Strength in Darkness

   “I want you to give me at once on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” Mk 6:25

Women and men in prison are among the most isolated people in the world. Often forgotten even by their friends and family, they have little to do but endure and hope for their freedom. For those who study or learn to pray in prison, life can have new meaning, but the strength needed to survive the emptiness and segregation is often lacking. Many become chronically depressed and often think of suicide.

All of us have or make prisons for ourselves from time to time. Call it what you will, but our unwillingness to let go of a job, a lifestyle, a home or an idea can trap us in a place that once served us well on our earthly pilgrimage, but is now very much like a prison. Unless we seek the grace to live in Christ each day, we will be unable to see God wherever we are or hear God directing us to a new path.

Today, ask God to free you from prisons of your own making.

How can the witness of John the Baptist help contemporary Christians?

St Alphonsus Liguori

 “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6

One of the most remarkable phenomenon in the Judeo-Christian tradition is how God uses the weakness of people to confound the wise. Not only is this uncomfortable for us, it often pushes away those who think of themselves as sane, centered and grounded. Christopher Hitchens, who in his last years was a loud and acerbic critic of religion, asserted that the dark night of the soul was nothing more than depression, a view that is shared by many who call themselves atheists.

Alphonsus Liguori, the founder of the Redemptorists, is a powerful example of  someone who offers a different interpretation of darkness. Well educated, he finished his doctoral studies in canon and civil law before he was twenty, but was unhappy. Hearing God's call to share the good news in simple ways, he sought ordination, despite the opposition of his family. Badly bent over by rheumatism, and unable to stand erect, he managed to preach popular missions for 26 years. Though a renowned theologian, it was his humility and integrity that touched the hearts of ordinary believers most deeply.

Today, ask for the grace of not knowing everything.

What experiences have taught you the value of humility?

St Ignatius Loyola

 "Now Herod had arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, for John had said to him, 'It is not lawful for you to have her.'” Mt 14:2

More concerned with his own pleasure and ephemeral power than the welfare of others, St Ignatius Loyola was arrogant, entitled and aggressive, not someone his contemporaries would have imagined becoming one of the great and most revered saints of the Western Church. But God had plans for Ignatius, and God's desire for him won out. 

Badly wounded in battle, Ignatius had nothing to do but fantasize about a woman he hoped to marry. Unsatisfied and dispirited, when he began to read a life of Christ and the lives of the saints, his spirit quieted and he felt peaceful. Discernment of Spirits, for which he would become famous, was born. Ignatius knew that his heart was driving him away from his former life more deeply into the Gospel, and when he responded God drew him closer and led him towards other young men who were eager to life a Gospel life. Not long afterwards the Society of Jesus was born.

Today, let your heart speak its truth and ask for the grace to follow it.

Have you had religious experiences that changed your life?

Fine Pearls

   “The Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price,  he goes and sells all that he has and buys it." Mt 13:46

Often great thinkers and saints come along at a time in church history when there is division, even chaos, and rage. St Francis of Assisi changed his society not by being upwardly mobile, but by choosing to live as a poor person among the poorest of the poor in Assisi. Thomas Becket famously said: "I am ready to die for my Lord, that in my blood the Church may obtain liberty and peace. But in the name of Almighty God, I forbid you to hurt my people whether clerk or lay." And Mother Teresa of Calcutta saw a million people dying on the streets of Calcutta and decided to respond to them with love when no one else wanted to see them. All of them were pearls of great price.

Our task today is to do the same. Even at a time of great turmoil in our nation and church, there are great pearls to be found. Everyday people see and respond to the hungry, homeless and sick with compassion, patience and zeal. They know the needy are pearls and they realize and celebrate from a great privilege it is to help them

Today, practice virtue and justice.

What do you think it means to be a faith filled citizen in the United States today?

St Martha, Mary and Lazarus

  "When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews who had come with her weeping, he became perturbed and deeply troubled, and said, 'Where have you laid him?' They said to him, 'Sir, come and see.' And Jesus wept." Jn 11: 33-35

The raising of Lazarus from the dead is confusing at best and impossible at worst. If Jesus is such a good friend of Lazarus and knows Lazarus is sick, why does he wait two days before going to him? It seems to most of us that Jesus' delay is unnecessary, even cruel. No wonder Lazarus' sisters complain when Jesus finally appears in Bethany. Convinced Jesus was the Messiah, Martha and Mary wonder aloud to Jesus: If you had been hear, our brother would not have died. Are they accusing Jesus of not caring about them or Lazarus?

In any case, when Jesus finally speaks with Martha, she and those grieving with her are weeping. Distraught and upset by his friends' sorrow, Jesus weeps and proceeds, even though Lazarus has been in the tomb four days to raise him from the dead. Jesus' power over death calls us to a new level of faith. We must trust the Lord no matter how sick or disabled we might be and how often he seems to be absent, because he is Lord of the living and the dead.

Today, don't be afraid to weep about your own unbelief. Submit yourself to the Lord and ask him to raise you up.

In what ways are you drawn to the humanity of Jesus?

Embrace a Prophet

 "As Moses drew near the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. With that, Moses’ wrath flared up, so that he threw the tablets down and broke them on the base of the mountain." Ex 32:19

There is a wonderful midrash that the Jewish people often repeat. Wondering what happened to the broken pieces of the tablets on which God wrote the commandments after Moses smashed them in anger when he found the people worshiping a golden calf and dancing before it, the rabbis suggested that both the broken pieces and the second set of tablets that God gave Moses were placed in the Ark of the Covenant so that we would never forget that we are both whole and broken as individuals and communities.

This is certainly true of the church. Dorothy Day, whose life of service to the very poor and her active non violence as a conscientious objector regularly put her in conflict with the American hierarchy once wrote, "As to the church, where else shall we go, except to the Bride of Christ, one flesh with Christ? Though she is a harlot at times, she is our Mother." 

Although they can make us terribly uncomfortable and even angry, we always have need of prophets like Dorothy Day, people who remind us that God's word cannot be ignored without risking our own integrity and the loss of faith.

Today, do not criticize others. Reform your own life.

What part of the gospel most challenges you to change?