My life like yours is ruled by dates, deadlines and commitments.

Some appointments we wait for with great anticipation like going to the concert of someone we enjoy listening to while other dates we dread such as going to a dentist for a root canal.

The life of Jesus was so much like ours. There were times of wonderful celebration and others filled with sadness and even dread.

This week we hit the road for the commencement of our travelling ministry activities for 2012. It is already the busiest year we have ever had. I am looking forward to it tremendously but it means months of being away from home and being far from loved ones. It is bitter sweet.

I am not alone in this. When I arrive at the airport in the city where I live, there are thousands of miners who fly in and out for weeks on end to mines in the north of the country. Truck drivers spend large periods away from home and business executives are the same travelling the globe while managing corporate enterprises. Many people across many industries live large portions of their lives on the ‘road.’

Even if you do not travel we all have dates, deadlines and commitments that run our lives.

If we read the Gospel stories of Jesus’ life it is very evident that he knew he was heading to Jerusalem which was the place where he would be crucified and then rise from the dead. Jesus knew that this was a date, a deadline, a commitment He had to keep.

This week Lent begins. The origin of the word Lent is drawn from a word that means spring, which is when new life bursts forth. It harkens us back to what Jesus knew He had to do when He went to Jerusalem. Yes, he wanted the victory and new life of resurrection for all people but this was on the other side of hanging and dying on the cross, which was a date, deadline, commitment he had to keep.

Lent is a period of time not just when we remember the greatest pivotal events of human history but a time when we have the chance to surrender and ask God to come into our lives afresh and meet us.

Lent commences on Ash Wednesday. At Ash Wednesday ceremonies or during Mass the sign of the cross will be made on our heads with ash accompanied by the words, “Remember, you are dust and to dust you shall return” or using the phrase “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel”

These phrases particularly emphasise our continual call to conversion and the dedication of our life to God because they also remind us of our mortality and that we are frail and in need of God.

Catholics are known for giving something up during Lent that they routinely have in their life. This is not done so that we suffer a bit but rather is a reminder every time we want it or hunger for it that we need God and that Jesus denied His wants for a better future for us.

The denying of ourselves is a prompt throughout the day to say to God, ‘please be more in me. Change me to be what you desire for me. It might not be success as the world sees it, but what you see for me in your largest of picture of my life.’
I have told often the story of giving up my excessive sugar addiction for Lent one year thinking I would return to it when Lent ended.   I was amazed to find that I had broken my sugar habit and no longer needed it in the excessive quantities I had before.

I had been converted. This is what Lent is really about. It is about your conversion and my conversion. It is our transformation to be the person that God wants and sees that we can be.

I encourage you to embrace Lent this year whether it be by setting aside some time for prayer each day, attend Mass more frequently or serving the needy and disadvantaged.

Lent is a date, a deadline and a commitment and should you embrace it, you will enjoy the joy of the resurrection that awaits you personally because you will be converted.

Thursday is one of my talk preparation days when I usually work in my office at home. I was checking that one of the plastic cards in my wallet had expired when I remembered that I had left the scissors on the table outside the back door the night before. As I stepped outside and picked up the scissors I heard a strange sound behind me.

I turned around to see ‘Thunder’ our male German shepherd scraping his front nails on the ground as he walked toward me. He looked terrible. It was at that moment that I noticed a dark shape on the ground to my right. It was a tiger snake.

Fortunately Thunder had killed it but in the process he had been bitten. I would find out later that most dogs are dead from tiger snake bites before they arrive at the vet.

I raced into the house and rang the local veterinarian hospital and the nurse said to bring him straight to the surgery. It was eleven o’clock in the morning.

When I arrived at the vet hospital the nurse immediately took Thunder, who by now was shaking uncontrollably, and told me that the veterinarian would be out soon to speak to me personally.

Five minutes later the veterinarian came out and informed me that Thunder was already on an intravenous drip for fluids. She then asked something that did not make sense to me until some time later.

She asked, “So do you want to proceed?”

I answered, “Yes, do what you have to do to try and save him.”

I thought it seemed a strange question because that was why I had come to them for help.

The vet told me that it was too early to tell if Thunder would survive.

Thunder is a beautiful dog. He has a wonderful temperament and is a constant companion to his sister ‘Storm’ and together they are a part of our family.

I left the vet hospital wondering if I would ever see Thunder again.

Over the next couple of hours the veterinarian rang a couple of times to ask if we could bring the snake down to the hospital to be sure it was a tiger snake and to give progress reports saying that Thunder had a 50/50 chance of recovering.

It was about two o’clock in the afternoon when I was speaking to the vet on the telephone when I asked, “So how much is this going to cost?”

The vet told me that each vial of anti-venom was a little over eight hundred dollars and Thunder had received a number of vials so far.

“Your bill at this point stands at $3,000.”

I said, “WHAT??????”

The vet repeated that the anti-venom was very expensive.

I exclaimed, “you could have given me an indication of the cost,” to which the veterinarian replied, “I thought the front counter staff had told you when you dropped the dog off and while I was administering the intravenous drip.”

It was then that the vet’s question came back to me, “so do you want to proceed?”

