The tragedy of Jean Vanier: Saint or Sinner? - A personal reflection

I like many in the Catholic world, am still reeling with shock over the news that broke this morning of allegations against Jean Vanier for sexually abusing six women between 1970 and 2005. According to the internal report initiated by L’Arche International, “sexual relations were instigated by Vanier, usually in the context of giving spiritual guidance.” Although “None of the woman he abused were themselves disabled…these actions are indicative of a deep psychological and spiritual hold that Jean Vanier had on these women”

What are we to make of all this? In the eyes of many Vanier was a living saint. He founded the L’Arche community in 1964 to provide care and dignity for the mentally and physically disabled. Vanier has been an inspiration to many. His homes for the disabled are well respected as places where those with disabilities live and work as equals alongside those with none. His philosophical and spiritual writings display a deep and profound vision of the human person made in the image and likeness of God.  The great and the good have recognised the unique contribution that this disciple of Christ has made to the lives of the weak and the vulnerable. He was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and awarded both the Companion of the Order of Canada and the Templeton Prize, which he received in 2015 from the Archbishop of Canterbury. I myself heard him speak and met him briefly several years ago and was deeply moved by his words and his manner. And yet today, we have the shocking news that Jean Vanier had another side to him, and it is alleged, he abused the trust of women who came to him for spiritual guidance.

I must confess, I felt absolutely gutted when the news broke this morning. After a few moments of disbelief and then another twenty minutes or so of scouring the internet for different versions of the story, I did, what I should have done straight away, and went to the Blessed Sacrament Chapel in my house.

I sat with the Lord for a while and allowed the anger, frustration and disbelief to settle and then sat with simple question: Why? Why him? Why did he do it? Why now after he is dead? Why? And I seemed to get by way of an answer back: Why not him? I was stunned at this answer and sat with this for a moment longer….why not him? Well, I responded to the Lord,  because he is has done X Y and Z for the sake of the Gospel, because he was inspiration, because I liked him… because he is a good man….I waited in prayer but heard  nothing.  Them in the silence, I seemed to hear the words from scripture: ‘Only God is good’.

Only God is good.

It seems to me that Jean Vanier is in a sense both an icon of the Church and of every Christian. Now, before you stone me, hear me out. No one is good, not completely. All of us are sinners in need of the mercy of God, all of us - without exception. It’s no good saying I’m not like that, I haven’t done that….all of us, if we are honest with ourselves, harbour thought of greed, gluttony, anger, lust, pride, deceit, envy, sloth (to name a few!) and, what is more, all of us have acted on these in various ways and to various degrees throughout our lives. If you think you haven’t you are deluded or you are a liar. People are very quick to judge, and social media is full of comments like “He was a vile man” – but this simply is not true. Or at least if it is true, it is true of everyone. Jean Vanier wasn’t a good man, but nor was he a bad man – he was sinner in need of the mercy of God. A sinner who God used for his glory, a sinner who did incredible things for the kingdom and at the same time a sinner who did awful things, and allegedly, terrible things. This is not a defence of his alleged behaviour, rather it is a call to remember to love the sinner and hate the sin. Christ taught us not to judge and not to condemn people – we condemn the behaviour but never the person.  For those of us who are quick to condemn we, all too often, miss the plank in our own eyes whilst pointing out the splinter in our neighbour.

So how is Jean Vanier an icon of the Church and or every Christian?  Well, because the Church, made up of individual Christians, is a body of sinners in need of the mercy of God. There is extraordinary goodness, sublime truth and beauty in the Church and in the lives of individual believers, just as there was in the life of Jean Vanier. Equally, however, this beauty, truth and goodness co-exists alongside evil, filth and corruption in the Church, in our lives and clearly in the life of Jean Vanier.

The mystery of God is that he entrusts his greatness and beauty to us broken and fragile human beings. As St Paul writes, we are simply the ‘clay jars that hold this treasure’ (2.Cor 4:7) It is the treasure we worship, it the treasure that transforms us not the clay jar!

