Incarnational Theology

From the very beginning, God has built His Word into our hearts, our minds, and our bodies.  His "law" is written in the universe, in the stars, and in our natures.  Moses tells the Israelites before His departure:

This commandment that I lay on you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.  It is not in the heavens, that you should say, 'Who will go up to the heavens for us to fetch it and tell it to us, so that we can keep it?' Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, 'Who will cross the sea for us to fetch it and tell it to us, so that we can keep it?'  It is a thing very near to you, on your lips and in your heart ready to be kept" (Deut. 30:14).

 

Jesus is the Word Made Flesh and dwelling among us -- He is the entire Pronouncement, Plan, Promise, Provision, and Power of God  revealed to us.  But even before His incarnation, the Word of God, the Plan of God, the Promise of God, the Provision of God, and the Power of God was made flesh in the people of God -- the Fathers of Israel, the Prophets, the Judges, the women  -- God incarnated His Word in the flesh of all these before Jesus. 

 

The Bible is a book of stories:  "this is what God looks like; this is Who God is; this is how God acts."  The prophets were called not just to "say" the "Word of the Lord," but to enflesh it in their bodies, their lives.  Jeremiah was thrown into a cistern and left to die because of the Word of the Lord.  Isaiah was sawn in two because of the anger of the kings of Israel.  Hosea married a harlot and had to go after her time and again to redeem her from her "empty way of life."  Again and again, he took her back, forgiving her infidelity --- as a living sign of God's response to Israel's faithlessness.  Being a prophet in Israel was not fun at all. 

 

But we, too, are called to enflesh the Word of God in our lives.  It is not enough to know the Scriptures; they must work their way through our lives down to the cellular level -- the "law of the Lord," the instruction, the teaching, the guidance of God must fill our hearts and our minds and our mouths until it spills out of us to a world beyond us.  It is not enough to read, "Sing and make music to the Lord" unless we wake up each morning singing psalms of praise and thanksgiving. 

 

Paul called marriage "a great mystery," a great sign of Christ's love for the church.  The Book of Genesis begins with a wedding and ends with the marriage supper of the Lamb.  In between, we have the Song of Songs and the Wedding at Cana.  It was not accidental that Jesus' first 'sign' was at the Wedding at Cana:  for this cause, a man shall leave his mother and father and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.  Now, in Hebrew, the word translated into English as "one flesh" actually means "a new creation," or "an entirely new species."  Paul tells us that if anyone be in Christ Jesus, "the old has gone and the new has come; he is a new creation."

 

The marriage bond between husband and wife is the enfleshment, the concrete and living sign, of God's union with us in Christ Jesus.  We are no longer what we were -- sons of Adam-- but a "new creation," a new species, -- sons of God.  We are joined to Christ body, soul, spirit.  We have His body given to wash us with the water of the Word -- cleansing us from all imperfection.  We have the mind of Christ (I Cor. 2:14 ff.) and we have the Spirit of Jesus dwelling in us.  We are married to God, one flesh with Him.  His law in written in our hearts and in our minds and in our bodies, according to the promise given to us in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Joel. 

 

The Word has been made flesh and dwells among us -- not only in the human body of Jesus Christ, but in us who are in Him.  We live the Word of God, the union of God and man --- and marriage is the great mystery, or the great sign of that mystical union. 

 

After 45 years of marriage, my husband and I have discovered that when one thinks a thought, the other verbalizes it.  We have begun to laugh about it because it occurs on a daily basis.  Is this not yet another sign that when we are united to God in Jesus Christ, we begin to think the thoughts of God? 

The Theology of Hospitality

During my recent visit to Paris, we stayed at the beautiful and intimate hotel Le Relais Saint Germain.  It was hard to tell how many rooms the hotel had; from what I could see, I would think maybe 6 rooms altogether, if that many.  But I could be wrong.  Part of the hotel is one of the best restaurants in Paris, one where it is so difficult to get a reservation that people sometimes book a room in the hotel just to get a reservation at the restaurant. 

Breakfast in the morning is a signature event, served in the room with real silver coffeepots and teapots.  It is not a meal to be rushed through, but everything about it speaks of savoring and enjoying the experience -- real silverware, freshly laundered napkins, fresh fruit, croissants, French bread, eggs, ham, cream cheese, yogurt, butter, oatmeal, miniature jars of jams and preserves --- I cannot even remember all that was on the tray.

In the lobby was an umbrella stand with old-fashioned black umbrellas -- the kind with curved handles--- for the use of the guests.  Though we had no rain while I was there, I took one with me each day as a walking stick, to help me up the many metro stairs on our excursions. 

This small hotel had the gift of making each guest feel like a welcome part of the family.  In each room was a small book -- a gift from the owners-- which included their favorite recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  The introduction to the booklet set out their philosophy of entertaining, a philosophy which for me became theology:

Entertaining is the word that sums up the magic of my job.  I just love to receive people at home.  They always ask me questions about my vocation.  The answer?  Maybe I became a cook because my passion is to give, receive, give back.  ....Feeding people is not enough for us.  We wanted to also give them a place to sleep with sweet dreams before a good breakfast.  We are proud when our customers say that their experience was good or it was beautiful. But never more so than when they remember that they were well received. 

 

If you ask me the word that best expresses my passion, I think that the most beautiful verb is "receive."  I play with conjugating this verb in many ways:  "I received, I get, I will receive" --- and "is received, is receiving."  That which receives, receives....

 

Entertaining is inviting in friends and in greeting customers.  And when I say the word that touches me and makes me dream, I sometimes hear "re/se/see."  Entertaining is the art of receiving.

                                                                         ---Claudine and Yves Camdeborde

                                                                          Hotel Le Relais Saint-Germain

 

Everything about this small hotel matches the expressed philosophy/theology of its owners.  And their expressed philosophy so well matches Biblical theology.  In the Book of Ephesians, Paul tells us that before we could think to do anything, we received everything from the beneficence of the Creator:  Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.  For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight.  In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will -- to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves. 

 

We were received by God as his sons even before we opened our eyes for the first time  --- and because of his pleasure and good will, we received from Him countless blessings and grace.  Because of what we have received from Him, graciously and without merit on our part, we are told in Chapter 4 of Ephesians to receive one another with the same graciousness we ourselves have experienced.  Paul lays out in detail what it means to be gracious towards others.

 

Watchman Nee has written a little book called Sit, Walk, and Stand, which outlines the Book of Ephesians in terms of the normal Christian life --- first, we "sit;" that is, we receive from God.  Then, we "walk" according to the multiple grace we have received from him, and finally, when we have done all we can do, we "stand," putting on the armor of God, against the powers of evil and darkness.  Though I read this book over 40 years ago, I still remember being profoundly moved and enlightened by Watchman Nee, who spent the last 25 years of his life in a Communist China prison for preaching the Gospel.  If anyone is worthy of being listened to, it is certainly Watchman Nee -- and those like Claudine and Yves Camdeborde who have so much to teach us about graciousness and hospitality because we ourselves have received so much from God.

Seeing Through the Eyes of God

Teaching a Confirmation class of high school juniors for many years has caused me to see the parables of Jesus with fresh eyes.  I now see the yearning, the hunger, and the pain of God reflected in the stories Jesus told.  In the parables of the wheat and the weeds, and in the parable of the sower, and in the parable of the king giving a banquet, I see my own students and I grieve.

I know that each one of us must "live" the experience of not having and then finding the "hidden treasure" of the kingdom of God.  But I yearn to spare them the grief and anxiety that accompanies having to learn by experience.  Jesus has so much to give to each one of us---"The Gift of the Father"---and yet, we are still blind, deaf, and dumb before we can see and hear what He is offering to us. 

As I meet my class each Wednesday evening, after praying for each of them all week, I see some who might be hungry for the Gift of God, but it is difficult to satisfy their hunger, for having to fight my way through those who are bored, who are distracted, who have other things on their minds.  In a class of 15, there are maybe 4 or 5 who "tune in," but they are quickly distracted by the foolishness of the 10 who have no desire yet for the kingdom of God.  For them, it is "foolishness," as Paul said of the Greeks.  Some indeed receive the seed that is sown, but quickly forget about it in the pressures of school and relationships. 

