Br Frank O’Shea, the Director of the Ruben Centre (Nairobi, Kenya), presented the Gospel Spirituality Keynote at the recent EREA Senior Leaders Conference.
“There is a fair bit of consensus that the man Jesus was born in Nazareth, in Palestine and we know almost nothing about his first 30 years of living, just hanging out it seems, until one day he is baptised by John.
His baptism ignites a fire within him, and it kick starts his mission. He is called, the anointed. His Father lights the fire and the next step, after much reflection and soul searching in the wilderness, we hear him fearlessly coming out and telling everyone:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” – (Luke Ch.4.)
A boy no longer but a man on a mission…..Transformation, rebirthed, empowered!
Edmund Rice’s early life was also insignificant, except he was a very successful businessman. He made a lot of money, married and had a child. A fairly normal life really.
For Jesus, it was his baptism. For Edmund, it was the death of his wife that turned his life upside down and into a similar meaningless wilderness. Then at the age of 40 he too experienced a fire burning within him. Edmund was determined to sell his business and start a school, leaving behind his fame as a successful businessman to embrace an unknown life: a life as an untrained teacher of a group of children nobody could care less about.
Above: Br Frank O’Shea
His friends, I am sure, all agreed it was total madness but something not unlike the madness of God becoming human in the person of Jesus.
So, both men’s pathway was to be called, gifted and sent. I am sure you all know this and there is no need to reach out to Africa to hear more of the same, so I will share something of the madness of my life lived in the footsteps of both Jesus and Edmund.
I dropped out of school at a Christian Brother’s college in rural Victoria in the penultimate year with the plan to take over the family dairy farm. Ten months into it, I too experienced, maybe not a fire, but a flickering flame. Then one day I rode my motor bike into the Brothers’ school and declared I had come to join them. Three months later I was in the novitiate or training college. It was a sort of madness, as I hadn’t finished high school and all I wanted was to be a farmer. The training offered no farming course, only primary teacher training and in what seemed to be in the blink of an eye, the boy who hated school was suddenly standing in front of 50 Grade Five students. I loved it!
The spirituality of Edmund Rice can be summed up in those three words already quoted from our constitutions: called to offer ourselves in freedom to God and all humanity, gifted with Edmund Rice’s spirit or charism and sent by God into the world to bring life to the poor, powerless and oppressed. I was on my way, the way of Edmund and Jesus.
So, what happened? Nothing went to plan. However, looking back over 52 years later, those three words have truly ignited that flickering flame. At the age of 26, the school dropout went off to university and quickly attained a Bachelor of Science in Human Movement. The plan was to be a Physical Education teacher but after graduation I was asked to be a pioneer for our brotherhood in the kingdom of Tonga. I’d never heard of the country before that call; that was truly living that word SENT!
Ten years later I was ready to return to Australia but was asked to go to Tanzania and there I built and administered a large secondary school for boys and girls. Thirteen years on, having survived anthrax and a giraffe attack, and gaining a Masters in Educational Leadership via distant learning with the Australian Catholic University, I was again ready to
return. Ready to come home, but I was asked to go to South Sudan and there pioneered various work in prisons and refugee camps.
I was there when the people voted for independence from Sudan, but all the hope and excitement of that time was quickly snuffed out by tribal fighting. I knew it was a project not for my lifetime, so I asked to be taken out and again requested to finally return to Australia. I got as far as Kenya and in 2010 was asked to be the Director of Ruben Centre. After 10 years I again asked to return to Australia and this time my request was accepted, however, after a year and half in Australia I was called back to be the Director of Ruben again. So here I am.
So much for a wonderful retirement but really the decision was a no brainer. Called, gifted and sent has no limits. True living must be done. ” Never too old,” they say.
I am hoping by now that you school leaders will be asking, How and Why? And if you are not asking, I will share an answer anyway as I hope my answer will be relevant to you all. The how is the same now as it was when I was 18 years of age. Nothing has changed. Jesus said,’ I have come that you may have life and have it to the fullest.’ How do we create this? This is my question to each one of you here today.
In the words of St Paul, ‘being fully alive means saying yes to a life of becoming, knowing meaning only lies in the hot pursuit of being the image and likeness of our maker.’ God is most revealed in my being and from there I am drawn into knowing God and I are one.
Drawing from Colossians “put on the new man / woman who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created you.” There’s our invitation to be children of God created in His image with the hope that we will grow in likeness. That’s our task.
Life in its fullness means that we are always becoming more than we are now. Life is more than what is revealed and what is happening, after all life is such a beautiful gift. Do you appreciate this? Do you ever stop and contemplate the joy of living? The majority of Kenyans are Christians, and they love saying prayers. It is like the old days in Australia. A prayer begins and ends everything, and their most common prayer always begins with “I thank God for the gift of life.” While all this prayer can be tedious at times, its aspiration for grateful living and its call to turn our lives into a challenging adventure is something to behold.
How ordinary and predictable have you become?
Being alive equals living with imagination, like the little children who Jesus praised so enthusiastically and exhorted adults to adopt their way.
Where has living with faith gone in our contemporary culture? Stolen by the bland, cynical, pessimistic and the overt univocal mentality that exists. Life is too busy for anything but a few tweets and overused one liners, defining people and creating such a bland and predictable culture.
Gone is any sense of transcendence. Gone is a sense of awe and wonder. Our city living offers no chance to sit in silence under the stars and ponder how big life is and how small we are. Science and the internet are our gods.
To be a growing Christian means living in conversation with your maker. When did you last push back against just going along with things as they are? Happy with the mundane ordinary and when did you last weep for joy at the never-ending openings and opportunities to be more than you are now? We need time and silence to hear the invitation to live fully. I am talking to a group of educators. Who among you believes and feels called, gifted and sent? Or are you living – ‘It is just a job?’
Imagine if before entering the school each morning you stop, pause and ask,”What invitations to be fully alive will the day / college / teachers / friends / other students offer me today?” How do you think things would be? Imagine how different life could be. Imagine the connections and relationships that might evolve.
I had a young teacher graduate from Melbourne university volunteer with me some years back and preparing her to leave I asked, “What have you learnt in these few months”? Guess what she said. “I have learnt to have a conversation; my generation don’t have them”.
Today I ask how good are your conversations? When was the last conversation you had with a group of your students, especially those struggling with life? You will all know better than me, that the generation that you have in front of you every day, despite all the comfort, technology and wealth, many of these kids are living lonely, troubled, and wretched lives. Lives which have been hacked by social media! For many, their only friends are online. All this is played out in a variety of personal issues and social ills. When I am finished maybe this can be a conversation piece for you all.
So, to conclude, how many of you feel called, gifted and sent as educators into the mad, complicated world and social environment of this student generation who are crying out for realness, peace, connection, conversation and meaning? When was the last time you heard real laughter in the kids you teach? And when was the last time you had a great laugh yourself? When was the last time you felt fully alive and if the answer is alluding you, what are you going to do about it?
Living in the footsteps of Jesus of Nazareth and Edmund of Ireland calls each of you to come alive and bring that life to your students. This was my no brainer when asked to return to Kenya in early 2023. Presence, compassion and liberation defines my living life with thousands of the poorest and yet most alive Nairobi slum dwellers and being so connected to them is my wee life in its fullness.
Each morning, I begin my one hour of meditation with these words:
God of my life, I thank you for the gift of this day, the first day of the rest of my life.
Help me to live fully all its opportunities and challenges.
I pray each one of you can embrace a new awakening.
Br Frank O’Shea cfc – Ruben Centre