Embracing Change

Dear Friends,

The Sunday readings that come along every week prompt us to look at our lives through the lens of Scripture and in ways that speak to our times. For Jonah, Peter and Andrew, James and John, things would be different as they followed the Lord’s call. In First Corinthians, today, Paul calls us not to be too sure of the way things are – to let go of positions, possessions, and relationships, because in God’s own time, things will be different.

As disciples of Christ, having had the national experiences of the last few weeks, have we considered that we too will be different going forward? With God ever present to us, what are we called to think, express, become and do today and tomorrow, here in this scarred and suffering land?

First of all, I think we are not called to abandon one another – our brothers and sisters, whoever they are. Likewise, we are called not to abandon the poor, the questioning, the helpless and hopeless, the stranger, the terrorist, the enemy. Nor are we called to be resigned to the demonic in life – not to be fatalistic – but to be committed to justice and reconciliation, compassion and love. Called for sure, but hard work nonetheless.

To activate this commitment, we need to embrace certain changes in our attitudes and actions. It might be a valuable thing to consider what movements of grace are already stirring in us. Change is not instantaneous but is already happening in us. In today’s Gospel, the responses of Andrew and Peter, James and John to Jesus were radical, but each of these men had grown in readiness to accept the Lord long before they were even conscious of the changes they would soon embrace. In this time of new leadership in Washington, racial tensions, economic plight and the ongoing pandemic, what readiness has been evolving in us to follow the Lord more deeply?

Holy change is not instantaneous in us, but is already happening, and we’ll recognize it in ourselves when we symbolically plant trees and bury hatchets, when we look with love on our enemies and recognize that we have a part in shaping the Reign of God in our midst.

In our own religious language, the Reign of God happens when human conflict and misunderstanding are resolved into lasting peace and love. We don’t really talk enough about the Reign of God. Believers are prone to relegate it to some distant time. But the Reign of God, as Jesus would teach, is already here but not yet complete. The Reign of God becomes more true and real when we work toward life-giving change in our world. Fullness of life for all.

In faith, in this new time, let us encourage one another with words like these…

            Move on.
            Move over.
            Hand over.
            Hang on.
            Change when you are stagnant.
            Be pregnant with meaning.
            Partner with one another to accomplish the good.
            Let truth resonate in you.
            Don’t be afraid.

~Sister Joan Sobala

Doing Our Part for the Common Good

Dear Friends,

On Wednesday January 6, the traditional feast of the Epiphany, we witnessed in horror together the insurrection at our national Capitol. We were, as a people, stunned at what we saw and heard. Videos amassed from that day continue to haunt our tv viewing. And the impeachment of President Donald Trump on Wednesday, January 13 only adds to American misery.

For the foreseeable future, masterful teachers and analysts will be going over every inch of what happened that day to reveal the truth about ourselves, our leaders, our very way of life. This search for truth is not new in human history. Long before Jesus, people looked at the chaos and destruction foisted on one society by other members of that society. In these Christian centuries, the work of rebuilding nations has continued, and each of us has a part to play.

Jesus, in John’s Gospel, tells us unequivocally: “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free” (John 8.32). But truth needs to be pursued, recognized, welcomed, and internalized. Later in John, Jesus comes face to face with Pilate who flings at Jesus the question that continues to haunt us: “What is truth?”

In the search for truth and integrity, today’s American citizens – you and I included – are called to a new articulation of what matters most in life: the appreciation of people of all colors, men, and women alike, the common good. “Do no evil” is our bottom line. We can’t leave our future to elected leaders alone. We need to do our share.

To do this, we need to rethink and re-form our lives. Ron Rolheiser, in his book, Sacred Fire, offers a series of invitations that work in the light of our recent national experience if we let them. Practice these alone or with others and see.