I can readily see now what Jesus meant when He said, The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.  Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance.  Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. ( It seems that the word translated "has" can also mean "holds."  )

Though seeing, they do not see;

though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

You will be ever hearing but never understanding;

you will be ever seeing, but never perceiving. 

For this people's heart has become calloused;

they hardly hear with their ears,

and they have closed their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

hear with their ears,

understand with their hearts

and turn, and I would heal them.

 



My students are all very good kids; they are working hard in school and honestly trying to meet the multiple demands on their time and energy.  They are respectful and for the most part do not create problems in the classroom.  But they also suffer from the common stresses of mankind:  fear, anxiety, lack of trust that God is "there" for them, a feeling that they must do it all on their own or suffer failure -- in other words, the human condition.  And because I have grown to love them intensely, I want them to know the peace, the joy, the comfort offered to them by Jesus in the Holy Spirit. 

 

With Jesus, I cry out to the Father with "inexpressible moans" for them.  I see the seed, the Good News, fall on rocky places (indifference) and being taken from them by the cares of this world, and I want them to know what God has in store for them.  I know that each one of us must seek and find God out of a poverty of spirit, a pain that can be healed only by Him.  I would spare them the experience of grief, but cannot do so.  I would give them the joy of the Holy Spirit, but that Gift belongs to the Father to give. 

 

I just wonder if it is possible for me learn to teach in parables. 



Preparing the Way of the Lord

  "The voice of one crying out in the desert: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.'  Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low." [Luke, quoting Isaiah]

I used to wonder why we wanted to fill in the valley and lower the mountains and hills until I discovered the Roman custom of preparing the way of conquering generals and heroes.  When men went off to war, to conquer new lands for the kingdom of Rome, they took captives as slaves, bringing them back to Rome with great ceremony and fanfare.  Before the triumphant procession into the city could occur, however, slaves were sent out to "prepare the way" for the conquering hero. 

Rough roads were  filled in and made smooth for the wheels of the chariot; it would not do to have the new hero topple out of an overturned chariot.  Any obstacle in the road would be removed.  The hero was to ride in on a wave of triumph and cheers -- the procession could not be stopped to remove roadblocks, stones, animals, etc. 

In the case of the coming of the Lord, we are dealing in spiritual realities.  The "low places" and the roadblocks are much more serious and more difficult to smooth out and/or remove.  There are things in our lives which block the arrival of Jesus Christ in our hearts -- "valleys" of despair or of darkness, and "roadblocks" of coveted sin that are more precious to us than the light.

John puts it this way:  He came into His own, but his own did not receive Him....The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

In preparing for Christmas, we see a world within and without that is so full of darkness, it is about to disintegrate.  Our own lives have places that have not yet been conquered by Jesus Christ, because we are holding on so tightly to sin.  And the world in general begins now to frighten even very small children.  The darkness seems to be advancing rapidly, overtaking every land and culture.

Preparing the way of the Lord this year means removing whatever obstacles prevent His coming more fully into our hearts and lives.  As for the world at large, we can only pray for conversion.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit

I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8).

 

As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

 

It is amazing to me that I grew up hearing these 2 passages read in church, but somehow never connected either of them with my own life.  Would not you think that if someone said to you, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit," you would investigate what that meant?

 

Maybe because we were baptized as infants, we thought we had already received the Holy Spirit and that was the end of that.  And of course, we never expect to hear a voice from heaven speaking to us, even if we are baptized as adults.  And yet, if as adult Christians, we belong to Christ and we are IN CHRIST, we should expect to experience what He experienced in the flesh.  He takes on our life that we might take on His life, especially in its relationship to the Father and to the Holy Spirit.

 

John said, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit," and Luke adds, "and with fire."  If we have not yet experienced the fire, we may indeed "have" the Holy Spirit, but He does not yet "have" us.  Years ago, a someone I had met only briefly called me out of the blue.  "I don't know why I think you might have the answer to this," she said to me, "but I feel like a numb, dumb Catholic.  I go to church every Sunday, and sometimes the priest fusses about people coming in late, and I want to stand up and say, 'Father, if there were something to be here for, we'd be on time!'  Do you know what I'm missing?"

 

Actually, I did know what she was missing.  Our faith was never supposed to be "numb' and 'dumb,' in her words.  If we look at the Acts of the Apostles, we find fire, the "fire" that Jesus came to cast upon the earth.  We find the Holy Spirit at work on every page, and there was nothing boring about anyone's faith.  In fact, we get the picture of the Apostles hanging on to the Holy Spirit's coattails.  There are no organizational meetings (although there was the first Council of Jerusalem), no "planning sessions."  Rather, we find the early Christians meeting daily in the Temple area, praising God; we find numbers being added daily to the group; and we find the Apostles going about doing the works of Jesus. 

 

If we find our religion boring, non-exciting, maybe it's time to ask for the "Baptism in the Holy Spirit," the one that Jesus promised to His followers as "The Gift of the Father."  I once had a friend who said, "If God is handing out gifts, I'm standing in line!"  That should be our attitude every day:  "Whatever You're giving out today, don't leave me out!"

 

God the Father wants to bestow on us the Gift of the Holy Spirit.  It is the Spirit of His only Son, Jesus, and He wants to fill the entire world with that Gift.  If we and others do not know that we are His beloved children, in whom He is well pleased, we cannot tell others about the Gift of the Father.  If we are not filled with the Spirit of God, we cannot tell anyone about the love of the Father given to us in the Son. 

 

In two of the Gospels, Jesus tells us specifically to ASK for the Gift of the Spirit (Matthew 7 and Luke 11):  Seek and you shall find; knock and the door will be opened....everyone who asks receives.....  Jesus died in the flesh that we might live in His Spirit.  He wants us to know His internal life of fellowship with the Father and with the Spirit.  He wants us to enter even now into the eternal life of the Trinity. 

 

What is it that keeps us from knocking at that door, seeking the Holy Spirit, and asking the Father for the Gift He wants to bestow on us?  Is it fear that if we ask and don't receive, we will be too disappointed?  Is it a lack of faith that Jesus meant what He said?  Faith is believing and acting on what God has said.  And of all the things we are to act on, this is surely the easiest of all:  seek, knock, ask.

 

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.  "Baptize" means to immerse completely, to "dye," to "soak thoroughly."  If we have not been entirely soaked in the Holy Spirit, something still remains for us.  Let us not be afraid to ask for this baptism and to continue asking until we receive the Gift of the Father.

Does God Speak to Us Today?

The religion of the ancient Hebrews was based upon the belief that God can and does speak to man (John McKenzie, S.J. : The Two-Edged Sword, p. 22).

 

There are 400 years between the Testaments when "no prophet had arisen in Israel," when both the common people and the leaders were awaiting once again "The Word of the Lord."  Malachi was the last prophet before Jesus to speak in the Name of the Lord, and we can date that scroll to around 460 BCE, dealing with the problems of the people returning from captivity in Babylon.  Judah was still subject to Persia, even though they had been permitted to return to their own land by Cyrus.  Now they had to re-establish their government and to formulate laws to govern both civil and religious conduct.  Malachi was the last Old Testament prophet to give guidance to Israel in the Name of the Lord.

 

When Ezra returned to Jerusalem from Babylon, he brought with him the "book of the law of the Lord," but he did not receive the "Word of the Lord" as had the prophets before him.  Four hundred years after the exile (587-536), during the time of the Maccabees, Judas Maccabee and his sons seem sadly aware that the age of prophecy had past.  Not knowing what to do with the stones of the altar that had been polluted, they put them away until a prophet should come to tell them what to do.

 

Many people today would maintain that the age of prophecy has past, that God no longer speaks to His people, that we have no more prophets.  The book of Hebrews tells us, though, that "in these last days, God has spoken to us by His Son....[Who] is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by His powerful word."  His words are recorded in the New Testament for us, but it still takes a "living Word" from the Holy Spirit to breathe life into the Book -- to make it come alive for us.

 

If what we do matters to God, He must still speak to us through the Holy Spirit.  In fact, Jesus promised that the Spirit, when He comes, would lead us into all truth. Surely, that means that the Spirit continues to breathe wisdom and knowledge into the Body of Christ.

