From Death to Life

Years of drug addiction had defeated Wayne Richard.  Unemployed and homeless, he felt beaten by the loneliness and physical misery of living on the streets.  His future looked hopeless.  So hopeless, in fact, that one day in 1999, while seated beneath a highway bridge in Chicago, Richard put a pistol barrel in mouth, intending to end that misery.  Just them, although he was completely alone, he heard a voice.  "Get up," it ordered.  "Leave here.  There's something else I want you to do."

Richard's resolve to kill himself died that day.  "Twenty seconds later, I just felt life was going to turn around," Richard recalls.  "I had no idea how that was going to happen, but I felt that I would have peace, that I would have a place where I could be of use....I still didn't have much of what makes a quality of life," Richard later acknowledged.  But he did have hope.

 

Wayne Richard reported to a shelter, and there he joined a 12-step program, eventually meeting Father Bill Creed on a retreat for the homeless.  Over the next 15 years, the two men would grow a retreat service for the homeless that would spread to 20 cities.  Based on the spiritual exercises of Ignatius of Loyola, the exercises stress surrender to God's unconditional love and guidance in daily life, through prayer and reflection on the Gospel.  The program, recognizing addiction as a major factor in homelessness, blends the spiritual exercises with the first few steps of AA's 12-step program.  Both programs emphasize honesty with oneself and with others.  Both programs require participants to acknowledge that they cannot control their addictions by themselves.  Both programs focus on the individual's complete dependence on God, and the need to surrender to God's will.

 

Father Bill's activities invite retreatants to consider God's presence in their lives, reflect on the Gospel, share their histories in an emotionally safe setting, and write a personal letter to an equally personal God.  The participants are removed from the streets and immersed in peaceful surroundings that encourage them to connect with God through nature.

 

AA's founder Bill Watson described "spiritual hunger" as a prerequisite for recovery.  Those who come on the retreats for the homeless have that drive, according to the director.  That's why they are able to respond so positively to the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius.  Rekindling their spirituality ultimately helps the homeless improve their material lives also.  Every retreat has a former retreatant working as a tangible witness of hope.  When Wayne Richard was asked to return as a witness of hope, he once again heard that voice under the bridge saying, "There is something more I want you to do."  As he began to reach out to others, his life changed.  The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless hired him to work with the poor.  He rented his own apartment, helped train new teams for the retreats, and encouraged the homeless men he met to attend the retreats.  By that time, he had found his calling.

 

This story is taken from the Feb. 2014 issue of St. Anthony's Messenger.  The Ignatian Spirituality Project helps homeless people connect with God to reinvent their lives, and "people are grateful," says Father Bill, "for this connection to God."

 

In reading the Confessions of St. Augustine, I see the same pattern repeated, even though on the surface there would seem to be no connection at all.  Though far from homeless, Augustine had a great spiritual hunger that could not be satisfied by philosophy, rhetoric, women, games, friends, etc.  He needed a spiritual home to anchor his life:  our hearts are made for Thee, O Lord, and they are restless til they rest in Thee.  Though not homeless, Augustine could not find "rest" in any of the palaces the world had to offer him.  His was also a journey from death to life.  Looking back on his life after his rescue from anguish, Augustine was able to articulate -- due to his early education in philosophy and rhetoric -- the presence of Christ in him, pulling him from the grave to eternal life.  No matter who we are, our spiritual hunger is real and must be met if we are "have life and have it more abundantly."  Augustine's book is a hymn of praise and thanksgiving to the Divine Presence and Love of God who "reached down from on high and took hold of [him]; he drew me out of deep waters....he brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me" (Ps. 18:16-19). 

In both the case of the homeless and of Augustine, it was the Word of God that eventually "sobers them up" and breathes life into lifeless hearts, bodies, and minds.  The Word of God is as strong, active, and living today on the streets of Chicago as it was in 387 AD, when Augustine received it with hunger and thirst.  I am convinced that it can still change lives today if we are willing to give it a chance.



Transformation -- Part 3

To you, O my heart, He has said, "Seek My Face."

Your Face, Lord, I will seek (Ps. 27:8)

 

Test me, O Lord, and try me,

examine my heart and my mind;

for your love is ever before me,

and I walk continually in Your truth (Ps. 26:2-3).

 

This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel...declares the Lord.

"I will put my law in their minds

and write it on their hearts.

I will be their God,

and they will be my people.

No longer will a man teach his neighbor,

or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,'

because they will all know me,

from the least to the greatest" (Jer. 31:33-34)

 

I have been writing for the past several days about the sign of the cross Catholics make on their foreheads, on their lips, and on their breasts at the reading of the Gospel, accompanied by the prayer, "May the word of God remain in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart, now and forever."

 

The entire goal of the Christian life, the purpose for which Jesus died on the cross, is that we might know God, His Father, the way He knows the Father of heaven and earth.  And "knowing" in the Biblical sense means intimacy with, understanding, communion with -- no distance between -- of one spirit.  St. Seraphim tells us that no matter what we do -- prayer, rosary, liturgy, fasting, reading, etc.---the one aim of any and all practice in the spiritual life is acquisition of the Holy Spirit.  This very tiny book is available on Amazon Kindle for 99 cents or free, if I remember rightly, and it is one that can be read in an hour or so.  In my opinion, every Catholic, every Christian, should read St. Steraphim's On Acquisition of the Holy Spirit at least once a year if not more often, in order to remind us of what we are all about in following the Christ of God.

 

If any one of us does not recognize the evil lurking deep within the recesses of our own hearts, we are still blind, deaf, and dumb.  Jesus said that when the Spirit of Truth comes, He will convict the world of sin because they do not believe in Him (Jn. 16:9).  Those who read this passage "in the flesh" will bristle at it because they do not understand it at all.

