lotuscross notes on: parables on appropriate responses in the lost & found

8/8/2019 Lotuscross notes on: Parables on Appropriate Responses in the Lost & Found

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Comments on the Sunday Mass Readings for the Clogher Diocese 12.09.10

Parables on appropriate responses to losses found anew - Luke (15: 1-32)

I have been asked of late to explain what my private Lotuscross routine is about by a Facebook Friend while some Jehovah's Witness folks - who come a calling on occasion - queried me on therole of the Bible in my life so I thought I'd better try to put some shape on what I'm about. Not

being one to reinvent the wheel I realised the obvious thing to do was to share my principledevotion both to the Bible and the Cross as a Roman Catholic, which is centred on attendance atHoly Mass at least once a week. I say 'Holy', to distinguish the Sacrament of the Mass from thevarious 'Mass', actions and happenings associated with the modern social protest movement andeven dance events. So what I propose to do is get into the habit of posting the leaflets of HolyMass's I attend with some comments by myself kind of post Homily, homilies. The 'Homily' beingthe Priests sermon or comment on the Gospel and other readings.

Catholic Mass's follow a set format the world over and involve: a reading from the Old Testament; areading from Psalms ( an Old Testament book of prose with set responses); a reading from one of the four Gospels; followed by a reading from either the Acts of the Apostles or from Letters. TheRoman Catholic Bible is comprised of 77 books from Genesis through to the Book of theApocalypse, including: the four Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John; Luke's account of theApostle's Mission after the death of Jesus known as 'The Acts of the Apostles'; and 'Letters',containing the various historically verifiable letters which Saints Paul, Peter, James, Jude and Johnwrote. These letters are key to Faith formation because they are mainly the personal witnessing of the men involved, poured over by scholars for two millennia. Whereas the Gospels are accounts of Jesus life, St.Paul's letters are in fact his own, with exceptions, and no-one disputes this. Theoriginals were generally written directly by the hand of the men concerned or a personal secretaryor community member. I say that at the risk of digressing because people seem to have lost sight of the historical veracity of the Bible in general and of Letters especially. St. Peter, (the man who ranaway from the Cross of Christ yet who clung to his own 33 years later in Rome when crucified

under Nero A.D. 66, while meanwhile in another part of town St.Paul, the one time bountyhunter of Christians, was having his head chopped off) actually wrote St. Peter 1 to the Christiancommunities in Asia Minor present day Turkey. If one cares to refute that then one might as wellrefute the study of history itself. So a person testing Faith will logically ask of St. Peter's life 'Nowwhy go to all that bother in the defence of a myth'? Faith arises from and is confirmed by suchformative observations and questions. Because we are all human and know what cowardice is aboutwe wonder inwardly, without the aid of a microscope, scratch our heads, without having to send acourtesy email to Professor Richard Dawkins, by way of confirmation, and say surely this man whoknew the historical Jesus must have been completely certain of his Divinity. And equally of St. Paulone would likely ask 'What happened to this lunatic zealot psychopath on the road to Damascus thatturned him into the worlds most pre-eminent love guru and to go share thirty three years of hard

struggle and finally death with the very man he was out to kill'? Now you don't need a degree inThermo Dynamics to consider that question. It just jumps up a hits you right on the chin and says'Well bozo'?

Of the Book of the Apocalypse I'd just like to add it's the last book of the Bible and is a revelationstyle account of the mystery of coming of the Kingdom given by St. John, a book which many folksget overly excited about treating it as though it were the plot for a Holywood movie or a StephenKing novel rather than a Seers attempt at speaking to the mystery of the Kingdom unfolding.Imagine trying to direct a river through a pipe; now while that river might be calm the torrentgushing forth from the mouth of the pipe will be anything but calm. That's just a question of capacity is it not? The Book of the Apocalypse needs to be read with nice cup of camomile tea and

perhaps some soothing music not high on whatever - with ACDC's 'Highway to Hell', blasting inthe background. In any event I definitely digress at this point so I'll just try get back on track in thenext paragraph.


