Wake from your slumber

God’s gossip this week:

We have another blockbuster. We put the characters on stage. A sick man, a dying man, a dead man. The relatives. Will someone do something? We have Jesus. Taking his time. We have the accusation: ‘really if you cared, you would have come earlier.’ The neighbours and the disciples are the bystanders.

Billy Shakespeare said: “All the world’s a stage. All the men and women merely players. They have their entrances and their exits.” We can find our place on the stage of this play. Sickness. Tests. Hospitals. Death. Bereavement. Hopelessness. Many die before their death. Many are dead in their supposed living. Some are without hope. The story may better be told as saying: no-one is hopeless.

How does God give us life? How do we give life to each other? Our ‘lost ones’ may not quite smell but some lose the will to live. The easy character is the drug or alcohol addict. Stuck in drugs. Going nowhere. Doing nothing. But it isn’t just the addict. The lost ones. The idle ones. The bored ones.

How many need to hear the song: ‘Wake from your slumber.’ Even our political leaders. They are stuck so often in squabbling like children. They blether. They finger point. They shout for a tribunal or some inquiry. They will emote and shout at each other. Brexit is the uncoupling of the UK from Europe and for what reason?   The North’s politicians can’t just grow up and take responsibility for their little country. Clinton was right. ‘Get on with it.’ Trump talks utter nonsense and yet got elected.     This is lifelessness and people being entombed in narrow chatter and unable to move forward.

Some reject Church which is fine because too often Church people were lost in the narrows of the past and didn’t face true living. But many reject God –not because of anything poor God didn’t do for them or did to them. But because they don’t get around to even thinking of God and the bigger questions. So rattle our bones. Wake up. Taste the beauty of life. Notice the wonder and mystery. See God dancing in people, moments and nature. Come out of the tomb. Be bold. Exercise tough love with the sleeping unbeautiful.

Similar Posts

  • ‘God is Still Smiling’; a seaside meditation

    Seamus Ahearne offers an early morning seaside meditation for consideration and reflection.
    “Why have I been always so thrilled with the liveliness of the world of God around me? Why has it been such a happy place? Why is ‘my church’ so privileged and so astonishing? Twenty years in Finglas today and and still amazed and delighted daily at the revelations of God among us. A very happy God – indeed the God of surprises.”

  • Women Deacons; ready, willing and able

    With the appointment of a ‘Commission of Study on the Diaconate of Women’ by Pope Francis there might be a temptation to suspend the debate on the issue until they publish a report. However as Vatican commissions tend to be very long running affairs it is necessary and good that the debate continues in all local churches.
    Judith Valence writing in America Magazine gives a very interesting account of how the issue is perceived in Chicago.
    “Maureen Garvey often serves alongside her husband, Deacon Kevin Garvey at their parish ……. ‘We had the exact same training, two nights a week, one weekend a month, summer internships,” she says of her husband’s formation studies. “I wrote every paper he wrote. The only thing that was different was on the day of ordination, I had tears in my eyes when all the guys were called up [to the altar] and they left their wives sitting in the pews’ “

  • ‘Fundamentalists are people who don’t understand poetry.’

    Seamus Ahearne reflects on recent events and points to the need for real leadership in society and also a need for courageous leaders in church.
    Faced by events like Brussels and Lahore, with the seas becoming ‘insatiable cemeteries’ for those fleeing war he asks ‘Where will the needed leadership come from? Who will create the map that we need?
    In church Seamus tells us ‘Theology is full of poetic mystery but we were satisfied with crude prose for years and it passed as orthodoxy. It became official and those who stepped outside such thinking were condemned. The New Missal is a monument to fundamentalists who knew nothing of a living God or Grace. Their Liturgy was solemn, static and ignored the incarnation.’
    Seamus concludes, ‘Politicians. Church people. Educationalists. Trade-unionists. Society. All need to begin to learn humbly how to live out the Proclamation; the Gospel; the challenge of being a grown up nation and an adult Catholic. There is much to do.’

  • Mercy cannot be codified, legislated or judged

    The NCR carried an interesting Editorial about the “Year of Mercy” and what is intended by it.
    “The fear inspired by legalism dominated the community’s life for decades, but we’ve learned that fear stifles and kills; it does not nourish or transform. Mercy is an encounter with the other, and ultimately an experience of God. Mercy is transformation. “

    “Speaking at St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican Dec. 8, Francis said: “We have to put mercy before judgment, and in every case God’s judgment will always be in the light of his mercy. Let us abandon all fear and dread, for these do not befit men and women who are loved. Instead, let us live the joy of encounter with the grace that transforms all.”

One Comment

  1. Lloyd Allan MacPherson says:

    Think it’s high time for reflection still? I’m covered in snow here in our spring and I’m praying that this one fragile snowflake I have in my hand can roll into a snowball, gaining strength and picking up mass and surface area as it continues through northern communities.

    Well it’s either this fragile idea or waiting for the Galactic Child Welfare Department to make a casual stop for inspection. Patience is a virtue even when the kids are running out of time. Who is managing this planet anyway? Is this the work of 1.2bn Catholics enacting scripture? No. This is a handful of goons trying to create their own legacy. I’m looking for 100,000 to add to their story.

    It seems someone gave them the keys to the bus and they are driving school children off a cliff. Never, ever question your worth. This is all unfolding real-time around us. The story is being written as we speak. It is quite an amazing thing when you think about it – it is the tale of 100,000 people, not one.

Join the Discussion

Keep the following in mind when writing a comment

  • Your comment must include your full name, and email. (email will not be published). You may be contacted by email, and it is possible you might be requested to supply your postal address to verify your identity.
  • Be respectful. Do not attack the writer. Take on the idea, not the messenger. Comments containing vulgarities, personalised insults, slanders or accusations shall be deleted.
  • Keep to the point. Deliberate digressions don't aid the discussion.
  • Including multiple links or coding in your comment will increase the chances of it being automati cally marked as spam.
  • Posts that are merely links to other sites or lengthy quotes may not be published.
  • Brevity. Like homilies keep you comments as short as possible; continued repetitions of a point over various threads will not be published.
  • The decision to publish or not publish a comment is made by the site editor. It will not be possible to reply individually to those whose comments are not published.