June 11^th 2017

Suggested formula for recognition of indigenous people and their land.

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we stand

We pay our respects to them for their care of the land

May we walk gently and respectfully upon the land.

or

I acknowledge the living culture of the ……..people,

the traditional custodians of the land we stand on,

and pay tribute to the unique role they play in the life of this region.

or

We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land where we are now gathered,

(the ……)  and recognise that it continues to be sacred to them.

We hail them: as guardians of the earth and of all things that grow and breed in the soil; as trustees of the waters – [the seas, the streams and rivers, the ponds and the lakes] - and the rich variety of life in those waters.

We thank them for passing this heritage to every people since the Dreamtime.

We acknowledge the wrongs done to them by newcomers to this land and we seek to be partners with them in righting these wrongs and in living together in peace and harmony.

[Site for identifying the traditional peoples of local areas: www.foundingdocs.gov.au/pathways/]

 

© 1990 Robert Lentz

From ancient times human beings have responded to experiences with the divine with works of art. They have used metaphor and image to describe what they have ‘seen.’ Individual expressions of personal experiences of the divine have often challenged rigid religious traditions. Religious institutions have mistrusted the images of the ancients as well as the images of the mystics.

The spiritual genius of many ethnic groups through the centuries has been responsible for profound images of faith. The drawings on the walls of prehistoric caves and early sculpture are powerful witnesses to highly developed spiritual as well as artistic sentiments of peoples who lived centuries before the birth of the traditional religions of the East and West.

The civilizations of the Americas which flourished prior to the arrival of Columbus and missionaries from Europe were routinely destroyed. Images of faith were often condemned before any attempt was made to understand the experience which gave birth to these images of the spirit. Religious authorities, urged by patriarchal bias, were especially fearful of the role of feminine images in these primitive yet often highly evolved cultures. Male clerics and theologians were careful to exercise control over the images to be used in worship and devotions.

Native Americans, Africans, Asians, as well as early Europeans saw their religious traditions and images cast aside in favor of the Christian images current at the time. Treasures of faith were lost as cultures were systematically destroyed by colonists and conquerors. It is time to recover discarded religious treasures.

A beautiful image from ancient Celtic religious experience was God as a trinity of women. The Maiden gave birth to creation. The Mother nurtured and protected it, and the Crone brought it wisely to its end. A raven accompanied the Crone as a symbol of life and death: though it ate dead things, it flew high into the heavens. In this icon the three women are depicted from different races to extend the Celtic image to a more global perspective. The snake was another sacred feminine image. It represented life, fertility, and rejuvenation. Devouring its own tail, it represented immortality.

Feminine images have suffered greatly in the west. Women will continue to suffer oppression in any religious society until their images have been reclaimed and honored. These feminine insights can help to present a new healing perspective on the problems that face our modern world.

    

‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son.’ John 3:16

Readings

Reading I Ex 34:4b-6, 8-9

Responsorial Psalm Dn 3:52, 53, 54, 55, 56

Reading II 2 Cor 13:11-13

Gospel Jn 3:16-18

Penitential Rite

1.       In you we see the face of God. Jesus, have mercy.

2.      In you we see the peace of God bringing healing and reconciliation to our world, Christ, have mercy.

3.       In you we see the Spirit poured out on all creation and making all things new, Jesus, have mercy

Or

1. Christ Jesus, you came to reveal the face of our Creator God: Jesus, have mercy.
2. Christ Jesus, you are God’s Word and God’s Promise: Christ, have mercy.
3. Christ Jesus, you promised us the gift of your Spirit: Jesus, have mercy.

Or

1.       God, you call us to be in relationship, building community with one another, working with one other, supporting and healing one another, but often we have turned our back on our neighbour when they have been in need. Jesus, have mercy.

2.      God, you call us into a community working for the common good of all people, making choices that ring hope, justice, truth and freedom to our world, yet sometimes we have failed to speak out  against injustice and lift up the oppressed. Christ, have mercy.

3.       God, you callus into community with the whole of creation, always cherishing, nurturing and renewing the earth. But we have taken what you have given and not fully shared it with those around us. Jesus, have mercy.

