Enter the Mystery

In the first Mass of our pilgrimage on Monday evening, we celebrate St Mary Magdalen who sought the one whom her heart loved. But, first, in the homily from Fr Dean we begin at a picnic, and a little litter pic.

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I remember, last year, I stood on this same spot, on this same day, sharing something of our Refugee Week celebrations in South Cardiff Ministry Area.  Well, let’s pick up where I left off.  Or rather, let’s return to a year on, to this year’s Refugee Week in June.

We’re enjoying a global picnic in the grounds of St Mary’s School in Butetown, in Cardiff. There’s food from families with cuisines from all around the world.

I’m picking up litter with a little lad who has joined our congregation and our school during the last year.  He’s travelled with his whole family so his Mum can study here. He’s from Nigeria, the Giant of Africa.  He seems tiny. He’s just five years old.

It was his prompting that made me do the litter pick. His little legs had brought him running across the field to place a lollipop wrapper in the bin.  He disposed of his litter, turned to look at the field with the hundreds of children and parents towering above him. He raised his hands in the air, “Look at all this trash!” he exclaimed. He couldn’t believe the mess.  And so this little Giant of Africa and I, go on a litter pick, we make a game of it, like two wombles, little and large, having fun. He’s just a little higher than my knee.

And then, in a moment, he looks up at me.  “Fr Dean?” he asks. “Am I Christian?”

I smile.  “Yes, you are.”

He seemed happy with that, and then ran off to chase a crisp packet.

“Am I Christian?”

He’s from the south of Nigeria, a predominantly Christian part of the country.  Meanwhile in the North-east of Africa’s Giant, the activities of Boko Haram, a radical jihadist group, make that part of Nigeria a dangerous place to be a Christian.

He’s found himself in Wales, in a church school with a majority of Muslim pupils and other religions too.  A small number of Christians, alongside Hindu and Sikh and Buddhist. And we all get along rather well.

And so, he asks the question about who he is, what he is.  He sees so many different kinds of people around him, and at the age of five years old, he wonders who he is, he decides to ask, “Am I Christian?”

What a question to be asked. What a question to ask.

“Am I Christian?”

Of course, we don’t need to ask ourselves that question, do we?  We know that we’re Christian, don’t we? We’ve been baptised.  We’re here, on pilgrimage? What would be the point otherwise?

But that question of identity and belief, our commitment and the direction of our whole life, the way we navigate our way in the world today is so important. How do we relate to Christ?  What does it actually mean to be Christian? In what way “Am I Christian?’

Does it mean to be the possessor of what we declare or discover to be the truth? Does it mean that we are the ones who’ve got it right? And if we’ve got it right, does it make others wrong?  And how does the way we live our Christian faith and follow Jesus and love Jesus affect or influence others? Are we a source for good in the world? By being a Christian do we change the world?

‘Am I Christian?’

Does me being Christian change things?

So, let’s go back to those litter pickers, as we wander around the gardens chasing paper and plastic. Trying to clean up the little part of the world in which we find ourselves. Trying to make the world a better place, just me and the little giant of Africa.

And let’s pick up the words of Scripture we’ve heard tonight which have been scattered around us. From the Song of Songs and the gospel according to John.

Let’s lean in close to Mary Magdalen, try to feel something of her sorrow, and wonder who she thinks she is as she seeks out the Lord whom she loves only to find an empty grave, and the vague figure of a gardener whom she sees through tears.

She’s wandering through the garden, her life now filled with so much litter that she can barely carry the weight of it all.

She is looking for one thing but discovers another.

She is looking for a dead man and meets her risen Saviour.

She is seeking out the one whom her broken heart loves and finds her broken heart is healed.

So, here’s a few words from another giant of the Christian faith, St Benedict. “Prefer absolutely nothing to the love of Christ,” he said. How simple, how profound, how difficult at times as we navigate our way through a world with so much to distract and entertain us, so many things to prefer and take precedence. “Prefer absolutely nothing to the love of Christ.”

This week, we are seeking out so much. We can, perhaps, put away some of the litter of our lives, for a few days at least, and we can explore what it means to be a Christian, to be a follower of Jesus, a lover of Jesus who has loved us since the beginning, and who shows us what love is.

It was just those few small words from the tiny giant of Africa which set me off on a different kind of journey, to explore what it really means to be a Christian – for me, in the here and now, where I am, surrounded by so much, and so many things.

“Am I Christian?”

These few days together are a gift.  They are a time to reconnect with that question of what it means to be a Christian, and to love Jesus.

These few days may give us some chance to look across the landscape of our lives and exclaim, “Look at all this trash” and, bit by bit, as though it were a game, we can tidy things up and race to the finishing line.

I don’t want to anticipate what ‘giant moments’ will come for you this week, but I bet that many of those ‘giant moments,’ those significant turning points, will come wrapped up in something small and tiny, almost imperceptible, like the words of a five-year-old on a litter pick. A moment of prayer. A brief time in the Holy House. A touch, a word, a breath.

If it’s easier, you can make a game of it. After all, God’s Spirit is playful, breezing through our lives, flapping his way like the wings of a dove. This is a place of faith and prayer but it’s also fun too.

Picking up the litter doesn’t always have to be a painful chore. And being a Christian, whilst fraught with difficulties, is a life filled with joy!

So, from here, go out and pick up some litter, and whilst you’re at it, ask yourselves the important question of what being a Christian means to you.

And know that you are loved. For here, in this place, we seek the one whom our heart loves, and who loves us more than we can imagine.