A Reflection for Thursday of the Second Week of Lent
Find today’s readings here.
Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings,
who seeks his strength in flesh,
whose heart turns away from the LORD.
He is like a barren bush in the desert
that enjoys no change of season,
But stands in a lava waste,
a salt and empty earth.
Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose hope is the LORD.
He is like a tree planted beside the waters
that stretches out its roots to the stream.
Years ago, I was in a crisis of faith caused by covering the sexual abuse crisis. (I write about this at length in my forthcoming book.) On a much-needed retreat, a Jesuit friend handed me two quotes that have stuck with me ever since. Both were by the French poet, social worker and mystic Madeleine Delbrêl: “For the Gospel to reveal its mystery, no special setting, no advanced education, no particular technique is required. All it needs is a soul bowed down in adoration and a heart stripped of trust in all things human.” The second: “Unless you take this little book of the Gospel in your hand with the determination of a person who is holding onto his very last hope, you will neither be able to figure it out nor receive its message.”
These words are in my heart again as I reflect on today’s first reading from Jeremiah: “Cursed is the man who trusts in human beings…he is like a barren bush in the desert that…stands in a lava waste.” Madeleine and Jeremiah understand the futility of trust in “all things human” and describe the subsequent feeling of loss and desperation as only poets can. They certainly capture what I felt in those tumultuous months of late 2018 and early 2019, when it seemed like every week brought more gruesome details of sexual abuse and further examples of devious politicking in the church that, up to then, had always been my place of comfort and consolation.
Madeleine and Jeremiah reach the same conclusion: The only response to the betrayal of humans is to turn ever more towards God. For Jeremiah, trust in God allows a person to grow deep roots and thrive in both good and bad times, “like a tree planted beside the waters. It fears not the heat when it comes, its leaves stay green; In the year of drought it shows no distress, but still bears fruit.”
What does that look like in practice? For me, it’s looked a lot like Madeleine’s image of holding onto the Gospels “with the determination of a person who is holding onto his very last hope.” In my moments of desperation that winter, I listened to the Gospels closely, with the determination to find something in which to trust. And the Gospel I heard was the Resurrection. It has helped me keep the faith in the years of drought. It’s the stream I am trying to reach out to anew this Lent.
