Second Sunday in Lent, February 25, 2024

Be still, and pay attention to the presence of God in your life

Mark 9:2–10

After six days Jesus took Peter, James and John with him and led them up a high mountain, where they were all alone. There he was transfigured before them. His clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them. And there appeared before them Elijah and Moses, who were talking with Jesus.

Peter said to Jesus, “Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what to say, they were so frightened.)

Then a cloud appeared and covered them, and a voice came from the cloud: “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

Suddenly, when they looked around, they no longer saw anyone with them except Jesus.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until the Son of Man had risen from the dead. They kept the matter to themselves, discussing what “rising from the dead” meant.

Further study:

• Comparison of the Transfiguration Story in the Synoptic Gospels >> [PDF]

Music Meditations

• “The Ground” (“Pleni sunt caeli”) (composed by Ola Gjeilo)
• “Be Still and Know” (Steven Curtis Chapman) [YouTube]
• “Open My Eyes, Lord” (by Jesse Manibusan) [YouTube]
• “Christ in Me Arise” (composed by Trevor Thomson) [YouTube]

Opening Prayer

Not to the wise and powerful of this world, O God of all blessedness, but to those who were just like us
did you reveal in Jesus the promise of Your kingdom.
Gathered here, like the disciples on the mountain, we long to listen as You reveal Your promise in Jesus.
Grant us the ability to hear and follow Jesus, Your son.

Companions for the Journey

Adapted from “First Impresssions”, a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

Let’s work with the notion of “transfigured.” When is a person transfigured? When some quality comes to the surface; when hidden potential comes to light. The disciples are shown more than the surface of Jesus, more than the carpenter. Jesus’ real identity shsines through and he invites us to do the same this Lent. We have been taught to cover up, adapt ourselves, our behaviors and expectations, to suit the thinking of our surrounding world. We fit in, stifle our true identity. What is beneath the surface? Do we really desire to be kind and accepting to others, generous and humorous, more our true selves? Divinity hides beneath the surface, we were baptized into union with Jesus and that has enabled us to perceive and act differently—if only we wouldn’t cover up that life within us. We don’t have to live our lives according to the expectations of others, we don’t have to submerge our true selves. This story is filled with light, except for the disciples who doze in shadows, who have missed the true presence of the One in their midst. The Gospel encourages us today, no matter what we have been told about ourselves, to see the spark of divinity in us, to imagine the possibilities, to open ourselves to others and the possibility of helping to create a better world. We also need a special way of seeing, a special light, to see beneath the surface of our daily lives. Is it possible that the holy resides beneath the routine and daily sameness? We don’t live with rarefied visions on mountains, we live on the flat surfaces, the grind of daily labors and struggles. Because of Jesus, we can see these plain events of daily life as suffused with the light of the Holy One. Resurrection has already begun and our lives are already transformed for those who look beneath the surface, for those who have heard this story of the Transfiguration and taken it to heart. Jesus was transfigured and that tells us that nothing about our lives is ever the same.

At a recent group sharing of this Gospel account, a woman participant tells her own transfiguration story. She was raised in a small town environment. There she knew all her neighbors and people were pretty much alike. She now works at a church with a youth program that does a summer outreach to a soup kitchen in inner city Philadelphia. Last summer she was asked to go as one of the adult leaders. She said that she had usually categorized people into two groups, weeds and wheat. The people she expected to meet at the soup kitchen would assuredly fall into the “weeds” category, she thought. But working in the soup kitchen and getting to know the people from the streets who came in for food and companionship changed her perspective. She says it was her “transfiguration event.” She got to know and like the regulars. She heard their stories and realized that the only thing separating her from their life was income. One man she met used to, “go to work in a three-piece suit.” “The people there were a family, caring for one another,” she says. She learned how they never wasted any food that was given them and would bring leftovers to friends on the streets. This summer she is volunteering to go back again. No one requires her to go, she says she wouldn’t miss it for the world. Now she sees people in a whole new light. That’s the power of a Transfiguration experience.

How will the transfiguration play itself out in Jesus’ life? He will not look different, nor will his clothes always be “dazzling white.” His transfiguration will continue to happen in his acts of ministry to them; people will be transfigured before him. Sinners will transfigure and turn back to God; the poor and outcast will transfigure into royal guests at Jesus’ table; the powerless will be transfigured by God’s power; women will be transfigured and counted as equals; those who sought riches and power at any price, will be transfigured into his detached and gentle followers; and the sick will become healthy; the mute eloquent in God’s praises and the blind will see Jesus resurrected and in a new light.

Will we disciples be transfigured today as well? Will our focus shift from notions of a cozy and removed religion to a more open and inclusive one? Will we see our church more like “tent dwellers” on a journey together, than edifice builders? Will we co-travelers remain flexible and adaptable to the needs we see around us and respond with Jesus’ self-sacrificing spirit? (“What would Jesus do?” Are teenagers still wearing those initialed wristbands, “WWJD?”) We pray that the Transfiguration would rub off on us. We want more of God’s presence to shine through us so that people will come to know God’s goodness and love for them through our daily service in Jesus’ name. We hope that through us, those who feel outside or alienated, will be transfigured also and come to know the God we have come to know through Jesus.

