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.)

Walking with Jesus

I have seen images from The Journeys Project over at Deacon Greg’s and they are very haunting, thought provoking.

The image at the top of this page particularly struck me – Jesus walking with a Nazi, carrying his gun. It is called The Second Mile.

It makes me pretty uncomfortable, really uncomfortable. Then I try to look more deeply, that is hard too.

The word Nazi has been tossed around rather frivolously lately, at least in my opinion. There are many who compare the current presidential administration to Nazi’s. While I firmly believe that there is a lot of work to be done regarding health care reform, I do think that this is extreme.

Very extreme.

Yet the word is oft used in regard to what is called the holocaust of abortion and now with some of the alleged elements of health care reform. Abortion is a holocaust… however, I very carefully choose the word alleged in regard to health care reform, because I have yet to find evidence that supports many of the emails that I receive from individuals and groups. And I have looked.

In my day-to-day life, I am considered a “liberal” person. Due to this, I often find myself in various situations in which people presume what I might believe. Some think that because I am a so-called liberal that I must be “pro-abortion.” Others, usually other “liberals” think that I am some kind of Catholic cool kid because I can’t really support the pro-life community in the Catholic church, at least as they perceive it.

Both groups are wrong.

My views regarding abortion, other than I do believe it is very, very wrong, are not what we are discussing on this church blog. If you want to discuss that with me, you can get in touch with me via email.

What I do want to bring to the fore is this image… Jesus walking down the road with a Nazi, talking and carrying his belongings for him. What powerful imagery!

Jesus, always open to conversation which might lead to conversion, is speaking with someone most of us would consider the height of evil. Furthermore, Jesus then bears the load of this man, so that he can walk unencumbered.

This is nothing less than remarkable.

So if the abortion providers are Nazis, if the health care reformers are Nazis, if the tea bag people are Nazis, if President Obama himself is a Nazi… then would Jesus reject any one of these lost sheep?

I think not.

I was once a pretty lost sheep myself with all kinds of crazy beliefs. However, I was also a curious sheep and I found my way back to the sheepfold. It has not always been easy, but slowly, surely – through grace, love, community, exploration, faith and risk, I have come around.

If Jesus in various forms of all those who have touched my life, walked down the road with me, a real apostate at times and still a bit sketchy even now by some standards, why would he not walk down the road with others?

He didn’t say, leave your belongings (beliefs, ideas, thoughts, feelings) behind. He actually took them off my back and walked with me. We talked, walked, talked, walked some more. Eventually things began to change. Slowly – oh so very slowly. He stayed with me and I began to change. Conversion. Metanoia. Really deep and transformational change. And it continues, thanks be to God.

God knows – Jesus has been so very patient with me, filled with mercy and compassion and so much patience. My eyes tear up even just thinking about this… I am grateful beyond words. Jesus is also very clear with me. This is why I continue to respond to His call.

It makes me look at the terrible tenor of so-called discourse in our country and I am feeling some genuine fear. Fear of how things might not change if we can’t get off of shouting and name-calling from all sides. Fear of how hearts and minds are hardened because some of us might sound more like Nazis rather than Christians. Fear of how we might reject others because they seem a certain way to us.

No, Jesus in my experience has never sounded like a Nazi or any other kind of dictatorial figure.

Oh Jesus is very clear about what we must do… We heard it this past Sunday… “Take up your Cross and follow me.”

That is clear, but I don’t think we are rejected if we don’t pick it up immediately because we are foolish and recalcitrant sheep without a clue. All of us.

I walk and I walk and I walk, thinking of all that I have become because he took my burdens, he took my sins and he walked with me for so long, walking with me still.

If Jesus can walk with the Nazi, converse with the Samaritan woman, heal the Syro-Phoenician woman, pick, heal on the Sabbath, eat with Zaccheus, consort with all the worst people of his time, I know I am in good company.

He came to us. We really might want to consider talking a walk with him, a very long walk, free from name calling and open to change.

Holy Week 2009 – Wednesday (with update)

I had some very lofty plans for Holy Week posting. And as is often the case (pardon my turn of phrase here!), Fran proposes, God disposes.

What I have been working on for today, Wednesday has just not worked. And since we are in a time that truly reminds us of just whose will is to be done, I surrender.

