Tenison Woods and MacKillop Centre News: Spend it well

But God said to him, “Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?”

So it is when a man stores up treasure for himself in place of making himself rich in the sight of God.’

Luke 12:20 - 21

Don’t let anyone tell you that you shouldn’t plan for your retirement! Even at my age funding a lengthy retirement is no easy task. Like many other baby boomers this will mean that we’ll need what we have set aside and that may mean there is little left to pass on to our children. The drive today is for young people to put any extra income into superannuation. I have no doubt it is very good advice.

So when Luke (12:15) writes, “… a man’s life is not made secure by what he owns, even when he has more than he needs,” he is undoubtedly reminding us that there is more to life than storing up treasure on earth, and that it should be balanced with storing up treasure in heaven. And what might this treasure be? And how can it be measured? Perhaps the jewels are justice, hope, truth, charity, reverence, a sense of wonder, dignity, endurance, a commitment to community, service, servant leadership, faith, peace, joy, honesty, respect, integrity, understanding, compassion, responsibility, equity, health and wellbeing. They may not add up to three score and ten years (and preferably four score and ten), but they can be reinvested over and over again. These, we say in modern parlance, are Gospel values.

Of course life expectancy in first century Palestine was somewhat brief, and the idea of living to a ripe old age was available only to the wealthy and lucky. The vast majority of the population of Palestine would have lived somewhat precariously, dependent on inheritance, hard work, good weather and the generosity of friends and neighbours. Jesus isn't against cautious preparation for old age, only avarice that prevents generosity.

Now Luke's Jesus does caution us that we should also live fully, that we should be alive to the moment, to enjoy the fruits of our labour, “Take things easy, eat, drink, have a good time (12:19),” for he warns that all your savings are for nothing should you die! Balance ought be added to our list of Gospel values, for it is in the balance – living in the present, and preparing for the future, that we spend our treasure. Spend it well.

Peter Douglas

HEAD OF SCHOOL SERVICES, NORTH

The funeral for Annette's husband, Ron McCulloch, will be at St Brigid's Church, Wynyard this Thursday, 28 July, at 11.00 am.

Embracing the Shadow

by Richard Rohr

God Sees in Wholes, We See in Parts

Both therapy and spirituality have an important place in a full life. Much therapy today is a needed way of dealing with our psychological problems. But eventually we must move from exclusively trying to solve our problems to knowing that we can never fully resolve them, but only learn from them. Sometimes, we can only forgive our imperfections and neuroses, embrace them, and even "weep" over them (which is not to hate them!). This is very humbling for the contemporary Promethean individual. As Carl Jung writes, "the greatest and most important problems in life are all in a certain sense insoluble. They must be so because they express the necessary polarity inherent in every self-regulating system. They can never be solved, but only outgrown." [1]

Only an in-depth spirituality can fully accept the paradox of our flawed humanity, indwelled by God's presence, where both light and dark are allowed and used by God. This is not a capitulation to our shadow self, but an integration that brings forth what Merton called "a hidden wholeness." [2] We grow through necessary conflicts and tensions. I don't think there is any other way. Dancing along a self-created primrose path will merely lead you to illusion and superficiality.

The movement from the purely psychological model to the full spiritual self will initially feel like a loss of power. And indeed it is for the ego! But for the True Self, it is actually the rediscovery of an authentic and original power, where human clay meets divine breath (Genesis 2:7). To succeed in the first half of life we usually have to deny our shadow and unacceptable self. This allows us to look good, but not really be good. The burden of the second half of life is often the reclaiming of what we have denied, feared, and rejected in the first half. I know it feels like backtracking, and in some ways it is. But remember, your shadow self is not your evil self, it is simply your denied and rejected self.

All sin is merely disordered love, which is searching for a pure and true love. God is very patient with us while we learn how to really love. As we integrate and forgive our shadow self, life gradually looks very different. Life becomes many shades of pastel instead of just several primary colors. We finally see what we have never dared look at before. This is the birth of compassion. The journey toward Biblical faith will often feel like losing our vision (note Paul's conversion in Acts 9) and being given by grace a whole new pair of eyes.

The steps to maturity are necessarily immature, and we must learn from each one of these missteps, and never hate or dismiss them. Julian of Norwich says it so well: "God judges us according to our true essence, which [God] keeps whole and safe, inside [Godself] always. Divine judgment reflects our Beloved's righteousness. But human judgment reflects our changeable fleshliness. . . . I could not find blame and anger anywhere in God!" [3] How different the entire history of Christianity would have been if we had trusted that infinite love can only be accepted in finite steps.