Theme:
Our
theme today is Holy Humility. We look toward the examples of Therese of
Liseaux, Jesus and Anastastios to teach us the value of emptying ourselves with
love. The Japanese have a tradition called Kintsugi. They repair broken vessels
with precious gold. In doing so, the repaired (or healed) object is stronger
and more beautiful than before. We are such Earthen Vessels for God.
Opening Prayer for Peace by Lynn Kinlan
We come and greet one another in the
holy Presence of the Divine, to celebrate community and to be nourished by the peace of Christ. In our sharing of peace, may we be refreshed
with the sense that:
Our greeting of soul- peace is not
sentimental. Peace is a tide coming in
on the shore, rolling and gentle and insistent.
Let’s flood the person on our left with
peace and allow it to gently roll around the circle leftward.
Peace is not self-satisfied and tribal,;
it is all encompassing like the air we breathe and reliable like the earth upon
which we stand.
Let’s surround the person on our right
with peace and send it rightward as the wind of the Holy Spirit moves.
May our circle of peace be a reliable
companion as our circle moves outward for today into a wounded world greatly in
need of comfort and reassurance. Amen.
First Reading:
From the first moment of his presence in humanity, Christ makes self-emptying the revelation of the love of the Divine. He spends the greater part of his human life in the simplicity of everyday labor…
The power of love is totally bound up with humility. The opposite of love we usually call hatred. But its real name is egoism…Christ ransoms us, chained in our egoism, by accepting the ultimate humiliation, the cross. By this humility he abolishes all pride and self-centeredness. In that hour, the glory of his love shines forth and we are redeemed.
Christian
life means continual assimilation of the mystery of the cross in the fight
against individual and social selfishness. This holy humility, which is ready to accept the ultimate sacrifice, is
the mystical power behind Christian mission…
One of the greatest dangers for
Christian mission is that we become forgetful in the practice of the cross and
create a comfortable type of Christian who sees the cross as ornament and may
prefer to crucify others rather than to be crucified oneself…
These are the inspired words of Archbishop Anastasios of Albania and the community affirms them by saying: Amen.
These are the inspired words of Archbishop Anastasios of Albania and the community affirms them by saying: Amen.
Gospel Reading:
Some
Greeks who had come to worship at the Passover feast came to Philip, who was
from Bethsaida in Galilee, and declared, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.”
Philip went and told Andrew and then they went and told Jesus.
Jesus answered them saying, “The hour
has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen, I say to you, unless a grain
of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if
it dies, it produces much fruit.
Jesus continued, whoever loves his
life, loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for
eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will
my servant be. The Holy One will honor whoever serves me.”
These are the inspired words of the
gospel writer John and the community affirms them by saying: Amen.
Homily Starter:
Kim Panaro, ARCWP
Why should we consider the path of
humility in these last few weeks of Lent? So many people in our world struggle
with low self-esteem, feelings of inadequacy and self-loathing. As 21st century theology moves us away from
Atonement Theology in favor of a Theology of Blessing it would seem very nearly
to be going backwards to embrace concepts like humility. Humility has often
been synonymous with promoting a sense of guilt, unworthiness and of being
“less than”. What do today’s gospel reading, the life of St. Therese of Liseaux
and our first reading from Archbishop Anastasios offer as a way to understand
humility as the heart of the Christian mission?
St. Therese, the great doctor of the
Church, embodies this wisdom like no other. She was called to the priesthood
and to be a missionary but her life path was quite different. Her mother had
died when she was very young and she had watched all her mother figure sisters
leave to go into the convent. She lived a life of complete charity and humility
as a perpetual novice in her cloistered Carmel community until she died in
agony of tuberculosis at age 24. She
learned to embrace humility as the path of unconditional love for God and her
sisters. She never denied her own suffering, her challenges, her pain, her
doubts or her fears. Rather, she saw them
as an opportunity to be more loving to those around her. She was so kind and
loving in fact that several of her sister nuns were very mean to her. Instead
of ego driven anger and hurt, Therese put aside her own ego and need for human
affirmation and embraced the opportunity to love those sisters with an even
greater compassion. She chose to love others with the bigger, all embracing love
that she experienced in her relationship with her God. She did not deny her brokenness but she
embraced the strength and the beauty that could come from it. Like the beauty
of the vase that is repaired by gold, the soul that lives in union with the unconditional
love of God can reflect that love in care for others. She emptied herself of
ego and the need to be understood by others because she lived in humble union
with the source of all who is Love itself………..God.
Author CS Lewis said that “Humility does not mean thinking less of
yourself, it means thinking of yourself less”. In other words, it isn’t about putting
ourselves down, it’s about moving beyond the “me” in favor of the “we.” It is
the paradox of letting go in order to gain all, forgetting oneself to find
oneself, embracing death to gain life. In our first reading today, Archbishop
Anastasios challenges us to understand that the cross is about letting go of
selfishness and egoism just as Jesus did. Jesus’ witness of unconditional radical
love for all regardless of gender, social status, adherence to religious
legalism or past behaviors made him such a threat to religious and political
leaders that they killed him in the way most degrading and painful way they
knew, crucifixion. Jesus’ cross represents the triumph of self-emptying love
for neighbor. In our gospel reading
today, Jesus points to the lesson that in dying, the grain of wheat produces
life. The cross becomes our symbol that
unconditional love leads to life and that death does not have the final word. The intended humiliation of Jesus at the crucifixion
was not effective because his focus was on love of others and God.
How about you and I? Do we embrace this
holy humility? Do we place our hopes on the path of complete self-emptying and sacrifice of our egos in order to live as
Jesus? It is not simply about doing good works, or being a social worker or
social activist. Those are part of the work but they are not the goal itself.
The goal is love. The mystical heart of the cross is the paradox of letting go
of all to gain all. If we have the
vision of Therese, Jesus and Anastasios, we might be able to use our own
emotional, physical, psychological hurts and pains to open our arms wider to
embrace and love those around us. We
don’t need to think less of ourselves but by thinking of ourselves less, we take
the power away from the injustices and hurts in our lives in favor of the joy
of living for others and for God. That
is holy humility. That is living in the Kindom of God.
What do you think?
Closing
Prayer: inspired by a poem by John Soos
May we be rooted but restless seeds,
struggling toward light, growing and bursting and from our efforts, loving our
wounded world toward peace and justice. And may we look with fortitude and hope
at losing life to save it, letting go in the mystery of the seed’s death to
welcome the miracle of new birth. Amen
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