Archive for March, 2014

“Give and you shall receive, much more than you ever thought possible. Give and give again. Keep hoping, keep trying, keep giving! People who give will never be poor.

If you follow this advice, within a few generations, people will never have to feel sorry for poor little beggar children again, because there won’t be any! The world has plenty of room, riches, money, and beauty. God has created enough for each and every one of us. Let us begin by dividing it more fairly.”

Anne Frank in Anne Frank’s Takes from the Secret Annex (London: Halban, 2012), diary post for 26 March 1944.

Later in this diary post Anne Frank notes the source of this thinking, the perspective she learned from her grandmother who often said: “People who give will never be poor.” I marvel at the impact we can have on others when we teach them about God’s abundance and how He instructs us to enjoy and share it all around.

Today I am in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to impart such thinking to the board, faculty, and staff of Sioux Falls Seminary and to celebrate the inauguration of Greg Henson as president. Greg blessed me by inviting me to speak to the seminary family that he now serves and to offer the benediction prayer at his installation service.

“Always offer yourself to God in prayer. Offer to endure any spiritual or temporal pain. Beg Him always to give you the strength to do His holy will.”

Alphonsus Liguori in To Serve Jesus Christ as recounted in Lent and Easter Wisdom with Alphonsus Liguori (The Redemptorists: Denver, 2011) 4.

As I think of Jesus this morning, my mind goes to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus said, “Not my will but yours be done” (Luke 22:42b). He even knew what was ahead and still maintained a posture of submission and obedience. What’s this got to do with generosity?

I believe that sometimes prayer appears as a cosmic shopping list of things we want God to get or do for us. Alternatively, this Lent my hope for each of us is that prayer shifts to daily giving ourselves to God with complete reliance on Him to do whatever He calls us to do.

“Lent lasts forty days, a long time, because we need a good stretch of time to step back and be neither here nor there. We need plenty of time to drop our old ways of doing things and live in-between, not yet knowing what the new ways of doing things will be. Living in-between can be scary. But taking the full forty days is important; not to do so would be like denying ourselves a spiritual adventure, the gift of in-between time.”

Sarah Parsons in A Clearing Season: Reflections for Lent (Nashville: Upper Room, 2005) 20.

The forty days of Lent are patterned after the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness. If you read Luke 4:1-13 (or Matthew 4:1-11) you notice right away that Jesus “was led by the Spirit” into this season of testing. This happened prior to His ministry and must happen prior to embarking from where we are to where God would have us minister. This is why we focus on fasting, giving and prayer in this “in-between” time.

As we fast, remember that we do not to live on bread alone. Instead let us feast on every word that comes from the mouth of God. As we consider giving to the poor, we must realize that Jesus overcame the desire to possess everything that He could see from the high place as a model for our victory. And as we focus on prayer, may our posture not be questioning God or putting Him to the test as the Israelites did but settling into a place of quiet trust.

“Do a little channel surfing and you’ll encounter programs like Hoarders, Storage Wars and Auction Hunters. They all show the excess that has become so commonplace in our society. We tend to measure ourselves by how much stuff we accumulate. And the more we have the less generous we tend to be—not only with our stuff, but also in how much of ourselves we invest in relationship with one another.

However, we have a God who is lavish, indeed extravagant, in his love for us… God unsparingly pours out his forgiveness and mercy on us. If our hearts are stingy, we cannot receive this abundance because we are closed off to it. If our hearts are giving, then we are truly blest. Made in the divine image, we are called to imitate our Creator… May our Lenten observances help us to let go of what possesses us so that we can freely give of ourselves in loving service to the one who made us.”

Steven Nyl in Redemptorists of the Denver Province post on 17 March 2014.

OK, so my family chuckles when we watch Storage Wars to see how buyers gamble at getting a unit with valuables in it. Sometimes they win and sometimes, well, they lose their shirts. When we watch Hoarders, however, we come face to face with the destructive power of holding on to possessions. It’s unbelievable to see how the inability to let go of things destroys people.

