The Feast of the Assumption

Dear Friends,

The summer games are now over until 2024. Thinking of the Olympics and para-Olympics this last month, we cannot help but savor how people make every effort to perform at a very high level. We were mesmerized by the human body with its sleek beauty, its ability to perform remarkable feats in record time. We have wanted these athletes, with their wonderful spirit and well-disciplined bodies, to succeed, because in some way, they represent all of our bodies and spirits. 

In the context of this feast, you and I and every Olympian are important to God in the same way Mary is – as ourselves in all we are, body, soul and spirit, whether we break any world records or not. 

By celebrating that Mary lives with God in her whole being, this feast reminds us that our human bodies, young and vibrant or marked with signs of aging, are redeemed. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul addresses an attitude in the people of his time and ours that denied the goodness of the human body – the attitude that focuses only on the salvation of our souls. That idea lingers today, and today’s feast reminds us that it is not true. 

It’s important to be reminded that our bodies are good. This is not obvious. Women’s bodies, men’s bodies, bodies that are beautiful, bodies of color, bodies that don’t seem to work very well, young and energetic bodies, bodies without certain limbs. They are all good.

Part of our Christian heritage is to treasure our bodies. They belong to us and they belong to God and at the second coming, each of us will rise in our own body: individual, recognizable and transformed.

To trivialize, misuse or neglect our bodies is to reject God’s gift of our whole selves. 

Nowhere in the New Testament is the death of Mary, the Mother of God, mentioned, yet believers had an instinct for the truth of Mary’s life, death and beyond. The conviction became well rooted in the faith community that Mary went to God upon her death – whole and entire: body, soul, spirit, memory, thought and consciousness. Mary was not just her womb. All was taken up. All. With Jesus, Mary could expect nothing less. So today, let’s focus our attention on the homecoming of Mary. Let’s let our minds and hearts soar. Let us say thank you to God for her life and eternity.

When the Assumption was finally proclaimed as part of our faith, the psychologist Carl Jung was delighted. He saw this feast as the Church’s statement to the world that our bodies are part of our redeemable and redeemed whole. Mary is the first among all of us.

~Sister Joan Sobala

In Times of Drought

Dear Friends,

Drought, caused by an extended lack of rain, is nothing new in human history. Civilizations have crumbled to dust because of drought, among them, the Mayan and Ming civilizations and modern Syria. In our own land, the 1930s, 50s, 80s and our current period have known unrelenting drought. Today, Lake Mead and Lake Powell that serve the water needs of 40 million Americans in the West have just hit their record lows. The fragile balance that ecologists identify between the atmosphere and earth has become unbalanced.

As a result of the drought, the economy will be greatly affected. Fires will continue to scorch the land. And all of us feel helpless to produce rain, the one thing that undoes drought.

So, we wait, use our water carefully, pray, swelter, advocate for and put into place strong, consistent actions on behalf of saving the earth.

Drought is certainly its own reality, but it is also a symbol of the inner life, our spiritual life at times of crisis. Drought is a symbol of human vulnerability and ultimately our dependence on God. In Psalm 63, the psalmist cries out “my soul thirsts like the earth, parched, lifeless and without water” and in Psalm 143, “My soul thirsts for you like a parched land.”

Drought, in the Hebrew Scriptures, is sometimes a symbol of the quality of the relationship between God and the people. Rain is a gift given to show God’s closeness to those who have remained faithful.  Rain is a symbol of God’s promise. “I, God, will give you rain in due season” (Lev.26). “May my instruction soak in like rain” (Deut.32) and in Hosea 6.3, we pray “Come down to us like rain.” Scripture names the reality of our own world and lives. Both need rain to live and grow.

When our inner being is restless, when growth seems not only lacking but nearly impossible, we finally know the classic spiritual meaning of being in “the desert.” This is the time to plunge into faith and hope that things will change, and we have to commit ourselves to making that change happen to the extent we can. Growth will come again after disaster. The rain will fall and our lives will bear fruit.

In times of drought in our land, we are asked to be gentle with the earth, careful of the water we do have, good stewards of a suffering creation.

In our personal droughts we are asked for no less.

