What Tomorrow Brings

You're No Good

performed by Linda Ronstadt

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It's been nearly a year since the Grammy award winner American singer, Linda Ronstadt let it be known that she can no longer sing, due to illness. Such a vital and enthusiastic voice from a woman who struggled in her early years and achieved fame for her God-given gift of a powerful and beautiful voice. Nowadays she accepts, as she must, her change in circumstances.

Each of us, at times in our lives, experience change; some as dramatic as Ms. Ronstadt. For some it is normal aging, for others it is illness or financial reverses. Sometimes we are in spiritual quandries; our love runs dry, we are alone, we may have even feel the loss of our rudder. For others it's depression or other losses. Every type of situation that we may face presents to us a challenge, to either move forward or to simply wither, fruits left to dry on the vine.

Either we make something of our challenges or they may come to make us. With a prayer of hope each one of us may find the courage to face our selves, and our lives in just this moment and reckon with the consequences. It's truly the journey and not the journeys' end that makes meaning in our life.

What's Your Relationship?

You're My Best Friend

Lyrics sung by Mercury, Queen

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Ooh you make me live

Whatever this world can

give to me It's you

you're all I see

Ooo you make me live now honey

Ooo you make me live Ooh you're the best

friend that I ever had

I've been with you such

a long time You're my sunshine and

I want you to know

That my feelings are true

I really love you

Oh you're my best friend

Ooo you make me live

Ooh I've been wandering round

But I still come back to you

In rain or shine You've stood by me girl

I'm happy at home You're my best friend

Ooo you make me live

Whenever this world is cruel to me

I got you to help me forgive

Ooo you make me live now honey

Ooo you make me live

You're the first one

When things turn out bad

You know I'll never be lonely

You're my only one

And I love the things

I really love the things that you do

You're my best friend

Ooo you make me live I'm happy at home

You're my best friend

Oh you're my best friend

Ooo you make me live

You you're my best friend

While we often hear this song, we think of someone else rather than the artist-singer. However a bit of delving into Freddie Mercury's life reveals that late in his life, he was preoccupied with a concern for love-in-life, and the absence of the love-experience in his own life. 
His thoughts turned increasingly to spiritual matters. His lyrics explore the role of human love in those spiritual yearnings. He may have died young, but he was hopeful as his lyrics. Did he find the love he looked for?

However often we may think about others, when I heard this song recently, I thought about the question of the relationship I have with myself. Yes, that One--me, myself and I. What does that feel like, who is that, where am I in my life, can I forgive myself? 
Sometimes, I'm just stupid, sometimes I really screw up. True, I'm not perfect. But isn't good enough, good enough? Must we be more? Sure, the Bible tells us there is no sin too great for the forgiveness of God, but what about me--me forgiving me? If I let go and fall, will I land on my feet? Can I confront what I so dislike and still live with myself?
How do I get to there? It seems to me at least, that the love we reflect to others is the love we see for ourselves. So how is that relationship going these days? And so often we struggle with our self. It can be hard to understand why we are as we are, why we do as we do. 
The lyrics here give a clue; we can't go it alone. It seems we are social creatures; with the help or simple presence of others in our lives, they our friends can "help me to forgive." From the sense of these lyrics, I think Mercury must have found a real love. I wonder if he knew it.

Clothing as Love

I'm In You 

by Peter Frampton

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I don't care where I go
When I'm with you
When I cry, you don't laugh
'Cause you know me

I'm in you, you're in me
I'm in you, you're in me
'Cause you gave me the love
Love that I never had
Yes, you gave me the love
Love that I never had

You and I don't pretend
We make love
I can't feel any more
Than I'm singing, yeah...

Come so far when you think
Of last fall
You can't buy what we made
You and I, oh

I'm in you, you're in me
I'm in you, you're in me
'Cause you gave me the love
Love that I never had
Yes, you gave me the love
Love that I never had
You gave me the love
Love that I never had

I don't care where I go
When I'm with you...

While it may be quite true that those who are happiest clothe themselves in the Holy Spirit alone, it's through brief moments of inspiration, that we first make the connection to Spirit and Self.
These contacts over time become more sustainable, they make an opening for a change in consciousness; our reality changes. The eternal qualities of faith, hope and charity become more obvious and relevant. And what remains is real.

Two people in coming together weave a cloth which becomes uniquely their own reality. Whether any one else understands that view or not is immaterial to the lovers. What does matter is that they have this consciousness, this opening and they between them, possess comprehension of it.

A strong weave makes for strength in each of the beloveds. It is not necessarily intellectual; in fact when asked to explain it, often they are lost for words. So they may suffice to say, ' it's just a feeling; we understand it between us.'

