The Lesson of the Kauri Tree

In my last Blog (The Miracle of Compassion) I began by referring to the time I spent living and working in a residential Franciscan Community in the U.S.A. After a period of time I returned to New Zealand and later spent a number of years living with the First Order Franciscans in Hamilton, NZ. One of the memories I have from that time was the Kauri Tree that had been, planted in the front Garden of the Friary in memory of a young girl who died some years earlier. Each day, I walked pass the Kauri tree on my way to the chapel, when one morning I noticed a Kauri cone lying on the grass under the tree. What caught my attention was the beautiful dark mahogany-brown colour of the seed pod. For me, it was one of those profound moments that stirred my curiosity and led me to want to know more about the tree.

The Kauri tree (Agathis australis) is one of the world's largest, oldest, and mightiest trees. It can grow up to 50 metres tall and 16 metres wide, and they can live for more than 2,000 years. No wonder in Maori Mythology the Kauri tree is referred to as “Tane Mahuta” (which means “God of the Forest”): who separates the masculine sky from the feminine earth and allows light to shine upon the world of human kind.

Each tree also produces both male and female cones. The male cones ripen first and release their pollen, to be carried by the wind and fertilise the female cones. Then when the female cones are fully mature they release the 100 or so winged seeds within each cone which are spread by the wind.

In one sense, each of these seeds are like a little piece of eternity because each tree has the potential of living for thousands of years in their natural environment. However, the seeds don't stay fertile forever. They need to fall into the soil so they might grow, because eight months after it's release the seed's chance of ever sprouting slowly diminishes.

In it's own way the seed reminds us that we also need to 'seize the day' (carpe diem) – we also need to make use of the opportunities that arise for us in our daily life – as and when they arise – because time doesn't stand still for us either and those opportunities also pass away!

The Sunday's Gospel reading set for this week from John, is very similar to last week's reading from Mark. Both authors record the story of Jesus feeding a large number of hungry people from a seemingly small resource (a boys lunch) and in Jesus' hands the food become a 'Eucharistic feast' as Jesus takes the boy's gift, blesses it, breaks it and and invites the disciples to divide it among the crowd of people. In doing so Jesus initiates the generosity of compassion and hospitality that encouraged a similar response from the crowd, so all were fed, and all were satisfied, and nothing was lost or waisted.

The repetition of a similar Gospel story two weeks in a row reminds us that this miracle is worth retelling because we can be a bit slow to 'let the truth reveal itself' or to 'let the light to shine into our awareness'.

Ultimately, this story is not about people receiving a free lunch! Rather, it is given to remind us that we can never out give the generosity of God – which is similar to something Julian of Norwich, once wrote:

“(God) showed a little thing the quantity of a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand as it seemed to me, and it was as round as any ball. I looked therein with the eye of my understanding, and thought: “What may this be?” And it was answered generally thus: “It is all that is made.” I marvelled how it might last, for it seemed to me it might suddenly have fallen into nought for its littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: “It lasts and ever shall, because God loves it.” ¹

The mystery of the Divine Presence always surrounds each one of us. The challenge for me is while I may not always notice that presence, or have the time to stop and contemplate it's meaning, am I willing to try and live with a generous heart and an open mind to all that God – or the the Universe – wishes to say to me? Would this also be true for you?

If so, am I willing to make time regularly to engage in that mystery? Because, as Alfred Lord Tennyson once suggested, we are all invited to:

“Speak to Him, thou, for He hears, and Spirit with Spirit can meet

Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet.”

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

1https://www.juliansvoice.com/veronicas-blog/julian-and-the-hazelnut

The Miracle of Compassion

While I was living in a Franciscan Community in Arkansas, USA, I recall watching a video one evening about a Parish Youth Group that decided to share Christmas Dinner with the poorest of the poor. The people lived and worked in a rubbish dump across the boarder in Mexico. The members of the Youth Group discussed how many people might turn up and much food they needed to take. In the end they decided that food for 150 people should be enough.

