Passion Sunday April 5
I am not including the Gospel this week because it is the very long reading of Christ’s passion with which everyone is familiar.
Perhaps too familiar?
It is sometimes difficult to pay close attention to this Gospel as it’s being read on Passion Sunday and again when it’s read on Good Friday; it’s so long and it really is very familiar. It’s easy for the mind to wander at times and if you have small children…well, I needn’t say anymore.
There are two short things I would like to draw your attention to and perhaps in lodging them in your mind, you will hear whatever you hear at Mass with a different frame of heart.
The first is something Jesus said to his disciples after the Last Supper when they had gone up to the Mount of Olives. It wasn’t very flattering. He said, “You will all become deserters.” This was said to the ones who would carry on his work and especially to the one who would be the Rock on which he would build his church: Peter. In other words, he was telling them that they would let him down, betray him, fail him, be inadequate for the job, make the decision to be absent when he was most desperately in need of their presence, their support and their love.
He knew all this in his heart; he knew it without a shadow of a doubt. In all of history, before and after the crucifixion, there has never been such betrayal as when Jesus’ friends and brothers ran away and left him all alone to die. They abandoned him to face the terror and pain on his own.
Do you think that when Jesus was on the cross and he gasped out in pain, “Father, forgive them, they don’t know what they are doing,” that he wasn’t just praying for forgiveness for the Roman soldiers who were taunting him and causing him such excruciating agony? Could he not have also been praying for the disciples who were not there, who were hiding in terror? He was dieing on that cross for the ones who had ultimately betrayed his love, and he had never loved those disciples as much as he loved them while he was on that cross.
The disciples’ weakness, fear and poorness of heart, which resulted in terrible failure, was not the end of the story. Not the end of the story. NOT THE END OF THE STORY!
How often do you stop at your failures, weaknesses and inadequacies and write the end of your story right there? If that is where Jesus had stopped in his love there would be no salvation. But he says, “That’s the end of the story only you can write, but I’m the one who picks up the pen and keeps on writing in blood right through to the resurrection. I have won! I am now the True Author of your story.
The second incident I want to draw your attention to is nearer to the end of the reading: “There were some women looking on from a distance; among them were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and Joses, and Salome. These used to follow him and provided for him when he was in Galilee; and there were many other women who had come up with him to Jerusalem.” In John’s gospel we read that Jesus’ mother, Mary, was there as was John himself.
The women did not desert Jesus, nor did John, who was the disciple closest to the heart of Jesus. I truly believe this is because the women and John understood Jesus’ teachings better and in more depth. They were not receiving his message with just the intellect; they understood the heart language of his message. When we believe in the Lord with just our intellect we understand and agree to the rules. When we believe with the heart we become submerged in the rivers of compassion, forgiveness and mercy. Our intellect is needed for assent, but it’s our heart that leads us to fall deeply in love with Jesus.
These women, and John, who stayed at the cross didn’t just intellectually agree with Jesus’ message; they had fallen completely in love with him. They loved him like a son, a brother, a best friend; he was their Beloved Lord before the other disciples, excluding John, understood what a fullness of relationship with Jesus meant. The women were probably terribly afraid as they stayed near the cross, but their love for Jesus and their grief were stronger – stronger even than death. To know how they felt, put your child, your husband, your best friend or your favorite brother or sister up on that cross and imagine if you could see yourself running away, even if you were afraid.
Don’t think that Jesus did not catch the significance of the presence of those who stayed with him. The Father had sent True Love to stay with him in his hardest hours. Perhaps the presence of all these women and his mother and John was what gave him the grace to say, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do. Forgive the ones who ran away and left me. They don’t know me yet so they don’t know whom it is they have betrayed. Blessed are the ones who are with me. Thank you. Thank you…”
As Jesus gave up his life, the women, and John, were a beautiful sign to him that he was cherished and not alone. They were the ones who intuitively understood how far Love will go to rescue the lost. It is said that at the end of John’s life the only thing he could say to the people was, “Little children, love one another.” He knew that love, not intellect, was the saving power of Jesus. It all came down to love.
During the readings of the Passion this Sunday and on Good Friday, even if you lose concentration at times, be there as one of the women who stayed with him in his final hours.
Be there and be blessed by his gratitude.
Tuesday, March 31, 2009
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
March 29, 5th Sunday in Lent
John 12: 20-33
20 Among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ 22Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
26Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
27 ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name.’
Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’
29The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ 30Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ 33He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.
In this Gospel, Jesus says, “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” I have always found it a wee bit of a shock to the spiritual system when Jesus uses the word ‘hate’ as he does a few times in the gospels. I wanted to know what he really might have meant by hate so I looked up the Aramaic word for hate. Turns out that there are several and the one that makes the most sense to me in the context of Jesus’ teaching is the word “sna”. You can pronounce that however you want as, funnily enough, I don’t speak Aramaic. Sna means, “To put to one side or set aside.”
“Those who hold on to their life lose it and those who set their own life to one side will gain eternal life.” Now that sounds more like the Jesus I know.
