Lent Day 42 - Flowers in the Desert

Lent Day 42 - Flowers in the DesertBy Father Robert Barron

We began these daily Lent reflections by noting how Lent takes us into a spiritual desert. Biblical people knew all about the desert: Abraham has to cross it to get to the promised land; Moses and the Israelite people have to go through it to get home; Joseph is sent into Egypt and prison before he is ready for his mission; John the Baptist is a voice crying in the desert; Paul goes into the desert of Arabia after meeting the Lord on the road to Damascus. Even Jesus himself spends forty days and nights in the desert before commencing his ministry--the template on which Lent is based. What does the desert symbolize? A number of things: confrontation with our own sin so as to see our dark side; a deep realization of our dependency upon God; an ordering of our priorities in life; a simplification, a getting back to basics. It means any and all of these things. However, the desert also symbolizes waiting in anticipation. Desert wanderers are compelled to wait, in a time and place where very little life seems to be on offer, in hope of better things to come. And it's precisely in such hopeful deserts that flowers bloom. Moses becomes a great leader; Abraham is the father of many nations; Joseph becomes the savior of his people; John the Baptist is the forerunner of the Messiah; Paul is the apostle to the Gentiles-all of this flowering was made possible by the desert. So as we near the end of Lent, the end of our desert waiting, and move toward the Holy Triduum, let's prepare for new flowers to bloom.

Lent Day 41 - Prayer and ActionBy Father Robert Barron

The fruit of prayer in the Biblical tradition is action on behalf of the world. We are, essentially, a mission religion. Even the highest moments of mystical union are meant to conduce to doing God's work in the world, to becoming a conduit of the divine grace. We have mystics, poets, contemplatives galore in our tradition--just think of Bernard, John of the Cross, Teresa of Avila, Meister Eckhart, Thomas Merton--but they all see the essential link between prayer and action. This is why Peter's line is so important at the Transfiguration: "Master, it is good that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." As Luke, the author, points out immediately, "But he did not know what he was saying." The point of prayer is not to stay on the mountain. It is not to cling to mystical experience, however wonderful. It is to become radiant with the divine light so as to share it with the world. And this is why, at the Transfiguration, the voice from the cloud identified Jesus and specified, "Listen to him." In other words, don't just admire him; don't simply worship him. Do what he tells you. Authentic prayer always leads to active discipleship.

Palm SundayApril 13, 2014

OBERAMMERGAU

(A biblical refection on PALM (PASSION) SUNDAY [YEAR A], 13 April 2014)

First Reading: Isaiah 50:4-7; Second Reading: Philippians 2:6-11; Psalms: Psalm 22:8-9,17-20,23-24; Gospel Reading: Matthew 26:14-27:66 (Matthew 27:11-54)

Oberammergau is a small village in the Bavarian Alps that is famous for its Passion Play. This drama enacts the passion of Jesus from His triumphal entry into Jerusalem to His resurrection. It consists of 18 acts; has more than 700 villagers participate in the cast, orchestra and chorus; and takes a morning and an afternoon to perform.

With only three interruptions caused by war, the Oberammergau Passion Play has been staged every ten years since 1634 in fulfillment of a vow made by the villagers for deliverance from a plague.

Although our liturgy here today is not of the same magnitude and prestige as the Passion Play at Oberammergau, and although we are not assembling because of the threat of some plague, what we are doing is a sacramental ritual that should be full of meaning and power for us.

The palms that we blessed and the Passion according to Matthew that we read draw us into the drama of Holy Week, not merely as spectators, but as participants. The palms we hold and take home with us are signs that we are willing to march with Jesus, not only in moments of triumph and glory, as when He entered Jerusalem with the crowd crying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” but also in moments of suffering and agony, as when He was condemned to death with the crowd crying, “Crucify Him!”

On the one hand, it is easy to praise God when we are enjoying success, are feeling healthy, and are surrounded by a loving family and a circle of friends. Nonetheless, even in these favourable circumstances, blessing God is important to make us realize that He is the source of these gifts and that we should use them for His glory.

On the other hand, it is difficult to believe in God when we are discouraged by repeated failure, suffer from sickness and pain, or feel abandoned by everyone. But is precisely in such moments that we really participate in the passion of Christ. We then know from personal experience why Jesus prayed in the garden, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass me by,” or why on the cross He cried out, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?”

Moreover, it is also in such moments that we experience the power of Christ’s passion – to say “Yes” to the Father’s will when our world seems to be collapsing, and to expect that soon we will see the glory of God reveal itself in some way.

Today’s reading of the Passion ended on the dismal note of death – Jesus died and His tomb was sealed with a stone. Sometimes that’s the way our day ends: on a dismal note, for we still suffer our pain, hurt from our losses, or feel terribly lonely.

However, Passion Sunday is not the last word of the Jesus story. Rather, it is only the first word of a Holy Week that will reach its climax next Easter Sunday. The final word will not be the death of Jesus, but His rising from dead.

So too, no matter how many of our days seem to end in a depressing way, they are not the last word of our story. Rather, they are only a prelude to triumphs we have yet to experience in this life, and they point to that ultimate victory which will be ours in the next life.

There we will again process with palm branches, not to mark Christ’s triumphal entry into the earthly city of Jerusalem, but our own victorious entrance into the heavenly city of Jerusalem.

Source: Fr. Albert Cylwicki CSB, HIS WORD RESOUNDS, Makati, Philippines: St. Paul Publications, 1991, pages 26-28.