Opening Prayer

God of Communion,

Trinity of Persons,

you are near to your people

who have been formed in your image,

and close to the world your love continues to bring to life.

Draw us more deeply into your life,

respectful of you

in our sisters and brothers

and all creation.

or

Gracious God

you showed the wide embrace of your love

when gave us your only Son

and sent upon the power of your Spirit.

Complete with us the work of your love which is manifested

through our compassion and work for justice

so that in fully sharing in your life

we may also bring others into that life in the unity of the Holy Spirit.

Prayer over the Gifts

God of communion,

Trinity of Persons, 

accept the bread and wine we offer

which, through your Spirit, become Jesus,

your creative word among us,

May our sharing in his body and blood

strengthen us in the covenant of love

with you, our brothers and sisters,

and all of creation.

Prayer after Communion

God of communion,

Trinity of Persons,

and the sacrament we have shared

help us to recognise your presence and image

echoed in our world

as we struggle for healing and peace for all people.

Deliver Us

Deliver us, God of Communion, from every evil

and grant the peace of Christ today,

which is the work of your Spirit.

In your mercy keep us free from all that obstructs the bonds of humanity.

Protect us from all anxiety and worry and reassure us

that even in the uncertainties of our time

your Spirit leads us forward in joyful hope

toward the coming of Jesus Christ, our brother.

Prayers of the Faithful

Introduction: Let us pray to the God who loves the world so much and calls us to be one human community and work for harmony in creation, our communities and families, and among the nations of the world.. We pray in response: May your Spirit fill our hearts.

·         We pray for Pope Francis, Church leaders and Christians everywhere: may they communicate the Good News of Jesus Christ with courage and conviction. we pray to God. May your Spirit fill our hearts.

·         We pray for all who are involved in the work of communications and media: may their work serve the cause of truth and justice and bring real benefits to all. we pray to God. May your Spirit fill our hearts. We pray for a deeper courage within us: may our vision and deep concern for justice emerge from our sense of human interconnectedness and be firm when challenged, tested and persecuted, we pray to God. May your Spirit fill our hearts.

·         We pray for all people who work to create community in the world: may they build communities that reach beyond political frontiers, ideological, ethnic, cultural, or religious boundaries, we pray to God, we pray to God, we pray to God. May your Spirit fill our hearts.

·         We pray for the church: for all Christians of every congregation and language, every nation and race, that we may together be a sign of the diversity and the unity of God, we pray to God. May your Spirit fill our hearts.

·         We pray for all people who live in nations that are torn apart by violence and conflict and may those who seek refugee beyond their borders in the search for safety and freedom find a safe home and welcome, we pray to God. May your Spirit fill our hearts.

·         We pray for all people who are alone, isolated, or feel undervalued and unloved in the world: may they come to know the Trinity, the divine community which breaks down all barriers, we pray to God, we pray to God. May your Spirit fill our hearts.

·         We pray for Aboriginal people who continue to suffer violations of basic human rights: may they know and experience our empathy in their sufferings and struggles for survival and healing, we pray to God, we pray to God. May your Spirit fill our hearts.

·         We pray that we recognize that God is in the midst creation and all relationships: may truth continue to emerge in the exchange of stories and solidarity between peoples, we pray to God. May your Spirit fill our hearts.

·         We pray that as representatives of the First Nations Peoples of Australia have gathered to ensure their voice is heard as expressed in their Statement from the Heart that we may all accept the invitation they offer us to be one people and may the Spirit may teach us to listen and appreciate and respect the beauty of Aboriginal cultures, we pray to God. May your Spirit fill our hearts.

·         We pray that our government institutions reflect the equality of the Trinity: may the voices of the weak and vulnerable be given more weight than the powerful and the dominant, we pray to God. May your Spirit fill our hearts.

Final Prayer: O God of Communion, Trinity of Persons, you are the foundation and meaning of our lives.  Reawaken within us your life so that we take charge of our lives and passionately reflect the same love for all peoples that you show in the Trinity.

or

Final Prayer: Creator God, Holy Trinity of Persons, hear our prayers and abide with us so that we may make a life and a world that glorifies you — Father, Son and Holy Spirit — now and always and forever and ever. Amen.

