Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

Messiah

Soul-shaking Change

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2017 Third Sunday in Lent

First Reading  Exodus 17:3-7              Second Reading  Romans 5:1-2,5-8
Gospel  John 4:5-42

This unnamed but well-known woman experienced a major change in her life.  She was engaged in the longest recorded conversation with Jesus.  The most starting aspect of the conversation is that it happened at all.  Jesus, an observant Jew, was expected to avoid conversation with women in public.  Move than that, to begin with, the animosity between the Jews and the Samaritans would have prevented the conversation in the first place.  The woman herself mentions it, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” Yet Jesus not only converses with her, he also asks her to share her drinking vessel, an action that, according Jewish law, makes him unclean.

The high point of the conversation is when Jesus reveals himself to her as the Messiah.  As this, the woman becomes a disciple.  She, an outcast and not a Jew, returns to her town to round up people to come meet Jesus for themselves.  This personal encounter has both a social and an educational dimension.  The woman became an evangelist to her own people and Jesus uses the incident to incident to teach the disciples a lesson in mercy.

Don’t you love how Jesus gently converses with this woman!  In the view of his disciples she was the wrong gender, from the wrong place, and lives a wrong life.  But, this day, Jesus is tired and thirsty.  Then, this lady (though her neighbors would never have called her a lady) approaches.  No one went to the well at high noon – it was just too hot.  She is skittish at the sight of a strange man.  She had to get her water when she thought no one else would be around.  She’s grown accustomed to suffering two extremes:  guys’ catcalls as she walked down the road or she’d been ignored.  Her defenses were up.  She wasn’t going to take any guff (she may have thought another word for it).  But, she wasn’t stupid; she was gutsy.  Despite the taboo of tradition, she talked back to Jesus.  And Jesus in the words of Psalm 34 “watched over the righteous and listened to her cry; He rescued her from her troubles and drew near to this one who was discouraged; He saved her who had lost hope.”  “Give me a drink.”

The exchange continued between the two of them.  He offered her living water.  This must have sounded GREAT!  She wouldn’t have to go to that well anymore!   She wouldn’t have to suffer the jeers, the whispers, the stares and finger-pointing.  She took in all Jesus said, pondered his words, digested it and then insisted the townspeople listen to her.  It was such an amazing, remarkable experience she couldn’t keep it to herself.  She ran shouting: “Come, see a man who told me everything that I did.  Can this be the Christ?!“    In the end, they answered for themselves, “This is indeed the Savior of the world.”

In Joan Chittister’s blog this week there is an excerpt from her book ILLUMINATED LIFE.  Joan reminds her readers that there is a lot more involved than may at first appear in making a soul-shaking change in our lives.  In Joan’s words:

Changing the way we go about life is not all that difficult. We all do it all the time. We change jobs, states, houses, relationships, lifestyles over and over again as the years go by. But those are, in the main, very superficial changes. Real change is far deeper than that. It is changing the way we look at life that is the stuff of conversion.

Metanoia, conversion, is an ancient concept that is deeply embedded in the monastic worldview. Early seekers went to the desert to escape the spiritual aridity of the cities, to concentrate on the things of God. “Flight from the world”—separation from the systems and vitiated values that drove the world around them—became the mark of the true contemplative. To be a contemplative in a world bent on materialism and suffocated with itself, conversion was fundamental. But conversion to what? To deserts? Hardly. The goal was purity of heart, single-mindedness of search, focus of life.

We do not need to leave where we are to become contemplative. “Flight from the world” is not about leaving any specific location. (Remember the Samaritan woman didn’t leave town – she ran back to the villagers. Joan continues:)  “Flight from the world” is about shedding one set of attitudes, one kind of consciousness for another. We simply have to be where we are with a different state of mind. We have to sit at home … with the good of the whole world in mind…

What needs to be changed in us? Anything that makes us the sole-center of ourselves. Anything that deludes us into thinking that we are not simply a work in progress… all of those professional degrees, status, achievements, and power are no substitute for the wisdom that a world full of God everywhere, in everyone, has to teach us.

To become a contemplative, a daily schedule of religious events and practices is not enough. We must begin to do life, to be with people, to accept circumstances, to bring good to evil in ways that speak of the presence of God in every moment.