 

Someone once said, "Every child has the right to know what his father expects of him."  We do not often recognize the voice of God speaking to us, for it often sounds like our own voice or the voice of our parents.  But if we cultivate the time and space we need to still our own voice, we will hear God speaking in our hearts.

 

Scripture is the starting place -- we need to eat and digest the words of Jesus, but it takes the Holy Spirit "breathing" into the words on the page to show us which Scripture is meant for us at that moment.  In the wilderness, Satan quoted Psalm 191, but Jesus countered with a word from Deuteronomy.  Even our reading of Scripture must be directed by the Holy Spirit. 

 

Jesus said, "My sheep know My Voice...."  Surely that means He is still speaking to us from within.  Open our ears, Lord, to hear Your Voice!

 



War Room

The Lord asks only this:  that we be in communion with Him and at the service of our brothers and sisters (Pope Francis: General Audience, Nov. 19th, 2014).

 

It comes down to this---only 2 things:  Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole mind, and your whole strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.  It is really very simple after all, but sometimes it takes a re-wording of the commandments to make us see it. 

 

What does it feel like to "be in communion with Him"?  Have we ever stopped to find out, to give it a chance, to "taste" it?  I remember when my youngest daughter was small -- she rejected cheesecake outright because of the name.  Wouldn't even take the tiniest taste.  Sounded horrible and disgusting.  Until the day she finally gave in and tasted it.  What a revelation!  "THAT'S cheesecake?!" Now it was her favorite dessert.

 

I am convinced that most of us refuse to "taste and see" the sweetness of the Lord because we think we must be doing something, that we must be in control of circumstances.  We think that "communion with God" is doing nothing because we have no idea that He will actually DO something about our circumstances. 

 

What if we decided to experiment with "communion with God" for one day?  What if we took a Sabbath Day for finding out what it feels like?  "Loving the Lord our God with our whole hearts" sounds like work, but what does "communion with God" actually feel like?  We have six days to work, but only one day to receive.  But most of us would prefer to work on the Sabbath rather than to lie down beside still waters and receive the love of God.  What if we lay down under a tree and closed our eyes and let our minds drift into the Reality that is God?  That's not "work," is it?  What if we went fishing and let the boat drift for awhile, closing our eyes -- or just gazing at the clouds? 

 

Most of us don't want to be still and KNOW that He is God.  It feels better to be in control, to be doing something, to be manipulating circumstances -- but what if we just stood still instead for awhile and let ourselves be loved by God? 

 

Sometimes it does not happen until our backs are up against the wall and we have nowhere to turn.  Then we are forced to be still and let ourselves be loved.  Yesterday, I saw the movie War Room.  It probably will not get much publicity because it is a Christian movie, but it is a very powerful experience, one that should be seen on the big screen.  It made me want to come home and pray, convinced me that the best thing we can do is to stand still and be in communion with God.  Sometimes our best strategy is to let Him do the fighting for us!

What is our Reality?

As I sat down to pray this morning, I noticed on the table beside my chair the CD jacket of the movie we watched yesterday:  French Kiss, a cute movie starring Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline.  Remembering some of the scenes from the movie, I began to smile and re-live them -- the scene of her fear of flying, for example, and the scene in the hotel dining room where she makes a fool of herself after spotting her finance with another woman. 

As I reminisced the movie, suddenly a few passages from Practical Mysticism by Evelyn Underhill began to drift in and out of my consciousness:

We know a thing only by uniting with it; by assimilating it; by an interpenetration of it and ourselves.  It gives itself to us, just in so far as we give ourselves to it.....

 

Wisdom is the fruit of communion; ignorance the inevitable portion of those who keep themselves to themselves, and stand apart, judging, analyzing the things which they have never truly known.....

 

The question is really this:  What, out of the mass of material offered to it, shall consciousness seize upon -- with what aspects of the universe shall it unite?

 

When I first read these words, I was thinking of my experience in Disneyland, in the kaleidoscope room.  There, the crowd stands in the center of a huge room while around the many walls (think of the inside of an octagon, multiplied by 4 or 5) are projected multiple images or scenes of wilderness, nature, animals, etc.  There is no time to relish, "love," or appreciate any one of the images, as they are constantly replaced by others.  One cannot "unite" himself with any one of the images, no matter how beautiful they are or how much we desire to stop the projector for even a moment. 

 

Life is somewhat like that experience -- except that we repeatedly DO stop the projector and select images and experiences we want to savor, appreciate, re-live, and rehearse.  Fortunately, as human beings, we have the capacity to choose, select, and hold on to a few of the many experiences life offers us.  Those with which we choose to unite become our Reality -- they form the world in which we live. 

 

If we choose to re-live, review, and unite ourselves with the negative, or evil, experiences, that becomes our Reality, our world.  We can re-live, review, and rehearse those experiences daily until they crowd out and overshadow every other experience.  Or we can choose to re-live, review, and rehearse the lovely, the desirable, the wonderful experiences we have had.  We can enter into communion with the true, the beautiful, the wondrous, the awesome things around us --- including the spiritual world where God has revealed Himself to us. 

 

As I mentally reviewed the movie this morning, I was re-enjoying the experience of watching it all over again.  And certainly that is one of the gifts of memory -- the ability to re-live our enjoyable experiences.  However, I also realized during those moments that I had the capacity to enter into and enjoy all the gifts of the Spirit that have been given to me, and that however innocent my moments of re-enjoyment of the movie, I was choosing to unite myself with that experience during my time of prayer.

 

Our daily Reality depends upon those aspects of life we choose to remember, upon those with which we choose to unite ourselves with love and "communion."  When we come to pray, we can unite ourselves with the Holy Spirit, and rehearse the things that God had done for us, Who He has become for us -- or we can  spend the time rehearsing what has "happened" to us -- what other people have done to us.  The choice we make will dictate the rest of our day, even our lives. 

 

Mary said to Elizabeth:  My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior -- because she was remembering, re-living, and rejoicing in all that she had heard and felt during her time of prayer.  She was remembering and rejoicing in what God was doing for her and for Israel, rather than the "reality" of the Roman world in which they lived.  So many of us spend our time in remembering, reliving, and rehearsing what our neighbors have done or said, what our families have done or said, what our co-workers have done or said, that our Reality becomes focused on this small world rather than the inexpressibly expansive world of the Holy Spirit -- what God is doing in this world for us.

 

If we lift our minds and hearts to God on a daily, even hourly, basis, what He is doing will certainly overshadow what the world is doing.  And the result in our spirits will be what Mary experienced: joy and peace in the midst of all circumstances.  Paul's Letter to the Philippians, chapter 4, is great advice:

 

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things....and the God of peace will be with you.





On Fear and Peace

You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is stayed on thee (Is. 26:3).

 

I will take refuge under the shadow of Your wings

until the disaster has passed me by (Ps. 57:2).

 

We were just getting ready to leave for church when the mailman arrived.  Opening the latest statement from Blue Cross/ Blue Shield, I read that they had denied my claim for the gall bladder surgery in July and that I now owed the hospital $39,000.  The doctors' bills had not yet been recorded.

 

Fear gripped my heart almost to the point of hyperventilation.  I could hardly breathe.  But we headed out to church -- the mailman's timing could not have been better.  During the Mass, I realized that I had a choice:  I could focus on the potential problem with the fear and worry it engendered, or I could turn in confidence to God.  On the one hand was fear; on the other was peace. 

 

Immediately as I began to focus on Jesus, my spirit seemed to embrace the words, Your Father in heaven knows that you need these things.  Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything else will be given to you besides.

 

Later, this came to me:  If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, "Be removed and cast into the sea," and it would obey you.  The more I focused on the Lord, the more peaceful and calm and assured I felt.  Since I could not call the insurance company over the weekend, it was so good to feel the peace of the Lord and later, to be able to fall asleep without worry that evening.

 

One of the promises given to us in the Old Testament is that God would put His law in our minds and write it on our hearts.  Here, His "law" means His instruction, His teaching, His guidance, and it is given to us at our hour of need.  The benefit of being familiar with the written word of God is that is jumps off the pages for us when we need to hear it, when there is no time to "look it up." 

