What Are You Giving Up For Lent?

1st SUNDAY OF LENT

Genesis9, 8-15 / 1Peter 3, 18-22 / Mark 1, 12-15

Growing up in Philadelphia it was a common question among Catholics this time of year: “What are you giving up for Lent?”  The typical answers were: candy, movies, dessert.  Adults would also list: cigarettes, coffee, alcohol.

Some husbands would say with a smile: “my wife’s cooking”.  And the less pious among us would say they’re giving up going to Mass on Sundays.

It is in the readings for our Lenten liturgies that the Church tells us what we should be doing in Lent – what expectations we should have of this season.  So, on this first Sunday of Lent, as we are beginning this season of grace, let us ask ourselves: “What should we be doing in Lent?”  And let’s see how the Church would help us answer that question.

Our first reading from the book of Genesis recalls the story of Noah and the flood.  Specifically we recall that wonderful scene where God points to the rainbow as the sign of the covenant.  The rainbow, spanning heaven and earth, is to remind us how heaven and earth – how God and man are linked together.  The rainbow tells us we are linked – bonded to God, and God is linked – bonded to us.

Christians use the sign and symbol of the rainbow and apply it to Jesus.  Jesus is our rainbow – our sign of the covenant – telling us how we are related and joined to God.  Our reading from the gospel of Mark talks about Jesus being tempted in the desert by Satan.  And that speaks to us about our relationship with God.  Jesus was tempted – so are we.  Our relationship with God will be tempestuous – with ups and downs – with times full of doubts and struggles.  Jesus was tempted – so are we.

Just think and reflect on this.  Just as no doubt, no struggle, no temptation could in any way make Jesus less beloved by the Father – less a Son to the Father, just so with us.  Our doubts, struggles and temptations cannot make us in any way less beloved by God our Father.  In fact, they only call forth his compassion and care for us.

The reading from the first letter of Peter brings together what we heard in Genesis and the Gospel of Mark.  Jesus – our rainbow – Jesus who shows us how we are joined to God and God is joined to us – this Jesus, Peter tells us, descends into hell.

Jesus’ descent into hell.  It is an article of faith in the Apostles’ Creed.  Hell is where God is not.  In his book on the Apostles Creed, Introduction to Christianity, then Cardinal Ratzinger and now Pope Benedict XVI describes hell as that human loneliness where not even love can penetrate.  And what Jesus’ descent into hell wants to tell us is that there is no such loneliness.  There is no human place – no human situation – no human shut-up-ness – no human isolation that Jesus’ love cannot and does not penetrate.

The early Anglo-Saxon Christians spoke of Jesus’ descent into hell as his Harrowing of Hell.  Harrow means to break apart and destroy.  Jesus breaks apart Satan’s special preserve – [that’s] our imagined impenetrability to God’s presence and love.  Jesus destroys and pillages hell; he empties us of our hells.

And that is how it is between God and us.  That is what the rainbow – what Jesus tells us.  There can be no separation between us and God except in our own contorted and twisted imagination.

So, what are you going to give up for Lent?  What should you be doing in Lent?  The Church’s answer is clear:  Give up hell!  Get real and give up hell!

Fr. Pat Earl, SJ

ASH WEDNESDAY

Joel 2, 12-18 / 2Cor 5,20-6,2 /Matthew 6, 1-6, 16-18

We are beginning the season of Lent.  The church calls Lent “the springtime for our spirits”.  It’s a time of freshness – a time for new budding life.  Above all, the church tells us, Lent is a time for surprises – for reversals – for the unexpected to happen.  We symbolize the surprising reversals Lent will bring into our lives by what we do here at this liturgy.  We begin with ashes.  Lent begins with ashes – but will end in Easter fire and flame.  From ashes to flame -- just the opposite of what we expect.

God wants to astonish us – wants to stand us on our heads – wants to turn us and our world topsy turvy – upside down.  I want to suggest two reversals – two surprises God always manages to work in the lives of those who are trying to follow Jesus.

The first reversal is that we learn – to our surprise – that we grow in the life God wants for us – not by adding on but rather by subtracting.  We call it fasting.  But the fasting God wants is that we fast from fear.  The most repeated command in the entire Bible is God’s command: “Have no fear!  Do not be afraid!”  Fear-ful people cannot love.  And a fear-ful church can never be priestly and certainly not prophetic.  We are to fast from fear.  As a church we must fast from fear. 