• Be willing to carry more and more of life’s complexities with empathy.
• Transform jealousy, anger, bitterness and hatred rather than give them back in kind.
• Let suffering soften your heart rather than harden your soul. 
• Forgive – those who hurt you, your own sins, the unfairness of your life, and God for not rescuing you.
• Bless more and curse less!
• Pray.
• Be wide in your embrace.
• Stand where you are supposed to be standing, and let God provide the rest.

The work before us is reconciliation, transformation and a fresh regard for building the common good. Jesus also says in John (14.6): “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life.” Now is the time to let go of falsehood and walk together in this new and life-giving way. As Mary Oliver puts it, “It is a serious thing just to be alive this fresh morning in a broken world.”

~ Sister Joan Sobala

"Go to Joseph"

Dear Friends,

If your childhood memory dates back to the 1940s or 50s, you may recall how St. Joseph was pictured on holy cards – always an old man with luxuriant white hair and beard, a white lily nearby. That image of Joseph was the artist’s way of protecting the relationship between Joseph and Mary, for her virginity was sacred, and as a holy old man, Joseph would not violate her.

With the Second Vatican Council, many images changed, including that of Joseph. Look at the holy family pictured above. Joseph is young and virile, a man who had an absorbing task before him – to use his energies and talents to love and support Jesus and Mary.

Believers throughout history have grasped the significance of Joseph when male protection was everything to a family. Since early Christianity, people have honored Joseph. Teresa of Avila called him “a protector for all the circumstances of life.” Cardinal John Newman named him Holy Joseph, “because no other saint but he lived in such and so long intimacy with the source of all holiness, Jesus, God incarnate, and Mary, the holiest of creatures.” Pope Francis, in an Apostolic Letter entitled Patris Corde (With a Father’s Heart), shared some of his personal reflections on Joseph, writing: “Each of us can discover in Joseph – the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, discreet and hidden presence – an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble.” We are, as a world, in times of trouble right now. The pandemic and the many crises it has spawned give evidence to that reality. A look at the frontline medical workers we see on television, who beg us to mask up and be socially distant, are ordinary people like Joseph, often overlooked. Joseph reminds us that those who appear hidden or in the shadows can play an incomparable role in salvation history.

For centuries, believers felt that Joseph was not only the protector of Jesus and Mary, he was the protector of the Church as well. In celebration of the 150^th anniversary of St. Joseph being named patron of the universal church, Pope Francis proclaimed that the Church will celebrate this year as Year of Saint Joseph, from December 8, 2020 to December 8, 2021. Both Pope Pius IX in 1870 and Pope Francis in 2020, described the times in which they lived as full of darkness – times that needed the protection of one who knew how to protect the most sacred in life. These popes went to Joseph, for they knew that Christ and His people who are here today, are in need of Joseph as a companion and guide.

So, this year, let’s all “Go to Joseph!” Let’s include him in our prayer. Let’s think about his life and virtues and emulate all we can of this loveable, loving man’s life. When we think of refugees and the hopeless, unemployed workers, fathers who support their families, let’s “Go to Joseph.” He himself experienced these hardships. Let’s “Go to Joseph” when we think about our own families, for he himself treasured his family as he went with them down uncharted paths.  

~Sister Joan Sobala

Following Our Star in the New Year

Dear Friends,

On this first Sunday of a new year, consider the people who have influenced your life…people in your intimate family circle as well as those beyond. Those beyond could be people you can name – like Pope Francis, Donald Trump and Joe Biden. They could be nameless like the Magi whose involvement in Jesus life was brief, generous, arduously undertaken and which impelled Jesus, Mary and Joseph to travel beyond their plans to spend time in Egypt. 

After following the star and a detour to King Herod, the Magi finally came to the house where Jesus was. Matthew tells how they fell to their knees and worshipped him. They believed that this child held the key to the meaning of life. Whether it was their original intention or not, the Magi left gifts that drew attention to his authority, divinity and humanity. In leaving these gifts the Magi accepted that the newborn king was not what they expected.

