Ascensions in Our Lives

Look up! Look out! Receive power! Go out into the world! Preach in Jesus’ name!

These are the messages of the Ascension! They are the messages to us of how we are to ascend out of the depths of whatever binds us in darkness, despair, sadness, and paralysis. They are imperatives guiding us to new life, renewed hope, and joy—to ascension.

Those who were present when Jesus took leave of this earth experienced a leave-taking, a despedida like none other. What gave them hope was the promise of the power of the Holy Spirit. They left Jesus’ presence, profoundly and keenly aware of God’s presence with them, a presence that filled them with joy and with enthusiasm for being witnesses who preach in Jesus’ name.

Sometimes the ascension of Jesus reminds us of our leave-taking, our farewells to loved ones, and the rituals of funerals. Lots of people leave us. Some leave by death; others leave by choice. But God, with mercy and compassion, draws us into something new, something we could never conceive, something we have never done before. As promised at the time of the ascension, Jesus becomes nearer to us now that he is gone. Even when we feel most alone, most deserted, the Holy Spirit’s presence brings hope and promise that emerges from the suffering.

May this be true for us this weekend. We pray that we be mindful of the various experiences of “ascension” in our own lives. We pray in gratitude for God’s guiding presence in our lives and God’s nudges to witness new life, new hope, and boundless joy! We praise God for the promise of boundless love forever!

Love Sunday

Love could be the theme for this Sunday; after all, it is Mother’s Day. Or we could believe that we have come to love Sundays because we can gather in person, perhaps more readily. Or, it could be that we have come to know what love (both given and received) means in the midst of all that we have lived through in the past 15 months. The words almost sound like we are in an echo chamber: Love one another. Remain in my love. Love one another as I love you! I have called you friends. I chose you. As the Father loves me, so I love you. This I command you: love one another. Words about love abound in our readings for this weekend.

Love is not a suggestion or a wish, but a command from Jesus. In fact, all of these are imperatives. They have power and strength; they come from Jesus. No “if you want” or “if you wish” or “just a suggestion.”

And since I am dwelling on words, I also love the verbs used to describe the gift of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit fell on all who were listening to the word. The gift of the Holy Spirit …poured out on the Gentiles also. No doves in flight and no fiery tongues, but powerful and lavish falling and pouring! Imagine the Holy Spirit being as prolific as the drenching rains of the past week.

We have experienced the capacity not just to hold on to love, but also to extend love to all of our brothers and sisters, no exceptions, in our Parish ReConnect gatherings. We have named the gifts of the Holy Spirit that have been profoundly and consistently present in our lives, physically distanced as we have been. As we anticipate Pentecost and the fullness of life in the Holy Spirit, we are grateful for our reflections and our learnings and we give voice to our commitment to accompany, welcome, and engage (AWE) our brothers and sisters in parish life and beyond. We are being transformed. Life in our cocoons is generating beauty and awe—the awe in seeing new leaves and blooms, the awe we see in butterflies, the awe we experience in the children among us, the awe we know in the resilience of all who continue to inspire ( in-Spirit) us in actions and deeds, in thoughts and feelings.

And so we work and pray: Loving and generous God, we ask you to fall on us and pour out on us the gift of listening deeply to one another with love and respect. Bind us together in love and help us to be clear channels of your wisdom and love for one another. May it be so!

The Sap of Love

These days many of us are amazed at how we see much of the vegetation that we thought had died in the ice/snow storm in February come to life. It seems that the visible foliage and branches died, but the roots had sap. What we had almost given up on, suddenly has new life at the ground level, as well as below in the roots. These images of nature, vines and branches, offer us so much to think about, to reflect on after over a year of distancing—a kind of dormancy, and most certainly a pruning in our lives.

We all went through a “pruning” experience, whether we chose it or not. What we can choose is to ask ourselves, “What did we learn from the experience?” How are we different? Do we value some things more than before COVID? Have we let some things matter less? How have relationships changed? What have been some of the blessings of our dormancy and our pruning? What has died and what is coming to life?

In Church life, in our parish community, I am hearing and seeing signs of the new in us too! We are telling stories about how we tended our personal and communal growth as “vines and branches” in our Church community. We are looking for signs of new life among us as people, as the St. Francis Community. We have changed! We are identifying deeds and actions that invite us to new relationships, new sprouts of leadership, initiative, and desire to heal divisions among us. We are digging deep to find our roots again. We want to re-connect!

