Day 7 - Andre Trocme

April 7 - Andre Trocme - 1901-1971

"Nonviolence was not a theory superimposed upon reality; it was an itinerary that we explored day after day in communal prayer and in obedience to the commands of the Spirit."

Andre Trocme served as the Protestant Pastor of Le Chambon, a small village in France.  During the Nazi occupation of France, he and his villagers provided refuge for more than 2500 Jews.  An impoverished refugee during World War I, Trocme's ministry was very committed to the principles of the Sermon on the Mount and a the belief that the essence of the gospel lay in the love of God and neighbor.

He was so successful in instilling these core values in those he served, that when France fell to the Germans in 1940, the village of Le Chambon became one of the safest places for Jews in all of occupied Europe.  Despite attention from the Vichy police and even the Gestapo, the village persisted.  Trocme himself was even detained and later went into hiding.  But the village persisted in their work.

What is most remarkable to me is that Trocme and his villagers didn't consider what they were doing remarkable.  They were doing nothing more than living out the gospel.  What could be simpler?

Wow!

I'm astounded by the commitment, faith and courage displayed by Trocme and the people of Le Chambon.  If they can live out the gospel in the face of such frightening odds and consequences, what's stopping me in my ordinary life?  My Easter prayer is that my commitment to Christ and love for my fellow man is as unshakable.

Day 6 - Hadewijch of Brabant

April 6 - Hadewijch of Brabant - Thirteenth century

"Make haste to virtue in veritable Love; and take care that God be honored by you and by all those whom you can help, with effort, with self-sacrifice, with counsel, and with all that you can do unremittingly."

Apparently there is nothing known of who Hadewijch was beyond her letters and other writings.  She was a member of a movement called the Beguines, which flourished in the Low Countries in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.  It involved women in a new form of community-based religious life that was distinct from the life of a nun.  They focused on prayer, works of mercy, simplicity of life and a spirituality that was focused on the life of Jesus.

Hadewijch, in particular, was a mystic who describes experiencing a number of visions centered around the love of God.  Really, love is at the center of everything she wrote about.  She encountered the love of God everywhere she went, in ever person she encountered, and in every situation of life.  She once wrote "I became inwardly so on fire that it seemed to me everyone on earth must be set ablaze by the flame I felt within me.  Love is all!"

I admire such passion and utter consumption by the love of God.  I try to live a life on thanksgiving, giving thanks for everyone and everything around me.  But I'm a far cry from the utter passion that Hadewijch exhibits.  It's so easy to be drawn into each day's petty distractions.  To get frustrated with life's little challenges, the annoying co-worker who tells really bad jokes at all the wrong times, the man ahead of you in the grocery line who decides he doesn't want his groceries after his credit card is declined so you have to wait for a manger to appear from the depths of the store to void the transaction.  All of these draw us away from living a life of love into a life bogged down by the mundane.

My prayer today is that I am filled with the flame of God's love and am reminded of it everywhere I turn...in everyone I encounter, in every sunrise and sunset, in even the people that annoy me.  They are all God's awesome creations.  And I love that!

Day 5 - Pandita Ramabai

April 5 - Pandita Ramabai, 1858-1922

"People must not only hear about the kingdom of God, but must see it in actual operation, on a small scale perhaps and in imperfect form, but a real demonstration nevertheless."

A tireless champion of the rights of women in India, Pandita Ramabai has been called the "mother of modern India."  Orphaned at the age of 16 and widowed at 23 after only 16 months of marriage, Ramabai was keenly aware of the plight of widows and orphans in the Indian social structure.  They were left without status or protection, often with young children.  For the rest of her life Ramabai fought for the social welfare of these less fortunate women.

In her 20s, she converted to Christianity, drawing heavy criticism from her Hindu countrymen, who associated Christianity with the imperialistic Christian missionaries in their country.  She too struggled with this, but identified so much with the gospel's message that serving women and the poor was a religious undertaking, not merely a social one.

She continued her charitable work and founded a center for unwed mothers, schools for poor girls and a famine center.  However, she began to draw criticism from Christian leaders because she did not attempt to convert the women she was trying to help.  Ramabai refused to be drawn into the fight.  She said "I am, it is true, a member of the Church of Christ, but I am not bound to accept every word that falls down from the lips of priests or bishops."

