Much Ado About Lent

This morning, I was listening to a news podcast. The journalist was saying the latest statistics show that 3 out of 5 Americans say they feel; isolated, misunderstood and lonely. That's over 50 percent! Think about that! That's a lot of people! How many of the people you know, personally, feel that way? Do you know? Are you able to identify them? And what does this have to do with Lent, anyway?... Hold these thoughts and questions, we will come back to them.

How's your Lent going? We've just completed our second week of Lent and I'm willing to bet some of you are struggling, or maybe even feel like you've already failed. Maybe you had decided to give up chocolate or sweets for Lent and someone tempted you with a banana split and you ate the whole thing. Or maybe you tried to give up internet, but you have felt desperate to follow the events in the Ukraine and so you've been accessing the internet... So much struggle, so much suffering and guilt! For what? So many of the people I know see Lent as a time of introspection, a time to be sad or stoic, a time to struggle and suffer. Really! Is it any wonder we "observe" Lent, rather than "celebrate" it?! I wonder where we get these mythical ideas? There really ARE better ways. Lent CAN be celebrated. You really can be as excited and creative in celebrating Lent as you do Christmas. I promise you, it's true. Cheerfully, I hope you will let me challenge these ideas and attitudes surrounding Lent. I hope you will go forward from this message excited and inspired to be creative with the 32 days we have left until Easter. 

First of all, let's take a brief look at what Lent really is supposed to be comprised of. Lent is a church season based on three pillars; prayer, fasting and almsgiving. That's it. That's all. Simple, right?... Maybe. Maybe not. 

If you find yourself bored in prayer, talking and feeling like the words don't go any higher than the ceiling, what can you do?... Find a better way to pray, find a better way to commune with the One who is madly in love with you. How? Some people find reading a holy book or watching a religious movie to be prayer. Others know that the YHWH, name of God, is actually representative of breathing sounds. So, for them, sitting quietly in mediation and observing their breath, being One with the Creator is the best prayer. For still others, their actions are their prayers. So, they walk little old ladies across the street, they serve up food in the soup kitchen, they teach high school drop outs how to read, etc... Prayer isn't about words, it's about a state of giving your heart to the Divine Mystery and immersing yourself in that love. Get creative with it, be curious, have fun - make it something to look forward to.

Fasting... This can be about giving up all food, or just one particular type of food. Some people give up coffee and take the money they would usually spend on that coffee and give the money to the poor. Fasting AND almsgiving in one fell blow. Pretty cool idea, if that's your thing. Personally, I think I might die.. But we can fast from cussing. We can fast from the internet. We can give up all kinds of things. What's the point though? And how do we find a way to celebrate giving up something? Well, let me tell you. There's no way to make giving up anything pleasant, but I learned something this year that astounded me. ASTOUNDED me and excited me. My sufferings, first of all, teach me empathy for those who suffer. I've always known that and I try to stay sensitive for that. But more than that, Christ has told us that our sufferings can FREE others, our sufferings can DELIVER others, HEAL others, REDEEM others. I've heard it all my life, but I never understood that before, it was never real for me before. This year, it sunk in and that is the most amazing thing! We read this in, 

Matthew 17:19 - 21; Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast the demon out?" He said to them, "Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard see, you will say to this mountain 'Move from here to there', and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you'. But this kind (of demon) does not come out except by prayer and fasting." 

and also in,

Colossians 1:24 - I am now rejoicing in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am completing what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church. 

Our sufferings are added to Christ's sufferings and his Cross, and as a result our own sufferings help to free others, deliver others, heal others and redeem others. That is power! We play an active part in creating The Good News and that is astonishing. If you can't get excited about that, do you have a pulse?

Finally, almsgiving... Yes, in the most narrow sense, this means giving to charity. And I'm not going to downplay that. But there is more than one way to invest. We can invest our time, our interest,  our efforts, our hearts. And this year? While money is important, because the whole world seems to be suffering, I can think of something much more important than money to give.

This morning, I was listening to a news podcast. The journalist was saying the latest statistics show that 3 out of 5 Americans say they feel; isolated, misunderstood and lonely. That's over 50 percent! Think about that! That's a lot of people! And when we consider that people can often suffer "failure to thrive" or "broken heart syndrome", that people can literally die of loneliness - then it becomes clear, this is also a real epidemic. How many of the people you know, personally and in your own life, feel that way? Do you know? Are you able to identify them?... It is genuine almsgiving and true healing my friends, to reach out and give of yourself to people. Say "Hello", look them in the eye and give them a smile, offer to eat a meal with them and maybe play a game. Ask them how they're doing and make the effort to be Present, to listen and be interested. This may not seem like it's a sacrifice, in fact often, meeting up with friends is a great joy! But that's the point... The point is not always sacrifice and suffering, the point is to become one with Christ, to be the Life-giving Presence of Christ to everyone you meet. And that is something to celebrate, something to be creative with, have fun with and look forward to, something to be excited about. 

Wishing you the best Lent ever, because we're only 2 weeks in and it's not too late. 
Lorie Jo

 

Saint  Matthias and St. Maria Caridad Brader

Prayer: “If I am not in God’s will or in God’s grace, may God put me there. And if I am, may God so keep me. Amen.” +

Quickly, I’d like to run through tonight’s readings with you, as I’d found an interesting theme running through each one of them and it is encapsulated in the word “HOME”.

In our 1st reading, speaking of the betrayer Judas Iscariot, St. Peter declares; `Let his home become desolate and let there be no one to live in it'… That’s a very strange thing to say about a man who had renounced everything and had just spent years wandering around with Jesus homeless. What home? “Let his home become desolate!”

The Psalmist asks; “Lord, who may dwell in your tabernacle, who may abide upon your holy hill?” Lord, who may make their home with you? In the Psalm we receive this answer; he who is pure of heart AND does no evil is the one who may dwell with the Lord.