 

This morning, as I went to my desk, I found my inspirational calendar still turned to Aug. 11 (today is the 16th).  And here was the Scripture quotation and commentary:

 

Take therefore no thought for the morrow (Matt. 6:34).

 

Have we been slandering God by worrying when He has said, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you"?

 

Now, as I have time, I can go through the psalms and find one passage after another that comforts me:

 

But for those who fear you, you have raised a banner to be unfurled against the bow (60:4).

 

On my bed I remember you;

I think of you through the watches of the night.

Because you are my help,

I sing in the shadow of your wings.

I stay close to you;

your right hand upholds me (63:6-8).

 

It is good to have a storehouse of Scripture to keep us in peace in time of danger or threat of danger. Over the years, I have marked, underlined, and annotated my Bible, even dating certain passages.  Today, those passages stand out for me as I page through the Scriptures.  But even better, they stand out in my mind when I do not have access to the Book  -- and they allow me to sleep peacefully at night! 

 



 



The Source of Power (Strength/ Authority) in Life

Now Joshua, son of Nun, was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him.  So the Israelites listened to him and did what the Lord had commanded Moses (Deut. 34:9).

 

The spiritual life is a matter of biology-- it has immediate bearing on our lives (Evelyn Underhill:  The Life of the Spirit and the Life of Today)

 

In the Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul says, "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit given to all."  Everything we do expresses the spirit that is within us.  After Hurricane Katrina, the spirit that lay at the heart of each person began to express itself outwardly.  As at the first day of creation, there was only light and there was dark; there were no greys.  Some rose to heroic expressions of self-sacrifice and self-giving; others began to loot and to take advantage of the suffering of others.   The spirit that inhabited each man and woman rose to full expression of being in that moment of crisis.

Every one of us has a basic instinct for fullness of life.  Everything we crave, dream, or think is an expression of one psychic energy that lies deep within us.  We are all called to one life -- to beauty, to truth, and to the service of mankind.  The more deeply and fully we recognize and love that Spirit of God within us, the nearer we draw to it, the more we experience its transforming and energizing power.  The more we bury, deny, and suppress our vocation to love, to be like God, the more evil takes over our lives.

The central business of religion is finding, experiencing, and knowing Eternal Life.  The Baltimore Catechism that most of us grew up with said this:  Why did God make me?  God made me to know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this life and to be happy forever with Him in heaven.  Religion is committed to achieving an integration, a synthesis, of human nature and divine Spirit-- lifting up the whole of life to a greater reality.  Those who deny access to the Spirit of God are condemned to live for the flesh alone; they will never know the strength, the power, the authority--the Spirit of wisdom-- that Joshua lived during his lifetime.

When we speak of the Incarnation, we mean that the Word of God -- the Power, the Strength, the Authority that created the heavens and the earth-- entered our world and dwelt among us.  God Himself became real with us, to us, among us.  We saw Him; we ate with him; we heard Him with our own ears and saw Him with our own eyes.  Our lives, too, must become incarnational.  That is, the Spirit of God must express in us and through us all that God is.  The essence of spirituality is to express the Divine in all that we do. 

Failing to seek and to integrate God's Holy Spirit in our lives inevitably means a loss of power, a relapse to the lower level of nature and a smaller world for us.



The Benefits of the "Law" of the Most High

Oh, how I love your Law!

I meditate on it all day long.

Your commands make me wiser than my enemies,*

for they are ever with me.

I have more insight than all my teachers,

for I meditate on your statutes.

I have more understanding than the elders,

for I obey your precepts.

I have kept my feet from every evil path

so that I might obey your word.

I have not departed from your laws,

for you yourself have taught me.

How sweet are your promises to my taste,

sweeter than honey to my mouth!

I gain understanding from your precepts;

therefore I hate every wrong path.

 

Psalm 119 is the longest psalm in the Bible.  In fact, Psalm 119 is the longest chapter in the Bible.  The poem is an acrostic, meaning that each verse is based on one letter of the Hebrew alphabet.  Each line of that verse begins with the same letter, and the entire psalm is a hymn of praise and thanksgiving for the "Law of the Lord."

 

When the biblical writers speak of the "Law," they do not refer to a set of rules and commands to be obeyed as we would think of Law.  Rather, they are referring to the instruction, the teaching, the enlightenment of God to mankind.  This teaching includes the 10 Commandments, but goes far beyond ten rules to actual conversation with God. 

 

When Moses entered the Tent of Meeting -- the Tabernacle--- in the desert, his face shone like the sun as he conversed with God "face to face, as a man speaks to his friend."  He was so radiant that he had to cover his face when he emerged from the tent, because the Israelites could not behold the glory.  All of that reminds us of the Transfiguration of Jesus on the Mount of Olives.  Abraham Heschel translates the starred verse above as "Thy statutes are Thy converse with me."  In other words, when we read and study and pray the Word of God, God Himself teaches us through the Holy Spirit, as the underlined verse above makes clear.  It is not simply that we are reading words in a book, but that our spirit is receiving instruction from God.

 

In the section of Psalm 119 quoted above (vv. 97-104), just as in the rest of the psalm, there are a number of synonyms for the word "Law:"  command, decrees, precepts, word, and promise.  It is interesting to take any section of this psalm and to note all the variations on "instruction, word, or law" in that section.  What is even more interesting, however, is to note in any section the benefits that come to the person who "attends" "listens" "obeys," or "hears" the Word of the Law.  In this one section alone, the recipient of God's Law:

• is wiser than his enemies
• has more insight than all his teachers (we are reminded of the 12-year-old Jesus listening and asking questions in the Temple.)
• has more understanding than the elders
• keeps his feet from every evil path
• does not depart from God's laws
• finds them sweeter than honey
• gains understanding from the precepts
• and therefore hates every wrong path

While Psalm 119 is rather long to plow through at one sitting, it can be a rich and fruitful experience to take one section at a time for prayer, study, and analysis.  What are the benefits that come to the one listening to instruction from the Most High?  What synonyms correlate with the word "Law"?  How does God teach us?  Someone once said, "God comes to us disguised as our life."  What in our life holds the promise of instruction for us at the moment?

 

Would that every one of us could exclaim with the Psalmist:  Oh, how I love your Law!

 

 

 





Blessed Are the Poor in Spirit....

The Sermon on the Mount is not a set of rules and regulations; it is a statement of the life we will live when the Holy Spirit is getting His way with us.  (Oswald Chambers: My Utmost for His Highest -- July 25)

 

During His earthly ministry, Jesus did not teach the 10 Commandments.  He pre-supposed them and went beyond them.  For example, He said, "You have heard it said, 'You shall not kill,' but I say to you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment."  When He gave us the eight Beatitudes, they were not "rules" and "regulations" to be followed.  In fact, at least half of them represent things that are done to us rather than things we ourselves "do."  Rather, they represent attitudes of the heart and mind placed in us by the Holy Spirit, who gives us the power to become children of God, as St. John's Gospel tells us. 

 

We could not make ourselves "poor in spirit" if we tried, for by nature we are more like the church in Laodicea:  You say, "I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.  But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked" (Rev. 3).  When the Holy Spirit comes, He "convicts the world of sin," according to Jesus at the Last Supper.  That is, He convinces us that we have nothing apart from the grace and mercy of God.  That is not an attitude we can achieve by ourselves.  I remember once in my pride thinking that at least I was not as bad as "some people."  Now I know for sure that but for the grace of God, I, like Paul, am the worst of sinners. 

 

Before the crucifixion, Peter had confidence in his own loyalty to Jesus -- "even if all these desert you, Lord, I will remain faithful," he boasted.  In his heart, he spoke the truth, so great was his love for Christ.  But his fear over-rode his great love.  Until he knew himself to be the greatest of sinners, he was not ready to lead the church of Jesus, for there would be many, many behind him to deny Jesus out of fear.  How could he condemn them now?

