Faith
Persistent as a Boxer
One of the keys to understanding the meaning of this Gospel can be found in the description of the judge as corrupt and unjust. Jesus is saying that if even an unjust judge responds to the persistence of the widow, how much more will God heed our prayers. Didn’t Jesus say: “Ask and you shall receive?” Jesus is telling us that God wants us to be like the persistent widow, persisting in our relationship with God, confident that God hears and answers prayers. Jesus also understands how easy it is to lose heart. Maybe that’s why Jesus asks: “Will such faith be found when the Son of Man returns?”
The Gospel implies “yes” but it may be in unexpected places, not among the ones certain of their own righteousness, but among the “widows” among us – the outsiders, the unlovely, the unclean, the ones certain of their sinfulness.
If we could read the Greek version of this parable, we’d get a glimpse of Jesus sense of humor. In the Greek Scriptures the judge gives in to the widow because if he doesn’t he fears she may give him a black eye. Jesus uses this metaphor from boxing to make his point about the need to continue in prayer. Be as persistent as a boxer in the ring.
We say, but do we really believe, God always answers our prayers. We just don’t know WHEN because God takes the long view. Sometimes we have to wait for answers until we’re, as they say: on the other side of the grass.”
Now, I think it’s a safe bet that I don’t have to explain “stubbornness.” Some of us had it sprinkled on us in our 
cradles! We can prettify it, call it by another name, whatever we want: high principles, perseverance, tenacity, determined or we can call it what it is: just plain pig-headedness.” Some of us seem to be naturally endowed with the “great gift of stubbornness.” We ask God’s help to learn how to be stubborn for the right causes. In that case, we may talk about a “holy stubbornness.” That happens when we start not only to say our prayers, but when we start to live our prayers. In other words, we put our actions where our words are … we put flesh on our Corporate Commitment.
“Will the Son of man find faith when he returns?” That depends. Can prayer move our own arms? Are we willing to put flesh on our words? God always has relied on his children–people like you and me–to usher in His Kingdom. Are our prayers effective? The answer lies squarely with each of us: “it depends on how effective we help make them.”
And, just suppose as Fr. Ed (Lamp) suggests (based on an idea he gleaned from S. Melannie Svoboda) that the characteristics of the widow and the judge are reversed:
What happens, if we say that we are the judge and God is the widow? We, like the judge in the parable, are basically unjust. And, sometimes we have no fear of God; that is, we do not allow God to scare us into being good. Similarly, like the judge we persist in refusing to listen to the cries of the poor all around us.
So, suppose God is the persistent widow who will not go away. God keeps badgering us, refusing to accept as final our “no” to love. God will persist until we render a just judgement, that is, until we let the goodness out, until we learn to love. In Genesis we are told we are made in the image and likeness of God. (Fr. Ed suggests) Perhaps our prayer this week could be: “Dear God, Persevering One, make us more like you!”
(See prayer down below)
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Are You Who You Say You Are?
This Gospel tells us that Jesus is hampered from performing miracles in Nazareth because of the people’s lack of faith. We see a very human side of Jesus. He seems to be taken by surprise. His family seems to be sending the message every child dreads to hear, especially from mom or dad: “Stop embarrassing us. Act your age.”
Can you recall a time when a parent, teacher, novice mistress or maybe a friend seemed surprised by your words or an action that showed a level of maturity beyond their expectations? In family life, and hopefully in our community, we rightfully expect a safe place to discover who we are and who God is calling us to be.
Does a time come to mind when you were surprised by someone you thought you knew saying something really wise, insightful or maybe just plain “off the wall” but so smart? Why were you surprised? Or was it not surprise, but impressive and pleasant to see a different aspect of that person. It happens in my role frequently – A Sisters’ sharing gives me a peak into her depth of lectio, her expression of a deep spirituality puts me to shame or at the very least reminds me what a treasure we have in community.
Now it is interesting to note, that where the evangelist uses the word “offense” the Greek origin is “stumbling block.” And that it seems to me is closer to what is happening here. Jesus’ audience were scratching their heads and tripping over themselves trying to understand how this young whippersnapper from Nazareth could be so wise. Up to this point, like most good Jews, he had kept a low profile. Jesus’ family and friends were scared for him. There was an emotional stumbling block interfering with them openly being a Jesus follower.
What stumbling block sometimes prevents you from speaking up in defense of Jesus, of our faith or our Benedictine values?