I think what I admire most about Ramabai is her steadfast belief that the work of God and the church should be above denomination or doctrine.  Her work with the poor didn't have strings attached.  She clearly believed that it was most important that people experience the love of God through her actions.

What an excellent example.  Perhaps the best method of evangelism isn't preaching or converting.  Perhaps it's just loving and living out the gospel in our lives.  I pray that I can be so brave.

Day 4 - Martin Luther King, Jr

April 4 - Martin Luther King, Jr.

"Well, I don't know what will happen now.  We've got some difficult days ahead.  But it doesn't matter with me now.  Because I've been to the mountaintop.  And I don't mind.  Like anybody, I would like to live a long life.  Longevity has its place.  But I'm not concerned about that now.  I just want to do God's will.  And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain.  And I've looked over.  And I've seen the promised land.  I may not get there with you.  But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.  And I'm happy tonight.  I'm not worried about anything.  I'm not fearing any man.  Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord."

Less than 24 hours after speaking those words, Martin Luther King, Jr. was dead.

It's been 42 years now since Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated here in Memphis.  I think it's highly appropriate to be reflecting on him and his work today on Easter.

Not long after I moved to Memphis, my parents came to visit me and one of the things we did was make a trip to the National Civil Rights Museum.  Upon parking, we turned the corner and I got goosebumps as I realized that the facade of the building is the Lorraine Motel where MLK was shot.  Something about it made the entire thing seem much more immediate and real than it ever had to me.

Last fall, I participated in an initiative here in Memphis called Common Ground.  It brings together people from different races to talk about their experiences in an effort to combat racism.  42 years after Martin Luther King, Jr. died here in Memphis, we've still got so far to go.  It was amazing to hear the stories of people who still experience racism, both overt and institutional, every day.

As we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, I think a lot about how far we still have to go to achieve the justice of God's kingdom.  We hurt each other, we fight each other, we hate each other.  And, yet God is still there.  Loving us and calling us back to living the lives he calls us to live.

We have so far to go, but we are blessed that in Jesus' death and resurrection, he reminds us that it's ok that we fail day in and day out.  And he promises us that through his resurrection, he will be with us every step of the way as we try to improve.

Martin Luther King, Jr. wrote, "I want you to know...that I am a sinner like all God's children.  But I want to be a good man.  And I want to hear a voice saying to me one day, 'I take you in and I bless you, because you tried.'"  That's my prayer for today.  May I continue to try.  And then try again.

How blessed I am that our risen lord gives me that opportunity.

Alleluia!  Christ is Risen!
The Lord is Risen indeed!  Alleluia!

Day 3 - Marc Sangnier

April 3 - Marc Sangnier, 1873-1950

"The truth must be sought with all one's soul...Love is stronger than hate."

Marc Sangnier worked hard to find a common ground between Catholicism and the ideals of liberty and democracy.  He founded a group that became known as the Sillons that were committed to their faith and the Catholic church, but also equally filled with a zeal for justice.  While this movement became popular amongst the laity, it was eventually condemned by the pope and the Catholic church.

In a letter written by Pope Pius X in 1910, he even went so far as to say "The true friends of the people are neither revolutionaries nor innovators, but traditionalists."

I just got home from participating in the Easter Vigil liturgy and that last statement is what really jumps out at me.  As I've been hearing again the story of Jesus' persecution, death and resurrection, I've been thinking a lot about how throughout history people in positions of authority or power are threatened by anyone advocating justice and change.  Jesus was crucified because his message of love and salvation for EVERYONE was so threatening to the Jewish authorities and their power.  Sangnier's message of social justice and the rights of everyone was threatening to the hierarchy of the Catholic church.

I think we often forget just how much of a revolutionary Jesus was.  His message of love and service and justice doesn't seem so radical when we hear it today, because we're used to it.  But at the time, what he was advocating was nothing less than a complete upheaval of the social order.  And it was so threatening because if God loved everyone, regardless of any of the things that differentiate us, then the leaders of the day would no longer have as much power.

We love that power.  Each of us has reasons large and small why we don't fully pursue social justice everyday.  We become comfortable in our lives and it's easy to postpone or put aside the work of God.  Because, in the end, to achieve God's justice, I might have to give up some of what makes me so comfortable in order to achieve a more level playing field.

