+ Tues 9th June – to go ‘back’ or to renew?
Greetings everyone –
Hope you were able to enjoy a different kind of day in some way with the holiday Monday. I was able to have a welcome free day and catch up with a couple of friends as well as take a motorcycle ride in the glorious winter sun. As you might have seen via the Parish blog post information last week, the frequency of posts in this space is now reducing to three times a week. This shift is happening simultaneously with what’s now some physical opening times and gathering opportunities at the church. SEE THE BULLETIN in this parish website for the full current schedule of such times and opportunities.
A COUPLE OF REALLY BRIEF CLIPS TO FOCUS THIS BLOG THEME
In today’s post, here are a couple of very short Youtube clips which in their own ways reflect on life after Covid-19. This first one is two minutes only and is the mayor of Seoul, South Korea, named Park Won-Soon. It’s not included here because it’s profound or anything .. so don’t be disappointed. But you might want to just listen out for the way this leader has embraced – and calls for – ongoing change:
The words ‘cooperation’ and ‘solidarity’ were significant. And he suggested that beyond COVID we should become wiser environmentally and have greater respect for the natural forces around us. If whole nations indeed took on board those concepts, the world could potentially be quite different as a result – and in some ways, significantly for the better.
APPLYING A SPIRITUAL PERSPECTIVE
Seeing those kinds of comments as the ones above from a spiritual perspective – we might find it meaningful to see the embracing of changes ahead, by groups and nations, as an honouring of the loss of life and livelihood that has occurred. This could also be a helpful approach on a personal spiritual level – that rather than wanting things to drift back to the same as before, even though that might be tempting – that asking God to give me openness to my next renewal as a result of this time – is a personal honouring of the grief and struggle of others.
The next video is equally short – and is from Seven News here in Australia about a week ago. The concepts presented in it concern the potential reactions in individuals as we emerge from the ‘new environment’ of COVID that we’ve been living:
Isn’t that one interesting in the way it speaks of reintegration and reverse culture shock? It also speaks of how people can feel a kind of ‘let down phenomenon’ in the strangeness of coming out of what’s been a strange but new time. These realities can help us to realise the importance of – not just letting the coming out of COVID happen – but to be people who seek to learn next lessons and possibilities in the way we live and share our lives and faith.
IMPLICATIONS FOR LIFE AND FAITH
The homily on the weekend quoted someone who had made a point, using a bit of a play on words. The person said ‘we’re not going BACK to Mass – because going back is going in reverse’. He then said – ‘We’re going to Mass to RE-NEW not to RE-VERSE’. Take the play on words as you will – but it’s a valuable point he made in terms of what our shared faith life is on about when we gather. As you know, the two weekend Masses we had were both live streamed and will be again next weekend. In doing so we’re obviously not connecting with thousands of people! Rather, it’s just one little effort. But someone who was there on the weekend made this comment afterwards:
‘I really felt part of reaching to others by being part of the Mass here today – I hope we can keep doing more things to make new connections.’
It was that person’s comments after the 9.30am Mass that led me to put this blog post together for this week.
COVID / BLACK LIVES MATTER / ABORIGINAL DEATHS IN CUSTODY / SOLIDARITY … WHERE TO FROM HERE?
We need to take good reflection time to ask how the Church, and how we as people of a parish, might learn from this COVID time – how we can embrace new passion to connect – with each other – and much more widely with others too.
During COVID, so much human yearning and goodness and hope has been expressed and continues to be expressed especially in countries where the COVID threat is still very high.
As well, we have now seen the remarkable solidarity movements of recent times, expressing what is like a tectonic shift of historically suppressed energy; energy regarding the inequalities experienced by so many black people, coloured people, indigenous people – people who are not part of the dominant group, or the colonising culture. And significantly, many who are part of the dominant group or historical colonising culture have joined this solidarity in various ways – people not blocking out human experience, even if it means sharing the sting of what their own/our own history presumed to have the right to do and be.
The stories behind these movements – and yearnings for well being and change being spoken of throughout the world in this COVID time – are enormously relevant raw materials for us to put into the context of our reason for gathering in faith. In those stories and yearnings Jesus would extend his heart and hand – the Gospel would ring out – and the Kingdom would bring connection, belonging and healing.
POSSIBILITY
Hopefully, the opening of our church and others can inspire some new possibilities for us; possibilities discovered and learned as we faithfully observe the signs of the times.
The Second Vatican Council back in the 1960’s was a historic and ground breaking time of the Church that is still trying to find its way more effectively into the faith that’s lived and shared by us today. Let’s finish this blog post with the opening paragraph of one of that Council’s most important documents entitled Gaudium et Spes .. which means Joy and Hope and was the document about the call of The Church in the Modern World. The intro to that document could be applied pretty directly to our call amidst the world’s yearnings in COVID times, as many people struggle with grief and/or livelihood all over the world .. and as many all over the world seek for human inclusion and recognition of those on the margins or traditionally without society’s power. Here’s that historic paragraph from the Church from 1965: (with inclusive gender language adaption) – May it enthuse and inspire us forward in faith at this momentous time:
The joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties of the people of this age, especially those who are poor or in any way afflicted, these are the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties of the followers of Christ. Indeed, nothing genuinely human fails to raise an echo in their hearts. For theirs is a community composed of people. United in Christ, they are led by the Holy Spirit in their journey to the Kingdom of their Father and they have welcomed the news of salvation which is meant for every person. That is why this community realises that it is truly linked with humankind and its history by the deepest of bonds. (Gaudium et Spes – The Church in the Modern World #1)
With friendship in God’s mission
fr Paul
and P.S. / I’ll re-quote the words of that parishioner after Mass on Sunday – because in a way they’re a bit like a one line summary of this blog post:
‘I really felt part of reaching to others by being part of the Mass here today – I hope we can keep doing more things to make new connections.’
