Healthy living I
Don’t travel too heavily laden through life.
Brother Leo, his companion, once asked St. Francis how to find perfect joy.
Brother Leo, his companion, once asked St. Francis how to find perfect joy.
This was his answer.
It is not in achieving holiness or learning, said the Saint. Nor is perfect joy to be found in doing miracles or winning converts to Our Lord, though the two of them had seen some wonderful answers to prayer and conversions.
No, said Francis to Leo, imagine that we reach Assisi tonight drenched with rain, numb with cold, covered with mud and exhausted by hunger - and that the porter will not let us in.
'You’re lying! You’re a couple of rascals - be off with you!' he shouts, refusing to open the gate.
There we are standing outside in the snow and rain, hungry and frozen.
If we put up with such abuse and ill-treatment patiently and calmly, without complaining, thinking with humility and charity that this porter recognizes us for what we are, and that God moved him to treat us like this - then, Brother Leo, we would have perfect joy!
The moral is this. We often travel too heavily laden through life to be truly joyful.
Detach yourself deep down from a concern for your reputation, your possessions or even your family - and you will find joy.
Lose all of these attachments and we are left, if we believe, with what is basic and foundational and can never be removed - the presence of God - and ‘in that presence is the fullness of joy’ writes the Psalmist.
There are healing streams within us.
When God sent a vision to Bernadette Soubirous in 1854 it was to have consequences for the whole world.
Millions go on pilgrimage to Lourdes and bath in the healing waters.
The stream of water was actually released by directions given to St. Bernadette in one of her visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
She was told to remove a heap of small stones. As she dug down the stream began and it has never stopped flowing since.
There is a parable here of spiritual renewal. Sometimes we are better advised to look inside ourselves rather than outside of ourselves for a new flow of the Holy Spirit.
Like Bernadette we need guidance to lift the stones that stem the flow of life-giving streams within us.
That flow is quenched by unforgiveness or inner hurt.
Sometimes the erosion of our faith has placed a stone over that inner fountain. Other times it is a broken relationship in need of repair that has made our religion dry up.
Then is the time to seek a vision from God of just where to dig to release his life. Those inner streams are meant to flow and invigorate.
As Jesus himself promised (John 7:37-8): ‘Whoever believes in me, streams of life-giving water will pour out from there heart. Jesus said this about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were going to receive’.
When God sent a vision to Bernadette Soubirous in 1854 it was to have consequences for the whole world.
Millions go on pilgrimage to Lourdes and bath in the healing waters.
The stream of water was actually released by directions given to St. Bernadette in one of her visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
She was told to remove a heap of small stones. As she dug down the stream began and it has never stopped flowing since.
There is a parable here of spiritual renewal. Sometimes we are better advised to look inside ourselves rather than outside of ourselves for a new flow of the Holy Spirit.
Like Bernadette we need guidance to lift the stones that stem the flow of life-giving streams within us.
That flow is quenched by unforgiveness or inner hurt.
Sometimes the erosion of our faith has placed a stone over that inner fountain. Other times it is a broken relationship in need of repair that has made our religion dry up.
Then is the time to seek a vision from God of just where to dig to release his life. Those inner streams are meant to flow and invigorate.
As Jesus himself promised (John 7:37-8): ‘Whoever believes in me, streams of life-giving water will pour out from there heart. Jesus said this about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were going to receive’.
They say that after bereavement and divorce, moving house is the third most stressful of things.
We’ve recently moved house and it has been a stressful business.
Most of the stress came from the fact that we were moving from a larger house to a smaller house.
It’s all over at last and I am glad to say we’re now travelling a lot lighter through life.
One of the benefits of faith is detachment. It’s over attachment to people and things that lies at the root of so much unhappiness in the world.
In his letter to the Philippians St. Paul reminds us that as Christians ‘our homeland is in heaven’. We’re only passing guests upon the earth.
Christ is always concerned for us to travel lightly on our earthly pilgrimage. He wants to free us of heavy attachments. It’s his way we travel, his truth that frees us and his life that impels us forwards.
All of which is a challenge to unburden ourselves regularly before him.
We’ve recently moved house and it has been a stressful business.