It makes me a little uncomfortable to think about the excuses I come up with to put off striving for God's justice for another day or to let someone else do the dirty work.  And I think that's probably good.  It should make me uncomfortable.  I'll never fully achieve what I am meant to do.  All I can do is try.  And feeling a little uncomfortable along the way is just a reminder that what God calls us to do may seem easy, but he's the only one who was able to completely live it out.

I pray that I can release my grip on the power that society grants me just a little bit so that I might be more willing to share it those around me.

Day 2 - Carlo Carretto

April 2 - Carlo Carretto, 1910-1988

"The desert is always the same, the sky is always beautiful, the road deserted....The only thing which is always new is God."

Carlo spent the early part of his life as a very active lay member in the Catholic church, before, at age 44, he joined the Little Brothers of Jesus, a community of desert contemplatives inspired by the spirituality of Charles de Foucauld.  He spent ten years at El Abiodh, a remote oasis in the Saharan desert.  At the end of his time there, he felt called to return to Europe because he believed that searching for God in the desert must ultimately lead us back into the center of communal life.

He represents a balance between a life of prayer and a passion for social justice.  He emphasized the need for us to find a place of stillness in our busy lives, a place where we can listen to God and renew ourselves.  From All Saints - "The challenge of the gospel, according to Carretto, was to make an oasis of love in whatever desert we might find ourselves."

There are so many different deserts in our lives.  Literal deserts, emotional deserts, deserts created by circumstance, deserts of our own making.  I think most peoples (and certainly my own) initial response to a desert is to complain about it.  Complain about how hard it is and how taxing this challenge or that challenge is.  But instead we're called to "make an oasis of love in whatever desert we might find ourselves."

What exactly does that mean?

It is up to us to create the oases in the deserts of our own life and the lives of those around us.  What I glean from this is that it's important for us to make space for God and others.  We don't know where we might find the comfort we might need or when the comfort we alone can offer might be just what someone else needs.

I will admit, the idea of finding nourishment and renewal in a desert is somewhat difficult for me.  When I think of deserts, the first image that comes to mind is that of a barren wasteland that sucks away all nourishment.  But it seems that in the midst of so much emptiness, all that's left is God.  I know that I don't do a very good job of creating spaces of stillness and quiet in my life.  Perhaps that is part of the challenge of listening to and following God.

God isn't exclusively in the desert, nor is he exclusively amidst the hustle and bustle of the world.  We need to strive to find a balance between the two in order to fully experience the love of God.

Day 1 - Moses

April 1 - Moses

"Let my people go."

Moses seems a very appropriate place to start in my year-long venture to reflect on "saints."  In reading about Moses this morning, one of the things that struck me was the reflection that until God spoke to Moses from the burning bush, Moses considered himself an Egyptian.  So not only is God calling upon Moses to liberate the nation of Israel, it's a people with whom he had previously not identified at all.

Moses is one of the first true agents of social justice that we hear about.  He is the great liberator, acting out God's desire to lead his people out of bondage and to freedom.  But, unlike Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., and other great champions of social justice later in history, Moses has no previous affiliation with the people he champions.  How much more difficult must that have been to give up everything and answer God's call?  And yet he did it.

It makes me wonder how often we miss the opportunities to act out God's justice in our everyday lives.  It's easy to fight for it when it affects us, but what about when we aren't directly affected?  Shouldn't we just as passionately fight for social justice for everyone around us, even those with whom we have no affiliation beyond being brothers and sisters in God's creation?

Perhaps it's especially appropriate then to be reflecting on Moses on this Maunday Thursday.  The washing of the feet at today's liturgy reminds us of the example of servant leadership Jesus has given us.  I'm always struck by the image of God in his incarnate form, kneeling and tenderly washing the feet of his friends.  He didn't come to earth to be worshiped but instead to journey with us and set an example for us to follow.

I need to work on listening to the ways God calls me to work for his justice in the world around me, both large and small.  There aren't many burning bushes around, but I'm sure that I regularly miss the subtle ways in which God cries out.  And can I have the courage to follow that call, especially when I don't stand to benefit directly from it?  I'm not sure, but I'll sure try.