Hesed

If we carry one another's burdens, we will have fulfilled the whole law.

But first, we must have experienced the lovingkindness of others, of our God, who daily bears our burdens.  "Lovingkindness" in Hebrew is chesed (or hesed); we have no real equivalent in English.  

Yesterday, I was listening briefly to someone on the radio whose theme was "a generous world is a better world."  I wish I could have heard the whole broadcast, but caught only a portion of it, in which his 16-year-old son was telling his story.  Tim had grown up watching and listening to his father, who lived generously to strangers and friends alike, so he decided when he entered high school to overcome his tendency to make life about himself.  On the first day of high school, he saw a boy in his class who was shorter than average and who seemed to be afraid and alone.  Usually Tim would have ignored such a kid in favor of hanging out with his own friends, but on this day, he decided to overcome his natural tendency, so went over to make friends with the lonely kid.  Tim reported that by the end of the first week of school, his own friends were accepting and including the short kid, and they remained friends the rest of high school.  

Reading the Gospels, we find Yahweh moving among His people, gathering the outcasts and bearing their burdens, even to the shame of being crucified with the criminals.  Jesus shows us the face of God when He stoops to write in the dust the sins of those who condemn the woman caught in adultery, saying to them, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone."  Lovingkindness/ hesed.

When He speaks to the lonely woman at the well---"Give me a drink."

When He heals the leper who cannot eat and drink with others, who cannot enter the temple to worship with others;

When He heals the woman with the issue of blood who cannot be a part of society for 17 years;

When He says to Matthew, the hated tax collector, "Follow Me."

When He sits at table with tax collectors and sinners, bearing their burden of being the outcasts and looked-down-upon.  Lovingkindness/ hesed.

The man on the radio whose name I do not know was advocating that we "live generously" every day.  It's a new concept for most of us, but one I am willing to try.   When we look at the great saints throughout history, this is what we find in a nutshell -- those who lived generously, not worrying about their reputations, their convenience, their egos.  One of the tennis shoe brand names -- Nike-- has a motto: Just do it!

Somehow, that seems to wrap up the whole law of our God -- just do it: live generously, and you will fulfill the whole law of Christ!  

Unopened Treasure

One of the things I love about Catholicism is its hidden treasures of the past.  Once you begin reading people like Augustine, Ignatious of Antioch, Gregory of Nyssa, Teresa of Avila, Therese of Liseux, Henry Cardinal Newman, C.S.Lewis (although not technically Catholic)... modern writings seem pale by comparison.  And one of the things that keep me from writing on a regular basis is my reading of these great treasures.  I always think, "They have said it all; what can I add?"

However, the truth is that for most people today, these treasure remain hidden and unread. Instead of my trying to enter into the circle of the greats, I should just be satisfied with bringing some of these treasures to the light of our 21st-century awareness.  And one of the treasure chests I'd like to open today is that of Gertrude the Great, or Gertrude of Helfta (1256-1301).  Like Hildegaard of Bingen, this woman was a spiritual giant, a German Benedictine nun, mystic, and scholar.  Since she can easily be found on the internet, I'll skip the rest of her accomplishments in order to present one of her joyful prayer-hymns:

With the well-tuned, harmonious harp of your divine heart,
and through the power of your Holy Spirit, the Paraclete,
I sing to you, Lord God, lovable Father.
I sing you songs of praise and thanksgiving for all creatures
in heaven, on earth, and under the earth, 
for all which are and were and will be born.

I give you thanks to the best of my ability, Lord God.
You created and re-create me.
Thank you for your kind forgiveness
and for reassuring me of your unending love,
flowing down from up above.

Be my honor, Lord,
my joy, 
my beauty,
my consolation in sorrow,
my counsel in uncertainty,
my defense in everything unfair,
my patience in problems,
my abundance in poverty,
my food in fasting,
my sleep in vigilance,
and my therapy in weakness.

Such richness we have --- unopened treasures of song and thought!

O Beauty Ever Ancient! O Beauty Ever New!

Recently I decided not to order any more tea online (Amazon makes it so easy) until I have used up or thrown away what has been accumulating in the back of the cupboard for several years.  I came across a tightly sealed tin with a label:  Packed especially for _______ on October 8, 2010, with the name of the specialty tea.  "Well, this cannot possibly still be good!" I thought.  And then, because it was loose tea, I probably put it away with the thought of buying a teapot or at least a tea caddy before trying it.  But I forgot, as is not unusual with me.