In my frustration I stopped writing and re-writing and decided to go read some other Catholic blogs. One of my first stops was a favorite, A Concord Pastor Comments. If you do not know Father Austin I suggest you go meet him over there. He appears to be a true pastor and has wisdom and grace, at least in his “blog pulpit.” Since I know someone who knows him (ah the small world of blogging) I have been told that this is true in real life.

His post for today is called Spy Wednesday. I urge you to read it; it is really good. That said, I am going to offer my reflections on Father Austin’s reflections.

Father Austin says this:

Here’s a contemporary setting of the Agnus Dei by Rufus Wainwright. This is not for every taste. What strikes me about it is the musical connection between the depths of our betrayal and sinfulness and the mercy of God: that God’s mercy meets us in our sinfulness for that is where we need the Lord.

The emphasis is my own. “God’s mercy meets us in our sinfulness for that is where we need the Lord.”

Like someone cleaning the house so that the housekeeper can come to clean, “getting good” for God is something that I have done and still do. Maybe you do the same thing? In any case, it is a pointless exercise. Let the housekeeper clean. Let God be God.

As our own Father Pat often reminds us, the key issue of course is that all this “soul scrubbing” (my term, I read it somewhere recently and it has stuck with me) puts the emphasis on us and not on God.

Let God be God. Period.

So what does that have to do with Jesus, Judas and Holy Week? (*UPDATE* Here is a great link from the Commonweal blog regarding today’s readings and Judas. Click here to read J. Peter Nixon’s post.)

Judas made a decision that he was going to engineer his own situation and with that, he used his sinfulness to turn away from God. He put gain and betrayal before all. And not just any gain or betrayal, but in relation to Jesus, to God.

Through this and through so much more, we are reminded of God’s great mercy and love, we are reminded of our complete dependence on a salvific love that transforms us, if we but let it do so. That is true metanoia, that complete turn of transformational change and not just an adjustment. It would seem that metanoia only happens in this place of complete surrender to God’s mercy.

Father Austin included this piece of music, referred to above, which I found hard to listen to and yet very moving. I hope you will consider its dissonant cries as we approach the Triduum.

http://media.imeem.com/m/KZmrpLx83L/aus=false/

Agnus Dei – Rufus Wainwright

Lenten Thoughts As Palm Sunday Approaches

Lent proceeds, here we are almost to Palm Sunday. How has your Lenten journey been? This has been an interesting Lent for me in ways both encouraging and challenging. Which I suspect means it has been what Lent is meant to be.

The Catholic blogosphere is on fire with all manner of things and this has been a challenge for me. As someone who likes to exchange and share thoughts and opinions, blogging can be a great platform. However, it is not always great. Of late, I have gotten into several angry exchanges and my faith has been repeatedly called into question.

*Deep sigh*

At the same time I am reading a book for Lent entitled Lent and Easter Wisdom from Thomas Merton. It is structured to be read day by day and I have found this book to be an excellent support for my Lenten journey.

On Tuesday and Wednesday I read the words for those days that really struck me profoundly.

Tuesdays entry for the 35th day of Lent was entitled No Man Is An Island and I quote from it here:

“If building a community of pardon that is the temple of God, we have to recognize that no one of us is complete, self-sufficient, perfectly holy in himself.” He goes on to add that we “…must always remain open to one another so that we can always share with each other.”

Easier said than done in my own experience. How do we do this? I think about my exchanges on some of the blogs and I feel a bit self-righteous because I’d like to think I am being open, but am I?

It does cause me to think that my own obsession with the self-righteousness of others and my own tendency to self-satisfaction about my “open mind and heart” might be cautionary for me. Time to let God and let God work. What do others have that God is wanting me to learn?

Then on Wednesday the entry called “A Love Without Walls” revealed this and I think I got part of my answer:

“If a person has to be pleasing to me, comforting, reassuring,
before I love him, then I cannot truly love him.”

Time to pay attention… How easy it can be to dismiss the “other,” anyone who does not agree with us. Just who “us” is shifts however, it does for me if I am honest about it.

