A JOURNEY OF LOVE

From Contemplative Prayer to Contemplation:

Many people of goodwill share a common desire to become more contemplative. This generally means a desire for a deeper spirituality. This move to a more profound level is called for by our pastors and religious leaders, by our friends and spouses and, in our day, especially from Pope Francis. The common understanding for this appeal to the contemplative lifestyle has a general meaning. It is an entreaty to slow down, to get out of the rat race and to give more time to reflection, spiritual reading and prayer. While all of this is a truly wholesome and spiritual development, it is not contemplation. As often as not, it is an obstacle to contemplation. This generic approach is not only a cheap substitute, it frequently blinds one to the real cost in self- sacrifice that true contemplation demands.

Today, there is much discussion about contemplation among spiritual theologians. One issue is whether contemplative prayer is contemplation. Like all of theology, this type of intellectual pursuit offers a real contribution to the faith community. However, the issue in the lives of most people is more concrete and immediate. It is not definitions and clarifications, as helpful as they may be, that most people want. They are focused on the experience that will bring one closer to God.

The goal for most tested and mature Christians is authentic spiritual experience leading to the honest pursuit of God. This is possible only by sacrifice and discipline that opens to recollection and prayer. This approach will facilitate being present to God in the midst of the day’s rush. Stillness and silence are great gifts even in small doses during the day. Likewise, this search for God in a contemplative lifestyle includes more extensive times of silence and withdrawal. It will grow to periods of prayer for twenty or more minutes in one’s daily routine.

This style of contemplative prayer is a move away from thinking and imagining. It is a move to listening and loving. It seeks a wordless presence to God. There are numerous styles of contemplative prayer prevalent today that enrich the search for true contemplation. Among the several different Christian options, centering prayer and Christian Meditation are the most common.

Whatever the style of contemplative prayer, the real issue is the authenticity of the experience. Is it bringing us closer to God? Is it opening us to God’s presence in the world? Is it helping us in serving our neighbor? Or, as is often the case, is it a spiritual indulgence looking for a “Make me feel good Jesus”? The Answer is in the Gospel Lifestyle It is easy to find the answer to the question about true contemplation. Does our life model the gospel message of Jesus more generously than before? Are we on the move to genuinely walk with Jesus? Is our heart becoming more inclusive and less judgmental? Is that log in the eye beginning to diminish?

The person who faithfully passes from contemplative prayer to an authentic experience of contemplation has certain characteristics flowing from the extraordinary experience of God. There is a deep, inward attentiveness to God’s movement within self and the world. Stillness, silence, focused awareness and reflective attention to the world, all are manifestations of the true contemplative experience. Genuine contemplatives usually live a life of enriched relationships and expanding responsibilities. They differ from most people in their generous openness to the messiness of life. This flows from their primary commitment to seek God in all things.

This openness to God is driven by a lifestyle that prioritizes prayer and moves away from self and to the other. The conflict between prayer and action melts into a single purpose of seeking God in all things and at all times. This is in contrast to most people who are settled in their spiritual life. Their common priority is action. Prayer plays a much less prominent role.

Contemplation: God’s New Active Presence

Three outstanding consequences of contemplation are purification, enlightenment and transformation These elements take place at a deeper and expanding pace as the contemplative experience grows to be more pervasive and complete in the individual. John of the Cross sees contemplation as the loving knowledge of God infused into the individual. It reveals and purifies the massive self-centeredness that had withstood all previous efforts to eliminate it over many years of real spiritual progress.

Most often, this new awareness is a truly shocking experience. This leads to a new enlightenment allowing the individual to see both the present and past as a time of incredible self-absorption. What had been considered generous service and self-sacrifice now appears to be deeply flawed and wrapped up in a distorted personal agenda. It is a stunning and humbling experience for the person to see one’s life in the light of God’s truth rather than from the platform of self-interest. This opens up to another fundamental insight in the experience of contemplation.

