Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

Mark

First Sunday of Lent 2018

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In the liturgical cycle of readings, this Gospel from Mark was originally only 2 verses – later the church added 2 verses – but it is still the one of the shortest Sunday readings.  It tells us only that Jesus was led into the desert by the Spirit immediately after his baptism to be tempted by the devil for 40 days.  Why do the evangelists make a point of 40 days?  You know that: it recalls the 40 years that the Israelites wandered in the desert.  And remember the prophet Elijah journeyed in a desert for 40 days and nights, making his way to Mt. Horeb.  Some say that 40 is simply a symbolic number.  Even if it is, Jesus chose to follow that symbolism as a lesson to us.  We set aside 40 days for our season of Lent, to travel through a wilderness of fasting, almsgiving, and prayer.

According to St. Benedict the purpose of Lent is to purify our way of life and to wash away negligences of the past, to make reparation for what we have done or failed to do.   He names five practices to help change our hearts

  • refuse to indulge in evil habits,
  • devote yourself to prayer,
  • holy reading,
  • compunction of heart and
  • self-denial.

We’ve heard the expression “practice makes perfect” so often that the full meaning may have lost its impact on us.  But consider the Olympic skater who has to forego serious practice for close to a year due to an injury.  Then only last month found out he would be in the Olympic competition.  In two rounds he fumbled, fell – he received a creditable score but did not do his personal best.  Until the third round, the fourth round … then he shone!

Each year at the beginning of Lent we may feel like that skater.  We’re not doing our personal best.  Lent gives us a “third round.”  As Benedict says in Chapter 49, during Lent we are called to be the kind of person we should be every day.  Lent gives us a jump-start of courage to pick up the practices that will support the values we profess to believe in.  The biggest temptation most of us have to face is to “give up” because we stumble, maybe fall – like that skater we may have to put a hand on the floor once in a while to balance ourselves.  The only way  to rise to the challenge of Easter is to persevere … in doing what we know is right, in being faithful to what we’ve promised God, in heeding that first word in the Rule – “listen” – and in loving others as God loves them, and us.

This evening at the close of prayer we will ask God’s blessing on our attempts to be what we were created to be.  We promise to pray for each other and ask God’s gift of strength and courage to persevere in our Lenten resolutions.

 

BLESSING RITE (for resolutions papers)

Aware that Lent is not merely a time of atoning for sins but a time of preparation.  We prepare throughout Lent to become at Easter what we were once baptized into: Christ’s own body.  We will practice habits which will break us open, let God in, and train us to love like Christ.

Therefore, our loving God, we come before you at this time in our lives to bring, praise – a plea – and a promise – that we will gently remind ourselves that (all) “Lent is a process of rending our hearts, filling the broken places with God’s love, and fearlessly loving as Christ loved.

We place before you, O God, our sincere promises to use your grace to become the people You call us to be.  Trusting in your all-powerful goodness, we dare to ask:

  • L) Give us renewed fervor to be faithful to our commitments. AMEN
  • L) Help us to be compassionate and supportive to one another.  AMEN
  • L) Bless our efforts to make a good Lent.  AMEN
  • L) And support us to be faithful to our Lenten resolutions.  AMEN
 ~by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
Genesis 9:8-15         1 Peter 3:18-22         Mark 1:12-15
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Until you know what hurts me…

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Scholars believe that Mark’s Gospel was written 30-40 years after Jesus’ death. His audience would have been Christians who were living in a difficult social and political time, a time of conflict.  They were likely to be facing persecution because they were followers of Jesus.  These early Christians took courage in Jesus’ warning to remain alert and watchful.  It strengthened them to persevere through the sufferings they encountered.

By the 6th century, Advent was tied to the coming of Christ.  But the “coming” they had in mind was not Christ’s first coming in the manger in Bethlehem, but his second coming in the clouds as the judge of the world.  It was not until the Middle Ages that the Advent season was explicitly linked to Christ’s first coming at Christmas.  In our contemporary church year Advent begins at the Vigil of the Sunday nearest the Feast of St. Andrew – sometime between November 27 and December 3rd.  We stretched it to the max this year.

Like the disciples and the faithful in Mark’s community, we must also stay alert and watchful.  Our faithfulness to God, and our experience of God’s faithful to us, through the good times as well as the difficult times, keeps us in a state of readiness for the coming of God in our daily lives and for Christ’s second coming.  It is special time when we strive to counterbalance the challenges in our environment: noise, speed and busyness.  Advent is a sacramental moment – an extended moment spanning 4 weeks.  It is a time for increased prayer, observances of the beauty and the needs in our everyday environment, and a honing of the discipline to respond to what God places in our paths.  It’s not a time to curl into ourselves, look at the pretty Christmas lights and dream of a “white Christmas with every Christmas card we write.”

