Awakenings

by Father Thomas Keating

Events in Jesus' Ministry

Chapter 8

The Fruits of The Spirit

Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news of him spread throughout the whole region. He taught in their synagogues and was praised by all. He came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the Sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord."

Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, "Today this scripture
passage is been fulfilled in your hearing."
(Luke 4:14-21)

    The purpose of the readings in the liturgy is not so much instruction as demonstrations of the power of grace. They are parables of the power of the grace as we experience it now. We are exposed in the liturgy to sapiential teaching, that is, teaching designed to awaken our awareness of the grace of Christ at work within us. As the liturgical community celebrates divine light and life, our participation presupposes that we are experiencing it. In the lessons we hear our own biographies.

    At Christmas, we celebrate the event of the Word becoming flesh. The historical implications are predominant in that feast. At the Feast of Epiphany, which is the transmission of divine light, we are celebrating the spiritual significance of the Christmas event. Epiphany is the celebration of our union with the Word made flesh and our experience of that union. The liturgy presents us with readings that are historically disconnected but which describe our assimilation to the mystery of the Word made flesh, our awakening to the divine life within us and our capacity to transmit it. "Today" in the liturgy means the transmission of the mystery as immediate spiritual experience. The Christian religion is a life to be lived. It starts, falters, falls, rises, grows, and eventually matures through all kinds of vicissitudes. We must know how to listen to the liturgy not only as inspiration and encouragement, but also as empowerment.

    The Second Coming of Christ can occur in two ways: with the end of time (only God knows when that is) or by our accessing the eternal dimension within us. The latter is what the liturgy and the spiritual journey are attempting to bring about. The values of eternal life are constantly breaking into the linear dimension of chronological time and putting us in contact with the Ultimate Reality.

    The lessons of the liturgy following the Epiphany are about the significance of being incorporated into what Paul calls the body of Christ. In each moment of chronological time, the divine value of each moment is available to us in proportion to our sensitivity to the Spirit of Christ. The Spirit suggests what is to be done at each moment in our relationship to God, ourselves, other people, and the cosmos. When we listen to the movements of the Spirit rather than to our own bright ideas and self centered programs for happiness, the internal commentary that normally sustains our emotional upsets comes to an end, enabling us to accept difficult situations and people. The neutral zone that we provide allows the Spirit to act.

    Notice Jesus was led by the Spirit to Nazareth. He did not go there of his own initiative. He was following a movement of the Spirit within him with whom he was totally identified. God is infinite concern for every living thing. That is the source of every true mission or ministry in the church. It is not our work. It a movement of love in the Trinity. The liturgy is the great means of awakening and empowering us to be who we are: living cells in the Body of Christ, motivated by the same love that we see in Jesus.

This chapter is taken from the book Awakenings by Fr. Thomas Keating. You can obtain a copy from the Bookstore.  See Awakenings