My friends John* and Maria* have 6 children between the approximate ages of 13 and 6 months. It had been literally years since they had been out together alone on a “date”. They decided to go out one evening, not without some trepidation, never having left the kids on their own. John left it to Maria to decide where they would go. When it came time to leave John asked Maria where they were going and she just said, “You’ll see.” Armed with their cell phone in case of an emergency, they drove down the long driveway and at the bottom Maria said “Turn around and go half way back up the driveway.” John did as he was instructed and when he neared the half way mark at a point where they could just see the house, Maria told him to pull over and park. Then she brought out a thermos of hot chocolate and some snacks and there on the side of the driveway they had their “date.” To both of them it was a wonderful date. They weren’t anxious about the kids at home. It wasn’t expensive. And, best of all, they had a precious quiet space to talk and be with each other without interruption. (*Names have been changed)
John and Maria probably look forward very much to the day when they can easily go out and take in a dinner and a movie or go off for a weekend on their own. John told me he would love to get into photography but there is no time right now. No doubt, Maria has hobbies or activities she has not enjoyed since the first child came along. They are not atypical parents. Any couple who has one child or more knows that when children come along, adult needs and desires and self satisfaction are often set aside in order to deal with the job of raising and providing for children. In fact, I would say that any good mother could run circles around most saints when it comes to dieing to self like the grain of wheat and setting one’s life aside for the sake of the good of others, namely her children – the “much fruit” of her and her husband’s life.
Yet mothers generally don’t see the holiness of what they do on a daily basis. Perhaps this is because all good mothers do what they do. But why would that diminish recognition of the holiness of their actions?
Perhaps it’s a misperception of what holiness means. Holiness means, “Set aside for God – consecrated to God.” Every Catholic mom that I know is serious about her faith and about raising her children to love God. How much more consecrated can one be? Holiness as it pertains to us doesn’t mean perfect. Think of a chipped and blemished clay cup. If a priest takes that cup and blesses it and sets it aside to hold the blood of Christ at the Eucharist, that cup becomes holy – set aside for a consecrated purpose. It is its intended use that makes it holy, not its state of perfection.
Whether you have children or not, if you have committed yourself to the Lord and desire to do his will, your life is a Consecrated Life. If you have spent years at university studying for a career, you have foregone certain pleasures and desires to do so. If you have to work outside the home for a living, you have no doubt sacrificed desires in order to do this. If you have brought children into the world you have made a commitment to lay your life down for sake of your children.
It is hard to ascribe holiness to a life that’s full of pressure, schedules and deadlines or a life that’s immersed in dirty diapers and mounds of laundry, endless meals and chaotic noise. There is a romantic idea of a holy life, a term that brings to mind glowing saints praying and contemplating in lonely cells. Yes, Religious give up much to answer the call to their vocation - but so do you. It is time we started seeing marriage and raising a family as a holy vocation equal to that of the Religious vocation. It is time we began to respect deeply the single working mother. It is time we stood in awe of the woman who never married and has led a life dedicated to the Lord while living in the world and supporting herself. There is no hierarchy of holiness in the Kingdom. Everyone committed to the Lord sacrifices and dies to self and struggles with growth and prayer and following the will of God. A Religious has different struggles, but not better ones.
I have to tell you that I am often overcome by a sense of immense awe and holy respect when I hear of a mom working through a round of sickness in her children while being sick herself or when I see a student refusing to miss Mass or offers her time to something like St. Vincent de Paul in spite of deadlines and looming exams or when I know a woman has worked at a job for years and would love to retire but needs to bring in money to provide for her family. I see grains of wheat falling to the ground and dieing. I see lives and personal desires being set aside. I see it all the time – and so does the Lord.
Holiness abounds in the people of God and I am so blessed to witness it. It makes me want to weep with gratitude sometimes for what women set aside in order to bring life to others and in order to make sure the Lord is a part of her life. When I witness this holiness I turn to the Father and I say, “Look at that Father. Isn’t that beautiful?” and he says to me, “It fills my heart. I know what she has given up for me and I love her for it.”
“Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.”
If you are ever wondering in your weariness where Jesus is, look around. He is right beside you. You are right in his presence as his servant. And you are honored in the Father’s eyes.
Believe it.
John 12: 20-33
20 Among those who went up to worship at the festival were some Greeks. 21They came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and said to him, ‘Sir, we wish to see Jesus.’ 22Philip went and told Andrew; then Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 23Jesus answered them, ‘The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 25Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
26Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.
27 ‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28Father, glorify your name.’
Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’
29The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ 30Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’ 33He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die.
In this Gospel, Jesus says, “Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” I have always found it a wee bit of a shock to the spiritual system when Jesus uses the word ‘hate’ as he does a few times in the gospels. I wanted to know what he really might have meant by hate so I looked up the Aramaic word for hate. Turns out that there are several and the one that makes the most sense to me in the context of Jesus’ teaching is the word “sna”. You can pronounce that however you want as, funnily enough, I don’t speak Aramaic. Sna means, “To put to one side or set aside.”
“Those who hold on to their life lose it and those who set their own life to one side will gain eternal life.” Now that sounds more like the Jesus I know.
