The Chair of Peter

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beloved community, Chair of Peter, Jesus, St. Peter, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today’s feast could seem strange to people who are literalists. Why, when religious feasts are commonly associated with saints, would there be one (today – February 22nd), celebrating a piece of furniture: the “chair of Peter?” It really isn’t a difficult puzzle to solve but it does have an interesting story (too long for this post) that is an example of a “synecdoche (sin-NEK-da-kee), a figure of speech in which a term for a part of something refers to the whole of something or vice versa,”—e.g. the chair of Peter for the role of Peter in Christianity. (Language teachers love that one…)

I thought of that not only because St. Peter was so central to the growth of the Church. I was also aware of Peter’s relationship with Jesus. He certainly wasn’t perfect; the gospels are full of his missteps but that is another gift to the Church, I think. Jesus needed someone to lean on occasionally—or maybe more often…He needed a friend, someone to go with him up into the hills to pray with him when things got too much to handle…when people turned against Jesus or when they didn’t understand him. He needed support when people were wondering who he was and Peter was the only one who recognized the mission of Jesus early on.

Peter’s mission was that of companion to Jesus as well as representative of the “beloved community” that was building because of the presence of Christ in the world. We all need that. I think today that I will spend time reflecting on those generous people who have offered me friendship during my life and giving thanks to God for the gifts that I have received because of them. Won’t you join me in that endeavor?

Always Another Chance

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frustration, Jesus, Lent, Mark, one more chance, pandemic, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

It seems – in light of recent events – that there is no normal in our world and yet we continue to survive. We are in the midst of the most horrific pandemic our age that is taking lives wantonly…and yet now, less than a year into it, we have not one but at least three different vaccines that seem able to stem the tide of the disease. We have had four years of a government that had no preparation for governing, whose members floundered and then got replaced with others equally unqualified…and yet now we have a president prepared by almost four decades in national politics to repair what has been undone because he understands how to govern and is, in addition, a humane, upright individual who knows suffering and love and is willing to do his best for us all. It is as if we have been given “one more chance” and, when we fail to recognize it or to step up to the challenge, God says, “All right, I’ll give you another chance at paying attention…just one more time…”

When will we learn? The frustration of Jesus is seen this morning in Mark’s gospel (Ch. 8) when he says: “Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And do you not remember?…”

Lent begins tomorrow. Today is Mardi Gras…Will there be wild dancing, eating and drinking – regardless of the rules about masks and social distancing? Will we pay attention and perhaps take the forty days to come asking ourselves the questions that Jesus asked today? Do you not understand or comprehend?…Will this time be different?

Invitation

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apostles, excuses, fishers of men, following, fulfillment, Jesus, the kingdom of God is at hand, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

The temperature outside could be construed as NOTHING. It reads 0 degrees F. Not too hot. Not too cold…just a perfect place to start building a day. (How ridiculous a mis-reading! One could easily get frostbite if not bundled up from head to toe.) The bluejays on the deck are already hard at work tap, tap, tapping away at the suet cakes. How they survive the day without broken beaks and roaring headaches is a mystery to me! Let me start again…

This time I could use the temperature outside as an excuse for inaction. It looks like a beautiful day outside. The sky is blue and the sun is shining…but it’s so cold as to make it impossible to move from my chair: a day to lament arthritic limbs and a headache at least serious enough for some over-the-counter drug…Excuses abound…

There is, however, a tiny beating sound inside of me that indicates discomfort with inertia. I can hardly hear the sound but I know there is more to this life than this chair and my rocking…rocking. I wonder if perhaps this is a moment like it was the day Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment: The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe…” It is Mark who is recounting this day when Jesus passed by the Sea of Galilee and seeing Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea, he said to them, Come after me and I will make you fishers of men. (MK 1) They left their nets that day and became the first apostles, following Jesus to the end. No more sitting around looking out the window, wishing it was warmer outside. No more watching the birds and wondering about their headaches, just getting out of their chairs and getting to work—following that voice that is the best invitation ever offered.

Try Again!

