Jim Cogley: Reflections – Tues 5th March – Mon 11th March 2024
Please note: The Seminar on Healing the Family Tree scheduled for Sat March 23rd in OLI is now fully booked and there is a waiting list. Another event will be scheduled when possible and those on the list will be informed and given priority. I will post more details when available.
Wed Mar 5th at 3pm there will be a Mass with focus on Healing the Family Tree in Our Lady’s Island.
This week’s postings have been submitted by Tessa Gallagher UK
Tue March 5th – You shall not covet your neighbour’s goods
There was a man one time who expressed his lifelong ambition to climb Mount Sinai and there recite the Ten Commandments as given by God to Moses on that mountain. His wife replied, ‘It would match you better if you stayed at home and tried to keep them’! The Ten Commandments was the first film I saw at the cinema. It was the first time of seeing a big screen. We didn’t even have a television at home, just the radio. We went as a family to see the film, me being the youngest of ten. I was six or seven years of age and was terrified by the film; it seemed so real and loud. I still remember how I tried to hide under the lovely velvet seats as the mighty waters engulfed the Egyptian Army. Yet it made a lasting impression on my young mind and was a wonderful introduction to the Old Testament.
Wed March 6th – Laws of the Heart
The Ten Commandments don’t frighten me but they do stop me in my tracks, not as legalistic mandates or laws of the land, but as laws of the heart. They are principles to live by. I won’t be punished if I fail to obey them but neither will I be transformed. Why am I revisiting them and in particular the tenth commandment? Recently I found myself craving what other people have. I fell into the trap of competition, comparison, accumulation, flirting with ideas of a new car, expensive wines, travel, designer clothes, new stuff for the house. I was seduced by greed and envy. Reflecting on the experience of craving that is another name for coveting I recognised that it was causing me unnecessary suffering that I could well do without. The answer to was to let go of wanting what I didn’t have and to be grateful for what I had.
Thurs March 7th – Only Passing Through
There is a story that illustrates the folly of my thoughts.
It is a story about a holy nun. People flocked to watch her at work, to listen to her interpretations of the scriptures and to try to learn from her wisdom. One day a seeker went to her hermitage and was astonished and disappointed to find a small ordinary woman sitting on the floor weaving straw baskets. The room was almost bare. In a shocked voice the seeker asked, “Where are your things, your books, chair, table, or bed?”
“Where are yours?” she enquired.
“Well, I’m only passing through,” he replied.
“So am I,” said the nun sagely.
Fri March 8th – Running on Empty
What a lesson to learn, that we are only passing through and everything we ‘have’ is just on loan’. The tenth commandment is not just about having material things. The nun was detached from possessions in order to be possessed by things of lasting value. She was full of life, full of the God of everything. Jesus told us that there is only one thing that ultimately matters. It’s not that I’m comfortably off, that I have more than enough for my needs. It’s what I do with the excess that matters and makes the difference. It’s how I live and love, how I respect creation and humankind. I can fill my home from top to bottom, hoarding, amassing more and more things but still be an empty shell living a loveless, pitiable life; a life without purpose, without connection, without meaning, without soul.
Sat March 9th – Imelda’s Shoes
It was reported that Imelda Marcos vehemently denied that she had 3000 pairs of shoes. It was only 1100. (My confirmation name is Imelda!) The questions I ask myself are: what in my life is the equivalent of Imelda Marcos’s shoes? Am I greedy, lacking sensitivity and awareness?
Greed is destructive. It eats away at the core of our being, blinding us to reality and preventing us from enjoying what we have. ‘Be on your guard against avarice of any kind’, Jesus said. Greed is insatiable, like drinking salt water; we never have enough. Growing up the older people had a wise saying that ‘It was always the greedy pig that was the first for the slaughter-house’. This commandment, like the other commandments is really only a guideline to enable us to keep the greatest commandment of all – the love of God. Or, perhaps it would be more correct to say their focus is on whatever would prevent us from experiencing the love of God. They are lamps to show the way for us to walk towards God, outwardly and inwardly.
Sunday March 10th – Mother’s Day
Reflecting on the Gospel today it contains the very core or the essence of the Good News that has been passed down to us for over 2000 years: That God so loved the world that he sent his only Son and gave him up for us all.
The tragedy is that the God who has been presented to us for far too long was not a God of Love but a God of fear and of rules and regulations. The very idea of God smiling on us in love and being pleased with us was quite foreign, whereas the thought of never being good enough and always falling short of divine expectations seemed to fit much more easily.
A woman sat down for breakfast one morning in her dressing gown. Her hair was dishevelled, she was just out of bed feeling a bit grumpy and a long way from being at her most glamorous best. She was a working mum who had a lot on her plate and was making out a list of things she needed to do. Her husband was sitting opposite and the sink was piled high with dishes and she was thinking, ‘Why doesn’t he just get off his ass and wash them just for once?’ She looked over and he was smiling at her. ‘Now what’s the matter’, she said in a cranky tone. Nothing he replied calmly and continued to smile. ‘Why are you looking at me?’ she continued, thinking of her uncombed hair and rather dumpy appearance. ‘Why are you looking and what is wrong with me this time?’ ‘There’s nothing wrong,’ he reassured her, ‘I’m just looking and thinking just how much I love you, how lovely you are, and how lucky I am to have you as my wife.’
She still looks back at that moment as when she got a glimpse of God. It was an experience of Divine illumination. Throughout that encounter she had been focused on herself and her appearance while her husband was looking at her with loving eyes and could only see her as being lovely. That’s simply how it is when you look at someone with the eyes of love, you see them as being lovely and if we want a very simple but profound definition of what prayer is, it’s not just about rattling off words or reciting a formula but it has to be much more about being nourished by God’s simply looking upon us with the eyes of love and coming to see our own loveliness.
On Mother’s Day it’s worth remembering that our first experience of that kind of wondrous and unconditional love came from our mother. That was our first experience of God’s love. As she cradled us in her arms it was a time when we could do little other than eat and sleep, blurp and soil nappies and yet we were being loved totally and absolutely. How beautiful and how important that was, and how important it still is to know that our God still loves us in that same manner.
We remember all our mothers today and give thanks to God that through them we received the precious gift of life.
We give thanks that it was through our mothers that we first experienced the unconditional love of God.
We pray for all mothers who struggle to make ends meet and who live with constant pressure in order to raise their families.
We pray for all mothers who have children with special needs and whose love is often stretched to breaking point.
We remember all mothers for whom giving birth came with a terrible cost of shame and social exclusion, all those who lost children or who were forced to have them adopted.
For all our departed mothers that God may reward them for their goodness and that they may be embraced in God’s love.
Mon March 11th – The Ten Commandments in Verse
Above all else love God alone,
Bow down to neither wood nor stone.
God’s name, refuse to take in vain;
The Sabbath Rest with care maintain.
Respect your parents all your days;
Hold sacred human life always.
Be loyal to your chosen mate;
Steal nothing, neither small nor great.
Report with truth, your neighbour’s deeds;
And rid your mind of selfish greed.