Parish Missions

Letting Go of the “I”

In The Pilgrim’s Almanac: Reflections for Each Day of the Year, Father Edward Hayes seeks to give our prayer life a shot in the arm. In an entry for the Spring Equinox he relates the experience of potato planting.

“Planting potatoes in some parts of the United States is a ritual

that traditionally takes place on St. Patrick's Day or Good Friday,

but it is an ancient ritual. Before planting potatoes, you must first

cut out those pieces containing eyes. Then those pieces are ready

to be buried in the good soil of the garden. In a play on words, we

can see a similar relationship between Easter and the destruction

of the “I.” For without cutting out the "I," without the death of the "ego,"

there can be no personal resurrection experience.” p.52

The Scriptures today speak of conversion and transformation, both of which on the surface are not particularly appealing. But for the contemporary Christian the message of Jeremiah and the words of Jesus in the Gospel compel us to take a fresh look at the meaning of being a follower of Jesus in the twenty-first century.

The problem addressed to us by Jeremiah is that the people have not really caught on to the relationship that Yahweh has offered the people. That relationship, the covenant, was offered freely and unconditionally, but the people kept slipping away. Their slavery in Egypt and their subsequent liberation to the Promised Land didn’t have the staying power one would have expected. Nor did the Ten Commandments or the seventy-year exile in Babylon change things all that much.

So Jeremiah prophesizes a new covenant, a deeper, more intimate relationship – a relationship of the heart as it were. Yahweh’s law will be placed in their hearts. “Create a new heart in me, O God.” They will be forever transformed!

That new covenant was what Jesus was all about – and that is what he speaks to us about in John’s Gospel. Like a grain of wheat falling to the earth and dying to bear fruit, like burying the eye of a potato, a willingness to accept the death of self in order rise to new life is the sum of the covenant. It is Christ’s mission as our Savior. It is our challenge as his disciples.

But the covenant and the images offered for it are not only to be understood as images of physical death and resurrection to eternal life. The promise of a new, "resurrected” life is operable now. The promise the Scriptures offer us today invites us beyond the idea of rising from physical death to consider the transforming power of the covenant right here, right now in a world so in need of transformation!

What we do in the Eucharist ritualizes this covenant relationship: we offer ourselves along with the bread and wine to be the living Body of Christ to the world--the living sacrament of God's enduring covenant. But the ritual must represent a reality: we must be willing to cut out the "I" and bury it so that it may produce much fruit.

As we approach the final days of our Lenten observance, the Word of God calls us to that deep conversion--a new heart--that denies self. In these final days of prayer and fasting we focus on dying and rising: what are the ways we can diminish self so that we can produce the fruit of God's presence in what we do and say. For

"If anyone would serve me, let them follow me;

where I am, there will my servant be.

Anyone who serves me, the Father will honor."