In January of 2010 Pope Benedict XVI offered his annual World Day of Peace Message. This year he dedicated the message towards the issue of addressing peace through an examination of our relationship with God’s creation. In his message the Pope offers this insight:

It is becoming more and more evident that the issue of environmental degradation challenges us to examine our life-style and the prevailing models of consumption and production, which are often unsustainable from a social, environmental and even economic point of view. We can no longer do without a real change of outlook which will result in new life-styles, “in which the quest for truth, beauty, goodness and communion with others for the sake of common growth are the factors which determine consumer choices, savings and investments”.

The Passionist JPIC Office has created a young adult retreat program called “Living Simply So Others May Simply Live.” It is a lenten retreat program that is based on a Catholic ecological spirituality. This retreat adapts from Catholic social teaching, the ecological spirituality of Fr. Thomas Berry, CP, and the Lenten practice that has been developed by the Passionist Earth and Spirit Center for Christian simple living. The retreat is developed with the following three sessions:

A Passionist Young Adult Retreat:

A Christian retreat is an important spiritual experience where Christians can take the time from their busy lives to dedicate themselves towards God through a weekend of rest, prayer, spiritual enrichment and the experience of community. Young adults face tremendous pressure from our active and competitive society and they often find themselves in a spiritual wilderness. A Passionist Retreat allows them to center themselves with God.

Young adults are aware of the complexities of our global society and they may not be aware of how their faith can guide them on many of the social issues that they face. The Passionist Earth and Spirit Center has created a Lenten program called Lent 4.5 where people can engage in the lifestyle of Christian simplicity by readopting the traditional Lenten practices of Prayer, Fasting and Almsgiving. The Christian simple living retreat will adapt these methods for a weekend immersion into the Catholic Lenten tradition.

On March 11-12 the Bishop Molloy Passionist Retreat House in Queens, NY will be offering this retreat to young adults. Below is a flyer regarding the details of this event. Click on it if you would like to print it out.

• Wisdom 7:7-11. I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me and in her company all good things.
• Hebrew 4:12-13. God’s word is sharper than any two-edged sword. It judges the heart. Nothing is concealed. For everything we must render an account.
• Mark 10:17-30. One thing more you must do. Go and sell what you have and give to the poor. Whatever we have given up to follow Jesus, will return to us a hundred more in this life, plus persecution, and in the age to come, everlasting life.

Thoughts for your consideration: By John Gonzalez

God’s gift of Wisdom is at the heart of this week’s lectionary readings. We understand that Grace happens when God freely bestows his gifts upon us. Catholic tradition tells us that there are seven gifts of the Holy Spirit that aid us in our struggle to follow Christ and redeem our humanity: broken by sin and the great temptations of self-indulgence. We require these gifts of God in order to achieve our ultimate purpose and calling which is to be one with God and all of creation. This week’s readings will help us comprehend the prominent role of the gift of Wisdom in the midst of this struggle.

This first reading reminds us of the great value placed on Wisdom by Solomon. If you had one wish in the world what would you wish for? According to this reading the answer would have to be Wisdom. The goodness that comes from Wisdom is not measurable by common social standards. The only appropriate way to consider the value of this gift is if you accept that under the guidance of Wisdom the ultimate sense of goodness flows from it. But having said this we must ask ourselves, “What is goodness”?

In our Christian spirituality and ethics, goodness is not defined as something that is self-gratifying or that simply produces our own personal happiness. Goodness is better understood under what Catholic social teaching calls, “the common good.” Mystics like St. Paul of the Cross would use the term, “the Divine Good” to describe the same concept. Good is a subjective term. What is good for me may not be good for another. So the concept of Divine or Common Good denotes another form of goodness that is not subjective. We would consider this to be a Goodness that is universal or an ultimate form of goodness from which everything that happens to ourselves and all humanity and indeed all creation can have the deepest meaning. So that even in our suffering people like St. Paul of the Cross can say that even in our suffering we may be serving the “Divine Will that can will only the greatest good.”

The Gospel account has a rich young man approach Jesus in pursuit of this greater good. Jesus offers him the Ten Commandments, but the young man has made it that far and now he wants to take the plunge into ultimate goodness no doubt believing that he is ready for the challenge. What Jesus does when he tells him to give all his belongings to the poor is to humble him into realizing the mystical challenge that is the common good. To serve God and the great good that comes from God is to be at the service of all creation, thus “many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” For our part we must intentionally make that choice, to constantly see ourselves in relationship to God and to be at the service of all. As we can tell from the Gospel passage this radical call to goodness unnerves even the Apostles who begin to wonder if there is any hope in achieving this relationship with God. At that point Jesus will remind them that “for mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” So on our own we cannot hope to achieve this greater good. That is why we must have the grace of God’s wisdom to help guide us in this journey.

This may be unnerving and quite daunting but the second reading reminds us of how powerful and ever present the wisdom of God is. By faith we are told to accept that ultimately all things will be held accountable to the Divine Will. So we must not be afraid to ask for this great gift and to humble ourselves by allowing ourselves to be forged by this gift from God.

It is worth mentioning that just preceding this second reading, if we read the rest of Chapter 4 from this letter, we are told about the context from which God’s Divine Will is offered to us. The context is within the solitude of God’s rest. Sometimes, especially in our culture, we feel that we are beyond this ultimate wisdom. God does not seem to be speaking to us anymore. According to this chapter God is ever present and ever alive in our world, but we need to make time to first hear God’s wisdom in order to actually comprehend it. Solitude has been a prominent Christian value. For that reason the Passionists and other Catholic religious communities have upheld the importance for Christians to have an opportunity to engage in retreats periodically and to have spiritual direction in order to spend some intentional time in developing one’s relationship towards God. Many Catholic Religious communities have retreat centers that offer a variety of spiritual themes including silent retreats specifically designed to give each person the opportunity to hear God’s voice. Consider this spiritual option from our tradition as you reflect on the lectionary readings and contemplate how God’s wisdom is speaking to you.

Questions for your Reflection:

• Place yourself in the position of the rich young man. Consider your own hopes and expectations of your faith and imagine that Jesus is asking you to stretch those expectations further. How would you respond to call by God that makes you uncomfortable?
• How do you understand the “Common Good?” Take a moment to reflect on the concept of goodness from the perspective of the other. Consider something good for someone you know and love that may make demands on you. Now consider the good for people on the other side of the world that may make demands on your own society. How does this make you feel?
• What is your experience of spiritual exercises like Retreats or Spiritual Direction? Have you ever taken advantage of these services that our Church and the Religious community have to offer? If you would like to visit resources on these services visit either www.passionist.org if you live in the western part of the United States or www.thepassionists.org if you live in the eastern part to find these resources close to you.