Tui Motu InterIslands Christmas Issue 2012 $6 . editorial

The Board and editorial staff of Tui Motu wish all of our readers and friends a happy, peace-filled Christmas. May 2013 bring songs of hope welling up all over our world.

e Aotearoans love celebrat- magnificent crib set — St ..Francis of which came with this God-baby ..Both ing the summer Christmas Assisi would have been proud to see Bernard Sabella and Peter Bray high- of fiery sun-baking heat at the way the Christ child had jumped light how vulnerable we are in doing Wthe beach or the lakes, dowsing our- down to earth .. On the head of the this, yet how important that challenge selves with obligatory protective sun donkey was a two shilling piece, and remains ..It is the kernel of the Year of cream; of the barbie, and the delicious on that of the Christ child, one shil- Faith ..And without doubt our hearts go smell of the fish, chops, sausages and ling ..Dad laughed for days at the bet out to the peoples of Gaza and Israel, steak bbq-ed to perfection; of the many that had been placed on the donkey, yet again threatened by unbridled stunning colours: searing red pohutu- when it was the child that had won! It power and cruel domination .. kawa guarding our coasts, cabbage tree was an eloquent commentary on the There’s much to ponder in in full white flower, and the profusion nature of the Incarnation: salvation this edition, with its distinctive of roses, lilies and other flowers whose comes to us through a poor child . Aotearoan Christmas flavor: Joy aromas linger in the evening warmth .. It’s a blessing too to be reminded Cowley’s loving rendition of the All of these bring out the best in our of the Christmas city of Bethlehem Christmas sotry will warm your hearts ..They remind us that wherever by two very different writers .. Each hearts, as will Mike Riddell on the you are there is a special flavour and a in his own way underlines the great gift of our Holy days .. And sing uniqueness of culture which breathes lengths that faith-filled people are loudly with Colin Gibson ..His new the fullness of life we owe to the prepared to go to pass on the heart carol will enhance our celebrations . Christ child .. of the Christian message: to ensure Whether you face sun or snow When I was a lad, our family had a that the dignity of the Christ child is in this season, enjoy its positive holiday trip around the South Island .. upheld in our ways of thinking and in message — and a very happy I remember we visited a small parish the ways we work to give to following Christmas to you from this Kiwi church in Nelson, where there was a generations the vision of life and love place down under! KT

Editorial...... 2 Poem: blue jays and one green apple ...... 19 Bernadette Hall contents Discover heaven in the world ...... 3 Jenny Dawson Poem: for love of mary ...... 19 Bridie Southall Letters to the editor ...... 4 Looking towards christmas with isaiah . . . . . 20–21 Comment: ...... 5 Damian Wynn-Williams David More No room at the inn ...... 22-23 Kiwi christmas...... 6–9 Susan Smith RNDM Joy Cowley How faith has formed me...... 24-25 Reflections on midnight mass ...... 10–11 Peter Cullinane Mike Riddell The hospitality of god ...... 26-27 Holy santa and aunt leonie ...... 12–13 Kathleen Rushton RSM Bernard Sabella Best books of 2012 ...... 28–29 Letter from bethlehem ...... 13 Kate Doherty Peter Bray FSC Crosscurrents ...... 30 Faith and a wild sea ...... 14–15 Jim Elliston Peter Murnane OP Where do we see god? ...... 31 The blessed time ...... 16–17 Peter Norris Colin Gibson A mother’s journal ...... 32 Treasured beyond measure ...... 18–19 Kaaren Mathias Daniel O’Leary Front Cover illustration: Donald Moorhead

2 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 . christmas guest editoral discover heaven in the world

Jenny Dawson

reparations for Christmas pag- the young ones caught up in a world of is like to be poor, anxious, a refugee, eants are being made in little alcohol, gang life and violence ..They excluded .. Each year Christmas calls churches and in big cathedrals, are bound together in community . us again to participate in the work Pand probably also in Ranana on the The fragile accord of this tiny of redeeming people from guilt and Wanganui River .. Volunteer teacher village sang for me, through the hopelessness, as well as creating and Compassion Sister Margaret months since I saw the film, of the healthy communities and affordable Mary has left Jerusalem but I hope Christmas theme of incarnation .. housing for the poor, all in the same that someone else is encouraging the The main characters in How Far is breath .. Because Jesus himself, while children in that Ranana schoolroom Heaven moved hauntingly between recognised as spirit, also has a body, to tell again in drama the story of the roles of insider and outsider, between the gift of Christmas is a passion for birth of Jesus .. I hope too that the belonging and remoteness, between justice for real people here and now .. audience will again be made up of hope and precarious future ..Through How far is heaven? the assorted parents and friends who the sisters’ continuous presence at In Ethics, Dietrich Bonhoeffer make up those small communities .. Jerusalem since Suzanne Aubert went argued that because of the coming Because of the film-making ability of there in 1892, they and the spire of of Jesus it is no longer possible for us Miriam Smith and Christopher Prior the small church offer pointers to to “think in terms of two spheres,” many of us joined in that audience God ..Suzanne Aubert told her sisters, the divine and the worldly, the holy — and in parties and fruit picking “Never forget, a Maori village was the and the profane, the Christian and — as we watched the documentary cradle of our Institute ”. the un-Christian, but only the single film How Far is Heaven ..Intriguingly Another even more troubled reality of the world-reconciled-to- there is no question mark in the title, village will be remembered this God-in-Christ ..Like the film title, the which comes from a question asked Christmas: the Middle-Eastern vil- incarnation does not have a question by 13-year-old DJ, then answering lage that we claim as the cradle of our mark .. Rather it is an invitation: to himself in tones of wonder “Past the faith .. In both villages is the seed of discover heaven in the world, in the world, past the earth, right up there, incarnation, of some flimsy awareness earth, right down here, for all people .. keep going, keep going . ”. that in Jesus Christ all of life has been As DJ said, “Keep going, keep going ”. Somehow, and it is very flimsy, touched by the love of God ... May this Christmas bring new hope there is a holding together in the The Christmas story, with home- to all people in God’s world ..n world of the film a complex set of less young parents making a birthing dualities: ageing (perhaps ageless?) suite in a manure-smelling stable, Reverend Jenny Dawson is an Anglican women devoted to service, prayer, drives home the point that God is priest who is the Bishop’s Chaplain for and jam-making who carry in their concerned not only with the spiritual .. the Anglican Diocese of Waiapu in the hearts but never quite make sense of God has a body ..God knows what it Hawkes Bay.

Tui Motu – InterIslands is an independent, address: Independent Catholic Magazine Ltd, Catholic, monthly magazine. It invites its P O Box 6404, Dunedin North, 9059 readers to question, challenge and contrib- phone: (03) 477 1449 ute to its discussion of spiritual and social fax: (03) 477 8149 issues in the light of gospel values, and in email: [email protected] the interests of a more just and peaceful website: www.tuimotu.org society. Inter-church and inter-faith dialogue editor: Kevin Toomey OP is welcomed. assistant editor: Elizabeth Mackie OP The name Tui Motu was given by Pa Henare Tate. It illustrator: Donald Moorhead literally means “stitching the islands together...”, bringing directors: Susan Brebner, Rita Cahill RSJ, Philip Casey the different races and peoples and faiths together to (chair), Neil Darragh, Paul Ferris, Robin Kearns, Elizabeth create one Pacific people of God. Divergence of opinion Mackie OP is expected and will normally be published, although that honorary directors: Pauline O’Regan RSM, Frank does not necessarily imply editorial commitment to the Hoffmann ISSM 1174-8931 viewpoint expressed. Issue number 167 typesetting and layout: Greg Hings printers: Southern Colour Print, 1 Turakina Road, Dunedin South, 9012

3 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 letters to the editor the grace of survival rights they have had .. Perhaps in the letters to the editor end we will look back on this current I always say that Tui Motu keeps We welcome comment, issue as an historical embarrassment, me sane and able to stay within the discussion, argument, debate. as we do with the right for women to bounds of the church, especially But please keep letters under vote, and blacks to be treated as equal . when I read articles such as the ones 200 words. The editor reserves Paul Armstrong, Dunedin in the October issue by Cardinal the right to abridge, while not Martini, Sister Susan Smith and Jo changing the meaning. slaves and dictators Ayers and Pat Snedden ..As one who We do not publish anonymous watched Vatican II with hope and Well done Tui Motu, you have done letters otherwise than in excitement, I too find that much of it again ..‘Every post a winning post’ .. exceptional circumstances. what is happening today is sadly out I would like to comment on Pat Response articles (up to a of touch with the modern world .. Snedden’s article ..He says, “My own page) are welcome — but As a woman who hoped to be children (all five of them) have left please, by negotiation. able to serve my church in ministry the church that seems out of step (I even gained a diploma in theology with their lives ”. from Otago University in prepara- I have eight children and none of own house in order and provide tion) I have been turned away .. I them have left the church, which is incentives for frugality, together with have watched all my children except ‘the people of God’, that is the laity .. legislation to curb easy borrowing .. one abandon the Catholic church as They have left the ‘institution’, which The increase in tax-take would both either irrrelevant or rejecting of their is a different thing ..All my children help to reduce debt and provide circumstances . are very close to Jesus in their daily funds for better and more extensive I have had to accept a ‘new’ trans- lives, including my lesbian daughter social services . lation of a liturgy I had grown to love and homosexual son ..While I preach Gerard can den Bemd, Mangere Bridge in favour of something more suited to the gospel, all my children put into the pre-Vatican II church ..And I have practice what I preach . sun shining and cool winds accepted ministry from a number of Today’s gospel of Mark 10:35-45 Cardinal Martini (TM, Sept) asks, young priests who have been trained tells us that we must act not only ‘What can you do for the Church?’ in a very conservative way of think- as servants, but as slaves! I have no At parish level, while some are quietly ing .. The articles mentioned above worries about where the church is ignoring new responses, they and remind me that I am not alone ..I feel going .. Our holy mother Spirit has others are working to reach out, show that I am in the church by default .. everything under control .. Until the love and give practical support to There doesn’t seem to be anywhere hierarchy starts acting like slaves those who feel alienated, whether by else that I would fit now ..I just live in instead of dictators, nothing will society in general, or by the church .. hope that some day mother church change .. They are, with the encouragement will step into the 21st century, will Paddy McCann, Waikanae of their pastors, feeding the hungry, accept women as full members of the clothing the naked and visiting the church, including in ministry, and state-owned-enterprises sick .. They do so quietly, without will begin to minister to those who While privatization of SOE’s helps fanfare ..Some of them speak of Rome ‘are in need of a physician’ .. Until to reduce debts and possibly increase as ‘irrelevant’ .. Some priests try to then I will continue to survive by efficiency into the bargain and our reach out to those the Church deems grace and with the help of the likes debts have risen to equal $160,000 unable to receive the sacraments, of Tui Motu . per family of four, the buyers of these but have to take great care how they Peg Cummins, Tauranga assets would be foreign enterprises, do it .. At the moment it seems that causing further loss to our nation of Roman priorities, such as the new an historical embarrassment our sovereignty as well as income . liturgy, are often different from those Here’s a simple thought I had in pass- During several decades, our irre- seen by the average parishioner, who ing ..Perhaps the current issue of gay sponsibly negligent governments have is more likely to be concerned about marriage is simply that, our current allowed the situation to worsen ..As a the loss of a future generation ..Also, historical issue ..Our reticence towards nation, we now need to be employed Roman methods of implementation its acceptance is marked similarly and work not six, but seven, days a often leave much to be desired ..The throughout history on various touchy week ..Meanwhile family life suffers . sun is shining in many parishes, but is subjects ..All in all it is simply a small For decades I urged government cooled sometimes by the chill winds group of people (of a certain era) not to impose sufficient taxes on luxuries blowing from Rome .. wanting ‘those others’ to have the and other unessentials to get their Pat Reid, Auckland (abridged)

4 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 comment reforms or a giant leap backwards?

