The Universal Experience -- Part 2

Yesterday I was moved to search through the Psalms for the first characteristic of the authentic spiritual life--- the sense of security, of peace and safety. 

David was able to write his great songs of praise and thanksgiving out of his experience of being hunted down like an animal in the wilderness for so many years.  Saul had sworn to kill David out of jealousy, and sent out his armies to track down the young David.  Fortunately, Saul's son, Jonathon, was David's best friend, and warned him of Saul's plans for destruction.  David fled to the desert and hid in caves for the duration, often so thirsty that he cried for water.  However, the end result of David's flight was his experience of God's Divine Protection and care, and the psalms resound with praise and thanksgiving.

Psalm 18 has always moved me profoundly; it could have been written only by one who knew the protection -- the safety-- of God's providence: 

I love you, O Lord, my strength.

 

The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer;

My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.

He is my shield and the horn of my salvation,

my stronghold.

I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise,

and I am saved from my enemies.

 

The rest of the psalm is a magnificent hymn of praise to the God who saves us "out of deep waters" and rescues us "from my powerful enemy...who was too strong for me."  "It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he enables me to stand upon the heights."

 

Anyone who peruses the psalms even at random will find multiple expressions of gratitude for the safety and security God provides to those who know Him.  Psychologically, this attitude is not common to mankind.  Our 'natural' state is one of, if not fear, then uncertainty and anxiety.  Most men are afraid of failure; many fear human respect -- or what other people think of them.  And some are naturally afraid of natural disasters, economic failure, etc.  The sense of peace and safety is not natural to mankind.  But those who find God find rest.  Jesus said at the Last Supper:  My peace I give to you; I do not give to you as the world gives.  Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid" (Jn. 14:27).  The nearer we draw to Him, the greater our experience of the transforming power of His Peace.

 

The second universal characteristic of the spiritual experience is the feeling of relationship: the intimate and reciprocal communion of a person with a Person. Although all agree that the Divine Person far surpasses all that we associate with "person," still those who are born again have an overwhelming certainty of a personal contact, a love that has gone before them and that now answers their reach for love.  Man's surrender to God is felt by him to evoke a response:

 

I believe in God as I believe in my friends, because I feel the breath of His affection, feel His invisible and intangible hand, drawing me, leading me, grasping me...Once and again in my life I have seen myself suspended in a trance over the abyss; once and again I have found myself at the cross-roads, confronted by a choice of ways and aware that in choosing one I should be renouncing all the others --- for there is no turning back upon these roads of life; and once and again in such unique moments as these I have felt the impulse of a mighty power, conscious, sovereign, and loving.  And then, before the feet of the wayfarer, opens out the way of the Lord (Miguel de Unamuno: The Tragic Sense of Life in Men and Peoples, p. 194).

 

Miguel de Unamuno was a Catholic, if unorthodox, writer.  The next quote is from a Unitarian source:

 

If this Absolute Presence, which meets us face-to-face in the most momentous of our life's experiences, which pours into our fainting the elixir of new life-mud strength, and into our wounded hearts the balm of a quite infinite sympathy, cannot fitly be called a personal presence, it is only because this word personal is too poor and carries with it associations too human and too limited adequately to express this profound God-consciousness (T.Upton: The bases of Religious Belief, p. 363). 

 

William Blake, the great English mystic and poet, heard the Divine Voice crying, "I am not a God afar off; I am a brother and friend; Within your bosoms I reside, and you reside in Me."

 

The sense of personal relationship with the Divine cuts across all cultures, creeds, and forms of religious experience.  Christianity, with its concept of Divine Fatherhood -- the relation of Christ's sonship to His Father, given to us in Him -- has given this sense of personal communion its fullest and most beautiful expression.  Those who pray regularly have a sense of direct communion and passionate friendship with the Invisible God.

 

Again, this sense of being heard, of being received, and in turn of hearing God's voice is not 'natural' to mankind.  Man's natural response to God is one of fear, or placation, of trying to win favor.  But Jesus says, "Fear not, little flock; it has pleased the Father to give you the kingdom."  He assures us that the Father Himself loves us and will come to dwell with us.  But that assurance is fully ministered to us only by the action of the Holy Spirit overshadowing us, placing in our hearts the love and friendship of God.  I think it is in the Book of Proverbs that we read, "Wisdom enters into holy souls, and makes them friends and lovers of God." 

 

We are designed not only to enter into the friendship of the Holy Trinity, but to have that intimate dwelling of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit dwelling in us.  And what would be the use of the indwelling Presence if we were not aware of it?  So the second universal characteristic of the spiritual life is the sense of Friendship with God.

 



 



The Universal Experience

My father, who for most of his life was afraid of death despite his really holy life, had a near-death-experience about 7 years before he actually died.  After that experience, he never again feared death; in fact, for a few months afterwards, he was actually a little depressed because he did not actually die.  He experienced heaven and even spoke about the experience -- but he came back because he did "not see the baby"  -- the infant who died shortly after birth.

I just finished reading Proof of Heaven, written by a neurosurgeon whose neocortex was completely destroyed by a bacterial infection.  Prior to his experience, he did not believe in the afterlife nor in near-death experiences (NDEs) related by some of his patients.  He firmly believed that the dying brain manufactures a kind of struggle for existence, creating what the patient afterwards describes as "dying and going to heaven."  Because Eban Alexander's neocortex was gone, however, and because there was no way he should have survived the coma, or ever lived a normal life afterwards, he could not chalk up his experience of heaven to brain function.  His case is one of a kind, with no precedents in medical history.  His book really had an impact on me, making me realize the depth of our connection to the Spiritual world.

