God, Country, Notre Dame

Watch carefully then how you live, not as foolish persons but wise, making the most of the opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore, do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord.
~Ephesians 5:15-17

I have a lot going on in my life right now. My days are filled with Important Things that Need Doing. I need to optimize My Time so that I can achieve all of my Important Things.

We tell ourselves these things a lot. I have told myself these things a lot of late. I will probably tell myself these things even more in the near future, as I pack my house and family to move across the country and start a new job. But here I am to tell myself and the rest of you that I was, am, and will be lying to myself.

There are things in life that cannot be put on the back burner. You can’t put them off for later. The problem is this: Which things are they, really?

Taking Up The Cross

They pressed into service a passer-by, Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross.
~ Mark 15:21

As they were going out, they met a Cyrenian named Simon; this man they pressed into service to carry his cross.
~ Matthew 27:32

As they led him away they took hold of a certain Simon, a Cyrenian, who was coming in from the country; and after laying the cross on him, they made him carry it behind Jesus.
~ Luke 23:26

We are fast approaching the end of Lent. I, personally, find Holy Week to be a deeply emotional experience and both dread and anticipate it every year. The story is well known, we walk through the familiar steps, feeling once again the raw emotions relating to the public torture and death of a loved one, and the pure, overwhelming joy of his miraculous return to us. We find ourselves re-experiencing Jesus’ final words to his disciples, his plea in the garden, his inevitable betrayal, his subsequent conviction, the crowd’s call for the release of Barabbas and piercing cry to “Crucify him!” We spend time at the Stations of the Cross, walking with Jesus through the city as he struggles to bear the weight of the heavy cross on which he will soon be hung to die. We cry for him as he falls under its weight, over and over again.

We also get a chance to experience the stories of the other people involved. This is Jesus’ story, but there are other players. Judas’ story of betrayal is woven into this tale. As is Peter’s, denying his Lord three times before the cock crows twice. And Pilate’s story, forced to condemn a man he feels is innocent to appease public opinion. The story of the women crying on the street as Jesus carries his heavy cross, and his consolation of them. We see Mary and John at the foot of the cross, as Jesus, in one of his final acts, binds them to each other as mother and son. And the revolutionaries crucified alongside Jesus, one striking out at him in anger, the other awed by his sacrifice even before his death.

However, I would like to focus this discussion on a story that gets very little exposure. Three of the four gospelists mention it, each giving this character one simple sentence each. Simon the Cyrenian, a man on his way for a visit. As Jesus, falling under his cross, makes his way out of the city, the guards weary of the slow progress they are making toward their destination, possibly even beginning to regret how much they tortured Jesus before they handed him his heavy burden. They see this traveller and opt to press him into service. The Roman guards, at the time, were able to press citizens into service the same way law enforcement today can commandeer a vehicle.

God’s Plan

“Naked I came forth from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I go back again. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD!”
~ Job 1:21

We hear it all the time: It’s all part of God’s plan. But sometimes it’s hard to accept that God has a greater vision than we can imagine and that He has a plan, which may or may not include what we think we need right now.

The quote above, taken from Job, reminds us that faith means trusting in God to give, or to take away, exactly what we need, based on His plan. Job makes this acclamation immediately after finding out that all of his sheep, camels, and livestock have been killed, as well as all of his children. He had been one of God’s favorites, blessed in every way, because of his great devotion to his Lord. And his devotion never wavered, even though he lost everything, because Job had faith in God’s plan.

I don’t always trust in God’s plan. I know I should, I know that He will take care of me and bring me down the path He has created for me to reach Him. But it is hard, really hard, to give up control of my own life and let God’s plan take over. I want to make my decisions, I want to fight the current to get the things I think I want and need. And every once in a while, I realize what I’m doing. Recently, my husband triggered this moment.

It’s All a Dream

My Grandmother lived to 3 months shy of her 102^nd birthday. She had a saying when she would look at how big my kids were or on a major event when one has those moments when you realize how quickly time has passed – “It’s all a dream…” Sitting in Mass Sunday with my sons, I was sitting next to a gentleman with his two young children, a daughter about age 8 and a son about age 4. The four year old was next to me. He was so sweet and being very good in Mass. On my other side was my youngest who has just turned 14 – the reality of the age difference and how quickly the days have gone by took me to that epiphany “it’s all a dream”.

