A Taste of Goodness

When my youngest daughter was growing up, we tried our best to get her to taste cheesecake, knowing she would enjoy it.  But she was put off by the name; admittedly, the name "cheesecake" does not sound appealing.  One day, however, we convinced her to take a small bite.  "THAT'S cheesecake!?" she exclaimed, as she took another bite.  Ever since then, she has been a devotee.

Sometimes I think the same process applies to our spiritual lives.  We hesitate to dip into, to begin tasting, the goodness of the Lord.  The very idea seems repellent to our natural, rational, senses.  We don't want to be misled by romantic, mystical, maybe magical ideas -- we want to be realists!  "No, thank you," we think to ourselves; "we'll stick with the basics!"  Yet still, we hunger for something more.

I love the imagery of Proverbs 9:  Wisdom has built her house;

she has set up her seven colums;

she has dressed her meat, mixed her wine,

yes, she has spread out her table.

She has sent out her maidens;

she calls from the heights out over the city:

"Let whoever is simple turn in here;

to him who lacks understanding, I say,

'Come, eat of my food and drink of the wine I have mixed!

forsake foolishness that you may live;

advance in the way of understanding.'"

Our spirits are hungry for the food of eternal life, the food that comes down from heaven.  Jesus promises to fill that hunger: Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you (Jn. 6:26).....for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world (6:33).....I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will ever go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty (6:35).

What is it that keeps us from being willing to try, to taste, the goodness of the Lord?   St. Paul tells us in Galatians 5:  the spirit and the flesh are at war with one another....the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.  They are in conflict with one another.....since we live by the Spirit, let us be directed by the Spirit.

If we had continued reading in Proverbs 9, we would have discovered that the woman Folly also sits at the door of her house, calling out to passersby as they go on their way:

Let whoever is simple, turn in here;

who lacks understanding, to him I say,

"Stolen water is sweet, and bread gotten secretly is pleasing!"

Little does he know that the shades are there,

that in the depths of the nether world are her guests!

Once we taste the sweetness of the Lord's "cheesecake," we will be eternal devotees.  It's not difficult to take the first bite, but our human nature holds us back until we are desperate for something more than the world offers us.  The gracious warmth and hospitality of the Father's house beckons us; His table is set and the food laid out.  All we have to do is taste it!

Seeking Wisdom

Chapter 8 of the Book of Proverbs and
Chapters 7 and 8 of the Book of Wisdom and
Chapter 24 of the Book of Sirach

all speak of Wisdom --
and
should be read together by One Who Seeks Wisdom.

....followed by John chapter 4 and John chapter 7.

There we have it -- the beauty and benefit of Divine Wisdom and the means to obtain it.

In the Garden of Eden, God gave man the choice:  seek Wisdom or live by Knowledge/ Experience.

We usually seek the Tree of (first-hand) Knowledge/ Experience: "I'll believe when I have tasted the fruit for myself."  And the fruit turns bitter in our mouth, like cold ashes on our tongue.

Proverbs 3:18 says that Wisdom is a "tree of life to those who find her; those who lay hold of her will be blessed."  Reading the aforementioned passages on wisdom will spell out the blessings of wisdom and make the reader hungry and thirsty to eat her fruit.  And then, we ask, "How do we acquire this precious fruit of the Tree of Life?"

And the answer belongs to the Giver of Wisdom:  Jesus tells the woman at the well......Ask Me, and I will give you a spring welling up to eternal life!  A spring continues to flow; it does not run dry.  One comes freely to quench one's thirst -- without fear that the spring has dried up.  But Sirach 24 tells us that as we drink and "divert a rivulet into our own little gardens," suddenly, "this rivulet of mine becomes a stream, and then a river flowing out unto the nations."  In John 7, Jesus promises to all who are thirsty, not only a "spring," but instead "streams of living water" flowing from one's belly.

The woman at the well drank from the spring He offered, and dropping her bucket, she ran into the village with "streams of living water."  Seeking Wisdom from the Source is probably THE MOST IMPORTANT THING WE CAN DO!

We can seek Wisdom or we can seek Knowledge from Experience.  One leads to eternal life, peace, joy, and delight in the presence of God.  The other leads to depression, loneliness, isolation, and eternal hunger and thirst.  The slightest turn from one to the other brings the Father "running down the road to meet and embrace" us, the prodigal son.  And won't He still put the ring on our finger, the cloak on our shoulder, and prepare for us a feast without measure when we return to His house?

Seek My Face

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

Your face, Yahweh, I will seek!  (Psalm 27)

I once adopted a shelter dog as a puppy, even though I went looking for an older dog.  Since I was working every day, I originally did not want a puppy who would be chewing on the furniture, one who needed to be house broken, etc.  I just did not have the time to devote to training a puppy.  However, once my daughter wrapped her arms around this little pit-bull mix, there was no going back.  Ginger came home with us.

From the very beginning, Ginger was an angel-dog.  She watched my face always, to see whether I was happy with her or not.  She would read my expression to see if she was doing what I wanted her to do.  So easy to house-break, so easy to control, Ginger eventually got to the point that I could walk her without a leash.  I had never quite seen a dog like this one.  When we took her for obedience training, the trainer told me during the first class that I should enter her in obedience contests because she naturally did what they usually had to train dogs to do --- she watched my face for commands.  And she had to train me to respond to Ginger visually rather than the other way around!

St. Therese of Lisieux was devoted to "The Holy Face."  Her full title, if I recall, was "Therese of the Child Jesus and of the Holy Face."  Until I adopted Ginger, I never quite understood Therese's devotion to the Holy Face.  It has taken me a lifetime almost to understand not only Therese but also Psalm 27, my lifetime scripture!  Seeking the Face of God is now possible to us after the Incarnation.  The humanity of Jesus is the doorway to our communion with God, to oneness with divinity.  We seek His face to see if He is pleased with us in all that we do -- and because He has become one with us in the Eucharist ---we know that He is pleased to call us "brothers (sisters)" though we are sinners.

The "sins" of my earthly brothers and sisters have no bearing or diminishment on my delight in them.  We are "one flesh" and I long to see their faces whenever I can.  I long to hear their voices and their stories without limit!  How much more then does the Son of God long to see us and hear our voices!  Your face, O Lord, I do seek, even as You seek mine!