On the Margins from Mater Dei Radio, Portland, OR

Fourth Sunday of Lent, March 11, 2018

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Painting by: Ronald Raab, CSC 2018

Dear Believers in the Christ,

In today’s gospel, John 3:14-21, “Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.”

This passage invites us more deeply into the death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. In these Lenten days, we explore the meaning of Jesus’ cross within our own lives. We learn to surrender our sin to the Father; we learn that our redemption lies in the merciful presence of Jesus who was lifted high on the cross so that we may live more fully in God’s Kingdom.

We live the cross every day. Through our body pain, our divorces, our job loss, our depression, our fear, and our efforts that seldom are recognized, we lift up our human nature to be transformed and redeemed in faith. Here we find the gift of surrender, the path to Jesus’ love and mercy. Living such faith is hard to come by because we seldom want to give up our opinions about what we think is correct. We seldom want to find our path toward humility. We are trained to always have the answers and to be on the defensive among the problems of the world.

Faith calls us into something more. Faith in Jesus Christ allows us to live in the heartfelt, merciful presence of love. Discovering this life is at arms length for most of us. Living the mission of the cross means that we discard our protective layer of hardness, superiority and our human authority, and surrender to the presence of Jesus. People who struggle from any addiction understand that their lives need God. People who have faced tragedy and loss know the emptiness only God can fill. People who have battled disease understand the meaning of the cross.

The religious community to which I belong, the Congregation of Holy Cross, views the cross at the center of our lives. In the Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross, the guiding documents of our religious life, we read:

114. Jesus entered into the pain and death that sin inflicts. He accepted the torment but gave us joy in return. We whom He has sent to minister amid the same sin and pain must know that we too shall find the cross and the hope it promises. The face of every human being who suffers is for us the face of Jesus who mounted the cross to take the sting out of death. Ours must be the same cross and the same hope.

115. To struggle for justice and meet only stubbornness, to try to rally those who have despaired, to stand by the side of misery we cannot relieve, to preach the Lord to those who have little faith or do not wish to hear of him … our ministry will hint to us of Jesus’ suffering for us.

Blessings to you on the journey,

Fr. Ron

“Are you really a jealous God and

Will you really put your ear to my mouth

And hear me in my struggles

And will I find in your words a home to rest my soul

And will you keep me from harm

Even when I want to give my soul to something else and

Seek my kinship among other gods

As violence and hatred and distress and lust and

If I really call out to you in this Lenten season

Will you turn my heart upside down and

Snap a whip into my conscience to place a new wisdom

From your mouth into my soul and

If I really discover that in your death and resurrection you will

Build up a temple in three days

Will I really be part of your plan

To renew the earth and your church

In all the silliness of my soul

And will you help me be part of the renewal

You desire for the world when we

Settle for less

Other than you

In our addictions to apathy and unkindness and

When we are stuck pointing guns to others

Rather than an open handed gesture of peace

And will you really remove

All the indecency within my heart

So that it will soar in the morning breeze

And come to know

That you want more than anything

For me and

For all of us

To rest in you lap and

Listen to your words and find you

In all the chaos of our lives

And will you really mend our divorces and

Carry with you our grief from our tired dreams and

What if you clean our hearts

As you did the Temple and

We finally make room for you to be our God

Will you at last cast mercy on us sinners and

Take us by the hands

So that we will follow you

to the cross and

To your empty grave

And be released in your love and tenderness at Easter

Again and again

Not apologizing for the past

But opening us to a new path

So that we will finally come to the conclusion

That you and

You alone

Are a jealous God

And that we are your beloved?”

On the Margins from Mater Dei Radio, Portland, OR

Third Sunday of Lent, March 4, 2018

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Painting by: Ronald Raab, CSC

Dear Followers of Jesus,

In our first scripture reading today (Exodus 20), God proclaims to us, “I am a jealous God.” This statement is more than a statement; rather these words are an invitation for us even in our generation to make God the center of our lives and loves. The text outlines the Ten Commandments. However, the text is more than suggesting we live by external rules and obligations. This scripture invites us into a deep and profound intimacy with God.