Most of us will never have a near-death experience and live to tell about it.  But what is interesting to me is that across all ages, cultures, and religions, there is a universal experience of God, of Om, of Brahma, or of the Spirit of God, whatever called.  St. Paul said, "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit."  If we study the writings of men and women across all cultures and ages, we find a similarity of experience, despite a diversity of belief system and expressions of worship.

The central business of all forms of religion is the finding and feeling of Eternal Life.  My dad, who was an exemplary Catholic all his life, seemingly found and truly felt "eternal life" in his near-death experience.  The essence of spiritual life (not necessarily the same as 'religious' life) is this participation in eternity, manifested in the time-world.  This means that God can and must be found only within and through our human experiences.

The experience of our participation in the Spirit-life is genuine; it meets us at all times and in all places, at all levels of life.  No one is excluded because of creed or doctrine; the Spirit of God is universal and open to all men.  Unless people have had some form of experience with the Spirit of God, most do not take a real interest in explanations of the spiritual life. 

That is why I believe we will not achieve religious unity or accord across faiths based on ecumenical dialog, useful as that may be for other reasons.  Our real unity comes from the Spirit and from our human experiences of the Spirit of God -- not from agreement on doctrines or beliefs.  Plotinus (205-270) said this:  "The soul knows when in that state that it is in the presence of the dispenser of true life."

Catholic saints, Indian mystics, Puritan followers --- all who have ever sought God -- refer to man's communion with an independent Reality, an experience more real and concrete than any of the systems that try to explain it. 

The spiritual life is one life, based on the experience of one Reality, but manifested in the diversity of gifts and graces which men call true, holy, beautiful, and good.  It is in human experience rather than in speculation that we seek God.  And across all systems, those who have experienced God have described the same experience:

First, there is a profound sense of security: of being securely held in a cosmos of which peace is the very heart and center, and which is shaped for our best interests.  Again and again in spiritual literature, God is described as "The Ground of the soul, the Unmoved, Our very Rest."  Augustine said, "Our hearts are restless, O Lord, til they rest in Thee."  There is a sense of Eternal Life which is secure and does not change.  Man finds and feels a truth that cannot fail him, one that satisfies both heart and soul. People describe "space, stillness, and light" as the place where they enter the heart of God.

This is why those who have experienced near-death are no longer afraid to die.  The "place" that awaits them is "home," "peace" "light," "inexpressible beauty," and safety.
Even Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs tells us that our most elementary need is that of safety and security.  Without that, nothing else can take place.

There are two more universal elements in the experience of God which cut across all cultures, belief systems, and personalities.  Tomorrow, I will write about the second and third elements.  For those who are interested, I recommend Evelyn Underhill's book, The Life of the Spirit and the Life of Today.  Underhill researched the universal experience of God in history and in culture, and she in my opinion is one of the best authorities on the spiritual life, discoverable in all great religions.  One of the things she says about history is that "...it will be valuable to us in so far as we keep a tight hold on its direct connection with the present, its immediate bearing on our own lives, and this we shall do only insofar as we realize the unity of all the higher experiences of the human race."

When We Meet Jesus

It is not at all about what we are doing as Christians --- it is all about what Jesus Christ is doing in us when we come to Him.  He can "do" in us only what we allow Him to do, as we invite Him not only to enter our hearts, but to remain with us.

St. Paul was one moment breathing fire and destruction on the early Christians, participating in the stoning of Stephen for blasphemy.  In the next moment, figuratively speaking, he was humbly receiving the prayer of Ananias and then preaching in the synagogues that Jesus was the Son of God.  Soon, like Jesus, he was led into the desert by the Holy Spirit, not for 40 days, but for three years of prayer.

It's not religion; it's a relationship.  Falling in love with Jesus Christ is the salvation we seek.  It is He, not we, who will drive our sins far from us; it is He, not we, who will conform us into His own image, the Image of the Father.  We submit to Him; He does all the rest in us.

People are often shocked at the behavior of so-called Christians, but going to church every Sunday does not make a Christian.  Unless we allow the Word to wash over us, inside and out, church attendance is but a social obligation.  The changes do not come all at once; we are not magically transformed -- but we are set on our way.  Most of us cannot escape to the desert as did Paul for three years, to be discipled by Jesus.  Instead, we must continue as husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, employers or employees, etc., surrendering moments of prayer to the Lord. 

He came to do in us what we could not do for ourselves -- to bring about the death of the "old man" and the birth of the "new man," created in His Image.  And only He knows what each of us needs the most and where we need to begin.  The world may not see much change in us at first, as our hearts gradually begin to come under the influence of the Holy Spirit.  We ourselves may not see much change at first, either.  In fact, others are more likely to see something different in us than we are.

In the first few months after I was first "baptized in the Holy Spirit," a friend called me.  I had not seen her in a couple of years, but she suggested we meet at the movie theater in Lakeside Mall and re-connect.  Because of the parking situation, I had to park a good distance away from the theater.  She was waiting for me at the top of the stairs as I crossed the parking lot.  When I arrived, she hugged me and immediately said, "What has happened to you?  You look entirely different!"  I began to tell her of my experience, and she suggested that we skip the movie and go to lunch so she could hear the whole story.

