Lenten Mercy Meditation: "With that he left them..."

Prager: syndicated radio talk show host, columnist, author, public speaker

"Then the Pharisees came out and engaged him in discussion. To test him they asked him for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply to himself and said, "Why does this generation ask for a sign? I tell you this: no sign shall be given to this generation." With that he left them, re-embarked, and went off to the other side of the lake." (Mark 8: 11-13)

What's going on here in these few lines? Are the Pharisees really asking for a sign, even though in the previous verses Jesus had just fed thousands of people with the little bread and fish. (Mark 8: 1-10)

Or are they essentially asking for Jesus' credentials to teach what he's teaching, after all, they disagree with so much of what he has to say? And if that's the case, then what they're really looking for is an argument. Jesus response?...

He sighed deeply. Then Jesus moved away from them by sailing across the lake. Today he might say, "I have to get as far away as possible from all of this." 

The Church is terribly distracted and weakened by so much in-house argument. Pope Francis calls out cardinals and bishops where he detects it in the highest levels of Church life. There are Catholic organizations and publications that seem to have argument as their unwritten mission statement - each with its own vociferous agenda. Some clerics use the pulpit for all kinds of joy-stealing argument, instead of the proclamation of Jesus' Gospel as spiritual way.

Let's get free of this. I would never want to tire Jesus by so much religious arguing that he would feel the need to disembark and sail away.

Lenten Mercy-Meditation: The Great Crane Migration

My sister sent an email the other day that might cheer us all - a bit of good news, joy and encouragement in difficult times. The Crane Trust video which follows is a wonder!

"I am on the Platte River in Nebraska during the spring migration of the Sandhill Cranes. I have been told there are 500,000 cranes here this time of year as they are on their way from the deep south up to Alaska, Canada and even Siberia, where they will raise new families through the spring and summer. These cranes can live to be 25 years old. Last night we watched them come in from every direction to land on the river which was back-lit by brilliant golden-orange, long passed sunset. The half moon lit their wings as they flew directly over us. I felt myself to be a speck, a blade of grass in the vastness of creation and an immeasurable gratitude.  

This is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been to. I can't begin to describe how happy I feel being in all this beauty. The river is so clean and we can smell its sweetness in the air and on our hands. The sky is a 360 degree cloud-ballet everywhere you look, and the sky, full of cranes, is like being in a Chinese painting."

Lenten Mercy~Meditation: Symbol of Hope and Forgiveness

Along with the Korean Fir seedling I planted on Sunday were three currant bushes. Currants produce berries in clusters that can be used to make jam, jelly, compote and even wine. The meaning of currants in botanical symbology is rather Freudian and not very useful for our purposes here. 

But then I read about a fellow who was given a bare root currant bush - a stick really - like those I planted and have pictured above. The bush rooted quickly and since he had no idea what to do with the berries (and admits to being too lazy to learn) he tore out the bush which promptly grew back. The next year he not only cut down the bush but chopped it out of the ground with an ax. Still it grew back, which caused him to think a bit, and so he transplanted the bush, putting it in next to the barn where it was somewhat sheltered and produced berries in abundance. 

After all of that he rather wisely suggested  that currants should be recognized as symbols of hope and forgiveness. Maybe we should all have a couple of currant bushes to fend off the despair and outrage of the day. Spread some homemade currant jam on our morning toast as an antidote to hate and resentment!

Lenten Mercy-Meditation: Palm Sunday

The sermon at Mass should be short today because the Passion of Jesus is long. And the presence of so many themes tempts the preacher to talk too much. But there is one theme that is largely ignored and that is the meaning of the palm branch itself. We're perhaps used to hearing that palm branches are ancient signs of victory. Branches were waved in front of generals and armies returning from victories. Even successful athletes were surrounded by palm branches. Images of martyrs hold palm branches.

But I'd suggest there is a symbolism that is much closer to each of us personally. It has to do with the nature of religion itself. I suppose there are as many meanings or emphases of religion as there are people. Religion is: dogmas and doctrines, laws, clergy and hierarchies, authority, vows, liturgical worship, morality, sexual ethic, good deeds, institutions. And while I'm in no position to say what other religions are, including all the denominations of a splintered Christianity, it seems to me that Catholicism, with its Gospel, is supposed to be a spiritual way for people. I fear we often lose that awareness and call.

