Go Deeper

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coronavirus, injustice, Jesus, love, love your neighbor as yourself, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today’s gospel reading from Matthew (5:43-48) is one that many of us could probably recite from memory, do a cursory survey of all the people in our lives and come at the end to a conclusion of our innocence. But what if we expand the search for enemies to people we don’t know personally but of whom we have heard through the media or in some other way? Jesus is clear in his directive about relationship. It’s all about love. Have you guessed the text I’m considering?

Jesus said to his disciples, “You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you that you may be children of your Heavenly Father, for he makes the sun rise on the bad and the good and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust. If you love those who love you, what recompense will you have?…“

These are difficult days in our country and around the world. Protests of racial injustice are continuing everywhere and police brutality seems to increase daily. Republicans accuse democrats of all manner of collusion with the enemy and the democrats vilify republicans for their unwillingness to compromise on any of the Congressional agenda. Good people are swept up in crowds of looters and fights break out over the refusal of some to wear a mask to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

I have read this gospel many times and although I get to a place of sadness for all the dissension and enmity in the world, I never end up thinking that I lack a degree of love for everyone, abstract as it may be. Today I know that to be the point of what Jesus is saying. Love is never an abstraction. It’s the ability to dig deep down and consider why people act as they do. What are their life circumstances? (Were they abused as children? Are they starving for food? For love?…) Who has loved them in their lives?

Until we have faced our own lack of love for even one person, we are not “perfect” in God’s eyes. It isn’t about being perfect in our work or our talents. It’s about perfection in our willingness to love even the most unlovable. The good news is, I believe, that God does love all of those striving toward that love. We may never reach perfection in it. Quite frankly, I doubt that we ever will, perfectly. But it’s our effort toward the goal that seems to count the most. And right now, we need to put more effort into that goal than ever before and look to ourselves rather than to our enemies as we live into each day. (But don’t forget to pray for those whom you call “enemy.”)

Our Brother Martin

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accidental activist, compelled, dreams, history, I have a dream, injustice, Martin Luther King Jr., Meg Wheatley, passivity, perseverance, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

There is so much to say about Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a “wake-up call” to our nation like no other, shaking us to the roots of our passivity in the 1960’s, and he paid the ultimate price for his courage. His own words still stir me when I hear his clear, booming voice proclaiming: I have a dream today…

Meg Wheatley speaks of people like “Brother Martin” as “accidental activists” – those who are compelled to do what they do. “In every case,” she writes, “they saw an injustice or tragedy or possibility when others weren’t aware of a thing. They heard a thundering call that nobody else noticed…They offer us dreams of bold new futures that others will never see.” (Perseverance, p.19)

Such was the life and death of Dr. King. One wonders today as we remember  his actions on behalf of racial justice how we can still be so far from his vision of “one nation under God.” When hatred and bigotry seem on the rise and we wring our hands in despair about the divisions in our country, let us seriously consider that “if we’re not part of the solution, we are part of the problem” and resolve to do our part toward directional change. It begins in our minds but grows to fruition only as it reaches our hearts and we come to understand that history chooses all of us in some way for the good.

 

 

 

 

 

View From the Mirror

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compassion, forgive, forgiven, grateful, hide, honest, imperfections, injustice, kindness, look honestly, love, merciful, mirror, pray, self-esteem, Sirach, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I remember my sister saying once long ago during a visit to our motherhouse that you could tell you were in a convent because there were no mirrors anywhere! I suppose that, if often true, that had two purposes: 1. to keep the Sisters from the vanity of wasting time gazing at themselves, and 2. since there was no hair or make-up to be concerned about because our habits covered almost every inch of the body and getting dressed was a quick, rote exercise. Now, because we do not have the “luxury” of such a simple and universal couture, mirrors are a part of household furnishing in most religious houses.

I haven’t spent a lot of time thinking on the value of this change but I do think there is a benefit, again for two reasons. 1. I have a friend who used to begin her workshops on self-esteem by asking how many people in the audience looked in the mirror while they’re brushing their teeth or their hair and say, “What a woman!” (or “Hello, handsome!”) People used to laugh at that, but her point was made because rarely did anyone admit to a positive response to her question. We need to see ourselves as God sees us: marvels of creation – and be grateful. 2. On the other hand, while we’re looking in that mirror we ought to try each day to be totally honest with ourselves and God about our imperfections. What we try to hide from other people should be frankly looked at in that mirror, again with the realization that God is looking back at us with love. Tender mercy and forgiveness are always there if we are willing to look honestly at ourselves.

The readings in today’s lectionary are all about God’s mercy and forgiveness. The Book of Sirach says this: Forgive your neighbor’s injustice; then when you pray, your own sins will be forgiven and Could anyone refuse mercy to another like himself…? The Letter to the Romans speaks of how we live and die for the Lord. In so doing, therefore, it stands to reason that we ought to act like the Lord. In the gospel we have Peter trying to figure out how many times we are asked to forgive those who have wronged us and Jesus disappointing him perhaps with the answer: 70 X 7 times – which we know means “every time.”

