Vegetables in the country are different from vegetables in town. Vegetables in the country have dirt on them—because they have come fresh from the dirt which was their source of life.
For much of my life, we raised a “market garden,” a garden of several acres of vegetables which we sold. Saturday was market day. Fridays we spent picking—and WASHING—our vegetables. Country folks don’t mind some dirt on their beans because it rained on Wednesday. They’ll wash them in the kitchen. They don’t mind dirt clinging to carrots or potatoes because they came fresh out of the ground on Friday afternoon. If they’re muddy, they’ll rinse them off in the yard. But folks who buy vegetables want them both fresh and CLEAN. They want to know they are recently picked, bug free, and healthy. Hence, often as the sun went down, we were dipping tomatoes in tubs of water or literally scrubbing beets on summer Friday nights.
The Church chooses readings for the first week of Lent to dip our bean and potato souls into the wash tub. Last week the post-Ash Wednesday readings focused our attention on the season and the spiritual riches of spending time in the desert fasting, praying, and giving alms. This week is an extensive examination of conscience.
The readings of today’s feast of the Chair of St. Peter fit right in.
Soul Scrubbing: The Gospel
He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
Simon Peter said in reply,
“You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus question before this one was “Who do other people say that I am?” In his book, Life of Christ, Bishop Fulton Sheen makes the point again and again, “Jesus is not just a wise teacher.” Jesus IS GOD in the flesh. Jesus is a picture of God that we can observe, relate to, and question. And he is more: Jesus is the Face of God. He is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
As I give myself up to Lent’s soul scrubbing, the question comes to me: Based on how I live, who is Jesus to me? I encounter Jesus in the sacraments. What effect does Eucharist or Confession have on me? Is my soul at least rinsed off each time I go to Communion or Confession? Does the goodness of God’s life in me shine through better?
I encounter Jesus in Scripture. When I pray, do I spend enough time with a passage and give it enough attention that I can be silent long enough to let God speak to me?
I encounter Jesus in the community and in life. Do I, like St. Benedict and St. Teresa of Calcutta, see Christ in EVERY person? Do I treat every person as if they are Christ?
I encounter Jesus in the Church and its authority. How much digging do I do when I encounter something within catechism or document that challenges me? Do I trust enough that God is in the Church that I seek out original documents and read them—or do I accept interpretations of them from others?
Soul Scrubbing: Feast of the Chair of St. Peter
Today is the feast of papal leadership. The Gospel today goes on to say:
Jesus said to him in reply, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah.
For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father.
And so I say to you, you are Peter,
and upon this rock I will build my Church,
and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it.
I will give you the keys to the Kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Peter was the accepted leader of the New Testament church. It was he who spoke at Pentecost. It was he who had the vision that led to incorporating Gentiles into the church. Paul went to confer with Peter, both after his initial instruction in the faith and later, when the church was in controversy about whether Gentiles had to become Jews before they could become Christians.
When persecution in Jerusalem drove Christians out of the city, Peter went to Antioch and established “a chair” or seat of leadership there. Eventually he went to Rome, established a chair of leadership as the first pope, and was martyred there during the persecutions of Nero. In time, the church had two feast days to celebrate Peter’s leadership, one for Antioch and one for Rome. In 1962 Pope John XXIII combined the two feasts into one on February 22nd.
Where am I with the authority of the Pope? How does papal authority mix with papal personality? How does papal voice mix with God’s revelation? There is no new revelation after Christ, but there are applications in every age. These applications are often communicated to us faithful through papal encyclicals and exhortations, as well as the actions of councils like Vatican II.
Papal encyclicals since the late 1800s have developed the social teaching of the church. Most every pope since Rerum Novarum by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 has added to that social teaching. Most every social teaching has generated controversy in its day. How important are papal documents and Catholic social teaching to my practice of faith? The social teachings certainly challenge me–and intrigue me–because they move my practice of faith from Sunday morning and belief into what I do all day every day.
Soul Scrubbing: Mixing Dirt and Dreams
I am a country girl, though now I live in town. In my backyard I still love to grow my own vegetables—with dirt on them. I’m a little disturbed at the moment because I can’t plant peas in frozen ground—and it’s time to plant them in Kentucky. My seeds are safely here in multiple packages, dreams that need dirt…and water…and sun in order to grow and bear fruit.
Regular readers have heard me say more than once what Fr. Denis taught at St. Meinrad: The Holy Spirit works in the tension. The Holy Spirit works in the tension within us when we let the daily scriptures scrub our souls to begin to find how God wants to show us His Face and convert us this Lent. Tension makes things a bit uncomfortable. It raises issues. It pulls or pushes. Those pulls and pushes scrub.
The Holy Spirit works in the tension of the Church. It worked when St. Peter led the Christian community newly scattered from persecution in Jerusalem. It worked when he and Paul were martyred in the same year in Rome. It has worked as church and Christians have faced the tensions of every era.
The tension is the dirt. The dreams are the seeds. What is God sowing this Lent—in me, in you, in the Church, in the world?
Prayer:
Lord, rain down your Love, shine with your sunlight of Truth, plant your seeds in the soil of the tensions within me, within your church, within the world this Lent. As today’s psalm says, You are my shepherd. Lead me, guide me, Lord.
