What is Education?

In The Abolition of Man, C. S. Lewis maintains that we should be very careful about the education of children, because if we fail to educate their hearts as well as their minds, we risk raising what he calls "men without chests." 

In his analogy, "man" is head, heart (chest), belly (the animal nature, the instincts).  To be all head, without aknowledging the animal part of us, is to be cold, unfeeling, rational, all "philosophical" and abstract.  To be all "belly" is to be but an animal, serving our most basic and base instincts, without regard to the needs and rights of other people.  The "heart" (chest) of man is the part of us that balances the head and the belly so that we are truly human/ man.

To fail to be fully human is to be on our way to extermination as a race.  Men without "chests" are those like Hitler who want to design a master race, and so must eliminate those who do not fit into his vision of uberman.  Men whose god is their belly/ animal comfort/ convenience have no feeling or regard for those they trample in the dust as they grab the best for themselves:  men abuse women for their sense of power or lust; greed and corruption fill the coffers of the those in power; and the rich ignore the hungry at their doorstep.

Proverbs 4:23 says: Above all else, guard your heart, for out of it flow all the issues of life.

Educating the heart of man means balancing science with sensitivity, history with reflection on its meaning, and mathematics with appreciation of the beauty of the universe.  Technology without the limits of the Tao (the universal Law) becomes "technocracy" -- the rule of those in power over those without.  In reflecting on "Our English Syllabus," Lewis said this:

Human life means to me the life of beings for whom the leisure activities of thought, art, literature, conversation are the end, and the preservation and propagation of life merely the means.  That is why education seems to me so important: it actualizes that potentiality for leisure, if you like for amateurishness, which is man's prerogative.  You have noticed, I hope, that man is the only amateur animal; all the others are professionals....The lion cannot stop hunting, nor the beaver making dams, nor the bee making honey.  When God made the beasts dumb, He saved the world from infinite boredom, for if they could speak, they would all of them, all day, talk nothing but shop.

We have already cut recess from many of our schools, along with art, music, and religion.  We are well on our way to developing men without chests---the abolition of man.

His Commands are Light and Truth

...carry one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the whole law of Christ (Gal. 6:2).

Whoever loves his brother remains in the light, and there is nothing in him to cause a fall

(I Jn. 2:10).

My command is this: love one another as I have loved you (Jn. 15:12).

Remain in me, and I will remain in you (Jn. 15:4).

Today I must quote at length from Madeleine Delbrel's book We, the Ordinary People of the Streets:

The Gospel's secret does not open itself to curiosity; it is not an intellectual initiation. 

 Rather, the Gospel's secret is essentially a life-giving mystery.

The light of the Gospel does not remain an extrinsic illumination--

rather, it is a fire that demands entry into us so that it may ravage and transform us.

The Gospel is not for minds seeking ideas, but for disciples who wish to obey.

It is not given to us to meet the Gospel's simple and ruthless commands with a "perhaps" or an "almost." No, the only alternatives are the "yes, yes" that opens us to life, or the "no, no" that locks us in death.

We should not thus be surprised at the sad, interminable journeys, the deep upheaveals that each of these words initiates within us.  We should not try to hold back this sort of free-fall of the word into our depths.  We need the passive courage that allows it to act within us---Let it be done to me according to your Word. [end of quote]

Here's the issue:  In each one of us there is a limit to our ability to carry out the command of Jesus.  We perhaps can love those who love us, or those who make it easy to love them---but what about those who oppose us, who hate us, or who just rub us the wrong way on a daily basis.  What does it mean to love them as Christ has loved us?  Jesus Himself gave us the answer when He pointed us to the Father, who lets his rain fall on the just and the unjust, who does not withhold good things from those who hate Him.

Our feelings have nothing to do with how we act toward those who hate and dismiss us.  The reason I included the last Scripture from John is that our goal is to remain in Jesus and to allow Him to remain in us in our encounters with all others.  We need to stand back, as it were, and to watch Jesus in us encounter our "enemies," or those with whom we have no natural sympathy---Jesus, who came to the end of His own natural inclinations during the 40 days He spent in the desert; Jesus, who allowed Himself to be abused by man and who prayed for them to the Father because they knew not what they did to Him or to themselves.

Last week, I quoted Paul in Galatians saying that those who are in Christ Jesus have crucified their own evil passions and desires.  Knowing the rest of Paul's theology, I know that he would have meant not that we have in ourselves had the strength to "crucify" ourselves, but that we would have allowed Jesus to crucify the natural man in us who constantly wars against the Spirit of God:  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me to the glory of God.

We cannot really "love one another as Christ has loved us."  All we can do is to allow Him in us to love our enemies and to do good to those who persecute us.  And He will, and He does!  We just need to ask Him to do what we cannot do for ourselves, and we must be willing to allow Him to do it.  I had a friend who used to say, "I am willing to be made willing," because she recognized at times that she was not willing at the moment to allow Christ to live in a certain situation---she knew there was still work in her own soul to be done to get to that point.

His commands are Light and Truth, but we still walk in the dark until He lives entirely in us!

Gift of the Holy Spirit

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. ...Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us be directed by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other...Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ (Gal. 5:22-6:2).

I think the greatest testimony of the reality of Jesus Christ is His effect in the lives of those who surrender to Him--love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,.....etc.  If you say that you do not see those effects in life-long Christians, it may be that church-going and surrender to Jesus Christ are not the same thing.  I can only look at my own life and the lives of those I saw changing right before my eyes. 

During the Charismatic movement of the 70's, I saw lives and hearts change.  Whenever I asked myself and others close to me, "Is this all true?" I would see real change taking place in myself and in the others around me, and I had to admit that something "true" was happening.  Of course, the work of the Spirit may be a dramatic moment at first, but the changes are continuing and gradual over a lifetime---and they do not gradually 'go away,'  as I feared they would at first.

I experienced my first 'baptism in the Spirit' in the hospital early in the morning of June 15, 1977, as I awaited surgery.  I entered the hospital full of fear and anxiety not only about the surgery, but about almost everything in my life---including whether we would all starve to death, as Edgar Cayce was predicting a few years earlier.  That morning, a young girl, my roommate, prayed for me to receive the Holy Spirit as she herself had received Him the year before.  As she prayed over me, liquid love poured throughout my body from the top of my head to the soles of my feet.  I had experienced moments of peace before, but this was something else----I was embraced with a kind of love that drove out all fear and anxiety; I was warmed from within; I knew true joy without reservation.

The anesthesiologists arrived shortly afterwards to tell me they had reviewed my records and had decided to try for the first time to do a spinal for this surgery instead of a general anesthesia, one of my many concerns about surgery.  During the surgery, I was warm, despite the chilled operating room; I remained in peaceful prayer for someone I did not know but had heard about--someone who had cancer--and I was able to discuss options with my doctor.  After the surgery, because I had not had a general, I was able to walk around without pain, nausea, and confusion---but more importantly, I had a deep love for people in the hospital with me, and I wanted to tell them about the love of God for them.

Now it is really important to understand that just the day before, I was so wrapped up in my own issues that I was not really aware of anyone else or their pain---and certainly, I had no desire to tell anyone that God loved them.  That kind of behavior was typical in my mind of religious nuts; my religion was private, between me and God---and that's just the way I thought it should be for everyone.  Now I found myself wandering into other patients' rooms and talking to them gently, loving them, and telling them that God was with them.  Who was this person?  What had happened to change me so dramatically in the space of 24 hours? 

I reached for the Gideon Bible in the nightstand, and for some unknown reason, began reading the Acts of the Apostles----it was not a conscious, reasoned, choice---the Book opened, and I began reading at that spot.  Suddenly, I knew what had happened to me!  Pentecost!  The same thing that had happened to the Apostles!  I had received the promised "Gift of the Father!"  Wow!   What?!   What did I have to do now to keep this going?  Did anyone know?  What?    

I went home to recuperate, stayed in bed for six weeks and read the Bible from cover to cover---twice--something that would never have been possible before this.  I could at best read only a few lines without getting bored and wanting to read a novel instead.  During that time, my worries and anxieties receded into the background, as the Word of God began to take possession of me.  Wow!   How could this possibly be happening?!

