Grace, Grace, and More Grace

 The concept of Grace is a very abstract one to a child.  Our catechism taught us that Grace is "the unmerited favor of God," but the words "unmerited" and "favor" had absolutely no concrete reference to me beyond their dictionary definition.  A child does not think about "meriting" the "favor" of his/her parents.  Rather, she takes for granted that her parents love her, and will do the best for her, merited or not.  (I realize that I was a very fortunate child.)

To complicate things even further, there were illustrations in our book supposed to represent Grace.  Three milk bottles were pictured (this was in the days of milkmen and milk deliveries). One of the bottles was black, signifying the soul without Grace; one of them was pure white, showing the soul "full of grace," and one bottle was white with black spots, showing both grace and sin in the soul.  Of course, I wanted to be full of grace, but other than Mass and Communion, I wasn't sure how to do that.  And worse, I puzzled over exactly what this grace was that could fill the soul completely.

In high school religion classes, we learned about "actual grace," "sanctifying grace," "prevenient grace," and maybe some other kinds of grace I have now forgotten.  We learned the words, but not the practical examples that would help us understand grace.  

In Your Life in the Holy Spirit, Alan Schreck points out that "it is important to distinguish between the natural capacity of the mind to comprehend things and the gift of the Holy Spirit that enables a person to grasp the real meaning and implications of their faith and of other truths" (p.69).....and "We should think that God desires the truths of the faith to be matters of deep personal conviction and knowledge, which is a work of the Holy Spirit.  In short, God desires the truths we believe as Christians to come alive and assume real meaning for our lives through the Holy Spirit" (p. 70).

With the ministry of the Holy Spirit in my life to reveal Truth, I have come to understand, see, and love "ordinary grace," my own term which probably covers all the officially named graces in the catechism.  Ordinary grace -- the grace of God's loving-kindness and unmerited favor going ahead of all my daily needs, covering my carelessness and inattention, and guiding me through troublesome days and nights.

Every day is a day of "grace," giving me songs of joy.  St. John of the Cross said this: "The soul of one who loves God always swims in joy, always keeps holiday, and is always in the mood for singing."  Now that's a definition of grace that I can sink my teeth into!  Those spots in the milk bottle --- that's where we have limited or blocked God's favor and kindness towards us, where we have chosen our own way and refused to allow Him to favor and guide us.

We are preparing to downsize and move to a smaller house.  I had no idea of how difficult it would be to let go of all the things we have been collecting for 50 years.  (St. Francis had the right idea!)  We are moving to a house where the rooms are small, and where there is absolutely no storage space, so in preparation, I have ordered a few storage cabinets for the laundry room.  But that means the cabinets will have to be assembled, in addition to all the other projects and cleaning involved in a move of this magnitude.  Yesterday afternoon, the high school kid down the block appeared on my doorstep.  He needs service hours now and next semester for school and wanted to know if I had anything he could do.  I was stunned by "actual grace," "sanctifying grace," and "prevenient grace"  --- or "ordinary grace," the unmerited favor of God.  Even before the first cabinet had arrived, God has made provision for my need!  I know this young man, as he and his father appeared as an answer to prayer after the last hurricane with chain saws to clean up our property.  He is a hard-working, trustworthy person who has a great work ethic.  I can trust him to do the job right.  I told him that I had a project for both him and a friend if they wanted to put together my storage cabinets --- surely worth more hours than needed by just one of them. 

Grace, grace, and more grace!  Grace for every day's most quiet need, in the words of Elizabeth Barret Browning's poem, "How Do I Love Thee?"  Ordinary grace -- that is, the favor of God that anticipates our most simple needs and that will not fail us: 

 "Give us this day our daily bread," and someone to lend a helping hand when we need it!

 Jesus has taken up my life as His own.  "He was not ashamed to call them brothers" (and friends), for that is why He came -- to take up our lives as His own life.  When the Father looks at us, He sees us as One with His Son, as His Son's bride, and He welcomes us as He welcomes his very own Son, as we would welcome the spouse of one of our very own children.  Now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8).

