Sunday Reflection, March 11: A Lenten Summons

Scripture Readings
Exodus 3: 1-8, 13-15
Psalm 103
1 Corinthians 10: 1-6, 10-12
Luke 13: 1-9

Last weekend we hosted fourteen young adults from around the country in our Passionist community here in Chicago. These men and women spent the weekend discerning a decision about spending a year or more in Passionist Volunteers International. As volunteers, they would be living in community and serving the people of Jamaica, West Indies or Talanga in Honduras. They were wonderful young people of faith whose sense of commitment was inspiring. It was a privilege for me to meet them.

Meeting these young adults brought me back to a visit I had with the Passionist volunteers in Jamaica a couple of years ago. The volunteers work in mission schools and parishes up in the hills, just north of Kingston, the capital city of Jamaica. These missions are very remote and somewhat primitive. The scenery is breathtaking but the poverty is very sobering. The volunteers work in helping students with reading, learning computers and other skills. They also teach religious education and work with youth groups in the parishes. I celebrated Mass during my visit on the First Sunday of Lent at a mission church in King Weston. The name sounds grand, but the place is quite poor. The unemployment rate in Jamaica is staggering, and the people in remote areas are hit especially hard by the lack of jobs. The church was a small, unadorned chapel with a cement floor and a dirt parking lot. There were about thirty people at Mass, including four to be baptized – three small children and an elderly woman. The liturgy was beautiful, filled with traditional Jamaican hymns and a lot of spontaneous singing. I remember those people and am very grateful to have had the opportunity to celebrate Eucharist with them. There is so much goodness in them.

I remember speaking with people about my experience of these mission churches in Jamaica when I returned to the United States. One thing that I noticed was that people tend to want to find simple reasons for situations of poverty like the one in Jamaica. Jamaica has had problems with corruption and drugs over the past forty years, so it is an easy target. Some people suggested that the people there just do not want to work. But actually spending time with these good people and listening to their stories manifests the complexity of the situation and the seemingly insurmountable difficulties that they face in trying to eke out a decent living.

It seems that it is a human trait to want to find simple explanations for tragic situations. I often find myself doing the same thing. Along with this tendency, we often have an inclination to blame people for their own suffering or misfortune. We walk through an impoverished area of the city and muse that the people “must want to live this way.” We see a homeless person and immediately think that he or she must want to live on the street. This same tendency is evident in the Gospel for this Sunday. Jesus is talking about two recent events that have been “in the news.” Some Jews from Galilee got on the wrong side of Pontius Pilate and were killed by that ruthless Roman governor. At Siloam, a tower fell on some people, tragically killing them. Jesus observes that those around him seem inclined to conclude that these people must have deserved what happened to them. They must have suffered these tragedies because they were great sinners. Jesus tries to nip that kind of thinking in the bud by stressing that everyone needs to recognize his or her need for conversion. His words are strong: “But I tell you, if you do not repent, you will all perish as they did!”

Most of us are too sophisticated to say explicitly that tragedies happen because people deserve it. We know that is not the case and that God does not work in our lives in that way. But it is still easy for all of us at times to enter into the “blame game.” It is particularly easy for us to heap blame upon people we do not know or people who are different from us. For example, the violence we read about in the news every day can tempt us to conclude that all Sunni Muslims hate all Shiite Muslims and vice versa and, thus, that all Muslims are inclined toward violence. A simple formula, indeed a simplistic explanation, for a tragic situation that is much more complex than that. Simplistic explanations lead to stereotyping and, ultimately, to forms of prejudice.

The season of Lent summons us to a very different attitude, to a mindset that is quite distinct from the “blame game.” During Lent each of us is called to recognize our own need for God’s mercy. And we are summoned to manifest deeper empathy for others, especially for the suffering.

First, during this time of preparation to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus, you and I are called to acknowledge our own need for the mercy of God. This does not mean beating ourselves up or wallowing in guilt. But it does mean taking an honest look at our lives and recognizing that there are elements of darkness there. There are ways of thinking, speaking and acting that we need to change. There are dimensions of our lives in which we need to seek the healing touch of Christ. Lent summons us out of our complacency to further growth in our relationship with God. This season reminds us that each one of us has a vocation to holiness. That means seeking God’s mercy and asking God’s strength to change the things that need to be changed. Celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation during this season is one important way of responding to Jesus’ call to conversion.

Second, Lent also challenges us to show deeper empathy toward those around us, as well as toward people who are very different from us. In the beautiful first reading from the Book of Exodus, such empathy is shown to be a characteristic of God himself. In the famous passage of God’s appearing to Moses at the burning bush, the Lord tells Moses of his profound concern for the people: “I have witnessed the affliction of my people in Egypt and have heard their cry of complaint against their clave drivers, so I know well what they are suffering.” The awesome God revealed to Moses is a God of boundless compassion. He promises to act out of his compassion to liberate these enslaved people and give them new life. During Lent, you and I are asked to reflect upon the depth of our compassion for others. Are we willing to allow ourselves to be affected by the sufferings of others? Do we manifest compassion to others by the way we relate to them? Can we quiet our prejudices long enough to really think about the plight of that other person, or of those other people, who are different from me?

The Scriptures for this Sunday offer us a rather simple program for Lent. They ask us to reflect honestly upon the areas of our lives where we need God’s mercy. They summon us to seek forgiveness and healing from God. And they challenge us to become more compassionate toward others. As we receive the Lord Jesus in the Eucharist, may we ask for the grace to follow this simple but life-giving Lenten program.

Fr. Robin Ryan, cp