When they arrived at the rubbish dump they put up the portable tables they had brought and started started carving a large ham. This they offered together with other food they had brought with them. As the day turned to evening and the growing crowd of people had been fed, they discovered they still had enough food left to hand out for people to take home.

It was only at the end of the evening, as the members of the Youth Group were sitting around discussing the day, that they realized while they had brought enough food for only 150 people, over 300 people had been fed, and that there was still plenty of food left over to take to two orphanages!

However, the story didn't stop there. Among the helpers was a middle-aged U.S. postal worker named Frank Alarcon. He was so inspired by the need and poverty of those who had attended the Christmas meal, he decided when he retired he would offer his time to work at the community centre that had been set up at the dump – and in due course Frank became its director until his death in 2011.

While I found this story inspirational, it raised for me the question – 'Which was the real miracle?' Was it the feeding of the crowd on that Christmas Day in 1972? Or was it the transformation that happened Frank Alarcon's life? A transformation which inspired him to offer his time and energy and to work tirelessly and ultimately he ended up helping thousands of people?

We see a similar event to this miracle story in the Gospel reading set for next Sunday (21^st July - Mark 6:30-34, 53-56). In the edited text we hear how Jesus was moved by compassion for the needs of a crowd of people who gathered around him with their sick – begging him to heal them. At its heart this story also involves the miracle of compassionate generosity.

Jesus was aware that his disciples needed time out – however, when he saw the needs of the local people who crowded him, all clambering for him, Jesus stops and attends to their needs. However, the real miracle was not so much about the healing he offered but the transformation of people's lives that flowed from that healing. And that healing also included a group of overwhelmed and ungenerous disciples with “hardened hearts” – and this is where I find this Gospel story challenges me also. Jesus still needs us – including me – to be his hands and feet in our world, and if we respond to his invitation, it will quietly involve us to show the compassion and care of God to those we meet who are in need – and that might sound like a big commitment!

In the opening story, the Youth Group wanted to do something for the people who lived and worked at Rubbish Dump. By their generosity they sparked a change not only in the lives of the poor but also in their lives as well as in the life of a Postal Worker who offered the rest of his life to help those people and in doing so inspired others to join him.

If we were to visit that place today, we will find there is a small medical clinic built on the site of the Christmas party and attended by a doctor who comes four times a week. Next to the doctor's clinic is a pharmacy and a dental centre, where a dentist volunteers her services three days a week; and a day-care centre as well. And because they are working with people who have very little financial resources, if they can’t pay they are still treated and receive the medication and help and support they need.

At it's heart, this is a story about the miracle of compassionate generosity. Christ was there on that Christmas day – and transformation happened – and has continued to happen.

Christ is here with us – where we may find our rest – and with whom our hungry soul can be fed – as we become Christ's hands and feet to each other.

Kia mau te rongo me te pai ki a koe i to haerenga

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

 Forming & Guarding our Conscience

Recently I have been reading C.K. Stead's book “My Name Was Judas” You may be familiar with the Bible stories of Jesus as told by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In his novel, C.K Stead retells this story through the eyes and mind of Judas. As a novel I found the story sometimes unsettled me and I wanted to put the book to one-side. However, as the story progressed, I found my interest grew as Stead wove a story that begins with Judas growing up alongside Jesus. He goes on to include the years they shared together through the brief period of Jesus ministry, that ended with his trial and crucifixion.

Along the way Stead writes of their friendship and rivalry, uncertainty and inquiry, endurance and loyalty. However, the story doesn't end with Jesus death. They discovered the essence of Jesus' life and teaching continued in their lives and conversations – as he does in ours if we are interested and curious enough to become engaged in what he was seeking to live and teach.

In the unfolding of his novel, Stead refers to many of the Gospel stories including the role John the Baptist played. He also includes the grizzly death of John the Baptist as recounted in this Sunday's Gospel reading¹. It's a sad and shocking interlude that Mark used to fill the narrative between Jesus sending his disciples out on mission, and their reunion with Jesus on their return.

