A Reflection for the 4th Sunday of Lent

In the first reading from Joshua, Chapter 5, God tells us that he has “rolled away the disgrace of Egypt”. In the Gospel we hear the story of the Father who welcomed back the son who had disgraced his family and the older brother who resented the Father's love and forgiveness. This section is often mistitled The Prodigal Son, when it is really all about the Father. Also in Paul's letter to the Corinthians, we are reminded that we have been reconciled to God in and through Christ Jesus. Why is it that we can’t seem to really believe it is true when we say “The Word of the Lord”?

In today’s readings we hear about a God who loves us and always wants us to come back and is willing and waiting to take us back. So what does it mean to me that God loves me that much? How am I to live this passionate love in my life? 

Each one of us will have a different answer, but I believe that if I can truly get my head and heart around the fact that God loves me and wants me to love each person I meet, then what do I need to leave behind as the younger son did? What do I have to accept in community, in Church, in life to celebrate with those who “come home”? How can I welcome and accept each person I meet as one who is the Presence of God for me?               

Some of us are called to be prophets to speak God’s Truth. Some of us can do this only in prayer and in how we live each moment in Love and Gratitude. God of Love and Compassion, help me to hear your Word and live it each moment so others may become aware of you through my life. 

Anne Rajotte, CSJ

International Women’s Day

Monday, March 7th is International Women’s Day, celebrating the progress of women. Over the last year we have seen continued growth in our world towards greater equality, justice, and meaning for the lives of female identified people. Women and girls are courageously claiming their space and becoming a visible presence in the public domain. Through their social, economic, cultural and political achievements they are boldly demonstrating a collective response to ending poverty and violence. Award winning journalist Sally Armstrong in her book, Ascent of Women, compellingly tells their empowering stories of making change happen.

The 2016 theme for International Women’s Day is Planet 50-50 by 2030: Step It Up for Gender Equality. We do indeed need to step up as a global community to strengthen commitments on gender equality, women’s empowerment and women’s human rights.  We must re-commit daily to end violence against women in all its forms.

Even in adversity there is cause to celebrate. We are made aware of this in Canada, as we witness the struggles of Indigenous Women throughout their lands. In their daily lives, these women encounter multiple layers of violence that continue to threaten their existence, well-being and spirituality.  While facing such dramatic challenges they continue to emphasize the importance of action, community and care of Earth as a process of healing.

Indigenous women’s leadership is informing us that gender equality is a compass to how we share our world.  They are tackling issues of identity, culture, empowerment and opportunity through land defense, risking their liberties to stop the environmental impact of pipeline construction and shale gas mining. Raising their voices, they are demanding both human justice and equality and eco-justice for the land. They are reminding us that the struggles of women are indivisible from the destruction of planetary eco-systems. To reverence one is to love the other. They are sharing the wisdom that their healing – the healing of the global community- is intrinsically connected to the healing of our wounded Earth.

On this International Women’s Day, together let us set our intention to end violence against women. Let us raise up the many courageous women who are beacons of hope to us all and who reflect so clearly our interconnectedness with all creation. 

Guest blogger,    Janet Speth, Sister of St. Joseph of Toronto

Find out more about the new commitments under the UN Women’s Step It Up Initiative

http://www.unwomen.org/en/get-involved/step-it-up

We All Need a Little Manure

During the Lenten readings, Jesus challenges us with the well-known Parable of the Barren Fig Tree: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” Luke 13:6-9

You and I are the ‘fig trees’ in God’s vineyard. Are we bearing abundant fruit? Or are we barren? At the outset of Lent, we were invited to practice some serious mercy-ing. Two weeks into this Lenten season, I am struggling along. If you are anything like me, you possibly also struggled somewhere along the way. In the parable I see the gardener fervently, (perhaps foolishly) digging, digging, digging around that tree. And then he beckons to me, and hands me a spade.

Spade in hand, let us ‘dig the word’ which Jesus presents to us in this parable. I don’t own a fig tree, but remember well the fig tree laden with luscious fruit, under which I played as a young child. However, now I am an avid lover of African violets. Both they and fig trees flourish when the soil is well aerated and given manure. How do we, God’s fig trees, assure that we flourish and bear abundant fruit? Our ever patient God daily nourishes our lives with mercy, which contributes to the fertility of the soil we need to bear fruit. All we need to do is dig diligently around our roots to prepare the soil for God’s enriching mercy, often bestowed on us through the kind actions of others, so we can bear abundant fruit. Enough fruit to generously share morsels of mercy with all who daily cross our path.

"A good tree doesn't produce bad fruit; on the other hand, a bad tree doesn't produce good fruit. For each tree is known by its own fruit.” Lk 6: 43-45

Guest Blogger: Sr. Magdelena Vogt, CPS

The Prodigal Son (according to Jeff)

But we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and came to life again; he was lot and has been found. (Luke 15:32)

This is a scene in a funeral home in a big city. There was a rumble with a street gang; leaving two young men gunned down and three injured and hospitalized. Everyone is distraught. Authorities are wringing their hands over the whole affair, families desperate.

They arrive at the door of the funeral home, just off the street with the wounded dead body. Funeral plans are very skeptical. The grandmother steps in begging clemency. “Could the funeral be deferred so her son, the boy’s father who was deported back to Jamaica possibly come?” She kept saying, “Other Jamaicans’ have done worse things; let him come back to bury his son. We will wait!”

Next the visitation. The two grandmothers intervene. One grandmother states, “No religious symbols, no prayer.” The other grandmother, “Yes, there will be prayer. The Lord is here.” Family, friends, street gangs wander in red-eyed and angry. Misbelief and belligerence their only weapon. One woman collapsed and an ambulance was called. Distress, despair, hopelessness clung in the atmosphere.

The outcome. Due to the great Christian charity and mercy of the funeral home the young man’s body was preserved for one month, awaiting word from immigration.

I reflect on this funeral today, one month later. Did the father come? I don’t know. You are wending your way Jeff toward a church to his final resting place, and peace at last.

Due to grandmother the words of Luke have been fulfilled. He was lost and has been found.

Eileen Foran, CSJ

Transfiguration

Did you know that it is the intense heat of a forest fire that releases the seeds of the pine cone so that new growth can take place?

. . . tall, black tree trunks scarred from fire, delicately outlined with fresh, white snow,

. . . the lush green of the forest floor in the spring following a fire,

. . . the pinkish, purple blossoms of the fireweed plant growing in the spaces left vacant by fire,

These are the images I see as I drive along our highway and roads after two intense summers of forest fires. These are transfiguration moments for me.

As I reflect on the encounters I have had in the past few months, they speak of transfiguration.

. . . from two seven year old children in First Communion class, one sharing her time when she talks with Jesus and the light in her heart as he speaks to her and the other child telling of seeing Jesus, authentic, true, transforming

. . . to the man who asked if I would come with him to a telehealth conference call….holding his anxiety

. . . to the Inuit woman sitting on my living-room floor sharing for the first time her story of pain, trauma and abuse, she being transformed in the telling, me being transformed in the holding of story

. . . to keeping vigil with my dying friend and eventually being able to say “It is okay to go”

In this second week of Lent, Jesus invites us to go up the mountain with him. He had a conversation with Moses and Elijah about his imminent death. Yet, in the intensity of that conversation, new life, glory is proclaimed by the Father.

What conversation will Jesus have with you, with me? What transfiguration moments do I recognize each day?

Margaret Ann Beaudette, CSJ