached out with compassion. The mission with its message of Good News had to continue with new energy. Such calls to deserts are what we sometimes refer to as retreats, opportunities to refresh and restore by stepping back from our regular routines.

Recently, I was invited to help two communities in retreats, one in PEI and another in Newfoundland. Looking back now, I realize that while I was called to facilitate these retreats, in the process of being with these communities, they were in fact renewing and nurturing my own faith. Coming to know them better and seeing their willingness to take on the disciple’s mission through their service to others, the real, living compassion they expressed, brought new life and commitment to me. For them I am most thankful.

All of us are disciples. By our baptism, we share the same call to the same message of God’s love and compassion. United in the same community of faith we have the support and encouragement of one another. This is what is expressed in the Synod on Synodality that our global Church is currently experiencing. (The first session took place in Rome in October of 2023, the second will occur this year in October. In between, we are invite to discover how we can best live as Church in and for our times.)

We are many peoples, cultures and languages. We have many ways of expressing our faith and yet we serve the same God and are called express the same message of love and compassion. It is not about uniformity, but rather unity as one People of God. In some measure, with the Synod, our global Church is on a kind of retreat, aimed at restoring and renewing our fundamental call.

In his address on October 9, 2021, calling for a Synod of our Global church, Pope Francis challenged us all to see our Church in a new light and to be open to the Spirit in our community of faith. He concluded his address with a prayer to the Holy Spirit: Come, Holy Spirit! You inspire new tongues and place words of life on our lips: keep us from becoming a ‘museum Church’, beautiful but mute, with much past and little future…. Come, Spirit of love, open our hearts to hear your voice! Come, Holy Spirit of holiness, renew the holy and faithful People of God! Come, Creator Spirit, renew the face of the earth!

As God’s People in this age, in the middle of a Synod of our Church, are we able to welcome the Spirit, and live up to the dreams of a Synodal Church? Can our own faith be renewed for the impact and influence our global, multi-cultural Church? Can we recognize in the midst of our synodal experience this year, that we have the capacity to create a Church open to all, marked by compassion, service and joy-filled hope?

Disciples are learners. They follow and listen to the teacher/rabbi/Master. This discipleship is the role of those early followers of Jesus. Touched by what they heard and saw in him, the disciples walked and talked with him and grew to understand what he was all about – his message and his mission. They also developed a relationship of great trust with him. This trust is what we often call faith. Over time their faith evolved. The more they came to know Jesus, the more he came to mean for them.

Very quickly, these disciples and subsequent generations came to see Jesus as, the Messiah for whom Israel had been waiting and whom God promised through generations of prophets. But the disciples we meet in the Gospels gradually came to discover Jesus was even more than was promised. This awareness grew in the disciples with Jesus’s death and resurrection. He became for them, the anointed one, the Christ.

In Paul’s letters to the various communities of Christians that emerged after the resurrection, Jesus through his death and resurrection becomes the Christ, the anointed one and his significance grows beyond Israel to the salvation of all, the whole of humanity and creation. We can see the breadth of this vision in his letter to the Ephesian community of Christians (Eph.1:3-14). The faith growing in this community is to recognize that our redemption comes through the death and resurrection of Jesus as the Christ.

This core of our faith as stated by Paul reaches beyond our community to all humanity and all creation. As Paul expresses it: With all wisdom and insight God has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure that he set forth in Christ, as a plan for the fulness of time, to gather all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth (cf. Eph 1:3-14). Paul expressed this same vision of Jesus as the Christ for all in letters to other communities as well, eg. Philippians (Phil.2:5-11).

At the center of our faith, we begin to recognize what we call the Paschal Mystery - the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Our Baptism incorporates us into this mystery. By it we live as Jesus the Christ in the midst of our world. It is what we celebrate together every time we gather at the table of the Eucharist, and it is ultimately what we are called to as disciples, to live and share as the Good News for all peoples.

Our Church is called then to an openness and outreach that is the task of all disciples. As Pope Francis took on his leadership role as Pope in our Catholic community in 2013, he openly expressed this vision in an Apostolic Exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium (“The Joy of the Gospel”). A key piece of what he presented was this openness to all, no matter who they are or what their condition. He puts it this way: The salvation which God has wrought, and the Church joyfully proclaims, is for everyone. God has found a way to unite himself to every human being in every age. He has chosen to call them together as a people and not as isolated individuals (E.G.113).

Our Baptism immerses each of us in the sharing of this universal call for all peoples. Francis would say that fundamentally this is in how we show mercy. There are to be no limits or barriers thrown up to how we share this Good News. We as a Church, a Christian community are all to be missionary disciples with this Good News (E.G. 120)

Currently we are, as a Church, in the midst of a global synod. It involves every baptized member (laity, religious and clergy). We are all learning through this synod how we can have a voice in who we are, and how we can walk together as missionary disciple in our world, doing so for the sake of all humanity. It is not easy to be a “listening” community that really does listen to all voices.

Openness to the gift of the Spirit in our common baptism is what can make it possible. In the instructions to the first session of the Synod in October 2023, Baptism was recognized as the key to what is being a synodal Church: A synodal Church is founded on the recognition of a common dignity deriving from Baptism, which makes all who receive it sons and daughters of God, members of the family of God, and therefore brothers and sisters in Christ, inhabited by the one Spirit and sent to fulfill a common mission (“Instrumentum Laboris” [Instructions for the Work] 20).

Can we see ourselves as part of this Church and ready for the mission of sharing the Good News freely, openly and with joy to all, no matter who they are or what their condition?

“My children know me so well, even too well. They are the ones who see me in my slippers.” Children often know their parents in their “ordinariness” – the good, the bad and the ugly. In some ways, this was the challenge faced by the Old Testament prophets like Ezekiel or Jeremiah. It was likewise the hurdle that Jesus faced as he came with his disciples to his hometown. “Where did this man get all this?... Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and the brother of James…A Prophet is not without honour, except in his hometown, and among his own kin, and in his own house.” (Mark 6:1-6).

I love to travel, and I think I share this love with many others. We have this drive to see other places, other peoples. It is often said that travel broadens and helps us to appreciate different cultures and ways of life. Very quickly, we come to realize that things are not always the way they are at home.

At the same time, travel often helps us to appreciate what we have at home. Frequently, what is all around us all the time becomes so familiar, so ordinary, that we take it for granted. We fail to appreciate the wonder that is right before our eyes. This is what we see in Mark’s Gospel. Those that Jesus encounters are dismissive of his message and his mission.

Throughout the gospels this is a common experience. Those that Jesus encountered were often unable to hear his message, let alone accept his mission. Many rejected him as counter to their own experience and traditions. Change as it often does, made them uncomfortable and Jesus’s message and mission called them, provoked them to see differently.

Jesus and such prophets as Ezekiel (Ezekiel 2:3-5) all faced resistance. Yet, by word and action, they acted to share the message of God’s presence. Jesus included others in his mission, he gathered disciples around him. Despite even their reluctance and often their resistance, he proclaimed that God’s reign is among us. This is the fundamental Good News that Jesus shared with his disciples. Then, and now it is often a struggle to recognize the Good News in the world around us.

There is in all of us a blindness that blocks our recognition of the wonder of God and the presence of God expressed in all that is around us. Some of our inability to see comes from being so busy. Our attention is so focused on what we have to do that we cannot look around and see what is happening in our lives. Yet the presence of God is all around us always.

Our vision is dependent on the spirit of the Risen Jesus a Spirit that is ever with us. In some ways, perhaps this presence can be so common that we do not notice it. Jesus reveals and speaks the message of the Kingdom in every act of love, every experience of compassion, every moment of mercy and care. We do not see what is right before our eyes.

Summer can be a time when the busyness tails off. It may be an opportunity to look around in different places, with different persons. We might even discover, or rediscover those everyday places, those common experiences and those familiar people who are always with us and whom we take for granted. These can be the prophets among us. With open eyes, hearts and minds, we may discover Jesus, and a message of love and compassion in the ordinary of our lives. We may also discover the blessings that we can be for one another.

