TKM Leaders Retreat

A Balance - Wholeness in Connection to the Community - Kildare Ministries

On retreat, Michael Trainor lead us on a journey through the depth and detail of Mark’s gospel over a number of workshops. The words were opened up, sometimes one by one, in a profound way, to the point where I think we found ourselves members of the Marcan community for a while, caught up in the uncertainty and anguish of the time these words came to be. 

Michael lead our crew from the front answering our questions with constant reference to the ancient greek text in front of him. It sounds all very highbrow, but Michael’s humour and joy drew warmth, wonder and laughter out of our little community; he drew out the best of us as tiny humans basking in the presence of God with no distraction.

While we learned, it occurred to me that Mark’s story is refracted in the light of his household and ours - a household, or culture if you like, suffering persecution and extremely taxing, painful uncertainty, not without disillusionment - and yet, a household that continued to meet despite the difficulties, like ours.

In discussion, I heard the same question beginning with ‘How can we…?’ repeated often. To me this was a sign of a community stretching to find the pattern that would lead Kildare forward, the road-map - just like Mark’s community.

This lead me into a reflection on the Principles of Living Justice - the poster is hanging in my office and I have been staring at it for some time - putting the words and circular pattern away somewhere in my mind, to be pulled back out and explained at some later date.

When we study Jesus at the centre of Mark’s gospel, we see a Jesus who is speaking to a new culture, like ours- and this is perhaps what we need; to listen to these words, catch that refracted light and put them at the red heart centre of our Principles of Living Justice.

In the Centre Circle of our Principles, is the gospel. These are the words that reveal over and over and in increasing complexity and relevance for our time, the eternal identity of Jesus. When we hear these words in our context, in our time - it brings and restores the balance between us and our community. He brings himself as a counterweight to all that worries us.

In this way, we can radiate this balance in our work as Courageous Leaders. As the hands, eyes and feet of Jesus, as part of his universal humanity; we heal with words and touch.

When we approach our Learning for Justice, we could perhaps embrace Jesus’ response to the leper in Mark’s gospel. Jesus does more than touch him or feel pity for him. The Greek words tell us that Jesus was viscerally moved when he met the leper; his physical self responded to the depth of his feeling. And as he reaches out his hand, he enters into that condition of suffering with the man. And this is how we are to teach and learn justice; by dissolving our physical human selves and entering emotionally and spiritually into the condition of the poor, the weak and the sick - anything less is theory and easily forgotten.

And in the final circle, as the Voice of Jesus, we are a community of witness. From Mark’s gospel we pull out all the imperative verbs of God - ‘Repent, believe, follow, fish, be, and go! And we put our bodies and minds into action that will collectively boom out that Almighty voice in our communities.

We need to be encouraged that God’s voice in Mark’s Gospel is ever in the present. We may as well have been standing by the Jordan while we enjoyed each other’s company in Brisbane and we pretty much heard the words: ‘You are my Son, the beloved, with you I am well pleased.’

We moved on from retreat a little groggily, like the characters in the gospel who must have stood there dumbfounded on the side of the river Jordan. All of us were reluctant to leave the wonder of the peace, but armed with a little new understanding we were wholly compelled to go forward in our missions regardless of how little we truly understand and how totally human we are, in faith.

Many thanks to Andrea, Michael and the team that put it together - it really was wonderful to spend time with those amazing people, in that place and for our mission.

Renee Oberin

Acting College Leader- Catholic Identity

St. Joseph's College, Echuca