Andrew’s Blog

We have to face it, in more ways than one we all experience many struggles. The word can be understood in its various nuances but these are the ones that come to mind: a conflict, a difficulty in moving forward, an attempt to gain freedom by overcoming resistance.

Think first of the ordinary struggles we face everyday: to get up in the morning, to be punctual, to complete an assignment or to stick to my diet. But what should come to us as no surprise (but sometimes does) is that we have many internal struggles which given the choice we would actually do away with. We may even feel that it is unfair that our hearts have to battle with negative reactions, fear and insecurity compounded by all ‘those people’ around us which make them worse.

And as if all that is not enough who of us can claim to be exempt from the struggle with temptation that St Paul so aptly describes for us in his letter to the Romans: For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing. Rom. 7:18-19. Anger, jealousy, untruthfulness, lust, envy and the list can go on.

The proud and sinful nature we inherited with the compliments of Adam and Eve and the devil’s deceitful promises and lies are relentless foes. Indeed the Catechism leaves us with no doubt about this: The whole of man’s history has been the story of dour combat with the powers of evil, stretching, so our Lord tells us, from the very dawn of history until the last day. Finding himself in the midst of the battlefield man has to struggle to do what is right, and it is at great cost to himself, and aided by God’s grace, that he succeeds in achieving his own inner integrity (CCC 409).

But there is Good News. There is one Man who entered this arena and won an amazing victory. He was tempted but never sinned (Heb 4:15), He was exposed big time to the devil’s lies and schemes but did not succumb (Matt 4:1-11). Jesus, the Son of God, triumphed over sin, evil, the devil and death. The power of His Resurrection Life is available to us. It really is. But how do we make it our own?

First of all it a case of choosing sides, not once but daily. Lent is all about conversion, making sure that I am living in the Father’s ‘embrace of grace.’ (Luke 15:11-32). Yet repentance needs to be ongoing because God wants me to grow in holiness. So daily prayer, fasting and the Eucharist help me draw closer to Jesus and to be slowly but surely, transformed by His grace, Our ‘no’ to selfishness by acts of self-denial is to say ‘yes’ to God’s Love and to authentically love all those around us.

At the end of the day a lot is at stake. Our real peace, true happiness and unique mission can all be derailed in this life if we are not careful to cultivate a disciplined interior spiritual life. Let us take heart: our struggle will one day come to an end and the Bible says that we will then enter our eternal rest (Heb 4;11). However this is possible only if we persevere to the end. Lent which leads to the joy of Easter is an invitation to experience what Jesus says:

If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.
Matt. 16:24

Unspeakable joy awaits us.

You have to see it to believe it. My visit to the Grand Canyon in Arizona last month left me quite speechless. Its beautiful, vast and deep!
446km long, 29km wide and 1.6km deep. It inspires you to contemplate the Beauty of its Creator and your own smallness.

As we stopped at the various overviews to take in the breathtaking landscape, I am reminded of a few verses from Scripture: God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea Psa. 46:2 Amazing! Even if all we were seeing in front of us had to collapse, God’s love for us will not because it is firm and unchanging.

We need to be reminded of this over and over again. Life has its fair share of ups and downs, peaks and valleys. Yet God’s faithfulness to us will not be shaken. If anyone will move, unfortunately it is us not Him.

Corrie Ten Boom, a Dutch Christian who survived the atrocities of Ravensbruck Concentration Camp in World War II, travelled the world to share her experience of God’s love in the terrible years of imprisonment in the death camp. Her message: There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still.’

Looking down in the chasm of the Grand Canyon imprints these truths deeper into my heart:

The Lord s unfailing love surrounds the man who trusts in him.
Psa. 32:10

When I visited Norway a number of years ago we drove through the world’s longest tunnel, 24.5 km long. The first few kilometers where OK but after a while the journey became a bit unnerving. For too long time it just seemed that there would be no light at the end of the tunnel after all. In my many years of youth ministry I’ve met countless people who feel that way about their lives.

In reality at times we are all tempted to give up for some reason or another: we’ve been hurt in relationships, disappointed with ourselves because of the way we dealt with a situation, experienced recurring health problems or even failed in our struggle with sin. At those moment we sink into a moment or even a season of disappointment and at times even despair.

