Simplicity2

Give us, O Lord, a steadfast heart, which no unworthy affection may drag downwards; give us an unconquered heart, which no tribulation can wear out; give us an upright heart, which no unworthy purpose may tempt aside. Bestow upon us also, O Lord our God, understanding to know you, diligence to seek you, wisdom to find you, and a faithfulness that may finally embrace you; through Jesus Christ our Lord.” ~ St. Thomas Aquinas

Denice DeBlanc posted this prayer on FB this morning; I had never seen it before, but I love it.  I had come upstairs to write about Simplicity, and I found this prayer, which resonated in my soul.  It just seems so simple and true!

Many years ago, I was sitting in my office at the College, doing my work, when suddenly, without preamble, the Lord spoke to me---or, I will say it this way, because there was nothing dramatic or unusual about it at all ---- the thought went through my mind:  Who are your favorite people in the Bible?  If I had had time to reflect on that question, I might have become paralyzed by indecision, but as the question came to me in the midst of a workday, and as I was not sitting in meditation, I did not reflect at all, but just answered without thought:  Enoch, Deborah, Abraham.

Then the Lord spoke again:  Walk with Me; Sit with Me; Stand with Me!

I could not have made this up: it was too simple and too complex and fit together too perfectly, all at the same time.  In fact, I had to puzzle it out later, away from work, and I even had to look up the story of Abraham once again to understand how that fit into the picture---but I did find something in the story I had never before seen:

...but Abraham remained standing before the Lord (Gen. 18:22).

Of course, I looked up the story some days later, as I was reflecting on that moment at work and decided to find out what it meant to "stand with God."  But I remember being so arrested by that revelation at work that I went out and told my secretary what I had just heard.  (She and I used to share moments like that.)  I remember understanding what it meant at the time, but also knowing that I would need more time and reflection to build it into my heart and soul and body.

That is why I so love the prayer of Thomas Aquinas that I found this morning---and the timing of it.  While I am still recalling an incident of so many years ago, and still reflecting on its implications for my life, this prayer suddenly appears: give us understanding to know you, diligence to seek you,  wisdom to find you, and a faithfulness to finally embrace you..." 
 
How simple!  Just like Walk with Me (as did Enoch); Sit with Me (as did Deborah); and Stand with Me (as did Abraham).  If I had no other directions or words for the rest of my life, it seems these words, faithfully followed, would lead me directly to heaven!  Amen.  Let it be so forever!
 
No more postings until Feb. 8.

If God is Not a Person

During the time of Deitrich Bonhoeffer (in Hitler's Germany), the German theologians were debating whether God was truly a Person or just a "force," and "energy."  The Greeks knew their gods to have different "personalities," and the Egyptians knew their gods would demand accountability for the kind of life we lived upon earth -- hence, The Book of the Dead, which stipulated the conditions under which the soul would be admitted to the afterlife.

Many people today cannot relate to a personal God, but I wonder then why He has given us His Name -- Yahweh -- in addition to His title, God.  Only a Person has a Name, and obviously, He intended us to call on Him by Name, not just by title, as we call on "Mr. President." Barack Obama's children call him Daddy.  And Jesus, not being content with mankind's stand-off relationship with the Father, told us to call Him Daddy/ Abba.

I read once about a man who was waiting in the Jerusalem airport for a plane, when suddenly, a small child who had momentarily lost sight of his daddy called out in panic:  Abba!    Abba!  For the first time in his life, this grown man understood the implications of Jesus telling His disciples to call God Abba!

If God is not a Person, who are we, created in His Image and Likeness?  Who is it that says, I will give you rest and Who wants us, His children, to say the same to our neighbor?  Who is it that will defend us in battle and feed us in the wilderness?  Who is it that will lead us to green pastures and give us respose?  Who is it that strengthens the weary and the disappointed?  Who gives music to the heart and joy to the soul?  Who is the Shield of the defenseless and the Giver of Wisdom?

Flannery O'Connor once said, If the Eucharist is just a symbol, then to hell with it!"  I don't have her boldness of expression; I cannot say, If God is just a force, an energy, then......

But I want to!

Covenant

I will be your God,

and you shall be My People

When I made my Confirmation--in the sixth grade--we were told that meant that we were from that time forward, soldiers of Jesus Christ; we were to "stand up" for Jesus and defend our Catholic faith.  The Bishop was supposed to "slap" us on the cheek as a symbol that would suffer and die if necessary for Jesus.

At that time, I felt the incongruity of the image of a "soldier" in my soul, which felt more like a small, weak seed just being put into the ground....not yet even beginning to grow.  Now, I better understand the imagery being offered to us ---- but my Irish teachers, accustomed to the harsh life and to the concept of "Cowboy Up!", skipped a step in their explanations.  Now, I understand "Con - firmation" (with strength) as more yielding to the process of allowing God to train us up, to make the weak strong, as He did with David against Goliath.  David did not go out to meet Goliath clothed with armor and a sword, in his own strength.  He went out with faith and confidence in the power and strength of the Lord of hosts/ armies.  His hope was in the Lord, not in himself.

When we enter into a covenant with God, He does all the work.  Isaiah gives the sign of the convenant:

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened

and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Then will the lame leap like a deer,

and the tongue of the dumb shout for joy (35:5-6).

"Do not be afraid, O worm Jacob,

O little Israel,

for I myself will help you," declares the Lord,

your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

"See, I will make you into a threshing sledge,

new and sharp, with many teeth...(41:14-15).

Entering into a covenant with God, allowing Him to be our God; saying "Yes" to being His child means allowing Him to make us strong, to pour His Strong Spirit into us, to raise us up from the "dung heap," in the words of Isaiah, to clothe us with splendor, to change our deserts into fertile fields, to give us peace, quietness, and confidence, peaceful dwelling places, secure homes, and undisturbed places of rest (Is. 32:15-18).

If we read Isaiah, we will know for a fact that, as some Christian song-writer put it years ago, "Inside this suit of armor is a child."  Isaiah was sent to comfort God's people, telling them, "When the enemy comes in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord will put him to flight" (59:20) (although some translations read a little differently.)

When God "cut a covenant" with Abraham in Genesis 15, He followed the rituals of the land in doing so, asking Abraham to bring him the sacrificial animals.  But then, He put Abraham into a deep sleep, and He Himself Alone passed through the split carcasses, allowing Abraham only to watch from a deep sleep/dream.  He did not require the second party, Abraham, to walk through the ceremony, as was the custom of the land.  God Himself took on the whole responsibility of fulfilling the covenant.

Our part in the covenant is allowing God to build up our ramparts, secure the walls of our personalities, and establish our foundations.  Then, and only then, might it be said that we are "soldiers of Jesus Christ" and "confirmed"/ made strong in the Holy Spirit.  Like Mary, we say "Yes, do what You have said You will do in me," and then we watch what God can make of a weak seed, just planted in good soil.

