Boundless3/31/2023 Friday of the 5th Week of Lent
Today concludes the reflection on the Raising of Lazarus. The artist of the painting above is none other than Rembrandt. He must not have known about Jewish burial customs, but he does portray a very awe-inspiring scene. So they took away the stone. And Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. I know that you always hear me; but because of the crowd here I have said this, that they may believe that you sent me.” And when he had said this, He cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, tied hand and foot with burial bands, and his face was wrapped in a cloth. So Jesus said to them, “Untie him and let him go.” Suggestions for Prayer: Ask for the grace to know and love Jesus as the Eternal Word and the Word Made Flesh. The power of the story of the Raising of Lazarus is the human and divine are beautifully woven together. We are asked to profess our faith in Jesus who is the “Resurrection and the Life” but also one like us in his human experience of grief and loss at the depth of a beloved friend and the pain that Mary and Martha knew. Ask for the grace to know the “unbinding” that you need. What is the power of Jesus’ words, “Untie him and let him go.”? How might Jesus do that for you? If Jesus could raise Lazarus from the dead, what can his “boundless” love do for you? I happen to be at Eastern Point this morning and so I share an image of the sunrise.
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Grief's Engraving3/30/2023 Thursday of the 5th Week of Lent
Today we continue praying with the Gospel of the Raising of Lazarus, focusing on Mary’s grief which is strikingly different from Martha’s, even though they both use the same words. When Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Sir, come and see.” And Jesus wept. Suggestions for Prayer: Ask for the grace to know the depth of Mary’s grief at the death of Lazarus. Although her words are identical to Martha’s, this seems to be a different kind of grief. Martha is more controlled in her expression of grief. (at least in the way John describes the encounters.) Mary prostrates herself at the feet of Jesus and weeps. It is Mary’s expression of her grief that “unbinds” Jesus’ own grief at the loss of his friend. Where with Martha, Jesus consoles her by strengthening her faith in him, with Mary, Jesus is as inconsolable as Mary is. What follows is a reflection on a kind of grief that leaves one barely able to breathe. It is as if grief is “engraved” on the heart Grief’s Engraving “Weigh your words,” they say When the time comes to speak of weighty matters, weigh your words. What do words weigh, anyway? Can you put words on a scale and weigh them? If there were a weight with words, what would “grief” weigh? At least a ton, the way that grief crushes the joy, the juice of life’s love squeezed out and all that is left is the pulp, a mass of the trappings and trimmings of memory, still lives when there is no life still. With grief, one can barely breathe Still, wait! Grief should be weighed in pounds. Who has not grieved and felt the pounding heart within, the pounding head without relief, the hands wanting to pound walls and smash, crash, crush whatever is in the way, wringing sobs and sorrows from one who knows no calm, no balm to assuage the searing pain. Still wait! Grief should be weighed in stones. Fourteen pounds in a “stone” A stone’s throw away? Not in grief’s engraving a name on a tombstone, a daily reminder of who has been taken and who has been left behind. And who will roll the stone away? The subject of the photo above is a 15th Century Fresco of the Raising of Lazarus. Unlike the Rubens painting that I posted yesterday, this does not convey the weight of grief. Notice also that by that time the burial customs had changed and this is not the kind of tomb in which Lazarus would have been entered. Even now....3/29/2023 Wednesday of the 5th Week of Lent
Today we continue a reflection on the Gospel of the Raising of Lazarus. The focus today is Martha’s interaction with Jesus. So much meaning can be found in just a few words. Martha’s “even now” may speak to us in a way that transcends time. This is not just a story about some friends of Jesus, “way back when” but is meant to speak to our personal experience of grief and loss, as well as our faith and trust in Jesus, “even now.” When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him; but Mary sat at home. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, God will give you.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.” Martha said to him, “I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day.” Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world.” Suggestions for prayer: Ask for the grace to know the depth of Martha’s grief and loss. Do you hear a sense of desperation and even disappointment with Jesus? And yet, for Martha, like many of us, our grief and loss is conditioned by a “but.” Even though Martha is grieving the loss of her brother and being let down by Jesus, she shifts to being a “reasonable” person, trusting that Jesus can still help them. In her conversation with Jesus, she seems to forget her grief and be assuaged by Jesus’ claim to be the “Resurrection and the Life.” It is the “Eternal Word” of God who is speaking to her, not the human Jesus, the “Word Made Flesh.” When someone whom you love dies, you hear words that are meant to be consoling: “They are in a better place. Their suffering has ended. God wants them to be with him.” We have all heard these words that are meant to be assuring, but do they really help? Imagine that you are Martha. What more do you want to say to Jesus? What meaning does Martha's "even now" have for you? The image I used today is a Peter Paul Rubens painting of the Raising of Lazarus that I found in a collection of artworks entitled “The Face of Jesus.” What is fascinating to see is how this Gospel passage is portrayed so differently depending on the century and the style of the time. This is from the Flemish Baroque school in the 16th Century. What a difference there is in Rubens' portrayal of the scene and the one I posted yesterday from the 13th century! This is so much more intimate. Rubens captures the depth of the emotions that the women and Lazarus must have felt. Notice the way they look at Jesus. What a difference in their expressions and those of the other men in the painting. Do you wonder who the third woman is? Could it possibly be Lazarus' wife? Yes, I know there is no mention of Lazarus' being married but who knows? Friends for Life....3/27/2023 This is my second post for today. It’s actually for tomorrow. Since I have a surgical procedure early tomorrow morning, I expect to be “out of it” for most of the day. What I decided to do this week is to continue to focus on Sunday’s gospel. Each day of the rest of the week will focus on some aspect of Jesus’ relationship with his friends, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. (The painting above is the work of Duccio di Buoninsegna a 13th-14th Century Italian painter.)
Tuesday of the 5th Week of Lent The scriptures this week are as “white hot” as the fiery furnace that we hear about in the book of Daniel on Wednesday. There is so much controversy, argument, anger, and rage in these passages that they do not easily lend themselves to prayer. As an alternative, we invite you to return to this past Sunday’s Gospel and again “place yourself with Jesus, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus.” So often in the Spiritual Exercises, St Ignatius invites the retreatant to speak to God, Jesus, Mary, “as one friend speaks to another.” We know from the scriptures that Jesus had a very special friendship with Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. One of our thirty-day retreatants last year shared her prayer on the hidden life of Jesus. In her prayer she imagined that Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived in Nazareth and were friends with the young Jesus. Eventually they moved to Bethany. This made them “old friends.” Suggestion for prayer: Bring to mind some of your “old friends.” How has their friendship nurtured you over the years? What are the special memories you have of them? Think of an “old friend” who has passed away. How has your life changed without their being physically present to you? Think about Jesus as he waited to return to Bethany? What was most in his mind? Would he have been thinking about the precious time that he had with Lazarus when they were growing up? What follows is a reflection on what it means to be “old friends” as you consider Jesus an “old friend.” As you read it you may think of Martha and Mary’s words to Jesus, “If you had been here, my brother would not have died.” old_friends.docx Her-Story3/27/2023 Monday of the Fifth Sunday of Lent Last year, the story of the woman caught in adultery was the Gospel for the 5th Sunday of Lent. I was prompted to write another version of “Stag Leap” for her story. The fifth verse is for "her." As you pray with today's Gospel, can you feel her fear for her life? The Gospel doesn't tell us much about her "back story" How would you fill in what is missing? What does she tell you about herself and how transformed she is by Jesus' love and acceptance for her? Stag Leap 3 If the world were not the way it is these days, this day I’d gladly sing Your praise. Watching waves washing white foam forming frothing, peaked cap sizing playful sea, I see. How can this be, when blue and yellow land Is dyed black and fools rush in with arms meant to amass destruction? How can this be, when blue and yellow land bedeviled by Voldemort’s reincarnation, Put in jeopardy by Satan’s