The Pearl of Great Price

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

 

Do not be terrified [by the people you now fear], for the Lord your God, who is among you, is a great and awesome God (Deut. 7:21).

 

What is the peace that Jesus promised to us?  It is the state of a soul that is at rest with God, with other people, and with oneself.  It is the "Pearl of Great Price" hidden in a field, for which a man will give all that he has.  How many people today would give all that they have to be at rest with God, with other people, and with themselves? 

 

Peace with God, with others, and with oneself is structured by the Law and the Commandments in the Old Testament, by Judaism, and by modern-day religions.  That is why people follow their religion -- to find the Pearl of Great Price.  But to many, it is still a 'hidden treasure' for which they search.  If we walk in the right paths, those paths should lead us to peace -- but for many, it is still an elusive treasure. 

 

At one time in my life, I tried yoga and transcendental meditation, among other avenues, in my search for peace.  These paths worked for a time, for the time I could spend practicing them.  But Jesus said, "Not as the world gives do I give it to you."  Now I know what He meant ---the peace He gives is not dependent on my practice of some ritual or another, whether yoga or chanting or offering some sacrifice.  Rather, Christ dwelling in me is my peace; His words soothe my soul because He, the Good Shepherd, speaks them to me -- not because I speak them to myself. 

 

The words from Jesus Calling today are an example:

 

Linger in my presence a while.  Rein in your impulses to plunge into the day's activities.  Beginning your day alone with Me is essential preparation for success.  A great athlete takes time to prepare himself mentally for the feat ahead of him before he moves a muscle.  Similarly, your time of being still in My Presence equips you for the day ahead of you.  Only I know what will happen to you this day.  I have arranged the events you will encounter as you go along your way.  If you are not adequately equipped for the journey, you will grow weary and lose heart.  Relax with Me while I ready you for action.

 

Peace is the result of knowing that whatever challenges, enemies, or tasks we face for each day, we are prepared to meet -- not because of our own strength and resources, but because there is One with us (Emmanuel) who has overcome the world.  If we know this, if we experience the 'great and awesome God' who is with us, there is nothing to fear, for "we know that all things work together for good for those who know the Lord and who are called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28).

 

Who would not give "all that he has" to possess such a great treasure?

Is This Real?

One of my students, in all honesty, confessed that she did not want to spend time praying, meditating, or reading Scripture if it wasn't "real."  By that question, of course, we would have to include church attendance, following the 'law' given to us by Jesus, or any other religious or spiritual practice we might name.

Actually, Jesus answered this question Himself:  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. 717).

In other words, the pre-condition for being able to know the truth is willingness to obey God.  Without that, we will never know whether Jesus' words are true or not:  He who belongs to God hears what God says.  The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God (Jn.8:47).

Studying the Scriptures could, and often does, take a lifetime.  And they will give us wisdom, knowledge, and understanding; they will keep us from the crooked paths and preserve our lives (cf. Proverbs 1-3 and Wisdom 1&2).  But until we "belong to God," we will not comprehend the Truth.  Jesus told the Scholars of the Law:  And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me.  You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent.  You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life.  These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life (Jn. 5:37-40).

Knowing what is real and true requires worship, adoration, prayer, connection with the Living God, and with the One He has sent, Jesus Christ.  Only the author of the Scriptures can open them to us, shine on them the light of illumination.  After His resurrection, He was able to "open their minds," and the disciples said, "Were not our hearts burning within us as He spoke?" 

To have an experience of God, we need to (1) believe that He exists, and (2) that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him (Heb. 11:6).  We have to trust that Jesus IS the "author and perfecter of our faith (Heb. 12:2), and that if we come to Him, He will give us everything we need -- including the assurance of Truth in what we believe.

Is this real?  We will never know whether it is or not unless we bow down before the Lord who made heaven and earth and receive from Him the word of Truth, the Word that is alive and has the power to cut through the thoughts of our minds and hearts.

On Joy and Pleasure

...my heart is glad,

and my soul rejoices;

my body also knows full well that You are my God....

You will show me the path of life;

In your Presence is fullness of joy,

At your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Ps. 16: 9-11).

 

Yesterday I wrote that pleasure cannot be sustained beyond the activity, and that we (in the natural man) seek to extend the pleasure indefinitely by sustaining the activity (of eating, for example.)  Unfortunately, when we get into drugs, sex, alcohol, and the "highs" of power and child abuse, we become slaves to the activity which destroys our very souls.  We are chained to the bodily pleasures, and our souls cannot extricate ourselves from that slavery to sin.  So we have sex addicts, alcoholics, power addicts, "lovers of disputation," in the words of St. Paul -- those "Greeks" who just love to argue and dispute for the sake of argument-- and so forth.  The "works of the flesh" or of "the man without God" are listed in Galatians 5, among other places in the Bible.