Now that I have both a teapot and a tea caddy, I had nothing to lose by at least trying it -- a Chinese special white tea by the name of Pai Mu Tan.  It had been a gift from my daughter, and, with guilt for not appreciating her effort so long ago, I felt that the least I could do was to try it.  After 10 years, the tea was absolutely delicious -- a delicate blend with a robust flavor -- not something you can find in the grocery store!  How is it that it is not stale, old tea? 

For some reason this morning as I sipped the tea, I was reminded of St. Augustine's famous cry, Late have I loved Thee, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new!  I typed in those words to Google and found the entire quote:

Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new; late have I loved you! You were within me, but I was outside, and it was there that I searched for you. In my unloveliness I plunged into the lovely things which you created. You were with me, but I was not with you. Created things kept me from you; yet if they had not been in you they would have not been at all. You called, you shouted, and you broke through my deafness. You flashed, you shone, and you dispelled my blindness. You breathed your fragrance on me; I drew in breath and now I pant for you. I have tasted you, now I hunger and thirst for more. You touched me, and I burned for your peace.”

How is it that my childhood faith of almost 80 years has not grown old, grown stale?  St. Augustine' Confessions reveals his search for beauty, truth, and goodness in everything that could be found outside of himself -- the perennial search in all of us.  And when we find what we are looking for, it is usually tucked far in the back of our own hearts.  It was there all the time, and we failed to recognize it as the object of our search!  

What Jesus wants to give us is not a religion, but rather His own relationship with the Father.  We reject the religion of our childhood as outdated, old-fashioned, no longer suited to our new sophisticated taste.  And yet, when we finally touch the beauty we have been looking for, we find that it was there all along.  We just had failed to "taste" what had been tightly sealed in the container we call "religion."  

It is the job of the Holy Spirit to take what is "ancient" and to make it "new" for us, to make it come alive with freshness.  Jesus once said, "You cannot pour new wine into old wineskins, for the new wine will burst the old skins."  We cannot pour the new, fresh, beauty He offers us into old forms -- everything must be made new again, including our hearts to receive the beauty He offers.  Do not cast your pearls before swine, He tells us, for they will crush your pearls underfoot, and turn and tear you to pieces.

The beauty is the same as it ever was, but our hearts are not prepared to receive it without a "second touch" from the Holy Spirit.  We cannot see what is ever before us, what has been always offered to us, before our eyes have been opened and our hearts softened by the grace from above.  I long to offer what I see and hear to others, but there is only One Person who can ever give the Gift of the Father, the Holy Spirit, who makes all things new.

When religion has gone stale, when it no longer satisfies us, we can always ask once again for the Gift which makes all things new, the one Gift from above, the Holy Spirit.  In Him, we discover the Beauty ever ancient, ever new!

Fr. Michel Rodrigue Has Received Prophetic Knowledge of the Future of th...

This One Thing

One thing that always draws me to God is His utter simplicity.  Where I tend to complicate and confuse, He utters One Word that simplifies, clarifies, and brings light.  As at the beginning, He still speaks, Light! Be!  And it was as He had said. 

The first time I experienced the utter simplicity of God was after my third child was born.  For a few months, I thought I was coping with the needs of a husband, a four-year old, a two-year old, and an infant.  But the lack of sleep, the inability to get the beds made every day, the diapers washed, and the meals cooked eventually caught up with me.  Everywhere I turned, I met a sense of overwhelming failure and inability to cope.  Someone was always crying; someone was always being neglected. Not only did I not know how to cook; I didn't know how to plan ahead for meals, so there was always a sense of panic:  What are we going to eat today?  Do I have the ingredients? Is there time to prepare that meal?  

Little by little, I was overcome, losing confidence that I could solve the problems of each day.  As a natural problem solver, I was done in.  Finally, the day came that I called my husband at work:  "I don't know what is wrong with me, but I can't stop crying," I said.  At that moment, I remembered a friend of mine telling me that when her life had fallen to pieces, there was someone at the Cenacle who "helped me glue back the pieces of my life."  (The Cenacle was a local retreat house in New Orleans run by a group of nuns who were trained as counselors.)

