The Pearl of Great Price

The Kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls.  When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it (Matt. 13:46).

 

Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent (Jn. 17:3).

 

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Jesus told Martha that she was anxious about many things, but "only one thing is necessary."  If we want to know that 'one thing,' the "Pearl of Great Price," a good place to begin would be to read the Gospel of John seven times until it sinks deeply into our hearts and minds.  The first time we read it, I think maybe it would be good to read it quickly, without really trying to absorb it -- just read it for information, even though I really don't recommend reading the Bible for information.  In this case, however, we know that we will be reading the same Gospel again and again, so the first time is an overview, to get a bird's -eye view.  The initial reading prepares us to see and make connections during the subsequent readings.

 

In Jesus' great prayer to His Father, the night before He dies, He says, "This is eternal life: that they may know you...."   This is the "one thing necessary," of which He spoke to Martha.  For He told a parable about those who will say on "that day," "Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?"  And His answer is "I never knew you." 

 

The Pearl of Great Price is knowing God and the One He has sent, Jesus Christ.

 

Without that knowledge, all our service is in vain.  We may think we are good people if we are serving the poor, or casting out demons, but if our service is not the fruit of the true Vine, we are, as Paul said, "clanging cymbals."  As for good works, they must be the overflow of the Spirit of Jesus Christ dwelling in us:  Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good...all these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each man, just as he determines (1 Cor. 12: 7&11).

 

So it is not what we are doing that brings about the kingdom of God, but only what the indwelling Jesus, the only One who can establish the kingdom, is doing in us and through us.  When we know Him, and He knows us, the kingdom of God arrives through the Spirit He gives us.  When Paul commends the Macedonian churches for their generosity, he says, "...they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will" (2 Cor. 8:5). 

 

That is the pattern of the kingdom of God:  For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do (Eph. 2:10)....for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose (Phil. 2:13).

 

Everyone sooner or later seems to ask, "What is the purpose of my life?"  "What am I supposed to be doing?"  The answer is the Pearl of Great Price --- draw close to God, and He will draw close to you, and then, and only then, will the Spirit of God begin to work in you and through you to establish on earth "His will, as it is in heaven."

When We Pray

Many, if not most, of us save our praying for a time of crisis or danger.  We tend to turn to God when our own resources have run out; when there is no hope, when no one else can help us.

But how wonderful it would be to know our Helper at every moment of our lives!  What a blessing it would be for the Incarnate Word to be present in the smallest moments of our lives -- even those we think we are 'capable' of handling on our own.  To have a true Partner in life is what we were meant for--although, like two-year-olds, we always want to "do it myself."

When Mary and Joseph traveled from Nazareth to Bethlehem for the census, with Mary 9 months pregnant, they were hoping to find lodging among Joseph's relatives in Bethlehem or the surrounding area.  On the way, they had to rely on God at every moment.  They had to be in prayer constantly for protection, for food, for shelter. 

We are no different.  No matter how simple the day appears, we also are on a journey, and we need the constant 'hovering' of the Holy Spirit over our lives.  Psalm 103 is a song of praise, thanksgiving, and petition for God's constant Presence in our lives:

Praise the Lord, O my soul;

All my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Praise the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.

 

He forgives all my sins

and heals all my diseases;

he redeems my life from the pit

and crowns me with love and compassion.

He satisfies my desires with good things,

so that my youth is renewed like the eagle's.

 

Here is a wonderful Psalm to start us on the way of Lectio Divina.  If we read it the first time, we may tend to gloss over its deeper implications and go on.  But if we slow down and read it a second time, letting each word and phrase sink deeply into our souls, pondering each phrase as Mary keeping all these things in her heart, then we really begin to pray -- and not just read -- the Psalm. 

 

Suddenly, Scripture becomes "ours."  It is "my" soul we are talking about; it is "my" sins the Lord has forgiven and "my" diseases" He has healed.  It is "my" life He has redeemed from the pit, and "my" life He has crowned with love and compassion.

 

When we pray the Psalms on a daily basis, we begin to connect them to whatever large or small daily events are happening in our lives.  And the joy of discovering that God is present and active in those events is priceless!  Here is where our faith leaps, when we discover that we are not alone.  Prayer is simply giving God an opportunity to flow into the situations of our lives -- opening a 'window,' as I wrote yesterday, to the Divine Presence. 

 

A friend of mine has been struggling with a family situation for years.  It has kept her on edge and upset, even losing sleep.  Sometimes the situation fades into the background, but always comes back again and is never settled.  Finally, after listening to her talk about this situation for several years, I began earnestly to seek God's answer for her.  Morning after morning, a particular psalm would come to me, and I began passing on the psalms to her.  She too began to read the psalms on her own -- and then, suddenly at Mass one day, a solution came to her with a peace that passes all understanding.  She followed through on the solution she was given and was amazed at the peace it brought to her as well as to the situation.  God has been waiting all this time for a window through which He could enter the situation, but no one in the family was ever willing to open the window for Him. 

 

We need every single day to open a window for God, no matter how "small" the situation may seem.  I have learned to pray even when I run out of mulch in my big yard:  Lord, I need more mulch now.  I know people would tell me that there are hungry children and wars for God to be attending to, that in the grand scale of things, my mulch is totally unimportant to God.  I smile, knowing how small is my request, but also knowing that my small request takes nothing away from the larger scale of hungry children and wars.  And very soon, my doorbell rings.  Here is the man with pine straw, who needs my money to feed his family.  Or here is my next-door-neighbor with 16 bags of leaves he raked out of his yard -- do I want the leaves?  He is happy to dispose of them, and I am happy to get them.

 

If He cares that I have a supply of mulch, I know he cares that I have also my daily bread and peace in my family.  When we pray about small things, and God shows Himself present in our lives, we then have the faith to pray also about the big things, knowing God's love and concern for us is real.

 



Opening a Window

Although I have been writing about Lectio Divina for several days, and although that method of prayer has freed people for centuries to respond to the Presence and Power of God in their lives, there is always a danger of reducing prayer to a "method," no matter how wonderful the method may be.  If we continually hold before us the image of a close relationship -- husband to wife, friend to friend, etc. -- we will know that our relationship to God simply means that we continue to keep a window open to His Presence in our lives.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel (love his name!) speaks of the Sabbeth as a 'window on eternity."  What a great image!  And Sr. Miriam Pollard, in The Laughter of God, refers to prayer also as a "window" that allows God into our lives.  Nothing could be more simple than that.  If we sit for 15 minutes a day, simply "opening a window" to eternity, our lives will forever change.  Will not the Lord of the Universe flow into our lives if we give Him an opening?  Jesus compared the Holy Spirit to the wind that blows where it wills, to something that we cannot control, but only observe.  If we "Open the windows of our souls," He will surely refresh us with His gentle breath and strong breeze to blow away the debris that clutters our lives.

We don't really need a method, although we do need to experiment to find what works for us.  More than a method, we need to give God an opening to our hearts and minds.  Scripture works to open the window because it has been revealed by God and because it is not dependent on our fears and failures; it is not tied to our history, but instead opens our personal history to the light of revelation.

Paul Billheimer, in Destined to Overcome, puts it this way:

A few hours alone with God can open up treasures of wisdom and knowledge in Christ which may have eluded one during years of purely academic training.  Christ is the original source of all knowledge.  One may learn much about Christ and spiritual things from the written and recorded works of others, but that is 'second-hand' knowledge, which is not to be despised.  But if one is willing to spend time along with God and make prayer the main business of his life, he may tap the original source of all wisdom and knowledge for himself (p. 80).

 

And Jesus Calling for July 28: 

 

Open yourself fully to My transforming Presence.  Let My brilliant Love-Light search out and destroy hidden fears.  This process requires time alone with Me, as My Love soaks into your innermost being.  Enjoy My perfect Love, which expels every trace of fear.

 

Anyone who has ever experienced fear -- and who among us has not?--- will run to Someone whose Presence promises to cast out fear from our hearts.  And this is exactly what Jesus promises us.  No other religion, except Buddhism, has made that promise.  And the difference between Christianity and Buddhism is that, in Christianity, Jesus says simply, "Come to me," and He will do it in us.  In Buddhism, we must discipline ourselves and practice for years turning out fear for ourselves.    Since I have never been a person of discipline and self-control, and since I have experienced for myself the Power and Presence of Jesus Christ in my life, I know my Savior and the Source of all my peace, and He is the only One Who holds in His hands the power of life and of death.  If I but "open a window" to His Presence, He will do all the rest.

