Lent 1996

Reflections by Alain Richard, ofm and Julia Occhiogrosso

ASH WESNESDAY

Joel 2:12-18
2 Corinthians 5:20 - 6:2
Matthew 6:1-6, 16-18

God is longing to free us from what devours us inside.

It is 400 BC. Judea has been struck by catastrophe. "Swarm after swarm of locusts settled on the crops"( chap.1, verses 7, 11-12, 18). The locusts have devoured all the crops and the plants. Fields are bare. There is not even food to offer the daily Temple oblations! ( chap.1, v. 9, 13).
We may have seen on television images of such devastation. There is no stopping of a swarm of locusts. The land looks like a battlefield.
The prophet Joel calls the people to fast, so that God may again bless their land with abundance. (2: 19-26). The fast will demonstrate their willingness to change their ways. It will make obvious their desire to return to ways that are pleasing to God.
In our life of faith, God's love dwelling in us grows slowly. God planted the seed, but we watered it and took care to make it grow. However it is like a plant with leaves still tender. This fragile plant is vulnerable to our hungry complicities with evil that arise from the darkness within us and around us. We let ourselves taste the bitter-sweet fruit of unfaithfulness. It can take the form of an occasional fall, or it can be a repeated unfaithfulness revealing in us an addiction. This addiction may manifest itself as a dependence on alcohol, drugs, coffee, sex, gambling, need for power, or the compulsive consumption which lures us every day on our television screen. Any addiction is a slave master who controls many of our actions. From a timid start this addiction soon is jumping all over us like the locusts that transformed the land of Judea into a desolation. We are overwhelmed. We are desperate. We do not know what to do. We had thought that we were becoming free in distancing ourselves from God. We thought that it was not such a big deal. And then we painfully discover that we are enslaved. The slave master is devouring the most promising realities within us. The fruit of our previous efforts are destroyed.
Into our desolation, today resounds the clear and tender cry of the Church: "Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel." As we receive the ashes, on this beginning of our journey into Lent, let us heed this plea. Do not be desperate. We all are sinners. Our God longs to free us, and to heal us deeply. God seeks permission to enter our lives to free us. When we receive the blessed ashes, let us examine what has the enslaving grip on us and impedes our love of Jesus, the beloved of the Father and of the Spirit.
If we do not yet see the reality of our enslavement (and who really sees it?) let us hear the call to fast. We will do well to start with a moderate fast, done without ostentation as Jesus invites us to do. Fasting helps us to touch our physical feableness and through it to recognize our spiritual weakness.
Let us be faithful to the Gospel. God invites us to let go of our enslavement and to embrace a way of life which can lead us into freedom. This is the conversion to which we are called: to change the direction of our lives, to have our eyes and our hearts directed towards Jesus who is tenderly calling us into freedom. Such a change requires attentiveness and perseverance. Freedom has a price. But what a marvelous journey for those who are courageous enough to begin and persevere.

What is devouring the best inside of yourself?.....................................................................
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Do you really long to be freer?....................................................................................

How will you express your willingness to change what enslaves you personaly?
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How will you work for change of that which enslaves our society?
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If you fast, let go of your own will, your own ego and allow space for God to transform you. When fasting, be good to your own body. Fasting is a nonviolent act. The aim is not to punish you, but to abandon yourself to God. Do not forget to express your love of those who suffer: work for justice, give alms.... (Isaiah, chap.58.)

Thursday after Ash Wednesday.

"I have set before you life and death; the blessing and the curse. Choose life that you and your descendants may live." (Dt. 30/ 15-20)

It is a challenge to choose life in a culture that consistently identifies fullness of life with prestige, possessions and power. As followers of Christ we have the model of Jesus who consistently rejects this identification. Instead, as in today's gospel reading, he invites us to empty ourselves and be willing to lose what we are attached to in order to find freedom and fullness of life.

What qualities of your daily routine do you find life giving? Why?....................................
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Are there times when letting go of some aspects of prestige, possessions and/or power
may offer you a chance to choose what is more life giving? Be specific! ............................
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Friday after Ash Wednesday.

"Why do we fast and you do not see it? Afflict ourselves and you take no note of it?
"Lo, on your fast day you carry on your own pursuits and drive all your laborers." (Is.58, 3)

Today's reading from Isaiah challenges us to look closely at why we do what we do. It invites us to heal the wound of our contradictions, to become free of our sickness. Yahweh requests an alternative fast which calls the choosen people to respond to the suffering ones:
"release those bound unjustly....
free the oppressed....
share your bread with the hungry....
shelter the homeless....
clothe the naked....."

With this compassionate response, Yahweh promises healing and freedom: then your light shall break forth like the dawn and your wound shall quickly healed.

What wounded people are you in personal contact with? homeless, oppressed, prisoner, sick or shut-ins? ...........................................................................................................................
Reflect upon your own response to the suffering in the world. Imagine how giving compassionately to others may be healing to your own soul. ................................................
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Saturday after Ash Wednesday.

"The healthy do not need a doctor, sick people do. I have not come to invite the self righteous to a change of heart, but sinners". (Lk 5, 27-32)
Often when we feel sick or vulnerable we are more open to change. The alcoholic who hits the bottom is more receptive to treatment and recovery programs.
Similarly the Hebrew tax collectors probably suffered a mental anguish of guilt and shame for their role as employees of the Roman Empire. They were helping the oppressor. While they may not have been the holiest crowd to associate with, Jesus sensed that they were aware of their sins and hence receptive to the message of healing Jesus offered.

