2023 Lenten Preaching Series 4: To Be Better Creatures in a World Severely Challenged

Sometimes the Bible seems very complicated even for those who have studied it. But even after all these years, we continue to proclaim it and listen to it and try and take into ourselves the eternal messages it offers us.

This week we may ask:

· Why do the Books of Samuel describe so many political rivalries, the failure of a king, the accession of his successor?

· Why does it look at the same reality from so many different and sometimes contradictory angles?

· Where is the Word of God amid all this?

One of the answers to these questions is that the biblical authors re-read the history of their people while looking for God’s presence in it. In this re-reading, they wanted to understand how God, despite appearances, was guiding his people or, conversely, how he was not behind this or that human project, for which only hardened hearts and deafness to the divine call were responsible.

A re-reading of history in faith allowed them to understand some events differently. The transition from tribal life to the monarchy occupies an important place in this story, with mixed views on the monarchy. This is where King David comes to the fore.

The Books of Samuel want to stress that David became king by the will of God. The ultimate explanation of his success is not his political or military skill. Rumors had circulated that perhaps he came to power by shedding innocent blood or by ruthlessness. These texts give the lie to such statements. David has not usurped the crown; it was given to him. The text tells us:

Not as man sees does God see,

because man sees the appearance

but the LORD looks into the heart.

David was a shepherd of sheep, but because of his good heart, David was chosen by God to be king. He was anointed king by the prophet Samuel in place of King Saul, who no longer obeyed God. But David did not become king until many years later when Saul died.

David was chosen because of his good heart. How is your heart? What lies underneath all that we can see about you? About one another?

While surely there are many responses, what are the marks of someone with a good heart?

1. Humor does not come at the expense of others. A good-hearted person has a sense of humor that lifts others up and doesn’t tear them down.

2. Generosity is a way of life. In big ways and small ways these people are glad to share their resources.

3. They give of their time. Because time is a most precious commodity, it speaks volumes when someone is willing to spend it with someone in need.

4. They make things smooth, not rough. Their kindness helps to calms anxiety, turn sadness into joy, and prevent annoyances from igniting.

5. Everyone is treated with respect and dignity. Watch how they treat the salesclerk, restaurant server, or taxi driver.

6. The person’s words and actions match. Good deeds emerge from a good heart.

7. Unselfishness prevails. The person values your wishes and opinions and is glad to serve you.

8. Good people see good in the world. Sure, daunting problems confront us every day. But there are far more positives than negatives—and good-hearted people dwell on what’s going right rather than what’s going wrong.

This Lent we have been reflecting on how to be better creatures in a world that’s severely challenged … how to better care for all of the beautiful creation that God has given to us to enjoy.

This week we are asked to think about how we can adopt a more sustainable lifestyle. Again, there are lots and lots of ways to accomplish this, so here are just a few:

· Instead of throwing away old clothes, donate them or use them to make items such as napkins and rugs,

· Recycle plastics, tetra packs, cardboard, foil, and electronic gadgets, instead of throwing them away,

· Buy used items instead of new ones,

· Choose to reduce the amount of waste you create by limiting buying things you don’t need.

Much like the ancient people, we too must continue to try and understand the will of God in our lives, in our parish, and in our world. Sometimes it’s not easy and I daresay that it’s a lifelong process.

Each of us this Lent and every day is called to try and discern the will of God in our lives …

- What is God asking of us here any now?

- How are we called to be his ambassadors?

- What does God want from us specifically with regard for our care of creation … his creation!

Whatever the answer you come up with, there is no doubt in my mind that we are all called to have a good heart in this discernment. Take some time this day and check your heart … and the hearts of those around you … for the heart of Jesus dwells therein!

RSM

2023 Lenten Preaching Series 3: One Hundred Hours

One hundred hours. That’s the oft-cited statistic for how long a human body can typically survive at average temperatures without access to water. Today’s Sinai Peninsula averages 91°F in June, with the average high temperature at 104°F. In such extreme heat and with exposure to sun, the timeline for survival shortens considerably.

Now we’re down to fifty hours. Exertion—such as walking long distances in the daytime, carrying one’s belongings, tents, and small children, and wrangling livestock along the way shortens the timeline further.

Under extremely hot desert conditions of at least 120°F … during forced marching … sustained high sweat rates can reduce estimated survival time without drinking water to as little as seven hours, or approximately the time it takes to walk twenty miles. One long day’s march on an unusually, but not impossibly, hot, June day was all it would take to finish God’s people. Because they had no water – that’s the context we have for the first reading today from the Book of Exodus.

And the people of Israel were right to complain to, contend with, and test their leaders … and their God. We would be, too.

While about 71% of the earth's surface is water-covered … and the oceans hold about 96.5 % of all earth's water … and that water also exists in the air as water vapor, in rivers and lakes, in icecaps and glaciers, in the ground as soil moisture and in aquifers … and even in you and your dog, there still many in our world who thirst for water – clean and available drinking water.