Now there was a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years….. ‘If I can touch even his clothes,…I shall be well again.’…

‘Your daughter is dead: Why put the Master to any further trouble?... And taking the child by the hand he said to her, Talitha, kum! Which means, ‘Little girl, I tell you to get up.’ The little girl got up at once and began to walk about. (Mark 5:21-43, passim)

A few days ago, I experienced two common and seemingly unrelated events. They may not have seemed alike in any way, but they were. The first was simply noticing a young couple walking along on the street, holding hands. The other, was the anointing of a man in the hospital with the oil of the sick. Each of these events seemed quite different from the other, except that there were several commonalities that the events shared. Each event involved one person touching of another. And both of them were in fact an expression of love and the bond between persons.

The young couple, in holding hands expressed the love that they shared with one another and they revealed it in the simple gesture they took. The anointing of the person in the hospital was also an expression of love shared by the Christian community through the sacrament. At the same time, the anointing revealed the shared faith that ties the whole community together and that calls us to reach out to a person in need of our loving support.

Mark’s Gospel often presents us with the healing Jesus. In the very poignant account of a woman who had suffered for years, we discover the loving touch of God that Jesus brings. He is present to her. Having heard of Jesus, she was unable to get close to him, but thought: “If I but touch his clothes.” What faith!

The same loving and healing presence is revealed in the second story related by Mark. The sick child has brought desperate parents to seek out Jesus. We might be tempted to see Jesus as a wonder-worker in the story. But what is more wonderful perhaps is that Jesus went out of his way to be present to both the child and her parents. As Mark relates it, Jesus says: “The child is not dead, but sleeping.”

The Gospels are full of stories of Jesus as he heals people. What is this all about? The temptation is to see Jesus as a wonder-worker, a miracle-maker, someone who suspends the rules of the natural order in order to heal. To be sure there may be some instances of physical healing. But if we stop there, we miss the real point of these accounts.

Jesus is the incarnate presence of God – God who is present to us, sharing our humanity. To say this is to say that Jesus reveals the love in which God holds each and every one of us in humanity. He is the touch of God’s love for us all. When we stand with another in the midst of suffering, difficult times and challenging wounds personally, communally and globally, we express the incarnation. We speak God’s love. We do not seek miracles we seek expressions of God’s love, that is always with us.

Spring and summer bring out a common scene. The streets and parks are full of Moms and Dads teaching their youngest the wonders of riding a bike. The pattern is often a common one. The child is excited with the new bike and readily gets on the cycle. With Mom or Dad holding onto the seat, the child moves along the path. After several time up and down, Mom or Dad briefly let’s go of the seat then catches it again. This routine will last for a couple of days. By this time the little one has begun to push the pedals. Then, comes the launch.

Mom senses the child has found her balance. She let’s go of the bike and the child is cycling,… but only barely. After 4-5 meters, little Penelope realizes that Mom is no longer holding onto her bike. She loses her balance and falls over. The problem is that the little one also loses her confidence. She trusts her Mom, but not herself. It is a few more days and perhaps several falls, before her confidence allows her to trust she can ride the bike without her Mom. Somehow her Mom has passed on the ability of her daughter to ride her bike while her mother is not physically present. But, in some way, Mom remains present. She has passed on to her daughter the balance and ability to ride the bike, that she herself learned years earlier. Parents do this in many areas of life.

This is what Jesus does with his disciples. He passes on the message he has received. And, he passes on the mission that he has been given by the Father. This does not happen without the development of trust. As the disciples begin their journey of faith with Jesus they look upon him as a wise teacher by whom they are be instructed. But there is more to come. More will be asked of them.

Very gradually, disciples pick up a message that they hear or learn from Jesus. But, there comes a day, and it only comes gradually, step by step they discover that Jesus is calling them further. He shares with them his mIssion – building the Reign of God in our world. For this they need confidence, as Penelope did. She realized that Mom was not holding onto her physically, but Mom was certainly there in what she had taught Penelope in those early lessons.

Mark in his Gospel account points to a similar experience for the disciples. Through actions of healing and a host of stories or parables, Jesus teaches them his message of the Reign of God. Then, he takes them deeper, demanding that they trust and have confidence in him. Early in his Gospel, Mark presents this is by having them take a boat across the Sea of Galilee (Mark 4:35-41).

As they cross the lake, a great windstorm comes upon them and the boat is in danger of being swamped by the heavy seas. Jesus is asleep and the disciples are overwhelmed by fear. They wake him up: “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” As he awakens, the seas are calmed and peace comes over the scene. Jesus questions their faith and the trust they place in him.

The Gospels will present many occasions when the disciples are challenged to greater trust in the Jesus they are following. Ultimately, they will face the tragedy of the crucifixion. But once again, as on the Sea of Galilee, the disciples discover that Jesus brings them peace.

In the resurrection and with the gift of the Spirit, peace comes into our world. Filled with the Spirit, the disciples overcome the dispirited fear that they face and become sharers of the Good New and builders of the God’s Reign in the midst of the chaos of our world – to the ends of the earth.

Filled with confidence and trust, all disciples of Jesus move from simple learners to apostles, announcing the Good New of God’s love to all humanity in every age. This is the call of the whole community of Christians for our world.

Stories! We all seem to love them. We read novels. We watch movies. We follow many a TV series. Jesus told many stories as he walked with his disciples. The Gospels call these stories parables. A parable is a story based on ordinary life – gardens, fishing, working, playing. But parables are about more than ordinary life. Such stories take us to another dimension. They allow us to see the spiritual side of our lives, taking us beyond the ordinary, the material, the social dimension which so often dominates.

Jesus uses parables to tell us what the Reign of God is like, what it means for us. This Sunday we hear two of Jesus’ parables. The ordinary, the material element of the stories focuses on planting seeds. But Jesus tells them for the other element, the spiritual dimension of the Reign of God. As Jesus puts it: The reign of God is as if..... or is like.....

Mark’s Gospel offers us a parable about the person who scatters the seed on the ground and then has to wait patiently for growth to occur. In this story we hear a call to recognize that we cannot control the Reign of God. It comes because of God, not because of us. And it demands patience not pushiness on our behalf. It calls for a willingness to sow the Reign wherever we are and then patiently wait while God works in us, in those around us and in our world.

Some 30 years ago, an archbishop in El Salvador, Oscar Romero became heavily involved in working for the poor and disadvantaged of the country. He was assassinated by some of the powerful people who resisted his efforts for the poor. His words, before he died are a call for us to recognize how we work for the building of the Reign of God. It is God’s Reign, not our own. Our efforts and willingness to commit are important. But what becomes the Reign in the midst of our world will come from God, not from us. Here are Oscar Romero’s words:

This is what we are about. We plant seeds that one day will grow. We water seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise.

We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces efforts far beyond our capabilities. We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in that.

This enables us to do something and to do it well. It may be incomplete, but it is a Beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the Master Builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own

Our Christian call demands our efforts, but we do not control the results. Patience not pushiness, commitment, not control builds the Reign of God for all humanity. Are we “seed-planters” in our place and time?

Our God is an awesome God
He reigns from heaven above
With wisdom, power and love
Our God is an awesome God.

This is the beginning of one of the hymns most loved in a parish where I once served, especially in gatherings with youth. In many ways it expressed the faith, trust and hopes of our Christian faith. The reign of God is for all peoples, in all places at all times.

The Gospel writers often present us with the surprising character of Jesus’s message. In Mark’s version, we see that even Jesus’s own family found what he was saying and doing to be a shock (Mark 3:20-35). The message that God’s reign is near and among us seems too much for many to accept, beyond belief.

