In These Times…The Fate of the New Humanity

The Alleluia verse for the 25^th Sunday in Ordinary Time puts a finger on a nerve: we are to possess God's very glory. Period. Then comes reality right in our faces. All hell is going to break loose to destroy the innocence that has been won back for us. We are going to be under siege. That is the fate of the new humanity. Clear?

"Get 'em!" "Destroy him!" "She's lying...he's the best for the court!"

Children are going to figure in the Word these next weeks. Back in the days of the gospel, a child was of little or no account. A child had no rights until about age 12. So what Jesus is doing is really insulting the apostles in their conversation about prestige. He is saying, "Sorry, Boys, it's going to be different for us." Yes, he is about forming a new humanity. The least are going to be first for us.

This upstart Word-in-our-flesh is going to restore our innocence and trust us to protect it. So, get ready. Listen up...be watchful...when they come for you...to rob you of your innocence...yes, he will continue to restore it...but it will mean more agony from him in the person of his poor. They are the scapegoats for our conversion. Among them his passion continues in time. They are the price of our conversion.

Our fresh Charism/Mission Statement and new Focus Statement call us to be a very special presence. Dominicans are worded men and women. They don't just imitate the Word...they identify with it. That means it soaks into our consciousness and becomes a part of our very being, our self-awareness. So if we are to be “Rooted in God’s transformative Word,” what are we to be transformed from? What are we to be transformed to?

Thessalonians tells us "God has called us through the Gospel to possess the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ." (2Thess 2:14) There you have it. We are to have God’s very own glory, so it’s going to be very different for us too. It’s not business as usual in our families, communities, and workplaces. We are to shine.

Ever notice how our religious values sometimes rub the culture in the wrong way? Yes, we are different. We don’t condemn people before we get the facts. We don’t even condemn them once we do get the facts. We grieve for them…and pray for their healing. Innocence wins for us the wisdom from above because we shine with God’s glory. Now we can forget this, and then we just join the crowd. We get swept along like the debris from the flooding.

No. Instead, we need to daily claim our inheritance. Put your glory on as you dress. Smile at it as you brush your teeth and look in the mirror. Then watch out…the powers that be are out to rob you. When you need to, yell for the Shepherd, and hang on…to him and what he has won for us at the price of blood.

The One Thing Necessary

As Ordinary Time comes to a close this month with the Feast of Christ the King, we are challenged by the scriptural texts to face the reality of death. We do it, but we don’t like it. Why? For a lot of reasons. We don’t feel ready. There is so much yet undone. We feel guilty of “not doing enough. We are not close enough to God…and it goes on and on.

 Deep down we sense we will never really be ready. So what are we to do? We have some valuable hints. Give it up, for one. Give up trying to program our own life. Give up being terrified because we can’t pull it off. Give up the inner tension that is always a sign that I’m on an ego trip. It’s a waste of time.

So as we prepare to meet the King, whether that means the feast or face to face, it’s wise to face facts. First, the Easter mysteries have taught me that the Risen One is now present among us in a different way. He is wherever I am. “You in me and I in you.” What if I remembered this in the morning when I put my feet on the floor? If he dwells in me, then when I see him face to face he won’t be a stranger. That’s his point. So much for my fear. Next, he has taken all my guilt. All of it. Why then do I let it keep haunting me? He loves me so much he can’t seem to remember it. So why do I remain hypnotized by what is gone…instead of staring at that love which will never leave me? These are facts. Faith-facts.

So it comes down to the “one thing necessary.” I will never be “worthy.” I will never be “ready.” I am really not “in charge” of anything. There is only one thing to do. Keep my inner eye on him within me, keep an eye on him in the other person, and live my one little wild life by filling each of my moments with loving gratitude. When I brush my teeth, when I fold laundry, when I drive, when I shop, when I try to pray, when I am sad and when I am glad. That’s all. That’s the “one thing necessary.” It’s all he asks. The rest is gift.

 

Hold me in life

for you are my safety.

Always my eyes are looking for you.

Because you are just who you are,

don’t pass me by but show me your mercy.

I will wait for you all my life.

Are you the One who is to come?

Or must we wait and follow some other?

Lord, my God, I am certain of you.

 



You gave your Word to this our world.

You are my song, the God of my gladness.

My desire goes out to you. (Huub Oosterhuis)

In these times…The Primary Presence

Both our Charism/Mission Statement and our new Focus Statement call for a type of “presence.” There are quality ways of “being present.” But there is a type of presence that grounds them all for the Dominican worded-woman or man. It’s the challenge of a contemplative presence.

