Fifth Sunday of Lent

Fifth Sunday of Lent

“I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; …I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live…” Ezek. 37: 12,14.

 “If the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” Romans 8:11

 “I am the Resurrection and the Life.  Whoever believes in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.”  John 11: 25-26

Image: Unsplash

The message for this 5th Sunday of Lent holds up to us two promises: the coming of the indwelling, life-giving Spirit, and the eternal life that Spirit assures.  In the first reading, Ezekiel prophesies both the future gift of the Spirit and the resurrection to come.  Paul speaks to the early Christians living that promise in their now reality and assuring them of the life to come.  Then Jesus, raising his friend Lazarus from the dead, demonstrates the truth of his power over death, and speaks clearly that He is the Resurrection, and that all who live in him, will never die. 

Image: Unsplash/Paul Keiffer

We have heard and read these passages so often that sometimes they don’t really sink in.  Like Martha, we know and believe that we will “rise again at the resurrection on the last day”.  But do we realize that the life we will experience when that day comes is not a new life, to be given to us as a reward for living a good life here.  It is, in truth, the fullness of the very life we are living NOW, the life of the Godhead received at our Baptism.  The miracle is that by God’s free, deliberate, and loving gift, God infused the very life of the Trinity into us when, in the waters of Baptism, we were buried with Christ and rose to be a totally new kind of human.  We are now not just the wonderful stardust of the evolutionary process, but an even more amazing creature: I dare to say, the “God-dust” of a new creation, a human imbued with the very life of the Godhead.  That’s a bigger big bang than the first one! So, all our lives, from our Baptism on, our “graves are being opened” and we are rising from the dead by the power of the Spirit who has been given to us.  However, like Lazarus when he first came out of the tomb, we are alive, and yet we are still “bound” by the limits of our mortality and need to be unbound and “let go” in order to live this new life to the full.  Little by little we need to allow God and life to unbind us, to set us free and thus to reveal the wonder of the new creation that we are.  

Image: Unsplash/Pisit Heng

So, I ask: What is the unbinding that is taking place in my life this lent?  Could it be letting go of resentments?  Changing attitudes of discrimination, judgment, or non-inclusion? Seeking comfort or pleasure a little less avidly? or reaching out to unbind someone else who needs to be set free?  Whatever that unbinding might be, I invite Jesus, to come and awaken me.  Show me where I am asleep, still bound, or not letting go.  Come Jesus, call out to me, as you did to Lazarus, “come out”, so that I may live more fully the Trinitarian life planted in me at my Baptism so long ago.   

-Sister Mary Diesbourg, CSJ

Give Us Eyes to See You Clearly

In this Sunday’s longer version of the reading from John’s gospel, we witness a series of dramatic interchanges. As Jesus walks along, he takes notice of the blind man who will play a central part in the upcoming scenes to follow.

Jesus ’disciples question  who bore the responsibility for the man’s blindness. There soon becomes a juxtaposition between two differing realities, one of physical blindness and the other of inner blindness. As Jesus refutes the disciples’ assertions, he underscores their blindness, their inability to see and understand God’s ways. Ways not of retribution but ways of divine revelation.

In contrast to other reported miracles, it is Jesus, the healer who is the initiator rather than the one seeking to be cured. The focus is on the blind man, yet he remains nameless. I find myself wondering, was the omission of his name unintentional or by purposeful design?  Was the gospel writer, John, extending an opportunity to become more than merely a spectator?

If we stepped into the developing scene as the one born blind, what might we experience?

How might we hear the disciples question Jesus about our blindness? What might we make of Jesus’ self-identification, “I am the light of the world” as one unable to see light?

How might we sense Jesus’ presence as he reaches down and places the moist mud on our eyes?

What might be our experience of being able to see?

How might we feel ourselves reacting to our neighbours and the Pharisees numerous questions? Would we struggle amid our own wonderment to tell others all that had happened?

On this “Rejoice” Sunday of Lent, may the God of Goodness give us eyes to see what good we have not yet noticed in ourselves and others.

