Preparing the Way of the Lord

  "The voice of one crying out in the desert: 'Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.'  Every valley shall be filled and every mountain and hill shall be made low." [Luke, quoting Isaiah]

I used to wonder why we wanted to fill in the valley and lower the mountains and hills until I discovered the Roman custom of preparing the way of conquering generals and heroes.  When men went off to war, to conquer new lands for the kingdom of Rome, they took captives as slaves, bringing them back to Rome with great ceremony and fanfare.  Before the triumphant procession into the city could occur, however, slaves were sent out to "prepare the way" for the conquering hero. 

Rough roads were  filled in and made smooth for the wheels of the chariot; it would not do to have the new hero topple out of an overturned chariot.  Any obstacle in the road would be removed.  The hero was to ride in on a wave of triumph and cheers -- the procession could not be stopped to remove roadblocks, stones, animals, etc. 

In the case of the coming of the Lord, we are dealing in spiritual realities.  The "low places" and the roadblocks are much more serious and more difficult to smooth out and/or remove.  There are things in our lives which block the arrival of Jesus Christ in our hearts -- "valleys" of despair or of darkness, and "roadblocks" of coveted sin that are more precious to us than the light.

John puts it this way:  He came into His own, but his own did not receive Him....The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

In preparing for Christmas, we see a world within and without that is so full of darkness, it is about to disintegrate.  Our own lives have places that have not yet been conquered by Jesus Christ, because we are holding on so tightly to sin.  And the world in general begins now to frighten even very small children.  The darkness seems to be advancing rapidly, overtaking every land and culture.

Preparing the way of the Lord this year means removing whatever obstacles prevent His coming more fully into our hearts and lives.  As for the world at large, we can only pray for conversion.

Baptism in the Holy Spirit

I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit (Mark 1:8).

 

As Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased."

 

It is amazing to me that I grew up hearing these 2 passages read in church, but somehow never connected either of them with my own life.  Would not you think that if someone said to you, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit," you would investigate what that meant?

 

Maybe because we were baptized as infants, we thought we had already received the Holy Spirit and that was the end of that.  And of course, we never expect to hear a voice from heaven speaking to us, even if we are baptized as adults.  And yet, if as adult Christians, we belong to Christ and we are IN CHRIST, we should expect to experience what He experienced in the flesh.  He takes on our life that we might take on His life, especially in its relationship to the Father and to the Holy Spirit.

 

John said, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit," and Luke adds, "and with fire."  If we have not yet experienced the fire, we may indeed "have" the Holy Spirit, but He does not yet "have" us.  Years ago, a someone I had met only briefly called me out of the blue.  "I don't know why I think you might have the answer to this," she said to me, "but I feel like a numb, dumb Catholic.  I go to church every Sunday, and sometimes the priest fusses about people coming in late, and I want to stand up and say, 'Father, if there were something to be here for, we'd be on time!'  Do you know what I'm missing?"

 

Actually, I did know what she was missing.  Our faith was never supposed to be "numb' and 'dumb,' in her words.  If we look at the Acts of the Apostles, we find fire, the "fire" that Jesus came to cast upon the earth.  We find the Holy Spirit at work on every page, and there was nothing boring about anyone's faith.  In fact, we get the picture of the Apostles hanging on to the Holy Spirit's coattails.  There are no organizational meetings (although there was the first Council of Jerusalem), no "planning sessions."  Rather, we find the early Christians meeting daily in the Temple area, praising God; we find numbers being added daily to the group; and we find the Apostles going about doing the works of Jesus. 

 

If we find our religion boring, non-exciting, maybe it's time to ask for the "Baptism in the Holy Spirit," the one that Jesus promised to His followers as "The Gift of the Father."  I once had a friend who said, "If God is handing out gifts, I'm standing in line!"  That should be our attitude every day:  "Whatever You're giving out today, don't leave me out!"

 

God the Father wants to bestow on us the Gift of the Holy Spirit.  It is the Spirit of His only Son, Jesus, and He wants to fill the entire world with that Gift.  If we and others do not know that we are His beloved children, in whom He is well pleased, we cannot tell others about the Gift of the Father.  If we are not filled with the Spirit of God, we cannot tell anyone about the love of the Father given to us in the Son. 

 

In two of the Gospels, Jesus tells us specifically to ASK for the Gift of the Spirit (Matthew 7 and Luke 11):  Seek and you shall find; knock and the door will be opened....everyone who asks receives.....  Jesus died in the flesh that we might live in His Spirit.  He wants us to know His internal life of fellowship with the Father and with the Spirit.  He wants us to enter even now into the eternal life of the Trinity. 

