Tui Motu InterIslands Independent Catholic Magazine May 2008 $5

. . . what happened on the road

Tui Motu InterIslands 1 editorial

contents . . . what happened on the road?

2-3 editorial o what happened to them on Why does he send the disciples out 4 letters Sthe road? They two men were in pairs? He is showing them what is 5 response: causes of youth crime transformed – that’s what happened. meant by ‘servant leadership’. Alan Russell Norman, Metiria Turei In the first scene they are running Roberts comments by drawing on 6-8 Church, community and mission away from Jerusalem, demoralised his own broad pastoral experience, Mark Richards and disillusioned. In the final scene building on the theological found­ 9-10 The future in parishes they are hastening back, faith-filled. ations of the first article. Alan Roberts 10-11 The permanent diaconate: is it a When Professor Elaine Wainwright Bur why did Jesus send out his disciples solution? was giving workshops on the Gospels in pairs? Primarily for the basic Susan Smith in March, (see p 26) she said that spiritual reason that “where two are 12 The well-being of priests today sometimes you need to stand back gathered in my name I am there.” But interview: Michael Dooley from a Scripture passage and place also for the eminently human reason 13 Jesus and Mary it in a larger context to glean its full that two people working together Enid Lagan import. The Emmaus story is a case reinforce, support, complement and, 14-15 Blooming where planted in point. where necessary, correct each other. It Joy Cowley is the basis of team ministry. 16-17 Visiting Hildegard First, there are two disciples. Jesus Trish McBride sent the disciples out in pairs to It is also the focus of community. Jesus 18 A terrorist base? preach. But at first these two are formed a community; and his church Peter Murnane not on mission: they’re fugitives, is a community based on Eucharist. 19-21 Gandhi series: seven deadly sins preoccupied with their own misery. But it is a community whose destiny Science without humanity Then they have this experience on the is to reach out and grow – to spread Richard Dowden road and at table. They are no longer the Gospel and to serve the world 22 A mother’s journal alone. They are changed. They turn where it finds itself. Community and Kaaren Mathias round and retrace their steps, now service are its essence. A parish which 24-25 Open your eyes Daniel O’Leary the bearers of good news. is simply a cluster of devout people is failing in its basic purpose, which is to 26 The year of Matthew ur May theme, covered in articles Elaine Wainwright impact on the world where it is sited. by Mark Richards of Palmerston 27 God shows no partiality O Susan Smith North (pp 6-8) and Fr Alan Roberts (pp Our church today is afflicted with 28-29 Books 9-10), deals with the church’s pastoral many challenges. We are assailed Mike Crowl, John Honoré, strategy. Mark proposes that where by rampant secularism; we suffer Michael Hill we must search first is in the Gospels diminishing congregations and falling 30 Crosscurrents themselves. Jesus forms a community vocations. We are like the two men on John Honoré of disciples and tells them to go out the road to Emmaus. We can become 31 The deadly sin of greed and spread the good news. And they negative and pessimistic. But the same Humphrey O’Leary are sent out out two by two. footsteps are dogging us too. The 32 In memoriam: Maura Toomey message is still to heed God’s word, Mary Betz From this we can deduce that the to listen to each other, to serve one prime purpose of the Jesus community another – then go out with joy and poetry: Maura Toomey RIP is not conservative and self-absorbed. Taren McLeod face the world precisely as it is. Its focus is mission, not maintenance. M.H.

Tui Motu-InterIslands is an independent, Catholic, monthly magazine. It invites its readers to question, challenge and contribute to its discussion of spiritual and social issues in the light of gospel values, and in the interests of a more just and peaceful society. Inter-church and inter-faith dialogue is welcomed. The name Tui Motu was given by Pa Henare Tate. It literally means “stitching the islands together...”, bringing the different races and peoples and faiths together to create one Pacific people of God. Divergence of opinion is expected and will normally be published, although that does not necessarily imply editorial commitment to the viewpoint expressed. ISSN 1174-8931 Independent Catholic Magazine Ltd, P O Box 6404, Dunedin North, Dunedin 9059 Phone: 03 477 1449: Fax: 03 477 8149: email: [email protected]: website: www.tuimotu.org Editor: Michael Hill IC; Assistant Editor: Frances Skelton; Illustrator: Don Moorhead Directors: Rita Cahill RSJ, Philip Casey, Tom Cloher, Robin Kearns, Chris Loughnan OP, Elizabeth Mackie OP, Katie O’Connor (Chair), Kathleen Rushton RSM

2 Tui Motu InterIslands side of the world,” said one, “you can relate easily to those Lest we forget young Kiwis the same age as yourself, who were probably more motivated by a sense of adventure and desire to see the question which often springs to mind on Anzac wide world than anything patriotic. When you are feeling a ADay is why the parades are attended by so many bit ‘foreign’, these graves and places connect you with home young people – not just families with children, but and give you a sense of your place in the world”. students and young adults, male and female. It is impressive and heartening. They are certainly not Her brother, based in London, has made six annual visits glorying in war or seeking to make a gesture of to Le Quesnoy in northern France, liberated by New defiance against some distant foe. Zealand troops. The town was fortified by Vauban in the 1700s because it guards the road to Paris, and it was those Just the opposite. Young Kiwis and Aussies who go fortifications which were scaled by the Kiwi soldiers in 1918. to Gallipoli each year in April are always struck by Many of their graves lie nearby. The Mayor and citizens the welcome given them by the Turkish people. It is always give the young New Zealanders a great welcome on as if the Turks are aware that those invaders from far Anzac Day, even 90 years later. It has become like a shrine distant lands had become unwittingly embroiled in a to be visited. conflict which had nothing to do with the well-being He emphasised how humble this experience always made of the Turkish people, nor of the young Australian him feel, but also how much he was moved visiting the and New Zealanders who shed their blood. They were cemeteries to read names of families from Southland and equally caught up in a vortex of collective insanity, Otago – names he had seen on farm gates when he was totally beyond their control. a child. For these young New Zealanders it is a way of We asked some young friends who, in recent years had remembering the dead, but it is also a fine way of seeking visited the sites and cemeteries of 1914-18, why they their identity, situating their place in history, and honouring their forebears. went. “When you are so far from home on the other M.H.

. . .to the Anzac Mothers Walk up Queenstown Hill

hose heroes that shed their blood he lush green trees surround me, Like army soldiers, And lost their lives. . . T T Proud and tall. You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Little red toadstools are tucked away, Therefore rest in peace. Under pine needles, There is no difference between the Johnnies Concealing little fairies hiding in them. And the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side Here in this country of ours. . . You the mothers Who sent their sons from faraway countries, Wipe away your tears. Your sons are now living in our bosom Be careful, And are in peace. The old, wrinkled trees, Having lost their lives on this land they have Might sneakily reach out their branches, Become our sons as well. And scratch you, Or trip you with their roots. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk At the summit of Queenstown Hill, The scenery is so beautiful The lake is dark blue, These words were written in 1934 by the ‘Founder’ of modern And the sky is crystal clear. Turkey, as a response to an enquiry by some Melbourne But be careful not to tread on mothers about the graves of their sons at Gallipoli. This humane and concilatory statement typifies the welcome any ancient grey rocks, extended by Turkish people to Aussie and New Zealand visitors. They are sleeping, The poem is inscribed on a rock at Anzac Cove And don’t like to be disturbed. Taren McLeod (aged 12)

Tui Motu InterIslands 3 letters

Even Homers nod pro-active ecumenical outreach. letters to the editor - It goes against the grain to take issue John Vincent, Dunedin with two favourite columnists, John We welcome comment, discussion, argument, debate. But please keep letters Cardy – 2 Honore and Humphrey O’Leary in under 200 words. The editor reserves the Glynn Cardy’s piece in April TM really the March ’08 Tui Motu. right to abridge, while not altering lights me up. I’d like to see it reprinted meaning. Response articles (up to a page) In appealing for more doctors and in England. health services, JH declared that “the are also welcome, but need to be by negotiation Paul Oestreicher, Brighton UK most powerful determinant of health is wealth”. Were one to infer that The word of the Lord being comparatively wealthy would in your tradition have often been While I accept Paul Oestreicher’s ensure access to better housing, better remarked upon.” conclusion that God is a God of clothing and especially a sufficient and The Master then leant forward and, non-violence, opposed to all forms of well balanced diet, the point would with a grin, told me that before Quan violence and killing, I think his view be well made. But access to medical Yin came to East Asia from India, of Scripture somewhat deficient. services is a periodic and minor she was a man. “It would have been From the earliest pages God is contributor to health in comparison. impossible”, she continued, “for opposed to the shedding of blood Then H O’L calls for sympathy with people in this part of the world to (Cain and Abel). This is repeated in Pope Benedict in a dilemma of his conceive of qualities of gentleness and God’s covenant with Noah and in own making. Liturgical reform had compassion as residing in a man!” I the command to Moses: “thou shalt eradicated reference to the “perfidious learned that Bodhisattvas are able to not kill”. The words of Leviticus “love Jews” from the Good Friday liturgy assume any form male, female, animate your neighbour as yourself” is a moral to the satisfaction of all. But in his or inanimate in order to communicate imperative that transcends every desire to encourage the followers themselves. culture and creed, as Pope Benedict of Archbishop Lefebvre the Pope is To my knowledge, despite the recently said at the UN. permitting the use of the older liturgy teaching of Genesis that the image Passages in Scripture apparently as an option, thus putting us offside of God is reflected by both man and advocating violence or that God wants again with the Jewish community. woman – and Paul’s teaching that the or uses violence, therefore, need to be To put it mildly, this exercise by distinction between male and female read and interpreted in the light of the Pope is less than adroit; more was rendered meaningless by our unity the whole of Scripture and especially circumspection and better advice in Christ Jesus, Christianity has yet to in the light of Christ, who is always could have avoided it. Sympathy for achieve that level of enlightenment non-violent. Noah’s flood need not that? A little, but not much! whereby it could allow its God such be interpreted literally as God’s will Ben Hartigan, Orewa gender flexibility! to destroy humanity but as a natural Mike Noonan, Dunedin disaster which God’s love overcame. God – male or female? Cardy’s orthodoxy – 1 Passages attributing violence to God’s Joyce Rupp (TM April) made mention will ought to be read in the sense meant Glynn Cardy showed in the (April) issue of Quan Yin, whom she describes as an by the ancient authors: attributing all – I don’t want to be ‘saved’ – that he has Asian Goddess of Compassion. I was events to God as original cause. privileged, a short while ago, to visit a fluent pen, which one can admire but Perhaps we have lost the Jewish view a Buddhist monastery near Taipei and not always agree with. My concern is of Sacred Scripture, enriched by the was enthusiastically led on a tour by that some of his beliefs expressed in this Targum, the Midrash and the rabbinic a Buddhist Master. She explained that article, in my opinion, are contrary to interpretations in the Talmud, and try Quan Yin is perceived as merciful, full the teachings of the Catholic Church. to interpret Scripture without these of grace, tender, compassionate, loving, He of course is entitled to his beliefs as essential companions. For example, protecting, caring, healing, and wise we are to ours. one of the Targum on God drowning and as someone who quietly comes to Tui Motu in publishing this article Pharoah’s army recounts God’s love the aid of her children everywhere. She shows a willingness to hear contrary and sorrow for Pharoah’s soldiers, also supports the distressed and hungry, views. The fact that these comments his children. rescues the unfortunate from peril, written by an Anglican priest appear and gives comfort and aid wherever it in a Catholic magazine is evidence With this in mind, there’s no reason is needed. of a broad brush approach which is we cannot say: “this is the word of As my eyes widened in recognition, ecumenical in nature and in keeping God”, so long as Scripture is properly the Master said to me: “Yes, the with the church’s ardent desire for understood and we read it with the similarities between Quan Yin in our unity with our separated brethren. mind of the church. tradition and the Blessed Virgin Mary The editor is to be commended for his Chris Sullivan, Pakurangara

