EXHALE: Let my desire be for justice. Lent II | Mortality
READING I: Isaiah 58:6–11 (NIV)
“Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter— when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. “If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land.”
READING 2:from Dr. Wilda C. Gafney
Lent is a wilderness carved out in space and time with prayer…. There is more than one kind of wilderness. There is the wilderness of the soul, an often lonely, aching place. There is the wilderness of the world, a place where words of love are everywhere yet people hunger for love because the imitations of love that perfuse our society leave us empty, aching, hungry.
READING 3: Heard in the Wilderness
Could you wander for forty years if it meant freedom? If you listen, you can still hear them groaning—they who were rescued, only to find that freedom is never so easily won. That liberation is a path marked by uncertainty and thirst and grief over all that was lost in the revolution. In Exodus, we are faced with a God of slow rescue. When the struggle of the wilderness became apparent, even the Israelites themselves began to pine for the bondage of Pharaoh. How fierce the grip of certainty—to know with clarity what is to come, however terrible and lonesome that fate might be. Perhaps God knew that part of liberation is confronting anything you might hunger for more than it. Will you cry out longing for the chains that once held you? The wilderness is uncharted, and humans are prone to willful amnesia. We’d rather forget and return to bondage than remember and wade in the unknown. We grow numb. Assata Shakur wrote, “People get used to anything. The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows…. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave.” And the freer one gets, the more their hunger for liberation loudens. All the false appetites that spoke over this chief desire begin to quiet.
SILENCE
READING 4: How does your hunger sound?
What are the whispers of desire that drive you? For forty days leading to the remembrance of the death of Christ, we commit to remembering our chains. We make our home in the wilderness—in the liminal spaces where liberation has begun but sorrow and hunger remain. In this season, we choose solidarity with all who are suffering—the displaced, the abused, the oppressed and neglected. Many of us have been trained to believe Lent is about solidarity with Christ alone. But Christ’s forty days in the desert mirror the forty years the Israelites journeyed in the wilderness after being rescued from slavery. The two journeys remind us that the wilderness can be both solitary and communal. That it can defy both the systems and powers of the exterior world, and the despair of one’s interior world. And that these were two physical desert journeys speaks to a necessarily embodied liberation. As we move in solidarity, we remind ourselves presence is not solidarity. Knowledge is not solidarity.
Solidarity is the kind of unity that costs us something. And we choose a form for our fasting that is not about the self, but about those who are most vulnerable. And for those who are suffering and in need, we must grab hold of a charity to self and take a posture of receiving. Lent shifts the scales of the cosmos back toward a balance of provision and justice. In Lent, there are those of us who will position our souls toward sacrifice, and some who will rightfully receive what has been kept from them. Every role holy and necessary for the healing of all. So, despite prevalent teachings, the question of this sacred season is not, what food are you giving up for Lent? It is, what practice of solidarity with the suffering are you choosing? Or, what needs do you need met this Lent? We honor the complexity of hunger and desire, and we find ourselves liberated into a season not rooted in scarcity, but in justice, healing, and the welfare of those who have long awaited their portion.
Welcome: We celebrate the Feast of the Transfiguration. Transfiguration is really our personal transformation. We are always in the process of transforming, changing, and growing in the love of the Holy One.
Opening Song: Transfiguration song by Carey Landry:
“I know that you have told me to lead these people,
you have said that you are my friend and that you are pleased with me.
If this is true, let me know what your plans are,
then I can obey and continue to please you.
God said, “I will go with you and give you peace.”
Then Moses replied, “If you aren’t going with us, please don’t make us leave this place. But if you do go with us, everyone will know that you are pleased with your people and with me.
So God told him, “I will do what you have asked, because I am your friend and I am pleased with you.”
Then Moses said, “I pray that you will let me see your face in all its glory”
God answered: All right.I am a merciful God and I show kindness to anyone I choose.I will let you see my glory and hear my holy name, but I won’t let you see my face, because no one can see my face and live.There is a rock not far from me.Stand beside it, and before I pass by in all of my shining glory, I will put you in a large crack in the rock.I will cover your eyes with my hand until I have passed by.Then I will take my hand away, and you will see my back.You will not see my face.