We live in a world where war, violence, injustice and is a constant presence. We see this presence in the various conflicts in the Middle East, in the local conflicts in various African States, in the ongoing tensions in the Ukraine. Normally, we view war and its impact from a human perspective. We see nation pitted against nation, people fighting people, army against army. The impact of war and conflict reaches far beyond the combatant themselves. It has its impact on all. It is truly a universal tragedy affecting all humanity and all of creation.

Counter to this image of war and violence is the image of the kingdom or the reign of God that we hear Jesus proclaim as he begins his ministry. Mark presents this proclamation:

Jesus went into Galilee. There he proclaimed the Good News from God. “The time has come,” he said “and the reign of God is close at hand.” (Mark 1:14-15)

What is this reign of God all about? What does Jesus proclaim through his message and his mission to the world?

The idea of the reign of God finds its roots in the Old Testament. The Jewish People recognized that their God was personally present and active among them as a People. The God of Israel intervened and acted in their story, their history. Perhaps the best example of this, one which they often recalled, was the Exodus event. They saw this liberation from slavery as a work of God among them through Moses. In addition, the Jewish Scriptures acknowledge that God is also present in all of creation around them.

At the very beginning of the Old Testament, this sense of God’s presence acting in all creation appears in the stories of creation in the Book of Genesis. Jesus’ proclamation that the reign of God is close at hand grows out of this way of seeing God as present in our history and in all of creation. As Jesus begins his ministry, he announces that God is about to break into our world in a new and powerful way. He announces this reign time and again in his words and actions. It will be this completed, fulfilled reign of God that will bring peace and harmony to humanity and healing and wholeness to creation. Jesus truly proclaims an awesome God. Theologian Dermot Lane writes:

The future reign of God is about the gathering up by God into a condition of fulfilment and transformation of all the human efforts in this life which are directed towards the creation of peace and justice in the world around us....

The reign of God is ultimately about re-establishing right relationships between God and humanity, between humanity and the individual, between humanity and the whole of creation.
(Lane. Christ at the Centre 21)

Every time we come together for Eucharist, we begin our gathering in the same way. First of we make the sign of the cross that represents the faith we share in the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. That is what draws us together as one community. Then the priest/presider will say: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be/is with you all. In response the gathered community will say: And with you/your spirit. What are we saying?

What the priest is saying is that in the gathered community we see the Real Presence of Christ. The people’s response acknowledges that the same Real Presence of Christ is in the priest/presider as well. As Jesus tells his disciples: Where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among you (Matt 18:20). The Real Presence of Christ is not only under the form of bread and wine. It is in the assembly around us as we celebrate together, walk together, share together and commit ourselves to sharing and sacrificing for each other. We are the Real Presence of Christ for our world.

Sacrifice is often a hard word for us. It presents us with challenges. It forces us to make choices. Yet, sacrifice also brings meaning to our lives and offers us opportunities to make commitments which are both meaningful and the way to fulfillment. We humans are naturally disposed to sacrifice, for it is an expression of one of our most wonderful human traits – we are basically free. We can make choices and even challenging, demanding choices and sacrifices for others. It is often an expression of our love and relationship with others.

Sacrifice is what we hear of in Luke’s Gospel (9:11 -17). There he tells the story of Jesus feeding the 5000 with five loaves and two fish. No matter how, it is a wonder. Some would read this story literally, and in this way see Jesus using power to multiply a little available food so that there was enough to feed multitude. Others might read it differently. Perhaps it is a story with even greater meaning.

Luke’s story can be seen as revealing Jesus’ whole person and message as well as what Jesus is able to draw out of people. Humanly, when we lack or have little, we sometimes draw back into ourselves to protect our own resources, whether that be food or time or energy or whatever. We take care of ourselves. But not always, often we make sacrifices reaching out to others, responding to need.

The 5000 are seated in groups. Jesus takes the bread and fish, says a prayer of blessing, breaks the food up and asks the disciples to set it before the crowd. What has taken place is very much in keeping with what Jesus often causes as he announces the Reign of God. In the Reign, people look after one another. People share what they have with one another. Their care reflects God’s care and compassion.

The sacrifice we witness in our sharing of the Eucharist expresses a basic truth of our faith. Eucharist is more than a sharing of Jesus’ physical body and blood. In following Jesus’ call: “Do this in remembrance of me” (1 Cor.11:24) we imitate him. And what Jesus sacrificed was more than his physical existence. It was his whole person and life. Eucharist is our expression of commitment and willingness to sacrifice for the Reign, to sacrifice for one another. For we are the Real Presence of Christ for one another. It makes us Church, a community drawn together by a shared faith.

“It’s a mystery.” Such a statement can mean many things to us. It might mean something that is unsolvable. Or perhaps it means a question for which we do not have an answer. On the other hand, it may be our way to avoid a question we cannot handle. It can even be used to refer to a novel or a movie involving a crime.

When we speak of the “mystery of the Trinity” or some other “mystery of our faith” none of the above descriptions is accurate. “Mystery” in this case is used to speak of something the meaning of which is so great that we can never exhaust the truth of it. All of our seeking and searching, all of our questions will help us with understanding, but there will always be more to discover in such mysteries. This is certainly true of the “mystery of the Trinity.”

In celebrating the Feast of the Trinity we are acknowledging a truth this is at the foundation of who we are as Christians. It expresses our faith in our God who loves us deeply, as a parent. So deeply does this God love us that God came in the person of Jesus to live among, to share the life that we live, even unto death. More than this, Jesus draws us into sharing a loving relationship with God and calls us to share with others, all others, the loving relationship we have with God. This gift of love from God brings us to full and eternal life. All of this and more is expressed in the “mystery of the Trinity.”

Matthew in his Gospel (Matt.28:16-20) opens up the many aspects of this mystery of the Trinity. He does so in relating an experience of the disciples in an encounter with the Risen Jesus. It is significant that they have this experience on a mountain, in fact the mountain on which Jesus presented what we call the Sermon on the Mount. This sermon covers Matthew chapters 5-7. It is a collection of sayings and teachings which capture the core of the message of Jesus and the focus of his whole mission among us. In some ways then, it expresses the meaning of the Trinity for us.

As the disciples encounter Jesus on this mountain, they discover that they are being included in the relationship of love that Jesus has with God as a loving parent. They are adopted children of God. In this relationship Jesus draws them into his mission. He is not “handing on the mission”, but rather he is “including them in his mission.”

Matthew’s account reassures those disciples and us that Jesus will be with us always. The gift of the Spirit expresses this. Thus, we will always live and act in our relationship as children of God who loves us as a parent and shares even divine life with us. The disciples and we are to live in loving relationships with all the peoples of the earth. For all peoples are children of God. This and more is expressed in the “mystery of the Trinity.”

trans. 1997)

    Truly, Good News for all.

Some 45 years ago I met Jim and Pauline. Jim was with the OPP and Pauline worked in a Catholic school in Barrie. At the time I was on sabbatical researching. I lived and assisted in a parish in the north of Toronto. The three of us worked together in a marriage enrichment program. Over the course of the year we became good friends. Then I left to return to Fredericton.

One of the remarkable things is that the departure did not end the friendship. For more than 45 years we have maintained the friendship through letters, emails and phone calls. It was not always easy to maintain the contact but it did happen. Though we left each other’s physical presence we had not really left one another. Somehow, there was a presence that continued. We continued to be with one another in our friendship. There was a sense of being apart and together, of “leaving yet remaining” with one another.

When the Scriptures speak of the Ascension, it may seem that Jesus is somehow leaving his disciples. But when we look more closely at the Gospel accounts, it is evident they speak of Jesus still being present among them.

The classic image of the ascension of Jesus is captured in the story that we find in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 1:1-11). The writer of Acts tells the story of the earliest Christian communities after the resurrection of Jesus. Acts begins the story with the account of Jesus leaving the disciples and ascending to heaven, or put another way with the return of Jesus to the Father. It is a story of “leaving yet remaining.”

The disciples have been given two important pieces of their call as followers of Jesus. They have been promised the gift and power Holy Spirit, and they have been told that they are to be witnesses to all that Jesus has proclaimed. In some way, the ascension is the end of the appearances of the risen Jesus. He leaves them yet remains among them through the continuing power of the Spirit that they will receive. Thus, they are to be the ongoing presence of the risen Jesus for our world.

Jesus might have left, but remains among us. The Incarnation continues with us, for we are the face of Jesus for our world. The final verses of Mark’s Gospel present us with this mission. We are called to: “Go out into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation” (Mark 16:15).

With Jesus among us, and marked by the Spirit we are to be people of the Good News.

The last major Constitution of the Second Vatican Council closed the council in December 1965. This was the Constitution on the Church in the Modern World. Its title and opening words declared its principal vision:

The joy and the hope, the grief and the anxiety of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted; this is the joy and hope, the grief and the anxiety, of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts. The Christian community is, after all, a community of women and men truly linked with humankind and its history, bearing a message of salvation [good news] intended for all peoples. (Gaudium et Spes, preface 1, Huebsch, trans. 1997)

Truly, Good News for all.

As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you: abide in my love.... This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.

Have you ever tossed a rock into the center of a pond? One thing we might notice is the splash as the rock hits the water. More interesting is what happens to the whole pond. As the rock breaks the surface at the center, ripples spread outward from this center and ultimately reach even to the far shoreline.

This Sunday (6th Sunday of Easter) the Gospel shows Jesus leading us to see the loving relationship that is created between God as our loving parent and ourselves. This love of God, in fact brings a whole series of loving relationships into our world. As complex as Christian faith can seem to be, it is in fact founded on a simple revelation: God loves us, all of us.

Our scriptures reveal this relationship again and again. It is expressed in in the story of creation (Genesis), where God brings the gift of life out of chaos. We encounter it in the saving, liberating action of God as Israel is drawn from slavery in Egypt and led to become a People of God in the new land (Exodus). The prophet Jeremiah saw this love as a covenant of love written on the hearts of all peoples (Jer.31:31-34).

In the Incarnation, Jesus’ birth is a signal of Gods expansive love. God reveals this love in Jesus himself (John 3:16-17) and from Jesus this revelation is to reach out through us. Like the rock thrown into the center of the pond, Jesus breaks through the surface creating ripples of God’s love that reach to the far and distant shores of our world.

This is the chain of loving relationships that appears in our reading n this Sunday. (1 John 4:7-10 & John 15:9-17). Jesus received and accepted the Father’s love. He loved his disciples with this same love. As disciples we are to love one another as Jesus has loved us.

God’s plan for all humanity is a plan of love. The love of God is expressed in the gift of Jesus, God’s Son, to us. Jesus expresses this love in word and action and so touches the humanity we share. From this touch comes our call to do what Jesus has done and what God has revealed. We are to love one another. This is the plan of God that comes into our humanity and that is expressed when we, when humanity, loves as Jesus has shown.

What is one practical way in which my life reveals God’s love today?

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower. He removes every branch in me that bears no fruit. Every branch that bears fruit he prunes to make it bear more fruit. (John 15:1-2

Outside a local church are a number of rose bushes. Each year they grow to a height of perhaps a meter and a half by Fall. Every spring a very diligent rose bush grower visits them with clippers and cuts them back to about 50 cms, and the cycle begins again. This process is called pruning.

Why would someone do this? Why do we prune these bushes? The diligent rose bush grower embarks on this process every spring in order to nurture and assist the development of strong, healthy, productive rose bushes. To leave the old growth on the bush saps the energy and the health of the rose bush. It is not just rose bushes that are assisted by such a process. Grape vines are similarly aided and nurtured by such pruning.

The Gospel writer John as we hear this Sunday (John 15:1-8) uses this image of pruning the vines to speak about the relationship of the disciple with Jesus. In John`s telling of the Good News Jesus proclaims to his friends: I am the vine, you are the branches. Like all grape vines, the branches call for pruning and the image of this process is how John leads us to reflecting on our spiritual life.

In some ways we all live two lives – biological life which involves all of our anatomy and how it operates, and spiritual life. This latter is more interior but it is significant as it energizes and gives fuller meaning and sense to our biological existence.

It is this spiritual life that involves our relationship with God. But it is not just about our relationship with God. It is also about our connections with one another – with our family and with our friends. And it is about our relationships within community. Our spiritual life is not about US. It is about our relationships with the Other and the others, with God and humanity and all creation.

It is this spiritual life that is the center of the image of pruning described in today`s Gospel. If we were to simply let the rose bushes go on without pruning every spring, they will still grow, but not in so healthy a fashion. We can have life (biological) and yet be lifeless. The desire and effort of developing spiritual life with constant care (pruning) brings a sense of meaning and energy to the person. It opens the path to new life and gives vision and hope. It connects us with the Other and with the lives of others.

Q/What is the condition of my spiritual life? What’s it look like?

Stained glass windows are common in churches. They can be moving images. Sometimes they even serve as instruments of teaching. Frequently they present images drawn from the Scriptures, stories of God’s relationship with God’s People. Most often these images are drawn from past eras. They speak in a language of another time.

Not far from Canada’s Wonderland northwest of Toronto is the church of St. David. It is a relatively new building. Like many of our churches it has some stained glass. One of these is quite striking. Its center point is as one would expect the good news of God’s presence among us. What is unusual is how this is expressed. The images used to show the message are contemporary. The Sky Dome, the CN Tower, a baseball player, a hockey player, a soccer player, scenes of Toronto life are used to express the message of Jesus. There is a recognition, that Jesus is among us, now, in the midst of our many relationships.

During the season of Easter, we often read from the Book of the Act of the Apostles. The stories we find there tell us of our early ancestors in the faith, the first Christians. In Acts 4:7-12 we hear the story of Peter and other disciples who have been arrested after they cured a person in the name of Jesus. Standing before the authorities, the disciples testified that what they had done was act in the name of Jesus the Christ. The healing was to be seen as the outreach of God’s love. In the First Letter of John, we discover such outreach comes from the depths of our relationship with our loving God. The Letter state: See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are 1 John 3:1).

We often see ourselves living in the midst of world that does not express this. War and hatred, inequality and injustice, suffering and pain is evident in our world. The spiritual writer, Richard Rohr describes our life as Christian disciples as a “liminal space”, a kind of border land where we are leaving one state and moving on to a new one. Living in our world and seeking to build the Kingdom we often live between two worlds. We are ever “on the way” to the new.

In the “liminal space” we are to be a people of hope. Like all such challenges, we will pass through it to a new reality. But in the process of this passage, we will be changed. The world will be different from what we have been used to be. In the current “liminal space” we cannot know exactly all that is involved in this new reality.

The Easter experience of the disciples was just such a passage through a “liminal space”. They remembered Jesus as he walked with them.

Now they came to realize that like the shepherd with his flock, he continues to be with them, even though in different new way (cf.(John 10:11-18). They will live a new reality.

As God has traveled with us in the past, so the risen Jesus journeys with us now. Jesus is the gate through our current “liminal space”. He continues with us in a new reality. We may look and act in different ways on the other side, but that is as it has always been. As we continue to build the Kingdom where we happen to be, the Spirit of Jesus is with us and Jesus will continue to be with us, even or perhaps especially, in a new reality, for we are disciples of Jesus. Now that is something to trust in, with hope.

One of the three sacraments of initiation in our Catholic Christian church is Eucharist. In our regular celebration of this sacrament, we are acknowledging we are members of a community of faith. We entered this community through the three sacraments of initiation – Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. Eucharist is food for our faith journey, sustaining us along the way and strengthening us with companions as we journey on our mission to share the Good News.