In this new year, is God in Jesus what we have expected? This is a question worthy of our consideration. God is in the midst of the year 2020, which we have just completed – a year that, on the cover of a recent issue of TIME magazine was x-ed out. COVID marred 2020. So did forest fires and hurricanes and floods, storms of other kinds. We may think this is the most awful year in American history, but maybe not. Maybe we need to reclaim it as a year in which God reached out to us in a unique way, not to test us but to be present to us as life became more fragile for more people.

During this year just completed, we, too, had our star to follow, dreams that spoke God’s word to us in the deepest part of our being. Perhaps the only way we could have felt unquenched aloneness is if we did not acknowledge this God who is always with us. Did we feel unquenched loneliness?

God in Christ, says to us on this Epiphany Day:

Stand firm.

Listen to the dream.

                Follow the star.

                Go where it tells you. 

                Be sure of my love for you.

                Press on beyond disbelief.

                Stay close to each other.

                 Stay close to me.

If, from a human point of view, Epiphany celebrates the human search for God, from God’s viewpoint, Epiphany celebrates that God can be found. God wants to be found by us. 2021 is a year given to us to experience God, but we have to make time to do so. Be willing to stand before what looks like unfinished pain and emptiness and recognize God’s touch, embrace, the whisper of God in our innermost being, the hand holding our own.

God is more present that any Herod that comes our way, seeking to destroy who we are and what we cling to as essential for life. 

~ Sister Joan Sobala

The Importance of Family

Dear Friends,

Nothing is more important in life than our family relationships. Nothing. No matter how we characterize our own, family life is basis, indispensable and in threatened. Still, we have probably had more of family life during this pandemic year than we have had in any other.

Not only are young children experiencing distance learning at home, but our older children are unexpectedly home from college for longer periods. Perhaps our sons and daughters, who have lived in distant cities have been laid off and can’t afford their housing anyone. Maybe grandparents have joined us or cousins. Is the atmosphere relaxed? Probably not. Families in any circumstances need to work at their life together, but in this year of anxiety, boredom and loose ends, the work of the family becomes more arduous. However, we experience it, it’s true: We grow as humans in our family only through commitment, perseverance and courage. Whatever it takes!

It’s no surprise that the liturgists who put together the biblical texts for Holy Family Sunday include portions from Matthew and Luke, who reveal not only the covenant of love between Mary and Joseph, their moments of awe and wonder, but also the stresses they experienced.

In our own family lives, I hope that, like Mary and Joseph, we accept each other’s dreams, support each other and accept the support of strangers like Simeon and Anna.

While we can’t imitate the lives of Jesus and Mary step by step, we can be like them – open and responsive to the beckoning of God and help each other live it out. As Paul says in Colossians today, in our family interactions, let us put on heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Family life is precious, whether it is our own personal family, where our weaknesses are accommodated and our victories applauded, or whether it is the family of the universe to which we belong.

When Pope Francis was in Philadelphia in 2015, he focused on the family: “A healthy family requires the frequent use of these three phrases – 'May I please,' 'thank you,' and 'I’m sorry.'”

If any of us is looking for New Year’s resolutions, a holy place to start may be bringing to life in our home the examples of Mary and Joseph, the words of Paul to the Colossians and Pope Francis.

We have the human resources to do so.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Looking Up

 

Dear Friends,

My cousins, Ed and Ro, are avid stargazers. They recently sent me the image shown here of Saturn and Jupiter which will be as close together on December 21 as they have been since 1623. Go out on whatever cloudless sky we have before then and look up to see what you can see. Look up! 

“Look up!” is a good phrase to describe our best posture for Christmas. It’s what the shepherds did as they guarded their flocks by night on the hillsides beyond Bethlehem. Maybe they saw a star-filled sky and wondered about what it meant. They certainly saw an angel and then a brilliant panoply of angels in the sky, and they wondered. Wondering is a Christmas activity. The shepherds wondered what the words of the angel meant and where that message would lead if they dared to follow it. 

