On a hot summer day, my friend and I stepped out of the ice cream shop looking for a shady spot to enjoy our already melting cones. As he stepped off the curb, splat! His chocolate ice cream fell out of the cone to the pavement. Stunned and disappointed, he looked up and saw a young wide eyed girl offering her cone to him. That sweet gesture of kindness and generosity moves me still.
The Gospel reading* for All Saints Day is a prescription for a life aligned with God’s good will, describing blessings for benevolence and compassion and woes for self-centered ways. They are clear and cutting. Woe to the rich and filled, blessed are those who are poor and hungry and persecuted. Read them all, slowly. This is Jesus’ prescription for discipleship, radical and countercultural.
Jesus continues with practical examples. He doesn’t mention ice cream cones but does mention giving away the coat on your back, even your shirt. He also addresses generosity with money, peaceful reactions to violence (prayer and aversion) and sums it all up with “love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return.” Your great reward, he says, is that you will be children of the Most High.
I wonder, how have I wandered from the natural goodness of that little girl holding out her ice cream cone to a stranger? How did Jesus see God’s will so clearly? As I go back in the story, the answer emerges as guidance. Jesus has just come from a night of prayer on the mountain. That alluring First Love drew him again and again to retreat in silence and the fruit was a life of communion, steady alignment with divine will. Not much is written about Jesus’ prayer or his retreats. We have to look intentionally for the references, as well as what comes before and after.
I am sensitive to this because I have just spent a weekend on silent retreat. Those present became visibly different, transformed into radiant openness and deeper compassion and calm. Increasingly, I realize that retreat, along with daily contemplative prayer, is the grounding dimension of radical discipleship. It is the dimension which nourishes inner strengthening for countercultural values and ever-deepening oneness with God’s good will.
—Ann Dean, Dayspring Retreat Mission Group
Reflection Questions
- What recent example of good will stirs your heart?
- When was the last time you went on silent retreat or spent a night in prayer?
- Who supports your spiritual growth, in prayer and active service?
