Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

Gospel

Four Weeks Suspended in Kairos

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In her book, THE LITURGICAL YEAR, Joan Chittister makes the comment: “Advent, more than any other season of the church year, calls us to live simultaneously in the past, the present, and the future.  She elaborates: “We learn in Advent to stay in the present, knowing that only the present well-lived can possibly lead us to the fullness of life.  It takes an overview of the three-year cycle of Advent readings to make clear the multiple meanings of Advent.  Many of our Advent hymns keep this idea before us when we sing “Mara – natha – two words – The Lord has come … God of, and in, our) past, present and future are all lived together … soul.” (Chittister)

We eagerly await the coming of Christ as a baby in Bethlehem (the past), we are invited to welcome him into our hearts now (the present), and we look forward to his future coming as king of glory.  For four weeks of Advent we are suspended in kairos — God’s time — when expectations and reality are held in tension with each other.  We must hold on to a vision of what challenges the church (that’s all of us) should be dealing with today.  Dwelling in the past or wishing for a perfect future can keep us from hearing the will of God in our today.  Many recognize in Pope Francis a voice that is, like John the Baptist, crying in the wilderness … urging us forward in the present to mend the past as we confront the ills of today.

This Gospel introduces us to the man: John.  The opening lines in Mark’s gospel are “the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ” but the first character he introducers is not Jesus, but John the Baptist, the fiery preacher who came out of the desert where he lived on honey and locusts.  And, he is no fashion plate, with his camel’s hair clothes, leather sandals, and leather girdle around his waist — very much like Elijah.  His diet was very simple: locusts (grasshoppers) and wild honey.  This is important, or it would not be here.  It is symbolic. But what does it symbolize?  Well, you cannot wear anything more fundamental in the way of clothing, or eat a more basic diet, than John did.  In other words, it is representative of his ministry — one of simple beginnings.  It is not the end; it is the beginning.  The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God is all about repentance.  This is the place to begin.  Even John’s clothing and his diet helped convey that message.

His diet, by the way, was balanced.  Food fanatics will quickly recognize that grasshoppers are protein, and honey is carb.  John’s diet was in perfect balance, so that he was a healthy man.  It was a simple sort of diet, just as his ministry was – nothing elaborate.  Furthermore, he’s very honest.  He says, “Don’t look to me for answers beyond what I have already told you.  Anything beyond that must come from Another, who is coming right after me.  He is so much greater than I that I am not even worthy to untie his shoes.  Remember, this was his cousin he was talking about!  John could bring people to God, but he could not take them beyond that.  John began his ministry in the wilderness, the worst possible place. But it worked!

The people of Jerusalem and Judea left their cities, their recreations and pleasures, and trekked through a howling wilderness to listen to a man preach.  They probably had to walk twenty or thirty miles to hear John, but did so willingly and in such increasing numbers that Mark records, in only slight exaggeration, that “all the country of Judea, and all the people of Jerusalem” came out to hear him.  Something drew these people into the desert to listen to this strange and rugged young preacher proclaim good news.  That is all he did!  He never told how it worked, or why; he just announced it.

How fitting it is that we have this message of forgiveness and repentance as a prologue to our Penance Service on Tuesday evening.  Then, as now, people need to know they can begin again.  God offers us, once again, an opportunity to truly repent.  We can change our attitude and stop defending ourselves and trying to blame everything on others.  There’s a saying: the whole world’s a critic.  Tuesday’s reconciliation service gives us a chance to be our own critic and say, “You know what, God?  I’ve finally realized it’s not those others, it is just me.  This is just the way I am — and I need help.”  In the quiet of your own heart, where God alone hears, you can say, “I repent, send me your Spirit.”