The Flame

Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) was a mystic and later named as a "Doctor of the Church" because of her writings.  In The Dialogue, she records conversations she had with Jesus, Who gave her understanding of spiritual truths.

In one of the conversations, Jesus gave her the image of a burning lamp that all the world would come to for light.  He told her that the light of the lamp would never be diminished by sharing, no matter how many people came, and that each person who came would have the whole -- not just a part of the---light from the lamp. 

However, the intensity of what each person carried away would depend on what sort of material was brought to receive the fire.  If one person brings a tea candle (my example, of course, not His), the flame will soon burn out.  If someone brings a one-pound candle to receive the flame, the light will last longer --- but "each candle, the smallest as well as the largest, would have the whole light, with all its heat and color and brightness."

The Lord went on to tell Catherine that our "candle" is love..."for I created your soul with a capacity for loving -- so much so that you cannot live without love.  Indeed, love is your food."

The purpose of all religion, no matter its origin, is to cultivate faith, hope, and love within the souls of its practitioners.  If any religion fails to achieve that aim, it has failed altogther.  Culturally and emotionally, we will all respond to different forms and expressions of these three virtues, but ultimately, they must take root in the soul, if the soul is to live.

As one of my former students pointed out once, many people have lost faith, and they continue on, but in order to live, we must have hope.  I think that is exactly right:  hope is the reason we push forward, despite the darkness around us--- and what we hope for is that love is not lost to us entirely and forever.  When we are finally able to light our candle with even a little love, our faith begins to grow.

We simply must find ways to keep lighting our candles so that the flame does not go out once and for all.

You Shall Be a Blessing

I will bless you...

And you shall be a blessing (Gen. 12:2)

God called Abraham out of his native land (Ur of the Chaldees--modern-day Bosrah) to go to "a land I will show you," in order that Abraham, receiving the blessings that came with trusting God, could be a blessing to all nations.

It seems to me that God's call and Abraham's response is a summary for all of our lives.  God Calling, a little daily-meditation book I've been using for over 30 years now, has this as part of its January 26 entry: Pass on everything, every blessing.  Abide in Me.  See how many you can bless each day.  Dwell much in My Presence.

And in Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis has this to say:  There is no other way to the happiness for which we were made.  Good things as well as bad are caught by a kind of infection.  If you want to get warm, you must stand by the fire; if you want to get wet, you must get into the water.  If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them.  They are not a sort of prize that God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone.  They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the center of reality.  If you are close to it, the spray will wet you; if you are not, you will remain dry.  Once a man is united to God, how could he not live forever?  Once a man is separated from God, what can he do but wither and die?

So there it is--what we were all made to do---to pass on the blessings we receive from standing close to, from walking daily with, from "getting into" God.  Yesterday, someone said to me, "We were discussing the meaning of life." Later, I thought about my own answer to that question---and this morning, it came to me that the closest I could come to that answer was this:  knowing our Source, we are meant to receive from Him with joy and to pass on what we receive with joy.

The writer of Ecclesiastes says this:  Sow your seed in the morning, and at evening, let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

Is this not our greatest joy---to know that somehow we have been a blessing to others, and that our children, too, are a blessing on the earth?  What more could we desire?

Of What Use is the Bible--and Theology?

In Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis writes about a man who once told him, "I've no use for all that stuff.  I know there's a God.  I've felt Him; out alone in the desert at night:  a tremendous mystery.  And that's why I don't believe all your neat little dogmas and formulas about Him.  To anyone who's met the real thing, they all seem so petty and pedantic and unreal!"

Lewis agreed with the man on one point:  to those who have experienced God, all the formulas seem much less real than the experience.  He compared the experience of God to someone walking along the edge of the ocean, as opposed to looking at a map of the ocean.  On the other hand, said Lewis, the map is based not just on one man's experience of the ocean, but on the experience of hundreds and hundreds of people who have sailed the ocean.  While yours is a single glimpse -- and much more real to you---, the map fits all of those other experiences (and yours) together into an overall picture.  Lewis says that as long as we are content with walks along the beach, our own experience is far more fun than looking at a map.  But if you want to get to America from England, no one would start out with just his own experience.

Theology and the Bible are based on the experiences of generations of people who have had experiences just like yours---they really were in touch with God, just as you were in the desert.  He points out that just as we will not get anywhere by looking at maps without going to sea, neither will we be very safe if we go to sea without a map.

Now, Lewis' explanation helps tremendously to explain my own experience of God.  Before the moment of my experience with the Holy Spirit, I was very content to quietly walk along the shore, experiencing moments of great mystery and Presence, whenever I could find them.  With the coming of the Holy Spirit, I became greatly thirsty to read the Bible, to discover how the experience of all those other generations matched up to my own---and I was so excited to find that their story was also my story!

Something in me resonated strongly to what I was reading there.  For the first time in my life, I indeed felt as if I were sailing across the ocean to a new shore, instead of just walking along the old and familiar one---but I had a map that was based on the experience of generations of men and women before me!  Since then, I have found hundreds of stories outside of the Bible also--of men and women who have truly experienced God and who have told their stories about Him.  And all of those stories excite me even today, for it is the same God that I myself have come to know and love!  My own experience has exploded and been multiplied and been even more greatly understood by all of their experience!  What joy!

God does not leave us alone on the shore of our own experience, but joins us with all of His friends in time and eternity.

A New Heaven and a New Earth

Our thinking is so ingrained with the concepts, categories, and divisions of the world we experience: light and dark; male and female, black and white; Jew, Christian, Muslim; third-world and first-world, east and west; your ideas and my ideas, and so on.

But if we could for a moment project ourselves into the next world, the world of eternity, what would we find there?  In the Book of Revelation, we get some glimpse of the next world, and there, the divisions are much different:

The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ,

and he will reign forever and ever....

The time has come for judging the dead,

and for rewarding your servants the prophets

and your saints and those who reverence your name,

both small and great---

and for destroying those who destroy the earth (Rev. 11:15-18).

For the wedding of the Lamb has come,

and his bride has made herself ready.

Fine linen, bright and clean,

was given to her to wear.

(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints)(19:7-8).

He said to me:  "It is done.  I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End.

To him who is thirsty, I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life....

But the cowardly, the unbeliving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars---their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur (21:6-8).

Here, we find divisions much different from those we are used to thinking about.  It is much like the world at the beginning of time----or the world we experienced in New Orleans and Mississippi during the days and weeks immediately following Hurricane Katrina.  Then, there was no "male" or "female," "Jew or Christian or Muslim," "philosopher, theologian, or washer-woman."  We were all under the same sentence of destruction; we were all rescued from the same flood; and we were all in the same shelters.  Money could not buy rescue, nor could education or "right thinking."  There, we experienced truly what heaven--or, in some cases, hell---was like. 

There were those who helped their neighbors and shared what little food and drink they had---and there were those who found weapons to use against the helpless.  There were those who swept and cleaned the shelters where we were trapped together, without food, light, or water.  And there were those who looted, robbed, and shot others.  There were those who built up; there were those who destroyed.

