The evolutionary path

Wednesday, November 30, 2016

The Feast of Saint Andrew (Wednesday of the first week of Advent)

Today is the Feast of Saint Andrew. If you remember your Gospel, Andrew was Peter’s brother, and they were fishermen. Jesus called to them and invited them to follow Him, and they left everything---boats and nets and their livelihood—and went to follow him. Consider this in light of the theme of evolution that I have been writing about lately.

There is a passage from the prophet Isaiah that speaks in metaphorical language about the process that Andrew and his brother were to undergo.

And I will lead the blind in a way that they know not,

in paths that they have not known

I will guide them.

I will turn the darkness before them into light,

the rough places into level ground.

These are the things I will do,

and I will not forsake them.  (Isaiah 42:16)

No matter what we may have planned, we don’t really know what the rest of this day will bring us. Perhaps things will go as we have planned, but perhaps things will go the way God has planned and perhaps His plans are different than ours. Perhaps our journey will begin as the result of some kind of loss or demotion in stature: for Andrew, it was the loss of his very livelihood.

The path that God lies before us is the one in which our evolution can unfold. It might not be the one we have chosen. And yet, it is the most perfect of all possible paths for us. Our job is to ask for the grace we need to adjust to the new path, to embrace it as God’s will for us, and to trust that we will continue to evolve by accepting God’s sometimes surprising will for us.

Through it all, God is with us, and the promise He makes through the prophet Isaiah can reassure us if we take it to heart. It is He Who is leading us, He Who will bring us through whatever life might throw at us, He Who is most powerful in our lives when things seem most hopeless, He Who is most powerful in our lives when it seems to us that He isn’t there at all. (Consider the famous “footprints” poem.)

Don’t forget that these words were directed to the people of Israel when they were living in miserable exile in a land that they didn’t know and that they would never have chosen for themselves. But even at this time, when things seemed the bleakest, He was working something out for them.

He is doing that for you as well.

May this prediction from Isaiah fill you with peace, and hope and a new type of wisdom that you wouldn’t have been able to understand a short time ago as your faith continues to grow and evolve. And may Saint Andrew, who left everything to follow a new evolutionary path, pray for you as you experience your own journey, your own evolution.

Blessed Advent to you!

Evolution: who are you becoming?

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Tuesday of the First Week of Advent

From the prophet Isaiah

The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, a Spirit of counsel and of strength, a Spirit of knowledge and of fear of the Lord, and his delight shall be the fear of the Lord. Not by appearance shall he judge, nor by hearsay shall he decide, but he shall judge the poor with justice, and decide aright for the land’s afflicted. (Is 11: 2-3)

I am particularly fond of this passage, which we will hear proclaimed again this coming Sunday; in fact, I am currently writing a piece of music for my schola to sing this Sunday, based on the passage I have just quoted.

How might we contemplate this passage and make some personal appropriations of what it has to say about our own spiritual evolution, or salvation? I prefer the word “evolution” because it evokes the notion of an ongoing process, a sense of becoming what not is yet evident, a sense of growth and change to something better than what we have in the here and now, and that is what our salvation is all about. It is not simply a one-time event that happens to us such as what happens at revival meeting altar-calls or what fundamentalists refer to as a “born again experience.” Our salvation is something that needs to be worked out and experienced over the course of time and on a daily basis. “Work out with anxious concern to achieve your salvation” (Phil 2:12), and 2Tim 3:15 speaks of “the sacred Scriptures, the source of the wisdom which through faith in Jesus Christ leads to salvation.” We grow towards our salvation during a lifetime of study and hearing of the Scriptures.

And so what I am trying to demonstrate here is that we evolve towards our salvation, drawing on the graces and the helps that God bestows on us, sometimes even without our consciously asking.

Read the Isaiah passage again in that light. Jesus Christ is the Spirit, and the gifts of the Spirit which are listed here are the gifts He has to bestow on us. Which Spirit do you need the most this Advent.

