Solitude

I've been drawn back time and again this week to thinking about Jesus in the desert, back to the Gospel from the 1st Sunday of Lent (Year B - St. Mark) and especially to the first two sentences:

"The Spirit drove Jesus out into the desert, and he remained in the desert for forty days, tempted by Satan. He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him."

This propensity of mine was propelled, you might say, in part by a couple of chance discussions with friends and acquaintances in these days. What they shared and in two cases who they are have me thinking about "solitude", not loneliness, not isolation, but solitude. The older I get, the longer I live, the more often I experience older people suffering from loneliness. Experience has taught me even before death separates life-long partners in marriage and dear friends, that younger people can find themselves very much alone in the midst of life. There is just too much good video or film imagery out there of the man or woman very much alone in the crowd for me to want to elaborate any more. Struggling with loneliness, however, is not my interest today, but rather solitude as part of life, as an occasion, an opportunity for growth and self-realization.

"He was among wild beasts, and the angels ministered to him."

Decades ago TWA advertised travel packages know as "TWA Get Away Tours". They were terribly popular once upon a time and I can remember any number of Americans traveling to Europe who went that route. The name of the tours took its cue from a kind of existentialist or dreamy wish to escape the hectic and get away from it all. I still know people who try to "get away from it all", that "all" certainly being the pressures of work, but often also general responsibilities including theirs for family. It's a mentality which can help explain the popularity of Las Vegas, I guess. In this expression the "no to whatever" seems to dominate, whereas solitude is something different and I think also fundamentally positive.

In my childhood and youth I was always puzzled by the life-style of holy hermits. They did not necessarily live the life of a recluse. Invariably they spent much of their time counselling other people and even directing the spiritual life of others. Even so, they enjoyed what I understand to be solitude. They alone before God struggled with Satan, as Jesus had in the desert, and like him they were exposed to the wilds, beast or otherwise of this world, and could count only on the ministrations of angels. Solitude is indeed being alone, but being alone with God; it is an essential and active aloneness which may be filled with work and people, not as distraction but as mission and purpose toward/unto God Himself. Solitude is not a virtue or a strength, but rather a condition, an essential part of the Christian life as trajectory toward the fullness of life and grace in the glory of the Resurrection.

Take a walk around the busy center of Kyiv or any major city where people are still out walking from here to there and you'll find out what a rare commodity solitude is. Bluetooth, ear-buds, or cell phone up to their ear and talking to someone, most people are not even alone or quiet with their own thoughts for the time from point A to point B, from the office door to the subway or bus-stop. I can remember from talks with people my age and older in Trinidad, or more often as I had occasion to meet people who were home visiting Trinidad from points north, their fond memories of something their children and grandchildren may never have known, as the joy they had known at home as small children in the presence of mommie's homespun oneness with God, her quiet humming or singing as she went about her house chores. A personal resource or richness has been supplanted in the best of scenarios by stereo recordings, but in most cases by radio and TV, banal sound and even worse advertising. 

Devout folk nowadays go on about taking a day of recollection as their day in the desert. Most good spiritual directors plead for quiet time in our lives, of fasting from phone, internet, TV, radio, facebook (need I continue the litany?). I think Jesus' forty days in the desert were something more and in the very midst of life. St. Francis de Sales was very clear on the difference in the spirituality proper to a monk or a hermit, a ruler or a family person. All, in Francis' design and each in the way proper to his or her state in life, need that alone, that solitude, which makes room for God and a coming face to face with the essential issues in struggling to establish His rule in our lives. 

In my own experience, blessed solitude is there in my life whenever I let it be. My fault and I think it a common one among folk and even priests is that we flee solitude, we fill God's chosen space with all sorts of distractions. I don't think that the remedy is to be found either in some sort of yoga or centering prayer. Truth to be told, if we were to pull the ear-buds, to stow the phone, to turn off all the image makers and sound boxes, solitude could and would come rushing into our lives, allowing us time for the ultimate and before God. I'm not recommending mental hygiene but rather really living, life with all its components, a life which enjoys solitude. 

