Deepening Our Faith Whole-Heartedly

Dear Friends, 

This year, our liturgical calendar and our event calendar blend to offer us a unique opportunity to observe Ash Wednesday and Valentine’s Day together.  

God is in the ashes. No question about that. Is God in our hearts as well? Receiving ashes on our foreheads is another way of saying to God, “Yes. I will follow you with my feet, my hands, my mind and my heart, with everything I am and have.” 

Will you say that? Will I say that?  

The imposition of ashes on our foreheads means nothing unless that action touches our hearts and lasts.  

Great spiritual practices have been given to us. We can relish them and amplify them during Lent through core practices which are thousands of years old:  

            prayer that opens our hearts to God’s grace,  

            fasting that makes us understand the hungers that really matter and 

            giving alms from what we need and not just from our overage.  

Let’s be imaginative about what these practices mean. One Latin American Bishop, recognizing that in his poor country most people had little to eat, told them to find new ways to fast in their words and their actions. If you know how to read, he told them, take time to teach someone else to read.   

On this Valentine/Ash Wednesday, let us be brave-hearted and heart-whole as we deepen our faith. In these times when the practice of faith seems too unimportant to many people or at least not obvious, let the faith that is in us shine before others, so that they may be warmed and blessed by it. 

God’s deepest desire for us is that we have a wide embrace, enveloping God, the stranger, the family member and friend and the world in which we live. That can only happen when we love the Lord with our whole heart (Matthew 22.37), when we pray with a steadfast heart (Psalm 57.8).  

This Lent, will we count ourselves among the believers in the early Church who were of one mind and one heart (Acts 4.32) and be gentle and humble of heart as Jesus was (Matthew 11.29)? 

With you, I pray that this will be so. May what we have heard from the beginning remain in our hearts (John2.24). 

~ Sister Joan Sobala 

Finding New Learnings About Faith

Dear Friends,

Among the time-honored phrases which are part of the English language is “the practice of…”

            The practice of medicine
            The practice of surgery
            The practice of law.
            The practice of faith.

All of these are different from other activities which nonetheless require practice. We practice our musical instrument, driving before we get our license, athletic moves to achieve skill and master to our own satisfaction.

We don’t say “the practice of eating or sleeping,” although we might need to change our habits to sleep better or eat better. The old saying “Practice makes perfect” in most of life’s activities could be more properly rendered “Perfect practice makes almost perfect.”

But what makes medicine, surgery, law, and faith unique in life is that we are never finished learning about them, refining them in our minds and in daily life. We are always learning something we didn’t know, something new.

Refresher courses and updates are required to continue professional practices. We can skip adult faith formation if we wish, but at what cost?

Faith is a gift freely given at Baptism. We have it and maybe we have thought that this is enough. “Everything I Need I learned in Kindergarten,” as the book by that title says. Or maybe as children, we watched how adults practiced faith.

One day, we grew up and the practice of faith was up to us. It’s easy to be contented with what we knew of God, Jesus, faith, mercy as children. But just as adults do not wear the same clothes they wore as children, adults cannot become more deeply God-centered without putting off the spiritual garments of children.

In the season of Lent, which is to dawn on us on Valentine’s Day, let’s open our heart, our mind, our eyes and ears to new learnings about faith. Deep learnings, not just thoughts that skim the surface of faith. Faith is a journey into parts unknown. It requires a certain daring on our part. It requires space and time in our day, our week, and companions (fellow-learners) along the way.

What shall we do this Lent to move more wholeheartedly into faith?

Here are a few suggestions:

Learn who God is. God is loving, tender, gentle. That may not be the way we were taught to think of God. Turn to God this way. Turn to people this way as we learn more convincingly that this is who God is.

Make your way weekly to the community’s weekend Eucharist. Listen, watch, drink in the meaning of Christ with us as food and drink for the journey.

Find and join a local study group that opens the Scriptures or some aspect of faith.

Go to a Lenten series in your parish or a neighboring parish. Hear something new from the speaker. Listen to how people question.

Try a book like Sacred Fire by Ron Rohlheiser or Timothy Radcliff’s Why Go To Church? Or find one of their talks on YouTube.

Ask a friend or colleague what (s)he has done to grow in faith.

Try something. At first, you may want to say: I don’t know where to begin! But try something. One step could well lead you to another.

