St. Matthias

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Acts of the Apostles, disciples, faithfulness, hope, Jesus, St. Matthias, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, warm heart, witness

Today my Church honors St. Matthias, a man who was mentioned only once in the Scriptures. The event was a momentous one for him and a lesson for people who live in consistent attention to their spiritual lives. The first lectionary reading today tells the story of how Matthias became the replacement for Judas in the band of apostles. (ACTS 1:15-26) He was one of the two nominees for the position because he had accompanied the apostles the whole time Jesus was with them “from the baptism of John to the day on which he was taken up,” having also been a witness to the Resurrection. He was clearly one of those folks who knew the value of staying close to the example and teachings of Jesus – without needing to be known as “one of the Twelve.”

I spent this past weekend with a cohort of people who gave witness to the kind of faithfulness Matthias showed toward life with Jesus. It was a privilege to be in the company of such welcoming individuals who have grown together as a community – some for many years and some who have only recently experienced the spirit that holds their parish together, manifested in willingness to accompany one another in loving service. I would venture to say as well that none of them are looking for recognition as “leader of the pack.” Everyone just pitches in to do what they are able for the good of the whole, something Matthias would have understood when he was chosen by lot (a process that reinforces the value of all “contenders”).

I came home with a warm heart and renewed hope for the future because of that energetic and joyful band of disciples living and loving in the state of Maryland, USA. Thanks be to God!

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Where Is He Going?

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Apostle, disciples, I am the way, Jesus, John, simple, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, the way, Thomas, troubled

This morning’s gospel (JN 14:1-6) has Jesus giving a sort of pep talk to his disciples. What we know that they didn’t is that Jesus will be leaving soon and he’s trying to prepare them to continue on without his physical presence. “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” he says. “In my father’s house there are many rooms.” I often wonder if they had, by that time, caught on to his manner of speaking in metaphor. Even now we have trouble understanding and accepting that diversity does not necessarily mean division in religious belief and practice.

Later in this very deep and meaningful text Jesus gets even more difficult to comprehend to people who are expecting him to stay around now that he has come back from the dead. Telling them he’s going to prepare a place for them was confusing enough but when he said, “Where I’m going you know the way,” they lost him totally. Thomas, the “show me” apostle, speaks up. “We don’t even know where you’re going! How can we know the way?”

The answer to that question still confounds us. We know it by heart but still fail to recognize how simple yet profound “the way” is. Maybe we find it too simple to be correct. It is a simple answer, but not easy nevertheless. “I AM the way,” Jesus says, “and the truth and the life.” All we are called to do is to “put on the mind of Christ,” walking in the absolute integrity that is consonant with the example and words of Christ, living the life that becomes transformed because of the unconditional love that fuels it. We think too much, perhaps, about achievement – doing good works that will get us to heaven. If we focus on the attitude that underlies our good works – the unconditional acceptance and welcome of others into our hearts, (the love that Jesus modeled) – our actions will follow in kind.

As I said, simple but not easy. One step at a time…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Seed

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bear fruit, disciples, embrace, generosity of heart, Gospel, grateful, harvest, Jesus, Luke, perseverance, sowing seeds, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Although we are moving through the season of harvest here in our country now, the gospel for today reminds us of the necessity of sowing seeds on good ground. (LK 8:4-15) The disciples of Jesus didn’t understand the parable in which his message was “hidden” so he did something that rarely appears in these gospel texts. He explained the meaning! As he spoke of the different kinds of “soil” in which the word of God might be sown, they heard the pitfalls of life in how the yield of what was sown might be more or less. In the end, we find that as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance. (vs.15)

So today it may be time to look at what we have seen growing around and within us because of our generosity of heart and perseverance, being grateful for what has blossomed as well as for what needed to be weeded out. For all of it, may we give thanks to the Lord of the harvest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Let Us All Rejoice!