Advent is certainly a time of waiting and of celebration and anticipation of Christ’s birth.  And it’s more than that.  It is only in the shadow of Advent that the miracle of Christmas can be fully understood and appreciated.  It is only in the light of Christmas that the Christian life makes any sense.  It is the between-time that Karl Barth speaks of when he writes: “Unfulfilled and fulfilled promises are related to each other, as are dawn and sunrise.  Both are promise and in fact the same promise.  If anywhere at all, then it is precisely in the light of the coming of Christ that faith has become Advent faith, the expectation of future revelation.  But faith knows for whom and for what it is waiting.  It is fulfilled faith because it lays hold on the fulfilled promise.  This,” says Barth, “is the essence of Advent.”

The Christmas story reminds us that it was in the midst of the busy stop-over city of Bethlehem that God slipped visibly into our world: a squalling infant to a humble, unpretentious couple.  In those days, Bethlehem was a place where business was conducted quickly, camels were exchanged, horses were watered, travelers would stop to have a meal and maybe spend a night.  Sheep grazed on the hillsides, shepherds kept watch for hungry wolves and marauders on the take.  Bethlehem’s fame was based on a has-been history … it was King David’s hometown.

It was here that the Christmas miracle happened … a God-moment that proves for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear that even a smelly cave can be heaven on earth – a sacred place – God’s house.

We have all had experiences of waiting … that’s part of all our lives.  This season of Advent reminds us that waiting is often the cost of love: in waiting for someone, our own everyday business becomes almost meaningless as we anticipate, worry, and prepare for our loved one’s return.  In waiting, we realize our own powerlessness; we realize our deepest hopes and needs; we realize the gift of the person we are awaiting is to us.

While it is difficult to keep the spirit of Advent in mind in the midst of holiday celebrations, shopping, lights and decorations, and joyful carols, Advent is intended to be a season of fasting, but not the penitential fasting we associate with Lent.  You’ll notice the liturgical color is lavender, not the deep purple of Lent.  Advent is anticipatory fasting of waiting, waiting for the glorious miracle of Christmas.  This is fasting when you’re too excited to do anything else, except sit-on-the-the-edge of the your seat, listen for the sound of approaching footsteps, stare at the door knob so you’ll be the first to see it turn and you keep asking: “Is it time yet?  Is He here?”

May our waiting for the coming of the Holy One this Christmas help us understand and carry on the mystery of compassionate and generous waiting.  Don’t expect a dramatic vision but do try to become more conscious of the Christ coming through our doors, in the ones who enter our community room, our retreat space and share a meal with us.  In our corporate commitment we pledge to be the embodiment of the compassion of Christ.  And it is obvious from our visitors’ comments that this is one of our signature ministries.  Our guests, and we who live here, know that our companions care for us …  the question may be do we care about each other.  One litmus test: until you know what hurts me, you cannot truly love me.“

We pray: fill our hearts with Advent hope so that we may learn to cope with the delays and disappointments we encounter with patience and wisdom.   May a spirit of gratitude and humility guide us on our journey to your dwelling place, enabling us to endure, with joy, the costs of waiting for love, reconciliation, and peace.

What has been your most difficult experience of waiting?  In the end how was your long vigil rewarded?

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

First Reading  Isaiah 63:16b-17,  19b;64:2-7               Second Reading 1 Corinthians 1:3-9
Gospel Mark 13:33-37
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Our Blind Eyes Opened, Spread God’s Love

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eye for GodMark 10:46-57                                           Intention:  Jubilarians

 

The story of Bartimaeus rings with a familiarity of the plight of many people today.  He once had a family, a job, a house, kids, the whole works. He was active at the local synagogue. He would tell his children stories of their ancestors.  Then things started to change, he started to get these real bad headaches and his vision would become blurry. At first he did not allow this to bother him but kept on working and living, but eventually the blurred vision got worse and worse and eventually he could barely see his wife and children. He told them to leave because he wouldn’t be able to support them or protect them. Then things went black and that’s the way it was.

He would lay his cloak on the ground so people could throw their loose change on the ground next to him. Most people avoided him altogether because in those days many people felt that blindness was caused by sinfulness either by the person or by their parents, so they were avoided. That’s the way it was for years. He struggled to survive, always hungry and thirsty and everything always black.

