Scripture Reflections Seeking Understanding

 Recently  a speaker I admire reflected on the opening words of the Lord's Prayer. Each time we pray, he noted, we say almost glibly, 'Our Father...'  And while much of the commentary on the Lord's prayer focuses on the word Father and the intimate relationship that God desires with us, he focused on the word Our .  He reasoned that the prayer as we know it does not refer to God as my father, but ours, with all that sharing the one father implies - namely that everyone else that knows God is my sister and brother. But do I treat all of these sisters and brothers as I would by own blood, he asked.  In my days as a school leader, I would often draw on this familial language when dealing with instances of a vulnerable students being treated as less by others. 'Every single one that wears that uniform is your brother,' I would say. 'Is this how you would want someone to treat your brother?' Generally, it had the desired impact. But again, it limited the brea...

 In a couple of weeks, we will come up to the anniversary of the late Pope Francis' apostolic visit to Indonesia. It was a remarkable occasion of interreligious dialogue and friendship between people of different faiths, and it was the next in a line of papal acts reaching out to other faiths to affirm our common search for truth, meaning and peace. From John XXIII's extraordinary embrace of the Eastern Primate in 1958, to Paul VI meeting the Orthodox Patriarch in Jerusalem in 1963, John Paul II praying with the Chief Rabbi at the Western Wall in 2000, and Pope Benedict joining the Grand Mufti at prayer in the Blue Mosque in Constantinople in 2006. Each of these was an encounter with people of faith who may not know God in the way that the Catholic faith does, but who seek God, nonetheless.  It was extraordinary then to hear faithful Catholics decrying Pope Francis as a heretic when he affirmed, as his predecessors had for more than sixty years, that God is for everyone, and t...

 As we head into the last weeks of winter in Australia and prepare for Spring, notifications are already beginning to pop up of planned, hazard reduction burns in and around our more heavily populated areas of the country. These burns reduce the amount of undergrowth that would allow fires to spread quickly in drier months, endangering property and life. But they come at a cost of their own, reducing the fuel load on the ground before it dries out means a lot of smoke and cooler overnight temperatures mean that the smoke settles. For those with respiratory issues it means days of discomfort, but if the choice is between discomfort and devastation, smoky days are the lesser of two evils by far.  There is another advantage to these controlled burns that was well known to the first people of this land as well. Clearing brush promotes new growth and, in the Australian context, fire temperatures are required to break open the hard seed pods of many of our native plants.  In th...

There is an advertisement on television at the moment for a particular brand of fried chicken that starts out with a familiar Hollywood trope. Two young men are surveying the scene of last night's party. I n a mild panic  they begin rushing to clean everything up before mum and dad get home. Then, one of them then spots the advertisement for a chicken deal in a magazine that's been knocked to the floor.  Cut to the young men reveling in fried chicken that is so good, that they forget all about cleaning up the night before.  And about the trust that has been placed in them by their parents.  In the Gospel this Sunday Jesus reassures his disciples that there is no need to worry - that God's kingdom is open to them. But, at the same time He seems to chide them with an extended parable about a steward that becomes distracted from his duties, takes advantage of the trust placed in him, and mistreats his fellow servants. Don't rely on there still being time to make amends,...