 

CS Lewis posed that, if there was no eternal soul, then “why are we so surprised by the passage of time?” There is a part of us that isn’t ruled by time, which sits outside of it, so to speak. We have a part of us that connects with the eternal. It’s that part that causes the great doctors of the Church to contemplate. That part, our soul, suspends time and enters an “interior castle” as described by Teresa of Avila.

 

There is the reality that we live in, the path that we follow that is constrained to the present moment. It is all built upon the belief that we are a soul, here on earth for a purpose. “God made me to know him, to love him, and to serve him in this world and to be happy with him forever in the next.” (Baltimore Catechism) In the Bible, Jesus discusses purpose even more briefly: “I came so that [you] might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). I tend to summarize for my children – you must love God, use your gifts to the best of your ability to fulfill God’s will to

make your way back to heaven.

 

This dream we all participate in exists for such a short time in the grand scheme of things. Yet we are taught that we are loved, always, even in these brief moments. What of those who wish to take that dream from others? We have a chance to defend it. We have to stand up for our faith and for the opportunity to dream. Whether it is our own country or grave injustice abroad.

 

“Learn to do good; Seek justice, Reprove the ruthless, Defend the orphan, Plead for the widow.” (Isaiah 1:17)  We have such a short time here – how do we stamp it so that people know a Christian was here? Right now, I have more questions than answers, especially with so many issues that need to be addressed, yet I know, the time to decide is here. There are small ways and big to fight injustice, to defend that opportunity, to have a beautiful dream. 

Redefining Giving: Time, Talent AND Treasure

Hi, welcome to Friday’s post, submitted on Saturday.  Oops.  I guess this is a Lenten reminder that sometimes we all mess up in our resolutions and we need to admit we goofed, ask for forgiveness and then shrug our shoulders and move on.  So, dear readers, I ask you to forgive me for delivering this reflection a little late.  If you’ll still hang out with me, I’ll move onto a post about almsgiving.

Almsgiving is the last of the Lenten Big Three for my reflections to cover.  I struggle a lot with almsgiving.  I don’t always feel like I have enough money to donate to good causes, especially not enough money to make a difference.  When I do have enough money to make some donations, I wonder if I’m actually helping the organization.  I also wonder if I am letting myself off easy.  Am I making the most of my gifts? Am I challenging myself?

So let’s talk about almsgiving as it falls under stewardship.  If you are a member of a Catholic parish, you might think of the Stewardship Committee as the group who always begs you for donations.  This is quite possibly the case.  However, there is a movement to redefine our perception of stewardship. 

This refocusing of stewardship calls us to consider what “belongs to us” as effectively just being ours to borrow, or to look after.  After all, as we remember through other Lenten activity, we are entirely dependent on God, who gives us all good things.  These things that belong to us are more than just financial resources.  All our gifts, including our abilities, our personalities, our hobbies and every day of our lives, are from God and should be put to use for His glory.

With that in mind, how do we apply our time, talent and treasure?

Maybe this Lent, it would be helpful to reconsider your giving.  Are you just throwing money at problems?  Are you really stopping to consider ways that you specifically with your knowledge of bookkeeping, or your sympathetic ear, or your ability to teach, could be useful to a local charity?

Are you donating time and effort but not challenging yourself to give up some money?  Even now, as I sit here at Starbucks, posting this online, I am forced to consider the cost of my drink.  Could I have not spent that money another way?

So let’s get creative with our stewardship.  I want to hold up an example of some truly creative giving I found this week.  A Canadian graduate student at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA is trying to finish her dissertation and get into shape, both daunting tasks.  She’s asking for donations to two of her favorite charities based on how fit she gets before she defends her dissertation, with an added twist of international competition.  Check out her website here and see if you want to help her project, or if you are inspired to find your own way to give.

What opportunities do you have to give of your time, talent and treasure this Lent?  Try and find one way to give of each before Holy Week.