Complexity

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Advent, hope, potential, signs, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

After a first reading from the Book of Revelation today, my ears pricked up and my insides were warning: “Uh-oh!” because the “one like a son of man with a sharp sickle in his hand” was coming. I felt a shift, however, with Psalm 96, exhaling a long breath to hear that “He (the Lord) has made the world firm, not to be moved; he governs the peoples with equity.”

I know that we are coming swiftly into the season of Advent. I love this time of preparation and although it seems that it will be different this year, there have been intimations of hope. There are three vaccines now that seem to have the potential to slow the spread of the virus that runs rampant everywhere. For Americans in the USA, the 16-day stranglehold on the presidential election is finally over and we need not wait any longer for the transition to begin. Already in the first day, we can see civility and wisdom returning to life in these United States. But it is only a beginning. What has begun by decree from the new administration in Washington has to be accepted throughout the land and that will necessitate a monumental effort.

But that’s why I love the Season of Advent. It speaks of the time that is coming but has yet to appear. We cannot see but only feel what is happening underground, pulsing in the earth and in our lives. The signs are faint but soon to be seen. The potential is within. We have to look more deeply to perceive it.

The quote for today is from Alfred Lord Tennyson: Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, “It twill be happier.”

Snow

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give thanks, signs, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Although it’s a little late to be looking for signs that mean “Snow is coming!” (since it has already appeared as predicted this morning!), I found an interesting list of “signs of snow” on the internet today. In an effort to maintain a lighthearted attitude toward a beautiful but difficult reality that will now likely be with us for several months in this area of our country, I choose to share what I learned.

Seven natural signs of snow:

1. in the Alpes, big flowers are usually good signs.
2. In Scotland, the locals observe snowberries bushes.
3. In France, snow cover can be predicted by the thickness of onion skins.
4. Ants are the main winter weather predictors on Ischgl, Austria.
5. In Italy, it’s the bees that are closely observed.
6. Flying creatures are monitored by the local ski patrol in Aspen, Colorado. (especially Black Rosy-Finches)
7. The First Nations aboriginal people in Canada observe the coats of their horses who shed their summer coats and grow a new winter coat in the autumn.

If it’s snow-time in your neighborhood, give thanks for the beauty, bundle up and be careful out there!

Don’t Wait!

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A Light Grasp on Life, action, Alan Cohen, face, grace, problem, procrastination, readiness, signs, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, warnings

I recently heard that procrastination can become an addiction. I was rather surprised at that designation but have since pondered it as I make my daily lists and check at the end of the day or week to see what has fallen through the cracks of time and why. I can sometimes put the blame on unexpected events or lack of sleep the night(s) before the list was made but have added this practice of awareness to my desire for conscious living in the everyday. The challenge is to be responsible without becoming rigid so I try to remember a favorite book title of long ago:  A Light Grasp on Life.

My thoughts above were occasioned by two things:

1. Tomorrow I leave for an out-of-state family wedding so I need to ramp up my readiness quotient and get busy with all the tasks that need to be completed including what needs to be taken along for the ride. (That list will include my computer but there’s no telling whether or how often there will be another blog entry before next Tuesday.)

2. Earlier this morning I read the following reflection by Alan Cohen that started me thinking about the deeper side of procrastination. He was speaking of an electrical problem in his laundry room that he waited almost too long to attend to.  His words seemed an appropriate conclusion for this “thought for the day” in any situation that we might be tempted to “put off until tomorrow.”

When something in our life is malfunctioning, we receive signs, warnings…In life too, we cannot afford to keep overriding the breakers. We must heed the breaker’s warning and go to the source of the problem rather than simply treating the symptom. Instead of taking an aspirin for a headache, we need to face who or what is giving us a headache and deal with the problem at its source. Keep your antennae up for signals. Take the grace and then take action. (A Deep Breath of Life.)

 

 

 

 

 

The Lion and the Lamb

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dead of winter, hope, Isaiah, judgment, life, Peace, peaceable kingdom, prayer, presence, signs, silence, strength, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, tree, vision

Today we have one of Isaiah’s more familiar, even famous, visions. It is his powerful vision of “the day of the Lord,” describing what has come to be known as The Peaceable Kingdom. (IS 11:1-10) There are so many vivid images, some that we see on Christmas cards, some we recognize from observation of the world around us.

I believe I have spoken here of the hibiscus bush (tree?) that was moved in our yard a couple of years ago. It seemed very clear that it did not survive the transition. The surge of hope that ran through me on the day I discovered not only leaves on one of the branches but also buds seemed excessive but for me it was a clear sign that life is in some ways an inside job and occasionally we have to trust what we cannot see.

Waiting for peace in our country and world seems as futile and far away right now as the possibility of cows and bears being neighbors or babies playing by a cobra’s den. It’s clear that while waiting (patience) is important, there is more to be expected of us. How peaceable is my approach to others? Do I jump to judgment in whatever I read? Are rumors ever my “stock in trade” or do I know how to be in silence – to dwell occasionally with oppositional thought until the walls in my mind or at least in my heart are dissolved like smoke? Do I ever connect myself energetically with people in other countries around the world where people seem so strange to me? What power does the word “enemy” have in my life?

Today I look out at the tallest of trees across the yard. She stands stripped of all her fair-weather clothing and each branch – even to the tiniest of shoots – is exposed. In the “dead of winter” I know that life remains in that tree, that she is shoring up her strength to be ready for the spring when she will bloom again. Where is my willingness to be like that tree today, able to stand strong, stripped perhaps of easy answers and solutions but willing to offer my strength of honest purpose, my prayer and presence to move my world just a step closer to the realization of Isaiah’s dream?