Oaks, Maples, Aspens and Birches lose all their leaves within a few days or weeks each fall. But a palm tree renews itself continuously throughout the year; as it loses a leaf it at once starts to grow another. It is never without its leaves, renewing itself little by little, one leaf at at time. It is a very apt symbol of our personal and steady self-renewal, revival, restoring or freshening. Sad to say, the cultural understanding of personal renewal isn't very deep, often no deeper than our skin and hair: get the right creams, the right body augmentation, the right style, the right look and your good to go. It makes for an empty person.

But if Resurrection only means what happened to Jesus and the promise of life on the other side of the grave, I believe we have sold Jesus short. Personal renewal is the heart of our religion. It isn't just a Lenten thing or an Eastertime thing. Renewal is our way of life. So, can you think of some life-approaches that might effect (palm tree like) personal and on-going renewal? I had a spiritual director who at the end of each session together always prayed over me, that God would grow-me-up. How I valued that prayer! 

Here are some ideas for renewal that come to mind:

• Read the book I bought and never read.
• Make the visit I've been procrastinating over.
• Lose 5 lbs (or more if needed).
• Go for a walk every day - get sunlight and new air.
• Clean out a closet, an attic, a basement: St. Basil says, "If you haven't used it in a year it no longer belongs to you, but to the poor."
• Keep a garden - if even a couple of houseplants well-tended.
• Give myself ten minutes of hermit time each day - God alone.
• Learn to say yes if I know how I can be selfish.
• Learn to say no if I'm wearying out.
• Quit the cigarettes and give the money to an organization that takes care of the most hungry children.
• Restore Sunday as an old-fashioned rest day: break the crazy cultural cycle of making money, spending money, noise and haste.
• Take an evening or summer class (even online) to study something that's always interested you but you never explored.
• Get free of something that's dumb-ing you down.
• Read the New Testament from cover to cover over a period of weeks or months.
• Commit to a charity and keep the commitment.
• Restore Friday as a day of penance.

Lenten Mercy ~ Meditation: "Keep the faith!"

This photo of my father, John Matthew, was taken in Windham, New York in 1947 when he was 41 years old. He and my mother liked to go there on their off time. My paternal grandparents were Irish born and emigrated here in the late 1800's - my father being born in New York City in 1906. Catherine was a maid to wealthy families on Park Avenue; my grandfather shod horses in Manhattan. 

When I was in seminary on the north shore of Long Island, my father lived in a small apartment on the south shore. The drive each month to visit him took awhile as the roads to center island were two-lane, hilly and winding. And we'd sit awhile and talk, especially about seminary news. 

But when it was time for me to leave to make curfew, instead of saying good-bye at the door, his last words were always, "Keep the faith." I never asked him about the expression, but I imagine it was an Irish-ism, as Irish Catholics lived under a bloody English rule for a thousand years, and the faith had to be lived quietly and secretively. 

I imagine "Keep the faith" meant: Stay standing in the invisible; trouble may be near. In the winding way: stay trusting and reliant. Along the dark way: stay awake to spiritual things. "The faith" is my own I believe. Here's mine, and of course, you can write your own.

I believe in the eastern sky,
its colors, 
warmth
and invitation.

I believe in the animals,
the Sandhill's migration,
the Chickadee's survival
the Yellow Finch's summer return.

I believe in the plants,
the fern uncoiling,
the bud revealing,
the garden's scent-surprise.

I believe in stars,
planets,
constellations
and the weather satellite's blinking.

I believe in silence,
the lighting of candles,
gazing without thoughts
and silence again.

I believe in the variety of persons,
efforts of non-violence,
gifts of compassion
and every good deed done.

I believe in Bethlehem,
Mary's Maternity,
Jesus' face,
shepherd's witness and angel song.

I believe in Christ's tears and sighs,
his desert hunger,
his bread and wine,
his shroud, bright wounds
and empty tomb.

I believe in Easter morning,
Christ the Gardener's
do not fear;
I believe in Magdalen's running!

Lenten Mercy~Meditation: Saint Patrick's Prayer for Protection in Unsettling Times

The Cry of the Deer, also called the Lorica or Breastplate is a poem-hymn attributed to Saint Patrick which serves as a wonderfully alive and powerful prayer for protection. We might pray it on his Lenten Feast Day in dangerous and confounding times.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through belief in the three-ness,

Through confession of the one-ness

Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today

Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism, 

Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,

Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,

Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.

I arise today

Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,

In obedience of angels,

In the service of archangels,

In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,

In prayers of patriarchs,

In predictions of prophets,

In preaching of apostles,

In faith of confessors,

In innocence of holy virgins,

In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today

Through the strength of heaven:

Light of sun,

Radiance of moon,

Splendor of fire,

Speed of lightning,

Swiftness of wind,

Depth of sea,

Stability of earth,

Firmness of rock.

