HOW LONELY WILL YOUR GRANDCHILDREN BE?

In my years of growing up I never heard my grandparents say that they were lonely. During most of my adult life I did not hear any serious discussion about loneliness. But in the past ten years we have heard serious medical reports that ‘loneliness is as determinantal to your health as smoking fifteen cigarettes a day.” There has been no scientific or medical position that rejects that observation. 

 

Can loneliness be that serious a threat to our healtl?

 

Loneliness is not accidental. We humans can enter lifestyles that lead us into an existence where we do not feel that we are wanted. We can become so isolated that no one picks up their phone to ask how we are.  We may go to work five days a week but who breaks into smiles when we come back to work in the morning or asks us out for coffee on a statutory holiday? 

 

One executive who worked for one of our large banking corporations spelt it out this way. “It like this. You count like this. Stick your finger in a pail of water. Pull your finger out of the water. The water will never remember that you were even there!” You count for so little!

 

How can our grandchildren prepare themselves to enter into a lonely adult life? 

 

Be strongly individualistic. You are on your own and you have got to make it through life on your own strength and your own wits. Move where the job promotion and salaries are most beneficial to your future. This is all about your survival and you must thrive on your own.

 

Do not belong to any volunteer or service organizations. There are almost no one of these groups functioning and the ones that still exist are all composed of grey hairs.

 

Only support those groups, such as unions and career related organizations  that will benefit you personally. Work with these groups only as long as they serve your future career prospects.

 

Wherever your house is located do not make an effort to know or connect with your neighbors. We can all look after ourselves; do not allow your neighbors to cause you any stress.

 

Remember in an individualistic society it is all about your well-being. Try to avoid any sense of responsibility for your fellow human man. 

 

Things will only change when people feel the pain of loneliness and isolation. Our grandchildren will need to rediscover how essential it is to care about our fellow human being and be connected. We will only thrive if we are responsible for each other.

 

Here is where the Church needs to rediscover that it is meant to be a community, a faith family where people feel they belong and are wanted. We must reach out to help people rediscover what it means to belong. We need to rediscover what it means that we are meant to belong to the much greater reality, our God!

 

 

 

 

WHO SETS THE TONE?

 

 

When you consider any working group of humans, you can look at them at how well they produce? Do they accomplishe their work? Are they efficient?  Are they inclusive to having new Canadians, different ethnic groups and woman working in their structures? 

 

But we also need to look at the ‘tone’ that the leadership sets for the group and the way that the social/working group will permit the leader to influence them.

 

One insightful leader spelt it out clearly: “I cannot define tone in words but I certainly can feel it when I begin to work with these people.” You will recognize the tone by living it.

 

The best place to begin with tone is your family of origin. Most probably it was your Mother who set the tone how the family would function. This was not a policy paper that she sat down and developed. She just did it! The family functioned and moved along, and she adjusted to each child --- and you changed along with her!

 

You probably could not have put it into words when you were growing up. You just did it and got along well with everyone. But when push came to shove, your Moher set the tone! 

 

Take a few moments. Look around at the tone that exists in your workplace? With the parents and organizers of your child’s hockey team? your in-laws? Your small group of close friends? Your parish church?

 

Leaders do make a difference. The real leaders (who may not be the person out in front) set the tone.

 

This is why the leadership of Pope Francis is significant. Did he change anything? Are there new rules to follow under his leadership? We are having to work to gather up any definite change in church practice and teaching that he implemented.

 

What he did change was the tone. He is moving the Church to become a Church for the poor. He is turning our gaze toward the poor and the forgotten of this world. Everything that the Pope does and says has symbolic meaning. It also carries political meaning.

 

His first visit was to the island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean. This tiny island is the first landing  place of countless poor people (i.e., undocumented) trying to move into Europe. These are people who are trying to build a better life for their children and find security from the turmoil and civil unrest that they have experienced in their countries of origin. 

 

The first people he went to engage with were the poor of this world. What kind of tone, what kind of response was Pope Francis seeking to create by visiting the migrants (i.e., the poor) of this modern history?

 

He teaches that he wants Christians to come to church with dirty shoes because they have been out on the streets caring for the poor. Can you think of a better image to express compassion and respect for our fellow human beings who so often disappear into the shadows? This is a Church that cares about the well-being of the people with little power and income.

 

The tone that Pope Francis is setting will bear fruit many generations hence. Being challenged to be a Church for the poor is  a  blessing.