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centering prayer, confidence, conviction, discipline, Jesus, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Here we are again. It is a new beginning. The year 2020 that was supposed to bring us clear vision (20/20, of course) seems a spectacular failure in hindsight. It seems a collective nightmare to most Americans. We wonder why the pandemic still has such a hold on us, why there is such division still, so much disregard for the common good. I look at myself and lament my fatigue, lassitude and lack of motivation. Then I look at my prayer corner and wonder when I will regain the will to sit there. How can the “Just sitting” of centering prayer take so much effort? (Clue: It’s the letting go that accompanies the sitting that is the difficult part.)

The “breakdown” year is behind me. What is staring me in the face is a big sign in my mind’s eye. It says: DISCIPLINE! A picture flashes after that frame. It is Jesus gathering the children to sit with him – even on his lap. He is saying “Let the little children come to me.” And suddenly I want to be right there, folded in his arms like a child who hears that sentence and feels his arms around me for the confidence to sit with him.

May we find that confidence to approach this scene and sit today – or visit a church or sing a hymn or approach the throne of God. Whatever works to begin this new year with desire, conviction…discipline, born of love (no matter our slow start) will surely bring us back to our best selves where Christ is waiting in joy.

While We Wait

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Christmas, Jesus, love one another, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, wait, waiting, what are we waiting for

Several years ago I created a retreat day called “While We Wait” for parish directors of religious education. I wanted to focus participants on attitudes and activities that moved them forward in their preparation for Christmas. I was happy with the process of the day and repeated it in a similar form in different situations in ensuing years. I was especially partial to the alliterative title of the retreat. (Old teachers of language never die; they just morph into something else!) Aside from the double alliteration, I was partial to the title because it suggested a process, a way to get to Christmas that was deep and meaningful.

Yesterday I received a text from the CSJ Leadership Team, part of their monthly missive, For the Life of the World that keeps us focused on our mission. I found the message from Sister Sally Harper, one of our five Congregational Leadership Team members, very helpful and wanted to share the question about waiting that Sally raised and expanded upon in several ways. Instead of my reflection on how we wait, Sally asked the basic and underlying question that seems so fundamental but maybe sometimes is just taken for granted. She wanted to know: What are we waiting for?

Of course we know that we are waiting for the celebration, as Sally says, of God “up close and personal” in the person of Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us, the “Word Made Flesh” but that, as she notes, happened more than 2,000 years ago, so she repeats her question: What are we waiting for? It’s a question that each of us can and perhaps should answer for ourselves so I would suggest that before you read on, you take some time to answer the question in your own way…When you’re ready, Sally says:

Jesus calls us to incarnate God’s love in our daily lives just like he did: “Love one another as I have loved you.” (Sally leaves the work of how to do that to each of us.)

Thanks to Sally for this reminder of how simple, yet not always easy, it is to “wait” for the coming of Jesus.

Slow Start

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Advent, don't worry, Jesus

When you think you’re ready for something…like maybe a special season – Advent, for example (!) it can be frustrating when, on the first day of your determination to be participative in some way, you disappoint yourself or allow events to disappoint you! Has that ever happened to you? I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count all the times I have disappointed myself in that way! Lately, though, when this happens as it did yesterday and today, the strangest thing occurs. I begin to feel unhappy and frustrated and when I look up (sometimes from the inside of me) I have a strong sense of Jesus in front of me smiling and saying, “Don’t worry about it!” Tomorrow is another day!” I want to object and make excuses—often good ones—for why the day sped along the way it did, but Jesus just stays right there smiling as if I should not have a care in the world. It amazes me to say so, but I feel as if I am believing it’s all okay…and that tomorrow will, in fact, be better.

So here I am at 7:30PM on Tuesday of the first week of Advent saying to myself, “While it’s true that you have no Advent blog post written, no spiritual reading done, no religious service attended or other good deed to point to…it is true that tomorrow is another day and that God is just as close as God was yesterday, and that —in itself—is enough!”
I’ll see you, God willing, tomorrow!

What Do You Want?

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Jesus, question, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, what do you want me to do for you

In a conversation with a blind man in today’s gospel, Jesus asked a question: “What do you want me to do for you?” When we think of the man who was going to be the recipient of the answer, it seems really like “a no-brainer.’

If Jesus just happened by in your life today and asked the same question, what would your answer be?