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christians, disciples, Divine Law, Easter, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, grace, Hebrews, Holy Spirit, mosaic law, Moses, Pentecost, respect, Shavuot, spirit, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, understanding

Today Christians celebrate the great feast of Pentecost (from the Greek for “the fiftieth day”), the commemoration of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that enlivened the disciples of Jesus to spread the message of God’s love for the world. Lest we think that Christians are the only ones who celebrate faith at this time – 50 days after Easter, we need to look further back to recognize that there is a linkage to the Jewish festival of Shavuot, the Festival of Weeks, which falls fifty days after Passover. In speaking of this connection, Fr. Dwight Longenecker writes from the Christian viewpoint: This [feast] was kept as a commemoration of Moses receiving the Divine Law on Sinai. The Christians understood that as the law came down from heaven to Moses for the people of God, so the Holy Spirit came down on the church. The age of the Mosaic Law was therefore fulfilled and completed by the new age of Spirit and Grace. (CRUX, June 3, 2017)

This morning, then, as I give thanks for the workings of the Spirit in my own life and throughout the centuries of the life of Christianity – amazed often that we have endured – I remember also the fidelity of the Hebrew people who carried their tradition from the days of Mosaic Law to the hearts of faithful Jews today. My prayer is that the Spirit will be instrumental in drawing us and all the peoples of the world into deeper respect and understanding that in essence our humanity makes us all one. May it be so!

Gone Fishing

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breakfast on the beach with Jesus, disciples, fish, fisherman, fishing, Gospel of Thomas, John, Nag Hammadi Codex, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today’s gospel recounts the wonderful beginning of John’s 21st chapter that takes us from an early morning fishing experience to breakfast on the beach with Jesus. In this post-resurrection story, seven of the disciples were together at the Sea of Tiberias in Galilee, probably still wondering what to do now that the bottom had fallen out of their world. Peter, leaning into all he had known before meeting Jesus, said to the others, “I’m going fishing.” They all jumped at the chance to do something familiar so off they went. Unfortunately, they caught nothing all night. It was at dawn, John records, that Jesus yelled to them to try again with the nets in a new way. In his version, they didn’t quibble with the seemingly ridiculous dictum that just moving the net to the other side of the boat would be a good solution; they just did it. And the rest, as they say, is history: 153 fish in a net that should have torn under the weight of so many but didn’t. Even stopping right there in the story gives a great deal of food for thought.

Something different for our reflection today can be found perhaps in Logion 8 from the Gospel of Thomas, probably the most commonly known text from the Nag Hammadi codex – the treasure trove of manuscripts found in the Egyptian desert in 1945, a Coptic version of what may be some of the earliest teachings of Jesus. This gospel is comprised of 114 sayings (logia) of Jesus and, while at least two-thirds of them overlap the four canonical gospels, some give a different twist to the message Jesus was hoping to impart. Such a message is contained in Logion 8.

Yeshua says, “A true human being can be compared to a wise fisherman who casts his net into the sea and draws it up from below full of small fish. Hidden among them is one large, exceptional fish that he seizes immediately, throwing back all the rest without a second thought. Whoever has ears, let them understand this.

Reflection on both versions of what has been written above might deepen our comprehension of what Jesus was trying to teach his disciples regarding the mission that was now theirs. What new thoughts come to you from these words or your Spirit-filled silence in their presence?

 

 

 

 

 

Trust

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apostles, challenged, disciples, honest, Jesus, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust, truth

The word “trust” keeps floating to the surface of my thoughts and experience these days. I think of how often we exercise trust in another person or group or organization without naming it or even recognizing that we are allowing it to function. We get in a car and trust that other drivers will obey the rules of the road and that we will be able to do the same. We get on a plane and trust that it will not fall out of the sky even though it is extremely heavy and is resting on nothing solid (like a road). We travel to a new city and trust others to take us to places that we could not find ourselves.

Even more elementally, we trust that people are telling us the truth if we sense that they are honest people and, when we find that we have been mistaken in our assessment, we are usually able to trust again, not giving up on the world because of one betrayal.

As we move toward the most significant days of this week where Jesus most likely trusted his disciples to be with him in all that awaited him, let us put ourselves in his position and then in the position of his companions and examine the trust quotient of each situation. Emotions may run high if we seriously ponder. Trust will be challenged. Willingness to be honest could come at a cost. Will you trust yourself?

The “In Group”

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disciples, do not be afraid, fear, gossip, James, Jesus, John, Luke, Mark, Matthew, Peter, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, transfiguration

The gospel for today is Matthew’s version of the Transfiguration of Jesus on the mountain. I understand the desire of Jesus to take time away in a quiet place to be alone as it seems he often did. I might have chosen the Sea of Galilee as my getaway, but the hills might have been a better bet for Jesus as a total escape from people. One could wonder why on this particular day he chose to take Peter, James and John with him. Did he know what was going to happen? Was he afraid he would need help if the depth of experience got too intense? Or did he just have a desire to have some quiet time with less than a dozen companions?

