Finding God

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen

 Several years ago I was asked to introduce a video presentation featuring a well known Catholic priest and personality to an all men's group at a local parish.  The presentation was to follow their annual general meeting so I waited in the hall until they completed their prepared agenda.  I had arrived just in time to hear the men conclude the business section of their meeting with a Rosary.  As is the habit its familiar refrain was recited with the usual vigour and haste.   I have often wondered about the value of such prepared and formal prayers.  Is it because it’s the dutiful Catholic thing to do, or do we believe that somehow it will please God in his lonely heavenly realm?  It did not appear as though the recitation moved anyone to a higher plain or prompt them to question a particular aspect or understanding of faith. Repetition can be a useful teaching tool for primary school students, but these were all mature men, lay and clergy combined.  Remember, the Rosary was originally created as a substitute to help illiterate monks recite a simple refrain after they lost the skill to recite the 150 Psalms.  

While the value of a repetitive prayer may be very  handy when difficult and demanding circumstances keep us from a clearer focus; it should not lead us to a form of unified boredom.  The Catholic Mass, except perhaps for the Liturgy of the Word, follows a predictable format.  However, Catholics will quickly point out that the Liturgy of Eucharist should be understood as the highlight of the celebration. It is here that the body of Christ takes the physical form of his presence among his people. How many times do we miss that opportunity through our lack of response?  I truly believe that God already rests deep within every indestructible soul. The play of Mass is purely intended to remind us of that fact.

 

     

Predictability and repetition may be helpful to guide us through a semblance of unified praise and worship but I have often wondered what would happen if the celebrant were to open the proceedings with the questions: “Why you are here and what do you want to do?”  It has been said, and rightfully so, that many of us have become spectators instead of participants in what should be high drama. After all we do not gather together to be entertained but to participate in our joint search for God and may reflect his image to all he places in our path. The clergy can help point the way but can never become the destination.

 

Many Catholics today continue to insist that Tradition and Scripture are the necessary tools to help us find our way to this inward reality.  For some that may indeed hold true – but it cannot be the only way. God meets us where we are not where others would have us be.  The way to God cannot be attained through formula but rather through the diversity congruent with  each unique human being.  Tradition must always remain open to question and inquiry recognizing that faith is a dynamic and can never remain static when held under the domain of the Holy Spirit. 

Finally it is not about a religious institution, nor about your neighbour, not about me, and not really about you the reader- it is simply about forming a direct relationship with God; or more specifically discovering the God within. For most of us that goal is not only scary but perhaps beyond our immediate imagination.

In order to develop that relationship and trust we need to let go of all our usual support systems.  Think of it in these terms.  You enter a forest to find God. You set out with a group of trusted friends armed with a book of instructions on how to survive in the woods, and knowledge gained from innumerable lessons previously provided in the  in the event you should lose your way.  On the third day of your journey you wake up in the middle of the night, from a deep sleep,  only to discover that everyone is gone.  You are completely alone and everything you need to survive has been taken.  What will you do?  How will you find your way home?

You will now have to make decisions based on your own judgment – but without the help of others.   At this point the advice others have given you, in good faith and to the best of their ability, could prove to be valuable but also useless – now you alone must decide.  What will give you the strength to carry on and find your way back home?

I’m sure you will immediately grasp the fundamental truth in this simple analogy.

 

But now here’s the Good News - we will all find God!  But we will also know that he found us first and that it had nothing to do with the morality of your neighbour; what the religious leaders or the church told you, or all of the issues   facing the world today, such as abortion, contraception, same-sex marriage, etc. etc.,   God will always reach beyond all our expectations and assumptions and he/she will never leave us orphans.

            

Adult Faith Development

The following essay on Adult Faith Development appears on Fr. Diarmuid O’Murchu's website http://www.diarmuid13.com/ and is reproduced here with his kind permission. He is a member of the Sacred Heart Missionary Order, and a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin Ireland. O'Murchu is a practicing social psychologist whose working life is dedicated to social ministry, predominantly in London, UK. A prolific author and much sought after retreat master and speaker in many countries including Australia and Canada. Among his many books are my favourites: 'Quantum Theology - Spiritual Implication of the New Physics'(2004), 'Religion in Exile - A Spiritual Homecoming' (2000), and 'Cathing up with Jesus - A Gospel Story for Our Time' (2005).

ADULT FAITH DEVELOPMENT

All religions and churches emphasise that humans are:

• weak and sinful while God is strong and holy

• totally dependent on the all-providing God,

• servants of God to whom we owe absolute allegiance,

• children of a Father God and a Mother Church,

• called to be humble and obedient to the parent-like divine power.