The advent of God as a child at Christmas heightens our focus on children and family. It can also be a time of stress between partners and bring unfortunate results for children.

David More

he breakup of a relationship A lawyer will not be appointed to issues and take up too much of the when children are involved represent their children except in court’s time ..This is to be expected can be one of the most the more serious cases, whatever that when they are still carrying the scars traumaticT events anyone can experi- may mean .. Parents will represent of the breakup of their relationship .. ence .. The more disharmony in the themselves in an environment which The benefit of legal advice is not breakup, the more the trauma .. In is totally foreign to them ..For most it restricted to the court proceedings, spite of this, many parents do agree will be intimidating and overwhelm- and often guides parents through over care arrangements for their ing .. The issues which have hitherto the counselling process . children .. Others can’t .. For them been the barrier to their being able to With parents representing them- there is the Family Court .. It must agree on their children’s welfare have selves and no lawyer for the children follow that the parents who apply not suddenly evaporated .. It is non- appointed, it is inevitable that chil- to the Family Court are those who sense to suggest that a woman, who dren will become directly involved are unable to reach their own agree- has left a relationship because of the in adult issues ..Parents will ask their ment, without assistance . controlling influence of her spouse/ children to take sides ..It is less likely The reasons why a couple partner, will suddenly be able to foot that children’s voices will be heard, separate are myriad .. These reasons, it equally with him, in proceedings and New Zealand runs the risk of particularly when they involve issues involving their children, with both as breaching its obligations under the such as control or violence, are often unrepresented litigants . United Nations Convention on the the very reasons why parents need At present when an application Rights of the Child, particularly the assistance of the Family Court to is made to the Family Court, both article 12 . determine the care arrangements for parents are referred to counselling ... The reality is that parents who their children ..Up until now parents Six counselling sessions are provided can afford to instruct a lawyer pri- have been able to consult a lawyer at no cost .. If agreement is reached vately will do so for advice on what and legal aid is available for those at counselling, the court makes a to do and how to approach the court who cannot afford to pay their own consent order .. Otherwise, the court system .. These parents will be at a legal fees ... process continues .. Counselling has distinct advantage ..Legal aid will not More importantly, the Court not proved to be successful in the be available for parents who cannot appoints a lawyer for the children .. majority of cases, and will be abol- afford to pay privately ..In the major- This ensures that the children’s views ished if the proposed changes to the ity of cases these will be mothers ..It are made known to the parents and Family Court are implemented ...In its will be a double whammy for them the Court, without the children place will be an out of court Family if they have recently come out of a being caught up in their parents’ Disputes Resolution Service, which violent or controlling relationship . conflict .. Children love both their parents will be required to under- The Minister of Justice describes parents and it is essential for their take at a shared cost of $897 .00 .. It the proposed changes as a reform welfare that they are protected from remains to be seen whether this will of the Family Court .. A reform is a parental discord .. The appointment be any more effective than counsel- change for the better ..The proposed of a lawyer for the children helps ling and some parents will find the changes are hardly that ..The govern- ensure that parents don’t ask their cost difficult to meet . ment is committed to reducing the children to choose whom they wish It is important that parents who expenditure on legal aid and this is to live with . cannot agree on the care of their chil- all about saving money . The Government proposes this dren do get legal advice ..According will change .. Parents who apply to to recently retired Principal Family David More is a barrister, living and the Court for orders in respect of the Court Judge Peter Boshier, research working in Dunedin. day-to-day care of their children will shows that litigants in person are not be permitted to engage a lawyer .. unfocussed, cannot address the

5 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 christmas 2012 Kiwi Christmas A children’s Christmas story by Joy Cowley

Mary gets such a surprise, she nearly falls off her chair. She’s always known that birds can be special messengers, but she’s never yet seen a fantail with a bright light around it.

She thinks she should be afraid, but when the bird starts talking, she has the strange feeling that she’s waited all her life for this to happen.

“You will have a baby,” Gabriel says.

“A what?” says Mary.

The fantail flits across the room. “You’ll give birth to a boy child hristmas can be our story. and you will call him Jesus.” You only have to look at the blue sky C and the waves splashing light, “You have to be joking!” Mary says. to know that Christmas belongs here You must know that babies are made with the long days of summer by two people, a mother and a father.” and the pohutukawa in bloom. “God will be the father,” says Gabriel. So let’s backtrack to autumn when our own story begins, Mary thinks that this is ridiculous with Mary at her sewing machine but now the room is filled with light and a fantail darting in the door, and some of that light is inside her. only it isn’t really a fantail. It seems to find its home in her heart. It’s the angel Gabriel in disguise. “Well, yes, okay,” she says. “Whatever.”

6 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 It’s a fantail in a ring of light, telling him everything is fine. The child belongs to God.

Well, Joseph and Mary get married and you can imagine the next few weeks. He’s in the workshop making a rimu table and she’s bringing him a cup of tea with a cheese and pickle sandwich.

In the evenings he rubs her back and puts his hand over her belly to feel the son of God kicking. Already they are filled with love for this miraculous baby.

The day comes when Joseph has to drive across the country for some business in the city. He knows he can’t leave Mary, and yet he’s worried about her sitting for hours in an old truck on a rough and dusty road. “Don’t worry!” she says. “I’ll be absolutely fine.”

But that changes long before they reach the main highway. Without too much warning, the baby starts to come, Mary is doubled over, groaning and begging Joseph But there is a complication here. to stop the truck and get help. Joseph, a man who makes furniture, is really keen to marry Mary, Now, in the old story there was an inn, but when he sees she’s pregnant, but here it’s just acres of farmland he’s worried to say the least. with sheep, and an iron woolshed He’s about to call it quits, the only building in sight. when he has a strange dream. Joseph almost carries his wife

7 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 through the paddock gates and up the ricketty steps.

It’s just your normal old shed, shearing machines, bales of wool, and a smoko room to one side. Joseph spreads fleece on the floor and puts his jacket over it. He thinks there is a farmhouse a mile or two down the road, but Mary is in such a state he can’t leave her alone. He doesn’t know what to do.

Then, simply, like a pea from a pod, Jesus comes into the world.

It just so happens that the farmer sees an old ute parked on the road, and lights on in her woolshed She races across the paddocks on her quad bike, to investigate. When she opens the shed door, she stands like a stunned mullet.

The couple are laughing and crying and holding a baby so new that the cord is still attached. But the baby’s eyes are wide open and when he turns his head towards the farmer, she sees and voices that sweeten the night. that his eyes are full of light. No one has heard such singing before. Dogs lift their ears to listen The evening becomes a festival of light. and people smile in their sleep. The Southern Cross hangs low, glittering over the woolshed, The shepherds on the farm and the space between stars and earth come to see what it’s all about. is filled with angels – not birds this time, They too, stop dead in their tracks, but choir-angels with flowers in their hair mouths open in wonder, when they see

8 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 the newborn child in Joseph’ arms. “Come closer,” Mary invites them. “Put your finger in his little hand. See how he holds on to you!”

The next day a newspaper has a story about the aurora australis, lights caused by unusual atmospheric conditions. Another paper says there was a comet, and another suggests space craft from some far off galaxy. The shepherds smile at each other. “Yeah, right,” they say.

Mary and Joseph are back home with Jesus when the wise folk arrive from overseas. “We’ve come to see the king,” they say, and it’s fairly clear what they think of the furniture maker’s cottage. Mary brews them a pot of tea, butters scones hot from the oven, and the three gradually relax. They’ve brought expensive presents. Mary doesn’t know what a baby will do with gold, frankincense and myrrh. but she is sure these people mean well.

The visitors tell Mary and Joseph that the child will be a great king. “One day he will rule the world!”

Mary cuddles the baby and smiles. As for the Christ child’s gift to us, “He won’t rule the world,” she says. it can be seen at any time of the year. “Not the way you think. He is the king of hearts.” It’s the gift of sacred light in the eyes of every child. Well, I reckon, that’s our story, set in summery December, the time of natural celebration, Note: Kiwi Christmas will be published by Random House in 2013, a children’s picture book warmth and new growth. with illustrations by Bruce Potter.

9 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 christmas 2012 reflections on midnight mass

Mike Riddell

n womb-like darkness a match is scrambled my intuitions .. I blame struck ..A wick is lit ..Pure single my European ancestors ..They bun- light illumines the shadows . dled up their traditions along with IThe Christ candle shines once their gorse plants, and brought more as we celebrate another them half way across the world ..It Christmas .. There have been many was intended to provide comfort in before, and for most there will be a strange land .. Instead it brought more to come .. The great wheel of only strangeness . our lives moves on another notch .. Light shining in the dark is Our seasonal faith flares a little, gut- perfect for mid-winter ..Amid gath- ters in the winds of uncertainty, and ering gloom and creeping cold, the holds steady . light of a candle and the warmth A few words about light shining of a fire seem welcome causes for in the darkness drift through the hope and celebration .. Throw in a imagination .. Alongside us at this rib-sticking feast and the gathering late Mass are children long parted of the clan, and you have the ingre- from the church .. Our thoughts are dients for a memorable marking of scattered ..The Christmas dinner; the the incarnation . God was one of us?” What indeed? gift still to be wrapped; the loved Here in Aotearoa–New Zealand, Theologians have talked about ones gone . Christmas coincides roughly with the incarnation as “the scandal of Women stash their handbags the summer solstice ..Evenings unfold specificity” ..If through the entry of anxiously as the faithful shuffle in languid twilight; pohutukawas Jesus into the world, God has been forward ..Has the light overcome the bristle with crimson; the delicate born of a woman, then history is darkness? Somewhere in the city a fragrance of sizzling sausages sneaks bifurcated and the story of human- young woman vomits in the gutter; over the fence from the neighbour’s ity changed forever ..The mingling of a homeless man settles down in an barbecue .. The natural world opens Godhead and humanity is a miracle alley way; a wife reels under the like a blowsy rose to invite us to its not to be undone — what God has impact of a fist . lazy nectar . joined, let no one put asunder . A baby nestled in straw .. The No wonder we wait until mid- One of the consequences we cel- wafted pungency of incense .. night to find a rough approximation ebrate, not only at Christmas but in Mumbled responses .. The sweet of close darkness in which to light every sacrament, is that both human sherry breath of the stranger beside the Christ candle ..In this new land, life and the world that sustains it you ..Gloria ..A mobile phone rings .. the population staggers through are suffused with God ..We have no An infertile woman is feeling empty .. December not in anticipation of need to ‘shuffle off this mortal coil’ Mary remains eternally beatific . the feast of the incarnation, but in in order to be united with our maker hope of packing the lilo in the car or even enlightened ..Salvation is not hat is Christmas really about? and heading off on holiday ..Heathen in the beyond but here in our midst . WChurches erect billboards and hedonist, or just pragmatic? This is a fact not readily appreci- urging us to put the Christ back in ated .. For too many centuries and Xmas ..But they’re overshadowed by his is, after all, the celebration in too many lands, the church has nagging reminders of how many Tof the incarnation ..God taking made us uneasy in our environ- shopping days remain .. Each year human form .. The eternal becom- ment .. We fear ‘the world’ and Christian dignitaries valiantly seek ing present .. Transcendence finding seek to create a safe colony in its to provide a fresh slant on ‘the reason flesh ..God with us, God among us .. midst — erecting palisades of piety for the season’ .. God in our world rather than us in to protect us from the vulgarity of But I remain confused and paradise .. In the evocative words of the barbarian hordes .. Worst of all, distracted .. Mixed messages have the Christmas hit song, “What if we fear our own bodies, suspecting

