Ash Wednesday
February 17, 2010
Reflection for Evening Prayer
by Patricia Crowley, OSB.
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I. Introduction:
The call of our Benedictine tradition is to live mindfully. That is not an easy task when we are pulled in so many directions by our ministry, by our social contacts, by the needs of people around us, by the choices we have for filling our time. etc.
The Rule urges us to live mindfully, at least, during Lent, with the hope that, if we can do so in some small ways for a short period of time, it may impact our lives during the rest of the year.
One way to nurture such mindfulness is to figure out ways to empty ourselves. Theologically, Christologically, this is called kenosis.
Lent is a time to allow ourselves to experience emptiness so that we may know that sacred space within which we are able to know God in a personal and in a profound way.
Our charism is to seek God. Lent is our special time to focus on this.
II. Lucan gospels
The Lucan gospel, which we read on most Sundays this year (Cycle C), are focused on the “kingdom of God” in parables, stories, miracles……
The “kingdom” in its fullness confounds our expectations and turns all upside down (based on St. Anthony magazine article by Barker, p. 13). Last Sunday with its passage on the four beatitudes of Luke is a great example of a message that feels very confusing and, if we are honest, very hard to take for it turns our sense of life inside out and upside down. .The gospels so often speak in paradox.
Why? I suggest that it is to challenge the fact that we, humans, have such difficulty in holding opposites.….and why is that? Perhaps, because we are too full and we find it hard to leave space enough in our hearts and minds and lives to be really open to the presence of God in our lives, which so often is very different from what we expect it to be…..
III. An empty cup……
Several summers ago, I participated in a retreat in which each person placed a cup, an empty cup, on a table in the middle of our circle each week. As we placed our cup(s), we shared something of our spiritual journey that week. It was a profound experience to share and to listen to others share their experience of being empty or, at times of brimming over ….
This Lent, I want to invite you to consider the theme of “emptiness”….
I invite you to choose a cup (or a bowl…) or to simply imagine such an object as you pray each day, as a symbol of your inner self. Please, use the emptiness of the vessel to help you journey through this next forty days.
A cup must become empty and clean before it is able to be filled once again. So too, our inner beings!
IV. The opportunity of Lent is one of “emptying” ourselves.
Christin Lore Weber, in her wonderful book on women and the beatitudes, recounts a conversation with a friend. In response to her complaint that she could no longer “find God”, her friend answered:
“Don’t try. Just clear all the stuff out of your attic. When you are empty and clean the Song will begin!”
V. So…what keeps us so “full” and prevents us from experiencing emptiness?
1 One response might be – our material stuff ….. How many storage places do you have for your stuff, your clothes, your books, your things??? Could you begin to reduce the number of spaces by even one during these next forty days?
2 Another response might be - the food we eat….. Traditionally, Lent is a time to address this in some way. What might be your way this year?
3 Another thing that keeps us so “full” might be – the grudges we hold….Is there someone in community (or in your family) whom you don’t talk to? ….. or whom do you write off because of something in the past? Is there someone whom you are unable to know in this present moment because of some past experience that you are hanging on to???? If your heart holds a grudge, it will be difficult to be empty enough to experience God fully. Today’s second reading from second Corinthians invites us to “be reconciled to God”. Reconciliation entails making room for another – another way that we might try to empty ourselves. Not easy….but so important!
4 Another thing that might keep us from experiencing that sacred space within ourselves might be – talking about others in a negative way….When we do so, we prevent ourselves from really knowing that person in this very moment and from knowing ourselves truly! Remember - we, as human beings and as persons in God are re-created each and every day!
VI. So how do we do this?
The scriptures for today give us a few ideas:
A. Fasting – What is it we might find helpful to fast from? Here are some ideas….you undoubtedly will have many more….one will suffice….
1. Fasting from some extra use of energy
i. ( a USCCB handout with a calendar of ways you can save on energy and “reduce your carbon footprint” is available at the door as you leave tonight.). It suggests a different way to “save energy each day.
ii. Or we might choose one way to take for all of Lent, e.g. turning the TV off in the evening for an hour when it is usually on or combining errands to use less gas each week.
2. Fasting from talking after a certain time of the evening (an ancient practice …we know!)
3. Other????B. Prayer –
4. By carving out some extra silent time each day…..15 minutes?
5. By reading more consistently and choosing a book (a tried and true practice among us…..)
C. Almsgiving
6. By giving something away from the “fullness” of our lives??? Books? Clothes? Things? Time?
7. By using the money you save to give to AIM at the end of Lent?
VII. Conclusion
So…the question for this Lent is “what keeps me from being an empty cup”:
1 From recognizing my own deepest reality in God?
2 From creating empty space within myself where I can hear others and hear myself?
3 From touching into that space deep within me where God is?
The mystery of emptying oneself is profoundly real in the life and death of Jesus Christ.Several tools are available to us tonight but the process of emptying ourselves is, of course, uniquely our own. The choices belong to each of us.
1 A Carbon fasting calendar (from the U.S. bishops)
2 An AIM almsgiving envelope which you received in your locker recently.
3 A reading list with library resources on Lent and on the beatitudes (the focus of our Lenten Sunday reflections) – these lists are posted on the bulletin board and in the library on a special shelf of Lenten books.
4 An invitation to share what you are reading for Lent at our Lenten Wednesday evenings.
5 Silence - which we can help create for one another - Once again, I would request that we respect one another’s wish for silence this evening as we leave the chapel.Live mindfully these next few weeks. Seek God in special ways these 40 days.
How?
“…. Just clear all the stuff out of your attic. When you are empty and clean the Song will begin!”Empty your cup even a little bit each day …..and the Song will begin!