 



Nourishing the Spirit Within -- Part 4

Attentiveness to me is not only for your quiet time, but for all your time.  As you look to Me, I show you what to do now and next.  Vast quantities of time and energy are wasted in obsessive planning.  When you let Me direct your steps, you are set free to enjoy Me and to find what I have prepared for you this day -- from Jesus Calling, July 26.

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In all thy ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct thy paths (Prov.3:6).

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When and if we begin to study the Bible, it soon becomes difficult and complex, and many of us readily give it up as too difficult to understand.  But one way to rejuvenate our interest and enthusiasm for the Word of God is to let Him feed us.  Most of us do not or cannot just relax with the Bible on our laps and allow the Holy Spirit to direct our reading.  We go at it as if it were a lesson to be learned or studied through our own efforts.

 

I recall once going into a restaurant in Rome.  The menu, of course, was in Italian, and though I have studied Latin and thus could recognize a few language roots, by no means did I understand what foods the menu referred to.  Then the owner of the restaurant appeared and said, "Let me feed you!"  What followed was a meal to be remembered forever!  I put myself in his hands, knowing that he was going to serve me the best he had, the "specialite of the house," the pride of his hands and heart.  I went home that evening not only wonderfully fed, but also carrying a brand new bottle of apricot liquor, a gift from the owner -- because he saw my appreciation of that drink.

 

Would Our Lord do less if we put ourselves in His hands and said, "Feed me the best of the house!"  Give me to drink of your finest wine and to eat of your finest wheat!"  Would we not leave our time of prayer filled to capacity with the best He can offer us?

 

Here is a time-tested way to approach Lectio Divina, letting the Holy Spirit take the lead:

 

1.  Recognize that Lectio Divina is a dance with four movements, an exchange between God and man.  When God takes the lead, do not insist on going through the steps in order, but let Him decide what you will do next.

 

2.  Agree to be still between movements of the dance, and to give room to God to take the lead.

 

3.  As you open your Bible, ask the Holy Spirit to show you what you need to read today.  Then, attend quietly to the passage he shows you.  Notice anything that is going on within you as you read-- any images, memories, or experiences that come to mind.

 

4.  Respond to the direction of the Holy Spirit with prayer from the words of Scripture or from what is arising in your heart.  Or just let your heart move without words, in openness to the movement of the Spirit.  Rest in the Lord Who is feeding you from His word and His Spirit.

 

The four movements of the dance are called Lectio, meditatio, oratio, and contemplatio.  It is a journey from the words on the page (lectio,) to a searching out the meaning from the Holy Spirit (meditatio), to prayer/ response (oratio),  and finally to resting in the gift of God's presence (contemplatio).  It is a movement from conversation to contemplation.

 

When we allow God to feed us at His table -- Your words, O Lord, are spirit and they are life! --we come away richly fed.  No one ever need go hungry when they come to the Lord's table, and He will certainly never turn anyone away from His banquet.

Soul Food-- Nourishing the Spirit: Part 3

As you listen to birds calling to one another, hear also My Love-call to you. 

I speak to you continually: through sights, sounds, thoughts, impressions, Scripture.

There is no limit to the variety of ways I can communicate with you. 

Your part is to be attentive to My messages, in whatever form they come.

When you set out to find me in a day, you discover that the world is vibrantly alive with My Presence.

You can find Me not only in beauty and birdcalls, but also in tragedy and faces filled with grief.

I can take the deepest sorrow and weave it into a pattern for good.

 

Search for Me and My messages, as you go through this day.  You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with your whole being (Jer. 29:13).

--Jesus Calling, July 25--

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During the 1970's we owned a house in Waveland, Mississippi, where we would take the children for a weekend, or during the summer, for a week or more.  The house was about a half-mile or so from the beach.  One day, I was returning from the beach and very conscious of the presence of God in creation.  Jesus Christ spoke to me in my heart saying, "Let me show you the world My Father made."  Suddenly, the world around me became even more alive with beauty and sound -- the colors of the bushes, the sky, the trees; the sound and movement of birds and the wind; the feel of dust between my toes and the touch of grass -- everything seemed to be moving and alive and even singing a song of praise and thanksgiving to the Creator of heaven and earth.

 

In a sense, that moment of awakening to the beauty of the world remains with me to this day.  God still speaks to me in the wind and the trees and the sky and the birds each day.  Whenever I see a blue heron standing by the water's edge, I am reminded of the poem that began this blog three years ago:

 

When no one listens

To the quiet trees,

When no one notices

The sun in the pool;

 

When no one feels

The first drop of rain,

Or sees the last star;

 

Or hails the first morning

Of a giant world

Where the peace begins

And rages end:

 

One bird sits still

Watching the work of God:

One turning leaf,

Two falling blossoms,

Ten circles upon the pond.

(Source unknown)

 

Yesterday, I wrote about Lectio Divina, not as a method of reading or of praying, but as an attitude of expectation that God wants to speak to us and as a way of listening for His Voice.  All of Scripture tells us that God will fill us with the finest of wheat, that He will pasture His sheep in green pastures and beside still waters, that He will prepare a table for us in the midst of our enemies.  When we walk with God, as did Enoch; when we sit with God, as did Deborah; when we stand with God, as did Abraham, He will surely feed our souls as well as our bodies. 

 

 Jesus taught us to pray for "our daily bread," but He also told us that man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God.  When we expect God to speak to us, to teach us, to lead and guide us every single day of our lives, we shall eat at the table of the Lord; in the words of the Good Shepherd: they (the sheep of His Pasture) shall go in and come out and find pasture -- or soul food.

 

More tomorrow on the Table of the Lord-- Nourishing the Spirit, Part 4.

Nourishing the Spirit -- Part 2

One of the best ways we can strengthen the Spirit/spirit within us is prayer --- not "saying prayers," so much as "praying" -- or breathing in and out the Spirit which nourishes our own spirit.

Prayer is not what we do so much as it is connecting with the Spirit of God.  As David Brenner says in his book Opening to God, prayer is opening our own spirits to the work that God Himself wants to do in us.  Whoever we are as persons, God wants to do His work in us, just as He did and does in creation in the beginning and now -- pushing back the darkness and filling us with light, moving things around, building a foundation for His own place of dwelling.

One of the very best ways to pray is the ancient monastic practice of lectio divina, literally "divine reading," or "spiritual reading."  Our minds are filled daily with 'junk,' so to speak, that keeps us from hearing the Voice of God speaking to us.  When we try to read Scripture, the junk in our heads keeps Scripture from speaking to us personally, for we are reading it the way we read history, literature, or philosophy.  We think about it, argue with it, disagree with it, or treat it as culturally irrelevant to our times. 

But lectio divina is a way of prayerfully engaging with Scripture in order to hear God's personal word to us.  It comes to us from the earliest days of Christianity, with roots in Judaism.  Jews have always had two ways of engaging with the Torah.  The first is informational and analytical -- the way we read today -- and seeks to understand the meaning of the text.  The second way is subjective, seeking the deeper and more personal spiritual meaning.

In the 3rd century, Origin described a way of approaching the Scriptures for the purpose of finding a personal message from God.  Shortly afterwards, St. Benedict made lectio divina central to Western monasticism. This practice is not so much as "method" of reading Scripture as an expectation when we read Scripture.  It arises out of a desire not only to hear the words of Scripture, but to hear the Word of God to us today. 

Most people will read Scripture for insights, eternal truths, and precepts for living.  But in lectio divina, we seek not information or motivation, but communion and union with Jesus Christ, Who is the Eternal Word of God.   When Jesus encountered people on His journeys through Palestine, He spoke to each one the word they needed to hear to respond to God's invitation to come closer.  To Mary Magadalene, He spoke the word which delivered her from 7 demons; to Peter, James, and John, He said, "Come, follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."  To the woman at the well, He said, "I will give you a spring of water welling up to eternal life." 

