Emmanuel

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comfort, death, Emmanuel, God is with us, grief, loss, Nativity of Mary, Peace, presence, sympathy, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Later this morning I will attend a memorial service for the son of a woman for whom I have great admiration. His death preceded his 54th birthday by just a few weeks and was quite sudden. The shock was compounded by the death of my friend’s husband just three weeks previous to that of her son. No words of sympathy or attempts to assuage such grief are adequate for one who bears the loss of those she calls the two great loves of her life. All we can offer is presence. And so I go. I suspect that this event will be a lesson in diversity of belief about God and life while also manifesting a depth of unity brought about by relationship and community.

Today is also the feast of the Nativity of Mary, Mother of Jesus, a woman of great love who could never have dreamed of what her life was to hold of joy and pain. We never know but can only hope to live into the happenings of life as we grow and change and accept and endure what comes to us. I take comfort during troubled times as I read and believe lines of the prophecy trusted throughout the Hebrew Scriptures that “the favored one” would “bear a son and call his name Emmanuel, which means God is with us.” May God be with us today and may wives and mothers and all who who endure great losses know peace and comfort in the memories of the love they have given and received.

 

 

 

 

 

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Life and Death

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death, die, divine, failure, foibles, God's embrace, humility, letting go, psalm 49, regret, success, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wealth, willingness

Psalm 49 speaks loudly of the reality that “you can’t take it with you.” No matter our success or wealth, wise people die, the psalm says, “and likewise the senseless and the stupid pass away leaving to others their wealth.”

No matter how I tried to ignore talking about death at the beginning of the day, I kept coming back to it, remembering an often repeated concept of our wisdom work that recommends learning to “die before you die.” What might that mean exactly? For most of us there are events or circumstances in our lives that we would rather forget for our poor handling of the situation or the pain we have caused, but blotting them out without learning the lessons they teach merits us nothing. Owning up to our foibles, expressing our regret, making restitution if necessary and then letting go is a “death to self” that opens up the possibility of a deeper way of living. Not beating ourselves up for mistakes but having the humility to acknowledge that full and true humanity is a skill learned as much through failure as through success seems the only sensible way to live.

If we practice letting go each day of our faults and the perceived failings of others, we will be ready to let go of everything about this human realm to which we have been clinging, be it wealth or prestige or relationship or even the lovely simple things of life. The reward of this willingness, we trust, is a letting go into the divine life that awaits us where we fall effortlessly into God’s embrace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not Knowing, Encore

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anxiety, compassion, death, devastation, distress, Louisiana, Rainer Maria Rilke, sadness, sharing, Texas, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

That place of “not-knowing” that I spoke of yesterday still holds me today as I think of the storm called Harvey that just won’t quit. How do people recover from that kind of devastation – both environmental and human? Even here, at almost the farthest northern point in our country away from those swirling waters and broken lives, I feel viscerally the distress and death. Physical death, the death of dreams, of possessions – all must reside inside any of us who have even seen the images on television and more likely if we know people living in Texas – and today in Louisiana. I have rarely felt the draw of depression on such a scale.

Slogging through the images in my mind I try to focus on the concomitant pictures of and interviews with those who have come with their boats or their bodies, strong enough to contribute to the rescue of so many stranded inhabitants of the flood zones. And then I read a small snatch of something Rilke wrote that seems like a far-fetched thought to bring to the present conversation but is all I have to offer to my sadness.

You mustn’t be frightened, he writes, if a sadness rises in front of you, larger than you have ever seen; if an anxiety, like light and cloud-shadows, moves over your hands and over everything you do. You must realize that something is happening to you, that life has not forgotten you, that it holds you in its hand and will not let you fall.

Perhaps that sadness and anxiety is leading to a deeper ability to be compassionate, a deeper willingness for unity – knowing that we are all connected and owe each other our sharing in that pain of loss. I don’t know and so here I can only sit offering my “not-knowing.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Whole Truth

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Book of Hours, death, divine values, falsity, God's truth, hypocrisy, integrity, let go, lies, life, love, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, Tower of Babel

Today after reading about the tower of Babel I was reminded of the newly-coined phrase in our culture of “fake news” and turned for solace to Thomas Merton’s Book of Hours. In the Friday reflections, I found a worthy reminder for the day, actually a composite from two of Merton’s texts. I believe it is appropriate and is “enough said.”