A second reversal has to do with faith.  Normally we speak of our growing in faith in God – which is only good and holy.  But God’s surprise for us is that we are to grow in our sense of God’s faith in us.  God trusts us.  So much does God trust us that we are actually God’s ambassadors.  God makes himself present to others in us and through us – but also and most importantly God makes himself present to others as us.  Also, we are God’s children.  We have nothing to prove.  If God puts his trust in us as beloved children, should we not learn to put similar trust in ourselves and one another?

Less fear – more trust in our lives.  God will work mightily in Lent to bring these about.

Le us be ready to be stunned and surprised this Lent.  Our time for spiritual somersaults is beginning.  Let us begin with ashes and await God’s fire and flame.

You Do Belong!

Sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Leviticus13, 1-2, 44-46 / 1Cor 10, 31-11, 1 / Mark 1, 40-45

In today’s gospel story from Mark Jesus heals a leper. Mark’s gospel tells many stories about Jesus healing people –especially lepers. They are miracle stories.

We miss the point of this gospel story if we read and understand it at face value. In taking the gospel at face value – in taking its meaning to be what is most obvious to us – we will always read the gospel in terms of our own culture. We read this first-century Greek text as if it were written by and for twenty-first century English-speaking Americans. And so we fail to understand what the gospel wants to say to us. We just don’t get it.

That’s a special danger with miracle stories. And that’s not peculiar to us. St. Augustine in his day, which was the latter part of the fourth century, complained about people not understanding miracle stories in the gospels. He said they just looked at the outer word – the outer events of the miracle and failed to get into the inner word – the inner meaning of the miracle story. In our own day we might be satisfied with imagining the healing of the leper much like a Walt Disney movie would portray it – special effects and all!

So let us try to hear and understand this story as Mark, the author, intends to tell us the story. And to do that, some clarifications are needed.

First of all, we are told that a “leper” came to Jesus – a “leper”. All sorts of ugly pictures come to mind – decaying limbs falling off the body. That’s our modern picture of the disease known to us as “leprosy”. Clinically, what we are picturing is called “Hansen’s disease”.

But what the gospel and the first reading from Leviticus is talking about is not Hansen’s disease – but what is called in Hebrew “sara’at”. The Greek translation for “sara’at” is “lepra”. What we’re talking about – “sara’at” or “lepra” – is a patchy skin condition. It’s more like acne, psoriasis or eczema.

In the religious understanding of Jesus’ day and of Jewish culture – having this kind of skin condition – having “sara’at” or “lepra” – being a “leper” – made you unholy and unfit to be a member of the community. Lepers were seen as“unclean” – to be separated out from the other “clean” and “pure” members of the community.

Contact with lepers was feared. The fear came not from fear of contagion. In those days contagion simply did not figure into their cultural understanding of sickness. Rather the fear came from fear of pollution. They feared contact would make them associated or identified with the unclean – with people who are seen as unfit and unholy.

A contemporary example of the same kind of thing might be a fear to go into a gay bar. The fear is not of being infected with homosexuality. Rather the fear comes from being seen in a gay bar and being thought to be gay oneself. As happens so often, our fears have more to do with appearances than with reality.

In the story we are told the leper comes to Jesus and asks to be made clean. “If you choose, you can make me clean.” (Mk 1, 40) Note: he does not ask for a cure. What he wants from Jesus is to be made clean. What he wants Jesus to choose to do – is not to think of him as unfit and unholy. What the leper wants is no longer to be shunned and avoided. Being made clean is moving out of separation – out of isolation and being welcomed back into community.

And that is precisely what Jesus does for the leper. In reaching out and actually touching the leper Jesus moves beyond any cultural or religious fear of pollution. He is not afraid of being associated with those seen as unholy. And he communicates to the leper: “You do belong! You do belong to the holy community! You will always belong!”

When Jesus directs the leper to show himself to the priest and offer what Moses prescribed, he is telling him to do something that could only be done by someone who rightfully belongs to the holy, worshipping community. Jesus is saying to the leper: “You do belong – and now act out of your belonging!”

That is what Mark and the miracle story mean by “healing”. That is how Jesus heals. And that is how Jesus heals us now – from whatever uncleanness we think or imagine we have. And that is how we heal one another. This is what the miracle story wants to communicate to us.

We have the power to heal. If we choose, we can make others clean. We are “the Body of Christ”. We are called to be healers. We have the power –we are called – to make clear to others: “You do belong! You do belong to the holy community! You will always belong!”

Fr. Pat Earl, S.J.