This week we begin a new series, ‘Who is Jesus?’. Fr Philip Carter leads us to reflect on the person of Jesus and the stories of Jesus as they speak into our own lives.
The images and music accompanying the meditations show responses to the person of Jesus from different cultural perspectives.
Christianity consists of the activation of the memory of Jesus Christ in thought and practice.
Hans Kung
Jesus …not only proclaimed the parables’ message: he lived it, and embodied it in his own person.
Joachim Jeremias
Stories don’t define the truth: they describe it, or at least provide an opportunity to experience it. They alert us to mystery. Biblical stories offer us, not a propositional truth that we have to believe, but a dispositional truth, an attitude that will help us approach life with openness and expectancy. The biblical stories tap into our story: they touch us and resonate with the unique rhythm of our lives, the rhythm within, that rhythm that is the dance of the Community of Love, the Holy Trinity, in whose image we have been made.
Can you tell the “great story” in your own words –
words which activate your memory of actual experiences of God’s goodness and love?
Is there gospel story (or stories) that captures for you the essence of the “great story”?
What stories particularly appeal to you- ones you return again and again to? What stories do you avoid?
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Give the Sacred the space and time
to come and sit with you
to become intimate with your story
Noel Davis.
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We commonly speak about Holy Spirit as the source of power. But in fact he enables us not by making us supernaturally strong but by opening our eyes.
John Taylor
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We might say that the whole of life lies in the verb “to see”…To see or to perish.
Teilhard de Chardin
God is not an idea but a reality who encounters us. It is as if in the circumstances of life “We find ourselves addressed, and addressed, we find ourselves”. Jesus told parables, which by-pass logic or reason, and deliberately “shock us” into “seeing”and “waking up”. Jesus is in this sense the parable of God opening us up to possibility. We don’t need to pin this man down, or wrap him up..
Take a few moments with a story about Jesus or parable of Jesus and imagine you there, in his presence.
Imagine him looking at you, speaking directly to you.
There is no need to impose or manipulate: simply let this encounter unfold.
Pay attention to what happens: what is said: and how you feel.
Many of the stories of Jesus suggest that we cannot see.
Can I admit to not seeing clearly?
Have I the courage to admit that I have enough sight to know that I am blind?
How can I be attentive, authentic, and responsible?
Do I realize that God is already doing something before I know it?
Image credits:
‘So Loved’ by Aunty Glenny Naden
“This painting is based on the verse John 3:16, a favourite verse from Sunday School days on the mission. God loved the world so much that He gave His Son to die that we might have life. The groups on the side of the painting represent the people of the world showing all different countries. The top of the painting is the heavenly realm where God is, and a much anticipated place for all believers” Aunty Glenny Naden
Greg Weatherby, Crucifixion
Weatherby states that “my work covers mimi spirits, the Dreamtime, Christian themes of the birth, crucifixion and Last Supper,” he said. “But most of the art is about saving the environment, about looking after the environment and not screwing it up.”
Max Conlon, Birth of Jesus
Max and Tracey Conlon at CityLife Church. They are indigenous Australian church leaders who founded Walkabout Ministry. They travel and minister to many of the isolated indigenous communities across our nation.
For a printable PDF of the text of this meditation please click the link below.