All of this has to do with acquiring a mature taste for God and the things of God.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

Casting Out the Demons in Life

Dear Friends,

In the readings of the previous two Sundays, we heard stories of God calling people to follow, to listen, to act in certain ways.

Samuel brought his innocence to God. “Speak, Lord, for your servant listens.” John the Baptist pointed out Jesus to his young disciples and then watched them follow this new master. Jonah resisted serving God, but God was persistent. Jesus called Peter and Andrew, James, and John. Together, they came.

Wonderful stories of call in which we can find our own stories – the ways God calls us to be disciples!

This week, no more stories of call. This week we find the challenge that comes to everyone who is called. The name of that challenge is the demon.

The historian, Adolf Harnack, once noted that, at the time of Jesus, the whole world was thought to be filled with demons. “Every phase and form of life was ruled by these evil spirits.” Archeological evidence supports the strength of this belief.

Our own society is divided about demons. On the one hand, the popularity of authors like Stephen King, and films about the occult underscore our culture’s curious fascination with the demonic. On the other hand, many in our society dismiss demons as the stuff of fantasy.

But really, you and I experience the demonic in life. Anything that brings non-natural harm to ourselves or others, anything that seeks to destroy or obsess us, to overwhelm our peace of mind, our families, our relationships – these are manifestations of the demonic. The forces that possess groups of people, incapacitate their working for the good of all, distort their humanity are demonic.

The Synoptic Gospels tell of Jesus tempted by Satan before he began his public ministry. Satan did not prevail. But early in his public ministry, according to Mark, Jesus came face-to-face not with a man seeking answers to life’s thorny questions, but a man possessed by a demon, taken captive by a force outside of human control.

Jesus recognized the demon for what he was. He already had the experience of Satan. This demon was clever as Satan had been. The demon made the man cry out “Jesus, You are the Holy One of God.” (Mark 1.24) But the Teacher would not accept this proclamation, this recognition from the demon. Apparent words of faith are not enough. Beyond the words, the demon was bent on destruction – the destruction of the man who hosted him and the destruction of Jesus.

“Be quiet!” Jesus commanded. “Come out of the man.” (Mark 1.25)

The demon convulsed the man violently before leaving, but more importantly, the demon departed.

Jesus restored the demon-held man to sanity and true humanity.

The demon had come face-to-face with the unique authority of Jesus. Jesus had no political, legal, vested power. He didn’t even have designated religious authority. The Scribes and the Pharisees had a corner on that. The only authority Jesus had came from His loving heart and welcoming ways, His oneness with His Father. People who accepted His authority did so because He treated them with honor and humility.

The authority of Jesus offered people alternatives to their lives, evoking a new consciousness in them. He helped them see that demons could be successfully challenged, that dominant oppressive cultures could be supplanted. Life could be different.

The man in today’s Gospel account, and others like him, who came to Jesus, their demons found themselves freed – and given new life.

I believe that the demonic today is as clever as ever, but not as easily identifiable as some preachers and media would have us believe. Rather, demons are in our world in the disordered appetites of addiction, avarice, and lust which masquerades as love. There is the demonic push for power that has little regard for human beings, the readiness to use physical, verbal, attitudinal violence toward one another, the need to possess more and more of the world’s goods.

Our world is less free of demons than we would like to think.

But while we may not realize it or allude to it, we have share in the authority of Christ, given to us in Baptism. With the power of that authority, it’s up to us to confront the demons of our age and to help release the people who suffer from the ravages of demonic power.

Our reading from Genesis reminds us that, surely in life, good will be in conflict with evil.

But even more surely, God is with us in our struggle.

Demons have never overcome our God.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

The Presence of God in Our Ordinary Lives

Dear Friends,

Already the Christmas trees are long gone, the manger figures, Christmas decorations and albums are stored for another year. Lent looms on the horizon, coinciding this year with Valentine’s Day – a combination to touch our hearts, for sure. But here’s the very important realization that could escape us if we let it.

The Incarnation of the Word, the Son of God, continues to be with us 

today and everyday throughout the year, 

throughout our lives, in our homes and in our world, 

without exception. 

Jesus is one of us.

