"Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people" - Pope Francis in Havana, Cuba

Picture below is from The Catholic Sun

Pope Francis’ Homily at Mass in Havana’s Plaza de la Revolución

 

 

 

“Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people.”

 

Rome, September 20, 2015 (ZENIT.org) Junno Arocho Esteves | 769 hits

Here is a Vatican translation of the Holy Father’s homily during his first Mass at the Plaza de la Revolucion in Havana, Cuba.

* * *

The Gospel shows us Jesus asking a seemingly indiscreet question of his disciples: “What were you discussing along the way?” It is a question which he could also ask each of us today: “What do you talk about every day?” “What are your aspirations?” The Gospel tells us that the disciples “did not answer because on the way they had been arguing about who was the most important”. The disciples were ashamed to tell Jesus what they were talking about. As with the disciples then, we too can be caught up in these same arguments: who is the most important?

Jesus does not press the question. He does not force them to tell him what they were talking about on the way. But the question lingers, not only in the minds of the disciples, but also in their hearts.

Who is the most important? This is a life-long question to which, at different times, we must give an answer. We cannot escape the question; it is written on our hearts. I remember more than once, at family gatherings, children being asked: “Who do you love more, Mommy or Daddy”? It’s like asking them: “Who is the most important for you?” But is this only a game we play with children? The history of humanity has been marked by the way this question is answered.

Jesus is not afraid of people’s questions; he is not afraid of our humanity or the different things we are looking for. On the contrary, he knows the “twists and turns” of the human heart, and, as a good teacher, he is always ready to encourage and support us. As usual, he takes up our searching, our aspirations, and he gives them a new horizon. As usual, he somehow finds an the answer which can pose a new challenge, setting aside the “right answers”, the standard replies we are expected to give. As usual, Jesus sets before us the “logic” of love. A mindset, an approach to life, which is capable of being lived out by all, because it is meant for all.

Far from any kind of elitism, the horizon to which Jesus points us is not for those few privileged souls capable of attaining the heights of knowledge or different levels of spirituality. The horizon to which Jesus points us always has to do with daily life, also here on “our island”, something which can season our daily lives with eternity.

Who is the most important? Jesus is straightforward in his reply: “Whoever wishes to be the first among you must be the last of all, and the servant of all”. Whatever wishes to be great must serve others, not be served by others.

Here lies the great paradox of Jesus. The disciples were arguing about who would have the highest place, who would be chosen for privileges, who would be above the common law, the general norm, in order to stand out in the quest for superiority over others. Who would climb the ladder most quickly to take the jobs which carry certain benefits.

Jesus upsets their “logic”, their mindset, simply by telling them that life is lived authentically in a concrete commitment to our neighbor, that is to say, by serving.

The call to serve involves something special, to which we must be attentive. Serving others chiefly means caring for their vulnerability. Caring for the vulnerable of our families, our society, our people. Theirs are the suffering, fragile and downcast faces which Jesus tells us specifically to look at and which he asks us to love. With a love which takes shape in our actions and decisions. With a love which finds expression in whatever tasks we, as citizens, are called to perform. People of flesh and blood, people with individual lives and stories, and with all their frailty: these are those whom Jesus asks us to protect, to care for, to serve. Being a Christian entails promoting the dignity of our brothers and sisters, fighting for it, living for it. That is why Christians are constantly called to set aside their own wishes and desires, their pursuit of power, and to look instead to those who are most vulnerable.

There is a kind of “service” which truly “serves”, yet we need to be careful not to be tempted by another kind of service, a “service” which is “self-serving”. There is a way to go about serving which is interested in only helping “my people”, “our people”. This service always leaves “your people” outside, and gives rise to a process of exclusion.

All of us are called by virtue of our Christian vocation to that service which truly serves, and to help one another not to be tempted by a “service” which is really “self-serving”. All of us are asked, indeed urged, by Jesus to care for one another out of love. Without looking to one side or the other to see what our neighbor is doing or not doing. Jesus tells us: Whoever would be first among you must be the last, and the servant of all”. He does not say: if your neighbor wants to be first, let him be the servant! We have to be careful to avoid judgmental looks and renew our belief in the transforming look to which Jesus invites us.

This caring for others out of love is not about being servile. Rather, it means putting our brothers and sisters at the center. Service always looks to their faces, touches their flesh, senses their closeness and even, in some cases, “suffers” in trying to help. Service is never ideological, for we do not serve ideas, we serve people.

