Sunday, March 1, First Sunday of Lent
Mark 1:12-15
12 After Jesus was baptized the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness, 13 and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him.
14 After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. 15 "The time is fulfilled," he said. "The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!"
I hereby declare myself the Martha Stewart of the Spiritual Desert:
“It’s a good thing.”
The last thing we think about in being in a spiritual desert is that it is a ‘good thing’. What usually comes to mind is, “This must be my fault. I must have screwed up somewhere.” When one is in a vast wilderness where God seems so far away that it’s hard to recall when he ever felt near, it is natural to blame oneself.
“Perhaps if I prayed harder or more often…maybe if I wasn’t so selfish…maybe if I was able to get to Mass during the week. It must be something I’m doing or not doing. God must be teaching me a lesson, but I don’t know what it is!”
Your heart is cracked and dry, scripture is lifeless and boring, prayer feels like you’ve been chewing gum for too long, all your prayers seem to be a variation on a theme of “Please help me…please give me…” and it feels like all your prayers hit a brick wall and fall to the ground as lifeless words. But you hide these thoughts away because you are absolutely sure you are the only one who feels so isolated from the fruitful abundance of being a child of God. Everybody else seems O.K., so you act as if you’re O.K. too.
The great tragedy of most Christian teaching is that we are not trained to understand the value of the desert and so when it comes, or when we find ourselves there more often than not, it is a huge shock to the spiritual system. Mothers are especially vulnerable to this shock. Young unmarried women are taught that to be a mother is a high and beautiful calling (which it is). Women are led to believe that in becoming wives and mothers there will be great spiritual and emotional fulfillment. And is it not a bit terrifying to discover that marriage and motherhood, rather than leading you to this mountain top of spirituality, has actually led you into a spiritual desert like you’ve never experienced before?
“I must be incredibly deficient if I’m not finding all of my fulfillment, spiritually, intellectually and emotionally, in my role as a wife and mother. What’s making me feel so dissatisfied? What is stopping me from feeling any kind of fullness of heart?”
The Father is.
What a surprise, huh? Why would the Father keep you from experiencing great spiritual satisfaction when you have answered his call and entered into such a wonderful vocation?
It’s because before you were a mother, before you were a wife and before you were a child, you were God’s own daughter, a Being he created to be in relationship with him. Of course it blesses him tremendously when you answer his call to enter into special vocations such as marriage and motherhood (or Dedicated Single or a Religious) but our vocations and the people we serve within our vocations aren’t meant to fill up the last aching abyss of our hearts. Only God can fill that spot. There’s a place within you that is big enough for only two: you and the Lord. It’s a place that’s meant for you as you, not for you as Wife or you as Mother or you as whatever you are in your calling. These areas of calling are illuminated and blessed by your intimate relationship with the Lord. They are not your fulfillment. Certainly there will be fulfilling moments and times but it is impossible for the vocation to which you have been called to fill you up inside. You were made for more.
And so, the Father calls you to the desert where nothing fills, nothing comforts, nothing edifies. It is a place of simplification. A place of stripping – because none of us know how much we have come to depend on roles and head knowledge to define our relationship with the Lord. The desert is not a place of punishment; it is a place of great grace because the Lord knows how easy it is for ideas and perceptions to subtly take the place of a real intimacy with him. The desert comes into our lives not because God is so jealous but because he knows we will never be happy without our one on one relationship with him. He loves us too much to allow us to skirt around the desert.
Take heart! All is well. You are beloved of God, his daughter in whom he is well pleased. The very first place the Father wants you to find fulfillment is in him before everything else. In the desert it is just you... and the Lord. Not you and your spouse. Not you and your children. Not you and your vocation. Just you and the Lord.
Just like it was with Jesus…just him and his Father in the wilderness.
Consider this: Jesus was called, baptized and then heard his Father speak excruciatingly beautiful words of love and approval to him. Then…he was driven into the desert! The desert was as necessary for him as it is for us.
