Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

commitment

It is a story of commitment

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The people to whom Jesus was speaking in this Gospel would have understood His references a little more clearly than we do.  The teaching is not meant to be taken literally.  It is a metaphor.   Many of the people to whom Jesus was speaking were farmers.  Injuries to hands, feet and eyes were the kinds of injuries farmers incurred frequently. So, they would not have flinched at the descriptive injury. Also, in Jesus’ time the idea of losing an offensive body part to prevent oneself from falling into sin was a common type of proverbial saying. Stories were also written with this underlying thought. The entire story of Oedipus is an example. Oedipus removes his own eyes rather than look at the children he begot with his own mother.  He did not know her to be his mother, but his lack of knowledge did not make him innocent.  Nor did he know the man he had slayed at the crossroads was his father.  Jesus’ audience would have fully understood these sayings as metaphors.  We may cry: “I didn’t know!”  That may be our reason; but it is no excuse.

So, what was Jesus saying metaphorically?  It is a story of commitment. The people to whom Jesus is talking are people who have agreed and want to follow him.   I guess one can say Jesus is asking them, “Just what do you believe? Do you believe in me as the Messiah? Do you believe in God’s way or do you believe in the ways of the world?”

How do we fare today? What do we believe about our calling to discipleship? To conversion of life? It is easy to stay committed when the times are easy. It is easy to say, “Yes, Lord, I believe,” when we are not asked to do anything out of the ordinary. But, how about when the times are tough? What do we believe when we are asked to do something we really don’t want to do? How do we respond when we are asked to take an unpopular stand?  To side with someone who is being ridiculed?  To speak our mind when we suspect it will be a minority position?  The real question for us is: Is following Jesus Christ the most important thing in my life? Or does something else take its place when being a Christian is not convenient?

Jesus calls us to a radical faith. How do we make credible the expression “radical hospitality?”  We are called to be radical not “radical” as in being crazy, but radical as different, radical as turning the world’s understanding of life upside down. Jesus is calling us to a radical expression of all aspects of our faith.  Jesus calls us to love our enemies when the world says destroy – bomb them, shoot them, destroy their reputation.  Listen to Jesus who says the greatest gift we can give is our life for the sake of another.  Life in this sense can often mean the gift of our time, our attention, our care and concern in concrete, real-time actions. These are radical ideas for this world. Alone we cannot hope to be that generous.   However, we know that with God all things are possible. Jesus has set the example.  He leads the way; He models the behaviors we are to imitate. His is an attitude of tolerance, compassion and acceptance of the gifts of others.  Jesus challenges us to be humble, inclusive and tolerant.

Jesus offered his life for us and He taught the twelve how to do the same. They scattered and hid at first, but eventually they got it right. They were not perfect, but they believed. Jesus is calling us to do the same. We may not always get it right; sometimes we falter.  There will be those times when we do get it right. At those times we humbly say, “Thank you, Lord – to You be the praise – that in all things God may be glorified!”  Ponder the closing sentences of the first reading, words attributed to Moses: “Would that all people of the Lord were prophets!  Would that the Lord might bestow His spirit on them all.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

Our chaplain will be in Lourdes and Ireland from October 4-18.   There will be no Mass at the monastery during that time.  The Sisters and our faith community will attend Sunday Mass (October 6 and 13) in one of the parishes.     May God bless Fr. John on pilgrimage and his family visit to his homeland. 

 

 

 

First Reading:   Numbers 11:25-29         Second Reading:  James 5:1-6
Gospel:   Mark 9:38-43, 45, 47-48
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History tells the rest of the story: We’re Still Here.

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This incident found in John’s Gospel reminds us that not everyone took to Jesus positively, even those who seemed to be quite close to him.  Some of the people – not unlike today, were murmurers and grumblers – folks not too keen on what they were hearing. Following Jesus was going to be no picnic (despite the way he’d fed the five thousand people).   The idea of total commitment was a disturbing concept.