Preface  [Alternative]

May God be with you.

And also with you.

Let us lift up our hearts.

We lift them up to God.

Let us give thanks to God

We give God thanks and praise.

It is indeed right to give you our thanks and praise, O God,

and to join with the whole world

in declaring the greatness of your name.

In the beginning your Spirit brooded over the chaos

and brought to birth all the beauty and abundance of creation.

You created humankind in the image

of your own faithful love and

and entrusted the care of the earth into our hands.

From our midst you brought forth your own Son, Jesus Christ,

one with you, and the embodiment of your Spirit,

and through him you invited all people

to be baptised into your triune dance of love.

When he was put to death, you raised him to life

and gave him all authority in heaven and on earth,

and in him, through the Holy Spirit,

you are with us always, to the end of the age.

Therefore with .....

Adapted from © 2002 Nathan Nettleton www.laughingbird.net

Final Blessing

God bless our eyes, that we may recognise injustice.

God bless our ears, that we may hear the cry of the stranger.

God bless our mouths, that we may speak words of welcome to newcomers.

Parish Notices:

June 10 Myall Creek Massacre

June 16 Beginning of Refugee Week

June 20 UN World Refugee Day

June 22 Destruction of the Berlin Wall 1989

June 26 International of Day in Support of Victims of Torture

Further Resources

Trinity is a poem uttered free verse as cosmic love gift

sending sound waves through earth to hurl speech

into the ionosphere stirring radio waves to hum

Trinity is a synchronistic dream we and God have

nightly about the interface of human and divine

the matrix of connections between holy and common

Trinity is a syncopated counterpoint of melody lines

referencing each other and making music as sonorous

as whales and pulsars and seismic waves all held in tension

then someone inscribed the free utterance in indelible ink

and someone analyzed the shared dream with Freudian precision

and someone forced the messy melodies smooth in straight time

behold: just when they think they finished the job and

brush the dust of such work off their hands and rest

Trinity dances out the door and finds willing partners to twirl

Michael Coffey

Come Holy Spirit. Come!

Fill the hearts of your people.

Come Holy Spirit,

that we may be aware;

aware of the people around us,

especially the poor and oppressed;

aware of the children, the young people,

all the people striving to grow into their dignity

as people of God;

aware of the world around us,

especially the environment with its plants and animals,

with its land and water, with its air and space,

with all its mystery;

aware of the structures of power,

especially those that keep people impoverished

or powerless or confused or unfree;

aware of the violence and the threats of violence,

which are not the way of Jesus;

aware of our selves and our bias and stereotypes

and all our unfreedom;

aware of all the possibilities for freedom and joy and life.
Come Holy Spirit.

Come! Fill the hearts of your people.

Give us the freedom to see.

Give us the wisdom and courage to speak.

[Source unknown]

Knowing one's self, finding one's self, and expending one's self for another are intertwined activities. Love of self, love of God, and love of neighbour are interdependent.

Sidney Callahan With All Our Heart and Mind

On a summer morning

I sat down

on a hillside

to think about God

a worthy pastime.

Near me, I saw

a single cricket;

it was moving the grains of the hillside

this way and that way.

How great was its energy,

how humble its effort.

Let us hope

it will always be like this,

each of us going on

in our inexplicable ways

building the universe.

Mary Oliver, Song of the Builder

Sit with God as you might with the ocean.

You bring nothing to the ocean, yet it changes you.

Sean Caulfield, The Experience of Praying

I long to create something

that can't be used to keep us passive:

I want to write

a script about plumbing, how every pipe

is joined

to every other.

Adrienne Rich (1929), U.S. poet and feminist. From Essential Resources,

When my dreams showed signs

of becoming

politically correct

no unruly images

escaping beyond borders

...

then I began to wonder

Adrienne Rich (1929), U.S. poet and feminist. From North American Time

If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we would find in each [human's] life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace.