~Sister Joan Sobala

The Food of Life's Journey

Dear Friends,

One of the more powerful lines in today’s readings is found in the Letter to the Ephesians:

“Lay aside your former way of life and the old self which deteriorates through illusion and desire, and acquire a fresh, spiritual way of thinking.”

Read that call to change against the background of the first reading in which the Hebrews, trudging through their exodus experience, took along their old selves. That’s why we find them today grumbling about their lack of food, longing for the good old days. We can all take heart from the fact that God pays attention to grumblers – because God heard and acted, giving the people quail at night and manna in the morning. Food. But not what they wanted. Food, which they nonetheless tried to hoard, even though they were told to pick only what was sufficient for the day.

With their blinded hearts and limited tastes, the Hebrews could not quite grasp the big picture. They could not quite embrace a future that was given to them piecemeal, in a way that called for trust.

The people in today’s Gospel were plagued by similar problems of illusion and desire. They had eaten their fill of the bread that Jesus had given them, and they wanted more. Irked because Jesus recognized them for what they were, the people pushed Jesus with their trick questions and used today’s first reading to drive home their point.

But Jesus didn’t bite, if I may put it that way. Instead, he offered himself as the one who would truly satisfy their hunger.

To hoard, to stockpile, to let self-gratification be the horizon of life – these are easy things to do. But to acquire a fresh spiritual way of thinking is hard work. What do we suppose it means to acquire a fresh spiritual way of thinking?

Here are four examples, taken from Scripture, which are new ways of thinking in these still-pandemic times.

                My food is to do the will of the one who sent me: to heal, to teach, to plant, to help the poor and suffering. The fruit of what we do lies beyond us. We may never know what good we have done by our kind words and generous deeds.

                We must become food for others. That means being consumed, if only for a time. Becoming food for others may mean interrupting one’s plans, one’s charted course to serve others. We watched medical personnel and other people in the service industries do this in these critical times.

                We do not live on bread alone. Bread feeds our bodies for now. Justice and mercy feed the community day after day.

                Finally, in acquiring a fresh spiritual way of thinking, we need to believe that the Lord will give us the bread we need. What is the manna that each of us receives daily? A word of peace that calms us? Someone, something that gives us courage to take the next step? The example of someone who leads the way? The bread we need may be a phone call from a stranger – an invitation to serve the community in some way, an experience that refines us and adds clarity to our thinking.

Each Sunday until the end of August, Gospel passages will all be taken from John 6. They will give us insight into the Eucharist. But these verses are also about the fact that we are given food for the journey of life – food for our bodies, minds and hearts – food that nourishes the sacredness of our community. Food that lasts. Let hunger for this food be a daily part of our lives.

~Sister Joan Sobala

Emerging from the Pandemic Together

Dear Friends,

Let’s pause in our exploration of the weekend liturgical readings to think once more about ways to emerge in a healthy spiritual way from the COVID pandemic. News outlets tell us that people are gathering for fun in large numbers wherever they can, consumer spending is up and regrettably, we also see people turning on one another in violence.

To go forward in ways that benefit our neighbor as well as our world and ourselves, we need to discover new aspects of God-in-our-midst, to listen to the voice of God beckoning us to create a new world. 

Spend time this week reading, re-reading, and thinking about the appearance of God to Elijah at Mt. Horeb (1 Kings 19.11-12). God was not in the earthquake, nor in the strong wind nor in the fire. God was in the gentle breeze that touched Elijah as he stood at the mouth of his cave.

God is in the gentle wind that has touched us throughout the pandemic isolation. Whether that has been a time of reflection for us or not, today can be that time. What was God telling us, prompting us to reconsider during our isolation? People like Juliana of Norwich and the desert fathers chose isolation in order to think and grow and pray. People like Nelson Mandela used his 27-year prison term to become the man who would lead his people.

“Every situation can be used as a time of conversion and training for a different world which is possible,” Robert Ellsberg told his listeners on retreat last week.

One of the slogans that we hear today encourages us to get back to normal. But a healthy normal will not be a repetition of what was before the pandemic. We become better when we envision another alternative. Pope Francis has reminded us that, “We never come out of any crisis using the same mind set we had before the crisis.” So, what will it take to find a new normal?

