Choosing Reconciliation Over Retribution

Dear Friends, 

Know who Abishai is? Probably not. Abishai is not a well-known figure in the bible, but we read about him every three years in Ordinary Time. It’s a valuable thing to linger over him today, because Abishai continues to be part of our everyday world. We’ll recognize him as this blog unfolds.

Abishai was David’s military advisor.

King Saul and young David were in conflict, battling over who would lead the kingdom. Saul was about to kill David, when David fled. Saul’s army pursued David, but couldn’t find him. Then, David had a stroke of luck. David and his friends came upon Saul asleep, unguarded and defenseless.

“Kill him!” an elated Abishai counseled David, but David refused. Saul was his king, the Lord’s anointed one. Trusting in God’s wisdom, David left the task of dealing with Saul to God.

Can you imagine how Abishai might react to David? “What is the matter with you? Are you a fool, David? Saul will kill you if he can. King? What kind of king is Saul to you? Act now, David. Kill Saul!”

But David chose to be guided by mercy, justice, and compassion.

But during his encounter with the sleeping Saul, David took Saul’s spear to show that he could have killed the sleeping king if he chose to do so, but that he, David, preferred reconciliation to violence. Saul was moved by David’s actions, and a kind of restless peace was born between them.

In today’s Gospel, Luke reports that Jesus sided with David rather than Abishai. Jesus urged His followers to use the spiritual tools of mercy, compassion and justice when involved in conflict. In fact, Jesus encourages us to use God-like generosity toward those who do wrong to us. And more, Jesus tells us to do good to them and for them. Jesus urges us to break the cycles of violence, hatred and evil by returning compassion for violence, love for hatred and good for evil

What a seemingly impossible path to walk. The world seems full of Abishais who tell us to get them before they get you. 

In the United States today, we experience the call to retribution against past governmental leader and positions. Subtle or maybe explicit violence.

Jesus and David would have it be otherwise.

But if these readings are a lesson for world leaders, they are also for you and me.

Today’s readings ask us to look at our own words. Do they hold hate, disdain and contempt for others because of real or perceived wrongs? What do we see when we study our tendencies to be aggressive and violent in our relationships?

My own personal Abishai whispers to me: “Show them that they can’t get away from being mean to you.”

Abishai becomes active in me when I hit back.

Each of us needs to learn from our contemporaries who have internalized the spirit of today’s Gospel passage – community leaders who work hard so that Jesus’ teaching will be a living force in the world. Begone Abishai.

Come to me, Jesus. Stand with me, David.

Help me not to judge, not to condemn. Help me to pardon, give, love, be compassionate in word and action.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

The Refreshing and Cleansing Waters

Dear Friends,

This Sunday’s first reading from Jeremiah 17 imagines the faithful believer:

Blessed is the one who trusts in God, whose hope is in God.
That one is like a tree planted beside the waters
that stretches out its roots to the stream:
it fears not the heat when it comes; its leaves stay green;
in the year of drought it shows no distress but still bears fruit.

And the response from Psalm 1 echoes this image:

That one is like a tree planted near running water,
that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade.

The Hebrew scriptures often draw our attention to refreshing water:

Beside restful waters he leads me to revive my drooping spirit. Psalm 22
I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground. Isaiah 44
And you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. Isaiah 58

Cool, clear, refreshing water. Water that cleanses and heals and energizes. Here the weak and thirsty can drink. Here the journeying pilgrims gather for restoration. Somehow people who love God bring water to dry places. Humans and God work in tandem. Moses compared his own God-given words to water:

May my teaching drop like the rain, my speech condense like the dew; like gentle rain on grass, like showers on new growth. Deuteronomy 32

During this time of social and political unrest, we could pray for people in leadership in all sorts of arenas, that God would enable them to speak words that strengthen and unify, words that welcome and inspire. Let us pray for each other, that our words be like a gentle rain refreshing our fellow pilgrims.

In hope,

Susan Schantz SSJ

The Power of Our Stories

Dear Friends,

Much of winter is still ahead of us. On cold, snowy nights, shut off the telly, put away social media devices and tell stories: each other’s, well-loved stories, stories with surprise endings, stories that helped shape us. Enjoy and treasure your stories of life, faith, adventure.

We live a life-long story, and yet, if asked, we would not be sure that our own stories are interesting at all. It’s only in the telling of our stories, we begin to see their value and worth.

