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“They Took Jesus Just As He Was”

June 21, 2021 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

I’m sometimes curious about the details that evangelists choose to include.  There are two details that intrigue and amuse me a bit in this reading.  The evangelist says, “They took Jesus with them in the boat JUST AS HE WAS.”  What is being left unsaid?  Was Jesus half-asleep, half dressed, still talking to the crowd?  They took him JUST AS HE WAS.  If only we could be that accepting of others?  Take them just as they are.  Not merely tolerating them, their behaviors and their attitudes – their differences – but really, full-heartedly accepting them and their individuality.

We hear and read studies on generational differences and expectations.  Our community’s median age hovers around 75.  Candidates will come to community with their own, well-defined personalities.  Most often they will come having been raised or worked in a society far different from the environment most of us were raised in.  For the first time in our country, four generations are working side by side.  I heard the comment on TV the other day that today’s young adults are not interested in perfecting existing athletic records.  They want to try new – even risky – endeavors.  Always striving to set new records.  The 18-year-old who won first place on the U.S. Women’s Swim Team exceeded the previously set speed record for the 100-meter race.  This desire to try something new does not necessarily condemn the past nor belittle its achievements although sometimes the drive to make “my mark” can give that impression.

Different values, experiences, styles, and activities can create misunderstandings and frustrations, tis true.  Or, it can serve to enrich our lives.  The interpretation of key elements of our life may differ … Consider, for example: balance of life, work ethic, fair share division of chores.  It doesn’t mean the living out of values will fight with each other.  There need not be a right-wrong conflict – there are shades of gray and more than one way to be “right.”  The bottom line is: it’s up to each and all of us whether we accept, fight, deny or, as they say: “roll with the punches.”  By the event of the past week (we lost two family members of S. Elizabeth to drowning), we’ve been made keenly aware of the power of rip tide currents.  You can’t right it, you must lean into it, let it toss you about until it calms down and release its hold on you.  Change is in the air!

Generational change does require awareness, sensitivity and a genuine effort to develop mutual trust and respect.  Awareness is the first step.  A true attitude of open-handed and open-heartedness is needed not simply to bridge the generations but rather to blend the generations.  Goodwill can cover a multitude of situations but it takes education and a sincere personal effort to make us ONE community in mind, heart and spirit.  Remember what the evangelist says: “They took Jesus just as he was.”

The other detail in his Gospel that I find curious is the passing remark that Jesus was asleep on a cushion.  Why was it so important to point out He had a cushion?  Makes it sound like not everyone had a cushion – cushions must not have lined the hull of the boat like water-proof safety floats might be seen today.  Having a cushion implies comfort, doesn’t it?  Jesus was sleeping like a baby unaware of the turmoil around him.  Or was He?  Was he peeking at them through a half-open eye?  Was his ear attentive to the murmuring about him and his seemingly uncaring attitude?

I assume they were all guys … women would have grabbed anything nearby to cover and protect Jesus from the sloshing waves.  When the storm increased and the boat rocked, Jesus’ friends roused him, with telling words.  They are familiar enough to dare to wake him with words of reproach, questioning his care for them.  They are hurt by His non-responsiveness to their needs.  Reminds me of the Martha – Mary incident … and maybe sometimes ours “Why doesn’t she get up off her duff and help me …  can’t she see I could use some help?!”

We are in the boat, the storms of life are raging around us, and like the disciples, we may believe that Jesus is unconcerned, or “sleeping.”  We hope that we will be as familiar with Jesus as his disciples.  If we feel that Jesus is sleeping, are we comfortable, are we as familiar with Jesus as the disciples, to rouse him and present him our needs?  Jesus did not chide his disciples for waking him.  Rather he chided them for their lack of faith.  Storms don’t worry Jesus.  He’s right there in the boat with us, perfectly calm, not impatient, in no hurry for a solution or relief.  He has one ready to hand us but how often do we tell God how to do things and then fret that God is doing nothing because it isn’t happening as we proposed?

Our lived experience should teach us that we need to relax and take heart, remain strong in faith that believes that Jesus isn’t scared of the storm, he isn’t depressed.  He might be asleep, or he might not be, but either way, like the song says, “He’s got the whole world in his hands.”  In the words of the Responsorial psalm: “He hushes the storm to a gentle breeze, and stills the billows of the sea.”  Even if Jesus doesn’t wake up at our first call, we are safe with Him.  He’s going to wake up and say what you heard in the Gospel to us: “Why are you terrified? Do you not yet have faith?”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

 

First Reading:  Job 38:1,8-11                       Second Reading:  2 Corinthians 5:14-17
Gospel Reading:  Mark 4:35-41
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Filed Under: Blog, Front Page, Homily Tagged With: change, cushion, Faith, Gospel, Jesus, Just as He was, Peace, presence of God, They Took Jesus Just as He Was

“I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you”

May 22, 2017 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

First Reading  Acts of the Apostles 8:5-8,14-17    Second Reading  1 Peter 3:15-18
Gospel John 14:15-21

Today’s Gospel is a continuation of the selection read last weekend.  The Gospel selections all this week have built on the same theme: faith in Jesus’ word, impending separation with a promise of an abiding presence.  You’ll recall that Jesus is speaking to his disciples at their last supper together … and given the length of his discourse, it must have been a LONG, many-course supper. He reassures them that even though he will leave them, he will not abandon them. He contrasts his impending departure with the permanence of the gift of the Holy Spirit:  “On that day you will realize that I am in my Father and you are in me and I in you.”