This is the first Sunday of Lent, a time of meditating on our spiritual life and a time when most people choose some sort of act of self-denial or spiritual discipline to reconnect themselves with the Lord. If you are presently experiencing a spiritual desert in your life, may I suggest that your focus of spiritual discipline for this Lent be one of complete acceptance and one of walking with Jesus into the wilderness? Allow yourself to accept that the desert is a valid and valuable place to be and allow yourself to walk through that desert with Jesus for a while. It was a time of temptation for him; do you think that he was faced with the temptation to feel God had forgotten him or to feel that the words he had heard, “You are my beloved son…” were simply a product of his imagination? Perhaps he felt keenly a sense of abandonment coming so soon after committing himself to his vocation, after humbling himself to receive a baptism he didn’t need, after hearing his Father speak so clearly and lovingly to him.
Jesus knows exactly what it’s like to be where you are.
*****
If you would like to receive a short article I wrote on the beauty and necessity of the desert to help give you a focus for your Lenten journey, send me an email (j_allenbanana@hotmail.com) and ask for the Desert Document. I will send it to you as a Word attachment.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Sunday Feb.22
Mark 2:1-12 (New International Version)
Jesus Heals a Paralytic
1A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2So many gathered that there was no room left not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
6Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7"Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
8Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? 9Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? 10But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ." He said to the paralytic, 11"I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." 12He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"
Having been a chaplain at UVic, I can think of several young guys who would have done what these men did in the Gospel for their paralytic friend. Their friend was in need; there was a problem in getting help for him so they got creative and improvised. Obviously they had heard about Jesus’ healing powers and in their minds it was totally worth it to do whatever it took to get their friend into Jesus’ presence. Older and ‘wiser’ minds would have probably just accepted that their friend wouldn’t be seeing Jesus that night and maybe never. But these young guys decided they weren’t going to miss this perhaps once in a lifetime opportunity, even if it meant tearing up their neighbor’s roof. I wonder if it occurred to them that rigging up the paralytic’s pallet to ropes and lowering him through the ceiling could have ended up with them accidentally dumping their friend on Jesus’ head? Probably not. They were probably just super excited at their great scheme.
Jesus loved it! I can just visualize Jesus looking at this jerry-rigged bed descending to the floor and then looking up at the hole in the roof and seeing four grinning faces looking down at him. What’s not to love about these guys?
The other thing I think Jesus loved about these guys was that they “got it”. Up until that moment when ceiling dust started sifting down onto his head, Jesus had been preaching his message to a room full of people and we find out not too much further on that there were a lot of scribes and teachers of the law in that room. They weren’t there to learn or receive anything from Jesus. They were there to check him out. They were most likely listening with skeptical minds and cynical hearts and a number of people would have been waiting to see what the scribes’ judgment of Jesus was before they committed themselves to his teaching. And I have no doubt that there were a huge number there who weren’t listening to much of what Jesus said; they were just hanging out in case a miracle happened. So, there was Jesus sharing his precious message with a crowd, a high percentage of which were probably arrogantly cynical, or wishy washy, depending on what everybody else might think, or inquisitive looky-loos. Jesus was probably heaving the odd sigh inside himself but still, the Father wanted him there at that moment so he would wait to see what would happen.
No wonder he immediately responded to these four enthusiastic guys who found a way to get their friend to Jesus. These guys weren’t judging Jesus, they weren’t just there to catch something sensational and they weren’t hanging back to see what everybody else thought. They were taking Jesus at his word and their friend needed Jesus’ word. “What’s to think about? Let’s do it!”
Jesus responded to that fresh and alive faith by forgiving the fellow his sins. No questions asked.
Have you ever heard that love covers a multitude of sins? This is something to think about. It wasn’t repentance on the part of the paralytic that caused Jesus to pronounce forgiveness. It was the love and faith of the friends – a love that hoped for great things to happen and gave them the desire to bring their friend into the presence of Jesus.
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)
The Mom Connection: There will be many times in your lives when you will be very concerned about someone – a friend or your spouse or one of your children. You must remember the power of love and faith in the eyes of Jesus. Please don’t think I’m suggesting that if you are concerned about someone you love that Jesus expects you to arm-wrestle that person into his presence. But don’t doubt the spiritual power of your love when you pray for people. Someone once said that a mother’s prayers are the most powerful prayers of all. When I heard that I almost dismissed it as a sentimental thought but then I decided I was going to believe it. Why wouldn’t a mother’s prayers be powerful? A mother’s love is elemental, instinctive and can be like a roaring lion as well as gentle and forgiving.
