Making our way through the eye of the needle

Dear Friends,

The question Who can be saved?  has been persistent among many religious people throughout history even up to today. It plagued the Israelites right down to the time of Jesus. We hear that question repeated in today’s Gospel, but Jesus never really answers the question.

Instead, He tells a story of a group of people who were confident that they had reserved places at a banquet – but didn’t. They believed they had a claim on the master and deceived themselves into thinking that the master would recognize them and welcome them because they ate and drank with Him.

Were they ever surprised and disappointed! None of them and none of us has fullness of life with God sewed up neatly once and for all.

Three things, it seems, are required of anyone who wants to live, really live, fully in this life and beyond.

(1) Faithful love.

(2) The willingness to serve our cantankerous brothers, sisters and neighbors.

(3) The self-discipline which permits us to do both.

These three things make up the narrow door that Jesus speaks of today. Of these three, the hardest to achieve and least palatable is personal discipline. We don’t like the sound of the word “discipline.” Discipline is work – arduous and sometimes painful, yet, deep within us, we know that every worthwhile human endeavor requires discipline.

The second reading today from Paul is really an encouragement to self-discipline for a person who wants to win the race – achieve an end.

You and I demand quality and a high level of expertise from airline pilots, surgeons, tax experts, chefs and athletes – the list is long. Why should we think we can be any less disciplined in our own lives and in particular, our lives of faith?

For love and service to be genuine and long-lived, we need to choose the narrow way, and apply ourselves to whatever we are capable of for the sake of the Gospel. Only then will our world be satisfied of its hunger, comforted of its sorrow, healed of its diseases and where people at last can live together in peace.

The narrow way.  Making our way through the eye of the needle. These are the way of salvation for all who would be saved.

 -Sister Joan Sobala

Are we ready to be ignited?

Dear Friends,

In today’s Gospel, Jesus casts fire and brings division, not by default or by accident but by design.

                “I have come to cast fire on the earth,” he says, “and I can’t wait until it’s kindled.”

What does the fire of Christ do to the tangle of life? What is it doing, here and now, in your life and mine? How is life more richly  livable  because of the fire Christ continues to kindle on earth?

One way to get at the meaning behind Christ’s words is to think for a few moments about the nature of fire: what it does and what it requires.

We know that fire warms the cold. It destroys, illuminates, purifies and divides that which burns from that which does not.Last year, the forest and mountains of California burned ferociously. People who know about these things assure us that such fires renew the forest. But it doesn’t mean that people who live in the burned out areas don’t suffer life-altering loss.

Words also create fire within us. If I say to you “white supremacists” or “racism”, I have said words of fire and division.  Anger. Shouting.  Rejection and  ejection.  Disowning. These are part of the cost of the divisions in our  country  today. Within our very families we find division over these words. Divsions in our families burn over moral issues and movements as well.

Our divisions come from many sources: selfrighteousness, convction or charged emotions. Sometimes they come from human error or clumsiness. Somethimes they come from taking a deliberate stand on the other side.

How often we treat others, particularly those close to us as the crowds treated Jeremiah.  His is a universal story. Many a Jeremiah are thrown into the pit of mud in our own times, in the hope that such an inconvenient witness will disappear. We stuff them down a well so that we won’t have to listen to them or be challenged by them.   Do we try to create a world of harmony or do we content ourselves with life in our own small worlds, ignoring the cries from the well.

At times, we, to, are stuffed down a well: misunderstood, unaccepted , ignored. If we have ever been there, and have gotten out through the help of others, I hope we are charged up to help others down under.

It is precisely the fire of Jesus hat can illuminate these questions for us. He challenges our values, culled from our culture, and presents us with alternatives that may put us at odds with our family or society. Christ insists that redemption involves conflict and change, not just charity to victims. We are called to challenge oppressive structures.

Our attentive God will be as a spark for us, and if that spark catches, we’ll find ourselves burning with new motivations, a clearing vision, deepening hope and great compassion. Are we ready to be ignited?

Mary’s Assumption

Dear Friends,

Among the in-words of our day is the word “closure."

         We bring our conferences and discussions to closure.

We come to closure in our business transactions and family generations.

Marriage counselors talk about bringing strained relationships to closure.

Even lunches come to closure. 

The opposite of closure is “without end.” Few things in life are without end. Among the true things we say are without end are these: We say, “I will love you forever (beyond death).” We pray one God without end.

It is the belief of our faith community that Mary is a human being, first among us, whose life goes on without end… not in human memory alone, but her very life/her body/her spirit. There is no closure in the life of Mary.

Just a Christ is the first fruit of the Resurrection, Mary is the first human person to be in that tradition.

The American poet, Jessica Powers, in her poem "The Homecoming” begins with these words about Mary’s Assumption: 

 “The spirit, newly freed from earth, 

is all amazed at the surprise

of her belonging; suddenly

as native to eternity

to see herself, to realize

the heritage that lets her be

                  at home where all this glory lies.”                 