The events around John's untimely death are very much a story of the sanctity of human life where every person has an innate human dignity (and conscience) which Herod failed to value, and chose to ignore. In contrast, John the Baptist shaped and lived by his conscience, and allowed to be daily formed through his knowledge of their sacred traditions and enriched through the time he spent in prayerful devotion to God,

The story is more than an ancient story. It challenges us to consider how do I, or how do we, form and guard our conscience? John and Jesus lived a life that had been shaped through time spent in prayer and in reading and studying their sacred scriptures. I wonder what ways do you use to shape and form your conscience?

Some years ago Karen Armstrong, the prolific author and thinker on faith and the major religions, was involved in calling together a multi-faith and multi-national group of religious thinkers and leaders called The Council of Conscience. Their goal was to help formulate a document called 'The Charter of Compassion²'. Their hope was it might help transform people's attitudes towards the way they lived. It was a vision of a world in which all life could flourish; a world in which compassion might be encouraged at every level. This big dream depended on connecting, cultivating, and encouraging networks of compassionate action that would encourage and inspire the people of the world to “honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect”.

As we know, such a vision is easier said than done. Changing attitudes doesn't happen overnight. However, the following suggestions were offered and you may find they offer food for thought:

1. Commit yourself first thing in the morning to allow the God-in-you to express love to others in little acts of random kindness.

2. Remind yourself when you see someone in need, that 'Just like me this person is seeking happiness.' 'Just like me this person knows sadness and loneliness.' 'Just like me this person is loved by God.'

3. Imagine how the person in (2) above might feel. This is one way to awaken the capacity for empathy.

4. Respond with some simple act of practical kindness – in other words: become involved.

5. Review: Each night take a few minutes to think of the people you have met and how you have treated them. Pray for them. Ask yourself: ''What have I learnt?'' ''What could I have done differently?''

And finally There is a cost because it will take time and practice as Mother Teresa once said:

“Do not think that love in order to be genuine has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.”³

Phil (14 July 2014)

__________________

1July 14, 2024

2 Charter for Compassion https://charterforcompassion.org/what-we-do/

3 ( https://excellencereporter.com/2019/02/21/mother-teresa-on-love-life-and-purpose/)

 Experiencing Amazement

I wonder when was the last time you felt or experienced the feeling of being amazed by something? Something that may shock you or astonish you unexpectedly. It may be something that you can't quite believe what you're seeing or hearing.

The Psychologist, Rick Hanson (Ph.D.) at Berkley University, suggests experiencing amazement is not only important, rather these “Wow” moments, that may fill us with a sense of wonder, surprise, awe, delight and gratitude, are vitally important to us and can transform our attitude towards others and to the world in which we live.

And there are a lot of things that can birth this sense of awe and wonder within us: It might have been the birth of a new born baby; falling in love; or our attention being captivated by the night sky, for example. These mind shifting moments can make us stop; and we suddenly reseal that the busy context of our way of life, is somehow lacking the importance or significance we had assumed.

I experienced one of those moments some years ago while attending a retreat at the Wangapeka Study and Retreat Centre located in the foothills of the Southern Alps in the South Island of New Zealand. One night we were invited to visit a neighbour who had a large telescope permanently set-up outdoors and to look at the stars. Being so far away from civilization, the darkness of the night was absolute, the stars were brilliant, and the silence was broken only by the noise of birds or animals. Few vehicles ventured down the road that ended at the site of the old gold mining town of Wangapeka. This meant that the situation was ideal for Star-gazing.

When it was my turn to look through the telescope I found it absolutely mind-blowing as the small pinpricks of starlight took on a whole new perspective. I remember one such star that the telescope was trained on the star called “Betelgeuse” – it is the brightest star in the night sky and sits 430 light years away from planet Earth. It is part of the Orian nebular and its physical size is estimated as being 640 times the size of our Sun!

