Hometown Boy

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A Sleep of Prisoners, Christopher Fry, Jesus, Joseph, Jr., justice, Luke, Martin Luther King, Mohandas Gandhi, Nazareth, prophet, speaking the truth, upstart Spring

In today’s gospel, Luke lets us know that telling the truth is sometimes dangerous. (LK 4:16-30). Jesus comes to Nazareth, where he grew up, and all is well – even amazing – as he stands up in the synagogue and reads (eloquently, it seems) from the prophet Isaiah, proclaiming that the message he read was being fulfilled as he spoke. The local folks wonder how he became so erudite – or so wise – since his father was Joseph (the inference being: a local guy, simple like themselves.) All was fine until Jesus started talking about past failures of Israel to be attentive to the prophets, such that God’s favor fell on foreigners instead. He had predicted their reaction by saying, “A prophet is never accepted in his own native place,” and was proven true as they ran him out of town and were ready to kill him in their fury – but it was not his time and he escaped.

There have been many people in our lifetime who have been vilified for speaking the truth, calling attention to societal conditions that are unjust or immoral. It’s easy to point to famous examples like Mohandas Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Jr. Today, however, I’m thinking of local people of conscience who work tirelessly for justice and are often ignored or disparaged for upsetting the status quo. It seems now that there is so much that needs fixing in our world that we can no longer turn a blind eye but must all be willing to speak up for change. And I believe there is hope in this era of mass communication where we have access to so many resources and so many spiritual people calling for transformation. I’m reminded of the epilogue from A Sleep of Prisoners, a play by Christopher Fry, that speaks of this urgency today and I write it as a spoken message to be read aloud because I think it is in the speaking that the urgency can best be felt.

The human heart can go to the lengths of God. Dark and cold we may be, but this is no winter now. The frozen misery of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move. The thunder is the thunder of the floes, the thaw, the upstart Spring. Thank God our time is now, when wrong comes up, to face us everywhere, never to leave us until we take the longest stride of soul [men] ever took. Affairs are now soul size. The enterprise is exploration into God. What are you making for? It takes so many thousand years to wake. But will you wake for pity’s sake?

Do You Hear What I Hear?

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do, doers, laziness, procrastination, putting off until tomorrow, school, The Letter of James, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning as I wake up to a new week I am flooded with the realization of the end of summer – both by the calendar and a tiny chill in the air. There is an innate “mental motor” that is already buzzing, as if I know there is only a week now until school starts and that I need to be ready…a rather interesting feeling since even graduate school ended for me 37 years ago! Whether or not we have anything to do with school, however, the academic schedule rules most of life in this country. For many groups and institutions summer is a time when it is futile to hold meetings because there are always some people on vacation and even if no one is traveling, serious business seems taboo. As I sit here wondering how September can possibly be only 48 hours away, I am also hearing the list of tasks that face me in the coming week…

The Letter of James (1:17-27) gives me a clue this morning about how to face the coming day, week and season in a responsible manner that will not allow laziness or procrastination. It is an interesting turn of phrase for someone like me who does a fair amount of thinking and writing. James says, “Humbly welcome the word that has been planted in you.” Okay so far; I’m always glad to have something to say, often knowing that the impetus for the message is truly beyond me. But then comes the September line: “Be doers of the word and not hearers only,” he says. No more time for putting off until tomorrow. The first day of school was always exciting for me, pregnant with all sorts of possibility. That same feeling has begun to take shape inside as I face this new season in the school year of life. What new creation is being birthed? I wonder! The only way to find out begins now. I’m off to find out, and I’m all ears for what to do!

The Passion of the Prophet

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courage, Herod, Jesus, Mark, mirror, no greater prophet ever lived, Passion, speak truth to power, St. John the Baptist, suffering, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today my Church calendar is titled “Memorial of the Passion of St. John the Baptist.” I believe the word passion here is used in two ways – primarily because John was innocent of any crime but prefigured the passion of Jesus by his suffering and death at the hands of his enemies. John was thrown in prison and subsequently beheaded for his willingness to speak truth to power, specifically in telling Herod it was unlawful for him to have his brother’s wife, Herodias (who then was the agent of his death in a scheme that Herod was too weak to resist – MK 6:17-29). Clearly John’s death was consistent with his life. He bursts onto the scene early in the gospels, coming from the desert clothed in animal skins and feeding on locusts and wild honey. His whole purpose, his passion, was to proclaim Jesus as “the one sent from God.” Jesus recognized him by saying that no greater prophet ever lived; he earned that title by being totally authentic in his entire life.