Jimi Hendrix

Lead me from death to life, from falsehood to truth;

Lead me from despair to hope, from fear to trust;

Lead me from hate to love, from war to peace;

Let peace fill our heart, our world, our universe.

Satish Kumar

Heal The World    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUYw9xHY1mU

There's A Place In

Your Heart

And I Know That It Is Love

And This Place Could

Be Much

Brighter Than Tomorrow

And If You Really Try

You'll Find There's No Need

To Cry

In This Place You'll Feel

There's No Hurt Or Sorrow

There Are Ways

To Get There

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Little Space

Make A Better Place...

Heal The World

Make It A Better Place

For You And For Me

And The Entire Human Race

There Are People Dying

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Better Place

For You And For Me

If You Want To Know Why

There's A Love That

Cannot Lie

Love Is Strong

It Only Cares For

Joyful Giving

If We Try

We Shall See

In This Bliss

We Cannot Feel

Fear Or Dread

We Stop Existing And

Start Living

Then It Feels That Always

Love's Enough For

Us Growing

So Make A Better World

Make A Better World...

Heal The World

Make It A Better Place

For You And For Me

And The Entire Human Race

There Are People Dying

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Better Place

For You And For Me

And The Dream We Were

Conceived In

Will Reveal A Joyful Face

And The World We

Once Believed In

Will Shine Again In Grace

Then Why Do We Keep

Strangling Life

Wound This Earth

Crucify Its Soul

Though It's Plain To See

This World Is Heavenly

Be God's Glow

We Could Fly So High

Let Our Spirits Never Die

In My Heart

I Feel You Are All

My Brothers

Create A World With

No Fear

Together We'll Cry

Happy Tears

See The Nations Turn

Their Swords

Into Plowshares

We Could Really Get There

If You Cared Enough

For The Living

Make A Little Space

To Make A Better Place...

Heal The World

Make It A Better Place

For You And For Me

And The Entire Human Race

There Are People Dying

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Better Place

For You And For Me

Heal The World

Make It A Better Place

For You And For Me

And The Entire Human Race

There Are People Dying

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Better Place

For You And For Me

Heal The World

Make It A Better Place

For You And For Me

And The Entire Human Race

There Are People Dying

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Better Place

For You And For Me

There Are People Dying

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Better Place

For You And For Me

There Are People Dying

If You Care Enough

For The Living

Make A Better Place

For You And For Me

You And For Me (10x)

Michael Jackson

Peace is not something you must hope for in the future. Rather, it is a deepening of the present, and unless you look for it in the present you will never find it.

Thomas Merton,

All living is meeting

Martin Buber, I and Thou

…for nonviolence seeks to 'win' not by destroying or even by humiliating the adversary, but by convincing [the adversary] that there is a higher and more certain common good than can be attained by bombs and blood. Nonviolence, ideally speaking, does not try to overcome the adversary by winning over [them], but to turn [them] from an adversary into a collaborator by winning [them] over.

Thomas Merton, Faith and Violence: Christian Teaching and Christian Practice

Colorful demonstrations and weekend marches are vital but alone are not powerful enough to stop wars. Wars will be stopped only when soldiers refuse to fight, when workers refuse to load weapons onto ships and aircraft, when people boycott the economic outposts of Empire that are strung across the globe.

Arundhati Roy, Public Power in the Age of Empire

So they collected the cripples, the wounded, the maimed

And they shipped us back home to Australia

The armless, the legless, the blind, the insane

Those proud wounded heroes of Suvla

And as our ship pulled into Circular Quay

I looked at the place where my legs used to be

And thank Christ there was nobody waiting for me

To grieve and to mourn and to pity

And the band played Waltzing Matilda

As they carried us down the gangway

But nobody cheered, they just stood and stared

Then turned all their faces away

And the band played Waltzing Matilda, performed by the Pogues.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPFjToKuZQM

I am not blaming those who are resolved to rule, only those who show an even greater readiness to submit.

Thucydides

You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong no matter who does it or who says it.

