What Kind of “Coming?”

When Advent comes, we say we are preparing for the “coming” of the Lord. But he has already come, right? So, are we just remembering a past event? Or maybe we mean he will be coming back, right? Both of these are true. He has come, and he will indeed be coming back. So then are we remembering a future event? It’s a little like a sandwich. There is the bread on the top and the bread on the bottom, but where’s the “beef?”

The Church really is reminding us of three comings, and the most important is the one in the middle…that’s the beef in the sandwich. It’s easy to remember the three with a little diddy: History, Mystery, and Majesty.

The coming in History is the surprising revelation that comes “…in the fullness of time.” So why is the time “full?” Because God has been playing a kind of “peek-a-boo” down through the ages. Little by little you are ready to see more of me. First, I create you out of pure love and put you in a garden called earth. Then you mess things up by not doing as I ask. This affects not only your relationship with me, but your relationship with one another and your relationship with the earth. You are evicted from the garden. Then, as the centuries roll on, you try to search for me even though your ideas of who I am are pretty cloudy. You keep thinking I’m like yourself. You make me in your own image and likeness. I show you as much as you can bear through the prophets. Then, finally, the fullness of time comes; you are of age. I show you who I really am. I come as human, a language you understand. I enter History, your flow of time and space.

But you make the same mistake all over again. You don’t do as I ask. In fact, you get rid of me so I don’t bother you. But I’m not one to give up easily, so I will come back and try, try again. Yes, I will come back finally in Majesty to claim you, but I will help you get ready to meet me. I will come to you daily in Mystery. Wake up. Don’t miss me. I will come in a hundred different disguises. I am behind every face you see, every hand reached out to you, every person you touch. Don’t pass me by. This time say yes to what I ask of you, OK?

Close as tomorrow the sun shall appear,

Freedom is coming and healing is near.

And I shall be with you in sorrow and pain

to stand in the wind and walk in the reign.

In days to come the desert shall bloom.

Rivers shall run there, and soon, very soon.

So what shall we fear, though death do its worst?

The word of our God is the last shall be first.

Comfort each other, for pain soon must end.

A day comes when lion and lamb shall be friends.

The sightless shall see then, the speechless sing songs.

The name of our God is the righter of wrongs.

In these times…Being a Person of Peace?

Soon we will be gathering during this Advent time. It is a time of peace, this midnight blue season of waiting. As part of our reflection on the centrality of presence in our focus statement, what might it really mean for us to be persons of peace? What did it mean for the Word to appear among us as a child bringing peace?

From the cradle to the cross, I can’t help but think of the Christ as some mysterious lightning deflector. Wherever he went, violence seemed to find him and try to wipe him out. My observation is that he always deflected that violence to the ground. He grounded it so it couldn’t go any further. This got me to thinking about myself as a person of peace.

Violence visits us all. It might be the thoughtless remark, the snub, or the critical remark, said to me or by me. This can frazzle me, shattering my peace. What if, like some antenna, I simply grounded it, intentionally refusing to send it on, choosing not to react nor to give myself the satisfaction of speaking of it to another? What if I determined violence would die with me, going no further. What would it take for me to do this regularly up front?

Our instinctive reaction is to project it on, to return remark for remark. What if I deliberately grounded it, making sure it ended with me? Could this be just my little contribution to ridding the world of violence? It seems so small a thing…so personal, and no one will even know. But my heart will know, and the One who is the Prince of Peace will know. Maybe, just maybe, there will be peace in my small space, my corner of the world.

I need to stare at the baby asleep in the hay. One day the violence loose in the world will kill him. But in touching him it will die with him. It will go no further. He’s right. The peace he will bring is not as the world gives. It comes from somewhere else. This advent I too want to come from somewhere else.

The Light has Come…

Winter is here…with its dreary overcast days, and bone-chilling cold. The weather sometimes reflects the daily news, and we wonder if it can get any darker. Yet the word of God doesn’t seem to notice…or maybe it is more accurate to say the word of God looks beyond the gloom and doom.

