Pure Simplicity

Breathe in; breathe out.  What could be more simple?  Even fish with gills can do it. 

When The Creator of heaven and earth breathed His own breath into the human, He brought mankind into the life of the Trinity: one mind, one heart, one spirit, one truth.  No division: Three Persons, One Mind, One Heart, One Spirit/ Breath, One Truth.

That is where we live -- in the mind and heart and love and truth of the Three in One. 
Breathe in the mind and heart and love and truth of God.  Breathe out the Spirit and Truth and Love and Mind of God.

When we pray, we complicate, enumerate, list, and explain.  But "Thy Kingdom Come!" simplifies our prayer over every family, every friend, every situation.

I have written once before about a friend of mine who was known as an intercessor.  Everyone came to her for prayer.  She spent time in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament, trying at first to recall all those she had promised to pray for.  But then, the Spirit revealed to her a secret: 

In the Old Testament, the priests went into the Holy of Holies wearing an "ephod," a breastplate.  Embedded in the breastplate were precious stones representing each one of the 12 tribes of Israel, calling each tribe to the remembrance of the Most High God.  When you come before me, I see inscribed on your heart each name, each situation for whom you have promised to pray.  You do not need to recall them by name before Me.

How simple, how pure is the Mind and the Spirit of God! When we pray, we can breathe in the Word, the Truth, the Mind that fashioned the universe and all that is in it.  We can breathe out His will, His Spirit on all whom we love:  Thy Kingdom Come; Thy Will be done!

To live in the heart of the Most High, the Most Holy, the dynamic Three-in-One as They live, breathe, love, and exchange Life is pure joy!  To bring those we love into that exchange is even greater joy!  To know He / They love what and who we love is to know His/Their kingdom will be established in the lives of our family and friends.  What could be more simple?  Breathe in; Breathe out!

Next post will be December 4.

This is the Church

Here we are, gathered into one room: the poor, the rich, the middle class; we have nothing at all in common.  Some of us are educated; some, never learned to read or write.  Some are thoughtful; some, good with their hands.  Some can design and fashion anything; others barely know what to do with a hammer or a screwdriver.  If we met at a party, we could hardly speak to one another, because our interests and passions are so diverse.

Yet, in some mysterious way, we have all been drawn here by the Holy Spirit, for His purpose and pleasure.  Jesus Christ is in our midst, smoothing out the differences among us.  We are His body, His hands and feet and eyes and ears in the 21st century.  We see for Him; we hear for Him, we think about issues in our world from His viewpoint.  Somehow, He acts through and in us, even when we don't know it.  His Spirit dwells in us and in the midst of this gathering as we come together. 

Jesus is still teaching us, healing us, overcoming the hostilities among us.  His presence is hidden, but real.  We leave this gathering different from when we arrived.  Somehow, He has bridged differences among us and spread among us the love of God for each one of us. 

If we have come to criticize one another, or the service, or the minister, we have missed the reason for which we were drawn here.  If we have come here because we are afraid of hell, we are here for the wrong reason.  If we are here out of human respect, or because we want someone to think well of us, we are missing the presence of God in our midst.  If we do not  expect Him to speak to us today, we will not hear His voice in our hearts. 

We are here because, no matter how or why we decided to come, the power of God has brought us here.  The Spirit of God has something today to teach us, to say to us.  He wants to accomplish in us His very own purpose and pleasure.  He wants to transform us into the Image of Jesus Christ; he wants to use our bodies, our minds, our emotions, our passions, our souls and spirits to fill the world with his own Wisdsom, Understanding, and Knowlege.  Through us, He wants to transform a world that does not know Him.  That is why we are here!

Listen to Him!  Do whatever He tells you to do!  Do not miss the voice of God speaking today in your heart!

Be Thou a Blessing!

Unless we see Chapters 2-11 of Genesis as an "uncreation" story, the backdrop to Genesis 12, we don't "get" God's words to Abraham:  I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.  I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on the earth will be blessed through you (Gen. 12:2-3).

In order to understand what God is saying to Abraham, it's important to see Genesis 1-11 as "setting the stage" for the drama that is about to unfold in the rest of Scripture.  The first 11 chapters are all about men trying to "accomplish" the very things that God tells Abraham here He will do for him:

Cain wanted to be blessed by God, and he was jealous of Abel's blessing -- so he killed Abel.

Those who built the tower of Babel wanted to "make their names great" on the earth, so they were going to use the latest technology to build an edifice to the heavens -- a skyscraper like the Trump Tower in Chicago.

Lamech (Gen. 4) told his wives that whoever harmed him would be repaid seven times over--the law of revenge.

The first 11 chapters of Genesis are all about greed, jealously, envy, ambition -- desiring recognition, using violence, power, technology, knowledge, or strength to establish man's name on the earth.  Then, in Genesis 12, the light shines on the stage, and Abraham enters.  He is told to leave his people and his father's house -- the old way of doing things, "the empty way of life handed down by your fathers," and "go to a land I will show you."

If we allow God to lead us, teach us, transform us into His image instead of the image of our earthly fathers, He "will make our name great."  Mary rejoiced in God her savior because "He has had regard for the lowliness of His handmaid, and all generations will call me blessed.....He has lifted up the lowly from the dust and cast down the mighty from their thrones, just as He promised Abraham, our father."

What God promised to Abraham, He also promises to us:  I will make your name great, and through you all nations will be blessed!  Abraham was a fore-runner of Jesus, the ultimate blessing on the earth, but "from the fullness of His grace, we have all received one blessing after another" (Jn. 1:16).

Jesus said, "As the Father has sent me, so I also send you."  To do what?  To be a blessing on the earth, as was Abraham and all who followed him.  Be Thou a Blessing!  What can I do to be a "blessing" to my family, my friends, my neighbors?  How can I bless them with the same blessings I myself have received from God?

He sends us into a dark world, a world without light, a world without hope.  But we have within us the Light of the World, the blessing of the incarnate Son of God.  Can we let His light shine out of us to the world around us?

Who Are You Talking To?

Yesterday, during our Bible study, one of the ladies said that when she sits down to pray, sometimes she says, "What am I going to say?"  I laughed out loud, because her words reminded me of myself at a gathering of strangers---a cocktail or Christmas eve party, not with friends but with friends of the the host/hostess, those with whom I think (at first) that I have nothing in common.

