Go and do likewise.

Monday, August 8, 2011

Memorial of St. Dominic

Deuteronomy 10:12-22

Over the weekend a close friend of mine sent me an email asking me for feedback on a reflection she had written. She is a candidate with the Sisters of St. Joseph, and as part of her candidacy, she is required to undergo a two-day psych evaluation preceeded by a 37-pg questionnaire requiring written responses.  The reflection she sent me was in the response to the following prompt: “to write a summary of what is important in living as a Christian, imagining that she was explaining the teaching and example of Jesus to an intelligent and well-disposed adult who is interested in Christianity but not familiar with the Gospels.”

A summary of the Gospel message, of what it means to live as a Christian.  That's no small task.  I wonder what you or I would write in response to this question.

The response of my friend was thoughtful, integrated, and compelling.  She began with the bare facts –  “believing that Jesus Christ, a first-century Jew, was God become man who died at the hands of local authorities for his teachings and rose from the dead three days after his death.”   From this groundwork she moved to what she believes are the essentials of the Gospel message – that “life in all its intricacies can be boiled down to two teachings – love God and Love your neighbor as yourself.  The two go hand in hand and from them stems the fruit and calls of a Christian life: hope, humility, joy, justice, unity, and surrender.”  She wrote that the life of a Christian begins with loving God and allowing God to love us.  The consequence of this intimate relationship is that we are moved to love and care for others, to live a life of joyful hope and humble service to others modeled after Christ’s example of radical and boundless love.  This love of God and neighbor should move the Christian to forgiveness, right relationship, charity and justice.  “The Christian models Christ”, she writes, “by working for the least of those in the world, welcoming the outsider, and caring for those forgotten by society.”

Though he lived long before Christ, Moses’ words in today’s first reading could be a response to the very same question to which my friend responded.  “What does the Lord, your God, ask of you?”, Moses says to his people.  “Follow his ways.  Love and serve the Lord with all your heart and all your soul.  Keep the commandments.  The Lord has chosen you, out of love, to be his own.  Our God is a God of justice, who feeds the hungry, befriends the alien and the sinner, gives food to the hungry, sustains all things, raises up life.”  And Moses does not forget the profound and necessary implications of this reality – “so you too must befriend the alien, for you were once aliens yourselves…”.  Moses first highlights the love of God and our own need to respond in love, reminding us that each of us is, in a sense, alien in this world--we are all pilgrims on the road to back to God, and we are, in fact, our brother and sister’s keeper.

What does it mean to be a Christian?  What is at the heart of the life and teachings of the first-century Jew who we believe is God incarnate?  Perhaps today we could ask ourselves these questions, and keep in mind the responses of Moses and my friend—that first and foremost the life of a Christian is a life overcome and defined by the intimate, life-giving love of God in Christ.  But the power and beauty of the Gospel message of this love is that it demands something great of us.  It demands that we go and do likewise.

Yet another 'homily' for a Fairfield U communion service.  Thanks Colleen for the alley-oop on this one.

God our help

Monday, August 1, 2011

Numbers 11:4b-15 - A frustrated Moses journeying out of Egypt with hungry and ungrateful Israelites 

Psalm 81: 12-17 - Sing with joy to God our help

Matthew 14:22-36 - Jesus walks on water and commands Peter to fearlessly do the same

We know this Moses well.  Here he is in the first reading, journeying with the Israelites out of Egypt to the Promised Land and caring for them as their divinely chosen leader, yet burdened by the suffering, and the stubbornness, of the Israelites.  His people, so many of them, are in their hunger begging to be fed while still recalling that even in their enslavement in Egypt, they at least ate their fill.  Pained by their endless cries of hunger and despair, Moses cries out to God in exasperation: Why me? Why should I be responsible for them? What did I do to deserve this, and how will I possibly satisfy their hunger? I cannot do this on my own…”

I imagine that many of us gathered here today often feel these same sentiments in the day-to-day of our lives.  How often do we feel overwhelmed by our responsibilities, and weighed down by the immensity of the need around us?  How often do we give, and give, and give of ourselves, and feel so little appreciated in return?  Whether it is caring for elderly parents or grandparents, raising children, laboring to teach our students, or feeling compelled to respond to the needs of St. Charles Food Pantry or the refugees in Somalia, no doubt we have moments when the human struggle we witness causes us to ask “Why?  Why should I be responsible for this?  How will I possibly meet their endless needs? I cannot do this on my own…”

We are commanded to love one another, yet we often struggle to find the energy.  We are called to feed the hungry, but where to find the food?  We are asked to walk on water, but the strength of the wind is terrifying.