4 Tui Motu InterIslands response

The real causes of youth crime

Political responses to youth issues raised in the March Tui Motu

reen Party Co-leader, Russell Norman, offered and a lower age for Youth Court prosecution as part of Gthe following response to the John Key’s statement the National Party’s set of generally punitive reactions to earlier in the year regarding serious youth offending: the problems posed by a relatively small number of youth We welcome the spotlight being placed on these important offenders. Mandatory, punitive measures do not work issues of education and youth justice, but we were looking with the tiny minority who do most of the violent youth for initiatives that would make it easier for New Zealand offending. The Burnham military boot camp cited by Mr parents and families to provide the stability that young Key as a model is a voluntary programme, and the military people and children need. have made it very clear they have no interest in running a correctional facility. The evidence from here and overseas • We were hoping that National might decide to support is that boot camps simply don’t work. They make things flexible working hours for parents of dependent children, a worse. Green members’ bill that National opposed in Parliament. But no. Both National and Labour are treating symptoms, not • We were hoping that National might come out in support causes. Helen Clark correctly called today’s youth of an expanded program of state housing so that parents offenders the children of Ruth Richardson’s Mother of all don’t have to keep moving from house to house as their Budgets in 1991, which cut benefits. She then proceeded in rents rise. Nothing disrupts children’s education and her speech to ignore the problem she had just identified. community connections more than moving house all the time. But no. The Greens believe the real problem behind youth offending is poverty. It is the lack of affordable state • We were hoping that National would support increasing housing that forces parents to shift their kids around from the minimum wage, to take the pressure off working school to school. It is low wages that keeps both parents at families. But no. work, and creates latchkey kids. n • We were hoping that National would support a universal student allowance and moving towards fee-free tertiary education so that all young people could get access to Work for a world free from tertiary education regardless of which neighbourhood they poverty and injustice… grew up in. After all John Key got free education. But no. • We were hoping that National would support more become a funding for our schools to provide lower student to teacher ratios and more support for literacy within our schools. One World Partner Again, no. • Instead, National’s plan threatens to make public schools compete with private tertiary providers for students, and, offers young people an incentive to drop out. We got compulsory boot camps for troubled youth. Boot camps might work on reality TV but in the real world all the New Zealand and international evidence is that they don’t work. Crime is an emotive issue, youth crime is even more emotive. It’s easy to win support by exploiting people’s fears, it is much harder to offer real and constructive solutions. The National Party has clearly chosen the easy route.

reen Party Youth Affairs Spokesperson Metiria Turei As a regular donor with our One World Partnership you will be also comments: supporting whole communities – not just individuals – in their G struggle against poverty and its causes. Every election year has its targets. In the past, we’ve seen beneficiary bashing, immigrant bashing and Maori A regular monthly contribution of bashing - and now youth have been added to the list of twenty dollars or more is all it takes. scapegoats. For more information contact Caritas on 0800 22 10 22 or visit www.caritas.org.nz John Key advocated boot camps, ankle security bracelets

Tui Motu InterIslands 5 pastoral strategy Church, community and mission

Mark Richards

here was once an itinerant preacher preach and teach. He had formed them as Tin the country north of Jerusalem. a community. They had all learned a core What he taught, said and what he did way of being that community by living in was seen by those around him as ‘Good the way he had taught them. News’ (“gospel”). This new life that he brought was given to When they came to reflect on his life them in two parts: and why it was life-giving, and when • a method to the formation he gave; they looked at who they were as a • a content to the message, told as stories community after he was dead, they of the kingdom, and as activities the recognised that he had done more than community had in common.

Jesus taught by the way he lived. to prayer. On top of a mountain, and John – or clearly at other times, Jesus walked on his own two feet. he took three of his closest friends Lazarus, Martha and Mary. Then there He didn’t run, he didn’t ride, (other and they saw his glory. Later, as a was another wider group of disciples: than when he was a little baby and community apart in an upper room, 72, or 36 pairs, who were sent out on a certain afternoon as he entered they received the call to be servant, to do what they had heard and to be Jerusalem). He walked, and as he to be broken and poured out to share what they had seen. walked he talked and discussed. Every the fullness of life. day it seems, and on many named In all this we can discern a pattern occasions, he stopped walking and he They went together into a garden which is life-giving. I can’t be a follower and his friends sat down at table; they where they prayed, or slept, and learnt on my own; I am chosen by Jesus, and talked and ate together. They formed that prayer is not simply joyful ecstasy; then I choose to be one with him and a group of disciples – women and men it is also the facing of reality and the those others he has called. We are one, who walked and lived with him. pain of life. They left him alone – bar “one body, one Lord, one baptism”. some of the women, who walked as he This unity is a communion with all As he walked, he called people by suffered. Then there were two walking believers, a communion that demands name. Some came to him with needs, to Emmaus; then as a community openness and care, so that believers but the disciples, the ones who were they were gathered in the room when can truly be one. around him and walked with him, he appeared and the Holy Spirit came he called by name. He knew them upon them. That demands a Spirit, the Holy and he invited them, to walk, to be Spirit drawing believers together. There was a method in all this. You with, to dine, to listen, to come apart That Spirit is given to us in Baptism, and I are called to be disciples in the with him, to be one of a group, to be fully and freely, and the community same way as the generations before us identified as his followers and to serve. proclaims that in it we are given the were called, and called by name. We People responded to that call, and they gifts (charisms) that are special to us are called to walk in a community that walked with him. and needed to create the whole body. is characterised by telling parables, We are a people of prayer, because we Then at a certain stage he began to healing the blind, the lame and the must, individually and communally, be send them out to preach and teach and deaf, sitting at a meal together; and aware of and inspired by (have breathing to do what he was doing. There was we receive the bidding to go out and within us), the Spirit we share. a goodly number of them, because he preach the Good News and serve the sent them out in pairs, and he sent 72 world in which we live. We continue in dialogue with the of them in this way: not alone, but Spirit, and as such we are formed and How was this community with a companion (is it because it is vitalised. From the first days of the ‘not good for us to be alone’?) around Jesus structured? church the disciples went up every There was the preacher, and around day for prayer as a community, and There were also noted times when him was a group of 12 – and maybe then on the first day of the week they he called them to a place apart, and an inner group which was Peter, James gathered to listen to the word and to

6 Tui Motu InterIslands celebrate Jesus’ presence among them in our mission and in our ministry to All are required for Christian life and in the breaking of the bread. spread the Good News in what we say a Christian community to flourish. and what we do. We are a people who are aware that I want to draw it all together into a the gifts we have, the talents and To summarise what Jesus taught and simple model for parishes, school the very gift of life, are given to us. did: communities, for base communities You and I didn’t create ourselves; we • A community formed the disciples and even for the structure of a diocese. received life through the love and – and it forms us; Is it coincidental that there were/are life of others. Our response and the six areas of ministry and mission; and • They received a gospel; choice we make is to be thankful. As Jesus arranged everything in pairs, so followers we know the way in which • They were given public works, a there were six pairs among the inner Jesus called us by name, in which he liturgy of prayer and thanksgiving; 12, and more than that, there were taught us the Way and spoke words • This all strengthens and forms a then six pairs of 12 among the 72. of truth, and that these are words we people who serve the poor and weak Here is a model for a parish or a base don’t hear anywhere else. and needy and bring them Good community (be it a school, a Marae, News, fullness of life and peace; a religious community, a youth It is in and through him that we have outreach, a JPD cell). learnt the way that is fully alive. And therefore on a daily basis, individually We organise ourselves so that there are and as a community, we come two of us on the servant leadership together to give thanks. We call this group for each of these great areas Eucharist; we live Eucharist and of concern. give thanks to God the Father, in and through Jesus and in There are then at least six pairs the unity of the Holy Spirit. of people who are focused on That is the public work of the the leadership and organising church, to be a living sign of of the ministry in each of thanksgiving to God, a real sign the areas. And every baptised of God’s presence in the midst Christian has one talent in one of the world. of these areas, and it is for the service of the whole. What is the content of the More than that, there is only one message Jesus gave us? talent, one charism that you are This Way Jesus asks us to live is called to exercise for the good of the different, as is the truth he invites us to whole at this time. Therefore, when believe. There is a fullness of content, we are planning we need to decide and many before us have reflected and what is the most important element learned and taught that truth, which • To ensure that there was unity he for liturgy, or prayer, teaching or it is our turn to live and teach. then called some to be a ‘the rock’, an proclaiming the good news; who are Jesus teaches us forgiveness; he teaches overseer of the talents and the gifts and the most needy we can serve; and gentleness and humility; he teaches to preach the good news publicly; having focused on that, we then ‘send truth and respect of the poor and the • and then in the early church they a pair out’ to design, organise, ensure marginalised; he teaches how to pray chose others to look after the resources that this ministry happens. Our Father... and the needs of the widows and needy In a small community it may be that of the community, to distribute from they are the two who do the visitation Jesus teaches – and this community those who had to those who had need, of the sick, or are the musicians for has learned. within the community. Sunday gathering. And once we are This Jesus community, this teaching, Some consequences doing all that we need to do to fulfil the this Spirit, this church is not for itself. I want to call these six separate offices basic call of a Christian community, we It has only one purpose: to go out and ‘communio’, ‘teach and preach’, ‘prayer can liberate our resources to carry out preach the good news to the ends of and liturgy’, ‘service of the needy’, the things we would love to do, or we the earth. Moreover: “when you did ‘leadership’, and ‘stewardship of the can add more resources to the central this to one of these the least, you did gifts’. What the church has learned tasks if we find they are overburdened. it to me” – and when you didn’t do it, over the centuries is that one cannot This model helps us to focus and to you didn’t do it to me. We are called have one of these without the others. support a rich and vital ministry.

Tui Motu InterIslands 7 pastoral strategy

The catechumenate RCIA and its preparation, we should son’s, your daughter’s, your wife’s, Here is an an example. In any parish be able to liberate the resources and your husband’s? What do I know my or church community that has ears to build a warm, vital and rich outreach. neighbour is great at, and yet is not yet hear, there will be a call to seek out We will have the best of our catechists being called to bear fruit? and welcome those who receive the engaged, the best focus on music and Good News. This is called the RCIA where are we called to serve, and a pair Finally, let’s celebrate when that talent (Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults). purely focused on the introduction to is being gifted in the community, in When prioritising what the call of the the community and to the celebration the place you and I are called to serve Gospel is and what the church asks of new life in the church. and bring new life and the Good News us to do, the first thing is to go out to our workplace, our community and and welcome people in – and then The Lord, when he called the disciples, our daily life. to “baptize them in the Name of the asked them to “leave everything and follow me”. The message hasn’t “Give us THIS day our daily bread... Father the Son and the Holy Spirit”. and may your Kingdom come!” n In each ministry stream this should changed. The Good News is such good end up the highest priority. news that we are impelled to serve and to give and to love unconditionally. What we see is a pair of the teaching/ But the difficulty many communities preaching group and a pair of the find is that a small group holds too liturgy/prayers and a pair of the many ministries in few hands. This Mark Richards is Manager of Pastoral service group and a pair of the model is predicated on the theory of Services Team in the diocese of community builders in strong debate ‘one person one ministry”. Palmerston North and responsible for as to who is going to take the lead in adult formation programmes the development of the RCIA for the Yet we are ALL gifted with one forthcoming year. And by the time we charism for the up-building of the find that the cooperating communities church and one for the mission of the of the Pastoral area are focusing on church. What is yours, what is your

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8 Tui Motu InterIslands The Future in Parishes

Alan Roberts

n writing this, I have before me Mark Zealand are looking at new ways of running IRichards’ article printed in this issue our parishes, as we try to live up to the laity’s (pp.6-8). It is an article which makes sense right to be involved and as we find ourselves to me and my purpose here is to comment unable to supply a priest for every parish. from a practical point of view and hopefully Particularly affected are the laity who may expound on some points Mark has made. be clinging to the model which leaves the As I write, I am conscious that we in New priest as the focal point.

