It’s All About Love

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accepting, Jesus, love, Mark, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Jesus is very clear this morning about the most important of the virtues. It is, of course, love. So much over the centuries has been written—in poems, stories and human interest pieces in newspapers—that we couldn’t miss the importance of love, even if we tried. The answer that Jesus gave when the scribe asked him about the greatest commandment (MK 12:28-34) always presents to me an image of an adult with a child. The adult says things like: “I love you to the moon and back!”—while hugging the child—or hugs the child so tight that the child protests saying, “Stop! I can’t breathe!” There’s also the truth that love springs from inside us, often unbidden, when we least expect it. Love is difficult to explain and more likely to be left with the words, “It’s complicated!” And so it is.

I sometimes ask myself if I truly do love God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength, especially when I remember that the measure of that love is reflected in how we treat our neighbor as well. What might that mean? Perhaps it’s a question of acceptance. Do I allow every person a place in my heart or is that door closed to some for one reason or another? What are my criteria for letting someone into my life? How willing do I have to be? Do they always have to be pleasing to me or can I also accept faults and failings (maybe like my own…?) We might talk the talk but when push comes to shove how do we walk the walk in the manner of God’s love for us?

So many questions…with answers deeper than words.

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?

Memory

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gospels, Mark, memories, St. Mark, stories, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

It’s fascinating to think about how we know what we know about the life of Jesus from those who lived in the first century CE (Christian Era), because all four were written long after the sojourn of Jesus on earth. I’m thinking about this because in the biographical information about Mark, who wrote the first and shortest of the four gospels and upon whom the authors of Matthew and Luke are said to have depended in their own writings, we find only this to situate him: (? – c. April 25, 68) Only his death date is noted.

Mark was not one of the twelve apostles but must have either known Jesus personally (evidence is not clear) or been very deeply touched by the stories about Jesus from those who did have personal experiences of him. I think about a group of people sitting around a campfire, remembering Jesus, having been inspired by him and sharing the stories that prompted them to give their lives to the search to know this Jesus the Christ more deeply.

I think about my own growth in faith and the stories that I love about Jesus. They are mostly the stories like the healings, especially of young people whose parents were bereft and upon whom Jesus took pity, or of Mary Magdalene whom Jesus loved. When he saw her in the garden weeping over his death, he needed only to say her name for her to know he was alive. Compassion is the basis of the stories I love, stories of the care of Jesus for others, like the feeding of the five thousand or of his friends on the beach after his resurrection…

My gratitude for the memories of those who shared stories and then wrote the gospels (community memories, to be sure) reminds me that we, too, have stories to tell – of family, community and our own personal lives that are worthy of sharing in hopes that what is of value will be kept in love for those who come after us.

Two In One

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all, commandments, love your neighbor as yourself, Mark, social distancing, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Today in Mark’s gospel we find one of the most important questions ever asked, for which we get a double answer that really is a single if we know how to see. It’s the long answer to what we have been given elsewhere. Today it seems so important to go that extra mile; it isn’t a time for shorthand. So consider every clause — even every word of the answer to “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus begins to answer with a declaration of who this God is to whom we owe allegiance and then with what is contained in our covenant toward this God. Waking up the audience with an imperative, Jesus begins:

Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!

What follows is a list of all the superlatives that speak of the totality of what is expected: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. (We might wish to ask ourselves in this time of challenge: Am I ready to give up all activity that might pass along the infection running rampant now in our country and the world? Is there anything that I want to do today that will be dangerous to others or myself? )

The second part of this “great commandment” (because we really cannot do one without the other) is: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Clearly that means today: Don’t go out anywhere that you might encounter another person unless it is necessary for the good of the whole.

How close are we to following the command contained in this gospel reading? Can we see that what we do or don’t do for God is also the way we love one another? This is perhaps the most important work of this day. Let us be about loving.

What Do You Mean?

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compassion, consciousness, courage, frustrated, Jesus, Mark, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust, understanding

Jesus seems somewhat frustrated with his disciples today (MK 8: 14-21). Having just come back from an intense four-day retreat/workshop where the presentations were challenging, I can understand. Sometimes when Jesus speaks he is using language from a different level of consciousness and his friends are just not tuned in to what he means. This is one of those times and he seems uncharacteristically frustrated – so much so that he asks, “Do you not yet understand or comprehend? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes and not see, ears and not hear? And again when he has reminded them of the miracle of the multiplication of the loaves he says, “Do you still not understand?”

It must have been difficult for Jesus as well as for the apostles. It’s a good thing they had the psalms to fall back on (as we do!). And Jesus would have needed to remember lines like those of Psalm 94 this morning when he got frustrated – words like the following:

The God who knows our every thought, how fragile we each are; will not that God in evil days speak words of rest, and instruct our hearts to understand…? (vs. 11-13a)

Take courage when you lack deep understanding of God’s workings in your life or when you feel as if you are missing the point of life in God. Hold on to trust and the overwhelming compassion of the Jesus who was fully human – just like us – and willing to forgive in our moments of confusion.

Flexibility of Farmers

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farmers, harvest, let go let God, Mark, planning, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust

I have to give farmers a lot of credit for the way they live their lives. It occurs to me because the gospel for today is one of the parables about sowing seeds (Mark 4: 1-20) and all the things that can happen between the moment of planting and the harvest. There’s a lot of waiting that goes on and the extra work when certain conditions appear – like frost in Florida or drought in the mid-west of our country. Farmers are not in control of outcome. They are also not as able to take vacations as most people do. And every year is likely to be different.

