I was browsing through Credo, the Auckland RE website, and came across this passage, from “How To Prepare Your Child for Reconciliation”.
It was a timely reflection for me, so just thought I’d share it… it’s always good to take a step back and re-evaluate our own perception of God, even at the simplest level.
Here is today’s Gospel:
Mk 3,31-35.
His mother and his brothers arrived. Standing outside they sent word to him and called him.
A crowd seated around him told him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside asking for you.”
But he said to them in reply, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”
And looking around at those seated in the circle he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers.
For whoever does the will of God is my brother and sister and mother.”
Some Protestants (and even Catholics) use this passage to deny the veneration that Catholics give to the Mother of God. They think that here, Jesus is putting down his mother and saying that she is just like anybody else.
They fail to see that Jesus is in fact praising her. Jesus is saying that she is more blessed because she believed in the message brought to her and obeyed it. She did the will of God. So she is more blessed because of that than because she is his physical mother. St Augustine says that she “conceived Him in her heart through faith (obedience) before she conceived Him in her womb”.
And she is the only creature who faithfully did the will of God throughout her entire life, at every moment – so she is the most blessed creature to have ever lived.
Some also use this passage to say that Jesus had brothers ansd sisters, thus implying that Mary wasn’t an “ever-virgin” and had sexual relations with St Joseph. But what is missed here is the terminology that the Jews often used to refer to cousins. Brothers means cousins in this sense. Martin Luther even said as much.
Let us give thanks that the Church continues to safe-guard the Deposit of Faith for us; and teach the truth contained in the Scriptures.
Did you know that the Dead Sea is dying? And with it, the River Jordan?
It turns out that the last 50 years or so have seen the Dead Sea reduce in volume by up to a third. The River Jordan has had its flow reduced by up to 95% with much of its contents diverted for irrigation and farming. Of what remains, some 20% is raw sewage! All this within shouting distance of the actual spot where Christ Himself was baptised!
There is some talk about how to save the river, but it is all mired in the bog of international kindergarten politics and nothing seems to be happening. The main reason? In that region as a whole, do you really think their biggest concern is the state of a bit of water? Worrying about that would take precious time away from all the killing and warmongering and other such time-worthy pursuits, right? Plus, it’s kind of hard to get construction crews in to work on a piece of land that is surrounded by countries that hate each other.
So what, I hear you ask? Well, as more and more stories cover the death toll in Iraq, and the building of walls in Israel (more to come on that later) and the talk of the military build up in the Persian Gulf, plus the “me too, me too!” approach to nuclear weapons in the Middle East, I just thought I might offer another perspective.
I get bogged down in the headlines myself and it’s all too easy to become de-sensitised to what is going on “over there”. So I have to admit that often times peace in the Middle East doesn’t feature too highly in my prayer list. But it should – in mine and in all of yours too. And if the death and destruction and chaos and politics and religion all seems too hard and there seems no obvious place to start, how about starting with cleaning up a river? It’s a common ground. Everyone needs water. It should be relatively simple to fix. And maybe if a few more people started to focus on that, they might forget some of their other differences and…well, they could take it from there.
I mean, what hope do we have when we can’t even look after a river?!?
Today I was pondering the fact that we always talk about ‘religion’ and compartmentalise it as something we do and belong to, rather than something that is just the way everyone should live. Would Jesus have even cared about what religion was all about? Of course he probably did because he grew up Jewish, but really He just came to tell us the way we should best live our lives, and how to have a relationship with Him. Yet somehow we seem to turn it into something that seems more complicated than that by labelling it ‘religion’ and having lots of doctrines which make it up.
What is religion? According to Wikipedia, Religion is the adherence to codified beliefs and rituals that (generally) involve a faith in a spiritual nature and a study of inherited ancestral traditions, knowledge and wisdom related to understanding human life. The term “religion” refers to both the personal practices related to faith as well as to the larger shared systems of belief.
In our society we are very used to talking about respect for and acceptance of different ‘religions’. We all have different belief systems, so I guess we need something to call all the different belief systems that exist on our earth. It seems people have a spiritual component, which makes them inherently know there is a right and a wrong, and something higher than themselves.
Still, maybe we should remember not to overcomplicate it for ourselves. Ultimately Jesus, and the Bible through the Holy Spirit, tells us about simple rules for our lives. We can see that usually they are the rules that work best. Like not having sex before marriage. At first glance this rule might seem onerous, and even unnatural to some. At second glance when you look at children growing up with one parent, and the hardship that brings, you can see God made all the instructions about the best way to live for a reason that generally makes a lot of sense.
And to completely uncomplicate it for those that maybe could understand no further, Jesus simply said to love one another as he loved us.
Not much to report folks, as I’m busying laying a gravel car park and creating a raised lawn out the front of my house, oh, and I have begun the process of painting every room in the house as well.
Anyway, as I was preparing my patch of front lawn to become a car park (I’m thinking of going with a poncy gravel car park that features a layer of broken shell on top) I began to meditate on how good manual labour is (especially for us blokes).
If I have had a hard day at work I love to come home and escape into the garage, where I have a well stocked tool area and workbench (which I knocked up a few months ago after having a particularly long day at work!).
Maybe I’m getting old, but I have to say that I was totally ecstatic to receive Bunnings vouchers for Christmas – in fact I hot-footed it down to the local store that very day and purchased myself a brand new electric skill saw – talk about having the best Christmas ever!
Anyway, there is definitely something very good, true and manly about men building things and creating new stuff that requires physical labour.
And there is something very purposeful in it as well – maybe if a few more blokes got themselves a tool shed and a skill saw we’d have a lot more manly men and happy marriages in NZ.
Right, I’m off to start work on a ride on train for my first born.
I read in the Hearld on Wednesday about the Doomsday Clock. Apparently it’s been moved forward from it’s present position of seven minutes to midnight. Don’t remember reading what time they’re moving it forward to. It’s being moved closer to midnight to reflect the current global situation, the dawn of a new ‘Nuclear Age’, and global warming. Although it was considered, signs of intelligent life in the South Island of New Zealand was not a factor in moving the Doomsday Clock forwards.
The Clock was first set in 1947 and since then, the ‘safest’ we’ve been is 17 minutes to midnight in 1991. The closest we’ve come is 11.58pm in 1953. Phew… luckily I wasn’t around for that one. Who set midnight as the point of Armageddon anyway? Why not 11.58, or 1.30?
Although this measurement can’t really be taken seriously, it does make me wonder about the current world situation. With all the conflicts going on worldwide, the political unrest, religious tension, terrorism, the seemingly unbeatable Crusaders, it does seem like we are heading towards a big mess.
What can we do about it here in NZ to avoid a nuclear catastrophe? Is it to much to ask for to be able to live in peace? To have my kids and grandkids growing up in a non-nuclear wasteland? (Although if I was exposed to nuclear radiation I’d like to be able to have superpowers, especially being able to fly and shooting stuff out of my eyes).
It’s a lot to worry about on top of all the usual everyday mundane worries. So, don’t worry too much about it! Just pray that everything works out how God wants it to.
What is it with people at the top abusing their power? First, Bishop Wishy-Washy, now this guy. I’d be right annoyed if I was Anglican or Muslim right now – how dare these men, entrusted with positions of authority, denigrate their religions!
The worst thing is this’ll bring up the usual storm of Muslim-haters and religious bigots, who’ve just been given fuel for their fires of hatred.
In such tense times, rubbish like this only seeks to incite further hatred and cause more problems. God must be shaking His head…
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