Author: Martin

I think most people would accept that – assuming God exists – our knowledge of (Him) is hugely constrained by our own human limitations. God is mystery, and mystery is simply those realities that are beyond our ability to explain.

That said, there are I think two things we can state about God which are relatively incontestable:

~ God is eternal, with no beginning or end;

~ God is entirely self-sufficient, needing nothing outside of (Him)self.

These two aspects spring from what is the very notion of a divine being.

In regard to the second aspect, that God must be completely self-sufficient in Himself (that is: needing nothing outside of His own being to fulfil His existence), I want to suggest that this aspect directly leads on to another crucial point about God:

~ God cannot be one person.

One of the key revelations and strengths of Christianity is that Jesus’ life and teaching emphasises God’s love. Love is at the centre of the Christian Gospel. St John in his first letter actually states that “God is love” (1 John 4: 8). This is the essence of God’s nature, and what we know of authentic love is that it must be expressed to another. There is no solitary in love. And it follows that relationship is fundamental here, whether one to one, one to many, or many to many.

If God, who is love, is to be utterly self-sufficient, then God must be a community. Period.

There is no getting around this truth. And even if God’s nature wasn’t love, it surely follows that any being who is posited as entirely self-sufficient, must be in a relationship to at least one other being? If God was hate – God forbid! – He would still need another to hate! Otherwise He would be very frustrated indeed!

What I’m trying to say here is that God – any divine being – must be ‘multiple’. He/She/It/They must be in a relationship. It cannot be otherwise! A lone divine being who is self-sufficient is illogical and patent nonsense.

We should not be surprised therefore that Christianity, stressing love, teaches that God is indeed a community, a trinity of three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who are so deeply united in an eternal mutual love relationship that they effectively are also a unity: three in one.

The Holy Trinity is of course a profound mystery in its own right and impossible for us humans to properly understand. It certainly is mystery, but we can begin to see that it does make sense – it has to be so, if ‘God’ is ever to be self-sufficient in His own essence. God has to be in an eternal relationship within His own reality. He – forgive the limitations of human language here – has never needed anything or anyone outside of His inner community. Never ever.

That of course leads us to another astonishing fact, stemming from Jesus’ teaching:

~ God did not need us.

He did not need to initiate the drama of Creation. He certainly did not need to create humanity. It follows that we can only be: the overflowing of His love. If we exist at all, it is because of His free decision and delight to share His love with us. That’s worth meditating on…

One God. Three persons. Eternally united in perfect love. Utterly self-sufficient and complete in their own community. Our world and our place in it, and our destiny: their irrevocable and free choice to share their ever-lasting bliss. Praise God!

Martin

Some years ago a saintly aunt of mine passed away at the venerable age of ninety-seven. She was truly a holy and devout soul who not only went to daily mass but also kept a welcoming home and always a cheery smile though she had been widowed for many years. Her funeral was a glorious, and I mean glorious, celebration of a life well lived and the victory of our Christian faith.

The reason I mention her here is that one of her sons gave a wonderful panegyric at the funeral mass, and he recalled how an acquaintance had asked her how she could possibly remain a faithful Catholic after all the terrible clerical child abuse revelations and especially after the Church had compounded the evil by trying to protect its image rather than minister to the victims. Her reply was succinct and – I believe – inspired by the Holy Spirit:

“God did nothing wrong”.

In her reply she didn’t try to excuse the Church nor indeed to minimise the awful life-wounds inflicted on innocent and vulnerable children by those who abused a sacred trust. Rather she ‘reset’ the accusation implied by the questioner. Surely the intent of the question was: why on earth, as a reasonable and moral person, had she not given up on the Church? Her wisdom indicated that no matter how sinful and wretched the Church can be – as let’s face it, the long history of the Church includes many shocking and murderous incidents as well as long periods of scandalous behaviour by its leaders and centuries of resistance to the voices of renewal and repentance – it is still the Church, and as such, of God.

I hesitate to try and expound on her simple but profound wisdom. To me, her attitude, born of long years of prayer and selfless devotion, is a rebuff to all those who have scorned the Church and used its evident failings to disabuse themselves from any commitment. They may well have justified their position by pointing to a Church that has spectacularly soiled its moral authority and especially damaged the integrity of its priesthood – but – as Jesus Himself said: “the gates of the underworld will never prevail against it”. That statement by Jesus is both a clear indication that the Church is never ‘finished’ but also a frank avowal of His enduring love and support for what is His spiritual body on earth.

No matter how besmirched the Church may become, and that has been excessive in recent years, it is still His Church, and beloved of God.

My brilliant and revered theology lecturer, Fr Eric Doyle OFM, used an image from the gospels which for him was a metaphor for the Church: the woman taken in adultery (John 8: 3 – 11).