My friends John* and Maria* have 6 children between the approximate ages of 13 and 6 months. It had been literally years since they had been out together alone on a “date”. They decided to go out one evening, not without some trepidation, never having left the kids on their own. John left it to Maria to decide where they would go. When it came time to leave John asked Maria where they were going and she just said, “You’ll see.” Armed with their cell phone in case of an emergency, they drove down the long driveway and at the bottom Maria said “Turn around and go half way back up the driveway.” John did as he was instructed and when he neared the half way mark at a point where they could just see the house, Maria told him to pull over and park. Then she brought out a thermos of hot chocolate and some snacks and there on the side of the driveway they had their “date.” To both of them it was a wonderful date. They weren’t anxious about the kids at home. It wasn’t expensive. And, best of all, they had a precious quiet space to talk and be with each other without interruption. (*Names have been changed)
John and Maria probably look forward very much to the day when they can easily go out and take in a dinner and a movie or go off for a weekend on their own. John told me he would love to get into photography but there is no time right now. No doubt, Maria has hobbies or activities she has not enjoyed since the first child came along. They are not atypical parents. Any couple who has one child or more knows that when children come along, adult needs and desires and self satisfaction are often set aside in order to deal with the job of raising and providing for children. In fact, I would say that any good mother could run circles around most saints when it comes to dieing to self like the grain of wheat and setting one’s life aside for the sake of the good of others, namely her children – the “much fruit” of her and her husband’s life.
Yet mothers generally don’t see the holiness of what they do on a daily basis. Perhaps this is because all good mothers do what they do. But why would that diminish recognition of the holiness of their actions?
Perhaps it’s a misperception of what holiness means. Holiness means, “Set aside for God – consecrated to God.” Every Catholic mom that I know is serious about her faith and about raising her children to love God. How much more consecrated can one be? Holiness as it pertains to us doesn’t mean perfect. Think of a chipped and blemished clay cup. If a priest takes that cup and blesses it and sets it aside to hold the blood of Christ at the Eucharist, that cup becomes holy – set aside for a consecrated purpose. It is its intended use that makes it holy, not its state of perfection.
Whether you have children or not, if you have committed yourself to the Lord and desire to do his will, your life is a Consecrated Life. If you have spent years at university studying for a career, you have foregone certain pleasures and desires to do so. If you have to work outside the home for a living, you have no doubt sacrificed desires in order to do this. If you have brought children into the world you have made a commitment to lay your life down for sake of your children.
It is hard to ascribe holiness to a life that’s full of pressure, schedules and deadlines or a life that’s immersed in dirty diapers and mounds of laundry, endless meals and chaotic noise. There is a romantic idea of a holy life, a term that brings to mind glowing saints praying and contemplating in lonely cells. Yes, Religious give up much to answer the call to their vocation - but so do you. It is time we started seeing marriage and raising a family as a holy vocation equal to that of the Religious vocation. It is time we began to respect deeply the single working mother. It is time we stood in awe of the woman who never married and has led a life dedicated to the Lord while living in the world and supporting herself. There is no hierarchy of holiness in the Kingdom. Everyone committed to the Lord sacrifices and dies to self and struggles with growth and prayer and following the will of God. A Religious has different struggles, but not better ones.
I have to tell you that I am often overcome by a sense of immense awe and holy respect when I hear of a mom working through a round of sickness in her children while being sick herself or when I see a student refusing to miss Mass or offers her time to something like St. Vincent de Paul in spite of deadlines and looming exams or when I know a woman has worked at a job for years and would love to retire but needs to bring in money to provide for her family. I see grains of wheat falling to the ground and dieing. I see lives and personal desires being set aside. I see it all the time – and so does the Lord.
Holiness abounds in the people of God and I am so blessed to witness it. It makes me want to weep with gratitude sometimes for what women set aside in order to bring life to others and in order to make sure the Lord is a part of her life. When I witness this holiness I turn to the Father and I say, “Look at that Father. Isn’t that beautiful?” and he says to me, “It fills my heart. I know what she has given up for me and I love her for it.”
“Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also. Whoever serves me, the Father will honor.”
If you are ever wondering in your weariness where Jesus is, look around. He is right beside you. You are right in his presence as his servant. And you are honored in the Father’s eyes.
Believe it.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
March 22nd, Fourth Sunday in Lent
John 3: 14-21
(Readings will be different for Christian initiation: Second Scrutiny.)
We have had our house on the market for six months now. What this means is that for six months I have been trying to keep the house immaculate just in case we get a call that someone wants to see it. It’s very interesting but the more I clean and tidy, the more I see things that, to my critical eye, need to be attended to. Sometimes I feel completely overwhelmed and sometimes I get so discouraged thinking about how nothing stays clean and nothing stays tidy. And I don’t have children at home!
It gets to a point where I have to speak sternly to myself. These unclean areas that seem so obvious to me are only obvious because I have spent way too much time going over my home with an ultra critical eye. Most people coming into the house would never even see these little areas and even if they were seen, they would change nobody’s impression of the house because the house really is in excellent shape. My critical eye does nothing except distort my perception and drive me crazy.
Maybe some of you would relate more to the “what I see in my mirror” syndrome. You wake up one morning and there is a pimple right in the middle of your chin. Every time you pass a mirror your eyes immediately glom onto the problem spot and to you the blemish is the most obvious thing in the world. You might as well have a potato stapled to your chin. You kind of know it’s the last thing anyone else is going to notice but you can’t keep your eyes away from it.
