Thursday, September 14, 2023
Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross
(click here to listen to or read today’s scriptures)
Do you know more than men that are wise?
No one has gone up to heaven except the one who has come down from heaven, the Son of Man.
This week giant jets crashed purposely into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. Many people were killed, and many of them followed Jesus into heaven. My friend and poet/retreat master Joe Zarantonello wrote:
For a brief, fragile moment in time the business of America was no longer just business. In the absolute groundlessness that followed the collapse of what the world thought was so permanent, in the place that everybody called Ground Zero, the mind of America stopped for awhile – and our hearts knew instantly that kindness was the only thing that really mattered.
Thousands of not-random-at-all acts of kindness blessed thousands of men and women in just those few hours. If you were alive in America and more than a year or two old, you watched all of this. Firemen and policemen earned their stripes that day, and they earned the right to be heard. They mattered, and we thought, “Thank you.”
Joe reminded me of what Mister Rogers told his TV kids:
When I was a boy and I would see scary things on the news, my mother would say to me: “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.”
Earlier this week Jesus spoke clear words about helping, what we call the Beatitudes. Happy we are when …
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him might not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn us, but that we all might be saved through Him.
Sometimes I remember to be kind, sometimes not. I have developed thicker skin than I want. My friend Charlie told me that each night he prays about the day before him, and he thinks about whether he has moved closer to God or further away. He asks God about that. He repents and receives forgiveness. And he sleeps more peacefully because of it.
St. Ignatius called this wonderful time the examen, and another poet I love, Steve Garnaas- Holmes, incorporates the Kyrie into this prayer. Lord, have mercy …
Loving One,
in deep trust of your grace
I rest in your mercy.
Trusting your goodness,
I call to mind how I have needed your forgiveness,
and how greatly, how deeply and completely,
how continuously you have forgiven me,
and I give thanks.
Love, have mercy. …
Shine the light of your love
where I have shaded my guilt from your grace,
where I have not allowed myself to be forgiven.
May your will be done, your love find home.
and assure me again.
Christ, have mercy. …
Gentle One, shine the light of your love
where I have not forgiven.
Heal me of my blame;
release me from the burden of my judgment.
Help me be as forgiving as I am forgiven.
Love, have mercy. …
In the name of the One who broke bread with his betrayer,
in the Spirit of the One who forgave his torturers,
I pray for the gift of forgiveness.
Amen.
As Charlie and I talked about envy and pride, I began to understand that for my entire life, I have over-valued my intelligence. Not that I’m dumb, but I’m spiritually dense when it comes to the gift of intelligence. Because I am so proud of it, so sure of myself, I have created any number of subtle ways to prop up my ego, my vainglory. Sometimes I have just a “one-car accident.” Then expressions of this pride stay inside my mind and hit me up beside the head. But at least I think I’m the only one who suffers.
But mostly these proud moments are “two-car collisions,” or even massive pile-ups. And each of them calls me to confess them, in God’s presence, as I look to see and examine just how the day was done. This is the way of Jesus.
Christ Jesus did not regard equality of God as something to be grasped. Instead, he emptied himself and took the form of a slave. He humbled himself and became obedient unto death.
I hear Peter, Paul and Mary singing what sound like the words of Jesus:
And if you take my hand, my son
All will be well when the day is done
And if you take my hand, my son
All will be well when the day is done
(Numbers 21, Psalm 78, Philippians 2, John 3)
(posted at www.davesandel.net)
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