The shape of things to come

I was talking to a priest recently, who said that people need to begin to realise how much things are about to change. Such is the shortage of priests in the Lancaster Diocese, that the present arrangement of parishes and avilability of Masses is sustainable for  just a few more years. The majority of Diocesan priests are getting old and there is no possibility of vocations, even if there was an immediate surge, being able to replace those who retire or die.

It's interesting that we are also at the beginning of the Year of Faith, when the Holy Father is calling on us to grow in faith; for those who have lapsed to consider returning and for evangelisation to open the door to new converts. So we have this contrast of declining numbers of pastors in this Diocese, and probably most of the Western world,  at a time where the Church is seeking to grow in faith and in numbers.

I do not know what plans there are in the Diocese to manage this existential problem. Can the situation regarding the decline in the number of priests be improved, before we reach the critical mass point where the church in this area is no longer sustainable? Or is there an alternative that allows communities to meet and to share the Eucharist and fellowship?

We must first and foremost pray and trust in God. Then we must avoid bitter reaguard actions to defend the indefensible ie keeping the status quo. And we should perhaps look at the future with some eager anticipation. If we trust God then we walk confidently forward with him. It is
possible that where he leads us is better than where we are coming from.

Trading Places

In last Sunday's readings there is an interesting parallel between the first reading and the Gospel. Moses says of those diagnosed as lepers that they must live outside the camp. And so the leper who approached Jesus would have lived outside of the local communities. When Jesus healed him, he was immediately able to return to normal life and to enter his home town. Jesus, on the other hand, "could no longer go openly into any town, but had to stay outside where nobody lived." Jesus experienced what the leper had experienced. Jesus took on the leper's role as outcast. In the same way, but to a much greater degree, Jesus took on the role of outcast, when He died on the Cross outside the city to take away the leprosy of our sin. As he traded places with the leper so he traded places with each sinner; so that cleansed we might return again in to the community of God's Kingdom.

Pakistan:Blasphemy Law

I am indebted to Michael from ACN UK for leaving me a comment and a request to draw attention to the Blasphemy Law in Pakistan, an upcoming rally and an online petition.Below is Michael's comment which is self-explanatory.

" Protect Christians and other minorities in Pakistan - sign Aid to the Church in Need's petition to change blasphemy laws.

Backing ACN's call to change Pakistan's notorious Blasphemy Law, Britain's leading Catholic, Cardinal Keith Patrick O Brien, Archbishop of St Andrews said: " I have been aware of the persecution of Christians and those of other faiths in Pakistan and I am only too happy to endorse this petition."
The laws have been cited as the the cause of 14 seperate attacks on Christians over the last two months and the deaths of at least fifty Christians in the last decade as well as many Muslims.
Please show your solidarity with Pakistan's faithful - and ask for peace, justice human rights for all people of Pakistan - by signing our petition www.acnuk.org/petition

The petition will  be handed in at 10  Downing Street on Saturday in a march organised by the British Pakistani Christian Association in association with other organisations, including Christian charities and representatives of the Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities.

ACN UK Director, Neville Kyrke-Smith, who will be among those handing in the petition at 10 Downing Street said: " Blasphemy for us is just a word. For Christians and all people in Pakistan, the accusation of blasphemy can lead to death - it did for Shabaz Bhatti, Pakistan's      minister for minorities. Please sign for freedom and protection of religious minorities... you will be helping the Christian and other communities who suffer intolerance and persecution due to the present blasphemy laws."
John Pontifex, ACN UK Head of Press Information, will be one of the speakers at the protest.


Please sign the petition  and forward to others. Do join us at this urgent protest on Saturday 2nd July beginning at 11.00am at the High Commission for Pakistan, Lowndes Square London, SW1X 9JN."

