Your will be done

A grove of olive trees near where Jesus prayed as his Passion began.  Not a hushed, secluded moment.  The whole area would have been crowded with the tents of noisy pilgrims here for the feast of Passover.
Most of us are inclined to focus on the pain and suffering of the Passion.  None of the Gospel writers do.  Matthew writes only, "Having scourged Jesus" and further on "Having crucified him."  The Gospel writers are more interested in the meaning of the Passion.  Matthew gets at it right at the beginning in the olive garden (26:36-46.)  Jesus prays, "My Father, if it is possible, let this cup of suffering pass away from me."  Only Matthew tells us what Jesus prays  the second time he goes off by himself: "My Father, if it is not possible that this cup pass away without my drinking it, your will be done."
Those last four words are in Matthew's version of the Lord's Prayer, the one we pray.  This attitude of loving acceptance of the Father's will gives the meaning of the entire Passion.
We pray with our whole being that God will soon destroy this evil that threatens mankind; at the same time we say with Jesus, "Your will be done."

Be Still

A plum tree blooming this morning  that wasn't blooming yesterday.
These weeks of isolating ourselves are a good time to try going beyond prayers that are written or memorized, a perfect time to try meditation and contemplation. Some of you have already been praying in those ways.  In the past several days I've shared with you here experiences that I have had meditating on Scripture.  To oversimplify, meditation is thinking about God and talking to God in our own words; contemplation is letting God draw us into Godself.  Someone just sitting on their porch or looking out a window or walking in a woods might well be lost in contemplation.  This kind of prayer is God's work. All that's required of us is making ourselves available to God.

The one you love is sick.

Some thoughts prompted by the times and the Gospel for the 5th Sunday of Lent.
(I suggest you first read John 11:1-45)

In this Gospel Mary and Martha send a message to Jesus : "Lord, the one you love is sick."  Jesus was close friends with this family, so the message that the sisters sent was more likely, "Lord, Lazarus is sick."  John, however, in telling the story for purposes of his Gospel has their message say, "the one you love."  That's our whole human race.  We are all "the one Jesus loves," and we are sick.

Jesus doesn't act immediately.  He delays.  When Jesus does get to Bethany and sees his friends Mary and Martha crying he starts to cry himself.  Those who see him crying say, "See how much he loved him."  But others say,, "If he really loved Lazarus, why didn't he keep him from dying?"  If Jesus really loves us, why didn't he prevent this illness that threatens us all?

Jesus loves our human race with a love that never runs out.  His love is powerful enough to bring Lazarus out of his tomb.  If the love of Jesus can bring a man back from the dead, his love can certainly destroy  this evil.

We beg Jesus, "Unbind us, and let us go free.  If only you were here."  Jesus is always here, living in us and around us, binding us to one another.  He always acts, sometimes when we want it, but always when we need it.

Find Peace

As Jesus concludes his long discourse at the Last Supper in John's Gospel (16:16-33) and before he begins his long prayer, he assures the disciples and us,  "I have said this to you so that in me you may find peace."  Peace flows from belief in Jesus and consists in union with him.  There are still some difficulties in the world, like this evil virus, that we must have the courage to deal with.  But believing in Jesus and relying on him living within us we will find peace.

Paraclete?

We are having so much rain that the water in this stream is gushing under the road on its way to the Lake.
"It is for your own good that I go away.  For if I do not go away the Paraclete will never come to you," (John 16:7)   In his translation Father Ray Brown practically repeats the Greek word because he says that no one translation captures the complexity of the functions of this one figure.  The Paraclete is a witness and a spokesman for Jesus.  He is the consoler of the disciples for he takes the place of Jesus among them.  He is their teacher and guide and so their helper.  After the resurrection of Jesus, the invisible Paraclete lives within the disciples and within us to perform these same functions.