Our question today is "What does the Word of God want to speak to me today?"  Is it a word of strength, of comfort, of Truth?  Is it a word of direction, of guidance, of peace and joy?  In reading the Scriptures, we seek not information as much as God Himself in our hearts and minds.  We attend to the Word as a way of opening our hearts and minds to God's Living Word to us right now.  Lectio Divina treats Scripture not as a text to be studied, or as a set of truths to be grasped, but as the Living word of God-- alive and active, fresh and new.

It is not so much a way of reading as a way of listening.  The posture it encourages is more passive than active.  We don't need to force ourselves to stay awake and attentive to the words on the page; we need to be still and even sleep, if that comes, in the Presence of God.  We are waiting for the Gift of God that Jesus promised us.  We are waiting for the Voice of God, communicated through the Scriptures and revealed by the Holy Spirit.  We are opening our hearts to God, Who speaks to us in various ways.

In the church of St. Clement of Rome in Metairie, there is a statue of Mary, Spouse of the Holy Spirit. She is clasping to her breast a dove with wings outstretched.  That image is perfect for this concept of prayer.  In Lectio Divina, we are reaching for the Spirit of God, Who will lead us into all truth -- but it is a communion of Spirit to spirit, not a matter of understanding and study.

Tomorrow I will write more about this way of praying and listening.

Nourishing the Spirit Within Us

As men, we are made up of body, soul, and spirit.  We do not last very long at all if we fail to nourish the body; in Mazlow's "Hierarchy of Needs," that comes first -- taking care of physical needs. 

The "soul," or as the Greeks called it, the "psyche," is comprised of mind and emotions.
Most of us in the 21st century have at least a basic education, which helps to nourish the mind if not the emotions.  As we feed our minds, our emotions often come under some kind of control also, but not always.  Some people are highly developed intellectually, but they never really learn emotional control, because our emotions are not rational.  We, like St. Paul in the seventh chapter of Romans, can say, "In my inner being, I delight in the Law of God, but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of the sin at work within my members....I do not understand what I do.  For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do...As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me.  What a wretched man I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death?...in my mind, I am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin."

If we agree with Paul that the mind is not strong enough to keep us from "the law of sin at work in our members," then what is the solution?  Educating the mind is not enough to keep us from sin and spiritual death.  We nourish the body, but a healthy body is not enough.  We nourish the mind, but a highly developed intellect is not enough.  How many of us realize that we must also nourish the spirit that is within us?

Proverbs 4:23 says this:  Guard well your heart, for out of it flow all the issues of life.

When the Bible uses the word "heart," it is not speaking of the emotions, as we so often do.  It is referring to the spirit that God has put within mankind -- His own Spirit.  When God created Adam, He "blew into his nostrils the breath ("ruah") of life, and man became a living being" (Gen. 2:7).  Now the "breath"/ (ruah in Hebrew) is not the mind or emotions; it is the very breath, or life, of God Himself, His own Spirit.  It is our life-principle; when the breath departs from us, we die.  It is not the body; it is not the psyche--the mind and emotions; it is our spirit, God's breath in us.

Yet man lives his entire life without acknowledging his own spirit -- what the Bible calls man's "heart."  We fail to nourish the life God has given us, the part of us that is most like Him and that enables us to commune with God Himself.  And so, even though we live, we are also dying spiritually.  And dying spiritually, we fail to really live, for "out of [our hearts] flow all the issues of life."  "The mind of the sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace" (Romans 8:6)....."for you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.  And by him, we cry "Abba, Father" (8:15).

Daily we are dying spiritually, or daily we are growing stronger spiritually as we nourish and feed the spirit God has given us.  If we do not know how to nourish the spirit within us, let us ask the Father of our spirits, the One who has birth to our souls and hearts.  He will not fail to answer us, for what parent does not want his child to grow strong and healthy?

Authentic Presence

I love the entry today from Jesus Calling:

Find freedom through seeking to please Me above all else.  You can have only one Master.  When you let others' expectations drive you, you scatter your energy to the winds.  Your own desire to look good can also drain your energy.  I am your Master, and I do not drive you to be what you are not.  Your pretense displeases Me, especially when it is in My 'service.'  Concentrate on staying close to Me at all times.  It is impossible to be inauthentic while you are focusing on My Presence.

 

It seems to me that if every minister of any church would focus on remaining in the Presence of Jesus Christ, all inauthentic practice, and all scandals would disappear.  Of course, we know and understand human nature.  For many people, ministry sooner or later becomes a job instead of a ministry -- and when our lives are taken over by our "jobs," we are no longer authentic, for the demands of the job soon become our masters. 

 

We have to look good in front of those who are looking to us for leadership -- and that often determines our choices.  Or, we know we have power over others, and maintaining that authority becomes more important than service.  Our image becomes our Master, and we serve that image above all else. 

 

When I worked at Delgado as a classroom teacher, I was always seeking ways we could improve student learning and student success.  Often that search caused some conflict among the faculty, as none of us really knew how to overcome the problems we faced in trying to teach students who were not always ready to learn.  I remember once when the Office of Department Chair became open, and some of the faculty members came to me asking if I would apply for the position. 

 

On the one hand, I felt that I could provide leadership for the department; on the other, I felt that the expectations of the college administration would drive every choice I made, and that I would be so overwhelmed that I would lose my passion for student learning.  I prayed for several days about whether to apply for Department Chair.  One day, in a very quiet moment in the Adoration Chapel at St. Clement of Rome Church, a strong voice spoke to me from within the depths of my soul:  Do not assume a burden too heavy for you to carry!

 

That was my answer, and with it came a profound peace and rest.  I no longer felt pressured by the expectations of other people for me to assume leadership because the Voice had confirmed my own fears of losing myself in the demands of the job.

 

I did not receive an increase in salary -- one motivation that could have driven my decision;

I did not receive honor from those around me; I did not assume importance in the eyes of men.  I remained a classroom teacher focused entirely on the needs of my students -- the very thing I always thought I was called to do.  When Jesus says, "I do not drive you to be what you are not," it reminds me of His teaching, "My yoke is easy and my burden is light." 

 

To know the truth of His teaching is, as the ad says, "Priceless!"  To allow ourselves the freedom of following His Voice, His direction, and not to be driven by the expectations of others or the allure of greater wealth or the ambitions of our own flesh is one of the greatest gifts given to mankind.  No wonder we sing and dance for joy when He is our only Master and Teacher!

Caught Between Two Worlds

...for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. 

Everyone who is of the truth listens to me (Jesus before Pilate--Jn. 18:37).

 

Pilate is caught between two worlds, and he is afraid.  He tries to set Jesus free because hi s wife has been warned in a dream about this innocent man -- and also because he recognizes in Jesus the word of truth.  He knows, he senses, that Jesus is not only innocent, but also speaks the truth when he says that He is a king -- but His kingdom is no threat to the kings of this world.  Pilate says, "I find no basis for a charge against him."

 

Pilate begins to be afraid when he asks Jesus if He is the king of the Jews -- obviously a charge brought against Him by the Sanhedrin.  If Jesus says, "Yes," He speaks the truth, but He also in the eyes of the world makes a claim against the kingship of Caesar, which then justifies his execution.  If He says, "No," then He perjures Himself, for in truth, He is a King.

 

"Are you the king of the Jews?" Pilate asks.

"Are you asking for yourself?" Jesus replies; "Or have others said this about me?"

 

Depending on Pilate's answer to this question, Jesus will answer him.  Depending on our answer to Jesus, He will also answer us.  If we are asking for ourselves, if we want to know the Truth, we will hear His voice in answer to us---Everyone who is of the truth listens to Me.  If we care nothing for Truth, but just want to challenge and question and condemn, then we will receive no answer at all.  Nicodemus received one of the world's greatest answers in response to his question of Jesus; the Sanhedrin heard no response at all from Him.

 

Jesus came into the world to testify to us and in us the Truth.  But we can receive the Truth only insofar as we are receptive to it.  When Pilate asked his question of Jesus, he was partially receptive, because of his wife's dream--and the Truth was revealed to him by an inner witness:  You are a king, then!

 

Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king."  And then, after Pilate hears from the Jews that "he must die, because He claimed to be the Son of God," he knew the truth and was even more afraid.  It was not that Pilate did not believe Jesus; his problem was that he was caught between two worlds.  If he allowed Jesus to go free, he would be "opposing Caesar," in the words of the Jews.  His own life hung in the balance.  He could not oppose Caesar, even though he recognized that Jesus spoke the Truth.  That is why he ordered the inscription above the cross: Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews, and he would not remove or change the inscription.  If questioned, he could also claim the sign was a mockery, but in his heart, he knew it to be the Truth.

