Jim Cogley: Reflections Tues 18 June – Mon 24 June 2024
Tues 18th June – Call and Empowerment
On the 22nd of June 1980 I was ordained in St Patrick’s Church, Rosslare Harbour. Now forty-four years later I look back on that day when, with an unmitigated ‘yes’ to the Lord and what I felt he was calling me to, and with reckless abandon, I set out on a voyage of mystery and ministry. The years have flown and for some reason I don’t feel any older now than I did then, and thankfully my health and energy levels seem as good as ever. My love for the Gospel and the Christian message has continued to grow over the years and even after saying Mass 16,000 times and preaching a similar number of sermons my enthusiasm has never waned. This I am unable to take any credit for but can only attribute to a truth about vocation that to called is to be empowered and wherever the appointment is, there also is the provision. Daily I live out of, and am sustained, by that awareness.
Wed 19th June – The Sacred ‘Yes’
I believe that we are all called and have a mission and purpose in life. The word ‘yes’ or ‘fiat’ (as with Mary) in the Christian tradition appears to be the word that unlocks the key to allowing the mystery of our lives to unfold. From that perspective it is not so much a matter of figuring out what our lives are about but more of trusting and allowing things to unfold and to be revealed. Christianity is more about divine revelation than self-effort. The reality is that if we could only succeed under our own steam the glory would be to our ego and not to God. This is where surrender and learning the art of letting go is all important. It is trusting that the higher power who created us knows us so much better than we know ourselves, what we are created for, and what is our potential.
Thurs 20th June – ‘Yes’ to who you really are
I now look back over 50 years with absolute gratitude for the opportunity to have lived a life I would never have even considered had it not been revealed, and yet has been absolutely right for me. Whatever dreams I had as a young person have been fulfilled a thousand times over and painful sacrifices that this life has entailed have paled into insignificance and become more like joyful offerings. I now say, especially to young people, ‘Never be afraid to say yes to God’. In doing so you are saying ‘yes’ to who you really are and are unlocking the secrets of your own potential. How can we see the magnificence of our own souls just from an ego perspective? In saying ‘yes’ that is the journey you are embarking on, the realisation of your potential and the discovery of the wonder of who you really are.
Fri 21st June – ‘Yes’ to all that Is
I have been reflecting on what has been my favourite, and by far, most challenging word for over fifty years; it is simply ‘yes’. ‘Yes’ to life, ‘yes’ to God, ‘yes’ to myself and in more recent times ‘yes’ to how I might be feeling at any given time and ‘yes’ to whatever might be happening in my life. In that simple three-letter word lies extraordinary freedom and peace. I can’t change what is but by saying ‘yes’ it seems to change itself. The more I resist or resent whatever is, the more it stubbornly persists as if glaring at me with an ugly face. Yet when I accept it and say ‘yes’ it changes countenance and begins to smile. Occasionally something presents itself that is way beyond my capacity to accept and so to say ‘yes’ is not realistic. Yet I can still say ‘yes’ to my difficulty and my non-acceptance and this too is remarkably freeing. Saying ‘yes’ is always refusing to engage in the struggle that goes with resistance to whatever is.
Sat 22nd June – ‘Yes’ to being shown
Saying ‘yes’ lies at the heart of what we call vocation that comes from the Latin word ‘voco’ meaning to call. God has created each of us for a definite purpose. We are utterly unique once off creations. A work has been entrusted to us that is given to no other. We are fully equipped to do whatever we are called to do in this life. In saying yes, we are at the very deepest level affirming who we really are and what is our true identity. The primary vocation therefore is not to do something but to truly be who we really are. This means not engaging in a lifelong frustrating struggle to find out who we are, or what our lives are all about. Generally, this makes us forever stand in our own way. In saying yes, we are allowing such all-important truths to be revealed to us. Therefore, at the heart of our yes lies the word surrender that opens the door of allowing where grace can do what we cannot do by ourselves.
Sun June 23rd – Calming of the Storm
That Gospel of today opens with an invitation from the Lord that goes to the heart of human experience. ‘Let us cross to the other side.’ All of life is a voyage that involves many crossings and so that passage has something to teach us in relation to each and every one of them, especially in relation to having the faith we need in order to get to the other side.
