Meeting 1 — “To See So as to Hear” ********************************** .. tags:: content|cross|Cross, content|maturity|Maturity, content|prayer|Prayer, content|word-of-god|Word of God, method|text-work|Text work, method|spatial-activity|Spatial activity, type|integrative|Integrative Goal of the meeting + notes for the facilitator =============================================== This meeting is short (which is typical for Friday during our retreats). We need an element of getting to know each other and a brief introduction to the rules of small-group meetings; it is important to balance the time given to individual points according to what is most important. There are not many sharing questions here—we also reduced the places where sharing could develop on its own. Where three questions appear in one place, we do not ask (and do not try to ask) all of them. We put the emphasis on Jesus’ humanity and on the aspects of the cross, but we keep moving forward—to silence (which we want to highlight) and to its role in receiving Jesus’ words. The last question before the summary (5) is meant to lead participants into the evening prayer and the whole of Saturday. Supporting materials: slips with examples (below, as an attachment); paper and pens for writing seven sentences of self-introduction (we assume some will use notebooks or their own supplies, but we should be prepared); double-sided cards (1. GOD, 2. HUMAN). Goals of the meeting: - Getting to know the participants and introducing the retreat theme - Showing Jesus’ humanity - Showing that the mystery of the cross does not end with suffering—we do not stop at suffering - Pointing to the value of silence and quiet: we need to fall silent in order to hear Prayer and getting to know participants ======================================= Prayer + a short discussion of the rules for small-group meetings. **Getting to know one another + activation** Lay out on the table slips with examples of what one can mention when saying “something about myself”. +------------------+------------------------+----------------+ | CHURCH | MUSIC | NAME | +------------------+------------------------+----------------+ | CITY/PARISH | HOBBY | WORK | +------------------+------------------------+----------------+ | SCHOOL | FREE TIME | AGE | +------------------+------------------------+----------------+ | ANIMALS | BOOKS | MOUNTAINS | +------------------+------------------------+----------------+ | SEA | TRAVEL | TRAIN | +------------------+------------------------+----------------+ | CAR | MOTORCYCLE | BIKE | +------------------+------------------------+----------------+ | FRIENDSHIP | FAMILY | COMMUNITY | +------------------+------------------------+----------------+ | FAITH | WHY AM I HERE? | GOD | +------------------+------------------------+----------------+ | LOVE | SKIING | SLED TRACK | +------------------+------------------------+----------------+ | WHATSAPP | YOUTUBE | INSTAGRAM | +------------------+------------------------+----------------+ | FACEBOOK | FACEBOOK | COOKING | +------------------+------------------------+----------------+ | SNOWBOARD | COMPUTER SCIENCE | FLOWERS | +------------------+------------------------+----------------+ | THE BIBLE | LITURGY | LITURGY | +------------------+------------------------+----------------+ | SILENTIUM SACRUM | RETREAT | BOWLING | +------------------+------------------------+----------------+ Write, in seven (short; not compound) sentences, something about yourself (the more examples on the slips, the better). The point is to think (VERY briefly) and decide what is important to me, what I want to communicate about myself, how I want to introduce myself—one sentence should include my name! .. warning:: Emphasize strongly that this is an introduction: we are not “digging out” the whole depth of one’s life story. The point is that when someone looks at Anna, they know: “Anna likes driving a car / riding a motorbike / anything with wheels, and love matters to her.” (Just as Jesus was a human being—by profession, a carpenter—and yet when I look at Him I often think “the cross and the resurrection”.) Introduce yourself by reading your seven sentences. Summary: We have gotten to know one another more or less. Each of us has something another person does not have. Yet there are elements we share. We all eat, drink, feel, think, love. In a word, each of us is a human being. Jesus was also human—and we want to reflect on that for a moment, because it is not obvious at all. Jesus — a human being ===================== We hand out cards: one side says “God”, the other “human”. Emphasize strongly that there is no wrong answer, and note that we understand the answer may depend on the situation. The point is to catch what is “more often”. Let’s ask the participants: - Whom do you see more when you look at Jesus—more God, or more man? - How do you look at Jesus when you see the cross during prayer? - What do you think when you hear “Jesus”? .. warning:: This is not a sharing question. We do not want to stop here; we want to highlight Jesus’ humanity. Still, it is worth letting people answer this question for themselves, because despite knowing about the two natures, it is very hard for us to think about Jesus this way (which is understandable, because it is not exactly “natural” to us). The Church reminds us of Jesus’ humanity: The Son of God (...) worked with human hands, thought with a human mind, acted with a human will, loved with a human heart. -- Vatican Council II (Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World *Gaudium et spes*, 22) - What changes in my faith when I look at Jesus as a true human being? - In what moments do I most often think of Jesus as a human being? - What am I looking for, for myself, in Jesus’ humanity? God Himself became like us in **everything** except sin. “Except sin” does not mean the absence of temptation. We know this well from the prayer in Gethsemane; and yet we often have the feeling that “Jesus’ divinity overcomes His humanity”: “Yet not what I will, but what You will” (Mk 14:36). This moment is often given as an example that Jesus also asked God for something else, and yet followed His will. But in the back of our minds we may think: He was God—surely it was easier for Him than it is for us. The question is: is that really true? In the same verse, before Jesus says those words, He begins differently: “Abba, Father. All things are possible for You; take this cup away from Me!” It is worth paying attention to the word “Abba”. Jesus—who was God, who for a long time, perhaps always, knew what awaited Him—walked to the cross fully consciously and accepted the Father’s will, and in this very word He appears as a Child: a Child who needs His Dad, a Child who needs to hide in His Father’s arms because He is simply terrified. And yet—and only then!