In the spiritual life, this overly critical eye is called “scruples” or seeing sin where there is none or feeling a fault is critical when it’s not serious at all. Most people have at least one little corner of their beings where they view themselves with an overly critical eye and the more they look at what’s wrong and the more they try to clean themselves up, the more they see things that are all wrong. They begin to believe that if it’s so obvious to them it must be obvious and terribly offensive to God. Even confessing it to a priest in reconciliation and being assured that they are not in sin is not reassuring. Doubts linger. Fear builds. Maybe the priest didn’t understand what they said. Maybe he’s too lenient. There is no release or relief.
Scruples are like an addiction to seeing sin where there is none and believing in the perceived sin more than in the love and saving power of the Lord. And there is an underlying hope that if one spends more time seeing one’s own sin, God might be pleased because at least one isn’t glorifying one’s own goodness.
Sunday’s gospel is great news for all Christians but especially for those who suffer from scruples, even little scruples. “For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. She who believes in him is not condemned…”
The reason you initially began to notice your inner faults is what saves you. You believed in the Son of God. You came to the Light. You are a willing member of the body of Christ and your desire to live in faith and follow Christ is a desire that is born of that Light. You have not chosen evil and darkness over the Light and the Truth.
Certainly we have faults and failings and it is because we have chosen the Light that we desire to have clean hearts and not be pulled down by real sin. But be careful!! An unbalanced focus on what is wrong with you means less time spent in the healing light of Jesus. Satan would never be able to convince you at this point to walk away from God but if he can get you spending more time with your faults than with the God who loves you unconditionally, he will have scored a minor victory, and there are many good people who have lost sight of the goodness of Jesus and his saving power and have walked away.
When you go to Mass this weekend, listen closely to the second reading or read it before hand. Ephesians 2: 4-10. It is a beautiful passage. One thing it says is, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
Thank the Lord for his wondrous gift! It is free. It is precious. Make sure you spend much time contemplating this awesome gift.
There is something else that needs to be addressed here. Every one of us knows at least one close person who has chosen not to be a follower of Christ. It could be a spouse, a family member, an adult child or a close friend. That doesn’t necessarily mean they have chosen evil and darkness. Many of these people are very good people. They are honest and kind; they have inner integrity, are generous and try to do the right thing according to the dictates of their conscience. If these people have chosen attributes of the Light to guide them in their lives, they have unknowingly chosen Jesus. They just don’t know him by name yet. Oh yes, they may have definitely heard of Jesus and know about Jesus but it’s the intimacy of his name that they have either never experienced or have forgotten about. People rarely reject Jesus…they reject what they think they know about him. The two are vastly different! Of course, we pray for these people because it is the ultimate desire that everyone, including ourselves, come to know and love the true Christ.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life." For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not condemned; he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
For every one who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does what is true comes to the light, that it may be clearly seen that his deeds have been wrought in God.
(Readings will be different for Christian initiation: Second Scrutiny.)
We have had our house on the market for six months now. What this means is that for six months I have been trying to keep the house immaculate just in case we get a call that someone wants to see it. It’s very interesting but the more I clean and tidy, the more I see things that, to my critical eye, need to be attended to. Sometimes I feel completely overwhelmed and sometimes I get so discouraged thinking about how nothing stays clean and nothing stays tidy. And I don’t have children at home!
It gets to a point where I have to speak sternly to myself. These unclean areas that seem so obvious to me are only obvious because I have spent way too much time going over my home with an ultra critical eye. Most people coming into the house would never even see these little areas and even if they were seen, they would change nobody’s impression of the house because the house really is in excellent shape. My critical eye does nothing except distort my perception and drive me crazy.
Maybe some of you would relate more to the “what I see in my mirror” syndrome. You wake up one morning and there is a pimple right in the middle of your chin. Every time you pass a mirror your eyes immediately glom onto the problem spot and to you the blemish is the most obvious thing in the world. You might as well have a potato stapled to your chin. You kind of know it’s the last thing anyone else is going to notice but you can’t keep your eyes away from it.
In the spiritual life, this overly critical eye is called “scruples” or seeing sin where there is none or feeling a fault is critical when it’s not serious at all. Most people have at least one little corner of their beings where they view themselves with an overly critical eye and the more they look at what’s wrong and the more they try to clean themselves up, the more they see things that are all wrong. They begin to believe that if it’s so obvious to them it must be obvious and terribly offensive to God. Even confessing it to a priest in reconciliation and being assured that they are not in sin is not reassuring. Doubts linger. Fear builds. Maybe the priest didn’t understand what they said. Maybe he’s too lenient. There is no release or relief.
Scruples are like an addiction to seeing sin where there is none and believing in the perceived sin more than in the love and saving power of the Lord. And there is an underlying hope that if one spends more time seeing one’s own sin, God might be pleased because at least one isn’t glorifying one’s own goodness.
