Monthly Archives: August 2012

Icon of St. Teresa of Avila, final

31 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by in contemplation, icon, prayer, St. Teresa of Avila

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I have completed my icon of St. Teresa of Avila and I am pleased with the way it has turned out.  Behind the saint is a representation of the Interior Castle – St. Teresa’s image for the stages of prayer and contemplation and how we encounter God through our own thoughts and imaginings and even going beyond these to that still point where we realize all is grace and pure gift from God.  St. Teresa has much to teach us. 

Recently I picked up a wonderful book on iconography entitled Hidden and Triumphant: The Underground Struggle to Save Russian Iconography.  The book is written by Irina Yazykova and it presents the story of how courageous men and women kept the art and prayer of iconography alive during the years and persecution of the communist Soviet regime. 

At one point in the introduction the author shares the description of iconography as being “contemplation in colors”.  I think that this is a wonderful description for the work of iconography and I know that it is a description that I will continue to reflect on and draw insight from. 

Feast of the Beheading of John the Baptist: John’s birth

29 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by in eternal life, hope, John the Baptist, resurrection

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August 29th is the feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist. 

In its calendar of saints, the Church commemorates the day of death. This is done to acknowledge the day of the saint’s “birth” into eternal life – when the saint passes from this world of pilgrimage to the full life of eternity in Christ. This reminds us of our belief as Christians that death is not the end (Christ’s resurrection has conquered death) and also encourages us while we are on pilgrimage to keep our eyes fixed on the full horizon that we are called to and meant for by God and to live our lives accordingly and in hopeful expectation!

Below is the homily of St. Bede the Venerable for this day:  

As forerunner of our Lord’s birth, preaching and death, the blessed John showed in his struggle a goodness worthy of the sight of heaven. In the words of Scripture: “Though in the sight of men he suffered torments, his hope is full of immortality.” We justly commemorate the day of his birth with a joyful celebration, a day which he himself made festive for us through his suffering and which he adorned with the crimson splendour of his own blood. We do rightly revere his memory with joyful hearts, for he stamped with the seal of martyrdom the testimony which he delivered on behalf of our Lord.

There is no doubt that blessed John suffered imprisonment and chains as a witness to our Redeemer, whose forerunner he was, and gave his life for him. His persecutor had demanded not that he should deny Christ, but only that he should keep silent about the truth. Nevertheless, he died for Christ. Does Christ not say: I am the truth? Therefore, because John shed his blood for the truth, he surely died for Christ.

Through his birth, preaching and baptizing, he bore witness to the coming birth, preaching and baptism of Christ, and by his own suffering he showed that Christ also would suffer.

Such was the quality and strength of the man who accepted the end of this present life by shedding his blood after the long imprisonment. He preached the freedom of heavenly peace, yet was thrown into irons by ungodly men; he was locked away in the darkness of prison, though he came bearing witness to the Light of life and deserved to be called a bright and shining lamp by that Light itself, which is Christ. John was baptized in his own blood, though he had been privileged to baptize the Redeemer of the world, to hear the voice of the Father above him, and to see the grace of the Holy Spirit descending upon him. But to endure temporal agonies for the sake of the truth was not a heavy burden for such men as John; rather it was easily borne and even desirable, for he knew eternal joy would be his reward.

Since death was ever near at hand through the inescapable necessity of nature, such men considered it a blessing to embrace it and thus gain the reward of eternal life by acknowledging Christ’s name. Hence the apostle Paul rightly says: “You have been granted the privilege not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for his sake.” He tells us why it is Christ’s gift that his chosen ones should suffer for him: The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed in us.

The Eucharist and friendship with Jesus, part 3 – Twenty-first Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

25 Saturday Aug 2012

Posted by in 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), bread of life, Eucharist, friendship, humility

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With this Sunday’s gospel reading (Jn. 6:60-69) we come to the end of our five week collective reading of the sixth chapter of John and our reflection on Christ as the Bread of Life.  In many ways today we are given a very vulnerable scene.  Christ has just laid out the teaching of his being the bread of life and people needing to eat of his flesh and drink of his blood.  It was a difficult teaching for many of his followers.   

Many of Jesus’ disciples who were listening said, “This saying is hard; who can accept it?” … As a result of this, many of his disciples returned to their former way of life and no longer accompanied him.

