What is Welling Up Within Us?

There’s something deeply human about Jeremiah’s struggle in today’s first reading. God has called him to speak – to proclaim the word God has given him – but Jeremiah is reluctant. He’s experienced opposition, ridicule and rejection, and even decided that he would simply keep quiet: “I will not mention [God], I will no longer speak in [God’s] name.” But then something happens. Jeremiah discovers that silence is no longer possible. “Then there seemed to be a fire burning in my heart, imprisoned in my bones. The effort to restrain it wearied me, I could not bear it.” What he has received from God has become too powerful to contain. Jeremiah’s resistance ultimately gives way to surrender to the One whom he has encountered. He has received God’s word. He knows what God wants him to say. And what has been received within him begins to overflow from him.

There is an ancient Christian axiom that captures something of this dynamic: nemo dat quod non habet – “you cannot give what you do not have.” Originally a principle of Roman law, it expresses a truth that is profoundly important for us as Christians. The principle is simple: we cannot give to another something we ourselves have not received. This is profoundly important for us as a parish.

Our mission is not just to get more people involved in parish activities. It is not even primarily about getting people to know more about Catholicism. Our mission is to be a vibrant community that actively accompanies people to encounter Jesus. And why is that encounter – whether it’s a powerful moment in time or something gently received over time – so important? Because you cannot give what you have not received.

If we have not encountered the living Jesus, what will we have to share with others? If our faith remains primarily an inherited set of beliefs, religious practices or moral principles, then our invitation to another person can easily become little more than, “Come and join our community” without a compelling reason.

When a person has encountered Jesus – when they have experienced his mercy, his presence, his forgiveness, his love and the power of his Holy Spirit – something changes. Faith is no longer merely something we possess; it becomes something that possesses us.

This is what I see happening in Jeremiah. The word of God has moved from being something he is asked to communicate into something – someone, even – that is burning within him. He can try to suppress it, but he cannot contain it. This is what happens when encountering Jesus becomes normative in the life of a Christian community. Holy Spirit becomes more than an idea about God, but the personal gift of God’s own presence dwelling within us. When we receive that gift, it begins to transform us from the inside. The Christian life becomes an overflow: God gives, we receive, we are transformed, and then we share what we have received.

This is why I invite us, as a parish, to become increasingly a people who do not keep Jesus to ourselves. We live in a culture that often tells us that faith is private – something to be kept to ourselves, something we can believe without ever speaking about. And sometimes, even as Christians, we can become paralysed by that culture. We don’t want to impose. We don’t want to be awkward. We don’t know what to say.

The solution isn’t just to become more confident at talking about our faith but to encounter Jesus more deeply. When the love of God becomes real within us, when the presence of the risen Jesus is experienced rather than merely discussed, when we realise that Holy Spirit is a person who is more than a theological concept, something begins to well up. Like Jeremiah, we discover that we cannot simply keep it to ourselves.

This is my vision for our parish: that as we experience the intimacy of Jesus – risen, alive and present in our lives – our hearts would be transformed. That what we receive from him would overflow from us. And that, freely and joyfully, we would become a people who boldly share what we have received.

There are around 130,000 people living within the geographical boundary of our parish. God has placed us here not simply to serve ourselves, but so that what we have received from Jesus might become a gift for them. We cannot give what we have not received but if we receive Jesus Sacramentally and open ourselves to his risen supernatural presence, we naturally discover that what he gives us is too good to keep to ourselves.

With peace and love – Fr Josh