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.