The Transfiguration story appears in all three of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) and the accounts differ only slightly. As usual, Peter jumps right in with a suggestion that they stay (forever?) on the mountain. He’s willing to erect shelters for Jesus and his guests, Moses and Elijah, so the vision must have presented those ancestors in a decidedly dense way. (How did Peter recognize who they were?) The disciples didn’t seem too shaken by all this – even the fact that Jesus was appearing in an altered state, until they heard the voice of God telling them to pay attention to Jesus, God’s Beloved. It was then that they fell prostrate in fear so that Jesus had to come and touch them (so they could tell they were still alive?) and tell them not to be afraid. At that point the event was ended and everything returned to “normal.”

I often think about the stricture Jesus put on the disciples on the way down the mountain, telling them not to share what they had seen with anyone. I wonder how difficult that knowing was for them and if/how it changed their lives. Did they feel more protective of Jesus? Did this experience make them wonder more deeply about his experiences when he left them to pray? Did their dreams of greatness as the ones closest to the Messiah increase? Or were they confused and bothered by the statement at the end of this text that says: As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus charged them, “Do not tell the vision to anyone until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

This is all conjecture, of course, and we know that the gospels were not written down until years after the events happened so the writers had a post-Resurrection understanding by that time. My point in all this is – as usual – to look for application to our own lives. Sometimes it isn’t easy to keep the confidences with which people trust us, especially if the news is something sensational or a “tidbit” that others would love to know. We live in a world where gossip reigns and it is difficult to tell truth from fiction sometimes. If I had been one of the favored apostles on that mountain, would I have been able to hold my tongue and thereby protect Jesus – even if I wanted to share what I saw as an event that showed how amazing Jesus was? How difficult would it have been for me to come down that mountain and not go to any of the other nine to share the story? How would my relationship with someone change if I learned of some ability (or disability) that made them more (or less) acceptable to others? So many questions…so much to ask myself, looking for the deepest motivations and clearest truths of my heart, hoping for the touch of Jesus that says, “Do not be afraid.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fill in the Blanks

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Calcutta, canonization, catching people, disciples, follow, James, Jesus, John, Luke, Missionaries of Charity, Mother Teresa, openness, poor, Simon, Sisters of Loretto, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

One of the most difficult things sometimes about reading the gospels, I think, is not what they say but what they don’t say. Today’s lectionary tells Luke’s story of Simon and his companion fishermen, James and John. It’s a familiar story (LK 5:1-11) where Jesus gets into one of their boats as they are washing their nets after a dismal night of catching nothing. Jesus is teaching from the boat (probably to get a little distance from the gathering crowd) and when he finishes, turns to Simon and tells him to “go deep” and start fishing all over again. Simon must have already had some experience of Jesus, first because he doesn’t seem fazed by Jesus just getting into his boat and asking him to go out a short distance from shore to teach the people. His response to the request to start fishing again was similarly instructive. Although he did register the complaint about having fished all night with no positive result, he acquiesces to the directive by saying, “…but at your command I will lower the nets.” The result is, of course, almost more fish than the nets can accommodate.

I’m most interested in the last line of today’s text, however. After Jesus assures them that they have a future in the trade of “catching” people instead of fish, Luke finishes the story with this conclusion: When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him. That’s it. No follow-up instructions. No conversation with their families. No packing or making arrangements for travel…Nothing but response. The next paragraph in Luke’s gospel is about the cure of lepers. We never get to hear the conversation between Simon (Peter) and his wife about this conversion experience – or about anything for that matter.

(Blessed) Mother Teresa of Calcutta will be canonized a saint this weekend with a huge ceremony in Rome. Her autobiography records her desire to enter the religious life from an early age to become a missionary, so she was already on a spiritual path, but her life, like those fishermen, took a very radical turn one day from being a teacher and principal of a school as a member of a traditional religious life in the congregation of the Sisters of Loreto. Already disturbed by the poverty surrounding her in Calcutta where she was teaching, she was on the train on her way to her annual retreat when she received what she named “the call within the call.” She describes it as follows: ” I was to leave the convent and help the poor by living among them. It was an order. To fail would have been to break the faith.” That was in September of 1946. We can now read of the struggles she faced between that day and the beginning in 1948 of the work of her new congregation, the Missionaries of Charity. Her life has been chronicled by many, but on that day, I wonder if she had any idea of what lay ahead as she promised, in addition to the traditional religious vows, “wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor.”

