Take Away the Stone April 2

Piety

Jesus, it is so easy for us to put things ahead of you. Wal Mart and Home Depot tell us what we need. Ford and General Motors tell us what to drive. IBM and HP and Dell have made our next computers. Verizon and Cingular have our next newer and smaller phone. Proctor & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson and HCA will take care of our bodies. Borders and Barnes & Noble will take care of our minds. Gold’s Gym and Sport and Health Club will take care of our leisure time. McDonalds and Ruby Tuesday tell us what to eat. Dasani and Pepsi tell us what to drink. It gets so easy to just listen to them let them shape our wants and needs.

Who will give us the water of life?
Who will give us the bread of life?
Who will give us rebirth in the Spirit?

God, Source of All Being, give us the courage of Simon who walked away from his fishing boats. Jesus, God’s Chosen One, give us the willpower of Matthew who left his tax collecting business. Holy Spirit, give us the courage of Lazarus who died and them followed your commands even in death.

Help our material selves to “die” a little this week so as we “live” through the final week of Lent, we can begin to be reborn in your Spirit. Amen.

Study

God offers to us sacred scriptures for today to read, to study and to hear.
You are invited to study and reflect on today’s readings:
http://www.usccb.org/nab/040206b.shtml

If Nicodemus returned a changed man in yesterday’s readings (see April 1 Journal entry), then imagine what Lazarus must be saying after today’s Gospel.

The “other” Lazarus of the Good News (see Luke 16:19-31) was not able to cross from the bosom of Abraham when beckoned by the rich man who was condemned in the netherworld for not helping the poor in this life. In today’s reading, Jesus reaches across death itself to bring Lazarus back to life. Jesus does this without ever being asked to bring his friend back from the dead.

Rev. John Dear, S.J. points out in his book “Jesus as Rebel” that today we hear three commandments of Jesus. In the March 29 journal for “Your Daily Tripod,” we reflected on one of these, “Come Out.”

The other instructions today are “Take away the stone” and “Untie him and let him go.”

Imagine a stone in your shoe. As you walk, sometimes it rolls right under your heel or the bottom of your foot causing intense jabs of pain. It gets in the way of the comfort you would normally feel when walking.

Sometimes stones are like that. They get in the way. What stones are getting in the way of your friendship with Jesus? When you get these out of the way, then you can set them down so they can be stepping stones in your walk with Jesus.

To what are you tied? Your job? Your car? Your portfolio or 401(K) or thrift savings plan? Are you tied to the calendar counting down how many days to retirement, or until the end of the school term, or graduation or summer vacation? Or are you tied to your home (and your vacation home) or your boat or motor home? Can you untie yourself?

When you do, you’ll see the beauty in the line form that Michael Card song – “It’s hard to imagine the freedom we find from the things we leave behind.”

Action

Untie your self from some of the anchors weighing you down. Move away the stones in the way of your friendship with Jesus.

Pick a room. Maybe your den or bedroom or home office.

Take a bag, the bigger the better.

Go through the room and pick up items that are in perfectly useable condition.

Put these items in the bag.

Drop them off at the Lamb Center or at a thrift shop or charity so that someone who needs them more than you can have them.

(Yes…take the nice items, not the stuff from the 1970s that no one would wear but some of those nicer clothes, newer books, or better dishes.)