When we are tempted to worship the Church, or we worship ourselves or when we worship and individual (Jean Vanier was a hero to many of us) we will always be left wanting and we will always be disappointed. When, however, we worship God, we remember that he is the one that brings forth beauty truth and goodness. When we remember that only God is good then we will not be so shaken when the human condition reveals its fallen nature – even in the most tragic of ways.

The allegations made against Jean Vanier are indeed tragic, awful and deeply disturbing. Abusive behaviour of any kind must be dealt with and institutions must always find the most appropriate ways to safeguard members. We must pray, we pray particularly for the victims who were courageous enough to come forward and of course we must pray for the L’Arche communities across the world that must be devastated by this news, and of course we pray for Jean Vanier's soul.

I think it’s important to remember, however, that this news, as devastating as it is, does not undo the enormous good that Jean Vanier did. He was a sinner in need of the mercy of God, he did bad things and he did good things. We rightly condemn the bad things and work to repair the damage, we rightly  praise the good things, but we must leave the  judgement of a person to God and to God alone - for only God see’s the full picture, only God can read the human heart.

As Christians and as a Church we are, perhaps, too quick to make heroes and villains out of people. An event like this is perhaps a reminder to us to fix our eyes on Christ - for only he is good. Fixing our eyes on him, let us put everything we have into the hands of the Divine Mercy of God.

As I end, I am reminded of a quote from BBC’s Dr who;

“The way I see it, every life is a pile of good things and bad things. The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but vice versa, the bad things don’t always spoil the good things and make them unimportant.”

The 12^th Doctor

Learning to shut-up in the presence of God! Some thoughts on silence, or the lack of it in our lives and in our churches

We live in an ever-increasing noisy world. With social media, Netflix, emails and people we are surrounded by sound all the time. On those rare occasions when we might get the opportunity for silence many instinctively fill the void by watching YouTube, putting the car radio on or calling someone up on the phone. Noise it would seem is not just everywhere, there is also a sense in which we want it - it’s as if we are afraid of what we might face in the silence. What is more, noise is not always audible. This might seem like a bit of contradiction, after all, is noise not sound by definition? Well perhaps on one level it is, but on another level, a spiritual level, noise also refers to the busy-ness that we fill our lives with. The books and articles we read, even spiritual ones – the work that we do, the things that we have. In short, our thoughts can simply become noise and can block out a certain degree of reality by filling our mind with noise. This is problem, not least, because the ultimate  reality that is shut out is God. Noise destroys silence and silence is the language of God.

It is in the silence of our hearts, the silence of our souls, that we encounter most fully and intimately the divine presence. Silence connects us to the still, small, silent voice of God who resides in the depths of our hearts.

I firmly believe that as Christians we need to learn to be people who shut-up in the presence of God. When we love someone or are best friends with someone it is not always necessary to speak – we can see this in couples who have been together for a long time – often it is enough simply to sit and be in each other’s presence,  simply being with the other, that is enough.

I think that we lose something profound and important when we lose the ability to simply sit and be.  Furthermore, one of the big problems that relates to the loss of silence in our world is the confusion that has arisen between function and being. Put simply, our world, our society and even our Church at times seems obsessed with what we do, how successful we are and how productive we are. Ask people how they are, and you invariably get the response ‘busy’ – I’m guilty of it myself. Busy-ness has been turned into a virtue – we feel like we should busy doing stuff all the time. Yet, being busy, filling our time with stuff – even stuff “for the gospel” is not a virtue. In fact, that latter, can be detrimental because the whole gospel endeavour can quickly become about us, about our initiative, and how much we are doing – whilst all the time ignoring that God is the one who is in charge, God is the source, God is the reason – not us.

I am utterly convinced that serious spiritual development cannot take place without silence. One of the things that I try to instil into my own parish community is the need for silence in and around Church and Mass. Silence and reverence are in inextricably related. It is hard to pray in a Church if the people around you are talking incessantly or worse, they try and talk to you whilst you are trying to talk to God!