Sunday’s gospel is great news for all Christians but especially for those who suffer from scruples, even little scruples. “For God sent the Son into the world, not to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him. She who believes in him is not condemned…”
The reason you initially began to notice your inner faults is what saves you. You believed in the Son of God. You came to the Light. You are a willing member of the body of Christ and your desire to live in faith and follow Christ is a desire that is born of that Light. You have not chosen evil and darkness over the Light and the Truth.
Certainly we have faults and failings and it is because we have chosen the Light that we desire to have clean hearts and not be pulled down by real sin. But be careful!! An unbalanced focus on what is wrong with you means less time spent in the healing light of Jesus. Satan would never be able to convince you at this point to walk away from God but if he can get you spending more time with your faults than with the God who loves you unconditionally, he will have scored a minor victory, and there are many good people who have lost sight of the goodness of Jesus and his saving power and have walked away.
When you go to Mass this weekend, listen closely to the second reading or read it before hand. Ephesians 2: 4-10. It is a beautiful passage. One thing it says is, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God.”
Thank the Lord for his wondrous gift! It is free. It is precious. Make sure you spend much time contemplating this awesome gift.
There is something else that needs to be addressed here. Every one of us knows at least one close person who has chosen not to be a follower of Christ. It could be a spouse, a family member, an adult child or a close friend. That doesn’t necessarily mean they have chosen evil and darkness. Many of these people are very good people. They are honest and kind; they have inner integrity, are generous and try to do the right thing according to the dictates of their conscience. If these people have chosen attributes of the Light to guide them in their lives, they have unknowingly chosen Jesus. They just don’t know him by name yet. Oh yes, they may have definitely heard of Jesus and know about Jesus but it’s the intimacy of his name that they have either never experienced or have forgotten about. People rarely reject Jesus…they reject what they think they know about him. The two are vastly different! Of course, we pray for these people because it is the ultimate desire that everyone, including ourselves, come to know and love the true Christ.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
March 15th, third Sunday in Lent
John 2:13-25
13The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the moneychangers seated at their tables. 15Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables. 16He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” 17His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” 19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
23When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. 24But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.
(For those in parishes where there are people being received into the church at Easter, there are different readings for Christian Initiation: the First Scrutiny. The Gospel is the story of Jesus talking to the woman at the well, John 4: 5-42)
Recently I spent a few days with my daughter and my one-year-old grandson, James. I hadn’t really forgotten how busy a mom can be but the few days I spent with her and James as well as visiting the parents of two young ones really reinforced the understanding that a mother has precious little time to spend in quiet reflection on her spiritual life. If there are a few minutes here and there where her attention is not being demanded and if she isn’t trying to catch up on things like laundry or taking a shower or sleeping, the mental energy required to consider her own spiritual needs is often just not there. She’s running on empty. She needs the Lord to pour himself into her because she doesn’t have what it takes to climb ladders and pull herself over obstacles and clear away the inner debris. She is poor.
It isn’t just mothers that find themselves achingly poor in spirit. Women in all walks of life, young and old, are often stretched beyond what they have to give. They write spiritual checks and get N.S.F. notices from their hearts.
When Jesus walked into the outer courts of the temple, what he saw made his heart ache for his people. Before they could even enter the temple they had to deal with a chaotic cacophony of demanding noise. Foreigners had to exchange their money for the Jewish currency so they could pay the temple tax, at an inflated price of course. People couldn’t just bring their own animals or doves for sacrifice because their animals would most likely be judged as blemished and unacceptable and they would end up having to buy anyway from the “Purveyors of Fine Cattle and Sheep – Guaranteed to be Without Blemish” (and guaranteed to line the pockets of the temple coffers). Naturally, the animals being sold were quite expensive. The people were being ripped off. If this was allowed in the temple court, was did that say to the people about their worthiness to come to God in their need?
When I read the Gospel, I thought of someone like my daughter feeling empty and poor and so needy of spiritual sustenance going to the house of the Lord to place herself before God and ask for his blessing and grace. I saw her faced with chaos and noise and grasping greedy hands reaching out to strip her of the little she had. And I saw her crushed in spirit before she even had a chance to be in God’s presence.
Jesus saw this too. When he saw the vendors and moneychangers gouging the people, people who had so little to begin with, I believe Jesus looked down through the ages and saw his Anawim, “the poor ones of the Lord”, stumbling to God to ask for his graces and blessings but finding themselves faced with hurdles and hoops to jump through before they could approach the throne. “My Father’s house is a house of prayer!” he cried (Mark 11: 15-17). Prayer: conversation and relationship with his Abba. How can people pray to a loving Father if they’re hungry or scared of the authorities’ displeasure or unsure of whether there will be enough money left over to feed a family? How can they seek love and healing if they don’t know they are worth being loved and healed, if they feel they are only worth being taken advantage of?
One of the reasons Jesus came was to let us know that God is our Father, our Abba…our loving Papa. There is no good father who doesn’t want his little ones to run into his arms freely, especially if they are scared or uncertain or don’t know how to handle things or just need a big hug. This is Father Love. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me. Don’t turn them away. Don’t make it hard for my children to come to me.”
“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.” We often think of the poor in spirit as someone other than ourselves because, no doubt, there is always someone worse off than we are. But, you know, you are allowed to be a poor one. You are allowed to say, “I have nothing. I can’t pay the price I’m told it costs to come to my Father and climb into his arms.”
