“Which Means Sent”

Isn’t it funny that I’ve overlooked that little phrase from this Sunday’s Gospel even though I’ve read or heard it dozens and dozens of times? I readily focus on the story of the blind man—the miracle performed by Jesus in restoring his sight, the very odd dialogue that happens between him and the Pharisees, the strange relationship he seems to have with his parents, even the dynamic that he finds himself immersed in through a chance meeting of this miracle-worker named Jesus Christ. But not until today have I ever taken note of a simple little phrase thrown in by St. John as Jesus is actually in the act of healing the man. “He spat on the ground and made clay with the saliva, and smeared the clay on his eyes, and said to him, ‘Go wash in the Pool of Siloam’—which means Sent. So he went and washed, and came back able to see.”

Which means ‘Sent.’ Strange detail to include, John. Just a translator’s note? A geographical reference? An idiosyncratic side comment? I think not. Indeed, I think not! And it seems to me Pope Benedict might agree. He writes in his Lenten reflection for this week that the man born blind joyfully exclaims, “Lord, I believe!” thus “giving voice to all believers.” Is that merely to say that his proclamation of faith is one echoed down through the centuries? Is the pope implying that the courage of the healed blind man spurs the rest of us believers on to profess faith in a God even when that faith might meet with resistance, if not outright opposition? Perhaps. But as I read both the Gospel for the 4th Sunday of Lent and the Holy Father’s reflection on that Gospel, I understand something a little bit different…something more. When Jesus healed the man born blind, he did so with a commissioning. Go and wash in the pool that will both heal you and send you. Be sent. Receive your sight, and then go out and profess your faith, that all might believe. After all, you didn’t just receive your sight today. You received vision.

Making Tents

I’ve always been somewhat bemused by Peter’s response to the experience of the Transfiguration. Picture this: Jesus invites you, personally, to join him on a private journey up the mountain to join him in prayer. As he prays, the most incredible white light surrounds him and dazzles you with visions of pure brilliance. The Jesus you see before you is, indeed, the Jesus you know and love, but he is transfigured into the most beautiful, resplendent version of a human being you could ever imagine. As his prayer continues, you see with him Elijah, the ancient prophet of Israel, and Moses, the father of all that Hebrew Law holds. If this were your experience of the Lord, quite likely you might utter what Peter did: “Lord, it is good that we are here!” But, it seems unlikely that you would continue with the somewhat awkward suggestion “…let me make three tents…” (no offense meant to St. Peter, mind you!)

Peter is, indeed, dazzled by the experience, and seems to want to make some sense out of what is happening—and perhaps even more courageously, wants to respond to this incredible experience with a fitting gesture or act of adoration. He recognizes, it seems, that he is privileged with an experience that is quite extraordinary…the recipient of a gift of grace that he neither anticipated nor requested…but that, nonetheless, he is being given gratuitously. He is struck to the heart with the realization that this Jesus is, undeniably, the Beloved Son of God, and he desires with all his heart to adore this Christ with full heart. In his reflections on this Gospel of the 2nd Sunday of Lent, Pope Benedict writes that the Transfiguration of Christ is an indication that God desires “to hand down to us, each day, a Word that penetrates the depths of our spirit.” May we, with Peter, find a way to respond to that Word, that brilliance, that resplendence, with gratitude, awe, and reverence.

March Madness

This time of year, college basketball dominates the news. You can’t avoid it. Even if you are not a sports fan, you get drawn in by the storylines…storyline, really. The one that captures everyone’s attention is the “Cinderella Story.” Millions of viewers cheer for the unpredictable upset when the little school topples the big-time athletic program.

Inspired by the Madness of March, let’s take a closer look at a couple of “Cinderella” call stories.

The “Cinderella” team ends up in the right place at the right time and takes advantage of every break to win the big game. This was the case for Esther. Her parents died and she was raised by her uncle, Mordecai. When the King was looking for a new queen, Esther won the “beauty contest” and was made queen. Later, Mordecai and all the people of Esther’s hometown faced execution, and she risked her life to go before the king and stop the plan. The decision to speak up was scary, but she asked for prayer and fasting from her friends to support her. The result was a stunning “upset victory” for Esther. The people of Susa survived because of her great play.

Often, sportscasters debate whether a sports team was really from a small enough program to deserve the “Cinderella” slipper. The same argument may surround Zacchaeus. He was a rich and important figure in Jericho, to be sure, but too small to see the Lord as he passed by one day. So the little guy takes a chance and goes out on a limb. Jesus takes notice, and calls him by name. “This day salvation has come to your house.” By laying it all on the line, Zacchaeus won salvation for his family.