If we are honest, many of us have to admit that we really haven’t received much training in contemplative prayer. We say, “Well, I go to chapel or sit down in my room, and then I fidget. I really don’t know what to do next.”* First, we need to become clear about what we can do, and what we can’t do.  Acquired contemplation is what we can do. Infused contemplation is what God does.

This kind of presence can be uncomfortable at first, and that’s why many of us avoid it. We feel so useless, so helpless, and so we pick up our book or our rosary, and that’s how we spend the time of prayer. Contemplative presence is coming before the gaze of love and “sitting in the Son” just as one would do outdoors getting a tan. It is showing up, being “present,” and letting God look love into us for about 60 seconds, doing nothing but squirming. We know how it feels to sense someone is “looking at us.” This look of love and acceptance is very intimate, and it “undoes” us. It gently begins to cleanse our ego, and we do nothing but “let it be done.”

 We begin the time of personal prayer with this kind of presence. When we complete it we may go on to our scripture or rosary. As we begin, our attention will start to wander, so we enter the discipline of taking it by the hand and teaching it a little “diddy” to keep it occupied. This is called a mantra. The shorter the better, with a bit of rhythm. “Je-sus, Je-sus” or “mer-cy, mer-cy.” We repeat it to keep our focus on those loving eyes looking at us. We even say it out loud, or mumble it. This simple two-syllable mantra in the East grew into the full Jesus prayer, getting quite long, but I suggest beginning with a shorter form in tune with your heart beat or breathing. We give ourselves a time limit…first five, then ten minutes. Then we start the discipline of doing it daily, and it is not negotiable. This is our part, and there is very little in it for us, except the satisfaction that we are doing it daily. In the meantime God is honoring our decision by doing God’s part. Our consciousness needs to be trained, cleansed, and filled with the peace won for us as our Easter gift. God is very busy. We just show up and do our little thing. Faithfully.

Now and then, once the consciousness is trained to focus and receive, God will come by and sweep us off our feet. This is infused contemplation, and we do not cause it, or stop it. It is God’s doing. Often it will be a brief moment while we are folding laundry, or brushing out teeth. God decides.

This practice of the “loving look” bears fruit. It cleanses our consciousness to look at the news, at people, with a clarity that grows deeper with the practice. We begin to bring this kind of  presence to meetings, to phone conversations. It is like fragrance in a room. It is “marinating’ the consciousness, soaking the soul. We become fruitful. This is our primary presence.

*If you haven’t read “The Cloud of Unknowing” I urge you to take a look at it. It is a classic, and will introduce you to this kind of prayer. Don’t give up when you start to read it…stay with it.

First Fruits of Harvest Time

 

 

Like the loving grandma who is interested in the report card of her grandchild, Mother Church is looking for the results of our contemplation on the Word that has gone on during this Ordinary Time. In this harvest time what growth has the Paschal Mystery been bringing about in us?

 

Transformation is going on in the texts of October. The Word, like a loving mother, is patiently showing us that in the new humanity being formed out of the death and resurrection of God’s Son, things are going to be different…not same old, same old.

 

Central to this teaching is the appearance of the child in the texts, how to regard possessions, and a new and deeper look at marriage just for starters. What is at the heart of all this?

 

Jesus is teaching us to keep our eyes on the Mystery of Love that is his Father. Like the child with a one-track mind, only if our minds are centered on God as Love will we have a clear enough vision to read everything else correctly. Without a centered mind we flit from one thing to the next, one concern vying with another for our attention, and we find ourselves exhausted with trying to keep up with it all. It’s time to let nature speak to us its profound message at this time of year.

 

Everything around us is drying up and fading away. The flowers have bloomed themselves out, the leaves are falling from the trees leaving them barren, and the crisp smell of autumn is in the air. With our eyes fixed on the One who never fades, who is always fresh and new, who loses nothing, we are taught that all in this world passes away. There is only One we need to keep our inner eye on.

 

This disciplining of our minds to go back again and again to the “one thing necessary” is the heart of contemplative vision. Only by daily exercise, perhaps by the constant repetition of the Jesus Prayer (Jesus, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner) or some other favorite mantra, will we achieve that centering that we so sorely need. Then our vision clears regarding what to do about what we own, how we are to love those we have made commitments to, and most of all, who we are as the beloved of God. There is a still point amid all the noise.

 

The glory that shines from God begins to permeate our souls, and we too begin to shine as we walk through our days. The struggles will be there. The sorrows will break our hearts. The joys will renew our spirits. But best of all, our hearts will be clear, pure, like that of a child.

 

 

Give me, O Love,

The pure curious eye of the child.

Teach my heart the one thing necessary.

Help me to gently come “home” to you hundreds of times during the day.

You, my one thing necessary.