Splurging on Kindness

According to the National Day Calendar website, June 18 is “National Splurge Day,” which was created in 1994 “as a way to encourage consumers to go out and indulge a little with the hopes of adding a little boost to the economy.” Benedictines, and all people who try to adhere to a simple lifestyle and curb the pernicious effects of consumerism, clearly need an alternate occasion to celebrate. How about “National Splurge on Kindness Day”?

Ideally kindness is part of our daily life, but it wouldn’t hurt to highlight its importance with a special day when we are profligate in our warmhearted-ness. We can start and end the day with prayers of gratitude for God’s unfailing kindness to us and recall the people who have touched our lives throughout the years with their thoughtful support. National Splurge on Kindness Day wouldn’t require us to make any purchases, although payment would be involved in the sense of paying attention to others—seeing them, noticing their struggles, and offering them a compliment or words of support.

Yesterday Valerie Luckey, OSB, made a presentation at the pre-chapter meeting of the Federation of St. Scholastica in which she said, “We’re not called to be consumers of life but creators of life.” Are we simply going to deplete the resources of our beautiful world to satisfy our own desires, or will we choose to create a way of life in which it is easier to see Christ in each other and act with love and compassion? Splurging on kindness—not just one day a year, but on a regular basis—would be a good place to start.

Cultivating the Ability to Be Surprised

The poet Jan Richardson says we must “set aside our inability to be surprised.”

Are you still able to be surprised, or does one day blend into another—the same problems at work, the same conflicts with family members, the same chores to be done?

Surprise can break us out of our ruts and give us fresh perspectives, but we have to cultivate an attitude of anticipation and train ourselves to look for the unexpected. For example, Sebastián Di Martino, director of conservation at Fundación Rewilding in Argentina, wasn’t looking for a wild giant river otter a few weeks ago when he was kayaking on the Bermejo river—why would he? They were thought to be extinct. Then one reared up out of the water and he was able to snap a picture of it. Surprise! Wildlife is more tenacious and resilient than we thought!

If we give God half a chance to surprise us, we will notice opportunities to heal relationships, a green thumb we never knew we had, a new approach to a vexing situation, or support from an unexpected source. Is this magical thinking? No, it is trust in a God who continually makes all things new and invites us to join in the joy of creativity, wakefulness, and the promise of sustenance.

 

The Demands of Love

Who do you think said the following words?

"It's a wonder I haven't abandoned all my ideals, they seem so absurd and impractical. Yet I cling to them because I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart."

It actually sounds like something God would say, for as Jesus illustrated in the parable of the prodigal son, God is always willing to forgive our transgressions in the hope that we will remember who we really are (beloved) and discover the seed of goodness implanted in our heart. In this case, these God-like words came to us from the diary of Anne Frank, the Jewish teenager who hid from the Nazis in Amsterdam for two years before she and her family were discovered and sent to the concentration camp at Auschwitz.

Without a doubt, the essence of God is love and thus love will eventually prevail in all that has being. What we don’t understand is why so many people have to suffer at the hands of people who choose to perform evil deeds before God’s love comes to fulfillment. Jesus himself chose to suffer a painful death rather than resist those who sought to end his life, and as a result, untold people over the centuries have followed his way of love rather than violence. Those who follow Christ are asked to take up the tools of suffering and nonviolence to break the temporary power of evil and help others learn how to live in the love that God unfailingly offers.

To suffer on behalf of others is a lot to ask, but Jesus showed us that new life awaits beyond the suffering, not just for ourselves but for those who are transformed by our actions. Just as the people of Israel said to God, “Rescue us! Your love demands it” (Ps 44: 27), the love we know through our life in Christ demands that we rescue others, even when sacrifices and suffering are required. It’s only when everyone comes to know and act out of the goodness implanted in his or her heart that we can truly rejoice in the fulfillment of the kingdom of God.

Low-Hanging Miracles

About five days ago, I went to look at the fruit on the cherry tree near Marywood Hall: it was greenish-white, with just a few orbs starting to blush slightly. Yesterday, I checked again and the tree is studded with red fruit—not quite ready to yield to a gentle tug, but soon to be ready for picking!

Miraculous events often happen very quickly. We can easily miss them if we aren’t vigilant and alert—if we don’t look for them because we aren’t expecting them. As Eden Phillpotts said, “The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper.” God gifts us in a myriad of ways, but if we instead expect to be visited with trials and judgment, we won’t see the generosity and creativity that surrounds us every day.