Jakarta, 13 April 2014

A Christian Pilgrim

Lent Day 40 -The Revolutionary Message of Palm Sunday

Lent Day 40 - The Revolutionary Message of Palm Sunday by Father Robert Barron

The texts that Christians typically read on Palm Sunday have become so familiar that we probably don't sense their revolutionary power. But no first-century Jew would have missed the excitement and danger implicit in the coded language of the accounts describing Jesus' entry into Jerusalem just a few days before his death. In Mark's Gospel we hear that Jesus and his disciples "drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany on the Mount of Olives." A bit of trivial geographical detail, we might be tempted to conclude. But about five hundred years before Jesus' time, the prophet Ezekiel had relayed a vision of the "Shekinah" (the glory) of Yahweh leaving the temple, due to its corruption. However, Ezekiel also prophesied that one day the glory of God would return to the temple, and precisely from the same direction in which it had left: from the east (Ez. 43: 1-2). As the people saw Jesus approaching Jerusalem from the east, they would have remembered Ezekiel's vision and would have begun to entertain the wild but thrilling idea that perhaps this Jesus was, in person, the glory of Yahweh returning to his dwelling place on earth. He was the new and definitive temple, the meeting-place of heaven and earth. And there is even more to see in the drama. As the rabbi from Nazareth entered Jerusalem on a donkey, no one could have missed the reference to a passage in the book of the prophet Zechariah: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey" (Zech. 9:9). A thousand years before the time of Jesus, David had taken possession of Jerusalem, dancing before the Ark of the Covenant. David's son Solomon built the great temple in David's city in order to house the Ark, and for that brief, shining moment, Israel was ruled by righteous kings. But then Solomon himself and a whole slew of his descendants fell into corruption. The people began to long for the return of the king, for the appearance of the true David, the one who would deal with the enemies of the nation and rule as king of the world. The Biblical authors expected Yahweh to become king, precisely through a son of David, who would enter the holy city, not as a conquering hero, riding a stately Arabian charger, but as a humble figure, riding a young donkey. Could anyone have missed that this was exactly what they were seeing on Palm Sunday? Jesus was not only the glory of Yahweh returning to his temple; he was also the new David, indeed Yahweh himself, reclaiming his city and preparing to deal with the enemies of Israel. And this is why Pontius Pilate, placing over the cross a sign in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew announcing that this crucified Jesus is King of the Jews, became, despite himself, the first great evangelist! So the message delivered on Palm Sunday, in the wonderfully coded and ironic language of the Gospel writers, continues to resonate: heaven and earth have come together; God is victorious; Jesus is Lord.

Lent Day 39 - Suffering Love By Father Robert Barron

Lent Day 39 - Suffering LoveBy Father Robert  Barron

When a prisoner escaped from Auschwitz in the summer of 1942, the Nazi soldiers imposed their penalty. They took all of the prisoners from the escapee's barracks and lined them up, and then at random chose a man to be put to death in retaliation. When the man broke down in tears, protesting that he was the father of young children, a quiet bespectacled man stepped forward and said, "I am a Catholic priest; I have no family. I would like to die in this man's place." Pope John Paul II later canonized that priest, Saint Maximilian Kolbe. With brutal clarity, Kolbe allows us to see the relationship between suffering willingly accepted and salvation. He was consciously participating in the act of his Master, making up, in Paul's language, what is still lacking in the suffering of Christ. We see a similar example in Saint Francis. Among the many stories told about the joyful saint, one of the most affecting is that concerning his encounter with a leprous man. Young Francis had a particular revulsion for leprosy. Whenever he saw someone suffering from that disease, he would run in the opposite direction. One day, Francis saw a leper approaching, and he sensed the familiar apprehension and disgust. But then he decided, under the inspiration of the Gospel, to embrace the man, to kiss him, and to give him alms. Filled with joy, he made his way up the road. But when he turned around he discovered the man had disappeared. Once again, suffering was the concrete expression of love. When a mother stays up all night, depriving herself of sleep, in order to care for a sick child, she is following this same example, suffering so that some of his suffering might be alleviated. When a person willingly bears an insult, and refuses to fight back or return insult for insult, he is suffering for the sake of love. We shouldn't be surprised when we are called upon to suffer in this world. We have been given the privilege of carrying on Christ's work in just this way.

Repententance and God's Forgiveness

REPENTANCE AND GOD’S FORGIVENESS

WE aren’t perfect, and never will be in this life. We often find ourselves in the same situation as Saint Paul when he said: “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand” (Romans 7:21). Fortunately, as Christians we can also praise God that Christ’s sacrifice has won the victory over sin. We have been put right with God in spite of our tendencies toward sin. Our efforts to obey God and to allow ourselves to be remade in His image are not guilt-laden, hopeless struggles but thankful offerings. Like children’s flower offerings at Easter, each triumph of obedience is a blossom for the cross of Christ.

Scripture assures us that God stands ready to help when we struggle with temptation.

“Because He Himself was tested by what He suffered, He is able to help those who are being tested” (Hebrew 2:18).

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Psalm 46:1).

“No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tested beyond your strength, but with the testing He will also provide the way out so that you may be able to endure it” (1Corinthians 10:13).

The armor of God is our best defense against temptation (see Ephesians 6:10-17). Truth, integrity, willingness to share the Gospel of peace, faith, consciousness of God’s salvation, God’s word and prayer are means that God has given us so that we can withstand evil. The more we use these tools, the stronger we’ll be when temptation comes.

Temptation itself is not sin. Even our Lord was tempted. Surrender to temptation, or disobedience, is sin. We will all succumb to temptation at one time or another, but our inevitable fall is not the end of the story. God’s cleansing forgiveness is available for every contrite heart. Like the father in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), God is eager to restore us to Himself. On our part we must examine ourselves honestly, confess our faults and repent our sins. We must acknowledge our sins to God before His forgiveness can benefit us. Blaming our shortcomings on others or on circumstances, thinking ourselves better that our neighbors, or expecting an automatic, easy forgiveness are attitudes which can keep us from honestly confronting our sins. If we don’t see the sickness, we won’t take the cure. Confession is the outward sign of our inward attitude of remorse. Confession enables us to name the sin, accept the guilt and ask for God’s mercy.

