Month: December 2020

Mini-Spiritualities – II

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Challenged and haunted by a verse from the Letter of Paul to the community in Thessalonica (1 Thessalonians 5:17), an anonymous pilgrim, following the advice of a wise spiritual teacher, succeeded to pray without ceasing by continually repeating a brief statement of his faith captured in a single, simple phrase along the lines of: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, have mercy on me a sinner.” After years of non-stop repetition the pilgrim found that this prayer had taken up residence inside him and unceasingly prayed itself day and night as a reverberation of his very breathing.

Therese of Lisieux, barely more than a child, had a fiercely passionate heart for all things related to God. She dreamed of being a great missionary bringing the Good News to the farthest corners of the world. Limited by her fragile constitution, she devised a “Little Way” to transform herself and the people around her. This Little Way consisted of seemingly insignificant actions, gestures of kindness, presence to and awareness of others – putting aside her own comfort and convenience – especially when she felt least inclined to do so. Therese just tried to treat all others well.

These are only two of countless examples of how to discover and implement a spirituality within our own lives – whatever our temperament and the circumstances that make up our day to day. Be carefully attentive to God, to others, to our selves, to all creation, and act accordingly.

God’s Subversive Activity

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The story of the birth of Jesus as handed down to us describes how God slips into our history – largely unnoticed, certainly unrecognized. Recruiting willing collaborators, God puts into action the greatest clandestine operation ever undertaken. Our history is revealed to be thoroughly permeated by God and this cannot be undone. We can tap into this divine energy and advance God’s designs for a more human and humane world. May it be so!                         Blessed Christmas and a very Good New Year!

Mini-Spiritualities

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There are countless paths onto the heart of the Mystery that claims our heart. Often called spiritualities, these winding ways entice us and invite our full, total response. Monks in solitary cells, ascetics, wandering teachers and preachers, nuns who dedicate their lives to the care of others in the name of justice, may come to mind when we consider spirituality. Techniques such as mindfulness, fasting, chanting may be used. But most of us, with our crazy-busy days, have trouble relating to much of what seems to constitute the spiritual life. We crave deeply to become freer, more fully alive, more loving, more truly human and we cannot see a connection between this deep inner hunger and a lot that proven traditional (and misunderstood) spiritualities seem to require. They just don’t fit us. We’re not world-class spiritual athletes.

The Judeo-Christian scriptures offer numerous examples of what could be labeled mini-spiritualities. In just a few verses at a time we can find clues to how we might  enter more deeply, more completely into a positive relationship with the Presence that calls us to fullness of life and, at the same time, into dynamic, creative, life-giving interaction with all that makes up our shared world, including our self. 

From time to time I hope to unpack the riches of one or another of these mini-spiritualities in this space.  In the meantime, take care.

Seeing Their Faith

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What paralyzes us? Stops us cold? Prevents us from acting freely as we would really prefer to act? 

In Jesus’ time infirmity, sickness, disability – any form of neediness was generally taken as a clear sign that a person was not in God’s good graces. (This way of thinking persists to today.) There must be sin, not keeping the law, some uncleanness at work. Labeled, “sinner” (and labels attached by society have tremendous power and can become embodied) there is now shame for one’s self, one’s family, one’s tribe. Labels can be sinisterly effective. When internalized we become what we are told we are: Outcast, Object of pity, Worthless, Dis-graced. Our health declines. Or we become paralyzed, unable to move, no longer able to function on our own. To whom or to what do we give authority to paralyze or dis-able us?

A person who was paralyzed is carried to Jesus by four men who refused to be put off by the crowd packing the space where Jesus was teaching. They lift the person on the stretcher up onto the roof and make a hole large enough to lower the person and stretcher down directly in front of Jesus. Imagine bits of debris dropping on the people below. Seeing their faith, the gospels report, Jesus responds. The paralyzed person is brought by his or her community into Jesus’ presence, undaunted by the challenges this entails. How often are we unable to come to God to ask for what we need on our own? In how many ways does our family or community carry us when our individual faith is weakened or paralyzed?

Those who bear the paralyzed person believe that Jesus can help, the he has power from God to heal. They also believe in the goodness of the person on the stretcher. Somehow they have experienced this goodness. Despite the labels applied, this person is “worthy” of being healed and liberated. They care.

But Jesus does not begin by lifting the person who was paralyzed to walk. He addresses what lies beneath the surface – that which aggravates the paralysis –  affirming and assuring the one who lies before him: “There is nothing in you or about you that prevents God from seeing you as anything other than beloved – your sins are forgiven – both a command and a fact. There is truth here for all of us.

Knowing, believing, feeling that this is true the person is able to respond to Jesus’ second command, “Stand up, pick up the stretcher that no longer defines you and go home with those and to those who believe in you.          Luke 5:17-26

 

Wow!

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We have been designed to savor, to appreciate, to be in awe. From the womb we begin to explore all that seems new, different, interesting. Infants find everything about them and around them fascinating. If we are able to be free of the need to simply survive, we enter into the realm of wonder and amazement. It’s our “go to” place. We are at home with the vast, unknown, unexplainable that gently invites us to open ourselves to the adventure of discovery that is being an alive human being.

Sadly we can too easily drift out of touch with our spiritual roots. Our minds, our emotions are often formed and oriented in other directions. Instead of finding our place in the universe, we are channeled toward a job or a relationship that we are convinced is the answer for us. What is called responsibility takes over – without any explanation of why, responsible to whom, for what. Reason rules and often overrules us from continuing our inner journey. 

We do not lose our natural sense of wonder. It’s still there waiting for us to  outgrow trying to act so much like we have been told a grownup acts. Sometimes the realization that there is something missing in our lives seeps to the surface of  our consciousness and moves us to seek deeper meaning. We can always begin again where we left off as children.

Who “Gets It”?

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How often Jesus observed that people who didn’t (and don’t?) count much are the ones who have the inside track on God’s ways! For example, children. They (like women) were considered property, and as almost useless until they grew enough to help the family in some concrete way – sons by learning and participating in the family’s work, daughters when a profitable marriage was able to be arranged.

It’s not the wise, the learned, the clever or those who think they have successfully figured life out who are leaning into the Kingdom of God. It’s not even the well-to-do or the healthy who are first in line. What a shock if they discover that they’re not even close! 

Jesus encourages and invites us to become like children. They “get it”. What is to be childlike? What qualities does a child innately possess that puts them at the forefront? Children generally are open, simple, trusting, still able to wonder at the world and to dream about what it might yet become.

Many children, though innocent are not naive. Just by living they pick up the basics of how things “work”. Even when they are deceived, they sense what is fair and what is not. It’s true that they are quite powerless to do much, but just maybe, doing things is not as high on God’s agenda as it is on ours.

Could it be that we who consider ourselves wise or in the know complicate things too much? Have we lost spontaneity, trust, awareness of how awesome it is simply to be alive?  Have fears, ego or illusions closed us in our own self-made universe?

The season of Advent invites us to be (or to become again) like children waiting for Christmas, believing in unimaginable possibilities, dreaming of a world where God’s graciousness is unhindered by our grownup act – where we can be surprised again by beauty, goodness and love in our midst.        (Luke 10:21)