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Be the light. A YMCA devotion for those called to bring hope to darkness and to stay faithful amidst suffering. Like Mary, the beloved mother of our Lord Jesus. #flourishingforall
When the times seem dark, when the burdens of living cause you to stumble, when you wonder why life is turning out this way, remember Mary.
Artistic gifts from the nations, of Mary mother of our Lord Jesus, at the Basilica of the Annunciation, Nazareth Israel
Our OnPrinciple team of 24 YMCA leaders visited Nazareth in February 2020, and a highlight included visiting holy sites where it is believed that the messenger Gabriel announced to young Mary that through her the Messiah of Israel would be born – The Annunciation.
Below are more pics of the Catholic Basilica of the Annunciation, as well as some from the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation.
Growing up as a Evangelical Protestant Christian in the Midwest, I was taught to be suspicious of Catholics, to not consider them as even Christian unless they had a born-again experience like me.
This included disregarding Mary, reviling at Marian devotion, and looking down on anyone who held Mary in high esteem.
I’ve been having to detox from this bigotry.
Visiting the Basilica of the Annunciation changed something within my heart towards the Mother of Jesus.
The pictures below try to capture some of the beauty created through architecture and art in remembrance and celebration of The Annunciation.
I was humbled by the lower section of the Basilica, which has an earthen, wooden feel to it, centered around the home of Mary, where Gabriel visited her.
The upper level is full of light, it draws your eyes up, particularly to the towering cupola, a structure of magnificence and awe.
What turned my heart towards Mary in a more personal way was the many works of art depicting her from the point of view of over forty different countries.
I posted a few of my favorite below – Brazil is so joyful, Mexico makes me smile; America makes me grimace, and I still can’t figure out the Canada one.
As I reflect on this place, this sacred space, I’m reminded of the light that Mary brings to those who remember: her simplicity, her faithfulness, her courage, her determination, her fierceness, her enduring hope, her generous love.
The times were dark when she was visited by the messenger of God. The times are still dark for many in the world.
We can look to the mother of Jesus as a source of inspiration, as one who trusts in the Lord, who will follow him to the end, in love.
When I think of the need for more light, I think of the need for more of us to let Mary light our way.
She was loved by Jesus; but it was her mothering love that shaped his infant, adolescent and adult life. It was her songs that stirred his soul, her faithfulness to God that he in part imitated when he faced heart-breaking hardships.
Be the light.
Let the light of Jesus shine through you in the dark.
Learn from Mary the mother of Jesus on courageously enduring to the end, to the vindication, when God makes all things right.
Basilica of the Annunciation, Nazareth, IsraelBasilica front door; 8 engravings from the life of ChristBasilica lower level, facing 4th century basilica ruins over the home of Mary, where she was visited by the angel GabrielAltar inside the original basilica Upper level of basilica, facing the back of the sanctuary Facing the front of the basilica upper level sanctuaryFront altar, upper sanctuary Flower shaped dome jutting up above the front of the basilica sanctuaryMary the Magnificat : America
“And Mary sang out:
“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.””
[The Magnificat, the Song of Mary, from the Gospel According to Luke 1:46-55 NIV]
Mary : MexicoMary & the Holy Child : FranceMary : PoloniaMary : BrazilMary : AustraliaMary : PortugalMary : CanadaMary : SpainMary : Japan
OnPrinciple Team, group pic at Basilica of the Annunciation
OnPrinciple Team enjoying the warm hospitality of the Nazareth YMCA board members and friends.
Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation; built over an underground spring where it is believed the angel Gabriel visited Mary
For Christians within the YMCA, these words of Kierkegaard hold much wisdom for how we embody the Y mission and gospel of Christ. When it comes to Christian Emphasis in the YMCA, it’s the humble imitation of Christ, it’s the vulnerable submission to reality and truth, the decisive act to trust Christ in our participation in the Y and the world as we love, care and serve for all.
“Without a life of imitation, of following Christ, it is impossible to gain mastery over doubts. We cannot stop doubts with reasons. Recall that the Savior of the world did not come to bring a doctrine; he never lectured. He did not try by way of reasons to prevail upon anyone to accept his teachings, nor did he try to authenticate it by demonstrable proofs.
“His teaching was his life, his existence. If someone wanted to be his follower, he said to that person something like this, ‘Venture a decisive act, then you can begin, then you will know.’
“What does this mean? It means that no one becomes a believer by hearing about Christianity, by reading about it, by thinking about it. It means that while Christ was living, no one became a believer by seeing him once in awhile or by going and staring at him all day long.
“No, a certain setting is required – venture a decisive act. The proof does not precede but follows; it exists in and with the life that follows Christ. Once you have ventured the decisive act, you are at odds with the life of this world.