Water is essential to life, yet 771 million people in the world – that’s 1-in-10 - lack access to it. According to one report, the water crisis is the #5 global risk in terms of impact to society. Nearly 1.5 times the population of the United States lives without a household water connection. These people, in particular women and children, must spend time to get water, instead of working or going to school or caring for their families. Unbelievable in 2023!

Moses, the leader who bears the brunt of the people’s contention, fears the people will stone him, because the landscape has no edible plant life and surely no visible water, but it does have lots of rocks. Moses has exhausted the avenues that are familiar to him and has no ideas for moving forward.

In response to his desperate query, “What shall I do?”, God instructs Moses to look to the very landscape that has engendered the people’s despair and his own mortal fear and tap the resources it does have to engineer a creative solution.

Moses must be willing to put himself out in front: “go on ahead of the people”. Moses must cross in front of the people, and in so doing become vulnerable to their anger, fear, and insistence. In so doing he will also see the need that is written upon their bodies and in their faces, and he will have to confront and respond to the magnitude of their thirst.

Moses is not the solution himself, however. Lest he imagine himself as the sole agent of the people’s salvation, he is to take with him a group of people, elders from among the Israelites. The elders carry with them their testimony to the past. They carry the trust and the hurt and the hopes of the people. In this new moment they will witness God’s presence and saving action in the present. They will participate through their own ministry of courageous presence.

Moses may be called the first “ecological economist”. Ecological economics is a trans-disciplinary field. It's a bridge across not only ecology and economics but also psychology, anthropology, archaeology, and history. That's what’s necessary to get a more integrated picture of how humans have interacted with their environment in the past and how they might interact in the future. It’s an attempt to look at humans embedded in their ecological life-support system, not separate from the environment.

As we continue our series on caring for our creation, I believe that we are called to be like Moses, perhaps, even to be mini-ecological economists ourselves. Let’s face it, it’s undisputed that clean, safe drinking water in parts of the world is scarce. Today, nearly 1 billion people in the developing world don't have access to it. Yet, we take it for granted, we waste it, and we even pay too much to drink it from little plastic or glass bottles.

Also, like Moses, I think that we too need to be a bit more vulnerable … that is open to the fear, anger and disbeliefs of our brothers and sisters. There are still those, perhaps even here, who refuse to see the problem … who deny it, who speak against it and who even criticize those who are trying to help and address it.

Water scarcity is a global concern, and that means there's even a problem in our own backyard. While it may be difficult for us to put ourselves in the shoes of an African child struggling to find fresh water, it's important to understand that water scarcity affects everyone, even here in the United States. Water scarcity is not just an issue for those who "never had." It is a problem that faces people where water seemed abundant. Pollution, demand, and other factors are ushering in these new problems at record speeds.

Water scarcity within the United States is not just an environmental problem. Our current daily demand for water also affects its future availability. Wasteful flush toilets, non-insulated pipes and generous showerheads are all culprits to the water crisis. The Southwestern United States is already this emerging reality. A crisis may soon spread into other areas when local waterways can no longer replenish their resources to meet our growing demand. Many may "thirst" for more.

God told Moses to tap the resources he had. God tells us the same. Let’s be open to learning more about it, to acknowledging it and to be better at not wasting water and our other natural resources.

Exodus says that Moses was not the solution himself, nor was he the sole agent to fixing the problem, he brought others on the journey to help. We can mimic those actions, because it’s not just about us, it’s about everybody!

Access to safe water can protect and save lives, just because it's there. Access to safe water has the power to turn time spent into time saved when it's close and not hours away. Access to safe water can turn problems into potential: unlocking education, economic prosperity, and improved health. As a Church, we believe that every human being deserves to define their own future, and water makes that possible.

In the Gospel today the woman from Samaria asks Jesus to give her a drink. My friends, people all around us are asking us the same … to help them with their thirst, their spiritual thirst and the physical thirst too.

This Lent let’s recommit ourselves to working together to design a sustainable future for our children and theirs. Moses knew that satisfying people’s needs was not just an analysis of the past, but an analysis to create something new and better for the future. We are challenged to do the same!

RSM

2023 Lenten Preaching Series 2: Caring for God's Creation

In this second week of Lent, we continue to hear the Word of God from the book of Genesis, and Genesis 12 is a story of new beginnings.

In this short chapter, we meet Abraham, who will become in subsequent pages, the father of a large nation. But here, one only sees the uncertain beginnings of a family who find themselves at the threshold of a new tomorrow. This short passage begins with God’s command to Abraham to go from his country, from his family, from his father’s house to the land that God will show him. This divine command implies leaving all that is familiar behind to face an uncertain future.

The call to Abraham though does not come alone. It is important to note that God’s command is accompanied with a fivefold promise presented in five 1st person statements: God says:

· I will make of you a great nation,

· I will bless you,

· I will magnify your name,

· I will bless those who bless you and

· I will curse those who curse you.

