Psalm 104:1921

They made a calf at Horeb
    and worshipped a cast image. They exchanged the glory of God
for the image of an ox that eats grass. They forgot God their Savior,
     who had done great things in Egypt.

We are made for happiness and there is nothing wrong in reaching out for it. Unfortunately, most of us are so deprived of happiness that as soon as it comes along, we reach out for it with all our strength and try to hang on to it for dear life. That is the mistake. The best way to receive it is to give it away. If you give everything back to God, you will always be empty, and when you are empty, there is more room for God.

The experience of God usually comes as something you feel you have experienced before. God is so well suited to us that any experience of Him is a feeling of completion or well-being. What was lacking in us seems to be somehow mysteriously restored. This experience awakens confidence, peace, joy, and reverence all at the same time. Of course, the next thing that occurs to us is: "This is great! How am I going to hang on to it?" That's the normal human reaction. But experience teaches that that is exactly the worst thing to do. The innate tendency to hang on, to possess, is the biggest obstacle to union with God. The reason we are possessive is that we feel separated from God. The feeling of separation is our ordinary psychological experience of the human condition. This misapprehension is the cause of our efforts to took for happiness down every path that we can possibly envision, when actually it is right under our noses. We just don't know how to perceive it. Since the security that we should have as beings united with God is missing, we reach out to bolster up our fragile self image with whatever possessions or power symbols we can lay hold of. In returning to God, we take the reverse path, which is to let go of all that we want to possess. Since nothing is more desirable than the feeling of God's presence, that, too, has to be a thought we are willing to let go of.

~ Open Mind, Open Heart

Prayer

Come, Holy Spirit, Gift of the Father and the Son,
fill us with the fullness of the life of the Trinity

Suffering and Sacrifice

Friday of the Fourth Week in Lent

Psalm 34:17-18

When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears,
    and rescues them from all their troubles.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted,
    and saves the crushed in spirit.

Sacrifice is absolutely essential for human growth; yet the abiding disposition of sacrifice is rarely established without some experience of suffering. Of course suffering itself does not make one holy and can even lead to despair Despair is suffering that fails to teach.

A clear distinction must be made between sacrifice and suffering. Suffering is the conscious experience of pain. Sacrifice can also involve conscious pain, but it is primarily an attitude. The attitude of sacrifice can transform suffering into joy. We bring many needless sufferings on ourselves, and these God does not will. But to suffer as a member of a fallen race and to endure the consequences of the human condition is what the Son of God himself did. This form of suffering may be an important part of our purification. God may also send suffering to people who are already thoroughly purified as a counterweight to the effects of moral evil in the world. This is called vicarious suffering. Most of the great religions of the world recognize this mystery.

The mystery of vicarious suffering is most clearly revealed in the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. There innocence itself was destroyed in order to redeem the human family. If God's only-begotten Son can suffer and die, the suffering and death of the innocent take on a wholly new dimension. It likewise can be seen as redemptive. Faith alone can perceive God triumphing in the midst of human suffering and bringing about the reign of divine love.

Suffering and death are not enemies, but doors leading to new levels of knowledge and love. Unless we are willing to sacrifice what we have now, we cannot grow. We grow by dying and rising again, by dying to where we are now and being reborn at a new level.

~ The Heart of the World

Prayer

O Holy Spirit,
grant us that invincible trust in You
that only You can give.

Divine Guidance

Saturday of the Fourth Week in Lent

Jeremiah 11:18

It was the Lord who made it known to me, and I knew.

The old-fashioned guidance systems to keep airplanes on course during flight might help us to understand the art of listening to the divine guidance of the Holy Spirit. When the pilot is on course, he will not hear anything on his headphones. If he veers a little to the right, he will get a beep. If he goes too far the other way, he will pick up a different signal. By correcting his course, his headphones return to silence.

In the moment-by-moment process of daily life, similar indications of being on- or off-course are available. Any sign that you are upset is an invitation to ask yourself why you are upset and not to project the blame onto another person or the situation. Even if they are to blame, it won't do you any good until you solve the real problem, which resides in you. The fundamental work of a spiritual director of contemplatives is to encourage and to guide them to submit to the divine therapy, which allows the unconscious emotional material of early life that led to the drive for security, esteem and affection, and power symbols in the culture to be evacuated.

Each of us has a significant dose of the human condition. In Catholic theology we call it the consequences of original sin. We come into the world not knowing what true happiness is but needing it; not knowing what true affection is but needing it; not knowing what true freedom is but needing it. We bring with us into adult life the way we as children coped with impossible situations, either through repression of feelings or by compensatory programs for happiness that cannot possibly work. The stronger those needs, the more frustration when they are not fulfilled.

Into this universal human situation Jesus comes, saying, "Repent," which means "change the direction in which you are looking for happiness." Human happiness is found in the growth of unconditional love. The work of spiritual direction is to help us to become aware of the obstacles to divine love and the free circulation of that love within us. This requires the cultivation of a non-possessive attitude toward ourselves and other people. Gradually we learn that God is the true security, God truly loves us, and with this love, we can make it, even if no one else seems to care.

--Contemplative Outreach News, Summer, 1997

Prayer

Holy Spirit of God,
by Your special Grace help us to surrender
our false selves completely to You,
and to relinquish every possessive attitude toward our actions.

Christian Awakening

Fifth Sunday in Lent

John 11:17, 20-23

When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. Martha said to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him." Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise again."

The story of Lazarus is a preview of Jesus' approaching death and resurrection. Lazarus stands for fallen human race about to be raised from the death of sin to life in God through Christ's passion, death, and resurrection. The illness which Jesus allows Lazarus to undergo is the symbol of our false self with all its weakness, ignorance, and pride, together with all the damage lying in the unconscious from earliest childhood to the present moment. To raise Lazarus from this illness to life in the Spirit is the most profound meaning of the event. Lazarus's resurrection manifests the full significance of Christ's resurrection which restores sinful humanity, not only to the divine life, but to its superabounding fullness.

Jesus hints at the special character of Lazarus's illness in these words: "This illness will not result in death, but will promote the glory of God." Lazarus represents in a special way those who seek to penetrate the mystery of Christ to its depth. The disposition is manifested by a willingness to die to the false self and to wait in patience for the inner resurrection, which can only come from Christ.

~ Crisis of Faith, Crisis of Love

Prayer

O deliriously happy Light,
fill to the uttermost recesses 
the hearts of Your faithful children.

~~~~~