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Meet a new day in Lent T HERE’S beauty in the silence of a dawning day. Beauty on the rising of a freshly minted sun. Beauty in the simplicity of order on a Given Day—more so when it’s a Sunday morning, when the city is still awed by the nature of things. A few souls are caught up in the picture of this beauty: the security man getting off the bus from his nightshift; the man walking his two dogs on the leash; the Zion Christian Church group in their white and green uniform gathered on the silent, slithering river; the spruce Zimbabwean lady hurrying for the mini bus, a reluctant toddler in tow; the supermarket staff rushing to work with something loud to say; the petrol attendant still yawning the night away as he rouses himself out of the hut; the police van turning towards the police station; the homeless man already conversing with himself and trying to convince the fading stars about the care of God for little swallows; even the straddling cyclists, arrogantly blocking the traffic. This is the beauty of the accepted day. The voice of God rising up from the nature of things to draw our comprehension. In it you see the loving acceptance of God who is towards the nature that is becoming, calling it forth and renewing the face of the earth. You feel awed and humbled by it all as you drive to church on another Lenten Sunday. You listen to the priest. He asks you to accept all these things, to make your penance and keep your Lenten practices as symbols of your gratitude and praise for God, the incomprehensible ground of your existence. You think of your friend who only yesterday told you that he is an atheist now because he does not believe this world

could have been made by a rational person, let alone a loving God. Your silent answer was how you felt the opposite, how you too would be unable to believe in a God that can be comprehended by his creature— surely such a god would lack the divine attributes. You think about how you accept your incomprehension of God in deep humility and self-surrendering love. And there you identify the difference between your attitudes: one haughty and demanding answers, the other lowly accepting revelation. Like a psalmist you have always been confounded as to why God cares for man; your significance in the scale of things: What is man that you should be so mindful of? The son of man that …?

ent is about your acceptance of what God has seen to be good, thus worth being redeemed at the price of blood. Of seeing the purpose of even evil in the supreme design of God. Of opening yourself to the probings of the Holy Spirit. You tell yourself: it is about opening yourself up to God—what-

The sun rises to greet a new day. (Photo: Dedulo Photos/morguefile)

Mphuthumi Ntabeni

Pushing the Boundaries

ever in Christ’s name that means? In seeing the beauty of the day that is given you to participate in creation. In offering unconditional readiness to be transformed by the Holy Spirit in Christ. To “put off the old man who is corrupted according to the desire of error, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind: and put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth” (Eph 4:2224). To accept God’s call to metanoia in total breach with the worldly values that sway by false conventional standards and a need to be “respectable”. In standing with Saul on the road to Damascus with a simple but deep question of total self-deliverance: “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Or with Michelangelo: “Lord, take me away from myself, and make me pleasing to thee.” True contrition comes with fear and trembling at the hands of the living God. It is in the anguish of Gethsemane; in the malleability of your soul in response to God’s signature in nature. The awe that comes with a sense of deep gratitude for the Given Day for you to water the seed of your supernatural self. Lent is the weeding season, the season of raking away that which keeps you from becoming what is created to be you in Christ. The season of feeding my lambs. The season of getting rid of the clutter blocking the Holy Spirit’s work in you. It is the season of asking, in fear and trembling: Lord, what wilt thou have me do? And then contemplating the answer in action. It is the season of being in humble awe for the Given Day.

Land: Govt can learn from the Church A Gushwell Brooks BOUT two years ago, while still working full-time in the field of social justice and civil society, my employer—a former cabinet minister under Nelson Mandela and unionist—gave me the opportunity to accompany him to Kwa-Zulu-Natal in search of land for a community-based, cooperative farming initiative. I learnt a few lessons in my research leading up to this trip on the issue of land and creating sustainable livelihoods for some of the poorest people in the country, livelihoods created from their own labour. In as much as there is a legitimate debate around resource ownership in South Africa—particularly in relation to land— sadly much of the agricultural land scattered across South Africa lies fallow and unused. This has turned South Africa from being a net exporter of food to now being a net importer of food. This does not diminish the fact that land needs to be more equitably distributed, even land that is currently in use; however fallow land, some on the government’s balance sheet, would be a brilliant starting point. The land question arose once more when President Zuma, in his State of the Nation Address, delivered on February 12, said the government would reignite their focus on land redistribution and that land ownership by foreign nationals would no longer be a possibility going forward. Accordingly, the alternative to foreign nationals—and presumably enterprises—owning South African land would be to permit long-term leases as their most permanent possession of land. With an estimated 7% of South African land vested in foreign ownership, limiting the further acquisition of land by foreigners might seem to be a practical starting point in aiding land redistribution. Simple land transference is not enough, however. There is an assumption that just

