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!