Catholica Commentary by Tom McMahon: Sacraments for a Technological Age! Part 7

Sacrament in an Age of Technology — an unscheduled stop in the series

Tom McMahon's imaginery choo-choo train, The Polar Express, which has been whisking us through these series looking at priesthood and the meaning of sacrament today, takes a small unscehduled stop today. It's partly triggered by the events in Sydney for World Youth Day but also because Tom is planning a visit here to celebrate his 80th Birthday next year. He's been boning up on a bit of our history. Despite the train stop, the commentary still has things to say about the meaning of sacrament.

An unscheduled stop in this series caused by the events in Australia for WYD…

As the power revs up on our imaginary Polar Express waiting to throttle forward to station MARRIAGE this pseudo conductor and fellow writer/rider has some troubling thoughts; my uneasiness is founded in a paper entitled "The Australian Religious Landscape through the Eyes of World Youth Day 2008". I am profoundly aware that as an American, I am far distant from Australian shores and perhaps too innocent of Australian history and the struggles of the present day People of God. I have been mightily informed by Bishop Geoffrey Robinson, Michael Morwood, Paul Collins, and Brian Coyne and Catholica Australia; I shudder as I reread James Denny's 19th Century description of Australia, "the most godless place under heaven". I have a large stake in disputing this.

Finding common ground with the Australian experience…

Convicts being sent to Australia
Thomas Rowlandson (1756–1827)
[Convicts Embarking for Botany Bay] [c.1800]
pen and wash drawing;
17.3 x 15.7 cm
Rex Nan Kivell Collection,
Pictures Collection,
nla.pic-an5601547

My Irish foreparents are Potato Famine Era. A decade ago I first heard tenor Frank Patterson sing of the fields of Athenry … "It's so lonely on the fields of Athenry…" and I copied his theme in a paper about the loneliness of priests, writing "the young Irishman in the song 'Athenry' is arrested and exiled to the penal colonies of Australia accused of stealing corn to feed his family; exile by inhuman law would be condemned by Jesus Christ and if you bishops are supposed followers and teachers of the Man in justice speak up for your priests who struggle with their exile from the human race…". I have read that if the DNA in the human body was typed out on 8x12 sheets the paper would reach higher than the Washington Monument, which stands at 555 ft; somewhere in my DNA is the story of a young McMahon family man, circa 1845, being arrested for stealing a sheep to feed his family, and his deportation to Botany Bay … "it's so lonely on the fields of Athenry …" I have a sense that God went with my cousin, perhaps not the institutional church which denied sacraments to these "criminals" for 15 years; as the articles says: "it was a church of laity"……."the first Australian Catholics were convicts, mostly Irish"……."The first public Mass was said by James Dixon, himself a convict having been deported after giving assistance to Irish rebels." Oh, I love it! Jesus kept alive by feisty Irish laity and a rebel priest.

I hope to visit Australia for my 80th birthday. I will seek out the gravesite of my distant relative, who made it big in the sheep business; I will also have an eye for the sacraments, those sacred signs, used by the exiles to connect to God while they were denied use of the seven Roman Catholic sacraments overseen by Cardinal Paul Cullen and prissy roman authority. Cullen's aim was to make his clergy proper Englishmen.

Discussing the meaning of sacrament with a dying cancer patient...

Today I will pay my second visit to a dying cancer patient; Sarah came home from hospital yesterday to die at home with her family in Hospice care. Before leaving hospital Sarah asked her children to contact me, arranging to drop by and perhaps offer sacraments. Sarah and I go back 35 years, an overly conscientious woman married to an abusive alcoholic with whom I have had on going contact. Sarah and I talked of death, my Mother's, Jesus', mine, hers and I encouraged her to look back rather than bother with the coming after life; I reminded her how a God of love has surrounded her with her children and grandchildren and her own pleasant, gentle person … God has been sacramentally fleshy (sacred, special) to her whole life … and Sarah smiled so sweetly as she closed her eyes in peace. Sarah easily accepted God was/is her friend; together we acknowledged God as eternal and we as mortal with only a limited use of the gift of life and Sarah in peace said she was ready to return the gift to her loving Maker. We agreed that Sarah had used her gift well; I told her my story of John the 23rd telling us about his reporting at death to God that he had given life a great try. Sarah told me she had received the host in hospital from a stranger; after my explanation of how I see her family anointing her (calling in the senior citizens — and kids — according to James's epistle, an issue we will take up later in this series) and the joyous common-union with her loved ones Sarah told me she saw no reason for me to arrange for the local church to bring her communion and anointing. The family will not call in the local parish priest to conduct her funeral. The simple family process accompanying her exiting life is triumphal and godly.

The Spirit of a freeing Jesus…

I read today that the pope has instructed people who come to him for communion to kneel and take the host on their tongue. I just can't imagine Jesus telling the blind begger, or any other Gospel characters, to get on his knees so that Jesus might be touched, carefully. I have no want to rain on the pope's parade; no further comments here. I have a sense that that the rugged Aussie lay spirit of the 1800's will show up and Rome may be sorry. Are Australians being forced back into spiritual dependency on their own know how? The Spirit of a freeing Jesus seems to be afoot.

The Pope is saying Mass in Sydney as I write and in respect I shall end this article; the Australians have a full table to deal with and I have no drive to butt in. Those of us who have a memory for WW1 and Gallipoli have a great respect for the courage and obedience of those down under. I hope that bright minds such as I find on Catholica Australia will see the value of a clear understanding of obedience, the original 4th century Benedict's version of promising that one listens carefully to one's superiors while maintaining the right to disagree. Benedict's rule was set up to achieve harmony and to avoid tyranny. Jesus is no tyrant.

I'll hold the Polar Express at the station, ready to race forward to the sacrament of Marriage. May Australia have happy days

Tom McMahon, San Jose, who feels like I have relatives down under. 19/07/2008

Image Credits: The image of the Polar Express from the movie of the same name has been sourced from san-diego.siggraph.org. The image of convicts embarking for Botany Bay is a National Library of Australia photo. Details provided in the caption.

Tom McMahon, ordained in 1954 and now married, lives a very fulfilled life in San Jose and continues to contribute voraciously to several Catholic discussion lists in the States. He has been an enthusiastic supporter and encourager of the Catholica initiative from the very beginning.

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