Make me an Instrument of your Peace ...
CHRIST’S ‘UNFINISHED’ SYMPHONY … ???
A shifting movement on the stage and a great hush, ominous silence fell in the audience. The curtains start moving, opening slowly till they are completely open. On the stage walks a young man holding a book. He takes his place in front of a lectern, opens the book and starts reading. In the theatre there was the silence of a tomb, you could hear only the nervous breathing of people eagerly awaiting the news.
Thus was the atmosphere on that day in the Synagogue when Christ went up, unrolled the scroll, and read the sixty-first chapter of Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to heal the contrite of heart.” The building of the ‘climax’ starts; He stopped reading, closed the scroll, gave it to the attendant and, sat down. He was quiet, calm and self-possessed. His personality was magnetic, all eyes were fixed upon Him.
Then, firmly as a master of Israel, He opened His mouth and His voice rang shattering the silence of the Synagogue: “Today this scripture is fulfilled.”This text was one of the most hopeful of prophecies of the Messiah. He spoke about the meekness of a contrite heart and of captives. The audience felt that they were the subject of His address. He spoke as if He was one of them who lived with them in bondage, He knew the weight of chains and beatings. He was very sympathetic, spoke encouragingly to those who were on the verge of despair, He was hopeful of a new horizon. He restored their strength and promised a bright future. Gracefully, He won them over,
He told them that he was there to lead them, to teach them, to heal them, to set them free. He won them over, entirely.Christ’s eloquence was built on crystal clear sincerity, and truth, that managed to strike deep into every heart. He conquered every man of goodwill. That was the message of the perfect silence that reigned everywhere, in every nook and corner of the synagogue. That was the Climax. They all gave testimony of Him, and wondered at the words of grace that proceeded from His mouth.
But, unfortunately, it was short-lived. Heads started moving, others started looking at each other, mouths opened, doubts emerged. Criticism was sharp.Reality slipped back to a dream, their memory was slippery, and very soon they were able to forget it. But was this Christ’s ‘Unfinished Symphony’?
It all depends on me, on you, on every person who calls himself a Christian. We have to play our part, a personal part, which can’t be played by anyone else, because it is tailor-made for each of us. The score is ‘mine’ and mine alone. If I fail, I will be the missing note in the Universal Symphony, which was penned by the super composer.Incidentally this same Composer is He Who took that errant note skipped by our first parents in the Garden of Eden, and which travelled through space, until the time had come (Sheen). The Master Composer took that errant note and from it built the Symphony of Love. Under the expert baton of Mary this symphony was played by all who were faithful to His score and participated in the performance. Again we are the musicians. But are we playing our score correctly?
Food for thought … it depends on you and me.
Tony Mahoney
Tony Mahoney
OUR VOCATION? … TO BE A FARMER
If there ever was a super psychologist, an extraordinary one, it must have been that Rabbi from Nazareth, Jesus Christ. Facts from His life, prove this statement. He was just starting off on His Public Ministry when He gave proof of this. He did go to the Synagogue of Nazareth, as it was the norm; He went up, unrolled the scroll and starting reading from Isaiah. But His next appointment was not in the Synagogue, though He did go at other times.
Those attending the Talks and Lessons in the Synagogue, had to stay till the very end, that was the custom. But Christ thought otherwise, ‘How about going on the beach, by the sea, where many people will be working?’ And that is just what He did. Strolling on the beach anyone could get fed up and walk away. So He resorted to a ‘plan’; He started off by telling them a story, and as we all know Jews, adults and children alike, enjoyed listening to stories. Christ started teaching by telling them a ‘parable’. They were used to listening to parables. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.
So here goes the master of parables. He started by drawing their attention to a farmer in a nearby field, who was sowing seeds. “Look,” He said’. Eyes were quickly turned, following Christ’s finger, to the farmer close by. That action itself included the crowd present as an active part of the parable. Some might have even known the farmer in question, his wife or children might have been present listening to the Rabbi, who knows?
Then He spoke about what the farmer was doing, sowing seeds, in fact the text of this Gospel did start with the word “Look”. He explained the normal procedure of sowing, but with a slight difference. Now tell me, what farmer in his right senses would throw seeds on the rocks, and amongst thorns. Along the wayside it’s very understandable. Because the wayside did not exist, it was part and parcel of the field itself, but people had to cross and automatically a certain area became a pathway.
