Often the date of death is called one’s birthday into eternal life. Consequently the date of death sometimes becomes the day on which the Church celebrates canonized saints. If our foundress Hilligonde Wolbring (in religious life Sister Maria Aloysia) ever becomes canonized, May 6 could become her feastday. That date would be felicitous, because one week later on May 13 our congregation celebrates Saint Julie Billiart, our spiritual mother. The charisms of these two sisters are similar. Saint Julie often said “Oh, how good is the good God!” Sister Maria Aloysia and her co-foundress Sister Maria Ignatia Kuhling left a legacy of trust in the goodness and provident care of God. May the Sisters of St. Julie’s congregation, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, and our congregation continue giving to the Church and the world a belief in God’s goodness. And may God be praised for God’s goodness!
Mary F. C. Pratt writes in her poem “Spring Beholding” that “bluebird, robin, forgotten songs come home.” When life is fraught with tension, when the burdens weigh us down, we forget to sing. But if we can even remember the musical line “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen,” the memory of this doleful songs names the problem. And naming is half the battle. “OK,” we tell ourselves, “it’s just a burden; it’s not the end of the world. Find another song.” Search your repertoire for a song of hope, and sing. “Somewhere over the rainbow. . . .” “The sun will come out tomorrow. . . .” “Jesus Christ is risen today!”
During Lent, fish fry events spring up like weeds after a drought. Certainly this is advantageous for the church coffers and convenient for those abstaining from meat. But from a scriptural point of view, why stop eating fish after Easter? Didn’t Jesus prepare a breakfast of fish after he rose from the dead? Weren’t fish part of the resurrection feast? And didn’t Peter even stop to count the fish? 153 in one net nearly breaking! (John 21:1-14) And didn’t eating a piece of broiled fish prove that it was really Jesus risen from the dead? (Luke 24:36-43) So if you’re a scriptural gourmet, keep the fish fry going throughout the Easter season.
There used to be a commercial asking the question: “How do you spell relief?” My answer is “T-R-U-S-T.” Trust in “Ask, and you shall receive.” Trust in “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” Trust in “I will never forget you.” Certainly there are times in life when trust seems almost impossible. Our minds rivet on “It will never happen.” In such times we might reflect on the poem “Saturday” by L. N. Allen from Six Holy week Triolets.
To set the mind on the flesh is death.
Set the mind on the Spirit for life and peace.
Note where the sun rises, not where it sets.
To set the mind on the flesh is death.
Pray to Abba for hope. Not for breath,
But for mercy, forgiveness, release.
To set the mind on the flesh is death.
Set the mind on the Spirit for life and peace.
Joseph,
Man of prayer,
Man of prayer-filled expectation,
Man of prayer filled with expectant longing
Man of prayer filled with expectant longing for birth
Man of prayer filled
with expectant longing for birthplace in Bethlehem
Man of prayer filled with expectant longing for birthplace in Bethlehem
of no room
Of no room for a God who instills dreams
Dreams to go and take Mary
Take Mary’s place in suffering labor
Suffering labor in a carpenter’s shop
Suffering labor in a stable
Suffering labor in a stable betrothal with Mary
With Mary who is contracting
Who is contracting with God’s covenant
Covenant of “yes”
Covenant of “yes” at marriage
Covenant of “yes” at marriage between God and humanity
In Jesus their son
In Jesus, Son of God.
The story of Moses approaching the burning bush is a favorite story. Like Moses, we learn to be alert and curious to discover God’s presence in unlikely places. A thorn bush in a desert? And we learn to listen wherever God calls us, there where our hearts begin to burn in a place where we never expect to hear from God.
During Lent we may visit prayerful places often as we follow our Lenten practices—the confessional, a Bible study group, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, Stations of the Cross. God will be there. Yet we need to be alert to the unlikely places: pizza parlor, barber shop, grocery store, car, basketball court, backyard….
Lent is a time to deepen our spirituality, but what really is spirituality? Patricia Livingston says “Spirituality is meeting God in all that life is.” Similarly Gerard Broccolo claims, “Spirituality is how I cope with life.” Richard Rohr writes, “Spirituality is always about letting go.” Perhaps you have your own definition of spirituality. I think for everyone the key to spirituality lies in Galatians 2:20. “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” Our Lenten’s journey has a destination: Christ in us!
“For our sakes God made him who did not know sin to be sin, so that in him we might become the very holiness of God.” (2 Cor. 5:21)
We call Jesus Christ by many names: Lord, Messiah, Prince of Peace, Good Shepherd, Bread of Life, King, Brother, and the list goes on. Today’s Second Reading calls him “sin.” Jesus Christ emptied himself of his divinity and took upon himself sin. Why? So that “in him we might become the very holiness of God.”
Lent is a time to free ourselves from sin, which often is a form of self-centeredness. We are reminded to change our hearts. We’re told to lose ourselves in order to find ourselves. All these Lenten reminders speak of Lent’s ultimate penance; namely, changing ourselves into Christ. If we can truly say, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who lives, but it is Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20), then we will have found our true selves. We will become “the very holiness of God.”
So let’s pick up the cross of becoming transformed into Christ. Let us die during Lent to become the living Christ at Easter and always.
What kind of prayer, penance, and almsgiving will allow you to live the life of Christ, to become Christ?
As I write my blogs I am sitting in a carpeted basement and facing a long gray wall. But I never lose a chance to see the outdoors or take an extra moment to see something beautiful in book or on internet. When I clean at Lial Renewal Center I always take a look outside between tasks, never tiring of the same scene, which never is the same scene. Ralph Waldo Emerson had this same “gotta see it” spirit. He wrote: “Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything that is beautiful; for beauty is God’s handwriting—a wayside sacrament. Welcome it in every fair face, in every fair sky, in every fair flower and thank God for it as a cup of blessing.” Today challenge yourself to take five-second breaks to look outside or notice the beautiful. Then say, “Thank you, God.”
What do you long for? More time? More money? A change in habits or attitudes? Whatever you long for, “If we go down into ourselves we find that we possess exactly what we desire” (Simone Weil). God puts into our hearts the desires that will help us become the person we are meant to be, while simultaneously aiding the world in becoming what it’s supposed to be—a place of peace, justice, and unity. Reflect today on your desires. How can they surface? What could be put aside so that you have the time and energy to fulfill that desire? Of course, this isn’t easy. e. e. cummings wrote: “To be nobody-but-myself—in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting. Am I really myself? Or am I a conglomeration of all the false selves other people wanted me to be?” Be yourself today by attending to your desire.