What Shall We Do With Our Hearts?

“What do we do with our hearts, confronted daily as we are with so much suffering of our world?”  I ask this question often as I listen to others speak about countless numbers of people and places battered by hurricanes, fires, floods, drought, and the unleashing of senseless violence, deadly prejudice and pervasive injustice. I hear in us a felt sense of compassion.  I realize that we live in a time of great loss and chaos, and find myself grieving so much destruction by human hands. I feel deep angst about the dangerous planetary crisis we humans have already precipitated, and wonder what we might do next.

I’m remembering a movie I saw some years ago, “Life is Beautiful”, in which a Jewish father uses his loving imagination to keep life beautiful for his young son in the midst of the Nazi takeover of their lives.

This is a similar time for me, and I want to learn to take the angst I feel, and lift it to a place of transformation. Perhaps this is a time for us to find one another, a time to remember that we belong to each other and that together we can change the story in which we find ourselves living. It is a time to remember that we are surrounded by love and beauty, and can open our hearts to others and invite them in.

May we find one another and come together to share the work of our hearts–our fears and dreams, our needs and our visions.  May we find hope and strength as we imagine together “the world we know is possible” and work together and encourage one another to build that world right now wherever we are.  May we deeply know that each of us is beautiful and is created to enjoy beauty and create beauty.  May we surrender to the beauty and wisdom of our generous Earth, and be strengthened in the joy and gratitude which will arise from living consciously within the embrace of our human/earth community.

Reflection and Artwork by Sr. Mary Southard, CSJ (used with permission)
Mary Southard Art www.marysouthardart.org

Rise up in love!

Jesus cried out with a loud voice three bold imperatives and Lazarus of Bethany came forth from the entrance of the cave experiencing resurrection from the dead. “Lazarus, come out! Unbind him, let him go free” (Jn. 11:44).

There are different levels of understanding in the Gospel of John. There is the historical level: the fact that a man who had been dead for four days comes back to life. This is a miracle that proclaims the glory, majesty and power of God, who is Lord of life and death. The crowd sees this glory and many believe.

There is the symbolic level. Aren’t we all Lazarus? Don’t we all need a miracle of resurrection to wake us up and free us to live the rest of our lives, fully alive! Are there not parts of each of us that are still bound up and left entombed, hidden in our unconscious out of fear, self-doubt or brokenness? Over time, these ‘shadow’ areas provoke a kind of negativity around us and within us, causing pain, hurt and ruptures in our relationships. This raising of Lazarus miracle is a powerful reminder to cry out for liberation and freedom…not just for ourselves but for others who suffer.   

Jesus wants us to rise up and become fully alive. He calls us out of those secret, darkened, tomblike places we carry around within us. “Be and become the person God wants YOU to be in nature, in grace and in glory, for time and for eternity” (M.P. 10:6). Truly, God has big plans for us. “I have come so that they may have life and have it to the full (Jn. 10:10). So, we must not settle down into the complacency of a small, mediocre, selfish lifestyle. “Come out! Unbind him, let him go free.” It is a commanding invitation to true freedom, creativity and possibility. Allow these words to effect in us a miracle of Love.

Our resurrection process begins when we obey the commands of Jesus to come into the light and allow the masks and pretenses to fall off. Today, just as in the Gospel account, Jesus asks others to do the unbinding. Spiritual directors, pastors and counselors offer this ministry of unbinding persons lost in their false selves and bound up in compulsive and addictive patterns of behaviours that are destructive to themselves and others. There needs to be a quality of trust and intimacy in these healing relationships – like the familiarity and friendship between Jesus and Lazarus – for the miracle of transformation to happen. Over time and with deep listening and trustful encounters, the masks fall off and “your hidden, true self grows strong” (Eph. 3:17). What a profound grace to witness. Rise up in love!

This week consider sharing your ‘Lazarus’ miracle story with a good friend over morning coffee.                                                                                                                                                                    

Rosemary O’Toole, csj

Stay the Course

I suspect that all of us, at some point in our lives, were faced with a challenge that called for a great deal of endurance and perseverance. The goal was almost within reach but the energy was faltering, self-doubts were creeping in, and the temptation to give up was increasingly gnawing at our resolve. Yet, having come so far, we felt compelled to stay the course, a little longer anyway, just in case, and we did achieve what seemed unachievable.