The community affirms these words with AMEN!
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 41
Marjorie: My soul is thirsting for my God, when shall I see you face to face? (refrain)
All: My soul is thirsting for my God, when shall I see you face to face?
Marjorie: Like a dear that yearns for running streams, so my soul is yearning for you, my God.
All: My soul is thirsting for my God, when shall I see you face to face?
Marjorie: My soul is thirsting for God, the God of my life, when can I enter and see the face of God.
All: My soul is thirsting for my God, when shall I see you face to face?
Second Reading:A reading from Welcome to the Wisdom of the World:
Once upon a time, a congregation became very concerned because their old rabbi had taken to disappearing from the synagogue after the opening of the Shabbat.
Some were afraid he was forgetting his proper duties.Some worried that he was actually breaking the Sabbath laws. Some, knowing his reputation for holiness, insisted that he must be being spirited up to heaven, perhaps even by Elijah himself, to discuss holy questions, to escape the problems of the age.
So, to settle the concerns among them, one Sabbath night they dispatched a spy to follow him and report where he was going.
Sure enough, no sooner had the Sabbath candles been lit than the old man slipped out of the synagogue, walked quietly down the path, through the woods, and up a tall mountain.Finally, following quietly behind, the spy could see a small cabin in the distance.And sure enough, the rabbi went straight toward it.The spy crept closer. A few more steps and the spy could see the rabbi framed in the doorway by the soft light of a dying fire.
The spy slipped around to the side of the cabin and pressed his face to the window.He could never have imagined the scene he saw.There on a cot lay an old gentile woman, her face sallow, her breathing slow.
First, the rabbi swept the floor.Then the rabbi chopped new wood and fed the fire. Next the rabbi drew clean water from the well.Finally, the rabbi made a cauldron of fresh soup and set it on the bedstand by her side.
The spy sped back down the mountain and through the woods to make his report: “Well,” the congregation said, some with disdain, some with hope, “did our rabbi go up to heaven?”
The spy stopped for a moment to think.“No,” the spy said, “The rabbi did not go up to heaven. The rabbi went much higher than that.”
These are the inspired words of Joan Chittister, a disciple of the Holy One. The community affirms these words with AMEN!
Gospel acclamation:
Marjorie: Praise and honor to you O Jesus Christ.
All: Praise and honor to you O Jesus Christ
Marj: This is my beloved, my very own, hear his voice.
All: Praise and honor to you O Jesus Christ.
Gospel: A Reading from the Gospel from the Christian Community of Mark
Jesus took Peter and James and John led them up a high mountain where they could be alone. And there Jesus was transfigured before their eyes; the clothes Jesus wore became dazzling white - whiter than any earthly bleach could make them.
Elijah appeared to them as did Moses, and the two were talking with Jesus. Then Peter spoke to Jesus. “Rabbi” he said, how wonderful it is for us to be here! Let us make three shelters - one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah!”Peter did not know what he was saying, so overcome were they all with awe.
Then a cloud formed, overshadowing them, and there came a voice from out of the cloud: This is my Beloved, my Own; listen to this One. Then suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them, only Jesus.
As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus gave them orders not to tell anyone what they had seen until after the Promised One had risen from the dead. They agreed to this, though they discussed among themselves what “rising from the dead” could mean.
These are the words of the community of Mark.We affirm these words with AMEN!
Homily Starter:
“Your beauty transforms us”:We are all being transformed by the face of Jesus from within us and from without, transformed into one body.
It takes place when we open ourselves to the divine love and transforming presence within: We can remember:an experience of a quiet, silent yet powerful moment of wonder and amazement that made us feel like an insignificant part or the universe - Entering a mystery with nature or a musical masterpiece pulling at our heartstrings - The silent reading of a passage of the bible that resonated deep within our heart - We remember one most important event when somehow, God shined on us, that spark that nourished our faith for the rest of our life…
Often in the gospel, the disciples suddenly noticed Jesus was gone. They would look for him and find him away praying by himself.
