Sunday, Feb. 28th, 2010
Now about eight days after these sayings Jesus took with him Peter, John and James, and went up on the mountain to pray. And while he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to him. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his exodus, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. Now Peter and his companions were weighed down with sleep; but since they had stayed awake, they saw his glory and the two men who stood with him. Just as they were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, ‘Master, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah’—not knowing what he said. While he was saying this, a cloud came and overshadowed them; and they were terrified as they entered the cloud. Then from the cloud came a voice that said, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him!’ When the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. And they kept silent and in those days told no one any of the things they had seen.
In my last reflection, I wrote about Jesus being the second Adam and about the significance of his time in the desert in relation to God’s whole plan of redemption for you. This week’s Gospel, the very familiar account of the Transfiguration, is brimming over with beautiful clues that a plan of salvation had been moving towards the person of Jesus since the beginning. The parallels between Jesus and Moses and Elijah are many, way too many to cover in a short reflection. It’s a whole bible study in itself really. What I’m going to focus on is one significant word in this scripture passage: ‘Exodus’.
"They appeared in glory and were speaking of his exodus…"
Instead of the word ‘exodus’, you will often read ‘departure’ or ‘death’ in other translations but ‘exodus’ is a more accurate translation. Exodus means ‘a way out of’. Naturally, whenever we hear the word exodus, we think of Moses leading the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt. Do you see where things are going here? Yes, Jesus is the second Moses and he came to lead God’s people out of slavery. Moses and Elijah were discussing with Jesus his imminent death on the cross - the ultimate ‘Way Out’ or exodus out of Egypt for the people of God.
In scripture, Egypt is symbolic of the world – worldly passions, worldly desires and worldly values, which are passions, desires and values not based on God’s precepts. Egypt is a broken world, a world where the fall of Adam is played out daily. People are enslaved in this world where self reigns supreme and people are wounded and broken because of it. Just as Moses challenged the Pharaoh and led the Israelites out of slavery, so Jesus came to challenge the ruler of this world and lead his people to freedom.
There is a tendency to snicker at Peter for wanting to set up tents for Jesus, Moses and Elijah but in fact, Peter was responding to what he was witnessing in a deeply respectful and relevant way. He wasn’t suggesting they all stay on the mountaintop, camp out, sing campfire songs and have a wonderful time. He was suggesting that they build structures equivalent to the Jewish “Tent of Meeting” which was a holy place for the presence of God to rest, a sanctuary or a tabernacle. Peter wasn’t far off the mark. When he saw that the appearance of Jesus’ face had changed and that his clothes had become dazzling white, he recognized that the God of Israel was indeed terribly present .
In the old Testament, the face of someone else changed in the presence of God and became so brilliant that he had to wear a veil so the people could look at him: Moses. Peter understood that something awesome and formidable was taking place and he wanted to treat it with great reverence and respect. When he made this suggestion, a cloud covered them all. In the Old Testament, a cloud often signified the presence of God as did a brilliant light or what they called ‘shekinah glory’. Out of the cloud of God's presence, God’s voice was heard saying, ‘This is my Son, my Chosen, listen to him!’ Was God just giving Peter some general guidance, similar to how a parent might admonish a wayward child? “Smarten up...listen to your Mother!” I don’t think so.
Moses mediated between God and the Israelites and brought to the people the Covenant God wanted to make with them. In Peter’s Jewish understanding, building a Tent of Meeting, a place where God could reside and a place similar to where the Ark of the covenant (a wooden chest containing the tablets with the 10 commandments) was placed would have been an appropriate faith filled response to what he was seeing but Peter didn’t yet fully understand that Jesus wasn’t just a prophet like Moses and Elijah. Jesus was now the Ark of the Covenant. Jesus was the true Tent of Meeting, the tabernacle and the dwelling place of God. Within Jesus, there was a new Sanctuary and this sanctuary was to be totally accessible to all of his people, not just to the Jewish High Priest once a year. God was saying, “Listen to my Son and he will reveal to you my true dwelling place. He will reveal himself. He is not just bringing a New Covenant to you. He is the New Covenant.”
But what about you? What does all this have to do with you personally over 2000 years later? How can all this ancient history have an impact on your life right now? Perhaps we need to review what a covenant is. A covenant is an agreement that brings about a relationship of commitment. The key word here is ‘relationship’. That’s a two way street. Certainly, you are called to be committed to the Lord but you have to realize that the Lord is also desiring to commit himself to you. That is a covenant. It’s two parties making a commitment to each other. Marriage is a covenant. If it makes it easier to grasp, you can rightly assume that God wants to marry you; he wants to have a love relationship with you. He wants you to be his bride. You need to accept that and reciprocate in order to seal the covenant. A covenant of marriage does not take place if only one person is fully committing to this relationship of living and growing together.
