The Communities of New Skete

Is 43:1-7, Ac 5:27-42, Mt 5: 1-12; Second Sunday after Pentecost

Thoughts of a Nun

To be human is to listen to the rest of the world with a tender heart, and to learn to live with our arms open and our souls seared with a sense of responsibility for everything that is. Any human who does this is surely a saint. How do we become this kind of human as we celebrate all the saints today?

Most scripture scholars agree that the sermon on the Mount containing the beatitudes is a collection of the teachings of Jesus done over a much longer time than one sitting down and opening of his mouth. This sermon is the concentrated memory of many hours of heart to heart communion between the disciples and their master. Delving into the meanings of these blessings from today’s gospel would certainly cause us to be fully human if we could understand them the way Jesus meant them.

How much of this concentrated teaching of Jesus do we understand? How do we understand it?

For instance, the poor in spirit are not those who are destitute. Material poverty is not a good thing. Jesus would never have called living in slums or on the streets and not having enough to eat a blessed condition to be in. One aim of Christianity, even of just humanity, is to eliminate that kind of poverty. The poor are blessed because having realized their own helplessness, have put their whole trust in God to lead them. They are living in the Kingdom of God, wanting to do what God wants of them. The Evangelist Matthew wanted to make sure his listeners did not think being poor financially meant an automatic ticket to the kingdom of God.

In the next Blessed, the Greek term for Mourning means the greatest of grieves one might have. Such as for a very dear one who has died. Another way of saying this is: Blessed are those who are intensely sorry for the sorrow and the suffering in this world. Undoubtedly it also means blessed are they who are sorry for their own sins and failings. The joy of forgiving and of being forgiven is the greatest of comforts. The essential kindness of our fellow human beings reaching out also shows us the comfort and compassion of God.

Aristotle defined meekness as the middle between excessive anger and excessive angerlessness. It is the happy medium between too much and too little anger.
A rule of thumb for this type of meekness could be to not get angry over insult and injury done to oneself but be only right to be angry at injuries done to others. Another understanding, perhaps a better one, of meekness is lofty–heartedness meaning a true humility which banishes all pride. Without this humility a person cannot learn, for the first step to learning is the realization of our own ignorance. This humility or awareness of our own ignorance allows for a certain kind of gentleness in our approach to life.

Hungering and thirsting for righteousness, in other words, goodness. In the time of Jesus there were those who would literally die because of no food or water. Even today there are places where this is so. It is not our condition or state but if it were, do we value goodness as much as we would value food or drink if we were starving or dying of thirst? Most of us have an instinctive desire for goodness. Are we prepared though to make the effort and sacrifices real goodness requires? Think what the world might be like if we desired goodness more than anything else.

The Lord’s prayer; “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us” and “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy” seem almost synonymous and are pretty clear in meaning. In looking up some of the words in the Greek though, the meaning of mercy (Chesedh) means the ability to get right inside the other person’s skin so that we see, think and feel as that person does. We are able to experience what the other is experiencing. Think how much easier it would be to understand, to sympathize, even forgive and be kind in a helpful way if we were experiencing what the other was experiencing. In a sense, did not God do just that? In Jesus God became human, being able to see things, feel things and think things as a human.

To be human is to listen to the rest of the world with a tender heart, and to learn to live with our arms open and our souls seared with a sense of responsibility for everything that is. That is what Jesus does. He has shown us the way. We don’t have to go to other countries or nations. Be this kind of human to the person next to us. Let us continue pondering these teachings and learn how to live them as the saints did, each of us in our own way.

Christ is in our midst!

Mid-Pentecost May 13^th 2009 Is 55: 6-13, Acts 7: 30-37, 44-49, Jn 7:11-29

Thoughts from a Nun

Have you ever given any thought to what kind of things Jesus might have been teaching when he said “My teaching is not mine but his who sent me.”? This one who sent Jesus we believe to be none other than God. What did he say that were not his words but the words of the One who had sent him?

Do you think this sentence “My teaching is not mine” is a mistake? It seems Jesus was trying to convince them he was not tooting his own horn as that would be a good reason to doubt his words. Prophets were generally the mouth pieces for God but never claimed to be the Son of Man or to be one with God. There are plenty of times when Jesus indicated “when you see me you see God” that He and God were One and the same. He was also the Way, the Truth and the Life for us.

The crowd only saw Jesus as human, even if he had healed someone on the Sabbath. And though some thought Jesus might be the Messiah, the Messiah was not god but only the anointed one of God that was to save God’s people.

What was Jesus teaching? Perhaps he was expanding on the words of Isaiah we heard this morning. “Seek the Lord while he may be found” “and my ways and thoughts are higher than yours.” At another time, His teaching was to add to the teaching of the Hebrew Shema which was to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all soul, (with all your mind,) with all your strength.” He added a second command to love the neighbor as one would love oneself and then expanded the neighbor to include the ritually unclean and even those not of the same race –the Samaritan.

Liturgically it is now midway between when Christ rose and Pentecost when the Spirit he had promised his followers would come and teach them, showing them the way. It’s been about 2000 years since these things took place and I wonder how we are affected by these teachings of Jesus.

One of the evangelists said there were many more sayings of Jesus but they could not all be written down. We do have the Evangelist’s gleanings of Jesus’ teachings though in the New Testament. While I think it is an excellent idea to become quite familiar with the New Testament, I believe if a person began their day with reciting those two commandments, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all soul, and with all your strength.” and “Love your neighbor as yourself, and would throughout the day check their thoughts and actions against these two commandments, we would have some real saints in our midst.

There is a book entitled the “Jesus Creed” This Creed is the answer given to the question, Master, what must I do to gain eternal life? It is these two commandments I just mentioned. The author gives all kinds of examples of individuals taking to heart these words and putting them into action. He constantly points out two other things. One; we are all born with a spark of divinity that is able to become a consuming fire if we cooperate. Two; what makes many, if not all, able to become a consuming fire is the belief, the awareness, that we are loved by God. We do not have to be perfect to be loved by God. We don’t have to do anything to be loved by God. We can refuse to even accept God’s love. While the awareness of God’s unconditional love does not always come easily, we can always pray to Jesus as did the blind man, “Lord, help my unbelief!” Each of us is made in God’s image and likeness and each of us is uniquely made like no other. We can and must be creative in how we return God’s love with our own unique abilities and even inabilities.

What will you do today, tomorrow, by this coming Pentecost to put into practice Jesus teaching to love God with your whole being and to love others as you love yourself?

Christ is Risen ! Truly!