JESUS – GESTURES – HOLY THURSDAY

Brian J. Pierce, OP – Santa Sabina, Rome, 2013

Gestures.  Jesus’ life was full of gestures, symbolic gestures.

Early in the gospels he reaches out to touch and heal a leper – a beautiful gesture, though illegal, inaugurating his ministry of mercy. He sits down to eat with tax collectors and sinners, inviting Matthew to be his disciple, and announcing to all that for God, nothing is impossible.

He anoints blind eyes with mud with spittle, mixing earth with Word: a new creation. He reaches out to heal a man with a paralyzed hand – in the middle of the synagogue – on the Sabbath day … another religiously illegal act that liberates.  Religion, for Jesus, must be Good News. Twice Jesus bends down next to the woman accused of adultery, ready to be stoned in solidarity with her, in order to proclaim the supremacy of God’s mercy.

Jesus drives out of the Temple those who turn God’s House into a money-making enterprise.  For Jesus, religion is not a business. He recognizes the “great love” of a woman, known by all to be a sinner, who anoints his feet with tears and ointment – a gesture of love and devotion.

But it is precisely in these final days of his life that we find his most powerful and important gestures.  Let us look for a moment at how the scripture writers describe Jesus’ actions, gestures and words in these final days of his life:

“They threw their cloaks over the colt, and helped Jesus to mount. As he rode along, the people spread their cloaks on the road…”

Quoting from an ancient hymn, St. Paul says, “He emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness…”

“Jesus took his place at table with the apostles” … and also with us.

“During the supper … Jesus rose … took off his outer garments [and] tied a towel around his waist. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet…”

“When he had washed their feet … he asked, ‘Do you realize what I have done for you?’ … Do we understand what he is doing?  Are we ready to follow his command: “Do this in memory of me?”

He took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them… “This is my body, that is for you” … And likewise the cup … saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be poured out for you…”  His body becomes food, his side, wounded by hatred, a chalice.

“One of the disciples struck the high priest’s servant and cut off his right ear.”  “But I say to you, ‘Love your enemies.’”

To one of the criminals, crucified with him, Jesus replied, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”

Bowing his head, he handed over the spirit.

Simple Gestures: touching, washing, anointing, bending down, eating…

Gestures that announce life: breaking bread, pouring wine, emptying himself, handing over his spirit.

All of these gestures, point in some way to a downward movement, an action of self-giving.  God’s Word leaps from heaven and comes down to earth to live with us.  Jesus bends down before humanity in a gesture of solidarity.  Jesus comes down from the Mount of the Transfiguration to continue his journey to Jerusalem.

Pope Francis, on the evening of his election, bowed his head before the crowd gathered in St. Peter Square, asking the People of God to pray for him.  Today he celebrates mass with young people in the jail for minors in Rome. Gestures; simple gestures, that announce the Reign of God.

The Word of God becomes a human word Solidarity, Humility, Bread broken.  Wine poured out.  Today Jesus bends down to wash our feet.  Life, Love,   Crucifixion and Death…

But above all, love.  There is no greater love than this...

Remembrance

Sr. Mary St. John, of Our 
Holy Redeemer, OP (Norma Castello)

Eulogy: by Sr.Mary of Jesus, OP 

Sister Mary St John loved and gave herself joyfully!

Some of you have probably read the obituary of Sr. Mary St John: born and raised in NJ; Italian background, Catholic schools; study of music; entrance to the Dominican Monastery of Corpus Christi in the Bronx; her coming here to Elmira after her fiftieth jubilee.  However, these are all facts...not the person.

She loved God and Blessed Mother, the Angels and Saints.  She loved the Dominican Order, and All of us!    She especially loved Pope Benedict 16^th, plastering his picture on music book covers, files and notebooks and hanging them on walls.  When her things were around, one could get the feeling that they were being watched!