God’s holy and faithful people in Cuba is a people with a taste for parties, for friendship, for beautiful things. It is a people which marches with songs of praise. It is a people which has its wounds, like every other people, yet knows how to stand up with open arms, to keep walking in hope, because it has a vocation of grandeur. Today I ask you to care for this vocation of yours, to care for these gifts which God has given you, but above all I invite you to care for and be at the service of the frailty of your brothers and sisters. Do not neglect them for plans which can be seductive, but are unconcerned about the face of the person beside you. We know, we are witnesses of the incomparable power of the resurrection, which “everywhere calls forth the seeds of a new world” (cf. Evangelii Gaudium, 276, 278).

Let us not forget the Good News we have heard today: the importance of a people, a nation, and the importance of individuals, which is always based on how they seek to serve their vulnerable brothers and sisters. Here we encounter one of the fruits of a true humanity.

“Whoever does not live to serve, does not ‘serve’ to live”

© Copyright 2015 - Libreria Editrice Vaticana

(September 20, 2015) © Innovative Media Inc.

A word or three from the AbC: Justin Welby preaches at the service for the new British Parliament - 15-06-09

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, preached at the Service for the New Parliament, St Margaret's Church, Westminster Abbey, London, 9 June 2015. 

To read what he said in its entirety, please go here. An extract is published below.  

There are many different emotions here today. That is why the readings today have deliberately been chosen to pick up two moments in the Bible that have much emotion attached.

The reading from Jeremiah speaks of the consequences of God’s judgement – and the reading from John’s Gospel of what it means in practice to be a community of values with a moral vision. 

Jeremiah was a prophet of the sixth century BC in the kingdom of Judah. Judah had survived for half a millennium, more or less. But in the end, a combination of political miscalculation and other factors meant that the kingdom was overrun, and after a long and horrific siege (if you want to see what it feels like read Jeremiah’s Lamentations) the city fell. In two great waves the leaders of the nation – those who had survived – were taken on a death march to Babylon. 

Jeremiah had prophesied the defeat because the nation had fallen away from God’s standards.  Once the exiles were in Babylon they wrote to Jeremiah, asking what they should do now. One of the key parts of his answer is in that first reading. 

The essence of those verses, and those around them, is writing to the exiles at this moment of the deepest possible blackest despair that we can imagine. His answer was this: you’re going to be there a very long time (that’s bad news), settle down and bless the community in which you live. (‘But these are the people who massacred us,’ you can hear them think.) The circumstances in which you find yourselves are not a cause for despair, but for reflection on the past and a renewal of confidence in the God who is greater than all of history. 

And in fact, in due course, virtually uniquely among the people of that area they were brought back from exile.

The people of Judah suffered the consequences of their turning away from God to other gods, of seeking to find alternative values not based in truth – the absolute truth of the revealed God – but in what was convenient and easy.

Their society had been corrupted by materialism as the ultimate aim of existence, and by injustice and neglect for the poor. 

Let me be absolutely clear. I am not hinting or suggesting in any way at all that anyone here is guilty of such things. One of the privileges of my role is getting to know so many people in politics, and the more I do the clearer it is that almost everyone I meet seeks to do what is right, to make just decisions, and to serve their country with integrity. Views to the contrary are mere descents into cynicism.

Yet the best intentions can lead to the wrong conclusions. First, Jeremiah says, we reap the consequences of our actions – and thus those actions must be based in a moral vision and in an ideal that is founded on eternal values that do not change. 

Throughout the Old Testament, time after time after time, from Genesis to Malachi, these values include justice for the poor, reaching out to the stranger, integrity without partiality in government, and a dedication to the flourishing of the whole community. 

Secondly, God is also saying through Jeremiah that even when things go wrong, which in all societies they will from time to time because we are all human (and let me say the Church of England is not one to lecture others on how to be perfect), God is greater than our greatest failures.

We have to seek to do right, but we can trust in the providence and salvation of God for the future. That is the promise made to the people of Judah, and thus they were to settle down amongst their enemies; to make the best of their situation, to bless the communities in which they lived, and look to the moment of their redemption. 

There is no coded political message in this, but there is a very un-coded theological one: God can be trusted, but we must do our part. And I know that is the belief and desire of the vast majority here today. 

