Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

Jesus

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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humilityFirst Reading  Isaiah 53:10-11   Second Reading Hebrews 4:14-16
Gospel    Mark 10:35-45 (shorter form Mark 10:42-45)

Often, it is said, when looking for a job it is not what you know but whom you know that counts most.  In China, people often speak of guanxi, ” (guan-shee) connections” with people in the right places.

Today we see two brothers, who belong to the innermost circle of Jesus’ disciples, trying to exert their guanxi.   But listen to Jesus: the last be shall first and the first shall be last.”  He reminds us that the way to heaven is not in sitting on thrones, living in fine houses, driving luxury cars, having the latest tech gadgets or having holidays in exotic places.  Greatness consists not in what we have, or what we can get from others but in what we can give of ourselves to others.

Jesus asks us: Can you drink the cup I am going to drink?  These two brothers, in their eager ignorance, answer without hesitation:: “No problem!”

For us as Benedictines – in Benedict’s view, we are all called to cultivate a humble awareness of our place in creation.  Being humble brings the realization that we are capable of making gods of the very things that should be serving and enriching our lives.  It requires a humble trust in God’s providence.  For St. Benedict, everything a monastic does must be done for the glory of God – that is why we were created.  Remember your Baltimore catechism:  we were made to know, love and serve God.  A fifth century monk says it well: A proud monk needs no demon. He has turned into one, an enemy to himself.

In our own lifetime, Mother Teresa gives us a few ways to practice humility that sound much like Benedict’s steps of humility:

To speak as little as possible of one’s self.

To mind one’s own business.

Not to want to manage other people’s affairs.

To avoid curiosity.

To accept contradictions and correction cheerfully.

To pass over the mistakes of others.

To accept insults and injuries.

To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked.

To be kind and gentle even under provocation.

Never to stand on one’s dignity.

To choose always the hardest.

 

This Prayer for Humility by an Anonymous Abbess is worth pondering line by line…:

Lord, you know better than myself that I am growing older and will soon be old. Keep me from becoming too talkative, and especially from the unfortunate habit of thinking that I must say something on every subject and at every opportunity.

Release me from the idea that I must straighten out other peoples’ affairs. With my immense treasure of experience and wisdom, it seems a pity not to let everybody partake of it. But thou know, Lord, that in the end I will need a few friends.

Keep me from the recital of endless details; give me wings to get to the point.

Grant me the patience to listen to the complaints of others; help me to endure them with charity. But seal my lips on my own aches and pains — they increase with the increasing years and my inclination to recount them is also increasing.

I will not ask you for improved memory, only for a little more humility and less self-assurance when my own memory doesn’t agree with that of others. Teach me the glorious lesson that occasionally I may be wrong.

Keep me reasonably gentle. I do not have the ambition to become a saint — it is so hard to live with some of them — but a harsh old person is one of the devil’s masterpieces.

Make me sympathetic without being sentimental, helpful but not bossy. Let me discover merits where I had not expected them, and talents in people whom I had not thought to possess any. And, Lord, give me the grace to tell them so.    AMEN

Just remember, as an ancient monk said: “When we become aware of our humility, we’ve lost it.”

                                                                                                                                        Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

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27th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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I think it a shame that pastors have the option of omitting the last portion of the Gospel just proclaimed – the part about the children.  I hope they don’t exercise that option especially after Pope Francis’ display of affection and regard for children.

In this Gospel the people were bringing their children to Jesus, much like they did to Pope Francis.  It was the children (urged on by their parents) who could manage to break through security the lines and approach Pope Francis – the preoccupied attention of the disciples to get to Jesus.  Again the disciples just don’t get it.  This has been demonstrated in the readings for the last two Sundays. Jesus has summed up his lessons pointing out the value and importance of these “little ones” in the Kingdom of God.

