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Waiting for New Life
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"People are getting older and there seem to be very few new people around" People are deserting practices which seem to them to be irrelevant. Many of those who stay wonder why they're there but are afraid to desert what has been handed down to them. The same is true within our prayer groups. People are getting older and there seem to be very few new people around. It can be both discouraging and disheartening. Let's get back to the retreat. One of the sisters came in to see me and I have to say that I too was beginning to feel the despondency so I decided to quicken the process and asked how she felt about the state of her congregation. She smiled at me and her eyes twinkled and she asked me why that particular question. I told her of the sense of sadness that I was picking up from some of the others. She thought for a moment and then said that yes there was a great deal of dying happening but that death was the way to life and she just hoped that she would be around long enough to see the new life spring forth from the seeming death. As I listened to her I remembered what a very wise man said to me many years ago. He told me that if you look for negativity that's what you'll find. "If we expect to find sadness and gloom in the current situation in the Church then that's what we'll find" If you look for life and joy that too will be what you find. It's all a matter of perspective. My mind was then taken to the appearance of the risen Jesus to Mary of Magdala. As she walked from the tomb, she was full of misery because she couldn't find the body of Jesus. What was Mary looking for? She was looking for a dead body, and the truth is that we only really see what we're looking for. Mary couldn't see the truth that Jesus was present, maybe in the figure of a gardener because she wasn't looking for someone who was alive. If we expect to find sadness and gloom in the current situation in the Church then that's what we'll find. It's John's way of saying to us that this risen Lord is present in a new and very real way but we have to open our eyes and see him. We have to allow this risen Jesus to break through the petty limitations that we put on him and reveal his presence. 'Mary, do not cling to me'. In other words let go of what you thought you had, to discover what you really have. Sometimes we have to let go of what we thought life was about to discover what is real. We have to let go of our image of God, of the Church, of our presumptions about where we'll find God and what God is doing and look again with fresh eyes. When we open our eyes we discover the risen Jesus with us. The Lord is with his Church and will never abandon it and when it seems like things are falling apart it's just the way for new life to spring up. Suddenly I was filled with hope. Death has to happen if new life is to come. It can be painful to watch it and be part of it but I'm sure that the role of the Disciple is not to despair about the current situation but to be filled with joyful hope as we await the coming of the Lord. Let us be filled with anticipation for the new life that must surely come. As we look around the new movements and communities in the Church
there are signs of hope. Things will be different in the future undoubtedly
but God is with his people so we wait in joyful hope for the new life
that will come.
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Part
of my job involves spending time with people and listening to their
stories. Last year I found myself in a retreat centre south of London
listening to the stories of several religious sisters. Some of them
were very sad to see the congregations that they had given their life
to beginning to crumble around them. They saw dwindling numbers and
communities full of elderly people. Some of them were fearful about
the future. What would happen to those who needed nursing care when
there was nobody left to do the caring? In many senses it was a depressing
picture as these good women shared their concern and their sadness
at what was happening. It's a picture that is replicated all around
us at the moment in the Church. Life is changing. There are far fewer
priests than there used to be. Indeed in the future ." there
will be even less. Numbers are falling, our congregations are getting
smaller and there is certainly more grey hair than anything else in
the pews on a Sunday morning.