The poet Rumi wrote, "Love is the sea where intellect drowns."

The Face of a Religious China

"Grace means that a life is not assessed for its faults but by a love of God that overwhelms all those faults"  -- Rev. Verity A. Jones

Today, around the world many more are coming to the teaching of the Christ. Forming a community, a Church that stands for all people in solidarity with suffering humanity, and engages peoples of all cultures and religions, is the Church teaching of the Gospels (bible stories). She stands with principle. All peoples the world over, want something to believe in, regardless of their faith heritage, be its origins East or West.

Jesuit Father Myles Sheehan, member of the same Jesuit Christian community as Pope Francis, recounts the Jesuit community experiences since their recent arrival in China. He writes in US Catholic magazine that there were 200 persons attending at a recent prayer meeting; this scene is being repeated every day throughout the country. On Sundays throughout China it occurs in multiplicity. There are now thousands of churches in China, representing all Christian denominations alongside the native faiths of that land.

What is becoming clear is that the number of Christians in China is growing. With the incorporation of Hong Kong into China since 1997, including its free prevalence of all faiths, non-native faiths are now taking hold within the mainland. In fact says Sheehan, there are now more regular church attenders in China today than in all of Europe. China saw more than 20,000 Catholic Christian baptisms in 2011 according to the Church in China.The call to love your neighbor is taking hold.

There are also what Sheehan calls "cultural Christians," many young and educated persons who believe but do not belong. They are a growing group, in many ways coming to the forefront of bringing the Good News to all parts of China. They play a significant role in the future of their nation, carrying with them the ideas, values and philosophies of the Christ.

Their growing Church is a place which holds for her guiding principles, an all inclusive, all-encompassing view, without walls or buildings nor ideologies that omit the value of the dignity of a person. In this modern, industrializing world the Church forms a harbor, a counter-force for harmony, and a home.

This Church of China must stand for all; its aims must be lived, not merely proclaimed through work for charitable causes and advocacy for social justice. In other parts of Asia, this mission takes its fulfillment in solidarity with the Minjung of South Korea, the Dalit of India and the Burakumin of Japan, for example.

While the marginalized in Asia are not all Christians, the indigenous faiths of the region share same or similar deep concerns for Asia. As for the Church in Asia, she stands alongside others with a message of not just a church in Asia but the Church in Asia, uniquely representing her community. After all, building community is at the heart of relationships.

Hope for the Modern World

"Be not afraid. Come, follow me..." Jesus to his disciples, Pope John Paul II to the world

 If there is any message of hope in the modern world for the followers of the Christ, it is this: there is a limit, and this limit has to do with the mercy of God.  There is a limit imposed upon evil in the world, in history, wrote Pope John Paul II as he recalled his youth in Poland under Russian domination. In secret he studied to become a priest.

Despite all our fears, of the human capacity for evil and wickedness, or the confusion of our own hearts, we need not be afraid for God loves. Indeed God is love itself. In Christianity there is the great teaching, the revelation that a being, a creator existed for love, in love with all that was created; this being was Gospel, the 'good news.' In a largely joyless, suffering world of oppression and hatred, the future Pope found joy. In the community of Christians, he felt joy so large that he felt compelled to share; this brought him to his vocation as a priest. He went forth to share this good news. Joylessness turned to hopefulness for the young priest from Poland.

In the modern, industrialized West, threats to human happiness take subtler forms than for those who suffer unjust governments. They threaten the Spirit, the Community no less than overt acts of evil. 
And yet there is the Christ, whose message is taken up by followers throughout the world, all parts of the world, not only in the West. It is a universal message of hope, of peace, of love, faithful love.
Saint John, the disciple, writes of the radiant, burning love made visible in the incarnation of the Christ. The Holy Spirit comes down from above to kindle the hearts of ordinary men so that this love is made visible, tangible and real. 

This love is the ordinary love of the Creator. It is not the love of hearts and candy, romantic and fickle.  "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life..." 1John1:1

Shepherd me O God

Psalm 23
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Shepherd me O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life God is my shepherd, so nothing shall I want, I rest in the meadows of faithfulness and love, I walk by the quiet waters of peace.

Gently you raise me and heal my weary soul, you lead me by pathways of righteousness and truth, my spirit shall sing the music of your name.
 
Though I shall wander the valley of death, I fear no evil, for you are at my side, your rod and your staff,
my comfort and my hope. 

You have set me a banquet of love in the face of hatred, crowning me with love beyond my power to hold. 

Surely your kindness and mercy follow me all the days of my life; I will dwell in the house of my God for evermore.

Music and adapted lyrics by Marty Haugen, GIA Music Publishers 1986