I was drawn back to the first reading from Ezekiel. I wanted to say to Jesus when he seemed stymied by the crowd’s reaction to his teaching – Remember what Ezekiel said: The spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and I heard the one who was speaking say to me: Son of man, I am sending you to the Israelites… whether they resist or rebel or are obstinate of heart, it is you I am sending. Say to them, whether you heed or resist, it is I whom God has sent – I am a prophet among you.”
The crowds used all the time-honored dismissive ways … we know them, we have been targets – or sadly we may have employed them: belittling remarks, the covert laugh, the rolled eyes, the turning away of attention, or making light of the other’s knowledge – the attitude that says: who does she think she is?
Ultimately, what didn’t happen in Nazareth: no healings, no mighty deeds, is not much of a surprise. After all a miracle is not just an event but it is an interpreted event. If Jesus is not reputed to be capable of healing, any healing that does take place won’t be attributed to him. So the crowd’s attitude is “there’s nothing here to see. Let’s just move along, move along… and find some other excitement.”
Such is true with us, with our community. Our guests don’t experience peace and harmony, generosity of spirit and light-heartedness, beauty in nature and liturgy if they don’t find it in each of us. They come expecting a miracle – the miracle happens in our interactions – first with each other, then between us and our guests.
Remember Jesus question to this disciples: Who do people say I am? And, you: who do you say I am?” Who do you say these Benedictine Sisters of Florida are?
If I remembered well the music, I’d sing to you the tune from the rock opera popular in the 1970’s –
“Jesus Christ, Superstar – Do you think you’re what they say you are?”
Benedictine Sisters of Florida, do you think you’re what they say you are?
Are you really who you say you are?
Are you really who they say you are?
~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
First Reading Ezekiel 2:2-5 Second Reading 2 Corinthians 12:7-10
Gospel Mark 6:1-6
Continue ReadingEver brought to your knees?
This Gospel reports two stories of healing. One story tells us about a father’s great love for his dying daughter. The other story, the one I have chosen to focus on, tells us about a desperate woman who risks much in a courageous act of faith to seek healing from Jesus. This woman has lost everything to find a cure to a condition that has separated her from the community. We women can commiserate with her. We may have memories of “those days” or know someone who understood why some referred to a woman’s “gift of God” as “the curse of Eve.”
This woman’s is a true story, not one of Jesus parables. This woman had suffered from bleeding for 12 long years. Whether this hemorrhaging was constant or irregular, it caused the woman much suffering, and with the loss of blood much weakness as well. She also suffered a great deal at the hands of the many doctors she consulted for a cure. Not only didn’t she get better, she actually got worse. In addition, she didn’t have good health insurance so now she was broke and wasn’t eligible for food stamps.
We need to realize, too, that this woman would have been quite isolated: lonely, shunned and shamefully treated because she was considered ceremonially unclean under the Law of Moses. She could never perform the rituals that would have reconnected her with society.
What a suffering! Broke. Required to live as unclean, in isolation and shame. She had very little hope for a better future.
I have to tell you, earlier in the week I had gotten this far in putting thoughts on paper when God literally dropped a reflection on this Scriptural episode into my lap … the book I’m reading here in chapel by Basil Pennington, fell open to a chapter entitled “Who Touched Me.” Here is an adapted summary of Pennington’s reflection.
Jesus was setting out for the house of Jariaus where he had promised to see the desperate man’s daughter. He and his apostles are being knocked about from every side. Suddenly Jesus stops and asks: “Who touched me?”
Peter in his usual obtuse way responds: How can you ask, who touched me? Everyone is touching us. Everybody is pushing us about.
On our part (says Pennington) The increase of media and people contact – the over-scheduled day, the relentless demands on our time – almost necessarily means a decrease in spiritual contact, unless all our contact is grounded in contemplation and the operation of the gifts of the Spirit that are set free to work in our lives by contemplative prayer.
We do not need to go out and about to find meaning. It is all here within. And when we go out, we find the same Reality. Whether within or without, it fills us with presence, joy, and completeness. Grounded in prayer, we can truly touch the lives of others and be touched by them. (Basil Pennington)
So, it seems to me, the final fact in the woman’s story – remember it’s a true story – is Jesus’ affirmation of her faith and daring. Jesus knew she had touched him and his power had healed her. The woman knew what had happened. The power of the miracle dropped her to her knees. The response of Jesus is so encouraging. He calls her “daughter” affirming that she is very precious to him. He reminds her: your faith has healed you.” Many others that day touched Jesus, jostled him, shoved him but only this one woman touched Jesus with faith. Finally Jesus tells her: Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”
What incident in your life brought you to your knees knowing that you were healed … and more than that, assured that you are loved?
