Lauren Grace
Reflections for Lent 2017 by three CPF/St. Malachy women
I remember eagerly welcoming Advent last November, a time when many of us already felt so acutely that we were stumbling in a great darkness. Now we come to Lent yearning for the truth of Christ's resurrection in our broken world. As Catholics we are compelled to carry the suffering of the world, to live day to day in the reality that we are still striving toward the Kingdom of Heaven, our work ever before us - the immigrant in need of sanctuary, the poor in need of economic justice, children in need of educational equality, and a planet in desperate need of stewardship.
We see this consuming darkness and ask ourselves, "what now?" As a mother of three small children this question inevitably leaves me feeling a perpetual failure. What can I possibly do to resist what Dorothy Day called "Holy Mother State" when there are lunches to pack and diapers to change and so much small work always before me? Of course I always return to Therese of Lisieux, the "Little Flower", whose example is one of constant devotion to God through small work done with consuming love. She teaches us to do the work that is at hand - whether that is going to a protest, welcoming a stranger, listening to one who is lonely, performing an act of civil disobedience, or calming a child in the middle of the night. If God is with us then even this simple work can be transformative.
Dorothy Day lived surrounded by poverty, despair, and injustice and yet I am always taken by how often she writes of the beauty of the natural world, humble as it may have been from her New York Catholic Worker. These days I am compelled to look for it all around - the stark trees branches against a crisp winter sky, the little bright birds at the feeder outside my window, a pink cloud-dappled sunrise right in our own backyard. Just a few days ago we spotted the first of the cheerful crocuses popping up amongst the leaves and debris from winter. Neva and Frances are delighted by its presence and immediately set out to preserve this tiny little flower by setting up four twigs around it; a feeble barrier that will certainly be trampled easily by a careless passerby. It is all so very small and so very beautiful; practically hopeless but for us, at that moment, so abundantly hopeful.
Joanne Ennis
There is a poem that I've been returning to repeatedly in the last few weeks and months. It's called "A Sleep of Prisoners" by Christopher Frye and it captures many of the feelings that I have been wrestling with as I watch what's going on in our country.
A Sleep of Prisoners
Thank God our time is now when wrong Comes up to face us everywhere, Never to leave us till we take
The longest stride of soul men ever took.
Affairs are now soul size.
The enterprise is exploration into God. Where are you making for? It takes So many thousand years to wake..
But will you wake, for pity's sake?
Indeed, NOW IS a time when we are being faced with wrongs, seemingly everywhere. Dismay, disbelief, discouragement, depression. The recent events in our country have brought these dark feelings into our lives, seemingly to take up permanent residence. How to respond to the bewildering events and executive orders which seem focused on undoing any and all progress we have made in matters meant to improve life for all of us, especially our most vulnerable brothers and sisters.
At times, indeed, it may feel hopeless. But if we relinquish hope, we are abdicating our Christian responsibility. We are part of a large community of believers, each with a contribution to make in the healing of our country and our world.
We must concentrate on doing the right thing, treating each other with respect, helping those who need help. Our reactions to what is happening in the name of this new administration must not primarily be negative, but rather positive and forward- looking. In this fractured environment, where people on opposite sides of the political spectrum often talk past each other, we can change minds with our deeds and in helping to show the humanity of those who are in distress and need our help. So many who support policies of exclusion consider refugees and immigrants to be faceless, lawless hordes. We must do everything we can to show that they are individuals with many of the very same hopes, worries and desires as all of us.
Last fall, when the Native American communities in North Dakota gathered to oppose the construction of the Dakota Pipeline, police eventually tried to arrest some of the protesters. The protesters remained peaceful, however, and could be heard calling to one another: "Stand in your prayer."
In these dark times, our call as Christians is to stand in our prayer, peacefully, respectfully but strongly. Indifference is not an option for Christians. Jesus is clear: "I was a stranger and you welcomed me, naked and you clothed me. I was ill and you comforted me, in prison and you came to visit me. I assure you, as often as you did it for the least among you, you did it for me." (Matthew 25, 35-40)
This message of Jesus is "my prayer"... my voice is but one, but there are millions of others who are also committed to living out that prayer. And that is the source of HOPE. We need to "wake up, for pity's sake".
For, indeed, our time is now, “when wrong comes up to face us everywhere."
Cyrilla Dillon
“What does God’s holiness look like? It looks like a never-ending outreach to rebellious humanity, an on-going invitation to communion, the incarnation of love, no matter the cost. It looks like a person who approaches an oppressor with an attitude that says, ‘You—no, we can be better than that!’” (Spiritual Reflections, Mary M.McGlone, NCR , 2/18/17)
I am feeling oppressed these days by the voices of those who portray those on the margins, those outside one’s own clan as “the other” who are to be feared, shunned and rejected. I am drawn to ridicule, attack, and annihilate those who deeply disturb my vision of the beloved community.
It is the community of many faiths that draws me out and chastises me to do better. But how do I not bear hatred in my heart nor take no revenge and cherish no grudge while I reprove my fellow companions for the words and actions they express towards others?
We need to respect the dignity of the other person while at the same moment in time confront them. We need to Support/Confront.
In their manual, White People Confronting Racism, Antje Mattheus & Lorraine Marino, and in his essay,
communication skill. “Support means showing that you accept the other’s position, feelings, goals, ideals, values, as real for them even when you do not agree or feel differently. Confronting means making explicit the differences between you and another.” So for example:
You are convinced that undocumented immigrants who knew they were breaking the law deserve to be deported and I believe that since 70% of all migrants cross for economic reasons, they literally cannot provide for their families in Mexico, Central America or Haiti, it is an act of love.
“Confronting does not mean hostility, nor is it a means of delivering your negative judgment of another.”
You believe that nations have a right to secure their borders and Catholic Social Teaching reminds me that people also have the right to migrate if they cannot have a dignified life in their country of origin.
Supporting/Confronting is an essential skill for illuminating blind spots in a way that leads to growth, not judgment. It is a way of speaking as a Christian in an upside down world.
