"A novice master once responded, when asked about a life lived in Christian authenticity, that to be a Christian was not to know the answers but to begin to live in the part of the self where the question is born.… He was speaking of an attitude of listening, of awareness of presence, of an openness to mystery."
-- Wendy M. Wright, "Wreathed in Flesh and Warm", A Book of Christmas
For my local Connecticuters! Please join me for a Lenten Retreat at the Caritas Christi Center in Hamden, CT (295 Benham St.) on Saturday, March 7, from 9:30 a.m.–3:00 p.m. Our topic will be: “Finding Strength in the Weakness of my Cross.” Here’s the blurb:
The Cross presents us with a paradox that turns our world upside down. St. Paul said it well: “When I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10). Join your brothers and sisters in Christ for a Lenten Retreat as we explore the meaning of these mysterious and life-changing words. How does powerlessness make us strong? How can times of suffering be times of fruitfulness? What happens when human weakness meets the power of God? The answers await us on the Cross of Jesus. Join us for reflection, quiet prayer time and discussion as we take up our crosses and follow him this Lent.
If you would like to attend, please register by calling Sr. Patricia Cigrand at the Caritas Christi Center at 203-281-2569. (Please note that the retreat center requests a donation of $40 for the day.) I would love to have you there!
And for those of you in the D.C. area, I will be offering an expanded version of this retreat as a 3-day Parish Mission at the Church of the Resurrection in Burtonsville, Maryland from March 1-3 (Sun-Tues). The sessions will be in the evenings. I will have the finalized times on my “Upcoming Events” page soon.
My Catholic Biblical School class is currently knee-deep in our study of the Pauline letters (that means we’ve only made it through Thessalonians and Corinthians!). Reading St. Paul plunges us into something that is simultaneously transcendent and down-to-earth, mystical and practical, inspiring and instructive. This tension – which Paul maintains with every stroke of the pen – deftly delivers something that modern readers find elusive in their own lives: the integration of “real life” and “the spiritual life.” Remember, Paul was first and foremost a missionary, secondly a pastor (a shepherd), and only thirdly a theologian. What Paul wrote, he wrote for a purpose – for real people facing real problems, for Christian communities struggling just like our communities do today. His theology emerged from “real life.”
The Second Letter to the Corinthians is one of my favorite Pauline books. In it we witness Paul’s passion for the Gospel, his love for his people, his zeal, his temper, his sense of humor and his creativity. The book also provides rich examples of Paul’s theology presented in the context of “real life” situations. One such example is found in 2 Cor. 1:15-24. Here Paul is offering a bit of self-defense: the Corinthian community was apparently miffed with him because he did not visit them as he had planned. They accused him of vacillating, of being unreliable. Paul heard about this and wanted to address it. He wanted to assure them that he changed his mind for a reason, not simply on a whim or because he cared little for the community.
In this situation, most of us would simply write, “I did not come because ____.” But it’s almost as though Paul can’t stop thinking about, writing about, teaching about Jesus Christ! For him, Christ is the foundation of all things, the answer to all things. And so his explanation of why he did not visit Corinth becomes yet another opportunity to teach about the goodness of God in Christ Jesus:
“Was I vacillating when I wanted to do this? Do I make my plans according to ordinary human standards, ready to say ‘Yes, yes’ and ‘No, no’ at the same time? As surely as God is faithful, our word to you has not been ‘Yes and No.’ For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, whom we proclaimed among you…was not ‘Yes and No’; but in him it is always ‘Yes.’ For in him every one of God’s promises is a ‘Yes.’ For this reason it is through him that we say the ‘Amen’, to the glory of God” (2 Cor. 1:17-20).
We can see how Paul’s self-defense quickly flows into an account of God’s own faithfulness. Paul does not vacillate weakly between “yes” and “no” – for he is a follower of Jesus Christ, who does not vacillate; he believes in a God who keeps every promise!
One verse from this section really struck me as I studied it this year. It's just like St. Paul to put all the pieces together with a statement like this:
“In [Jesus Christ] every one of God’s promises is a ‘Yes’” (2 Cor. 1:20a).
Would it be going too far to say that this verse sums up all of Scripture? It is surely a verse worth memorizing, a verse worth imprinting on our hearts. As we enter this New Year, may we take comfort in the faithfulness of our God, remembering that in Jesus Christ, every one of God’s promises – to his people, to his Church, to our families, to each one of us – is an emphatic “Yes!” And following Paul’s example, let us remember how deep we can go, and how profound our knowledge of Christ can be, even in the midst of real life.
The Solemnity of Mary the Mother of God (Jan. 1) marks the Octave of Christmas. Next Sunday, we will celebrate Epiphany, and the Sunday after that, the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. As we transition from the Christmas season back into Ordinary Time, as we pack up the outward signs of Christmas, we want to find some small way of keeping Christmas – its meaning and its light – with us. Has Christmas changed us? How?
An image from an Edith Stein poem is a simple way to express the change that should take place within us every year: “My heart has become your manger.”
Meister Eckhart in his own mystical way makes a similar point, and one which expresses the longevity of Christmas in the enduring power of the birth of Christ: “But if it does not happen in me, if this child is not born in me, what does it profit me? What matters is that God should be born again in me.”
Has your heart become a manger – a refuge – for him? Has he been born – in you? How will you share him with the world?
-- Meister Eckhart (1260-1328) was a German theologian and mystic who was a member of the Dominican Order. Eckhart was tried by the Inquisition as a heretic but has had many contemporary defenders, including John Paul II and the Dominican Order.
-- Edith Stein was a Jewish academic who converted to Catholicism and became a Carmelite sister. She died at Auschwitz in 1942. Stein was canonized in 1998 and is known as St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross. She has also been honored with the title of "martyr." The quote above comes from her poem "Holy Night."
As a theology student reading selections of St. Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica, I was never quite sure whether I was falling into a rapture or falling asleep. Although I’m sure Aquinas is entirely worthy of the ecclesial title “Angelic Doctor”, I always thought of him as more of an academic than an angel, and even though I treasure those volumes of the Summa given to me by a friend as I went off to college, I see them now as having more symbolic value than immediate theological relevance in my life.
That being said, I came across one of the Angelic Doctor’s sermons a few days ago that reminded me that Thomas Aquinas was not only methodical and intelligent, but also sensitive and spiritual. In this homily, given on the First Sunday of Advent, he associated several unexpected Scripture verses with the impending birth of Christ. I found each of them very worthy of Christmas meditation.
I offer these verses to you here with my own Christmas greetings. I thank each of you for the support and encouragement you have offered me this past year, and I wish you and your loved ones a peaceful, meaningful, and very merry Christmas:
“And so it happened that there was in the same man justice to the full and infinite mercy, and so mercy and truth have met one another; justice and peace have kissed one another (Ps. 95:11)…. Thus he came to make peace between mankind and God. And for this he is the appropriate arbiter, since he is himself our peace which makes both one (Eph. 2:14)…. He came to take away the contamination of sin, like a doctor. Mt. 8:7 reads: I will come and cure him. He came to be in our company, like a friend; it says in Baruch 5, From the holy one my joy comes.”
-- St. Thomas Aquinas, Veniet Desideratus: Sermon on the First Sunday of Advent