 

Every one of us must move from Old Testament Law to the realization that we live not by bread alone but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.  That is, we are poor, blind, destitute, wretched, and pitiful without the moment-by-moment grace and food given by the Holy Spirit. When we are truly poor in spirit, we "hunger and thirst" for the strength given to us by the Spirit of God; we are empty until He speaks, until He feeds us like He did Elijah, strengthening us to continue the journey. 

 

Paul was a devotee and a custodian of the Law, especially of the 10 Commandments.  But until he was 'poor in spirit,' knowing that for him, "to live was Christ," he was not fit for the kingdom of God.  All of us need an anointing from the Holy Spirit to go beyond the Commandments to the Beatitudes. We need not to rely on our own virtues and adherence to the Law, but to know that we need to listen daily for the Spirit.  Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection once told God that if He (God) did not uphold and instruct Lawrence at every moment, he (Lawrence) would without fail choose the wrong way.  That is poverty of spirit -- knowing that we are totally dependent on God's grace at every moment of the day.

 

There is a reason for Pentecost.  The counterpart to the fire and thunder at Mt. Sinai is not the Sermon on the Mount; it is the fire and wind of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.  Until we experience that "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit," we are still "Old Testament" Christians.  Once we allow the Holy Spirit to have His way with us, we begin to be molded after the Spirit of Jesus, to be children of God.

The Gift of Meditation

visual

 

We are daily, hourly, even moment by moment bombarded with stimulation to the brain.  I think part of the peace and joy that comes with wilderness camping, hiking, or just sitting by a pond is that for a few moments, we get to "turn off" the visual, auditory, and other stimulation coming from our electronic and 21st-Century devices -- and we "tune in" instead to sights and sounds of peace.  For our mental and spiritual health, we need to stand back on a regular basis from the whirl of temporary events and observe the bigger picture of how things work.

 

When St. Teresa instructed her nuns on the art of meditation, she said this:  "I do not require  of you to form great and curious considerations in your understanding.  I require of you no more than to look."  As Moses stood at the Red Sea with the Egyptian army at his back, his instructions from God were You have only to be still and know that I am God.  That "being still" and "just looking" is the entrance to the gift of meditation.

 

"Looking" is not the same as "seeing."  We "see" with the part of the brain that responds to visual stimulation (the visual cortex).  The cerebellum is that part of the brain that is aware of all the external stimuli that surrounds us.  We need that information for survival -- but not every particle of information is useful at any given time.  For example, if we are sitting in a room, we are somehow aware of all the visual cues around us, whether people are moving about, whether they are speaking, what the temperature in the room is at the moment, etc.  If we are trying to pay attention to something we are reading or that someone is saying to us, the frontal lobe works to screen out the information we are aware of but don't need at the moment. 

 

The frontal lobe is the executive center of the brain.  It has the "Power" to ignore information coming from the cerebellum, or the power to choose which information it will pay attention to.  When we first begin to meditate, we need to train the executive center of the brain to screen out information we don't want -- we need to train it to simply "look," as Teresa taught her sisters.   What we "look at" may be an object, a situation that intrigues or annoys us, or an idea that interests us.  We don't need to form a brilliant conclusion or have some sort of revelation about the object we are considering; we simply need to "look" at it, to observe it carefully until our consciousness has been lifted to a longer, slower rhythm. 

 

At first, we are not yet adjusted to this new rhythm of thought.  We become impatient and restless -- but if we stay with it for 10 minutes, on a daily basis, we discover that we have entered on a fresh plane of perception, that our relationship with things has been altered.  Like Moses standing on the shore of the Red Sea, we might lift our rod over the sea, but what we know deep down is that we don't have to "do" or "achieve" our deliverance.  We see beyond the superficial; we know that God is in charge, and that He will deliver us according to ways that we cannot even dream or imagine. 

 

As we continue to meditate on a daily basis, to train our frontal lobes to "look" instead of responding to the constant stream of stimulation around us, we begin to surrender to a new and deeper world within us.  We begin to see unsuspected beauty, meaning, and power as the spiritual world intersects our physical world.  A perpetual growth of understanding keeps pace with the increase of attention which we bring to bear on our world, our environment, our lives.

 

As our meditation becomes deeper, it defends us against the perpetual assaults of the outer world.  We "see" Pharaoh's army on the attack, but we "know" not only that we have no defense in ourselves, but that God is our shelter and our shield.  As Psalm 57:2 says, "I will hide under the shelter of His wings until the disaster has passed me by."  We set a ring of silence between ourselves and disaster, and within that circle, we are free from fear and anxiety!  If God be for us, who can be against?

 

The world of appearance no longer controls or possesses us; we have entered into another world of peace, of confidence, of really seeing "how things work."  We may not be able to remain in this world as long as we wish, any more than a toddler is able to remain walking after his first tentative steps.  He sits down again and resorts to the convenient and comfortable crawl as his means of locomotion -- but the promise of future development is there.  Surely it is worth a few minutes a day to train our frontal lobes to "look" and to see into a world that promises not to make us walk, but to fly.

Alone With God

Last night, Charles Stanley gave an excellent sermon on "Solitude."  I wish I had taken notes, in order to share his thoughts with a wider audience.  In the beginning, he pointed out the difference between "loneliness" and "solitude."  Most of us have experienced both loneliness and solitude, so we know the difference.  In loneliness, which even Jesus experienced, we feel cut off, abandoned by everyone, isolated and dejected, even useless.  In solitude, however, though we are alone, we feel, not isolated from, but connected to God, the universe, and our fellow travelers.

People who go camping usually do so because they love the feeling of being alone under the stars, beside the running streams, under the trees, or overlooking a wide-open meadow with mountains in the background.  Even if they are with other people, there can be a wonderful sense of solitude under the sky.

Stanley talked about seeking solitude to experience the presence of God.  He mentioned that this time of being alone with God is not for the purpose of Bible Study or even of prayer -- it is solely for the purpose of resting in the Presence of God, much as we rest in the presence of nature.  We can read the Bible a bit to help us focus our thoughts on God, and we can pray a bit for the same reason.  But mainly, our task during the time is to shut out all distractions, so that our minds don't wander off.  He spoke about a time when he had to get away from the office, from the phone calls and interruptions, etc. in order to seek God.  He went down to the basement, where there were no windows, into a room that was separated from the rest of the church by 3 other rooms.  There, no sounds entered to demand his attention.  He learned that, for him, it was necessary to shut out everything else to seek the Presence of God, even to the point of sitting in a dark room.

For me, I find that I need to be close to a window.  A closed and darkened room seems to shut down my soul, while light and beauty opens it up.  However we find the Presence of God, though, it is important that we seek it.

First of all, like two lovers meeting away from the eyes of the world, God doesn't need our accomplishments, our knowledge, or our good deeds.  He only wants US.  He wants us to look at Him, and He wants to reveal Himself to us.  He wants to share with us His love, His goodness, His thoughts, His ways.  He wants to build up confidence in us that we are not alone, that He is with us.  He wants to give us strength and courage to meet whatever our day brings.  And He wants to give us His own peace and joy.

Surely that is worth seeking His Presence.  Those who go camping to "get away from it all" go a great deal of trouble preparing their supplies, driving to their destination, and setting up camp.  For them, it is more than worth the trouble it takes to enjoy the solitude and the connectedness they feel out in the wilderness.  How much more worth while is it for us to take a little trouble to seek solitude with God!  For He does not disappoint us when we seek Him.  He is there, waiting, waiting, waiting -- and finally, like Jacob, we cry out, "Surely God was in this place, and I knew it not!"

.

The Complete Man

A shoot shall sprout from the stump of Jesse, from his roots a bud shall blossom.  The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a spirit of wisdom and of understanding.  A spirit of counsel and of strength, a spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord.  Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, But he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide fairly for the land's afflicted.  Justice shall be the band around his waist, and faithfulness a belt upon his hips (Is. 11: 1-5)

 

When I read this passage from Isaiah, a prophecy looking forward to the Messiah to come, I cannot help but think of a quote from Boehme: When I see a man standing before me, I see three worlds.

