Newsletter Vol. 1 Issue 5

January 25, 2021

Trying to Get it Right

Contemplating the sins of the world and our individual acts is difficult. Sometimes it can lead us to the brink of despair. Ignatius understood this. He faced his own demons and deeply contemplated sin all around him. But he also felt the deep, abiding love of God.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:16)

These words from John’s gospel speak to the very nature of God. God is loving. God cares for God’s creation. God loves us so much that God wants us all to have eternal life. The Bible shares with us stories of God continuously reaching out to God's people. Yet, through human fault and error, humans could not get it right. But we kept on trying, and God kept reaching out.

Contemporary theologians, grappling with the immense suffering in the world and God’s loving nature, believe that God suffers with God's own creation. Though divinely transcendent, God chose to empty God's own self out into creation by becoming human in the form of Jesus Christ. As the theologian Thomas Rauch explains, “the world as God’s body means that the pain and suffering of creation also affects God, whose inclusive, radical love is the way of the cross.”

The late James Cone, the father of Black Liberation Theology wrote in his book The Cross and the Lynching Tree (published by Orbis Books, cover image above) that “until we can see the cross and the lynching tree together, until we can identify Christ with a ‘recrucified’ black body hanging from a lynching tree, there can be no genuine understanding of Christian identity in America, and no deliverance from the brutal legacy of slavery and white supremacy.” Black people in America, perhaps, understand the God's pouring out the most intimately, seeing their experience reflected in the life of Jesus, knowing that God is with them in their sufferings and in their joys.

In this First Week, Ignatius asks us to take a long, loving look at the real because the first step toward healing is accepting that there is a problem to begin with. In order to free ourselves to love, we must first confess the times we did not respond to the divine love we have been shown. Yet we know that God loves us deeply. God feels our sufferings deeply. And God suffers with us deeply. The saving grace of our faith is that God is so ready to forgive, if only we have the strength to ask.

Resource Listening:

Watch Audrey Assad perform "How Can I Keep from Singing" here

Meditation:

Slowly read over the words of Psalm 51.

Have mercy on me, God, in accord with your merciful love;
in your abundant compassion blot out my transgressions.
Thoroughly wash away my guilt;
and from my sin cleanse me.

For I know my transgressions;
my sin is always before me.
Against you, you alone have I sinned;
I have done what is evil in your eyes
So that you are just in your word,
and without reproach in your judgment.

Behold, I was born in guilt,
in sin my mother conceived me.
Behold, you desire true sincerity;
and secretly you teach me wisdom.

Cleanse me with hyssop, that I may be pure;
wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.
You will let me hear gladness and joy;
the bones you have crushed will rejoice.

Turn away your face from my sins;
blot out all my iniquities.
A clean heart create for me, God;
renew within me a steadfast spirit.

Do not drive me from before your face,
nor take from me your holy spirit.
Restore to me the gladness of your salvation;
uphold me with a willing spirit.

I will teach the wicked your ways,
that sinners may return to you.
Rescue me from violent bloodshed, God, my saving God,
and my tongue will sing joyfully of your justice.

Lord, you will open my lips;
and my mouth will proclaim your praise.
For you do not desire sacrifice or I would give it;
a burnt offering you would not accept.
My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;
a contrite, humbled heart, O God, you will not scorn.

Invitation: Small Reflection Groups

Having a community to grow with is an important part of growing both in the spiritual life and a life committed to racial justice. Sharing groups facilitate learning from others and articulating for oneself and others how God is working in one's own prayer and learning. St. Ignatius Parish is organizing OPTIONAL small reflection groups for parishioners. We will also try to support other locations by networking with interested persons from the same location together.

This survey asks you to identify if you would like to join a small group and/or facilitate a small group. We also ask you to identify if you would like to be in a particular type of group. While we cannot guarantee we can pair people in the exact group they prefer, we will try to organize groups according to the responses to the survey. This will be contingent on the number of facilitators we are able to recruit.

Please complete the survey if you'd like to take part by January 31st.

TAKE SURVEY

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