One Lenten thought that comes to me over and over and over is this one – we do not need to “get cleaned up” and only then come to Jesus. No, we must (to refer to the prior post about meeting Jesus.) continue to meet Jesus over and over again. Meeting Jesus can’t happen on our terms… only His.

That is the only way to transformation, true change, metanoia. To rephrase that, Jesus is The Way.

I am simply exhausted by condemnation and praise, from pushing people away from the table as well as pulling other people closer through classifications and labels. Which must include the “labels” that appeal to me. This brings me to other words from Merton:

“I love his label which confirms me in my attachment to my own label.”

There is no label for Jesus. A label identifies, Jesus needs no label – Jesus simply is. The only suitable label for us then would be “follower of Jesus.” And that means that we must follow Him together, despite our own need to push others away.

All this reminds me that the Journey to Jerusalem is never an easy one and it is impossible to avoid.

And it is a journey that we can only take together. The companions may be more challenging than the path itself… that is the challenge.

The Journey to Jerusalem- Personal Choice and Metanoia

The Old City of Jerusalem as seen from Dominus Flevit on the Mount of Olives. Photo taken by me June, 2006.

Once again a post comes from a great source of inspiration on the net – Inward/Outward.

Proclaiming Love by Donald Spoto

Conversion is a response to God, who invites us to a state of complete freedom, away from everything that is hostile to God’s goodness and mercy. The call one hears is not primarily or simply an encouragement to amend one’s life or to follow a particular religious path. The call Jesus extended to his disciples … was a summons to acknowledge God’s unconditional love of us as individuals; and it was an invitation to proclaim that love to the world by acts of caring, forgiveness and compassion for others, by refusing to demand one’s prerogatives at the expense of others and by rejecting vengeance and reprisal. The New Testament summarizes the entire mission and message of Jesus in one calm phrase that is deeply moving in its secular simplicity: “He went about doing good.”

Source: Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi

We live in a very individualized society and culture. Our personal rights such as “I have the right to a gun!” compete with “I have the right to control my own body!” We can’t completely separate these things if we are to be authentic.

Life takes precedent always… So one thing may bear much, much more weight than the other and must take precedent, to compartmentalize these things and others diminishes our great tradition. In cases like these we must dive deeply into our faith and our Catholic moral theology to seek wisdom and the appropriate responses. We must ask God for wisdom. We must be willing to listen to God’s wisdom. It is a challenge – especially when we want to preserve the things that are important to us as individuals.

Change at the government level is essential, it is vital – but it is not the single solution. If we can’t see how our own hearts must change also, we may be lost. If we do change then we must share that change generously. We must share it with courage, wisdom and compassion – in imitation of Jesus himself.

I don’t know about you, but my heart does not always want to change. Diving deeper requires me to look at all the things I do not want to look at and change things I don’t want to change… but I know I must do just that. Faith is demanding and a constant process, organic and alive.

As a result, we must consider that simply demanding our own prerogatives – however noble, leads to a clear path of descent.

Now if we turn to Jesus Christ, first and foremost we will find the answers. The problem is – we may have to let go of the personal perogatives that we prefer to tightly hold on to. Keeping the focus on Christ is the hardest part – it is for me anyway and even if it is what I want! To follow Jesus does not allow for keeping eyes my fixed on Him but then packing my bag with personal items for the trip. This hard lesson is one I struggle with daily.

Are we are willing to risk that journey? After all, it may lead us straight to Jerusalem and all that awaits us there.

That journey is conversion or true metanoia… An on-going process, journey and relationship, leading us ever deeper into the heart of God.

Lent 2009 – Metanoia

(Today’s offering is a re-worked version of something that was published here last year. The sentiments remain the same although the piece needed an update.)

We must make the choices that enable us to fulfill the deepest capacities of our real selves. -Thomas Merton

Choices lead us to change. And if Lent is about anything it is about a time of change or metanoia. This is a theme that we will be exploring through the Lenten season here on our parish blog. You are all welcome to contribute your own thoughts and writings here, as well as share your thoughts on Scripture on our Lenten Reflections page.

What is metanoia you may ask? Metanoia as a way of change is not simply saying I want to do this instead of that… No, metanoia is much more than that. It is change that is deep, change that is transformational. Metanoia is a form of repentance.

Metanoia is authentic conversion.

