Is Jesus trying to mess with these people’s heads? Yes. Over the past Sundays we have heard him outrage the crowd with his demand that, if they want eternal life, they have to eat his flesh and drink his blood. They revolt at the cannibalistic overtones of this and the implied assertion of being able to offer divine life. Now he takes both to different levels. In predicting his ascension he asserts a union with God. But he then states that the ‘flesh’ has nothing to offer. Well, what of his flesh that he was offering for eternal life? It doesn’t make sense.
St Thomas Aquinas and the best of the Christian theological tradition have held that what we can say and know about God is always more unlike God than like God. The best of Christian mystical tradition has held that we have to go through a Dark Night of the Spirit, a Cloud of Unknowing to recognise the presence of God in our lives. At Bath Abbey, there is a remarkable stature, Christ ascending. https://revdocgeek.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/ascension-bath-abbey.jpg . Notice how the burial bands around Christ are ripped asunder and fall away at his ascending. If Christ is to ascend in our lives, if we are to surrender to the mystery as Peter, we must be prepared to have our heads messed with, to have our images and ideas on God challenged, to move beyond a faith that is safe and predictable into the wild places of the Spirit.
God doesn’t think like we do. The Assumption (just up there ^) by Francesco Botticini, an 15th century altarpiece painted for a Florentine church, shows two levels of ‘reality’. On the lower level, in a vast landscape, the disciples gather round a stone tomb, sturdily rectangular. Where the body of Mary should be there is an abundance of flowers. The disciples either stare into this tomb, empty of a body, or discuss with each other their mystification. But above them within a luminous circular dome (and remember at this time the circle represented completion in art) a vast throng circle around Jesus, Lord of Heaven and Earth, as he greets his mother, Mary, coming into heaven. Three circles make up this exultant crowd. Angels, saints and putti (baby angels) surround Jesus and Mary. If one looks closely one can see that these choirs are about to break into a lively, joyful and stylised Renaissance dance. In heaven there is no time, so, to Botticini, there is no incongruity that at Mary’s Assumption, the saints down through the ages would be there. In his mind’s eye, we too could be there – we have yet to break our confinement to our bodies and finally come to our destiny in the fullness of God’s life and love. This is where we are meant to be. God’s destiny for us is to join these choirs in their lively joyful dance celebrating the mercies shown to Mary and to all the saints. Mary’s life, in a real sense, has been defined by this moment (for Heaven is but a moment so full we never come to the end of it). When we read today’s Gospel, we hear in the Magnificant, a woman who not only recognises God’s presence in the history of her people but one who looks to God’s mercy reaching through the generations for all ages to come, ‘for ever’. As we celebrate this Feast, we should also celebrate this mystery of our own lives within the reality of eternity and our destiny to be enfolded in God’s love.
For a few years, I used to swim at Lammermoor Beach each morning. I would swim down the beach and then walk back. I was amazed by how many people commented on how brave I was. As I am one to loath an adrenaline rush, this mystified me. What was I to fear? Sharks? They rarely attack humans in this area. Crocodiles? They are only about after the Fitzroy River floods? Jellyfish and stingers? Well, I would never swim when the current that brings them is flowing. Strangely to me, nobody, and I mean nobody, ever told me I was brave as I got into the car to drive home. Yet there was the greater danger of death or accident.
I believe, that to a large extent, we choose what stresses us and this is what Jesus is telling us to consider in this part of the Gospel. The poetry of his call inspires us to consider the true nature of our lives. Practical concerns are a reality but they are to serve our lives as sons and daughters of God. If we allow our fears to dominate us, we will miss out on much of life’s richness and we will not live by our right to radiate the glory of God to our world.
A seal in the Jewish understanding of Jesus’ time was the sign by which something was attested to be authentic. That God had sealed the Son of Man meant that he, Jesus, was the one who truly revealed God.
In our experience, a person who is authentic lives from their deepest self and doesn’t allow transitory desires and whims to dominate their lives. We all know how difficult it is to attain some degree of authenticity. We experience ourselves as a bundle of contradictory, and often base, desires. But perhaps we start at the wrong place: we try to do it ourselves. Like the crowd, asking what they needed to do, to do the works of God, we place the emphasis on our own abilities. Rather, the journey to authenticity, in the Christian faith, is one of uncovering our deepest desires and bringing them to the person of Jesus for him to fulfil. We are to allow our hunger and thirst to emerge, to recognise our helplessness in the face of such need, and to bring ourselves to Jesus. Then will our hunger and thirst be quenched; then will we live from him; then will God set his seal upon us.
LAP – The Harrowing Story of the Challenges Faced by Team Members Caring for HIV Children.
We strongly urge you to read the summary below which we recently received from Nita Anggriawan (the Program Coordinator at LAP in Jakarta). It not only describes the challenges faced by individual case workers in their tireless efforts to care for the children, but it also highlights the risk to the viability of some of LAP’s key support programs as it confronts a loss of around 2/3 of its sponsorship funding.
