A Nice Quiet Dinner…

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compassion, Jesus, Judas, Lazarus, Martha, Mary, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Knowing what we do about this week in the story of Jesus, I was happy to see the gospel for today that began this way:

Six days before Passover Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. They gave a dinner for him there, and Martha served, while Lazarus was one of those reclining at table with him…(Jn 12:1-11)

I’m always glad to be reminded of the fact that Jesus had a family that extended to some of his closest friends and that—as in “normal” days in our lives—Jesus had celebratory meals with those people and got a chance once in awhile to “put his feet up” and relax. This scenario was enhanced with Mary’s desire to make Jesus more comfortable by anointing his feet with an expensive oil, adding a lovely fragrance to the house and a restful ambiance to the gathering. It was, I think, a telling “moment” about relationship for Jesus. Unfortunately, the feeling was shattered by the shift caused by Judas, complaining about the cost of the oil. Thus did the lovely moment pass and we are thrown back into the scene that is unfolding as a precursor to what is to come.

I choose today, however, to pause and consider this scene. It’s mostly conjecture, as we don’t have much to go on except Mary’s willingness to give such a generous gift to the Master. But who were the other people, named or not, whom we believe to have been in attendance at this meal. We know, at least, Jesus, Judas, Mary, Martha, Lazarus. Clearly we are familiar with all those people to whom we have already assigned roles: Judas holds the role of money-changer and is what we might call “a skinflint.” (There is clear evidence from the text that he is seen as “a thief.”) Martha is, as usual, in charge of the kitchen and Mary takes care of Jesus, making him as comfortable as possible. There are perhaps other friends as well, since it seems as if they are always together. And then there’s Jesus who speaks on Mary’s behalf with a striking statement after Judas complains about the money spent on the oil. Jesus says, “Leave her alone. Let her keep this for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you but you do not always have me.” (Undoubtedly a foreshadowing of what is to come.)

I suggest creating the scene: the people, their placement in the room, their movements (mostly those of Martha, the always-busy one), the interactions of Mary and Jesus…Whose feelings can you imagine? The frustration of Judas and, perhaps, of Jesus…the compassion and tenderness of Mary…the surprise of everyone at the words of Jesus….

See what happens if you begin with some silence and then recreate the scene. Do you learn anything new about anyone? Can you put yourself in the scene? How does that change things—for you or the others gathered there? There are only days before the trial and crucifixion of Jesus. Can you feel the tension building?

Full of Grace

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Divine Mother, full of grace, Hail Mary, Mary, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

We Catholics have some prayers (as most people have ) that seem to have been with us since we were born. “Hail Mary…” never passes our lips without “full of grace..,” and the rest of the prayer in honor of the Mother of Jesus -who, we believe, is also our mother. I was blessed in my life with a wonderful “earth” mother who had great devotion to our “heavenly” mother, so it was easy to understand the relationship of Jesus to his mother. We celebrate her, too, under many titles and for many reasons throughout her life. Today it is simply the recognition of her holiness even before she was born that we celebrate. We call her full of grace.

If you were asked what makes Mary full of grace, how might you answer? Would you speak of her accomplishments? What would those be? Would you cite her personality as the center of her blessedness? Do you have stories that illustrate her fitness for the title? What is it that allows her that designation?

I have come to appreciate all the ways we speak of Mary, but lately, for me, I believe the fullness of her “grace” abides in the reality that she was totally and uniquely herself – the person that God saw and loved just as she was. We could do well to think of ourselves as the same, each of us being just the person that makes God happy just the way we are, continuing to grow in love until we are welcomed home into our Divine Mother’s arms in God’s house.

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?

Close Cousins

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a voice crying in the desert, David Haas, Elizabeth, Jesus, John the Baptist, Mary, the chosen one, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

As the Church celebrates the birth of St. John the Baptist, I start thinking about the relationship of John to his cousin, Jesus. I find it hard to talk much about it as there are few mentions in the Scriptures but this morning I decided to use what I have read about them together and go from there.

It doesn’t seem that they were close in childhood, unless Elizabeth and Mary wrote a lot of letters describing their “boys” to one another and sharing them with the kids. It’s so much easier for us in the age of technology. We can watch children grow up in pictures and videos and as soon as they can write, they can enjoy a relationship – if they have the tools. I wonder what the mothers of these two shared, if anything. And what, as they grew, were the stories about them in their neighborhoods?

John certainly knew his place in adulthood. “A voice crying in the desert” is how he described his role and he never seemed to mind that Jesus was “the chosen one” and he the “sidekick,” the associate, the one to do the bidding of God in Jesus. He went to prison because of Jesus. He was beheaded for loving him. It doesn’t seem that they had much time together but when they met it seemed like they knew each other immediately on a deep level. And I’m so glad to know that John had the privilege of baptizing Jesus. What an honor and a humbling event, for sure!