 

To "believe" in Jesus means to get into the wheelbarrow* and to allow Him to take us across the falls.  (*In a classic cartoon, a man is standing beside Niagra Falls, over which is stretched a tightrope.  Beside him stands Jesus with a wheelbarrow.  "Do you believe I can take this wheelbarrow across that tightrope?" asks Jesus.  "Yes, Lord, I believe you can do that," replies the man; "You can do all things."  "Then," says Jesus, "Get in." )

 

The only way our miserable, sin-baptized hearts, the core of our being, can be transformed into new hearts is for us to "get in the wheelbarrow" and allow Jesus to take us across the chasm from where we are now to where He wants us to be.  "Is not my word like a hammer," asks the Lord, "that breaks a rock into pieces?"  What He wants to "break into pieces" is our stony heart:  I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh.  Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.  They will be my people and I will be their God (Ez. 11:19).  The ONLY One Who can accomplish this miracle of transformation in us is Jesus Christ.  That is why, if we refuse to allow Him to transform our hearts of stone, we remain in our sin. 

 

We must allow the Word of God to transform us from earthly creatures to men and women of heaven.  Otherwise, we won't "fit" into the kingdom of God.  And since Jesus IS the living Word of God, only He can speak to us the word that will transform us at any given moment of our lives.  As someone once wrote, "It's a living, loving thing."  Let us, then, sign ourselves with the cross of Jesus Christ on our heads, on our lips, and on our breasts, knowing that only He can take us across the chasm from sin to the holiness that God requires.



Transformation -- Part 2

May the Word of God remain in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart now and forever.

 

If we are to allow the Word of God to transform us into the children of God, it is not enough to just read it or listen to it on Sunday and then to walk away, forgetting what we have read and heard.  What is in our minds must be "settled" there or engrained there by the words of our mouths.  Long ago, I heard this:  We do not always say what we believe, but we always believe what we say.  Back in the 70's, Coke and Pepsi toured the country doing "taste tests" in order to get people to say whether they preferred this taste or that.  The object was to get people to "state" their preference so that they would always believe what they had said. 

 

"From the fullness of the heart, the mouth speaks."  When we have stored up the Scriptures inside us, we begin to speak them, thereby making them permanent in our minds and hearts.  When we speak the Scriptures, our heart embraces the words of our mouth, and only then do we believe, or love God, with "all our hearts," as the commandment teaches us.  Psalm 1:

 

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked

or stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the seat of mockers.

But his delight is in the law of the Lord,

and on his law he meditates day and night.

 

He is like a tree planted by streams of water,

which yields its fruit in due season

and whose leaf does not wither.

Whatever he does prospers.

 

The word we translate into English as "meditates" actually means "mutters" in Hebrew, but unfortunately, "muttering" in English connotes a slight form of insanity.  We always laugh at ourselves or others when they talk to themselves, or mutter.  But all of us have seen the orthodox Jews standing by the western wall of the Temple in Jerusalem, rocking back and forth and "muttering" their prayers.  There is a reason for this practice, and it is the same reason we have children sing the Alphabet Song or their multiplication tables.  What we "mutter," "say aloud," "rehearse," or "sing" goes straight to our minds and hearts.  One of the principles of "changing the brain," or "brain-based learning" is to have children sing, rhyme, or speak whatever it is we want them to learn.  The teacher should not do all of the speaking in the classroom.

 

The person who listens to Scripture or who reads it without "turning it over in her heart," as was said of Mary, without "muttering" it, soon forgets it.  The Word of God must transform our hearts from selfish, self-centered, ambitious, lustful, etc. to loving, generous, kind, truthful, and so on.  It does have the power to do so if we "eat it," and digest it, so to speak.  And the way we do that is to say it to ourselves, to "mutter" it.    For example, I have already written about the incident on March 2, 2010, as I drove to the doctor's office in Slidell, 45 minutes away from my home in Mississippi.  On the way, I listened to Charles Stanley teaching about "How to Handle a Crisis."  His Scripture reference was Psalm 57:2:  I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.  At the time I was listening to Stanley, I thought I was going to the doctor to be treated for allergies; I had no idea I had lung cancer.  When I got to the office, however, I found the results of a CAT scan which clearly showed a massive tumor covering my entire right lung.  Strangely, I had no fear at all, but only peace as I "muttered" to myself the words I had just been listening to for 30 minutes:  I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed.

 

Many, many times have I "muttered," repeated, or even sung the words of Psalm 34:  "I sought the Lord, and he answered me; from all my fears he delivered me."  Or any of the words of Psalm 18:

 

• You, O Lord, keep my lamp burning; my God turns my darkness into light (v. 28). 
• He is a shield to all who take refuge in Him (v.30). 
• He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; He enables me to stand upon the heights (v.33). 
• You broaden the path beneath me, so that my ankles do not turn (v. 36). 

One of the psalms says, "He put a new song in our mouths, a hymn of praise to our God."  The joy of the Christian life comes when we, like Mary, can actually sing a song of praise and thanksgiving for all that God has done for us.  And this song builds in us as we read, listen to, process, the Word of God and begin to digest it by speaking it to ourselves.  We know that "faith comes by hearing....," and as we hear ourselves speaking the Word, we begin to believe in our hearts what we are saying with our lips. 

 

I used to wonder how to "get" faith, since it seemed so important.  I know it is a gift from God, but how do we open ourselves to receive the gift?  One of the Scriptures says, "Open wide thy mouth, and I will fill it."  If we look up the word "mouth" in a concordance, we find hundreds of references to God placing His words in our mouths.  It is a great study, and one that is sure to increase our faith if we follow it. 

 

We have all learned foolish and stupid utterances from the time we were children.  Unfortunately, as we continue to repeat these things, they carve deep paths in our minds and hearts so that we believe them forever.  If we allow the wisdom of God to penetrate our minds, hearts, and lips, we begin to embrace God's vision of us and for us instead of the distortions handed down to us from what the Bible calls "wicked men."  Jeremiah 8:10 puts it this way: Since they have rejected the word of the Lord, what kind of wisdom do they have?