 

Like Pilate, we are also often caught and squeezed between two worlds.  If we acknowledge Jesus as King, the world mocks, hates, and condemns us as fools.  If we pretend we don't know that He is King, we are respected by the world but condemned in our hearts.  If we are not "of the Truth," we cannot hear His Voice and cannot listen to Him in the depths of our souls.

 

The choice is ours.  May we not crucify the Son of Man all over again because we are caught between two worlds -- the world of appearances and the world of Truth.

Beginning With the End in Mind

When I was teaching, I gradually learned that I had to begin a lesson with the end uppermost in my mind:  Why did I want the students to learn this?  What would they be expected to do with this information?  and finally, I had to ask:  How can they learn this material?  (which is a different question from "How can I teach this material?"

If we approach our lives with the end in mind, I find that a lot of potential problems can be avoided or at least lessened.  The "end" of our lives on this earth will usher us into another kind of life that consists of communion with God and with one another.  So along the way, in this life, we must become the kind of people who can enjoy communion with God and with one another.  And then, of course, the question arises:  How can we learn to be the kind of person who enjoys communing with God and with others? 

Immediately, we are faced with so many obstacles to learning to be that kind of person.  First of all, God seems to many people to be somewhat-- if not entirely -- distant and not involved in our daily lives.  That inherent lie of Satan, a common belief throughout all mankind, must be "educated" out of our system.  Until we learn to communicate and to receive communication with God, we will not learn to communicate with one another either.

St. Paul tells us that "in Him, we live and move and have our very being," and yet we are not aware of God's presence in our lives.  Yet, He is waiting, waiting, waiting to let us know that He is here.  Our problem is that we cannot seem to "make space" in our lives for Him.  We are trained to multi-task to get more done; if we are not busy with responsibilities and things to do, we keep ourselves busy with entertainment -- radio, tv, movies, games, exercise, hobbies.  Who makes time to listen to God communicating with us?  If some idea goes through our minds that might be the Voice of God speaking to us, we question where that idea came from.  We imagine it came from our own imaginations, and we dismiss it without reflection.

To begin communing with God, all that is necessary is to "Be still, and know that I am God."  He will do the rest, for He is more anxious to speak with us than we are with Him.  In the beginning of Isaiah (chapter 8),  Isaiah tells the people of Jerusalem:  "When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists, who whisper and mutter, should not a people inquire of their God?  Why consult the dead on behalf of the living?  ....Distressed and hungry, they will roam through the land; when they are famished, they will become enraged and looking upward, will curse their king and their God.  Then they will look toward the earth and see only darkness and distress and fearful gloom and they will be thrust into utter darkness."

A great contrast to Isaiah's image is Psalm 25:  Good and upright is the Lord;

Therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.

He guides the humble in what is right

and teaches them his way....

 

Who, then, is the man that fears the Lord?

He will instruct him in the way chosen for him.

He will spend his days in prosperity,

and his descendants will inherit the land.

The Lord confides in those who fear him;

He makes his covenant known to them.

My eyes are ever on the Lord,

for only he will release my feet from the snare.

 

If someone could only convince us that God wants to, and is able to, "confide in those who fear Him," I wonder how much "darkness and distress and fearful gloom" could be avoided in our lives.  How then can we make space for God in our lives?  How can we make room for the 'still small voice' that Elijah heard whispering in the cave?  If we never want to hear God speaking to us in the quiet places of our hearts, we will probably not want to hear Him speaking to us after our death either. 

 

Jesus said, "My sheep know My Voice, and they will not follow another."  I pray that each one of us learn to hear His Voice guiding and teaching and leading us this day.



Whose World? Which World?

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him....This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil....whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God (Jn. 3:16-21). 

 

As I go through my days, I listen to people tell me of so many different "worlds" in which they live that it often weighs me down and makes me sad. 

 

I listen to those who suffer from loneliness and depression, those whose world hates them and is determined to somehow harm them, and I think of David, who experienced the wrath of Saul and who had to spend part of his life hiding in caves, being pursued by Saul's army.  In Psalm 25, David writes:

 

To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul;

in you I trust, O my God.

Do not let me be put to shame,

nor let my enemies triumph over me.

 

No one whose hope is in you will ever be put to shame,

but they will be put to shame

who are treacherous without excuse.....

 

My eyes are ever on the Lord,

for only He will release my feet from the snare.

 

Turn to me and be gracious to me,

for I am lonely and afflicted.

The troubles of my heart have multiplied;

free me from my anguish.

Look upon my affliction and my distress

and take away all my sins.

 

See how my enemies have increased

and how fiercely they hate me!

Guard my life and rescue me;

let me not be put to shame,

for I take refuge in you.

 

May integrity and uprightness protect me,

because my hope is in you.

 

Why on earth did God allow David, His "anointed," His "chosen" to experience the kind of sorrow and grief that David had to go through in his young adulthood?  Why did the young man have to flee to the wilderness in fear of his life and hide out in caves night and day, knowing that he was a hunted man -- so much so that he could not even leave a cave to get water when he was thirsty?  Maybe for the same reason that God allows each one of us to experience sorrow and suffering -- so that we can say with David:  I was hard - pressed and was falling, but the Lord helped me....He reached down 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 (Ps. 18:16-19).

 

Jesus said to Nicodemus:  "Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life" (Jn. 3:14-15).  In other words, Jesus is not "waiting' for us get to heaven, but He has come into our world, our desert, our wilderness of pain and suffering and has allowed Himself to be cast down and overcome by our pain and grief in order that He can take us up again into His world of peace, of joy, of truth, of fellowship with the Father and the Spirit.

,

When I listen to people speak of their pain and loneliness, their grief and inescapable sorrow, I want to say to them, "God has so loved your world that He has sent His only Son...not to condemn, but to save....The Light has come into your world....to deliver you from its pain."

 

The reading today from Jesus Calling is this:  The more aware you are of My Presence, the safer you feel.  This is not some sort of escape from reality; it is tuning in to the ultimate reality.  I am far more Real than the world you can see, hear, and touch.  Faith is the confirmation of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality, perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.

 



If we would be convinced of the reality of Divine Providence and Care for us, we must not believe that the world we see and experience through the senses is the only world.  There is another world that controls this one; it is the world of Divine Protection and Promise.  And Jesus Christ is the entrance, the door to that world, if we but come to Him with faith.  David experienced in the wilderness a Real Presence, a Real Protection from Saul's army.  Will the Lord do less for us than He did for David?

 

A good beginning is to read Psalm 25 with thanksgiving in our hearts for the deliverance that God is sending to us.



From Shame to Sacrament

In the marvelous book The Shack by Paul Young, the Person representing the Holy Spirit asks the main character for help in clearing a patch of land for a garden.  The land is a mess, filled with debris and stones, and it must be cleared of trash and then worked on before anything can be planted in it.  Later, Mackenzie discovers that the patch of land is his soul:  You have to take the time to prepare the soil if you want it to embrace the seed (page 178).

Later on in the book, Mackenzie apologizes to Papa [i.e. God the Father] for having thought so ill of Him/Her for so long.  Then Papa opens Mackenzie's heart and lets him in on a life-changing secret:

Let's say, for example, that I am trying to teach you how not to hide inside of lies...and let's say that I know it will take you forty-seven situations and events before you will actually hear me---that is, before you will hear clearly enough to agree with me and change.  So when you don't hear me the first time, I'm not frustrated or disappointed; I'm thrilled.  Only forty-six more times to go.  And that first time is a building block to construct a bridge of healing that one day...you will walk across (189).

 

Jesus came to dwell in our flesh, in our world, so that we could learn to walk with Him step-by-step through this world that we know to His world, the Trinitarian Life that we do not yet know.  And when we get there, His world must be familiar to us; we must feel truly that it is our world --the one in which we belong.  We must feel at home in His world. 

