Tenison Woods and MacKillop Centre News: Seeking wisdom

As for your intention, who could have learnt it, had you not granted Wisdom

and sent your holy spirit from above?

Thus have the paths of those on earth been straightened

and men been taught what pleases you,

and saved, by Wisdom.

Wisdom 9:16 - 18

I am a reader of memoirs and biographies. Understanding how individuals picked up on the opportunities, learnings and experiences in their lives helps make sense of my own journey as a child, father, husband, worker, believer, colleague. One such memoir, is that of John Shelby Spong, Here I stand. Spong is the retired Episcopal bishop of Newark, NJ.

From a relatively conventional childhood, Spong sought ordination. He kept his eyes and ears open to the needs of those to whom he ministered: gays, feminists and blacks. He questioned the way religion was practised and the way the scriptures were interpreted. He used every tool available to him in his study of Christianity - fundamental theology, christology, harmartiology, mariology, biblical theology, natural theology, hermeneutics, theodicy, eschatology and moral theology – and even these he challenged as not serving the faithful adequately enough. He (still) proposes the reformation of Christian life and thought. He put forward 12 theses that have brought him vitriolic and bitter criticism from churches, theologians and believers of every variety.

I couldn’t help but admire this man of the cloth – for despite the adversity he met, he stood tall. He used his immense scholarship and intellect against the anger of those he challenged.

Needless to say, his theses would quite clearly place him in the realm of the unorthodox. Yet the story he tells explains why he stands where he does. And he stands unapologetically.

In the end, who would know the mind of God? Is the revelation we have immutable? Given that we are generous to a fault, at times, to believers and non-believers of every creed and ‘ism’ it’s a pity the same consideration cannot and has not been extended to John Selby Spong. The writer of Wisdom (9:13 – 18) tells us: It is hard enough to work out what is on earth, laborious to know what lies within our reach; who, then, can discover what is in the heavens?

Our challenge, then, is to seek to understand the entire world in which we live, to make sense of it, to discover its order/disorder, and this must happen in the life, the only life I have and lead. We may not commit our actions, words and thoughts to paper, but our living breath becomes our memoir. The attitudes we pass to our children, the way we engage with those serve us in the shop, they manner in which we treat our spouses, our neighbours, our fellow journeymen, they will be imprinted in the minds of those we encounter daily. Will you be satisfied with the way your life has been written? Will we see your passion for your family, your sport, your faith, your cooking, your charity for others reflected back at you?

Today is the day to recommit yourself to the life you should be living. Being a disciple of Jesus requires that we give up every possession in order to follow him (Luke 14:33). Is there something or someone in your life that you would do that for?

Peter Douglas

HEAD OF SCHOOL SERVICES, NORTH

Get behind me, Satan

Archbishop Lebrune Father Hamel

In his homily at the funeral for the murdered priest, Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen recalls the last words of Fr

This is the complete text of the homily given by Archbishop Lebrune.

Dear Friends,

Father Jacques Hamel no longer has any reason to fear God. He is presenting himself before Him with a history of righteous deeds. Though we cannot know for certain what is in our brother’s heart, so many first-hand accounts of his goodness cannot be wrong! Fr. Jacques Hamel had a simple heart. He was the same person with his family, his brothers and sisters, his nephews and nieces as he was with his neighbors in the middle of his city and with the faithful in his Christian community.

58 years in the priesthood! Fifty-eight years of serving Jesus as a priest, in other words as the servant of His Word, His Eucharist and His Charity. I feel very small. When St. Peter spoke of Jesus, he said “Wherever He went, He went about doing good things.” Jacques, you were a faithful disciple of Jesus. Wherever you passed, you did good things.

Last Easter, Jacques, you wrote for your parishioners: “Christ is risen; it is a mystery, like a secret, which God has confided to us to share with others.” Perhaps this mystery, this secret told in confidence about the risen Christ is rooted in the experience of death encountered in Algeria, an experience of which your family reminds us. Perhaps this mystery, this secret told in confidence is winning over hearts in this assembly: yes, Christ is risen. Death is not the last word.