She thought I knew the cost when I told her to proceed.

She could tell I was in shock and asked did I want to continue with the treatment. I answered by saying that I would need to speak to my wife Rosemary.

When I told Rosemary it did not take long for her to start crying in frustration. That is a lot of money for us to find at this point in our life without planning for it.

We knew we couldn’t do any more even though we love Thunder so I called the vet hospital to tell them we could not afford any more treatment.

Unfortunately when I rang, the vet was busy handling another emergency. When I did get through an hour later the bill had risen to $4,413.75.

I could not fault the vet’s care of Thunder as it was faultless and I would happily return.

My initial reaction was understandably one of frustration and annoyance at myself that I had not checked out the cost and just handled the whole situation better in general.

I had an increasingly sinking feeling in my emotions and heart as the afternoon went on.

“How are we going to pay this? How could I be so unaware? I have let the family down! Why did this have to happen? Thunder is just a great pet.”

On and on I went descending into a darker hole of despair.

It was at this point that the words, “the joy of the Lord is my strength” flashed through my mind and then “rejoice in the Lord always.” These are two phrases found in the Bible encouraging us to live according to a bigger picture than just the one we can see.

“That’s Ok for you God but I just spent $4,400 I did not plan on spending today. As a matter of fact God I did not even know I was spending it when it was happening.”

I knew it would cost something but this much?

It was at this point that the thought came to me, “Will you allow your joy to be robbed by your circumstances?”

What a challenge.

As Christians we know that our lives are transitory and that we are here on earth for just a short time. In the big scheme of God’s plan what upsets us and even what makes us happy (while important) are just small parts of our much ‘bigger’ life.

To live with joy doesn’t mean we are flippant or care less about what is going on in life but it is about putting our life into a much bigger perspective of God’s plan for our lives and His love for us.

Joy sits under the emotions of our life, which go up and down due often to our circumstances.

When we lose our joy we are really allowing circumstances to rob us of a much bigger picture of who we really are in Christ.

This does not mean we are robots without emotion and heart, but having faith does mean that we trust God’s plan for our lives and therefore underpinning our life is a confidence in God’s overarching care for us.

The next time you get frustrated, angry, disappointed or even hurt remember to rejoice that God is with you always.

POSTSCRIPT:

Thunder did survive and is doing well but when I picked him up from the vet hospital he had a big bandage around his leg from the drip they had put into him.  When I arrived home the bandage was gone. He had eaten it.

I could not help but laugh wouldn’t it be funny if he died from eating the bandage. I certainly was not taking him back to the vet!!

Story One – Spoiling Christmas

Many years ago when I was just a small boy I discovered where my Mum and Dad kept all of the presents in the days leading up to Christmas Day. Mum and Dad didn’t wrap them up until after Midnight Mass when all the children had gone to bed.

As they wrapped our gifts so late, they were stored in the cupboard in shopping bags. A few days before Christmas Day, I snuck into their bedroom and went through all of the bags and saw what everyone was going to get. At the time it seemed so exciting but it had a terrible dark side.

On Christmas Day there was no excitement for me. I had spoilt the day. I knew it all. I never did that again!

Story Two – All I Want

My Dad was an amazing man. He loved Mum , my four brothers and I selflessly. In the days leading up to Christmas we would ask him, “Dad what do you want for Christmas?”

He always gave the same answer. “All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth” and then he would laugh and say, “You don’t have to get anything for me. I just love being able to spend the day with you. That’s my present.”

Story Three – Too Old Yet too Young

I remember the very first Christmas that I got more clothes than toys. As little boys we got cars or bicycles or airplanes and we played with them the whole of Christmas Day. My two older brothers and I were given clothes and useful things that were not as enjoyable or could be played with as readily.

The first Christmas when this happened was rather boring. Growing up is tough!

Story Four – Brandy Sauce

My second oldest brother Paul was and has always been one of my heroes. He is just a great man.

One Christmas, he volunteered to make the Brandy Sauce to go with the Plum Pudding. He put so much Brandy in the sauce that all of us had to have an afternoon nap on Christmas afternoon and we never slept on Christmas Day.

Story Five – A Manger

⁸ In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. ⁹ Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. ¹⁰ But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: ¹¹ to you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is the Messiah, the Lord. ¹² This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” ¹³ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

¹⁴“Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace among those whom he favors!”

¹⁵ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” ¹⁶ So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. ¹⁷ When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; ¹⁸ and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. ¹⁹ But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. ²⁰ The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Luke 2:8-20

In the midst of the wonderful stories of Christmas we can forget to stop and ponder all that it really means.

A mentor of mine encouraged me to find ten minutes for Jesus on Christmas Eve just by myself.  It has always made Christmas a much richer experience.

May God our Father Bless you and all those you love through the birth of Jesus His one and only son. May the Holy Spirit enable you to see Him in your family and in your life.

Bruce and Rosemary Downes

Have you ever dropped the ball and then dropped it again? Made the same mistake twice or many times? Have you not learnt from your past errors and messed up repeatedly?

I would like to say I have not but recently in the small hours of  one Sunday morning I did.

