The Sunday Eucharist with Father Dave - February 13th, 2022

Then he looked up at his disciples and said: “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh.” (Luke 6:20-21)

Those words ring true for me today. I’m feeling a bit poor, hungry and miserable at the moment, mainly because it’s my birthday and I’m spending it in isolation, awaiting the results of a COVID test.

I have been feeling rather low energy for the last couple of days, which is not like me, and cancelling my birthday dinner with the family was painful. Even so, true to the beatitudes of Luke 6, I feel blessed, and this for two reasons. Firstly, because I have my daughter, Fran, with me, sharing the isolation, and secondly because I am still feeling nurtured by the memories of last weekend’s rally in Canberra, which was possibly the most spiritually enriching experience I’ve ever had in my life!

If you weren’t there last weekend, you probably read about it. If so, I’d encourage you to disregard fake news like the ABC which reported ‘thousands’ of demonstrators whose only accomplishment was to disrupt the Lifeline book fair and to knock over a barricade outside Parliament House. In truth, there were probably around half a million protestors, and we ended our rally holding hands, singing ‘all you need is love’.

I feel it was one of the greatest privileges of my life thus far – opening in prayer at the largest rally ever held in the Australian capital. It may have been the largest rally ever held on Australian soil, though I don’t know for sure. What I do know is that I have never experienced anything like it, and not only because of the size of the crowd, but because of their warmth and compassion and spirituality!

I found that amongst the crew that were on stage, there was a lot of spontaneous hugging going on throughout the rally. There was also a lot of God-talk going on. Indeed, I was not the only person to lead the rally in prayer that day. On the contrary, prayer seemed to be a constant feature (along with the hugs)!

When I wandered the lawn of Parliament House after the rally, I received more hugs, and I saw people everywhere with religious icons. One woman seemed to be carrying a child, but then I realised it was actually a child-size statue of the Blessed Virgin!

It was painful to see the mainline media denigrate this incredible event. If there really were half a million people there, that was 2% of the entire population of the country! Why the politicians aren’t taking us more seriously, I do not know.

Can you see the connection between the rally and Jesus words of blessing, recorded in Luke, chapter 6? Jesus was blessing His disciples – people who were poor, hungry, and despised, not because they’d had bad luck but because they had been faithful. That is exactly the testimony of so many people I spoke to at the rally.

So many there had lost their jobs, their businesses and, in some cases, their homes, as a result of government mandates or because they refused to comply with government directives, or both. They’d stayed true to what they believed, and they had suffered for it. “You will be blessed”, says Jesus, and, last Saturday, we were blessed.

Dave
http://www.fatherdave.org
http://www.fighting-fathers.com