Could this be happening to us at this mid-point on our Lenten journey? The enthusiasm with which we undertook this soul quest on March 01 might be waning; some guilt may have set in over our perceived lack of fidelity to the spiritual practices and discipline we had embraced at the onset; calling everything off might seem the honest thing to do. Yet, we have made it to the 4^th week, by God’s grace. And just as we may be teetering between abandoning the journey or carrying on, this Sunday’s Scriptures remind us that the Lord is our shepherd, that He is there to restore our souls, to comfort us in our walking, be it through the darkest valley, and lead us with His rod and His staff to pause by restful waters.

All around us, nature has also come to a decisive moment as new life seeks to break through earth’s winter-hardened surfaces.  As a community of beings in this hemisphere, we are indeed all on a journey from death to life together, with God’s love embracing everyone and everything every step of the way, ‘weak knees’ and all.  The glory of the Resurrection is already beckoning us.

This is a time to remember that the journey is always about returning to God’s love, to the dear neighbour and to the promise of new life. This is a time to reach out to each other already on the journey, to welcome and encourage new pilgrims, and stay the course. The path is made by walking. (Antonio Machado)      

Nicole Aubé csj    

Jesus and the Samaritan Woman: A Surprise Reconciliation

John is noted for his one on one dialogues, encounters between Jesus and another, which results in insight and transformation. This is what happens in Jesus’ encounter with this lady of Samaria, alone at the well at noon.  She should have drawn her water early in the morning with the other ladies, laughing and talking and hauling up the water for the day, but she has to wait until everyone is inside resting and we find out why. Her life with multiple “husbands” makes her an outsider.

Jesus here is an outsider too: a Jew, in Samaria, where the centuries of mutual charges of religious unorthodoxy and hateful prejudice should have ensured their mutual avoidance of each other.

Then Jesus, shockingly for Jewish listeners, breaks the rules as he requests water from this woman, and she breaks them on her side by even noting his request. The theme of thirst connects them both, over water, the key of life. Jesus’ spiritual promise of an eternally satisfying water only he can give, is met with the woman’s misunderstanding. For the listener, however, Jesus’ promise rings true since our encounter with Jesus does result in that fountain of life springing up like a fountain  inside us.

In Jesus’ responses which show his knowledge of her true life, she tries to distance herself from him, stating the differences in the place of worship which divides their two peoples, but Jesus brushes it away in his promise of a future re-unification of both in the worship of God in Spirit and in Truth. Then, he reveals himself as the Messiah for whom both peoples wait.

Now John shows us the  effects of this powerful spiritual current she has received from Jesus:  she leaves that earthenware water jar there, and instead hurries to the very townspeople she had been trying to avoid  and announces  “Come , see a man who told me all that I ever did. He couldn’t be the Messiah could he?” And they do respond to her call. And amazingly, invite Jesus to stay with them, which he does, for three days. And they tell the woman, “It is no longer because of your words, that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed, the Saviour of the world”.   

This account shows us the effects of the waters of life that spring up from an encounter with Jesus: it is the complete ignoring of prejudices, suspicions and long held separations justified on religiously self-righteous grounds. Rather there is a free and refreshing outreach in love and care for others, a reconciliation, and a union, which is a worship of God in Spirit and in Truth.

Sister Wendy Cotter CSJ, Ph.D.              

Embrace the Ordinary

The season of Lent offers each of us an opportunity to refresh, renew, replenish and reawaken to the mystery of Gods’ loving presence within life. It is frightening to face our patterned responses, established safety nets and the boundaries that our language, assumptions, fears and experiences can create. At the essence of our csj spirituality lies the pathway to freedom from our clever sophistication and ego needs. Embrace the ordinary. Herein lies the wonders, delights and marvels of God's revelation. Simple humble acceptance of our fragile, incomplete and vulnerable selves will strengthen us in this journey. It will be the bridge that allows diversity to flourish without fear and creativity to chart the pathway forward. This season challenges us to remove the lens of familiarity and comfort and stand before our naked reality with trust. We are called to climb the mountain of clutter that distracts us from the mystery of life and love. This takes real courage and the love of Christ that has gathered us together in One.

Marg Keller, CSJ