Malcolm X

Everybody's worried about stopping terrorism. Well, there's a really easy way: stop participating in it.

Noam Chomsky

The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don't do anything about it.

Albert Einstein

... the United States, for generations, has sustained two parallel but opposed states of mind about military atrocities and human rights: one of U.S. benevolence, generally held by the public, and the other of ends-justify-the-means brutality sponsored by counterinsurgency specialists. Normally the specialists carry out their actions in remote locations with little notice in the national press. That allows the public to sustain its faith in a just America, while hard-nosed security and economic interests are still protected in secret.

Robert Parry, investigative reporter and author

Our men . . . have killed to exterminate men, women, children, prisoners and captives, active insurgents and suspected people from lads of 10 up.... Our soldiers have pumped salt water into men to ‘make them talk,’ and have taken prisoners people who held up their hands and peacefully surrendered, and an hour later. . . stood them on a bridge and shot them down one by one, to drop into the water below and float down, as examples to those who found their bullet-loaded corpses.

 Philadelphia Ledger newspaper in 1901, from its Manila [Philippines] correspondent during the US war with Spain for the control of the Philippines

The only place you and I disagree . . . is with regard to the bombing. You're so goddamned concerned about the civilians, and I (in contrast) don't give a damn. I don't care. …..I'd rather use the nuclear bomb. . . Does that bother you? I just want you to think big.

Richard Nixon to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on the Watergate tapes

This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love.

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The essence of oligarchical rule is not father-to-son inheritance, but the persistence of a certain world-view and a certain way of life ... A ruling group is a ruling group so long as it can nominate its successors... Who wields power is not important, provided that the hierarchical structure remains always the same.

George Orwell, 1984

War: first, one hopes to win; then one expects the enemy to lose; then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering; in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost.

Karl Kraus (1874-1936)

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted;

the indifference of those who should have known better;

the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most;

that has made it possible for evil to triumph.

Haile Selassie

Finally, may Christ inflame the desires of all people to break through the barriers which divide them, to strengthen the bonds of mutual love, to learn to understand one another, and to pardon those who have done them wrong. Through Christ’s power and inspiration may all peoples welcome each other to their hearts as brothers and sisters, and may the peace they long for ever flower and ever reign among them.

Pope John XXIII, Pacem in Terris, #171

Finding one’s own voice, however haltingly, imparts the power of the Spirit crying out. The boldness to hear the claim of conscience and follow its deep impulses even in the face of loss; the courage to taste righteous anger and allow it to motivate critical resistance to evil; the willingness to utter the prophetic word--these occurrences inscribe the movement of the Spirit’s compassion into the ambiguity of the world.

Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, She Who Is, p. 126

Whenever a human community resists

its own destruction or works for its own renewal;

when structural changes serve the liberation of oppressed peoples;

when law subverts sexism, racism, poverty, and militarism;

when swords are beaten into ploughshares

or bombs into food for the starving;

when the scores of old injustices are healed;

when enemies are reconciled once violence and domination have ceased; whenever the lies and the raping and the killing stop;

wherever diversity is sustained in koinônia;

wherever justice and peace and freedom gain a transformative foothold–-

there the living presence of powerful, blessing mystery

amid the brokenness of the world is mediated.

Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, She Who Is, p.126

Affirmation of Justice and Peace

I believe in God,

who is love and who has given the earth to all people.

I believe in Jesus Christ,

who came to heal in and through all who work for justice

I believe in the Spirit of God,

who works in and through all who witness to the truth.

I believe in the community of faith,

which is called to be at the service of all people.

I believe in God’s promise to finally destroy the power of sin in us all,

and to establish the kingdom of justice and peace for all humankind.

I believe in human rights,

in the solidarity of all people,

in the power of non-violence.

I do not believe in racism,

in the power that comes from wealth and privilege,

or in any established order that enslaves.

I believe that all women and men are equally human,

that order based on violence and injustice is not order.

I do not believe that war and hunger

are inevitable and peace unattainable.

I believe in the beauty of simplicity,

in love with open hands, in peace on earth.

