CAMPUS MINISTRY

FIRE ON THE EARTH!

This week's Gospel has some passionate and disturbing words from Jesus. He speaks of bringing fire, baptism and his distress, and of divisions and pain - not what we usually associate with the Lord!

I suspect that those who have experienced the effect of our increasingly frequent bush fires can appreciate the power of Jesus speaking of fire on earth. Fire can take everything that comes before it, but it can also bring the most astonishing new life.

After fire, Jesus speaks of a “baptism with which to be baptised”. Like fire, water has the power to destroy and power to save.

These elemental images are metaphors for the hard-won Jesus path to peace. But Jesus goes on to describe the division between people and families as a result of following him! By the time Luke is writing this passage, some have accepted the Gospel way of peace, justice and compassion, and others within the same family have not.

Overall, this is not an easy text to understand or even to accept, but I suspect it points to the truth of being human.

Every choice we make has consequences and sometimes those consequences will cause us pain and suffering, even if we are following the right path.

As Jesus’ followers, what we do know is that he will not leave us alone in the midst of pain, but walks that road with us - for which we can always rejoice!

FEAST OF THE ASSUMPTION

This coming Monday is the Feast of the Assumption, where the Church celebrates the Blessed Virgin Mary being totally lifted into the loving hands of God, in all the dimensions of her being, physical and spiritual. 

The Assumption is a feast of hope. Henri Nouwen wrote that “in Mary, we see the way God wanted us to be … Mary shows us how to receive the marvellous gift of God’s love and how to respond to God’s redemptive action in our lives.” Amid all our struggles of daily life, family, work, worries and anxieties, we see in Mary someone who gave herself over to Gods loving providence and encourages us to do the same. 

You may know this is a Holy Day of obligation - which means we need to try our very best to get to Mass on that day. Mass will be celebrated at 8:10am in the RNDM Chapel. All members of our community are most welcome.

Our local Parish Mass times for the Feast of the Assumption are:

• Our Lady of Grace North Beach - 9:00am
• Our Lady of the Missions Craigie - 7:00am and 9:00am

Mr Chris Kan

Dean of Campus Ministry