The madness of consecrated life

A quick but massive ‘thanks’ goes out to all the families and individuals who donated the wads of cash and prayers which got me here, in particular to the LaBonnes, the Simons, the Frenches the Ryalls, M. Toohey, R. Lalor, A. Wilson, C. Ryan, A. Fragapane, D. Tremble, & the Cistercians at Tarrawarra Abbey.

We live in a world that says that the only meaning in life is to be happy, and the only way to be happy is to have sex. If that is true, then it would make sense that consecrated people would be the most miserable people in the world. And here's the cliche: Every person I have ever met who lives consecrated life has been overflowing with joy. These people are living the complete opposite to everyone else and yet they often seem to have found the very thing that the rest of the world is chasing after. What sort of madness would compel a person to live a life of poverty, chastity and obedience? And yet, these people willingly hand over their freedom, their security and their sexuality to a God that they cannot see.

Consecrated life is crazy, and those that live this life are driven by a very real madness. However it is the madness of love that drives them. Consecrated life proclaims to the world that God is real, that he is madly and passionately in love with humanity and that this love is the one true thing that our hearts desire. The call of Christ is to not just be a spectator when it comes to God. Many people are happy to sit on the sidelines and profess that they live for Christ, while in reality, they live for themselves. Consecrated life is a particular call to place your life completely in the hands of God and allow him to take you wherever he desires. It is a way of saying, “I believe the reality of this so much that I am prepared to give everything and not look back”. This can look like a huge sacrifice, yet it is one that is repaid immensely.

In the gospel, Jesus says that all those who give up their home and family to follow him will be repaid a hundred fold in this life. What he means is that when we give God this small offering of our life and everything we own, he gives us his life and everything he owns in return. By taking this step into the unknown, we discover the superabundance of God’s love. 

It is very clear that not everyone is called to this life. Yet the great tragedy of the church is that so many who are called are too afraid to trust God and make the jump. We can be a lot like Peter when Jesus called him to step out of the boat and walk on the water. Do not look at your own weakness but set your eyes upon the immense love of God. Listen to his word calling you, put your hand in his and trust that he is leading you to a place of true joy.

Take Off Your Pants and Jacket

'Mastery of the moment is mastery over life'

As mentioned in a previous blog post, most of the lifestyle questions the kids ask are sex-related. Common questions include: 'you cant date on YMT, but your allowed to hook up, right? You can still 'get some', can't you? Your allowed one-night stands once a week aren't you?' (I absolutely love getting these questions!).

Anyhow, for the last couple of weeks, we've been running a couple of 'Sexuality' themed ministry days. Now, with the days being 'sexuality' themed, I was expecting a few sex-related questions. What I was not expecting, however, was the amount of questions I got on Masturbation. The kids questions were soo persisting that I decided to go home and do some research on the Catholic teachings of what the urban dictionary defines as 'Wanking'.

Chocolate Covered Cockroaches

'God allows evil only so as to make something better result from it' - St Thomas Aquinas

One question that I occasionally get during a school ministry day is 'How can you believe in God when so many bad things happen in the world?'. Now, even though I never have a definitive answer to this question, it never phases me when I get asked it.

However, I can still remember the first time I was asked the question. It was last year, during a school ministry day at which I was helping out the Sydney YMT. We were at an all girls school, and during small groups,  we were going around the circle and each describing our relationships with God. One of the first few girls said that she had been brought up a Catholic, but currently didn't believe in a god, nor did she want to believe in God. When she was asked why, she told us that it was because when she was a few years younger, her newly-born baby brother had passed away a few seconds after birth. She asked us 'How can any of you believe in a good God when shit like that happens?'

Now, this was the first time I had heard something like this. I immediately felt an overwhelming emotion of sadness for the girl and her family. I was also in shock at the openness and honesty of the girl. How do you reply to something like that?

It has been almost a year since I met that girl. I haven't seen her since, and I don't expect to see her in the future. However, I periodically pray for her and her family, that they may one day experience the true and full love of Christ.
 
Anyway, fast-forwarding to this week. One of the follow-up ministries that we run on team is a youth group which we like to call iSTAND Nights. Now, during our small group discussions at iSTAND this week, the topic were discussing was Justice. We started a hot topic about what justice is and its relation to sin. About 5 minutes into the talk, we each agreed on a common understanding of sin: an evil act that is blatantly rejecting God and refusing to accept his love.