My childhood definition of prayer is lifting heart and mind to God. The Scriptural exhortation to pray unceasingly, as St. Paul teaches and St. Augustine illustrates, is a matter not of the lips but of the heart set night and day on God. For all who believe, for all whose heart is right, all is possible if we would but renounce sin and then seek perfection by simply stepping out of the thicket of distractions, by pulling a few plugs.

Basking in the Light of Noonday at the Year's Darkest Hour

The 2nd Reading from the Office of Readings for Thursday of the 33rd Week in Ordinary Time, which is an excerpt from a commentary on the Song of Songs by St. Gregory of Nyssa, got my mind rolling today and especially looking forward to the approaching season of Advent as a special time in the year for going to confession, for celebrating the Sacrament of Penance. 

I remember as a young priest at the Cathedral that this was the time when all of us priests did home visits as part of the preparation of the children who would be making First Penance before Christmas. When I was a child the two sacraments celebrated as First Confession and First Holy Communion were yoked together, but in the late 1970's a school of pedagogy had elected for a separation as a means of addressing through the home visit the issues which parents often had with Confession. It wasn't a bad idea and may even have helped some parents overcome their own fears or prejudices about Confession.

In any case, let me quote from St. Gregory:

"No one is judged worthy of this noonday rest who is not a child of light and of the day. But if anyone makes himself equally distant from the shadows of daybreak and those of nightfall, that is, from the origin of evil and its conclusion, the sun of righteousness makes him lie down at noontide. Show me, then, says the bride, how I should lie down; show me the path to this noonday repose, lest my ignorance of your truth cause me to stray from your good guidance and consort with flocks which are strangers to yours. Thus speaks the bride, anxious about the beauty God has given her, and seeking to learn how her comeliness may continue for ever." 

One of the genuine heartbreaks of a goodly priest in the confessional is being confronted by the annual or twice a year penitent, who wants to do the right thing but is both ignorant, certainly fearful, and perhaps defensive, far from the eagerness of St. Gregory's bride seeking rest in the bright light of Christ, the Bridegroom's Truth. This was the dilemma or tragedy of Father's home visits for First Penance back in the 1970's, seeing the reticence perhaps of both Mom and Dad, noting their fear and ignorance concerning the Sacrament of Penance. I pray regularly and a lot for the renewal of the Sacrament of Penance in the practice of the Church. This priceless pearl must be recovered and praying that the Holy Spirit inspire first steps back toward the light is a sine qua non. I also invite others to pray for this intention and have seen some of the fruits in the lives of people as a result of that invitation.

Beyond the straying sheep, let us say, there are also all of the rest of us who could profit from more light. When it comes to making a truly good confession even great and holy souls, canonized saints have profited from the direction of wise confessors. If you don't feel as though you are getting anything out of confession or if on those 2, 3, or 4 times of a year that you go the experience is less than satisfying and you know enough to blame yourself for having choked in the clinch or blanked, then maybe you need more practice and should consider going more often to confession. Once a month is really not that often, trust me!

Besides practicing by going more often, I think we need formation, we need to learn, we need to read or study. A big part of the Catechism of the Catholic Church and its edition for youth, Youcat, offer food for reflection. The programming of EWTN is not without aids in this regard too.

"Thus speaks the bride, anxious about the beauty God has given her, and seeking to learn how her comeliness may continue for ever."

Keeping up appearances is not living in the light. It could be that we have lost the beauty of our Baptism. We need but join the battle with our Savior and Redeemer, Who through the ministry of His Church can give us pardon and peace. Perseverance, prayerful supplication to God to come to our aid, seeking the light through spiritual reading. The need is urgent but the Bridegroom is waiting to see us in His Light. In Him alone our souls will find rest.

Church Marquee

This is at least the third week of my vacation at home when on my daily, early morning walk I have passed by the church marquee in front of a local unaffiliated church carrying the same enigmatic (to say it politely) message: "Broken by Religion - Healed by God". I feel offended by the message but really can't say why.