We also read in Scripture that a prophet is not generally accepted in his native place. The world still persecuting those who arise to call us to a more honest and truthful life. Our prophets are those who hold up a mirror, showing us what needs to be converted in society, and sometimes we fail to listen because transformation seems too difficult (“What can one person do?”) or we are too comfortable or too busy to be concerned. Today is a day to think about our willingness to change and not to dismiss the voices we hear calling us to more responsibility in our living. My question to myself is about the level of my passion for justice and my compassion for those who are suffering in my world. What am I called to do or be for them? What will it cost me? Where is my courage for speaking the truth?

Passion for God

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breathing in God, called, Confessions, deafness, God is within me, hunger, passion for God, Peace, St. Augustine, St. Monica, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, thirst

Having considered yesterday the life of St. Monica, today we meet her son. “Whether acclaimed or condemned in our day for what can be seen as his ‘fundamental rigorism’ against the decadence of his own time” (http://www.americancatholic.org), Augustine’s passion for God cannot be denied. In perhaps his most famous writing, Confessions, his address to God is unsurpassed in depth of feeling and worthy of our reflection today.

Late have I loved You, O Beauty so ancient yet ever new! Late have I loved You. You were within me and I outside…You were with me but I was not with You. Things held me far from You – things which, if they were not in You, were not at all…You called and shouted and burst my deafness. You breathed and I drew in breath – now I pant for You. I tasted and now I hunger and thirst for You. You touched me and now I burn for Your peace.

Motherly Perseverance

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balance, children, Christian love, fidelity, mothers, St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Monica, the gift of life, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Anyone who knows even a little about St. Augustine of Hippo is also most likely aware of his mother, St. Monica. Her sainthood is due to her fidelity to Christian love, as she was given in marriage to a domineering husband, a cantankerous mother-in-law and her son, all of whom were the subjects of her constant prayer. Augustine, her eldest child, led a life of debauchery until he was nearly thirty years old. At first, she would not allow Augustine to eat or sleep in the family home but after a vision in which she was told that he would return to the faith, Monica stayed close to him – even following him to Rome and to Milan in his attempts to escape her surveillance. If one can speak of “success” in such matters, Monica certainly achieved it. Augustine became a bishop and one of the most noted theologians of the early Church.

Mothers shepherd their children to adulthood in various ways great and small – worrying, praising and correcting, giving advice (welcomed or not), and, perhaps for many, praying constantly for them and placing them in God’s hands as they, themselves, prepare to leave the earth. Some of us are lucky enough to have been graced with mothers who knew the balance of all the above behaviors. Other mothers need to be forgiven for holding their children too tightly or not close enough. On this feast of St. Monica, let us give thanks for the greatest gift our mothers have given to us: the gift of life, opening to all that it can mean for our growth each day.

Omnipresence

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God is always with me, God is everywhere, God is within me, omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, psalm 139, psalm 19, psalm 8, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Your hand shall guide me

As I recently mentioned, Psalm 139 is one of my top three favorite psalms (with #8 and 19). This morning it got me to musing how my image of all those qualities of God that I learned in elementary school – like omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent – have shifted for me as I have grown older. It’s not that their meanings have changed; God is still everywhere, for example, but as my image of God has changed, the effect of these words has become radically different for me. Growing up, we were taught that God is everywhere, able to see everything we do. Had I been reading the psalms in those days, I might have been in a state of high anxiety to hear the psalmist say, “If I go up to the heavens you are there; if I sink to the nether world you are present there” if I felt that I had not measured up in my behavior. I can imagine trying to find a closet or a dark corner in the barn at the end of our street in which to hide in an effort to avoid God’s disappointment in me. Believing now that God is always and everywhere with me, not to mention within me, rejoicing in our relationship, never causes me to want to hide. Fidelity on both our parts allows me to look in the mirror of God’s presence even on my worst days and find comfort there because I trust that God loves me as I am and wants me to move always toward loving myself that way as well.

