Caring for the Earth ~ Our Ecological Footprint

This is the second of a series on Caring for the earth ~ let’s keep it around for a while. In other words, to use the proper term, the sustainability of the earth. In our last blog, we said that Sister Paula Gonzalez had said that “humanity’s ecological footprint is already 30% beyond Earth’s capacity.

Perhaps the notion of “footprint” is hard to grasp. You know what a footprint is.  It’s evidence that you’ve been around.  Well, one’s “ecological footprint” is how much space you take up on the planet, in terms of what you consume.

If you look at the chart above that helps to explain it, unless you deny that CO2 is an issue, i.e. global warming as many politicians tend to do. CO2 emissions come from coal, oil and natural gas.  And we’re way behind other countries in developing the use of solar and wind power.  I mentioned in my last article that even the Pope for some years now has used solar extensively in the Vatican.  When I took a trip across country in 2008 I was surprised to see wind farms all across Texas, known, of course, for its oil refineries.

Let’s look at that graph above.  A person’s “footprint” is measured by usage of built-up land, nuclear energy CO2, fishing ground, forest, grazing land, and cropland.  Notice that we Americans are the greatest offenders.  What surprises me is Australia isn’t far behind! Then England, followed closely by Germany, Russia and Japan.

Note the two lines on the left side of the graph:

Humanity’s Total Ecological Footprint

CO2 Portion of Total Footprint

And between them the thin line of Earths Ecological capacity.

Worrisome, isn’t it?

Let’s reflect on what we’ve looked at so far:

What is your first response to these summary facts:

a) We are NOW living beyond the capacity of the planet?

b) The U. S. ecological footprint is twice that of the industrial world?

c)  Almost half of our footprint is from fossil fuel use (coal, oil, natural, gas.)

Do you deny that this is happening?  Do you deny climate change?

Are you fearful for your children and grandchildren?

Are you angry and frustrated at the inaction of our government(s)?

Are you at the point of despair?

As Pope Benedict challenged us in his New Year’s message, we have some lifestyle changes to make if we’re going to survive.  Many of these are very simple things, like changing your light bulbs, saving water, paper ~ well, I’ll let you know in a few days. 

Dear God,

Creator of this lovely world,

thank you, for the fruits of the earth that sustain our lives

and bring us joy and health and happiness

We are sorry that we have not cared for it as we should.

Please help each of us to do what we can care for this lovely earth,

so that it will be around for a while.

To You be all honor and glory. Amen.

With Love, 

Bob Traupman 

Contemplative Writer

In case you’re wandering why all the white space underneath the graph, that was scanned into a jpg; it scanned the whole page ~ nothing I could do about it.

Care for the Earth! Let’s keep it around for a while!

This will be a series of blogs reflecting on what we have to do to care for the earth.  “Let’s keep it around for a while” is a layman’s way of approaching the unfamiliar term of the “sustainability” of the planet.

The weekend after Easter my doggie Shoney and I headed up I-75 along Florida’s west coast towards Bradenton.  I was looking forward to participating in my first Pax Christi retreat.  I had been a member of the national organization since 1992.  It was set among the Spanish moss-laden oaks of the Episcopal Diocese’s Dayspring retreat center east of Bradenton.  They had pods of air-conditioned cabins of 4 double rooms – not what you would expect from what looked like a traditional summer camp.

Shoney made himself at home while I walked across the expanse and discovered the Pax Christi rooms.  (There were several other groups there as well.)

 

 “Awaken to the Earth as Sacrament Restoring Your Inner Peace” was the retreat theme and the major presentations were led by the vivacious 79 year old Sr. Paula Gonzalez, Ph.d.  A Sister of Charity of Cincinnati, she’s given over 1,600 talks on Planetary  Awareness, Ecospirituality, Renuable Energy and Sustainablity.  Her energy and enthusiasm was a real inspiration for this 69 year old.  She wore a T-shirt with an image of the earth with  the inscription “Crew Member ~ Spaceship Earth.”

Sister Paula says her interest in ecospirituality began in July 1969 when Apollo 11 landed on the moon and she saw pictures of the earth for the first time.  Likewise looking in awe at Earth  in the blackness of space was a deeply spiritual experience for  the German astronaut Sigmund Jahn who says, “Only when I saw it from space in all its ineffable beauty, did I realize that humankind’s most urgent task is to cherish it a preserve it for future generations.”

Then she asks ~ are we willing to face the fact that today we can see more the “fragility” than the beauty of our planet?  Daily we see reports of diminishing supplies of oil and water, toxic pollutants in air and food, disappearing species, withering heat waves, advancing deserts, hurricanes and tsunamis, melting glaciers.  When we read the newspapers or watch TV can we learn to become aware that everything is connected, that whatever happens anywhere happens everywhere?

She quotes Klaus Kepler, head of the United Nations Environment Program, “We have entered a new age – an age where all of us will have to sign a new compact with our environment . . . and enter a larger community of all living things.  A new sense of communion with planet Earth must enter our minds.”

