Knight 11

I’m standing in the staffroom looking out at the grounds of the school and watching students head off to class. My mind is buzzing with questions about why so many of us, including me, do not grab the opportunities offered to us to shine (last year’s theme) and use our talents. For instance, we are all blessed with voice. We can speak. We are often asked to speak to others. We are even given the words to speak and plenty of time to practise. 

No, we’re not! I hear some students say that and I know there are times when you are not given much time, so the confidence you need to speak up is all the more important. 

Miss Rubery came by as I was thinking about these sorts of issues, these questions. She made the comment that she often hears in the Gospel readings at Mass the challenge to take charge of our own lives, yet we don’t. 

I am about to spend about $500 to upgrade the sound system in the Chapel. That money could be spent elsewhere in the school and would be IF only students would use their voice to proclaim God’s word with confidence and loudly enough to be heard at the back of the Chapel. So, why don’t they? Why do people lack confidence in their own abilities? Why are they unwilling to share their gifts and talents with others? 

So, what has the Church said about all of this? In terms of beliefs and teachings, the central truth is that God has created people to be responsible for creation ... and that includes speaking and reading with confidence in the voice with which they have been blessed. It is each person’s responsibility and duty to do so. This is a human, social responsibility that is affirmed by God through the story creation told in the Book of Genesis. 

The Church has the practice, centuries old, on the Feast of St Blaise, of blessing people’s throats. What does it do? Why does it do it? There is a ritual - we have used it at Kolbe in the past with staff members because the Feast of St Blaise often occurs before school commences, on 3 February, when at Mass the priest takes two lighted candles and places them either side of a person’s throat and prays for God’s blessing on people to use their voices in praise of God. 

I visited the barber on Sunday. He has a shop over the way from Dome in the Jull Street Mall in Armadale. 

His shop was crowded with young people and their not-so-young parents, so I crossed the Mall and ordered a long black. Sitting in Dome, I reflected on how appropriate it was for a teacher to have his hair trimmed in preparation for the start of the school year. I appreciated the concern of the parents that their children look ready for a new school year; it made the task of waiting to have my trim so much easier to bear. 

My barber is a gentle man. I wonder if he is a refugee. I am almost certain that he comes from the Middle East. While I sat in his shop, he spoke quietly and animatedly to one of his customers as he cut his hair. When they parted, he farewelled him in Arabic and blessed him in words I associate with Islam. 

While I waited for my turn, his children came in to the shop followed by his wife. They called him “Baba,” which is an Arabic word for “Father”. There was a gentleness about him that I found affirming: I was in a good space, a peaceful place. 

We have been starting each period with a reading from St Mark’s Gospel. In order to understand what is involved in de-constructing a religious ritual, I put it to the class that we construct a religious ritual around a Gospel passage. 

Our starting point was to establish what elements exist in a religious ritual. We listed the following on the whiteboard: 

people

words

actions 

objects

Someone suggested that one requirement of a ritual is for people to be quiet so that they could listen to what is said (words) in the ritual. The following statement was written on the whiteboard: “Listen to this. It will change your life for the better.” 

This statement is significant because it highlights the purpose of listening to the proclamation of the word of God. Entering into a religious ritual requires faith in God; it requires a relationship with God and the desire to deepen that relationship. Without this orientation, the ritual is likely to be empty, devoid of meaning. 

We considered the position adopted by people who listen to the Gospel being proclaimed. When we celebrate the Eucharist in the Chapel (and in most Catholic Churches), people stand to listen to the Gospel being proclaimed by the priest. We considered that the reason for this is to show respect for the revelation of Jesus through the Gospel. 

When I raised this matter in class, one student gave the following as a feature of the Eucharist: when the priest raises the chalice in the Mass. We commenced our reflection on this topic, but ran out of time. So I will complete the reflection here and then tie it in with the other work we have done on the Catholic belief in the Eucharist. 

The Eucharist (or Mass) is divided into two main sets of rituals, or liturgies. The first is the Liturgy of the Word, which focuses on the readings from Scripture. The second is the Liturgy of the Eucharist, which focuses on offering the bread and wine as a sacrifice. Catholics are taught that when the priest presides over the celebration of the Eucharist, he is representing Christ Jesus, who becomes present in the person of the priest and in the offering of bread and wine. 