 

What is it that keeps us from knocking at that door, seeking the Holy Spirit, and asking the Father for the Gift He wants to bestow on us?  Is it fear that if we ask and don't receive, we will be too disappointed?  Is it a lack of faith that Jesus meant what He said?  Faith is believing and acting on what God has said.  And of all the things we are to act on, this is surely the easiest of all:  seek, knock, ask.

 

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.  "Baptize" means to immerse completely, to "dye," to "soak thoroughly."  If we have not been entirely soaked in the Holy Spirit, something still remains for us.  Let us not be afraid to ask for this baptism and to continue asking until we receive the Gift of the Father.

Does God Speak to Us Today?

The religion of the ancient Hebrews was based upon the belief that God can and does speak to man (John McKenzie, S.J. : The Two-Edged Sword, p. 22).

 

There are 400 years between the Testaments when "no prophet had arisen in Israel," when both the common people and the leaders were awaiting once again "The Word of the Lord."  Malachi was the last prophet before Jesus to speak in the Name of the Lord, and we can date that scroll to around 460 BCE, dealing with the problems of the people returning from captivity in Babylon.  Judah was still subject to Persia, even though they had been permitted to return to their own land by Cyrus.  Now they had to re-establish their government and to formulate laws to govern both civil and religious conduct.  Malachi was the last Old Testament prophet to give guidance to Israel in the Name of the Lord.

 

When Ezra returned to Jerusalem from Babylon, he brought with him the "book of the law of the Lord," but he did not receive the "Word of the Lord" as had the prophets before him.  Four hundred years after the exile (587-536), during the time of the Maccabees, Judas Maccabee and his sons seem sadly aware that the age of prophecy had past.  Not knowing what to do with the stones of the altar that had been polluted, they put them away until a prophet should come to tell them what to do.

 

Many people today would maintain that the age of prophecy has past, that God no longer speaks to His people, that we have no more prophets.  The book of Hebrews tells us, though, that "in these last days, God has spoken to us by His Son....[Who] is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by His powerful word."  His words are recorded in the New Testament for us, but it still takes a "living Word" from the Holy Spirit to breathe life into the Book -- to make it come alive for us.

 

If what we do matters to God, He must still speak to us through the Holy Spirit.  In fact, Jesus promised that the Spirit, when He comes, would lead us into all truth. Surely, that means that the Spirit continues to breathe wisdom and knowledge into the Body of Christ.

 

Someone once said, "Every child has the right to know what his father expects of him."  We do not often recognize the voice of God speaking to us, for it often sounds like our own voice or the voice of our parents.  But if we cultivate the time and space we need to still our own voice, we will hear God speaking in our hearts.

 

Scripture is the starting place -- we need to eat and digest the words of Jesus, but it takes the Holy Spirit "breathing" into the words on the page to show us which Scripture is meant for us at that moment.  In the wilderness, Satan quoted Psalm 191, but Jesus countered with a word from Deuteronomy.  Even our reading of Scripture must be directed by the Holy Spirit. 

 

Jesus said, "My sheep know My Voice...."  Surely that means He is still speaking to us from within.  Open our ears, Lord, to hear Your Voice!

 



War Room

The Lord asks only this:  that we be in communion with Him and at the service of our brothers and sisters (Pope Francis: General Audience, Nov. 19th, 2014).

 

It comes down to this---only 2 things:  Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole mind, and your whole strength; and love your neighbor as yourself.  It is really very simple after all, but sometimes it takes a re-wording of the commandments to make us see it. 

 

What does it feel like to "be in communion with Him"?  Have we ever stopped to find out, to give it a chance, to "taste" it?  I remember when my youngest daughter was small -- she rejected cheesecake outright because of the name.  Wouldn't even take the tiniest taste.  Sounded horrible and disgusting.  Until the day she finally gave in and tasted it.  What a revelation!  "THAT'S cheesecake?!" Now it was her favorite dessert.

 

I am convinced that most of us refuse to "taste and see" the sweetness of the Lord because we think we must be doing something, that we must be in control of circumstances.  We think that "communion with God" is doing nothing because we have no idea that He will actually DO something about our circumstances. 

 

What if we decided to experiment with "communion with God" for one day?  What if we took a Sabbath Day for finding out what it feels like?  "Loving the Lord our God with our whole hearts" sounds like work, but what does "communion with God" actually feel like?  We have six days to work, but only one day to receive.  But most of us would prefer to work on the Sabbath rather than to lie down beside still waters and receive the love of God.  What if we lay down under a tree and closed our eyes and let our minds drift into the Reality that is God?  That's not "work," is it?  What if we went fishing and let the boat drift for awhile, closing our eyes -- or just gazing at the clouds? 