I do not believe that suffering need be in vain,

that death is the end,

that the disfigurement of our world is what God intended.

I dare to believe,

always and in spite of everything,

in God’s power to transform and transfigure,

fulfilling the promise of a new heaven and a new earth

where justice and peace will flourish.

Source unknown

A time comes when silence is betrayal. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. For we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us. I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We can no longer afford to worship the God of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate. We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent co-annihilation. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who possess power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight. Now let us rededicate ourselves in the long and bitter but beautiful struggle for a new world. If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over America and all over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (Excerpts from a speech on the Vietnam War)

Compassionate listening is a path to transform conflict into peace…. The transformation begins when one listens actively, empathetically and unjudgementally to the struggles and the paths to conflict on all sides - and does so whether they agree or disagree with a particular side.  The listener then seeks to tell the stories of each side to the other side, conveying the humanity and truth that they witnessed on one side to their opponents.      

Fellowship of Reconciliation Nov/Dec 2000

Display a heart of boundless love for all the world,

in all its height and depth and broad extent,

love unrestrained, without hate or enmity.

Then as you stand or walk, sit or lie,

until overcome with drowsiness,

devote our mind entire to this.

This is known as living here a life divine.

Sean McDonagh, To Care for the Earth, London, Geoffrey Chapman, 1986, p. 145.

A Warm, Moist, Salty God

Deep in the forest

I found my God

leaping through the trees,

spinning with the glancing sunlight,

caressing with the breeze.  

There where the grasses

rose and fell

fanning the perfumed air,

I smelt her beauty,

elusive, free,

dancing everywhere.

Deep in the city

I found my God,

weeping in the bar,

prowling beneath the glaring lights,

dodging speeding car.

There where the women

were pimped and raped,

cursing for a light,

I felt her presence,

fierce, deep,

sobbing in the night.

Deep in myself

I found my God

stirring in my guts,

quickening my middle-age bones,

stilling all my buts.

There where my spirit

had slumbered long,

numbed into a trance,

A moist, warm, salty God

arose,

and beckoned me to Dance.

Edwina Gateley, A Warm, Moist, Salty God: Women journeying towards wisdom, Source Books, 1993

The light which shines in the eye

is really the light of the heart.

The light which fills the heart

is the light of God.

Rumi, Sufi mystic

Religion is not 'what one does with one's solitariness.'

Religion is what one does with the presence of God.

Abraham Joshua Heschel, I Asked for Wonder, Crossroads, New York, 1987

Because God is the creator, redeemer, lover of the world, God’s own honor is at stake in human happiness. Wherever human beings are violated, diminished, or have their life drained away, God’s glory is dimmed and dishonored. Wherever human beings are quickened to fuller and richer life, God’s glory is enhanced. A community of justice and peace (thriving among human beings) and God’s glory increase in direct and not inverse proportion

Elizabeth Johnson CSJ, She Who Is

Teach me your Way, O Christ

Christ, teach me your way of treating others

--sinners, children, Pharisees, Pilates and Herods,

and also John the Baptists.

Teach me your way of eating and drinking,

and how to act when I'm tired from work and need rest.

Teach me compassion for the suffering,

the poor, the blind, and the lame.

You who shed tears, show me how to live my deepest emotions.

Above all, I want to learn how you endured your Cross.

Teach me your way of looking at people:

the way you glanced at Peter after his denial, 

the way you touched the heart of the rich young man

and the hearts of your disciples.

I would like to meet you as you really are,

since you change those who really know you.

If only I could hear you speak as when you spoke

in the synagogue of Capernaum

or on the Mount of Beatitudes!

The solidarity which binds all people together as members of a common family makes it impossible for wealthy nations to look with indifference upon the hunger, misery and poverty of other nations whose citizens are unable to enjoy even elementary human rights. The nations of the world are becoming more and more dependent on one another and it will not be possible to preserve a lasting peace so long as glaring economic and social imbalances persist.

