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It’s sixty years next Monday (8 December) since the closing of the three-year Second Vatican Council. This gathering was a significant moment in the life of the Church. However we miss the point when we think of Vatican II as an out-with-the-old in-with-the-new event.

Those who are familiar with the sixteen Council documents can testify to the skill with which the Tradition and the traditions of the followers of Christ has been faithfully communicated and re-presented in the Council documents in language which is both accessible and inspiring.

But how easily we fall into binary all-or-nothing thinking. We’ve done that often with the Council but I notice the same pattern in my own life.

Much of what I think and do and say each day is the fruit not of a decision but of a life-time.

There have been times over the years when I’ve probably tried to put aside the aspects of my past about which I feel regret or shame. But that doesn’t work. This is because the very things and people I would like to leave behind are the very people and moments that are preparing me for a more mature and rich future.

That’s the beauty of relationship with Jesus, God-with-us in the midst of the mess, Jesus who is not at all fazed by my hurts, failures and lack of forgiveness, the stuff that comes to mind whenever I’m still and silent, whenever I try to pray.

And the fact that the parts of the past I’d rather forget remain with me is because this is the stuff, the people and the hurts, which are my capacity for divine intervention.

This is the timeless truth of Christian faith: not the presentation of a clean slate at prize-giving in the expectation of reward, but a complexity of ups and downs both personally and communally.

Our hope is not in the past or the future but in the rock of the present which gives us stability, the heart of today’s Gospel reading, and as expressed in the old hymn:

“The Church’s one foundation,
is Jesus Christ her Lord.”

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Take an initiative and send me a date time and place for a FFF cafe-catchups. john@fff.org.nz. I’ll advertise these on each morning’s post throughout Advent.

Christchurch
Monday 8 December 10.00am
Moko Bush Inn Centre
Waimairi Road, Christchurch. Trish

Lower Hutt
Wednesday 10 December 10am
Shine Cafe
2 Waterloo Rd, Hutt Central. Catherine

New Plymouth
Wednesday 10 December 10.30am
Stumble Inn
200 Mangorei Road
New Plymouth. Joan

Christchurch
Monday 15 December 10.00am
Moko Bush Inn Centre
Waimairi Road, Christchurch. Trish

New Plymouth
Thursday 18 December 1.30pm
Stumble Inn
200 Mangorei Road
New Plymouth. Joan