Now Jesus is resurrected and we have heard the full story. His transfiguration was no momentary flash-in-the-pan; no “fool’s gold.” His presence in our lives doesn’t always shine through nor is it obvious. But his life has taught us that if we look more closely we will see him in his many disguises, in the poor and those who are part of our daily lives. What a surprise! He is also present and transfigured before us as we hear his word; forgive and embrace one another in peace and then receive his sacramental presence in the Eucharist. Like the disciples, we have been led “apart” by ourselves with him whenever we participate in a liturgical celebration. Now we return to where we will also find him, in his clever disguises in our daily lives.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

This is my beloved Son. Listen to him.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• Do you think the Transfiguration impacted Jesus’ own understanding of his relationship to God or how he was to live his life?
• Do you think that Jesus had dramatic experiences of God on a regular basis throughout his life? Can we?
• How will this transfiguration play out in Jesus’ life? Will he look or act different after the transfiguration?
  Was, it instead, a transfiguration moment for the disciples, when they saw Jesus for who he actually was?
• How long did the peak experience stay with them?
  How long do our peak experiences, insights stay with us?
• Like the disciples, do we have to be startled, amazed or very frightened to realize the presence of God in our midst?
  What are some of the possible ways to be aware of God in all things?
• From Jude Siciliano, O.P.:
  Have you ever had an experience that changed your outlook on life for the good?
  Did you see God’s hand in that experience?
• When is a person transfigured?
  When the hidden potential of a person comes to light?
  Or when we are transfigured enough to see the hidden potential in another or in a given life situation?
• What is the role of prayer in making us aware of God’s presence in our lives?
  Which prayers work best for me?
  Which types of prayers get in the way?
• “Truly, Yahweh is in this place and I never knew it…This is nothing less than a house of God, a gate of heaven!” (Genesis 28:16–17)
  Jacob’s sentiments could be ours. What does it take to see the presence of God in our midst?
  What are the distractions that keep us from doing so?
• For the most part, the “real” Jesus stays hidden from us. Every once in a while his presence in our lives becomes visible. What are some of the disguises Jesus wears? (The poor, the immigrant, the addict, the filthy homeless person, my irritating sister-in-law?)
• Have I ever experienced events that impacted MY relationship with God?
  Was I always aware of the significance of these events at the time?
• What does the Transfiguration suggest to me about how God might be trying to be present to me?
  Am I ready for the change in my life that might result from such an experience?
• I look back on the last several days. Have I seen the spark of divinity in myself or in others?
  Did I notice it at the time, or only realize its import after the fact?
• Can I cultivate a special way of seeing, to go beneath the surface of my daily life and see the Holy that resides between the routine and the sameness?
  How much of my life is on autopilot?
  Is there so much noise and rush in my life that I have no time for prayer and reflection?
• Has there ever been a time when I experienced a personal transformation or transfiguration?
  Have I ever had a “mountain top” experience when I felt God was close and spoke a word to me?
  What effect did that experience have on my life?
• Like the disciples, do I sometimes wish to prolong some peak moments in order to avoid the real work of living my life?
  Which do I prefer: dramatic, transformational experiences, or the quiet daily living out of my relationship with God?
  What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style:

“We had the experience but missed the meaning. An approach to the meaning restores the experience in a different form.” (T.S. Eliot)

Finding God in all things is a big part of Ignatian spirituality. But finding God in the boring parts of life is easier said than done. Here are five ways (aside from the Examen) to find God in all things.

• Micro-Awareness—This is not just trying to be aware of the present moment, but rather letting each small action you take become your primary purpose in the moment. If you let something as simple as pushing the power button on your computer or walking up the stairs be done with intention and awareness (rather than letting routine get the best of you), you’ll find a new holiness in those mundane tasks.
• Journal—Writing down the experiences of your day as well as your thoughts and feelings is a kind of Examen, but oftentimes the act of writing uncovers unseen moments of God’s presence you initially missed.
• Do something the “old fashioned way”—Technology and fast expectations can often close the door on our awareness of God. For a change, walk to someone’s desk instead of calling, hand-write a letter instead of e-mailing, walk to the store instead of driving, or take the train instead of flying. The change of pace may give you a more meaningful interaction or experience. And slowing down lets you acknowledge God’s presence more easily.
• Listen—When was the last time you really listened to someone without trying to think of what to say next? You’ll be surprised what you hear if you actually listen—to a friend, to the natural sounds around you (try turning off the radio when you drive), or to your own conscience. God speaks when we pause long enough to listen.
• Say “God is here”—Practice saying “God is here” the next time you are irritated by someone, feel overwhelmed by obligations and tasks, feel bored and listless, feel ignored. In fact, make a point of saying “God is here” several times a day so that you get in the habit of simply noticing the presence of God in your life. Sometimes saying “God is here” is the best way to snap into an awareness that God dwells not just within you but alongside you in every moment, mundane or grand.

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style:

Father Garth Stanton wrote a reflection that invites us to see that we are truly God’s beloved:

Our brother once had a cloud overshadow him up on a mountain.
The message was simple—an affirmation that he was the beloved.
There is no “more”, there is no “less” in God. Can we not see that we are also the beloved?
Do not be frightened. Dare to be loved that much. Pour out your heart on a mountaintop.

As a response to this reflection, write your own letter to God, telling Him all that is in your heart.

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style:

“The Sacraments”

I once spoke to my friend, an old squirrel, about the Sacraments—
he got so excited

And ran into a hollow in his tree and came
back holding some acorns, an owl feather
and a ribbon he had found.