I arise today

Through God's strength to pilot me:

God's might to uphold me, 

God's wisdom to guide me,

God's eye to look before me,

God's ear to hear me,

God's word to speak for me,

God's hand to guard me,

God's way to lie before me,

God's shield to protect me,

God's host to save me

From snares of devils,

From temptations of vices,

From everyone who shall wish me ill,

Afar and anear,

Alone and in multitude. 

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,

Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul

Against incantations of false prophets,

Against black laws of pagandom,

Against false laws of heretics,

Against craft of idolatry,

Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,

Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.

Christ to shield me today

Against poison, against burning,

Against drowning, against wounding,

So that there may come to me abundance of reward.

Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,

Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,

Christ on my right, Christ on my left,

Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,

Christ in the heart of every one who thinks of me,

Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me, 

Christ in every eye that sees me,

Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today

Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,

Through belief in the three-ness,

Through confession of the one-ness,

Of the Creator of Creation.

Lenten Mercy~Meditation: Planting Trees in Lent

A cold, steady, early morning March rain is helping to settle in the roots of this Korean Fir tree I planted Sunday afternoon: The Fifth Sunday in Lent. It's good to plant a tree on a Sunday: anticipating Easter, day or re-creation.

Its Latin botanical name is Abies Koreana. Mature Korean firs produce brilliant, purple-blue cones, sitting upright on the tips of branches. The winged seeds first appear as yellow touches on the cones, set against soft, shiny green needles. What an imagination brought these trees into existence.

These trees are native to the high mountains of South Korea including Jejudo Island which is in the news these days as a new and huge American naval base is being built there.  The tree is already an endangered species, like seemingly everything else in nature. 

People live on Jejudo with a long history of art, culture, faith, and sadness too, as upwards of 40,000 civilians were massacred there (April 3, 1948) under the auspices of the United Nations and the United States Military Administration, with Japanese involvement. Reports of this sad slaughter remained suppressed until 2003. 

We should be planting trees all over the world and not chopping them down, and  tearing them up and dynamiting their earth-homes for more war-making.

In Germanic folklore, fir trees are symbols of life and light. Don't we need to keep the things of life and light up front each day? I must remember to go out back to visit this fir-seedling often, so the day's dead and dark news doesn't take me under.  


Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;
let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
let the field exult, and everything in it!
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
before the Lord, for he comes,
for he comes to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with is truth.  

Psalm 96: 11-13

Lenten Mercy-Meditation: The Agony in the Garden ~ Francis and the Sultan

Saint Francis and the Sultan

Yesterday's Gospel at Mass for the Fifth Sunday of Lent had Jesus descending the Mount of Olives before meeting the woman who had been caught in adultery. (John 8:1-11) He refused to condemn her. And of course, that reference to the Mount of Olives - the Garden of Gethsemane - points to the start of Jesus' Passion and his sin-forgiving death.

Jesus' Holy Thursday night visit to the Mount of Olives was characterized by deep prayer and suffering while Peter, James and John slept. Then suddenly the prayer scene turned frighteningly violent. Swords and knives were drawn. A servant's ear was cut off. But even in that chaotic moment Jesus taught, telling Peter to stop it; there is to be no violence. (Matthew 26:36-54)

And we hold our hands over our ears as Jesus speaks those words. We seem to be fighting a perpetual war. We think violence and resort to it quickly as the solution to so many problems. We entertain ourselves with violence and vigorously defend its use. It's reported now that some people are attending Trump rallies hoping there'll be violence, and we might wonder if the media is happy for that as it will cause viewers to tune in. It simply isn't Christ's way.

At the height of the 13th century Crusades (which sought to eliminate, if not drive out Islam from the Holy Land) Saint Francis of Assisi made his long way from Italy to Egypt to see the sultan, Malik al Kamil. On the battlefield Francis asked, "Can you and I talk about peace?"

Lenten Mercy ~ Meditation: More Than Enough And For Everyone!