It is in these moments of fear and frustration, when we feel the weight of the world on our shoulders and in our hearts, that we find ourselves in the company of Moses and Peter.  Struggling with the seeming impossibility of the Lord's command, they simply cry out, “Lord, save me!”   Their courageous act of faith invites us to trust that we too will be met with saving grace in Jesus’ outstretched hand the moment we reach for God our help.

Written for a lay-led communion service at Fairfield University, 8/1/2011

Ask Anything

--this reflection was originally written for yHope, the Catholic young adult group that welcomed my wandering soul during my year living in Boston, for their meeting on 7/23/11.--

First reading of the seventeenth Sunday of ordinary time

1 Kings 3:5, 7-12

The LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream at night. 

God said, “Ask something of me and I will give it to you.” 
Solomon answered:
“O LORD, my God, you have made me, your servant, king
to succeed my father David;
but I am a mere youth, not knowing at all how to act. 
I serve you in the midst of the people whom you have chosen,
a people so vast that it cannot be numbered or counted. 
Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart
to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong. 
For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?”

The LORD was pleased that Solomon made this request. 
So God said to him:
“Because you have asked for this—
not for a long life for yourself,
nor for riches, 
nor for the life of your enemies,
but for understanding so that you may know what is right—
I do as you requested. 
I give you a heart so wise and understanding
that there has never been anyone like you up to now, 
and after you there will come no one to equal you.”

In this reading, Solomon is basically given one wish, one prayer to be granted by God.  “Ask something of me and I will give it to you”, says the Almighty. Without hesitating, Solomon nails it – he asks not for superfluous, selfish treasures but the ability to serve God and God’s people as they deserve.  As so often asked of us in the Gospels, he humbles himself in order to be exalted. 

I’m sure many of us would welcome this opportunity from God as well – to choose one thing over which God would wave a magic wand.  It sounds far-fetched, but if we believe that prayer actually ‘works’ (and I don’t know if or how it does), then we best be thinking about what it is we would ask for.

I am reminded of a framework for discernment that was suggested to me when I was struggling trying to decide what program I would volunteer with after graduation. Having exhausted many discernment techniques from ignatian imaginative prayer to doodling pictures of what each program “feels like”, a campus minister finally sat down with me and stripped the question down to its bare bones – he asked me “what do you want, what do you really want, and what do you truly desire?”

Exhausted and frustrated, the weight of that question’s simplicity brought me to tears.  I decided I’d had enough – I didn’t know what I truly desired, but I knew what I simply wanted at that moment was a chicken wrap.  Off I went, and juggling these questions en route to the dining hall, lightning struck—what I truly desired was what Rostro de Cristo offered in Ecuador.

I’ve carried this three-question framework for discernment with me since then.  It served me well this time a year ago, when my job in Boston was about to expire and I had to make a move toward my next step – I had tentative opportunities in Ecuador and in Peru, but had no idea what I would do if I stayed in the States. I sat down on the bank of the Charles with these three questions – what do I want, what do I really want, and what do I truly desire – and spent hours journaling out my responses.  At first I let arise the things I wanted – to paint, to be at my friend’s wedding, to walk barefoot on green grass – and slowly followed these things until they led to what I truly desired – to live joyfully as my complete self, to give my life over to others, to be united with God. This exercise again helped me to sort through the heaps of emotions – from the seemingly superfluous to the nearly profoundly unspeakable – in order to find the direction that God had laid in my heart.

Once we are aware of our heart’s deepest desires comes the lifelong challenge of trusting enough in God’s offer of fulfillment.  “Seek, and you shall find; knock, and the door shall be opened; ask, and it will be given to you…”.   Too often I question the efficacy of prayer; my inquisitive mind wonders how intercessory prayer even works. It’s not magic, so what is it?  Having no answers to the inner mysteries of the Diving Life, I shrug my shoulders and leave the asking and knocking until I can make more sense of these things.

Again, I am reminded of a recent experience of the call to have faith in prayer itself.  Two weeks ago I was in Mexico City with a close friend and we spent several hours at the site of the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe – affectionately known simply as la virgen to the Mexicans.  Now, if I’m confused about the powers of intercessory prayer to God, even more so than those invoking Mary’s aid and protection.  I just don’t know what to make of her.  Thus, my internal posture at this extraordinary location was perhaps one of highly reverent curiousity rather than one of devotion.