 

Because some people become slaves to the pleasures of the flesh does not mean that pleasure is in itself sinful.  Because Jesus was filled with the Spirit of God, Who saw "that it was good," He took exquisite pleasure in the beauty of the world, the lilies of the field, the birds of the air, and the delight in little children.  He loved the "little ones of God," the "anawim" who came to Him by the hundreds for cure of physical, mental, and emotional disorders and disease.  He loved the fishermen, the adulteress, the tax collectors, and the sinners, the societal outcasts, those not quite up to measure by religious standards, the "unclean," and those without hope in this world:  the bruised reed He shall not break (Is. 42:3).

 

I think it fair to say that Jesus loved life, that He took pleasure in fine wine, in dancing and singing, in the fellowship of friends, in the love of His mother and father -- that He rejected nothing that He and His Father had made, for He was the Alpha and the Omega -- the Source and the End of all that has been made:

 

And in this mountain

The Lord of hosts will make for all people

A feast of choice pieces,

A feast of wine on the lees,

Of fat things full of marrow,

Of well - refined wine on the lees (Is. 25:6).

 

The passage from Isaiah, as well as similar ones in the Book of Revelation, speak of a great feast on the "Day of the Lord."  The fact that Jesus began His public ministry by turning water into wine marks the arrival of that Great Day of Great Pleasures.  On that Day, the Day of Salvation and Redemption, when we put away unclean and defiled things,

 

...He will give the rain for your seed

With which you sow the ground,

And bread of the increase of the earth;

It will be fat and plenteous.

In that day your cattle will feed

In large pastures....

There will be on every mountain

And on every high hill

Rivers and streams of waters....

...the light of the moon

will be as the light of the sun,

And the light of the sun will be sevenfold,

As the light of seven days,

In the day that the Lord binds up the bruise of His people

And heals the stroke of their wound (Is. 30:23-26).

 

The fact that God placed Adam and Eve in a Garden of Great Delight means that He wants to "fill us with pleasures at His right hand forever."  He does not want to remove from us earthly pleasure, but rather, "Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice (holiness), and all these things will be given to you besides."  To seek first the pleasures is to ensure that they will dissipate and will need even more stimulation to renew them.  Those who begin by taking a little "ecstasy" or drug will need to increase the dose as the pleasure wears thin.  Those who seek joy in the kingdom of God will know ecstasy, joy, and pleasure beyond all understanding.  They will 'get high' at the sight of a lily or a pelican in flight.  They will get drunk on the Spirit of truth and understanding; they will 'laugh at the days to come,' without worry or anxiety. 

 

The pleasures in the kingdom of God satisfy the soul as well as the body.  When John's disciples came to ask Jesus if He was the One who was to come, He answered with the words of Isaiah: Tell John that the eyes of the blind are opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped.  The lame leap for joy, and the tongue of the dumb sings...for waters burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.  The parched ground has become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water....(Is. 35).  [I have continued to quote the passage which Jesus began in His response.]  I think it safe to say that the pleasures beyond the grave will be far beyond anything we can imagine on earth. 

 

My father, a quiet man who had little to say in the flesh, had a near-death experience after a triple by-pass, and spoke to us 'from heaven' during that experience.  He was full of laughter and joy as he told us of a great feast, a table laden with food 'better than anything he had eaten on earth."  He described fields of beautiful flowers and friends.  When he returned to us after that experience, he was never again afraid of death and even seemed depressed for awhile that he had not gone on from this life.  But peace marked the final years he remained with us, and his death was the most peaceful I have ever known. 

Those who seek pleasure only will never know the kind of joy that Jesus gives us:  In the world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (Jn. 17:33.....these things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full (Jn. 15:11). 

Pleasure is one thing, but it cannot be sought for itself, or it will disappear.  Joy remains even in tribulation, for it is not dependent on circumstances, but only on the abiding Presence of Jesus Christ in us.  And it includes pleasures at His right hand forever.

 



Where is Joy?

Yesterday, I listened to a CD by Matthew Kelly, who was speaking to a group of kids preparing to make their Confirmation.  He pointed out a rather obvious, but little thought of, difference between pleasure and joy, or happiness:  Pleasure cannot be sustained beyond the activity itself.  We have a great deal of pleasure in eating, for example, and that is why we continue to eat even beyond the point we feel full.  “Shut up, stomach; this tastes soooo good,” we cry at Thanksgiving or when eating a rich dessert after a full meal.  But when the activity ceases, so does the pleasure, except in memory. 