What I also found amazing was that the God who created that star, also created human life – and we all live participating in that miracle!

For example, I was reading an article online recently that said the “average” Human body has 37 trillion cells and about 330 billion of these cells are being replaced every day! Which means that in 80 to 100 days, 30 trillion cells in our body will have replenished—and all this is occurring without our awareness!

And that is often the issue – isn't it. Our lives and minds can become so focused on the demands of life and the assumptions we carry around in our heads that we miss out on what is happening around us – and we are not alone in that.

Recently, I was reading again a book by the Franciscan Bonaventure. He was master of philosophy and theology at the University of Paris, Minister General of the Order of Friars Minor and rose to become one of the most prominent academics of his time and also took over leadership of the Franciscan Order after St Francis of Assisi died. Due to his busy life as an academic and overseeing the Franciscan Order that had its own issues, he ended up burnt out and decided he needed time out. So he went back to Mount Laverna where St Francis had received his Stigmata. While there he was inspired to write his inspirational book: “The Soul’s Journey into God” [1259] In it he wrote that the “eyes of our souls should be opened and enlightened”. And the first step – is to begin learn to “see the whole of the physical world around us as a mirror”. He suggested that why this was so important was because it when “we learn to contemplate the world we live in, we will discover the immense power, wisdom and goodness of our Creator”. “Learn to Look”, he said – with open eyes, mind and heart “and be amazed”!

In the Gospel reading set for this coming Sunday (Mark 6:1-13) we find Jesus teaching something similar. He is visiting his local Synagogue and the people were astounded with his simple wisdom. What puzzled them was because they knew he was only a carpenter's son – and because they had it all sorted they were blind and deaf to the wisdom Jesus had to share. Which meant there was nothing Jesus could do.

Thinking about this reminded me of two quotes. The first is something the Trappist monk Thomas Merton once made:

“To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence.”

The second is a quote associated to several different people:

“What the mind can conceive, the heart believe, I can achieve”.

Jesus was interested in opening people's minds. There was no future in a religion that focuses rules and rituals. Instead, Jesus taught what is important is a faith that comes not from our heads but from our hearts.

Love God – Love your neighbour – love your self–

That is something amazing – isn't it!

Phil

2nd July, 2024

 Looking After One's Self

I am sure all of us, at some stage in our life, have felt exhausted. We may have had a busy week, or it maybe the result of abnormal exercise, or we have been trying to balance a sudden rush of demands upon our life. Whatever the cause, it feels great, doesn't it, when you can finally sit down, close the door, turn off the phone or laptop – and simply be.

Such moments also highlights the importance of having clear boundaries on how we manage our time and availability. Such boundaries are important and necessary, if only to keep us, and our relationships, healthy. However, the demands of work, family, or the organisations we belong to, and commitments we make, often demand first place in our life. The result is that the lines between meeting our own needs, and meeting the desires of others, get blurred – and one day you wake up and realise you feel exhausted and taken for granted.

In my last Blog, I wrote of how Jesus and the disciples were caught in a sudden storm that often arose on the sea of Galilee. The seasoned disciples who were used to sailing on that lake seemed to forget they were seasoned fishermen, and rather than relying on their sailing skills, they were overwhelmed by a sense of impending danger and death. The author of Mark's Gospel uses the story to remind the reader that in Jesus we also may find healing, new life and hope in the face of the struggles and fears we may face. This is something the author of Mark's Gospel continually reminds us as he records one story of human need after another. And in each unique situation Jesus was able to meet and resolve that situation and need. However, Mark wanted us not just to read his Gospel – but to also include our life story into the text, so that we also might live with the promise of new hope and new life. For God will never abandon us either, regardless of who we are or what we have done. This is also the key point Mark is making – and it is all part of the Gospel's Good News!.

