Blessedness beyond pain

Friday, March 31, 2017

I wrote yesterday about the enormity of God’s mercy and His love, of this boundless goodness that is too great for us to comprehend and too magnificent for us to define or describe. I also wrote about how the Pharisees simply couldn’t accept Jesus as the Messiah because they couldn’t “wrap their minds around” the veritable explosion of religious understanding that he came to bring.

The tension between the Pharisees and Jesus is depicted in the daily Mass readings at this point in the Lenten journey. Today we hear words which are understood as a direct prediction of the Passion of Jesus. The statement comes to us from the book of Wisdom 2:1, 12-22

The wicked said among themselves, thinking not aright: ‘Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us; he sets himself against our doings. . . . He calls blest the destiny of the just and boasts that God is his Father. Let us see whether his words be true; let us find out what will happen to him. . . . With revilement and torture let us put him to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience. Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him.’

These were their thoughts but they erred; for their wickedness blinded them, and they knew not the hidden counsels of God; neither did they count on a recompense of holiness nor discern the innocent souls’ reward.

I am reminded of the way Jesus was mocked as he was dying on the cross: “If he is the son of God, let God come down and save him.” (Mark 15:31-32; Matthew 27:42)

Of course, what they fail to take into account is the fact that the work of God and the power of His love and grace is not limited to this life only nor to what we can see and experience here in this world. So much of it, in fact--may I dare say the greatest part of it--is experienced beyond this life and beyond the present reality of what we can see, touch, taste, feel, hear or experience.

Please take this as a consolation. As Paul said, “I consider the sufferings of the present to be as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18) Reread the Beatitudes and understand that peace and happiness and blessedness are the Divine reward for what we undergo here and now, and those things, once given to us, will never come to an end.

We enjoy times and even years of peace, blessedness, consolation and joy. These are just rewards and gifts from God, and a sign to us of the great destiny that awaits the blessed. Give thanks for the good things you enjoy at this present time, and if your present time is marked by pain and anguish, look beyond it and realize that the good that is in your destiny will far outpace whatever you may have to endure now.

I say this often, and I’ll say it again here: God loves you and wants you to make it to heaven.

God bless you! Have a nice weekend.

Limitless Mercy

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Our minds are finite and therefore our vision of the world, and by extension of reality, is limited. This is one reason why the Pharisees simply couldn’t grasp or appreciate the enormity of what Jesus was trying to tell them. The Gospel passages for this time in Lent are depicting the confrontations between them and Jesus (see John 5:31-37) on this account and why they considered Jesus to be a blasphemer and a heretic. (Certainly issues of power, control and pride also figured in to their refusal to accept him, but I’m not going into that today.)

Since our minds are finite, our vision and understanding of God is limited as well. As we progress in the spiritual life we begin to see how God is so much greater than anything we have conceived of up until this point. We could adopt a mantra that says, “No, God is even greater than that.”

I’d like to consider this in terms of one important reality: the expansiveness of God’s mercy and His ability to forgive, and to do this, I turn to a couple of passages from the Patristic era that I think you might find consoling or inspiring.

Saint John Chrysostom (344-407) On the Incomprehensibility of God:

“If our sins are countless that is all the more reason for going to him, for we are the sort of person he is calling. . . . He is called the God of consolation, of mercy, because unceasingly he consoles and encourages the unfortunate ones and the afflicted, even if they have committed thousands of sins.”

Saint John Climacus, (7^th century)  The Ladder of Divine Ascent

“The mercy of God has no limits, nothing is too great for it.”

“If the passions lord it over us and we are weak, let us with great confidence offer to Christ our spiritual weakness and our impotence; let us confess them before him. He will help us irrespective of what we deserve, on the sole condition that we descend continually to the bottom, into the abyss of humility.”

Isaac of Nineveh (7^th century)  Ascetic Treatises

“When God sees that in all purity of heart you are trusting in him more than in yourself . . . then a strength unknown to you will come to make its dwelling in you. And you will feel in all your senses the power of him who is with you.”

Finally, concerning our inability to see God in all His glory, I like this little Sufi explanation by al-Ghazzzali:

“. . . just as the bat sees only at night and cannot see in the daytime because of the weakness of its sight, which is dazzled by the full light of the sun, so also the human mind is too weak to behold the full glory of the Divine Majesty”  (in Essential Sufism, p. 76)

God bless you!