Then she goes on to say Teilhard de Chardin perhaps gives us the key for how to do this:  “For those who know how to see, nothing is profane; everything is sacred.”  (I cringe when I see cigarette butts on the ground; I often pick them up and other trash when my doggie takes me for a walk.)  Like the astronauts, who saw the earth in a whole new way, we are called to see that everything in God’s creation is holy.  What could happen if humans learned to realize that we live “on holy ground?”

In approaching the  practical task of striving to achieve “sustainability: it is important to realize, she says, that there can be no technical solution to what is, at most, a spiritual problem.  It is imperative to realize that the American Dream (which many other aspire to) is already far beyond the earth’s “ecological capacity.”  Considering the entire population today, humanity’s ecological footprint is already about 30% beyond Earth’s capacity.

Which means we have to change our lifestyle if we are to survive.  In Pope Benedict’s New Year’s message, he said,  “If you want to cultivate peace, protect creation.  The issue of environmental degradation challenges us to examine our lifestyle and the prevailing modes of consumption and production. . . We can no longer do without real change of outlook which will result in new lifestyles.”   The Pope has placed solar panels on many of the Vatican buildings.

We will explore some of the simple steps you and I can take to help save our planet in the the next blog.

But first, let’s let’s go back to the thought that we’re called to see that all creation is holy.  If we don’t start from that premise, then none of this will make sense and we will not be motivated.  We are not above creation.  We are part of it.  The earth is holy ground.  We need to cherish it and reverence it.

With love,

Bob Traupman

Contemplative Writer

Life Surge

Dear Friends,

Jesus is so cool in the images he uses to communicate.

In the gospel passage last Sunday (John 15:1-8), Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.”

Look at the picture above.  It’s not a vine, but every little portion of that bush, every flower, receives its life from being connected to the source of its life.

So, too, with us.  I have some readers who are not professed Christians.  But if you think about it, the message is the same:  If we stay connected to the Source of life, whatever that is, then our lives will flourish and bear fruit.

But some of us are like withered branches.  We have cut ourselves off from the source of life and we do not bring fruitfulness into our lives.

The greatest fruitfulness is our relationships.  Are the people in our lives growing because they know us and are in our lives?  Or are they withering up?

Stay connected.

We want to be connected to the Internet on Facebook and Twitter and all that stuff.

What about your connection with God and his desire that the whole church, indeed the whole world be connected in love.

Jesus, you use simple images to help us understand

what life for us can be like when we stay connected to You.

Wonderful life-surging energy flows through You as the Vine.

Let that same life-surging energy which is Your Holy Spirit

surge through us as well

and renew the face of the earth!

To You be glory now and forever!

Bob Traupman

contemplative writer

Arise and sing Alleluia!

 

 

 

 

Jesus, Seed sown-down / risen-up fruit-full

Arise and sing Alleluia!

Jesus!  Wheat-grain harvested whole / hallowed

Arise and sing Alleluia!

Jesus! Bread-broken giving Life forever

Arise and sing Alleluia!

Jesus!  Wrathful grape pressed into purpled joy

Arise and sing Alleluia!

Jesus!   Dead and dread become dancing-dawn

Arise and sing Alleluia!

Jesus! Light piercing / penetrating / ‘luminating / prism-ing

closed-minds and hearts

Arise and sing Alleluia!

Jesus!  Centering silence become

Stillpoint for healed / whole / holy souls

Arise and sing Alleluia!

Jesus!  Soul-thrilling / spine-tingling sound of music

trumpeting Easter triumph

for all God’s people

Arise and sing Alleluia!

Jesus! Love of my life!

Joy of my heart!

Song of my soul!

Source of my own New Life!

I never cease to thank and praise you

and Arise and sing forever

Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!!!

Now offer your own praise to our Lord along with J. F. Handel . .  Worthy is the Lamb!

Turn up your speakers and be sure to enter full screen. (Click on the underlined word.)

Happy Easter, Everyone!

Poem © Copyright Bob Traupman 2010.  All rights reserved.

Permission granted for private sharing.

With lots of love,

Bob Traupman

Contemplative writer

What wondrous love is this?

Jesus the Lover

Like a sapling he grew in front of us,
Like a root in arid ground…
a thing despised and rejected by men,
a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering ….
And yet ours were the sufferings he bore,
ours the sorrows he carried.
But we thought of him as someone punished,
struck by God, and brought low.
Yet he was pierced through for our faults,
crushed for our sins.
On him lies a punishment that brings in peace
and through his wound we were healed
– excerpted from Isaiah 53

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul?
What wondrous love is this, O my soul?

Editor’s note: I wrote this piece in 1981, one of earliest writings.  I still consider it one of my best pieces of prose. Its long, but I hope you enjoy it. You might wish to print it out and save it for bedtime.  All the best, Bob.

Jesus is the one who is our tremendous Lover.