Besides being sorry for our sin, repentance include a resolve to avoid it in the future. Repentance means that we want God more than we want the pleasures of the sin. Asking for forgiveness while planning to continue willfully in sin is not true repentance. If our attachment to the sin is so strong that we feel we can’t give it up, we can start where we are and pray for help. We can ask that God might strengthen our desire to renounce sin and help us break with it.

After we have repented, we should accept God’s forgiveness and let go of our guilt. Many of us stumble at this step. We find it impossible to accept forgiveness. Remember, we don’t have to deserve forgiveness. All we have to do is ask for it with an honest, repentant heart. If God were to heal us of a physical illness, would we say, “No, Lord, I don’t deserve health, make me sick again”? After Jesus healed the blind man, the man followed Jesus and glorified God (see Luke 18:35-43). When our sins are forgiven and our spiritual sight” restored, then we should commit our lives to Jesus with thankfulness and praise, just as the blind man did. If God who is all-holy says that He forgives the repentant, then we can’t presume to insist on guilt. We should, instead, allow ourselves to believe God, humbly accept His forgiveness and praise Him for His mercy.

Jakarta, 11 April 2014

A Christian Pilgrim

achristianpilgrim | April 11, 2014 at 12:15 am | Tags: JESUS CHRIST, REPENTANCE AND GOD'S FORGIVENESS, TEMPTATION | Categories: LENT AND EASTERTIDE, TODAY'S THOUGHT 2014 | URL: http://wp.me/p1055h-2hm

Lent Day 38 - Gathering the Flock by Father robert Barron

Lent Day 38 - Gathering the Flock By Father Robert Barron

What was the world's greatest division, from the standpoint of a first-century Jew? The division between Jews and Gentiles. For centuries, Jews had defined themselves over and against the "other." Jews were the chosen people, gifted with the Law and divine revelation, peculiarly God's own. Throughout the Old Testament the Jews are warned not to mix and mingle with non-Jews, not to imitate their corrupt practices and depraved morals, not to eat the unclean foods that they eat, and above all, not to worship their gods. There was between them a "wall of enmity," and we see this today. Consider all the walls that separate our various cultures and civilizations. There is still the literal wall between Israel and Palestine in the Holy Land. Within our own polity and our church, there's the wall that separates liberals and conservatives. Look to any social circle, high school, or parish and you'll see those same walls. Now mind you, I'm talking about walls of enmity, not separation as such. I'm glad that cultures and nations and groups are diverse. But diversity is one thing, enmity is another. These various forms of enmity are what prevent God's flock from finding unity. Jesus the King came to heal this unity. How did he do this work? In a way that was radically unexpected. He went to Jerusalem and mounted a throne, but the throne was a Roman cross. And he battled non-violently against evil, absorbing it through the divine forgiveness. That's how Jesus "broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh . . . and reconciled [everyone] with God, in one body, through the cross" (Eph 2:14-16). There was no question that Israel was divided, scattered, and that they needed a shepherd. But what occurred to the first Christians after the resurrection is that Jesus' work was meant, not just for Israel, but for the world. He was the Davidic King through whom Israel's God would complete his universal task of gathering his scattered people into one flock.

Lent Day 37 - The Invasion of Grace- By Father Robert Barron

Lent Day 37 - The Invasion of Grace By Father Robert Barron

A few years ago, news reports revealed that baseball superstar Alex Rodriquez had been using steroids. By his own admission, the great A-Rod joined the sad ranks of Ken Caminiti, Rafael Palmiero, John Rocker, Mark Maguire, Roger Clemens, and of course Barry Bonds. But when I reflected on the two most prominent players in this scandal--A-Rod and Barry Bonds--something struck me with particular power. These two figures began using steroids--Bonds in 1998 and Rodriguez in 2001--when they were at the top of their games, when they were generally regarded as the best players in baseball. They both had sterling records, both were guaranteed a place in the Hall of Fame, both had more money than they could spend in ten lifetimes, both could out-hit, out-run, and out-play practically any player in the game. But why would these gods of baseball, these men who were, without artificial help, dominating their respective leagues, turn to steroids? It has been suggested that Bonds was jealous of the national frenzy around the Maguire-Sosa homerun race in 1998 and that Rodriguez felt the pressure of living up to the expectations generated by his unprecedented contract. Fair enough. But I think that things go deeper than that. St. Augustine spoke of "concupiscent desire," by which he meant a perversion of the will. We have, Augustine said, been wired for God ("Lord, you have made us for yourself"), and therefore, nothing in this world will ever be able finally to satisfy us ("our hearts are restless until they rest in thee"). When we hook our infinite desire for God onto something less than God--pleasure, money, power, success, honor, victory--we fall into a perverted and ultimately self-destructive pattern. When money isn't enough (and it never is), we convince ourselves we need more and more of it; when honor isn't enough (and it never is), we seek honor desperately, obsessively; when athletic success isn't enough (and it never is), we will go to any extreme to assure more and more of it. This awful and frustrating rhythm, which Augustine called "concupiscent," we would call today "addictive." Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez were not addicted to steroids per se; they were addicted to success, and we know this because they were at the pinnacle of success and still didn't think it was enough. One of the most liberating and salutary things that we can know is that we are not meant to be perfectly happy in this life. When we convince ourselves otherwise, we, necessarily, fall into one or more forms of addiction. Bonds and Rodriguez still felt, at the height of their success, a nagging sense of incompleteness. That was not an invitation to take desperate measures; it was the invasion of grace. As Lent nears its end, let your incompleteness be filled by God and not by any of the false, unsatisfying substitutes.