Pope John XXIII, Mater et Magistra, #157

One day when I was a child, an old man took me on his knee and placed his hand on my head as though he were giving me a blessing.  'Alexis,' he said, 'I'm going to tell you a secret.  You are too small to understand now, but you'll understand when you are bigger.  Listen, little one.  Neither the seven stories of Heaven nor the seven stories of Earth are enough to contain God, but a person's heart can contain God.  So, be careful, Alexis - and my blessing be with you - never to wound another person's heart.

Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

……  family goes well beyond blood lines. Family is the human community, the Christian community, and we must learn to love one another as a family.

Cardinal Joseph Bernadine, The Gift of Peace, p. 70.

What God? The God of inclusive love, compassion, and peace or:

the God of militarism and empire

the God of prosperity and self-indulgence

the God of self-sufficiency

the God of revenge and unforgiveness

the God of fear and cowardice

the God of formality and rigidity

the God of pessimism and negativity

Reflections for the feast of the Trinity

Today’s readings take us on a story of discovery – the discovery of God – the discovery of who God is, what God is like and what God offers us and calls us to be in relation to one another and our world and its people. The readings do not ‘explain’ the Trinity but celebrate God's wonderful ways of interacting with us. This feast is a song to God’s relationship with us and the whole of creation. God’s creating Spirit has been sent into all circumstances, all places, all perceptions, and all time.  This feast reminds us that as we come to know this God we find that we must repudiate any spirituality or teaching that disconnects from the concerns of the world. God is social. God is a God of relationship. God is not ‘up there’ but in us, within us and between us.  Paul also reminds us that the relationship that exists within God, which we celebrate today, also reflects the relationship - mutuality and support, of love and respect - that should exist within us as a human community. It cannot be divorced from any of our social concerns today: people seeking asylum, people who are unemployed, people who are homeless, sick, lonely and marginalised.  Living in a community where there was tension and conflict, Paul reminds the Corinthians that because they worship ‘the God of love and peace’ they should attempt to ‘live in peace’ despite inevitable disagreements notwithstanding.

In the gospel we see that God travels with us not to condemn but to love. Again this is what we are called to embody every day in our lives. God is a social and we are called be social. God is a God of relationship. and we are called  to be in relationship with one another. In the Gospel, Jesus spoke about change and a new birthing - here and now. ‘Eternal life’ means a life lived now. It is not what many saw as a prize for diligent observance of God's commandments or good behaviour. It can be a relief not having to earn God's favour by slavishly observing rules and regulations. It refers to the quality of our life - a quality characterised by generosity and availability to others and the world. ‘Heaven’ exists where there is a community of love: no divisions, selfishness or deceit. Eternal life is knowing we are loved now by God and are being transformed daily as we become more loving, patient, self-giving, forgiving, willing to endure pain and rejection for our faith in Jesus, desirous to stand with the needy and rejected. This is not always reflected in our way of living or our views: people hesitate to send their children to some schools because they have large numbers of Aboriginal children or children from Middle Eastern nations; people make up all kinds of reasons for not admitting asylum seekers among us who seek our protect; people still marginalise gay and lesbian people, people living with disabilities and mental illness…. Not much of a Trinitarian dance!

Today’s feast has social implications. It involves us in a community of mutual support and discovery. It involves values that we share in common. It involves us with the issues of the world and daily life. It involves us in justice and peace. It focuses us on the common good. It directs us to a God who is in all people and in all of creation; who has a special concern for the poor, the vulnerable, the stranger, the person who is marginalised by others by political, economic and ecclesiastical power. Because God is in all of creation, our concern should be to protect it from destruction or over-consumption and support use of renewable resources rather than those that destroy. It means being concerned with domestic violence as well as the violence and war that is taking place in Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, South Sudan, the Ukraine, Nigeria, and so many other places. 

Though scripture can be used as a tool for prejudice, oppression and even war-making that hides God’s face from us, today’s feast reminds us that God is creative, liberating and transforming. If our image of God includes power, masculinity, domination, judgementalism or legalism then we can justify some of the ways we treat people. This feast affirms that God is near; that God has a heart and is passionate about people and all creation; that God is with us whenever and wherever we strive for love and peace. Some of the early Fathers of the Church used the image of a dance to show us how God is involved with us and how we are called to be involved with others. Dancing is about sharing a space, it is about give and take rather than competition; it requires a welcome and embrace rather than barriers and restrictions; strength rather than violence; gentleness rather than weakness; interdependence rather than independence.  When life is lived authentically - when it is communal, reciprocal, complete - it shares characteristics of God’s life.