Giovanni Lanfranco ~ Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes

There was another occasion about this time when a huge crowd had collected, and, as they had no food, Jesus called his disciples and said to them, "I feel sorry for all these people; they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home unfed, they will turn faint on the way; some of them have come from a distance." The disciples answered, "How can anyone provide all these people with bread in this lonely place?" "How many loaves have you?" he asked; and they answered, "Seven." So he ordered the people to sit down on the ground; then he took the seven loaves, and, after giving thanks to God, he broke the bread and gave it to his disciples to distribute; and they served it out to the people. They had also a few small fishes, which he blessed and ordered them to distribute. They all ate to their hearts' content, and seven baskets were filled with scraps that were left. The people numbered about four thousand. Then he dismissed them; and, without delay, got into the boat with his disciples and went to the district of Dalmanutha. Mark 8:1-10

Seems like we just read this account of the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes in Mark 6:35-44. There Jesus fed 5000 people with five little loaves of bread and two fish and twelve baskets left over. Here he feeds 4000 people with seven loaves and a few fish and seven baskets left over. Is it just the same story retold with confused details?  Perhaps the first verse suggests the miracle happened twice: There was another occasion about this time. 

Or maybe the miracle happened only once and Mark is repeating it with a second version because, like children, we learn best by repetition. One meaning we need to hear again and again is: No one is left out. How pleased the mother is on the left of Lanfranco's painting above, that there is food for her child. Maybe that's her elderly father or father-in-law with whom she's sharing her relief.

We notice too that in this account, Jesus is still in non-Jewish territory. And we remember the bantering conversation he had with the Gentile woman a few verses ago (Mark 7:24-30), who told Jesus that she and her "dog" people would be glad for the crumbs that fall from the Jewish table. Well here, those crumbs become a feast for her people. 

There's enough for everyone! For all! That's why the number seven (symbolizing utter fullness) is emphasized, whether in the previous feeding miracle (5 loaves plus 2 fish) or in this telling: 7 loaves and 7 baskets of left overs. It's akin to the water-to-wine miracle of Cana, where 6 large water jars, plus Jesus himself, adds up to 7. What does it mean? That in Christ there is more than enough to satisfy the human person spiritually. 

There's lots of complaining these days about the increase in the number of self-proclaimed atheists or the young people who say, I'm not religious, but spiritual. And Pope Francis has said these numbers are increasing because the Church has not satisfied the hunger people have for God, and so they go elsewhere.

Some years ago, when the Feast of the Lord's Transfiguration fell on a Sunday, I sat through a sermon where the young priest made no mention of the Transfiguration but harangued everyone for twenty minutes about the "Sins of Hollywood." And recently a young husband and wife told me they have decided to stop going to Mass because they can no longer bear the on-going sermons demonizing trans-gendered people. Something's not right with this picture, they say.

Then Jesus dismissed them. This huge crowd had been with Jesus for a three day retreat: the soul-feast of his teaching. Then, so solicitous for their well-being, he fed them physically to their complete satisfaction. Can you imagine the joy!

Lenten Mercy ~ Meditation: Mother of God Inviolate Mountain

This icon is titled: Mother of God Inviolate Mountain. Mary's maphorion is red, the symbolic color of humankind. She is one of us! In eastern cultures red is the color of joy. Notice too that the mantle is covered with stylized clouds: her trust and joy are broad as the heavens! A rainbow runs across the mantle, as after Noah's flood there was a rainbow in the sky. In Christ, mothered by Mary, there is a new beginning of compassion and kindness. 

There is a little king tucked in the crook of Mary's arm and perhaps some piece of Jerusalem's architecture. Symbolically this means that Jesus, Mary's Son, was a promised descendant of King David. And Joseph, the Child's guardian and Mary's protector, was at the far end of David's lineage, though there hadn't been a king in David's lineage for a very long time. 

And Mary holds a miniature mountain. She's the mountain. As in the desert wilderness, where the ancient Hebrews met God on the Sinai mountain, now in Mary the Mountain, humankind meets God anew and uniquely in Christ. 

Finally, she holds a little ladder. Heaven is descending to be with us in a new way in Christ, born of Mary. But I think also it is an invitation to us to join her in the ascent of kindness, tenderness, and a generous gift-ing of ourselves, up and away from the bottom rungs of hate, violence and cruelty.

But for all of this, there is something about Mary in this icon that is immediate to our own lives: her hands and arms are full. We understand and say: "I've got a lot on my plate right now...I can't handle or take on one more thing..." Many people feel life to be an exhausting burden today. 

Some of the burdening is out of our control, thrust on to us from outside ourselves. Some of it is of our own compulsive do-ing and for which we have no one to blame but ourselves. Perhaps this Lent we will get a handle on it, put some of it down, learn to say no or not right now. No guilt needed.