And Jesus answers, “It’s all right, Small One. I paid the price.”
This is the third week of Lent. If you have a moment in your poverty, think of Jesus stopping on his journey to the Cross to clear the temple for you. Think of him driving out the noise and chaos and unfair demands and grasping hands reaching out to rob you of your right to enter the Holy of Holies. See him turn to you to say, “There. It’s done. They’re all gone. Now you can enter and be with my Father.”
John 2:13-25
13The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the moneychangers seated at their tables. 15Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables. 16He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” 17His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” 19Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.
23When he was in Jerusalem during the Passover festival, many believed in his name because they saw the signs that he was doing. 24But Jesus on his part would not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25and needed no one to testify about anyone; for he himself knew what was in everyone.
(For those in parishes where there are people being received into the church at Easter, there are different readings for Christian Initiation: the First Scrutiny. The Gospel is the story of Jesus talking to the woman at the well, John 4: 5-42)
Recently I spent a few days with my daughter and my one-year-old grandson, James. I hadn’t really forgotten how busy a mom can be but the few days I spent with her and James as well as visiting the parents of two young ones really reinforced the understanding that a mother has precious little time to spend in quiet reflection on her spiritual life. If there are a few minutes here and there where her attention is not being demanded and if she isn’t trying to catch up on things like laundry or taking a shower or sleeping, the mental energy required to consider her own spiritual needs is often just not there. She’s running on empty. She needs the Lord to pour himself into her because she doesn’t have what it takes to climb ladders and pull herself over obstacles and clear away the inner debris. She is poor.
It isn’t just mothers that find themselves achingly poor in spirit. Women in all walks of life, young and old, are often stretched beyond what they have to give. They write spiritual checks and get N.S.F. notices from their hearts.
When Jesus walked into the outer courts of the temple, what he saw made his heart ache for his people. Before they could even enter the temple they had to deal with a chaotic cacophony of demanding noise. Foreigners had to exchange their money for the Jewish currency so they could pay the temple tax, at an inflated price of course. People couldn’t just bring their own animals or doves for sacrifice because their animals would most likely be judged as blemished and unacceptable and they would end up having to buy anyway from the “Purveyors of Fine Cattle and Sheep – Guaranteed to be Without Blemish” (and guaranteed to line the pockets of the temple coffers). Naturally, the animals being sold were quite expensive. The people were being ripped off. If this was allowed in the temple court, was did that say to the people about their worthiness to come to God in their need?
When I read the Gospel, I thought of someone like my daughter feeling empty and poor and so needy of spiritual sustenance going to the house of the Lord to place herself before God and ask for his blessing and grace. I saw her faced with chaos and noise and grasping greedy hands reaching out to strip her of the little she had. And I saw her crushed in spirit before she even had a chance to be in God’s presence.
Jesus saw this too. When he saw the vendors and moneychangers gouging the people, people who had so little to begin with, I believe Jesus looked down through the ages and saw his Anawim, “the poor ones of the Lord”, stumbling to God to ask for his graces and blessings but finding themselves faced with hurdles and hoops to jump through before they could approach the throne. “My Father’s house is a house of prayer!” he cried (Mark 11: 15-17). Prayer: conversation and relationship with his Abba. How can people pray to a loving Father if they’re hungry or scared of the authorities’ displeasure or unsure of whether there will be enough money left over to feed a family? How can they seek love and healing if they don’t know they are worth being loved and healed, if they feel they are only worth being taken advantage of?
One of the reasons Jesus came was to let us know that God is our Father, our Abba…our loving Papa. There is no good father who doesn’t want his little ones to run into his arms freely, especially if they are scared or uncertain or don’t know how to handle things or just need a big hug. This is Father Love. Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me. Don’t turn them away. Don’t make it hard for my children to come to me.”
“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.” We often think of the poor in spirit as someone other than ourselves because, no doubt, there is always someone worse off than we are. But, you know, you are allowed to be a poor one. You are allowed to say, “I have nothing. I can’t pay the price I’m told it costs to come to my Father and climb into his arms.”
And Jesus answers, “It’s all right, Small One. I paid the price.”
This is the third week of Lent. If you have a moment in your poverty, think of Jesus stopping on his journey to the Cross to clear the temple for you. Think of him driving out the noise and chaos and unfair demands and grasping hands reaching out to rob you of your right to enter the Holy of Holies. See him turn to you to say, “There. It’s done. They’re all gone. Now you can enter and be with my Father.”
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Sunday, March 8, The Transfiguration
Mark 9:2-10
2Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. 4And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 6He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” 8Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.
9As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean.
One of the biggest problems the Jews had with Jesus is they couldn’t fit him into their traditional theology of God. Even Jesus’ disciples were constantly faced with trying to wrap their heads around the things that Jesus was teaching and doing. He was “out of the box”. Just look at Peter’s reaction to the Transfiguration. He was terrified. He didn’t know what to say. He said, “Rabbi, it’s good for us to be here…” What he may have been thinking was, “At least I think it’s good for us to be here. I have no clue what’s happening. Is he going away with Elijah and Moses? Is that why he’s all lit up so brightly I can hardly look at him? Are Elijah and Moses here to stay? What’s going on?”