The scene is striking in many ways.  Jesus is vulnerable and he is willing to remain in that vulnerability out of his love for us and the Father and his desire for our friendship and not our fear.  Because of this he is willing to accept the poverty of seeing people walk away.  (There is a great lesson here, I believe, for all persons who are involved in ministry and for any Christian disciple in general.  Authentic ministry and witness means accepting and embracing this poverty.  We do not manipulate people, we do not buy their allegiance or their participation through the latest gadget or trend.  Like Christ, we simply offer what we know and what we have and we love people enough to allow them their freedom.)

Our Lord then turns to the Twelve: Do you also want to leave?  Simon Peter answered him, “Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of life.  We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”  

Now, I do not believe that when Peter made this reply he had a full understanding of transubstantiation worked out in his thoughts.  More than likely, he also probably found our Lord’s words confusing and troubling and the thought was also probably there that, “… maybe it is time to just walk away.”  But he doesn’t.  Even in the uncertainty of the moment and not fully understanding, Peter makes that very remarkable reply, “Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of life.  We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

These are words of faith and they are also words of humility – the two are connected.  St. Teresa of Avila, in her book The Interior Castle, makes a profound and foundational observation regarding the spiritual life that is helpful here, I believe, “While we are on this earth nothing is more important to us than humility.”  Humility is a key component of faith and, in fact, it is a key component of true friendship.  No humility, no friendship.  Peter does not work it all out on his own and then come to Jesus fully informed and ready to commit himself.  Rather, Peter remains with Jesus even in the midst of the uncertainty because in his humility he has come to realize and accept that Jesus does indeed have the words of life and it is by remaining with Jesus that he is brought to greater and greater faith and understanding!

The key is humility and the willingness to just remain with Jesus.

It has been noted that beyond the murmuring about eating the flesh and drinking the blood is the heart of the issue that just proved too much for people and so they walked away: this being the choice of an exclusive intimacy with God through a personal relationship with Jesus.  Peter both makes this choice for himself and proclaims it in his reply to the Lord: “We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.”

All of our Lord’s discourse on his being the bread of life is offered and then it is summed up and accepted in the reply of Peter.  It all comes back to humility, to faith and the willingness to remain with Christ and to have friendship and intimacy with Christ.   

“Master, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of life.  We have come to believe and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.” 

      

The Eucharist and friendship with Jesus, part 2 – Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

18 Saturday Aug 2012

Posted by in 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), bread of life, Eucharist, Fr. Lou Cameli, friendship

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During these weeks when we as the Church have been drawing from the sixth chapter of John’s gospel and reflecting on Christ as the bread of life, I have become more and more aware of how Eucharist and friendship with Christ must be held together and that the starting point for a true understanding of Eucharist is relationship with Christ.  The two are that closely bound and connected.  In fact, I do not think that one can have a full understanding of Eucharist apart from relationship with Christ.  We can talk about transubstantiation, real presence and the matter and form of the sacrament (which are all valid points and have their place) till the cows come home but without relationship with Christ all the talk does not really amount to much.

A number of years ago, I saw a saying on a roadside church sign that has remained with me, “People will not care about how much you know until they know how much you care.”  God, I think, understands this.  In the Eucharist God reveals the depth of his love.  Christ freely and totally gives his own body and blood that we might have life.

Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.  For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. 

This word “life” is of utmost importance.  We live in a time that says we must get the most out of every moment and that this is where true life is to be found.  Today, our faith gives us the same invitation:

Brothers and sisters: Watch carefully how you live, not as foolish persons but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.  Therefore, do not continue in ignorance, but try to understand what is the will of the Lord.  (Eph. 5:15-16)

Wisdom has built her house … “Let whoever is simple turn in here”; to the one who lacks understanding, she says, “Come, eat of my food, and drink of the wine I have mixed!  Forsake foolishness that you may live; advance in the way of understanding.”  (Proverbs 9:1,5-6)

Notice how in both these passages and in today’s gospel (Jn. 6:51-58) life is achieved through relationship – entering Wisdom’s house, seeking God’s will, eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ in order to remain in Christ and for Christ to remain in us.

I have just finished reading a new book put out by my friend Fr. Lou Cameli entitled; Bread of Life: Exploring the Presence of Eucharist in Our Lives.  The book is quite good and I highly recommend it but here I want to bring out two points that Fr. Cameli makes in his book. 