Can we live our faith in isolation? Are we able to be believers without a community? There are many who assert that they have a spirituality, but it is so personal that they live it with no community. It is their own and they do not need others to be part of their spiritual life. Christian faith, Christian spirituality is more than personal. It is very much a community experience. The Gospels express this in so many ways, none more significantly than in the accounts of the Risen Jesus appearing to the disciples. In many of these instances, the appearances occur as the disciples are gathered together. Not only are they together, they are together around a table, sharing a meal. Christian spirituality is strongly human.

Did you ever think about how many of our conversations take place over a cup of coffee or at a meal? It seems that the connections we make with others very often lead us to sitting down and sharing food and drink. Developing relationships and sharing a meal together seem so natural to us. Thus, it should come as little surprise that if we searched the Scriptures for the encounters his disciples had with Jesus after his resurrection, they frequently involved a meal. What we hear in this Sunday’s Gospel (Luke 24:35-48) is one of these encounters.

Luke’s account begins with a reference to an encounter that two disciples had with the Risen Jesus as they were walking along the road to Emmaus. What is striking is they noted that: Jesus had been made known to them in the breaking of the bread. These two disciples only recognized Jesus when they broke bread together.

There is something quite significant about this breaking of the bread. It is Eucharistic. The earliest Christians began to gather regularly as communities of believers. When they gathered they did so in a Eucharistic fashion, sharing stories of Jesus, recalling how the Jewish Old Testament Scriptures were fulfilled in him, sharing in the meal of the Eucharist and then noting that they were to be witnesses of all this to all nations.

It is in the gathering of the faith community, around the table of the Eucharist that we most commonly express the faith and Spirit that draws us together. It is here that we experience the presence of the Risen Jesus active in our midst. It is from this assembly of Christians that we go forth to serve as witnesses to the continuing love of God expressed in our world.

What Luke describes of the appearance of the Risen Jesus to the disciples is what we live each time we gather for the Eucharist and go out into the world in care and concern. The encounter with Jesus in the breaking of the bread is at the foundation of who are – disciples of Jesus, gifted with his Spirit, bringing his healing love and care to our world.

Journeys are exciting and filled with adventure. Right now, I have a couple of friends who are on a journey and keeping us informed of their trek. They are on a camino in Portugal from Porto to Santiago de Compostella. This is a pilgrimage along coast of Portugal to the Cathedral in Santiago, Spain, a trek of about 270 kms. In all probability it will be a hike of c.10 days. Their first three days have been rainy and windy. Despite the challenges, they are in good spirits and happy about their days. Meeting others on the trail and encountering new experiences and places have been fulfilling. Faith is often described as a life journey. It has its challenges, but likewise it creates new vision and life for us.

Baptism is one of the three sacraments of initiation in our faith community. The other two are Confirmation and Eucharist. With Baptism, the door is opened into a community of faith and we begin our journey of faith life. In the journey, we join with other fellow Christians in a relationship with Jesus Christ. We call this relationship – discipleship. Along with our fellow believers we spend our lives nurturing this relationship, learning what it means for us and growing in our faith. In the end, this is a life-giving adventure which brings meaning to our lives.

In the Gospel of John there is a wonderful story that helps us to see the importance of the faith community in our personal relationship with God through Jesus (Jn.20:19-31). John describes the disciples of Jesus after the crucifixion. They are cowering in a locked room, fearing that they were going to be next on the cross. Gathered together, they experience the presence of the risen Jesus with them in that room. Jesus greets them with “Peace be with you.”

This experience of the presence of the risen Jesus that they had together broke through the isolation and fear that the disciples faced in that locked room. It opened the eyes of faith to see that the Spirit of Jesus continued among them and would bring them peace and strength for their journey. In addition, it opened them to realize that they had a mission, the same mission Jesus had shared with them – the reign of God was building in our world. They now had this mission to share as Good News for all peoples.

One of the disciples, Thomas was not present at the time of their experience. Later when they told him what had taken place, he refused to believe. His journey of faith had not begun. A week later, when the disciples again gathered in that room Thomas was with them. Again, they experienced the presence of the risen Jesus. Thomas’ eyes of faith were opened as he gathered with the other disciples. He immediately believed and joined in the mission they were given to share.

This story is one of Christian faith. Discipleship is a community call. In community, the disciples discovered faith their Risen Lord. Separated from t he community, Thomas was unable to believe. It was only when back with the circle of the disciples that his faith came to recognize this presence of the risen Jesus.

Faith in Jesus, Christian faith while it is personal, is not a private affair. We need a community of faith to assist and support us. We need others to join us in our journey. We need fellow believers with whom we can share our faith. Our mission is always to share the Good News. None of us can do this alone. Baptism is the first step into this community of faith. But it is only the first of many steps that we need to walk with others in this journey. We are baptized to be with others, for sake of all humanity.

 “[He] suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose from the dead.” (Apostles Creed)

Easter takes us through an entire season of rebirth and new life. Beginning with Good Friday and lasting until the Feast of Pentecost our Christian community celebrates the core of our faith, the Paschal Mystery. It is the feast expressing the passing of Jesus from death to new life. The words of our Apostles Creed express our faith in this part of the Christian story. What we might miss is that it is also the passing of ourselves from death to new life.

The resurrection stories in the Gospel present the disciples and friends of Jesus, the crucified one seeking him at the tomb, among the dead. They do not find him there. Nor would they find him in any place that represents domination, death, violence, greed, oppression and bondage. They would find him in the places of life and light, liberation and peace. This is where the risen one is to be found.

The resurrection sends Jesus back into the world. His resurrection proclaims that there is life after death, there is hope and promise. The power of evil, oppression and bondage is broken. The world and humanity are given new life.

What we may not realize is that like the risen Jesus, we too are sent back into the world, again and again. Despite all our many experiences of evil and failure in our own lives, our falling short in our calls to love and cherish one another – these “small deaths of our own do not define us. We are called to rise again, and again. As we do so, we bring the risen one with us. We carry Jesus into our world of families and friends, of commerce, economics and politics. We carry him into the places of oppression, bondage and poverty, of violence and suffering. As Jesus, we carry the resurrection and its hope. We bring what the risen one brings – PEACE. This is the Good News – we believe in the possibility of new life for all.

The spiritual writer, Carlo Carretto in “Blessed Are You Who Believed” describes the presence and power of the risen Jesus that we welcome into our lives and that we bear into our world. It is lived faith for us.

When you forgive your enemy, when you feed the hungry, when you defend the weak, you believe in the resurrection.

When you have the courage to marry, when you welcome a new-born child, when you make a home together, you believe in the resurrection.

When you wake at peace in the morning. When you sing to the rising sun.

When you go to work with joy, you believe in the resurrection.

The resurrection is for all. The promise of new life, of hope and healing, of peace and liberation is for all. The risen life of Jesus can take flesh and come alive in us.

One of the realities of our human existence is the presence of suffering in life. It is the personal suffering we might have in our own lives. It is also what touches us in the suffering of loved ones. Beyond what we experience in our own lives directly, we all know that we live in a global community that is constantly facing the challenge of a suffering in which we feel so helpless. War, poverty, natural disasters, injustice, inequalities, violence, these all bring suffering to our world and its people.

There is a question that is often asked in the light of this constant theme of suffering in our humanity. In the midst of the suffering that we face personally and that we see around us in the global community – where is God?

This weekend is Passion Sunday. As we do every year at the beginning of Holy Week, we listen to Mark’s telling of the story of Jesus’ passion and death. It is here perhaps that we discover something of a response to that question, “Where is God?” In the midst of the suffering we face personally and globally the answer we are seeking is often directed at how God will make things better – how God will intervene and heal our threatening illness or prevent the suffering of a loved one. We are asking why God did not intervene to avoid the destruction and death that came from a hurricane or a flood. We ask why God allows the injustice and the violence and inequalities that seem so prevalent in our world.

