Month: February 2012
The Jesus I know and love
Editors note: This is a reprise of a few articles I wrote a couple of years ago. I hope you enjoy them.
Thursday after Ash Wednesday, February 26, 2009
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
I’m here, somewhere above the clouds headed for my own 2009 wilderness experience. Isn’t the sight of the portside wing aglow in orange against a pink horizon and a deep blue sea just awesome! This Continental flight is zigzagging me across the south to Houston, back to New Orleans, then by car to Lake Charles in western Louisiana. I will be making an intensive seven-day retreat in the care of a good priest friend, Father Don Piraro, director of the Diocesan Spiritual Renewal Center there. While I’m there I will listen to the sounds of the bayou that surround the center and hopefully hop into a canoe and fetch a gator to look in the eye. Don and I went to the same seminary — Theological College of Catholic University in D.C. in the late 60’s. Father Don and I have discerned that I seem to be impelled / beckoned / drawn there to begin the next phase of my writing.
Tomorrow we will reflect on the temptation scene in Mark’s gospel. The writer of the shortest gospel says Jesus was “driven” by the Spirit into the wilderness to prepare for his mission. I will begin shaping the story I’ve been wanting to tell, the story of nearly forty years of my priesthood as I experienced it through the lens of my bipolar illness which has brought me to the heights of heaven and the depths of hell. I ask a remembrance in your prayer because this is “an acceptable time” for me as the liturgy said yesterday. I ask the Holy Spirit to help me listen deeply. And then respond richly with all the energy and creative talent God has given me.
Tomorrow we begin to reflect on Jesus’ forty-day retreat into the wilderness, (the Mass text for this coming Sunday) to prepare for his mission, but this morning I want to invite you to reflect on the important scriptures of today’s Mass.
In the first reading, Moses says: “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendents may live, by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him” (Deuteronomy 30:15-20).
Now here are my thoughts this morning. (I invite you to make your own as well.) And please note that these are written, literally in flight, so pardon any malapropisms or whatever. . .
We often here the word’s Choose Life as a Pro-Life message; that’s important. But each of us are invited to choose life again and again, every day. This Lent is an acceptable time to choose the life that affirms and nourishes us and extricate ourselves from the dysfunctional communication and game-playing within the walls of our own home that cauterize the souls of our spouses and our children. Choose Life this day in the way you speak to and about everyone you meet today. Choice is an act of the will, the highest power of the human person. Choose your words carefully. Preside over / take responsibility for what comes out of your mouth; realize your words create life or death.
In today’s gospel, Jesus says, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself? (Luke 9: 22-25)
My reflection: Jesus gives us a koan, a Zen word that denotes a riddle that often takes a long time for us to get it. Try to get into it this Lent. Ponder its meaning for you right now. Repeat it often until you get it.
It’s So counter-cultural. In our society people do everything to avoid the smallest bit of pain. They even have numbing pads so that you don’t feel your Accu-check stick. And we avoid emotional pain by not thinking through our problems. We might be tempted to do this by running away. A quicky divorce or a cruel text message to dump a girl friend who no longer suits you.
The Cross of Jesus is all about commitment. Lent places before us the Cross of Jesus and his loving embrace of it. He willingly stretched out his arms to be nailed. Jesus knew he would have to face immense suffering on his journey. He knew he would make people angry by telling the truth he saw in his heart. He knew that it would lead him to death every step of the way up to Jerusalem. The issue is Acceptance of whatever life calls us to. Jesus accepted the Cross because he chose to be faithful to his mission.
Jesus did a brand new thing. His message was that his Father-God embraces every person without exception. His message was that He, Jesus, transcended the Law; that the only law was to love. This went against the grain of those who saw him as a threat to all they knew.
In the desert, Jesus made a firm commitment to BE the truth that he saw in his heart no matter what. Jesus embodied that highest moral standard: to commit his life to justice and love, no matter what it cost him. His mission was very simple: Stay on message, no matter what. He was a person of absolute integrity. No one was going to dissuade him from being who he was.
Very sadly, many in the church say that they believe in Jesus but are quick to condemn, quick to hate. If you are one who has been condemned by the church or treated hatefully, I, for one, ask forgiveness from you for I know Jesus would never want that for you. And I ask for forgiveness and change of heart for those who do the condemning and the hating.
Finally, I would like to be in solidarity with so many of us these days have crosses to face that are profoundly difficult. Let us help each other to bear the cross we must carry. But remember, the key is acceptance. Acceptance, the willingness to be nailed is the secret to your recovery.
This is the Jesus I know and love: The one who has the strength to love, no matter what. He’s my hero. I would like very much to be like that. How ’bout you?
Now I have arrived in the Big Easy and before I head west on I-10 to the bayou country I’m going to have a bowl of gumbo. 11:55 AM CST. See you tomorrow — God-willing and the swamp don’t rise.
Bob Traupman
contemplative writer
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
Dear Friends,
Ash Wednesday is upon us.
And you may ask ~ what’s this Ashes thing”
We Catholics like symbols. (So does Harry Potter.)
What do ashes mean?
What can they tell us about life? And death? And reality?
When the priest smears ashes on the penitent’s forehead he says one of two poignant phrases:
REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE DUST AND UNTO DUST YOU SHALL RETURN,
Are we to reflect and ask
Are we just dust? Have we made an ash-heap of our life?
Are we sitting in an ash-heap?
Is there nothing but ruin, smoldering embers around us?
If so, do we despair?
Or can we dream of re-building?
Lent is a time of hope when our life goes awry.
It’s a time to TURN AROUND ~ to make a U-turn ~ when we realize our life has gone in the wrong direction.
That’s what the word conversion means. To simply do a U-turn.
Turn around and head in a different direction.
Get going again.
CHANGE, so you don’t keep on doing the same old thing and expecting different results.
I have a bone to pick with Catholics who show up on Ash Wednesday, get a smudge of ashes on their forehead without the slightest intention of doing what they symbolize: CHANGE.
I invite you to go deeper into the practice of your religion. Make the sign Mean Something!
Let it transform you from inside out.
The question is: Do we have the COURAGE TO CHANGE?
So, let’s do Lent well — together.
During Lent, be ready to walk with him to Jerusalem
and find out who this Jesus is for you.
And what wisdom he has to offer us that will help us to change.
Whether you are Catholic or not, perhaps you will find some wisdom,
some meaning for your life here. Join us as we walk the journey together
as Jesus did — through suffering to death to new and risen life.
God of pardon and of love,
Mercy past all measure,
You alone can grant us peace,
You, our holy treasure.
Bob Traupman
Contemplative Writer
Tomorrow ~ The Jesus I know and Love
Carnival
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
Well, this week the Big Easy and Rio have one thing in common — one huge party. And what is so interesting its very Catholic. It’s a time to let your hair down before the strike of midnight before Ash Wednesday when in the old church they were to be when Catholics abstained from meat during the six week lenten season.
The root of the word “CARnival is the same as the word “inCARnation” the enflesh-ment of the son of God. So we celebrate “Flesh” on the day before Lent. So let your hair down a bit and have fun. And then on Wednesday, let’s be ready for a new series of this blog: The Jesus I know and love.
Now here’s a bit of carnival or Mardi Gras history for you. A carnival is a celebration combining parades, pageantry, folk drama, and feasting that is usually held in Catholic countries during the weeks before Lent. The term Carnival probably comes from the Latin word “carnelevarium”, meaning to remove meat. Typically the Carnival season begins early in the new year, often on the Epiphany, January 6, and ends in February on fat Tuesday (hence Mardi Gras in French). Probably originating in pagan spring fertility rites, the first recorded carnival was the Egyptian feast of Osiris, an event marking the receding of the Nile’s flood water. Carnivals reached a peak of riotous dissipation with the Roman BACCHANALIA and Saturnalia. In the Middle Ages, when the Catholic Church tried to suppress all pagan ideas, it failed when it came to this celebration. The Church incorporated the rite into its own calendar as a period of thanksgiving. Popes sometimes served as patrons.
The nations of Europe, especially France, Spain, and Portugal, gave thanks by throwing parties, wearing masks, and dancing in the streets. All three colonizing powers carried the tradition with them to the New World, but in Brazil it landed with a difference. Not only did the Portuguese have a taste for abandoned merriment, (they brought the “entrudo”, a prank where merry-makers throw water, flour, face powder, and many other things at each other’s faces), but the Negro slaves also took to the celebration. They would smear their faces with flour, borrow an old wig or frayed shirt of the master, and give themselves over to mad revelry for the three days. Many masters even let their slaves roam freely during the celebration. Since the slaves were grateful for the chance to enjoy themselves, they rarely used the occasion as a chance to run away.
Pre-Christian, medieval, and modern carnivals share important thematic features. They celebrate the death of winter and the rebirth of nature, ultimately recommitting the individual to the spiritual and social codes of the culture. Ancient fertility rites, with their sacrifices to the gods, exemplify this commitment, as do the Christian Shrovetide plays. On the other hand, carnivals allow parody of, and offer temporary release from, social and religious constraints. For example, slaves were the equals of their masters during the Roman Saturnalia; the medieval feast of fools included a blasphemous mass; and during carnival masquerades sexual and social taboos are sometimes temporarily suspended.
Tomorrow: Why Ashes on Ash Wednesday?
May I suggest that by Wednesday morning to try be ready to enter into a deeper journey into your inner depths to discover our Lord and at the same time your deepest Self. My longer Arise reflection Lent 2009: Be in solidarity with those who are suffering http://www.spirit7.commight give you an over-all picture of how you might make this season holy — and spiritually fruitful for you, prune some of the dead stuff from your soul and be ready to experience new life, new growth for your self — and for our country.
Dear Lord,
Today we let our hair down a bit and when the the fun is over,
may we be ready to enter the desert on Wednesday with you
and discover how desert experiences can cleanse and purify us and make us whole.
Let us enter the desert willingly and learn its lessons well.
We ask you, Lord, to lead the way.
Amen.
Love transforms us
Dear Friends,
Last week I spoke about “Jilted love.” I think that many of young folks in our society have not experienced the love that transforms, even from their own parents or their spouses. As a consequence, and very sadly, so many do not know how to love in a way that transforms because so many of us are more interested in getting love than giving it. So, let’s think about that for a moment.
Who are the people in your life who were able to recognize the YOU inside you? Who knew who you were behind the mask you present to the world each day?
Who are the people who recognized your gifts and called them forth from deep within you? Who drew forth the goodness in you when perhaps all you were presenting to the world was not very good at all?
That’s love that transforms! That heals. That gets us going again. That moves us down the road a bit.
At this moment I will name one such man who has had an enormous influence on my life. He is Father Eugene Walsh. We used to call him Gino. He was the rector of my seminary in the year I was preparing for ordination. I was fortunate to get on his short list for him to be my spiritual director. He had a way of listening deeply below the level of my words.
I remember one night in his study. We were sitting across from each other in two easy chairs. I was always intrigued that the wall behind us was bright orange with some sort of large modern painting on it.
Of a sudden, he got up from his chair and hugged me and whispered in my ear one word: Bo-0-0-0b. I His voice found me some place deep within and called me forth.
I can still hear him saying that right now. At that moment, his deep, resonating love transformed me. Affirmed me, confirmed me. (I’ll start writing very soon about my priesthood and my bipolar journey and I will tell the story of this wonderful man and the many others who influenced and shaped my life over the years; there are many and I am grateful to each and every one.)
More than any other person than Jesus, I have tried to be like him. He was so human. He taught me how to be a human being, above all. A simple, decent, human being. And to be human, most of all, is to be capable of loving and receiving love.
And that’s what I’ve always taught: Sin is the refusal Of love, the refusal To love, as well as the refusal to grow and the refusal to give thanks.
So ask yourself: who are the persons who really knew who you were deep within. accepted you and called you forth to be the best person you could be?
Why don’t you choose that as the point of your reflection through the day — while you’re driving, sitting on the john or doing the dishes. Give thanks for them. And maybe give them a call. Not an email; a phone call.
And finally, I want to honor the two-love birds in the picture above. They are John and Betsy Walders of Sebastian, Florida. They were married sixty years Valentine’s week (February 19, 2009) and are as much in love as the day they met as teens. In their eighties they were serendipitying around the country, quite oblivious to the fact that they weren’t teenagers anymore! The joy and memory of all those years sustains Betsy as she witnesses her beloved withdraw into Alzheimers.
Dear Friends, see if you can make this prayer your own ~
Good and gracious God,
You are the One most of all who has loved me into wholeness,
who is calling me forth to be the best person I can be,
calling me not so much to want to be loved as to love.
I thank you for sending people in my life who even for a brief moment
have touched me deep within and helped to transform me.
Help me always to be a person who is capable of transforming love.
With love,
Bob Traupman
contemplative writer
And now, before you go, here’s Joan Baez’ Forever Young Click here. Turn up your speakers. Be sure to enter full screen and have a great Valentine’s Day!
Love is fidelity
Flagler Beach sunrise / bob traupman.
We’ve been reflecting on St. Paul’s eloquent words about love from I Cor. 13.
Love is not pompous, it is not inflated,it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
Romantic love wears off in a few months. True love requires fidelity. I often remember people I met briefly forty or fifty years ago and there is still a place in my heart for them, even those who were adversaries. And when I think of them I believe my prayer is able to touch them now, either living or dead and let them know I still love them.
We think we know all about love but Love is an Art and a Discipline to be learned and acquired by trial and error. As such, we have to learn how to love. Or perhaps unlearn what we have learned in abusive homes and find people who can teach us well. I am profoundly grateful for the people who allowed my soul to unfold and blossom because of their love.
When I taught high school seniors (38 years ago!) I had them read two books, Erich Fromm’s Art of Loving and Victor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning. Both books still should be required reading by anyone who wants to become a whole and healed human person.
Many of us keep focusing on finding the right object of our love. Fromm — and Jesus — tell us that being a person who is capable of loving the stranger in the checkout line at the 7-11 or your sibling whose guts you can’t stand is the way we will learn to love.
Love is being free to love the one you’re with so you can be with the one you love.
It is just not possible to love some and hate others. St. John says, “Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer.”
Love is being able to see and respond to the loving energy of the universe and spread it around instead of trying to possess it for oneself.
Love is faithfully loving whomever God puts in our life at every turn of our life’s journey.
Good and gracious God,
We live in a world that gives us so few models of faithful love.
Help us to learn the art and discipline of loving.
Help us to understand that we cannot love one person — even ourselves — unless we let love — rather than hate — flow from our heart to touch and heal aand nourish those around us.
Heal us, Lord.
Let us trust in You for you are the Source of all Love,
Your Love is flowing like a river giving life to everything along the eay.
May love flow like a river from our own hearts to every one we meet this day.
Bob Traupman
contemplative writer
And here is the entire text of St. Paul’s Ode to Love (I Cor. 13) Savor each line and see how you measure up. . . .
If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge;
if I have all faith so as to move mountains
but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast
but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous,
Love is not pompous, it is not inflated,
it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered,
it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
Love never fails.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three;
but the greatest of these is love.
I Corinthians 13
Jilted lovers
mesa verde national park of southern colorado / march 2008 / bob traupman.
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
This blog is particularly addressed to my young readers.
Our society finds it quite acceptable for people to hop into one relationship after another or just satisfy their needs by”hooking up”.
How many times have you thought that this was the person of your dreams and been dumped by a rude text message — or done the dumping yourself?
How many marriages have ended when one spouse shows up in kitchen and announces, “I want a divorce!” No discussion. No attempt to work out problems. No mercy. No forgiveness. It’s over. Done.
And what happens is that we may add one unsuccessful relationship on top of another. As a result, our heart can become more and more wounded. And less and less trusting, less and less capable of loving . . . unless we somehow find a way to believe again, to hope again.
In my own life friends (of varying degrees of closeness) have cut off contact with me without any opportunity to try to understand what happened.
I certainly did get on those people’s nerves (in each case as a result of a flair-up of the internal pressure caused by my bipolar illness) but I am quite sure that if we would just sit down and talk things out and listen to one another we could in each case quite easily smooth things out and even bring the relationship to a deeper level.
In fact, I have not given up on any of those relationships — each one which is important to me; they represent significant parts of my life. So I hold them in my heart and am patient. I am a reconciler at heart. I take my cue from my elder Jesus who has a passion for reconciliation. I believe Jesus aches for every broken relationship.
I do not say that each of those rifts in my life didn’t hurt. Particular from friends of 38 years. Being rejected hurts a helluva lot. And it takes time to get over. Some of us may never try again.