But keep in mind what the prophet Isaiah said about John’s message – this business of reconciliation will resemble a great bulldozer, building a highway in the desert.  John was God’s bulldozer to build that highway.  You know how roads are built – we see the process almost any direction we go on the highway.  Isaiah says: “Every mountain shall be brought low, and every valley shall be lifted up; the crooked places shall be made straight and the rough places plain.”  And, that is what repentance does.  It bulldozes down all the high peaks of pride that we stand on and refuse to admit we’re wrong.  It takes the depressed areas of our life, where we beat and torture and punish ourselves, and lifts them up.  It takes the crooked places, where we have lied and deceived, and straightens them out.  And it makes the rough places plain.  Then, there is God!  God comes to us so that we can come to God.

Our hope is in the promise of God, and God of the Promise… a promise that was fulfilled in Jesus Christ.  It is a hope that will not be disappointed because God may delay, He may tarry but He will not forget His promise.  He will not let us down.  Praise be God!

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

Readings:      Isaiah 40: 1-5, 9-11               2 Peter 3:8-14              Mark 1:1-8
Intention:       Peoples of Central America
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Actions speak louder than words

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The overriding theme of all of the Mass readings, it seems to me, is “honest sincerity.”  In the Gospel account we just heard the younger brother tell his father: “Yes, I’ll go and work” while the older brother said: “No, not me.” Both used words contrary to their actions.

This an age-old story.  The dynamic happens in families, between friends, in the work force and in monastic community.   The situation Jesus poses is rather straightforward. Two sons are given the same task by their father: one asserts his objection, his intent to disobey right up front, but then in the end obeys his father’s wish.  The second son obeys in his words, but disobeys in his actions. For both, what they say with their words is not in their hearts – the head said one thing; the heart another.

The story reminds us that talk is cheap and actions speak louder than words.  You’ve all heard the phrase: “Don’t just talk the talk; walk the walk.”  Be slow to dismiss these truisms.  We’ve all been hurt by promises given and then broken.  Or, on occasions we have been given words that have hurt us, really hurt us, not because they were nasty but because we relied on them and were later betrayed. Intentions are too often little more than wishful thinking; appearances are deceptive. Being honest and then acting in honesty are sometimes tough things to do. You know where the path of good intentions leads, right?

The question that Jesus poses is pointed and direct: Which son did what the father wanted?  Jesus could ask us the same question. Do our words indicate our obedience to God? If not our words, do our actions? God desires a full conversion of heart, that our actions (and our words as well) will give evidence of our love for God.  The older brother had no intention of working and had the honesty of saying so. He was wrong, but he was honest. The younger brother was the opposite. He said the expedient thing knowing what his father wanted to hear but he had no integrity.

Yes, talk can be cheap. The younger brother simply didn’t live up to his words; the older brother changed his mind. The older brother had integrity; the younger brother gave valueless words to his father while having no intention at all of working.   With which brother do your words or actions identify?

For Benedictines obedience is central – we’ve come to the monastery to hear, to listen, to seek God but to do that we have to be willing to listen and then obey God’s voice as heard in your personal prayer, in the voice of the superior and spiritual guide and in communal discernments and in our interactions with each other.  As Benedict describes it, for those who have chosen to live in cenobitic community, our obedience must be open, prompt and positive, (even if it is painful) and given without murmuring.

We would do well to recall both this gospel story, and Benedict’s words about obeying with alacrity when we are asked to do a favor for one of our sisters or a co-worker.  Do we mumble OK and then put it on the back burner so far back that the pot boils away and the need goes up in the waves of evaporation?  Do you say YES and honestly add “but not right now” and make a sincere effort to perform the action when we said we would?  Are you like the son who said “no can do” but later realize your selfish response and go back to do the favor after all?  Or, do you render the favor but tell the neighborhood about the unfairness of what you had to do?  We know that for Benedict, murmuring was an abomination, anathema, a curse in community and any sign of murmuring was to be censured.

In one of her first books on the Rule, Joan Chittister suggests: “Say to the member who signs up for a task but then complains, please don’t sign up.  Kindly give the community the gift of not murmuring about it.  The rest of the community will get the job done.  Please just stay home and keep a smile on your face.  Don’t do the work and then poison the environment of the house with murmuring.”

