Lent made easy (for those starting again)

 ‘… and suddenly angels came and waited on him …..’ (Matt 4:1-11)

 Matthew 4:1-11 (Year A: First Sunday of Lent Sunday 5^th March 2017)

Even self-confessed atheists, agnostics and others can feel the need for some sort of Lent.  If there were no Lent one might have to invent it!  Coming, as it does, in the Spring time in the Northern Hemisphere Lent is a natural time in the rhythm of life to clear out, to cut back, to review, to plant and to sow.  As the days get longer and the winter winds and ice recede (and global warming has been regrettably and immensely helpful in this regard) a sense of longing and possibly even excitement arises.  The summer is coming, holidays beckon for those healthy and wealthy enough and the sun cream is on the ready (for all of three days in Ireland once a year!).

But Lent is more than just a social norm associated with personal discipline, dietary adjustment and positive psychology. For those who follow Jesus it is a time of renewal and preparation. Renewal, that is, because every so often we need to make a special effort to readjust our spiritual compass and turn away – metanoia or conversion – from what is harmful to us and others.  Preparation, that is, for the greatest festival and day of the year – Easter Sunday.

(Some day, perhaps, Christians will agree about a single date for celebrating the Lord’s resurrection?). 

The passage from the dark of winter to the light of spring and onwards to summer is a journey we, each, take in life. However, another winter awaits after the next summer (or does it?).

We only have now.

When Jesus went into the desert he had undergone a very public type of baptism at the hands of his cousin, John.  When Jesus emerged from his trial in the desert  he was ready and equipped to commence his public ministry (a sequence of events confirmed not only by Matthew but by Mark and Luke as well).  Matthew has a strange way of introducing the time in the ‘wilderness’ (4:1):

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil

Mark puts it this way (1:12):

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.

We may note that the wilderness experience of Jesus was a time of special testing. Jesus would be tested on what he hungered for, what power was really about and who to trust.   He passed that hard threefold test.  

We may note that the episode of the three temptations recounted by Matthew involves a discourse between Jesus and the Tempter – the Devil.  The discourse is shaped by scripture as Jesus and the Devil compete to quote scripture at each other. ‘The Devil can cite scripture for his purpose’ as William Shakespeare reminded us in The Merchant of Venice. Many a power struggle has erupted in churches where various parties or persons in hierarchy or below have invoked scripture to prove someone else wrong or to justify a particular line of thinking or action.

The key point is that the wilderness experience played a purpose.  Likewise, for us, wilderness experiences, be they daily or periodic or seldom but fierce, are times of grace – at least potentially. They prepare us for what is ahead.  Rather than seeing them as hopeless dead-ends or some sort of punishment for past demeanours (distorted notions of God still abound), we need to recognise – there in the middle of the wilderness – the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our lives. 

We need to be open for the next chapter.

Perhaps we need to let go of all our plans, hopes, concerns, fears and preoccupations and go with the flow of suffering – there in the middle of the wilderness. (There is no need for dietary, spiritual and penitential blitzkrieg even if one enjoys that sort of thing!).  But, ‘going with the flow’ is not about surfing the waves of self-pity, animosity or fear. It is about not resisting what washes over us while setting our compass on a goal which may be less than visible or clear but, nonetheless, present by a sense of intuition, prompting and hope which never fails even in these trying times.

And so, often, due to custom and upbringing we think of Lent as a time to ‘do something’ by way of penance or by way of positive and kind things towards others. The idea is to re-focus, to re-train, to do, to undertake, to bring some good to others. But, could we also (without neglecting these other things) consider what good comes our way from others?  Matthew closes the story of Jesus’ struggle in the desert by saying ‘and suddenly angels came and waited on him’.  Jesus had, by all accounts, been through an extremely rough time in that place of dryness, darkness, hunger, thirst and temptation. Temptation comes in many forms of delusion, seduction, doubt and the kind of persistent, obsessive and negative questioning that leads to nothing good. 