It is the nature of our human condition that one way in which we focus on change, transformation and repentance- especially during Lent – by turning from sin. Now that is a good thing, but sometimes we get caught up in what Richard Rohr, OFM refers to as “sin management”, which is another story altogether.

We have heard Jesus using similar language to John in the Gospel. “Repent, for the kindgom of heaven is near.”

I find this interesting because I myself, as well as many others tend to see this more literally. Recently I read something – sadly I can’t find the link right now – that made me do a double-take. Whereas John is calling for people to repent and confess their sins, Jesus when he comes along tends to shift the focus.

Jesus alters the approach by not focusing on exactly what the sin was. Jesus focuses on sin as a barrier to relationship, barrier to community and barrier to change. Jesus is very clearly saying that no matter what you did, you can turn to God now and change. Real change. Deep change. Transformational change. Repentance change. Break-your-heart-wide-open-change. Metanoia change.

He doesn’t want to exclude those who have sinned – we have all sinned. He does not want to shame those who have sinned. He wants to call us closer and bring us farther. This is a message of real mercy and compassion for one and all.

And that is much more of an invitation to come to God, not the use of fear to bring us in closer.

The “sin management” referred to earlier is a more linear and perhaps more superficial approach. That approach becomes a “if this- then that” mathematical equation and that is a transaction and not a transformation.

It also has the potential to be easier… seriously. “I did this so now I will do that” is much more efficient than looking or listening very deeply to our hearts. When we do go to the deep place, we are more likely to be confronted by the reality of who we are… and the reality of who we long to be.

It is to be the real and authentic selves that God created us to be, the authentic selves that God has tenderly loved us into being… each with a unique role and with a unique mission. If we answer the invitation, that is.

While I can write about this, I am not sure that I have a clue about how to do this. However, this Lent and always, I try over and over and over again.

God’s invitation to come to Him, to true change, to metanoia is always here and Lent is a time to surrender to that call.

Happy Faults and Dirty Feet – Easter in July

Like storm clouds on a hot summer day, some thoughts came rolling through my head today.

One was the term “Felix culpa,” Latin for “happy fault,” or as it is sung in the Exultet at the Easter Vigil, “o happy fault, o necessary sin.”

This just got me thinking about how most of us have a challenge in meeting our sin head on. As a result, we do a lot of weeding at the surface and not from the root. This got me to thinking that we might end up with a bit more transformation or metanoia if we looked at our sin with more loving eyes.

Kind of like Jesus might look at us in our sin… be healed, go and sin no more. We don’t have to look at our sin as joy, but if we approach it as “happy fault, necessary sin” as a pathway to salvation, things might be different.

It wasn’t like Jesus went looking for all the “perfect” and “healed” people after all.

So what about the dirty feet? Well I am on an Easter in July roll here, so let me keep going.

Missy, from the blog, St. Anne, Pray For Us mentioned that I once wrote of washing the feet of someone I do not like. I had forgotten I had said this, but I guess I did.

This got me to thinking about people in politics that I do not like and I began to wonder if I could wash their feet.

Could I?

That is a good question. I don’t know. I feel like I “should” be able to, but I honestly do not know.

Could I let someone I don’t like wash my feet? It was hard enough to let Deacon Gene wash my feet on Holy Thursday and I like him!

As I looked at the post from Holy Thursday that I referenced above, I see the words of Jean Vanier, which bear repeating. (Read more about Jean Vanier here.)

We have difficulty recognizing this kingdom of God because it is so small and hidden, like treasure hidden in a field. We human beings are so attracted by power and glory that frequently we do not see it, or want to see it. In order to show the radical newness of life in his kingdom, Jesus washes the feet of his disciples. This shocks and scandalizes them…. But it’s as if Jesus is trying to say: ‘Yes, this is the way to love in my kingdom.’ That is why to have one’s feet washed by Jesus is not something optional, but a vital, necessary part of discipleship. It means entering into a whole new world. -Jean Vanier, The Scandal of Service: Jesus Washes Our Feet

I guess it is a scandal to see our sin as happy or necessary just as much as it is to have our feet washed by the Lord.

And somewhere in the deep discomfort of confronting my own felix culpa and the deep discomfort of foot washing in either direction, I have a lot to ponder on this July day.