Oh, you may think: it’s easy for you to talk about obedience – you’re the prioress, who do you have to obey?   But, think about it, for the monastic leader, actually, any leader, may have some authority with her position, but the power lies in the hands and will of the membership.  Obedience in monastic life is mutual – it springs from the bloom of mutual respect.  Without both there is no community – there is just a group of women living under the same roof.

So, what enables us to mature to a higher level of obedience?   First how do you know what level of obedience is operating in your life?  You may recall Piaget’s and Kohlberg’s stages of moral development – moving from obedience for fear of punishment to the highest stage which some never reach and those who do rarely can consistently operate at that level.  We are at the level of moral maturity where we cease to fully comprehend what the stage description is talking about.  Another insight is how you work on a committee.  How we function in community is also based on our level of moral development.  How you believe a thing ought to be done will say a great deal about where you are on the scale.

Thankfully for all of us, in life growth is always possible – “It isn’t over, til it’s over!”   Another expression may pop to mind: “it ain’t over til the fat lady sings.”    It isn’t how we start that matters, it’s how we finish!

~Reflection by S. Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

Twenty-Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle A   October 1, 2017
First Reading  Ezekiel 18:25-28               Second Reading  Philippians 2:1-Be like
Gospel Matthew 21:28-32        

 

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What is the Astuteness of the Christian?

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3rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

 Right to Life (January 23)  St. Paul (January 25)

First Reading   Isaiah 8:23-9:3          Second Reading  1 Corinthians 1:10-13,17
Gospel Reading  Matthew 4:12-23

In this Gospel the power of Jesus’ call is immediately evident – Peter, Andrew, James and John dropped everything to follow Jesus immediately.  Jesus doesn’t have to pitch the idea to these individuals nor does he need to persuade them.  Each has little reason to leave their current way of life.    Each seemingly has a steady job.  Most importantly they have familial ties to their vocations as family men and fishermen.  Now, in the new lifestyle they were inaugurating, their security would come from life in a mutually supporting community, where the needs of each one were taken care of.

Having begun to assemble his company of companions, Jesus turns to his ministry, as the Gospel describes it: teaching in the synagogues, proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and curing every disease and illness among the people.   He moved quickly and determinedly from one place to another … planting dreams, raising expectations, and opens doors of possibility.  His followers witnessed a dramatic alternative to the emptiness and despair that filled the lives of the people immersed in an atmosphere devoid off their trust and hope.

Whether man or a woman, when one joyfully responded to Jesus’ call to follow, and entered Jesus enterprise, their lives were dramatically changed.  They became agents of new possibility for all who came into contact with them – beacons of encouragement for the discouraged – inviting the stranger to faith in God and purpose in life.

The late Speaker of the House “Tip” O’Neill loved to relate a valuable lesson he’d learned early in his career. During his first political campaign, one of O’Neill’s neighbors told him: I am going to vote for you tomorrow, even though you didn’t ask me to! O’Neill was surprised and said: Why, Mrs. O’Brien, I have lived across from you for eighteen years, I cut your grass in the summer, I shoveled your walk in the winter; I didn’t think I had to ask for your vote! Mrs. O’Brien replied: Oh, Tommy, let me tell you something … people like to be asked!

A vital faith community will always be asking … inviting followers just as Jesus did.
It is never enough to simply welcome people when they happen to visit, we must also invite them to join us in our worship and ministries.  Without a direct “ask” a vocation may be stifled or a prayer-partner lost.  My mother spoke with great admiration for the Benedictine Sisters who were her teachers in elementary school.  I asked her once when she didn’t become a Sister – she replied “None of them asked me – so I figured I was not worthy.”  Of course, I would not be here telling you this story if she’d been asked and said YES.