 

Most of us don't want to be still and KNOW that He is God.  It feels better to be in control, to be doing something, to be manipulating circumstances -- but what if we just stood still instead for awhile and let ourselves be loved by God? 

 

Sometimes it does not happen until our backs are up against the wall and we have nowhere to turn.  Then we are forced to be still and let ourselves be loved.  Yesterday, I saw the movie War Room.  It probably will not get much publicity because it is a Christian movie, but it is a very powerful experience, one that should be seen on the big screen.  It made me want to come home and pray, convinced me that the best thing we can do is to stand still and be in communion with God.  Sometimes our best strategy is to let Him do the fighting for us!

What is our Reality?

As I sat down to pray this morning, I noticed on the table beside my chair the CD jacket of the movie we watched yesterday:  French Kiss, a cute movie starring Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline.  Remembering some of the scenes from the movie, I began to smile and re-live them -- the scene of her fear of flying, for example, and the scene in the hotel dining room where she makes a fool of herself after spotting her finance with another woman. 

As I reminisced the movie, suddenly a few passages from Practical Mysticism by Evelyn Underhill began to drift in and out of my consciousness:

We know a thing only by uniting with it; by assimilating it; by an interpenetration of it and ourselves.  It gives itself to us, just in so far as we give ourselves to it.....

 

Wisdom is the fruit of communion; ignorance the inevitable portion of those who keep themselves to themselves, and stand apart, judging, analyzing the things which they have never truly known.....

 

The question is really this:  What, out of the mass of material offered to it, shall consciousness seize upon -- with what aspects of the universe shall it unite?

 

When I first read these words, I was thinking of my experience in Disneyland, in the kaleidoscope room.  There, the crowd stands in the center of a huge room while around the many walls (think of the inside of an octagon, multiplied by 4 or 5) are projected multiple images or scenes of wilderness, nature, animals, etc.  There is no time to relish, "love," or appreciate any one of the images, as they are constantly replaced by others.  One cannot "unite" himself with any one of the images, no matter how beautiful they are or how much we desire to stop the projector for even a moment. 

 

Life is somewhat like that experience -- except that we repeatedly DO stop the projector and select images and experiences we want to savor, appreciate, re-live, and rehearse.  Fortunately, as human beings, we have the capacity to choose, select, and hold on to a few of the many experiences life offers us.  Those with which we choose to unite become our Reality -- they form the world in which we live. 

 

If we choose to re-live, review, and unite ourselves with the negative, or evil, experiences, that becomes our Reality, our world.  We can re-live, review, and rehearse those experiences daily until they crowd out and overshadow every other experience.  Or we can choose to re-live, review, and rehearse the lovely, the desirable, the wonderful experiences we have had.  We can enter into communion with the true, the beautiful, the wondrous, the awesome things around us --- including the spiritual world where God has revealed Himself to us. 

 

As I mentally reviewed the movie this morning, I was re-enjoying the experience of watching it all over again.  And certainly that is one of the gifts of memory -- the ability to re-live our enjoyable experiences.  However, I also realized during those moments that I had the capacity to enter into and enjoy all the gifts of the Spirit that have been given to me, and that however innocent my moments of re-enjoyment of the movie, I was choosing to unite myself with that experience during my time of prayer.

 

Our daily Reality depends upon those aspects of life we choose to remember, upon those with which we choose to unite ourselves with love and "communion."  When we come to pray, we can unite ourselves with the Holy Spirit, and rehearse the things that God had done for us, Who He has become for us -- or we can  spend the time rehearsing what has "happened" to us -- what other people have done to us.  The choice we make will dictate the rest of our day, even our lives. 

 

Mary said to Elizabeth:  My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior -- because she was remembering, re-living, and rejoicing in all that she had heard and felt during her time of prayer.  She was remembering and rejoicing in what God was doing for her and for Israel, rather than the "reality" of the Roman world in which they lived.  So many of us spend our time in remembering, reliving, and rehearsing what our neighbors have done or said, what our families have done or said, what our co-workers have done or said, that our Reality becomes focused on this small world rather than the inexpressibly expansive world of the Holy Spirit -- what God is doing in this world for us.

 

If we lift our minds and hearts to God on a daily, even hourly, basis, what He is doing will certainly overshadow what the world is doing.  And the result in our spirits will be what Mary experienced: joy and peace in the midst of all circumstances.  Paul's Letter to the Philippians, chapter 4, is great advice:

 

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable-- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things....and the God of peace will be with you.





On Fear and Peace

You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is stayed on thee (Is. 26:3).

 

I will take refuge under the shadow of Your wings

until the disaster has passed me by (Ps. 57:2).

