December 3, 1919
Australia currently is in the grip of a terrible drought.
When we travelled to Victoria in October we drove firstly from Rockhampton to Dubbo, a town in central western NSW. That part of the trip was a 1,000 kms. Over the whole distance there was not one crop of anything in evidence. A barren landscape.
There has been no planting for 12 months over this vast area. There has been no rain. In some places no good rain for 3-4 years. Towns are running out of water. They are already delivering water in trucks to the town of Stanthorpe in southern Queensland where my brother lives.
Concurrently much of eastern Australia was, is and will continue to be ravaged by bushfires. Until the rains come.
Hundreds of homes lost; warnings daily from police and firefighters to various areas “leave immediately while you can. Tomorrow you will be unable to leave.”
There is a sense of THREAT upon the land. Threatened/precarious existence.
This sense is acerbated by a rolling series of national Royal Commissions into:
- the terrible state of residents of aged care and retirement homes
- the behaviour of banking institutions
- the sexual abuse of children
Economically the threat is deepened by the growing divide between the wealthy and the struggling
What I have described in Australia is an image of what people are experiencing worldwide, be it in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, North and South America.
It is also a reflection of what is happening to us personally.
Our existence threatened, our lives precarious.
Expressed in such words as:
- Shock and fear of losing it all
- Hidden darkness/sadness
- Powerlessness
- Not being able to do the little and big things I used do
- Loss of self-belief
- And the question: What else is left? Is it but a deal end?
As my mentor Bren used say:
- All Life is Good (well, some/most of the time) and
- All Life is One (that is certainly true)
Sam Boland of ancient memory (History lecturer in the seminary) made sense of Alphonsus de Liguori for me. He spoke of Alphonsus (son of a harsh father and doting mother) as living a THREATENED/PRECARIOUS EXISTENCE.
His life always at the edge of the precipice, always in threat of falling over the edge. Strong but terribly Vulnerable.
Therein lay the connection of my life as a Redemptorist Missionary in the Bicol region of the Philippines with the people: embracing the threatened and precarious life of the people.
Therein lay the connection of my life as a Reverend Father and father/husband with the struggle of the people in the maelstrom of Mariposa, Manila and formation of young men as Redemptorist Priests and Brothers.
Therein lay the connection of my life as the 50% owner of Clear Waters Financial Planning in Rockhampton when Elders Financial Planning sought to rip our lives to pieces in 2012; connecting me to the lives of the vulnerable around us.
Therein lay the connection of my life as a patient at Hillcrest Hospital in October 2014 as I underwent emergency surgery for bowel cancel, connecting me to the multitude of people whose lives are thus threatened every day in Australia.
Chaos and precariousness. The ingredients of redemption if you accept what is and allow the Jesus Story to breathe life into it. To inform life, edit out what is fake, shed light on dark places to reveal who you really are, allow you to stand naked before yourself and to accept with joy your life and goodness.
Regardless of what you once did, can do still or can no longer do.
More succinctly, only through embracing your shit can you recreate it as a thing of beauty. (excuse the language!)
Thus it is we look for the meaning of things.
Caring for each other as we embrace our threatened existence.