Despite all the hardships that he faced he still loved God. He remember the stories that he told his children and he saw in his mind the people in those stories and how God always came through for them in the end. Now Bartimaeus sat daily next to the road listening to the people passing by. The conversation lately had been about this guy named Jesus who had healed people, even blind people. Some had even said that he was the messiah that had come to redeem Israel. Bartimaeus thought, “Wow, if only Jesus would come around here.”

Then one day there was a commotion. There were more people on the road than usual and then he heard the name, Jesus. He was coming. Should he say something? Would Jesus come to him? Could he restore his vision? Something deep inside said “Yes, call out the name.” Bartimaeus opened his mouth: the crowd around him tried to silence him. Yet Bartimaeus persised, calling out more loudly and with greater urgency. He will not be silenced or deterred from getting Jesus’ attention. We notice how quickly the crowd’s reaction changes when Jesus calls for Bartimaeus. Those who sought to quiet him now encourage him.

Bartimaeus recognized power and authority when he saw it. We do the same thing. If we had a broken leg we wouldn’t go to AutoZone to have it fixed.  If the doctor came in overalls, we might have a few questions, but if he was in a white coat, with a stethoscope and a pocket protector we would have no problem. Even though it might be some Joe Schmo from the street dressed as a doctor, we recognize the uniform as power and authority; we don’t ask for credentials or references, we simply accept what experience told us was the situation.

Bartimaeus recognized Jesus’ authority.  Jesus didn’t have on a uniform, even if he did Bartimaeus was blind he couldn’t see him anyway. He had heard stories, but he had heard false rumors, too. This recognition came from a place deep within him.

We have that some recognition of Jesus. We have never seen Him.  We’ve see artistic renditions of Jesus but our recognition originates from a different sense than sight..  It comes from a spiritual sense. It comes before anything. It is grace that allowed us to have that first moment with God, when God was not just a figure in religion classes or in the Bible but God became personal, a friend.

When Bartimaeus recognized Jesus, he still had a choice to make: act on that recognition or let it pass by.  Bartimaeus cries out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” He addressed Jesus by name and by title, Son of David, the messianic title reserved for the redeemer of Israel.   We cry out as well when we get to the last point, the straw that breaks the camel’s back.  We cry, “Help me, Jesus.” “Have mercy, Jesus” Or simply, “Jesus” “Got in Hiemel.”  “Mi Dios!”  We realize that only God can help us in whatever situation we are in. God’s grace not only gives us the ability to perceive God’s power and love. It also gives us the strength to respond to it. Unlike Bartimaeus however, we are not limited to a once in a lifetime response. We must continually respond to the gift of grace and power in our lives.

What is Jesus’ response to Bartimaeus? “Go; your faith has made you well.” It is interesting to see that Jesus says that it is Bartimaeus’ faith that produced his healing not Jesus’ faith that made him well.   Bartimaeus’ faith, and ours too, is not born out of nothing, it does not come out of thin air, but it is a response to the love and grace of God.  It was Bartimaeus’ response to God’s initial contact through grace that made him well – restored his sight. Our response to the power or grace is also a restoration and a reconnection.  We might not be blind, physically but spiritually we may be walking around aimlessly. Our spiritual vision may be black as night, but God still initiates the reconnection through grace and gives us the freedom to respond or reject His gift.

That’s the end of the story, right? Not quite. What does Bartimaeus do once he has been restored?  Immediately he follows Jesus on the way.  It is not the end, but the beginning of a journey.  We don’t receive the fire of the Holy Spirit, the connection with God, only to sit it in the corner or in the closet, or even the chapel.  Instead we must take up the invitation and follow Jesus on the way.  The question facing us is: Am I going to do for God today, or for myself?  Am I going to spend today in connection and in conversation with God or am I going to satisfy my own selfish wants and desires?  Our blind eyes opened, we have a unique opportunity to spread God’s love in the world.  Lord, we pray: open our eyes and strengthen us to following your prompt to be an expression of your compassion and mercy in our world.