We hear it in that sad and haunting verse: “From that time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with him.”  Obviously hurt by this defection, Jesus turns to Peter and the others who are closest to him and asks them if they’ll be taking off too: “Will you too go away?”   Peter, with his usual style, spoke on behalf of all Jesus’ loyal followers: “Master, to whom would we go? You alone have the words of eternal life.” For Peter, at this time, it’s unquestionable: If Jesus said it, it must be true.  If you’ve looked ahead to the First Reading, you’re aware the church reminds us that Jesus’ experience of rejection was not unique.  1500 years earlier, Joshua, disciple of Moses, gives voice to a similar tribulation.  He addresses all the people: “If it does not please you to serve the Lord, decide today whom you will serve.”  The people answer in the same vein as Peter: “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord.”

One of my brother’s favorite books was: “This Tremendous Lover” by the Irish Trappist monk-priest Eugene Boylan. In 2002, I sent him a replacement copy for the one he’d given away.  At his death four years later, it was returned to me.  I had inscribed on the fly page: Bill, I hope this is as inspirational as you remember.  Boylan writes in his book: “Our Lord  was not looking for an enthusiastic public reception.  His miracles were not a ploy to grasp temporal power. The wonder of his public life is not the marvelous works He actually did, but the many and more wonderful works which He could have done and did not.  All He did and said and allowed to happen to him was part of God’s Grand Plan.”

What Jesus has to say is so important that he does not consider changing his message to please the people.  In fact, we can accurately say that a “Jesus” who doesn’t offend isn’t the real Jesus.

Our hearts go out to Jesus and to those who stuck with him.  If you have ever had anyone walk out on you, you can empathize with Jesus.  I recall the mixed feelings I had, when in the late 60s and early 70s we had five  deaths in one year.  It was not customary for those of us who were away for studies to come home for funerals, so there was a void for farewell until we got to visit the cemetery.  Then what some writers refer to as the “exodus”” began to happen and several of our peers felt the call to leave community. Some gave us a chance to say good-bye; others quite literally disappeared in the night.  These were good people. Some were rising leaders in community.  What did they know that I did not?  My feelings were not like the betrayal that Jesus suffered – but confusion and loneliness.    Were the shrinking numbers the handwriting on the wall and was I too blind to read it?

What does Jesus do when his ranks shrink?  Does he cajole the people, “Oh, I’m sorry that what I said was so hard to take.  Maybe we can compromise?”  Not at all!  Jesus does not let human opinion sway his proclamation of divine truth.  “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life”.  History tells the rest of our story: We’re still here!   God spoke long ago, through the mouth of Ezekiel: (36:23-28) “You shall live in the land I gave you long ago; you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”

If our ears are open to the voice of the Spirit, we hear daily Jesus’ quizzing us: “Who do people say I am?”  He asks us, as he does all his friends, about our personal conviction: “Who do you say I am?”  The question also comes to us as a community.  Are we swayed by “public conviction,” forming the community we think the public wants us to be?  Or are we formed by personal and communally discerned convictions that raise peoples’ hope and help to lead the world where it needs to go now?

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

Have a good week …  pray for enjoyment and safety for all who (next weekend) will be celebrating Labor Day holiday!

 

 

 

First Reading:   Joshua 24:1-2a. 15-17, 18b         Second Reading:  Ephesians 5:21-32
Gospel:   John 6:60-69
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Does your “Yes” and/or your “No” have Strings Attached?

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Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

First Reading  Sirach 15:15-20                Second Reading  1 Corinthians 2:6-10

Gospel  Matthew 5:17-37                           Intention  Engaged couples

Are you a person of integrity? Can people take you at your word? If You can answer, I am, then folks know that your ‘Yes’ means ‘Yes,’ and our ‘No,’ means ‘No.’   Or, as Pilate once said – or someone around here says – “What I have spoken, I have spoken.”

Every Jew in Jesus’ day knew these words: “…ye have heard that it has been said by them of old time, you shalt not forswear thyself…”   We call it perjury – a willful act of swearing a false oath or of falsifying the truth.

Last week was National Marriage Week during which the church prayed: “Let’s strengthen marriage.”  This week our community intention is for engaged couples.  How appropriate that Justin Barthle, John’s son, is getting married on Sunday.  May their commitment be without reservation: Let their YES be yes.