The Holy Spirit, like the Word of God, is living and active today (Heb. 4:12) and intended for those "far off," as Peter said on the Day of Pentecost.  Us!  I don't know why I was chosen to receive so great and wonderful a gift; I can only hope to convince others that the Gift is for them also, now, today--and that what happened to the Apostles can still happen to us.

I'll be away until Dec. 29, but will continue then, God willing.

Revelation

"Gayle, you cannot give yourself peace."

Until Sr. Geautreaux spoke those words to me at The Cenacle, a retreat house in Metairie, in 1977, I had not realized that peace is exactly what I had been searching for.  All my life, I had sought God; I had attended Mass faithfully, and had often experienced peace both at Mass and during other times of quiet prayer.  By 1977, however, with three small children, there was no time for prayer during the day or night, and Mass was not exactly a time for reflection either, as I often had to retrieve a child from under a pew or quiet a crying infant. 

I had begun to search in other places for peace:  in yoga, in reading Unitarian literature, in fellowship groups, etc.  Again, all avenues "worked" for that moment that I could remain in them.  But in my daily life, I felt like a failure as I constantly faced things I either couldn't or didn't accomplish.  Beds were unmade, meals were uncooked, diapers were waiting to be washed, and I always felt that I was failing at being a good mother. 

When I finally collapsed emotionally, my husband took the children for three days and sent me off to the Cenacle for R&R.  There, I met Sr. Geautreaux, one of the counselors, who listened to me and then told me that I could not give myself peace.  That was a moment of great grace and revelation for me!  It seems obvious, but it wasn't to me at the time.  I realized that if I were to have peace, it would have to be received, not manufactured, and I started to look up, rather than within, to find it. 

I left the Cenacle with hope, for the first time in my life, not thinking that "I" had to solve my own problems, but believing/knowing that I could receive whatever I needed from above.  Within that same year, I received the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and began to experience the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, the Jesus promised to His disciples at the Last Supper.  I began to receive the direction I needed for each day and the "peace that passes all understanding," the knowing that things were okay, even if I still seemed to not be very effective in my role as mother and wife. 

Jesus said, Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you.  I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid (Jn. 14:27).

We might find moments of peace "as the world gives," moments carved out of prayer or quiet listening, or vacation---but the peace given to us by Jesus surpasses all times and conditions, even when things are not going 'well' for us.  It is the day-to-day fruit of His Spirit dwelling in us, as the Comforter, telling us in the words of Julian of Norwich: You shall see for yourselves that all things will be well, and all manner of things will be well.  This is the peace announced to the shepherds of Bethlehem:  Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth among men of good will.  There is no other true peace but that which comes to us through the person of Jesus.

Lord, Liar, or Lunatic?

"The Father and I are one."

Again the Jews picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, " I have shown you many great mircales from the Father.  For which of these do you stone me?"

"We are not stoning you for any of these," replied the Jews, "but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God" (Jn. 10:30-33).

The Jews of his day heard and realized Christ's claim to be God.  It is harder for us to hear and recognize what He was saying.  But C.S. Lewis makes us hear the message of Jesus in his classic radio message, Lord, Liar, or Lunatic?

If Jesus was so clear as to shock his listeners about who He is, what are we to make of this?  According to Flannery O'Conner, "If Jesus was not divine, then the crucifixion was justified."  (She is nothing if not straightforward!) 

Lewis says that either Jesus was speaking the truth, or He was deluded in the worst way, or He was lying, and He knew He was lying, in which case we should believe nothing He said.

Why is it so important that God became flesh and dwells among us---not dwelt, but dwells?  It is because that even though every ancient and major religion and great teacher re-presents to us the great universal law handed down to men of good will, none of us is capable of keeping the Tao, (a Buddhist word for what the Jews called "Divine Instruction, or Law").  It is not that we are ignorant of the "Law," however it is called or framed by great teachers and religions; we know the law, but we are all "sinners," that is, incapable of embodying the Law in our own flesh.  We are led astray by weakness, or pride, or confusion, or lust, or fear, or the damage done to us by others, or ......  

In Chapter 7 of Romans, Paul says, "I do not understand myself at all....even though in my mind I know and agree with the Law of God, there is something in my flesh that is stronger than I am.  The very thing I say I will not do, I end up doing, and the thing I say I will do, I do not do....so I discover in my flesh another law---the law of sin and death....unhappy man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?"

In Chapter 8, Paul rejoices that the Spirit of God has replaced the "law of sin and death at work in [his] flesh" with a "new law:" the law of the Spirit of life.....the mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8: 6).

As a priest once told me in confession:  what we do for God is interesting, but what God does for us---that's the whole story!  That sort of puts everything in perspective for me.  What God did once in history in the womb of the virgin, He continues to do now on a daily basis:  He sends His Spirit to incarnate in our own flesh His very Son, His image, His breath, His truth to dwell among us, if we can but receive the Word made flesh in us.

The captives are set free

When I was living in Metairie, I was vaguely aware that one of my neighbors down the street raised small dogs, mostly in his garage.  I rarely saw the people and saw the garage open only once---when I saw empty cages stacked on top of one another, maybe about 20 altogether.  One day, one of the little dogs escaped and came down the street toward my house.  But he could not walk in a straight line; he moved down the street only by continually walking in small circles, as though he were still in a small cage.  Only gradually was he able to actually move "forward" in my direction.

These dogs evidentally were allowed out of their cages only once a day, when they were fed.  The rest of the time, if they moved at all, they had to circle their cages.  My heart broke when I realized what had been going on just down the street from me, and I wondered if I should call the Humane Society.  I didn't, but to this day regret that I did not.  I didn't want to cause problems for my neighbors---a very short-sighted approach, I now think.

The memory of that little dog walking in circles to me is now a graphic picture of what trauma does to us as children, or maybe even as adults.  It cripples our freedom to grow and develop as we continually circle back to the traumatic events even while trying to walk forward in our lives.  The little dog's brain had patterned itself to walking in a cage to the extent that even out of his cage, "walking" still meant walking in circles.  In the same way, circus elephants are trained to remain "chained" to a stake in the ground so that even after the chains are removed, the elephants believe they are still tethered to the stake and will not move away on their own.

Jesus said that if someone were to give scandal to a little one, it would be better for that person to have a millstone tied around his neck and be thrown into the sea.  I am beginning to see why---damaging a little one is permanent "brain damage;" something our society has only recently begun to understand and react to.  No amount of punishment for the offender will undo the damage he/she has caused to a child.

To some extent, all of us have been damaged and to some extent, all of us "walk in circles," trying to move forward past trauma.  The "release of captives" that Jesus proclaimed as part of His ministry had less to do with those in prison than with those of us permanently damaged and "captive" to sin, whether the sin of others or of ourselves.  He is able to set free those who walk in darkness not by proclaiming or teaching the Great Tao/ the Universal Law, but by entering into those held captive and changing them from within.  That is the great message of the Resurrection--that our "old man" has died, been buried, and that we have been "born again" as new creatures in Christ Jesus.  It is His energy that works so powerfully in us as we continue to yield to Him and allow Him to work out our salvation in us.

"Behold, says the Lord God of hosts, "I am doing a new thing; do you not perceive it?" (Is. 43:19)

What does it mean to "be saved," except that we, by the power of Jesus' great energy in us, are continually set free from the damages of our and other's sin?  In the Book of Genesis, Joseph tells the brothers who threw him down a well and sold him into slavery:  What you intended for my harm, God turned to my good.

Only God is able to save us in this way; we are no more able to save ourselves than the little dog was able himself to undo the damage done to his brain.  God told Jonah that the Ninevah was a city of "more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who [could] not tell their right hand from their left," and that He was concerned about them.  I think that description might apply not only to the inhabitants of Ninevah, some of the most cruel people on earth, but to the whole world. 

No wonder salvation is such good news!

The Voice

John the Baptist was a voice crying in the desert: Make straight the paths of the Lord, for He comes!  That would be a sobering message, if we thought it true in our own lives.  Was John seen in his own day as a crazed maniac, or as a herald of the coming Messiah? 

What if someone today told us that Jesus is coming back to this earth?  I think I know what the reaction might be.  None of us wants to be known as the disciple of a nutcase---but John's message is this:  One is coming after me, whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. 

He must increase; I must decrease.