Most of the stress came from the fact that we were moving from a larger house to a smaller house.
It’s all over at last and I am glad to say we’re now travelling a lot lighter through life.
One of the benefits of faith is detachment. It’s over attachment to people and things that lies at the root of so much unhappiness in the world.
In his letter to the Philippians St. Paul reminds us that as Christians ‘our homeland is in heaven’. We’re only passing guests upon the earth.
Christ is always concerned for us to travel lightly on our earthly pilgrimage. He wants to free us of heavy attachments. It’s his way we travel, his truth that frees us and his life that impels us forwards.
All of which is a challenge to unburden ourselves regularly before him.
The pace of life can astonish visitors to Britain. They see more clearly than we do how little time is now available for people to ‘waste’ together.
Our time is swallowed up by a multitude of commitments made possible within the chaotic diversity of western culture.
In this process the sense of community and belonging so basic to Asian culture seems to be severely decayed.
I remember an Indian visitor to the Church who told me of her astonishment to find old people living in special homes. Where was the love and respect for the elderly, she protested? Had no one any time for them?
Believers are men and women of our day, influenced as much as the next man by pressures related to the appropriate use of our time.
Yet they live also with an eternal perspective. Christ is raised! He lives with a life and vision beyond this world which he longs to impart to us.
Our daily prayer, our celebration of the Eucharist and meditation upon the Word of God renew this perspective.
In the light of Christ we discern what is important from all that so urgently presses itself upon us hour by hour, day by day.
We are given grace to make ourselves available to God and to others minute by minute. This is something miraculous and truly out of this world, but it is ours for the asking from the Risen Lord Jesus.
Our time is swallowed up by a multitude of commitments made possible within the chaotic diversity of western culture.
In this process the sense of community and belonging so basic to Asian culture seems to be severely decayed.
I remember an Indian visitor to the Church who told me of her astonishment to find old people living in special homes. Where was the love and respect for the elderly, she protested? Had no one any time for them?
Believers are men and women of our day, influenced as much as the next man by pressures related to the appropriate use of our time.
Yet they live also with an eternal perspective. Christ is raised! He lives with a life and vision beyond this world which he longs to impart to us.
Our daily prayer, our celebration of the Eucharist and meditation upon the Word of God renew this perspective.
In the light of Christ we discern what is important from all that so urgently presses itself upon us hour by hour, day by day.
We are given grace to make ourselves available to God and to others minute by minute. This is something miraculous and truly out of this world, but it is ours for the asking from the Risen Lord Jesus.
How do you deal with dying? I was in the Chemists and saw a stand full of booklets. They were from the British Medical Association and were about answering questions about all kinds of troubles we have - arthritis, indigestion, osteoporosis, stress, varicose veins and so on.
One question not addressed was how you deal with dying.
Perhaps you would not expect doctors to have much to say about how we deal with death. Maybe they see death as the ultimate defeat for health professionals.
Yet the whole of life leads up to death. It's something quite natural, in a sense. The end of man - but in which sense - 'end' as 'finish' or 'end' as 'fulfillment'?
Dying is just as much a daily medical condition as arthritis or indigestion. Yet how do people find a consultant who can advise them on how to die?
Where do people facing eternity go to for help?
Our Christian Faith is built upon the Risen Christ. He is our Consultant.
Who else can advise and prepare, console and strengthen in the face of death than Jesus?
Jesus, who in dying bore the agony of death for us.
Jesus, who in rising burst open the gates of paradise!
Our Consultant writes these words for us in his manual - though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, fear no evil. I am with you.
The world is hungry for listeners. There are so many people with inner loneliness awaiting a friendly ear.
Very often religious people are caricatured as people more ready to speak than to listen.
Yet not speaking, just hearing someone out, can be evangelism.
When we behave as if the person who is with us at the moment is the only person who exists our undivided attention has enormous spiritual power.
This gift reflects the life of Jesus himself who is always seen in the Gospels as one who attends to individuals. He hears the cry of blind Bartimaeus and notices Zacchaeus hidden up a tree. Jesus has attention for a woman at a well, and the thief crucified besides him.
The Good News of Jesus is communicated less by our words than by our attitude.