This is the season when we crave light. We need it physically, because we are getting so little sun, so it’s wise to check our lamps. Replacing old bulbs with full spectrum light bulbs can help avoid SAD, the letters for “seasonal affective disorder.” In other words, the lack of light can make us moody and depressed. Why? Because when we really think of it, we are rock-bottom made of light. Yes, it’s true. Our basic ingredient is light energy taking the form of matter in our DNA and cells. Now that’s a place to start for pondering self-worth!

The human Jesus calls himself “The Light of the World.” Then, true to form, he looks at his disciples and says, “You are the light of the world…” He is not just speaking figuratively. He means it.

But first we have to believe it. We need to remember it when we’ve just made a fool of ourselves; when we have done something stupid or unkind. We need to remember it when we get into those holes we get in when we are down on ourselves. He bends down, lifts us by the chin and plants a kiss on our nose. Yes, light to light.

Thomas Merton writes of his experience in Louisville one day while he was in the city square waiting for a brother he had taken to a doctor’s appointment. All the people walking were shining like they had swallowed the sun. His comment when he wrote of this fleeting experience was, “Whatever are they going to say to me when I walk up to them and tell them…do you know you are shining like the sun?” Catherine of Siena too had a similar experience. So beautiful was the sight of light emanating from a person that she was prepared to kneel down before them. God stopped her saying, “No, Catherine, that is not me. It is but my grace working in that person.”

So in these dreary days, when your spirit feels blah…recall what dwells within you, what you yourself cannot see. Be amazed. Then live your day with a knowing little smile.

Light to light, you say.

What have you wrought in making me?

My knobby knees and greying hair?

Even more, what are you making of me…

as your graceful presence works its way in me?

No matter…

I trust the craftsman…and offer myself as your lantern.

Shine through me and make me shine despite my smoky past.

The Fullness of Time…

Time…we have entered 2019. We are all too familiar with “Time flies…” or “I don’t know where the time went!” But here we are, and the New Year is upon us.

As people of the Word, what is so amazing to us is that the Eternal One, who has no time constraints, has entered into the very time constraints that you and I struggle with every day. “Not enough time…time on my hands”…whatever your experience, you know what I mean. It can indeed be a struggle. With the incarnation, the Holy One now knows those same constraints. Perhaps this is what the “swaddling bands” tells us. Can’t move…all bound up…dependent…so limited. You can add to the  list.

Now why ever would the Eternal Word want to do this? Not only take on this, but freely enter the pace of development in the womb, month by month, day by day…pregnancy can’t be hurried. It takes its time. What this step into hidden time says to me is “I’ve been there…I know how tedious it is just to be human sometimes.”

So these days of winter are the time after Christmas when we ponder the “hidden life.” Amazing. Thirty years of hiding out. Doing what we might call “nothing.” But isn’t that how we view our own lives? “I’m not doing much of anything new,” we say. Yet if the Word thought it so important to spend thirty years of doing things so ordinary that they were not worth writing down, maybe we need to take another look at time.

First, love it. Embrace it each morning as you put your feet on the floor. Wrap it around you, as the air wraps you round about. It is the atmosphere where you will do your loving. You will need to be patient as it flows, and above all don’t scream at it, beat it, or abuse it. Be careful not to rush. Merton says this is the first form of self-abusive violence we impose on ourselves. Try not to hurry – ever. Move gently from one task to another. You will be amazed at how this practice can keep you in the presence of God…so we in turn can be present to others. Each of us has exactly as much time as everyone else. Now there’s true equity.

Holy One,

I just don’t have time.

To sit there and just be with you, that is.

What good is it?

But there you are, inside my little time capsule…

waiting for me.

Don’t you ever get tired waiting for me?

Maybe I just have to settle this…

and admit I just keep busy to avoid feeling so vulnerable in your presence.

Maybe I do have the time.

Maybe I just avoid you because I don’t know what to do sitting in your love.

So this year, maybe I just need to learn to waste time with you.

Maybe I just need to let you know…

 you are worth “wasting” time with.

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.