-Sr. Nancy Wales, CSJ

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Image: Unsplash/Guillermo

Lent 3 - Jesus is Thirsty

JESUS IS THIRSTY (John: 4:1-42)

Image: Unsplash/Jimmy Chang

Jesus and his disciples are leaving Judea where Jesus had turned water into wine at the wedding feast in Cana, and where he made a lot of enemies by cleansing the temple of its money-changers, and where John the Baptist had been baptizing with water.  Jesus’ followers were also baptizing with water. 

While these events may not have occurred simultaneously in John’s Gospel, we can be sure that Jesus was tired and thirsty when he and his disciples reached Jacob’s well in the land of Samaria on their way to Galilee.

“Will you give me a drink?” Jesus said to the Samaritan woman.  She obviously had to be asked and did not anticipate that here was a thirsty man waiting for a helping hand to relieve his thirst.  She saw only a Jewish man who would reject, with contempt, a Samaritan woman. 

Surprise!  Jesus uses his thirst to reveal his weakness and invites this woman at the well to thirst for water to drink so that she will never be thirsty again.  As we continue to read Chapter 4 in John’s Gospel we see that many Samaritans in the town believed in Jesus on the strength of the woman’s word of testimony: “He told me everything I ever did.” 

Jesus’ thirst at the well eventually transformed the entire town into “thirsty” believers;  Jesus really is, “the Savior of the world”.

-Sister Elaine Cole, CSJ

The Spiritual Path of Lent

Lent is that annual time of year when I am challenged to examine the spiritual path I’m walking on.

Am I even walking on a SPIRITUAL PATH?

To walk a spiritual path presumes there have been choices along the way which keep me focused on what I cannot see.  Here is one example.

Why are the leaves on my philodendron plant all facing toward my window?  If I turn the plant, then over time the leaves again all face toward the window.  Do they have a longing to be outside growing beside that tree in the backyard?  Or do they have some inner awareness that their life depends on the light energy coming from outside my window?  I am a witness, not of the energy my plant is using for its life but I am a witness of the effect the invisible energy is having on the actions of my plant.

I think our lives are more complicated because we have to CHOOSE to face the direction of the energy we need for our lives.  Am I even facing in the direction of the energy I need to walk on a spiritual path?  Love is that energy.  Life is about experiencing being loved and respected and giving love and respect to another.  Life is about relationships, about receiving and about giving.  The way I receive and give love energy is a choice I make. 

During LENT we witness the life of Jesus; we witness all his loving relationships no matter what the hardships he suffered.  His primary gaze was loving obedience to the will of the Father and then actively sharing that love with his followers.  In examining my life, I ask myself, “Am I even on that spiritual path with Jesus?”

This Lent, go home and let your plants teach you how to follow the energy you need for saving the life of your soul. 

 -Sister Elaine Cole, CSJ

...a Time of Healing

ASH WEDNESDAY….a Time of Healing

Restoring right relationships with self, God, one another, and creation is an act of love that is central in all faith traditions however it is expressed; it is the work of a lifetime and essential to peace and harmony in all creation.  

For Christians, Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, is an invitation to rethink our relationships with a renewed desire to transcend our ego and live more lovingly with one another. Traditionally the practices of prayer, self-denial, and support of the poor and marginalized seeking justice mark this sacred season. These 40 days are observed in commemoration of the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness preparing for his public ministry and for us they are a preparation for the celebration of the great feast of Easter, the living out of our mission of love.

For Jews, the ten days of Awe culminating in Yom Kippur are the holiest days of the year, a time of fasting, prayer and reflection focusing on the sins of the past year and seeking forgiveness.

Imam Johari Abdul-Malik describes the 5 steps to forgiveness: admit your wrongdoing, detest it in your heart, commit to turning away from it, make restitution and finally ask for God’s forgiveness. Self-forgiveness is an important part of this process of atonement.

Sweat lodge ceremonies, spiritual practices of Indigenous people, are sources of healing, wisdom and gratitude where one purifies the mind, body and soul in order to restore right relationships with creation, our brothers and sisters and the Creator.

Lent is a time to strengthen your relationship with the God of Jesus, a time to reflect on where you are and where your heart is calling you to grow.  God loves you just the way you are but loves you too much to leave you there. The choice is yours.

-Sister Ann Marshall, csj