Our gospel today also proclaims such an intimacy when Jesus is upset with how people are treating the Temple area. He is trying to tell them He is the source of love, the new temple. His body will become the new temple, all that is our hearts’ desire. His own action of passion, death and resurrection will show us the way to the Father. He tosses out the abuse he sees when we get caught up in the trap that faith is a commodity and we objectify our faith.

In these Lenten days, we capture a glimpse that God desires the best for us. We are invited on a journey where all the obstacles in life need to be removed from our hearts so that our hearts have a clear and direct path to Christ Jesus. Our sin and division, our lack of peace, our fighting and anger, are all objects Jesus desires to toss out of the temple of His body so that we can find the peace, forgiveness and mercy that is available to us. Our home is in the heart of Christ Jesus and we are invited to live our lives with such hope to other people.

We must be careful that our faith is lived from the call of Christ Jesus and not determined by our political or social persuasions. In the center of violence and chaos, we must remember that God calls us into his nature that is peace and harmony. In the midst of unrest and a lack of forgiveness on our streets and at our breakfast tables, we must remain clear that is not God’s nature. God’s integrity challenges us into heartfelt forgiveness and hope. This is not passive faith. Faith for us is profoundly a challenge of humility and this only happens with a great deal of self-reflection and prayer.

Living lives that keep God at our center is not an easy Lent. However, through our faith comes an entirely new way of viewing the world and all of our relationships. God desires our complete and trusting hearts, our ways of thinking and acting in our world. God desires our total hearts to rest in Him, for He is a jealous God. Let nothing stand in the way of this notion during our Lenten days.

How is God calling you to give every aspect of your life, every moment of violence and every sin, to Him during this Lenten journey?

Peace to you,

Fr. Ron

“What if I find the courage to follow you up the steep mountain

Will I be able to see your face differently

Or will I stumble

Over my own sinfulness or pride or

Will you challenge me

To sacrifice my own son or

Will my own flesh be enough

To satisfy your longing

For me

Or will I be able to have an open ear to hear the story of my ancestors

Or will I be deaf to all the ways you want to speak to me and

Will I be able to stand in a cloud with the ancient ones

Who have taught me so much to listen carefully

To your voice

Or will I collapse along the way overwhelmed from the weight of the world today

That ignores such challenges and deaf to such calls

And will the mountains of gun violence and losing our children

Be enough sacrifice as you tested Abraham

In our schools and in our malls

Or is it enough to journey along desert lands

In our world to discover the shortage of water and melting glaciers

And journey into the oceans and see the plastics that wildlife choke on

Or how do you want my journey to be even when it is within my own house

At my breakfast table when my children

Do not want to speak to me

Is that desert enough

Or a high enough mountain to climb

When their silence becomes such walls

And their addictions are more rugged and taller than any mountain

Or how should I climb up to you in this Lenten journey

And will I be able to listen to your consoling voice

Or treasure the glory of your light and

Will I find you

And me

Together in new shadows

Giving me the courage and the forgiveness

I need to simply ask

The question

What if I find the courage to follow you?”

On the Margins from Mater Dei Radio, Portland, OR

Second Sunday of Lent, February 25, 2018

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Gospel MK 9:2-10

Dear Followers of Jesus,

On this Second Sunday of Lent, we follow Jesus and a few of the disciples up a mountain. Unbelievable things come to light. Jesus is transfigured. They listen to their ancestors, Moses and Elijah. The voice of the Father speaks to them from a cloud, “This is my beloved Son, listen to him.”

Jesus beckons us to the hilltop to listen as well. If we have the courage to follow Jesus in this Lenten season, then we shall certainly learn to view our lives differently and our world will be transfigured. The mountain experience gives the disciples a new viewpoint. We need that new perspective on so many issues and concerns in our world today.

