LENT WEEK 4 - EXPECT TRANSFORMATION

We are a people who meet, deeply listen, discern, journey, accompany, become aware, transform and act as bearers of Christ’s love.

We are Emmauns.

As Jesus accompanies us on our journey this Lent, let us:

• slow to his pace
• listen more deliberately
• discern habitually
• expect confidently to be transformed
• gather and break bread joyously
• act with intent for justice and peace

“Sir,” the man replied, "Leave it one more year and give me time to dig around it and manure it: it may bear fruit next year: if not then you can cut it down.”

Luke 13:8-9

Shirley Smith (known as Mum Shirl) was a social worker and advocate on behalf of Aboriginal Australians who lived and worked in the Catholic parish of Redfern.

The Ted Kennedy eulogy unveils a woman with a deep, unique faith “She  welcomed the gospel like a little child. She thirstingly swallowed the Gospel whole, never prepared to  spit out the bits we whites find unsavoury or uncomfortable. …Christian hope for her transcended pessimism and optimism. It called her to expect God to intervene in the face of despair. She woke up every morning expectantly, expecting God to do that. She never had to wait around, because always, always,  some rejected person would come round the corner; who of course was Christ himself.”

Mum Shirl expected God to intervene, not necessarily to change situations or events but to transform herself to then manage challenging situations.

In the Parable of the Barren Fig Tree, the tree depends on the horticultural skill and care of the gardener to improve its flourishing. In our modern world, society is quick to judge and label people based on their ‘output’, society is quick to ‘cut down’ and destroy the weak, damaged and unproductive. Jesus is the gardener who says ‘forget the output’ you are mine, that is enough, let me look after you because if you do, ‘fruit’ or  flourishing will come. 

Most of us can recall a time in our school life when a ‘gardener’ and not the ‘vineyard owner’ crossed our path. The ‘gardener’ may have been a teacher who believed in us, listened to us, advocated for us, stood with us and  loved us when others did not - a bullying incident that was ignored by everybody except our ‘gardener’ who noticed and acted for us and enabled us to continue to ‘bear fruit’.

In our Catholic schools, we work every day for ‘thy kingdom come’. We instil in our students this spirit of expectation that as ‘gardeners’ we are transformers who will affect change for the flourishing of all in our communities. 

Just as Mum Shirl, sat in the church and expected God to transform her, our students should come to our schools and expect us as ‘gardeners’ to transform them because they are forever fruitful as children of God.