Feast of the Holy Family

We are accustomed to hearing about different types of families: blended families, broken families, happy families, etc. Today is when we hear about and celebrate a Holy Family. It only takes a cursory glance over the programmes on television for the last couple of decades to see that functional families do not make for great ratings. The Simpsons we have to be one of the few to have a father and mother who are on their first marriage and despite all the challenges stay together. Although we know little of the early years of Jesus I think most people would be correct in guessing that they would have had financial, health and relational challenges. Jesus getting left behind during the visit to Jerusalem tells us that the family was holy but it wasn't perfect in terms of never having to face up to the challenges or ordinary people. This is why despite the exceptional individuals who made up the family unit we can still have the Holy Family as a model for our own families and strive to be loving, peaceful and forgiving after the example and teaching of the Lord. After all, his first human experiences of the Father's love would have been in the arms of Joseph and on the knee of Mary. It is easy, on occasion, to get cynical about families whether it is our own or in general. In this Year of Mercy there is a fresh opportunity to look anew with loving and compassionate eyes at our relations see in them the workings of grace. 

Welcome to Saint Mary's parish for Christmas. We have a number of communities within the parish who will celebrate Christ's birth each in a different way. There are the Masses in English at St Columba's and St Mary's as well as in Malayalam for the Syro-Malabar community and the Mass in the Extraordinary Form (Latin) which is also at St Columba's. The multi-ethnic community of all these Mass times speaks of the universal significance of the birth of Jesus Christ and the potential of faith in him to unite the whole human family.   This holiday, however, can mean many things to different people as you will all be aware. Yet, here we are to participate in the Catholic Mass. God can be frightening. Religion, too, can fill people with trepidation. Spiritual realities are beyond our control and yet they stir up great passions and convictions - even terrorism and violence. Not only that, most of the time, these personal or collective experiences of the spiritual such as awe, love and beauty are conveyed in stories and literature from long ago by people who themselves were caught up in the awesome mystery of life. This can be diifficult to comprehend especially in a context of loss, evil or suffering.  One option is to turn away or even to label anything to do with faith and things unseen as a delusion. Richard Dawkins famously wrote a book entitled The God Delusion. Nevertheless, having mocked the attempts of others to articulate their experience of the transcendent and what it means to be human he, in turn, has the temerity to write his autobiography! I hope he has a scientific experiment to prove every element of his life story and can point to the genes that obliged him to write about it! This includes the gene that told him to marry his wife or to tell others they are deluded in believing that God exists or indeed the opposite. I wonder what she thinks? How do I/we give voice to our faith and experience of God, family, life, faith death, suffering, gratitude, etc? Are we deluded? I say we are not deluded but at the same time we know we are limited. It is only through prayers, songs, symbols, gifts, decorations, meals and other activities that we can give voice to our inmost longings and our shared hope with others. participation in the Eucharist is one of these moments. The desires, placed in our hearts by the One who summoned us into existence, therefore find a moment of fulfilment in our Christmas worship. In the end it is all about the desire to love and be loved as well as the infinite generosity of the God, revealed to us in Jesus, as Abba - Daddy. .  The wonderful thing about the Mass is that it is not our prayer only above all it is the prayer of Christ. We cannot and need not plumb the depths of the mystery of Emmanuel - God with us. I invite you this Christmas simply to raise your hearts and minds to God and let him do the work. We are, after all, saved by grace. In our weakness and frail humanity we can trust that God still has the power to work in and through us, even as he did with the shepherds, to give glory to God on this sacred night. "Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. And God, who searches the heart, knows what the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. " (Rom 8: 26-27)  Click here to Reply, Reply to all or Forward 2.59 GB (17%) of 15 GB used Manage Terms - Privacy Last account activity: 21 minutes ago Details People (2) St Mary's parish stmaryspalmy@inspire.net.nz Show details    Click here to Reply, Reply to all or Forward 2.59 GB (17%) of 15 GB used Manage Terms - Privacy Last account activity: 21 minutes ago Details

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Fourth Sunday of Advent

The encounter between Mary and Elizabeth is one of the few times we see women in the Bible relating to each other. In the Old Testament Ruth pledges her loyalty to the older Naomi. Today Elizabeth acknowledges the younger Mary to be her superior. Both rejoice in what God has done and is doing for them. The role of women in spreading the faith and handing it on to their children is crucial to the life and mission of the Church. The courage of Elizabeth and Mary is replicated many times over not only in the lives of the great saints but also of our mothers, grandmothers, aunts and female religious who have nurtured us and shown us the meaning of faith in a sometimes hard and unforgiving world. We can also think of ourselves as bearers of the Word sown in us and that when we yield the fruit of the Word we also honour the memories of those women who have cared for us and loved us so much even through times of suffering and hardship. After all, Elizabeth has a husband who had been struck dumb and Mary was indanger of being stoned to death by having committed adultery.  

Third Sunday of Advent - Beginning of the Jubilee Year of Mercy

The crowds ask John the Baptist: "What should we do?". Similarly, at the beginning of the Year of Mercy in Rome the members of the Church ask "What should we do?". As in the Gospel the answer will differ according to the occupation, state of life, age, sex, etc of the individual. Nevertheless, it is possible for everyone to participate in the Jubilee of Mercy and to be agents of mercy. Examples of what can be done are enumerated but not exhausted in the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. Whatever my stage of life I am able to cooperate with grace to bring mercy to others. This is because I am conscious that God has been merciful to me and in doing so there is a new reality where sin and death do not have the last say. Saint Paul wrote: "So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has givenn us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to GOd. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." (2 Cor. 5: 17-21) 

2nd Sunday of Advent

I am curious about the life of John the Baptist. When did he have his own moment of conversion or repentance? We know from the Gospels that he was destined to give glory to God from his conception nevetheless when did he decide to dress as an old time prophet and to go into the wilderness? When did he start baptising and did someone baptise him first? We cannot know these things. Yet, the call to repentance ( Hebrew: Shuv - meaning to turn around or take a decisive, new direction) from John echoes down the centuries and challenges us today. What parts of my life keep me from seeing God? Do I need a moment of conversion to give me the strength to turn my back on addictions or bad habits? Sometimes we need prophets to stir us from our complacency so that our focus will be taken away from our disordered desires and put back on God and his plan for us.