In this gospel incident, which the Jewish authorities were using to trap and incriminate Jesus, it is clear that the woman’s sin was not in doubt. Feminists may well ask where was the man in all this – well, that probably says more about a very patriarchal and male dominated society and befits a separate discussion. Anyway, in the story the poor woman is cast down before Jesus – guilty as charged. The crowd wanted to see if Jesus would condemn her and thus ruin His reputation for mercy, or to see if He would let her go and thereby disobey the Mosaic Law and compromise His legitimacy as a prophet. The trap was set for Him and the woman was their pawn. Jesus of course ‘reset’ the accusation and famously declared: “Let him who is without sin cast the first stone”. And the crowd slunk away.

The point of this story for Eric was that the sinful woman is an image of the Church. She stands condemned by the ‘world’, and with some justice for all her many sins, but Jesus will never write her off, and at the end of time will say in love: “Where are your accusers? Neither will I condemn you.”

If you are a Catholic, practising or not, then you, and I, are the Church! Instead of condemning or abandoning it we need to take responsibility for renewing and healing the Church, both locally and globally. Let’s make the effort to discern what the Holy Spirit is asking of us?

Pope Francis is calling a synod in 2023 and he wants to hear from ordinary Catholics on their feelings for the Church, warts and all. Perhaps something we should take seriously and get involved in?

in the merciful love of Jesus,

Martin

Many years ago when I was working as a priest I visited the home of an elderly man. Having seen my priestly collar he eyed me warily and hesitated before he let me in. After some patient encouragement he told me his story. He was ten years old in a Catholic school and had been hauled out in front of the entire class by an irate priest because he couldn’t properly answer a catechism question. For ten minutes the priest lambasted and humiliated him in front of his peers. As I watched him speak I knew from his eyes he was back there in that class, and the pain and humiliation was as raw now as it was then, well over seventy years ago. He finished his tale and told me bluntly that as soon as he was able he had never set foot inside a church ever again.

And here I was, inviting him to attend a week of church services! What could I say to him? How could I begin to apologise and acknowledge the wrong and the hurt that had been done to him? Acknowledge maybe – heal his hurt? No chance.

I’m old enough to remember the way the Catholic faith was taught back then and the awful lack of awareness, denial even, of basic human dignity and children’s development. I myself endured some bad experiences and was also hauled in front of a primary school class and publicly harangued – ironically not for a religious issue: looking back with adult hindsight, the teacher had unresolved anger issues and I – innocently – had lit her fuse. In many ways religion just mirrors wider societal mores, and it was a time of unquestioned authority and a black and white morality. Surely religion should be better than this?

Perhaps that’s why so many people today say things like:

          “I’m not anti God – I’m anti religion”;

          “I’m spiritual, but I don’t need to go to church”.

Many of these folk had religious upbringings and sadly, like the old man, had experienced traumas and the humanly negative and abusive ways that religion was presented and lived at that time – never mind the awful testimonies of those who were abused by ministers of religion. These attitudes against religion are therefore understandable but – I have to say – regrettable.

I say regrettable because faith in God is not and can not ever be a private matter. It is not a case of ‘me and God’, or even ‘God and me’ – rather it is ‘God and us’. If only for the need to pass on the faith to the next generation, we cannot be lone believers. If God’s will means anything to us then we should make the effort to discern what He expects of us. As a Christian, I know that Jesus founded a Church, and that this Church has to have a real and human manifestation as well as a spiritual heart. All relationships are meaningless if they are not celebrated and quality time given to each other.

God of course matters. But so does religion. Let’s define religion as ‘people worshipping God’, and wherever there are people there are good and bad elements. I lament many of the aspects of religion and of my own Catholic Church, but I still love the Church and leaving it is never the answer – rather, let us work to renew the Church because we are the Church!

I believe that God is calling us to church. Not necessarily the Catholic Church or even a Christian denomination – but let our faith be warm, vibrant and… shared!

I know that that old man is with God now, but how much more wonderful if, in his life, he had been given the encouragement to live his faith within a welcoming and inclusive Church,

Martin

Many non believers are incredulous (no pun intended) that there are people who believe in the God of Jesus. With widespread education, scientific advances and so much knowledge at our fingertips, they are amazed that some folk still hold on unprovable notions of a god and a supernatural world. “Seeing is believing” as the saying goes.

As such, many nowadays hold religion in all its myriad forms – forms that often rival and contradict each other – as irrational gobbledygook. Some would consider faith in a divine being to be the refuge of the mentally challenged – a pathetic panacea for those who are incapable of facing life’s ups and downs. “Pie in the sky” indeed.

For me, the Good News of Jesus, as laid out in the New Testament and interpreted by the Church through many centuries, is not irrational. But neither is it simply rational. It is supra-rational. By that I mean that it can never be proved, but it does not follow that there is no inherent logic to Jesus’ message.

There is both a logic to the Gospel – based of course on certain foundational suppositions – and also a profound resonance with what is most central to our human nature. So we can profess a logic and a correlation with our innermost and universal drives.