Conversely, we have the gift of the Lenten season to focus on calling out to God, growing in our faith, learning to let go of things, and loving others more deeply. It’s hard to do this when we live in a culture that celebrates greed and acquisitiveness. So what do we do? Acknowledge these realities and choose to imitate our Lord regardless of what everyone else is doing. Amen?

“The purpose Lent is…above all, a preparation to rejoice in His love. And this preparation consists in receiving the gift of His mercy–a gift which we receive insofar as we open our hearts to it, casting out what cannot remain in the same room with mercy. Now one of the things we must cast out first of all is fear. Fear narrows the little entrance of our heart. It shrinks up our capacity to love. It freezes up our power to give ourselves…”

Thomas Merton in Lent and Easter Wisdom (Liguori, MO: Liguori, 2007) 6.

Abiding in Christ and rejoicing in His love requires us to let go of that which hinders our capacity to dwell in Him. I am not trying to be esoteric here but profoundly sincere. If we live as though we are “fine” (a.k.a. freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional), then the Lenten journey will be nothing more than deeds done in the flesh that will weary us.

If, alternatively, we invite our Lord to pour out His mercy upon us, and if we let go of our fears, then we become people who can give, love, and serve like Christ. I have found the first step to living in this reality is understanding this. Living it out is only possible with God’s grace. God, fill us with your mercy and help us release our fears, empowered by your grace.

In the words of St. Patrick, “Christ be with you, Christ be behind you, Christ be beside you, and Christ be within you,” each step of your journey.

Please don’t pass over this post because of the length.

While the entire Lenten 2014 of Pope Francis is worth reading, here are some great excerpts that I pray enrich you. His message keenly describes the difference between poverty and destitution and reveals how the way of Christ to minister to the destitute relies not on earthly wealth but the sharing of heavenly riches.

May it fill you on this the second feast day of Lent.

“By making himself poor, Jesus did not seek poverty for its own sake but, as Saint Paul says ‘that by his poverty you might become rich’. This is no mere play on words or a catch phrase. Rather, it sums up God’s logic, the logic of love, the logic of the incarnation and the cross…

We might think that this “way” of poverty was Jesus’ way, whereas we who come after him can save the world with the right kind of human resources. This is not the case. In every time and place God continues to save mankind and the world through the poverty of Christ… God’s wealth passes not through our wealth, but invariably and exclusively through our personal and communal poverty, enlivened by the Spirit of Christ.

In imitation of our Master, we Christians are called to confront the poverty of our brothers and sisters, to touch it, to make it our own and to take practical steps to alleviate it. Destitution is not the same as poverty: destitution is poverty without faith, without support, without hope. There are three types of destitution: material, moral and spiritual.

Material destitution is what is normally called poverty, and affects those living in conditions opposed to human dignity: those who lack basic rights and needs such as food, water, hygiene, work and the opportunity to develop and grow culturally. In response to this destitution, the Church offers her help…

No less a concern is moral destitution, which consists in slavery to vice and sin. How much pain is caused in families because one of their members – often a young person – is in thrall to alcohol, drugs, gambling or pornography! How many people no longer see meaning in life or prospects for the future, how many have lost hope…

The Gospel is the real antidote to spiritual destitution: wherever we go, we are called as Christians to proclaim the liberating news that forgiveness for sins committed is possible, that God is greater than our sinfulness, that he freely loves us at all times and that we were made for communion and eternal life. The Lord asks us to be joyous heralds of this message of mercy and hope!

It is thrilling to experience the joy of spreading this good news, sharing the treasure entrusted to us, consoling broken hearts and offering hope to our brothers and sisters experiencing darkness. It means following and imitating Jesus, who sought out the poor and sinners as a shepherd lovingly seeks his lost sheep…

Dear brothers and sisters, may this Lenten season find the whole Church ready to bear witness to all those who live in material, moral and spiritual destitution the Gospel message of the merciful love of God our Father, who is ready to embrace everyone in Christ. We can do this to the extent that we imitate Christ who became poor and enriched us by his poverty.”