Listening to the story of the Passion of Jesus in Mark’s Gospel one of the most poignant images we are given is Jesus, on the cross, looking to heaven and crying out: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  On the cross, Jesus expresses the desolation he experiences through these words from the Old Testament Psalm 22. Of all the suffering that is part of the passion story the most painful is Jesus’ sense of being forsaken by all, by his friends and disciples and even by his Father-God. In the passion story, Jesus faces the suffering totally alone.

Is this isolation the real pain of all of our human suffering? Are we ever really alone in our suffering? Perhaps the fuller story of the Good News of God is that in suffering we are never totally alone. God may not prevent or cure or take away our suffering or that of humanity. But the Incarnation, our faith that God in Jesus joins and shares our humanity, is the response to the question: “Where is God?” On the cross, the Father-God remains with Jesus and the story of the passion reveals this in the resurrection.

In the midst of suffering, “Where is God? Through the Incarnation God sends the Son to live among us, to share our humanity, to be like us in all things, even our suffering. God does not intervene, but God does stand with us, all of us, in all suffering. We are never alone. God does not abandon us. In the presence of Jesus, even sharing our suffering humanity, God stands in solidarity with every human being. St. Paul grasped this wonder of God’s love constantly with us to comfort and to console. He expressed it to the little community of Christians in the town of Philippi so many centuries ago:

Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8).

Our world is a fractured one in so many areas. The people of Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, Yemen and many other parts of our world are facing lives disrupted by war and conflict today. In fact, the United Nations reports that conflict is on the rise in the last few years. We long for peace and an end to conflict.

This longing for peace is one of the central dreams of our faith. Repeatedly, Jesus calls upon his disciples to live together in peace. He passes on to them the gift of the Spirit that they may grow more and more to be like him and that they may have peace among them. As John describes Jesus preparing his disciples for his coming death and resurrection, he reassures them with these words: The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace (Jn.16:32). Peace lies at the center of our Christian faith and discipleship.

In Canada, the 5th Sunday of Lent has long focused on our pursuit of peace in our world. The Canadian Organization for Development and Peace partners with Caritas International. It is our faith community’s way of working to build peace around the Globe. Through assisting in local communities, it promotes their economic and social development. The development of strong local communities is seen as a way to promote global peace from the ground up. Such an approach builds a real faith that expresses the bond between God and all creation, one that rests in the heart of every human being.

On this Sunday, we hear the call to recognize this bond and to stand in solidarity with all of humanity holding the same dream for peace among us all and development that supports all.. What we believe, our faith, expresses who we are. It is, in so many ways, written on our hearts. This is what we hear in the words of the prophet Jeremiah (Jer.31:31-34):

I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God and they shall be my people.

God loves us, all of us, all the time.

God believes in us, trusts us. Can we believe in one another? A few years ago, on Solidarity Sunday, we received a creed, expressing this universal faith relationship with God and with all peoples. It came from a Christian community in Indonesia. Their creed is our creed. Their way of living faith, trust and love is our way as well.

We believe in God, Creator of us all, who has given the earth to all people. We believe in Jesus Christ, who came to encourage us and to heal us, to deliver us from oppression, to proclaim the peace of God to all humanity. Christ has given himself to our world, it is amongst all people that the Lord lives – the living God….We dare to believe, always and everywhere, in a new humanity, in God’s own dream of a new heaven and a new earth, where justice and peace will flourish.

As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world (John 9:5)

How does Christian faith and an awareness of God enter our lives? There is no single, simple response to this question. But in most cases, it involves others, family, friends, even sometimes, persons we just happen to meet in a community in which we find ourselves. Even when we enter a community of faith as small children, it will be a life-long process of growth as we meet others who present us with a living faith that engages us.

Pope Francis, as he began his papacy in 2013 issued and encyclical letter entitled “The Joy of the Gospel” (Evangelii Gaudium). It emphasized the mission that has been bestowed on every Christian from their very baptism. As he put it: I dream of a ‘missionary option’, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation (EV 27).

This vision a Christian community of disciples as sharers of the Good News is one of the motivating elements of the current gatherings underway in the Catholic community. The Synod on Synodality, unusual or unfamiliar as the phrase may sound, is really about opening the vision of Church in which all members are active sharers of the faith for the sake of others. Our faith is always a communal faith. We hold Christian faith so that it might be given away to others and that all might gain new life through this Good News.

On this 4th Sunday of Lent there are two options for the Gospel reading. One of them is directed to those just entering our community as newly baptized, but it also speaks to all of us who may have been baptized years ago.

It is the story of person who has an initial encounter with faith and Jesus (John 9:1-41). It relates the gradual and progressive way in which a blind man slowly arrives at sight and light and faith through the encounter.  This is an evangelization story. In many ways it expresses how the faith of any one of us has been planted and nurtured through encounters with others and their faith.

As John relates, Jesus encounters a man who has been blind from birth. He reaches out to the man and heals his blindness, restoring his sight. This is a wondrous act, a miracle. Suddenly, a person who could not see regains sight. But there is a bigger wonder, a greater miracle that is found in this story. The blind man gained his physical sight, but then gradually he came to a new kind of sight as well. He came to see with spiritual vision.

The spiritual sight gained by the blind man in John’s Gospel was very gradual and involved many others, including his neighbours, some Pharisees, as well as another encounter with Jesus, in which the man expresses his faith that Jesus is the Son of Man, the active presence of God among us. It had been a difficult process and one that involved energy, time and a willingness to trust for the man. Spiritual sight was an awareness of God with him in the person of Jesus and a world that had changed with that presence.

A disciple’s faith is like this. It involves a search or quest for understanding. It also involves the examples and engagement with others and a sharing of the faith lived. And, it involves the wonder of grace, God’s life that is ever with us all.

What is our relationship with God? In ancient times, there was often an attitude of bargaining or exchange with God. This was the attitude which lay behind the practice of offering sacrifice. Such sacrifices of animals, crops or other gifts were a way of dealing with God. In exchange for the offerings, God would care for and protect the one who sacrificed. This was the role of what we see in the Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple was a concrete sign that God dwells among God’s People. It represented the relationship between God and the People of God.

For Israel, this relationship was much like a marriage. It was seen as a covenant relationship in which each expressed its commitment to the other. The Old Testament is filled with many examples of such agreements. But the great covenant for Israel was the one founded on Mount Sinai during the Exodus from Egypt. God who had chosen Israel, liberated and led them from slavery in Egypt, through the desert of Sinai to a new land.

In the course of this journey, Israel became aware of the special relationship that they had with this saving God. They recognized themselves as special, a people saved from bondage by their God and held in a covenant relationship with this God. In response to their liberation, the People’s call is related in the Book of Exodus, more explicitly in Exodus chapter 19 – 20ff on Mount Sinai. This is Israel’s responsibility in their covenant with God.

The awareness of the covenant relationship evolves over time like any relationship, and we see this evolution expressed later in the Old Testament in the words of some of the prophets. Perhaps one of the most significant growths of the covenant relationship comes with Jeremiah, who looks ahead to a new covenant for God’s People. He indicates that it will not be like the covenant made at Sinai on tablets of stone: “This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel…. I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people (Jer.31:33)”.

In the person of Jesus, we have this new covenant represented. It is a covenant that creates an open relationship with God. Jesus’s death and resurrection is the sacrifice of the new covenant, replacing the sacrifices of the Temple. These sacrifices were like prices and costs constantly having to be paid as a sign that the people’s relationship with God was a part of a bargain.

In John’s Gospel (Jn.2:13-25) we find the story of Jesus’ cleansing the Temple. It is a story that sometimes surprises us as we see Jesus expressing upset at what he finds there. John tells the story as a lead into seeing our relationship with God in a new light. For Israel, the Temple was the sign and symbol of God’s presence in their midst. It was the place of sacrifice to God. As Jesus speaks to the people in the Temple, he redirects their attention from the physical Temple building to himself as the Temple. The Gospel account points out that this all came to make sense to the disciples after the Resurrection.

