Ear To The Keyhole

 

“Behold I am making all things new…

…A new commandment I give you”

 

The Apostles of the early Church were keen to tell what God was doing in their lives in order to encourage and put fresh heart into their fellow Christians.

We need the same kind of encouragement so that we know that God is actually at work among us, doing something new, sometimes in very small ways.

After Saturday evening Mass I spent almost an hour hearing the confessions of those who are keen to experience God’s Mercy in a definitive way. The thing is, these were not old people at all, but they were young people in their teens and twenties. So, when we lament the absence of the young, it is necessary to know that they are with us, even if that is in small numbers. But they are emerging, and they are very committed to their faith.

Earlier in the day I heard the First Confessions of almost forty children who are preparing for their First Holy Communion. A most beautiful and pure experience of the innocent eagerness that is among us.

Many of these are only seven years old and, when I would tell them that I was also seven when I received the same sacraments, they would look in astonishment. And when I asked, “can you imagine me being seven?” they would shake their heads!

It was when I was seven years old that something new and special occurred in my life. Not just the joy of First Holy Communion or the awesomeness of First Confession in a dark box. But in the time leading up to these events I discovered that my Mother was going to have a baby.

The doctor would visit her at home, as would the nurse who arrived on her bicycle with a large bag on the back carrier and I wondered if the baby might come in that black bag!

It was Doctor Tully who said to me, “pray that you get a baby brother.” And I did that with great commitment because at the time I was an only boy with three sisters whom I loved greatly but having a brother would be very special.

The night arrived. It was a home birth, and the house was filled with doctor and nurses, some of whom were Mercy nuns dressed in radiant white. Doctor Tully, Nurse Hynes, Sister Martina.

The four of us children were locked in the back bedroom. Locked in to stop us getting out and being in the way.

The girls would have obeyed without having to be locked in, but not me! I wanted to see what was going on, I couldn’t wait. But I had to, was forced to. I kept my ear to the keyhole while Maura kept telling me to come away from the door. I was impatient then and I am impatient now, even if quietly so and I have to keep relearning the grace of waiting for what is to come in its own time, in God’s time. To wait and not to force it. The waiting can be painful.

Anyway, the moment finally arrived when we were let out and we got to see the new baby. It was indeed a baby boy. Harry. My prayer was answered, and I was very happy indeed. My circle was somehow complete, the bond of brotherhood supplying the one thing I lacked.

And soon after that, this seven-year-old Eamonn went over to Castlegar for my First Confession and First Communion. The simplest and most Holy of experiences. No fuss, no party. No Mother because she was still confined at home with the baby.

This is what comes to mind when I read the words of God, “Behold I am making all things new!”

As the birth of a baby involves great pain, so the birth of the NEW that God is creating is accompanied by pain and turmoil. No Cross, no Crown. 

"...through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God." (Acts 14)

I think it is Sebastian Barry who wrote that with the birth of a baby the world begins again. A new world promised and given.

God makes the promise, and we are called to wait for what GOD is going to do. Not what we want Him to do or think He should do. To wait, even impatiently and not to force it.

Out preparation for the NEW that is to come is given us by Jesus when He presents the NEW commandment to love one another as He has loved us. “As I have loved you!” – this is key.

There are many kinds of love about in the world but the love that we are called to offer others is the love of Jjesus Himself, to love as He loves. A very particular, specific kind of loving. By this we are prepared for what God is doing, by this we enter the Kingdom.

And I add prayer as an essential part of the preparation and the waiting. Prayer opens the heart and soul to the genuine experience of the Love of Jesus.

Two things that struck me with a number of the young children. They do not know that Jesus loves them, and they do not pray. Parents have a responsibility to give their children a daily experience of personal prayer so that they may grow in the knowledge and experience of the Love that Jesus has for them personally. It’s interesting, curious, that we will give our children so much in terms their development, but we fail to understand the necessity of their spiritual development.

“Train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8)

By prayer we keep our ear to the keyhole of the door of our lives while we wait in blessed Hope for what the Lord has promised.

‘It is already done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give water from the well of life free to anybody who is thirsty. (Revelation 21)