10 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 them of mortal treachery . elsewhere; with being this kind of Midnight Mass is a weird cer- If the birth of a saviour in a cultural mix rather than any other; emony in a New Zealand summer .. smelly animal stall in Palestine with having our sort of laconic and But it still has much to commend it .. is what we claim it to be, then self-deprecating humour rather than For one thing, people gather to the surely we can accept our world that of a different people . name of Christ for their only visit of and our own humanity as brim- Among shearing gangs and the year ..That man with the sherry ming with the incarnate presence mussel farmers; with district nurses breath deserves an enthusiastic pass- of God ..Still marred and yearning, and darts players; beside paper- ing of the peace .. Who knows why certainly ..But as full of promise as shufflers and pram-pushers – we are he comes, other than some rough that shimmering foetal presence in becoming the people of God .. That intuition that the baby Jesus offers the womb of creation . man with the beerpot riding over his something found nowhere else? togs; that kuia with the moko; that Soon we will be with friends and nd so, and so .. To mark the girl on a boogie-board at the beach family if we’re lucky ..We will eat and Aincarnation in the Antipodes — these are the living embodiment drink and declare a ceasefire on our means to acknowledge the divine of the humanity God lives in . familial feuds for part of a day ..Then presence in our unique corner of life we will trickle into easy times — a — not in spite of it ..If summer be don’t hope for a new and pure sun-filled sabbath in which there’s the season, let it be in that vibrant I church ..I’m not a utopian ..What I space to think of where our days shimmering light that we give look for is a redeemed world — one are taking us ..Holy days, they were thanks for the coming of Jesus . in which people of faith find and called in earlier times . Christ is to be found not just uncover the presence of God in the May we not despise the season in holly and snow, plum pudding ordinary stuff of life ..I don’t wish for we inhabit, nor the land we and mince pies, partridges and Jesus to make an appearance on Mt occupy, nor the humanity we pos- pear trees .. He is present with us Taranaki .. I’m hopeful he might be sess ..That lonely Christ candle has in toetoe and hot sand, ham salad glimpsed in somebody’s mirror . lit us all, and evermore we travel and pavlova, tui and totara .. Our I look for signs that we’ve in blessed light ..n cultural rituals have been shaped begun to accept ourselves and by geography and climate, but our our place in the world .. I’m ever Mike Riddell is a theologian, writer acceptance of them as valid bearers hopeful that we might not feel the and filmaker who lives in Cambridge. of divine presence is lagging . need to be like someone else to be He is currently researching a film on the The church has never ‘fitted’ worthy, or the need to be better pioneer plastic surgeon, here ..It has come as an exotic rather than we are in order to be accept- Archibald McIndoe. than a native ..Like the pine tree it able to God ..That much is already has shallow roots and cannot with- given in the incarnation . stand the wind .. Is it too much to hope for a church that models itself on the pohutukawa, tenaciously holding to the barest of coastal Walk by FaITh margins and resplendent in its out- In this Year of Faith: rageous flowering? • Enrich your knowledge of Jesus Christ, It is not only the natural world the Scriptures and the Church. and seasons that escape our ver- • Deepen your faith. sion of Christmas, but the fabric • Know and understand yourself better. of common life in this setting ..Do • Share your faith with others. we need any reminders that culture For an enrolment form or further information here has moved on from that in the lands we came from? No one in contact your diocesan office or Aotearoa stands tall without having TCI, PO Box 12243, Wellington 6144 Tel: (04) 819 8385 ancestors who once forged their Email: [email protected] lives elsewhere . But Māori certainly, and the rest The programme is directed by of us gradually, are tangata whenua The Catholic Institute of Aotearoa New Zealand — people of the land .. Our very on behalf of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference being and ways of doing things are www.tci.ac.nz infused with living here rather than

11 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 peace in palestine/israel holy santa and aunt leonie A Palestinian Christian, whose lifelong work has been for reconciliation and justice between Israel and Palestine, brings joy and energy to his desire for ‘Peace to the World’ and among those with whom he lives. Bernard Sabella

recall Christmas in the early fif- our potential as human beings our material poverty and our refugee ties of the last century when my The environment of Christmas then status, should be celebrated with joy .. family was a refugee from the first made us feel that we were entitled to Perhaps most reflective of this spirit IArab-Israeli war in 1948 ..We were all being recognized as individuals, as per- of my parents and their generation was living in one room; but crowded as sons in our own right and reinforced the Christmas tree that adorned the it was with some ten members of the in us the feeling of belonging to the same corner of the family room year extended family, we were managing to family and to the larger community .. after year .. It was always my mother live in community so to speak without It inspired us to delve into ourselves who worked hard to set up the tree and electricity and other essentials that we and to recognize our potential ..It was guide us on how to decorate it ..That cannot do without nowadays .. an invitation to be open to the world, was fun and we were always so proud even if that world was no bigger than of our Christmas tree and the nativity santa’s visit the old city of Jerusalem with its set and paraphernalia that were placed Most impressive in those years was 20,000 or so inhabitants of Muslim at the base of the tree .. Santa’s visit on the eve of Christmas ..We and Christian Palestinians .. were allowed to stay up till midnight My father, God bless his soul, never the human spirit is stronger... to wish our parents, aunts and other missed the midnight mass in Bethlehem .. We have learned as children that members of the family community a He would leave for the Church of the Christmas is a season of joy ..Later on, the Merry Christmas .. But our anticipa- Nativity after our family’s Christmas Eve childish joy associated with Christmas, tion was always focused on Christmas dinner at around 7:30 in the evening .. its carols and Santa’s visit, developed morning when we would wake up and One year, he insisted on my accompany- into a joy of faith and hope ..Irrespective find the colourfully wrapped candies at ing him ..I was awestruck by the multitude of how difficult life can be, even for the base of our bed ..With the candies, of pilgrims and their different languages refugees who have just experienced we would find a personal gift, usually a as they gathered awaiting midnight mass .. sweater or pajama; or a toy and some For my father, the visit to Bethlehem precious small change which made was one of adoration to the newly born us feel like big spenders ..Especially so Divine Babe and I still remember him since our family’s precarious finances, genuflecting by the nativity grotto and coming out of a war, denied us access to later on reciting his rosary at the Saint such small change throughout the year . Catherine’s parish church where the mid- night mass was set to start . aunt leonie As children we earnestly believed in the the gift of parental teaching existence of Santa Claus ..I was a firm As I reflect on my childhood experience believer in his existence and I remember of Christmas in the 1950s, I am struck telling my younger siblings how it was by how much my parents’ generation indeed Santa who placed the colourful taught us about ourselves and about candy wrappings, the gifts and the small how our world should be, by their change on our beds .. Later on in my way of celebrating and experiencing childhood I discovered that Santa was Christmas ..This was a generation that no other than Aunt Leonie, who took was traumatized by the 1948 Arab- extra care at preparing the wrappings Israeli war and by the fact that they were and offered the small change from her refugees with challenges of life and its own limited purse ..Christmas for Aunt difficult circumstances that would make Leonie was a show of love and compas- one easily lose hope and perhaps faith .. sion that emphasized the family, the But they never lost either hope or faith togetherness and the joy of celebrating and they kept insisting that life should the birth of the Divine Babe .. go on and that Christmas, in spite of

12 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 a devastating war, Christmas was a reminder that the human spirit is far letter from bethlehem stronger than the vicissitudes of life .. The vice-chancellor of Bethlehem University, As we celebrate Christmas in 2012, with the world continuing to experi- Brother Peter Bray, writes for Christmas ence conflict and economic difficulties, among other woes, and as our country reetings from Bethlehem! believes in the value of what it is continues to suffer occupation and the Our 2012–13 academic doing for the Palestinian people unfulfilled aspirations of freedom with a year is well under way .. and for their future as a nation .. Palestinian state of our own, we should GThe students are pleased to be We are unashamedly a Catholic be reminded of the joy and faith of my back together .. Many staff and University ..Muslims feel comfort- parents’ generation as they struggled students still get harassed in get- able in coming here ..Students and to reshape their lives and their world .. ting to the campus .. Those from staff here know that around the Christmas was a driving power in their East Jerusalem who have to come world there are people standing struggle then as it should be to all of us through the Wall are particularly in solidarity with them — you as we celebrate yet another Christmas vulnerable to delays and abuse .. know about the occupation and this year .. The message of Christmas We cannot change that ..What we the oppression, about the restric- ‘Peace to the World’ cannot but start can do is ensure that when they tions and the political, economic with peace to the family and to oneself are on campus they feel safe, cared and military control under which irrespective of the hurdles and anguish for, respected and able to approach our people live and work .. It is caused by continuing conflict and its study with greater focus and peace even more supportive if they are many woeful adverse manifestations .. of mind .. A Dinka chief in the aware that you are also raising the Merry Christmas and a happy midst of a destroyed village in awareness of others in your local New Year ..n Southern Sudan said: “Education communities .. This becomes real gives us the freedom to think for when faculty, staff and students Dr Bernard Sabella is the executive ourselves ..You cannot give anyone engage with visitors on campus secretary of the Department of Service to a greater gift or a greater freedom and deepen their understanding .. Palestinian Refugees at the Middle East than that ”. This is the University’s I am conscious of Archbishop Council of Churches in Jerusalem. role in the midst of the continuing Desmond Tutu’s comment: “If oppression and occupation . you are neutral in situations of Good news: we’ve purchased injustice, you have chosen the side the last suitable piece of land close of the oppressor ”. to us ..This will set the University Thanks for your prayer support .. up for 20 years, and will show the It is crucial to our mission ..Thanks local people that the University for the many New Zealanders who have visited us here at the University and are spreading the word about us, and thank you for your financial support . As we approach Christmas again I am very aware of the Good News that came to us with the child born here in Bethlehem .. You will be remembered in prayer as we cel- ebrate Christmas in this holy place ..n

Editor’s note: Donations for the work of the University sent to Caritas Aotearoa NZ PO Box 12193 Thorndon Wellington 8144, and clearly marked ‘Bethlehem University’, will be forwarded to [Photos of Bethlehem University: Peter Bray] Brother Peter. Tax receipts for such donations will be provided.

