WEEK 26

Jesus Journeys to Jerusalem and Heals His Disciples' Blindness about His and Their Mission.
We come to the point in Jesus' life where his choice becomes clear. He will go to Jerusalem. He will embrace his mission. In the first gospel to be written, Mark paints a powerful portrait of that journey. It begins as far north as Jesus travels and it proceeds south to Jerusalem. It begins with a dramatic symbolic miracle. Jesus heals the blindness of a man, but not instantaneously. At first the fellow begins to see, but his vision is distorted. When Jesus touches the man's eyes a second time and heals him and then asks his disciples about their vision of who he is, we understand that this journey is about opening their eyes to see who he really is and what their mission is in following him.

Along the way, Jesus predicts what will happen to him in Jerusalem three times. Three times, they misunderstand it. And three times he tells them what it means to be his disciple. Finally, as they approach the outskirts of Jerusalem, Jesus encounters another blind man and, "Right away the man could see, and he went down the road with Jesus." With this journey, this week, our sight is clarified about who Jesus is and how we can go with him to Jerusalem.

After Jesus first tells them what is to come, Peter doesn't see rejection and death in Jerusalem as the mission of Jesus. Jesus tells him he sees like everybody else, not as God sees. Jesus says that if we want to be his disciples, we have to surrender any self-absorption and take up our cross with him. Any desperate attempt to avoid giving our lives away is deadly. But, placing our lives in God's hands is life-giving. Is our journey on a path to "gain the whole world" and destroy ourselves in the process? Or, a journey that is free, self-giving and alive?
After Jesus tells them the second time what they can foresee in Jerusalem, he finds that they are arguing about which of them is the greatest - a very common thing for all of us to do. Jesus tells them that greatness is about being a servant. It is about embracing the littlest ones around us - the marginal, the defenseless, the poor. Is this the "greatness" I seek? What "little ones" do I embrace? This far down the road, is my vision becoming clearer?

As a good teacher, Jesus tells them what to look for in Jerusalem. This time their vision is still blurred by their desire for the "glory" they anticipate in Jerusalem. They are caught up in competition and jealousy. Jesus tells them that their role as servants rules out that kind of behavior. With whom do I compete? How could I be at their service? When Jesus asks, "What do you want me to do for you?" can I respond, "Master, I want to see!"? What happens inside of me when, at this point in my retreat's journey, Jesus says, "Your eyes are healed because of your faith" ?

Use the helps to the right of the page, particularly the gospel texts on the Readings page. Getting Started has practical helps for making these exercises in the midst of our busy week. For the Journey offers an in-depth reflection on the week. And, In These or Similar Words offers us words that can help us find our own words to speak with Our Lord this week. Consider sharing the graces you receive. Also consider clicking on the photo and following the directions to make it the wallpaper for your desktop this week.
Our desire is to follow him down the road ahead. We know it will involve our carrying our cross, but we now see more clearly that we are with him, as servants of his own mission.

WEEK 25

Jesus as Water, Light, and Life Itself.
This week our journey with Jesus continues to grow in depth. As our desire to be with him grows, and our choices about the way we will live our lives becomes clearer, it is easier to spend time in fascination with this one we love.

Three powerful scenes from John's gospel will fill our week. They represent a profound reflection upon the meaning of Jesus for the community that first read the fourth gospel, but also for us today.

We should read the stories carefully. We need to enter into the interaction between Jesus and the characters. We want to become engrossed in each question, each misunderstanding, each turn of a phrase, each rise in the level of tension, and each transformation of the persons in the scene. Then we will see how carefully this proclamation of who Jesus is can come alive for our lives today.

Throughout this week, we can become more highly attuned to the dynamics of the stories, as they are part of our journey in this retreat. This week can help us pull together what has been the grace of this retreat for us so far. The woman at the well, the man born blind and Jesus' friend Lazarus represent us and how we have experienced Jesus in this retreat.

The grace will come when I see that I have been at the well a long time and have long been thirsty. When I can name the new thirst, the Water that now satisfies that thirst, I can overcome my remaining resistance to trust. When I see that Jesus reveals himself to me by revealing me to me, thereby showing me my need for him as Savior, I will rejoice and tell the whole world, too.
The grace will come when I acknowledge that my eyes have been opened. Others may not want to believe I can see, but I know I can only keep repeating it, to myself and to them. I may experience rejection by some for claiming this new vision, but in the Light I can see clearly one who has healed me, and I give him thanks and praise.