It blew me away that my appearance had changed so drastically that she knew before I opened my mouth that something had happened to me.  Indeed, Pentecost came on once again "like a mighty wind," blowing away the collected garbage that had adhered to my personality over the years.

The Holy Spirit is mightier than any religious practice we might name.  It is He who places Jesus firmly in our hearts and minds; it is He who ministers to us the Scripture and enlightens our minds to understand them.  It is He who nudges us toward holiness in spirit, mind, and body.  We are told in Scripture not to "grieve the Holy Spirit in us."  We "grieve" Him when we refuse His nudging, when we refuse to open our minds and hearts to His promptings, when we choose our own way over His.

But if we continue to walk in the Spirit, and with the Spirit, He will lead us into all righteousness, into all truth.  He will do in us all that pleases the Father and conforms us to the likeness of the Son.  Jesus said, "If you knew the Gift of God, you would ask, and I would give you, water springing up to eternal life."  It is so easy to drink of this living water once it is provided to us!

If we would be followers, disciples, of Jesus, let us ask God for the Gift of the Holy Spirit.  We can either dig a channel of grace with teaspoons by our own efforts, or we can allow the living water of the Holy Spirit to flow through us with power, taking with it all the sins and anxieties blocking the channels of grace in us.

So Grateful!

..."Peace be with you!  As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."  And with that He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven" (Jn. 20:21-23).

 

The breath of God (ruah) is forgiveness itself.  The Pharisees had accused Jesus of blasphemy because "only God can forgive sins," and there He was, telling the paralytic that his sins were forgiven.  Now, He is telling the apostles that they too have the power to forgive sins. 

 

He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."  The scene reminds of God breathing the breath of life (ruah) into Adam in the Garden of Paradise:  "and man became a living soul."  The word "ruah" in Hebrew can mean "breath, wind, breeze, Spirit."  When the Spirit of God blows through a land or a person, it is just like a gentle breeze on a hot summer's day; it refreshes and gives life.  Sometimes, however, the breeze must be a strong wind, as on the day of Pentecost.

 

Here is what I have experienced over and over again:  Left to myself, I become a slug mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, morally, allowing life to drift away day by day.  With the Spirit of God "blowing through my inner man," I am alive, vibrant, energized, purposeful, focused, enthusiastic, loving, generous, confident, unafraid of the future. 

 

I am convinced that the Gift of the Holy Spirit is for everyone.  Why, then, do we not all receive the Gift?  Jesus said, "Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied."  I think maybe that only they who hunger and thirst after God receive the Holy Spirit-- i.e., are "born again."  And, typically, we 'hunger and thirst' only when we have come to the end of our own resources and strength.

 

Scripture tells us that God "heard the cries" of His people in Egypt and sent Moses to deliver them from Pharoah's strong arm.  Once in the Promised Land, they were constantly threatened on all sides by their enemies, who were always on the prowl to conquer the territory God had given them.  Again and again, they cried out to the Lord, and He sent deliverance in the form of the "judges," who were not judges in our sense, but those who decided the fate of Israel in time of danger.

 

Once the generation who entered the land had died out, the next generation had no memory of God's deliverance and love for them.  They may have been told stories of their ancestors, but they had not experienced for themselves God's hand of deliverance.  It has been often said that God has no grandchildren.  Our mother's God, our father's God, is not "our" God until we come to know Him for ourselves.  Every person has to experience the love of God for him/her personally.

 

And that "deliverance" usually comes in a time of pain and suffering.  Until that moment, the stories in the Bible are just "stories."  When we have experienced God's love and faithfulness toward us personally, those stories become our stories, our history, our people. 

 

When we are "desperate" for God, we find Him.  When we draw close enough to Jesus for Him to 'breathe' on us, we will receive the Holy Spirit from Him.  When we are burdened enough by our sins and the sins of the world, we will seek His deliverance.  In America, we have been comfortable for so long that we have had no need for 'deliverance,'  except for the poor, the black before the Civil War, the oppressed, the children of abuse.  These are the ones who have drawn close to God for help -- and who now know Him for themselves. 

 

A priest who ministered for many years in Mexico once told us, "I pray that the United States of America suffers the way those in South and Central America have suffered -- in order that they may know for themselves the God of their deliverance."  I was a teen when I heard this, and I was shocked to hear that statement.  Now, however, I understand his perspective.  Those who suffer come to know their God; they are the ones who no longer rely on the government, on their wealth, on their education, or their strength, to save them.  And knowing God, receiving the Holy Spirit, is greater than anything the world has to give us. 

 

"Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven!"  We are so grateful to go through life not burdened, but free!

Being "Born Again"

...unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God....Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.....just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life (Jn. 3).

 

"The Spirit gives birth to spirit...."  From the words of Jesus, we must conclude that not every person walking the earth is born of the Spirit, or "born again," even though we are all born with the capacity to receive the Holy Spirit, or The Breath of the Almighty:

 

I thought, "Age should speak;

advanced years should teach wisdom."

But it is the Spirit in a man,

the breath of the Almighty, that gives him understanding.

It is not only the old who are wise,

nor only the aged who understand what is right (Job 32:7-9).