prowling, turning blue skies to ashen gray, and amber waves of grain to empty husks for a hungry people? Once upon a time they say you cast out demons, bursting Beelzebub-ble. Can you not cast out this reputed demon? How many pleas and thanks do you need before your heart is moved to pity for this world, before you weep as you did for your friend, Lazarus? And as it was then, so it is now. There is the stench of war that fills the air that must be masked. Death and human decay are always that way and the weary, wary world wonders why and where and how you are? If the world were not as war torn as it is these days, this day I’d joyfully sing Your praise. But how hear this Lenten day Her story, standing alone, A pawn in their hands, Stone holding, ready to hurl and harm And not call to mind lines drawn in the sand, Love and forgiveness in incarnate, A stone’s throw away He draws her to him And stones fall from their hands Like sand in an hourglass. Is Prodigal Love enough reason to rejoice? Will Christ’s reconciling love hold sway and have its way? Wait and see, he says. There is a true blueness when you crane to see a people holding on despite all odds and even now showing courage giving new meaning to the color yellow. Seeing sky’s scrimshaw, clouds crowding sun, a light curtain alighting, a mischievous morning, my heart leaps like a stag trusting Christ, stag like, death destroying casting out demons But while we wait for his Eastering, stone rolling, unbinding, we must go stag. Engravings3/26/2023 Fifth Sunday of Lent
Thus says the Lord GOD: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them, and bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves and have you rise from them, O my people! I will put my spirit in you that you may live, and I will settle you upon your land; thus you shall know that I am the LORD. I have promised, and I will do it, says the LORD. This beautiful reading from Ezekiel is a perfect accompaniment to the Gospel of the Raising of Lazarus. Since my weekday reflections will focus on the story of Lazarus, today I share with you “Stag Leap” which I wrote for this Sunday in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic. A “Stag” is also a medieval symbol for Christ. Stag Leap If the world were not the way it is these days, this day I’d gladly sing Your praise. Watching waves washing white foam forming frothing, peaked cap sizing playful sea, I see. How can this be, when the world is ill, bedeviled by disease and despair? Once upon a time they say you cast out demons, bursting Beelzebul’s bubble. Can you not cast out this demon? How many pleas and thanks do you need before your heart is moved to pity for this world, before you weep as you did for your friend, Lazarus. And as it was then, so it is now. There is a stench that fills the air that must be masked. Disease, death and decay are always that way and the weary, wary world wonders why and where and how are you? If the world were not as ill as it is these days, this day I’d easily sing Your praise. Seeing sky’s scrimshaw, clouds crowding sun, a light curtain alighting, a mischievous morning, my heart leaps like a stag trusting Christ, stag like, death destroying casting out demons But while we wait for his Eastering, stone rolling, unbinding, we must go stag. I also include a homily given in 2014 by dear friend Fr JA Loftus. It’s really brilliant. 5th_sunday_in_lent__2023_.docx Just in Time3/25/2023 Feast of the Annunciation
I usually take a break from posting on Saturdays, focusing in prayer on the scriptures for Sunday. Since the feast of the Annunciation falls on a Saturday, I couldn’t let the opportunity pass to share again some of the choreography I have done of this scene. Who knows at what time of day the annunciation of the Angel Gabriel came to Mary? Was it at dawn at her waking, as in the Tanner painting? Was it at midday at the well where she went to fill a vessel with water? Was it at evening strolling the streets of Nazareth and stopping to behold a stunning sunset? Was it at night as she gazed at the moonlight coming through the window in the room where she slept? Whenever it happened, it was “just in time.” The annunciation is the moment in time of God’s breaking into human time and space and conceiving a new way of being divinely human. Thanks be to God for Mary’s willingness to be there “just in time.” This moment “just in time” has captured my choreographic imagination for the past 40 years. For almost 30, it was Ralph Vaughan Williams’ “The Lark Ascending” that announced the beauty and power of this moment in time. Over the past 10 years, it has been “Gabriel’s Message,” a Basque Christmas carol that I heard “just in time” as I was creating Christmas Reflections. The video link is Gabriel’s Message with Maresa D’Amore Morrison as Mary and Lexi Haarrington as Gabriel from the 2018 performance