One fundamental supposition, without which the Christian faith doesn’t make any sense, is that we are created by God as immortal. As such we will never cease to exist and the reality that we call ‘death’ is simply a transition from one state into another: the departure from this life of limited years and its mix of joys and sorrows, and the arrival at the proper destination that God has intended for us. The departure from a temporary but crucial span of existence, and the entry into the permanent and unending span that is our true destiny. A tale of two lives…

Whether we believe this or not, we should still be able to understand that – if this is so – then religious concepts such as sacrifice, martyrdom and redemption can begin to make sense, and that they do have a fundamental logic. For the Christian, this life matters, but it is always coloured by the prospect of the life to come. And the virtue of ‘hope’ begins to take on a profound significance as we look towards heaven and – crucially – it gives a lift to our life here and now. Hope is fixed on the future but its value is found in what it does for us now. Authentic faith should always celebrate the present moment.

It is also important to state that, as well as having a real logic and coherence – based on faith in Jesus’ words – the Good News correlates with what is at the core of our nature. By this I mean our universal desire for happiness, and for that happiness to endure for as long as possible. What person, if they’re honest, doesn’t want unending happiness? Without faith in a loving God, our expectations are hugely limited: life tells us that joy can be fleeting and even the most wonderful experiences and relationships will come to an end. The Good News of Jesus is that our desires can be completely fulfilled: we can achieve eternal bliss – indeed, this destiny is already given to us by our Father God. His free gift.

If we grasp the Good News and accept its basic conditions, then we may not have all the answers – who does? – but our life will make sense and it will hold out the most wonderful prospect that enables our spirits to soar above this life’s vicissitudes.

I have to wonder just how many believers really absorb this truth rather than just ‘going through the motions’ of religious practice? The Gospel of Jesus is indeed Good News!

In His love,

Martin

While there may be some folk who go through life relatively unscathed I think it’s a simple fact that most of us experience suffering of varying degrees, and for some this suffering can amount to devastating, debilitating and life-limiting traumas. And yet the Gospel of Jesus proclaims a God who is a tender loving father – both the Lord and Cause of all Creation and also the attentive and intimate abba of our hearts. How then can we reconcile the hard evidence of life with a supposedly almighty and all-loving God who frankly doesn’t seem to care, if He exists at all?

This question has of course dogged all religions who posit an almighty being, and many are the answers supplied by these religions, with some it has to be said downright pessimistic. Christianity has supplied a number of such theories and certainly for the Catholic tradition there is a long held doctrine of God allowing suffering, even sending suffering, to somehow temper and burnish our souls so that we become better and more resolute disciples. As such, God could remove our suffering but He doesn’t want to because He sees a greater purpose. Hmmm. Not that impressed. Are you?

For me, God detests suffering. He hates to see us suffer. He never sends suffering – what loving father ever would? So how can I profess faith in this all-loving and all-powerful God when there is so much pain and evil in our world?

The truth as I see it is simply this: in this life God has effectively tied His hands behind His back, and is therefore practically impotent! God has restricted His power simply because He will not compromise our freedom – our freedom to choose love or to reject love. If I hold a gun to another’s head and am about to pull the trigger, God cannot intervene to stop me. Almighty God is therefore unmighty God as far as this life is concerned. It may seem a paradox but His seeming absence and lack of intervention is the very proof of His love!

Love in absentia? Perhaps this also seems somewhat cold and uncaring? St John in his first letter tells us that God is love, the very perfection of love. When we suffer, God suffers too, and He suffers more keenly than we ever could. He suffers the entire weight of all human suffering. How could it be otherwise for love? Every hair on our head is counted. He misses nothing. He feels everything. Everything matters to Him. Yet He cannot intervene. He cannot ‘pull strings’. The Almighty is impotent in this world. This fundamental truth doesn’t seem to be emphasised by the Churches…

In my poem “Unmighty God”, I present the image of a desperate father at his sick child’s bedside, waiting for someone else to come, someone who can help his child. This father is God – who can only wait, and suffer, hoping that another will come and intervene. This image acknowledges both God’s impotence and the sole occasion when He can – through a human person’s willingness – work in our world. And so, we are His hands, His voice, His heart of love. If we are not there for Him, as in, prepared for love and service, then He is stymied. This is our dignity, but of course it comes at a price: His seeming absence.

God is of course almighty, and a day will come, when our life’s journey is over and at death we will see and know Him as He is, and in that life to come He will not be shackled as now. He will then heal us, He will comfort us, He will redeem us. Until then He has to reluctantly permit evil and suffering to have their day. He can and does use suffering – perhaps better to say that we are seldom as stretched as when we work through our pain. But let no one pretend that He somehow prefers it so.

Love demands freedom. Our freedom demands that God stand back and give us space, in good times and bad. Be in no doubt of His enduring love and His faithful determination to bring us home to His eternal kingdom of bliss.

Martin