A Lenten Meditation

“It may be thus understood, beloved brethren, that since the Lord commands and admonishes us even to love our enemies, and to pray even for those who persecute us, we should ask, moreover, for those who are still earth, and have not yet begun to be heavenly, that even in respect of these God’s will should be done, which Christ accomplished in preserving and renewing humanity.” Saint Cyprian (Celebrated by Anglicans on Sept. 15) “Treatise Four: On the Lord’s Prayer”. 

Penitent Girl - Pietro Rotari, c. 1750. Oil on Canvas. Public Domain.

 

Lent is a time to faithfully and prayerfully prepare ourselves for the eternal fulfillment of our salvation accomplished through the death and resurrection of Christ. Therefore, Lent isn’t just a time of confession and ruminating on our mortality. It is also a time for lamenting all that is wrong in the world as a result of sin. These two types of meditation remarkably lead us into a spirit of thankfulness for all God has done for us. Thus, the Psalms that we read for the next four Sundays are songs of praise that detail the work of God in the salvation of Israel. This week’s Psalm ends by proclaiming:

Our soul waits for the Lord;
he is our help and our shield.
For our heart is glad in him,
because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us,
even as we hope in you.
Ps. 33: 20-22

And next week’s Psalm begins: “Oh come, let us sing to the Lord;/let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!” (Ps. 95: 1) The Psalm on the fifth Sunday of Lent encourages us to “hope in the Lord!/For with the Lord there is steadfast love,/and with him is plentiful redemption.” (Ps. 130:7) These Psalms are a reminder that this time of self-reflection is also a time to renew our trust in the Lord who has been and will continue to be, faithful to us.

These three Lenten undertakings, confession, lament, and praise, help restore our faith. The action that will remain our focus is lamenting the hurt done to us in order to forgive the ones who caused us pain. A corporate lament is particularly necessary when we have been hurt by one who bears the authority of a priest or a bishop. Many of us have been through horrible things as a result of the trust we have placed in the ministers of the church. We must strongly acknowledge these actions as wrong, and grieve with those who have been damaged by leaders who did not live up to the calling placed on them at their ordination. The church as an institution has the ability to profoundly wound us emotionally and spiritually. One of the reasons why so many of us have been hurt by the church in the past is because we rightly put trust in it and its leaders. When a priest or bishop, who bears the apostolic calling Christ gave to Peter, does something to hurt the congregation, or a particular person in it, it can lead to bitterness towards the institution that supported that minister. Regardless of whether we leave that particular church or not, the resentment and cynicism gained from that experience can mar our relationship to the universal Church. As a result, we risk becoming inured in our distrust, and, in doing so, we withhold ourselves from the fullness of life that is achieved through corporate worship. We do so because we naturally want to limit the future pain we are sure will come from this institution that has betrayed us in the past.

Due to the recent happenings at Christ Church, we are in a season of lament. Jesus’ instruction to pray for those who have wounded us is particularly apropos during this time. For, when we pray for those who have hurt us we are asking of God, as Saint Cyprian instructs, “that even in respect of these God’s will should be done.” These prayers are the first step in the healing of the soul because they acknowledge the wrongdoing as wrong and as not our fault, and they cede over the responsibility of justice to a God who loves us so deeply that he came to earth in order to bear the burden of our sin.

As a Vestry, we have agreed that one of the prayers of the people this week will be for Austin Britton and his family. We willfully acknowledge that he has hurt many of us. We also willfully acknowledge that many of us in the Vestry are still upset at him, and we have a hard time letting go. We cannot effectively pray for him on our own because the pain from this experience and others runs so deep. Therefore, we ask you, our brothers and sisters, to help us pray for him. We will pray for him this week because the current health of the church depends on letting go of any bitterness we feel for the past leaders who have hurt us. This act of forgiveness does not in any way justify their acts but acknowledges their action as wrong. In doing so we are mirroring Christ’s actions on the cross. (Luke 23:34) We also wish to pray for Austin because the well-being of the future leadership of the church is at stake. If we are ever going to trust a new rector, then we have to be able to forgive the ones who have hurt us in the past. It is our hope that you join with us this week in prayerfully and communally giving Austin into God’s hands as a Lenten act of surrendering our will for Christ Church as an act of praise to the same “rock of salvation” on whom our foundation is built.

In Christ,

The Vestry
Doug Irish, Sr. Warden, Beth Weicht, Jr. Warden
Katie D’Amour, Stephen Doholis, Alex Grudem, Nikki Jarrett, Kevin Jones, Joie McKiernan, Mary Ruskin, Tim Smith, Martha Wenzel