restoring order to Haiti

Despite our romantic concepts of nature as "wilderness," nature, left to itself, tends towards chaos rather than toward order.  Every species, if left to itself, will destroy its own environment.  Pine trees will grow so thickly as to blot out the very sun they need to grow, allowing oaks, which tolerate shade, to eventually take their place.  Kudzu destroys everything in its path, smothering even the mighty oaks. 

The American Indians would regularly set fire to the forests to maintain their beauty and accessibility, to keep them from being choked by weeds and brambles.  If man himself does not control nature's overgrowth, nature in the form of lightening will do it. 

Genesis pictures not God creating the earth from "nothing," as many imagine, but rather as restoring order, beauty, and harmony to the chaos.  And man was given the order to "tend the garden"----to maintain the balance, order, beauty, and harmony, to preserve the earth and our lives from encroaching interests: selfishness, greed, destructive agents in general.  When we notice the seeds of destruction being sown, it is for us to check the growth before the earth is destroyed.

While the earthquake in Haiti is tragic on a cosmic level, the seeds of destruction in Haiti have been sown for centuries.  The rich and powerful were destroying the country and its poor like kudzu on a rampage; corruption was a way of life.  There was no justice to be found in the land; the poor cried out and no one heard them.  The scene was reminiscent of that described by Isaiah and Jeremiah in the Old Testament:

Woe to you, King Jehoiakim, for you are building your great palace with forced labor.  By not paying wages, you are building injustice into its walls and oppression into its doorframes and ceilings.  ... you are full of selfish greed and all dishonesty!  You murder the innocent, oppress the poor, and reign with ruthlessness...When you were prosperous, I warned you, but you replied, "Don't bother me."  ... Instead of leading my flock to safety, you have deserted them and led them to destruction.  and  now I will pour out judgment upon you for the evil you have done to them.  And I will gather together the remnant of my flock from wherever I have sent them, and bring them back into their own fold, and they shall be fruitful and increse.  And I will appoint responsible shepherds to care for them, and they shall not need to be afraid again; all of them shall be accounted for continually.

We can only hope that the world's "responsible shepherds" can restore some kind of beauty and order to the lives of the poor of Haiti, although even now, it seems the child trafficers are moving in to take advantage once again of the poor and helpless.

The Gardener

The gardener considers each plant that he has purchased with his earnings.  He especially chooses the plant for its beauty and suitability for the soil and surroundings.  He prepares the soil, selects the exact location for the health of the plant and its requirements---but also for the impact of the plant in the overall landscape and for its effect on the nearby plants.

He rids the plot of weeds, amends the soil with nutrients, and breaks up the clods of clay.  Finally, after the plant is situated, the gardener watches daily for signs of wilting, root shock, or insects that threaten the plant.  He ensures that water is provided at the right time and that the plant is supported until its roots grow deep and strong.

Each morning, the gardener walks through the yard, considering the health and vigor of each plant---he knows each one by name.  He delights in the beauty and health of each one, rejoicing at the appearance of each new bud.  Those that do not do well, he considers moving to a more favorable spot, for more (or less) sun, for more (or less water), for better growing conditions.  He prunes the small trees ready to bear fruit, that the young branches do not break under the load.

The gardener is the husbandman, the caretaker.  He knows what is best for each plant.  And they must trust themselves into his care, for they cannot help themselves when threatened by pests, weeds, flooding, or drought. 

And finally, when the flowers have faded and the plant becomes dormant, the gardener cuts back the plant, knowing that it is not dead, but only sleeping for a season.

Be Not Afraid

One of the first gifts the Holy Spirit brings to us is a sense of safety--Be not afraid; I am with you.  Without that, we cannot grow, we cannot give.  We must know we are safe before we can give up our survival mode of existence.  As long as our primary endeavor is to protect ourselves, that is all we will do.

God must have made Abraham feel that he could step away from the protection of his father's house and culture to become a wanderer and an alien, to go among people of foreign ways and tongues.  In Egypt, we see Abraham's residual fear as the outsider, but we see God at work on his behalf in a strange land.  The Abraham who was willing to sacrifice his wife out of fear would later be the Abraham who was not afraid to allow God to have his son.