The capacity to give full attention to people is eroded by the many choices we have in using our time. We feel torn this way and that by the various demands upon us.
As people seek a listening ear we need discernment in case we miss an appointment the Lord has made for us. Then, as we listen to our friend we need to stay rooted in Christ, listening to him and to them so that we can communicate the most precious gift of understanding.
Such a gift changes the world – there’s no doubt about it!
Very often religious people are caricatured as people more ready to speak than to listen.
Yet not speaking, just hearing someone out, can be evangelism.
When we behave as if the person who is with us at the moment is the only person who exists our undivided attention has enormous spiritual power.
This gift reflects the life of Jesus himself who is always seen in the Gospels as one who attends to individuals. He hears the cry of blind Bartimaeus and notices Zacchaeus hidden up a tree. Jesus has attention for a woman at a well, and the thief crucified besides him.
The Good News of Jesus is communicated less by our words than by our attitude.
The capacity to give full attention to people is eroded by the many choices we have in using our time. We feel torn this way and that by the various demands upon us.
As people seek a listening ear we need discernment in case we miss an appointment the Lord has made for us. Then, as we listen to our friend we need to stay rooted in Christ, listening to him and to them so that we can communicate the most precious gift of understanding.
Such a gift changes the world – there’s no doubt about it!
Acceptance by others is a healing. In his book ‘Even if I’m Bad’ Orin Thompson tells the moving story of Johnny. He was an orphan who proved hard to love. Many families took him from his orphanage with the thought of adopting him but each time he was returned.
One day a couple visiting the orphanage saw Johnny and enquired about him. ‘Johnny has a bad record’ they were warned. ‘Why not take him on trial for a few weeks?’ The couple refused. ‘We will adopt him right now’, they said.
So Johnny went to his new home, but it wasn’t long before he was in trouble again. After being told off he turned to his new stepparents, ‘I suppose you’ll sent me back now? All the others did’. ‘No, Johnny’, they replied, ‘we’re not going to send you back. You’re going to stay with us.’ ‘You mean you will keep me even if I’m bad?’ he asked. ‘Yes’, they replied. ‘We adopted you as our son. You will always be our son. And we will love you as our son. The only way that you will ever go away is if you leave us. We will never leave you.'’
Orin Thompson goes on to tell how this love that accepted Johnny just as he was, eventually changed his life.
This is a parable. God loves us too – and even when we’re bad. To catch a vision of that love is to invite a transformation even more wonderful than Johnny’s.
One day a couple visiting the orphanage saw Johnny and enquired about him. ‘Johnny has a bad record’ they were warned. ‘Why not take him on trial for a few weeks?’ The couple refused. ‘We will adopt him right now’, they said.
So Johnny went to his new home, but it wasn’t long before he was in trouble again. After being told off he turned to his new stepparents, ‘I suppose you’ll sent me back now? All the others did’. ‘No, Johnny’, they replied, ‘we’re not going to send you back. You’re going to stay with us.’ ‘You mean you will keep me even if I’m bad?’ he asked. ‘Yes’, they replied. ‘We adopted you as our son. You will always be our son. And we will love you as our son. The only way that you will ever go away is if you leave us. We will never leave you.'’
Orin Thompson goes on to tell how this love that accepted Johnny just as he was, eventually changed his life.
This is a parable. God loves us too – and even when we’re bad. To catch a vision of that love is to invite a transformation even more wonderful than Johnny’s.
Looking good on the surface is hollow living. There is a stately home near where I live surrounded by woodland. In among the colours and variety of the trees stand a handful of bare trunks. These derive from the great storm of 1987. Dead and hollow they serve as bat roosts.
The hollow trees among the healthy trees give us a parable of life. Human beings are made for the fullness of life that Jesus promised. ‘I came that people may have life’, he said, ‘life to the full’.
Yet so much of life seems empty. It looks good on the surface. So much of advertising is aimed at keeping us looking good on the surface. Yet, as Jesus also warned, the inside of people can grow hollow and empty like the trees that welcome the bats.
Christianity is a journey into fullness of life, into ‘the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’. The love and power of the Holy Spirit fills what is empty and hollow about us.
