So last week I didn't pray the news because I didn't hear or see much news while on silent retreat at the monastery. And this morning as I sit down once again with the headlines, I feel rather assaulted. The top story on the online NY Times this morning is about the question of whether men who have been put under a restraining order due to their violent threats against their wives or girlfriends should automatically have their guns confiscated. Most states do not allow the police to take away the guns, and the article tells many sad stories of women (and men) killed by a gun at the hand of their intimate partners (often a murder/suicide) even after they had reported that the man had guns and pleaded with police to take them away. There was a story on NPR about a gang rape by members of an Ohio high school football team that occurred on a night of wild drinking. I read reports on violence in Syria, Pakistan and Mali, about a car bomb killed at least 7 people and wounded 10 others in Mogadishu, Somalia, and about hundreds of students at the University of Florida who were evacuated from the school early this morning after authorities found explosives while investigating the death of someone found on campus dead of a gunshot wound.
Without the news, life in the monastery was very quiet. But even there violence was never far away. Echoes of war from generations past could still be heard in the psalms we prayed every day. And during the prayers of the people, at which people are free to share intercessions silently or aloud, the issues of the news were always on people's lips. Syria. Afghanistan. Korea. All kinds of people in peril. The earth suffers violence. And you can't get away from it even in a monastery.
Today we begin reading John 9 about the man born blind. It's a story of a man who gains new sight on every level. When we first meet him, Jesus and his disciples are walking down the street and see him, probably begging by the side of the road. He was a man blind from birth and the disciples ask, "Rabbi, who sinned: this man or his parents, causing him to be born blind?" Jesus tells them that they're asking the wrong question. It's not a matter of finding someone to blame or trying to understand cause/effect. Jesus tells them to look first for what God can do in any situation.
And I find that very helpful this morning. Sitting here and taking in one horrible news story after another, I can so easily find myself wondering what we've done wrong to live in a violent world like this. What caused it? What can we do to effect change? What do we need to do to fix it? I'm wondering why it seems that a peaceful life seems to have so many enemies and stumbling blocks. I find myself judgementally clucking - what is wrong with those people and placing blame in various places in my mind.
Paul says in his letter to the Romans that we are so absorbed in what we ourselves are doing and in our own projects that we don't see God right in front of us - like a huge rock in the road. So we stumble into God and go sprawling. I don't want to let the reality of the world stumble me up today, so this morning, as I take all this difficult news into myself, I am also taking Jesus' advice and looking first at what God can do.
Paul quotes Isaiah: "Careful! I've put a huge stone on the road to Mount Zion, a stone you can't get around. But the stone is me! If you're looking for me, you'll find me on the way, not in the way." So today I am focusing not on how I judge our whole society to be stumbling - going to hell in a hand basket - but on how God might be transforming me - and the world - through the many giant stumbling blocks to peace I'm reading about today. After all, this is the season of crucifixion leading to new life. How might praying the ever bad news change me or others? How might God be in all this?
As I transition back into my day to day life from my week of retreat, I share this lovely short video from my Brother Curtis that speaks very eloquently to these questions. Thank you SSJE brothers, for your warm and gracious hospitality and for the spiritual nourishment your faith provides.
Today's readings: Jer. 24:1-10; Rom. 9:19-33; John 9:1-17
Elsa is praying the daily readings and praying the news and blogging about it on the weekdays of Lent.
She is reading The Message translation this year.
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