Taste and See: Renovation

The Gospel reading yesterday, the second Sunday of Advent, spoke of healing and being made new. It spoke to the exile and alienation of the People of God, and of all people. It offered hope and wholeness.

In the fifteenth year of Tiberius Caesar’s reign, when Pontius Pilate was governor of Judaea, Herod tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the lands of Ituraea and Trachonitis, Lysanias tetrach of Abilene, during the pontificate of Annas and Caiaphas the word of God came to John son of Zechariah, in the wilderness. He went through the whole Jordan district proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, as it is written in the book of the sayings of the prophet Isaiah:

‘A voice cries in the wilderness:
Prepare a way for the Lord,
make his paths straight.
Every valley will be filled in,
every mountain and hill be laid low,
winding ways will be straightened
and rough roads made smooth.
And all mankind shall see the salvation of God.’

Luke 3:1-6

The Bible is, necessarily, a book that makes great use of metaphor.

In our day, talk of ‘Every valley being filled in, every mountain and hill  laid low, winding ways straightened, and rough roads made smooth.’ might have us wondering about the planning applications that would need to be made and the protests about safeguarding the environment. And quite right too.

However think of the objections we raise when we ourselves are called to reform and renewal. Often they are a misguided form of self-protection, not helping us but keeping us at a (sadly) safe distance from God’s healing and newness and mercy.

The metaphor of highway building is just that, a metaphor. The real change needed, offered, is in us that we might be helped to come closer to God’s presence, helped to be re-fashioned in the image of his Son. That this might happen to us as individuals and as Church.

How we hesitate, how we seeks to frustrate the plan. How we need a Year of Mercy.

• What do you fear?
• What do you hope for?
• Where are God’s plans in all this?

Photo. Work site in Vancouver. (c) 2008, Allen Morris.

 

Taste and See: Made new, made better.

The Psalm for the 4th Sunday of Easter had us sing of the goodness of the Lord, and of the way in which the rejected one becomes in fact the cornerstone of what is new and good and right.

The stone which the builders rejected has become the corner stone.
or
Alleluia!

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good,
for his love has no end.
It is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in men;
it is better to take refuge in the Lord
than to trust in princes.

The stone which the builders rejected has become the corner stone.
or
Alleluia!

I will thank you for you have answered
and you are my saviour.
The stone which the builders rejected
has become the corner stone.
This is the work of the Lord,
a marvel in our eyes.

The stone which the builders rejected has become the corner stone.
or
Alleluia!

Blessed in the name of the Lord
is he who comes.
We bless you from the house of the Lord;
You are my God, I thank you.
My God, I praise you.
Give thanks to the Lord for he is good;
for his love has no end.

The stone which the builders rejected has become the corner stone.
or
Alleluia!

Psalm 117:1,8-9,21-23,26,28-29

Often the point of growth for an individual or for a community is what seems the weaker part, or even the damaged part. From that different perspective can be found the way forward for all sorts of change and growth.

Where has this been true in your experience?

What ‘weakness’ or ‘disability’ might have potential for your future development, or that of your community?

Painting of Bernadette Soubirous, Bolly Mill, Lourdes. Photograph (c) 2012, Allen Morris.

Taste and See: struggle to survive

There is little that is immediately comforting in the first reading  that we heard yesterday, Sunday, the 5th Sunday of the Year.

Job began to speak:

Is not man’s life on earth nothing more than pressed service,
his time no better than hired drudgery?

Like the slave, sighing for the shade,
or the workman with no thought but his wages,
months of delusion I have assigned to me,
nothing for my own but nights of grief.

Lying in bed I wonder, ‘When will it be day?’
Risen I think, ‘How slowly evening comes!’

Restlessly I fret till twilight falls.

Swifter than a weaver’s shuttle my days have passed,
and vanished, leaving no hope behind.
Remember that my life is but a breath,
and that my eyes will never again see joy.

Job 7:1-4,6-7

The sorrow and distress he feels is very common.

There can be some fellowship, support, and even encouragement, in knowing that one is not alone in struggling.

There is even greater comfort in knowing that the love of God seeks every way to help us through our struggles, and that eternal life is our reward.

The Book of Job is an extended parable, a dramatisation of a common human predicament. It finally tells us, even persuades us, that our human perspective on suffering is not all that there is to be said. That before the glory and wonder of God, finally, we have to fall silent.

Faith is not blind, but regularly living our faith proves a great test. Not because God plays with us, but because regularly we are pushed to our limits in trying to make sense of our lives, especially when we try to do this in our own terms.

These are growing pains. Pains, for sure, but again and again when we are able to look back to them, we see that they have accompanied our growth to something new.

Photograph is of a detail of the sculpture, Choir of Survivors, Coventry Cathedral. (c) 2015, Allen Morris. 

Taste and see: Loving shepherd

The first reading at yesterday’s Mass of Christ the King speaks of the Lord’s personal and abiding care for his flock..

The Lord says this:
I am going to look after my flock myself and keep all of it in view. As a shepherd keeps all his flock in view when he stands up in the middle of his scattered sheep, so shall I keep my sheep in view.

I shall rescue them from wherever they have been scattered during the mist and darkness. I myself will pasture my sheep, I myself will show them where to rest–it is the Lord who speaks.

I shall look for the lost one, bring back the stray, bandage the wounded and make the weak strong. I shall watch over the fat and healthy. I shall be a true shepherd to them.

As for you, my sheep, the Lord says this: I will judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and he-goats.

Ezekiel 34:11-12,15-17

The particular and personal care that the Lord promises to take echoes the particular and personal care of neighbour that Jesus applauded and rewarded in the parable of the Last Judgement which was heard in yesterday’s Gospel.

One way in which the Lord fulfils his promise to love and care is through the work of his Body, those disciples made one with him through the sacrament of Baptism and sustained in that unity with him through Confirmation and Eucharist, restored to it through Penance (Confession).

• How might you do Christ’s work today?

Photograph of carving of St Martin coming to the aid of a beggar. Detail of doorway of St Martin’s in the Bullring, Birmingham. (c) 2014, Allen Morris.

Speak Lord: Good Shepherd

This Sunday is the last of the Church’s year, and is the feast of Christ the King. The first reading speaks of the Lord’s personal and abiding care not only for the flock, but each member of it.

The Lord says this: I am going to look after my flock myself and keep all of it in view. As a shepherd keeps all his flock in view when he stands up in the middle of his scattered sheep, so shall I keep my sheep in view. I shall rescue them from wherever they have been scattered during the mist and darkness. I myself will pasture my sheep, I myself will show them where to rest–it is the Lord who speaks. I shall look for the lost one, bring back the stray, bandage the wounded and make the weak strong. I shall watch over the fat and healthy. I shall be a true shepherd to them.
As for you, my sheep, the Lord says this: I will judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and he-goats.

Ezekiel 34:11-12,15-17

He cares, and yet there is judgement too.
His ministry does not do all things for the flock. We are invited to play our part.
As human beings we are better equipped to do this – for the most part. We can (often) respond to the caring, growing, developing, fulfilling our potential. We can share in the caring. And we can express our thanks for it in many, many, ways.

• What help do I need? And does he offer?
• What care can I show?

Photograph of painting by Duncan Grant from chancery chapel at Lincoln Cathedral. (c) 2012, Allen Morris.