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In advancing my own practice of devotional yoga, which involves integrating Christian prayer recited in Lotus as a way of worshipping the Cross, I want to make it clear that nothing can replaceMass attendance as the principle means of worshipping the Cross of Christ; as the Mass is the

practical outcome of the Cross which Jesus shares with his followers both transcendentally and practically - forever - through the Eucharist. So before I start explaining my own curious routineand printing the devotional prayers and Bible meditations I want to get into the habit of uploading

the Mass leaflets, of the Masses which I attend. I try to get Mass at least once a week in one of mylocal Parishes and in addition in Monaghan Cathedral on Sundays. The danger of my own system of worship is that one withdraws from the Mass, which of course is a mistake. I only intend Lotuscrossas a supplement to Mass attendance for those so inclined. Prayer connects the mind to God but theEucharist connects the soul to Heaven in a way that simply defies explanation. So I'll startexplaining Lotuscross in October once I've got into a pattern on these Mass leaflet commentaries.

Sunday Mass, Monaghan Cathedral 12.09.10

So this is my first upload, its late and consequently Ive not a lot to say except to thank Fr. Chester for his considered homily (Luke 15:1-32) , which focused on Gods quest to Search us out, so thatwe may be truly found both to him and to ourselves. And that can be a very tender and considerate

project if we allow it to be so; but deliberately getting lost can of course compound the process, asthe Prodigal Son found to his misfortune. But there are other ways of presenting that and so wehave the parable of the lost sheep and of the woman who lost a coin a drachma. Fr. Chester likedthe feminine analogy best; God as a womans hands, gentle and consoling restoring the lost coin toits rightful place. For myself something curious generally speaks to me and in this instance it wasthe question Would a woman who lost a coin celebrate it to that extent or indeed and man who losta sheep? Perhaps those of us slightly on the depressive, apathetic side or suffering frommelancholy or lassitude, as they used say would not be bothered and if we did manage to gosearching would just sit down and let out a sigh of relief that the hassle was over begrudging the

sheep or the coin or whatever - its errant ways. Im always cursing the stuff I cant find instead of rejoicing in finding it. So is that about me comparing poorly with God? God is happy for the positive outcome in a truly celebratory sense whereas I tend to think of all the previous trials and allthe ones to come and think 'Jesus wept', when I ought be thinking 'Jesus rejoiced'. Jesus enjoyed themeal the Tax Collector had put on for him and didnt over analyse showing proper gratitude for themans generosity as well as his repentance. I guess Ill have to watch out for my poor spiritedness infuture, try to live the day and not the past or fret the future. Yep I think thats what Ill take fromthat one.

Fr. Chester also found St. Pauls letter (Timothy 1:12-17) worthy of comment and indeed a re-read

it, which is most unusual. In this letter St.Paul acknowledges that he is a testimony to Godsgreatness not to his own merit, although plainly St.Paul was a man of considerable merit. I think this very self effacing of St.Paul because there is that tension with St.Peter who of course workedhis way though the project earning grace step by step whereas St.Paul just got the celestial freebie.Curiously Saints Peter and Paul reflect the story of the Prodigal Son: the good son and the errantone. But Gods rejoicing for St.Paul is so great that St.Peter seems to get a rough deal bycomparison. But should we deny God his joy for the sinner or those whose faith is in error whenthey see that error and correct it? No, for we all want the same thing The coming of theKingdom. So rather than weep for our lost sense of significance we should rejoice with God for theincrease to his Kingdom and the Salvation of one who had fallen prey to error and misguidednotions. St.Peter made space for St.Paul, deferred to his judgements on many an occasion, and

indeed may have died on the same day as St.Paul under the Emperor Nero in A.D. 66 in Rome.St.Peter crucified upsidedown (on his own request) and St.Paul beheaded. I should try to emulateSt.Peter more I think and stop weeping for my egos losses, for what is lost in the end except


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vanity? - and that's a wooly jumper worth losing.

The first reading as you might see from the leaflet was Exodus (32:7-11 13-14) and it is a warningagainst Apostasy, or denying the Faith; in this instance to worldly things. But there is more thesense that too long spent in the company of those who do not share your Faith can diminish it to the

point that it is eclipsed by the things of the world. Its easy to keep the Faith alive: just go to Mass; pray as you can; and avoid error. If in addition you can practice good and be good then all the better.Of course going to Mass is keeping in the company of the Faithful so it ensures we maintain arighteous social orientation if thats not too strong a way of putting it.

lotuscross notes on: parables on appropriate responses in the lost & found

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