Joy, on the other hand, is a deep, abiding presence that is sustained far beyond the activity, and even when we are not experiencing pleasure.  The joy of a mother giving birth, for example, extends forever, beyond the first moment of birth, through all the nighttime feedings, the worry and pain of a child’s sickness, and the struggle through the teen years.  Kelly gave the example of an athlete who undergoes the discipline of getting up early each morning, in cold weather, to do his daily run or workout.  There is no pleasure in the discipline at first, but the joy of being fit remains far beyond the activity of working out. 

I recall a time of extreme grief in 1985, when my closest friend and spiritual mentor died.  Wave after wave of loneliness and anguish passed over me for months, but one day while I was in prayer, as I continued to allow all the emotions to go through my soul, I realized with a sort of shock that underneath all the surface emotions, even underneath all the deep emotions, was a rock-bottom foundation of joy!  I realized that I would not be feeling all of this grief if it were not for the great joy and love I had experienced in this relationship.  I realized what a great gift I had been given to have walked with, sat with, and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with this friend and mentor.  In the dark pain of grief, I found the overwhelming light of joy! 

What brings this memory alive today is the reading from Jesus Calling: 

No matter what your circumstances may be, you can find Joy in My Presence.  On some days Joy is generously strewn along your life-path, glistening in the sunlight.  On days like that, being content is as simple as breathing the next breath or taking the next step.  Other days are overcast and gloomy; you feel the strain of the journey, which seems endless.  Dull gray rocks greet your gaze and cause your feet to ache.  Yet Joy is still attainable.  Search for it as for hidden treasure….. 

St. Paul said, “I have learned to be content in whatever state I am in:  I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound.  Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.  I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me.” 

My prayer is that we can all learn the “peace that passes all understanding” and the joy that no longer depends on pleasure, but continues through every circumstance of our lives.

The Aim of the Christian Life

"The Lord has revealed to me," [said St. Seraphim] "that in your childhood, you had a great desire to know the aim of our Christian life, and that you have continually asked many great spiritual persons about it."

 

I must admit, that from the age of twelve this thought had constantly troubled me.  In fact, I had approached many clergy about it.  However, their answers had not satisfied me.  This could not have been known to the elder.

 

"But no one," continued St. Seraphim, "has given you a precise answer.  They have said to you: "Go to church, pray to God, do the commandments of God, do good -- that is the aim of the Christian life."  Some were even indignant with you for being occupied with such profane curiosity and said to you, "Do not seek things which are beyond you."  But they did not speak as they should.  Now humble Seraphim will explain to you of what this aim really consists.

 

"However prayer, fasting, vigil and all the other Christian practices may be, they do not constitute the aim of our Christian life.  Although it is true that they serve as the indispensable means of reaching this end, the true aim of our Christian life consists of the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God.  As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ's sake, [they] are only the means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God.....

 

But to this end, we must begin with a right faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Who came into this world to save sinners and Who, through our acquiring for ourselves the grace of the Holy Spirit, brings into our hearts the Kingdom of God....

 

"That is it, your Godliness.  Acquiring the Spirit of God is the true aim of our Christian life, while prayer, fasting, almsgiving and other good works done for Christ's sake are merely means for acquiring the Spirit of God."

 

[In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins], what [the foolish virgins] were lacking was the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God.  These virgins practiced the virtues, but in their spiritual ignorance, they supposed that the Christian life consisted merely in doing good works.  By doing a good deed, they thought they were doing the work of God, but they cared little whether they acquired the grace of God's Spirit.  These ways of life, based merely on doing good, without carefully testing whether they bring the grace of the Spirit of God, are mentioned in the patristic books: "There is another way which is deemed good in the beginning, but ends at the bottom of hell."

 

...The oil is not the good deeds, but the grace of the All-Holy Spirit of God...which changes souls from one state to another--such as...from spiritual death to spiritual life, from darkness to light, from the stable of our being (where the passions are tied up like dumb animals and wild beasts) into a temple of the Divinity, the shining bridal chamber of eternal joy in Christ Jesus our Lord, the Creator, Redeemer and eternal Bridegroom of our souls.

 

---From On Acquisition of the Holy Spirit:  Saint Seraphim of Sarov



The Presence of God Among Us

 "Come to Me," He says.  "You have been the god of your own fantasy of the future, and it has brought you worry and pain.  Walk with Me into the future I have planned for you.  You will not know or understand where we are going; you will have to trust that I know and that I will never leave or abandon you.  You do not have to 'believe' anything about Me.  You will come to know Me on the journey as we walk together, sit together, stand together against all that threatens you."  --from yesterday's entry.

