Lent: Fasting and Following the Lord: Some worthwhile ideas

Dear Friends,

Lent begins on Wednesday, all fresh and new. I hope you have some good, simple ideas to draw on that can help Lent be fresh even a month from now. Here are two short pieces that others have written which I have found helpful in past Lenten times. You may want to weigh the ideas within them for their worth.

The first is an excerpt from the Abbey of the Arts by Christine Valters Paintner. She says, and we can echo

   “I am called to fast from being strong…to allow a great softening…

    I am called to fast from anxiety… and enter into radical trust…

    I am called to fast from speed…causing me to miss the grace shimmering right here…

    I am called to fast from multitasking...beholding each thing, each person, each moment…

    I am called to fast from endless list-making…and enter into the quiet and listen…

    I am called to fast from certainty and trust in the great mystery of things…”

This second piece is from an unpublished  article by Rochesterian  P. David Finks;

   “Lent is the time for getting into the habit of following Christ, but never letting following
    Christ become an empty habit…following is not easy business.  It requires a tranquil 
    and trusting spirit…In order to follow, you need to be free from the bonds of any place or
    time, you need to be free from the chains of possessions or habits, you  need to be free
    from the shackles of selfish expectations…Jesus walks into the place where we are and
    says ‘Follow me.’… Right here, right now, in the midst of the everyday facts of life. His call
    is that we follow him into all the broken places of life to renew and make them who call is
    still hard, and his call is still easy to evade and avoid…Yet hearing that voice speak your
    name, saying ‘Come, follow me,’ you can do nothing else but lay down control and
    selfishness and all your self-absorbed fussing, and take up the cause of this stupendous
    stranger whose mission is light and life and love. Lent means following  Christ – trying to
    express in our lives the same kind of reconciling love he did.”

Fast and follow – two loaded words to imprint on the inside of our eyelids so that we see them every morning as we are struggling to wake up. Lenten words to live by: Fast from the destructive interior motor that drives us – literally drives us into not seeing Christ and not hearing his call to follow him.

I wish you a slowly unfolding Lent which promises the companionship of Christ daily.

~Sister Joan Sobala

Do Not Strike Back

Dear Friends,

If the name Abishai was called for on the Jeopardy category “Biblical Figures”, most of us would probably miss the answer. Abishai only appears once  - in 1Kings - as David’s military advisor. But obscure as he is, Abishai lives on today.

Here’s the backstory to today’s reading from 1Kings.

The older Saul and the still young David were in conflict, battling over a kingdom. Saul was about to kill David, when David fled, with Saul’s army in fruitless pursuit. As our reading today unfolds, David has a stroke of luck. David and his friends come upon Saul, asleep, unguarded and defenseless. “Kill him,” Abishai whispers to David. But David refuses. Saul is his king, the Lord’s anointed. Trusting in God’s wisdom and power, David leaves Saul to God to deal with. But David did take Saul’s spear as proof he had stood over Saul and had a choice to kill him or not.

Can you imagine how Abishai might have reacted to David’s refusal to heed his advice? “What kind of fool are you, David? Saul would kill you if he could. If you don’t kill him first, he will do away with you. Act now, David! Here’s your chance. Kill Saul! ” Later, David would tell why he didn’t follow Abishai’s advice. David chose to be guided by mercy, justice and compassion. Saul, in turn, moved by David’s thinking, entered into a kind of peace with David.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus stands with David over against Abishai. Jesus, too,  urges his followers to choose mercy, justice and compassion when dealing with conflict. Teaching his followers a Godlike generosity, Jesus wants us to do  good to those who have done evil to us.

How hard it is to break the cycle of violence, hatred and evil by returning compassion for violence, love for hatred and good for evil. What a challenge it is to live this way.

Abishai is alive and well in our world today. Is it his voice, urging you onto strike back,that you listen to? Who is the mentor of the moment who seems to have the answer that will solve everything? Today’s Abishai, cloaked in modern terms, tells us that unless we attack those who attack us, all is lost. Jesus and David would have it otherwise. They resist the undertow of revenge and tell us to do likewise. These readings are a lesson for world leaders about how to treat their own people as well as their enemies, but they are also a lesson for me. How about my own tendencies to be aggressive and violent in my personal relationships? My own ways might be more subtle and calculated, but Abishai whispers in my ear too. Abishai becomes active in me when I strike back against those who harm me.

