1st Sunday of Advent - Year C - 2nd December 2018
The fundamental question to be asked and reflected upon:
How much room does Jesus have today in the life of a Christian?
That question brings to light the relevance that faith has in fields that might at first glance appear to be ‘independent’ of faith.
Examples include the environment and ecology.
That is the topic from Westminster, presented to us for the first three Sundays of Advent.
It is pointed out that no one (at least not people of faith) believe today that there is real conflict between faith and science. But we are warned,‘that Christ is absent in the dialogue of faith with science.’
Despite the constant talk there is of Christ in Theology—and in the secular culture, in films, and in novels—He is absent in the three most challenging dialogues of the moment.
There is no talk of Him in the dialogue with science, there is not even talk of Him in the dialogue with Philosophy, which is concerned with metaphysical concepts, and least of all the obvious reasons, in the dialogue between religions.
Making Christ central in life requires a true definition of neighbours. They aren’t just the people living next door that are in a ‘space’ near us, but who will come after us, who are neighbours in ‘time’.
We should not take more from the earth than that we need.
‘We must decide not to be thieves of earthly resources - energy, food, water, trees, paper - using them more than necessary, or wasting them, because this means taking them away from those coming after us’.
Fr Eamon Raftery CM