In the personal transformation that evolves from true contemplation, there is a clear and demanding mindfulness of the need for God’s mercy. God is the loving and merciful Creator and we are the sinful but loved and forgiven creature. Likewise, there is a growing intimacy with Christ that is new and consuming. Love for Christ moves from words and phrases to a life-driven force far exceeding any previous experience. Jesus Christ, as the Wisdom of God, grows in one’s consciousness beyond any other spiritual practice.

All of these qualities of personal change and insight are part of moving away from the self as the center of one’s being. In turn, there is an overwhelming revolution of perspective placing God at the center of one’s being. This is only possible with God’s immediate and concrete help in true contemplation. All of this transpires in a journey of love leading to our true destiny of union with God.

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SIXTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 6:17, 20-26

Dear Friends, Luke’s Gospel has a very strong theme of reversal. In his view of salvation, there truly is “Good News” for the poor and marginalized. Likewise, as Mary proclaimed the Magnificat, we read:

“He has shown might with his arm
And dispersed the arrogant of mind and heart
He has thrown down the rulers from their thrones
But lifted up the lowly
The hungry he has filled with good things
The rich he has sent way empty. (Lk1:51-53)

There are many startling statements about the poor and rich, the weak and the strong spread throughout the Gospel of Luke. They are expressions of this theme of reversal. This pattern of great change will erupt as part of the coming reign of God that Jesus is preaching.

These bombshells of Jesus are like flashes of lightening that grow into a shocking thunder of surprise and wonder. It starts with the Magnificat of Mary. This great reversal is set out in even deeper clarity in the Beatitudes in today’s gospel reading. Jesus is saying that this proclamation of the Kingdom renders a new experience of reality. This is the great reversal where the poor are blessed and the rich are now the new losers. It takes some deep faith and commitment to grasp this shattering of a common-sense perception of reality. The values of the world are put in total disarray. The onset of the Kingdom introduces an absolutely new way, completely new values. The only harder dimension of this salvation story is to comprehend that the Savior was born in the poverty of swaddling clothes and died in the total abandonment of the cross.

The Bible’s use of the term blessed usually does not define the quality of the person’s moral state. It refers to the benefits that are coming from an action of God. It is like winning God’s lottery. The blessings of the Beatitudes express the values being revealed in the upside-down world of Jesus’ coming salvation. To be poor, hungry, weeping and reviled rather than rich, full, laughing and held in esteem are the new norms. Jesus is explaining the new reality that is the great reversal. Jesus, to be sure, is not denying the pain and loss of the poverty, hunger, personal devastation and rejection. He is declaring a turnaround of what most people hold as rewards and disadvantages. There will be a great upheaval flowing from the coming action of God in the Kingdom.

Jesus is not blessing poverty and deprivation, anguish and misery. He is pointing out two truths: first is that the coming of the Kingdom addresses the condition of suffering and deprivation; secondly, the experience of the newly blessed tends to help the person be more receptive to God’s coming. The new reality will mean the loss of these hurting elements. The action of God in Jesus unveils a new reality and freedom. Wealth, prosperity and the other woes are obstacles to the new norms of God’s Kingdom.

While the economic and social dimension of being “poor” cannot be trivialized by some spiritual interpretation, the biblical tradition includes all the afflicted no matter what the cause of their condition. The poor are those whose bleakness and impoverishment benefit from God’s saving action.

All throughout his Gospel, Luke gives us stories, miracles and teachings and experiences that flesh out this meaning of “poor” in Jesus’ proclamation of the good news of the great reversal. The role of women is a highlight throughout the text. The parables of the good Samaritan, the prodigal son and the widow challenging the unjust judge along with the story of Zacchaeus are concrete examples of the two-fold blessings of the Kingdom: first the simple blessing of the great reversal and secondly the personal integrity of one embracing the great reversal.

Pope Francis has a great insight of what happens when we do not respond to Jesus’ invitation as Zacchaeus did. In The Joy of the Gospel (#54), the Pontiff says, “Almost without being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor, weeping for other peoples pain and feeling a need to help them as though all this were someone else’s responsibility and not our own.”