We tend to think of Jesus as apart from ourselves, as "out there," while we are "in here," struggling to make ends meet, so to speak.  But He has taken up all the causes of my life, in one of the translations of Lamentations 3:

Those who were my enemies without cause
hunted me like a bird.
They tried to end my life in a pit
and threw stones at me;
the waters closed over my head,
and I thought I was about to be cut off.

I called on your name, O Lord,
from the depths of the pit.
You heard my plea: "Do not close your ears to my cry for relief."
You came near when I called you, and you said, "Do not fear."

O Lord, you have taken up all the causes of my life;
You redeemed my life.

When Jesus went through His agony and crucifixion, it was because He had taken up the causes of my life, of your life.  How many of us have gone through or are going through what can only be called agony --- the agony of being despised or bullied or dismissed or discounted; the agony of loneliness, of feeling misunderstood, or left out; the agony of cancer, or MS, or life-threatening disease; the agony of separation by death from those closest to us?

When people have to flee their beloved homes and families because of fire, drought, floods, persecution; when the elderly have to be warehoused in nursing homes, when political prisoners are tortured, when children are starved and beaten, there is Someone who himself suffers and has suffered along with us:  Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  They are new every morning (Lamentations 3).

This is what the Resurrection of Jesus teaches us -- suffering and cruelty are not the final answer.  There is something else to come; there is newness of life from what appears to be the triumph of evil over goodness. No matter how much we kill God or one another, He is not yet finished with us.  He is always greater than what man or demon can devise, and His power is at the service of His mercy and His love.  Psalm 138 says:

In the presence of the angels I will praise you;

I will bow down toward your holy temple,

 and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness,

for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.

When I called, you answered me;

You built up strength within me....

Though I walk in the midst of trouble,

You will revive me:

You stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes,

with your right hand, you save me.

The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.

Jesus came in the flesh not only to teach us how to live, but also to actively take up the causes of each life that will allow Him to enter.  He is one with us, and He will bring to completion all the things that concern us.  He who led Mary and Joseph and the Child into Egypt to escape the terror of Herod will surely lead us beyond our present circumstances, even though we face the horror of death and destruction:  Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me.....

You Were Always on My Mind

 Sadly, music has not played a huge role in my life --- I was always more oriented to books --- but the first time I heard Willie Nelson sing "You Were Always on My Mind," I knew this was a song I would not soon forget.  And now that my children are grown and moved away, now that I have lost very close friends to death, now that I have found new friends and have become part of their lives, Willie Nelson seems to be singing just to me.

The story of each life is marvelous and precious; each person deserves to have at least one other person who knows and keeps the story of one's life.  To "know" another person means to understand their story -- where they are coming from, what they value, what they hope for.  Although I do not converse with my children on a daily, or even a weekly, basis, they are always on my mind.  I think about what they are going through, what they suffer, what they enjoy, what they are hoping for --- all the time.  They are never very far away from me; in a sense, they are in me and with me always.

My brothers and sisters also live within me.  I rejoice when I hear their news, what is happening in their lives, and I desire to be part of what they experience as much as possible.  I grieve when they are ill and smile when I hear their voices.  I want to know about their children and grandchildren -- all the stories that make up a family.

And my new friends, those whose stories I hear and keep up with, they are always on my mind, too.  I am concerned about their illnesses; I rejoice when they have good news; I pray for their concerns.  I wake up during the night thinking about them.

All of this is what it means to be "in Christ, and Christ in me."  In the discourse on the Vine and the branches (John 15), Jesus says, "If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."  If you were to Google "Christ in me," you'd find more than a dozen quotes about being "in Jesus."  Jesus spoke so often about himself being in the Father, and the Father in Him.  But at the last supper, He seemed anxious that the disciples and those coming after them would remain in both the Father and in Himself:  in that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you (John 14:19-20).

God himself knows our stories and keeps them; He himself dwells in our stories and does not forget them.  He enters into our stories and struggles; He takes up the causes of our lives, and struggles within us to make them fruitful for us:  

But Zion said, "The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me."