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Talking about Faith

a track on a farm in the Western cape. Gushwell Brooks suggests that if the government wants to implement land reform fruitfully, it should ask the catholic church. because a community has been working on a farm, or live in a rural area, that they will have an innate ability to farm. My trip from two years ago proved how incorrect this assumption is. Speaking to the regional and municipal managers in Kwa-Zulu-Natal, it was clear that support in the form of seed, irrigation, connecting small-scale farmers to the market and the imparting of skills are essential to the success of land redistribution. Sadly, these essential elements for the successful use of redistributed agricultural land are all too often completely absent. Our conversation with these regional managers proved that many of these schemes required government’s financial and practical, ongoing support. Even in instances where this support was given on an ongoing basis, the lack of farming skills left the land to eventually lie fallow.

he Catholic Church—owner of generous stretches of land—recognised that land and the redistribution thereof is in fact important. Catholic social teaching would demand that ordinary people in society

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benefit from the Church’s resources, more so land. The Southern African Catholic Bishop’s Conference therefore established a Land Desk in aid and in cooperation of government’s redistribution programme. Philani Mkhize, coordinator of the desk, told me on my Radio Veritas show that the Church recognises that it is not just an act of handing over land to communities, but that the essential imparting of skills is crucial. This approach has yielded positive results and teaches us a few lessons. Land redistribution should be initiated for the good of people rather than for political expedience. With the rise of the Economic Freedom Fighters, whose central policy hinges on radical land policies, the incumbent party feels the threat of losing a younger disaffected vote, and so seems to have responded with a “radical” policy of their own. Long-term lease agreements work well in many parts of the continent, Mozambique being the closest and most obvious working example. So the issue is not the policy itself but the reason why it is implemented and to what end. If such a policy is to be implemented, with the supposed aim of communal beneficiation, than surely it should yield these results. The government does not have far to go to find out how to implement such a programme fruitfully. They can simply pick up the phone and call Philani Mkhize to learn valuable lessons on how to truly befit the benefactors of redistribution schemes.

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Michael Shackleton

Open Door

Are Mass stipends a form of simony? Our archdiocese recently increased the stipend from R20 to R40 for a Mass intention. Please explain why we are asked for a payment for a Mass intention, especially as regular scheduled Masses are already being celebrated. And why do parishioners have to pay for the November Masses for the holy souls? It has been suggested that paying for prayer/Mass is a form of simony. Name withheld HE Acts of the Apostles 8:14-24 tells of a certain Simon, after whom simony is named, who saw Peter and John lay their hands on a group of Samaritans, giving them the gift of the Holy Spirit. Simon offered the Apostles money if they would give him the same power. Peter refused, saying that money cannot buy what God has given for nothing. Your question seeks clarity on whether we are also buying with money what God gives for nothing in the Mass. We know that there is no quid pro quo between the Mass and a stipend, as if there was a material equivalence between the infinite fruits of the Mass and the finite gift of money. So it is normal to say that the stipend is not a quid pro quo because it is a contribution to the support of the priest. It is more. If you offer your R40 for Mass to be celebrated for your intention, this sum or any other, represents your personal oblation of yourself, sharing in the sacrifice. It provides you with a spiritual connection with the Mass, a sense that your money may go to the priest but, more especially, it is a free sacrifice of some of your income for your own spiritual welfare and the support of the Church, which is a sacrificial community. This is not simony. In the early days people donated bread and wine and, later, money for the poor and the support of the clergy. Their offering was often accompanied by a request for a specific intention of their own to be remembered in the Mass. That’s how Mass stipends began and they are there to draw us closer into the mystery of the sacrifices we must all make for Christ. Instead of thinking of “paying” to have a special Mass said for you, think of your cash offering as a sacrifice of part of your substance to share in the sacrifice of the Mass, as if you were part of the offertory procession at that Mass. November Masses for the holy souls should be seen in the same light. Local bishops fix a minimum sum of money as a guideline to assist us to make an appropriate gesture for the priest’s services. Those who can’t afford the fixed sum will always be accommodated by the clergy.

n Send your queries to Open Door, Box 2372, Cape Town, 8000; or e-mail: opendoor@scross.co.za; or fax (021) 465 3850. Anonymity can be preserved by arrangement, but questions must be signed, and may be edited for clarity. Only published questions will be answered.

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