For as long as I can remember, I have prayed “My Lord and my God” when the priest raises the host during the Consecration. It is my act of worship, my way of expressing my faith in God and my submission to Jesus as my Lord, my brother, my leader. 

The word “worship” comes from an Old English word “weorthscippe” which means “the worth of something.” To worship God means to value what God does for all people and to praise God for his action in the world. 

When the priest raises the chalice, I pray to Jesus asking him to wash me clean with his blood and to never let me be separated from him. To be united with him is worth more than anything else in life, even life itself. 

So, when the priest raises the host and then the chalice, Catholics are invited to worship God. This is one of the features of the belief in the presence of Jesus, God and man, and the belief that he offered himself as a sacrifice for the salvation of all people. When the priest offers up the bread and the wine, he represents Jesus who offers himself to God. 

Here’s another feature of the Eucharist: the Eucharist is also a meal. The first Eucharist was celebrated as a meal by Jesus and his Apostles. It was Jesus’ last meal. The meal he celebrated with his friends was just like the Sabbath meal celebrated by Jewish families today. The important elements of their meal are the bread and wine, which are blessed by the head of the household and shared with the family and any visitors. The blessing prayers are characterised by the attitude of thankfulness for all that God gives to the family. The bread and wine, which are blessed and shared, are part of the family’s act of worship. 

This is characteristic of the Eucharist as it is celebrated by Catholics. The bread and wine are blessed and shared, the sharing being the Communion ritual. The essential difference between the Jewish Sabbath meal and the Catholic Eucharist is that it is Christ Jesus who is the bread and wine of the meal. He shares himself with his followers through the Communion ritual. His followers are blessed by his presence within them: body, blood, soul and divinity. 

Bishop Robert Barron produced a short video on this topic. He outlines three basic misunderstandings of Jesus’ identity. First, there are those who say that Jesus isn’t really human because he is divine. This position is a form of monophysitism, the heresy that promotes the belief that Jesus has just one nature, which is his divine nature. Historically speaking, this was one of the earliest heresies and it arose in Greek speaking communities. The Greeks were used to thinking that the human and divine are mutually exclusive and separated by a gulf that cannot be bridged. 

At the other end of the spectrum, there are those who would hold that Jesus is definitely human and sort of divine. This is a form of nestorianism and it is seen in those who consider Jesus to be a great prophet, a teacher, a guru, but not God. 

Somewhere in between these two positions, where we find people who consider Jesus to be neither wholly divine, nor wholly human - a sort of demi-god, as it were, like Hercules - we find a form of arianism. This, too, would have been a popular view of Jesus amongst the Greeks and Romans. 

The Catholic position is quite different from these: Jesus is both divine and human. In the person of Jesus, there is the hypostatic union of two natures, his divine nature and his human nature, both separate and distinct, but united in the one person whom we know as Jesus, the Christ. The word “hypostatic” has been used for centuries to describe the coming together and yet remaining distinct, of the two natures in the person of Jesus. 

For those who seek to follow Jesus and who accept union with God through Baptism, Jesus becomes the model of what it means to be fully human. St Irenaeus once said, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” By this, he meant that we are only truly human when we are united with God, that is, our human nature is united with the divine nature of God. Jesus, then, is the model par excellence of what it means to be moral, to be ethical, to love others as God loves them. 

Last Friday I tried again to get you to write a response to this question. Again, from a global perspective, the period was a disaster! I will outline the approach that was taken and then appeal to you again to try it. You will see from the letter to your parents about our class and the course that I have urged them to look at your work which you are supposed to - hopefully, will do - post in your Google folder (Some class members still have not created the folder and shared it with me ... and two weeks of the course have passed by! I live in hope.). 

If you revisit last Monday’s lesson, you will find the question posed to you and a set of sources given to you to use to answer the question. Your first assessment task has a similar structure. I put notes on the board - most of the class want me to do this - based on the first source from last Monday’s lesson. Here is my attempt to re-construct the notes ... I do this because one student who was absent asked me for access to what we did in class on that day. 

