Benedictine Sisters of FL

Holy Name Monastery
Founded 1889

Woman

Third Sunday of Lent

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The most startling aspect of this famous conversation is that it happened at all. The woman herself alludes to the break from tradition: “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”  What a turmoil of feelings must have muddled her mind!  Here she was a Samaritan.  And not only a foreigner but a WOMAN at that!  Was she embarrassed, ashamed, confused, amazed, or afraid when Jesus spoke to her?  Not only did Jesus converse with the woman, he also asked to share her drinking vessel, an action that makes him unclean according to Jewish law.  Has he thrown caution to the wind?  Is he the only person who hasn’t heard she’s known to mix with the wrong crowd?  What does he mean: bring your husband?  Surely, he must have heard she’s been married five times and man she’s living with now is not her husband.  The thing is it doesn’t matter to Jesus.  Nor does it seem to have mattered to the Evangelist John or else he wouldn’t have included this story.

This woman is like so many other female figures in the Scripture.  She’s only identified by her gender, her ethnicity, and her place in society.  She’s an outcast.  Why would she come to the well in the heat of the day?  Only one thing could explain that.  She has no friends among the women who come to the well in the cool of the day.

Don’t you just love Jesus?  He’s out in the hot sun.  He’s thirsty.  He’s pondering how to get some water out of the well.  Then along comes this woman with a jug.  Maybe it sparked a memory of this mom going to the well, chatting with friends and, when her bucket is full, how she’d beckoned him to help her lug the water back home.

He strikes up a conversation with the woman.  Slowly, slowly he stirs her interest.  To her relief he was not fresh with her – she did not feel intimidated.  He offers her living water as he gently starts talking about her personal life.  The two of them have the longest 1:1 conversation recorded in Scripture.

It was COOL!  The woman recognizes his specialness.  She thinks: “This man must be a prophet.”  The high point of the conversation is when Jesus reveals himself to her as the Messiah.  She abandons her jug and runs through the streets telling her story to every person she meets.  She knows she does not have all the answers.  She does not demand that they believe her tale.  She lets her hearers arrive at their own conclusions about Jesus.  And they do: “This is indeed the Savior of the world.”

For centuries after this day, this woman’s encounter story will be told and retold.  This one day Jesus shared time, a conversation, and the gift of himself with another.  The woman went home that day from the village well with a tale to tell.

The story offers us, I suggest, a model for hospitality and friend cultivation.  As Benedict says, guests may arrive at odd hours.  Take time with the guests; engage them in conversation.  Notice that the woman did not just sit on the edge of the well every day waiting to see who might happen by.  She may have been friendless and lonely, but she did not sit with her skirts spread prettily around her hoping some thirsty visitor would drop by.  She was doing an ordinary chore, her daily chore of getting water.  She may have been wary but she did not run when the stranger approached.  She shared her good fortune: “Come and see” who I bumped into at the well.

Each one of us spent the first 9 months of our existence in an environment surrounded by water.  Likewise, we were baptized in water and we are nourished daily by the Living Waters.  This woman’s story and her encounter with Jesus show us that grace, living water, is within our reach to refresh the parched earth and its peoples.

The setting the of this Scriptural story is casual (a village well); the exchange, intimate and deep.  Our lesson: we can’t sit on the front doorstep or the backyard swing and wait for guests to show up.  We have to step into “scary places”.  We have to venture out to the “village square at high noon”.  If we offer the richness from the source of our life together, like ripples on the surface of the water in the well, one by one strangers will become friends.

Jesus tells us: “Whoever drinks the water I shall give will become a well-spring of water welling up to eternal life.”  We pray: “Sir, give us of this water; that we may not be thirsty again.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

 Have an enjoyable St. Patrick’s Day! Our bishop has granted a dispensation for “Fish Friday” with the stipulation that we choose another day this week to abstain from meat. Do you know why we “don’t eat meat on Fridays”?? You may quickly reply: Jesus died on a Friday.  But, why refrain from meat???