13 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 christmas letter from Gizo faith and a wild sea

The Christ child presents us with a huge challenge. In the midst of all our Christmas buying, selling and consuming, do we really believe that this baby is God? Peter Murnane

myself gave little comfort: worst case of water on the elbow...... ever!

a metaphor emerges In the white-out, I wondered how we could avoid being pushed completely off course .. Our driver never used a compass, but steered by landmarks and wave patterns .. He stood at the tiller, bracing himself with a paddle wedged behind the rear bench, his baseball cap only partly protecting his face from the rain ..If it overcame him, would our little boat be swamped, and we left kicking on the wild surface above 500 metres of water? I peered forward, hoping to see the land that we knew was there, somewhere ..After what seemed hours I thought I could see a section of white, hardly distinct from the rest .. t might seem strange to start and land in the trough beyond with a There was something solid in all that a Christmas Letter by talking jarring clang of our aluminium hull . cloud ..Then I was certain: as the rain about Palm Sunday, but what We kept the coast of Kolom- thinned, the coast appeared: we were Ihappened then best explains what bangara to our left, staying out in not far off our expected course . I understand about faith .. On that deep water away from the reef and day we were returning home to Gizo its wild surf, but soon that coastline our situation today Island in the Western Solomons, curved away and faded into mist .. It is difficult to believe that Christ is after celebrating Mass on the island Letting go of its security, we contin- God, because like every other baby of Kolombangara .. Setting out for ued our bouncing way towards the he was born into a world of cruelty .. home on normal days we could see cloud that hid the horizon .. Then Our affluence and wasteful consum- Gizo on the horizon 22km away, we had to enter that cloud and were ing are a façade, behind which the but on that day the horizon was an immediately enfolded in rain so heavy larger part of the human race is ominous white blank . that we could see no more than a few kept in poverty and semi-slavery .. metres in any direction .. Countless A powerful few shape society for journey homeward drops peppered the surface with little their own advantage, using wars as We were in a seven-metre dinghy, craters which instantly disappeared their preferred instrument .. In the powered by outboard motor .. On and were as suddenly renewed . last 50 years Vietnam, Cambodia, the outward journey the rough sea Our boat bucked like a rearing Laos; most countries in Central and had thoroughly wet us, and was now horse ..I held on with my right hand, South America; Libya, Palestine, Sri growing rougher .. I felt grateful for and with my left made a veranda Lanka, Sudan, Syria, East Timor, our driver’s skill, swerving among the from the hood of my jacket, to shield West Papua and not least Iraq and ever-changing waves, neither taking my face from the stinging rain, but Afghanistan have been deliberately them head-on nor letting one come every minute or so I had to drop my savaged by violence condoned or over the side to swamp us ..Only occa- arm to empty a half-litre of water even assisted by ‘The West’ ..People sionally would we speed over a crest from my sleeve ..A dark joke against in their millions, each born as a

14 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 fragile babe like Jesus, were bombed; of doubt, is our own experience ..After faith in love? had their forests poisoned, their vil- all, it is experience that reliably tells To admit love into our lives can be lages burned; their persons violated us when we need air, water, food ..By as frightening as a tropical storm at and traumatised or were forced into experience we find what will satisfy sea, but every one of us is capable exile as homeless refugees . us, and experience tells when we have of it ..We can steer our boat towards The leaders of the nations and had enough, although we sometimes the further shore, rather than stand, corporations who do this ‘reshaping’ over-ride it, deceiving ourselves to lamenting the storm and looking first use the media to deceive us into keep consuming beyond those limits . fearfully out to sea . fearing the ‘enemies’ they create: When we accept that the ‘communists’, ‘terrorists’ (Moslem, St John was Transcendent Mystery is real, we Palestinian or otherwise), then enter profound peace ..Could there be arrange wars to destroy them so as describing his own any greater joy than to know that we to ‘maintain our interests’, not the lived experience are loved without any limits? Then least of which is profit from selling when he gave us at any time, like the mystic William weapons to all sides . the profound phrase Blake, we can see heaven in a wild what do we believe? “God is Love”. flower; hold infinity in the palm of our hand, and eternity in a half-hour .. Most of the time we turn our faces We can silently wait on The Mystery away, not willing to admit these terrible the transcendent in ordinary in meditation or talk to God by more sufferings or that they are deliberately direct prayer ..But as the mystics also caused and that we ourselves indirectly The experience of being loved can emphasise, we will make much more support them by sharing the profits lead us towards healing even after progress by loving than by reasoning and by remaining silent ..Do we really trauma .. What brings us nearest to or talking, for love unites us in a way believe that God was born into this? Or the Transcendent are our ordinary that mind cannot . that God is infinitely good, but allows experiences of love, joy, peace and I am not normally fearful, and on this? Why does God not do more to even various kinds of resurrection ..At Palm Sunday my death was not likely, help us in the mess our world is in? the death of loved ones, for instance, but in the heart of the rain-squall I These ancient questions still trouble many people experience convincing did begin to fear that we would not people as they have always done, but signs that ‘the departed’ has only get through .. I have had a previous now they have reached a new intensity .. gone beyond human sight .. Many brush with death .. And I know that They push many thoughtful persons other people describe the experi- by statistical odds I will die and enter — especially the young — to walk ence of having been touched by The more closely into The Mystery within away, disappointed and frustrated, Mystery when healed, or in ecstasy, seven or eight thousand days .. This from our churches and often uncon- or in a Near Death Experience .. The deepens my trust .. The boat that is vincing liturgies . people who wrote the Scriptures were our ‘true self’ cannot sink! If it seems Today’s seekers are healthily recording such experiences: Luke’s and to, Love is always there to support us, sceptical of ‘believers’ — whether in Matthew’s stories of Jesus’ infancy; deeper than any depth below us . mainstream religions or on the lunatic the stories of those who experienced fringe — who claim certainty and try Christ after he had passed through the power of love to make us accept their own convic- death ..St John was describing his own If there is such a Love, might it tions which are often blindfolds to save lived experience when he gave us the contain an answer wider than all them from looking at the world’s pain .. profound phrase “God is Love” . the apparent contradictions in the Are these dogmatists any different from material world: greed against weak- the advertisers and hucksters who com- god is love ness; violence against peace? Just as mercialise everything, even the season When we experience the love that human beings can heal one another of Christ’s birthday? shines like the sun from the face of by forgiving, might not Love, which every friend or lover, are we seeing hints is everyone’s origin and final destina- the gift of experience that there must be a ‘stupendous Lover’ tion, be great enough to embrace all When we try to explore the from whom flows all the beauty of the in its infinite depths, where ‘darkness Transcendent — ‘what is God?’ — created universe? If so, must not such a and light are one’? n reasoning can take us only so far, for Love also be supreme Intelligence, fully what we are seeking is, by definition, aware of us? What deep affection God Father Peter Murnane OP is novice beyond the human mind ..We reach a must have for all people! How could master for the Dominican Province of the threshold, a shore, but the only reli- people who have experienced this, Assumption in the the Solomon Islands. able ‘boat’ we have to navigate the sea continue to hurt one another?

15 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012

The Blessed Time

Tui Motu is pleased and proud to present to readers When Angels Rove the Restless Skies, a new Christmas carol composed specially for you by Colin Gibson. Colin’s contribution to church music within Aotearoa-New Zealand began over 40 years ago and continues to flourish.

When angels rove the restless skies, And all creation sees with Mary’s eyes, When shepherds run in wild surprise It is the time, the blessed time When all things human and divine Make Christmas

When wise and foolish seek the Child. The Son, through whom all worlds are reconciled When gentle beast lies down with wild It is the time, the blessed time When all things human and divine Make Christmas

When tears of grief are wiped away, When peace and justice rise to light the day, When love at last finds out the way, It is the time, the blessed time When all things human and divine Make Christmas

— Colin Gibson

17 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 spirituality treasured beyond measure

Too often at Christmas, the real magic is missed. There is nothing infantile about the infant; the innocence of the child is the power of the Father filling the hearts and souls of his beloved and broken people with hope for the eternal light of his love and affection. Daniel O’Leary

ack in the 1950s, during December days, at instance, of the most complete, loving moment you around 6 p .m ., a small army of boys and girls can remember ..Think of all that has ever moved you were collected from the neighbouring vil- profoundly, whether this be the silence of the dark- Blages of Knocknagree, Gneeveguilla and Barraduff, ness, the forgiveness of a friend, or the wind in the and taken to Rathmore Creamery, for the killing winter trees ..All of that is unearned, undeserved ..And and plucking of the Christmas turkeys and geese .. it is all free ..We know this because of the baby . The staff did the killing; we did the plucking . There will, of course, be days when we doubt It was pure torture ..Plucking resistant pin feath- this .. There is too much confusion around us, too ers from a tough and bony old bird was hardly an much pain inside us ..We lose our longing for the inspiring Advent ritual ..It was ninepence for a cock, light .. On Sunday we prayed for the removal of sixpence for a hen ..The hens were easy ..I wasted my “the darkness that blinds us to the vision that fills whole first night trying to pluck a cock ..Again and the mind . ”. Midnight Mass reveals, to those who again I was refused my money — either there were have learned to see, that these beautiful prayers are some impossible feathers still attached, or the skin already answered — every day . was bruised or bleeding, or the plucking checker Reflect, for instance, on the utter surprise of feel- did not like me . ing the invincible Spirit move in you, of sensing there This was my first introduction to paid work .. is nothing you cannot be, or do ..Think of the most Looking back now, I remember how upset I was at that liberating moments in your life — when, for instance, hard world of earning, meriting and competing ..There at the end of your worst night of loss, you still got up, was little generosity in that smelly shed of flying fleas drew back the curtains, and, without knowing why, and feathers ..You had to cajole and bargain for every your stalled heart began to beat with hope again . last penny at the payout ..Even in those young years, Or think of the most courageous moment that I wanted another kind of world — a more forgiving still makes your eyes shine .. Think of the time one, a more loving one, where all the pin feathers do when you reached way beyond yourself, when you not have to be removed ..With a child’s clarity, I longed stretched for what was out of reach, when someone for things to be different ..I discovered later that they or something carried you to a place you had only already were ..But nobody told us . dreamed of, when you felt at one with everything, One day, if we are lucky, the impact of Christmas and sensed that your forgiving look was a small stuns us ..Something remarkable begins to dawn on sacrament of universal peace . us — the recognition that, despite its ugliness and Remember the sublime music that moved you evil, this wounded world is alive with love ..We are to tears, the dance that made you throw back your treasured beyond measure by a mercy that does not head and laugh out loud, the painting that touched depend on our worthiness — that carries no inspec- your hidden passion, the possibility or the person tion for perfection . that stole your heart ..That is when you were experi- Every year, we have Advent to remember and encing the excitement we call God, revealed first in delight in this transforming story, this radical rev- the small lover on straw who smiled at the star above elation that the divine Mystery is now flesh of our him, and cried at the cross he glimpsed beneath it . flesh, as intimate as our senses ..The mystic within us Too often, at Christmas, we perennially miss knows that the same holds true of the world itself, the real magic — that in his subsequent death and that we must cherish it, because now we know it to Resurrection, the ‘baby Jesus’ is, in fact, revealed to be the precious body of God . be the Cosmic Christ who flattens the hills of injus- Incarnation is about the way we see things, the way tice and fills the valleys with hope, the heart, soul we get hints of the holy, hidden nature of everything, and saviour of God’s beloved and broken people, the especially of the experiences of our lives ..Think, for mighty “firstborn of all Creation”, the pulsing being

18 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 of all that lives ..There is nothing infantile about the Blue jays and one green apple infant ..Christmas is already Easter . Donoughmore Cross, Ireland We look at the baby and sight trembles into insight, seeing is transformed by recognition ..Advent grace is for attuning the senses of the soul to the The autumn is heavy with blue jays in the bare trees. rhythm of God’s heart in every heartbeat ..The poets know this .. Gerard Manley Hopkins reminds us of You’d swear the tree cupboards were empty “the face behind the face”, Kathleen Raine of “the but then there’s the thud of a green apple. It’s tiny. mountain behind the mountain”, Seamus Heaney It curls up at one end like an Arabian slipper. of “the horizon behind the horizon” and St Paul of There’s slime on it and a dark wet leaf and a long black slug. “the energy behind all energies” ..That’s the revealing language of the traditional “Catholic imagination” . But pick it up anyway and pop it in the sink. “The day of my spiritual awakening”, wrote It will come up all shiny. Peel off the ringlets Rhineland mystic Mechtild of Magdeburg, “was the of impeccable skin and there are the white crystals day I saw — and knew I saw — all things in God and tinged with green that make up the fleshy nursery. God in all things ”. Incarnation is about recognising divine beauty — usually in deep disguise ..Can you What a long time it’s taken to get here, two hundred years at least. think of a time when you saw into the heart of a Well done, tree; well done, jays. We like the way gesture, a passing event, any sensation — really and you chase the crows away before they give us a headache. truly saw into it, through the lens of Christmas? In “The Snow Geese”, poet Mary Oliver tells of her sacramental glimpse into the mystery of the ordinary: — Bernadette Hall One fall day I heard above me, and above the sting of the wind, a sound I did not know, and my look shot upward; it was For Love of Mary

a flock of snow geese, winging it Advent roses fill our gardens faster than the ones we usually see, preparing us to celebrate and, being the colour of snow, catching Your birth the sun Mary’s love In full bloom no need for snow or mistletoe in Aotearoa so they were, in part at least, golden ...

