Why the Journey?

 From the time of Abraham, Genesis chapter 12, the pattern of the journey has run throughout Scripture: Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the Israelites...   And once the Israelites are settled in their own land, they are driven out to another kind of journey --- exile, and eventually the return to Israel.

I have often thought it worthwhile to deeply study the journey of Jacob.  We do not have enough details about Abraham's journey to see what the journey is all about.  But in the case of Jacob, we see daily struggles and questions along the way.  

When Jacob first flees from the anger of his brother Esau, he meets the God of Israel, the God of his fathers, who tells him:  I am the Lord, the God of your fathers Abraham and the God of Isaac.  I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.  ...All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you where you go, and I will bring you back to this land.  I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you.

Jacob's response to God's revelation was this:  If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father's house, then the Lord [Yahweh] will be my God.

Jacob's journey is full of pain and struggles.  His father-in-law, Laban, is somewhat of a scoundrel, and Jacob the deceiver learns how painful it is to be deceived himself -- not only in the case of Rachel, but again and again over the next 20 years of deceitfulness on the part of Laban.  Through all of his struggles, however, the Spirit of God guides Jacob to victory.  In the end, he comes to peace/covenant not only with Laban but with his brother Esau, who had been angry enough to kill him at one point.

God renamed Jacob "Israel" because he had prevailed both with God and with man.  Toward the end of his life, Jacob instructs his sons to return to Bethel, where he had first met God, who answered me in my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone (Gen. 35).

In the book of Jeremiah, God says, For I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future... You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, and will bring you back from captivity....and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.

Our lives are journies full of fear, of uncertainty, of "enemies" who prevail over us for a time.  But the journey eventually leads us to seek the Lord with all our hearts --- and then we will find Him, the One who makes us prevail with man and with God himself!  We will come to know God, as Jacob did, as the One "who answered me in my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone!

All These Images....

 I said yesterday that we think in images, and that without an image we cannot think.  Based on my own experience, it seems that one of the difficulties that we have today in relating to God is our lack of poetic images.  More and more, our educational system eliminates art, poetry, and classical literature --- all rich sources of the kind of imagery that fuels the imagination.

When C.S. Lewis wrote The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, he cautioned parents not to explain the imagery to their children. The images needed to stand on their own until the time that the children themselves began to grow into their meanings.  Once they had encountered Jesus as active in their own lives, they could then relate to the lion, the witch, and the winter of sin.

One of the greatest benefits for me in having learned biblical imagery is the way it has influenced my prayer and my relationship to God.  If our only image of God is that of some Great Power in the sky, our prayer and our relationship will be poor indeed.  That is the principal reason for the Incarnation of Jesus as the Son of God in our midst --- to change and to define our image of Who God Is!

Reading the Psalms can resurface the entire playing field of the way we relate to God.  From some Great Power in the sky, He becomes my Comfort, my Shield, my Stronghold, and the "Lifter of my head."

All who take refuge in you shall be glad, and ever cry out their joy.

 You shelter them; in you they rejoice, those who love your name.

It is you who bless the righteous, O Lord, 

You surround them with your favor like a shield. ....(Ps. 5)

The children of men seek shelter in the shadow of your wings. (Ps.36) 

In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, the Advocate, the Counselor, the Dove, the Water springing up to eternal life.

How rich our spiritual lives are with all these images.... and how poor without them! 

 

 

 

God Who Acts

 Scientists tell us that we think in images, and that if we don't have an image, we cannot really know.  St. Thomas Aquinas said that man is a "knower," not a "thinker"  -- that is, knowledge begins in the senses and then we think about what we know from observation.

I would venture to say that for most people, our image of God is that of Someone Who has given certain rules for mankind, and now He is "resting," sitting in heaven from which viewpoint He is mostly observing man's behavior.  

On the contrary, however, the Bible is not a book of maxims, rules, and inspirational quotations.  It is a book of history.  Our God is a God Who Acts.  And our theology is one of recital of what God has done.  He acted in the life of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph....in the life of Moses and of the Israelites.  He acted in Joshua and the Judges, in the life of David, of Solomon, of the kings of Israel, in the lives of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the prophets.  He acted in the life of Mary and Joseph, in Elizabeth and Zachery, in John the Baptist, and in Jesus.....in Peter and Paul, John, Andrew, and the rest of the Apostles.  He acted in Nicodemus at night, in Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp, in St. Augustine and in Pope John Paul II .... and in US!.

When the Jews come together in celebration of Passover, they recite the saving actions of God in their lives, and acknowledge with thanksgiving what He has done for them.  When Christians come together in worship, they read history and give thanks for what God has done for them in Jesus Christ. 

So our image of God must change from that of a remote and distant figure watching us act to that of Someone Acting here and now in our lives today.   We call that "Action of God in our lives" the Holy Spirit.  He speaks TO us and IN us, revealing God to us in the events of our lives.  And He speaks FOR us to God when we hardly know how to pray (Romans 8:28).  

Jesus promised to send us the Advocate -- a legal term designating our representative in a court of law:  Someone who advises us how to act and how to speak -- and Someone who speaks on our behalf.  He is not "resting;" He is very active on our behalf every moment of our lives.  

Once we change our image of God, we will begin to "see" Him in our lives and then to "know" Him, not from what we have heard, but from what we have experienced.  As Job put it:  My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you!

He Saves Me Time

 One of the "gifts" the Holy Spirit brings to us is "practicality."  He who drew order out of chaos can also order our lives.  I once heard someone say, "I don't have time not to pray."  I get that.  When I was working, I had to wake up hours early to start the day with prayer because I had so much to do that I knew I could not get it done without divine guidance on a daily basis.  