Community ark Richards begins his article by is not in being asked to say an extra the responsibility of only the priest Mpointing out that Jesus formed Mass or two but in missing out on or the lay pastoral leader is just his followers into a community. It is what is happening in my home parish ludicrous. primarily through being community when I am away. As a priest I still that we find the Risen Jesus to be life- need and enjoy community as much Going out ‘in pairs’ giving. Cardinal Williams, when first as the next person. hen there is the point Richards beginning the Launch Out training Tmakes of Jesus sending them programme for Lay Pastoral Leaders Walking out in twos. Some years ago Team (LPL) in Wellington, made much of ichards next explains the aspect Ministry became a popular concept the fact that no parish would be closed. Rof how Jesus lived his ministry. – but possibly because a young priest This brings home Richards’ point that He walked. This point is made to had to endure years of being a curate! community is the all important thing, emphasise Jesus’ availability to listen, The fact that we had to dream it up but thereby raises questions about explain and be with others. Then, he as a solution to a problem says plenty supplying Eucharist, and questions sent out in twos those who followed about the way we were then operating about the role of a priest. him. In short, he wasn’t rushing in ministry! around being the Messiah! Should a priest be asked to stretch I was fortunate to be part of a Team himself out and risk burning himself What a model of priesthood this is! (another priest and myself) after eight out? I maintain that this will almost If Jesus came today, I wouldn’t mind years of ministry. For the first time in inevitably happen, simply because betting that many would label him parish, we worked in twos. It was a he will miss the nourishment from “a lazy b!” Very quickly, it seems, very satisfying time in my priesthood the primary community he is called Jesus let go of the idea that he was and, dare I say it, possibly the most to serve? Looking back I realise, the only one who could pastor the blessed time. But more importantly, especially as a young priest, how flock. A priest, or a lay pastoral the community recognised it and gave much the communities I served gave leader, has to understand this, and us enormous support. Particularly me. I know I thrived because of the a parish also has to understand it. blessed was our Catechumenate, and friendships, fun, challenge and the Evangelisation will never begin in it was the community who made it questions which came from so many our parishes unless this point is live. in those early years. I met with small understood. groups and I grew with these people as Looking back over more than 30 years Just think: every person in our pews of ministry, when I have worked closely we struggled together to face issues in probably lives in close range to a the church of the time. I was inspired with others it has been refreshing, Catholic who no longer practices their enriching and complete. When I have by their commitment and desire to faith, or to someone who is searching create a life-giving community. worked alone, it has been frustrating, for meaning through faith. In this tiring and lonely. When that was Today, I realise that the stress I feel light, believing that evangelisation is allowed to continue, it produced

Tui Motu InterIslands 9 pastoral strategy burnout and cynicism. It is foolish to concern, concerns which he identifies Conclusion work alone. You may satisfy your ego, in his article. would note that at the present time but you’ll die in the end. Iour bishops are stretching priests Next, I want to refer to Richards out to provide sacraments for our Gifts within the community comments on prayer. He explains how parishes. I questioned the wisdom he Australian Scripture scholar, the disciples discovered that prayer was of this earlier. Is it not true that at TMichael Fallon, made the point not just about joyful ecstasy but also some point we will have to ask what some years ago while in New Zealand that the facing of reality and the pain of happens when we can stretch priests a primary work of a pastor was to help life. This is particularly worth noting no further? parishioners identify their ministry. because this kind of prayer is how we How could each parishioner serve in understand contemplation today. The I think the model Mark Richards their parish? Richards emphasises: “I distractions we experience tell us so proposes gives us a clue, and would can’t be a follower on my own,.. that much about ourselves. add that instead of leaving the smaller the Spirit is given to us in Baptism,.. parishes without a priest, we consider The revival of Ignatian spirituality copes that in the community we are given the leaving the larger ones where there is a well with all this and encourages us to be gifts (charisms) that are special to us greater variety of gifts to call upon. If we before God as we are. Like the disciples and needed to create the whole body.” accepted the model Richards proposes, in their master’s hour of need, we fall is it possible to set up and maintain Today we are more conscious of asleep when commanded to pray. Our life-giving communities which do not bringing out the gifts of each one prayer is just a frail attempt to open up have a resident priest, yet still are very and my concept of Team Ministry and be filled with God. Teresa of Avila Catholic? I am not intending to negate has moved on. What I once gained got so bored in prayer she shook the the role of the ordained minister or the from working with another priest I hour glass! But we persevere because importance of Sacraments. But if the must now find in my parishioners. we know we cannot do without it. And present trends continue, the day will The shortage of priests necessitates this principle applies to the laity who surely come when we will have will this, but even so, I wonder whether desire to build the reign of God, just as have to choose to close parishes, or we should not still work to find ways it does to any priest. As we employ the allow them to operate with only rare laity to work as leaders, then perhaps for priests or LPLs to follow the model contact with a priest. n Mark Richards proposes, namely that at least one of their hours each day of there are two on the servant leadership paid employment needs to be set aside Alan Roberts is parish priest of Blenheim group for each of the great areas of for prayer.

The Permanent Diaconate – is it the solution? Susan Smith atican II’s document, ‘The Constitution on the History VChurch’ (Lumen Gentium) stated that “…the he first written reference to a deacon in the early diaconate can in the future be restored as a proper and TChristian community occurs in Paul’s letter to the permanent rank of the hierarchy.” (LG 29). Canon Law Romans written about 58 A.D. He writes: “I commend to legislates for two types of deacons, the permanent deacon you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae” and the transitional deacon: that is, the man who hopes to (16:1), a Scriptural reference usually overlooked in the be ordained as priest after the diaconate. various diocesan and Vatican websites that commend the establishment of a permanent diaconate. In New Zealand the Hamilton Diocese has 11 ordained deacons, and currently Bishop Pat Dunn is preparing Instead, a later text attracts more attention. Acts 6,1-6 to establish the permanent diaconate in the Auckland relates how tensions between Greek-speaking Jews and Diocese. Other dioceses do not appear to have ventured Palestinian Jews over the care of widows and orphans down this path. Given that such a move can either be led to the Twelve designating seven men as ‘deacons’ a source of hope or concern for Catholics, I would like with responsibility for care of such people. The important to attempt a brief overview of origins of the permanent text is 6:7: “They had these men stand before the diaconate and the reasons for the contemporary revival apostles, who prayed and lead their hands upon them.” of interest in it. Apparently, it is the laying of hands on these seven men

10 Tui Motu InterIslands that constituted them as deacons and percent of Africa’s deacons are located in South Africa. because Paul does not add this rider “This is consistent with general worldwide patterns that to his commendation of Phoebe, show a correlation between large numbers of deacons she should not be considered a and relatively wealthy countries with a strong European ‘proper’ deacon. This interpretation presence” (Global Catholicism, p.58). In effect, those effectively excludes women from countries with a reasonably high ratio of priests to serving as deacons. Catholics seem to be the ones most likely to opt for the permanent diaconate. By the 3rd Century bishops were ordaining male deacons to serve A pastoral role in their various jurisdictions, but careful perusal of Canon Law concerning deacons by the 16th Century the deacon’s Ama kes it clear that while deacons do have a role was no longer significant in the sacramental role, this does not include the capacity to Roman Church although deacons celebrate Mass or grant absolution. What emerges most were still important in the Orthodox strongly from various diocesan websites is that their tradition. In its anxiety to refute the ministries have a predominantly pastoral orientation. For Protestant teaching of the priesthood example, we read: of all believers, the Council of Trent “This pastoral commission includes preaching the Gospel (1545-63) emphasised the centrality in Mass and assisting with Baptisms and weddings, but is of the ordained priesthood in the life primarily aimed at social service within the community, of the church, and sadly this led to such as visiting the sick, house-visiting, catechetics the belief that ministry flowed from and pastoral project management” (Archdiocese of Ordination, not from Baptism, something that Vatican II Johannesburg). later redressed. “Deacons using personal gifts or talents to support lay The present situation ministries bring the grace of the order and personal rior to and since Vatican II, there have been relatively gifts into the role which assists in development of lay Pfew priests to minister to large numbers of Catholics ministries. Deacons using specialist skills within the in Africa, South-east Asia, or Latin America, a situation church complement the existing skills of priests and laity. that is still there today. Thus in 2000, in Eastern Africa Deacons ministering to smaller Catholic communities, there was one priest for every 5000 Catholics; while in cultural, ethnic or professional groups or small rural Latin America, the ratio was one priest for every 65,000 areas, help foster and develop a vital and dynamic Catholics. In New Zealand, the ratio is closer to one church” (Diocese of Hamilton). priest for every 500 Catholics. In 1960, this scenario had In other words, the pastoral ministry of deacons, now significant pastoral implications for the bishops of Africa confirmed by ordination, is precisely the ministry that has and Latin America (see Froehle and Gautier: Global been exercised by laity – married, single and religious Catholicism – Portrait of a World Church, Orbis Books, – for centuries. These ministries have their origins in the p.40). This meant that some third-world bishops saw the baptismal call to mission, not in ordination. establishment of a permanent diaconate as a possible solution to their pastoral needs. Ordination to the permanent diaconate means that deacons become part of the church’s clerical hierarchy, Although vocations to the priesthood have continued and yet according to the above, most of the ministries to decline in most places since the restoration of the they undertake have been and still are thoughtfully and permanent diaconate after Vatican II, the number of generously attended to by lay women and men. At a permanent deacons has increased tenfold since 1975, meeting in Whangarei Bishop Dunn indicated that he most markedly in the United States. Canon Law requires was well aware that some groups in the church were that married candidates for ordination to the permanent concerned that further clericalisation of the local church diaconate must be over 35. Often they are considerably would occur if the permanent diaconate were to be older, and usually minister on a non-stipendiary basis. introduced. At present the distribution of deacons is very uneven and These groups are right to be worried, given that since mainly confined to first-world nations, despite the early Vatican II ministries entrusted to laity in many dioceses hope that it would offer a solution to the pastoral needs of and parishes could conceivably be transferred to male third-world churches. For example, today there are over deacons. If lay women and men are further excluded 150 million Catholics in Africa. There are 47 million from ministries and clericalism is further endorsed, the people living South Africa, of whom approximately five whole church will suffer. It is not difficult to see who will million are Catholic, a relatively small number; yet 64 be the losers in this process. n

Tui Motu InterIslands 11 priesthood

The well-being of priests today

Michael Dooley

hat makes priests today sometimes seem like a Office and spend time with God. That gives a foundation Wthreatened species is the fact that in our society and probably saves them from burnout by a heavy religious commitment in general – and priesthood in workload. particular – is seen as an anomaly. Priesthood has a low • time off: some priests don’t take enough time off. For value in people’s esteem, compared with 30 years ago. that reason they can become blunted in their enthusiasm This factor hasn’t been helped by the sexual abuse crisis. and less effective. Having a day off a week should be a Therefore for someone to enter the seminary today, he has regular part of a priest’s life. to be reasonably strong. There is no longer the positive • spiritual direction and supervision. Sometimes priests reinforcement there once was. In one sense that’s quite a will do this together – simply sharing their problems and good thing because it purifies one’s motivation. challenges. Some, however, value this ‘in theory’ but Priesthood for me is very fulfilling. I think after the neglect it in practice. I have no doubt people are happier recent gathering of priests from all over New Zealand in their ministry if they seek regular spiritual direction. in Blenheim, I would feel that morale is high despite Sharing a problem with an outside person can help you today’s challenges. Stephen Rossetti, an American deliberate on what’s the best thing to do, and can stave priest who deals with priests’ psychological problems, off future problems. came recently to speak here. He warned us against being Working in a team drawn into a mood of pessimism. He reminded us that My own experience here has been working on the parish never before have been there so many men throughout with Religious. It has made pastoral care richer and also the world training for the Catholic priesthood. The offered a feminine dimension. I think that gives balance. problem of priest shortage is peculiar to the West: indeed It won’t always be possible, but it’s a good model. The there is a simple correlation – increased affluence meant essence of good team ministry is working together, fewer vocations. respecting each other and recognising the strengths of The stresses of priestly life the other person. Surveys of the life of priests do not in fact report In the seminary, the most important factor is how the loneliness as being a major problem. I don’t think living students relate to others. When Archbishop Wilson came alone in se makes you lonely. You have your friends who to the National Seminary last year, he said the main thing are necessary for your well-being. The main challenge is to work at is human formation – how students learn to to develop and maintain healthy relationships. relate. That is crucial to effective priestly ministry. However, Fr Rossetti noted that the most serious problems, A personal view with priests in crisis, are isolation and anger. Priests who For me, the longer I have been a priest the happier I am leave often go because they feel disconnected. They and more fulfilling I find priestly ministry. That has little have become isolated and may have withdrawn from the to do with how heavy the workload has been. You have fellowship of their fellow priests. Anger could well be to struggle at times, but that’s where growth happens, aggravated by a priest’s relationship with his diocese. especially if you share your problem with someone else. It is interesting that the Number One positive factor Trying to cope with many demands and feeling you are that a survey of priests gave was ‘satisfaction with the not coping – that is debilitating. But knowing you have bishop’! Sometimes, however, the problem of anger may coped previously is always reassuring. be deep-seated in the priest himself. Rossetti said to us: The onset of burnout is, I believe, an internal thing. “Don’t expect the bishop to be the father you never had!” A person gets to the point where he needs space, and In other words, a priest with an authority problem will someone has to come in and say to him: “take time off. easily project it onto his bishop. We’ll look after things”. Once upon a time we may not In counselling students or young priests I would stress have done this. But now, with there being fewer of us, we three things: just have to look after one another. “You get away and • importance of prayer – not simply being ‘devout’. we’ll organise things” is what we need to say. n Priests will often say “I’m not very good at prayer”, but Fr Michael Dooley is parish priest of Mosgiel and Green Island. He you find that first thing in the morning they will say their was for a time spiritual director of Holy Cross Seminary, Auckland

