HerbEly

Learning Through Compassion

In the readings for the 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time both Sirach and Luke encourage us to extend a hand to those who are suffering - and may not look as "respectable as the relatives or wealthy neighbors invited to the home of one of the leading Pharisees. (Note that Jesus has been invited to dine there, a sign of some attempt to build solidarity in spite of the growing tension between Jesus and the pharisees.) If they do, Jesus tells them, they "will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

There are, I suggest, more immediate reasons to "invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind." In this month's Contemplative Outreach Newsletter, Fr. Thomas Keating writes that those suffering unjustly are the "apple of God's eye." When we respond to them with compassion, we have an opportunity to see how and why God loves them. When we see under their crippled, lame and blind surface we become aware of the loving God whom we call "abba." As we pursue our contemplative practice, we can also become aware of our own inner blindness and lameness. As we are reminded of this, we can acknowledge that, if our circumstances were different, we might lose all the respectability of which we are proud. Through this awareness we can be reminded to turn our wills and lives over to the care of God. To the extent that we do so, we will maintain our spiritual fitness and have a spiritual home to which we can invite the poor, the lame and the blind.

 

 

Three Images of God as Father

    The readings for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time focus on entering through the narrow gate, how we should maintain our spiritual fitness, and how we will be surprised when we find that some unlikely people make it through the gate.

    The second reading, Hebrews 12:5-13, emphasizes the discipline of training. When we read "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?" We (or at least I) tend to move over towards that old time religion image of God as the stern disciplinarian in the sky. This is a contrast of the image conveyed by the name of God as abba - the word little children use to call out to their daddy. It also contrasts with the image of the father who eagerly welcomes the return of a son who has betrayed him.

    The contrast can be resolved by looking at the word discipline as training for an athletic event. (I'm told that this is much closer to the meaning of the original Greek. Last week we saw an example of how a good trainer/coach might act. When the Nationals played the Arizona Diamondbacks, Stephen Strasburg overthrew first base costing two unearned runs. The coach, I'm sure, did not say "Stephen, God is punishing you for the baseball sin of rushing your throw." He probably said, "Stephen, you were in a hurry and paid a price for your mistake. Next time set your feet and then throw."

    From that perspective we can agree with Hebrews that "Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

    By doing that we are striving "to enter through the narrow gate" and will find that we are "strong enough."

The Assumption: An Opportunity to Reflect on Mind-Body Connection

This Sunday, the readings for the Feast of the Assumption pre-empt the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time. As we reflect on this doctrine of Mary's assumption, we can start by noting that there is scriptural precedent for bodily assumption into heaven. Enoch Gen 5:21-24); Moses (Jude 9); and Elijah all preceded Mary.

Barbara Reid's America magazine column on the Assumption focuses on bodily spirituality. As a student of Tae Kwon Do, I work towards having mind and body work together.  I've often joked to myself that when I get to the resurrection and get a body that works properly I will, for the first time, correctly execute Form One of Tae Kwon Do. 

For the most part Christianity has, IMO, underemphasized the mind-body connection. This is partly due to the tendency of English translations of the scripture to emphasize a contrast between spirit and flesh.  To translate the word sarx as simply " flesh" is misleading in a number of ways. Barbara Reid writes that Luke 1:46 would be better translated as "My being proclaims the greatness of the Lord..." rather than "My soul .." 

As compared to the East, the literature of Western spirituality is, as far as I can see, poverty stricken on mind-body disciplines and their relation to spirituality. Thomas Ryan's Prayer of the Heart and Body: Meditation and Yoga as a spiritual Practice is an outstanding exception.

The Assumption, then, is a feast that can remind us to take care of our bodies. To the extent that we do so we can live up to the Shema and love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind and strength

To Be Ready, Find the Line

In the scripture readings for the 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time, I'm reminded of one of the basic lessons from my Army War College days: the basic mission of the peacetime Army is readiness.  We read in Luke 12 that "...if the master had known when the thief was coming, he would long have let his house be  broken into." Good words, but the question for us is "how do maintain the motivation to be prepared when there is no urgent challenge?" This is especially true when we don't even see a challenge on the horizon.

    The challenge isn't on the horizon; it is inside of us. In The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation Thomas Keating  tells of hearing a woman holocaust survivor tell how her experience led her to found a humanitarian organization to prevent such horrors from being repeated.  She remarked "You know, I couldn't have started that organization unless I knew that, with the situation just a little different, I could have done the same thing the Nazi's did to my parents and others in the concentration camps." I was reminded of my struggle to understand a shooter could have murdered 32 others at Virginia Tech on April 16th,  2007. Somewhere in the aftermath I ran across this quote from Alexander Sozhenitsyn: "...the dividing line between good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being...." 

    Keating goes on to describe how regular prayer and reflection will help us locate that line. When we do, we can become aware of our constant need to seek help and maintain readiness. We realize our basic goodness as well as the tremendous energy that resides in our "shadow side." The possibilities for spiritual (and physical) progress are immense.

    As the Sunday's gospel reminds us, we need to seek progress not perfection. If we think we've achieved perfection our effort will slacken. Then the thief will show up and we won't be ready.