Sit with that thought as often as you can. Realize what it means for our daily living. We can easily miss the immensity of this act of God, because we are inclined to equate the Incarnation with Jesus, whose new-born life we celebrate at Christmas as a past event. We think of His presence as a thirty-three year experiment – a one shot incursion of God into human history. After His ascension, Jesus “retires” – is gone from this life.

The truth is that God continues to come today. We can be unaware of God’s incarnation today or we can nourish this truth. We nourish it as we pay attention, watch, listen, absorb, catch the God-presence in our ordinary lives, our homes and workplaces, our places of recreation as well as worship, in the places of our chance encounters that stir something good and holy in us.

This sort of living and thinking is not automatic. It comes only with work and practice. But the good news is that the impetus for such God – awareness is already ours – a gift of our Baptism, embedded in our beings when we became one with Christ in the Body of Christ. We were immersed in water, anointed and given the Light of Christ to launch us on our journey of faith. Our parents, godparents and older adults had to see us through, until we could be aware enough of God-with-us, and then the work was ours to carry on.

To add another depth of realization, the Dominican Herbert McCabe tells us that “God loves us personally. It is not some vague, warm feeling for the whole human race. God loves us personally and intimately, more personally and intimately than we can love ourselves. God is more personally concerned for my good and for my happiness right now than I can be for myself.”

As the year unfolds, let the love of God for you unfold. Let it find you growing and becoming all you can be.

It is an incarnational journey we are on.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

The Flight into Egypt

Dear Friends,

Last weekend, our Church celebrated the feast of the Epiphany, and this week, we already find the adult Jesus gathering His first disciples, who came to Him through the generosity of John the Baptist.

But the whole community, gathered for Eucharist on weekends, is not given a chance to concentrate on the Holy Family, refugees from the violence of Herod as it is told in Matthew 2.13-18. The Gospel for the Feast of Holy Innocents, December 28, does tell us of the flight into Egypt, but most of us are not at Mass that day to hear it and to reflect on its meaning for us today.

The flight into Egypt is a way of realizing that God accompanies us in our darkest moments, when we leave all things behind except what we can carry.

Some Scripture scholars trace the route of travel of the Holy Family from Bethlehem to Ascalon in Gaza, then through Rafah and the coast road down to Egypt. Sound familiar? Today, Palestinians are trapped in Gaza and can’t pass through the Rafah Border Crossing into Egypt without proper documentation. The plight of the refugees continues.

Left behind as the Holy Family flees are the families with children two years old and under, to be subjected to the cruelty of Herod. Elizabeth, Zachary, and little John lived in the targeted area. Don’t you wonder how they escaped?

But back to the Holy Family. There are many stories told in the Coptic Orthodox Church about the movements of the family as they sought safety. The tourism branch of the Egyptian Government today has recently created the Holy Family Trail, leading pilgrims and tourists to various sites that, in the Coptic tradition, are stopping off points for the Holy Family as they made their way.

One of those sites has a true historical accuracy -- the Church of Saint Sergius (Abu Serga) in Cairo. Contained within the massive church is the Cave of Refuge, where Jesus, Mary and Joseph were sheltered. (Still another cave in the story of Jesus! Go back to my Christmas Eve blog for others.)

You and I are not the only ones who see this story come alive in another day. Others have meditated on its reappearance over the centuries. In the early 1940s, Thomas Merton wrote a poem about the flight into Egypt in his time.

                Through every precinct of the wintry city
                Squadroned iron resounds upon the streets;
                Herod’s police
                Shudder the dark steps of the tenements
                At the business about to be done.

                Neither look back upon thy stary country.
                Nor hear what rumors crowd across the dark
                Where blood runs down those holy walls
                Nor from a childish blessing with Thy hand
                Toward that fiery spiral of exulting souls!

                Go, Child of God, upon the singing desert
                Where with eyes of flame,
                The roaring lion keeps Thy road from harm.
                                (Thomas Merton, 30 Poems, 1944)

In our time, or any time of war and destruction, we are never finished experiencing the flight into Egypt.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

The Story of the Magi

Dear Friends,

Happy Epiphany or Little Christmas, whatever you call it, but do celebrate the Feast of the Three Magi.

These three learned Masters of Studying the Stars had found a remarkably brilliant star. It’s likely other astronomers and astrologers saw it too, but only these three – for whatever holy or gainful reason – were willing to set aside everything in their daily lives to invest precious time, energy, and resources to follow it. The star gave them their bearings.