We have been pruned by the Word. The sap in our lives is the Word. We have new life, often revealed to us through the gifts of the Holy Spirit—patience, kindness, joy, resilience, openness, new understanding of ourselves and others. We have opportunities to cherish the “sap” and to discover our rootedness through the Saturday morning reflection tomorrow from 9-11, the Parish ReConnect experiences (both in-person and virtual), and conversations and deeds that are expressions of Easter AWE (Accompaniment, Welcome, and Engagement). We are spreading out our branches and budding forth delights! For this, let us all work and pray!

Staying Together

One of my favorite authors is Meg Wheatley. Her 2002 publication, Turning to One Another: Simple Conversations to Restore Hope to the Future, is a book that almost 20 years later is offering inspiration to me today. The quote from that book that has been on my mind throughout this pandemic, this time of distancing and separation—some chosen to be healthy and safe, and some that has been caused by a difficult national election, a difference in political views, some differences about religion, and a lot of Facebook or other social media postings that draw the line between “us” and “them.” I assume that none of us “likes” what we are experiencing. When families are divided by beliefs, it becomes particularly distressing.

Meg Wheatley writes: “You don’t fear people whose story you know. Real listening always brings people closer together. Trust that meaningful conversations can change your world. Rely on human goodness. Stay together.”

In the Gospel for this weekend, we are reminded about what a Good Shepherd does to keep his herd together. In the midst of all the distancing and division, the longing and yearning that we have had for connection, to be together, we need time to have some simple conversations. We need each other. We need to turn to one another. I assume that we want to “stay together” as one flock.

I invite us all to reflect on each of the words in Wheatley’s quote. In many ways, I personally can hear Jesus’ words and actions in that quote. It describes the world described in Acts of the Apostles. It describes our world, our city, our community.

We have several opportunities to enter into simple conversations that identify and name what we are individually and collectively willing to do to “stay together.” Join us for our Parish ReConnect experiences on Sunday from 12-1 in person for the first gathering.  Other times are listed at http://sfasat.org/parishreconnect/. Please come!

Recognizing the Lord

After the Resurrection, Jesus has a hard time being recognized. Mary Magdalene thinks he is a gardener. The disciples on the road to Emmaus think he is a stranger who didn’t know anything about the week of events. And in this week’s Scripture, the men and women followers think he is a ghost. Until he eats real food with them.

I have been thinking a lot about what it means to eat real food with others who are considered gardeners, strangers, and ghosts. In many ways, these are often people I just don’t know, or I don’t know them YET! John in the Epistle for this weekend says we can’t say “I know him” referring to Jesus without keeping the commandments. Knowing people and actions that do not hurt people go hand in hand. If we know Jesus, or claim to know Jesus, we are treating people the way Jesus would. What would Jesus do, the famous rubber bracelet expression of some time ago, becomes a measure of both our knowledge of Jesus and the actions that follow.

For weeks now, I and a growing number of St. Francis parishioners, have been putting our faith into action. We, like Jesus, have been recognizing some of the same sufferings of our brothers and sisters in SA and Bexar County that Jesus confronted. With love, compassion, and mercy, Jesus recognized the ways in which those who had power exercised it was convenient to their way of thinking, their idea of economics, and their view of who should succeed. Jesus challenges and confronts; Jesus creates tension with those who have power and authority. Jesus acts to change the policies that kept people outside, separated from access to the fullness of life.

What was the disciples’ task, having recognized the risen Lord, and having seen that he “opened their minds to understand the scripture,”? Is our task now to preach the good news of God’s mercy and goodness to all? Is it our task to act on those teachings?

This Sunday from 3-4:30, citizens of all faiths, from all over the city will hold candidates for public office accountable for priorities that I feel confident Jesus would support. COPS/Metro leaders have spent many hours during this past year advocating for gardeners, and strangers, and “ghosts.” Ghosts can simply be the people we “don’t see” because we never go to their part of town.

In this past year, during this time of isolation, I realize that I have come to know my brothers and sisters on all sides of town through action with them. Now that I know them, I cannot turn away. I have “recognized them” in “breaking open the word” of Scripture.

I may not need or benefit from what they are asking for; but because we are the “community that holds all things in common” from Acts of the Apostles and the “beloved community”—our relationship to each other that activists (people who act on values, priorities, and love for each other) ACT on. To know them is to advocate for them—to live God’s commands of love of neighbor.

Putting the Gospel into action this week means that I will be at that Accountability Session on Sunday afternoon. I invite you to join me and others from our parish.

Here is the Zoom link to register: www.copsmetro.com/accountability_20210418

Here are the priorities identified that we are asking support for: http://sfasat.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/COPSMetro-Issues-Agenda.pdf