A mother’s love covers a multitude of sins. If the love and faith of four friends could save a paralytic from his sins as well as a lifetime of illness, just imagine what a mother’s love and faith can accomplish.
Mark 2:1-12 (New International Version)
Jesus Heals a Paralytic
1A few days later, when Jesus again entered Capernaum, the people heard that he had come home. 2So many gathered that there was no room left not even outside the door, and he preached the word to them. 3Some men came, bringing to him a paralytic, carried by four of them. 4Since they could not get him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof above Jesus and, after digging through it, lowered the mat the paralyzed man was lying on. 5When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
6Now some teachers of the law were sitting there, thinking to themselves, 7"Why does this fellow talk like that? He's blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?"
8Immediately Jesus knew in his spirit that this was what they were thinking in their hearts, and he said to them, "Why are you thinking these things? 9Which is easier: to say to the paralytic, 'Your sins are forgiven,' or to say, 'Get up, take your mat and walk'? 10But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins . . . ." He said to the paralytic, 11"I tell you, get up, take your mat and go home." 12He got up, took his mat and walked out in full view of them all. This amazed everyone and they praised God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this!"
Having been a chaplain at UVic, I can think of several young guys who would have done what these men did in the Gospel for their paralytic friend. Their friend was in need; there was a problem in getting help for him so they got creative and improvised. Obviously they had heard about Jesus’ healing powers and in their minds it was totally worth it to do whatever it took to get their friend into Jesus’ presence. Older and ‘wiser’ minds would have probably just accepted that their friend wouldn’t be seeing Jesus that night and maybe never. But these young guys decided they weren’t going to miss this perhaps once in a lifetime opportunity, even if it meant tearing up their neighbor’s roof. I wonder if it occurred to them that rigging up the paralytic’s pallet to ropes and lowering him through the ceiling could have ended up with them accidentally dumping their friend on Jesus’ head? Probably not. They were probably just super excited at their great scheme.
Jesus loved it! I can just visualize Jesus looking at this jerry-rigged bed descending to the floor and then looking up at the hole in the roof and seeing four grinning faces looking down at him. What’s not to love about these guys?
The other thing I think Jesus loved about these guys was that they “got it”. Up until that moment when ceiling dust started sifting down onto his head, Jesus had been preaching his message to a room full of people and we find out not too much further on that there were a lot of scribes and teachers of the law in that room. They weren’t there to learn or receive anything from Jesus. They were there to check him out. They were most likely listening with skeptical minds and cynical hearts and a number of people would have been waiting to see what the scribes’ judgment of Jesus was before they committed themselves to his teaching. And I have no doubt that there were a huge number there who weren’t listening to much of what Jesus said; they were just hanging out in case a miracle happened. So, there was Jesus sharing his precious message with a crowd, a high percentage of which were probably arrogantly cynical, or wishy washy, depending on what everybody else might think, or inquisitive looky-loos. Jesus was probably heaving the odd sigh inside himself but still, the Father wanted him there at that moment so he would wait to see what would happen.
No wonder he immediately responded to these four enthusiastic guys who found a way to get their friend to Jesus. These guys weren’t judging Jesus, they weren’t just there to catch something sensational and they weren’t hanging back to see what everybody else thought. They were taking Jesus at his word and their friend needed Jesus’ word. “What’s to think about? Let’s do it!”
Jesus responded to that fresh and alive faith by forgiving the fellow his sins. No questions asked.
Have you ever heard that love covers a multitude of sins? This is something to think about. It wasn’t repentance on the part of the paralytic that caused Jesus to pronounce forgiveness. It was the love and faith of the friends – a love that hoped for great things to happen and gave them the desire to bring their friend into the presence of Jesus.