 

So how do we make the transition from this world to His?  He is walking us home, and along the way, our shame is the lesson that allows us to "let go" of the world we know -- the world of ambition, of screaming and manipulation, the world of inflicting pain on others so that we can get our own way-- to the way of love, of respect, of waiting for the other.  As Richard Rohr puts it, "There is Someone dancing with you, and you are not afraid of making mistakes."

 

The Father and the Spirit entered creation (once we had shut them out) again in the flesh of Jesus Incarnate -- born of the Virgin.  They were present in His birth, in His life, and in His death.  And His birth, life, and death was ours -- He took on our existence on this earth in order that, united with Him, we might take on His existence in the Father and the Spirit. 

 

Our sins, our shame tend to push us away from the holiness, the goodness, the peace and the joy of the Holy Trinity.  But He is not satisfied with our shame; He could not wait for us to come back to Him -- He went after us with passion in the Person of Jesus.  And in Mary Magdalene, in Matthew the tax-collector, in the lepers, the blind, the lame, in the woman at the well, He said, "Come with Me; I will bring you home."  Martin Luther said that God makes theologians by sending them to hell.  What we learn in hell is that we want out.  We learn desperation for life, for healing, for salvation.  We learn our need for a Savior when we learn we cannot save ourselves.  We don't need theology; we need deliverance from our shame.

 

Like the sinners in the Gospel, our shame becomes the sacrament of finding our Savior, the One sent from God to lift us up out of the pit of darkness and despair.  Once we taste the joy of Life, we can never again descend into the pit of despair.  Once we are covered with the mantle of joy, we can never again return to the chains of slavery.  Our God is a patient God; only He knows how long it will take us to finally clasp His hand and say, "I am home!"

What is My Vocation?

What am I called to do and given as a mission from God? 

I asked myself this question this morning as I sat on my porch with a cup of coffee.  "Open your eyes and look," came the answer almost immediately.  As soon as I opened my eyes, I understood.  Adam was given the one command by God:  Tend the garden.  As I looked out at my garden, I saw areas of beauty, but I also saw areas that needed attention:  there were weeds disturbing the harmony of some beds; there was overgrowth coming from places that were invading the beds; there were dry and barren spots where nothing could grow, and there were some plants that were struggling to survive because they were in the wrong spot -- too much water, not enough sun, etc.

Immediately, I knew the answer to my question.  All of us are called to tend the gardens of our lives.  Where there is beauty, we must protect it and nurture it, overseeing the plants that are not yet strong enough to stand on their own.  Where there is damage, we are called to repair it; sometimes it requires transplanting, or moving, people from the danger that threatens their existence.  Whenever we can, we must remove the weeds that threaten to choke out growing souls -- and we must give them room to develop into what they were designed to become.

Jesus called his disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to cure every kind of disease and sickness..."Go to the lost sheep of Israel.  As you go, preach this message: 'The kingdom of heaven is near.' Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons....He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me" (Matt. 10).

Jesus told the Apostles that whatever town they went to, they should search for a worthy person and say, "Peace be to your household."  If that man was a man of God, he would receive peace; if not, the peace would return to the Apostles. 

I cannot think of more clear instructions for all of us:  Tend the garden, wherever you are; protect the tender; drive out the weeds; where there is barrenness, fill it with beauty.  Smooth over the rough spots, and be a man of peace to all around you.  My neighbor and I once had a conversation about what God wanted us to do, and he said, "Maybe what God wants you to do is to tend the garden and be a delightful neighbor."  Words of wisdom!

A Prophet for Our Time

Malala's 17-minute speech to the United Nations Assembly may be one of the world's greatest speeches.  If Thomas Paine's "Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death" speech galvanized the fledging colonies to spearhead the American Revolution, then Malala's speech to the world at large should also change the world as we know it today.

A sixteen - year - old girl chosen by God to be a prophet for our times -- much as Jeanne D'Arc was a prophet for her day.  It amazes me, as a student of the Bible, how God always raises up someone to speak powerfully to the issues of the day when the whole world seems to have gone astray.  The Book of Judges shows the pattern -- the most unlikely men and women are called by God to lead a nation back into the path of righteousness.  In this case, Malala may lead not only a nation, but the world to truth. 

In Biblical history, a prophet was not someone who foretold the future, but someone who interpreted current events from the standpoint of God.  The word "prophet" in the Greek form originally meant the same as the Hebrew word "Nabi," an interpreter or mouthpiece of God.  In the Old Testament, the prophet was commonly called "a man of God," someone who could speak to the nation on God's behalf, the interpreter of His will and His design for the nation.  Whenever Israel as a nation was puzzled about which course of action to pursue, they waited for the appearance of a "man of God" to help them decide.

Anyone who listens to the entire 17 minutes of Malala's speech cannot doubt that she 'speaks for God."  Her message is coherent with all of the great spiritual leaders -- Jesus, Mohammed, Martin Luther King, Ghandi -- all those who spoke not only to their nations but to the world.  One way we come to know whether someone speaks truth or not is how closely their words and actions line up with those who have gone before and who the world recognizes as "men of God."  The Spirit of God does not contradict Himself first in one person and then in another, but there is a remarkable consistency in spiritual leaders, if not in their followers.

There cannot be a doubt that Malala is a 'chosen soul,' protected from death itself , to speak to the issues of our day.  Her speech should be required listening for every schoolchild, but also for every legislator and political leader of our day.  And those leaders should be required not only to listen to her, but to promise to follow her wisdom and guidance. 

What amazed me as she spoke were her words of wisdom -- and the fact that the man seated behind her was obviously bored to tears, as he searched through his papers and notes for the "real business" of the day.  God sends His prophets, but as usual, the world has other things to think about, to its own destruction and grief.

The Work of God

Given the essential woundedness of our human spirit, what then shall we do?

It seems pretty obvious to me that we cannot fix ourselves, for our solutions come from the same wounded hearts and minds as the illness.  If we don't really need a Redeemer from heaven, then God wasted His time sending Jesus to the earth.  If we could do it ourselves, how many of us would have discovered that in our efforts to help ourselves?  I know that I personally tried everything I knew to help myself -- and the problem was that I had to escape entirely from the world and the situations I was in to find peace.  The Buddha taught that way as a solution for mankind's ills, but that was not the way of Jesus.  In fact, He taught the Apostles that they were "in" the world, but not "of" the world. 

I think, and Paul corroborates my thought, that we need to remain where we are, in the real-life situations we find ourselves, and redeem those situations through the Spirit of God working in us and through us.  We might "escape" temporarily in order to find rest and peace for our souls, but as Hannah Hunnard's Hinds Feet on High Places illustrates so beautifully, once we are strong and healed (though still somewhat wounded), we are sent back to the very situations that wounded us originally.

Jesus told us to "Be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect."  Even a child can see the apparent contradiction between our human imperfection and the Divine perfection; even a child knows that we will never live up to Jesus' command.  So was He dreaming?  Was He exaggerating for effect?  Was He saying, "Keep trying, even though it's impossible?" 

Once we understand the operation of the Holy Spirit on our essential woundedness, we can finally understand Jesus' words.  In the beginning, the Spirit and the Word of God hovered/ brooded over the initial chaos and darkness of the world -- the abyss, the unformed matter:  LIGHT! BE!  The Word and the Spirit lept into the darkness-- and Light was!  And the abyss began slowly to take form, order, shape, and beauty -- harmony, rhythm, and truth. 

It is the same with our souls.  The Spirit of God hovers over our woundedness, grieving, brooding.  And the Word leaps forth from the mouth of God:  LIGHT! BE!  Light enters our souls, and the healing begins.  The darkness is pushed back -- notice it does not entirely disappear, but is only pushed back by the entrance of LIGHT.  And slowly, slowly, eons go by, but the Light continues to push back the darkness in our souls.  And dry ground appears where once we were drowning in sorrow and sin:

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.

In my distress I called to the Lord'

I cried to my God for help.....

 

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....

He brought me out into a spacious place;

he rescued me because he delighted in me (Ps. 18).

 

Of course, our "rescue" cannot stop with being drawn out of deep waters that threaten to engulf us. 

 

Once we give God an inch, He will always take the mile.  Like a good Father, He delights in our first baby steps, but He will not stop caring and guiding us even when we walk on our own.  He will not stop bringing us to His own Perfection.  He says, "If you will let me, I will make you perfect.  Nothing else will do.  If you choose, you can push Me away -- but as long as you allow Me in your life, I will continue creating, redeeming, sanctifying, leading, guiding, teaching, filling you with My own Spirit. I will never rest, nor will I allow you to rest, until you are perfect, until I am as pleased with you as I am with My own Son.  I will do nothing less."