When we first try to pray on a regular basis, (not just when we desperately need help), we are spiritually "awkward," as I am in a room full of people that I do not know.  When I meet a friend, however, or someone I worked with for a long time, I never have to wonder what I am going to say---I say whatever is in my heart; I say that I have missed them; I recall some of the wonderful experiences we've had together -- the things we have in common.  I ask about their loved ones and about what they've been up to lately.  What I say does not matter at all -- what they say does matter, because I am re-discovering who they are, what they are doing, and my joy in their presence!

One reason we are awkward with God is that we do not know Who we are talking to -- or, if we do know, we are not thinking about Who He is at that moment -- so, in fact, we are talking to a stranger.
We are usually coming for help or for direction, but we are asking Someone we do not know well. 

Proverbs 3:26 says, In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and he will direct thy paths.  I have found one of the best ways to ease into prayer is to begin by "acknowledging" Who God is to me:

O Wisdom!

O Truth!

O Goodness and Justice and Holiness and Loving-Kindness!

O Mercy!

O Bending Down to Hear My Cry!

 

If we don't really know Who God Is to us, the Psalms are a great way to begin praying -- not just reading them for information, but really, slowly praying them.  When we pick up Scripture, it does not matter if we do not "get through" whatever we are reading.  Our purpose is to listen for what God is saying to our hearts, not our minds.  Our purpose is to discover Who God Is to us -- not to the world at large.

 

If we don't acknowledge and know the One to Whom we are speaking, our prayers don't go very far; it is as if we are making idle chatter at a party.  I remember once meeting Tom Benson at a Christmas party; he did not know me at all; I could have been one of the decorations on the table as far as he was concerned.  And of course, though I had seen him on tv, I didn't know "him" any more than he knew me.  What did we say to one another?  Who knows?  Who cares?  It was a non-event. 

 

I don't want my prayer to be a non-event!  I want to know Who I am talking to; I want to know "HIM;" I want to know Who He is and what He cares about.  Then what I say to Him is not important; we have joy in one another's presence; our prayer is really a dance, a union of hearts.  We sit at the table together around steaming cups of coffee or warm bread, or a glass of wine.  We pour out our hearts to one another, not worrying too much about the words -- we know the meaning behind them. 

 

Ah, Friendship with the Most High God!  Is there anything better in this life?  

The Pain of Seeing Clearly

When Jesus first touched the eyes of the man born blind, he saw men "like trees walking around."  It took a second touch from Jesus for the man's brain to interpret rightly what he was seeing.  A recent article by Ron Roheiser ("Purgatory--Seeing Clearly for the First Time") unfolds what happens when surgery is able to give sight to someone born blind:

The patient on opening his eyes gets little or no enjoyment; indeed, he finds the experience painful.  He reports only a spinning mass of light and colors.  he proves to be quiet unable to pick out objects by sight, to recognize what they are, or to name them.  He has no conception of space with objects in it, although he knows all about objects and their names by touch....his brain has not been trained in the rules of seeing.

 

We did not know there were "rules of seeing," because our brain has been forming "maps" of objects, colors, and spatial relationships from the day we were born.  We think we see clearly, but what we see is actually defined by our brain map.  The person whose sight is awakened for the first time in his life has no "brain map" to define what he is seeing---it takes years for that map to form.

 

Spiritually, we also have "brain maps" that define what we "see" spiritually.  Those brain maps have been formed by our past experience -- whether positive or traumatic.  We think we "see clearly" into the spiritual life, but, in fact, it takes a "second touch" from Jesus before "our (spiritual) eyes are opened and we see clearly, not through the distortions of our (mostly negative) experiences.

 

Created in the image of God, the words we speak have the power to create, transform, or destroy worlds -- especially the worlds of as-yet-unformed children.  Jesus said, "Woe to him who causes one of these little ones to sin; it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were drowned in the sea!"  That is a very, very strong statement from the mouth of a loving Savior---who came not to condemn man, but to save him. 

 

Why is Jesus so strong in this instance?  I think Jesus is saying that we have the power to change the world, the universe in which one of these "little ones" lives.  For the rest of his or her life, that "little one" will see the world the ways our words or actions have defined it -- black or white, accepting or condemning, loving or hateful.  Everything we see for the rest of our lives is defined by the 'brain map' formed in childhood.

 

A couple of days ago, I wrote about why we live beyond our years of biological fertility.  I think one of the reasons we do is that we need to get beyond the productive and re-productive years in order to begin to "see clearly" what we have done -- and what has been done to us-- all our lives.  But the lifting of the veil and the "second touch" is very painful to us.  We have 'flashbacks' of the moments of our lives where we have sinned against others, or where others have sinned against us.  For the first time, we see the distortions of our own  spirits -- what the blind man described as "men like trees walking around" -- and it hurts.  We see our own sins, the worlds we have created by our vicious or just thoughtless words to others, especially children-- and indeed, it would be better for us if a millstone had been hung around our necks before we had created those worlds in which others had to live for the rest of their lives!

 

Ron Rolheiser says maybe this is "Purgatory:" seeing clearly for the first time the damage that we did to others.  But he also says, Isn't hope an anchoring of ourselves in something beyond what we can control and guarantee for ourselves?  He says that maybe what the Catholic church has always called "Purgatory" is not God punishing us for our sins, but rather "being embraced by God in such a way that His love and light so dwarf our earthly concepts of love and knowledge that, like a person born blind who is given sight, we have to struggle painfully in the very ecstasy of that light to unlearn and relearn virtually our entire way of thinking and loving?"

 

Rolheiser's concept of Purgatory resonates with me, because as I grow beyond the years of working and raising children and have time to reflect, I am experiencing the painful awareness of the worlds my words and actions have created for my own children and for others who have been hurt by my thoughtlessness and self-centeredness.  It is painful to "see clearly for the first time."  But it would be even more painful beyond the grave to see and to know that without redemption, without the "new heavens and the new earth" promised by God, the worlds I created by my words and actions will live forever.

Why I Pray

The world is filled with gossamer, shimmering beauty, as is all of life itself.  But unless I begin each morning in prayer, I miss it.  I don't know how I can be so blind as to think that I'm seeing what exists when I don't pray --- but obviously, I have spent a lot of years thinking that what I was seeing was "real," when there was so much that I was missing.

I have been reading The Shack for the past few days -- I would have finished it this morning if I had not somehow hidden the book from myself.  But still, that book has described for me so much of my own experience with the Trinity, the Three Persons in One, that I am planning to read it again and again.  Like the Gospel of John, the first reading takes away my breath in its profound revelation, but I know that it will do so again on the second, third, and fourth readings.  And just to be sure, I think it should be read at least once a year after that. 