It is especially at these times that rather than sink into self-pity or despair, we need to turn to God. I know some people who feel that it isn’t right to turn to the Lord when things are going wrong. Yet often it is through these difficult times that He gets our attention.

Go the the Lord and tell Him ‘Lord I’m your leper begging for healing (Mark 1:41-44), I’m Peter sinking in the water (Matthew 14:25-33), I’m the prodigal son who wants to return home (luke 15:12-32),  I’m the widow of Nain suffering a loss (Luke 7:11-17), I’m the Samaritan woman thirsty for life (John 4:13-26), I’m the paralytic finding it difficult to walk (Matthew 9:1-8), I’m the blind man needing to see the light (Luke 18:35-43) … your light at the end of my tunnel.

Jesus never turned any of these people away, He certainly won’t give up on you. So whatever your situation at the moment, don’t give up. There is light even at the end of the longest tunnel. If you need to, humble yourself and seek help from someone who can offer it. But most of all, turn to the Lord in prayer who tells us

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Matt. 11:28-29

From the possible looming economic crisis to the ridiculous prediction that the world will end, no one really knows what 2012 will be remembered in history for. Yet whilst some things are far beyond our control, there are others which are not.

Drawing close to God is not a passive enterprise but requires us to take some concrete initiatives. That is why the Scripture says ‘The nearer you go to God, the nearer God will come to you’  James 4:8. If we invest our time and effort in prayer we will certainly find that God will meet with us in a new and intimate way. We will be as close to God as we want to be.

This relationship goes far beyond time: 2012, 2013, 2014 and so on will all come and go. Eternity will not.  Really the best resolution we can all take at the beginning of this New Year is to seek God in truth more seriously than before being assured of His Promise: 

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
Jer. 29:13

Have a blessed New Year

Andrew

Happy Christmas!

In the coming days, we will hear these words more than we probably care to. Parities, drinks, food, gifts and bargains abound yet real happiness in Christmas may still remain elusive.

If we are empty, or sad,  or confused or lonely no amount of tickling will bring true joy to our lives. A good laugh may bring momentary respite until the party is over but it changes nothing in our state of being. So many people are in pain, suffer from boredom, frustration, lack of self-confidence that all this desperately needs to be masked. The selfish pursuit of pleasure-at-all costs is often the answer. It is of course self-destructive in the long run. But try and tell that to the people who want to legalise hash.  However it does show the underlying spiritual malaise of godlessness and hopelessness prevalent in society.

Yet when you read the passages in Scripture which announces the birth of Jesus one word stands out: ‘Joy’. Take for example the angel’s words to the shepherds:

Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2:10-11

There it is. A Saviour. That is what we need. Someone to forgive the guilt of our sins, someone to bring light in our darkness, truth in confusion, peace in turmoil and direction in aimlessness.  This is the great joy. God Himself has come to do it. This is not a story that happened some 2,000 years ago. He still comes. Even now as you read these few words. It can be very very real to whoever wants it to be. Bethlehem is our hearts and Jesus “is able to save completely those who come to God through Him” (Heb 7:25).

Only if Jesus is present in our lives can the words ‘Have a Happy Christmas’ be true, authentic and efficacious.

She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
Matt. 1:21

Seven weekend was really an ‘up’ experience for the participants who attended the event held at Porziuncola Retreat House. Even though I have had the privilege of leading similar retreats over these past  25 years, each time I am amazed at how faithful God is with His people.  Many shared with me and their leaders how God touched their lives in a new way as is also obvious from the numerous comments posted on he SEVEN Facebook page.

Admittedly a lot of effort was put into organizing this weekend. The SEVEN Team was fantastic and really served us all wholeheartedly. The Small Group Leaders prayed, fasted and accompanied their members with great dedication. Each of the three bands of our group were instrumental in helping us raise our hearts and minds to the Lord in the communal times of prayer. And the participants were a wonderful bunch of people who were obviously very receptive to God’s Word and to what the Holy Spirit wanted to do in their lives.

Yet no man can change or renew the hearts of another. Only God can. The God who doesn’t love us out of duty but with great passion. The God who is totally and utterly unselfish and who wants to give us Himself. The God who is Almighty yet who is Emmanuel, God with us. This is the God who like a rushing wind overwhelms us with His care, love, mercy, healing, grace and strength. The God who is compassionate but calls for repentance and holiness in our lives.

