23rd Psalm - The beginning

The 23^rd Psalm:  The Lord is my shepherd.

That means that logically I have to admit that I am one of his sheep. My great uncle was sheep rancher and I was fortunate to spend a fair amount of time his ranch as young boy. I was exposed to sheep enough to determine they are not the brightest of God’s creatures. In fact I was amazed at how dumb they behaved. To say that I am like a sheep and be ok with it takes some effort. When I consider how many of our Jewish and Christian brothers and sisters have clung to the prayer in hours of sorrow or learned to recite it as a teaching prayer as children, I realize I am in a rather large crowd of sheep. I am in the best of company. The Lord is my shepherd and I am filled with joy at the thought of it.

Like a deer yearns for running water

I have mentioned before that my backyard borders Beltview Park which runs down into town from the base of Mount Ascension. Since pleasant weather is finally upon us the last few days, I have been able to pray the Hours outside and enjoy the rural atmosphere of my backyard. As I settled down to read I noticed a mule deer doe just beyond the open rail fence marks the boundary of my yard and the greenbelt.  She was standing awkwardly, straddling 2 tiny spotted fawns while they nursed urgently.

Seeing deer in my backyard is not unusual and they have stirred my imagination before in writing my share. I ended up just watching momma deer and the fawns until I had to leave for an early morning meeting. The fawns had to have been only a few hours old and were still wobbly an uncertain on their feet. I was glad my Labrador has long since made peace with our long legged visitors so all she did was to watch them with some mild interest before resuming her early morning nap.

The second reading this morning was from a sermon on psalm forty-one addressed to the newly baptized by Saint Jerome, priest who wrote, referencing the first line of the Psalm:

As the deer longs for running water, so my soul longs for you, my God. Just as the deer longs for running water, so do our newly baptized members, our young deer, so to speak, also yearn for God.

I spent some time before I had to leave home reflecting on this line for some kind of inspiration. I felt certain that had to be some reason why I should be granted the privilege of watching the doe with her fawns the same morning the reading spoke of deer. No inspiration came to me and I resigned myself to the realization that this would be one of those days were my effort at lectio would just come up empty

I am filling in as a temporary substitute Sacristan for the Thursday noon Mass at the Cathedral since Val is gone for the summer. As communion was proceeding at mass, my eyes were drawn to a young lady, Amy, coming up the center aisle to receive communion. I was, in that moment, blessed with understanding of what eluded me about the reading. I was looking for some kind of meaning for my experience, for my yearning, for my desire for God but today the message was not about me. The message was about Amy. She was received into the community this past Easter so she is literally newly baptized. The yearning I saw in her face, the joy that flooded her countenance as she received communion and the peace that followed the look of joy as she turned to back to her seat was what St. Jerome was describing in his sermon.

 
The lesson for me is that I should not focus solely on myself in the process of lectio. Sometimes the lesson I need to learn is about how God moves the heart of others around me and wonderful that experience can be if I open myself up to recognize it.

St. Origen

One of his homily turned the battle of Jericho into a metaphor for the New Testament. His text equates Jericho with the world, the spies of the Joshua as being the apostles and the harlot Rahab became a metaphor for us, the body of believers. In the Old Testament story, the Israelites knew to spare the household of Rahab because she hung a scarlet cord from her window. In Origen’s mind the cord became a metaphor for the blood of Christ which saves us all. I knew very little of Origen before today but it appears there is large body of this work that remains in existence despite dating back to the early third century and his ability to spin metaphors between the history of the Old Testament and the experience of the new testament is certainly something that will draw further inquiry from me in the future. For now, however, I am left to wonder how I should display the scarlet cord that will spare me from destruction when the end comes. There is no physical sign that can represent my belief that spiritual salvation awaits me. All that I can do is hope that when God looks beyond my physical image and deep into my soul he will find that I have prepared my inner self, my essence to radiate the glory of belief in life eternal. The words of the old song we often sang when we were young ring through my ears loudly today: “And they will know we are Christians by our love, by our love. They will know we are Christians by our love.” The expression of that love for one another will be our scarlet cord for the Lord to find when the time comes for us.

Taking care in the kitchen

Rule of St. Benedict

Chapter 31 – the cellarer should look on the vessels and goods of the cellar as if they were consecrated vessels of the altar.

There is challenge there for me. As a sacristan, I am privileged to prepare the vessels for consecration at the altar and then to clean and prepare them for the next Eucharist after the mass has ended. We treat them with respect, care and reverence (except when the wine goblets are in the dishwasher) at all times. We wash, dry and polish them with deliberation and with the recognition they are intended to contain the most presence essence in the universe.