For several days, I have been writing about faith as a journey wherein we come to know God, not doctrines or statements about God, but God as a Person Who goes with us on the way.  Religion is supposed to point out the way to God, not be a substitute for a relationship with God Himself.  Too many people want to stop with "following the religion" as if that were God.  The entire history of the Old Testament is a history of God coming to man and of man saying, "Just give us the rules, but don't speak to us directly, or else we'll die."  The Israelites rescued from the slavery of Egypt just wanted Moses to be the intermediary -- they did not want to hear themselves the Voice of God.  But then, they rebelled against Moses:  "Who made you the leader?" they demanded in the desert, making Moses want to die rather than lead this people.

The problem with religion as our god is that it cannot 'go with us on the way.'  It should and does provide a safe harbor where people can find peace and a refuge from the world outside for a time; it should and does provide sound teaching so that people can distinguish light from dark; it should and does surround us with those who have found The Way and who are walking with God --- but it is not a substitute for God Himself. 

Today, I read from Jesus Calling:

Go gently through this day, keeping your eyes on Me.  I will open up the way before you, as you take steps of trust along your path.  Sometimes the way before you appears to be blocked.  If you focus on the obstacle or search for a way around it, you will probably go off course.  Instead, focus on Me, the Shepherd who is leading you along your life-journey.  Before you know it, the "obstacle" will be behind you and you will hardly know how you passed through it.

 

This is the secret of success in My kingdom.  Although you remain aware of the visible world around you, your primary awareness is of Me.  When the road before you looks rocky, you can trust Me to get you through that rough patch.  My Presence enables you to face each day with confidence.

 

This is the Gift that is given to the believer -- the Presence of Jesus, the Son of God, in our daily lives.  This is what all the sacrifices in the Old Testament, all the observances, could not bring.  When Jesus came, He said, "The kingdom of God is among you."  That's what the world was and is waiting for -- the Presence of God.  When it comes, will we recognize it?

The Journey of Faith

Yesterday I wrote that faith is a communion with God's own light and truth.  It is a living, breathing, glowing relationship with the living God---as real, as present, as true as any relationship we have with other people. 

We do not normally "live" our "beliefs," or "statements" about our spouses or our friends.  That is, we do not usually think on a day-to-day basis about what we "believe" about the relationship in terms of doctrine or statements.  We just encounter each day the living person and enter into the other person's mind and heart:  What is he/she thinking today?  How is he/she communicating with me today?  What does the other want today?  How do I respond to what is going on in the other person today?

Our relationships are histories, and they are stories.  We become comfortable in good relationships because of what has gone before; we become more and more uncomfortable in bad relationships because of past history and past stories, which become our present realities.   When too many bad stories pile up, it is more and more difficult for us to react in a positive way to the present reality; we remember everything that has gone before, and we expect the same pattern to continue today.  We are scarred by our histories and by our stories.  And they prevent us from loving and enjoying the relationship today.

In good relationships, the opposite is true.  If our partner, our friend, is consistently gentle, loving, and kind, we no longer fear doing the wrong thing.  In fact, we assume that we will probably screw things up on a regular basis, but we can relax and laugh about just one more example of lost keys, forgotten facts, etc.  We know our partner, friend, knows who we are and accepts that we are not perfect.  He/she enjoys who we are, not waiting for us to be "finished," polished.

Too many people think that relationship with God consists of statements of belief about who God is and what He wants/ expects from us.  But biblical faith is always portrayed as a story -- a story about someone who began in darkness, confusion, idolatry, ignorance, pain, etc. and who was directed by God on a journey toward light, peace, goodness, prosperity, wholeness, and reconciliation.  Faith begins with God's call to "Come," just as Jesus said to Thomas.  "Come out of unbelief into reality, into truth, into an unimaginable relationship!" 

God does not expect from us what we cannot give to Him.  He wants only a response from us when He speaks, when He calls us forth out of darkness, out of pain, out of confusion and helplessness.  "Come to Me," He says.  "You have been the god of your own fantasy of the future, and it has brought you worry and pain.  Walk with Me into the future I have planned for you.  You will not know or understand where we are going; you will have to trust that I know and that I will never leave or abandon you.  You do not have to 'believe' anything about Me.  You will come to know Me on the journey as we walk together, sit together, stand together against all that threatens you. 

Will you come with Me into your future?"

This relationship of faith is a marriage.  If we will not enter into union with God, we will never know who He is, and we will never laugh with Him, love Him, tease Him, speak with Him, or find our way into His inner heart.  If we have no history with Him, no stories with Him, no journey with Him, we will have no faith in Him, no matter how many 'doctrines' or beliefs about Him we care to pile up along the way.

 

"My Lord and My God!"

