Food for the Hungry

Richard Rohr once suggested that “all language about God is necessary symbolic and figurative”¹ and while the Bible contains a wide variety of literary forms, this is certainly true for Sunday's Gospel reading (John 6:24-35), where Jesus described himself as being the “bread of life”:

“Jesus said ...I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never by hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”! (John 6:35).

If we find this saying of Jesus is a little hard to understand, no wonder his audience though Jesus had lost the plot: and they began to complain about him because they were well aware of who his parents, and his brothers and sisters were (v41).

Yet the author of John's Gospel often quotes Jesus as using metaphorical forms of speech. We find this, for example, in John 16:5-7, when Jesus told his disciples he wouldn't be with them forever:

“In a little while you will see me no more,

and then after a little while you will see me.”

Such language also puzzled his disciples:

(“We don’t understand what he is saying!” John 16v16).

Yet Jesus often used metaphorical language. For example, when he told his disciples that he was a vine and that they were branches, he was making an important and significant point because a vine has an organic relationship and its branches – it is never static. Out of necessity it changes and grows, it has its seasons of flourishing and fruitfulness, and other-times it needs to withdraw, to be pruned, and to be content with a time of waiting. Such a metaphor also acknowledges that our life also has it seasons; that our life is never static; we also experience moments of joy and sadness, hope and disappointment, we also have our triumphs and challenges.

In some ways, I find comfort in the difficulty the disciples and the Jewish leaders had in trying to follow, or even understand what Jesus was saying sometimes, or planning to do next! And if you and I find that so, we are in good company, because our journey of faith will have its seasons of doubts and darkness, and sometimes we also may end up wondering “Has my faith – or my religious practice – been worth it?”

There are a variety of reasons that may cause such moments:

• they maybe due to cultural differences, or because slowly we suddenly discover the faith we once had, that may have been shaped by our early years of Christian teaching, has now lost its freshness;

• or it's ability to support us through the challenges life has thrown at us; or we way have built up our own understanding of who Jesus was and is for us based on our own wants, desires or needs.

• Then the time comes when we discover that we no longer believe what we once found meaningful; or such a faith has become too difficult or it demanding for us – just it it had for many of Jesus disciples who simply gave up on Jesus and walked away (John 6:60,66). Perhaps they failed to grasp what Jesus meant when he described himself as being “The Bread of Life”?

While we may also experience such moments in our life – one part thing that stands out in John 6 is that Jesus wasn't the first to walk away. And when Jesus turned asked his disciples whether they wanted to follow the crowd and leave him as well, Peter replied

“To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life and we have come to know you are the Holy One of God” (John 6:67-69).

While we may have some sympathy for those who left Jesus, because the claims Jesus made when, for example, he said he was the 'Bread of Life', were not meant to be taken literally – they we not meant as to be academic ideas for his listeners (including us) to take away and ponder or argue over. That was never his intention – because, in a very real sense, when Jesus' words are simply repeated, or discussed, or even argue over, we also run the risk of simply defining the vocabulary of our religious faith – rather than actively creating or developing our faith.

I suggest such language and imagery is deliberately obtuse so that if we are interested enough we will take the imagery and metaphor's away and begin to ponder what was Jesus meaning – and more significantly – what is Jesus saying to me today, in all that is happening in my life, right now, when he described himself as being 'the Bread of Life'?.

It is also important to note he was not saying he had come to to give us bread – but he came to be our bread. And in case we miss the point, Jesus repeats himself again in verses 48, and again in verse 51:

I am the bread of life...This is the bread that comes down from heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.” (John 6:48-51)

So I found the challenge Jesus was offering to his listeners (and us) was to reflect on the nature of our life and the values we seek to live by. Or to put it in another way, Jesus didn't come to meet our wants and desires, he came to change our wants and desires so as we seek to follow him and grow our living relationship with him, we allow his to become the central focus of our existence.

“Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you,” (John 6:27)

It is as we allow this to happen, we discover that we have also grown closer to our spiritual understanding and appreciation of all the ways that a faith in God is enriching our life as he becomes our Focus, our Way, and our Guide..

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

May you find peace and goodwill on your journey.

Phil

1'All Language is Metaphor' from Richard Rohr, https://cac.org/daily-meditations/all-language-is-metaphor-2017-01-11/

 

The Fragrance of New Bread

My last Blog was about the Gospel story of Jesus accepting a small boy's lunch. Jesus blessed the lunch, broke it, and then shared it among a crowd of hungry people. The Gospel reading for this week and next week will continue to unpack the richness and meaning that lie behind that story.

