Brian O’Hanlon – SMX – Homily March 26-27

Again, down under, an interesting homily from the St. Mary’s in Exile (SMX) community in Brisbane, Australia.

Faith community versus belief community is mentioned as well as the future of the faith in terms of a community living the word (God) through justice, compassion and love…

Brian O’Hanlon – SMX – Homily March 26-27

I was fortunate enough through the enthusiasm of my wife, Angela, to discover this community a long time ago – 1988 I think, and I have been a fairly regular attendee ever since.  Certainly I have been a constant attendee since, to borrow a term from the Irish, “since the troubles”, the troubles of exile. 

Peter in a homily towards the end of 2010 when restating his vision of this community, emphasised that we are a faith community not a belief community. A faith community is one developing a spiritually of Justice Compassion and Love. More recently he restated the value of the mystical contemplative tradition in Christianity traditionally suppressed throughout history. This implies  a letting go of, a freeing up from,  much if not all of our classical conditioning of religious tradition,( Recently at a friends wedding-a nuptial mass, I was sitting next to a women , who at the end of the ceremony commented “ that was scary- I have not been inside a catholic church for 25 years, yet I just knew how to do everything), or there could be a shifting of the core of our traditional stories and belief systems; if this is so what do we have left, what do we replace it with? What do we develop as the core of our own practice. According to Fr Richard Rohr OSM the oppositional mindset that was set in place after the reformation of the 16^th century, and after the enlightment of the 17^th and 18^th centuries meant that the ancient tradition of gaining spiritually through meditation was lost. We lost the older tradition of praying beyond words. I want to propose that this is what we can develop, praying beyond words, meditation-a vehicle for our spiritual pathway.

For a long time I have thought that the Book of James was the most useful, social and practical of the gospel writings; James warned against taking the Pauline view of Christianity to an extreme where Paul urged his followers to put their faith in Christ (i.e. what to believe, one who would deliver them).  James called his listeners to action, “Faith without works is dead, be doers of the word and not hearers only.  Religion that is pure and undefiled is this – to visit orphans and widows in their affliction and to keep ones-self unstained from the world” – to keep ones-self unstained from the world – what is this? Christians are very good at relieving the struggling and suffering of others-there are helping missions in every part of the world, just look at the community support provided during our natural disasters, out of this faith community Micha arose, and I am sure that nearly all of us are caring for family, relatives or friends; visiting the widow in her affliction, and as well there does seem in our community a growing interest in the spiritual/contemplative tradition, through the transformative experience of meditation, a way of remaining unstained from the world, our pastors refer to it in various ways, the Eckhart Tolle CD’s are taken home each week, and many books referring to the subject are sold, at  the drop in shop, the existing meditation groups are regularly attended. 

Jesus, it now seems, was primarily a teacher, a sage who bequeathed to his followers principles by which to live, not a body of eternally fixed doctrine that he expected people to believe. 

The teachings that Jesus bequeathed to us focused not on believing but on doing.  Even before the term ‘Christian’ (originally with a derogatory meaning)  came into use, the first Jesus-followers were attempting to practise the kind of life he taught.  They called it ‘The Way’. 

An ancient book called ‘The Didache’ (a Greek word meaning ‘teaching’) throws considerable light on this. 

It is interesting to find that the Didache has preserved the primitive label, ‘The Way’.  This is how it starts off: ‘There are two ways , one of life and one of death, but there is a great difference between the two ways’.  In its short description of the Way of Death we find listed all the commonly acknowledged human crimes and misdemeanours that are condemned in almost every culture.  But the emphasis of the Didache is on the Way of Life.  Listen to how it continues:

The way of life is this: First, you shall love God who made you; second, love your neighbour as yourself, and not do to another what you would not want done to you...

Oodgeroo St. Mary's Treaty Brisbane

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There are circles that radiate out from Father Kennedy’s modern approach to Catholic liturgy and Social Awareness. St. Mary’s Parish in South Brisbane appears to be an affluent parish. It’s members are no doubt educated, socially aware and well healed.

A local Aboriginal Group has stepped in and accused Archbishop John Bathersby of racial discrimination regarding an announced mediation between the Archdiocese, St. Mary’s and Father Kennedy. That the judge/arbitrator hand picked by the Archbishop is known and has been accused of bias against Aboriginal Rights in the past.

The Archbishop would appear to already have stacked the deck against the good flow of positive energy at St. Mary’s on the way to turning it into a deserted, hack run, shambles ready made for a quick sale on the real estate market.

Brisbane Catholic Archbishop accused of racial discrimination

The St. Mary’s Treaty was signed during a well-attended mass with the congregation of St. Mary’s and members of the local Aboriginal community witnessing it. The treaty was celebrated in coroborree in accordance with Aboriginal customary law and written on paper in accordance with non-Aboriginal law. It is real.”

“The Archbishop has appointed Ian Callinan to mediate between himself and St. Mary’s. When Ian Callinan was a high court judge he had to be forced off the Hindmarsh Island case because of his bias against Aboriginal claims of rights and interests. The Archbishop’s choice of mediator is an example of the contempt of Aboriginal law, culture and rights that he appears to hold. His blanket refusal to discuss the treaty is another.”

“The Oodgeroo Treaty Circles are asking the Archbishop and the Brisbane Archdiocese to confirm and support the St. Mary’s treaty which involves innovative Aboriginal welfare and social justice programs such as dry camps, a cultural heritage education program and the facilitation of Aboriginal men’s, women’s and elders business. The treaty process provides non-Aboriginal Australians a direct relationship with Aboriginal culture and programs. This path of healing is being obstructed by the Archbishop’s refusal to even acknowledge Aboriginal rights and interests, let alone work pro-actively with them.”

I do no know if this is a nuisance lawsuit to give some weight and or support to Father’s Kennedy and his wanting to possibly retire and leave his life’s work in good hands and not to some clerical hack - not wanting to hand it all over into the uncaring hands of someone who will destroy the work of so many good, faithful and enthusiastic people's work through the years.

The lawsuit is a way of expressing great thoughts, solidarity and continued awareness regarding a racial tension and situation that appears to still exist in the front lines of society in Australia. It is situation that St. Mary’s in its own limited way has tried to address.

Apparently Father Kennedy had entered into some sort of treaty with the Aboriginal group that his parish also serves.

Father Kennedy is no Saint Oscar Romero but without trying to totally diss the Archbishop of Brisbane, I can see where he let this thing go on too long and he can’t find a suitable replacement for Father Kennedy and his progressive RC congregation. You just don’t get it! Do you John?

Or has it always been planned this way. In the bowels of the Vatican, Progressive Churches like Saint Mary's in South Brisbane and like Vatican II itself, they were always planned to be temporary successes and long term failures?

I do not see the parish or the priest or the Aborigines in any win-win with the RC hierarchy in Rome pushing hard for a quick and immediate end to thoughts and radical Christian ideas from people with serious hearts and serious faith.

I may or may not have understood or properly or fairly presented this to you if you are reading this. I am an outsider. I think the basic plot is universal.

Good luck you to all down under. My prayers are with you all.