There is much to fear in this world of ours. War between and polarization within countries. Violence in our streets and in our homes. Poverty, disease, the list could go on and on, and those are just the big ones. We all have our own “little fears,” anxieties, worries that keep us up at night or afraid to start the day.
Today on Easter morning the church hears in the Gospel of Matthew (28) about fear and the Christian journey.
Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went away quickly from the tomb, fearful yet overjoyed, and ran to announce the news to his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them on their way and greeted them. They approached, embraced his feet, and did him homage. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me.”
This Scripture passage has been very meaningful to me over the years, one that I return to again and again. Fearful yet overjoyed covers so beautifully the butterflies in my stomach feeling I felt at various stages of my vocation journey. Fearful, because, well, I’m me. Overjoyed because, well, I’m responding to the God who loves me by opening my own heart in service of God and God’s people.
We are human and might have reasons to be fearful. Yet we also find joy on the journey that compels us to be of service and about the mission of God. And it is then, we hear today, that Jesus is present, encouraging and sustaining his friend (and us), telling us to not be afraid.
“The Church relives the amazement of the women who went to the tomb at dawn on the first day of the week. The tomb of Jesus had been sealed with a great stone. Today too, great stones, heavy stones, block the hopes of humanity: the stone of war, the stone of humanitarian crises, the stone of human rights violations, the stone of human trafficking, and other stones as well. Like the women disciples of Jesus, we ask one another: “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” (cf. Mk 16:3).
This is the amazing discovery of that Easter morning: the stone, the immense stone, was rolled away. The astonishment of the women is our astonishment as well: the tomb of Jesus is open and it is empty! From this, everything begins anew! A new path leads through that empty tomb: the path that none of us, but God alone, could open: the path of life in the midst of death, the path of peace in the midst of war, the path of reconciliation in the midst of hatred, the path of fraternity in the midst of hostility.”
May we astonish one another in hope and love as we seek to roll away the stones that keep us from the goodness of God and one another
As we say in our CSJP Constitutions: “Strengthened by the Risen Christ, we go forth in peace to continue the work of love and service.”
Last night I celebrated International Women’s Day and the start of Catholic Sisters Week by seeing the new film, Cabrini, in the theaters with two of my CSJP sisters. It was very well done and inspiring to see the story of such a courageous woman of faith on the big screen.
I was particularly interested because some of the characters in Mother Francis Xavier Cabrini’s story are also characters in the story of Mother Francis Clare (Margaret Anna Cusack), the founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace.
Mother Clare, Mother Cabrini, Pope Leo XIII, Archbishop Corrigan
Mother Cabrini was dogged in her petition to the Vatican to found an international women’s missionary order. She asked Pope Leo XIII for permission to start in China. He asked her to go to New York to serve Italian immigrants.
I was enthralled to see the depiction of their meeting portrayed, because Mother Clare also went to Rome with a petition to found a new order. From a letter she wrote to the sisters in May 1884:
My own darling Children, I have just returned from my audience, & such a happy audience-only funny being all alone with the Pope! … Fancy the Pope held my hands in his all the time I was talking to him- oh when I tell you all he said how rejoiced you will be my own children please God soon we shall meet. Your own fond mother. M.F.C.
I was less enthralled but rather curious to see how Mother Cabrini got along with the Archbishop of New York. You see, we are in New Jersey because while the German American Bishop Wigger welcomed our ministry to Irish immigrant women, on the other side of the Hudson the Irish American Archbishop Corrigan refused to even meet with Mother Clare, let alone approve of her mission in his diocese.
This was a few years before he met Mother Cabrini. Watching his political maneuvers and attitude toward a woman seeking to bring the mission of Jesus to meet the signs of the times gave some color to our own founding story and the challenges Mother Clare faced.