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

Help me not to judge, or condemn, or find novel ways of striking back.

Help me to pardon, give, love, forgive, be compassionate and just.

-Sister Joan Sobala

God invites us to sing. No conditions.

Dear Friends,

As a people in our day, Americans don’t sing much. We have our car radios, MP3s or our ear buds, and we listen to music a lot, but singing is another matter. 

Yet singing is a deeply human, time-honored way of expressing emotion, solidarity with others, hopefulness, delight. The Jewish people, for example, have a Sabbath of Singing, to remember and renew the power of the songs of Moses and Miriam as they crossed the Red Sea on their long journey to freedom. Muslims sing the Koran and other world-wide religions have their songs of praise and thanks, however they name the Holy One. They sing with the people next to them.

As the Third Reich was training and indoctrinating youth to be folded into a solid war machine, the boys were taught patriotic songs. They sang these songs marching, practicing, at meals. In a whole other context, Black Americans sang their songs of sorrow and yearning for freedom from their slave days onward. In the 1960’s, as the Civil Rights movement grew, Americans of all ethnic origins across the country learned and sang songs of freedom in solidarity with the Black Community.

Today, Americans seem to have devolved into a land of listeners. Listening is good, of course, but singing lifts the soul as listening can’t.

In most Protestant and Evangelical Churches, congregations sing heartily at worship. Choirs and cantors help swell the sound, but congregational singing draws people’s hearts and minds closer to God and to one another. Some Catholic parishes have sustained or developed rich congregational singing, but not all. Some historians say the lack of singing at Mass stems from the Irish who came to America. They remembered needing to pray silently in Ireland, lest enemy troops find them. The Irish who came here associated strong congregational singing with the Protestant Churches. That’s one theory. There are others, of course, but no theory is adequate for us not to sing. “Be filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking with one another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs.” (Eph.5.18-19) “It is my joy, O God, to praise you with song. To sing as I ponder your goodness.” (Morning Prayer, Saturday, Week IV of the Divine Office)

Sing praise to God in the morning. Sing alone. Sing together. I’m sure you have your own personal evaluation of your ability to sing. “I’m pretty good,” you might say, or “I’ve got a beautiful voice,” or “I carry my notes in a bushel basket.”   God doesn’t say to us in the Scripture “Sing only if you have a good voice.” God invites us to sing. No conditions.

Singing at Mass is worship. We create a joyful song to the Lord together. With one voice. Singing at Mass is ministry to one another. We sing for healing the person in the next pew with cancer, depression. We sing in joy awaiting the birth of children in the womb. We sing because we are saved and loved by a God who sings back to us. “God will exult over you with loud singing.”(Zeph.3.17)

"Sing a New Church into Being”, we proclaim in one of our contemporary hymns. Sing, and if you dare, sway, clap your hands, lift your arms in prayer. Develop a singing life, on key or off.

-Sister Joan Sobala

My Heart is Ready

Dear Friends,

From the earliest times of human consciousness, love was a gift and a challenge. People tried to understand the stirrings of the heart by creating definitions of love which, in fact, never completely captured this multifaceted aspect of human beings. The ancients divided love into three kinds: agape – the love of the divine and the divine in us, filio – the love of fondness and friendship with those with whom we share life and experience, and eros – sexual love.

Poets have written about love.  John Henry Cardinal Newman  took as his episcopal motto “cor  ad  cor loquitur” Heart speaks to heart. Rejected sexual love can morph into hatred and sometimes violence. Then too there is the love of friendship, the love of people for their pets who are endlessly faithful .

Love is not chosen. It arises unbidden in us and lasts long after dementia or death cause separation. My mother’s friend, Laura, was in a nursing home the last eight months of her life. Her mind clouded, Laura could no longer remember my mother’s name, but my mother continued to visit her, and each time, from some deep place, Laura recognized my mother.  “You’re my friend, “Laura would say.