Peter then suggested they build dwellings for Jesus, Moses and Elijah, dwellings like the booths the Israelites built for themselves for the Feast of Tabernacles which is a memorial of the dwelling places the Israelites built while wandering in the desert with Moses. In his doubt and confusion, Peter fell back on traditional practices that were familiar to him. He was trying to place his experience and lack of understanding in some sort of context with what he already knew.
But Peter was not allowed to do this. A cloud covered them and the voice of God came from the cloud, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”
In last week’s reflection I talked about the necessity of the desert in our spiritual life and you may recall that I said it is a place of stripping. A good question to ask here is, “What do we need to be stripped of?” The immediate answer that might come to mind is that we need to be stripped of our human faults and failures, which indeed would make the desert a kind of a place of punishment, a place where God might be heard saying to us, “You screwed up, so now you have to get it together somehow and make it right. And I’m not going to tell you how you screwed up. You have to figure that out for yourself.”
I don’t think so.
Let’s go back to Peter at the Transfiguration. Peter had been raised to be a good Jewish man. He followed all the Jewish traditions and no doubt he had a great desire to please God or at least avoid offending God. Before Jesus came along he probably thought he had a pretty good handle on how to please God: follow the rules. That’s what he was taught and what he was brought up to do. Jesus turned it all upside down and he would not allow his disciples to fall back on old theologies and traditions when they couldn’t understand what he was talking about or why he was doing what he was doing. Sometimes he explained clearly to them what he meant and sometimes he required them to keep following in faith, faith that was based solely on their relationship with him, not on their complete grasp of the ‘rules’. They absolutely had to be with Jesus every day, listening to him moment by moment, in order to grow in their understanding of who he was.
Jesus was their “manna in the desert.” They couldn’t just take some of his teaching and go away and build their lives on that. Remember the story of God providing manna for his people? The rule was they could only gather enough manna for one day. If they gathered more than that the manna immediately started rotting and worms infested it. When they tried to gather more than a one-day supply they quickly found out God wasn’t kidding. The Lord wanted his people to trust him to provide what they needed when they needed it.
We tend to gather theology and spiritual precepts and teachings the way the Israelites tried to gather more manna than they needed. We can end up so easily walking with piles upon piles of Truth filling our packs, our tents, our pots – so much truth that we are weighed down and it becomes difficult to move forward and difficult to know if we are trusting in the Lord or trusting our knowledge of rules and precepts.
I am not suggesting that your knowledge of the truth is wrong. It may be; we are all susceptible to coming in contact with bad theology from various sources. But even assuming that everything you have learned about God and about the faith is the pure truth, you have way too much to carry. I don’t think I’ve ever run into anyone who hasn’t been struggling under an overload of truth and theology. Even though I know that too much head knowledge is not helpful I still need to spend time in the desert letting things go and getting back to the basics of what I believe and need for the moment. “Give me this day my daily bread.” I have to get back to believing that what I need to know in the moment will be given in the moment, not because I’m so good but because he is so good.
Think of your children. What do they believe about you and your spouse and their relationship to you both? “Mom and Dad love me. They give me food every day. They keep me safe.” The thing is, if you asked a child what they believe about you they’d be confused by the question because they don’t think about how to believe in you and how to trust you. They are with you daily. They just know they are loved and that they are safe and that they will be fed and clothed etc.
An abused child is fearful and anxious. She seeks ways to control her parents in order to protect herself. She controls by trying to be extra good, anticipating their demands, making herself blameless and by endeavoring to follow a multitude of tight and sometimes arbitrarily changing rules to avoid punishment and disapproval. If they become angry anyway and punish her, she blames herself and believes it’s because she’s no good and she’s inadequate because she couldn’t figure out what it was they were expecting of her this time around.
The child who knows she is loved doesn’t worry about where love, food, clothing and safety are going to come from. She approaches her parents without fear and interacts with them without consciously worrying about whether the way she is approaching them is “the right way”. She approaches life without fear because she knows she’s loved and approved of.
Our relationship with God often slips into fear and we live with the subtle idea that he is more like the abusive parent than the loving parent. When our relationship with the Lord is weighted more on the side of fearfulness rather than confidence and freedom, there’s a good chance our spirituality is based on rules and head knowledge rather than a simple relationship with a truly loving Lord. It’s not always easy to see what rules and precepts we are hanging onto out of fear and it’s difficult for us to let go of the thundering windy noise of all the “stuff” we know so that we can hear the gentle breeze of the voice of Jesus.
God says, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him! Listen to him daily; listen to him for the bread he has for you for today.” and then he takes us to the desert so we can learn to do just that.
The desert is a time of letting go. We will find ourselves emerging from the dry aridity when we find ourselves less inclined to define what we believe and more joyful about knowing whom we believe.
Mark 9:2-10
2Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. 4And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5Then Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” 6He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” 8Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.
9As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10So they kept the matter to themselves, questioning what this rising from the dead could mean.