[from Illuminated Life by Joan Chittister]

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“Pursue What We Judge is Better for the Other Rather than Self”

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who-do-you-say-i-amWhile there are a number of crucial spiritual questions, none is more important than this question asked:  “But you, who do you say that I am?  Peter might have answered “Son of Mary and Joseph” or “Son of the carpenter” or “A great teacher.”  Or he might have uttered one of descriptions he’d learned since childhood from the Torah – titles we heard in last night’s reading from Judith: “Creator of the rivers, king of all creation, protector of the people.”  But, in a graced moment Peter cut to the heart of Jesus’ identity:  “You are Messiah, the Christ, son of the Living God.”

It’s crucial for each individual person to answer correctly.   Peter got it right but he did not realize the full impact of his answer.   It is the first time a disciple refers to Jesus as Messiah.  But, he and the other disciples had the wrong notion of Messiah.  To them it connoted a reigning King. They did not understand it involves suffering and death.   Their idea of a Messiah was all glory; no guts.

Only one answer is objectively correct to Jesus query:  “Who do you say I am?”  Jesus didn’t say, “Great answer, Peter! Do any of the rest of you have anything to add?  You others, how do you feel?”  How you feel about Jesus doesn’t change who He is. There is a single correct answer to the question that is not based on feelings or personal opinions, but on objective revealed truth.

To stretch their understanding,  Jesus immediately mentions His impending death and resurrection and the cost of discipleship.  He’s hinted at it before but this is the first explicit mention of it. From here on, it will become a frequent theme as Jesus makes this intention known to go to Jerusalem.   The disciples still did not really comprehend this until after Jesus’ resurrection. Once they had a fuller understanding of what Jesus meant – they were enabled to go out as bold witnesses.

Think about how difficult it must have been for the disciples to commit themselves to Jesus as the Christ? For centuries, faithful Jews had been waiting and looking for the promised Messiah. Many lived and died without seeing that hope fulfilled. Sometimes prophets came on the scene, raising hopes that they might be the Messiah. But they died and the people kept waiting. Then, suddenly there came upon the scene this young upstart, a mere carpenter from Nazareth who began preaching and performing miracles. Could He be the one? He certainly didn’t fit popular image of what the Messiah would be like. But the disciples committed themselves to Jesus as that long-awaited Messiah.

Remember, they didn’t have the 2000 years of church history that we have to confirm their faith.   They were the first ones to say, “This is the One!” And they had to say it in the face of public opinion that didn’t agree with them. This fact is underscored by the contrast between Jesus’ first question, “Who do the multitudes say that I am?” and His second question, “But you, who do YOU say that I am?”

The disciples had to stand against strong currents to affirm their conviction that Jesus is the Christ. The Roman government didn’t care if Christians followed Jesus as long as they affirmed Caesar as Lord.

They also had to go against the opinions of the Jewish religious crowd, which had varying notions of who Jesus might be. The disciples had to stand apart from the Jewish religious crowd to affirm Jesus as Messiah.

Perhaps the most formidable ones that the disciples had to oppose were the Jewish religious leaders. The disciples were not formally educated as their leaders were in the Hebrew Scriptures.  They had no public influence; they were not the recognized interpreters of the Law of Moses nor were they guardians of the Jewish law. Who did this bunch of uneducated fishermen think they were to go against the opinion of that august body of scholars?

This question: “Who do you say I am?” still divides people. It takes a strong faith, firm conviction and undying loyalty to take your stand with Peter and the disciples.  And, it takes an unwavering friendship with Jesus to steadfastly affirm your conviction.

And, how do we do that AND follow Jesus directive: do not tell anyone?  He said the same thing on the mount of the Transfiguration: “Tell the vision to no one.”  I wonder, was it His way of saying: actions speak louder than words?

In the next few lines of the Gospel, Jesus cautions: If you are sincere in saying you want to follow Me, you must deny yourself to the point of losing your life.  That’s a tall order!  But, not much less that Benedict telling us to keep death daily before our eyes.  That doesn’t mean being preoccupied with death because Jesus adds “you will have life.” So, be preoccupied with life – the opportunities of the moment.

Think about all the little deaths Jesus endured along the way: spending hours with the crowds when he might have preferred a quiet get-away for prayer – taking time to feed the crowd when it might have been simpler to take the disciples to mom’s for a home cooked meal; taking the energy to clear the temple of the sellers of unnecessary and costly sacraficial offerings when He might have slipped in through the side door to avoid the commotion at the main entrance.

