Many rooms

Jesus said to his disciples:

'Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God still, and trust in me. There are many rooms in my Father's house; if there were not, I should have told you. I am now going to prepare a place for you, and after I have gone and prepared you a place, I shall return to take you with me; so that where I am you may be too.'

John 14:1ff

In my sometimes-eventful childhood and youth, Catholic culture was very strong and very real. There were Catholic socials, Catholic tennis, Catholic schools, YCS, YCW, Newman Society, and when I first arrived in Australia in 1974, there were Catholic Clubs, Catholic Bowls Clubs and a plethora of others. We tilted our caps when passing Catholic churches, prayed for souls in purgatory, went to confession with our repetitive lists of offences and responded in our version of Latin. My friends were Catholic, my uncles and aunts and cousins were all Catholic. In my childish mind (and of the Church at the time) God only needed to provide one room. One for us Catholics!

In two generations my Catholic family has virtually disappeared. My family now hosts and is comprised of atheists, agnostics, universalists, Pentecostalists (of many varieties), Anglicans, Muslims, traditional (indigenous) and a great many who still continue their journey of (religious) discovery. The remaining Catholics among us are on that continuum from having been baptised as infants to being regular churchgoers.

Mixed marriages sent our great grandparents and grandparents into paroxysms of doom about the salvation of their children's offspring. And yet, as we have done so many times in human history, we have forgotten God's overwhelming, lavish love for us. It is not syncretistic to understand and know that this God so clearly revealed to Abraham and his descendants and so clearly imaged in person of Jesus opens his arms to all humanity and indeed to all creation.

It would be simplistic to say that the fullness of life we have been invited to participate in is exclusive. Every sheep is not identical, and yet each may enter through the shepherd's gate.

The secret to that fullness of life is not the happiness we might imagine - where life is comfortable, surrounded by family and friends and a community to which I belong: the Beatitudes and parables challenge us out of our comfort zones, turning us upside down. And we look to Francis who has persistently reminded us that we are not licensed 'inspectors of other people's lives', that we should not judge others (cf Luke 6:36f) and in September of last year when preaching in Albano (Italy) said: “Dear brother, dear sister, if like Zacchaeus you are looking for meaning in your life but not finding it, if you are throwing it away with ‘surrogates for love’ like wealth, career, pleasure or some form of dependence, let yourself be seen by Jesus.... Only with Jesus will you discover that you always have been loved. You will feel touched inside by the invincible tenderness of God who moves and inspires your heart.”

The God who loves us trusts us to turn to him - in good time. We may waver, but we will not be forgotten. And all else failing, he will look for you - whichever room you may be in.

Peter Douglas

REFLECTION TIME EMBRACED OR PASSING BY?

by Fr Kevin Bates SM

This time of enforced isolation for us and our families has met with a range of responses. So many have embraced the opportunity to enjoy regular family meals and time with their children. Many have delighted in what they have called “the privilege” of spending time with family which would otherwise have not occurred. For them it’s been a great blessing.

For some, home schooling has been a welcome task and for others a serious challenge. In each case, creative time-tabling, patience and attentiveness have become areas of growth.

Neighbourhoods have become real and a sense of community has flourished for many. Time has been used creatively and generously in so many ways.

Much spring cleaning has occurred even though it’s only autumn! Gardens have been dug over and re-planted. We’ve found so many ways to busy ourselves in order to avoid slipping into time without meaning, and that has its risks!

Not everyone has engaged with this time so energetically. For some, days without normal structures and rhythms have left people with a kind of Groundhog experience in which time simply passes without direction or shape. In this mode there is not much to be passionate about and the experience of loneliness and lack of motivation can get into one’s bones and eat away at one’s sense of well-being.

Time passes and we simply observe. We become passive in the face of each passing day without being able to invest it with meaning or purpose. We turn in on ourselves and find that there’s not much there to engage us either.

Even in the most shapeless time, meaning and life can be found if we care to look, or seek the help we need to break free of our lonely, disengaged space.

The following piece from a recent novel reminds us that meaning can be drawn from seemingly mundane and pedestrian experiences:

“There was something in the silence of the old house, the low rooms filled with steady autumn sunlight and the still order of the workshop, that loosened the dark knots inside me. Day after day went by until the place wasn’t new or strange to me anymore; then week after week…I learnt things by heart, the crinkling reflections on my ceiling, the gappy seams in the patchwork quilt on my bed, the different creak of each tread under my foot when I came downstairs. Then there was the workshop., the gleam of the tiles around the stove, the saffron-and-earth scent of tea….. The hours passed slowly, full of small solid details; at home, back in the busyness of farm life, I’d never had the time to sit and stare, or pay attention to the way a tool looked, or how well it was made, before I used it. Here the clock in the hall dredged up seconds like stones and dropped them again into the pool of the day, letting each ripple widen before the next one fell.” (The Binding, Bridget Collins, pp 29-30).

Jesus’ wish that we find life to the full applies in any situation we encounter. Both our busy-ness and our boredom can hide us from the meaning of each passage of time, time that will never be repeated, time that is given now for us to embrace, explore and find nourishment.

Motivating ourselves to slow down on the one hand and to liven up on the other is easier said than done. Our own gift of mindfulness may well need to be nudged by the care of someone who loves us enough to call us out of our busy-ness or our torpor.

May this challenging time as it unfolds become a grace that sustains us into the future when the present restrictions no longer apply. May what we learn now give shape and meaning to what we like to call “normal life” when it returns.

May that life to the full of which Jesus speaks be the light which calls us on.

Father Kevin