Parish Missions

The Gift and the Challenge

Kathleen and Bridget lived side by side in humble cottages on the Irish country side at the turn of the last century. Both had lovely spring gardens which they tended faithfully every Monday morning. Tuesday was laundry day. On Wednesday Kathleen would invite Bridget for tea. On Friday Bridget returned the courtesy. Thursday was shopping day and Saturday both women could be seen airing bedding and mopping floors.

One Wednesday at tea, Kathleen announced that she had decided to have an electric ceiling light installed in the sitting room where they shared their weekly tea. Bridget was surprised. "Why go through all that bother? The room is cozy and quite suitable for relaxation and receiving visitors. I think you're making a mistake.

A few weeks later Bridget saw workers moving in and out of Kathleen's cottage. When the work was complete Kathleen invited Bridget over for the first lighting. With their tea served, Kathleen moved to the wall switch and with great ceremony flipped the switch. In silence they both surveyed the room bathed in light as never before.

Kathleen caught sight of the look on Bridget's face as her eyes moved to the ceiling and walls. It was a look of shock and disappointment. Kathleen looked up and around, and saw that the lighting had exposed cracks, cob webs, pealing paint and water stains that were never quite noticeable before.

Bridget shook her head and said, "See I told you it was more trouble than it was worth. Now you have all that mess to contend with."

The following Monday, Bridget was out tending her garden as usual. But Kathleen was nowhere to be seen. Bridget walked around to the side of the cottage and peered through the window. There she saw Kathleen on a ladder scraping and scouring the walls of her newly lighted sitting room.

"What a lot of bother," thought Bridget as she turned back to her gardening. "Such a lot of bother!"

Letting the light of Christ into our lives, puts us at risk of exposing our vulnerability and, frankly, makes life more complicated. The light of Christ draws our attention to the pealing paint of hidden attitudes of discrimination towards groups of people whose religion, race or way of life is different than ours. The light of Christ allows us to see clearly the veiled cobwebs of addicted behavior. The light that is Christ enables us to get to those "hard to reach places" that we try to avoid—that “slip our minds.”

The Book of Chronicles relates the story of God’s frustration with the Israelites who had failed to remember as part of their worship the compassion and the mercy of their God. They failed to remember the story of God’s steadfast love was part of their story. It was that failed memory that led to their seventy-year exile in Babylon. But the ever faithful Yahweh chose a foreigner to liberate them – the most unlikely of all rescuers is sent to restore their inheritance.

In the same way the Word of God calls us in our day to retrieve our "lost Sabbaths," to take time to restore and renew our brokenness by remembering the mercy and compassion of our God. These final weeks of Lent can be just such a time to remember the story of our own broken, frail human nature while we recognize and acknowledge, especially in our Sunday celebration, that we will, in the words of the Psalmist, never again forget God’s compassion.

St. Paul reminds us that the light won for us by Christ's suffering and death is a gift freely given.

For by grace you have been saved through faith,

and this is not from you; it is the gift of God;

Perhaps it’s the milieu in which we live, but we find it very difficult to admit our dependence on anyone or any thing. That remarkable independent spirit so reverenced by our culture doesn’t work well in our relationship with God. As people of faith we must acknowledge with Paul: all is grace, a gift that demands a response. We gather to worship as people of faith for that very reason. The word “Eucharist” is from the Greek Eucharistic, which means “to give thanks.” Our celebration is rooted in remembrance and thanksgiving.

The light of Christ can serve as a beacon for the remainder of our Lenten journey. As we continue to prepare for the Easter Sacraments we invite Christ to lead us to a true change of heart, so that the observances of prayer, fasting and almsgiving are truly signs of something far greater taking place inside us--signs that the light of Christ has touched the hidden recesses of our hearts and brought us to healing and wholeness.

…

...whoever lives the truth comes to the light,

so that their works may be clearly seen as done in God.