ENJOY the Season!

 

Dear Friends,

                Joy is not a word in our everyday vocabulary. Sure, we say we enjoy someone or something. But we don’t say “I feel joy in seeing you.” We say  ”I’m happy to see you”.  Are joy and happiness the same? What is joy, anyway? Is it giddy delight? Belly-laughter?  Merry-making on New Year’s Eve?  The mood at tailgate parties? Euphoria over some particular achievement? These are all good for us – but they are not joy.  Joy is not the work of comedians or a spontaneous response to an appealing moment.

                Joy is a God-word . It is the keen awareness of the presence of God or the coming of God in our life-journey. Isaiah 61.10 gives us a way of naming  joy: “I rejoice heartily in the Lord, in my God is the joy of my soul.” Joy is a Christmas word, but not only a Christmas word. It is a learned response that requires time, patience, and a sustained effort.  Ugh! Work! Yes, but surprisingly light-hearted, light-filled work, work in which we become more clearly who we are and we see more clearly who God in Jesus, the Incarnate Word, is for us.

                Joy grows in us over a lifetime. The person who has learned joy gazes at, walks in this splendid and at the same time wrecked-up world and sees God’s imprint on life and nature.

                Our biblical ancestors who people our liturgical readings lived in times like ours –arduous times in which they worked at their right relationships, and made every effort to be faithful to the Lord. Like them, we are culturally enticed to seek outlets in evasion, fantasy, fleeting pleasures, and activities that are superficial or meaningless. We are invited by our times to believe that we are experiencing joy when we experience these things. Possessing the newest car, the newest toy, the world presumes, is equated with joy. But none of these things lead us to the conviction that God is in love with our world, and us.

                Last weekend, in our churches and homes, we lighted the rose-colored candle. It is unique on the Advent wreath, reminding us that God is near, and that in finding God, we find a deep satisfaction in life that is “beyond rubies”, as our British friends would say.

                A few days ago, at a local big box outlet mall, I heard the energetic ringing of the Salvation Army bell. The bell-ringer was a twenty something man who had broken his leg, I know not how. Years ago, he had heard about how another young man had dealt with a similar situation. This young man followed suit.  Rather than sit around and mope, he festooned his crutches with greens, berries and ribbons, and went out to encourage people’s generous giving. You can believe he was collecting a lot of green in his bucket!

                Don’t try to think your way into joy. It’s not a project. Don’t try program it, either. The experience of joy will overtake us if we are open. Be lighthearted and spontaneous at Christmastime. Deep joy and spontaneous fun don’t negate each other. Enjoy the season. Look around you and see for certain that God is in love with the world. We have great cause to rejoice.

~Joan Sobala, SSJ

Be sure to see check out upcoming programs for Fresh Wind in Our Sails CLICK HERE!

Seeking Salvation in Our Own Desert

Dear Friends,

            It is somehow delicious that, as winter revs up, our first and third readings have to do with desert experiences: the experiences of the captives, coming home from Babylon, and those of John the Baptist, precursor of Jesus, who also went to the desert.

            You and I share in these biblical desert experiences, wherever we live, wherever we work or spend our time. The desert is anyplace where the integrity of our soul is tried, where the fabric of our lives is stretched to tearing, where our world is in mortal battle with the challenge to human values and where tragedy is an unwelcome companion.

            It is within our own modern deserts, that we experience our own salvation, at the same time, accompanying others in the wilderness as they come to recognize and cherish salvation.

The voice of God speaks to us in the wilderness of unknowing what to do next, how to distinguish the devious from the good neighbor and, how to deal with pain, trauma and fear.

           

            In the desert, God says to us:   Stay Alert! The demons are waiting to stop us from doing our part to help build the Reign of God. In the breadth of our lives, we are exposed to moral wrong-doing and weakness, depression, addiction, loneliness and war. We travel through a variety of deserts, places within us and around us, that endanger or frighten us. Yet, as frightening as deserts may be, there is more. Isaiah describes the desert as a place of great beauty, and maybe we have seen that truth for ourselves: sweeps of sand, coiled into enchanting dunes, patterns of rose-tinted hues, concentrations of greens and copper,dry old creek beds ,and when the conditions are just right, the desert in bloom.

