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The opening statement in Mark¡¦s Gospel is that Jesus is good news but he
never outlined or explained how he is good news. From the moment Mark
put down his pen ordinary people, saints and scholars, have wrestled with
the questions of how Jesus is good news to them.
The flip side of good news is bad news. A teenager comes home and tells
his father that he has good news and bad news. ¡§Dad, I borrowed your
car. The air-bags inflate...... But the car is already in the repair garage.¡¨
Often the good news is overshadowed by bad news. Often, it is only in
hearing the bad news that we appreciate the good news that comes with
it. ¡§Don¡¦t mind the car, son, your safe, that's what matters to me.¡¨
Jesus inviting us to be his followers is good news. But it¡¦s an invitation not
just to a new relationship with him but to a relationship with his followers
and, more than that, it¡¦s an invitation to become a member of a new family,
a new community, which we call his Church. Today, when people feel little
or no need for Church but see it as an oppressive and unenlightened
institution, this call to Church is the bad news that spoils the good news.
The Church, God¡¦s family on earth and our human family have much in
common. Both families are profoundly and distressingly human. When
things happen that we do not like, I don¡¦t want to be spokesperson for
this human Church or our human family. Even so I also realize that if I am
not willing to speak for the Church or for my family, should the need arise, I
am also going to have serious problems with the Jesus who speaks to us
in the pages of the gospels.
We are the people who believe that God had the incredible creativity to
become truly, utterly and genuinely human. He came to be the way of
uniting the human family with the divine. Maybe he has done it, not in the
way we would, had we been in his position. Maybe, with one wave of the
hand we would have swept everybody into that wonderful place called
heaven and that, of course, would have solved a lot of problems.
God¡¦s ways are not our ways. He came into the world as one of us and bit
the dust on our behalf. This has been the central doctrine of the Christian
faith for 2000 years and it is the doctrine with which we have had most
difficulty, namely the doctrine of the Incarnation - God in flesh.
What follows from this doctrine is that the Church is genuinely human.
What does that mean? Is it God¡¦s people? Yes. Is the Holy Spirit there?
Yes. Can it screw up? Yes. Can the Bride of Christ, to use the biblical
term, also be the whore of Babylon?
Yes. Is it still the place where I can find God? Yes. Is grace
overwhelmingly found in the brokenness of life? Yes. God has shown his
hand and reveals himself in the human place.
Catholics above all else believe in the Church of the gathering. ¡§Where
two or three are gathering together I am present in your midst.¡¨ That is
why God is in his Church and why our homes (it may not appear so) are
churches too. This is not neat and tidy. It demands that we wrestle and
struggle with all the conflicts of our human community believing that God is
at work and there is nothing we can do about it. Life is not a problem to
be solved; it is a mystery to be lived. Religion, alas, without mystery
ceases to be religion.
THOUGHT PROVOKING
There is a post World War 2 story about a statue of Jesus in the shell of a
bombed-out German Church. The figure of Jesus was portrayed in this
statue as reaching out to the world. However, in the devastation of the
bombing, the hands of the statue were broken off. For a long time
afterwards, the statue without hands stood as it was found. However, a
sign was hung from the outstretched arms: ¡§He has no hands but yours!¡¨
In a very real sense, this is true.
We, the Church, the members of his Body, are his only hands, his mouth,
his only mind and heart. We are, indeed, the extension of Jesus in space
and time. We will continue his work in our time and place, or it will not be
done at all. The Kingdom of God marches at the pace and rhythm of our
feet.
I pass through this world but once; any good therefore that I can do, or
any kindness that I can show to any creature, let me do it now; let me not
defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.~ S. Grellet.
Don¡¦t mess up a good apology with an excuse.
Why are we so hung up on what is insignificant?
NOTICE BOARD
There will be no 8am weekday masses for the next two weeks during Fr.
Vincent¡¦s absence. The 8am will resume again on Ash Wednesday.
The 7.30pm mass will discontinue as from Monday 12th February.
Scripture: St. Saviour¡¦s Bridge Street.
Fr. Maurice Fearon, O.P. , a scripture scholar has accepted an
invitation to give a three day workshop, March 5,6,& 7th on the Bible at
7.30pm.
Welcome to Fr. Ray Collins OP, Black Abbey, Kilkenny who will be
ministering in St. Saviour¡¦s for the next two weeks.
Pilgrimage to St. Dominic¡¦s Country.
16th to 22nd April 2001. Cost ¢G500.
Cost includes, flight, all coach transfers in Spain, full board
accommodation in single en-suite bedrooms and travel insurance. Deadline
for applications: 15th March. For further information, contact:
Sr. Pilar del Barrio OP
1 Veritas House, Bayview, Wicklow.
Dominican Shop
Full selection of Confirmation and Communion items now in stock.
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