To my knowledge, Mother Clare and Mother Cabrini did not know each other. Yet they were of a similar heart and mind. Both women suffered from physical ailments. Both women were on fire with the love of God and God’s people in need. And both women were well versed in navigating the hierarchy of the church to try to meet that need.
In the end of course, their paths differed. Mother Cabrini is now venerated as a Saint in the church. Mother Clare, personally defeated by the negative campaign of Archbishop Corrigan against her, which eventually led to Bishop Wigger siding with his Irish American brother Bishops and her decision to leave the order in able to save the mission.
May we like Mother Clare and Mother Cabrini read the signs of the time and put the mission first today.
In today’s reading from Hosea we hear: “I will heal their defection, says the Lord, / I will love them freely.”
God loves freely. We who are made in the image and likeness of God are called to do no less.
In the words of this song by Joy Ike (Wearing Love).
Slow your breathing No more scheming Quit competing Just love
Silly humans that we are though, we limit our God given ability to love, whether it is ourselves, those who annoy us, those who hurt us, those we disagree with, those we just don’t particularly like.
Jesus reiterates this central call to love in today’s Gospel (Mark 12):
One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?” Jesus replied, “The first is this: Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.”
Love God. Love neighbor. Love yourself.
Freely and with our whole heart, soul, mind and strength.
As Joy Ike sings in her song: “All that works is the love that you bring.”
On this second Sunday of Lent, we hear the words of God, coming through the clouds: “This is my Beloved Son; listen to Him.”
Transfiguration (Jesus MAFA, Cameroon)
Moses and Elijah were apparently there on the mountain, and Jesus had already been Transfigured, his clothes a dazzling white. Understandable then that this freaked Peter, James, and John out just a bit. Or, as Mark writes, terrified them, so much so that Peter nervously started talking about building tents for the three. (Peter’s fumbling always makes me feel better.)
That is when the cloud appears and God’s voice can be heard. Seeing the light emanating from Jesus was not enough. So God made it clear for them (us). Jesus is his beloved. Listen to him. And then they saw him. Just him. Alone. With them. Their friend and rabbi who was also the beloved Son of God. They still didn’t quite get it, but they stayed with what it might mean.
“Here is the message: never divert your eyes from the light of Jesus. … This is what we Christians are called to do in the journey of life, always keep before our eyes the radiant face of Christ.”
What keeps us from seeing the light of Christ, ever present in our midst? What keeps us unable to BE the light of Christ for others? Can we echo Gos’s voice, reminding ourselves and others that we too are beloved children of God?
Pope Francis offered a tip for us all during these times, where shadows of darkness are also present and our woundedness, anxiety, and fear can prevent us from seeing the good also and always present in our midst if we but look for it:
“Here is a good resolution for Lent: cultivate open gazes, become ‘seekers of light,’ seekers of the light of Jesus, in prayer and in people.”
As I was praying with this Gospel and the Pope’s words this morning, I was reminded of a video prayer I made over a decade ago set to The Transfiguration by Sufjan Stevens.
Let us not be lost in the cloud, distracted by our fears. May we look out for the light and be the light for others.
Last night, I saw White Rose The Musical, a new off-Broadway production. I was intrigued to see how this story of resistance to the Nazi regime by ordinary Germans would be portrayed on stage, in particular in musical form. I enjoyed the production. Most critically, it expressed the importance of doing something in the face of evil, holding fast to what matters, and staying with the questions in messy times. Overall it was hopeful, something we need these days in the face of rising fascism and threats to democracy.
One reason I travelled across the Hudson last night to see the musical was this … My research topic for my MA Ethics thesis at Catholic Theological Union was the ethics of resistance. The students of the White Rose Society were one of the case studies I explored.
During WWII, a group of college students came together in Munich to resist what they knew in their core to be wrong, using the written word to encourage resistance to the Nazi regime among ordinary Germans by speaking plainly about the evil being perpetrated in their name. In six strongly worded leaflets, they sought to raise consciousness and conscience.