David would later say, "You make me to lie down in safety, and when I arise, I shall not be afraid."  This, from the man who slew Goliath the Philistine.

Someone once wrote:  The man who fears the Lord fears nothing else; the man who does not fear the Lord fears everything else.

On Enriching our own Soil...

The seeds we plant in the lives of others come from the garden that has grown within us.  We cannot "manufacture" seeds---we can only collect them.  They are produced by mature plants which have been nurtured in our souls over a period of time. 

Jesus said, "For them do I sanctify myself."  Whatever we do in terms of watering our own garden will eventually spill over into the lives of other people (Sirach 24).  If we dedicate ourselves to truth, will will be responsible for the spread of truth throughout the universe, for the seeds we nurture will spring forth and produce more seeds after their own kind.

Deus Providebit

Trust Me in and for everything you do or think.

Trust Me.

I cannot fail you.

If I did not have the power to do, I could fail you.

If I did not love you, I could fail you.

But I have the power and the love on your behalf.

I cannot fail you.

Prayer

"As He was praying alone, the disciples were with him" (Luke 9:18)

'The disciples are drawn into His solitude, His communion with the Father that is reserved for Him alone.  They are privileged to see Him as the One Who speaks face to face with the Father, person to person.  They are privileged to see Him in His unique filial being---at the point from which all His words, His deeds, and His powers issue...This seeing is the well-spring of their faith, their confession; it provides the foundations of the Church.' (Benedict XVI--Jesus of Nazareth)

To be given the Holy Spirit is to enter into Jesus' own relationship with the Father.

I Chronicles 16:2-3

When David brought the Ark of the Covenant to Jerusalem, he blessed the people and gave each of them a loaf of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins.

When Jesus fed the multitudes in the desert, was He evoking the memory of that event----the arrival of the Ark to the city of David? 

(I know my friend Yvette will say that He forgot the raisin cake.)

God's Energy

As God's energy flows into us, bringing His own light and health, our hard edges soften and the boundaries melt, no longer impeding the flow of energy into us and out of us.  As we become one with God, we become one with one another.

Jesus said, "Greater things than this you will do, because I go to the Father."  The Life Source flows through Jesus; Jesus flows in us and through us, and His light and grace fill the world around us.

Paul said, "In His own body, He demolished the dividing wall of hostility, making all things one.  No longer is there Jew or Gentile, male or female, slave or free.  He has reconciled the entire earth and everything in it to God, its Source.

The New Birth

The Holy Spirit is the Lamp of God---illuminating in us and for us the Word of God, revealing in and for us the face of Jesus, the exact Image of the Invisible Father. 

Without the Holy Spirit, nothing of God is seen or revealed; we remain in darkness and ignorance of the ways of God.  Jesus died in the flesh that His very Spirit might be poured out on and in those remaining in the flesh.  Amazing!

This is the new birth--not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

Paul said that before the new birth, he was alive to the flesh, but dead to the things of God.  Now, he was alive to the things of God and dead to the things of the flesh.
Teilhard de Chardin and others tell us that the Spirit permeates all of creation, every cell vibrating with energy, and that all of creation works together to reveal the face of God.  But without the new birth, we are totally oblivious to the magic going on around us every day!  Flesh gives birth to flesh; spirit gives birth to spirit. 

What More Do We Need?

If He were not great enough to overcome the world and everything in it, we could not trust Him;

If He were great enough to overcome the world and every power in it, but if He were not wholly faithful in every aspect, we could not trust Him.

But He is wholly great and powerful and wholly faithful in every aspect, so our trust is entirely founded:  He will never leave us or abandon us; He is mighty to perform great things for us, and He stoops to hear the cry of the poor.

Emmanuel

God-With-Us:  Imagine that God would give us this name!  In the history of people and religions, what other god has proclaimed his presence with us?  If God Himself had not revealed this name, we could not appropriate it.

Peter's reaction to Jesus--Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man--- is our natural response to the Presence of God.  But God, knowing our weakness, Himself becomes our support and strength and holiness--God with us.  He covers us with Himself, so that it is no longer "we" that live, as Paul said, but Christ, Who lives in us to the glory of God.  Because He first enters our life, we are able to enter His. 

