Jim Cogley: Reflections Tues 16th April – Mon 22nd April

Note: On Sat 4^th May a Wood You Believe seminar with a focus on Healing the Family Tree will be held in Tallaght Retreat Centre from 10am to 4pm. Bookings and enquiries are only through the Centre on 01-4048189.

Tue 16^th April – Time

The piece of wood shown is a staggering 5,000,000 years old. It comes from Libya where it was brought to the surface during an oil drilling operation at the 5-million-year level of depth. The engineer who brought it home risked losing his job since removing such items was forbidden. The wood has become fossilized and weighs like dense metal. Parts of the bark are still intact, and it is still possible to see the grain pattern. It obviously grew close to a beach since there are lots of smooth sand grains embedded in the surface. A curious feature is that one end appears to have been cut clean with a sharp instrument. Sometimes I hold this piece and contemplate the immense passage of time and how incredibly short our lives are here on this earth. In the words of one of the psalms, ‘Lord, make me know the shortness of my life that I may gain wisdom of heart.’

Wed 17^th April – A Sobering Exercise

Once, while attending a training workshop, we were invited to take part in what had the potential to be a life-changing exercise. It took the form of a meditation where we were asked to imagine ourselves at the end of our life journey, and with just hours left to live, we were engaging in a life-review. As we looked back over our one precious life the big question would be how would we like to have lived, and what would we be most pleased to be looking at? Key questions would be, how would I like to have been in relation to others and at that point would resentments not be revealed as a total waste of time. To what extent did I develop my potential as a person or did I always play it safe and exercise more fear than faith? How did I share my resources and talents or was my life all about me? Whether I had been a faithful steward would be my own judgement of myself. At the end of the exercise we were invited to give thanks that we still had time to make the necessary changes to make the vision of what we would be looking at one day become a reality.

Thurs 18^th April – Time Changes Everything

In the Christian calendar Lent begins on Ash Wednesday with the distribution of ashes. This is a sobering reminder that given the passage of time everything returns to the dust from which it came. Whether it is the clothes we wear, the home we live in the magnificent buildings we admire, the bodies that are ours, absolutely everything returns to dust. Change is the one constant in life and for so many it is the one thing that we resist most. It has been said that only babies with soiled nappies truly welcome change! Much of our suffering in life is self-inflicted and comes with resistance to change and trying to hold onto things as they were. In relation to church at present there is a certain tendency to resist change by wanting to go backwards and restore things to what they were, rather than to accept what is, and explore new and exciting possibilities.

Fri 19^th April – Wasting Time

In the words of Shakespeare, ‘Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore so do our minutes hasten to their end.’ So how do we best make use of the time that is at our disposal be it long or short? Two of the great time wasters are yesterday and tomorrow and often we live in both. The mistakes and regrets of yesterday, with wrong choices and missed opportunities, can weigh heavily and reduce our lives to an existence. ‘If onlys’, not only cause us to miss the present, but they also deny us hope for the future. More than that, they even cut us off from the experience of Divine Providence that is only available to us when we live in the present. It may take humility to forgive ourselves for the past, plus a lot of discipline to live the NOW, but it is the only place where as the word suggests, there are No Opportunities Wasted.

Sat 20^th April – Time Concepts

We can understand time at two levels. First there is what we are most familiar with, chronological time that is linear and measured in minutes, hours, days and years. Second there is kairos or ‘now’ time which is circular and eternal and has the concept of timelessness. Our experience of time is also relative. When we were young time seemed to go much slower and as we get older it seems to fly. An hour of intense pain can seem like an eternity whereas times of enjoyment seem so short. Einstein was once asked about his theory of relativity and he replied, ‘It’s like being on either side of a bathroom door’. Depending on which side it feels very different! An understanding of kairos time helps us to appreciate that nine months in the womb can be equivalent to a lifetime of ninety years, and a month in a hospital for a child can seem like a year. In counselling work this is important when considering the effects of early life trauma such as abandonment and separation.

Sun 21^st April – Crisis in Church

There are few today who can deny that the Catholic Church in the western world is now in one of the deepest crisis in its history. This is a crisis that is generally perceived to be related to a chronic lack of vocations to the priesthood. We may look around at this church or any church and project forward 20 or 30 years and wonder will there be any priest to offer Mass. Who knows but as things stand it seems unlikely? In the world of nature, we priests would be classed as an endangered species, because we are dying out fast. I am 70 this year and very shortly three of us will have responsibility for 12 areas. The word retirement can’t even form part of our vocabulary at present and taking on more areas, while necessary, is only pushing the can a little further down the road and is not a long-term solution.

Today is officially classed as Vocations Sunday and in many churches there will be the usual prayers offered for an increase of vocations to priesthood and religious life and that many young men and women will hear and answer the call. To be honest I have difficulty with that prayer and would deem it as somewhat naïve. I had a day with 40 Christian Brothers recently where the average age was 84. They recognize that their crucial role in education is now complete and that as a congregation they have come to the end of the road. Similarly, I had an encounter with 30 Mercy Sisters where the average age was 85 and while they have sold their old convent the new one is designed as a nursing home which speaks volumes. They too have come to the end of their time and certainly won’t be taking on any new recruits. The same is true with all the other religious orders with the exception of a few contemplative groups who, while not thriving, are still surviving.

Then we came to vocations to Priesthood where we have a very small trickle but nothing to keep pace with that is needed. Some dioceses are bringing in priests from India and Africa and while this might seem a good idea most of them have language difficulties and can’t be understood plus the fact that their theology tends to be quite archaic. Besides what right have we to deprive other communities in such places who need their own priests?

One thing for sure, if it’s going to survive, our model of church has to change radically and so does our thinking have to change with it. For example, for generations we invested money in buildings but very little in people. I thought that might be a clerical thing but when an appeal went out from the Diocese recently for contributions for training of lay people in pastoral ministry just a few envelopes were returned with less than €40 overall. Yet, I guarantee that if the Spire here was in danger and an appeal was made we would have thousands donated within weeks. Does that not speak volumes about our current mindset and shows how far we still have to go in order to see people as church and not the building and to see personal development and training as far more important than maintenance of structures. The very future of the Church now depends on lay people being trained in pastoral ministry.

I don’t pretend to have answers as to what lies ahead. We definitely are in a time of great transition where what we have known is changing fast and what is to come is not at all clear. Perhaps there needs to be more death of the old before we can see more clearly what is to come. Death and resurrection are an intrinsic part of the Christian story and indeed part of the universal story. As in so many things in life, if we suffer from the white-knuckle syndrome and keep holding onto what was, we will not be open to receiving the new in whatever form that might take.

I don’t think that the solution lies in trying to go backwards in order to go forwards and wanting to restore what was, because even at its best it left a lot to be desired. Hope springs eternal and if we can be open to new ideas and exploring new possibilities, we will find that what appears to be the end will be just a new beginning, and if we go with it, the new will even be so much better than the old. It’s always best to go with the flow of change and not resist it. Otherwise, we cause ourselves needless suffering and whether we like it or not change will happen and be forced upon us.

Mon 22^nd April – Time Goblet

The photo shows a fluted chalice where the stem captures the two concepts of time. Chronos is depicted in the linear part while kairos time is reflected in the way this flows into and through the infinity symbol. In other words, time as we know it is always interspersed with eternity in the eternal now. It has been described as a divine construct to give us the impression that not all is happening at once, since in God there is only eternal timelessness. Emotional issues belong always to the realm of kairos. Even though an event happened forty years ago it can still be experienced emotionally as a present reality.