Our team enjoyed organising SEVEN and we were encouraged by the response of the participants throughout the 7 weeks.  However we are already gearing up for the follow-up course.  ‘Making sense of it all’ is just the beginning. We need to live out our faith in our every day life. So the team together with many other youth from our community will be pleased to welcome you for the next course, ‘SEVENTY TWO , Living the sense of it All‘. If you have attended SEVEN or perhaps ‘Acquire the the Fire’ in the past we invite you to join us. You can find more information and an online application on this website…

Every event worth celebrating is laden with many symbols.  Christmas is no exception and has nearly become synonymous with ‘lights’. They’re everywhere. The decorative lights on the trees and in the streets and the multi-coloured bulbs chasing each other displayed in people’s windows remind us what the mild weather might not: Christmastime is here.

These lights are meant to reflect an incredible reality, the birth of Jesus Christ: The true light that gives light to every man (has come) into the world.  John 1:9. He Himself told us ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12

Yet there is plenty of darkness. One need know physics to grasp what darkness really is. It is the absence of light. No matter what our opinion about it is, if Jesus is not in our life we dwell in spiritual darkness. Yes we may laugh, sing, party, study and work but life lacks real meaning, direction, joy and eternal hope.

So what do we need to do? If you have never synced your baptism as a child with a personal act of faith in Jesus as Saviour and Lord of your life, take some time of prayer and reflection this Advent to do so.

For ‘God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.’  2Cor. 4:6.

If you already have a spiritual life the message of Advent is simple but challenging, ‘keep your lamps burning’ (Luke 12:35). The parable of the Ten Virgins (Matt 25:1-12) reminds us that we may become complacent in our relationship with God and gradually slip back to our old sinful ways. Hence the words:

Live as children of light … have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness (Eph. 5:8,11).

Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  John 3:19. You would be forgiven for thinking otherwise if you were to judge by our love of Christmas lights. But has the symbol replaced the reality it is meant to convey? It all too often has.

The battle between light and darkness lies in the soul of each and everyone of us. Yet we are assured that Jesus’ ‘light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it’ (John 1:5). This is the privilege and power of we have in prayer.

We also have a mission or better we are a mission: let light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven. (Matt 5:16). If we become a ‘walking Christmas light’  offering ‘with gentleness and respect to give an answer to everyone who asks  to give the reason for the hope that (we) have’ (1 Peter 3:15), then there may be some more heartfelt ‘Glorias’ sung this Christmas. Turn on the Lights.

It’s raining a lot here in Malta even though it’s not yet cold. People aren’t wearing their winter coats but they have had to bring out their umbrellas. Yet perhaps they should be putting ‘them’ away. No not our actual umbrellas which rightly protect us from these downpours, but the ‘umbrellas’ which cover our souls.

It’s raining. God wants to shower us with His Presence. He wants to drench us in His love and truth

Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge him. As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.”
Hos. 6:3.

Writing in his book ‘Good News, Bad News’, Fr John McCloskey says: the emphasis by American Catholicism upon external activity and good works over the cultivation of the interior life was – and remains – a fact’. This may be true of us as well. Yet our souls have been created by God for communion, for relationship, for spirituality. Until we live under the showers of his abundant grace we remain like parched and thirsty soil.

The catholic faith teaches us that Jesus did not first and foremost come to give us a set of principles to follow and rules to be obeyed. Of course our faith necessarily involves righteous moral living according to the Word of God. Yet that may be putting the cart before the horse. It is like preaching principles of a healthy marriage when you do not even have a boyfriend or a girlfriend . So what did Jesus come to give? Jesus puts it succinctly:

I have come that they may have life, and have it in abundance”
John 10:10

Judging from what we see around us we might be forgiven for reading Jesus’ words as ‘ I have come so they might have charitable works and have them in abundance’ or perhaps ‘ I have come so they might have liturgies/meetings and have them abundance’.  These are important and necessary but need to be rooted in the ‘life in the Spirit’.

What is this then this ‘life in abundance, life in the Spirt ‘ that the Lord wants for us? It is the very life of God within us, an experienced relationship with Jesus as Lord and Saviour which overflows into worship, prayer, ongoing conversion, holiness, forgiveness and so on.  Paul lists the internal working of God’s Presence in our hearts in Galatians 5:22 ‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.’ God cares about us, He cares about our pain, about our questions and desires a personal relationship with each and every one of us. Then our good works will follow.

