Working Together

The following is the talk presented by Fr. Seán O’ Sullivan, Diocese of Cork & Ross at the launch of the Pastoral Plan on Sunday, 27th September, 2009

Looking to Christ for Inspiration.

Good afternoon. I’d like to begin by thanking the Diocesan Pastoral Council for their kind invitation to join you today. I’ve been asked to try to place this new pastoral plan, Christ our Hope, in a faith context; in other words, to try to tease how this plan fits into our vision of faith and who we believe God to be. I love the fact that you have chosen to call your pastoral plan ‘Christ our Hope’ not only for the reasons Bishop Murphy outlines in its introduction but because deep down I truly believe that in Christ, in what we know of Jesus and of his life, we can find a way forward that allows us to face the challenges of the coming years with confidence and full of hope.

St Paul captures the essence of Christ when he describes him as the ‘image of the unseen God’ [Col 1:28]. In other words he says that in Jesus we are offered a glimpse into the very life and nature of God: in Christ we get to see into the very heart of God. When we begin to look at the life of Christ in the gospels one thing that jumps out at me time and time again is that there is much more to this story than just Jesus. Jesus is the one we see, the actor on the stage as it were, but behind the scenes there is so much more involved.

We hear of Jesus:

• being led by the Spirit
• being filled with the Spirit
• We hear Jesus promising the gift of that same Spirit to his followers to continue his work.

And we constantly hear Jesus talking of the one he calls Abba, Father, saying things like:

• I have come not to do my will but the will of the one who sent me.
• The Father and I are one.
• I am in the Father and the Father is in me.
• I say nothing of my own accord. What I say the Father has taught me [John 8:28]

Time and time again Jesus seems to go out of his way to say ‘Look! It’s not just about me. It’s also about the Father and the Spirit. It’s about all of us and what we are together.’ In other words, at the heart of the gospel we find the simple but profound truth that community and relationship, togetherness are at the very heart of who God is. We can’t begin to understand who God is unless we take seriously the fact that the God in whom we believe, the God in whose name we gather, is not an isolated supreme being out there somewhere all by himself: God is a community of persons, in which each person is constantly giving themselves to each other. To put it simply, it’s in God’s nature to be in relationship, to be a community. Everything that we see in the life of Jesus confirms that this is simply how God is.

As soon as we look at the life of Jesus we discover God as a community of Father, Son and Spirit. If we look a little closer at the life of that community, certain characteristics begin to emerge:

• Firstly, we see that not everyone in this community is the same. The Father, Son and Spirit are clearly different from each other and that’s a strength not a weakness. They play very different roles but each of those roles is vital. Each needs the other. Ask yourself: Are the Spirit and the Son exactly the same? No! Clearly not! Is the part played by the father any less important than that played by Jesus? Absolutely not! Their differences, and there are very real very real differences, far from threatening their togetherness actually enhances it for this is a community built on unity, not uniformity. Differences are respected, differences are valued.
• Secondly we see that everything they do is inspired by a common goal, driven by a common purpose: St John says that common goal is that ‘we might have life and have it to the full.’ It is that common goal, that common purpose that drives them forward and yet holds them together.
• Lastly we see that this is a community built on trust and a shared sense of responsibility. There are no slackers: everybody plays their part. Each trusts the others. No one is looking over anyone else’s shoulder.

That is the God the gospels reveal to us. This is the unseen God revealed in the life of Jesus. It is in the name of this community, Father, Son and Spirit that we are baptized. It is in that name that we come to prayer each time we bless ourselves. This is our God even if it isn’t always how we think of God. And it seems to me that God’s strength and God’s power, which is ultimately the basis of all our hope, stems from the coming together of these elements. God is strong precisely because God is a community, is constantly in relationship, respects difference while working together towards a common goal, all the while trusting one another and sharing the responsibility together.

That’s all very well but you might well ask ‘What does that all mean for us?’
‘What help, if any, is that as you seek to respond to the challenges facing the diocese in the coming years?’

I would suggest that seeing God in this way, seeing God first and foremost as a community, can’t but transform how we think of ourselves as Church. We can’t say that ‘God is community’ and then say ‘But that doesn’t affect us.’ It has to because as people of faith we look to God not simply to learn about God but rather to learn from God. In other words it is to God we turn for inspiration, it is to God we look for direction, it is to God we look for a way forward. And now more than ever we need to do that again: we need a renewed vision of God if we are to discover a new vision for being Church.