She took very seriously her adoration time and prayer before the Blessed Sacrament. One of her favorite pictures was that of St John leaning against the breast of Jesus at the Last Supper.  A month ago she told me as I was pushing her wheelchair onto the elevator that she wanted to fall asleep on the breast of Jesus and wake up with Him.  She identified strongly with her patron, St John [her feast day was also her birthday], particularly in the Mystery of the Eucharist.  She was also the disciple whom Jesus loved.

Like the pied piper, Sister attracted people: she fed them, listened to them, counseled them, laughed and cried with them, prayed for them.  Everyone was very close to her.

Sr Julia, my novice mistress told me that, for years, her [Julia's] mother came to visit her every few months, but in between, she would visit to chat with Sr. Mary St John.

She said she came to the Monastery to help the older sisters:  she replaced the older sisters who were extern sisters.  No one ever asked her if she could play the piano or the organ.  Despite her talent and great love for music, she did not play for nearly fifteen years.  It took a comment by a friend of one of the sisters to place her firmly on the organ bench as principal organist. 

She also had a great delight in life and its peculiarities.  One can get a hint of it from the impish look on her memorial card.  She was very serious about her playing, practicing assiduously.  Once she was practicing in the Choir while a workman was doing some repair work high up on a ladder. She stopped her "pious" music and crashed into "the man on the flying trapeze" to the shock and delight of all there. Generally, her music was beautiful; her calligraphy and artwork were very good, and she was an excellent cartoonist: it provided an outlet for a sometimes stifled sense of humor.  For one of my feast-days, I found a cartoon of me in a place of honor in the refectory: I was down on my knees B cleaning toilets.  Her many talents brought joy to her sisters, and those around her.

Many people commented in her last months on her smile: her strength decreased, her voice became faint, but her smile became larger and her face more serene. One of the doctors came yesterday from the Arnot Hospital for her wake, and spoke of her beaming on everyone in the room when she came for a treatment.  And that was very typical of Sister. We do not understand how much He loves us, she said as she tried to show us.

Sister Mary St John was simple, all of a piece; she wore no masks. Children, animals and the poor loved her. And so did we!

St. Albert the Great

“Betting Everything with St. Albert the Great” – (Mt 25:14-29)

“It is like a man who was going on a journey and called in his servants and entrusted his possessions to them.  To one he gave five talents; to another, two; to a third, one — to each according to his ability. Then he went away. Immediately the one who received five talents went and traded with them, and made another five.  Likewise, the one who received two made another two.  But the man who received one went off and dug a hole in the ground and buried his master’s money.  After a long time the master of those servants came back and settled accounts with them.   The one who had received five talents came forward bringing the additional five… “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Since you were faithful in small matters, I will give you great responsibilities. Come, share your master’s joy.’  The one who had received two talents also came forward and said, ‘Master, you gave me two talents. See, I have made two more.’   “Well done, my good and faithful servant … Come, share your master’s joy.’  Then the one who had received the one talent came forward, “Master, I knew you were a demanding person … so out of fear I went off and buried your talent in the ground. Here it is back.’ … “You wicked, lazy servant!  So you knew that I harvest where I did not plant and gather where I did not scatter?  Should you not then have put my money in the bank?  Take the talent from him and give it to the one with ten.  For to everyone who has, more will be given … but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”

So, what do you do with what you’ve been given?  Call it God’s gifts or just the stuff of life.  What do you do with it?  There are some things that we are simply given.  Our parents, for example – we didn’t choose them.  Nor did we choose our siblings, or the place where we were born, or the first language that we were taught to speak.  We didn’t choose the social, political, and religious environment that we were raised in.  Most of this was given to us.  We had little to say about it.  Some feel that many things were imposed on them, chosen for them, or denied them.  A malnourished child born in Sub-Saharan Africa was certainly dealt a hand very different than mine.

In spite of all this, I believe that life is a gift from God.  I believe that there is a Divine Source, an Origin from which this thing called “life” flows.  I can’t really define that Source, that Giver of Life, but I do believe that life is given.  Of course, it comes wrapped in a package that includes many of the things I’ve just mentioned.  Certainly, a child born to a mother who is addicted to cocaine will have a very different starting point than I had.