In today’s gospel, Jesus invites three of his followers to join him in silent prayer on a mountain: All three would have a significant role of service in the first Christian communities after the resurrection.One, called his brother, another his beloved, and of course one who loved him and suffered a terrible, sorrowful guilt and remorse during the passion.This time, accompanying and entering into his prayer, they experienced Jesus in a new light. Later on, this vision would help them gradually recognize Jesus the Christ as someone who had a tremendous relationship as beloved of God, and who lived the Torah in its fullness and in a prophetic way that had the power to transform people and their lives.
Peter broke the silence of the moment, he wanted to grab this wonderful moment, saying, “let’s stay here”; it says that he did not know what he was saying … out of fear...Then God spoke from a dark cloud:” this is my beloved son, listen to him!”. Sometimes close encounters with God can terrify us at first… Then they saw “only Jesus”
The transformation from without happens when we open our heart to love, finding the face of Jesus in our contacts with others.
The birth of a child - The wonder and enthusiasm of the child - The sudden look of understanding and awe on the face of a student - The face of someone we accompany, that spiritual awakening and the slow transformation that takes place over time - The faces of suffering, desperation, anguish, fear – The struggle of endangered living beings adapting to environmental changes – resilience – new life – invitation to be changed, in who we are and how we live.
Think of a powerful moment of finding Jesus in the face of imperfection, the human condition, and realizing I am no better or no worse than anyone else. I don’t have to compete with anyone.
How has the face of Jesus changed for us, changed us?Did we notice that spiritual paradigm shift in the way we see God and receive strength from this loving God, strength to transcend, go beyond, become other-centered? We realize that the shift is not of our own making but of God’s. Real power is more about who we are than what we do. More a state than a position. We begin to understand what “rising from the dead means” as this divine power transforms us.
The more we find the face of Jesus in others, reaching out in love, the more we see through the eyes of Jesus that we are brothers and sisters, interconnected, one human family, united in our common home with all creatures rising up, beginning again, no need to compare or compete, dominate or control. We become the face of Jesus through finding the divine in others.
What did you hear in these readings and homily? How will it change you?
Statement of Faith (Marjorie/Kathie )
We believe in the Holy One, a divine mystery beyond all definition and rational understanding, the heart of all that has ever existed, that exists now, or that ever will exist.
We believe in Jesus, messenger of the Divine Word, bringer of healing, heart of Divine compassion, bright star in the firmament of the Holy One's prophets, mystics, and saints.
We believe that We are called to follow Jesus as a vehicle of divine love, a source of wisdom and truth, and an instrument of peace in the world.
We believe in the Spirit of the Holy One, the life that is our innermost life, the breath moving in our being, the depth living in each of us.
We believe that the Divine kin-dom is here and now, stretched out all around us for those with eyes to see it, hearts to receive it, and hands to make it happen.
LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST
As we prepare for the sacred meal, we bring to the table our prayers and intentions:
We pray for these and all unspoken intentions. Amen.
Marjorie: As we approach the table bringing with us others we are concerned about, we accept to be transformed with others into one universal family, letting the bread and wine represent us, saying “Amen” to being one body: broken, shared, given, vulnerable, endangered, adapting, considerate of the common universal good for the benefit of all.
(Marjorie and Kathie) With open hearts and hands let us pray our Eucharistic prayer in one voice
O Great Love, thank you for living and loving in us and through us as we set our hearts on belonging to you. May all that we do flow from our deep connection with you and all creation.
You know our limitations and our essential goodness and you love us as we are. You beckon us to your compassionate heart and inspire us to see the good in others and forgive their limitations. Acknowledging your presence in each other and in all of creation, we sing:
Holy, Holy, Holy: Here in this place by Christopher Grundy
Guiding Spirit, when opposing forces in us tug and pull and we are caught in the tension of choices, inspire us to make wise decisions toward what is good.
We thank you for our brother, Jesus, and for all our sisters and brothers who have modeled for us a way to live and love in challenging times. Inspired by them, we choose life over death, we choose to be light in dark times.
Please extend your hands in blessing.
We are ever aware of your Spirit in us and among us at this Eucharistic table and we are grateful for this bread and wine which reminds us of our call to be the body of Christ in the world.
On the night before he faced his own death, Jesus sat at supper with his companions and friends. He reminded them of all that he taught them, and to fix that memory clearly with them, he bent down and washed their feet.