Pungas throw out their fronds I have never seen them again. announcing Your arrival Rengarenga lily Maybe I will, someday, somewhere. drapes her cloth like peace Maybe I won’t. prepare our hearts It doesn’t matter. to birth the Star of Wonder

What matters Red Pohutakawa white Manuka is that, when I saw them, flower this land of abundance I saw them as through the veil, secretly, joyfully, fruitfulness pours out her joy clearly. n carrying the seed Emanuel Trinity of conception perceives her love Fr Daniel’s website is www.djoleary.com Summer Christmas Father Daniel O’Leary is a priest of the Aotearoa Diocese of Leeds, England.

— Bridie Southall This article is reprinted by kind permission of The London Tablet . 19 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 biblical spirituality looking towards christmas with isaiah

‘The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, my people do not understand.’ (Isaiah 1:3) Damian Wynn-Williams

t Christmas we cel- Babylon centuries earlier .. This ebrate the birth of God’s same text was given yet another Incarnate Word .. The interpretation by early Christian AScripture readings of our Advent readers who saw in it a reference and Christmas liturgies invite us to John the Baptist .. In each of to respond to this self-disclosure the Gospels the phrase ‘in the by God ever more profoundly wilderness’ is taken to refer to and personally ..Of the readings ‘the voice’ of John the Baptist selected from the Old Testament rather than to ‘the way’ . special place is given to those The question inevitably from the Book of Isaiah (26 arises: how is the meaning in out of 41) ..How might we read the text to be determined? Is them today? this to be restricted to what the author intended? Should one the fifth gospel presume that there is only one The Book of Isaiah is frequently meaning? Or does the experience cited or alluded to in the New of the reader contribute in some Testament, some 16 times in way? Unquestionably historical Matthew’s Gospel alone ..For the criticism plays an important early Christians it provided a sort and fundamental role in our of mental grid with which they were joined to the older material ..In understanding of a text, provid- could interpret both their experience the process older sayings or images ing parameters for interpretation ... of Jesus of Nazareth and their own took on new shades of meaning in the It serves to prevent the reader from identity as the new ‘Israel’ ..St Jerome light of these later additions, though imitating Humpty Dumpty who said even described the Book of Isaiah as it is often impossible to distinguish to Alice that words could mean what- the Fifth Gospel ... the stages of redaction or editing with ever he chose them to mean (Through According to the title of the book absolute certainty . the Looking Glass, chap 6)! Isaiah lived in the later part of the 8th century BCE ..However, a care- ‘rereading’ redaction, editing? ‘open-endedness’ ful reading of the text implies later That this process of ‘re-reading’ But while words do define and have historical settings as well, notably the Isaiah continued even after the book specific meanings, they can at the period of Babylonian Exile in the 6th assumed its final form sometime in same time possess a certain ‘open- century and also the so-called Second the 4th–3rd centuries BCE is evident endedness’ .. Words and images in a Temple period when Judah was but a from the scrolls and the many frag- text can have a potentiality which the tiny part of the vast Persian empire ments found at Qumran ..For exam- original author may not have realized .. (5th–4th centuries) .. Evidently the ple the sectarians at Qumran took the We might recall how through the cen- book as we now have it was formed phrase ‘in the wilderness’ in Isa 40:3 turies great actors and producers have over many hundreds of years, with to refer to their place of self-chosen ‘discovered’ in Shakespeare’s plays the message of the 8th century Isaiah exile by the Dead Sea ..In its original new shades of meaning in the light of constituting a nucleus that was sub- context, however, the exhortation: their contemporary experience ... sequently elaborated and applied to ‘In the wilderness prepare the way We read the Scriptures, not simply new situations ..In time the words of of the Lord,’ referred to the journey as historical documents, but as ‘the other anonymous prophetic voices back to Jerusalem by the exiles in word of God’ ...In this regard there is

20 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 a tantalizing connection between the Matthew handed on the tradition scholars there is no agreement about mystery of God’s self-disclosure in that he had received about Jesus’ con- his identity or when this oracle was the Incarnate Word of God and the ception, he was able to associate the composed .. In any case these hopes mystery of revelation in the limita- promised child mentioned by Isaiah came to nothing ..But the prophet’s tions of human language ...According with Jesus, Mary’s son, for whom the words endured .. Centuries later to Karl Rahner, “In every word, the title ‘Emmanuel’ (God-with-us) was they were seen by Matthew (4:15f) gracious incarnation of God’s own most appropriate .. What underlies to express the significance of Jesus’ abiding Word and so of God himself this sort of ‘re-reading’ is the convic- appearance in Galilee at the begin- can take place… If one is to grow tion that God’s word remains alive ning of his ministry in Galilee ..He ever more profoundly Christian, one and active . is ‘a light to enlighten the nations’ must never cease to practise listen- (Lk 2:32), ‘the light of the world’ ing for this incarnational possibility sequential reading (Jn 8:12) .. in the human word ”. (Theological It is helpful to read the Isaiah texts Investigations, 4: 362) in the sequence in which they appear looking to christmas in the Lectionary, taking note of the One further example of this sort of a godly conversation various clusters of images and ideas ‘imaginative’ re-reading of Isaiah By paying heed to the various speak- that recur ..When viewed in the light deserves mention as we look towards ers in Advent/Christmas readings we of the Gospel, these may take on new Christmas ..In Isa 1:3 Israel is accused can listen to them as a sort of conver- connotations .. For example the vari- of rebelling against God; even ani- sation between God and ourselves ..It ous references to Zion/Jerusalem/the mals are more intelligent! Now the should be noted that prophecy is not Temple ‘in the days to come’ might Greek version of this verse uses the primarily about predicting the future .. remind us of Jesus’ self-description same word for ‘manger’ as occurs in The prophets were concerned with as the temple to be raised in three Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth (Lk what was happening in their present days (Jn 2:19) ..The images in Isaiah 2:7, 12) ..It also renders the Hebrew world .. They ‘told forth’ rather than describing the ‘shalom’ promised by term for ‘master’ as ‘lord (kyrios),’ ‘fore told ’. In this conversation we God (harmony/ banquet/defeat of the title regularly applied to Jesus .. do not expect to receive information Death/healing of the lame etc) are For later Christian readers with the otherwise unknown to us but rather seen in the Gospels as signs of the nativity story in mind Isaiah’s words we are attentive to God’s invitation to Kingdom inaugurated by Jesus ..Each took on an extra nuance, allowing trust and to love .. of the many different references to piety to introduce an ox and an ass There are indeed several texts God such as Lord (Yahweh), the Holy into depictions of the Christmas crib which speak of a future birth (or One, creator, our Father, shepherd, scene ..‘The ass recognised the manger perhaps enthronement), 7:14; 9:6f; redeemer can be the basis of personal of his Lord!’ With such hindsight 11:1ff .. For example, when Isaiah prayer .. When we hear mention of Isaiah could be said to have been urged Ahaz to put his trust in the ‘the way’, we might recall how the looking towards Christmas ..n LORD, Ahaz is promised a sign: ‘a Gospels speak of Jesus’ disciples fol- young woman’ would bear a son lowing him ‘on the way’ or that Jesus Father Damian Wynn-Williams is a (7:14) .. But if this sign was to be himself is ‘the way’ . priest of the Diocese of Dunedin, and a meaningful to the king, Isaiah must scripture scholar. have been referring to an event in oracle of light the immediate future, perhaps to the One cluster of terms and images birth of Ahaz’s son Hezekiah ..What in the Advent/Christmas readings is significant is that even when the from Isaiah is particularly sugges- If you really love reading individual or individuals alluded to tive, namely those associated with your Tui Motu, in these oracles failed to live up to light ..In Isa 9:1ff ..(read at midnight expectations, the hopes expressed Mass), the prophet announces that, you might like to therein continued on a trajectory of “The people that walked in darkness remember us in your will. their own ..In the Hebrew text of 7:14 has seen a great light, on those who the woman said to be (or about to live in a land of deep shadow, a light be) with child is referred to simply as has shone ”. The oracle reflects both the almah (a woman of marriageable the suffering and despair caused by Tui Motu Interislands age) ..However, in the Greek version the Assyrian devastation in northern P. O. Box 6404 (dating from around the mid-2nd Israel and the enthusiastic hopes Dunedin North 9059 century BCE) this term was ren- engendered by the birth or acces- dered as parthenos (a virgin) ..When sion of a new king in Judah ..Among

21 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 social justice no room at the inn?

The number of homeless people is growing within New Zealand. The writer asks us to reflect on the place of the inadequately sheltered and homeless. What can we do to remove this scandal?

