Transformation

 In my neighborhood, there is a medium-size house built in the Victorian style, complete with turret.  The house was painted a dull grey, and the yard was overgrown for years behind a small white fence that did more to shut out than to welcome visitors.  Everything about the house said "Neglect," and it was even rumored that the house was haunted.  

Recently, a young couple purchased the house and began renovations, despite having heard the rumors of ghosts.  They repainted the exterior a softer shade of grey, removed the overgrown debris in the yard, and began installing a garden that included benches and fountains, making the home once again inviting and welcoming.  Although I have not seen the inside of the home, I can imagine that every corner and closet has been gone through with improvements.

I was thinking about that house this morning as I read the meditation from Richard Rohr:

Contemplative prayer allows us to build our own house. To pray is to discover that Someone else is within our house and to recognize that it is not our house at all. To keeping praying is to have no house to protect because there is only One House. And that One House is Everybody’s Home. In other words, those who pray from the heart actually live in a very different world. I like to say it’s a Christ-soaked world, a world where matter is inspirited and spirit is embodied. In this world, everything is sacred; and the word “Real” takes on a new meaning. 

It appears that God loves life—the creating never stops.

We will love and create and maintain life.

It appears that God is love—an enduring, patient kind.

We will seek and trust love in all its humanizing (and therefore divinizing forms.

It appears that God loves the variety of multiple features, faces, and forms.

We will not be afraid of the other, the not-me, the stranger at the gate.

It appears that God loves—is—beauty: Look at this world!

Those who pray already know this. Their passion will be for beauty.

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Once we allow Jesus to enter our house and to begin His renovation, He will eventually open all the doors and closets, move around or discard the furniture, and clean up the exterior so that people are no longer afraid to enter, and the ghosts will be dispersed.  We will discover that our house is a house for others, because it is no longer "our" house, but now God's house --- and He will welcome those He chooses.  His passion is for beauty and for life, whereas we may have become accustomed to dinginess and decay.  

Revelation 3:20 says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock.  If anyone will open to Me, I will come in and sup with him, and he with Me."  If we invite Him in, and give Him room to move in us, we may be surprised at the renovations that begin to happen!

 

Unwrapping All My Presents

 Sitting by the window early Christmas morning, I watched the bright morning star, Venus, glowing through tree limbs against a dark sky just about to be lightened by the rising sun. I couldn't help smiling as I thought that I could have spent hundreds of dollars going to a resort somewhere to see the same peaceful sight.

All the promises of Christmas were mine at that moment: love, joy, peace, contentment.  There was nothing I lacked.  If God is truly 'with us," as the name Emmanuel suggests, this is what it feels like.  No need for expensive presents -- what do I want with diamonds, or iphones, or billiard tables?  All substitutes for the peace that only God can give us!

The promise of Christmas is that God is with us.  All we have to do is to unwrap the Gift!

Pain and Fear and Doubt

 So here is Elizabeth, in her old age and in her sixth month.  Zachery, her husband, is unable to speak after his encounter with the Angel Gabriel six months previously.  And she....who does she have to speak with about her pain...and her fear....and her doubt.  The Jews were literate, so maybe Zach had somehow communicated with her in writing what had happened to him, but still...so many unanswered questions had to be swirling through her mind.  This child of hers.....who was he to be?  And now, the long-awaited Messiah was about to appear?  What would it mean for the Jews?

And now, she hears a voice calling to her, and the child in her womb leaps for joy!  Mary, her cousin, has arrived from Nazareth:  "How is it that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Elizabeth cries!  And Mary herself, with her own questions.  How to say what has happened to her?  But Elizabeth already understands by the grace of God and power of the Holy Spirit.  No unbelievable explanations needed here.  For the next three months, the women have joy and companionship in their questions, fears, and doubts.  What is to happen next?  How will Mary explain to Joseph? Imagine the Messiah of Israel from Mary, her cousin!  Who is to help me in childbirth? 

And here is the beauty of "God-with-us"!  Whenever there is a manifestation, an incarnation, of God in our lives, He at that moment sends someone to help us, to understand what has happened to us.  He sends companionship along the way.  No lengthy explanations necessary!  We meet at once a "soul friend," a companion.  In the words of one of the songs from the charismatic renewal, You send marvelous comrades to me, the people who dwell in your land/ those who have chosen alien gods/ have chosen an alien band.

Our God is Emmanuel -- God with us. Not only does He pour out his presence in us (called "grace"), but He sends us companions to walk with us, to explore with us our questions, doubts, and fears:  What has happened to me?  How am I to respond?  What should I do next?  Who will guide me?  And who will share my joy?

Mary and Elizabeth -- cousins and companions.  A great lesson for us!

The Tears of Jesus

In Jerusalem, there is a small church on the Mount of Olives called "Dominus Flevit": The Tears of the Lord. From the site of the church, one has a beautiful view of the city the Jerusalem laid out down below. The Gospel reports that from this site, Jesus looked down on the city and wept: Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!  (Matt. 23).

Just 40 years later, Jerusalem would be wiped off the map for centuries by the invasion of Rome; the temple would be destroyed even until now, and the Jews would be scattered over the face of the earth.  When I visited the site of Dominus Flevit, I began to weep myself, knowing the fate of the beautiful city I saw below.  But looking back on that moment, I now think that the reason for my tears was that the Spirit of Jesus lives within me, making me love what He loves and grieve over the things that grieved Him on earth.