Tomorrow (Monday, January 23) the church leads us in prayer for the sanctity of all life: for an end to abortion, euthanasia and the death penalty.  And more than that: to honor, respect and love all God’s people without reservation.  I invite you to listen to these words of Pope Francis (adapted slightly to be gender inclusion):

The Christian cannot allow her/himself the luxury to be an idiot, that’s clear. We don’t have the luxury to be fools because we have a very beautiful message of life and we’re not permitted to be fools.  For that reason, Jesus says, “Be astute, be careful.”  What is the astuteness of the Christian?  In knowing how to discern who is a wolf and who is a sheep. 

And when … a wolf disguises itself as a sheep, (the Christian) knows how they smell. “Look, you have the skin of a sheep but the smell of a wolf.” And this, this mandate that Jesus gives us is very important. It’s for something very great.  Jesus tells us something that attracts our attention, when someone asks him: “Well, why did you come into the world?” “Look, I come to bring life and for that life to be in abundance, and I am sending you so that you can advance that life, and so that it will be abundant.”

Jesus didn’t come to bring death (of the body), but rather, the death of hatred, the death of fighting, the death of slander, that is, killing with the tongue.  Jesus came to bring life and to bring the abundant life, and he sends us out, carrying that life, but he tells us: “Care for it!” Because there are people bringing us today the culture of death.  That is, life interests them insofar as it is useful, insofar as it has some kind of utility and if not, it doesn’t interest them.  And throughout the world, this weed has been planted, of the culture of death.

How beautiful is caring for life, allowing life to grow, to give life like Jesus, and to give it abundantly, not to permit that even one of these smallest ones be lost.  That is what Jesus asked of the Father: “that none of those whom You have given me be lost, that all of the life that You gave me to care for, might be cared for, that it might not be lost.”  And we care for life, because He cares for our life from the womb.

Caring for life from the beginning to the end. What a simple thing, what a beautiful thing.  Father, is that why there are so many wolves who want to eat us?  Is that why, tell me?  Who did Jesus kill? No one.  He did good things. And how did he end up?  If we go down the road of life ugly things can happen to us, but it doesn’t matter. It’s worth it.  He first opened the way.

So, go forth and don’t be discouraged.  Don’t be fools, remember, a Christian doesn’t have the luxury of being foolish, I’m going to repeat this: an idiot, a fool – you can’t give yourself that luxury.  You have to be clever, be astute!     Care for life. It’s worth it! “

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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God’s Law – God’s Love

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gods-lawFirst Reading  Exodus 32:7-11,13-14                 Second Reading 1 Timothy 1:12-17
Gospel Reading  Luke 15:1-32                            Intention Responsible Citizenship

An inner city church, located in an area of a large American city where there were few residents, was forced to a decision. A large corporation was offering them a great deal of money for their site, on which the corporation wanted to put a parking lot. The money would enable the parish to move to the inner city where they would find many more people to serve. Even though this was exciting to some of the congregation, other members were resistant to the idea. They pointed out that the church was the guardian of a building whose history and architecture reached back into the early part of the nineteenth century. History had been made in that building.

Eventually the congregation decided to sell the site and make the move to the inner-city neighborhood. The pastor said, “We had to decide whether we wanted to be in a museum or in mission, we couldn’t have it both ways.  It meant either staying on the original site, glorying in the past history and serving a few people, or giving up the past and gearing up ourselves for a significant ministry among the city’s people. We opted for mission status over museum status.

Something of this same struggle is indicated in this Gospel. The Pharisees and scribes came down on the side of museum religion. They wanted attention given to those who were stable, pious and not a liability if invited to the local country club. Their rationale was “Let’s have our synagogue programs be dependable for our like-minded types.”  Jesus disappointed them by insisting that the issue was one of mission: to reach out to those who needed great mercy and perhaps a bath.

The Pharisees’ love of God’s law made them forget about God’s love.   God loves us even more than a parent loves a child. God longs to rescue those who are lost.  (It’s like his favorite pastime.)  Our loving God will search for that which is lost. There’s no giving up, no quitting point. Just like looking for a lost coin – there’s no such thing as a life without worth. God doesn’t mind stooping down to find us and lift us up from the depths we have fallen into. Each time you stoop to pick up something that has fallen to the floor, however trivial a thing it may seem, that God does not disdain to stoop down to pick us up each and every time, after time that we fall.

