Category: Lectio Divina

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On the threshold.

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The first Sunday of Advent is a threshold moment, beginning of a new season and a new liturgical year. It’s a time to embrace the hope and promise that Christ brings in the midst of the many darknesses and challenges of life.

The gospel for the day acknowledges the challenges and the effect they can have on us:

“There will be signs in the sun and moon and stars; on earth nations in agony, bewildered by the clamour of the ocean and its waves; people dying of fear as they await what menaces the world, for the powers of heaven will be shaken.”

It’s a bleak picture that has much resonance with what we see going on around us today. In the face of it it’s tempting to give into hopelessness and despair. But Jesus calls us in a different direction:

“When these things begin to take place, stand erect, hold your heads high, because your liberation is near at hand.”

Instead of despair he calls us to hope, to hang on through the challenges, knowing that they are a sign that the freedom he promises is on it’s way. If I’m honest that feels like a very tall order in today’s troubled world. Yet the gospel offers a way make that a reality. Jesus says:

“Stay awake, praying at all times…”

At the darkest and busiest time of the year Advent invites us to pause. Jesus invites us to stand firm, to keep focussed on him and to allow our anxieties to be stilled as we wait in hope for his coming.

As we start our Advent journey how are you being called to wait in hope?

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Endurance and Courage

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Today’s gospel is such an uncomfortable read that my heart sank a little when I first picked it up. Jesus warns his disciples to expect persecution, imprisonment and betrayal because they have chosen to follow him. While we all know this is part of the cost discipleship we are all too willing to push it to the back of our minds. This is something none of us want to experience, and we prefer to concentrate on the positive, focusing our attention on God’s love, and on the promise of new life.

At first glance it could seem like today’s gospel negates that promise, but that is not what Jesus is saying. He is taking a very realistic and direct view of life, which we all know involves suffering, pain, betrayal and persecution. He tells us that suffering can’t be avoided or run from:

“You will be hated by all people on account of my name, but not a hair of your head will be lost. Your endurance will win you your lives.”

In hard, challenging times we need the realistic hope he offers more than ever. Not the false hope that we can avoid suffering by choosing to follow him, but the real promise that whatever we suffer he will be there with us, supporting us, giving us the courage to endure and the the wisdom and strength we need to live in difficult times.

What hope is Christ offering you in the difficulties you face today?

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The call of the King

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The feast of Christ the King can be challenging. We know that the kingdom Jesus promises is based on a different value system to our human institutions. Yet this feast can bring to mind those human institutions, secular and religious, that have both used and abused power. In our times, when institutions and authorities are often viewed with suspicion, it carries particular challenges. This makes it an uncomfortable celebration and we can be tempted to walk away from it or underplay it.

I find that the parts of our Christian heritage that are most uncomfortable are the ones that need the most attention. If I can face the discomfort, and look beyond the surface they often yield a rich and unexpected harvest. Today I’ve gone back to the Baptismal call that anoints each of us as priest, prophet and king, called to unite with Christ in making his kingdom a reality:

“God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has freed you from sin, given you a new birth by water and the Holy Spirit, and welcomed you into his holy people. He now anoints you with the chrism of salvation. As Christ was anointed Priest, Prophet and King, so may you live always as a member of his body, sharing everlasting life.”

This puts the whole notion of kingship into a new context, pointing to me back to the example of Jesus in the gospels. It is a kingship based on service, love, compassion and kindness. There is no arrogance or judgement in it. This is a kingship that we can all share in by serving others with love and compassion wherever we can.

As we celebrate the feast of Christ the King where are you being invited to live out your baptismal call today?

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The signs of the times.

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I always find the more apocalyptic scriptures unsettling and disturbing. The imagery in today’s gospel of darkening sun and falling stars seems more designed to cause anxiety than anything else. It’s more likely to distract me than to help me discover the presence of God. Yet that is not why Jesus uses it in his conversation with his disciples. He’s pointing out these signs not to frighten them, but so that they can avoid being distracted and led astray.