God's secret shoppers

Big stores employ people to go round their shops to experience and report back on how customers are treated;on how well or how badly staff are doing what they are supposed to do.
Well, suppose God had his own secret shoppers, people he sent to test out how well his operation on earth was working and how well those in his service were doing their jobs. Can you imagine how God must feel when he sees how his people sometimes treat each other; not in the big Christian killing Christian way but in the small everyday encounters by which most of us live out our faith!
I was talking to somebody who told me that as she was leaving church the other day, she was asked by a couple  if they may go in to say a prayer, though the church was due to close. It seemed that one of the two was a Catholic but hadn't been to church for years. They were told yes, go in light a candle and pray. Now maybe they were secret shoppers; maybe God put a prompting in their hearts to pray at that moment and, on this occasion, the secret shoppers got the right response. Who knows what the long term impact might be in that particular situation. Alternatively what it might be if they had been rebuffed in any way.
Now whether or not God has his secret shoppers - and I have no doubt that God does - the important point is that how we treat others, especially in our "holy places" is crucial, not only for our own spiritual well-being, but also for the extension of God's redemptive plan. It is through such small actions that the Kingdom grows or fails to grow. It is our part of the deal. Our salvation obliges us to share in building this Kingdom and we are accountable ultimately to God for the times we build and the times when, by our attitude or response, we not only fail to build but destroy what Kingdom life may exist in those we treat badly.
Sadly, there are often other spirits than the Holy Spirit, that dictate how we behave towards each other, no less inside our church communities than outside. But, if we let the Holy Spirit be our guide then we need not fear the secret shoppers and we can get on with building the Kingdom.

South Sudan

Aid to the Church in Need reports on the serious and continuing problems on the border of North and South Sudand here for link. Please pray for those Christian and Muslim people whose prolonged suffering continues.

Forgiveness too.

One of the things that the Bible is critical of is our love of gossip. Everybody gossips, listening to and passing on rumours, information and so on. Sometimes gossip is harmless, but more often than not  gossip is motivated by some very unpleasant attitudes. We like to condemn those we don't like or those who we believe have sleighted us in some way. Sometimes it's a way of hitting back, sometimes it is born out of smug selfrighteousness and often there is a lot of scapegoating present. We like to get other people on our "side". Gossip can be thoroughly unpleasant and dangerous. It is particularly dangerous to our spiritual health which is why the Bible warns against it.
In the last post on forgiveness, the act of forgiving was seen to open up the possibility of healing the person who had committed the offence as well as benefitting the forgiver. Not so with gossip.
Gossip heals and benefits neither party. When we gossip and build up our malicious image of an individual, we are refusing to forgive. More than that we are blocking the flow of grace and implying that the person is beyond change. Gossip is profoundly un-Christian. It does not flow from our God-given ability to love and forgive. It fails to see another person as made in the image and likeness of God.  It refuses to allow God's grace to heal and it binds the gossiper into sin. We might feel "righteous" but that is self-righteousness which is the direct opposite of the rigtheousness that comes from God.
Instead of gossiping, then, the Christian response is to avoid this "occasion of sin" and pray for all parties involved in the gossip. That way we can begin to follow the demand of Jesus that we love and pray for our enemies and those who use us badly.  Sometimes we need to go to God first for him to heal us of this sin; afterwards it is much easier. We should not let the same lips that praise God do the work of the devil.

Forgiveness

Yesterday's Gospel, Matthew 6: 7-15, has Jesus teaching the disciples to pray what we now call, the Lord's Prayer. The passage concludes : "Yes, if you forgive others their failings, you're heavenly Father will forgive you yours; but if you do not forgive others, your Father will not forgive your failings either."
It is the word "failings" that is of particular interest in this translation, the Jerusalem Bible. We are more familiar with trespasses or debts. The word is interesting because it can be interpreted more widely than meaning the things done to a person; or not done as the case may be. It is possible to see the word extended to the aspects of the person's character or personality that causes them to sin in the first place : the less savoury bits of our human nature. In this interpretation we go beyond forgiving the words or actions that offend us and we begin to understand the source and by forgiving  the underlying  human weakness, not just the outcome of that weakness, we open up the possibility for God's grace not only to forgive but also to heal.
If we adopt this approach, it raise big issues about how we relate to others, particularly those we don't care for.