Listening

Read the text below, preferably aloud.  As you hear the word, “listen with the ear of your heart” for a word or short phrase that God has for you this day.

1 Peter  3:18-22

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.  He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.  And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you – not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

MEDITATING

Ruminate on the Word, turning it over in your heart and mind. What does the word or phrase you have chosen mean to you today?

COMMENTS

As I listen to this Scripture passage, I hear the word “you” echoing loudly, twice – in verse 18 and again in verse 21.  Christ’s suffered to bring [me] to God.  Baptism saves [me]!  I am thankful for the awesomeness and caring nature of God, who became incarnate in human flesh, and offered himself for my behalf and your behalf.  Christ Jesus endured the shame of a common criminal’s execution, and overcame the sting of death.  He went to the place of departed spirits and proclaimed to all who had fallen asleep before his coming that all might know and receive his salvation.  And now, by virtue of my baptism and your baptism and our neighbor’s baptism into that same death and burial, we too are made alive to rise with him in the glorious resurrection from the grave.  This is the good news – Christ Jesus lives and reigns “at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him”.  This is truly awesome, for we need not focus on what happened to Jesus in the transcendent world after his death, but truly hearing the pronoun “you”, points us to thankfulness and discipleship in knowing that God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself.  Thank you, Lord, thank you.

– Fr Kirtley Yearwood

© Harrowing of Hell, Suzanne Moore, 2011. The Saint John’s Bible, Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota.  Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Catholic Edition, © 1993, 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

SEEING

Return to God’s word for the purpose of “hearing and seeing” Christ in the text. Fix your gaze on the illumination. Ask God to open the eyes of your heart and enable you to see what God wants you to see.

COMMENTS

As I fix my gaze upon the illumination with the eyes of faith, I see chaos – lifeless forms and shapes in various colors, coming and going in all directions.  I see green branches that remind me of the palm fronds held high in our hands on Palm Sunday as we welcome Jesus into Jerusalem shouting, “Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord!  Peace on earth, and glory in the highest heaven!”  And then just a few days later on Good Friday, we all cry out in a loud voice, “Crucify, crucify him!”  These same palm fronds we save in our homes throughout the year and then take them back to our parish churches the next year on Shrove Tuesday so that they may be burned to make the ashes to be used to mark our foreheads on Ash Wednesday as a reminder of our mortality, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  The green in this illumination giving way to the black marks – us – ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

But encasing this chaos, is the strong, gold wall that is Jesus.  Christ Jesus reaching into this chaotic world and showing us freedom by making a way out of ‘no way’, out of our ‘troubles’, showing us a better way if only we believe, opening up the path to eternal light and life.  Baptism into the Lord Jesus is only the first step, “an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ”.  The next step is to call upon the Lord and to trust as we walk the pilgrim’s way.  The gold is there for us! 

– Fr Kirtley Yearwood

© Harrowing of Hell, Suzanne Moore, 2011. The Saint John’s Bible, Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota.  Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Catholic Edition, © 1993, 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

PRAYING

Pray to God, allowing for the transformation of your being and feelings. Give to God what you have found in your heart.

COMMENTS

Lord Jesus, you endured shame and suffering for our sake, and overcame death of the grave by breaking open the chains of hell and rising to life again.  In your tender compassion for humanity, you delivered those of yesterday, those of today and those of tomorrow from eternal pain.  Open wide the gates of thanksgiving in our hearts this Lenten season to seek and draw ever so close to you.  Deliver us from the chaotic winds that blow us in all directions.  Take away the clutter that surrounds our lives, and enable us to fix our gaze on you, that in our journeying toward your passion in Jerusalem, we may experience the joy and wonder of your welcome embrace.  We ask this for the sake of you, who is alive and reigns with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ever one God, world without end.  Amen.

– Fr Kirtley Yearwood

© Harrowing of Hell, Suzanne Moore, 2011. The Saint John’s Bible, Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota.  Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Catholic Edition, © 1993, 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.

CONTEMPLATING

Notice the transforming presence of God within you. Let go of words and images. Surrender all that is stirring, even if only briefly, and rest for a few minutes in God’s embrace.

COMMENTS

For me, being still is an active process of engaging my inner senses.  Finding a physical quiet space and removing all the clutter of thoughts and feelings to rest in God’s embrace brings honesty to the daily routine of ‘doing stuff’.  It is a calmness I look forward to engaging several times a day.  This practice keeps me honesty with God, and in this, my thanksgivings flow.  I am thankfukl to God for the gift of his Son Jesus Christ, for family, friends and neighbors, and for the gift of life itself.  Thank you, Lord, for what you did at Calvary.  Thank you, Lord, for your on-going care for your creation.  Lent is a good time of the year for saying ‘thank you’.  Lent is also a good time for spiritual “house-cleaning”.  May I invite you to pause and sit in the quiet of your heart and join with me in removing the clutter of life.

– Fr Kirtley Yearwood

BECOMING CHRIST-LIKE

Return to God’s word. Allow it to transform you. Notice how your faith is being deepened and your way of life motivated.

1 Peter  3:18-22

For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.  He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.  And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you – not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

COMMENTS

Today, we return to reading the text for the third time. As we encounter God’s word, let us ponder how this text is making a difference in our journey of faith, in other words, how we are becoming Christ-like.

Many persons approach Lent as a time of the year to give up something they enjoy.  It is a season to restrain from a treasured food or activity, like coffee from your favorite café or chocolate or dessert after dinner.  We often are party to conversations with family and friends and colleagues about what we are giving up for Lent.  It can sometimes be a light-hearted competition (tongue in cheek)!  Over the years, I have personally found it more spiritually beneficial to take on an extra discipline or two rather than give up something I enjoy.  For example, every Lenten season for the last six years, I have reread the Gospel according to Saint John in an attempt to learn and understand more about the meaning of the metaphors our Lord uses in the “I AM” statements in that narrative – “I AM the good shepherd”, “I AM the vine”, etc.  Lent for me is such a rich penitential time of getting in touch with who I am and what I truly value in life, a time of taking stock yet again of my shortcomings, a time of getting my spiritual house in order, a time of more intentional journeying in yet another attempt to be more like Christ.

This encounter with the “Harrowing of Hell” these past four days has caused me to take a deeper look within me and around me at the things that create chaos in my life.  How do these things detract me from being more like Christ?  Do I create chaos in the life of others?  Christ already has taken away the chaos, how can I then show appreciation for his act of kindness and love for humanity?  How can I take away the chaos in the life of my neighbor?  How can my actions in the world be an extension of Jesus’ redeeming love?

I now have a new discipline this Lenten season, that is, to do my part in taking away the chaos in the lives of others.  This sounds like a tall order, but in reality it’s simple.  After all, that is what Christ did and continues to do.  Are we not Christ’s agents in the world?  By intentionally practicing a random act of kindness toward and for my neighbors I am well on the way in becoming more like Christ.  Please join me in this movement of showing Christ’s love.  May it become infectious and continue to spread everyday of our lives!

– Fr Kirtley Yearwood

© Harrowing of Hell, Suzanne Moore, 2011. The Saint John’s Bible, Order of Saint Benedict, Collegeville, Minnesota.  Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, Catholic Edition, © 1993, 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.  Used by permission.  All rights reserved.