“Why do the German people behave so apathetically in the face of all these abominable crimes, crimes so unworthy of the human race? … For through his apathetic behavior he gives these evil men the opportunity to act as they do; he tolerates this ‘government’ which has taken upon itself such an infinitely great burden of guilt; indeed, he himself is to blame for the fact that it came about at all! Each man wants to be exonerated of a guilt of this kind, each one continues on his way with the most placid, the calmest conscience. But he cannot be exonerated; he is guilty, guilty, guilty!”
This second leaflet was written and distributed in 1942, shortly after the Wansee Conference and implementation of the “final solution.” The first four flyers were produced in the summer of 1942. The students suspended leafleting in late 1942, when three members, all medical students—Hans Scholl, Alexander Schmorell, and Willi Graf—were drafted to medical service on the Russian front. The students wrote the final two leaflets upon their return in early 1943.
The leaflets were distributed throughout Germany by post, apparently inspired by a mimeographed sermon by Catholic Bishop Clement von Galen, condemning the Nazi euthanasia of disabled persons, which was widely distributed in this fashion. Upon receiving a copy of the sermon in the mail, Hans Scholl is reported to have said: “Finally someone has the courage to speak, and all you need is a duplication machine.”
It was the choice of Hans Scholl and his sister Sophie Scholl to distribute copies of the sixth leaflet in person at the University of Munich that led to their arrest on February 18, 1943. While students and faculty were in class, the siblings placed copies on steps, windowsills, and ledges, throwing the last leaflets over a balcony. They were arrested. Four days later the two siblings and another student, Christopher Probst, were sentenced with high treason and executed. Other White Rose members were executed in later months. Due to their arrest and execution, the students were unable to keep an appointment they had scheduled for February 25th—with Dietrich Bonhoeffer—to discuss plans for a network of student resistance groups.
Inge Scholl, sister of Hans and Sophie, later observed: “They stood up for a simple matter, an elementary principle: the right of the individual to choose his manner of life and to live in freedom.” As a group, their motivations were of course varied. Some, such as Willi Graf, were deeply motivated by the central Christian theme of love of neighbor. Graf and the other two students sent to the Russian front were certainly motivated by personally witnessing horrific violence and dehumanization of the Jewish people in concentration camps.
Sophie and Hans Scholl were influenced by their devout Lutheran upbringing in a home where Scripture was central and current issues of justice and pacifism were engaged at the kitchen table. Sophie’s own diary indicates she was motivated by her faith: “My God … Oh, how far from you I am, and the best thing about me is the pain I feel on that account. But I’m often so torpid and apathetic. Help me to be singlehearted and remain with me.”
Guided by individual motivations, the White Rose Society creatively and collectively responded both to evil and bystanders. They exposed the injustice of the system. They found a creative alternative to violence. Finally, they sought the transformation of an oppressive regime and the German people, whose apathy gave the Nazi regime power and opportunity.
Sources:
Kidder, Annemarie S. Ultimate Price: Testimonies of Christians Who Resisted the Third Reich. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2012.
Michalczyk, John J. and Franz J. Müller. “The White Rose Student Movement in Germany: It’s History and Relevance Today.” In Resisters, Rescuers, and Refugees: Historical and Ethical Issues, ed. John J. Michalczyk, 49-57. Kansas City: Sheed & Ward, 1997.
The story of the Holy Family is alive and well today and will continue long into the future. For Christians, the Holy Family is our family. Pope Leo XIII asserts that this divine household “contained within its limits the scarce-born Church.” Mary, mother of Jesus, is the mother of all Christians. Jesus Christ is our brother. And Joseph, our foster father, “the Blessed Patriarch looks upon the multitude of Christians who make up the Church as confided specially to his trust, this limitless family spread over the earth … It is, then, natural and worthy that as the Blessed Joseph ministered to all the needs of the family at Nazareth and girt it about with his protection, he should now cover the cloak of his heavenly patronage and defend the Church of Jesus Christ.”
