Experiences
Recollection of the scj laity of England
Humilty and compassion: two sides of the same coin?
For several years now we have held our annual SCJ Companion’s Day of Recollection at Widney Manor, a Columban property in Knowle. For the same number of years we have had a visiting speaker to lead the day. This year things were different – due to unforeseen circumstances Widney Manor became unavailable and the visiting speaker was prevented from joining us because of illness. The short straw fell on Father Austin to lead the day on home ground in the library at The Olton Friary. Perhaps we should have been more compassionate towards him. Do I detect some of God’s humour in this arrangement?
The day started well with about 40 people arriving at Olton laden with a wonderful assortment of food for a shared lunch. SCJ Priests, Brothers and Companions came from the SCJ parishes at Olton, Balsall Heath, Great Barr, Droitwich, Leigh and Whitnash. They greeted each other warmly and enjoyed refreshments before taking their places in a large circle to start the day’s reflection. It was good to leave cares and concerns behind and look forward to a day of prayer, hope, friendship and inspiration.
Father Austin started by informing us that he intended to cover two areas of love which Jesus expressed, that of COMPASSION and that of HUMOUR. We began by focussing our thoughts on our need for companionship as members of family, community, church, etc. and the importance of living in community with others. We must make allowances for the fact that none of us is perfect. We are all flawed and we must accept traits in others. We do not know people’s life stories and we should not judge them. However, it is necessary to make snap judgements as we go through life, but in doing this we must show compassion. We are all needy people. The letters of St Michael are full of compassion – he referred to people as ‘sheep without a shepherd’ – but his love was not just sentimental. He would confront people with the consequences of their actions. Sometimes it was necessary to show ‘tough love’. He was very firm but communicated love. This is the love that emanates from the Sacred Heart – compassionate love that flows from the Father through the Son. This is the emphasis of the Betharamites understanding of the love of Jesus in the Sacred Heart as opposed to others who interpret the Sacred Heart primarily as a means of reparation for sin. It was noted that Michael Garicoits did not leave us with any books, only letters, and therefore the Betharramite charism has been passed down through the generations mainly through example.
Over lunch we were able to chat to members from other parishes whilst enjoying the delightful meal that was set before us. This meeting up with Companions from other areas is a valued part of our Recollection days.
In the afternoon we considered the humour of God with reference to the Old and New Testaments. The psalms give us insight into God’s humour – Ps 2:4 ‘The One enthroned in heaven laughs’, Ps 37:13 ‘. . .but the Lord laughs at the wicked? Num 22:28 . . .’Yahweh opened the mouth of the donkey . . .’ God’s humour is a discreet humour and it does not make fun of people.
We reflected on how unusual it is to see a picture of a laughing Jesus, but a lovely one was provided for the central display. It was also noted that the gospels tell us about Jesus crying, praying, getting angry, sharing, etc. He was fully human but nowhere in the gospels do we hear of him laughing. He must surely have done so. There are humorous passages in the gospels – ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?’ etc,
St Theresa of Avila is known to have said, ‘A sad nun is a bad nun” Humour and laughter are essential parts of community and they draw people closer together.
Our Day of Recollection closed with Mass for the second Sunday of Lent when the gospel reading was of the Transfiguration. In many ways our day of Recollection had changed us. We left Olton very jovially to return to the cares of the world after sharing a wonderful day together. Thank you Father Austin.
June Arran
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