But I'm thinking too that we put an awful lot on Mary - all kinds of high theology, prayers and titles. Maybe when we're not looking, she puts it all down, just to be the mother who looks at Jesus in silence. There, that's it! For Lent let's put down all the questions and expectations of heaven and with empty hands, gaze simply in silence.

This is the 700th Pauca Verba post. Thanks for coming along!

Lenten Mercy~Meditation: Wendell Berry and Curious Logic

Amidst all the media talk these days about the importance of the so-called Evangelical vote, I came across this Wendell Berry quote. 

Especially among Christians in positions of wealth and power, the idea of reading the Gospels and keeping Jesus' commandments as stated therein has been replaced by a curious process of logic. According to this process, people first declare themselves to be followers of Christ, and then they assume that whatever they say or do merits the adjective "Christian".

Wendell Berry, Blessed are the Peacemakers:Christ's Teachings of Love, Compassion and Forgivenesss

Lenten Mercy-Meditation: Joseph's Month of March and Failing Our Children

Murillo ~ Saint Joseph and the Christ Child

The Carmelite nuns of Terre Haute, Indianna recently sent an invitation to share in the novena they pray every year in anticipation of the March 19th Feast of Saint Joseph. Beneath the icon on the front of the card was printed, Saint Joseph ~ Mentor of the Merciful One. I've heard Joseph called Guardian, Protector and Guide, but Mentor is an especially active word and beautiful. Then I came across these statistics reporting on the sex abuse of young people in our own country and thought, how deeply we fail our children. 

• The average age for first abuse is 9.9 years for boys and 9.6 years for girls.

• Children with disabilities are 4 to 10 times more vulnerable to sexual abuse than their non-disabled peers.

• 1 in 5 girls and 1 in 20 boys is a victim of child sexual abuse. Boys are probably higher, but less likely to report.

• Over the course of their lifetime, 28% of U.S. youth ages 14 to 17 had been sexually victimized

• 62,939 cases of child sexual abuse were reported in 2012. (Approximately 30% are  reported to the authorities so the actual number of abused children is much higher.)

• Approximately 1.8 million adolescents in the U.S. have been the victims of sexual assault.

• 93% know their abuser. 34.2 % of attackers were family members and 58.7% were acquaintances. Only 7% were strangers to the victims.

• Nearly 50% of all the victims of forcible sodomy, sexual assault with an object, and forcible fondling are children under the age of 12.

• There are 60 million survivors of child sex abuse in the U.S. today.

A Catholic can't claim to love Saint Joseph and not have the care and protection of children right up front in his or her list of priorities. It is sometimes said of Catholics that we admire the saints more than copy them. Joseph has the young Jesus by the hand in this Murilo painting. For Lent, let's find an active way to take care of children, if even from a distance.


Sources:
RAINN: Rape Abuse and Incest National Network
Parents for Megan's Law/The Crime Victim's Center
The U.S. Department of Justice NSOPW (National Sex Offender Public Website)

Lenten Mercy~Meditation: Ephphatha ~ Be Opened!

Be opened!

On his return journey from Tyrian territory he went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee through the territory of the Ten Towns. They brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech, with the request that he would lay his hand on him. He took the man aside, away from the crowd, put his fingers into his ears, spat, and touched his tongue. Then, looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, Ephphatha, which means Be opened. With that his ears were opened, and at the same time the impediment was removed and he spoke plainly. Jesus forbade them to tell anyone; but the more he forbade them, the more they published it. Mark 7: 31-36

From Tyrian territory he went by way of Sidon.  Jesus doesn't play it safe; he's passing through, and active in, a non-Jewish area. And it's in these non-Jewish areas that he often encounters remarkable faith. Surprise!

They brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech. This was probably a poor Greek man, but his greater poverty was his inability to hear and speak. And if he had suffered the handicaps from birth, the poverty would be deeper still.

He took the man aside. Jesus is trying to avoid the crowds because what he does is easily misconstrued. But I like this image of Jesus taking the man aside because it suggests a great sensitivity and intimacy on the part of Jesus. The man has likely endured a lifetime of ridicule and torment. In this moment Jesus gives him a break from all of that. 

Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears, looked up to heaven and sighed. A sigh can be a prayer. A groan. A tear. A shudder. A laugh. 

Ephphatha ~ Be opened! We open lots of things: the refrigerator, a book, the mail, the spring time windows, our wallets. Then it gets personal: Open your heart. Open your mind. But I'd suggest there's more than just the opening of the man's physical ears and his no longer being tongue-tied. Be opened can signify a great readiness, an eager willingness, a felt desire to become an individuated person. Remember the definition:

Individuation is the process by which the individual in the course of his life is pressed to realize his innate capacities to the full and become what he has it in him to become.