But once again in today’s Gospel, the disciples try to prevent people from bringing their children to Jesus. Jesus reprimands them and welcomes these children.  Jesus offers the children as an example of the kind of complete trust and dependence upon God that ought to be the attitude of all believers.

The popular spiritual writer, Henri Nouwen, in his powerful meditations on Rembrandt’s painting of the Prodigal Son – says:

I saw a man in a great red cloak tenderly touching the shoulders of a disheveled boy kneeling before him.  I could not take my eyes away.  I felt drawn by the intimacy between the two figures, the warm red of the man’s cloak, the golden yellow of the boy’s tunic, and the mysterious light engulfing them both.  But, most of all, it was the hands – the old man’s hands – as they touched the boy’s shoulders, that reached me in a place where I had never been reached before.”

His attention moves to the elder brother and finally to the father’s role in the family dynamic.   Nouwen came to the realization that in life we all must mature from son (or child) to father (or parent and adult).   But, he says, there is a subtle pressure in church and society to remain a dependent child.   Who is it (in life) that truly challenges us to liberate ourselves from immature dependencies to accept the burden of responsible adults?

It would be comfortable, wouldn’t it, to remain in the warm embrace of childhood – on Jesus’ lap in the place of blessing.  But, we don’t really want to be a child all our lives using our role as child to keep us in a safe place distanced from others.  We grow in recognition that we have had blessings bestowed on us and now it is our turn to offer God’s immense love to others.

So how can we heed Jesus injunction to accept the kingdom of God like a child – or risk never entering it?  What does it mean to be childlike, and not childish?  What qualities is Jesus asking us to hang on to in order to enter the kingdom not only beyond the “pearly gates” but right here on earth, in our community, where God’s kingdom exists?

A few qualities I think he might encourage would be:

  • Live Spontaneously – taking in every moment and the opportunities in unplanned instants.
  • How about never letting a lack of qualifications deter you –If you’ve never done something before, be fearless like a child who pulls out a kitchen drawer to scramble up to the cabinet to get the peanut butter.  Isn’t this how Olympic gymnasts start?
  • Kids Know Exercise Can Be Fun –It’s just a matter of finding an active, healthy activity we actually enjoy doing.
  • Keep an Open Mind –  Keep a childlike wide open mind and you’ll learn something new every day – maybe more than one thing.  Don’t let force of habit slow you down.   Ask questions: you’ll never get an answer if you never ask.  So, she might say NO – but did you give her a chance to say YES?
  • Express your feelings – nurture and value relationships – Open, honest, direct face-to-face expression of feelings makes communication easier, maintains sincerity and integrity in your life.  Children like nothing better than to “hang out” with their friends.  Do you look forward to unstructured time with community members – your “sisters?”
  • Use Your Imagination –  Robert Kennedy get credit, but Walt Disney said it first::  If you can dream it, you can do it!  If you have a creative idea, share it.  If its aster, smarter or better and see what happens.  You’ll never know unless you try.
  • Learn by Imitation – have you ever seen a little boy walking behind this father, trying determinately to imitate his father’ stride?  Or a little girl who has practiced putting on make-up just like Mommy?  St. Benedict was a firm believer in the axiom: “fake it til you make it.”  Live monastic traits until they become part of you.
  • Play  – Sometimes it’s healthy to fool around and engage in recreation for the sole purpose of having fun.

Paul in his letter to the Corinthians says: When I was a child I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became an adult, I put away with childish things.  Jesus might respond: Yes, put away childish ways but hang on to the delightful child-like traits that are the keys to the kingdom.

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How are you Salting the World?

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Not to make light of the Scripture just proclaimed, I would like to share with you the next verses after today’s reading – which liturgists omitted when they organized the Lectionary.  We do get them sometime during the year.  But, they will not be read next Sunday –They are too rich, I believe, to let them slip from our attention.

Everyone will be purified by fire, as a sacrifice is purified by salt.  Salt is good; but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again?  (I like the translation that says “if salt become insipid.”  “Insipid” is a rich descriptive word.  If a person become “insipid” how can her tang be restored?