Thomas, called Didymus, has done all of us a great favor.  He could not accept the testimony of others, but needed to see for himself.  He needed to put his own finger into the side of Christ, and touch for himself the print of the nails.  "I will not believe unless...." he said.  And did Jesus get mad?  No.  "Come, Thomas, He said; "come and place your hand here and your finger here."

And Thomas believed when he touched for himself the Living Christ: "My Lord and My God!"

When I was younger, I used to wonder what "Grace" was, what "Faith" was.  I kind of knew, in a rational way, what the words meant; it's just that the words referred to some abstractions that I could not put my finger on.  I could not touch grace and faith; I could not put my hand on the experience, the definition, the "flesh" of these words.  I would hear people say we need faith, and I was trying to "believe" in what I heard, but how does one conjure up "belief" when doubt is uppermost?

Jesus rose from the dead?  "Give me a break," Thomas must have thought to himself.  "What have they been smoking?"  "I SAW them put His body in the tomb and roll the stone across the opening.  That I know!"  "What I don't know is what they saw when I wasn't with them."

"Come here, Thomas," says the Lord.  "Come, put your finger here.  Touch Me and believe!"  And the love which originally drew Thomas to Jesus caught flame once again.  Everything else had disappeared with the Crucifixion, but the love remained, and once more, the energy between Jesus and Thomas flowed between them.  What Peter had seen and experienced in the Person of Jesus some time previously, Thomas experienced in full measure now:  You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God!

In New Seeds of Contemplation, Thomas Merton tries to explain his own concrete experience of faith--not unlike that of Thomas:

First of all, faith is not an emotion, not a feeling. 

 It is not a blind subconscious urge toward something vaguely supernatural. 

It is not simply an elemental need in man's spirit. 

 It is not a feeling that God exists. 

It is not a conviction that one is somehow saved or "justified" for no special reason except that one happens to feel that way. 

It is not something entirely interior and subjective,

with no reference to any external motive.

It is not just "soul force."

It is not something that bubbles up out of the recesses of your soul and fills you with an indefinable "sense" that everything is all right.

It is not something so purely yours that its content is incommunicable. 

 It is not some personal myth of your own that you cannot share with anyone else, and the objective validity of which does not matter either to you or God or anybody else....

 

[My note:  the fact that Jesus rose from the dead, for example, had to be objectively true,

not just a "feeling" or "sense" that that "must have been true."] 

 

[Continuing with Merton:]  Too often our notion of faith is falsified by our emphasis on the statements about God which faith believes, and by our forgetfulness of the fact that faith is a communion with God's own light and truth.  Actually, the statements, the propositions, which faith accepts on the divine authority are simply media through which one passes in order to reach the divine Truth.  Faith terminates not in a statement, not in a formula of words, but in God. [End of quote.]

 

Thomas could not accept the others' experience of encountering Jesus of Nazareth, whom he had seen die a horrible death.  His faith had to be a personal encounter with the Risen Jesus, the Jesus he had seen crucified.  And Jesus did not disappoint Thomas, as He will not disappoint us, either.  He did say, "Blessed are they who have not seen and yet who believe," but I don't think His words rule out a personal encounter with the Risen Lord.  That encounter may not take place in the flesh, with physical fingers and hands in the physical wounds of the Lord, but it can and will take place in a spiritual encounter.    On the road to Damascus, Paul saw a blinding Light, but he also encountered the Risen Lord. 

 

God will come to each of us at the most unexpected moment, but He will come. He will come through locked doors, if necessary, because He desires the communion with us that only "faith" -- a communion with God's own light and truth -- can bring to us.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



"Ah, Bright Wings!"

...in one moment,

the earth shook...

for the woman at the well,

and Teresa of Avila;

for Mary Magdalen,

and Thomas Aquinas.

For Peter, James, and John

at the Transfiguration.

 

"Let us build three tents here

and dwell in the glory."

 

"But first, the Son of Man

must be crucified

and so enter into His glory.

 

Tell no one

until He has risen from the dead."

 

But they did not understand

what He said.

Passion

Live Today with Passion!

 

One of my favorite coffee mugs bears the quote above.  It was given to me by one of my students, and so I love it even more for that reason.  It always reminds me first thing in the morning that God is not so much interested in our beliefs, but in our Passion.

 

Jesus took on our flesh to restore Passion to lives that had been burned out through abuse, suffering, discouragement, disillusionment, or rejection and abandonment.  The woman at the well, the lepers, the woman caught in adultery -- all had little or no hope left for real Passion.  They were existing, but not really tasting life to the fullest: "I have come that they may have life and have it more abundantly," said Jesus, reflecting the deepest desire of the Father toward us.