So, let’s take a deeper look at the truth and the transforming power of St. Paul’s words in I Cor. 13 we’re reflecting on in this series “What is Love?”
LOVE . . .
. . is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, it does not brood over injury,it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.Love never fails.
We just have to learn to love anyway. At least, that’s what St. Paul is getting at “Love does not brood over injuries.”
In the Art of Loving, psychoanalyst Erich Fromm’s classic book written in 1956, consider his statement that will blow most of us out of the water: “Love is not primarily a relationship to a specific person: it is an attitude, an orientation of character which determines the relatedness of a person to the world as a whole, not toward one “object” of love. If a person loves only one person and is indifferent to the rest of his fellow men, his love is not love but a symbiotic attachment (emphasis mine) or an enlarged egotism . . . If I truly love one person I love all persons, I love the world; I love life. If I can say to somebody else, “I love you,” I must be able to say”I love in you everybody. I love through you the world, I love in you also myself” — p. 39.)
This is, of course, the heart of Jesus’ message, but many, if not most of us who say we’re his followers still don’t get it.
But let us return to the theme of our brokenness. As tech opportunities for “communication” proliferate the less we communicate. We communicate more and more on a superficial level. You can’t really know someone through texting or on Facebook or in an email. A person can present a false persona. The only real way to communicate with someone is to be in their presence using all our senses.
We need to learn, once again how to come to true intimacy — the coming together of two or more persons who have the courage open themselves to the transformative power of love.
If you are one who seeks that, I’m with you. That’s what all my writing is about.
The final blog of this series will turn this subject around to consider “The Transformative Power of Love.” Then we will be on to preparing for Lent.
Good and gracious God,
we ask you to heal the hearts that are broken.
Help us to see even in the midst of our brokenness the depth of Your Love for us.
And may we see Your brokenness when we reject Your love.
We may feel we cannot take the risk to open our hearts once more.
Give us the courage and strength to stop destructive patterns that lead only to more pain.
Give us hope, Lord.
Instead of seeking to find our true love,
let us simply become persons who love —
. . . whomever we’re with,
. . . to grow in our capacity to love that we can hold the whole world in our embrace
as You do at every moment,
in every time and place.
To You, God of our understanding,
we give You praise, now and forever.
AMEN!
Now before you go, look at that tree weathering the mountaintop at 8000 feet. It has been jilted by the weather. But it still stands nobly and proudly — broken, gnarled and twisted — but a fine lesson to us of the meaning of life.
Bob Traupman
contemplative writer
And here is the entire text of St. Paul’s Ode to Love (I Cor. 13) once again. Savor each line and see how you measure up. . . .
If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient, love is kind. It is not jealous. Love is not pompous, it is not inflated,it is not rude, it does not seek its own interests, it is not quick-tempered, does not brood over injury,it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.Love never fails.So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is love. I Corinthians 13
Ode to Love
turtle-puppy love
Dear Friends and Lovers everywhere,
Many of us are thinking of our Valentine’s these days — our lovers, intendeds, spouses, classmates, mothers . . .
So, what is love?
I have officiated at the marriages of many young couples over the 43 years of my priesthood who have chosen St. Paul’s Ode to Love for their wedding Mass.
It has got to be one of the most wonderful pieces of prose of all time.
Take the time to take it in and see how you measure up.
If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal.
And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge;
if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing.
If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.
Love is patient,
love is kind.
It is not jealous,
Love is not pompous,
it is not inflated,
it is not rude,
it does not seek its own interests,
it is not quick-tempered,
it does not brood over injury,
it does not rejoice over wrongdoing but rejoices with the truth.
It bears all things,
believes all things,
hopes all things,
endures all things.
Love never fails.
So faith, hope, love remain, these three; but the greatest of these is Love.
I Corinthians 13
Dearest God,
You are Love itself.
We give you thanks for the people in our life who have loved-us-into-the-persons-we-are.
We rejoice in them and remember them in love.
But so many of us are wounded because we have not experienced the parental love
that would allow us to know and experience how to love.
Help us take your servant Paul’s words to heart that we may understand the true meaning of love.
May we have a heart that is open to all persons, all of life, all of the universe.
To You Lord, be glory and praise, now and forever.
Amen!
Father Bob's Reflections 