“Launch out into the deep…”

We’ve pinned it down for now… both our Mission Statement and our Focus Statement begin with a reference to presence. So why all this emphasis on presence, and what might it mean? A few thoughts…

Our primary of being preaching women and men is by our presence, wherever our feet take us. As part of the Dominican Family we identify with the Word; we keep our eyes on the Word; we immerse ourselves into the Word, both in our prayer and study. Then we try to walk-the-talk.

 

So what kind of presence do we bring as consecrated women wherever we are? And what kind of presence do we bring as associates as we are present to our spouses, to our children and grandkids, and to our dear friends? Maybe it’s time to go back to basics.

 

We are all vowed, folks. We all have affirmed our baptismal vows this last Holy Saturday. That’s where we all start, on the common ground of being signed, sealed, and delivered as followers of this Christ Jesus who has stolen our hearts. He is our primary relationship, our first intimacy. He is the center jewel. All our other relationships surround that central Pearl of great price. This Christic relationship is our oneness, our unity.Then comes our choice of life-style.

 

How will we live out this love? Some of us are present to a spouse to be our companion in loving, and our families are the flowering of this love. So we add marital vows to those of our baptism.

 

Others become so fixed on this Word that they live out their presence by a vow a celibate love to pour themselves out in service to those who are the Word’s disguises in this life. They add religious vows to those of their baptism.

 

Then there are others who in their single life-style, live out their love as free spirits. But don’t be deceived. These dear single ones among us have the greatest challenge, for they do not have a second set of vows to guide them as the rest of us do. They need to be very intentional about choosing the communal support that will call forth their loving presence as their lives unfold. For them there is no given context provided by a marriage or a religious community. We need to reach out to them.

 

For each of us, our presence flows from our very person through our life-style. All of us are lovers. We live out our loving in the life-style we have chosen; it is our unique presence. Now for all of us, sisters and associates, that’s quite a focus.

"Beloved..."

 

That’s our name – our scriptural name. Pay attention, don’t brush it off. Remembering that it is what God always calls us can bring us out of a funk. We need to remember.

 

The liturgy has brought us into the brilliant light of the resurrection. We are almost blinded by the beauty of Word as he emerges from the tomb like some magnificent butterfly: the same as went in, but now so different. Pay attention to what comes after misery and death.

 

We almost breathe a sigh of relief. The shadows and darkness of the Passion are behind us (Really? Be careful.) and it is so great to see that this sweet Word sent to us from the Father is no longer dead. He lives.

So, as beloved, why must we be careful? We need to stop a bit and remember: this is not only about Jesus. It’s about the beloved too. It’s our story, closer to us than our cheek.

 Most of us don’t live too long in the blinding light of the resurrection, in the promise that one day we will be as he is, “…that we shall be like him.” We slog it out down in the valley of shadows, storms, struggles, and sighs. But remembering our name might just help out to walk our daily walk with a sly little smile.

We know who we are, and whose we are. No mistakes, no hidden sins, no moments of losing it can change that. We are the beloved. In our deepest darkest sorrows, when the darkness is so thick we can cut it with a knife, we need to remember our name. This simple practice may just be our “hand-up” when we are really down.

The paschal mystery story we have just retold ourselves is our story. We will know rejection of our sincerest efforts. We will be betrayed by someone we love. We will try to struggle with the load of the day and fall down…again and again. We may be stripped of our dignity. We will need to face our own dying. But through it all we will be picked up and carried by the One who calls our name, over and over…The sound of who we are is the wind beneath our wings. Nothing and no one can separate us from the grasp of the risen One who calls us beloved.

 

You give me life and forget so much…

Thank you.

Keep eastering in me

day by day.

Why All This Suffering…,?

It isn’t the way we would plan it: the suffering of war, of political disagreement, of hurt people in the Church, the suffering of children, sickness. No, surely the human race can be redeemed another way. Surely we can be saved without all this suffering, can’t we?

We are in the midst of Lent, the season that faces us with the outlandish fact that the Word of God, in the New Covenant of our flesh, reveals to us that, no, the best way is the way of the cross. Now why would God plan it this way? We are not going to presume that we know the Mind of God, but we are going to get hints.

Check it out. The all-powerful Word of God getting slapped in the face. He does nothing, except stand there in the greatest dignity, when with one glance he could destroy them all. What is he trying to tell us? If Christ Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” then we are seeing a love so powerful that it refuses to be a victim and to victimize anyone else by passing the violence on. It ends with him. He absorbs it. The love swallows the evil of his enemies. That love will engulf any hell they can dish out. He forgives, and the love includes even his executioners.

Now if this were all, it would be remarkable enough, and a challenge we see replicated in our martyrs. But it doesn’t stop there. This love turns the manure of this evil into radiant new life.

So what does the cross reveal? It tells us, who are his very own by baptism, that so it shall be for any suffering that attempts to make a victim out of us. Not a punishment, not merely an atonement, the cross reveals to us the very heart of God as loving mercy. More, our suffering is to be the very stuff of glory.

If we become the victim and then victimize others by blame and judgment, then evil spreads like some plague. The challenge to us is to absorb and refuse to pass it on, to short circuit it. Not some stoic repression, mind you, but intentional and deliberate forgiveness and inclusion, no child’s play. I don’t know about you, but I’ve only begun to think about what this might mean…

Really?

Is that what you’re up to?

Do I have the love to do this?

No, if I’m honest.

But you do – and you’ve joined me to Yourself.

So show me how it works when I’m in pain…

When I’ve hurt others, and they’ve hurt me.

When I listen to the news and get so mad I could spit.

Really?

If enough of us get good at this we might just change the world.