We also have a wealth of family stories. My four-foot eight Polish peasant grandfather, conscripted into the Russian army, deserted, and somehow made his way to Lackawanna, New York. How did that happen? I had no idea, before hearing this story as a child, that my little Grandpa had such courage!

We tell stories that have impacted others in the world, stories about what happened at school or work. Travelling, seated next to strangers, we often exchange stories. Sometimes, we reveal to strangers whom we will never see again parts of ourselves we don’t easily share with people closer to us: incidents, near-misses, daydreams. “I remember once…I had an experience something like that…”

Beyond those of our own lives, we like to hear other stories, see stories unfold on TV or in books, or at the movies. Stories make meaning the way that analysis or synthesis can’t. Where did the world come from? Why are there people? Why don’t snakes have legs? Why do the living die? As we read the lives of others in biographies, we clarify our own convictions, and have new tools to examine our own lives. Here’s a thought: Go where you can hear the stories of migrants and refugees and be awed. To be human is to have a story to tell.

The much admired writer, Elie Weisel, once remarked “God created people because he loves stories.” We know that Jesus was a remarkable storyteller. He used the stuff of ordinary life, introduced strangers into the story who became unexpectedly central to the meaning of the story and, as we know when we study them, these parables say more than they seemed to intend, to this very day.

God is not captured for once and for all in our human stories, but God is surely revealed in our stories, if our eyes and hearts are open.

The philosopher Kierkegaard went even further to say “the only real answers to religious questions are in the telling of a story.” So dare to explore religious questions in this seemingly simple way. Tell and enjoy the power of stories in your life.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

The Feast of the Presentation

                                                                                                                        (CNS/Lola Gomez)
Dear Friends, 

This Sunday, the feast of the presentation, we read from Luke 2. The child Jesus had been circumcised soon after birth. Forty days later his parents present him at the temple. An old man named Simeon notices the child and his parents. Luke 2 tells the story.

25 Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was on him. 26 It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah. 27 Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the Law required, 28 Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying:

29 “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised,
you may now dismiss[a] your servant in peace.
30 For my eyes have seen your salvation,
31 which you have prepared in the sight of all nations:
32 a light for revelation to the Gentiles,
and the glory of your people Israel.”

Luke wants us to know that Joseph and Mary are faithful Jewish parents, initiating their child into their faith by bringing him to the temple. Their arrival at the Temple is noticed by a believer named Simeon. Deeply prayerful, he has been longing to see the consolation of Israel. He asks to hold the baby. He takes him in his arms and praises God.

I am moved by this old man, the one who prays despite disappointments, social and religious upheaval, and political oppression. I, too, am old, and can imagine that baby in my arms, his warmth and small but solid weight. God comes to us in every child.

The above picture of Pope Francis speaks of an old person’s hope as well. This man knows God. This man has challenges to his hope. This man knows that God can encounter us in a child. Francis’s homily on the 2024 feast of the presentation includes these words, an echo of Simeon’s song.

He is presented to us as the perennial surprise of God;

concentrated in this child born for all

is the past, made of memory and of promise,

and the future, full of hope.

May our own hope be refreshed,

Susan Schantz SSJ

Secrets of the Heart

Dear Friends,

Let’s talk about secrets of the heart. What do we carry within us that we hold closely and don’t reveal to anyone?

Our secrets are of all kinds.

We hold close the times when God has blessed us with a singular insight or vision that has made us grow more secure in God’s love, times people have said good things about us. We can close our eyes and see the beautiful places we’ve been to which no one has seen or treasured the way we do. We treasure the words of family members who have gone before us. We pray for some people in the secret of our hearts. We protect others in our heart of hearts. Our secrets make us blossom from the inside.

But not always, for we also remember times when we’ve been mean, when we have said spiteful things or wounded others in some way. We remember when others have said awful things to us about us. We replay the tapes endlessly. We keep reliving those moments, even if we shared with the injured either forgiveness or reconciliation or both.

In our heart are secret wishes for what we might want to be “when we grow up” – secret wishes for our future yet to be revealed. Secret prayers, secret beliefs about God, secret hopes for our own place in the world.

In this jubilee year, when we are called by our church to be pilgrims of hope together, we are encouraged to travel to holy sites and to the holy reorganization of our lives. (See Fresh Wind Blog for December 29, 2024.)

