Learning from Jonah's mistakes

 

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Adapted from homily by Deacon Steve.

Most of us are familiar with the story of Jonah. God wants Jonah to warn the Ninevites that they have forty days to straighten out or God is going to overthrow them. After resisting God's call because he doesn't want the people of Nineveh to be shown any mercy, Jonah finally heads to Nineveh and gives them God’s message. Deep down inside Jonah can hardly wait to see what God does to the Ninevites. But, sure enough, “the people of Nineveh believed God,” and turned from their ways and put on sackcloth and fasted. They in fact change their ways and so, God relents and does not bring destruction down on them. Jonah goes away sulking and angry over God’s kindness to his enemies.

This story points out that God is not the fearful One, that we sometimes call the “Old Testament God”. The God of Jonah is in fact the God of Jesus, the God who is loving and merciful to all people. God’s mercy is not limited to one or two groups of people, but extends to all people beyond any limits we may conceive.

Jesus proclaims in our Gospel reading, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the good news.”

In the minds of most Christians, the primary meaning of "repent" is to look back on past behavior with "sorrow, self-reproach, or contrition" for what one has done or omitted to do - sometimes with an amendment of life. However, the English word “repent” is used to translate the Greek word “Metanoia”. Scholars believe the translation of metanoia as repentance is "an extraordinary mistranslation". In fact, translators only use it because there is no English word that can adequately convey the meaning of the Greek word.

The real meaning of metanoia is not about a superficial change of mind. Rather it involves a complete transformation of consciousness, a change in the trend and action of our whole inner nature, including intellectual, affectional and moral. It is an overwhelming change of mind, heart and life. And this, we know, is only brought about by allowing the grace of God and the Spirit of God to open our hearts and minds.

In a writing from one of the Church Fathers called “On Spiritual Perfection” the author writes, “Anyone who loves God in the depths of their heart has already been loved by God. In fact, the measure of a person’s love for God depends on how deeply aware they are of God’s love for them... When this awareness is keen it makes whoever possesses it long to be enlightened by the divine light, and this longing is so intense that it seems to penetrate their very bones. The person loses all consciousness of themselves and they are entirely transformed by the love of God.”

Thus our 'metanoia' occurs only through the grace of God, by our constantly and gradually becoming aware of God’s love for us. Our gospel writer is trying to tell us, in the stories of the apostles as they were called by Jesus, that in encountering the Lord, the apostles were entirely transformed by the love of God, by Christ. And so they lose “consciousness of themselves” and “immediately” follow Christ. The immediacy of the conversion of the apostles in our story, is meant to dramatize the effect of God’s love in our lives, when we are truly open to it.

Our world today, as we no doubt are aware, is in need of this transformation. The world needs to see followers of Christ who are truly transformed by the love of God. For us to be that transformative presence to our brothers and sisters it is important for us to grow and experience the love of God in our hearts. A love that is always offered to us by God’s grace. Not only in our private and liturgical prayer. More importantly, we can experience that love of God as we learn to contemplate each person we encounter, especially those people who suffer in poverty, addiction, imprisonment, illness, loneliness and dying.

Let us remember that our Eucharist celebrates the love of God for every person in the world. It is a reminder to us to not only contemplate the divine, the mystery in this sacrament, but to also go out and contemplate the divine and the mystery of God in every person we encounter, but especially those who suffer. 

Redefining Normal

 

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Following Christ means redefining 'Normal'

"Peter, James, and John are so weirded out by this bizarre (Transfiguration of Jesus) experience that Peter babbles about building booths, James and John say not a word, and they all eventually fall on the ground prostrate in dread. Then, of course, Jesus acts normal and says “Rise and do not be afraid”. Really? And how exactly is life supposed to go back to normal after all of this?

It’s not. That is a big lesson learned through their discipleship. What they previously thought was “normal” in life was actually harmful to many. So what they considered “normal” had to change. And it could only change through a pouring out of God’s Spirit to challenge them, to open their eyes, and to offer a different way of living in the world that would lead to life and flourishing for the many who were victims of the violence of this “normalcy” and then blamed as “sinners” and “unclean” for crying out when they were injured. They had to learn to see the world again and then focus on the suffering of the sinned-against."

- from a reflection on the 2nd Sunday of Lent by KEVIN CONSIDINE, PHD
Click here for the full reflection on the Catholic Theological Union website.

