At this time of trial, I am most drawn to the Scriptures to find comfort from the anxieties of war. But my Lenten journey this year is devoted to finding a way to focus on God as a refuge from the evil within rather than the evil without. For this reason, Psalm 7:2-3, and 9-12, is helpful to me today. This reading can be read from the perspective of a just person who calls out for safety from evildoers. Such a person can take refuge in God. But during this period of intense self-reflection, I am considering that this God of justice calls us to search our minds and hearts for our own evil plots.
As I pray, “O Lord, my God, in you I take refuge,” I am also considering that the readings of today reflect a self-righteousness on the part of the prophet Jeremiah and the Psalm writer that is not much different from that of the Pharisees who sought to condemn Jesus from their sense of justice. That is what I think Christ’s journey to the cross is all about. It is about learning, as Jesus witnesses to us, that it is necessary for us to submit to the just Judge who searches our hearts and souls for our own undoing. Rather than seeing the world as comprised of those of us who do justice and those who do evil, I think it is better to see ourselves and the rest of humanity as capable of all doing justice and all doing evil in our minds and hearts, as well as in our actions.
As we entrust our fears and anxieties to God and pray that God will deliver us from evil, it is well that we pray to be delivered from the evil within us as well as the evil outside of us. I am certainly not innocent of malice toward others. I pray that God will be a refuge for my heart, and for the hearts of others, from the evil within that allows us to perceive ourselves as unrepentantly just and others an unambiguously evil.
Barbara Dilly
I came to Creighton in 2000 and retired in 2020. My twenty years of teaching, research and service in the Jesuit tradition enhanced my own life. It was an exciting time of celebration. I loved teaching and interacting with Creighton students because they responded so eagerly to the Ignatian pedagogical emphasis on the development of the whole person. It is this spirit of whole person development and celebration of life that I hope to infuse in my reflection writings.
My academic background is eclectic, preparing me well for the Liberal Arts academic environment at Creighton. I earned my BA in World Arts and Cultures from UCLA in 1988 and my Ph.D. in Comparative Cultures from the University of California, Irvine in 1994. My research focused on rural communities in the American Midwest, Latin America, and Australia. I taught Environmental Anthropology, Qualitative Research Methods, Social and Cultural Theory, and Food Studies courses.
I retired to Shell Rock, a small rural community in Northeast Iowa where I enjoy gardening, cooking, quilting, driving my 65 Impala convertible an my 49 Willys Jeepster. I have lots of fun playing my guitars with friends from the Cedar Valley Acoustic Guitar Association. But most importantly, I am still working to make my community and rural America a better place. I host a community quilt studio and serve on the Mission Board of my church. I also serve as the Climate Committee Chair and on the Executive Board of the Center for Rural Affairs.
