Getting Attention

Tags

Elijah, God, incredible, Jesus, Kings, Matthew, ordinary, Peter, recognize, storm, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, walk on water

How does God get your attention? How do you pray for God to attend to you? When God shows up, do you recognize and accept how God comes? Today’s lectionary readings hold examples of two such situations for our consideration.

In the first, we have the story of Elijah the prophet on the mountain of Horeb who was instructed by God to leave the cave where he had found shelter in order to encounter “the Lord who will be passing by.” All sorts of wild signs arose: heavy wind, earthquake, fire…extraordinary conditions that might suggest such an extraordinary vision – but no, the Lord was in none of those signs. Thank goodness Elijah was astute enough to recognize the Lord “in a tiny whispering sound” or he would have missed God’s visitation. (1 KGS 19: 9-13) So God might show up anywhere, any time and we need to be ready for the unexpected.

In the gospel, there is also an unexpected event – a storm on the sea – when Jesus is off on a mountain by himself and the disciples are in a boat with waves crashing mightily against it, suggesting it might sink. This time, God sends Jesus walking toward them and they don’t recognize him because he is – like in the Book of Kings – coming in a way that seems impossible. He’s walking on the water. Peter, the impetuous one, challenges the vision that they think is a ghost by saying, “If it’s you, tell me to come to you across the water.” When Jesus says, “Come,” Peter jumps in and does fine until he remembers that he is doing something impossible so he starts to sink. Jesus saves him, of course. (MT 14: 22-33)

So whether God shows up in the ordinary, or in some totally incredible circumstance, we need to be ready and open to accept and respond to what comes to us, even if it calls us to trust what seems impossible, in order to have an experience that is beyond anything we have ever known.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transfiguration

Tags

high mountain, James, Jesus, John, lamp, Luke, Mark, Matthew, Peter, pray, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, transfiguration, vision

One of the extraordinary events in the life of Jesus, chronicled in all three of the synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke), is known as the Transfiguration. That word when broken apart speaks to a process of changing form, which is what happened to Jesus and was witnessed by the apostles Peter, James and John one day on a high mountain where they had gone to pray. It is a familiar story. For those interested in detail, it is a great chance to question and muse about the what and why of the incident as each of the three versions in the gospels has small, distinctive differences, none of which changes the substance of the event.

I’m one of those people who likes to pay attention to the small things in order to get a feel for the underlying sense of emotions and reactions to what was happening. Today’s recounting is from MT 17:1-9 where the first thing that grabbed me was the place where they went to pray. The text says they went “up to a high mountain” and I began to ask myself: Why a high mountain? Is it symbolic of Jesus, the “high priest” – or more simply was it just a place where they wouldn’t be bothered by crowds? Then more deeply: Did Jesus know what was going to happen there on that day? Was that the only time he experienced a visitation from Moses and Elijah or others of his ancestors in such a visual way?

Then there are the three companions, not just observers but participants in the vision. I find it fascinating that in Matthew’s version, Peter (true to his usual manner of reactivity) seems not to be afraid at all in seeing Jesus transformed into a being of light, his clothes dazzling white, standing talking to two men who have been long dead! Whether or not he recognized Moses and Elijah, his enthusiasm caused him to blurt out the fact that it was great to be there and to make the suggestion that they set up tents and stay! Interesting also is that, although the vision did not frighten any of the three, the shadow that overcame them and the voice of God speaking out of the cloud the message that This is my beloved Son; listen to Him, terrified them such that they fell to the ground and hid their faces. In the end, I picture a tender scene that the gospel reports as Jesus coming over, touching them (probably leaning over to pat them on their shoulders) and telling them there was nothing to fear. The vision had passed.

What are we to make of all this? I recommend the message of Peter in his second letter where he speaks about the message God spoke on that day. “This is my Son, my beloved, in whom I am well-pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice from heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain…You will do well to be attentive to it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.” (2PT 16-19)

Could that be a call to our own visionary seeing? Perhaps a waiting transfiguration of our own life?