 

Man is a spiritual being, but in order to walk in the Spirit of God, He must be 'born again' of God's Spirit.   Life being what it is, there are all kinds of "spirits" that shape our souls from birth -- and they often damage us in a permanent way.  Fear, anxiety, is one result of the damaging effects of sin, not only our own sin, but that of others on us.

 

Not one of us is a perfect parent; few of us operate on a daily and momentary basis in communion with God's Holy Spirit -- and we sadly see the effects of our sin impressed on the souls of our dear children.  The effect of generations of sin most often land on the children.  The most common sentiment of the elderly looking back over their lives is that of regret for the things they did and for the things they failed to do. 

 

The second chapter of Ephesians is, to me, one of the clearest expressions of what it means to be "born again" of the Spirit of God:

 

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

 

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith -- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God -- not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

 

The question is, whose spirit is at work in us?  Is it the spirit of "the kingdom of this world," or the Spirit of Christ?  As Jesus said, "You cannot serve both God and mammon; either you will love the one and hate the other, or you will hate the one and love the other."  Mammon is a word coming from the Chaldean, or Babylonian, language, representing avarice deified.  It is often identified with money, but can be simply the things of the world that control our thoughts and desires.

 

When Jesus was "lifted up," as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, He destroyed the power of Mammon over us.  Those who had been bitten by snakes in the desert were healed as they gazed upon the bronze serpent on the pole.  That which had bitten them was destroyed.  In the case of Jesus, He became for our sake, the sin which was destroying us --- and He destroyed the spirit of this world that reigned over all of us. 

 

When He rose again, He rose as the "new man" or the "second Adam" (see 2 Corinthians.)  Death and Mammon no longer had the power to rule over Him -- or over those who rose with Him from the dead.  Now we are free to live for God, in communion with God's Spirit.  We have been 'born again' of water and the Spirit. 

 

That is the significance of baptism: we have died with Christ, and we have risen with Christ to be "seated in the heavenly places with Him."  Mammon, or the god of this world, no longer has power to blind us to the things of God.  We are free now to see the Spirit of God incarnate in the world around us.  We no longer have to "gratify the cravings of our sinful nature," because the Spirit of Jesus, who knew no sin, lives in us, freeing us from the demands of the flesh.

 

Every one of us, after physical death, will be freed from the demands and cravings of the sinful nature -- one way or another.  But Jesus could not stand to see us living our lives in bondage until death.  He made us one with Him, and took upon Himself our physical death, so that we could live even now in freedom of Spirit with Him.  We are "born again" of water from His side and Spirit from the breath of His mouth to live now for God instead of for ourselves. 

 

He promised that He would never reject or send away anyone who came to Him.  Millions of sinners throughout the ages will testify to His power in us to save us from sin and death.  All it takes is coming to Him; he will do everything else necessary to deliver us from sin and death.

 



 

 

 

Be Not Afraid....

Somewhere tucked in among all my books and notes, there is a small scrap of paper that says this:  You are not to fear anything, whether physically, emotionally, financially, or spiritually.  This "word of the Lord" came to me forcefully in 2009 while I was in prayer one day.  While I do not recall the exact day or month, I do recall the year, for it was given to me some months before I discovered that I had lung cancer in early 2010.

Now, here is the strange thing:  The Word of the Lord accomplishes with power, strength, and force what it says.  Those words came to me "out of the blue," not something I reasoned to or determined to do in my own mind.  And they DID in me what they SAID to me.  I felt in my spirit from that moment a freedom from all fear.  It was not just a command; it was "done" in me when I heard the words -- as Mary said, "Let it be done unto me according to Your Word."

Imagine my surprise, not to mention the surprise of my doctor and friends, when I heard the words, "I think this is cancer," and I felt absolutely no fear or anxiety whatsoever.  Someone said to my daughter: Your mother thinks this is okay!  I cannot explain to anyone why it was "okay," but it was.  I knew that my life was in the hands of God, and whatever happened, it was okay.

The Word of God is living -- not dead--- and active -- not inert.  It is not "empty chatter" or "wishful thinking."  It is not small talk to make us feel better. Nor does it tell us to do something without giving us the wherewithall to fulfill what it commands.

The Old Testament prophets were always saying, "The Word of the Lord came to me, saying...."   The Word is alive, active, moving, energizing, doing!  The Word is God Himself, expressing and revealing His Pronouncement, His Plan, His Power, His Promise, His Purpose, and His Provision to accomplish all that it reveals.

Isaiah 55 says this:

"...My thoughts are not your thoughts,

neither are your ways my ways," declares the Lord.

 

"As the heavens are higher than the earth,

so are my ways higher than your ways

and my thoughts than your thoughts.

As the rain and the snow come down from heaven,

and do not return to it

without watering the earth

and making it bud and flourish,

so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

 

It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

and achieve the purpose for which I sent it."

 

It is good to dwell on the analogy -- imagine the rain or snow coming down and not watering the earth.  It is incomprehensible, nonsensical.  Rain does what it comes to do and cannot come without watering the earth.  So, too, the Word of the Lord.  When it comes to us, it does what it says.  This is why we jump for joy upon receiving -- truly receiving, not just reading -- the word of the Lord.  We know God has spoken to us, and we know that the Word will be accomplished in us as it was in Mary.