The power of Jesus’ insight on the great reversal of the blessings and the woes was set in motion by his teachings and his actions. Jesus unveiled the presence of the reign of God penetrating the human condition of every person. In the Beatitudes, we find a portrait of Jesus. A true encounter with Jesus invites the disciple to become like him who is the most authentic expression of the Beatitudes. Jesus’ message penetrates and renovates us. Now we are truly blessed with a heart set on the Kingdom. Embracing the great reversal leads to seeing and hearing with new eyes and ears. We begin to see the pervasive injustice and poverty of our world. We begin to hear the cry of the poor. The integrity of our response is our way into the Kingdom.

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JOHN OF THE CROSS

A Brief Introduction

When I read John of the Cross now after decades of struggle in the spiritual journey, I look back to my seminary days. I wonder what, if anything, I understood from my class on John of the Cross. Today, I can understand the common idiom: “You don’t begin with the classics. You slowly grow into that wisdom.”

Early on, it was easy to experience John as a negative force far removed from the ordinary human experience. Now, John sparkles with a gospel intensity and a gifted intelligence that brings clarity and wisdom to the pilgrimage to God. In the end, John makes clear that it is all about love.

If you wanted to grasp a central theme of John’s work, the idea of conversion away from self and towards God would be an excellent place to start. His writings and message are movement away from sinfulness to the furthest limit of love. He delves into the complexities of the human person as he exposes the growing withdrawal from self-absorption to the final stages of union with God. It is a simple journey from self to God. On the other hand, it is an incredibly complex journey brilliantly described by John. The gospel reality and all its simplicity and lucidity lays out the call to walk with Jesus with extraordinary force and escalating beauty. John is all gospel in his teachings.

John showed how the theological virtues play a critical role in the purifying process of contemplation. The role of dark faith is foundational to all his work. Likewise, he shows how the interaction between faith and love draw the human effort into one action seeking God. John sees faith and love as virtues that either grow in the quest for God or they stagnate and die. The road to God demands continuous effort both in times of darkness and in times of light.

John’s teachings demand an unremitting process of destroying idols. This is the road to freedom in Christ. This road brings us to intimacy with Christ. This is the consequence of the many purgations and the growing wisdom that comes from contemplation. This liberation from all the obstacles that have kept us from God now open up endless new horizons of love.

Now we understand the depth and wonder of Christ’s command to love our neighbor as Jesus as loved us. Now we have new ears to hear the cry of the poor at home and in the distant lands. Now we can hear the cry of the earth in a way that God invites us to encounter the divine presence in all of God’s creation both animate and inanimate.

The true thrust of John’s message is a purgation and enlightenment through the powerful and prayerful experience of contemplation. This personal liberation leads to the ability to truly embrace Jesus’ gospel call to life and love.

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FIFTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Luke 5:1-11

Dear Friends, In today’s gospel there is a phrase that Jesus uses that is especially pregnant with meaning. When he tells Peter to try again after a futile night’s work where he failed to catch even a few fish, Jesus tells Peter, “Put out into the deep…” (Lk 5:4)

Peter follows Jesus’ command.  A night of disappointment is transformed into a spectacular feast of abundance.  Then, there is a total switch in gears.  What had been so profoundly desired, the large catch of fish, all of a sudden, is put aside for a deeper and richer reality.  “When they brought their boats ashore, they left everything and followed him.” (Lk 5:11)  

What is the message for us today in this encounter between Jesus and Peter?  The key is “Put out into the deep…” (Lk 5:4)

The large catch of fish is a symbol. It opens up the treasures of life that are available when we pass beyond the superficial, when we go past the cultural demands that feed a self-centered existence. This is an existence defined for us by false values of a consumer-driven society that centers on ourselves and our indulgence.

Deep personal prayer is a call to enter into life at a level that opens into the mystery of God. Deep personal prayer holds the key to God’s call in the midst of the ordinary flow of our life. This kind of prayer is a profound reflection on God’s word and our experience.  This prayer seeks God’s will for us at this point in our life.