A year ago, I had read a review of The Shack in a magazine.  The reviewer seemed to think that the book was "simplistic."  And then a friend told me that William P. Young had written the book for his "children," and as a book for children, it was a good story.  I did not know at the time, that when Young wrote the book, his children were adults and had children of their own.  So I was pretty sure that this was a book I would not ever read.  But for the past few weeks, something kept telling me to get The Shack.  I would look it up online and then decide to see if my local library had a copy -- but of course would forget about it.  A week or so later, the process would repeat itself.  Then, last Friday, while I was running errands and was at the bank, something again urged me to check out the library. 

When I got home that day with the book, I began reading and could not put it down.  What a profound treatise on the Holy Trinity that is yet "fully human" through the intimate relationship that Jesus Christ has with us!  Indeed, Young did start out to write a book for his adult children, but the book was reworked and honed to perfection with a team of dedicated writers whose souls and experience resonated with Young's story.  Anyone who has truly experienced in prayer The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit will recognize and rejoice in the depictions of the Three in One that Young portrays in The Shack. 

So much of the story and of the dialog is so lined up with Scripture that reading this book is a prayerful, Scriptural experience.  At one point, the Holy Spirit (a shimmering feminine character in the book, who cannot be directly viewed but who is present at "at one's side") touches the eyes of the main character, and he sees "what the Father sees," a brilliant, shimmering, world of colors and spirits.  That is what I see in prayer; every morning, my "eyes are opened," and I see what I cannot see when I do not pray.  I see relationships and energies and beauties that are hidden when I fail to pray.  I see myself as not "other" from The Three in One, but as a part of and centered in their swirling, loving relationship with One Another. 

This is what Young's book portrays:  The Three Persons as intimate to and submissive to and servant of One Another and of every detail of our human existence, in a very personal and intimate way.  They are not "out there and remote" from our existence, but "at the side of" each one of us, taking part, healing, revealing, teaching, bringing us into their relationship with one another.  Jesus said that He would send The Paraclete, the Advocate to us.  "Paraclete" is a Greek word meaning "One Who is called alongside of [us]."  "Advocate" is a legal term meaning "One who speaks for us [in a court of law], One who defends us."  The Holy Spirit is at our side, speaking always for us, in us, to us, and through us. 

William P. Young's The Shack so beautifully depicts why I have learned, through the gift of the Holy Spirit, to pray each day --- so that I can enjoy -- yes, enjoy! -- the loving relationship and fellowship of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in every event of life, so that They can reveal to me "what's going on" in my life, and so They can show me each day the world They see: shimmering, full of beauty and color and shining lights, and the way They see the people I meet each day -- not the way I see them at all.

At Medjugore, Mary told the children visionaries: Pray until prayer becomes joy for you.  Wonderful advice!  And The Shack is a great way to begin.  In fact, the reason I did not finish reading it yesterday is that it led me so deep into adoration and thanksgiving to the Divine Trinity that I put it down and could not continue reading it.  As soon I find the spot where I laid it, I will take it up again.  But this will not be the end of the book, only the introduction to a second and third reading. 

A book for children?  Only if they already know and love the Holy Trinity, and each Person individually!  Only if they have already seen the world as it exists spiritually as well as physically!  Celia Thaxter once wrote: As I hold the flower in my hand and think of tryng to describe it, I realize how poor a creature I am, how impotent are words in the presence of such perfection.  Yesterday, I wrote about how God chooses the weak and impotent things of this world as channels of His grace.  Anyone who reads the "backstory" of William Paul Young, a very abused and neglected and emotionally scarred child, knows that only God Himself could have healed and redeemed and perfected this child as an instrument of His revelation and truth!

The Shape of the Soul

There is within each plant a drive, an energy that propels it forward to achieve its purpose:  to produce a flower that will in turn produce either a seed or a fruit containing the seeds of future generations.  We look at the flowers; we see the fruit.  What we do not see is the energy, the "soul" of the plant that forces it to grow and develop to maturity, the drive within whose goal is the flower and the fruit.

In American culture, we tend to think of aging physiologically, rather than spiritually.  We see the flower -- the bloom of radiant youth.  We see the fruit in our reproductive power.  And then we see the plant beginning to wither and die, and we call it "sad."

But we are more than flowers and more than animals too.  Spiritually, aging is no accident, no "leftover process" after we have achieved our primary purpose for living.  Rather, the aging process is necessary to the spirit, intended by the soul.  Has it ever occurred to us that there is a reason why we continue long after fertility and even after muscular usefulness and sometimes sensory awareness?  There must be some purpose to aging beyond wearing down and running out of steam.

St. Paul had this to say: ...we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus' sake, so that His life may be revealed in our mortal body...though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day (2Cor. 4:16).

When we die, what people remember is not the principles we lived by, or our ideas, but our character:  The beauty of the soul is harder to see than that of the body, yet it is the soul that is concerned with goodness and beauty, with justice and courage, with friendship and loyalty.  People will remember us as wise, knowing, kind, timid, intellectual, vacillating......etc.  I told someone the other day that when she dies, no one will ever say, "She was a wonderful housekeeper!" (or at least, that's what I'm hoping!)

It is the qualities of our character that reveal "the shape of the soul." And it is the shape of the soul that patterns the movements of our body.  And it is the movements of the body that gives shape to our world.  Think of the recent "revelations" on tv of the hoarding phenomenon.  Psychiatrists and psychologists are trying to medicate and cure the disease of hoarding.  But hoarding is a sickness of the soul, not of the body.  It can be treated spiritually, but I doubt that our psychic conditioning or physical medication can touch that sickness. 

Robert Bly wrote "My Father at Eighty-Five:"

His eyes blue, alert,

Disappointed...suspicious...He is a bird

Waiting to be fed,--

Mostly beak -- an eagle

Or a vulture...Some powerful engine of desire goes on

Turning inside the body.

 

What we know is that longevity reinforces character, so what we get in old age is more of the same. 

 

I think we live longer than necessary because our soul has an inner drive to produce what the spirit is craving -- beauty and goodness, truth, justice, kindness.  But it is hard for us to give up the throne.  WE have been "in control" for so long that we cannot relinquish our desire to be recognized, to be acknowledged, to be thanked, to "be fed." 

 

Vulture or dove?  There is a driving energy inside of us, giving shape to our souls.  What kind of fruit will the tree produce at the very end?