What’s so magical about cherries ripening, you might ask? It’s possible that the tree might never have matured had it been stunted by poor weather or insects when it was a sapling. It could have been felled by lightning, or the fruit might have been decimated by worms or devoured by birds. With different genes, the cherries might have been a sickly puce green instead of a vibrant red. No, this healthy tree with its lovely fruit is magical and a miracle—as is so much around us that is patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper, that is patiently waiting for us to have the wisdom to look, marvel, appreciate, and give thanks.

Our Grandma Who Art in Heaven

Two sisters from Mount St. Scholastica, Susan Barber and Bridget Dickason, recently went on a mission trip to San Antonio, Texas, to help care for teenage boys from Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala who are seeking refuge in the United States. One of the memorable stories relayed by Sr. Bridget was when a young teen handed her a note that said, “Grandma, we need shoes!”

Sr. Bridget and I are the same age, and neither one of us feels old enough to be a grandma! Although it’s a shock to realize we are indeed entering the “grandma generation,” it’s also touching that the boy who handed her the note had confidence that she would be able to help him. That’s who grandmas are—people you can turn to with your needs, with trust they’ll do the best they can to help you.

In that sense, it’s kind of a surprise that we don’t have an image of God as a grandma—provider of food, wisdom, comfort, and unfailing love. Perhaps that’s an image we can pray with when we need a supportive confidante—or even something as basic as new shoes when we’ve walked a long way seeking safety and freedom.

Plant Seed, Pull Weed

I spent a couple of hours outside today with two tasks in mind: to plant zinnia seeds in the small bed by the barn and weed around the blackberry bushes. As I was working, the title of a book I encoun-tered long ago popped into my head: Plant Seed, Pull Weed by Geri Larkin. Sometimes we make life very compli-cated, when it really comes down to planting seed that will bear good fruit and removing weeds that drain our energy and resources.

Planting seeds is an act of intention. I once heard a story in which a person asked a friend what he thought the coming year would bring. “It will bring flowers,” his friend said. “How do you know?” the man asked. “Because today I am planting flower seeds,” his friend responded. We will encounter what we welcome into our lives.

Sometimes, of course, God (and the birds that carry seeds hither and yon) gift us with some surprises. I discovered some lovely purple flowers by the black raspberry bushes that I hadn’t planted. Ultimately, we can prepare the soil, plant the seed, fertilize, weed, and water, but plants grow (or don’t) according to their own mysterious processes and purposes.

Gardening inevitably is an exercise in learning patience and humility, which led to another thought as I planted and weeded: I’m not sure I really trust people who aren’t gardeners. More often than not, I can count on people who garden to be humble, patient, well grounded, industrious, observant, generous, joyful, and peaceful. They know how to keep things simple: Plant seed, pull weed.

And You Visited Me

Although St. Benedict never met Sr. Maria Larkin, who died on May 25, 2021, he nonetheless wrote a chapter in his Rule that perfectly described one of her roles in the community. As he says in Chapter 27, “Concern of the Superior for the Excommunicated”: 

“The superior should show utmost care and concern for wayward members because ‘it is not the healthy who need a physician but the sick’ (Mt 9:12). Therefore, like a prudent physician, the superior ought to use every opportunity to send senpectae, that is, mature and wise members, to support the wavering ones, urge them to be humble as a way of making satisfaction, and console them, ‘lest they be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow’ (2 Cor 2:7). As the Apostle also says, ‘reaffirm your love for them’ (2 Cor 2:8).”

For many years, Sr. Maria walked daily from the Mount to the Atchison County jail to visit “the wayward” members of her extended community—that is, the Body of Christ—who were being held there. She brought them the word of Scripture along with the gospel according to Maria, expressed through her own care and concern for their spiritual and emotional health. She kept up a voluminous correspondence with prison inmates, who were touched by her prayer, her faith in God, and her conviction that with God’s loving support, they could repent and re-form their lives.

Sr. Maria’s ministry to those who were jailed was only one aspect of her life, of course. She was a master teacher who touched the lives of hundreds of students; an observant, artistic soul who was endlessly creative; a community member who was sensitive to the needs of her sisters; and a beloved daughter of God who radiated joy and good humor. Still, I find myself most moved by her devotion to those incarcerated, for as Jesus said, “I was in prison and you visited me”—and so few people do.