 

If we do not resist Him, He will make us perfect.  An artist does not stop half-way with his creation, thinking it is 'good enough.'  Nor does a composer write half a symphony.  A mother never stops being a mother, even though her children wish she would 'back off.'   If we do not tell the Spirit of God to 'back away,' He will continue in us the work He has started--and His work, as we see from the Creation, is marvelous to behold!

Walking One Another Home

My screensaver is a quote from Ram Dass:  We're all just walking one another home.  And the image is a road through the woods in autumn.  I really love both the image and the thought.

Those who needed healing and who came to Jesus were exterior reminders of all that we are on the inside -- the lame, the deaf, the blind, those with an issue of blood, the leprous.....We don't realize how blind and crippled we are spiritually, how much damage we've done to ourselves and others spiritually, until our eyes are opened by the grace of God.  The miracle of healing comes only after our eyes have been opened to the realization that we are not perfect, that in fact, we are essentially wounded at the core of our being.

I never really understood those who wanted me to confess that I am a "sinner," maybe because I too bought into the universal lie that we are essentially "good" people who sometimes do bad things.  Now I know that Isaiah's description of "a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption" is accurate:

Your whole head is injured,

your whole heart afflicted.

From the sole of your foot to the top of your head

there is no soundness--

only wounds and welts

and open sores,

not cleansed or bandaged

or soothed with oil (1:4-6).

 

All of the great saints knew themselves as the greatest of sinners:  St. Peter, St. Teresa of Avila, Brother Lawrence, etc.  All knew themselves to be totally reliant on the grace of God for each breath they took.  It may sound extreme, but they--more than we -- saw the truth.

 

I once met someone who thought at first that I was a wonderful person.  In getting to know her, for some reason I mentioned that I had never been a very disciplined person --- as is obvious to anyone who knows me even a little bit.  "Stop fishing!" she scolded me; "you know better."   When it finally dawned on me that she thought I was fishing for compliments, I was shocked--truly shocked-- for I knew that I was speaking only the absolute truth.  It had not even entered my mind to "fish for a compliment," for anyone who compliments me in this area is seriously deluded.  But the conversation also taught me a lesson about not saying anything at all about myself.  Those who know me know the truth, and they are helping me "walk home" anyway.  Those who do not know me will not believe the truth anyway, so there's no sense trying to convince them.

 

There's in fact a great benefit in not deceiving ourselves about our essential woundedness.  To know ourselves as capable of any sin, to see ourselves in the ways we have hurt and damaged others in our selfishness and blindness is to be able to forgive others for their weakness also.  Limping and blind and deaf and uncertain, we are all just "walking one another home."  And the One Who took on our humanity, our illness and welts and open sores and Who buried the man of sin, is leading all of us to our destination-- the New Man, the Resurrected Man created according to the Spirit of God.

How Should We Come to God?

From the very beginning, man was designed for fellowship -- communion -- with God.  God blew His own breath--ruah-- into Adam's nostrils so that we would share one Spirit with the Father-Creator.  When we enter into communion -- sharing the same spirit -- with Satan, we begin to distance ourselves from God.  We have trouble seeing eye-to-eye with Him, because we want our independence:  You shall be as gods.

What we are created for, however, is to enter the joyous life of the Trinity.  It is clear that man is designed for relationship, for unity and partnership with others.  Adam's loneliness in the Garden of Paradise is telling -- if we have the whole world and no one with whom to share it, we are lonely and unsatisfied.  But it is our relationship with God that ultimately determines all of our other relationships: He who finds a faithful wife finds a gift from the Lord.  This is why Satan works so hard at destroying our relationship with God.  If we are distanced from God, we are also alienated and isolated from the world around us and from other people.  Cain's cry to the Lord is revealing:  My punishment is more than I can bear.  Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will want to kill me (Gen.4:13-14).

In other words, without God, Cain had nothing else; no other relationships would satisfy him.  We were designed to sit in the place of the Second Person of the Trinity, in His same relationship with the Father and the Spirit.  That is what we were made for -- to be the sons of God, in whom He is well -pleased:  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For he chose us in Him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him (Eph. 1:3-4)....for the adoption as sons and co-heirs with Christ.

How, then, do we come to God again and take our rightful place with Jesus in the life-exchange of love and joy in the Trinity?  Certainly not through a system of beliefs and principles -- although theology does help us tremendously in comprehending God's plan for us.  Rather, we come to God in faith -- leaning into Him with confidence in His goodness.  We come not with faith in our own goodness, but in His.  I love the story of Mary Magdalene; she dared to wash the feet of Jesus because she knew that His goodness would not embarrass her or reject her.  She had no faith in herself as a good person, as the Pharisees who rejected her believed in their own worthiness before God.  But she believed that she would be received just as she was, sins and all.

God invites us to come to Him in brutal honesty and vulnerability, leaning into Him with confidence that we will not be rejected.  Faith is trust in God's goodness---this alone makes it possible for us to approach Him with openness and joy.  A child runs into its mother's arms with confidence, not in itself, but in her ability to love and protect him.  And Jesus said that we must also enter the kingdom as a little child.  God is waiting, like the father of the Prodigal Son, to hear any prayer born out of honesty, expressing whatever small faith we have in him.

The Prodigal Son went back to his father's house, certain that was one place on earth where he would be received and not thrown out, no matter what he had done.  He did not deny his sins; he just knew that his father would forgive them and receive him back -- even if only as a servant, which he deserved.  But the Prodigal Father threw caution to the wind---bring the ring and the robe, kill the fatted calf; my son has come home!
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Making Space for God

It seems to me that one reason Jacob was able to encounter the Living, Breathing Presence of God in his life was that for the first time ever, he was away from home -- away from his mother, his father, his brother, the servants, and the daily routine.  For the first time ever, he was alone, and nothing was expected from him.  This is one reason people go on retreat -- to be alone, to be free from the obligations and expectations of daily life -- and to meet the Living Presence of God in the silence of the desert.

The other noticeable fact about Jacob's encounter with God was that it began in sleep.  Jacob was not in control of the event.  The images came to him not from his thinking mind, but from the depths of his spirit, which bypasses the rational mind and reveals truth not accessible to the thinking mind.  His reaction: Surely God is in this place and I knew it not! -- is the typical reaction of someone who has had an encounter with God that bypasses what he thought to be true, or what he expected to find in a certain situation.

Last January, I took a group of teens on a retreat.  Of course, they did not want to go, because they already "knew" what to expect --propaganda, holy talks, boring talks, nothing that would interest them in their high-spirited, athletic, hormonal youth!  What they discovered was just the opposite of what they expected --- they discovered the awesome, living, presence of God.  And their reaction was exactly that of Jacob:  Surely, God is in this place, and I knew it not!  They discovered this presence not in the "boring talks," not in the fun and games, not in being together with their friends, but in the quiet, dark chapel during Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.  For the first time in their lives, they met the Presence of God, and it shook them to the core.  Many of them later reported surrendering their lives to this Living Presence, much the same as did Jacob when he awoke from his dream.

When we finally "make space" for God in our lives, we discover that our response (prayer) is not our own initiative.  Just like "falling in love," prayer is a response to a Presence.  We do not have to "say" anything to pray; we just have to be with and in the Presence.  Since my husband and I are now both retired, one of the great joys we have found is that of being together.  We don't need to do anything together; we don't need to communicate or say anything -- we are just together.  It is the same with God.  We don't need to communicate anything at all to be in prayer -- we just need to make space in our lives for Him, for His Presence.

The story has been told of a construction worker who stopped in at the church everyday on his way home from work.  He would sit in the back for a few minutes with his hardhat in hand, and then he would get up and leave.  One day, the priest asked him why he came in each day and what he prayed for.  The man replied that that was his time with Jesus:  I just come in, sit down, and say, "Jesus, it's Juan." 
"What happens then?" the priest asked.
"Well," the man replied, "Jesus says, 'Juan, it's Jesus,' and we're happy to just spend some time together."

