CONSCIENCE MONEY, and FIRE IN THE BELLY:

'He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.'

A Question:  By any chance, do some of our societies have people whose behaviours are actually robbing fellow-citizens? Do we have people who gladly walk all over other people, and over the public, to get ahead at all costs? By any chance, do we have people who, by their demands, put their hands in the public purse and help themselves to gross salaries?

I think every society has its quota of such behaviours. We’re no different. We cannot point the finger.

Maybe today, at this time of new beginnings, and with the Gospel that is put before us, we could recall a very useful phrase which seems to have dropped out of use,- ‘Conscience Money’.  It used to refer to money that a person paid back, probably anonymously, because of tax or other obligation avoided, and it was done to ‘relieve’ one’s conscience. There’s an acute awareness of a past or present behaviour that is morally wrong, an ignoring of the common good of all, and then, following that awakening of awareness or conscience, the consequent decision to put matters to right until the conscience is now at peace. Of course, this decision can be avoided, and the acute awareness is allowed to fade. It will not go away, of course.

Some definitions from various dictionaries: Conscience Money…

- ‘is money paid usually anonymously to relieve the conscience by restoring what has been wrongfully acquired.

-  money paid because of feelings of guilt, especially about a payment that one has evaded: (an example of such usage: ‘the country regards aid as conscience money from the West’)

-payment made voluntarily to reduce guilt over dishonest dealings

-money paid, often anonymously, to relieve one’s conscience, as for an obligation previously evaded. [1840–50]

-Money paid in compensation or atonement, as for a dishonest or morally objectionable act.

It has to do with coming to our senses, and giving proof of our repentance.

Pope Francis in our time (in his recent Apostolic Exhortation ‘Evangelii Gaudium’ or ‘The Joy of the Gospel’) , and John the Baptizer in his time (heard in today’s Gospel to us), are voices in the wilderness, speaking to those who are willing to hear, calling for repentance from immoral or humanly wrong behaviours, from grasping money, from oppressing the poor by the structures that we accept, the practices we condone in society and as societies. We are all complicit in much that is morally wrong in society, by our silence or our fears, or our own comfort. ‘The hole is not in our end of the boat, so why worry?’

Now, change ‘Pharisees and Sadducees’ to our own names and societies and the structures of commerce, banking, politics, church,- and we then listen to these words to our own selves: ‘Brood of vipers, who warned you to fly from the retribution that is to come? But if you are repentant, produce the appropriate fruit!’ ‘Even now the axe is laid to the trees, so that any tree that fails to produce good fruit will be cut down…’ Societies that do not care for all their members, for the common good,  for the little ones, the vulnerable, the weak, the elderly sick, the poor,- such societies, not matter how great or seemingly powerful, will fall by their own corruption and injustice. Justice means right relationships. If these right relationships are corrupted, the society will eventually crumble and fall. And that goes for the  church as well,- there is always the constant need to look and see and repent and change, – change hearts and change structures. Christ founded a church, a community of sinners, and that is ‘as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be.’ We are a pilgrim people, holy in our deepest humanity, and yet broken in so many ways and relationships.

And as we continue to repent and show proof of repentance by our actions, Jesus (‘the one who comes after me’ said John) will baptise us with, and steep us in, the Holy Spirit and fire,- the fire of longing for justice, for peace, for reconciliation, for right relationships, – that was in his own heart. That is the work of the Spirit, that is the ‘fire’ that is put into our bellies for the sake of our suffering and injured sisters and brothers, near and far.

A promise given, to every community of disciples.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, help us to hear the call to repent, to change our hearts, attitudes and structures, to be filled with your Spirit and the fire to be passionate about human beings, whoever and wherever they are. Teach us to listen prayerfully at this time of the approach of Christ, to your voice in our hearts, to our consciences calling to us now, as we look out at our world today.

And the new time, what will it look like? This is what is promised! This will happen!  We believe the promises made to us by the Lord!

The spirit of the LORD shall rest upon our communities:

a spirit of wisdom and of understanding,

a spirit of counsel and of strength,

a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the LORD,

and (our) delight shall be the fear of the LORD.    (See Isaiah 11:1-10)

It will be like this, when we have repented and been washed clean and filled with the Spirit and the ‘fire’ of Jesus Christ:  (and this passage is not about Animal Welfare, but about human communities and societies! it’s the dream for us, or what ‘the kingdom of God’,  God’s kind of society, will be like! )

“Then the wolf shall be a guest of the lamb,

and the leopard shall lie down with the kid;

the calf and the young lion shall browse together,

with a little child to guide them.