In the New Jerusalem, there will be no longer (artificial or natural) light and dark, for the Lamb Himself will be the Light.  There will only be those who "reverence" the light; those who do not will be "thrown out into the everlasting darkness."  There will be only those who sing the praises of God; those who cannot join the song will be in everlasting torment, in the lake of burning sulfer.  There will be only those who have received the "fine linen" and clothed themselves in "righteous acts."  The others --those who have destroyed the earth -- will burn forever.

If we can adopt these categories even in this life, I think it will help us to overcome the un-natural division of thought that separate us in this world.  Ultimately, there is only one division:  those who worship and acknowledge the Living God, and those who do not; those who receive and honor His Spirit, and those who are still saying, "We shall be as gods!" and who thereby worship the deceiver, the god of this world.

Apokalupsis

In English, we call it "apocalypse:"  the revelation of something previously hidden.  And because it is hidden, it is not something we can guess at---it must be revealed to us.  On Paul's journey to Damascus, he was sure he knew the right belief; he had studied under Gamaliel, the greatest living teacher in Israel.  But when he met the Son of God on the road, all of his previous learning was shattered----or, better yet, collected finally into a framework that made sense of everything he had learned from experience.

In the Garden of Eden, there were two trees:  The Tree of Life / Wisdom / Revelation, and the Tree of Knowledge, or Experience, of Good and Evil.  Now most of us want to learn from experience---from what we can taste, see, hear, touch, and understand through our reason or reflection.  But there is a much greater world beyond the senses.  There is a world of spirit, a world we cannot touch, taste, see, or hear----except by revelation from above.

All of the saints entered this world and tried to bring it back to us---but the only avenue they had to explain what they had received by revelation was the world of sense.  At the end of his life, Thomas Aquinas said that everything he had spent his life writing was "as straw," given the revelation he had received at the end.  It has been said that God has no grandchildren----that is, that He reserves revelation to a moment directly between Himself and each one of us.  In the Old Testament, He would appear to each generation, saying, "I am the God of your father Abraham," or "I am the God of your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob..."   In other words, "I am the One they told you about---but now, I am here before YOU;  now, it's between Me and you alone!  Will you listen to Me, as did your fathers in faith?"

And how shall we come to that moment of Apocalypse, of revelation from God to us?  For most of us, it comes at a moment of deliverance, as Psalm 116 indicates:

I love the Lord [Yahweh], for he has heard

my voice, my appeal;

for he has turned his ear to me whenever I call.

They surrounded me, the snares of death;

the anguish of the grave has found me;

anguish and sorrow I found.

I called on the name of the Lord:

"Deliver my soul, O Lord [Yahweh]!"

How gracious is the Lord [Yahweh], and just;

our God has compassion.

The Lord protects the simple;

I was brought low, and he saved me.

Turn back, my soul, to your rest,

for the Lord has been good to you;

he has kept my soul from death,

my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling.

I will walk in the presence of the Lord

in the land of the living.

At the moment we have cried out to the Lord with all our hearts and have experienced His saving grace, we come to know Him as The-One-Who-Hears-Us, The-One-Who-Sees-Us, as the servant-girl Hagar came to know Him in her desperation in the desert.  The one who experiences the Living God this way- -i.e., spiritually -- will never again be at the mercy of someone whose argument about God is from reason and education, as was Paul's, originally. 

God is a Person, and His greatest desire is that we know Him directly, Person-to-person, not through intermediaries, even though the Law and the Prophets are necessary to point us in the right direction until such time as we are ready to meet the Living God for ourselves.

If You Knew the Gift of God....

"Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."

The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water" (Jn. 4:13-15).

It seems to me that asking for water is the easiest thing we can ever do; anyone can do it.  It takes no moral righteousness or obedience or education to ask for water.  Maybe that's why Jesus had to appear in the flesh---just to tell us that all we have to do is ask. 

Left to ourselves, we have devised all sorts of systems and codes to earn God's blessing on our lives.  I understand "rules," because every family, no matter how small, has to have some sort of regulation in order to live together in harmony and agreement.  Nothing works when each one of us just does whatever he/she wants to do whenever we want to do it.  So it makes sense that religions---extended and sometimes very large families---have rules also:  if you want to belong to this family, this is how we have agreed to behave; if you don't like these rules, you can choose another family.

And part of formal religions is also the effort to remain faithful not only to one another, but to God.  So if we believe that God has given us certain guidelines to follow, then we want to follow them.  But when we fail, either through rebellion or human weakness---or when the rules become more important than the people---Jesus has a simple solution:  Ask Me for living water.

Rules might scare us because we cannot live by them---or because we no longer believe they are God's directions for us.  But water is something we all need and desire, both physically and spiritually.  Who can be afraid of water?  I love the dialog that follows Jesus' simple direction---Ask Me for living water!  Immediately, the woman at the well begins to probe theological questions, not asking the religious leaders, but Jesus Himself to answer the questions that have been on her mind.  And in response, she receives a direct revelation---one that most of the people in Israel had yet to learn--that Jesus is the Promised Messiah.  And she already knows that "when He comes, He will explain everything to us."

Most of us have questions that no one can answer to our satisfaction.  If we are content to ask simply for "living water," the dialog can begin.



A Living Word

I saw this on Facebook this morning and began to think about the question.  We seem to be okay with cultural and familiar expressions of faith, but not with individual and unfamiliar ones.  When someone does the unexpected, it makes us squirm because we don't know what to do ourselves.  We are embarrassed by a public acknowledgment of God----we ourselves don't have the inner freedom to do the same, so we don't want anyone else to do it either.

We are enchanted when a man declares his love for his girlfriend in a filled stadium, posting his "Will you marry me?" on an electronic billboard----but less enchanted when Tim Tebow bows his head to acknowledge his God.  Nor do we want our students at graduation to give thanks to God in a public way for His strength and support -- because someone in the audience might not feel the same way.

There was a time when I too would not tell anyone how I felt about Jesus.  I didn't want to "impose my beliefs" on them, or turn them off----I wanted to be liked; I did not want to be thought of as a fanatic.
Now, however, as I approach my own death, I have become a fanatic!  I no longer care about the respect of other people; I only want them to know how wonderful, exciting, adventurous, satisfying, fulfilling, joyous it is to know the living God, Who is always and everywhere a part of our lives, Who longs to do good to us and for us, Who longs to spread His blessings throughout the earth through our words, our actions, our acknowledgment of His Name.

Under His banner is truth, protection, wisdom, love, joy, peace, mutual respect, patient endurance, hope, light, and life.  Without Him, the Light of Life, is deception, foolishness, hatred, "human nature," darkness, and death.  Why-would-I-not-be-a-fanatic, knowing / experiencing the living God in my life? 