Jesus then, becomes the sign of God’s presence among us. He represents a new way of seeing our relationship with God. God’s care and love is not dependent on what we offer to God. It is not affected by sacrifices we might present. It is not the result of bargaining with God. Our relationship with God is a free and unconditional gift from God. We do not have to bargain or win God’s love and we cannot lose it. It is always there for us. The response is to accept this love in all its expressions and to honour the giver of all life.

Pope Francis has expressed this sentiment in many ways. Not the least of these is in his encyclical Laudato Si. Encyclical on Climate Change & Inequality (2015). As he begins this appeal “On the Care of Our Common Home”, he emphasizes that the earth is our indeed our “common home” and we have a shared interest and responsibility for it and for all creatures with whom we share this “home”. Further, he points out that we are not left to our own devices in this. He holds that God who created all out of love, continues to love what he has created. He points out: “The Creator does not abandon us; he never forsakes his loving plan or repents of having created us. Humanity still has the ability to work together in building our common home (LS. 13).” We are Temple of God’s making, the object of God’s love. We open to the new and ready to let go of what has been?

Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. There he was transfigured before them....

Every year on the Second Sunday of Lent we listen to the story of the transfiguration. This year we hear the account as told by the Gospel writer Mark. Transfiguration is not a common word for us, but it does describe something that is quite often part of our experience. Transfiguration expresses change, transformation. It describes someone showing a different side or image of themselves. On that “high mountain apart, by themselves” this is what Mark describes happened for those three disciples. They had a vision of who Jesus is.

But Transfiguration also involves self-discovery. The experience shows the disciples beginning to see who they are. It reveals a transformation in their own lives. Accepting this change is more than taking on something new. It also involves a letting go of who they have been and accepting that their lives have in fact changed. New vision will always have this result and this challenge.

This is a story of vision. Peter and James and John have a vision. They glimpse Jesus in radiant light, expressing the presence of God in their midst. He is accompanied by the prophets Elijah and by Moses who led God’s People into covenant with God and brought them from slavery to liberation. These were the twin pillars of the faith of Israel in God – the law and the prophets. The vision of Peter, James and John now brought them to see this faith fulfilled in Jesus.

Jesus is the power of God revealed in human flesh. What Mark presents as happening to these disciples on that mountain acknowledges the faith of Christians down through the ages. Jesus reveals the Spirit of God showered upon humanity. It is a vision of God’s dream for us, what we can be.

This Sunday which focuses on the transfiguration is sometimes referred to as the “day of dreams.” As the Gospel writer anticipates the resurrection, God’s dream for creation and for all humanity is revealed in Jesus, the risen one. It is a dream of life and of light, of healing and reconciliation, of liberation and renewal. It is a dream of transformation, shown in the transfiguration that the disciples experienced on the mountain.

The transfiguration is not only about Jesus. The vision is also about the disciples and their mission. And, it is about us and the way of life we are called to imitate. It is about our own transformation and becoming. Whether we realize it or not, following in the steps of Jesus and blessed

with the Spirit, we are meant to transform and transfigure all creation. In our own time and world, our mission is to transform our relationships, our Church, our community and our world.

This is quite a vision and it has all kinds of risks and challenges for us, as it had for Jesus. But what a dream, what a vision for our world! It is our glory and salvation – A world transformed, transfigured. Getting there will involve many challenges – from taking on something new and also, letting go of what has been our world. We are to bring life out of suffering and death, liberation out of bondage and injustice, healing out of division and hurt for all.

Our Church is currently working to grow as a dynamic, synodal Church. The next session of the Synod will occur in October. Around the world we are all asked to reflect on this question: “HOW can we be a synodal Church in Mission?” In this transformation, are we open to the new and ready to let go of what has been?

When I was young, Lent was about what I was going to give up – candy, movies. Later it took on something like the New Year’s resolution – what can I do to become better at something. Certainly, that is an improvement. But perhaps there is more.

Our observance of Lent has its origins in the early Christian church and is associated with the sacraments of Initiation, Baptism, Confirmation and Eucharist. These sacraments of welcome generally would take place at Easter. From the earliest of times, Christians developed a process for welcoming new member into the community. When the person was ready to ask for baptism at Easter, there was a final short, more intense period of prayer, fasting and good works. This was Lent – a time of transformation, of conversion.

A scriptural image of this period of intense prayer and fasting and discovery of mission is found in the Gospels. We see it in the desert experience of Jesus. Mark’s version of this is brief (1:12-15). After his baptism, Jesus ventured into the desert. There, he searched for where the Spirit was leading him. He struggled with temptations. In that desert, Jesus found his call as well as his mission. Filled with the Spirit, he came out of the desert proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom.

Lent every year is our desert experience, a time to rediscover our connection with our loving parent God. In the desert of Lent we step back and look at where we are in our journey, our personal Camino. We have been baptized into Christ. What does this really mean for us? How does being members of this community of faith affect us and direct our journey, personally and but also as a community? We do this every year. But this year may be especially significant.

This past October, 2023, our Church embarked on a Synod. Representatives from our global church, lay and clerical, women and men, gathered for three weeks in Rome. They engaged in a process of consultation regarding our faith journey as a global church in the midst our world today. This was the first assembly of the Synod. The second will take place in October of this year, 2024. We are now in the middle of our journey. Local churches, i.e. dioceses and their parishes around the world are asked to spend time in prayer, reflection and open conversation on how we can be a synodal church listening to one another and focused on the mission we have been given as a Christian community.

Perhaps, Lent 2024 is a call to each of us and all of us in our parish communities. We are now being called to enter on a journey that recognizes the many voices, questions, issues and views that our faith must encounter in our time. This is the desert experience we have today. Like Jesus’s desert, we are challenged to see where we are called and what our mission is in the 21st century. Like Jesus we are called to take up this mission with prayerful respect, openness and discernment together.

Pope Francis set this course for our Church as he began his journey as bishop of Rome and Pope, in 2013. He issued what is called an Apostolic Exhortation titled: Evangelii Gaudium (The Joy of the Gospel). In doing so, he expressed the fundamental message of the Good News for all – the message of Jesus the Christ.

The Synod in which we are now involved calls us with his words: “I dream of a ‘missionary option’, that is, a missionary impulse capable of transforming everything, so that the Church’s customs, ways of doing things, times and schedules, language and structures can be suitably channeled for the evangelization of today’s world rather than for her self-preservation. The renewal of structures demanded by pastoral conversion can only be understood in this light: as part of an effort to make them more mission-oriented, to make ordinary pastoral activity on every level more inclusive and open, to inspire in pastoral workers a constant desire to go forth and in this way to elicit a positive response from all those whom Jesus summons to friendship with himself. (EG 27) During this Lent, our desert calls us to reflect and discern our ways of becoming true disciples and missionaries of the Good News in 2024.

Being the outsider is never easy. Being excluded or left out hurts. Throughout our lives we have all experienced occasions of being forgotten or rejected and this can be significant for us. The image of being treated as a leper is often regarded as the image of being rejected or excluded, considered as an outsider. The Old Testament passage from the Book of Leviticus (Lev.13:1-2, 45-46) describes the fate of the leper in the community. Such a person was regarded a danger for their disease could infect the whole community. The response was to drive them out, exclude them from contact with others.

Imagine what this was like for the leper. Such a person was condemned to isolation, cut off from family, from neighbours, from friends. They were doomed to live “outside the camp” by themselves. Only when their disease no longer affected them could they return to be with the community. Hence, they had a need to prove they no longer had the disease. In Israel, the physically unclean state that a person was deemed to have as a result of leprosy also gave rise to what was regarded as ritual uncleanness. To prove they were ready to return to the community required an approval from the priests in the Temple.