Childhood experiences sometimes affect the breadth and scope of our love long into our adult years. Tommy, as a second grader, saved his allowance so he could buy 5 Valentines for his five favorite fellow second graders. ”How many in the class? ” Tommy’s Mom asked. “20.” said Tommy. Mom showed him a packet of 20 cards for a dollar.”  “Then you could give one to everyone in the class.” Tommy’s Mom pointed out and waited. Tommy swallowed hard, but he took his mother’s suggestion. One little girl in the class, came to Tommy on Valentine’s Day, tears in her eyes, clutching a card close to her. “ Oh Tommy, thank you. Yours is the only Valentine I got.” Tommy told me this story when he was forty.

If Valentine’s Day can be celebrated with a wide embrace, it can also be celebrated as a time to renew and deepen our commitments. Commitment is not a popular idea in our culture. A segment of our population today favor: try this or that. Give our bodies to someone on a temporary basis. Make ourselves the sole measure of the choices we make.

Commitment to our work does make it big these days – but other commitments are harder to stay with, grow with . I’m thinking of marriages left because someone more appealing came along, the priesthood or religious life never tries because the sacrifices are too many.

If you’ve continued in a relationship with others for years, Valentine’s Day can be a time to recommit and resolve to find new ways to grow together. If you’ve given yourself to God through a religious commitment of whatever kind, make time to spend with God on Valentine’s Day.

Valentine’s Day can be a time to choose again, to repeat our yes, to transform a day of knickknacks, candy, trifles and trite phrases into a time of love, truly deepened with our God and one another.

My heart is ready, O Lord. My heart is ready.

-Sister Joan Sobala

Let's Dare to Forgive

Dear Friends,

One of life’s hard but necessary lessons is to learn to be people in whom forgiveness resides...to be able to forgive others for what they have done to us…to ask forgiveness of those whom we have injured… and to forgive ourselves for what we have done to others. If we don’t forgive, then we will die inside.

Forgiveness is a relational process. It involves God and us in personal and sacramental ways. We don’t go immediately from whatever generated the need for forgiveness to making forgiveness actual in our life. Maybe we need to walk away from the event, leave it alone for a while. Take a break. We also need to develop a certain patience and refuse to let the thought of whatever it was stay in the forefront of our mind. Other bigger, growthful thoughts can’t occupy our minds if we are so preoccupied with the memory of whatever it was. Only with time (different for each of us), can we decide what we need to do so that the memory of whatever it was does not swallow us up. Lay it to rest. We know that forgiveness is real when it no longer hounds us and we are free to go on.

Jesus taught us the full measure of forgiveness, by his words to his followers to “forgive 70 times 7 time”(that is to say endlessly  - Mt 18.22). He told us “if you do not forgive, neither will you Father in heaven forgive you (Mark 11.26) His greatest lesson in forgiveness was the way He died on the cross.” Father, forgive!” He cried out in Luke, his words washing over Jerusalem with love Luke 23.34).

It is So Hard to Love…

To unlock the heart

To release the bottled pain….

So hard to stop running

To embrace the one hated

To love and forgive.

So hard…

To unclench the fist

To surrender to God.

-Joseph Varga

Jesus is the Lord of Second Chances. When we feel dead inside and wonder if we can ever be resurrected, Jesus, the Holy One, is there offering forgiving love and bidding us to do in like manner.

God’s forgiveness of us and our forgiveness of others are inextricably linked. Once we recognize and own that we are forgiven by God, then we are free to treat each other as though we are forgiven. In our world that is so full of dissing, hatred and violence, forgiveness of others and ourselves opens doors and windows. Goodbye, road rage. Goodbye, revenge. The world feels different, tastes different, is different.

In our dismal days of national strife, let’s dare to forgive, and with God, create a new world.

-Sister Joan Sobala

What owns us?

Dear Friends,

I have a list of people to look for and talk with after I cross over into eternal life. Among them is the rich young man who comes to Jesus in all earnestness and asks what he must do to enter eternal life. Jesus tells him to obey the commandments. “All these I have kept from my youth” the rich young man replied. Jesus looked on him with love, assessed the man to his core and told him “One more thing you must do”, namely sell what you have, give to the poor and follow him. The man went away grieving, for he had many possessions. (Mt.19-22, Mk. 10.17-31, Lk.18.18-30) How did this man live the rest of his life? Did the rich young man ever regret his decision to walk away from “the more “ that Jesus asked of him?