The poetry of this feast embodies the truth that life lived under the impulse of God is eternal. 

Mary’s life was lived under the impulse of God – God’s life, God’s breath, God’s energy. Take the Gospel for the feast of the Assumption. Mary could have stayed home, said “No. I am pregnant with God’s life. The one I bear is more important than the one Elizabeth bears. Let her come to me or let her stay home. I am not moving.” But this would not be Mary’s way or the way of her Son. Rather, Mary was suffuse with generosity and selflessness. Even when, later, this sensitivity to God’s impulse would lead he to be a homeless, political refuge, even when she came to the apparent impasse of the cross, Mary would not close herself to God, to life.

Will that divine impulses move us to respond generously? Will we live life in the belief that we are without end?

This feast bids us to take heart. Our lives are not destined for termination. Like

Mary without end, we are called to be Ann without end, Mike without end,

whoever we are without end.

If we live with this conviction, we live with Mary in kinship and destiny.

Are you better off than you were four years ago?

Dear Friends,

It has become something of a norm that every four years, as we inch along toward the Presidential elections, each party asks the same question: “Are you better off than you were four years ago?”

Maybe today’s Scriptures are inviting us to ask that same question of ourselves: “Am I happier, more peaceful within myself or am I more stressed out, more anxious and angry, with more sleepless nights?

Am I more content with my life and grateful for it, or is there a void, an emptiness, something missing?

If, indeed, I am at peace, content, grateful, happy, that’s wonderful! I’m on the right track. If not, then Jesus, in today’s Gospel, offers us these questions to ponder: What is most important in my life today? Where is my heart? What are the real treasures of my life? To what am I committed? What would I go to the mat for?

We see Jesus, Qoheleth, and Paul calling us today to connect faith and life. These are not separate aspects of our lives. They are part of our wholeness.

One of the authors I go back to every so often is Paul Wilkes. In his book, Seven Secrets of Successful Catholics, Wilkes distilled these thoughts from travelling around the country listening to people describe their life and faith connections. Other readers have added to or modified his thoughts. A recent version I came across put it this way:

Successful Catholics:

• Are members of a parish/faith community. They need a home for their spirit, the support of like-minded people. In their worship, they sense an encounter with the Divine, no matter how fleeting it may be.

• Regularly do things that call them out of themselves. They make time for others.

• Recognize God in everyday events. They are aware of the closeness of God.

• Pray. Wilkes notes an amazing variety of prayer styles among Catholics, but the call to prayer is essential.

• Realize that their actions and life choices make them models for others.

Why don’t you add your own 7^th secret?

Let’s hope that this summer finds us sharing the inheritance we have and not greedily storing up for ourselves what we have been given.

~Sister Joan Sobala

Grandparents Influence

Dear Friends,

Grandparents have come into their own in our time and place as a major influence in the lives of their grandchildren. Grandparents cheer the young ones on, sometimes raise their grands, and are certainly full of stories of their grands, complete with photos on their cell phones. It seems fitting then that, in the height of summer, the Church celebrates the feast of Saints Joachim and Anne, the parents of Mary and the grandparents of Jesus (July 26 in the USA, July 25 in Canada).

We don’t know much about Joachim and Anne, except from stories that circulated about them. One version says that before he went off to pray, Joachim was considered sterile. Afterwards, he and Anne had Mary, and when she was three, they presented her to God in the temple of Jerusalem (Feast of the Presentation of Mary, November 21). It is said that Joachim died when Mary was little, and eventually, Anne remarried. Anne continued to be devoted to Mary, and in the images of the two of them together that have come down through history, Mary is always standing at the side of Anne who is teaching her to read. Quite remarkable when we consider the age in which they lived.

Pope Francis has taken the natural affinity that exists between grandparents and their grands, and has encouraged their roles. “(Grandparents) have the strength to leave us a noble inheritance…they transmit history…doctrine…faith and give it to us …passing on the human and religious heritage which is essential for each and every society… Grandparents’ words have something special for young people. And they know it.”

Pope Francis also gives grandparents and the elderly some instructions. He tells them “talk to your children, talk. Let them ask questions…You are an important presence, because… you witness to the values that really matter and which endure forever.” And of course, the Pope asks grandparents to pray for their grandchildren, invoking Saint Anne in particular ”Everyone ask Anne to teach us to be good and wise grandparents.”

Today, if you have a chance, think about your own grandparents and what each of them has meant to you. What have they taught you? What kind of person have you become because of your grandparents?

And if you have children, what have your parents been to them?

Today, say the names of your grandparents one by one. Tell them you are grateful for them. Whether they are living or dead, ask them to be with you, to hold you close to lead you to the Lord.

And if you don’t know your grandparents but have relatives who have known them, ask them. Take time to find out who your grandparents are/were at their deepest level. You will be the richer for it.