 

 

 

 

 

Faithful Witnesses

Tags

Acts of the Apostles, faith, foundation, ministry, Paul, Peter, repentance, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

We all come to faith – and almost anything in life – in different ways. For some faith is a stumbling toward God that is motivated by internal promptings and inexplicable knowing. For others the path is immediately clear and grasped in a fullness that is never let go. Some of us inherit our religion from our family line and others try on different denominations and/or practices to see what fits.

Peter and Paul, probably the best known characters (in every sense of that word) in the Christian Scriptures and Tradition, had very different early lives and faith experiences. Peter, the fisherman, was the impulsive, “jump right in” kind of guy who often had to retrace his steps in repentance. His heart was large and loving, however, and the time he spent in the company of Jesus prepared him to endure everything that came after with a passion that served him to and through his horrific death.

Paul was a Roman citizen, a fact that sources say implies that he was moderately well-off, and which granted him a certain respect wherever he went in the Empire. Unlike Peter, Paul never met Jesus so didn’t have the advantage of experiencing the personal charisma and teaching that had so convinced Peter that Jesus was the true Messiah. In fact, Paul spent time persecuting people like Peter so, like us, his conversion had to take place through the agency of others. Unlike most of us, however, the Scriptures tell us a fantastical story of Paul’s conversion that was so complex it would have been difficult to ignore – or to allow Paul to return to his former life. (see ACTS 9:1-19)

The stories in the Acts of the Apostles chronicle the ministry of these two Christian giants as they traveled and facilitated the spread of Christianity in the known world. Today the Church celebrates one feast to honor both of them. How might we honor these two men whose paths to greatness were diverse but converged to provide a foundation in the earliest days of the Christian era? Perhaps we ought to examine our own willingness to commit to our calling. How authentic is our living in the everyday journey that we walk? Are there moments of recognition that strengthen us for fidelity to our life purpose? Do we share what we come to know for the good of others? Can we hear the testimony of prophets and judge truth, regardless of the personality that delivers the message? Many questions…to be answered by each of us out of our own personal experience and belief.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Do You Love Me?

Tags

focus, Jesus, John, Lectionary, love, mowing the grass, Peter, practice, prayer, serendipitous, spiritual practice, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, work

Sometimes my thoughts have a strange way of coming together. Often two or more unrelated things give me a basis for conclusion that make me scratch my head and say, “Where did that come from?” Today is one of those days – a serendipitous collision of a passing thought with the morning lectionary reading that may or may not “work” in the world outside my mind. Here goes:

On my coffee run to the kitchen this morning the few words I heard exchanged were about the lovely morning weather. The sun was full up and shining on all things green (before 7:00 am!). As I left the kitchen I heard a remark about how beautiful the new-mown grass looked and I felt the same, satisfied with the hours I spent yesterday preparing it for the group of retreatants arriving today. As I sat in my chair and prepared to write, it struck me that mowing the grass on our 11-acre property has become a spiritual practice for me. I speak about it as my leisure because it gives me a chance to be outside in nature with all the color and diversity, the scents on the breeze, the small animals scampering away at the roar of the mower’s approach. It takes focus, however, to get the job done well. I am not free just to ride around without paying attention to the pattern I’m creating. Staying with the line of what has just been cut is essential to a neat and complete result. If my mind wanders into something I see – a new wildflower perhaps – I lose my line and have a wobbly patch that needs to be corrected. Paying attention does not mean I can’t enjoy the ride, but it does mean I need to stay awake and alert.

The gospel for today (JN 21:15-19) contains that famous and often pondered over exchange between Jesus and Peter where Jesus asks Peter three times: “Do you love me?” with Peter seeming more frustrated with each repetition. By the third time he is so frustrated that he blurts out, “You know everything! You know that I love you!” whereupon Jesus tells him just a bit about what the future might look like and why Peter might want to remember the love he has proclaimed so vehemently for Jesus when events call for that measure of love.