And I just smiled and said, “Yes, dear,
you understand

Everything imparts
His grace.”

—St. Francis of Assisi

What mediates and imparts a sense of God's presence in your life? Pray your gratitude and joy.

Poetic Reflection:

Thomas Merton was a mystic who spent much of his time in solitude in a small hut on the grounds of the Abbey of Gethsemani, in Kentucky. This poem by Thomas Merton, reflects on the blessings of silence and attentiveness.

Merton tells us that even the stones speak, that they know who we are, and that they can tell us our own True Name if we can be still enough to hear them. The only way you can Listen to the stones of the wall which try to speak your name is to let go of who you think you are (avoiding the superficial answers to that question as the poem poses) and fall into the stillness where all things are burning. For this is the fire that will set us free. In silence we learn to PAY ATTENTION. WOW! (Commentary adapted from R. Housden in Ten Poems to Set You Free).

”In Silence”

Be still
Listen to the stones of the wall.
Be silent, they try
To speak your

Name.
Listen
To the living walls.
Who are you?
Who Are you? Whose
Silence are you?

Who (be quiet)
Are you (as these stones
Are quiet). Do not
Think of what you are
Still less of
What you may one day be
Rather
Be what you are (but who?) be
The unthinkable one
You do not know.

O be still, while
you are still alive,
And all things live around you
Speaking (I do not hear)
To your own being,
Speaking by the Unknown
That is in you and in themselves.

“I will try, like them
To be my own silence:
And this is difficult. The whole
World is secretly on fire. The stones
Burn, even the stones
They burn me. How can a man be still or
Listen to all things burning? How can he dare
To sit with them when
All their silence
Is on fire?”

Poetic Reflection:

This poem, by Denise Levertov, a former Stanford professor, captures our all-too-frequent obliviousness to the presence of God Merton spoke of in the previous poem:

“On a Theme by Thomas Merton”

“Adam, where are you?”
God’s hands
palpate darkness, the void
that is Adam’s inattention,
his confused attention to everything,
impassioned by multiplicity, his despair.

Multiplicity, his despair;
God’s hands
enacting blindness. Like a child
at a barbaric fairgrounds—
noise, lights, the violent odors—
Adam fragments himself. The whirling rides!

Fragmented Adam stares.
God’s hands
unseen, the whirling rides
dazzle, the lights blind him. Fragmented,
he is not present to himself. God
suffers the void that is his absence.

Closing Prayer

We especially pray for all those in need of your guidance and your comfort at this time.
[Pause to recall the names of those you want to pray for.]
We pray for a world in need of your call to serve others and the natural world.
[Pause to recall the issues you want to pray about.]
Give us ears to hear and eyes to see.

First Sunday in Lent, February 18, 2024

A personal test / the meaning of Metanoia

Mark 1:12–15

The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert,
and he remained in the desert for forty days,
tempted by Satan.
He was among wild beasts,
and the angels ministered to him.

After John had been arrested,
Jesus came to Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God:
“This is the time of fulfillment.
The kingdom of God is at hand.
Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

Music Meditations

• “On Eagle’s Wings” (by Michael Joncas and Craig Kingsbury) [YouTube]
• “Eternal Father, Strong to Save” (sung by The Mormon Tabernacle Choir) [YouTube]
• “The Lord’s Prayer” (sung by Andrea Bocelli, feat. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir) [YouTube]

Opening Prayer

Remember that your compassion O Lord, and your love are from old. In your kindness remember others in need of your compassion as well [here recite some names aloud of those for whom you wish to pray]. In your kindness remember me, because of your goodness, O Lord.

Companions for the Journey

By Jude Siciliano, O.P. From ”First Impressions” 2015, a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

People who have had to make significant changes in their lives—break a habit, an addiction, or adopt new ways of living—know that such big transformations don’t happen easily. They require interior fortitude and determination, courage, persistence and more—an interior change of heart and mind.

Today Jesus asks for such significant changes from those who have heard him preach. After he was baptized by John, he spent time in the desert and underwent temptations. He was tested and, accompanied by the Spirit, came out strong and determined. Jesus announces the coming of the reign of God and he invites others who hear him to commit their lives fully to God and God’s ways. He preaches “Metanoia”—“Repentance”—which requires change of mind and heart. He doesn’t want some superficial or cosmetic change. He isn’t asking for a few minutes, hours, weeks, or months of our time which, when completed, we can return to our previous ways of living. Perhaps we have given up wine or desserts for Lent. Then we hope to hang on till Easter when we can pop the cork and slice the Easter cake. No, repentance isn’t just for a part of the year. It is a full-time, on-going commitment to change. Metanoia asks us to turn away from whatever distracts us from God and to turn to the embrace of the One who is infinite love. Such total change can easily be postponed till a later more “convenient time.” We say we will start a more serious pursuit of God later on—after we finish school, when we have a family, after retirement, “When I’ll have more time to give to prayer and good works.” But Jesus is speaking in the present, not future tense. “The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.” Now is a “Kairos moment.” Now is a graced time when we will receive the help we need to respond, to make a turn in our lives towards God. That doesn’t mean big changes are easy or accomplished in a short period of time. Metanoia means we will have to dedicate our lives to transformation. In truth it will never be a completed process, but if we listen to Jesus today we need to start, or start again, becoming followers of Christ.