As we encounter true believers we get struck at times by a certain depth and integrity. We are drawn from a life that moves on the surface of things to one that brings deep encounters with God and people. As the Psalmist expresses it, ‘one deep speaks to another’.
The hollow trees among the healthy trees give us a parable of life. Human beings are made for the fullness of life that Jesus promised. ‘I came that people may have life’, he said, ‘life to the full’.
Yet so much of life seems empty. It looks good on the surface. So much of advertising is aimed at keeping us looking good on the surface. Yet, as Jesus also warned, the inside of people can grow hollow and empty like the trees that welcome the bats.
Christianity is a journey into fullness of life, into ‘the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ’. The love and power of the Holy Spirit fills what is empty and hollow about us.
As we encounter true believers we get struck at times by a certain depth and integrity. We are drawn from a life that moves on the surface of things to one that brings deep encounters with God and people. As the Psalmist expresses it, ‘one deep speaks to another’.
‘How do I obtain humility?’ Someone asked a wise man. ‘Keep your eyes off other people’s faults and fix them on your own instead.’
It’s hard though. We need to capture an altogether different perspective. It comes as we see our lives in relationship to God. As we look less to ourselves and more towards him it is said that humility creeps in while we are not looking.
The book of Wisdom starts with the invitation to ‘think magnificently about God’. As we obey the writer’s advice and magnify the Lord, exalting his grace and splendour, we unconsciously find our true place. We are nothing, really, before God – and less than nothing through our sin.
Every believer needs two virtues. We need confidence in God and humility before him. Humility without confidence can be feeble and hopeless. Confidence in God without humility can be dangerous and destructive.
God wants confident yet humble believers. Our sense of inadequacy and humble need of grace are essential to our effective witness to others. Humility is truth, someone said – it concerns true knowledge of ourselves and of God, a knowledge the whole world cries out for.
‘How do I obtain humility?’ Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Look his way with openness to what he has to show you of yourself. Look Godwards – humility steals in while you are looking away from yourself.
It’s hard though. We need to capture an altogether different perspective. It comes as we see our lives in relationship to God. As we look less to ourselves and more towards him it is said that humility creeps in while we are not looking.
The book of Wisdom starts with the invitation to ‘think magnificently about God’. As we obey the writer’s advice and magnify the Lord, exalting his grace and splendour, we unconsciously find our true place. We are nothing, really, before God – and less than nothing through our sin.
Every believer needs two virtues. We need confidence in God and humility before him. Humility without confidence can be feeble and hopeless. Confidence in God without humility can be dangerous and destructive.
God wants confident yet humble believers. Our sense of inadequacy and humble need of grace are essential to our effective witness to others. Humility is truth, someone said – it concerns true knowledge of ourselves and of God, a knowledge the whole world cries out for.
‘How do I obtain humility?’ Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus. Look his way with openness to what he has to show you of yourself. Look Godwards – humility steals in while you are looking away from yourself.
You are wearing your God on your wrist. I was at a meeting recently with someone just back from Africa.
They told us how they had been confronted about the European concern for good timekeeping.
You are wearing your God on your wrist they said – and it made him think!
It makes me think. How often am I looking at my watch, anxious to get on as soon as possible to the 'next thing'?
In our Western culture we are mastered by time. In Africa time still appears to be a servant of life.
When we experience the God and Father of Jesus he helps us go 'African' in that sense. He helps us live more and more in the present moment, where the Holy Spirit lives.
Not that Christians don't make plans for the future, just that we recover a sense of proportion which values the immediate experience of God and people.
We're not always looking to be satisfied by the 'next thing'. When Jesus comes into our life we gently adapt to his timeless perspective.
In that perspective there is indeed 'no time like the present'.
When I look at my watch now, I ask to be freed from idolatry. I want Jesus to be my timekeeper!
They told us how they had been confronted about the European concern for good timekeeping.
You are wearing your God on your wrist they said – and it made him think!
It makes me think. How often am I looking at my watch, anxious to get on as soon as possible to the 'next thing'?
In our Western culture we are mastered by time. In Africa time still appears to be a servant of life.
When we experience the God and Father of Jesus he helps us go 'African' in that sense. He helps us live more and more in the present moment, where the Holy Spirit lives.
