St. Therese of Liseux once compared herself to a rubber ball, a toy of the Child Jesus. She said that if it pleased Him to pick her up and play with her, then it also pleased her, but if it pleased Him to ignore her and allow her to remain hidden in the corner for long periods of time, that also pleased her.
Therese's image helps us with the concept of being "servants" of Christ. It is hard to look around at all the good being done by others and to compare what we are doing, which often looks like nothing. But waiting upon the Lord is also service, as long as we remain attentive and receptive. The tools hanging in my garage are extremely important to my daily work in the garden, but I do not use every tool every day. I choose the right one for the task of the day, and I do not need to have a chorus of "Choose me, choose me" greet me when I open the garage in the morning. I choose the one I want and need to accomplish my plan for the day.
On the other hand, when I need a particular tool, I do not want to see that the tool has become rusty and useless; it needs to remain useful and ready no matter how long it has been since I've last used it.
I think this is what it means to be a "servant of the Lord"---to remain ready and open to His plans for the day: Thy kingdom come; I'm waiting to be of use to the king at His command.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Radiation
The love of God is continuous and indivisible. It radiates from on high, through our prayer and contemplation, straight into action, as a single love for God, for mankind, and for the entire creation.
---paraphrased from a reading on Prayer by Hans Urs von Balthasar
As Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in John 3, we cannot tell where the love of God comes from, or where it is going. Once it touches us, it begins to flow through us, outward to the people and the world around us. Far from making us want to retire from the world, the love of God propels us forward with a new kind of energy that does not come from us, but from the Spirit dwelling within us.
We see in ourselves a new "thing;" a new compassion for others, even for those we do not know. We experience a new kind of openness to other people, now that we are no longer afraid of being hurt. Everything becomes "one:" our prayer, our daily tasks, our gifts, our desires and energies---all coming from God and returning to His kingdom on earth. We receive from God everything we need for our mission---the wisdom, the practical knowledge, and the desire to accomplish what He has sent us to do.
The love of God sends us forth; we do not go of ourselves, but from Him. Jesus said, "As the Father has sent me, so also I send you." And occasionally, we catch a glimpse of what that means: we "happen" to be in the right place at the right time; we suddenly know something we did not know we knew; we are motivated to give a gift we had no previous intention of giving. The Spirit of God moves in us and through us to repair and reconcile the world to God.
Knowing the radiation that comes from God through us, our first and most important task of each day should be to come into contact with the Source of that love which alone has the power and energy to transform not only our own lives but the lives of those around us.
---paraphrased from a reading on Prayer by Hans Urs von Balthasar
As Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in John 3, we cannot tell where the love of God comes from, or where it is going. Once it touches us, it begins to flow through us, outward to the people and the world around us. Far from making us want to retire from the world, the love of God propels us forward with a new kind of energy that does not come from us, but from the Spirit dwelling within us.
We see in ourselves a new "thing;" a new compassion for others, even for those we do not know. We experience a new kind of openness to other people, now that we are no longer afraid of being hurt. Everything becomes "one:" our prayer, our daily tasks, our gifts, our desires and energies---all coming from God and returning to His kingdom on earth. We receive from God everything we need for our mission---the wisdom, the practical knowledge, and the desire to accomplish what He has sent us to do.
The love of God sends us forth; we do not go of ourselves, but from Him. Jesus said, "As the Father has sent me, so also I send you." And occasionally, we catch a glimpse of what that means: we "happen" to be in the right place at the right time; we suddenly know something we did not know we knew; we are motivated to give a gift we had no previous intention of giving. The Spirit of God moves in us and through us to repair and reconcile the world to God.
Knowing the radiation that comes from God through us, our first and most important task of each day should be to come into contact with the Source of that love which alone has the power and energy to transform not only our own lives but the lives of those around us.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
One Bird Watching
When no one listens
To the quiet trees,
When no one notices
The sun in the pool;
When no one feels
The first drop of rain,
Or sees the last star;
Or hails the first morning
Of a giant world
Where the peace begins
and rages end:
One bird sits still
Watching the work of God:
One turning leaf,
Two falling blossoms,
Ten circles upon the pond.
I know of no greater pleasure in life than to sit still and watch God at work. He has opened my eyes to His wonders, my ears to His voice, my mouth to speak what I see and hear. Among all women, I too am truly blessed!
Monday, May 23, 2011
What is Christianity?