Responding to my mild skepticism was a plaque outside the basilica with the words that Mary spoke to Juan Diego.  What caught my attention was the following: “I wish that a temple be erected here quickly, so I may therein exhibit and give all my love, compassion, help, and protection, because I am your merciful mother…Let not your heart be disturbed. Do not fear that sickness, nor any other sickness or anguish. Am I not here, who is your Mother? Are you not under my protection? …What else do you wish?…”

Ask. Seek. Knock. 

So, surrounded by thousands of devoted Mexicans gazing at the original cloak of Juan Diego for the first time in recent memory, I took the risk of asking, digging deep and pouring my heart out to this Mary figure who seems really insistent upon helping us out.  And so far, it seems to be ‘working’…

And so we return to Solomon.  What if God were to come to us in a dream, tonight, and make the same offer? – “ask something of me and I will give it to you.”  To respond to God’s generosity, we, like Solomon, must reckon with these two challenges.  First, are we in touch with the most profound, intimate desires of our hearts—what we want, what we really want, and what we truly desire?  And then, do we trust enough to dare to ask for it?

This says it better.

I've never seen anything that more perfectly captures what I was trying to express with that reflection on the Visitation.

Unfortunately I have no idea who the original artist is, but I give credit to Tracy Kemme, beloved Ecua-community mate, for sharing it with me.  Tracy, thank you for being a Mary-Elizabeth relationship in my life.

The Visitation: Sharing God's Glory

Written for the Fairfield University Alumni Advent Reflection Series. Additional reflections can be found online.

Luke 1: 39-45

Mary set out in those days and traveled to the hill country in haste

to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah

and greeted Elizabeth. 

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb,

and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said,

"Most blessed are you among women,

and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 

And how does this happen to me,

that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 

For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,

the infant in my womb leaped for joy. 

Blessed are you who believed

that what was spoken to you by the Lord

would be fulfilled."

I do not know what thoughts and feelings accompanied Mary on that journey to Judah, or why she set out to see Elizabeth in the first place. Did she go forth in haste to serve Elizabeth in solidarity, as my young nun friends in South America attest? Did she go to witness Elizabeth's pregnancy as a confirmation of her own private revelation, as my bible footnotes? Or, as my roommate who has supported several friends through young and unplanned pregnancy asks, did she pick up and go in order to avoid the shame that likely would have plagued her in her hometown? Did her total self-giving and the promise of the annunciation protect her from the daunting realities of an unwed pregnancy and save her from all doubt and anxiety?

Whatever questions and emotions may have traveled with Mary on the path to Judah, she must have arrived there in overwhelming joy and awe at the Word made flesh within her. Why else would just the sound of her voice cause such an exalted response from the depths of Elizabeth's being? Only immense hope could make Mary's greeting so powerful that her joy spread like wildfire, even causing the infant in Elizabeth's womb to dance. Of course this young Jewish woman went to be with her cousin. Who can keep the wonder of God's glory all to herself?

Mary's active embrace of her own truth filled her with a deep joy, a wholeness that is fulfilled and confirmed when shared with Elizabeth. She arrived in Judah not only as herself, but as a carrier of God's own Being. Elizabeth, because she also knows the power of God's grace, is immediately capable of recognizing the Divine Presence within Mary, proclaiming her blessed. Her response to Mary is one of deep humility and reverence: Why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

In her spirit of exuberant joy, Mary is teaching us that by living in union with Truth, we carry Christ to others and have the power to ignite the life deep within them. Elizabeth, in her reverence, is asking us to allow God's grace to sensitize us to the Spirit flourishing in our neighbor. Together these two women, pregnant and enlivened by the Spirit, share a common holiness as prophets and witnesses to God's extraordinary mercy and love in the most unlikely circumstances.

May the Word take root in our innermost being, be nourished by our faith in the promise of God's grace, and spread a contagious fire of joy, palpable in the mere sound of a greeting, the vibrations in the air that go forth before us.

Non-homily brought to you by a young lay woman.

A 'reflection' that I gave 'during the time of the homily' at a parish in Winchester, MA this weekend to fundraise for Rostro.

--


Actively awaiting the kingdom. All three readings this morning speak to us of a participating in, trusting in, and awaiting God’s Kingdom. The first reading from the book of Wisdom depicts the faith and courage of the Jewish people as they longed for salvation. In the second reading, Paul recounts Abraham’s complete and total submission in faith to God’s will as he left his homeland for an unknown destination—the promised land—because he believed that the one who made the promise was trustworthy.

Finally, in the Gospel, Jesus proclaims the parable of the servants who are rewarded for their active vigilance while their Master is away. Upon his return, the vigilant servants, those who cared for one another and that which the Master has entrusted to them, are invited to recline at table, and the Master Himself serves them. Contrary to this, the ignorant and lackadaisical servant is severely punished for his disengaged attitude and mistreatment of his fellow workers.

