What did you learn in school today?
Once upon a time it was the most dreaded question at suppertime. At least in the day when families ate supper together. Almost every parent asked the question… but also knew they would probably have to drag it out of their child. Today the contemporary setting is more often in the car ride home, especially in middle-class America. The dreaded answer is often the same – “stuff” or “nothing”. Perhaps you might recognize how you answered when you were a child.
I was reminded of this question as I listened to an audio presentation by John Baldovin, SJ. He speaks of the spirituality of Lent as a process of conversion rather than an isolated or once-in-a-lifetime event. It led me to think about Lent as going to school.
In Lent, we think about what am I going to give up. The question really ought to be “what did I learn about God, myself, and my relationship with my sisters and brothers?”
Ashes remind us that we have a lot to learn
The season of Lent is a time to take a refresher or advanced course focused on living as disciples of Jesus. It is about putting on or learning the mind of Christ.
Now that is literally a lifetime task! Remember that Jesus’ spent three years preparing his early followers to understand and embrace God’s way of loving in this new world of the Kingdom of God. What does it really mean to understand and live as God’s sons and daughters, and sisters and brothers?
So Lent is learning what is dead and seeking resurrection and life. Lent is a wonderful season to look deep inside and identify what is dead that needs Christ’s life. What needs to die to our self-centeredness in order to enter into His resurrection.
Getting personal
The answer to the question “What did I learn in Lent” will be different for each one of us.
Personally, at this point in Lent, I am still being surprised how Jesus’ stories are “the gift that keeps on giving.”
Let me explain. In my head, I thought I knew the story of the Good Samaritan. But it seems as if I am learning it for the first time. (Isn’t that what a good story is about?)
I have known the power of Jesus’ stories. I did not begin Lent with the story of the “Good Samaritan” as my focus. But this Lent Pope Francis has invaded my consciousness. I am amazed when I read and reread Chapter 3 in his latest book “Fratelli Tutti”. He powerfully retells the story someone not to be trusted. (I now have begun think it might be called the “Bad Samaritan”).
I know the story well. I have preached on it often. But following his guidance, I have read and reread the story putting myself in the mindset of each person in the story. It looks and feels different each time I hear it from another vantage point… even that of the robbers!.
Also, I had never thought of Jesus using that story to tell us of what the Kingdom is like. He asked his hearers to imagine a “kingdom” characterized by people who instinctively saw even a wounded enemy as a neighbor.
In following chapters, he is inviting me to see beyond my nose. What does the story teach me about how we currently interact as a society. What would society look like if we took the story as a guide to how we structure our society.
What are you learning during this Lent?
Click below for an audio version of this Vincentian Mindwalk
Father, great reflection. As you note, with any good story, it bears repeating.
Yesterday’s Gospel (“Cleansing of the Temple”) begins with the phrase, “Since the Passover of the Jews was near . . .” As you noted, with each reading we discover more about Jesus and his life as related in the Scriptures.
Looking back now (and reading the footnotes that the New American Bible provides), this was the first of three Passovers Jesus would spend with his disciples (at least, as recorded in the Gospels). I tend to forget that it took more than a few weeks or months to convey the message of the Kingdom in the proper context. Since so many passages get meshed with others, I forget the element of time that is sometimes noted (more as an afterthought) in most excerpts from the Gospels.
I had read years ago a reflection on Judas and how his obsession with adhering to traditions and rituals had reached the point that he wanted the Sanhedrin to set Jesus straight. (It was more a course correction rather than a betrayal, in his mind.) He acknowledged Jesus’ mission, but didn’t like that he was upsetting the apple cart with so many practices. The “last straw,” so to speak, was the Last Supper when he really messed with the strict protocol of the Seder ceremony. Whether that reflection is a legitimate capturing of Judas or not, it became another example of placing oneself as the characters in the story.
The Apostles had seen Jesus act SO OFTEN in ways that turned into wonderful signs to the people around him, yet when they witnessed repercussions from Jesus’ new approach, many took a background seat and watched from a distance. The mutterings of others must have taken their toll on them.
Life doesn’t happen all at once – learning doesn’t happen all at once – some of us need a lifetime of learning (and often head-banging) to get the inner meaning to so much of what later in life seems more obvious.
I learned a lot today, Father. Almost all of it was about how I perceive God and the people around me. Each day, I learn a new aspect of patience and its fine borders, those borders that are struggling to keep out frustration and despair. Fortunately, I get a good friend to remind me that Jesus is still there dipping his bread in the bowl at the Supper and offering his friendship and love to me, yet again, and again, and again.
Thank you. Peace.
I have read that St. Ignatius of Loyola captured the temptations of Christ method of using Scripture verses to respond to errant world views that produce thoughts and reactions in my mind. It has been very helpful to let the scripture provide the challenge of the gospel world view as I repeat the verse and bend my thinking toward a different course to take. Slowly it sinks in.
I have been lead by reading to take up what someone has suggested as St. Ignatius of Loyola’s gleaning of method from the Temptations of Jesus in the Desert in Luke. I am catching hold of ways of thinking opposed to the Gospel and then letting Scripture challenge that thinking in a verse or two that I can sometimes remember, but I do have written down and carry with me. Repeating the verses when the thoughts are recognized is slowly letting a new vision sink in. Nothing perfect about how I am doing this, but I do note the change. (Perhaps I should ask if others do also….)
RE: “Personally, at this point in Lent, I am still being surprised how Jesus’ stories are ‘the gift that keeps on giving.'”
This reminds me, John, of the following encouragement from St. John of the Cross:
“We must then dig deeply in Christ. He is like a rich mine with many pockets containing treasures: however deep we dig we will never find their end or their limit. Indeed, in every pocket new seams of fresh riches are discovered on all sides.”
And personally, I am trying (though not hard enough most likely) to return to this basic teaching in Phil 2, where St. Paul holds up Jesus as an example of those who do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but rather, in humility value others above themselves, not looking to their own interests but each one to the interests of the others.
This further sends me back to the ancient and traditional teaching (discipline/learning) of prayer, fasting and works of mercy. For these are helpful in overcoming our sins and in venturing freely and boldly out of my little and confining shell.