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; you walls are ever before me (Is. 49).

If Willie Nelson kept the story of his love, despite human failing and neglect, how much more the One Who created us, Who loves us, Who has come after us.....how much more will we be "in" Him and He in us? 

 

 

 

 

The Icon and the Word

 

My favorite icon is the one pictured here, of Jesus the Teacher.  Icons are meant to be "read," as literature is read.  In Russian Orthodox churches, one is surrounded on every side by icons; the idea is that one is able to gaze into heaven through the eyes of the icon, and heaven in turn looks back at us through the eyes of the icon.

Sometimes the icon above is portrayed with an open instead of a closed book, but in both cases, the meaning is the same:  Only Jesus can "open the book" for us; without Him, the Bible is a closed book.  St. John begins his gospel of Jesus Christ with the words, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  Jesus is the Word of God made flesh, made visible, made "touchable" for us.  Through Him, we see God, we approach God, we touch God.  Without Him, God remains for us an idea, a philosophy, or made in our own image.  John goes on to say, For the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who is at the Father's side, has made him known.

If the Bible is divorced from the Person of Jesus Christ, it becomes a dead book.  Although it has been studied by every discipline known to man, the Bible essentially remains closed to us until Jesus Himself opens the book and begins to unfold it to us. 

A woman I know recently told me an amazing story about her life.  She grew up in an abusive home and decided when she was 14 that she no longer believed the "fairy tales" that religion told -- none of it was real or believable to her.  She fled her home at the first opportunity, only to get into an abusive marriage, followed by four more marriages of the same kind.  Finally, in desperation, she cried out to God for help.  One night, she suddenly awoke out of a deep sleep to find Jesus standing next to her.  She saw only Light in the shape of a man, but the light was filled with words from top to bottom.  He did not speak to her, but she understood immediately that Jesus was and is the Word of God.  The next morning, she started to read the Bible for the first time in her life.

Shortly afterwards, she met a man who had grown up Catholic but who was now attending the Baptist Church, and she started going to church with him.  Eventually they married, and for the first time in her life, she was experiencing what it meant to be loved.  Although she was enjoying the Baptist church because it was helping us to understand and digest the Bible, her husband was beginning to yearn for the church of his youth.  "I need to go back to the Catholic church," he told her, "I cannot pray in this church."  "Why do you want to do that?" she asked.  "Go back to where they worship all those statues?" She told him she would go to the Catholic church with him for 3 months, and then she would go back to the Baptist church, and he could do whatever he wanted.  The first time she attended a Catholic Mass, she fell in love:  "This is true worship," she said; "it no longer depends on the preacher, or the music, or the fellowship, but only on true worship."  

Now my point here is not really which church has true worship, but it's this: the Word of God Himself began to teach her, to open the Book to her, and to lead her where she would find peace and joy.  The purpose of God is not to make us Scripture scholars, erudite in understanding, but to lead us to Himself.  We read the Bible not to be "educated," but in order to enter into the same relationship of loving intimacy with God that Jesus had/has, to become sons and daughters of God, sharing in His divine nature through Jesus' sonship.

The Gospels are full of incidents where the disciples fail to understand Jesus and His frustration at their lack of understanding.  But after the Resurrection, He seemingly cannot wait to begin unfolding the Scriptures to them, now through the Spirit rather than through the flesh.  On the same morning of the Resurrection, he appears to the disciples on the way to Emmaus, and "opens their minds to understand the Scriptures" (Luke 24).  "Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?"  He said to them, "this is what I told you while I was still with you; Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms."

If we want to understand the Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, the best place to begin is by standing before the Icon, metaphorically at least, and looking into the eyes of heaven, asking for the Gift of the Spirit of God, given to us in Christ Jesus.  Then the Book will be opened to us, and instead of "scratching our heads" over the obscure manuscripts, our hearts will be burning within us.

Opening the Door

 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 (Rev. 3:20).

