Sometimes, when we are clearing out the attic, we come across a dusty cardboard box full, apparently, of junk.

Out of curiosity, we go through the long forgotten items and suddenly, near the end of our search, we find a long lost treasure.

This is treasure, not in the financial sense, but something that meant a lot to our personal story, something that we mislaid on the way and had in fact forgotten about.

 As we sift through the collection of faith experiences of a life time, we can get the same sense of surprise and wonderment. Different experiences are treasures at different times. They help us on our way, we grow because of them, we value the opportunity they gave to each of us. And we move on.  

It is not a matter of rejection but a question of growth. Too often we hang on to a particular experience rather as a child does to a comfort blanket. It does of course take courage to let go, and sometimes we are fearful of the risk. We are experiencing something of that in the Church in our times, for there are those whose personal fragility prevents movement as they look back over their shoulder to a supposed golden age of belief and practice that is no longer there. It would be impossible for us to practice our faith in the Risen Lord as earlier Christians did. We are a different people in a changed world. But that doesn’t fracture our faith, it asks us to look at it through contemporary eyes.           

Walbert Buhlmann, in his book The Coming of the Third Church , first published in 1974 writes:  

“Renewal is a continuous process, just as life renews itself all the time, or else arterio-sclerosis sets in as a sign of the approaching end. The Council was not a finish, but a fresh start, a thrust forward, after which the post-conciliar Church must go bravely on her way”  

A seminal book, whose comments nearly forty years are more than relevant to our lives today. Kevin Kelly  expressed a similar view when he said in his book “50 years receiving Vatican II” , published in 2012, that ”The Council is a process, not an event”  

The art of making a success of a long journey is to take with you what you need, use what is necessary at a particular time, leave it behind and carry on. The challenge comes in making the selection, of recognising what we should keep in order that we might be sustained and then setting out afresh each morning with a lightened load  

Relieved of the clutter, re-focused by the found fragments of lost treasure, the story continues.

 Accept    

Accept

My

     Silence

Accept

My

     Stillness

Accept

My

     Self

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