We are part of a limitless family. No matter our own experiences of family—nuclear, extended, or chosen—as Christians we are part of the family of God, a limitless family spread over the earth. And Joseph, who first was called to his role by the message of an angel, is there for us when we need him, ready to spread his cloak of mighty love around us, guiding us, comforting us, and protecting us as members of this limitless family of love.
Prayer for Families
St. Joseph, pray for us, your limitless family, bound together in love. Be with all families in good times and bad. Take special care of families separated for whatever reason. Defend us from ourselves, from our growing pains and insecurities, our hurts and complex family dynamics. Share our joy at new life and the promise of tomorrow. Be our comfort in times of trouble, and our guide always. Teach us your way of mighty love for our human family and daily care for Earth, our common home. St. Joseph, husband of Mary and father of Jesus, pray for us. Amen
A friend just sent me an internet meme with the Grinch and this note: “This year I decided to do something different. I stole the last week of Advent.”
Today is the 4th Sunday of Advent AND Christmas Eve. I love Advent, perhaps because of the contrast with the hustle and bustle of this season in our society. This year too there has been the added weight of war and suffering, well sadly always there is war and suffering. This year it hits closer to our spiritual home as millions are at risk of starvation and death in the Holy Land while bombs and weapons have already killed tens of thousands, including children.
It is in the midst of this chaos and indifference that we are called for four weeks (more or less) to practice expectant waiting and hope as we yearn for love and peace. More than that, WE are called to make room for the incarnation of Christ in our world, hearts, and homes.
In the words of Margaret Anna Cusack, founder of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, in her reflection for today, Christmas Eve (well written in 1866 but you know what I mean): “Today we are decking our houses for His divine visit: let us not forget to deck our hearts.”
Happy last day of Advent as we await the coming of Christ our love and peace!
This week on retreat, I spent a lot of time walking in the nearby woods and meandering on the grounds at St. Raphaela Retreat Center.
This week I also discovered a new hauntingly beautiful song called In Everything by Paper Horses, a singer songwriter supergroup made up of Jess Ray, Sandra McCracken, Taylor Leonhart, and Leslie Jordan. These four artists, individually, are often the soundtrack for my prayer. Together, well, just take a listen in this video prayer I made matching some of my photos and videos from my walks to their song.
I just spent a wonderful week at St. Raphaela Center in Haverford, Pennsylvania. A ministry of the Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, it was a new space for me, although I did know the Grey Nun who was my retreat director. The prayerful spirit and hospitality of the Handmaids made me feel right at home.
It is a privilege to be able to take a week away to just be with God. I do not take that lightly! I made my first directed retreat when I was a Candidate, the initial stage of formation as a Sister. Now I cannot imagine not making time for my annual retreat to renew and ground my relationship with God.
Our Constitutions make it clear why this is a priority for us: “We nurture our life of prayer by reflective reading, particularly Scripture, by periods of solitude and silence, and by an annual retreat.” (30)
In the silence this week, the Autumn leaves hit their peak of the season. Such beauty in the Book of Creation! And so much happening in our wounded world to hold in prayer these days.
Our Trinitarian God is present to me in varied ways and at various seasons of my life. These autumn days of retreat, it was Jesus, my brother, friend, savior, teacher, and healer who was my companion.
Fully human … he gets it. No explanation necessary.
Fully divine … he holds it all in his abundant love.
The suffering and struggle. The joy and peace. In love. Always love. With him and through him and for him, in the mysterious relationship of the Trinity, with the Creator and Spirit and you and me and everything … in love.
And so I pray:
Jesus, teacher, savior, companion and friend, open my heart to your abundant love and my own potential to be love, joy and peace, through your loving presence which will accomplish more than I can ask or imagine. You hold it all. In everything, I thank you. Now, tomorrow, always. Amen
At the Corner of Susan and St. Joseph 