We have lost, it seems, the instinctive silence and indeed reverence that is required for prayer and worship. It is wonderful that we have vibrant and joyful communities that are happy to see each other and share the weeks news, but this should never happen at the expense of being quiet, still and silent in the presence of God. The fact that our churches contain the greatest of all treasures – Jesus Himself, truly and sacramentally present should invoke real silence and reverence. Sadly, it seems so often that presence of Christ in his Church is obscured by the din of a social gathering rather than revered by prayerful and reverential silence.

In short, we live in a world of noise, but the God of silence calls us out of this noise into a place of rest and peace. If we as individuals and as a Church are to be everything that we are created to be, perhaps we all need to learn and re-learn to shut-up in the presence of God!

Brexit and the Eucharist - A Call to Communion as we leave the European Union

The thirty-first of January is eventually here, and Brexit day has arrived. The day, that many of us thought would be deferred indefinitely has come and Britain formally breaks with the European Union. A lot of ink has been spilt about the various pros and cons of Britain leaving the European Union. I do not want to repeat the arguments here one way or another.   What interests me, and what I think has been all too frequently overlooked is the spiritual dimension to this whole debacle. Again, I’m not wishing to comment on the actual act of Brexit, but rather the role and behaviour of Christians, and Catholic’s in particular in light of our Brexit-reality. I have been struck in recent weeks and months by the polarization and quite frankly the venom in which people have treated and spoken to each other on both sides of the Brexit debate. Social media it seems, has been utilised to create panic-narratives about what Britain will look like if and when we leave the EU. What is striking is the lack of basic charity with which people treat others who have an opposing view. Both sides, have been guilty of demonising the other. What is more, it appears (at least from my social media feeds) that many Catholics and other Christians have been guilty of this behaviour as well. The run up to the general election seemed to exacerbate the poisonous attitudes either side of the Brexit debate.  Whether one is a Brexiteer or a Remainer is not really issue. My concern is that in the heat of debate people have forgotten their common humanity and amongst Christians, their common baptism.

The Catholic Church is unique amongst Christian churches in that it is not a national Church, but a universal Church whose members are incorporated into its body through the waters of Baptism. Furthermore, the source and summit of Catholic faith, life and worship is the Mass, the central component being: Holy Communion.  Communion is everything. The word Communion comes to us via Latin roots and means amongst other things: “participation in something; that which is common to all, union in religious worship, doctrine or discipline. Also, from Old French Comunion – [meaning] community, unity, fellowship - mutual participation, sharing.” (From the Online Etymology Dictionary)  

Communion is the key to unlocking the Catholic faith. A Catholic is Baptised and Confirmed into the Communion of the Church. When a Catholic receives Holy Communion he or she is publicly professing full-communion with all the members Catholic Church on earth, in purgatory and in heaven. This sacramental communion is a deep union with Jesus who is personally present in his Body, Soul and Divinity in Holy Communion. For a Catholic, the reception of Holy Communion should ratify this communion with God and neighbour but it also does something else, it demands of the person receiving Communion to become a person of communion, and agent of communion if you will,  within the context of their daily  lives. This is why we are ‘sent out’ at the end of Mass. In Holy Communion we become what we receive, and we are sent out, nourished by God, with God, to transform the world around us.  In our consumerist culture there is danger of a consumerist attitude towards our faith, and when this occurs we can treat the Eucharist in the same consumerist way and forget this profound truth: That Holy Communion makes demands of us!

“Community, unity, fellowship – mutual participation” – whatever happens in our country post-Brexit, this is what our divided and polarised country needs and Catholic Christians have an important role to play. My prayer is that as a Church in Britain, we will remember our call to communion and work hard to build God’s kingdom amongst all people whatever circumstances life (and government!) throws at us. I pray that we can learn to disagree with each other well.

I believe that people generally want the best for our country and our common home -  we may have opposing views about how this can come about but our shared goal at least, is a shared hope and a point of unity.

As Catholics my prayer is that we become ever more a people of communion in our workplaces, homes, schools and families. The world needs us to be the people that we profess to be and the saints that God calls us to be, so let’s get on with it!