Transforming a Social Narrative By Listening

Archbishop Emeritus Sylvain Lavoie OMI

Someone once said, “Being listened to is so close to being loved, most people can’t tell the difference.”

The outrage across the nation and the church around the issue of Indian Residential Schools and unmarked graves, has become a heavy social narrative that has in some ways, taken on a life of its own beyond anyone’s power to manage. This very painful situation leaves many of us wondering what we can do, how can we best respond to the anger, lashing out, blaming, and sometimes acts of violence?

As simple as it may seem, I believe listening from the heart to the voices of those hurting the most, until we “get it,” is the best response.

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Hills, Valleys and Rough Roads

 

"Make the rough ways smooth."

A friend sent me a refection on the readings for the 2nd Sunday of Advent by Louis J. Luzbetak SVD, of the Catholic Theological Union. In it he does a simple but striking job of creating similes out of the mountains, valleys, rough and crooked roads we hear in these readings. He writes:

"How do these images from Isaiah/Luke... invite us to reflect upon the implications of “preparing the way of the Lord” for us as Christian individuals and families during this time of Advent? What are the hills of self-centeredness and pride that need leveling and the deep valleys of depression, addictive patterns, and poor self-esteem that need to be acknowledged and filled? What are the rough ways of broken relationships, loss, and trauma due to COVID, that need to be smoothed out and healed?

"I suggest that we are invited to move from not only a personal and family level of reflection to include also the broader context of our society and church when we reflect on the implications of “preparing the way of the Lord.” Can we apply the “level ground” of Baruch to “creating a level playing field,” in our common language today? The past twenty months have made us more aware of the “age-old depths and gorges” of racism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, and all forms of prejudice from our “us-them” categories in our institutions, country and Church itself."

When we take the first steps in tackling these challenges, we are not acting alone. "The One who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion..." (Philippians 1:6)

Reflection Regarding the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation Residential School Gravesite Near Kamloops, BC

 

(The following reflection by Archbishop Emeritus Sylvain Lavoie OMI is reproduced from SSVP Canada News, Jun 23, 2021)

The  discovery  of  215  children  found  buried  at  the  Kamloops  Indian  Residential  School  in  unmarked graves on the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation community is surely impacting all of us. We have probably all felt some or all of the emotions of shock, disbelief, dismay, anger, shame, sorrow and profound grief. And we have all have questions, many unanswered questions that need to be asked in the coming days and weeks: when did this happen, how did this happen, how could this have been allowed to happen, who could have allowed this to happen? This shared history of residential schools profoundly impacts residential school survivors, and indeed all Canadians, and certainly us as a Society.

Probably many of us have received messages or comments from others – family, friends, acquaintances, fellow workers, expressing some of the above reactions. A friend who was a former chief, politician and businessman,  called  me  to  express  his  frustration,  indignation  and  anger.  He  had  international connections, stressed that the impact of this was huge, and that it was placing the church, as well as the Oblates, in a very dark, negative light with especially the media. One person even questioned her involvement  with  a  program  that  is  being  hosted  by  our  Star  of  the  North  retreat  Centre,  precisely because it is an Oblate centre. Another former parishioner wrote to say she was questioning the church now.

What makes something that is already bad perhaps even worse, is the fact that one of our venerable bishops, Vital Grandin, is quoted saying something that is as racist as even the first prime minister seems to have been – that Indigenous children need to be taken away from their families and civilized until there is “nothing Indian left in them except their blood.” And I read in the  Delmas  history  book,  my home parish, how Fr. Delmas worked to convince the Indigenous to trust the government’s offer for basically the forced take-over of their land and wanted a favour to establish a French Catholic colony there.

So,  what  are  we  to make  of  all  this,  and  how  should  we  respond,  as  a  Catholic  society  dedicated  to serving the poor and marginalized, when this ugly reality reveals the poverty, mistakes and weakness of the Church, and threatens to marginalize us?

Psychologists offer us three options when danger or threat is on the horizon, as this development surely is – fight, flight or freeze. We can react by being defensive and fight back, as some are urging us to do (“Why is no one defending Bishop Grandin?” is a question posed to us already). We can try to flee into defensiveness, justifying and rationalizing. Or we can simply sit and do nothing, trying to ignore all the painful revelations and comments, hoping it will all pass.