Reflect upon your places of vulnerability and woundedness. How compassionate are you towards your own weaknesses? and the weaknesses of others? .........................................
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How receptive are you to God's healing embrace? ...........................................................
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FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT

Genesis 2:7-9; 3:1-7
Romans 5:12-19
Matthew 4:1-11

A person free from glittering illusions.

Christ is part of our humanity. He shares our limits. Temptations are part of his life. Following his baptism by John in the midst of the crowds, Jesus makes his way into the solitude of the desert. Led by the Spirit, he undergoes a fourty day fast, reliving the experiences of the Hebrew people who spent fourty years in the desert after God's delivrance from their furious slave masters. As soon as they were in the desert, they began to complain about their lack of food. In Egypt they were slaves, but at least they had their fill of rich food. Was freedom worth deprivation of the palate and emptiness of the belly ?
Why does Jesus not use his power to satisfy his desire for food after a long fast? Often hunger reappears, stonger, after the thirtieth day of a fast! Why should he not use his power to help himself for a good purpose? Does he not want to stay alive? Jesus refuses the tempter's suggestions. He remains attentive to God during those days of fasting and prayer in solitude. He knows that those temptations arise from an illusion. By his words and actions Jesus proclaims the truth that we may appear physicaly healthy, and be spiritually dead inside. Often we encounter such Walking Dead, so enslaved to illusions and the seeking of personal satisfactions, that true life cannot emerge. Life is strangled. We may be among the Walking Dead.
The secret for being alive and free is to listen to the small voice which yearns in the depth of our selves. This is the longing coming from God. There our basic union with God can be realized. Even the words of the Bible are not life giving if our inner self is not in contact with God. Our freedom begins when we refuse the lures of slavery, when we find God's longing inside ourselves and listen to it, when we change what needs changing in our lives.That divine presence is our true self, our true treasure.
In the second temptation, Jesus is again invited to use his own power, this time for making a show. It is so easy to use our relationship with God and the Church to try to impress the people. Many religious groups or ministers are subject to such a temptation. They become dependent on public awe, instead of listening to the soft voice of God.
The last temptation is the lure of power. Of course, it is the power used to support a good cause. So say many church people. But what does God think? Is it what God longs for? Many power trips, many ego flings present themselves in seductive clothes and pious motivations. But let us be honest! Does not such craving for power enslave us? What is destroyed inside ourselves when we yield to such seductions? Are we not bowing to the prince of death instead of worshiping the One who gives us freedom? Jesus invites us to discard our seductive illusions so that we may enter into the truth of our being and become free. A human being cannot live in truth if he does not acknowledge the source of his existence. His life comes from God and depends on God's graciousness. To accept this reality, is the mandatory way towards freedom. Adam failed to accept that dependence. Jesus, even God the Son, accepted it. His path promises a wonderful journey! Have a good week, walking into the freedom opened by living in the truth!

Are you resisting the spiritual alienation resulting from advertising? Do you ask yourself if you need what you are about to buy? ...................................................................................................................................................... .......................................................................................................................................................................................

Today, did you express your attentiveness to the spiritual reality dwelling inside yourself? What choice did you make recognizing that this presence inside you needs more sustenance than your physical or psychological survival? ...................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................
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If you are part of a group, read this Gospel and reflect on what it means for your group? How do you use the power of the Church? ........................................................................................................................................................................................................

Do you hear inside yourself that voice telling you that a lot of common assumptions of our culture are illusions, and that you need more spiritual nourrishment? ..................................................................................................................................
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WEEK ONE: a person free from glittering illusions

Shattering our illusions can be a painful process It often involves a letting go of values and belief systems that have been a source of our power. In Sunday's gospel reading, we see that Jesus finds the strength to resist the illusions set before him. This week we will look more closely at our own illusions and explore ways to become more free from them.

Monday. After forty days of fasting in the desert, Jesus is weakened physically, yet he finds the strength to resist the illusions of power and control.
How do you feel about losing power and control over your life? ................................................................................................................ ...
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Tuesday. Jesus spent forty days of prayer and fasting in the desert.It seems that this time alone with God the creator enhanced Jesus' sense of himself and his mission. Spend some time alone in stillness listening for that place of divine essence and purpose within you. And if from that place comes the Lord's prayer, pray it slowly. (Mt.6:7-15, today's Gospel)

Wednesday. "The danger for any community and for every person is to live in illusions. We all do that as we shut ourselves off from others. A community that is closed off from others lives in the illusion that it alone has the truth or maybe it is fearful of any kind of change or challenge or of being seen as it is, in all its poverty." Jean Vanier, Community and Growth
Do you see this as a potential problem in your life? How does it manifest?
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Thursday: In today's Gospel (Mt.7:7-12) Jesus tells us "Seek and you will find"
Do you pray for being free from illusions? ..............................................................................
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Friday. How gently and lovingly
you awaken in my heart,
where you dwell secretly
and alone. And in your sweet breathing
filled with blessing and glory.
you tenderly inspire me with love. St. John of the Cross
We hold to some illusions because they give us a security. Do you think we can be freed from illusions if God has not awaken in us love that eliminates fear?..................................................
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Saturday: We have often heard how the truth will set us free. Yet we are sometimes afraid to risk

letting go of our illusions and grasping for truth even in exchange for this freedom.