Everyone knows about salt. It has an interesting taste, doesn’t it?  I’ve never met anyone who doesn’t like at least a hint of salt.  We use it every day to make our food tastier – even when the doctor dictates against it, most people crave it.

On the other hand, many of people are picky about spices.   Some think food is distasteful unless it’s pepper-hot.  The mere thought of hot spicy foods ties my stomach in a huge knot.   I marvel at people who devour a whole jalapeno pepper.

Making food taste better is just one of many uses for salt.  Reader’s Digest lists 60 everyday uses.  I will not boar you – or entertain you with them all – just a few.   It can be used to end an ant parade, deodorize your shoes, clean flower residue from a vase, freshen up artificial flowers, remove water rings from furniture, extinguish a grease fire, or a cloth soaked in salt water will prevent cheese from getting moldy.      Remember S. Bernadette’s big dye pot!  Well, salt is used in fixing the dye in fabric.  Without salt, the bright colors that we wear today would quickly fade.   It’s used in the production of over 14,000 different products – for instance in the making leather products.  Each year, food companies use an amount of salt that is every bit as staggering as it sounds: 5 billion pounds

The usefulness of salt was a well-known fact prior to the time that Jesus walked this earth.  At one time, salt was so important and valuable that people were paid with salt. Thus came the expression “are you worth your salt?”   Is it any wonder that Jesus told us that we were to be like salt to the world?  Listen to the words of Jesus.  “Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.” I think that he was saying that we should “salt” that is, flavor our world with love and that we should allow him to use us in making the world a better place.

Recently S. Elizabeth shared with me an Indian folk tale about salt.  A Google search revealed that every culture has a variation of the tale – most have a princess (not a prince) as the main character.

The story line goes: Once upon a time there was a king who had several daughters.  He was trying to decide which should inherit the kingdom.  So he asked each one, “How do you love me?

The first three daughters answer: “I love you as sugar or honey and sherbet. ”  To the last and youngest the king asked, “And how do you love me?”   “I love you as salt.”  On hearing the answer of his youngest daughter the king frowned, and, as she persisted in repeating it, the king was no longer listening and waved her away.

Some time later the daughter ordered the cook to prepare a meal for her father but not to add salt to any of the food.   When the king sat down to eat, the first course included only sweets which he either passed by altogether or merely picked at with displeasure.  Next he was served meat, which he usually enjoyed but this was AWFUL and he waved it away.  But, he was very hungry, and was longing sorely for something which he could eat.   The princess sent him a dish of common spinach, seasoned with salt, coarse salt such as farmers eat.  The king signified his pleasure by finishing off the dish with relish.

Then the princess stepped forward to reveal herself saying, “Oh my father, I do love you so.  I love you as salt.  My love may be homely, but it is true, genuine and lasting.

Thus, as the saying goes, were the Scriptures fulfilled: let us “Have the salt of friendship among yourselves, and live in peace with one another.”

Certainly, Pope Francis is proving to be a “salty” personality.  He speaks gently, with a voice of persuasion – not just to Catholics, or some denomination, not just to Christians nor his immediate audiences but to ALL peoples.  As one columnist put it, he teaches the Gospel, not the catechism.

How about you?  Are you allowing Jesus to use you to be salt to the world?  How are you flavoring the world?  Are you an irritant rubbing salt in the wound?  Or are you a soothing poultice held lovingly to a tender hurt?  Are you worth your salt?  Are we drying the salt of tears for the abused?   Salt seasons soup in order to fulfill its purpose Remember salt is no good by itself – it takes companionship to bring out its flavor?   In whose life are you bringing out the flavor; who is salting your life?