One of those holy sites is our own hearts. It’s time to rethink which of the secrets we harbor are worth keeping and which are not. Sweep out our memories. Which ones give us life and which ones suck the air from our lungs? Do we beat ourselves up by reliving the negative aspects of our lives or do we look at ourselves as the beloved of God? Hand everything over to God once and for all, in this jubilee year.

Let’s pray for ourselves and one another as we go through this sorting out process this year:

Tender God, we know no secret is hidden from you, (Ez.28.3)

Teach me wisdom in my secret heart (Ps. 51.6)

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Many Gifts, Given for All

Dear Friends,

Many gifts, one Spirit. This is the theme of the reading from Paul for Sunday, January 19. In his second letter to the church at Corinth, he writes:

There are many kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit.
There are different forms of service but the same Lord.              2 Corinthians 12

The apostle is encouraging that early Christian community to recognize and affirm the gifts given to individuals for the sake of all. They need the reminder because, for this faith community, that’s difficult to do.

It is difficult for some 2025 communities as well. All the baptized are called to mission. Baptism calls us to live in Christ Jesus, to love God and the neighbor, using the gifts we are given. The Church is called to recognize and nourish believers’ gifts, and to foster whole-hearted living of the baptismal call.

A colleague of mine is a gifted preacher. She is prayerful, attuned to human experience and educated in scripture studies and theology. She offers insight into the Sunday readings in a way that helps the congregation go deeper. She encourages worshipers to holiness and service. She leads in response to the baptismal call.

Currently, she is unable to preach at Catholic Mass because this ministry is limited to ordained priests and deacons. Her calling to preach is not recognized by her own faith community. A woman of faith, she has found ways to fulfill her call. She has taught Scripture, trained new preachers at a Christian seminary, and preached at various Christian churches. Along with other lay Catholic women and men she publishes homilies on the Sunday readings. In her nineties, she continues to share this gift of preaching. She has found ways to fulfill her vocation outside the Eucharistic celebration.

This woman’s story is not unlike that of many lay Catholic women and men called to preach. Each one has received a gift given for the good of the community. Each must find a way to live the call. The Catholic community continues to gratefully receive the preaching gifts of the ordained. These men’s homilies do build us up for faith and service. How much more blessed and gifted would our community be if the ministry of preaching could be shared by the gifted non-ordained?

~ Susan Schantz, SSJ

Taking the Plunge

Dear Friends, 

During many Christmas visits over the last few weeks, I heard heartwarming stories of newborns being welcomed into their families. Take Elena Marie. Not only was she welcomed, but the family arranged her baptism when the whole family was together because they all wanted to witness and celebrate Elena Marie’s new place in the church and world. 

One proud grandparent relayed to me the anticipation the family had as they waited to hear her response to the touch of water being poured over her. If Elena Marie showed no fear, the family would say “Ah! Isn’t she strong and wonderful!” And if she cried out, they would say “What powerful lungs she has already!”

In a sense, Elena Marie’s cries are a truer response to baptism than smiles. At its core, baptism is a frightening event, not just for babies, but for adults for who baptism was originally intended.

The descent into the water is a symbol of dying. The person being baptized is dying to the past in order to become, to enter into something new. 

At his own baptism, different from Elena Maries’s, Jesus went down into the murky waters of the Jordan and submitted to a cleansing by John. Luke, and only Luke, tells us that Jesus was baptized in the midst of and after others. He is one of the crowd, part of our humanity. He takes his place with all who stand, wade, and plunge into the waters of ordinary life. Jesus is not apart from us.

You and I suffer in varying degrees because the currents of our minds pull us in one direction and our desires pull us in another. Sometimes we feel deluged by the waters of our mortality, by the threatening chaos of sin and death. But we are not alone. Jesus enters the cleansing waters, greets us in the floods of our lives and emerges with us on the other side.

At his baptism by John, Jesus leaves his former hidden way of life and emerges a new creation. As does Elena Marie. As you and I did when we were baptized. Jesus urges us to discover what is true about ourselves and face our truth with all its beauty, paradox and difficulty.

Luke also adds that Jesus, after his baptism, prayed. Through prayer, he opened his life to all the possibilities the Holy Spirit offered. Jesus held himself ready, then gave himself freely and completely when the time was right. If Elena Marie’s baptism as well as yours and mine are to be fruitful, we must take the plunge, and pray to be ready for the next moment.

With Jesus before us, beside us, behind us and within us, why should we be afraid to take the plunge?

~ Sister Joan Sobala