A Voice in the Wilderness

 On this third Sunday of Advent, we read about John the Baptist who identified himself as "a voice crying in the wilderness, make straight the path of the Lord."

And I wonder if all of us, despite our shortcomings and insufficiencies, could at least be "a voice," making clear to others what we have seen and heard of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.  Speaking not so much what we "believe" about Jesus, but rather telling of what we have experienced of Him.  I keep going back to Thomas Aquinas saying that man is a "knower," not a thinker.  That is, we know what we have seen, tasted, smelled, and touched more than what we have heard about from others.  

In his first letter, John the Evangelist says, That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched -- this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us.  We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you may have fellowship with us.

It seems to me that people believe in Jesus at some point in their lives because of what they have experienced of Him.  Up to a point, we are Christians because of our culture, our inheritance, or our education.  But if we have not "seen with our eyes, touched with our hands," faith eventually becomes an abstraction non-competitive with the things we "know" for ourselves.

And that is where prayer becomes irreplaceable.  If our early faith has not drawn us to prayer, we have no relationship with God -- and thus we have not experienced His Presence and action in our lives.  And without seeing for ourselves what we have heard from others, we fail to believe and thus to trust. Our faith grows cold for lack of evidence.

C.S.Lewis as an atheist had often heard about belief from his friend Tolkein, but it was not until "the most reluctant convert in all of England" got down on his knees and began to pray that Lewis began to enter into a life-long relationship with God.  And as a result of that relationship, "surprised by joy," Lewis himself became a voice crying out in the wilderness, testifying to what he himself had seen and heard of the Divine.

It was the joy that Lewis experienced, the joy for which he had yearned his entire life, that convinced him of the reality of Christ.  It was what he himself had seen and heard, had touched with his own hands, that he proclaimed to the world.  So with all of us!

Knowing God

Now this is eternal life: that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent (Jn. 17:3)

  I have written before about "eternal life," not as a series of unending days, but rather as a kind of vibrancy of life despite all else that human life may offer ---grief, sadness, boredom, poverty, etc.  The "pearl of great price" for which someone may give all that he has is a peace, joy, enthusiasm that over-rides daily vicissitudes.  And this eternal life is the gift of God given to us in Jesus!  It is nothing else but participation in divine life.

So the question today is how do we come to "know" God, the only true God, and Jesus Christ?  St. Thomas Aquinas says that man is a "knower," not a "thinker."  That is, while a great many people like to "think" God, there are a few --- let's hope a great many --- who actually "know" Him.  Over a period of a lifetime, they come to know Him in all the ways the Bible describes Him -- as their Shepherd, as a Shield, and as "the lifter of my head."  They come to know Him as a "rock," and a "hiding place," as Defender and Provider ("Give us this day our daily bread").  Above all, they come to know Him as Jesus revealed Him, as Father -- and Jesus as the Doorway to the Father ("No one comes to the Father but by Me!")

So how do we move from "thinking" God to "knowing" Him?  In this week's (Nov. 12) Sunday homily, Bishop Barron says that God is like a helicopter pilot looking for a place to land in our lives.  He is just waiting for us to clear a space for Him to land, to enter into our lives.  We tend to think that man has been looking for God, whereas God has been looking for us from the beginning.  We do not have to earn anything -- we just have to clear away enough of life's clutter to make an opening for Him to land.  

Usually, it is hardship or difficulty that creates the first space for God to enter --- when we have exhausted our own resources and run out of our own strength.  The moment we finally look up and say, "Help me!" is often the place of entry for God in our lives.  And when we begin to experience His nearness, His help, we begin to know Him.

In the desert of Arabia, the Egyptian slave girl Hagar encountered God.  Twice.  The first time, she had run away from the encampment of Abraham and Sarah because she was being mistreated.  But the angel of the Lord found her in the desert, and God promised her a great increase of descendants, just as He had promised Abraham.  At that time, Hagar gave God a name: You are the God who sees me!  She said, "I have now seen the One who sees me!"  She no longer "thought" about God; she had actually entered into a relationship with "the One who sees me."  She could live with confidence that she was seen and known by the living God.

Hagar's second recorded encounter with God comes in chapter 21 of Genesis, when Abraham sends her away because of conflict between the two women.  This time, "God heard the boy crying," and Hagar herself was sobbing. The angel said, "Do not be afraid, Hagar. God has heard the boy crying."  At that time, God (The One who sees me) provided water in the desert for her and her son.  Though Scripture does not record it, she may now have known God as "The One Who hears me!" (cf. Psalm 34).

If we are more confident that God is looking for a way to enter our lives, we may not have to wait for a disaster to open the door to Him.  Barron recommends 5 minutes a day to simply say, "I believe You want to come into my life!  I open the door now. Please let me know You as the One who sees me, the One who hears me!"

