Gospel text for 2nd Sunday of Easter: Liturgy for Home Use

As we the people of God continue our time of Holy Waiting in Diaspora, I invite you to set some time aside each day to ponder the puzzles of our faith story. 

A prayer to begin each day of Holy Waiting.

O God, bless my Holy Waiting. Look with compassion upon me and my addictions to my food, my health, my habits and my way of doing things. Free me to rest in the assurance of your unfailing mercy, remove from me the fears that beset me, strengthen me in my work to recover my best self and to be patient and generous in my care and provision for the needs of others. AMEN. 

Take time to listen to  Messiaen's  "Three Small Liturgies of Divine Presence." 

Messiaen Trois Petits Liturgies de la Presence Divine

While listening you may want to ponder Caravaggio's painting

                                      

   "The Incredulity of St. Thomas."

Having missed the appearance of Jesus to the other disciples, Thomas said, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where  the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it." (John 20.25) The following week Jesus appears to Thomas as depicted by Carravagio. 

Thomas had to "touch" Jesus wounds, his suffering, with his own hands in order to believe. 

As we the people of God continue our time of Holy Waiting, what wounds, what suffering are you touching? Fear, anxiety, feverishness, coughing, boredom, whatever???  How much suffering must you touch in order to believe that we, the people of God, are meant to offer our lives to free prisoners and the oppressed? nourish the hungry? and dignify all people?

 Like prisoners or elders confined to their small quarters, are you touching the wound of isolation?

                                

As a person with special dietary needs or preferences are you touching the wounds of food scarcity?

                                 

As a person accustomed to finding your income or your sense of worth in work or volunteering, are you touching the wounds of the unemployed and undignified?

                                     

As a healthcare, grocery, gas station, public safety, plumbing, teaching, electrical or other essential worker, are you touching the wounds of those who sacrifice themselves for the good of others every day?

                                       

How are you like Thomas?

What do you need to turn your skepticism into belief?

What do you need to turn your wonder into amazement?

For an entirely different kind of music and reflection than we began with, please listen to "The Many," a contemporary Christian Music Group's performance of "Waiting for You."  

Waiting For You by The Many

For Holy Waiting during the First Week of Easter:

A prayer to conclude each night.

O God, bless my Holy Waiting. Look with compassion upon me and my addictions to my food, my health, my habits and my way of doing things. Free me to rest in the assurance of your unfailing mercy, remove from me the fears that beset me, strengthen me in my work to recover my best self and to be patient and generous in my care and provision for the needs of others. AMEN. 

Please let me know your experience with Holy Waiting. 

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Gospel text for Pentecost 4 June 2017

John 20:19-23        When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Reflection      How can we possibly respond to Jesus’ challenging commission, “Peace I leave with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you?… Forgive the sins of any and they are forgive…” I do not know about you but I want to say, “Jesus, are you kidding me? You are sending me to bring peace and reconciliation to all people? to forgive the sins of anyone, really? Have you not been paying attention to the news? Have you any idea what is going on in our world? The very thought of me bringing peace and forgiveness makes my stomach leap into my throat. This is hard to swallow.” 

Then I remember. This is not about us individual persons making righteous judgments, fixing people or the world. It is about us remembering that everything that is, is already part of God. This is reality. God is reality. In the words of Philip K. Dick, "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, does not go away."* All we need to do is sit still in reality, in  the middle of our storm tossed minds and emotionally fraught bodies and wait, wait for the peace that is evidence of God with us. Wait until we hear our hearts beating and the weighty, dependable peace rooted deep inside will rise to guide us to be the peace we desire for our world. 

When we stop struggling against reality as it is, we find ourselves steeped in the Reality of God, claim our place in the Mystery of the Holy Trinity and proclaim with our brother Jesus, “ I am in the Father, and you in me and I in you.” (John 14.20) We are One, all people and all of creation. Nothing is not part of God. God is Reality. This is spiritual freedom, freedom from identification with our thoughts, feelings and desires about God or Reality. This is freedom to be the peace we are sent to make known in all the world.   

For an interesting conversation about the relationship of Science, Religion and Reality please listen to Michael Dowd's Ted Talk by clicking on the top right of this page. 

* How to Build a Universe That Doesn't Fall Apart Two Days Later, 1978

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Gospel text for Sunday 8 June 2014

John 20:19-23        When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

Reflection        And Jesus came and stood among them, stands among all of us who are locked in the upper room, locked in our fear, suffering or self-loathing and says, “Peace be with you.”

Peace be with us?  What is that about? How can we be peaceful? This situation is dreadful. The world outside hates us – persecutes us – it’s exploding in violence and every dis-ease. And inside, we feel awful, guilty and broken-hearted.  We don’t follow You Jesus. We follow our selves.

And Jesus breathed on them (Huuuhhhhhh ) ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’ 

Ohhh – what’s happening?  You are not going to condemn us? Rebuke us and cast us out? What is this strange calm, friendship we feel? How can there be ease in the midst of all our guilt and fear and tears? How can there be peace in the midst of all the hatred and violence in the world?

 And Jesus breathed on them (Huuuhhhhhh ) ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.

For three years Jesus ate with the disciples, talked with the disciples, walked with the disciples and when they arrived at locked doors, he knocked. But on the evening of the first day of the week, Jesus did not knock. He did not enter as the others had, through the doorway.

Jesus arrived as a spiritual presence rising within the hearts of the disciples, as close as their breath. And how did they know Jesus’ presence you ask? By the peace they experienced in spite of the fact that they had locked themselves into a room for fear of being persecuted. They knew Jesus’ presence by the peace they experienced in spite of the regret and guilt and pain in their broken hearts. 

I wonder if when Mary Magdalene saw how upset the disciples were, I wonder if she reminded them of the promise Jesus made while he was still with them? “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.” (John 14.26-27)

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