Some would say he’s never far from my mind, but the first person I thought of after seeing today’s first reading was St Ignatius of Loyola. A psychologist long before psychology was invented, his genius was to understand and make sense of the huge number of thoughts, feelings, desires and inclinations which go on in us twenty four hours a day. We know we cannot act out all of them. For one thing, they pull us in different, often contradictory directions. We also learn, very early on in our lives, that some of them are not acceptable to other people, causing us to repress or supress them. A lot of this is normal and healthy enough. The very young children here, for example, who have no inhibitions about talking or shouting out during Mass, will learn before long that it’s not acceptable to do this. At other times, however, it’s not so healthy, as our repressed or denied feelings go underground to re-emerge at a later date in sometimes quite unhealthy ways. Saint Ignatius saw this very clearly and had lots of very helpful things to say about it. But his real insight went deeper. What he understood so clearly was that, in the midst of all the different thoughts, feelings and desires swirling around inside us, there is a gentle, sometimes almost imperceptible feeling which is God moving in us and which Ignatius calls consolation. And there’s another contrary movement which comes, not from God, but from what Ignatius variously calls Satan, the enemy of our human nature or the bad spirit. This is desolation, the key point being that the discerning person will identify the movement of God and follow it, while the foolish person will do the opposite and allow him/herself to be led by the bad spirit, a course of action which can only lead to trouble. In other words, identify the consolation, the movement of God, and follow it. Do this and you will have the life. Follow the desolation, however, and you’re on a downward spiral, today’s first reading being, for me, an invitation to reflect deeply on this.
At the heart of faith is an invitation to do what Elizabeth, in Luke’s Gospel, praises Mary for doing: believing that the promises made her by the Lord would be fulfilled. Abraham believed this and, by doing so became the father in faith of many nations. Mary believed it and gave birth to the Saviour of the world. And as the Church makes its way through history we are all called to believe in God’s promises, that, no matter how long it takes and how many ups and downs there are along the way, the Kingdom of God is coming. But it is not always easy to do this. It wasn’t easy for the people of the Old Testament who, in the course of a thousand years, lost faith in God’s promise over and over again. And it hasn’t been easy for people in the Church over two thousand years either. Time and time again, when things have been hard, people have lost faith, although there have always been those who, in the words of today’s Gospel, have had faith to move mountains. And this same pattern is reflected in the life of every person. There are times of consolation when, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, we believe in God’s promises and know them to be true. But there are other times when we lose sight of them and, under the influence of desolation, allow ourselves to sink into unbelief. And none of this should surprise us. Consolation and desolation go together. They follow each other as closely as day follows night. Each of them is part of what it is to be human. The secret is to know the difference between them and learn how to live with each of them. And that is what Habakuk is talking about today.
First of all, he reminds us of a truth we must always hang on to. Speaking of the vision God has for his people, he says; “Eager for its own fulfilment it does not deceive; if it comes slowly, wait, for come it will, without fail.” In other words, no matter what happens, we must never lose faith in what God is doing. In New Testament terms it means that the Kingdom of God is coming and that we must never lose sight of this. And then, in two lines, he sums up everything we have been saying about consolation and desolation. “See how he flags, he whose soul is not at rights:” in other words, who is allowing himself to be led by desolation into loss of faith. And then. “But the upright man (or woman) will live by his righteousness.” In other words by trusting God’s promises and living out of them. Sometimes we will feel the truth of these promises, sometimes we won’t. That is ultimately irrelevant. The key is to live out of them regardless of how how we feel and regardless of what is going on in our lives at any given moment.
Which brings me to a recent experience of my own which I want to tell you about today. September is always a month full of memories for me. On the 5th of September 1957 I set off from home at the age of twelve to begin a journey which brought me to the priesthood and to this parish. This year, however, was more significant than usual. It was the fiftieth anniversary of that day in 1957 and a cause for much remembering on my part. But the culmination came a week past on Tuesday as, with eight other members of the Men’s Spirituality Group, I flew into Valladolid Airport in Spain. Forty four years earlier, almost to the day, I had arrived in Valladolid as an eighteen year-old. Then the journey had been by train and had taken four days. Last Tuesday it took just one and a half hours from Stansted Airport. But as I soaked in the experience I was filled with the most profound sense of gratitude to God. All kinds of things had happened during those years. There had been times of consolation and times of desolation. But as the bus took us from the airport, past the city and out towards Salamanca, I was filled with gratitude to God for all that had happened. Just to be there with those men from the parish and share an important part of my past with them was a moment of profound consolation, confirming the rightness of everything that has happened over the years.
The promises made me by the Lord had been fulfilled and it’s in a spirit of thanksgiving for all that God has done for me that I tell you about it today.
BIDDING PRAYERS
It is not only possible to have important experiences of God and then forget we ever had them. It happens all the time. And so we ask God to stir in us this weekend memories of times when we have known him intimately and experienced his presence in our lives. And regardless of how we feel right now or of what is going on in our lives at this particular moment, we pray for the grace we need to trust those moments of consolation and live out of them always……………………Lord hear us
There are an infinite number of ways in which we experience the movement of God in our lives. For some of us, however, the annual Weeks of Guided Prayer have been one such way. And so, as we prepare for the nineteenth such week, we ask God to stir in us memories of past experiences, especially those we have forgotten or failed to remain faithful to as the years have passed. And we ask him to bless the coming week as he has blessed others in the past……………Lord hear us
Many religious people feel a sense of despair in the face of the modern world. It seems to them to be a godless place and, like the prophet Habakuk at the beginning of today’s first reading, they wonder why God looks on and does nothing about it. But this way of thinking is, in fact, a form of desolation which undermines genuine faith. It fails to recognize that God is always at work in the world and that his vision for humanity, even if it is delayed for a time, will come without fail. And so we pray for the grace to believe this…………………..Lord hear us
Often the growth of God’s kingdom is slow. Sometimes it is so slow as to be almost imperceptible. But it is always going on and we pray for the insight we need to recognize the many signs of the Kingdom of God which surround us every day if only we have eyes to see and ears to hear……………Lord hear us
In the Gospel today Jesus speaks to us of the power of faith. The mulberry tree was noted for the depth of its roots, extremely difficult to dig out, and yet Jesus says that faith the size of a mustard seed would be enough to pull it out and plant it in the sea. He is, of course, exaggerating – as he often does to make a point – but we pray nevertheless for some of the faith he speaks of so that we can be the people he calls us to be in the midst of the modern world……………….…………….Lord hear us
In the second reading, St Paul tells Timothy to fan into a flame the gift God has given him. These are powerful words in the context of our time. The world desperately needs men and women of mature, adult faith who can do this, and on Wednesday, here in the hall, there is an information evening regarding a new course in Adult Education which will take place over the next year. And so we pray that God will bless this initiative and that many in Kilmarnock will respond to it……...Lord hear us
Now let us be silent for a few moments……………
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