Steadfastness

The Lord GOD is my help,
therefore I am not disgraced;
I have set my face like flint,
knowing that I shall not be put to shame.
He is near who upholds my right;
if anyone wishes to oppose me,
let us appear together.
Who disputes my right?
Let him confront me.
See, the Lord GOD is my help;
who will prove me wrong?
Isaiah 50

It is Wednesday of Holy Week. After the joyous welcoming of Jesus into Jerusalem at the beginning of the week, the picture is changing. Things are becoming dangerous for Jesus. Judas has made his arrangement for betrayal. The Hosannas have died away. Jesus and his followers are preparing to celebrate Passover quietly. The religious authorities are worrying about the disruptive influence of Jesus and his followers, and the Romans are taking notice.

And yet the first reading for today is about steadfastness in the face of treachery and danger. Jesus could have stopped his preaching and acting. He could have left Jerusalem, gone back out into the countryside, perhaps had a long and successful life as a preacher. Yet he made a different choice, one that led eventually to his execution. Other followers besides Judas must have begun to think he’d gone mad. Some of them probably slipped away quietly during that week, before things started to get really serious.

We are sometimes faced with choices like that. Do we stick to what we know of God, or seek our own safety? Do we shout “Hosanna” at the beginning of the week, and “Crucify him!” at the end, or do we stay and keep watch at the foot of the cross?

Where would we have been in those Jerusalem crowds?
Where are we in the daily choices we make?

–Baya Clare, CSJ

No Need to Defend

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered King Nebuchadnezzar,
“There is no need for us to defend ourselves before you in this matter.
If our God, whom we serve,can save us from the white-hot furnace
and from your hands, O king, may he save us!
But even if he will not, know, O king,that we will not serve your god
or worship the golden statue that you set up.”
Daniel, Chapter 3

I am sometimes dismayed by stories in the press about organizations or individuals who believe that serving God means defending God, against perceived slights or insults. Our God has no need of defense or protection! What a small god that would be. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did not fall into that temptation. Their faith in God enabled them to be confident that no matter what happened, they were safe in God’s care and keeping. We needn’t worry about our self-preservation. That’s already assured, no matter what the circumstance.

– Baya Clare, CSJ

Christ in the Eye

Christ with me,
Christ before me,
Christ behind me,
Christ in me,
Christ beneath me,
Christ above me,
Christ on my right,
Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down,
Christ when I sit down,
Christ in the heart of every one who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of every one who speaks of me,
Christ in the eye that sees me,
Christ in the ear that hears me.

These verses are part of a longer poem by St. Patrick, Patron of Ireland and the Irish, whose feast day we celebrate today. The last two lines remind me of a story told by Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, in her book “Dead Man Walking.” She invites a prisoner who is about to be executed to see the face of Christ in her face as he is coming to his last moments of life.

What would the world be like if we were to live so as to make that possible for everyone we meet?

–Baya Clare, CSJ

Anamnesis

Take care and be earnestly on your guard
not to forget the things which your own eyes have seen,
nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live,
but teach them to your children and to your children’s children.

A friend of mine often says this simple prayer:
O God, let us remember what we need to remember,and forget what we need to forget.

This passage from Deuteronomy is about the spiritual and cultural practice of anamnesis, or not-forgetting. But not-forgetting is a hard thing to sustain in a culture that places high value on the New! and Exciting! celebrity or fad of the moment. The value of old stories and ways, especially if they are simple and plain, can sometimes get lost in the glitter and glam of the latest shiny thing trying to draw our attention (and dollars.)

Which is not to say that all shiny new things are unworthy of our attention, or that all the old things are. Some things really do need to be forgotten, and I’m sure many of us have ready candidates for that list. There is no particular virtue in age, nor particular vice in youth. The age of a remember-worthy event or action or story isn’t really the point. The point is the effect it has on our relationships with God and one another. If such recall causes re-membering (putting back together) then keep it. If it causes toxic disruption, if it dis-members community, then let it go.

What are you re-membering this Lent?
And what needs forgetting?

Baya Clare, CSJ

The Call to Prophecy

Save me, O Lord, in your kindness.
You will free me from the snare they set for me,
for you are my refuge.
Into your hands I commend my spirit;
you will redeem me, O LORD, O faithful God.
Psalm 31

The life of a Biblical prophet was never an easy one. Called to speak truth to power, they met with all kinds of resistance, from ridicule to murder, and their messages were hardly ever heeded. So why did they persist? It can be hard to imagine.