,

The Prodigal Son evidently left home seeking adventure.  At home, he had everything except excitement.  He craved 'passion' in his life; he wanted 'something else,' so he set out to find whatever the world had to give him.  And he found what the world offered--abuse, indifference, hostility, "friendship" that was only revelry for the moment.  He found himself alone, in a pigsty, craving the food that his father's servants ate for free. 

 

When he returned to his father's house, he discovered the very thing he sought--passion.  From that day on, he could live his life with gratitude and thanksgiving for safety, for provision, for love and acceptance.  All these things previously had seemed routine, boring, without passion -- but now, he knew what it meant to live each day with joy.

 

Jesus said, "I have come to cast fire on the earth, and what would I but that it be kindled!"  The deepest desire of his heart was to share with us the fire that burned without cease in his bosom.  God wants children who burn with the fire of His own love, those whose spirits go out to all the earth to restore justice, to right wrongs, to heal the sick and sorrowing, to gather the homeless and to feed the hungry.  He wants children with His Spirit, with His Passion.

 

And it can happen!  Yesterday, I wrote that God is a "Verb," a word that expresses action or state of (dynamic) being.  We are not supposed to run out of energy because life beats us down every day, every moment.  The very etymology of the word 'enthusiasm' is 'en-Theos,' or "God within."  His Passion in us propels us forward with love and joy.  If people only knew the heart of God, the heart of Jesus Christ to restore ZOE, LIFE, ENERGY to a world that has gone dry, they would run to the Source of Living Water. 

 

If our "beliefs" do not fill our hearts with joy, if our cups do not run over on a daily basis, our religion is in vain, for we have not yet met the Living God Whose Passion fills the earth and the hearts of those who come to Him.

Gratitude

"God, it seems to me, is a Verb."

--Source Unknown

 

We, it seems to me, want to make God a Noun -- a Proper Noun, to be sure, with a capital letter, out of respect, but a Noun, nevertheless.  But He is not a Noun, that is, a Name that defines, that stands for something we know and understand, for something that can be boxed in and identified.  His Name is Yahweh:  I AM.

 

The bible is not only a record of God's unexpected action in history, but also a revelation of what He is doing now, at this moment, in our history.  What God "did," He "does."  He is the God of the living, not of the dead.  If we look to the Law, to the letter of the Law, and to our obedience, for righteousness, we are dead men; we must be at every moment "quickened" by the Spirit of God, the Spirit of Jesus Christ, if we would know righteousness.  The word "quickened" has somewhat fallen out of use in modern English, but it is still a useful idea -- to raise up, to give life and movement, to move within.  There is nothing static, stale, stagnant about this concept.  "Quickened" water is not a pond, but a river of life; it is the "living" water which Jesus promised to all who come to Him.

 

I have a friend who says often, "When I feel the Spirit 'a-movin,' I feel afraid."  Of course, those are the words of an old Negro spiritual, but they express beautifully the quote above:  "God, it seems, to me, is a Verb."  He moves, He pulsates, He is not 'asleep,' but awake and aware and active.  Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the Word of God is "living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."  We would like to think of the Word of God as dead, as non-moving and non-active, something we can take or leave, or interpret as we will, according to our own intelligence and insight.  But the Word of God is a breathing, living, Person -- it judges us and interprets us, not the other way around.  We should be afraid when we feel the Spirit of God moving in us, around us, and through us, for we are sinful men, in the words of St. Peter.

 

But the fear is for a moment, until the Word speaks to us as it always does:  Be not afraid!  I have come to heal and to save, not to judge and destroy (cf. John 3:16).  The Word of God, Who is Jesus Christ, has come to reveal to us the face of a Father, One Who loves us beyond measure and Who knows how to speak to us and to deliver us from evil.  The poetry of Chiara Lubich, Founder of the Focolare,* is a powerful example of the living movement of the Spirit in us and toward us and for us:

 

Gratitude

 

I love you

not because I learned to tell you so,

not because my heart suggests these words to me,

not so much because faith

makes me believe that you are love,

not even for the sole reason that

you died for me.

 

I love you

because you entered into my life

more than the air in my lungs,

more than the blood in my veins.

You entered

where no one could enter

when no one could help me

every single time no one

could console me.

 

Each day I have spoken to you.

Each hour I have looked to you

and in your face

I read the answer,

in your words

the explanation,

in your love

the solution.

I love you

because for so many years

you have lived with me

and I

have lived of You.

I drank from your law

and I did not realize it.

 

I nourished myself on it,

gathered strength,

I was restored,

but I was unaware

like a child suckling at its mother's breast

but not yet knowing how to call her

with that sweet name. 

 

Let me be grateful

---at least a little---

in the time that is left to me

for the love

you have poured upon me

and that has compelled me

to tell you:

I love you.