Change comes to all of us, bidden or unbidden, slowly or “just like that” – in an instant by some cataclysmic event. Sometimes we long to know how others have negotiated such change so that we might know what to do should it happen that way to us. Since everyone’s path is personal, however, we can only learn to walk it by walking. Openness to what God asks each and every day is probably the best preparation for what comes next, living in the present moment is all we have and the only “place” we are called to inhabit. So with an open heart and a listening ear, let us go forward into this moment…and then the next.

 

Taking Refuge

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Acts of the Apostles, christians, disciples, election, homeland, overcome, persecution, primary, psalm 87, refugess, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

This morning’s text from chapter 11 of the Acts of the Apostles gives a clear sense of how the “good news” of Christ is spreading and ends with the statement that it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians. It wasn’t all euphoria, however. There was lots of persecution accompanying the work of the disciples and many refugees who had been scattered in the wake of Stephen’s murder. It reminded me of images of all the people who are fleeing their homes in Syria and elsewhere today, searching for a safe shelter and a home where they might raise their families in peace.

Psalm 87 followed those thoughts and my longing for “the peaceable kingdom” for all people in our world. Not unaware that today is primary day for New Yorkers and that it takes more than an individual voice to solve the problems of the world, I know that I will vote today, hoping that there will be a smooth transition of leadership in our country – not only for the presidency but in all three branches of our government – so that the corporate voice of the United States might be heard in the world for the good of all. I will also pray today that reason and good will may increase to overcome violence and destruction in the world.

While those two things are what I know I can do, perhaps there is a call today for me to delve more deeply into what is happening to change systems that contribute to the breakdown of society, to see where I might participate in building up solutions toward peace and the vision of the psalmist who calls such a place a homeland, a sacred birthing place, for many people across the earth, for here God’s presence dwells and draws them in, and makes everyone her own. (Ps 87:4-5)

Traditions

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awake, Corinthians, disciples, Garden of Gethsemane, humility, Jesus, John, love, master, servant, St. Paul, The Last Supper, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

With the words I received from the Lord what I also handed on to you (1COR 11:23) St. Paul begins the recounting of the last meal Jesus shared with his disciples before his crucifixion. Tonight is one of the few times when many Christian Churches have special services in the evening as we begin the “high holy days” that tell the stories of what is called for many our “salvation history.” All the stories are known to us and by now many of the faithful could rattle off the order of the services, the prayers and some of the hymns that are as familiar to us as our own names (even – for those who are old enough – the Latin lyrics!). There is a special comfort in these rituals that call us back – through over 2000 years of history – to events whose essence has been preserved regardless of dogmatic accretions, religious wars or heresies. Tonight it is just about Jesus and his desire to be with his friends, this desire heightened by his sense of the danger that is building around him. John’s gospel says that he loved his own in the world, and he loved them to the end. (JN 13) In an effort to show them this love while they were at supper, Jesus began to wash their feet, a startling thing for them as it was always the task of servant rather than one called “Master”. A startling thing indeed for us to hear, for Jesus was clear that the tradition was changing. Now we are all called to do the same for everyone we meet. “Love one another as I have loved you,” Jesus said. “Stoop in humility to those who need a hand, a friend, a favor, a great sacrifice from you.” Wherever we see a need we must be ready to answer – as he was.

Tonight in the Catholic Church that I attend, it will be the priest who becomes the servant of all and actually washes feet. Later we will re-enact the walk to the Garden of Gethsemane, the scene of disappointment where the disciples with whom Jesus had just shared so intimately fell asleep while he was praying to be spared what was to be his fate. There will be people, myself among them, who will stay after the service to ponder the events that have taken place and the anticipation of what is to come. It will be late by then. How long will I be able to stay awake? How far will my mind wander? Will anything be changed in me by my participation in this ritual of remembrance? I hope so…as I always do.