One of the biggest problems the Jews had with Jesus is they couldn’t fit him into their traditional theology of God. Even Jesus’ disciples were constantly faced with trying to wrap their heads around the things that Jesus was teaching and doing. He was “out of the box”. Just look at Peter’s reaction to the Transfiguration. He was terrified. He didn’t know what to say. He said, “Rabbi, it’s good for us to be here…” What he may have been thinking was, “At least I think it’s good for us to be here. I have no clue what’s happening. Is he going away with Elijah and Moses? Is that why he’s all lit up so brightly I can hardly look at him? Are Elijah and Moses here to stay? What’s going on?”
Peter then suggested they build dwellings for Jesus, Moses and Elijah, dwellings like the booths the Israelites built for themselves for the Feast of Tabernacles which is a memorial of the dwelling places the Israelites built while wandering in the desert with Moses. In his doubt and confusion, Peter fell back on traditional practices that were familiar to him. He was trying to place his experience and lack of understanding in some sort of context with what he already knew.
But Peter was not allowed to do this. A cloud covered them and the voice of God came from the cloud, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!”
In last week’s reflection I talked about the necessity of the desert in our spiritual life and you may recall that I said it is a place of stripping. A good question to ask here is, “What do we need to be stripped of?” The immediate answer that might come to mind is that we need to be stripped of our human faults and failures, which indeed would make the desert a kind of a place of punishment, a place where God might be heard saying to us, “You screwed up, so now you have to get it together somehow and make it right. And I’m not going to tell you how you screwed up. You have to figure that out for yourself.”
I don’t think so.
Let’s go back to Peter at the Transfiguration. Peter had been raised to be a good Jewish man. He followed all the Jewish traditions and no doubt he had a great desire to please God or at least avoid offending God. Before Jesus came along he probably thought he had a pretty good handle on how to please God: follow the rules. That’s what he was taught and what he was brought up to do. Jesus turned it all upside down and he would not allow his disciples to fall back on old theologies and traditions when they couldn’t understand what he was talking about or why he was doing what he was doing. Sometimes he explained clearly to them what he meant and sometimes he required them to keep following in faith, faith that was based solely on their relationship with him, not on their complete grasp of the ‘rules’. They absolutely had to be with Jesus every day, listening to him moment by moment, in order to grow in their understanding of who he was.
Jesus was their “manna in the desert.” They couldn’t just take some of his teaching and go away and build their lives on that. Remember the story of God providing manna for his people? The rule was they could only gather enough manna for one day. If they gathered more than that the manna immediately started rotting and worms infested it. When they tried to gather more than a one-day supply they quickly found out God wasn’t kidding. The Lord wanted his people to trust him to provide what they needed when they needed it.
We tend to gather theology and spiritual precepts and teachings the way the Israelites tried to gather more manna than they needed. We can end up so easily walking with piles upon piles of Truth filling our packs, our tents, our pots – so much truth that we are weighed down and it becomes difficult to move forward and difficult to know if we are trusting in the Lord or trusting our knowledge of rules and precepts.
I am not suggesting that your knowledge of the truth is wrong. It may be; we are all susceptible to coming in contact with bad theology from various sources. But even assuming that everything you have learned about God and about the faith is the pure truth, you have way too much to carry. I don’t think I’ve ever run into anyone who hasn’t been struggling under an overload of truth and theology. Even though I know that too much head knowledge is not helpful I still need to spend time in the desert letting things go and getting back to the basics of what I believe and need for the moment. “Give me this day my daily bread.” I have to get back to believing that what I need to know in the moment will be given in the moment, not because I’m so good but because he is so good.
Think of your children. What do they believe about you and your spouse and their relationship to you both? “Mom and Dad love me. They give me food every day. They keep me safe.” The thing is, if you asked a child what they believe about you they’d be confused by the question because they don’t think about how to believe in you and how to trust you. They are with you daily. They just know they are loved and that they are safe and that they will be fed and clothed etc.
An abused child is fearful and anxious. She seeks ways to control her parents in order to protect herself. She controls by trying to be extra good, anticipating their demands, making herself blameless and by endeavoring to follow a multitude of tight and sometimes arbitrarily changing rules to avoid punishment and disapproval. If they become angry anyway and punish her, she blames herself and believes it’s because she’s no good and she’s inadequate because she couldn’t figure out what it was they were expecting of her this time around.
The child who knows she is loved doesn’t worry about where love, food, clothing and safety are going to come from. She approaches her parents without fear and interacts with them without consciously worrying about whether the way she is approaching them is “the right way”. She approaches life without fear because she knows she’s loved and approved of.
Our relationship with God often slips into fear and we live with the subtle idea that he is more like the abusive parent than the loving parent. When our relationship with the Lord is weighted more on the side of fearfulness rather than confidence and freedom, there’s a good chance our spirituality is based on rules and head knowledge rather than a simple relationship with a truly loving Lord. It’s not always easy to see what rules and precepts we are hanging onto out of fear and it’s difficult for us to let go of the thundering windy noise of all the “stuff” we know so that we can hear the gentle breeze of the voice of Jesus.
God says, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him! Listen to him daily; listen to him for the bread he has for you for today.” and then he takes us to the desert so we can learn to do just that.
The desert is a time of letting go. We will find ourselves emerging from the dry aridity when we find ourselves less inclined to define what we believe and more joyful about knowing whom we believe.
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