Today the Church begins the season of Lent – the time of preparation for the great celebration of Easter.

I have not seen the movie “Joyful Noise” but I like this song.  I have decided to keep it close to my heart this Lent.

I would add “Fix Us Jesus” though as we are Church and we walk this journey of faith together.

As the Church enters into this season of preparation for Easter I though it appropriate to share our Holy Father’s message for Lent.  As always, it offers much food for thought…

Dear Brothers and Sisters, 
 

On February 10th the Church celebrates the feast of St. Scholastica – the sister of St. Benedict.  There is a touching story told about this sister and brother. 

Once a year, Benedict would leave his monastery and Scholastica would leave her convent and the two would meet and spend the day together enjoying one another’s company and spending the time in spiritual conversation.  Once, during a visit, their conversation continued on and on and the hour grew late.  Noticing how late it was Scholastica asked her brother to stay and to continue their conversation until the morning.  Benedict refused.  He felt he had to return to the monastery.  As her brother stood to depart, Scholastica joined her hands and bent her head in prayer.  Immediately there was a flash of lightning, a mighty roar of thunder and the sky let loose a heavy downpour of rain that would not allow Benedict nor any of his monks to leave!

Seeing the rain Benedict looked at his sister and complained, “Sister, what have you done?”  Scholastica answered, “I asked you and you would not listen; so I asked my God and he did listen.”  (The moral of the story – never cross a nun!)

At the heart of Benedictine spirituality is welcome and hospitality.  In his Rule, Benedict urges his monks to recognize that when they welcome another, whomever that person may be, they are in fact welcoming Christ. 

This sense of gratuitous and warm welcome is witnessed by Christ himself throughout the gospels.  In fact we could say that Christ again and again welcomes the other person throughout his ministry.  Christ welcomes the poor fishermen and tax collectors as his disciples.  He welcomes the public sinner, the outcast, the foreigner and the possessed.  He welcomes the one who is ill and the leper.  Again and again, Christ welcomes! 

One of the dynamics of today’s familiar gospel story (Mk. 2:1-12) – often illustrated in children’s Bibles – of the paralytic being lowered through the ceiling by his four friends is that Jesus warmly welcomes the man and his friends.  “Child,” the Lord says with gentleness, “your sins are forgiven.”  “These are words of forgiveness, a welcome that touches the foundations of our lives.” (Bishop Vincenzo Paglia)  Our Lord could have just healed the man – being very efficient about the whole matter (an attitude prized so highly by our modern age) – and gone about the rest of what needed to be done.  But he does not.  Our Lord recognizes that the paralytic man is not just a “medical and social problem” needing to be solved but a child of God yearning and needing to be noticed and loved.  Jesus acknowledges this and so he first welcomes the man; sharing God’s mercy and forgiving him of the sin that weighs him down and then he heals him of his physical ailment. 

We need to learn to welcome as Jesus welcomes. 

We live in a very cold and efficient age with many voices that encourage us to view the poor, the elderly, the foreigner, the sick, the disadvantaged as solely problems to be solved and problems best kept “out there” and “at a distance”.  We need to resist these forces that seek to separate and divide (the modern day voices of the scribes who cannot fathom the healing depth of God’s mercy).  It is not enough for a disciple of Christ to just help “at a distance”.  We need to learn to welcome to the table; to welcome just as Jesus welcomed! 

And as we learn to welcome as Jesus welcomed; the one we may be saving might just be our very selves!

Going back to the story of Benedict and Scholastica…  Three days after their visit and the downpour of rain, Scholastica died.  Benedict instantly is made aware of this by seeing her soul, in the form of a dove, ascending to heaven.  At the time of their last visit, Benedict did not realize what little time remained but God knew that Benedict needed more time with his sister.  Benedict himself needed more healing and comfort from the welcome, love and hospitality of Scholastica. 

As we learn to welcome as Christ welcomes we can help bring healing to others in a truly deep and abiding way and we can also allow healing to be brought to our own hearts.   

To begin my thoughts on this Sunday’s readings I would like to pull from the reflections of two men much more astute in Scripture and theology than I am. 

The first is Fr. Robert Barron.  In the first episode of his Catholicism series, Fr. Barron focuses on who Christ is.  The heart of the Christian faith revolves around this central compelling figure.  Fr. Barron points out that in the time of Jesus the people of Israel were yearning for the Messiah and that the true Messiah would be known by some very distinctive qualities; one of which was that the Messiah would gather the scattered tribes of Israel.  Jesus fulfills this quality but in his own unique way and not in the commonly expected way.  Jesus gathers not by political or military might but by his power to heal. 