But I believe that we all receive life from the Great Source, from God, from the Wellspring of Life.  I call that gift grace, because it’s gracious, gratuitous, given freely. 

Even if the package comes with some unwanted baggage attached to it, I believe that we receive life as a gift and we can make some choices as to what to do with it.  The choices are limited, of course.  I cannot be an African goat farmer or a Mayan Indian.  But there are some choices that I have in life.  No one is just a blob – a lump of clay without a current of freedom running through his or her bones.

Today’s gospel is about that current of divine freedom that God has breathed into us and that runs through our veins.  We’re given something at the start of this adventure called life, and then we are allowed a great amount of freedom to do something with that gift.

The three servants in today’s gospel each received something from the Master.  They didn’t receive the same thing.  That should be no surprise to anyone.  Just look around you today, or watch the news.  Jesus was aware that not everybody receives life’s gifts equally.  But everyone receives something.

And so the question again: What do you do with what you’ve been given?  According to this gospel, life is like a big poker game, and though the image may seem a bit crass, it’s true.  And guess what, Jesus is inviting us to put all our money on the table and roll the dice!  That’s what he did!  Jesus received his life from his Abba, and he put the whole kit and caboodle on the table and rolled the dice.  Theologians, of course, use much more acceptable and refined language – like “the will of God”, etc.  But call it what you want.  The Cross and the Resurrection of Jesus is the story of someone who put all his money on the table, risked everything, and rolled the dice.

Today we celebrate a German Dominican saint, named Albert the Great.  I am not a specialist on his life, but I love the fact that he bet everything – all he had – on the goodness of creation.  He found the fingerprint of God in birds and bees and flowers and trees.  “The whole world is theology,” wrote St. Albert, “because the heavens proclaim the glory of God” (from Fr. Paul Murray, OP, The Good Wine of Dominican Spirituality).  He was criticized, of course, because some Christians say that we need to be careful and not get too close to creation and the dangerous world of matter.  You know, being human can be a near occasion of sin!  So beware! You might want to bury your gift, your treasure, in a hole and avoid getting too close to the stuff of this world of matter.

Albert accepted the gift that he had been given – wrapped in the dangerous wrapping of humanity and creation.  And he bet everything he had on it!  Something deep down told him that God’s essence was swimming through this entire material world, and he bet his whole life on it.  Others played it safe and hid their gift in a hole or in a safe deposit box or in a “sacred place” – to protect it from getting tainted by worldliness.

So, what do you do with what you’ve been given?  Personally, I’m going to ask St. Albert the Great today, to give me a little piece of his courage, so that I can bet all my money on the goodness of this world that God has given to us.

fr. Brian J. Pierce, OP

Santa Sabina, Rome, Nov. 14, 2012

Pope Benedict XVI: The inseparable bond of Faith and Charity.

Benedict XVI: The inseparable bond of Faith and Charity

by vatican

"The balance of divine justice does not weigh the amount of gifts, but the weight of hearts." This was underlined today by Pope Benedict XVI, quoting the words of Pope St. Leo the Great, whose feast day was celebrated yesterday. The Pope reflected on the Liturgy of the Word this Sunday, which presents the example of two widows, the first in the Book of Kings, the second in the Gospel. Both leave us today a valuable lesson about faith: there is he said, "an inseparable unity between faith and charity, as well as between the love of God and love of neighbor." "God always demands our free acceptance of faith - said Pope Benedict - that is expressed in love for Him and others. Nobody is so poor that they ...

Benedict XVI prays for Hurricane Sandy victims in the USA.

Benedict XVI prays for Hurricane Sandy victims

by vatican

Conscious of the devastation caused by the hurricane which recently struck the East Coast of the United States of America, I offer my prayers for the victims and express my solidarity with all those engaged in the work of rebuilding. I now greet all the English-speaking pilgrims present at today's Audience, including those from England, Ireland, Sweden, Malaysia, Canada and the United States. My greetings go in particular to the group of elders from Nigeria visiting Rome on pilgrimage, and to the members of the Vox Clara Committee. Upon all of you I cordially invoke God's abundant blessings.