What came to me as I read that was the repetition and the necessity of keeping the mind focused – in this case, on what the heart knows. If I forget where I am in the mowing, it all goes awry. If Peter lost the certainty and depth of his love for Jesus (and that of Jesus for him) for even a moment in the toughest times to follow, he might have lost heart. As it was, all reports are that he endured everything that came to him as privilege because of his inner certainty of Christ with him all the time.

If we practice every day – whether in prayer, relationship or mowing the lawn – it may be that we are more able when the tests come. When God asks me in the many moments of the daily routine, “Do you love me?” my answer may be all I need at some future time to stand up to the challenge of love where life or death is the result of my response.

My Hope Quotient

Tags

bright side, explanation, hope, optimist, pessimist, Peter, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, world view

On a continuum from pessimism to optimism, I come down pretty consistently on the positive side. I’m not saying I’m the “cockeyed optimist” in the song from South Pacific but I can usually look on the bright side of things. I don’t think about it too much; it’s just the way I see the world. I presume that kind of statement might be made by every one of us – about where we are vis-à-vis our world view.

In today’s reading from the first letter of Peter (3:15-18), there is a line that set me to thinking. Peter writes, “Always be ready to give an explanation to anyone who asks you for a reason for your hope.” That sounded to me like a challenge to go beyond a simple statement such as “Life is good!” or “Bah, humbug!” to an explanation for such words. It sounds like Peter is looking for a testimony of faith, like “God has been good to me,” but even there we ought to be more specific.

I believe this will be a day of considering my answer…

The “In Group”

Tags

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.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fat Tuesday

Tags

40 days, chocolate, Fat Tuesday, generosity, Jesus, Lent, Mardi Gras, Mark, penance, Peter, reward, sacrifice, spiritual growth, spring, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

It seems too soon to say that we are on the verge of springtime. Did you know that is the meaning of the word Lent? It sounds funny to some of us living in the Northeast who know the possibility of still more snowstorms before the season really comes. Moreover, I doubt there are many of us who were taught associations with that word that rivaled the beauty of the season of spring. We face into Lent with visions of penance, deprivation and sacrifice. (How many of us have never given up chocolate for Lent?) There’s nothing wrong with any practice we might take on in Lent as long as the goal is spiritual growth without grumbling. I’m one of those whose Lenten practice has taken on a more positive spin in my adulthood. Rather than giving up something that tastes good, I try to do something that takes me out of my way for someone else’s good. And I try to smile while doing it, even if it isn’t my favorite thing to do.

I smiled as I read the first line of today’s gospel because it sounded like Peter was pouting about the cost of following Jesus and wanted Jesus to be aware of what was being asked (as if He didn’t know!). Peter says, “We have given up everything and followed you!” (MK 10:28) I can almost hear Jesus sighing as he explains (probably not for the first time) the concept of the “hundredfold” that is promised to the faithful. Peter did eventually get the message that it’s not about the reward but about the generosity of our becoming in love that is the goal of our striving. That seems a good thing to remember as we approach the journey to Easter, placing our willingness at the feet of the Christ.

So today, on this vigil called Mardi gras (fat Tuesday), eat all the chocolate – or whatever – you want and drink – but not really to excess – and be merry in a way that leads you to a different kind of merriment for the next 40 days of growing in love. And then, in the end, keep on with the good habits you have achieved because that’s what it’s really about anyway.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transfiguration

Tags

commitment, conversion, Elijah, James, John, Luke, metanoia, Moses, Peter, profess vows, Sisters of St. Joseph, spiritual path, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, transfiguration, transformation

Today’s gospel (LK 9:28-36) tells of an experience that was truly “mind-blowing ” for Peter, James and John, the three apostles that Jesus took with him when he “went up the mountain to pray.” Usually Jesus took those treks alone but on this day he allowed the three to see more deeply what could happen when he was in deep communion with God. He was, the story goes, “transfigured before them…his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white.” If that was not enough of a shock, they also saw Moses and Elijah conversing with him.