The old covenant of the Old Testament was a legal one, a commitment based on law and a physical submission to the law. Circumcision, sacrifices, following the letter of the law and punishment for breaking the law were the basis of the old covenant. The New Covenant is a commitment based on the heart and the spirit of the law, not the letter. God was not satisfied with the old covenant based on law but it was what the maturity of the people could handle. My husband and I have four adult children. When they were growing up, we surrounded them with rules. “Don’t touch that. Don’t act like that. Be respectful. Do your chores. Do your homework. Don’t fight. Come home early. Eat your vegetables. Go to Mass.” We didn’t enjoy being rule enforcers but they needed that. Our love for them had to include definitive laws to help them grow. They didn’t have the maturity or self control to grow up without guidelines and an understanding that disobedience or thoughtless actions had consequences. Now that they are adults, what they learned by law as children is an integral part of who they are. For instance, we no longer have to teach and encourage them to be responsible people; it is part of their natures and characters to do that. They want to be responsible good people. We now have love relationships with them, relationships not based on enforcing rules and giving directions but on enjoying them totally for themselves. Of course, help, advice and comfort is always available from us if they ask for it. Always, God had in mind the day when his people would be mature enough for him to establish a New Covenant of Love with them.
‘The days are surely coming, says the Lord,
when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel
and with the house of Judah;
9not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors,
on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt;
for they did not continue in my covenant,
and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord.
10This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their minds,
and write them on their hearts,
and I will be their God,
and they shall be my people.
11And they shall not teach one another
or say to each other, “Know the Lord”,
for they shall all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest.
12For I will be merciful towards their iniquities,
and I will remember their sins no more.’ (Jeremiah 31:31-34 and also Hebrews 8: 8-12)
God is Love and has always been moving towards you. He is drawn to you. God is in love with you and never at any point did he want anything to come between you and him - but sin did. But, thanks be to God, Jesus came and offered the ultimate sacrifice so that you can ask for and receive forgiveness of all your sins and be free to live in God’s presence and grow to know him. How many times will God forgive you your confessed sins? Seventy times seven, which is a number equivalent to roughly a kabillion. More than we can ever imagine.
Jesus became, for you, the second Adam, the second Moses, the New Covenant and The Way Out.
It just gets better and better.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
First Sunday in Lent 2010
Feb. 21st. 2010
Luke 4: 1-13
The Temptation of Jesus
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.” ’
Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” ’
Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you”, and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’
Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’ When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Throughout Lent, I’m going to continue to focus on aspects of the Gospels that highlight the amazing things that Jesus accomplished for us with so much love just so that we can have free access to the Father. In the midst of a busy life full of small and big demands, wounds, worries, unmet desires and tough inner challenges, it’s so easy to lose touch with the full reality of Jesus and what he really did for us – for you, actually. Instead of using the pronouns ‘we’ and ‘us’ this time, I am going to write to you. It is too easy to feel lost and anonymous in the crowd of ‘us and we’. If you were the only person in the world, Jesus would have still died for you. You matter very much.
Near the end of the Ash Wednesday reflection, I encouraged you to ponder on the line from the Exultet: “O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!” The story of Adam and Eve is a story that astutely explains the propensity of human beings to live according to their own needs, desires and twisted perceptions rather than living harmoniously in God’s love and order. Genesis says, "Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.” Another translation says the serpent was the ‘subtlest’ of any beast. I like the word ‘subtle’ better because it is with great subtlety that Satan used God’s own words and twisted them in order to manipulate Adam’s and Eve’s desires. The fault that the Exultet speaks of is the failure to listen to God and obey his words of Life. This failure stripped Adam and Eve of their innocence; it laid them naked to their own inadequacies and made them acutely and humiliatingly aware of their nakedness and sin. You have probably had many times in your life when an awareness of a sin created a deep, embarrassing and hurting disturbance in your heart and spirit and made you feel naked, anxious, vulnerable and scared - scared of your own inadequacy to always do the right thing and scared of your consistent inability to change yourself. You were miserable because you just couldn’t fathom how God could love you or even like you. Oh, how you needed a Savior!