Lent Day 36 - Why is Almsgiving Valuable

 

 

 

Lent Day 36 - Why is Almsgiving Valuable?

By Father Robert Barron

Almsgiving is valuable because we're members of a mystical body-we're implicated in each other. I can never say that your suffering is not mine or that your neediness is not mine. All of us are co-implicated.

We're responsible for each other and giving alms is a very concrete way to acknowledge that.

Almsgiving is also tied to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Every Catholic is obligated, everyday, to practice those. Almsgiving offers a very clear and concrete way to fulfill that obligation.

Lent Day 35 - The Lesson of Lough Derg and Never be Afraid to come Back to Jesus

NEVER BE AFRAID TO COME BACK TO JESUS [JOHN 8:1-11] Consider this scene. A lynch mob of Pharisees and scribes, zealous for the letter of the law, use the occasion of a woman caught in adultery to trap Jesus. They want to kill her, but they also hope to get Jesus entangled in a no-win situation. If they can only get Him to say something in public that can be interpreted as contrary to the law, they’ll surely have him in a vise grip. But what does Jesus do? He simply bends down and starts doodling in the sand! He is not fazed or intimidated by their antics or schemes. Jesus is not all that easily thrown off center! He can’t be manipulated out of His position of love and mercy. In the midst of all the turmoil and commotion, He remained calm, and with one clear and piercing statement, He defused the situation and disarmed His adversaries completely (John 8:7). And, in the process, He saved a woman from death. Jesus can do the same thing with us – no matter what the situation, not matter how bad the sin, and no matter how tumultuous the circumstances. Nothing fazes Jesus. He has come in love and mercy to save us and set us free. He is always focused on His mission. Nothing can distract Him from His purpose of delivering us from every evil and transforming us into His image. Whatever chaos might surround us, Jesus is right there with us, calm as ever, offering us His strength. May we never think that Jesus will reject us or fail to come to our aid! He knows all the answers. He is able to foil every attempt of the enemy to accuse us or condemn us. He is the Good Shepherd, always able to guard His flock, always ready to seek out and save the sheep that have gone astray. Dear Sisters and Brothers, never be afraid to come back to Jesus. He looks upon us with eyes of love and awaits us always with mercy and compassion. Jakarta, 7 April 2014 A Christian Pilgrim achristianpilgrim | April 7, 2014 at 12:53 am | Tags: FORGIVENESS, JESUS CHRIST, THE WOMAN CAUGHT IN ADULTERY | Categories: LENT AND EASTERTIDE, TODAY'S THOUGHT 2014 | URL: http://wp.me/p1055h-2h5   Lent Day 35 - The Lesson of Lough Derg By Father Robert Barron I don't know any other place on earth that better exemplifies purgative suffering than Lough Derg. Otherwise known as St. Patrick's Purgatory, this Irish island was purportedly visited by St. Patrick in the 5th century. The saint came in order to spend a penitential retreat of forty days and forty nights. And from the Middle Ages to the present day, pilgrims have journeyed there, in imitation of Patrick, to do penance and to pray.  When the retreatants arrive, they are instructed immediately to take off their shoes and socks, and they endure the three day process barefoot, regardless of the weather. That first day, they fast (eating nothing but dry bread and a soup composed of hot water and pepper), and they move through a series of prayers and spiritual exercises. The first night, they are compelled to stay awake, fasting from sleep. If someone dozes off, his fellow pilgrims are expected to wake him up. The following day, they continue with their fast and their exercises, but they are allowed to sleep that night. The third day involves still more prayer and culminates with confession and Mass. After the liturgy, the pilgrims put their shoes back on and are ferried across to the mainland.  Those who come to Lough Derg take their spiritual lives with utter seriousness, and that is precisely why they are willing to endure hardship-even imposing it on themselves-in order to deepen their communion with God. They know that there are certain tendencies within their bodies and souls that are preventing the achievement of full friendship with God and therefore they seek, quite sensibly, to discipline themselves. John Henry Newman commented that the ascetical principle is basic to a healthy Christianity. He meant that Christians, at their best, understand that our sinful nature has to be chastised, disciplined, and rightly ordered. When the ascetical instinct disappears (as it has in much of Western Christianity), the spiritual life rapidly becomes superficial and attenuated, devolving into an easy "I'm okay and you're okay" attitude.  The whole point of the Christian life is to find joy, but the attainment of true joy comes, in a sinful world, at the cost of some suffering. That's why I, for one, am glad that a place like Lough Derg exists.   Lent Day 34 - Dazzling White In the account of the Transfiguration, we hear that, "While [Jesus] was praying, his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white." The reference here is to Moses whose, face was transfigured after he communed with God on Mt. Sinai, but the luminosity is also meant to signal the invasion of God. In the depths of prayer, when we have achieved a communion with the Lord, the light of God's presence is kindled deep within us, at the very core of our existence. It then begins to radiate out through the whole of our being. That's why it is so important that Luke mentions the clothing of Jesus becoming dazzling white. Clothes evoke one's contact with the outside world. When our clothes become radiant, we become light-bearers in the shadowlands. The God we discover in prayer should radiate out, through us, into the world, so that we become a source of illumination. In prayer today, ask the Lord to transfigure your soul, making it dazzling white.  Lent Day 33 Do not Be Afraid By Father Robert Barron The fear of death is like a cloud, a terrible shadow that falls over human life and experience. All of our proximate fears are reflections of, and participation in, this primordial fear. It cramps us, turns us in on ourselves, makes us defensive, hateful, violent, and vengeful. Further, most of the structures of oppression in the world are predicated upon the fear of death. Because a tyrant can threaten his people with death, he can dominate them; because a dictator can threaten people with killing, he can perpetrate all sorts of injustice. Whenever the strong (in any sense) overwhelm the weak, we are looking at the ways of death. But what would life be like if we were no longer afraid? What if death had finally lost its sting? Then we would live as the saints do--not immune to suffering, but, if I can put it this way, unaffected by it. We would know that we are loved by a power that transcends death, and this would fill us with an exuberance beyond measure. Jesus came to inaugurate this fearless and death-defying love. Therefore in the great words of John Paul II, which were really the words of Christ, "Do not be afraid."

