Fr. David's Reflections

‘If anyone wants to come with me, he must forget self, take up his cross every day, and follow me’ Luke 9:23.

(Stop Here! Don’t pass on until you absorb these words!

“One who has no resources and no hopes, and doesn’t desire any!”

From time immemorial, saints and gurus and spiritual masters,

The biggest hang-up I suffer from is – wait for it! – hatred of the Designer Label. The saddest (sickest?) thing I’ve heard recently was of a group of youngsters, not yet in their teens, laughing and jeering at one of their peers because his runners had been purchased in Dunnes Stores!

We all hear people talking about Christmas – the pressures, the expense, the nuisance of it all. We hear people saying they wish it was all over. What an awful shame!

The Story of Christmas

Thirteen hundred euro for a domestic-sized crib! It was on sale in one of the major chain stores, and I stared at it in disbelief. It was an elaborate, wooden structure, with, at a guess, six figures. But it was the outlandish additions and appendages

I’m sure you’ve come across the story about the four characters – Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done, and it was the responsibility of Everybody to do it. Now, Everybody was sure Somebody would do it.

That’s the gift that King Solomon asked from God. And God was so pleased with him for asking that He gave him riches and gifts beyond measure, besides.

An understanding heart!

I have always thought of “energy” as a very physical thing. You got it in large quantities when atoms were split or the power of heat or water harnessed. On the personal level, I would feel energetic if I were healthy, ate the right food and took the right amount of sleep and rest and exercise.

“Two men looked thru’ prison bars,
One saw mud, and one saw stars.”

The bodily resurrection of Jesus is both fact and symbol. And, strangely, it is as a symbol that it is most important for us. Christ freed us from sin. By ‘sin’ we don’t just mean the personal, sinful acts, whether big or small, that we all commit.

Of course we can find some sort of meaning for ourselves in a variety of pursuits and achievements that keep us going from day to day. On the lower end of the spectrum, we have experiences like winning a football match

I’m convinced that ‘unlearning’ is every bit as vital to our growth as ‘learning’. Indeed, perhaps more vital! Unlearning what? Unlearning whatever negative inputs received in early childhood, that may have distorted truth for us.

Nowadays we all love to be positive; “negative” has become a kind of bad word. After all, who wouldn’t prefer a profit to a loss, an up to a down, to go forward rather than backward, a plus to a minus! Until, that is, we go to the doctor with a suspected illness,

It used bewilder me to hear, in the preface of the Mass, Lent described as “this joyful season”.

What could be joyful about making sacrifices:

The disciple asked his teacher: “To what should I give my greatest attention, to what attach the greatest importance?” The Master replied without hesitation: “To whatever you happen to be doing at the moment”.

In our differences with one another, and even when we remain convinced that the fault lies on the other side, there is still always some element for which we ought to apologise, be it nothing more than a show of slight impatience.

I was aware, too, through years of pastoral involvement, many examples of the evils of excessive activity. Fathers, with their family lives in shreds, pleading continual late hours of work as evidence of a love that, in fact, acutely needed their time and involvement for family survival;

Every year amidst the parties, shopping sprees, commercialism and material excesses of Christmas-time, we are encouraged and reminded, sometimes gently, sometimes stridently, “not to lose sight of the real meaning of Christmas”.

Make a point of spending time before the Crib this Christmas. Not just the brief visits with your children, but time, real time, for yourself. Time to bow before the mystery of it all. Time to let your eyes wander from figure to figure as you take in the picture and contemplate the message.

Christmas is a renownedly difficult time for the bereaved. The intrinsic joy of the season with its natural family togetherness, the irrepressible excitement of the children, carols and Christmas music, eating and drinking and sharing gifts with friends and colleagues

It’s a beautiful word, “welcome”! We constantly welcome one another to our home or to a meeting, aboard a plane or to Sunday Mass. Nowadays, “you’re welcome” has become the routine acknowledgement of the frequent “thank yous” that are scattered through our day.

“Christmas is coming and the geese are getting fat. Let’s all put a penny in the poor man’s hat.”

This little rhyme, penned so many generations ago,

Some prayers are simple cries for help. We spell out our needs and desires to God, and ask Him to come to our aid.

The Complete Serenity Prayer is a cry for help.

Are you inclined to criticise or complain about others? If so, listen to the Guru’s advice:

“If it’s peace you want, seek to change yourself, not other people.

Where is the Church in Knocklyon? In one sense it is just behind Superquinn, at the top of Idrone Avenue. But is this the only answer?

Where two housewives meet over a cup of coffee,

Yesterday’s “Family Fun Sports” put me in philosophic mood! It was a happy event. Smiles were the order of the day. You exchanged a few friendly words, whether of banter or of atmospheric expectation, with people standing around the running track or queuing for the pony rides.

A newly married couple asked: “What shall we do to make our love endure?”
Said the Master: “Love other things together”.
(One Minute Wisdom by A. de Mello)

I met a man one day last week. He had troubles. He told me about them. There was a whole litany of devastation he needed to express. How much pain he was feeling! Worse still, how much pain he had inflicted on others, and particularly on those he loved.

Things don’t “just happen”. Nothing does. Spell it out and underline: “NOTHING!” For God’s all loving Will underpins every single movement in the Universe. Words like “accident” or “coincidence” are not part of God’s vocabulary.

There’s an irony in the way our interest and enthusiasm for life increases as our energy and agility gradually wanes. At least that’s been my experience. Ongoing! Still, I’d say I’m by no means alone in that:

At its most fundamental, Nature always seems to deliver opposites, some of them contradictory, some complementary. Electrons and Protons in matter. Positive poles and negative poles in electricity. North and South poles in magnetism.

A phrase I read somewhere, sometime, has haunted me: “Nature, in all its beauty and its violence…….!” I have the National Geographic TV Channel to thank for enabling me to grasp the in-depth reality of it. Once again, seeing is believing!