He came to live among us to reveal to us, his sisters and brothers, that we have a Father/God who loves us with a Love that is once a passionate, unconditional love and yet gentle, always inviting, never coercing.  Jesus came among us to be our Love, to show the human race how to use the supreme power which God could give us:  the intimate, infinite Love which is ours, if only we would claim it and model our lives after Jesus, who is Love itself.

Jesus was to be for us the model of Love because he was willing to experience in his heart the depths of human emotion.  He risked time and again to embrace the sorrow, the agony, the unfreedom, the need of those who came  to him to be healed.  He risked being burdened by the needs of others.  He risked being disheartened by those who would take from him and not even say thanks.  He risked being misunderstood and rejected  by the authorities of the day and even his neighbors in his home town.  He risked the pain of realizing that even his closest disciples and friends had narrow vision and missed the main point of his message.

He risked all, and realized that, in spite of the pain and sorrow, in his heart, the soft Voice of the Father within him was asking him to keep going, to risk even more.  To go deeper into his heart and to carve out still more and more places for those he would touch and heal, until one day there would be room in his heart for the whole world.

I doubt that Jesus ever forgot a single individual that he encountered, not even those who oppressed him.  He kept them all in his great heart, remembering them, praying for them, hoping that they would open their hearts to the One who Loved them with a passionate Love — the Father/God of all.  He must have realized how important it was to see and feel the tragedy of the corruption he witnessed among the religious and political leaders of the day, to keep even these things in his heart.   As painful as it was, he hoped that by keeping them there some of the great evil he saw would be disarmed and tamed.

That’s all he could do, after all — absorb the tragedy, the struggle, the sin, the failures in Love of the human race in his great, great heart.  Yes, he healed a few sick and gave the gift of sight to some, but most of all he Loved:  He let people into his heart (that’s the definition of Love, after all:  to let someone into your heart)  there to be comforted, if just for a moment. For one brief moment in the heart of the Lord Jesus is enough for any of us.

He had room for young John and impetuous Peter.  And for Judas.  He had room for the outcasts of his day, Zacheus and Matthew and Mary Magdalen.  And he brought the outcasts in and seated them at his table  He had room for beggars and lepers and blind people.  And he had room for the Pharisees who broke his heart by their refusal to see and understand.

We remember that he was capable of deep emotion.  He wept profoundly when he saw in prophecy what would happen to Jerusalem because of the hardness of the people’s hearts.  And yet, even the gift of his tears and the greatness of his Love would not stop the destruction that would come because of Israel’s hardness of heart and lack of vigilance.

In the end, he wept in the garden.  I like to believe that his agony was not focused on the trauma he personally was about to endure but because the Father permitted him, in that moment, to experience to the depths the reality of evil and tragedy in the world.  He must have experienced some of the pain and loss that many of us feel when we encounter hardness of heart and misunderstanding.

Jesus embodied the compassion of God — the mercy, the tenderness, the Hesed of God  (to use the wonderful Hebrew word).  God wanted to be known as the Merciful One.  And we, likewise, are instructed to “Be compassionate as our heavenly Father is compassionate.”

Jesus became for us the “Man of Sorrows,” familiar with suffering  ~ the suffering Servant of Yahweh.  He bore the weight of the world’s refusal to Love and even worse its refusal to be Loved  by the God of Love.  He allowed that evil, that senseless tragedy of the human race, to be absorbed, and thereby redeemed and purified, with his own blood.  In his own bloodstream the cosmic battle between the forces of Love and Hate was waged.  And “his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.”  In him the great cosmic battle was focused.  Our great compassionate God sent his Son to bear within his soul the brunt of that cosmic storm.

We are filled with awe at such overwhelming Love.  And so we honor this evening his great, great heart.  But most importantly we should realize that he has become for us Love itself so that we will also might become Love.

The one essential ingredient of the Christian religion is to Love as Jesus has Loved us.  We are to become compassionate as Jesus is compassionate.  We, like Jesus, are called not to be afraid to embrace the suffering, the tragedy, the sin of the world, so that in Love we will join our hearts to his and, as St. Paul says, “to make up what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ.”

Perhaps we can say, therefore, that there are two kinds of people in the world — those who are willing to accept their own share of suffering in the world (and a bit more for Jesus’ sake) and those who cannot or will not bear even the suffering caused by their own failures and sins.  The compassionate ones do what they do out of Love, a seemingly foolish Love.  Some Love because they have been opened up to a mystical awareness that they, like Jesus, are making their own soul and body available as an arena for the cosmic drama of interaction between the forces of light and the forces of darkness.

I do not pity those who suffer.  I rather pity those who are afraid to suffer.  Out of suffering comes understanding — a larger perspective of the world and with it a practical wisdom that tempers Law and Life with Mercy.  Out of suffering comes the ability to see the face of Christ in even a hardened criminal or a seemingly pitiful alcoholic.

The ability to see, to understand, the inner workings of people’s lives is a gift far greater than the suffering one must endure to attain it.  To-suffer-unto-understanding (a definition of compassion) is to be able to look upon the world as Jesus does and as he invites us to do in the Beatitudes.   (Of course, a person can suffer without  understanding — especially when we are angry about  and refuse to accept our lot of suffering.  But if we pray faithfully while we suffer, God will most assuredly gift us with  his own very special kind of understanding.)

