Sister Renee Yann, RSM, D.Min, is a writer and speaker on topics of spirituality, mission, and ethical business practice. After twenty years in teaching and social justice ministry, she served for over thirty years in various mission-related roles in Mercy Health System of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
Today, in Mercy, we celebrate John, “the Beloved Disciple”.
Throughout John’s magnificent writings, the themes of Love and Light stretch our perception of God, and challenge us to love like God loves.
John’s deep love of God, and devotion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, pour out in his epistles which we will be blessed with over the next several weeks.
Sometimes John’s poetic style can be a little off-setting to those more comfortable with practical prose. But if we can allow our minds to savor the rich layers of meaning within the words, we will start to experience the lyrical mystery of John’s relationship with God.
Jesus and St. John at Last Supper from 19. cent. in St. Michaels church (Michelskerk).
On these holy days, while we still bask in Christmas glory, we might ask in prayer to be deepened in our friendship with God. We might imagine ourselves resting our head on Jesus’s shoulder, just as John did at the Last Supper. We might listen there for the holy secrets God wants to whisper into our lives.
Today, in Mercy, we celebrate St. Stephen, the first martyr for the Christian Faith. Martyrdom is a somber distance from the comforting angels and kindly stars of Christmas. But I think there’s a reason our liturgy places its hard reality here.
The story surrounding Stephen’s death reveals his beautiful soul. These are some of words describing Stephen:
filled with grace and power
working great wonders and signs
speaking with wisdom and spirit
filled with the Holy Spirit
Why would anyone want to kill such a man!
It is a question which resounds down the centuries following Stephen.
Why is innocence persecuted?
Why is faith opposed?
Why is goodness crushed?
Why is freedom strangled?
Why is love for neighbor so frightening?
Our reading from Acts exposes an “infuriated” crowd, burning with anger at Stephen. Why? How had he injured them?
The human heart can become so fixed in its securities, can’t it? Sometimes we build walled worlds where we are always right, first, best, strongest, and smartest. Smarter than anybody!
These oppressive little worlds are places where for me to be right, you must be wrong. For me to be first, you must be at least second, if not last. For me to be strong, you must be weak. If we live in such a crippling world, a challenge to listen and change is earth-shattering to our fearful, manufactured security.
Christ came to free us all from needing such worlds. Omnipotent Mercy chose to be born in utter vulnerability and poverty. Christmas was our first lesson on how to live in a world secured only by Grace. Stephen’s story, following so close upon Christmas, drives home the consequences of such a faith-filled life.
Rather than right, first, best, strongest and smartest, the invitation of Christ is to be open, humble, generous, courageous, wise. Stephen’s debaters didn’t like that invitation. His faithful conviction was so true that they could offer no argument against it to defend their walled-in lives. So they killed him.
All over our planet, we see innocent life crushed by war, trafficking, economic subjugation, prejudice, divisiveness, irrational hatred, and soulless indifference. We see both small and large tyrannies enacted on the global political stage, in business, in the Church, in schools and in families.
The witness of Stephen, first martyr, inspires us to live a life so open to the Holy Spirit that we may stand up strong and, like him, “see the glory of God and Jesus” even through the shadows of a sinful world.
Music: I Will Stand As a Witness for Christ – Sally DeFord
Today, in Mercy, may you, your families, communities and loved ones be blessed with every grace and happiness. Merry Christmas, dear friends!
This is a reflection I wrote for the Catholic Health Association in 2015. I hope it blesses you on this holy day.
“Today is born our Savior, Christ the Lord.” Luke 2:11
We knew only his name, not his story. Leon, just 37 years old, was one of those rootless souls who, by life’s violent incisions, become severed from their history and their future. He had come to us from a local boarding home, comatose and dying. He came with no friend or family to attend his imminent passage. So, through the night of Christmas Eve, Kathy, a young, off-duty nurse, sat silently with Leon, adamant that he should not die alone.
Leon had a quiet death. Very little changed in him except for stilled breathing and the relaxed mask that follows expiration. It was Kathy who changed. In that sterile hospital room, grey-lit with early morning, the palpable breath of God embraced her. She knew, and from that Christmas moment will always know, that all life beats within the Divine Heart; that we are sacred and immortal within its mysterious rhythm.
Over these celebratory days, we will orchestrate a series of Christmas moments in our decorations, carols, gifts and feasts. We will visit our treasured memories and revered mangers. We will be blessed by the love of family and friends who are the face of Christ to us.
