Learning to live by the spirit of the game

When I listen to others, I often ask myself what am I listening for? There is an art in conversation that is more than considering your response but attentiveness to what the other person is trying to express. I often find myself echoing the prevailing wisdom or the latest insight I have heard from others. The difficulty with these responses is that they bounce along the surface and do not seek what I am prepared to live for. We live in an age where opinions are readily available and easily transmitted around the world but do not reveal who we are called to become.

We discover this in the discussion between Jesus, the Pharisees and the scribes. These are people who take the discussion about faith seriously as can be seen when they address the hygiene laws of the day. What is added to this discussion is that not obeying these laws makes a person unclean on the inside. Jesus challenges this viewpoint to not just observe external laws without an inner conversion of heart. Thus, we don’t just obey laws because we want to look good but we seek to be good, that enables us to care for others.

This conversion of heart builds the foundation of Jesus’ life. He does not just want lip service but a way of being present that reaches the depth of our soul. This acknowledges how we allow God into the places that we hide away and give rise to evil intentions, the things that truly make us unclean. By acknowledging this reality, we start to find the spirit of the law. We discover how God meets us even in our darkest night and seeks to kindle the flame that burns away the darkness. That warms us from the inside out and transforms our world.

DE COLORES!

Fr. John Armstrong

“The intellectual quest is exquisite, like pearls and coral. But it is not the same as the spiritual quest. The spiritual quest is on another level altogether. Spiritual wine has a subtler taste. The intellect and the senses investigate cause and effect. The spiritual seeker surrenders to wonder.” (Rumi Wisdom; trans. Timothy Freke)

When a house becomes a home

 One of the struggles of our time is how we provide adequate housing for people so that they can feel at home within the community in which they live. The emphasis can often focus on the external provision of a building to meet the internal needs of the heart. I think this is where we may need to return to the philanthropist businessmen of past ages who realised that they were not solely in it for the money but for their vision to build a better world. Growing up in Birmingham, I was conscious of the tradition of George and Richard Cadbury who sought to build a model village to improve the conditions of the workers in an environment in which they could flourish. This vision is also present in the suburbs of Glebe and Pyrmont that sort to provide not just houses but a community in which people could live.

This also helps us to see that we need to have a certain wisdom that perceives who is welcome at the table. In an age where much of our lives are dissipated on external things to improve our health, our wealth, and our depth we often avoid what brings us home where we are called to spend our time. The media often provides a vision that looks at external pleasure and success rather than what truly nourishes and sustains us. Thus, as St Paul notices we become intoxicated with ways of life that dull our senses. Yet we are called to pray in a way that resonates with God and seeks to harmonise with others.

We are called to imbue the life of Christ each time we gather for Eucharist. We are called to participate in the life that Christ offers to us. We are called to become what we eat and drink. It is why our liturgy engages all the senses of sight, touch, taste, smell, and hearing. We are called to be transformed by what we receive and not just adopt a consumerist approach to life. This is where we find our true home because God wants to make a home within us. This is not just a transitory home but an eternal home where we can discover who we are and who we are called to become. We are drawn into a life that will sustain us to eternity, the bread of life that is food for the journey.

DE COLORES!

Fr. John Armstrong

“The intellectual quest is exquisite, like pearls and coral. But it is not the same as the spiritual quest. The spiritual quest is on another level altogether. Spiritual wine has a subtler taste. The intellect and the senses investigate cause and effect. The spiritual seeker surrenders to wonder.” (Rumi Wisdom; trans. Timothy Freke)

Do not work for food that does not last but work for food that endures for eternal life.

We are often told by dieticians and nutritionists that we are what we eat. In a world where diets come in and out of fashion, we are often bombarded with too much information to look after our bodies. There is often a plethora of information about what will make us healthy and what can sustain us. The focus while important can make a lot of money for people who seek to tell us what to do. As a person who has struggled to maintain a healthy weight and be told the mantra watch what you eat and exercise more, I am often confused by whose voice I listen to. I want to be healthy but find that even when I work hard in seeking to maintain a good and healthy balance it often focuses more on externals rather than an internal disposition.

This is where our reflection of this week’s Gospel draws us into sharp focus. We so often pay attention to what others tell us is healthy that we do not focus on what endures and sustains us in life. We need to look at things that are nutritious and life-giving, but this is not just about the food that we consume but rather the thoughts that fill our minds and hearts. When we look at the Eucharist this is not just about receiving communion but rather an encounter with the person who brings us to life. This is where the Gospel clarifies that working for God is to believe in the one he sent. A  person who can nourish our body and soul. This encounter reshapes how we see ourselves as a person befriended into life.

When we witness our week, we are called not to follow illusory ideas that cause us to follow every new “diet” that promises to satisfy us. We are called as St Paul says to the Ephesians to renewed in the goodness and holiness of the truth. So often we are informed about what the issue of the day that needs to be addressed for our good. Yet over the last week, we have recognised that instant media can feed us with counterfeit food. It can also lead us into conversations and debates that waste our time and dissipate our spirits. I think when we invite people to the table, we need to choose carefully what it is that we consume. We live in a world that will fill us with good, bad, and the ugly all too quickly we can swallow it whole. Yet we are to be formed by a person who seeks us out for our good and the good of the whole world. This is where each time we gather for the Eucharist we are called to be transformed not just by the host we consume but the person who invites us to the table. We are to work for people who seek to live for the truth that renews us to be people of Good News. In encountering each day as a time blessed by the Lord, we discover the person of Jesus who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

DE COLORES!