One of Jesus’ myriad of beautiful names is "The Second Adam.” In this week’s Gospel, after he had been baptized and heard the Father’s words, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” Jesus was led into the desert where he, too, was confronted by “the subtlest of all beasts.” Again, Satan tried to thwart God by using God’s own words to manipulate the second Adam just as he manipulated the first Adam. He wanted to strip Jesus of his innocence and lay him naked, humiliated and blemished before God.
The temptation of Jesus in the desert wasn’t just an occurrence to show you that Jesus resisted temptation so you should too. The temptations were an eternally mysterious, deep and necessary part of God’s total plan to bring you back to the Garden of his love. By resisting Satan’s attempts to manipulate and corrupt him, Jesus began the journey toward your full redemption. Where Adam and Eve failed and gave in, Jesus succeeded and held strong. Where Adam and Eve lost their humble innocence in the enthronement of Self as lord, Jesus professed and re-established the Father’s lordship over all, especially over self-desire and self-aggrandizement. Where Adam and Eve felt the full humiliation of their nakedness and vulnerability, Jesus, who sanctified the waters of Baptism to cover your nakedness,* resisted Satan and established the true security of the Lordship of the Father. Through this intervention, he began to reclaim the deserts of your inner self to re-establish within you the Garden of the Lord, the Kingdom.
*("for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." Galatians 3:27)
Jesus went into that desert for you. It was the beginning of the end of your naked vulnerability to the condemnation of sin. Jesus, the Lamb of God, was exposed to the evil one and remained sinless and unblemished and we know that only an unblemished lamb was allowed for the Jewish sacrifices. Throughout the whole of the Old Testament the unblemished sacrificial lamb was a foreshadowing of how Jesus would bring you back home, back to the garden and back to his heart and the Father’s arms.
But he didn’t do this in some sort of Godly isolation, a super hero ten times removed from you and the other multitudes of sinful wretches. When you look at the crucifix at your church or when you see artists’ renditions of the suffering Christ, it’s easy to forget that Jesus is your brother. He is your big brother who, because you were lost, came to earth in order to bring you home. He came to slay “the subtlest of beasts” so you could follow him home in safety. Paul says in Romans 8: 29: "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first of many brothers and sisters." and in Galatians 4:6,7, he says: "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God."
A slave belongs to the master and is obligated by law to follow and obey, usually in great fear of reprisal for mistakes that might be made. The relationship between a Father and his children is a relationship of love and trust. If you forget the love, if you forget who Jesus is, what he actually did and why he did it, then you slip back into the slave relationship where unresolved guilt creates within you huge condemnation and fear of reprisal. That’s exactly what Jesus came to save you from.
Do you believe it?
Luke 4: 1-13
The Temptation of Jesus
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “One does not live by bread alone.” ’
Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ Jesus answered him, ‘It is written, “Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.” ’
Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, “He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you”, and “On their hands they will bear you up, so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’
Jesus answered him, ‘It is said, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’ When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.
Throughout Lent, I’m going to continue to focus on aspects of the Gospels that highlight the amazing things that Jesus accomplished for us with so much love just so that we can have free access to the Father. In the midst of a busy life full of small and big demands, wounds, worries, unmet desires and tough inner challenges, it’s so easy to lose touch with the full reality of Jesus and what he really did for us – for you, actually. Instead of using the pronouns ‘we’ and ‘us’ this time, I am going to write to you. It is too easy to feel lost and anonymous in the crowd of ‘us and we’. If you were the only person in the world, Jesus would have still died for you. You matter very much.
Near the end of the Ash Wednesday reflection, I encouraged you to ponder on the line from the Exultet: “O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!” The story of Adam and Eve is a story that astutely explains the propensity of human beings to live according to their own needs, desires and twisted perceptions rather than living harmoniously in God’s love and order. Genesis says, "Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.” Another translation says the serpent was the ‘subtlest’ of any beast. I like the word ‘subtle’ better because it is with great subtlety that Satan used God’s own words and twisted them in order to manipulate Adam’s and Eve’s desires. The fault that the Exultet speaks of is the failure to listen to God and obey his words of Life. This failure stripped Adam and Eve of their innocence; it laid them naked to their own inadequacies and made them acutely and humiliatingly aware of their nakedness and sin. You have probably had many times in your life when an awareness of a sin created a deep, embarrassing and hurting disturbance in your heart and spirit and made you feel naked, anxious, vulnerable and scared - scared of your own inadequacy to always do the right thing and scared of your consistent inability to change yourself. You were miserable because you just couldn’t fathom how God could love you or even like you. Oh, how you needed a Savior!