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25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Mark-9_35Jesus and his disciples enter a private home. Jesus asks his disciples about the argument they had while they were journeying.  Their arguing about who is the greatest is on one level amusing.  Jesus asks them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” And they are like children who don’t want to tell their parents what they’re talking about.  Or adults, when there is dead silence when the principal or prioress enters the room.  I think Mark is amused.  Jesus doesn’t push for an answer.  He won’t publically humiliated or embarrass them.  Instead He calls forward a child.

Jesus could have just told taught them his lesson. Why did He use a child?    Well, remember in first-century Palestine, children were without status or power, possessing no legal rights.  They were viewed as mere property and largely ignored by most adults. Secondly, Jesus used a child to teach about service because children really can’t do anything for adults.  A child can’t make you more important in the eyes of the world. However, a child can teach you much about ministry!

Think about it, every parent (or older sibling) knows what happens when there’s a new baby in the house. That child demands everything! From day one it must be served, every need must be met by a willing adult. Children take constant care and attention. If they are ignored, they let you know all about in loud and irritating fashion.   Children teach us what giving and service are all about.   And the giving does not stop …  often into adulthood.

Jesus used a child but notice that he does not say “receive this child.”  Rather He says: Receive one such as this.”  Children need to be served, but they cannot serve us in return. That is a lesson we all need to take to heart. Too often, we only serve those who can do something in return for us. Jesus would have us reach out to those who are the neediest. He would have us serve those who cannot, or will not, serve us in return. He directs us to do as He did and give our all for those who may break our hearts in return.

So, this leads to question: Who are the people without power or status in our society? Do we serve them willingly? Jesus teaches that God’s judgment of us will be based on this criterion alone.

We see this no better portrayed than in the upper room with Jesus’ washing the disciple’s feet even as he offers the new covenant meal, and later hanging on the cross, offering himself.

At the deepest level Jesus’ idea of service — humble servanthood — reminds us that none of this is about us!  It’s not about our ego. It’s not about how much we give, how much we work, how many hours we minister, whose ministry is more important. It’s not about our wants and needs, or what we think others must do for us.

Service, instead, is about absorbing the sufferings of world by sharing our life — our time, our resources and our gifts. It’s building-up the other so that she in turn is built up to be Christ to others.

 Jesus asked his disciples:  “What were you arguing about on the road?” This is another key word: ‘road’. Every time we travel with Jesus they are “on the road”. Because Jesus himself is the Road: he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. We are being asked what we are doing while on the Way.   The disciples refused to answer and kept silent. They were ashamed. It was not the kind of talk suited to people on the Way. They had been arguing about which of them was the greatest; who would become the leader of their group if Jesus’ prediction of death proved true?  They could hardly say, “Well, since you are going to be killed in the near future, we were wondering which of us should take over.”

With a child in his arms, Jesus says, that to accept, to welcome persons such as this little one, is to welcome him. To be concerned about the wellbeing of another person, oblivious to the cost – putting the focus on the other rather than on what serves one’s own self.   Benedict captures this sentiment in RB chapter 72, in quoting the Letter to the Romans:

Anticipate one another in honor,  vie in paying obedience one to another – no one following what she considers useful for herself, but rather what benefits another…

What had caused the disciples to even begin thinking along the line of who Jesus’ successor would be?  Could it have had something to do with the fact that Jesus had chosen only three of them, Peter, James and John to go with Him up the mountain?  As they walk, they talked and the brewing question just sort of came up.  The three had been elated when they came down the mountain.  But, they had been admonished by Jesus not to talk about what they had seen or heard.  The nine felt left out.  When they were talking among themselves the issue seemed important. But, when they stood before Jesus, they suddenly saw how silly, immature, arrogant and self-centered they had been. He was talking about the matters of eternity.    And, all they could do was fight about who should be first!

When this life is over and we are before God; all of our petty, silly striving to be first will be seen to be as childish. Would you rather stand before Him in embarrassment because you wanted to be first? Or, would you rather stand there and hear: “Well done, good and faithful servant: you have been faithful over a few things.. enter thou into the joy of you Father.”   The choice is ours.