Can you see truth from another person or country's perspective? ............................................
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SECOND SUNDAY OF LENT

Genesis 12:1-4
2 Timothy 1:8-10
Matthew 17:1-9

Free to resist the dominant lifestyle.

Abraham was a nomad who moved from place to place to find food and water for his flock. Nevertheless Abraham roamed in a limited area. We do not know how Abraham heard God's call to go to another country. We do know that he understood God's invitation to leave the relative security of his life. He left what he knew well, he left relatives and friends and placed his confidence in God's promise. It was the unknown. Yes, he will find a good land, and have a multitude of "relatives"-- all those who coming after him, will believe God as he believes God. Abraham continues to be our role model of the true believer.
Today we are millions and millions of Christians in hyperdevelopped countries who need to turn our eyes again towards this ancestor of believers. We need a lot of help. Saint Abraham , pray for us!
Through many voices God is giving us a clear message. Popes, Bishops, scientists, economists, Christians of poor countries-- all keep telling us that our way of life consumes resources needed by the whole human family, and that we are destroying the ecological balance. We hear it said in different ways. "Stop your overconsumption. Change your way of life. Stop your dreaming that all the poor can become as rich as you are: the resources of the planet are too limited. Do not delay! All over the world, and including in the Unites States, the poor are becoming poorer and the rich richer.'' God is calling us out of our security. We do not know where God will lead us; Abraham did not know it either.
Will it be painful? No, if we look not at what we are called to abandon, but at what we will gain: we will become free from the sickness of an addicted society.
God invites us to reduce the miles we drive our car, to reduce our consumption of electricity, to stop buying what we do not need, to renounce extravagant facilities and some of our comforts. God invites us to discover a new freedom. God confronts us with a challenge similar to that of Abraham leaving his country, the Hebrew slaves leaving Egypt, Jesus' disciples abandoning their nets and their boats.
But let us be clear. We do not do this because we are frightened. Nor do we want to do it in a moralistic way: "You must!", "You should!". Let us be rid of this childish approach. We do this because we want to get out of our imprisonment of an addictive society. We do this so that others may have a better life. We do this because we want to enter into the promised land of a true freedom, loving the God who loves humankind. Accepting the unexpected call from God, Abraham abandons his good but restricted life and becomes free to "father" a multitude of children of faith who keep on resisting enslavements and journeying into the Promised Land of True Freedom.
Peter, James and John tasted that same freedom, when beyond the outward appearances they saw who Jesus really was. The divine previously hidden underneath a very ordinary life gave them light and enthousiasm. It helped them to stay with Jesus at the Garden of Olives. Later, made free by the Holy Spirit, they started their amazing journey as witnesses of a free Jesus. Today we hear their witness. Let us leave our securities and begin our jouney into the Promised Land of True
Freedom.

How do you feel when you hear that we need to change our way of life? Are you afraid?
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What change in your way of life seems to you the most important for the sake of the poor you know ? ..................................................................................................................................................... ......................................................................................................................................................

How can you help change the mentality of overconsumption? Belonging to an organization?
letter to editor? writings? working for changes in legislation?...etc. ........................................................................................................................................................

WEEK TWO: free to resist the dominant lifestyle

Monday. It is easy to become enslaved by our lifestyle. We live in a culture that places high value on consuming, immediate gratification, good looks, prestigious positions and being number one. Living a christian lifestyle invites a different set of values. The Gospel calls us to a life of simplicity, selflessness, prayer, love of the outcasts, holy work and servanthood. This week we will look at our lifestyles and how we live the tension of being part of this culture while longing to live gospel values.
Does this tension exist for you? if so in what way? Be specific .................................................. ..................................................................................................................................................... ....................................................................................................................................................

Tuesday. "Live simply so others may simply live", is a saying that implies relationship between our consumption choices and the well being of others. As Christians in this culture we are confronted daily by consumer decisions.
Do you see overconsumption an issue in your life, the life of your family or friends?
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Wednesday. Our cultural need for immediate gratification is reflected in everything from fast food to fax machines. Yet the need for immediate gratification encourages an attitude of greed and self-
centeredness.
How can speed and efficiency compromise christian principles? ...............................................
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Thursday. "To be a contemplative therefore is not limited to any lifestyle, such as monastic or religious; rather it has everything to do with hearing God's call to become love, in what ever state of life we find ourselves. For contemplation will make us not less concerned for the world we live in, but more." Thelma Hall R.C., Too deep for Words: rediscovering lectio Divina.
Do you feel the need for a life of contemplation to sustain an active faith life?
How can a life of contemplation sustains us in our work for peace and justice?
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Friday. "What you do unto the least of these you do unto me" Matthew 25. The early christians believed so strongly in the incarnation of Christ that it was common practice to set a spare room aside in their home as Christ room for the stranger. Today we are afraid of the stranger. We delegate care of the poor to institutions and agencies.
Do you see Christ in the stanger ? Explain ................................................................................
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Saturday. "There is someting very beautiful in work which is well and precisely done. It is a participation in the activity of God who makes all things well and wisely, beautiful to the last detail." Jean Vanier, Community and growth
In your work do you see how you are a co-creator with God? If not why?
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THIRD SUNDAY OF LENT
Exodus 17: 3-7
Romans 5: 1-8
John 4: 5-42

The thirst to be free from lies and barriers that separate us.