This is a story about a group of remarkable, strong women who are devoting their lives to humanity. Their lives have not been easy as they have been infected with HIV from their husbands, marking the most impactful events of their lives. The second most impactful event for them is unknowingly passing the HIV to their children—something that is extremely hard to accept. Furthermore, some of these strong women end up raising their children alone as their husbands have already passed on.
However, living with HIV is not the end of the road. These women choose to live on for the sake of their children. Their tenacious will to live have brought them to LAP, Lentera Anak Pelangi. LAP has become their new family, where they can share their life stories, support their children and each other.
Their resilience is manifested in their willingness to support Lentera Anak Pelangi’s mentoring program by becoming case managers Ms. Nur started as an assistant case manager and is now participating in the children’s house visit in North Jakarta. Ms. Nur feels that her background as a mother of a child with HIV is an advantage that empowers other mothers who also have HIV children. Ms. Itok, Ms. Siti, and Ms. Titin share similar stories. They feel that their role as a mother absolutely helps the caregivers of the children with HIV, the very children who are accompanied by Lentera Anak Pelangi.
Even though they are not that young anymore, they do not hesitate to explore Jakarta with all its traffic jams to visit the children whom they accompany. In addition, some days, they can spend more than half a day in the hospital to accompany the children for their ARV monthly checkups. They treat the children with HIV like their own children.
Becoming a part of Lentera Anak Pelangi changes their lives significantly. They have learnt basic counselling techniques, how to use a laptop, how to write and present reports. They have become confident to talk to the doctors about the children’s complaints, to tell life stories through mass and social media, and even to express their own opinions to a government minister during one of the gathering events.
Nonetheless, since the beginning of COVID-19 pandemic, they have become really worried about the continuation of their work at Lentera Anak Pelangi. So many people have lost their jobs during the pandemic. Sad news arrived in the beginning of this year where Lantern Anak Pelangi lost 2/3 of its operational budget because of the pandemic. Several regular donors who have been supporting Lentera Anak Pelangi had to cut down their donations to the point where the Lentera Anak Pelangi’s mentoring program may no longer be sustainable.
Besides Ms. Nur, Ms. Itok, Ms. Siti, and Ms. Titin, there are also those who participate in their daily work through psychosocial support and advocacy at Lentera Anak Pelangi such as Ms. Wulan, Adit, Henri, Wardiman, Riama, and Natasya, who are just equally impacted by this situation.
We can only hope that the light of the lantern does not dim out halfway. Over the past 12 years, our tiny lantern has been able to bring rainbows to the lives of more than 150 children living with HIV in Jakarta. We believe that there are good people who will join us to ensure that we keep our lantern going by keeping the fire and the oil.
Please support us to keep our lantern alight, to colour the lives of children with HIV in Jakarta.
Our next fundraising collection at Masses will be in November. However, in the meantime if you would like to assist LAP in meeting their financial challenges, please contact the parish office. Alternatively, you can donate directly to the following parish account established specifically for contributions to LAP.
“Do you not care?” That was an unfair question for the disciples to have asked Jesus. Why he had been asleep, in a very heavy sleep, and wouldn’t have known what was happening. But that question is often hurled against God! The community for whom Mark was writing was experiencing bitter persecution under Nero. Did not Jesus and God care? When Jesus rebukes the storm, the verb Mark uses was used earlier to cast out a demon. In other words, Jesus, in rebuking the storm, confronts evil on the disciples’ behalf and defeats it. This confrontation with evil continues through the Gospel till the final confrontation at Calvary where Jesus dupes the Evil One and defeats him…but it doesn’t look much like success to those watching, who could well have asked “Did not God care?” It doesn’t look much like success, unless…one had the eyes of faith, like the centurion. When the storm subsided, the disciples were filled with awe – that crucial component of faith. (You can hear it in the centurion’s response to Jesus’ death.) They were beginning to have a new way of seeing Jesus. Slowly, slowly he will teach them that God does care but in a way that does not take suffering, pain and evil away. God does not save by taking away evil and suffering but rather invites us to join with him in the drama of salvation. As for the church under persecution, so to for us, we must face the question “Does not God care?” and realise that it can only be answered with the response of faith. Image is of a stained glass window from Covington Cathedral, Kentucky.
I used to be a serious gardener. I worked hard, got all the right information, put in plenty of hours and had a very good garden. But the more I did, the more I realised how little I was really doing. Yes, I prepared the soil, planted seeds, watered, weeded, fertilised but the actual wonder of growth was removed from my power. I often mulled about how all I was doing was providing the conditions for growth. God did the real work.
I find the parable of the Patient Farmer the most consoling in the Gospel. We do our bit for the kingdom and it often doesn’t seem much, but it is God giving the growth, often when we are occupied with other things. The presence of Jesus in our world tells us that God is on our side, utterly committed to the growth of goodness in our lives. We make our efforts, even do our best, and yet we often doubt the results. But our faith teaches us: God is working for good in our lives and growth into his life and love is taking place, unless we actively put obstacles in God’s way.