In our 2^nd reading, St. Paul says; “Many live as enemies of the cross of Christ… Their end is their destruction; their god is the belly… their minds are set on earthly things. But our citizenship (our home) is with the Lord.”

Jesus says; “I am the vine. If you abide in me (make me your home) and my words abide in you, you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

Tonight, we celebrate the lives of two Saints; St. Matthias and St. Maria Caridad Brader. Both Saints were homeless, but while they wandered the earth actively building the Kingdom of the Christ, they lived each day quite at home in the tabernacle of Christ’s love.

A Zen proverb says; “Your treasure house is within you, it contains everything you need.” A wandering Zen monk has written; “Everywhere I roam, whether over mountains or down through the valleys, every step is home.”... These Zen monks and Saints of Christ would have recognized and understood one another, I think. They understood that “home is where the heart is.”

We don’t know much about St. Matthias. After this account in Acts, where Matthias is named “Apostle” to replace Judas, everything becomes confused. I’ve come across no less than 4 differing accounts of what may have happened to Matthias;

1)      He left Judea to preach in Ethiopia and was eventually crucified.

2)      He 1eft Judea to preach in Ethiopia and he eventua11y died at Sebastopo1is and was buried there, near the Temp1e of the Sun.

3)      He was stoned to death by Jews in Jerusalem           and then beheaded.

4)      He died of old age in Jerusalem.

We really just don’t know what happened with this Apostle, his history is lost in the mists of time. But we do know two things; he had been with Jesus from the beginning, he was a disciple. It’s easy for us to forget Jesus had 12 Apostles and 72 Disciples. Matthias was one of the 72 disciples and was considered by the other Apostles to be faithful, to be worthy of leadership. Otherwise, he would not have been nominated. Secondly, he was a wandering Evangelist, from the time that Jesus sent out the 72 disciples to preach the Gospel to the day he died. All of the Apostles were, evangelism  characterized their office. They all felt the Good News was so important that each and every single one of them was willing to speak it – shout it in the streets even! No matter what the consequences. They were jailed, they were whipped, they were tortured, stoned, crucified. None of this stopped them. It didn’t matter. The Good News was THAT compelling, it was burning fire in their bones, they had to grab people in the streets and shout “have you heard this?!”

The Apostles prayed in our reading; “Lord, you know everyone’s heart. Show us which one of these two you have chosen…” Clearly, St. Matthias’s heart had made its home in the Lord.

2,000 years later, things weren’t much different for Maria Caridad Brader. She was born in Switzerland in 1860, so she is a modern day Saint and there are photos of her on the internet.

She is reported to have been an unusually intelligent child. Fortunately her mother was wise enough to see this, wise enough to provide the very best education available, and Maria excelled.

I don’t know the details but at some point Maria’s mother was widowed and Maria was the only child. As an only child, I’m sure she was treasured by her mother and the two became very close. Maria must have been a great comfort to her mother. She must have been a source of great pride and joy, being a good child and a child who excelled in school. This bond must have made Maria’s decision to enter a Franciscan Cloister, where she would never see her mother again (and would leave her mother with no family, no hope of grandchildren)… this situation must have made Maria’s decision a difficult and heartbreaking one. But Maria loved Jesus, she loved the Gospel, she loved the vision of God’s kingdom so much that like the Apostles, she left everything and found no sacrifice too great to pay.

The Franciscans were greatly impressed with Maria’s intelligence and put her to work as a teacher at the convent school. Then a call came from a Bishop in Ecuador; please come, we need missionaries! The Mother Superior of the convent volunteered 6 of her nuns including Maria, saying; “Sr. Caridad will go to the missionary foundation; she is supremely generous, shows no reluctance to any sacrifice, and with her extraordinary practical sense and education will be able render great services to the mission”. Wow! I’d like to have that on my resume!

Mother Superior’s prophecy came true too. After teaching in Ecuador for several years, St. Maria went on mission to Columbia, and it is said; “she loved the locals and spared no efforts to reach them, braving the wild breakers of the ocean, the tangled undergrowth of the jungle, and the intense cold of the high plateaus. Her zeal knew no bounds. She was concerned above all with the poor, the outcast and those who did not yet know the Gospel.”

One of the things you might not know is, when the missionary nuns of these times went out into the wilderness they would end up building their own convents, churches and schools. Usually, they would first build temporary log cabins. Then, they would start baking bricks in their ovens and carrying them to the site of the permanent buildings.

St. Maria may have been unique in her day, I don’t know for sure, but once she was established – she educated and empowered the locals to become missionaries and church leaders. She did not cling to power, but handed it to the natives of Ecuador and Columbia. She came to give them a love for Jesus, to share the vision of building the Kingdom and then she stepped out of their way so they could do just that.

Thinking about St. Maria, you might ask yourself these questions; When was the last time I walked a mile in the cold? When was the last time I slept outside? When was the last time I was uncertain of where my next meal was coming from? When was the last time I was thirsty or hungry? When was the last time I gathered up the courage to invite someone to Church? Or gathered up the courage to speak about Jesus and the Good News in a setting where such speech would be unpopular or even condemned?... Now we don’t have to sleep outside, we don’t have to walk for miles in the cold, we don’t have to go out into the wilderness where our food sources are uncertain, we don’t have to make those kinds of sacrifices. But it’s important to think about those who did, to wonder just what compelled them to do those crazy things! It’s also important to think about what kinds of crazy sacrifices we CAN make in this day and age, and even more important to ask ourselves if we are really moved by the love and vision of Christ to make them – or not.

”Home is where the heart is”, where is your heart tonight? A great question for Lent, when we strive to be most honest with ourselves.