Life Choices

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Carthusian, contemplative life, direction in life, Galatians, Jesus, Luke, Martha, Mary, psalm 139, St. Bruno, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

There are many choices today for reflection. They all spring from the day’s lectionary readings and speak of the active and/or contemplative life in God. Paul speaks of his conversion, the recognition of his role in proclaiming Christ to the Gentiles and his many interactions with followers of Christ that convinced them of his transformation from persecutor of Christians to a faithful follower of Christ. His entire life became a witness. (GAL 1:13-24)

Then follows my favorite psalm (139), proclaiming how wonderfully made we are – and have been “from our mother’s womb.” Sometimes it just takes some time to wake up to the reality and the privilege. Many things determine our capacity to flourish. Conditions of place, family, income: all the many outer elements of life – as well as opportunities for inner development – make us who we are. Nature and nurture should work together.

But there is more, as seen in the gospel featuring Mary and Martha today, a very familiar story of a visit from Jesus. (LK 10:38-42) Mary sits at the feet of Jesus, listening to him, while Martha scurries around doing the tasks of hospitality and complaining about Mary’s lack of help. These were sisters, likely living together but remembered through the centuries as indicative of very different personalities: one the active and the other the contemplative in life.

Today is also the feast of Saint Bruno, a man who was a famous teacher and appointed chancellor of the his archdiocese at age 45 – a very high position. Bruno, however, had a dream of living in solitude and prayer, a dream he eventually realized in his foundation of the Carthusian order of monks and nuns. These men and women lived in individual cells at a distance from one another. They met for two prayer periods each day and spent the rest of the time in solitude, eating together only on great feasts. After nine centuries, there are approximately 370 monks and 75 nuns in various places in the world, living in the same manner as the companions of Bruno. in the whole, wide world, by today’s standards, a very small number.

What motivates people to choose a direction in life? Some, it is clear, “fall” into a life’s work. Some people take a long time to choose – or never do. It seems to me that it takes attention of both body and spirit to discern a place in this world. What has been your motivating force in life? Who has influenced your choices? Are there dreams still awaiting fulfillment? Most importantly: where is God in your life?

Deep Questions

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Jesus, questions, rock, role, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

7:00AM: I am sitting in our living room where all is quiet. In the silence a song begins to play in my mind, once again from the St. Louis Jesuits. Over and over, just the refrain. Over and over I hear: Only in God will my soul be at rest…from him comes my hope, my salvation. He alone is my rock of safety, my strength, my glory, my God. “Why those words?” I ask and then another question: “What is my role here now?”

Lots of people are asking questions like that these days, I think. Over 200,000 people have died in our country over the past six months. Why would that question not rise up at some point? So I go to the lectionary readings for a clue and find more questions than answers.

1. (ECCL 3:1-11): There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for everything under heaven…
2. PS 144: Blessed is the Lord, my rock, my mercy and my fortress, my stronghold, my salvation, my shield in whom I trust…
3. (LK 0:18-22): Once when Jesus was praying, he asked them (his disciples) “Who do the crowds say that I am?”…”Who do you say that I am?”

Questions and answers – oblique though they may be – then more questions…As I read again the three readings for the day, the gospel acclamation catches my eye and everything comes together in this one short statement: The Son of Man came to serve. (MK 10:45) And so it is with me.

The Tax Collector

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inner light, Jesus, Matthew, mercy, sacrifice, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Jesus had a unique way of choosing his disciples. There were no interviews, no ‘vetting” to be sure of the character of the person being considered. Jesus just approached a person, said “Follow me!” and it was up to the person called to get up from whatever s/he was doing and go. Most, it seems, were fishermen – honest workers with simple lives. One wonders about Matthew, the tax collector. Was he maybe chosen as a test for the rest of the band of followers or for the larger population that knew him as “a sinner,” because of his profession, a challenge of magnanimity, perhaps?

Clearly, Jesus had a point in mind when he encountered Matthew. When people grumbled and looked askance at Matthew in the company of Jesus, they were likely surprised at the reason Jesus gave for his choice. “Those who are well do not need a physician,” he said, “but the sick do. Go and learn the meaning of the words, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ I did not come to call the righteous but sinners.”

This should be a comfort to all of us who are not yet perfect. Jesus was clearly able to see the inner light in Matthew rather than only what was considered necessary for his work. The proof that he was ready to step up to a deeper calling can be seen in his willingness and ability to leave the life he was living to respond to the light he saw in Jesus that was reflected somehow in his own person. A good lesson for us when we want to judge someone whose inner light is not clearly visible to us in our day-to-day life.