Jesus was beginning Peter’s transformation by showing him the way of faith, the way of a trusting acceptance of God’s word and will. Deep personal prayer will do the same for us as we ponder God’s word and seek God’s will in the daily experience of our relationships and responsibilities. It directs us to follow in the footsteps of Jesus just as Peter and his companions did.

In today’s gospel scene, Peter is performing his ordinary tasks, his usual responsibilities.  He is a fisherman.  Jesus transforms this familiar chore by inviting him to enter more deeply into the experience.  He is teaching Peter, and us, that the true spirituality is not outside of life, different from our ordinary experience.  We will encounter God by being more present to our life situation and all the demands and responsibilities it places on us. Deep personal prayer will bring us in touch with Jesus just as Peter was.

  A call to be spiritual, to have a more meaningful experience of God, is not to move outside of life but to re-possess life at the deepest level.  “Put out into the deep…” (Lk 5:4)

The Good News is that God is present to life.  We are not left to our destructive inclinations and the awful games we often play.  Peter recognized his brokenness in this regard.  He said, “Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man.” (Lk 5:18)

Jesus did not abandon Peter to his sinful ways nor will he abandon us.  Grace and new life are always possible, always beckoning us. Deep personal prayer where we ponder God’s word and seek God’s will guide us to the depth of life where God beckons us. Like Peter, we have to “Put out into the deep…” (Lk 5:4) We will encounter a new, gracious reality.  We will see that our heart will be free to let go of all the obstacles that keep us from walking with Jesus.

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THE EXPERIENCE OF CONTEMPLATION

 

The vast majority of honest seekers of God do not achieve a very deep Experience of contemplation, if any. There are two reasons. It is a complex topic that requires a good dose of guidance. Much more significantly, contemplation involves an increasing and costly level of self-sacrifice. Contemplation is the consequence of a generous response from God over a long period of time. Most importantly, this rare spiritual event is a total gift from God. Contemplation is an enhanced presence and enriched experience of God. In the normal flow of spiritual struggle, we encounter a dimension of resistance in our surrender to God. Only contemplation, a totally new and different presence of God, can make this spiritual advance possible. Here is the heart of the matter. In letting go and letting God act more than us who are entangled in many excessive attachments. In the experience of contemplation, the newly enriched presence of God makes clear what we have to give up to advance the process of personal transformation. We are in a situation where we are beginning to understand that we cannot make these changes on our own. The new encounter with God in the contemplative state frees the paralyzing slavery of our selfishness. God's new presence creates a new freedom for us. Now we can let go and let God in His ability act in a way beyond all of the above.

This is the heart of the struggle that every human being faces as we come face to face with the overwhelming love of God. Is it me or is it God? Understanding contemplation can be a very helpful support as we face this repetitive choice of self-sacrifice on our journey. We are trying to secure the deepest hunger of our hearts, which is to be enveloped in the wonder of God's love. In the search for life-giving love, it helps to understand what contemplation is. Today there are many answers to that fundamental question. I am going to stick with my Carmelite tradition to present a very respected and accepted description of contemplation.

Contemplation is the irruption of God into the human soul. It is a silent, imageless and loving communion with God, which transcends all reflection and mental activity. According to Saint John of the Cross: "Contemplation is nothing other than a secret, peaceful and loving infusion of God, which if the soul allows it, inflames it with the spirit of love." (Dark Night I.10.6)

"Secret contemplation is a science of love that is a loving knowledge that illuminates and enamors the soul, elevating it step by step to God its Creator." (Dark Night II.18.5) It is clear that contemplation is infused, that is, it comes from God and cannot be calmed by us. Contemplation is a type of being and making a conversation without an intermediary and without the possibility of misinterpreting the communication. In contemplation, God does not come through the senses, the normal pattern of the astute. God comes from an unknown path directly infusing our being with a loving knowledge of God.

A distinguished Carmelite author, Marc Foley, OCD, has a Description of Contemplation that helps us begin to understand this truly difficult reality. He describes the first stage of spiritual life as follows. It is like the soft waves in the ocean sparkling with the different reflections of the sun. It is a beautiful sight to behold. This is the beginner's blessing with God's spiritual consolations that keep us from a life of absorption. Then gradually deepening clouds lead to increasing darkness. In this darkness, God resides in the deepest depths of the ocean, inviting the beginner to a new opportunity for spiritual growth. There is a call to embrace this striking dimension of God's presence. In this way, The original element is contemplation.