There are more “Cinderella” stories to be written today. God continues to call the underdog. If you are willing to make the most of the breaks you have been given and step out in faith, he can work through you.

If the slipper fits, wear it.

At the foot of the Cross

Today, the second Friday of Lent, we remember Our Lord’s crucifixion on Good Friday. He carried his Cross and died because he loves us inifintely and wanted us to be set free from our enslavement to sin. Only through the grace of salvation won by His passion, death and resurrection are we set free from sin…and no sin is impossible for God to forgive!

Today, as we seek to love and imitate Christ more deeply and allow Him to love us, lets take a few minutes to pray the Stations of the Cross or reflect on the love Jesus showed us on the Cross. His passion, death and resurrection is at the heart of every vocation, and priests and religious are called to help others understand its meaning in our lives.

Here is a Stations of the Cross you are invited to pray as you discern your vocation, or as you support others who are discerning their vocations. May Our Lord enable each of us to be his disciples and follow his loving way!

Blessed St. Patrick’s Day!

St. Patrick is a model and friend for anyone who thinks he or she may have a vocation to the priesthood or consecrated life. Here’s why:

The Liturgy of the Hours explains that as a young man “St. Patrick was captured and sold as a slave in Ireland where he had to tend sheep. Having escaped from slavery, he chose to enter the priesthood, and later, as a bishop, he tirelessly preached the Gospel to the people of Ireland where he converted many to the faith and established the Church.” When St. Patrick was tending the sheep as a slave he would often wake up in the middle of the night and pray. In his prayer he heard the Lord’s call to be a priest, and he responded with his whole heart. In this Confessions he writes, “If I am worthy, I am ready also to give up my life without hesitation and most willingly, for his name.”

Are you and I as willing to follow Christ without hesitation? If we trust in Him, He will lead us and help us respond in total generosity to His will.

Today as the Church celebrates the life and fidelity of St. Patrick, remember to ask him for his prayers!

St. Patrick, pray for us!

Frailty and Temptation

During this frist week of Lent we are invited to meditate on two points: our human frailty weakened by original sin (Genesis 3), as well as to reflect on Jesus’ temptations in the desert (Matthew 4). Reflecting on these two points, Pope Benedict’s Lenten Message for 2011 states the following: “The First Sunday of the Lenten journey reveals our condition as human beings here on earth. The victorious battle against temptation, the starting point of Jesus’ mission, is an invitation to become aware of our own fragility in order to accept the Grace that frees from sin and infuses new strength in Christ – the way, the truth and the life (cf. Ordo Initiationis Christianae Adultorum, n. 25).”

Recognizing our need for God’s grace implies a real struggle with the power of sin that has taken hold of our heart in manifold ways. One response that the Devil often wants to produce in us is an initial resistance to convert or change our lives. He uses fear to make us think we will loose something precious if we abandon our familiar ways of sin. However, in Christ’s temptations in the desert we are encouraged to recognize that the devil only promises distortions of what only belongs to God. In following Christ through these fourty days of penance and prayer we are strengthened in grace to turn away from sin and trust in the Lord’s plan for our lives. Our frailty as human beings is not something bad in itself, since dependance on God is the way we were created to exist. However, the frailty we suffer because of the effects of original sin in our souls is a great reminder that we cannot save ourselves from sin. The latter frailty mentioned, which is caused by sin, is the clearest sign that we need to walk closely with the one who is our strength.

During this first week of the Lenten season, let’s renew our resolution to pray and fast with Christ, so that we too may overcome temptation and sinful frailty. St. Paul reminds us that “If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.” (Romans 6:8)

Jesus’ Baptism and the Desert

How are baptism and Lent connected? There is a saying in Spanish that can be translated to read something like this “tell me who you’re with and I will tell you who you are.” This saying will help us understand the connection between Jesus’ Baptism and his time of temptation in the desert, since both have to do with who he is. In all three synoptic gospels (Mark, Matthew and Luke) we read that before Jesus begins his ministry he first goes to get baptized by John. After his baptism, he then goes into the desert where he is tempted by the devil. How are Jesus’ baptism and his time in the desert related? The connection between the two can be found in what happens at the end of the baptism.

In Mark 1:11 we hear a voice calling out from heaven, which says: “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” Likewise, in Matthew 3:17 we read that there was a voice from heaven which said: “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” The Father asserts his love for his beloved son and this assertion gives meaning to everything Jesus does. Jesus is the Father’s delight and his identity is wrapped around his relationship with his Father. The scriptures tell us that the spirit lead Jesus into the desert, not despite his mission but as the very beginning of his mission. He is sent into the desert to encounter the temptations that rule men’s hearts (hunger, power and safety), but he confronts these temptations with the trust that he is loved by the Father. The period of temptation and trial is anticipated by one of grace and affirmation in the baptismal experience.

