Lent Day 38 - Gathering the Flock

What was the world's greatest division, from the standpoint of a first-century Jew? The division between Jews and Gentiles. For centuries, Jews had defined themselves over and against the "other." Jews were the chosen people, gifted with the Law and divine revelation, peculiarly God's own. Throughout the Old Testament the Jews are warned not to mix and mingle with non-Jews, not to imitate their corrupt practices and depraved morals, not to eat the unclean foods that they eat, and above all, not to worship their gods. 

There was between them a "wall of enmity," and we see this today. Consider all the walls that separate our various cultures and civilizations. There is still the literal wall between Israel and Palestine in the Holy Land. Within our own polity and our church, there's the wall that separates liberals and conservatives. Look to any social circle, high school, or parish and you'll see those same walls. 

Now mind you, I'm talking about walls of enmity, not separation as such. I'm glad that cultures and nations and groups are diverse. But diversity is one thing, enmity is another. These various forms of enmity are what prevent God's flock from finding unity. 

Jesus the King came to heal this unity. How did he do this work? In a way that was radically unexpected. He went to Jerusalem and mounted a throne, but the throne was a Roman cross. And he battled non-violently against evil, absorbing it through the divine forgiveness. That's how Jesus "broke down the dividing wall of enmity, through his flesh . . . and reconciled [everyone] with God, in one body, through the cross" (Eph 2:14-16). 

There was no question that Israel was divided, scattered, and that they needed a shepherd. But what occurred to the first Christians after the resurrection is that Jesus' work was meant, not just for Israel, but for the world. He was the Davidic King through whom Israel's God would complete his universal task of gathering his scattered people into one flock.  

"Jesus battled non-violently against evil, absorbing it through the divine forgiveness."

- Father Robert Barron  

Pope Francis warns against the dictatorship of narrow thought

(CNA/EWTN News) by Elise Harris.- In his daily homily Pope Francis cautioned faithful against idealizing one’s own way of thinking and encouraged them to be vigilant in prayer, noting that a closed mind leaves no room for God.

“Even today there is a dictatorship of a narrow line of thought” which kills “people’s freedom, their freedom of conscience,” the Pope expressed in his April 10 daily Mass.

Credit: Lauren Cater/CNA

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Lent Day 37 - The Invasion of Grace

A few years ago, news reports revealed that baseball superstar Alex Rodriquez had been using steroids. By his own admission, the great A-Rod joined the sad ranks of Ken Caminiti, Rafael Palmiero, John Rocker, Mark Maguire, Roger Clemens, and of course Barry Bonds. But when I reflected on the two most prominent players in this scandal--A-Rod and Barry Bonds--something struck me with particular power. 

These two figures began using steroids--Bonds in 1998 and Rodriguez in 2001--when they were at the top of their games, when they were generally regarded as the best players in baseball. They both had sterling records, both were guaranteed a place in the Hall of Fame, both had more money than they could spend in ten lifetimes, both could out-hit, out-run, and out-play practically any player in the game. 

But why would these gods of baseball, these men who were, without artificial help, dominating their respective leagues, turn to steroids? It has been suggested that Bonds was jealous of the national frenzy around the Maguire-Sosa homerun race in 1998 and that Rodriguez felt the pressure of living up to the expectations generated by his unprecedented contract. Fair enough. But I think that things go deeper than that. 

St. Augustine spoke of "concupiscent desire," by which he meant a perversion of the will. We have, Augustine said, been wired for God ("Lord, you have made us for yourself"), and therefore, nothing in this world will ever be able finally to satisfy us ("our hearts are restless until they rest in thee"). When we hook our infinite desire for God onto something less than God--pleasure, money, power, success, honor, victory--we fall into a perverted and ultimately self-destructive pattern. 

When money isn't enough (and it never is), we convince ourselves we need more and more of it; when honor isn't enough (and it never is), we seek honor desperately, obsessively; when athletic success isn't enough (and it never is), we will go to any extreme to assure more and more of it. 

This awful and frustrating rhythm, which Augustine called "concupiscent," we would call today "addictive." Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez were not addicted to steroids per se; they were addicted to success, and we know this because they were at the pinnacle of success and still didn't think it was enough. 

One of the most liberating and salutary things that we can know is that we are not meant to be perfectly happy in this life. When we convince ourselves otherwise, we, necessarily, fall into one or more forms of addiction. Bonds and Rodriguez still felt, at the height of their success, a nagging sense of incompleteness. That was not an invitation to take desperate measures; it was the invasion of grace. 

As Lent nears its end, let your incompleteness be filled by God and not by any of the false, unsatisfying substitutes.  

"When we hook our infinite desire for God onto something less than God, we fall into a self-destructive pattern."

- Father Robert Barron  

Lent Day 36 - Why is Almsgiving Valuable?

Almsgiving is valuable because we're members of a mystical body-we're implicated in each other. I can never say that your suffering is not mine or that your neediness is not mine. All of us are co-implicated. 

We're responsible for each other and giving alms is a very concrete way to acknowledge that. 

Almsgiving is also tied to the corporal and spiritual works of mercy. Every Catholic is obligated, everyday, to practice those. Almsgiving offers a very clear and concrete way to fulfill that obligation.  

"We're responsible for each other and giving alms is a very concrete way to acknowledge that."

- Father Robert Barron  

Catholic priest shot dead in Syria caring for his flock

(CNA) A priest of the Society of Jesus who refused to leave his flock in the Syrian city of Homs was murdered by an unknown gunman Monday morning.