Many of us approach Jesus as the rich young man did. We gladly embrace the Jesus who comforts and affirms us. The question is: What owns us?  Are we what we have: accumulated goods, riches, a measure of power, a lauded position, a title, children, a  record  of real moral and spiritual seriousness? What do we desire more of and fear having less of? What do we stake our life on?

It’s true that in our daily lives we attend to the commitments that engage us and that we use things in the process. Having things is not the issue. The real problem is attachment to things. The wealth and prosperity we have, whatever forms they take, should enable the journey of life rather than become more important than the journey itself.  What matters is that we detach ourselves from the overwhelming sense of needing to cling to whatever we treasure. Meister Eckhart writes: “There, where clinging to things ends, is where God begins to be.”

There’s a vast chasm between the faithful performance of moral and religious duties of the commandments and the real surrender of ourselves that arises from trust in God. We are bound, for example, to do no violence to our neighbor, but we have a choice whether to bind one another’s wounds. The call is to go beyond the necessary to the generous and whole-hearted.

“One thing more you must do” varies from person to person. Your one thing to surrender to God is not necessarily mine. We have to know ourselves reasonably well, have a sense what God is calling us to let go of, and make our choice generously. One choice leaves out other choices, so we have to pray with openness to God to know our own particular path of detachment from things.

In these cold, dark winter days, when we sit with our computers and scout Amazon for new toys, it’s easy to feather oneself with one more thing. Instead, let’s find ways to support others in their growth toward wholeness of life. Become what we hope the world will be.

A few verses after he encounters the rich young man in each of Synoptic Gospel accounts, Jesus tells his followers: “All things are possible with God.” We may have even quoted this encouragement to others in tough moments. Let’s invite each other to apply it to ourselves as we ask “What more should I do…?”

Unity of All Christians

Dear Friends,

Thank God that God is God. Any lesser being would grow frantic and confused by the stories of contemporary church experiences as well as the attitudes and conclusions of the members of the Church that are in the news these days.

Harper’s magazine's cover story for December, 2018, tells of “The Plight of Christians in an Age of Intolerance”. The author, Janine di Giovanni, takes the reader  through the villages near Mosul in Iraq which have been the homes of Chaldeans Catholics since the earliest Christian centuries. Today their churches are ruined, desecrated by the Islamic State, and the people, clutching their faith close to their breasts, are leaving the area.

Likewise, di Giovanni says, the stories of Christian Palestinians, Christians in Syria and Coptic Christians in Egypt are full of violence as they are persecuted by Muslim radicals.

In the Middle East, as well as elsewhere across the globe, people are dying for their faith. By contrast, in the northern hemisphere in particular, people are leaving the Catholic Church, enraged and disgusted by the sexual abuse by clergy, but more to the point, because the hierarchy is so indecisive in taking strong action.

The lead article in the National Catholic Reporter for January 11-24, 2019 is by Melinda  Henneberger, formerly of the New York Times . Entitled “Why I left the church”, Henneberger is clear that for her to stay is meant to prop up a failing institution.

Perhaps you and I stand with the Chaldean Catholics or with Melinda Henneberger or maybe we’re in between, in something of a love hate relationship with the church. Do we leave, defect in place or do we continue to love the Church for what it is at its very core?

Because that’s where we must go – to  the very core of the Church, - Jesus the Christ, the Holy One, Our Savior and Brother. We can go elsewhere, and try to make ”elsewhere” our new home. That will work for some people. Will it work for you or for me? We do have to face that question and act in a way that firms up why we are where we are and what we hold close to our breast.

From January 18 (the pre-1960 feast of the chair of St. Peter) to January 25 (the feast of the conversion of Saint Paul), Christians are called to a week of prayer for Christian Unity. Most of the time, we believe that means unity among separated  Christian Churches. But it could also mean that we pray for unity in our own house. Division, separation, public or silent rejection are not the only ways of dealing with obviously stressful church relationships. Let’s quiet our blood pressures and take a deep plunge into the heart of what the church means at its deepest level: the Body of Christ, the community of believers who empower one another to stay close to our Risen, ever- present Christ. Let us love those who have left, and the persecuted . Let us be the Body of Christ for one another.

~Sister Joan Sobala