Looking forward to next week when we will celebrate St. Joseph on Monday and St. Benedict on Tuesday 😊 and the Annunciation of the Lord on Saturday (the 24th)

 

First Reading:   Exodus 17:3-7       Second Reading:  Romans 5:1-2,5-8
Gospel:   John 4:5-42
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Sin No More

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Last Sunday we heard the Parable of the Prodigal Son from the Gospel of Luke.  Our selection here from the Gospel of John offers another lesson about God’s mercy and forgiveness – not a parable but a report of a personal encounter between Jesus, some scribes and Pharisees, and a woman.  In this case, Jesus’ response to those who accuse the woman of adultery is a lesson in profound mercy and forgiveness.  A forceful reminder that we too have been saved by Jesus’ compassion.

The Gospel account says these people brought this woman to Jesus to trap him.  If he was a prophet, then he should be able to discern if she was guilty or not.  They sound like a bunch of four-year-olds – “Teacher, look what she did!  We saw her do it.”  And just how did they know?  Where were they snooping around?  Or did they take the word of the local gossip mongers?  What would Jesus do?

You see, Jesus had forgiven some people of their sins, like the man born blind and the crippled man.  But the sins that those people had not been accused of were not considered crimes.  Here was a woman accused of a major crime.  Her accusers say she was even caught in the very act.  So were there witnesses willing to testify against her?  Or had a trial already taken place and a verdict of GUILTY already upon her head.  The crowd was growing.  Everyone was anxiously waiting and watching: would Jesus fulfill the law or would he do what he’d done before and forgive her?

Her accusers seem to have no regard for the fact that maybe this woman did not initiate the sin.  They could not entertain the idea that perhaps it was the man!  If Jesus forgives this woman, he will restore her in two ways: spiritually and by saving her life he will restore her place in society.  In either case, here she was, dragged into the public limelight, counting on the compassion of the man of God.

Jesus appears to be caught between a rock and a hard place.  What’s he to do?  First he challenges the accusers: “Let the one among you who is without sin start the stoning.”  The crowd cheers; then grows silent – nothing is happening.  What must have been going through the minds those people that day?  The wait to see what he’s going to say or do.

He stoops down and writes in the dirt.  The crowd is pushing and shoving and jockeying for view.  “Move! I can’t see. What’s he writing?”  Was he just doodling or was he writing something meaningful?  The Gospel does not say.

But take notice of Jesus’ last words to the woman, “Go away and don’t sin anymore.”  Jesus does not say to her, or to us, “Leave your life of sin, then I will no longer condemn you.”  He says, “I do not condemn you; now leave behind your life of sin.”

Jesus did not simply ignore sin or overlook it.  Jesus chose not to condemn the woman, but He did not tell her that her sin was unimportant or that it was just a venial sin nor did he make up excuses for it.  “She’s had a hard life.  She comes for a dysfunctional family.

Maybe you can identify with this little story, (I’ve been told it’s a true exchange)?  A 4-year-old told his mother, “Mom, I decided I’m not going to sin any more.  I’m not going to be like those bad guys Jesus was talking to.  I’m going to be a good child of God.”  “Mmm, that’s very nice,” Mom answered.  “What made you decide that?”  “Cause Father said that Jesus told everyone if you don’t sin, you can throw the first stone.”  “I want to be the one to throw the first stone.”

Maybe you never thought that way but has it raised your hackles because “Nobody listens to me and I have the answer”?  That’s when God’s wee small voice may seem to begin to sound exactly like your own.  Or have you felt like “I forgave her once for that same thing and she’s doing it again!”  You may have noticed that when you point your finger at “her,” there are three fingers on your hand pointing right back at you.  Self-examination opens us to self-revelation.  It sheds light on our shadow side and can bring into the spotlight the fact that we have the very same fault we are condemning in the other.  Jesus reminds us: “Judge not, lest you be judged.”

~ Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress

 

First Reading:  Isaiah 43:16-21     Second Reading:  Philippians 3:8-14
Gospel:  John 8:1-11
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Words can also have an equally powerful ability to bring about healing and reconciliation… something we all need to keep in mind.

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Today we are with Jesus when he meets a distraught woman with a special needs child.  Maybe you have seen her, too, at the local Publix or Walmart or you might remember the parent of a child in your school, or a child-relative in your family or you’ve seen her trying to shop at Daystar.  This is a mixed breed woman; a foreigner.  Her family has disowned her.  And when she told her boyfriend she was pregnant he fled.