Now that I am retired, time is no longer the crunch factor, so I tend to drift without much planning.  But still, I find the need for divine guidance on a daily basis.  Now that the awful heat of summer has broken and there is a little coolness in the air, I am ready to enjoy my garden.  I woke up this morning thinking I would go to Lowe's and survey their new fall plants before I got too dirty and too exhausted from working outside.  As I was getting dressed, I began to pray, "Lord, direct my feet into the way of peace."  I often say this prayer because I find the Holy Spirit frequently leads me physically even before my head catches up to the plan.  I don't always "plan" the best course of action, but I find the Lord leads me into green pastures and beside still waters without my knowing it ahead of time.

As I prayed. I suddenly realized that I had an appointment this afternoon to have the car serviced -- at a location just past Lowe's --- and that I could stop at the garden center on my way home.  Oh!  Yes!  Much more efficient than running out there this morning when I could be in the garden instead.  

Guide my feet into the way of peace. Such a short prayer, but so much better than a planning session!

The Living Word of God

 I love you, Lord, my strength;
O Lord, my rock, my fortress, my savior;
my God, my rock where I take refuge;
my shield, my saving strength, my stronghold,
I cry out, "O praised be the Lord!:
and see, I am saved from my foes.

The waves of death rose about me;

the torrents of destruction assailed me;

the snares of Sheol surrounded me;

the traps of death confronted me.

In my anguish I called to the Lord;

I cried to my God for help.

In the heavenly temple my voice was heard;

my crying reached God's ears.

From on high God reached down and seized me,

drew me forth from the mighty waters,

and saved me from my powerful foe,

from my enemies, whose strength I could not match.

(Psalm 18, portions)

As I pondered this psalm this morning in my daily reading, I thought of St. Peter reading/praying this psalm after his rescue by Jesus on the waters of Galilee.  The Jews prayed the psalms regularly, both in their daily prayers and in the Temple or synagogue services.  Much like Catholics today, they worked their way through all 150 Psalms on a yearly basis.  

What must have he thought, reading this Psalm after his experience of trying to walk on water and having Jesus reach down to save him from the deep?  Who was this Living Word of God who "reached down and seized me, drew me forth from the mighty waters, and saved me from my powerful foe"?

I think anyone over 30 must have had some experience like that of Peter, where we have felt scared, trapped, like we were drowning in waters too deep for us to tread.  Most of us at some point, I would think, have called out to God in our anguish -- and have somehow also experienced in some form that "My crying reached God's ears!"  

Last week, my brother was dying from ALS and COPD, and I hardly knew how to pray for him in his suffering.  Alternating between oxygen therapy and a BiPap machine to breathe for him, he said, "This is no way to live."  We all knew, and the doctor said, that this was not a permanent solution.  He was literally drowning in carbon dioxide, which his lungs could no longer expel on their own.  My sister called asking for prayer as he struggled with each breath.  

Feeling numb at the approaching death of one of my brothers, I glanced down at the cover of my daily meditation book, which pictured Jesus reaching down to snatch St. Peter from the waters of Lake Galilee.  Spontaneously, I prayed, "Lord, my brother is drowning! Reach down from on high and pull him out of these waters too deep for him."  Within half an hour, my brother took his last breath.

Although I was saddened to lose him, I was overwhelmed with gratitude that the Living Word had once again become incarnate in our lives.  Once again, God showed me that His Word is "living and active, more powerful than a two-edged sword...."  Jesus came in the flesh, living and active, to touch our lives and remind us that God is still with us.  All of the Old Testament takes flesh and lives in Him.  

The prophet Isaiah said, "Here is your God, He comes with vindication; With divine recompense, he comes to save you.  Then the eyes of the blind shall see, and the ears of the deaf be opened; then the lame shall leap like a stag, and the mute tongue sing for joy."   Jesus fulfilled each word of the prophecy during His lifetime on earth --- but His mission as the Living Word of God continues today, even 2000+ years later. 

When our lives become such that we too experience the anguish that causes us to "cry out to God for help," as Psalm 18 expresses, we too will know the power of God's Living Word reaching down to save us!

Divine Choreography

 Fr. James Martin maintains that one of the easiest ways to pray -- or to jumpstart your prayer life -- is to practice the Examen, a simple prayer practice inaugurated by St. Ignatius Loyola.  The Examen is an invitation to see where God has been active in your life over the past 24 hours.  Usually done at night, we place ourselves in the presence of God (in order not to just ruminate within ourselves, but instead to initiate a conversation.)  Then we recall moments of "grace" throughout the day, where God was present to us, and for which we are grateful.

Once I began this practice with the encouragement of a friend, it took only a few days before I began to notice the "grace moments" as they were happening, instead of waiting until the end of the day.  And they became moments of joy and gratitude during the day, as well as just before sleep at night.  God is always present to us, though we are rarely present to Him.  And the Examen takes us readily into His presence throughout the day.

As the Israelites began to move into the Promised Land, they recalled the Divine Choreography that had brought them out of slavery into freedom.  Knowing that God had been with them in the past allowed them to recognize times of grace and help in the present and future.  One of the ways they commemorated those times of grace was to establish "altars" or pillars of rocks called Ebenezer, meaning "thus far has God helped us."  When future generations asked about those monuments, it gave the Israelites opportunity to recall and proclaim the stories of how they had been helped at that time and in that place.

We can use Ignatius' Examen not only at night for the day's events but also as a way to reflect upon our entire lives -- to see the Divine Choreography that has brought us to this place and this moment.  Where has God been in your life?  What amazing things has He done for you?  For what "moments" or events are you ever grateful?  

Jump-start your prayer life?  This practice of Examen when applied to our entire lives can lead us to leap with gratitude right into the heart of God!