The cow and the bear shall be neighbours,

together their young shall rest;

the lion shall eat hay like the ox.

The baby shall play by the cobra’s den,

and the child lay his hand on the adder’s lair.

There shall be no harm or ruin on all my holy mountain;

for the earth shall be filled with knowledge of the LORD,

as water covers the sea.”

Pope John XX111, who called the Vatican Council.

‘Give us once again all the miracles and gifts of Pentecost!- the prayer of John 23^rd when he called the Council all those years ago.

‘Give us once again all the miracles and gifts of Pentecost!’ is our prayer today.

Fr. Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.

P.S. RED LETTER DAY! Find ‘Esker Redemptorists’ now on Facebook! A new day dawns!

P.S. 2: Click here for ‘Soul Food for Young Adult Communities’, for this 2nd Sunday of Advent 2013

(Readings from Year C.  Readings for this Sunday are from the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord, Year C; Isaiah 40:1-5, 9-11.  St. Paul’s Letter to Titus, 2:11-14, and 3:4-7. Gospel, St. Luke 3:15-16, 21-22. )

The Christmas tree has been taken down, the decorations are all put away, children are back at school again, and life returns to a wonderful normal again.

Or maybe, it’s not such a wonderful ‘normal’ at all: the civil war in Syria that has killed over 60,000 people by now: the gang-rape and death of that young Indian woman in Delhi. The tragic death of climber Ian McKeever on Kilimanjaro, with the lightening strike.  Deaths at our own door steps, from murder, or from house fires. Violent protests in the North of Ireland, over the Union flag. Life goes on.

And where does this feast, this celebration of the Baptism of the Lord, fit in to all of our lives today? Is there some hope, there? And what about Isaiah, and the Lord’s words ‘Console my people, console them’ says the Lord. (First Reading, today). There’s joy, there’s deliverance coming for them,-shout out without fear ‘Here is your God!’, from the mountain-tops. He will come and be like a shepherd, gathering lambs in his arms, leading the mother ewes to their rest. It’s a great passage at the start of the Second Book of Isaiah (Chapter 40, of Isaiah), when the people were almost without hope.  The Jewish people were captives in Bablyon (Iraq today) from about 582- 538 BC. The prophet tells them that their exile is nearly over, they will be going home and the Temple will be rebuilt in Jerusalem. These events were hugely significant for the Jewish people, and they did return home and the temple was rebuilt. ‘Console my people, console them!’  A wonderful reading to steep ourselves in, from the start of Chapter 40 of Isaiah. It’s uplifting.

And Paul speaks, in the Second Reading (Titus 2:11-14, and 3:4-7) about what the Lord has done for the whole human race,- bringing us home again ‘when the kindness and love of God our saviour for mankind were revealed’,- all because the Lord wanted to do so, and not because of any good behaviours by us. A free gift to the Beloved!

And then, the Baptism of Jesus,- a moment of revelation when Jesus is revealed, and he experiences in all his humanity that he is indeed ‘My Son, the Beloved, on whom my favour rests’.  He is filled with the Holy Spirit to brimming point, he is ‘steeped’ in the heart of God, in the love of God for all humankind. He has that great moment of awareness that he is loved, and that he has a mission to accomplish in the world, for the whole world.

This Jesus of Nazareth- he is God’s Son, God’s Beloved. He is the Anointed One, or ‘The Christ’ of God.

And John said that ‘He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire’;   Jesus will, if we welcome him and recognise him as the One Sent by God. Our hearts will become filled with the Holy Spirit, and there will be fire in our bellies,- with love for life and people and creation and the Creator. With the Holy Spirit, there will be fire-works of a different kind.

So, to bring all of this into the present, into the ‘Life goes on as normal’ scene. How families and society would  be changed if people did have this Spirit of God in them that Jesus will baptize them in, if they follow him! A people on fire, a people caring, thoughtful, resourceful, enthusiastic for the world around us. That’s why Jesus wants to baptize us, to steep us, to ‘marinate’ us, in the very same Spirit that was in himself.

The late Fr. Jack McArdle told of an elderly nun who came up to him once after a talk on the Holy Spirit, and said to him: ‘You know what you were just talking about, in there? Well, I want it ALL, and I want it NOW!’

Just be in prayer, quietly, in your day to day life, with a hunger for the Promise of God, and the moment will come, in God’s time, when you will experience this ‘baptism’ in your life. It’s a promise that John made, for our generation too. It’s what Jesus does.

Fr. Seamus Devitt C.Ss.R.

seamus.devittcssr@gmail.com