If the world hates you

Jesus prepares his followers for being hated by the Jews of the synagogue and the Roman Empire in John 15:18-16:4.  I know there have also been times and places where Christians have been hated and persecuted since then.  At the present time I would say that the world is indifferent towards Christians.  I don't feel any hatred from the majority of  the world around us. So much of what the world values comes from our Jewish-Christian morality, but organized religion has not appeal for most people.  I know  no other way to deal with it than to love everyone I meet with the unending love of God.

The Feast of the Incarnation

Today we celebrate the moment when God became human in Jesus.  This Mystery infinitely surpasses human comprehension.  Within Mary's womb a child begins to grow who is completely divine as well as completely human.  John Duns Scotus, a 13th century theologian taught that the Incarnation was willed through all eternity as an expression of God's love.  Jesus not only shows us how to be human but enables us to show love and mercy to the poor and the sick and the outcast.  Like his whole life, his death on the cross was an expression of God's love and compassion.  In Christ's resurrection God gathers Jesus and all humanity into this eternal love.  We are saved by the Incarnation.
Henry Ossawa Tanner in his painting, Annunciation, expresses brilliantly the Holy Spirit's presence in the moment.

Home of the Spirit

This is the view from my favorite room in my home.  It's my bedroom, office, and prayer room.
I used Romans 8:8-11 for meditation today.  In these four verses St. Paul assures us four times that God, Jesus, and the Spirit make their home in us.  By "us" he means the community, but he knows that making their home in each of us is the only way they make their home in all of us.  The verbs that St. Paul uses mean that the Spirit of God is here to stay for good. All our goodness as individuals and as a human race flows from the Spirit within.

Do You Believe This?

While I took this picture in the country of Jordan across the River from the Holy Land, the tomb of Lazarus would have been like this. I used John 11:1-45 for scripture meditation today.  Stuck in my memory since I saw it is the scene of the raising of Lazarus from the old movie, The Greatest Story Ever Told. It  was shot as a wide scene from a distance looking down a gentle slope towards the tomb and Jesus.  We could see the crowds and hear Jesus shout, " Lazarus, come out!" This scene was in my imagination as I meditated.
After Jesus says to Martha,"Whoever believes in me, even if they die, will come to life," he asks her, "Do you believe this?"  In the meditation, Jesus also asked me.  I realized that in my whole life I had never doubted this and I felt deep gratitude.

Meditation

I took my camera with me on my walk this morning.  On my way home I stopped at this spot for a minute as I often do.  I thank God for making me aware of God's presence in this beauty.  That's a kind of meditation. Sometimes I get sort of lost in the beauty.  That's more like contemplation.  My home is full of beautiful pictures, glass, stained glass, statues, crosses.  Sometimes they call my attention to God.  To oversimplify, meditation is talking to God, contemplation is getting lost in God.
We have the opportunity with the extra time that many of us have now to try meditation. All we need  to do is choose something beautiful and talk to God about it.

But now I see

Sunrise on the Sea of Galilee.
Jesus spat on the ground and made clay with his saliva and smeared it on the eyes of a man born blind.  He then told the man to go and wash in the pool called "Sent."  The man sees.  His sight was restored in two stages.  His faith in Jesus comes in several stages through a series of questions and answers with a variety of people.
As I meditated this morning on this passage from John's Gospel (9:1-41,) I started thinking about how gradually my faith relationship with God has grown.  I thought of my ancient ancestors who may have brought their Druid beliefs into their Christian faith that they were hearing about from St. Patrick. 
I remembered my childhood love for going to church and how that matured enough for me to go to the seminary at age 14.  I felt gratitude for how the seminary experience drew me into a deeper and deeper relationship with God to the point where, after twelve years, I no longer saw the rule and the bell as the voice of God.
After I became a priest I remembered how my faith grew as my prayer life changed from the time-consuming recitation of the daily breviary to the stimulation of meditation on the Scriptures to the profound experience of centering prayer and my still growing awareness of what it means to have Love Who loves us living in me and carrying me to others.  So much to be grateful for.
I decided to write a longer blog today since I'm not writing a homily this weekend.  I also wanted to share with you how meditation on the Scriptures works.  I took about 20 minutes, read the passage again, and then talked to God about it.  Try it.  Most of us have more time than usual that we could give to this.