12 Tui Motu InterIslands spirituality Jesus and Mary

Enid Lagan

s far as I know, there are five And there was the time Mary and Aoccasions in the Gospels where his brothers were looking for Jesus. Jesus either spoke to his mother or “Who are my mother and brothers? about her, and I have been seeing them Anyone who does the will of my in a new light in recent times. Father in Heaven, he is my brother and sister and mother.” Again, Jesus There is no doubt that Jesus and is lauding his mother. Right at the his mother had a very intimate Annunciation, Mary had declared relationship, so intimate that they she was totally given to doing the will could have their little joke and some of God and that was to be her stance teasing too. I’m think of the Wedding all her life. Feast at Cana. For sure, the Scripture says, “Woman, what is that to you Finally, we hear Jesus’ words to Mary and to me...” But in our language, I on the Cross. Why did he address her hear Jesus say, “Look, Mum, aren’t you as Woman as she stood – yes, stood jumping the gun? You’re pushing me – the quintessence of suffering at here” – with a twinkle in his eye. He the foot of his Cross: she the Queen knew very well he couldn’t refuse her of Martyrs, the Mother of Sorrows? anything; and she knew that too. She Surely, I used to think, a gentler most likely gave him a smile, a pat on he would so often in his time of public term could have been used. Why not the hand and – maybe, a wink? – then ministry. Yes, he had been about his Mother or Beloved? went off to organise the water pots. Father’s business all right. We know the rest. Ah no, not to Mary. The first title Then there was thewoman in the crowd given her in the very first centuries To the Finding in the Temple. The calling out, “Blessed was the womb of the church was the New Eve. The elders must have been gobsmacked that bore thee”; and Jesus’ reply: “Nay first Adam had named his EveWoman when this young lad told his mother rather, blessed are they who hear the because she was to be the mother of that ‘he was about his father’s business’. word of God and keep it.” This ‘nay all the living, and here was the second She knew who the Father was but rather’ was not downgrading Mary’s Woman they didn’t. I wonder, did they look Eve so rightly addressed as dignity as Mother of God but rather because she, the second mother of at Joseph, silent, unobtrusive in the endorsing the fact that of all persons background, and puzzle how he could the living, was to lead all of us, her Mary had, at every step , ‘heard the children, safely home. have any connection with the profound word of God and kept it.’ This was points of the Law being explained so kudos from her Son. Well, that’s how I see it. . . n expertly by this youngster. I see them metaphorically scratching their heads, he Maori Madonna (pictured above) was painted in 1943 by Sr Julia Lynch, a all of them perhaps except one.Gamaliel TWellington Sister of Mercy ( religious name – Sr Mary Lawrence). (who later would be Paul’s teacher – Acts The Madonna carries the baby Jesus on her back in the fashion of Maori mothers a 22,3) is musing; ‘There’s something generation ago. The model was Tira Rongonui, then a pupil at St Mary’s College (now extraordinary about this boy. I’m sure Mrs Stevens). The model for the child was her little brother, David Christopher. we will cross paths again later.’ The Madonna wears a traditional Maori skirt, but with Alpha and Omega embroidered on it. Her cloak flows down joining heaven to earth via Jesus and his mother. The halo As the trio leaves the Temple, Jesus is the Moon; above is the Milky Way, symbolising the people of the South Pacific. The Milky Way contains the Southern Cross. throws a look back at the elders. He The original of the Maori Madonna is held at Hato Paora College, Parorangi. had been trying to teach them to Colour prints available from Pleroma (Freepost 609, Postshop, Waipukurau. Price: $12.50. A4: $20.) bring them to conversion of heart as

Tui Motu InterIslands 13 ArohanuiArohanui

. . .blooming where planted

Last month we printed an interview with a priest who created ‘Chez Nous’, a country retreat for stressed people (April pp 10-11). Tui Motu invited author and spiritual guide Joy Cowley to describe her own, local experience of Chez Nous

he Marlborough Sounds has Arohanui was well used as a retreat happen, and regaining strength was a reputation for healing. The house in the broadest sense. Occasion­­ a long slow business. prescription of calm water, ally people came in on structured How gratifying then to see the Tbush and birdsong, untangles stress religious retreats – Christian, Bud­dh­ rapid change in people who came to and restores exhausted lives in a ist, Ramakrishna­ – but most of the Arohanui. Often they would arrive remarkably short time. It did that for guests were families or individuals in pale, trembling, depressed, and the our family, and over the years we saw need of a holiday. The only criterion bay would wrap itself around them in the ‘Sounds balm’ work for friends was need, and to make sure need was a soporific hug. They would sleep and who used a little cottage in our bay. met people came by referral from sleep. One young man was alarmed Well, the cottage was more of a hut care-givers and health workers. because he couldn’t stay awake, and really and in poor condition; but when Experience is an impressive teacher, wanted to contact a doctor. He was my writing income peaked I was able and behind the planning for assured that he would be fine in three to demolish the hut and have built, in Arohanui was a time in my early life days – and he was. its place, a solid pinewood house that when the pain of loss made existence overlooked the sea. I called it Arohanui a day-to-day struggle. I used to The place was available free of charge. because it was made possible by the think: ‘if only someone would take There were no rules, no locks on doors. huge spirit of love that nurtured us all this away for a week or two, I know Food was provided for breakfast and in that place. I would be all right’. But that didn’t lunch at the guest’s leisure. The evening

14 Tui Motu InterIslands spirituality meal, though, was always in the main lost her suicidal depression when Well, we eventually got through the house, and it was a grace-filled time of she rediscovered the pleasure of meal, and I escorted everyone back sharing food, conversation, laughter gathering kaimoana. to Arohanui. The four woman were and occasionally a walk afterwards to sleeping in the cottage. Jason went into And then there was the mother who look at glow-worms or the moonlight one of the bunkrooms. But at 9.00 pm brought her 8-year-old son to the on the water. one of the retreatants came over to say bay so that she could tell him, in a that they had barricaded themselves n those first years several dedicated nurturing environment, that his father young people in an employment in hospital was dying. The plan was that gap came down for weeks at a time she would talk to him in the evening, he acquired four mothers toI help run the place. In 1989 Terry and I would take him fishing the next Coles and I were married, and Terry morning. The lad was quiet on the and was thriving on fishing trip but happy to catch some brought a new strength to guests, with their attention his gentle, peaceful presence and his spotties. I took him back to the house fondness for the sea. He bought a boat to fillet the fish for his breakfast, and and we were able to extend guests’ was not surprised when he collapsed in one room, afraid that they might activities to trips to the outer Sounds on the floor. Poor lad. The shock had be attacked. I assured them that Jason for picnics, hiking and fishing. been too much for him. I picked him up and carried him in a dead faint to was not a threat, and indeed, they saw There was no counselling offered. We his mother. “Oh no!” she said. “That’s that for themselves the next morning believed that we all have within us our not about his father. It’s the fish. He when they discovered the boy with own inner wisdom and solutions to can’t stand the sight of blood.” severe withdrawal symptoms. He was our problems, but sometimes we get a pitiful, shaking mess. They got him so debilitated that we lose touch with regular guest was a lovely into a shower, washed his clothes and ourselves. So all we offered was family young man with addiction over the next few days nursed him care, relaxation and good nutrition. It problems. He would steal through the tremors. Ato support his habit, spend time in was important that we accepted people As Jason recovered, he went out without judgment or expectation. prison, go on a programme and then fishing and brought back snapper. One or two weeks was the usual stay, come to our remote refuge. On one It seemed to us that he had acquired and the guests knew that if they were occasion, this lad (whom we shall four mothers and he was thriving on in crisis again, they could return. call Jason) was being released from prison in Dunedin. Although I knew the attention. On the last day of the better, I sent him money for a train retreat, the weather changed to rain. I we offered fare because that was easier than a two knew the women would not be going family care, relaxation hour trip to purchase a ticket. A few out on their usual prayer walk, so I days later Terry and I met the train in took them a video tape called Ways to and good nutrition Picton. Predictably, Jason was not on God for Today by Anthony de Mello. it, and I was not happy with myself. When I arrived at Arohanui, I heard great gusts of laughter. All were seated School vacation times brought in Three weeks passed and we had at the table and Jason was teaching families in need of time together. One four women in Arohanui on a them to play poker, using matches family with four children aged 16 to 4, spiritual retreat. They were at our instead of money. I tiptoed away with had never had a holiday. One morning house for the evening meal, when the tape, recognising that there were the bay rang with shouts of triumph the door burst open and there more wonderful ways to God than and we saw the father standing in was Jason. He had been sleeping had been described by Fr De Mello. the dinghy proudly displaying a large rough for weeks, smelled like a pig Arohanui herring, the first fish he’d ever caught. yard and was high on just about For nearly 20 years, everything including alcohol. He functioned as a house for people under A woman with terminal cancer spent hugged us with great enthusiasm stress. It could not go on forever. Its two weeks of quality time with her and then rushed, starving, to the gift of being personal rather than sister from England. A young man table. As he scooped food onto a institutional was also its limitation, but who had witnessed a brutal murder plate, he became aware of the four that’s okay. If you have the privilege was sent in to recover from the trauma. women and their body language. of blooming where you are planted, it People coming out of prison or drug He beamed at the one next to him. will be just for a season. What remains rehabilitation programmes, regained “You want a spud, Sister,” he said permanent for us are the memories their connection with the earth. A and with a grimy hand plonked a and the many friendships that have young woman with bandaged wrists baked potato on her plate. taken us into a larger place. n

Tui Motu InterIslands 15 VisitingVisiting HildegardHildegard

Hildegard shown with St Benedict. Hildegard and her religious followed the rule of St Benedict

Trish McBride This present complex, we learned, arriving at the dates to just over a 100 years ago, Abbey of St. when a rich prince, himself father Hildegard above of a Benedictine nun, undertook the Rhine Valley to endow the rebuilding of the abbey on this new site. It is here that one meets the cheerful spirit heard her glorious soaring music on the radio this of Hildegard still manifest in the I morning – and yet it is over 900 years since Hildegard smiling and hospitable nuns. was born. Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) would have been an amazing woman at any stage of history, but We went first to the church where that she flourished in a Europe barely out of the Dark a wonderful icon of Jesus over the Ages is a testimony to the rich monastic culture that then altar welcomes with open arms. flourished. Around the walls are paintings of Hildegard’s life and scenes from A journey across Germany a couple of years ago was Scripture. Another icon shows steered by a wish to visit Hildegard in her home town on Saints Benedict and Hildegard the Rhine. Exploration on the internet told us that the two with the family tree/grapevine of best places to find her spiritual legacy now are the Abbey the monastic houses founded by above the town of Rudesheim and the parish church at Hildegard (see right). nearby Eibingen. She moved around various sites in the area, as has her foundation in the centuries since. The Then there is the inevitable tourist shop – but what excellent Youth Hostel at Bad Kreuzenache proved a treasures! I came away with a CD of her Canticles of good base for our explorations. Ecstasy, a candle made by the Sisters with a Tree of Life design and a bottle of their very pleasant wine. The Sisters On the Hildegard day, we seemed surprised to hear she was famous in Aotearoa drove a few kilometres to New Zealand. Maybe they hadn’t been around for the Bingen and crossed the 900th birthday celebrations when two Kiwi women, Rhine on a car ferry, a Ceridwyn Parr and Danielle Melton, performed their delightful interlude. Then up moving dramatised version of Hildegard’s life. That had the hill from Rudesheim to been my own introduction to her back in the 1990s. the brick Abbey, very visibly perched among the vines on ildegard was given by her family to a Benedictine the hillside above. A pathway Hdouble monastery (both male and female) at a young led up to the entrance, which age (14, according to the biography from her Order, as was covered with a cascade young as eight from other sources). She took vows at 15. of luscious pink roses (above This was at Disibodenberg, another town on the Rhine. left). We had arrived! In 1136 she took over the spiritual leadership of her small community. Her education there had a given her a broad knowledge of the Bible, theology, philosophy and Hildegard painting. natural history. Through the monastic life she was also – a detail of her picture of well-grounded in liturgy, the rule of St Benedict and the the Cosmic Wheel, showing writings of the church and desert fathers. the whole cosmos as a wheel within the bosom of Her own description of one of her powerful visions goes the Creator like this: “In the year 1141 of the incarnation of Jesus

