Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Letting go of prejudice.

Photo by Anita Jankovic on /unsplash.com

The 32 word in my Lent lexicon is:

PREJUDICE.

At first glance prejudice is not a word we’d necessarily connect with Lent. Yet in today’s gospel the conversation between Nicodemus and the Pharisees give an almost perfect example of prejudice.

Joining in a conversation about who Jesus is Nicodemus points out that the Law requires that no one is judged without a fair hearing:

“But surely the Law does not allow us to pass judgement on anyone without giving them a hearing and discovering what they are about?”

The response is not positive. Those who have already condemned Jesus in their mind do not want to be reminded of the requirements of the Law which they are flouting. Knowing they cannot win their case by engaging with Nicodemus at that level they immediately brush his query aside, saying:

“Are you a Galilean too? Go into the matter, and see for yourself: prophets do not come out of Galilee.”

They have an old prejudice against Galileans, and they use this to move the conversation on, enabling them to cast Jesus as an outsider, someone less deserving of consideration than they are.

It’s always easy to dismiss the Pharisees as an ancient group that have nothing to do with us. But often I think their role is to hold an uncomfortable mirror up to us. We know the chilling outcome of their prejudice.

This calls us, not to criticise them, but to look at our own lives. It calls us to ask what prejudices we carry? What people we belittle or see as outsiders? What people do we see as less valuable than ourselves? In our very challenging times these are questions we cannot afford to ignore.

What prejudice is Christ challenging you to let go of this Lent?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Learning to wait.

Photo by Immo Wegmann on unsplash.com

The 31st word in my Lent lexicon is:

WAIT.

At the very end of today’s gospel St John writes:

“They would have arrested him then, but because his time had not yet come no one laid a hand on him.”

His words touch on the sense of control and calm that Jesus seems to develop as we get closer to Holy Week and the passion. It’s something that is especially striking in John’s Gospel.

Although the crowd are angry and want to arrest him there is something in Jesus’ demeanour that stops them. It’s not the first time in Scripture that we’ve been told that Jesus slipped away because it wasn’t his time.

It marks a significant difference between his attitude and that of the crowd around him. All of them can feel the tension rising as Jesus travels round the country preaching and teaching. The crowd, acting in a perfectly understandable way, want to push things to a head, to take action, to force the situation.

Jesus, while he is equally aware of the tension, and possibly more aware of where it will lead, also knows that there is a right time for things to develop and move forward. So he is able to wait in the tension, knowing that his time will come.

Waiting is one of the hardest things to do even when life is straightforward and easy. It quickly becomes almost impossible as soon as life gets tough, painful, tense or stressful. In those situations any action seems preferable, because it’s less uncomfortable than waiting. Lent calls us to the uncomfortable practice of waiting.

Where is Christ asking you to learn to wait this Lent?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Gospel John the Baptist Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Led by the light

Photo by Natalya Letunova on unsplash.com

The 30 word in my Lent lexicon is:

LIGHT.

It’s not a word I generally connect with Lent, more often I connect it with Advent or Eastertide. But today this jumped out at me from the gospel:

“John was a lamp alight and shining and for a time you were content to enjoy the light that he gave. But my testimony is greater than John’s: the works my Father has given me to carry out, these same works of mine testify that the Father has sent me.”

Jesus’ words recall John’s testimony and the light he offered us. It was a good light, necessary and valuable. In our dark times it’s worth remembering that light that shone in our darkness, refusing to be overcome and showing us a way through.

Then Jesus takes us a step further, John’s light was good, he tells us, but I’m offering something more. He calls us to use the light to follow him into new and uncharted territory. The light of Jesus’ testimony will take us beyond what we already know. As we draw closer to Holy Week we have to acknowledge that. Living in our own hard times we are all too aware of the darkness we face and the need for that light.

Through his union with the Father the light Jesus offers us will guide us through all that darkness and lead us towards the new light and life of resurrection. The whole purpose of our Lent journey is to prepare our hearts to welcome that light wholeheartedly. Surely then part of our Lent practice is to seek that light in our lives and to trust us to lead us through Lent and whatever darkness we encounter there.

Where is Christ inviting you to allow his light into your life this Lent?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Psalms Rule of St Benedict Scripture

Being Kind

Photo by Barrett Baker on unsplash.com

The 29th word in my Lent lexicon is

KINDNESS.

Kindness is a small word. It carries no great intellectual, theological or spiritual weight. While we might admit the value of kindness many of us would not even think of it as part of a spiritual practice. It doesn’t speak of grand plans, actions or gestures. This can mean means that it’s easily overlooked.

It often relates to small things that we do for one another during the day that we don’t always even notice. Today’s responsorial psalm (144/145), provided the perfect opportunity to reflect this often overlooked practice. The psalmist writes:

“The Lord is kind and full of compassion.”

Often it’s something we recommend to little children, but don’t really think about allowing it consciously to shape our own practices or interactions. I can’t help feeling that this attitude means we miss out on a really valuable practice.

It seems to me that it’s the “smallness” of kindness that makes it possible for us to act on it. To be kind require a lot of energy or a huge amount of resources. It doesn’t mean we have to have answers or solve problems.

Kindness asks one very simple, straightforward thing from us… that we put others before ourselves. To be kind all we have to do is ask ourselves what would make another person feel more comfortable, more loved, more welcome in any given situation.

Yet, those small, seemingly insignificant actions can change lives and lighten burdens in ways we could never imagine.

Where is Christ inviting you to be kind this Lent?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Restored to wholeness.

Photo by Elena Mozhvilo on unsplash.com

The 28 word in my Lent lexicon is:

WHOLENESS.

Lent is a time for acknowledging brokenness. It calls us to reflect on our fragmented lives and relationships and the effect these can have on our lives and our relationships. As Lent calls us to acknowledge our fragmentation it also calls us to seek the healing that will restore us to wholeness within ourselves and in our relationships and societies.

In today’s 1 reading Ezekiel presents us with a beautiful image of wholeness. It recalls the unity and the wholeness of the creation narratives when God’s Spirit hovered over the waters bringing forth life in abundance. He shows us all of creation, held together by God, producing good things in abundance to sustain, nurture and heal all life:

“Along the river, on either bank, will grow every kind of fruit tree with leaves that never wither and fruit that never fails; they will bear new fruit every month, because this water comes from the sanctuary. And their fruit will be good to eat and the leaves medicinal.”

So many things in life can leave us fragmented and broken. We can learn to live with that, but in our hearts we know it’s only a partial life, not the full and rich lives we’re created for and called to. It leaves so much of us cut off, abandoned or ignored.

So we live with this unfulfilled desire to be healed and for our wholeness to be restored. In offering us this image of wholeness Ezekiel invites us bring our fragmented selves back to God seeking to be made whole again. It’s requires humility to admit the brokenness, trust to ask for the healing we need and gratitude for the God who longs to make us whole again.

Where do you need God to restore you to holiness today?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

People of hope.

The 27 word in my Lent lexicon is:

HOPE.

Dr ina melny on unsplash.jpg

Hope is essential for life. Its opposite, hopelessness can quickly drain all our energy and make life seem very difficult.

It’s relatively easy to be hopeful when life is going well. When we feel secure in our personal lives and when our societies seem prosperous and stable. At those times hope seems the obvious choice and doesn’t require much effort.

When life gets more challenging it’s much harder to be hopeful. When we see suffering, misunderstanding and even cruelty in every direction hope can begin to feel impossible and pointless. The same applies when we’re offered false hope, promises that we know in our hearts won’t stand the test of time and become reality. In his letter to the Romans St Paul gives us a reason to hope that will stand up whatever we face:

“Hope does not disappoint, since the love of God has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.”

Writing in his own challenging times St Paul could see that the real source of hope is the love of God holding us in being however challenging our times are.

Today’s gospel takes up this message. Desperate as the court official is at his sons’ illness he’s able to glean enough hope in the hard situation to ask for Jesus’ help and to believe it when Jesus tells him his son will live:

“The man believed what Jesus had said…”

In our own challenging times we too can rely on the hope that God offers us will sustain us and support us whatever we’re compelled to face.

Where is Christ offering you hope this Lent?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Made for Joy.

Photo by Noah Silliman on unsplash.com

The 26 word in my Lent lexicon is:

JOY.

It’s Laetare Sunday, the halfway point in Lent when we pause our Lent practices for a day. We add flowers and music to our liturgies again, we may change the liturgical colours for a day. All of this is not because we’ve had enough of Lent and need a break. The reason we pause is to remember that our salvation is already assured. It’s a day to remember that Christ has already risen, and that is the source of our joy.

It’s hard to be joyful these days when life is so hard and so uncertain. It’s a lot easier to be pessimistic about our prospects than to be joyful. In these circumstances being joyful becomes a discipline, it becomes a practice that we have to choose.