Joyous Springtime

Spring started last night before midnight.  Today nature came through with 70 temperatures and lots of sunshine and heavy wind.  Colts Foot is the only flower I've seen blooming in this neighborhood.  It is brave but cautious. It doesn't grow more than an inch off the ground so it can retreat if temperature drops. 
In these weeks of seclusion I pray that more of us might discover contemplative prayer.  Turn off everything and be still and let God get at us.

7th Anniversary of Mercy

This window of St. Joseph at work is in a church I visited in the Holy Land years ago. Today is his feast.
Today is also the 7th Anniversary of Pope Francis' Inauguration as Bishop of Rome.  I thought it was too much to ask God for a progressive pope, so I prayed for a man who loved the world and believed in the Second Vatican Council.  God blessed us with way more than that. 
The Gospel story for the first Sunday after his election was about how Jesus showed mercy to the woman caught in adultery, when her accusers wished to stone her to death. In his homily Francis said, Jesus has this message for us: mercy.  I think--and I say it with humility--this is the Lord's most powerful message: mercy." As the leader of our church Francis has shown mercy and urged us, the Church, to show mercy.

Vine and Branches

"I am the vine; you are the branches," says Jesus to the disciples at the Last Supper (John 15:1-6.)  Because of our intimate union with him, we are able to bear fruit, able to tell others what Jesus means to us.

Without Church

St. Patrick, pray for us and for the whole world.
Even though his father was a deacon and his grandfather a priest, Patrick says that he wasn't a very religious child.  At 16 he was kidnapped from his family estate on the west coast of Britain and sold into slavery in Ireland.  He was made to look after some sheep.  Here all by himself without church, Patrick turned to God.  He tells us "Even when I was staying out in the woods or on the mountain, I used to rise before dawn for prayer in snow or frost or rain...."
With our churches closed because of the "virus" we can still grow in our relationship with God through prayer on our own.

Serenity

Only part of a large flock of swans across the Lake this week.  Clicking on picture enlarges it.
"Do not let your hearts be troubled." (John 14:1)  Jesus at the Last Supper is trying to comfort his disciples in the face of his leaving them.  He speaks to us, too, in our troubled times.  Jesus encourages us to have faith in God's firmness, like dropping an anchor in a troubled sea.

Love the Hallmark

This week's full moon near setting
I'm beginning to use for Bible meditation the long talk Jesus has with his disciples at the Last Supper in John's Gospel.  Today what struck me was "By this will all identify you as my disciples--by the love you have for one another"(13:35)  Jesus pushes me to love those in the parish with whom I disagree or whom I don't like.  (The translation is Father Raymond Brown's from his commentary on John, a 1200 page book that I bought in 1970 for $8.)

Everyday Mystics

I am keenly aware of God in such moments as this.  God was always there along the  road, in the trees, in the sun, but sometimes things come together in a way that startles us into a more vivid awareness of God's presence.

Thin Place

I like the suggestion about the Transfiguration in the newest commentary that I have, The Paulist Biblical Commentary: "It seems best to regard this occurrence on a 'high mountain' as one of those moments in the story when the barrier between the heavenly and earthly slips away for a time to allow his (Jesus') divinity to shine through."  For some years now I have come to imagine heaven as sort of a dimension separated from ours by a thin membrane.  I imagine Jesus as a kind of portal through to the "other world." 

Redeeming Humanity

This bleak mountain in the lush Jordan River valley is considered the desert where Jesus chooses not to be a spectacular Son of God, but a human being like us.  By trusting God to act in God's own good time, Jesus lives our life and makes our humanity holy.