Author: philipmcparland@hotmail.com

“What do you want me to do for you?”  These are the words Jesus addressed to Bartimaeus, the little blind beggar who came running to him (See Mark 10:46-52).  Bartimaeus had been calling after Jesus, “Son of David, have pity on me.”  Even though others told him to shut up, he wouldn’t stop shouting.  He had huge desire for healing and he recognised that Jesus was the one who could fulfil his desire.

Jesus continues to speak these words today. In fact he speaks these words to each one of us. “What do you want me to do for you?”  With these powerful words Jesus is inviting us to name our deepest desire.  He is asking us to name the thing we most need in our lives.  We know what Bartimaeus’ deepest desire was.  The Gospel tells us that he wanted to see again.  Born with sight, Bartimaeus had obviously lost it at some point in his life and he desperately wanted it back.  He had no problem naming his deepest desire in the presence of Jesus.  As a result he got back not just his physical sight; he also received the light of faith.  The gospel passage puts this beautifully: “Immediately his sight returned and he followed Jesus along the road.”

Like Bartimaeus, it is important for each of us to be given an opportunity to name our deepest desire in the presence of Jesus.  This is the very place where Jesus meets us.  The place where Jesus comes to us is the place of our deepest need.  When Jesus asks you, “What do you want me to do for you?” do not presume that your first answer to this question is the deepest.  People who pray with this gospel story often find themselves coming up with different answers.  It is only after a number of attempts that they discover what their deepest desire actually is.  It is necessary for us to give the question some time.  The question will only awaken what is really going on inside of us if we allow it to gently move deeper and deeper into our hearts.  There is often a difference between what we long for and what we settle for.  Jesus wants to help us experience the thing we truly long for. This is our deepest desire.       

In all four gospels we find Jesus having a real go at the group known as the Scribes and Pharisees.  He didn’t like their religion.  He didn’t agree with their religion.  Jesus’ own religion was very different.  Let me try to contrast both.

The religion practised by the Scribes and Pharisees emphasised a distant and demanding God, a God removed from human experience.  The religion practised by Jesus emphasised a loving God, a God who offers friendship, a God who is personally involved in the lives of his people. 

The religion practised by the Scribes and Pharisees focused on observance of the law, on keeping rules and regulations.  The religion practised by Jesus focused on relationships, on being in right relationship with ourselves, with other people and with God

The religion practised by the Scribes and Pharisees was about making ourselves holy by our own efforts, by fasting, by penances, by acts of purification, by ritual sacrifices, by saying long prayers.  The religion practised by Jesus was about accepting salvation as God’s gift, a gift given to us in Jesus himself and through our surrender to the action of the Holy Spirit.

The religion practised by the Scribes and Pharisees was judgemental and exclusive. It created distinctions and divisions between people on the basis of a hierarchy of holiness.  The religion practised by Jesus was compassionate and inclusive. It sought to break down barriers between people by creating a community of equals.

The religion practised by the Scribes and Pharisees was restrictive, burdensome and oppressive.  The religion practised by Jesus was liberating, life-giving and challenging.

In summary, the religion practised by the Scribes and Pharisees was a requirements religion.  The religion practised by Jesus was a relationship religion.

What is our religion? Is it the religion of the Scribes and Pharisees or the religion of Jesus?  I think that for many of us our experience of religion is a mixture of both. This mixture of both can be a cause of the struggle that is going on inside each one of us. We desire the relationship religion of Jesus but something within pulls us into the requirements religion of the Scribes and Pharisees. Whatever this something is, it needs to be named, faced and dealt with. Because Jesus is clear that the two religions cannot exist together.  To try to integrate both does not work.

He says, “No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak; if he does, the patch pulls away from it, the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.  And nobody puts new wine into old wineskins; if he does the wine will burst the skins and the wine is lost and the skins too.  No! New wine, fresh skins!” (Mark 2:21-22).

In the Gospel of Luke we find two very different responses to a woman in need (see Luke 7:36-50).  We are told that the woman had a bad reputation in the local town.  This probably meant that she was a prostitute.  It is obvious from the gospel story that the woman is hurting inside, unhappy with her lifestyle, longing for love and forgiveness.

The Pharisees who prided themselves in observing the Law and in being faithful to religious practice saw this woman as a public sinner.  For them she was a source of contamination and defilement, someone to avoid and keep at a distance. In the eyes of the Pharisees this woman was an outcast, unforgivable and unredeemable.

In contrast, Jesus had a very different attitude to the woman.  He did not see her as an evil person.  For Jesus she was a child of God, a person who had sought love in the wrong places, who longed for forgiveness and an opportunity to make a fresh start.   Jesus felt the pain in the woman’s heart.   He allowed her to touch him.  He accepted her expressions of tenderness.  He forgave her.

