1st Michaelmas 2019, Married to Amazement

1^st Michaelmas 

Matthew 22, 1-14 (adapted from Madsen)

And Jesus continued to speak in parables to them:

Corina Ferraz

The kingdom of the heavens arising in human hearts is like a man, a king, who prepared a marriage feast for his son. And he sent out his servants to call the guests who had been invited to the marriage, but they would not come.

Then he again sent out other servants, and said, “Say to those who have been invited, ‘Think, I have prepared my best for the banquet, the sacrificial oxen and fattened cattle have been slaughtered; everything is ready. Come quickly to the wedding.”

But they were not interested and went off, one going to his field to be his own master, another falling into the hectic pace of his own business. The rest, however, took hold of the servants, mistreated them, and killed them.

Then the king grew angry; he sent out his army, brought the murderers to their destruction, and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, “Although the marriage feast is prepared, the invited guests have proved themselves unworthy. Go out therefore to the crossroads of destiny and invite to the wedding whoever you can find.”

And the servants went into the streets and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests.

Eugene Burnand

Then the king came in to see the guests, and among them, he noticed a man who was not dressed in the wedding garment, which was offered to him. And he said to him, “My friend, you are sharing the meal; how is it you came in here without putting on the wedding garment that was offered to you?”

But the man was speechless.

Then the king said to the servants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him out into the darkness, where human beings wail and gnash their teeth. For the call goes out to many, yet only a few make themselves bearers of the higher life.”

1st Michaelmas

September 29, 2019

Matthew 22, 1-14

A wedding is an occasion for joy. The whole community rejoices when a couple finds their way to each other on earth. For indeed, their union is a symbol of the work that each of us is meant to do inwardly.

Like the partners in a couple, we each of us have two contrasting capacities.

 Individually we have a kind of willpower that is like an arrow – actively and unswervingly headed toward a goal. This kind of will has a masculine quality. We also have a will that is more like a vessel – open, able to receive, to bear, and to let go. This kind of softer will has a more feminine quality.

Rosetti

It is our human task, as an individual, to integrate and harmonize both of these types of will, the softer receptivity, and the goal-directed will, within ourselves in a way that is fruitful and productive.  We could call it the wedding of the masculine and the feminine within our soul. This kind of integration is also the goal of an earthly partnership.

Today’s reading, the wedding of the King’s Son, represents a third level of wedding. It is the wedding of the will of God to the receptive soul of humanity. The king’s son, Christ, has pledged himself to the soul of humanity on earth, and to the earth itself. He is Love Incarnate, the Being of Love itself. The Father has invited us all to this wedding and urges us to accept the invitation so that humanity can progress.  Yet respecting our freedom, He allows us our choice. However, being immersed only in business, being only one’s own master, unwilling to respond properly to what is being offered can lead us into destruction. The arrow of self-will turns against us.

Collectively we are to cultivate openness and receptivity so that we can heed the invitation and put on the garment of open prayer. We are to receive the Bridegroom in the joy and celebration that is offered to us. We will find Him in our appreciation of the wonders of the created world, in the compassion of hearts, in deeds motivated by conscience. In the words of Mary Oliver:

When it's over, I want to say: all my life

I was a bride married to amazement.

I was a bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.*

---

*Mary Oliver, “When Death Comes” in New and Selected Poems, Volume I

9th August/September Trinity 2019, Last Fruits

August/September Trinity 

Luke 7, 11-17

And it came to pass that on the next day Jesus went into a city called Nain, and his disciples and a large crowd went along with him. And as he drew near to the gate of the city, they became aware that a dead man was being carried out—the only born son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd of people from the city accompanied her.

And seeing her the Lord felt her suffering, and said to her, “Weep no more.”

And approaching, he touched the coffin, and pallbearers stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!”

The dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him to his mother. Astonishment and awe seized all who were standing there, and they began to praise God and to glorify what was here revealed, saying,

“A prophet powerful in spirit has been raised among us and God has come down to us, his people.”

Word about him spread out into all of Judea and all of the neighboring regions

9^th (of 9) August Trinity

September 22, 2019

Luke 7: 11-17

Fruits of the vine have ripened. They enclose the seeds for a new life. In nature, the fruit falls and dies away, releasing the seeds to begin a new cycle of life. But fruits can also be tended and harvested to another purpose—to be made into wine.

Today we hear of the young man; his life’s fruit had fallen green. Christ catches his soul; He finds the soul’s seed of the new, and plants it again on the earth. This is Christ as the great Gardener. He is tending a harvest for his Wine. But no matter whether the soul’s fruit falls

Pierre Bouillon

early or late, Christ is concerned with ongoing life, with the seeds within; He preserves them, carrying them and planting them where they next need to go.

In one lifetime, we may ripen soul fruits of many kinds. When ripe, the fruits must separate from the vine on which they grew, for their current cycle is finished. Things end, sometimes painfully. But what is valuable in our soul, the ripened sweetness, we can offer for the wine harvest. Our soul’s purest thoughts, our most noble feelings, the dedication of our will, form the sweetness of the soul’s fruit. These we can offer for the wine.

What is viable in our soul fruit, seeds for the future, are gathered up by our angel, under the direction of the Master Gardener. They will be preserved, be planted, grow and develop. It may be in another place and time. It may be for an entirely new and different purpose. But even in all of life’s apparent endings, the living seeds are not lost. Knowing this, we can keep trying, keep working to ripen our inner fruit, developing the sweetness, however late, in whatever cycle we find ourselves.

So now, in all the layers of our autumns, we can say with Rilke:

Lord: it is time. The summer was great...

Command the last fruits to be full,

give them yet two more southern days,

urge them to perfection, and chase

the last sweetness into the heavy wine.*

---

*Rilke, “Autumn Day”, translated by J. Mullen

8th August/September Trinity 2019, Betrothed

August Trinity

Matthew 6: 25-34

“Therefore I say to you, do not trouble your heart about what you will eat and drink or with what you will clothe your body. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds in the sky: they do not plant, do not harvest, and do not fill barns, and your heavenly Father still feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? Can any of you, by being vastly concerned, add one moment to the span of your life?

And why do you worry about clothing? Study how the lilies of the field grow: they do not work, and they do not spin cloth. But I am telling you that not even Solomon in all his glory was ever arrayed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the wild grass of the field, here today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will He not do much more for you, o small in faith?

“So do not worry, saying, ‘What will we drink? What will we wear?’ It is the nations who ask for all these things, and indeed, your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. Ask first for God’s kingdom and its harmonious order, and these other things will be delivered to you as well.

So do not worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow can worry about itself. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

8^th August Trinity

Sept 15, 2019

Matthew 6: 19-34

Marc Adamus

Here in the Northern Hemisphere, we are in the time of diminishing light. The days are shortening; the dark is rising. And what can result in our souls, often unconsciously, is the rising of a subtle level of anxiety.

The gospel reading addresses our human tendency to worry, our fear of insufficiency. Christ encourages us not to diminish the range of our attention, through concentrating only on food and drink, clothes, and riches. Rather we are to pay some attention to our own powers of perception. A few verses before today’s reading, He says,  ‘If your eye is wholesome, your whole body will be filled with light.’ That is, if our way of seeing, our way of picturing the world is wholesome, then our body and soul will be filled with light, radiant with love. What does a wholesome way of seeing the world consist of?

It consists of looking at what has already happened through the lens of gratitude. Gratitude expands and enlightens our inner vision. It widens the angle of what we see. Gratitude helps us see the small miracles in each day.

Wholesomeness also consists of imaging the future through the lens of trust; trust in God’s harmonious ordering of events; trust in the beneficence of His guidance through the course of the day. Correcting our vision with the lenses of gratitude and trust lets the light into our bodies and souls.  Filled with an inner light, our souls can radiate the light of love out into the world.

The poet John O’Donohue says,

We seldom notice how each day is a holy place

Where the eucharist of the ordinary happens,

Transforming our broken fragments

Into an eternal continuity that keeps us.

Somewhere in us, a dignity presides

That is more gracious than the smallness

That fuels us with fear and force,

A dignity that trusts the form a day takes.

So at the end of this day, we give thanks

For being betrothed to the unknown

And for the secret work

Through which the mind of the day

And the wisdom of the soul become one.*

* John O’Donohue, in To Bless the Space Between Us

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