We Walk by Fairh

 In 2013, I attended a lenten series by Dr. Greg Voll and took some notes, which I have just re-discovered.  This is a little different from my usual ramblings, but as I re-read my notes, I thought it might be interesting to hear from a very respected theologian, who teaches at Notre Dame Seminary.  The following is from those notes:

As humans, we have an innate desire to love and to be loved; to know and to be known; to give ourselves to another and to receive another.  The truth is that we are restless until we rest in God.

How can we know God?  We are finite beings with infinite desires.  We are searching for the Face of God ---and He wants to meet this desire.  God's answer is that He has revealed Himself and has given Himself to mankind.

Jesus is the Perfect Self-Expression of the Father. He reflects all that the Fther is back to the FAther.  God knows Himself in the Son -- union of knowledge; union of love (The Holy Spirit).  Our soul can know and love in the same way that God dies, to share in His life-- the life of the Trinity.

The self-revelation of God is always going to be through the Son under the impulse of the Spirit.  

Every creature reflects the beauty and truth of God.  Humans can see and recognize beauty and truth and render thanksgiving to the Creator.  We receive the world from God's hands and offer it back to God.  But creation reveals God only partially.  He also communicates Himself to man in various ways throughout history.  But in these days he has spoken to us in His Son.  God reveals Himself partially through the prophets, but totally through the Son.

His revelation to man has been a gradual step-by-step revelaton (See Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 53).  By grace, we are caught up to new levels of knowledge and love. Christ's humanity makes God accessible to us.  For God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts, to give enlightenment concerning the knowledge of the glory of God, shining on the face of Christ Jesus (2Cor. 4:6).

Reading the Gospels gives us 4 authentic portraits of Christ and His personality.  The Eucharist gives us the humility of Christ -- to come to us as bread and wine.  He wants to feed us with Himself; He wants to pour Himself into us.

If we want to love and be loved; if we want to know and to be known; if we want to give ourselves to another and to receive another, we want to know God.  And the best way to know God is to begin with reading the Gospels and receiving the Eucharist.  As we open our minds and hearts to Him, He reveals Himself to us more and more -- and in the process, we come to know ourselves to a greater and greater degree.  He shows us what He loves about us, even as the Spirit shines in our hearts to give us a greater love for God Himself.

Providence

 God's Providence extends to the smallest detail of our lives, though we don't always recognize His hand.  I have always looked back on this story as amazing-- almost incredible -- but it shows how much God cares for even the details of our lives.

Soon after I moved to Mississippi from New Orleans, I decided to volunteer for a number of projects which would help me connect to the local church and civic community.  Even though I approached a number of people offering my time, no one ever called me to follow up.  Finally, I sat on my porch one day and said, "Okay, God.  You know where I live; you know my phone number.  Let me know when you are ready for me."  And I just waited.  

Within a few weeks, it turned out that my dear neighbor across the street had pancreatic cancer.  Her ensuing treatment meant a week in the hospital, followed shortly afterwards with a week or so at Tulane Hospital in New Orleans, and eventually time at M.D. Anderson in Texas.  In addition to the cancer, she was worried about her beloved Great Dane, Boots.  Who would take care of Boots while she was hospitalized?  Fortunately and providentially, I was free to do just that, unencumbered by a slew of volunteer jobs.  Looking back, I began to see why no one had ever followed up on my offers for volunteer work, and I felt so grateful to God that I was free to help my neighbor.

As Mary Lyn's cancer grew worse, and she began to near death, again she was concerned about Boots.  She knew a Great Dane was not likely to get adopted from a shelter, and she didn't know anyone who would be willing to adopt Boots.  My daughter and I said a prayer, asking God to take care of Boots to ease Mary Lyn's mind.  

At the time, my daughter was working in Belle Chase at a military complex.  Her office was on the second floor of a five-story building, and she rarely if ever met people from other floors.   However, at a retirement party for one of the officers, she happened to be sitting next to someone from the fourth floor, a lady she met for the first time.  The woman was relating her problem:  she had recently adopted a Great Dane puppy --- go figure! --- that was somewhat out of control.  The lady had no choice but to leave the dog alone all day while she worked, and neither she nor the dog was happy about the situation. She was hoping to adopt an older Great Dane to settle the pup and to keep it company during the day.

Imagine what machinations God had to contrive to have my daughter meet the one person in the world, probably, who actually was looking for an older Great Dane!  Arrangements were made for the two dogs to meet, and of course, they got along great!  Mary Lyn was able to let go of Boots with sorrow but immense gratitude that she would be well cared for.  (Actually, I later heard that all 4 -- husband, wife, and both dogs --- slept in the same bed at night.)  And Mary Lyn died in peace.

Is anything too hard for God?  I have a card on my desk that reads: Faith is Confidence in God's willingness and ability to be with us in all circumstances.

If you've heard the story of Boots and Mary Lyn, how can you doubt that truth?

Thirst!

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me, and from his belly will flow rivers of living water (Jn. 7). 

Jesus made this statement on the "last and greatest day of the feast" of Tabernacles, the celebration and remembrance of God's Presence and Care of the Jews in the desert.  When they were hungry, He provided food; when they were thirsty, He provided water from the rock.  And now, on the day of living water, Jesus stands up in the Temple courtyard and says that He is the Source of Living Water.

And John goes on to add, "By this He meant the Spirit, which had not yet been given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified."  The Holy Spirit is the Gift of Living Water, given to those who ask, who come to Jesus seeking Life.  

All of the passages I gave last time refer to this living water, either from the Old Testament prophets or from Jesus Himself.  Those who come to the waters are those who finally realize that there is another access to reality beyond what we can hear, touch, and see -- that there is a world of spirit and truth beyond our senses.  Belief in God is the conversion in which we discover that we are following an illusion if we devote ourselves only to the tangible world.  

For most of us, this conversion begins somewhere in our 30s, when we have grasped our goals of education, job, marriage, and maybe children.  Is there something else? we begin to wonder, something deeper and more satisfying?  I remember in my mid-thirties attending a session given by some Yogi teacher who was supposed to lead us into a deeper spirituality.  He offered us a guided meditation, where we closed our eyes and he talked us through a kind of spiritual journey.  I remember I started out mentally heading toward some distant mountains, but the journey was long, and the mountains seemed so far away.  I found myself growing discouraged -- not by major obstacles, but by small stones along the path.  I was tired and just wanted to sit down and rest.

The Yogi's interpretation of my "dream" was that I tended to get discouraged along the way not by large, but by small day-to-day obstacles.  Perhaps he was right, but I think my insight may be typical of life wearing us down along the way -- whether through small or large events.  

God's answer to the colllective grid that forms the site of human existence, which we call "Original Sin," the web that forms our daily lives, is the Holy Spirit.  We live in a "dry and thirsty land," growing increasingly thirsty for joy without the Gift of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus encountered our thirst on the Cross, enduring what man endures -- but He brought to their knees the "powers and principalities" that oppose us, according to Ephesians 6.  By the power of His new existence, His new life, He is able to give the Holy Spirit, the Water of Eternal Life, to all who come to Him.

The entire message of the Gospel is that Jesus has overcome the powers that wear us down and discourage us.  He has given us His own peace, His own Joy, His own Love -- it's called the Holy Spirit, our Advocate.  At first (John 4 -- the woman at the well ), it is a "spring of water welling up to eternal life." But then, the water He gives becomes "rivers of living water" flowing from within our breasts to the world beyond (John 7).