The Pharisees rejected the woman; Jesus accepted her.  The Pharisees condemned the woman; Jesus showed her compassion.  It is obvious which response made the difference.  Through her encounter with Jesus the woman got her heart back and her life too.  She found peace and she found hope.

So what can we expect from Jesus?  The very same things the woman received.  We too can expect acceptance.  We too can expect mercy and forgiveness.  We too can expect to be treated with tenderness and affection.  The same Jesus who responded to the need of the woman is present in our lives today.  Jesus does not change.  We may change, but he doesn’t.  His love remains strong and constant.

As we journey through life we meet with difficulties and disappointments.  Often we wander off track and fail and fall.  Sometimes we feel that nobody really cares, other times we experience a judgemental attitude similar to that of the Pharisees.  Whatever our experience, it is important to keep coming back to Jesus.  He never gives up on us. He is a friend, faithful to the end.

Even a brief look at the gospels reveals that a constant theme in the teaching of Jesus was the Kingdom of God.  Jesus made it clear that he had come to establish the Kingdom of God in the world.  His ministry was to practice and preach the Kingdom.  The mission of Jesus was to bring about the reign of God in our lives. 

For Jesus, the Kingdom of God is not a place or a territory.  It has nothing to do with geography or nationalism or indeed political power.  It is clear from the example and teaching of Jesus that the Kingdom of God is a way of life; it is about the values we chose to live by.  In particular, it is about the way we relate to each other.  In a word, it is about love.

Who then belongs to the Kingdom of God?  It would seem those who are sincerely trying to live what is known as the beatitudes in their daily lives.  These are the peacemakers, the gentle, the humble, the merciful, those who work for justice, those who are persecuted in the cause of right, those who have mellow and grateful hearts.   Jesus preaches a religion of the heart and his religion is about developing attitudes that create a right relationship with ourselves, other people, the environment and of course God.

It is important for us to realise that those who belong to the Kingdom of God may be members of a church, but they may not. We cannot limit the Kingdom of God to church membership. To do so would be exclusive and misleading. Obviously, a church is a community where we are meant to experience the Kingdom of God, but there are many people who belong to the Kingdom of God who do not belong to a church.  Indeed, there might be people who belong to the Kingdom of God and who do not have a conscious awareness of God in their lives.  We could call these ‘anonymous Christians.’  Kingdom people are sincere people who show kindness and seek to do good. They try to make the world a better place, often working quietly in the background.  Kingdom people are a leaven in society.  They may not have a public profile but their positive influence is significant, reaching well beyond themselves and beyond even what they dare to imagine.  

Towards the end of St Matthew’s Gospel (chapter 25) Jesus makes it clear that we will be judged by the way we treat our neighbours, especially those who are struggling and suffering.  Surely this is the yardstick for deciding who belongs to the Kingdom of God.

God is certainly persistent.  God never gives up on anyone, no matter who they are and what they have done.  God keeps pursuing us, reaching out to us, drawing us back, leading us home.  God is, in the words of Francis Thompson, ‘The Hound of Heaven.’

Why does God pursue us so persistently? Because God is merciful.  The heart of the Lord is mercy.  The gospels, especially the Gospel of Luke, are full of stories about the mercy of God.  Perhaps the best known is the story of the prodigal.  The word prodigal can mean two things.  It can mean wayward and it can mean lavish.  The love of the father for his wayward son was lavish in the extreme.  It was a love that was expressed in and through tender mercy.

One of the plays I studied in secondary school was ‘The Merchant of Venice’ by William Shakespeare.  For some reason the words I find easiest to remember in that play are those spoken by Portia to Shylock the merchant intent on getting his pound of flesh:                                    

“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:
‘Tis mightiest in the mightiest.”

The quality of God’s mercy is never strained; it is never measured, never weighed on a balance.  Because of God’s unlimited mercy we are forgiven when we fail, followed when we stray and found when we are lost.  It is the mercy of God that turns our feelings of guilt into feelings of peace. Many of us have inherited a judgemental and critical God, a God who is demanding and difficult to please, a punishing God who exacts justice.  Let’s be clear. This is not the God of Jesus.  This is not the Abba Jesus spoke so affectionately and intimately about.  Like Shylock, we humans may want others to pay for their wrongdoing but let us not project this on to God.  God is way beyond our desire for vengeance. God is mercy, pure and simple.  For each and every one of us who are constantly failing and falling, God’s unlimited mercy will have the last word, the final say.  In death we will simply fall into an ocean of mercy.

