Jim Cogley: Reflections Wed 29 May – Mon 3 June
For anyone interested in a Wood You Believe Retreat that will focus on healing both at a personal and ancestral level there is one scheduled for July 16 to 19in Slí an Chroí Retreat Centre in St Patrick’s College Kiltegan. It is advisable to book early. Phone: 059-6473650 or 089-4690508.
There are also a few places available for a Family Tree workshop on Sat June 15th 10am – 4pm in Our Lady’s Island. Phone 087-7640407 for bookings.
Wed 29th May – The Great Chasm
Not so many years ago most churches had a problem with children crying in church, whereas now the sound of children is rarely heard. While very few children attend, there are even less teenagers. In fact, the vast majority of congregations are in the over sixty bracket and many of the younger generation feel a sense of unease in Church that is difficult to define. Could it be that the model of child-centered education that they are now accustomed too is very different to what is still in operation in all churches. In classrooms today children sit around tables and are encouraged to interact and learn from each other. It is the teacher who facilitates a learning process. In churches the layout of seats is still what it was in classrooms in years gone by, with long rows of seats, no talking to, or learning from each other, and someone up there pouring forth. With an old model being so different from the new, is it any wonder that there would be a sense of ‘not feeling at home’?
Thurs 30th May – The Language Barrier
Language can be both our best communication tool but also a barrier to communication. It is clear from reading the Gospels that the language Christ used was that of ordinary life. His imagery was taken from farming and fishing, buying and selling, the world of nature, with the changing of the seasons and the politics of the time. No one could say he relied heavily on any kind of religious language and so everyone understood what he was saying, in so far as they were prepared to respond to his message. The same could not be said in relation to so much of the ‘lofty’ language used in churches and religious practice. Words like omnipotent, consubstantial, salvation, redemption, even sin, all have a very limited space in the vocabulary of today and need to be broken down before their meaning can be grasped. This is where the language that may have been suitable for one generation can be a huge barrier for the next.
Fri 31st May – Liturgical Fast Food
The manner in which liturgical events are celebrated can be a turn off for both young and old. However, this often happens at an unconscious level where what has become normal will seldom be questioned. If we were to consider the make up of a fast-food outlet, apart from fast service and cheap food, we would find bright lighting, hard seats, strong colours, loud music and little interaction. Everything is designed to get people in and out as fast as possible. In contrast if we were to consider a good quality restaurant. There we would find the opposite, good, tasty food, time to sit and relax, space for good meaningful conversation, low level lighting, muted colours and comfortable soft seating. Applying this to church and liturgy it becomes obvious that we have become more in line with a fast-food outlet than a place where people come and dine and have time to enjoy each other’s company.
Sat 1st June – The Liturgical Correctness of Dull Uniformity
Words we easily associate with the Spirit are Newness, Freshness, Creativity, Excitement and even Unpredictability. Is there anything that kills the spirit more than routine and predictability? Where any ritual, including the Eucharist, is celebrated in a same old, same old manner, with the same formula of words and never the slightest deviation from the ‘book’, the inevitable response is to switch off. Those who practice the ‘same old’ rituals usually justify their position and base their argument on the need for universal uniformity. In practice this kind is usually a dull uniformity characterized by, tediousness, dreariness, sameness and flatness. In contrast a Spirit filled liturgy will have a strong element of originality, freshness and creativity while still being true to its core.
Sun 2nd June – Feast of Corpus Christi
On this feast of Corpus Christi I would like to share a story from South Africa that is really about how Jesus shows his love by giving us his body and blood. We so often hear the words ‘This is my body and this is my blood’, but how can we even begin to understand them? This is where a little story might help us to hear those words not so much with our heads but with our hearts…
A lady was a missionary and she was once asked to go out to a black township to talk to a group of people about the Eucharist. She felt very inadequate and wasn’t sure what to say. Keeping it as simple as possible she just asked the question, “What did Jesus mean when he said, ‘This is my body and this is my blood?’” There was silence for a while and she began to feel uncomfortable. Then one man spoke quite hesitantly. He said “I am a miner and every morning before the Sun rises I go down the mine. By the time I come up again the Sun has gone down. It’s very hard graft and dangerous work. Even when I am offered overtime I spend extra hours down there. I now have lung disease, and my body is fast wearing out, but I keep going down that mine to keep bread on the table for my wife and my children. Only on Sunday do I ever see the Sun. Then when we sit together at table for our Sunday lunch I look at the food on the table with a few glasses of wine and I know I have given my all with blood, sweat and tears to put it there. That food is literally my body and blood. It is me giving my life for my family because I love them so much. So when I think of Jesus I feel that I know what he meant when he said ‘This is my body and this is my blood’. He gave us his all because he loves us and coming to Eucharist is our invitation to Sunday lunch where he reminds us of his love.”
In recent times and particularly since Covid many have taken the easy option of having Mass online. For anyone unable to go to Church for medical reasons or otherwise like being old or infirm, this is a great blessing. However, it is no substitute for the real thing where we make the effort and choose to be part of a worshipping community. Going to Mass was never meant to be a selfish exercise of saving my soul, nor was it meant to be the fulfilling of an obligation, but it is about being part of the gathering of a faith community. Faith is always meant to be expressed together and when it’s not it becomes like a smouldering log that needs to be with other logs before it bursts into flame, otherwise it very quickly goes out. Looked at another way, if you were a grandparent would you substitute seeing your grandchildren online in preference to seeing them face to face. In relation to the Eucharist we need to wise up and make the choice – Do this in memory of me, God’s way or ours?
Mon 3rd June – Bodily Worship
A story is told of a Confirmation ceremony taking place in a church where the parish priest had arranged for a lovely young lady to perform a liturgical dance during the Offertory Procession. It was obvious from the demeanour of the bishop that he was not impressed, and he turned to the priest and said, ‘If she asks for your head on a platter after this, she can have it.’ His reaction reflected our culture where in liturgy we had no appreciation for dance or any form of worshipping God with our bodies. At a deeper level, our bodies, which in principle are the temples of the Holy Spirit, were relegated to the realm of shadow and needed to be disciplined and beaten into submission. So they were starved before coming to Mass and Holy Communion, had little or no voice, they sat on hard seats and had only their vices expounded