Like loving a child

Thursday, August 31, 2017

There is an interesting contrast in Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians (3:7-13), our first reading at Mass today.

Paul tells the Thessalonians that there are shortcomings in their faith and that he wants to visit in order to remedy them.

Immediately after that he extends a beautiful blessing: “. . . may the Lord make you increase and abound in love for one another and for all, just as we have for you, so as to strengthen your hearts to be blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his holy ones.”

On the one hand, they are deficient. On the other hand, they are loved and cared for much as a father and mother do for their children, children who still have a lot to learn and who at times are far less than perfect.

That is the way God cares for us his children. It’s not a question of how much we know and understand. It’s not a question of whether or not we measure up to any particular standard at all: we are loved and cherished and blessed before we attain any pre-assumed level of perfection, wisdom or knowledge.

Knowing that, perhaps we can be more patient towards ourselves. And doing that, perhaps we can be more understanding and patient when we see what we think are the shortcomings of others.

God bless you!

God suffers?

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

Today at Mass we read about the beheading of St. John the Baptist, such a terrible and sleazy story, such a senseless murder by a madman beguiled by wine and lust and pride, such a horrendous ending to the life of a man whom Jesus called the “greatest born of women,” who had done so much to prepare the way for Jesus’ public ministry.

I remember the remark of St. Theresa of Avila that if this is the way God treats His friends, it’s no wonder that He has so few of them. And we might well wonder why God permitted this to happen and why He was silent about the onslaught of evil against what is holy. If we extend this question more broadly, we might also wonder why He allowed the Holocaust to place, or why He has allowed so many to suffer from natural disasters (as the people in Texas are now doing), why He permitted the seeming destruction of His only Son, or even why He seems to be looking the other way when terrible things happen in our own lives. Why has He been silent?

But has He been silent, truly?

Cardinal Sarah (“The Power of Silence”) believes that God suffers when we suffer, that He is present with us at the point of our suffering and misery (just as He is present with us in the reality of our greatest weakness and sinfulness), and that, just like a parent who suffers when her child makes bad and dangerous choices in life, God grieves with us.

Consider your own life, if you will. Perhaps God has never “spoken” words to you that helped you get through your trials and difficulties, but if you are a person of prayer, you might well be aware that He has been with you and has sent you graces and strength and even solutions to the problems you face.

I was concerned and frustrated about something yesterday, when all of a sudden, a solution to the situation “appeared” in my mind and I was able to act on it. I don’t know about you, but I believe that God was not silent as I was considering what to do.

Cardinal Sarah writes that, “God manifests himself in the tear shed by the child who suffers, and not in the order of the world that would cause this tear. God has his mysterious way of being close to us in our trials.” and that “The person of prayer is also the only one to grasp the silent signs of affection that God sends him.

I pray you might have that experience as well.

God bless you!

Food for the eyes

Monday, August 28, 2017

While on vacation last week, I watched news programs on television. (We do not have televisions in the monastery.) For the most part, the news was distressing, but what bothered me even more was the constant barrage of commercials with their flashing images, computer-generated bursts of “creativity,” and also the fantabulous lies, distortions, attempts to manipulate, temptations to greed and covetousness—especially to the gullible, and most especially, the car ads. They’re the worst of all, in my humble opinion.

So many people are assaulted by this barrage on a regular basis, sometimes for hours at a time, day after day and night after night. What does it do to them, I wondered. I remember Cardinal Sarah writing about the deleterious effect noise for the ears and noise for the eyes affects the soul. I recall what Jesus taught:

The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, but if your eye is unhealthy, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! (Matthew 6:22-23)

My readings and thoughts tend to connect with one another. This morning I read these lines in Steve Taylor’s book of meditations (“The Calm Center: reflections and meditations for spiritual awakening”:

It takes courage to face up to reality---

it’s so easy to live in avoidance

to lose yourself in a haze of diversion

in a lukewarm glow of entertainment

or a stream of never-ending activity

making sure you’re always so immersed and occupied

that there’s no time to wonder who you are. (p. 51)

I was back home on Sunday. Sunday night we celebrated Vespers with Eucharistic Benediction. I usually close my eyes during Benediction, but last night I kept them open, and I gazed upon the quiet beauty displayed before me: the altar, the candles, the Eucharist in a monstrance on the altar, the special vestments, the sight of the incense rising above it all. And it occurred to me that maybe by letting my eyes gaze upon this peaceful, gorgeous scene, they might be healed from all the toxic images that infected them while I was watching television commercials.