Jesus Christ was and is the "Complete Man," according to Boehme's definition.  In His own Person and Personality, He perfectly integrated the physical, the psychological, and the spiritual worlds.  He was and is perfect God and perfect Man.  Like us, in the physical, psychological, and the spiritual realms, he was tempted to "worship" his own bodily needs of hunger and thirst and rest, his psychological need to know better than God what was "good," and his spiritual need to be "like God," the same temptation given to Adam and Eve.

Looking again at the quote from Isaiah, I am struck by the fact that Eve "judged by appearance and by hearsay -- what she saw with her eyes and what she was told by Satan.  What she and Adam abandoned in that moment of temptation was the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel and of Strength, and the Fear of the Lord.  They looked to their own understanding and wisdom instead, learning as we do the hard way that we are NOT "like God."

The man who embraces the spiritual life, who integrates into his physical and psychological world the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, of knowledge and of counsel from above, is the compete man.  This is a man we can trust, whether in politics, in business, in education, or simply in the neighborhood.  The one who relies on his own wisdom and understanding is easily recognized.  In fact, sooner or later -- and usually sooner -- that man will reveal himself as a fool. 

When I look at our political candidates for an upcoming presidential election, I see very few "complete men" (or women, for that matter).  I cannot vote for someone whose "human wisdom" relies solely on his prior experience in the business world, in the world of politics and intrigue, or even in his good intentions, his "humanism."  I need to see a "complete man," one whose person and personality incorporates the Fear of the Lord and who acknowledges that he is not a "god."  I need to see someone who wears justice as "a band around his waist" and faithfulness (to God and to the public) as "a belt upon his hips."

Never mind which party he represents.  Unless he stands with humility before God and man, he will never find my vote.

Why Do You Believe in God?

As a sophomore or junior in high school, I studied the 5 Proofs of the Existence of God developed by St. Thomas Aquinas:  The Unmoved Mover, The Uncaused Cause, the Necessary Being, The Ultimate Good, and the Absolute Intelligence.  Even as young as I was, I remember thinking that these "rational arguments," valid though they were, had nothing to do with my own belief in God.  In an age of rationalism and philosophy, such as that of St. Thomas, I can see a place for clear and rational explanations for the existence of God.  However, I suspect that today -- and maybe even in Thomas' day -- these arguments leave most of us cold.

The truth is that the "love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit" which is given to us (Romans 5:5).  The spring of love is the Holy Spirit, not us.  Oswald Chambers says this:  It is absurd to look for the love of God in our hearts naturally; it is only there when it has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.  Those who do not first love God will not be convinced by rational "proof" of His existence.  As one of my students told me, "I don't want to waste time on this if it is not real." 

And how do we know that God is "real"?  Not by philosophical arguments, but only by revelation -- Person to person.  C. S. Lewis says that if God exists, it stands to reason that He must be self-revealing.  For we cannot know Him, or anything about Him, until He reveals Himself to us.  But He does this not only to saints and philosophers, but to every single one of us who want to know Him -- and even to those who do NOT want to know Him.  St. Paul comes to mind.  He thought he already knew the Yahweh of the Old Testament, for he was well-schooled in the Law.  What he could not know about God was revealed to Him in the Person of Jesus Christ, whom he met personally on the road to Damascus.  Even as Lewis himself met Christ "on the road" to the zoo; when he got into the sidecar of his brother's motorcycle, he did not believe in Christ.  By the time they arrived at the zoo, he was a believer.  Who can explain this?

Each one of us must also have a personal encounter with the God Who Reveals Himself to men.  Evelyn Underhill made a thorough and detailed study of mysticism -- not of "woo woo" phenomenon and unusual occurrences, but of the common patterns of ordinary men and women who know and love God.  Her research crosses centuries and cultures, delving into all forms of faith and expression.  Her conclusion for the "universal experience" of men and women is that our faith journey leads to three ways of knowing God, and until we know Him in all three ways, our knowledge is still incomplete.

First, we must know Him "out there," much as St. Thomas's 'proofs' of His existence.  Or better, as the Book of Hebrews tells us, "anyone who comes to God must first of all believe that He exists, and that He rewards those who come to Him."  We must know Him as "Other," beyond ourselves and our limitations.  We must "look up" to find Him, much as the man who wrote Getting Life cried out in his prison cell for a sign in his most desperate hour.

Secondly, we must know Him as Emmanuel, God - with - us.  The Incarnation, God-made-flesh and dwelling (pitching His tent) among us was a "second revelation," if you will, from that of the Old Testament  --- although it was certainly clear that He was "with" the Israelites on their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, just as He was "with" Abraham and "with" Isaac and Joseph and Joshua.  Now we know through Jesus Christ that He is "with us" always, even to the consummation of the world.  Every person who comes to God will experience that He is "with us" and that His faithfulness to us is eternal.  The author of Getting Life cried out to God-Who-is-in Heaven and found instead a God who was with him in the very prison cell.

Finally, we must know Him as the power within us, moving us toward good and not evil, fulfilling His plans for us, to give us "a hope and a future" (Jer. 31) and to bring us to the purposes for which He made us.  General Honore, the hero of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, told a group of men that the two greatest days in a man's life are the day he is born and the day he discovers the purpose of his life.  It is not just God "out there," or even the great revelation of God "with" me, but the final realization of God "within" me, working in me and through me, that brings us to full and intimate knowledge of God.

This is what Underhill calls "mysticism"  --- the full knowledge of God as Father, as Son, and as Holy Spirit -- the God Without, the God "With," and the God Within.  When we know Him as Other and ourselves as part of Him and with Him and within Him, we know Him.  And no one can take that knowledge from us. 

It has often been said that the man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.  If our faith journey has been an experience of the Three-Personed God, we not only 'believe in God," but we know Him even as we are known by Him.  Until then, we are shifting back and forth between rational arguments and the philosophy of men.  Once we know Him, though, we know the Truth, the Truth Who is not an argument but a Person, the Truth revealed to us in the Person of Jesus Christ.

In a Darkened World

Fear, hatred, rivalry, anger, anxiety, persecution, abortion, bitterness, divorce, revenge, beheadings, greed, self-seeking to the destruction of others, human trafficking   --  all these things and more characterize the world of darkness, of chaos, of confusion  -- the abyss into which we tend to spiral when left to ourselves.

But God has not left us to our own devices.  He sent His Son not to condemn us, but to save us from those things that threaten to destroy us.  Jesus is the Light of the World, and those who remain in Him remain in the Light.  Not only "remain" in the Light, but themselves are filled with the same Light.  These are the ones that keep the world from spiraling headlong into utter destruction and darkness. 

In the Book of Genesis, after the first 11 chapters of a world spinning out of control, bringing on the Great Flood, God chooses one man -- Abraham -- and his family, whom He will teach to establish righteousness in a darkened world.  As Abraham walks with God on a daily basis, and communicates with Him about everything, God gradually makes Abraham "a man after his own heart," words that will later be used to describe David. 

In every generation, there are those who walk with God, who communicate with Him, who learn from Him the ways of righteousness and truth.  Unlike the nations who do not know God, the Israelites always had His instruction -- the Torah, the "Law."  Though they did not always follow what they knew to be right, they still had the standard by which God judges the world.  Unfortunately, knowing the Law does not save us from human nature -- the tendency to seek not what is just, but what is pleasurable. 

It takes a relationship with Jesus Christ, who dwelling in us, continues to teach us and shape us on a daily basis.  It is His life, His law, His light that saves the world from sin and darkness.  There are those who walk with Him and those who still do not know Him, and are condemned to walk in darkness, suffering the pains of darkness, until they come to Him.

"If you knew the Gift of God," Jesus told the lonely woman at the well, "you would ask, and I would give you, a fountain of water springing up to eternal life."  She was so thirsty at that point for love, joy, peace, understanding, communion with others after being rejected for her sins, that she received His words with joy.  He set her free from separation , separation from God (under the "Law"), separation from friends and neighbors (who condemned her way of life).  But the Father saw her loneliness and sent His Son to her alone at the well.  To her, He spoke words of light and of truth, words that changed her life forever.  Reconciled to God through His Son, she was also reconciled to the village who once scorned her.  Now light, she was a missionary to those who still sat in darkness and condemnation. 