But, what's with all this "blessing?" The Hebrew word for bless is berak, it means to bless or to kneel. Blessing, in Hebrew, is to bring a gift to another while kneeling out of respect; to do or give something of value to another. So not only will Abraham be given something of value (a blessing) he will also, while showing and living and kneeling in respect to God, give to all the people of the earth, a gift. Further, God says in no unclear terms that there is a future waiting for Abraham and Sarah. And God is making some big promises: land to a landless people and offspring to a barren couple.

The story of Abraham and Sarah’s family is perfused with work. Their work encompasses nearly every facet of the work of seminomadic peoples in the ancient Near East. At every point, they face crucial questions about how to live and work in faithful observance of God’s covenant. They struggle to make a living, endure social upheaval, raise children in safety, and remain faithful to God amid a broken world, much as we do today. They find that God is faithful to his promise to bless them in all circumstances, although they themselves prove faithless again and again.

But the purpose of God’s covenant is not merely to bless Abraham’s family in a hostile world. Instead, he intends to bless the whole world through these people. This task is beyond the abilities of Abraham’s family, who fall again and again into pride, self-centeredness, foolhardiness, anger, and every other malady to which fallen people are apt. We recognize ourselves in them in this aspect too … despite our best efforts, even the best amongst us falls from time to time. Yet by God’s grace, they retain a core of faithfulness to the covenant, and God works through the work of these people, beset with faults, to bring unimaginable blessings to the world. Much like them, our work also brings blessings to those around us because in our work we participate in God’s work in the world. Through Abraham and Sarah all the families of the earth shall be blessed. They will have an impact on people everywhere.

Genesis 12 speaks a powerful word for us too today, certainly in those instances when we are called to leave all that is known behind; to relinquish all our comforts and securities; to follow God with closed eyes; to depart on a journey without a map. And much like Abraham and Sarah, our lifestyles will have an impact on people everywhere, today and in future generations.

This Lent we have been trying our best to focus on how to better care for our planet, to leave the earth enjoyable for future generations. Much like Abraham and Sarah, our little individual families, and all of our families collectively will have an impact on people everywhere in the ways that we care for the earth. And while we surely do not have all the answers, the time has come to have the conversation, to raise awareness, to develop a plan to try and restore the earth to its original beauty and resourcefulness.

The hard part is that some of what we are called to do will challenge us to think in a new way, to act differently, and to step away from some of our comforts, conveniences, and casualness with respect to how every one of our actions has consequences today and for tomorrow.

This week’s focus, responding to the cry of the poor, challenges us to work together to protect those most vulnerable to climate change and ecological injustice. Worldwide, under-resourced communities—migrants, refugees, Indigenous Tribes, communities of color—shoulder the worst impacts of environmental degradation. And our actions are connected to this human suffering.

As Pope Francis teaches, Creator and Creation are “interconnected.” Yet, our climate crisis is a direct result of our severed connections with Creator, Creation and one another. Powerful countries (those with the highest carbon emissions) have prioritized consumption and convenience, treating Earth and its people as resources for extraction. But it is the powerless—low-income nations, communities of color, Tribal Nations, women, children and senior citizens—who suffer the consequences. This crisis stems from decisions in desolation—choices aligned with the desires of a few rather than all. The Pope said that in turning away from Creation, we seemingly have turned away from God, too.

· How can we re-direct our focus away from only our individual concerns and expand our capacity for love?

· Who do we see as our neighbor?

· How are our choices connected to the injustices experienced by communities worldwide?

Yeb Saño, a member of the Global Catholic Climate Movement, discusses the urgency of the climate crisis, and how it is rooted in three human characteristics beginning with the letter ‘A’. He writes:

The first word is arrogance. Arrogance is the belief that we're better than God or better than nature, that we’re smarter than nature - and that has caused a lot of havoc in the world.

The second word is apathy. Apathy is the dangerous belief that it’s somebody else’s job to care, it’s somebody else's job to take care of others or take care of the environment.

And the third one is avarice, which is extreme greed. Greed has made this world a much, much worse place to live in. Greed is what drives, for example, corporations to only think about profits and not the people and the planet.

These are three words that “we as Catholics strive to stand up against”, three forms of a lack of love: “the love that Pope Francis reminds us to embrace as a commandment from God and as an example from the life of Jesus”.

In Matthew’s Gospel today we hear that Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them; his face shone like the sun and his clothes became white as light.

Rather than being people of arrogance, apathy and avarice, the Gospel calls us to be people who are interested, invested and informed because only then will we, like Peter, James and John be transformed to continue to experience the blessings of the sun and the moon and all of creation as God would have us enjoy them, and to preserve it for future generations too.

This journey of better caring for creation may be long, sometimes much longer than one may have thought. It is a journey with many ups and downs, many joys and sorrows. But it is a journey filled with many, many promises — the most important being the promise of God’s presence to show us the way.

This Lent, take some time to learn more about what we can all do in this regard, for ourselves and those who come after us.

RSM