Feast of Saint Joseph March 19th

Author Archives: achristianpilgrim

GOD CHOSE A SIMPLE CARPENTER [MATTHEW 1:16,18-21,24]

19Mar

GOD CHOSE A SIMPLE CARPENTER [MATTHEW 1:16,18-21,24]
(Solemnity: St. Joseph, Husband of the Blessed Virgin Mary)

Always working in wonderful and mysterious ways,
 God chose a simple carpenter to be the foster father
for His eternal Son. How can this be?
A mere man,
charged with the upbringing of the Son of God?
Much of this is mystery,
 but we do know that when God calls someone
 to do something,
He pours upon them all the grace
they need for the task.
Joseph was a man of mature faith
who trusted in the Lord.
Silent though he was,
 his actions speak more loudly
than all the sermons, exhortations,
 and philosophizing of Christian history.
 At the beginning of Jesus’ life,
when our redemption was about to occur,
we read about one man
whose strength, trust, and humility
stand as a sign of the new creation
that Jesus would make possible
for all of us through His cross.
God spoke to Joseph through an angel in dreams,
and every time Joseph
heard from the angel,
 he promptly followed God’s directives (Matthew 1:20-24;2:1-23). The situations Joseph
 faced were difficult.
On the angel’s first visit,
God told Joseph of Mary’s miraculous conception
and that he should not fear
taking her as his wife.
Surely, he must have been tempted
to doubt or to be concerned
about what others might think or say.
But, without asking for further understanding
 – without a single question
– Joseph acted decisively.
Like Joseph, we too are called
 to be generous receivers of God’s grace,
 His power which enables us
to obey Him.
 Let us open ourselves to God’s will.
 We can hear Him speak to us in prayer,
 as we read scripture,
 and while participating in the liturgy.
Sometimes our situations will be difficult
 and we may be tempted to doubt God.
 But, we all have the Holy Spirit,
who loves to instruct us in the ways of the Lord.
When we do God’s will,
our faith, hope,
and intimacy with God mature,
and we become more able to do the works
 He prepared for us.