None of these responses, tempting as they are, will help in any way. Our best response is to be humble, honest, open and transparent, and see this as a moment of purification and humiliation for the Church, and for us all. We need to remember that God turns everything to the good for those who love God, and trust that in all of this darkness and pain, God will draw some good, even if it is a more humble, compassionate and faithful body of believers. 

We  need  to  be  patient,  and  meet  the  challenge  of  doing  three  things  exceptionally  well – face  the reality, accept the reality, and deal with the reality. We need to face the truth of what has happened, and what will continue to surface as surely more such scenarios will be discovered. We need to accept that members of our faith community, and in my case, religious community of the Oblates, somehow, in whatever historical context they were in, allowed this to happen.

Then  we  need  to  move  towards  what  Jesus  teaches  us  in  the  gospel  of  Matthew – forgive  the perpetrators  of  this  awful  reality,  and  apologize  for  the  fact  that  it  was  done  by  whomever  was responsible.  Above  all,  we  need  to  listen  from  the  heart  to  the  pain  that  especially  the  Indigenous peoples  are  feeling,  as  this  will  trigger  past  memories  of  abuse,  racism,  discrimination,  neglect, indignity, and humiliation for many.

One lady who attended a Catholic day school, not a boarding school, sent me an email sharing her anger at the treatment she received from one sister in particular as a Métis student, how the Métis all sat at the back of the class, how she was not allowed to go to the bathroom during class, then was teased for being smelly all day. She vividly shared the impact that abuse had on her, but also how she had managed to work her way through that intense pain to a place where she now experienced some serenity. What she needed to heal that inner wound, newly scraped open, was to be heard and affirmed. And that we can all do.

We  need  to  let  this  development  not  just  play  itself  out,  but  spur  us  on  to  even  greater  levels  of compassion, understanding, and awareness as we continue to serve the poor. Let us resolve to work together with all levels of our church leadership to finally be more open, humble and honest about our mistakes  in  the  past,  and  change  any  attitudes  of  not  really  caring  in  the  present.  May  we  all  work together to heal this dark history, encourage the bishops to unite around the call for a papal apology, and  be  willing  to  provide  funds  to  help  the  process  of  truth-telling,  instead  of giving  it  to  lawyers  to mitigate litigation. 

And above all, let us pray for greater compassion and understanding for all of us – Indigenous and non-Indigenous, that this dark night of the soul will lead us all to a place of greater wellness as a church, a society and a country.

Archbishop Emeritus Sylvain Lavoie OMI
National Spiritual Advisor

Prayer for Truth and Reconciliation

 Prayer for Truth and Reconciliation

Image credit: https://traditionalnativehealing.com/native-healing-circle-and-smudging

(Reproduced from St Elizabeth Seton Facebook page. At this time the author of this prayer is unknown to us. We will be happy to give a full attribution on receiving information about the origins of this prayer.)

God, our Creator,

we pray for all the lives impacted by the Residential Schools program for First Nations, Inuit and Metis children that swept across our country and continues to affect the lives of all Indigenous peoples:

For all the children who did not return home, may they rest in your peace and love.
For all survivors, may they find healing, sanctuary, and peace.
For all intergenerational trauma survivors, may they find hope in their grief, solace in their fear, and compassion in their anger.
We ask that you bless these lives and walk with them in their healing.
Watch over them, love them, guide them.

We pray for the priests and nuns, religious communities, Church leaders, and others who were involved in the genocidal agenda of the Residential Schools and other systems, that they seek truth and justice, no matter how painful.  May they come to recognize their errors, repent of their failure to extend God's love, and seek to make amends to all Indigenous communities and families.

We pray for all non-Indigenous Canadians that they will have the courage and wisdom to find, face, and act upon, the truths of Indigenous peoples' history in our country.
We are sorry for the times we remained silent.  Help us find the strength to correct our harmful actions, and inactions, against Indigenous peoples.  Help us hold space for those grieving and hurting because of Residential Schools and their intergenerational effects.  Help us be humble and kind, not 'flushed with anger', but filled with your deep and divine mercy. 

Holy Spirit, we ask for your guidance, your wisdom, and your courage to love truth, and speak the truth with love.  Teach us, as First Nations, Inuit, Metis and non-Indigenous peoples, who we are as your beloved daughters and sons.  Amen.

Father Paul Bringleson's Apology regarding Residential Schools

The last thing Catholics should be doing at this time is getting defensive.

Here is an example of how not to be defensive.

Let us shut our mouths and listen.