Slow waiting

The four weeks of Advent are a slow wait: one candle this week, the empty crib. With Mary and Joseph we wait for Christ. The candles light the way for them – and for us, one each week of Advent.

Christmas should come quickly – the message of the ads. We could be excused for thinking it is nearly over. The Christmas parties are well under way. Some dinners for the elderly have been held already. The carols have been playing for weeks now.

The best waiting, like waiting for birth, is slow. Parents wonder about their child – who will he/she be like? The mother needs support and love; the children look forward to another baby; grandparents wait in pride. Even when the family situation is limited, we wait in joy and hope for the child – like Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zechariah and all the bible parents who waited, often for many years.

How is my faith this year from last year? And what would I be asking for?
Would I promise anything to help me wait actively for Jesus
~Mass more often than Sunday, ~ the Angelus every day,
~to read the gospel each day, ~to be kinder and more just,
~ to care for the poor and needy at home or away in war torn or climate challenged countries.

Let my Advent bring me closer to God and effect for the best the lives of those close to me. If we wait in faith and in hope, then everything, even the carols being sung  and the celebrations begun too early, can remind us of the God who is coming soon in Jesus Christ, to be born of Mary.

Mary, may l wait with you in joy, reflection,  patience and hope.

Donal Neary SJ

What type of King?

A big thing in life is ‘where are you from’?  We say ‘your accent betrays you’. Sometimes we judge totally on where people are from, as Pilate with Jesus.  With all he knew of him and heard, the miracles and the speeches, he asks
– Where are you from? 
– Are you a king really? 
– What sort is your kingdom?

Pilate was intrigued with Jesus and so are we.

Our Christian life is getting to know Jesus more, and taking part in his mission.  The type of person he was.  That he came from God and from humanity.  He speaks of the best of God and the best of us, the best of heaven and the best of earth.  He is worth our following.

Our role in life, our vocation and our mission is a calling to live like him in love and service.

There is the ‘from above’ in Jesus and much of John’s gospel stresses the divinity of Christ.  He doesn’t look very divine but he does look very human.  In the human is the divine.  So we could be like him. We become like him by reading about his life and living like he did. He is a king in his truth, justice, compassion and love.  The king-defender of the poor.

A good ending of one church year leads us to the beginning of  another.  King and/or Servant. We’ll see more of what it’s all like in the weeks of December.  Meantime we want to live in this reign of God and at the same time pray and live – Your kingdom come.

Picture Jesus with Pilate, mocked and belittled.
Or on the cross, and recall, ‘this man is a king’.
Jesus, remember me,
when you come into your kingdom.

Donal Neary SJ

Reminder from the Tree

The tree was a big image for Jesus – he spoke many truths of his message pointing at trees,
~ like mustard seeds which grew big,
~ vines that withered,
~ and the fig tree which was common to his hearers.
When asked about the signs of things to come, he gave no long homily, but just looked at the fig tree and said you know from this when summer and winter is coming. In the same way we can sense his presence in our lives in different ways.  This may not help us to know about the end of time and the questions people had then, but it can get us to become aware of how God is present in our lives.

The word of God is spoken in the human words of many people.  In kindly words, in forgiving and tolerant words, and also in the word of God spoken in the Mass, Jesus speaks to us today.  Like the people looking at a fig tree, we can find his presence in the kindliness and the helpful words of another. This is the word of God in human form.  It will not pass away.

We are called to speak his word in our way of life:
*to be friends of the earth,
*friends of all people, and
*friends of the poor.  That is redemption, Jesus and ourselves working in unison. 

God’s book of compassion and love includes our names. We can be thankful our are names are in the book of life.

Imagine a blank page of the Book of Life:
see your name on the page, and a list of the good you have done.
Lord bring more good out of what I have tried to do in my life out of love.

Donal Neary SJ

A series of  of contrasts

The gospel  is a series of contrasts – rich and poor, greedy and generous, arrogant and humble and it is not difficult to guess which of them Jesus is praising. The lady in question, a poor widow, may not even have heard the praise of Jesus but the disciples were left in no doubt where Jesus’ sympathies lay.

He praises true religion in the widow who gave all she had in the cause of God. He berates the co-existence of long prayers and the greed which took away the property of people like this widow.  The religious people of the day were meant to look after the widow and the orphan who had nobody else to fight their cause.

From the gospel we take the invitation of Jesus to give all; the amount given is not the big question, it is the giving of the heart. Jesus knows the listeners would cop on that what he was talking about was more than money – it was to give the first place in life to God and the things of God. That is the call to all of us.

The things of God we can glibly refer to are the love we are called to receive and to give, it is to care for other things of God too like creation, justice, peace and reconciliation. It is to give time to worship God in common and in private – to ensure a space and time for prayer in each day.

The widow of the gospel had a generous heart, as did the widow in the first reading. They looked outward to the needs of other and the things of God, and gave what they could in this direction. Can we not do the same?

Lord teach me to know you more,
love you more and serve you
more faithfully in my life
– St Ignatius of Loyola

Donal Neary SJ