Innate means: what we're born with. What could be more pleasing to God than that! Saint Irenaeus wrote: The glory of God is the human person fully alive. Sad when the culture thinks this means, "Oh thank God, I now have the nose I always dreamed of, the whitest teeth, the shiniest hair, the softest skin, the sexiest physique, the most fabulous job...."

Lenten Mercy~Meditation: Religion Resides

Religion resides in our eyes rather than in our minds. We see; then we love. Alun Lewis ~ poet ~ 1915-1944

We see that Alun Lewis was only twenty-nine when he died a tragic death towards the end of the Second World War, yet  even at that young age he had this wonderful spiritual insight. Resides is a good word with rich meanings: abides, is present, exists, rests, lives, has a home in, occupies, settles, stays ~ as in a residence, dwells, endures, inhabits, is located in, nests, remains.

This sense of religion as inhabiting and nesting in our eyes is totally biblical. The whole religion of the Hebrews is based on what their ancestors saw: the sea opening up, the thunder cloud over Sinai, the fire-torch leading them through the wilderness by night, the bread from heaven, the water from the rock. And seeing is prominent in the Gospels. Every time Jesus speaks a parable he's giving us a picture we can see with our interior eyes:

A man who was on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho fell in with robbers, who stripped him and beat him, and went off leaving him half dead. Luke 10: 30

And at other times Jesus tells us to see, actually see, with our ocular eye sight. 

I say to you, then, do not fret over your life, how to support it with food and drink; or your body, how to keep it clothed. Is not life itself a greater gift than food, the body than clothing? See how the birds of the air never sow, or reap, or gather grain into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Matthew 6: 25,26

And the wonders of Jesus, full of love, begin with his noticing and seeing. The raising up of the widow's son at Naim comes to mind:

And now it happened that he was going into a city called Naim, attended by his disciples and by a great multitude of people. And just as he drew near the gate of the city, a dead man was being carried out to his burial; the only son of his mother, and she was a widow; and a crowd of folk from the city went with her. When the Lord saw her, he had pity on her, and said, Do not weep.  Luke 7:11

Maybe today: think less; look more. A picture's worth a thousand words, we say. That's really a religious truism. 

Religion resides in our eyes rather than in our minds. We see; then we love.

Lenten Mercy~Meditation: The Love of Jesus Beyond Boundaries

Note the scene within the scene - the child's sick room off to the right

Then he left that place and went away into the territory of Tyre. He found a house to stay in, and he would have liked to remain unrecognized, but this was impossible. Almost at once a woman whose young daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard of him, came in, and fell at his feet. (She was a Gentile, a Phoenician of Syria by nationality.) She begged him to drive the spirit out of her daughter. He said to her, "Let the children be satisfied first; it is not fair to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." "Sir," she answered, "even the dogs under the table eat the children's scraps." He said to her, "For saying that, you may go home content; the unclean spirit has gone out of your daughter." And when she returned home, she found the child lying in bed; the spirit had left her. Mark 7: 24-30

Then he left that place. This of course is the geographical place, but we might say it's also the place of argument with the religious leaders over ritual things. Jesus moves on from all of that. Twenty-three verses of arguing with religious leaders who are already suspicious of Jesus, if not already set against him - we might call that a place. 

Jesus wanted to remain unrecognized, but this was impossible. In Mark's Gospel Jesus often requires people to be silent about what he's done for them. It's called the Marcan Secret. He knows we often misinterpret or get it wrong, so he tries to keep things under wraps as long as he can. Jesus also likely knows that if he is well known, his enemies will set themselves against him even more quickly. 

Almost at once a woman whose young daughter was possessed by an unclean spirit heard of him, came in, and fell at his feet. It doesn't really matter what the child's ailment was - someone was in trouble and that was enough for Jesus. There are two troubled people in this story: the mother and the daughter. The girl was young, Mark tells us. No other religious leader or teacher or philosopher ever made children as important as Jesus did. This needs to be very much part of the Christian teaching: in all things, children first.

This woman is a Gentile, a Phoenician of Syria. This is a long way of saying she isn't Jewish. All the more reason for Jesus not to be talking with her and a set up: how vast God's kindness is. No one is left out!

She begged him. I have witnessed this begging prayer often, especially as a hospital chaplain. A wrenching prayer. Archbishop Anthony Bloom wrote: "Don't pray until you feel something." 