That is a good example of "making space" for God in our lives.  That is the essence of prayer.  Prayer is a response to God's initiative toward us, however we are moved to respond: standing still for a moment before a breathtaking sunrise; listening to music; saying the Rosary, reading Scripture and pondering its meaning for us, allowing your heart to soar in praise and thanksgiving, thrilling to the power of the waves, allowing our minds and hearts to turn toward God when we hear church bells or see a lit candle----anything that moves us from self-preoccupation to God consciousness, as happened to Jacob in his dream and awakening.

I remember being in high school at Mt. Carmel in Lakeview.  I had a 7:30 am class, and sometimes, I would stay on the Lakeview bus if I had time and go all the way to the lakefront.  Then I would get off the bus at the lake and sit on the seawall for awhile, especially if the weather were stormy and the wind was kicking up the waves. (In those days, it was safe for me to do this; now, not recommended.)  I remember that I did not say anything that could have been construed as "prayer," but I sat in the awesome Presence of the Creator and allowed myself to be absolutely still for a few minutes before going to class.  It was one of the most profound experiences of my teen years to do this, even occasionally. 

My other profound experience -- again, not recommended today -- was walking through City Park at 6:30 am on my way to catch the Canal Blvd. bus.  The silence of the earth awakening to the sunrise was so awesome and sweet to my soul.  These were my greatest moments of prayer as a teenager; it was then that I entered wordlessly into communion with God.  These moments were when God had the most access to the depths of my soul.

So here's my question to you:  How would you describe the moments of your life when God had the most access to the depths of your soul?  What events got -- or get-- in the way of this kind of intimacy with God?  Is it possible to "make more space" for God's initiative in your life?

Transforming Openness to God

Just imagine how different your life would be if moment by moment you were constantly open to God.  Think of how much your experience of yourself, others, and the world would change if you were continuously attuned to the loving presence of God and allowed the life of God to flow into and through you with each breath.  Such a life would itself be prayer, for prayer is not simply words that we offer when we speak to God but an opening of our self to God (Introduction to Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer by David Brenner).

 

Yesterday I wrote about a transforming moment in the life of Jacob, a moment when he stopped manipulating the world around him and other people to his own advantage and began to cast all his confidence upon the promises of God to take care of him on his journey.  Most of us live our lives somewhere between being completely closed to God, depending on ourselves and our wits alone, and being tentatively open to the Spirit, tentatively depending on Him to lead and guide us.  In his book, Opening to God: Lectio Divinia and Life as Prayer, David Brenner says that opening to God is not a 'moment' but a direction of movement toward full openness.  We take a step forward and then quickly pull back again into our own resources, our own strength, for that is what we know and are used to.

 

We want to be open to the fullness of God within us, but we have many obstacles blocking our capacity to receive the fullness of God:  psychological (our fears and unhealed wounds), theological (our distorted views of God), and spiritual (practices that do not bring us life).

 

The promise of 'being born again' is frightening to many people, for they do not know what that means.  But Brenner says if we think of it as 'spiritual awakening,' it might not be so frightening.  Unlike religiosity, which can involve just beliefs and practices, spirituality involves a journey from one place to the next.  It is not a 'practice or belief;' it is walking a path.  And prayer is central to the journey.  Prayer leads to transformation.  It is the means through which God gains access to our souls.  Prayer is the way of opening ourselves to God so that we are touched by Him, awakened, realigned, integrated, and healed.  It is a continuing series of conversions whereby we leave our former state and become transformed into a 'new man.'

 

If we are not open to transformation, we will not pray -- or our prayers will be formal practices that fail to touch our souls.  If we are open to the work of God within us, the work of 'making all things new,' as He promised us, we will keep our appointment with God on a daily basis, and we will open ourselves to His work in us.  Prayer is not something we do; prayer is what God does in us.  We simply allow Him to do His work in us.  Paul tells us that God, "working in us, can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine" (Eph.3:20).  God's work in us is "unimaginably extravagant," in the words of David Brenner.

 

The question is not 'How do we pray?" but rather, "How does God work in us?"  There are so many forms of being open to the work of God in the person who desires to be attentive and responsive to Him.  All of life can be prayer when opened to the work of God: Genuine prayer always begins in the heart and is offered by an act of opening our self as we turn toward God....Growth in prayer is learning to open more and more of ourselves to God (Brenner, Chapter 1).

Brenner says that he learned to pray when he was 13, when he learned that prayer could be as simple as speaking, silently or audibly, to God, just as he did to other people.  Scripture says that to please God, we must first of all, believe that He exists, and secondly, believe that He rewards those who come to Him (cannot recall the source).  And what is our 'reward' for coming to God in prayer -- but that He begins in us His divine work of transformation.

The reason that walking with God on a daily basis is so much fun -- always an adventure and a joy -- is that it is a relationship and a journey.  As such, it is never static and never the same.  God is He who is alive and acting on my behalf; all He does is good.  He cannot do otherwise.  To live in a universe where my own limited ideas and resources are all I have is a depressing thought.  But to live in a world where I am constantly being called from one hope of glory to the next is a world of joy.

 

The God of Unlimited Abundance

The first thing I thought of this morning when I awoke -- as I was making my coffee -- was the Prayer of Jacob:  If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father's house, then [Yaweh] will be my God.  This stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God's house, and of all that you give me, I will give you a tenth (Gen. 28:20-22 ).

My thoughts at that time ran along the lines of wondering if God is pleased with such a 'bargaining' prayer -- in Jacob's case, He certainly did not seem to mind Jacob's boldness in asking for his 'daily bread' and necessities...."if you will do this," Jacob promised, "You will be my God."

Imagine my surprise after I had secured the treasured cup of coffee and sat down to read Give Us This Day, my daily reflection and prayer book.  The introductory reflection on the week's readings centered on the Prayer of Jacob, the very one that entered my mind upon awakening.  We often wonder whether God really speaks to us in our meandering thoughts, but this certainly seemed to be more than a coincidence to me.  So I read the introduction slowly, pen in hand to mark significant passages.  Then I read the Scripture readings and psalms, and the reflections on the daily reading.

Putting Jacob's Prayer into context with a bit of study and reflection was a revelation for me and answered the question uppermost in my mind.  Jacob was not 'bargaining' with God at all; he was not wheeling and dealing with the Divine Presence, as he had done most of his life.  In fact, the name "Jacob" means "cheater" or 'grabber," and Jacob had certainly lived up to the meaning of his name.  He had to flee Beersheba to his uncle Laban in Haran because he had cheated his brother Esau out of the inheritance due to the oldest son.  He had deceived his father into giving him the blessing due to the oldest son.  And now he was in fear for his life.

In this case, though, Jacob was not the dealer.  While he slept, God gave him a vision and a promise:  all peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring -- the same promise given to Jacob's grandfather, Abraham.  But the promise continued:  I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land.  I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you (Gen. 28:14-15).  The initiative in this case was wholly the Lord's.  When Jacob awoke, he was amazed:  Surely [Yahweh] is in this place, and I was not aware of it!  He was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place!  This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven."

Jacob's prayer and promise to the Lord was a response to what God had revealed to him.  First, God made a promise to Jacob, and then Jacob responded to God, using the very words and promises that God Himself had already spoken:  if you will do what you have said, then you will be my God, and I will be your son.

We might say that this was the moment of conversion for Jacob, from 'cheater' and 'grabber' to 'receiver of the promises of God.'  And what a conversion that is for each one of us!  John tells us, "This is what love is....not that we have first loved God, but that He has first loved us and sent His Son to redeem us from our sins."

When we stop manipulating the world around us for our own benefit and begin to listen seriously to the words and plans of God for us, we have entered onto a new plane of existence.  Now we are praying "Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done" instead of "Help me get my kingdom and my will done."  When we say to the Lord, "Do all that you have promised to me," we are trusting Him with our lives, not bargaining with Him for position and power.  When we know the words of God and they have entered our hearts and minds, we can say back to Him the words He has said to us, knowing that He cannot go back on His words and His promises. 

Imagine the confidence with which Jacob continued on his journey, knowing that the Lord God, the God of his fathers Abraham and Isaac, was with him on the way.  He could not fail because he knew from the family history that God had not failed his fathers.  Despite all he endured for the next 21 years or so from his uncle Laban, he knew for sure that he would eventually return to the land of his birth, and he also knew that land would belong to his descendants.  He had heard the promises of God, and that was where his trust lay.