In Jesus’ day when a husband took a bride, he gave her a headband with ten silver coins that were evenly spaced. She wore this headband in public to show that she was married. If she was unfaithful, one of the coins was removed, and the gap showed that she had disgraced her marriage vows. It was a shame and disgrace to lose any of these coins.

Loss of the coin in Jesus’ parable it seems was a result of carelessness, but not a moral disgrace. It was lost on a dirt floor in the darkness. People without God are the like that. They are not just lost, they are in the dirt and the dark. They need Jesus, the Light of the World – we all do.   Jesus looks for us, so He can bring us out of the darkness into the light!   Our community hospitality ministry helps people come into the light of welcome, friendship and compassion so that they in turn can be a light to those they associate with.   We feed their hunger for peace, camaraderie, spiritual growth, a prayerful liturgy and often top it with a good meal.

Let me end with a story that proves we never know what will bring people to their knees.

A minister was waiting in line at the Pearly Gates. Ahead of him there was a fellow who was dressed in sunglasses, a loud shirt, leather jacket and jeans. Saint Peter addressed the asked, “Who are you, so that I may know whether or not to admit you to the Kingdom of Heaven?”    “I’m Joe Cohen, taxi driver, of New York City”. Saint Peter consulted his list, smiled and said:  “Take this silken robe and enter.

Away he went.  Next in line was the minister. . He stood erect and boomed out, “I am Msgr Joseph, pastor of Saint Mary’s Cathedral for the last forty-three years.” Saint Peter consulted his list and said to the minister, “Here, take this cotton robe and you can come in.” Just a minute here,” said the minister. “That man was a taxi driver and he gets a silken robe. How can this be?” ”

“Up here,” said St. Peter, we work by results. While you preached, people slept. While he drove, people prayed.”

~Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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Comfort Zone

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comfort zoneFirst Reading  Sirach 3:17-18,20,28-29     Second Reading   Hebrews 12:18-19,22-24
Gospel Reading   Luke 14:1,7-14      Intention End to terrorism

There is a term popular today that seems to me to fit with this message of Jesus. The term is “comfort zone” which refers to those situations in which the person feels comfortable, safe, and free from threat or even challenge. The comfort zone is, for the person involved, a thoroughly comfortable place. Life there is marked by ease and familiarity.

It’s natural to like one’s comfort zone, but most of us would admit that we should not remain there indefinitely. People do not become better or more mature or holier lingering in their comfort zone. That just doesn’t happen.

This, I think, appears to be a modern term for what concerns Jesus in today’s Gospel. The passage divides easily into two parts.

In the first part, Jesus cautions against sitting in the place of honor at a wedding banquet and advises taking the lowest place instead.

In the second part, he urges us to invite the crippled, lame, and blind when we give a luncheon or dinner, rather than friends, relatives, and rich people.

So there’s advice here for us when we’re the guest as well as when we are the ones hosting an event.  But it is about more than proper banquet etiquette.  Choosing the seat of honor for ourselves sounds a lot like craving our comfort zone. The best seat is the one where we feel comfortable: accepted, safe, free from threat, challenge or embarrassment or any sense of awkwardness.

Sharing a community meal, sitting at table should be less about power and all about sharing the joy of being together.   Even our legends acknowledge the power of a choice seat like King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table. Sitting at a round table came to symbolize equality… because there was no head of the table. All had an equal seat and an equal say. Where you choose to sit matters. It matters in the way people perceive you and in the way you act in different environments.

Jesus challenges us against staying in our comfort zone. Rather than limiting our guest list to people who are clones of ourselves, people with whom we’re comfortable, who don’t threaten or challenge us, invite instead those who are different, people who make us uncomfortable, but whose difference from us may bring with it a blessing.  This is what I think is so significant about our Thanksgiving Day dinner.  We open our door, our hearts and our table expecting nothing in return.  The blessing of being in a position to share is its own reward.