To read the entire message, visit: http://www.news.va/en/news/popes-lenten-message-2014-by-his-poverty-you-might

“We must give until it hurts. For love to be true it has to hurt. It hurt Jesus to love us. It hurt God to love us because He had to give. He gave His Son. This the meaning of true love, to give until it hurts.”

Mother Teresa as recounted in Bringing Lent Home with Mother Teresa ed. Donna-Marie Cooper O’Boyle (Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 2012), excerpt from reading for Tuesday, First Week of Lent.

Donna-Marie also notes that “Mother Teresa often taught that real giving happens when it hurts. She said too many times people only give of their surplus and don’t sacrifice at all when giving.” How often is that true of me? What about you?

Consider this story Mother Teresa tells of meeting a beggar one day. “She said the beggar told her that he knew others had donated to her for the poor and he also wanted to give. He stretched out his hand and offered twenty-nine paise, which is not enough to buy much of anything. For a moment, Mother Teresa felt torn since she didn’t want to take his food money and cause the beggar to go hungry. It was everything he received from begging that day. She decided to accept it and observed an immediate radiance of joy come across the man’s face. His tiny contribution became like thousands to Mother Teresa because it was given with love and sacrifice.”

As we approach the cross of Christ this Lent together, we will reflect on the unfathomable pain that Christ endured and the sacrifice He made for each of us. In so doing, may the Holy Spirit help each of us learn to take up our cross and suffer, that is, offer ourselves as living sacrifices imitating his humility and generosity.

“Forgiveness is not some churchy technique or formula. Forgiveness is a constant from God’s side, which should become a calm, joyous certainty on our side. Mercy received will be mercy passed on and will not return to me empty until it has succeeded in what it was sent to do.”

Forgive us our debts as we forgive others…If you forgive the faults of others, your heavenly Father will forgive yours. If you do not forgive others, neither can your heavenly Father forgive yours. Matthew 6:12, 14-15.

Prayer: “Good God, keep me forever inside of your abundant and generous flow of mercy, toward me, through me, in me, and from me.”

Richard Rohr, Wondrous Encounters: Scriptures for Lent (Cincinnati: SAMP, 2010) 30.

I don’t know about you, but when I feel I am wrongly wounded by someone, my proclivity is to defend myself and prove that I am right. God forgive me. I am learning from Jesus this Lent as I meditate in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7) along with modern day saints, that the measure of mercy and forgiveness I extend to others is the measure that will be extended to me. Gulp! Often I pray, “Lord have mercy.” And today I feel led to pray a new centering prayer, “Lord help me show your mercy.” That’s the part Jesus asks of me. What is He asking of you?

“We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God is on the Cross: Reflections on Lent and Easter (Louisville: WJKP, 2012) 5.

Prayer is a privilege. Consider carving out more time than normal for prayer this Lent. Who knows? It might become a routine that continues. As Bonhoeffer urges us regarding prayer, let us thank God not just for the big stuff but for the little things.

“True prayer is always humble. By definition. True prayer means recognizing that God is God and we…aren’t…So learning to pray means learning to abandon pride…and…to recognize, both in how we pray and what we pray, that everything we have, everything we are, is a gift from God, and that neither we nor anybody else deserve it. Prayer like that will be humble. It will also be a sigh of relief. We don’t have anything to prove, anything to earn. Thank you, Father, for your generous love. Help me, today and every day, to trust in you and not myself.”

N.T. Wright in Lent for Everyone: Luke, Year C – Daily Devotional (London: SPCK, 2009) 62-63.

Wright takes readers on a spiritual journey through Luke in this Lent devotional. I was moved by this reading on the topic of learning to pray. This season, as we focus on prayer, may each of us see ourselves for who we really are and may we also see God for who He is. In turn, may we exhibit humility and generosity, because we have come to realize all the gifts He has richly lavished upon us.