There are powerful forces in the world that would discourage and prevent us from responding wholeheartedly to Christ and his ways. Call these forces satanic, or the allure of stuff, power, fame, indifference, domination, sensual satisfaction, etc. Hard forces to resist. But we are not alone as we once again undertake a Lenten journey. Through our baptism God’s Spirit is with us and enables us to live according to God’s ways—to accept the kingdom Jesus proclaims. As we once again hear Jesus’ call to repentance we realize it isn’t a call just about us and our individual lives. We ask ourselves what in our homes, at work, local, and parish communities needs to be changed. In those places we are called to repent the ways we treat others, consume and waste, set ourselves apart and above others and remain indifferent to the well-being of our sisters and brothers.

Do we think Jesus was above being tempted; that he was exempted from the trials and struggles common to us humans? Some hold that Jesus was not really tempted, but was setting an example for us. The homiletician and Bible scholar, Fred Craddock, says, “Just to set an example is not setting an example.” He goes on to say: “Such approaches, however sincere, rob Jesus, the Scriptures, the gospel and life itself of reality.” (“Preaching through the Christian Year: Year B,” Valley Forge, PA, 1993, page 141).

Mark has already indicated how we can make the changes we must. He begins Jesus’ ministry with the stamp of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit that accompanied Jesus through his 40-day trial is also given to us at our baptism.

Mark’s gospel is scant on details and he rushes to tell and describe the good news Jesus has brought to us. Still, in his rush, Mark tells us that Jesus paused before beginning his ministry for 40 days of solitude and prayer in the desert. He wasn’t completely alone, the tempter was there, but unlike Matthew and Luke, Mark doesn’t give details about the nature of the temptations.

We do get the point from Mark that Jesus needed time in solitude and prayer in order to deal with the difficult options he had to make to confront the forces of evil that besiege humanity. We may not have time for even a day’s desert retreat, but still, we also need to figure out how to spend time alone listening to God. What we might discover in such prayer is what Peter emphasizes: that our baptism is not an empty or superficial ritual but, “an appeal to God for a clear conscience.” Baptism opens our minds and hearts to God and begins in us a whole new consciousness of the God life offered to us in Christ. Through our baptism we participate in the life, death and resurrection of the Lord. By itself suffering has no meaning or value, but with Christ, our suffering, especially when it is the result of our commitment to the gospel, transforms suffering into joy because, as Peter reminds us, baptism “saves us now.”

In Jesus the “right time” has arrived. Jesus invites people to accept the rule of God. The Old Testament expressed God’s rule over Israel as its “King” and over the whole world. Yet, this rule was not yet realized and the prophets voiced Israel’s longing for it in images of expectation and hope. Formerly, John the Baptist preached, “One more powerful than I is to come…” (1:7), and today we hear Jesus speak of the kingdom coming near—its arrival is imminent. In Jesus God’s rule is present—and yet we Christians pray, “Thy kingdom come,” for its future completion. John preached judgment and people responded by confessing their sins and being baptized. Jesus preached the gospel, good news and an appropriate response for us this Lent would be joy over God’s graciousness towards us.

Further reflection:

• Commentary on Mark 1:12–15 from “Living Space” >>

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

The Kingdom of God is at hand. Change your heart and hear the good news.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• What are the temptations I experience from forces averse to God’s plans for my flourishing and the flourishing of others in my life?
• When and how can prayer be a “wilderness” time?
  Does it bring us in touch with the evil as well as the good in ourselves?
• What are some “deserts” that crop up in our own lives?
  What kind of harmony exists in a desert of any kind—physical, emotional, spiritual?
• Why do you think the Spirit drove Jesus into the desert?
  What did He find there? (Do not rely on the other gospel accounts; just use the words of this gospel and your own imagination)
  Why do people of prayer need to go away to a retreat or even take a solitary walk?
• What do you think were the wild beasts that Jesus encountered?
  What are the wild beasts that you have encountered in certain times of your life?
  Are any wild beasts prowling around your life right now?
• How did the angels minister to Jesus?
  Do you think they kept him from being hungry, cold or lonely?
  Are there spiritual forces in my life which nurture me?
• How do I define “testing”?
  How does adversity “test” us?
  How does such “testing” show us what we are capable of, and how does it make us stronger?
• Not all of us “pass” every test we face, either professional (including academic) or personal. How have you dealt with failing in either sphere?
  What attitude would you like to have toward failures, yours and others?
• Is my life a prayer?
  Why or why not?
• One way of looking at repentance: Repenting means fixing broken relationships and doing our best to restore community. So we look at our manipulative or destructive interactions with others with an eye to changing those behaviors; Then, we need apologize sincerely to those we have hurt, as a beginning of our journey to change our damaging behaviors.
  To whom do I need to apologize?
  To what change in behavior is the Spirit leading me this Lent?
• According to John and Jesus, NOW is the perfect time to repent. What is holding me back from the changes I need to make?
• According to biblical scholar A.J. Levine, we need to live as though what we do really matters. Because it does!
  Do I think my small actions don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things?
  Does that kind of thinking get me off the hook?
• How would I define “good news”?
• What price am I willing to pay to live the good news?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style:

Read Psalm 51. What does a clean heart have to do with metanoia? I think of a habit of the heart that is keeping me from what God wants for me, and challenge myself to work on overcoming it during this Lenten Season, enlisting the aid of one other person to encourage and remind me of my commitment to change.