Words That Create

 As Saint Augustine has observed, all of us want a "blessed life," happiness.  We rarely know what it is like or how it will be, but we feel attracted to it.  This is a universal hope, common to men and women of all times and all places.  The expression "eternal life" aims to give a name to this irrepressible longing; it is not an unending succession of days, but an immersion of oneself in the ocean of infinite love, in which time, before and after, no longer exists.  A fullness of life and of joy: it is this that we hope for and await from our being with Christ.  (Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus 2008)

Jesus instructed His disciples:  Whatever house you enter, first say, "Peace be to this household!"  If a son of peace is there, it will remain upon him.  If not, it will return to you. (Luke 10:5)

Now the Hebrew word for "Peace" is Shalom.  However, "Shalom" means so much more than "Peace." When spoken to friends and family, the word includes the intentions for Safety, Welfare, Health, Prosperity, Quiet, Tranquility, Contentment, and Friendship.  This is what Benedict XIV refers to as a "blessed life," happiness, the goal of every man, woman, and child.

In his treatise on the Eucharist (This is My Body),  Bishop Robert Barron points out that there are words that describe or explain ("It's a beautiful sunset!), and there are words that create what they express, such as when an umpire cries, "You're OUT!  In the book of Genesis, we hear that creation occurred through a series of speech-acts.  When God spoke, "LIGHT! BE!" light was.  When He said, "Let the earth bring forth living creatures of every kind," so it happened.  The Divine Word is active, creative, and according to Hebrews 4:12, "sharper than any two-edged sword."  It does what it says!  So when Jesus said, "Peace be to you," it was no idle wish that peace would come to his listeners.  It was rather an active, creating word that accomplished what it said (See Is. 55:10-11).

When Jesus said at the Last Supper, "This is my Body," He did not say, "This is a symbol of My Body." He was not describing or explaining; He was creating.  His words create what they express!  and when we receive what He has created, He brings with Him His own Peace/ Shalom -- the blessed life for which we all hope and pray!  Peace be with you!

Who is God to You?

 I was reading Sirach recently and came across the beginning of Chapter 23, addressed as a prayer to God:  Lord, Father and Master of my life.....  

It helps to know here that the word translated as "Lord" in all of our Bibles is really Yahweh in the Hebrew.  The Jews would not pronounce the Sacred Name, so they inserted the vowels for Adonai (Lord) in their scriptures.  However, the Jewish mind was conditioned to know that "Lord" was code for Yahweh, the Name God gave to Moses.  Our minds have no such conditioning; to me, the appellation "Lord" is more abstract and less personal than Yahweh.  The former is a title; the latter a name, much as the English custom of calling someone "Lord Wentworth" rather than "James." 

So let us begin again with Yahweh, Father and Master of my life.... 

Immediately, this prayer has a different feel to it. Somehow, it feels as if God has immediately drawn closer to us, listening....

I venture to guess that most of us begin our prayers with " O God," followed by our requests, without recognizing or thinking about Who God is, Who is the Person we address in our prayer. And yet....spending some time recognizing the One to Whom we speak adds so much to our prayer and to our relationship with the Divine Being.  For the writer of Sirach, God is "Father and Master of my life," and the prayer thus becomes even more meaningful as he asks to be protected from careless speech that inadvertently harms others.

I have asked people who God is to them, and the first answer is usually "Creator."  or "Lord."  We don't get much beyond that, but then, they are not really in prayer, so the question is not fair in a sense.  Once we assume the attitude of prayer, however, we begin to move into another dimension, and the Holy Spirit comes to our aid, teaching us what to say.  

One of the greatest helps to knowing Who God Is is the Psalms.  For example, Psalm 17 says, To you I call, for you will surely heed me, O God. Turn your ear to me; hear my words. Guard me as the apple of your eye; in the shadow of your wings protect me.  Turning this prayer into recognition of God's Person might look like this:

Yahweh, You are the One who turns your ear to me and hears my words.  You guard me as the apple of your eye and protect me in the shadow of your wings.....Knowing this, I turn to You in my distress.  Help me, O Lord!  

Now, recognizing the One to Whom we pray, we have more confidence that our prayers are heard--- not because of who we are, but because of Who He Is! 

Why the Journey?

 From the time of Abraham, Genesis chapter 12, the pattern of the journey has run throughout Scripture: Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the Israelites...   And once the Israelites are settled in their own land, they are driven out to another kind of journey --- exile, and eventually the return to Israel.

I have often thought it worthwhile to deeply study the journey of Jacob.  We do not have enough details about Abraham's journey to see what the journey is all about.  But in the case of Jacob, we see daily struggles and questions along the way.  

When Jacob first flees from the anger of his brother Esau, he meets the God of Israel, the God of his fathers, who tells him:  I am the Lord, the God of your fathers Abraham and the God of Isaac.  I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.  ...All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you where you go, and I will bring you back to this land.  I will not leave you until I have done what I promised you.