All those words we know, but do we allow them to live within us so that we don’t become frustrated when we fail in the love we know we owe to others? The most comforting of all the quotes today (perhaps because I hear it put to music sung often in my church) is the psalm response. It sings in me, The Lord is kind and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in kindness (or rich in compassion, depending on your translation). Try looking in the mirror, even in your darkest days, and say that line aloud. Can you possibly resist a promise of forgiveness like that?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of Gnats and Camels

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camels, fidelity, fully human, gnats, hypocrites, injustice, Jesus, judgment, love, Matthew, mercy, Pharisees, Philippians, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, tithes

Sometimes in reading the gospels I am really convinced that Jesus was, as St. Paul tells us in the letter to the Philippians, fully human. On some occasions, Jesus gets really frustrated, as today in Matthew 23:23-26, when he takes the “Pharisees and hypocrites” to task for their behavior. No one could miss his point, but some of the images he uses to make those points are downright funny! I can just see him gathering steam as he goes into his condemnatory statement. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, he says. You pay tithes of mint and dill and cumin (really lightweight spices) and have neglected the weightier things of the law: judgment and mercy and fidelity. But these you should have done, without neglecting the others. Sounds like a reasonable speech so far, but wait for it…Here comes the punch line in case they missed the point: Blind guides, who strain out the gnat and swallow the camel!

Just picture trying to take that sentence literally. Imagine the exasperation that caused Jesus to resort to such an extreme. It was the injustice of the powerful toward the “lowly ones” that he saw, not unlike some of what is going on today in many quarters. Some days, when the weather is so muggy that bugs abound, I need to remind myself to keep my mouth closed when I’m outside so I don’t inadvertently swallow a bug. It’s more of a mentally unpleasant experience than a difficult physical one but always distasteful nevertheless. Multiply it maybe a thousand times or more to get the size of a camel and it’s easy to see the extent of injustice of which Jesus speaks. No one should be allowed that level of power over another, and Jesus knew it.

May we call out injustice wherever we see it in our society. May we also beware of swallowing camels in our dealings with each other and even try to avoid the gnats of everyday living as we choose to walk the path where the constant measure of things is love.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Signs of Spring

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awaken, calm, dawn, discipline, flowers, forgive, hopeful spirit, impatience, injustice, love, Macrina Weiderkehr, non-violence, prayer, psalm 5, seven sacred pauses, spring, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, tolerance, unfold, wake, winged heart

Late yesterday afternoon I went on a brief “inspection tour” of the property where I live, looking for signs of spring. The air had a different quality to it (it was almost warm!) and there was evidence that the daffodils and tulips, and even the irises, were getting impatient for their time to shine. I whispered to them to slow down because March is so unpredictable; we could be buried in snow next week! There was a feeling of holding back in me at the same time as my own impatience to get out there to begin the clean up of the yard.

I noticed this morning how bright it was at 6:30 – a sure sign of spring – when my alarm went off and I actually spent a moment before I rolled out of bed, musing about how the day might go with God’s companionship. It was not surprising to me then when Macrina Weiderkehr offered me a morning reflection that felt like a plan for  renewal. I’ll share it in its entirety and I’ll take it with me to work, hoping it remains as God’s work within me today and in the burgeoning season just beginning inside and out.

The words of Kahlil Gibran are sitting at the gate of my heart this morning. “To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.” Words from Psalm 5 are also trying to get my attention: “In the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I plead my case to you, and watch.” I don’t always rise at dawn and watch for God, nor do I consistently awaken with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving. There are times when the wings of my heart remain folded; yet prayer still happens in me. There are mornings when I simply sit in silence trying to remember some of the things that need to rise in me:

1. a tolerance for those who do not agree with me,
2. a refusal to judge others
3. a willingness to forgive,
4. greater effort to live with a non-violent heart,
5. loving thoughts toward those who don’t exactly dote on me,
6. a calm and hopeful spirit in the midst of my anxieties,
7. discipline in my daily personal prayer,
8. attention and faithfulness in my daily work
9. a holy anger for injustice in our world.

As I remember these necessary risings in my life, the wings of my heart slowly begin to unfold. All Praise to You, Giver of the Morning! (Seven Sacred Pauses, p. 61-62)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Old Wineskins

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change, civil rights movement, common humanity, dignity. acceptance, hatred, injustice, letting go, Mark, racism, respect, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., shift of consciousness, technology, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, tolerance, wine

In the first few moments after I read today’s gospel (MK 2:18-22) several different thoughts have arisen in my mind. Jesus is talking about not pouring new wine into old wineskins because in that case the wine will burst the skins and both skin and wine will be ruined. I was first reminded of a conversation yesterday about the speedy rate of change in the world and the fact that children born now will have little or no experience of a world where a telephone was available only in a building or a small enclosure on the street. (Stop here to insert your own favorite example of something that has become or is fast becoming obsolete…) My favorite statement of the rate of change in the 20th century is “Kitty Hawk to the moon in 66 years.” Last night on Downton Abbey several more examples of change were obvious. The fight over letting go of the village hospital in a merger with a larger facility of greater capacity, the success of a woman as owner and editor of a newspaper and magazine, the wedding of two servants of the manor having a wedding of their own choosing rather than acceding to the plan of “Lady Mary” were obvious examples of difficult moments of some trying to hold on to what no longer served while others saw the necessity of acceding to the future. The signs of changing times were everywhere.