What are these readings demanding of us? Not only that we wait in joyful hope for the Kingdom and trust completely in God’s promise of salvation, but that we actively participate in the coming of this kingdom through total faith and service to others.

Now, who am I to be speaking about any of this, and why am I the one standing before you today?

My name is Elyse and I want to share with you my experience of the readings we heard today.

After graduating from Fairfield University, I joined a year-long volunteer program called Rostro de Cristo—which means, in Spanish, the face of Christ—in hopes of more concretely exploring my faith while dedicating myself full-time in service to the poor. Similar to Abraham, I was called to go out to a place – Ecuador – and I went out by faith, sojourning in a foreign country, not knowing exactly what God had in mind.

This program, Rostro de Cristo, invites young people from the U.S. to live and serve in Ecuador in order to experience the prophetic presence of Christ among the poor. Every morning I tutored at a Catholic school in a classroom with a dozen young teenage girls who were at a third grade reading level. Why? Because the insufferable poverty forced them to drop out of school in order to work to help feed their family. Every afternoon, I opened the doors to an after-school program and without fail, in came running up to fifty children who would otherwise spend their afternoons searching for new toys amidst heaps of trash or simply playing soccer in the dirt streets because they have no pens at home to complete their homework.

Some of my fondest memories come from my time as a catechist in a local parish. Gathering weekly in a wooden church about the size of this sacristy, seated in a circle on plastic chairs, I was challenged time and time again to understand the Gospel message through the eyes of my young students: Cindy, a feisty sixteen-year-old who lives in a two-room cane house with her mother and two sisters, or Anthony, an eleven year old whose narrow frame shows evidence of childhood malnutrition. What would they think of Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel: “Be vigilant…Sell your belongings and give alms...”. What belongings? Yet day after day, week after week, I was astounded at the generosity, truly the charity, of my friends and neighbors in Ecuador. Rarely was I able to enter a home without being offered a small meal or glass of soda—almost as if I were the Master returning home in Jesus’ story. Together we were actively awaiting the Kingdom—a kingdom of love, of justice, of right relationships; a kingdom of needs met, where a mother does not have to choose which one of her four children she will send to school while the others work in the streets, a kingdom where basic healthcare and clean water are universally accessible. Together we were the servants, caring for Christ the Master by serving one another – through offerings of rice and beans, open hearts, and sincere presence.

As a young adult Catholic, my faith and worldview were radically transformed by participating in the lives of the poor in Ecuador. Never again will I see my life as mine alone. I am now acutely and irreversibly aware of the deep responsibility each of us has to create a more just world and to ease the suffering of those around us, as near to us as our siblings, and as far as our brothers and sisters across the world. But I am just one. Every year, Rostro de Cristo hosts up to sixteen young adult Americans who live and serve as volunteers in Ecuador for one year. In addition to this, we annually host around three hundred high school and college students on week-long immersion retreats in order to be radically transformed in the same way. Not only does Rostro de Cristo work to accompany and meet the needs of the poorest of the poor, it is an extraordinarily formative and life-changing experience for the young adults—the future leaders of our Church and our world—who participate in this program.

I humbly invite you today to join myself, hundreds of other Rostro de Cristo participants, and all of our neighbors in Ecuador, in being a servant in today’s Gospel, actively awaiting the Kingdom. Without a doubt, each of us is called to live out our common vocation of faithful service in unique ways—as parents, teachers, caregivers, students, etc. We are also called, in particular by today’s Gospel, to give alms. A second collection will be taken up today to support the good work of Rostro de Cristo in Ecuador. I invite you to prayerfully consider how your generosity will contribute to this Kingdom of justice and needs met. Your donations will directly impact the lives of our neighbors in Ecuador by allowing Rostro de Cristo year-long volunteers to continue serving full-time in health clinics, hospitals, schools, shelters, and after-school programs. In addition, your generosity will offer this powerful immersion experience to hundreds of young people every year.

There is more information about Rostro de Cristo and our work in the pews. I will be available in the lobby after mass, along with another Rostro de Cristo alumni volunteer, Jon. We look forward to speaking with you in more detail about Rostro de Cristo and our volunteer experiences.

On behalf of Rostro de Cristo and all those whose lives are touched by your generosity, thank you. May God bless you today and always as together we actively and faithfully await God’s Kingdom.

What was the point? Part 1. (subtitle: an apologetics of short-term immersion trips)

So, I've been back in the States for 9 months now, and havent blogged in almost a year. Do I have any readers left? Either way, this is the first in a two-part (maybe more?) series of my reflecting on my experience as a Rostro de Cristo volunteer in Duran, Ecuador.