 

Those who say they cannot "read" Scripture might find much comfort not in reading it but in reciting it.

 



Transformation in Christ

Whenever Catholics stand for the reading of the Gospel in church, we sign ourselves with the sign of the cross on our foreheads, on our lips, and on our chests.  The prayer that accompanies these signs is "May the word of God remain in my mind, on my lips, and in my heart, now and forever."

Last week, as I routinely traced the sign of the cross on my forehead, on my lips, and on my chest, I suddenly realized that what has become routine for every Catholic child is, in fact, the pattern of transformation.  Our Christian life is supposed to be a life of continuous transformation, through the power of the Holy Spirit, from the natural man -- the "empty way of life handed down to us by our fathers" -- to the spiritual man, the one who lives according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh.  In other words, To all who received Him, He gave the power to become children of God.  The "power" He gives us, as He told us, is the power of the Holy Spirit, who leads us into all truth, from glory to glory.  That is, gradually and continually, the Holy Spirit transforms us into children of God by leading us into truth.

St. Paul tells us that we are... God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time, that we should walk in them (Eph. 2:10).  Now, if we look around, we see some people walking in good works, the outflow of the Holy Spirit, and others, not so much.  How do we grow from the "natural" man, the one who is concerned only about the things of the flesh and about his own life, to the "child of God," who is concerned about the things of the spirit of God and concerned for other people?

Romans 12 tells us to "present your bodies a living sacrifice.....and to be transformed by the renewing of your mind."  Psychologists today tell us that everything begins in the mind.  If we are to be "transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit" (2 Cor. 3: 18), then the process must begin in the mind.  As we trace the sign of the cross on our foreheads, we open our minds to the influence of Jesus' words, the Gospel.  The cross means the death of the natural man, the mind that worries and "is anxious about many things;" it means that "one thing only is necessary," listening to the word of the Lord with our whole mind, our whole heart, and our whole strength.

Jeremiah 23:29 tells us that the word of God is like a "hammer that smashes rock into pieces," and Hebrews 4:12 gives us the image of "a two-edged sword" that "divides soul and spirit...and judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart."

If we are to allow the Holy Spirit to transform us into other Christs, we must allow the Word of God to penetrate even to the marrow of our bones; we must learn to "live not by bread alone, but by every word that comes forth from the mouth of God," as Jesus did. 

So many people tell me that they cannot read Scripture, even though they have the time to do so. There is a reason for this common experience, as we learn from Ephesians 4:  ...if the gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them....for it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

One thing I have learned is that we are all incapable of reading Scripture without the anointing of the Holy Spirit.  To some, God gives direct infusion of the knowledge of Scripture, so that when they actually read it, they recognize it.  They have already known it through the working of the Holy Spirit.  For others, we must, like St. Augustine, at some point, "Take and read," with prayer for seeing and understanding.  The more we read, the more we long for understanding, and the more we long for understanding, the more the Holy Spirit pours out His truth into our hearts and minds. 

Renewing of our minds is the first step toward transformation, but there are still two steps to follow.

The Lamb of God

My last post was on the power of God to transform us from our "natural' selves into children of God--people who act like God instead of like "human" nature, the "empty way of life handed down to us by our fathers," as Peter puts it.  Even if we have the natural capacity to be "good people," what we cannot do for ourselves is enter into communion, or fellowship, with the Father, with the Son, and with the Holy Spirit.  Of ourselves, we cannot know the great adventure that life is when we walk with God, sit with God, and stand with God;  we cannot give ourselves love, peace, and/or joy, no matter how "good" we think we are. These are gifts from the hand of God Himself, given to those who receive His Son and are made children of God.

Today, in Give Us This Day, I find this:

The Lamb of God

 

In front of the power and armies of Caesar,

in front of their mighty weapons,

stands a lamb, the lamb of God. 

What can this lamb do?

The lamb will break down the walls of fear, of aggression, of violence, of sin

which imprison people in themselves

and incite them to seek their own glory.

He will liberate in each person a new life of communion with God,

with other people, and with what is deepest in the self,

sowing seeds for universal peace.

 

In our world today are some prophets like John the Baptizer

who are spectacular.

They prepare our hearts to receive Jesus.

But when Jesus comes, he comes not as a spectacular God of power,

but as a gentle lamb,

the Chosen One of God, the Beloved.

 

He comes in a very simple way, opening our hearts to people

with the breath of peace and a quiet shaft of light, a gentle kiss.

He comes into that part of our being that is our treasure,

that sacred space within us,

hidden under all the fears, walls, and anger in us

so that we may grow in the spirit of love.

 

Yesterday, as today, John the Baptizer is calling people to be attentive

to the quiet voice and presence of Jesus,

calling us trust him

and to enter into friendship with him.

We are being called to be gentle followers of the Lamb,

not people of power.

--Jean Vanier, Drawn into the Mystery of Jesus through the Gospel of John

 

As much as I want to elaborate, my words can add nothing to the power of re-reading Vanier's poem slowly, meditatively, asking for the wisdom of God to descend upon our hearts and minds.





the Power of God

...for the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk, but of power (1 Cor. 4:20).

...but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses to Me...to the end of the earth (Acts 1:8)

But know this:  in the last days, perilous times will come: men will be lovers of themselves...having a form of religion but denying its power (2 Tim.3:1-5).

 



Books such as God Calling and Jesus Calling remind us on a daily basis of the "power" of God to save us -- not only the power to save our "souls," but the power to maintain our peace, our joy, our love in the face of difficulties and struggles.  When people compartmentalize religion into some sort of box like 'going to church on Sunday,' or 'following the rules,' they have what Paul calls "a form of religion, but denying its power."