Jacob's response to God's revelation was this:  If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear so that I return safely to my father's house, then the Lord [Yahweh] will be my God.

Jacob's journey is full of pain and struggles.  His father-in-law, Laban, is somewhat of a scoundrel, and Jacob the deceiver learns how painful it is to be deceived himself -- not only in the case of Rachel, but again and again over the next 20 years of deceitfulness on the part of Laban.  Through all of his struggles, however, the Spirit of God guides Jacob to victory.  In the end, he comes to peace/covenant not only with Laban but with his brother Esau, who had been angry enough to kill him at one point.

God renamed Jacob "Israel" because he had prevailed both with God and with man.  Toward the end of his life, Jacob instructs his sons to return to Bethel, where he had first met God, who answered me in my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone (Gen. 35).

In the book of Jeremiah, God says, For I know the plans I have for you...plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future... You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, and will bring you back from captivity....and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.

Our lives are journies full of fear, of uncertainty, of "enemies" who prevail over us for a time.  But the journey eventually leads us to seek the Lord with all our hearts --- and then we will find Him, the One who makes us prevail with man and with God himself!  We will come to know God, as Jacob did, as the One "who answered me in my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone!

All These Images....

 I said yesterday that we think in images, and that without an image we cannot think.  Based on my own experience, it seems that one of the difficulties that we have today in relating to God is our lack of poetic images.  More and more, our educational system eliminates art, poetry, and classical literature --- all rich sources of the kind of imagery that fuels the imagination.

When C.S. Lewis wrote The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, he cautioned parents not to explain the imagery to their children. The images needed to stand on their own until the time that the children themselves began to grow into their meanings.  Once they had encountered Jesus as active in their own lives, they could then relate to the lion, the witch, and the winter of sin.

One of the greatest benefits for me in having learned biblical imagery is the way it has influenced my prayer and my relationship to God.  If our only image of God is that of some Great Power in the sky, our prayer and our relationship will be poor indeed.  That is the principal reason for the Incarnation of Jesus as the Son of God in our midst --- to change and to define our image of Who God Is!

Reading the Psalms can resurface the entire playing field of the way we relate to God.  From some Great Power in the sky, He becomes my Comfort, my Shield, my Stronghold, and the "Lifter of my head."

All who take refuge in you shall be glad, and ever cry out their joy.

 You shelter them; in you they rejoice, those who love your name.

It is you who bless the righteous, O Lord, 

You surround them with your favor like a shield. ....(Ps. 5)

The children of men seek shelter in the shadow of your wings. (Ps.36) 

In the New Testament, the Holy Spirit is the Comforter, the Advocate, the Counselor, the Dove, the Water springing up to eternal life.

How rich our spiritual lives are with all these images.... and how poor without them! 

 

 

 

God Who Acts

 Scientists tell us that we think in images, and that if we don't have an image, we cannot really know.  St. Thomas Aquinas said that man is a "knower," not a "thinker"  -- that is, knowledge begins in the senses and then we think about what we know from observation.

I would venture to say that for most people, our image of God is that of Someone Who has given certain rules for mankind, and now He is "resting," sitting in heaven from which viewpoint He is mostly observing man's behavior.  

On the contrary, however, the Bible is not a book of maxims, rules, and inspirational quotations.  It is a book of history.  Our God is a God Who Acts.  And our theology is one of recital of what God has done.  He acted in the life of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph....in the life of Moses and of the Israelites.  He acted in Joshua and the Judges, in the life of David, of Solomon, of the kings of Israel, in the lives of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the prophets.  He acted in the life of Mary and Joseph, in Elizabeth and Zachery, in John the Baptist, and in Jesus.....in Peter and Paul, John, Andrew, and the rest of the Apostles.  He acted in Nicodemus at night, in Ignatius of Antioch and Polycarp, in St. Augustine and in Pope John Paul II .... and in US!.

When the Jews come together in celebration of Passover, they recite the saving actions of God in their lives, and acknowledge with thanksgiving what He has done for them.  When Christians come together in worship, they read history and give thanks for what God has done for them in Jesus Christ. 

So our image of God must change from that of a remote and distant figure watching us act to that of Someone Acting here and now in our lives today.   We call that "Action of God in our lives" the Holy Spirit.  He speaks TO us and IN us, revealing God to us in the events of our lives.  And He speaks FOR us to God when we hardly know how to pray (Romans 8:28).  

Jesus promised to send us the Advocate -- a legal term designating our representative in a court of law:  Someone who advises us how to act and how to speak -- and Someone who speaks on our behalf.  He is not "resting;" He is very active on our behalf every moment of our lives.  

Once we change our image of God, we will begin to "see" Him in our lives and then to "know" Him, not from what we have heard, but from what we have experienced.  As Job put it:  My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you!