Recently our lovely youngest daughter Cassandra celebrated her 21^st birthday with her gorgeous friend Sophie. It was a marvelous night. The girls were dressed in their finest clothes and looked beautiful, the organisation went seamlessly on the night and at speech time people spoke from the heart.

Both families were the last to leave and after final thank yous and hugs all round we left the venue.

In the car with Rosemary and I were Cassandra and her friend Zac, and the discussion immediately turned to how the night had gone. Conversations about dresses, photos and what people had said, the smooth running of the night and personal stories of congratulations were all told.

Cassandra was very happy and we were especially happy for her.

It was only a short distance from the party venue when we realised that we needed petrol. I had noticed this on the way and knew I would have to get the petrol after the party on the way home. It was not highly desirable but that was just the way circumstances turned out that day.

Before I tell you what happened next, let me first make my excuses.

For some weeks we have been traveling back and forth across the country presenting week-long Parish Missions. They have been wonderful experiences. The weekend of my daughter’s 21^st party was right in the middle of a Parish Mission in our home city. I can only describe myself at the moment as ‘tired to my bones.’ It has got to the point where one good night’s sleep won’t help much because I would need many to catch up completely. Nonetheless, however exhausting, the team and I love what God has asked us to do.

OK that is my excuse out of the way. It doesn’t work as an excuse but it is all I have to offer for my stupidity to justify what happened next.

As we left the party someone said, “don’t forget to get petrol.”

Some distance away we found a petrol station and I drove in at around 1.00am and started filling the car. When I had filled it almost completely I was filled with dread and cried out loud, “Oh no.”

I had put nearly a whole tank of unleaded petrol in a car that takes diesel fuel.

A year ago I had done exactly the same thing and had discovered that if I drove it with unleaded fuel that major damage would be done to the engine (according to the mechanic).

I told those in the car and was greeted by “Dad!!!”

Rosemary just looked at me.  You know ‘that’ look.

Having done the same thing only relatively recently I knew that that the car would have to be towed away and that it would cost $500 to have it fixed.

All my excuses of great conversation in the car and being tired do not wash. It was my own fault and no excuses are acceptable.

In life we set goals to work at certain areas of our lives. Sometimes situations turn out poorly because of our own mistakes or sometimes because circumstances are out of our control.

The secret to dealing with mistakes is to get up and go again. It would be foolish to say because I have made the same mistake before that I will not drive a car again or not fill up with fuel again. My family, friends and I will live with the risks that I might mess up again.

It is the only way to live. Get up and go again.

God does not give up on you because you make mistakes.

Jesus did not give up on Peter because he deliberately denied Him three times.

What do you need to try again? Go and plan to do it again today.

To my family, next time you are in the car with me don’t say, “The car needs petrol,” say, “The car needs diesel.”  I need all the help I can get!

We all know what it is to be disappointed. We know that feeling in the pit of our stomach when what we expected or hoped for has not come to pass.

When we become disappointed it is not uncommon to be angry or frustrated or even want to give up.

Disappointment can occur when someone has let us down, circumstances did not turn out as we wanted, because we did not achieve what we planned or hoped to or because God just had another plan that He had not let us in on as yet.

Working and serving in Church ministry as I have over the years has seen me be very disappointed at times.  This job is no different than any other in that respect.

Disappointment comes in many forms. I thought we would have achieved more at times. On other occasions people who have made promises, and even gone out of their way to do so, have then abandoned the course because of hardship or a better offer. If I were truthful, I thought I would on many occasions have done much better in certain circumstances than I have – only to find I disappoint others, but most of all me.

In this, Jesus was no different to us. He knew, in particular, what it was to be let down by others.

Imagine how Jesus felt when His disciples tried to keep away children who just wanted to be next to Him.  Or how He must have felt when His disciples could not even stay awake with Him as He waited for His betrayer to come on Holy Thursday night.

I wonder if He thought, “I have invested three years into these people and they can’t even stay awake with me on this the hardest night of my life.” He hints at this when He says to them, “could you men not keep watch with me for one hour?” Matthew 26:41.

Jesus, I am sure, did not know what it was like to be disappointed in Himself. However I do, as so often we all do. It is the most debilitating type of disappointment of all.

In life, if we are to achieve and press on, we have to deal with and overcome our disappointments.

St Paul understood this very well. He knew what it was like to be let down by others and to be let down by himself when he did not accomplish what he so desired.

There are five actions that you can engage in that allow you to celebrate the wins and overcome the disappointments that are inevitable in life:

1.       Develop a healthy, consistent and strong prayer life where you talk to God about your life, how you are going and what He wants you to be doing from where you are at any given time.

2.       Be committed to God’s will in such a manner that you draw your strength from Him more than you do from others or even from your own desires. When this occurs, it is amazing the adversity we can endure and overcome.

3.       It is important to keep the vision of what you believe you, as a person, are called to do whether this be in family, job, hobby or ministry.

4.       Speak out regularly to others your vision and ensure you have it written down in a place where you will review it regularly.

5.       Have an “I will not give up” attitude, no matter what happens. Remember, we are only beaten when we stop.