May we all listen carefully to what God has promised us and pray the prayer of Jacob, using the very words and promises of God.

The Purpose of Religion

The end purpose of all religious practice is to bring man, such as he is, into communion, or fellowship, with God.  We might think that the purpose of religion is the control of evil impulses so that our society is a safe environment for all, or in short, we worship God so that we become nice persons to live with.  I often hear the question from my students, "Isn't it possible to be a good person and not go to church?"  I think the evidence is all around us that it is possible to be good and not go to church, so of course, that cannot be the purpose of going to church or of practicing one's religion.

If our religion stops with making us 'nice people,' it has not achieved its purpose at all.  Unfortunately, many faithful church-goers are not even nice people at home; wives snarl at their husbands, fathers beat their children; and siblings struggle against one another on a constant basis.  So why should we even attend church if church attendance does not penetrate our minds, hearts, and spirits?

I would say that going to church is but man's attempt to "enter into His gates with thanksgiving, His courts with praise (Ps. 100).  Psalm 16 tells us that the fullness of joy is at God's right hand.  To experience that fullness of joy, we must enter His Presence -- and for most of us, the way we do that is to enter through the gates of some religious practice.  For the Eastern Orthodox, the practice seems to be chanting, candles, incense, and surrounding oneself with icons -- a very powerful experience, all in all.  The Roman Catholic enters into the mystery of the Mass, while the Lutheran scorns ritual in favor of breaking open the Word of the Lord. Jews faithfully embrace the Torah and practice mitzvah --good deeds.  The Buddhist strives to block out the entire world of sense in order to enter Nirvana, while the Muslims put their faces to the floor five times a day in worship of Allah.  All of these practices have value IF they bring those who practice them into the Presence of God in "spirit and in truth," as Jesus told the woman at the well:  The day is coming and is now here, when the true worshippers of the Father will worship in spirit and in truth.  You worship what you do not know, but we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews (Jn. 4).

When Jesus sent out the 72 disciples, they came back rejoicing because they experienced the power of God flowing through them to heal the sick and to preach the Good News that the kingdom of God was present on earth:  "Even the demons are subject to us in Your Name," they exclaimed.  "This is eternal life," Jesus told them on another occasion, "to know God and Him He has sent, Jesus Christ." 

The purpose of any religious practice -- prayer, meditation, good works, etc. -- is communion with God, to know Him and the One He has sent to establish the kingdom on earth.  If we don't know Him, our religion has failed us.  At the last judgment, many will come and say, "Lord, we cast out demons in Your Name...." but He will say, "I never knew you."  First, we must know Him; He must know us -- and then everything else will follow.  Then and then only, we will be 'nice people" and the kingdom of Jesus Christ will flow through us and in us.

Explosion of Grace

Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound

that saved a wretch like me.

I once was lost but now am found,

was blind but now I see.

 

The man who wrote Amazing Grace, according to the story, was a slave trader who suddenly awakened to the horrors of his life and fell to his knees in worship and repentance, vowing to give up his way of life altogether.  Yesterday I wrote that only grace, not conversation, can change the hardened heart. This is one example of man whose conversion would never had come about except for the amazing grace of God.

 

C.S. Lewis writes that we often think that if we are good, we will get a reward in the next life, and if we are not good, the other thing will happen.  But the reality is, according to Lewis, that with each choice we make, we slowly turn ourselves into the choices we make.  The person who complains always and everywhere about everything, turns the inner part of himself, the part that chooses, into a constant complainer, so that eventually, he loses himself -- his soul -- altogether and becomes the sin.

 

Unfortunately, the same can happen to a city (Sodom and Gomorrah), to a state, to a country, a nation.  We can become a society of warriors, a culture of bloodshed and revenge.  In the Book of Ezekiel, the Lord tells the nation of Israel that the king of Babylon will lay siege to Jerusalem because they have become a city of bloodshed (chapter 24):  "I have tried to cleanse you, but you would not be cleansed from your impurity....the time has come for me to act.  I will not hold back; I will not have pity, nor will I relent.  You will be judged according to your conduct and your actions..."

 

What happens when a person has turned himself into darkness, so deep that the light can no longer penetrate his soul?  What happens when we become the choices we have made, when the pot can no longer be cleaned?  Like the slave-trader, an explosion of grace must take place; the old man must die and a new man take his place.  This is what has been provided for us by the death of Jesus Christ, who became for us our old man, the man of sin.  He died, so we have died, if we are united with Him.  Then, he arose from the dead, no longer the man of sin, but a "new creation," the person created according to the Spirit of God.  As we sing in the second verse of Amazing Grace, "our chains are gone and now we're free" -- free from the 'old man' that had turned himself into sin itself.

 

Before Christ, in the Old Testament, the only remedy for a nation too far gone for repentance and turning back to God was death and resurrection of the nation.  The people who returned from captivity in Babylon had to rebuild the Temple and the city; now they were willing to listen to God and to put away their idols.  For us, individually, the cross of Christ has provided an explosion of grace that can instantly change us from Adam -- the old creation-- to Christ -- the New Man, the "Second Adam." 

 

For our nation, however, short of an explosion of grace that brings us to our knees, I fear that we must go through terror and destruction before we turn back to God.  A week or so ago, two groups gathered at the Texas State Legislature, where the legislators were debating a new bill that would prevent abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.  The pro-life group began to sing "Amazing Grace" as part of their demonstration; in response, the pro-choice group began to chant, "Hail Satan!"  Now if that does not tell us something, I don't know what will.  I am afraid we have made our choice as a nation of bloodshed.  What will turn us around?

 



On Interfaith Dialog

My words are not my own; they belong to the One Who sent me.  If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own (Jn.7:16-17).

 

I no longer believe in interfaith dialog.  For a short time, despite misgivings, I attempted an exchange of ideas with those of other faiths or of no faith, but truthfully, I could see no benefits at all from the attempt.  Those who believe passionately cannot "exchange ideas," as we see plainly on another level in the U.S. Congress.  They can only fight for control of the legislation, getting the best they can for their viewpoint or ideas of the way things ought to be.

 

No one comes to God through an exchange of ideas, because the grace of God operates on another level altogether.  No one comes to God by being convinced of some else's viewpoint, but only by the sudden or gradual opening of the mind and heart to the light.  The problem with dialog is that all we have for the exchange is our own words, our own viewpoint --- but Jesus first of all did not engage in dialog with the world of Judiasm---the scribes and Pharisees,---- and secondly, He did not use His own words, but the words given to Him by the Father, who alone knew the spiritual state of the ones who listened to Jesus. 

 

At any given moment, the Spirit of  the Lord hovers over our souls, and He is always leading us to a new place out of the darkness that envelops us.  Only He knows at each moment the word we need to hear for our healing.  Isaiah says this:  The Sovereign Lord (--i.e., the One Who is above all)--has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary.  He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught (50:4). 

 

I do not say that we must not enter into conversation with the world, but our words must be those of Jesus speaking through us in love--words of comfort, words of healing, words of truth, words of freedom from fear, words that make a way in the wilderness for those trapped in darkness.

 

Paul, in his passion for the Jewish way of life, could never have entered into "dialog" with the new Christian community; it took the grace of God to open his mind and heart to the new Way of Jesus.  C.S.Lewis, though he was in dialog with his Christian friend Tolkein for many years, was not converted to Christianity by Tolkein's faith, though it did lead him to become a theist from his original atheistic stance.  The step from theism to mysticism came through the mysterious grace of God.  I cannot help thinking that Tolkein stopped "dialoging" with Lewis and began instead to pray for him.

 

Yesterday I wrote that we must all come to the realization that we are but obstacles to the kingdom of heaven.  As John the Baptist said, "I must decrease; He must increase."  When we finally come to realize that we have nothing to say to those who do not believe, we make room for the grace of God to operate.  As we move back and submit to the grace of God in the lives of others, it may surprise us that what we so desperately longed for is coming to pass.

 

Paul said, "I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear, with much trembling.  My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power" (I Cor 2:2-5).

 

It is impossible, I think, to "dialog" with those who do not believe in the Son of God.  But we can pray that God Himself will give to them His very own Word spoken in His beloved Son.