So it’s time to get soaked because since Pentecost an outpouring of God’s Spirit has been happening: ‘In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people’ Acts 2:17. Let’s put our ‘umbrella’ away: intellectual pride, prejudice, indifference, fear and unconfessed sins and open our hearts to God’s Holy Spirit again. ‘Let us press on to acknowledge him’ Hosea said (see verse above). How? Go on retreat, go to confession, start praying every day, visit a chapel regularly, read the scripture, go to Mass, join a praying community, ask someone who knows what to do to pray with you, ask the Holy Spirit to come into your life and ‘he will come to us like the winter rains’. It’s raining. Can you hear it?

So many things can wow us: a beautiful scene, an unexpected surprise, the latest tech gadget and the list goes on. But have you ever been ‘wowed’ by God? No I don’t mean just being vaguely grateful to God for a good result, a promotion at work or a new relationship with someone you care for. I mean the experience of being touched personally by God Himself and His signs and wonders which leave you overwhelmed by joy, peace and hope.

The Word of God tells us that God the Father of Jesus is able to do immensely more than we can ask or imagine (Eph 3:20). God can and wants to surprise us. He wants to help us grasp that He didn’t send His Son Jesus to suppress us but quite the opposite. Jesus frees us to become fully human and fully alive. In His own words ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full’ (John 10:10).

I thank God that I have had my fair share of the ‘wows’ of God. Just this past weekend in our Community Conference, many of us were touched by God’s incredible love and healing once again. This is happening to many many people all over the world. God’s invitation is loud and clear.

So from where did we get the idea that being a Christian is for nerds, for narrow minded and bored individuals, older people, for those who can only wear a long face and for those content with believing in a set of doctrines and laws? Could it be that we have never been ‘wowed’ by God or if we once were, we’ve long lost sight of Him? Perhaps we’ve lost the real sense of it all. If you think that your time to be ‘wowed’ has arrived, join us for the new course ‘Seven, Making Sense of it All’

‘We are arriving at Liverpool station’.  A bemused chuckle emerged from my fellow passengers as the audio announcement was made.  After a nearly two hour journey from the northwest of England where Liverpool is located, the arrival at the train’s intended destination of London Euston was unmistakable. The facts ‘spoken’ by the iconic landmarks of England’s capital and the crisp statement on the system did not tally.  As if it were needed, a quick apology by the steward followed.

Yet I wondered, how many times did voices around me and within me ‘announce’ myths with the force of reality? I had believed many of the more obvious ones when I was much younger but thank God He gave me the grace to embrace his truth. In today’s world the bombardment persists relentlessly though at times with great subtlety: life is about success, popularity, money, pleasure and having as much fun as you can. Mix and match and create your own philosophical worldview and then live accordingly.

These ideologies are announced with the same dogmatic persuasion with which many erstwhile objective truths of the Christian faith were taught. Yet with the advent of modernity this was progressively less and less tolerated. This is evident in Malta and the much of the western world today.

Yet these truths still stand and no ‘erroneous broadcast ‘can change them: the journey will end where God intended it to no matter what we hear ourselves or others saying. We have come from God and will be returning to Him. Whether we live eternally in His loving embrace or separated from it depends on how we live and make our choices now. And these in turn are based very much on what we believe.

So what are we invited to believe and entrust ourselves to?  To the universal proclamation of the Good News by a Good God. Through the salvation that Jesus gives us we can really escape the shallow superficiality of a dull, aimless and selfish living. We are invited to believe and experience God’s personal commitment of love towards us. We can persevere on the journey which though at times tough and challenging, will surely take us down the right route and lead us to heaven, our eternal destination.

How do we do this? First and foremost we need to make room for God in our life in regular prayer. We need to experience Jesus as Lord and Saviour of our lives and renew our response all the time. We need to know what His Word and the Church tells us about how God wants us to live for our own happiness and His glory. But we also need to travel the road with others because the temptation to believe that we are on the ‘wrong train’ will surely come. Then a ‘bemused chuckle’ by our fellows travelers will reassure us that the facts of faith are truer than anything else we may be hearing around us. Join the journey!