Jakarta, 19 March 2014
A Christian Pilgrim

Day 15 of Lenten Reflections with Fr. Robert Barron

Lent Day 15 - Your Life Is Not About You In Jesus' last temptation in the desert, the devil led him to the parapet of the Temple and invited him to throw himself down, confident that the angels would support him. What was at stake here was the aggrandizement of the ego. What was the Temple but the place where God himself is worshiped? It was the high-point, the summit of Israelite life. To put oneself there was to place one's ego at the center of everything. In many ways, this is the very essence of sin; this is what, in a certain sense, all of us do. We make ourselves into God, which is to say, the center of the universe. We really believe that everything revolves around us and our needs, fears, and expectations. Everything ought to serve us. But one message at the heart of the Christian faith is this: your life is not about you. It is about God and God's purposes for your life. And so Jesus affirmed: "You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test." God tests people all the time in the Bible, but he himself should never be tested. A good Lenten question to ask is this: Are you the center of attention? Do you allow God to test you? Lent Day 14 - Disciplining Our Bodies When it comes to our bodies, Catholics are not dualists or Puritans. We don't think that the flesh is, in itself, sinful or problematic. However, we do know that the desires of the body have become, through the fall, disordered. They are no longer consistently subordinated to reason and, consequently, these desires can appear in exaggerated form or assert themselves disproportionately. Thomas Merton once commented that the needs of the body--food, drink, sleep, and sex--are like insistent children that demand to have their way. Just as children have to be disciplined lest they come to dominate the household, so the desires of the flesh have to be curtailed lest they come to monopolize all of our energies. Merton said that we fast from time to time precisely to allow the deeper spiritual hungers to surface and be satisfied. The use of bodily discipline is thus a vivid reminder to oneself that the pleasure of the body is not one's determining and ultimate good. This is not unique to Catholicism. Stop and consider for a moment the activities that go on every day in the typical gym. People labor away on stationary bikes, elliptical machines, and treadmills; they sweat their way through pull-ups, push-ups, and deadlifts. In all sorts of ways, they discipline their bodies so as to overcome the natural tendency toward laziness and self-indulgence. More to it, these same people most likely deny themselves all sorts of pleasurable foods, resisting cravings. All of this punishment is in service of a healthier body. Why can't we apply similar techniques to produce healthier minds and spirits? Today, discipline your body in some small way. Maybe give up snacking between meals, only drink room-temperature water, or pray an entire rosary while walking. These simple bodily disciplines will undoubtedly strengthen your soul. Lent Day 13 - The Portable Monastery What is prayer? Saint John of Damascus said, "Prayer is the raising of one's mind and heart to God." When someone asked Thomas Merton to reveal the one thing he should do to improve his prayer life, Merton responded: "Take the time." During Lent, we must consciously take the time to raise our hearts and minds to God. We seek communion with God through friendship and conversation. But how do we do this in our busy lives? One thing I often recommend is praying in the car (or in the subway, bus, train, etc.) For those of us distracted by a thousand things, and who are constantly on the move, the car can be a bit like a monastic cell. It encloses you within a quiet, meditative space conducive to prayer. Also, as an added bonus, when you treat your car as a monastery, traffic becomes a welcome opportunity for more prayer and silence, rather than a cause of frustration. Now, I understand this will be easier for some than others. For example, mothers of young children may have a difficult time cultivating a quiet space. But to the extent that you're able, consider turning off the radio today. Put away your phone. Use your travel time to raise your mind and heart to God. Maybe you pray the Rosary, or perhaps you converse with God about your day. But whatever you decide, take the time. Turn your car into a monastery. Lent Day 12 - A New Pitch of Existence In his letter to the Philippians, St. Paul writes, after meeting the Risen Lord in a vision, "I consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord" (Phil. 3:8). Paul encountered the risen Jesus Christ, and in light of that knowledge, everything else in his life seemed like rubbish, like a total loss. Paul became elevated to a new life, a new vision, a new pitch of existence. All his accomplishments and the great things he inherited seemed like nothing compared to this life that was opened to him in the resurrection from the dead. What does the Resurrection mean? It means the elevation of this life to a new pitch, a new perfection, a new beauty that we can't even imagine. Imagine a fish who spent his entire life under the sea, and then is hooked by a fisherman. He's pulled up out of the water and for one moment he glimpses this world of light and color that he had never imagined possible. Then he wriggles off the hook and falls back into the water. "I saw that world up there," he would tell his fish friends, "which I never knew existed! Yet now, compared to that, this ordinary world seems like nothing to me." That's what Paul is communicating to the Philippians in his letter. And that's the new vision, the new pitch of existence, we're moving toward this season of Lent. Lent Day 11 - St. Thomas More and the Theo-drama The late Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar, whom I mentioned yesterday, often spoke of the "theo-drama." This is the drama written and directed by God and involving every creature in the cosmos. On the grand stage that is the created universe, we are invited to "act," to find and play our role in God's theater. The problem is that the vast majority of us live in the "ego-drama." We think we are the directors, writers, and above all, stars of our own dramas. We're convinced the cosmos provides a pleasing backdrop to our own performance. Other people function as either our supporting players or our villains, against whom we shine all the brighter. The ego-drama is on display in a wonderful scene in Robert Bolt's A Man For All Seasons. Richard Rich, a promising and ambitious young man, petitions the saintly Thomas More for a position among the glitterati at the court of Henry VIII. But disappointingly for Rich, More offers him a position, not as a courtier, but as a simple teacher. The young man is crestfallen, and More tries to cheer him up: "You'd be a good teacher." But Rich fires back: "And if I were, who would know it?" The patient More explains: "Yourself, your friends, your pupils, God--pretty good public, that!" What More assumes is the profoundly spiritual truth that the only audience worth playing for is the divine audience, and the only drama worth acting in--even in the smallest role--is God's. Rich wants a starring role, but More reminds him that it profits him nothing to play even the biggest part in the ego-drama if he misses his role in the theo-drama. The key is finding the role that God has designed for you, even if it looks like a bit part. And when you find that pearl of great price, you must sell everything else and buy it. Lent Day 10 - Why was the Cross Necessary? In the wake of Mel Gibson's movie, "The Passion of the Christ", and now more recently Mark Burnett's film, "Son of God", a lot of people have wondered, why was it necessary for Jesus to die on a cross? Although viewers of both films admired Jesus' courage in suffering through his brutal execution, they still wondered, did God want that? Did God demand that awful, bloody sacrifice? Han Urs von Balthasar said that what you see on the Cross is the greatest act of love, because the Father, out of love, sent the Son all the way into our human condition-but then, even more, he sent him into God-forsakenness. Jesus went to sinners, the sick, the marginalized, but then even further than that. In the most dramatic way possible, Jesus ventured into what frightens us the most: death. As St. Paul says, "He accepted death, even death on a cross," which for someone of that time, and maybe of any time, was the most brutal way to be killed. So the Father sent the Son all the way out into the furthest limits of God-forsakenness, but why? To usher into those places the divine light. Is death a place that God is not? No, because God is present there in Jesus. Is suffering a place that God is not? No, because the Son entered into suffering. Is sin a place where God is not? No, because God became sin on the Cross, says Paul. Through Jesus, the divine light journeys into our worst darkness. His aim is to divinize us, to allow us to "share his divine nature" in St. Peter's words, even in those dark places and conditions. Sin is a turning away from the divine life, and death is a fearful place that seems alien to God. But Jesus invades all those places, and thereby illumines them. He offers us new life even when we've wandered as far as we possibly can from God. In that sense, the Cross was necessary for our salvation since it allowed the Hound of Heaven to hunt us down, even in the darkest places. Lent Day 9 - Change the Way You See The first words Jesus speaks in the Gospel of Mark set the tone for the entire Gospel and, one could say, for the whole of Christianity: "This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Reform your lives and believe in the Good News." By noting "the time of fulfillment," Jesus is referring to something humans have been longing for, hoping to see arrive. It's as if he's saying, "The privileged time is here." These words provide a sort of wake-up call, a warning bell in the night. They're similar to what worshipers hear repeatedly in the Byzantine liturgy: "Be attentive! Let us be attentive!" But how should we be attentive? Jesus is eminently clear: "Reform your lives and believe in the Good News." The Greek word for "reform" is metanoiete, a term derived from two words, meta (beyond) and nous (mind). Thus in its most basic form it means something like "go beyond the mind that you have." Jesus is commanding a change that takes place at a an elemental and all-embracing level of one's being. He's telling his listeners to change the way they see, the way they think, the way they imagine. Change your attitude. Change your perspective. Change your angle, your mode of vision. The new state of affairs has arrived, but you are not going to see it unless you change. Today, go beyond your mind and see through the eyes of Christ. Lent Day 8 - Give to Everyone Who Asks Why do we give alms? Because when we share gifts or charity with those in need, we're acknowledging the fact that we're not in this alone, that the things that we own are meant for others. Saint Thomas Aquinas taught that we have the right to private ownership, but not the right to private use. The use of private property must be for the sake of the common good. How do we signal that public use? We give alms. Lent is the perfect time to survey our material possessions, which often results in realizing we have too many, and then give some away. There are many practical ways to do it. For example, during Lent, whenever you get a letter in the mail from some reputable organization asking for money, give them something. Now I know you're probably on every mailing list in the entire world, and maybe you only give $1 or $5 to each request. But decide that over the next six weeks, whenever a respected person or group asks you for money, you give them something. This is a tangible way to follow Jesus' command from the Gospel of Matthew: "Give to everyone who asks you" (Mt 5:42). Here's a similar idea: whenever you see a homeless person or beggar asking for help, give them something. Don't ask questions, don't weigh the pros and cons, just give them something. It doesn't have to be money, in case you're worried about enabling an addiction--you could give them gift cards, bottles of water, or bus tickets. But give them something. One final suggestion: this Lent, whenever you buy something--whether a big purchase like a car or television, or a smaller purchase at a restaurant--choose the option you like best and can afford, and then buy the next cheapest alternative. Take the difference and give it to the poor. Commit yourself to these simple but challenging choices, and you'll discover concrete ways to give alms throughout Lent. Lent Day 7 - How to Make Room for Life's Biggest Questions The 17th-century French philosopher Blaise Pascal said that most of us spend our lives seeking diversions in a desperate attempt to avoid the hard and simple questions: Who am I? What is the purpose of my life? What does God want of me? We eat and drink, gamble and gossip, seek out the most banal entertainments, surrender to television and social media, attend party after party--all in order to avoid those questions. Right now, identify the diversion that most distracts you from these questions. Then take some practical steps to rid yourself of it, or at least reduce it. Are you preoccupied with eating and drinking? Then fast regularly. Do you watch too much television or spend too much time on Facebook? Then give yourself a specific limit. Do you indulge in idle chatter? Then resolve not to say anything mean about anybody (you'll find that your conversations are a lot shorter!) Do you socialize too much? Then refrain from non-essential parties for the rest of Lent. Clear the ground. Clean out the system. Make room for yourself to ask and reflect on life's most important questions. To follow Jesus into the desert is to divest yourself of diversions. It is to sacrifice the superficial so that the depth may rise. It is to still the chatter so that God's voice might be heard.     Day 6 of Lenten Reflections with Fr. Robert Barron Lent is a time to deepen our prayer lives, and thankfully there are a number of things the Church recommends. Here are just five simple examples. Choose one, preferably one you're not familiar with, and commit to it this Lent: 1. Pray before the Blessed Sacrament - Spend some time if you can, everyday or maybe once a week, praying in front of Our Lord. Don't just talk--be still and listen. 2. The Jesus Prayer - Pray this simple prayer: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner." Repeat it over and over again throughout the day, for one minute, five minutes, or half an hour. Pray it at the beginning and end of the day. Let its calming rhythm focus your mind on God. 3. "Come, Holy Spirit" prayer - Simply praying, "Come, Holy Spirit" works anytime, anywhere--it's always a good prayer. For more, try praying the entire Veni, Sancte Spiritus. 4. The Rosary - If you haven't prayed the Rosary in a long time, pick it up during Lent. If you're unsure how, or if you've forgotten which mysteries to pray, here's a simple guide. 5. The Mass - If you don't go to Sunday Mass, go--you're obligated if you're a Catholic. If you go to Sunday Mass, go to daily Mass during Lent. Decide to attend one extra Mass each week. Visit MassTimes.org to find daily Mass times at nearby parishes. All of these are simple, straightforward ways to deepen your prayer life during Lent. You don't have to do them all, but just choose one and commit yourself. Lent Day 5 - Truly Risen from the Dead

