God as a Taverner

A friend recently passed on to me a wonderful letter from around 1150 A.D:  The "Scala Claustralium"  (Ladder of Monks): A Letter by Guigo II to his Friend Gervase.

The letter is about prayer as the Ladder to Heaven seen by Jacob in Genesis.  It is quite long, and requires more than one reading to fully reward the reader.  But it is worth the effort in its insights about prayer.  In fact, I would say that to sit with this letter about ten minutes a day could easily lead the reader into deeper prayer.  Fortunately, in this century, we have only to go to the internet to download such a treasure:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guigo_II

The following is one delightful excerpt:

So does God Almighty to his lovers in contemplation like a taverner, who has good wine to sell, to good drinkers who will drink well of his wine and spend well. He knows them well when he sees them in the street. Quietly he goes to them and whispers in their ear and says to them that he has a claret, and of good taste in the mouth.  He entices them into his house and gives them a taste. Soon when they have tasted of it and think the drink good and greatly to their pleasure, then

They drink all night, they drink all day;

And the more they drink, the more they may.

Such liking they have of that drink

That of none other wine they think,

But only for to drink their fill

And to have of this drink all their will.

And so they spend what they have, and then they sell or pawn their coat, their hood and all they may, for to drink with liking while they think it good....

Therefore, when God sends any ghostly liking to your soul, think that God speaks to you, and whispers in your ear, and says: "Have now this little, and taste how sweet I am. But if you will fully feel what you have tasted, run after me and follow the savour of my ointments.  Lift up your heart to me where I am sitting on the right hand of my Father, and there you shall see me, not as in a mirror, but you shall see me face to face.  And then you shall have fully at your will that joy that you have tasted forever without end.  And that joy or liking none shall snatch from you.

I thank God that He is the "taverner" who takes the initiative in "tempting" us to taste of His sweet wine and who gradually draws us deeper and deeper into the "drunkenness" of the Holy Spirit.  But as Brother Guigo is so much more articulate and wise about these things, I recommend that you read and contemplate his wonderful letter.

The Mind of Christ

Holy Spirit,

Think Your Thoughts in me

Until Your Thoughts

Become my thoughts!

Amen.

God Wants to Help Us

The 4-year-old had the flu and was vomiting on the sofa.
The 2-year-old was being potty-trained and crying, "Mama, I have to go poo-poo.
The 5-month old was screaming with hunger.
And I was a crazy person.  No matter which direction I went in, it was the wrong direction.

I had had 3 children in 4 years, and I was in way over my head.  I've always had trouble being organized myself, but managing the daily needs of babies and toddlers was totally beyond my capabilities.  The stabilizers of my life up to this point had always been prayer and sleep -- and now there was no time for either one.

Because I nursed my children, it seemed that for years, the longest stretch of sleep I had was about an hour and a half.  In addition, allergies continued to cause ear infections, tonsillitis, colic, and other problems that kept us all awake during the nights.  When I tried to pray ---or even to reach some level below that of constant panic --- a baby would wake up crying.  I wish I had been mature and stable enough at the time, walking with God enough to know that my "prayer" was allowing Him to help me in my stress.  My prayer should have been that of Martha, taking care of what needed to be done without yearning to sit down like Mary, listening at the feet of Jesus.

I had tried calming myself with the latest fads -- yoga, Transcendental Meditation, and the "Power of Positive Thinking" advocated by Universal Unitarian literature.  Obviously, none of these methods worked because there was no room in my life for "ooommmmmm."

Finally, in desperation, I said to the Lord, "If you give me time to pray, I will take whatever time you give me, instead of running around trying to get diapers washed and other things done."  And then I managed to release my control of trying to find time for myself.  I put it in His hands.

A week or so later, my neighbor across the street asked if she could take the children with her to the bank.  Whaaaaaaat????? Who does that?  Take two children to the bank (she was leaving the baby with me, obviously.)  And soon she started taking them with her to the grocery store and other places.  Usually, they were gone only about 20 minutes at a time, but I had promised God that I would take that time to pray, and I did.  I was amazed at His solution!  It seems that all I needed was a few minutes now and then to calm down and catch my breath and realize that the chaos was temporary.

God wants to help us with our lives.  Emmanuel means "God with us."  But we can't believe it.  We think we have to stretch ourselves into all kinds of postures -- physical and mental and spiritual -- to reach Him.  But He wants to reach us!  That's why Jesus came in the flesh -- to reach us where we are!  "Prayer" is simply leaning into Him and allowing Him to enter into our lives, no matter where we are, no matter how weak we are.  He is not far away, but near at hand, if we could only believe it!

The Spiritual Life

In The Blue Period, his novel about Pablo Picasso, Luke Gerard Kummer describes a scene between Picasso and his close friend, Carles, a poet:

[Carles] paused at the studio's threshold and turned back around. "Tell me something.  What do you feel when you paint?"

Pablo couldn't help but detect a note of envy in Carles's voice.  "Didn't you declare once that painting is nothing more than dust and grease slopped on a rag?"

"Am I wrong? Doesn't mean it can't evoke powerful feelings, though.  In the viewer or painter.  You always appear so immersed in the picture you're making, yet serene."

….Pablo had not considered the question before. He was sure his brush never got the best of him...and supposed that's what Carles must see.  But the feeling of painting?  It came so naturally that Carles might well have asked him. "What does it feel like to be awake?" As opposed to what, asleep?

[Pablo notes that Carles always seems to struggle with his life and his work, "wrestling his demons" and rarely winning.]

