Embracing a Common Future
Edmund Rice Christian Brothers
North America
Thursday, 09 August 2007
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Embracing a Common Future
Edmund Rice Christian Brothers North America Thursday, 09 August 2007 |
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rend you hearts, not your garments... Joel 2:12-13 This year the scriptures begin our Lenten journey by reminding us of the prophet Joel’s words: " ... return to me with your whole heart." As we struggle to understand the Congregation’s heart-centered spirituality we will find such passages as these that strike a similar chord: a call to conversion. "In our response we acknowledge both our gifts and our need for continuing conversion." (Constitution 1) "We humbly accept this call on the day of our profession but our response can be lived only in daily conversion to Christ in the intimacy of a growing relationship to him." (Constitution 9) "We are helped to deeper knowledge and acceptance of ourselves and to continuing conversion of heart." (Constitution 50)
Return acknowledges that we are turning away from whatever leads us from our God. It would be the height of pride to believe that we are always on a straight path to God. The pathway to God that we are on, seen from outside ourselves, would probably shock us by its chaos, confusion and crookedness. We are always in need of the call to return back to God and way from the hoard of petty gods we have often used as the replacement for the true God. The second important word in that short phrase from Joel is "whole". God calls us whole, as we are, and our return back to God must be of our whole person. At this beginning of the season of Lent, there is no holding ourselves back, no lack of a complete giving of ourselves to God. It is to be such a complete giving that the prophet Joel also reminds us to "rend our hearts, not our garments." It is a lot easier to rend the cloth that covers who we are than to rend the heart that honestly exposes who we are to our God. A softer way of observing this Lent would be to create all sorts of plans of denying ourselves - choosing concrete external actions - while forgetting about a true conversion of heart. Let us not fall into the allurement of such a weak substitute for a "return to (God) with your whole heart."
In one of Henri Nouwen’s books*, he shares a story that can be interpreted as an instruction of the fear of change and the fear to let go and choose life. Twins in the Womb The sister said to the brother "I believe there is life after birth." Her brother protested vehemently, "no, no. This is all there is. This is a dark and cosy place, and we have nothing else to do but to cling to the cord that feeds us." The sister insisted, "there must be something more than this dark place. There must be something else, a place with light where there is freedom to move." Still she could not convince her twin brother. After some silence, the sister said hesitantly, "I have something else to say, and I’m afraid you won’t believe that, either, but I think there is a mother." He brother became furious. "A mother!" he shouted. "What are you talking about? I have never seen a mother, and neither have you. Who put that idea in your head? As I told you, this place is all we have. Why do you always want more? This is not such a bad place, after all. We have all we need, so let’s be content."
"Yes," he answered. "What’s special about that?" "Well," the sister said, "I think that these squeezes are there to get us ready for another place, much more beautiful than this, where we will see our mother face-to-face. Don’t you think that’s exciting?" Nouwen used the story to focus on death. Perhaps we can see it as a response to Yahweh’s call to choose life. We have been using the term "listening for God" since the preparation for the 2002 Congregation Chapter. What are the squeezes we are feeling that ask us to let go and choose life! *Our Greatest Gift, Harper, 1994, pages 19-20
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Lenten
Reflections
Two
words in that scriptural passage from the prophet Joel causes me to stop and
reflect more on their significance. The two words are "return" and "whole".
The
sister was quite overwhelmed by her brother’s response and for a while didn’t
say anything more. But she couldn’t let go of her thoughts, and since she had
only her twin brother to speak to, she finally said, "Don’t you feel these
squeezes once in awhile? They’re quite unpleasant and quite painful."