(Lift plate)
When he returned to his place at the table, he lifted the bread, spoke the blessing, broke the bread, and offered it to them saying:
Take and eat, go, share your love with one another.
(Lift cup)
Then he took the cup of the covenant, spoke the grace, and offered it to them saying:
Take and drink. Whenever you remember me like this, I am among you.
We share this bread and cup to proclaim and live the gospel of justice and peace. Please receive this bread with the words: I am being transformed.
Holy One, your transforming energy is within us and we join our hearts with all who are working for a just world. We pray for wise leaders in our religious communities. We pray for courageous and compassionate leaders in our world communities.
We pray for all of us gathered here and like Jesus, we open ourselves up to your Spirit, for it is through living as he lived that we awaken to your Spirit within, moving us to glorify you, at this time and all ways.
Amen.
Let us pray as Jesus taught us:
Holy One, you are within, around and among us. We celebrate your many names. Your wisdom come; your will be done, unfolding from the depths within us. Each day you give us all that we need. You remind us of our limits and we let go. You support us in our power, and we act with courage. For you are the dwelling place within us, the empowerment around us, and the celebration among us, now and forever, Amen.
Adapted by Miriam Therese Winter
Loving source of our being, you call us to live the gospel of peace and justice. We choose to live justly, love tenderly, and walk with integrity in your presence.
BLESSING
Please extend your hands in our final blessing.
ALL: May the Fire of Love ignite our hearts and radiate light through us.
May the Spirit of truth and justice burn within us. May we walk together as we support and tend to one another and all creation. AMEN.
Holy One, mystery of the universe that surrounds and contains us, open our minds and hearts to the ways your blessed Thich Nhat Hanh taught us to understand that “God is Love.”Set our minds free to embrace his sharing of the ever-present connectedness of Your presence in our meditation and daily lives. Allow us to experience the prayers, teachings, and life story of Your beloved son “Tay,” increasing and enhancing our spirituality as we learn more ways to love You and work for the Kin-dom of universal connectedness in our lives. Amen.
A humble Zen Buddhist monk from Vietnam, Thich Nhat Hanh, was a 20th century mystic active in seeding the earthquake of shifting spirituality taking place. He has gifted us with a decades-long life of example, written and spoken. We graciously accept his life as a brother modeling how to live virtues we deeply treasure: wisdom, compassion, love, and understanding.
“Thich” is the name given to all East Asian Buddhists, identifying them as being in the Buddhist family tradition. At his ordination a new name was added, “Nhat Hanh,” meaning “One Action.” His students affectionately referred to him as “Thay,” (TAY) meaning “Master” or “Teacher”.Have you heard the term “mindfulness,” or “mindful”? It is this mystic, Thich Nhat Hanh, that gifted us with this concept we now hear every day.So powerful. So calming. So very now. Remarkably like the other mystics we have loved and studied. Contemplative monk Thay was moved by the horrors of war around him to project his life in a very active way in the world. Because he followed the calling of his Beloved, the world was immeasurably enriched. His gifts were shared with all of us who are open to crayoning outside the lines, so that we are luxuriating in simple yet profound strategies to dissolve hatred, bring joy, and expand our service to the Kin-dom. As with other world-changing mystics, we honor him through prayer, and studying his example and teachings.
In an NCR article on “Double Belonging,” a statement attributed to Fr. Michael O’Halloran reads: “Christianity is long on content, short on method and technique.” Many Christians and others have found Buddhism to provide nourishment in the form of techniques and strategies that feed and enhance their spiritual practices.
War was part of the Vietnamese existence for decades. Young monk Tay, along with his Buddhist students, came to a crossroads in their beliefs. Should they adhere to the traditional contemplative life, staying cloistered, praying in their monasteries as Buddhists had done for centuries, or should they go into the streets and villages to help their devastated people, ravaged by bombings, starvation, and death? In a life-changing decision, he chose to do both, starting the “Engaged Buddhism Movement,” coining the term in his book, “Vietnam: Lotus in a Sea of Fire.” His life then was dedicated to both active and contemplative work of inner transformation for the benefit of individuals and society. His decision to be both contemplative and active has impacted not just his country, but the whole world.