FYI: I'm currently working as the RdC Assistant Director in our offices in Boston, until August (no, I don't know what I'm doing next...do you?). Most of my energy is/was spent preparing the short-term immersion retreat groups, recruiting and selecting year-long volunteers, and preparing to send them off to Ecuador...among other administrative things. Today, my energy went to writing the following email to the adult leaders of a high school retreat group that visited Duran in February 2010:



I am glad to hear that the experience is taking root in your students and is bearing fruit. This calls me to reflect on a sentiment/struggle that both you and your co-leader articulated in the evaluations that you completed upon your return. You both bring up the questions of 'doing more harm than good' and the trip being 'more selfish than selfless...who were we helping more, us or them?...it was hard to see how we were helping others at points...it was difficult to understand our long-term influence.'


It is important to recognize and embrace the unique dual and mutual mission and vision of the Rostro de Cristo program. As you read our mission and vision, you will see that our mission begins with the "young people from the United States" and is lived "together with the people of Ecuador". RdC's impact is aimed at the young North Americans and the Ecuadorian community alike--and in that, the whole global community. Yes, it helps 'us' (the gringos) tremendously. Call this the 'selfish' part. The truth is, we (gringos, society, Church, and world) are desperately in need of that transformation. This is truly Fr Jim's vision of arriving at social justice--that the RdC experience radically impact the lives of these students in such a way that as they move through their lives into positions of influence and power (in corporate america, hospitals, high schools, parishes, family life, and relationships), the balance is gradually tipped toward using these positions justly, with a preferential option for the poor, building up the Reign of God. Obviously, we all may not be around to see "our long-term influence" on the students. To use the often-quoted Romero prayer, "we may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders, ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own". In the Ecuadorian communities, the long-term influence is seen when you zoom out and remember that we now host 26 retreat groups and 12-16 year-long volunteers each year, and have been doing this for 20 years (and God-willing, many more to come).


Yes, it is difficult to see how we are 'helping others', and I think that's precisely the point, to challenge our U.S. notions of 'helping' and 'serving'. RdC offers a way of 'helping' and 'serving' that can be painfully unfulfilling for our American appetites for progress and results. This moves us to understand that "we cannot do everything...this enables us to do something...it may be incomplete, but it is a beginning" (again, Romero). Call this the 'selfless' part. We are left unsatisfied. It is a dissatisfaction that will hopefully provide the energy and resolve to make "life-long commitments to service, social justice, and solidarity" (our vision)---commitments that cannot be reached by simply donating money to Damien House or Nuevo Mundo rather than flying to Guayaquil to encounter Truth in relationships.


So, how then does our mission serve ("help") the Ecuadorian communities as well? We provide human resources to our partner foundations--mentors to boys fighting to stay off the streets, English teachers to schools struggling to stay fully staffed, loving companionship to lonely Damien patients, after-school programs (necessary school supplies, homework help, value-based education, critical thinking skills, conflict resolution, a safe space, etc...) for dozens of desperate families and their children. At these after-school programs, our retreatants offer one-on-one attention to kids who (if lucky enough to attend school) sit in classrooms with 60 other students. Crafts bought at Damien House and in the neighborhoods add to families' meager monthly income. RdC gainfully employs a number of Ecuadorians from these neighborhoods.


At the end of the day, the most important benefits, and the true value of the program, is found in the intangible and the unquantifiable--the transformation of individual hearts and minds that eventually leads to the transformation of our world. It is seen in the lives of alumni volunteers who work for non-profits seeking to improve public education in U.S. urban schools, or are opthalmologists serving the poor in clinics in Honduras, or work on the USCCB Justice for Immigrants Campaign, or represent individuals detained at Guantanamo Bay, or serve with the American Red Cross in overseas disaster relief. It is heard in the countless stories of retreatants who are ignited with a passion for service and justice, eagerly seek post-graduate service opportunities, fundraise thousands upon thousands of dollars for RdC programs and partners, recall their experiences in Duran when considering extracurricular activities or employment opportunities, and seek Christ-like relationships with friends, family, and whomever they encounter in their daily lives.


The tension you feel is real, and is one that all RdC participants (retreatants, volunteers, and directors) wrestle with. Ours is not a perfect program, nor is it an end in itself. It is a mission that is living its way into becoming an effective means of bringing about justice, transformation, and the Kingdom of God.

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www.rostrodecristo.org

Help us continue: http://www.justgive.org/giving/donate.jsp?charityId=16032&