We need a new perspective on faith. Our hearts ache to view our image of God, not as a violent judge or hater of us, but of a loving Father who desires our hearts more than we can imagine. We long for a new perspective on our children, their sustaining love within healthy relationships. We need a new perspective on mental health. We need to see poverty differently and how it effects imprisonment, joblessness and violent behavior of so many young people. We need to view drugs and alcohol differently as we constantly see the effects of alcohol among our families. We need a more comprehensive view of violence, the role of guns, the turmoil of abuse and the consequences of multiple addictions in our society. Most of all, we need a new perspective on how fear controls so many aspects of our lives.

We are called during the Lenten season to make a choice for life, the call to support the wellbeing and welfare of all people. Climbing the mountain for a new perspective means that once our eyes are open to the person of Jesus, we must examine the ways we think we have all the answers to life. We easily delude ourselves. We are challenged to discover how hate needs to blend into love, how our negligence needs to be a call to serve, how apathy must turn us toward love and creativity, how our negativity must turn into our praise to God in worship and love.

Life is way too short to live in fear. Faith beckons us on to the mountain. One of the great lessons we learn in the Transfiguration is that we are already connected to God. We don’t have to prove ourselves or condemn others to get the Father’s attention. I pray that we can enter into this passage with an open heart and let go of our stories that tell us that our sins keep us from God. This has enormous consequences, because if we live thinking we are apart from God, then it is easy to finger point to others and believe that others must be separated from God and the Church as well.

Peace,

Fr. Ron

On the Margins from Mater Dei Radio, Portland, OR

First Sunday of Lent, February 18, 2018

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Gospel MK 1:12-15

“Jesus in the desert” Cover painting by: Ronald Patrick Raab, CSC

Dear Followers of Jesus,

Our hearts easily become restless. On some days, our hearts have a mind of their own. We become distant from our true loves, estranged from our commitments, second-guessing our vows and full of blame and anger toward the world that hurts so much. When our hearts become as strangers to us, we call this place an inner desert.

This is the wasteland that Jesus entered into to begin the Lenten journey. His forty-day survival guide suggests to us that we overcome temptations, rely on the Holy Spirit and repent of our past wrongs and sins and more solidly stand on a new ground of faith. This ground is not the shifting sand of complacency, the hot desert of sinful assertions or the rocky road to injustice. This true ground of our redemption lies in the life of Jesus touching our inner lives where our hearts meet daily life.

Lent is a trap. We might think that if we give up something God will enjoy us more. Don’t live in such a blank wilderness. Lent does not flourish because we may give up chocolate. The terrain of Lent is our entry into the deep patterns of our hearts where we know that lust possessions our attentions, where hatred and insecurity becomes a home in us, where prejudice and sin toward our neighbors is the path we have been following. Lent is a time in which we break open old patterns of hate, infidelity and harsh judgments toward people.

Lent means, “springtime.” Lent is a time in which we follow the path of Jesus more intentionally. Lent is a time of self reflection, which is such a stranger to so many people. Lent is a time of deeper prayer and reliance on God. Lent is a time in which we live the Paschal Mystery more completely. This means that we actually live the pattern of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection.

Lent is a time we face the darkness of our doubt so we can learn to live in the Light of Christ. We face the facts in Lent that we struggle to love our children or the people who migrate to our nation. We let go in Lent our sense of entitlement, thinking that we deserve more than other people who struggle to make ends meet. We learn something in Lent about what unhealthy power is and learn how to lift up powerless people in our world. We feed, love, support and lift up because Jesus broke bread, washed feet and dismissed the devil. Lent is a movement toward profound compassion and hope. Lent, after all, is a journey in and through love.

Here are some questions to consider this week:

What are the inner deserts you face this year in Lent? Grief? Loss? Hopelessness?

What are the ways God may be calling you to trust more or love more wonderfully in Lent?

As you examine your life, how do you see the emerging patterns of Jesus’ passion, death and resurrection?

Blessings to you,

Fr. Ron