If we listen to the message, we will know for sure who John is; he is not pointing to himself, as a Jim Jones, for example.  He is not saying, "Follow me; do what I tell you."  He is saying instead, "look for one coming after me.  Prepare your heart to receive the Lord."

John defined himself as "a voice crying in the wilderness."  He never claimed to have the word of truth, but only asked those who listened to him to cleanse their spirits to receive the Word coming after him.  The fullness of truth was about to come, but John himself was not the Word---his role was to herald, or to point to the Word, which every man/woman had to receive in and for themselves.

But how shall we receive the Word of Truth coming from God Himself if we are not looking for, expecting, awaiting it?  If we believe the world continues today as it did for thousands of years, and that nothing is different, we care nothing about turning our hearts, listening, waiting for, the Word of God to arrive in our own lives.

I think John's message is as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago----prepare ye the way of the Lord, for He comes.  If we think of our lives as a time of preparing to receive the Gift of God that He is about to send us---maybe today--it's easier to get rid of the junk.

This Christmas season, I see so much less emphasis on gifts and more on the people in our lives.  Maybe the Lord is about to arrive after all!

With God in a P.O.W. Camp

This excerpt from the book named above, by Lt. Commander Ralph Gaither, appeared recently in our paper.  I wanted to pass it on because I cannot get it out of my mind.  Let us all remember those behind bars for any reason:

I wanted a Christmas tree (in my prison cell).
...That Christmas tree came to mean to me just the opposite of all I was experiencing.  The green of it envisioned freedom, and light, and family, and America.  And the season the tree represents spoke of God.

I dreamed of a Christmas tree, and the melancholy knowledge that I should be at home settled over me in a pall.  I prayed.

Then one afternoon after washing my dishes, I turned to take the one step back into my cell.  I looked down and on the threshold of my door was a tiny leaf blown by the wind.  I picked it up with my toes and carried it inside...I carefully took the leaf from between my toes and looked at it for a long time.  I held it to my nose.  The perfume of freedom raced up my nostrils and infused my mind with its power.  I fondled the leaf.  It was real.  I held it in my hand.

God had not forgotten me.  I set the leaf on the little ledge by the window.  Its greeness stood out in stark contrast to the dull, gray bars.

Tears rolled down my cheeks.  God had given me a Christmas tree.

Thy Kingdom Come....

Where?  How about here?  and here? and here----
that is, wherever we are right now, right here:

in my body,
in my mind,
in my spirit,
in my house,
in my friends,
in my relationships,
in my work,
in my prayer
in my hopes and dreams
in the words I speak
in what I do today....

Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done.

Mary and Martha; Peter and John

Reading the story of the sisters Mary and Martha in the Gospels usually promotes an almost instinctive reaction, at least among the women I know---the reaction that Mary, indeed, "should have been" helping Martha get dinner on the table.

The problem with our human instinct/ reaction to this story is that it is just wrong, and when multiplied over and over throughout the ages, keeps causing the same kinds of angst that Martha voiced to Jesus:  tell her to help me!

There is a classic book on the spiritual life called Abandonment to Divine Providence, written by Jean Pierre de Caussade in the 18th century.  I was reminded of it recently by reading about Flannery O'Conner, who seemed to live out in her life the message of de Caussade.  She did not really want to return home to live with her mother on a pig farm in Milledgeville, Georgia, the backwoods/redneck area of the country, but her lupus eventually gave her no choice, and she accepted her physical and geographical conditions with humor and grace.  She gave herself entirely to her writing, editing and re-editing in order to present to God her very best, then leaving it up to Him what He chose to do with it.  She once said, "I write because I do it well," accepting from God the gift He gave her and accepting the fact that the gift was hers to hone as well as she could.

Knowing that O'Conner had read de Caussade drove me to return to this book I had read about 40 years ago; I remembered loving it at the time.  On beginning to re-read, I find myself once again loving its simple and almost "homely" approach to the spiritual life as abandoning oneself to the conditions of life just as it presents itself moment by moment. 

I now realize that both Mary and Martha were doing in the moment what they had been inspired to do by the Presence of Jesus.  "He must be hungry," thought Martha; "I can do something about that---and I can do it well!"  She must have thought with pleasure about how satisfying it would be to feed Jesus and whoever was trailing along in His company.  Her talent and inspiration moved her into the kitchen.

Mary, on the other hand, who had no talent or inspiration in the kitchen, probably welcomed the chance to become for the moment a listener, sitting at the feet of one she loved beyond all measure to soak up some wisdom and inspiration. 

Martha's frustration came in the midst of the preparations, when she forgot her original inspiration and became burdened by Mary's seeming inactivity.  She took her eyes off her own motivation and began to grumble that Mary was not motivated to be in the kitchen with her.

We all tend to make judgments about what other people are doing---we all think that others should be doing what we think is important at the moment.  But de Caussade reminds us that the most important thing to do is only what God has given us in the circumstances of our lives.  We cannot look at or control what others are doing; we can only joyfully attend to God's plan for us in this moment.  Even in our own lives, we cannot wish to be doing something else right now, other than what we should be doing. 

I always resented the time I had to spend in the kitchen as less important than my other, more creative, and therefore for me, more enjoyable, pursuits---reading, thinking, gardening, painting, etc.  Slowly, gradually, I am learning that if it is time to put a meal on the table and if I am the only one in the house to do it, that that is the most important thing for me to do at that moment.  I cannot grumble about it; in submitting to "the will of God," I will (and am) find(ing) joy in the moment.

In My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers says this:  We have to keep letting go, and slowly and surely the great full life of God will invade us in every part, and men will take knowledge of us that we have been with Jesus.  I think that at the end of the day, if Martha had been able to "let go" of what her sister was doing, the glow on both of their faces might have told "men" that both of the women had "been with Jesus" that day.

After the Resurrection, Jesus appeared to the disciples on the shore of Galilee and revealed to Peter at that time the kind of death he was to undergo for the sake of his Lord.  Immediately, Peter looked over at John and said, "but what about him, Lord?"  Jesus' answer to Peter was, "If I want [John] to stay here until I come back, what business is that of yours?"  In his Gospel, John is quick to point out that Jesus did not say that John would remain here until the Lord returns, but only if I want him to remain here....

In other words, what other people are doing is not our concern if only we ourselves are doing what we are "told" to do by the will of God in our lives and in our inspirations.  Mary said to the servants at Cana:  Do whatever He tells you.  And what He told them to do was not what He was later to tell His disciples to do---go into the whole world, baptizing.....and teaching....

deCaussade points out that Jesus, Mary, and Joseph all had objectively different roles to fulfill, and that each one "achieved sanctity" by perfectly fulfilling the role he/she had been given by the providence of God.  That's probably worth thinking about.

Flannery O'Conner: The Realist

I have recently re-discovered Flannery O'Conner, the Southern novelist who died in 1964, just as Vatican II was making its way into the modern world.  As a long time fan of her novels, I have just begun reading her letters, edited by Sally Fitzgerald, in A Habit of Being.

O'Conner makes me laugh out loud, think deeply, and groan at the truth of her insight into our culture, particularly the culture of the South, in which she was so deeply immersed and which she portrays so well in her short stories and novels.

In O'Conner, the deepest truth is enfleshed in the coarsest realities of life; the heroes are often the villians and the crazies.  The "normal" people are those most in need of salvation.  She turns the world upside down, with a purpose.  I think she is a modern saint, although she would (and did) bristle at the very idea.

Here is a sample of her letters, as delicious as any novel I've read:

I was once, five or six years ago, taken by some friends to have dinner with Mary McCarthy and her husband....She departed the Church at the age of 15 and is a Big Intellectual.  We went at eight and at one, I hadn't opened my mouth once there being nothing for me in such company to say.  The people who took me were Robert Lowell and his now wife....Having me there was like having a dog present who had been trained to say a few words but overcome with inadequacy had forgotten them.  Well, toward morning the conversaton turned on the Eucharist, which I, being the Catholic, was obviously supposed to defend.  Mrs. Broadwater said when she was a child and received the Host, she thought of it as the Holy Ghost, He being the "most portable" person of the Trinity; now she thought of it as a symbol and implied that it was a pretty good one.  I then said, in a very shaky voice, "Well, if it's a symbol, to hell with it."  That was all the defense I was capable of but I realize now that this is all I will ever be able to say about it, outside of a story, except that it is the center of existence for me; all the rest of life is expendable.

