We went to the movies this past weekend -- not only to take advantage of the free jumbo popcorn and large fountain drink because it was Birthday Month, but, more importantly, to experience a visual parable awaiting us in the bio-pic Cabrini. As you may know, this movie (released on International Women's Day!) profiles the work and witness of Mother Cabrini, the first U.S. citizen to become a saint. Born near Milan in 1850, she and seven other women would form the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and set out to establish an Empire of Hope, as she called it. (Mother Cabrini had taken the name Frances Xavier as she professed her vows to consecrated life -- Xavier, the Patron Saint of Missionary Service.)
Missioned to New York City in 1889, she fought valiantly for the care and ennobling of the Italian immigrant community there. The movie spotlights the tenacity and audacity upon which her remarkable legacy of orphanages, hospitals, and schools rests. "Stay where you came from." "You don't belong here." These her words of welcome from Church and civil authorities. Her witness would challenge the rigid, circumscribed, and often cruel views of women, foreigners, immigrants, all those of Italian heritage. What it meant to be Christian, Catholic, Shepherd, or Servant Leader was being redefined and stretched, all with great resistance, by this woman who had declared, "We are bold, or we die."
Our Gospel from John today finds Jesus in a similar role -- audaciously challenging the religious figures of his day. Chapter 8 has opened with Jesus forgiving the sins of the Woman Caught in Adultery. (I wish there were a better title.) From yesterday's reading, Jesus has proclaimed himself the Father's ambassador. "I did not come on my own, but he sent me." Today, going further, he boldly states that he is indeed greater than Abraham and the prophets, and that those who believe in him will never see death. Amen, amen, even before Abraham came to be, Jesus is the "I AM." (The Greek word for 'came to be' is the one used of all creation in the magnificent Prologue to John's Gospel.) The Psalmist declares, "The Lord remembers his covenant forever," but now Jesus proclaims a new covenant, sealed not with the promise of land and descendants but with the promise of a life in love that not even death can tear asunder. Is it any wonder that the response to such audacity is "You must be possessed." or "Who do you make yourself out to be?" Righteous indignation and resistance comes with a serving of picking up stones to throw this time around. It will come in different packaging in the days ahead.
It is so easy to condemn from the safe perch of historic distance those who failed to see the Sacrament of Love in the witness of Jesus, or those who could so blindly dismiss the passion of Mother Cabrini and her call to tend to 'the least of these.' But our continuing maturity in an adult faith won't let us rest on our smug spiritual laurels. We might ask how we have balanced the celebration of the strong and sure promises of our faith traditions with an openness to the movement of the Spirit making all things new. Where has rigidity blocked love and the building of God's Empire of Hope? Any stones being thrown these days? May our Lenten pondering continue....
For your viewing pleasure: Andrea Bocelli, Virginia Bocelli - Dare To Be (From The Motion Picture "Cabrini")