First, in the book, Fr. Cameli explores in detail the sixth chapter of John’s gospel and he reminds us that in this chapter as Jesus is expounding on his being the bread of life he is (in fact) in dialogue with a “more and more concentrated set of interlocutors”.  At first Jesus is talking with a crowd, then it is his disciples, then it is the Twelve and, I would say, finally Jesus is in dialogue with you and me.  The invitation that Jesus has put out there for the people has become too much, too intense – many people walk away.  Jesus puts the same question to each of us; Do you also wish to go away?  It is a question of relationship, of friendship.  It is a question that only each one of us can answer for himself or herself but notice how Christ as the bread of life and relationship/friendship are intertwined and connected.  

Throughout his book, Fr. Cameli reflects on the importance of the Eucharist yet also how that importance has seemed to dim in the life of faith for so many people.  Many people, many Catholics, just do not seem to think that the Eucharist is that important.  Fr. Cameli wrestles with the question but he does not give a pat answer because there is none.  Rather, Fr. Cameli shares his own “Eucharistic Autobiography” – how the Eucharist has been experienced throughout his life and how the Eucharist has, in turn, shaped his life.  He concludes his autobiography with these words:

So, the critical importance of the Eucharist happened for me, because the Eucharist became important at important junctures of my life and in the ordinary rhythm of daily life.  I understand how those who have not had this blessed experience would neither know the Eucharist nor find it that important.  There is a circularity here in the logic of this relationship: it is central because it becomes central; it remains peripheral because it remains peripheral.  The spiritual or formational challenge is to break into this circle of relationship and to begin to practice familiarity. 

The language is relational – friendships become important to us because we allow them to become central to our lives.  The Eucharist becomes central because we allow it to become central.

Throughout this chapter of John’s gospel as Jesus speaks of himself as the bread of life we also find him inviting us to relationship and friendship; even to the point of accepting the poverty of seeing people walk away.  Do you also wish to go away?

Amen, amen, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.  

    

  

The Eucharist and friendship with Jesus: Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

11 Saturday Aug 2012

Posted by in 19th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), Eucharist, friendship, scandal of the particular

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One of the authors that I keep returning to in my life is Jean Vanier – the founder of the L’Arche communities.  L’Arche communities are houses where men and women – mentally handicapped and not – live together in a community of friendship and support.  I enjoy Vanier’s writings because he has great insight and he is able to express great truths in simple terms.  Recently, I read this thought by Vanier which I would like to share:

Jesus invites us to make a difficult and sometimes stormy passage of faith from the enthusiasm of discipleship to the gentleness and humility of friendship.  Friendship with Jesus – the Word made flesh – becomes the nourishment for our hearts and lives.  

Jesus is not only the Word of God – fully transcendent, enlightening our minds and intellects.  Jesus is also the Word made flesh.  God incarnate for us.  God wanting to give himself to us as He is.  God wants our friendship, our kinship, and through the incarnation of Christ reveals that He is willing to become so vulnerable and so very ordinary in his flesh in order to achieve this.

In many ways this is the scandal of the particular and the ordinary.  It is what the people murmur about in this Sunday’s gospel (Jn. 6:41-51) and the same murmuring continues today.  After Jesus says, I am the bread that came down from heaven; we find the people saying, Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph?  Do we not know his father and his mother?  In other words, we know this man, how can he say such things?  Why would the omnipresent and all-powerful God reveal himself in a particular and seemingly ordinary person, in a particular place and in a particular time?  The murmuring continues today in a variety of forms.  “I am spiritual but not religious.”  “My God is bigger than your dogma.”  “The Eucharist is not really that important.”  This murmuring demonstrates an approach to faith that is happy to keep things open and generic and also one that easily congratulates itself on being “enlightened”.  But, it also should be noted that it is an approach that keeps any real demands on me at a minimum.  A truly open and generic God will not make particular demands on my life, my time and my desires.

The quote by Jean Vanier also highlights another aspect of the scandal of the particular.  It is rooted in fear.  The fear of having to make that truly necessary but stormy passage of faith from the enthusiasm of discipleship to the gentleness and humility of friendship.  The truth is that there is a part within each of us that prefers discipleship to friendship.  Discipleship is quite respectable and yet it still keeps God and Christ a bit removed.  Christ is the master and we are the disciples and although this is always true the Gospel today should shock us, it ought to shock us, into the recognition that this is not enough for God.

Jesus says, It is written in the prophets: ‘They shall all be taught by God.’ … I am the bread of life.  Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven; whoever eats this bread will life forever; and the bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world.

God wants our friendship.  

In the very ordinary stuff of bread and wine Christ has chosen to give us his very self – full divinity and full humanity!  The infinite chooses the finite to reveal himself.  The very particularity of Jesus himself and the very particularity and ordinariness of the Eucharist reveals to us that before God is ever an incomprehensible mystery for our reason and intellect to ponder, He is an unfathomable mystery of love to receive.  God has chosen to give Himself for us.  God wants the gentleness and humility of friendship.  We do not need superhuman effort in order to understand something of heaven nor do we need extraordinary mediators to communicate with God.  God is here.  God is present.  Christ gives himself in the Eucharist.  All that we have to do is receive.

As we approach the altar we should be aware of what we are about and what God is about.  We should neither do this half-heartedly nor half-mindedly.  We should be aware that in the Eucharist Christ wants and invites us to undertake that stormy passage of faith from the enthusiasm of discipleship to the gentleness and humility of friendship.  And as we undertake this, we come to realize in the very particular and concrete way of our own life that friendship with Jesus – the Word made flesh – truly becomes the nourishment for our hearts and lives.     

         

Icon of St. Teresa of Avila, step 5

08 Wednesday Aug 2012

Posted by in authenticity, humility, icon, St. Teresa of Avila

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In her reflection on the First Dwelling Places in The Interior Castle, St. Teresa offers this bit of sound spiritual advice: While we are on this earth nothing is more important to us than humility.  I have decided to make this the quote for the icon, although I had to shorten it as you can see above.

Humility has its roots in the word humble meaning “close to the ground”.  Humble is rooted in the Old French word umble coming from Latin humilis meaning “low, lowly”.  Further, humilis is a derivative of humus meaning “earth”.

“To be humiliated” means to be brought low by either another person or circumstance, brought back down to earth (this might be a good thing or not depending on the circumstance and ones viewpoint).  To strive for humility (as Teresa suggests throughout her writings) is to acknowledge the truth of who we are before one another and before God.  Humility leads to authenticity.

In iconography one of the three colors mixed to create the proplasma (which is the base color for flesh) is olive green.  When we look at a person’s face we can see tints of green.  I think this might be where the saying, “green with envy” has its start.  The awareness of the need for green to form the base of flesh in iconography is a visual teaching on our connection to earth (humus) and our need for humility in life. 

St. Teresa’s advice is sound for all persons, all circumstances and especially our day and age. 

Authenticity in who we are and in our relationships with one another and even with God can only be achieved when we cultivate humility in our lives.               

Icon of St. Teresa of Avila, step 4

06 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by in consolation, prayer, revolutionary, spiritual delights, St. Teresa of Avila

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In her section on the Fourth Dwelling Places in The Interior Castle, St. Teresa draws a distinction between two movements in the life of prayer: consolations and spiritual delights.  Basically, consolations have their origin in us.  Consolations are experiences that are acquired through our own effort – our petitions and our prayers.  They move from us to God and as long as they end in God they are good and beneficial. 
Spiritual delights, on the other hand, have their origin in God and move to us.  Spiritual delights are specifically movements of God’s grace that catch us and are not controlled by us.  They come in God’s time and in God’s plan.  Spiritual delights bring a peace and stillness to the soul that fulfills and expands our hearts.  They can even come in the busiest and noisiest of circumstances.  For a moment, even as we might be busy about other things and thoughts, we are brought to a different level of awareness.  (As I read this section by Teresa I was reminded of the distinction laid out by Josef Pieper between acquired knowledge and received knowledge in Leisure as the Basis of Culture.  I think that a connection can be made at this juncture between Teresa’s thought and that of Pieper but this is not the place for that.) 
There is much to reflect upon in this distinction of the two movements of prayer but one thought that strikes me is that spiritual delights remind us that God is active in our lives and that there is such a thing as providence.  There is a form of Christian thought that says God created us and the world, God saved us from sin, God has given us salvation in Christ and his word in Scripture and now it is up to us to take all this and live a good life basically on our own.  God is God yet God remains separate and distinct and not really active in my life.  Acknowledged or not, I think that many people have this perspective on the Christian life.  It is a “Christianized” form of secularism – God is acknowledged but God really does not move within the secular realm. 
Spiritual delights stand in opposition to this take on the Christian faith.  They demonstrate that God is active and that God moves as God so chooses. 
Not too long ago I read an observation which held that in the West we are all “adult children of the Enlightenment,” which means we have all been washed thoroughly in a perspective of reality that is quite comfortable with keeping God “out there” and us “here”.  Teresa was never a child of the Enlightenment and her writings give us a different and needed perspective.  In fact, I would contend that any Catholic who is worth his or her salt and understands what sacrament and grace are all about would never be truly comfortable in the restrictive confines of a worldview that too readily separates the sacred and the secular.
Isn’t it interesting how revolutionary prayer is when we really delve into it?  Oftentimes we have  an image of the revolutionary as the protester on the street shouting his or her slogan and carrying his or her particular sign but in essence working out of the same perspective as the ones they are protesting against.  Maybe the real revolutionaries are monastics and those people truly dedicated to the life of prayer and the true hotbeds of revolutionary dissent are to be found in monasteries and convents.             