Opening Clenched Jaws, Softening Hard Hearts and Transformation at Jesus’ Table

Once again I am drawn to the words of Richard Rohr, OFM as I write this blog post… You can click into it or not, I present his words here for you.

Unity
Question of the day:
How does table fellowship create unity?

Shared life is a way of being present to another person so that another person can be present to you. It’s a quality of being, of living. A sharing attitude makes room inside of you so that others can crawl in and you can crawl out into them. You become touched and touchable, supporting and supportable.

There’s life moving in and life moving out. I could summarize Jesus’ most radical teaching as a call to “universal table fellowship” (see with whom he eats, whom he invites to the banquet, and then you will know why they killed him!).
-Richard Rohr, OFM

It is election season, as we are all painfully aware. I am praying that this is a time for us to see each other with new eyes as we all meet at The Table. As I have written about several times of late, disagreement can be an invitation or an obstruction. That choice is always ours to make.

I pray for invitations – both given and received. Without a doubt, the invitations that I have both given and received have been repaid with great bounty and for that I am grateful.

Yesterday I read a spectacular line about communion that has not left my heart – “In fact, one of the things I’ve always found beautiful about the sacrament of the bread is the way one has to stop talking in order to communicate.” – Garret Keizer

Which brings be back again to election season and something that happens at this time of year… The denial of communion.

I am not going to get into a big political conversation here, that is not my point.

All I can say is this – when I returned to the church in 1990, after having left in 1971 I returned with some trepidation. For good or ill, I did not just drop all of my ideas and beliefs at the door on that first day I returned to Mass.

What I did do was to open my mouth to eat and when I opened my mouth, I also opened my heart. So often our anger or our intransigence is represented by a clenched jaw.

One cannot be open to the table of the Lord with a truly clenched jaw. How will you receive Him if you don’t soften your jaw and open your mouth? And in that act of softening and opening is an act of willingness instead of willfulness.

It was my near daily communion at that time that helped my heart soften, open and ultimately transform. It still does – the softening and opening are a daily journey for me.

Yes – I went to confession and yes – I went to spiritual direction at that time. And I struggled, but I did so having to soften my clenched jaw once a day. And that is where I can transformation – or metanoia, took root in my life. Thank God!

So what then is my point?

I do worry and pray about the denial of communion and its application. What exactly is denied when someone is turned away from the table? It is easy on one hand to say that someone has defied church teaching and therefore God, but doesn’t that invite some reflection? It does for me. Ultimately I will bow to authority, but there was recently a case where a priest took it upon himself to deny someone communion and that upset me. It was even more shocking to see that the denied communicant was a prominent conservative Catholic lawyer and law professor, very active in pro-life affairs. (The priest was subsequently admonished by Cardinal Mahony. This is different than other related issues at that level.)

Let me put it this way… Recently, Father Butler was just speaking about the Eucharistic moment in the Gospel of John. Unlike the synoptic gospels (from Greek, συν, syn, together, and όψις, opsis, seeing), John frames the Last Supper in a different way.

Where is the Eucharistic moment in John’s Gospel? When in verse 26 of Chapter 13, the morsel dipped in the dish is given to Judas by Jesus. Given to Judas.

Knowing full well who will betray him, Jesus does not deny Judas the morsel, but feeds him. It is astounding! What Judas chooses to do with that – well that is our free will and that is our clenched jaw at work I believe.

Jesus does not deny, but Jesus feeds. He fed and He asks us all – feed my sheep! I simply say that it may seem easy to send someone away from the table and that I do not recall Jesus doing that himself.

And I can only reflect on how I myself was transformed and continue to be transformed, by the daily act of sharing bread. I thank God for the chance to know Him ever more through knowing you, as we proceed in “common union” together.

Open, soften, transform. Repeat daily. Such is our Catholic Christian life.

We Leave Easter – We Approach Pentecost

This is always a very favorite time of year for me, liturgically speaking. Easter joy and alleluias have filled our hearts after our Lenten journey.

It is very easy to get to Easter and to move on. However- we are still deep in our Easter season, with so much going on around us. Our Lent focused our thoughts and prayers on the deep transformation of metanoia. Now we can have been transformed and new life is here in abundance!