A Sufi Parable

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

I offer you a wonderful Sufi story that reminds me of a parable of Jesus.

“A man of piety was following Christ. A thief seeing this thought to himself, ‘If I sit in the company of the pious one, perhaps God may for his sake forgive me.’ Prompted by humility in his heart, the thief started condemning himself for the impious life he had led. He considered himself unfit to sit by the side of such a saint. On the other hand, the pious man, seeing the thief seated by his side, reprimanded him lest his shadow corrupt him. Immediately Christ heard the Divine Voice say, ‘Tell the pious one and the thief that I have washed clean the scrolls of both. The virtues of the pious and the sins of the thief are washed clean. Now they must start life again. The virtues of the pious are washed away because of his pride, and the sins of the thief are washed away because of his humility and repentance.’”  A parable of al-Ghazzali in Essential Sufism, © Harper Collins, San Francisco, p. 63

Can you remember the parable of Jesus where two men went to pray? The Pharisee thanked God for his virtuous life, essentially congratulating himself that he wasn’t like the other man praying in the back of the temple. That man kept praying, “God have mercy on me, a sinner.” Jesus explained that the second man went away justified, while the pride-filled Pharisee did not.

Have a nice day!

God bless you!

A helpful mantra

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

Hide me in the shelter of your wings, till the storms of destruction pass by. (Psalm 57:2. My paraphrase.)

This is a helpful verse to learn by heart and repeat frequently.

When you’re trying to meditate but distractions keep assailing you: Hide me in the shelter of your wings, till the storms of destruction pass by.

When faced with temptation: Hide me in the shelter of your wings, till the storms of destruction pass by.

When troubled by an old memory: Hide me in the shelter of your wings, till the storms of destruction pass by.

When you catch yourself thinking unkind thoughts about another person: Hide me in the shelter of your wings, till the storms of destruction pass by.

When someone breaks a piece of your equipment (this happened to me today): Hide me in the shelter of your wings, till the storms of destruction pass by

When there is chaos and noise all around you and you are craving a moment of quiet: Hide me in the shelter of your wings, till the storms of destruction pass by. (I have used this verse on a crowded subway train.)

When at a contentious meeting and you are seeking some distance from the fray so you can regain perspective: Hide me in the shelter of your wings, till the storms of destruction pass by.

When you need to take a “three-second retreat”: Hide me in the shelter of your wings, till the storms of destruction pass by.

When anxious, frustrated, discouraged, fearful: Hide me in the shelter of your wings, till the storms of destruction pass by.

When anger is about to get the better of you: Hide me in the shelter of your wings, till the storms of destruction pass by.

When you need to remind yourself that God is taking care of you at all times: Hide me in the shelter of your wings, till the storms of destruction pass by.

When lonely: Hide me in the shelter of your wings, till the storms of destruction pass by.  (Remember that you are never less alone than when you’re alone with God.)

Might I suggest that you use this verse as a mantra for a few hours or even a whole day, repeating it as often as you can, especially when walking from place to place. You will be pleased with the effect it produces in your spirit.

God bless you!

Hardness of heart

Monday, March 27, 2017

Here is a Lenten prayer from the Orthodox Liturgy for Lent by Ephraim the Syrian (306-373):

Lord and Master of my life,

take far from me the spirit of laziness, discouragement, domination, and idle talk;

grant to me, thy servant, a spirit of chastity, humility, patience, love;

yea, my Lord and King, grant me to see my sins, and not to judge my neighbor,

for thou art blessed for ever and ever. Amen.  

“Laziness” refers to a certain hardness of heart which is the result of self-centeredness and pride. Hardness of heart causes us to become insensitive to the needs of other, forgetful of God’s love continually being poured into our hearts through the work of the Holy Spirit, unable to see beyond appearances, unable to savor and wonder at the beauty of nature and other human beings.

“Idle talk” can be lying, talking about magic, a frivolous outlook on life, an obsession with greed, words of discouragement and despair, and, as Olivier Clément puts it, “fascination with nothingness.” (In this, I can’t help thinking of people who faithfully read publications like People magazine.)

The remedy for these things is the cultivation and practice of the virtues, the things Ephraim prays for in the third line of the prayer.