Understanding is the goal of suffering for those who have eyes to see.  Understanding which sees through the eyes of Jesus.  Understanding allows us the courage to be with Jesus hanging on the Cross and to see what he saw from that perspective.  Understanding allows us the courage to go with Jesus into the bowels of the earth and descend into hell and to see what Jesus saw.  Then, too, understanding allows us to feel what Jesus felt when he was lifted from the grave.

I have always had an inner sense that the fastest, most efficient way to handle a crisis was to face it head on — not to avoid it.  And so, I invite you to “go with” the suffering.  Explore it.  Allow yourself to experience the feelings, as painful and confused and frightening as they may be.  The more you fight it, the more you will suffer.  Ask Jesus the Light to lead you through the darkness.  Then have faith and confidence that he will.  (After all, the worst you will experience is what Jesus experienced, as long as you follow the will of God.  (Other persons have suffered more cruel deaths than crucifixion.)  And if you truly want  to follow the will of God and are praying daily, then be assured that God is  leading you.  Take his hand in the darkness and follow — even if you can barely see the ground in front of you!

The easiest way through suffering is to stretch out our arms and allow ourselves to be nailed to our cross.  Don’t fight it.  Surrender to the will of God.  Jesus in his agony on Thursday night saw through the nails in his hands and the crown of thorns on his head to the Resurrection.  He didn’t ignore the Cross; he saw it and the horizon beyond it.Jesus didn’t focus on the pain.  The pain of the Cross was only a brief moment in the history of his lordship presiding over the business of the universe.

  So you, too, should not focus on the painful aspects of your life.  Look instead for the cause of the pain.  Look for the reality — the truth!  And remember that Jesus said “the truth shall make you free!”   See as Jesus sees; that is, see and accept the truth.  And leap from your cross as a butterfly leaps from the cocoon and as Jesus leapt from the grave.

“Impossible!” you may say, especially if you have been suffering for years.

“Not so!” says Jesus and the whole company of prophets and martyrs and confessors and virgins.

Ask for strength and you will receive strength.

Ask for guidance and you will be led through the darkness to a point you will recognize.

Ask to understand and Jesus will let you see yourself through his eyes.

But remember! Don’t focus on the pain.  All those gory pictures of Jesus in agony and bloody crucifixes of the past generation, hopefully, are gone for good.

The Cross is the focal point in that we realize the great Love which Jesus has for us and what he personally has done for us.  But one must not forget to look at the horizon beyond the Cross.  The sky on that first Good Friday afternoon undoubtedly was an awesome sight to behold.  The cross, the pain that is our lot in life to endure, is there only to be transformed and transcended.  The cross is but a moment.

Suffering in life is only a means to greater life.   It is not our final lot.  Resurrection is.  Glory is.  Triumph is.  Though, the paradox is that we must accept our cross totally to be through with it.  We are invited to surrender to our Father in complete abandonment as Jesus did, as if we were to leap off a cliff and know that we will land in the Loving arms of our great God.

A further delusion of spirituality of the past generation is that our reward will not come until the next life.  What is delusional about that is that we fail to realize the kingdom is already inaugurated by Jesus in history by his triumph on the Cross.  Our lives are already illumined  by the light of the resurrection.  And there is no reason that we cannot triumph here and now — if we accept our cross.  And, in fact, I am convinced that it will be Christians bold enough to take up the Cross of Jesus who will lead us in XXI and XXII Centuries, just as he has in every age of the Church.

And so, the question that we ponder this Good Friday, once again, is:

What wondrous love is this, O my soul, O my soul?
What wondrous love is this, O my soul?

And the answer is:

The great, great Love of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,

who Loved us so much that he stretched out his arms in the most loving,

indeed, the most-nonviolent act, the world has ever seen. 

He stretched out his arms in the face of his enemies and said from his Cross: 

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Come, then, adore the Lord who wants to be for us all our Beloved.

Come, then, adore the Lord, the tremendous Lover.

Renew your Love for him and know even more than ever before.

It is by the holy Cross that we have been redeemed.

What wondrous love is this, O my soul?
What wondrous love is this?

And now, before you go, you’ve just HAVE to listen to this  awesome orchestral arrangement of this beautiful hymn sung by Steve Green.    Be sure to turn up your speakers and enter full screen.  (Click on the underlined word.)

With love,

Bob Traupman

Contemplative Writer

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Palm Sunday ~ The humility of Jesus

Palm Sunday / April 1, 2012

Dear Friends,

All is ready now for the final days of our Lenten journey with Jesus.  The stage is set for the drama of the Paschal Mystery to be re-enacted in the parishes throughout the world.   There are parishes around which are filled with life.  I hope you can find one.

