Jim Cogley’s Reflections: Tues 21 Oct – Mon 27 Oct 2025
Invitation: A Wood You Believe seminar entitled: Finding healing from Personal and Ancestral Trauma will be given by Fr Jim Cogley and Luba Rodzhuk next Saturday 25th in St Matthews Parish Hub, Bryson St, Belfast, BT5 4ES. This will be from 10am to 4pm. There are some spaces still available and booking can be made asap to Fr Peter Carlin on 0044-7496259436 or by email to p.carlin@downandconnor.org
Note: Some emails that register as sent don’t always arrive. Please let me know on frjimcogley@gmail.com
Tues 21st Oct – Grace as Gift
Most people who go to church, say their prayers and lead a good life are very sincere. However, it is possible to be utterly sincere and yet be sincerely wrong in terms of how we understand the Gospel message. If my sincerity is the basis of my belief that God loves me, I have utterly missed the point of Christ being the Saviour and in doing so have unwittingly substituted myself and my sincerity instead. If this be the case, my understanding of Christianity is that it is purely a religion of moral virtue. The idea of being in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ doesn’t come into the picture, while what does appear is Christ as a historical figure and a wonderful teacher who taught us how to live a truly moral life. Unfortunately, this is where so many devout believers are at, and are falling away in their droves, because their faith is based on sand and not the rock of a personal relationship with Christ.
Wed 22nd Oct – The Moral Path?
Some of the most profound teachings on Grace as a free gift are to be found in Catholic teaching. Yet in popular practice the greatest aberrations are widespread. Generations of Catholics have been taught far more morality rather than spirituality resulting in a huge void of understanding as to the essence of the Christian faith. Certainly, morality is a big part of the message, but the question is, do we live a good moral life in order to be loved and one day get into heaven, or do we live this way because we are loved totally and absolutely? All of the New Testament attest to the fact that we love because he first loved first. An over-focus on morality tends to put the cart before the horse and create the false illusion that this is what makes me right with God and one day will get me into heaven. The essence of Christianity is to be found not in the word ‘effort’ but rather ‘response’.
Thurs 23rd Oct – Suffering Surely!
Yet another aberration in our understanding of heavenly grace is in relation to suffering. Our misconception is that the more we suffer in this life the higher place we deserve in the next. Suffering certainly serves to awaken the human soul and is a necessary part of our spiritual journey. Yet not all suffering is redemptive and much of it is self-inflicted. Not all suffering that is offered up really goes anywhere since it has never been fully owned. This becomes obvious when working with the dying when so many unresolved issues come to the fore that have been offered up for a lifetime. Suffering can leave a person embittered and resentful with a heart that is hardened rather than open to life. It is always about what we do with suffering that makes the ultimate difference. There are many who have had their wings clipped and never flew again while others have been crushed and had both wings broken and yet have flown again to great heights.
Fri 24th Oct – Back to Basics
Many of us are acutely aware of there being such a weight of history overshadowing the core Christian Message. This has become so heavy as to obscure something that is so overwhelmingly beautiful, transformative and life enhancing that nothing else can ever surpass. To really examine the question ‘What is the core teaching of the Gospel? What is Christianity apart from Catholicism, or Protestantism?’ can be an extraordinary, exciting journey. Before it can bring us into its essence of being in relationship with Christ as a living reality and not a historical figure, we need to off-load so much of what Christianity is not, that we may have taught that it was. It is not about rule-keeping with the belief that obeying the rules can get us into heaven. It is not about book-keeping where we hope to find a balance between the good and the bad in our lives and hope that in the end it will tip in our favour. Neither is it about record-keeping of our hours of faithful service and thereby meriting our eternal reward.
Sat 25th Oct – The Mysterious Ways of Love
While growing up a mystery was understood as something we could never understand and so there was no point in even trying, nor should we even question! Now we see it as something we can never come to an end of understanding. A mystery just keeps on giving. So, it is with the mystery of Divine, unconditional, unmerited and undeserving love. With God it’s difficult to get our heads around the fact that there is such a thing as a free dinner where any form of payment closes off access. We get a glimpse of this in the realm of human relationships. Love just cannot be bought by expensive presents, neither can it be found by always doing things for people. What these behaviours leave is a residue of obligation for the recipient to repay. This in turn leads to a two-way expectation and expectations are simply resentments under construction. The result is that the recipient just backs away with apparent ingratitude for all that has been given. So it is with Divine love, our best efforts can be the biggest obstacle to experience.
Sunday 26th Oct – Pharisee & Publican
Who measures up?