of A Dancer's Christmas. All the angels are dancers with Sara Knight’s Chevalier Ballet. All these dancers are grace personified! Gabriel's Message The angel Gabriel from heaven came His wings as drifted snow His eyes as flame "All hail" said he "thou lowly maiden Mary Most highly favoured maid," Gloria! "For known a blessed mother thou shalt be All generations laud and honor thee Thy Son shall be Emanuel By seers foretold Most highly favoured maid," Gloria! Then gentle Mary meekly bowed her head "To me be as it pleaseth God," she said "My soul shall laud and magnify his holy name." Most highly favoured maid Gloria! Of her Emanuel, the Christ was born In Bethlehem all on a Christmas morn And everyone throughout the world forever saved Most highly favoured maid Gloria! It’s lovely in its simplicity and does capture some of the mysteriousness of Mary’s encounter with God’s messenger. On this feast of the Annunciation it feels like Gabriel’s message is coming “just in time” for all of us in need of “grace, hope and healing.” I’m so grateful for Maresa D’Amore Morrison, Sara Knight and her dancers who are “godsends!” Below is a photo of Tanner's "Annunciation" A Thorn by any other name....3/24/2023 Friday of the 4th Week of Lent
I happened upon a rose-to-be bush and I became fascinated by the thorns. Ordinarily the thorns are hidden from sight by leaves, but these had not yet budded. I began to wonder how a creation as beautiful as a rose could share the same branch with something so potentially painful. Thorns prick the flesh, inserting themselves “under the skin,” It is very likely that the “touch” of a thorn will become an “ouch!” “Ouch” may be a good word to describe the scriptures today. The just person in the book of Wisdom, has countless “thorns in his side.” "Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings, Reproaches us for transgressions of the law and charges us with violations of our training. He professes to have knowledge of God and styles himself a child of the LORD. To us he is the censure of our thoughts; merely to see him is a hardship for us, Because his life is not like that of others, and different are his ways. The early Christian community recognized Jesus in these scripture texts. They saw him beset by his enemies who sought his death. By the time John is writing his Gospel around 100 CE, the emphasis on Jesus’ enemies was heightened by the rejection of many Jews of the claim that he was the Messiah. The “Jews” as a whole people were seen as responsible for the death of Jesus. The Jewish leaders were the “thorns in the side” of Jesus and later on for the communities who claimed that Jesus was the Messiah. The human tendency to blame and scapegoat the “other” came into full force in the Gospel writings. The “wicked” were the enemies of God and Jesus. The “good” were those who believed in him. I wonder if this “us vs. them” thinking is not the greatest thorn amidst the beautiful rose of Christianity. It is to see the other as “enemy” because they do not see the world as we do. I’m sure we have all known people who are “thorns” in our lives, who cause us pain when their lives touch ours. The “touch” can become an “ouch” and so much more. In his book, the Global Christ, Richard Rohr makes frequent reference to “great love and great suffering” as the two elements that give us a share in the divine live. Somehow, mysteriously, “thorns” and “roses” are meant for each other. Life is not life without love. Life is not life without suffering. Touch becomes “Ouch” and “Ouch” becomes Touch. Touché! Isn’t it also ironic that “thorns” exist as a defense mechanism for plants? I learned that roses do not have thorns but prickles. To paraphrase Will Shakespeare “A thorn by any other name will prickle as much.” We are living in a time of great uncertainty, where fears and anxieties in the present do not make it easy to see a “rosy” future. And yet when we look at a rose bush, we see both prickles and buds beginning to form. Suggestion for Prayer: Spend some time reflecting on the people and situations that are thorns in your life. Is there any way in which their “ouch” can teach you something about yourself? Ask Jesus to reveal what that might be. What hath God's Wroth?3/23/2023 Thursday of the 4th Week in Lent