Not that Christians don't make plans for the future, just that we recover a sense of proportion which values the immediate experience of God and people.
We're not always looking to be satisfied by the 'next thing'. When Jesus comes into our life we gently adapt to his timeless perspective.
In that perspective there is indeed 'no time like the present'.
When I look at my watch now, I ask to be freed from idolatry. I want Jesus to be my timekeeper!
‘Most people do a great deal of harm’. I read Paul Eddington's autobiography some time back. Paul was well known as star of the television series "Yes Minister".
His book ends with thoughts of how he might like to be remembered. At that time he was dying of a virulent skin cancer which greatly affected his facial appearance.
I would like to be remembered as someone who did very little harm, Paul replied, Most people do a great deal of harm .....
What a wise and moving epitaph! Christians are people like Paul Eddington, ready to admit their harmfulness to God and to one another.
We don't come to Church because we are any better than anyone else but because we need mercy and have found it in Christ.
If we really know and believe we're sinners who fall short, and that all people are as such, we are never surprised when we fail nor outraged by the failures of others.
Imagine a world that believed again in sin and redemption – where politicians outdid one another in admitting their sins and the error of their ways ...
Live in the real world, you may say. But the real world is actually one that lives with sin as a matter of fact business and the loving acceptance of sinners by the goodness of God as its healing.
His book ends with thoughts of how he might like to be remembered. At that time he was dying of a virulent skin cancer which greatly affected his facial appearance.
I would like to be remembered as someone who did very little harm, Paul replied, Most people do a great deal of harm .....
What a wise and moving epitaph! Christians are people like Paul Eddington, ready to admit their harmfulness to God and to one another.
We don't come to Church because we are any better than anyone else but because we need mercy and have found it in Christ.
If we really know and believe we're sinners who fall short, and that all people are as such, we are never surprised when we fail nor outraged by the failures of others.
Imagine a world that believed again in sin and redemption – where politicians outdid one another in admitting their sins and the error of their ways ...
Live in the real world, you may say. But the real world is actually one that lives with sin as a matter of fact business and the loving acceptance of sinners by the goodness of God as its healing.
Does God heal today?
When we ask that question we're asking something about the nature of God. We need to face up to the many qualifications the human mind puts upon the concept of the divine.
Does God heal today? What sort of God – the 'God of the self-improvement manuals, the 'God' who is the 'genie in my lamp', my 'feel good factor' – or the 'God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ'?
Does God heal today? How big is your God – that is an important, related question! Then, we might add, how does your vision of God get expanded?
The New Testament speaks of belief in a God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. There's a vision of God if you want one!
Getting into scripture, as ever, is the clue to expanding our vision of God.
Archbishop William Temple once wrote: You cannot read the Gospels and cut out the ministry of healing without tearing them to ribbons.
Does God heal today? Given the witness of scripture we must turn the question around – does God change?
God is all-powerful. He is all-loving. So God can heal – and because he does not change he can heal today.
When we ask that question we're asking something about the nature of God. We need to face up to the many qualifications the human mind puts upon the concept of the divine.
Does God heal today? What sort of God – the 'God of the self-improvement manuals, the 'God' who is the 'genie in my lamp', my 'feel good factor' – or the 'God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ'?
Does God heal today? How big is your God – that is an important, related question! Then, we might add, how does your vision of God get expanded?
The New Testament speaks of belief in a God who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. There's a vision of God if you want one!
Getting into scripture, as ever, is the clue to expanding our vision of God.
Archbishop William Temple once wrote: You cannot read the Gospels and cut out the ministry of healing without tearing them to ribbons.
Does God heal today? Given the witness of scripture we must turn the question around – does God change?
God is all-powerful. He is all-loving. So God can heal – and because he does not change he can heal today.
Bringing good to others. Spiritual discernment is the clue to more effective lives and Churches.
We need to catch more onto what God may be doing or wanting to do, as individuals or as Churches - and go with it.
I picked up this story of how an important community ministry was born in a south London parish.
A young man was going to Church Sunday by Sunday and stepping over the tramps that slept in the Churchyard.
It was a part of London with a good number of street folk who'd come to see the Churchyard as a safe haven.