And then there is this wonderful banter between Jesus and the woman. I think he was goofing on her when he used the word dogs. It was, and still is, a common insult in that part of the world. Jesus was drawing her out! If he wasn't interested in her, he would have sent her away.

Jesus recognizes she's not Jewish and lets her know that what God is offering through him is for the Jews first. But she's astute and heard Jesus say the word first, thinking, "Well then, I don't mind seconds." 

Jesus said to her, "For saying that, you may go home content..."  It seems she's passed the test! She gets the best miracle a mom could ever hope for - a healed child! And from a distance!

Lenten Mercy~Meditation: Remembering Gandhi

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) was the non-violent, Hindu advocate and leader of independence for India from British rule. I remember reading his vast autobiography (The Story Of My Experiments With Truth) in seminary. I don't know how I managed that; the required reading theology text books, when piled up on the floor, reached my chin. 

Anyway, the 1982 Oscar winning film, Gandhi, was on television the other day, and I remembered all of this and the impact his life made on me. So I did some research (computers weren't around for our use in the early 70's) and discovered many things Gandhi said. Here are a few. It is said that Jesus' Sermon on the Mount influenced Gandhi's thought. Have you ever read that teaching? Matthew 5,6,7.

• "The real love is to love them that hate you, to love your neighbor even though you distrust him."

• "To believe in something and not to live it is dishonest."

• "An ounce of practice is worth more than tons of preaching."

• "The one religion is beyond all speech."

• "To give pleasure to a single heart by a single act is better than a thousand heads bowing in prayer."

• "Nothing has saddened me as much in life as the hardness of heart of educated people."

• "Action expresses priorities."

• "Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."

• "If you want real peace in the world, start with children."

• "Liberty and democracy become unholy when their hands are dyed red with innocent blood."

• "Say what you want but you never say it with violence."

• "Non-violence is a weapon of the strong."

• "There are people in the world so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in the form of bread."

• "You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is like an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty."

These last two quotes are "cheeky" (British expression).

The interviewer asked Gandhi: "What do you think of Western Civilization?" Gandhi answered, "I think it would be a good idea." 

"I don't reject Christ. I love Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike Christ." (My note: At that time, ruling England still called  itself a Christian country).

Lenten Mercy~Meditation: Pope Francis Meeting Pope Matthias I of Ethiopia

This past Monday at the Vatican,  Pope Francis met with Pope Matthias I of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church. In welcoming the patriarch, Francis made numerous references to the poverty, suffering and martyrdom of Christians throughout parts of Africa. Francis also called for reconciliation and forgiveness, as the long Christian story invites repentance for the sins of suspicion, pride and even bloody divisions.

But at the end of Francis' formal address, he invoked the Virgin Mary, praying the words of a liturgical hymn from the Ethiopian Church. This gracious pope, leaping over the things that divide!

O Virgin, 
wellspring of the fountain of wisdom,
bathe me in the streams of the Gospel of Christ your Son.

Defend me by his cross,

cover me with his mercy,

gird me with his clemency,

renew me with his unction

and surround me with his fruits.
Amen.

Lenten Mercy ~ Meditation: What's Inside?

The Temptation of Saint Anthony the Abbot

On another occasion he called the people and said to them, "Listen to me, all of you and understand this: nothing that goes into a man from outside can defile him; no, it is the things that come out of him that defile a man."

When he had left the people and gone indoors his disciples questioned him about the parable. He said to them, "Are you as dull as the rest? Do you not see that nothing that goes from outside into a man can defile him, because it does not enter into his heart but into his stomach, and so passes out into the drain?" Thus he declared all foods clean. He went on, "It is what comes out of a man that defiles him. For from inside, out of a man's heart, come evil thoughts, acts of fornication, of theft, murder, adultery, ruthless greed, and malice; fraud, indecency, envy, slander, arrogance, and folly; these evil things all come from inside, and they defile the man." Mark: 7:14-23

Here is poor Saint Antony the desert monk surrounded by a horde of bizarre, dangerous and un-nerving creatures.  Remember the title of the children's book: Where the Wild Things Are? Jesus goes to some lengths in his teaching to make it very clear that the wild things are inside us. Anthony's real contest is an interior one. 

In the ancient world, the heart was the place where thoughts originate. Our minds formulate, categorize and articulate those heart-thoughts. Perhaps today these mind/heart distinctions can be argued: What does what? Ultimately what matters is that we have an interior world and that its best parts needs cultivating and its worst bits need transforming and evolving. Some people go through life just arranging and re-arranging the outer stuff of life: like the outer rituals of religion, which Jesus dismisses in these verses. Go inside!