Reconciliation with Absolution will be celebrated Thursday March 18 at 7.30pm at St Anne’s Church. We can’t do face to face reconciliation due to covid restrictions.
On this coming weekend (27/28 February) the special collection will be for the LAP Group who look after children living with HIV/AIDS in the very poorest slum areas of Jakarta Indonesia. You can see in the image above some of the children in a happy mood – despite the appalling conditions in which they live. At this critical time for the LAP Team it’s worth reflecting on the challenges they face – in particular: Over the past year Indonesia has been devastated by the Corona virus, causing deaths at a rate almost three times that of Australia on a per head of population basis. This has created additional challenges for the LAP Team. For example, just in the past week we have learned that two of the LAP case managers had contracted the virus. Even worse, one of the LAP children became ill but the family were too afraid of the conditions at the hospital to take him in for treatment. Sadly, he subsequently died.
Due to the Victorian Corona restrictions, we have not been able to conduct any of the usual fundraising campaigns at Masses for the past year.
We are anxious to return our support for the children to pre-Corona levels – particularly as we understand that one of the Indonesian-based sponsors of LAP is unable to continue their financial support this year. Your generous donations go directly to providing the crucial care these children need by way of milk and multi vitamin medication which are essential to maintaining their health. Significantly, your contributions account for over 25% of the total LAP budget for this aspect of their work. THEY ARE THEREFORE AGAIN RELYING US in order to continue their work this year. If you are unable to attend Mass on the weekend and would like to assist LAP with their work you can make a donation directly to the following parish account established specifically for contributions to LAP.
BSB083347,
ACCOUNT NO.546358602
ACCOUNT NAME:OLMC CHURCH ACCOUNT – LAP DONATION
Thank you for your wonderful generosity over the past seven years.
How can we tell bad from good? Too often we judge good and bad based on what is pleasant and congenial. Jesus’ time in the wilderness must make us pause. After he had received loving confirmation from the Father, the Spirit ‘drives’ ,‘casts out’ Jesus into the wilderness to be tested. Are the ‘beasts’ there good or bad? We don’t know. They could be a reminder of the idyllic time before the Fall when Adam lived in harmony with all of nature. If so, Mark is portraying Jesus as the new Adam bringing salvation. Mark could also be alluding to the image from Isaiah when all nature would be in such harmony that the lion would lie down with the lamb. But the ‘beasts’ could also be understood as friends of the demonic powers, set on terrifying Jesus. Most likely both meanings are intended.
In our lives there are many negative things we could call ‘beasts’ – chronic illness, addiction, unemployment, disability, etc. Are they good or bad? Given how they can undermine us and turn us in on ourselves, we would call them bad. Given the way grace can work through them, opening us to the love of God and others, we would call them good. Lent is a good time to let the Spirit drive us into our wilderness to meet our beasts. Only one thing we can be certain on, Jesus is with us. How will he tame our beasts? We can only wait and be ready for the time of grace.
Congratulations to Indigenous elder, artist and educator Dr Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann AM for being named the 2021 Senior Australian of the Year. Apart from her artwork, and work in education, she is perhaps best known for her reflections on dadirri – “inner, deep listening and quiet, still awareness”. Dadirri, she says, “is perhaps the greatest gift [Aboriginal Australians] can give to our fellow Australians… dadirri recognises the deep spring that is inside us. We call on it and it calls to us. This is the gift that Australia is thirsting for. It is something like what you call ‘contemplation’”. The following reflection on dadirri, which is a speech she gave in 2002 when she was Principal of a Catholic primary school in Daly River in the Northern Territory, also seeks to integrate dadirri with her faith as a Christian:
Freud said that despite thirty years of research into the feminine soul, he still couldn’t answer the question, what does a woman want? Maybe it is not only about women that the answer is unclear, but also for all of us. In this Sunday’s reading Jesus utters his first words in the Gospel of John: ‘What do you want?’ The verb Jesus uses is richer than our ‘want’ as it also includes the sense of ‘seek’ and ‘desire’. In other words, Jesus was asking those first two disciples, ‘What are the deepest longings of your hearts, the ones that determine the course of your life?’ Andrew and his companion found the question too difficult and deflected it with a question asking where Jesus lives!
Our longings and desires! They can be the energy that powers our lives along, and the force that derails us. We can ride on their strength and they can undermine our dreams. So how do we deal with these forces? If we peel back the layers of our longings and desires, even the ones that we call ‘bad’, even ‘evil’, we will eventually come to something good. Having been made in the image and likeness of God, our deepest desires bear the trace of grace. It is when our good desires become disordered that destruction takes place. For example, I have noticed that some people get caught in bad relationships, not out of desire for sex, but rather out of fear of loneliness…and what is loneliness but the desire for communion. How much suffering would have been averted if those people had known the skills of friendship? When we are being tossed by our desires, it is a good time to stop and ask, ‘Where is the face of God in this desire and how can this desire foster life?’
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Parish Sunbury 
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