Susan Smith

hristmas is often about are dependent on the charity of families and by government agencies .. homes, or lack of them .. others ..There is no room for them at Homelessness, like poverty in general Two thousand years ago at the inn .. in New Zealand, is increasingly an Cthe first Christmas, Luke tells us that inter-generational reality and unsur- “Mary gave birth to her firstborn son, numbers of homeless growing prisingly one housing trust reported and wrapped him in bands of cloth There are growing numbers of home- that almost 25 percent of their clients and laid him in a manger [this could less people in New Zealand ..Research had been in care as children .. be either a feeding trough or a cattle indicates that those particularly In addition to these people stall], because there was no room for susceptible to lack of adequate long- there are still hundreds living in them at the inn” (Lk 2:7) ..No home term and affordable accommodation rented or mortgaged sub-standard for a young couple and their child include single men often not long accommodation in Christchurch, was the problem here .. Matthew’s out of prison whose bail conditions victims of government policies infancy narrative omits this detail require they live apart from their that think building a covered and instead we learn that “Jesus was families, or conversely have few sports stadium is more important born in Bethlehem of Judea” (Matt family members who could or would than providing suitable accom- 2:1) .. Most contemporary Lukan host them ..Others struggling to find modation for earthquake victims . scholarship believes that Luke is not suitable and affordable accommoda- primarily concerned with writing tion include families who have had to place of housing trusts an accurate historical account of the seek assistance because they have been Different housing trusts throughout birth of Jesus .. Instead he is inter- deprived of their former housing New Zealand, such as the Monte ested in conveying an important through their inability to pay the Cecilia Housing Trust in Auckland or theological truth in narrative form, rent required .. the Tai Tokerau Emergency Housing namely that the birth of Jesus, the Charitable Trust in Whangarei, Son of God in a stable, not in the undertake to work with the homeless .. guest-house, anticipates the life of Poor quality Today the work these two trusts and one who has nowhere to lay his head housing means other trusts do is becoming increas- (see Luke 9:58) .. poor education, ingly important as the government seems less than interested in respond- nz context health and social ing to the situation of the homeless In contemporary New Zealand, outcomes. or the growing group of potentially Christmas is about homes too, or homeless people .. in some instances, lack of them .. The recent publicity surrounding On the plus side, families reunite reasons why the government and state housing over Christmas in homes, and often Often such a situation has occurred could mean we think that Housing enough children who have left home because the income-generating New Zealand is at the forefront of for work or study or marriage return partner has been made redundant those concerned about inadequate to spend Christmas with their par- or has been hospitalised and there is housing, but we need to remember ents .. Or people temporarily go to insufficient income to pay the rent that state housing comprises only other homes at the beach, to DOC or to keep up mortgage repayments .. 5 percent of the homes in New parks and camping grounds, or take There are also people with mental Zealand .. Furthermore, the present off in their mobile homes in order health issues, solo mothers often government is reducing its respon- to relax and enjoy life ..On the debit the victims of domestic abuse, and sibility for providing for those who side, there are those who like Joseph those with alcohol and drug issues lack adequate accommodation ..Sadly and Mary have nowhere to go and who have been marginalised by their local councils are also stepping back

22 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 from providing housing for the announcement occurred just ten Rights states that “everyone has the homeless in their communities .. days prior to John Key’s departure right to a standard of living adequate for Hollywood to wine and dine for the health and well-being of new non-solutions with celebrities and to assure them himself and of his family, including Increasingly the homeless are found that New Zealand would continue food, clothing, housing and medical in caravan parks paying inflated its tax concessions and rebates to care and necessary social services, and prices for caravan dwellings, in Hollywood’s film moguls .. It is also the right to security in the event of garages, sleep-outs, or living with ironic to remember that John Key, unemployment, sickness, disability, other families in cramped, damp who grew up in a state house, is one widowhood, old age or other lack of and unhygienic conditions ..Caravans of our former welfare state’s great livelihood in circumstances beyond and hut accommodation may be success stories ..Welfare states can and his control .. Motherhood and child- nice for a couple of weeks over the should work for the less fortunate . hood are entitled to special care and Christmas holidays but as a long assistance .. All children, whether term solution for homeless people our concern? born in or out of wedlock, shall such accommodation presents many So should Christians be concerned enjoy the same social protection ”. problems .. These problems include about those who like Joseph and Article 25 is speaking about people lack of privacy, lack of belonging, Mary, a young marginalised couple, who present at housing trusts up lack of emotional and physical have nowhere to live? As disciples and down the country .. security, and lack of stability — all of Jesus, we understand that one of of which impact negatively on adults the corporal works of mercy is to no room at the inn? and their children, particularly the shelter the homeless (see Isa 58:7) .. The birthplace at Bethlehem latter as they transition from school Throughout Luke’s gospel we find invites us to recognize the scandal to school, from neighbourhood to the author directing our attention to of Christmas, the scandal of God neighbourhood ..Poor quality hous- a saviour who came to bring good coming into human history as a help- ing means poor education, health news to the poor .. Unlike Matthew’s less baby to parents who were either and social outcomes . story of the birth of Jesus, Luke has unwed or only recently married and no reference to the three wise and pre- who had nowhere to stay ..Today we ‘social housing’ sumably wealthy men who come with have the scandal of the inadequately The Minister of Housing, Phil their expensive gifts to worship the sheltered and the homeless more and Heatley, is currently advocating as child ..In Luke’s gospel the first visitors more obviously apparent in our soci- the desirable government housing are the shepherds ..This is Luke’s way ety ..Christmas is a time that invites policy “social housing”, which means of demonstrating to his community us to reflect on the happiness a rich the government provides some that Jesus has come above all for the and fulfilling home life can mean for finance for non-government housing poor and the outcasts .. Shepherds at us ..It is also a time to reflect on those providers ..This he believes is a better this time were a marginalised peasant who are not so blessed and who, like option for the government than being people, often nomadic, who paid little Joseph and Mary, find there is no actively involved in providing homes attention to societal norms .. room at the inn ..n for the less affluent and homeless in our towns and cities ..It is yet another united nations’ declaration Mission Sister Susan Smith, who lives indication of the government’s ideo- But not only does the bible man- near Whangarei, is a member of the Tai logical commitment to privatisation .. date such work .. Article 25 of the Tokerau Emergency Housing Charitable It is ironic to recall that the minister’s Universal Declaration of Human Trust Board, Whangarei.

23 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 faith reflection how faith has formed me

In the last of this three part series, Bishop Peter reflects on what Church refocusing might yet be done in the light of Vatican II, and the Church’s need to be transformed from within. He signs off, “Don’t count me out yet!” Peter Cullinane

here are other needed the Council derived from the inad- this to be the case, because the deeper reforms that will emerge equate formation — scriptural, cat- meanings of our faith come on to our more easily in the wake of echetical and liturgical — Catholics horizons only as we journey . Tthis fundamental refocusing, and received before the Council . that can’t happen ahead of it ...There The renewing Church also needs discerning salvation history in are also some ‘issues’ that probably to get out of its own way, i e. ..not loom one’s own life won’t even arise when the Church’s larger than the mission that is its very On the journey into reality it can be landscape has changed ... reason for being, which as Pope Paul easier to recognise God’s presence Those same charisms of religious VI described it, is: if we have learnt to recognise God’s life and ordained ministries that “to bring the good news to all style ..Looking back to the people and contributed so much to the Church’s aspects of humanity, and through its the places of earlier stages of one’s life through the institutions that have influence transform it from within, journey is more than an exercise in since closed will also find new vigour making humanity itself into some- geography or genealogy .. It is a jour- in a renewed Church ..There will always thing new ”. (Pope Paul VI, Evangelii ney into mystery .. God’s presence in be those who are a cutting edge ..But Nuntiandi, n 18). . human history and in our own lives a wider range of charisms will have And he immediately added: “But turns ordinary history into salvation been released and given scope ..Wider there can be no new humanity if there history — the extraordinary side of participation — in the Church’s are not first of all new persons ”. It the ordinary ...The raw material is the apostolates, in decision-making, and is our relationship with Christ that same for both, but within history a in the celebration of liturgy, for exam- transforms ourselves — and all our purpose is unfolding that cannot be ple — generates its own energies and other relationships .. This is how the thwarted by history’s twists and turns .. synergies ..This is why, in the early days Gospel is able to permeate and trans- That is why we often find that the very of the Diocese of Palmerston North, form society at every level . times when we were most assailed by we replaced the Diocesan Pastoral doubt or despair turned out to be Council with five Deanery Pastoral inside knowledge break-throughs to new hope . Councils — widening the scope for There are some things that can only I recommend to you the practice people’s participation and formation, be known from inside the experience .. of diarying your own experiences of and my involvement with them . Love itself is like that ..It can only be dying and rising, of valleys and hill- Given my commitment to the known from inside the experience of tops ..I have always found it nurturing Council, how do I cope with moves loving ..It cannot be known by looking to go back and touch again those that seem to go back on its reforms? on from the outside ..So too, our abil- moments when I have been most Some of them have been saddening, ity to accept the Church’s teachings alive to God’s presence .. It seems to destructive, and blatantly contrary to emanates from inside our relationship be through remembering, that the Catholic ecclesiology ..Well, in the end with Christ .. In chapter 6 of John’s graces are renewed — and the tears they can only be like flotsam caught in gospel those who didn’t yet know the and the healings too ..And it is easier, an eddy on the surface of a river ..They person of Jesus were the ones who looking back, to discern any pattern even manage to go against the current couldn’t accept his teaching .. Those in the story of God’s dealings with us, for a few seconds (or years) as the eddy who already knew him knew that especially when God seems not to be circles .. But they are going nowhere he was true, and therefore so was his hearing at all: really .. The reforms of the Council teaching — even if they didn’t under- You have never abandoned me are the work of Christ and the Holy stand it either .. even when you seemed most absent, Spirit ..They are like the deep water of And because I belong to a journey- for you entered my life more fully at those the river, which cannot be stopped .. ing, pilgrim people, I have no prob- times In other words, I keep my focus on lem with the fact that sometimes the the big picture ..I remember, too, that Church knows what it knows before when aloud and in silent tears I prayed to the One who had the power many of the problems that followed it can properly explain ..I would expect

24 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 for my funeral is a one-liner in which Jesus says: when you have done all that was commanded you, you are to say we have only done what it was our duty to do (cf Luke 17:10) . May the last word on my life be ‘thank you’ for all that has been and all that will be. And when my life belongs to the distant past and all our names have been forgotten, may it be that I – together with those I Bishop Peter Cullinane loved and those who loved me – was entrusted by the community called to make things different – but didn’t, Prefect of the Congregation for the Christian because you wanted me to choose your will Evangelisation of Peoples reminded to the One called Christ. instead me that my apostolate will become Grant me the grace to look forward to His and be more at one with you. mainly one of prayer and sacrifice ..It coming again, was a helpful reminder of how each as she surely did who prays for us of us can continue in the service of When you allowed me to experience fail- ‘now and at the hour of our death’ (page ure and confusion Christ until our last breath . 57) Dying is not something that it was in order to unmask the falseness But before we come to that, should merely happen to us .. . It is of self-sufficiency and self-justification there’s the matter of retirement and something we co-operate in ..It is too what it means ...A friend of mine was and make me place all my hope and trust important not to be included in the the Bishop of Galloway, Scotland, in you. living of one’s life ..And so, I practise before his retirement ..At the end of a my part by beginning each day with delightful little book reflecting on his Through the valley of darkness, therefore, that act of adoration we all know as ministry he says: the Glory Be… you have led me more surely Retired bishops in the past were All this is strangely familiar .. It and enabled me, even out of the depths ‘transferred’ to ‘titular sees in partibus brings to mind a holy picture given me to thank you with joy. infidelium’ i e. ..dioceses that no longer in my childhood featuring Jesus in the existed .. Now that somewhat coy fic- I would bless the cross that took me there, garden and the prayer he prayed when tion has been abandoned and ‘a bishop but you already have. (Page 53) confronted by his death: “not mine whose resignation from office has been but your will be done” ...I have been accepted acquires the title “emeritus” of signing off told that was the prayer my father also his diocese ’. (Canon 402 #1) I recently signed off as bishop of the prayed when he was dying, leaving a The word sounds fitting and diocese ...At such a time it comes natu- young wife and four children, one of worthy, perhaps something like rally to think of one’s failures and of them only one week old ..What makes ‘meritorious’ ..So I looked up my Latin lost opportunities ..But of these I will me tick goes back a long way . dictionary: ‘emeritus – one who has say what Kierkegaard said of sin — it’s There is an understandable expec- served his time, a veteran, unfit for opposite is not virtue but grace ... tation that a bishop will be buried service, worn out ’. It has been an extraordinary privi- in the Cathedral city of his diocese .. To which I say, don’t count me lege to serve Christ and his people However, I have chosen to be buried out yet! n in this ministry ..However, if there is with my parents in Dannevirke .. It reason for wonder at what I became, was my parents who mediated to me Bishop Peter Cullinane was the first this is all the more because of where I the gift of life and with it God’s pur- bishop of the Diocese of Palmerston came from ..I have always felt humbled pose for my life ..For all of us, God’s North. He retired in 2011. by the mystery of how one who grew purpose unfolds within the humble, up in the paddocks of Oringi became a ordinary circumstances of our lives, The full text of Bishop Peter’s complete bishop of the Church and first bishop beginning where our lives began ..And paper under the title “This I believe” is of the Diocese of Palmerston North . so, having carried out my calling, I am available at: http://www.pn.catholic. In a letter expressing thanks for returning, as it were, to my whenua ... org.nz/?sid=2088 my 32 years as bishop, the Cardinal And the Gospel reading I have chosen

25 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 scripture the hospitality of god Lk 1:39-44 (4th Sunday of Advent); Luke 2:1-20 (Christmas Day) ‘Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart.’