The fourth line of the prayer calls us to “wake up,” to reflect on our own personal sinfulness and inclinations to sin. All too often, when we grow forgetful of our own condition we are more prone to judge others; in addition, judging others is a good way to distract ourselves from the important work we need to do—to direct our attention within where we can be honest about all those things that cause us to need to pray, “Have mercy on me, a sinner.”

Olivier Clément (The Roots of Christian Mysticism, p. 131) speaks about the condition of a soul which has been freed from hardness of heart. Perhaps this might also be the basis for a good Lenten prayer:

the heart, he says, “may become an antenna of infinite sensitivity, infinitely vulnerable to the beauty of the world and to the sufferings of human beings, and to God who is Love, who has conquered by the wood of the cross.”

God bless you!

Some Sufi wisdom

Friday, March 24, 2017

I like to read texts from other religious traditions. What I find very often is that these texts speak of spiritual truths that are common to all the world’s religions. There is a name for this; these bits of wisdom are known as Perennial Wisdom. A second thing that happens when I read these texts is that they are related to the wisdom of our own spiritual tradition and often shed new light for me upon Biblical texts, especially the Gospels, which I sometimes take for granted because they are so familiar to me.

Today I offer you a Sufi text by the 13rd century Sufi Master known as Ibn ‘Arabi, often called “the great.” This text is particularly appropriate for us as we make our way through our Lenten journeys.

“This world is a place of preparation where one is given many lessons and passes many texts. Choose less over more in it. Be satisfied with what you have, even if it is less than what others have. (Note: Saint Benedict teaches the same thing in his Rule.) In fact, prefer to have less.

“This world is not bad—on the contrary, it is the field of the hereafter. What you plant here, you will reap there. This world is the way to eternal bliss and so is good—worthy to be cherished and to be praised.

“What is bad is what you do with the world when you become blind to truth and totally consumed by your desires, lusts, and ambition for it. Our master the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him), in whom wisdom was as clear as crystal, as asked, ‘What is worldliness?’ He answered, ‘Everything that makes you heedless and causes you to forget your Lord.’ Therefore the goods of this world are not harmful in themselves, but only when you let them render you forgetful, disobedient and unaware of the Lord.”

And from today’s Gospel: you shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. (Mark 12:29)

God bless you! Have a nice weekend. See you on Monday.

The Lowest Part of your Need

Thursday, March 23, 2017

For our reflection today I’d like to draw your attention to a single phrase from Dame Julian of Norwich’s Revelations of Divine Love:

“The highest prayer is to the goodness of God, which comes down to us in the lowest part of our need.”

Breathe deeply, and let the breath you inhale represent “the goodness of God,” and allow that breath to enter deeply into your soul and spirit, more deeply than ever before. Let it touch those inmost parts of you which you would prefer remain hidden not only to others but also to yourself, except in the darkest hours of your existence.

Let the breath of His goodness touch that very part of you which you fear may drive Him away forever. You fear is an illusion, because the goodness of God’s love cannot be driven away by anything that lies within us if our intention is to turn to Him and stay open to the workings of His grace. Breathe deeply. Drink deeply of His love. Let the food of His Eucharist, which is Him in all reality, nourish that part of you which is starving, thirsting, literally dying for lack of Him. Let Him come to you in that place and tend to it, feed it, succor it and envelop it in his love. If you are held by Him there, then you are held by Him everywhere. Nothing will keep Him from you. Consider the words of Saint Paul:

For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:39)

And now, for a moment, think on your enemy. Think on the person who causes you the most distress in your life, that one person you find it so hard to get along with, so difficult to endure, the one you most dislike, the one you find it most difficult to think of with kindness, forbearance and love. Consider that this love of God which has touched you so deeply also touches the other person in the very places you find it so hard to tolerate. Consider that the process of God’s compassion is unfolding within that person as much as it is unfolding within you, and that person is loved by God as deeply and completely as you are yourself. Perhaps, with God’s grace, thinking like this will help to ease your dis-ease and help you to begin to see the other as God sees—even if just only for an instant, even if just only for a small opening in time.

And then return to yourself. Consider that this part of you which is so addicted to disliking another is also a part of you God’s goodness is reaching down to embrace and enfold. Let His loving compassion continue to do its work in you, because that work was begun long before you ever came upon these words. Make a prayer to this goodness, the goodness that “comes down to us in the lowest part of our existence.”  Amen.

God bless you!