Why I Teach

The very first time I attended Mass at Holy Family Parish, the first Sunday of Advent 2005, there was a ceremony for the young people who were entering the three-year program leading to Confirmation.  For some reason, as I looked at the faces of these 10 or 12 young people, I knew I wanted to teach them; there was a great desire in me to teach them.  In fact, I knew at that moment that was my mission. 

I would not move to Mississippi permanently until 2007, until I had retired from the Community College and had restored my house in Long Beach to a liveable condition.  But that year, I volunteered to teach the 11th-grade Confirmation class, and I have been doing it ever since. 

John the Baptist said that the One Who would come after him would baptize us with "the Holy Spirit and with fire."  Jesus said, "I have come to cast fire upon the earth, and what would I but that it be kindled."  And, indeed, on Pentecost Sunday, the Holy Spirit did arrive with tongues of fire that rested over the heads of Mary and the disciples (120) gathered in prayer.  Immediately, Peter stood up and began speaking bolding of the Scriptures that foretold this event.

That 'fire' still burns today in the hearts of those who have a God-given mission.  It certainly today burns in my heart.  When the fire dies out, I will stop teaching, because I will know that the flame will have been kindled in someone else whose mission is to teach this class as I leave.

For me, teaching is a gift that constantly renews me.  Proverbs 2 and 3 are chapters that should be read over and over again until they take root in our hearts.  Those chapters are probably too long to copy here, but the short version is that the person who daily searches for wisdom and understanding will be given it.  And along with wisdom and understanding will come protection ( a shield), long life, prosperity, and peace:  She [Wisdom] is a tree of life to those who embrace her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed.

Because I teach, I must "stand daily at the door of wisdom," listening to the Spirit of Truth, seeking the Wisdom of God for them.  I have no choice but to do so if I am to have something worth teaching.  I cannot fall back into my own laziness and indifference -- there is a group of young people depending on me to teach them what maybe no one else will ever teach them.  I cannot let them down.  Jesus said, "For them I sanctify myself."  (To 'sanctify' means to 'set apart, to consecrate.' )  If I do not 'set myself apart, consecrate myself' to teach these young people, it may be that they will never hear what God wants to say to them. 

But as I seek the Wisdom that God wants to speak into their hearts, I myself am richly rewarded with wisdom and understanding -- almost beyond my capacity to hold it.  In fact, one reason I write each morning is to try to capture what God is showing me before I lose it and forget it.  I know people who know me well -- my own children and husband and friends -- will wonder how I can write what I do not always live.  I am writing what I need to learn myself.  As Padre Pio once said, "God frequently makes use of His lowest instruments to carry out His will and divine plan."  That was certainly true of Israel, the "smallest and most ignorant of all nations."  It was certainly true of the Apostles, the lowest of classes in the nation of Israel.  And it is still true today of the people God chooses:  Where is the wise man?  Where is the scholar?  Where is the philosopher of this age?  .... think of what you were when you were called.  Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth.  But God chose the foolish things of this world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong.  He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things---the things that are not -- to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him.

I teach because Jesus Christ Himself lit some kind of fire within me that has not yet gone out -- a fire of love for these young people, a fire that wants to light within them the same kind of fire that is in me, a desire and a hunger to stand daily at the door of Wisdom to learn what She has to teach, and a knowledge that what I teach comes not from me but from God Himself.  I am blessed daily by my mission to teach, and I am grateful that God chooses the lowly things of this world to do His work.

Channels of Grace

During the 70's, I think, there was a show called The Millionaire, where an intermediary would find deserving people and present them a check for a million dollars.  The money came from an unknown source, a millionaire, who was never seen on the program.  Last year, Secret Millionaire updated the old concept by sending real millionaires into poor areas to find deserving groups.  After volunteering in soup kitchens, youth outreach groups, and homeless shelters, the millionaires would return with huge checks to help the groups.

I think most of us at one time or another have dreamed of winning the lottery or the Publishers Clearinghouse Sweepstakes so that we, too, could give freely to those in need. We have all "figured out" what we would do if we won a million dollars.  (I always think I would first pay off the student loans my kids still carry from their college years, so they could begin to live on what they make now.)

No one I know is likely to win either the lottery or the PCS, least of all, me.  However, in the spiritual realm, the people I know are indeed rich, wealthy beyond all measure.  We have both inherited and acquired wealth in the spiritual realm -- not that we have "earned" it -- who could?  But we have received more than we could ask or imagine.  What if we thought of ourselves as "channels of grace," much like the intermediary on The Millionaire?  The wealth does not belong to us, but to Someone Who wants desperately to bless the people all around us -- everyone we know and those we meet even briefly.  We hold in our very hands and souls untold wealth; how can we give it away?

I do not know the answer to the question, but I stand here with my hands full of God's blessings.  Who wants it?  How can I share it?  All I can do is to consider myself the channel, the intermediary, knowing the Source, knowing His desire to bless others, and stay alert for people who need or want the blessings I hold in my heart. 

St. Francis of Assisi divested himself of all his worldly goods in order to be free of them.  Rather, each day, he gathered up the blessings of God given through prayer and nature--the light of the sun, the beauty of the moon; the gift of seas and of stars, and the blessings of prayer:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

Where there is hatred, let me sow your love.

Where there is injury, pardon.

Where there is doubt, faith.

Where there is despair, hope.

Where there is darkness, light.

Where there is sadness, joy.

 

O Divine Master,

grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;

to be understood, as to understand;

to be loved, as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.



My Garden - My Soul

This garden, once beautifully -- perfectly -- landscaped by a good designer, was devastated by Katrina.  Salt water infused what was once healthy soil; trees were uprooted so there was no longer any refeshing shade in the garden, ferns disappeared in the brutal sun, and weeds took over the entire area --- so much so that the contracter working on my house was afraid of snakes.

I hardly knew where to begin; it seemed entirely hopeless.  The weeds were higher than my head, with roots stronger than those of trees.  The ground was rutted and uneven; even a lawnmower was useless.  I knew that no matter which area I attacked first, all the other areas would continue running wild, and I was just one person facing a jungle.

My sister and her husband arrived just after I moved in.  The garden had been neglected for 18 months while we were making the house liveable.  But they told me to choose a spot to clear out -- they were there to help.  For a week, the three of us labored together to pick up loads of roofing shingles blown from all the houses between mine and the beach; roofing shingles, boards, curtains, even an electric drill from someone's garage was buried among the overgrown weeds.  Slowly, we cleared a section of land and hauled the debris to the curb.  Then we went to the garden center to find something that would thrive in the poor soil left behind.  By the time my sister left, the "wild and waste" section of my yard had been transformed into a place of rest and beauty, and I had the hope and encouragement I needed to begin work on another area.