Joan Chittister once made a similar observation in her book, “Sacred by Struggle Transformed by Hope”. She wrote:

If struggle is the process of evolution from spiritual emptiness to spiritual wisdom, hope is the process as well. Hope, the response of the spiritual person to struggle, takes us from the risk of inner stagnation, of emotional despair, to a total transformation of life.

There is no failure except in no longer trying; no defeat except from within; no really insurmountable barriers save our own inherent weakness of purpose...

There is a capacity of the human heart to persist. We endure not because there is no struggle to obstruct it but the struggle sharpens its focus and makes clear its meaning. (https://www.spiritualityandpractice.com/)

I believe life can be like that for all of us. The challenge when faced with Life's seeming impossibilities, is to learn endurance – for there is no easy escape. We may be stretched to the limits of our endurance; we may be challenge to the core of who we are – including our faith. This is what the Gospel writer is reminding his disciples and us also.

Yet God does not abandon us.

Something I have found helpful in making sense of this 'Gospel Hope' – especially in times of change, uncertainty and transition – is the framework offered by Creation Spirituality.. Creation Spirituality offers us Four Paths or Four Ways of Being. They are referred to as Via Positiva; Via Negativa; Via Creativa and Via Transformativa.

1. Via Posativa reminds us that God is in everything – a belief that also lies at the Heart of Franciscan Spirituality. When we are able to comprehend this truth, it widens the door of our perception, enabling us to begin to see and comprehend that everything is holy, because everything is a carrier of God. We discover that God is in fact the unifying field in which holds everything together.

2. Via Negativa reminds us that if God is in everything then we are never left alone. Jesus is still present and will always be 'our Way' even in the difficult, hard and painful moments that Life may throw at us – especially in these moments of darkness.

3. Via Creativa: Meister Eckhart (1260-1328), the German Theologian, philosopher and mystic, was once asked by an inquirer: “Then what is it that will remain (in these times of struggle and testing)?”  And he replied: “That which is inborn in us remains.”  Meaning, that which we give birth to from out of our depths (of suffering and struggle) will be that which lives on after us.  Because what is born from within us will include our most intimate moments— our intimacy with ourselves, with God, with the Creative Spirit, and with others.  Because when we recognise these moments of profound intimacy we are also drawn very close to the Divine presence within us, and we are also able to see and share the Divine presence with he community in which we live. For this reason, our Creativity becomes our prayer and our praise.

4. Via Transformativea:  This fourth path reminds us that if we have experienced God in the joys and blessings of life; and if we have known the presence of God in the darker moments that life throws at us; and if we are able to weave these darker parts of ourselves, (including the stories we may not like so much about ourselves); then we enable these creative actions to become a renewing and transforming presence in our world — especially in the areas that seek compassion and Justice.

Challenging words! What if the world was like this? Martin Luther King Jr. once said that “Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase”.

Sometimes, even if all we can pray is simply the word 'Thank you.' the theologian Semaj Y. Vanzant reminds us that this simple intimate connection and communication with our creator will always get us through: She writes:“In my deepest, darkest moments, what really got me through was a prayer. Sometimes my prayer was 'Help me.' Sometimes a prayer was 'Thank you.' What I've discovered is that intimate connection and communication with my creator will always get me through because I know my support, my help, is just a prayer away.” (https://elevatesociety.com/in-my-deepest-darkest-moments/)

Phil 29 June, 2024

 

Handling Life's Storms

In Mark's Gospel (4:34-5-41) there is a story of Jesus and a few of his disciples being caught in one of the sudden storms that regularly arose on the local Sea of Galilee. In response to the Disciple's anxiety Jesus rebukes the wind and much to the disciples amazement, the wind stopped and the lake became calm again.

No doubt, all of us have had moments of anxiety. It might have been an unexpected bill – causing you to wonder how you will be able to pay it.

Or a Police car pulls in behind you with its lights going – and you wonder what you have done that was wrong? Or you are asked to give the vote of thanks to the speaker at the end of the meeting – and you spend the evening wondering what you are going to say. Or you have had some medical tests done – and you anxiously await the results.