Certainly, the work of our minds and hands, but also the work of our prayer and imagination – the reassessment of our values and the good of the community. It will take joining others who are likeminded and willing to work together, to cease grasping stuff and choosing less as more.

Jeff Bezos just came back safely from a few moments in space with his companions. Together, they were aboard the “New Shepherd.” Yes, we need new shepherds to lead us where we never thought we could go, humanly speaking. But we also need to spend time with our God-Shepherd who taught us to value the true, the lasting, the holy and the life-giving.

What is that for you? For me? What we become, whom we love and welcome into our world, has global consequences. We have seen that we do not overcome COVID-19 alone. We need one another. We have also seen how people have devised ways of sharing that have been innovative, community-building and encouraging. Standing before our cave, listening to God in the gentle breeze, what do we hear?

~Sister Joan Sobala

Reconciling a Hostile World

Dear Friends,

Let me tell you a story of unintentional but real hostility to bring home today’s readings. The story goes back to a retreat I was making at Mount Savior Monastery near Elmira, NY. The monks were sheep farmers, and this one evening I was sitting outside chapel before night prayer. Overhead I heard the unmistakable sound of a hot air balloon being lowered. Within minutes, a beautiful gold, cream and yellow balloon came into view. As always, I was thrilled at the gracefulness of it, but as I watched, the pilot of the balloon deliberately descended to skim over the heads of the sheep and lambs. I suppose the maneuver displayed the skill of the pilot and gave the passengers a thrill, but the sheep and lambs fled in terror, scattering family groups and befuddling their evening serenity. Sheep and lambs have been known to die of fright and as I watched, I hoped this would not be the case for these innocent animals.

The golden balloon was an agent of hostility for the sheep, quite unlike the shepherds who tend, protect and care for the flock.

I thought of this incident as I read this week’s readings, especially one line in Ephesians which says of Jesus that he is the peace between us, the one who breaks down the hostility which keeps us apart.

We are people who live with hostility in our civic society and in our church. We cannot talk effectively about women’s leadership in the church, other forms of gender hostility, hostility around birthing issues, racial and class hostility, people killing one another in the name of God. We can’t explore new avenues of living and acting in society without crashing into someone else’s viewpoint or judgments. The barrier of hostility seems firmly in place. Yet in his own flesh, the author of Ephesians says that Christ made peace and brought reconciliation to those who were far off and those who were very near.

Sometimes we are the flock threatened with being scattered by violence, to use Jeremiah’s imagery today. Sometimes we are the hostile agents. Still at other times we seem to be the hostile agents because we pursue life-altering, life-giving change in order that all might live with indignity, integrity and harmony. For all who live with hostility, let there be peace. 

How do we invoke Christ’s unique capacity to bring about reconciliation in our hostile world?

In the best of all possibilities, we seek to understand one another, reveal our fears, hopes and concerns. Face to face, let both sides come together who claim to know something about the truth – to hear and learn from one another, to understand one another’s sense of history, theology and experience. When such encounters are not possible, we resort to others to speak on our behalf. We give them courage to do so, and we do not cease to pursue an end to hostility. Faithfulness to Christ requires that we do so. 

When Christ died on the cross, the Gospel writers report, the curtain in the temple was ripped in two, top to bottom. Symbolically, that means that barriers to the Holy of Holies was removed, once and for all. No one was unwelcome, because Christ died for all.

As a people, let’s not restitch the barrier to the Holy of Holies or scatter the sheep. Let us encourage the powers that be in Church and society to refrain from the kind of dominance and dogmatism that refuses to see truth in other perspectives and in the lived faithfulness of people who raise seemingly hostile questions. Let the golden balloon blow away.

~Sister Joan Sobala

Being Faithful to God's Call

Dear Friends,

In this week’s Gospel, Jesus sends out the Twelve, two by two, on their first missionary journey. They had freshly discovered Jesus, been chosen by him, and said “yes” to his call. Now they go off for a short time to do what Jesus did:

            to proclaim the good news

            to cast out demons

            to heal the sick.

Did the Twelve succeed? Did Jesus expect and require that they succeed? For that matter, did Jesus succeed in changing people’s hearts and transforming society? What is success in God’s terms?

