To be read out at all Masses
Sunday 21 November 2004
My dear brothers and sisters in the diocese
One of the most popular books last Christmas (some of you are bound to have received a copy) was called Eats Shoots and Leaves. The book is really about punctuation, and the title is based on the old joke about the Giant Panda in the caf. Forgive me if you've read the book. The Panda sits down at a table, eats his sandwich, takes a gun out, fires two shots and heads for the door. The astonished waiter asks what's happening. The Panda says, "I'm a Panda. That's what I do." He passes a copy of a wildlife book to the waiter, who finds the description of a Panda - "Large, black-and-white bear-like mammal, native to China, eats shoots and leaves."
Now that story really works best, if it works at all, as something spoken, rather than written down, because it depends on punctuation (in the book the writer has to change the joke slightly to make it work on paper). The book is about punctuation, but it does make the point that the written word and the spoken word are almost two different languages.
So I do feel sorry for any priest that has to read this out, rather than be able to play it through the church sound system. Reading other people's material is never easy, because you don't know how it was meant to sound. If you're listening to this on tape, then it's as if it's live, a living word. But when that word is put down on paper, it's almost as if it dies.
Recently I was interviewed by one of our Catholic newspapers, The Universe. I want to make it clear now that this is not a complaint about The Universe, because the journalist wrote down exactly what I said. What I seem to say that as a Church (or diocese), we don't need priests. That is what the words on paper say. "We do not need priests." This is nonsense, of course. The priest who brought all this to my attention was far too respectful to say this, but he would have been right. What I was trying to say is that there is not actually a shortage of priests, but we need to use our resources better. In speaking on the phone to the journalist I would have said, "We don't need priests," and then I should have added, "What we need more urgently is.." and so on. I apologise to those people who thought I was trying to invent a completely new Church, and to those priests who might have felt unwanted. We do need priests.
This does point to two important aspects of this sort of communication (i.e. verbal, rather than non-verbal). It depends on clarity of expression - we need to be clear in what we say - and then proper interpretation - we need to check, if we can, that we have understood what someone is trying to tell us. And interpretation is often the difficult bit. Think of that phrase from St John's gospel where Pilate says, "Truth. What is that?" Those four words can be read in any number of ways. Is Pilate being sarcastic, is he going back to previous problem he had with truth, is he trying to start a conversation with Jesus? We don't know how John meant us to read it.
In a few weeks we celebrate Christmas, when the Word of God is expressed most completely, in the person of Jesus. There has never been any doubt for true Christians about the fact that God the Father expressed this word. The question has all been about what it means.
If God has spoken, what has he said? At the third Mass of Christmas Day the gospel reading is the beginning of John's gospel, where John talks about the Word becoming flesh and coming into our world. But, he says, the world - the world that actually existed because of him - didn't accept him. The world didn't understand the word that it had heard. And still it doesn't, of course, or we wouldn't be in the mess we're in.
We'll never completely understand the Word of God. The mystery of God will never be clear to us until we stand in the presence of God himself. But we are called on to begin to try and understand what the Father said in the Word, Jesus. What does it mean? What's it all about?
On the one hand we might say we know that answer - Jesus became man to save us from our sins by dying on the cross and rising again. But wasn't there another way to do it? Couldn't he have left things the way they were until the end of time, and just sort it all out then?
We can't afford to stop trying to understand who Jesus is, and what it is he wants of us and offers us.
Listen to the voice of God this Advent. If you can - once a week even - try to find just five minutes to be alone with God and be silent. Don't recite prayers. Just be aware that God is in the room or in that place with you. It's not something we do very often or very easily, most of us, sit and do absolutely nothing. But it might allow us to hear that word of God, and be surprised at what it sounds like.
Today is National Youth Sunday. If we to ask our younger people what they thought the voice of God sounded like, I'm sure that many would say that it would be friendly, compassionate, understanding. In today's gospel reading, Jesus speaks very briefly. He is hanging on the cross and he speaks to the criminal on the cross beside him. His words are gentle, encouraging and consoling. In the middle of all his own suffering, he tells the criminal what he wants to hear. "This day you will be with me in paradise." I don't want to hear that just yet, but I do want to hear something. I'll only do that if I shut up for a moment.
I'll do that now.
I hope that you have a peaceful and reflective Advent.
With my prayers for you all.
Rt. Rev. Kieran Conry
Bishop of Arundel and Brighton