I do not have the slightest idea even after all of these mornings of being confronted with the "message" as to what it could possibly mean. I'm wondering if the pastor or preacher has been away on vacation and if the janitor or church secretary didn't take matters into his or her own hands and decide to make a statement, perhaps in the old European tradition of sacristans or church sextons who firmly resented their being underpaid and unappreciated by the local clergyman, with whom they were more often than not at odds for many reasons (Bernanos, in Diary of a Country Priest, alludes to this "tradition"). As I say, I haven't the foggiest as to what the thing is supposed to mean and no courage to go knocking on the door to find out what somebody means by that.

Truth to be told, I'm glad that Catholic churches rarely have marquees to display more than the schedule of Masses and Confession times. It's a genre totally foreign to our notion of Sunday as the Day of the Lord. It would be unthinkable, if you had more than one Catholic church on Main Street to have the dear priests competing for Sunday attendance by putting out the title for their Sunday homilies street-side on the marquee, let's say on Friday afternoon. While Father should do his best to teach and edify in the homily and that at least since the Council of Trent and its Catechism, which had detailed outlines for which passages went with the readings for each Sunday of the year, Sunday is nevertheless not Sunday School for us but our day to put ourselves clearly in relationship with the Sacrifice of the Cross and our Blessed Lord Who reigns from that Tree, as we renew with Him in unbloody fashion what He did for us once and for all on Calvary.

An awful lot of our non-Catholic friends not only read their bibles, but they study in groups and alone. In days gone by, we Catholics too studied as children preparing for first Confession, first Holy Communion and Confirmation. Today, we try even to make young couples reflect on the important step they are taking when they ask the Church for Christian Matrimony. All in all, however, the over-sixty crowd were better prepared for Sunday than the under-fifty crowd are today. When you knew your basic catechism, when you prayed daily at home (meals and bedtime, and for certain families even the rosary), then you knew what Sunday was for. You knew you owed everything but especially Sunday morning and Sunday Mass to the Lord. It was serious time and even reason to dress up.

I'm so glad EWTN's rich programming comes into most people's homes these days. There's a lot of great Catholic radio out there too. It sounds like the internet offerings, especially video, get good exposure as well... "Broken by Religion - Healed by God"? What in the world is that supposed to mean? Let us just blame it on an unhappy janitor and get on with the program!

He Answers All Our Needs

20^th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A

Isaiah 56:1, 6-7

Romans 11:13-15, 29-32

Matthew 15:21-28

“’O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.’ And the woman’s daughter was healed from that hour.” (Matt. 15:27-28)

 “(A)ll who keep the Sabbath free from profanation and hold to my covenant, them I will bring to my holy mountain and make joyful in my house of prayer, their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar, for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” (Isaiah 56:7)

When I was a child we were given pointers for identifying a Catholic church when we were traveling on summer vacation. One counsel was that if on entering the vestibule of the church you found there a cloakroom, then you knew it was not a Catholic church. Orders from Sister were to turn around and leave immediately! 

What is a house of prayer anyway? Today there are some Catholic churches with cloakrooms and many more with greeters at the door; times change. Years ago a common excuse folks gave for abandoning their Catholic faith in favor of some other group was that at the Catholic church it was all too cold and impersonal (no cloakrooms and no greeters: no fellowship and no coffee and donuts!). What is God’s house of prayer supposed to be like? What is a house of prayer? 

I don’t know if people still use that excuse of no fellowship, of our being too impersonal as a reason to turn their backs on us. Perhaps not on that account, but on another I am sure they still go away, namely when they disagree with Father. Instead of going to the next parish, some people get upset and offended when Father rubs them the wrong way and they abandon the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church altogether, in favor of something they might find user-friendlier, while trying to put the blame for their departure on the priest. Some stop going to church entirely with this same (sorry! dishonest) excuse. Go figure! In these peoples’ minds, no doubt, the Canaanite woman in today’s Gospel would have been justified in stomping off in a rage, thoroughly offended by the treatment she received from the disciples and Jesus.

