Bishop Steve: Together on the Journey

WRITTEN BY

Steve Lowe, Bishop of Hamilton

READ TIME

5 mins

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Together

On the journey

No longer living for ourselves but for Christ (2 Cor 5:15)

In October last year, a group from throughout the diocese met together for two days to formulate a strategic pastoral plan for the diocese. For the next five years, the vision statement above will guide the diocese as we focus on the five pastoral priorities below, one each for the next five years, to help develop this vision.

• Companioning (this will be the focus in 2021-22)

• Partnerships/Mana Ōrite

• Mission/Outreach

• Empowering and Enabling

• Facilitating the Encounter With Christ

It is envisaged that we will take one priority each year starting at Pentecost. This will enable resources to be prepared to assist parishes, schools, communities and groups to work on this as well as the diocese as a whole. 

In this issue of Kete Kōrero, I want to reflect on the vision statement. For some time now I have been becoming increasingly concerned about the increasing divisions within our world and Church. The growing hate talk and constant attacks and accusations against people really upset me. We see this increasing as the mainline media lose the art of investigative journalism and as social media grows, allowing anyone to publish any idea or any so-called “truth”. Often these are followed by comments and commentaries that are filled with anger and even hate and this leads to the development of factions, cliques or sects, reinforcing wrong-headed opinions, but that does not encourage minds and hearts to be widened. 

In our Church it really distresses me to read all the anti-Pope Francis rhetoric. There was similar rhetoric against Popes Benedict and John Paul II but the extremism and vitriol has increased with the growth in social media and independent news sites. A number of new media sites often claim to be Catholic but they promote their own view of Catholicism, often presenting a distortion of what the Holy Father has said or a narrow view of Church teaching that might focus on just one element of Church teaching, and this, in turn, can malform the minds and hearts of well-meaning people. 

In recent weeks we saw what happened at the Capitol Building in the United States. This was a prime example of the fruit of individualistic and self-opinionated ideas that are promoted. The conversation became more vitriolic and then that conversation erupted into violence. In the Book of Revelation the evil one is named as “the accuser” (Rev 12:10). He is the one who promotes suspicion (Gen 3:4) and division. St Paul puts hatred, discord, dissensions and factions right up there with sexual immorality, drunkenness and idolatry. But we tend to focus on sexual immorality as the only and big sin and ignore the others. Paul warns us not to divinise our own self-righteous opinions, for “if you go snapping at each other and tearing each other to pieces, you had better watch or you will destroy the whole community” (cf Gal 5) which is exactly what the evil one wants. We need to beware of the false gurus and messiahs in our world and Church.

Jesus, however, prays that we be one, together, in unity: “Father, may they be one in us, as you are in me and I am in you… With me in them and you in me, may they be so completely one that the world will realise that it was you who sent me” (cf Jn 17). Every Sunday we profess our belief in “one Church” that is “catholic”, meaning universal or diverse. And then we receive the Eucharist, Jesus’ great gift to us of unity, for you and me and all his disciples. Pope Benedict called the Eucharist the Sacrament of Charity. We share in Christ’s charity to us so that we in turn can be and reflect his charity to others, indeed to all people, not just those who think like us. Together in unity, is Jesus’ gift for us. In him, we are one, but it is also our task as his followers to work for unity.

In that task, we are all on the journey. We are all at different places and stages on the journey and as we approach Christ and our relationship with him grows we have different insights. We are reminded of this in the fact that there are four Gospels and a multitude of saints with a multitude of spiritualities. Each of them journeyed deeper into the mystery of Christ’s love and life and as they did so their minds and hearts were opened. We can reflect on how our own faith has grown and developed in our lifetime. Our life of faith is a journey of relationship that develops and grows. In our age, one of the fruits of the ecumenical movement, our dialogue and relationship with the other Christian communities, is the way we moved away from accusations of heresy to appreciating and dialoguing about what in the past were points of division. In the same way we need to enter into dialogue with others in the Church who might have opinions that differ from our own.

To do that we need to keep our eyes fixed on Christ who keeps his eyes fixed on us. When we lose sight of him and focus on our fears or differences we sink (Mt 14:22-33). We live no longer for ourselves but for Christ, who is the Way, the Truth, the Life. Together he invites us to be his one holy people, a catholic people of all ages and from all peoples with different spiritualities, who hold our hope and trust in him and together go out to the world as his apostolic people, sharing our faith so that all might unite together in love, peace and goodwill as we continue our pilgrim journey in the complexities of our modern world.

This is our work as a diocese for the next five years. May we do it together.