With all the hand washing and sanitising there has developed this small piece of dry skin at the base of my left little finger. It’s been there for some time now. It’s not sore, it's not itchy, it's not noticeable… it’s just there. I know it’s there because I scratch at it sometimes and it has become an unfortunate habit. I know full well what I have to do to fix it. I should use some moisturiser goop. But I don’t make time and I procrastinate. It would take me literally seconds to fix this, but I don’t. I don’t need to play with it. It achieves nothing, but just exacerbates the problem ensuring its longevity and preventing its demise.

It occurs to me that this outward physical thing is a perfect symbol of some of the things that I cannot leave alone. Stuff that is deep within me. Hidden unnoticeable, uncomfortable blemishes.  The hideous ease and speed with which I revisit my past mistakes. The involuntary flinch when I see old so and so on the street. When did that start … and why?

But there is good news. My perception of The Master is that he has long forgotten about my blunders which are most definitely in the past. ‘As far as the east is from the west, so far has Our Lord put away your sins from you’ are the words we use in the sacrament of reconciliation. In other words the past blunders couldn’t be further away.

Still we rake over them. We can’t seem to help ourselves. Maybe with this shiny new year it is finally time to just stop! Draw breath. Reach for the moisturiser and rejoice in a new beginning which had already begun a long time ago.

I miss Park run. I miss it for lots of reasons. The collegiality, the dogs, the people. But there is something else.

Maybe it's because I am just a little older but I have discovered that I am not running as quickly as I did when others were there. When park run was happening I could do the 5 kilometres in just under half an hour. I have been unable to repeat these dazzling times of late and I think that it is more than just old age.

I need others to spur me on. My pride was piqued because I saw people half my age going twice as quick and that was a catalyst  for me to find that extra something. To put on that little burst of speed.

But the Park-run folk did something else. As I toddled around there were numerous murmurs of encouragement. The odd nod or ‘Hello’. Breathless, I could only grunt and hope I didn’t sound rude. As you got to the end there was always someone there to say ‘Well done… Good job’ and give you the magic bar code which helps record your time.

I am firmly convinced that it was this positive invigoration that helped me get such great times in the past. Of course, like any child or adult I’m going to do better when I get a hearty cheering on.

In my little life there have been many times when I have been convinced that others have cheered me on from their place ‘on the other side’. This has been particularly potent in my darker patches. Always this cheering comes unbidden, as a welcome surprise. But then I should not be astonished. After all I am the guy who several times a week says ‘therefore with angels and archangels’.

During this advent season I have offered  a mini series of homilies entitled “Gifts for God” using the gifts the magi brought to Jesus. Gold, Frankincense and myrrh. Today, on the 4th Sunday of Advent, we will be pondering on the mystery of Mother Mary, because she gave her very self. Her whole being,  Body and soul to God. That was her gift. Simply herself.

Now try as I might I have never quite been able to get my head around that incredible encounter we read about in Luke's gospel. Mary is just sitting there innocently enough, doing her crochet and the angel Gabrielle comes into the lounge room and asks this scandalously, outrageously, over priced thing of her. Now the emotional, psychological and physical cost  to any mum is high enough,  but an unmarried mum in Mary’s day carries with it an extra burden. And then there is the mystery of the divine which is both the wrapping paper and the gift of Mary. This will imbue her for the  rest of her life and beyond. And there is a wicked little part of me which wonders why on earth did she say “Yes”. She could have said  “Yeah,… nah. I don’t think so. Bad deal. Why don’t you  try cousin Martha? Or maybe Matilda who lives two doors down. She’s into that sort of thing.” Her life would have been a whole lot easier and less complicated.

But.. she says none of that. She says a simple ‘Yes Be it done to me according to YOUR will.’ And from that moment on things can never, and will never, be the same again.

At a very significant level  Mother Mary hands her very self over as the ultimate gift to God. Everything is up for grabs. Her body, her fears, her emotions, her womb, her tears, her laughter and delight. She offers the days where she is muttered and gossiped about behind her back. She offers her sleepless nights as she grows more and more uncomfortable and maybe even some morning sickness for good measure. There is no going back. She cannot undo her promise and the conception. It’s not like the bottle of aftershave that you can re gift to Uncle Freddy for his birthday.  Our Lady’s gift is .. well it's all of herself. Nothing more, nothing less. And here’s another thing that always astounds me. It’s not just Mother Mary handing herself for that single Archangel Gabrielle second or even offering herself for 24 hours. Our Lady also hands over all of her tomorrows. Ask anyone who has ever had a pet or a child. It’s not just about that moment when you receive them into your home; that very first and special day. You receive them and give yourself to them the next day and the next day and all the other days into the future. It’s one of the many great things that pets and children teach us. They change us not just for a single moment in time. They change us forever as will Mother Mary, as does the Christ child.

