turn our mourning into gladness
and our sorrows into wholeness.”
Jews celebrate the annual feast of Purim by reading the Book of Esther, and New York Jews often hire a well-known comedienne to interpret it for them. It is a funny story. One rabbi summarizes the story as, "They tried to kill us. God saved us. Let's eat." Their mourning has turned to gladness and their sorrows into wholeness.
Christians too should rejoice in stories of deliverance, whether we're celebrating the Emancipation Proclamation on Juneteenth, or Independence Day on July 4.
Lent, for all its penitential acts of prayer, fasting and almsgiving, is a joyous season.
During these forty days we wrap the Gospel of God's Love around us like a prayer shawl and consider how deeply and passionately and resolutely God saves us.
We remember how close our God is to us, and that God hears our every prayer. In fact we would not pray at all if the Spirit of God did not prompt us to prayer.
Jesus urges us to prayer:
Ask and it will be given to you;Perhaps many of us have suffered when we asked for something. We were given stones when we asked for bread and serpents when we asked for fish. But those responses were not prompted by God's spirit.
seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
Conversion means unlearning those bitter lessons and relearning the Good News of Jesus. This healing must reach deep into every forgotten corner of our memory. The infant who was never touched as she lie in an incubator during those long desperate weeks must invite God's caress. The child who was molested must welcome the word that she is still desirable and beautiful in God's sight. The soldier who suffers nightmares from wartime experience must permit the sacraments of Eucharist, Penance and Marriage to heal and integrate those painful stories into the Gospel of one's life.
Jesus urges us to persist in prayer until those healings are complete; even if -- and especially -- if that takes a lifetime.
Purim, with its memories of three thousand years of anti-Semitism, from the Fall of Jerusalem to the Shoah, might well be a tragic festival. But faithful Jews will not let those stories end in grief. God is with them. And God is with everyone who asks.
If you then, who are wicked,
know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your heavenly Father give good things
to those who ask him.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.