No life is too small, too remote, too cold, too hard, too inpenetrable for Him to enter---He began in a cave in Bethlehem, manifesting His Presence to shepherds in a field and to wise men from afar.  But to those threatened by His coming, to those who are building a kingdom based on greed, destruction, and violence, He remains hidden, invisible.

Learning to Listen

If our thoughts control our words and actions, what controls our thoughts?  Are we willing to receive the very thoughts of God into our little lives?  Or are we so focused on our own thoughts that there is no room in us for the mind of Christ?

The Book of Galatians tells us that the mind set on the flesh is hostile to the things of the spirit, and the spirit is hostile to the flesh.  Here, the "flesh" does not necessarily refer to our physical bodies, but to the world philosophy opposed to the thoughts of God:  See that no one takes you captive through the hollow philosophy of this present age.

Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom and health---body, mind, soul (psyche/ emotions), and spirit.  But the mind set of the world is death and destruction to us---body, soul, and spirit. 

Welcoming into our lives the Spirit of Truth and wholeness, listening attentively to His Wisdom can transform our thoughts to those of life rather than death.

Our Inscribed Hearts

In heaven, there are no books or manuals.  The Spirit of God in us teaches us to read Jesus, the inexhaustible Source of Wisdom and Truth.

Karl Rahner says that at the time of death, when we can no longer read the Bible, we will have to read the word inscribed in our hearts.  So the point of reading the Bible now is to do the inscribing.  But the inscriptions do not occur just by reading; our lives must at some point intersect with the words and the words with our lives---and this can take place only when the Holy Spirit begins to open the Bible for us.

The Jews knew the Old Testament intimately---but until they knew Jesus, they did not understand it.  After His Resurrection, Jesus was able to "open their minds to understand the Scriptures," for now He could operate in the realm of the Spirit.  Paul says that "even to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read, because only in Christ is it taken away....But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away" (2 Cor. 3:14-16).

So anyone who wishes to read the Bible needs to begin by asking the Holy Spirit to direct and illuminate the reading.  It is not necessary, nor even desirable, to open the first page and begin reading; we soon get bogged down and give up.  But when the Spirit opens the page that intersects with our lives, we recognize with a shock that He is teaching us---and inscribing our hearts.  What a joy that is!

Is this just poetry?

If we believe that God could/did bring an entire nation out of Egypt, feed them in the desert, and bring them safely into a new land, establishing them on the land by His power and watchful love, should we not also believe that what is now happening in America is the work of His hands?  He who slew the Egyptians for the destruction of Israelite children later on allowed the Jewish people to be destroyed and brought into captivity by the Babylonians.  Whereas once the Egyptians destroyed Jewish children, now the Jews were sacrificing their own children to Moloch like the pagan nations around them.

And America, brought across the sea out of an evil and adulterous nation, firmly established in peace and righteousness, now also sacrifices its unborn children to pleasure and convenience.  If the blood of Abel cried out to God for justice, how much more the blood of 6 million innocent children?  If the Civil War was the price we paid for enslavement of Africans, what will be the price for the genocide we carry out daily? 

We have become a blind and sinful nation, and now we are being punished by the very idols we worship:  the dollar fails, the grain dries up, our convenience disappears.  The plagues of Egypt are upon us, and still we do not see and amend our ways.  Is Jesus now weeping over America because we did not know the time of our visitation?

Is it too late for us as a people to do what is right?  Is destruction inevitable? Will God preserve us for the sake of ten just men and women?

Deuteronomy 8:7ff.

For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land--a land with streams and pools of water, with springs flowing in the valleys and hills; a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey, a land where bread will not be scace and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you.  Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day.  Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your heards and flocks grown large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery....You may say to yourself, "My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me."  But rememer the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant....

If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed.  Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.

Anchored in Christ

A tree can grow no taller than its roots go deep and anchored into the earth.  So, too, the soul without roots and anchor will remain stunted and stifled, yearning for growth but not knowing how to achieve it.

He who remains in Me produces much fruit.  Without Me, you can do nothing.