There is a world of Light and a world of darkness.  There is no in between.  If we are not traveling toward the light, we are inevitably moving toward the darkness.  The morning after Katrina, I woke up in a shelter with 300 other survivors.  From them, I was hearing about the shooting and looting filling the city of New Orleans, and I reflected at that moment that in times of crisis, there is no "grey" area.  People choose either heaven or hell at that moment --- either they help one another, or they perish together.  In those moments, the sons of God and the sons of Satan reveal themselves for who they are.

Not a Cause, but a Person

I baptize you with water, but One more powerful than I will come.....He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Luke 3:16)

 

Every Christian life must move from the Old Testament, through Pentecost, to the New.  The aim of the Christian life is not "to be a good person" through obeying the Law -- for at some point each one of us will fail.  Rather, the aim of the Christian life is the Life of Christ continued in the world today through our persons, our characters, our bodies, our minds, our souls.

 

Water baptism is not enough to make us Christians -- unless it leads us to the baptism with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  Only the Person of Jesus Christ can set us on fire with the love of God and the love of neighbor.  It must be Him living in us that continues to do the work of God on earth.  Water baptism is the Promise of God that He will lead us to His Son, through transformation of our personalities, into the character of Christ.

 

Discipleship means personal, passionate devotion to a Person, Jesus Christ.  It means trusting that He will do the work in us that pleases the Father.  This is the difference between the Christian life and devotion to principles or to a cause.  This is the difference between the Old and the New Covenants -- In that day, declares the Lord, I will pour out my Holy Spirit, and I will write my Law in their hearts....

 

Only the Holy Spirit can impart to us the burning love for God and others that Jesus exemplified on earth.  It is no longer a matter of "imitation" of Christ, but rather of doing what the Spirit puts in our hearts to do.  The first is a matter of personal discipline and will; the second is a passionate love that impels us forward.  Someone once asked Mother Teresa why she ministered so passionately to the wretched poor.  Her answer:  "I like doing my own thing." 

 

We may admire Jesus; we may respect Him and reverence Him, but we cannot love Him like this until we are "baptized" with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  And the love of God is indiscriminate -- it is poured out upon all who will, "worthy" or not.  On the day of Pentecost, 3000 were baptized into Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit.  Confessions may have come later, but on that day, the fire touched all who heard the message.

 

I think the story of Jacob, whose name means "cheater, grabber, usurper" might illustrate the "normal" pattern of the Christian life.  Jacob leaves home, fleeing in fear of his brother's anger.  The first night, he dreams of a ladder ascending into heaven, realizes that "God is in this place," and he makes a covenant with God:  If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I may return safely to my father's house, then Yahweh will be my God (Gen. 28).

 

During the ensuing years, we see Jacob's character being transformed by his trust in the God of his fathers.  Though his uncle tries to cheat him in every way possible, Jacob gradually learns that Yahweh is his source and his strength.  On the way back to his father's house, Jacob encounters the living God -- not just His angels --- and is filled with love of God and the brother he has wronged.  Now he is determined to make amends and to be reconciled with his brother.  One could say that his wrestling with God was a kind of "baptism" with the Holy Spirit.  His name is changed from "cheater, grabber" to "One who has prevailed with God and man"  -- Israel.

 

Our baptism is a covenant with God -- if you will go with me, and provide for me, and teach me your ways, then you will be my God.  But our God will not stop there; He will not stop until we have been transformed into His image and likeness, until we are reconciled with our enemies and complete in love for our brothers. He will not stop until we are on fire with His love.  He will not stop until we look like His own Son, until we "are in fact, children of God," as St. John writes in his Gospel.

 

Our baptism is His promise to do all in us that is necessary to bring us to the Spirit that is in Christ Jesus and to the fire that burns away the dross of our "old man" -- the cheater, grabber, usurper that is our Jacob.

 

 



Next Post at end of July

An Experiment

His name shall be called "Emmanuel" -- God With Us (Is.7)

 

Jesus said, "If anyone chooses to do God's will, he will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own" (Jn. 7).

 

There are so many things Jesus said that we read or hear, but do not "do" to find out whether or not they are true.  Or we acknowledge that Jesus' words are true, but they have no impact on our lives -- it is just an inspiration of the moment, but we go on without change.

 

Perhaps Jesus' most powerful revelation to us was the Love of the Father for us.  He told us to call Him "Abba/ Daddy," and He told us that the Father knows what we need ahead of time.  Most of us, though, tend to live our lives as if we did not have a loving Father.  One of the joys of my life has been to "experiment" with the word of God to find out for myself whether it is true or not.  And I have to say that experimenting with God is the greatest adventure that life offers.

 

I challenge anyone for one week to live as if it were true that God cares about us, that He is intimately "with us" in every circumstance of our lives.  One way to do this is to sit each morning with a calendar or notebook and lift our hearts and minds to God.  As we jot down the things that concern us this day -- or the tasks we should do for the day -- we can act as if God were reading our notes, and as if He were the Senior Partner in the enterprise of our lives.  We can act as if He really cared about the smallest detail, and as if He would advise us about what we should do, where we should go, or to whom we should speak during the day.  I think we would be absolutely amazed that God would play our game with us -- though to Him, it is not a "game," but a living truth! 

 

Our awareness of His Presence will be intensified as our eyes are opened to what He does -- so subtly that we do not notice it unless we are looking.   After the young mother (Dinette) had prayed for me to receive the Holy Spirit in the hospital, she was released to go home with her child.  Several days later, after I had returned home also, I was reading my bible at 9:30 one evening.  I kept hearing a voice in my mind saying, "CAll Dinette."  My reason took over, thinking of all the reasons one did not call a new mother at 9:30 pm. ( In fact, to this day, I don't call ANYONE at 9:30 pm. )  But the voice was insistent:  "CALL Dinette!"  It would not leave me alone.  On top of my "good sense," I was embarrassed to call her when I had nothing to say, really, and who calls that late at night to ask about how the baby is doing?

 

Finally, I yielded to the voice and quelled my rational mind, thinking there must be a good reason for me to call.  As soon as she answered, she said, "Wait a minute," and put the phone down (this was before cell phones, and even before portable phones).  When she picked up the phone again, she said, "Thank God you called me!"  She had finally gotten the baby to sleep and put the nipples on the stove in boiling water to sterilize them.  Then, exhausted, she went to take a shower, forgetting that the nipples were on the stove.  Her husband was out of town; when I called, she had to go into the kitchen to answer the phone, and then she saw that the water was almost all gone from the pot.  Another minute or so, and she would have had no nipples for nighttime bottles for the baby.  I'm not sure even if she could get to the store, that she would have found one open that late at night, since she lived in a small town on the West Bank.

 

That was my first "experiment" in listening to the voice of God-- or really, even in hearing the voice of God.  But it was a powerful one, and reflecting on it when I hung up, I was shaken at the realization of how "close" to us God really is, how much He cares about the so-called "little" things of our lives.  To Dinette, that was not at all a little thing, but could have been a huge thing--waking up a baby she had spent hours trying to get to sleep, putting her in the car, and trying to find an open drugstore.  To most people, however, God is too "busy" with wars, draughts, famines, etc. to bother with the "little things."

 

The only way to know the truth is not through our reasoning, but through our "doing," as Jesus said, "If anyone chooses to do the will of God, he will find out whether my words are true."  We don't know how to "do the will of God" at first, but if we begin acting as if He were truly present and active in the smallest details of our lives, we will find out His will, and then it will be easy to do it, knowing how much He cares for us.

 



Deliver Us From Evil

"Seeing is believing," the saying goes.  We have a song used in worship: "Open my eyes, Lord, I want to see."  Sometimes, we don't want to see, because then we cannot "unsee." 

Yesterday, we were watching part of a wonderful series on photography from The Great Courses.  All of the photographers have worked for National Geographic, so the lectures are usually a treat for the eyes, as well as being informative about the tricks of the trade.  Yesterday's lecture, however, was haunting -- one that I wish I had not seen. 