I want to say to everyone I meet and know, "Come, eat and be filled with good things!"  "Taste for yourself and know for yourself that God is the One for Whom we were made!"  Jeremiah has the Lord saying, "Is not my word like fire....and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?" (23:29)

Before the arrival of the Holy Spirit in one's life, the word of God -- i.e.Scripture--- is "nice," "beautiful," "inspirational"----but it is not a "fire" and a "hammer."  When the Holy Spirit comes, everything changes---we want to run, not walk, with the word of God.  Granted, the Bible has been used throughout history and even today as a weapon to suppress others (slavery, for example) and as a "hammer" that beats them down with guilt.   But the section of Jeremiah that contains these words is God's anger against "false prophets" who "have not stood in the council of the Lord to "see or to hear his word, to listen and hear his word (23:19).  Instead, they "borrow words from one another" and say to the people, "Thus says the Lord...." 

That is the difference between the word as written --- the "nice," and "beautiful" word---and that spoken by God in a man's heart.  In fact, in the Greek, there is a distinction between the two:  Logos is the written word; Rhema is the spoken.  One we can read; the other is heard, as a living word.  That is why God sent prophets to Israel---so they could hear the living word, spoken in this situation, in this time, to this generation.  That is why God sent His Son and said, "LISTEN to Him." 

It is one thing to read the Scripture; it is another to have the Spirit of God speaking it to you.  I would hope that the day would come in America when we can respect not only cultural and formalized expressions of faith, but also realize that God speaks in different ways and different times in our hearts.  Could we all not be "listeners," not to all and every prophet that comes along, but to the One Who longs to whisper His word in our hearts?

A Crumbling Wall 2

Go now, write it on a tablet for them,

inscribe it on a scroll,

that for the days to come

it may be an everlasting witness.

These are rebellious people, deceitful children,

children unwilling to listen to the Lord's instruction.

They say to the seers,

"See no more visions!"

and to the prophets,

"Give us no more visions of what is right!

Tell us pleasant things,

prophesy illusions.

Leave this way, get off this path,

and stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!"

(Is. 30:8-11)

Years ago, when I was still working, one of my office mates asked me this question one morning at 7:30 am, a half-hour before my first class:  Why do the Jews suffer and Catholics feel guilty?

I paused for a moment to absorb the question, in the midst of gathering materials and my lesson plan for the 8:00 am class.  "Do you want the answer in 25 words or less?" I asked her. 

What a question! ---one that would take a lifetime to explore fully.  Still today, 20 years later, I can only begin to probe at an answer to the first part of the question----and now, only because of all the questions on Facebook about Tim Tebow.  People are asking why he has aroused so much venom in the sports world, just because he acknowledges God.

I think the answer to the Facebook questions can be found in Isaiah, Jeremiah, and every one of the prophets, including Moses and Jesus Himself.  The Jews became prophets to the rest of the world; they inscribed the Law of God on a scroll, as a witness to the truth and justice of God.  And the rest of the world reacts throughout history and even today just like they did in the time of Isaiah and Jeremiah and in the time of Jesus:  Stop it!  We don't want to hear it!  We don't want to see it!  Your words and actions are offensive to us!

The Jews suffer because, as the Scripture says, The blows who have hated You have fallen upon me! (Ps. 69:).  Psalm 69---all of it---is a graphic portrayal of what happens to those who proclaim God to the world: 

• many are my enemies without cause
• they hate me without reason
• they seek to destroy me
• I endure scorn for your sake
• scorn has broken my heart and left me helpless
• I looked for sympathy, but there was none, for comforters, but found none.
• They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst (written 1000 years before Jesus' death on the cross). 

Jesus warned His disciples---His last words to them---that the world would hate them as it hated Him:  if you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own....but I have chosen you out of the world.  That is why the world hates you....They will treat you this way because of My name, for they do not know the One who sent me....He who hates me hates my Father as well (Jn. 15: 18ff).

The Jews suffer today for the same reason that the Apostles were martyred and for the same reason that Tim Tebow is both respected and hated---because they have all testified to the Truth.

But for those who reject the message, Isaiah 30:12 says this:

Because you have rejected this message,

relied on oppression and depended on deceit,

this sin will become for you

like a high wall, cracked and bulging,

that collapses suddenly, in an instant.

Anyone who asks why the Jews suffer, why Jesus was crucified, why Tim Tebow is scorned for witnessing to his faith, has only to read Isaiah.  The answer is there:  Stop confronting us with the Holy One of Israel!

In Pursuit of Joy

Joy is the one thing we all have in common.  Our philosophies, our theologies, our ideas may differ--but I suppose that everyone has experienced a moment or two of JOY, that fleeting and  indefinable moment of ecstasy that suddenly takes over us at the sight of a beautiful tree or sky, or at seeing the expression on a baby's face.  That moment (or those moments) have created in us some inexpressible longing which we want to capture and hold onto. 

Repressive governments throughout history have tried to make sure that their people do not experience joy, because that is the one thing they cannot control and manipulate.  Enlightened governments have made it their aim to preserve the right of every citizen to experience joy, without interference from those who live in darkness and whose sole aim is to destroy the joy of others.

At the Last Supper, Jesus made two promises to His disciples:  He promised them joy "that no one would take from them" and peace "not as the world gives."

In his autobiography Surprised by Joy, C.S.Lewis writes about those moments of joy that began for him at the age of six, as he gazed out the window of his nursery and saw something that he could not define but that later he was to call "the secret signature of each soul," the longing "not merely to see beauty...but to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it" (Transposition and Other Addressess, 1949).

I think it is fair to say that, unless we have become dead men through the use of drugs or alcohol or sex as control and manipulation, or power as control, or the pursuit of wealth that chokes out all other pleasures---unless we have stifled our "inner man," we have all pursued joy:

There are times when I think we do not desire heaven; but more often I find myself wondering whether in our heart of hearts, we have ever desired anything else...Are not all lifelong friendships born at the moment when at last you meet another human being who has some inkling (but faint and uncertain even at best) of that something which you were born desiring, and which, beneath the flux of other desires and in all the momentary silences between the louder passions, night by night, year by year, from childhood to old age, you are looking for, watching for, listening for?

You have never had it.  All the things tht have ever deeply possessed your soul have been hints of it---tantalizing glimpses, promised never quite fulfilled, echoes that dies away just as they caught your ear.  But if it should really become manifest---if there ever came an echo that did not die away but swelled into the sound itself---you would know it.  Beyond all possibility of doubt you would say, "Here at last is the thing I was made for." 

We cannot tell each other about it.  It is the secret signature of each soul, the incommunicable and unappeasable want, the thing we desired before we met our wives or made our friends, or chose our work, and which we shall still desire on our deathbeds, when the mind no longer knows wife or friend or work.  While we are, this is.  If we lose this, we lose all.

(--from The Problem of Pain, Chapter 10)

Those who have lost the capacity for these fleeting moments of joy are dead men walking; those who are on the path to heaven find joy at every corner and in every moment.  Above my desk, I have a landscape of trees by Isack Tarkey, and beneath it a card that reads The fullness of joy is to behold God in everything.  This is the joy promised to us by Jesus, the "joy that no one can take from us."  And it does seem to follow that moment of grief when we think that everything has been taken from us. 

