The Surest Sign

Our readings for this Sunday, the Ascension of the Lord are here. 

Ascension on Thursday, May 29, would mark forty days from Easter.  However, many dioceses in the United States (and elsewhere) moved the observance to the following Sunday (this year, June 1) to increase participation in its observance. In the 1990s, the dioceses of Australia, Canada, and the United States moved their observances to Sunday, as did England and Wales later.  However, England and Wales have since reverted to a Thursday observance.

These are my notes from Fr Dennis’ homily from the

• May 12, 2013 Mass

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Fr Dennis did not reference a poem in 2013!  However …

in 2013, we reflected that —

• The Ascension is all about Jesus.  Easter is our resurrection.  Pentecost is the Spirit in us.  But the Ascension?  Jesus!  Be happy for Jesus — He made it!  His work is over.
• His power & Spirit now convert all things in this world to His Kindom.
• St Ignatius has one meditation, bridging the First Week and the Second Week of the Spiritual Exercises, called The Two Standards in which one presented two kings and their standards and the choice of whom you would follow.  He ends the Spiritual Exercises with a meditation on the Ascension of Jesus in Week 4. (Spoiler Alert: Jesus is represented in the Two Standards by the king in the muck with us, whose love calls out our very best giving and being selves.)
• RL confession — somehow and definitely NOT captured in my notes, Fr Dennis lucidly took us to the following story and insight, which I assure you made perfect heart and soul sense during my experience of the homily.  I can remember the feeling of God’s Love and consolation, but not the homiletic transition.  Sorry!
• St Ignatius’ conversion and his sharing of his story with his brother Jesuits (eventually, after a long time and much prompting by his companions) has much charming quirkiness.  For example, when he finally succeeded in making his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, the Franciscans who held the authority position in Christendom there, for the Church, essentially booted St Ignatius out.  However, St. Ignatius then bribed his way back in, first trading a penknife and then a pair of scissors(!),  to the place on Mount Olivet near Bethphage that was marked as the place from where Jesus ascended.  Apparently, even back then (in 1523) there was some plaque marking the “footprints” of Jesus Christ. Ignatius wanted to return a second time to see “the direction in which the right foot was pointing and which way the left” (Tylenda transl., 2001, A Pilgrim’s Journey) 
• Dennis thought that these kinds of unique quirkinesses in us are just the sort of thing our parents and our Loving God love in us, tenderly.

In that spirit … or Spirit, I found a replica of the Ascension footprints and used it as the blog image. 🙂

Sunday’s gospel passage has one of my all time favorite phrases: μετὰ χαρᾶς μεγάλης with great joy (in some translations — “with exceeding great joy”). While, of course, it made sense on one level — “Jesus Ascended and we saw it!,” there are some additional layers.

With apologies to the variety of uncited theologians and historians who have helped me form this understanding: 40 days after utterly and completing abandoning Jesus in Jerusalem and running for their lives, all of the apostles and disciples went back into Jerusalem to praise Him and share the Word of Love.

At that time, there had been all kinds of “messiahs” running around. The disappearance or death of one more was not a big deal. But one historian, perhaps Josephus, noted that it was this act — the return of the disciples to the scene of the crime if you will, joyfully, filled with presence and consolation, and a scenario in which they could reasonably believe THEY would also be put to death — this is the act that convinced many of the Resurrection and Jesus as the Son of God, the promised Messiah. It is a humble reminder and compass setting across the millennia.

A Merry Ascension to you, Jesus!

Allelujah!! He is Risen!!

Our readings for this Sunday, the Sixth Sunday of Easter, the Resurrection of the Lord are here. 

These are the poems, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homilies from the

• May 1, 2016, 10AM Mass, and
• May 5, 2013, 10AM Mass

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The poems Fr Dennis references in 2016 and 2013 are:

• 2016 homily — West Highland by Thomas Lynch
• 2013 homily — Transportation by Kristen Lindquist