And yet there are prophets among us today too, speaking truth to power, seeking to turn God’s wrath away from the people, seeking to get us back on the path to peace. Those who reveal corruption in business dealings, those who blow the whistle on the practice of torture, those who speak for persecuted immigrants – all of these are prophets too. And they, too, meet with scorn, ridicule, and sometimes murder, as did Sister Dorothy Stang, who spoke out against the oppression of the indigenous people of Brazil.

So why do they persist? It can be hard to imagine, especially when there are so many alternatives, so many great distractions to occupy us. Just do your job, keep your head down, don’t attract attention. Just don’t worry about it. Go watch TV instead.

And how often do we choose that easier path? How often do we use those distractions to drown out the cries of the people of God? How can we ever repent of our inattention to that call?

I think the answer lies in trusting God enough to know that we are free to act without concern for our own self-preservation. Our preservation is assured, and has been since the first Easter. Our God is kind. We will not be lost. We are redeemed. And that redemption is what frees us from worry about how we will be perceived or treated if we speak out against the things that are not right.

There are many things that are not right. Hold them in your prayer, and God will lead you to right action. Of that I have no doubt.

Baya Clare, CSJ

What is Repentance?

A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
For you are not pleased with sacrifices;
should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.
Psalm 51

Contrition. Repentance. Humility.
Such depressing words.
Who wants to wallow around in self-criticism and sorrow?
Why not think positively instead?

Well…because that’s not what God calls us to, nor does refusal to look at things as they are help us to grow in holiness. While the call to repentance is ongoing, the season of Lent is a time set apart to consider the ways in which our behaviors and thoughts serve to separate us from God. It is a time to turn our lives back again toward God, to take up again the practices that lead us in that direction, and let go the ones that don’t. But most of all, it is a time to recall the great gift that is forgiveness. Jeremiah reminds us that “no one need despair on account of his or her sins, for every penitent sinner is graciously received by God.” Yet repentance is not itself the source of salvation. There is nothing we can do to effect our salvation, for that is a gift from God. There is much we can do to reject it, however, which is the reason for engaging in Lenten practices that will prepare us to accept and act upon it.

The Greek word translated as repentance in the Christian scriptures is “metanoia”, which really means “to think differently after.” Change of mind follows change of behavior, in other words. It isn’t enough to confess your faults and feel sorrow for them, though those actions may be
necessary. Repentance isn’t an isolated act. It is a process, a lifelong task of growing in obedience to God.

So how do you know if you’re headed in the right direction? I find the 3rd chapter of Colossians to be a good guideline. Don’t engage in idolatry, greed, malice, slander, or fury. Watch what you
say. Don’t lie. Don’t exclude anyone. Be compassionate, kind, humble, gentle and patient. Put up with each other. Help each other. Forgive each other. Work things out, don’t let them fester, and then get over it. Love. Love. Love everyone and everything.

So in Lent, especially, and all the time really, it’s good to look at your life and see where you’re
falling short of those things. Be sorrowful if that helps you remember to do better. But don’t stop there. Rejoice in the gift of your forgiveness and your salvation, and then get back to the work of love, for in that way peace is found.

Baya Clare, CSJ

(Baya Clare, CSJ is a Sister of St. Joseph of Carondolet and has graciously offered some of her words here on our blog this Lent. This is one of the many beautiful ways that faith is shared and community is created via the internet. Welcome her with gratitude and prayers.)

Lenten Reflections 2010 – Saturday February 20, 2010 – Follow Me

My eyes read and prayed with the first few verses of the first reading for Saturday from Isaiah chapter 58:

Thus says the LORD:
If you remove from your midst oppression,
false accusation and malicious speech;
If you bestow your bread on the hungry
and satisfy the afflicted;
Then light shall rise for you in the darkness,
and the gloom shall become for you like midday;

Before I could even go any further I was reminded of so many situations in our own communities, in our local, state and federal governments and even in our church.

Remove from your midst oppression, false accusation and malicious speech… well that pretty much covers a big swath of everyday life.  How many years has it been since Isaiah was believed to be written? It is said to have been written in the later years of the 8th century B.C. Have we learned a thing?

As I said, it seems politics, culture, society and even church is all ruled from the court of opinion. There is a crass saying about opinions and I won’t repeat it here, but let it suffice to say that everyone seems to have one and they often stink.

If we stopped doing this the entire cable news business would go under and most of the internet with it. *sigh*

What if we were really listening to God? I am speaking to myself as much as I am to anyone else…  How can I be free from malicious speech this Lent? How can I share my bread with the hungry? How can I be transformed?

