A Very Different Pope!

There is increasing evidence that the newly-elected Pope Francis is a very different and challenging leader. From the beginning there were small touches that suggested that here was a man who ploughed his own furrow; he appeared simple and humble, yet he was clearly strong-minded and his gestures and words showed that he had a common touch.  

Yesterday I read some articles from a website (www.BigPulpit.com) that publishes daily analysis and insight stories from around the world that are of interest to Christians.  Several excerpts from Pope Francis’ recent homilies resonated strongly with me. This is a man who teaches that love and inclusion must always trump rules and clericalism.  His love is also very practical, neither mystical nor sentimental - indeed, he warns that it is far from easy to be a Christian.

Consider yesterday’s evidence m’lud!

One, Pope Francis describes the ‘sacrament of pastoral customs’. This is when we fail to welcome people with love and goodwill because we are too concerned with procedure and appearance. Instead of greeting with great joy the single mother who wants her child baptised, we get uptight about her unmarried status.  While his own examples are drawn from his priestly experience, I suspect we all have instances when we suffered from an excess of moral uprighteousness and a lack of love and charity.  I think this Pope is going to give any Pharisees in the Curia a hard time!  

Two, the Pope warned that "when a Christian has no difficulties in life – when everything is fine, everything is beautiful - something is wrong."  We have become friends of conformity, of comfort, "a great friend of the spirit of the world, of worldliness."  Fitting in with the prevailing Christian culture, doing social good, is not the same as following Jesus, having an authentic relationship with him; it is more about social advancement, careerism, comfort.  Challenging words for us all.

Three, the Pope acknowledges that he is a sinner. Specifically, he said ”... there are flaws, imperfections, sins – the Pope has his, as well: he has lots of them; but the beautiful thing is that, when we become aware that we are sinners, we find the mercy of God...”  He went on to say that “... sin is an offence against God, but it is also an opportunity: the humiliation of realising [that one is a sinner] and that there is something [exceedingly] beautiful: the mercy of God... God created us in order that we might live in a relationship of deep friendship with Him, and even when sin had broken this relationship with God, with others and with creation, God did not abandon us. The whole history of salvation is the story of God seeking man, offer[ing] humanity His love, embracing mankind.”

...My case rests.

And, if you can, why not join Pope Francis in prayer?  On Sunday 2 June, cathedrals and churches across the world will organize an hour of Eucharistic adoration, coinciding with 5 and 6 pm Rome time. (A little bird tells me that Sacred Heart Church will be organising Eucharistic adoration from 4.15 to 5.15pm on Sunday. Come and pray with Pope Francis, Fr. Kevin and a bunch of us.)

Thanks to http://www.ewtnnews.com/catholic-news/Vatican.php?id=7742; http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/25192/; http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/25225/ http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/eucarestia-eucharist-eucaristia-25194/

Still Looking Up: Wind Vanes

 

 It’s fun to concentrate on looking up for a while, just trying to spot something different...and today’s subject is wind vanes!

Wind vanes (or weather vanes, or weathercocks) have a long history. Apparently, the earliest recorded wind vane was built by an astronomer, Andronicus, and placed on the Tower of Winds in Athens around 50 B.C.

 Have you ever wondered why the image of a cockerel (weather ‘cock’) is often placed at the top, to show the wind direction?

Here’s a clue: ‘The Lord turned and looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the cock crows today, you will deny me three times.”’ (Luke: 22:61, NRSV)
 

The story is that in the ninth century a Pope decreed that every church should show a cock on its steeple to remind people of Jesus’ prophesy that the cock would not crow until Peter had denied Him three times. Over time, the cock was integrated into the wind vane. Even the 11th century Bayeux Tapestry shows a scene of a man attaching a rooster vane to the spire of Westminster Abbey.

These wind vanes are from private buildings in Hove. It’s great to see them instead of the ubiquitous TV aerials or Sky dishes!

 

 

 

The Holy Land and the Power of Witness

Michaela, our Parish Secretary, has returned safely from her Peace Cycle Ride in the Holy Land (cycling-for-peace). The ride was an awareness-raising event to draw attention to the effect that the Israeli occupation is having on the lives of the inhabitants of the Palestinian Territories.