Angels came and waited on him …..

can we switch to asking a question to ourselves – ‘where in my life, right now, are good angels present?’ ‘Am I missing something or resisting something or someone?’ ‘Have I entertained angels without realising it?’ ‘where do I draw strength and nourishment after a period of drought and harrowing trial?’

Lent should be a time to stop and think. Perhaps I need to ask these questions in those special moments of quiet and pause.

In the original Greek version of this passage the verb for ‘ministering’ is  diakoneó which can translate as to wait at table or to serve. But trials come and they go and they come back again. As Luke reminds his readers (4:13):

When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

But, back to now.  Enjoy Lent. Be open to grace.

The things we treasure

 ‘… strive first for the kingdom of God …..’ (Matt 6:33)

Matthew 6:24-34 (Year A: The Sunday before Lent Sunday 26^th February 2017)

[This passage from the Gospel of Matthew – 6:24-34 is used this Sunday in the Roman Catholic Church.  Other churches designate this Sunday as ‘Transfiguration Sunday’ and use Matthew 17:1-9.  For a previous blog on this site on the latter passage see here]

For some reason, the liturgists omitted the verses that precede this Sunday’s passage from the Gospel of Matthew. In Matthew 6:21 Jesus says:

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

But, what do we treasure?  When asked, many might see health, enough income and happiness for themselves and their loved ones. Yet, it seems that a lot of human effort and energy goes into the ‘extras’ like owning a bit more or owning a bit more than others, being well regarded (as distinct from loved), securing the future financially and climbing some ladder of power and responsibility. Do these things bring whatever it is we treasure the most? Or, have we substituted shoddy treasures for the real treasure within?

Only the individual can try to answer these questions in the quiet of his or her conscience.

It is all very easy for some of us blessed with health, relative wealth and positive relationships to say to those who may lack some or all of these: ‘Do not worry!’ or ‘Trust in God!’ By all means it is when we sense of a lack of these goods that we must trust all the more because whatever it is that we are going through here and now is, can be, will be for our good – believing that the love of God for us may seem lost.

Staying and resting in the present moment is a simple thing to understand but altogether difficult to achieve.

A child plays on the sand making castles. She is completely absorbed in the pleasure of task. Past is not relevant. The future is not there. Just now.  That child is you, me, us.  Now we see the child as an adult – racked by the past and the future and everything besides. Unable to focus properly, to listen, to receive, to give.

To live the present moment is to live in that moment in freedom and Grace – Grounded, Relaxed, Attentive, Calm and Enthusiastic. Self-mastery is the fruit of living thus.  But, worry can never be exorcised – at least not entirely.  Only trust in a better future, in a noble purpose and in a higher being can carry me along. In this way, the past is healed, restored and transformed in the here and now.  The future is created only in the present moment. The present moment is the sacrament of God’s loving presence. No need to travel far, to undertake onerous spiritual exercises, to engage in many prayers, to strive and strive again. Rather, see, taste, breathe, hear, touch the present moment.  There God meets us – really. 

Love your enemies (it will drive them crazy)

 ‘… Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.....’ (Matt 5:48)

Matthew 5:38-48 (Year A: 2^nd Sunday before Lent Sunday 19^th February 2017)

“I wouldn’t wish it on my worst enemies” is a phrase we use in the English language (at least in Ireland anyway). The implication is that something is so bad that you would not wish it on ‘your worst enemies’.  The implications of this is that you might wish lesser calamities on ‘your worst enemies’ including enemies below the head of the queue!  Speaking to us today through the good news of Matthew Jesus has news for us ….  wishing any bad on your enemies – worst or otherwise is not acceptable among Christian disciples.  More than this, we are actually bidden to LOVE our enemies.  Now, what does that mean? It means that we ought to speak, act and think only and ever for the GOOD or our neighbour including our ‘enemy neighbours’ – even the ones who abuse us, speak ill of us, disrespect us, jeer us, put us down and seek to harm us some of the time or most of the time or all of the time (if any of us is blessed not to have such people in our lives then we are blessed and if we do we are also blessed but in a different way because such persons are a gift and a challenge for us to go forward in love).  How do we know what is good for our neighbour in choosing to think, speak and act? Therein lies the challenge for Christians who want to take their religion seriously.  Not for no reason did God say to us through his prophet:

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’ (Deuteronomy 6:5)

And the same point is taken up in Matthew 22:37:

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

with all your mind….

