Preferring Nothing to Christ

Jeremiah 17:5-10
Luke 16:19-31

Today’s Gospel of the Rich Man and Lazarus is part of a sequence of Luke’s exposition of Kingdom values. We meet the familiar theme of a reversal of the world’s ways. Grace and favour come to those whom the world forgets. The Rich Man is desperate for his own suffering to be eased. Abraham pays no heed and we hear some of the most chilling words in Luke’s Gospel:

‘…between us and you a great gulf has been fixed, to stop anyone, if he wanted to, crossing from our side to yours, and to stop any crossing from your side to ours.’

The Rich Man hopes to protect his family from a similar fate.

Hearing this text in Lent sharpens the focus for us. Lent gives us the chance to examine our hearts and ask God to show us where the great gulfs are in our own lives.

How does this story speak to you today?
Where are the gulfs in your own life?

2 Sam 7:4-5, 12-14,16
Matthew 1:16, 18-21,24

We step off the Lenten path to celebrate the Feast of St Joseph. Unlike other saints in our calendar, we have no dates of his birth or death, whether from history or folklore. But what we do have is his silent belief in God’s promise.

The first reading from 2 Samuel reminds us of a turning point in Israel’s history. Up until this point God’s promises have been conditional, but now the dynasty is guaranteed in perpetuity. None of this is David’s doing. David is to be bound in relationship to the Lord: ‘I will be a father to him and he a son to me.’ The tender language of father and son always strikes me. God’s covenant is not a legal contract, but a relationship of love. As the story of salvation unfolds there are many falls from grace along the way. God’s promise remains.

Now Joseph enters the story of our salvation. He is perhaps the archetypal silent man. All that he needs to know God coveys to him in a dream. Dreams are sometimes spoken of as God’s forgotten language. Paying attention to our dreams is writ through our spiritual DNA. So many key biblical characters come close to God and God’s will through their visions and dreams.

Pay attention to your dreams this week.

How has God spoken to you in this past week?

Isaiah 1:10. 16-20
Matthew 23:1-12

Wash, make yourselves clean.
Take your wrong-doing out of my sight.
Cease to do evil.
Learn to do good,
search for justice,
help the oppressed,
be just to the orphan,
plead for the widow.

This is one of my favourite pieces of Hebrew poetry. It has a rhythm which makes it easy to memorise. It’s an uncompromising message and it’s meant to be. The prophet’s job is to see the world as God sees it. Isaiah is impatient with a way of living which compartmentalises worship and daily life: the two must go together. In just a few verses we have a whole programme for Gospel living.

Wash
Take
Cease
Search
Learn
Help
Be just
Plead

In the Rule of St Benedict, Lent is seen as a time when we ‘wash away in this holy season the negligences of other times.’ It sounds a little gentler than Isaiah’s message, but the result can be the same.

How do you hear Isaiah’s message this Lent?

Daniel 9:4-10
Luke 6:36-38

Today in the first reading from Daniel the prophet looks back over Israel’s covenant relationship. He fully acknowledges that Israel has strayed far from God and to them ‘the look of shame belongs.’ Israel is now completely dependent on God’s mercy.

In the Gospel today Jesus invites his disciples to ‘be compassionate as your father is compassionate.’ The love and mercy which is the essence of God in Daniel’s prayer is here held up for our imitation. We learn to be compassionate by expanding our hearts and our perceptions. We learn to be compassionate by being generous with all we have and are.

Give, and there will be gifts for you: a full measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be poured into your lap; because the amount you measure out is the amount you will be given back.

I have spent much of my monastic life as the monastery cellarer and I have learnt the importance of how I measure. In the monastic kitchen you are always making substitutes and adjustments. St Benedict is clear in his Rule that it is one of the cellarer’s jobs to make sure that there is enough for everyone. He evens goes to the trouble of instructing the cellarer to divide each monk’s portion of bread (a pound) so that it is spread out over the mealtimes.

And then we come to love. How easy it is for me to measure my love. Weighing things out to the last gram. The Gospel challenge for me today is to be the one who gives first and to that hope my full measure will run over.

Where is Christ calling you to give a full measure?

Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up the mountain to pray. As he prayed, the aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became brilliant as lightning.

Much of the spiritual life involves the following of a fairly ordinary path of joys and challenges, moments of insight and times of darkness. For some there will be a mountain-top experiences. For others there will be the stories of the mountain-top experiences of others.

