We Thirst For Inclusion
A famous picture shows the Samaritan woman looking into the well and seeing her own image and the image of Jesus. In the depths of the well of her life is the presence of Jesus.
In the depths of the well, when we are in love, pain, death, decision, joy, we find God. God is near when we are near to ourselves, even in shame and sin. We thirst for meaning in life, for knowing we are totally loved, for community and companionship – and God offers all this.
This is the offering of God – the living water is the Holy Spirit. We thirst for inclusion – the disciples in this story did not want Jesus talking to a woman. So much of the religion of the time separated people. In the depths of the well, we are all equal.
We find the mercy of God in the well. As we go into the depths of prayer and ourselves, we are open to mercy. We may put conditions on God’s mercy – naming our sins, or numbering them. At the bottom of the well is the water of mercy.
Donal Neary SJ, Gospel Reflections for Sundays of Year A
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Love As He Loves
Most people are searching for happiness, but if happiness becomes the sole goal of our search, it is often missed. Jesus suggests that happiness comes to those who seek something else. Happiness comes to those who seek to serve others, or, as Jesus declares, it is in giving that we receive. The action of Jesus in washing the feet of his disciples suggests that our service of others is not to be dependent on how they relate to us. At the Last Supper, Jesus washed the feet of all his disciples, including Judas. Jesus washed the feet of the one who rebelled against him. As Jesus declares in Luke’s Gospel, ‘If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?’ Jesus gives expression to a much more self-emptying kind of love. He calls us to live in the same way and gives us the Holy Spirit to help us to love as he loves. Martin Hogan, The Word of God is Living and Active
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Love Your Enemy
Love your enemy’ is easy for some people. There are those who cannot live without an enemy. They learn to feed off negativity. They can make others appear to be horrendous human beings who lack basic goodness. This creation is often a figment of their imagination, but it is necessary to sustain their own warped sense of self-worth and their drive. They love the presence of an enemy because, without one, they’d have to consider their own heart and soul, and this is too difficult for them. An enemy provides justification for a worldview that distracts from personal well-being.
Jesus suffered under such people. He was made to be an enemy of the people to suit those in power. May we be protected from such people and the damage they do. The heart is too tender a space to be wasted on such negativity.
‘Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.’ (Luke 23:34)
Alan Hilliard, Dipping into Lent
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Conversion Is Communion With God
Pope Francis was clear that Lenten and lifelong conversion ‘asks everything of us’. Conversion asks for a change of mind, heart and even body, perhaps even to the extent of losing our lives. However, Pope Francis was equally clear that conversion will not cost happiness, will not cheat us of human fulfilment. Happiness hinges on holiness. True human happiness needs the healing and hope that holiness holds out; holiness helps us become fully human. Offering everything is not one option among others, but an opening of our minds, hearts, and bodies to truth, love, and wholeness. The goal of conversion is communion with God and others. Repentance is turning towards holiness, returning to receive ‘the happiness for which we were created’. Holiness is the hallmark of authentic happiness.
Kevin O’Gorman, Journeying in Joy and Gladness: Lent and Holy Week with Gaudete et Exsultate.
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Infinitely Loved
The Good Shepherd invites us to rest awhile among the grassy meadows and flowing streams. He wants us to relax in his presence – to be nourished, strengthened and renewed. In this place, we may turn from a closed fist of denial, frustration and turmoil to an open hand of acceptance, relaxation and serenity. After the rest, we may be invited to walk more closely with him, to be freer, more confident, and better able to navigate the often-hazy paths of our lives. We can learn so much from modern and contemplative wisdom to live life with great richness, and when all is said and done, we can rejoice that we are infinitely loved.
Too many of us learn to ‘love’ distress and anxiety: we say it is the way of work and the world. Just five minutes of silence seems pointless. But we get in touch with the ‘inner teacher’ when we find time to be still in our day, connecting us with deep peace and balance. It is available to be tapped into as we live in the moment: talking to people, working on tasks, walking with a fresh breeze on our faces, even running.
Gavin T. Murphy, Bursting Out in Praise: Spirituality & Mental Health
Hope Is A Gift of God
Our hope comes from the fact that Jesus is alive, is with us and is on our side. The angel said, ‘Do not look for him among the dead.’ Hope doesn’t come from within ourselves. It is a gift of God, to be prayed for and to be welcomed with thanks. Hope is being able to ‘hum in the darkness’ and know we are not lost. It is to dig the garden, sure that next year’s plants will grow. It is to look at our children and enjoy the future that stretches out before them like a gift from God. It is to be sure that love can grow in marriage and that life can go on and develop in our hearts even if love fades. It is the hope shared by the people who care tirelessly for loved ones, for the people who don’t give up on the son or daughter in prison. We can think of many more hopes in life.
Our hope is sure because of Jesus. We are of sure hope because he was raised from death, and because he is with us all days. We are of sure hope because of the gift of faith within us, and we can joyfully say, ‘Happy are we who have not seen but yet believe.’ The smile of the ascending Lord Jesus can bring a smile to our face.