One of Jesus’ myriad of beautiful names is "The Second Adam.” In this week’s Gospel, after he had been baptized and heard the Father’s words, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” Jesus was led into the desert where he, too, was confronted by “the subtlest of all beasts.” Again, Satan tried to thwart God by using God’s own words to manipulate the second Adam just as he manipulated the first Adam. He wanted to strip Jesus of his innocence and lay him naked, humiliated and blemished before God.
The temptation of Jesus in the desert wasn’t just an occurrence to show you that Jesus resisted temptation so you should too. The temptations were an eternally mysterious, deep and necessary part of God’s total plan to bring you back to the Garden of his love. By resisting Satan’s attempts to manipulate and corrupt him, Jesus began the journey toward your full redemption. Where Adam and Eve failed and gave in, Jesus succeeded and held strong. Where Adam and Eve lost their humble innocence in the enthronement of Self as lord, Jesus professed and re-established the Father’s lordship over all, especially over self-desire and self-aggrandizement. Where Adam and Eve felt the full humiliation of their nakedness and vulnerability, Jesus, who sanctified the waters of Baptism to cover your nakedness,* resisted Satan and established the true security of the Lordship of the Father. Through this intervention, he began to reclaim the deserts of your inner self to re-establish within you the Garden of the Lord, the Kingdom.
*("for as many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ." Galatians 3:27)
Jesus went into that desert for you. It was the beginning of the end of your naked vulnerability to the condemnation of sin. Jesus, the Lamb of God, was exposed to the evil one and remained sinless and unblemished and we know that only an unblemished lamb was allowed for the Jewish sacrifices. Throughout the whole of the Old Testament the unblemished sacrificial lamb was a foreshadowing of how Jesus would bring you back home, back to the garden and back to his heart and the Father’s arms.
But he didn’t do this in some sort of Godly isolation, a super hero ten times removed from you and the other multitudes of sinful wretches. When you look at the crucifix at your church or when you see artists’ renditions of the suffering Christ, it’s easy to forget that Jesus is your brother. He is your big brother who, because you were lost, came to earth in order to bring you home. He came to slay “the subtlest of beasts” so you could follow him home in safety. Paul says in Romans 8: 29: "For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first of many brothers and sisters." and in Galatians 4:6,7, he says: "But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children. And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, ‘Abba! Father!’ So you are no longer a slave but a child, and if a child then also an heir, through God."
A slave belongs to the master and is obligated by law to follow and obey, usually in great fear of reprisal for mistakes that might be made. The relationship between a Father and his children is a relationship of love and trust. If you forget the love, if you forget who Jesus is, what he actually did and why he did it, then you slip back into the slave relationship where unresolved guilt creates within you huge condemnation and fear of reprisal. That’s exactly what Jesus came to save you from.
Do you believe it?
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Lent: The 'Come As You Are' Party
Ash Wednesday Feb. 17th, 2010
…according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
…therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
(Excerpts from Psalm 51, Ash Wednesday Liturgy)
As you have probably picked up, I have decided this week to reflect on Ash Wednesday instead of the Gospel for this coming Sunday, which is on the Beatitudes. If you were really looking forward to a reflection on the Beatitudes, just wander off to the archives on the left side of this blog and look up November 1st, 2009. Voila. A reflection on the Beatitudes.
Ash Wednesday sometimes creeps up on us quickly. It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long since we put the Christmas decorations away and suddenly it’s time to think about what we can do for Lent to prepare ourselves for the great celebration of Easter. It felt appropriate, then, to reflect on Lent a week or so before Ash Wednesday comes along so that we can spend some time pondering on what it is exactly that we want from our Lenten Season, the season of deepening self awareness and of drawing closer to the heart of our God.
I chose certain excerpts from the Ash Wednesday psalm because they illustrate a crucial spiritual truth that is often overlooked by God’s people, especially in times such as Lent. The truth is that even though we may sincerely practice self denial, offer sacrifices and experience heartfelt moments of anguish over our sinfulness, we have absolutely no capacity to make ourselves uncontaminated and worthy of the Father’s Love. What’s more, the Father knows that we are completely disabled and helpless when it comes to cleaning ourselves up. When he tells us to come to him with weeping and fasting, he is not saying that before we come to him we have to make sure we are all clean and pure and that we have made ourselves spotless inside and out. What he is saying is, “Come. Come with the awareness that you are small and I am the All in All. Come with the sorrow of knowing that you have tried to accomplish things that only I can accomplish. Come with the knowledge that you have tried too hard, have cried too much, have crumbled under too many burdens, felt too lost, for too long and still have made so little progress. Come with the understanding that looking on the Cross of my Son is not for your condemnation but is what should bring you tremendous joyful relief because he has accomplished everything that you never could and never will be able to accomplish, especially when it comes to making yourself whole and worthy. Come because you are so loved, not because you are so good.”