As we see in today’s first reading (Leviticus 13:1-2, 44-46) illness, most especially leprosy, in Jesus’ day carried with it the thought of God’s condemnation.  The leper was cut off from the community of faith.  The leper must “dwell apart, making his abode outside of the camp.”  Due to this exclusion the leper and all the ill were considered unclean and therefore unable to participate in the worship and ritual life of Israel.  On a whole host of levels these poor people were removed and scattered from Israel even as they actually lived within the geographic and community boundaries of the people.  Within the very midst of society they were isolated and cut off. 

The healing act of Jesus meant not just restored health for the individual but also restored relationship with the community!  This is why Jesus in today’s gospel (Mk. 1:40-45) instructs the leper once he is cleansed, “…go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed; that will be proof for them.”  The healed man is now restored in his relationship with the people of Israel. 

Jesus, as Messiah, is gathering the tribes of Israel; not through political or military might but through healing. 

The second insight comes from Bishop Vincenzo Paglia of the Community of Sant’Egidio and his reflections on today’s readings.  Bishop Paglia focuses on the singularly striking fact of the leper approaching Jesus.  What enabled the man to do this when the overwhelming cultural force of the time was total exclusion of the leper?  The leper must keep far away even under pain of death yet this man had the confidence to approach Jesus.  Why?  The answer: where everyone else kept at a distance out of fear Jesus did not.  Bishop Paglia notes, “Contrary to custom, when lepers heard that Jesus was coming, they would overcome all barriers of fear and mistrust and run to him.  The young prophet from Nazareth created around himself a new environment filled with compassion and mercy that attracted the sick, sinners and the poor.”         

Jesus, as Messiah, gathers in to full relationship the ones who are isolated and cut off and he does so by subverting the dominate force of fear through a movement filled with compassion and mercy.

There are many lepers in our world today.  There are many persons isolated, cut off and imprisoned in our very midst!  They are isolated both by an imposed cultural fear from without and by their own fears and hurts within – the poor, the immigrant, the mentally handicapped, the elderly, the one who seems “different”.  What are we to do?

Paul’s advice to the Christian community in Corinth is worthy of note:

“Brothers and sisters, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do everything for the glory of God.  Avoid giving offense, whether to the Jews or Greeks or the church of God, just as I try to please everyone in every way, not seeking my own benefit but that of the many, that they may be saved.  Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”  (1 Cor. 10:31-11:1)

Be imitators of Christ!  Not seeking our own benefit but that of the many!  One of the benefits that we are all very good at holding very close to our chests and continually nurturing is the benefit of our own fears, our own prejudices and our own hurts.  In the light of the gospel these must be exorcised.  They must be let go of and released!  We must be imitators of Christ in the truest sense – subverting the dominate forces of fear in our lives and our world through movements of compassion and mercy! 

This is what it means to be an imitator of Christ and what it means to be the Church; the Body of Christ in our world.  This is the amazing movement of God’s grace – as we welcome the outcast in compassion and mercy; we ourselves are healed of the weight of our own fears! 

“There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” (1 John 4:18)  

God does not expect us to be perfect; God just asks us to be open to being perfected.  How are we perfected?  Through the movements of compassion and mercy. 

Christ the Messiah and Gentle Shepherd continues to gather the isolated and the outcast through healing and through mercy.  The “outcasts” here being both others and our very selves. 

“The power of God is capable of finding hope where hope no longer exists, and a way where the way is impossible.” (St. Gregory of Nyssa)

In imagery and description the virtue of hope is a play between tensions. Hope moves one into the future – “Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing out trust in Christ’s promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.” (CCC #1817) – yet hope is often symbolized as an anchor – “Hope is the ‘sure and steadfast anchor of the soul … that enters … where Jesus has gone as a forerunner on our behalf.’” (CCC #1820) This play of tensions reveals the always dynamic quality of true hope and also why hope always eludes a static definition. It seems that it is the very nature of hope to remain unbounded.

This unbounded nature to hope is due, I believe, to the fact that God himself has placed a yearning and “not yet” quality in the heart of every man and woman. “The virtue of hope responds to the aspiration to happiness which God has placed in the heart of every man; it takes up the hopes that inspire men’s activities and purifies them so as to order them to the Kingdom of heaven…” And also that God has answered this yearning in Christ and in the continual unfolding of the Kingdom, “Christian hope unfolds from the beginning of Jesus’ preaching in the proclamation of the beatitudes. The beatitudes raise our hope toward heaven as the new Promised Land; they trace the path that leads through the trials that await the disciples of Christ. (CCC # 1820)

The yearning is within us and the answer to that deepest yearning of the human heart is found without in that which is so much more than any one individual and that to which all creation is moving – the very Kingdom of God. Due to this the theological virtue of hope fulfills our deepest individual yearning yet does so in a way that connects us to one another and to all creation. A “hope” that would separate and divide is, in fact, a false hope.

True hope also respects freedom. It cannot but respect freedom in order to be true to itself. I am now a priest of seventeen years and I have served in a variety of settings and I must admit that I have never before been in a setting (college campus ministry for five years) where people and groups are so intent on forming other persons in their own image while at the same time there is so much talk of “respect for free thought” and “being yourself”.  Why is it that “being yourself” means you have to look and act like everyone else?  This is across the board: social groups, academic groups and settings, religious groups, opposed to religion groups, whatever. There is this overwhelming push it seems to form others in one’s own image and this can be subtle or just outright blatant and manipulative in nature. In this context, if a group does not seek to form others in its own image and has developed the maturity to respect freedom then it is written off as just naïve, out of touch at best or questionable and even suspect at worse.

But true hope respects freedom. It must. This is why any form of totalitarianism (and there are many) that would restrict freedom and conscience, sometimes under the seemingly most benign and even most “positive” of reasons, in fact, ends up suppressing hope. Yet even though hope can be wounded it can never fully be lost because the author of hope is God himself.

If hope can be suppressed (but never fully lost) then it can also be cultivated in one’s life. How might we cultivate the ground of our lives in such a way that hope might come to dwell within us? Our faith gives some strong advice: turn to God and develop a relationship with him in both prayer and sacrament, avoid sin and evil, if one has sinned ask for mercy and pardon (i.e. the sacrament of reconciliation), get out of yourself and strive to live in harmony with others and even go beyond just that to specifically doing good for others and serving others – especially the poor and even those who oppose you, live in a community which supports and strives for all of the above mentioned, i.e. the Catholic Church.

Our own actions and also the actions of others upon us (both positive and negative) can either cultivate our life for hope or turn us further away from the possibility of hope. In this regard our choices and the choices of others do have effects and do carry consequences.

Hope is truly beautiful and when it is authentically found in the life of a person it does speak to the souls and deep yearning of others. In the person of hope we know that there is just something there that we ourselves are searching for.

Hope does not disappoint.

In the course of his ministry Jesus asks an important question, “Who do people say that I am?”  It is important both for the response that is given (ultimately by Peter) but also for Jesus himself asking the question.  Jesus does not ask, “What are people saying about my teachings?”  He does not ask, “How do you think people are responding to my message?”  He asks, “Who do people say that I am?”

Elsewhere in the gospel Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  Fr. Robert Barron in his Catholicism series makes an important observation.  Among all the founders of the world’s great religions Jesus’ claim is unique.  Buddha says, “I have found a way.”  The Prophet Muhammad says, “I have received a revelation.”  On Mount Sinai Moses receives the Commandments.  All the founders point to a greater truth beyond themselves.  Jesus alone points to his very self.  “I am the way, the truth and the life.”  This one claim sets Jesus apart from all the rest and it demands of us a radical decision.  Either Jesus is who he claims to be or he is not. 

In today’s gospel (Mk. 1:21-28) there are two groups that encounter and witness this unique authority of Christ.  The first are the people gathered in the synagogue, “The people were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.”  The second “group” is the unclean spirit, “What have you to do us, Jesus of Nazareth?  Have you come to destroy us?  I know who you are – the Holy One of God!”  These immediate reactions – the astonishment of the people, the fear of the unclean spirit – testify to the unique authority of Christ. 

It is helpful to remember that the word “authority” has its roots in a Latin word meaning, “to make grow.”  From this we can realize that one of the marks of true authority is that it is not in competition with others.  True authority does not need to suppress the other for its own sake and purposes.  This type of non-competitive authority can only come from Christ who is not just one other being among other beings but rather being itself.  “I am…”, says Jesus. 

There is a misunderstanding quite common in our day that leads to viewing God as opposed to my freedom.  This misunderstanding is that God is seen as the biggest, most powerful, most omniscient being of all.  This is not the case.  Get rid of all those categories and thoughts!  God is not “a being” among other beings, God is being itself and therefore God is not opposed to my freedom but rather God is the very foundation and source of true freedom. 