Today, five years later, I am still working on my yard, once a hopeless wilderness harboring snakes.  But each morning now, I take my coffee out to assess what still needs to be done.  Now, since I have carefully placed each plant, I know each one by name.  I know whether it needs sun or shade, and I have chosen the conditions in which it can thrive.  I look each day to see whether it is doing well, or needs to be moved to another location, or maybe needs a little pruning or compost.  Today, I am no longer rescuing and establishing my garden; I am enjoying its beauty and marveling at its strength, even while tending to whatever needs attention.  It brings me much joy to see it responding to my touch and thriving under my care. 

And would God be doing less each day for our souls than I am doing for my garden?  Would He not each day be tending to the needs of my soul?  Here is what He says:

Think of Me today as the Great Gardener, tending and caring for you as a gardener does for his garden.  Pruning here, protecting from frost there, planting, transplanting.  Sowing the seed of this or that truth, safeguarding it with the rich earth, sending my rain and sun to help in its growth, watching so tenderly as it responds to my care.  Lovingly anxious when its first eager green appears, Full of joy at the sight of bud, and when the beauty of flower is seen.  The seed and fruit of His pastures.

 

The Great Gardener.  Let Me share with you the tending of your garden of life.

The Bible Begins with Chaos

Yesterday, I wrote "What Does It Mean?"  Not so much, "What do we believe?" but "What does it mean that we believe [_x_]?"    Let me explore today one example.

Most of us grew up believing that God created the world ex nihilo-- from nothing.  He began with nothing and He made something -- a beautiful, balanced, harmonious world that He saw was "very good" when it was finished.  Then man messed up the "very good" world, and it became "not good" anymore, beginning with thorns and thistles in the earth and ending with the flood.

What does it mean to believe that this is the pattern from the beginning of the Bible?  If this is the repeated pattern, it means that man keeps messing up what God has created.  It means that we are eternally guilty, despite forgiveness, and that we will continue to create chaos until the end of time, until the final day. 

A careful reading of Genesis, however, reveals that what God started with was not "nothing," but rather, "the earth was formless and empty, darkness....over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovering over the waters" (New International Version).  In the Shocken translation by Everett Fox, which attempts to closely translate the sound of the Hebrew into English, we get this reading:  At the beginning of the God's creating of the heavens andthe earth, when the earth was wild and waste (tohu-vavohu), darkness over the face of Ocean, rushing-spirit of God hovering* over the face of the waters----

*The word translated "hovering" in English conveys in Hebrew the image of an eagle protecting its young. 

Words create images, and the images contain meaning for us.  If our imagination gives us a God making a perfect world to begin with, and man messing it up, we have one kind of meaning.  If, however, we grasp the image of a world "wild and waste,"( kind of what we experienced after Katrina, with no trees in New Orleans that could support birds of the air, with no ground that could support life, with everything grey...), we have a different meaning.

The Bible begins with chaos, with a "watery deep," with an abyss that has no form or shape or meaning --- and what we see there is the Spirit of God hovering over the water, anxious to begin the work of separating the confusion, of creating a distinction between light and dark, between heaven and earth, and between earth and dry land.  We see a Divine Corps of Engineers saying to Ocean, "This far you shall come and no more; here is where you stop!" 

For anyone who has ever experienced chaos in their lives, this image gives immense hope.  We are always moving out of the darkness toward the light.  In the Gospel of John, Nicodemus comes to Jesus (the Light of the World) "at night."  He is coming out of the darkness toward the light-- and the first thing he hears is about being "born again of water and of Spirit."  Being born again means moving out of chaos into light, from the watery deep onto dry land, from drowning into rejoicing. 

This is the Biblical pattern of creation  -- from chaos to cosmos, from being lost to being saved, from "uncreation" to a new world, from the old to the new.  God says, "See, I am doing something new; do you not perceive it?"  "I am creating a new heavens and a new earth."  "The convenant I will give at that time is not like the Old Covenant, written on tablets of stone, but will be written on men's hearts."  Jesus says, "See, I make all things new again." 

The images we have, what we believe, make a difference.  If we can learn to see the Bible the way it was written, not the way "we think" it was written, we will see new meaning in it.  And then Psalm 18 will be the way we think about God:

The cords of death entangled me;

the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.

The cords of the grave coiled around me;

the snares of death confronted me....

 

He reached down from on high and took hold of me;

he drew me out of deep waters.

He rescued me from my powerful enemy,

from my foes, who were too strong for me.

They confronted me in the day of my disaster,

but the Lord was my support.

He brought me out into a spacious place;

he rescued me because He delighted in me.

 

Understanding this pattern as the basic human condition, with the Spirit of God "hovering" over the chaos which is always threatening to overwhelm us also helps us to understand -- or give meaning to---Christ's crucifixion.  He did not shun the human condition, but took it on for us, in us, and with us, willingly submitting to the forces of death, destruction, and chaos, that He might bring us out of  them into a "spacious place," because He delights in us. 

 

This "meaning" revealed by Scripture is much different from that of "guilty man," who needs to be punished for messing up the world and the work of the Almighty God.  Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote about a world "bleared, smeared with trade," and "over it all, The Holy Ghost broods....with-- ah --- bright wings"  (God's Grandeur).

 

This is the image and the meaning we need when threatened by deep waters closing over our heads.  We need to look up and see the Spirit of God hovering over us to draw us out of the cords of death; we need to hear the Voice of God sending the LIght of the World into our hearts, the Light that has come into the world to see men free from the darkness of death!  Alleluia!  This is the Good News that all men need to hear!

 



What Does It Mean?

The ultimate question is not "What Do I Believe?" but rather, "What Does It Mean?"  Jesus said, quoting Deuteronomy, Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God. 

If this is true, and of course, I believe that any thinking person would assert that it is, there are several implications to that statement:

(1) Meaning is essential to a human way of life: we are more than the animals, wonderful as they are.  But they can live without meaning, without reflection, by instinct alone.  Man cannot.  As much as I love and communicate with my cats, and am profoundly grateful for the joy they bring to my life, I have never been able to say to one of them:  "Look at this beautiful flower, or that magnificent sunset!"  The meaning of beauty, or of joy, is not within the parameters of their existence, although I do like to think they are grateful for their daily "bread," in the form of the corn gluten that passes for cat food.