'Loving' our enemies to bits (literally)?

Over the centuries some theologians have struggled to rationalise situations where people literally kill each other in wars deemed to be ‘just’ while loving their enemies to pieces (literally). Now, it is easy to pontificate on these matters from a keyboard or comfortable lounge. Situations vary and circumstances dictate.  Pacifism is all very well when there are other choices. But, how do we take the commandment to love our enemies as ourselves even in situations of war and great danger to others?  Not to kill someone who is certainly in the process of committing multiple murders (for whatever reason) could be tantamount to being party to murdering many because one did not act in a given moment to prevent what was clearly imminent.  I give this extreme situational example merely to demonstrate that moral questions are never simple or black and white even if the underlying principles are.

Continuing with the Sermon on the Mount in Chapter 5 of Matthew’s Gospel the reader encounters more disruptive advice. Not only is liturgical life disrupted according to the preceding verses (‘..first go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift..’) but so also is ordinary everyday life in organisations, families, politics, media, neighbourhoods, churches, trade unions and every other walk of life.

Spite, resentment, anger and revenge leading to more spit, resentment, anger and revenge … and so on.  Human behaviour is cyclical and so his human history – the story of human behaviour.  However, it is not always like this and it is not inevitable. Reconciliation is possible – at least sometimes, somewhere and for somebodies.  This particular section of the long ‘Sermon on the Mount’ is as counter-cultural and subversive as the Gospel stories go. Not only are we bidden to ‘turn the other cheek’ but to ‘love your enemies’. If this were taken literally along with the prohibition on the swearing of oaths the entire court and judicial system would either grind to a halt or become dispensable in favour of reconciliation tribunals. Alas, that’s not the way it works. And even in church communities and organisations it is not unknown for Christians to sue each other on grounds of honour, property or Right Teaching.

But what’s the story in the face of bad behaviour?

In the face of bad behaviour, untruths and injustices what are we invited to do? Answer with more bad behaviour? No, we are bid to ‘turn the other cheek’, ‘go the extra mile’ and ‘giving a shirt in addition ..’ This sort of response risks destabilising organisations and situations. It is not the way the real world works, it might be claimed.  The guiding principle of realpolitik is hitting back, pre-empting, covering your own interests and if this does not work wheeling, dealing and ultimately cutting a deal and moving on.  Instead, Jesus is telling those who will listen that we should let go and let live. Why? Surely, it is not right to refuse to stand up to injustice? Surely, we must act sensibly to defend our good name and reputation against attack that is unwarranted?

It is easy to miss the point here.  The Sermon the Mount is not a call to passivity, submission or collaboration in unjust situations. Rather it bids us to reach beyond the immediate situation to the other person or persons who deserve our deepest respect even if we think they are by far in the wrong. By always wanting what is best for the other as well as one self (the injunction is to love the other as oneself). In this sense turning the other cheek and going the extra mile can be an act of defiant trust and freedom.

The Love Covenant incarnate

A scholarly examination of the relevant passages and parallel passages in the ‘Old Testament’ (there was nothing ‘old’ about when Matthew’s gospel was being written up around 80 A.D.) shows Jesus as going beyond the Law to fulfil the Law. In other words, he was speaking and living in such a way as to reveal the core meaning of the Law and, ultimately, the Love Covenant between God and his chosen people who – as it now turns out – is everyone who is open to Grace regardless of ethnic, social or other identity background.

Matthew writes ‘pray for those who persecute you’.  Luke spells out the same point as follows (6:27-28):

‘But I say to you that listen, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.'

‘Pray for those who abuse you’. That’s a strong expression. Now, in case there might be any misunderstanding or misapplication of this phrase, those who abuse – whether emotionally, physically or otherwise – must be confronted and corrected publicly if necessary. But, we should still pray for them and love them because to love is to be free of that hatred that we might experience but which we do not allow to conquer or control us. Love the transgressor but not the transgression.  And where some transgressions have wrecked untold misery and suffering on people the transgressor should face the full consequences of the law. The churches have a much less than glorious record in aspects of abusive human behaviour for which they now pay a high price in loss of trust and association.