Finally, paraphrasing St Paul, I pray that we remember that: there is neither Remainer nor Brexiteer, neither Labour nor Tory, nor is there Right or Left, for we are all One in Christ Jesus. Amen.

That We May Be One! - A reflection on Christian Unity

In this week of prayer for Christian unity, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the topic of Ecumenism.  As a Catholic priest, whose faith came alive as a teenager whilst visiting a friends Evangelical Church, as someone who has made multiple trips during my formative years to the ecumenical community of Taizé in France, and as someone who has been brought up amongst an extended family of Catholics, Anglicans and Pentecostal Christians, Ecumenism is not just close to my heart, its in my very DNA! 

It is common in Catholic circles to talk about the ‘New Evangelisation’. Successive Popes have urged us, as a Church to engage in this great work of Evangelisation, once again, proposing the gospel in a new a fresh way to our world as well as to those Catholics who are ‘catechised but not evangelised’. I would argue, however, that an important dimension of the New Evangelisation will be a ‘New Ecumenism’.

That Christ founded one Church, and that he prayed for that Church to be one is a foundational tenant of the Christian Faith. Furthermore, it stands to reason that if the Church is the Body of Christ, and Christ is One, his body also should be one. The sad truth, however, is that the Church is divided. The two-thousand-year history of the Christian Church has seen significant divisions, the great schism between East and West in the Eleventh Century and then the protestant reformation of the Sixteen century. These divisions occurred for several reasons, but the underlying reason is that the Church is made up of sinful human beings, albeit sinners who are on a pilgrim journey of holiness. Just as we are not content with sin, we should not be content with the fruit of sin: division. It seems to me, that to work for the unity of the Church is an essential part of what it means to be a Christian: a sinner, in need of the mercy of God, who is on a journey of conversion.

In the past, the attitude towards Christian unity from in the Catholic Church could perhaps be summarised as ‘Christian unity means everyone should convert to the One True Faith’. This was not a helpful attitude, but it was not that it was all that different from other Christians either. Whilst, it’s true that Catholics joined the ecumenical movement much later than some other Christians, hostility from other Christians towards the Church of Rome was (and still is, in some quarters) a reality. There is no need to point fingers, suffice to say, all Christian communions bear some responsibility for the divisions in the Church.

This said, as a Catholic I am interested how, as the Catholic Church, we work for unity of Christ’s body, the Church. The Second Vatican Council had a lot to say about the relationship between the Catholic Church and other Christian believers but sixty years on it is taking time for this important teaching to disseminate and be interiorised by Catholic believers.

The first thing to remind ourselves of is that that other Christians of other churches and communities are our brothers and sisters. They are not heretics who are guilty of crimes, but are fellow pilgrims in the One Church of God. The Council stated clearly: 

"The Children who are born in to these communities and who grow up believing in Christ cannot be accused of the sin of separation, and the Catholic Church embraces them as brothers, with respect and affection. For men who believe in Christ and have been truly baptised are in communion with the Catholic Church even thought this communion is imperfect."  (Unitatis Redintegratio 3)

One of the keys ideas, re-articulated by the second Vatican council, is the idea of degrees of communion. This is an important development, that has in my opinion yet to really take hold. Put simply: those baptised members of the Church who hold to the Catholic faith and remain in state of grace are in full-communion. This full-communion is made visible in the act of receiving Holy Communion Mass. This communion, however, can be damaged and disrupted by sin and other factors, so there remains people who, although they are Catholics in communion with the Church, for whatever reason do not enjoy full-communion and so they do not receive Holy Communion. (Until such a time as full-communion is restored.)

As well as Catholics who don’t receive Holy Communion, we must then include our brothers and sisters from other Christian traditions.  (who, because we are not in full-communion would also not receive Holy Communion) In so far as we profess belief in Christ, share the same Scriptures are united by the same Baptism, we are in communion with them, albeit in varying degrees.  These degrees of communion do not, however, undo or denigrate the fact that when we are baptised, we become members of Christ’s body. Is does not change the truth that he or she who professes Christ is my brother and sister. The Vatican Council stated clearly: 

"The differences that exist in varying degrees...do indeed create many obstacles...But even in spite of them it remains true that all who have been justified by faith in baptism are members of Christ's body, and have a right to be called Christian and so are correctly accepted as brothers by the children of the Catholic Church." (Unitatis Redintegratio 3)  

I believe, all Catholics, indeed all Christians, if we are take faith in Christ and our baptism’s seriously, need to acknowledge each other as brothers and sisters. Yes, we have our difficulties and our differences and we might not ever enjoy full, visible communion – but we are family, Christ’s family. Our uncharitable attitudes hamper our mission and witness to the world. I think the image of a family is a very helpful. Families come in all shapes and sizes and are extended through many relatives and friends. Some of our relatives we are very close to, (physically if we live with them, emotionally and spiritually if we share a specific bond)  other relatives we might not see very much at all - but if we are related then we are related and we cannot change this basic fact!

The church is a family, we are the pilgrim people of God. I pray in this week of prayer for Christian unity that we can see past our divisions and celebrate the Christ who makes us one. In a world and society every more polarized and divided the Church has the power to reach across divides and to bring about communion in Christ.  This will not happen, however, until we can recognise our brothers and sisters in the faith. One way to try and move past the divisions, without downplaying our history and our differences is to change our attitude and way of thinking. For example, I try not to think of  Baptists, Evangelicals or Anglicans as different churches (or ecclesial communions), but rather as catholic- Baptists or catholic-evangelical/catholic-Anglican  brothers and sisters who I am in communion, albeit a partial communion with. This recognition and celebrating of partial communion I believe is to be a constitutive part of a ‘New Ecumenism.’ Whilst I profess and believe that the fullness of Christ’s Church subsists as the Catholic Church, my prayer, especially in this week of Christian unity, is that all the baptised will have the grace to recognise that we belong to One Church - however damaged, and that we will confidently profess One Faith, One Lord and One baptism to our world.  Amen.

Take down your Christmas Tree - It's not Christmas, it's Advent!

Waiting is an important part of life. Patience is indeed a virtue but is it one that is being eroded by our 24-hour, instant “have-it-now culture”. To be fair, I write this is as someone who is part of this culture and enjoys instant streaming and next day delivery as much as the next person. And yet I fear that there is something important and wonderfully human about waiting that is being lost with our instant, hyper-connected world.  Waiting builds expectation and desire, waiting heightens awareness, waiting can be a journey and so often in life the journey is as important as the destination. When we wait, we slow down, we notice things, we can get our priorities right and focus on the right things as well as getting rid of those things which are not helpful to us. Waiting is a preparation: the waiting of an engaged couple is an important time of preparation for marriage. As they wait, they grow in love for one another and they confirm the choice will hopefully bring them to marriage. Waiting builds perseverance and patience and helps us to appreciate what we have in a deeper way.

It is, therefore, with some regret and sadness, when I see Christmas decorations and Christmas celebrations beginning in November and early December. For these celebrations, however well-meant, destroy something of the beautiful season of Advent. Now, some might retort that I am being a miserable humbug! (and they could be right) After all, most the country is not Christian so we can’t expect Christmas to be kept in the Christian fashion by people who don’t have faith. There is also the argument that it’s better that people celebrate Christmas with tinsel and presents than not at all, if anything else it’s a way-in for the Christian message.  I have some sympathy with this, I’m not against people celebrating Christmas the way that they do, it is after all  the ‘the most wonderful time of the year!’ What I am against, however, is the creeping destruction of the beautiful and important season of Advent, and not by the general population but by Christians!  Never mind the shopping malls and office Christmas parties in late November - it’s the Church Christmas Tree festivals in the first week of Advent, the decorations and trees up in Christian homes by the end of November and the carol services that fill up the first few weeks of Advent. It’s these things that really irritate me!  Now, don’t get me wrong, I am not a complete purist! There is a practical dimension to having an ‘Advent Carol Service’ in late December and anticipating Christmas with school Nativity plays and carols concerts. When, however, it becomes normal for Christians to talk and behave as if Christmas has arrived in early December then something has gone terribly wrong - we have allowed ourselves to be evangelised by the culture instead of evangelising the world around us. What is more, when decorations and parties cease a few days after Christmas, I must confess my blood begins to boil! Christmas is a season, which lasts up until the Baptism of the Lord which in 2020 in the UK is 12^th January. (That’s more than the 12 days we sing about!) If Christmas celebrations begin, as they should on the 25^th December (or 24^th with a vigil) then keeping the season to January 12^th is easily manageable. Furthermore, the continued air of celebrations bringing a quiet joy to the dark and sombre atmosphere of a British January. If, however, ‘Christmas’ has been celebrated since mid- November then, packing the decorations down before New Year is understandable – it’s just this is not how it is meant to be!