The One Thing We Want...

Moses' greatest desire as a young man was that his people, whom he loved, not be oppressed and enslaved.  His own strength was not sufficient to rescue them, but God, Who put the vision in  Moses' mind and the desire in his heart, called Moses into the desert to train him for war.

As Jesus came to the end of his own strength after 40 days in the desert, Moses spent forty years face to face with his inability to set his people free.  Now, he was ready to be used by God to do the very thing he desired to do as a young man.

My greatest desire is for others to be filled wth God's greatest gift---the gift of the Holy Spirit,
Who makes all things new again,
Who teaches us to pray,
Who shows us the face of Jesus,
Who makes Scripture come alive,
Who directs our paths into the ways of peace,
Who give us understanding and strength (com-fort),
Who makes us friends and lovers of God,
Who gives us joy,
Who helps us in the smallest details of our lives ("He has taken up all the causes of my life.")
Who gives us wisdom....

The question is, "Am I ready to come to the end of my own understanding, wisdom, and strength that I might be a vessel of God's gift to others?"

Come apart and rest

God said, "Let the earth (the word is adamah in Hebrew) produce growing things"...and so it was: the earth produced growing things-plants bearing their own kind of seed and trees bearing fruit, each with its own kind of seed; and God saw that it was good.

The earth/adamah produces vegetation without knowing how--by absorbing the sun and rain and allowing them to do the work intended and designed by the One Who made them. 

Work flowing from rest and contemplation is the work of God Himself.  We do not need to "earn" rest; we need to rest before we work---it is the gift of God.  We need to "soak up" energy from God Himself.  Mary said, "Let it be done unto me according to Your word."  Notice she does not say, "Let me do according to your direction," but "Let it be done..."  The difference is who is doing the work and who is the channel for the energy. 

God's Humility

The humility of our God adapts Himself to each of our personalities, fears, and quirks without minding or scolding us.  The gentle prodding of the Holy Spirit--the Teacher--guides us in the ways of God.  He is able to retrieve, restore, and replenish all that has been spoiled or wasted by us, even the damage caused by our sins and selfishness.

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen once told the story of a musician whose one wrong note ruined a whole symphony performance. That wrong note cannot be taken back; it
will exist forever in the universe.

But God, said Sheen, the Great Composer and Conductor, is able to take that wrong note and make it the overture to a whole new symphony.  What we ruined, in the hands of God, can become a note of hope for another generation. 

As nature covers over the scars of a devastating hurricane or fire, as Christ came back from a horrible death, so too can our lives grow new sprouts from deadly experiences, if we can but welcome the great Teacher of our souls.

At the well

"My food is to do the will of the Father and to accomplish all that He gives me."

Jesus was sitting beside the well and speaking to the Samaritan woman just before speaking these words.  He obviously believed that the woman had been sent to the well by His Father, Who "is at work even now." 

Deborah, one of the judges of Israel, sat under a tree and spoke the words of God to those who came to her.  Enoch walked with God until God took him home. 

We cannot tell what God is doing, but He is obviously able to use those who walk with Him, sit with Him, and stand with Him.  In the world of the Spirit, we cannot tell which of our efforts will succeed; we can do only what is given to us by the One Whose work it is. 

Therese of Lisieux longed to be a missionary.  She died at the age of 24 behind cloister walls---and is now the patron saint of missionaries.

A good friend once gave me a plaque that said, I want to sit by the side of the road and be a friend to man.  If it is God's friendship, somehow mysteriously wrapped up in ours, that we hold out to the passerby, we can be sure it will satisfy his hunger and thirst.

"more than we can ask or imagine"

The Jews could not accept God's thinking because it was too preposterous and too wonderful---it staggered the imagination and was not even approaching reason. 

That God does not expect us to earn our salvation---that He gives it freely to those who least deserve it but who most need it---it's just not expected.

That He would place in us His very own Spirit, the Spirit of His own Son, in whom He is well pleased---and then see us as children in whom He is well pleased, astounds us.