Well, she’s back and she’s lost weight - but she has discovered a worthy cause.

I suspect that, like many people, my view of Israel, the Holy Land, is a bit myopic. It is the Holy Land after all, the very ground that God has trod, populated by His chosen people. End of story. It is inhabited by a special people who have suffered through the last two thousand and more years, most especially in the Holocaust, an underdog people to whom we therefore owe a tolerance, maybe even a license. There is also the suspicion that a supernatural hand has aided these survivors, helped them create a new- or renewed - homeland in the face of immense opposition, allowed the defeat of superior forces, permitted them to flourish exceptionally in the arts and sciences, even allowed their deserts to bloom.    

But when myths collide with the power of witness, it is the integrity of personal experience that forges a truth that reshapes understanding.

Michaela’s story is of the Palestinians, both Moslems and Christians, who live in greater Israel, in the shadow of Israeli occupation, prisoners in their own land, in some cases living in refugee camps for the last 65 years. It is a story of suppression, of daily intimidation and harassment. The Jews in first century Israel may have felt similarly about their Roman overlords, the exiles in Egypt about the Pharaoh’s overseers.

Daily hurts disappear overnight but it is the lasting changes that matter. It is the physical intrusion of the illegal settlements on Palestinian land, the high concrete Separation Walls that encircle coveted Palestinian territory. Their physicality speaks of an end to hope, the entombment of the Palestinians.

Like the story of Arlette and Claire Anastas, sisters and Palestinian Christians living in Bethlehem (see picture below). For many years they ran a thriving gift shop. Then, one morning, a thirty-foot wall was constructed, surrounding their shop and apartment on three sides, closing their road to traffic and tourists. Their business died, and with it their income.

...Sure, there are many truths, and there are arguments both for and against. Sometimes we are misled or misunderstand or chose not to hear. But sometimes a passionate witness tells a tale that has a life of its own. Listen again to the story of Israel, can’t you hear the faint cries of the Palestinians in the background?    

Homeless Tourists or Deserving Poor?

Today, our local newspaper, the Argus, has a middle-page spread on homelessness in the city. The article featured several interviews, including comments from two gentlemen who I recognise. One, a 49-year-old German national, had come to the UK looking for work two years ago, then became homeless, ended up spending eight months living in a car, and landed in Brighton. He commented that he has received so much help that he does not think he is ever going to leave.

The other, a 57-year-old UK citizen, split up from his wife six years ago, lost his job, developed a problem with alcohol and now sleeps in various doorways in Brighton. He praises the city for ready access to food, generous tourists and residents, helpful charities (First Base and Anti-Freeze), and adds that Brighton is “top draw for looking after us.”

Another homeless man praises the city’s atmosphere, the ease of getting food from different soup kitchens, and the housing help that is offered to qualified candidates.

If you thought that there might be a theme developing, you’d be right. The Brighton and Hove City Council defends itself against being a ‘soft touch’ for the homeless.   It makes some good points and adds that it ‘encourages’ people from outside the city to return to their own local areas, where they will have a better chance of escaping their homeless  status.

A conference on the problem of homelessness in Sussex was held in Brighton a couple of days ago for more than 100 delegates. Government estimates mention a 40% increase in rough sleepers in Sussex between 2010 and 2012, from 103 to 147 persons. One speaker referred to a 45% increase in UK nationals rough sleeping in London and predicted a similar effect for Sussex. Another spoke of destitute economic migrants from Eastern Europe and an emerging group from Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria that will add pressure to existing resources. Other considerations include the high incidence of unresolved diagnosable personality disorders found in 60% of people living in UK hostels.

What to do?

One recommendation that I have heard before is to close soup kitchens, to focus only on the ‘deserving poor’ and those with local connections. The call grows stronger as the warmer weather underscores the numbers of ‘homeless tourists’ and the notion that the city has become a ‘soft touch.’

On the other hand, the idea of a quick fix solution is anathema to the many dedicated people in this city who selflessly help the homeless, whatever their origin or condition, in summer and in winter. People are not pigeons and ‘do not feed’ signs will not work. As Christians, we are called to charity and to feed the poor. But we are also called to address the causes of poverty, for example through more and better resources to help those with personality or addiction problems, or tackling the causes of economic imbalance, and ensuring that the UK is not a Pied Piper for immigrants, attracting and then abandoning them.