Maybe this is the ultimate meaning of the Resurrection---when everything we have cherished and loved is restored to us, and we are re-united with joy, never again to be removed from it, or it from us:  if you want to steal my joy, come and get it in the hands of God!

With gratitude to John the Divine

Remain in Me, and I will remain in you.  No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine.  Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me (Jn. 15:4).

Jesus is speaking to His disciples at the Last Supper, the Passover.  He knew that the time of His death was at hand, and these were His last words.  His last instruction was simply to "remain in Him," and they would bear fruit "that would remain." 

Looking back now through 2000+ years of history, we can marvel at how the fruit of the disciples has "remained" to inspire all nations on earth.  The words of Pythagorus and of Plato have dimmed with time and are studied now only by scholars and philosophers, but the words of unlettered and untaught fishermen who had no interest or background in philosophy have come down through all ages and cultures and still breathe life into each generation that follows. 

We call the Apostle John, "John the Divine" because his Gospel soars above the other three.  But we forget that brothers James and John were found by the Sea of Galilee, mending their nets with their father.  They were called by Jesus "Sons of Thunder" because of their active and passionate natures---but John's Gospel speaks of things more sublime than the words of any Greek philosopher.  His "fruit," like that of all the other disciples, still remains today.

Jesus told His disciples that He was the vine and that His Father was the gardener Who "cuts off every branch that bears no fruit...and trims clean every branch that does bear fruit."  But He went on to tell them that they were "already clean because of the word I have spoken to you."  In the Book of Ephesians, Paul was to advise husbands to love their wives just as Christ loved the church and "gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word...(Eph. 5:26).

In the beginning of his Gospel, John tells us that In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God----and to all who received Him, he gave the right to become children of God...born of God.

Just as at the beginning of time, the Word of God entered into the dark and formless abyss, bringing light, order, beauty, and harmony, bringing into existence all things ("fruit" that remained), so has the Word of God entered into our sinful and disordered, chaotic, lives to rearrange, wash, and cleanse us that we become children of light and truth.  If we remain in the Word of Truth, we will bear much fruit, as did John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, Paul, Stephen---and all those throughout history who were cleansed by the washing with water through the Word. 

Jesus said both "remain in Me and I will remain in you," and 'if my words remain in you...."   Knowing this, shouldn't we be at least as respectful, attentive and absorbing of the Word of God as we are to the Boston Symphony, or to the Broadway theater, or to a movie?  These things, great as they are, will fade away, but the Word of God will stand forever.  Those things may impress us for awhile,  but the Word of God can cleanse our minds, heal our souls, and lead us into eternity.

The Instruction from God

Don't be afraid, Daniel.  Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them (Daniel 10:12)

**************************************

But you must return to your God;

maintain love and justice,

and wait for your God always (Hosea 12:6).

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As you do not know the path of the wind,

or how the body is formed in a mother's womb,

so you cannot understand the work of God,

the Maker of all things.

Sow your seed in the morning,

and at evening let not your hands be idle,

for you do not know which will succeed,

whether this or that,

or whether both will do equally well (Ecc. 11:5-6).

We want to do the work of God---but it is difficult to know exactly what that means.  Should we be volunteering in soup kitchens, handing out blankets to the homeless, or toiling in a mission field somewhere?  When I was in high school, I remember thinking that I did not want to give my life to God, because I was sure that He would send me somewhere I didn't want to go, and that I would never get to do what I wanted to do.  How little I understood about God at the time!

Looking back on my life now, I realize that God gives us certain desires in order that He might also fulfill the "desires of our hearts," in the words of Psalm 37:  Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.  He is not about dashing our desires to the ground, but wants to fill us with good things.  He promised to lead the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt to "a land of milk and honey," which means fertile fields and growing crops.

So how do we get to the land of promise?  What is the work that God wants from us?  Someone asked Jesus this question, and His answer was this:  The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent...for the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world (Jn. 6: 29 & 33).

It seems to me that the very first thing God wants from us is exactly what Daniel did:  to set our minds to gain understanding and to humble ourselves before the Most High.  In response to Daniel, God sent the vision of "One like a man" to reveal to Daniel what must come.   The prophet Hosea also received visions and understanding regarding what God was doing, but he was told simply to "maintain love and justice/ and to wait for your God always." 

The writer of Ecclesiastes tells us to simply go about our daily work "with all our might," for we cannot understand the work of God, or whether whatever we do will succeed.  Yesterday I wrote about praying that we might be given a part in the ministry of Jesus, who was all about doing the will of the Father.  Since we cannot really know what God is doing in our lives, or where His work today lies, I think the advice given to Hosea and to the writer of Ecclesiates is the best:  set our hand to the work of the day, humble ourselves before God, who is doing His work today, and believe that He will do His work somehow through us.  Our part is to "maintain love and justice, and to wait for our God always."

Once the burden of (apparent) success is off our shoulders and onto God's, we are free to move through our days with humility and joy, trusting in the work of God.  Many of us seem to have the idea that God is "sitting" "up there," waiting to see what we will do to please Him or to annoy Him.  But years ago, I had a card that said, God, it seems to me, is a verb.  As an English teacher, of course, I loved that saying, knowing that the definition of a "verb" is a word that expresses action or being.  God is not "sitting;" He is still in motion, still creating a world that He sees as "good," still breathing life into mankind.  Our work is to look, to see, to understand, and to believe in the work of God among us today!

Thy Kingdom Come 2

Don't pray that God will bless your ministry;

Pray that you will be allowed a part in the ministry of Jesus

(Father Thomas Joseph; homily of Jan. 11).

I have been thinking about those words ever since I heard them yesterday.  Jesus' ministry on earth was one of rescuing the poor, uplifting the downcast, healing the sick, bringing back the outcast, feeding the hungry---both physically and spiritually--, taking onto Himself the burdens of the discouraged, teaching and breathing meaning and inspiration into the Scriptures, and revealing the face of God to those who sought Him.

Surely God did not send His salvation and outstretched hand only to those who lived in the first century A.D.  Surely, He intended the physical and spiritual ministry of Jesus to continue throughout all generations.  Those we call "saints" and those unknown saints have continued the Divine Ministry by allowing Jesus to dwell in them and to continue in them His mission on earth---to heal, to teach, to reveal, to feed, to encourage, to lift up, to say to those who have lost hope:  Take courage; the kingdom of God is here.  God dwells with you.

I remember going to confession in Medjugore to a wonderful priest named "Peter."  He said to me:  What we do for God is very interesting---but what God does for us----that's the whole story.

Our "ministry" is simply to get out of the way and to allow God to continue His Ministry through us--through our interests, our (quirky) personalities, our talents.  We are poor and inconsistent instruments, but a Master painter, chef, physician, teacher, etc. can use whatever tools are at His disposal to accomplish His purposes.  When the earthquake hit Haiti, I was amazed at the news footage of doctors "operating" in hospitals with the most primitive of tools, working to save lives with whatever they could find at hand. 