 

We were just getting ready to leave for church when the mailman arrived.  Opening the latest statement from Blue Cross/ Blue Shield, I read that they had denied my claim for the gall bladder surgery in July and that I now owed the hospital $39,000.  The doctors' bills had not yet been recorded.

 

Fear gripped my heart almost to the point of hyperventilation.  I could hardly breathe.  But we headed out to church -- the mailman's timing could not have been better.  During the Mass, I realized that I had a choice:  I could focus on the potential problem with the fear and worry it engendered, or I could turn in confidence to God.  On the one hand was fear; on the other was peace. 

 

Immediately as I began to focus on Jesus, my spirit seemed to embrace the words, Your Father in heaven knows that you need these things.  Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and everything else will be given to you besides.

 

Later, this came to me:  If you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, "Be removed and cast into the sea," and it would obey you.  The more I focused on the Lord, the more peaceful and calm and assured I felt.  Since I could not call the insurance company over the weekend, it was so good to feel the peace of the Lord and later, to be able to fall asleep without worry that evening.

 

One of the promises given to us in the Old Testament is that God would put His law in our minds and write it on our hearts.  Here, His "law" means His instruction, His teaching, His guidance, and it is given to us at our hour of need.  The benefit of being familiar with the written word of God is that is jumps off the pages for us when we need to hear it, when there is no time to "look it up." 

 

This morning, as I went to my desk, I found my inspirational calendar still turned to Aug. 11 (today is the 16th).  And here was the Scripture quotation and commentary:

 

Take therefore no thought for the morrow (Matt. 6:34).

 

Have we been slandering God by worrying when He has said, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you"?

 

Now, as I have time, I can go through the psalms and find one passage after another that comforts me:

 

But for those who fear you, you have raised a banner to be unfurled against the bow (60:4).

 

On my bed I remember you;

I think of you through the watches of the night.

Because you are my help,

I sing in the shadow of your wings.

I stay close to you;

your right hand upholds me (63:6-8).

 

It is good to have a storehouse of Scripture to keep us in peace in time of danger or threat of danger. Over the years, I have marked, underlined, and annotated my Bible, even dating certain passages.  Today, those passages stand out for me as I page through the Scriptures.  But even better, they stand out in my mind when I do not have access to the Book  -- and they allow me to sleep peacefully at night! 

 



 



The Source of Power (Strength/ Authority) in Life

Now Joshua, son of Nun, was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him.  So the Israelites listened to him and did what the Lord had commanded Moses (Deut. 34:9).

 

The spiritual life is a matter of biology-- it has immediate bearing on our lives (Evelyn Underhill:  The Life of the Spirit and the Life of Today)

 

In the Epistle to the Corinthians, Paul says, "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit given to all."  Everything we do expresses the spirit that is within us.  After Hurricane Katrina, the spirit that lay at the heart of each person began to express itself outwardly.  As at the first day of creation, there was only light and there was dark; there were no greys.  Some rose to heroic expressions of self-sacrifice and self-giving; others began to loot and to take advantage of the suffering of others.   The spirit that inhabited each man and woman rose to full expression of being in that moment of crisis.

Every one of us has a basic instinct for fullness of life.  Everything we crave, dream, or think is an expression of one psychic energy that lies deep within us.  We are all called to one life -- to beauty, to truth, and to the service of mankind.  The more deeply and fully we recognize and love that Spirit of God within us, the nearer we draw to it, the more we experience its transforming and energizing power.  The more we bury, deny, and suppress our vocation to love, to be like God, the more evil takes over our lives.

The central business of religion is finding, experiencing, and knowing Eternal Life.  The Baltimore Catechism that most of us grew up with said this:  Why did God make me?  God made me to know Him, love Him, and serve Him in this life and to be happy forever with Him in heaven.  Religion is committed to achieving an integration, a synthesis, of human nature and divine Spirit-- lifting up the whole of life to a greater reality.  Those who deny access to the Spirit of God are condemned to live for the flesh alone; they will never know the strength, the power, the authority--the Spirit of wisdom-- that Joshua lived during his lifetime.

When we speak of the Incarnation, we mean that the Word of God -- the Power, the Strength, the Authority that created the heavens and the earth-- entered our world and dwelt among us.  God Himself became real with us, to us, among us.  We saw Him; we ate with him; we heard Him with our own ears and saw Him with our own eyes.  Our lives, too, must become incarnational.  That is, the Spirit of God must express in us and through us all that God is.  The essence of spirituality is to express the Divine in all that we do. 

Failing to seek and to integrate God's Holy Spirit in our lives inevitably means a loss of power, a relapse to the lower level of nature and a smaller world for us.