In Mark’s Gospel, Jesus encounters a leper facing such exclusion (Mk.1:40-45). The leper asks for healing. Jesus responds with compassion. He reaches out and touches the leper. It is a significant action on Jesus’ part. He crosses the boundary line of exclusion, both the physical barrier and the ritual one. To reach out and touch was a risk, for crossing these barrier places Jesus in danger of physical contamination and also ritual uncleanness.

The result of the “touch” is healing, physical and ritual. Telling the leper to go and show himself to the priests in the Temple will allow him to return to the community.  The pain of his exclusion and isolation will be ended. He is no longer the outsider.

We encounter many “outsiders” in our lifetime. Sometimes we may even be “outsiders” ourselves. Perhaps our “outsiders” are those facing burdens – poverty, unemployment, life struggles, and addictions of any kind.

The “outsiders” may be those who have lost a spouse, those who are of a different race or ethnic group. The “outsider” may be the stranger in our midst, the new person in the neighbourhood or parish. The “outsider” may be the one who is bullied in school, the one who is “different” in whatever way from others. Are we able to reach out with healing inclusion as Jesus did with his touch?

No one in the Reign of God lives “outside the camp.” To live in the Reign of God is to live where all are included.

Q/ Who are the “outsiders” in our midst? Who do we need to reach out to with healing touch that they may be with us, included, welcomed, healed?

Busyness – it is truly the character of our lives. The little piece of Mark’s Gospel that we hear this Sunday (Mk.1:29-39) expresses this as part of the life and ministry of Jesus. Jesus has just left the Synagogue where he had been speaking and had healed a person. Now he goes to the house of two of his disciples, Simon and Andrew. Immediately they tell him that Simon’s mother-in-law was ill. He goes directly to her and heals her.

Shortly after that, when Sabbath was over at sunset, they brought a host of others in need of healing. We can imagine the crowd around the door. Jesus healed many again. Early the next morning Jesus went apart to pray. His disciples soon were chasing after him. They reported that everyone was looking for him. Jesus proposed that they moved on to other places and there he continued to proclaim the message of God’s Reign. As elsewhere, he also healed those in need.

All these many instances of reaching out in care and healing people have a meaning attached to them. Jesus not only preaches the nearness of the Reign of God. He also reveals that reign is truly present among us and around us. God’s dream is that all creation be saved from death, evil and sin, that it be restored to wholeness. Each healing represents this movement to wholeness, each in its own way. This is the ministry of Jesus.

The disciples with Jesus are following a call to do as he does. Their lives are a call to listen, to watch, to imitate and to undertake the same mission. Their mission will be busy. It will be filled with demands and will also have moments of prayer and restoration. The mission will not always be following their own plan. Often, like Jesus, they will be responding to the occasions that come to them – at the time unexpectedly and often in unplanned ways.

In the midst of our own busyness, God’s Reign enters our lives and calls us to respond. It will not always be convenient. It will not be when we plan to receive it. It will challenge us and it will fulfill us. It is an invitation to be part of God’s Dream, to help build the Reign as Jesus did. To do so, we work with the busy schedules that we all have. They do not stand in the way. Rather, this is the life in which we are to be disciples. Like Jesus, our busyness will be the place where we work.

Q/ What are the busy things that we must work with to pray, to care, to serve as disciples?

Mark, in his Gospel, describes Jesus coming into a synagogue (sacred space) on a Sabbath day (a sacred time). While teaching in this place, he encounters a man with an unclean spirit. In Israel such a person was ritually unclean and thus to be avoided. A person was deemed to be holy to the degree they kept away from the unholy, the unclean. Sometimes this was certain foods, certain action or on occasion, certain people. The man possessed of an unclean spirit was one of these last.

Jesus knows of this demand for avoidance. He does not allow himself to be bound. Rather he crosses the boundary for the sake of the Kingdom, for the sake of the Reign of God. Jesus recognizes that, far from being limited by the ritual purity law his mission is to cross over to bring life to those in need. In doing so, he brings the Reign, its liberation and its healing to the man with the unclean spirit.

The result of this encounter of the man with the unclean spirit is healing. Jesus expels the unclean spirit and restores the unfortunate person to wholeness and freedom from the bonds of the unclean spirit. By crossing the boundaries that limited others, Jesus was able to make present the active Reign of God. To enter the Reign of God means crossing such boundaries. It often means taking actions and holding positions that others shy from. Ultimately, it means reaching out to bring others the wholeness and the liberation for which we all long.

All of this is the basis of Catholic Social Teaching. This teaching developed in the Catholic community over the past two hundred years, beginning in the late 19th century when the Industrial Revolution began to impact our world. The event produced massive changes in world economies, social structures and political life. There was a need to read the Gospel in a way that relates to these changes.

Out of this new reading came Catholic Social Teaching. The Church began to reflect on the basic elements of economic and social structures in the light of Jesus’ message and mission. The teaching that comes out of this ongoing reflection continues today and its fundamentals affect the manner in which we view our own global society and its economic, social and political realities.

A number of basic principles form the foundation of Catholic Social Teaching. Such teaching calls for respect for the dignity of the human person, all persons. It is further founded on the priority of the common good in all decision making, political, economic and social. From this foundation flows the Church’s call and advocacy for justice, peace and global respect in our world. Our Canadian Church expresses t his in many ways, globally through The Canadian Organization for Development and Peace and its programs of aid and advocacy for justice, peace and the respect for equality of all.

The Reign of God knows no boundaries – it respects, heals and reconciles all of Creation.

the whole of creation. (Lane. Christ at the Centre 21)

Some ten years ago, a movie with the title, Warhorse came out in theaters. It was a movie that presented a striking approach to the portrayal of World War I. Normally, we view war and its impact from a human perspective. We see nation pitted against nation, people fighting people, army against army. This film in a way that takes us wider. While the battle at the front plays a significant role, the destruction, dislocation and impact presented in Warhorse helps us to see that war reaches much further. It has its impact on the countryside, the animals, people who are combatants and non-combatants – war is truly a universal tragedy affecting humanity and all of creation.

Counter to this image of war and violence is the image of the kingdom or the reign of God that we hear Jesus proclaim as he begins his ministry. Mark presents this proclamation:  Jesus went into Galilee. There he proclaimed the Good News from God. “The time has

 come,” he said “and the reign of God is close at hand.” (Mark 1:14-15)

What is this reign of God all about? What does Jesus proclaim through his message and his mission to the world?

The idea of the reign of God finds its roots in the Old Testament. The Jewish People recognized that their God was personally present and active among them as a People. The God of Israel intervened and acted in their story, their history. Perhaps the best example of this, one which they often recalled, was the Exodus event. They saw this liberation from slavery as a work of God among them through Moses. In addition, the Jewish Scriptures acknowledge that God is also present in all of creation around them. At the very beginning of the Old Testament, this sense of God’s presence acting in all creation appears in the stories of creation in the Book of Genesis.

Jesus’ proclamation that the reign of God is close at hand grows out of this way of seeing God as present in our history, our present, our future and in all of creation. As Jesus begins his ministry he announces that God is about to break into our world in a new and powerful way. He will announce this reign time and again in his words and he will reveal it in his actions of healing, reconciling and bringing people together in peace. It will be this completed, fulfilled reign of God that will bring peace and harmony to humanity and healing and wholeness to creation.

Our call as disciples of Jesus is to be part of building this reign. We are to cooperate with God to make this reign more fully present in our midst. We cooperate by our outreach those in need and our care for the creation we share. In God’s own time this reign will reach its fullness. Dermot Lane expresses this future promise of the reign of God:

The future reign of God is about the gathering up by God into a condition of fulfilment nd transformation of all the human efforts in this life which are directed towards the creation of peace and justice in the world around us.... The reign of God is ultimately about re-establishing right relationships between God and humanity, between humanity and the individual, between humanity and the whole of creation. (Lane. Christ at the Centre 21)

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; Those who lived in a land of deep darkness – on them light has shone.
(Isaiah 9:2)