The resurrection of Jesus was not a catechism lesson for you, Jacques, but a reality, a reality for our hearts and for our hearts’ secret; at the same time, it is a reality to share with others, in confidence. And in the face of the reality of your death, as sudden as it was unjust and horrible, God knows we have to look deep in our hearts for light.

Brothers and sisters, let us be true to ourselves. You know the history of Jesus that no historian can call a fable. Peter tells us the essential truth: Jesus of Nazareth, a just and good man, “healed those who were under the power of the devil, for God was with him… then He whom they put to death by hanging Him on a wooden cross of suffering, God raised Him back to life on the third day and let Him manifest Himself…”

Brothers and sisters, let us be simple and true to ourselves. It is in our hearts, in the secret of our hearts, that we have to say “yes” or “no” to Jesus, “yes” or “no” to his way of truth and peace; “yes” or “no” to the victory of love over hate, “yes” or “no” to his resurrection.

Jacques Hamel’s death calls me to a say a resounding “yes,” not or no longer to a lukewarm “yes.” A “yes” for life, like Jacques’ “yes” at his ordination. Is it possible? It is up to us to answer that question. God is not forcing us… God is patient… God is merciful. Even when I, Dominique, say “no” to love… even when I’ve told God, “I’ll worry about it later”, even when I have forgotten Him, God waits for me because he is infinitely merciful. But can the world today wait any longer for the chain of love that will replace the chain of hate?

Will it take other killings to convert us to love, and to the justice that builds love? Justice and love between persons and peoples, no matter which side of the Mediterranean they are on. Too many deaths in the Middle East, too many deaths in Africa, too many deaths in America! Too many violent deaths. That’s enough!

Evil is a mystery. It reaches the heights of horror which are beyond the human. Isn’t that what you meant, Jacques, by your last words? Fallen to the ground after the first knife blows, you tried to push back your assailant with your feet, and you said: “Get thee behind me, Satan”; you repeated: “Get thee behind me, Satan.” At that moment you were expressing your faith in human beings created good that the devil has in his grip. “Jesus healed all those who were under the power of the devil,” says the gospel.

This is not to excuse murderers, those who make a pact with the devil. It is rather to assert, together with Jesus, that every man and every woman, every human person can have a change of heart through His grace. Thus we receive the word of Jesus, which may seem beyond our strength today: “But now I tell you: love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

You who are tormented by diabolical violence, you who are drawn to kill by a demonic, murderous madness, let your heart, which God has made for love, gain the upper hand; let us remember our mother who gave us life; pray to God to free you from the devil’s grip. We are praying for you, we are praying to Jesus “who healed those who were under the power of evil.”

Roselyne, Chantal, Gérald and your families: the way is hard. Allow me to tell you how much I and so many others admire your dignity. Your brother and uncle supported you. He will continue to do so. It is not for me to proclaim Father Jacques a “martyr.” But how can we fail to recognize the fecundity of the sacrifice he experienced, in union with the sacrifice of Jesus that he celebrated faithfully in the Eucharist? The many words and gestures of our Muslim friends and their visit here mark an important step forward.

I turn to you, the Catholic community, as well. We are wounded and horrified, but not annihilated. I turn to you, the baptized members of our Catholic Church, above all if you do not often come to church, if you have forgotten the way. With Mgr. Georges Pontier, the president of the Bishops’ Conference of France, at my side, I am launching an appeal to you, an appeal as simple, like a first step, as simple as the life of Father Jacques Hamel.

As a tribute to Father Hamel,

we invite you to visit a church in the coming days,

to express your rejection of the defilement of a holy place,

to insist that violence will not gain the upper hand in your heart,

to ask for God’s grace to make you strong;

we invite you to put a candle in this church, as a sign of resurrection, to meditate here and open your heart to its very depths; and if you can, to pray, to implore.

August the 15th would be a propitious day. The Virgin Mary will welcome you with tenderness. Let us remember our mother.

God, do not be impervious to the distress of your children who turn to you!

God, continue in our hearts what your Son Jesus began!

God, thank you for your son Jacques: console his family and raise up new prophets of Your love among us and among the young people at World Youth Day! Amen!”

http://www.globalpulsemagazine.com/news/get-behind-me-satan/3673