Grant us your Mercy

I always cringe when people suggest that they want something 'Irish' for the funeral of a family member.  I am thinking of the various Celtic hymns, chants and prayers. Some of which I dare say are written by my namesake.  The family or friends are thinking about 'Danny Boy' or 'When Irish Eyes are Smiling.'  We have an experience of something Irish and believe it is the end all, and be all.  To be sure the same thing occurs in our faith life.  So we keep going back to the same ritual, prayer, or action, so as to satisfy our spiritual hunger.

Being St. Patrick's Day I am inclined to pass on a wonderful contribution of the Irish Monks.  Prior to the fourth century persons received absolution through a public reconciliation.  One confessed their sins to a bishop in private, and were enrolled in the Order of Penitents.  Depending on the penance one could belong to this process for a year of more!  The Irish monks, having very few bishops around, developed a rite in which the penitent  confessed to the priest, did a penance, and then returned to receive absolution.  This was the beginning of private confession.  This also began what we would call spiritual direction today.

Not only did the Irish monks begin something that had not been done before, they reached into the depths of our Christianity and unfolded the basic ministry of Jesus Christ.  Think of the story of the Woman at the Well.  Jesus' encounter with this woman was more than making her feel good about herself, or just forgiving her sins.  Jesus enacted a process of conversion within her which united her with God and others.  When I taught High School I had inherited a retreat program which barely scratched the surface of the young peoples needs and desires.  The conversation almost went to transformation, change, and responsibility, but remained safe and bland.

I like to go back to the story of St. Francis and his conversion.  We do not have the impression that he, or his family were bad people, as far as we know they tithed every week, but we understand that Francis desired something even deeper in his relationship with God.  The publican who meekly approaches the altar of God, beats his breast, and prays for mercy, understands the depth of God's love for us, and that we are invited to draw deeply from God's love and mercy.

If we stay at an arms length from God, we do not have to deal with the cross and all of that messy stuff.  But like that beloved disciple at the Last Supper, we need the tenacity to lean into our Lord and God.  We make bold proclamations and approach our God, warts and all, faithfully believing that he can and will heal us from our sins.  The challenge is to dare to be radical in our faith response to our God.  We cannot fill up on the cheese puffs, but we hunger for Jesus who is the Bread of Life.