 The dishes that are waiting for us in the sink are not quite as well cared for as the Eucharistic vessels and there is a lesson there for me to learn. Those dirty dishes are meant to contain nourishment for a temple created by God to contain a Soul that is loved by God and through his grace will be saved by the Holy Spirit. If I can keep that in mind then perhaps I will come just a little closer to the challenge from Benedict to give reverence to God in and for all that we do all the time.

The Ascension

 As they watched, he was lifted up, and a cloud took him from their sight, alleluia.







The long run from Ash Wednesday to Pentecost Sunday is nearly over. Today is the Ascension of the Lord and I dwelled much of the week on what it must have been like for the disciples as the day of the Ascension approached. Think about the emotional ride they would have been on for last 6 weeks. First came the glorious entrance into Jerusalem. Next came the moving but likely very confusing unfolding of the Last Supper. Immediately after that came the arrest, the trial and finally the Crucifixion. We know that despite all the efforts Jesus made to warn us about what would happen, we, they, could not believe that the when Jesus died, everything was ended. Jesus was just another in a long line of charismatic prophets and rebels who fell under the tried and true Roman understanding that if you kill the leader, you kill the movement. Then something unbelievable happened. The tomb was found empty. Jesus was seen alive first by a few and then by many. A disheartened, emotionally crushed and hopeless band of followers dared to believe again. To hope again. To finally begin to understand the message and they message they were born to carry. The Mass readings this week come to mind, particularly yesterday when the John wrote how Jesus told them how much more he had to tell them but the disciple’s mind just could not absorb any more and they would have to wait for the coming of the Holy Spirit to reveal the rest of the truth to them that they needed to learn.

Finally we come today. I have tried to imagine what it must have been like for them to stand and watch as Jesus was lifted up and left their sight. We will read in coming days they were ready for him to leave them because he really was not just gone, just out of sight for the moment. He was still with them but, more importantly, we learn from Augustine, that they were with him as well.

Even knowing what was to come, I wonder what they were thinking. Excitement? Anticipation? Sorrow? I supposed the best answer is that they experienced a wide variety of conflicting emotions at the same time.

A painful legacy

Rule of St. Benedict

CHAPTER XXX
How Young Boys Are to Be Corrected

Every age and understanding should have its proper discipline. Whenever, therefore, boys or immature youths or such as can not understand how grave a penalty excommunication is, are guilty of a serious fault, let them undergo severe fasting or be disciplined with corporal punishment, that they may be corrected.

I know that the concept of physical punishment is viewed very differently now then it was in the time of Benedict. In fact sensitivities have changed dramatically within the span of my lifetime. Even the idea of “fasting” or, in our modern terms, “being sent to bed without supper” seems unnecessarily harsh. The reality is, however, that our children do need to be disciplined for behavior that left uncorrected could result in much more serious problems as adults. The legacy of abuse that is being laid on many of our religious orders, particularly the Jesuits in Oregon is haunting and humbling. I often listen with deep sadness as people I know recount the stories of what their childhood in orphanages or boarding school involved. I don’t pretend to know the whole truth of any of this and I have to admit that when my children were young I tended to parent the way I was parented rather than way I should have parented. The thoughts that keep running through my head are that justice must be tempered with mercy and that punishment must focus on correction and not retribution.

A cornerstone the builder rejected

“A stone which the builders rejected that became a cornerstone.”

The line is first found in Psalm 118 and again in Matthew 21 and finally in the first letter of the apostle Peter. The phrase, of course, is very familiar to us because we encounter it frequently in our daily reading but I have never really taken the time to really examine the origin and intent of the scripture. The commentaries I reviewed suggested the line referred to an event that took place during the building of the great temple. A large oddly shaped rock was delivered to the construction site but the laborers could find no use for it so they set it aside. Later, when the temple was nearly finished they needed a large stone to fill a gap in the lintel so they could finish the building. It turns out the seemingly useless rock sent to the site long before had a critical purpose after all because the rock fit in the space perfectly. The stone that had been rejected became the cornerstone of the temple.

Since we are not far removed from Easter we remain keenly aware that Jesus became the new temple of the new covenant. In Matthew 21:42 Jesus said: Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the scriptures: 'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; by the Lord has this been done, and it is wonderful in our eyes'?”

He clearly is referring to himself as being the stone that will be rejected when he is crucified but upon his resurrection, he will become the cornerstone.

Is this not a common theme in our faith? Men reject but through divine intercession what has been rejected will become not only accepted but critically needed.