Category: Discernment

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Resurrection Scripture

New Horizons.

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All through Eastertide the gospels show us Jesus revealing himself to his disciples. Each revelation begins where the disciples are. It then takes them beyond that into new, uncharted and challenging territory. Jesus starts with their current understanding uses that to lead them to a deeper understanding of who he is.

Today it’s Phillip’s turn. When Jesus tells the disciples:

“If you know me, you know my Father too. From this moment you know him and have seen him.”

Phillip responds:

“Lord, let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied.”

Phillip’s response reflects dissatisfaction and desire, he wants more. Jesus doesn’t criticise him for that, instead he offers another, deeper revelation, telling Phillip:

“To have seen me is to have seen the Father…”

Jesus opens Phillip’s heart to the possibility of a new way of seeing God. He offers us the same opportunity. If we allow him to open our hearts, we will discover he is present with us in the midst of human life. We will find him alongside us in the midst of our daily activities, however mundane, frustrating or challenging we might find them. This is a promise full of hope, joy and encouragement.

This new understanding is also a challenge. If we are to discover God’s presence in the midst of daily life, we have to pay attention in a new way. We have to be alert and attentive. We have to risk being open and vulnerable to allow that presence to be revealed, and to respond to it.

As we move through Eastertide where is Christ opening your heart to his presence in our midst?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Prophetic voices Resurrection Saints Scripture

Staying with Christ.

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We can easily forget or brush aside the real challenge at the heart of the gospel. Centuries of familiarity and tradition have removed most of the shock that Jesus’ first followers would have felt when they heard his words. Today’s gospel brings us back to just how shocking his teaching was, and still is if we allow ourselves to really hear it. In today’s gospel Jesus has challenged his listeners so much that they say to themselves:

“This is intolerable language. How could anyone accept it?”

At that point many of them left and stopped following him. Faced with their departure Jesus does nothing to tone his message down. In his conversation with his disciples he even seems to increase the challenge asking them:

“What about you, do you want to go away too?”

He gives the Twelve complete freedom to walk away like the others. Having learned something of his teaching, each of them has to face and answer his question for themselves. It’s the same question that each of us has to face and answer.

Simon Peter’s answer sums up the situation for all of us. Turning the question round he says:

“Lord, who shall we go to? You have the message of eternal life, and we believe, we know you are the Holy One of God.”

His response brings us to the heart of our faith. Once we’ve recognised Jesus as the “holy one of God” however challenging it is to walk with him it becomes inconceivable to walk away from him.

What helps you to stay with Christ in this challenging Eastertide?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Resurrection Scripture

Motivation and invitation

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Today I’m reflecting on the aftermath of the feeding of the five thousand. It’s hardly surprising that after the miracle people feel compelled to find out more about Jesus, and the crowds went looking for him and, not finding him:

“They got into those boats and crossed to Capernaum to look for Jesus.”

As becomes clear when they eventually catch up with him, they don’t really know who or what they are looking for. But already something is drawing them to him. Maybe it’s curiosity, like the curiosity that drew Moses to the Burning Bush.

Maybe, as Jesus later challenges them, it’s because he fed them. It’s easy to be judgemental about that, but in times when people are struggling to feed themselves and their families it’s understandable, and we’d all do it.

Jesus’ response to them is very direct. He says to them:

“I tell you most solemnly, you are not looking for me because you have seen the signs but because you had all the bread you wanted to eat.”

He recognises that their motives are mixed and challenges them to reflect on that. Then he accepts where they are and invites them to move beyond that to a new understanding:

“Do not work for food that cannot last, but work for food that endures to eternal life, the kind of food the Son of Man is offering you, for on him the Father, God himself, has set his seal.”

His words are an invitation to them, and us, to recognise our mixed motives and then move beyond them to a deeper understand of who Jesus is. His invitation offers us the opportunity to enter into a deeper & more meaningful relationship with him.

In challenging us to examine our motives he invites us to embrace the new life of resurrection and the hope it offers for our challenging times.

How is Christ inviting you to a deeper relationship this Eastertide?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Eastertide Gospel Lectio Divina Liturgy Saints Scripture Uncategorized

Renewed in love.

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I find it really helpful that we hear the Easter gospels repeatedly during Eastertide. They all hold too much wisdom for just one reflection. Today we’re revisiting Jesus’ appearance to the disciples on the beach and I’m reflecting on Jesus’s conversation with Peter.

It’s the first time they’ve spoken since Peter’s denial of Jesus in Holy Week. I can imagine that Peter felt the full weight of that as he walked along the beach with Jesus after the meal. Jesus doesn’t revisit Peter’s betrayal. He offers him a way forward into renewed and healed relationship. He says to Peter:

“Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these others do?”

When Peter replies “Yes, Lord, you know I love you.” Jesus accepts that with no questioning or recrimination based on his earlier betrayal. Instead he offers them a commission:

‘Feed my lambs.’

Yet he repeats the question twice more until Peter, getting upset, repeats his affirmation again:

“Yes, Lord, you know I love you.”

We have no idea why Jesus repeats his question, but I assume that it’s to reassure Peter. I can’t imagine that the risen Christ needed the reassurance. Jesus allows Peter the opportunity to reaffirm his love for Jesus three times and then to be commissioned by him three times.

This doesn’t undo his denial, but it balances it it in a way that I imagine Peter will find helpful to remember in his darker moments. We too need the opportunity to reset & renew our relationship with Christ from time to time.