If we really approached Lent with true understanding and were able to fully receive its inherent gifts, we would rename it “The Season of Breathing.” Can you recall a time in your life when you were carrying a huge emotional burden of some sort and suddenly everything worked out beautifully? Can you remember the unexpected sense of being able to breathe freely and how it felt like you hadn’t really been breathing for a very long time? If we really understood the full impact of all that happened at the first Easter, we would become giddy with the delicious freedom to breathe.
What really struck me about the Ash Wednesday psalm was that the one who was being expected to perform all the action was not the psalmist but the Lord himself. Listen:
…blot out my transgressions…Wash me from my iniquity … cleanse me from my sin… teach me wisdom…Purge me with hyssop…wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow…Create in me a clean heart… put within me a new and right spirit…Restore to me the joy of your salvation…sustain in me a willing spirit… open my lips…
Obviously, the psalmist understood something we seem to forget. The ball is in the Lord’s court. He alone is the source, the power and the action. When we try to wash, cleanse, teach, purge, create, restore, sustain or open ourselves in order to make ourselves acceptable to the Lord, we are leaving out the key part of our salvation: why Jesus died on the cross. We need to grasp, once and for all, that we cannot accomplish our own salvation. We are absolutely, totally and irrevocably incapable of healing ourselves of our sins, failures, wounds and disabilities. It is this understanding – and the acceptance of it – that is pleasing to the Lord.
“The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
What is a broken spirit? It is the spirit of one who knows she has no capacity to be whole, knows she is not God and knows that no one, not herself nor anyone else, can expect her to be capable of something only God is capable of. “Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God.” There you go. I got a beatitude in there after all. Those who are so busy trying to heal themselves and make themselves clean and pure and worthy are certainly not barred from the Kingdom; it’s just that it’s hard for them to allow themselves entry because it’s so difficult to accept that the Kingdom is completely available to those who are incapable and needy. The door is wide open to the poor in spirit because Jesus, knowing our inadequacies and disabilities, did it all for us. He paid the full price of admission.
If God is the only one capable of creating and cleaning us, then what is our responsibility in the equation?
To show up.
That sounds simple and simplistic but, in reality, in spite of all our spiritual activity, all our services to our parish community, all our prayers, devotions and good intentions, sitting as empty broken vessels before the Lord is not an easy place for anyone to be. ‘Human Beings’ is a misnomer. We should be called ‘Human Doings’ because we prefer to do rather than be. We ‘do’ because we feel much more in control – until we discover that all our ‘doings’ haven’t done much for us in the depths of our beings and we start to see that we have been existing on the surface of all our needs.
Lent should be a time of consciously showing up, a time of being there and being aware. Whatever your chosen Lenten sacrifices and offerings are, they should be more than just something you do; they should act as reminders of not only your spiritual poverty but, most importantly, as reminders of the awesome beauty and wonder of Christ’s sacrifice. If all you do is focus on how much of a failure you are or how bad you are but never allow yourself to face full on the incredible fact that Jesus did it all and because of what he did, you are forgiven, blessed, loved, healed and set free, then there might as well not be an Easter. The cross was not for our condemnation; the law already did that and still does that. The Cross was for our freedom and healing – for freedom from guilt and shame and for the healing of all the wounds we have sustained from our own sins, failures and inadequacies.
This Lent, may I suggest that whenever you go to prayer, practice self denial or whatever practice you choose to increase your spiritual awareness, remind yourself that without Easter, Lent has no meaning. Then ponder on this line from the Easter Exultet:
“O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!”
Be there and be aware. Breathe. And laugh with relief.
…according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.
…therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain in me a willing spirit.
O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you have no delight in sacrifice; if I were to give a burnt offering, you would not be pleased.
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
(Excerpts from Psalm 51, Ash Wednesday Liturgy)
As you have probably picked up, I have decided this week to reflect on Ash Wednesday instead of the Gospel for this coming Sunday, which is on the Beatitudes. If you were really looking forward to a reflection on the Beatitudes, just wander off to the archives on the left side of this blog and look up November 1st, 2009. Voila. A reflection on the Beatitudes.
Ash Wednesday sometimes creeps up on us quickly. It doesn’t feel like it’s been that long since we put the Christmas decorations away and suddenly it’s time to think about what we can do for Lent to prepare ourselves for the great celebration of Easter. It felt appropriate, then, to reflect on Lent a week or so before Ash Wednesday comes along so that we can spend some time pondering on what it is exactly that we want from our Lenten Season, the season of deepening self awareness and of drawing closer to the heart of our God.