About 40 years ago, Viktor Frankel wrote a classic study called Man's Search for Meaning.  Very few books, as much as I love them and devour them, have actually changed my life -- although I think that every one has influenced me in some way, changing at least my brain, if not my life itself.  But Viktor Frankel's book actually changed my life as a 20-something college student.  As a German Jew Psychotherapist, Frankel found his entire existence turned upside down by Hitler.  He, like every other Jew within Hitler's reach, endured the destruction of his entire life and family and culture in a German death camp.  Day to day, he watched men all around him lose hope and die -- deliberately -- for lack of meaning.  None of the events they endured "made sense" to them; there was no reason to continue to live.  Some of the people deliberately reached out to the electric fence surrounding the death camp, and grasped it to die.  Others just gave up, lay down, and did not get up again.  Those who survived were those who somehow found a reason to survive.

Frankel knew that unless he and others could find meaning in the situation, meaning which gave them a reason to endure unspeakable horror from day to day, they would not come out alive.  Meaning was literally, the bread that sustained them in this situation.  In fact, recently I read of a man who survived the death camps, was re-established and re-nourished -- but who then committed suicide because he could never find a reason to continue living.  After his release from the prison camp, Viktor Frankel went on to re-establish his psychiatric practice, but now based on "man's search for meaning," which he called logotherapy.  He found that man could endure anything if somehow he could find meaning, or a reason to live, in the midst of the situation. 

(2)  The second implication of Jesus' words is that meaning has been given to us "from the mouth of God."  Somehow, some way, God Himself has revealed meaning to man, and man is able to receive it, to grasp it.  This is an awesome concept!  It means that God has not left man alone to figure it out for himself, to stumble along doing the best he can.  It means that, despite Pontius Pilate's question, "What is truth?" Truth does exist, and that we can know it! 

The very foundation of all science is the belief that truth exists and that man can discover, probe, explore it and then, having found it, apply what he has unearthed to his existence on this planet.  What does it mean that man has found penicillin --- not just that we know it exists, but that we can then use our knowledge for the good of mankind.

The same is true in the spiritual realm:  Truth exists; it is not what each man thinks it is, but has a Source that can be discovered, or "received."  And Truth has meaning -- it has application for our lives.  So then, the question becomes, "If ____ is true, what does it mean?"  How does it apply to mankind, to me as a person?  How does it affect my life and the lives of others?  How is this belief "my daily bread," sustaining my existence from day to day?

Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word coming forth from the mouth of God.

Where, then, do we go for our daily bread? 

Prophets of Doom

The day following our election was a day of depression and grief for me.  While not an ardent Romney fan, I feared more than anything else four more years of what this country had experienced under Obama.  The day after the election, I mourned the loss of a country I knew as a child, of a way of life where morality and justice was honored.  I felt that "bread and circuses" was all that this country now cared about, and that "tax and spend" was the beginning of the end of everything I had known.  Can we possibly recover from four more years of downhill slide?

I have never before known this kind of mourning, and I did not fully understand what I was feeling until I looked around.  The stock market, evidently, had the same "intuition" I did; the victims of Hurricane Sandy and the following nor'easter were suffering in the flesh what I was experiencing in the spirit, and I mourned for them in their suffering and grief. 

The local news channel interviewed random citizens for their reaction the day after the election.  Amazingly, there was not a single positive reaction among those they interviewed.  The most 'postive' reaction came from a soldier who said that he respected Obama as his commander-in-chief, something every soldier must say or be court-martialed.  Then I began speaking to friends and neighbors; their reaction was mine.  All were either very fearful for our future, or depressed at its certainty. 

Like the prophet Jeremiah, the "prophet of doom," I believe there are now two Americas -- and neither one can see what the other one is seeing.  Those who support abortion on demand, gay marriage, and legalizing pot have no idea that our lack of morality is destroying this country from within.  They laugh at any idea that we are suffering as a nation because, like Israel, we "have committed two sins: [We] have forsaken [the Lord], the spring of living water, and have dug [our] own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water (Jer. 2:13).

If the blood of Abel cried out to God from the ground, and if he heard the cry, I wonder what the blood of 17 million innocent murdered babies sounds like. Since when has murder become the accepted 'solution' to societal ills?

 Both Jeremiah and Jesus were 'prophets of doom,' and to shut them up, the leaders of the nation decided that both had to be done away with.  The temple leaders in Jesus' day decided that He must be put to death on the day He said, "Has this house, which bears my Natme, become a den of robbers to you?  But I have been watching! declares the Lord."   That saying comes directly from the book of Jeremiah (chapter 7), and there it is followed  by prophecies of destruction for Jerusalem because of the wickedness of its inhabitants.  The Scribes and Pharisees knew exactly what Jesus was saying, and they did not like its implications.  (In fact, the city of Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D.)

It seems that now might be a good time for those who "have ears to hear" to re-read the Book of Jeremiah.  Even while one half of America is celebrating and flag-waving, 49% of the nation, those who form the 'other America' are grieving, like Jeremiah, over the destruction of the land they love.  Like Jeremiah, I hope I am wrong; may God rescue us from what it seems is about to happen to all of us!

Fountain of Living Water

If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water (Jn. 4:10).

 

In the natural realm, can we ever satisfy our thirst once and for all?  Even when we've been extremely thirsty and hot, and even when we've just had the most satisfying cool drink of our lives, and even when we've been most grateful for being able to quench our thirst, we know that we'll be thirsty again. 

 

That is exactly what the spiritual life is like.   There may be a time in our lives when we are so spiritually thirsty that we desperately seek to satisfy our thirst, a time when we cry out to God and need Him to answer us.  But, somehow, spiritually, we do not seek living water every day, as we do natural water.  Yet, everything in creation should speak to us of spiritual realities.  We need to satisfy the thirst of our spirits at least as often as we do the thirst of our bodies.

 

If all we had of Scripture was John 4:10, it would be enough, for that one verse would drive us daily to the Source of Living Water, if we believed it.  And that Source would not fail us; the more we drink from it, the more we desire the water it provides to us.

 

I remember once seeing in my mind's eye a kind of vision as I was praying:  I saw a great gathering of people in a huge circle.  In the middle of the circle was a large opening, larger than a room but smaller than a football field.  And Jesus was standing at one edge of the opening.  As all of the gathered crowd watched, He began to teach a mentally retarded child one step of a dance.  Excitedly, as she learned the one step, she began to dance around the center, showing all the people the one step she had learned.  "I've got it!  I've got it," she cried.  "I've got it!" 

 

Jesus, along with all the others, grinned as He watched her do the one step he had taught her.  Then, He gently called her back and began teaching her the next step in the dance.  As she mastered it, she repeated the process -- doing her dance for the joy and pleasure of herself and all the others, crying out her excitement at learning the dance. 