If you have experience moments of anxiety – you will not be alone. We all have moments when we feel pushed beyond our ability to cope. Such moments of anxiety, (and its bigger brothers of fear and terror), can stretch us out of our comfort zone. However, if they last too long they can numb our ability to think and react in a positive and even life saving way.

Yet, in its milder form, anxiety and fear are not necessarily a bad thing; it is one of the inbuilt human survival instincts that can cause the body to release adrenaline which prepares us for action – to either attack or to flee...Which reminds me of an earlier time in my life when I learnt to snow-ski.

Early in my parish ministry as an Anglican Priest I was the vicar of a small Country parish near Mount Hut Ski Field in the Canterbury Planes of New Zealand's South Island.

I can still clearly recall the day, early in my skiing adventure, when I had ventured onto a slop that was well outside my skill range. In that moment I realized I had a choice. I could sit down and attempt to slide down the slope – with the possibility of ending up breaking something... or I could try and ski it, which is what I suddenly decided to do – and that choice led to one of the most exhilarating days in my life as I clambered back onto the ski lift to ski the slope again and again!

Such an experience is not uncommon. We see a similar struggle in in children when they are faced with the challenge of learning to walk. It may cause moments of fear and tears... but when they finally give it a go and discover they can take a few steps alone... the tears give way to laughter and they want you spend the rest of the day watching them practice walking.

Fear is not all wrong. It is part of our God given a survival mechanism. The difficulty is when our fears and anxieties get out of control and end up dominating our lives.

In the Gospel reading referred to above, we heard how the disciples experienced fear when faced with a storm while sailing on the sea of Galilee. To understand their fear we need to remember that while the disciples were professional Fishermen, the Hebrew people were never sea going people. They were affected by their ancient myths that saw the sea as the source of evil and chaos. It was the domain of a terrifying sea monster called Liviathin that is mentioned in several of their ancient Jewish writings.

What is interesting to note is that the words that Jesus used to addressed the wind and the waves, are exactly the same as he used to addressed the demon-possessed man earlier in Mark's Gospel (1:25). In their mind the destructive power of the storm was driven by the same power that can rob people from resting in their calm centre, distracting them from utilizing the wisdom and skills they normally possessed. And that can apply to us as much as it applied to those seasoned fishermen.

Storms happen to all of us in life – We all face moments when we feel out of our depth; when life becomes out of control; when we feel panic, fear and terror, or deep penetrating sorrow.

In those times Jesus reminded his disciples – and us - we are not left alone – God cannot and is unable to abandon us because we are created from and sustained by the breath of God.

When life's problems involve us in a tempest of doubt, tension and uncertainty, and we do not know what to do. Or when we discover we are faced with some hard choices and do not know which is the best choice to make... We may panic... or we may choose to pause. To take time to recenter. To remember, we are not alone. To recall that the chief enemy of peace is worry: worry for ourselves; worry about the unknown future; worry about those we love. To use that moment to trust your intuition knowing that we are never left entirely alone, because Jesus speaks of a God whose hand will never let go of us and of a love from which we, and those we love, can ever drift. Because to voyage with Jesus is to voyage in peace even in, and amid, the storms we may face.

This is not something which happened once for the disciples of Jesus; it is also something which still happens – and which can happen for us as well.

 I have Returned!

Some years have passed since my last Blog and a lot has happened in the meantime... including a Heart Attack which has pushed me to reconsider how I want to spend the years that the medical skill of surgeons have given to me.

I am most grateful, as you may imagine!

As I have been reassessing my commitments and how I want to spend the gift of "New Life" I have pulled back from being a "fill-in" Priest.  And while i appreciated the challenge and insight I received from Sermon preparation... I remembered how my Blog had fulfilled that  purpose in the past with the 80 Blogs I have posted.

So now the challenge is to open myself to the insights this medium may provide over the time ahead....