Lenten Journey

In our Catholic liturgical calendar, the Lenten season opens with Ash Wednesday.
I have never been to a desert. I have never seen one. I don’t believe this is a unique experience. I have seen nice pictures of deserts with sand and sun, a play of darkness and light, and they have awakened in me a deep sense of the transcendent and mysterious. But I don’t think I would even try to visit a place like that even if the opportunity arises.

But the desert is often synonymous with the Season of Lent. I guess because a desert embodies a vision of solitude, silence, deprivations and purification. Early in our Christian history, and even at present, some individuals sought God in earnest and were inspired to “leave the world” and fled to the desert to encounter him there. They sought solitude and silence to better hear what God had to say to them. They embraced the deprivations of that cruel place to tame the body and bring it under the control of the spirit. But more often than not, one also meets someone else in the desert- one‘s self. You know the saying "you can run from the world, even run from the devil, but you can never run from yourself." And it’s interesting to note that the best stranger we can meet in life is one’s self.

The Lenten season is a time to do a spiritual inventory. We are invited to take a serious and closer look at ourselves in the light of Jesus’ teachings and make an assessment on where we stand in the spiritual journey. I do not mean here an unhealthy preoccupation with our spiritual profile but an honest approach to gain more self-knowledge. In my opinion, Lent is not a time to cut down on the carbohydrates and sweets just to make us feel good about doing something for Lent. Sadly, even among good people, Lent is turned into "a good time to diet." I liken Lent to a big sale. If we are patient enough and diligent enough to browse around our spiritual nooks and crannies, we may find something worthy our time and attention. During a big sale, those endowed with a flair for shopping may endure the crowd and traffic, for what they consider to be a worthy cause.
If we are honest enough, I think our lives and minds are filled with crowding distractions, preoccupations, inordinate attachments and useless activities of all sorts. We are often times left exhausted and ruffled. But if we find the patience and goodwill to sort through the maze, we might obtain the grace to see the pearl of great price hidden in the midst of them.

For example, why do we work frantically and slavishly like there is no tomorrow? Is it for the glory of God or a hidden self-satisfaction of knowing that nobody else can do a better job? Why do we feel angered when someone disagrees with our opinions? Is it because we love the truth or because we think we are often right basing only on our training, education and authority? Why do we feel offended when someone else takes the initiative of performing an act of charity? Is it true love of service or is it because helping others makes us feel superiorly good? In other words, what motivates you and your good actions? What is the fuel that drives your engine?

These are hard questions to ask ourselves but, more accurately, hard questions to honestly answer. The effort of being honest can shatter our imaginary sense of spiritual security. But this is the consequence of following Jesus. He came so that we may be full of life. We have to give up what is not life-giving and open ourselves to a transfusion of grace that only comes to those who are willing, courageous and humble enough to receive it. But before we can give anything up, we have to name it and own it. This is part of the reason for Lent. After going through this spiritual exercise we will experience the joy of rising with Our Lord at Easter.

The journey to self-knowledge is both exciting and disconcerting. But it is the science of the Saints. It is the door to true life. It is both an acquired skill and an infused gift by the Holy Spirit. We are never able to completely know ourselves and purify ourselves however much we try, according to St. John of the Cross, but we can lay the ground works and do our part. God will eventually finish the job of purification and transformation so that we can be the person he created us to be.  Saint Teresa wisely noted that in looking at ourselves, we must not remain there.  We must immediately turn our gaze back to Jesus.  Why did she say that?  Because there is a danger that in looking too much at our miseries and imperfections, we would fall into discouragement and despair.  But fixing our gaze on Jesus on the Cross, we are reminded that He already knew what kind of person we are but still loved us and went to die for us.  Then are we made to understand that the Heart of God is all merciful.  Realizing this our hearts are engulfed in love and we are moved to love Him back.  "Love is repaid by love alone," says St. John of the Cross.  And John also said, "I look at your Cross, O Christ, and I see there the song of Your love."
Lent is a beautiful time given us by God.  It is a great gift of His mercy.  Let us not receive it in vain.  "If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts."

The Baptism of Jesus

The feast of the Baptism of the Lord is celebrated January 12th this year and thus liturgically closing the Christmas season.  The baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan by John the Baptist was a historical event and an invitation to a mystery.   The significance of the baptism of our Lord is an event that is renewed everyday in the lives of every baptized person.  It is in a sense our feast too and appropriately do we celebrate it.  Saint Paul says that Jesus is the first-fruit of many brothers.  It is in this context that we should interpret the events of his life as narrated by the Gospel writers.  The Scriptures are not historical books, as far as historical books are defined, although some events found in them can be historically proven.  Scriptures, and in particular the Gospels, were written “so that you may believe” as St. John the Apostle would say at the end of his Gospel.

Jesus came to be with us, “Emmanuel,” so that we can learn to suffer in hope.  The comfort promised by the Lord is not the comfort resulting from the absence of trials and tribulations but a supernatural joy which comes from our knowledge that suffering can have its meaning and purpose. The coming of the Lord at Christmas was the fulfillment of a much anticipated hope from all forms of bondage caused by our human weaknesses and sins: hopelessness, fear, sorrow, helplessness, feeling unloved, emptiness and more.  This promise of comfort is given to us because above all else, our God is the Good Shepherd, and “like a shepherd he feeds his flock, in his arms he gathers the lambs, carrying them in his bosom, and leading the ewes with care.”  Such is the nature of our God.