Today, then, I offer the reassurance contained in some of the early lines of Psalm 139 as sustenance for the day. Rain or shine, dark or light, success or failure, God will be there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I settle at the farthest limits of the sea, even there Your hand shall guide me and your right hand hold me fast…

Sincere Speech

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integrity, Jesus, Matthew, Paul, Peace, Philippians, psalm 139, recognizing the important, the Reign of God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thessalonians, truth, uninformed judgments, white lies

Everything in the readings this morning could be characterized as reflection on the adage, “Say what you mean and mean what you say.” Paul is speaking to the Thessalonians (1THES 2:1-8) about the suffering he and others endured at the hands of the Philippians who thought they were delusional or duplicitous in their teaching. In summary, he says, “We speak, not trying to please people but rather God, who judges hearts.” The Psalmist joins in, saying to God (PS 139:1-6), “You understand my thoughts from afar…even before a word is on my tongue, you know the whole of it…” The gospel acclamation is clear: “The word of God is living and effective, able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.” None of this, however, can compare with the words of Jesus in Matthew (23:26)  which are so stark as to be almost comical. He calls the Pharisees (obviously in a loud and displeased voice) “Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!“

Each of these readings is about recognizing the important things in life and telling the truth, not so that we will be seen as more than we are or to judge others as less in order to get ahead, but so that all can come to know the Reign of God and live in integrity and peace together. Sometimes it’s easy to spot duplicity (as in the difference between a camel and a gnat) but sometimes – even in hearing ourselves talk – we need to be attentive to catch the white lies or quick, uninformed judgments. Today seems a good time to stay awake for that purpose.

The Time Is Now

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acepting, blessing, burdened with fear, Divine Light, free, glory, gratitude, heart of my heart, love, Nan Merrill, new dawn, Psalm 145, Psalms for Praying, radical trust, raise up, St. Bartholomew, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wonder

On this feast of St. Bartholomew, one of the twelve apostles, I was drawn to the translation of Psalm 145 written by Nan Merrill in her book Psalms for Praying. While very different from the traditional English translation, I found it a powerful message for today’s disciples. It begins around verse 10.

God Speaks: Divine Light shines in those who live in Love. I shall uphold all who are burdened with fear, and raise up all who call to Me. The time is nigh for you to choose, for great is the new dawn that fast approaches; I call each of you to open your inner ears, to see with spiritual eyes, and to trust that even amidst the outward chaos, all is working toward the wholeness of humanity.

The disciple responds: O Heart of my heart, envelop me! I know You are near to all who call upon You. Bring to my recollection all that I have denied, that I might be accepting and free, to help rebuild the soul of the world with radical trust, love and wonder! When I speak, let it be of blessing and gratitude; let your glory within me shine out to the world!

 

 

To Whom Shall We Go?

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believe, bread of life, difficulty, eternal life, Jesus, John, sweetness and light, the cost fo discipleship, the Holy One of God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, twelve apostles

It is often true that when people begin to wake up to God’s presence in their lives all is “sweetness and light” – as is also the case in human relationships. As we proceed along this path, however, there are times when it seems to be more than we bargained for and feels too difficult to continue. God may be asking too much of us or we feel less able than we thought we were to meet the relational demands. This is the case in this morning’s gospel (JN 6:60-69) after the “Bread of Life” discourse, one of what scholars call the “hard sayings” of Jesus. Many people returned to their former way of life after that, no longer following Jesus.

The end of this section of the gospel always speaks to me on an emotional level as well as intellectually. Jesus asks his twelve closest followers, “Do you also want to leave?” Jesus, being fully human, must have been feeling defeated by the loss of those who had misunderstood him or comprehended that they were being called to more than they thought. He was being true to his mission and needed to be honest about the cost of discipleship. The answer of the Twelve always urges me to answer similarly. They reassure him by saying, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

Wisdom Seekers

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Book of Hours, God speaks to each of us, life, limits, longing, Rainer Maria Rilke, retreat, seriousness, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Wisdom tradition fo Christianity

Today we are blessed by the presence of a group of people here at our center/home who have come to experience in a weekend a taste of what we have to offer of the Wisdom tradition of Christianity. I go in a few minutes to morning prayer at 7:00am where in silence we seek the God who calls us all. A page from Rilke’s Book of Hours fairly shouts an invitation to this brief encounter that will lead us into a day of exploration of spiritual practice. He writes the following message for us, I think, for today.

God speaks to each of us as he makes us, then walks with us silently out of the night. These are the words we dimly hear: “You, sent out beyond your recall, go to the limits of your longing. Embody me. Flare up like flame and make big shadows I can move in. Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final. Don’t let yourself lose me. Nearby is the country they call life. You will know it by its seriousness. Give me your hand.”