This was to me a lesson:  God will use the most primitive and unsophisticated tool at hand to accomplish His work on earth.  If we are available to Him, we will constantly be surprised at how He will use us.  We don't need any special abilities or knowledge---often these will get in the way, as we will learn to put our faith in what we "can do," or in what we "know," instead of trusting completely in what God knows or in what He can do through us. 

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.  To be poor in spirit is to know that we ourselves have no "ministry" at all---but to know that Jesus continues His mission on earth through the poorest and most unlikely of persons.  Jesus Himself claimed that His own work was not His, but the Father's:  The words I say to you are not just my own.  Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, who is doing his work.

When we say, "Thy kingdom come," we are praying that God will continue His work through us, however, and whenever, and to whomever, He chooses to do it. 





The Role of the Holy Spirit

After the Lord was baptized, the heavens were opened,

and the Spirit descended upon him like a dove,

and the voice of the Father thundered: This is my beloved Son,

with whom I am well pleased (Matt. 3:16-17).

The very first role of God's Spirit in us is to convince us that we are loved, that God cares for us, watches over us, protects us, defends us, runs interference for us against our enemies, directs our paths into good and safe places, and blesses the socks off us!

When God called Abraham out of Ur and led him on a journey to "a place I will show you," it was to convince Abraham of the watchful providence of the Most High in every and all circumstances.  The day- to- day journey of Abraham was a jouney of faith, of learning every day that God was with him, caring for him, providing for him, defending him. 

When Abraham entered the land of Egypt, and Sarah was taken by Pharoah's servants into the king's harem, Abraham said, "She is my sister."  Critics have noted that Abraham was only partially truthful in this circumstance, but we are judging from our 20th-21st century perspective and values.  We cannot know or judge Abraham from our standpoint.  All we can truly see from where we are now is God's provision and protection in a time of danger.  Abraham's truthfulness was not the issue: God had promised Abraham a son and many descendents; now that promise was in danger of not being fulfilled.  Generations later, God would speak through Isaiah to say that He Himself watched over His Word to fulfill it, to accomplish it. 

The deliverance of Sarah and the safe journey of Abraham were the work of God.  Once again, Abraham was to experience the faithfulness of God on his behalf.  His confidence grew with every event and circumstance of his journey.  By the time he was settled in the land of promise, Abraham knew in his bones that he was loved, cared for, watched over, established in God's plan and provision.  He could afford to be generous and loving towards others; he could afford to refuse the spoils of war because he knew God to be his "shield and very great reward."

Once the Holy Spirit has entered into our bones, our day to day experience; once we know that we, like Jesus, are the Beloved, and that God is "well pleased" with us, despite any confusion or mistakes on our part (like Abraham), then and only then, are we able to love freely and confidently, without counting the cost or feeling sorry for ourselves. 

The "journey" is the first stage of learning, of learning deep down, God's care, provision, direction of our lives, of His leading us into all truth, into righteousness, into love, into establishment as a blessing on the earth.  We don't always experience that we are being led, or cared for, or watched---but if we surrender our lives to God, daily "build an altar to the Most High," as did Abraham, and trust Him to do the rest, we will discover what Abraham knew, what Jesus knew----that we too are the Beloved, in whom God is well pleased. 

Only then can we trust that, in the words of Jesus through Julian of Norwich, "all things will be well."  Only then are we truly ready to begin our ministry on earth.



Simplicity and Trust

There is no prudence so great as that which offers no resistence to enemies, and which opposes to them only a simple abandonment.  This is to run before the wind, and as there is nothing else to be done, to keep quiet and peaceful.  There is nothing that is more entirely opposed to worldly prudence than simplicity...

The soul in the state of abandonment can abstain from justifying itself by word or deed.  The divine action justifies it....the divine action is nothing else than the action of divine love....it makes the soul understand by secret suggestions what it ought to say, or to do, according to circumstances....

Divine love then, is to those who give themselves up to it without reserve, the principle of all good.  To acquire this inestimable treasure the only thing necessary is greatly to desire it.  Yes, God only asks for love, and if you seek this treasure, this kingdom in which God reigns alone, you will find it....

To desire to love God is truly to love Him, and because we love Him, we wish to become instruments of His action in order that His love may be exercised in, and by us.

(--from Abandonment to Divine Providence by Jean Claude de Caussade)

Both Mohandis Gandhi and Martin Luther King knew the secret of peaceful, passive, resistence to injustice---that of standing quietly before their accusers and of not fighting back, but trusting all outcomes---even their own death and suffering--to Divine Providence.  Gandhi and King were not perfect people, but they were able to lead "armies" of passive resistence to unjust laws and cruel governments.  Before they took a step in public, they had turned their very lives over to the Most High, trusting that He had given them the mission they were about to undertake.  Neither of them sought their own glory or interests, but only the will of God and justice for their people--and they earnestly desired to be used as instruments of God's reign on earth.  They did not need to justify their actions; justice was before them always, in their bones, in their scriptures, in their God.

Both men are great examples of yesterday's entry from Sirach:  I sought to water my own little garden, and behold, this rivulet of mine became a river, then this stream of mine, a sea.  Thus do I send my teachings forth shining like the dawn, to become known far off.  Thus do I pour out instruction like prophecy and bestow it on generations to come.

On Water and Wisdom

and this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us (I John 3:24).

Remain in Me, and I will remain in you (Jn. 15:4)

Jesus told the woman at the well: whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst.  Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life (Jn. 4:13).

Later, at the Feast of Tabernacles, which lasted for a week, Jesus stood up on the "last and greatest day of the Feast and said in a loud voice:" If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.  Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, streams of living water will flow from within him.  By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive (Jn. 7:37).

The written accounts of Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well and His more public and "loud" announcement at the Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem are separated in John by three chapters, but they are very closely related.  The best way to see the connection is to study the Book of Sirach in the Catholic Bible (a book not included in other translations). 

Chapter 24 of Sirach is the Praise of Wisdom, personified as a woman who "comes forth from the mouth of the Most High and mistlike covers the earth" (v.3).  Although Wisdom "holds sway" over every people and nation, she seeks a "resting place" and an inheritance on the earth.  The Jews have a legend that before God chose Israel, He went to every nation and asked whether He might dwell on earth among them.  Every nation refused Him except Israel, the "smallest of all nations."  Sirach 24 says he who formed me chose the spot for my tent, saying, "In Jacob make your dwelling, in Israel your inheritance."

In singing her own praises, Wisdom says this:  He who eats of me will hunger still, he who drinks of me will thirst for more ...the first man never finished comprehending wisdom, nor will the last succeed in fathoming her/ for deeper than the sea are her thoughts; her counsels, than the great abyss (24: 20; 26-27).

In extolling Wisdom and her gifts, the writer says this:

All this is true of the Book of the Most High's covenant,

the law which Moses commanded us as an inheritance for the community of Jacob.

