Saturday, February 27, 2021
Saturday in the First Week of Lent
Chris Sieve
The Collect of the Day
O God, by your Word you marvelously carry out the work of reconciliation: Grant that in our Lenten fast we may be devoted to you with all our hearts, and united with one another in prayer and holy love; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Readings: Deuteronomy 26:16-19, Matthew 5:43-48 & Psalm 119:1-8
I began practicing mindfulness meditation in the early months of 2020, shortly after the world locked down. I had been wanting to be more serious about meditation for quite some time. Suddenly, the pandemic demanded an antidote to fear and uncertainty, a perfect opportunity to get serious. Mindfulness meditation exhorts us to sit with and not run from the difficult feelings that show up inside us when uncertainty, fear and pain preside. Fear crowds out trust, erodes generosity, and promotes anxiety and rumination. Fear is the ultimate architect of human suffering. Mindfulness practice provides an antidote to anxious fear through focused awareness on the very feelings that cause discomfort, ultimately leading us to deep compassion for ourselves and others that emerges as we practice.
I consulted the above readings for the first Saturday in Lent to prepare this reflection. They talk about righteousness, obeying God’s commandments and keeping his statutes. They encourage us to be good, blameless, and perfect. I have wondered throughout the week about how our laws and commandments can help us cope with the uncertainty in our world that leaves us paralyzed and afraid. I keep turning to the greatest commandment of all, love. As the Sacred Ground study group discovered in their curriculum and conversations, many of the laws in our own country often have not promoted justice for people of color, women, LGBTQ friends and the multitude of the marginalized. At times our laws have been shameful.
Our hearts will point us to just and right relationship with others if we trust that humans are made for good, and learn the discernment skills to act justly. Humans know truth and justice in their deepest, truest depths. Fear and anxiety impede our deepest knowing. Our news and social media stream fear and anxiety for constant consumption. Choosing the opposite, turning off the live stream of anxious rumination, is a mindful practice that can turn us away from this optional suffering.
Contemporary research in psychology tells us that knowing truth and justice requires honoring ourselves more deeply, the very selves (each and every one of us) who have suffered at the hands of gender or racial prejudice, ridicule and shaming in our cultural institutions. Research tells us that scolding, an age-old parenting, pedagogical and catechetical strategy, imposed on us by others, or from inside our own heads, does not motivate us to do or be our best selves, or even to be good! It seems so painfully obvious. In fact, the opposite is true. When shamed, scolded or ridiculed, we feel less sturdy or able to trust our “self” to discern what is right and good. Shaming leads us to lack moral confidence.
Human laws are tricky as they sometimes aim to protect the vulnerable, but are often designed to protect the powerful. When they are unjust, our hearts will tell us so, if we train ourselves to listen with humility, from the deeply vulnerable places within ourselves where we are connected to the suffering of every single other human being. Loving kindness toward ourselves, which is a mirror of God’s ever present love for us, can be experienced and shared with others when we walk this mindful, prayerful path. More love, less suffering. It’s a deeply holy and human strategy, and worth the effort.