So pragmatism does not really work. Yet all politics is in the end about delivery, not merely policy. Stating policies is the easy bit; making them happen is the deepest of skills.

Pragmatism in the sense of short cuts to avoid difficulty is not a good solution. It had taken Judah to defeat and exile. But pragmatism in the sense of being practical and down to earth – of making sure that delivery happens – is essential. 

In the reading from John 13 we see the greatest moment of holy pragmatism in history. The Son of God Himself, Jesus – knowing confidently who He is, what He is intended for, and that God can be trusted – sets aside His pride and washes the feet of His disciples. 

The truest leadership is about service. And note that He even washes the feet of Judas Iscariot, knowing as He does that this is the man who will betray Him to torture and agony within twenty-four hours.

This truly is holy pragmatism. It is the pragmatism of love without limit, of unconditional love that reaches with generous, almost absurd grace to every person. 

Such pragmatism costs more than we can imagine and gains more than we can believe. And yet it is the pragmatism to which we are all called, as human beings, but especially those of you here, as national leaders.

So we have two moments: in the first of them a nation in despair is told that God can be counted on despite all their failures. The failures matter. Actions have consequences. But they are never the end of the story: God is.

BEING KEPT ON ICE? What is happening in #Ballarat, #StArnaud, #Castlemaine, #Central Highlands #Western Victoria

Picture from here

Many Australians will have watched 4 Corners last night. Australians will have seen #Ballarat get an ingnominious mention in despatches.

Victoria is heading for a state election on 29 November. It will be of interest to see if, as a result of national media attention, all political parties will make promises - futile or otherwise - to address the almost complete lack of attention to what is happening in central and western Victoria. 

There are people living outside the metropolis of Melbourne. 

There are causes other than the Victorian Premier's racing interests.

Many people in the seat of Wendouree in Ballarat will have received a letter from sitting MP Sharon Knight. In that letter she says "we need to do much better to provide the services, facilities and opportunities local people need." 

She also says that "My highest priority has always been jobs". Jobs are a very high priority - because without a job and without a decent income enabling human beings to lead a decent life we lose so much. Massive unemployment - which is hitting certain areas of Australia - is probably the most corrosive component on human communities. Social isolation - whether it is because of drugs, illness, sexuality, race, ethnicity, language or religion - is probably second on the list. Massive unemployment and large scale social isolation can mean that a community is, quite literally, "stuffed".

In the Federal sphere, Ballarat's local MP is Catherine King, the Shadow Minister for Health.

Those who watched 4 Corners last night will be shocked by the overwhelming lack of funding for care for those seeking to forego drug addiction. It appears that the only place in the Ballarat area is Tabor House with its very limited capacity. To read more about Tabor House, please go to this site. 

Given the lack of knowledge by government and police which undergirds the inability of both to act constructively in this dire situation, and given the frequent bad press of religious organisations, it is interesting to note that the only provision for constructive help in battling the ice epidemic in central and western Victoria is in a house with limited bed capacity run by a Christian organisation.

Four Corners has done a great service in portraying a great problem and a great need in Australian society. But to give credit where credit is due, the Four Corners story may have begun in Ballarat itself with this article in The Courier.

The human purpose and the Martyrs of Papua New Guinea - let us remember.

We are here to heal not harm.

We are here to love, not hate.

We are here to create, not destroy.

Anthony Douglas Williams

The words above are particularly apt to-day.  To-day in the Anglican communion, especially in Australia and Papua New Guinea, the Martyrs of New Guinea are remembered.  It is likely that many will never have heard of these people - but they are remembered.  Their story lives on. 

Their names are:

The Revd Henry Matthews

The Revd Henry Holland

The Revd Vivian Frederick Barnes Redlich

The Revd John Frederick Barge

Sister Margery Brenchley

Sister May Hayman.

Miss Lilla Lashmar

Miss Mavis Parkinson

Mr John Duffill

Lucien Tapiedi

Leslie Gariardi 

For more details and photographs of those named above

please go to the blog Australian Christian Martyrs

The Diocese of Ballarat has as its patrons

Our Lady of Walshingham and the Martyrs of Papua New Guina. 

The Anglican Parish of Ararat, not far from Ballarat,

has a strong connection to the Martyrs

through its connection with the Rev Henry Matthews.

At the Ararat site, Advocates will find prayers 

relating to each of the Martyrs.