Fr. Frank Majka, SJ – The Bridge

Servant Identity

The first and second Sundays of Lent present two sides of Jesus’ commitment to service. The first Sunday of Lent, Jesus was in a deserted place with the devil tempting him to make the world (and even his Father!) serve his needs and protect him from harm. In answer to that temptation, Jesus affirmed his identity as a servant, who, in obedience to his Father, stood in solidarity with us.

On the second Sunday of Lent, Jesus’ divine identity was revealed in such a way that the disciples caught a glimpse of some of the glory and depth that belongs to Jesus as Son of God. The Transfiguration showed the disciples that his divinity, too, was committed to our service, for it was this very service that Jesus was talking about to Moses and Elijah in the vision Peter, James, and John experienced. So it is Jesus the carpenter from Nazareth and the only-begotten Son of the Father who stand by us.

And what does that mean for us? Simply put, we might say that if serving others is God’s choice for his own life, then shouldn’t that be good enough for us, too — despite all the messages our culture drums into us about having power over others and dominating them?

This week think about yourself, your family, or your parish. If we truly embraced Jesus’ human-divine commitment to service, what would be different about how we live with and treat others?

Planning Lent

Lent begins in a few days, so why not take some time to think about how we wish to “do” Lent this year. For instance, will we give up something this Lent, or will we add something?

Will our Lenten practice focus on making our lives better or bettering the lives of others, like a spouse, child, in-law, neighbor, friend, relative or stranger?

Maybe it would be good to pay a daily visit to one of the good prayer sites on the internet (check “Sacred Space,” hosted by the Irish Jesuits, or Loyola Press, which has some nice possibilities for prayer and reflection).

And even though we can make a profitable Lent on our own, this year maybe it would be nice to do some Lenten observance in companionship with a friend. Perhaps there are parish observances such as adoration or the stations of the cross and several people could to go together.

Even writing a list of people we wish to pray for and taping it to a mirror where can see it easily would be a fine Lenten practice. We don’t have to be elaborate in what we do.

And Lent doesn’t have to be gloomy. In fact, one of the prayers of the Mass refers to Lent as “this joyful season” — joyful because these six weeks can bring us closer to Christ. And what could be a deeper source of joy than that?

True to the Mission and Its Message

When Jesus visited Nazareth, the place he grew up, he declared in its synagogue that he was God’s servant foretold in the book of Isaiah and that his life’s mission was to bring healing, freedom and reconciliation, just as had been promised in Isaiah’s prophecy.

But Isaiah also said that God would bring punishment and vengeance on Israel’s enemies, and Jesus left that out, an omission which his hearers would have noticed, apparently leading them to ask who Jesus thought he was, omitting part of a prophecy (especially the part that seemed to promise that their hated political subjugation under Rome might finally end).

But Jesus was not the kind of political and military messiah that people expected. He knew that his Father had given him a mission that wasn’t about vengeance, and he would be true to that mission even if it offended people. That attitude, scholars say, not only angered the people in Nazareth, it eventually led to his death in Jerusalem.

What’s the message for us? St. Francis told his companions to preach the gospel always, adding, “if necessary, use words.” Are our actions and words true to the mission and message of Jesus as he proclaimed it, or do we tailor them to what we and others want to hear?

Overlooked Gifts

The Holy Spirit bestows many gifts on us. That’s what the first letter to the Corinthians says (chapter 12). In general, though, we probably don’t pay as much attention to our gifts as we should. After all, we live in a critical culture and probably grew up more aware of our deficiencies than our gifts.

But we should recognize and appreciate the gifts we’ve been given. We should be grateful for our talents of mind, heart and body, our abilities to be creative, express ourselves effectively and love others. At the same time, there are two gifts that we may easily overlook: our prayer and our good desires.

St. Ignatius Loyola certainly considered them to be very important gifts from the Holy Spirit. In the constitutions of the Society of Jesus, he wrote that the leaders of Jesuit communities and works very much needed to have these gifts. They were as essential as talents for organization and clear thinking. Similarly, our relationship with God in prayer and the desires that flow from that relationship are important gifts for us, the people whose lives we touch and the work we want to do.

If you’ve never considered your prayer and good desires as gifts from God, then give some time to thinking about how important they are. And as you start to appreciate more deeply that they are indeed gifts given for your own benefit and that of others, be sure to thank God for them.

Post-Christmas Pondering

The marks of Christmas are fading. Carols at the mall give way to more popular music, and Sale signs in display windows signal that the celebration of Christmas is clearly past.

But now perhaps we can enjoy a time of pondering the meaning of what we have just celebrated. Just as Mary “pondered in her heart” all that had happened in Bethlehem, we might take some time in the next couple of weeks to think about what the coming of Christ means for us today.

For the deep, enduring meaning of Christmas need not fade. We can let the truth sink in that not only was Christ born for us once long ago, he is with us still and promises to be with us – as individuals and as the whole human family – until the end of time. In the meantime, Christ continues to call us to life and fill us with faith, hope, and love.

These are truths that we shouldn’t let fade away, now or at any other time of the year. Christmas may be gone, but the incarnate Son of God is not.