Jim Cogley: Reflections Tues 19 March – Mon 25 March
Note: Since the Family Tree Seminar in Our Lady’s Island for Sat March 23rd was fully booked in a few days another has been scheduled for Fri 17th May. For more details go to website jimcogley.com
Tue March 19- Key Words
Looking back on 50 years of the Christian journey my three key words have always been ‘yes’, ‘surrender’ and ‘abandonment’. ‘Yes’ to allowing God to work in me and through me, and to accomplish His purposes even in spite of myself. Surrender is closely related and carries the sense of letting go to whatever is at any given time and approaching life’s situations with open hands. Finally, abandonment: Here I think of trusting in divine providence. This means that where the appointment is, so will the provision be. God will not call me to do something for which I am not fully equipped for the task. The word Providence comes from the Latin provideo, which means to see ahead, and it is this assurance that God will provide, that is an ongoing source of comfort. As the journey has progressed I have become convinced that all the Lord requires of us is, neither our ability, nor our inability, but our availability. Just with that, He can do immeasurably more than we can ever ask or dream or imagine. These are not just words, but the truth of experience.
Wed March 20 – To be called is to be equipped
There are gifts that now I use daily, and regard as an essential part of my ministry, that for most of my life I didn’t know I had. Yet I can see how those latent gifts were God’s provision for fulfilling my unique mission. My work with wood goes back 25 years and before that was completely hidden. Yet now it is an essential part of the way that I teach and preach. My writing was another unknown until 22 years back and now with ten books published, plus these daily reflections, can reach thousands. Likewise, my natural intuition and curiosity into how things work, has become an invaluable asset in psychotherapy work. Reflecting on these issues, in the light of my own experience, leaves me convinced that each of us is already fully equipped to fulfil our life’s purpose. It is as we say ‘yes’ to that path that more and more of our latent potential comes to the fore.
Thurs March 21 – Telling the Story
By nature, I tend to be shy and don’t like talking about myself. Yet, I appreciate the sacredness of each personal story, and so the importance of sharing my own. On one side, I hear the comment that we don’t hear priests telling their story very often, and how the Gospel has impacted on their lives. On the other, can come the criticism, ‘that you talk too much about yourself’. It seems necessary to find a happy medium. This became a dilemma while writing my second last book: My Life – One Wonder-full Life. While it is basically chapters based on aspects of my own life, I wrote it not to be about me, but to enable others to reflect on the various chapters of their own life experience, in a manner that would lead to integration and wisdom.
Fri March 22 – How God Loves Me
At the core of our Christian experience is the love of God that should be quite tangible and real. What I have come to understand is that God loves us, not for who we are or what we do, but for who He/She is. In other words, He loves us not because we are good but because He is good. My earlier belief would have been the very opposite of this and was a performance based religion where love was given as a reward for good behaviour. Another way of saying this is that God is never going to love me any more than He does right now simply because He doesn’t change. One time I thought that God will love me if I change. Now I see it that God simply loves me and that is what enables me to change. Similarly, God is never going to forgive me. He always was the God or mercy, and therefor He already has.
Sat March 23 – Father & God
A colleague who usually works with me giving seminars and retreats made an interesting comment based very much on her own experience. On her journey to come into a relationship with God as Father every attempt was thwarted by the unresolved issues relating back to her own father. He was a man who had been violent and abusive and much of her childhood was lived in fear of him murdering her mother. As she worked with resolving that relationship she came to recognise that so much of what she had hated in her father was also in her. It was as she integrated her hurt and anger that she found peace in relation to him. Her greatest blessing was that in doing so she came into a much deeper relationship with God as her loving Father.
Palm Sunday
The Shadow of the Cross
The image of Palm Sunday that is etched deepest in most of our minds is that found in the Gospel of today where Jesus rides on a donkey into Jerusalem with the crowds waving branches and crying Hosanna. Years ago, we had to stand until our legs were breaking while the long Passion account was being read. It is still read in some places while personally I believe that it is much more appropriate for Good Friday than Palm Sunday.
