It Goes On

“In three words, I can sum up everything I've learned about life: It goes on.”
~Robert Frost

If we've ever dug in a garden and unearthed an ants' nest, we can recall their first reaction to our unintended destruction: they do everything possible to save their lives and supplies. The ants scurry around, moving the larvae to an underground room. Exposed contents are then relocated to unseen passages. In a matter of minutes, the ants are again safely underground and ready to resume their daily routines.

How do we react when some catastrophe or unplanned event occurs? Do we want to crawl under a rock or are we as resilient as the ants? Instead of moaning over postponed plans or the loss of something in our lives, we can try to be like the ants and learn how to best work with circumstances that come our way.

Life doesn't stop for us to lick wounds or add fuel to grievances. Hours pass, we grow older, nature continues. Every event is part of life's cycle. We can't run away from anything. We must meet life head-on and adjust to its ebb and flow.

I can look at an unplanned event in my life as part of life's cycle. I need to trust that life will go on.

~ Source Unknown

God, I Offer Myself to Thee

 

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Today’s first reading, Jeramiah 23:1-6, presents us with two contrasting portraits of shepherds. We have a graphic description of BAD shepherds (leaders) who were careless and who scattered the sheep and drove them away. And then God intervened, punishing the bad shepherds and taking responsibility for the sheep. God gathered the sheep together, brought them back to their meadow and appointed good shepherds who would “shepherd them so that they need no longer fear and tremble; and none shall be missing…”. God also promised to raise up “a righteous shoot to David”, “a leader who will “reign and govern wisely, he shall do what is just and right in the land. In his days Judah shall be saved, Israel shall dwell in security.”

The people of the world had to wait almost 600 years for the righteous leader Jeramiah prophesied about to appear. Shortly after Jesus began his ministry the crowds began to pursue him relentlessly. He recognized that they were lost, fearful and starved for messages of compassion and hope. They were “like sheep without a shepherd.” They recognized him as a good shepherd and they followed him. As Jesus tells us in St John’s Gospel when the shepherd enters the sheepfold, “the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice. But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers” (John 10:3-5).

The question for us here in Peachtree City today is do we recognize the voice of Jesus when he calls us out of our sheepfolds? Are we willing to follow this shepherd who was willing to lay down his life for us? Do we have the courage, compassion, love, forgiveness and fortitude to be good shepherds ourselves to all those people for whom we are responsible?

We all are called to be good shepherds. We all have a responsibility to nurture and protect the most venerable people in our world. We all also have a responsibility to nurture ourselves following the example of Jesus taking time for rest, reflection and prayer.

Our loving God,

your Son Jesus has revealed you to us

as more tender, warm hearted and compassionate

than any mother could ever be.

Be near to all who are wounded in life,

care for all the little people trampled upon in our world.

Help all those who follow your Son

become people who can forgive and heal,

and make themselves nourishing bread

for all who are hungry in any way.

Help us care for one another

as you care for us through Jesus,

your Son and our Lord for ever and ever.

Amen.

Face of God

In 1987, a newspaper photographer was sent to Ecuador to cover a devastating earthquake that devastated much of the country. In the midst of such catastrophic suffering, he witnessed a simple scene of compassion that moved him deeply. The photographer wrote:

The line was long but moving briskly, and in that line, at the very end, stood a young girl about 12 years of age. She waited patiently as those at the front of that long line received a little rice, some canned goods, or a little fruit. Slowly but surely she was getting closer to the front of the line, closer to the food. From time to time, she would glance across the street. She did not notice the growing concern on the face of those distributing the food. The food was running out. Their anxiety was beginning to show, but she did not seem to notice. Her attention seemed always to focus on three figures under the trees across the street.

At long last she stepped forward to get her food. But the only thing left was the lonely banana. Quietly she took the precious gift and ran across the street where three small children waited --- perhaps her sisters and a brother. Very deliberately she peeled the banana and very carefully divided the banana into three equal parts. Placing the precious food into the eager hands of the three younger ones --- one for you, one for you, one for you. She then sat down and licked the inside of that banana peel.

In that moment, I swear I saw the face of God.

Contemplative Prayer

We are meant to bring ourselves, with all our complexities and weaknesses, into God’s full light every day. In the great prayer traditions, one particular form of prayer, contemplative prayer, is singled out as being most helpful in doing this.

We pray in this way by wordlessly bringing ourselves into God’s presence in a way that we hide nothing of ourselves. Perhaps a description of how this kind of prayer differs from other kinds of prayer might best serve us here.

Normal, meditative types of prayer essentially work this way: You set off to pray, find a quiet place, sit or kneel down, make a conscious act to center yourself in prayer, focus on an inspiring text or thought, begin to meditate on those words, try to hear what is being said inside you, articulate the challenge or insight that is making itself heard there, and then connect this all to your relationship to God, through gratitude, love, praise, or petition. In this kind of prayer, your focus is on an inspiring word or insight, the response this creates in you, and your own response to God in the light of that.

Contemplative prayer, by way of contrast, is prayer without words or images. It works this way: You set off to pray, find a quiet place, sit or kneel, and make a conscious act to simply place yourself before God. Then you simply stay there, naked and unprotected by any words, images, conversations, rationalizations, or even by any holy feelings about Jesus, his Mother, some saint, some icon, or inspirational idea.

Contemplative prayer brings you into God’s presence without protection, with no possibility of hiding anything. The silence and absence of prayerful conversation is what leaves you naked and exposed, like a plant sitting in the sun, silently drinking in its rays.

Each day, we should set aside some time to put ourselves into God’s presence without words and without images, where, naked, stripped of everything, silent, exposed, hiding nothing, completely vulnerable, we simply sit, full face, before God’s judgment and mercy.​

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

New Start

Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 

~ Jeremiah 29:11

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. 

~ Deuteronomy 31:6

Everyone who got where he is, had to begin where he was. 

~ Pope Paul VI