You see what I mean.

Wisdom Sets Her Table

The Spirit of Wisdom, in the Book of Proverbs portrayed as the Feminine Face of the Divine Presence, is subtle, gracious, welcoming, warm, and true.

She "delights in mankind," builds a house, prepares her meat and mixes her wine, sends out her maids and calls from the "highest point of the city:"

Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed...

For through me your days will be many,

and years added to your life.

Folly is also portrayed as a woman who sits at the door of her house and cries out: Let all who are simple come in here! she says to those who lack judgment.  Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!  But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of the grave.

In the parable of the Wedding Banquet, Jesus portrays the king as setting the table and preparing a feast and sending out his servants to "those who had been invited," but they refused to come.  So he sends his servants to the street corners to invite "anyone you find,...both good and bad."  The only requirement for those who attend is that they allow themselves to be clothed with the "wedding garments" provided by the king himself.  Those who attend in their own clothes are thrown out into the darkness.

"But these are good clothes," I can just hear the thrown-out ones saying; "I got them from L.L.Bean/ Macy's/Goldman Sacs,"  little realizing how many of the dead have been buried in similar garments.

The Book of Sirach (found only in Catholic Bibles) is a study in the kind of food provided by Wisdom; if it is true that we are what we eat, then what we have eaten all our lives will become incarnate---made flesh in our bodies.  I love that the Book of Genesis portrays sin as "eating" from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil----that is, taking into our flesh, making incarnate in our own bodies---the fruit of experience. 

Wisdom, on the other hand, is a "tree of life to those who find her."  In cultivating her, you labor but little, and soon you will eat of her fruits (Sirach 6:20).  And those who eat of her fruits will wear "gladness and a festive crown;" they will be clothed from on high with "knowledge and full understanding."  For the Lord ... has poured her forth upon all his works, upon every living thing according to his bound; he has lavished her upon his friends (Sirach 1:8-9).

St. Seraphim said that everything we do in the spiritual life, whether prayer, fasting, good works, etc---all have the same aim and only that---to be clothed from above with the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Wisdom and Truth.  That sort of cuts through all recommended religious practice to the core of the spiritual life; we will all have different paths to obtaining wisdom, but to be clothed with wisdom, to eat from her table, is at the end to enjoy a feast and to be clothed with joy.

The Good Shepherd II

When Jesus said, I am the Good Shepherd (Jn. 10), the Jews hearing his words knew that he was referring to Ezekiel 34; they had studied the Scriptures since childhood and knew them intimately---Scripture was (and is) to them LIFE itself.  We are not as fortunate, so Jesus' words tend to fall into a vacuum for us; we have no context---even for the image of sheep and shepherd, much less any historical background to hear what Jesus is saying to us today.

If we read Ez. 34, our hearts should break at its truthfulness, even today:

Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel:  This is what the Sovereign [Yahweh] says:

Woe to the shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves!  Should not shepherds take care of the flock?  You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock.  You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured.  You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost.  You have ruled them harshly and brutally.  So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals...They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them....

For this is what the Sovereign [Yahweh] says: 

I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.  As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep.  I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness....I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements of the land.  I will tend them....there they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture...I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign [Yahweh].  I will search for the lost and bring back the strays.  I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak....

If we do not know these words from Ezekiel, it is hard to know the heart of God, the Good Shepherd, who Himself will take on the task of "binding up" and "strengthening" the flock of Israel, His people--and not only of Israel, of course, but of all who belong to Him.

Last week, I met a young woman from Japan aboard a cruise ship.  She was very wise in the ancient healing arts of acupuncture and Oriental medicine/ herbs.  I sought out her wisdom about balance in my own body, since I had experienced cancer and was interested in whatever inbalance might be going on as a result.  In our conversation, she determined circulation problems, which I have known about all my life---but she also seemed to think I might suffer from stress and anxiety as a result.

When I told her that I spent time in prayer and meditation daily, her eyes opened wide.  She was amazed that I am not taking any medicine at all, given my medical history, and she was ready to attribute that to my habit of meditation, as well as to the fact that I spend a great deal of time gardening.  However, she told me that in Japan, there is no God.  "We believe in the spirit," she told me, "but not in God."  She believed that my practice of meditation strengthened the spirit in me, which in turn strengthened the body.

I do not discredit her belief in any way; I have a great deal of respect for Oriental wisdom and discernment, believing that our Western world still has much to learn from the East.  However, after I left her, I began to grieve in my spirit for all those who may never know/ experience the tender care of the Good Shepherd.  I, too, believe in the spirit she was talking about----and of course, the teaching of Buddhism is that we must all care for our "inner man."  But so many people will never get there----I know, because there was a time when I tried with everything in me to nourish the spirit in me:  I tried yoga, meditation, Unitarianism, questioning and listening to yogis, thinking positive thoughts, etc.  I have to say that all these efforts were in vain the moment I left that quiet space and deep breathing practice.  Unlike Buddhist monks and practioners, I did not have the luxury of remaining in nirvana, of shutting out the rest of the world.  I needed to be attentive to a household, a husband, and young children---though God knows I did not do a very good job of that either.  However, God Himself saw my search and sent someone to give me what I was looking for---a young 20-year old girl who was willing to share with me her own search and the answer she found.

It was only when she prayed for me to receive the Holy Spirit, the Spirit flowing from the heart of God through the ministry of His only Son, that I found the joy and peace that I could not give myself, but that only God could give to me.  At last, I began to learn that everything is "received," not "achieved."  He Himself is the Shepherd of the sheep; only He can make us lie down in green pastures. 

Sheep are dumb, even when it comes to finding their own food, and defending themselves against enemies.  In A Shepherd Looks at the 23rd Psalm, the author (now forgotten) applies every line of that psalm to the reality of sheep and shepherding; what a revelation of how much care we need and how little equipped we are to do for ourselves what needs to be done!

My heart breaks for those who do not know the Good Shepherd, not because I think they will not "go to heaven" or "be saved," not because I think they are evil or "lost," but only because I know from experience that everything they do for themselves must come from their own efforts---and I know how hard it is to maintain those efforts.  We are all weak, and in a sense, dumb, when it comes to knowing how to take care of our own spirits.  It is so good to be able to "cast your cares upon the Lord, for He cares for [us]."  It is so good to be able to truly say with Jehoshaphat, ...we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us.  We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you (2 Chronicles 20: 12).

I have heard many times, "God helps those who help themselves," and I grant that saying is practical---we might even say "country"---wisdom.  However, it is not Biblical wisdom.  Biblical wisdom says that God helps those who cannot help themselves, those who seek, those who ask, those who knock---to them, the door is opened.

Blackmail!

Watching Say Yes to the Dress: Bridesmaids last night, a sure way to put me to sleep.  One young bride had 3 bridesmaids, all close friends she really wanted in her wedding.  One of the bridesmaids held her friend and the other 2 bridesmaids hostage to her selfishness.  She did not like long dresses, so no one could wear a long dress.  If she did not like the selection, she made it clear that she would not be in the wedding.  Because of their long friendship, the bride really wanted her friend in the wedding and it was clear that the wedding would not be the same without her friend.

Unfortunately, the selfish girl did not like any dress she tried on.  As the day wore on, she became more and more adamant that she would not be in the wedding:  "I do not like this dress" was her constant refrain.  "I'm doing ____ a favor, and she knows that I won't do it unless I like the dress."

The young bride was beside herself with worry.  Finally, a dress that "looked good" on the selfish girl.  That was the dress that everyone else had to wear, and everyone was happy in the end.  The bride had absolutely no say about color, length, or style---it was all about what the bridesmaid wanted.

C.S. Lewis points out that there are loveless and self-imprisoned people who attempt to blackmail the universe:  until they consent to be happy (on their own terms), no one else will taste joy; theirs is the final power---that hell should veto heaven.

In The Great Divorce, Lewis says that the day will come when joy prevails and the miserable will no longer be able to infect it, when the makers of misery can no longer destroy in others the happiness they reject for themselves.  The weapon used by the selfish against those who have pity on them will eventually be broken.  The weapon of the good will change darkness into light and evil into good in the end--but it will not impose on the good the tyranny of evil.  It will not transform the garden of the world into a pile of stinking refuse for the sake of those who cannot abide the smell of roses.