When we recite the Creed, we don't say a word about Jesus' teaching, but we do profess that Jesus was "crucified under Pontius Pilate." He did not simply die; he was put to death, precisely as a political criminal. He was killed on a Roman instrument of torture--overwhelmed, it seemed, by the hatred, violence, and dysfunction of the sinful world. In that case, why don't we see Jesus simply as another in a long line of tragic heroes, raging in vain against the powers of the world? Because, as the Creed puts it, "on the third day he rose again in fulfillment of the scriptures." Throughout much of the period after the Second Vatican Council, too many theologians, teachers, and preachers have tended to downplay the reality of the Resurrection, turning it into a vague symbol or an expression of the faith of the disciples. But if this is all the Resurrection means, then forget it! Anglican bishop and New Testament scholar N.T. Wright has commented incisively that if Jesus had not been raised bodily from the dead, Christianity would never have survived as a messianic movement. Wright says that the clearest indication, to a first-century Jew, that someone was not the Messiah would be his death at the hands of the enemies of Israel. That the church of Christ endured as a messianic religion is possible only on the assumption that the crucified one was, nevertheless, objectively alive. Claims that the disciples were inspired by a dead man would never have stood up against the early critics of Christianity. Truly risen from the dead, victorious over sin and violence, Jesus is now the Lord--the one to whom we owe total allegiance, the one who should become the dominant force in every aspect of our lives.