Jesus’ baptism was an act of entering fully into the fullness of our humanity- a humanity tarnished by sin and in need of redemption.  To be fully one with us, he humbled himself by identifying with our sinful nature.  He made himself inferior to John  whose own unworthiness before the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, John himself acknowledged.  But so as to fulfill the plan of God, it was made so.  “Let is be so for now,” Jesus would say.  Docility, meekness, submission- all necessary elements to accomplish the Will of God.  Jesus’ baptism brought his humility, our baptism on the other hand, brought us dignity.  We are no longer sheep without a shepherd, we were made into children of God.  What marvelous exchange!  All because He loves us.  Saint Peter explains this when he says that this is because God shows no partiality.  He gives himself freely to those who would accept him and open themselves to the gifts God brings.  But the gifts bring with them responsibilities.  “To one who is given much, much will be required.”  Christ faced the demands of his baptism even when they landed him on the Cross.  We cannot choose otherwise if we are to be his true followers. St. Paul explains that “the grace of God has appeared, saving all and training us to reject godless ways and worldly desires and to live temperately, justly, and devoutly in this age...”  In other words, by our own baptism, we have contracted a covenant with God,  to live our lives according to the image and example of His Son, who even though sinless, went to be baptized to set an example for us.  He assumed our humanity so that we can have a share in His divinity.  We do not belong to ourselves. Our lives are not our own.

St. John baptized with water and Jesus with the Spirit.  It is the same in our own lives.  All the good works we do, all the good intentions we have are dead, if they do not proceed from the motives of faith, love of God and love of neighbor for the sake of God.  The Spirit himself gives life.  The Spirit himself brings to flower what we have sown.  We are only his gardeners.  The Spirit reveals himself in ordinary ways but we must have the eyes of faith and the ears to hear the manifestations of the Spirit.

In the midst of sufferings in the world, in the midst of darkness and trials of life, in the midst of burden and hopelessness, we remember these words of our Father:  “You are my beloved son (or daughter).”  These will bring us comfort, hope and assurance that we are never alone or forgotten.  No matter how gray our hairs turn out to be, how wrinkled and old we become, how frail and sick, we remain always a child before the Father who loves us first and always.

MARY, MOTHER OF GOD, MOTHER OF MINE

January 1st is the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God. Of all the titles of Mary, her motherhood is the title I like best. I love to collect photos of Mary showing her with the Child Jesus. There is something in that mystery that draws me. Of course, it gives me much delight to know that I was also born on the feast of the Dedication of the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome - August 5th. The Basilica is the largest basilica in the West dedicated to the Mother of God. It was erected, as the story goes, at the site where Our Lady of the Snows appeared. This was also the day-January 1, 1998, that I received the holy habit of Carmel!

A great heresy in the Church, promulgated by Bishop Nestorius, claimed that Mary was not the Mother of God, but the mother of the man, Jesus. He proposed that Mary could not have borne God since he is God, but bore only the man. In saying this, he was actually denying the divinity of Jesus. This heresy was put to rest in 431 at the Council of Ephesus when the Greek Fathers of the Church, headed by St. Cyril of Alexandria, defined the maternity of Mary. It was on this Council that the title of "Theotokos" or "God-Bearer",was first used.

It is interesting to note that Mary's motherhood is presented to us by the Church calendar at the beginning of the year. This maternal role actually began at the Annunciation when Mary agreed to be the Mother of the Son of God. But because the Church wants to put the spotlight on the person of Jesus, the Emmanuel, Mary sort of faded into the background. Now that the climax of Christmas is somewhat over, Mary is again brought back on stage. It is also fitting to celebrate this feast at the opening of the New Year because it brings to mind the reality that Mary is the dawn and Christ the Rising Sun. She is the one that leads us to God. She opens the way so that we can follow the path of true discipleship. The document "Lumen Gentium" says that Mary is the first of Christ's faithful disciples.

It is unfortunate that this motherhood of Mary is rejected by many, Protestants and Catholics alike. By Protestants, because of a misunderstanding and fear that she will take away from Jesus the honor and worship that he solely deserves. By Catholics, because they have reduced Mary solely as an object of empty and silly devotions, the heroine of mythic proportion. Saint Therese of Lisieux one day complained about the manner in which priests of her day talked about Mary in their homilies. "They talk of her imagined life, not her real life. Why can't they talk about how she doubted like us, that she suffered like us."

Of all the insights about Mary, one I ponder the most, is our late Pope John Paul II's words in his encyclical Redemptoris Mater that Mary is blessed BECAUSE SHE BELIEVED. It was her faith alone that we can all strive to imitate. Her other attributes of the Immaculate Conception and Divine Motherhood are attributes that will never be ours. But her faith, her trust and surrender, are virtues we can all imitate. Woman of Faith.. Mother of God... Mother of Mine.