He can’t give them the certainty they crave by telling them the date or time of the second coming, but he can give them a new awareness. He’s seeking to help them discern the signs of the time, to see beyond the drama and the turmoil to the hope he promises. He says to them:

“Take the fig tree as a parable: as soon as its twigs grow supple and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. So with you when you see these things happening: know that he is near, at the very gates.”

His words are a call to pay attention and prepare for the coming of Christ they’re also a call to discernment. They have a particular resonance in our challenging and unsettling times, when we can too easily fall into anxiety and hopelessness about so many areas of life and of the world. He calls us to stay focussed on him and his promise whatever is going on. As we come to the end of the Church’s year Jesus is calling us to be alert and ready for the signs of his presence with us whatever we are living through.

As we approach the last week of the liturgical year where is Christ calling you to be attentive to his presence?

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Out of our comfort zones

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Our times seem to be getting ever more challenging and disturbing. In such times it’s always tempting to close in on ourselves. Our instinct is to do whatever we can to protect ourselves and our loved ones. We have less energy to care about the needs of others, or to reach out to them. We can become less open, more suspicious of those we perceive as outsiders. All of this is a perfectly natural human response when life is hard. Yet, as I reflected on today’s readings I was struck by how they call us to a completely different way of being.

In the first reading Elijah travels to Sidon which is in the grip of a serious drought. He meets a widow gathering some sticks and asks her for something to eat and drink. The woman has very little left, only enough for one last meal for herself and her son. Yet, she doesn’t turn him away, instead she shares the little she and her son have with Elijah, trusting the promise that he has made her:

“Jar of meal shall not be spent, jug of oil shall not be emptied, before the day when the Lord sends rain on the face of the earth.”’

Her generosity is echoed by the story of the poor widow that Jesus tells in the gospel. As he watches her put all she has to live on into the Temple treasury he says to hid disciples:

‘I tell you solemnly, this poor widow has put more in than all who have contributed to the treasury; for they have all put in money they had over, but she from the little she had has put in everything she possessed, all she had to live on.’

The courageous actions of these two widows are a reminder that when life gets hard we are called, not to retreat from one another, but to reach out to others. We are called to override our instincts and to reach out to the stranger, to welcome the other, to share from our resources however limited they might be.

Where is Christ challenging you to risk sharing in these challenging times?

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The goodness of the Lord.

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Today, as we’re celebrating the dedication of our Oratory I’m reposting this from our archives. The scripture reading at the vigil was from the first letter of St Peter:

“Be sure you are never spiteful, or deceitful, or hypocritical, or envious and critical of each other. You are new born, and, like babies, you should be hungry for nothing but milk – the spiritual honesty which will help you grow up to salvation – now that you have tasted the goodness of the Lord.”

Several things resonate with me in in. It’s reminder of how we are called to behave and to treat one another seems especially important just now. Living through stressful and challenging times can give us all a short fuse and doesn’t always bring out the best in us. St Peter reminds us that, whatever challenges and uncertainties we face we are called not to give into the temptation to spitefulness and criticism. The call is still to become more Christlike whatever we face.

He goes on to tell us that as we have tasted the goodness of the Lord already our desire and long should be for those things that will help us grow into our salvation. This brings to mind a favourite psalm, psalm 34, “taste and see that the Lord is good”, and I’m reminded to keep seeking the goodness of the Lord in whatever challenges and uncertainties life is currently throwing at us.

Where are you tasting the Lord’s goodness in these challenging times?

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Challenged to love.

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Today I’m reflecting on the conversation between Jesus and one of the Scribes in the gospel. It’s not clear if the scribe is trying to catch Jesus out on this occasion, or if he is genuinely seeking understanding. Either way, Jesus decides to take the question at face value, treating it a genuine request for greater understanding. Having being asked by the scribe about the first of the commandments he replied:

“You must love the Lord your God with all your heart…You must love your neighbour as yourself.”

It takes us back to the heart of the gospel and reminds us that love is the core of our faith. Today I’m also struck by the way Jesus demonstrates that love in his conversation with the scribe. Jesus puts aside the fact that the question comes from a group that often disagreed with even condemned him. It would have been so easy to respond with a put down or a sharp retort. Instead Jesus responds with love to the scribe’s question, answering sincerely and respectfully, and ending the conversation by saying:

“You are not far from the kingdom of God.”