I would also like to point a few very important words from the passage: not by appearance does he judge, nor by hearsay does he decide. Can we pray for the graces we need to grow to become a people who lives by those words? For myself, I continually pray for the grace to see beyond appearances, and when I catch myself not doing that, I remember what I am praying for and put a check on the sinful tendency of my mind to judge.

What graces do you want the most in your personal journey this Advent? Are you willing to cooperate with the graces when and if they are given to you? If so, you will experience yourself evolving towards the fullness of holiness that is your ultimate destiny. May God bring about the good He died to bring to you.

God bless you!

Advent: the next stage of our evolution

Monday, November 28, 2016: Monday of the First Week of Advent

From the Book of the Prophet Isaiah:

On that day, the branch of the Lord will be luster and glory, and the fruit of the earth will be honor and splendor for the survivors in Jerusalem. (Is 4:2).

Advent began yesterday, and here we are at first weekday of Advent and we hear a promise of things to come. As always, and particularly during Advent, I suggest that when you hear or read the words “Jerusalem” or “Israel,” you take to mean your own soul and the souls of the people who are in your life. And by doing that, this prophecy may have something to do with you in particular.

The prophecy continues: everyone who remains in Jerusalem will be called “holy;” the Lord is coming to wash away filth and to cleanse and to purge from impurity “with a blast of searing judgment.” And then finally, the Lord’s glory will be shelter and protection: shade from the parching heat of day, refuge and cover from storm and rain. (Is 4:6)

How might all of these things apply to you, at this stage in your journey of faith, and in your evolution into what you are becoming? Always becoming, always evolving, never remaining static or stuck, for God comes to bring about change and renewal and evolution in our minds, in our hearts and in our souls.

My reading lately has caused me to think more about the concept of evolution, about our own personal growth towards some goal so marvelous that we can hardly wrap our minds around it. Check it out by considering your own life. Consider yourself, if you will, on the first Monday of Advent a year ago, or perhaps on the first Monday in Advent several years ago. How have you evolved? What new understandings have you reached about the quality and magnificence of your God? How have your relationship been transformed, or perhaps deformed? What have you lost? What have you had to give up, or give away, and how has that evolution changed you or transformed you?

And finally, what would you like to pray for this Advent? Christ comes anew and in His coming, if we be open to it, he will carry our personal evolution in His hands, and give us the graces we need to negotiate and even to transcend the next part of the road of our life.

Ask especially, that He bring healing and mercy to those parts of your life that still need strengthening, cleansing or even purging, and that He may bring to completion those gifts which He has already bestowed on you.

Finally, don’t get caught up in the trap of trying to predict the future or to imagine what it might be like. Hasn’t your life experience taught you that this is simply wasted mental effort? Simply put yourself in the hands of God: He is the author of your evolution; He is the source of your salvation. Pray, and let Him do His job.

God bless you!

I"m going to heaven: practical consequences

Friday, November 25, 2016

Last time I invited you to consider the practical consequences of realizing that you are destined for heaven, especially in light of St. Benedict’s admonition to “remind yourself every day that you are going to die.”

We are going to die and, when God judges you, if his mercy triumphs over judgment, then we will attain heaven, not as a result of the good we have done (which is all from God anyway) but rather as the free gift which was bestowed on us when we were created in God’s image and likeness.

How can we bear God’s image and likeness and not make it to heaven? The older I get, the more I wonder how this could be possible while at the same time realizing that there are many things in my history and in my person that could, perhaps, deprive me of heaven if God were the stern and unforgiving judge. But since I do not want my fate to be determined by such a God, despite the fact that over the centuries many have presented God in such a way and that there are even in our own time churchmen who try to sell us that concept of God---which I utterly reject after years of prayer and study and contemplation---then there follows these practical consequences I wrote about last time and I wish to think about for a brief time here and now. A few basic propositions:

1.       I must be careful not to be a stern, unforgiving judge in my dealings with others, or even within the silent thoughts of my own mind, because “the measure you measure with will be measured back to you.” (Matthew 7:2)

2.       I must want those I love to be in heaven with me.

3.       I must want those I do not love to be in heaven with me.

4.       It will become easier to “let go” of all sorts of things which keep me stuck in unforgiveness, impatience, aggravation, or merely simple crabbiness.