Fr. Frans van der Lugt, a native of the Netherlands, was killed April 7. He was caring for the fewer than 30 Christians who remain in the Old City district of Homs, which has been blockaded by the Syrian regime for nearly two years.

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Lent Day 35 - The Lesson of Lough Derg

I don't know any other place on earth that better exemplifies purgative suffering than Lough Derg. Otherwise known as St. Patrick's Purgatory, this Irish island was purportedly visited by St. Patrick in the 5th century. The saint came in order to spend a penitential retreat of forty days and forty nights. And from the Middle Ages to the present day, pilgrims have journeyed there, in imitation of Patrick, to do penance and to pray. 

When the retreatants arrive, they are instructed immediately to take off their shoes and socks, and they endure the three day process barefoot, regardless of the weather. That first day, they fast (eating nothing but dry bread and a soup composed of hot water and pepper), and they move through a series of prayers and spiritual exercises. The first night, they are compelled to stay awake, fasting from sleep. If someone dozes off, his fellow pilgrims are expected to wake him up. The following day, they continue with their fast and their exercises, but they are allowed to sleep that night. The third day involves still more prayer and culminates with confession and Mass. After the liturgy, the pilgrims put their shoes back on and are ferried across to the mainland. 

Those who come to Lough Derg take their spiritual lives with utter seriousness, and that is precisely why they are willing to endure hardship-even imposing it on themselves-in order to deepen their communion with God. They know that there are certain tendencies within their bodies and souls that are preventing the achievement of full friendship with God and therefore they seek, quite sensibly, to discipline themselves. John Henry Newman commented that the ascetical principle is basic to a healthy Christianity. He meant that Christians, at their best, understand that our sinful nature has to be chastised, disciplined, and rightly ordered. When the ascetical instinct disappears (as it has in much of Western Christianity), the spiritual life rapidly becomes superficial and attenuated, devolving into an easy "I'm okay and you're okay" attitude. 

The whole point of the Christian life is to find joy, but the attainment of true joy comes, in a sinful world, at the cost of some suffering. That's why I, for one, am glad that a place like Lough Derg exists. 

"The whole point of the Christian life is to find joy, but the attainment of true joy comes, in a sinful world, at the cost of some suffering."

- Father Robert Barron

Lent Day 34 - Dazzling White

In the account of the Transfiguration, we hear that, "While [Jesus] was praying, his face changed in appearance and his clothing became dazzling white." The reference here is to Moses whose, face was transfigured after he communed with God on Mt. Sinai, but the luminosity is also meant to signal the invasion of God. 

In the depths of prayer, when we have achieved a communion with the Lord, the light of God's presence is kindled deep within us, at the very core of our existence. It then begins to radiate out through the whole of our being. 

That's why it is so important that Luke mentions the clothing of Jesus becoming dazzling white. Clothes evoke one's contact with the outside world. When our clothes become radiant, we become light-bearers in the shadowlands. 

The God we discover in prayer should radiate out, through us, into the world, so that we become a source of illumination. In prayer today, ask the Lord to transfigure your soul, making it dazzling white. 

"The God we discover in prayer should radiate out, through us, into the world, so that we become a source of illumination."

- Father Robert Barron

Lent Day 32 - Befriend a Saint

In the Catholic tradition, the saints are not simply models or people to be admired. They are, above all, friends. When we have a devotion to a particular saint, we've found a soul companion, a spiritual guide. 

In these last couple weeks of Lent, find a saint who is like you in personality, who struggled with some of the same things you struggle with, or who loved the same things you love. Find a heavenly soul-mate and make him or her part of your prayer life-read about them and pray with them. You might not connect with every saint, but chances are you'll find one whose style is agreeable to you. 

Also, and here's the more challenging suggestion, choose another saint who bothers you, one whom you don't really appreciate or who maybe rubs you the wrong way. It might be just this saint who helps fill you out, to realize in you that aspect of the holy you especially need. 

The ordinary goal of the Christian life is to be a saint. God has painted all of these masterpieces, clear and messy, attractive and strange, in order to help us toward that goal. 

(If you're looking for a new or unfamiliar saint to befriend, check out Jennifer Fulwiler's Saint Name Generator.)  

"Saints are not simply models or people to be admired. They are, above all, friends."

- Father Robert Barron

Lent Day 33 - Do Not Be Afraid

The fear of death is like a cloud, a terrible shadow that falls over human life and experience. All of our proximate fears are reflections of, and participation in, this primordial fear. It cramps us, turns us in on ourselves, makes us defensive, hateful, violent, and vengeful. 

Further, most of the structures of oppression in the world are predicated upon the fear of death. Because a tyrant can threaten his people with death, he can dominate them; because a dictator can threaten people with killing, he can perpetrate all sorts of injustice. Whenever the strong (in any sense) overwhelm the weak, we are looking at the ways of death. 

But what would life be like if we were no longer afraid? What if death had finally lost its sting? 

Then we would live as the saints do--not immune to suffering, but, if I can put it this way, unaffected by it. We would know that we are loved by a power that transcends death, and this would fill us with an exuberance beyond measure. 

Jesus came to inaugurate this fearless and death-defying love. Therefore in the great words of John Paul II, which were really the words of Christ, "Do not be afraid."  

"Jesus came to inarugrate a fearless and death-defying love."

- Father Robert Barron