A tribute to a quintessential Aussie Archbishop...

In the Gospel of John is a wonderful picture of the disciple whom Jesus loved, often called the Beloved Disciple. Much ink has been spent trying to unravel the identity of this disciple, yet the anonymity remains. We are invited in to understand ourselves as the one whom Jesus loved, the beloved, and to be an intimate of the community of love. Equally we can see in that figure those around us who by their lives attest to being the disciple Jesus loved and who are model of how we can be in that friendship with Jesus.

One such person is celebrating his 80th birthday this week: Emeritus Archbishop Leonard Faulkner. I am not sure how well he is known outside of South Australia although I believe the people of Townsville hold him in their hearts. For South Australians, particularly those in the Adelaide Archdiocese, Leonard Faulkner is friend and pastor. He is a man of the people and at the heart of his life is prayer that has unfolded his relationship with Jesus and with God. He gathers around him some of the most marginalized including those who suffer with AIDS and a crowd of intellectually disabled young people. When people speak of their encounter with him it is of his personal interest in them as an individual, recognizing their dignity and worth, being concerned for them, listening, caring and loving.

Raymond Brown in his book 'A Retreat with John the Evangelist' (Cincinnati: St Anthony Messenger Press, 1998) suggests that the disciple whom Jesus loved grew into his understanding of Jesus and 'that his life as a follower of Jesus for decades after the resurrection brought an ever deepening understanding and love.'

Emeritus Archbishop Leonard Faulkner speaks easily of his prayer life and now at eighty remarks of his morning walk and his conversation with God asking God to hold him in the palm of God's hand. The image is reminiscent of the closeness of the Disciple whom Jesus Loved at the last supper. At a mass to celebrate his birthday the tributes to Emeritus Archbishop Leonard Faulkner included one of his favourite prayers that he still prays daily after eucharist: the prayer of John Henry Cardinal Newman

Dear Jesus,
Help me to spread your fragrance everywhere I go,
Flood my soul with your spirit and light.
Penetrate and possess my whole being so utterly,
That all my life may only be a radiance of you.
Shine through me and be so in me
That every soul I come in contact with
May feel your presence in my soul.
Let them look up and see no longer me,
But only Jesus.

Stay with me, and then I shall begin to shine as
You shine, so to shine as to be a light to others.
The light, O Jesus will be all from you.
None of it will be mine.
It will be you shining on others through me
Let me thus praise you in the way in which you
Love best by shining on those around me.

Let me preach you without preaching
- not by words - but by example,
the catching force,
the sympathetic influence of what I do,
the evident fullness of the love my heart bears to you.
Amen.

In praying this with him it is obvious that he has made his life a prayer, this prayer. In his example of his life and prayer and his relationship with Jesus and God there is great encouragement to us to come to know Jesus more closely, to enter into friendship, to read the scriptures and learn about the compassion and love of God page by page, and to pray.

Leonard Faulkner is an icon in the very best sense of the word. He is a reminder of how important it is to us to have a living model of beloved discipleship. If you have not been privileged to meet this man then hopefully there is someone in your realm of encounter who emulates holiness, wisdom, gentleness and love, in deep friendship with Jesus, as the disciple Jesus loved.

Rosemary

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©2006Rosemary Canavan

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