Too Good to be True...

They just didn’t get it. He comes, he says, “Peace be with you…” yet they are terrified. But wait just a minute. We have 2000 years of acquaintance with the idea of resurrection. They had no idea of what happened to a human being after death. No wonder they were incredulous and full of fear.

Then he asks if they have anything to eat, and they calm down. He deals with them gently, according to their human need. He did the same with Mary Magdalen, with the two on the way to Emmaus, and with Thomas. “You need to put your hand here and your fingers into my wounds, Thomas? OK, here I am…do what you need to do.” He meets them where they are.

In our day, and in our times, he is the same: yesterday, today, and forever. He still meets us where we are. So what really happens to a human being in resurrection? Scripture assures us that as he is, so shall we be. What happened to the physical part of Jesus, and what will happen to the physical part of ourselves?

For one thing we know the no matter goes out of existence. Einstein assures us that it simply changes form. We know that shifting an electron or proton on the periodic table creates a new element. So what happens to our DNA, our double helix, our michocondria, our cell structure in resurrection when eternal life touches it and brings it to the peak of its possibility? What is the peak of its possibility? After all, there’s arthritis, and glaucoma, and palsy, and Altzheimers…and all the rest.

What if, just what if we go through a metamorphosis, a change something like the butter-fly? What if the original recipe of our DNA reassembles and becomes transparent of the love energy, the compassion, the forgiveness that we developed before we died? What if the physical becomes a window into the beauty of the heart? Why didn’t the apostles recognize Jesus? Then suddenly they did recognize him. Did he change, or did they change? How did it come to pass that “their eyes were opened?” Is that what happens with us too?

Is Easter a preview of coming attractions for us? Is Jesus giving us a final revelation, and it is about “what we shall be?” No wonder that when he showed them how we would all end up, they were incredulous. Yes, indeed, almost too good to be true. And you?

Risen Lord,

Your light-some beauty would blind me

If in your kindness you didn’t mute it.

You feed me with yourself and with each sacred banquet I become more what I eat.

Meet me where I am and call me forth to all I can be. Open my eyes so I can see the wonder of your new life peeking through the lattice-work of my time and space.

Who are we...after the 800th Anniversary?

We’re a community of vowed religious women, right? Right, and we are surrounded by associates who want us to challenge them to be everything they can be in their life-styles. Right?

Our communal life-style is shaped by three gospel counsels: living simply so that others can simply live; loving to white-hot intensity with open hands; and binding ourselves to develop an ever-deepening listening heart. Right?

But other religious women’s communities do the same; and other communities have associates who draw strength and guidance from these women who live these counsels. So who are we as a community of Dominican women religious, who have associates? Who are we just having celebrated 800 years of Dominican identity? What is the distinctive mark we bring to the wider Church as we turn our faces to the future?

I’m going to suggest that we stand among the Jesuits, the Franciscans, the Mercy’s, the Redemptorists…carrying our own distinctive foot-washing towel. It has a monogram on the corner. It is “OP.” What are its threads? Why is it an “OP” towel, when all the others have towels too…but with different monograms and different weaves?

Our weave is indeed distinctive. There is none quite like it. Yes, we all have towels, because it’s all about mission in the end; it’s all about service. But there is no weave quite like the Dominican weave.

There are four distinctive threads, and no other religious community weaves them in quite the same way: there is common life, common prayer, study, and finally mission flowing from the linking of the other three. Those in formation call these the “four pillars.” I’m going to use the more flexible metaphor of “threads.” We’ll consider these in future reflections.

Why do I favor a more “flexible” metaphor, even though “pillar” is very firm and secure? Because flexibility is one of our most distinctive Dominican characteristics. We live our lives bending and flexing like dancers. Nothing in Dominican life binds under pain of sin. What? How in heaven’s name are you going to keep these Dominicans in line? How are you going to get them to do what they ought to do? Dominic wanted to put the weaving shuttle in our own hands. The Joyful Friar reminds us who we are as beggars, lovers, and listeners by our vows. Then he expects us to make responsible adult choices. He believed that living with a penalty hanging over your head kept you fear-motivated, and he was a joyful lover, and love drives out fear.

So we begin with flexibility. We are dancers, who bend and sway, bow and turn. We are the weavers of our own Dominican religious life. We dance to the Spirit’s music holding the shuttle in our own hands.