Herald John

To keep his promise, God has raised up for Israel one of David’s descendants, Jesus, as Saviour, whose coming was heralded by John when he proclaimed a baptism of repentance for the whole people of Israel. Before John ended his career he said, “I am not the one you imagine me to be; that one is coming after me and I am not fit to undo his sandal.”

Acts 13:23 - 25

Usually blazing pathways is something that few us achieve, except the odd entrepreneur or political whiz here and there. When you look at people who have changed the market place, the face of politics, or any particular sphere of knowledge and learning, they possess a number of common traits.

• Timeliness of the message or action,
• A deep, single-minded commitment to the idea,
• An immense fortitude and persistence, and
• An enormous capacity for work

Great leaders often possess these traits, either famous or infamous. You need only to imagine Churchill, Roosevelt, U Thant, Dag Hammarskjold or on the other hand the likes of Joseph Stalin, Nicolai Ceausescu, Sadam Hussein, Muammar Gaddafi. These traits can be used for good or evil. In business we need only look to the Forbes rich list where you would find Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg and our own Gina Rinehart. Whether negatively or positively these people had or have an incredible impact, they are to be admired or feared.

What then can we make of John, son of Mary’s cousin Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah? Even in his mother’s womb, the pathway had been set for him:

"What, then, will this child be?”

For surely the hand of the Lord was with him.

Luke 1:66

This child would, one day, herald the Saviour by proclaiming a baptism of repentance. He wasn’t rich, he wasn’t powerful, but his message was so clear, so precise and in the end he paid the price for the vanity of Herodias’ daughter.

The path he laid is remembered every Advent and time and again we are reminded of the importance of preparation. Success in any venture is grounded in good preparation. From the beginning of John’s ministry, of preaching, of his eremitic life, he completed the foundation for the arrival of the ultimate revelation of God’s plan for his people – Jesus.

But was he great? Undoubtedly so. He lived his message, he was faithful to his calling, he gave everything he had and proclaimed the coming of the Lord until his last breath. And to recognize his role in our story of faith, this coming Sunday is set aside as the Solemnity of Birth of St John the Baptist. In the General Roman Calendar his birth is ranked among the great feast days of the church.

Peter Douglas

THE SACRAMENT OF EMMA

 

by Kevin Bates SM

It’s about 2.30 at St Peter Chanel Church on Sunday afternoon. I have with me two dear family friends from Melbourne, Carole and Maree. They’ve joined us for morning Mass and we’ve shared an enjoyable lunch. I’m showing them around the Church when a figure emerges from the sacristy.

It’s a woman and I can’t hear what she is saying straight away. She wears a floppy hat and rubber gloves and is carrying a bucket. As she gets closer I see it’s one of our parishioners, Emma, and on further questioning she replies: “I’m just here to clean the toilets!”

There are frequent weddings at St Peter Chanel, often on Sundays, and so maintaining the loos is an important part of our hospitality. Even given all that, it is a startling moment to see this young mother arriving in such a matter-of-fact way as if it’s the most normal thing in the world to be cleaning the church toilets on Sunday afternoon!

No one sees her, except for the three of us who just happened to be there at the time. No one would know she’d been there. No fuss she makes and the gift she gives is made with silent grace.

Along the same lines, this past week at our three Confirmation ceremonies, Gabrielle, Karen Ralph and Pat provided the music each evening. Kia, Bobby, Heidi and Sarah pitched in when they could as well. Once again the gift of music was given with no fuss or drama. Karen even put off a trip to Canberra on the final evening, just so she could sing for God’s children.

Every week there are parishioners quietly visiting homes and hospitals, all the while keeping us mindful of those who need our prayers. 

Sacraments take so many forms and if we are alert we will see these seemingly little revelations of Jesus everywhere. As they say, it’s not rocket science, but my goodness it is something to reverence and celebrate.

The raw materials of the Sacraments of the Church are pretty unspectacular when you think about it. A little piece of bread broken, a dab of oil here and there, a drop of water, a brief blessing, all serve reveal the breaking-through into our world of the eternal Word of God.

These Sacraments serve to alert us to the presence of God in all the other simple words and actions that mark our days. Jesus once mentioned that a simple drink of water given in love would be enough to remind us of the presence of God’s Kingdom.

In a world where only the extraordinary, the spectacular, the awesome, command our attention, we have God working quietly behind the scenes, showing us that our lives make their best sense when love is at work.

This love does not need advertising, expensive trappings or adulation. This love simply is! It reaches into every corner of our lives. Love enriches and deepens our times of joy and transforms our suffering selves into candidates for resurrection.

Love sometimes startles and unmans us with its humble acts of service. Sometimes love has been and gone and we haven’t even noticed. Sometimes the symptoms of our joys or sufferings so overwhelm us that we fail to notice the lessons, the inklings of the sacred that they bring with them.

Jesus often enough challenges us to be on our game, to be alert, to have our lamps lit, to read the signs of the times. He’s clearly encouraging us to make the most of the gift of each moment, each day.

What a thankful heart will grow from this attentiveness. What a tranquil spirit would breathe through us into our world. What grace would come to bless this world where anger, hatred, fear and violence become the normal way of relating.

Let’s be on the lookout this week so that the “Sacrament of Emma” in whatever form, reaches our heart. 

Marist Father Kevin Bates is Parish Priest of Holy Name of Mary Parish, Hunters Hill including St Peter Chanel Church, Woolwich Peninsula. This first on his Facebook page on 14 June 2018. Used with permission.