As we move through Eastertide where is the risen Christ inviting you to a renewed relationship?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Eastertide Gospel Holy Spirit Lectio Divina Resurrection Scripture

Transformation

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I’m struck by what the contrast there is between the Acts of the Apostles and the Easter gospels. In the Easter Gospels, even as the resurrection is proclaimed to them the disciples are afraid and traumatised. They hide away, fearing for their lives and struggling to belief the accounts of the resurrection appearances that they’re hearing.

What feels like a short time later they present a very different reality. After Peter and John are released from prison they join the rest of the community and we hear that:

“They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to proclaim the word of God boldly.”

It’s a startling change that speaks to the power of the risen Christ to shape and change lives. After all their struggles and uncertainties their encounter with the Risen Christ and his Holy Spirit has brought them to a new place. I’m guessing that’s something they could never have imagined or hoped for. Certainly in the days after the crucifixion it must have seemed an impossibility.

They have been created anew. Having encountered the risen Christ, they are able to find the courage and passion to share their stories. They are able to speak out boldly in their challenging times, sharing the word of God and proclaiming the resurrection.

We too live in challenging and uncertain times. The risen Christ invites us to allow him to transform our lives so that we, like the disciples can find ways of sharing the good news of resurrection in ways that touch hearts and minds today.

Where is the risen Christ calling you to proclaim his word this Eastertide?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture Truth

Freed by Truth.

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The 36th word in my Lent lexicon is:

TRUTH.

Truth matters. Our relationships and societies rely on basic underlying truths that are generally accepted and agreed upon. If we are to live well and flourish we need to be able to discern what is true and what isn’t. This applies to personal, institutional and societal relationships. If we don’t know who or what to believe it becomes impossible to trust, and to live with hope.

It seems to me that this was once a fairly straightforward concept. We could mostly recognise truth. Even with disagreements and differences we could mostly agree on what was true. In recent times that seems to have become less and less the case.

We live in a “post-truth society” without ever stopping to ask ourselves if that leads to human flourishing or what essential human qualities it undermines. It does protect individualism, so that “my truth” can be different to “your truth” and neither of us has to give way of compromise.

Jesus addresses truth in today’s gospel, Jesus takes a different view:

“If you make my word your home you will indeed be my disciples, you will learn the truth and the truth will make you free.”

The truth he speaks of is not optional. Can lead us to true freedom, a freedom that is not about self-interest or individualism, but about the common good. He’s not talking “post-truth”, that cuts out the need for engagement or compromise.

The truth he offers us will challenge us and call us to let go of many things we hold dear, and it will lead us to true freedom.

How is Christ’s truth leading you to freedom this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Letting go of prejudice.

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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?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Learning to wait.

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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?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Scripture

Choosing to trust.

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The sixteenth word in my Lent lexicon is

TRUST.

Today’s readings focus on trust. They make it clear both that we are free to choose where we put our trust and that we are called to trust God.

Jeremiah lays out the consequences of both of both choices in the starkest terms possible. He is very clear if we want to live in peace to have to choose to trust God, any other choice will lead us to disaster.

The responsorial psalm assures us that the way to true peace and happiness is to trust God. The gospel contrasts the fate of the rich man who trusted his own resources with Lazarus who had no choice but to trust in the loving mercy of God.

All of them speak to a truth we know in the depths of our hearts, being relational beings it’s impossible to live without trust. This is an uncomfortable truth in a society that places a high value on independence, telling us that we can meet all our own needs without assistance or support. In such circumstances it can be challenging to accept Jeremiah’s words:

“A blessing on those who put their trust in the Lord…”

To trust we have to admit that we are needy, that we can’t meet all our needs ourselves. It can be an uncomfortable position to be in, especially in precarious times. Lent is a good time to reassess where we put our trust, to turn again to trusting God’s ways and God’s plans rather than our own.

Where is God calling you to trust this Lent?

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Benedictine Spirituality Christ Cross Discernment Gospel Lectio Divina Lent Scripture

Be reconciled

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The tenth word in my Lent lexicon is:

RECONCILIATION.

The call to reconciliation is essential. We can’t go through life without causing each other distress and pain. That means we have to find ways of forgiving one another, of becoming reconciled and rebuilding damaged relationships. This is true on every level of human life from personal relationships to international relations.

Reconciliation is not easy. When we have been hurt or wronged it’s really hard to see beyond that to be able to forgive and to rebuild damaged relationships. The temptation is to stay with our hurt and our pain rather than taking the risk of moving beyond it into a situation where we have to be open, trusting and vulnerable.

In today’s gospel Jesus makes it clear that, however hard it might be, the call to reconciliation is not an optional extra, it’s central to the call of the gospel and to building the kingdom. He says to his followers:

“If you are bringing your offering to the altar and there remember that someone has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar, go and be reconciled with them first, and then come back and present your offering.”

He makes it clear that, however hard it might be we need to find ways of being reconciled with one another if we are to live well and flourish. This echoes our own experience; we know how destructive an unforgiving attitude can be both to relationships and to our inner life.

Reconciliation requires that we move beyond our own perspectives, allowing that there might be a bigger picture than we can see. It calls us to allow that someone else’s perspective might be as valid as our own. It asks asks to admit that being right might not be the most important thing.

Where is Christ calling you to seek reconciliation this Lent?