All that makes me think of a David Haas song that speaks of the relationship we might have with Jesus. It’s the words and the music of the refrain that cause a stirring in my heart. And when I think of John the Baptist I can imagine that if he never even met Jesus (although how wonderful for both of them that he did!) he would have sung this refrain.

Without seeing you, we love you. Without touching you, we embrace. Without knowing you, we follow. Without seeing you, we believe.

Mary in June?

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Blessed Mother, coronavirus, Genesis, good old days, John, Mary, May, prejudice, solutions, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Everything seems so up-ended, disordered, chaotic…even as I turned first to the USCCB website this morning for the liturgical readings of the day. “It is June, is it not?” I asked myself, as I looked at the liturgical calendar and saw the heading: “Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.” Most “good Catholics” of at least “middle age” have been aware since childhood of the dedication of May as “the Month of Mary, our Mother.” We grew up with Marian hymns and May Crownings, flowers and May Devotions with special attention to the rosary and awareness of a twinning of sorts of Memorial Day as May 30 and the feast of Mary as Queen of Heaven on the 31st.

I admit my age when I say these things so please don’t think I have returned to the “good old days” before all calendars became rather fluid to accommodate work schedules/weekends and other updates seen more sensible to the majority of people, at least in the USA. It’s just that I could always count on celebrating May first as my own mother’s birthday and the 31st as that of our Blessed Mother Mary. Silly me, to hold to a calendar when the world is in chaos all around me.

After my rant and a closer look inside, I find it ironic but also telling that the readings for today seem correct. From the Hebrew Scriptures (GN 3:9-15, 20) we hear the conversation in the Garden of Eden between God and Adam after he and Eve have eaten the forbidden fruit. It is all about excuses and blaming and judgment. (Eve has joined the conversation midway through). More striking is the gospel recounting (JN 19: 25-34) of the Crucifixion of Jesus.

Our country is burning with looting and mourning, frustration and pain over racism and pandemic. The coronavirus is not a punishment from God, nor is the sin of racism. We need to look deeply at the situations and ask ourselves how we might now contribute to solutions rather than adding to the chaos. What have we done to stem the tide of infection? Are wearing a mask in public and washing our hands at home too onerous strictures? More deeply yet, we need to look at reasons for prejudice against our brothers and sisters who do not look like us or talk like us or celebrate life like us. Do we know the hearts of others rather than just their skin? What have we done to welcome difference into our lives and love it in the name of the God who created us all?

I am talking to myself here as much as to anyone else and I need this day to look at my own life and do more than wish that it could be different for all of us. I have no more words. I rely on your prayer as I offer mine to you. May God help us all.

Blessed Joseph

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Blessed Mother, Mary, mother, Sisters of St. Joseph, St. Joseph, St. Joseph the Worker, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

There are so many reasons to celebrate St. Joseph today on this feast of St. Joseph the Worker. Most obvious for me is that I live as a Sister of St. Joseph whose heritage is dedicated to and modeled on the person of Joseph, husband of Mary. We believe him to be a quiet man who worked as a carpenter – simple yet noble work – in service to God and his family and as a teacher to his son. Somehow that image remains although he is also named as Patron of the Universal Church for Catholics and has come to the attention of workers the world over since the Papacy of Pope Leo XIII as the champion of the social teachings of the Church. The promulgation in 1891 of his encyclical, Rerum Novarum, which addressed the condition of the working classes, gave a platform for workers that still directs the actions of justice workers throughout the world.

Closer to home and heart, however, is the devotion of my mother, Mary, whose birthday is today and who celebrated each year by placing flowers in church at the feet of St. Joseph’s statue. I continued this tradition in her honor after her passing from this world. This year it would be impossible because our church participation is necessarily virtual, but I plan to go outside later and walk to the border of our land where my siblings and I had forsythia bushes (30 of them!) planted in memory of our lovely mother after her death. She loved those “golden bells” and it does not surprise me that this year they are so prolific and beautiful that they always make me smile.

So I welcome this beautiful month and give thanks to God for the models of steadfast love so present in Joseph and Mary, and my own holy mother.

Go Deep

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authority, Jesus, John, Lazarus, Martha, Mary, Psalm 30, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, voice

Today’s gospel – the very long story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead – (JN 11: 1-45) offers several themes worthy of reflection. It’s easy to give it a cursory reading because we know the story from the moment Jesus got the word from Martha and Mary that Lazarus was ill, through the delays, the strange behavior of Jesus (not rushing to the home of the sick man, his dear friend), theological conversation about the end times when all will be raised, to the cinematic moment when Lazarus emerges from the tomb still bound in burial bands, when Jesus gives the order to untie him and let him go and John concludes that many people came to believe in Jesus from that day. (Whew! Try to diagram that sentence, if you will.)

What I noticed today more clearly than ever before when reading this story was the authority in the voice of Jesus at every turn. Clearly, he had come to understand his mission – the reason he had come into the world – and perhaps how Lazarus could illustrate something that Jesus knew about God’s willingness to save us all.