In the meantime, we can be generous without losing sight of the objective, which is to eradicate homelessness, not to enable or sustain it.        

Confetti In May

The best of the annual cherry blossom flowering is over now. It was spectacular while it lasted, the boughs heavy with clusters of pink and white flowers. However, last night’s fierce winds have shaken the boughs and brought snowfalls of petals, dusting the pavements and gardens, drifting into heaps.

 

They look like confetti, these brightly colour pieces of paper that we see - less frequently now - sprinkled on the church path and on the street outside, reminding us that something beautiful and marvellous has just happened – a wedding. The fallen petals also speak of the recent sacrament of spring blossoms, both gifts of love and beauty.

Both are fragile, but for different reasons. In Japan, the cherry blossoms arrived a week early, and Takashi Yoshida, a climate expert at the Japan Metrological Society, blamed “a warming climate and urbanisation.” In England, the rate of marriages is very low historically, and the government is attempting to redefine marriage - which is the voluntary union for life of one man and one women to the exclusion of all others - to something else.   

The Joy of Being a E.M.

 

Several years ago our parish priest appealed for volunteers to become Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, better known as Eucharistic Ministers (EMs). I remember thinking ‘absolutely no way!’ Taking Holy Communion to the sick and housebound, offering it during mass - even approaching the Tabernacle - was way beyond my comfort level.

If I had to suggest a possible candidate, I’d have said someone who attended daily mass, went to weekly confession, frequented Eucharistic adoration as much as possible. Someone who knew the words (and the tune) to Tantum Ergo, lit lots of candles, used holy water and the other sacramentals, had read all of the Encyclicals, the Constitutions of Vatican II, knew the Catechism back to front - and had calluses on both knees from hours spent in prayer...

So when a new parish priest asked me the same question just over a year ago, I had my answer ready: “I’m afraid not. I’m really not holy enough, Father.” (And, to be frank, I’m much more comfortable being an observer, not a participant, sitting in my pew near the back of the church).

I didn’t expect his reply. “No one is. We’re none of us worthy. Think how I feel - and I say mass.”

Well...this was not what I was expecting. Parish priests make mild enquiries, and then they half expect to be gently rebuffed. They certainly do not behave like recruiting sergeants. Before I came to my senses, my wife and I were both signed up to the next EM training class.

I was reflecting on that today, on my reluctant conscription, just 15 months ago.

I don’t think you can be a EM and be unaffected. The God who humbled himself to become a tiny wafer of bread inspires increasing awe, gratitude, reverence, devotion, even joy. You certainly think more about purity and respect, but the sense of unworthiness is balanced by the opportunity to demonstrate love through service. There is a real danger of imperceptibly becoming a different - and hopefully a better - person, through association or grace, rather than through effort.   

Deo gratias!        
  

Cycling for Peace

There’s often much to admire in people who are passionate, even zealous about a cause (particularly if the cause is one that we agree with or, at least, can feel sympathy towards).

So, I watched with some amazement over the last four months as Michaela, our Parish Secretary, transformed herself in order to demonstrate her support for the cause of peace and justice in Palestine. She started with giving up her twenty-a-day cigarette habit (- a habit that she had enjoyed for the last 27 years). Then she took up cycling again, riding along the coast road for miles each day, bundled up in a fur-lined snowboarding jacket, in temperatures that barely rose above zero. One day she strained her back so that she could not stand up, and had to rest for a week. Then, there was the hill training...

Today, Michaela should have arrived in Nazareth, on her way to join The Peace Cycle ride. It involves riding about 30 kilometres per day, in company, on a route that goes through the West Bank, visiting Ramallah and Bethlehem, before arriving in Jerusalem on 16^th May. The aim of the cycle run is to raise awareness of the situation in Palestine and Israel.

It’s been a tough slog preparing for the event, and I don’t imagine the ride itself will be easy or comfortable. So, we’ll be praying that Michaela stays safe, successfully completes the route – and returns with some amazing stories!