Clearly, the young bride on Say Yes cherished her friendship above all material concerns, and I salute her for the values she exhibited.  But it was hard to see how long the friendship would endure when the bridesmaid herself did not hold the same values, and seemingly cared nothing at all about the wishes and concerns of the other two bridesmaids.  I think the day will come that the selfish bridesmaid will find herself standing all alone in the dress she has chosen above all else.

Christian or non-Christian?

The one principle of hell is---"I am my own."  (George MacDonald)

In C. S. Lewis' autobiography, Surprised by Joy, he traces his long and very gradual conversion from atheism to belief, at one point commenting, And so the great Angler played His fish, and I never dreamed the hook was in my tongue.

Later, in writing Mere Christianity, he was to say this, based on his own experience:

The world does not consist of 100% Christians and 100% non-Christians.  There are people who are slowly ceasing to be Christians but who still call themselves by that name; some of them are clergymen.  There are other people who are slowly becoming Christians though they do not yet call themselves so.  There are people who do not accept the full Christian doctrine about Christ but who are so strongly attracted by Him that they are His in a much deeper sense than they themselves understand.  There ae people in other religions who are being led by God's secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity, and who thus belong to Christ without knowing it....Many of the good pagans long before Christ's birth may have been in this position.  And always, of course, there are a great many people who are just confused in mind and have a lot of inconsistent beliefs all jumbled up together.  Consequently, it is not much use trying to make judgents about Christians and non-Christians in the mass.

It is some use comparing cats and dogs, or even men and women, in the mass, because there one knows definitely which is which.  Also, an animal does not turn (either slowly or suddenly) from a dog into a cat.  But when we are comparing Christians in general with non-Christians in general, we are usually not thinking about real people whom we know at all, but only about two vague ideas which we have got from novels and newspapers.

Lewis' experience and concept is a good reminder to anchor our ideas in the concrete.  As Flannery O'Connor reminds us, if we fail to grasp the details rightly, the principle will always elude us.

The Service of God

The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Matt. 20:28)

He is the exact image of the invisible God....For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things...(Col. 1:15, 19).

Jesus, the Servant of man, is the Mirror reflecting on earth what is already in heaven---that is, that God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, is the servant of mankind, ministering daily to the sons of men out of His glorious riches in heaven. 

The ancient Babylonian creation myths portrayed the gods creating mankind to act as servants to the gods.  Pagan religions, from the beginning, held that the gods wanted to be fed---with grain, with wine, with the sacrifice of our bodies and of our children.  When visiting the Aztec ruins of Mexico, we discover that blood sacrifice from both priests and priestesses was demanded: a sacrifice of blood from their own bodies, too horrible to contemplate. 

Even in the Old Testament, the God of Israel asked for animal and grain and oil sacrifice---probably as a way to feed the priests and to keep people from manufacturing their own ideas of what He wanted as sacrifice.  Indeed, when they began to sacrifice their own children to Molech, in imitation of their pagan neighbors, He was enraged.

But gradually, through the prophets, Yahweh began to wean His people away from sacrifice and to teach them that He Himself would feed them, instead of the other way around.  Jesus was able to teach His disciples to ask the Father for their daily bread and to deliver us from evil---in other words, to depend on the Father for our daily lives.  Even by the time of David, God had already revealed Himself as Minister and Caretaker---a Good Shepherd to the needs of men.  Psalm after psalm cries out testimony to the One Who Serves man:

But I call to God, and the Lord saves me.

Evening, morning, and noon

I cry out in distress,

and he hears my voice.

He ransoms me unharmed from the battle waged against me....

Cast your cares upon the Lord, and he will sustain you (Ps. 55).

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior,

who daily bears our burdens (Ps. 68).

We all recognize that eating once in awhile is not enough to sustain our lives; we must be fed constantly in order to live.  God's ministry to us is constant and on-going; He bends low to hear our cry and to meet our daily need.  And if He asks us to serve Him, it is that we may imitate Him by serving his "sheep."  Jesus asked Simon Peter to "feed [His] sheep." 

Jesus called Himself The Good Shepherd, One who came to tend the flock that could not tend themselves---sheep have no claws, no sharp teeth, with which to defend themselves.  They are not even able to find food for themselves unless they are led to a tableland.  Without the Shepherd, they are totally defenseless and cannot survive. 

It is easy to think of Jesus this way, because we have learned this image from childhood.  It is harder to realize that He is the exact Image of the invisible God, His Father.  He does exactly what He sees the Father doing.  He said that He came to do the work of God.  By studying who He is, we finally begin to believe in the daily ministry of God to us.







"Something else"

We will never save civilization as long as civilization is our main object.  We must learn to want something else even more.

                                                                                         --C.S.Lewis: Mere Christianity

A few days ago, I wrote about Dag Hammarskjold, Secretary of the United Nations until his death in 1961.  I said that he, as a shy mystic, was an unlikely candidate for politics.  His aim was not to change the world or to reform mankind, but only to live out his life in the integrity of his soul and to answer the summons of his God, no matter where it led.

God can use such a man as this at the highest levels of earth's endeavors.

The ancient poet Rumi said it this way:  The lovers of God have no religion but God alone.  And Oswald Chambers:  There is a difference between devotion to a Person and devotion to principles or to a cause.  Our Lord never proclaimed a cause: He proclaimed personal devotion to Himself.

As long as our hearts are set on pilgrimage, we have no idea where we may be led.  It is when we stop to build permanent dwellings, towers of Babel wherein "we may make a name for ourselves," that we forget what we are about and begin to concentrate on kingdom-building.  The story of Abraham's call follows immediately upon the story of Babel and is meant to be a contrast in every respect to the former story. 

The men of Babel had discovered a new "technology" for making and hardening bricks.  With this new technology, they discovered they could build higher structures:  Come, they said, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and so make a name for ourselves.

Abraham, by contrast, was called out of a great city with even a library (we now know) of ancient wisdom to "a land I will show you."  If he would respond and go to a place he did not know, God promised to make of you a great nation....and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing...and all the communities of the earth shall find a blessing in you (Gen 12:2).

Our aim cannot be to reform the world, but only to "do whatever he tells you."  For God alone is the builder and the destroyer of kingdoms:  unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.  Jesus said, "Without Me, you can do nothing."  And Paul would later say, "I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me."

In trying to convert the Greeks, "the lovers of disputation,"  Paul became discouraged and "resolved to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified."  Paul discovered that the weakness/helplessness of God was greater than the strength of mankind. 

Psalm 37:11 says The meek shall inherit the earth.  Now the definition of "meek" is not "weak;"  it is more like the idea of a thoroughbred race horse with tremendous energy that can be controlled by the jockey; it is directed and submissive energy, not dissipated, but directed toward the goal of a higher intelligence.

Psalm 37 is too long to quote here, but the entire psalm is a beautiful meditation on meekness and trust, on "being still" and "waiting on God."  It could form the prayer of a lifetime reflection if we let its words form our inner being.  If our aim is to change ourselves, and to become meek, God can use us to change the world.

God's Delight

In the end, that Face which is the delight or the terror of the universe must be turned upon each of us either with one expression or the other, either conferring glory inexpressible or inflicting shame that can never be cured or disguised.  I read in a periodical the other day that the fundamental thing is how we think of God.  By God Himself, it is not!  How God thinks of us is not only more important, but infinitely more important.  Indeed, how we think of Him is of no importance except insofar as it is related to how He thinks of us.  It is written that we shall "stand before" Him, shall appear, shall be inspected.  The promise of glory is the promise, almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ, that some of us, that any of us who really chooses, shall actually survive that examination, shall find approval, shall please God.  To please God...to be a real ingredient in the divine happiness...to be loved by God, not merely pitied, but delighted in as an artist delights in his work or a father in a son---it seems impossible, a weight or burden of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain.  But so it is.

--from The Weight of Glory by C.S.Lewis

How is it that we can "delight" God?  When I think of the mother of children, I can see it.  Her face turns daily on the child who delights her heart.  Her delight is not diminished by the exhaustion of getting up all night, nor by the mess that needs to be cleaned up almost hourly.  I see her concern as the children grow and tend to choose unwise paths, leading them almost to destruction at times, and I see  the terrible expression on her face at those who threaten harm to her beloved children.  I see her anger when the children are threatening to destroy themselves---because they are destroying that which she sees as precious, valuable and irreplaceable, that which she loves more than words can tell. 