Easy in theory, hard in practice

We need to focus on what we can do in the here and now to help spread the positive news of God’s love.  Once we give into hatred we are allowing someone else to control us including our behaviour and thinking. This is easy to say and quite another matter to apply in practice.   Having passed through a martyrdom of violence, discrimination and hurt there are hundreds of thousands of people alive today and living on the island of Ireland (and some abroad) who have witnessed terrible things in their own lives as a result of the conflict (let’s call it by its real title of ‘war’) over the last three decades of the 20^th century. Those of us who directly escaped the direct experience of all this will never know the depths of human suffering in that complex ethnic, religious and political conflict. And the seeds of violence and hatred are still present in Irish soil.  Remembering and acknowledging may be healing. However, it can also keep alive seeds of deep resentment, fear and animosity. We should be vigilant about our own hearts in the first place.

The ultimate point of living is to live fully and completely. This is the real meaning of ‘perfect’ or ‘teleios’ in the scriptural Greek indicating completeness. For ‘holiness’ in religious discourse we might consider using the word ‘wholeness’ as well.  To be holy is to be one and to be whole. The late Cardinal Cathal Daly (1917-2009) once wrote:

The saint is the sinner who stubbornly refuses to stop trying.

Dom Mark Ephrem Nolan, Abbott of Holy Cross Abbey in the beautiful valley of Kilbroney in the Mourne mountains, spoke wisely a few year ago about the demands of love for our enemies:

To love our enemies means to allow life to circulate between us. It means to listen to our enemies and speak with them, to look at them, to try to understand what is happening within them. To love our enemies begins with our prayer for them and this is often a slow process. In many circumstances, to forgive is beyond our strength. Ultimately it can only be a gift from God, a grace to ask for in prayer, a gift to receive and share.

Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount is specially suitable for those of us who may have picked up some attitude from a religious system of pure good works meriting reward in proportion to deed done. This picture of God as Chief Accountant is a distortion. Yes, God is just and to be feared in love.  But, God is above all compassionate and kind. It is through the benevolence of God that grow in wholeness and in the unique person that God wants each one of us to be.  When we are truly ourselves then we are whole. Life is a journey of growth in wholeness.

Keeping (all) the commandments

‘… Let your word be “Yes, Yes” or “No, No”....’ (Matt 5:37)

 Matthew 5:17-37 (Year A: 3^rd Sunday before Lent Sunday 12^th February 2017)

Following the opening of the ‘Sermon on the Mount’ with the 8 Beatitudes, the evangelist Matthew now recounts an elaboration on the Law of the Gospel. The ‘New Law’ is not, strictly, speaking any different from the ‘Old Law’.  The ‘Law’ is the Law of Love: to love God with all our hearts and minds and to love the person next to us now as ourselves.  That’s the Law and it is needs to be written on our hearts by the Author of that Law who sent His only Son to show us what Love really entails.
In this extract from the long ‘Sermon on the Mount’ four substantive issues are brought up by Jesus: Anger, Adultery/Lust, Divorce and the Swearing of Oaths.  While the interdiction of Swearing of Oaths has been overwhelmingly ignored by Christians (there is always a get out clause in scriptural exegesis to fit current needs….) the first three continue to inform public discourse and Christian contributions to it.  Judging by print space in many ecclesiastical publications one might be forgiven for thinking that the Gospels are all about sex and things to do with sex. Alas, the Gospels as well as the Bible in general is very ‘disappointing’ when it comes to sex. The scriptures as well as the teachings and life of Jesus witness to a Godly concern about truth, justice, care and the inclusion of the outcast.  Yet, ‘sex and things to do with sex’ are surely very important to us today and to the many generations that have heard and received the teaching of Jesus. 
An executive summary….
Underlying the Sermon on the Mount and underlying the ten commandments (at least two of which are explicitly covered in this particular extract from Matthew) is the universal, comprehensive, all-embracing and all-demanding commandment to (i) love God with all our heart and mind and (ii) love our neighbour as ourselves. It is from these absolutely foundational and non-negotiable principles that everything else takes root including the teaching of Jesus on adultery and divorce. The point about any of the 10 commandments is the following ‘executive summary’:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ (Matthew 22:37)