                                                                                                                        By    Sister Roberta Bailey, O.S.B.
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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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Real Wealth

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jesus-sending-out-disciples-2-by-2We’ve just heard another version of a “sending out” gospel story.  On Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we heard the event from Matthew’s memory.  Here from Mark we hear that Jesus sent out THE twelve.  Without an understanding of Scripture and the difference between APOSTLE and DISCIPLE it could be difficult to comprehend just who it was that Jesus sent out.  This little nugget will help:  disciples are called; apostles are sent.  So it was the 12 apostles that Jesus sent out unimpeded with totes, snacks and carry-on luggage.  Some scholars will tell you there were 86 DISCIPLES – the original 12 who were called by Jesus and whom we know by name plus the 72 that were later sent out by Jesus to spread the good news.  All apostles were once disciples, but not all disciples became apostles.  Disciples are learners; “apostle” comes from the Greek word for ambassador or messenger.   The number twelve is symbolic of the twelve tribes of Israel. Thus, showing that Jesus’ mission is a continuation of God’s to and among the Israelites.

Jesus’ instructions to these apostles are very specific. There is the idea here is that they were to go as they were, without making any special preparations for their travels.  There is also the idea here of urgency. Jesus wants them to go now!   He repeats that their mission is to preach and to share his authority to heal and to drive out demons. He sends them in pairs, establishing that his mission is a communal endeavor. He instructs them to travel lightly, without the customary food, money, or an extra set of clothes. They will be dependent on others’ hospitality, just as Jesus depended on others to provide for his needs.  Remember, his words: “foxes have their dens but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

[Jesus sent them out two by two …. I guess because this is the summer feast of our holy founder Benedict,]     The two-by-two concept reminds me of Benedict’s description of “good monks” – cenobites – who of their own free will choose to belong to a monastery … living with others of similar mind and attitude … under a Rule and a superior.

It seems pretty obvious, too, that this Gospel story prompted Benedict’s directives to monks on a journey: Chapter 51 “Monastics on a Short Journey” should not presume to eat outside, even if they receive a pressing invitation…” thus emphasizing our dependence, and interdependence on community.

Chapter 55 on clothing of monastics … this one may cause the listener to smile: “monastics going on a journey should get underclothing from the wardrobe.  On their return they are to wash it and give it back.”   Forget the jockey or boxer shorts, or for the ladies the panties and bra kind of under clothing … Benedict’s monks probably wore next to nothing under their monastic tunics.  The clothing from the wardrobe may well have been a pair of trousers and a coarse undershirt.  Benedict made provision also for a better than daily quality of tunic, we’d say habit and, as needed some better foot wear (sandals for summer; lined boots for winter).

Perhaps because Benedict came from a wealthy or noble class family, he retained his concern that his monks not look shabby on a journey.  He calls the superior to take notice of the fit and cut of the members’ garments.   Ever-concerned about the vice of murmuring, he reminds the members not to complain about the color or coarseness of their clothing, but to use what is available in the vicinity at a reasonable cost – as long as the measurements of their garments are “not too short but fitted to the wearer.”

So, the TWELVE went out two by two and what did they do?  It wasn’t for a leisurely afternoon stroll.   Two by two, they sought hospitality from strangers, they cast out demons and they anointed many with oil.  Two by two is still the best method today. When two people go out to share the Gospel together (eg Jehovah’s witnesses and other door-to-door, or street corner preachers) it provides companionship, encouragement and they can pray for each other – it makes the job easier especially for shy, reticent, introverted evangelizers.

Probably, most of us have never seen a genuinely possessed person as described in the Scriptures.  But, in our own time, there are many other kinds of demons which can control people, where people become the slaves of these things.   For instance, there is the demon of nicotine, the demon of alcohol, gambling, promiscuous sex, or materialism and consumerism as well as the demon of gossip or murmuring or any other activity which somehow can take control of our lives. All of these, or any one of them, can reduce our freedom and turn us into slaves of the particular vice.

When we are not enslaved, when we are free, we can do what Jesus wants us to, what the apostles did:  “anoint many.”  When we are free of busyness and busy-body-ness we can more liberally anoint others through our ministry of hospitality … anointing each other – and our guests – with the oil of kindness, compassion, sharing of joy and mutual respect.

Let there be no doubt: it takes a constant effort to practice the self-disciplines that ensure our freedom as children of God:  …  the disciplines of custody of the eyes, custody of the ears, custody of the tongue and curbing our curiosity to be the “eyes and ears” of the community.

Like the first apostles and disciples, we are not sent alone. Jesus has given us the companionship of the Holy Spirit and the community of the Church, which strengthens our life of discipleship. And more than that, we are blessed with the community of our Benedictine family.  The companionship we share can help free us from worries and anxieties in our heads which can paralyze us and prevent us from living rich and enriching lives. It would be worth reflecting today on how free our lives are and where our real wealth is to be found.

 

                                                                                                              Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB
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