It overflows, like the Pishon, with wisdom...

It runs over, like the Euphrates, with understanding...

It sparkles like the Nile with knowledge (24: 22-25).

Now here is the connection between Jesus' conversation with the woman at the well and His public announcement at the Feast of Tabernacles, or as it is called today, "the Feast of Booths," which celebrates God's "tabernacling, or dwelling" among His people while they were in the desert, on their way to the Promised Land.  The "last and greatest" day of the Feast was the Feast of Water, celebrating the event in the wilderness where Moses struck the rock and water ran out to satisfy the thirst of the Israelites encamped in the desert.  Scientists and archeologists are still today attempting to explain the great miracle of Water in the Desert---enough water to satisfy the thirst of the entire encampment of twelve tribes of Israel.  When Jesus stood up and said, "If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink," He was "blaspheming" in the very worst and most public way.  He was saying that He Himself was the Rock out of which the water flowed. 

To the woman at the well, He promised a "spring bubbling up to eternal life;" to the crowds in Jerusalem, He promised "streams of living water" flowing outward from the belly of those who came to Him.  A spring is for individual use, bubbling up to satisfy the thirst within; streams of water, on the other hand, flow out of us toward the thirst of others.  Sirach 24 makes clear the process:

Now I, like a rivulet from her stream,

channeling the waters into a garden,

Said to myself, "I will water my plants,

my flower beds I will drench;"

And suddenly this rivulet of mine became a river,

then this stream of mine, a sea.

Thus do I send my teachings forth shining like the dawn,

to become known far off.

Thus do I pour out instruction like prophecy

and bestow it on generations to come (Sirach 24: 28-31).

When we connect Jesus' invitation to ask Him for living water and to come to Him and drink with the words of Sirach concerning wisdom, we realize that as we drink to satisfy our own thirst and to water our own garden, this Spirit He pours out on us fills our inner man to the point of spilling out of us to others.  As our own thirst is deeply satisfied with the Spirit and Wisdom of the Most High, streams of living water flow out from us to others also.  As we begin to take sips from the well of Wisdom, we are both satisfied and desire more, and the more we are filled with living water, the greater our capacity to give what others need from us.



What is Truth?

The question asked by Pilot reveals the attitude of those who have grown sceptical---those in political power, especially, who are so confronted day by day with the vested interests of others.  They, above all others, grow sceptical that there exists anywhere pure, unadulterated, absolute value or Truth.  Everyone has an angle on the truth, they say, but no one has "Truth."

But John tells us that grace and truth came through Jesus Christ---who promised us the Spirit of Truth, the Spirit sent by the Father.  He --the Spirit of Truth---will not speak on His own, but only from what He receives from the Father (Jn. 14-15).  That and only that is what He gives to us. 

And we too, if we are to speak Truth, must speak not out of our own interest, but only from that we ourselves receive from the Spirit of Truth and holiness---the Spirit of Jesus, who came not to do His own will, but the will of the Father.

Holy Spirit, give us purity of heart, that we might speak your Truth and only your Truth.  Give us understanding of the things of God, and wisdom of when and how and to whom You would have us speak.

Be Thou a Blessing

What do all those stories in Genesis have to do with us today?  A recent article by Ron Rolheiser outlines what he calls "The Three Stages of Our Spiritual Lives."  According to Rolheiser, the first stage of our lives is the struggle to get our lives established.  In this stage, we struggle to discover who we are, where we will live, what we will do, who will love us, etc.  This stage could last for years.

Once we have passed through that stage and our lives are somewhat settled, we enter into the second stage---the quest to find how we will give ourselves away, what contribution we will make to our families, our communities, and to the world in general.  For most of us, family and career or jobs and community involvement are ways of "giving ourselves away."

The final stage, in Rolheiser's view, is no longer occupied with giving ourselves away, but in figuring out how our death will be as much a blessing to our family and our world as our lives have been.  In his opinion, too little attention has been paid to this stage.  Although Rolheiser does not mention Jewish culture and traditions in his article, it may be that the Jews are the only culture where this last stage has been emphasized through their belief in the importance of family and descendents.

Rolheiser's article reminded me of the story of Abraham in Genesis.  Out of the backdrop of a dark and evil world portrayed in Genesis 2-11, God selected one man, Abraham, saying to him in effect, "Let me establish you and make your name great; let me lead you to a land you do not know and plant you there; let me give you many descendents and make you the father of  many peoples; through you all nations will be blessed:  Be Thou a Blessing (upon the earth*) (*my addition).

Before Abraham, the early stories in Genesis deal with mankind's own efforts to establish themselves, to make a name for themselves, and to gain ascendency.  Adam and Eve desired to "be as gods," according to the promise of the serpent; Cain slew Abel in his effort to establish himself as the favored one; Lamech asserted the law of revenge 7 times greater over anyone who wounded him; and the Tower of Babel was erected so that men could "make a name for themselves."

Out of this background of all the earth attempting to establish itself, God chooses Abraham and says to him, "let me establish you; let me make your name great; let me make you a blessing to all men and to all generations."

The fact that Abraham knew not where he was going means that he could not control his own destiny.  Daily, he built an altar and worshipped God to discover whether he was still on the right path, to hear the voice within, to find peace on the way.  And he was led, even when it seemed that he wound up in the wrong place--with Sarah in Pharoah's harem, for example.  On the way to where-he-knew-not, he learned to trust the One Who led him, to go with God, and to obey the One Who directed him. 

My point is this:  every one of us faces the tasks that Rolheiser describes:  the struggle to get our lives together, to make a contribution to our families and to the world, and finally to die as a blessing instead of a curse on the earth.  Our choice is whether "we" will "do it ourselves," like two-year-old children trying to tie their own shoes, or whether we will allow God to make our names great, and to establish our lives as a blessing on the earth. 

Relying on the Faithfulness of God

In the beginning was the Word...

And the Word became flesh

and made his dwelling (literally, "pitched his tent") among us.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) died in a German concentration camp, by direct order of Hitler, two weeks before the fall of Germany and the release of the German prisoners.  He was considered one of the greatest threats of Hitler's rule because he opposed the German Reich in every way possible.  He would not become part of the official Reichkirk (German Church), despite the danger of not doing so, and the urging of some of his closest friends; he founded an illegal and hidden seminary for young priests (non-Catholic), insisting on prayer and meditation as the foundation of seminary life.  In his Sermons, we feel the strength of his own spirituality:

I am a sojourner on earth.  By that I recognize that I canot abide here, that my time is short.  Nor do I have rights here to possessions or a home.  I must receive with gratitude all the good that befalls me, but I must suffer injustice and violence without anyone interceding for me.

I have no firm footing either among people or among things.  As a guest I am subject to the laws of the place where I am staying.  The earth which feeds me has a right to my labor and my strength.