~Sister Joan Sobala

Being Hospitable

Dear Friends,

Like many of you, I have been in and out of hotels, motels and conference centers over the years. In every place I’ve stayed, the staff has made a point of seeing to my comfort. I know this because they told me so. Hospitality is a commodity that can be bought. We simply don’t go back to a city, hotel or restaurant that has not been hospitable.

But hospitality is more than a business or an impulsive kindness to  strangers . It’s an important ingredient in the character of people who share what they have. Some families are more hospitable than others. In 1936, my Dad took his parents to Batavia to visit friends, but they got lost on the country roads. My grandfather recognized a name on a mailbox. “Stop here, Connie.” Grandpa said. “ I know these people and they will tell us where our friends live.” The house where they stopped for directions belonged to a couple who certainly did know where the sought- for people lived. When they were pulling out , the woman of the house said to my grandparents: “ When you’ve visited, come back here for a meal, because they won’t  feed you!” Of course they weren’t fed, and hungry, they made their way back to the kind people who had given them directions. Connie met the daughter of the house. My mother! It never would have happened if Connie and his folks hadn’t stopped for directions and Celia’s parents hadn’t been hospitable.

Hospitality to immigrants who stand at our borders is being thwarted by our government, which has no living memory of our being an immigrant nation. This call to hospitality is among the pivotal issues of our day and nation. Some of us choose to whom we will be hospitable by race, education, class.

For the ancients we meet in Scripture, hospitality was a cherished law. The stranger as well as the invited guest was welcomed into a household in ritual ways… dirty, tired feet washed and food generously shared. We see this ritual acted out in Genesis today, when Abraham and Sara, long advanced in years, provided shelter, food and drink to three strangers – in reality messengers from God.

The return gift from the strangers was the fulfillment of a promise made to Abraham many years before. He and Sara would have a son within a year.  From Abraham and Sara, you and I learn that each time we are hospitable to others , we create with God a new being, a new insight, a new connectedness.

Next weekend, by contrast, we’ll hear another story from Genesis wherein God is angry at the unwillingness of Sodom to be hospitable to strangers who come God ‘s name. Prudence holds up a caution sign when the stranger, a family member at the door masks the demonic in the world.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus does not chide Martha for her hospitality but rather for her anxiety. Anxious people cannot be open and Jesus knows this. In naming her anxiousness, Jesus releases her from it.

Once we become clear that hospitality -  openness  to the other in the name of God – is core to our lives, then we recognize that we, too, are guests in God’s world,  bound together – intertwined by the mystery of God’s own hospitality to us all.

As the summer goes on, let us each be as hospitable as possible in God’s name.  May we also welcome the hospitality of people and the world as God’s gift to us.

~Sister Joan Sobala

What do we say? Or do we say nothing at all?

Dear Friends, 

How people interact or ask questions makes all the difference in the world. 

Zachary and Mary, for example in Luke’s account of the two annunciations, each asked questions of the messenger who came to them. Zachary’s question “How am I to know this?” was challenging. As a high priest, Zachary was used to being in charge. His question reflected that. Mary’s question “How can this be since I know not man?” was a question of a believer, who wanted to know more about what was to be.

When we question someone, it takes work to make our question welcome what people really want to say. Children, for example, are either struck mute or given aid to open up, depending on the questions we ask. If we say “Why don’t you like peas?” a child will be threatened. If we say “You don’t like peas as much as carrots, do you?” the tone is softer and gives the child a chance to respond to the comparison with still another possibility “No, I like celery best of all!”

Jesus’ adversaries were continuously trying to trap him with their clever questions. “Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar?” And in today’s Gospel, the lawyer, who tried to exonerate himself asked: “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus did not answer these questions directly. He told stories instead -let people draw their own conclusions. 

Our language either build up other people or it tears them down. We can say: "Of course you can!” “Why don’t you try it?” “That was wonderful!"  To say: “You never get it right!” is to erode confidence and to increase the emotional distance between people. 

The hardest time to know what to say is in the face of someone’s illness – or the death of a loved one – or their own pending death. In these situations, we come face to face with our own finiteness and vulnerability, and perhaps we blurt out an insensitive remark. Maybe we stay away completely or say nothing at all. 

Here are some thoughts that may help. First of all, focus on the other person. When someone wants to or needs to tell the story of  their own illness or the events surrounding a loved one’s death, what’s called for from us is listening, holding the person’s hand, rubbing them gently. They don’t need to hear parallel accounts from us.

We don’t always need to have an answer for every question, nor do we need to know everything.

People who have had a long illness, for example, don’t want to give a daily health report to every caller.

Finding the right words to say to someone who is terminally ill is especially hard. Perhaps a squeeze of the hand might help, or saying “I’m sending you a shot of love until I see you again.”

In the matter of learning to say the right thing to people, no word is absolute. We need to practice words of encouragement, comfort. Stay open to the Holy Spirit, whose inspiration is never lacking for us. 

~Sister Joan Sobala