 

                                                                                                          Mass Reflection by S. Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

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23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

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ephphatha-mark7-34In this story we find clues about our understanding of sacrament.   We are struck by the physical means used to heal the man, the use of spittle and touch.  Jesus cannot tell the man verbally what He is about to do, so He uses a rough form of sign language to communicate His intentions. First, He sticks His fingers in the man’s ears to let him know that He is going to do something about his deafness. He spits on His finger and touches the man’s tongue to let him know that He is about to lubricate his speech. That’s gross, but it’s what Jesus does!

Nowadays babies often learn sign language before they speak … they signal when they are ready to nurse or take a bottle, YES, NO, MORE indicating that they comprehend long before they can articulate those concepts.

It would seem that here Jesus is attempting to awaken faith in this man’s heart. He is trying to help the man understand that something is about to happen in his life and that Jesus is the One who is going to bring about the changes.

After touching the man, Jesus looks toward Heaven. This act served two purposes. First, it told the deaf man where the healing was coming from.

Secondly, this act of looking toward Heaven also demonstrated Jesus’ dependence on the Father. Jesus often looked to Heaven for the help He needed.   Jesus lived a life of close communion with his Father.

After looking toward Heaven, Jesus “sighed”. This word means “to groan”. The deaf man could not hear the sigh, but he could see Jesus when He did it and it spoke volumes to him. The sigh said “I care about you and what you are going through!”

Then, Jesus said one word, “Ephphatha”, which means “be opened”. When Jesus said this, the man’s ears were healed and his tongue was loosed. He could hear! He could speak! Oh, what a miracle! One command from Jesus and his life changed forever! That is the power of the Word of God!

Scripture tells us that the people were “astonished beyond measure” . What they saw Jesus do was more than their minds could comprehend. It left them with their mouths hanging open in amazement. They summed up what they felt about Jesus by saying, “He has done all things well!”

“All” is a mighty big word! It covers a lot of territory. He does all things well. Come to Him and let Him teach you the truth!  He can fix it so you shake your head saying, “Well done! Well done! Very well done!”

In ancient Greece it was customary for peddlers who walked the streets with their wares to cry out, “What do you lack?” The idea was to arouse people’s curiosity and let, especially the housewives know they were in the vicinity.  They would come drifting out to see what the peddler was selling this time…  kinda like the Dollar Tree … what’s new today.  It might be something they lacked and needed, or simply something they wanted.

What do you lack? We may have sight and hearing, but what do we lack? We do well this week to take an honest inventory of ourselves.   Have you found contentment? Are you close enough to God to receive his guidance and strength? Have you secured peace of heart and peace of mind? Deciding what we lack is the first step in securing it. Only then can we express our needs to Christ.  Remember what Fr. David said a couple weeks ago: God takes time answering prayers not because he does not know our needs but to give us time to recognize what our true needs are.

The man in Mark’s story lacked the physical ability to hear and speak. We, too, may lack the spiritual ability to hear. We suffer a kind of a spiritual deafness. The affliction of not really  listening to people, or, to put it another way, the affliction of physically hearing what people say, yet failing to comprehend, to understand, and come to grips with the full meaning of the message.   Remember the saying: what you are not saying is speaking so loud I cannot hear what you are saying.

One of the greatest weaknesses of the human heart is that we are very able to hear the cries of the poor but overlook their real needs.  We can hear the cries of the hungry, broken people of the land across the sea, but miss the cues of the persons we live with.

This man, even though he was handicapped, had people around him that cared about him. They heard that Jesus was passing by and they brought their deaf friend to Jesus.  Benedict calls us to the carry each other, to help one another understand the word of God spoken in community, to uphold the weak, challenge the faint-hearted, rouse us from sleep and open our eyes to the light that come from God – and our ears to the voice from heaven that every day calls out to us.  …  This is how, teaches St. Benedict, that we shall “progress in the way of life and faith, running on the path of God’s commands, our hearts overflowing with the inexpressible delight of love… with the help of community “we will run, and not grow weary,  with the inexpressible delight of love – if we do now what will profit us forever.”

