Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Compassionate Journey: Meditations on Lenten Old Testament Readings, Year C


Ash Wednesday, 2013

“Will you call this a fast,
a day acceptable to the LORD?
Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?
Then your light shall break forth like the dawn,
and your healing shall spring up quickly;
your vindicator shall go before you,
the glory of the LORD shall be your rear guard.
Then you shall call, and the LORD will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.
If you remove the yoke from among you,
the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil,
if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
The LORD will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.
Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt;
you shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
you shall be called the repairer of the breach,
the restorer of streets to live in.”
Isaiah 58, The Lectionary, Ash Wednesday



Today we begin Lent, a season I love of great possibilities for healing inner work and transformation, and in this spirit, I invite you to do something a little different. Instead of the usual fasts from the things you take pleasure in, such as TV, foods, drinks and the like, how about this year trying something radical, try giving up a defense mechanism. It’s a challenge, I know and it may be something you will have to contemplate, or like me, you may know right away. Take up this challenge and name it honestly and truthfully and set your prayerful intention to deny your mechanism's power over you. More importantly, pray for it that it may find healing and wholeness through the recognition of what it is and what its origin is. 

This isn't an easy challenge and will take great courage to practice. It is not easy to make oneself vulnerable through the dropping of a defense mechanism; even more difficult and scary is to make oneself vulnerable to one’s own fears and sufferings formed in the past. You may find other emotional areas become more sensitive as you open yourself to the work, so take time for prayerful self-examination. Use a contemplative form and read the texts for the day from the Daily Office, or get really crazy and say The Office, or one form every day to help support and encourage you in the challenge to do something different.

The challenge I suggest is so rewarding, to discover first the courage to act in this way, towards yourself and to others around you. The greatest discovery is in finding the compassion for ourselves discovered in Jesus’ compassion for us, and to extend that compassion ever outward into the lives of those around us. Be gentle with yourself should you fall short of your expectations because your intention remains intact and allows you to pick yourself back up and re-engage in your intention. Never let your diversions to diminish your intention, ask for forgiveness, receive forgiveness, meaning accept it. Compassion is in the courage is in getting past it.

We should aim towards the vulnerability Jesus expresses when he turns his face to Jerusalem, Golgotha and the cross. It could be something as simple as just doing something you ordinarily wouldn't do, such as giving money to a beggar from your car during a red light, or spending a night volunteering in a shelter, delivering food for Meals on Wheels, or any number of acts of kindness towards people or situations which challenge you with situations outside your comfort level. Compassion grows courage.

Perhaps it’s just simply being intentional with the people you have difficulty with. Praying for them heartfully, or being determined to be kinder to them, more open to them, or being more sympathetically available to them, would be ways to take something on as an offering of fasting.

Taking something on as fasting? Is this not what Isaiah is calling us to do, to give something of ourselves by taking on the needs of others? In doing so we are not only doing for others, but in doing for others we are doing for ourselves in growing the mustard seed of compassion within ourselves, we are feeding both our capacity to love and be loved. What is more heavenly then being in the loving place? Read again the reading above in the context of making yourself more vulnerable to compassion, to God’s presence within you, to drop your defenses to be more accessible to others, to trusting the power of God in the loving of others. It will be at times difficult and perhaps painful, but you will grow the rewards of compassionate living.

“…if you offer your food to the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the afflicted,
then your light shall rise in the darkness
and your gloom be like the noonday.
The LORD will guide you continually,
and satisfy your needs in parched places,
and make your bones strong;
and you shall be like a watered garden,
like a spring of water,
whose waters never fail.
Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt…”

Care for those who are hungry and afflicted in spirit, heart, mind and body.  Do so for yourself as well and as importantly, with honesty and truth. Care for yourself; even make time to share this journey, on a regular basis, with a pastoral counselor or a spiritual director. This Lent come and experience, be open, be fed and feed, through the compassion cycle of healing and being healed.

Have a wonderful and blessed Lent!





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