14 Sunday Ordinary Time, B, 8 July 2012, Mark 6:1-6

Where is Jesus?

Honour

"Once upon a time, in a land far, far away..." So begins many a fairytale. Our ears are so tuned in to those words that they can immediately remind us of our favourite childhood stories. If a story was to begin: "Yesterday, outside my house..." it simply wouldn't be a fairytale; there's no excitement and it just sounds wrong. So, our ears are attracted to the exotic – to the far away – to the extraordinary. In our minds we give honour to the exotic and assign shame to the ordinary. Dublin, London, New York, Paris, Tokyo – Exotic, exciting, relevant – what about Roscommon? Its good to remember that all good fairytales pass on wisdom to us that we use in our everyday lives. And its good to remember that exotic places have ordinary people living in them! And those ordinary people look at our lives and see the exotic!

Belonging

We all belong somewhere – in a family, a town, a street, a community, a sports club, a Church, maybe even a Choir! We know that we belong somewhere when we can be ourselves in that place, when we don't have to put on a mask, or create a perfect image of myself to put on show. When we belong we are at our most real. The people and places where we most belong will ground us. Like a lightning conductor on the side of a building to protect it from going on fire in a storm, so also people who know us as we really are conduct the energy from the storms of life back to where it belongs. They don't shield us or protect us from living our life, but they are there like a port on the stormy seas of life. For me, going home to visit with my family grounds me because with them I am not Fr John. I'm just John. The real me. And that's healthy and normal.

Our Lady of Good Counsel Gospel Choir

Brothers and Sisters of Jesus

We forget just how grounded we can be. Sometimes we can be grounded in a false or very 'base' place. Like when men gather together in the pub and share smutty jokes, or perhaps when ladies share the latest gossip about someone down the street or up the road. We can mistake this for being real, healthy and normal. Talking about other people in a less than dignified way means that we don't treat them like the human beings they are. And so, we cannot see that every person, no matter what they have done, or where they come from, every person is a miracle. A miracle of life and creation, a miracle of many bodily systems that keep them alive and breathing, a miracle of mind that can think and feel and analyse. And every person is a miracle that we believe Jesus makes his home. Jesus makes his home in every single person. Without exception.

The Sacraments remind us of this; that, Jesus exists in the ordinary, everyday, humdrum stuff of life –  in bread, and wine; in water, and oil; by light, and in the dark; in our everyday rituals, and in the things that we forget to do.

Jesus is present in the people that we meet everyday, in the rich and the poor, among settled people and traveller folk, in those who suffer from addiction and in those who are teetotallers, in our brothers and in our sisters, in those we have judged and in those who have judged us, in our enemies and in our friends.

Recognition

It is not that the Church has to be more relevant, nor is it that it has to be more exciting or entertaining. No, the gift of the Church is Christ. And the work of the Church is opening our eyes to see him. Everyday. All around us. And in us. In the ordinary and the extraordinary moments of life.

Christ be with me, Christ within me,
Christ behind me, Christ before me,
Christ beside me, Christ to win me,
Christ to comfort and restore me.

Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ in quiet, Christ in danger,
Christ in hearts of all who love me,
Christ in mouth of friend and stranger.

From St Patrick's Breastplate

Note: Our Lady of Good Counsel Gospel Choir came to Roscommon to share their talents and Sacred Music with us this weekend. They are normally based in the Parish of Our Lady of Good Counsel, Johnstown, Killiney, Co. Dublin. www.johnstownparish.org

Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODBL9pN4SMc