~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
First Reading Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24 Second Reading 2 Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15
Gospel Mark 5:21-43 ( shorter form, Mark 5:21-24,35b-43)
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Words can also have an equally powerful ability to bring about healing and reconciliation… something we all need to keep in mind.
Today we are with Jesus when he meets a distraught woman with a special needs child. Maybe you have seen her, too, at the local Publix or Walmart or you might remember the parent of a child in your school, or a child-relative in your family or you’ve seen her trying to shop at Daystar. This is a mixed breed woman; a foreigner. Her family has disowned her. And when she told her boyfriend she was pregnant he fled.
Somehow this courageous woman has survived as a single mother. But, when her daughter began having seizures, gossipy opinions surface: “She deserves what she gets. See what happens when you make the kind of decisions she’s made.” On top of that she is a woman in a society in which women have no real value or standing. To make matters worse she’s a screamer with a crazy kid. Now, she is out of options.
But, she’s heard that a Jewish miracle-worker is passing through the area. He’s reported to have authority over demons. She’s tried appealing to all the pagan gods of her culture, but none answered her plea. Maybe, just maybe, this Jesus is the answer to her prayers.
The woman approaches Jesus, requesting that he heal her demon-possessed daughter. At first Jesus says nothing. It appears he is ignoring her. The disciples ask Jesus to send her away, and Jesus seems to agree, remarking that he was sent to minister to the Jews alone.
But she’s already endured a series of obstacles that would threaten the best of us. She’s jumped social hurtles to ask a favor of Jesus and she will not be deterred.
She persists, paying homage to Jesus, and yet again Jesus denies her request. She can’t believe what her hears – is he being rude to her? Did he really refer to her using a Jewish word of derision for Gentiles, “dog.” But the woman cleverly turns Jesus’ own words against him. Only then does Jesus grant her request and heal her daughter.
So, let’s consider why Jesus would lead this mother through a humbling process for pursuing her request. He stays in conversation with her but seems harsh. Could it be Jesus used this encounter to help her develop a deep courageous faith that would sustain her for the rest of her life not just this one-time healing?
She is tenacious in her pleading. With the odds stacked against her, she pushes forward. When she gets knocked down by life’s circumstances and criticism, she gets back up. When others told her to quit, to get lost because she was wasting Jesus’ time, she continued to keep Jesus attention.
Notice she referred to Jesus as Lord, acknowledging that He is worthy of praise. Don’t miss the lesson that she praised Jesus in the midst of her pain. She is obviously a very humble woman. Perhaps Jesus had her in mind when he spoke the beatitude “Blessed are the meek, they will inherit the earth.” Never confuse humility with weakness. Pride would have been offended by the “dog” comment. Pride would have returned insult for insult, and pride would have gone away empty; without a miracle; without a healthy, whole child.
It’s a nice story but what does it teach us? Lessons in skilled, reverent, peaceful confrontation; tenacity, humility and focus on the important matter for winning a hearing with a happy outcome.
The past couple of weeks the world has been on edge, at the escalating acts of violence and the war of words between the North Korean regime and President Trump. The spiraling verbal threats may be the result of mounting public frustration with the lack of solutions to a serious problem but a frightened world cannot dismiss the situation as mere venting of empty words. Indeed, the harsh language appears to be increasing in the intensity of potential danger of a rash move being made by one side or the other. The world has seen too many incidents to ignore or downplay words that have had the power to do real damage. The old adage “sticks and stones may break your bones but words can never hurt you” has long been proven a false premise. But words can also have an equally powerful ability to bring about healing and reconciliation… something we all need to keep in mind.
Let us remember also in our intentions this weekend the people who are waiting in terror for Monday’s total solar eclipse. Thousands are gathering for the once in a life time event but others view it as a harbinger of doom.
Heeding the example of the Canaanite woman we must come to stand before God, united in our plea for an end of racism in our country and for peace in our world, for calmness to conquer brashness, humility to counter pride and tenacity to win out over discouragement.
