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Lenten Reflection - Day 28 - A Reactive Audience For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. —John 5:18Have you noticed how reactive the religious authorities were when Jesus taught and healed? Especially in this section of John’s Gospel, there’s a sense that the leaders aren’t even trying to understand what Jesus wants to communicate. They jump on him and find fault every time he speaks up. They take offense when they feel targeted rather than listen more deeply to hear what he’s really saying. They find reasons to dismiss, discredit, and ultimately silence him. Why? Because they were threatened that they would lose their power when Jesus challenged the status quo.Pope Francis’ biggest emphasis throughout the synod process has been to challenge and encourage everyone in the Church to listen more thoughtfully, especially to those we don’t fully agree with. He has shown his willingness to let everyone have a voice, from appointing lay people and women as voting members for the first time to meeting with members of the LGBTQ community and survivors of clergy sexual abuse. He arranged for all the participants to be seated at circular tables (and he joined them) rather than tables in straight lines facing a particular leader. He has continually called for an attitude of open and receptive listening so that we can hear the truth in everyone’s experience rather than reactively shutting down people we don’t understand or agree with. The Pharisees missed experiencing the Holy Spirit in new and expansive ways because they didn’t want to listen closely to Jesus. Pope Francis doesn’t want us to miss out on how the Holy Spirit works in and among every person.
Lenten Reflection - Day 27 - We Need Works, TooIf a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. —James 2:15-17Did you commit to some form of almsgiving this Lent? How has it been going so far? Have you found joy, lightness, or a new perspective in giving of your money or material goods? Who has your almsgiving aided?There’s a reason almsgiving is included with our devotions to prayer and fasting during this season; it reminds us to look outside of ourselves. Almsgiving challenges us to “walk the walk” and not just “talk the talk.” What good does it do God or God’s people if we spend hours a day praying and fast from all manner of earthly pleasures but forget (or choose not) to provide for another’s physical needs? Giving a panhandler a granola bar, a gift card to a coffee shop, or $10 or $20; donating to a clothing drive; taking food to a lonely neighbor; or cleaning out the garage and passing along items we no longer use to a person who can use them are opportunities for us to demonstrate our faith through works.
Lenten Reflection - Day 26 - Forward, Not BackFor I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating. —Isaiah 65:17-18aThere are times when it is necessary and appropriate to re-visit experiences, places, or relationships that harmed us or caused us pain so that we can find closure and healing. Yet, we can be obsessive about re-living or re-hashing negative events or conversations to the point of creating more suffering for ourselves. We can let ourselves re-live the past so often that we no longer live in the present and can’t receive the gifts available to us now.Isaiah gave some good therapeutic advice to the Israelites who had been traumatized by their capture and exile. He didn’t ask them to pretend that nothing bad had happened (he acknowledged that and grieved with them earlier in the book). But at some point, he asked them to turn their thoughts back to the present, where God was already busy creating a new life for them, and where they could look forward to being free again.
Lenten Reflection - Day 25 - In This WayFor God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. —John 3:16In modern times, we tend to understand this famous verse in the sense of “For God loved the world SO much...” when, in reality, the original text meant “For God loved the world so—in such a way/in this way/in this manner—that he gave his only Son...” It’s not that God required Jesus to be tortured to death to redeem humanity, but that God loved us in such a way that God was willing to allow Jesus to become human, even though he would be vulnerable to human free will and human evil. Just like any parent who loves their child “in such a way” that they allow them to venture away from home and out into the world despite the dangers, God was willing to “sacrifice” Jesus in that way. Just like any human parent, God did not want his son to be harmed and murdered, but God accepted that possibility because sometimes humans do that to each other.God could have left us to our own devices in the world, never sending Jesus to earth and choosing to stay at a distance, on high, while we destroyed each other. Instead, God loved us in this manner that he shared his only child, despite the pain it would entail.