In 2016, we reflected on —

• The readings are meant to encourage the participation in Christian life of the new members of our community.
• The gospel and second reading offer a sense of fullness; we should be delighted that Jesus is gone because this is the restoration of Jesus, to where he came from.
• In the second reading from the Book of Revelation, Jerusalem is coming from the heavens because God’s very self is the fullness of the city, the very light of which is never extinguished.
• In the first reading from Acts, “because there arose no little dissension and debate among them,” as to whether Gentiles can be in the church — Yes!, they can!  However, if the Gentiles are no longer separate from the Jewish-Christians, are the Jewish-Christians still a segment of Jewish religion? What is the common ground, particularly with regard to the many Jewish rules?  This is all about the nascent community and its members trying to find their place in their world as it is and also as Christ calls us to live.
• The NY Times obituary for Fr Daniel Berrigan, SJ included the basis for his persistent radicalism, paraphrased If I don’t have faith, then I couldn’t give myself knowing that probably nothing is going to change.
• Ultimately, these readings are about what does it means to be “our family” in this world of the Resurrected Christ?
• In Thomas Lynch’s poem, West Highland, he includes his sense of envy of people who seem to have it all together, but it is also a good reminder that Jesus offers Peace, not a solution.  Our focus on outcome can be a distraction from a focus on being, being in Christ — however that may manifest.  Thomas Lynch is a Michigan poet and part of a family providing undertaker and funeral services for generations now.

In 2013, we reflected on —

• D2 used the Gospel reading from Cycle B (John 15:9-17).  That we remain in God’s Love so that our joy and God’s joy in us may be complete.
• In the poem Transportation by Kristen Lindquist, Fr Dennis found that it captures the shining from within of the Gospel Cycle B and Book of Revelation readings, how the Love of Christ will illuminate the shining from within —
  • Everyone in O’Hare is happy today / The sun shines benevolently …

RL’s musing and reflection: With different relationship but same enthusiasm at Lindquist’s verse: I like the way [he] moves! What immediately leapt into my mind (so to speak) at the thought of illumination and transportation from within was North American hoop dance (history within link).  I had seen one particular video captured at a school, but instead, I’ve used a video link of the same young man, Nakotah LaRance, dancing at the 2016 World Championships.  In the link I share, he uses five hoops in a more rapid and creative fashion than during his dance at the elementary school, in which he used eighteen hoops (and, yes, at one point, is engaged with all at once.)  At the 2016 World Championship, he dances sage grouse, alligator, eagle, and even some moon-stepping.  🙂  The life and joy shine out of him and his dance, it resurrects and is kept alive at the same time. I like the way [he] moves!

Interestingly, very early on (more detail in the history link above), the Hoop Dance Championships decided on age divisions but no gender divisions.  In 2000, Lisa Odgig (Seneca) became the first female dancer to earn the World Championship; she repeated in 2003.  She continues to dance in the open and senior divisions, but I couldn’t find a video from those early years.

And I suppose this theme of dancing — of all kinds, captures the dynamic peace in the Resurrection for me, the one created by the Lord of the Dance.

The Salvador Dali image featured in this week’s entry is one of two in his New Jerusalem suite; this is image 1, entitled The Messiah; The Harbinger. You can see Golgotha and Jerusalem in the background. I chose a human community representation this time, though I am one of those who steps into nature and meets God immediately. However, Brian Matz in his book on St Gregory of Nazianzus (2016) had an insight that profoundly impacted me:

Nature is excellent for meditating on God’s invisible attributes but engagement with other people reveals God’s visible image.  Church communities help us witness the power of God’s grace to bring order out of the chaos of our lives; the church of nature cannot do that (Matz, 113).

St Gregory the Theologian taught that humans are most made in the image of God when we love other humans, especially the poor (Oration 14, Love of the Poor, c. 370 C.E./A.D.).

Allelujah!! He is (still) Risen!!

Our readings for this Sunday, the Fourth Sunday of Easter, the Resurrection of the Lord, also known as Good Shepherd Sunday are here. And a Happy Mother’s Day to all who mother in the many ways we are blessed to do so and receive.

These are the poems, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homily on April 17, 2016 at the 8:30 Mass. 

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This post is dedicated to the many Good Shepherds of our lives who have emptied themselves and turned over their lives to Christ for the sake of the Kindom.