Advent is a beautiful season which expresses in symbol, ritual and rhythm important and profound truths of the Christian life. When we lose Advent to Christmas, we are all the poorer for it. Advent is a season of waiting upon the Lord. It is not a pointless waiting or a boring waiting, but an expectant waiting which builds hope, heightens awareness and helps us to recognize the presence of the mysterious and incarnate God in our daily lives. A good Advent makes for a good Christmas, when we fail to celebrate Advent, we fail to prepare ourselves to receive Christ well when we celebrate Christmas the mystery.

In advent we wait for the Lord to come and we do so in a three-fold way. The first part of advent, up until 16^th December is focused on the second coming of Christ. The first Christians lived in this expectant hope, a hope that meant that Jesus might return at any moment to judge the living and the dead. This hope created an urgency in the apostolic activity of the first Christians, they did not hang about, but lived life to the full and shared the gospel message to all whom they met. We talk in the Church, so often, about a New Evangelisation, if we truly lived with the expectant hope of Jesus’ immanent return I imagine our efforts to build God’s kingdom on Earth would take on a new energy and focus!  

The second part of Advent 17^th Dec-24^th is concerned very much with the first coming of Christ 2000 years ago. We prepare ourselves to receive the Christ child who made himself so small as to be born in the poverty of a stable. The God of the universe became a baby for us so that we could know and love him the way that he knows and loves us – this is an awesome mystery that we can never fully appreciate so, a period of prayerful and attentive preparation as we wait upon his arrival is vital. The waiting and preparation of Advent helps us to discover afresh and appropriate in a new way this central mystery of our faith – the incarnation.

Finally, Advent, has a third and often overlook dimension. As we wait for Christ who is to come, and we prepare to celebrate the Christ who came 2000 years ago, our spiritual senses are, as it were, heightened as we are alerted to the daily coming of Christ. The Christ who stands at the door of our hearts and knocks, each moment of each day, waiting for us to let him in and enter into a deeper more beautiful, more life-changing friendship with him. Advent alerts us to the daily presence of the God who makes himself small so that he can raise us up. The God who ‘shared our humanity so that we can share his divinity.’

This year let us really enter into the season of Advent. Let us hold-fire on putting the decorations up, refrain from those December ‘Merry Christmas’s’ and abstain for a couple more weeks from the mince pies!   Instead let us focus on our Advent journey as wait in joyful hope for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Not Left-Wing, Not Right-Wing, but Catholic! Musings on the Papacy and the Church

A growing phenomenon to be observed in the contemporary Church is the ever increasing partisan mentality that divides Catholics up as left-wing or right-wing, liberal or conservative. It's not that these divisions have not been around for some time - they have. It's just that with the age of social media and twenty-four hour news it becomes increasingly easier to construct religious-political narratives and disseminate them far and wide across multiple digital platforms. This is worrying development, especially, when these narratives are used to drive a wedge between Papacies, and different groups within the Church. 