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style:

By Jude Siciliano, O.P.

Some practical ways to approach a holy fast:

• Fast from guzzling gas. Drive the speed limit. Ride public transportation. Ride a bike or walk when you can. Car pool.
• Fast from compulsive consumerism. Check your closets, cupboards, storage rooms and garage. How many items have you collected that you thought you needed-until you got them home and had “buyer’s remorse?” Choose some of these areas in your house to clean out. Fix, clean and deliver these items to those who need them more than you do (or donate them to the yard sale).
• Examine the ways in which you consume and waste, using up nature’s resources and adding to landfills or air and water pollution. Shorten your showers. Save the warm-up water for your garden. Eat your leftovers at the next meal. Recycle religiously. Refuse to use plastic. Use your own shopping sack. Write on both sides of your paper, or recycle your paper as scratch pads. Lower the thermostat or air-conditioner. Wear a sweater, add a blanket—or take them off.
• Examine your diet and resolve to make the necessary changes if it is not healthy. Examine your eating habits and change them if you eat impulsively, constantly, too fast, unconsciously or without savoring your food, with disinterest, without care or dignity.
• Return to a sense of the sacramental at mealtime in your home. Present all meals with dignity. Take at least forty-five minutes to eat your dinner. (The average American family eats a whole meal in five minutes.)
• Learn to cook and serve the foods the poor eat. Tasty and healthful meals can be made from lentils, rice, grains, legumes which, eaten together, offer all the protein you need.
• Begin planning or planting a vegetable garden or herb patch. Growing, tending, harvesting, sharing and eating your own produce brings us down to earth and is often a healing experience.
• If you have no difficulties with any of these suggestions, consider other ways of “fasting.” During Lent we can ask ourselves: What does my baptism cost me? “Surely it asks us to fast from our sinful behaviors.”

I can sure see that I have some reflecting to do on some of my habits. I invite you to join with me in some self-examination and to change at least one behavior this Lenten season.

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style:

Read Psalm 25.

Let us never forget that the ordinary way to contemplation lies through a desert without trees and without beauty and without water. The spirit enters a wilderness and travels blindly in directions that seem to lead away from vision, away from God, away from all fulfillment and joy. It may be almost impossible to believe that this road goes anywhere at all except to a desolation full of dry bones—the ruin of all our hopes and good intentions.

—Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

What desert are you experiencing in your life at this time—love, creativity, friendship, family, accomplishments, compulsions, insecurities? How is this wilderness experience inviting you to place your trust in God? Do you trust in the Spirit enough to give yourself totally to God? What has you held back? What are you afraid of? Speak to Jesus about this.

Poetic Reflection:

Has this ever been your experience?

I am being driven forward
Into an unknown land.
The pass grows steeper,
The air colder and sharper.
A wind from my unknown goal
Stirs the strings
Of expectation.

Still the question:
Shall I ever get there?
There where life resounds,
A clear pure note
In the silence.

—Dag Hammarskjold

Poetic Reflection:

Read the following poem by Ed Ingebretsen, S.J., (from Psalms of the Still Country) on the fourth day of an eight-day retreat. It is at times despairing, sometimes hopeful. How would you describe your personal journey to a clean heart?

IV

How calmly I balance here,

On the verge of loving you
again, in ways
I have forgotten.

You love out of your surplus;
I cannot accept out of my need.
How clever this pride
that dresses as humility
that makes of weakness
an excuse for mediocrity.

I am a weak man, Lord—
wrapped simply but completely
in my refusal to try.

Depart from me.
How can you bear my company
and even wish to cleanse me?
I remember you would have washed
Peter's feet, his hands, cleaned
away the remnants of his life.
Yet there was no room in his smallness
for your greatness.

Lord,
if you should but take this withered hand
of mine, and straighten it in love
then suddenly my square world
would go round, my eyes take on a new source
of light, then suddenly,
I might know the urge to fly

Closing Prayer

Your ways, O Lord, make known to me; teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are my God and savior.

Commentary on Mark 1:12–15 from “Living Space”

Commentary on Mark 1:12-15 from “Living Space”, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

WE ARE NOW into the great season of Lent, when we spend six weeks preparing to celebrate the high point of our faith: the Paschal Mystery, the suffering, death and resurrection of the Incarnate God. Formerly it was a time of severe penance as a way of purifying ourselves from our sinful habits and being ready to celebrate the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ with a renewed commitment to follow him. Even though we are no longer asked by the Church to observe the severe penances of former times, it is surely fitting that we make some of form of preparation. It should be a time for personal reflection on where we stand as Christians. Only a little reflection will convince us that, on the one hand, there are many ways in which we fail through word and action, through our thoughts and through our failure to be the kind of people that the Gospel challenges us to be. But our reflections should not only focus on the negative. What are the positive things which should be part and parcel of my daily life? What kind of a person am I in relation to my family, friends, working colleagues and other people with whom I come in contact? How active am I as a member of my Christian community e.g. my parish? What difference do I make to other people’s lives? What do I do, within my limitations, to help eradicate the abuses which are part of our society? These are just some of the questions I can ask myself during these six weeks. And it is never too late to get started. Let us not rigidly think that, because Ash Wednesday has already come and gone, that I cannot start today. Remember that even those who came to the vineyard at the eleventh hour were paid the same amount. But the earlier I start the better.