And what, exactly, is Christianity at its core, but the experience of Christ being formed in us by the action of the Holy Spirit? The experience of Mary at Nazareth is the starting place for each Christian, no matter how long we have been "in church." At some point, the question comes..."Will you allow Me to enter?" And from that moment, we are no longer our own.
Once I had yielded to the action of the Holy Spirit, Who can be grieved by our indifference but Who cannot be controlled by the force of our wills or our thoughts, I began immediately to fear that I would "lose" the Holy Spirit by gradually losing interest and drifting away. I questioned the person who had originally prayed for me to receive the Spirit. His answer reassured me: You do not "have" the Holy Spirit; He now has you---and He's not letting go. You may choose to walk away, but He does not leave you at the corner, saying, 'I'll be here when you return.' Instead, He goes right around the corner with us, walking all the way through all of our journeys. And God has more options to bring us back than you can ever imagine.
The role of the Holy Spirit is the same in us as it was in Mary---to form in us the Image of the Father, Who is Jesus. There is nothing else. Jesus said, You will do even greater works than I did, because I go to the Father. It is always and everywhere the Spirit of Jesus living in us, expressing through each unique personality, His own love of the Father and love of mankind. Through us, He wants to touch the world around us, to heal, to forgive, to soften the hardened heart, to reveal Truth, to establish righteousness on the earth. Mother Teresa said, Yours are the only hands and feet Christ has to do His work on earth. We cannot do the work; only He can do it in us. We cannot be "good Christians;" we can only yield to the only Son Who lives in us to the glory of God.
We need every day to surrender to the power Who is willing to live in us, to take up the burdens of our life, to speak through our lips, to see through our eyes, to meet those we meet----Yes, Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.
Once I had yielded to the action of the Holy Spirit, Who can be grieved by our indifference but Who cannot be controlled by the force of our wills or our thoughts, I began immediately to fear that I would "lose" the Holy Spirit by gradually losing interest and drifting away. I questioned the person who had originally prayed for me to receive the Spirit. His answer reassured me: You do not "have" the Holy Spirit; He now has you---and He's not letting go. You may choose to walk away, but He does not leave you at the corner, saying, 'I'll be here when you return.' Instead, He goes right around the corner with us, walking all the way through all of our journeys. And God has more options to bring us back than you can ever imagine.
The role of the Holy Spirit is the same in us as it was in Mary---to form in us the Image of the Father, Who is Jesus. There is nothing else. Jesus said, You will do even greater works than I did, because I go to the Father. It is always and everywhere the Spirit of Jesus living in us, expressing through each unique personality, His own love of the Father and love of mankind. Through us, He wants to touch the world around us, to heal, to forgive, to soften the hardened heart, to reveal Truth, to establish righteousness on the earth. Mother Teresa said, Yours are the only hands and feet Christ has to do His work on earth. We cannot do the work; only He can do it in us. We cannot be "good Christians;" we can only yield to the only Son Who lives in us to the glory of God.
We need every day to surrender to the power Who is willing to live in us, to take up the burdens of our life, to speak through our lips, to see through our eyes, to meet those we meet----Yes, Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word.
Sunday, May 22, 2011
God Satisfies the Hungry Heart
It is at her center, where her truest children dwell, that each communion is really closest to every other in spirit, if not in doctrine. And this suggests that at the center of each there is a something, or a Someone, who against all divergencies of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks with the same voice.
-- C.S. Lewis, from the Preface to Mere Christianity
Each one of us must make the same journey, that of Abraham, from idols---those things in which we first believed and trusted----to the Presence of God in our lives. God has no grandchildren; each generation must be converted anew. Each person has to discover for himself the love and the faithfulness of God. Each person must discover that "God satisfies the hunger of the heart."
And that means that we must all, in our own ways, first experience the hunger that can be satisfied only with God Himself. In speaking to one another, as long as we are focusing on revealing how God has satisfied the hunger of our own hearts, we are drawn together by the One God, by the One Spirit. Often, however, what we speak to one another is not a personal story, but congregational doctrine.
As long as we were---and are--- a small group of people "sharing our stories," and rejoicing in what God has done for us, how He has led us out of darkness into His marvelous light, we find unity of experience and common ground. And people are drawn to us, because they too are hungry for what only God can give. As the congregation grows, we encounter the same problems that plagued the first congregation: we need organization.