As Christians we walk the Lenten journey following Christ into the desert, but often we forget how this journey begins. It does not begin with promises of grand penances or change, it begins by asserting how much we need the Lord and the Lord asserting how much he wants to be with us. This synergy of God and man culminates in the Easter Mystery, from which we draw our ultimate hope to die with Christ so we can rise with him. In Pope Benedict XVI’s Lenten Message of 2011 he offered the following words on what happened at the moment of our baptism: “we “become sharers in Christ’s death and Resurrection”, and there began for us “the joyful and exulting adventure of his disciples”.

Like Jesus, let us recall the affirmation we received at the moment of our baptism, in which the Lord asserted in us the following words: “In Jesus, my son, you have become my beloved child and I will lead you into the desert of penance so that you may remember who you are meant to be.” Lent is a time of renewal to seek out our life mission based on this baptismal identity as adopted sons and daughters of the Father.

Remembering Our Baptism

When’s the last time you thought about your baptismal day? If you’re a recent convert, maybe you’ve thought about your baptism frequently, but if you were baptized as an infant, how often do you “reference” that event and day? My guess is that for most of us, our baptism was an important event in our faith life that somehow happened “way back when.” But in his Lenten message, Pope Benedict XVI tells us that “baptism is not a rite from the past but the encounter with Christ, which informs [our] entire existence.” How appropriate, then, to start Lent off this year by remembering who we are and whose we are through our baptismal consecration!

Sr. Patricia Walter, OP, characterizes the profession of religious vows (the evangelical counsels) as a “specification of the baptismal call.” What might she be getting at? At our baptism, we (or our godparents, in our name) promised that we would take up the vocation of the Christian disciple, living our lives according to the Gospel values embodied in Jesus Christ, who was poor, chaste, and obedient. Our baptismal promises, then, commit us to valuing spiritual riches over material ones (poverty), to loving purely those to whom we are committed by vow (chastity), and to following the will of God in our daily lives (obedience). When the consecrated religious man or woman makes a public profession of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, we are vowing to witnessing publicly for the entirety of our lives that to which each of the baptized is called! This is why the vocation to the religious life is sometimes called a “prophetic” vocation—because it announces loudly and boldly the vocation to discipleship each of us has already accepted at our baptism.

It is a good idea, then, to remember our baptismal vows at least every once in awhile! What a wonderful opportunity it is to reflect on the meaning and rite of our baptism as part of our daily Lenten meditation. After all, if our Lent is to be a journeying with Christ, doesn’t it make sense to start at the very beginning of that journey…our baptism?

Lent 2011 and Vocations

Dear Friends,

During this liturgical season of Lent our Blog will be reflecting on our Pope Benedict XVI’s Message for Lent 2011 in relationship to the vocations of priesthood and consecrated life, discernment, etc. We would like to invite you to join us on our Blog and/or For Your Vocation Facebook page to take advantage of these reflections during your Lenten pilgrimage. One of the predominant themes in the Holy Father’s message is the importance of the Sacrament of Baptism and how it immerses us into relationship with Jesus Christ. Baptism is where the call of Father is received, and this call is nourished by frequent reception of the Sacrament of Penance and the Sacrament of Holy Eucharist. We hope you will find encouragement during Lent to pray for vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life, and if you think the Lord is calling you to either of these vocations, to take generous steps in responding to God’s call.

See the Holy Father’s message given at his Wednesday audience earlier today too!

Joy in the Journey

This week Sr. Cecilia celebrates her 103rd birthday. She is anything but what you might expect of a person who has lived more than a century—she still works in ministry every day (from 8:30 until 1:00 at an adult day care center, keeping the “old folks” company!) and she keeps herself in shape by dancing with them in the morning and walking silently down the halls in the afternoon as she prays her rosary. If you ask her what the “secret” is to her long life, she will reply quite simply: joy. And, to be honest, when you talk with Sr. Cecilia or spend any amount of time with her, you will see that indeed joy is exactly what exudes from her.

She has spent more than seventy years as a “spouse of Christ,” having given her heart, soul, and life to Him on the day of her first profession of vows. She knows the joy that comes from that kind of a life, from that kind of a relationship, and she not only experiences it—she transmits it! Thank you, Sr. Cecilia, for your vocation, for your example, and most importantly for the joy that you share with all of us. May we all not simply receive it, but continue to channel it through our very lives, that all those we encounter might know the joy of serving God and being loved by Him.