5.       I will not get tossed around like a ship in a storm whenever I read the daily news, which by its very nature wants to take me on an emotional roller-coaster ride.

6.       Possessions and accumulations will become less and less important.

7.       So what if I’m not famous or if anyone doesn’t like me? It will all get sorted out in the long run.

8.       I might naturally be better tuned into the glimpses and traces of heaven that I experience in my daily down-to-earth life.

9.       Failures will not hurt so much and, in the long run, will not matter.

10.   It will become easier to bear the crosses that I am called to bear in this life, knowing that the Cross leads to the Resurrection.

Perhaps you can add your own items to this list. I encourage you to do so.

This is the final reflection for the current Church Year. Advent begins here in the monastery at 5:30 tomorrow with the first vespers of the First Sunday in Advent. This year we have the longest Advent possible, since Christmas falls on a Sunday. May God give us all the grace to profit from the extended period of time to prepare well once again for the coming of God to earth as a little child.

And may God bless you all! Have a nice weekend!

Heaven tomorrow?

Wednesday, November 23, 2016

This is the third of a three-part meditation based on this passage from the Rule of Saint Benedict:

Live in fear of judgment day and have a great horror of hell.

Yearn for everlasting life with holy desire.

Day by day remind yourself that you are going to die. (RB 4:44-47)

Today we take up the last line of the passage, the destiny that the first two lines are meant to prepare us for. Yesterday we emphasized the virtue of hope as the means by which we could properly yearn for everlasting life, and now we come to the endpoint which is actually a point of departure into a new beginning.

If I am aware every day that I am going to die, and I reflect on it with hope, then it might be possible for me also to consider that my death leads beyond itself to heaven. And that is precisely what I invite you to contemplate, as I repeat what I said yesterday: our destiny is heaven. Perhaps the next step in your existence will be the time when you pass through purification and enter into the heaven which you have yearned for but you have not be able to picture. It will indeed be more than we can think of. Consider Saint Paul quoting Isaiah:

Eye has not seen, ear has not heard,

nor has it so  much as dawned on man

what God has prepared for those who love him. (I Cor 2:9)

That is what is awaiting us when we die, assuming that God’s mercy for us triumphs over any judgment due us, and if we have learned nothing during this past year of mercy, let it be that mercy always triumphs over judgment.

So what are the practical consequences of thinking this way? Well, what do you think? What difference will it make in your life if you knew that tomorrow you would be entering heaven? How about judgments, resentments, likes or dislikes? How might you treat the person(s) you find it most difficult to live with? What affect does it have on your priorities? how about good deeds? What might you be able to let go of that you have been holding onto for so long? What about your worries, concerns, petty agendas or fiercely held opinions?

What does any of it matter if you know that tomorrow you will have a chance to be in heaven?

Think on this. Think with gratitude. If you are American, be thankful for it as you celebrate our holiday tomorrow.

And may God bless you in all things.

There will not be a reflection tomorrow due to the American holiday of Thanksgiving.

Yearning

Wednesday, November 22, 2016

This is the second of a three-part meditation based on this passage from the Rule of Saint Benedict:

Live in fear of judgment day and have a great horror of hell.

Yearn for everlasting life with holy desire.

Day by day remind yourself that you are going to die. (RB 4:44-47)

Notice how nicely balanced the passage is. The first line speaks of hell; the second line speaks of heaven. The first line evokes feelings of fear and terror and, God forbid, condemnation and agony; the second line speaks of yearning and “holy desire” for the end of all suffering and life lived in eternal bliss. First judgment, then reward. First fear, then a peace which we can just barely sense in this life. First horror, then hope, yearning and desire for all that is good.