In Chapter 8 of the Book of Proverbs, Wisdom [i.e., the Sprit of God] speaks out as a Mother and Teacher:

...when He established the heavens I was there,....

when he set for the sea its limit...

Then was I beside him as his craftsman,

and I was his delight day by day,

Playing before him all the while,

playing on the surface of his earth;

and I found delight in the sons of men.

So now, O children, listen to me;

instruction and wisdom, do not reject!

Happy the man who obeys me,

and happy those who keep my ways,

Happy the man watching daily at my gates,

waiting at my doorposts;

For he who finds me finds life,

and wins favor from the Lord;

But he who misses me harms himself;

all who hate me love death.

God has asked only one thing of us---to make time and space for Him in our lives, to listen "at His doorposts," to "watch daily at [Her] (Wisdom's) doorposts" to learn from her, to "win favor from the Lord."  If we do this, we will be instructed by Wisdom and thus delight the Lord.  Those who hate Wisdom and instruction "love death" and those who love death will see the Face of God which is 'the terror of the Universe," in the words of C.S.Lewis. 

It is not the children who fall seven times a day who need fear God, for Scripture says that the 'just' man falls seven times a day, but out of them all, the Lord helps him.  It is rather those who spurn instruction, who cannot or will not learn from their falls that the Lord despises. From the story of the Prodigal Son, we know how the father delighted in the return of his son, never minding what transpired in the meantime, but rejoicing instead to throw a big party and to re-clothe the boy in the garments of ownership.  The son reflected on the state he was in and recognized that he was worse off in rebellion than he had been in obedience.  He learned instruction and wisdom.  He thought his father would be angry with him and make him undergo a time of testing to be received back into favor.  How surprised and humbled he must have been at the father's "delight" at his return, with no questions asked!

What will God think of us in the end?  Which will be the Face of God turned upon us?  I think it will not depend on how many times we fell, but on how willing we were to listen and to learn.  In that way, He will be able to delight in us as an artist delights in his work, or a father his son, because as we sit at His feet, he is able to pour Wisdom into our very souls.



God Meets Our Deepest Needs

Beyond our most basic needs on the physical level, each one of us has three very basic psychological needs---every human being has the need for (1) acceptance, (2) a sense of competence, and (3) confidence.  Once those needs are confirmed, we are ready to assume our role in the universe.  Until we have a deep-down assurance in these three areas, we cannot step forward with any strength to change or to improve our world.  God has sent His Spirit of Truth into the world, into our hearts, to convict us, to convince us, to meet our deepest psychological needs so that we can then become His gift to other people:

  When Jesus entered into His public ministry, He was openly inaugurated by John the Baptist, who proclaimed Him "the Lamb of God," the One John was sent to testify for, "the One Who existed before me."  John said, Now I have seen and testified that He is the Son of God.

At the baptism of Jesus, the heavens opened, the Spirit of God descended, and a Voice from heaven proclaimed, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

Before we ourselves can take up a public ministry, whether it is teaching, the realm of politics, or caring for infants, it is important that we have received within ourselves the approval, the affirmation from God that we ourselves are beloved, that we are His gift to others, that we are "sent" by Him to heal, to teach, to repair, to raise up, to tear down (see the call of Jeremiah, Chapter 1: 4-10).  Jeremiah knew that from his mother's womb, he had been appointed a prophet to the nations.

Once we know that God has accepted us, has appointed us, has sent us for a certain reason, we are not likely to be persuaded by the flattery or deceptions of men.  We know what we have to do; it is the Spirit in us that drives us forth.  We do not need or crave the approval of men; whether they criticize us or whether they flatter us, it makes little difference to our course of action.  I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing is our deepest feeling.  We know we could probably be earning more money, or pursuing fame, or whatever, but none of that appeals to us when we know we are on the appointed course for our lives.  We may not have put it in so many words, but we know deep down that God is pleased; we are about our Father's business. 

Such a man was Dag Hammarskjold, Secreatry-General to the United Nations from his election in 1953 to the time of his death in 1961.  An unlikely candidate to be in the public eye, H. was shy, retiring, and deeply spiritual.  His journal, published posthumously, revealed his deep commitment to God who summoned him to public ministry, and the integrity of his soul.  Knowing that he was beloved by God, and sent by God, he responded with every fiber of his being to the task he was given---to bring peace among nations.  He knew he would die fulfilling his mission, but he abandoned himself to the God who loved him beyond all measure.

This man was a saint, though not a canonized one.  His life shows the power of one who has accepted God's acceptance of his life, and who moves forward knowing that he is competent because God has made him so.  His confidence was in the power of God who sent him to the nations.  He knew that he would be given everything necessary to accomplish the task he had been given.

Without this sense that we are the Beloved, the Sent, the Prophet---in our own small ways, we are likely to be blown about by every wind of deceit and foolishness, swayed by the arguments and persuasions of man, open to bribes and flattery, and in the end, completly ineffective in our mission.  We may have confidence in our own abilities, but our confidence will be shattered and undermined by the betrayal of other men.  If God Himself is not our confidence, we cannot stand.

Water and Spirit

In teaching a Confirmation class, I often ask the students to describe themselves in terms of water---what kind of water would they be?  I get wonderful answers from them:  ocean, open sea, river with rocks, quiet stream, estuary with baby fish, different forms of rain---and one student described himself as "a light coming through the mist."

The reason I ask them to do this is to try moving beyond physical appearance, beyond intellectual gifts and strengths, into the realm of spirit.  As a painter, I know when painting water that it must reflect what is immediately above it.  In open waters, we see the condition of the sky above, clear or overcast.  In more secluded bodies of water, we see trees or the color of birds reflected.  In that respect, water is a wonderful analogy for the spirit God has placed in us.

No one has ever described him/herself to me in terms of stagnation, dirty pond scum that reflects nothing above, but only contamination below.  Like ponds with no outlet, however, people that live only for and to themselves tend to grow stagnant, without life.  Eventually, very little can live in stagnant, non-moving water, and the water can no longer reflect what is above and around it; it is closed in on itself.

If we open ourselves to gaze at the visible world with love and attention, it has much to teach us about the invisible and spiritual world.  Psalm 19 says it directly:

The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they display knowledge.

There is no speech or langauge

where their voice is not heard.

Their voice goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.

Again, St. Ignatius of Loyola, echoes the thought of Psalm 19 and carries it one step further:

Consider that God, your benefactor, is present in all creatures and in yourself.

If you look at every step of the visible creation, in all you will meet God.

God is in you; and, collecting all these degrees of being scattered through the rest of creation,

God unites them in you.

There is a reason that mankind is called "Homo sapiens---wise creature, or wise man."   Alone among all the creatures, mankind has the ability to gaze with love on the created world, to appreciate its lessons and beauty, and to see meaning in it.  God unites all of creation in the soul of man; He uses creation, if we care to observe, to teach wisdom to man.  If we want to understand the spiritual world that we cannot see, we must learn to look deeply into the visible world before us.  If we want to assume our role as co-creators with God, we must become contemplative beings.

The more we "look with love," the more we see, and the more we are able to see.  Out of our awareness and understanding emerges the ability to see even more, and to make wise choices for ourselves and our world.  God can use each one of us as a "base of operation" to bless the entire world---but first, the deep waters within us must begin to as clearly as possible reflect the world above us.

The Promise of a Reward

While I do not believe in bribing children to do the right thing, I do believe in rewarding them for behaviors we want to become habit.  Giving children something they desire in exchange for good grades probably does not really influence moment-by-moment behaviors too much, but it serves to recognize that they have made consistent effort that "pays off" in the end.  And eventually, the reward of studying for its own sake replaces the dangling carrot that may have begun the process.

It has been said that Virtue is its own reward, but few of us are astute enough to understand that truth before we acquire virtue, just as children cannot see at first the inherent rewards of good behavior and good manners.  Something must motivate us to turn from the easy path that leads to destruction and to enter onto the more difficult way of 'perfection.'  Usually, it is only when we begin to experience the pain caused by our own selfish or foolish choices that we finally determine to change the way we are doing things.