“You come into collision with it, and because of this you will gradually be brought into such tension that you will then be able to become certain of what Christ has taught. You will begin to understand that you cannot endure the world without having recourse to Christ. What else can one expect from following the truth?”
– from Provocations: Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, p. 78
What is the way you suffer? How do you adjust to reality? Amidst this pandemic, as we prepare for Easter, consider the Via Dolorosa, the way of suffering by Jesus. Instead of despair, we can abide, lead, and serve in faith, hope, love.
Whether you deserve the suffering you eventually experience or not, we’re all faced with the same existential question: what will you do with it?
For the Christian, we believe it all can be redeemed. We are the Good Friday people, the Easter community.
Like every organization in our nation, YMCA’s are also striving to endure this current pandemic-sourced suffering.
But more than that, especially because of our mission and Christian legacy, Y’s are working to also find a way to grow stronger and more loving because of it.
When you find yourself reflecting and grieving on your suffering in the world, it can be a moment to remember the journey of Jesus on his Via Dolorosa, of what he did with his Way of Suffering.
“He who himself does not wish to suffer cannot love him who has.”
Next week is Good Friday, the darkest afternoon of the year for followers of The Way, when we retrace the steps of the Via Dolorosa in our hearts.
This past February, through a YMCA program called OnPRINCIPLE, a cohort of 12 Y workers, along with our 12 mentors and organizers, spent ten days in the Holy Land of Israel and Palestine. On our third day there, we walked the Via Dolorosa, which includes 14 traditional stations of the cross.
Below are my images from most of the stations, along with reflections on The Way, of suffering, of hope in the world with Jesus, the one crucified and resurrected.
First Station: Jesus Condemned and Flogged by Pontius Pilate
“To suffer patiently is not specifically Christian – but freely to choose the suffering is.”
– Kierkegaard
The natural tendency of humans is to avoid suffering, to reduce the risk of suffering, to take preventative measures to reasonably protect ourselves from it.
Fear can have a healthy role in this labor. Or a sick one.
Love for one another, our neighbors and strangers is a more powerful healing agent for responding to unwanted suffering.
Love and fear – each transforms how we, the YMCA, the world, suffers, and why.
Second Station: Crowd Watches Jesus Carry His Cross
Sometimes though our efforts to insulate ourselves from suffering is fueled by irrational anxiety and selfish paranoia.
A crowd mentality can take hold of us, narrowly driving us to resist and revile suffering, which causes us to misunderstand and misapply the medicine at hand.
Third Station: Jesus Stumbles Under His Cross
Sometimes members of the community have to take on suffering as a way to bring healing to those who also suffer.
This can be done out of duty, it can be done out of cynicism and bitterness, but it can also be done fueled by the common bond of humane responsibility to each other.
This is partly what we see in Christ purposefully embarking on the Via Dolorosa; it is what Y members can aspire to, what we in the church can imitate, for the world.
Fifth Station Entrance: Simon of Cyrene takes upon himself the Cross of Christ
“Adversities do not make a person weak, they reveal what strength he has.”
– Kierkegaard
Fifth Station: Simon of Cyrene taking up the cross from the shoulders of the fallen Christ
Imagine being Simon of Cyrene, on a religious sojourn from his island homeland to the Holy City for Passover, caught up in the terror and surge of the crowds pressing in on Jesus.
Out of all the men to be asked by the soldier to carry the cross of Christ, why Simon?
Why you, when drawn into the suffering of others?
Fifth Station: Altar
Having walked the Via Dolorosa with fellow YMCA workers, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, amidst the adversity pressed upon our society these days, Simon of Cyrene has become a sort of mentor for me.
Caught up in a storm not of his making, out of his control, he chose to kneel and turn his suffering into a form of holy service.
Simon’s participation in the carrying of Christ’s cross, like ours, is how we contribute to the redemption of the world.
Sixth Station: Veronica Wipes the Face of Jesus
Therefore, dare to renew your decision. It will lift you up again to have trust in God.
For God is a spirit of power and love and self-control, and it is before God and for him that every decision is made.
Dare to act on the good that is buried within your heart.
We don’t know much about Veronica, there is nothing in the Gospels about her tender caress of the bleeding and broken face of Christ.
What courage, though, embodied by this caring woman, seeing this suffering servant of the Lord, mocked and gawked at by the crowds, to venture forth, prompted by the compassion in her heart, to take a risk and wipe the tears of Jesus.
It’s redemptive stories like these that prompt us to enter into the suffering of others, moved by courage and compassion for our Lord.
Seventh Station: Jesus Falls Again Under the Cross
This much is certain: the greatest thing each person can do is to give himself to God utterly and unconditionally – weaknesses, fears, and all.
For God loves obedience more than good intentions or second-best offerings, which are all too often made under the guise of weakness.
– Kierkegaard, Provocations, 8
When we suffer, whether it be something chronic or uniquely difficult, within our spirit or throughout our body, as a Christian, we are allowed to submit it to the Lord.