Maybe they did not know each other at the outset of their trip. Maybe they only met along the way before seeing Herod, and only knew of their common quest by talking with one another. Only in talking with our fellow travelers that we find a common quest. If that quest leads us to God, all the better.

The story of the Magi appeals to us for that very reason, because like them, we are constantly in search of our bearings. We try to discern a meaningful direction in life amid chaos, war, and absurdity.

Perhaps the Magi were single minded in their search. Perhaps they had to change their way of thinking as they travelled and unraveled next steps. They certainly had to rethink that after they consulted Herod and his advisors. Herod feared the loss of power in the face of this new-born king. Herod did what any ruthless king would do. He set out on a path of destruction that would cause families to wail because their children were lost. But the life-giving power of God would be greater than the destructive power of Herod.

The star’s faithful presence and the angels warning to go home by another route appeal to us too. Everyone of us is a fellow traveler with the wise men… in search of God, occasionally at a loss, surprised in the end by what we see.

When the Magi came to the house where the child was, Matthew says they fell on their knees and worshipped Him. They believed that this child held the key to the meaning of life. They left gifts that drew attention to His authority, divinity, and humanity. In leaving these gifts, the Magi accepted that God was not what they expected.

The worship of the Magi and our own worship at Eucharist and at other times is not just a fitting conclusion to our journey. It is the only meaningful response to the unexpected god whom we recognize. We are today’s Magi, and the gifts we leave are the precious hopes and experiences of our own lives.

From a human viewpoint, Epiphany celebrates the human search for God. From God’s viewpoint, Epiphany celebrates that God can be found.

These three things, then: the search for meaning, the struggle of conflicting powers and the need for believers to worship together – these are the indispensable ingredients of this feast. Though the feast ends, the journey continues for each of us, alone and together. We will reach the fullness of our dreams. We will get there. I know we will…get there.

~ Sister Joan Sobala

A New Year of Unity and Grace

Dear and Honored Friends,

Happy New Year’s Day tomorrow! May 2024 be sacred to you, rich in friendships with God and one another.

May we bypass the potential for disaster and embrace the possible and life-giving.

May the Holy thrive in us.

The first day of the new year, in the Catholic liturgical calendar, is the feast of the Solemnity of Mary – Mary, who is the Mother of God and our Mother as well. Mary knows the mind of God. She knows how immense, singular and undying God’s love is for each of us and all people.

Once, at Tepeyac, near Mexico City, Mary – who after that became known as Our Lady of Guadalupe –appeared to Juan Diego. She asked him, “Why are you afraid? Am I not here who am your Mother?”

In his homily on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, December 12, 2015, Pope Francis prayed for all of us who walk the earth; “May we convert” he prayed, “and become a merciful people, and may all Christian communities be oases and sources of mercy, witnesses to a charity that does not permit exclusion.”

A charity that does not permit exclusion. That’s a reach worth making.

In theory, the People of the Book – Christians, Jews, and Muslims – honor each other’s faith as we care for one another and our common home, the earth. In practice, violence, hatred, and distrust lace our attitudes toward one another. We are anything but gracious to each other.

We accept animosity as a way of life.

What if, in this new year, we really did commit ourselves to all-inclusive charity? What if we welcomed to the table of our heart Muslims, Jews, and Christians without exception?

What follows is a prayer to keep, use and share. Promoted by Pax Christi USA/ Fellowship of Reconciliation, it offers us a fresh way to begin this new year as a time of unity and grace.

                    O God, you are the source
                    of life and peace.
                    Praised be your name forever.
                    We know it is you who turn
                    our minds to thoughts of peace
                    Hear our prayer in this time of war.

                    Your power changes hearts.
                    Muslims, Christians, and Jews remember,
                            and profoundly affirm,
                    that they are followers of the one God,
                    children of Abraham, brothers and sisters;
                    enemies who begin to speak to one another;
                    those who were estranged
                    join hands in friendship;
                    nations seek the way of peace together.

                    Strengthen our resolve to give witness
                            to these truths by which we live.

                    Give to us:
                            Understanding that puts an end to strife;
                            Mercy that quenches hatred, and
                            Forgiveness that overcomes vengeance.

                    Empower all people to live in your law of love.

                    Amen.

Blessed and ever-fresh New Year!

~ Sister Joan Sobala