Like a Flashlight Beam…

 We are into ‘Ordinary’ Time. It is a call to smile while we do ‘ordinary’ things…like the laundry, the shopping, filling up the car, and brushing our teeth. Why a knowing little smile? Because the Word who married our humanness thought it important enough to spend thirty years doing those ordinary things with great love. Those ordinary things were the bulk of his human life, as it is with ours. Reflecting on this gives a whole new meaning to what we consider the hum-drum. And so, the knowing little smile as we intentionally pour all our love into the day-to-day.

 If we think of it, the liturgy of these weeks unwraps this like an extended flashlight beam, starting quite focused and then ever expanding. The child in the manger is the focus, seen first by Mary and Joseph. Then the expansion starts: the shepherds, then the Magi; Simeon and Anna and John and the Jews at the Baptism; then comes the apostles at the wedding of Cana, and finally the Purification in the Temple. Once the Light is out there, who knows where it will reach…! Maybe to you…maybe to me down the years.

 The Light is loose in the world. What does it do? First, it cleanses…it purifies. Then it finds a home deep within us and shines. Yes, even biologically we ‘glow.’ Our magnetic field can be picked up by sensitive instruments. So maybe we need to intentionally ‘light up’ each morning with that knowing little smile. For we have a guest, we are never alone. That Guest radiates risen life. Though it is veiled by our own physicality, what if we just made a point of ‘putting it on’ when we dress to remind ourselves that we are so loved? So, smile as you look in the mirror. Take on your ordinary day in an extra-ordinary way!

 Out there, it’s another grey wintry day…

But not in here.

You’re here with me.

So, I smile as I look in the mirror.

Nothing is going to happen to me today

that you and I together can’t handle.

Your love lights me up…

You are the wind-beneath-my-wings…

With you my heart sings!

Sonshine…!

Even if out there… it’s just another grey winter day.

Take up your Cross?

 Lent is upon us. I don’t know about you, but I look at others carrying huge crosses, and wonder how I got skipped. At this time in my life at least, I don’t suffer from a deadly disease that just isn’t going away, or not having a roof over my head, or enduring daily injustice because of the color of my skin. Am I alone in wondering about how I am to take up my Cross?

 Then it dawned on me that I might be missing what is right before my eyes. Maybe just being human is my cross. Some days it’s pretty heavy. My car door is frozen shut, and no amount of coaxing is going to unfreeze it so I can get to church. I wake up and just don’t have any energy today. Cramps in my legs kept me up half the night…I need to get a haircut…will have to wear my mask…and on and on. Nothing big, nothing momentous, just being human…and chaffing at its heaviness.

 The time after Christmas is like a light-beam shining on all the nooks and crannies of my soul. I blink often. All the little things of my little ‘hidden life’ come into view. Then comes Lent. It’s the time of spring house-cleaning of the soul. I stare at this Wild Lover ‘running’ toward the cross and wonder if he is out of his mind. But he is inviting me to ‘run’ with him…to actually choose my limited humanness, to bear it, grasp it, be bound to it as his infant swaddling bands wrapped him ‘round about. It is reaffirming my baptismal ‘yes,’ my going down into death with him, isn’t it…my ‘yes’ to all that weighs me down, all that is imperfect, all that is unfinished and waits with all my unfulfilled dreams.

 Nailed hands, feet fixed in place…his Body speaks when his mouth is still. I can’t do what I want to do, I can’t go where I want to go. Say ‘yes’ and embrace it…? That ol’ dead tree weighing me down bursts into bloom, and becomes a Tree of Life. Surprise! That’s how the story ends.

 

Are you out of your mind…

or just wild in-love?

Arms stretched wide…

to embrace all the mess…

me included.

Feet pinned down

so you can’t even search me out…

so I have to come to you.

And when I look you become my mirror

and there I am.

Genuine Peace…?

 Yes, you guessed right. This next section of Pope Francis’ Fratelli tutti, “Paths of Renewed Encounter,” (#225-270) is all about peace. But it’s not about peace up in the sky. It’s about peace that hits the ground running. It’s about peace that’s about real encounter.

 Francis begins his reflections by saying what should warm the heart of any Dominican. He says the starting place is recovering truth as central. (#226-7) He says that truth is an inseparable companion of justice and mercy. All three must form a team for peace to be real. This means that any act of violence is a wound to humanity. The cycle of violence/hatred/violence must be broken.

 Francis says that there is an art and architecture of Peace. It involves every one of us (#231) and must include from the start, those who are the most vulnerable, the ‘least.’ (#233-5) He then turns to a discussion of forgiveness (#236). Admitting that conflict is inevitable, Francis then advises forgiving but not forgetting when keeping horrendous behavior in mind can prevent us from allowing it to happen again. We forgive. That means we refuse to hold onto what degrades, freeing us from its poison. But the memory must keep us on guard that the violence is not repeated. And so we remember the Holocaust. We remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Forgetting these victims would be an injustice (#252).

 Next, Francis addresses the violence of war and the death penalty (#256-270). It is interesting   that he puts these two together, as if they reflect each other. For Francis, war is the ultimate negation of all rights and a dramatic assault on the environment. To prevent it, he says, nations must ensure the uncontested rule of law and the tireless recourse to negotiation. New weapons and technologies have granted war an uncontrollable destructive power over great numbers of innocent civilians (#258). In our day, the risks of war far outweigh its supposed benefits, thus making a ‘just war’ no longer possible. It is a failure of both politics and humanity, a stinging defeat before the forces of evil (#261). Instead, Francis suggests that the funds used for war preparation should become a fund to put an end to hunger and be turned to help impoverished countries develop so their people don’t have to go elsewhere to survive (#262).

 Finally, Francis calls for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide as no longer necessary and inadmissible (#263). Moreover, he calls for an improvement to prison conditions, calling a life imprisonment a secret death penalty (#268). Can we in the United States hear him? Can the world hear him.? For this we can pray. Indeed, this we can proclaim.

 

Not just Me but “We”

 

Not just Me but “We”

 

We’re nearing the end…of the Church Year, of 2021, of Ordinary Time, and during this month we especially think of the End Time and of all those who have gone on ahead of us into eternity. And above all, we as a people of the United States will celebrate how thankful we are.

 

Self-concerned as we are, this time of the year calls us to think beyond ourselves. We are called to think of the precious communities that hold our precious lives…we are grateful for the community that is our family, the strugglers and those who have entered eternal life. We give thanks for the wider communities of our cities, our nation, our parish and our other spiritual and religious communities. As our sister, Margaret Mayce, OP recently reflected, when we think of ourselves we can feel heavy, but when we think of those who hold us up we can feel hopeful. So it is the time to think ‘we.”

 

As we sit down to our Thanksgiving meal, we think of those at our borders, those who are locked behind food barriers in Tegrey, in Afghanistan, in Haiti. As we gather to remember our beloved dead, we bond with those who have lost loved ones to COVID, as prisoners of conscience in tyrannical regimes. As we ponder the End Times, we are faced once again with the only bar of judgment: how we have treated our brothers and sisters in the day-to-day hum-drum of our ordinary time. Yes, we are learning to think “we.”

 

Are you there,

Looking at me through those pleading eyes?

Did I catch a glimpse of You

Behind all those tears?

What do you want of me, Lord?

A kind word, a listening ear, a helping hand?

These may look like ordinary days in ordinary time…

But they aren’t.

They’re meeting places, and I often forget.

Open my eyes to you when I listen to the news.

Help me notice you behind the impatient one,

the complaining one.

By your Spirit, help me to think beyond me…to we.

 

 

 

Thank you to Associate Lisa-Marie Duffield for this month’s reflections.

 

MASS OF REMEMBRANCE – NOVEMBER 7, 2021

Wisdom 3: 1-9 | Romans 6: 3-9 | John 12: 23-26

 

“We who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death…If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.” (Rm) “It remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.” (Jn) “As gold in the furnace, God proved them.” (Wm) Alone. Away. Dropped? Placed? Forgotten? Illness. Grieving. Darkness. Covered. Cold. Waiting. Waiting. Waiting. Something. Changed. Growing. Broken. Warm. Seeking. Reaching. Down, down, down. Drinking. Up, up, up. Breathing. Clean. Pure. New. Strong. Shading. Loving. Here. Always here. With you.

 

THIRTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME – NOVEMBER 14, 2021

Daniel 12:1-3 | Hebrews 10:11-18 | Mark 13:24-32

 

“Amen, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.” (Mk) “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake.” (Dn) “For by one offering he has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated.” (Hb) We are called to live with the conviction that the time of the coming of the Lord is always now. In my life, am I asleep in the dust of the earth? What will it take for me to awaken? What kind of legacy will I leave today? We have everything we need to live a just life when we call on the strength of God, for we have been made perfect – not as in flawless but complete. We are the people of God! Let us arise and shine brightly in our dark world!

 

SOLEMNITY OF CHRIST THE KING – NOVEMBER 21, 2021

Daniel 7:13-14 | Revelation 1:5-8 | John 18:33-37

 

“All peoples, nations, and languages serve him.” (Dn) “Every eye will see him, even those who pierced him.” (Rv) “My kingdom does not belong to this world… Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”  Our world is divided. There is one earth, but different lands, different peoples, different cultures,  languages, governments. Even the area where we live is not monolithic. We are a world defined by our differences. But Jesus, our anointed King, does not belong to the world, rather we belong to him. All of us, even those from whom we are most divided. What is the voice of God telling  me today?  How can I draw closer in faith to those from whom I feel divided?      

 

FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT – NOVEMBER 28, 2021

Jeremiah 33 14:16 | 1 Thessalonians 3:12-4:2 | Luke 21:25-36

 

“Beware that your hearts do not become drowsy from carousing and drunkenness and the anxieties of daily life.” (Lk) “I will fulfill the promise I made to the house of Israel and Judah.” (Jer) “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all.” (1Thes)  While socializing, food, and drink can wear down our bodies, our hearts can be worn down by anxiety. How can I be calmer and kinder in a world of strife? Our communities are as contentious as the divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah. What does God call me to? Love. Deep, rooted, increasing, and abounding love.  What could an infusion of LOVE heal in my life?