Christians believe that God is a Trinity of Persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  In other words, Christians believe that there is a community life in the reality we call God.  To find out what this means we can read the Scriptures.  We can also explore our human experience.  If God has created us and our world, and if God is Trinity, then the Trinitarian life of God must be reflected in our human lives in all sorts of ways.

An obvious way is our social nature.  We are social beings.  We create relationships and we sustain relationships.  In fact, without relationships we wither and die emotionally, even physically.  John Donne once said that no man is an island unto himself.  We cannot survive in isolation.  It is in living with others, it is in loving others, that we find meaning and that we become our true selves.

Another way is the power of cooperation.  When it comes to a project, a task, an undertaking, the best results are usually achieved when there is cooperation, when people work together as a team.  Ask any sports person, any project manager, any government and they will tell you that the team effort is the best effort, it is the most fruitful and successful effort.  It is also the effort that gives most satisfaction and fulfilment to all those involved.

Then there is the unity of creation.  One of the things we are becoming more aware of today is the way creation functions.  The created world is interdependent.  One part of it affects another.  For example, the cutting down of the rain forests in South America has an impact on climate patterns in Europe and Africa.  The laws of nature are finely balanced and when they are allowed to work together in unity and harmony they fulfil their purpose.

And finally, there is this attempt by a woman to describe what trinity means in her life: “I am a daughter and a wife and mother – three things, yet I am one totality.  To my parents, I would always be their child.  To my husband, a companion and a mate.  To my children, the one who gave them birth and nurtured them till they reached adulthood.  I seem to each of them a different person.  They each know a different kind of ‘me.’  But I am one, within myself a trinity and each of them finds unity in me.”

Of the three Persons in the community life of God the one that tends to get least attention is the Holy Spirit.  Perhaps this is because we find it easier to relate to Jesus who became human.  We also have some experience of what it means to have a father.  The idea of Spirit is more nebulous.  And yet if it wasn’t for the Holy Spirit we would not be able to live the Christian life.  In the Holy Spirit we have received a wonderful gift.  The Holy Spirit does many necessary things for us. Here are four:

The Holy Spirit helps us.  We cannot live the Christian life on our own power and strength.  Jesus knew that what he was asking us to do was humanly impossible.  He knew we would need divine help.  This is why he and his Father gave us the gift of their Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is our energiser, the tiger in our tanks!  The Holy Spirit is the one who empowers us to live like Jesus in our daily lives.  The Holy Spirit is also the one who helps us to pray.

The Holy Spirit enlightens us.  Many of the traditional prayers we say to the Holy Spirit focus on inspiration, understanding and enlightenment.  This is because we associate the Holy Spirit with the gift of wisdom and discernment.  The Holy Spirit is the one we naturally turn to when we need to be inspired and when we have important decisions to make.  When it comes to guidance and to the ability to see the hand of God at work in our lives we are dependent on the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit transforms us.  We are invited to become like Jesus.  Our destiny is to share in the very life of God.  The problem is that we all have hurts, bias and selfish tendencies within us that need to be healed and purified.  This healing and purification is the work of the Holy Spirit.  One of the symbols we use to describe the action of the Holy Spirit is fire.  Fire refines and burns.  The flame of the Holy Spirit within us is a refining fire.  It burns away the evil in our hearts so that we can become like Jesus.

The Holy Spirit unites us.  The Holy Spirit is often referred to as the bond of love.  This is a beautiful description of the Holy Spirit.  In the same way that a child is the bond of love between a husband and wife so the Holy Spirit is the bond of love between the Father and the Son in the life of God.  The Holy Spirit is also the bond of love between Jesus and us and indeed between the members of the Christian community.  The Holy Spirit is the one who links us up, who makes us into a family.  The Holy Spirit is the source of unity between us.  This is why we say that the Church was born as a community on the first Pentecost.  There is a divine energy flowing between us, holding us together, allowing us to affect one another, even when we are physically separated.  This divine energy is the Holy Spirit. 

The period between the Ascension and Pentecost is a very sacred time.  It is the period of the first novena, nine days of prayer.  Between the Ascension and Pentecost the disciples of Jesus kept vigil, they watched and waited for the gift from above.  Conscious of their need for divine help and inspiration, the disciples prayed earnestly for the gift Jesus promised them, the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The scriptures tell us that they “joined in continuous prayer, together with several women including Mary the mother of Jesus” (Acts 1:14). 

The days leading up to Pentecost offer us an ideal opportunity to pray for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit in our personal lives and in the life of the Christian community. The energy and enthusiasm required to live the Christian life comes from the Holy Spirit; so does the wisdom we need to make good decisions. The world today needs Christians who have listened to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and who are willing to practice the values of Jesus with conviction and courage.