I called the Cenacle and was told there was no retreat that weekend, but that I was welcome to come spend a few days with them.  My husband took off a few days from work, and I went to the Cenacle.  It was there that the nun asked me, "Who is God to you?"  I have written about my answer a few days ago.  The morning I was preparing to leave the Cenacle, as I packed my bag, I heard a bird singing and singing and singing.  Turning to face the window, I saw a beautiful cardinal perched on the ledge of my window, singing its heart out.  All of a sudden, the thought went through my entire being: You don't have to solve all the problems; you just have to get up each morning and sing!

At that moment, I realized that I had been thinking that I would go back to the same situation, where I once again would be unable to cope with sick children, sleepless nights, uncooked meals, and dirty diapers.  And yet.....God's answer was utterly simple.  He was not changing the situation; He was about to change my response to it!  I started laughing at my too-serious attitude to what I could not do each day.  I wanted to be, if not "perfect," at least "capable" and in control of the situation.  Little by little, I relinquished my need to be on top of what I could not control.   I learned to sing --- not in tune, I grant you -- but I gradually learned to not care about how badly I sang. 

From that day, I learned to watch for cardinals, who always remind me that I'm not in charge and that things are never as serious as I make them out to be.  Throughout all of Scripture, God's words and His commands are utterly simple:  Leave your father and mother and go to the land I will show you!  The Ten Commandments are actually in Hebrew just "Ten Words."  God's command to Peter was, What I have cleansed, do not thou call unclean! (Acts 10).

Jesus' words were so simple -- The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent! (John 6).  We want to make things complicated, but when God speaks to our situations, He makes things utterly simple.

The God of My Tomorrow

First, some housekeeping:  at my last post, I quoted Lewis from memory, suspecting the passage was from Mere Christianity, but too lazy to look for it.  My sister, more diligent than I, found it easily.  Here is the full quote in context:

If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be 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 which God could, if He chose, hand out to anyone. They are a great fountain of energy and beauty spurting up at the very 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?”

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If we learn anything from salvation history, it's that God is not in a hurry.  It took Him around 2000 years to prepare the Jewish nation for the coming of its Messiah.  Beginning with Abraham, Yahweh slowly formed first a man who could trust him, then a family -- and that was anything but easy --- and even tougher, finally a nation.  And always, at every stage, the people looked back on its history in order to move forward:  "I am the God of your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. ..... I brought your forefathers out of Egypt, that land of slavery......As I was with Moses, so I will be with you."

Because of its experience with the God of the fathers, Israel was able to walk into the future.  In fact, as they entered the Promised Land and discovered that Yahweh was still acting on their behalf, they constructed stone monuments in various areas as reminders to future generations.  They called these structures "Ebenezer," meaning, "Thus far has God helped us/ been with us."  Visible reminders, along with the stories that accompanied them, gave the Israelites courage and faith that God was guiding their history.

In a similar way, reflecting on where God has been for us in the past, thinking about how He has guided our decisions and paths, can be a strong impetus to our own faith and courage to open our lives to Him today.  In 1976, at a sort of crisis in my own life, someone asked me, "Who is God to you?"  I had the evening to think about my answer, one that surprised me.  No one had ever asked me that question before, so I was sort of coasting on a vague and general understanding of who God was to me.

The next morning ( I was at a retreat center, talking to a counselor), I replied, "God is the God of my past, occasionally of my present, but He is not the God of my future.  I worry about what may happen tomorrow and the next day, and I think maybe I don't really trust God."  

What I explained was that I could almost always look back and see where God had been in my life, where I had taken this turn instead of that one --- and occasionally I could experience God in the present moment, perhaps in prayer, but for the most part, I figured I was in charge of the next step and feared that I was not prepared to handle it.  The question I was asked was a powerful one, for looking back, I think that may have been the moment when I wanted to know and trust the God of My Tomorrow.

When David faced Goliath as a young man, his courage came from reflecting on Who God had been for him in the past: 

Saul replied: You are not able to go out against this Philistine and fight him; you are only a boy, and he has been a fighting man from his youth."

But David said to Saul, "Your servant has been keeping his father's sheep.  When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it and rescued the sheep from its mouth.  When it turned on me, I seized it by its hair, struck it and killed it.  Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; ....The Lord who delivered me from the pa of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine" (I Samuel 17).