At our church, there are two groups who are reading Your Life in the Holy Spirit by Alan Schreck.  You might call these groups "book clubs," but really, the book serves more as meditation and awareness of how the Holy Spirit operates in our lives, so our purpose is to draw closer to the Holy Spirit.  As we reflect together on where we have seen and heard the Spirit of God in our lives, we draw strength from the stories we hear.

One man told us last week that he had come to the first group meeting but not to the second, because the group meets early Sunday morning, not his best time.  However, as he was reading the book, he suddenly became aware for the first time in his life of the Holy Spirit.  You might say the Holy Spirit became present to him for the first time.  Looking up, he glanced out the window and saw a single dove alight right outside his window, more or less confirming the awareness that had just come upon him.  

If the story stopped there, one might say it was a nice story, a moment in his life.  But the story continues.... This man had been raised Catholic, going to church, but like many people, had stopped attending church for many years until recently.  He married a Baptist woman but didn't like the Baptist church so they attended a Methodist church for awhile.  However, he found that he missed the Catholic Mass because he said he couldn't pray in the Methodist church --- too much was going on there.  When they both started going to the Catholic church, his wife fell in love with the church and became Catholic.  And then continued to grow, becoming eventually a catechist and active in the church, kind of leaving him behind in his lack of interest.  

Suddenly, however, after this "moment" of awareness of the Holy Spirit, he cannot get enough.  He continues to read the book with enthusiasm; he showed up early Sunday morning for the third meeting of the group, and he finds himself following the Mass with interest and devotion.  That kind of dynamism is typical of those who suddenly (or gradually) encounter the presence of the Holy Spirit in their lives.

Jesus told the apostles that they would receive "power" when the Holy Spirit comes upon them.  In the Greek text, the word we translate "power" is dunamis, our root word for "dynamite."  Even for life-long Catholics or church-goers, there is no dynamite in their faith without the presence and action of the Holy Spirit.  The work of the Holy Spirit is to transform our bland worship into matters of deep personal conviction and knowledge.  Faith without knowledge is okay, but faith with knowledge and understanding brings joy.

The question remains, "How do we open the door to the Presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives?"  Evidently, it does not take much, as this gentleman was reading only the first chapter of Your Life in the Holy Spirit.  But it seems to me that if we even crack open the door of our hearts a little, the Spirit rushes in.  The word "enthusiasm" literally means "God within."  God does not really enjoy our bland worship, but trying to manufacture enthusiasm with music and emotional appeals does not work for very long.  It takes the Holy Spirit within to awaken a real and lasting love for God and for others.

Jesus' promise to come in if we but open the door is encouraging -- our house does not need to be in order; we just have to allow Him entrance, and He will do the rest!

On Gathering and Scattering

 He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me scatters (Matt. 12:30).

There it is, laid out in the simplest terms imaginable --- either we are for Him or against Him; either we gather with Him or we scatter.

One of the ancient terms for the devil is lo diabolo, meaning "to scatter" or separate.  And from the first pages of Genesis, we see the effects of the evil one -- to separate man from God, to separate man from wife, to separate brother from brother.  The cry of Cain is pitiful:  My punishment is more than I can bear. Today, you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever sees me will kill me (Gen. 4).  Adam and Eve passed on to the next generation their own separation from God, from one another, and from the fruitfulness of the land.  But, as every parent knows, the characteristics we pass on to our children are intensified in the next generation.  

The first eleven chapters of Genesis set the stage, form a backdrop, for the drama of redemption that begins in Chapter 12.  The final chapter of the prologue, Chapter 11, is the Tower of Babel, the ultimate separation, where men could not even understand the language spoken by one another, and "from there the Lord scattered them over the face of the earth," presumably so they would not all kill one another.

The remedy for man's tendency to separate and scatter is Abraham:  In you, all nations will be blessed. First, a family; then a tribe, then a nation/kingdom, and finally, Jesus, the King, who will gather the lost tribes of Israel and then the entire earth under one head, the kingdom of God.