One wonders why Jesus chose to expose his friends to this experience. Perhaps they were ready for the next step in their own transformation. It was a scene that they didn’t understand and they didn’t tell anyone about it but they certainly were changed by that day.

Sometimes on a spiritual path we can also have experiences of divine presence that we don’t understand. They may not be as dramatic as that day on the mountain was. It may just be as simple as a felt sense of peace, or an insight that we recognize as not coming from ourselves…yet we are changed. We know something that we did not know before and it gives us motivation to seek a deeper knowing. Sometimes it is strong enough to call the experience a “conversion” or “metanoia” and it leads to serious commitment on our part.

This day is very special to the Sisters of St. Joseph in my community. It is the day on which we professed our vows as religious. Although a peak experience, I would guess that for most of us our “transfiguration” was not instantaneous or sustained. But it was a step. What had begun in different ways for each of us: an organic growing desire from childhood, a comment from a parish priest, a dream or a vision – the notion of religious life came to us (sometimes not so welcome!) and remained. And it is a commitment, just like that of any other vocation in life, that must be nurtured by the ways in which we are called to grow and become the person we were born to be. So today I celebrate my own vocation and the support of all the women who have been example to me of what religious life has been and continues to be for the world. And I pray for a future that will see a flowering of new ways for the transformation of the world.

What’d I Say?

Tags

breathe, defile, hateful, Jesus, Matthew, negativity, Ordinary Time, Peter, speech, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, unkind words, violent, walking on water, words

Interestingly on this “ordinary day” – Tuesday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time in our Church calendar, to be exact – there are two possible gospel readings from which to choose. If I’m not mistaken, that usually happens on big feast days or when a long gospel passage appears first and is followed by a shorter version of the same one. Today we have two completely different texts – the first being the familiar aftermath of the feeding of the five thousand that includes not only Jesus but Peter walking on water (MT 14:22-36). There’s a lot to talk about in that passage. It is the second text, however, that caught me this morning (MT 15:1-2, 10-14). It’s all worth pondering but it includes a sentence that I think is uniquely timely and important for each of us and all of us as foundational to our spirituality. Jesus says, It is not what enters one’s mouth that defiles a person; but what comes out of the mouth is what defiles one.

The verb defile is quite strong. Synonyms include: to mar, sully, spoil, impair, debase or degrade. What Jesus is pointing out is the importance of the words we use every day. We might intuit from this that unkind words can devolve into unkind actions and hateful or violent thoughts or speech often lead to violence. It actually says that our speech can ruin things. We have many examples of this truth in the world today so in addition to praying for peace and enlightenment, it seems that an essential practice for all of us is to watch our speech. If negativity is becoming a constant in our lives we need to pay more attention and leave negative conversations behind. Awareness is key to success in these situations. As a wise woman once said to me, “Energy follows thought.” The train of negative speech gathers steam very quickly after leaving the station. So putting on the brakes and jumping off that train becomes crucial to our own health and that of all those in our circles of conversation.

My plan for today will include an attempt to watch every word that comes from my mouth and (even better) work to see if I can catch the negatives while they’re still rolling around inside me. If I am able to do that, I might also be able to breathe them out so that they dissipate in the air without damage to me or the world around me.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stepping Stones

Tags

faith, flowering, love, Peter, relatedness, soul, stepping stones, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, virtue

There is an exhortation in the text from the Second Letter of Peter this morning that deserves notice and reflection. It is a progression of development that begins with faith and moves to the crowning achievement of the highest good: love. Each of the steps demands something deeper from us and each is supported by what we have learned in the previous inner opening. The beauty of the flowering is that it is, in the end, not just about our own growth but flows out into relatedness to all. I suggest reflection on each of these stepping stones of the soul, the cycle of which, it seems to me, can be revisited time after time for a tune-up. See what you think.

Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, virtue with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with endurance, endurance with devotion, devotion with mutual affection and mutual affection with love. (2 PT 1: 7)