Somehow this courageous woman has survived as a single mother. But, when her daughter began having seizures, gossipy opinions surface: “She deserves what she gets. See what happens when you make the kind of decisions she’s made.”  On top of that she is a woman in a society in which women have no real value or standing.  To make matters worse she’s a screamer with a crazy kid.  Now, she is out of options.

But, she’s heard that a Jewish miracle-worker is passing through the area.  He’s reported to have authority over demons.  She’s tried appealing to all the pagan gods of her culture, but none answered her plea.  Maybe, just maybe, this Jesus is the answer to her prayers.

The woman approaches Jesus, requesting that he heal her demon-possessed daughter.  At first Jesus says nothing.  It appears he is ignoring her.  The disciples ask Jesus to send her away, and Jesus seems to agree, remarking that he was sent to minister to the Jews alone.

But she’s already endured a series of obstacles that would threaten the best of us.  She’s jumped social hurtles to ask a favor of Jesus and she will not be deterred.

She persists, paying homage to Jesus, and yet again Jesus denies her request.  She can’t believe what her hears – is he being rude to her?  Did he really refer to her using a Jewish word of derision for Gentiles, “dog.”  But the woman cleverly turns Jesus’ own words against him.  Only then does Jesus grant her request and heal her daughter.

So, let’s consider why Jesus would lead this mother through a humbling process for pursuing her request.  He stays in conversation with her but seems harsh.  Could it be Jesus used this encounter to help her develop a deep courageous faith that would sustain her for the rest of her life not just this one-time healing?

She is tenacious in her pleading.  With the odds stacked against her, she pushes forward.  When she gets knocked down by life’s circumstances and criticism, she gets back up.  When others told her to quit, to get lost because she was wasting Jesus’ time, she continued to keep Jesus attention.

Notice she referred to Jesus as Lord, acknowledging that He is worthy of praise.  Don’t miss the lesson that she praised Jesus in the midst of her pain.  She is obviously a very humble woman.  Perhaps Jesus had her in mind when he spoke the beatitude “Blessed are the meek, they will inherit the earth.”  Never confuse humility with weakness. Pride would have been offended by the “dog” comment.  Pride would have returned insult for insult, and pride would have gone away empty; without a miracle; without a healthy, whole child.

It’s a nice story but what does it teach us?  Lessons in skilled, reverent, peaceful confrontation; tenacity, humility and focus on the important matter for winning a hearing with a happy outcome.

The past couple of weeks the world has been on edge, at the escalating acts of violence and the war of words between the North Korean regime and President Trump.  The spiraling verbal threats may be the result of mounting public frustration with the lack of solutions to a serious problem but a frightened world cannot dismiss the situation as mere venting of empty words.  Indeed, the harsh language appears to be increasing in the intensity of potential danger of a rash move being made by one side or the other.  The world has seen too many incidents to ignore or downplay words that have had the power to do real damage.  The old adage “sticks and stones may break your bones but words can never hurt you” has long been proven a false premise.  But words can also have an equally powerful ability to bring about healing and reconciliation… something we all need to keep in mind.

Let us remember also in our intentions this weekend the people who are waiting in terror for Monday’s total solar eclipse.  Thousands are gathering for the once in a life time event but others view it as a harbinger of doom.

Heeding the example of the Canaanite woman we must come to stand before God, united in our plea for an end of racism in our country and for peace in our world, for calmness to conquer brashness, humility to counter pride and tenacity to win out over discouragement.

There is a tale told about former President Andrew Jackson.  His childhood friends were reminiscing about their childhood with Andy and expressing surprise at how successful he’d become considering all his flaws – he wasn’t as smart as some and many were stronger.  They recalled how the class bully would throw Andy three out of four times when they wrestled.  A listener asked: “What happened on the fourth time?”

Andy’s friend spoke up: “I guess that was Andy’s secret. He just wouldn’t stay throwed.”

Like the Canaanite woman and Andy, if life circumstances throw you down, don’t stay “throwed.”  You’ve heard it said that Benedictine community life is a series of beginnings.  Like a daruma doll, those weighted-bottom Japanese good-luck dolls, we just keep bouncing upright – as one author put is: we fall down and we get up.  Or as the saying goes: seven times down; eight times up.  So let us stand firm in praying for peace that we may hear the same response Jesus gave to the Canaanite woman: “Great is your faith!  Let it be done for you as you wish.”