"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11:1)
The Mom Connection: There will be many times in your lives when you will be very concerned about someone – a friend or your spouse or one of your children. You must remember the power of love and faith in the eyes of Jesus. Please don’t think I’m suggesting that if you are concerned about someone you love that Jesus expects you to arm-wrestle that person into his presence. But don’t doubt the spiritual power of your love when you pray for people. Someone once said that a mother’s prayers are the most powerful prayers of all. When I heard that I almost dismissed it as a sentimental thought but then I decided I was going to believe it. Why wouldn’t a mother’s prayers be powerful? A mother’s love is elemental, instinctive and can be like a roaring lion as well as gentle and forgiving.
A mother’s love covers a multitude of sins. If the love and faith of four friends could save a paralytic from his sins as well as a lifetime of illness, just imagine what a mother’s love and faith can accomplish.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Reflection for Sunday February 15, 2009.
Mark 1:40-45
Jesus Cleanses a Leper
40 A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ 41Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ 42Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ 45But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
Mothers - and fathers too, but mostly mothers – are amazing, really. From the time the first child is born until the last child is able to utilize a toilet and navigate to it in the middle of the night on her own without calling for help, a mother is called on countless times to deal with body issues (pun intended) that would turn the stomach of a childless person. Besides dealing with mind boggling numbers of poopy diapers, I cannot tell you how many times I was up in the middle of the night with a sick child cleaning the results of stomach flu or diarrhea off of them, off the sheets and off the floor. Yet I also cannot remember one time when, faced with a smelly gross mess, I had any desire to turn away from my child and let him or her wallow in sickness. I might not have enjoyed the mess but the mess in no way affected my love and concern for my child – in fact, my concern and desire to comfort and help that child was heightened by their illness. There is nothing more heart wrenching than a sick child.
Quite often we are encouraged to relate ourselves to the leper in this gospel reading, to see ourselves as the untouchable one whom Jesus saves. But, just for a moment first, put yourself in Jesus’ sandals.
A leper was repulsive to a healthy person, unclean and dangerous to be around. Open sores and missing fingers and toes and facial features made a leper a horror to look at and no one was allowed to touch a leper. Nobody wanted to touch a leper. But Jesus wanted to.
“Such a kind man.” We might think. Well, it wasn’t really just an act of kindness that made Jesus take pity on the man and reach out and touch him. This leper was not just an ugly, filthy, physically distorted person; this leper was his child. Jesus loved this man and he could no more turn away from his leper than a mother could turn away from her sick and helpless child. Can you understand the love now?
There are times when you feel leprous inside, as if all your faults and failings and inability to walk like you feel you should have caused open sores on your spirit. There are times in your life of great discouragement because it seems like the more you try to control your failures the more they get away from you. Like the person with leprosy, the sores of your inadequacies just keep appearing. It just doesn’t feel like Jesus would be very happy to keep company with someone who has such a diseased and disabled spirit. Yes, you know that he loves you and forgives you but does he really want to be with you? Does he like to be with you?
Tell me who made the heart of a mother? Now, let’s not be overly sentimental here. A mom’s heart isn’t always the epitome of patience, mercy and love. She gets tired and worn out and snaps when she’s pushed too far and has moments of resentment and even desperation, but when she has a sick little baby in her arms, a baby or a toddler who’s burning up with fever and can’t keep food down, the kind of patience and deep concern that fills her heart comes straight from the heart of God. She does not blame her child for being sick. She is just so sorry for the baby for being the victim of whatever virus or disease the child is fighting. She does not walk away from the child saying, “When you get over this illness and when you’ve cleaned up your messes, come and see me.”
Sin is an illness. Jesus said, “I didn’t come for the well but for the sick.” He doesn’t hold himself back from us when we are ill of spirit and mind. He is burning the midnight oil at our sides, cooling the fever, cleaning up the messes. He stays with us until we are better even if that takes until the breaking of the dawn. He will never leave us or get upset if we don’t seem to be getting better. He is also a physician so he knows much better than we do that we are on the mend. I know I have gone through physical illness where I was so discouraged with how long the illness or disability seemed to be lasting yet a doctor could have looked at me every day and seen definite signs that I was on the mend. Jesus can see what we can’t.
Jesus said he did not come to earth to judge it. He came with mercy, and did you know that the Hebrew word for mercy actually means the quality of love felt by a mother nursing her child?
If you’re feeling sick inside, let him nurse you back to health. Your sickness is not what breaks his heart, it’s when you don’t let him in to take care of you because you’re ashamed of being sick.
