The Mystery of Christ
The Liturgy as Spiritual Experience

by Father Thomas Keating

Chapter 4 Part XII

Ordinary Time

The Mission of the Seventy-Two
Part II

    In our day, there seems to be less and less time for a prolonged preparation for any ministry. The demands are great, the harvest is plentiful, and some ministries are so difficult that it would take a lifetime to prepare adequately for them. The only choice is to start ministering.

    Thus the Gospel encourages the ministries of our time, but with this caution: Don't expect success. The seventy-two disciples had immediate success. Perhaps they were granted instant success because Jesus wanted them to realize their inability to handle it. In every ministry, success is normally accompanied sooner or later by trials, disappointments and failures. 

    In and through the ups and downs of ministry, God purifies the minister. Like the seventy-two disciples, he may throw us into a demanding form of service to let us find out right away that we can't do it on our own. A special mission is not a sign that we are holy; it is a challenge to become holy. The path to holiness is the experience of failure, and failure is certain if we are thrust into a form of ministry that we are not adequately prepared for. If we were fully prepared, it would be a lot easier on our families, friends, superiors and--above all--on our own self image. As it is, people are bound to get upset with us-- and we may become thoroughly discouraged with ourselves. We need to understand that we only grow in ministry through the experience of failure and humiliation. It is by becoming humble that one is able to practice ministry rightly, and humiliation is the path to humility.

    In order to understand this teaching of Jesus more concretely, I offer the following tips. If you want to find out what a poor monk or nun you would make, join a monastery or convent. If you want to find out what a poor priest you would make, get yourself ordained. If you want to find out what a poor meditator you would make, start meditating. If you want to find out what a poor prayer you would make, try to pray. If you want to find out what a poor husband or wife you would make, find yourself a spouse.

    When married couples experience marital difficulties, they think something is wrong with their spouse. When a priest experiences his inadequacies, he thinks the bishop is no good. When monks or nuns in a monastery enter the night of sense, they think something is wrong with the community: "If the rule was better observed, I would be perfect," they say; or, "If the superiors were reasonable, I would be in the seventh mansion with Teresa of Avila."

    Love makes us vulnerable. The love of another person (including God) reduces our defense mechanisms. As soon as we trust somebody, we no longer have to be self protective in their presence, and our defenses diminish. Then the faults and limitations that we have never seen or always tried to hide begin to emerge as clear as crystal for the benefit of our friends, relatives, colleagues and spouses. Such difficulties generally indicate that our particular ministry or relationship is working well.

    Once we learn to accept failure, love grows. We do not grow by thinking about it or by wishing for it, but only through the experience of failure. 

    There are three stages of transformation that repeat themselves as we climb the spiritual ladder. The first step is human effort-- the willingness to accept the invitation of Christ to undertake a ministry or relationship. The second is the inevitable result of doing something for which we are inadequate and unprepared--the experience of failure, which may be real or apparent, private or public. The final stage is the triumph of grace. One cannot predict it; one cannot demand it. All of a sudden, after one has persevered in the way of humiliation, the difficulties cease and one finds oneself in a new place. The experience of failure has taught us how to live and how to minister, which is to act with complete dependence on God.

    There is no reason to get excited because we have a special ministry; it could be largely a question of natural endowment. We should rejoice, rather, because our names are written in heaven. We are part of God's unfolding plan to transform human consciousness. Our failures become the source of our strength according to Paul's formula, "When I am weak, then I am strong." [I Corinthians] Christ will then empower us to minister to his people in ways that know no bounds.

    On the other hand, if we make only a casual or an impermanent commitment to a ministry or to a marriage partner, we do not give enough time for the dynamic of self knowledge to work. That dynamic gradually unveils the dark side of our personality and our false-self system with its self centered programs for happiness that cannot possibly work.

    In every vocation, events and other people constantly reactivate our emotional programs for happiness, along with the accompanying turmoil that occurs when these programs are frustrated. Such self knowledge is not a disaster but the necessary condition for changing them. When these have been dismantled, our ministry starts to work of itself because, once freed from the obstacles of pride and subtle forms of selfishness that hold the false-self system in place, the Spirit of God can work in us.

    The seventy-two disciples, flushed with success, came to the Lord expecting to get a pat on the back, and all he said was, "Don't get excited about working miracles. Anybody with a little psychic power can do that. What really counts is that you are part of God's plan. The thing to rejoice in is that you are chosen to become divine and to join me in raising the consciousness of the world."

More information can be obtained by reading the book The Mystery of Christ by Fr. Thomas Keating.  It is offered in our Book Store.