The Straight Way

Before motorways a journey took ages, with many twists and turns, corners and hills. Now much has been made straight.  John’s message was that we would live along a path where words and actions match, and where kindness matches convictions.

John the Baptist was a man on a mission – to be the messenger of the one he did not know. His life had a vision and a purpose, like when we are really committed to people or to causes or to the poor or to peace in the world.

John was the man of desert food and desert dress; he took time out to find what the biggest thing in life was and then kept following it, often not knowing where it would take him.   

The human heart is complicated and we know that. We all need that one who will touch our hearts with love and forgiveness and guide us himself in ways that are straight, and whose hand will guide us along straight paths when we need it.

God’s guiding is gentle. John found that Jesus was a gentler guide: no name-calling, no bringing of the axe to the tree, but calling each of us his friend, and nourishing the tree rather than cutting it down.

Our hearts can be melted at Christmas time by the love of God and love of others, if we can just thaw out. Think of, or remember a past Christmas time when you made a decision to allow Jesus do this for you. Maybe it is time to try again this year!

Lord Jesus, this year, arm our hearts to be like yours.

Donal Neary SJ

Light for the journey   

In faith and in hope we begin Advent this week with its first candle. With Mary and Joseph we wait for Christ. The candles are lighting the way for them – and for us! The coming light of Jesus lights both our waiting and our journey in life. May it shine the light of Christ into the darknesses of the year since last Christmas – bereavement, illness, depression, disappointments?

We prepare best for Christmas by spreading this light. The way to celebrate Christmas is rooted in our following of the gospel. Among our ways are caring more for the poor, some focused daily prayer, and the wish to forgive more and be forgiven.

All the different images of Christmas prepare us for this birth
– the carols we hear and sing, – the lights in the streets, – the star over the church and our Christmas trees and the ways we pray with anticipation and remem­ber other Christmas days with joy.

Everything of this month can remind us of God. The Christ­mas trees, lights, cards, carols, parties, Santa hats, the houses lit up with reindeer and all the things we see about Christmas, all remind us that God is near.    We welcome the lights in the spirit of Pope Francis:
‘Those who have opened their hearts to God’s love, heard his voice and re­ceived his light, cannot keep this gift to themselves. Since faith is hearing and seeing, it is also handed on as word and light’ (The Light of Faith, 37).

Spend a little time this Advent remembering some people or family memories that make you grateful for Christmas. Thank God for these in your own words.

Come, Lord Jesus. Come into our world of gold and grey,which needs you so badly today.

Donal Neary SJ

Feast of Christ the King

Jesus couldn’t do much for the man on the cross… his own hands were nailed.  He couldn’t take him off, but he gave him more than he could ask for.  He gave him paradise.

Where is God in our suffering? What sort of hope can we find this week in our country? What with so many horrible atrocities taking place, and the economic situation we have. What has God and the Church to say? God in his love for his people, and the Church with its social teachings – have they any message of hope?

Where is God? God did not cause the recession nor the murders. We may learn a lot through it and good may come later or now. Our suffering at the moment is of human making. Not of our making, but of some of our leaders and bankers, mostly through greed. God is with us suffering like he was with the thief. He didn’t cause the suffering of the man on the next cross to him. He wants our happiness and wants justice and prosperity for all.

God is with us, holding our hands, asking us to support each other. The Church will offer a place and space to find the love of God, and its social teaching will ask us to look for the common good in the future. It offers also a place where we can hear the Church’s approach to our economic future, reminding us all the time of the needs of the poor and the ordinary in education, medical care, housing and the ways in which the very old and the poor will suffer most in a situation which has been none of their doing. We are the Church and called on to make our voices heard for those who, like the man on the next cross, have little voice except to ask for help.

Lord, may thy kingdom come.

Donal Neary SJ