Monday, March 9, 2015

When I got home........


Today you came home from your day and found your street gone. In it's place is a pile of rubble and smouldering ruins. In a state of shock you stand there for a few minutes unable to quite process where your life has gone. When you finally realise that you can not stand in the streets with your screaming and confused kids, you try to find a refuge. You are surrounded by destruction and fear. No one knows what to do. You are part of a crowd of hundreds wandering trying to find safety. Money means nothing now, there is nowhere that is safe. You have to keep moving, fleeing from what is around you. Who do you trust and where can you go. You are hungry, cold, frightened and you have nothing left but each other and what you have on.

Has that got your attention. Good.

For many people this living nightmare of hell is all the life they have. They are fleeing people who want to not just kill, but maim, torture, dismember and viciously cause as much violent mayhem as they can. Others live in the middle of war zones, constantly in fear of loosing their homes or each other. Others living in refugee camps that we would not dream of ever inhabiting. Still more live on the streets around us, who but for a few bad choices or mistakes have nothing left but the cardboard box they are sleeping in. We see images and news reports but do we really see. What if it was us?

I have lived two extremes. I have been the very middle class kid at a posh school. I have been the person living off ofthe grace of others, with only enough money to buy 10p crisps for my meals. Fortunately, I did not have to suffer long and with God's grace I got my life back on track. However it gives me a some what unique insight. I know what it is to suffer, but I know what it is to be distracted by the comforts of heating, houses, food and family. It is easy to turn a blind eye when we have comfort to the suffering of others. Yet it is a very thin line between comfortable and losing it all and between war and peace. We are all a ,ot closer to disaster than maybe we would like to admit.

On Sunday we heard how Jesus overturned the tables at the temple. His Father's house had become full of distractions. So distracting that the people no longer noticed what it was they were doing wrong or no longer cared. Our lives are so full of subliminal messages that what we as Christian's know to detract from the gospel. Yet because they constantly bombard our lives we begin to get distracted, then we make excuses and then we forget. We forget our neighbours, we forget our brother Christians.

What is worse than that is we convince ourselves we are doing nothing wrong.  We have our lives, our safety and security, we do not wish to sacrifice. So we sit watch the news, say our prayers and do nothing more. That is not right. Jesus did not come and see us riddled with sin and selfishness and say "Well this life thing is kind of nice, you are not worth the sacrifice"  Jesus used his body as his Father's temple. We tore it down and he rebuilt it in three days. He suffered, was discomfited and he sacrificed. It was not pleasant, it was not easy but we will reap it's rewards for eternity.

We receive Jesus into our lives via the Sacraments. We eat that broken body and that spilt blood, that we might receive God's grace. In receiving that grace we should be willing to share it with others that we might show his love through our actions. It won't be easy, it may not be pleasant but it should involve some form of sacrifice. Not only will we change lives but we will know our God better. It does not have to be much but one extra sacrifice this Lent for those in need, will bring you closer to others and your God.