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The poem Fr Dennis references in 2016 is:

• Sheep in the Winter Night by Tom Hennen, a prose-poem

In 2016, we reflected on —

• The Cycle C gospel reading is brief, making it difficult to get a warm sense of being part of the flock.
• “The Father and I are one” is a very direct identity statement for Jesus to make.
• The first reading from Acts seems more Lenten in the hostility and threat that Paul and Barnabas face, ultimately being expelled from Antioch Pisidia.  The Lenten readings are selected to help the catechumens understand the potential consequences of their faith and commitment. With the reading of excerpts from Acts in the Eastertide readings, we are reminded of the sometimes high stakes of the Way, even after the Resurrection of Jesus.
• The post-Resurrection readings often describe persecution and the differences between the Gentiles and Jews.
• We tend to think “our” group is loved by God but not “yours.”  Fr Dennis offered the joke in which various religious groups (all flavors) meet St. Peter at the gates of heaven and are welcomed but asked to be quiet as they pass “Room 8” (or the like), but always the same room number.  When someone finally asks “Why?”, St. Peter checks around and confides quietly to the newest member of heaven that “Room 8 is the Catholics room, and they think they’re the only ones here.”
• All this is to say to each and every one of us:  God Loves us, As We Are.
• Tom Hennen’s poem captures a richness about sheep we often disregard, as well as the implicit safety of holding close in the barn from the threats of a winter’s night. 
• rl notes that: the poem captures the variety of ovine-Christian references in today’s readings with
  • the dangers of being Christian/proclaiming Christ (Acts),
  • we as God’s flock (psalm and Revelations),
  • Christ as sacrificial Lamb (Revelations), and
  • Jesus as the Good Shepherd of the reading from John’s Gospel (we know his voice and follow him).

Today’s image is a Salvadoran painted & lacquered crucifix of the Good Shepherd.  The corpus and attending figures are two-dimensional in the manner of the San Damiano crucifixes of Assisi.

The crucifix reminds me of Fr Dennis and his gentle call for us all to follow Jesus, the Good Shepherd, and as he would wish, of his Jesuit friend, Fr Dean Brackley, SJ, who discerned he would go to El Salvador following the 1989 assassinations by the Salvadoran Army of fellow Jesuits and their friends, including the housekeeper and her daughter.  Brackley served as Professor of Theology and Ethics (link to Marquette Liberation Theology lectures & videos) and Director of the School for Religious Education at the Central American University, San Salvador until the year before his death in 2011.

In the original film version of JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR (1973), the director Norm Jewison insisted that Ted Neeley (the actor portraying Jesus) NOT be visible in the end scene at all — not as an actor boarding the bus home, certainly no resurrection in the character of Jesus, and not left on the cross. This directorial choice is one that led to some theological criticism. However, unbeknownst to all, at the end scene of landscape, a shepherd and his flock walk in silhouette against the hill, rather than easily observable against the sky like the empty cross. Apparently God decided on the final director’s cut! (Pope Paul VI loved the film and its potential to draw people to find out more about Jesus Christ.)

If you’d like a taste of North American sheep herding, you might try the film SWEETGRASS.  It is a documentary filmed over eight years and depicts one of the last private sheep drives on a federal grazing permit through federal lands. The sheep are driven to access the high sweet pastures in the Absaroka-Beartooth (Montana) lands. 

The older shepherd, the gentle-toned one is John Ahern, who passed in 2019; Pat Connolly is his younger partner on the trail.   Two of my favorite quips in the film are the coining of “sheep wreck” for the pile up of sheep in a narrow mountain trail.  And, after scaring off a night-time visit by a bear and her cubs:

John:    I know one thing worse than a bear. 

Pat:      What’s that?

John:    A wolverine.

Happy Easter to all and to all your Good Shepherds, earthly and heavenly! 

Allelujah!!  Allelujah!! He is (still) Risen!!

Our readings for this Sunday, the Second Sunday of Easter, the Resurrection of the Lord, also known as Divine Mercy Sunday and, colloquially, as Rebound Sunday, are here. 

These are the poems, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homilies from two different Cycle C years.  Since the readings are the same each year, we’ll enjoy a feast of the poems, some notes, and a reflection or two of my own.  The Easters we are visiting are: 

• 5PM Mass on April 28, 2019 Cycle C
• Noon Mass on April 3, 2016 Cycle C

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The poems Fr Dennis references are:

• How to Soothe by Laura Grace Weldon, April 28, 2019 Cycle C
• One of Us by Wendell Berry, April 3, 2016 Cycle C  One of Us

