Tag: Saint John of the Cross

Carmelite homily for Friday (Easter VI), May 22, 2020 – Lectionary 295 (John 16:20-23)

In today’s Gospel Jesus tells the disciples, they will grieve and then they will rejoice.  And he uses a metaphor of a woman in labor.  When she’s in labor, all she knows is the labor and the pain, and once she’s given birth, all she knows is the joy and the gladness.  Saint John of the Cross writes, “Human beings know not how to rejoice properly nor how to grieve properly.”  I think he’s getting at what Jesus is getting at in today’s Gospel. We just see the moment – the pain of the moment or the joy of the moment.  We don’t see the bigger pictures or plans of what God has in store.  That’s the call of today’s Gospel: to trust God when we want to rejoice; to trust God when we want to grieve; to trust God that it will all work out to God’s plan.         

Carmelite homily for Friday, April 3, 2020 – Lectionary 255 (John 10:31-42)

All this week in these Gospel passages we’ve had a lot of turmoil.  And today the religious leaders are calling Jesus ‘a blasphemer’ – a capital offense – and the pick up rocks to kill him. He doesn’t make much of a defense; instead, he walks through their midst and goes to Bethany.  Saint John of the Cross writes, “It is great wisdom to know how to be silent.  Look at neither the remarks nor the deeds nor the lives of others.”  Yes, the religious leaders should be doing this to Jesus.  And Jesus is modelling this to the religious leaders by just walking through their midst.  He’s not condemning them despite their condemnations of him.  Maybe that’s the lesson here – to love our neighbor, love our enemies, condemn no one, return a blessing instead – to live and love like Jesus.  

Carmelite homily for Thursday, April 2, 2020 – Lectionary 254 (John 8:51-59)

Saint John of the Cross wrote a commentary on his poem, The Dark Night, called The Ascent of Mount Carmel.  There are forty chapters in two books and there are forty days of Lent.  It’s a perfect Lenten practice.  What is he trying to accomplish in The Ascent of Mount Carmel, but freedom!  To free us from ourselves, our self-righteousness, our sinfulness, our pride.  Saint John off the Cross writes, “It makes little difference whether a bird is tied by a thin thread or by a cord.”  That’s what John is trying to do – cut the cords, cut the ropes, but cut even the thin threads that tie us.  I think that so well ties in with all these Gospels we have in this season and it ties in well with our hearts.  

Carmelite homily for Saturday, March 28, 2020 – Lectionary 249 (John 7:40-53)

This is a great week for Gospel passages.  Now we everybody upset because of authority.  Who has the authority here?  Who is in control here?  Who has the power here?  That’s what we see in today’s Gospel passage.  John of the Cross may have a different way.  He writes, “The soul that journeys to God without shaking off its cares or quieting its appetites is like the one who drags a cart uphill.”  If your life is an uphill drag maybe a different solution?  

Carmelite homily for Friday, March 27, 2020 – Lectionary 248 (John 7:1-2,25-30)

In today’s Gospel there’s a lot of upset.  Jesus has to go to Jerusalem, but in secret.  The people are murmuring.  The religious leaders want to arrest him.  Lots of upset.  Is there a lot of upset in your life?  Maybe John of the Cross has a solution.  He writes, “Crucified inwardly and outwardly with Christ and you will live in this life with fullness and satisfaction.”  Isn’t that a great substitute for upset – fullness and satisfaction?  But to be crucified with Christ means to put all that aside.  Let it go to the Cross.  And you live apart from all that.  Even Saint Paul says, “I have been crucified to the world and the world to me” (in Galatians).  Same idea.  A good topic, a good path for Lent.

Carmelite homily for Thursday, March 26, 2020 – Lectionary 247 (John 5:31-47)

In today’s Gospel everyone wants proof, or they want testimony, or they want evidence, but faith doesn’t work that way.  Saint John of the Cross writes, “To reach union with the wisdom of God, one must advance by unknowing, rather than knowing.”  I think that’s what Jesus is trying to communicate in today’s passage.  And what Jesus is trying to communicate to us.  If we expect to know everything, all evidence, all testimony in place, we’ll get nowhere.  We need to advance by a deeper path – unknowing.  

Carmelite homily for Tuesday, March 24, 2020 – Lectionary 245 (John 5:1-6)

There’s an old saying: If nothing changes, nothing changes.  That describes what’s going on in today’s Gospel.  We have this lame man on the side of the pool in Bethesda waiting to be put into the water for healing – for thirty-eight years.  And Jesus says, “Do you want to be healed?” and the man says, “No one’s put me in the water.”  Nothing has changed in thirty-eight years.  He’s not heard that Jesus is offering a different solution.  Saint John of the Cross writes, “Travelers cannot reach new territory if they do not take new and unknown roads and abandon the familiar ones.”  That’s the call of today’s Gospel.  If you’re feeling stuck or just not right, maybe it’s time to try a new road?  If nothing changes, nothing changes.  

Carmelite homily for Sunday, March 22, 2020 – Lectionary 31 (John 9:1-41) 

On this Fourth Sunday of Lent we’re halfway through this season.  And Saint John of the Cross writes, “Abide in peace, banish cares, and take no account of all that happens – this serves God, and you will rest in him.”  In today’s Gospel there’s a lot of upset: with the man born blind, and his parents, and the Pharisees, and everyone.  And all that turmoil even exists today: the political scene, the cultural scene, and the ecclesial scene, and the Covid-19 scene.  Let’s make this our life for the second half of Lent: “Abide in peace, banish cares, and take no account of all that happens – this serves God, and you will rest in him.”  Let us rest in God.