Matthew 12:30 gives us another saying of Jesus:  Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.  In the past few years, I have felt within me the urge to "gather" those I love "as a hen gathers her brood under her wings."  When I sit down to pray in the morning, or sometimes at Mass, I feel myself "gathering" together those I love under my wings.  This inclination is vastly different from that initial inclination when I first experienced the power of the Holy Spirit in my life.

At one of the prayer meetings in those earlier days, I "saw" in my spirit a ladder leading from earth into heaven, and at that time, I wanted to begin climbing the ladder, leaving everything on earth behind.  At my first steps, however, the Lord stopped me with His will:  I want you to go to the back of the church (symbolically), where are those who feel unworthy to come to Me; I want you to put your arms around them and walk with them until they also want to come to Me as you do.  The vision lasted only a second, but I understood that my task was not "to get to heaven," but to bring with me so many others.

Today, some 40+ years later, my heart and  arms metaphorically go around a multitude of other people.  I know that on my journey to the next life, I am "attached" to so many people.  I can't run up that ladder alone; I bring with me so many other people who have become part of me.  At the last supper, Jesus said to His disciples, I go to prepare a place for you...and I will take you to myself; that where I am, there you also may be.  And where I go you know, and the way also you know (John 14).

The whole Catholic doctrine of the communion of saints rests on this principle:  that, like Jesus, we enter eternal life (even in this life) not alone, but with others whom we have come to love.  God is the Great Gathering Force.  "Where there is division, there is sin," according to St. Athanasius.  Jesus returned to heaven with a 'great cloud of witnesses" (Heb, 12), taking with Him "a crowd of captives and gave gifts to his people" (Eph. 4). 

Today when I pray, I stand with so many people that I cannot leave alone, and everyday the circle widens and grows, the result of the Spirit of God dwelling in me (Romans 5:  The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us.)  I used to wonder whether that meant that now "we love God" or that it meant that "God's love for us" has been poured out.  Today I know it means both:  The Spirit enables us to both love God and to love others whom He loves.  

So here's my promise and guarantee:  if I know you, I love you, and you will be with me where I am in the next life!  Not by any grace or gift of my own, but by the grace and gift of Jesus Christ, who first wept over Jerusalem and over all of us!

The Spirit of Practical Wisdom

 Then the Lord said to Moses, "See, I have chosen Bezalel, son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah, and I have filled him with the Spirit of God, with skill, ability, and knowledge in all kinds of crafts --- to make artistic designs for work in gold, silver and bronze, to cut and set stones, to work in wood, and to engage in all kinds of craftsmanship....Also, I have given skill to all the craftsmen to make everything I have commanded you (Exodus 31:1-6).

An alternate translation of the phrase "Spirit of God" above is "the Spirit of Practical Wisdom."  I love that translation because it conveys so well the meaning of wisdom itself.  If we read the Book of Proverbs, as well as the Books of Wisdom and Sirach (found only in Catholic bibles), we find out just how "practical" Wisdom is.

We tend to think of Wisdom as some abstract virtue that has little to do with everyday living.  The opening lines of Sirach reinforce the idea of the guru on the mountain, inspired, but not really in touch with reality as we experience it:

All wisdom comes from the Lord, and with him it remains forever.
The sand on the seashore, the drops of rain, the days of eternity: who can number these?

Heaven's height, earth's breadth, the depths of the abyss: who can explore these?

Before all things else wisdom was created; and prudent understanding from eternity.

To whom has wisdom's root been revealed? Who knows her subtleties?

There is but one, wise and truly awe-inspiring, seated upon his throne:

It is the Lord; he created her, has seen her and taken note of her.  

He has poured her forth upon all his works, upon every living thing according to his bounty; 

He has lavished her upon his friends.

If we continue reading in Sirach, however, we soon discover just how practical Wisdom can be to everyday life: 

 "One cannot justify unjust anger; anger plunges a man to his downfall.  A patient man need stand firm but for a time, and then contentment comes back to him."

"Let your acquaintances be many, but one in a thousand your confidant.  When you gain a friend, first test him, and be not too ready to trust him.  For one sort of friend is a friend when it suits him, but he will not be with you in time of distress.  Another is a friend who becomes an enemy, and tells of the quarrel to your shame...."

Readings throughout Exodus, where the tabernacle is being constructed in the wilderness, and in the first Book of Kings, where the first temple is being built, tell us just how practical wisdom is, where the Lord bestows knowledge and skill on those who are doing the actual building and furnishing.  

From the time I was in the 8th grade, I fell in love with the idea of wisdom.  (Or maybe it was just that I fell in love with the word "sapientia," the Latin for "wisdom," as I was given an art project to work on that included the Latin term.)  Whatever the case, I began at that time to crave wisdom and I developed the habit of seeking and praying for wisdom. To this day, I seek wisdom as I work in the garden and try to figure out how to solve simple problems such as how to haul 40 lbs. of soil too heavy for me to lift into the wheelbarrow....  Or when I must take medicine whose side-effects counteract those of other medicines I need.... Or when I am at a loss as to how to bring order to a chaotic office space that houses multiple projects.

And wisdom comes through channels I least expect, at times I least expect it to come.  But that's a story for another time.  For today, a simple prayer that stays on my desk:

Holy Spirit, I don't know what my future looks like.

All I ask is that you fill me with your grace and guide my decisions today.

Come, Holy Spirit, and let me know you are with me; help me to detect your voice.

I open my heart to you; please come and guide me.