Today’s readings: Click on today’s date at http://www.usccb.org/bible/
Sister Fire
Wednesday, April 9, 2014
Wednesday of the Fifth Week of Lent
Daniel 13:19-20
King Nebuchadnezzar’s face became livid with utter rage against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. He ordered the furnace to be heated seven times more than usual and cast them into the white-hot furnace.
Surrounded by fire the forest ranger shuts off her radio and awaits death. The wind turned, and now the firefighters can’t get to her. The flames burn through brush and dry leaves and the sound sickens her. The harmless snaps and crackles of the campfire brought comfort, but now they mark the movement of fire that kills quickly.
Another story: at a moment when well-meaning thirteenth-century physicians were hoping to cure his near-blindness with branding irons, St. Francis encouraged the people around him by naming the heat. Brother Fire, he called it. Not just Brother Sun and Sister Moon, but in the extremes of his life he also named Brother Fire and Sister Death.
So much to learn from Shadrach. What has been most important to me over the years is the trio’s statement of acceptance. We are confident our God will rescue us. But even if he does NOT, we will follow the path laid out. We will not worship you, O King, but only God.
St. Francis learned this acceptance too, and applied it like a cool cloth to his suffering. What keeps me from this most obvious move toward God and away from the falseness of the world? Many things. A better question is, what can I do to facilitate this obvious move toward God?
The answer is always the same, only said with different words. Martin Laird puts it this way: meet the fire with silence. Learn to breathe deeply, sit quietly, and entertain silence. Notice your thoughts and set them aside. Refuse commentary – thoughts about thoughts about thoughts. Set that aside too.
You are not the suffering you endure, just as surely as you are not the blessing you receive. They are only the weather, and you are the mountain.
You have made us in your image, Lord, and we stand in the midst of all the weather, held straight by you. As I watch Jesus approach Jerusalem, let your stillness be within me, let your silence, made in me, be the eye of all my storms.
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