Day 10, Friday, 26 February Going deeper

 

RETREAT IN LENT 2021

Day 10, Friday, 26 February 

Going deeper

My companion picked an apple for breakfast today. On chopping it up he found it was rotten at the core. There is a Shona proverb about that though it is about pumpkins. Looking nice on the surface but diseased within. Twice in our readings today the word ‘deep’ appears. Jesus says to his disciples, ‘if your virtue goes no deeper that the scribes and the Pharisees …’ (Matthew 5:20-26) and in Psalm (130) ‘Out of the depths I cry to you, O Lord…’

There is also a reading from Ezekiel (18:21-28) about the wicked person renouncing their old ways and God’s delight in them.

All these readings prompt us to go deeper into our lives. For example, when we judge others, we are saying, if I said or did what they are saying or doing it would be because I was impatient or jealous or whatever. Therefore they must be impatient or proud or stupid. But if we go deeper, we see that we can never know another person’s motives. So we can’t judge them. We can only trust them even if, on the surface, they seem hostile, negative or mindless.

And when we trust people, we can give them new life. Jean Vanier used to tell the story of the little handicapped girl who went to the market with her mother. When the mother had bought what she wanted the stall keeper asked the little girl what she would like. The mother answered, ‘she wants an orange.’ The stall keeper repeated her question looking at the girl, ‘What do you want?’ The mother again answered for her. The stall keeper ignored her and repeated the question a third time to the little girl who burst out happily saying, to her mother, ‘She thinks I’m real!’     

Going deeper can bring out the truth about ourselves and about others. We pray on this Friday – every Friday in Lent falls under the shadow of Good Friday – for the wisdom and courage to go deep (Luke 5:4).