“O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”

Faith and prayer: where are you at in terms of them? Can you compete or compare with the Canaanite woman in her tenacious supplication: “Have pity on me Lord, Son of David! … Lord, help me. … Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”? Faith! Tyre and Sidon is, as it was in Jesus’ day, foreign territory. Stranger as she was to God’s people yet she came to Him in her need. 

How much could this woman have known about Jesus? What excuse could we possibly have for not depending on the Lord, Who has washed us clean in the waters of Baptism and strengthened us through the grace of the Holy Spirit in Confirmation, and Who tends us and absolves our sins through the ministrations of His priests, who feed us with the Body and Blood of the Lord? For us today, unlike the case of the Canaanite woman, Jesus and His disciples are not just passing through town but He, the Lord, is present in our lives and sacramentally present here in our parish church, our house of prayer. 

There was nothing simple or superficial about this woman. She had faith and she faced the cold shoulders, the annoyed and puzzled looks of the disciples; she kept coming back, each time referring to Jesus as Lord, as Dominus, that is as God. Her faith, humble and sure, was in the Son of David and in His power to cast out the demon tormenting her daughter. Can we do any less than turn to the Lord, always so close to us, in every moment and regardless of our need?

“O woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish.”

Desperation alone will not explain this woman’s tenacity. If faith were not present she would not have known enough to turn to Jesus. She took advantage of a surprising and unique opportunity, having discovered Jesus in her town. Maybe there is no such suffering in my life or in my family, at least not like there was in hers. Some would try to write her off as desperate and say she had nowhere else to turn. That is true enough, because who other than God Himself, God visible and present to our world in and through His Son, Jesus, who else conquers over sin and death? Who but God casts out demons? And what about us, do we have other options for life? Can we center our lives on anyone or anything other than Jesus? Can we trust anyone else to answer all our needs? Can we do without turning to Jesus and without doing so constantly, in every moment of our lives? Where does our sufficiency lie? Can we do without calling upon the Lord’s Name as if we had no need, or as if WallMart and Dillon’s were sufficient for our daily bread?

Do we pick our house of prayer for its fellowship, its cloakroom, its greeters, its rousing music and powerful preaching or because God’s Altar, His Tabernacle is there and the one acceptable sacrifice of the New Covenant in the Blood of Christ is renewed in unbloody fashion through the celebration of the Eucharist there? Isaiah said it so clearly and his words through the Church have lost none of their force as they are addressed to us today: “Thus says the Lord: Observe what is right, do what is just; for my salvation is about to come, my justice, about to be revealed.” The obedient and the faith-filled will see God in Christ, now and live with Him forever in Glory.

Simeon and Anna, as elderly people who prayerfully begged God to send His Messiah and deliver His people, spent all their time in the Temple. They were blessed with an encounter with Baby Jesus coming to the Temple on His Mother Mary’s arm. Simeon and Anna received the assurance that their prayers had been answered. You and I might have or certainly do have other duties which keep us from copying their example. Important is that we follow the example of the Canaanite woman, that we recognize Who our Redeemer is, that we turn to Him wherever we might be and that when, especially each Sunday, we have the opportunity to gather with His Church and return thanks to the Father with Jesus in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, that we do so with that woman’s same focus and determination, confident in the Lord’s power to save us as well.

Faith and prayer: Holy Cross parish is indeed fortunate; you are indeed fortunate to have such a beautiful house of prayer, a place with the Tabernacle front and center, a linear and focused building where our eyes are naturally drawn to Jesus lifted high upon His Cross. The atmosphere is conducive to silence, which is what we need for prayer, for lifting our hearts and minds to God.

Stake out, claim this sacred space for yourselves and for all those you love, for all those who come here to pray. Help make this place God’s house and a ladder to heaven for you and for others. Do so by your reverence, by your posture and your silence; do so by the way you come and go, by being conscious of the importance of this place and of Him Who dwells herein! Wherever you are however, wherever life takes you in the course of a week, live in the presence of God. Don’t miss an opportunity to spy Jesus as you go about your duties at home, at work, at school, wherever. Turn to Him in all your need!

“Have pity on me Lord, Son of David! … Lord, help me. … Please, Lord, for even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the table of their masters.”

 

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI