Sometimes those two words, “The End” are welcomed, like today, the end of 2020! Sometimes those two words, “The End” are an “It all depends!” as in a life or a marriage. Sometimes those two words, “The End” are an “Oh no!” like the end of a great get together. Sometimes those two words, “The End” will be no more, as in Eternal life within God.
“Never worry about the size of your Christmas
tree. In the eyes of children, they are all 30 feet tall”
Larry Wilde
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
December 30, 2020
COINS
Coins, pennies, nickels dimes, quarters, half dollars, rest easy in dishes and jars on bureau tops and desk drawers, and outside in the earth around the world are coins worth millions and millions of dollars from way way back – unused, unknown, unaccounted for – and deep within all of us is love much more valuable unused, unknown, and unaccounted for.
“And now brothers, I will ask you a terrible
question, and God knows I ask it also of myself. Is the truth beyond all
truths, beyond the stars, just this: that to live without him is the real
death, that to die with him the only life?”
Frederick Buechner,
The Magnficent Defeat
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
December 29, 2020
HOW TO WIN
AN ARGUMENT
EVERY TIME
Arguing with another is stupid most of the time.The other has their mind up – and so do I. As they say, “It’s a waste of time and energy to argue in the first place.” Remember Nelson Mandela. Be smart. So if you want to win an argument every time simply say, “You're smart. I'm smart. You got a brain. Me too."
“Were I a philosopher, I should write a
philosophy of toys, showing that nothing else in life need to be taken
seriously, and that Christmas Day in the company of children is one of the few
occasions on which men become entirely alive.”
Robert Lynd
Monday, December 28, 2020
December 28, 2020
SOUNDS LIKE
The dog barks, the train whistles, the radiator rattles, the December cold combines with everything metal, and you’re just sitting there, snoring. You haven’t said a thing new since November. Where are you as we come to the end of this worst of years?
“The smells of Christmas are the smells
of childhood.”
Richard Paul Evans,
The Christmas Box
Sunday, December 27, 2020
December 27, 2020
PRISON
CELL ARCHITECT
Is there a chapter in a book on architecture or a class in architect school about how to build a prison cell? If there is,does it make windows an absolute necessity– and how
high – so a prisoner can see the sky or
low so as to see more – like a father
with a son? Would architects in learning the
profession talk about room forshelvesfor books and windows to let in the sound of
birds outside – as well as trains in the
distance? How about chapels, churches,
mosques? Do prison architects bring up
questions about recreation, schooling,
spirituality, exercise, prisoners’ family, the future as
well as the past? Do wardens, guards, prison psychologists
and doctors consider questions other
than worry about escape?Who and what am I missing in this short meandering wondering about
prisons?
“Christmas
is built upon a beautiful and intentional paradox; that the birth of the
homeless should be celebrated in every home.”
G.K. Chesterton
December 26, 2020
WALL
SWITCH
Sometimes we’re in the dark. We can’t find the light switch. We rub our hand along the wall in hopes of hitting
something. We’re careful. We don’t want to fall. Finally. We feel the switch and
turn on the light. Now that was easy. But with people – all this is
different.
“And
when we give each other Christmas gifts in His name, let us remember that He
has given us the sun and the moon and the stars, and the earth with its forests
and mountains and oceans--and all that lives and move upon them. He has given
us all green things and everything that blossoms and bears fruit and all that
we quarrel about and all that we have misused--and to save us from our
foolishness, from all our sins, He came down to earth and gave us Himself.”
Sigrid Undset
December 25, 2020
PEOPLE WATCHING
I am the baby in that crib. I am Mary feeding that kid. I am Joseph guarding this family. I am the shepherds discovering this kid. I am the kings lead from afar by a star. I am the donkey, the sheep, the goat, and the cow, not knowing who is this kid. I am mother, father, brother, sister, when you see me, you’ll see yourself. People watch and you’ll start to see what this baby saw: each other in each other.
“Want
to keep Christ in Christmas?Feed the hungry, clothe the naked, forgive the
guilty, welcome the unwanted, care for the ill, love your enemies, and do unto
others as you would have done unto you.”
Steve Maraboli,
Unapologetically You:
Reflections on Life and
the Human Experience
Thursday, December 24, 2020
December 24, 2020
CHRISTMAS EVE
The one thing to do each Christmas Eve is to sit. I know it’s difficult with so much to do. But sit! Sit with each other for a moment. Mary and Joseph did it. “Phew. We have a place.” The baby will come. And all will be well.
After 65 – before or after – we learn that others have their leanings – like - liking chocolate chip cookies or racism or being on the far right or far left or they avoid talking politics in the first place or knowing who’s running hurt or whom to remain silent with – because they haven’t figured out life or themselves yet. That’s all. We all have our leanings.
“A filing cabinet is a place where things get
lost alphabetically.”
Tuesday, December 22, 2020
December 22, 2020
YOU NEVER KNOW
You never know who the other person is. You never know what their job is. You never know who their kids are. You never know where they are from. You never know – if they wrote a book. You never know if they ever played BINGO. You never know till you ask them questions.
“One ought to hold on to one’s heart; for if
one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Monday, December 21, 2020
December 21, 2020
THE BIG PICTURE
2020 wasn’t all bad! Tonight and these nights near Christmas – Jupiter and Saturn – are within 0.1 degrees to each other. Yet they are 450 million miles apart. The last time this happened was 800 years ago and the next time is going to be 2080. Not bad, but I won’t be alive in 2080. So tonight - obviously - I was out there looking into the southwest sky. Ugh! All was cloudy.All was gray. Yet I knew from what I read, like life, what I wasn’t seeing was right there.
The space after a comment - sometimes it lingers for a second – sometimes for the whole day or life. It could be a compliment or it could be a hurt – that rubs us like a rasp or # 10 sandpaper. The intent – now that is the question - or the rub as Shakespeare puts it – the why he or she said what they said. The big silence is when we don’t talk to each other about what happened and end up never really knowing what happened.
“The
higher we soar, the smaller we appear to those who cannot fly.”
Friedrich
Nietzsche
Saturday, December 19, 2020
December 19, 2020
EAT
What do tiny spiders eat – and mites and invisible creatures who are only known to microscopes? Do they feel it when I step on them in the fields or on the floor or sidewalk or when I sit on them in church benches? Evidently, there’s a lot more going on that I’ll ever know – how I sit on others or step on their self-respect or self-image.
Somewhere along the line in life – we’ll see someone who is trapped and all we do is look or walk on by. They feel like they are in a cage – and it seems like nobody does anything to help them. Nobody. It could be they are in a job or a relationship – or a marriage – and they need a key to escape. Sometimes it might be us and there is no Good Samaritan walking down our road that day.
“I have been driven many times to my knees by
the overpowering conviction that I had no place else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day.”
Abraham Lincoln
Thursday, December 17, 2020
December
17, 2020
Thought
for Today
“The snake which cannot cast its skin has to
die. As well the minds which are prevented from changing their opinions; they
cease to be mind.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
ISAIAH 45:C6-7
The title of my homily for today - Wednesday in the 3rd Week of Advent - is, “Isaiah 45:C6 - 7.” It’s part of the beginning of today’s first reading. Let me say the words again. “I am the Lord and there is no other. I form the light and create the darkness. I make well-being and create woe. I the Lord, do all these things.” The word that jumped out was "woe." I checked out several translations and notice these words are used: evil – or calamity
or misery. The question that hit me was, “Is Isaiah saying God creates evil?” My Hebrew to English Bible translates it this way, “I
make weal” [yes WEAL – I never used that word "weal" – “and I create woe.” Weal and woe. Good and evil. In Hebrew the words used in Isaiah 45: 7 for weal and woe are shalom and ra. We are familiar with SALOWM –
peace – meaning things are going right - but we probably don't know RA. It means things are going wrong. There’s
calamity. Well-being and calamity. That’s life – sometimes it rains joy and happiness and
sometimes it rains mess and woe. Isaiah 45 has the people living in misery – in the
Babylonian exile – and Isaiah is giving them hope – and Cyrus is going to get
us back home. That’s everyone’s life:good times and bad times, light and darkness, sickness and health, till
death do us part. DOLLY PARTON I was watching a documentary on Dolly Partonyesterday and in one interview she said she
went through a tough time there once – for a good 4 months. She had women’s
health problems and some depression and darkness problems and put on some
weight and got some help in a New York Hospital. She said you can hear some of my thoughts and feelings in
some of my earlier songs. She said, “I was going through what everyone goes
through. It’s life.” She said she had some serious conversations with God and
she told God she wanted some serious answers. She pulled through. She was saying what Isaiah was saying here in today’s
readings. YOU In your serious conversations with God – what answers
have you come up about the question about the tough stuff of life – the WOE
-stuff. Do you think God zaps people? Do you think life is a combination of weal and woe, good
and evil, sweet and the sour, joys and sorrows? I don’t think God says, “I’m going to get you with a
nasty flu or virus or cancer.”But I do
think life calls us into a conversation and a communion and cross sharings with
God – with Christ – in our time of life.” I do think the things that happened to people in the gospel
can happen to us when we have faith – we see better, we hear better, we walk
better – as we hear in today’s gospel. CONCLUSION One short story….. FISH STOR
December 16, 2020
BACK AND FORTH
Getting on the bus at 6:30 AM and getting on the bus at 4:00 PM Monday to Friday for 34 years now…. Getting up a few times every night now that I’m over 80 years of age …. Getting coffee and water and orders every day at the Cozy Corner Diner for 17 years now – the kids are gone …. Birds in the spring – birds in the fall, retirees south and north every year …. Taking care of kid’s kids and then parents – with not enough time in between for oneself – because spouses sometimes get sick too …. Life – in between the back and forth we better take care of ourselves as well as let God take care of us on this side of the grave as well ….
“The lonely one offers his hand too quickly to
whomever he encounters.”
Friedrich
Nietzsche
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
December 15, 2020
SURPRISE
What would surprise you the most? A little drummer boy? An 85-year-old grandmother field goal kicker? A 3-year-old who can speak Finnish and Chinese? A New York marathon runner in a wheelchair? A pair of shoes which could help you fly? A car tire that can’t go flat? The second person in God who came as a baby? What would surprise you the most?
“If
you don’t strike oil in the first thirty minutes, stop boring.”
30
minutes??????
Mustbe a Protestant
Church.
Monday, December 14, 2020
THE JOURNEY
THROUGH THE NIGHT
___________________________________________ YOU February 1981 by Andrew Costello ___________________________________________ This issue of YOU will present a meditation
on the need for taking time out in the night for prayer—for reflection — for
decision making — for conversion — for seeing where we are in the journey of
life. It will be more poetic than analytical — in hopes that moments of prayer
will arise in the night to the Father. __________________________________________
THE
MEDITATION The night is still—dark. There is still time in the night for prayer. There
is still time for God. It’s never too late to enter the garden (Mt. 20; Jn.
18:1, 20:1-18: Gn. 2:8). God is still “the still point of the turning
world” (T.S. Eliot). To know God I must be still (Ps. 46:11; 131:2). To
be complete, whole and well rounded, I must be still. I must stop and see where
I am. I must tell all the voices, the noises, the tapes,
the songs on my radio station, the distractions, that are riding along inside
my car, inside my head, to “Shut up!” I must pull over to the side of the road
and yell, “Be quiet! Let me look at a map for a moment.” IN NEED OF
PRAYER Where am I? There I am — still hiding — “among the trees of
the garden”. The Lord God is calling, “Where are you?” (Gn. 3: 8-9). Where am I? I’m in my womb, my own tomb. I ought
to know. I built it myself. And I’m sick and tired of the life I’m living, the
death I’m pursuing. I need to shape up. I need to wake up. I’m like Rip Van
Winkle, asleep for too many years. I need to crack my egg shell and get out of
myself. I need a rude awakening — a “Great Awakening” — a re-birth (Jn.
3:1-21). I’ve been in my own orbit too long. I’ve been
revolving, jogging around the track of myself. No wonder, I’m always so tired. It takes a lot of energy to keep trying to float
my balloon above the crowd — to be higher than the rest. “Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled” (Lk.
18:14). I too must come down to earth. I have t let the
air out of my ego. I need to stop wasting my breath on myself, blowing up my
big plans, my big dreams. Myillusions
are delusions. My balloon, my bubble needs to burst. I need to fall down on my
knees in the night. I need to pray. I need to admit I need God. Like Christ I
need others — to be with others — and not above them (Phil. 2:5-11). In the still of the night I have to bring all this
to God in prayer. I have to share my chalice with him. Later on I might even
reach for his. But right now I need to realize I don’t have to be inflated. I
don’t have to wear a mask and try to hide myself even from myself. I try to
deny this allthe time, but when I am
alone like this in the night, I can’t hide from myself any longer. Thank God. Yes, it’s about time for another one of my
conversions. Maybe this one will be the big one. I’ve been holding out and
hiding in the garden of myself too long. It’s a garden of paradise and because
I’m in the dark I don’t know it. I’ve been eating from the wrong tree. I’ve
discovered my nakedness and I don’t like the looks of myself. Here I am God,
over here, hiding in the dark. (Gn. 3:8-13) Will God come to me or do I have to go to God? Is
God on the other side of the dark waiting for me to come to him or do I grovel
here and wait for God to come to me? Should I be active or passive? Martha or
Mary? I’m confused. I’m in the dark. The mysterious fifteenth chapter of Luke has three
stories. In the first two stories God is “The Hound of Heaven” chasing after
me. God is the Shepherd looking for his lost sheep. God is the Woman looking
for her lost coin. But in the third story, God the Father waits at home, hoping
each day for my return—the Prodigal Son. Each person is different. Each day is different.
Each night is different. God is different. Perhaps the ever practical St. James gives us the
best answer, “Draw close to God, and he will draw close to you” (Jas. 4:8). In
human relationships, when there has been a rift or a fight, that is the way a
reconciliation often takes place. Both make moves towards each other. Both give
and take. We get tired of carrying around all these extra pounds of hurt and
animosity. Grudges take up space. Resentments are heavy. They clutter up our
garden. Does God always make the first move? The night is the time for still thinking, for
praying, for asking big questions like that. The night is the rest stop between two days:
yesterday and tomorrow. It is the time my eyes can rest from the stage
lights of the day. It is the time I can rest and be with God and look back at
the highlights of my day. It’s the time to look at the dark spots too—the
shadows in my life. It’s the time I can be honest with God about the wheat and
the weeds, the sheep and the goats in my life. DARKNESS
vs. LIGHT But this kind of thinking is also so
self-centered. It’s too much about me in the night. What about God? I need to
be still, quiet and experience God’s presence—God’s love. Where are you God? What are you like? Are you hiding in the dark too? When am I aware of God more: in the darkness or in
the light? Darkness and light? Which is the better way to
describe God? Which is the better symbol of God? Or is God both? Is God both the Light and the
Dark? Both are needed for everyday—for completeness—wholeness—roundness—fullness—the
circle of life. Day and night: while one half of the globe is
sleeping, the other half is awake. And the great wheel of earth keeps spinning.
The sun is always rising, always setting, at every moment somewhere around the
globe. Death and resurrection are always happening all over the world. The earth is spinning. Time is flying. A.M., P.M.,
and A.M. once again. The hands of the clocks keep turning, going around and
around and around. The digital clocks and watches silently keep moving their
numbers forward, only to start over and over again. Day becomes night becomes day becomes night for
billions and billions of years. Creation. Recreation. And God said, “Let there be light!” (Gn. 1:3) And Man said, “Let there be night!” And why? We’re smart. We prefer ourselves to our
neighbor. It’s as simple as that. It takes time to stop and help our
brotherand sister who could use a
little care—healing—listening—time (Lk. 10:29). We rather keep them in the dark
and worry about our own barns (Lk. 12:16-21). And when we deny and cheat each
other—even with a kiss—we do it in the night—to avoid the light of each other’s
eyes (Lk. 22: 48,57; Mt. 6:22-24). And then we either commit suicide in various
forms and at various speeds in hopes to hide in the ultimate darkness or we
hide behind closed doors (Mt. 27:5; Jn. 20:19). “I am the light of the world. No follower of mine
shall ever walk in darkness; no he shall possess the light of life” (Jn. 8:12) And yet Christ often spent time in the dark in
prayer (Mt. 14:23; Mk. 1:35; Lk. 22:39). And why? The night is a great time for prayer. It’s a grace
time to find a quiet place in our garden—our bedroom—our cellar—somewhere in
our lives—where we can have communion with God. Yes we need sleep. We need rest, just as we need
work. And to be complete we need both and much more (and at times much less). We need the night and we need the day—obviously.
We need days on and days off. We have these urges, these opposites, these pulls
for stopping and going within us. And we know that activity and rest can yank
us apart. We can rush into over-activity and become
workaholics. We cause our own stress. We pack our own suitcases. We determine
our own weight. We can be trampled in our own rush to get ulcers. “What profit
would a man show if he were to gain the whole world and destroy himself in the
process?” (Mt. 16:12) Yet we can also fall into our own hell because of
inactivity. Other people can be the cause of hell for us. “I was hungry and you
gave me no food. I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. I was away from home
and you gave me no welcome, naked and you gave me no clothing. I was ill and in
prison and you did not come to comfort me” (Mt. 25:42-43) We need to rush to our brother’s aid. We need to
rush to our sister’s call. We need also to rest, to sleep, to build up energy
for the morning. NEEDED
CHANGES We need variety. Too much light can cause
blindness. Too much night and the world would die of coldness. We need the sun:
the source of power and energy — on both sides of the globe. Everybody needs
energy. Everybody needs rest. We need change. The sea needs to be rough; it
needs to be calm. We need the seasons: spring, summer, autumn and winter. We
need the flow of the day: sunrise, the music of birds, alarm clocks, the
bathroom, breakfast, traffic, punching clocks, work, coffee breaks, talk,
production, results, traffic, home, shoes off, family, stories, supper, doing
the dishes, newspapers, TELEVISION, card games, meetings, darkness, sleep,
night, love. But what about God in our day? What about God in
our night before we fall asleep? Or are we always sleeping when it comes to
God? That’s how Paul and Augustine were till God’s
light broke through their night, into their darkness, into their sleep. In the
garden Augustine picked up the words of Paul and read, “It is now the hour for
you to wake from sleep, for our salvation is closer than when we first accepted
the faith. The night is far spent; the day draws near. Let us cast off deeds of
darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us live honorably as in daylight;
not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual excess and lust, not in
quarreling and jealousy. Rather, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no
provision for the desires of the flesh!” (Rom. 13:11-14) Now that’s a conversion. It was a great awakening.
In that garden Augustine saw his nakedness and instead of hiding and covering
himself with a fig leaf, he covered himself with the garment of Light—the Lord
Jesus Christ. What happened to Paul and Augustine and so many
others can happen to us. There is usually a dramatic day — a birth day — but
there is also usually a difficult pregnancy. CONVERSION A conversion is a journey from the light to the
darkness to the light. It begins with a hesitation, a dissatisfaction with
ourselves, our home, our style, our everyday life. Then comes the crisis. Then
comes the decision to stagnate or leave home. Then the journey begins. It’s a
letting go, a going out, a movement through a dark night. Saul thought he had
the light. It led him to do what he did to persecute the people of the early
Church. Then his light went out. He fell to earth. He was humbled. He hit
bottom. He lost his light, his sight, and became a little child once again. He
had to be led by the hand into Damascus. And for 3 days he experienced the
tomb, the womb, till he was born again into the New Light (Acts 9:1-19). That
Light overcame his darkness (Jn. 1:5). He preached to himself the words of
Isaiah that he would later preach to the Ephesians, “Awake O sleeper, arise
from the dead, and Christ will give you light” (Eph. 5:14; Is. 60:1). God made the move and came crashing into his life.
Saul changed to Paul. The story of Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
Ezechiel, the Apostles, became his story. He was converted. He converted. He changed in his
relationship to God and to the Christians. Louis Bouyer described a conversion
as a substitution of a living faith for a dead faith or no faith at all. Do I want to change? Do I need a conversion? Is my
faith dead? Am I satisfied with the lights I live by? Who are my heroes? What
are my values? What are my beliefs? What are my attitudes? What are my driving
forces? What motivates me? What is a good day for me? What is a bad day? Am I ready for a conversion? Am I ready for a
change in my life? What is God calling me towards tonight? Have I hit bottom
yet? Am I in the dark when it comes to God? Is my faith living or dead? Do I believe in the dawn — a new day — the
resurrection of the light or do I prefer to stay in the dark? MAKE A
DECISION I sit here tonight in my dark room and think about
all this. It’s my life. It’s my choice. With or without God? “That is the
question.” That’s the real question. What a choice. I’ve been avoiding that
decision for years. The hands of the clock, the beat of my heart, the movement
of the earth, life, keeps going forward whether I’m asleep or awake. The years
of my life keep going on and on and on and God’s beat seems to become less and
less and less. Conversion. Change. Repentance. About face. Make a
decision. Hear the word of the Lord. Stop. It’s all rhetoric. I’m all words. Lord,
story this merry-go-round. I need to get off by myself and do some deep
thinking without words. The night is still — dark — silent. It’s a still
time for praying. Pause. Reflect.