In biblical terms, this "speech," if you will, is called "Theology of Recital."  That is, like the Israelites who built monuments across the land and told stories about how God had helped them in that spot, David recited stories of where God had been in his past.  

Our past is a signpost to our future if indeed we can identify the landmarks:  "Here I was helped," and "There I was directed."  Contrary to popular belief, faith is not a "leap in the dark," but rather a sound reflection on where and Who God has been for us in the past.  There is a popular song called "Will you love me tomorrow?"  I love the melody, and finally, I love changing the words to "You are the God of my tomorrow!"  I could not be more thankful!

Eternal Life

If we want eternal life, we must get very close to, or even into, the thing that has it. 

(C.S.Lewis)

I hope I have not misquoted Lewis above; I am "quoting" from memory here, and his writings are so vast that I have no idea where I might find this particular item.  If I happen to stumble across the source anytime soon, I will reference it and correct any mistake I have made.  

In the Gospel of John, there are numerous references to "eternal life," and these references, in contrast to those in Lewis's writings, are easy to look up.  In the 6th chapter, for example, Jesus asks the apostles if they, too, want to leave Him after "many of His disciples" are "grumbling" about His teaching on eating His flesh and drinking His blood.  Peter's answer was, "Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life!"

In our western mentality and understanding, "eternal life" translates to "everlasting life," or living forever, a state many people cannot begin to imagine or even care about.  Because our thinking is so bound to time and space, it is much easier to accept the idea that once we die, life is over -- and that's okay for many people.  Since they cannot imagine what an afterlife might consist in, they have not much interest in floating around in a disembodied state, maybe singing hymns and seeing other disembodied souls.  

I have a friend whose joy is that, in the words of Carl Sagan, we are created out of stardust.  For her, death simply means that our energy returns to the earth to feed its overall health.  And for her, that is all she asks.  It is not that she is rejecting God; it is just that, like many people, she has never gotten around to entering into great intimacy with Him.  Our lives are busy, and the world is full of beauty -- enough to satisfy us for a time.  When our time is up, we are finished with the world and all it offers us, and that is okay.

What our Western understanding of eternal life fails to reveal to us is what the Greek language, the language of the Bible, reveals so clearly:  the words "eternal life" refer to a quality of life, not the duration of life.  In the Greek, "bio" and "psuche" are the terms for the physicality and duration, or length, of life.  For example,in Matthew 2:20, an angel appears to Joseph in a dream, he says, "Get up, take the child and his mother and to to the land of Israel, for those who were trying to take the child's life are dead."   Again, in Matthew 6:25, Jesus says, "... do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear..."  In these two places, the Greek word used is psuche, or "breath," the animal sentient principle only, as distinguished from the rational and immortal soul (pneuma) and from zoe, which means "vitality," "energy."

In Matthew 14, Jesus says "Enter through the narrow gate.  For wide and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.  But small is the gate and narrow is the road that leads to life, and only a few find it."  Here, although He does not use the term "eternal life," in the Greek, the term used is zoe, referring to energy, vitality, living, or in common use, the "beautiful life."

When we get to the Gospel of John, every reference to what we translate "life" is zoe in the Greek:  In Him was life, and that life was the light of men....God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that men might not perish but have everlasting life....I will give you a spring of water welling up to eternal life....  The first time in the Gospel that "psuche" (breath) is used is when Jesus says the Good Shepherd will lay down His life/psuche/breath for His sheep (John 10).

The woman at the well had "psuche," breath; what she lacked was "zoe," vitality/ energy/ the beautiful life.  What she craved was "eternal" life; she already had the other kind and she was miserable and lonely.  When she returns to her village, shouting to the others to come, "see a man who told me everything I ever did," we can sense in her manner an energy, a love, and a life that she had never before possessed -- eternal life!  She is joyful, full, overflowing, unable to contain this new energy.  She is no longer fearful of the opinions of others, or "careful for her own 'psuche/breath/life;'" she has been born again to eternal life, life that no one can take from her.  

THIS is the life we all seek even before we die -- this energy, vitality, love, beauty -- the life of children who do not worry, but who enter into each day with joy and excitement.  If we want this this life, we must get close to, or even into, the thing that has it, in the words of C.S. Lewis!