On this journey from the sparkling beauty of the sun-kissed waves to the silent darkness in the depths where contemplation is the new path of purification and transformative presence, several, almost shocking, changes take place. This total reversal is completely contrary to the common sense that anticipated the result of spiritual progress. Normally one would expect greater solace and expansion, a sense of peace and a sense of transcendental achievement. Reality is in complete contrast to this final Hollywood happiness. The new experience is more in tune with the Gospel version of reality with the passage to the new life that springs from the Passion and Death.

First, there is a constant retreat from the comfort of consolations. The individual finds himself in a situation developing and consuming darkness. There is a feeling of being abandoned by God. There is also a conviction of failure in the search for God. The anticipated feeling of comfort and accomplishment gives a feeling of anxiety and confusion. What had been a sense of achievement in all types of personal success gave way to a growing awareness that patterns of success were wrapped up in a personal agenda far removed from a gospel. Regardless, there is a shift away from a sense of personal control in the daily schedule to a slow openness of surrender to God's call in life's events. We are no longer in charge of the clock and the schedule opens up to life in a radically innovative way.

With the gift of contemplation there is a new movement in one's life. We no longer see God as part of our daily agenda. Now, God becomes our schedule. Two of the main consequences of contemplation are purging and enlightenment. These actions of God in the soul lead to personal transformation, preparing for union with God. This experience of God is more in tune with the success of the crucified Christ than the victory of the political messiah. In this contemplative process, any sense of success quickly gives way to a growing awareness of the depth of our personal sinfulness and brokenness. Prayer begins to go through a time of darkness and pain. A sense of strength and progress gives way to a new awareness of weakness and dependence on God's mercy. Basically, the beginning stages of contemplation are not a fun journey.

Why the dark side of contemplation?

John of the Cross has a simple and clear explanation of the importance of darkness, anxiety and pain at the beginning of the stages of contemplation. At the very beginning of the Ascension (Bk I.2.1) John offers three reasons for calling the new encounter with God in contemplation a dark night.

1. The individual needs to deprive himself of his appetites and worldly possessions. This loss is a movement into darkness.
2. The path of union, our final destiny, is only possible through a dark Faith that obscures the intellect.
3. The arrival point on the path is God and this is darkness.

John explains that darkness is not from God. It is our weakness. We must experience the purifying power of contemplation to prepare God as the final goal of our existence, union with God. John also uses the powerful example of the sun as a source of darkness. If we look directly at the sun, our eyes go blind. Darkness is the result of the concentration of overwhelming Light. The same thing happens with our experience of God. In our weakness and brokenness, we are unprepared for the all-consuming radiance of God's presence. Only contemplation has the ability to purify us so we can receive the full wonder of God's beauty and love.

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FOURTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 4:21-30

Dear Friends, Today’s gospel passage offers a dramatic turn of events. It is a look back and a plunge into the future. It is hard to grasp the incredibly rapid transformation from “All spoke highly of him.” (Lk 4:22) to they “led him to the brow of the hill…to hurl him down headlong.” (Lk 4:29)

Their rejection was clear and emphatic. It had been foretold by Simeon in the Temple. “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted.” (Lk 2:34-35)

Looking to the future, the scene of furious and singular rejection will be repeated on a larger scale as Jesus arrives in Jerusalem. At the heart of both the earlier and later rejections, and the continuing rejection in our day, is Jesus’ message of universal love. Jesus presents a God who offers hospitality to all.

This image of God calls for change. A deep conversion must shatter the limited and comfortable religious vision expressed in the statement, “Isn’t this the son of Joseph?” (Lk 4:22) Isn’t he one of us? Doesn’t he share our sense of privilege and prestige and exclusion as God’s special people? The townsfolk quietly understood, just like the chief priests and scribes later on, that Jesus was a threat to their comfort and control.