In this week’s Gospel of the Transfiguration, Peter, James and John have a mountain-top experience. Some commentators suggest that the disciples’ experience of glory is a strengthening for Christ’s impending Passion. Other commentators think that this experience on Tabor might be a resurrection appearance which Luke has mistakenly inserted here. Either way the text presents us with mystery.

Jesuit, Jack Mahoney has speculated as to whether the Transfiguration may have taken place at night. Seeing the aspect of Jesus’ face change and his clothes becoming ‘brilliant’ would be all the more striking by night. The sleepiness of the disciples could easily be explained if this all happened at night.

I am always drawn to the fact that Jesus took with him those whom tradition considers his closest disciples. Though they didn’t and couldn’t understand what was happening, this mysterious experience would change them and bind them together. Lent offers us this experience too. It’s love which will transfigure us.

How are you called to be transfigured this Lent?

Deuteronomy 26:16-19
Matthew 5:43-48

‘The Lord your God commands you today to observe these laws and customs; you must keep them with all your heart and all your soul.‘

The Book of Deuteronomy is a favourite of mine. Commentators have drawn my attention to the number of times the ‘heart’ is mentioned. What Deuteronomy offers is a way of the heart. Every thought, every action is to be directed towards God. The keeping of God’s commandments is something which frees us and expands our hearts.

Similar themes are echoed in Ps 118 today. Here we are invited to do God’s will and to seek him with all our hearts. The whole Psalm is a long meditation on the disposition of those who seek God alone.

If we want to keep God’s commands we need space in our hearts. Lent offers the chance to do this.

How can you make space in your heart this Lent?

Ezekiel 18:21-28
Matthew 5:20-26

The picture that I have used today is of our chapel at Turvey. The place in front of the altar is of huge monastic significance. It is there that you stand as a postulant and ask to begin your monastic journey and then some months later you will stand there as you receive your habit. You will stand there at First Profession and make your profession of vows. At Solemn Profession you will prostrate while the community sings the Litany of Saints. As you reach your various Jubilees you will renew your vows on that same spot. And then, when your life has run its course, your coffin will be placed on that same place in front of the altar. Your life has come full circle in front of the altar.

Liturgy and life are intimately connected. What happens in our sacred spaces in symbol and ritual gives us a pattern for our daily lives. In our worship and our daily lives we are called to be upright before God, true to ourselves and reconciled with our neighbour. It’s all of a piece.

Jesus sets us a very high standard today in the Gospel. Our hearts are to be in harmony with our actions.

Is Jesus calling you to reconcile with someone this Lent?

Esther 4:1-7
Matt 7:7-12

ASK
SEARCH
KNOCK

These are all aspects of our life of prayer. Asking God for our own needs and the needs of others is something we learn from an early age. It is, of course, not without its problems. We don’t always get what we ask for. Later in life we learn that our prayer may be answered in a way that we haven’t anticipated.

The searching element of prayer is something which unfolds and deepens throughout our lives. We might find ourselves searching for a way through a difficult situation, or searching for our path in life. The search never ends.

And sometimes our prayer takes us to a place where we arrive at a door and we need to knock. It’s all relational. We reach out and knock and trust that a door will be opened.

Are there doors that you would like to be opened to you this Lent?

Jonah 3:1-10
Luke 11:29-32

‘The people of Nineveh believed in God:
they proclaimed a fast and put on sack cloth,
from the greatest to the least.‘

I am very fond of the Book of Jonah. Jonah is a bit grumpy and doesn’t quite trust that his preaching mission will take off. But it does. There is no subtlety in Jonah’s message. The people have 40 days to get back on track or everything will be destroyed.

Sometimes we need a wake up call. Sometimes that call can be subtle. Sometimes it is very loud and obvious.

It is striking that all the inhabitants of Nineveh, cattle included, take part in this solemn fast. It is worth reflecting on how much the support of a group can carry us along when we feel the journey is long and hard.

Are you called to a change of heart this Lent?

Isaiah 55:10-11
Matthew 6:7-15

The words of the Our Father are so familiar to us. Sometimes they can lose their impact and we miss the fact that the prayer is revolutionary. We are praying that God’s kingdom might come. That’s every value turned on its head. There can be no ifs, no buts. Are we ready for this?

When I think of a place that embodies the kingdom for me, Lourdes always come to mind. Here you’ll see inclusion, deep faith and singing and dancing in the streets!

Where are your kingdom places?

How can you be the love that builds for the kingdom?