Have you noticed a change at St. Edward’s? Many people have felt this of late… there is a real movement afoot, the presence of the Holy Spirit is all around us.

Our parish is seemingly bursting with new life this spring. One change that I am delighted to report is that the blog will have a new feature beginning next Thursday, April 17. On that day we will debut a new feature, Grace Moments.

Grace Moments are those times when something happens that just lets you know that God is there. Maybe it was a day in your life when you were at your lowest point and had given up and then an “angel” of sort shows up in your life and things turn around.

These posts will be written and/or edited by Dolores Martin. Dolores is a long-time parishioner of St. Edward’s. She has many “Grace Moments” of her own to share, but we are asking you to contribute yours as well.

Email Dolores at dolomar@nycap.rr.com if you have a story that you would like to share with us. If you know someone who might want to contribute who does not have a computer, there is a table in the gathering space with forms and a box to put your stories into.

We welcome Dolores to the blog and continue to seek other writers. If you have something you would like to share, please contact me at stedwardsblog@gmail.com. It can be a one-time-only submission or on-going writing – see if the spirit moves you to either one.

We also have our Scriptural Reflections available for your writing or your reading. The Easter season goes until Pentecost, so if you are interested, visit our parish website and click on the Reflections button.

On Tuesday night there was a social committee meeting in the Chapel and it was a huge success. There were so many people there; people brand new to the parish, people who have been here for awhile, people who have so many great ideas and thoughts that we might pursue.

We have such a large parish and it is easy to get “lost in the crowd.” We are trying to add social events in which we can create community as we seek the Lord and serve the Lord in one another.

If you could not make the meeting, let me know and we still have plenty of room for volunteers and any new ideas. I will direct anyone who is interested to the appropriate party.

One other thing that I am moved to mention is our Small Faith Sharing groups. These are – as the name indicates – small groups who pray together weekly. There is a book and loose format that we use.

I visited one – really just to be “polite” as I was new here and the woman running the group had been kind to me…. Well not only did I begin to attend weekly, but I now view these women as great friends and really part of a base community for me.

If you have any interest in joining or starting a group, let me know and I will get you to the right person. It is an experience that I cannot recommend highly enough!

As we leave Easter and approach Pentecost, let us pray for the continued guidance of the Holy Spirit who will come to enlighten us, enrich us and to help us grow in faith and love together!

Resurrection

On Monday Father Butler’s homily was about how we as Catholics (and just as human beings) are so good at working to get ready “for” something and then when it happens… Well, not so much.

It is easy to get into – well, maybe easy is not exactly the word I am looking for, but we can get into our Lent and then when Easter comes… Well, not so much.

Not that we are not joyful or rejoicing, but Easter is not just a moment in time; it is what we are about, it is who we truly are- Christ Risen. And that is a little trickier to get our arms around.

While I would not necessarily use these words in my life, they do make sense; it becomes a “whew, made it through Lent, He is Risen, Alleluia. Where is the chocolate?” moment at times.

When in reality, now we are in it – we are now fully in it. He is indeed risen and we must pay attention. I try to but… Well, not so much.

So after all the intensity and focus of the Lenten and Metanoia posts, it was a little hard to focus on what to write about this week.

Then this morning I found these words:

The Sap Is Rising

It is surely an exercise of faith for us to see Christ in each other. But it is through such exercise that we grow and the joy of our vocation assures us we are on the right path. Certainly, it is easier to believe now that the sun warms us, and we know that buds will appear on the trees in the wasteland across the street, that life will spring out of the dull clods of that littered park across the way.

There are wars and rumors of war, poverty and plague, hunger and pain. Still, the sap is rising, again there is the resurrection of spring, and God’s continuing promise to us that He is with us always, with His comfort and joy, if we will only ask.
-Dorothy Day

Well that reminded me that I must remain a participant in my own and our collective salvation. God knows I have more grace, signs and wonders around me that should help focus me, but as the saying goes… Not so much.

So today, I will refocus and think about the sap and the spring and the endless alleluias that make us who we are.

And as Dorothy Day reminds me, I will remember to ask.

****Did you notice that music now plays when you open the blog? I am not sure if readers will like this new feature or not. Please let me know via the comments or in an email.****