In 2019, we reflected on —

• All the Eastertide (post-Easter Sunday) gospels are Jesus’ post-resurrection experiences.
• The first reading, always from Acts during Eastertide through Pentecost Sunday, presents the Holy Spirit’s gifts of preaching and healing.  Note that people were healed by folks placing themselves or the ones they loved where Peter’s shadow might pass over them!
• (rl reconstruction from a shoddy note-taking moment) The ancient Greek word for being healed from spirits and physical ailments, ἐθεραπεύοντο, we recognize now as the root for our word, “therapy.”  In ancient times, it came to mean healing, cure, and treatment, but also originated from a second meaning of serving, to wait upon someone.  How often in my life has someone’s patient waiting been a healing for me?  How often is our physical, emotional, and spiritual healing a matter of engaged waiting?
• In the gospel, Jesus offers “Peace” and reassurance (“Don’t be afraid”) to his friends.
• RL notes that Tom Florek, SJ commented that the ancient greeting of Shalom! (Peace!) was also often accompanied with arms up and bent, hands open, and palms directed outward.  This would mean the loose sleeves of ancient times would drop down toward the elbows, and for the resurrected Christ — his wounds, in what we now call the wrists, would be showing as he reassured his friends.
• In Laura Grace Weldon’s poem, How to Soothe, she captures this form of healing from the gospel, her father carrying frustrated babies and “walking inside to out” in the Spirit with soothing words of love and hope.

In 2016, we reflected on —

• Only the Gospel of John has anyone at the cross, the Marys and the Beloved Disciple; the other gospels make it clear everyone ran and, at best, gathered at a distance in or around the crowd.
• Jesus hardly ever says “Peace be with you” before the Resurrection, but it is a standard part of his greeting after the fact.  It is a simple way of modeling that taking it easy and forgiveness are the Christian standards of the Resurrection.
• It bears considering — what did we think he would do?  Because
  • there are no teachings in the Christian scriptures about the “death experience” from the consummate teacher
  • no miracles (that we know of, beyond a big catch of fish)
  • no manifestation or appearance to Pilate or the Pharisees, i.e., Jesus doesn’t appear, say “Peace,” and eat with them.
• What does Jesus eating all these meals signify?  Why did he do it?
  • Perhaps in part to prove he’s not a ghost
  • Perhaps, as discussed above, he wanted to be with his friends.
• One of Us by Wendell Berry captures this sense of remembering Jesus as one of us at table — not as a miracle worker, not as a teacher … but just one of us, the ultimate act of mercy and forgiveness.
• rl notes that we often read this later passage including Thomas in isolation from John 11:16, in which he is the only apostle to exhort that they all proceed with Jesus to Jerusalem, even to the death.  In isolation, the John 20:24 passage easily creates “Doubting Thomas.”  When I read the two together, I find “Wounded Thomas” more apt, the invisible wounds when we are so certain in our faith but the lived outcome does not match our imagined one.  No warrior-prophet-priest-king fulfilling scripture for these Jewish believers.  Instead, they witnessed a donkey-riding child welcomer, subjected to the lynching of his day, failed by systems, the mob, and followers alike.  He didn’t even defend himself.  Prophesy fulfilled?!?  I found I am more inclined to think of Thomas now as a believer who doesn’t want to suffer such anguish again until he can put Jesus to the test … as if Jesus hadn’t been already!!

Fr Eric Sundrup, SJ also had thoughts on Thomas as modeling faith as a verb rather than a static noun experience.  Let our faith be alive.  And in classic fashion, Fr Eric also offered a mnemonic to differentiate Divine Mercy Jesus (“Star Trek Jesus,” with the prism rays from his heart) from Sacred Heart of Jesus (“Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom Jesus,” with his enthorned heart often with symbolic drops of blood).  Funny, a bit quirky, but I never misnamed either icon image again!

This Sunday, April 24, will mark the 22nd anniversary of the Second Sunday of Easter celebrated as Divine Mercy Sunday.  Pope Francis will celebrate the Mass in the Church of the Holy Spirit, across the street from the Society of Jesus HQ a.k.a. The Jesuit Curia (where Fr Tom McClain, SJ now serves), and 200 meters away from St Peter’s Square.  The photo of the Jesuit Curia would have been taken from the main entrance of the Church of the Holy Spirit.

The Divine Mercy Chaplet has been available to us for almost a century.  For our continent, you might visit the film JUST MERCY or the book of the same name by Bryan Stevenson, or Nobel Prize for Literature winner Toni Morrison’s A Mercy.