There is a tale told about former President Andrew Jackson. His childhood friends were reminiscing about their childhood with Andy and expressing surprise at how successful he’d become considering all his flaws – he wasn’t as smart as some and many were stronger. They recalled how the class bully would throw Andy three out of four times when they wrestled. A listener asked: “What happened on the fourth time?”
Andy’s friend spoke up: “I guess that was Andy’s secret. He just wouldn’t stay throwed.”
Like the Canaanite woman and Andy, if life circumstances throw you down, don’t stay “throwed.” You’ve heard it said that Benedictine community life is a series of beginnings. Like a daruma doll, those weighted-bottom Japanese good-luck dolls, we just keep bouncing upright – as one author put is: we fall down and we get up. Or as the saying goes: seven times down; eight times up. So let us stand firm in praying for peace that we may hear the same response Jesus gave to the Canaanite woman: “Great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”
~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time,
1st Reading Isaiah 56:1, 6-7,
2nd Reading Romans 11:13-15; 29-32,
Gospel Matthew 15:21-28
Continue ReadingGod at our Calling
First Reading Jeremiah 20:10-13 Second Reading Romans 5:12-15
Gospel Matthew 10:26-33
In this Gospel passage, we rejoin Jesus during the first year of His public ministry. Jesus directs the disciples to keep their focus on God. He reminds them that those who can harm the body do not have ultimate power; God does. Persecution and suffering may not be avoided or prevented but Jesus’ reassures us that God is always and forever at our call to care for us and protect us.
Jesus uses a simple, mind-opening analogy to illustrate his point. His listeners knew that the cheapest life in the market was a small bird of the field, perhaps a sparrow. Yet, God’s providential care knows even when this smallest of birds dies. He is using here a rabbinic argument technique which compares a light matter to a heavy one. His idea here is to overcome fear and encourage the disciples, and us, to trust God.
From the moment we are born, we know fear – we squall at the change in our environment. The startle reflex is tested in a baby’s first pediatrician’s visit. Separation anxiety develops by 6 months and may raise its ugly head later in life feelings of abandonment. Over time we may grow to fear even those who are closest to us.
Jesus recognizes that fear may cause failure on our part. Jesus’ disciples, and we, courageously leave the security of home and family to follow a dream. As faithful followers of our “summons” to His call, may inevitably put us on a collision course with the allurements of the world. Jesus is starkly realistic about the threats we will face, at the same time he builds the case for why we should not let fear win out or hinder our ministry.
We see in the Gospels, how on the one hand, the disciples are granted remarkable powers to heal the sick, exorcise demons, cleanse lepers, even to raise the dead. But at the same time, Jesus denies the disciples money, extra clothes, or a staff to aid in climbing the ups and downs of life or to protect themselves from wolves. He even denies them a pair of sandals to shield their feet from rocks and stones, or if they travel the fields in Florida, sandspurs. They are to undertake their mission in complete vulnerability and dependence on God with an awareness that they go as “sheep in the midst of wolves.”
We know their stories: they faced arrests and beatings, hatred and persecution and opposition even from family members.
With great care and compassion Jesus names aloud the suffering to be endured and its causes. This is the first step in freeing them from the tenacious grip of fear. Benedict knew this, didn’t he? Remember what he says about receiving newcomers (chapter 58). Do not grant newcomers an easy entry … test the spirits, let them keep persistently knocking at the door four or five days … they should be clearly told the things of everyday living in community; all the hardships and difficulties that will lead to God … she, the newcomer, must be aware of what the Rule requires so that she may know what she is entering.”
It is clear in Jesus’ conversation with his disciples that the most important element in the sharing of the warnings and the loving reassurance lies in the integral relationship between the disciples and Jesus. And, between Benedict and the novice .. and it should be evident between our community and the Seeker.
Just as Jesus modeled the way for his disciple, we make a commitment to the newcomer, and to each other, to model Benedictine living. An example: A young boy, out for a walk with his father on a cold winter day, was scared to cross a frozen pond … afraid of falling through the ice. But then his Father offered to lead the way. Now the boy didn’t hesitate to go across the ice. The ice hadn’t become less frightening, but he was able to follow his father, trusting his father wouldn’t lead him to harm. He followed his father without fear across the ice. Jesus leads us; we lead each other; and we each help lead our Seekers.
As we sing in the Suscipe: “Upon me, O Lord, as you have promised, and I shall live, and do not disappoint me in my hope.”
~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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