Somehow, they decided who would be left behind to guard the sheep and who would go to see. Seeing is a Christmas activity. The shepherds saw with new eyes on Christmas. Up on the hillside, they saw angels who told them the good news and the shepherds believed. Down in a sleeping town, they saw the star lead them to a stable. They wondered if they dare go inside.

They went in, saw, and they believed what they saw was more than what they saw…three people, somehow comfortable in these meagre surroundings: a man, a woman and a newborn. Animals were there, too, heating the stable with their body warmth and their breath. The shepherds were in awe. Awe is a Christmas word. These shepherds, poor and poorly regarded in their society, came face to face with the Word Made Flesh, tiny, unafraid, glad to finally be among his people. In their belief, the shepherds went out to tell anyone who would listen. Belief and telling the good news are Christmas activities.

• So too, this Christmas, we are called to look up, wonder, see, be in awe, believe and tell the good news.

Later, the astrologers in the East also looked up and saw the star. From different places, they set out. Led by the star, they journeyed alone and then maybe together. Journey is an Epiphany activity. One must leave the comfort of home to meet others on the way to meet the Word Made Flesh. 

One must come to trust others on the way. The Wise Men trusted too much. They trusted Herod, who was a villain, untrue to the kingly role he was given. But God’s care for the Word Made Flesh was greater than the power of Herod. Both the Holy Family and the Wise Men, warned in a dream, fled safely, but infant boys in Bethlehem did not. Great sacrifice is also part of the Epiphany experience.

• On Epiphany in this Christmas season, we are called to journey, alone and best of all together, to find the Child, to trust we will find Him, to accept the truth of dreams and be willing to sacrifice.

All season long, let’s all do our best to experience the simple-sounding, deeply revelatory calls we have from God, to be as the shepherds were and the Wise Men as well. Ask the Christ Child to show us how. It all begins with looking up. 

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Finding Our True Joy

Dear Friends,

The principal characters in today’s readings are Isaiah, Mary, the Thessalonians and John the Baptist. Without exception (and like us,) they lived with life-altering questions for which they had no immediate answers. They had no clear sense of what would happen, and along the way, they suffered for holding fast to their beliefs as well as what the messengers of God and their very lives told them were true.

They believed that God’s love enfolded them as they went on. (Do we?)

Woven through all four pieces of today’s Scriptures is a strong, luminous thread called joy.

None of these – Isaiah, Mary, the Thessalonians and John – had it easy, but they were all convinced that they were loved by God. (Are we?) They dared to forge new paths and they believed in a coming yet unseen. They knew by instinct and by faith that God loved their world and they rejoiced. (Do we?)

What is joy anyway? Can we experience it even in these immensely difficult times? 

Joy is not giddy delight nor happy laughter or merrymaking. It’s not a tailgate party or the euphoria of drugs. Joy is not the response to comedians or a passing response to incongruity. 

Joy is anchored in the promise that God wills the well-being of all. It is the keen awareness that God is in our life or is coming in a new way. It is a learned response that requires time, patience and a sustained effort. Joy grows in us over a lifetime.

The person who has learned joy gazes at, walks in the world and sees God’s imprint in life and nature.

Take the beloved American poet Mary Oliver. She encouraged her readers to welcome joy. “If you suddenly and unexpectedly feel joy, don’t hesitate. Give in to it…Life has some possibility left. Whatever it is, don’t be afraid of its plenty. Joy is not made to be a crumb.” 

“Look to him that you may be radiant with joy,” the psalmist reminds us (Ps.34.5).

So, do it. Look to God who is near. Don’t think your way into joy. Don’t make it a project. Don’t preprogram it. The experience will happen in the depths of our hearts despite pandemic, economic distress and personal loss. Instead, be open to the season which celebrates the coming of God.

As this season comes to flower, enjoy the music, drink in the delicate scent of fir trees, peppermint and ginger-bread. 

Look around you and see for certain that God is in love with the world.

We have great cause to rejoice.

~ Sister Joan Sobala