The sacred days leading up to Pentecost are also an ideal time to bring into the Divine Presence our needs and our intentions.  We all have things we are struggling with, things that are difficult and perhaps painful.  Even though we tend to rely on our own power and strength to overcome our problems we do not have to manage these on our own.  The Holy Spirit is waiting for our invitation.  The Holy Spirit wants to help us.  The Holy Spirit can do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.

It is becoming more and more obvious that the Church is undergoing a major transition. Old models of faith practice which we held dear are breaking down leaving many of us feeling confused and lost.  While it is necessary to grieve for the things we are losing, it is also important to believe that this time of transition offers us new opportunities.  The Holy Spirit is with us as our guide and inspiration.  The sacred days between Ascension and Pentecost are a special time to ask the Holy Spirit to help us find a new direction for the Church, new ways of being community and new sources of nourishment for our spiritual lives.       

When the risen Jesus appeared to his followers he showed them his wounds.  Indeed Thomas, one of the twelve apostles, needed to see the wounds of Jesus before he would believe that Jesus had risen from the dead (see John 20: 24-29).  It is significant that in his resurrected body the wounds that were inflicted on Jesus remained.

We are all wounded.  This is a fact. It is the human condition. We were born into a wounded world and into a wounded family. We could call this inherited sin which is another name for original sin.  We also pick up our own personal wounds, especially in childhood. What we do with our wounds is the thing that makes the difference.  If we allow our wounds to become sacred wounds then our lives can become sacred stories.

For our wounds to become sacred wounds we first of all need to accept that we are wounded.  This may not be easy.  We do not like to admit that we are weak and vulnerable.  We prefer to protect ourselves behind a coat of armour.  To accept our wounds is not to put ourselves down.  It is important that we do not hate ourselves because of our wounds.  It is also important that we do not blame others for our wounds.  Many people spend much of their lives blaming other people for the wounds they carry.  This is a cul-de-sac.  The people who wounded us were wounded too.

Once we accept our wounds we then need to acknowledge them in the company of others. This is about bringing them into the light. To share our wounds with people we can trust is liberating.  It also brings healing.  Remember the words of Jesus, “The truth will set you free” (John 8:32).  

Finally, we need to surrender our wounds to God.  If we hand our wounds over to God we begin to experience God in a new and personal way. We discover the power of God working in us. We also discover that God loves us without conditions. This is something those who follow the twelve steps in the Alcoholic Anonymous Programme realise. In the third step they are invited to surrender their addiction to their higher power. Without this surrender they know they will fail. This too was the experience of the great St Paul who discovered that his wounds made him stronger (see 2Cor 12:7-10). God may not take away our wounds, but God will certainly help us to find a way of living with them.   God may leave our wounds to help us stay dependent on him and to remind us that he is the one who satisfies the deeper longings in our hearts.

We all need companionship in our lives.  Without some experience of companionship our lives can become lonely and sad.  When John Donne said that no man is an island unto himself he was giving expression to the need human beings have to be in relationship.  Of course companionship is much more than being social.  It is the experience of mutual presence.  It is a space where our capacity for life is nourished by others.  It creates the possibility of becoming intimate with someone. This is why the type of relationship we call companionship is one of the most beautiful gifts we can give to each other. 

There are different descriptions of what companionship actually is.  One model is what two people experienced as they travelled from Jerusalem to Emmaus after the death of Jesus.  On their journey they were joined by an apparent stranger who walked with them.  Their relationship with the stranger began with the experience of mutual acceptance and ended with a shared meal.  On the road there was attentive listening and soulful conversation.

This is a good example of what we might call Christian companionship.  Christian companionship has four aspects.  It begins with an attitude of acceptance that is inclusive and that transcends race, colour, religion, class and sexual orientation.  It offers people a listening hear and an opportunity to tell their story.  It allows soulful conversation to develop, the kind of conversation that gives expression to the things that truly matter.  And it includes the experience of a shared meal, which is sometimes referred to as table fellowship.  In fact, the word companion comes from two Latin words ‘cum’ and ‘panis’ which literally mean ‘with bread.’

When we experience companionship in this way we find that the longing within us is satisfied.  The experience of Christian companionship can be the key to unlock our hearts.  It can also open up the teaching of Jesus allowing us to find meaning and life in the Gospel.  It is no wonder that the two people who were accompanied by Jesus on their journey from Jerusalem to Emmaus found themselves saying, “did not our hearts burn within us as he talked to us on the road and explained the scriptures to us” (Luke 24:32).