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March 9, 2020
Sister Jean Evans, RSM
The great mystic and saint, Teresa of Avila once said she often lived her days as if God were absent. I suppose many of us suffer from this indisposition as well. What is it that happens? We all share this problem: Taking relationships for granted. Whether we’re talking about God or a spouse, a good friend, a close relative, our children, companions in community, distancing happens. Emergencies happen. We are busy, worried, overworked and inattentive.
This Lent we are offered an invitation to discover or rediscover God’s love. The first step is to acknowledge an invitation from Jesus that needs an immediate RSVP.
He says to us, “Come to me, all you who labor and are overburdened, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). So, sit down for a while with the Lord Jesus and turn your burdens over to him. Exhale as you let go of the cares or fears that weigh on your heart and mind. Then approach the Scripture text with a prayer to the Holy Spirit, perhaps an old favorite, “Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest, and in my heart take up thy rest.” Or, something like this: “Spirit of God, enlighten me, touch my heart and my mind. Let me discover God’s love, its height and depth, its length and breadth, until knowing the love of Christ which surpasses all understanding, I might praise you eternally. Amen.”
When reading Scripture, it’s best to take a few small bits at a time and give God’s word a chance to work on you. Don’t pick up your phone and check messages. Stay there for a while in the silence. Give the Spirit some time to help you quiet down, so you settle and become attentive. And if you hear nothing, become impatient and want to walk away, put your seatbelt on!
Silence makes us sensitive and opens up our vulnerability to God’s grace. It seeps inside us through our cracks, stimulating our attention span and expanding our concentration. It is the vacation we give ourselves from the expectations of others.
Where to start? It’s not always a good idea to open the Bible and just find a spot to begin. You might end up in the middle of a battle or a genealogy. Here are a few passages clustered around the theme of God’s love and care.
They encourage us to trust God and be confident: “Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name and you are mine” (Isaiah 43:1-7); “That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life” (Luke 12:22-31); “I am the Good Shepherd” (John 10:1-21); “I have loved you with an everlasting love” (Jeremiah 31:3-4); “Courage! It is I. Do not be afraid” (Mt. 14:22-32). “In God alone my soul is at rest” (Psalm 62).
In Metaxas’ (2010) biography of Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, we read how the young pastor rejected the German Lutheran Church and brought together young seminarians to form an opposition “Confessing Church.” In 1937, the Nazis closed the seminary and Bonhoeffer and the seminarians were forced to go underground. He corresponded with each seminarian and insisted that they meditate on their biblical texts. One seminarian wrote Bonhoeffer that he kept up the practice, but when it was too difficult to meditate on the verses, he simply memorized them. He said, “The verses opened out an unexpected depth. One has only to live with the texts and then they unfold. I am grateful now for your having kept us to it.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer was martyred in April 1945.
Let us pray for the grace to “live with the texts” during our Lenten retreat and discover that God is not absent from us but more present than we can imagine.
Mercy Sister Jean Evans ministers at Mercy Center, Burlingame, on the Development Team and assists Mercy Suzanne Toolan with music at Mercy Center’s first Friday “Prayer Around the Cross.”