Some of the things I can do are:

Celebrating the Eucharist each day or at least on a few days in the week.

Setting aside some part of my day for personal prayer.

Reflecting on some Scripture, alone or, better still, with others. The Scripture readings for each day in Lent provide excellent material.

Setting aside some money that I might spend on myself for a meal, entertainment or clothes and giving it to an organization which takes care of the less fortunate in our society.

Similarly, if I decide to abstain from smoking or alcohol, the money not spent can be given to those less fortunate.

6th Sunday in Ordinary Time, February 11, 2024

God can heal us; we can be healers too

Mark 1:40–45

A leper came to Jesus and kneeling down begged him and said,
“If you wish, you can make me clean.”
Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched him, and said to him,
“I do will it. Be made clean.”
The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.

He said to him, “See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them.”

The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

Music Meditations

• “Healer of My Soul” (John Michael Talbot) [YouTube]
• “Lord I Need You” (Matt Maher) [YouTube]
• “Untitled Hymn” (“Come to Jesus”) (Chris Rice) [YouTube]
• “The Lord’s Prayer” (sung by Andrea Bocelli, feat. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir) [YouTube]
• “Give Me Jesus” (sung by Fernando Ortega) [YouTube]

Opening Prayer

Lord we give our lives to you in obedience to your word. May your word and our response to you cleanse and renew us and lead us to eternal life. I pray by name for those who are sick, isolated, rejected, lonely. [Pause and recall those for whom you want to pray, saying after each name: “Heal him/her, O Lord.”] Help me to be a healer in your name. I ask this in the name of Jesus the Lord.

Companions for the Journey

Adapted from Jude Siciliano, O.P. in “First Impressions” 2008, a service of the Southern Dominican Province:

The treatment of lepers, as spelled out in the Book of Leviticus today, seems harsh. But let’s not demonize the Israelites. With little understanding of the cause of leprosy, but noticing its awful consequences on the bodies of its victims, the community was frightened of contagion. To keep themselves and their families safe they isolated the sufferers. The diagnosis of leprosy was approximate, to say the least, since any skin lesion, scab or rash might be labeled leprosy. Guided by Leviticus’ code, the Levitical priests were directed to diagnose the symptoms, make a decision and, if the person were thought to have the disease, he or she was to be excluded, ordered to “dwell apart.” Having leprosy was bad enough, but for Mediterranean people of the time exclusion from the community was like death. Without a community a person would be considered a non-person. Indeed, in such a hostile world, where community support and protection were sometimes essential for survival, loss of your community could mean actual death. For Israelites, God was worshiped in the community; being cut off from that community also meant being cut off from God. Added to all this was the belief by many that people so afflicted were being punished for their sin. So, a leper who passed by with the required rent garment, bare head, crying, “Unclean, Unclean!” might just as well have been shouting, “I am a sinner, I am a sinner.” To be cured of leprosy then was like being raised from the dead. The leper needed a life-giving touch from a compassionate God and he got just that when he heard Jesus’ cleansing words and felt his healing touch.

The community wanted its members back as whole and full participants. Thus, a person healed of leprosy would be considered a whole person again. When Jesus healed the leper he was restoring a full person back to the community; in the eyes of his neighbors and family, the man was both physically and spiritually cleansed—no more disease, meant no more sin, which supposedly was the cause of the disease. Jesus freely dispensed his mercy in response to the man’s request, “I do will it. Be made clean.”

By curing the leper Jesus was showing his mastery over sin. But he didn’t want the cure and its accompanying significance to be a private matter between just him and the man. That’s why he told the man to go to the priests for verification (check chapter 14 for the process the priests were to follow). It sounds like Jesus wanted to include the priests and the community in this cure so that they might come to know that someone had arrived who could help them overcome sin and all its consequences. And the consequences of sin are legion. Who hasn’t experienced the effects of the leprosy of sin in our personal and communal lives? The selfishness of sin cuts a person off from family members and friends when: lies are told; goods squabbled over; siblings exhibit rivalry; parents play favorites; spouses argue excessively and don’t seek help; success is measured by the size of income; students cheat in school. Hansen’s disease, the medical name for leprosy, is treatable with drugs. Sin and its fragmenting and isolating effects are not so easily eliminated.

Mark is telling us that each hearer of the gospel experiences Jesus’ compassion and desire to heal us. What he said to the leper is offered to a sinful world and to each of us as well. There it is—we reach out to God through Jesus and ask to be cleansed. Jesus’ quick and willing response to the leper is our reassurance that, once again, he says to us, “I do will it. Be made clean.”

But the leprosy of sin isn’t just a personal affair; its effects shatter the people and nations of the world. Unfortunately, it is too easy to find evidence of this. I am currently on a plane, so I can’t check the internet or reference books for proof positive of the signs of sin’s effects on the world. But I do have a newspaper and the debris left by sin is right there on the front page.