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22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time

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Mark verseOne Sunday a young father came into church with his three young children. As was their family custom, they sat in the very front row so the children could see what was going on in the sanctuary.   This particular service included an infant baptism.  The six year old was quite taken by this, observing that Father was saying something and pouring water over the baby’s head. With a puzzled look on her face, the little girl turned to her father and asked, “Daddy, why is he brainwashing that little baby?”

 

Indeed what is required by each of us is that we allow our brains to be washed by God – our brains and our hearts as well.  Jesus was telling us that what really counts is that which is in our hearts. It is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come….  and defile a person.”
We need to be heart-healthy — taking seriously what is in our hearts – people who spend time in lectio, time in the presence of the Lord.   We have a responsibility to do what we can to make our community a heart-healthy place.  It follows that to have a heart-healthy community requires for each of us to feed on a steady diet of soul food – and just the ham hocks and collards greens kind. Good things come from hearts that have been fed on soul food — Scripture — love of neighbor — devotion to God – nourished by prayer both communal and private.

 

Jesus makes it clear – in so many words – “We have met the enemy and they are us.”  We are at one and the same time perpetrators and victims.  And being the victim of our own making furthers our capacity to inflect ill on another.   “The human heart,” or the human will, remains a complex thing.  But if we fill our hearts with good things, our minds with chaste, charitable, other-directed thoughts – that’s what will come out of our mouths.   God will bless us, and through us, will bless the world.

 

The words of a hymn we sang earlier this week say it well:

May we be blest with hearts full of love – hearts full of joy – with peach in our days … this will enable us to be a blessing to others – keep God’s presence abiding with in – and reap the reward of an abundance of friends at our side.

 

Have you ever seen Suze Orman on TV?  Well, she is a financial planner and author. She tells of a period when her career was not so successful.   During that time she struggled to save face, to maintain an image of success.  She continued to entertain her friends at fine restaurants and to drive her luxury car to keep up the image of a successful professional. The truth was that every dinner, every car payment, every tank of gas was putting her deeper into debt.

 

Many folk who believe in God are like Suze.  They look good.  They keep up the appearances.  They try to conform to the traditions of culture and our faith – but inwardly they are empty… inwardly they are impoverished – and the more they try to conform on the outside to what supposed to come from inside, the worse off they get.

 

What defiles a person are the unclean things that originate from within a person, not those that come to us from without. What defiles a person is not what it is we eat, nor who it is that we eat with, rather it is our anger, our pride, our jealousy, pride and superiority that forgets Benedict’s lesson “obedience is a blessing to be shown to all.”

 

Our acts of goodness and love arise from within when we allow God to do good within us.  Our gentleness, our faithfulness, our kindness grow not according to our attempts to keep some law or directive about how we should act … how to be faithful, kind or gentle …  but rather they grow out of the word that is implanted within our hearts and minds by God – by meditating on what it is that God has done for us – and is doing for us – when we practice an attitude of gratitude.

 

But, this can occur only if we welcome the Word, ponder the Word, let it take root in us and then allow it to prompt us to action.   It is God who makes us holy.  For our part it requires perseverance in the journey.  As Joan Chittister writes in this week’s eblast: “The gift of perseverance in the journey to wholeness is the treasure trove of the human spirit. Sanctity, like everything else in life, is not an event. It is a process of coming to know the clay of the self and then shaping it into a thing of beauty. This thing called union with God, sanctity, holiness, is not a matter of going through religious hoops. It is a matter of winning the contest with the self that leads us to the best in us. Becoming holy is not an attempt to become someone else. It is about becoming the fullness of ourselves.”

 

Back to the 6-year-old’s query:  Are you ready to be brain-washed?

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