Homily from the Parish Priest for the Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mass Readings: Deuteronomy 4:1-8; James 1:17-27; Mark 7:1-23
Physical health and psychological, emotional, spiritual health. Conversations I’ve had with people in the last few weeks have made me realise just how this time of pandemic has highlighted our weakness both physical and to do with the inner life. Whenever I ask about how the pandemic has been I seem to have a response which connects with this. For some COVID has struck down families, loved ones have been lost, the pain of grief is still palpable. For others it’s isolation, loneliness, mental health issues, re-evaluation of where I am on my journey in life.
Looking back on these past 18 months I would hope that for many of us we have a greater awareness of horizons greater than ourselves. We have been moved to get in touch with our inner selves and I hope been stirred to think about what is our particular calling in life. Here at Farm Street there are plenty of opportunities here to deepen our spiritual lives, not just through the worship life of the parish but through the services we provide to deepen our spiritual lives at the London Jesuit Centre, through Ignatian days of recollection, individual guidance, retreats. And to launch our new year, as we emerge from the pandemic, we are holding a week of reflection on Christian vocation called ‘Where are You Going?’ Each evening in the week starting Oct 4th we will have presentations on various vocations in the Church: the single life, the married life, life as a lay missionary, as a priest, as a deacon, in religious life contemplative and active, in community especially in the new movements. And we will follow this up with a week of guided prayer the week starting Oct 17th. I hope as many as possible respond to this invitation to take part. I do believe that at this time we are, as Pope Francis constantly reminds us, being called to look again at our own particular calling in life. We all have one.
Central to this is a recognition that we all have a spiritual life; we all have inner depths. And the readings this Sunday invite all of us to look again at our inner lives, the life within which is the lifeblood for all we do, all our discernment, our process of decision making for what we commit ourselves to in our daily life, how we are authentic, transparent, and how for the Christian what, who Jesus is for us as a member of his Body here on earth: how we model goodness, kindness, compassion, love. That comes from within. Externals depend on internals – on our inner life and the day in day out commitment to following him as good Christians. The Pharisees certainly needed to hear that but I know I need to every day – examining why I profess to be a public minister of the Gospel. And how I do that, with all the misjudgements and mistakes I make, even in good faith.
So what’s the condition of our interior life these days? Not a bad question as we take up work again at what is for many the start of a new year in a new chapter post-COVID. At a time when we are also being called to respond to the invitation of the Holy Father in every diocese in the world to prepare for a worldwide synod to look at how together we can be renewed as Church. Not a talking shop, not another new gimmick or programme but a call to do what the word ‘synod’ means. To accompany each other, to walk alongside each other, discerning our calling as Church together. How will we respond to the call to bring the Gospel to an increasingly secular world when also the Church seems more divided than ever? How will we get back to the basics of following Christ as the People of God, recognising and using our gifts as lay faithful, religious and clergy together? Watch this space. This will be coming up soon through the Diocese.
In the light of all we’ve been experiencing over these last months this is such an appropriate Gospel to take to heart: the call to a conversion of heart. To take to heart the call to interior searching and to discern our call communal and individual. That’s for us all in the Body of Christ. We’re in the same boat together. The call to deep soul searching and from this to discern together with the whole faithful in the Body of Christ, women, men, clergy, some concrete steps which help to move us forward focussing not on the externals but the call to be authentic and transparent as we go about responding to our call to mission as mature followers of Christ.
As we begin a new year may we be given the gift of greater purity of heart and inner conversion in our lives and as the Body of Christ the Church and may this bear fruit in how we live our lives together.
Fr Dominic Robinson SJ