Intercessions ~ Fourth Sunday in Lent

Syria's Pieta

At Mass today,/ may we look beyond the changed bread and wine/ to the presence of Christ among us/ whose gift is to change us into a people of mercy,/ compassion and love./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for those who beat war drums,/ who want to instill fear and suspicion in others;/ who seek to destabilize./ We pray for our country./ We pray to the Lord.

For the poor nation of Syria,/ where cities are reduced to dust,/ where indiscriminate bombs kill children and mothers,/ where there is nothing we would call normal or peaceful./ We ask for a world that pays attention./ We pray to the Lord.

It is Laetare Sunday,/ Lent's halfway point./ May we not lose heart/ but find new ways this holy season/ to love others,/ and to build up community./ We pray to the Lord.

We pray for the world's families:/ where there is chronic sickness,/ fighting,/ unemployment,/ or the neglect of children and the elderly./ We ask for the healing of families./ We pray to the Lord.

These days of late winter storms,/ we pray for those who have been in accidents/ or who suffer losses/ For those who work to make life safer and easier for those burdened by difficult weather./ We pray to the Lord.

In The Spring Through Opened Doors

This painting is titled The Terrace, by the French Impressionist, Henri Martin (1860-1943). It is late spring or early summer. Perhaps it has rained through the night and the terrace is wet, or it is still raining softly. The ground and air are at different temperatures and so the fog is dense, blocking the hills beyond. The trees are filled out and roses are blooming in white planter boxes; geraniums in clay pots have been placed on the balustrade. 

The perspective is low - as if the artist is sitting comfortably, taking in the scent and feel of the morning air. And he isn't looking through closed window panes, but has opened the doors. Doors are full of symbolism and everything changes when doors are opened and we pass through:

• For Christian martyrs death was the door to eternal life.
• Lamb's blood was put on the Hebrew doorpost to keep them safe from the angel of death.
• Jews place a mezuza by the door - a small containor holding scripture texts.
• Some people put smelly onions or garlic by the kitchen door to keep evil spirits away.
• A bride leaves her family home and enters her new home by the front door.
• Aristocratic St. Clare left her home at night to join St. Francis by sneakng out the door through which the dead were removed.

And then there are these words of Jesus speaking of himself:

Jesus gave them this illustration but they did not grasp the point of what he was saying to them. So Jesus said to them once more, "I do assure you that I myself am the door for the sheep. All who have gone before me are like thieves and rogues, but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the door. If a man goes in through me, he will be safe and sound; he can come in and out and find his food. The thief comes only to steal, to kill and to destroy, but I have come to bring them life in its fullness. John 10: 6-10.

Everything is changed when we pass through a door.  It's raining (or has just stopped raining) in this painting. And rain symbolizes heaven's involvement with us or the falling upon us of grace (spiritual life and energies). Jesus says as much, "But I have come to bring them life in its fullness." Other translations say abundant life. I want to open the doors and step over into abundant life. And abundant life is now. Heaven may be the completion of that, but the experience or realization of abundant life is now. Let's not cheat ourselves.

And what is this full life? In 2015 the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu got together as friends for a week in Dharamsala, India to celebrate the 80th birthday of the Dalai Lama. The week's conversations and interviews resulted in a book titled, "The Book of Joy." On the 4th and 5th days they talked extensively about what Buddhism calls the Eight Pillars of Joy. Imagine opening the doors to these deeply human/spiritual aspects of living:

• Perspective: There Are Many Different Angles
• Humility: My Life Is On Loan To Me
• Humor: Laughter Is A Better Way
• Acceptance: The Only Place Where Change Can Begin
• Forgiveness: Freeing Ourselves From the Past
• Gratitude: I Am Fortunate to Be Alive
• Compassion: Something We Want to Become
• Generosity: We Are Filled with Joy

We might be thankful to Buddhism for organizing the ideas, and go through the doors of our own source: the Gospel words and deeds of Jesus where these Pillars of Joy are on full display - inviting us to enter and live.

Springtime is Fog

Contemporary American artist D. Eleinne Basa gives us this evocative painting, titled: Spring Morning. The trees are filling out, the stream is free of ice and the fog limits our view beyond a few feet. What do I feel as I step into this morning scene?

My science authority says: "Advection fog forms when warm air moves over a colder surface, like snow. More common is radiation fog which is caused when a cold air mass moves in over land that has been warmed during the day. Either way, fog is caused when warm air if cooled and condensation occurs near the surface."

Fog is symbolic of a deep human place. "I'm all in a fog" can be much harder to fix than just needing my morning coffee. Fog suggests that the way is not clear. Fog is kind of inner gray-zone of being between one place and another. Fog is a place of inner confusion - like the person who walks into a dark room patting down the walls looking for the light.

Symbolically, fog means obscurity: uncertainty, lacking in light, murky, concealed, not clear to my understanding, unknown or unnoticed, veiled. 

Saints matter in the Catholic spiritual life. Problem is, for many people, saints only edify or impress. Someone gushed to Dorothy day, "O Dorothy, you're a living saint," She quickly responded, "Don't dismiss me so easily." Then we're told we're all supposed to be saints. But what does that mean? To be a saint can only mean to be myself. So, becoming holy or being saved means finding out who I am and discovering my true self. Some weeks ago we referenced Rev. Al Sharpton who said, "The two most important days in my life are, the day I was born; the second being the day I discover why I was born." 

Some people start to discover who they are when they retire and no longer define themselves by what they do to make a living. Or they discover who they are after a divorce, or when the kids are grown and move away and they re-encounter a spouse for the first time in a long time, or when they get free of a life-stealing addiction, or when looking in the mirror and realizing deeply: "I'm not 20, 30, 40 or even 50 anymore." One pensive California woman mused on the meaning of her life after her high-end home burned to the ground in this winter's fires.

A young fellow joined a monastery, and after some months, long enough for the others to get to know him, the novice master said to the monk wanna-be, "But why did you come here with such a crowd?" Meaning: Why did you join the monastery bringing with you with a crowd of old voices telling you who you are, or what it is you're looking for, or what you have to believe. These are the voices of teachers, parents, spouses friends and associates, clergy, politicians, authors - not all of whom spoke truthfully, insightfully, objectively or kindly. Or the voices of those who have told me what I must own to live happily, and so I carry the attachments not only to things but to ideas that need to be un-learned or dropped. St. Paul writes:

"When I was a little child I talked and felt and thought like a little child Now that I am a man I have finished with childish things." 1Corinthians 13:11

I might have a good think on this in Lenten-silence and discover God in the fog. But remember, fog burns off. And as the fog burns off I may be surprised where I eventually find myself. I may even find myself nearer to where I set out to be or need to be. Emphasis on the words need to be.