From the Director - A poor woman in Chile says…

Columban Fr Gary WalkerI am a little disoriented in my world at present; the world lurched with an earthquake’s nudge when Britain withdrew from the European Union, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States of America and the spectre of terrorism still leaves us uneasy in Australia and New Zealand. An abiding sense of uncertainty grips us as nations display their inability to deal with people who are moving in their thousands across the globe.

In Australia, add the Royal Commission into sexual abuse in our Catholic Church and I ask myself: how do I move through Lent this year in preparation for Easter?

An answer came unexpectedly in an email from Fr Dan Harding, the editor of The Far East who was recently in Chile. He mentioned that he was celebrating Mass in one of the poorest areas of Santiago where the congregation is accustomed to participate in a communal reflection on the Sunday readings after a short homily from the priest. The gospel was from the Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time where Jesus says that his disciples must be like ‘the salt of the earth’ and they must be ‘the light of the world’.

Fr Dan was moved by the words of one of the women who spoke about how important it was to be like ‘salt’ and ‘light’. She said then that we can help people see that Jesus is truly alive, not dead, not someone who lived a long time ago with good moral teaching, and not some mythological figure. She added that there is nothing worse than Christians who have lost their flavour; a Christian without the flavour of Jesus and the gospel is merely going through the motions.

Fr Harding said he had known this woman for many years. She is poor, ill- educated, married with children. He added that her reflection was moving because it was about what is important for a Christian believer – Jesus is real, alive, present and close.

In the light of this inspiration, how do I proceed with Lent? It seems to me that the practices laid down by the Church for Lent have the purpose of making Jesus real, alive, present and close. They sound strange and odd in our secular society but here they are: prayer, fasting and almsgiving.

Prayer builds our relationship with God, especially through Jesus Christ. It is fundamental. Prayer makes us place God at the centre of our world, not ourselves.

Fasting makes us strong spiritually. Being able to say ‘no’ to oneself is important in many ways; the spiritual purpose of fasting is to make inner space for God.

Almsgiving reveals our relationship with others and our responsibility to them. It is probably the easiest of the three.

These practices are meant to bring Jesus Christ into the centre of our lives where He will be alive and dynamic.

That’s my aim this Lent.

Fr Gary Walker SSC
director@columban.org.au

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