I chose certain excerpts from the Ash Wednesday psalm because they illustrate a crucial spiritual truth that is often overlooked by God’s people, especially in times such as Lent. The truth is that even though we may sincerely practice self denial, offer sacrifices and experience heartfelt moments of anguish over our sinfulness, we have absolutely no capacity to make ourselves uncontaminated and worthy of the Father’s Love. What’s more, the Father knows that we are completely disabled and helpless when it comes to cleaning ourselves up. When he tells us to come to him with weeping and fasting, he is not saying that before we come to him we have to make sure we are all clean and pure and that we have made ourselves spotless inside and out. What he is saying is, “Come. Come with the awareness that you are small and I am the All in All. Come with the sorrow of knowing that you have tried to accomplish things that only I can accomplish. Come with the knowledge that you have tried too hard, have cried too much, have crumbled under too many burdens, felt too lost, for too long and still have made so little progress. Come with the understanding that looking on the Cross of my Son is not for your condemnation but is what should bring you tremendous joyful relief because he has accomplished everything that you never could and never will be able to accomplish, especially when it comes to making yourself whole and worthy. Come because you are so loved, not because you are so good.”
If we really approached Lent with true understanding and were able to fully receive its inherent gifts, we would rename it “The Season of Breathing.” Can you recall a time in your life when you were carrying a huge emotional burden of some sort and suddenly everything worked out beautifully? Can you remember the unexpected sense of being able to breathe freely and how it felt like you hadn’t really been breathing for a very long time? If we really understood the full impact of all that happened at the first Easter, we would become giddy with the delicious freedom to breathe.
What really struck me about the Ash Wednesday psalm was that the one who was being expected to perform all the action was not the psalmist but the Lord himself. Listen:
…blot out my transgressions…Wash me from my iniquity … cleanse me from my sin… teach me wisdom…Purge me with hyssop…wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow…Create in me a clean heart… put within me a new and right spirit…Restore to me the joy of your salvation…sustain in me a willing spirit… open my lips…
Obviously, the psalmist understood something we seem to forget. The ball is in the Lord’s court. He alone is the source, the power and the action. When we try to wash, cleanse, teach, purge, create, restore, sustain or open ourselves in order to make ourselves acceptable to the Lord, we are leaving out the key part of our salvation: why Jesus died on the cross. We need to grasp, once and for all, that we cannot accomplish our own salvation. We are absolutely, totally and irrevocably incapable of healing ourselves of our sins, failures, wounds and disabilities. It is this understanding – and the acceptance of it – that is pleasing to the Lord.
“The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”
What is a broken spirit? It is the spirit of one who knows she has no capacity to be whole, knows she is not God and knows that no one, not herself nor anyone else, can expect her to be capable of something only God is capable of. “Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of God.” There you go. I got a beatitude in there after all. Those who are so busy trying to heal themselves and make themselves clean and pure and worthy are certainly not barred from the Kingdom; it’s just that it’s hard for them to allow themselves entry because it’s so difficult to accept that the Kingdom is completely available to those who are incapable and needy. The door is wide open to the poor in spirit because Jesus, knowing our inadequacies and disabilities, did it all for us. He paid the full price of admission.
If God is the only one capable of creating and cleaning us, then what is our responsibility in the equation?
To show up.
That sounds simple and simplistic but, in reality, in spite of all our spiritual activity, all our services to our parish community, all our prayers, devotions and good intentions, sitting as empty broken vessels before the Lord is not an easy place for anyone to be. ‘Human Beings’ is a misnomer. We should be called ‘Human Doings’ because we prefer to do rather than be. We ‘do’ because we feel much more in control – until we discover that all our ‘doings’ haven’t done much for us in the depths of our beings and we start to see that we have been existing on the surface of all our needs.
Lent should be a time of consciously showing up, a time of being there and being aware. Whatever your chosen Lenten sacrifices and offerings are, they should be more than just something you do; they should act as reminders of not only your spiritual poverty but, most importantly, as reminders of the awesome beauty and wonder of Christ’s sacrifice. If all you do is focus on how much of a failure you are or how bad you are but never allow yourself to face full on the incredible fact that Jesus did it all and because of what he did, you are forgiven, blessed, loved, healed and set free, then there might as well not be an Easter. The cross was not for our condemnation; the law already did that and still does that. The Cross was for our freedom and healing – for freedom from guilt and shame and for the healing of all the wounds we have sustained from our own sins, failures and inadequacies.