 

How can we tell others of what God has done for us, in us, through us?  His breathing action must be in each one of us before we can know Him as "Verb," or action, rather than as "Noun," or Name. 

 

(*Focolare is a movement that includes people of all ages, races, and vocations who promote unity, reconciliation, and the spirit of love.)

 

 

 

 

 



The Seed of Truth

As you do not know the path of the wind,

or how the body is formed in a mother's womb,

so you cannot understand the work of God,

the Maker of all things (Ecc. 11:3).
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...He called out, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

His disciples asked him what this parable meant.  He said, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,

"though seeing, they may not see;

though hearing, they may not understand" (Is. 6:9).

 

This is the meaning of the parable:  The seed is the word of God.

Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they cannot believe and be saved.  Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root.  They believe for a while, but in the time of testing, they fall away.  The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way, they are choked by life's worries, riches, and pleasures, and they do not mature.  But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop  (Luke 8:8-15)

****************************************************************************

 

I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.  But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth...the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you (Jn. 16: 12 & 15).

******************************************

 

When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me (Jn. 15: 26).

************************************************************

It is not enough for us to read the Bible--the Word of God-- and to assume that we can understand it. In fact, 1 Cor. 2:14 tells us that the "natural" man, or the "man without the Spirit" cannot understand the things of God unless they are given to him (revealed to him) by the Holy Spirit.  The "things of God," the mysteries of God, the Truth, is "foolishness" to the man without the Spirit. 

 

Scripture was written by inspiration, or breathing in, of the Holy Spirit, who alone knows the things of God and who alone reveals them to mankind.  The ways of God are not the ways of man, and His thoughts cannot be apprehended by the human mind alone....but they are given to us by the Spirit of Truth.

 

It is not that we cannot know truth; we can know it, but it must be "received," not "grabbed."  The difference is a relationship with the Holy Spirit, who willingly and generously wants to pour out on us everything that belongs to Jesus Christ, as soon as we are able to bear it.  In the passage above from Luke, the disciples asked Jesus to explain His words to them.  How many of us "ask" for explanation and understanding of the word of God?  To be a "disciple" means to be a student, one who wants to understand, one who asks questions and who perseveres in searching out the Truth.

 

If we cannot ask for help, if we cannot seek guidance and understanding from the Spirit of Jesus, who loves to teach us, there is not much chance of us knowing the Truth.  Jesus IS the Truth; the Spirit of Truth "goes out from the Father" and "testifies" about Jesus.  The role of the Holy Spirit is to make Jesus real to us, so that we know the Truth.  Anything else is like the shadows on the back wall of Plato's cave; it has the appearance of reality, but is only a shadow of the eternal and everlasting Truth of God.

 

"Hearing" the Word of God requires that Jesus open our ears just as He opened the ears of the deaf 2000 years ago.  Those of us who cannot ask will not receive and will go on their way thinking they understand, but they cannot retain the Word in their hearts.  A good place to begin is by slowly chewing and digesting the Scriptures above, reading them over and over until the seed begins to germinate in our hearts and minds and eventually produces a harvest of belief.  Jesus said, "Blessed is the one who hears the word of God and keeps it."  He said this of His mother, who allowed the seed planted by the word to grow in her heart, in her mind, and in her body, until it produced a rich harvest for mankind.

 







Conversation

All love begins in conversation.  If we have no communication with someone, it is impossible for us to love that person, except in some generic way:  I love all people because they are people.  But communion, spirit to spirit, results in a different kind of love-- a love that engenders laughter, comfort, and understanding.

That is why it is so important for us to know God as Person, rather than as some generic idea of "God," whatever that might mean to us.  For conversation can occur only between persons; there can be no communion -- Spirit to spirit -- between individuals and energy, for example.  And therefore, there can be no exchange of love, except between persons.

From the beginning, God has desired to communicate with us so that we know Him, not just know "about" Him.  He wants, no -- hungers -- for laughter, comfort, and understanding with us, spirit to Spirit.  Without that exchange of love, real love, I find it impossible to love my neighbor also, as we are commanded to do.  For it is God's love for me, and in me, that overflows to love of my neighbor.

The Bible is not a book of commands and rules so much as it is a book of stories.  It is a book of persons -- the Person of God meeting and greeting a person of man.  It is the stories of saints and sinners who met God "on their way" and "in their way:"  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, kings and prophets, men and women, even children like Samuel.  In the New Testament, He walks right up to people and says, "Follow Me;" even after He rises from the earth, He will continue to appear in light to individual men and women like Saul of Tarsus.  And always, He initiates the conversation that continues to the end of time and eternity.

