Sr. Josephine garrett
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| Standing with Jesus
I took a thirty-day retreat in preparation for my final vows. It was based on St. Ignatius’ Spiritual Exercises. As I reflect on our core call in the midst of COVID, and where I think we will know spiritual fulfillment and Gospel joy, the contemplation of the two standards comes to mind. The word “standard” in this case means flag, and the person praying this contemplation is asked to reflect on the standard of Christ and the standard of the world. The question for the retreatant is, Where do I stand? I think this is our question now, and a path forward that will probably not have the spicy sensation of the snarky rhetoric we have become accustomed to, even among some of our most followed Catholics, but it will sustain us and provide an unfailing assurance. When I prayed that reflection on the thirty-day retreat, I think I missed completely what Jesus wanted to say to me. That day, I imagined myself on an empty field with Jesus. To my left were many workers, people sacrificing in service and ministry, working to serve the sick and the poor for Jesus. To my right were a large group of Catholic celebrities. They had beauty lights in their faces, cameras on them, and podcast microphones at their mouths. They were chattering and chattering, talking to people about Catholic things and Jesus. Both groups took very little notice of others, and there was really no battle taking place. Jesus was there, in the gulf between the two, on an empty field. That day, I believed Jesus was saying to me that the battle isn’t what I think it is. During that prayer, occasionally someone would stop what they were doing on one side and go over to the other. That day, during that prayer, I thought Jesus was asking me to go to my left, and work and serve the sick and the poor. Today, I am sure I got it wrong. Today my eyes go back to Jesus on that field. Isn’t being with him the best place to be? Looking at him? Kneeling before God incarnate, his Eucharistic flesh as the standard? Standing with him in the gap? Standing with him in the gulf ? Doing whatever he asks and whatever he needs, no matter what it looks like, whether it is serving the sick, the poor, the wealthy, speaking about the Gospel, serving children, or serving people who are elderly, as long as it is not only in his name but united with him? What would happen if an army of us stood in the gap, focused on Jesus? This is the common life that religious sisters strive for. We close the gaps of division. We are a critique against the lie that division has the last say. We move the needle on the desire God the Father has that we may be one in his Son and according to his will and his law. We do this first in our own homes. We strive to prevent our differences from creating ongoing gulfs between us. We strive to stand with Jesus in our homes, and then we strive to take what we are discovering of that in our common life and share it in ministry. When we stand with Jesus, we look with his eyes, and we see what he always sees: God’s children. A childhood friend of mine recently published a book about her mother’s death and her process of grief. The book is titled The Lampblack Blue of Memory: My Mother Echoes. Her mother was a strikingly beautiful woman, not only in physical appearance, but in her spirit—an incredibly joyful and Christian woman. My friend and I lived on the same street from elementary school through high school. When we were sixteen years old, her mother did not return from a run. It was later discovered that, while on her run, she had been killed. The man who killed her confessed to the murder and recounted the story. He said my friend’s mother had tried to tell him about herself as they struggled, hoping that making herself more human to him would stop him. She eventually repeatedly told him that she was a Christian. The last words out of her mouth were “I forgive you and God does too.” She had arrived at the height of the prophetic ideal of the Gospel values proclaimed in religious life. These are the values that I believe our experiences with COVID are calling us to as we seem increasingly separated and divided. She looked at her enemy, someone who was taking her life, and saw the promise of eternal life, and saw that he was still God’s son. The world wants to trivialize this. We even have Catholic leaders who trivialize the idea that our primary identity is as sons and daughters of God and that the answers we need are found in living as sons and daughters of God the Father, united in Christ’s Body through the power of his life, death, and Resurrection. That day, Mrs. Adleman stood in that massive gap with Jesus, and left us a powerful legacy; I believe she had the strength to stand there because she believed in the Resurrection. tải về 64.08 Kb. Chia sẻ với bạn bè của bạn:
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