~Reflection by Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB, Prioress
20th Sunday in Ordinary Time,
1st Reading Isaiah 56:1, 6-7,
2nd Reading Romans 11:13-15; 29-32,
Gospel Matthew 15:21-28
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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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13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

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jesus-heals-womanWe’ve just heard a story of healing that occurred because an ailing woman took a huge leap, a step forward, in faith.  In tomorrow’s Gospel you will hear a second healing miracle that concludes with Jesus insisting the on-lookers tell no one.  But, it seems to be impossible to obey what some refer to as “a messianic secret.”  Jesus seems to be telling us that each individual, each of us, must in the end, make our own act of affirmation that Jesus is our Savior.

Have you ever felt like the hemorrhagic woman – or known someone who did, or does?  Feeling like the bucket of life has a hole in it? That it leaks faster than you (or the person you are thinking of) can fill it? No matter what you do, how hard you work, where you go, what you try, you just can’t fill it up. Work, play, friends, family, community and even prayer somehow leave you feeling empty, restless, and searching. You can’t seem to get enough in your bucket. The outflow is greater than the inflow. You are left drained –  tired and weak, frustrated and hopeless, angry and resentful, sorrowful and grieving, fearful that you will never be as fulfilled as you figured you would be by the age you are. If you know what that is like, perhaps you know how hemorrhaging woman felt.

In the Gospel, we don’t know her name. We don’t know where she came from. She’s anonymous; just another face in the crowd. What we do know is that she is sick, desperate, and in need. She has been bleeding for 12 years. That’s 4,380 days. In all that time no one has been able to help her. She’s spent all she had – money and energy. She’s only gotten worse. Day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year it’s been the same.

This woman’s condition is more than physical. She’s losing more than blood. She’s losing her life, its warmth, vitality, and fruitfulness. That is more than a physical condition – it’s a spiritual matter.

At one level this is a story of this one woman.  Looked at from another level it’s our human story. Her story is our story. It’s not only about women.  It is as much about men. Drained of life, we go through the motions. We’re alive but not really living. Such people feel disconnected, isolated, and alone.

I suspect the bleeding women spent many of the last 4,380 days thinking, “As soon as.…” This particular day, however, something is different. Something in her has changed, shifted. She has heard about Jesus. Maybe she heard about his teaching, about him casting out demons, about him healing the sick, or about him calming the storm on the sea.

We don’t know what she had heard about Jesus but it was enough to make her believe in him. She was desperate.  She would no longer wait on others to fix her life. Today she would risk the crowd’s ridicule.  Today she would literally take matters into her own hands.  In her heart she knows, “If I but touch his clothes, I will be made well.”

Instantly a connection is made and a relationship established.  Life no longer leaked out of her but flowed into her.  And, Jesus knew that power had flowed out of Him.   “Who touched my clothes?”    It may take professional help, or a spiritual director, or a close friend to help us through the maze, but Jesus does offer each of us “life without hemorrhaging.”   We don’t have to live drained of life. We, too, can walk the path of peace fully alive if we but risk reaching beyond the circumstances of our lives. We don’t have to live “as soon as” lives.

We can begin by looking at the clothes Jesus wears.  Sometime he drapes himself in silence, solitude, and prayer. Sometimes it’s mercy and forgiveness. Sometimes it’s thanksgiving and gratitude. Other times it’s compassion and generosity. Always it is self-giving love. The very attributes and characteristics of his life are the clothes he wears and the clothes we are to touch.

If you are feeling drained, or for when you may in the future, I’ve put a few copies on the back table of a tool that may help the user get in touch with the area of life that may be the cause.  It can be used for self-examination, for self-direction or to discuss with a confidant.  If you would like a copy of this tool, just let Cheryl Chadick know at cheryl.chadick@saintleo.edu and she will send you one.

If you read the daily reflections in THIS DAY – on Thursday past you saw that the author refers to the Hemorrhaging Woman, the bleeding woman, as a First Century disciple.  When you feel you are living a drained life, call upon this woman in the crowd to intercede for courage to reach out and touch the clothes of Christ. Connect to Him.   Do whatever it takes to let Jesus transfuse you with his life, love, and power. Touch and be healed and go in peace.

 

                                                                                                                                        Sister Roberta Bailey, OSB

 

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