….The origin of this unenviable condition was difficult to pinpoint.  Its root, though,, no doubt was tangled up with his (Carles's) ennui. Hard to say what comes first and in what order, right? Events conspire to induce sadness, then melancholy becomes its own disease.  So we medicate ourselves.  And then, poof! The flesh is sapped -- another unhappy development, thus repeating the cycle.  The world sags, the body sags, the world sags even more.

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Most people seem to believe that the spiritual life is an option -- something that we can take or leave, depending on our interest in such things.  But when God breathed His Spirit into man's nostrils at creation, "Man became a living being."  Without that Spirit, we fall back first into ennui, then into discouragement, and then into melancholy.  

Jesus said:  The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing.  The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life (JN. 6:63).  

In the New Testament, two Greek words are both translated as "life" in English --- but they mean very different things.  The word "bios" refers to this present existence--physical life.  The word "zoe" refers to spiritual/ eternal life.  The zoe that Jesus promises, however, gives life not only to our spirits, but also to our minds, our hearts, our wills, and our physical bodies.  It overflows from the deepest part of us to all the other parts of us.  

That is why after people have an encounter with Jesus Christ, they come fully alive in intellect, in love, in doing good, and even physical cures in some cases.  His ministry on earth continues to this day -- I have come that they might have life and have it more abundantly, He said.

The spiritual life is not an option; it is a necessity if we do not wish to live a downward spiral: The world sags, the body sags, the world sags even more!

Knowing God

Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you...I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them (Jn. 17 25-26).

No one has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, has made him known (Jn. 1:18).

Jesus came to make known the Father, and His promise at the Last Supper was that He would "continue" to make Him known.  That "continue" applies to us to this very day.  All of His teaching, His miracles, His ministry to us even today reveals to us Who God Is.  

When Jesus washed the feet of His disciples, He was telling us Who God Is -- He who washes our feet, Who cleanses us from sin, Who anoints our wounds and prepares us to sit at table with Him.  When Jesus restored Peter as head of the church after Peter's betrayal, He was revealing to us the love of the Father, Who restores all things even in the face of our betrayal of Him.  

The atheist denies that God exists, but even he cannot deny the historic presence of Jesus Christ, whose very purpose was to "reveal the Father."  If Jesus had not come in the flesh, we might have excuse not to know the Father, but He has come -- and He has revealed the Father.  In the words of C.S. Lewis, if Jesus is not Who He claimed to be, then He is either a liar or a lunatic -- but his life and death testify to the Truth.

The agnostic also claims that we cannot know God.  But Jesus, whom we can know, at least historically, said that we can know the Father:  Have I been among you so long and you still do not know Me?

Is it possible that Jesus is no longer doing His work -- revealing to us the Father?  And how is it that we still do not know God?  How can it be that we are still afraid of God?  If we want to know what it means to "fear God," let us approach Jesus' reverence for His Father --- and more than approach, let us get ourselves into Jesus's love and reverence for the Father.

It is not only possible to know God; it is possible to "learn" God by "learning" Jesus Christ.  In Romans 13:14, we are told to "put on Christ Jesus and make no provision for the desires of the flesh," (sinful nature) (or the natural man).  Ignatius of Antioch wrote to the churches of Asia Minor, telling them to "learn Christ," and to be "bearers of God."  He called himself "God bearer."

Ever since I heard about Ignatius' advice, I have wanted to "learn Christ."  He did not say to "learn about Christ," or even to "learn from Christ," but rather to "learn Christ."  The goal of every Christian is to learn Christ.  And in learning Christ, we also learn His Father.  We cannot say God is beyond our reach, for we have been given His very Son in the flesh.  In Him, and with Him, clothed in Him, we shall reach God Himself.

Jesus's Dog

For much of my adult life, I have wanted to be St. Dominic's dog.  St. Dominic had a vision at some point of a dog running through the streets of his hometown with a torch.  That vision is depicted in a giant mosaic in St. Dominic's Church in Lakeview, a suburb of New Orleans.  The explanation given to St. Dominic was that he was himself that dog, running with the torch of Truth throughout his world.

I, too, have longed to run with a small flame of the divine truth.  However, closer to the reality of my life, I now want to be Jesus's dog.  Before Katrina, when I lived in Metairie, I had a sweet dog who just loved me so much that she was willing to walk beside me without a leash.  When I stopped at the street corner, she would sit at my side, waiting for the signal to cross with me.  Thinking back on Ginger, I realize now how much discipline it took to stay by my side instead of chasing squirrels or cats when she saw them.  I never had to worry about her running into traffic or into danger; I knew she would stay close to me.

Once, when we were out walking, Ginger was attacked by a dog twice her size.  Instead of running away, she took refuge behind me, not trying to defend herself, but just trusting me to defend her.  Fortunately, the dog's owner was right there to protect both of us!

That's the relationship I now want with Jesus.  I know that I do not have within myself the strength of St. Dominic -- to run through the streets with the torch of divine truth.  I just want to walk beside Jesus, stopping when He stops, watching His face for the signal to move again.  When I am attacked by danger greater than my ability to defend myself, I just want to hide behind HIS power and strength, waiting for HIS defense in my weakness.  I pray that I won't be distracted by cats and squirrels in my own life, which draw my attention away from His Presence and Purpose for my life.

When I read my meditation for today, this is what it says:

When you approach Me in stillness and in trust, you are strengthened  You need a buffer zone of silence around you in order to focus on things that are unseen.  Since I am invisible, you must not let your senses dominate your thinking.  The curse of this age is overstimulation of the senses, which blocks out awareness of the unseen world....The goal is to be aware of unseen things even as you live out your life in the visible world. (Jesus Calling, June 15).

I wonder if I can be as content walking by the side of Jesus as Ginger was walking by my side, or if I need to chase a squirrel now and then!