If we believe that this is what God is like, and we believe that not only are we created in God’s image but that we are called to live in God’s likeness, then surely it must mean that this is also what we are called to, that this is what we should aspire to. This is what being Church should be about. Any person who looks at the Church should see a community trying to live up to these values: they should see a community striving to imitate the God that we profess. If ever we are to heal the terrible hurts and wrongs of the past and learn from them, if we want to ensure that our Church becomes a community in which all feel cared for, cherished and valued equally then we must let God’s own life become our model and inspiration.

Perhaps what we are being called to is to move away from a situation where we simply are part of the Church to one where we feel we belong to Church because, as you know well, there’s a world of difference between simply ‘being part of’ something and feeling you belong to something.

Think of different groups or organizations that you have been part of down through the years. I’m sure that at times we’ve all being part of groups where we felt we were only making up the numbers: we didn’t really feel involved, we didn’t feel we had a say in what was done or how it was done: we were expected to fit in, and if we went along with it was probably because we were interested in what was in it for ourselves, what we can get out of it.

Contrast that to what it feels like when we belong to something, when we truly feel we belong. When we belong we’re not just making up the numbers. We feel respected and valued, we feel we have something to contribute, we feel that who we are and what we can contribute really matter. We can be ourselves but we’re concerned not just about ourselves. We genuinely care about the wellbeing of everyone in the group and so we all pull together, we even make sacrifices, not because we have to, not because someone makes us not because we feel connected to the group and want the best for everyone in it. When we feel we belong to something, it feels right, doesn’t it? It feels like this is how things are meant to be. And it is. It feels right because that is how things were meant to be. Because when we belong, when we truly live as community, we become that which we were ever and always meant to be: the living image and likeness of God.

Maybe that hasn’t always been our experience of Church. I know that I haven’t always experienced that deep sense of connectedness and belonging. Maybe people haven’t always experienced it from me. But there have been moments, glorious moments, when I have felt that sense of community, that sense of belonging, which made me feel ‘Yes, this is what it is about. This is what we are meant to be.’ And it is those moments that make me want to continue as part of Church, they fill me with hope of what we can be. Such a church is indeed possible. We must never lose that hope. Not only is it possible, in fact it’s vital. Christ is indeed our hope because he has allowed us to glimpse into the heart of God and in so doing has shown us the way forward and the way forward is to imitate the life and values we see in God.

Only when we build a Church that embraces who God is and seeks to reflect what we see in the life of God, only when we strive to be a community that encourages participation and fosters a real sense of ‘belonging:’ only when we see ourselves and our parishes as interdependent rather than independent; only when we are willing to set aside personal and parochial self-interests in the name of what is best for all; then and only then claim we claim to be ‘Pobal Dé’ : that wonderfully rich way that Irish has for speaking of the Church. Pobal Dé: not just the people of God in the sense of those who believe in God but Pobal De in the sense of a people formed in God’s own image. Only when we seek to imitate the life that we see in God’s own self will God’s strength become our strength and will we be truly be ready for the challenges of the future.

In many ways the logo for the Pastoral Plan captures that sense of community, that sense of togetherness, that sense of belonging. It represents everything that we should be. It also reminds me of a simple activity that was always the starting point of the children’s programme in a parish where I worked for a number of years in Peru. When the children of the area would come to the parish centre for the first time, the very first thing that would happen is that they would be gathered in a circle, just like shown in the symbol, and invited to hold hands, almost as though they were playing ‘Ring-a-ring-a-Rosie.’ They were asked to close their eyes and imagine that God was at the centre of the circle. Then they were invited to imagine themselves getting close to God, but without letting go of each other’s hands. I still remember vividly how they would rush to the centre, and the circle would get smaller and smaller until you would be afraid that they would crush each other. The catechist would then ask the children what had they noticed happening as they imagined themselves getting close to God. They would think for a moment and almost invariably someone would reply that the closer they came to God the closer they came to each other. The catechist would next ask them: Can we see God? And they would think about it for a while and gradually accept that no, they couldn’t in fact see God. Finally the catechist would ask them if they couldn’t see God was there any way of knowing they were close to God. And almost always some one of them would say: We can know we are close to God if we are close to each other.

That activity may seem like a gimmick and maybe it is. But it was those children’s introduction to what it meant to be Church and it was the foundation for everything that followed: The closer we are to each other, the closer we are to God. The more we grow into community the more fully we will reflect the life of God, the perfect community in whose image we are created.

Your new pastoral plan is about helping to create the conditions where such community can flourish. May it help you to grow closer to God by growing closer to one another.

Thank You.