The imagery of Trinity is crucial to our vision of a new world, a new neighbourhood, and new people. The pattern of our world is that of the Trinity: Jesus’ God is not remote in heaven but a God of love; one who sees; who is pained; who is present when people work for the good and liberation of others. Jesus invites us to enter into partnership with him. God's action and our own actions become one. It is a relationship of responsible partnership. It refuses to outsource responsibility. It shares resources. It crosses all lines of discrimination.  Whereas the world focuses on individualism and independence and thus a God who is uninvolved, the gospel, promotes interdependence, acceptance of responsibility for the well-being of others and the community.

Miroslav Volf says ‘Sin is a refusal to embrace others in their otherness and a desire to purge them from one's world, by ostracism or oppression, deportation or liquidation… the exclusion of the other is the exclusion of God.’  We can look to Pope Francis for an example of relationship gone amuck as he says in The Joy of the Gospel, 59: ‘Today in many places we hear a call for greater security. But until exclusion and inequality in society and between peoples are reversed, it will be impossible to eliminate violence. The poor and the poorer peoples are accused of violence, yet without equal opportunities the different forms of aggression and conflict will find a fertile terrain for growth and eventually explode. When a society - whether local, national or global - is willing to leave a part of itself on the fringes, no political programs or resources spent on law enforcement or surveillance systems can indefinitely guarantee tranquillity. This is not the case simply because inequality provokes a violent reaction from those excluded from the system, but because the socioeconomic system is unjust at its root’.

It seems that we are beginning to realise how much we have isolated ourselves from God, from one another and from the earth and its creatures. We might be recognising that these divisions are illusory and how small changes, when multiplied through the interconnectedness of systems and creatures, have large impact. As I write we hear of the most recent terrorist attacks in London, and Kabul a few days, we feel the effects of crises and conflicts far away impact on us as well. More and we find that our actions – what we buy, eat, drive and wear – impact for better or worse on people in other places.  This is challenging because we can no longer claim ignorance as an excuse, and we find ourselves being disturbed by things that, in times past, would have caused little concern. This is also exciting because we are discovering - perhaps as never before – the richness of our diversity, and the gifts of our connectedness. We are being opened to discovering God in new ways, and in more intimate ways through the recognition of God’s connectedness with us and our world.  For some, this connectedness is threatening, and the Church can become a place of escape, a place of difference where connections are carefully monitored and controlled. Others may find this connectedness a threat to identity and a small community becomes a huddle that needs to defend itself against being lost in the wider community.

The other alternative is that if we can learn to embrace what can be learned and rediscovered through these new global connections, and begin to identify ourselves by our connectedness, rather than our difference or disconnection.  The local community can be one important manifestation of a radically interconnected universe?  Might our ministry be motivated and guided by the ways we are connected to those we are trying to reach, rather than focusing on how ‘they’ are different from ‘us’?  By recognising that we share in the community within the Trinity, we find a home, and leads us to a radical openness and ‘welcomingness’ to others.  We might begin to ask new questions, pray new prayers, sing new songs and initiate new actions.

We can live differently. We can cross the crucial borders of life and realise that there is little time and perhaps we must take a chance before there is no time left. Forgiveness comes to us out of nowhere. A door opens where things seemed solidly shut - and we sense that we are... still... free... to choose. We can take a chance, strike out boldly and bravely, becoming something we have always wanted to become, doing something we have always dreamed of doing rather than continuing down the path of dull, bland and fearful living. As T.S. Eliot said: ‘The journey, not the arrival, matters’. Or as Mark Twain said: ‘twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.  So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore Dream. Discover.’

We do not often talk about sin against the Holy Spirit but it still exists. Let us build a world of right relationships –shalom - in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

 

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