As you might expect these days, the major stories are from the financial world. Here are a few things I read: a major bank cut its losses and withdrew hundreds of millions invested with Bernard Madoff, accused of cheating people of 50 billion dollars. But the bank never informed its investors of its concerns and their notes are “probably worthless.” More from Wall Street: despite the multi billion dollar bailouts and the collapse of some major financial institutions, some of the most prominent names in the business world collected an estimated 18.4 billion in bonuses last year. There was a string of arsons that destroyed 15 inner city houses in Coatesville, Florida. Five teenagers are accused of killing a Latino man and attacking others on Long Island. It is believed still others were involved in the racially-motivated attacks. Several guards are accused of encouraging attacks by prison gangs on teenagers at a juvenile facility. On the sports page today there is still more evidence that some top athletes have used steroids to artificially enhance their abilities. Then, of course, there are Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Gaza, global warming, famine, etc. There is just not enough space to list the evidence of sin and its effects on our world’s people. Will we ever be able to come together as a community, or will our leprosy keep driving us apart, constructing walls and causing us to settle our differences with might?

People who get seriously ill or are infirm for a long time say they feel cut off from the community—the fate of lepers. Society tends to forget these members easily and moves on to other preoccupying concerns. But in our church community we don’t forget our infirm and isolated sisters and brothers. We have volunteers who take the Eucharist to the homebound, those in nursing homes and prisons. These ministers represent us and, through them, Jesus once again reminds them that they are still part of our us. And who are we? We are a community of people always in need of cleansing; always stretching out our hands saying to Jesus, “If you want, you can make us clean.” And he responds quickly and with compassion, as he did for the leper and continues to do for us, “Of course I want to, be clean.”

Further reflection:

• Commentary on Mark 1:40–45 from “Living Space” >>

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

If you wish, you can make me clean

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• Who are the lepers in our society today?
• Who are the lepers in our church today?
• One of the side effects of illness, contagious or not, is loneliness. Why is this so?
• Do I know someone in this situation?
• Is there someone I need to stretch out my hand to?
• Has there ever been a time in my life when I recognized the ability of another to help me and accepted that help?
• How do persons with chronic illnesses or disabilities proclaim the gospel in my faith community?
• How do we balance faith in the healing power of God with faith in the medical establishment and faith in science?
• When I ask God for help or a favor, do I understand that God is not obliged to answer?
• Have I ever been angry at God for not seeming to answer prayers for healing for myself or a loved one?
• How have I experienced God’s compassion through illness or disability?
• Jesus breached the law by touching someone who is unclean. When is this unwise, and when is it necessary?
• How do you know when you should stick up for what you believe and when you should relinquish your own preferences so as to advance the common good?
• Has there been a time in my life when something so wonderful happened to me that I could not keep it to myself?
• Why do I think Jesus did not want the cured leper telling others of his cure?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

Just imagine for a moment that you are living in the time of Jesus. You have developed a persistent skin disease, which requires that you to go to the priests in order to be diagnosed. The priests confirm your worst fears. You are a leper. They tell you to rip your garments and go with your hair uncombed to proclaim publicly that you are a sinner. They tell you that you must live outside the village and whenever anyone comes near you have to shout: “Unclean, Unclean” to warn them to stay away. So here you are, alone and shunned by all, agonizing over the fate of your family. The children will probably have to beg, or worse, steal, to put food on the table. You miss them terribly—miss their laughter, their hugs, their kisses as you bid them good night. There are no friends with whom you can talk about this. They want no part of you. Banned from religious gatherings which used to be so much a part of everyday life for you, you are truly alone. The fear and revulsion with which you are viewed keeps you isolated, worrying about your family and wondering if your shame has affected the way people in the village are treating them.

Imagine, then, the courage it must take for you to risk approaching Jesus and speaking to him. Will he shrink away like all the others? Somehow, you have faith that he will not. So you beg him, on your knees: “Lord, if you will it, you can make me clean.” And Jesus, touched in his very soul by the sorry figure you cut in your torn and dirty rags, by the desolation in your eyes, the pain in your heart, or your simple human need, reaches out and touches you. Jesus touches you, a filthy, leprous beggar, and you are healed, not only in your body, but also in your heart and in your relationship to the community. How does that make you feel? Now imagine that you are Jesus. Why do you respond to the leper the way you do? In your own life, how do you respond to: A) your own illness or imperfections and B) those in your life who are desperate, sick, lonely, despairing?

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

From Sr. Barbara Reid, O.P. in “America”:

Those who suffer chronic illness may experience themselves as being outside all of the usual spheres of human activity. As the workplace carries on without them and their family goes about its business, they can feel isolated, out of the loop, helpless to contribute to the daily doings, left alone with their own suffering. While Christianity does not have regulations concerning ritual uncleanness and separation from sick persons, certain contagious conditions may require physical isolation. Even when this is not the case, however, many avoid persons with illness. It can seem to such a person that even God is keeping at a distance. The loneliness can be as bad as or worse than the illness itself.

There are a lot of “lepers” in our society whom people have shunned out of fear or moral superiority: people with AIDS, those in prison and their families, the homeless, immigrants, especially the undocumented ones, the elderly. Try to do what you can about just one other person who might need a friendly face. Be a pen-pal to a death row inmate, go on an immersion trip to the Border or Appalachia, march in a safe and orderly peace demonstration and bombard your congressperson and senator with letters, work in a soup kitchen, when it is safe to do so, visit some patients at the local convalescent hospital whom no one ever goes to see, go to a movie with a person in your living situation no one ever talks to. Be Christ for someone.