I’m still ruminating on the themes…so I urge you to read the text aloud, stop at each juncture and wait listening (as Psalm 130 urges us today) for deeper understanding of what Jesus was saying and doing to ready us for the events that await us in the remaining days of Lent.

Annunciation

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Anunciation, devotion, divine design, divine grace, Mary, Tangel, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Have you ever wondered about the encounter of Mary and the angel who brought her the news that she was to be the mother of Jesus? I know that we have the gospel passages that help us put the pieces together but we don’t have much to go on – especially because there were no witnesses to the event except Mary herself. The fact that it is one of the foundational tenets of Christianity and has been celebrated in art for centuries and written about and debated in theological circles for nearly two millennia should be convincing enough for us. But how was it for Mary really? Did she see an angel with her human eyes? Was it a being of light or a human form? Did she hear the message as if spoken from human lips or was the message transmitted by telepathy? Was she really as quick to answer as the gospel tells us or did she hesitate longer than just that one question: “How can this be since I do not know man?” (or closer to our language “I have not had intimate relations with a man.”)

Some of us have deeper devotion to Mary than others of us so we may conjecture different scenarios. Some of us probably never spend any time with the scene at all. Today, I suggest that we do spend some time in what some call “the imaginal realm.” Go to a place in your inner self where you can reconstruct the event of Mary coming to know that she was to carry the child that would become Jesus the Christ.

Then put yourself in the equation.

I suggest this last practice after having read the reflection from Franciscan Media this morning. It just carries the experience toward us to a place that perhaps we have never gone. See what happens, if you will.

Sometimes spiritual writers are accused of putting Mary on a pedestal and thereby, discouraging ordinary humans from imitating her. Perhaps such an observation is misguided. God did put Mary on a a pedestal and has put all human beings on a pedestal. We have scarcely begun to realize the magnificence of divine grace, the wonder of God’s freely given love. The marvel of Mary—even in the midst of her ordinary life—is God’s shout to us to wake up to the marvelous creatures that we all are by divine design. (www.franciscanmedia.org)

Two Choices

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avoidance, Blessed Mother, Jonah, Mary, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, trust

If ever there was a “wild and crazy” juxtaposition in the Scripture readings from the U.S.Bishops’ Conference, it is today. To be honest, however, there are two different sets of readings: one from the “regular” lectionary calendar and one from the calendar of feasts. Today we honor the Blessed Mother Mary, mother of Jesus, as she is remembered in the prayer dedicated to her. It is the feast of the Most Holy Rosary. (Lots to learn on the internet about the provenance and development of that devotion.)

In the daily lectionary readings we have the very familiar story of Jonah and the whale (JON 1 &2) where Jonah tries everything to get out of completing the mission he has been given by God and ends up in the belly of the whale. It’s a cautionary tale, to be sure, and the moral is the futility of dismissing God’s uncomfortable directives. (To be fair to God, Jonah was saved by being harbored for a time in the belly of the whale and spewed out in the end after which he gave in to the mission he had been given…but that comes in a later chapter.)

The reading for the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary is the story in Luke’s gospel of the Annunciation of Mary’s call to be the mother of Jesus. There seems to be no hesitation in her affirmative response to this incredible message brought to her by an angel. (traditionally translated as: “Be it done unto me according to your word.”) The gospels are like shorthand, I think, and there are places where I would wish for a more complete description of the stated event. It seems unfair to have such a brief conversation (LK 1: 28-38) for such an important event. One translation (J.B. Phillips) that seems to speak more of who Mary is has always been my favorite. Mary says, “I belong to the Lord body and soul. Let it happen as you say.”

While Jonah was busy sleeping in the hold of a sinking ship, trying to avoid God, Mary was practicing the love that directed her entire young life and enabled a consistent response to something she didn’t really understand but was willing to trust. A telling juxtaposition…and something upon which to reflect when we are faced with a difficult assignment from God.

The Stuff of Legend

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Blessed Mother, Holy Family, Jesus, Joseph, Mary, St. Anne, St. Joachim, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

A legend, the dictionary says, is “a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated.” Today’s feast in Christianity celebrates the parents of Mary, mother of Jesus, even though we know nothing factual about them except the fact that they existed. Even their names (Anne and Joachim) come from a legendary source written more than a century after Jesus died. “The heroism and holiness of these people, however,” (says franciscanmedia.com) “is inferred from the whole family atmosphere around Mary in the Scriptures. Whether we rely on the legends about Mary’s childhood or make guesses from the information in the Bible, we see in her a fulfillment of many generations of prayerful persons, herself steeped in the religious traditions of her people.”

I smile as I think of St. Anne, whose name I carry (Lois ANN) and have cherished as grandmother throughout my life, imagining what she must have been like. I see her caring for and teaching Mary the small tasks of the household and showering her with love as my own mother did with me. There is comfort and joy and no harm at all, I think, in this kind of imagining and so I will go about this day reflecting on this spiritual grandmother of mine whose life gave birth and much more to the one we call Blessed.