16 Tui Motu InterIslands VisitingVisiting HildegardHildegard

Statue of Hildegard Trish McBride holding her quill, in the church at Eibingen, where her relics are also held

validity of her insights. She was also a committed letter writer: 390 letters are extant, and they went to abbots, kings and even popes, encouraging Christ, when I was 42 years and and, where necessary, pointing them in seven months old, a fiery light a better direction! accompanied by lightning came down from heaven. It flowed At the age of 60 Hildegard went out through my brain and glowed in my from her abbey to preach in the market chest. And suddenly the meaning squares and cathedral precincts of at of Scripture was disclosed to me.” least half a dozen towns. What she had And she heard the words “Write seen and heard in her visions was passed down what you see and hear.” on prophetically to the people. Some And a monk depicted her visions modern commentators wonder whether migraine head­- pictorially under her direction. aches were responsible for her illnesses and ‘bright lights’. Who knows – but the fruits of it all are truly wonderful! From this mystical experience and a number of others flowed her Unsuccessful efforts to have her canonised were made in beautiful musical compositions, the 13th Century. In 1978 the German bishops asked for her three major theological her to be declared a ‘Doctor of the Church’. This has not books, her lyrical drama and her happened either. But her Sisters claim both titles for her prophetic dealings with her Order, by vox populi recognition. the church and the world. In 1150 More time at the abbey that day would have been Hildegard and 20 nuns moved to a wonderful, but we had to keep moving, so it was off new abbey at Rupertsberg where she continued to write down to the plain little Eibingen parish church. There and compose. was no-one else there. There is a beautiful statue of Hildegard, pen in hand (above right). Her remains are ildegard understood God, the world and humankind housed in a gold reliquary on the main altar. It was time to be one fabric. The cosmos is God’s work of art H to touch it reverently and be silent before this amazing, and human beings are a microcosm of the whole. Divine prophetic woman who had achieved so much for the God Love wills for us both salvation and good health; so one she loved. n book is about healthy eating and the cure of illnesses. Trish McBride is a Wellington spiritual director and thealogian with a Modern health practitioners have been amazed at the special interest in women’s faith journeys for the next one.

Viriditas ildegard grew up and lived amid the lush Hpastures of the Rhine Valley. The present Abbey church (on the site of her monastery) looks out across this beautiful land (see right). Hildegard coined the word Viriditas, or ‘greening’, to describe the continuing creative power of God in the world and in humanity. She saw herself as a “branch full of the greening power of springtime”. Sin, for her, is a ‘drying up’. A dried up person or culture has lost its creative spark. Salvation comes through the waters of rebirth. It is like a re-greening, the end of a spiritual drought.

Tui Motu InterIslands 17 world affairs A Terrorist Base?

Peter Murnane

hy are we not in favour of the wealthy Wshocked that there minorities. is a terrorist base in New Zealand, fully controlled It is not accidental that by the United States of the majority of the six America, though nominally billion people on our under our Government planet constantly suffer Communications Security from lack of resources. Bureau? This base, at Their massacre and Waihopai near Blenheim, is starvation began in one of six in the world-wide the colonial era, but Echelon spying network. continues today by the decisions of those who But ‘terrorist’? Yes, it wield power over land can be truly called this, and resources; who for it gathers immense quantities of Latin American interventions have determine prices for raw materials and information that may be put to many been aided by government terrorism, for the labour of the poor; who ‘dump’ uses, but sometimes leads to people using agents trained in torture at the subsidised products so as to rob small being imprisoned without charge or School of the Americas at Fort Benning, producers of their livelihood. fair trial in prisons like Guantanamo Georgia. Sr Dianna Ortiz, speaking at a Bay or ‘renditioned’ to be tortured recent Auckland Eucharistic Congress Do we Christians have any obligation abroad. To name only those close to about her torture in Guatamala by the about this? If we heed Jesus’ warning us, several Australian residents have CIA, gave powerful witness against that whatever we do to the least human been so treated recently, but there are this system. beings we do to Him, can we shut our hundreds of other examples. These eyes to the presence in our country of abuses of people’s rights are nothing The Waihopai base spies on satellites this essential link in the huge network less than government-sponsored carrying the private communications that perpetrates such horrors? Why terrorism. of individuals, businesses and do we continue to host on our soil governments. A vast volume of this base which continues to feed the The activities of this base, and the cruel information is put through powerful corruption of an Empire that is doing operations that sometimes follow, are computer ‘dictionaries’ that select such damage to the world? n quite consistent with past activities specific words or phrases. No doubt Peter Murnane is a member of the Dominican of US governments. Mark Twain in the New Zealand government joins Preaching Team working out of Auckland the 19th Century strongly criticised the US in trying to justify this blatant the growth of this new ‘Empire’, invasion of others’ privacy under the which seized Texas, California and pretext of ‘national security’. But are the Philippines by force. But since there no limits to what can be done then – to support its business interests under this excuse? – it has again and again abused and massacred whole populations. This Besides having access to any happened in Guatamala (from the international messages that pass 1950s), Nicaragua and El Salvador through the local geo-stationary (1970s). satellites, the Waihopai base also gathers information from the private The USA has also helped overthrow communications of Pacific nations. For more information write to: legitimate governments, among others One effect of this is to further tilt NZ Jesuits in India Trust Board those of Iran (1953), Chile (1973) PO Box 25922, St Heliers, the ‘level playing field’ of trade and Auckland 1740 and Haiti (1994). Consistently, these finance which has always been biased FOJ/JES OO6

18 Tui Motu InterIslands seven deadly sins Seven deadly sins – a Gandhi series

In the final article of the Gandhi series physicist Richard Dowden examines what Gandhi might have meant by ‘without humanity’ – and is invited by the editor to go further

Science without Humanity

What did Gandhi mean? seek the truth. Christians who recite conflict between science and religion Mohandas Gandhi named Science the Nicene Creed believe that God since both are seeking enlightenment without Humanity as one of the Seven created all that is (all that exists), about the same truth. The difference Deadly Sins of modern society. By visible and invisible (all that we know is that unlike a scientific hypothesis humanity he must have meant the about as well all that which has not yet proposed to explain an apparent non-material aspects of humanity – been revealed). It is God’s truth and discovery, religion based on super­ human values, the moral code, the cannot be bent to produce warm fuzzy natural revelation cannot be tested Golden Rule, love, religion in general. feelings. by a series of experiments – although it requires verification, which is the What did he mean by science? Did Gandhi was a devout Hindu and used job of theologians. Yet everything he mean science such as physics, ‘God’ in the sense of the supreme being about the physical Universe, from the chemistry, biology, etc. Or did he or Ishvara. This suggests that Gandhi fundamental particles to the origin of mean technology such as TV, cell used ‘humanity’ in an all-embracing the Universe, is also revealed by God phones, jet planes etc? He maintained sense of spirituality. In this case, we – but through science. that dependence on British technology might rephrase Gandhi’s naming of (the cotton mills) was a hindrance to this deadly sin as Science without God. In the case of scientific discovery, Indian independence, but I think, if Bearing in mind the deep conflict in the ‘revelation’ also requires detailed that is what he meant, he would have the 19th Century between religion investigation, such as further entitled Deadly Sin Number Seven (mainly fundamentalist Christians) observations and tests of hypotheses as Technology without Humanity – so and science (mainly Darwin’s based on the original discovery. The we may assume he really did mean evolution theory), this interpretation essential thing about the process of science. of what Gandhi was getting at makes discovery is that it is not invention: sense. Albert Einstein said something it is the un-covering of something Did Gandhi see science, particularly similar: “Science without religion (particularly in physics) which has physics, as cold and unbending, is lame, religion without science is existed from the beginning of time. with no human ‘give?’ If so, he was blind.” It was created by God but remains correct, but that is not a sin. Humans, hidden until revealed by God in our scientists at least, have curiosity. They There should be no fundamental research. ss

Tui Motu InterIslands 19 seven deadly sins

ss At this point we break off and report a that precisely what Gandhi means by enhances the dignity of the human debate between Professor Dowden and ‘humanity’ in the title? He is saying person. Now the atomic bomb simply the editor, who asked for the discussion ‘human’ wisdom is warning that you doesn’t – and it is dubious whether to be moved in a different direction. cannot go on along this line of work thermonuclear power does either. It because you are producing something is so dangerous and so expensive. Can Conversation (above) between too dangerous and destructive. we really ever morally justify that kind the editor and Richard Dowden of research? MH: I would like you to consider RD: The trouble is you cannot keep the the attitude of the scientist who secret. Once the Americans found that RD: If this scientific knowledge and claims autonomy in research without the thermonuclear bomb would work, understanding is God’s truth, then being concerned about the possible it was easy enough for the Russians this is how the Universe is revealed to consequences – or the possible harmful to discover how to make one. It was us – how it began, how it continues. use of his discoveries. “My job,” he simply harnessing a process which If that is God’s truth, then it cannot might say, “is to discover new things, takes place in all the stars anyway. It be evil. not to worry about the human cost”. could make a bomb – but it could also make a power generator. MH: Let’s take another example. A Is that right? chemist produces the drug P; the RD: The scientist is seeking to MH: But isn’t Gandhi saying to intrinsic structure of the molecule understand something, not to design us ‘unless you have humanity, might suggest to him that it will be it. Take the nuclear bomb. Einstein then science becomes evil’? Isn’t it hallucinogenic. His research has warned the Americans about the ‘humanity’ which asks: “is this for the become so risky, it may have appalling terrible effects and was concerned in common good or isn’t it? Is it bringing consequences. The modern drug case the Nazis got there first. people closer to God, or not?”. trade depends on such scientific developments. MH: But didn’t these theoretical RD: I maintain that science itself is bringing us closer to God, because it physicists like Neils Bohr and RD: A lasar was produced because is the pursuit of truth. Oppenheimer in the United States of research into light amplification. suddenly realise that in their research MH: But if we talk about ‘humanity’ This was first produced as a tool for they were opening Pandora’s Box? Isn’t as a virtue, we mean something which researching atomic structures. They