 

Judaism is a very powerful religion, but for many people (some of whom I have met), it has become not "power," but "culture," a way of life, a social milieu.  For those Jews who embrace their faith, however, every "mitzvah" or good deed brings the power of God into their daily lives.  The same is true of Christianity: many are called, but few are chosen.  I wonder how many Catholics and Protestants know the power of their faith, the power of their God.

 

The Greek word for "power" in the New Testament is dunamis, the root of our English word dynamite.  All religion, when embraced, is supposed to bring the dynamite of God into our lives.  And that dynamite 'blows up' our "human nature," or the natural man, transforming it into a person of God:  and to all who received Him, He gave the power to become children of God (Jn. 1).  The New Testament is full of descriptions of "the empty way of life handed down to us by our fathers," as St. Peter puts it.  The Epistle of Paul to Timothy quoted above says this:

 

But know this, that in the last days, perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of religion but denying its power.  And from such people, turn away!....but evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived (2 Tim. 3).

 

Another wonderful description of the 'natural man' can be found in Galatians 5:22, contrasted there with the work of the Holy Spirit in us, producing the fruits of the children of God:  love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, long-suffering, generosity, etc. 

 

There are two ways of life: that of the natural man (what we might call human nature) and that of the spirit man, given to us by the power of God--the same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in our mortal bodies, hearts, minds and souls:

 

...knowing this, that our old man was crucified with [Jesus], that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him....for the death that He died, He died to sin once and for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  In the same way, reckon yourselves as indeed dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6).

 

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For to be carnally-minded is death, but to be spiritually-minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.  So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. but you are not in the flesh if the Spirit of God dwells in you (Romans 8).

 

The power of God is the Spirit of God at work in our moral lives, transforming us from the natural man, the one who cannot please God, into another Christ, the Beloved Child in whom He is well -pleased.  All that is required of us is that we submit ourselves to the power of God given to us through the Holy Spirit.  He will do everything else:  He that began a good work in you will carry it through to the end.

To Know God.....

Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God (Matthew 5)

 

Unless you receive the kingdom of God as a little child, you shall not see it.

 

Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (Jn. 3).

 

 

Who can 'see' God in this life?  Who is it that can receive the kingdom of God in the present time? 

 

Jesus was very clear about the question of "seeing" and "not seeing:"

• Just Father, the world does not know you (Jn. 17:25), but I know you....
• "...in a little while, the world will no longer see me, but you will see me..."
• The Spirit of Truth which the world is not able to receive because it does not see him or know him.  You know him because he dwells within you (Jn. 14: 17).

Who is the "world" that cannot see Jesus or know the Father?  Who is it that does not see or know the Spirit of truth?  Those who are bound to a material and carnal life -- that is, the life of the flesh only.  Those who "see" truth with their eyes and mind only-- the natural man.  The fact of the resurrection means that we are no longer limited to the world of flesh and blood, but now live a life of the Spirit. 

 

The man who cannot open his heart and mind to the Spirit of God, who alone can teach him inner truth, will see only the things of this world.  Jesus died in the flesh in order to become a "new creation," a "second Adam" (2 Cor.) so that all who receive the life He lives now can enjoy His vision of the Father and the life of the Spirit.  He gives His disciples the ability to see and contemplate the Spirit even in this life, without waiting for heaven. 

 

Isaiah says, "He who makes the earth firm and all that is on it gives inspiration to the people on the earth and gives the Spirit to those who walk on it" (42:5).  Purity of heart means that we desire this Gift more than we desire anything else on earth -- more than friends, more than wealth, more than power and influence.  If we desire friendship with God, He gives us His own Spirit that we might communicate with Him "face to face, as a man speaks with his friend," as it was said of Moses.

 

A child has no desire for the things of this world; he desires love only.  He desires that his needs be taken care of in love.  He desires acceptance and joy each day.  To be 'pure in heart' means to desire only one thing.  The Book of Hebrews tells us that in order to please God, "we must first believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him."  The "reward" spoken of here is the "reward" of God's presence -- the very best gift He can give us is the gift of Himself.  And there is nothing else that defines the "kingdom of heaven' except the Presence of God.  In Him is every good thing we can desire.  Ask any child whose parents give him every gift except the gift of themselves, and you will know the truth. 

 

No gift comes to creation except by the Holy Spirit, and if He dwells in us, as Jesus has promised us, what can we expect but that He will bring us the greatest gift of all -- knowledge (intimacy) of the Father and of the Son?  And in this is the kingdom of heaven.  

Transformation

As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he (Proverbs)

 

Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind (Rom. 12:2)

 

I remember reading Corrie Ten Boom's experiences in the concentration camp many years ago.  When she was released and began to speak about her story some years later, she looked up one day and saw one of her prison guards in the audience.  After the talk, she saw him heading toward her-- she knew it was to ask her forgiveness.  At that moment, Corrie had to make a decision: forgive or not?  This is the guard who had beaten her sister to death, and the memories were still fresh in Corrie's mind.  She chose to forgive when the guard asked, for the sake of Jesus Christ.

 

When I read that, I wondered how it would be possible to get from where I was at that time to where Corrie was, for a recognized a great abyss between the two of us.  I was quite sure that inside me was not the capacity for that kind of mercy.  "How do you get there?" I wondered. 

 

Indeed, when we read the words of Jesus, we have to wonder how any of us get from where we are now to where He insists His followers must go.  If we look at the contents of our minds and hearts on a daily basis, we have some clue.  Most of us will "rehearse" injuries -- real or imagined-- done to us by others.  We go over and over the scene, the insult, the injury; we justify our own responses and tell ourselves that we are right, after all -- the other person was sooooo in the wrong.  I have even heard people criticize not injuries, but just innocent responses made by another person.  We don't like the tone of voice; we don't like the nervous laugh; we don't appreciate a lack of thoughtfulness.... etc. etc.

 

All of this is our natural defense against injury from others -- but Jesus asks that we leave behind our 'natural' response and take us His own divine response to injury -- forgiveness, love, welcome to those who have hurt us.  And we ask, "HOW, Lord?" 