No matter what happens, I feel myself more and more closely united with those who, everywhere, devote themselves to the glory of God’s truth, to the search for divine values hidden among the poor and outcast, to the love of that cultural heritage without which [man] cannot be healthy. The air of the world is foul with lies, hypocrisy, falsity, and life is short, death approaches. We must devote ourselves with generosity and integrity to the real values: there is no time for falsity and compromise. But on the other hand we do not have to be greatly successful or even well known. It is enough for our integrity to be known to God. What we do that is pure in His sight will avail for the liberty, the enlightenment, and the salvation of His children everywhere. (The Courage for Truth 188)

Let go of all that seems to suggest getting somewhere, being someone, having a name or a voice, following a policy and directing people in “my ways.” What matters is to love. (Learning to Love, 15)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Palm Sunday

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bad news, betrayal, crucifixion, death, faithfulness, Good News, Holy Week, Isaiah, Jerusalem, Luke, Palm Sunday, Philippians, praise, psalm 22, surrender, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, torture, trust

We have often heard the adage: “Good news, bad news – who knows!” The caution in this statement is about holding out until the end, when the final conclusion allows an informed assessment of whether the situation under consideration is, in fact, good or bad news.

Palm Sunday is the epitome of a good news/bad news story. We begin with Jesus riding a donkey into Jerusalem to jubilant chants of “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!” (LK 19: 28-40) and end with the crucifixion, death and burial of Jesus as Luke tells the story (LK 22:14-23:56). Admittedly there is some telescoping of the time frame as we know the incidents happened over several days rather than all at once, but it is nevertheless a stunning example of the vicissitudes of crowd mentality.

Reflecting on this Sunday’s readings one realizes that the need for the faithful to wait for “the rest of the story” is implicit at each step. Isaiah’s words (IS 50: 4-7) paint a fearful picture of what the servant suffers in trying to speak God’s word to the weary: beatings, plucking of his beard, buffets and spitting. The message to us, however, is in the last verse where the prophet witnesses to God’s faithfulness in all the violence he has endured. The Lord God is my help, he says, therefore I am not disgraced. I have set my face like flint, knowing I shall not be put to shame.

The refrain of the responsorial psalm (PS 22): My God, my God, why have you abandoned me could be interpreted as despair of the crucified Jesus. Not so! Jesus, who likely knew all 150 psalms by heart, knew the ending. Like Isaiah, he trusted that whatever happened, God was faithful and worthy of praise: I will proclaim your name to my brethren, the psalmist sings; in the midst of the assembly I will praise him. (vs.23)

Even as we focus on reciprocal fidelity as the linchpin of relationship between God and Jesus, we know that the suffering endured in the Paschal Mystery was monumental. From betrayal of friends to physical torture and death, Luke’s gospel reminds us that Jesus trusted God and poured himself out in love for our sake. It would behoove us to spend time with this text seeing anew each compassionate encounter on his path from the Last Supper to the cross.

Only the Letter to the Philippians speaks from a post-resurrection perspective today (PHIL 2:6-11). It is the willingness of Jesus to surrender everything that leads to his exaltation as Lord. But let us not be too hasty to reach the finish line. Let us rather take every step of this Holy Week with Jesus, trusting as he did that the Lord God is our help.

L’chaim!

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Benedictine, choose life, death, Deuteronomy, Helen Keller, life, Moses, Sister Helen Kelly, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today we hear Moses (DT 30:15-20) telling the people that God has set before them a choice between life and death, blessing and curse. He urges them to “Choose life!” obeying the commandments, loving God and walking in God’s ways. Whenever I hear those two words, “Choose life” (even as a wedding toast), a tape plays in my head of a long-remembered verse that I don’t see in the Scriptures but don’t know where else I would have learned it. This morning I determined to find out and was successful because another blogger, a Benedictine Sister, used it in her message this morning. She said the author was Sister Helen Kelly. A google search was unsuccessful but I found many references to Helen Keller – a person renowned for her ability and willingness to choose life. But back to my point…

I bow to Sister Helen Kelly for her advice on how to truly choose life and share it with you as my best thought for the day so far. She writes: Choose life, only this and always and at whatever risk. To let life leak out, to let it wear away by the mere passage of time, to withhold giving it and spending it is to choose nothing.

