YOU ARE TO BE THE FACE OF CHRIST

 

In your personality, work hard to know your weak points. All your family and friends suffer from your quirks and your weaknesses. The last person to recognize them is yourself. This is why the ancient teaching, “Know yourself,” is so essential.

 

As a Church, know what are your weak points! Church: know yourself!

 

One of our serious flaws is that for too many born into the faith, is that  religion is all about getting things done. You have to have your babies baptized! You have to  get your children to make their first communion. It is like you have to check off the designated boxes!

 

The Christian faith is living, breathing and walking in the very spirit and person of Jesus.It is not checking off the correct religious boxes!  The risen Jesus must flourish in our lives. Not only do we know that we are called by Jesus to be his disciples, but we are energized, shaped and moved forward by the very person of Jesus. We can sense Jesus in our prayers and in our body as we move out of ourselves to care for the poor and the suffering of this world.

 

This is where the uncomplicated prayer of Terese of Avila (she was a very significant mystic of the sixteenth century who has had a huge impact on Christiaan spirituality) is so useful.  This is no sweet and pious believer. This has proven to be a giant in the spiritual life.

 

She begins: “Christ has no body on earth but yours, no hands, but yours.” This is living in the resurrection of Jesus. The mystery of Jesus must now happen in us. We have been joined to Jesus in the waters of baptism to become the living extension of Jesus.

 

What has happened in the life of Jesus must now happen in our lives. As Jesus gave food to the hungry, so we become his living hands when we bring food to be shared at the food bank or when we help prepare meals for (mostly) homeless men. The mystery of the risen Christ takes shape in our sharing and our caring. 

 

One of the homeless men shared with one of the volunteers. “The best thing you ever did for us was to talk with us and showed some interest in how we were doing. You did not ignore us and walk by as if we were entirely invisible.” There was Christ in human respect and kindness.

 

Terese continued: “You are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ looks out into the world.” 

 

How we look at anything or anyone indicates what kind of value it has. If a vehicle is of no value to you, you will not even notice it let alone try to remember what make it is. If you can see Christ in the face of homeless man, you will pay attention and value his life. 

 

We want to support and nourish that sense that Christ lives and works in and through us.  We want to experience that we are the eyes and feet of Christ: right here, right now!

 

OUR GOSPEL AND HATE

 

The spillover effect of the turmoil in Israel and Gaza surfaces in Canada. We hear reports of Jews and Arabs (Canadian citizens) fearing that they could become the targets of violence and hate. We know that added police presence has been added around their places of worship and gathering places. 

 

There are a few people who may allow hate and anger to simmer and come to a boil in their lives. Such people cause much harm.

 

Hate may be manifested in very few individuals but it causes all Canadians to ask some serious questions of their own thoughts and actions.

 

The gospels of Jesus do not shy away from evil and hate. Jesus lived in the real world with all its violence and exploitation. But he was always faithful to the mission God had given him and trustful of the Spirit’s help when dealing with hate and taking advantage of another human being.

 

The clearest teaching comes from Matthew 5, 43-44: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven for he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good.”

 

Christians do not have a good record on this one but be challenged how Jesus teaches us to break the violence in the world.

 

If there is evil against your tribal group be in touch with the reactions and responses with your own life. If we react by threatening or  hurting another Canadian because they belong to the ‘other’ tribe, we have become as evil as the first enemy who inflicted evil in the first place.

 

I have been so supported by my fellow Christians who work to be accepting of people who are different from themselves. They see and respect the humanness of people who have a different skin color, speak a different language, wear clothes form the old country and eat a very different diet. 

 

I have been very uplifted by the teachers in our schools who make no distinction between the children who are the new-comers and the fourth generation white people. They can be so helpful teaching these new students the English language and helping them to learn how to interact with all their fellow students.

 

I have been very uplifted by our parishioners who have worked hard bringing and settling refugees into Canada. Often, we do not know nor appreciate the difficulties and frustrations they have experienced with the immigration system. There are so many hoops to jump through. And then when these refuges arrive, they have proved to be very helpful in getting them settled, but most of all, they become good friends with these newcomers.

 

But when the Gospel of Jesus is lived out through the lives of my fellow believers I appreciate how challenging Jesus actually is and how  beautiful are the fruits of justice and love as lived out in the lives of my fellow believers.

 

OUR RELIGION IS A PEACE-BUILDER

 

The world feels to be in turmoil. We have two major wars going on this week. We lament that the invasion of the Ukraine has now entered its sixth hundredth day. The foreign ministers of the major Western countries are hop-scotching from government to government in the Middle East trying to bring stability and sanity to the war-torn situation. 

 

While all this is exploding my prayer turns towards the power to work and build peace that comes from my Christian religion. This is not an escape but a challenge to be embraced by the power that comes from living in the Gospel of Christ. 

 

We must never deny the power of evil or deny the terrible consequences of any war. We must walk through the graveyards of the soldiers of war and all the victims of war who suffered  as a result of disease, displacement and starvation. At every turn we must ask: what has war ever accomplished? How has war ever made humanity better? 

 

Every war, every battle (even the battles between the drug gangs on our Canadian streets) is a failure of humanity. We are at our worst selves when we make war!

 

How many countless people have been displaced and have their homes and their fields destroyed by war? Has anyone ever counted the number of refugees from all the wars of the last one hundred years? The suffering is indescribable!

 

The first victim, the first person to be shot down in a war, will be the truth!

 

We Christians have a very poor history when it comes to making war and causing great suffering to displaced refugees. We have much to repent by our participation and support for making war. 

 

Christians have always had a difficult time trying to justify the making of war.  Way back in the fifth century we had the thinking of Augustine that created the ‘just war’ theory. With the advent of atomic weapons that theory collapses. 