20 Tui Motu InterIslands had no intention of producing it as that religion does, he reckons, is to the evidence. Hoyle was basing his a weapon. It is like designing a knife offer false solutions to queries which in statements on how he would Iike which the butcher needs for his trade time science will answer. The ‘religion’ things to be, not how they actually but can also be used to kill people. of the future must be pure science. were. If we follow that, we shall eventually At what stage does the scientist realise create a utopia on earth. He then discovered eventually that that in his research he is about to open the evolving universe produced more Pandora’s Box? What would you say to Richard carbon than seemed to be warranted. Dawkins? And carbon is necessary for life. So he MH: I want you for a moment to said: “Someone has been monkeying imagine you are Lord Rothschild, RD: Dawkins has no evidence for with this!” appointed to be a member of Churchill’s his rejection of religion. To follow ‘think tank’. You know, more than the the ideal of ‘science without God’ I think this is the answer to Dawkins: politicians and captains of industry, is, I would say, a contradiction or an There are a billion stars in our galaxy what might be the possible outcome absurdity. – the Milky Way. We now know there of the research you are managing. are at least a billion galaxies, which You must take responsibility for the Science is ‘seeking understanding’. means a billion billion stars, most of decisions that are made. This is a basic human goal and isa which will have planets. This means worthy thing. It cannot be evil. Since that the conditions for producing life The other members of the committee it is seeking God’s truth, then there is like ours are reproduced many many will look to you as the scientific expert only one ultimate truth. There cannot times in the Universe. to be the final authority. I think what exist opposing truths. And it is an Gandhi is saying to you is: as a scientist absurdity to say that God’s truth can Yet however many intelligent beings you can’t just abdicate the responsibility explain everything – without God! there are in the Universe, they will all for what you are producing. discover the same physics. We know MH: If I were Gandhi I would say there is a consistency throughout RD: A pure scientist never really knows this to Dawkins: “You are obsessed the universe and throughout time until he tries it what the outcome is since the Big Bang in what matter is going to be. He can’t see the future with your own power and gifts. It is and what are the laws governing it. so as to be able to say: “we cannot go an immoderate obsession and needs to The elements are always the same. in that direction because it is liable to be balanced by ‘humanity’. There is a Physicists now have an unshakeable lead to such-and-such. That isn’t the philosophical framework in which you faith in this consistency. The way scientific investigation works”. live and work, and the majority of the people living also in that framework mysterious thing is not the size and A scientist in his research arrives at a believe in God. age of the Universe, but the fact that it crossroads. He cannot predict exactly is always and everywhere governed by which is the right way. He is always “It is their belief in God which the same laws. Einstein said the most ‘seeking understanding’. motivates them to love one another. incomprehensible thing about the They don’t deduce that from the law Universe is that it is comprehensible! MH: Consider the geneticists at of evolution: indeed evolution talks The Universe is intelligible because this present time. They are actually about ‘nature red in truth and claw’, it is totally governed by a single creating new forms of life. They seem which is the precise opposite of love. to be driven primarily by the desire Intelligence. We have learned this If you don’t have the moderation of to see whether it works. They are less because science is nothing more than ‘humanity’ – or of God, then as a inclined to be concerned that they are revelation. The theoretical physicist scientist, you can become a tyrant or interfering with human life. Stephen Hawking claims with his a beast!” Theory of Everything to be on the RD: It isn’t the science, though, which brink of discovering the fundamental is the prime consideration there. For RD: That is pride – which is the deadliest of the real ‘deadly sins’. But equation. But that discovery won’t do instance chemists produced Valium, away with the need for God. a drug with therapeutic uses. But an if a scientist ceases to be objective in overdose might do terrible damage. It his research, he will soon start taking Hawking may find the final solution is the misuse which is the problem. the wrong turnings. The astronomer to the puzzle. But the question still Fred Hoyle, for instance. He was so remains: Who wrote the puzzle? n MH: Let’s go on to a final point. certain his steady state theory was Richard Dawkins, the evolutionist, is right he started saying things publicly Richard Dowden is retired professor of rabidly anti-religious. He says science which were contrary to what scientists Physics at the University of Otago an a will eventually explain everything. All were beginning to believe because of regular ontributor to Tui Motu

Tui Motu InterIslands 21 family life A mother’s Journal

others do well to children walking even Mtake a rest – and small distances to school even Journals of mothers – and still it is too hard – but before too long I for busy and stressed get itchy to get back on parents. Opportunities, my feet, back to action, education, health getting on with jobs that services, road safety, are waiting and work lack of corruption – I which gives meaning feel angry that Indians and sense. Kaaren with Shar and Shanti just for being born somewhere else, get none Returning to New Zealand for some months has been a of this. The inequalities are glaring and very unjust. Efforts welcome break from the vibrancy, tangle and action of life to address the global inequalities seem ineffectual and tiny in India. New Zealand has so many great things about it. against huge corporates who drive the trade and politics that Some that I particularly noticed when we arrived back were keep the status quo. footpaths to walk on, our relaxed society where its OK to go out the door without freshly brushed hair – even with bare I know too that New Zealand is not all a land of milk feet (five-year-old thinks this isVery Good). I’ve noticed too and honey. James around the corner from us in central the playfulness of parents with children, litter-free parks Christchurch has had to move house four times while and beaches, excellent government health and education we’ve been away due to rising rents. He is lonely and has facilities and trustworthy interactions with authorities and few friends. New Zealand doesn’t offer him a happy place Trade Me sellers. of belonging. Inequalities here are also grotesque – what systematic racism plays out in our society which results in Our children have leapt into the creative and fun schooling Maori men and women having ten years less life expectancy on offer, gymnastics club and swimming lessons. All three than non-Maori? have commented many times how lucky we are for the opportunities we have while we are in New Zealand. And So all these observations are nothing too new – but we’ve all wished that just some of this abundance could highlighted again by the sharp transition from one world to be available for children in Jibhi – who have never seen a another. My children give me hints on how not to collapse swimming pool, a footpath and pedestrian crossing or a in indignant talk-fests or helpless complacency. Embrace tousled teacher daubed with paint and laughter. the good – eat lots of the yummy autumn produce, enjoy the beauty and stillness of our hills, and wear your new I’ve come and gone from poor to rich lands many times. soccer shin-pads to bed the night before your first game. But I’ve found it hard returning to New Zealand this And keep talking about and with friends living on This Side time. The differences can seem obscene. In our nutrition and The Other Side. Somehow I want to believe things can programme with mothers and children in India we change enough to keep working to bring structural changes encourage and support more food, more oil and butter – or even just pavements and creative primary schooling for – all more frequently. I wish there was an option for skinny all. So God help us. school children in Jibhi to sometimes catch a ride home up the hill, to save them the one and a half hour walk. Kaaren Mathias is a mother and doctor, who has been living and working in a health project in Himachal I return to work with the Physical Activity and Nutrition Pradesh for the last two years. She has been enjoying team at our District Health Board in New Zealand, and some months home in New Zealand, with husband Jeph every social marketing ploy is promoting fewer calories, and their three children. less frequently. There are incentives to get parents and

22 Tui Motu InterIslands A poem by Maura Toomey, untitled and undated, written after having travelled through the Sahara Desert (and after having stopped at the hermitage of Blessed Charles de Foucauld in Tamanrassat)

he street is hot and bare Yet this has become clear In this place of my birth TDusty with feet and form passing Perhaps there is no home Now I feel a stranger I stand alone Here For I have seen Along the way houses high-walled As there was not on that The alien town brown and flat in hot, dusty street friends, husband, lover the sun Ten thousand miles (from Surround me here The doorways stand open. Here) My soul yearns for that street Often I am greeted Perhaps I will always stand For the unity of heart soul and asked to come in In the street, alone and mind found For a while I go It is a marvellous place Among an ancient people Hoping this will be For I don’t know who I’ll And on a mountain top the resting place see a few steps on In the desolate Sahara. Cool, green yet warm Who will yell Hey, remember me, Here we touch and go to business with laughter Or it’s good to know you Living we call it And so it is for a while A bond There they know better Then I am called created, never to be broken. The earth communicates Or politely shown the door On that street of figures Its message hurrying past, in an alien Here and now is all you have. Even without knowing Savour it, love it, Once more I am back in land, I met my home travelling companions Savour them, love them, the street Listen look and see the open door. Looking down the road Now memory calls me back Wondering a little how Urgently (Underneath is written: I got there To a street, a town, a continent “Pity I can’t and don’t. . . but at least sometimes And where to now I call home I glimpse the answer as we Hoping for a door For there I found I could all do in our own way.”) Jes -Tuimoto May 08 9/4/08 12:47 PM Page 1 To open and a lasting welcome stand

Our Jesuits work in Rogan McIndoe ad poor rural villages...

Mass being celebrated by a Jesuit priest

Despite the media reports of India’s growing affluence, our Jesuits work in a rural area of India where villagers still live in a past century - literacy rates are low, and village health and hygiene are still very real issues.

YES! I would like to support the Jesuit Missioners work

Mr/Mrs/Miss......

Address:......

I enclose $ ...... cheque enclosed or cash or debit my credit card

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Card Holder Name: TM May ‘08

Expiry Date: Signature: Tom and Carole Ryan, New Zealand Jesuits in India Gifts are tax deductible PO Box 25922, St Heliers Bay, Auckland 1740 FIRST OF JULY 169 OF JULY FIRST

New Zealand Jesuits in India... Care for the Poorest of the Poor

Tui Motu InterIslands 23 spirituality Open your eyes Daniel O’Leary

When we love someone, we draw out the beauty that is within them, our tenderness persuading their true loveliness to emerge. Similarly at Easter, falsehood melts away and things appear as they really are

friend of mine entered for last The miracle of Easter was already subtraction than addition; more Ayear’s Britain’s Got Talent auditions. opening their eyes. The blindfold about unblocking than increasing. I tuned in to one of the first episodes. preventing them from fully recognising It happened to those on the road to The panel judges were finding it all him before was now being removed. Emmaus. rather boring and predictable. During Love was bringing clear vision. It was Pope Benedict, in Spe Salvi writes, the interval they said so. Paul Potts, a transforming the blurred, the false; it “Before (the risen Christ’s) gaze all sad-faced young man from Wales, was was revealing the real, the beautiful. falsehood melts away … The holy next up. He said he would like to be For one bright moment they glimpsed power of his love sears through us an opera singer. I noticed two of the pure truth. like a flame.” No wonder their hearts three judges throwing cynical glances burned within them. And then, before at each other. Then Paul opened his In one of John O’Donohue’s last their very eyes, the fierce invincibility mouth, and a voice of power and poems he speaks to the mother of a and utter vulnerability of our human beauty soared through the auditorium, young criminal: God were constellated in a fistful of capturing our hearts. bread on the rough surface of a stained Paul went on to win the national No one else can see table in a country inn. competition and to reveal a talent beauty in his darkened Easter is the death of illusion, the worthy of any of the ‘three tenors’ life now. window of recognition, the work of themselves. At the Royal Variety His image has closed like restoration. Redemption is the clear Performance before the year ended, a shadow. courageous vision of what happens, of the three chastened judges more or But he is yours; what is. Too often, in our fear of naked less publicly apologised to Paul, who ‘isness’, we shrink from it. While we was performing that night. In the and you have different eyes are created for truth we cannot bear beginning, they were looking at him, that hold his yesterdays too much reality! “We would rather but they had not ‘seen’ him. They had in pictures no one else be ruined than changed,” wrote W.H. forgotten that people do not see things remembers. Auden. “We would rather die in our as they are; they see things as they are. dread than climb the cross of the But now their eyes were opened. They He is yours in a way no moment and see our illusions die.” finally saw the real Paul Potts. words could ever tell; Thus, as Francis Thompson knew, “with our estranged eyes we miss the I have long wondered why the risen and you can see through many-splendoured thing.” Jesus was unrecognised by Mary and the stranger this the disciples. But something clicked deed has made him “Something prevented them from in my heart as I recently listened to and still find the recognising him.” What a striking the Dominican Timothy Radcliffe. It countenance of your son. way of putting it. Maybe the “thing” wasn’t, he said, that they knew Jesus that prevented them wasn’t a thing at before and did not recognise him now. all. Maybe it was an absence that still It was more that they never really knew blinded them – the absence of a fully him, or rather, as Herbert McCabe put he gift of true seeing has always purified vision. Love fills in the gaps it, “they thought they knew him”, and Tbeen at the heart of Christianity. and heals the flaws. It sees perfection now they were meeting the real Jesus Easter is about taking away rather from within, the beauty already there. as if for the first time. than about adding on; more about We call it the sacrament of presence – of real presence. 24 Tui Motu InterIslands A young monk was returning to the until then partially perceived now about the moment the eyes of his heart monastery after his annual retreat. found its fullest definition. Those who were blessed with true sight: Waiting for him was the older monk loved and suffered most recognised who always criticised him, belittled him first – the beloved disciples John My mind lets go a him. “Out skiving again,” the young and Mary. monk was cuttingly greeted, “and in thousand things, spite of all your costly retreats you still Only with the painfully purified like dates of wars and look no different to me.” The young heart do we see rightly. There is an deaths of kings, monk paused, smiled a small smile apprenticeship to the vision of love. and yet recalls the very and murmured, “Ah, maybe; but you The disciples heading for Emmaus look different to me.” had to learn the steps. So must we. To hour – be sure, it is gift. But gift, like surprise, t’was noon by yonder A few weeks ago the theologian Gerald favours the prepared heart. First, the village tower, O’Collins told a group of us a story wise one counselled, try to see and and on the last blue noon about the journalist who was picking love a stone. Then try to truly see and his way, at dawn, along the severely in May – love a cloud. Wait a while and begin bombed streets of Second World War the wind came briskly up to love a petal, a bird, a star; and then, London. The smoke and smell of the this way, previous night’s devastation still hung and only then, try to see and love a human being. “Christ”, Thomas crisping the brook beside heavily in the air. A young woman the road; emerged from a blacked-out flat. Aquinas insisted, “is rising.” “Terrible night!” he called out. “Yes,” then, pausing here, Anything, anywhere, any time can be let down its load of she smiled, cradling her wide-eyed baby, the beginning of this apprenticeship “but what a wonderful morning.” pine-scents, and shook into the really real. Nothing is too listlessly two petals from Only love can catch the truth. The insignificant to be an epiphany of hidden Christ, in the sightless tomb, eternity. And when it happens, like that wild-rose tree. had embraced and transformed all that the first Easter, it stays forever. “You blurs and blinds. Everything around must know,” wrote John Paul II, “that him that morning was epiphany. It there is no return from this vision.” Daniel O’Leary is a priest of the Leeds Diocese in northern England was about recognition. What was In “Memory”, Thomas Aldrich writes

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Tui Motu InterIslands 25 scripture

The Gospel of Matthew

2008 is the Year of Matthew. Later in May the lectionary reverts to following the Gospel of Matthew week by week. Biblical scholar Elaine Wainwright gives an overview of this year’s Gospel.