Be quiet. My life: I have a birthday and a deathday. Name
______________ (1939 - ?) The dash in between in my life. And at times it feels
just like that—a dash—a run—a rush.I
need to stop and be still in the night. “What do I want to do with the rest of my life?” I
begin to laugh at myself. I’ve returned once again—full circle—to my regular
self-centered type question. It should be (and I know it), “Lord, what is your
will, your pleasure?” “Here I am Lord. Speak for your servant is listening” (1
Sam. 3). “Abandon your boats, your nets, everyone and
everything and come follow me” (Mk. 1:16-20) The Lord is asking me to leave home, to leave my
garden, to leave everything and search for a new tree of life. I hesitate.
Everything? Everyone? The cross is a no frills tree. It sounds so harsh in the
night to hear words like that. Yet I know from traveling and backpacking trips
that it’s much easier to travel light. It’s much easier to climb stairs,
mountains, the unknown, light, without baggage. I begin to pray once again I begin to listen for hints from God within, in
the still of the night. SOMETHING
NEW I’m over 40 and in the second half of my life.
I’ve read Sheehy, Erikson, Gould, O’Collins, and Levinson. I’m up to date. I
know all about Passages, stages, Transformations, The Second
Journey, and The Seasons of a Man’s Life. But how come I’m standing
still. Is there anything else? Is there anything new? I’m always looking for
something new. The night is quieter than the
day. It’s a good time for thinking. There is less of everything: cars, lights,
talk, music. There is less of everyone: people are sleeping. I begin reflecting on John of the Cross, whom I’m
finally getting to. I bought his book years ago, The Collected Works of John
of the Cross, translated by Kavanaugh and Rodriguez, Complete in One
Volume. The problem is I only made it to page 81. It was too dry. It was from
another culture—another era. It wasn’t popular. It wasn’t “me”. And so I turned
to other books. But now that John of the Cross is “in”, typical me
had to start reading him once again. He’s still dry, but I’ve worked my way
through the dark night of the senses and I’m headed for the dark night of the
soul—that is, in the book, not in my life. I also sit here prejudiced against John of the
Cross. I’m filled with preconceptions about him. That’s another thing I have to
work on—another change-- another
conversion. I pictured John as a real “grunt”. Did people close their doors and
hide their stereos when he walked by? Would he be a perfect character for a
black and white Ingmar Bergman movie that takes place in December in some
lonely bleak village in northern Sweden where the only news is a suicide now
and then? Was he a character like those painted in the lonely paintings of
Edward Hopper, or what’s worse, Edvard Munch? Memories of hearing that John of the Cross was the
one who always said, “Nothing, nothing, nothing, ... nada, nada, nada,” must have
gave me these impressions about the man. But how do we really know another
person? Reading Kavanaugh and Rodriguez’s description of this 4 foot 11 inch
Spaniard helped change my mind about him. From letters and other evidence about
John of the Cross they point out that he had a great sense of humor. He loved
to make people laugh. People liked to have him around. And his great friend,
Teresa of Avila, wrote to another nun, “You would not believe how lonely his
absence makes me feel.” That did it. He sounded real. I began reading a
little bit of him every night. It sill sounded slow—but John of the Cross was
not complicated. He’s simply telling his readers to let go and let God into
their lives. And maybe that’s the real reason I avoid someone
like John of the Cross. He’s a radical like Christ. “Whoever wants to be my
follower must deny his very self, take up his cross each day, and follow in my
steps” (Lk. 9:23) “One dark night, fired with love’s urgent longings - Ah, the sheer grace! -- I went out unseen, My house being now all stilled;” That’s how John of the Cross describes his
departure on the journey through the night towards the dawn. The words that hit me were, “I went out unseen.”
Suddenly I realized how radical John of the Cross was. The best conversions
take place within—no horns, no pulpit announcements, no notices in the local
paper. I am the problem—not John of the Cross. THE BASIC
PROBLEM Spirituality doesn’t begin outside myself. It
begins within. So what else is new? I had blocked out Jesus’ words, “Be on
guard against performing religious acts for people to see .... Keep your deeds
of mercy secret.... Whenever you pray, go to your room, close your door, and
pray to your Father in private” (Mt. 6). “The Kingdom of God is within.” The garden is
within. The temple is within. The journey, the road, the mountain is within.
