Feeding Us for the Journey

Dear Friend,

The mourning dove is back, just in time for Lent. Years ago, at our friary in Huntington Beach, she was outside the kitchen window, and I heard in that enchanting “perch-coo” three phrases of affirmation: we’re connected; you belong here; it’s going to be okay… repeated, repeated, and repeated. And there she was this morning, with the same assurance, outside my bedroom window, perched above “the Sacred Garden.”  

What she tells me this morning is that in his time of trial and temptation, Jesus sustained his connection with the one he called his Father. He was faithful and the desert of his suffering had meaning and he was where he belonged; and in the end, as Julian of Norwich would phrase it centuries later, in her own echo of the dove: all shall be well, all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well. In the desert, we might say, he never forgot the Garden.  

This past week the death of Bishop David O’Connell - “Bishop David,” as he was known to so many who loved him dearly - was a violent implosion for the entire Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The “mourning” dove does indeed signal tears, and at the same time, on this long voyage, that same dove will bring us the olive branch of reconciliation and communion. 

Belonging, connection, peace - the spiritual dimensions of the Garden of Eden point us to God’s promise of the new creation inaugurated in Bethlehem and brought to fulfillment at Easter. Jesus “earnestly desires” to feed us, we might say, from the garden of peace that is his very heart. He feeds us for the long journey of suffering, death, and resurrection - the Paschal mystery which is our life as disciples.  

Gratefully,

Fr. Dan ofm, Pastor