Finding it hard to concentrate this week but here goes... (Sunday Forum)

by Brian Coyne , LINDEN, NSW, Wednesday, March 17, 2010, 23:33 (1161 days ago) @ CathyT

I have to confess I am finding it hard to concentrate on the Lenten Reflection this week with all the other news emerging around the world. It truly is turning out to be a time of collective penance for the Church this Lent, isn't it?

In part also I thought the reading a less challenging one than the ones we've had for the previous two weeks. Not that the issues Jesus is discussing are "less challenging" — but they are less ambiguous than the lessons we've been discussing in the previous two weeks.

There are two excerpts from what the bishops said though that have formed the heart of my own pondering in the last few days...

Firstly there was this short excerpt from the end of Archbishop Denis Hart's reflection...

It is the sentence, "There are always positives in every situation", which attracts me. Yes, Denis, I agree. Every single situation we encounter in life is a mix of positives and negatives. Every decision we make has am upside and a downside — a benefit and a cost. Very often the costs far outweigh the benefits and very often its the other way about. In those cases its it the overwhelming evidence on with side as to whether there is going to be a net cost, or net benefit, that helps us in forming our judgment as to whether we should act in one way or the other. The important point, often lost sight of though, is that in moments of tragedy — when we are subjected to some ill of some kind, often not through our own fault, it always well to remember that buried in amongst all the blackness there will always be a positive somewhere. We need to find that to retain our sanity — and to use it as a first rung to climb out of whatever pit we are in. It's something we might bear in mind amidst the institutional tragedy presently engulfing the Church. This is different to putting one's head in the sand and refusing to listen to the realities of what the world is saying to us. The present crisis engulfing the institution does also present 'unprecedented opportunity'. It will be "all solved" just so long as the right person says the right words. (I don't pretend to know what those words are. And I think there are a number of people who might utter them to bring about healing.

A number of comments by other bishops I found perceptive — and, interestingly, said in language that I think does intersect with where most of the mainstream are at today in their thinking — but, in particular, I'd just like to leave you today with the entire second section of what Bishop Gerard Hanna from Wagga Wagga Diocese had to say...

I increasingly like this guy. His reflection might be read, or listened to, as a reflection on what we see as "religion gone wrong" at the moment. Christ came to redeeem "the whole world" — not just the Pharisees ... or just the 5% who think they alone have all the answers!

Cathy, thanks for your thoughts also.

Brian Coyne
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