For our musing this week, I’ve once again turned to Jim Hasse, SJ, and his image of the Road to Emmaus, titled The Strangers We Meet.  In this image, Jesus is depicted as Black in an African-American household, the roadwalkers look more Caucasian. It is in the vestibule of St Leo the Great in Cincinnati. It is also interesting to note that Hasse went with the scriptural interpretation that it was the married pair of disciples, Mary and Cleopas, whom Jesus met on the road! The website honors and names the 2004 models for this painting.

I mention this because when John Thorne, creator of the rotating Black Lives Memorial and, prior to his move to Atlanta, a former UDJHS Theology Teacher, Pastor Associate Sacred Heart Church Detroit, and Director of the Detroit Catholic Pastoral Alliance, came to speak at our parish as part of the greater Martin Luther King observance, he mentioned that it’s the shared kitchen and meal that will mark healed racial relationships, the kitchen being the inner sanctum of Black homes.  Understandably, in this country, the invitation into a Black person’s kitchen and home must be one of great trust.

In this light, Jim Hasse, SJ’s painting in this setting and the North American continent also struck me as a depiction of the mercy or compassion we hear about in The Prodigal Son and the other four instances in Christian scripture.

Allelujah!!  Allelujah!! He is Risen!!

Our readings for this Sunday, Easter, the Resurrection of the Lord are here.   The readings are ABC, meaning they are used every Easter Sunday when the Mass of the Day is celebrated (versus the readings of the Vigil Mass, the evening before). 

Again, these are the poems, my notes, and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homilies from seven different years.  Since the readings are the same each year, we’ll enjoy a feast of the poems, some notes, and a reflection or two of my own.  The Easters we are visiting are: 

• April 21, 2019 Cycle C
• April 1, 2018 Cycle B
• April 16, 2017 Cycle A 8:30AM Mass
• March 27, 2016 Cycle C Noon Mass
• April 5, 2015 Cycle B 8:30AM Mass
• April 20, 2014 Cycle A 7PM Mass

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The poems Fr Dennis referenced are:

• A Light Exists in Spring by Emily Dickinson, April 21, 2019 Cycle C
• A Color Slide by Ted Kooser April 21, 2019 Cycle C
• “Easter Is Calling Me Back to the Church” by Margaret Renkl (NYT March 25, 2018), April 1, 2018 Cycle B
• Messenger by Mary Oliver, 8:30 Mass on April 16, 2017 Cycle A
• Seven Stanzas at Easter by John Updike, 8:30 Mass on April 16, 2017 Cycle A
• Blackbirds by Julie Cadwallader-Staub, Noon Mass on March 27, 2016 Cycle C
• Hoarfrost and Fog by Barton Sutter, 8:30 Mass on April 5, 2015 Cycle B
• W.H. Auden quote and Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front by Wendell Berry, 7PM Mass on April 20, 2014 Cycle A

The following are notes from the earlier Easter celebrations — in later years I was often serving at other St Mary’s liturgies during the day and didn’t always get to hear the homilies associated with the poems!

In 2016, we reflected on —

That we don’t know much about the actual resurrection —

• There is nothing in scripture about it.
• Not much else outside scripture.
• The folded face cloth in the tomb helps John believe in the resurrection.  A robber or someone opposed to Jesus as the Messiah would not have taken such care; the cloth would have been tossed about.
• The resurrection seems to be in the small things, in the overall fit of things.  It is not a perfect conclusion, but a sensible one, a reasonable one for a person of faith.  It leaves us “looking up.”
• Blackbirds by Julie Cadwallader-Staub captures this with her final line “ah yes, this is how it’s meant to be.”

In 2015, we reflected on —

That Easter Sunday is a bit of a letdown from the Vigil and other Triduum masses, a less elaborate and less detailed exaltation.

• It’s interesting to note that compared to his public ministry of healings and miracles prior to the Passion, Jesus “doesn’t do much” after the Resurrection.  He could have done fantastic things.  But other than the fish catch, there are no miracles.  Even that is not on a par with those miracles before the crucifixion or the resurrection itself.
• It seems that all he wants to do is eat with his friends.  He seems quite content to be ordinary.
• So … we’re going to rise, but we want to cherish what is happening all around us — food, eating, breathing, living.
• Breathing — the miracle and depth of it in any given moment.  The Hoarfrost and Fog poem by Barton Sutter captures this beautifully.  Perhaps imagine that first breath again for Jesus.
• We are all born again when we realize we have a God who became human so God could see things from our point of view; and he died and rose so that we could learn God’s point of view, i.e., God’s Love for us.

In 2014, we reflected on —

“In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.” W. H. Auden.