 

Someone once counted up all the "Be not afraid" messages in Scripture.  I'm sorry now that I did not write down and save the total, but it was pretty amazing.  God does NOT want us to be afraid; fear cripples and paralyzes us.  We cannot be the people He wants us to be if we live in fear.  The Book of Timothy says, "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of power, of love, and of sound mind."  I recently heard a young woman on death row quote this Scripture, and I have to say, it was pretty impressive to hear that coming out of her mouth in these circumstances.  But her radiant confidence was a testimony to the power of those words in her spirit.  She, clearly, was not afraid of the days to come. 

 

Proverbs 31 says of the "Valiant Woman:"  She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come."  It is possible to "laugh" at the days to come only when we are not afraid of what is coming -- spiritually, financially, physically, emotionally.  And it is possible not to be afraid only when the Word of Lord has accomplished in us what it says.

 

If we are to hear what God speaks to us, we must begin in prayer, in communion with Him, for how can we hear if we are not listening?  The table is laid for us, but if we refuse to approach the Table of the Lord, we must be satisfied with whatever crumbs we can gather from the world around us.



For God so loved the world.....

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.  Whoever believes in him is not condemned but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. 

 

This is the verdict [judgment]: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.  Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.  But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God (Jn. 3:16-21).

 

These are the words of Jesus Christ, perhaps the most-often quoted words in the Bible.  We have heard the words so often that we don't even think about them any more -- but imagine if we would hear them for the first time ever!  Imagine hearing for the first time that salvation comes to us through Jesus Christ, through our coming to Him, the Light of the world!  Here is the judgment of our souls:  Have you come to the Light, or have you remained in the darkness? 

 

People often get mad when we say that Jesus is the only way, as if we were bigoted,  prejudiced, and exclusive.  But we say this only because He Himself said it first; otherwise, we could not say it.  "How is that fair?" they ask, as though their own hearts and minds were greater and more generous than God's heart and mind.   "What about those who have never heard of Jesus Christ?"

Jesus often spoke in a way that people would have to ask Him about His meaning.  Those who refused to "come to Him" simply rejected His words as those of a madman and walked away.  If we go to Him, asking about what puzzles us, we often discover the action of the Holy Spirit rushing into our hearts and minds with a truth we cannot comprehend without Him.

 

Listen to the words of Jesus:  "Whoever lives by the truth comes into the light....everyone who does evil hates the light."  Jesus told the Pharisees, "Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad" (Jn. 8:56).  Abraham lived 2000 years before Jesus, and yet, he saw Jesus and was glad.  Abraham, a pagan from a pagan land, walked with God.  He lived by the truth -- and he came into the Light of the World.  Why would it be any different for a pagan who had never heard of the Gospel? 

Someone who lives by truth, who seeks truth, will find Truth, for God has not given us hungers that are supposed to remain unfulfilled.  Sophisticated, "enlightened" people often say that there are no absolute truths, but only relative truths, depending on our experience and education.  However, Jesus promised that we would know the Truth, and that that knowledge would set us free.  Unless we want to say that He was speaking metaphorically, I think we have to believe Him.

Some things are beyond our "ken."  When it comes to the things of God, we cannot manipulate Him into our small knowledge boxes; we must allow Him His own ways and His own words.  He has promised to reveal to us "secrets of which we know nothing" if we will but listen to Him.  He has spoken to us through His Son; if we do not believe the Son, what is left for us to believe?

Connecting the Dots

One of the things I most love about reading Scripture is seeing the patterns from beginning to end of the Bible --- or connecting the dots.  Yesterday, I quoted Richard Rohr's words: "one dot is not wisdom: you can prove anything you want from a single Scripture quote."  Most Scripture teachings tend to remain at the level of "one dot," without making connections to the patterns that repeat and add meaning throughout the Bible.   The basic themes of the Bible are introduced in the Book of Genesis and are repeated through all of the books thereafter.  If we skip over the introduction, we will miss the depths of beauty that follow.

St. Jerome once wrote: "Ignorance of the Old Testament is ignorance of Christ."  Surely the Scribes and Pharisees of Jesus' day had the most familiarity with the Books of Moses -- but they failed to see the patterns that Jesus was bringing to light and fulfilling.  They accused "this people, ignorant of the Scriptures" of being deceived by Jesus (Jn. 7:47), saying that they themselves were too learned to be deceived.

It is not by study that we see the Light of the World; it is by the ministry of the Holy Spirit, the Breath of God in us, that we see.  He can reveal to the small and the simple great mysteries not seen by the educated and the learned.  All it takes is wanting to see the face of God.

In the First Book of Kings, chapter 17, we find the story of Elijah, who was told to go to Zarephath of Sidon during a famine in Israel:  "I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food."  When he reached the gates of the town, Elijah found the widow:  Will you bring me a little water in a jar so that I may have a drink?" he asked her.  As she was leaving, he also asked for a piece of bread.  Her answer was that there was nothing left in the pantry -- that as soon as she and her son ate the last handful of flour and the "little oil," they would starve to death. 

Elijah told her to first make a little cake for him and then make something for herself and her son--- for the jar of flour will not be used up and the jug of oil will not run dry until the Lord gives rain on the land.  It took faith for the woman to use up her last handful of flour and last spoonful of oil to make a cake for the prophet -- but she did, and indeed, "the jar of flour was not used up and the jug of oil did not run dry, in keeping with the word of the Lord spoken by Elijah."

It is extremely helpful for us to actually study the maps (usually found in the back of most bibles) and to locate the places referenced in the stories we read.  In this case, we find Zarephath located to the north of Israel, on the coastline of Syria.  This widow was not an Israelite, but a foreigner who gave food and shelter to the prophet; for her faith and generosity, she and her son survived the time of famine.

Knowing this story of one of the greatest prophets of the Old Testament brings further richness and depth to the story of Jesus meeting the "foreign" woman at the well in Samaria and asking her for a drink of water.  This woman was not a widow -- or perhaps she was -- we do not know.  All we know is that she had been married 5 times.  Knowing that Jesus was in Samaria, to the north of Judah and Jerusalem, and that Samaria had had 5 rulers, or 'lords,' in its past history, helps us to bring even further meaning to His meeting with the woman.  He was in a foreign land, among foreign people, who had foreign gods, just as Elijah had been -- and yet He brought with Him the blessings of God.  He promised her "a fountain of living water springing up to eternal life."  And, when she asked about the "correct" way to worship,  He told her that true worshippers would worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus speaks in the synagogue at Nazareth, where he grew up: Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place.  Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land.  It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. 

The people in Nazareth were furious at His words, and they tried to hurl him off a cliff.  All of us want to believe that we have the correct form of worship, and that the others are wrong.  But the prophet Elijah and Jesus Himself go to "foreigners," bringing an unending supply of graces and blessings, welling up to eternal life.  If we reflect on these two "dots" of Scripture, we might find rich connections -- of being open to the Spirit who, as Jesus says, "blows where He will."  There is no one on the face of the earth, no matter how far away from orthodox practice, who cannot be reached and touched by the Holy Spirit, who cannot find within themselves an inexhaustible supply of grace. 

Let no one believe he or she is outside of the reach of God's love, mercy, and power to save, no matter what the circumstances.  Don't go to church?  He will come to you.  Have no resources left?  Abandoned by all?  A prophet will arrive at your doorstep with all you need.  Look to the heavens and do not despair: God hears the cry of the poor.  If there is one thing we all have in common (all religions, all races, all cultures), it is poverty.  We are all in need of God.  And it is our need, not our creed, that calls down His Presence and His Power.

The "Midwifery" of Socrates

In your goodness you let the blind speak of your light" (Nicholas of Cusa).

 

I dare to write not because I strongly trust in my own ability to write, but with a much stronger faith in the objective presence of the "Stable Witness" within who "will teach you everything" and whose "law is already written on your hearts."  All that a spiritual teacher really does is "second the motions" of the Holy Spirit (Richard Rohr in Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, p.1-2).

 

Let me begin by saying that Richard Rohr is one of my favorite spiritual writers.  When he writes, he puts into words my experiences, many of which are still vaguely formed and expressed in my own mind.  He says in his introduction to Things Hidden that "spiritual cognition is invariably experienced as "re-cognition."  And he quotes the "midwifery" of Socrates, who believed that he was merely delivering the baby that was already inside the person.

 

If we are not paying attention to and praying about our own experience with the Holy Spirit, we tend to rely too much on external authority as our guide.  The Body of Christ is a valuable resource for discernment, for explanation from those who have also experienced what we are going through, and for leading us into deeper truth -- much as I use Richard Rohr's books to help me "see" and understand what God has been teaching me from the beginning.

 

So much scriptural teaching stops with historical background and explanation.  But Scripture is not teaching us "what happened" as much as it revealing to us "what happens today."  If people today do not experience the Risen Jesus -- exclaiming "He's Alive!" with as much conviction as Mary Magdalene and the other disciples --- then, Jesus is just a historical personage.  His resurrection has no bearing on our lives today.

 

As Rohr points out, "One dot is not wisdom: You can prove anything you want from a single Scripture quote" (p.3).  Our own experience allows us to begin to connect the dots to Scripture and to the experiences of the early church and of our fellow-travelers today.

 

At first, we may seek out someone who can explain to us what we are experiencing -- this is why people go to spiritual leaders/ directors, as well as to mediums, psychologists, and wise friends.  But as we begin to be convinced and confident that we are indeed "being taught of God," we begin to trust that we are not 'crazy' or 'talking to ourselves."  The inner experience and the outer experience begin to form a whole pattern.....and that is wisdom.

 

Rohr says, "We have for too long insisted on outer authority alone, without any teaching of prayer, inner journey, and maturing consciousness.  The results for the world and for religion have been disastrous" (p.5).  Jesus told us to 'go into the inner room, and there pray in secret to your Father, Who hears what you say in secret.'  That is the only way we will begin to make sense of our own journey and see the connections to the journeys described in Scripture. 

 

The only thing that changes us is not information, but inner experience, which we call "transformation."  And that is the work of the Holy Spirit in us, transforming us into the Image of Christ, the only Son of the Father.  If we do not resemble Him, we do not resemble God, who created us in His Image and Likeness.

 

One time at a prayer meeting, I sensed the Holy Spirit descend upon one of the members of the group.  When I asked her about it, she said, "I felt something, but didn't know what it was."  And the Spirit spoke to me, "Stay close and teach her."  That is pretty much the pattern of our encounter with the Lord.  We are ready and open; the Holy Spirit arrives, but we do not understand, and someone from the Body of Christ is close by to teach us, or explain what is happening to us. 

 

The experience of Saul on the road to Damascus and the experience of the Ethiopian eunuch (Acts 8) are universal patterns for the Christian experience.  In the case of the Ethiopian, he was reading Isaiah, but did not understand what the Scripture referred to, since he had never heard of Jesus.  The Holy Spirit told Philip: "Go up to that chariot and teach!"

 

The Holy Spirit will use any believer who is nearby to one ready to encounter the Living Jesus.  In the sense of Socrates, we do not have to "convert" people as much as we simply have to "deliver the baby" that is already inside of them and ready for birth.

What Do You Want Me to Do?

Then they asked Him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?"

Jesus answered, "The work of God is this: to believe in the one He has sent" (Jn. 6:28)

 



Most of us who love God and who want to serve Him will ask sooner or later:  "What do You want me to do?"  We want to be 'of service' to God, but have no clue how that might come about.  Anything we have to offer Him is negligible in terms of what the world actually needs. 

 

I have written this before, but it bears repeating here.  Once, when I was praying, I said to God, "I just want to be useful to You."  In my spirit, there followed a profound silence, what literature often calls "a pregnant pause."  Then, I actually heard a roaring laughter coming from God.  I started laughing out loud too, because I immediately saw 'the big picture,' so to speak.  I had a mental image of a 2-year-old child pushing a chair up to the sink and saying, "I help you wash dishes, Mommy." 

 

Of course, then Mommy has to stop what she is doing and wants to finish doing, to make preparations for the child's 'help.'  Dangerous knives and glasses have to be removed, and plastic dishes substituted.  The chair has to be secured in a non-slip position, and the child's sleeves rolled up.  Then, Mommy has to step back and supervise from a respectful distance --- unless the two are working together, and then she has to slow down her work to accommodate the child's capacity.

 

Yes, I got that:  any time I want to "help" God, He has to make accommodations for the ignorance, spiritual weakness, and ineptitude that I bring to the table.  And yet... just like the mother who would not deny her child the chance to "help" her, so God allows us to participate in His saving, redeeming, healing work on earth.  In fact, He has made it so that the work will not be done without our cooperation and willingness to be channels of His grace to others.  His love flows through doctors and nurses, teachers, engineers, military men and women, plumbers and electricians, housekeepers, and cooks -- as well as through patients, students, mothers and fathers, etc.

 

"What do you want me to do?"  It is still a valid and important question, because the world has millions of opportunities for our service, and thousands of open doors for us to walk through.  If we do not have guidance, then we tend to overreach and over-extend our 'service' beyond our capacity to be effective.  We have probably all made this mistake more than one time. 

 

A friend of mine still resents the fact that her mother 'ministered to' the church and the world around her, but neglected the nine children at home who needed her presence.  It is an easy trap to fall into, especially when people flatter us by asking for our help.  I recall being asked to teach catechism when my children were still infants and toddlers.  I thought long and hard about it, and in truth, it offered me an attractive escape from the daily boredom of washing diapers, cleaning the house, and cooking the meals.  But in my gut, I had a feeling that the time was not yet right for this kind of service.  I had learned that whenever we say 'yes' to one thing, we automatically say 'no' to something else --- and I did not want my children to be the thing I said "no, I'm too busy" to.

 

Discernment is one of the 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit (see Is. 11) given to us at Confirmation.  If our service is not centered on God Himself; if we are not "sent" by God Himself, then we may be doing 'good,' but not necessarily what we have been sent to do.  John the Baptist said, "A man can receive only what is given him from heaven" (Jn. 3).  If we do not know what is given to us from heaven, we will inevitably pick up burdens too heavy for us to carry.

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And how are we to know what God wants us to do?  This comes only through personal relationship and communion with Him.  I John 2:15 says, "love not the world, nor the things that are in the world."  This of course does not mean that we should not love the world as God's gift to us, but only that our 'love for the world' does not obscure our focus on God.  The demands of the world, the rush of its pull on us, should not draw us away from God --- for while He puts us together in peace, the world will tear us apart in its demands on us.

 

Here is the reading today from Jesus Calling:

 

I love you for who you are, not for what you do.  Many voices vie for control of your mind, especially when you sit in silence.  You must learn to discern what is My voice and what is not.  Ask My Spirit to give you discernment.  Many of My children run around in circles, trying to obey the various voices directing their lives.  This results in fragmented, frustrating patterns of living.  Do not fall into this trap.  Walk closely with Me each moment, listening for My directives and enjoying My Companionship.  Refuse to let other voices tie you up in knots.  My sheep know My voice and follow Me wherever I lead.



 



On Theology and Scripture

Of old they learned the things of God by the hands of men, but now by the Only-begotten Son of God, and by the Holy Ghost (St. John Chrysostom: Homilies on the Gospel of St. John).

 

Recently, I came across a Scripture passage from the Book of Ezekiel (18:21-28) that triggered a powerful flashback to my Sophomore year in high school.  We were not taught Scripture in Catholic school in those days, but theology.  So what is the difference?  Theology derives from, and follows upon, Scripture, but it is one step removed from the exact words of Scripture.  Theology is man's explanation of what Scripture says. 