When we fall under the weight of it, weak and worn, we can pray for the Lord to remove it.
But, we can also yearn for courageous obedience, seeking to imitate Christ who gave himself to God utterly and unconditionally.
Eighth Station: Jesus Pleads with the Women of Jerusalem
“Therefore never in unlovingness give up on a person or give up hope for him, for it is possible that even the most prodigal son can still be saved, that the most embittered enemy, alas, he who was your friend, it is still possible that he can again become your friend; it is possible that he who has sunk the deepest, alas, because he stood so high, it is still possible that he can be raised up again; it is still possible that the love which has turned cold can burn again – therefore never give up any man or woman, not even at the last moment;do not despair.
It’s remarkable to me that while Jesus suffered, he took time to pray for the women of Jerusalem, to plead for them to flee and seek refuge: do not despair, hope all things.
When we suffer amidst pain, anxiety, and loss, we can become passive, waiting for others to lift us up.
But there are times amidst our straining difficulties that we can lift up the heads and hearts of others with our words to resist despair with enduring hope.
Ninth Station: Jesus Staggers Under the Cross Thrice
It must be firmly maintained that Christ did not come to the world only to set an example for us.
If that were the case we would have law and works-righteousness again.
He comes to save us and in this way be our example.
His very example should humble us, teach us how infinitely far away we are from resembling him.
When we humble ourselves, then Christ is pure compassion.
And in our striving to approach him, he is again our very help.
It alternates: when we are striving, then he is our example; and when we stumble, lose courage, then he is the love that helps us up.
Three times on the Via Dolorosa we stop to meditate on the falling of Jesus under the weight of his cruel cross.
It’s a testament to his perseverance, his faithfulness, his striving to complete what he set out to do – for us, and with us, amidst the world’s suffering.
It’s when we stumble under the weight of suffering in our homes, churches, YMCA’s, community organizations, businesses that we can become humbly ready to approach the Man of Sorrows and discover his compassion and redemptive help.
Front Entrance to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, site of the final four stations of the cross
Eleventh Station: Jesus Nailed to His Cross
By abiding, the one who loves transcends the power of the past.
He transforms the break into a possible new relationship, a future possibility. The lover who abides belongs to the future, to the eternal.
From the angle of the future, the break is not really a break, but rather a possibility.
But the powers of the eternal are needed for this.
The lover must abide in love, otherwise the heartache of the past still has the power to keep alive the break.
It seems impossibly unrealistic to consider how one might abide while suffering, especially while being nailed to the cross.
But in reflecting on the fresco at the eleventh station, it does seem like our Lord is abiding, in love.
Kierkegaard cuts to the heart with his comments on the Lord abiding in love: otherwise, the heartaches of the past still has the power to keep alive the break.
For so many of us, isn’t this – the keeping alive the break – the compounding wound of suffering, the one that sticks us with toxicity more fatal than the initial wound?
Is it humanly possible to abide in love while suffering?
It would take a miracle, divine intervention, holy help.
The site where St. Helena discovered the lost cross of Christ
Statue of St. Helena clutching Christ’s cross, mother of Roman-Byzantine Emperor Constantine
Surely Christianity’s intention is that a person use this life to venture out, to do so in such a way that God can get hold of him, and that one gets to see whether or not he actually has faith.
Helena ventured forth with her entourage in the early fourth century to discover the sites of our Lord as described in the New Testament.
What she found became sacred places for Byzantine churches, some which can still be touched today, some in ruins, some preserved.
It was a risky journey, and many wonder if she actually found the original sites of Christ’s gospel work.
But it was a sojourn prompted by faith, sustained by faith, appreciated by faith – much like why we might enter into the suffering of others.
Station Fourteen: top of the Holy Sepulchre, the site where Jesus was buried and from whence he resurrected, under the beautiful church cupola
For Jesus and those of us on The Way with him, resurrection is a powerful reality and hope as we endure suffering in this world.
But in love to hope all things signifies the lovers’ relationship to other men and women, that in relationship to them, hoping for them, he continually keeps possibility open with infinite partiality for his possibility of the good.
Consequently he hopes in love that possibility is present at every moment, that the possibility of the good is present for the other person, and that the possibility of the good means more and more glorious advancement in the good from perfection to perfection or resurrection from downfall or salvation from lostness and thus beyond.
The hope of redemptive suffering, to have new life and possibilities on the other side, to have not just survived but to have grown in love and faithfulness – these are divine and sacred realities we need in our homes, our YMCA’s, and communities.
God’s raising up of Jesus from the stone tomb was an affirmation of his loyalty and goodness amidst his temptations and suffering.
It affirms for us that Jesus is worth imitating, that the hope he instills in us is real, and that suffering we endure with him is redemptive.