This unique authority of Christ which is non-competitive, which does not need to suppress the other, which by its very nature and presence calls forth life (knowledge and deep insight for those people gathered in the synagogue, healing and freedom for the man imprisoned by the unclean spirit) witnesses to the unique reality of Christ – “I am the way, the truth and the life.” – and it demands of us a radical choice. 

I have been reading Fr. James Martin’s new book, “Between Heaven and Mirth.” In the book Fr. Martin reflects on the role of humor in the life of faith and throughout the reflection he scatters humorous jokes and stories. In chapter four he reflects on “serious reasons for good humor” – the last reason he lists is the practical nature of humor and he does this in a tongue-in-cheek way by sharing a story about his father’s cousin Bernie.

Bernie, it seems, lived in Philadelphia but owned a small store on the coast in New Jersey. One evening he was speeding down the interstate toward his store. He was late for an appointment. It was the last day of the month so he knew that the police officers would be out, eager to give tickets in order to make their quota. But, he was in a hurry and decided to take his chances doing about eighty miles an hour.

Sure enough, after crossing into New Jersey he saw the flashing red lights and was pulled over. The officer walked up to his car with a pleased look on his face. “I have been waiting for you all day!” said the officer.

Bernie, off the top of his head replied, “Well, I got here as fast as I could!” Fr. Martin concludes, “The officer laughed so hard that he didn’t give Bernie a ticket.”

It is good to laugh.

Mark’s gospel is the shortest and most succinct of the canonical gospels. One can feel throughout Mark’s account of the good news a sense of urgency. Jesus has a mission and time must not be wasted! This sense of urgency is given expression in the very first chapter. Jesus proclaims, “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand.” (Mk. 1:15) But then what does he do? With this sense of urgency it would be expected that he would march straight to Jerusalem in order to set things right. But he does not do that. Rather, in this time of fulfillment, Jesus forms community (Church) and not only that but a community of very insignificant people who were certainly not on any “A-list” of their day – fishermen, tax collectors, religious zealots. They were people of no real consequence.

Also, they were a group of imperfect people. They disagreed, they argued with one another, they were fearful, they bore resentments, they miscommunicated, they did not always understand, one betrayed Jesus and another denied him. In other words, they were human, just like us. And Jesus was in their midst and Jesus is in our midst calling, healing and enabling us (in all of our imperfections) to be church for one another and for the world.

Recently there has been a Youtube video that has sparked discussion. In the video a young rapper who has all the right looks and wears the perfect cool style of clothing and has all the perfect video angle shots raps about how he loves Jesus but hates religion. He goes on to say that Jesus hates religion and therefore the church also. Isn’t it nice when Jesus agrees with our own point of view? He raps that religion told him to pretend to be perfect but he does not consider the possibility that maybe he was the one who was getting the message wrong from the beginning.

To this young man I would say re-read the gospels because I think you missed something. Consider today’s gospel (Mk. 1:14-20) where Jesus in the very urgency of proclaiming the Kingdom decides to gather a community of very imperfect believers and he decides to remain within their very midst. Consider where Jesus says that he is the vine and we are the branches. Consider the sending of the Holy Spirit upon the community gathered at Pentecost. Reflect on Paul’s beautiful analogy of Christ being the head of the body and we the members. Consider Paul’s own conversion on the road to Damascus when the exalted Lord instead of asking, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute my followers?’ rather asks, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” (Acts 9:4).  Consider the beautiful imagery of the bride awaiting the bridegroom found throughout the New Testament.

In the urgency of proclaiming the Kingdom, isn’t it interesting that Jesus calls and gathers a community of very imperfect people and he remains in their midst.

He remains in the midst of the Church today.

In a recent meeting with U.S. Bishops in Rome, Pope Benedict XVI made some pointed comments about the dangers of radical secularism in the United States.  It is a valid point that the anthropology of radical secularism is very limited and limiting.  It does not allow for the full dignity of the human person.  The best it can offer is an isolated individualism.   

I just completed the icon of Our Lady of Tenderness.

With us Mary stands in need of a saviour; yet who else cradled the infant saviour in her arms providing him warmth and nourishment, who else sang him to sleep, who else wiped away his tears and gave him encouragement?

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, ‘Woman, here is your son.’ Then he said to the disciple, ‘Here is your mother.’ (John 19:26-27)

It is a tender thing our Lord does; as he is dying he finds a home for his mother and he gives his Church a mother.

Tenderness is not weakness.

Tenderness reveals the strength of love.

Mary, gentle woman and first of disciples pray with us and for us!