Happy Lent!

JVC
I guess "Happy Lent" is not the usual sentiment that one hears at this time of year... But even though Lent is a season of penance, marked by somber imagery and meditations on the suffering and death of Jesus, it's also a season that is meant to lead us to the joy of Easter Sunday - and that, I think, deserves a cheerful salutation!

Of all the meditations on the significance of the Lenten season that I read yesterday, the one that I enjoyed most was from Robert F. Dueweke, OSA, who wrote in the February "Living With Christ" missal:
"Ashes indicate there was once fire. The fire is now gone. We go to the source to be inflamed again. God is fire; without God, we are ashes."
I loved these lines because they reminded me of the inherently positive purpose of Lent. The three pillars of Lenten activity - prayer, fasting, and charity - are meant ultimately to rekindle the flame of God's love in our souls, which leads to true and lasting joy.

So this Lent, I'm trying to focus less on what I'm "giving up" and more on the parts of my life where the fire of God's love has gone out. Something I've been noticing recently is that my desire to serve my sisters and brothers totally and selflessly (which inspired me to apply for JVC in the first place) has been dwindling. Before this year, I would dedicate a few hours a week to service. That time was a welcome break from my other responsibilities, and taught me the joy that comes from being truly present to the needs of others. For so long, I yearned for a job that would allow me to live in this spirit of joyful service full-time.

Yet now that I have such a job, I'm learning that service isn't always joyful - sometimes, it's nothing more than frustrating! After a long day of dealing with housing authorities and welfare offices, I struggle to respond with openness and compassion to the clients who cross my path as I am trying to leave the shelter. I begin to feel imposed upon by the very people I am here to help. Even when confronted with a client whose "crisis" really can wait until the morning, I find myself speaking words that are far too short in a tone that is far too harsh.

This Lent, I pray that God will reignite the flame of loving service in my soul. And to all of my sisters and brothers in Christ who are also observing this season of penance, I pray that in your every act of prayer, fasting, and charity, God will send forth the breath of the Holy Spirit across the embers of your soul and rekindle within you the love that knows no limits.

God is so good!

Love
I'll say it again - God is so good!! If we are open to His Spirit, He will lead us exactly where we need to go.

Lately, I've been struggling to articulate a truly Christian response to the unjust state of gender relations in our world. Working in a domestic violence shelter, I see effects of violence towards women on a daily basis. This violence is not only physical, but emotional, psychological, and spiritual as well. This violence attacks every facet of women's worth and dignity. And too often, these abuses are subtly (and not so subtly) reinforced by cultural values that debase women by turning them into objects of sexual pleasure, by telling them that their worth is entirely defined by the extent to which they are able to sexually captivate men.

Too often throughout history, and even in our own times, sacred scripture has been used to justify and rationalize violence towards women. In the past, my reaction to this misuse of scripture was simply to disregard scripture and the Church that had preserved it. Yet lately, something has been pushing me to investigate Church teachings with a more open heart and mind.

And so, by a series of events, I was led to the "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the collaboration of men and women in the Church and in the World". I half-expected a rigid tome on traditional gender roles, one that would define woman solely by her biological "destiny" - yet what I found was an astoundingly beautiful reflection on the dignity of woman as a full and equal partner with man in the life of society and the Church. I am increasingly awed and humbled by the steadfast witness of the faith I once denounced as misogynistic.

I found this document so powerful for several reasons. Firstly, because of its honest acknowledgment of the fact that state of gender relations in our world has, more often than not, been plagued by unjust domination on the part of men, leading to countless violations of the dignity and worth of women.

Secondly, because of its bold proclamation that these abuses are not part of God's plan for men and women. In the beginning, God created both men and women in the image and likeness of Himself, and gave us as gifts to one another, to be joined in a union of mutual love, respect, honor, and dignity. Yet as a result of original sin, God's vision for men and women has been distorted, resulting in the unbalanced gender relations that have characterized so much of human history. Viewed through the lens of original sin, the harmony that is supposed to exist between men and women becomes "a relationship in which love will frequently be debased into pure self-seeking, in a relationship which ignores and kills love and replaces it with the yoke of domination of one sex over the other...In this tragic situation, the equality, respect and love that are required in the relationship of man and woman according to God's original plan, are lost."

And thirdly (and most importantly!), because of its deep faith that "in Christ the rivalry, enmity and violence which disfigured the relationship between men and women can be overcome and have been overcome." In Christ, men and women are called to reclaim the true love and respect of God's original plan for humanity. This is a plan which shows deep respect for the unique gifts of men and women, without falsely proclaiming that one set of gifts is greater or more useful than the other. This is a plan which upholds the dignity of women as wives and mothers, while at the same time bearing witness to the gifts of reason and intelligence which indicate that "women should be present in the world of work and in the organization of society, and that women should have access to positions of responsibility which allow them to inspire the policies of nations and to promote innovative solutions to economic and social problems."

The relationship between men and women described in this document is symbolic of the state of all of human existence - fundamentally good in the plan of the Creator, yet damaged and distorted by our fallen state. Yet the death and resurrection of Christ reminds us that the goodness of God's original vision can be, and has been, redeemed.

These truths give me hope that as we move towards the Kingdom of God on earth, we will move towards a world in which violence is no longer perpetrated against women. We will move towards a world in which all people are able to live out the fullness of their humanity - not in the fallen state we live in now, but in the glorious perfection of God's original vision for us.

And that vision is nothing more and nothing less than Love incarnate.

Many gifts

JVC
As I sit here in my room, snow is falling on Philadelphia. Our little corner of the city is silent for once, all the sounds of traffic and sirens and voices muted by the soft white blanket settling around us.

I am conscious this morning of so many gifts. The gifts of quiet, stillness, peace. The gifts of community, friendship, love.

Most of all, there is the gift of Christ's presence, which guides and comforts me even in the darkest of times.

Last night, the first Friday of the month, I took the subway down to Center City, to the basement church of St. John the Evangelist, where a group of young adults gathers each month to offer Devotions to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. Every time I step down into that church from the busy streets of Philadelphia and feel myself enveloped in the warm embrace of incense, candlelight, and the rhythm of Latin hymns, my heart leaps with joy to have come upon such an oasis of peace and reverence in the midst of all the clamor of city life.

As I prayed last night, my heart was heavy with the pain of the women and children I had worked with all week long in the shelter. I mourned their past and present traumas, feeling myself utterly helpless to do anything at all to alleviate their suffering and bring justice into their lives. Yet the gift of Christ's presence works marvelous deeds. As we stood for the final hymn, I felt my heart strengthened and consoled by the words we sung - Infinite thy vast domain, everlasting is thy reign.

The absurdity of those words in a world of violence and hatred and grave injustice, the absurdity of God's love, the absurdity of Christ's presence in the Eucharist - all struck me with a paradoxical hope. I was reminded that our call as disciples of Christ is to dedicate our lives to that absurd love, even - and most especially - when it seems most impossible. And I was also reminded, by the love and fellowship that filled the small group of us gathered there, that we do not confront that task alone - we are strengthened by our sisters and brothers in faith, and by all women and men of good will.

The Long View

We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and to do it very well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master builder and the worker. We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs. We are prophets of a future not our own.

~Archbishop Oscar Romero

The Credo Project

Prayer for Generosity

Lord, teach me to be generous
Teach me to serve you as you deserve
To give and not to count the cost
To fight and not to heed the wounds
To toil and not to seek for rest
To labor and not to ask for reward
Save that of knowing that I am doing your will

~St. Igantius of Loyola