Kath Rushton

e are in Advent ..Christmas draws near ..I pause before the bowed figure of Mary in Jan Wilson’s wall hanging above ..Luke tellsW us “Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart” — the words of the angels and the shepherds and those of the child Jesus in the temple (2:19, 51) find a home in Mary’s heart .. I read the Australian scholar, Brendan Byrne .. ‘Hospitality’ — guests, meals, making the stranger feel at home, enlarging our home so others will be at home with us — threads through Luke’s gospel .. Significant events and exchanges take place within the context of the offering or non-offering of hos- pitality ..Further, Jesus’ whole life and ministry are a ‘visitation’ of God to Israel and ‘all the world .’ Those who receive Jesus are drawn into the hospi- tality of God ...I return to Jan’s wall hanging drawn into the hospitality of God to treasure and ponder in my heart .

cosmic hospitality The spiralling background and the encompassing bowed figure speak to me of two moments and two phases of the one process of God’s self-giving and self-expression — evolution/creation and incarna- tion ..The God who creates becomes one of us ..The revelation of God is through the divine, the cosmos and humanity ..God is glimpsed only briefly through the opening of a veil which closes again ..I glimpse the Divine Presence through some experience and then the Presence fades into darkness only to be unveiled again when often in unexpected places and times I encounter the Presence again ... For nearly 14 billion years, the complexities of the cosmos have evolved giving hospitality to unfolding life .. The Book of Creation is a ‘visita- This Annunciation patchwork hangs in Holy Name tion’ of God ..Evolution reaches a crescendo in the Church, Dunedin. It was: incarnation evoked in Mary whom ‘the power of the Most High’ overshadowed at the annunciation in “Designed and made by Mrs Jan Wilson and Nazareth, an obscure Galilean town .. completed in 1980…

visitation In describing the wall hanging, one would view the Annunciation; then move on to the visit to My gaze drops to the two cousins embracing .. This Elizabeth; Mary and her baby, Jesus; then the scene not only brings Elizabeth and Mary together flight into Egypt.” in a rare biblical scene of a conversation between two women but is the first instance of a pattern Luke

26 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 often shows of two individuals who have had a reli- of God (4:21; 5:26; 13:32-33; 19:5; 23:43) ..They gious experience that they do not quite understand .. respond with fear .. They are reassured .. The birth They share their individual experience which becomes is announced ..The role and status of the child is community experience .. Through their sharing, full given ..A sign is given which they are commissioned meaning is found .. to go and find . Mary enters Elizabeth’s house .. As Gabriel had If I find God is absent, maybe, I have strayed ‘greeted’ her, she ‘greets’ Elizabeth .. At this, the from the margins .. I miss the present inbreaking infant John by ‘leaping’ in his mother’s womb of annunciation .. I need to be there to recognise (1:41) witnesses to the Saviour anticipating his God’s advent (coming) and in my daily life to give later role (3:3–6, 15-18) which we hear proclaimed birth to God by incarnating Jesus ..The poet Gerard on the third Sunday of Advent ..When with a loud Manley Hopkins sees us as the ‘place’ where Jesus cry Elizabeth blesses Mary and ‘the fruit of your comes to be: womb,’ she utters the first ‘blessed’ of many found in Luke .. New Nazareths in us … Mary is the first of many to give hospitality to New Bethlems, and he born Jesus and who, then, themselves are drawn into There, evening, noon, morn – the hospitality of God ..Mary will find hospitality with Elizabeth ..In the hospitality these two women Bethlem or Nazareth give each other, their faith overflows as they grow [We] here may draw like breath in knowledge and celebration .. We see the begin- More Christ… ning of the community of faith that will share the coming of Jesus .. To ponder this Advent and Christmas like Mary so we may ‘draw like breath’ more Christ ..n birth of jesus My gaze moves to Mary and her child ..I ponder the Kathleen Rushton is a Sister of Mercy working in adult context of his birth (2:1-5) .. The Spirit is at work education in the Diocese of Christchurch. in both the Jewish and Gentile events of the day .. The stories of Zechariah, Elizabeth and Mary are laced with the Old Testament ..The Gentile world, too, cooperates ..Caesar Augustus’ decree that ‘all the world should be registered’ serves Luke’s theological purposes ..Jesus has come for ‘all the world’ ..Joseph returns to his ancestral Bethlehem so Jesus is born in David’s city ..While the Gentile world during the Pax Romana regarded Augustus as the prince of peace, Jesus comes as the true Prince of Peace .. gifts Only two verses tell of the actual birth of Jesus (2:6-7) ..Yet this sparse account reminds us of what lies ahead ..Mary “wrapped him in bands of cloth, and laid him in a manger” (2:7, 12) ..This mirrors the One who wrapped in cloth will be placed in the tomb (23:53) ..The parents of Jesus find no hospital- ity in the city of David ..He is born on the margins .. Thus begins a pattern that that will recur in Jesus’ life and ministry .. Photo: Philip Gibbs/Caritas Philip Photo: annunciation to the Shepherds Gibbs/Caritas Philip Photo: The shepherds were among the poorest because not owning land or sheep they worked for hire ..They Gifts that give on behalf of another. were on the margins ..There God’s glory shone to www.caritasgifts.org.nz h o p e herald incarnation breaking into evolution ..In an Gifts of... PEACE episode cast as an annunciation scene, an angel Freephone: 0800 22 10 22 LIFE LEARNING declares: “to you is born this day in the city of We can post you a full Caritas Gifts David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord” catalogue on request. (2:11) .. ‘This day’ suggests the present inbreaking

27 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 christmas book reviews best books of 2012

Kate Doherty offers her choice of four of the best reads for 2012

here are times when I envy war ..Previous novels — Birdsong and and subsequent reports on the abuses the eccentric father of the Charlotte Gray — have demonstrated of human rights in these territories famed Mitford sisters .. this author’s mastery in evoking the made him much lauded in Britain AccordingT to one of his daughters, atmosphere of life as lived with death and he was knighted in 1911 ..At the reading wasn’t on his agenda because all around ..This latest war same time he grew to despise he claimed to have read one book story takes place largely colonialism and to turn when young — White Fang by Jack in a Nazi concentration against the British, who London — and enjoyed it so much camp where a mild English epitomised all he loathed .. that he didn’t ever want to read schoolmaster finds himself The description of an another .. When faced with a pile of caught up in the grim work expedition in the 1880s new finds and old treasures, each of the camp .. It is a truly with the explorer Henry one waving its pages and whispering shocking narrative — as Morton Stanley (famed “read me FIRST” I think that if I had the title suggests, one man for his “Dr Livingstone, stuck with The Wind in the Willows went to war and quite a I presume”) leaves a very life would be a lot simpler .. Not as different one came back . nasty taste .. interesting, but simpler . The other four stories are less har- The result of seeing paternalistic rowing but equally engaging — none colonialism at its worst was that a possible life more so than the story of the down- Roger Casement espoused the cause Sebastian Faulks has provided his trodden peasant woman in mid 19th of Irish nationalism, even going to readers with a problem in his latest century France .. But the question Germany in the early months of work — find the link ..A Possible Life remains — do five short stories with World War I to seek the help of the (Hutchinson) is described on the title no links constitute a novel? Sebastian Kaiser in obtaining arms for the Irish page as “a novel in five parts” but the Faulks claims to aim to provoke and to use against the English ..When he problem is: when do five short stories challenge his readers .. In his latest returned to Ireland he was arrested set in time from the early 1820’s to work he has certainly succeeded . and returned to England, stripped the future later in this century and in of his title, tried and found to be a places as diverse as a Nazi concentra- the dream of the celt traitor, imprisoned and hanged ..His tion camp and the post-crash Italy Heading The Dream of the Celt by fall from grace was compounded by of the future, and with no obvious Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa the release of the so-called ‘Black link of theme or characters, become (Faber and Faber) is an epigraph from Diaries’ enumerating his homosexual a novel? the writing of the Uruguayan author activities .. The author considers that In an interview published in The José Enrique Rodo: “Each of us is, suc- if they were indeed the writings of Irish Times the author said that this cessively, not one but many ..And these Casement they were more likely to book was about individual- successive personalities that be imaginings rather than factual ity and “whether there is emerge from the other tend accounts, but they blemished his such a thing as a self or a to present the strangest, name forever . soul — whether we are most astonishing contrasts This is not an easy novel to read .. entities in ourselves or part among themselves ”. These At times it reads more like a biog- of some larger conscious- words are the key to the raphy or a history, and the didactic ness . ”. He suggests that it novel which tells the story tone can be overwhelming, but as may help to think of this of Roger Casement, still a an account of the complexities of a novel as a five-movement controversial figure in the life it is worthy of perseverance ..The symphony, or an album story of Irish nationalism . Epilogue gives a factual account of with five different tracks . The story begins and the years after Roger Casement’s However one looks at it, there is ends with Roger Casement in death when he was largely forgotten some wonderful writing in A Possible London’s Pentonville Prison, awaiting and the requests of his family that Life .. In the first story, A Different execution, with flashbacks to the years his body be repatriated for Christian Man, we are in familiar Faulks ter- when he was a British consul in the burial in Ireland were ignored .. In ritory — the brutality and horror of Congo and in Peru ..His observations 1965 the British government finally