There’s a parish south of Fort Lauderdale, St. Maurice in Davie, that  has been doing liturgy well and devotedly for many years.  People there are alive, spontaneous, welcoming.  Their eyes sparkle with joy ~  in this neighborhood with many elderly folks. 

As I participated in the liturgy of Palm Sunday , I pondered Jesus’ humility and am grateful that he whittled my aberrant ego down to size.   Philippians today says Jesus “emptied himself of his equality with God and became obedient even unto death.”

I know what humiliation feels like; After a while, it made me humble.  I am a marginalized person with a mental illness and other things. But I rejoice I have found my way to a home here in north Lauderdale’s  Cypress Chase A condominium, as an ordinary person.

As the crowds hailed him as King and shouted “Hosanna to the Son of David! and threw cloaks and palm branches at his feet, I wonder what he was thinking.  He surely knew that the end was near.  What was his prayer as he looked into the faces of the crowd of well-wishers who would abandon him a few days later when the going got rough?

Here’s the link for Mass readings Palm Sunday.

My prayer this Holy Week is two-fold:

First, the renewal of the priesthood that I find sadly in disarray these days.  Reflecting on Hebrews this week I had a renewed sense of the meaning of Jesus’ priesthood.  He was to stand in the breach and offer his own life as sacrifice.  I pray that we priests would do the same ~ to heroically offer our own selves as gift for the people we have been ordained to shepherd.

I understand the meaning of Jesus’ priesthood more fully, more personally ~ and I commit myself to this charge and ideal ~ to  help our people find the meaning that will inspire all of us, church and society to be purified, cleansed and made holy.

This  in the midst of the messiness of of our economy

of our own personal and family life

of the superficiality, the unreality and lack of moral courage in American culture today

and yes, the messiness of our church.

I unite myself as I have for many years with my priest/brothers who bear the heat of the day.  I will pray for you, for us, fully and richly this week.

And secondly, I continue to pray for the transformation of America.  We have to return to being One Nation Under God.

The humble man who rode into his city on a donkey, not a stunning white stallion as a mighty conqueror is the Jesus I know and love.  I need to follow his way. 

Lord Jesus,

may we slow down our activity this Holy Week

to unite ourselves in your high priestly prayer

for the reconciliation of the world.

May we be wiling to give of ourselves and accept our crosses

as a way of building up Your kingdom of love here in our world today.

Hosanna to You, the Son of David!

Before you go, here is a beautiful song performed by some very devout young people ~ “Behold the Lamb of God”.  Be sure to enter full screen.  Have a fruitful Holy Week.  I will publish again later in the week.

Bob Traupman

contemplative writer

Unbind us, Lord! Let us go free!

John the Evangelist has still another incredible story used by the church to show us how Jesus wants to be for us: He is the One who unbinds our shackles / calls us forth from the the tombs of our lives and offers us new and risen life! When? For all eternity – Yes!  But also right here, right now.  (Also see the two previous posts for the first two stories “A thirsty man meets a thirsty woman (John, Chapter 4)  and “You light up my life” John, Chapter 9).  

There are marvelous lessons for believers and unbelievers alike here.)  The images I use here are of a statue interpreting the unbinding of Lazarus on the grounds of the Diocese of Lake Charles Retreat Center in Lake Charles, Louisiana.  I title them: “Addictions.”

As you read this story, try to see it in your own eyes.  Get into it.  And I will add a few reflections of my own along the way.  Here’s  an edited version of the NRSV version.  Here is the complete text if you wish: John 11: 1-45.

NOW a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. Mary was the one who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair; her brother Lazarus was ill. So the sisters sent a message to Jesus, “Lord, the one whom you love is ill.”

I can muse that  You, Jesus, often went to the home of Martha and Mary and Lazarus.  You probably went there to  “let your hair down.”  To get away from the crowds ~ even Your chosen  and sometimes unruly band of  Twelve  often didn’t  ”get” what You were about.  I muse that You sometimes felt quite alone even among your friends.   But You really seem to enjoy the three siblings’ company.  You could be who You were, without pressure, without demand.  You could simply “be.”   And Your three friends were very comfortable with You as well.  (Remember the story in Luke 10:38-42 when he came for dinner with them?)

Lord, help us to find friends who accept us as we are — warts and all —  with whom we don’t have to pretend to be someone ~ something we’re not.  Where we can learn and be encouraged to bind our wounds and become whole.  I thank you for the people in my life who are “there” for me when I need them.

But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness does not lead to death; rather it is for God’s glory.

Lord, You have enabled me  to realize, that illness and difficult times can end in glory for those who persevere / who trust /  who are willing to understand what such crosses will teach us.  (Bethany is often used as a symbol of a place of retreat, of refreshment and renewal.)

Lord, help us to see the glory hiding in the dark places of our lives. . . .

Though Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, after having heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.

Lord, help us to grow into patience — to wait for God’s time for things.

Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now trying to stone you, and are you going there again?”  [ . . . . ] “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to awaken him.”

How many of  us have fallen asleep to the reality of our lives?  Jesus, help me to WAKE UP! and really see and accept the reality of my life — both the good and the bad.