You see, a vow doesn’t need an oath. Jesus made it clear that our yes is enough to satisfy the binding requirement. With a vow what we say is what we mean.  If we do not mean it, if we, or a marrying couple, hold on to “except when” or “unless” or “until it’s not working or it doesn’t fulfill me – then I’m out of here’ – that’s perjury, a false oath.  We vow with “no strings attached.”

As vowed Benedictines what do we do to insure we are truly life-long learners – committed to a perpetual pursuit of growth in the monastic way of life?  What do we do to expand our knowledge of the writings of the fathers and mothers of the church?  Our familiarity with the Rule of Benedict?  In particular, how deeply do we delve into Scripture to realize new, fuller meaning of God’s Word?  What do I hear today that somehow I never heard before?

Do we strive to enlarge the understanding and application of our vow of obedience?  Has our observance of obedience matured beyond a childish fear of a parent finding out we took an extra cookie or a beginner’s strict adherence to every regulation to please her director or because she worries that the whole community is watching her day and night?  What does obedience mean to us?  What is legitimate authority?  In a spirit of mutual obedience do we conscientiously seek input from a superior and spiritual elder?  Suppose what is offered is not what I had in mind?  Do I give it serious consideration or was my asking simply pro forma?  Do I give a half-hearted acquiescence to a superior’s request as merely a suggestion or the call of the Spirit in my life to follow or not as I choose? How distressing it can be to have someone say “yes” – pretend she’s going to obey – but then never perform the deed or show by her every comment to others and her body language that she detests the command

What if the group makes a decision I don’t like – do I have any obligation to follow it if I voted against it?    What about annoying behaviors – not immoral actions, just a behavior that grates on another’s nerves?  Like, for instance, if you use earplugs to listen to music but hum along or keep time by drumming audibly on the desk – knowing all the time that it is driving the other up the walls.  It’s not bad to play an “air drum” is it?  And the other could leave the room if she doesn’t like it.  I am not playing the music out loud … do I stop the drumming or sit there justified that it is my right to give expression to the music.  It’s not a sin to hum or beat out the rhythm, is it?   Or is it?  Here’s the authentic test question: how closely does our behavior mirror Benedict’s “deference to one another?”

To keep our “yes” a “yes” takes much prayer, honest introspection, willingness to open our hearts to new meanings and a spirit of grounded integrity.  Otherwise, our vows, a couple’s marriage bonds, are not worth the piece of paper they are written on.

This is where our vow of stability comes into play.  With our vow we are publicly professing responsibility to work on fidelity to our covenant with God and our commitment to one another.  That takes an awareness of what is going on inside of ourselves, and a responsibility for how we might be contributing to the building up or destruction of a bond into which we’ve entered.  Remember: if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

In this Gospel reading Jesus is talking about a lifetime pursuit of a way of living, in which our integrity isn’t just a matter of external conformity, but an internal way of life.  There’s that sticky vow of conversion of life.  This calls for strength and integrity, an inner discipline, an awareness of and acknowledgement of what makes us tick.  Our words should simply be our bond, and mean what we say.

When we say yes, you should speak it with enough conviction that there’s no doubt. When you say no, mean it.  If you sometimes say yes with your lips when your heart is thinking NO WAY!  People will pick up on that.  When in my heart I say NO, but my lips say yes…that’s deceit, it’s a lie.   My tongue speaks what my heart isn’t feeling. I’m lying to myself and to another person.  If I solemnly say “I promise I’m telling you the truth,” does that mean that sometimes I’m not telling the truth?

One of the angels in the Book of Revelation tells us: I know what you have done; I know that you are neither cold nor hot.  I wish you were either one or the other!  But because you are neither, I am going to spit you out of my mouth! “

Ultimately our relationships with other people are inseparable from our relationship to God; and it is the love of God that binds all in all.  It is God’s love that teaches us about relatedness, about truth, about personal integrity.  Heed Jesus’ words: Let your YES be YES and your NO be NO!

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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