 

Jesus came to bring humanity to be builders of peace. 

 

This is where every human being needs to become aware of the power within their own lives and their own community to bring and build peace. 

 

First, we must be reclaimed by the love of God for every single human being. We must see everyone (no matter how different from ourselves) as the very image of God. We must value, treat every human being with the respect that arises from the simple fact that they exist. Here is where I rejoice to see so many of my fellow Christians deliberately trying to speak good of each person. They wrestle with any feelings of racism, superiority they might be tempted to hold in their own lives. They do the hard work of facing their own shadow side when it comes to valuing other people. 

 

And then they practice respect for each human being. They ask the tough questions, such as ‘does everyone have safe secure dwelling and clean water? ‘ Each country has its blind spots and does not pay attention to the people on the periphery who barely survive. They work for more justice and respect within our own country. And at the same time, they extend that respect and care to the neglected people in other countries.

 

This is not a time to throw up our hands. Our Christian religion gives us great strength. It gives us great power to go forth into the next day with hope.

 

 

SUMMER 2023: THE SUMMER FROM HELL

 

 

 

We cannot believe the number of fires that we have experienced in Canada this past summer. The fire experts tell us that this is so unusual to have major fires, all summer, burning throughout the entire North. We have never experienced so many smoky hours in one season. Not only in Canada but throughout the world there have been major droughts, record breaking temperatures and fires. This is truly the summer from hell!

Last Wednesday, Pope Francis issued a follow up to his ground-breaking encyclical (major Church teaching), ‘Laudato si’. To issue a follow up is very unusual. This means the issue of caring for the earth and reducing carbon emissions is very pressing.

This exhortation,’ Laudate Deum’, laments the foot dragging of our governments, corporations, businesses, countries and individual citizens to move away from carbon consumption. At the same time, it gives encouragement to people of good will to work towards saving our planet.

Here is where everyone in the Church is needed and can make a life-giving contribution. In the past the official teaching of the Church emerged through very dedicated people on the ground but was given official recognition and teaching by the bishops of the Church. Then it was given universal recognition through the office of the Pope. This usually happened in the form of the encyclical (official Church policy). This is how most of the social teachings of the Church developed over the past century and a quarter.

But now we are in a situation where the laity in the Church must develop a spirituality and a way of living the Christian faith that nourishes and preserves the earth. We are all interconnected: every bacteria, tree, gopher and human  being, and no one can survive unless we respect and nourish this inter-connectedness together.

The encyclical of Pope Francis and this follow-up statement must be seen as the starting pistol of the race to save the planet. We are all sent forth to renew our life-style, our consumption habits and working towards greater equality in our time and space. The time is very tight. We are inching close to the 1.5 rise in global temperature and dangerously close to falling over the edge into a much hotter world. The exhortation from last Wednesday is a warming that we could be very close to the tipping edge of climate warming.

All of humanity, and not just Christian believers, must reconnect with the earth, value each part of creation and responsibly use creation in a way that respects the value of every tree, rock and bit of fresh water.

Here is where the laity can make a tremendous contribution to developing a spirituality that values the earth as God values the earth and work toward a life-style that is life-sustaining to our planet. This is not a spirituality that can be developed, alone,  in our church buildings and with our episcopal structures.

This is not a time when our Christians will be told what to do. This is a time to work together into a spirituality that will preserve and help the planet to thrive.

The future our Christian spirituality looks bright. Is it not the Holy Spirit bringing new life out of old, creaky church structures?

 

 

 

WE NEED ST FRANCIS OF ASSISI

 

There are people whose lives speak deep truths long after they have died. St. Francis of Assisi (of thirteenth century vintage) is so needed in today’s society. This wild man breathed energy into a period that was creating great divides between the rich and the poor. He proved to be like the yeast in the bread making process: the Christian faith gained a new vitality.

 

We mark his feast day this week on October 4.

 

For this moment focus on his wonderful, warm and compassionate relationship with nature. He preached to the birds (obviously creatures worthy of respect) and he named the world as ‘Brother sun and Sister moon.”

 

Not only were they valuable, but they were family. The creatures of the earth were family.

 

This connection, this frame of mind must once again become ours. We, Western European people, have been so long separated from creation that we regard it simply as a resource to be exploited and then dumped when it is no longer useful to human beings.

 

One of the best examples of this exploitation is the way that human beings have exhausted the soils that grows food and left these depleted land to become a desert that is no longer productive. What would ever happen if we exhausted the huge grain growing areas of the Ukraine and North America?

 

We need St. Francis to teach us to value and care for all of creation. There is serious dialogue in today’s society about the survival of the earth. Will humanity so heat up the atmosphere that it becomes very difficult to produce food? 

 

You will never care for and nourish what you do not love!

 

This is where St. Francis needs to lead us to value and cherish all of creation; not use it and then cast it aside!

 

Spend time today getting in touch with the life-giving power of clean water that we need for our bodies to survive. Breath in clean air and value how important it is for the next few moments of your life. After coming out of a summer filled with days of smoke filled air, we can appreciate how important each breath of fresh, clean air actually is.

 

No one will ever work to preserve and sustain the natural world unless they love it. The survival of the planet is a question of our hearts. How well do we love the earth and all the life it contains? How hard are we willing to work to sustain and promote the goodness of all creation?

 

May the spirit of St. Francis soak into your soul. May his love of creation grow to become your love for all that lives, moves and sustains our earth.

 

Humanity is in need of such an awakening. Once again, we must reconnect with the earth and all forms of life. In this connection may we grow to love and cherish all forms of life. May we value every piece of soil, the summer rains and sunshine.

 

Our future depends on how we reconnect with nature and how we once again value all forms of life.

 

St. Francis, teach us how to love and cherish nature as you did.