Water, Sister Water as St.Francis called her, is such a precious gift! We who live in Nevada have to remind our visitors to carry plenty of water when they go into the desert. Thirst comes quickly, and forgetting one's canteen could be fatal. In our Old Testament reading, Moses was about to be stoned by his own thirsty people. He was saved when God directed him to an abundant spring.
In our Gospel reading, Jesus met a Samaritan woman. There was a well, but far from her home. She needed to walk carrying her heavy load, probably more than once a day.
Starting from her daily experience, Jesus awakens her thirst for a life really free. At first he shows his own freedom in the face of a very common separation. "You are a Jew. How can you ask me, a Samaritan, and a woman, for a drink?" (Jews were at odd with Samaritans,...and she was a woman!). Jesus violates these barriers. He takes the risk to break the rules of his society because she needs to be freed at a deeper level. He invites her to recognize the situation in which she lives. He touches the spot which needs healing. He frees her from the ambiguity of her life.
In our culture it is difficult to know what is true and what is false. The sophistication of the disinformation techniques is so great that many people are confused. Instruments of death are called "peacemakers"; junk items are sold as the latest advancement; scientific reports are falsified by the administrations who commissioned them,......; unscrupulous business people steal money in promissing large profits; Justice and Governement officials proclaim killing a crime ....and then they give orders to kill. Presidents of this Country, and of other countries as well, pretend to be moralists...and they are war criminals, according to the court of Nuremberg which judged the crimes of the Nazis; blockade of countries like Cuba, Nicaragua, and Iraq had been done for reasons so foreign to what had been declared; people are told that illegal immigrants are costly to the taxpayers, when the figures show to the contrary that they bring wealth by their work without having been a financial burden during their childhood and education. Every day we discover a few more lies, and many of these bring divisions.
Billions of people oppressed by lies and separations, are longing for truth and unity with others. They are eager to have access to a living water able to free them from their terrible thirst.
In the Church itself, millions of people are deprived of the Mass, and millions of women are also thirsty. Who will allow the living water given by Jesus to reach them? Lord, have mercy on the terrible limitations of your Church which has allowed slavery, racism and sexism...for centuries, even though She proclaimed that Christ had destroyed all barriers! Lord, be merciful for those who impede many of your children to quench their longing for more frequent Eucharists! Lord, free all the members of the Church from unconscious counter-truths and from unconscious reasons to perpetuate barriers which separate your children!
" Whoever drinks the water I give him, will never be thirsty; no, the water I give shall become a fountain within him, leaping up to provide eternal life." If it comes from Jesus living inside us, our freedom from lies and walls of separation will be freeing for many others. Be a liberator!

Are you conscious of lies of our Society, which you prefer to believe because the lies seem to make life easier for you? Could you accept the truth and let go of the lies? ..............................................................................................................................................
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How do you express your thirst for truth?.........................................................................
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Is there a wall of separation which you can struggle against? Will you do it alone or in participating in a group?...................................................................................................
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WEEK THREE : The thirst to be free from lies and barriers that separate us.

The thirst we have for truth and freedom is often an indication of our desire to be with God; the source of all truth and freedom. This week let us reflect upon our inner thirst and where it leads us.

Monday. In today's reading (2 Kings, 5: 1-15), Naaman is eager to be delivered from his leprosery. It was an humiliating barrier, and a suffering. Indeed he was reluctant to enter the waters of life....because they were from another country, and it was too simple a medecine!
Are we thirsty enough for life, to be open to the wisdom of other cultures? .............................
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Tuesday. Like a plant thirsty for water, we too grow roots as we search for that which gives us life. The search alone helps us to grow and become rooted.
Describe times of spiritual searching in your life. What motivated the search? ..........................
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Wednesday. "There is a saying 'love your friends and hate your enemies.' But I say love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you!" (Matthew, 6: 43-.....). Our thirst for truth is reflected in our relationships. In this passage Jesus challenges us to be in relationship with our enemies.
Do we thirst enough for God to embrace the sacredness of God in our enemy? Explain...........
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Thursday. To "listen another's soul into disclosure and discovery may be almost the greatest service that any human being ever performs for another" Douglas Steere, Gleanings: A Random Harvest
Listen for what the soul thirsts for in the persons you encounter this week. Reflect upon what you observe. ...............................................................................................................................
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Friday. " I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask; "Mother what was war?" Eve Myriam
This deep thirst for peace held in the hearts of so may who strive nonviolently for a better world is a glimpse of what God thirsts for in all creation.
Can you feel God's thirst for peace within you ? ........................................................................
In what concrete ways can you embody God's thirst for peace in your life? ...............................
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Saturday. "I stretch out my hands, like thirsty ground I yearn for you" Psalm :143; 6
Like thirsty ground in the desert, we sometimes must wait for the living water to fill us.
Do you sometimes feel that your thirst for God is not easily quenched? .....................................
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FOURTH SUNDAY OF LENT

1st Samuel 16: 1b, 6-7, 10-13a
Ephesians 5: 8-14
John 9: 1-41

Free from blindness we see how deeply God loves the outcast.