That Easter Sunday is more easily expressed in singing (or tail-wagging!) than words … and yet we try. 

• The reign of God, the Kindom (co-opting Greg Boyle, SJ’s phrasing) that the Apostles and early Christian communities tried to live and witness in light of the mystery best captured in the gospel, its profit is … of no earthly value at all.  There is no economic profit in the Kindom.  Instead we might look to the “Invest in the millenium” stanzas of Berry’s Manifesto poem.  “Say that your main crop is the forest / that you did not plant, / that you will not live to harvest.”

• “[P]racticing resurrection” is living life for life and love itself; there is no purpose in this world.  We have nothing to lose [in this world] because we have everything in Jesus.

For myself, I found that even the tomb of Holy Saturday begins the tail-wagging, though I’d never known there was a quote to match the feeling — let alone its source!!  And the final stanza’s reference to the resurrection fox — “making more tracks than necessary / some in the wrong direction” — was a wonderful synchronicity to my 2014 Lenten fox of Mary Oliver’s Maker of All Things – Even Healings” and currently, of course, “our” neighborhood foxes.

I struggled a bit with an image for the Resurrection.  I was not taken with (for these purposes) the Van Gogh suggestions from the SALT lectionary; tempted but not taken with Rembrandt’s Christ and St Mary Magdalene at the Tomb (is the top left angel playing marbles?). 

Finally, I stumbled across a Jim Hasse, SJ prayer-poem, entitled Searching, and the painting of The Lost Coin.

Yo Yo Ma said of his own art, “Am I trying to get it right?, or am I trying to find something?”  I might paraphrase that as “Am I trying to find someone?”  And, in Hasse’s prayer-poem, “Searching,” I find my resurrection this year is the insight that Jesus witnesses what life is like when we find Love Loving.  We can’t live that experience every single moment.  We’re human.  But we can have faith that we will have resurrection when we let God find us, and we find God, and like Jesus and to God’s delight, abide in Love Loving for all eternity.

Our readings for this Sunday, Palm Sunday are here.

Again, these are my notes and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homily from the

• Noon Mass on April 14, 2019.  

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The poem Fr Dennis references is:

• Ode to the Joyful Ones by Thomas Lux
• and, Naomi Shahib Nye’s poem, Kindness, is an addition by me from the SALT Lectionary of this week, as well as a wonderful quip on being Christian by Maya Angelou, whose birthday is this week.  Fr Dennis used Nye’s poem, Burlington, Vermont, on Epiphany in 2020.  Little did we know it would be one of his last couple months of homilies we’d hear at St Mary’s until the pandemic closed down everything.

Interestingly, Fr Dennis used this poem with the Palm Sunday readings of 2019 (Cycle C) and Ascension on May 28, 2017 (Cycle A).  He had it at the ready on the 5th Sunday of Ordinary Time (February 4, 2018, Cycle B), but chose not to use it.  He might find multiple poems during the week and was adaptive to the congregation at a particular Mass gathering, whether they seemed of a certain disposition that would make one poem or another a better or lesser fit.

D2 noted that

• Palm Sunday has a bit of that Ascension feeling in the opening of the gospel, called the Gospel Procession.  This is the passage that marks Palm Sunday, Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem.  It certainly can feel triumphal (try to stop the singing, “the stones will cry out!”), but as we know …
• The story and the liturgical readings of Palm Sunday arc quickly to the Passion, which is what is read after Isaiah’s suffering servant and other readings fitting to the Passion, not the joyful tenor of the entry to Jerusalem.
• When we remain present to these passages, it’s hard not to think “What happened?!?” How could all this change so quickly, so horribly?  The behavior of human mobs is not the mystery in these cases, but our questions about God’s presence.
• We don’t understand the mystery of our belief, how it comes to aid us in the times of life that seem good or bad.  The palm procession seems joyful but it is the introduction to the suffering of the Passion.  The Passion is a horror story that reveals the Love of God who creates a joyful Resurrection out of it.  God is God. God is Light, and the darkness shall not overcome it. 
• Thomas Lux’ poem, Ode to the Joyful Ones, captures this sense of when we know — “Because you don’t have to tell them to walk toward the light.”  When we are filled with God’s Love or someone around us is, Life and Light are shared freely because that is the nature of God’s Love.
• How do we sustain our joyful ones — the joyful one inside each of us, and those around us?  We do so by relying on Jesus to provide what we need in our daily lives, by being vulnerable with him.