For some people, the promise of an eternal reward---or the threat of eternal suffering---may be enough to motivate good behavior, but for most of us, "pie in the sky" is a bit too remote to restrain us from the immediate gratification that's right in front of us now.  When Jesus came to "call sinners" and heal the sick, He came first to the down-trodden and the suffering.  The "reward" He offered was immediate:  He offered a 'way out' of their current mess.  He did not say, Be good, and you will be rewarded in heaven, although He did promise that for those who followed Him, their reward would be very great.

In the Book of Genesis, God tells Abraham:  Do not be afraid, Abram; I am your shield, your very great reward (Gen. 15:1).  Would that God be able to say to each one of us, I am your very great reward, and that we would grasp the truth of His words to us!  But we are still children in the spiritual life; somehow, the idea of God Himself being our reward does not appeal so much.  We are still clinging to the dangling carrots of this life.  We still need a way out of our current suffering; we need healing from our immediate pain; we need a promise of something-better-than-this ____ [fill in the blank].  Someone once said that God comes to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.

To those who are hurting, God shows compassion and healing.  To the disciples, God shows "what they must suffer" for Him (Acts 9:16).  Oswald Chambers put it this way:  The disciple is one in whom self-interest and pride and self-sufficiency have been completely erased.  The disciple is someone who has learned gradually that God Himself is the great reward, someone who does not care about the 'golden streets of heaven' as much as he cares about entering into the 'joy of his master,' a reward that begins even now, in this life.

Receiving Truth

You, Lord, are near to all who call upon you,

to all who call upon you in truth (Ps. 145:18).

The time is coming, and is now here, when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem...but true worshippers will worship the Father in Spirit and in truth;

and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. 

God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and in truth (Jn. 4:21-24).

for John baptized with water, but in a few days, you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5).

"It will come to pass in the last days," God says, " that I will pour out a portion of my spirit upon all flesh...and it shall be that everyone shall be saved who calls on the name of the Lord" (Acts. 2: 17-21).

Anyone who calls on the name of the Lord in truth will receive the Spirit of truth and of revelation. 

From the beginning of time, it was said that "men began to invoke the Lord [in Hebrew, Yahweh] by name" (Gen. 4:26).  Later, in the Book of Exodus, we find that God revealed His Name to Moses, and Moses passed on the Name of the Lord to the Israelites, in a formal and permanent way.  That event evidently does not preclude the fact that generations before Moses also knew the Name of the Lord and were able to call upon Him, but now the nation as a whole knows and calls upon the Name Yahweh.

When Job's friends accused him of blasheming God for his cries, he answered them: How can that be when I feel the Spirit of God in my nostrils? (Job 27:3).  Job may not have understood the theology of what was happening to him, but he did know and recognize the Spirit of the Lord in his life, and he knew in his heart that God had not abandoned him.

Here is my point>  those who hunger and thirst for righteousness and holiness will receive the Spirit of truth; God still breathes His Spirit and His truth into the nostrils of those who seek Him.  When we are not attentive to God, we will not recognize the truth, but those who seek him, whether Christian or pagan, will receive revelation.  We know that those who heard the Apostles' testimony on the day of Pentecost were from all nations and tongues, all customs and practices---but they were "cut to the heart" and asked what they needed to do, and they all received the same answer:  Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will receive the promised Holy Spirit.  In other words, revelation came to those who sought the truth.

In the same way, the Roman Centurian Cornelius, not a member of the Jewish community, but a true seeker of God, received a vision from God telling him to send for Peter---and through Peter, whom God was preparing to go to Joppa, Cornelius would receive the revelation of truth about Jesus Christ. 

If we truly seek God, we will never be disappointed.  We will receive that which we seek.  People sometimes bristle at the Scriptures which say there is no other name by which men will be saved---but what about those who have not heard the Name?  God sends the Spirit of Truth to those who seek Him. 

It is good to have heard the Gospel, as Paul says about the Jews:  theirs are the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises (Romans (9:4).  But God's revelation is not limited to those who have inherited all these things, for Paul goes on to point out the words of the prophet Hosea:

those who were not my people I will call 'my people,'

and her who was not beloved I will call 'beloved.'

and in the very place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,'

there they shall be called children of the living God (Rom. 9: 25).

If we / anyone will but make time and space in our lives to seek God, God will do everything else.  He is no respecter of persons, but gives equally to all who seek Him. The Book of Hebrews tells us that God rewards those who seek Him (11:6).   In some ways, it's so simple: the reason the poor, the meek, and the lame will enter first into the kingdom is that they are the first to seek God--He is their only resource.  James says, "Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you" (4:8).  And I John says this:  But his annointing teaches you about everything and is true and not false (2:27).

Those who seek God will find Him, and He in turn will pour out His Spirit of truth into their hearts.

Spiritual energy

Finally, draw your strength from the Lord and from his mighty power.

Put on the armor of God so that you may be  able to stand firm against the tactics of the devil.

For our struggle is not with flesh and blood but with the principalities, with the powers, with the world rulers of this present darkness, with the evil spirits in the heavens (Ephesians 6:10-12).

Our modern and scientific age congratulates itself on no longer being subject to fear and superstition about heavenly powers----the gods are angry when volcanoes erupt or lightening strikes, for example.  Unfortunately, with our enlightenment also came disbelief, or at least discredit to, spiritual powers and energies.

Now, however, even science is beginning to discover that the physical world is dominated by unexplained energy---things that we cannot explain.  For example, some years ago, scientists began to notice while experimenting with light waves/particles that different results would be obtained from the experiment depending on whether there were observers in the room during the experiment or not.  The presence of observers who did nothing but "be there," not moving, but just watching, seemed to affect the outcome of the experiment. 

Einstein, for one, just could not believe that the universe did not operate according to strict and unchanging laws of physics.  Baffled by what science eventually came to call "chaos theory," that is, that physical phenomena is not always predictable, but change with circumstances, Einstein for years resisted his observations.  At one point, he actually changed his mathematical data because he could not accept his own findings.  His "error" was caught by other scientists replicating his formulae and experiments, leading finally to Einstein's classic E=mc2 formula.

Now we are slowly beginning to accept that our own spiritual energy affects not only those around us, but physical phenomena.  Experiments in Russia over 3 decades ago revealed even that crops growing in the field responded more to the experimental team than to any 'fertilizer' applied. 

Jesus said, For them do I sanctify myself.  He spoke a "scientific" as well as a spiritual truth.  Our own spiritual energy radiates, or fails to radiate, to those around us.  Our own spiritual energy commands and controls more than we ever imagined what happens in the physical realm.  Star Wars tapped into this reality with its powerful "May the Force be with you!"

But our own energy is not manufactured by us; the best we can do is to receive it from the Source.  The sun radiates its own energy without fail to the earth, providing it constantly with light and warmth and renewal.  If we fail to "soak up" the healing rays of the sun, it is because we are soaking up something else---television, video games, bars and lounges, drugs, etc.  One of the reasons the casinos create a universe of their own--without windows, with constant noise and clatter, with artifical flashing lights--is to keep its inhabitants captive and away from the natural world of sunrise, sunset, light, waves, birds, etc.   Nature is a sacrament of the Presence and Action of God, of spiritual renewal, wisdom, and energy---just what the casinos do not want people to experience!

The "world rulers of this present darkness" know that if they can keep people from "drawing [their] strength from the Lord and from his mighty power," they can command and control the physical realm with the powers of darkness, "with the evil spirits in the heavens."  It's too bad we no longer believe in these evil spirits, for by rejecting belief in them, we have also rejected our belief in the power and strength of the Holy Spirit to command and control---through us---the rest of existence.

Those who walk in the light, who renew their spirits by observation of the natural world and by prayer, who open their hearts to receive the Spirit of God, will inherit the earth---and that's no longer just poetry; it's now science too.

Living Goodness

God does not love us because we are good;

God's love makes us good (Source unknown).

We do not have to be good before God loves us; we do not have to try to be good before God forgives us; we do not have to repent before we are absolved by God.

It is all the other way around---if we are good, it is because God's love has made us so.

If we want to try to be good, it is because God is loving us.

If we want to be forgiven, it is because God has forgiven us.