God bless you!

noise damage

Thursday, August 24, 2017

More from Cardinal Sarah on silence:

“Our world no longer hears God because it is constantly speaking, at a devastating speed and volume, in order to say nothing.” (“The Power of Silence” p. 56)

What if you or I were to remain silent, unless we had something significant to say? Something that would build up, or console, or comfort, or bring joy—not to ourselves, but to others? What if this were to happen at any gathering of individuals? Isn’t it a sad truth that when people gather casually, most of what Is said will quickly be erased as having no significance at all, and isn’t it also true that the more we speak, the more we reveal our own inadequacies, lack of coherence, or even pathology?

Great friends or even lovers develop the ability to be present to one another for long periods of time in silence. The mere presence of the other brings peace, joy, safety, contentment. But, in our world, unfortunately, the majority of people feel they have to say something to fill the silence.

I find this most distressing at daily Masses. We have just receive the Eucharist and perhaps sit in silence for a very brief instant. A concluding prayer is said, and then the dismissal, and as soon as the priest leaves the sanctuary, right at that point, most people break out in conversation. An extraordinary thing has happened! Our bodies are filled with the very Body and Blood of the Lord. And yet, we find it so difficult to simply sit in silence to savor what has just happened. What a terrible loss this is.

Cardinal Sarah writes pointedly about what it costs us to fail to resist the chatter and noise. “In this hell of noise, man disintegrates and is lost; he is broken up into countless worries, fantasies, and fears.”

Do you sometimes find the voices in your head tormenting you with worries, fantasies, and fears? Perhaps the remedy is to find a silence corner of your world and rest there, paying attention to your breath and get beneath your mind’s unnerving chatter. Steven Taylor (“The Calm Center”) offers solace to a person who has lost himself beneath the weight of noise:

“You don’t need to do anything---

you need to do nothing

to life yourself out of the noise and stress

until the fog has cleared

and your being has settled to stillness

and the connection forms itself again.” (p. 49)

God bless you!

God's generosity exceeds our limits

Wednesday, August 23, 2017

Today’s Gospel passage (Matthew 20:1-160 speaks of the generosity of God, a generosity which far surpasses our limiting ideas of “fair” or “just,” of “earned” or “not earned,” of “worthy” or “unworthy.”

It tells of the story of the man who got called to work at the last hour, but who ended up getting paid the same amount offered to those who had worked under the hot sun all day.

We customarily recoil from this tale: “it’s not fair!”

And that’s true, according to our usual way of thinking. But Jesus calls us to a fresh, new way of thinking about His Father and the abundance of His grace, His mercy, His forbearance and His sense of justice.

If we put it into practical terms, we may be able to grasp it better. Consider these examples

·         That dirty, rotten, scoundrel who has cheated and defeated you several times in your life calls upon the mercy of God and you discover that he is given the same place in heaven as you.

·         Those people you despise in your heart are blessed by God and delivered from their sins and their sufferings and enjoy peace and abundance forever in eternity.

·         The day you little sister got a bigger piece of cake than you did.

·         The person who was passed over you for promotion at work . . . and then becomes a resounding success.

·         The ones whose sin you consider to be the most detestable are surrounded and forgiven in the embrace of the Almighty Judge.

One last thought for you: Considering these things, how might you apply them to your life here in the present?

God bless you!

Flow

Monday, August 21, 2017

Just a brief thought for today while I am enjoying my vacation:

From Steve Taylor:

“It’s time to stop swimming

and let the river carry you.

Why strive so hard

when you can flow easily.”

I see the “river” as God.

God bless you!

Most truly myself

Friday, August 18, 2017

I have come to discover that

I am most truly myself when I am not

My-Self.

The truest aspect of my being

is that which resides

in the deep silence,

beneath emotions, passions,

fears, regrets,

past and future,

the desire to plan ahead,

or to reproach what has gone before.

When I am able to reach

that quiet realm where I rest in God,

I experience a freedom

which can sustain me throughout the day.

Most often, I experience this freedom

in fleeting moments,

because all the stuff of my egoic life

tries to crowd out the silence

and tries to convince me how

significant and important it really is,

and how deserving my attention.

Futile, fleeting flights of fancy

are these thoughts.

It is best to let them pass through

without leaving any residue,

and to return to the breath

which will lead me back

to blessed silence

and divine reality.

God bless you! Have a nice weekend.

I will be on vacation next week, so I won’t guarantee that I will post every day.