Donal Neary SJ, The Sacred Heart Messenger, May 2024
Let There Be Grace
‘Aurora Borealis, the Northern Lights,’ Anne said. ‘How wonderful.’ I considered how its magnificence could be delivered in words. She didn’t need that. ‘Leave me with the magic,’ she cut in. She reminded me of my mother’s response to my attempt to explain why the prayer plant raises its leaves in praise as night falls. ‘It’s praying,’ she said. ‘That’s enough.’ Good messages both of them, because they pushed me back to the source of our best response, namely, wonder and praise. And the wonderful must never surrender to any formula of words. We stand before a sunset, for instance, and say, ‘Ah’, for it is truly an awe-moment. And, if we must reach for a word, let it be ‘grace’! In fact, St Paul found that word to be his best ally when he wrote about the Good News, which for him was all grace and graceful, given gracefully and plucking the strings of gratitude in those who heard it. Just so for Gerard Manley Hopkins, who remarked that the mystery of the Incarnation – of the ever-beyond-us God entering our bloodstream in Jesus – could never be reduced to ‘an equation in theology,’ for its wonder ‘leaves the mind swinging, poised but on the quiver’. Quivering.
Just so, we talk of ‘climate change’ or ‘global warming’ and have no sense of what we mean, unless we have had to walk further each day to fetch water, lost our home, or, as a reindeer farmer, seen our reindeer fall through thinning ice.
Hugh O’Donnell SDB, The Sacred Heart Messenger, June 2024
Staying Connected
Something to think and pray about each day this week:
Prayer is not inborn. It is something you can learn. Luckily, you don’t have to invent it all by yourself. Christians have been praying for two thousand years. A lot of knowledge has been developed. If you are looking for ways to help you pray, it is good to let yourself be inspired by that.
There are as many different ways of praying as there are people. Some people prefer to pray with texts, whether from the Bible or not. Others like to pray without words. You can pray alone or with others, in a quiet, secluded place or in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the city. Some like to pray for a long time. For others, the shorter the better. A good way of praying is a way that, at that moment, helps you to live more connected with God. This can change over time. What helps you get to God today may not work as well tomorrow. This is not strange. That goes for most of a person’s life.
Nicolaas Sintobin SJ, Did Jesus Really Exist? and 51 Other Questions
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The burning coal
There is a favourite preacher’s story that goes like this: a member of a certain parish, who previously had been attending Mass regularly, suddenly stopped going. After a few weeks, the priest decided to visit him. It was a cold evening, and the priest found the man alone at home, sitting before a blazing coal fire.
Guessing the reason for the priest’s visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a big chair near the fireplace and waited. The pastor made himself comfortable but said nothing. In the heavy silence, he just sat and looked at the fire.
After a few minutes, the priest took the fire tongs, carefully picked a brightly burning coal from the fire, and placed it to one side of the hearth, all by itself. Then he sat back in his chair, still silent. Both of them watched the coal. Gradually, the coal’s flame diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire went. Soon it was cold and dead. The priest got up again, picked up the cold, dead coal and put it back in the middle of the fire. Immediately, it began to glow once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it.
The moral was simple. A single lump of coal cannot burn on its own; it takes many lumps of coal to make a fire that does not go out. No Christian can burn for God for very long without the constant support of the rest of the Church.
Paul O’Reilly SJ, Hope in All Things
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What is it you want?
The question, ‘What is it you want?’ is one that Jesus often asks in the gospels. How people answer that question is an indication of what their priorities are. When Jesus asked the question of the blind man, he answered, ‘Let me see again’. When Jesus asked the question of the disciples of John the Baptist at the beginning of John’s Gospel, they answered, ‘Where are you staying?’ In both cases, Jesus could respond to the answer given to his question. When the same question was asked of the mother of two of the twelve, James and John, Jesus could not respond to the answer he got to his question. The answer given by the mother revealed that her priorities were for her sons to have positions of status and honour in Jesus’ kingdom. This was to misunderstand the nature of the kingdom that Jesus came to proclaim. It was at the moment when Jesus was devoid of all status and honour, as he hung from a Roman cross, that he was publicly proclaimed king. This was intended in mockery, but, ironically, it proclaimed a truth. Jesus revealed God’s kingdom of love most fully at that moment of greatest shame and humiliation. James, John, and the other disciples needed to know that they were signing up to a kingdom that bore no relationship to the kingdoms of this world. Jesus was not to be found among the ‘rulers’ and ‘great men’ who ‘lord it over’ their subjects and ‘make their authority felt’. His authority showed itself not in being served but in the self-emptying, loving service of others. The same goes for all who would be his disciples. Jesus’ work today remains that of bringing God’s kingdom to earth, not building another earthly kingdom.
Martin Hogan, The Word is a Lamp on my Path
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