God wants to communicate with us even more than we want to speak with Him.  He wants to warn us of danger, teach us what is good and holy, guide us into good paths, and make of us a blessing on the earth.  Eventually, every one of us will be either a blessing or a curse on this planet.  If we allow God to guide us, if we allow His Spirit to speak to us, and flow through us, we cannot help but be a blessing to those around us.  If we insist that we can do it without His guidance, His conversation with us, then our own energy, for good or for evil, is all that we have.

God's conversation with us blesses us: "For I know the plans I have for you," says the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future..." (Jer. 29:11).  And it blesses others as well.  If we receive direction from the Lord and follow it, it always leads to joy and prosperity of our souls and bodies. 

God promised to lead the Israelites to a "land overflowing with milk and honey."  Will He promise us any less?  I think we can trust Him to do good for us always.  How do we begin the conversation?  If we desire to communicate with Him, it is because He has already begun to communicate with us.  All we need do is to open our hearts to listen, to dwell in His Presence to us, and the conversation begins.

In Praise of Wisdom

Every day for the past 35 years, I have used my favorite translation of the Bible--the New International Version.  At the time I bought it, it was the most accurate translation that also preserved the beauty of the Hebrew Bible in English prose and poetry.  (Recently, a Catholic writer bemoaned our "clunky" translations that fail to inspire beauty and wisdom in the mind of the reader.)

I will always be grateful to my husband, who picked up my bible off the floor before Katrina.  Though I had lived through many hurricanes in New Orleans, I had never experienced flooding as a result, so when I left Metairie for Long Beach, I left my beloved Bible on the floor beside my "prayer chair," thinking I would return in a couple of days.  When he came into the house after I was gone, he picked up things off the floor and lower shelves, thinking we might have flooding.  Amazing!

Anyway, despite my great love for my Protestant version of the Scriptures, I return again and again to my original Bible -- the Confraternity Edition of the old Douay-Rheims translation.  I think I may have had to buy this one as a college textbook, although I don't really remember how I acquired it.  Nevertheless, I am most grateful to own this beautiful Catholic translation also, because it contains the precious Wisdom books omitted in the Protestant Bible. 

The two versions of the Bible originate in the Greek Bible used by Jesus and the disciples.  During His lifetime, Greek was the international language; Hebrew was used by the Jewish scholars so they could read the ancient works -- just as is true today of both Jewish and Christian scholars.  But most of the non-scholars read Greek, even as they spoke Aramaic.  Both Jews and Romans conversed in the common language of Greek.  Before the birth of Jesus, 70 scholars in Alexandria, Egypt, translated the Hebrew Bible into Greek for the common man.  And that translation included the Wisdom Books, originally written in Greek 300-400 years before the time of Jesus.  So the "Septuagint," as it was called for the Seventy who translated it, became the common bible used by Jesus, the synagogues outlying Jerusalem, and eventually, the early Christian church -- which consisted of Jews and Gentiles, who would have known only Greek and nothing of the Hebrew language.

The New Testament, of course, written for the early church, was written in Greek so that all could understand it.  But after the destruction of the Temple in 70 AD, the Hebrew scholars met in Jamnia to determine the canon, or sacred text, to be used by the Jews, who at that time were scattered everywhere after the crushing blow by the Romans on Jerusalem.  Because the Greek text was so vital to the early Christian church, the Jewish rabbis determined that only books originally written in Hebrew would be included in their canon, even though they still considered the Wisdom books "inspirational" and worthy of reading for the Jewish people.  (There is even now a difference between books considered "inspired," or "breathed by God," and those considered "inspirational," or "moving and beautiful.")

The early church considered all of the books, both Hebrew and Greek, to be inspired, and they continued to use all of them in their liturgies.  When the Catholic Church defined their canon some 300-400 years after the time of the apostles, they accepted the Wisdom books as inspired.  However, at the time of the Protestant Reformation, with new access to the Hebrew canon and with the interest in ancient texts, the Reformers elected to embrace the Hebrew books only -- thus, the "Protestant" Bible.  Most modern Protestant translations now include the Greek/Wisdom books as the Apocrypha, or Deuterocanonical, Books, determining them to be "inspirational," as did the Hebrew scholars at Jamnia in 70 A.D.

Anyone who opens these Wisdom books and reads with thoughtful attention will know for himself whether these books are simply "inspirational" or truly inspired by the Holy Spirit.  The Spirit of Wisdom coming from the mouth of the Most High, the One Who directed the writing of these books, will also illumine our minds and hearts as we read them.  For true Scripture is not only written at the direction of the Spirit, but is also read and understood under the anointing of the Spirit within us. 

Tomorrow: more on Wisdom itself.