 

As I watched the vision unfold, I understood its lesson:  I was the retarded child, and each time, I was sure I knew the dance -- what I did not know was how much more I had to learn, and that I would have to return to the Master constantly for more teaching. 

 

That is the spiritual life.  There is a Divine Master who knows the next step, and Who loves to teach us, if we are but willing to be taught.  "Religion" is not a static body of material to be learned, but a daily dance with Someone Who loves us.  If we don't engage in the dance every day, we think we've "got it," but all we know is yesterday's lesson. 

 

Like dance, like thirst, our relationship with God is never 'finished,' never done.  He is new every morning, and His lessons, His grace, His love, His mercy to us are new every morning.  If we don't thirst for living water -- not stagnant water -- we will never know the joy of dancing and of satisfying our thirst with the water of eternal life.

Great is Thy Faithfulness

I tell you the truth: Among those born of women, there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he (Matt.11:11).

 

In the natural realm, I have always admired people like John the Baptist:  extremely dedicated and focused; extremely disciplined; extremely courageous.  John did not arrive on the scene in Galilee after a night of watching Desperate Housewives or How I Met Your Mother (who watches these shows anyway?); he did not come "eating and drinking," according to Jesus, but in fasting and continuous prayer.  He was not afraid to challenge the leading rulers, despite their absolute power over him.  And he was not afraid to call them a "brood of vipers," despite their reputation for absolute purity and holiness.

 

How, then, can Jesus tell his disciples that "the least" in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John the Baptist?  There must be something here that we are missing!

 

Immediately, I think of Therese of Liseux, who thought of herself as the "Little Flower," blooming for the pleasure of the Child Jesus.  She had no strength of her own to "climb the rough stairway of sanctity," as she called it.  But she thought of herself as a toddler in the spiritual life, standing at the bottom of the staircase, trying to lift one foot to the first stair.  She thought of Jesus as a Mother whose heart was full of mercy and compassion for the child, Who descends the stairway to pick up the child and carry it to the top.

 

Jesus called John the Baptist, "the Elijah who was to come," for those who "had ears to hear."  Both Elijah and John were great men of God, filled with the Spirit of Truth, and both were put on a pedestal in Israel to proclaim the truth.  And next to these great men, Jesus did not hesitate to put a child--the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these....anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it (Mark 10:14-15).

 

Our "greatness," according to Jesus, has nothing to do with our wearing camel's hairshirts and preaching, but with our "receiving" the kingdom and not falling away, not growing weary, not giving up.  We can only be "greater" than John the Baptist and Elijah because the Son of God Himself is able to dwell in us to the glory of God the Father, if we keep on allowing Him to do so. 

 

Since we tend to be focused on our own failures and weaknesses, it is hard for us to accept the in-dwelling of Jesus; it seems impossible that He could actually be living in us, with our indifference to the things of heaven.  That is the cross he still bears everyday: our indifference, our weakness, our blindness to the glory of God all around us.  Still, He does not give up; still, everyday, he takes us the cross of our weakness, and continues to the end in us. 

 

He is the Faithful One -- to the Father, and to us.  He will not leave us or abandon us, no matter where we are or what we are doing.  He is committed to seeing this journey through to the end, no matter what it costs Him.  If we could only learn to allow Him to do what He wants to do in us, He "would make our name great," as He did with Abraham, who followed where He led. 

 

Jesus, do in me today what I have no strength to do in myself.  John the Baptist said, "He must increase; I must decrease."  I think this is the secret to "being great" in the kingdom of heaven---not that I have become strong, but that Jesus in me has become strong unto the Father in heaven!

I believe....

To be human is to be graced, the recipient of God's offer of Himself .

(Harvey Egan: Karl Rahner: Mystic of Everyday Life)

 

For Karl Rahner, who has been called the greatest theologian of the 20th century, the most central question for a person -- and for our world-- is this: How is an authentic experience of God possible?  How can I experience what God wants to communicate to me about Himself in an absolute and irreversible way?

 

The reason Rahner devoted his life to teaching theology was, as he said just before he died, "I was convinced that I experienced God directly, and I wish to communicate this experience to others, as well as I can...I have experienced God himself, not human words about him...This experience is truly grace...essentially refused to no one.  One thing remains certain: God can and will deal directly with his creature" (ibid, p. 33).

 

Once a person has experienced the presence of God, according to Rahner, no human argument--whether philosophical, theological, or existential-- has any power to separate or sway him from the grace he has received, or from what God has revealed of himself.  This experience is at the heart of all human existence, and it changes one's life forever!

 

Down through the ages, from the beginning of recorded history, we have the testimony of men and women in every age and time who have experienced this moment of grace -- when they knew beyond all doubt the presence and the love of God.  Abraham, Moses, the prophets, the Jewish people all the way to the New Testament --- and then John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, and all the saints down to our time have this one thing in common:  grace, the self-communication of God to the human soul.

 

Here is how Elizabeth of the Trinity expressed it:  "We carry our heaven within ourselves, because he who satisfies the saints with the light of vision gives himself to us in faith and in mystery.  It's the same thing.  I feel I have found heaven on earth, because heaven is God and God is in my soul.  The day I understood this, a light went on inside me, and I want to whisper this secret to all I love, so that they too, in whatever circumstances, will cling increasingly to God" (1906).

 

Her words remarkably echo those of Karl Rahner -- and of all those whose experience of God's revelation has been recorded, from the beginning to the end of time.  There is a strange and wonderful consistency and unity of expression in those who have experienced grace -- though they have all experienced it in different ways.  Their experience -- and our experience -- is the grounded truth of Jesus' words:  Be not afraid...I am with you always, even unto the consummation of the world!

Christ the King

Knowing some history helps a lot.  All my life, I thought the Feast of Christ the King (last Sunday of November) was just a great, symbolic way of closing out the church year, acknowledging Christ as the King of history, before we began the next cycle of advent. 

Learning the history of when and why this feast was established has made a huge difference in my understanding.  In 1917, the Russian Revolution had established the first of what would be several attempts in Europe at a totalitarian regime, where the individual life would be subsumed by the state.  In 1922, Mussolini marched on Rome to establish his dictatorship over Italy, and the movement toward the same end was beginning to stir in Germany.  In 1925, Pius XI established the Feast of Christ the King to resist the claims of a totalitarian state on human beings, claiming instead the Lordship of Jesus Christ as the only Lordship.