Who hits the target?
Who gets the prize?
There are many times in the Gospels when Jesus sets out to shock his listeners and upset their traditional and ingrained way of thinking. So much so that many could not take what he was saying, it was too much for them and they simply walked away. The parable of the Pharisee & Publican is just one such example. Two men go up to the temple to pray. One we are told is a Pharisee, this by definition is someone who is looked up to by everyone as leading an impeccable religious life, a man who lived by the book, kept the rules and prided himself on his moral virtue. This becomes obvious in the way that he prays when he takes his place at the top of the Temple.
It’s a picture we can easily imagine. This character goes up to top seat with a sense of entitlement, he is full of his own importance, he puffs out his chest, and he begins what he thinks is his prayer but in fact is his boast. He thanks God that he is not like the rest of men, not grasping, unjust or adulterous, someone who pays his dues and does his share of fasting. Then he goes off on a rant of comparing himself with the unfortunate tax collector down in the back seat and gives himself a further boost of virtue on the back of the other’s misfortune. He’s thinks he’s praying to God but notice how Jesus says that ‘he prayed to himself.’ At heart he believes that God must surely love and be pleased with him simply because he has been such a good boy.
This is something that we need to be very wary of, the belief that it’s because of how good we are that God must love us. I have heard it so many time in a confessional situation. Someone starts off with, ‘No sins Father, I haven’t murdered anyone, I’m basically a good person, trying to lead a good life, I don’t think that I have done any wrong to anyone and when I see the carry-on of others around me I can’t be doing too bad.’ Our recently deceased bishop Brendan Comiskey used to hear lots of such confessions as well and he often asked such individuals, ‘Are you boasting or confessing?’ I have often been tempted to say the same.
In contrast we can imagine the Publican or Tax Collector coming into the Temple. He sits in the back seat and beats his breast, ‘O God be merciful to me a sinner.’ In contrast to the Pharisee, he really knows himself and what he is made of. He is painfully aware that he has messed up, how he has used others for his own advantage and carved a profession out of doing so. He knows that in betraying others he has sold out on his better self and that while his wealth was increasing his moral stature was decreasing. So it is with profound self-knowledge that he beats his breast knowing that through his fault that he has not just sinned but sinned grievously and badly needs Gods mercy. This man’s prayer was heard, and we are told he went home justified while the other, the religious fanatic did not. Justified can be understood as ‘Just as if I had never sinned.’
If we were to translate the words of the Tax Collector into the language of today It might sound like some of the following and also provide us with a more mature understanding of what a good honest confession should be, in contrast to what we grew up with that left so much to be desired:
My life is a mess, and I need to find out what’s going on and sort it out.
I seem to have lost my way and my life feels very empty.
I always seem to bring out the worst in people.
My life is far too busy and I leave no time for myself or for reflective space.
I seem to be far too judgmental and intolerant of other behaviours.
My anger overflows and I end up hurting the people who least deserve it.
I had an abortion years ago that I have never acknowledged even to myself.
I was unfaithful to my spouse, we never spoke about it and now she’s dead.
I had a vicious row with my father before he died and now it’s too late to say sorry.
I need to forgive but am too eaten up with hurt and anger to do so.
My partner died three years ago and I can’t seem to let go and move on.
I beat myself up over my past mistakes and regrets.
My second name is worry and I’m always anxious and fearful about the future.
From day one my son and I never got on.
I have drawn too tight a circle around me and my family.
Sexual thoughts and obsessions have too much rent-free space in my head.
I never forgave my sister for being born and so we never got on.
In terms of Divine Righteousness it is only when we plead poverty of spirit that we qualify for Divine Assistance. Such humble admissions are very real and open the way for a person to go home, like the publican feeling heard, justified and at peace with themselves and God.
Monday 27th Oct – Christ – Teacher of Righteousness
Teacher of Divine Righteousness, how to live in right relationship with God, is a not so familiar a title we attribute to Christ. Yet it is central to who he was and the message he came to bring. It stands at the core of so many of his parables like – A man gives a banquet, and he notices how certain guests go up front and occupy the seats of honour. They obviously have a sense of entitlement by virtue of family connections or their own perceived status in society. Pride is their weakness, and Christ points out the danger they face in being greeted by the host and being escorted to a much lower place. Like all parables this points to the divine order where the last shall be first and the first last. Humility is an absolute requirement where all vestiges of pride, merit and entitlement have no place leaving the host free to confer honour from his generosity and say to the lowly, ‘Friend come us higher.’