Love your neighbour as yourself. (Matthew 22:39)

The reason murder, lying, stealing and being a cheat are wrong is that they strike at the very heart of God in our brother or sister. The reason ignoring God and casting God aside is wrong is that we cast aside our brother and our sister in whom God resides and is united.  Not for nothing did God come to save by the Cross where the crossbeam is held up by the vertical beam and the vertical beam is stabilised and held up by the cross beam. Our Christian religion in a seamless and frictionless fabric where the Divine and the Human are distinct but united and we, through baptism and faith, are woven into that fabric. However, the unity of the divine and human goes beyond the boundaries of faith and sacrament. In some mysterious way the Risen Christ is united to all humanity.  What is done to one is done to all and to God in all regardless of who they are. 

Adolph Hitler and his accomplices did not just murder six million Jews: he murdered one Jew six million times.  When one child, one man or one woman is murdered or let die by another we are all impacted because humanity is interwoven.
An old Law
The evangelist, Matthew, reflecting his communities and audiences places considerable emphasis on the Jewish Law and the clear understanding that Jesus is the fulfilment of that Law.  In this case, the focus is on continuity and development and clarification rather than disruption or revolution. Indeed, the simple commandments to love God and our neighbour (see above) are taken from the Old Testament:

‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.’ (Deuteronomy 6:5)

‘…love your neighbour as yourself’ (Leviticus 19:18)

It is accurate to say that Jesus did not bring anything essentially new to the table of God’s Word in so far as these two foundations are concerned. However, He did bring something new in revealing himself as the unique way to salvation through the free gift of faith and adherence to the Law of Love founded on that faith. Moreover, in the Gospel of John and the Letters attributed to John we see these commandments taken to a pitch of reciprocal and communitarian love rooted in the Holy Trinity which leaves no room for an individualistic Christian faith or ethic. We are, all, bound together by one Faith and on Love in the all the richness and diversity of life. From 613 distinct precepts in the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) and many of which Jesus patently did not observe (ritual cleanliness being an example) to 10 commandments to two Great Commandments….

Jesus goes to the roots of murder, cheating, lying and stealing.  The roots are in those desires and fears that radically disrupt relationships of loving care.  A recurring thought, desire or obsession is like a seed. Watered and habituated it grows and sprouts and becomes a very nasty weed and briar that becomes harder to root out the more it grows. If we are seriously about observing the Laws or the Law of God we need to go to the roots deep within us. This is where the practice of deep of repentance and surrender and reception of loving mercy can make a vital difference and, literally, save lives in some cases.

Issues to do with faithfulness, marriage, divorce and remarriage pose a challenge to Christians today in almost every part of the world including, of course, Ireland. None of us has not known directly someone who has gone through the most painful and disruptive experience of marital or relationship breakdown. Approaching this matter in a loving, humble and fair way is not easy. Some has been hurt – badly hurt and this must be acknowledged fully.  From a period of absolute prohibition on many things from contraception to divorce to acceptance of homosexuality and to abortion we have moved rather quickly, at least in this part of the world, to a situation of almost ‘anything goes’.  In our own faith communities and circles of spiritual support, we must fall back on the four principles of (i) scripture, (ii) tradition, (iii) reason and (iv) experience – not in a spirit of individualism or ‘I know best’ so much as in a spirit of open dialogue, respect, freedom of conscience and, at the same time, faithfulness to the Word of God.  This is no easy journey. Some thoughts on one particular aspect of this challenge are contained in a previous Sunday Blog [How do we respond when relationships fail?]

We do well to sit, together, at the feet of Jesus on the side of the mountain listening to his loving words ever new and ever old transforming our minds and our hearts in a fascinating and troubled world.