[. . . .] When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days.

Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles away, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home.

Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.”

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”

Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”

Lord Jesus, I hear you saying this to ME.  As a priest I have consoled many who wept at the death of their own loved ones.  And throughout my own long years of illness, these words consoled me.  Somehow, I realized that, even on this side of the grave, You would grant me new and risen life.  And You are doing that RIGHT NOW!

She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one coming into the world.”

Yes, Lord, You are the One who is my Friend / my Beloved / my Redeemer / my Shepherd and Companion on my life’s journey!

When Martha had said this, she went back and called her sister Mary, and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” And when she heard it, she got up quickly and went to him.

Now Jesus had not yet come to the village, but was still at the place where Martha had met him. The Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary get up quickly and go out. They followed her because they thought that she was going to the tomb to weep there.

When Mary came where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

In those few words I feel her grief, Lord  . . . and a bit of a reprimand: “Why weren’t You here?”

How often as a priest have I heard people say that!  “Why weren’t you here, Father?”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who came with her also weeping, he was greatly disturbed in spirit and deeply moved.

Jesus, as I (we) reflect on this story, help us to feel / to sense / to realize that it is your humanness / Your humanity that saves us:  You are one like us!

He said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.”

Jesus began to weep.

Lord, You always weep with and for Your friends . . . and the folks who do not know You are a friend waiting for them.

You cry — even now — over the state of our world.  I know.  I often cry with you!

So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”

Jesus, I praise You that You were not afraid to express Your love to other men, especially to the young beloved disciple who leaned on Your breast at the Last Supper (John 21:20).

But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Jesus, You always worked in an atmosphere of hostility.  There were always people around who hated You because you loved. And taught others to do the same.  

In these later days of Lent as we approach the celebration of Your passion, death and resurrection — this year — may we be soberly aware that it was the religious leaders who had you killed. Something for us to ponder even today.  Are we for You or against You?  Are we on the side of Love or Hate?

Then Jesus, again greatly disturbed, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it.

Jesus, I know many who have heavy stones laying across devastated lives.  Particularly my friends  who lie in the tomb of addiction.  I know families who weep and worry over the death of the spirits of their loved ones.

Jesus said, “Take away the stone.”

Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.”

There are always consequences to devastated lives.  They’re always hard to repair.

Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

. . . . but Jesus reminds us  to always  have hope in the ones we love — even when matters seem hopeless.

So they took away the stone. And Jesus [. . . . .] cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!”

The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth.

Jesus said to them,

UNBIND HIM AND LET HIM GO FREE.”

I have come to realize, Lord, that coming out of our tombs is only the beginning of recovery.  Resurrection takes a long time.We need others to unbind us.  And I thank you for the people who have helped to unbind me — especially You, Lord!

Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.

May we come to deepen OUR faith in You, Lord, and realize that as we stay close to You, You will unbind us and let us go free to new and risen life and love!

The Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to You, Lord Jesus Christ!

Now here is the song “He will raise you up on eagle’s wings” by Michael Joncas   sung at my parents’ funeral and so many others I had the honor of presiding at.  We Catholics truly believe that we will live forever!  And for our young people, here is Queen singing Who wants to live forever? (after a 10 second commercial.

With love,

Bob Traupman

contemplative writer

This post is dedicated to the young men for whom I’ve  prayed and their parents: May they be unbound from the shackles of their addictions and have new and risen life.

The New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. All rights reserved.  From the oremus Bible Browser http://bible.oremus.org v2.2.5 2 March 2008.

I can see! You light up my life!

The Fourth Sunday of Lent – The story of the man born blind

John the Evangelist is inviting us to ask ourselves:  Who are the blind ones?  Who are those who see?

If you have time, read the entire story for yourself John Chapter Nine.

It’s an important question for any of us who choose to lead a spiritual life or even survive when everywhere the truth is often folded / mutilated / stapled in obfuscated doublespeak.

The movie The Matrix portrayed us as  blind to reality.  We don’t want to really see or know what’s going on as long as our private little worlds are not disturbed.

When we ~ ahem ~ “converse” with people online, we often don’t really know whether they’re presenting themselves for who they are or giving a false persona.

Some people only see the appearances of things.  Many of us don’t have the eyes to see the unseen and the unknowable.

Much advertising today only shows handsome young men and women.

What do you see when you wander around town?

Are you on the lookout for the truly beautiful?

Like Cindy, the bag lady I found sitting in the park knitting one day in the park next to the main library in downtown Lauderdale.

A while back I took a double take when I noticed her on a cold morning just outside the library door.  She caught my eye because she was polishing her nails a luminous pink. She had on a fuzzy cardigan to match.  I backed up ten steps to say hello.

What impressed me the most was the twinkle in her eye, her cheerful demeanor and her ready smile.

I wasn’t  nearly as self-possessed when I was homeless in the early Eighties. It ain’t pretty.  I was scared to death.

What DO you see with those eyes of yours, my friend?

Are you able to see the truly Beautiful People, like Cindy?