Anyone who has ever watched a movie or read a book about Japanese domination and cruelty during World War II knows the price of resisting an empire bent on subjecting every individual to its rule.  I have not been able to read most accounts of Japanese cruelty -- even toward their own people.  (When Elephants Dance is the account of the American-Japanese conflict in the Philippines.)  But any regime that seeks total control over individual lives must be opposed to the kingdom of Christ.  He, too, seeks to rule individual lives -- but not by cruelty and conquest, only by the willing surrender of love.

The rule of Christ as King is the only anti-dote to terrorism, to the quest to conquer and rule by fear.  In the day of Al-qaida, when men are determined to rule by terror, our only hope is the conversion of terrorists to the kingdom of God.  They seek to establish the kingdom of Allah by fear and force -- a mistake the church itself made centuries ago.  But Jesus -- how did we miss it? -- had already said, "My kingdom is not of this world; if it were, my followers would be fighting that I not be handed over." 

Because we take up arms to defend ourselves against terrorists does not mean we want to establish our own rule or kingdom.  Rather, we want only to establish the freedom for each man and woman and child to find the kingdom of God as he or she is led by the Holy Spirit.  This is the only kingship we seek---the rule of Christ, Who Himself is meek and humble of heart and who does not conquer by cruelty and fear, but only by love.

Profound Gratitude

....to take a sip of water without searing pain
...to lift one's head off the pillow freely
...to be able to sweep the floor, empty the litter box, and wash clothes--

all the gift of God, the blessing of health, a source of wonder!

Ordinarily, our daily chores are not a source of praise and thanksgiving--until we can no longer do them.  We take for granted the gift of pain-free eating and drinking -- until we can no longer do so.  But when the body shuts down, and we can do nothing for ourselves except endure unspeakable pain, we know the goodness of everyday events: getting out of bed in the morning, sipping a cup of coffee, taking a walk, seeing sky, earth, and water.  We even rejoice in our ability to prepare food, to do the laundry, and to sweep a floor.  Everything becomes a source of rejoicing and thanksgiving.

Spiritually, I think it's the same.  We take every gift for granted until we have lost it.  When we "slow down" spiritually even to the point of death, we are awaiting help from the outside.  We have lost all ability to 'save' ourselves, and God seems so far away that we are afraid even to pray.  In our blindness, we are sure that even if God exists, He has no interest in us, in our situation.  We believe that He is 'busy' with bigger things than our welfare -- too bad for us!

This past week, I endured a severe allergic reaction to some food.  My throat closed up, and the pain was greater than I can recall ever having--even after surgery.  I could not take medicine because the pain in my throat was too great to swallow even a sip of water.  For a week, I lay in bed listlessly, unable to do the least thing for myself.  Finally, my husband took me to the clinic, where I received two shots to combat the allergic reaction.  That night, for the first time in a week, I slept a full 3 hours without pain, and woke up feeling refreshed.  Then next day, although still in too much pain to eat or drink anything, I was able to get up and move around -- with a great deal of joy.  And today, though I still cannot speak, I am able at last to drink a cup of coffee again.  What a great gift!

Here's my point:  when I was unable to help myself, someone stepped in to 'save' me: my husband took me to the doctor, who did not think it beneath her dignity or a waste of her time to listen to me and bring her wisdom to bear on my illness.  Nor did she treat me as a 'sinner' because I had gotten myself in this situation and could do nothing to help myself afterwards.  She was gracious and kind and forgiving, even treating me with humor and genuine love.

If Jesus revealed anything at all to us, it was the kindness and mercy of God toward helpless sinners, those who are sick in soul.  He told us about the Father of the prodigal son; from the cross, He cried out, "Father, forgive them.......," the very thing the Father was anxious to do; He healed the sick of body and soul, and those in searing moral pain that prevented them from taking the least sip of healing water; He raised the dead to life again:

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.  All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.....but because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions---it is by grace you have been saved (Ephesians 2:1-5).

 

Sin, by its very nature, alienates us from the Spirit of God, so that we are now afraid 'to go to the doctor seeking a cure for our ills.'  We think the doctor will not receive us because of our sin, or that he is too busy with more important things, or that he just won't care about our concerns.  But the criteria, according to Jesus, is that we are sick!  Until we reach that conclusion ourselves, we have no chance of being healed.  And to be healed is our source of greatest joy and profound gratitude!

We Decide Every Day to Love

"When did you decide to become a priest?" the seminarians asked the older professor of theology.  "This morning, when I got out of bed," he replied. 

According to the priest who told us this story, each one of us must decide every day that we want to be a wife, a husband, a mother, a father, or whatever it is we have taken on with our lives.  If we don't decide every day, we "won't be," as he said.

I think this is right on -- we tend to get distracted by new goals every day, and forget our most basic commitments.  Somehow, I wish I had taken this advice to heart when my children were small--I think I was the most distracted mother on the planet; I was always taken by surprise that my children actually needed me.

Soren Kierkegaard writes of three possible outlooks on life--what he calls the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious.  He says that all of us are born aesthetes, and we can become ethical or religious only through our choices.  According to him, the aesthete does not ask whether something is good or bad, but only whether it is interesting.  Everything is judged as to whether it is fascinating, thrilling, exciting, and entertaining.  In order to live an "interesting" life, the aesthete must cast off society's expectations and "be free."  But Kierkegaard says that the aesthete is not free at all; in fact, he is living the accidental life--he is driven by his temperament, tastes, feelings, and impulses.  He is controlled by circumstances, so that whenever something is no longer "interesting," the aesthete begins to feel that it is pointless.

According to Kierkegaard, only when we commit ourselves to loving day in and day out do we cease to be a pawn of outside forces; only when we continue to love when it is not thrillling can we actually be said to be loving the other person, and not the feelings and experiences they give us.

When Jesus says, "Love one another as I have loved you," He is not commanding us to have warm feelings, affection, or approval of one another.  He is commanding us to act in love toward one another.  Our feelings are notoriously inconsistent; our behavior need not be.  We do not need to feel love in order to give it -- in order to seek the good of the other person.

If we act in love, we establish the feelings of love -- this is a great mystery in a world that is so afraid of "being hypocritical."    If we injure someone we dislike, we will dislike him even more; if we do him a favor, we will dislike him less.  So the Christian who is trying to love his neighbor despite how he feels about his neighbor, finds himself liking more and more people as time goes on.

Jesus did not speak much about "going to heaven," but about the kingdom of God "among us."  And He knew how that would come about -- if all of us act as if we love one another, we will create and sustain the kingdom on earth.