God's love can do terrible things to us; it may make us kind and considerate and loving.

                                                                           ---Fr. Herbert McCabe, God, Christ, and Us

If we want to see living examples of McCabe's words, we need only look around us---or at the Gospels.  Matthew was a tax-collector, a sinner against the entire Jewish nation, his own people, but the love-glance of Jesus was all it took for him to abandon his table in the market-place and become a disciple, an apostle, a Gospel-writer.

Zacchaeus was a scoundrel and a cheat, but the love of Jesus for him made him give back four-fold all that he had taken unjustly.  Mary Magdalene saw the face of her Lord and wept profusely at her sins, wiping his feet with her hair.

How many of us were going our own way, determined to have our own way, until the love of God caught us and changed our minds and hearts?  How many people have tried to reform their lives without success until they were set free by the love of God given to us in Jesus Christ?

St. Martin of Tours, who died in 397, was an officer in the Roman army, serving in France, when he saw a shivering beggar dressed in rags.  Martin cut his warm cloak in half and gave half to the beggar.  That night, he had a dream---Jesus was wearing the other half of his cloak.

His encounter with the love of God in the poor convinced him that the way of love was the way of non-violence.  He asked for discharge from the army and was accused of cowardice.  He then volunteered to go into battle at the front of the line, unarmed.  Instead, he was imprisoned, but not executed.

Upon his release, he became a monk and eventually a bishop, during the time when it was thought that heretics should be tortured and executed.  His mission against violence continued in peace-making, intervening for heretics until he himself was accused of heresy. 

Those who have truly encountered the Risen Jesus in His Love will know from their hearts the words of Is. 58:6-7:

Is this not, rather, the fast that I choose:

releasing those bound unjustly,

untying the thongs of the yoke;

setting free the oppressed,

breaking off every yoke?

Is it not sharing your bread with the hungry,

bringing the afflicted and the homeless into your house;

clothing the naked when you see them,

and not turning your back on your own flesh?

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer,

you shall cry for help, and he will say: "Here I am!"

Receiving Light

God holds in His hands every good thing. The “vocation,” or “call” of every human being is simply to walk toward God, to walk in the Light, to receive from Him the gifts of life and holiness (2 Peter, 1:3).

It is a biblical principal that when we turn from the Light to the Darkness, the earth mourns, and everything in it dries up. The movie The Lion King is a beautiful illustration of this principle. Under the just, the earth prospers; under the rule of the evil, the earth shrivels and shrinks; famine prevails throughout the land, and the peoples prey on one another.

Light is essential to life, both on the physical and the spiritual levels. The physical dimension that we can touch, see, and hear mirrors the spiritual and invisible, but no less powerful, dimension of the spiritual life.

Einstein discovered on the physical level that Life equals Energy. Today, scientists are trying to convert matter back into energy, but the primary maxim is that all life emerged from energy in the beginning. In fact, with the discoveries of “dark matter” and “dark energy”--- neither of which can be seen, we now know that what we do see around us comprises only 5 percent of the entire universe. What holds together that 5% is something we cannot see, feel, taste, or hear----energy.

Anyone who reads Ann Landers on a regular basis will recognize that there are those whose energy has become so depleted that they have become “black holes” on the spiritual level, sucking into themselves the energy, goodness, and light of all those around them. We know from space exploration that anything that draws close to a black hole will be consumed; there is no escape from its power and strength. The only solution is to avoid the magnetic fields around the black holes.

Fortunately, the Book of John tells us that Light has come into the world, and that the darkness has never overcome it. Anyone who walks in the Light cannot be drawn in by darkness, but will himself radiate the Light of the World. Jesus said, “I am the Light of the World. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn. 8:12). In other places, Jesus tells his disciples that they are the 'light of the world,' and cannot be hidden.  He also calls them "children of light" (Jn. 12:36). 

As Jesus emerges from the wilderness at the start of His public ministry, Matthew’s gospel proclaims: the people who sit in darkness have seen a great light; on those dwelling in a land overshadowed by death, light has arisen (Matt 4:16).

Since we cannot hope to manufacture the Light ourselves, it seems to me that we have only one choice in life:  either we walk towards the Light, or we grovel in the dark.  If we have become trapped by the magnetism of darkness, which draws in and destroys everything it its path, there is still hope---the Light of the World that has never been overcome; the Energy of Life and Goodness, the Source of everything that is---Jesus Christ, the Gift of God and the Life of Mankind!

No more posts until Nov. 7

I will be "out of the office" until Nov. 7, but will continue pondering the mysteries of the universe until I return:)

The Greatest Distance

Perhaps the greatest distance any of us has to travel is that long trek betwen the head and the heart (Katherine Marshall, The Helper)

Knowing of the love of God from teaching or from Scripture is head knowledge.  Yet, before it warms our hearts and touches our emotions, something else has to happen.  The love of God given to us in Jesus Christ is something that we have to experience--and only the Holy Spirit can give us that experience.

A few days after the Resurrection, Jesus sought out Peter, James, and John as they were fishing at the seashore.  He prepared a meal for them, as they had been fishing all night.  And when they had finished eating, Jesus said to Peter, "Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?"  "Yes, Lord, you know that I love you," replied Peter.  Three times, Jesus asked, each time saying, "Feed my sheep."

After his Thursday night denial of Jesus before the crucifixion, Peter's feelings must have been those of guilt and inner turmoil----how could he ever again say that he loved Jesus, after what he had done?

But Jesus forced the words out of him, saying "feed my sheep" in response.  I think what Jesus was doing was replacing the negative emotions carved so deeply into Peter's heart with another, even deeper experience.  It has been said that we do not always say what we believe, but we always believe what we say.  If we say it, from that time on, we tend to believe and to defend what we have said.  Peter had said, in effect, that he did not love the Lord---but now he is saying that he does.

And Jesus give him a way to demonstrate his love from that moment forward---feed my sheep.  "As I have fed you, you feed them," if I can paraphrase.  It is easy to say that we love God; it is much harder to demonstrate it.  But Jesus identified himself with the sheep; if we feed them, we feed Him; if we love them, we love Him.

This is something we don't have to over-think, rationalize, theorize about.  The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.  If we love our neighbor, we love God.  If we don't love our neighbor, we don't love God.  End of story.    So we don't really need to examine our philosophy too much if we continue to examine our hearts and our actions toward those around us.

Kindle in us the fire of your love, O Lord!

more on Faith

If faith is simply our give-and-take relationship with God through the action of the Holy Spirit, then seeking faith simply means that we go to Jesus and say, "Lord, speak to me about this situation.  What do you want to tell me about this?  Pull aside the veil of flesh and give me a look into the world of spirit.  Let me see this situation through your eyes.  What is your viewpoint?  I wait for your insight on this."

At this point, according to Katherine Marshall's The Helper, we are not asking for a change in circumstances, just for inward revelation.  Then we wait and listen and watch.

When that insight is given---Jesus' very personal word to me----then faith automatically follows.  And in the wake of that quiet knowing, external events change.

I love, love, love this approach to prayer and faith.  So many of us "try to believe," try to hope, try to trust----but what we are trying to believe, hope, and trust in is our own understanding of the situation, our own pronouncement, or judgment, of the way things should work.  Once the Holy Spirit begins to quietly impress on our minds and hearts the understanding and the will of God, we no longer have to try to believe or trust----having God's judgment of the situation in our hearts brings a quiet peace and trust.

Proverbs 3: 5 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
                                and lean not on your own understanding;
                                in all your ways, acknowledge Him,
                                and He will direct your paths.

Faith, then, means waiting, listening, trusting, until we receive the Word of the Lord for this situation.  It is based on our on-going conversation with the Most High; it means hearing His voice and trusting that He cannot lead us astray.  Abraham did not walk in his own understanding of where he should be going, but waited daily to hear the direction of God.  His own understanding often led him astray, but in each case, God gently brought him back, not leaving him to his own viewpoint.

It is hard to follow in Abraham's footsteps, as we are impatient to "do" something to remedy the situation---but our doing often makes things worse because we "do" in our own understanding.  Oswald Chambers (My Utmost for His Highest) says this:  Our degree of panic is the degree of our lack of personal spiritual experience.  Put another way, we might say that our degree of panic is the measure of our lack of faith, or listening, for God's understanding of our situation.