Jesus points to thirteen inner problems. AA calls them character defects. Some people would be quick to call them sins. But it's not as simple as all that. I grew up thinking that just about everything was a sin. But whatever we call them,  the list in verse 23 does seem to say, "Look at what we're capable of!"

It doesn't say these are the only things we're capable of, but these will be familiar to us. In light of these inner realities, ritual impurities: I touched the wrong thing, I ate the wrong food, become irrelevant. Remember, Jesus is saying these things because some religious fellows argued that the disciples hadn't wash their hands ritually!

A clean heart create in me, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10 

That's a good prayer. Would I dare to ask someone who really knows me, "What do you think I might change about myself?" Maybe I have sufficient self-knowledge to admit: "I really don't like that about myself," or even, "I really don't like what I've become."

The path to change can be interesting. It might make me more aware; more mindful. I might cultivate a deeper inner life - more silence perhaps. Who knows, I might begin working with a counselor, attending to the underlying reasons that cause me to behave in old and tired ways. Lots of people go through their entire lives never getting at the old wounds that stir up inner trouble. 

There's an old expression still floating around that we sometimes use when we don't know what else to say: "Time heals all wounds." No it doesn't. Time doesn't heal - God heals. And how God heals is unique to each of us. There's nothing innately healing about time. 

Lenten Mercy~Meditation: Got Gratitude ~ You've Got The Spiritual Life

My eyes open 4:15 ~ the first prayer ~ thank you !
The moon is full ~ thank you!
It has snowed lightly ~ thank you!
Aware of taking this breath ~ thank you!
This scarf that someone has knitted ~ thank you !

I hear the stream which is rushing ~ thank you!
A small pine branch has fallen on the new snow ~ thank you!
I consciously hold the world's children in my heart ~ thank you!
Another breath ~ thank you!
The sunflower seeds at my feeder keep the chickadees from
  freezing this 12 degree night ~ thank you!

I hear the wind chimes ~ thank you!
The trees appear as great shadows ~ thank you!
Another breath ~ thank you!
The painful winter cracks on the tips of my fingers are healing ~ thank you!
The first candle of the day ~ thank you!

These silent moments ~ thank you!
The warmth of my coat ~ thank you!
These companion-ing dogs ~ thank you!
Water is boiling ~ thank you!
Adding gift-honey to my tea ~ thank you!

Another breath ~ thank you!

Lenten Mercy~Meditation: But Also The Footwashing

The Washing of the Feet ~ Jacopo Tintoretto

Tintoretto painted the Last Supper six times. Here he has depicted Jesus washing the feet of the apostles.  In the middle of the meal Jesus got up from the table, took off his outer robe and began to wash the feet of the twelve. We see that outer robe awkwardly placed over a wooden box in the foreground. 

It is said that there should have been someone to offer that customary act of foot-washing hospitality, but either the apostles were too poor to pay a slave, or they just didn't get around to it. At any rate, perhaps in Jesus washing all those feet himself, he's saying to the apostles, "You know what, if no one showed up to do the footwashing job, you should have done it for each other. Haven't you learned anything? Now look, this is how it's done." 

Tintoretto has shown us the scene in great intimacy: the room is smaller, the figures are close and Jesus is at the very center of the action. Oh that we would always keep Jesus at the center! Then people would come running! The twelve apostles are present: one is drying his foot on the right, two are taking in the warmth of the fireplace (perhaps discussing what Jesus had just done for them), one is holding a tall candle on the far left. Still others look on as Peter debates with Jesus whether this is really necessary. A mysterious figure above Peter's shoulder is entering the room through a curtain. Maybe a late-comer.

But what does it all mean? On the night of the Last Supper the  bread and the wine were changed. But there is more! We're changed too! With the foot washing, all the I'm-better-than-you-distinctions are washed away. Nothing can ever be the same: married-single, cleric-lay, Christian-Jew-Muslim, rich-poor, gay-straight, black-white, American-Iraqi-Saudi-Iranian, educated-uneducated. All gone! Truth be told, this is galling to not a few Christians.

And just to be sure we really understand this and aren't just making it up - the gospel is most clear: along with John, the friend who rested his head on Jesus and would stay faithful to the end, and Peter, who we call the first pope, Judas, who would betray Jesus that same night, had his feet washed too. No distinctions!