I’ve often said that in my next life, should there be one, I would like to be a farmer. The life close to nature and the joy of seeing things grow is attractive to me. I should say that even dairy farming is included in my visioning because of the regularity of the work and the relationship with animals. The challenges may be different but the conditions remain similarly challenging.

So what’s my point? I guess it’s mostly about the trust necessary in any life. My computer could crash this morning and then how would the blog be proliferated? We’re up to 836 people who sometimes read it. I have no names or street addresses or phone numbers and it would take all day to find even some of the readers…you get the picture. The question is about what I would do in that situation. Most likely I would trust that it might be time for me to go on to something else and to “let go and let God.”

It’s a risky business, this life…Today I thank God for the example of those willing to sow and watch and wait…and trust in the providence of God.

Rich and Poor

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happiness, letting go, Mark, Meister Eckhart, poor, rich, spirituality, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, willingness

The longer I live the deeper and broader the interpretations of “the rich young man” story (MK 10) become. My experiences – most recently of Peru – convince me that if we are thinking in terms of financial wealth we are only scratching the surface of possible meanings. (How can all those poor people seem so happy?) While it is true that money cannot buy happiness, it can provide food and other necessities of life. At the same time, it’s easy to see that money can complicate life significantly.

Leaving finances aside, I look at the complications in my life and how much more likely spiritual growth would be if I could only become simpler: in my desires, in my outlook, in my judgments…in my life. Looking at life from a perspective of fullness rather than lack and from the spirituality of subtraction and/or detachment that Meister Eckhart preached allows the freedom that would seem to be the end of seeking for the rich young man and for us.

If only we could let what holds us back fall off of us like the water in a morning shower or the fluffy snow that I easily brushed off my car last week in order to clear my way toward home. Letting go can be such a freeing gesture of only we open our hands and our hearts to the willingness that brings us to God’s heart. It’s all about practice and it can start at any moment. A thought, a gesture – maybe even giving away a smile to someone who irks us – could be enough to start a process that might last a lifetime. Who knows?

Ponder This

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enlighten, Ephesians, Genesis, Mark, perseverance, promise, St. Paul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

With the promise of God in Genesis 8:22, that “As long as the earth lasts, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter and day and night shall not cease,” hope returned to the world. With Paul’s prayer in his letter to the Ephesians (1:17-18), “May the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ enlighten the eyes of our hearts that we may know what is the hope to which we are called,” the promise was solidified. Through the willingness of Jesus to lay hands -not once but twice – on a blind man to assure his healing (MK 8:22-26), we can trust in God’s perseverance on our behalf.

What more can we ask as this new day dawns?

Love Is (Still and Always) the Answer

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heart, love, love God, love your neighbor as yourself, Mark, mind, Moses, neighbor, soul, strength, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, truth

From the mouth of Moses to the gospel of Mark the Scriptures repeat the same message about how we are to live. We hear it today, not in a long diatribe but rather a brief directive about love. When asked what is the first and greatest commandment, we can all likely reply – at least with the short form of “Love God and love your neighbor as yourself.” The deep impact of what that effort calls out from us, however, is in the almost staccato list of capacities that follows. We are to love God with all our heart, with all our soul, with all our mind and with all our strength. In other words: Give it all you’ve got!

What occurred to me as I typed those last two sentences was that if we are to give ourselves so completely in loving God, what can be left for our neighbor whom we are supposed to love as ourselves? But that, it seems, is the mystery, the wonderful truth of this life of loving. In the love of God, everything gets transformed so that there is always enough love to go around – for ourselves and the neighbors everywhere who have become our other selves. Love begets love wherever it is found. That’s just the way it is. And it’s up to us to prove it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rev. Thomas Keating

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A Sleep of Prisoners, Bartimaeus, breathing, centering prayer, Christopher Fry, Father Thomas Keating, Jesus, letting go, Mark, prayer, presence of God, rest in peace, see, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I just read the gospel story of the blind man, Bartimaeus. (MK 10: 46-52). My favorite line has Bartimaeus answering the question Jesus had put to him when he called out for attention. Actually both lines of the exchange are crucial. Jesus asks, “What do you want me to do for you?” to which Bartimaeus answers, “Master, I want to see.” Upon reflection one might ask why Jesus needed to pose that question as it must have been obvious that the man was blind. It certainly wasn’t a trivial request. The fact that Jesus asked it, however, might move us to consider some deeper content in our own prayer.

Does our prayer sound like a Christmas list sometimes, asking God to fix things in our lives so that we will be more comfortable than we are? Surely we are called to ask for help to live good lives and have compassion for others but in these troubled times when events and world conditions are now “soul size” (see A Sleep of Prisoners by Christopher Fry) we must be called to new ways of participating in life.

Father Thomas Keating died on Thursday (10/25) at the age of 95 years. Fr. Thomas is known to many as the father of the Centering Prayer movement and a spiritual giant who personified the best of a life of contemplative prayer. I was privileged to encounter Father Thomas twice in person and found him to be delightfully down-to-earth while also shining like the sun from the inside. His deep practice of prayer was evident in the joy with which he lived and in the deeply wise, carefully chosen words he used to speak of spiritual things. It was clear that his way of prayer was deeper than words, however, and leaned in, always listening, to the heartbeat of God.

Centering prayer is like that, Fr. Thomas would say. It consists of sitting down and “consenting to the presence of God,” returning, when we recognize that we are thinking, to just being in the Presence, letting go of everything else. Just like breathing, this kind of prayer gets patterned into us and becomes an anchor for life. Hundreds of thousands of people the world over practice this form of prayer each day and are united now in feelings of happiness and sadness at the same time: sadness to have lost the physical presence of Father Thomas in this realm but, oh so happy to think of his joyful passage into the next! May he truly rest in peace!