This Lent, may I suggest that whenever you go to prayer, practice self denial or whatever practice you choose to increase your spiritual awareness, remind yourself that without Easter, Lent has no meaning. Then ponder on this line from the Easter Exultet:
“O happy fault, O necessary sin of Adam, which gained for us so great a Redeemer!”
Be there and be aware. Breathe. And laugh with relief.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
May the holes in your net be no larger than the fish in it. ~ Irish Blessing
Sunday, Feb. 7th, 2010
Luke 5: 1-11
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ 5Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ 6When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ 9For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ 11When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
Today we had another house showing and I am so tired. As some of you know, we have had our house on the market since a year ago last September. As soon as we listed our home, the economy took a nosedive and houses in this area stopped selling. If you have never owned and sold a home, believe me, 18 months is a long time to be on the market. Every time there is a showing, there’s a lot of work to be done to get the house looking pristine and desirable. And each time we’ve shown the house, probably at least 50 to 60 times since it went on the market, it has been such a disappointing let down when no offer is made.
So, this week, I relate in a mild way to Simon Peter, James and John who had been out all night fishing and caught nothing. They had put in a lot of hard work and had nothing to show for it except extreme weariness, weariness made deeper and heavier by the failure to accomplish what they needed to accomplish. They had families to support and perhaps they had debts they needed to repay. They also probably had customers who might be tempted to go elsewhere for their fish. They needed to catch fish.
They weren’t just tired; they were stressed and probably a bit short tempered. And then this stranger has the gall to come up to Simon Peter and ask him to put aside his work in order to take him out in the boat so he could speak to the crowds. I wouldn’t be surprised if Peter didn’t feel very gracious about accommodating this request. But perhaps he’d heard about Jesus and was curious about why there were crowds waiting to hear Jesus speak. Besides, he would have a front row seat so he could just sit back and listen. He was extremely tired and a rest would be good…
We don’t know what Jesus’ sermon was about that time and whether anything he said hit Peter in his heart but after Jesus finished speaking, Peter probably was completely unprepared to have Jesus turn to him and tell him to go out deeper and let out his nets. Think about it. If Peter had heard rumors about Jesus, he would have known that Jesus was a carpenter. Not a fisherman. Who did this guy think he was to tell him how to do his job? I wonder if Peter was tempted to say to Jesus, “We just finished cleaning all the nets! Why don’t you just go home and build a chair or something? Maybe you should go back to Nazareth and take care of your Mother. She’s a widow. Shouldn’t you be taking care of your responsibilities instead of trying to tell me how to do my job? We are professional fishermen. We’ve been out all night and THERE ARE NO FISH.”
Even if Peter didn’t say all of this out loud, Jesus would have known what Peter was thinking and feeling but Jesus didn’t back down. “Go deeper. Let out your nets...” and we all know what happened after that.
Within a short space of time Peter, James and John pulled in enough fish to support all their families, pay their debts and satisfy their customers needs abundantly and have enough left over to give away to the poorer families in the area. Peter was amazed, awed and utterly ashamed over his reluctance to obey Jesus and for his mean and miserly thoughts about Jesus. It was as if the miracle of the abundant catch was Jesus’ answer to every cranky thought Peter had about Jesus.
"Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" And what does Jesus say?
“That’ll teach you to judge me! So...you think you know who I am and what I should be doing and you think you know the whole picture. I know the thoughts of your heart and you’d better shape up or (excuse the pun) ship out!”
No. Jesus does not berate or punish Peter. Instead, he says, “Do not be afraid.” He may have added, “Weariness and discouragement make you fearful and fear makes you tight and tightness makes it hard to serve with a generous heart. Don’t be afraid. I will take care of you. I will provide for your needs, heal your inner discouragement, forgive your sins and create a man who is generous in the service of my Father.” He definitely did add, “From now on you will be catching people.”
I have a personal story that is too long for this blog, but I want to tell you that my husband and I have experienced the grace and generosity of Jesus whenever we have opened ourselves to be generous with our willingness to serve. But always, there is first a call to move our boat out deeper into unknown - or even still - waters, even though it seems like a waste of time or more of a challenge than we were wanting to engage in.
Like Peter, all of us need to accept that the feeling of being completely prepared for and capable of doing whatever the Lord sends us out to do often isn’t part of the package. What was that old saying? ‘The Lord doesn’t call the equipped; he equips the Called.’