It seems to me that this is a valuable example for us today. Our challenging times make it very easy to hear a criticism in every question and to respond with defensiveness or even aggression until the situation spirals downwards and relationships falter. Jesus shows us another way to respond. I can’t help wondering how our public and private conversations would be if we followed his example of responding with respect and love.

Where is Christ calling you to respond with love when your views are questioned?

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All Souls Day

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Today, we celebrate All Souls Day which, despite the change in tone from one feast to another, is intimately connected to All Saints Day. At heart both feasts speak to the basic equality of Christian faith. We are all one in Christ, and through our baptism, we are all equal before him.

Today’s feast is a time for acknowledging our mortality. It gives us the opportunity to acknowledge that death is a completely natural part of life. It is something we all share in and will all experience. This is one of the areas where we are called to stand out against the world’s way. Today’s world denies death, pushing it aside or trying to micromanage it because of the pain, suffering and uncertainty it brings. Our faith calls us to look at death differently. It doesn’t call us to deny the pain and suffering, but to accept it and embrace it. We are also called to look beyond it, to the hope that Christ offers us.

This invitation and challenge is summed up for me in the prophet Isaiah’s words:

“The Lord will wipe away the tears from every cheek… That day, it will be said: see, this is our God in whom we hoped for salvation… We exalt and we rejoice that he has saved us.”

All Souls allows us to remember and grieve our loved ones. Yet, even as we grieve, it reminds us that the God of love will comfort and console us, offering us the promise of new life in God’s presence.

Where do you need God to comfort and console you today?

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All Saints Day.

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The feasts of all Saints and All Souls are intrinsically linked. I can never think of one without being aware of the other. They speak of a deep seated equality that is at the heart of the gospel. All Saints reminds us that through our baptism we are all one in Christ, equally called to live lives shaped by the gospel. Tomorrow’s celebration of All Souls allows us to reflect that other great equaliser, the impermanence of human life.

Today I’m reflecting on this from the first letter of St John:

“My dear people, we are already the children of God, but what we are to be in the future has not yet been revealed; all we know is, that when it is revealed we shall be like him because we shall see him as he really is.”

This is not a feast of the canonised and recognised saints of the church. They have their own feasts when we rightly celebrate their lives and example. Yet, while we greatly value this, it can distract us from those other unnamed and unrecognised saints who have built up the church through quiet, unrecognised faithfulness to the gospel and to their baptismal promises.

This is a celebration of the ordinary Christians who have striven to be faithful in all ups and downs of ordinary life. The people who have allowed their lives to be shaped by their faith so that in thousands of small, seemingly insignificant, ways they ease the burdens of those around them.

This is a day for celebrating all the children of God who will never be recognised officially as saints, but who have through their actions and example shared the love of God with their families, neighbours and workmates.

Where is Christ inviting you to share his love today?

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Finding the way.

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As Jesus moved through the towns and villages on his way to Jerusalem someone asked him a question:

“Sir, will there be only a few saved?”

We don’t know who asked the question, Luke doesn’t even tell us whether it a man or a woman. Jesus’ response was not a direct answer, instead he leaves us much to ponder and reflect on:

“Try your best to enter by the narrow door, because, I tell you, many will try to enter and will not succeed.”

As is so often the case his words carry promise, invitation and challenge. We live in a world that seem full of possibilities. We are led to believe that we can have or become everything we choose if we just try hard enough. We know in our hearts that this isn’t the case, yet it is a beguiling, attractive and powerful myth.

Jesus shows us a more honest and realistic way. He is very clear that we can’t follow him and “have it all”. If we are serious about discipleship, we need to be prepared to leave some things behind. We need to let go of other options and possibilities to focus our attention on the call of the kingdom.

To find our way through this narrow door we need to be willing to accept boundaries and to limit our personal desires and needs for the greater good. In a time that highly prizes individual rights and freedoms that is a huge challenge. Yet, it is this narrow road that will lead us to the promises of the kingdom and the joy of resurrection.

What narrow door is Christ inviting you to go through today?