Fr. John Armstrong

“The intellectual quest is exquisite, like pearls and coral. But it is not the same as the spiritual quest. The spiritual quest is on another level altogether. Spiritual wine has a subtler taste. The intellect and the senses investigate cause and effect. The spiritual seeker surrenders to wonder.” (Rumi Wisdom; trans. Timothy Freke)

To whom do we trust our lives?

  The Solemnity of Christ the King allows us time to reflect on whose voice we listen to when seeking guidance for our lives. In an age where personal autonomy is king, there can be a sense of alienation towards bowing down to an external authority. Each person can tend to work within their system of government by paying taxes, obeying the local law, and participating in elections when they are held. Yet in many cases, we are not called to love our rulers rather we learn to accept them as a necessary part of life. Yet the feast we celebrate is not just about accepting external structures of governance but rather an interior conversion of heart towards the person of Christ. There is a call to holiness that abides with us so that we can become teachable and governable.

I believe this lies at the heart of the recent Synod on Synodality. It is not just about a new external structure of Governance but rather a way of being present to God with listening ears. The call is to seek out the voice of God that is ever ancient and ever new. The voice that echoes through our liturgical prayer that gathers us together as one body. This is not just an effective manifestation of the presence of Jesus but also an affective presence that guides us still. The call to fall more deeply in love with God who has already fallen deeply in love with us. By seeking God in our daily life, we discover what it is to be prayerfully present to the issues of our day that seek for our hearts to beat in tune with God’s. This is not just seeking warm comforting feelings but rather a deeper desire to recognise the authentic voice of God spoken to our age.

This process of sanctification allows us to seek holiness in a way that does not abstract us from the real problems of our age. It draws on the wisdom of our tradition, the insights into scripture, and the discernment of theologians to witness the golden thread that bears an authentic teaching that can be received for our time. This is not just about changing with the times but rather a reading of the signs of the time. It examines a line of inquiry that seeks to build on what is already known and allows for fresh insight of Christ into the teachable moments of our lives.

Through this call to sanctification and becoming teachable the Church seeks to provide governance as an apostolic witness to the person of Christ. As a pilgrim people of God, we seek to journey together as people who through baptism are gifted with both the charism of Office and the charism of Mission. We seek to become people who articulate with our lives what we already believe that Christ is with us. Thus, as we celebrate this solemnity do we entrust our lives to Christ in whom we discover who we are and become evangelised by his life.

DE COLORES!

Fr. John Armstrong

Running on empty

When we set out on a journey there is always a need to ensure that we have enough fuel to reach our destination. This ensures that we make proximate plans to ensure that we know our time of departure and our time of arrival. If we are travelling by car, we seek to prepare the car so that it is roadworthy and that if it is a long distance, we plan adequate stops or have a co-driver to share the driving. If we go by some other form of transport, we trust our lives to another, but we still need to make sure that know when we have to leave, how long it will take, and what we can expect when we arrive. This shows that we do not travel by chance but with a destination in mind.

The Gospel shows this in great detail when it notices that the time of our departure is not known but the destination is. How do we prepare for a journey when we are called to entrust ourselves to another. This is the heart of the words spoken by Jesus, we need to be ever-ready and have our house in order. This brings the readings of the last few weeks into sharp relief. Often it seeks to live our life on our own terms rather than on God’s. When we have so many seeming demands on our time, we can discover our energy being spent planning for the future or resolving historical events. Both these approaches to life while necessary can distract us from being present to what will happen today. We can become distracted by anxiety or angst about what seems urgent but unimportant.

This is where we are called to exercise wisdom that allows God to direct our attention on to what is important but not urgent. It calls us to become present to what is within the locus of our own intentions and within the ambit of our own environment. So often we can become focussed on external events that demand urgent attention but are beyond our control. They can prevent us from being open to the ways that we can and need to be present. Our lives can seem to be out of control and devoid of meaning and purpose. This is where our lives are dispirited and we can seem to have spent all our oil on what does not enlighten us.

As we reflect on the Gospels, we are called to examine what keeps our lamps burning brightly and whether we provide ourselves with the best opportunity to have our flasks refilled. This is where we are called not to abstract ourselves from daily life and the challenges it can bring. It calls us to be prayerfully aware of how God is present in our own reality and how we are called to tend to our environment with God’s heart and eyes. The danger is when we do not examine our own lives that we can become heavily influenced by the conflicts of others. We can be drawn into hostilities, conflicts, and violence that draw on history or animate our own anxiety about our own future. Thus, we can be drawn into reflections that focus on a deterministic view of the world that places ourselves at the heart of any conflict. We know that this is a recipe for disaster because even with the best will in the world often it needs to be recognised that we need to reframe the question about how we should live in our world.

When we allow that question to emerge from within us, from the heart of God our way of living changes. It calls us to see what we need to live by and how this becomes a rule of life for us. No longer are our lives shaped solely by our own desires but rather by the loving call of God who seeks us out and comes at an hour we do not expect. It allows us the possibility that only God can fill our lives with meaning when we have an expectant longing that we are invited to sit down at the table and enjoy the banquet of life laid out for us.

DE COLORES!

Fr. John Armstrong

“The intellectual quest is exquisite, like pearls and coral. But it is not the same as the spiritual quest. The spiritual quest is on another level altogether. Spiritual wine has a subtler taste. The intellect and the senses investigate cause and effect. The spiritual seeker surrenders to wonder.” (Rumi Wisdom; trans. Timothy Freke)