Julian of Norwich's Sixteen Revelations of Divine Love, the first book written in English by a woman, ought to be required reading for everyone.  She speaks of Jesus in connection with conception, labor, nursing, and upbringing.  She writes in her 14th c. English of the "homeliness" of God, meaning in our terms of His hospitality;  she writes of the domestic qualities of the motherhood of God and of Jesus, who is wise, loving, and nurturing.  And of the weak, the sinful, the lost, the helpless, the sick and the lonely, she describes God as drawing ever closer in compassion and love, as a mother hovers over her sick child. 

In a time when duty and law and unworthiness were being stressed by the church, this woman was given visions of God's love that were beyond all reason.  No one could accept that God was this forgiving, this compassionate, this merciful, this "weak"  --- except those who most needed this vision of salvation so freely given.

Her most characteristic quotation from Jesus Himself is

You shall see for yourself that all will be well and all manner of things shall be well.

And she comments on His goodness that not only will all things be well, but that we should see "for ourselves" that they shall be well.  If only we could trust Him, we could see this for ourselves.

Creating a paradise

Our task is to do what God did at the beginning---to create a paradise, a garden, for ourselves and for others.  And we do it as Mary did, not by power, nor by strength, but by allowing the Spirit of God to flow through our hearts, minds, and bodies unrestrained. 

We ourselves cannot "see" to choose the good and the true; we must allow the Spirit in us to choose what He wills to do---and, of course, that thing is always more and greater than we can imagine for ourselves.  Let us give God freedom to move about in the garden of our lives; He may surprise us, after all.

I remember many years ago asking God to make me a good teacher.  In the midst of my prayer, I "heard" the words, "Why don't you ask Me what my plans are for you?"   Now that is a scary question to ask God; maybe we really don't want to hear His answer.  It is certainly safer and more "do-able" to ask to be a good teacher than to let the infinite God choose one's path.

I hesitated for a moment and then went ahead and asked.  What I heard overwhelmed me: I am going to make you the valiant woman.  I didn't know whether to laugh at the absurdity of the answer or to cry at its impossibility.  One thing I knew was that this was not a vision I could accomplish in my own strength, any more than Mary could have become the mother of Jesus by herself.  Like Mary, I turned over these words in my heart, waiting to see how they might be accomplished.  Every now and then I see a mere glimpse; my teaching days are long over, but the "other" vision has many more days of fulfillment.

Nothing is impossible for God, so I'm not laughing at his great joke any more, but one can only hope that there is still room for progress after death!

Feeding the Soul

Grace endlessly creates ever new eyes to look upon ever new suns....

Spiritual nourishment increases the capacity of the soul that receives it; perpetual growth does not imply dissatisfaction.  Like the stream or the waterfall, the soul uses all that it receives and is content, even while flowing out of itself.  Always filled to capacity, it can always receive more.

The important point is that the soul's desire is at every moment filled.  As the Source of good keeps flowing and welling up without end, so too, the participant grows more and more in desire...nothing it receives is lost or left unused, and everything that flows in produces an increase in capacity....In this way, no matter how much it receives, it is merely the beginning of a greater and superior stage.

Thus, each stage of spiritual growth is the development of an entirely new reality--a new creation.  As often as He says, "Arise, and Come," He gives to the soul the power to rise and to progress.  Only the flesh can know satiety; the spirit never grows tired.    ---from the writings of Gregory of Nyssa

This is the New Year, the beginning....

We all, according to Gregory of Nyssa, have a tendency to stabilize, to fix...we want to recover our past ecstasies, to go, like Marcel Proust, in search of Time Past, to recapture our transitory moments of happiness.

For Gregory, though, the future is always better than the past.  We are not to "preserve" the creation which we are, but to continually open ourselves to the ongoing creative action of our God.  We must leave what we know and go forward to the unknown.  Sin is ultimately the refusal to grow, to put a stop to the movement of the soul to reach out for what is beyond it.  Growth consists in the perpetual penetration into the interior, a perpetual discovery of God. 

Abraham, forgetting what was past, and relying on the promises of God, set out for the country which would be pointed out to him along the way.

We have been redeemed; we are being redeemed; we will continue to be redeemed.  What we are now is evident; what we shall be is still to be revealed.