Jesus not only teaches us this the lesson of stretching our comfort zone, he demonstrates it. His entire life, his public ministry, the passion and resurrection, is full of one episode after another of not remaining in a comfort zone.  Repeatedly Jesus takes the low seat and invites unlikely types to be his guests.

Finally he takes the worst seat of all––on the cross––and those who come to his banquet make it through the door (recall last Sunday’s Gospel)  because they claim no merit of their own. Finally he leaves the comfort zone of earth and expands his comfort zone forever, everywhere and with everyone – there are no strangers – all are welcome!

~Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
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Availability

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availabilityThroughout his Gospel, Luke demonstrates that God’s promises to Israel are fulfilled in the person of Jesus.  In this part of Luke’s story, Jesus and his disciples are approaching the city of Naim when they come upon a large funeral procession. Luke does not tell us how Jesus knows that the deceased is an only son of a widow.  Did He know the family or was the scene and the ritual all too familiar to him and his disciples?   Whatever the reason, had Jesus not been present to the moment and available to its significance it may have gone without noticed or ignored by the evangelist as well as the passersby.

Before I continue: a disclaimer is called for: Much of what follows is borrowed or adapted from Robert Wicks’ little volume entitled AVAILABLILTY.

The virtue, the gift of availability is indeed a simple but a great gift.  The freedom to be present when needed is something special.  It is an opportunity to be spiritual – to be open to relationship in the deepest, most elegant sense of the term.  However, this wonderful state of living often seems hidden or distorted.  Today, availability is a premium because it is not only a gift but also sometimes a great challenge for many of us – one that we need to more fully understand and address if we are to be able to continue to be present in the full sense of the word.  Availability is not only a gift; it is also a problem.

Some of us are “too available.”  Thus, true availability becomes watered down. We become too busy to pray, too tired to reflect, and, ironically, too stimulated interpersonally present to others.

Others among us pull back in anxiety.  Being available to God seems to raise too many questions or doubts.  Spending time alone is no longer relaxing; instead we feel lonely or preoccupied with our faults and failures.  And being with others doesn’t seem to help either; in some cases, we feel used, left out, or misunderstood.  The end result is that our expectations for intimacy are not realized and we feel the need to pull back more than ever.

The situation is not merely a sad one; it is a dangerous.  Without a sense of availability to self, others, and God, life loses it spirituality.  Relationships suffer, break down, and we are left with a void or sense of confusion.

We must address availability with the imperative that openness to the personal and interpersonal is essential if the Spirit is to be heard and felt. Any blocks to relationship must be removed if we are to prepare ourselves always for the continual coming of what is Good.  The very vitality of living out the Gospel depends on our being involved –  in an ongoing way – in the process.

When we spend time, especially unplanned time, with others it is not so much that we TAKE TIME OUT OUR DAY to be with them as that we had make the other part of our life.  For instance, today’s funeral for Kurt … because we generously welcomed them into our home God, through us, was enabled to share compassion, comfort and hospitality to a large group of mourners.

Jesus absorbed the widow’s sorry, made it his own and offered deep compassion and consolation to her even before he raised her boy from the funeral bier.  Did Mary witness this incident or did others relate to her?  Later when her son died do you think  she recalled he’d brought this Only son back, and Lazarus, too, back to life?  Did she live in hope that such a miracle would be granted her son?  Someday we may know.

Picking up cues, recognizing a silent need – reaching into self and out to others: this kind of attitude is at the heart of a life that reflects an appreciation of the gift of availability.  This attitude merits being kept in mind as we look at some of the basic problems we encounter in trying to be available to ourselves, others, and God.  Though the concept is simple, living a life of true availability isn’t easy for most of us.  It takes a conscious desire and effort to be present to all the nuances of the present moment.  Some people see only the dark clouds gathering; others see the rainbow emerging.  Let us be present to the moments when rainbows quietly and slowly are revealed in our lives.  Jesus would have missed the funeral scene if he had been too intent on getting to the farmer’s market in town.

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

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