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Barnes in Commonthe magazine of Churches Together in Barnes
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Pastoral Letterby Fr Paul Holland, St Michael and All Angels
The Chief Executive of a London Hospital had on every letter or e-mail the words “None of us communicate as well as we think we do”. These words have always stayed with me. I see children as the best communicators, they have an immediacy and urgency about what they want to get across. Every parent eagerly awaits those first spoken words that moment of verbal recognition. But long before that the young baby has been reaching out to the world around them through their eyes and out-stretched hands as well discovering their ability to gain attention through their tears and cries. At the heart of being human is the desire to connect to the world around us. We could also speak of God in a similar way. At the heart of who he is flows a desire to share himself with us. Some writers regard creation itself as God’s first act of communication. The beauty and wonder of the world around us, its complicity and staggering variety, the immensity of space all speak of a God who delights in an extravagant display of life through countless different expressions. Creation itself is God’s first communication of love. But creation as an act of love on behalf of God is only the first step in his desire to share himself. At the heart of both the Jewish and Christian tradition is the God who wants to make himself known in the hearts of those he has made in his own image. Turning to the pages of the Old Testament we see a group of people more open and sensitive to the prompting of His Spirit. The prophets who show a longing for justice and true peace, who care for the widow and orphan and want a fair wage for the labourer are expressing God’s own expectation of what it is to be human, reflecting something of His own image and will. The pages of the Old Testament are about a people’s journey discovering that their true identity can only be found in relationship with the God who shares in their history. When we turn to the pages of the Gospels we discover that God’s communication of himself takes human form in the person of Jesus. If we want to know what shape God is we now have to look at Jesus. Here in the person of Jesus we see God’s love for the marginalised, those on the edges of society. The Kingdom of God, the new community is now centred on the person of Jesus himself, where all are invited and have a place around his table. In the company of Jesus his followers are invited to reflect something of his own care for others and discover that it is in serving the needs of others that they are serving him. “When I was thirsty did you give me something to drink, when a stranger did you welcome me, when in prison did you visit me?” However God’s sharing of himself is now through the sending of his Holy Spirit. Christians believe that it is through God’s own spirit prompting our spirit that we are slowly transformed and strengthened to express and communicate something of God’s own love and joy to the world around us. |
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