Now in harvest time the letter of St James is opened for us anew. Around us are the fertile fields with abundant crops speaking to us of generous sowing, of faithful toil, and of gifts well used. The golden fields under the autumn sky present a living parable. Gospel truth calls to us as the evenings shorten and another pilgrim year fades gently from our lives.
Pope John Paul awakens us: "We need heralds of the Gospel who are experts in humanity, who know the depths of the human heart, who can share the joys and hopes, the agonies and distress of people today, but who are, at the same time, contemplatives who have fallen in love with God." All around us are signs of the denial and rejection of God. No need to search. But even amid the sadness and despair are echoes of God's voice and sightings of his presence. We all long for our lost Eden. But we tend to wander down strange paths, to abandon good pastures for sterile deserts, to turn from founts of living water and drink from poisoned wells.
We are invited at our Eucharist today to listen to St James, a robust, explicit guide in the search for God. He is concise, compelling, luminous. He does not tolerate self-deception or hypocrisy. The question becomes for us not "When shall I die?" but: "When will I begin to live . . .?" In his short letter he arouses us from smug complacency and folly-filled indifference. He points to our futile conflicts and quarrels, to our pathetic lusts and self-seeking, to all that can fill our fragile lives with jealousy and false ambition, with disorder and with evil of every kind. We may, in blindness, abandon the genuine wisdom that is pure, peace-loving, considerate to others and ever open to reason. James will not tolerate hideous sham or empty self-promotion.
"True justice is the harvest reaped by peacemakers from seed sown in a spirit of peace . . ." We look today at the acres of our lives and inspect what may be our final harvest.
By a happy chance a book, published today, gives light and hope. Cardinal Basil Hume recalls a game of hide-and-seek, played with children years ago. He used each hiding-place for a moment of prayer, to reflect on life's once made journey and our search for God. Like St James, he shares with us his story. He lights up for us the wonders of prayer and silence; the love and mercy of God; the mystery of our suffering; of death and our own human fears. He gives to each of us much comfort. He assures us we are not alone as we blunder our way through life. He calls his story, delightfully, Basil in Blunder-Land.
St James would have enjoyed it. Here is a hope-giving book of humour, wisdom and genuine humanity. A book for all - young, old, believer and agnostic and especially, gentle reader, for you and for me.
At a funeral a priest said: ". . . Judgment is whispering into the ear of a merciful and compassionate God the story of my life which I have never been able to tell . . ."
The One Who will understand,
Who will forgive . . .,
Who will console . . .,
This is my view of God! .. .!
(Basil Hume OSB).
F.MacN.