 

 

Lent Day 4 - Mother Teresa's Secret to Joy

When she was still a Loreto nun, Mother Teresa made her way by train to Darjeeling for a retreat. And on that train she heard a voice inviting her to carry the light of Christ to the darkest places. When she returned to Calcutta, she began the process that led to the founding of the Missionaries of Charity, an order whose purpose would be to respond to that summons. That work is carried on today by her sisters in more than 500 establishments around the globe. A couple year ago I personally experienced this extraordinary work. While producing the ten-part CATHOLICISM series, our team filmed in a small hospital in Calcutta, India where the Missionaries of Charity care for children with mental and physical disabilities. When we arrived, the electricity had just gone out, and the room was stiflingly hot. Everywhere, the sisters and a large team of volunteers milled about, providing medical assistance, speaking to the kids, teaching some of them to sing simple songs, or just holding them. There was one sister who was carrying in her arms a small girl of perhaps a year and half or 2 years old. The child was blind. I asked sister how they had come to care for this girl, and she told me that she had simply been abandoned on the street. "She is my special baby," the sister said,. And then she flashed this absolutely radiant smile, which told me that she had found a deep joy precisely in this hot, crowded hospital, in the midst of one of the most squalid cities in the world. All of us human beings want joy. Everything we do and say, all of our actions and endeavors, are meant to produce contentment, peace, happiness. Even the most morally corrupt person, ultimately, wants joy. But how do we find it? The most elemental mistake--made consistently across the centuries to the present day--is to seek joy by filling up in ourselves something that we perceive to be missing. We tell ourselves that we'd be happy if we just had enough pleasure, enough power, enough security, enough esteem. But this does not work. It is the supreme paradox of the Christian spiritual tradition that we become filled with joy precisely in the measure that we contrive a way to make of ourselves a gift. By emptying out the self in love for the other, we become filled to the brim with the divine life. The smile of that Missionary of Charity, which was the same smile Mother Teresa bore, signaled the presence of a joy that no wealth, no security, no pleasure, no honor could possibly provide, and that can emerge even in the most miserable context. The secret to joy is self-giving love. Mother Teresa imparted that to her sisters, and she offers the same lesson to us.

 

Lent Day 3 - Polishing the Diamonds

There is a regrettable interpretation of the cross that has, unfortunately, infected the minds of many Christians. This is the view that the bloody sacrifice of the Son on the cross was "satisfying" to the Father, and appeasement of a God infinitely angry at sinful humanity. In this reading, the crucified Jesus is like a child hurled into the fiery mouth of a pagan divinity in order to assuage its wrath. But what ultimately refutes this twisted theology is the well-known passage from John's Gospel: "God so loved the world, that he sent his only Son, that all who believe in him might have eternal life." John reveals that it is not out of anger or vengeance or in a desire for retribution that the Father sends the Son, but precisely out of love. God the Father is not some pathetic divinity whose bruised personal honor needs to be restored; rather God is a parent who burns with compassion for his children who have wandered into danger. Does the Father hate sinners? No, but he hates sin. Does God harbor indignation at the unjust? No, but God despises injustice. Thus God sends his Son, not gleefully to see him suffer, but compassionately to set things right. St. Anselm, the great medieval theologian, who is often unfairly blamed for the cruel theology of satisfaction, was eminently clear on this score. We sinners are like diamonds that have fallen into the muck. Made in the image of God, we have soiled ourselves through violence and hatred. God, claimed Anselm, could have simply pronounced a word of forgiveness from heaven, but this would not have solved the problem. It would not have restored the diamonds to their original brilliance. Instead, in his passion to reestablish the beauty of creation, God came down into the muck of sin and death, brought the diamonds up, and then polished them off. In so doing of course, God had to get dirty. This sinking into the dirt-this divine solidarity with the lost--is the "sacrifice" which the Son makes to the infinite pleasure of the Father. It is the sacrifice expressive, not of anger or vengeance, but of compassion. Jesus said that any disciple of his must be willing to take up his cross and follow the master. If God is self-forgetting love even to the point of death, then we must be such love. If God is willing to break open his own heart, then we must be willing to break open our hearts from others. The cross, in short, must become the very structure of the Christian life.

Lent Day 2 - No Way Up But Down

Something I have noticed over the years is that the holiest people in our tradition are those who are most aware of their sinfulness. Whether it is Paul, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Teresa of Avila, Thérèse of Lisieux, or Mother Teresa, the saints are those who are convinced of their inadequacy. When Isaiah encounters the Lord he says, "I am a man of unclean lips!" When Peter is in the presence of the Messiah he says, "Lord, leave me, for I am a sinful man." G.K. Chesterton once said, "A saint is someone who knows he's a sinner." The holy person has no illusions about himself. It is an extraordinary and surprising phenomenon that the saints seem to be those who are most conscious of their sinfulness. At times we are tempted to think that this is a form of attention-getting, a sort of false humility. But then we realize that it is proximity to the light that reveals the smudges and imperfections that otherwise go undetected. A windshield that appears perfectly clean and transparent in the early morning can become opaque when the sun shines directly on it. Standing close to the luminosity of God, the holy person is more intensely exposed, his beauty and his ugliness more thoroughly unveiled. There's no way up but down; no real holiness without awareness. At least part of being a saint is knowing you're a sinner.

Lent Day 1 - Judged According to Love

The Spanish mystic Saint John of the Cross said that in the evening of life we shall be judged according to our love. In Matthew 25 the nature of love is specified. It is not primarily a feeling, an attitude, or a conviction, but rather a concrete act on behalf of those in need--the hungry, the homeless, the lonely, the imprisoned, the forgotten. It is the bearing of another's burden. Here's a challenge: Over the next forty-seven days, resolve to perform a particular and sustained act of love. Make several visits to your relative in the nursing home. Converse regularly with a lonely person on your block. Tutor and befriend a kid who might be in danger of losing his way. Repair a broken friendship. Bring together bickering factions at your place of work. Make a number of financial contributions to a worthy organization that needs help. Numerous spiritual masters have witnessed to something odd: Belief in God is confirmed and strengthened not so much from intellectual effort as from moral action. When a man once asked the English Jesuit poet Gerard Manley Hopkins what he must do in order to believe, Hopkins replied, "Give alms." As you love through tangible acts, you will come to believe more deeply and to enter more fully into friendship with God.