Online Retreat - Week 13

One of the real­i­ties we have been more sen­si­tive to over the past decades is the impor­tance of our back­grounds, who we are. Lots of fac­tors go into shap­ing who we are today, but the influ­ence our ances­tors had on us is very impor­tant. What we are doing this week is get­ting in touch with the ances­try of Jesus.

This is not an intel­lec­tu­al exer­cise. We don’t have to be Scrip­ture schol­ars to do this. It’s real­ly very sim­ple. And our desire is clear. We’ve been loved by Jesus. We want to know Jesus more com­plete­ly. We will spend a good num­ber of weeks ahead going through the Gospels to get close to Jesus in the sto­ries of what he did on earth. This week will give us a taste of who he is and the con­text he came into.

Through­out this week — in all the back­ground moments we can find — we try to stay in a sense that Jesus’ ances­try was Jew­ish. The way he thought about him­self, the way he thought about God, the images that filled his con­scious­ness, and the cul­ture that shaped his iden­ti­ty were steeped in the Hebrew tradition.

Jesus’ whole sense of real­i­ty was shaped by his sense that God called Abra­ham from his home­land and promised him a new home. Jesus’ sense of trust in God was sup­port­ed by the mem­o­ry that God was faith­ful to promise after promise. Sarah’s age was not an obsta­cle. Pharaoh’s army didn’t mat­ter. The tem­ple could be destroyed, but God would build it up again. When I want to real­ly know Jesus, I need to real­ly know the faith tra­di­tion that gave him such con­fi­dence in his mission.

It’s more impor­tant just to think about what we already know about that Jew­ish tra­di­tion than to do a lot of read­ing. Read the sto­ries from the Old Tes­ta­ment if that helps to refresh and give col­or to the memories.

Per­haps this week, at a time when I’m walk­ing or driv­ing from one place to anoth­er, per­haps frus­trat­ed or angry or feel­ing alone, I might turn to Jesus and ask, “How did your back­ground pre­pare you for sit­u­a­tions like this, Jesus?” The answers will be the bond­ing graces of this week. This inte­ri­or dia­logue between Jesus’ sto­ry and my sto­ry will be rich in help­ing us know him, grow in love for him, and be moved more deeply to be with him in his mission.

Use the oth­er resources of this week. Stay faith­ful to the pat­tern of reflect­ing on the mate­r­i­al for this week, as soon as I put on my slip­pers or robe in the morn­ing. Near the end of each day, find some moment to express some grat­i­tude. Con­sid­er shar­ing any grace received with the oth­ers mak­ing this retreat.

A reflec­tion by Fr. Lar­ry Gillick, SJ

Sea­sons change. This globe has been rock­ing and rolling in a come-here, go away rela­tion­ship with its source of ener­gy and life.

As a human fam­i­ly, we have also had an approach-avoid­ance rela­tion­ship with our source of light and life. At times of our human his­to­ry we have want­ed God very close to pro­tect and nour­ish and assist us. At oth­er times we have strug­gled for our col­lec­tive inde­pen­dence and self-direc­tion from that con­fin­ing Pow­er. Isa­iah prayed humbly, “We have become like those over whom You nev­er ruled, like those who are not called by Your name” (Isa­iah 63:19).

This week we are invit­ed to expe­ri­ence sim­ple long­ing. We join the yearn­ing cold world for warmth and light. We join the ancient ache of Israel for God’s love and com­pas­sion­ate com­pan­ion­ship. We unite our­selves with all men and women who have strug­gled to be god and have grate­ful­ly sur­ren­dered to their blessed real­i­ty of being chil­dren of the one God who may go by many names but remains faith­ful to those who seek.

This week our prayer can be influ­enced by our tak­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ties to wait with which life presents us — at stop­lights, check­out coun­ters, air­ports, and wait­ing for spe­cial peo­ple to come home soon. There are emp­ty and hol­low places in our hearts and lives. We pray with them and stay with them, not fill­ing them up so as to take our prayer away. We are learn­ing to ache with the world and its ancient long­ing for return and uni­ty with its lov­ing Cre­ator. This week we go to prayer, not to escape long­ing, but to embrace it. There must be room in our inn and a long­ing in our hearts if this Advent is not to be a fre­net­ic dis­ap­point­ment. We lis­ten to the ancient sigh­ing, “How long, O Lord.” We lis­ten to our own sigh­ing, “Come, Lord Jesus.” As the sun changes its dis­tance from the earth each day, we join the earth in this mys­tery of light in the midst of darkness.

Dear Jesus,
What a dif­fer­ent kind of week! I’ve nev­er thought of the Old Tes­ta­ment as your own fam­i­ly his­to­ry, but it is the sto­ries of all of the peo­ple who came before you, who had such a pow­er­ful influ­ence on you. When I start­ed this retreat, I showed you the pho­to album of my life, the high and low points, and I saw that you were always there with me. Now, as I feel clos­er and clos­er to you, I want to see your his­to­ry, your sto­ries. You are some­one I love, and I want to hear the sto­ries that shaped you.

There is so much expec­ta­tion in these sto­ries. So many ways your peo­ple have wait­ed for you, patient­ly or impa­tient­ly, over the cen­turies. They were look­ing for a king, one who would come and rule them and save them. But you were such a dif­fer­ent kind of king! They wait­ed for glitz and glam­our, and you showed them pover­ty and service.

Could you feel their dis­ap­point­ment? You knew so well the sto­ries that had been there for cen­turies, about the king who would come. Was it hard for you to be so dif­fer­ent from what they thought? I know it’s so human to want to please oth­ers. Did you strug­gle at all with what you were, what you want­ed to teach them?

Oh, Jesus. Thank you so much for lov­ing us all, for lov­ing me, so much that you chose this life on earth. I can only imag­ine your strug­gles to real­ly get across your mes­sage to peo­ple who might have been dis­ap­point­ed. What kind of king were you? You weren’t what they had been led to expect. But you stayed and you stayed faith­ful to your message.

Thank you for shar­ing your sto­ries, your fam­i­ly. Please be with me this week as I car­ry a sense of your his­to­ry with me, those won­der­ful and vivid Old Tes­ta­ment sto­ries, and as I see that they are real­ly the sto­ry of wait­ing for you, of you ful­fill­ing the promise to us. My dear friend, thank you for stay­ing with me, even when I dis­ap­point, when I am not all that I was cre­at­ed to be. Thank you for your utter faith­ful­ness and love for me.

“Go to the land that I will show you.” Gen­e­sis 12:1-7

“Will I real­ly know such hap­pi­ness?” Gen­e­sis 18:1-15

“They sold Joseph in Egypt.” Gen­e­sis 37:1-36

“God did not for­get the promise he had made.” Exo­dus 2:1-25

A Prayer to Begin Each Day

“Moses and the Israelites sang this song in praise of the Lord.” Exo­dus 15:1-18

“I Am Silent … Expec­tant” by Ted Lodor Guer­ril­las of Grace

“Shout Joy to God” Psalm 81

Week 13 print­able guide