If three milleniums ago, you had been asked to choose a king for God's people, what would you have done? Probably the same that the prophet Samuel did: look for the handsome and strong man, and maybe for an enthusiastic leader. Remember the unfortunate role of photos and television in our own elections!
"Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature...Man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart." God's chosen one is David, the last boy of the family. He is tending the sheep. David was taken "from behind the flock".
How many times does prejudice enslave us and impede us from seeing the good in someone? A person is homeless, or from another race or country, and we believe that we are in danger of being deceived, or robbed, or attacked. Or on the other hand, a well dressed, well-educated person, will probably make us feel more secure. Nevertheless common sense tells us that a smiling crook is no less a crook because he is smiling or looks good. Let us remember the ridiculous and unjust pattern of the old Western movies; the Native American Indian is the bad guy, the White Man is the good guy. We needed to wait for Dances with wolves to see another representation of the Indian. It is not only the mentality of our culture that blinds us; our personal irritations add to it We are more inclined to see the limits than the good qualities of people who irritate us.
Such a way of looking at people is a true blindness. It is worse than the impossibility of seeing forms and colors. There are amazing treasures we do not see. Can Jesus free us from such a blindness as he freed the man blind from birth? How can we see the qualities of people, in place of seeing their limits? How can we see what is in the heart of people in place of seeing only their outer appearance? Why do we believe in the varnish more than in the gold that is inside? To see the true qualities of people is a gift, but how can we see even deeper, their inner reality? We need Jesus' touch, we need Jesus' eyes for having our vision opened to the most certain reality of the whole Creation: in ourselves and in each human being, there is the divine presence. Each human being has the divine, God, in the depth of the self. We have a glimpse of that divine manifestation each time one loves in truth. Fortunately many people each day reveal that presence of God by their actions.
God sees the fundamental reality of the human being and knows the true treasure inside each human being. God has a preferential love for the outcast, the despised, the weak, the poor. He knows that only a few persons recognize and defend them; God cares deeply and does not want his children to be forgotten or despised. Besides that, the outcast tend not to be pretentious or self inflated, but rather have a true sense of themselves, that they are dependent on God.
Even the worse sinner, the worse criminal, hosts the divine presence inside the self. That makes his or her life and his or her being, sacred. The sacred of every human person is basic to our faith. The nonviolent spirit and nonviolent techniques challenge that hidden divine, and calls it to act. No one should be despised , no one should be left in slavery, no one can be killed.
Jesus, open my eyes! Open our eyes, so we may see as you see!

When is the last time you judged a human being on appearances and did not recognize his or her sacredness?...........................................................................................................................
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Do you really believe in that presence of the divine in every person? even inside the most dangerous criminal? Are you against the death penalty?........................................................
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"We ....oppose the death penalty in our present society because we believe in the sacredness and dignity of every human life, even the life of those among us who have commited terrible crimes." (Louisiana's Bishops statement).

WEEK FOUR: free from blindness we see how deeply God loves the outcast.

Monday. "Sacred the land, sacred the water,
Sacred the sky, holy and true.
Sacred all life, sacred each other,
All reflect God who is good." Song by Rufino Zaragosa,ofm
Do you hear the invitation to see the sacred in all God's creatures? Explain ............................
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Tuesday. On the feast of St.Joseph, we remember a poor man who had the capacity to love beyond his own needs and in doing so opened our eyes to the Gospel message.?
In what way do the poor help to open our eyes to the message of the Gospel?
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Wednesday. "The Lord lifts up all who are falling and raises up all who are bowed down" (Ps.145:9). God consistently shows compassion to the poor and downtrodden.
How does God's compassion compare to the way society treats the poor? ..................................
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Thursday. "O God, help us not to despise or oppose what we do not understand." William Penn
Much of our hatred emerges out of blindly misunderstanding each other.
How can we heal, and move beyond our limited vision to see the way God sees?
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Friday. " We ought to understand God equally in all things,
for God is equally in all things.
All beings, love one another.
All creatures are interdependent" Meister Eckhart
Reflect on the freedom found in our interdependence.

Saturday. "We repeat, there is nothing we can do but love, and dear God please enlarge our hearts to love each other, to love our neighbor, to love our enemy as well as our friend." Dorothy Day
"If you stay in my word, you will indeed be my disciples, and you will know the truth" (John, 8:31-32)

FIFTH SUNDAY OF LENT

Ezechiel, 32:7-14
Romans 8:8-11
John 11:1-45

The Spirit of freedom and life dwells in us.