 

Scripture has an answer for us:  Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Everything begins in the mind and heart, and that is where transformation into Christ must begin also.  We cannot expect forgiveness to flow naturally out of our sinful hearts and minds.  But the Holy Spirit will renew our minds and give us the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:14 ff.) if we will only allow Him to do so.  He will lead us to the Scriptures that will renew our minds and hearts, and He will apply those Scriptures to our hearts until we are transformed from the image of our earthly fathers to the image of our heavenly Father.

 

Transformation in Christ is a gradual and life-long process, "from glory to glory."  And that is the only Christian life-- the life of ongoing transformation to love.  The entire law is summed up in 2 commandments:  Love...  God with your whole heart...mind... and strength, and Love your neighbor as yourself.  Neither of these commandments is possible for us until we "put on Christ Jesus" and allow Him through the action of the Holy Spirit to transform us into His Image.

Herod and The Works of Darkness

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it (Jn. 1:4-5)

 

And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.  For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds be exposed (Jn. 3:19-20).

 

When the Light of the World came into the world, there were three groups who were notified:  the shepherds, the Magi, and King Herod.  The Jewish shepherds were the "anawim," the "little ones," the "poor in spirit," who hastened to see the wonder they had been told -- and they received the kingdom of heaven as little children, immediately believing the message of the angels and falling to their knees to worship the Savior, the promised Messiah.

 

The Magi are fascinating.  They were non-Jews from a distant land, probably Persia, where the Jews had been in captivity some 400 years previously.  It is entirely possible that the Jewish writings, which developed during the years of captivity as a way of holding to their history and traditions, influenced the wise men from the East.  The Old Testament prophecies regarding the future "King of the Jews," the Messiah, were recorded during the Babylonian captivity as a hopeful message for the Jews.  But the wise men, the astronomers, possibly knew the writings of the Jews, especially that of Balaam's prophecy:

 

...the utterance of him who hears the words of God,

and knows the knowledge of the Most High,

who sees the vision of the Almighty,

who falls down, with eyes opened wide:

 

"I see Him, but not now;

I behold Him, but not near;

A Star shall come out of Jacob;

A Scepter shall rise out of Israel,

and batter the brow of Moab,

and destroy all the sons of tumult" (Num. 25:16-17).

 

Upon observation of a magnificent and unusual star in the heavens two years previous to the birth of Christ, it seems possible that the wise men searched out the scriptures known to them and discovered Balaam's prophecy, and they set off to discover this great new king.

 

When Light comes into the world, those who are ready to embrace goodness and light will set out in search of the Truth.  Those who hate the light and the truth, however, will inevitably feel threatened by the Light and will set out to destroy that which threatens their rule and power over tumult and darkness.  Herod was an evil man; he had already murdered his own sons to keep them from usurping his throne.  Now that he hears of a new threat from the wise men, he is determined to extinguish the "king of the Jews" also:  those who love darkness rather than light...will hate the light. 

 

When John says, "the darkness has never comprehended [the light]," the Greek word he uses for comprehended can also mean "embraced."  The more I study history, the more I see one "Herod" after another that feels it necessary to extinguish the Light of the Gospel, the Light of the world.  The pattern continues down to this very day and time.

 

The Communists came into power, and their first objective was to destroy the churches and to remove all traces of Christianity from the land.  Their churches were bombed, turned into prisons and mortuaries, warehouses, and basketball courts.  People who continued their Christian practices were exterminated, sent to Siberia, and their children refused an education and jobs.  In China and in North Korea, the pattern repeats itself even today.  In every land where evil men rule, their first task is to extinguish the Light of the world and to imprison Christians and Jews.

 

Reading Mindszenty, the memoirs of Cardinal Jozsef Mindszenty, I am amazed at the extreme lengths evil men will take to suppress the church and those who believe in Jesus Christ.  When the Russians pushed the Germans out of Hungary in the 1940's, they quickly set about establishing what Reagan called "the evil empire."  They seized all private property, including all the Catholic schools in the land, and "re-distributed" it.  The result was wide-spread starvation and homelessness.  When Mindszenty appealed to Rome and to his fellow bishops for help, money, food, and clothing was sent from all over the world to help the Hungarians.  Of course, the state could not have that kind of interference, and after starving, beating, drugging all those who distributed foreign aid to the poor, including the Cardinal, they condemned some to death and some to life in prison. 

 

I continually hear even today that in some parts of the world, churches are being bombed and Christians are imprisoned in shipping containers for lack of enough jail cells.  In some Muslim countries, even the suspicion of someone owning a bible is enough evidence to condemn them to death.  We have no idea in this country what it means to be a Christian in the face of evil.

 

The pattern at the Incarnation of the Son of God continues to this day:  those who seek the Light come to the Light.  Those who love darkness continue to pursue, harass, and destroy the Light.  Fortunately, we have the words of Jesus:  the gates of hell shall not prevail against [the church].  And John's words, "the darkness has never comprehended it" can also be translated as "the darkness has never overcome it."

 

Whether we are like the Jewish shepherds, like the pagan Magi, or like Herod and his dominion, our response to the Light of the World speaks volumes about our destiny.

 

 



Who is Jesus Christ?

Who do you say that I am?

 

Instead of letting difficulties draw you into worrying, try to view them as setting the scene for My glorious intervention.  Keep your eyes and your mind wide open to all that I am doing in your life (Jesus Calling: Jan. 6).

 

Here is the crux of the matter:  do we view our lives as ourselves trying to "imitate" Jesus (ha!), or do we view our lives as His opportunity to live His life in us to the glory of His Father in heaven?  He is eternal; what He did on earth, He continues to do in us today, as we "offer our bodies as living sacrifices, as is your reasonable worship" (Rom. 12:1)?