—He remains obedient. Let us look at a text taken from James Martin SJ’s book *The Seven Last Words*. Jesus had a body just like ours. That means He ate as we do, drank as we do, and slept as we do. He went through adolescence. As a human being, He experienced normal sexual desires. We know He did not marry and lived celibately, but as a human being He probably had normal needs. Needs themselves are not sinful in the slightest. Perhaps He even fell in love with some girl from Nazareth. Jesus had a body. We know that sometimes He grew tired. In one Gospel passage He falls asleep in a boat on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus strained His muscles, had headaches, nausea, caught the flu, and maybe once or twice even twisted an ankle. (...) Like every one of us, Jesus sweated, sneezed, and scratched. He experienced everything proper to a human being—to a human body—except sin. -- James Martin SJ, *The Seven Last Words* At this moment—fully aware that Jesus truly was one of us, that like us He felt, got sick, and loved—we want to look at the cross. The cross — silence — words =========================== **THE CROSS** “Crucifixion was the cruelest and most humiliating punishment used by the Romans. The cross was a symbol of shame; no Roman citizen could be executed on it. Jews considered the body of a man executed on the cross to be defiled and accursed.” - What do I see when I look at the cross? - What do I feel when I look at the cross? - What do I think when I look at the cross? At this point we want to note that in the cross we find two important aspects: suffering and light/salvation. Depending on how the sharing goes in the questions above, it would be good to balance these two aspects (e.g. with a personal testimony) and emphasize that suffering is undeniably important, but we do not want to limit ourselves to looking at the cross only in that context. This is also a good moment to summarize what we have done so far: looking at the cross on which Jesus hangs—true man who suffered, and true God who gave His life for me—God who wanted to tell us something from the cross, and did so. **SILENCE** The facilitator reads a quote, after which there is a moment of uncomfortable silence. It is important that the silence be long enough for people to feel that “something is off”. Hold the group for a bit. With silence it is like this: people try hard to break it, even by saying, “An uncomfortable silence fell”—and even though the sentence is about silence, the silence has already been broken. People usually cannot remain in silence; they feel uneasy and uncertain. As Cardinal Robert Sarah says, “Noise has acquired the noble title once held by silence”, and “noise soothes man like a drug to which he has become addicted. (...) Yet this noise is a dangerous and deceptive cure, a diabolical lie that allows man to avoid confronting his inner emptiness.” We bombard ourselves with sounds and images, feeds, Instagrams and WhatsApps. And when someone suggests we put them away, we claim we do not have to, because we have no problem—it does not concern us. .. warning:: Under no circumstances ask any participant to read the quote below, so that the “burden of silence” does not fall on them. We do not want participants to stress that “maybe I should say something”. In silence a person expresses their inability to speak and act, and opens themselves to the influence of the One who is “greater”, allowing Him to lead them in the freedom that shapes the right response. Silence is, in a way, leaving the human dimension and opening oneself to something more inexpressible, divine. /Sr. Adelajda Sielepin CHR, Silence in the Liturgy as a Space for the Holy Spirit’s Action/ .. centered:: A moment of uncomfortable silence. - In what moments do I experience silence in my life? - What happens in my heart / mind when silence falls? **WORDS** Remaining in silence gives rise to a desire for the Word. This is the attitude of Jesus’ listeners in the synagogue in Nazareth: “Rolling up the scroll, He handed it to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him” (Lk 4:20). - What do I hear when I look at the cross? Summary ======= Jesus suffered on the cross—He suffered tremendously (sometimes I feel this word has become worn out, as if it were “obvious” to us). His Passion lasted (on the cross itself) three hours. Discovering Jesus’ humanity helps us see that being God did not make it easier at all. He felt every wound exactly as any one of us would have felt it. Many would probably have fainted already on the way to Golgotha. Since Jesus experienced all desires and needs as we do, He also experienced pain as we do—the same… or perhaps even more intensely? As God He did it consciously, fully agreeing with the Father’s will; He knew that in every wound there is sin—our sin. 180 minutes of torment, and only about one minute of spoken words. How important the words Jesus left us must be. (Here we refer to the idea from the introductory conference.) They are important: just as He consciously walked to the cross, so He also knew what He wanted to tell us; He knew what He wanted to leave us with—and that is what we want to discover in the time ahead. Yet just as Jesus remained silent far more than He spoke during the crucifixion, so we too must fall silent; we must enter the silence that is necessary in order to hear what the Cross says to me—because, as Benedict XVI says: We rather have the feeling that amid an excess of words, what was most essential was missing: entering into Jesus’ silence, from which His words are born. If we do not manage to enter into His silence, we will also listen to His words only superficially and will not truly understand them. -- Benedict XVI Application and closing prayer ============================== Application: | Ask the group what we want to focus on during this retreat in the light of what we have already heard. Emphasize that this is still the beginning and the decision of what we will do with this time belongs to us—but it is also the moment when this decision must be made in order to fully receive the graces God has prepared for us. | | If the resolution does not come from the group, place the emphasis on *silentium sacrum*—entering the silence that will follow the evening prayer, to give God space to act in the heart. Prayer: | Ask the Holy Spirit for the fruits of the retreat | In silence, entrust to God your resolution and the time of the retreat | “O You Who Suffered Wounds for Us”