Do we live now with a holy desire for all that is good? Is it manifest in our thoughts, words and actions? Are we free to choose what directs us towards heaven, or is there something within us which weakens our ability to choose? This line from the Rule seems so positive and so hopeful, and yet it speaks of a state of mind which we have to struggle to attain. And it is good for us to admit that sometimes we are powerless (the first of the 12 steps), sometimes our lives are unmanageable, and sometimes we do not have the ability to operated in complete freedom. (Fr. Richard Rohr suggests that everyone would benefit from working through the 12-steps that addicts of all stripes use as a tool for their survival, that in one way or another, we are all addicts.)

But yet: this yearning filled with hope is entirely accessible to us and can to one extent or another help determine the choices we make in life. But it has to be cultivated, and not just because we fear the alternative, but because in and of itself it is so attractive and desirable that it draws us to itself despite anything that may be pulling us in the other direction.

Many of us learned that in our basic Catechism studies as children: God wants us to be happy with him in heaven. That is our ultimate destiny according to His will. And if that be the case, well can we not assume that He would put the desire and the yearning within us, and that sometimes we might be able to lift our heads up and out of the muck and mire of even the messiest life and see the clear light of a future destiny shining forth to entice us, to draw us, to seduce us and to win us over?

Can that be our hope? Once again, I remind you that the virtue of hope is a theological virtue and is something poured into us from outside of us according to the capacity we have to receive it.

Work on widening that capacity. Open it up. Accept the gift. And all will be well, as Julian of Norwich states so beautifully.

Tomorrow we will look at the third line of the passage.

God bless you!

Please not there will not be a reflection for Thursday, November 24, which is Thanksgiving Day in the United States.

Healthy fear

Monday, November 21, 2016

This will be a three-part meditation based on a passage from the Rule of Saint Benedict:

Live in fear of judgment day and have a great horror of hell.

Yearn for everlasting life with holy desire.

Day by day remind yourself that you are going to die. (RB 4:44-47)

A “cheerful” reflection to begin the week, perhaps, but sobering, to be sure. Notice that the first of these three propositions is one that few people in our contemporary culture would be able to accept, but rather would be easily dismissed. We live in a culture that presumes that everyone is going to make it to heaven; how often do we hear such sentiments expressed during our funeral liturgies, where it seems that the deceased person is already canonized even while we are praying a Mass for the ultimate redemption of his/her soul!

And yet, it pays for us to be rigorously honest with ourselves. Is there not a repository of sins, mistakes and failings in your life that you really need to pray will be judged with a mercy that triumphs over judgment? Can you presume that every sinful thought, word and deed will be quickly glossed over and easily dismissed on judgment day? That is why is makes just so much sense to make the Jesus Prayer a vital part of your regular prayer life: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

He will hear that prayer; it has been promised throughout the psalms:

To you all flesh will come

with its burden of sin.

Too heavy for us, our offences,

but you wipe them away.  (Ps 65:3-4, Old Grail Translation)

It is the Lord who forgives all your sins,

who heals every one of your ills,

who redeems your life from the grave,

who crowns you with love and compassion. (Ps 103:3-5, New Grail Translation)

And so we approach the seat of judgment with holy fear, but also with a hope which has been fortified by our constant study of the Scriptures and of the messages of mercy we receive in our own contemplative prayer.

Reflecting on these things might challenge us to be less judgmental and more patient and merciful to others as they go through their own times of failure, weakness and sinfulness. Reflecting on these things might also equip us to obey the command given in chapter 72 of the Rule to bear with greatest patience one another’s weaknesses of body or behavior. (RB 72:5)

It is only after we pass through this sobering verse of the Rule, that we might dare to move on to the next line quoted above. More about that tomorrow.

God bless you!