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Body of Christ

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call to service, Christ's body, Corpus Christi, Eucharist, loaves and fishes, miracle, signs, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

In the Roman Catholic Church, we celebrate today the feast that I grew up knowing as Corpus Christi (the Body of Christ). I had a strange moment as I navigated to the US Catholic Bishops’ website this morning. I must not have been fully awake because when I read the designation of the feast as The  Solemnity of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ it sounded unfamiliar, full of pomp and ceremony – something I could not identify…until in the next moment I said to myself, “Oh, of course, it’s Corpus Christi Sunday!” and it became something familiar as in my mind’s eye I saw a procession to the Eucharist table, heard the congregation singing, Precious Body, precious Blood, here in bread and wine…punctuated by the repetition of the ministers of the Eucharist repeating to every communicant, “The body of Christ” in the most familiar and profound ritual of our faith.

Next I read the gospel, Luke’s rendition of the feeding of the five thousand (LK 9:11-17) where all sorts of random thoughts – maybe somewhat connected – followed from the text flowing in and out of my mind. Here are some that stuck. First, when the disciples told Jesus to dismiss the crowds after a day of preaching and healing so they  could go somewhere to find food, Jesus said, “Give them something to eat yourselves.” We know the story: they protest because of the huge crowd and the fact that all they have is 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish and the cost to feed them all – even if they found food in or around this deserted place – would be prohibitive. Then follows the miracle where the food is distributed and everyone is fed. Imagine the surprise of the disciples who were doing the distribution! So next I try to think about that moment. It says Jesus looked up to heaven, said the blessing over the bread and fish, broke them, then handed them to the disciples to give out. So did the multiplication happen in the blessing? in the breaking? or did each of the disciples get a basket (where did those come from?) with some tiny morsel of food inside that then became a fullness as they walked among the crowds? Does any of this matter? The point is, it seems, that people were fed. But maybe just as important as that is the fact that the disciples were agents of the feeding even though Jesus had engineered the miracle. Can you imagine Jesus doing the distribution by himself? They would have been there all night or longer!

So what is the message here? Jesus left many signs in an attempt to teach his disciples (and us) how to be in the world. “Give them something to eat yourselves” was a clear directive – and it couldn’t have been easy to manage that in such a crowd – so the call to service is not always easy and never (if truly understood) prestigious but the “endgame” is worth the effort. My last random thought was “You are what you eat.” What we take into our bodies becomes part of us – for better or for worse. What the crowd – including the disciples, I presume – were eating in today’s reading as well as at the Last Supper and what we eat during the Eucharistic liturgy has been transacted into the body of Christ. Thus, we ourselves become Christ’s body as we eat and as we serve in Christ’s name. Just as the disciples could not understand the reality that they were witnessing in the midst of that crowd, our ordinary minds cannot perceive what truly happens each time we eat at Eucharist and go out to act as Christ’s body in the world. But as we wake up to the possibility contained in our actions, as we give ourselves more and more to a generous “becoming” for God in the world, the transformation becomes more evident, more luminous, and the effort is more than worth the gift.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Misinterpretation

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divide and conquer, Jesus, John, message of love, power, power over, prophets, signs, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

As I read the gospel this morning (JN 11:45-56) I was taken by part of the dialog that the factions with the “power” were having about Jesus as his popularity grew. Here is their logic:

What are we going to do? This man is performing many signs. If we leave him alone, all will believe in him. The Romans will come and take away our land and our nation…So from that day on they planned to kill him.

Clearly, they had totally misinterpreted Jesus and the power he had. He (and prophets before and after him – even to our own day) was not interested in land or earthy governance. They just weren’t listening to the message of love that he was so intent on preaching and the humility with which he gave all the credit/power of it to God, not to himself. It is clear that those who work toward the unity that Jesus longed for people to understand were/are often vilified by those who seek power by the method of “divide and conquer.” That kind of power over is never really successful but it takes deep listening to reveal the fallacy in its rhetoric. We can be easily swayed by magnetic personalities or flattering words. Flashy “media moments” and commercials easily grab us when we’re not paying attention. It all comes down to consciousness.

Today I plan to listen deeply to all the messages that come my way, hoping to catch sincerity and meaning as well as “false advertising” – looking for the love that fuels the truth and following wherever it takes me.

Signs

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faith, Jesus, letter of james, Mark, perseverance, signs, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

I often marvel at people of strong faith who seem to persevere no matter what distress befalls them. For some, I’m sure, perseverance is hard-won but it is such a witness to me of the possibility of living through the dark times. This morning’s readings remind me to be grateful for those people and their example. The beginning of the Letter of James says that we need to ask God for wisdom in our struggles and it will be given. He adds a condition, however. We “should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind.” Clearly this steadfast faith is developed over time, not just given with our eye color or curly hair at birth. Practice makes perfect, as they say. Jesus seems a bit tired of the Pharisees in today’s gospel as they ask one more time for a sign from heaven to test him. Mark (Ch 8) says, “He sighed from the depth of his spirit” before telling them that no sign would be given them.

I often play with God, looking for signs that everything will be okay when I’m late for work; green lights calm me down. When I have too many things to do and someone cancels an appointment, I breathe a sigh and remind myself that God is taking care of me. But this isn’t what today is about. Today is a day to take a hard look at my faith, to “cast my cares upon the Lord,” as Scripture says, and to believe that God will support me. Whether or not my “cares” are taken away, whether I can see that my prayers are answered, the goal of my reflection is to trust, deep down, that God does not and will not abandon me. This is the faith that perseveres.