Why were the Gospels written? What Jesus is setting up is a new household of God For the first generation of the Christian Church, the quite distinct from anything his listeners knew. The faithful depended on oral tradition for the story of Jesus basileia – rather misleadingly translated ‘kingdom’ – has Christ. But then something cataclysmic happened. The connections with the Jewish past, yet it is also startlingly Roman armies destroyed the city of Jerusalem and its new. Prophets who speak this way and challenge the Temple. This event may have prompted the developing establishment usually attract persecution, if not death. Christian communities to put the Gospel story in writing. That happens to Jesus and his followers. From now on it would be in the inspired word, as written Jesus starts by doing three things “...he went about down by the evangelists, where Christians would meet Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the the person of Jesus, Son of God. gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease...” This in fact is the traditional Biblical process – the old (Mt.4,23). So the first disciples would become teachers, being retold in the new. The living texts were rooted in the preachers and healers. experiences of people. So, when we immerse ourselves this year in the Gospel of Matthew we will come each The Sermon on the Mount from our own personal perspective. For example the Matthew’s Gospel is organised round five ‘sermons’, violence of our times, whether it be happenings in the forming the basis of the teaching of Jesus. Jesus is Gaza strip or on the streets of our own city, can be taken presented as a teacher who supersedes Moses. They take to the Gospel text for an answer. the place of the five Books of the Torah, the Mosaic Law. The first of these sermons, the Sermon on the Mount What are the main issues in Matthew? (chs 5-7), is a collection of many sayings and moral We can imagine that this community of Matthew teachings. It starts with the Beatitudes, corresponding to met regularly in a house-church just as their the Ten Commandments of the Law. Jesus blesses his new non-Christian Jewish cousins met in a similar community with eight statements, framed between two environment – the synagogue – across the road. Here explicit references to the basileia: “Blessed are the poor... might have been some of their special concerns: theirs is the kingdom of heaven”; and at the end: “blessed • their conflict with the neighbouring synagogue. are those persecuted... theirs is the kingdom of heaven”. • who had authority in their community: who could ‘bind and loose’? Jesus declares ‘blessed’ situations familiar to his • how the ‘reign of God’ as preached by Jesus meets the listeners. If God calls you to leave your home and family, Graeco-Roman world. you will mourn because you will be bereft. People will • what sort of ‘household’ is the basis of this new resent your radical response: you must accept this attack community. with meekness. Early Christianity was seen as disruptive • how to deal with ethnic and socio-economic of contemporary society both Jewish and Roman. differences. For instance, the first Christians were pacifists and were forbidden to be Roman soldiers. Blessed are the The call of Matthew peacemakers. Such a radical stance is still unpopular. Jesus’ first words (Third Sunday) are “Repent, for the The community of Matthew met together in a house, kingdom of God is at hand?” (Mt 4,17). It is an invitation a house-church. The word ‘house’ is crucial. It is a to change one’s mind, heart, and allegiance. It is a radical revolutionary sort of household they are setting up: for call to change one’s life. instance, women and slaves will have their place here. What Jesus proposes threatens not only the Jewish establish­­ This is part of the righteousness which Jesus imposes, ment and the Roman rule under whose iron yoke the Jews which must “exceed that of the Scribes and Pharisees” lived: it is also a summons to the first disciples to leave their (Mt.5,20). The house is a “house built on rock” and homes and jobs. “Follow me”, Jesus says to the Galilean stands in contrast with those who hear the word and do fisherman, “and you will become fishers of people!” nothing, whose house is “built on sand” (Mt.7,24-27). s

26 Tui Motu InterIslands scripture God shows no partiality (Acts 10)

n Acts 10:34 Peter learns that God Gentiles). Now he learns that God heaven, and whatever you loose on Ishows no partiality. This insight shows no partiality. earth will be loosed in heaven.” This comes after a vision in which a is a text which proved foundational heavenly voice informs Peter that Many of us spend time in categorising for the Catholic teaching on papal the division of food into clean and people as ‘white’, ‘Maori’, ‘unemployed’, infallibility. unclean is prohibited, as all that God ‘gay/homosexual/lesbian’, ‘straight’, has created is good. Peter proclaims: ‘conservative’, ‘liberal’, ‘divorced’, or Perhaps we Catholics should begin “God has shown me that I should not ‘separated’, and so on. We are members to concentrate more on this other call anyone profane or unclean.” of a church that has canonised partiality important text attributed to Peter. in laws regarding sacramental ministry When Peter uses the expression “no Prior to this, there is another vision in and life, and yet, as Peter later realises, partiality”, he is not suggesting that we Acts 10. Cornelius, a Roman centurion, “he (Jesus) commanded us to preach make judgments in a moral vacuum. seeking to become a follower of Jesus, to the people and to testify that he is Rather he is recognising that laws is told by God to send two men to the one ordained by God as judge of that disenfranchise on the grounds of meet with Peter. The two visions are the living and the dead” (10:42). To gender and ethnicity as occurred in intimately related, since so far only label people means that they can be Jewish practice were discriminatory. Jews have become followers of Jesus, effectively disenfranchised. Women not Gentiles. God is telling Peter how know this, people of colour know It did not take long for the young to respond to this new situation. this, and in the Catholic tradition, lay Christian church to also make men as well as lay women often have and embrace laws grounded in In the preceding chapters, Luke has known this. discriminatory practices. Governments emphasised Peter’s spiritual authority soon followed suit. Today, civil and charisma. Peter has healed Traditionally, the important Petrine society in New Zealand seems more people, he has fearlessly preached the text for Catholics has been Matt 16:18- enthusiastic about overcoming such good news, but he is still aware of 19: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and discrimination than does the church. the importance of the law regarding on this rock I will build my church, This may explain why I keep wondering contact with Gentiles. His religious and the gates of Hades will not prevail what surprises the proposed liturgical parochialism prompted him to against it. I will give you the keys of reforms coming from Rome will mean divide people into ‘clean’ (repentant the kingdom of heaven, and whatever for women. n Jews) and ‘unclean’ (uncircumcised you bind on earth will be bound in Susan Smith Susan Smith is a Sister of Our Lady of the M issions and teaches in her congregation’s Asian provinces s Questions to ask yourself Jubilee Bursaries When we read the gospel text each week we need to: for university theological education • note our reactions to the story? What feelings? • who are the characters? Applications invited for Semester 2, 2008 • what actions are taken and by whom? Applications close 5:00 pm 13 June 2008 • what is the setting, the context? Applicants must be Catholics making a contribution to the • what literary forms are used? Parable, healing story, mission of the Catholic Church in the Auckland Diocese pronouncement. • what symbols are identified? Symbols are clues to The bursaries are a contribution toward university meaning. fees for theology papers. • where does the passage fit in the Gospel as a whole? For an information and application package: Sr Elaine Wainwright is Professor of Theology at the Catholic Institute of Theology University of Auckland. These excerpts are taken from (09) 379-6424 workshops she gave in Otago in March [email protected]

Tui Motu InterIslands 27 book reviews

Recovering the true meaning of Easter

Surprised by Hope to care overly much. For them vague But this is just part of the message by Tom Wright thoughts of ‘heaven’ are enough. in the book. Wright presents a wide- Published SPCK, 2007 However, Wright isn’t prepared to let ranging and accessible theology of the Price: $34.99NZ us away with any kind of vagueness. resurrection, of Easter itself, of the Review: by Mike Crowl He spends a good amount of time Christian’s hope as it was understood dealing to the usual idea of ‘heaven,’ in the early church, of what Jesus’ right has several things he which he says is not only inaccurate, judgment of this world means, of Wwants to put across in this it’s not even Scriptural. whether Purgatory and Paradise have book, but there are two particular any relevance to us. ones that stand out for me. Firstly For him the resurrection of Jesus is he wants to encourage the church to of utter importance in relation to our And in his final section, where some change its view of what happens to us future. The resurrection will sweep up of the best material lies (in a book full after death, and secondly, and even everything in this world and recreate of good material), he writes of hope in more important, he wants us to realise it in the new. For Wright, everything practice: how the resurrection affects the extent to which we’re affected, that’s of value here will have value the mission of the church. in every aspect of our lives, by Jesus’ eternally, and he’s not just talking resurrection from the dead, and our about ‘spiritual’ things, but about If you’ve ever felt that we’ve lost the own future resurrection in the new creative things, about work and love point of Easter, that the resurrection heavens/new earth. and kindness and relationships and was a one-off and rather odd event, all manner of other aspects of our and that our deaths are fairly irrelevant I must confess I’m a person who likes everyday lives. The ‘first’ resurrection in the scheme of things, read this to read books that speculate as far as happened here, in this world, and book. Even if you don’t agree with all possible on where (and what) we’ll be it will ultimately affect everything Wright’s theology – as some (plainly in the post-death future. I sometimes in this world. The new creation will misguided critics) don’t – I’ll be feel a little alone in this, as, to my incorporate the old, making all the old surprised if you’re not inspired by at surprise, many Christians don’t appear of immense value. least some of what he has to say. n

Democracy corrupted by capitalism in Fiji sections. In this regard, financial institutions such as the World Trade Organisation are controlled by the US Thinking about Democracy Today vociferous critics of their government for increasing their market share. There Kevin J Barr policy. Indeed Naomi Wolf, an is no allowance for the rights of poorer Ecumenical Centre for Research American, gives ten good reasons for nations. The expansion of US cultural Education and Advocacy describing America, under Bush, as Review: John Honoré a fascist state. But for political and values through the fundamentalist economic reasons the rest of the world churches serves the same purpose. r Kevin Barr, having spent 28 often follows America’s self-serving This could have been pursued further. Fyears in Fiji, is certainly qualified policies under the mistaken belief that to write of the current political and one size fits all. Barr points out that The Qarase government of Fiji “was social situation there and his slim New Zealand and Australia, as Bush’s strongly pro-business and seemed volume Thinking About Democracy deputies, were quick to condemn the unable to listen to the voices of the Today is timely. This short treatise on Fiji coup for being undemocratic. poor”, the reason for Bainimarama’s democracy, in relation to the 2006 coup which was immediately labelled military coup in Fiji, opens with the The chapter, Democracy in the US as undemocratic and against the rule disastrous presidency of George W Today, points to the fact that it is the of law. However, Barr suggests that Fiji Bush and his perverted dogma of rich who create and support political could be better off as a result of the freedom and democracy. parties with no regard for the poor. coup. He advises a modified form of This is not an egalitarian system and the democracy. One size does not fit all. Arundhati Roy, an Indian activist, poor have no political voice. Further, is quoted on Page 1 suggesting that democracy is promoted as a vehicle for The chapter on Fiji, Violence and Americans themselves are the most capitalism, a point repeated in several Human Rights is repetitious and relies s