In the Acts of the Apostles, as the community shared their possessions, they quickly found that they needed "an organization." Someone had to collect the offerings and distribute bread to the widows and orphans. At first, the Apostles were willing and able to do so, but as the congregation grew, they found that being administrators kept them from dedication to the Word of the Lord. So Deacons were appointed to distribute goods to the poor. And as the congregation continued to grow, there were differences of opinion/doctrine about what was the right thing to do about Jewish laws---circumcision? dietary regulations? They needed a board of governors to ponder the prevailing questions, and one leader to speak for the group and to promulgate their decisions.
There has always been tension between the organizational and the prophetic church, but both are needed. Even in the early days of Israel in the Promised Land, everyone tried to live as he saw fit, devoted to the Lord, but they quickly discovered that they needed a king---someone to gather them together for their own protection and mutual support. The danger is always that once we have a king, a leader, a central authority, that we will put our faith in the leader and the organizational processes and forget that what brought us together in the first place was the voice of God, who satisfied our hunger.
My own experience is that when individuals are listening to the Spirit, walking with God in their daily lives, they are drawn together by the mutual love of Christ, despite all doctrinal differences. When church members are more devoted to their organizational processes and beliefs than they are to God, there will be division.
Richard Rohr says this:
It is not enough to say that your mother is a Christian, that your father is a Catholic. Until you come to that moment in your own life when you choose the God you will serve, you have not been converted. And the reason why the Scriptures do not speak to most Catholics in our own day is, quite simply, that they have never experienced this conversion. Since they have not heard God's Word in their lives, they cannot respond to God's Word in the Bible.
--- Rohr, The Great Themes of Scripture
I know Jesus is Lord of each life, but I look around my own church and want to cry. How many have experienced the hunger for God and been satisfied? How many are Christians and Catholics because that's how they grew up? Do we need a place where we can begin to share our own stories about the Voice and the Word of the Lord in our lives?
-- C.S. Lewis, from the Preface to Mere Christianity
Each one of us must make the same journey, that of Abraham, from idols---those things in which we first believed and trusted----to the Presence of God in our lives. God has no grandchildren; each generation must be converted anew. Each person has to discover for himself the love and the faithfulness of God. Each person must discover that "God satisfies the hunger of the heart."
And that means that we must all, in our own ways, first experience the hunger that can be satisfied only with God Himself. In speaking to one another, as long as we are focusing on revealing how God has satisfied the hunger of our own hearts, we are drawn together by the One God, by the One Spirit. Often, however, what we speak to one another is not a personal story, but congregational doctrine.
As long as we were---and are--- a small group of people "sharing our stories," and rejoicing in what God has done for us, how He has led us out of darkness into His marvelous light, we find unity of experience and common ground. And people are drawn to us, because they too are hungry for what only God can give. As the congregation grows, we encounter the same problems that plagued the first congregation: we need organization.
In the Acts of the Apostles, as the community shared their possessions, they quickly found that they needed "an organization." Someone had to collect the offerings and distribute bread to the widows and orphans. At first, the Apostles were willing and able to do so, but as the congregation grew, they found that being administrators kept them from dedication to the Word of the Lord. So Deacons were appointed to distribute goods to the poor. And as the congregation continued to grow, there were differences of opinion/doctrine about what was the right thing to do about Jewish laws---circumcision? dietary regulations? They needed a board of governors to ponder the prevailing questions, and one leader to speak for the group and to promulgate their decisions.
There has always been tension between the organizational and the prophetic church, but both are needed. Even in the early days of Israel in the Promised Land, everyone tried to live as he saw fit, devoted to the Lord, but they quickly discovered that they needed a king---someone to gather them together for their own protection and mutual support. The danger is always that once we have a king, a leader, a central authority, that we will put our faith in the leader and the organizational processes and forget that what brought us together in the first place was the voice of God, who satisfied our hunger.
My own experience is that when individuals are listening to the Spirit, walking with God in their daily lives, they are drawn together by the mutual love of Christ, despite all doctrinal differences. When church members are more devoted to their organizational processes and beliefs than they are to God, there will be division.
Richard Rohr says this:
It is not enough to say that your mother is a Christian, that your father is a Catholic. Until you come to that moment in your own life when you choose the God you will serve, you have not been converted. And the reason why the Scriptures do not speak to most Catholics in our own day is, quite simply, that they have never experienced this conversion. Since they have not heard God's Word in their lives, they cannot respond to God's Word in the Bible.