The work of true faith: Eighteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

04 Saturday Aug 2012

Posted by in 18th Sunday in ordinary time (B), faith

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On this second Sunday of the five consecutive Sundays when the Church draws from John’s Gospel to reflect on Jesus Christ as the Bread of Life we are given an invitation.  After the feeding of the multitude and our Lord withdrawing for some solitude we are told that the crowds in today’s gospel (Jn. 6:24-35) come in search of him but their intent is not the most sincere and our Lord is aware of this.  Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.

We can live a form of “faith” that holds as its main goal and purpose the desire to be filled.  This approach to faith can take many forms.  The most blatant is the prosperity gospel that reduces Christianity to a commercial exchange between the human and the divine and God to a beneficent loan agent.  “If you have faith, if you live a good life, then God will reward you materially,” is the mantra of the prosperity gospel.  Another mantra is that you can have your best life now.  This take on faith is very popular for many people and one can see why – it promises a comfortable materialistic approach to the rewards of faith while ignoring the inconvenience of the cross.  The problem is that it is not christian. 

This is one expression on seeking faith in order to be filled but there are others.  Many of which are found and promoted even within many churches today.  Another expression is seen in equating real faith with an emotional high gained from a certain type of worship or retreat experience.  It is only faith if I feel it and it fills me up.  A further expression (closely linked to the previous two) is the Jesus who satisfies my every need and who shelters me from any real problem, hurt, crisis or need in life. 

There is a common thread that runs through all these forms of faith based in the desire to be filled.  Despite often loud attestations to the contrary which proclaim Jesus as Lord these approaches actually have the person him or herself as the center of existence and Jesus as just the means to the end of my material well-being, my emotional well-being, my personal sanctity and my eternal glory.  The focus is not so much on Jesus as it is on me.

The gospel invitation which we are given today is to move beyond this narrow faith seeking to be filled in order to find true faith and true relationship with Christ.  After chiding the crowds for the real reason why they sought him out Jesus goes on to say, Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.  When the crowds ask for this real food, this true bread, our Lord says, I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.

True faith is not found in using Jesus as a means to personal satisfaction but in seeking a living relationship with Christ and in committing ones life to do the very real work of acknowledging him as Lord.  Yes, there is an aspect of “work” to faith.  Faith requires decision, commitment, toil, choices, and abandonment and sometimes even going against the stream, risking to be unpopular and even be persecuted for what one holds to be true.  This is the work of faith – we see it in the lives of those first disciples and the same invitation is given to us today.

In contradiction to faith which seeks to be filled it is worthwhile to conclude with a prayer which expresses the work of true and mature faith.  This is the Suscipe of St. Ignatius of Loyola.  Notice that where the faith of the crowd can only ask what it can get from Christ; this faith asks for the grace to give more for Christ.  I would contend that only someone who had truly accepted and lived the gospel invitation of seeking a living relationship with Christ could write this prayer.

St. Ignatius and all holy men and women who accepted our Lord’s invitation to faith and encounter with Him, please pray for us.

Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty,
my memory, my understanding,
and my entire will,
all I love and call my own.

You have given it all to me.
To you, Lord, I return it.

Everything is yours; do with it what you will.
Give me only your love and grace,
that is enough for me.