I chose a photo of a flaming fire in a hearth/fireplace at the Old Yarmouth Inn in Yarmouth to accompany the scriptures that are filled with God's "blazing wrath." As you'll read below, Moses "talks God down" from his blazing anger. Although fire can be destructive, seen here it offers warmth and in this hearth was once used for cooking. It's all about transformation! Yesterday we heard one of the more beautiful and consoling passages from the prophet Isaiah, giving us an image of God who desires deliverance for a people in exile. It’s an image of new Exodus where God is doing marvels once again. And there is the tender image of a mothering God who will never forget her children. Well, as they say, it’s all downhill from here until Easter. (with a few exceptions, like the feast of the Annunciation and the Lazarus story on Sunday.) Today we have an image of God whose ego is bruised by the callousness and disobedience of his people. His wrath is blazing. That’s why the title for today is “what hath God’s wroth?” Wroth is a variant of wrath. What has God’s wroth is the disregard for the covenant, a rejection of God’s hesed (loving kindness.) Like ourselves when our egos are bruised and when we have experienced rejection, anger, even rage can overtake us, or to quote Greta Garbo, “I want to be alone.” Moses has to “talk God down” from his wrath and remind God of the covenant promise. Moses answers the question “What hath God wrought? Marvels and wonders for his people. Moses gets God to think less about his wroth and more about what he has wrought. And fortunately, God has a change of mind and heart and relents in his desire to punish his people. BTW, you probably know that the expression, “What hath God wrought”” was the first message that Samuel Morse telegraphed from Washington to Baltimore on May 24th 1844. Perhaps God is sending us a message; Remember what I have wrought. Remember the marvels that I have done for you. Forget my wroth and remember what I have wrought. In the Gospels we today, Jesus is involved in controversy. Those controversies with his opponents will heat up so much that next week we will hear how they are looking for opportunities to kill him. These are not easy readings to hear or pray about but here’s a suggestion for prayer. As you pray with images of God that are harsh and “ablaze with anger,” can you enter into a colloquy with God about your own tendency to rage, anger, indignation? What does it mean for you to place yourself with Jesus as you read and pray with the “controversial” Jesus? What does Jesus say to you about these very real human emotions that he must have felt and you may feel from time to time? Is your prayer today an invitation to let go of “wrath” and let yourself be “wreathed” with God’s mercy? Forget-me-nots3/22/2023 Wednesday of the 4th Week of Lent
When I decided to use the title "Forget-me-nots" given the consoling words of the prophet Isaiah, I had forgotten that I had a photo of the "forget-me-not" flowers. They really are so delicate and beautiful! Here’s the reflection that I wrote last year for the Eastern Point Lenten/Easter reflections on Holy Ground that was repeated this year. The Holy Ground of Eastern Point looks very different in the winter season when there is a snow cover. Part of the beauty is that you can see the footprints of someone who has made their way through the snow. The Isaiah reading speaks of mountains and highways, but this image may speak powerfully as well. For he who pities them leads them and guides them beside springs of water. I will cut a road through all my mountains, and make my highways level. See, some shall come from afar, others from the north and the west, and some from the land of Syene. Sing out, O heavens, and rejoice, O earth, break forth into song, you mountains. For the LORD comforts his people and shows mercy to his afflicted. If you have come from “near or far” to the “springs of water” at Eastern Point and walked on this Holy Ground, you most likely have known God’s comforting embrace. Perhaps you have prayed with these consoling words? (I wonder if there are any words in the scriptures more consoling than these?) “But Zion said, "The LORD has forsaken me; my Lord has forgotten me." Can a mother forget her infant, be without tenderness for the child of her womb? Even should she forget, I will never forget you.” At some point in our lives, each of us has felt this cry of the heart. Sometimes we feel “forsaken and forgotten.” Sometimes we may even feel like a “motherless child a long way from home.” Sometimes grief and loss are all-consuming. Can we let ourselves be held in God’s mothering embrace? If you’ve been to Eastern Point, you will recognize this statue of “mother and child.” Although it’s a “statue,” in prayer, the figure of Mary and Jesus, mother and child, comes to life. There is an exquisite tenderness in the way each “clings” to the other. There is such sweetness in the gaze of each. And there is something beautiful about our mothering God holding each of us in her arms and letting us cling to her. AuthorAs an ordained Catholic priest for 45 years and a member of the Jesuits for 57 years, I've had a great deal of "spiritual" experience! This is a place where I can continue to share my thoughts about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and what it means to live the "mystery of God." Categories |
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