Synchronicity

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awareness, conscious, David Keller, death, gain Christ, God's presence, good, monk, Oasis of Wisdom, open heart, Paul, Philippians, presence, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

At a funeral this week and again in the gospel verse this morning, I read Paul’s declaration to the Philippians that I consider all things as loss (some translations say “rubbish”) that I may gain Christ and be found in him. (PHIL 3:8-9) While life in Christ is certainly my goal, I can’t say that everything else – and everyone – is that easy to discount. As I was pondering this, my eye fell on David Keller’s book, Oasis of Wisdom, about the world and words of the Desert Fathers and Mothers in the early days of Christianity. I opened the book at random (if such a thing exists) to page 72 where the heading read “Daily Awareness of One’s Death”. Instead of closing the book in distress I read the words of Abba Antony and Keller’s commentary that followed and found there a way to live into Paul’s words.

Abba Antony said: Therefore, my children, let us hold to the discipline and not be careless. For we have the Lord for our co-worker in this, as it is written. God works for good with everyone who chooses the good. And in order that we not become negligent, it is good to carefully consider the Apostle’s statement: I die daily.

David Keller comments: Abba Antony taught that a monk must live in such a way that the presence of God is always before him and, likewise, that God’s presence should become a reality in his manner of life. This manner of life is made possible by an open heart, an inner place that is always watchful and receptive to the presence of God.

What follows from all this for me is the necessity of always remaining conscious of the reality that all things are not to be despised but rather seen through the lens of God’s presence. In that way they become vehicles for deepening our life in God. Oh yes, and our willingness to let go of anything that impedes that deepening or clouds that lens is essential; thus, “dying every day” becomes a pattern for life. May it be so!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stay Awake

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calm, death, love God, Luke, Peace, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, vigilance, worry

One of my morning rituals as I drink my first cup of coffee is to check obituaries in the newspaper where I live. Having lived and ministered in the same area for 43 years, this practice has become a way to remember and pray for families that I have encountered during different periods in my life. I am constantly more conscious of the diversity of ages of people who have died – from the very old to the very young – as well as the manner in which they passed, whether quickly or after a long period of suffering.

In today’s gospel selection (LK 12:35-38) Luke recounts the parable of the servants who are waiting for their master to come back from a wedding feast. He cautions them to be ready no matter what time he comes. For me, this parable highlights the necessity of finding a balance between vigilance and peace in life. I need to be ready at any time to let go of this life (which has been very good to me!), knowing that I have done my best to love God, others and myself each day. At the same time, I need to be calm about what I feel is as yet unfinished and not worry about what death will be like when it comes. This is not always an easy task but waking up every day choosing to walk forward into whatever awaits is a willingness practice that I find reassuring. Trusting that God and I are on the same wavelength keeps me putting one foot in front of the other – moving as I’m able, always toward the light.

What’s It Time For?

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death, Ecclesiastes, funeral, heart of God, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, time, timeless

This morning’s first reading (ECCL 3:1-11) which tells us that there is a time for everything and then gives pairs of opposites as examples (“a time to be born and a time to die”) is used most frequently at funerals. We hear it or sing it or even read it ourselves at those often difficult or bittersweet moments and feel grief or comfort depending on the circumstances of the death. There is great wisdom in this reading, however, which is worth some deeper reflection. I once spent a whole week’s retreat trying to befriend time instead of grasping at it, feeling as if I never had enough to do what I thought was necessary or significant or rewarding. While I’m still often “short on time” I think I’ve learned the futility of attempts at control and see this reading as the best approach. Trusting that God “has made everything appropriate to its time” allows me to let go more often, to observe events and to focus rather on the truth that God has also “put the timeless into [our] hearts” so that every event, every thought, every prayer, every breath can – with conscious attention and intention – lead us beyond time, straight into the heart of God.