But because I am nothing but a sojourner on earth, with no rights, no support and no security; because God himself has made me so weak and insignificant, he has given me one firm pledge of my goal: his Word.  He will not take this one security from me; he will keep this Word with me, and by it he will allow me to feel my strength.

Where the Word is with me from the beginning, I can find my way in a strange land, my justice in injustice, my support in uncertainty, my strength in work, patience in suffering.

Bonhoeffer's sufferings under Hitler can be compared to the young David, who was relentlessly pursued by King Saul for years.  David was forced into the wilderness, hiding and living in caves from Saul's army who searched for him with the intention of making an end to this young threat to Saul's rule.  All the time he was in hiding, David learned / experienced the faithfulness of God to hide him, feed him, even provide water for him in the wilderness.  Only those like Bonhoeffer and David, who have experienced the faithfulness of God in desperate circumstances can say, as David wrote:  The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge...the cords of death entangled me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me.  The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to God for my help...He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me (Ps. 18).

Blessed are they---like Mary Magdalene, like Bonhoeffer, like David---who know the deliverance of God, whose refuge is the God of hosts, who trust in His faithfulness to deliver those who pass through the Valley of Baca (weeping, lamentation, soreness), and make it a place of springs...they go from strength to strength till each appears before God in Zion (Ps. 84).

Redemption

Adrienne von Speyr was a Swiss medical doctor, wife, mother, and mystic who died in 1967.  She is the author of over 60 books (dictated to her spiritual director) on theology, the spiritual life, and commentaries on Scripture.  She was given the great gift of being able to commune with the saints and of seeing them at prayer during their lifetimes; indeed, she was able to enter into their prayer and understand it.  Under obedience to her director, she dictated the visions and understandings she had, according to the mission revealed to her when she was six years old.  Although she was raised as a Protestant, in her adult life, she converted to Catholicism.  Her depths of understanding the spiritual gifts that are given to each one of us by God, with the same mathematical precision that He designed the stars and the universe, is amazing---we are each put in a certain place with a certain mission, not for ourselves but for the church as a whole, or for the world as a whole.  The entry on Mary Magdalen is a good example:

She has sinned; the Lord has raised her up again; but he actually took her sins into himself.  And this increases: the more she is liberated, the more he bears, and she is also aware of this. [My note:  until I read this I had not seen that the censure given to Jesus by the Pharisees was the same condemnation they had reserved for this "woman."  He aligned Himself with her as her ally and support in the face of their censure, and said in effect, "Condemn her; condemn Me."]

(continued) She grows into the Lord, as it were, because he has taken over everything she previously was, and he gives her everything she will be.  Thus, a peculiar humility comes about in her; she can no longer meet the Lord without at the same time meeting her sin in him, and her sin in him has merged with the guilt of all people.  For her, the Lord is now the one who bears her guilt, insofar as he at the same time bears the sin of the world.  She confessed one time, repented one time.  But there remains a fundamental confession in her: what belongs to her expands in love into something that concerns all people.  She will no longer be able to encounter the Lord without praying for all sinners.  Without being reminded that it is now her turn to forgive others. For he has shown her how one goes about bearing the sins of others.

And since everyone knows what the Lord has accomplished in her, she becomes a sort of apostle.  She is a living parable, a memorial. She now truly has to lead the life the Lord demands of her and that he has made possible by forgiving her sins.  The excess of grace has to be legible in her.  And it will be, because she does not for a moment ascribe anything to herself: she wants only to show what he is, what he can do.  Her inner attitude results from the fact that she is not asked whether she wants to follow the Lord.  In the moment when she is liberated from her sins, every problem comes to an end: now she has to follow.  What happened is so much a miracle that no other call is necessary.  The call is included in the Lord's deed.  Everyone in whom a miracle has been performed has received this sort of call. 
                                              from the Book of All Saints by von Speyr and von Balthasar

Baptism

"I baptize with water," John replied, "but among you stands one you do not know....the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel...He who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.  I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God" (Jn. 1:26-34).

Baptism is not what we go through to join a church; it is more a soul-bath that prepares us to receive the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus in us.  In the Acts of the Apostles, there is a small passage about a Jew named Apollos, who came to Ephesus from Alexandria:  He was a learned man, with a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures.  He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and he spoke with great fervor and taught about Jesus accurately, though he knew only the baptism of John....When Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they invited him to their home and explained to him the way of God more adequately (Acts 18: 24-26).

I wonder what difference it would make if "the way of God" were explained to us "more adequately"--that is, if we knew that the only aim of our baptism, our prayer, our good work, our study or meditation,or whatever we do, would be to receive the Holy Spirit from the Son of God.  I wonder what difference it would make to our lives if we did receive the Holy Spirit from Jesus.

In the Letter to the Romans, Paul writes, A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and phyiscal. [We might read "baptism" here for "circumcision"].  No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code (Romans 2:28).

When Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen," I wonder if he was thinking of all who are "called" by circumcision and/or baptism, but whose hearts have never been baptized/ circumcised by the Holy Spirit.  Would that our churches contained more "Priscillas and Aquilas" who could more adequately explain to us "the way of God" when all we know is the baptism of John!

The Law of General Beneficience

Yesterday, I wrote about education, from the perspective of C.S. Lewis, as being as much about educating the heart as well as the mind of children, so that they will be sensitive to universally recognized truth and beauty---or to those things that make us "human."

Every culture has embodied certain universal principles from which its wise departed only in foolishness or error.  Across all cultures and times, those principles remain consistent. 

The first principle we find in every "civilized" culture is that of Universal Beneficience, or of doing good to other men:

• I have not slain men (from the Confession of the Righteous Soul, Book of the Dead-Egyptian)
• Do not murder (Jewish--Exodus 20:13)
• Terrify not men or God will terrify thee (Ancient Egyptian Precepts)
• In Nastrond (Hell), I saw murderers. (Old Norse)
• I have not brought misery upon my fellows.  I have not made the beginning of every day laborious in the sight of him who worked for me (see first ref. above)
• I have not been grasping (ibid.)
• Who mediates oppression, his dwelling is overturned (Babylonian)
• He who is cruel and calumnious has the character of a cat (Hindu)
• Slander not (Babylonian)
• Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor (Ancient Jewish--Exodus 20:16)
• Utter not a word by which anyone could be wounded (Hindu)
• Has he driven an honest man from his family?  ..broken up a well-cemented clan?  (Babylonian List of Sins)
• I have not caused hunger.  I have not caused weeping (Ancient Egyptian)
• Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you (Ancient Chinese--Confucius)
• Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart (Ancient Jewish--Leviticus)
• He whose heart is in the smallest degree set upon goodness will dislike no one (Ancient Chinese--Confucius)

Obviously, just because a culture has embodied these principles as its highest values, it does not mean that either individuals or the culture as a whole has lived up to them.  But at least up until the present time, the principles have been handed down from one generation to another.  Today, it is up to parents alone to preserve these universal values.  It is difficult in our western schools to educate the "heart" of children without being accused of being politically incorrect.