The recent furore concerning the Amazonian Synod is, I believe is an example of this. A narrative is being created that is attempting to cast Pope Francis, the Vicar of Christ, as some kind of a neo-pagan, left-wing liberal heretic. If this was coming from outside the Church I would be less concerned, but the division is emerging from within. A comparatively small but vocal group, among them some theologians and some high ranking clerics, are it seems, hell-bent on creating this self-fulfilling narrative. At present, the crisis does not exist in the minds of most Mass-going Catholics, however, the more it is talked about and hyped up - the more a 'crisis' emerges.

A brief look online and you will come across headlines along the lines of: 'The worst Crisis the Church has ever faced' 'The most Damaging Papacy Ever.' (I mean really?...study some church history, please!) I am not going to spend time defending Pope Francis here. He is the Pope, the Vicar of Christ, and I trust that the Holy Spirit is with the Church and with the Magisterium just as it always has been. Christ promised to build his Church on the Rock of Peter and the gates of hell would not prevail against it – and Christ's promise is enough for me!

What is worrying, however, is the way in which some Catholics speak about the Pope in the public forum. Some simply refuse to refer to him as the Pope, referring to him as 'Bergoglio'.  Others speak about him using language that is not appropriate for a Christian to speak about anyone, let alone the Vicar of Christ. Communion with the Pope is a mark of Christian unity, so it is deeply concerning that some 'faithful' Catholics and 'Catholic' media outlets are taking to social media and attacking this communion in the most pernicious of ways. To disagree with the Pope is one thing, but to do so publicly, to disrespect him, to mock him, to twist his words and to not give him the benefit of the doubt, is to my mind, sinful.

What lies at the heart of all this? Well I would remiss if I didn't think that there was a spiritual dimension to all of us. The Pope's detractors are quick to use colourful language to infer that what is happening is the work of the devil – they may well be right, it's just that they may be playing a bigger part in the work of the deceiver than they imagine!

Another significant factor I believe is a lack of vision or rather 'focus'. By this I mean that our focus, as faithful disciples, should be on Christ and not on a need to preserve our own fixed idea of what we think right-religion should look like. When we are focused on the wrong things and too-fixed in our ideas it becomes very hard to listen to what the other is saying. Furthermore, when we fail to hear the other person, we fail to see them as a person and it becomes very easy to demonise them; be they another Christian, a politician or even a Pope. One of the gifts that I believe that Pope Francis brings to the Church (from his Jesuit background) is the gift of discernment. Discernment is a process, it takes time and involves listening, talking and reflecting. Sometimes the process of discernment can be unsettling, but it is a necessary process in the path of Christian conversion. To discern properly we must have eyes fixed on Christ. Pope Francis has encouraged us time and time again to “fix our gaze on Jesus' face and become familiar with him.”¹ Pope Francis, is I believe, helping the Church to rediscover the gift of discernment at a time when it is desperately needed. The discussions that take place in the Synods are part of the Church's rich discernment process. Theological battles have been fought at many a Synod and Council throughout the Church's long history. Animated by the Spirit, however, the Church discerns the right direction and moves forward confidently fixing her gaze on her divine Saviour.

As Catholics we are invited to have our eyes fixed on Christ, on his kingdom and on what he is doing. To fix our eyes on Christ, however, does not mean that we can ever fully perceive or understand what he is doing. Christ's Church is not some lifeless monolithic entity, in fact it is always moving and changing as the Holy Spirit brings it, evermore, to perfection. Whilst it is true that doctrine and revealed truths never change, the way in which these unchanging truths are communicated to an ever changing mission field inevitably must change. The mission field of course, is anywhere where the Gospel of Christ is lived, taught and preached – in short everywhere the Church is. In order to facilitate authentic change, without jettisoning the essential truths of the faith, the Church is safeguarded by the office of the Papacy and the Magisterium of the Church. This safeguarding does not mean that we do not talk about things, try and look at different perspectives and listen to where people are at. This is all part of the discernment process that the Church is on. If our gaze is fixed on Christ, however, and if we believe that he has not left his Church then this discussion and reflection, even when it encompasses areas that we are unsure about, will be fruitful and peaceful. If on the other hand, we are too fixed and ridged in our views of what we personally think the Church should look like, if we are fixed on maintaining a predominately Western model of being Catholic, then we will begin to panic. Then, we will begin to be moved and motivated by fear. Then, it will become easy to demonise what we don't like and don't understand.