The metaphor of the child is extensively used in conventional spirituality. Phrases like “childlike trust,” “loyalty,” “obedience,” “under authority” all denote a sense of dependency that is not congruent with adult maturity. The tendency to structure religion in patriarchal-type institutions, with a strong focus on those who govern from on high, breeds co-dependency rather than mutual interdependence. Such metaphors and systems militate against the emergence of wholesome, adult people.

Much more serious and less obvious to the naïve observer, is the tendency of religions to alienate people from the planetary and cosmic web of life. The dualism of the sacred v. the secular truncates nature’s invitation to live in a convivial, cooperative relationship with the earth and its living systems. Properly understood, earth-life systems function best when humans treat other life-forms with a sense of adult care and responsibility. But this experience of being human, in an integrated planetary and cosmic way, is largely unknown to people of our time

THE CONTEXT

Adult Faith Development wishes to reclaim our integral place in creation:

• There is a cosmic dimension to our lives, elegantly illustrated in the fact that
stardust is essential to our existence and all sources of nourishment ultimately belong to sunlight.

• There is a planetary/earthly dimension: our very existence is dependent on the healthy functioning of the earth’s bio-systems.

• There is an organic dimension, highlighted in the bacterial foundations of all life, thriving primarily on cooperation, not via competition.

• Our own human existence belongs to an amazing creative story of some 7,000,000 years, often dismissed by academics as primitive and barbaric.

Contextually, we are an integral part of a greater whole that confers on us our integrity and dignity, forever calling us to mutual engagement with the evolving life-forces of cosmic and planetary life. Because of our disconnection from the larger context, we end up condemning ourselves to a contrived, minimalistic, childish participation in the great enterprise of universal life.

AT HOME IN CREATION

Creation is our true, authentic home, the houshold of all life, including those who have gone before us. The afterlife does not exist outside creation, but within it, a realm in which our departed loved ones inhabit a different level of being = within the one cosmos.

Religion’s negative regard for the created order is responsible for much of the meaningless suffering in the contemporary world. Because this suffering is often so overwhelming, many people throw themselves at the mercy of God. Although an understandable response, and often the basis of survival against heavy odds, this is an abdication of our call to be co-creators with God in enhancing the growth and development of God’s creation.

RECLAIMING ADULT FAITH

Faith in our time requires us to grow up and learn to relate with God in a new way. As co-creators with our creative God, we are invited and challenged to relate as adults to an adult God, modelled for Christians in the adult life-example of Jesus. This requires that we replace:

• The patriarchal sky-God with the divine life-force we encounter in the miracle of God’s creation.

• Hierarchical top-down dependency with a sense of mutual equality and interdependence.

• Power-over with power-with (empowerment).

• Parental-type, controlling relationships with those based on mutuality (as modelled in the Trinity).

• A product mentality in which everything is essentially predetermined with a process outlook that respects the divinely inspired evolutionary nature of life.

• Faith communities where the focus tends to be on control and top-down governance (priest, imam, rabbi), to one centred on people and programmed for mutual empowerment.

PRINCIPLES OF ADULT FAITH DEVELOPMENT:

In contemporary cultures – secular and religious – calling forth the adult is either construed as a non-issue because, allegedly, adulthood is already fostered and protected, or it is subverted as dangerous propaganda. For the religions, in particular, it is quite a new concept with consequences that are likely to be perceived as threatening and dangerous for the status quo. In promoting a culture of adult faith the following principles are crucial:

1. Faith is a process of life-long learning, not some magical, divine product bestowed by church or religion.

2. Grace builds on nature (St. Anselm; St. Thomas Aquinas); consequently, appropriation of faith at different life-stages needs informed attention (see the pioneering work of James Fowler).

3. Adults learn by doing in a dynamic, interactive and co-operative endeavour in which educator and learner are equal partners.

4. In adult learning, everybody is endowed with wisdom and all are beneficiaries of divine revelation. Both educator and learner have joint responsibility for the awakening and appropriation of faith.

5. Story-telling is a central strategy in articulating a meaningful faith. Discernment skills arise from this context.

6. Adult faith matures when life experience is honoured, and the ensuing challenges are explored through mature adult conversations (stories).

7. Adult faith tends not to be incapacitated by perfectionism. It is much more at home in soulful realism in which paradox is honoured , vulnerability is protected, questions are respected and dogmatism gives way to trust and dialogue.

8. Adults commit to faith-based structures in which power is shared equally and justly at the service of empowerment.

9. Adults desire transparency through open dialogue, pursuing truth that is always in the process of being realised.

10. Adults seek to change co-dependent metaphors, images and language into more imaginative and intuitive constructs that challenge people to act as adults, faithful to an adult God, modelled on the adult life-example of Jesus.

Thank you Fr. O'Murchu for reminding us of our responsibilities as adult learners.