When Jesus announced, "the kingdom of God is among you," the Jews of his time would have known what that meant -- the Messiah was to regather the lost and separated tribes of Israel and re-establish the kingdom of David.  So first the 12 apostles, representing the original 12 tribes of Israel, all descended from the 12 sons of Jacob/Israel.  But His kingdom was to extend even further -- to the Gentiles as well, according to His promise to Abraham:  all nations will bless themselves through you!

I have been reading recently The Way of a Pilgrim, a 19th-century Russian work recounting the adventures of a mendicant pilgrim.  Along the way, he meets various teachers, monks, fellow travelers, etc --- all of whom teach him something about the spiritual life.  Two of the "lessons" he learns impressed me so that I copied them myself:

The soul which is inwardly united to God becomes, in the greatness of its joy, like a good-natured, simple-hearted child, and now condemns no one, Greek, heathen, Jew, nor sinner, but looks at them all alike with sight that has been cleansed, finds joy in the whole world, and wants everybody ----Greeks and Jews and heathen --- to praise God.

The inward contemplative burns with so great a love that if it were possible he would have everyone dwell within him, making no difference between bad and good...So I advise you to lay aside your fierceness, and look upon everything as under the all-knowing providence of God, and when you meet with vexations, accuse yourself especially of lack of patience and humility (p.140). 

 This, it seems to me, is the ultimate 'gathering,' the refusal to alienate anyone.  The book of Romans tells us that the love of God is spread abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.  That is, what we are unable to achieve in our natural state -- to love God by our own effort, and to love others by overcoming our natural antipathy---God Himself achieves in us through the gift of the Holy Spirit -- His own Love.

When I look at our beloved country today, all I can see is separation.  The land itself mourns and grieves at man's alienation from it, at his complicity to destroy its beauty and fruitfulness.  And the peoples mourn and grieve at violence in the cities, in the country -- brother against brother, husband against wife, children against parents.  People cannot speak to their leaders with civility; people cannot speak to one another without guns and weapons.  We are destroying the land, our country, our families -- and there is no solution.

"The kingdom of God," the restoration of unity, our return to a Garden, is given to us in Jesus Christ.  He who is not with me is against me; he who does not gather with me scatters!  It's just that simple!

 

Reporting to the King

 In a recent group meeting discussing God's Guidance, I mentioned that I have trouble relating to Christ the King, as kingship is so foreign to my own experience.  But someone in the group pointed out that the function or duty of a good king was to protect the borders of the land from enemies, to ensure the safety and welfare of his people, and to promote goodness throughout the land.  

With that in mind, I did slowly begin to see my own property -- i.e., my concerns and areas of influence-- as a corner of Christ's kingdom, and I realized that each morning or evening, I could (and should) do a status report on the state of affairs under my domain.  Genesis tells us that the Lord God put Adam in the garden to "work it and take care of it."  I think maybe in our daily lives, we are more concerned with working it than taking care of it.  

And herein comes the story of the two trees in the garden:  we can work it and take care of it via our own knowledge and wisdom, our scientific viewpoint --- or we can work and take care of our gardens under the wisdom and knowledge of the One Who created it and Who knows how it operates.  One is the way of Life, and one, the way of gradual but certain death, as our environmental conditions are telling us today.

Most people are somewhat shy of prayer as an operating system for the universe, so we tend to do the best we can with what we have.  But the latest report from the G20 summit on climate control tells us that the richest countries in the world can do little for the planet without the cooperation of Russia and China, two of the major players.  Mary has asked since 1917 for prayer for the conversion of Russia, and her words may mean that our own lives are in the mix.  

Those who do not know how to pray -- and I think all of us are included in that category -- can begin by thinking of prayer as a "status report" on the section of the kingdom under our control, asking for wisdom from the Chief Executive Officer and the Chief Operating Officer for our daily operations.  And He will not mind sending us His own Spirit to guide us:  He teaches sinners the way (Ps. 25).  And while we are awaiting instructions, it might be helpful to search out the Psalms for assurance that He does hear and answer our prayer.

In all thy ways, acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths (Proverbs 3:5).