28 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 gave permission for his remains to criticisms ..It is a rare insight into an in the John F Kennedy Presidential be returned to Ireland .. The tribute extraordinary life . Library in Boston .. The author’s over his coffin at Dublin’s Glasnevin Now — a leap backwards ..I first only surviving son, Patrick, now Cemetery was given by Eamon de read Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell 84, has provided the foreword, and Valera, first president of Ireland, and to Arms 50 years ago .. The last few his grandson, Sean, son of Patrick’s the last surviving leader of the 1916 pages were, literally, stunning ..Since brother, Gregory, the introduction, Easter Rising . then I have always felt that the with insights into his role as editor novel had the most perfect of this beautifully pro- joseph anton ending, unbearably bleak . duced volume . Even more complicated and con- The creative process troversial is Salman Rushdie, whose a farewell to arms which results in a pub- fascinating memoir Joseph Anton In an interview with The lished work is mysteri- (Jonathan Cape) tells of the years Paris Review in 1958 ous, and, in these days from February 1998 after a fatwa Hemingway said that he of computers, largely — a sentence of death — was issued had written the end of A hidden .. Authors can re- against him by Iran’s spiritual leader, Farewell to Arms 39 times write constantly, add and Ayatollah Khomeini, following the before he was satisfied ..The subtract words, re-arrange publication of his fourth novel, The problem, he explained, the order of the narra- Satanic Verses. was ‘getting the words right ’. Until tive, and at the end of it there is The title comes from the name recently the published ending with not a trace of what was changed he used in his decade of hiding the perfect sentences was the only one or discarded or what might have and living with police protection, most of us knew ..Then this year the been .. The end of A Farewell to Joseph for Joseph Conrad, Anton for novel was reissued by Scribner (now a Arms is presented as though there Anton Chekov ..It was not his idea to division of Simon and Schuster), the could have been no other .. The change his name, but as it house which published it publication of all the other possible identified him as a man all originally in 1929 with an endings shows the almost palpable Muslims had been told had appendix of not 39 end- anguish Hemingway went through to be executed, his protec- ings, but 47! in his commitment to ‘getting the tion team insisted on it ..He The original manu- word right’ .. Debating whether was told he should not have script, with all its versions or not he did, whether he should an Asian name, so as well of the ending, plus 14 have gone with the hopelessness as giving up his identity he passages of early drafts of the ‘nada’ (nothing) ending, or gave up his race, to become of sections which were the philosophical ‘religious’ ending ‘an invisible man’ .. . He either re-worked or cut or the ending suggested by Scott writes of himself “he was out entirely, and a list of Fitzgerald, or the ending in which an effigy, an absence, something less 44 possible titles, is preserved in the baby lives, could keep lovers of than human ”. Banned from some the Ernest Hemingway Collection Hemingway occupied for hours ..n airlines and hotels, unable to move freely in public, constantly edgy, the protection surrounding him made him feel as though he were in jail . 10% Discount It is interesting that Salman Rushdie has in a way chosen to When you order On-line at distance himself from his narrative by referring to himself always in www.christiansupplies.co.nz the third person: ‘I’ never appears, ‘he’ is the one who feels and thinks 1000’s of items to choose from and speaks and writes ..The memoir, Simply enter the promotion code TUI at the introduced by the fatwa, weaves in checkout to get your discount. Rushdie’s childhood in India, his Offer valid until 25/12/12 intense feelings of being an outsider 0508 988 988 [email protected] when his parents sent him to be 38 Higginson Street, Otane educated in England, his four failed Central Hawke’s Bay marriages, his inability to forget www.christiansupplies.co.nz or forgive perceived slights and

29 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 comment Crosscurrents Jim Elliston about the synod soul .. Families and individuals long and a new face of charity for it to be The reason for the October Synod to dialogue about their concerns in credible and fruitful ”. was to examine how the Church is an atmosphere where they can share Filipino Cardinal Tagle: “The responding to the call to follow Him without judgment what is burdening Church is called to follow Jesus’ whose birth we now celebrate .. The their hearts .. Pope John XXIII said respect for every human person ..He Church has no other purpose .. The that the church was to become more defended the dignity of all people, ‘New Evangelization’ (NE) is directed pastoral and merciful .. Yet today in particular those neglected and at three groups: those who do not some, who when they turn to the despised by the world .. Loving his know God or Christ, those who are church in the midst of their pain, enemies, he affirmed their dignity .. growing in faith in the Church, and are alienated by judgmental attitudes The Church must discover the those who have distanced themselves or issues of power and control ..This power of silence .. Confronted with from the Church (Proposition 7) .. only pushes them further away ..Can the sorrows, doubts and uncertain- Roughly 260 bishops (with two from we allow ourselves to enter into the ties of people she cannot pretend to NZ), many lay people, including pain of our people?”. ... give easy solutions .. In Jesus, silence about 40 women, as well as a number Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, becomes the way of attentive listen- of prominent members from other President of the Pontifical Council for ing, compassion and prayer ..It is the Christian religions participated .. the Promotion of NE: “Perhaps our way to truth .. Benedict departed from tradition and communities … appear tired, repeti- The seemingly indifferent and authorised publication of the Synod’s tive of obsolete formulas that do not aimless societies of our time are ear- 58 ‘propositions’ (recommendations) .. communicate the joy of encountering nestly looking for God ..The Church’s Details can be found on the Vatican Christ, uncertain of the path to follow .. humility, respectfulness and silence website under ‘Synod of Bishops’ .. We are wrapped up in ourselves … might reveal more clearly the face of My impressions from a quick having so greatly bureaucratized the God in Jesus ..The world takes delight scan of the formal addresses are that life of faith and the sacraments ”. in a simple witness to Jesus — meek many were run-of-the-mill and a few and humble of heart ”. seemed out of touch ..But I think the aspects of the Solution Ms Rita María Petrirena main thrust is summed up in the fol- Filipino Archbishop Villegas: “The Hernández, Director of Pastoral lowing excerpts .. Gospel cannot thrive in pride…The Affairs Commission, Cuba: “For task of NE must begin with a deep many years the Cuban Church the problem sense of awe and reverence for human- has, through her pastoral plans, Prof .. Yong Suk Francis Xavier OH, ity and her culture .. Evangelization underlined her vocation to be a General Secretary of the Catholic has been hurt and continues to be praying Church that is missionary Lay Apostolate Council of Korea: impeded by the arrogance of its mes- with its roots in the people .. Thus “The Korean Church is known as a sengers .. The hierarchy must shun it developed openness, encouraged dynamic one … but nearly 60% of arrogance, hypocrisy and bigotry ..We dialogue and participation, forgive- newly baptized Korean Catholics drift must punish the errant among us [the ness and service ”. away from the Church within 3 years .. hierarchy] instead of covering up our It is like filling a bottomless vessel ..It is own mistakes ..We are humans among thoughts for christmas very clear why the NE requires ‘being our human flock… This humility will Archbishop Oscar Romero: I have evangelized’ before evangelizing ”. make us more credible new evangeliz- learned “the beautiful but harsh truth Sister Mary Lou Wirtz, President ers ..Our mission is to propose humbly that our Christian faith does not of the International Union of not to impose proudly .. Secondly, separate us from the world, but it Superiors General: “Today there the NE must be done by new saints immerses us in it ”. are people of our Catholic faith and and we must be those saints… Our Archbishop Rowan Williams at tradition who are hurting ..Some have experience in the third world tells the recent Synod: “To be converted already left our institutional church me that the Gospel can be preached to the faith does not mean simply because they cannot find a place to to empty stomachs but only if the acquiring a new set of beliefs, but belong; others remain within the stomach of the preacher is as empty becoming a new person, a person in church but are struggling and search- as his parishioners’…The NE needs communion with God and others ing for something that nourishes their a new humility; a renewal in holiness through Jesus Christ ”. n

30 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 comment where do we see god?

Peter Norris

ometimes it is hard to ‘be achieve ..We try to make certain the look at the students suffering religious .’ I have been think- students can work, have a little fun, from various stress problems I am ing about this column for and also stay as sane as possible ..We always impressed with the number Ssome time but good ideas often are shaped by our environment but of kind friends who are always come to nothing .. I was thinking there is a lot of discussion on what affirming and certainly show the about getting good ideas, but then makes a good environment .. Some love of God ..When I see the lovely not following through . people want more parental involve- young man who is being bullied at A few months ago I was sponsor ment but others, and sometimes I school and I see the care exhibited at a confirmation in another dio- am with them, see parental over- by his mother and I see the great cese .. I was humbled by the lovely involvement as a problem ... friends he has I feel more sorry for young woman who asked me to be Most recently I was talking to the offender who probably has not with her ..It was the first time I had a young mum whose son is being got that love expressed to him . been on ‘the other side’ for a cer- picked on at school .. Since the Religion is a loose term but it emony such as this .. The celebrant school was not doing anything I really embraces all life .. My cur- was wonderful, the kids were great, suggested writing to ERO about rent task is to see God and God’s and the ceremony was good ..I was it .. This is very hierarchical advice ... love wherever .. When preparing surprised at the crowd control While she may do this she thought a homily a few weeks ago I was request to be there an hour before- that beating the offending child up struck by a passage that said God hand .. The celebrant just laughed may be better both for her son and is present everywhere but we can that it would be the longest I had the offender .. While she was prob- see God more easily in a church been in church for any ceremony ably right, the legal implications than in a pub .. Our task is to see for a while .. He was right but I are more fraught ..She thought that him in the harder places and that noticed that most of the natives did since she was the same size as the is why we pray .. God is present in not obey the rules ... offender, it would be OK . a confirmation ceremony, in our I also thought about writing Where is religion in all this .. stressed students, and even in a about some of the problems stu- For confirmation, just because it school classroom where bullying is dents have with stress ..I worry about was in a church does not mean the norm ..n it but do not think writing here will it was full of religion but when make it any better ..Most people are I saw the life of God reflected in Father Peter Norris is the Master not aware of what some students my little friend I could not doubt of St Margaret’s College, go through if they are trying to that God was present .. When I University of Otago.

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31 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012 a mother’s journal

by Kaaren Mathias

A voice calling, clear the way through the wilderness for the Lord! Make a straight highway through the wasteland for our God Every valley shall be filled in Every mountain and hill made low The crooked roads, made straight riding a 120 km circuit right down into the valley 1200 metres vertically the shift from the Old Testament’s The rough roads, made smooth below us, and back up the other narrow and almost impossible route And all people will see God’s salvation! side ..Joyous in the autumn sun, we to God, exclusively accessible to ‘the — Luke 3:4,5 traversed high above the valley, past chosen’ people, to a new model .. red chillie flags drying on patios, and Somehow Jesus would be part of this year ago, my friend Janet large, green pumpkins squatting on new route ..It was to become a path to Legro preached on these slate roofs .. The magic of it though God that is a generous and wide trail, paradoxical words spoken by was the new, smooth tarmac .. We smooth and straight, that everyone AJohn the Baptist, and they’ve been could cycle nearly twice as fast as on can walk on .. marinating ever since ..In our corner the old, pot-holed track ..The down- God invites me on the journey, of North India the idea of the leveling hills were a swooping, wing-tilted, and does some track work to make it of mountains and hills seems prepos- wind-blurred flight .. easy to find my way, and keep going .. terous, and promising that pot-holed The traditional theologies of Old God clears away obstacles, takes out winding roads will be made into wide and New Testaments, and Judgment tight corners and even smooths the straight highways unfathomable .. I day, heaven or hell, are all somewhat biggest descents and ascents ..It’s like have, in fact, felt quite troubled with blurry to me .. I can’t quite imagine finally levelling and cementing the this passage, at the idea of mountains, God cunningly designing a contorted long farm driveway that for years was that I love so much, being flattened .. and treacherous trail, the only way rutted and bumpy, with a car–belly- But Janet opened wide a window on for seekers to find the elusive Holy catching middle ridge .. Now even these words, as we huddled under One .. Neither can I imagine God auto-rickshaw drivers feel OK to shawls and jumpers in the gloomy, sprawled largely on a beach chair, drive up to the front door .. staid St Paul’s church in Mussoorie shouting through a loud-speaker, Advent’s welcome is so clear: “and last December .. She suggested that ‘Here I am! Come and find me!’ to all people will see God’s salvation” . this is a message about the liberating all us lost thronging souls .. We do O Come, O Come Emmanuel ..n power brought by the arrival of Jesus .. have to get up on our feet, and start Kaaren Mathias lives and works in That it is a passage about the ample walking toward God ..We do need to community health and development gift of the Gospel .. turn our faces toward the Light . in North India with her husband Last week Jeph and I went cycling, John the Baptist was heralding Jeph and four children.

32 Tui Motu InterIslands December 2012