And what I have to let go is within. Like the inner life of Dag Hammarskjold and millions
of saints whom nobody ever knew were saints, nobody should really know about our
inner life with God except God and a spiritual director (if you can get a good
one and John of the Cross is pretty tough on them). I rejoiced. I can still go to McDonalds and watch
Monday Night Football and make comments about Howard Cosell. John of the Cross
is interested in the Kingdom within. Yes he is from another era and another
culture, but it’s a basic revolutionary idea to challenge a person who wants
more (or less) our of life to read John of the Cross. He presents a liberation
theology that is tough. What he tells his readers is, “Let go. Let go of
everything tillthere is nothing else
and then don’t get a big head out of that—that you are holy and better than the
rest of the human race.” He tells the beginner in the spiritual life to use
some energy and effort and actively get rid of anything that he or she is
attached to. Start with what you can see, taste, touch, smell and hear. He
calls that the journey through the dark night of the senses. That should leave
us with a lot of room for greater love of God and neighbor. Planned time for
prayer and meditation is necessary. Read the Bible. It’s nothing new. It’s the
old first stage of the spiritual life—the purgative state. Our life is like a
field. It’s filled with lots of weeds and rocks and roots. The first step is to
clean it out. It’s an emptying process—a kenosis. Sins must go. Faults must go.
Laziness, gossip, possessiveness, and anything and everything that destroys
family, community, everyday life, must go. That’s the first step — the easiest step. We need
God’s grace — but we are very much part of it. The second stage of the journey,
the dark night of the soul, is deeper and harder for us and God to deal with.
We let God take over. Our prayer life moves towards quiet contemplation. We
shut up. We listen. We block out images and ideas from our intellect and memory
and imagination. Here the struggle is with pride and spiritual delusions. We
want the whole world to know that we are holy. We brag to ourselves. And John
keeps telling us to strip ourselves of all those things that can keep us from
God. LETTING GO We need less.
We need mortification We need nothing. We have to let go of all that holds us back from
God. It’s as simple and as deep as that. As John of the Cross said, “To have all (todo), you have to have nothing
(nada).” And like Augustine and Francis Thomson and
everyone who goes through the conversion process we hesitate right there. We
zero in on the nada and don’t look at the todo.
We’re scared of what might happen to us when we have nothing left and don’t
look at what we have created the vacuum for—the All—God. And right there John is tough. We even have to let
go of all our images of God. All impressions, all knowledge of God must go. We
can’t nail down God. Yet like Christ we can let the Father nail us down on the
cross. We will experience the darkness that Christ feltthat Good Friday afternoon near the end of
his journey through the dark night towards the Father. Darkness will fill our
world (Lk. 23:44), but because of Christ we know that there is a dawn, a
resurrection, a Way out. We need time. We need rest. We need to be still in the night to absorb what
God is saying to us in the dark. The conversion process is slow. “It’s like yeast
which a woman took to knead into three measures of flour until the whole mass
of dough began to rise” (Lk 13:21). “A man scatters seed on the ground. He goes
to bed and gets up day after day. Through it all the seed sprouts and grows
without his knowing how it happens. The soil produces of itself first the
blade, then the ear, finally the ripe wheat in the ear. When the crop is ready
he `wields the sickle, for the time is ripe for harvest’” (Mk. 4:26-29) That’s the story of our life. It’s filled with
days and nights and slowly we will become bread, the body of Christ, so that
the people of our life can feed off us, so that Christ can lift us up and offer
us to the Father. St. John of the Cross, the scriptures, this issue
of YOU urges that you spend a bit of time each night reflecting on the journey
of life —the meaning of life — what the Father is calling you to be and to
become. The night is still — dark. We need both prayer and rest in the night. Contemplation, meditation, reflection, looking
backwards and forwards is the gift of the night. The night is still. There is silence in the sky
along the black roads that stretch from star to star. The black holes in the
universe look empty. Where are you God? Are you out there in the dark —
emptying yourself in the dark night — in the eternal emptying (kenosis) of
yourself in Christ (Phil. 2:5-11)? Or are you here in the dark of my room waiting and
“hounding” me to let you overcome my darkness?