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Look at two versions of God helping humanity:

From Exodus 17:8–13:

The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Rephidim. Moses said to Joshua, “Pick out some men to go and fight the Amalekites tomorrow. I will stand on top of the hill holding the stick that God told me to carry.” Joshua did as Moses commanded him and went out to fight the Amalekites, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his arms, the Israelites won, but when he put his arms down, the Amalekites started winning. When Moses’ arms grew tired, Aaron and Hur brought a stone for him to sit on, while they stood beside him and held up his arms, holding them steady until the sun went down. In this way Joshua totally defeated the Amalekites.

From Mark 1:40–42:

A leper came to him [and kneeling down] begged him and said, “If you wish, you can make me clean.” Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand, touched him, and said to him, “I do will it. Be made clean.” The leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.

Here we see represented two sort of opposing views of what God is like. In Exodus, God demands a superhuman effort on the part of Moses—so difficult that he needs help from his assistants. And if Moses fails, all of Israel will suffer. This is a God that places conditions on granting a petition, even if that petition is for the safety of His entire people of Israel. In Mark, all the leper has to do is trust in God’s/Jesus’ kindness; all he has to do is simply to ask, and the leprosy leaves him immediately. These stories show us what a hard time we have in really understanding God and God’s relationship to us. Some of us lean more to a view of a God who is all powerful, and whom we must appease, and others of us think of God as a dad who understands His child’s pain, and works to alleviate it.
Which idea of God’s nature are you more comfortable with?
Do you toggle between the two views?
How does that work for you?

Poetic Reflection:

The following poem illustrates the sense of isolation one can feel when serious illness takes over your life. (This poem describes suffering and the sudden loss of one’s prior life and powers, but they also celebrate the gifts that arise from the heart of suffering—the importance of the smallest things and the ability to pay fierce attention to them.) Which of the sentiments would apply to the leper in today’s gospel?

“Stranded”

Grasping at the bed’s edge
you cling to the sour pillow
of sand, flounder through
the briny sheets, held
out of your damaged body’s
element. You keep struggling
in the shadows for the right
kind of breath. Something you can never fathom
drove you here. Think hard,
so hard it hurts.
Call out all you want.
You can’t get back to the rest
of your life, to finish it.

—From Words Like Fate and Pain by Karen Fiser

Closing Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name;
thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread,
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Commentary on Mark 1:40–45 from “Living Space”

Lepers were among the most piteous of people in scriptural times. Although little was known of the origin of the sickness, it was clearly known to be contagious and therefore greatly feared. The only solution was to isolate the victim and not allow him/her to approach people. So, apart from the appalling physical disintegration of body and limbs, there was the social ostracism, the contempt and the fear which the victim engendered.

What was probably even more tragic was that many who were branded as lepers were suffering from some other ailment, which may not have been contagious at all – such as ulcers, cancer or other skin diseases (some of them perhaps purely psychosomatic). The signs for diagnosis are given in chapter 13 of the Book of Leviticus and, by our standards today, are rather primitive indeed. The room for a wrong diagnosis was huge. It was a question of being safe rather than sorry.

The leper in the story indicates his great faith and trust in Jesus, a necessary and sufficient condition for healing in the Gospel. “If you wish, you can make me clean,” he says. He knows this because he has undoubtedly seen or heard of what others have experienced.

Jesus is filled with a deep sense of compassion for the man’s plight. Highlighting the emotional feelings of Jesus is a characteristic of Mark’s gospel and is seldom found in Matthew. What Jesus feels is compassion not just pity. In pity we feel sorry for the person; in compassion, we enter into the feelings of the other, we empathize with their experience. And in doing so Jesus does the unthinkable – he reaches out to touch the leper. This must have been a healing act in itself. The leper was by definition untouchable. “I do will it.” says Jesus, “Be made clean.” The man is immediately healed. But that is not the end of the story because the man has still to be reintegrated into the community – this is the second part of the healing process. He is told to go to the priests to make the customary offering of thanksgiving. They will examine him and then pronounce him fit to re-enter society.

He is also told not to say anything to anyone about it. Jesus wanted no sensationalism. But how could the man refrain from telling everybody about his wonderful experience of coming in contact with the whole-making power of Jesus? He becomes an ardent evangelizer, a spreader of good news – something we are all called to be.

What is the outcome of our experience of knowing Jesus? How come we do not have the enthusiasm of this man? It is worth noting that that experience was the result of his first having been the victim of a terrible cross. It is often in our crosses that grace appears.

Once again, Jesus goes out into the desert to avoid the enthusiastic crowds. Jesus was not interested in having “fans”, only genuine followers. He would not be ready until his full identity was recognized. That would only happen as he hung dying on the cross (Mark 15:39). Before we leave this story, we may ask who are the lepers in our society today? One very obvious group are those who have contracted contagious diseases like HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases which are becoming ever more widespread. Even though these are of little danger to most people who have no physical contact, the victims are often rejected in fear or disgust or embarrassment by family members, friends, employers, colleagues, even medical people.

There are also people like homosexuals. If many of them are not lepers it is simply because they dare not reveal their orientation. They dare not do so because they are most likely to be “leper-ised” by even family and friends. There are other marginal groups – nomadic groups like Romanies, drug addicts, poor single mothers, the homeless, alcoholics… Indeed, we have many lepers among us. Let us examine our attitudes today and revise them if necessary.