 

Basil the Great, in his writings on who Jesus is, pulls together some Scriptures to illustrate His living work in the world today:

 

Let us speak the truth in love and let us grow in every way toward him who is the head, Christ, from whom the whole body, fit together and put together through every joint with which it is supplied, makes bodily growth according to the proper activity of every single part (Eph. 4:15-16).

 

[Jesus Christ is active today in every member of His body, working to make each one of us suitable and living parts of the whole body, the church.  That means that our growth in holiness is His work, not ours.]

 

The one holding fast to the head, that is, to Christ, from whom every body, endowed with joints and ligaments, grows with the growth of God (Col. 2:19).

 

From his fullness, we have all received (John 1:16).

 

Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24)  [This is the "fullness" He imparts to us on a daily basis as we remain in communion with Him -- the work is His, not ours].

 

He who has seen Me has seen the Father (Jn. 14:9).

 

So that they may honor the Son just as they honor the Father (Jn. 5:23).  [This alone should tell us that Jesus is no mere historical figure, even as great as Buddha or Mohammed, but far above every name that can be named in heaven or on earth.]

 

We beheld His glory, the glory of the Only-begotten of the Father (Jn. 1:14).

 

The only-begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father (Jn. 1:18).

 

He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father (Jn 5:23).

 

[Basil:  "How, then is it not audacious to rob the Son of his communion with the Father in the doxology, as if he deserved to be ranked in a lower place of honor?...the glory is common to the Father and the Son, and so we offer the doxology to the Father with the Son.]

 

Through Him we have access to the grace in which we stand and rejoice (Rom. 5:2). [When it comes to what Jesus does for us continually, on an on-going basis, Basil says that Jesus first brings to us the grace of goods from the Father and then leads us through himself to the Father:]

 

[Basil:  "Scripture calls him by countless different titles on account of the manifold character of his grace towards us.... It calls him shepherd, king, physician, the very bridegroom, way, door, living water, bread, axe, and rock....these titles indicate the variety of his action, which he supplies to the needy according to the particular circumstance out of his concern....]

 

Basil goes on in his writing to elaborate and explain each of the titles above in terms of what it means to us today.  I will give just one example:  "He is a rock, because through his strength, he is for the faithful an unshakeable protection, a wall that cannot be breached."

 

Reading Basil's writings is a shortcut for our own work of reading and contemplating the Scriptures in regard to what they can tell us about who Jesus Christ is and what He does for us on a moment-by-moment basis:  From His fullness, we have all received one grace after another.  [Basil: "for the soul's every help comes through Him, and His particular names are intended to reflect a particular kind of care....since He was content to have compassion on our weaknesses and was able to accommodate our infirmity.]

 

We owe a great debt to the Fathers of the church -- and, in fact, to the heresies which they were combatting in their writings.  For the heresies forced the fathers to search the Scriptures for us and to formulate what they tell us about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  We could (and probably should) do the work for ourselves, but to have an Augustine or a Basil, or Ignatius of Antioch, etc. lay out for us the teachings of Christ and their implications is a great grace for us.  Unfortunately for the church today, most of us were brought up on doctrine -- what the church teaches -- rather than on inspiration -- why we believe the doctrines.  Perhaps our work as adult Catholic Christians is to explore the things we have been taught, to meditate and to assimilate those teachings into our very souls and minds.

 

To know Jesus is to know the "exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead...(Eph.1:19].  The very same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in us today!  Can anything be greater than this?  Can anything be further from the idea that we are ourselves trying to "imitate Christ" by living a moral life?  (Of course, we are trying to 'imitate Christ' by applying to ourselves His great power to do in us what we cannot do for ourselves -- that is how we open ourselves to the working of His power in us.  But let no one believe that it is our effort to imitate Him that does the work in us.)  Here is an example of what I mean:  for years, I wanted to know how on earth we were supposed to 'love our enemies and do good to those who persecute us.'  I read about Corrie Ten Boom forgiving her captor in the concentration camp, the one who had killed her sister.  And I asked many people where that power came from.  Gradually, in my asking and seeking and trying on my own, I realized the impossibility of my doing this in my own nature.  I had to allow Jesus in me to do the work in me:  What is impossible for man is possible for God.  With my 'giving up, my surrender to a 'higher power,' as the AA people have all learned, all things were possible to me. 

 

Who is Jesus Christ?  He is Lord and Savior, the incredibly great power of God toward those who accept Him as such.

 

 

 

 



Does Our Christology Matter?

...He asked His disciples, "Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?"

So they said, "Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"

And Simon Peter answered and said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God."

Jesus answered and said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, but flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven"  (Matt. 16:13-17).

 

For Peter, it was a moment of grace, of divine wisdom and insight.  He saw in the natural man what others saw, but added to the "facts" of Christ's appearance was a sudden gift of grace.  He "saw" beyond the natural into the supernatural.  After Pentecost, all of the disciples would "see" what Peter saw, and seeing it, they would proclaim it throughout the world.  Up until that moment, the Apostles and disciples caught glimpses of the truth, but it was as if the veil closed again -- especially with the arrest and crucifixion of their Messiah.  In the face of that reality, the mind, heart, emotions are in turmoil, and nothing makes sense.  How could this have been the Messiah? 

 

The two disciples on the road to Emmaus reported that 'he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures," even as their "hearts were burning within them."  As much wisdom, intellect, learning, and knowledge as we may have, we still need that moment of grace, that enlightenment of the Holy Spirit to comprehend "with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height--to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge...(Eph. 3:16-19).

 

In the Book of Ephesians, Paul lays out quite clearly that our knowledge of who Jesus is a gift from above:  ...that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened....

 

If we think we "know" who Jesus is, and if we are satisfied that we know, we are not likely to be poor in spirit enough to receive further knowledge, wisdom and understanding through the work of the Holy Spirit.  If we are convinced that our knowledge of Jesus has come to us through "the natural man" only, and that we need further enlightenment from above, we will begin to seek the gift from the only One Who can bestow it upon us.