A monumental shift of consciousness in our country in the 20th century was brought to light by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I need not, nor could I in this format, do justice to the development of what led to an explosion in the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Although we still struggle with racism in our country, we can never plead ignorance of the issues because of the courageous actions of so many people who spoke out and spent their lives to overcome this injustice. Today, as we celebrate the memory of Dr. King, may we pray that hatred be overcome with tolerance and tolerance give way to respect for the dignity of all others. Swiftly on the heels of respect may we find acceptance in our hearts and even love for all people who share our common humanity. Wherever we find ourselves on this continuum may we never try to stop the advent of a new day and may God’s blessing be upon us all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Holding On

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faith, Flood, heart of the world, helplessness, hope, injustice, love, Peace, Pope Francis, psalm 69, sacrifice of praise, shooting, silence, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, violence, wars

Today I wake to a sense of the paradox of life. Still energized by the visit of Pope Francis and a 2-day gathering full of hope this week for generations younger than mine, I am nearly crushed by the latest random, senseless shooting of college students in our country and futile wars around the world. I can no longer live in one reality or the other but have come to know the necessity of bearing both sides (or rather all sides!) of this chaotic era at once. How does one hold all this? Having gone the route of protest and demonstrations in my younger life, I now find the necessity of silence and the spiritual practice of connection with peace and love at the heart of the world to be my contribution. We all need to find our place in seeking solutions to violence and injustice. It is helpful for me to read the words of the psalmist who, at the beginning of Psalm 69, seeks the face of God in symbolic flood waters threatening to drown him. Save me, O God, I cry, I’m in deep waters over my head and sinking fast. My feet are mired; there’s no firm ground for me, no place on which to stand…These words give voice to the feeling of helplessness in the face of great evil and destruction. But faith will not allow the drowning to occur. Here is the section of the psalm that appears today and calls me to return to the trust that God will not abandon us.

In my affliction I know nothing now but deepest pain, my only hope, that you will lift us from this miry clay. I raise your name in this my final song to you. I offer up my words, a sacrifice of praise…And all afflicted ones in life will hear my song and finding strength, will seek you, God, with all their hearts and live. For your own ears are always tuned and turned to needy ones. You never spurn or cast away those bound in chains. So let everything in heaven and on earth offer up their praise, for God rebuilds their walls; their land is freely given back in full. And even children of the lowly ones who trust your name find lodging safe and home secure at last in you.

The Constancy of Change

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change, charity, hungry, injustice, Peace, poor, Pope Francis, reform, same, St. Basil, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

One of my favorite axioms from my “first life” as a high school French teacher is what in English is translated as: The more things change, the more they stay the same. I saw that quote as I was reading the biography of St. Basil the Great, generally considered to be the father of Eastern monasticism as well as a Doctor of the Church. Living early in the Christian era (329-379), he was known for both his theological brilliance and his care for the poor and downtrodden. It was in the commentary that the above quote appears, pointing up the work of Basil in dealing with the same problems of the Church today, such as “the need for reform, organization, fighting for the poor, maintaining balance and peace in misunderstanding.” It all reminded me of Pope Francis who continues to surprise the world with his statements and actions toward the same goals. I could hear Francis at his most urgent, uttering the words of Basil that concluded the commentary – words worthy of our reflection today.

The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.

 

What Time Is It?

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farming, God, Hosea, injustice, justice, piety, time

Another farming image took my attention this morning. The last few lines in the first reading from Hosea (10:12) sounded so direct and immediate while speaking to the whole of the seasonal process that it was hard to ignore. Sow for yourselves justice, says the prophet, reap the fruit of piety; break up for yourselves a new field, for it is time to seek the Lord. Attentiveness to the needs of the world and actions for the same are two sides of the call to justice – a call to which we are all responsible. Piety is sometimes seen as a virtue closed in upon itself, often coupled with the word “personal” so it seems to ignore others in the quest for holiness. But personal piety, it seems to me if we define it as the dictionary does, speaks of reverence and devotion which cannot help but overflow into our relations with others and the world. How can we be reverent toward God, devoted to the work of God, if we are not aware that all is one in God? Thus, piety calls for justice and justice for piety, so that we do not give in to the frustration and anger that come with the recognition of injustice. Hosea seems to be saying, however, that we are to go beyond our present understandings now. Breaking up a new field says to me something like “the harvest is plentiful but laborers are few.” It’s the last line that makes the whole thing seem so urgent. It’s time, people! Get out there (or go in!) and seek the Lord! It’s a new time and we need to be new people. Dig deeper! Ramp up your reverence! It’s time now. It’s time.