The grace will come when I experience how my 'deaths' will not end in death, but in giving glory to God. When I experience how entombed I have been, tied and bound, no longer alive, dead for a long time, I will sense the power of the command of Jesus that I "come forth."

Use the helps to the right to let these contemplation be part of the background of each day this week. Throughout the week, we can grow in gratitude as we acknowledge who Jesus has become for us. Our choices are being confirmed, to become one with him in living our lives in growing harmony with his love for us.

WEEK 24

Jesus Confronts Religious Leaders.
Over the past eleven weeks we have contemplated the life of Jesus. He has shown himself to us in the context of our examining his mission and our own way of life. We have considered "Two Ways of Desiring" in Week 17 and "Three Kinds of Responses" in Week 18. In contemplating his calling his disciples, in Week 21, we considered "Three Degrees" of being with Jesus, in Getting Started.

We now begin to contemplate how all this is played out in Jesus' life. We begin to feel the tension developing as Jesus speaks more and more prophetically. As we read the readings to the right, we grow in awe at his freedom and clarity. He sees through hypocrisy and names it. The fear of reprisal doesn't in any way deter him from denouncing injustice. Jesus knows what happens to prophets. His words come out of the purest of poverty and indifference. He can surrender to humiliation and rejection and death itself, for he has become a humble servant of his mission.

This week we want to enter into the tension and the freedom. We want to keep asking to be drawn to him as we let him show us this prophetic part of his spirit. He is the teacher, the healer, and the one who calls for justice, even at the cost of his own life.

In all the background moments of our week, we can be imagining the words of Jesus that would confront hypocrisy. We can feel the tension and the freedom of his spirit there. We can let it address our hearts. We can speak with Jesus about our love and admiration for him, and our desire to be placed with him in a life that does justice.

The helps to get started, For the Journey and prayers will be especially helpful this week. The photo can inspire us this week and become a symbol of our desire to be free for mission. Fr. John Cortina, S.J., one of the inspiring Jesuits in El Salvador, preaching in front of a mural with an image of Archbishop Oscar Romero, can remind us all week of how the following of Jesus continues to show forth in heroism and martyrdom, in the name of justice, even in our day.

WEEK 23

Jesus Heals.
As we continue to grow in our desire to know Jesus more intimately, we come to a week of reflection upon Jesus, the Healer. This week's prayer brings us to see several important aspects of God's love for us in Jesus. Most of all, we enter more deeply into the heart of this man for others and come to understand a love that heals.

This is not about contemplating the divine power of Jesus or how he repaired the bodies or lives of a number of people during his three years on earth. This is about our coming to know more deeply this week another aspect of who Jesus is.

Jesus is able to heal because love heals. The more complete the love, the more profound the healing. Jesus' love is penetrating. He doesn't hold back any of himself in loving. He is neither put off by disfigurement or fear of contamination or even religious conventions that place limits to his loving. He is not afraid to touch and touch deeply. His heart is full of compassion. Jesus can so suffer-with the one who suffers that he enters into the depths of - even the roots of - the pain of those he loves. Jesus loves so deeply he can understand and love the paralysis that causes the paralysis, the blindness that underlies the blindness, the leprosy that breaks out in leprosy. Jesus heals by embracing. Jesus embraces the inner illness that seems so untouchable or rigid or is hidden in the darkness of denial. Jesus can love the whole person into wellness, precisely because he loves the whole person in brokenness. With such great love Jesus the Lover can say, "Get up and start moving freely again," or "Open your eyes and see again."

This week we let ourselves become more deeply fascinated by, enthralled with, the way Jesus loves. The readings at the right are our entry points into being present to those scenes of healing. However, the depth and power of our prayer this week, in the background moments throughout our days, will be how we become more and more aware of how Jesus loves in the real scenes of our life. We will come to see the meaning of love and concrete ways we are being drawn to be with Jesus in his loving. Who throughout our day seems diseased or paralyzed or dysfunctional or blind or outcast by others? What external disorder or inner infection needs penetrating, embracing love? And, especially where I can't imagine myself loving that deeply and completely - because I taste the inner resistance of it - I can imagine Jesus' desire to love and heal.

Use the resources at the right to begin the week and enter deeply into it. Please feel free to offer your images and graces to others making the retreat.

Each and every day this week, we can be amazed and in awe as the Healer reveals the limitless love of his heart.