It’s a Tuesday morning, its 7.30 and I’m on my way to the Midlands. I pull in at the petrol station to fill up for the journey. I get to the pumps and discover that all the unleaded ones have a label on saying that there is no petrol available. Not a little irritated I curse under my breath and set off again.
As I speed away I notice that my irritation hasn’t disappeared, yet it doesn’t occur to me to ask, ‘Why was there no petrol?’ Was the problem here at the petrol station, or somewhere along the supply route? Was the driver of the tanker involved in a crash and brought to hospital? Nor does it occur to me to think about the people in Iraq who queue sometimes for hours for petrol. I’m just irritated because there was no petrol here, at this particular time, when I wanted it. Well I will have to wait until I get to the next place, and whatever the brand, and whatever the price, I will have to fill up, as the tank is getting very low.
The less laid-back among us may well identify with my feelings. In that scenario I am acting as a typical consumer. I have grown up in a culture where I expect goods and services to be available as and when, and most of the time I give little thought to the complex processes and managerial miracles, often spanning whole continents, that go into satisfying my needs, as long as the end product is there when I need it. My needs are very personal, but my expectations of how my needs are satisfied are quite impersonal.
That consumerist way of thinking can very easily pervade all our thinking and reactions when it comes to religion as well. Today people shop for different religions, looking for the one that fits in with their expectations, preferably something not too organised, as they say, a religion that welcomes them and listens to them and affirms them where they are at.
Many people, on entering our church, may feel themselves to be in a strange country, where what they want is not on offer. It may feel like a strange country where people speak a different language which lays claim to a knowledge that is different from the knowledge of the scientific mind. It is a country where we seem to be encouraged to listen rather than be listened to, at least in our formal public gatherings; a country where the leaders may say, ‘If you do such and such a thing, you should think about whether you really belong’, as our two Cardinals did this week’. Such language jars with the inclusive culture of consumerism, where everyone is equal provided they have enough in their bank account to pay, or a good enough credit rating and demonstrate their being included by being part of the brand. Our church is a country where people are encouraged to heed the word of Jesus and follow the narrow road and avoid the motorways with their infinite choice where everything and anything can be bought and sold. A rather strange country - Yet membership of this rather eccentric community can be attractive and can have its uses, like a good catholic education for example - a perfect buy for the discerning consumer. But that is to miss the point.
Rather than thinking of the Church as a different country and myself as a stranger in it, I see myself rather as a stranger in my own country searching for my roots, the roots that tell me who I am and what I am to be.. What I find in this church are fellow strangers on a similar quest, searching together for roots that go down to the very heart of our being, to a place that no created thing can reach, and which has no name like other names - a mystery to which we give the name God.. it is not a mystery I can relate to in an impersonal way. I can only relate to it as a person, although when we speak of God as three persons we are not talking about a person in the normal sense of the word, because the mystery that is God cannot be reduced to anything or anyone we know already. What I find in this church is a language to express the quest for the mystery and a community to share the journey.
But fathoming out how the petrol reaches or does not reach the pump is child’s play compared with fathoming out the mystery that is God. Indeed I cannot fathom the mystery out, I can only enter into it in faith, I can only enter into communion with it, and that is why, if I try to approach God and the things of God as a consumer, I am bound to be disappointed. I choose to remain within this rather eccentric community we call the church not because it is cool, or welcoming, or well organised, or its members more morally upright than other religious organisations, I do not choose the church because it conforms to my expectations or affirms my lifestyle; I enter it and remain in it because only within it can I find the Truth, and the truth I find is a person, Jesus Christ, and only in Jesus Christ do I find the One who can lead me on the journey into this mystery we call God, and know I will not be deceived. Indeed so rooted is Christ in this ineffable mystery that he himself can be known by the same name we give to the mystery, and we can say that Jesus is God, and that Jesus himself is the Way, the Truth and the Life.
And it is Jesus who shows me what is at the heart of this relationship that unites Jesus with the mystery; it is love. Without the revelation of the mystery brought by Jesus I could not know anything meaningful about God. All I would be left with is my own opinion, for what that would be worth. I could not have invented this revelation or constructed it for myself, and all the money in the world could not have bought it, all the work I do could not have earned it, nor could I demand it as a right, or because I deserve it, because it comes to us as a free gift, the knowledge that the gift of love is the deepest and most basic of all human realities. Moreover I can do more than just know this love, I can share in it, thanks to the Holy Spirit who bridges the gap between Christ and me, and bridges the gap between me and my fellow seekers. Thanks to the Holy Spirit the seekers can become not just a gathering of seekers, but a community of seekers, united in heart and soul as they search together for the mystery that is given them.
Love given, love received, and love shared. In the Church we discover that God is a community of love, and we are called to be part of that community. That is the mystery of the Holy Trinity, the Feast we celebrate today. And our only response can be one of praise. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.