 

When I read this passage from Ezekiel, my immediate reaction was, "Why didn't they just have us read this passage from the Bible instead of trying to 'explain' it to us?"  On this particular day, the teacher was trying to explain that if someone lived his entire life as a good person, but then committed a 'mortal sin' just before he died, he would go to hell.  On the other hand, if someone lived his whole life as a 'bad person,' but repented before death, he would go to heaven.  Okay, just imagine now how that went over in a class full of argumentative sophomore girls:  "What?  That's not fair!  Just one mistake in a lifetime of good, and he goes to hell?  I'm not buying that!"  Actually, instead of making us afraid of committing a mortal sin -- the intention of the lesson, I presume---I think it made us think that maybe we could get away with doing whatever we wanted and then converting at the end of life.

 

The problem with theological explanations is twofold:  first, the theologian has understood Scripture through the anointing of the Holy Spirit, hopefully.  However, if his teaching is not also thereby anointed, or even it is, but particularly if his listeners/ readers have not also been anointed by the Holy Spirit, he is then speaking spiritual truths to human (stopped-up and deaf) ears and minds.  Furthermore, since the Spirit and the flesh (human nature) are in conflict with one another (Galatians 5), the human nature always resists the things of God.  The truth is that we want the things of God to be "our way," the way we want them to be.  We want God to conform to our image and our understanding, not the other way around. 

 

Here is the Word of the Lord, given through Ezekiel:

 

Thus says the Lord God:  If the wicked man turns away from all the sins he committed, if he keeps all my statutes and does what is right and just, he shall surely live; he shall not die.  None of the crimes he committed shall be remembered against him; he shall live because of the virtue he has practiced.  Do I indeed derive any pleasure from the death of the wicked? says the Lord God.  Do I not rather rejoice when he turns from his evil way that he may live?

 

And if the virtuous man turns from the path of virtue to do evil, the same kind of abominable things that the wicked man does, can he do this and still live?  None of his virtuous deeds shall be remembered, because he has broken faith and committed sin; because of this, he shall die.  You say, "The Lord's way is not fair!" hear now, house of Israel: Is it my way that is unfair, or rather, are not your ways unfair?   When someone virtuous turns away from virtue to commit iniquity, and dies, it is because of the iniquity he committed that he must die.  But if the wicked, turning from the wickedness he has committed, does what is right and just, he shall preserve his life; since he has turned away from all the sins that he committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.

 

Sophomore girls (not so familiar with boys) want to rebel against something or anything.  They want to argue that their elders don't know what they are talking about; it's all part of becoming independent and 'adult.'  But I wonder if, instead of trying to 'explain' God's ways in human terms, we allowed God Himself to teach our children, if they would not have a different experience altogether.  Only the Holy Spirit knows at any given time what we need to hear, what will touch our hearts and minds.  And my guess is that all of us have experienced being taught of God, as the Scripture tells us:  They shall all be taught of God" (Is. 54:13).

 

What if we would all open our Bibles, pray for the anointing of the Holy Ghost, and then read together the words of Scripture, allowing each one to enter into and comprehend what the Spirit is speaking, and then sharing our understanding with one another?  That, to me, is the meaning of "church."  None of this is meant to discredit mystics and theologians --- they are the ones who have dedicated themselves to understanding the words of God, and they are the ones who thereby grasp the deeper things of the Spirit.  They can illuminate the minds of those who are just beginning to be taught of God, and I am eternally grateful for the light they have shed on my own understanding. 

 

Jesus Himself groaned under the burden of minds and hearts dull of understanding.  Before His Resurrection, He spoke spiritual truths to men who could not grasp them.  Afterwards, however, "He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures."  And this brings up another spiritual truth 'explained' to us in human words.  As a child, I was taught that before Jesus, 'the gates of heaven' were closed to mankind.  But Jesus death 'opened the gates of heaven' to man.  And I understand that when Jesus died, the temple curtain was split from top to bottom, indicating that all men, not just the high priest, now had access to the Holy of Holies, the throne of God Himself.

 

What I did not grasp as a child, though, was why the gates of heaven were closed to man.  Was God mad at us?  Were we all 'too evil' to enter into a holy place?  On some level, I did understand; on another level, I did not.  Jesus told the disciples that He had much more to say to them, but they could not bear it now.  When the Advocate came, He told them, He would reveal all truth to them.

 

Why is this not better taught and understood:  that until the Holy Spirit comes (to each one of us), we cannot understand and grasp the things of God.  It is very clearly laid out in I Cor. 2:

 

No eye has seen,

No ear has heard,

no mind has conceived

what God has prepared for those who love him,

but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

 

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.  For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.  We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. ... The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned....But we have the mind of Christ.

 

Okay, so theology can explain things to us, but it cannot understand those things for us.  What we need to understand as children, or as men with darkened minds, is that we cannot understand the things of God without the aid of the Holy Spirit.  Then, instead of rebelling against what we do not understand, we can learn to submit our hearts and minds to the Spirit of God, humbly asking for enlightenment and understanding. This is the "gate of heaven" that has been opened to us by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  This is why "no man comes to the Father but by Me."  If we do not understand His teaching, it is only because we are walking in human nature, in human understanding, and because "the gates of heaven' are still closed to us. 

 

But it pleases the Father not only to swing those gates wide open, but to run to meet us as we enter them through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who reveals all that belongs to Jesus to us, his brothers and sisters, as He was pleased to call us after the Resurrection from the dead.  When He rose, He raised us also to a new way of life, of understanding, and of relationship to God. Amen!