            In the desert, we can be sure we are embraced by God. Comfort my people, God said in Isaiah. God has comforted us in the past and continues to do so. And we, in our turn, pass on that comforting embrace to those we serve.

            When tempted in the desert and in the garden, Jesus needed the strength of God. Temptations were overcome, the goal was achieved and there was joy. Joy happens in life when the desert does not overcome us – when we reach quenching waters and find them, not as mirage, but real and refreshing, offering strength for the journey.

            Isaiah, John and Jesus, Himself, in their desert moments, bid us all: ! Listen! Listen! Listen to God’s voice in your own wilderness, for surely  you will hear the voice you long for.

The Holidays - A Magnifying Glass for Our Lives

Little pitchers have big ears. That’s a picturesque way of describing children. I was one of them. As December rolled on toward the Christmas season and gatherings of family and friends multiplied, I noticed that one or another of my relatives or family friends was a little distracted or hung around the edges of the conversation or just didn’t seem to be into the season. I would hear one adult whisper to another about the disengaged person: holiday blues. They would nod at each other knowingly and be sure to give the person with the holiday blues enough space.

The holidays are a magnifying glass for our wants, needs and losses: We want everyone home for the holidays, more money for gifts, reconciliation with someone. Maybe we want separation from someone or something. We might need a job, better employment, someone special to love us just for ourselves, a real home. And then there are the losses: our own health or that of a loved one, rejection of our talents, the mixed blessing of retirement. Maybe we feel the loss of  self worth when we stay in a relationship that doesn’t bring life. The remembered loss of innocence is a subtle emotion that may grab us at holiday time, the innocence lost when people, indeed the world at large, was not as accepting, loving, honest as we wanted  it to be.

Finally in this short but potent  list, the death of a loved one is particularly poignant at holiday time. Recent death is freshly on our mind, but not surprisingly, the memory of long-ago deaths sometimes come back with force. Maybe we just plain miss these departed people. But we may also be angry because they left us, angry that we are alone. Maybe someone died and we hadn’t forgiven then or them us. The opportunity is gone.

So many of these situations  are beyond our control. The Christmas music plays endlessly, Santa appears on every corner. How do we cope? Some thoughts:

• Be adult in choosing how to cope and the follow through. Hints for coping are abundant, in lectures, magazines, sermons and in social media. Decide what you need to do, and if you need help, ask for it.

• Remember that an emotion is an emotion, which we cannot regulate by wishing it away. Recognize what is honest and true. Don’t deny the holiday blues, but don’t let them chew you up.

 

• Hold fast to the realization that God is present in our experiences of pain/loss/fleeting or entrenched misery.

                I am with you always.(Matthew 28.20)

                Do not let your heart be troubled. Trust in God. Trust in me. (John 14.27)

Even when we are unaware of this truth, our God is with us, above us, behind, us, beneath us, embracing  us, in the person next to us.

                I have called you by your name. You are mine.  (Isaiah 43.1)

How could  God who calls us by name, a God to whom we belong ever leave us to our misery?

“I can’t hear God,” we may complain. But don’t mix up the apparent silence of God with the absence of God. Our God knows our needs, but doesn’t miraculously intervene when the ordinary choices people make or the ordinary course of life takes us where we don’t want to go.

If this sounds familiar, we have only to remember Holy Week, the passion of Jesus on Good Friday and the ecstatic joy of Easter. Christmas, in mysterious ways, is the beginning of Holy Week and Easter. These events in the life of Jesus, our Brother and  Lord , are events in our life as well. We carry them within us. With our God, all the pieces fit together.

• Finally, accept and enjoy the way life is for you at the moment, and not the way media portrays some other culturally desired way. The food won’t be perfect, the decorations won’t dazzle visitors. Not everyone you want will be at the table. Whose expectations should be important anyway?

No neat answer will dissolve the holiday blues. But our God brings comfort, if we only allow it.

~Joan Sobala, SSJ