A Reflection on Creation

ONION
Here is an onion – just come back from the Onion Catechism class. I asked if it could remember the questions and answers – It has a fantastic memory: ‘Who made you? God made me. How did God make me? God made me with earth, air, fire and water. Fire? Why did God make you? God made me to be peeled, chopped and eaten in this world and….. I stopped Onion before this went too far. How does God peel you? God peels me disguised in lots of different ways
Do God’s eyes water when he peels you? YES! NOW WE can ask – How does God peel my onion?

WHAT DISGUISES DOES GOD USE TO PEEL ME? – so I am led to care for creation, working for climate, social justice?
GOD COMES DISGUISED AS EVERYBODY – TO NAME JUST A FEW –and the Divinity starts as soon as or even before I am born– disguised as my FAMILY, my TEACHERS – the whole community of the ‘followers in the court of the King’s Son’ then and still now – THEY ALL INSPIRED ME TO GET PEELING!

GOD AS CHRIST CAME DISGUISED AS CREATION AND PEELED ME – I became an ‘earthling’ on foot, on a bike, on foot, swimming, playing at the start of my creation with my pals – the sons and daughters of God. I was inspired to love nature – walking in, almost wanting to “eat” landscape, seascape. I have watched birds since God (disguised as) a Teacher in Primary school passed on his passion for all that lived. John Leedal. A GREAT ONION PEELER!
VATICAN 2 – PEELED ME – A gang of us have grown old peeling and being peeled, disguised in the dream of a church renewed with inspirers here, in Peru, through J&P, Pax Christi, CAFOD – inspired and inspiring onion peelers all.
Then INTERFAITH DIALOGUERS – members of other Christian families and OF OTHER RELIGIONS PEELED ME – the Catholic layers REVEALED OTHER RELIGIONS peeled by friends Mushtaq, Rajinder, Joniah, Rachel to reveal the beautiful rich layers of the onion hidden beneath – lovely layers getting juicier as we got nearer the onion’s centre! INTERFAITH AND INTERSPIRITUAL DIALOGUERS and INSPIRERS – peeling away to get to my centre! God in the disguise of many faces – playing there. Is that Gerard Manley Hopkins?

TODAY: I AM BEING INSPIRED TO EXPLORE THE LOVELY CENTRE OF THE ONION OF ME AND THE WORLD BY GOD DISGUISED AS THOSE WHO PEEL SLOWLY – THE CONTEMPLATIVES of silence and THOSE WHO PEEL QUICKLY – those who act for justice – inspiring me to listen to the cries of the poor and of the earth. Lately folk like Ann, Trish – LAUDATO SI ANIMATORS / INSPIRERS. You lot! But Especially the young ones! GRANDCHILDREN MOST OF ALL!!
SLOWLY WE BEGIN TO SEE GOD, CHRIST, THE SPIRIT – PEELING US ROUND AND ROUND IN A GREAT DANCE WITH ALL THESE OTHERS, PEELING TO GET TO THE CENTRE, TO OUR HEARTS AND REVEALED IN ALL NATURE – WE SEE THERE THE UNIVERSAL PRESENCE OF CHRIST (OF GOD). ONE BIG ONION make up of all of us – ONE INSPIRER, GOD ALL IN ALL! THE ONIONS DANCE! WE ALL JOIN IN THE DANCE WE CALL THE TRINITY WITH ALL THAT EXISTS! ONE BIG ONION.
Makes your eyes water!

THE CHALLENGE: Mark’s Gospel: “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.”
So we help one another and our damaged church. WE PRAY FOR great discernment and kindness, that the messages of Laudato Si become part of its DNA – its bloodstream – so that we can go slowly from our centre BUT work URGENTLY, peeled clean, to hear and heal the cries of the poor and of our world. We say with Lazarus’s sisters: ‘Lord the ones you love are sick. Lord the world you love is sick’. Help us to heal the ones you love and the world which lies sick.