Recall last Sunday’s parable about a barren fig tree that was given a year’s reprieve to prove its worth or be cut down. This week, for one day the church gives each of us a reprieve from the rigors of Lent with the gentling of the liturgical color in the priest’s vestments from intense purple to a cheery rose pink. Flowers that had been forbidden until Easter can come forward for Mass and Vespers. Then, back they will go, hidden in the cooler until Holy Thursday.
Some of us will remember when this 4th Sunday in Lent was referred to as Laetare Sunday. It was a common name for this Fourth Sunday in Lent because the entrance antiphon begins “Laetare, Jerusalem” (“Rejoice, O Jerusalem”). A little known synonym for Laetare Sunday is Mothering Sunday. But it is not a celebration of mothers (although many countries fix their Mother’s Day celebration on this day). In the 16th Century it was common practice on the 4th Sunday of Lent for people to go “a-mothering” – to pay a visit to their “mother church” – the church of their baptism. Lenten fasting was relaxed and cakes were distributed to family members, giving rise to the name Refreshment Sunday.
The invisibility of women, their low level of access to, and participation in leadership, decision making, availability of resources, education and information, all mean that the adverse impact of globalized economic systems affects women and children disproportionately and often leads to greater violence against women and children.
Raising the veil of invisibility surrounding partner and child abuse, revealing a growing reality, is an on-going challenge. But, every success in this endeavor is one more step toward understanding and with understanding comes empathy, justice and support for the cause of women as partners in spreading the Kingdom of their Creator.
I kept this editorial but lost track of the author. It reads: “Now, I know this hope of mine is the longest of long shots. I have great faith in the Holy Spirit to move papal conclaves, but I would concede that I may be running ahead of the Spirit on this one. Handing leadership of the Catholic Church to a woman, a nun would (to my mind) vastly strengthen Catholicism, help the church solve some of its immediate problems and inspire many who have left the church to look at it with new eyes. There are certainly bishops and cardinals who have done godly work and many more who have supported it. Imagine the message the cardinals would send about the church’s priorities if they elected a woman pope.”
I find “Lost and Found” boxes interesting. At the very same time the things inside of it are both lost and found. Suppose someone spots a cell phone in a parking lot, in the crack of a shopping cart. The friendly shopper retrieves it and turns it in at the courtesy desk. In one and the same moment it was completely lost, but it was found… It is strangely both lost and found.
If there were an eternal “Lost and Found” box, we sure would be in it. Our lives are filled with wayward actions that take us far from each other and our God. But, rejoice because we’ve been found! Jesus made payment for our waywardness. Thanks to His generous self-giving – and the unfathomable love of the Trinity, God is ready, with wild abandonment to welcome us back again and again.
~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB
