Lent is here. 40 days and 40 nights of intentional time to pray, fast, and serve those around us. A time to purify our lives from temptation and sin, doubt and anxiety, and most especially the thoughts, words, and habits which turn us away from God's infinite love.
To be sure, the point of this time is to be more open and aware of God's grace in our lives, to love our God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind, and to love one another as we are loved. In short, Lent is about how we are called to live each and every day. But life gets so busy, so chaotic, and so stressful that we lapse into "coping mode."
Lent is about breaking free from just coping. It's about getting back to our roots: faith, hope, and love. It's about turning our heart towards God in such a way that we are transformed. Truthfully, our goal for the next six weeks should not just be to give up something or do more random acts of kindness. Instead, let our hope and prayer this Lent be about making more room in our lives for God, so by the time Easter is here we can fully celebrate the JOY of the Resurrection -- and be changed in such a way that we can more fully rely on God's merciful love and abundant providence -- from here on out.
Like everything in life, we get out of Lent what we put into it. So here are some resources to help us make the most of this season:
From the Vatican:
http://www.vatican.va/liturgical_year/lent/2009/index_lent2009_en.html
From the US Catholic Bishops:
http://www.usccb.org/lent/
From the Word Among Us:
http://wau.org/meditations/current/
From Pax Christi:
http://www.paxchristiusa.org/news_Events_more.asp?id=1507
From American Catholic:
http://www.americancatholic.org/Features/Lent/
From the Irish Jesuits at Sacred Space:
http://sacredspace.ie/en/lent/
From Creighton University:
http://onlineministries.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/Lent/
From Bread for the World:
http://www.bread.org/get-involved/at-church/lenten-resources.html
That's what I love about our church: this is NOT an individual challenge. Well, of course it is, but we're not alone in this. So let us travel together this Lent to grow ever more open to and reliant upon God's merciful love and abundant providence!
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Who Are You Bringing to Christ?
Although we're still early in Mark's Gospel, already Jesus has made quite a name for himself. After a number of healings and cures, Jesus heads out to the desert for some peace, quiet, and prayer. But the crowds kept coming to him.
So in today's Gospel (Mk 2:1-12), Jesus returns to Capernum. And the crowds are ready for him. People are so tightly packed in that the four men who are carrying a paralyzed man resort to to climbing onto the roof of the house, break the roof, and lower the man so he can be healed by Jesus.
What a scene this must have been!
Can you imagine the crowd of people waiting to see Jesus and be healed? Can you imagine what it must have been like for Jesus to sit in the house, welcoming people in and curing them of all kinds of illness? What was it like when the men climbed the roof? And started breaking through? Why didn't Jesus stop them? Why didn't the owner of the house? Why didn't the crowd let the paralytic in the door or through a window?
It's hard to imagine what all this must have been like for Jesus, for the paralytic, and for the crowd.
And especially those four men who carried the paralytic up to the roof, broke through, and lowered him down. Can you imagine the courage it took to do that? The faith?
I think today's Gospel offers us some much-needed perspective.
We stand in line for tickets to concerts, for good seats to a basketball game, for the release of a new phone, computer, or iPod. Would we wait hours and hours for Christ?
If we think about the story from the paralytic's view, it is valuable to think about who has brought us to Christ. To whom do we depend for our faith? Parents? Grandparents? Sponsors or Godparents? A friend? A priest or nun? A teacher? Have I told these people that I am grateful for this gift they have given me?
Finally -- and perhaps most importantly -- if we think about the story from the perspective of the four men who carried the paralytic, we might ask ourselves: Who am I bringing to Christ? How do people experience God's light and love through my actions? How do I share the Good News of the Gospel through how I live each day?
These are good questions to ask ourselves every now and then -- and especially today.
So in today's Gospel (Mk 2:1-12), Jesus returns to Capernum. And the crowds are ready for him. People are so tightly packed in that the four men who are carrying a paralyzed man resort to to climbing onto the roof of the house, break the roof, and lower the man so he can be healed by Jesus.
What a scene this must have been!
Can you imagine the crowd of people waiting to see Jesus and be healed? Can you imagine what it must have been like for Jesus to sit in the house, welcoming people in and curing them of all kinds of illness? What was it like when the men climbed the roof? And started breaking through? Why didn't Jesus stop them? Why didn't the owner of the house? Why didn't the crowd let the paralytic in the door or through a window?
It's hard to imagine what all this must have been like for Jesus, for the paralytic, and for the crowd.
And especially those four men who carried the paralytic up to the roof, broke through, and lowered him down. Can you imagine the courage it took to do that? The faith?
I think today's Gospel offers us some much-needed perspective.
We stand in line for tickets to concerts, for good seats to a basketball game, for the release of a new phone, computer, or iPod. Would we wait hours and hours for Christ?
If we think about the story from the paralytic's view, it is valuable to think about who has brought us to Christ. To whom do we depend for our faith? Parents? Grandparents? Sponsors or Godparents? A friend? A priest or nun? A teacher? Have I told these people that I am grateful for this gift they have given me?
Finally -- and perhaps most importantly -- if we think about the story from the perspective of the four men who carried the paralytic, we might ask ourselves: Who am I bringing to Christ? How do people experience God's light and love through my actions? How do I share the Good News of the Gospel through how I live each day?
These are good questions to ask ourselves every now and then -- and especially today.
Sunday, February 15, 2009
AMDG
Since I have been the proud recipient of 10 years of Jesuit education, I have been deeply formed by the Society's most central motto: AMDG: Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam: For the Greater Glory of God. I knew this phrase was made popular by the Jesuit's founder, St. Ignatius of Loyola. But I did not know that it was a phrase incorporated into the signature of Pope John Paul II. Or that J. S. Bach wrote the phrase on all his compositions.
Speaking of good company, in today's Second Reading (1 Corinthains 10:31-11:1), St. Paul issues us this exact challenge:
Brothers and sisters, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God ... Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
So we are left with a simple question today: Whose glory do you live for?
Sure, this is a big-picture question. It frames why we live and how we live. But I think sometimes AMDG is even more valuable when we take it small-scale. It can shape our habits and interactions such that, when in class, at work, in the grocery store, at the gym -- and dare I say it, on the road, in the car -- that we truly aspire to live for the greater glory of God.
When I was in high school, I wrote these four letters on my papers and in my notebook. And in nearly every email I send, I write these four letters under my name. Maybe it can get trite that way, but my hope -- especially in taking the time to type the letters (and not just include them in an automatic signature line) -- is to shape even my emails for the greater glory of God. I have to tell you, I've changed the content of some of those notes just to keep it congruent with what those letters mean.
And that's what AMDG and today's reading are about: a reminder about WHY we live and HOW we live it. Let our prayer this day be that all we think, say, and do will be for the greater glory of God.
Amen!
Speaking of good company, in today's Second Reading (1 Corinthains 10:31-11:1), St. Paul issues us this exact challenge:
Brothers and sisters, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God ... Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.
So we are left with a simple question today: Whose glory do you live for?
Sure, this is a big-picture question. It frames why we live and how we live. But I think sometimes AMDG is even more valuable when we take it small-scale. It can shape our habits and interactions such that, when in class, at work, in the grocery store, at the gym -- and dare I say it, on the road, in the car -- that we truly aspire to live for the greater glory of God.
When I was in high school, I wrote these four letters on my papers and in my notebook. And in nearly every email I send, I write these four letters under my name. Maybe it can get trite that way, but my hope -- especially in taking the time to type the letters (and not just include them in an automatic signature line) -- is to shape even my emails for the greater glory of God. I have to tell you, I've changed the content of some of those notes just to keep it congruent with what those letters mean.
And that's what AMDG and today's reading are about: a reminder about WHY we live and HOW we live it. Let our prayer this day be that all we think, say, and do will be for the greater glory of God.
Amen!
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Who is Your Truth?
Today's Gospel (Mk 1:21-28) seems strange to our modern ears. Why are we talking about unclean spirits? About teaching and authority? And why does Jesus keep telling people to keep quiet about his real identity?
The fact that Jesus continues to tell people to keep quiet about him is an ongoing theme in Mark's Gospel. It's called the "Messianic Secret," part of the way that Mark tells his Gospel so that the reader (or originally, the hearer), would only get bits and pieces of the big picture -- until Christ's death and resurrection. Only then does one get the "full picture," and Mark's account ends so abruptly that the reader is encouraged to start all over again, this time with the end in view. Only this way can we know who Jesus really is and make sense of the story of his life. But as we read the gospels, we have to keep in mind that the disciples and the Jews and Gentiles had little sense of what this was whole story was driving at.
So why the story about the unclean spirit? Scholars explain that this symbolizes the presence of the devil, the one who did know where all this was headed. And the one who above wall, wanted to stop it. So many times we will find unclean spirits announcing Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, the one we wait for. And if everyone knows who Jesus really is, the crowds will be so great that Jesus' whole mission will be immobilized. Or co-opted by political aspiration. Or cut short because of its threat to the stability of the Roman Empire. In any event, if people really knew who Jesus was, they would stop what they are doing and follow him.
Why? Because Jesus has authority. He speaks truth. He heals, cures, and above all - he SAVES. The Gospel of John says it best: Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). He speaks with authority because he is the Word of God incarnate. Jesus has become one like us, among us, to show us the way, to bring us life to the full. This was the central message of Christianity, and it's a huge reason why it spread from a small band of Jesus followers in mid-first century to thousands and then hundreds of thousands in just a few hundred years.
And today, since we are surrounded by Christianity, it's easy to take this Truth for granted. In postmodern culture, it's easy to see this Truth as just one among many truths. And once we concede this point -- that truth is relative (what is true for me is not necessarily true for you) -- we strip Jesus of his most central value: as THE TRUTH (not just a truth).
To be sure, there are lots of people out there working very hard to make it seem like Christianity holds truth, but it is not true, or only some-what true, or even just another religion out of so many.
And there are others who would like us to think that religion -- pure and simple -- is nonsense. Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris are among a group of "new atheists" pushing this very point. But not one of them is a theologian or philosopher. They have not made a compelling case to defeat the proof of the existence of God or the Truth of Christ. And what is more, they have missed the whole point. Christianity is about faith and reason. Certainly, we are called to use our mental faculties to comprehend matters of faith. This is the whole point of the natural law tradition -- that reason, in fact, is the universal tool by which God makes His laws known to all. But Christianity is not just another academic discipline; it doesn't just belong in books or under a microscope, we have to see "with the eyes of faith." We have to read the Gospels with the end in view. We have to know how the story of Christ ends for any of the rest to make sense.
Now I'm not one to poke fun at people's beliefs. But if you want to see what I'm talking about in terms of just how irrational it is for believers to listen to people like Richard Dawkins, rent Ben Stein's documentary, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed!" I'm not making an argument for intelligent design, but if you watch the end of the film, when Ben Stein interviews Richard Dawkins and asks about the origin of the universe and the creation of human beings, you will see what I mean.
I think the bottom line in today's Gospel is just this: we have to ask ourselves, "What is your truth?" And maybe even more importantly, "Who is your truth?" This reminds me of that parable about building a house on sand or rock (cf. Mt. 7:24-29). What is your foundation in life? Or better, who?
The fact that Jesus continues to tell people to keep quiet about him is an ongoing theme in Mark's Gospel. It's called the "Messianic Secret," part of the way that Mark tells his Gospel so that the reader (or originally, the hearer), would only get bits and pieces of the big picture -- until Christ's death and resurrection. Only then does one get the "full picture," and Mark's account ends so abruptly that the reader is encouraged to start all over again, this time with the end in view. Only this way can we know who Jesus really is and make sense of the story of his life. But as we read the gospels, we have to keep in mind that the disciples and the Jews and Gentiles had little sense of what this was whole story was driving at.
So why the story about the unclean spirit? Scholars explain that this symbolizes the presence of the devil, the one who did know where all this was headed. And the one who above wall, wanted to stop it. So many times we will find unclean spirits announcing Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, the one we wait for. And if everyone knows who Jesus really is, the crowds will be so great that Jesus' whole mission will be immobilized. Or co-opted by political aspiration. Or cut short because of its threat to the stability of the Roman Empire. In any event, if people really knew who Jesus was, they would stop what they are doing and follow him.
Why? Because Jesus has authority. He speaks truth. He heals, cures, and above all - he SAVES. The Gospel of John says it best: Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). He speaks with authority because he is the Word of God incarnate. Jesus has become one like us, among us, to show us the way, to bring us life to the full. This was the central message of Christianity, and it's a huge reason why it spread from a small band of Jesus followers in mid-first century to thousands and then hundreds of thousands in just a few hundred years.
And today, since we are surrounded by Christianity, it's easy to take this Truth for granted. In postmodern culture, it's easy to see this Truth as just one among many truths. And once we concede this point -- that truth is relative (what is true for me is not necessarily true for you) -- we strip Jesus of his most central value: as THE TRUTH (not just a truth).
To be sure, there are lots of people out there working very hard to make it seem like Christianity holds truth, but it is not true, or only some-what true, or even just another religion out of so many.
And there are others who would like us to think that religion -- pure and simple -- is nonsense. Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris are among a group of "new atheists" pushing this very point. But not one of them is a theologian or philosopher. They have not made a compelling case to defeat the proof of the existence of God or the Truth of Christ. And what is more, they have missed the whole point. Christianity is about faith and reason. Certainly, we are called to use our mental faculties to comprehend matters of faith. This is the whole point of the natural law tradition -- that reason, in fact, is the universal tool by which God makes His laws known to all. But Christianity is not just another academic discipline; it doesn't just belong in books or under a microscope, we have to see "with the eyes of faith." We have to read the Gospels with the end in view. We have to know how the story of Christ ends for any of the rest to make sense.
Now I'm not one to poke fun at people's beliefs. But if you want to see what I'm talking about in terms of just how irrational it is for believers to listen to people like Richard Dawkins, rent Ben Stein's documentary, "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed!" I'm not making an argument for intelligent design, but if you watch the end of the film, when Ben Stein interviews Richard Dawkins and asks about the origin of the universe and the creation of human beings, you will see what I mean.
I think the bottom line in today's Gospel is just this: we have to ask ourselves, "What is your truth?" And maybe even more importantly, "Who is your truth?" This reminds me of that parable about building a house on sand or rock (cf. Mt. 7:24-29). What is your foundation in life? Or better, who?
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