“Branson (2017) defines spirituality as “one's entire life as understood, felt, imagined and decided upon in relationship to God, in Christ Jesus, empowered by the Holy Spirit”. By this, he means everything that happens to a person forms part of their spirituality, but only in the reflection upon those things that happen. Here is an example: Coming back to school is something that we all have done this year. That act is not spirituality, but every person’s thoughts and feelings and hopes and fears and decisions form part of their spirituality. 

“Branson adds a religious dimension to his definition. It is obvious in the class that this is part of his spirituality, but there are many in the class who think differently about life from him. There are some who have decided that God and religion are irrelevant to them and so they would define spirituality as a way of making one’s way through life so that good is done for some and happiness is attained. 

“This understanding of spirituality is supported by what the Dalai Lama says about spirituality, which can be found in the second source....” 

I can go on, but that would defeat the purpose of the activity, which is to have you do your own analysing and reflecting on the sources placed in that lesson. Spirituality is about making meaning out of what happens to people. It comes from reflecting on daily occurrences and the choices that are made to find behind them the principles or rules that one is following so that the path forward can be charted successfully. People who write songs, poetry, plays, music, people who choreograph dances, and those who dance, people who design software, draft laws, pick up rubbish, build houses and skyscrapers, people who fly around the world, to the moon and travel inside other people’s bodies to heal them: all these are engaged in meaning-making. They engage in these activities because the activities give them a sense of purpose. 

In class today, I said that I would create a folder in which to place the work that you share with me. On reflection, what I proposed will create problems relating to security and privacy. A much safer way of keeping a record of your work is for you to create your own RE11 folder in which you place your work for me to read and comment. What is the value of this approach? Well, you keep control of your work. When you have assignments to present and you would like me to read your work and suggest how you can improve it, you can put it in the folder that you share with me. I can add comments about changes to your work that will improve it. 

I am Mr B, or Mr Branson, or Dr Branson ... you choose, but please treat my name and me with respect, just as I expect myself to treat you with respect. 

My first post is about me. I expect you to write to me about yourself. Please use my post as a model of the sorts of things to think about and write about. 

I am a West Australian. I was born in Perth, but spent my early years in the country, first in Walpole and then in Norseman. We had family in both towns. My mother’s parents owned a farm in Walpole. My father’s parents lived in Norseman, where my grandfather worked in one of the mines there. My Mum and Dad moved us - I have two brothers and I am the eldest - wherever there was work and my Dad tried different types of work. He left school when he was about ten years old, around 1936. His first job was with an undertaker. 

I went to a few primary schools across Australia and eventually ended up at La Salle. I finished my secondary schooling at Trinity. I am a member of the 1963 Leaving class. My daughter and son-in-law work there now as classical guitar teachers. 

My university life has spanned universities across Australia and I have made my way to the top of the academic ladder. In 2010, I was awarded a PhD for my research into the role of the imagination in the religious conversion of adolescents attending Catholic secondary schools. My studies and my work as a Religious Education teacher have taken me to the US and to England and Italy and Poland. I have commenced a research project and hope to collaborate with researchers in Canada. It is my plan to visit Canada in 2018. 

When I am not working on school work or my studies, then you will find me working in the garden, or making guitars. I am presently working on a ukelele and hope to play it at school in the second semester. I am also working on developing my music skills. I have a saxophone and a harmonica, which I play not as often as I want, but other things, like school, intervene. 

Religion is a major part of my life, not because it is my work area - I’m currently writing a book about the psalms and hope to publish it at the end of this year - but because I know that God is an intimate part of my life. Prayer is my way of deepening my relationship with God. I share my days and nights with God, often talk with Jesus about what is happening to me, and ask him to look after the people I know and love. My wife and I are members of St Francis Xavier parish in Armadale, but we tend to go to Mass in the Cathedral on Sunday afternoons. We find the liturgy there very prayerful. And you know that all this flows over into my days at school through my work with liturgy at school. I think many go to PC Mass out of a sense of duty or obligation. I go because I value the relationship I have with Jesus and I want to join him in his prayer, the one he prayed at the Last Supper, which echoes and ripples through time to the present.