Ezechiel speaks in the name of God to exiled Hebrews in Babylon. Captives, been in a stange land far from their own nation and culture, they look like dry bones. Freedom from captivity, return to their land, will be a new life for them. It will be a true resurrection.
Those who have been war prisoners know that feeling of a new beginning, after those months of separation from their loved ones, their country, all that they like to see and to do. People displaced by wars know that same feeling when they are able to return to their homes. Those of us who have accompanied Guatemalans or Salvadoreans refugees returning to their land, witnessed such a joy. An amazing dynamism is coming from this new phase of their life: it is a new life.
In a more frequent and familial experience, those who through the twelve steps left a lifeless existence of addiction, are like new born persons full of the life given by their new freedom. "My wife tells me that I am like a new husband for her, since I stopped drinking!" " My children say that they do not recognize me and they like their new dad" "My boss gave me new responsibilities; I feel that I am a new man after quitting drugs."
All these events show the power coming from the liberation within us of the divine life which had been oppressed. Broken relationships, broken lives, broken families, destroyed existences can blossom and bear fruits if we let the powerful life of God do what it can realize in us. We had locked in God's power; now God's power is more free to act and transform us and our communities.
Lazarus' resurrection showed this amazing power of God in Jesus. Lazarus was dead. His sister clearly comments: there is a stench. Jesus wants to give a sign of God's power, even though he knows well that it will accelerate the decision of his enemies to kill him. As a free person, Jesus takes the road of getting into more trouble. But did he not come on earth to witness the liberating and lifegiving power of God?
"If the spirit of him who raised Christ from the dead, dwells in you, then he who raised Jesus will bring your mortal bodies to life also through his Spirit dwelling in you."
Many christians exaust their energies on trying to pull out all their sinful tendencies, like weeds pulled out of the garden. Often they get discouraged! There is a better way. Let us develop what is ready to grow in us. Liberate the dynamism of God's life. God is waiting for us to remove the obstacles to his action. It is very simple. Of course it requires our collaboration. We need to open the gate of the prison (and we have the key for it!), and to keep it open. Nevertheless, pay attention! often the gates of the prison tend to shut down by themselves, as if there was an automatic mechanism. We need to maintain them open if we want the flow of life and love to continue to gently vivify our existence.

Did you experience the liberating power of God's life in you? How?...................................
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What do you need to keep the gates of your prison open?......................................
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WEEK FIVE: The Spirit of freedom and life dwells in us.

Monday, Annunciation of the Lord,
" I am the maidservant of the Lord. Let it be done to me as you say." (Luke 1:26-38)
How free are we to respond positively to the unexpected demands of life?
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Tuesday. "Those who attempt to act and do things for others or for the world without deepening their own self understanding, freedom and capacity to love, will have nothing to give others"
Thomas Merton
Do you see a relationship between your inner and outer worlds? ..............................................
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Wednesday. "Let your self be plumbed to the depths, and you will realize that everyone is created for a presence. There, in your heart of hearts, in that place where no two people are alike, Christ is waiting for you. And there the unexpected happens." Brother Roger of Taize
Spend sometime meditating on the image of Christ waiting for you.

Thursday. Name some ways God's freedom and life reveal themselves in your life.
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Friday. "If a single person achieves the highest kind of love, it will be sufficient to neutralize the hate of millions" M.K.Gandhi
Reflect upon the transforming potential present in our freedom to love .....................................................................................................................................................

Saturday. "O Thou, far off and here, whole and broken,
Who in necessity and bounty wait,
Whose truth is light and dark, mute though spoken
By thy wide grace, show me Thy narrow gate." To the Holy Spirit, by Wendell Berry

PASSION SUNDAY called also PALM SUNDAY

Matthew 21: 1-11
Isaiah 50: 4-7
Philippians 2: 6-11
Matthew 26:14 - 27:66

Free from honors and power

For the contemporaries of Jesus, the expected Messiah would free the Jews from the Roman occupation and end the pillage of their country. He would at the same time restore religion in all its social dimensions, getting rid of the Roman laws that were an insult to the Jewish faith in a unique God.
In this context, the popular enthusiasm for Jesus when he entered Jerusalem was very ambiguous. Even though Jesus, very humbly, rode only a donkey and not a horse like a warrior, he was fulfilling the prophecy of Zechariah (9/9). For the crowd the message was: the Messiah is here! Religious restoration and independence are at hand! Jesus accepted this popular acclamation even with its ambiguity. During his life he had tried to teach his followers that he will not be a political leader, he will not lead an insurrection against the foreigners. His Kingdom is of a different kind. Surely, deep inside, Jesus shares the longing of his people for independence. Nevertheless the reason for his life in the midst of human beings is to free people of all nations, from themselves and from their complicities with the evil that destroys them.
Jesus could have easily felt compelled to answer the expectations of people of his nation. He could have played the game of the independence leader. The crowd would have continued its support. Their enthusiasm would have increased. He would have been assured of political power and of honors. Even if the Romans had rigidly repressed such a popular movement, Jesus would have had a very special place in the heart of all the Jews who refused to be compromised with the abhorred occupant. That same temptation of political power had been offered to Jesus when he was in the desert. At that time it was the temptation of a pure show, now it is for the good of oppressed people. This is a temptation very easy to fall into. For the "good cause" many people listen to it, even when they perceive their personal call to be different.
In place of such an easy scenario, Jesus, as St.Paul said " emptied himself, ... though he was in the form of God he did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at.....it was thus that he humbled himself, obediently accepting even death."
The scenario that Jesus follows is the one described by the Prophet for the mysterious "suffering servant". This mysterious servant who was announced "to bring forth justice to the nation" "he will not fail or be discouraged till justice is established in all the earth." It will be a new era. Justice will be brought not by the importance of material power but by the power arrising from inside the human person. This is the "truth-force", the satyagraha which the Mahatma Gandhi organized as a method of social struggle against injustices and violences. Every human being has such an inner power and can use it at the service of justice. The poor, the dispossesed have this power inside themselves. It can prevail over powerful opponents who have at their disposition economic, military or political power. Jesus clearly show us the way. Refuse the external dominating power, and call from inside you the power coming from your union with the divine power of love and truth.