We have to actively look for joy in our lives. Joy can’t only be connected good things happening in our lives. Even when life is hard and we are suffering joy can sustain us. The source of joy is deeper than the events of life. St Paul sums it up in his second letter to the Corinthians when he writes:

“For anyone who is in Christ, there is a new creation; the old creation has gone, and now the new one is here. It is all God’s work.”

His words remind us that the source of our joy is in our relationship with God. It is the new creation that God works in each of us that enables us to be joyful, even when our lives are hard. It is the love of God that hold us in being and creates us anew that enables us to be joyful even in hard times.

Where are you discovering glimmers of joy this Lent?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Rule of St Benedict Scripture

The call of humility.

Image by Mike Lewinski on unsplash.com

The 25th word in my Lent lexicon is

HUMILITY.

It’s another word with deep Benedictine roots. St Benedict dedicates a whole chapter of the Rule to it. He describes humility the steps on a ladder. The sides of the ladder he describes as our body and soul. This is a hopeful and holistic view. St Benedict is aware that humility requires self-awareness and acceptance of our whole reality, physical, spiritual, emotional.

Already his approach goes some way to untangling the mixed messages we receive about humility that can make it more challenging than it really is. We often think of humility as admitting our failings, and this is definitely part of it. We never think about the other side of humility, acknowledging our gifts and talents.

Humility is not a call to put ourselves down, although it requires that we accept those openly. It’s a call to self-knowledge, which means admitting both our failings and our gifts.

The difference between the two men in today’s gospel is that one has an honest view of himself, while the other has chosen to believe the wholly positive image that he presents to the world. Both had a choice to make, as do we. Jesus points us in the direction of the best path to choose:

“Those who exalt themselves will be humbled, but those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

Humility is a challenge both because we have to walk away from our false self and because we have to openly accept that our true self is a mixed bag of faults and talents.

Where are you learning humility this Lent?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Rule of St Benedict Scripture

Conversion of life.

The 24th word in my Lent lexicon is

CONVERSION.

This is a particularly good word for a Benedictine to reflect on during Lent as conversion of life is one of our vows, and it’s always worth revisiting those from time to time. It’s a call always to be turning back to God, always to be open to the working of God in our lives.

It’s a call always to be open to the new life God offers us, even if choosing life sometimes doesn’t feel very life-giving. Conversion of life calls us to be prepared to change our ways, to try again.

In the first reading Isaiah presents conversion as a returning to God’s presence:

“Come back to the Lord your God…”

He invites us to acknowledge how far we have wandered from God and how we need to come back into God’s presence to be healed and restored. He promises us that if we find the courage and humility to do this we will be met with love as God says:

“I will heal their disloyalty; I will love them with all my heart…”

This brings us to the heart of the call to conversion. As Jesus points out in the gospel it is all about love:

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You must love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

The call to conversion is a call to allow ourselves to be healed and loved by God, and to bring that healing love into our relationships with one another. Then, knowing ourselves to be loved we are able to reach out and love others.

Where is God calling you to conversion of heart this Lent?

Categories
Benedictine Spirituality Christ Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Pay attention.

Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on unsplash.com

The 23 word in my Lent lexicon is:

ATTENTIVE.

Today’s gospel shows some of the controversy that surrounded Jesus’ ministry. Having cast out a devil he is accused of doing so through the power of Satan. He takes his accusers to task, challenging them to reflect on their attitudes and to pay attention to what is going on around them.

It’s a wake-up call, a call to pay attention. He says to them:

“If it is through the finger of God that I cast out devils, then know that the kingdom of God has overtaken you.”

They don’t expect to find the kingdom of God in this wandering rabbi. His words call them to look beyond their prejudices, to allow for the possibility that the kingdom might appear in surprising and unexpected ways.

His words speak powerfully to us too. We also have our prejudices and expectations. Like the people in the gospel we think we know where it’s possible to encounter God. Jesus reminds us that the kingdom will always be a surprise.

It will always become apparent in unexpected places and unexpected ways. So, we need to be constantly alert. We need to be attentive, with eyes and hearts open to the possibility of encountering God in every situation and in every encounter.

When life is hard we are tempted to do the exact opposite of this. We are inclined to narrow our views and to close down rather than to risk opening up to new possibilities.

Jesus’ call is to work against this tendency. His call is to keep being open, alert and attentive so that, even in these most challenging times we will be able to recognise the kingdom unfolding in our midst.

Where are you being called to be attentive to the presence of the kingdom in your life this Lent?