As this Church member passed these men and women week by week God eventually gave him a burden of prayer for them, which he carried into Church and offered up at the Eucharist.
One Sunday he had the idea of running a lunch club for the vagrants and he persuaded his fellow worshippers. This ran for some months. Then the organisers advertised for helpers in the local community and received hundreds of enquiries.
One man's vision from God got accepted by his Church and became the instrument for Christians and non-Christians working together in the service of a local need. Many of the non-Church folk got drawn into the life of the Church in the process.
It all started from one man's prayer and vision. Isn't that encouraging?
We need to catch more onto what God may be doing or wanting to do, as individuals or as Churches - and go with it.
I picked up this story of how an important community ministry was born in a south London parish.
A young man was going to Church Sunday by Sunday and stepping over the tramps that slept in the Churchyard.
It was a part of London with a good number of street folk who'd come to see the Churchyard as a safe haven.
As this Church member passed these men and women week by week God eventually gave him a burden of prayer for them, which he carried into Church and offered up at the Eucharist.
One Sunday he had the idea of running a lunch club for the vagrants and he persuaded his fellow worshippers. This ran for some months. Then the organisers advertised for helpers in the local community and received hundreds of enquiries.
One man's vision from God got accepted by his Church and became the instrument for Christians and non-Christians working together in the service of a local need. Many of the non-Church folk got drawn into the life of the Church in the process.
It all started from one man's prayer and vision. Isn't that encouraging?
Bearing discomforting circumstances. In the Middle Ages we recognise that British people lived with a good deal more discomfort than they do today.
You could be walking down a medieval street and all of a sudden someone might empty their chamber pot all over you from a first floor window.
Life was like that. You braved the discomfort.
Today in the western world our comfortable existence brings with it spiritual danger.
We’ve come to deeply resent anything that invades our comfort zone.
Whilst no one yearns to be uncomfortable, our right attitude to discomfort is important. It can reveal what we really put our faith in.
If our faith is in our job or in what people think of us we will be quite undermined by the uncomfortable prospect of unemployment or unpopularity.
Christianity holds that the uncomfortable things in life are sent to deepen our faith in the reality of the unseen world and the triumph of love through adversity.
Our capacity to live with discomfort is a measure of out faith in Our Lord. Scripture says that Christ did not please himself and that the disciple isn’t greater than his Lord.
If we are living for self, discomfort will always be an enemy. If are living for Christ, discomfort will ally us afresh to him.
You could be walking down a medieval street and all of a sudden someone might empty their chamber pot all over you from a first floor window.
Life was like that. You braved the discomfort.
Today in the western world our comfortable existence brings with it spiritual danger.
We’ve come to deeply resent anything that invades our comfort zone.
Whilst no one yearns to be uncomfortable, our right attitude to discomfort is important. It can reveal what we really put our faith in.
If our faith is in our job or in what people think of us we will be quite undermined by the uncomfortable prospect of unemployment or unpopularity.
Christianity holds that the uncomfortable things in life are sent to deepen our faith in the reality of the unseen world and the triumph of love through adversity.
Our capacity to live with discomfort is a measure of out faith in Our Lord. Scripture says that Christ did not please himself and that the disciple isn’t greater than his Lord.
If we are living for self, discomfort will always be an enemy. If are living for Christ, discomfort will ally us afresh to him.
Putting first things first. Imagine filling a large jar.
You could take a small handful of rocks and fill the jar – but there would still be space.
Having filled the jar with rocks you could pour pebbles around them and fill the jar again.
Then you could take sand and do the same.
Try doing this the other way around. You’ll never be able to fit in the bigger things once you have filled the jar with the smaller items.
Here is a parable. Get the big things in life sorted before frittering your energies with the smaller things and everything will fit in.
Your relationship with the Lord and with other people, like the rocks, must come first. The stones are the other things that matter like your job and your house. Then comes the small stuff – like the sand and water – which we so often get immersed in, to the neglect of the bigger things.
If you put the sand and water into the jar first there will be no room for the rocks and stones.
The same goes for your life. Pay attention to the things that are critical for your well being.
Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well (Matthew 6:33).
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