In your personal life did you ever fail to listen to your inner voice, for the sake of gaining popularity? In your neighborhood? In your work place? Or in your school? Or in the midst of your friends?
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Do you find it difficult to free yourself from the pressure of people around you?
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Do you find that Jesus went too far in refusing to follow what the crowd would have liked him to do?................................................................................................................................
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Have you experienced the force of inner power in opposing a material power doing violence? Why do you not follow that way more often?.........................................................
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HOLY WEEK

Monday. In today's reading (Is.42:1-7), the figure of the suffering and peaceful servant had been announced. Justice, freedom, truth will not be brought up by a power figure looking for honors.
Do you feel attracted to figures in power? What motivates such an attraction?........................
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Tuesday. In today's Scripture (Jn. 13:21-33, 36-38) Jesus refers to his impending crucifixion: "Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him."
How would you describe the glory Jesus speaks of? A glory found in crucifixion? ..................
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Wednesday. "I gave my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pluck my beard" (Isaiah, 50:6) Jesus give up his last hope for wordly power-- his own body.
How are our bodies a symbole of life and power? ...................................................................
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Thursday. "....than you must wash each others feet.". This is where the true transforming power resides.
Do you see the power of servanthood? Explain .......................................................................
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GOOD FRIDAY
Isaiah 52: 13 -- 53: 12
Hebrews 4:14-16 ; 5: 7-9
John 18: 1 -- 19: 42

Free to refuse violence and hate.

Jesus came freely and willingly to Jerusalem, knowing that the Jewish authorities wanted to kill him. He freely accepted his arrest at the Garden of Olives. When Peter took a sword, and cut off the ear of a high priest's servant, Jesus reprimanded him : " Put back your sword where it belongs. Those who use the sword are sooner or later destroyed by it...."
Jesus understood fully the dynamics of violence. Violence brings more violence. It is a spiral widening more and more. A victory by material power lasts only till the defeated organize their revenge. But more profoundly the power of God's love cannot be made manifest when people use material power.
Love and nonviolence are not expression of weakness. They challenge the violent persons. Jesus challenges those who arrest him. I worked in the open, said he, you could have then arrested me. Why are you coming as if I were a dangerous person? I am free to give my life. I am not afraid of you. I am free to love, even you who want to kill me. I do not want to enter into your cycle of violence. I came to show another way: it is the way of God. I am here to show that you are loved by God and how love can change injustices and sufferings of the world.
During his Passion, Jesus is consistent in this behavior. He is insulted, mocked, spit on, hit, slapped... He remains silent, dignified, showing by his own body language that he does not want to answer to their violence by violence. His inner strength expresses a greater power than any material power.
When in the Sanhedrin he is slapped by a guard, he asks a question in order to help the guard to awake from his violent automatism: " if there is something wrong in what I said, point it out, but if there is no offense in it, why do you strike me?"
During his very brief stay in the court, Jesus continues to show the same calm strength. He does not deviate from such behavior till his last breath. Ridiculed by the soldiers, beaten up, nailed on the cross...he continues his refusal to act with violence, he perseveres in his refusal to hate. When hanging on the cross he does not complain about his sufferings, but thinks of those who are the direct cause of his sufferings: "Father, forgive them, they do not know what they are doing." His love is in all his words, in all his actions.
Some people continue to say that Jesus saved us by his blood, as if God needed blood for reconciliation with humankind! That expression can be misleading and should be avoided. Jesus did not save humankind from God's separation by his blood, but by his love. He gave a sign of his love in offering his life in a bloody manner. As Rene Girard and Gil Baillie point it out, Jesus made a radical break with the religious rituals before him. Before him most of the religions believed that a blood sacrifice could restore broken relationships with God. Jesus did not do so. He offered his life in order to stop that destructive sacrificial violence. Following Jesus, love and nonviolence is the way of resolving conflicts, and to be pleasing to God: active nonviolence becomes the new sacrifice pleasing to God. No more need of bullocks, sheep, human sacrifices(cf.death penalty). God needs human beings able to love even when facing their ennemies, and if there is no way to avoid it, to accept suffering themselves rather than to impose violence and suffering on other people.

Take the time to read at least one of the narratives of the Passion, focusing on Jesus's refusal of hate and violence.
Why is it that nonviolence is still considered by many christians as foreign to Jesus' gospel?

Holy Saturday. During the day there is no liturgy. With the Apostoles, after Christ's death, we wait. The silence of God is impressive. For many it is heavy. Will there be an answer to Jesus' cry?
Often in our lives, God's silence seems incomprehensible. Sometimes it is unbearable.
In your life, do you interprete God's silence, as abandonment from God, or as an absence of God? or what? Take some recent events of your life to reflect upon. .....................................
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EASTER, THE RESURRECTION OF THE LORD

Acts 10 : 34, 37-43
Colossians 3 : 1-4
John 20 : 1-9

Love cannot be enslaved by death. A free people journeying towards a world vivified by love.