Today we had another house showing and I am so tired. But within the tiredness is a sound knowledge that my God can do anything he wants whenever he wants, whether it’s filling nets or selling a home. My responsibility is to trust, be ready to serve and be inspired by Isaiah in this Sunday’s first reading. When he heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who shall go for us?” he answered,
“Here I am; send me.”
Luke 5: 1-11
Once while Jesus was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ 5Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ 6When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7So they signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ 9For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ 11When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.
Today we had another house showing and I am so tired. As some of you know, we have had our house on the market since a year ago last September. As soon as we listed our home, the economy took a nosedive and houses in this area stopped selling. If you have never owned and sold a home, believe me, 18 months is a long time to be on the market. Every time there is a showing, there’s a lot of work to be done to get the house looking pristine and desirable. And each time we’ve shown the house, probably at least 50 to 60 times since it went on the market, it has been such a disappointing let down when no offer is made.
So, this week, I relate in a mild way to Simon Peter, James and John who had been out all night fishing and caught nothing. They had put in a lot of hard work and had nothing to show for it except extreme weariness, weariness made deeper and heavier by the failure to accomplish what they needed to accomplish. They had families to support and perhaps they had debts they needed to repay. They also probably had customers who might be tempted to go elsewhere for their fish. They needed to catch fish.
They weren’t just tired; they were stressed and probably a bit short tempered. And then this stranger has the gall to come up to Simon Peter and ask him to put aside his work in order to take him out in the boat so he could speak to the crowds. I wouldn’t be surprised if Peter didn’t feel very gracious about accommodating this request. But perhaps he’d heard about Jesus and was curious about why there were crowds waiting to hear Jesus speak. Besides, he would have a front row seat so he could just sit back and listen. He was extremely tired and a rest would be good…
We don’t know what Jesus’ sermon was about that time and whether anything he said hit Peter in his heart but after Jesus finished speaking, Peter probably was completely unprepared to have Jesus turn to him and tell him to go out deeper and let out his nets. Think about it. If Peter had heard rumors about Jesus, he would have known that Jesus was a carpenter. Not a fisherman. Who did this guy think he was to tell him how to do his job? I wonder if Peter was tempted to say to Jesus, “We just finished cleaning all the nets! Why don’t you just go home and build a chair or something? Maybe you should go back to Nazareth and take care of your Mother. She’s a widow. Shouldn’t you be taking care of your responsibilities instead of trying to tell me how to do my job? We are professional fishermen. We’ve been out all night and THERE ARE NO FISH.”
Even if Peter didn’t say all of this out loud, Jesus would have known what Peter was thinking and feeling but Jesus didn’t back down. “Go deeper. Let out your nets...” and we all know what happened after that.
Within a short space of time Peter, James and John pulled in enough fish to support all their families, pay their debts and satisfy their customers needs abundantly and have enough left over to give away to the poorer families in the area. Peter was amazed, awed and utterly ashamed over his reluctance to obey Jesus and for his mean and miserly thoughts about Jesus. It was as if the miracle of the abundant catch was Jesus’ answer to every cranky thought Peter had about Jesus.
"Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!" And what does Jesus say?
“That’ll teach you to judge me! So...you think you know who I am and what I should be doing and you think you know the whole picture. I know the thoughts of your heart and you’d better shape up or (excuse the pun) ship out!”
No. Jesus does not berate or punish Peter. Instead, he says, “Do not be afraid.” He may have added, “Weariness and discouragement make you fearful and fear makes you tight and tightness makes it hard to serve with a generous heart. Don’t be afraid. I will take care of you. I will provide for your needs, heal your inner discouragement, forgive your sins and create a man who is generous in the service of my Father.” He definitely did add, “From now on you will be catching people.”
I have a personal story that is too long for this blog, but I want to tell you that my husband and I have experienced the grace and generosity of Jesus whenever we have opened ourselves to be generous with our willingness to serve. But always, there is first a call to move our boat out deeper into unknown - or even still - waters, even though it seems like a waste of time or more of a challenge than we were wanting to engage in.
Like Peter, all of us need to accept that the feeling of being completely prepared for and capable of doing whatever the Lord sends us out to do often isn’t part of the package. What was that old saying? ‘The Lord doesn’t call the equipped; he equips the Called.’
Today we had another house showing and I am so tired. But within the tiredness is a sound knowledge that my God can do anything he wants whenever he wants, whether it’s filling nets or selling a home. My responsibility is to trust, be ready to serve and be inspired by Isaiah in this Sunday’s first reading. When he heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who shall go for us?” he answered,
“Here I am; send me.”
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