Naomi Shahib Nye’s poem, Kindness, captures the swing of Palm Sunday — of how these starts and finishes amidst gaping losses can be all topsy-turvy unless you are centered in God’s Love, which bears a striking resembling to kindness quite often.

Neither here nor there, I thoroughly enjoyed this quote of Maya Angelou’s from the SALT Lectionary, in honor of her April 4 birthday: 

Angelou didn’t call herself a Christian — not exactly. In an interview (link to original interview no longer available) on the occasion of being awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, she put it this way:

“I’m always amazed when people walk up to me and say, ‘I’m a Christian.’ I think, ‘Already? You already got it?’ I’m working at it, which means that I try to be as kind and fair and generous and respectful and courteous to every human being.”

The SALT Lent with Van Gogh booklet went with Starry Sky, focusing on the entry to Jerusalem, and there is a richness there with the context of the painting (created during his year stay in the mental health house).  However, in my past two retreats at Manresa (shameless plug for the Individually Directed Retreat — Ignatian, silent), my director and retreat brought out Sieger Koder’s work in the foot washing and bread breaking, our two forms of the Institution of the Eucharist in the four gospels.

The gospels are worth a read specifically to confirm this:  Jesus feeds Judas and Peter and washes the feet of both of them.  He didn’t leave anyone out, perhaps not despite knowing what they would do … but all the more because of what they would do.

Our readings for this Sunday, the Fifth Sunday of Lent are here.

Again, these are my notes and interpretations of Fr Dennis’ homily from the

• 8:30 Mass on March 13, 2016.  

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The poem Fr Dennis references is:

• Lost by David Wagoner

In 2016, we reflected on … 

• Again, we remember our catechumens and we keep them in prayer.
• The readings feel a little different than usual.  Normally, we’re a faith of remembrance.  “Remember what God has done” is the norm.  So, why, in these readings, are we being asked to forget?  We need to keep both remembering and forgetting in our hearts, to hold the mystery.  Where there is or was no way, God makes a way.
• In the second reading, Paul’s identification with Jesus is so strong that he wants to suffer with Jesus and receive that joy.
• In light of the gospel: Your sins are forgiven, don’t sin anymore; we can breathe a sigh of relief!  We are being given a new birth.  We are made new.
• Wagoner’s poem, Lost, is based on the teachings that Pacific northwest coast Indigenous communities give their children on what to do if they ever get lost in the forest.  Specifically, Wagoner based it on recounting the story of a conversation between a Native American grandfather and grandson.  God is here in all that we go through, just as God was for Moses and as Jesus (as God) is here for and with us now.
• David Wagoner died in January of 2021.  Read his NYT Obituary here.  A transplanted Midwesterner, he spent his adult life deepening in the cultures, places, and people of the Pacific Northwest.

Rainey chips in that after our refresher of Laetare Sunday, this week has feels like being lost in the woods on a Lenten slog to Holy Week — with lettings go or having people and relationships or activities removed on the journey this Lent, yet trusting God to be present in this now & place. And when it is time, to walk on with God to a Holy Week of Passion and Resurrection.

Once again, I used the SALT Lectionary Van Gogh image for this week, that of Van Gogh’s Shoes. 

That got me musing on these subtler themes of holy ground and holy places in Fr Dennis’ selection of David Wagoner’s poem Lost … and how we move between those moments (even within ourselves!). 

God asks Moses to remove his sandals when on the holy ground … so between those moments, we use … shoes, literal and metaphorical!  Van Gogh’s shoes look like they kept a person close to the ground but protected, as do moccasins.  (The DIA (Detroit Institute of the Arts) has a number of moccasins in its collection representing the communities from the East Coast to the Rockies.)

For those unfamiliar with the variety of approaches to moccasins. Here are some images of the Salish-Kootenai 116th Arlee celebration (the dancers are in full regalia.)  Here is a link to a humorous Nez Perce legend on the creation of moccasins, which captures the comedy of how we humans want to move and how God ultimately would like us to move with God. 

It also reminds me (RL) how, way back when, God tenderly clothed us even when we chose to leave the holy ground of Eden (Gen 3:21).

So, my reflection this week will be on what I am carrying that will be let go so I can robe or shod myself with whatever new gift God is giving, one that God is giving for the next portion of the journey.  For now, I will continue to listen to the forest tell me where I am!