Holy Discontent

By Lucy Strohl OPA ~ February 6, 2009

Dominican Sisters of Great Bend, 3600 Broadway, Great Bend, KS 67530-3692

Phone: 620-792-1232  Fax: 620-792-1746  E-mail: sisters@ksdom.org

Hebrews 13:1-8; Ps.27:1,3,5, 8-9; Mark 6:14-29

 

   "I've been blessed in my life to be able to learn, to pray and to celebrate the divine. Even when I lost my hearing totally, I sank into the silence and knew God as never before."  This woman's humble reflection touched me as I thought about today's scriptures. The phrase ‘sinking into the silence’ and some words from the first reading kept going through my mind: ‘be content with what you have’.  Suffering a profound loss of hearing and calling it a blessing, the woman came to know God in a deeper way, being content with what she had.  Knowing loss and yet celebrating, what a picture for us.

   We, too, celebrate the divine as the Jubilee pilgrimage for our Dominican Family continues. In 2009, according to the Master General, Carlos Azpiroz Costa, OP, we are to especially honor Dominic, the Preacher of Grace. We are invited to more intentionally listen to and be formed by the Word as Dominic was--becoming a holy Word of grace and healing in our world.  I don't think Dominic’s desire for us would be contentment, though.  His gospel-grounded life urges us to be Discontented--unsatisfied with apathy, arrogance, exploitation, and violence among nations, ourselves or any part of God's creation.

   The reading from Hebrews speaks of love, hospitality, and faithfulness. Then the gospel paints a picture of imprisonment, harboring grudges, seeking revenge and death-dealing.  We could draw lines between the two. The reality is that all those descriptors can be true for us. It's easy to speak of loving and showing hospitality. But there are times we also may imprison ourselves or others by our judgments and choices, being anything but life-giving. Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM says, ‘not to waste our time dividing the world into the good and the bad.’ He tells us ‘we must hold both of them together in our own souls, where they are anyway’.

   St. Paul Miki and his companions whose feast we celebrate today certainly demonstrate a holy discontent by their attitudes and actions. Paul was born in Japan and educated by the Jesuits. He could've chosen otherwise, but with the political climate becoming hostile to Christianity, he decided to continue his ministry and was soon arrested. His last sermon was from his cross, forgiving his persecutors. Wounded and dying Paul and his 25 companions sang the Te Deum, the traditional song of thanksgiving. What preachers of grace they were!

   The scriptures, our saints today and Dominic call us to be agents of healing and forgiveness through the empowering Word and work of God where we are. As our Adrian Michigan  sister, Donna Markham OP, tells us, ‘This is risky business....we cannot be on mission very long without being wounded ourselves.... It is in union with the wounded Christ that we discover our mission anew. Taking on our Dominican mission in a new way is not devoid of pain or personal and communal suffering. But very deeply, we know in our communal bones Jesus is in our midst -- and absolutely will not abandon his faith- filled disciples’.

   And so, as this day and our challenges continue, we pray: Loving God, with you in our midst right here, we realize we are each a mixture of wonder and woundedness. Yet the psalmist sings ‘you are our Light and our salvation’. We need not be afraid. So we come together sinking more deeply into the silence… and Hope of your abundant Word. Dominic, Preacher of daily Grace, bless us. Make humbly listening to, proclaiming and being God's compassionate Word the source of our deepest discontent…AND our deepest joy.  Amen.