Southern Area Gathering

The Southern Area Gathering in preparation for the Chruinniu Chriost was transferred from Nicholastown Green to the parish church last evening because of rain.

At the event, Fr Michael Murphy said such gatherings of believers reflected the gatherings of the early people who knew Jesus, and then those who came on board because they heard what these people had to say. "It seems that these early believers had a sense that Jesus was still with them in spirit, even though he was gone in the physical sense after the Ascension. Gradually they began to speak of the Spirit being with them, and guiding them."

In addition to gathering to pray, Fr Murphy said they also gathered to read scripture and to reflect and share what they knew, and eventually these became the Gospel stories as we know them. "They also gathered to break bread, which is what we do today in the Eucharist, and they gathered too to support each other and to share whatever they had for the benefit of those in most need."

Suggesting that Jesus may never have envisaged the structures and buildings that his church grew into, Fr Murphy said his idea of a church was that people would gather in community in a way that was different to everything else."It would be a community where people would be prepared to lay down their lives for one another. A community without rank, and one where the most needy would be looked after. A community that would reflect Jesus himself, one that would continue the presence of his body in the rest of the world."

But in reflecting through history, Fr Murphy suggested that the church of Jesus had 'had got it wrong'. "And we are being faced with how wrong we got it, in many respects, in our time. But the dream is still there, and that is what the Holy Spirit reminds us of, and puts before us. These are times when we need to listen to the Holy Spirit, because what has been has just fallen apart and things are going to be different in the future."

Like those first Christians, today's gatherings of believers don't know what lies ahead, Fr Murphy concluded. "Yet, they feel that the spirit of Jesus is with them and calls on them to live in a special way, to pray together, to study the scriptures together, to share the Eucharist together, and to look out for one another."



The Chruinniu Chriost gathering takes place next Sunday at 2pm.


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