--- Rohr, The Great Themes of Scripture
I know Jesus is Lord of each life, but I look around my own church and want to cry. How many have experienced the hunger for God and been satisfied? How many are Christians and Catholics because that's how they grew up? Do we need a place where we can begin to share our own stories about the Voice and the Word of the Lord in our lives?
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Amen--Let it be done
Each one of us, like Mary, at some point in our lives will be surprised by "the visit of an angel." It may come as a moment of exquisite calm in the midst of crisis; it may be in the form of someone who offers to pray with us when we are in trouble; it may come as an interior voice urging us to look up and trust God.
The Word of God somehow at some time becomes "incarnate" in our flesh, in our lives, and from that moment, everything changes. The Christ of God begins to grow in us as He did in Mary; He takes on our flesh and our life; He begins to live and to act in our homes and in our culture through us. We do not understand how this happens exactly, but at some moment, we become open to the action of the Holy Spirit hovering over our chaos and emptiness, and we say, "Yes."
When we finally know that we are helpless, the Spirit of God takes over. As long as we remain "weak" and dependent on God's action in our lives, He has the freedom to re-order events, to bring the light of truth and grace to us. When we decide that we are "strong" and independent, as did Adam and Eve in the garden, He allows us to live out the consequences of our decisions and actions. But when we can do nothing but "be still and know that I am God," He comes like a mighty wind to change the face of the earth.
The Word of God is always with us, always among us, always powerful to act among us----but we are not always ready to receive it, to let Him "be God" in us. Christ eternally comes to the earth to make all things new again, but how many Marys will He find to allow Him to take flesh in us? How many of us can say, "Be it done unto me according to Thy Word"?
The Word of God somehow at some time becomes "incarnate" in our flesh, in our lives, and from that moment, everything changes. The Christ of God begins to grow in us as He did in Mary; He takes on our flesh and our life; He begins to live and to act in our homes and in our culture through us. We do not understand how this happens exactly, but at some moment, we become open to the action of the Holy Spirit hovering over our chaos and emptiness, and we say, "Yes."
When we finally know that we are helpless, the Spirit of God takes over. As long as we remain "weak" and dependent on God's action in our lives, He has the freedom to re-order events, to bring the light of truth and grace to us. When we decide that we are "strong" and independent, as did Adam and Eve in the garden, He allows us to live out the consequences of our decisions and actions. But when we can do nothing but "be still and know that I am God," He comes like a mighty wind to change the face of the earth.
The Word of God is always with us, always among us, always powerful to act among us----but we are not always ready to receive it, to let Him "be God" in us. Christ eternally comes to the earth to make all things new again, but how many Marys will He find to allow Him to take flesh in us? How many of us can say, "Be it done unto me according to Thy Word"?
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
God's People
You will be my people and I will be your God (Ez. 36:28)
Several times in the Old Testament, God makes the statement "You will be my people and I will be your God."
This language is that of a formal, binding covenant, such as a marriage oath. I do not refer to a marriage "contract," because a contract is a legal arrangement, forging customers in the agreement: you get this; I get that. A marriage oath is much more; it forms a indissolvable union---we are part of one another. In fact, Genesis 2:23-24 puts it this way:
This is now bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called 'woman'
for she was taken out of man.
For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.
The words "one flesh" in Hebrew actually mean a "new creation," or a new species---something that has never before existed on earth.
When God says, "You shall be my people, and I shall be your God," He is not talking about a legal arrangement, but about a spiritual reality-- a new creation, a new species on earth. We are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh, for we are taken out of Him, born of Him, according to John I: 12-13. For this reason, Jesus left His "father and mother," His ancestral home in heaven, to be united to us, His wife, His bride, so that we could become one flesh, one body, an indissolvable union, a new species.
When children make a blood covenant, they are saying that forever after, they belong to one another. Whoever attacks one attacks the other; whoever does good to the one does good to the other. When Saul was attacking the early church, Jesus stood before him: Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?
The covenant had been sealed in blood; there was no difference between attacking Christ and attacking the members of His body.
At one time, perhaps even today in primitive areas, it was the custom for tribal chiefs to send their sons to a neighboring tribe as part of a covenant agreement. Thereafter, each tribe was covenanted to protect the other, for in doing so they would be protecting their own flesh. God has sent the human race His own son as a seal upon His promise---You shall be my people, and I shall be your God. We now come to Him sealed in the blood, the life, of the lamb of God. We no longer belong to the world of corruption and evil, but to the land of peace and rest carved out by the Son of God. We are blessed indeed!
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