28 Tui Motu InterIslands A great way of ‘praying’ the gospels

Come and See per day. You could happily spend a reader, providing the exercise is done Joy Cowley (with photos by Terry few moments in the morning with the quietly and reflectively, is drawn into Coles) main text, and return to the concluding the narrative and is led to apply it to Pleroma Christian Supplies 2008 thought at intervals through your a situation in everyday life. This is a Price $25 working day. The book would then typically contemplative way of praying Review: Michael Hill become a very pleasant companion on – the gospel ‘template’ is being applied one’s spiritual journey. to the realities of our existence. oy Cowley’s books on prayer and Jspirituality have been best sellers Joy’s writing is always ‘easy reading’. For those of us who are helped by in the New Zealand religious books One might even say ‘deceptively visual stimuli, simply looking at the market for many years and with easy’. Her prose style is simple and accompanying photograph can trigger good reason. So a new title is always engaging. Her examples are authentic. a line of thought which will lead us welcome, and I have no doubt that Her interpretations are often original into prayer. If you buy this book and Come and See will be as popular as its and invariably thought provoking use it, I can guarantee you will not predecessors. – and often ‘prayer provoking’. Which only find it a fruitful way of praying is what this little book is all about. the gospel but you will also enjoy it. The format here is straightforward. What more can one ask! There are 64 reflections following For example Martha and Mary are through the life of Jesus, starting with presented as complementary facets One minor gripe. Like so many the Annunciation and concluding of human nature. There is no sense modern paperbacks this book will not with post-Resurrection appearances. of competition or of passing value lie open at the page unless you hold Each reflection occupies two facing judgments on one human condition it in both hands. This isn’t always the pages, and consists of a quote from over the other. Indeed Joy compares most comfortable way when you are the gospels, a spiritual commentary it with the rhythm of breathing. In spending time in reflective prayer. You by Joy, sometimes in the form of a a busy routine, moments of stillness like the book to stay open unaided. prayer. Opposite is a black-and-white and reflection are not merely oases of This seems to be the way paperbacks photo taken by Joy’s husband, Terry. delight; it is the Mary moments which are bound these days. Perhaps when Concluding with a short, pithy make you a more effective Martha. this book is reprinted they will find a ‘thought for the day’. better way. The focus of each reflection is usually You could very easily use this book a gospel incident, but it may be That is no reflection on the contents for daily meditation – one reflection a parable or a gospel phrase. The which are superb. n s too heavily on the rhetorical question. Nevertheless, it signals the passion with Come And See which Barr presents his case. There is a need for a better understanding of Joy Cowley And Terry Coles democracy as it applies to Fiji and to “This book is a gift to us from someone who has just all citizens disadvantaged by the US spent much time contemplating the face of Christ as model, governed as it is by neo-liberal his disciple. It leads us to Jesus.” capitalism. Fr Carl Telford SM New from Joy Cowley, photographs by The bibliography points to wide Terry Coles, recently published in reading. Perhaps the writer could New Zealand have used less lengthy quotes and 144p. $25.00 + $3.50 fr. relied more on his own observations – a minor quibble. It is a good introduction to the unfolding political Freephone 0508-988-988: Freefax 0508-988-989 Freepost 609, PostShop, Waipukurau n and social situation in Fiji. email: [email protected] email: [email protected] www.christiansupplies.co.nz web: www.ecrea.org.fj

Tui Motu InterIslands 29 comment

In praise of independent journalism

ast month’s editorial, The Prophetic bloodshed in Palestine. His is truly a LVoice, puts the future of Tui Motu Crosscurrents voice in the wilderness but more and in the hands of readers. Its survival more Israelis are beginning to listen. John Honoré depends on the propagation of the magazine and the support of all who Canyoning tragedy believe in a free and independent press. against China for its harsh treatment ast month six teenage children It is a call to rally round and support of Tibetans who continue to seek Land their teacher lost their lives the democratic right to express a range autonomy from Chinese domination. on the Mangatepopo River as it of opinions. Accusations of demographic aggression rampaged through the deep gorge in and cultural genocide have thrown a wall of destruction. Within a half an The importance of independent another cloud over the Olympic games hour, the river was back to its normal magazines is evident, yet the way to in August. These descriptions could flow demonstrating the power and the keep them alive is less obvious. Most well be applied to Israel’s subjugation unconquerable forces of nature. All small publishers cannot afford to pay of the Palestinians and the systematic New Zealanders mourned their death. their chief editor. This is not an ideal destruction of their communities. All asked how and why. situation and it cannot last forever. But it does mean that an independent The demonstrations could well prove New Zealand is blessed with publisher needs only modest support. to be counterproductive. China is mountains, plains, rivers and the sea The financial balance of the magazine, not the Western model of democracy that are all a challenge and a danger which depends on sales, is tight but it is attempting to recover from to adventure seekers. It is in the spirit but, considering the decline in all two centuries of social unrest and of Kiwis to accept this challenge newsprint publications, the intrinsic foreign invasion. Further disruption knowing full well that they must be value of Tui Motu is heightened. In to its staging of the Olympics will prepared. Children from an early age this age of rapid change there is even alienate it from the West. The protests are introduced to the joys of adventure more reason to demand an honest seem disproportionate to the lack of in this land of opportunity and risk. and impartial coverage of unfolding criticism towards Western powers The character of the nation has been events. which currently occupy, persecute and formed in these natural open spaces. threaten states in the Middle East. Visitors come from afar to enjoy them. Tui Motu contributes in its own way to an intellectual debate by trying to However there is one voice being The media quickly sought to blame provide a better understanding of the heard, strongly criticising Israel for its someone or some organisation. There realities of the modern church and it treatment of the Palestinians. In April, will be enquiries and endless questions plays an important part in the current former US President Jimmy Carter asked. Committees will be formed and discussion of ideas. The church must labelled the blockade of Gaza an data sifted through. No blame should be considered as being better off and atrocity and called for the recognition be apportioned indiscriminately. more wisely led if its policies are of Hamas in any peace talks with the Rather accept the fact that we are subject to unstinting scrutiny. Tui Israelis. Since the 2006 publication of powerless in the face of the enormous Motu, in New Zealand, performs this his book, Palestine: Peace not Apartheid, energy of a natural world forever in a task and, in many respects, is alone in he has been unrelenting in his attacks. state of flux. So it has been for aeons. this field. Not surprisingly, he has attracted to himself personal abuse from Zionists This is to argue that these adventure To subscribe to Tui Motu is the best way world wide and the Washington trips should still be part of a school’s to show your support for independent Republicans. He is persona non grata curriculum. They should continue journalism, thereby appreciating in Israel. with scrupulous preparation and a firm the ideas and views which the editor resolve to give future generations the has fearlessly presented for the past Jimmy Carter pointed out that a truce same opportunities as their forebears ten years – the raison d’être for this proposed by Hamas was rebuffed by have enjoyed. This is the lesson from publication to continue for another both Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak this terrible loss. And one can only feel ten years. who boycotted his visit to Jerusalem. the deepest sympathy for their families, The Jerusalem daily newspaperHaaretz friends and classmates. The organisation Selective protest however, wrote against the boycott and under whose aegis these children were he Olympic Torch, on its way the group, Israeli Peace Bloc, praised placed is named after one Sir Edmund Tto Beijing, created protests his efforts to end the suffering and Hillary. Enough said. n

30 Tui Motu InterIslands The Deadly Sin of Greed

uch to my surprise, a recent New Zealand Herald piece My reflections on Dr. Williams’s sermon deal with a Mby columnist Garth George was devoted to the Easter more personal issue. Most of us would judge ourselves as Sunday sermon of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan not committing on a regular basis any of the deadly sins. Williams. Sermons of archbishops rarely figure on the main While not free from temptation, we do not see ourselves as pages of that paper. Even more to my surprise, while the dominated by envy, wrath or lust. But the question must be sermon also dealt with various aspects of the Paschal event, asked as to whether each of us may, almost unwittingly, be the section that caught the columnist’s eye dealt with what guilty of the deadly sin of greed. is not usually a Paschal topic, namely greed, which is one of the seven deadly sins. Our life style has changed enormously from that of earlier ages, even from that of our grandparents. We have washing Dr. Williams dealt with greed when speaking of the machines, dryers, gas or electric stoves. We have at our inevitability of death. Before reminding his listeners that the disposal vehicles in which we can at any moment transport true answer to death is to share through faith in the new life ourselves across city or district. We can, at least on occasion, Christ won at Easter, he spoke first of the attempt many make be carried swiftly by air to a distant destination. to provide for the inevitability of death in other ways. In all of that there would seem at first to be no sin. But citizens “We face a culture”, Dr. Williams said, “in which the thought of the First World reap these benefits at the cost of those of death is too painful to manage. Individuals live in anxious living in less favoured lands. There is a gross imbalance in and acquisitive ways, seizing what they can to provide a the access that various peoples have to the resources on this security that is bound to dissolve, because they are going planet. We are riding on the backs of less fortunate folk. to die. To enjoy these benefits while doing nothing to lessen that imbalance is surely to be guilty of the sin of greed. “Societies or nations do the same. Whether it is the individual grabbing the things of this world... or the greed of societies It will not be possible overnight to bring about a change in that assume there will always be enough to meet their desires this situation. But both personal support for worthy charities – enough oil, enough power, enough territory – the same that assist those in the less developed world and activity as fantasy is at work. We shan’t really die – we as individuals citizens to have our government address these imbalances can’t contemplate an end to our acquiring, and we as a are called for. culture can’t imagine that this civilisation, like all others, will collapse and that what we take for granted about our comforts We must not be thoughtlessly sinful. To take whatever comes and luxuries simply can’t be sustained indefinitely.” to us without consideration of those at whose expense it comes would surely be greedy. n Garth George went on to look at the tragic fruits this greed Humphrey O’Leary will have for society. What he wrote is well worth reading. Go to www.nzherald.co.nz and search out his article (the date Humphrey O’Leary is a canon lawyer and Rector of the is given in one place as March 26, in another as March 27). Redemptorist community in Auckland

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Tui Motu InterIslands 31 postscript

in memoriam – Maura Josephine Toomey at Karitane; long periods of illness at as well as her perspectives on society many times of her life; days at St Phil’s and church. She involved herself in and university; teaching years at Gore, Amnesty International, liturgical Lawrence and elsewhere; her time in ministries at St Alphonsus, a Catholic Vanuatu and at Teschemakers; trips to women’s liturgy group, Dominican Australia, Europe, Africa, India and summer schools, lectures by visiting North America. theologians, driving St John’s Ambulances, volunteer counselling. Her sense of adventure and challenge She also felt passionately about the came home with her too, overflowing right for Catholics to speak about into a love of learning. When she theology, spirituality and justice. It wasn’t teaching or having adventures, was in large part her promptings, she was reading or studying aura Toomey was a perennial through the Dominicans, that sparked – literature, theology, spirituality, the birth of Tui Motu. Mteacher and student. She history, psychology, counselling. taught in classrooms, yes. But she Maura’s home was in some ways also readily found students outside the For many years Maura went everywhere a metaphor for Maura herself - classroom, sharing her love of politics, with her canine companion, Bozo. unpresupposing, welcoming, homey, social justice, history and literature, Like Maura, Bozo had a mind of his accepting – its inner walls and shelves her understanding of significant events own. Unlike Maura, he had not an full of beauty and an appreciation for like Bastion Point and the Springbok ounce of discipline, commonsense or literature, art and music. Its rooms Tour, and authors like Janet Frame any notion of delayed gratification. were for years Maura’s work-in- and Patricia Grace. He once escaped near Chingford Park progress – she was not to be rushed making a beeline for the ducks in the Maura also shared her own history, into decisions or completion, she was creek, with Maura running after him, open to new ideas and change. but the task of keeping track of the swearing in such colourful language family was sometimes too daunting that an on-looking neighbour felt Maura will be remembered for even for Maura. At a party once, she compelled to tell her off. her faithful friendship, generosity, introduced a few people near the door, irrepressible forthrightness, inner then waved her arm vaguely toward Maura’s Christian virtue may not strength and forbearance in suffering. the dozens of people in the house and always have been apparent in her She worked for and yearned for justice, said, “And the rest of them - they’re all word choice, but it was clearly evident love, truth, healing, freedom and peace Toomeys!” in how she spent her time and in - all values which are signs of God’s her overall perspective on life. She reign - all of which she now richly Maura was a wonderful story teller. had a strong sense of justice that deserves to enjoy in their fullness. n She recounted stories of her and Kevin permeated her personal relationships growing up; summers with the cousins

Faith Evolving A Patchwork Journey David Ranson Trish McBride Across the Great Divide – Bridging Spirituality and Religion Today David Ranson is a priest of the Diocese of Broken Bay and a senior lecturer in the Sydney College of Divinity This book reveals the struggles, courage, commitment and beauty of a woman’s relationship Where? Waipuna Youth & Community Centre cnr. Woodham & Pages Road, Christchurch with God, family, community and church, says Dr Ann Gilroy, School of Theology, University of Friday 23rd May. 7.30pm - 9.00pm ($10) Saturday 24th May, 10.00am - 4.00pm($30) Auckland Becoming Spiritual – Becoming Awake Perspectives in Contemporary Spirituality 160pp. $30 plus $3 p&p in NZ BYO Lunch Orders: [email protected] Enquiries/bookings: www.aet.net.nz or [email protected] or PO Box 13410 Johnsonville, Wellington Fax: (03) 942 9954 Phone: (03) 942 7954, (03) 960 7670 021 860143

32 Tui Motu InterIslands