One of the guys in the small group also made a distinction between physical evil and moral evil. He also made it clear that God, being awesome and good, could never be the originator of something evil. God created the world to be good, but it is not yet complete. Through suffering, it is being shaped and moved towards its final perfection. This may be a better way to classify physical evil (eg natural disasters, birth defects, etc). Moral evil, however, comes through the abuse of the privilege of freedom in the world (eg murders, rape etc).

In reflecting on what we discussed in our small groups, I've come to a conclusion that the question shouldn't be 'How can anyone believe in a good God when there is so much evil in the world?', but more so 'How is it possible for a human being with human emotions to endure life in such a morally evil world if God did not exist?'

Christ's death and Resurrection shows us that evil will not have a final say in this world. God works with a bad result to produce good results. And during The Final Judgment, he will put an end to all injustice.

In the life of the world to come, evil has no place, and all suffering and enduring ends.

Just before I peace out, I just wanna share with you an analogy about sin that someone awesome recently shared with me.

Sin is like missing the mark. Every decision you make is like shooting a bow-and-arrow towards a dart board. Sometimes we miss, and go completely off. Sometimes we hit dead center. Wherever we hit, we always must strive to hit the center. And to us, God is like our personal coach. As we go along our individual paths, we often miss the mark we aim for. All we have to do is ask, and our coach will tell us what we're doing wrong, and what to do right in order to reach our target.

Fish and Chips for the Soul

Always remember, you are unique and individual. Just like everyone else.

So, every morning, I wake up, have a cup of coffee, and do a thing I like to call '20's in 20 minutes'. This pretty much composes of me reading through the daily scripture readings, and then summarising my thoughts on the readings in a small number of words. I then e-mail my summary to one of my mates up in Sydney, who then e-mails me back his summary.

Today, I'm trying something new. Instead of sending my mate an e-mail with my reflection, I'll be sending him a link to the URL of this blog. What a lucky guy!
A couple of reasons why I'll be doing this:

1. Because today, and today only, I'll be posting my reflection on my blog.
2. Because I like change
3. Because Sam French is currently my only reader, and I think its time to expand the blog by doubling the number of readers. Don't take it personally, Sam. I still love you. Its just that there's sooo much of me available to go around, and I wanna share it with one more person.

Anyhow. Let's begin.

Latte and Lectio Devina

Sleep in, coffee and Jesus. What a great start to a day!

So, I decided to take a couple of hours to just get away from it all and have some 'me' time. So I decided to come to the best cafe in Australia (which, coincidentally, is a 5 minute walk from my house). I got my Bible with me, as well as the YouCat. I'd just like to start by saying, the gospel for today is friggin awesome. Well, now that I think about it, every gospel reading is friggin awesome.

Today's reading (Mt 15: 21 - 28) is the one with the Canaanite chick who begs Jesus to heal her daughter. Now I know what your all thinking. Your thinking 'What on Earth is a Canaanite? And why on Earth would Jesus want to heal a Canaanite chick?'
Well, I have no idea what a Canaanite is, but I can only assume that it was someone who wasn't Jewish. And I can only assume that the reason Jesus helped out the Canaanite woman was because he's Jesus, and Jesus is awesome and merciful and he loves everyone.

What really stood out for me was the part where the woman cried out 'it may not be right to take the bread from the children and throw it to the little dogs, but even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall from the master's table.'
How cool is that?! God's mercy and love is soooo fantastic that he even cares for the shittest, most insignificant people! Even Canaanites!
Nothing escapes Christs love. Nothing.

That part even gives me food for thought on what is right and what is just. In our secular world, so called justice is brought when people are persecuted for their bad deeds. However, Gods love shows justice through his mercy on our failures, even though we don't deserve it. Isn't that neat?
And people ask me why I'm Catholic. LOL. Why am I a Christian? Because God loves me and is merciful towards me, even though I don't deserve it.
If got can look at me with love the way he does, maybe I should try doing that too. I'm gonna thank God for all the little joys he gives me which I take for granted. Like my breath. And coffee. What would life be without these two amazing things?
Anyway, I'm off for now.

Ps, sorry if my literacy is shit. I'm posting this on my mobile, which doesn't have spell check or grammar check.
Peace out ma amegos.