Can you distinguish between the real and the unreal / the true and the false /  the True Self from the false self .

In the first reading the Lord teaches Samuel, his prophet not to judge by appearances, but to SEE BEYOND / to see into.

“Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance

but the Lord looks into the heart” (1 Samuel 16:10.)

The story John  is narrating here is that “They” didn’t / couldn’t see  beauty in Jesus either! (The “They” who attack and accuse Jesus  in this story are the religious establishment of the day.)  He holds his own with them; doesn’t move — He’s confident / courageous / fearless / knowing full well what they would do to him in the end.

The ones who had it once, but lost the inner message because they were more interested in protecting their own authority rather than making God available to the people.

We need to realize that “t’is ever thus!”  We must not allow the hypocrites — or as I call them the “lipocrites” — to blind us from the beauty that is available to anyone who does have eyes to see.  No.  Don’t excuse yourself from finding God or love or a loving community of faith just because there are some who don’t get it.

Jesus healed the blind man;

he let the sensuous woman wash his feet with her hair;

hung out with sinners and the tax collectors whom the lipocrites got off on thinking they were  better than;

told people to “Love one another as I have loved you”;

let the youngest disciple lean on his breast during the last supper;

kept his mouth shut when he was accused;

and, most importantly, simply did what his Father told him to do: be obedient (stayed on message) until the very end.

And they killed him for that.

Just remember, if you choose to preach this gospel, if you tell people to see the beauty — the Christ —  in the person in front of you, whether that one  be a  bag lady / homosexual / fallen down drunk / drug addict / mentally ill, crazy man / Muslim / Republican / Democrat / Jew / Catholic / atheist / pro-lifer / pro-choicer / Martian / immigrant / anybody who thinks differently than you, they probably will crucify you too or  cast you out of your life, stop their ears to anything you say or do — just as the guys in this story John tells so dramatically did today.

God sees differently, you know.  He doesn’t divide.  God unifies.  God made us all as his children.  God sustains all of us in the present moment.

God loves us all.  No matter what.

All he wants us to do is accept his love.

And so, ask yourself, dear friend, can you see your world  and the people in it — family / friend / foe — with God’s eyes?

Can you see yourself with God’s eyes, my friend?

Many people think they’re a piece of junk and so they pretend to be somebody else.

But God made you just as you are.

He wants you to see YOU as he sees you.

When you can do that, then you will change.

The good in you will increase; the not-so-good will fall away because God himself will do the transforming.

The man who was blind was able to see that.  That was the second gift of sight Jesus gave him –

not just the ability to see trees and people and flowers but to see the with the eyes of the heart.

Why?  Because Jesus did more than give him his sight.

He touched him.

He drew him close.

He treated the man as a person.

And that, very simply, is all Jesus wants us to do:  Treat one another as a PERSON! Someone just like you.

Try it today.  With your honey who treated you like vinegar this morning. Your hyper kids.  Your nasty neighbor.  Your lousy boss.  A bedraggled stranger on the street.

That’s the message of this gospel story.

Lord Jesus,

You are truly My Light.

You help me see the beauty in myself and all around me.

My life and my world are SO different because of You!

I love You.  I delight in You.

I never know what to expect when You’re around.  I can SEE!

You have given me true sight,

the ability to see into things.

To have the courage to look at My Reality — good and not-so-good.

To see the beauty in the people in my life instead of their faults.

To look at the reality of the world around us, even if we sense a retribution is coming.

And I praise You  for you have given me the ability to use the awesome gifts  our  heavenly Father has granted me so that I may help others see beauty as well.

That’s what I want to do with my life from this moment on, Lord!

I want to help people see their own beauty!

To call it forth from them.

To walk around this world and see the beauty our Father has created all around me.

I love You, Lord.

You are My Light!

I believe that You truly are the Light of the World!

And St. Paul in today’s second reading sums it up:

“Awake, O sleeper, and rise from the dead,

and Christ will give you light” (Ephesians 5:8-14.)

Now here’s Debbie Boone’s song “You light up my life” I always think of Jesus when I hear it.

With love,

Bob Traupman

contemplative writer

A thirsty man meets a thirsty woman

one of the hundreds of Florida's cool / clear springs

We’re in an important series of Sunday scriptures used to help catechumens (those preparing to meet the Lord in baptism).  In using this series of three stories (1) The Woman at the Well, (2) The Man Born Blind (next Sunday) and (3) the Raising of Lazarus, the Church all through its history asks  John the Evangelist to interpret  for us how he sees Jesus and his significance for us.

This Sunday’s gospel (March 11, 2012) has Jesus and his buddies passing through Samaritan territory. The hour’s about noon and he’s tired, hot, dusty, sweaty (I presume) and thirsty.

He sits down by Jacob’s well but has no bucket; the cool stuff is right down there but he can’t access it.  Why not take a moment to read the entire fascinating story?   (JOHN 4:1-42)

Along comes a woman with a bucket and he’s about to break all kinds of taboos:  One, Jews don’t associate with Samaritans. Two, men don’t speak to women in public. She is shocked by his shattering both of these impenetrable barriers and is quite flustered. And three, she’s not exactly a woman of high moral standing.

