Satori

Desire for truth + perception of a moral order + friendly questioning + contemplation over time = sudden insight and a spiritual turning point for one no-longer-atheist woman, God bless her.

A young man and an old preacher

My father just handed me the following story (along with a page of silly "zen truths" jokes). The story says something important about about how to react to this life's griefs:

The young man had lost his job and didn't know which way to turn. So he went to see the old preacher.

Pacing about the preacher's study, the young man ranted about his problem. Finally he clenched his fist and shouted, "I've begged God to say something to help me. Tell me, Preacher, why doesn't God answer?"

The old preacher, who sat across the room, spoke something in reply, something so hushed it was indistinguishable. The young man stepped across the room. "What did you say?" he asked.

The preacher repeated himself, but again in a tone as soft as a whisper. So the young man moved closer until he was leaning on the preacher's chair.

"Sorry," he said. "I still didn't hear you." With their heads bent together, the old preacher spoke once more. "God sometimes whispers," he said, "so we will move closer to hear Him."

This time the young man heard and he understood.

We all want God's voice to thunder through the air with the answer to our problem. But God's is the still, small voice... the gentle whisper. Perhaps there's a reason.

Nothing draws human focus quite like a whisper. God's whisper means I must stop my ranting and move close to Him, until my head is bent together with His. And then, as I listen, I will find my answer. Better still, I find myself closer to God.

Quinquagesima: Shrove Sunday

Today is Quinquagesima Sunday. Today, tomorrow and Tuesday are days when Catholics traditionally make a point of getting to Confession, to prepare for Lent which starts this week on Ash Wednesday (for Latin Rite Catholics).
[Break the name Quinquagesima apart syllable-by-syllable, and it is not hard to pronounce].

Traditional Epistle: I Corinthians 13:1-13
Traditional Gospel: Luke 18:31-43

New First Reading: I Samuel 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23
New Second Reading: I Corinthians 15:45-49
New Gospel: Luke 6:27-38

In the first reading, David says that he would not harm the Lord's annointed. This was merciful and righteous. In the traditional Gospel, our Lord Jesus Christ [Christ means "annointed one"] goes to Jerusalem, knowing that His unrighteous enemies will kill Him there. But even with that dread time approaching, He is merciful to one who has faith and asks for His help: He opens the eyes of a blind man. The heart of Jesus is love and mercy. In the new Gospel, our Lord says to love every man, even our enemies, and to love with more than abstract good wishes, but to love with a charity made manifest in actions. In the traditional Epistle, our Lord says that this love is essential, and without it we have nothing. Such a supernatural love seems impossible, but with God all things are possible, and in the second reading we hear that we shall bear the image of the new Adam, the man of heaven, who calls us now to turn away from sin and follow Him.

Septuagesima Sunday

(Using the traditional Catholic calendar) today is Septuagesima Sunday, the start of the pre-Lenten season, a time of voluntary fasting and abstinence for some, a time of increased self-indulgence for others, all with an eye to the approach of the penitential season of Lent.

The Masses start to take a more sorrowful tone; starting today, "Alleluia" will no longer be said during Mass until the Easter Vigil.

Quadragesima Sunday occurs 40 days before Good Friday. Quinquagesima Sunday occurs 50 days before Easter, if you count both the Sunday and Easter. So Sexagesima (60) and Septuagesima (70) could just be an extension of the sequence, used to name the Sundays leading up to Lent in a consistent way.

But Septuagesima has an appeal as a name for the start of the season. The number occurs several times in the Bible, and could have symbolic value. (Today is actually only 63 days until Easter). Dom Gueranger particularly points to the Babylonian Captivity, which lasted 70 years (Jeremiah 25:8-12; Jeremiah 29:10; Daniel 9:2, 2 Chronicles 36:14-23). Israel was in captivity, and we are in captivity, but with the hope of one day returning to our true home.

Besides the Babylonian exile, there are other occurrences of the number 70 which can be read symbolically. Seventy members of Jacob's family went to Egypt (Genesis 46:26). Ezekiel saw 70 elders adoring idols (Ezekiel 8). According to Jewish tradition, the 70 descendants of Noah through Shem, Ham, and Japheth named in Genesis 10 became the fathers of 70 nations after the fall of the tower of Babel, and the confusion of languages (Genesis 11). Jerusalem fell in AD 70. The Egyptians mourned the death of Israel for seventy days (Genesis 50:3). Seventy years is the ordinary length of life in the Bible (Psalm 90:10). When the chosen people began longing for the fleshpots of Egypt, Moses took seventy elders of Israel up the mountain with him, and the Holy Spirit came down upon them (Numbers 11:24-25, Exodus 24:9). Jesus said to forgive seventy times seven times (Matthew 18:21-22). Jacob fathered 70 children (Exodus 1:5) The oasis that sheltered the chosen people in the desert had 70 palm trees (Exodus 15:27). Jesus chose 70 disciples (Luke 10:1-17). In a prophecy in Daniel, seventy weeks, or "weeks of years", are given for people to repent and atone for sin, in preparation for the last days of the present world.

There are a wealth of images in the Bible associating the number 70 with sin, punishment, mourning, repentance and blessing, which serve to turn our minds and hearts towards our Creator, Who wills to make us in His own spotless image, so that we might live with Him forever in Paradise.