In his Passion Jesus shows how his love has freed him from violence and hate. Further, the Resurrection proclaims that death cannot enslave him. He is God, source of Love. A lance into his side to check that Jesus was really dead, a big stone, security guards, all these cannot keep the dead body of Jesus in the tomb. The source of all love overcomes death. God's love gives life again to the body killed by hate, fear and envy.
During the night of the Resurrection the celebrant says "May the light of Christ, rising in glory, dispel the darkness of our hearts and minds." Jesus is alive. After just a few weeks with his disciples, he leaves the Earth giving to his disciples the responsibility of making a world where his life can bear fruit, where his love animates everyone and everything.
The Resurrection of Jesus does not concern mainly my relationship with Jesus. All humankind is involved in that event. Each of us is invited to participate modestly but efficiently to make the life and love of the risen Christ available to all human beings. Even beyond the human race into which Jesus came, the whole Creation "awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it, in hope that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God" (Rom.8 : 19-21). Christ is risen, Christ is free. The whole of Creation can go through the door leading to freedom and fulfillement.
Nevertheless the world we live in is a world in which oppressions, violences of many different kinds, individualism and materialism can be seen everywhere. They produce what the Pope John Paul II called "a culture of death". Having journeyed together during this Lent, we may be more conscious of the obstacles to our longing for freedom to love as Jesus did. We need perseverance in our decisions and struggles. We need continuously to return to the basic reality of the presence of our compassionate God in each one of us. He is there, in each part of Creation with all the power of his love, ready to transform the world into a good place to live, into a harmonious reality.
Do we not have some glimpses of that transformation which makes people free to love, in the midst of the most dramatic events? From the Yougoslavian conflict, we receive news of people who pardon their enemies, who rebuild a multiethnic community. From Rwanda come examples that the spirit of God is alive healing the material and spiritual wounds. From Japan and Germany, with the recent 50th anniversary of the end of World War II , came diverse letters of apology. In a poor Haitian neighborhood, people who suffer from Tontons Macoutes live next to their former torturers, saying these poor fellows had been enslaved by killers. Here and there poor people are sharing the little they have. If we open our eyes surely we will see more of these signs that love cannot be killed. These are glimpses of the tranforming presence of God. But what God cannot do is to organize, to make us work together. The world will not be transformed by individualists, even marvelous individualists. It will be transformed by persons bringing to life an active group of people, decided to change what destroys so many other beings. The transforming of the world is our responsibility. The risen Christ will be active in our midst if we want it.

Remember people who were almost dead, captive of hate, of violence or of injustice, and who acted freely or lovingly.............................................................................
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Give thanks for those actions, and for your own return to life.

EASTER WEEK: a free people journeying towards making a world vivified by love

Monday. Jesus resurrection embarassed the authorities. They resort to lying and bribing the soldiers.
On the contrary the new world arising from the tomb is a world led by truth. Truth is freeing. Speaking truth to power can be costly. Do you have an experience of this?...............................
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Tuesday. A world led not by domination but by relationships
"We are One. This dramatic, exhilarating belief, cherished by native peoples, ancient and contemporary, responds to the prayer of Jesus offered on the eve of his death. It challenges and transforms today's structures of power which depend on fear, alienation and force." Rosemary Lynch,osf

Wednesday. A world that the despised can help to build.
"Armed with a comprehensive view of poverty, a nation can then wage a real campaign in which structures in education, employement, and social services are revamped, with the ideas coming from the bottom up. Professionals would be encouraged to re-examine existing institutions from the perspective of those whom these institutions have failed. Service to the poor would become synonymous with innovative thinking." Vincent Fanelli, The Human Face of Poverty,p.144

Thursday. A world where the sacred of every person is respected
"As far as the right to life is concerned, every innocent human being is absolutely equal to all others. This equality is the basis of all authentic social relationships which, to be truly such can only be founded on truth and justice, recognizing and protecting every man and woman as a person and not as an object to be used." Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae

Friday. A world where the human beings and the other creatures are in unity
"The human community and the Earth community together form a single sacred community. We go into the future as a single sacred Community, or we both perish in the desert." Thomas Berry

Saturday. A world where renewed human beings, members of a Beloved Community, can be more fully vivified by Jesus life.
" I believe that the second coming of Bar Enasha, the Human being, Jesus Christ, is happening right now. Christ, the Human Being, is coming into the world today, as Martin Luther King realized when he said: 'I see God working in this period of the twentieth century in a way that [people], in some strange way, are responding -- something is happening in our world. The masses of people are rising up. And wherever they are assembled today....the cry is always the same: we want to be free' ." James Douglas. The nonviolent coming of God

About the authors

Alain Richard , a franciscan handicraftsman and priest, was born in France. He is a co-founder of the Pace e Bene Center in Las Vegas, a franciscan service in nonviolence, working for cultural change. He served with Peace Brigades International in Guatemala, Sri Lanka, Maliotenam (N.E.Quebec), Haiti. He animates retreats, workshops, and makes lectures in the US and in a few other countries. He likes the desert, its grandiose beauty, its lovely heat, its call to simplicity and centeredness.

Julia Occhiogrosso, has been a Catholic Worker for 15 years. She founded the Catholic Worker house of hospitality in Las Vegas in 1986. She is also a member of the Pace e Bene animating group, a franciscan service in nonviolence, working for cultural transformation.