It has to be acknowledged that not every passage is successful and many don’t make it. The photo is of a tiny little rowing boat and once out in the open sea every boat is very small. If the boat is overloaded, it is in danger of capsizing. We easily take on board more than what is good for us, like worries, cares and concerns and even work, and they can bring us down. Likewise, it’s no harm to remember that it’s never the water in the ocean that will sink our boat but what we let on board. So, we need to keep an eye for our leaks and the things or people we allow to affect us.
Looking at the passage in its geographical context, the Sea of Galilee, because of being situated between the hills, was notorious for sudden storms so it becomes a metaphor for the suddenness by which someone’s life can be turned upside down. A few minutes in a doctor’s consultancy room can be more than enough to make us change our whole way of looking at life and what we considered important. The materialistic values upon which we have based our lives up until then can suddenly be swept away and money can no longer buy us what we so desperately need.
When Jesus said, ‘Let us cross to the other side,’ he didn’t promise that there wouldn’t be storms but he was inviting us to have faith in the midst of the storm. There’s a story told about a retired sea captain who used to bring day-trippers out to the Shetland Islands. One day a boat full of young people laughed when before setting off he took of his cap blessed himself and said a prayer. The day was fine and the sea was calm. An hour later conditions worsened, a storm blew up and the boat began to pitch and toss. Most were terrified when the waves began to break over them and others were too sick to care. Some came to the captain and asked him to join them in prayer. But he replied, ‘I tend to say my prayers when its calm. Then when its rough I can tend to my ship.’
When Jesus said let us cross to the other side, he was going with them, but he didn’t promise that he was going to stay awake. In other words they wouldn’t always experience his presence when their need seemed greatest. At the height of the storm they had to wake him up in their panic saying ‘Master we are lost’, do you not care. Of course he cared, but by holding his inner peace he wasn’t going to make matters worse. So often the way we react to certain situations makes the problem a whole lot worse and we become more part of the problem than the solution. From his own reservoir of inner peace he was able to speak to the storm and say, ‘Quiet now’ and it obeyed. We can look on that as the big miracle that doesn’t happen too often or we can see it as the way that life is. Our inner world is always creating our outer reality. When I have peace within myself I create peace outside myself and when I am in conflict within I will invariably create conflict without.
All of the four Gospels writers include the passage of the storm on the Sea of Galilee. It’s understandable that it would have indelibly impressed itself on their memories. In one account when the apostles awake Jesus he asks them not just why they are so frightened, which should have been obvious, but also ‘where was their faith’. The implication was that they did have faith but were exercising it in the wrong way. In other words their faith was in their fear and the power of the wind and waves to overwhelm them rather than in his power to save them. That surely is a very useful reminder to any of us whenever we happen to hit a storm and be going through a difficult time.
Finally, the storms of life don’t leave us as they find us or at least they are not meant to. It would stand to reason that they are meant to teach us something and make us wiser. So a few lines that I have found particularly useful are:
‘Storms come into our lives for a reason.
They only last for a season.
Learn the reason
and outlast the season.’
In response to the invitation, ‘Let us cross over to the other side’. What is my particular crossing at this time?
And then the big question, ‘Where is my faith?’
Mon June 24th – ‘Yes’ to being held
Saying yes to being held where we are meant to be, and doing what we are meant to be doing, is a realsation that has come with reflection on forty-four years in ministry. It is something that only now I am coming to appreciate. With hand on heart I know that I once said ‘yes’ and this has been like the underlying principle of my life. However, I can also look back and see crunch points in my journey where I was definitely willing and beginning to go in the wrong direction and able to justify my position with all sorts of reasons. Now as I look back, I can recognise a hand of providence that was powerfully, yet gently at work, nudging me back on the path that I was meant to be on. Sometimes it felt as if roadblocks were being put in my way, or what I was forcing to happen just didn’t, against all the odds. Then there were several chance encounters where a few well-timed words made me realise yet again what my life was all about. None of these can I take credit for but can only attribute it to simply being held where I have been meant to be.