In 1966, Thich Nhat Hanh traveled to the United States and Europe to appeal for peace in Vietnam. In lectures delivered across many cities, he compellingly described the war’s devastation, spoke of the Vietnamese people’s wish for peace, and appealed to the U.S. to cease its air offensive against Vietnam. During his years in the U.S. he met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967. However, because of his peace work and refusal to choose sides in his country’s civil war, both the communist and noncommunist governments banned him, forcing Tay into exile for 40 years.
After extensive travel, teaching and researching his strategies for peaceful living, lobbying Western leaders to stop the Vietnam war, he led the Vietnamese delegation to the Paris Peace Talks in 1969.In France he established “Plum Village,” the largest Buddhist Monastery in the world, with over 10,000 visitors a year who come to learn “the art of mindful living.” He gave us treasures of strategies, practices, and techniques to adapt to our individual journeys to the Holy One.
TEACHING 2 How to Let Anger Out(with Children at Plum Village)
PRAYER 3The prayer below uses He/she and They with the following – and most expansive – intention … which allows the person praying to “fold in” all people (e.g., “me,” “my” circle of people, “my” country, world, species) in an all encompassing (and essential) manner. TNH
May I be free from injury. May I live in safety.
May he/she be free from injury. May he/she live in safety.
May they be free from injury. May they live in safety.
May I be free from disturbance, fear, anxiety, and worry.
May he/she be free from disturbance, fear, anxiety, and worry.
May they be free from disturbance, fear, anxiety, and worry.
May I learn to look at myself with the eyes of understanding and love.
May he/she learn to look at him/herself with the eyes of understanding and love.
May they learn to look at themselves with the eyes of understanding and love.
May I be able to recognize and touch the seeds of joy and happiness in myself.
May he/she be able to recognize and touch the seeds of joy and happiness in him/herself.
May they be able to recognize and touch the seeds of joy and happiness in themselves.
May I learn to identify and see the sources of anger, craving, and delusion in myself.
May he/she learn to identify and see the sources of anger, craving, and delusion in him/herself.
May they learn to identify and see the sources of anger, craving, and delusion in themselves.
May I know how to nourish the seeds of joy in myself every day.
May he/she know how to nourish the seeds of joy in him/herself every day.
May they know how to nourish the seeds of joy in themselves every day.
May I be able to live fresh, solid, and free.
May he/she be able to live fresh, solid, and free.
May they be able to live fresh, solid, and free.
May I be free from attachment and aversion, but not be indifferent.
May he/she be free from attachment and aversion, but not be indifferent.
May they be free from attachment and aversion, but not be indifferent.
~~ Thich Nhat Hanh
READING 3THE TEACHING OF MINDFULNESS
During his early years in the U.S. Tay met diverse spiritual and political pacifists, and began sharing his revised, rethought Buddhist practices. The emphasis of his message shifted from the immediacy of the Vietnam War to the spiritual practice of being present in the moment – an idea and practice that he called “Mindfulness.” His 1975 book, “The Miracle of Mindfulness,” taught Mindfulness practices developed for his students and social workers in Vietnam to help them from burning out from constant war challenges.
Jon Kabat Zinn, MD, a cancer researcher in Boston, learned from Thich Nhat Hanh about Mindfulness at the Insight Meditation Center in Boston, MA. Zinn successfully used Mindfulness applied to stress management to treat persons with chronic, resistant types of cancer pain. Zinn started the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Center (MBSR) where it was used with many types of treatment-resistant cancers and found to be a significantly helpful strategy toward healing persons suffering who were not helped by other therapies.“Mindfulness” flourished.
Tay taught his practical elements of Buddhism widely, placing less emphasis on dogma and more as a teacher sharing what he discovered and lived. He taught Mindfulness to children, professionals, teachers, and seekers of every description through lectures and over 100 publications worldwide. The simplicity of the power of being in the present moment marked the cornerstone of his gifts to us.
“True mindfulness is a path, an ethical way of living, and every step along that path can already bring happiness, freedom and wellbeing, to ourselves and others. Happiness and wellbeing are not an individual matter. We inter-are with all people and all species.”TNH
We invite you to listen to Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) read one of his most famous poems. It reflects a deep insight into how we cannot separate ourselves from the world around us, even those who do harm.
