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Jake Hofmeister

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Posted via email from Chaplain Jake Hofmeister

The Chance to Love Everything

I was exploring various materials to use at our Lenten Meditation Series.  The first session is on the meaning of Lent and the Christian virtues of Faith, Hope and Love.  I came across this Mary Oliver poem.  It took me a few reads to really enter into the deep meaning of it, but I have rarely found a piece of art that captures the heart of what it means to love, like this poem here. It also touches on the faith and hope required to attain 'the dream' (of loving everything), as she describes.  This is the love that Jesus embodies in his ministry to the poor and oppressed and the marginalized.  And Lent is a perfect time, for us, to refocus on cultivating this way of being and living, overcoming fear with faith and despair with hope; and maybe, just maybe, we can move closer and closer to Mary Oliver's and Jesus' dream, to be able to love...everything.

 

The Chance to Love Everything

All summer I made friends
with the creatures nearby ---
they flowed through the fields
and under the tent walls,
or padded through the door,
grinning through their many teeth, 
looking for seeds,
suet, sugar; muttering and humming,
opening the breadbox, happiest when
there was milk and music. But once
in the night I heard a sound
outside the door, the canvas
bulged slightly ---something
was pressing inward at eye level.
I watched, trembling, sure I had heard
the click of claws, the smack of lips
outside my gauzy house ---
I imagined the red eyes,
the broad tongue, the enormous lap.
Would it be friendly too?
Fear defeated me. And yet,
not in faith and not in madness
but with the courage I thought
my dream deserved,
I stepped outside. It was gone.
Then I whirled at the sound of some
shambling tonnage.
Did I see a black haunch slipping
back through the trees? Did I see
the moonlight shining on it?
Did I actually reach out my arms
toward it, toward paradise falling, like
the fading of the dearest, wildest hope ---
the dark heart of the story that is all
the reason for its telling?

- Mary Oliver

Posted via email from Chaplain Jake Hofmeister

TCU Muslim Student Assoc Interfaith Panel and the Theophany

I'm preparing to speak at the MSA Interfaith Panel, one of the events celebrating Islam Awareness Month here on campus. While I was thinking about what to speak about for my ten minute introduction, I kept coming back to the Theophany or appearance of God during the baptism of Jesus by John the Baptist.  It is one of two times where the Trinity manifests simultaneously in scripture. I figured what better way to explain Christianity than the Trinity? As depicted in the Greek Orthodox Theophany icon, Jesus is baptized as the Holy Spirit descends from heaven as a dove and God speaks words of approval of God's Son.  In the book of Mark, the spirit then leads him into the wilderness for 40 days and nights.  A perfect segue into the upcoming season of Lent. And hopefully a perfect introduction to the Christian faith for non-Christians.  I'm grateful to be given the opportunity to speak tonight, and I look forward to the meaningful time of interfaith dialogue together.

Posted via email from Chaplain Jake Hofmeister