We have abundant, daily opportunities to “die” these kinds of deaths. All that is required according to Benedict (in RB 72) is that we “pursue what we judge is better for the other rather than self.”  Or as we challenge and promise each other (in one of our Benedictine Sisters’ Community statements):  “We seek to form bonds of mutual love and respect and to call forth the best in one another.”    When it is exhausting or especially trying, remember what Jesus promised: whoever takes up her daily crosses, gives up herself for my sake, will save herself – you will have life!

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

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Palm Sunday 2016

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palm-sunday1There’s a saying you’ve surely heard:  “something just has to be said.”  In our Palm Sunday readings we discover those who are eager to say it, those who would say it if no one else did, and we see those who were determined that it not be said.

Let’s start with those who were eager to say it. The crowds who had seen Jesus’ ministry, his miracles, heard his teaching, even partially comprehended the meaning of what he was saying. Their lives had been touched and they were eager to speak and cry out “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.”  Their words were an acknowledgment that they were placing their hope in Jesus – their future, their security, their salvation.  They expressed that hope by throwing their cloaks in front of the donkey Jesus was sitting on. Loud words were on their lips in acknowledgement of Jesus as the Chosen One, the Messiah come to deliver them.   The palm branches that padded the path were, in and of themselves, but a symbol; their worship was in their words and actions.

We know there were also those in the time of Jesus who were determined that some things not be said – those who just had no stomach for acknowledging that Jesus was the Messiah – the one who deserved what they considered a bunch of “hoopla.”

That spirit is in our culture today to. We hear voices that say “Just keep your religion to yourself. And, whatever you do, don’t be loud about it.”   We hear it expressed in choices to ignore history, disbelieve the evidence of global warming, choose to turn their backs, or worse their hearts, against persons of other cultures, upbringing, and color. Modern-day Pharisees have learned not to listen to it; to remain silent – to let the chips fall where they will as long as they don’t land in their back yards.

Thank God for the Thomas Mertons and the Joan Chittisters and Pope Francis in our day; for websites and blogs like “Climate change” and others that keep us alert to issues of injustice and crimes against humanity and the very earth itself: immigration and trafficking and fracking and the list goes on.  If those who are divinely gifted with the ability to speak remain silent, then the voice-less gifts of creation will cry out in “silent speech.”   We recall that Scripture tells us that when Jesus died on the cross, the Pharisees did not want it acknowledged that this Jesus they’d crucified was the Son of God. Even the disciples had turned silent, fled and hid.

But, what did happen? The Sun cried out the only way it could – by becoming dark from the 6th to the 9th hour.  The rocks cried out the only way they could, the earth shook, graves were opened and saints arose to give glory to God.  The temple cried out in the only way it could by tearing in two, top to bottom, the curtain that separated the holy from the unholy rendering it a useless monument to a ministry that was no longer valid.

Even the cross on which Jesus was hanging spoke out, proclaiming to all who saw it:  “This is the king of the Jews.”  Now unbelievers like the Centurion would cry out “surely this was the Son of God

The point is this: If we remain silent, as they say: “to keep the peace” – if we refuse to put our faith into words, creation will have to speak out. Some things just have to be said, and they will be said even if we do not say them.  Will those who are gifted with words use that gift, or will the rest of creation have to do it the only way that it can, by upheaval?

Palm Card PicWhen you participate in the Palm Sunday procession, pray for those who have no sense of who Jesus is and what marvelous things He has done for us.  We’ll wave our palms: We’ll sing Hosanna and look ahead to the Easter miracle.  Keep the palm and use it to remind yourself of who you were on Palm Sunday.

Gaze on your palm frond this week as you take assessment on your personal Lenten resolutions.  Note its color, its tapering shape, its flexibility – think about what it can become: a decorative cross, a floweret or hat to shield us from the sun’s penetrating rays.  Did you see a difference this year in your participation in our community activities?  Was it as whole-hearted as it might have been?  Did you make generous donations to our collections for Daystar and AIM?  Did the Corporal Works of Mercy get a little more attention this Lent?  How do you foresee yourself carrying forward the changes that, with the help of God’s grace, you have practiced for 6 weeks – that’s how long it takes to form new habits.  So the question is: Did it take?  Will it be a lasting change?

When times get tough, gaze at your palm frond to remind yourself of who you could be. Not the person in the crowd who yells out what everyone else is yelling, but that person who believes what she said on Palm Sunday, and who will follow Christ on the journey wherever it leads.

~Reflection by Prioress, Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB
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