Jesus said:- “Where your treasure is there will your heart be also.” How easy it is to carry on day by day, without asking why we are doing what we are doing, and without challenging our present priorities. So, when it comes to the crunch, where is your heart? What do you really treasure in life? When we face life threatening, or life changing, situations, that gives us a truer perspective of what our real priorities are, or should be, in life. To be a Christian is to discover that God, in Christ, is at the heart of your life and mine. Either God exists, in which case that should determine the whole way we look at life; or he does not, in which case that gap at the heart of life will be filled with some artificial alternative. The basic Biblical truth is that everything comes from God, and that our life and our ‘possessions’ are not ‘ours’ by right, but given to us on trust by God, and that we shall be held responsible for our stewardship. This involves not only possessions but the time and talents/abilities God has entrusted to us as well. How do we use what God has given us? What priorities determine that? Jesus told us to “seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and everything else will be added to you.” This does not mean that we have to be ‘religious’ all the time, but it does mean that we see and do and choose everything from a Christian perspective.
It may be an uncomfortable thing to say, but I do believe we need to challenge and change a very basic misconception, even within ourselves. This is that the ‘Church’ is a separate entity, which individuals choose, or choose not, to support. We are Baptised into membership of the Church. As Christian disciples we each have a mission and function as part of the Church. This is the context in which I believe we all need to recognise the challenge of ‘Building Strong Parish Communities.’ So a Christian never gives ‘to’ the church; we give ‘as’ the Church. Unless, or until, we can affirm our common membership and purpose we shall fail in our mission as the Church, and as individual disciples.
When Jesus called the twelve disciples it was to share his work in the world. When he left them, he gave them the commission to spread the Good News of his Kingdom of Love. Not only does being a Christian mean we see everything from the perspective of our faith as being our greatest treasure, it also means this ‘treasure’ is not for ‘self indulgence’ but to carry out our mission to build his Kingdom. So we belong together as the Church, to be the Body of Christ: we share a common identity and purpose. To be effective we need to develop and strengthen that unity and purpose.
Lent starts on Ash Wednesday which is 25 February. Lent is a time when, remembering Jesus’ time in the wilderness preparing for his ministry and mission, we examine, and seek to deepen, our own Christian discipleship. As we remember how Jesus faced temptation, we see him determining where his heart and treasure truly lay. This was a necessary foundation for his life. Can it be any less so for us? It is when, and only when, we truly discover that our relationship with the living God in Jesus Christ is the real treasure at the heart of our life, that all else will follow from that. When we discover that Òall things come from GodÓ we shall see everyone, and everything, from that perspective. Having discovered anew where our heart’s treasure is, then we need to respond, as members of the church, to our common mission and purpose. This Lent we shall be giving special attention to how we do that in terms of “Building a Strong Parish Community.” That, in turn, should release resources of time, talents and finance to enable us to be more effective in our ministry and mission.
Yours sincerely
Peter Lee