Jodi Cobb worked for National Geographic for over three decades; she had a passion not so much for nature, or even for photography itself, but for people -- for being on the "inside" of their lives, for seeing how they live, for understanding how they feel.  Her greatest "mission" was the story she did on human trafficking -- on 21st century slaves.  Although I had heard of the horrors of human trafficking, I had never actually seen its effects with my own eyes.  Now, I cannot forget what I have seen.  Jodi Cobb is not a powerful speaker; in fact, she speaks slowly and even haltingly.  She does not "persuade" her audience in words  -- but her images cannot be dismissed from the mind.  We see children around the world -- babies, in fact -- who are either kidnapped or sold into bondage by destitute parents; we see women who live and work in cages, who never leave their "cribs."  We see children who sit at looms 14 hours a day weaving those expensive "hand-woven" rugs for our homes.  Their bones are not strengthened by play; their eyesight grows dim through focusing continuously on the threads in front of their faces.

We discover in the photographic essay that the trafficking of human beings around the world is the world's second-largest criminal activity; 27 million people are bought and sold against their will, held captive, brutalized, and exploited for profit.  Jodi Cobb reports that she was in danger, in fear, and in tears throughout the entire project.

The Book of Genesis tries to tell us of the accumulating and cumulative nature of sin -- but it is so compressed that we do not "see" it in the pages of the book.  We skim right past it, and then are surprised and caught up short by the grief of God in Chapter 6 -- the grief that brings about a world-wide flood, because God was sorry that He had made mankind.  Last night in bed, after seeing Jodi Cobb's journalistic photography, I experienced a little of God's grief; after all, I had seen only a glimpse of what is continually before His eyes -- the evil that is in the heart of man. We fail to comprehend the "wrath of God" because we cannot see the extent of evil on the face of the earth. 

The Book of Isaiah again attempts to verbalize the evil that destroys the earth and all that live therein, but again, until we see it for ourselves, his words fall short:

Ah, sinful nation,

a people loaded with guilt,

a brood of evildoers,

children given to corruption. 

They have forsaken the Lord;

they have spurned the Holy One of Israel

and turned their backs on him....

 

Your whole head is injured,

your whole heart afflicted.

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

there is no soundness--

only wounds and welts and open sores,

not cleansed or bandaged or soothed with oil (Chapter 1).

 

One thing that Genesis does indicate is the "passing on" of evil from one generation to the next, with the evil intensified in each generation.  There is no "cure" for wounds inflicted, wounds that demand to be inflicted on the next generation.  There can be no "peace on earth" until the wounded heart of man is "cleansed" and "bandaged" and "soothed with oil."

 

We are not all human traffickers, thank God, but we have all passed on the injuries we ourselves have received -- injuries of rejection, of pain, of selfishness, etc.  There is not one of us who has not injured another in some way; it is not always our "fault," but we nevertheless pass on to others the wounds we cannot bear for ourselves.

 

"Original Sin" is in our DNA; the best of families cannot eradicate it, even with the best of intentions and efforts.  God has no grandchildren; each one of us must eventually face the evil in ourselves and cry out for salvation.  Even the great St. Paul would write:  I do not understand myself at all; in my mind, I agree with the law of God, but the very thing I have determined not to do is the very thing that I do -- and what I have determined to do is the very thing I do not do....O unhappy man that I am, who will rescue from this body of death?  (Romans 7).

 

And he goes on the give the answer to our human dilemma in Romans 8:  Thanks be to God!  It has been done for us by Jesus Christ!...the Spirit of God has placed within us the law of life which overcomes in us the law of sin and death (paraphrased).

 

When we pray "Deliver us from evil," we pray to be released from the evil that dwells within our very cells, as well as to be delivered from the effects of evil in those around us.  We pray that the world be delivered from the evil that causes men to buy and sell others for profit and consumption.  We pray that the captives of greed. lust, and indifference be released, and that their bodies and souls be healed of the scars inflicted by evil.  We pray death to those who inflict their will on others -- and resurrection of a "new creation," the person created in the image and likeness of God.

 

Baptism is the outward sign of an inward process:  "Unless you are born again of water and the Holy Spirit, you cannot see the kingdom of God."  Being "born again" means that first the "old man," the "natural man," has died, in order that the "new creation" be born.  Please, deliver us from evil!

 

 

 



A Sensory Experience

When the Presence of God entered into Morton's cell that night, there was no theology, no doctrine -- in fact, there were no words at all.  The whole description is reminiscent of Moses' fiery-bush apparition in the desert.  What "possessed" Morton that evening was a sensory experience which embraced his soul through the senses of his body.  He heard the roar of a mighty wind or of rushing waters; he saw a brilliant golden light unlike anything he had ever experienced; he felt as if he were floating above his bunk -- and his soul was filled with peace.

Was this not what the disciples of Jesus experienced in His Presence?  That sensory experience obviously does not remain with us --- after experiencing the Transfiguration, Peter, James, and John were told not to reveal their experience until after the Resurrection (and they did not even know what "resurrection" meant).  They still had to face the Crucifixion, but though their minds shut down in horror, their bodies and souls could not deny their experience of Jesus Christ.   Morton could no more conjure up his experience during his remaining years in prison than could the apostles re-create their experience on Mt. Tabor.  And yet....the peace of God remained with Morton throughout all the days to come.

Our theology or doctrine is our attempt to explain and to codify what we have experienced of the Holy.  When a number of people (as for example, Peter, James, and John) all experience the same thing, and when they recall and try to articulate what they have experienced, we find patterns emerging.  As Morton said, discovering the Christian mystics and their experiences comforted him greatly -- he was not insane; he was blessed.  This is why people love the Bible so much -- they find within its pages their own story, and they feel confirmed in their own experience.

Unfortunately, most of us are hesitant to trust our experiences -- or even to open ourselves to the experience of God in the first place.  We would rather rely on ourselves, on our own resources, than to cry out to God.  And once He enters our lives, very often through a "spiritual encounter," we are reluctant to trust the experience.  As Morton, we try to find other explanations -- what did we eat?  what did we do to bring on that phenomenon?  Certainly, we don't want to tell anyone else what we have experienced, for fear of being seen as off-balance, not entirely rational and in control.

And yet, God still wants to reveal Himself to us, not as a doctrine to be believed, but as a Love to be embraced, "consumed" by us body, mind, and spirit.  He wants to satisfy all our hungers fully.  He is the Bread of Life, the Wine of Salvation, the Light of the World, the Good Shepherd of our souls.  He would have us feed on Him in the wilderness, walk with Him beside still waters, and be comforted by Him in times of evil.  Still, we refuse Him entrance for fear of delusion and confusion.

We fill our homes with sensory experiences --- pleasant scents, beauty to delight the eyes, soft music (I would hope) to comfort the ear and soul, rich textures to fill the eye and the sense of touch, and soft cushions to relax the body.  We want our homes to provide a safe refuge and a rich experience of life, and yet we are so afraid to really experience the spiritual life.

Growing up in the Catholic church was a rich sensory experience, especially during the "high Mass."  There was incense, rich and powerful music, lighted candles, stained glass windows, beauty at every turn -- Mass was an operatic experience.  Even the language of the Mass was beyond our rational thought -- it was exotic, captivating in a strange way.   Supposedly, we changed the experience so that people would better understand what was going on.  However, "understanding" brings familiarity, and familiarity, often boredom and disinterest.

God did not ask the Israelite nation to embrace the Ten Commandments until He had lifted the burden from their shoulders and removed the rod from their backs; until He had fed them in the wilderness and given them water from the rock; until He had provided for them a cloud by day to shelter them from the heat and a pillar of fire by night to give warmth in the cold.  Only after all these sensory experiences, caring for them as a mother for an infant, did He give them the "Law of Moses."   "Walk in My Ways," He said, "and I will be your God and you shall be My people." 

Why are we so afraid to allow Him to fill us with the "finest of wheat" and the water of life?  Why are we so determined not to open our eyes and behold the lilies of the field, clothed in beauty beyond that of Solomon?  Why do we not want to drink from the Spring welling up to eternal life?  The Christian Life should ultimately be a response to all that we have experienced of God, as it was for the apostles.  It should not be a burden that we carry out of duty, but an on-going rich conversation with both God and man about what we have seen and heard, what our ears have heard and our hands have touched, in the words of St. John (first letter).