As I read this Sunday's reading from John 6:24-51, I was reminded of a local baker's shop near where we live. They are especially busy on a Sunday morning, and when I have passed the bakery there is usually a line of eager shoppers all waiting their turn to share the source of that mouth-watering fragrance that surrounds the shop.

A similar source that can also fill one's home with a mouth-watering fragrance is a bread maker. Those who own one will be familiar with the smell of newly cooked fresh bread that fills the house and stirs your appetite especially when you arrive home hungry!

The human response to such wonderful food-fragrances can also affect the way be behave towards other people. Perhaps it was with this in mind that the University of Southern Brittany in France decided to study the effect food fragrances have on human behaviour¹. The experimental group included eight students (4 men and 4 women). They were divided into two groups. One group stood outside a bakery and the other group stood outside a clothing boutique. When they saw someone approaching, they were to start rummaging in their shopping bag, and in the process to deliberately drop an item onto the footpath. A second student noted the response made by the approaching pedestrian.

The results of this simple experiment revealed more than three quarters of the pedestrians were willing to stop and help the volunteers standing outside the bakery to retrieve the dropped item. However, only half the pedestrians bothered to stop to retrieve the fallen item for the students who were outside the clothes shop.

The study concluded that certain fragrances, such as the smell of freshly baked bread, can trigger a positive mood response and so the person will feel more willing to help someone else.

The reason for referring to this study is because in this weeks Gospel reading Jesus uses the image of bread as metaphor to describe the life and service he has to offer anyone who is willing to stop and become involved in who he is and in what he has to offer:

“I am the bread of life (Jesus said). Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty”(John 6:35)

Jesus was not first person to use such a metaphor. Because it also occurs in the early Hebrew story about Elijah who is given the food to sustain him on his journey to meet with God (1 Kings 17:7-16). It is a story that also contains several layers of meaning, because it doesn't just refer to Elijah being physically hungry. Elijah had come to a turning point in his life. He was living in a time when it seemed that those faithful to God had slipped away and he thought he was the only one left. In those dark moments, God did not rebuke Elijah for his doubts, instead God met his needs and provided for him. The story reaches a climax when Elijah enters a cave and experiences a powerful encounter with God. Yet God didn't reveal himself in a life-shattering way, rather it was in the “sound of sheer silence” – and that experience was enough to remind Elijah that even in his moments of doubt and despair, God was still with him, and with this knowledge he was able to continue his life's mission to become one of the greatest prophets and miracle workers in the Hebrew scriptures.

As I pondered over these stories, the questions they raised for me included: 'What is it that we really want in our lives – deep down inside us? What do we hunger for? What would bring new life and hope and energy into our lives, or into our relationships, or revitalize our religious faith?

The Gospel reading for this week tells us that Jesus is the bread of life. That Jesus was been sent by God to become our spiritual food, to breath new life, new hope and renewed energy into our faith, so that we might have the courage and strength to support and sustain us on our life's journey. Jesus invites us to receive this renewed hope and vision that he offers to us, especially when we feel worn and weary. And he offers us more – he promises to walk beside us, and to fill our life with new meaning and purpose as he guides us into, and through, all that the future may hold in-store for us.

The German Theologian and one-time professor of Theology at Hamberg University, Helmut Thielicke, wrote a book titled 'How to Believe Again'. His writing has become a source of support for many people, especially in helping them to realise the questions they ask are often neither new or unique. And that our human capacity to think and reason, while it may point us towards truth, simply cannot carry us through all the commitments and relationships we may be forced to face in life.

He goes on to remind us that the one story in the Gospels where Jesus marvels at a person's 'great faith' wasn't to anyone who had a deep religious faith, rather it was to a person their Jewish culture treated as an outsider: a Canaanite woman who came pleading for her daughter's healing (Matthew 15: 21-28).

This story also contains many layers that includes the reference to bread. During their conversation the woman challenges Jesus as to who is entitled to eat bread. As their discussion ends, Jesus commends her for her 'Great Faith' because she was willing to cross the cultural, social and religious barriers that society and religion had imposed upon her. She was also willing to think outside the cultural square that would normally control her life. In doing so Jesus both heals her daughter and commends her as a woman of great faith because she had she discover something St Augustine said many years later:“we would not be able to seek God if God had not already found us”.

The same is potentially true for us as well – for God is never distant from us, and our life story, because God is already within us “nearer than our hands or feet” – especially when and if we do not know it.

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.huffpost.com/entry/the-smell-of-fresh-baked_n_2058480

 

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