Reflecting on this week’s Scriptures
In our first reading, Moses conveys a great sense of pride and delight about the wisdom and discernment of the people of Israel, when they follow the law and customs which formed the framework of their community. A similar sense of delight and pride, in the different church communities, is evident in the feedback about what is important to us, what we are afraid of losing, and what we hope to see in our new parish. It is also present in the ways we celebrate our liturgies, the different customs we adopt, the cultural traditions we include and how we use our church buildings. All these things help give us a sense of who we are and a framework for our faith community.
Jesus, in Mark’s gospel, challenges us to go beyond these external expressions of our religion. If we are to respond to the call to live “pure, unspoilt religion, in the eyes of God”, each of us individually and in our communities need to examine our hearts and acknowledge what negative motives shape our attitudes and our actions. When we can discern and face the darkness within, and allow God’s spirit to transform us, our actions will become an expression of the conversion of our hearts to God and to God’s ways. Then we may, as parishioners of Wellington South reach out as “joyful disciples” and come “to the help of orphans and widows when they need it” and keep ourselves “uncontaminated
by the world”. Reaching out to those in need transforms us and when we allow that “wonderful ‘chemistry’ of the Gospel” to happen within us we will discover, as Donagh O’Shea puts it, “the kind of ‘chemistry’ that can turn bad stuff into good, curses into blessings, suffering into prayer.”
Charting the Course Discernment – Week 6: Checking our Bearings
Over the last five weeks most of us have given of our hearts, sharing our fears and our hopes most generously. We thank you for that.
Some of the feedback has shown that some of us are left feeling that the leadership is stalling in getting on with the real business of decision making—sorting out Mass times, office space, finances, and the practical things that our Community runs on.
Some are hurting—some frustrated that our feelings are not being acknowledged.
Some merely bored by the entire thing. Some feel angry that we are even facing this change.
This process is not to discern if we will change. It will happen.
This process of sharing, praying, and reflecting is about all of us being the architects of WHAT our new parish will be, HOW we will participate, HOW our four church communities will stand in solidarity with one another.
This Charting the Course Discernment is an invitation to be open to HEAR God calling us—to raise our voices in prayer and trust. So that in a few weeks time our voice, together with the Holy Spirit, will be there when the Transition Team makes the decisions about those practical things and writes the new parish plan to take us forward.
Today we invite you to do nothing more than to join with one another in gratitude as we hold all we have and all we hope for in prayer, so that unlike the Pharisees in today’s Gospel we focus on the God-given things.