To be a Catholic is not to be right-wing or left-wing, liberal or conservative. To be a Catholic means that we are disciples of Christ, in communion with the Pope, the Vicar of Christ and the Bishop of Rome. To be Catholic means that every member of the body of Christ is our brother and sister and we have an obligation to treat them as such. It means that we are part of Church with a two-thousand year-old living history that continues to unfold as it encompasses our own personal history. To be a Catholic means that we have our gaze fixed firmly on Jesus Christ and trust him for everything. To be a Catholic is to remember that God is in charge of his Church, not us – and thank God, for left to us we would make a right mess of it! 

1https://zenit.org/articles/pope-francis-tells-the-secret-of-life-fix-your-gaze-on-jesus-get-to-know-him/ [11/11/2019]

What does it mean to ask for the prayers of the Saints?

The feast of All Saints reminds us that we are part of the Communion of Saints. The Communion of saints expresses the profound communion that exists between the Church on earth, the Church in Purgatory and the Church in Heaven. In the feast of All Saints we celebrate the Church Triumphant-the Church in Heaven and we are encouraged and spurred on by the witness of those who have gone before us marked with the sign of faith. 

An important dimension to the Communion of Saints is the intercession of the saints. This is something that is frequently misunderstood by many Christians, especially our brothers and sisters who belong to the traditions of the protestant reformation. Put simply, asking the saints to pray for us is no different than asking a brother or sister on earth to pray for us - except, that in the case of the saints, they enjoy a more perfect communion with God. In this sense the prayer and intercession of the saint in heaven is of a more perfect nature than those on earth. The Catechism explains:

Being more closely united to Christ, those who dwell in heaven fix the whole Church more firmly in holiness. . . . They do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, as they proffer the merits which they acquired on earth through the one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus . . . . So by their fraternal concern is our weakness greatly helped.[1]

Asking the saints to pray for us is not conjuring up the spirits of our ancestors. It certainly should not be understood as communing with the dead in some esoteric way, not least because the are saints are not dead – they are alive in Christ. For God is a God of the living not of the dead![2] Another common objection to asking for the saints intercession refers to multitude of people asking for the saints intercession at any one time. For example, how can St Anthony hear my prayers, and the millions of the others who might be praying to him at any one time? Principally this objection is  a misunderstanding of the very nature of heaven and what it means to be close to God. It is important to remember that God and heaven exists outside of our understanding of time and space. The saints in heaven, participate in the very life of God himself, and in so far as they participate in God’s divine life (and exist outside the constraints of time) they see, hear and perceive existence as God does, they share his vision – the beatific vision.  The saints hear our prayers because God can hear our prayers. It is God’s grace and power, so far beyond our own understanding, that has come to perfection in the saints that enables the saints to intercede for us. The Queen of all saints of course, is Mary the Mother of God. The closeness and intimacy that she had with Jesus in her earthly life is brought to complete fruition now that share her Son’s glory in heaven. She remains close to her divine Son and as members of her Son’s mystical body, we can and should seek her maternal intercession.

To ask for the intercession of the saints, is a good and holy thing to do. We have seen time and time again that God’s MO, his Modus Operandi is to call people to relationship with him. Throughout salvation history God’s call has been to a people (plural), not simply a person (singular). Asking for the intercession of the saints is entirely consistent with the way that God works in the world. When we ask for the saints to pray for us we are forging bonds of holiness with our heavenly brothers and sisters and we are strengthening the familial bonds that bind us together as God’s holy people. The Communion of Saints is profound reminder to us of our connectedness in Christ and teaches us that is never simply me and Jesus, but we and Jesus. This is why we pray to Our Father in heaven, as opposed to simply my Father. Our personal faith and our personal relationship with Jesus Christ is lived, always in the context of our relationship with other believers – for the Communion of Saints is the people of God.

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[1] CCC 956

[2] C.f Mk 12:27 Lk 20:38