 

Does it matter what we believe about Jesus?  I would say that our entire life depends on our Christology!  If we believe that Jesus is not God, that he was a famous historical figure such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, or if we want to stay on the spiritual side, the Buddha, or Mohammed, then we are restricted to our own efforts to follow His philosophy and moral teaching.

 

In the time of Augustine and Basil the Great (300-400+) and other saints, the church struggled to define its own Christology against the heretics.  Fortunately, there were those like Augustine and Basil for whom the truth mattered, who desired to pursue wisdom and truth with every fiber of their being.  Pelagius and his followers believed that God gave us the Law, and Jesus showed us how to follow it.  Furthermore, they believed that we have the ability to obey the law, and that if we work at it, we can be perfect in obedience-- like Jesus.  Their teachings led Augustine to shape his own teaching on the necessity of grace and on man's inability to reach God on his own terms.

 

In the time of Basil the Great, there was a faction that denied the divinity of Christ and of the Holy Spirit -- that is, the doctrine of the Trinity.  Basil's Christology in answer to these people, and his writings on the Holy Spirit are among the most beautiful and inspirational that I have read.  Tomorrow, I will quote from Basil's writings on Jesus Christ and on the Holy Spirit, which clearly show us that "No man comes to the Father but by Me." 

 

If we think Jesus is just the model to be followed, our obedience will be servile, as Augustine points out.  If we know that it is His life, His energy, in us that fashions our obedience, we will no longer depend on our own efforts to "be good," but rather enter into a dynamic relationship with the God Who Alone has the power to save us. 

 



Experiencing the Power of God (Grace)

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek (Romans 1:16).

 

I canceled the last class before Christmas, thinking to give the kids a longer break instead of having a Christmas party, as is the custom.  Instead, I asked them to read the Gospel of Mark over the two-week period before our next class.  I wanted to give them the experience of reading a gospel on their own -- a completely different experience from hearing just a portion read in church on Sunday.  Most of us don't really hear the gospel anyway, or we hear it and immediately forget it.  I wanted them to focus on their own experience of Jesus teaching them as He taught the disciples.  So I asked them to record one quotation from each chapter and one comment or question for each chapter. 

 

Whenever I give an assignment, I always do it myself to see what happens -- or what the difficulties might be with the assignment.  Usually, I do it ahead of time, but the idea of canceling the last class had come up on the spur of the moment in discussion with the director, so, although I had been thinking of having them read a gospel on their own, I had not planned it for this time. 

 

I had suggested that the kids read a chapter a day over the break.  However, as I attempted to do that, I found the going difficult.  I read a chapter a day for the first two days -- but it was just to do the assignment.  There was no "poetry" or "beauty" in doing it.  Then I got really sick for an entire week and didn't really feel like reading anything at all.  Even when I began to feel better, the idea of doing the assignment had little appeal to me.  One morning, however, I woke up -- and all I wanted to do was to read the Gospel of Mark.  There was an energy and a desire -- not to  "do the assignment," but to read the Gospel.  I could hardly wait to begin, and unlike my previous attempts to read it, I did not want to stop and record quotes or comments.  I just wanted to read the whole Gospel without stopping. 

 

As I read, I discovered that the assignment was truly fading into the background.  I was aware of it, but knew I'd go back and do it later.  Right now, I felt the Grace of God teaching me -- illuminating my soul and my mind, giving me understanding and showing me things I had never seen before.  It was as if the Holy Spirit were shining a spotlight on certain passages that I needed to see.  I did not want to stop with one chapter, but wanted to keep going.  My eyes gave out after Chapter 10, but the next morning, I was able to finish the last chapter of the Gospel.  Even then, I did not want to finish the assignment, but rather just to be bathed in what I had read. 

 

That very day, a friend asked me about 4 of the passages from Mark (go figure!), and I went back and re-read those passages, thinking about them again.  This morning, as I awoke, I could not wait to get to the assignment, which by now had become quite easy -- to capture a quote or comment from each chapter.  It took me about 20 minutes at the most to complete the assignment.

 

Philippians 2:13 says, "It is God who works in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure."  The Apostles told Jesus they had fished all night and caught nothing, but at His word, they would go back again to the waters.  That was the experience of Augustine when he first tried to read Scripture; that is the experience of most of us when we first try to read Scripture.  That was my experience trying to "do the assignment."  But when the grace of God takes hold of us, we come to know that the power is no longer ours, but His.  What was difficult, if not impossible, before now becomes easy and joyful.  When the disciples returned to their fishing, their boats could not hold the catch, and they had to call for help.  When the power of God takes over for us, our experience is the same -- what was previously a chore now becomes our delight.

The Power of God 2

I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek (Romans 1:16).

 

Now we have Augustine, as a 30-something, trapped in his ambition for worldly influence and power, wanting above all else to be a philosopher and teacher (he studied rhetoric as a way of gaining influence and persuasion over others).  He studied skepticism from the Roman philosophers, and, although he deeply desired wisdom, his skepticism kept him from seeking wisdom through the scriptures or through the church.  In fact, he doubted whether man could really find wisdom, even though he had been granted a brief vision of the beauty of God some years earlier. 

 

All of Augustine's training, knowledge, and desires held him from the truth he so desperately sought in his soul.  His situation is perfectly described in Romans 7, where Paul cries out: "Unhappy man that I am; who will rescue me from this body of death?"  At it was at this very impasse, where Augustine found it impossible to help himself, that God intervened.  One day, while discussing his dilemma with a friend, Augustine heard a child singing in the garden outside his window:  Take up and read; take up and read.  Inspired, Augustine picks up the open Bible in his study and reads the first passage he sees: Put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts (Rom. 13:14).