A quick hop down to the Gospel of Luke for Saturday leaves me equally stunned and I copy here in its entirety:

Jesus saw a tax collector named Levi sitting at the customs post.
He said to him, “Follow me.”
And leaving everything behind, he got up and followed him.
Then Levi gave a great banquet for him in his house,
and a large crowd of tax collectors
and others were at table with them.
The Pharisees and their scribes complained to his disciples, saying,
“Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Jesus said to them in reply,
“Those who are healthy do not need a physician, but the sick do.
I have not come to call the righteous to repentance but sinners.”

Who does Jesus ask to follow him? Haven’t we heard this a zillion times already? Yes – a tax collector. If you are a political conservative then you should think of someone who works for Acorn. If you are a political liberal you should think of someone who works for Black Water.

Whoever you think is the least deserving and the most outcast is who the Gospel compels you to reconsider.

Can you do that? I don’t know if I can. I want to try, it feels so hard. Especially when I realize that the outcast is me and all Jesus asks of me is to follow.

Why am I so slow to do so?

Lent Approaches – Rolling Away the Stone

Lent begins on Wednesday – I have already posted about this once and talked about approaches to Lenten practices.

Today I was in a phone conversation with someone who was struggling about what to “do” for Lent. That in an of itself is a conversation about “doing,” “being” and “becoming.” That is a conversation for another day it seems.

When we were speaking I was struck with the thought that we journey towards Easter at Lent. And at Easter we are called to a tomb in which the stone has been rolled away and we learn that Jesus has Risen.

So perhaps to enter into Lent we need to consider just what it will take to get that stone rolled away when the time comes?

It is just a thought… what do you think? And please share what your Lenten practices be, if you are willing.

(Speaking of willingness, would you consider writing a reflection for our Lenten pages that will start on Wednesday? Please read here for more information!)

Lenten Practice and The Forgiveness Project

Lent is coming and I have been thinking about what my Lenten practice will be. I don’t like to simply think of what I will “give up.” A long time ago I had a spiritual director who urged me to think outside the “give up box.” When I returned to church it was a little hard to take that part of Lent seriously… his advice has gone a long way, reframed in the context of true metanoia and transformation.

Today on Facebook, I posted that I might want to consider the unresolved business of my life for Lent. Relationships that are paralyzed – maybe they won’t be saved, but they should be resolved. There are things, pretty major ones, that I have just not faced or dealt with head on, that need something. And of course, the secrets. The secrets are bad because they lead directly to lies. God, I hate saying that.

Ruminating on this today has lead me to think about forgiveness. As a culture and a society, we tend to oversimply and complicate forgiveness simultaneously. We either see things as non-negotiable unforgiveables or we do it in a way that does not walk through the valley of reconciliation death. That death walk generally needs to happen.

And forgiveness has as much to do with our ability to forgive ourselves as it does to forgive another.

In any event, I am reminded of some times, few as they are, when real transformational forgiveness happened in my life. I will write about that soon.

In the meantime, I would like to direct your attention to The Forgiveness Project. If you are not familiar with it, I would suggest that you have a look around. It is pretty profound – it is to me at any rate. I link to the page about Bud Welch; his daughter was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing and his story has always moved me.

What do you think about forgiveness?

Lenten Reflections 2010 – Please Pray With Us

In 2007 we began a tradition at St. Edwards when Father Pat suggested that we ask members of our community to offer reflections based on daily scripture for the Advent/Christmas season and again during Lent and Easter. Well, Lent is upon us and we are beginning again!

We were graced to have many parishioners step forth and offer their insights for this project, which was featured on our parish website. You can have a look at the archives here on the parish website. Click the bulletin tab on the left, you will find the Reflections are archived there.

Many people think that they cannot write, but this is not about literary talent, but about sharing our faith with one another, so please give your prayerful thought to participating. 

This year we are shifting publication from our parish website to the blog and we hope you will join us in prayer and by sending in your own reflection.

To participate all you need to do is look at the readings for any day between during Lent and then the Easter season, which ends at Pentecost. You can access at the US Catholic Bishops website or by using your own missal or other approved source.

Once you choose a day, please send your choice to me at via email. I will let you know if that date is available and ask you to send me the reflection within 24 hours of its publication date. If you have links or visuals that you would like included, that can be done easily; if not I will add artwork of my own choosing to each post.

Note: if the date you select already taken, I will let you know asap via email.  If you want to do more than one day that is fine.

Please consider writing a few words and sharing them with us. Not a part of our parish? No problem – all appropriate content will be posted if you wish to pray and walk with us online this Lent.

Thank you and God Bless!