Did the prophet Amos, in today’s first reading, succeed in his own mission? God sent him to preach in the north to the externally pious, the uncaring wealthy and the unscrupulously powerful. They turned a deaf ear to this unlettered man, a dresser of sycamore trees, whom God had chosen. Instead, they listened to Amaziah, who told them what they wanted to hear.

Looking at the span of their lives, Amos, Jesus and the Twelve could not lay claim to success. But they tried their best to be faithful to God’s call, to preach and practice compassion and justice. And they prayed that God would take their work to the next time and place. That, dear friends, was enough.

You and I are their spiritual descendants and are called upon to do the same.

Hold on, you might say. They were messengers and prophets. I am only a hearer, a follower. I am little, and in the grand scheme of things, I am unimportant.

We need to be careful with this way of thinking, though, because that’s precisely where God seems to look – throughout Scripture – among the least, the little and the obscure. We have already been marked, as the letter to the Ephesians tells us, with the seal of the Holy Spirit. God sends us out, two by two, with a variety of partners to our neighbors and friends, coworkers, fellow patients or diners. We are called to preach the true word, the kind word, the God-word.

There are demons we are called to cast out as well – attitudes that claim our culture: violence, prejudice, racism, exploitation, ruthless and unhealthy competition, apathy and self-hatred.

We heal, too, when we patch up a child’s scraped elbow, unlock a frozen mind or help lift grief and sadness from others.

All that the Twelve were called on to do, we are called to do in our own time together here in Rochester and beyond, knowing that it is in Jesus’ name and with his power that we speak and act.

So let’s travel light, do our best and believe that God seeks, not success as an outcome, but a firm conviction in our hearts that God will bring forth what is needed. 

~Sister Joan Sobala

Building a Better Future Together

Dear Friends, 

Happy Fourth! May you find time today to think about and find the special, enduring qualities in our common life!

We can describe the United States as a land of dreamers and workers. On this 245th birthday of our republic, let’s salute both, for both are needed to restore meaning and coherence to our nation. I say this because we are, in many ways, in need of dreaming new dreams and working with conviction and humor to exercise our morally and socially conscious lives anew. 

If we work only, we run the risk of becoming over-tired or cynical. If we dream only, we accomplish nothing and waste our gift of life. The two, taken together, create new ways of shaping our lives so that we stand over against naysayers who predict that our democracy will dissolve in the not-too distant future.

But our working and dreaming, making connections and creating patterns for a better life for all, have to face, address and overcome some awful/awesome challenges: domestic terrorism, racism, sexism, gun control and a missing self-control, drug addiction, climate issues.

“The American dream,” as Robert Bellah and associates wrote years ago in Habits of the Heart, “is often a very private dream of being a star, the uniquely successful and admirable one, who stands out from the crowd that ordinary folk who don’t know how. And since we have believed in that dream for a long time and worked very hard to make it come true,” they continue, “it is hard for us to give it up, even though it contradicts another dream we have – that of living in a society that would be really worth living in.” That society is one transformed with new emphasis on liberty and justice, with economic, medical and educational resources available for all its citizens. A Utopian dream? Perhaps, but it is, in fact, a dream that lives in every human heart…a dream we have yet to fulfill.

We find certain tensions alive among us as we celebrate this particular American birthday. In the midst of our tensions, believers in God ask, “How do we know whether we are indeed following the vision, the call of our God to live and let live fully?” The Scriptures say, “Where your treasure is, there also is your heart” (Matthew 6.21).

Where is our treasure as a nation? Where do we invest our resources? On education, our children, housing, health care, jobs? Do we lift-up the marginalized and the poor?

As the American public, people like you and me need to encourage government, business and all those places that stimulate the American outlook to take up new initiatives in social responsibility and economic democracy.

On this birthday of our country, we need to explore anew and rededicate ourselves to the vision of our God and work of our ancestors who took up the task of building the United States. Let us accept the challenge and not be awed by its enormity. Let us work together, laugh together, find time to play together. Let us embrace one another as human beings and set aside the differences in our makeup. As fellow dreamers and workers, may we work toward a 246th anniversary more whole and holy than we experience this year.

~Sister Joan Sobala