So we have reflected this advent on the gifts that the Magi brought. Gold, frankincense and myrrh. And that is right and proper and those gifts have much to teach us and we should emulate their generosity. But here with Mother Mary gift giving is taken to a whole new dimension.  For you see it’s not just about Mother Mary giving herself to God although that is mind popping in itself. It is what she gives to us. She gives us Jesus. Our brother, our friend, our saviour, our companion. This is Our Lady’s gift to us and indeed to a waiting world that longs to see his face in our face. To see his actions in our actions, to see his love in our love. Now it is our turn to look in the mirror and ask ourselves the hard questions. What do we give to God? Do we dare turn ourselves over and ask Him to do what he wants of us? How can we too become a servant of the Lord? Enkindled by love and dedicated in selfless service. And what do we give to the world? Gold, frankincense, myrrh, …ourselves? Do we dare?

Heavenly Father, the Magi came on bended knee to adore your Son and offer their gifts.
Implant deep within us that same sense of mystery and awe for all your generous gifts to us.
So fill our hearts with your love that we may come one day and see what they saw,
Mother Mary and the face of your beloved son, even Jesus Christ our Lord Amen.

We usually  think that the only time Jesus was offered myrrh was when the magi came to visit the Christ child. The reality is that Jesus  was offered myrrh several times in his life and in his death. The other interesting discovery is the people who offered it to him. Almost always, it was the outsider, the most unlikely person.

Listen not only to the occasions when Jesus is offered myrrh but by whom.

In Mark's account of the crucifixion we read this “Then the soldier offered Jesus wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it.” So it is Roman soldier, a man of no apparent faith and an accessory to Jesus death that offers Him myrrh.

And then later on when God himself is a corpse, myrrh will be brought to the body of Lord Jesus by a secret disciple.

Here’s the story“Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs.”

And again, by some very different people.

They are the very courageous women who come under cover of the early morning darkness to what they think is a heavily guarded tomb. But they do not know that the guards have run away in fear before they set out. For the women it is a very gutsy little journey.  Here’s how Luke records this adventure. “On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb”. These would not have been cheap myrrh and spices so there is a severe financial cost to them, as well as the uncertainty of their lives. Our brothers and sisters in the Eastern Church call them Holy Myrrh- Bearing Women – because the Gospels tell us they risked danger, untold grief and the unknown in order to take expensive spices and oils from their own stores to anoint the Saviour’s lifeless body. The Holy Myrrh-Bearers are made up of women of different ages, vocations and histories; they were disciples of Christ, and they were probably drawn by concrete encounters of Jesus while he was still alive. You don’t go to a tomb and put your life at risk for a perfect stranger.  They drew strength, healing and inspiration from Christ when he was alive and their discipleship has a quality which some called “feminine genius”.

Interesting isn’t it, that all sorts of people from all sorts of lives are unknowingly united in bringing this one gift to the Lord. For a gold star you might like to reflect on the unlikely outsider who has brought you myrrh. The person who had to tell you some sad news perhaps. Or was it the person who was with you when you found yourself receiving myrrh? Our Christian faith, what we teach, what we believe what we offer to the world, must embrace and make holy every experience and emotion of our human life. And in these knotty times perhaps this symbolic gift of myrrh speaks more clearly and resounds more loudly than ever before. We must be able to say to our community that your suffering is authentic and real. Your experience of myrrh is an important part of the whole gamut of what it is to be human. From infancy, to the cross, to the grave, Our Lord accepts his myrrh, and He accepts our myrrh life experiences as well. He opens wide his arms to embrace and sanctify our myrrh.

We learn that his suffering, his myrrh, his tears are in fact ours. He is already there with us when myrrh comes our way.It’s really easy and it is understandable to always want the glitzy gold and frankincense, but as the good book reminds us if we take joy from the hand of the Lord, must we not also take sorrow too.Heavenly Father, the Magi came on bended knee to adore your Son and offer their gifts. Implant deep within us that same sense of mystery and awe for all your generous gifts to us.

So fill our hearts with your love that we may come one day and see what they saw, the face of your beloved Son, even Jesus Christ our Lord Amen

I learnt a new phrase off the Television the other night. The phrase is ‘Cancel Culture’. Great! This is really good news. There are times in our life when we need a fresh start and to have our past cancelled. A culture of forgiveness and reconciliation. But no.. that is not what ‘Cancel culture’ is at all. In fact it is literally the opposite. This is how Wikipedia (source of all knowledge and fount of all wisdom) defines ‘Cancel Culture’.

Cancel culture (or call-out culture) is a form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles online on social media, in the real world, or both. Those who are subject to this ostracism are said to be “canceled."

I find this abhorrent  and indefensible for several reasons.

• First, it does not allow a person to move on and start afresh. Everyone reading this article has made blunders and a new beginning is one of the precious necessities of living in a community where we ‘bump’ into one another.
• Secondly, we are not defined as a person by the mistakes we make. We are infinitely valuable as human beings. We are immeasurably loved by the Master. The church should be making that visible in the everyday life of the community in which she serves.
• Thirdly, it makes no account for that unseen but heroic process of learning from your mistakes. People often come out better, stronger and wiser having fallen from grace. They  learn what not do and how to avoid making the same mistake again. Such folk are the most compassionate and healing souls for others who find themselves bruised and in the dust.

The Cancel Culture is counter to the Christian Culture We must never define others and especially ourselves, by what is past.