May we also receive this singular grace: to know that any true Christmas moment comes only when the Spirit of Christ passes through us into the heart of another person. To receive this grace, we may, like Kathy, need to sit in a silent room with a dying stranger. We may need to welcome that ostracized family member who has carelessly injured us. We may need to rediscover, in our own quiet contrition, the radiant Gospel commitment that has paled in us.
Meister Eckhart, seven centuries ago, sought such a Christmas moment:
Today we celebrate the Eternal Birth which God the Father has borne and never ceases to bear in all eternity. But if it takes not place in me, what avails it? Everything lies in this, that it should take place in me.
Music: Two Hour Playlist for Christmas – Tim Janis
I must remember
To go down to the heart cave
& sweep it clean; make it warm
with a fire on the hearth,
& candles in their niches,
the pictures on the walls
glowing with a quiet light.
I must remember
To go down to the heart cave
& make the bed
with the quilt from home,
strew the rushes on the floor
hang lavender and sage
from the corners.
I must go down
To the heart cave & be there
when you come. (Geoffrey Brown: Road of the Heart Cave)
Music: Sanctuary – Secret Garden
PS: Sorry for the early posts today. I accidentally hit “AM” instead of “PM”
Today, in Mercy, our scripture readings lay down before our prayer the long line of salvation history. It is a line that we can walk in wonder, winding from Isaiah’s prophecy, through the House of David, down to Joseph dreaming in the Nazarene night.
It is a story filled with words we love because, ever since our childhood, they have carried to us the fragrant scent of Christmas. These readings are the thrilling stuff of prophecies and dreams, all the more wonderful because we know them now fulfilled.
Therefore the Lord himself will give you this sign: the virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall name him Emmanuel.
Isaiah 7:14
Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the Holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her. She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.
Matthew 1:20
This long wick of Promise, burning slowly through the biblical years, bursts into light with the birth of Jesus Christ, the Fire of God.
Through our faith, that Divine Light kindles us – we who now, through our Baptism, carry the sacred DNA of Jesus into our times.
On this final Sunday of Advent, when the world’s “crazy Xmas” tries to hijack oursouls, let us be very intentional about the true meaning of these days. Let us take the time to “go into our heart cave” and prepare for Jesus. (Heart Cave poem to follow in a second post)
Music: Emmanuel – Tim Manion (Lyrics below)
Baby born in a stall. Long ago now and hard to recall
Cold wind, darkness and sin,
your welcoming from us all.
How can it be true?
A world grown so old now, how can it be new? Sorrow’s end, God send,
born now for me and you
Emanuel, Emanuel
What are we that You have loved us so well?
A song on high, a Savior’s high, angel hosts rejoice
Thy glory to tell
Lord, lead us to know. You lay like a beggar, so humble, so low;
no place for Your head and straw for a bed,
the glory of God to show.
Babe on mother’s knee,
child so soon to be nailed to a tree;
all praise, till the end of our days;
O Lord, You have set us free
O Emmanuel,
Who loved us so
You took our flesh,
come,
open our eyes
to see You here
ever near,
ever within us.
As Earth turns –
in so many ways –
to greatest darkness,
light the candle of
Your Indwelling
deep within our
longing hearts.
As Mary knew your
Closeness,
let us know You.
As Joseph held You
in mutuality of trust,
let us hold You and
be held by You.
Be born again
in the love that
we return to You
by loving one another
well and tenderly.
Cleave us to
Your Brilliant Light
though hidden in
life’s puzzling shadows,
God with Us,
God ever with Us!
O Emmanuel, come
be with us
on our longest nights.
Let us lean soft into You
on our hardest days.
Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus!
Music: Winter Cold Night – John Foley, SJ
(Lyrics below)
Winter Cold Night – John Foley, SJ
Dark, dark, the winter cold night, lu-lee-ley
Hope is hard to come by, lu-lee-ley
Hard, hard, the journey tonight, lu-lee-ley.
Star, guide, hope, hide
our poor, winter cold night.
And on earth peace, good will to men.
Lean, lean, the living’ tonight, lu-lee-lay.
Star seems darker sometimes, lu-lee-lay.
Unto you is born this day a Savior.
Pain, yes, in the bornin’ tonight, lu-lee-lay.
Star, guide, hope, hide
our poor, winter cold night.
Lavish Mercy 