 

 

 

 

 

THE HANDS OF FAITH CARE FOR THE WORLD

Christians have been criticized for being so concerned about heavenly things that they completely ignore the pain of suffering of this world. There have been many times when this was blatantly true in our checkered history. 

 

For example, if the people of the church speak about the neglect of refugees and the many displaced peoples throughout the world, there will be some critic that will say, “This has nothing to do with spiritual things. Stay in your own lane!” Often, this is a very harsh criticism.

 

When religion is authentic it means that we are moving into the heart and concerns of God. Religion never means protecting our wealth and power. It means cooperation with the heart and the plan of God.

 

We know from long experience that whenever a person draws closer to God, in their prayer and their worship, they always draw closer to their fellow human being. The Christiaan faith, when it is lived honestly, has a strong concern for the plight of human beings and their sufferings. The closer that your heart and convictions are turned toward God, the closer you will draw to your sister or brother who is deprived of the necessities of life. 

 

Jesus told the story of the rich man and the poor man, Lazarus (Lk. 16, 19-31).  The story is a brilliant contrast between the very rich man and the poor man who sat at the rich man’s door-step looking for crumbs to eat. They both die (how coincidental!). the rich man ends up on Hades (i.e., punishment) and the poor man ends up walking with Abraham (in heaven).

The point of the story is not the rich man ended in suffering because he was rich, but because he did not care about his fellow human being. Lazarus lived very close to him.

When there is poverty in our society, when there is suffering caused by wars and uprisings, when there are blocks in society toward certain groups of peoples, then Christians hear the cry of the poor and they seek to respond. 

 

Start looking around to see that many of our Church communities reach out to refugees and new-comers to our country. They try to get these people settled but also seek to become friends with these refugees (many of whom are not Christians).  There can be a lot of bureaucratic hurdles to jump over to bring and settle refugees but this is one example where our Christian faith cares deeply for the well being of strangers from another country.

 

Today, when Church people examine and bring to government and the public’s attention that fair wages and living conditions are provided to the thousands of temporary workers we bring in to care and harvest our vegetables and fruits. Farm workers are a strong concern of the Christian heart.

 

In our Sunday Eucharist we have a strong symbol of our concern for the earth. When the priest breaks the sacred bread, it is to be a sign of Christ giving his life for the sake of humanity but also a sign that each person is breaking their lives and giving their life for the sake of others.

 

Our prayer is filled with concern for the people of the earth.

 

 

TRANSFORMATION IS THE WAY TO IDENTIFY THE CHURCH

 

Gain an insight into people’s shopping behavior. Stand beside the door of your local convenience store. Ask people why they have come here. Almost always the answer will be, “I just need this one item and I didn’t want to run down to the mall.”  

 

What is a convenience store for anyway? Convenience!

 

Now, ask why the people want the Church. Do they want it because it provides meaningful rites of passage, i.e., “I got all my children their sacraments here,” or are they in touch with the powerful contribution the Church makes to our life and our salvation?

 

The Church, with its organization, its liturgies and its canon law, are the mere instrument to the purposes of God. It is to carry forth the mission of Jesus Christ, to bring all human beings to live and grow in the mercy and love of God. In simple words, the work of the Church is to nourish and bring forth transformation of life.

 

A Church of transformation is so different from the image some people have that the Church is to provide religious services. 

 

In a Church of transformation, the first thing you observe is the hard work they put forth to know and incorporate the mind of Jesus into their lives. They take seriously all the teachings of Jesus, and also the hard teachings;  and seek to make them a living part of their lives. They work toward being servants of God; to live as daughters and sons of God the Father. There is a personal relationship with the person and mission of Jesus.

 

A Church of transformation is a community of prayer. These are people who pray daily. They seek to be in living contact with the very life and heart of God’s Holy Spirit. There are many ways to pray but the first and foremost is spending time with the heart of God. 

 

A Church of transformation knows that the closer you draw towards God, the closer you draw towards your fellow human being. These are people who recognize the poor who live right around them. They see the new poor in our nursing homes, who hunger for human friendship. They are people who bring the issue of homelessness before  our government officials. Their concern for the ‘other’ is right up front on their sleeves.

 

Each Sunday, as they celebrate the holy Eucharist, they want to enter into the life, the sacrifice and the compassion of Jesus  Christ. They actively make this a living participation in the life and salvation of Jesus Christ. And…. they take seriously the sending forth to be the living heart of Jesus Christ in the world. 

 

Being a living, working part of the Church is a dynamic life. We cooperate with the Holy Spirit’s energy to transform us into the likeness of Christ. Something great is meant to happen within your life.