He soon puts her at ease by asking her for a drink, and as the great Teacher he is, he reverses the symbol and says he will give her “living waters so she will never be thirsty again.”

She’s intrigued and begins to relax into his accepting, easy manner. (We forget that He was probably a handsome 31 year old.) In fact, she quickly feels such total acceptance that she trusts him to touch her on the inside. The conversation cuts to the quick very quickly. Jesus says she has had “five husbands and the one she’s living with now is not her husband.”

Jesus has a true pastoral manner that, very sadly, so many of my friends who have left the church did not receive from a priest or their family or a community when they needed it the most.

I pray the rosary everyday and one of the new “Mysteries of Light”  has us meditate on “the proclamation of the kingdom.” At some point because I wasn’t preaching and celebrating Mass publicly I realized that I must learn how to proclaim (share ) the Good News not over the heads of masses of people but to share it as Jesus did here in a stranger’s town —  one person at a time. I ache inside when I realize so many have turned a deaf ear to the church because our lives often do not match our words or because we use harsh and condemning words which push people away and cauterize their souls instead of drawing them close.

Through my own life experience I have learned to do as Jesus did with the woman at the well. He befriended her first.  He treated her as a person. He spoke kindly. He did not condemn her but in revealing his own vulnerability (his own thirst) he brought her up to his own level.

In my videographer’s eye I can  see the two of them sitting close to each other on the wall of the well, gently conversing as Jesus listens to the story of her brokenness. Now that is the way — the only legitimate way, in my eyes — to preach the gospel — in mutual regard and respect, in mutual vulnerability.

If we keep yelling at people in harsh words we will be just tuned out.  St. Francis of Assisi is known to have said, “Preach the gospel; when necessary, use words.”

I am fiercely pro-life; I don’t even want to kill the ants on my kitchen counter.  And we have a beautiful truth to share — the sacredness of all life and the sacredness, the holiness of the ground beneath our feet — but we can only get that message across when we get down with people’s hurt and need, without judging; to cry with them and hug them instead of yelling at them. Jesus would never do that!  The only people he yelled at where the people who justified themselves and condemned others.

I repent of the times that I have been harsh with others.  And those times have been many. And I pray that, day by day by day, Jesus, the gentle One, would help me to be more and more gentle and nurturing and respectful to those I meet whose lifestyles and values are different than mine.  For I know that if I want to have any influence on them, I need to let them get close to me and let them know that, despite everything, they have a place in my heart.

The story of the woman at the well ends by telling us that this wonderful human being in Whom-God-shown-through (Gospel of the Transfiguration — Second Sunday of Lent) broke down the wall of prejudice and hostility between Jews and Samaritans so dramatically that the whole town welcomed him and he and his buddies stayed for two days.

Now THAT, dear friends, is the Jesus I know and love.  And want to be like.

Lord Jesus,

I give thanks that I have had mentors who drew me close

in whose loving embrace I received non-judgmental love

and through whose example I myself desire to love without judgment.

In my own thirst to receive the faith of those I meet and care for

may I always bring them to You, the spring of living water

so that the water you give them “will become IN THEM

a spring of living water welling up to eternal life.”

So be it! AMEN!

Here’s Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge over Troubled Waters.

Years ago when I first heard this song, I thought Jesus was / is the bridge!

With love,

Bob Traupman

contemplative writer

Swamps have something to teach us

Editors Note: This is the last of a series from three years ago:

Lake Charles, LA

Tuesday, March 4, 2009

Dear Friends,

My retreat is in its final day now.

I don’t at all like this swampy wilderness.  It’s so bleak, uninspiring; makes me feel depressed.  We walk above it on the catwalk.  The swamp connotes the stagnation, the stuck-ness of life.  I said the other day that sin is stuck-ness.  Not growing.  Not moving.

One might ask the question: Am I in a swamp?  Is my life not going anywhere?  Is there no place to get a firm footing?

So, let’s think about that.  Where are we stuck in life?  Where’s the stagnation?
What do we need to do to paddle our canoe out of the swamp onto the river of life again and start flowing downstream.

And here’s another thought for you:  Heaven is down, not up; that is, if you apply the metaphor that life is flowing like a river.  Rivers flow down to the sea.  The ocean is a symbol for the mystical life, eternal life, the “the Other Side of Silence” as Morton Kelsey calls it in one of my favorite books.

So, figure out what’s needed to get you unstuck and flowing again.

And if it looks like you’ll be stuck for a while (as our economy has been) then . . . well, um, learn to live it / grow with it / find life while you’re waiting / talk with the people you’re stuck with.  And most of all, learn how to love the one’s you’re with.

And don’t let the frickin’  mosquitoes get you!

I’ll be on my way back to Florida after a very fruitful retreat.  Thanks for your prayers.

With love,

Bob Traupman

contemplative writer