When a lifetime friend moves far away we can reassure one another that we’ll stay in touch but we also probably agree: “It’s just not going to be the same.” This may have been the feeling of the disciples.  Jesus is saying his goodbye. He is preparing those closest to him, whom he loves and who love him, for his departure. Not just a farewell before going on a short trip, when they will see one another again in a few weeks or months, but a more permanent farewell. He is preparing them for the shock of his violent death and the collapse of their plans for the future. Everything is about to change for them. “It’s just not going to be the same.”

Unbeknown to them at the supper where Jesus is speaking, a few days after his crucifixion Jesus would rise from the dead and they would see him again, at least for a short time. Then, after that, it will be all different: they would see him no longer. They wouldn’t have him physically there with them when they needed to ask for advice as problems arose; or feel his comforting and healing touch when they hurt, or when someone they loved was sick; or hear his voice, speaking words of forgiveness when they needed to be freed from guilt.

Jesus was sensitive to the sense of loss they were about to endure. He was telling them quite clearly, “It’s just not going to be the same.”  He knew they couldn’t make it on their own.   Their human courage, like ours, just wouldn’t be enough – they’d need continued support to spread Jesus’ message after he was gone.

So, Jesus makes a FANTASTIC, and unbelievable promise:  He is going to the Father and he will send the Holy Spirit to guide them as they face new challenges.  There’ll be new issues and suffering for what they believe but they will become aware of Jesus’ abiding presence even though they cannot physically see, hear, or touch him.

We may be 2000 years away from those disciples around the table with Jesus that night; but we too have experienced loss and need. We have said many goodbyes to family and community members.  We’ve experienced big changes in our lives (even if we did not know life before Vatican II)   There have been times when we’ve needed to be strong ourselves and for others: times of grave illness, worry over a troubled or addicted loved one, sorrow over a broken relationship or an uncertain future..

Those are the times when we’ve known:  “It’s just not going to be the same.” And it wasn’t.  God sends us curved balls when we least expect it.  But, like a skilled ball player we can still hit a home run.  God gives us the strength to stay faithful; the wisdom to maneuver life’s many twists and turns.

Our duty, our challenge, then, is to believe, to trust that we have the Spirit with us – in Word, the Eucharist, in each other – to believe Jesus has kept his promise to give us the gift of the Spirit – an abiding, permanent dwelling with each of us – Or, as Jesus said, the “Advocate” – a word that means counselor, consoler and mediator – the divine energy that binds us together with one another, and all to God.

A wise person shared this truism: in life we’re either entering difficulty, going through it, or coming out of it.   There are points along the journey when the way forward is unclear – when all we know for certain is: “it’s not going to be the same.”

This prayer written by Thomas Merton, speaks to me when all I do know is: “it’s not going to be the same.”

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think that I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear, for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

(Thomas Merton, Thoughts on Solitude, 1956)

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

 

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Filed Under: Blog, Homily Tagged With: change, friend, God, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Last Supper, Thomas Merton

What have your relationships taught you?

February 8, 2016 by Holy Name Monastery Leave a Comment

joan chittisterLife goes through a good many more stages, I think, than the ones most commonly identified—childhood, youth, adulthood, middle age, old age. I don’t think that life’s stages have much to do with age, with the number of years we’ve spent breathing, at all. I think the parts of life are best described by the kinds of relationships most commonly made in each.

The years and phases of life call for different levels of relationship. We talk, for instance, about playmates, buddies, gangs, schoolmates, friends, acquaintances, colleagues, lovers, soul mates, and then, at the end, friends again. Each of these various types of relationships represents a stage in our own maturity and development. They teach us, a level of the soul at a time, what it means to discover that we are not alone in life, not the center of life, not the standard of value for anyone else’s journey through life.

We learn something valuable from each and every one of them about what it means to be alive, a social being, a companion on the journey.

Playmates provide companionship; buddies give us a sense of security as we begin to learn our way through life; gangs give us a feeling of belonging; schoolmates bring a feeling of camaraderie in the face of the crowd; friends provide the beginning of intimacy; acquaintances become a lifeline in strange places; colleagues provide professional identity; lovers teach us the otherness of life; soul mates bring us home to the self; friends put cement under our feet again just when we begin to realize that our own legs are not as strong as they used to be. It is a lifelong series of coming to understand ourselves through our feelings.

The relationships we form at each stage make every stage that follows both easier to negotiate and more meaningful. It is a precious thing, relationship, meant to be savored and certain to be demanding. It is our relationships that teach us how to be a human being rather than a prima donna, a useful member of the human race rather than a spoiled diva.

Our relationships grow us up and make life possible—all the way to the grave. It is incumbent upon us to make them possible, both for the other’s sake and for our own.

—from Joan Chittister: Essential Writings
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Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: change, feelings, Joan Chittister, journey, life, relationships

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