Thank God our babies and children don’t do that to us!
Mark 1:40-45
Jesus Cleanses a Leper
40 A leper came to him begging him, and kneeling he said to him, ‘If you choose, you can make me clean.’ 41Moved with pity, Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I do choose. Be made clean!’ 42Immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean. 43After sternly warning him he sent him away at once, 44saying to him, ‘See that you say nothing to anyone; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.’ 45But he went out and began to proclaim it freely, and to spread the word, so that Jesus could no longer go into a town openly, but stayed out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
Mothers - and fathers too, but mostly mothers – are amazing, really. From the time the first child is born until the last child is able to utilize a toilet and navigate to it in the middle of the night on her own without calling for help, a mother is called on countless times to deal with body issues (pun intended) that would turn the stomach of a childless person. Besides dealing with mind boggling numbers of poopy diapers, I cannot tell you how many times I was up in the middle of the night with a sick child cleaning the results of stomach flu or diarrhea off of them, off the sheets and off the floor. Yet I also cannot remember one time when, faced with a smelly gross mess, I had any desire to turn away from my child and let him or her wallow in sickness. I might not have enjoyed the mess but the mess in no way affected my love and concern for my child – in fact, my concern and desire to comfort and help that child was heightened by their illness. There is nothing more heart wrenching than a sick child.
Quite often we are encouraged to relate ourselves to the leper in this gospel reading, to see ourselves as the untouchable one whom Jesus saves. But, just for a moment first, put yourself in Jesus’ sandals.
A leper was repulsive to a healthy person, unclean and dangerous to be around. Open sores and missing fingers and toes and facial features made a leper a horror to look at and no one was allowed to touch a leper. Nobody wanted to touch a leper. But Jesus wanted to.
“Such a kind man.” We might think. Well, it wasn’t really just an act of kindness that made Jesus take pity on the man and reach out and touch him. This leper was not just an ugly, filthy, physically distorted person; this leper was his child. Jesus loved this man and he could no more turn away from his leper than a mother could turn away from her sick and helpless child. Can you understand the love now?
There are times when you feel leprous inside, as if all your faults and failings and inability to walk like you feel you should have caused open sores on your spirit. There are times in your life of great discouragement because it seems like the more you try to control your failures the more they get away from you. Like the person with leprosy, the sores of your inadequacies just keep appearing. It just doesn’t feel like Jesus would be very happy to keep company with someone who has such a diseased and disabled spirit. Yes, you know that he loves you and forgives you but does he really want to be with you? Does he like to be with you?
Tell me who made the heart of a mother? Now, let’s not be overly sentimental here. A mom’s heart isn’t always the epitome of patience, mercy and love. She gets tired and worn out and snaps when she’s pushed too far and has moments of resentment and even desperation, but when she has a sick little baby in her arms, a baby or a toddler who’s burning up with fever and can’t keep food down, the kind of patience and deep concern that fills her heart comes straight from the heart of God. She does not blame her child for being sick. She is just so sorry for the baby for being the victim of whatever virus or disease the child is fighting. She does not walk away from the child saying, “When you get over this illness and when you’ve cleaned up your messes, come and see me.”
Sin is an illness. Jesus said, “I didn’t come for the well but for the sick.” He doesn’t hold himself back from us when we are ill of spirit and mind. He is burning the midnight oil at our sides, cooling the fever, cleaning up the messes. He stays with us until we are better even if that takes until the breaking of the dawn. He will never leave us or get upset if we don’t seem to be getting better. He is also a physician so he knows much better than we do that we are on the mend. I know I have gone through physical illness where I was so discouraged with how long the illness or disability seemed to be lasting yet a doctor could have looked at me every day and seen definite signs that I was on the mend. Jesus can see what we can’t.
Jesus said he did not come to earth to judge it. He came with mercy, and did you know that the Hebrew word for mercy actually means the quality of love felt by a mother nursing her child?
If you’re feeling sick inside, let him nurse you back to health. Your sickness is not what breaks his heart, it’s when you don’t let him in to take care of you because you’re ashamed of being sick.
Thank God our babies and children don’t do that to us!
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