But throwing seeds on the rocks and amongst thorns makes no sense at all, yet Jesus said it, so He must have had very good reasons for saying it. Do you know of any person who himself admits that he is a blasphemer, a persecutor of Christians, one who enjoys slaughtering those who have a different religion or belief, that he finds sheer joy in beating and imprisoning people of all ages? Thank God if you do not know such people. But you have read about Saint Paul. All those atrocities are part of his CV before he converted, and he himself admits doing them. Now, was Saul not living among the rocks, he was for sure a big thorn. And yet he was converted and became the Apostle of the Gentiles, and his seed yielded a hundred-fold, if not more.
Have you ever thought how many persons who lived as great sinners, during their life time and now they are acknowledged as Saints by the Church. They lived among thorns and rock. To mention some; St.Mary of Egypt, a professional prostitute by the age of twelve; St. Olga of Russia and St.Vladimir; St. Augustine; St. Thomas Beckett; St. Philip Howard and a many others, on an endless list.
The farmer in the parable is Christ Himself, but we can and should spread the Word, on every occasion with anyone. Who knows what a good example might do, a right word in the proper tone and circumstance can go for such a long way. Now we are the farmers. Salvation is not reserved for myself alone, part of my salvation is attending to my brother’s needs. Doing one ‘such’ good deed a day does not simply make you a good ‘Boy Scout’ or ‘Girl Guide’, it’s more than that, it qualifies you for eternal happiness for saving one soul from amongst the rocks and thorns.
DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE
Let’s go back to our schooldays when studying Shakespeare. We do recall that famous speech by Portia, in ‘The Merchant of Venice’ when begging Shylock for mercy. These are excerpts from that famous speech:
“The quality of mercy is not strain'd, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath: it is twice blest; it blesseth him that gives and him that takes. It is an attribute of God himself."
Though there are doubts about Shakespeare’s religious views, yet we have here proof of Catholic sympathies and beliefs. Christ presented ‘mercy’ in the well-known parable of the ‘Merciful Father’ formerly known as ’The Prodigal Son’, in a deeper sense. St. John Paul II, once said that this parable has the ‘interior form of the love that in the New Testament is called “agape”. This type of love and mercy reaches down to every type of human misery, and every form of moral misery, to sin.
When this happens the person who receives ‘mercy’ does not feel humiliated, but rather he would be found again and ‘restored to his original value’. As you recall the ‘father’ is overjoyed at his son’s return, his son’s re-birth. That means that the father never, during his son’s absence, changed, altered his love towards him. The father’s love remained firm, or even grew deeper. Maybe deep down he felt that the son would ultimately come back. For this reason the flame of love kept up its ardour. It never diminished.
The father, irrespective of his son’s behaviour, remains his father. Likewise the son, irrespective of his misdeeds, he remains the ‘father’s son’, because the ‘truth’ is in himself. The son was undergoing a transformation, which caused him pain, disappointments, solitude, misery, all this until ‘he found himself’ again, until he came to ‘terms with himself’. The value of this parable cannot be judged from the ‘outside’, as things or actions seemed to indicate. There must have been a silent dialogue of the hearts, a distant dialogue between the father’s heart and his son’s heart.
Goodness and dignity have been shelved for a moment, by the son, until he realized the futility of living without them. Yes, he travelled to a far away country. This might even mean three, four miles away, not necessarily hundreds or thousands of miles away, but it means that he was ‘lost’ to himself. Whenever we sin, we will be living in a ‘far away country’, until we start searching for our ‘true’ selves, our true identity. Then we realize our mistakes, and decide to get up, and go back to the Father. Do we realize how sweet conversion is? Do we realize how gracious God the Father is with the lost sheep? Do we realize that being a Dr. Jekyll we have to face horrible consequences when we let our dark side run wild with a potion that changes us into the animalistic Mr. Hyde? In our case the ‘potion’ is temptation of sin which takes various forms: power, wealth, sex, greed, pride, avarice and a host of other potions. If we realize through God’s grace, we start hating ourselves, or rather, our sins, our old life.
No wonder the father gives us back the ‘ring’ a sign of trust, the ‘robe’ as a sign of honour, the sandals as a sign that we are not slaves, and to top it all organises a feast with the fattened calf and music. I believe that the father of the parable, never slept during the nights, as long as his son was away. He must have felt that his son would come back at any time.
The Flemish Master, Rembrandt, painted the scene and portrayed the father as almost blind, from the constant watching out and crying. BUT this is a very important point, a father does not need the physical eyes to see his son, to forgive his son, to love his son. The heart does all the work; a silent dialogue must have been going on. The same it is with us and God the Father, who has no eyes, ergo no choices, no preferences, He is always in search of love.
Tony Mahoney