If we were to unpack the message of the Palm Sunday event and see what it has to say to our lives, I wonder how would it challenge us to look at things differently? On several occasions Jesus, with a very real sense of foreboding, had told his disciples that he had to go to Jerusalem. There’s a saying that, ‘Coming events cast their shadow,’ and so it was that with the shadow of suffering and the cross hanging over him that Jesus resolutely took that road as the path he believed to be his destiny. The opinion of those closest to him was that Jerusalem was the last place he should be going, so much so that Peter, his closest companion, on being told what he was going said, ‘Heaven preserve you Lord from going in that direction, this must not happen.’ If you remember the reply Jesus gave to him was rather curt to say the least, ‘Get behind me Satan for the way you think is not God’s way.’
One of the big regrets often expressed by those who have come to the end of their life’s journey is that they never lived fully their own lives and were true to themselves. In other words, that they had allowed the opinions and needs and expectations of others to divert them from their true path. We need courage to take the road less travelled.
If I might give a simple example from my own life; I now look back thirty years and consider that one of the best decisions I ever made was to give the bones of five years to study psychotherapy. It was a huge commitment that entailed travelling to Dublin for lectures twice or even three times a week along with parish duties and teaching at the same time. It also entailed a big financial burden that I had to take care of myself. Several of those I held in high regard came and said, ‘Are you mad, have you lost your marbles, apart from the time commitment, do you really think that this is in line with your vocation?’ Well actually I believed what I was doing was exactly what I was being called to do as a priest and so it was a road I resolutely took very much against public opinion and now I am so glad that I did what was true to myself. One of my favourite quotes from Shakespeare is, ‘To thine own self be true and it must follow as the day the night that you can’t be false to anyone.’ Many of those who were originally negative later benefited from what I learnt while in training.
Jesus’ journey into Jerusalem also points to another reality. The need to confront painful reality head on and not try to divert from it. In my sea days I often encountered bad weather and when a mighty wave was bearing down it was always necessary to steer right into it and then to ride over it. The temptation was always to turn sideways out of fear.
A certain amount of joy and suffering are necessary components of life just as night and day complement each other. Most of us try to evade all forms of pain and suffering like the plague. However, while we may run from it all our lives we can never ultimately avoid it and even if it has to wait until we are on our deathbeds it will still be waiting for us to acknowledge it. In a culture where drugs are so easily available young people are tempted to evade the necessary pain of growing up when they indulge but the consequences are that they remain immature. The point of addiction is the place of evasion where emotional maturity stops. For adults it’s no different. In our vain attempts to evade our past we erode our future and so while wisdom is meant to come with age many just let age come on its own without any real maturity.
This is precisely why we find it so difficult to take quiet time, to reflect and be at home with ourselves. Why is there no off button on the TV, why do we need so much busyness and noise except as a distraction from our more painful realities? Why is there such a dependence on medication today, is that not too a numbing out of pain? Frequently I hear someone remark in relation to some unpleasant episode of their lives, ‘I don’t want to go there,’ to which I invariably reply ‘If you don’t go there you will just be there, because the past will never be where you think you have left it rather it will remain with you right where you are. It will reveal itself in your reactions, in your moods, how you behave and if ignored long enough it will scream at you through the sickness of your body. In the avoidance of our cross of pain lies our reluctance to follow Christ and resolutely take the road to Jerusalem.
Mon March 25 – No Heart By-pass
The story of my colleague from Saturday only coming to know God as Father once she had come to terms with her own father relationship opens up a very important issue. There is an old school of thought that the key issues of our lives, the hurts, disappointments and losses, could be overlooked and not pose any hindrance to our spiritual journey. Should they raise their head and cause any suffering this could be offered up and help us on our way. Herein lies a major belief that is still in the process of being revised. We now understand that it is only by facing up to, and working with, our painful issues that we can progress on our spiritual journey. There is no ‘heart by-pass’ on the quest for holiness. We either choose the pain of denial that can last for a lifetime, or the pain of transformation, that is short-lived but brings us to new life. Like Christ we need to be resolute on the path to our own Jerusalem.