 

For Augustine, it was a "Eureka!" moment, a moment of divine wisdom and understanding.  For the first time, he understood that Christ was given to him to accomplish in his flesh what his own determination and desire could not.  He understood that by "putting on Christ," His humility conquers our pride; His holiness conquers our sin; His obedience lines up our rebellious will with God's plans for us.  He finally understood what is written in Zachariah:   not by might, not by strength, but by my Spirit, says the Lord.  When St. Paul says, "...who will deliver me from this body of death?" he goes on in the next chapter to cry out:  "Thanks be to God; it has already been done...for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death."

 

The Gospel of Jesus is the power of God to grant freedom to all those trapped by the "flesh," meaning not only the body, but the "natural" way of doing things -- the mind, the emotions, the body.  There are natural powers and there are spiritual powers.  If we do not "put on Christ Jesus" and allow Him to deal with our lives in his strength and power, then we are condemned to using "the weapons of this world" to fight our battles.  But putting on Christ Jesus gives us a new kind of existence, the same existence we will have in the next life -- where we will no longer take up swords to fight with, but will use the power of the Spirit of Jesus to hasten His kingdom on earth.

 

I am convinced that Scripture is a healing, a cleansing, a teaching, a renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1-2), and a growing in the Spirit of life.  Once Augustine no longer attempted to read the Scriptures as he read philosophy -- with his intellect, -- and once he took it up with a search of his heart, it began to teach him the wisdom of God, given to us in Christ Jesus.



The Power of God

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew and then for the Gentile.  For the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last...(Rom. 1:16).

 

From my own experience and the experience of others, I have become convinced that Satan will do everything in his power to keep us from reading the Gospel of Jesus Christ, because he knows full well that the "power of God for salvation" lies in those words. 

 

St. Augustine, who learned to read and to reason by reading Cicero and the Greek philosophers, read when he was 19 years old from Cicero's Hortensius, "...seek wisdom and follow it."  For Augustine, those words were a moment of grace, because he knew enough philosophy to know that he could not find wisdom therein.  Knowledge and intellectual development--yes; wisdom -- no.  In one moment, Augustine fell in love with the desire for wisdom, but he did not know where or how to find wisdom, even though a hunger and thirst for it began to overtake him from the moment he read those words. 

 

Because he grew up in a remote region of Northern Africa, on the outskirts of the Roman Empire (akin to growing up on a farm in Arkansas today), and because he was brilliant and a student of the Greek philosophers, and because he was learning rhetoric and dialectic and could argue circles around the local-yokel Catholic priest, he was pretty sure that he could not find wisdom in the church.  His local church, the one he had been raised in, was not a center of learning and philosophy, but only one of blind obedience without question.  (The Catholic church was the only church until Martin Luther in the 15th century, remember.) 

 

As a 19-year scholar, Augustine had already rejected the 'wisdom' of the Catholic church.  He turned to the Scriptures in his search -- but the Scriptures were not "beautiful," as was Greek and Roman philosophy.  The original manuscripts were simply and sort of crudely written, compared to the dialectic and sophisticated rhetoric he was learning to read and use.  Nothing in the Scriptures appealed to him, so he rejected them also as a source of wisdom.  But his desire did not go away.  He turned to the philosophy of the Manicheans, who appeared to combine worldly philosophy and religious "truth" and discipline, and for a time, Augustine became convinced that he was finding wisdom.

 

Then, Augustine, in his continued search for wisdom and eventual disillusionment with Manicheism, traveled to Milan, the real center of philosophic inquiry and debate in his day -- (comparable to going from the backwoods of Arkansas to New York City.)  And there Augustine met Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, and a great scholar and thinker.  Ambrose helped Augustine sort through his difficulties with Manicheism, but emotionally, Augustine was not ready to buy into Catholicism. 

 

He was faced now with other problems, not philosophical, but physical and emotional ones, that kept him from the wisdom of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Now, he had to deal with his own inner conflicts-- the ones Paul describes so well in Romans 7.  In his mind and heart, he wanted, he desired, wisdom above all else in his life.  In his personal life, however, he was still very ambitious:  he had wanted to be a political leader (power and influence and wealth) and philosopher (knowledge and wisdom and teaching) ever since he was a youth.  He did not really WANT the gospel of Jesus Christ -- being a servant to others, laying down one's life, etc.  Coming from the remote areas of the Roman Empire, he wanted to be in the center of life, not on the fringes.

 

Monica (his mother) and Augustine had already contracted marriage with a young girl from a wealthy and powerful family -- the way it was done in those days -- to further Augustine's political career.  The girl, however, was still underage-- only 12 years old-- and Augustine had to wait 2 more years for the marriage to take place.  In the meantime, however, Augustine was forced by custom to send away his concubine, the woman with whom he had been living for 15 years, and the mother of his only son.  He truly loved the woman, but she was not a suitable marriage partner for the status he desired in life.  Sadly, he sent her away with provisions for her and her son, but he found that he could not live without the habit of sex---he had been living with a concubine since the age of 15. 

 

Augustine took on another concubine, even while waiting to marry his fiancé, and during that time, he continued to converse with Ambrose and continued to wrestle with his "two wills"  -- the will to seek wisdom above all else and the will to continue his own life of seeking ambition, influence, and power, not to mention sex.  His prayer eventually became, "O God, give me the gift of chastity -- but not yet!"  I think we can all identify with his struggle if we recall lying in bed on a cold morning, knowing that we have to get up and go to work, but "not yet."  Just five, fifteen, twenty more minutes, and then....

 

Later, reflecting on the struggle going on within him, Augustine would become the great philosopher of the soul's internal and personal relationship with God, and his reflections would influence the western church down to our day.  Reflecting on his struggle to be both at peace with God and to enter the church would eventually lead to his writings on the relationship between being a member of the church and a "private' Christian, one who is satisfied with his relationship with God and who does not "need" the 'walls" of the church.

 

Augustine's long journey to the Scriptures and the church is one that gave us some of the greatest insights into God and the soul, and the soul and the church.  I will have to continue this story tomorrow -- the one about Augustine's eventual arrival at the Scriptures and the church.