They would have gladly made Jesus a local hero if they could set the agenda. They were the first in a long history of Christianity to try to make Jesus over in their image. Their Jesus would fit right in with their prejudices and ignorance, their lack of concern for the “other” in all its many manifestations that still are expressed in today’s headlines.

I recently heard a joke on this issue. They got rid of all the foreigners, immigrants and poor at the Nativity scene so only the donkeys and cows were left. Jesus understood clearly. He faced a choice about the integrity of his message and the reality of the God of universal acceptance and hospitality.

The “Nazareth game” is played out in our churches, parishes, communities and Church even today. We are ever into the Jesus make-over. We definitely are looking for the more comfortable model. “Jesus passed through the midst of them and went away.” (Lk a4:30) He did the same with the hostile leaders who thought they were getting rid of him in the crucifixion.

That time Jesus passed through their midst in the resurrection and ascension. He does the same to us. Yet he never forsakes us. He is always calling us, like Peter, to a place we would rather not go.

Walking with Jesus involves a relentless shattering of our horizons. It makes a steady and consistent expansion of our reluctance to accept the “other.” Jesus’ message never lets us rest in the comfortable home of our prejudices and blindness. Jesus is always asking us to share the hospitality of the Father for all.

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THIRD SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Lk 1:1-4; 4:14-21

My Dear Friends in Christ, In today’s gospel passage Luke has us experience Jesus’ message to his townsfolk. They gather in anticipation, and with a bit of apprehension, to encounter this Jesus that was causing a bit of a stir.

Luke uses this troubled homecoming to bring us into the salvific journey of Jesus. We are able to hear Jesus lay out his plan to confront evil and sin head on. Jesus, indeed, was giving both the people off Nazareth and us today the reason for his life and the reason for his death.

We hear Jesus lay out his plan of attack. He is going to confront sin and evil head on. He was talking about fulfilling the long-awaited promises of God. It was clearly the work of the Messiah. Jesus was tapping into the hunger rooted deep in the hearts of his townsfolk. This is the same hunger in every human heart. He was proclaiming a new day, a day of liberation, a day of salvation, an invitation to the original innocence.

For Jesus‘ immediate audience, the release of captives and prisoners did not mean early parole. They understood that it meant a release from sin and all its destructive results in their lives. Using the rich and unrestrained language of Isaiah, Jesus points to a liberation that embraced the whole person, body and soul, mind and spirit. The sin that Jesus will free people from goes far beyond personal guilt. It includes the deeply rooted expressions of evil in all human situations: the sexual abuse scandal in the Church, the long painful history of racism, the gross disparity of income, sexual slavery, a divorce rate over fifty percent, growing rejection of faith, the steady exploitation of our environment, and so much more.

In the life, teachings and ministry of Jesus, rooted in today’s words, women and children would find a welcome acceptance. The poor would also share this divine hospitality in someone who would defend them and proclaim their need and their dignity. All the many folks cast off to the side by one prejudice after another would find in Jesus the strong one to break the chains of isolation and denial. Jesus would make the words of Isaiah take flesh in Jesus’ program of inclusion.

When Isaiah talks of sight to the blind, he penetrates deeper than the physical level. The text also means the sight of those who have been in that darkness of a tunnel –like captivity that bursts open into the bright sunshine of the day. There is no darkness like the darkness of the spirit.

In the phrase “let the oppressed go free” (Lk 4:18), Jesus proclaims a program of social justice for the poor that will be a prominent part of Luke’s Gospel. Luke’s description of salvation includes the social and economic expressions of reality.

There is a part of the original Isaiah passage that Jesus does not quote. It is “a day of vengeance of our God.” (Isa 61: 2) On the other hand, he adds some words from Isa 58:5. By stressing the “acceptable year of the Lord” Jesus is entering deeply into the mystery of his mission. This acceptance is about the unconditional hospitality of God. Before all else, including the necessary conversion, all of us are the recipients of God’s acceptance. God’s love for us takes us as we are.

Jesus’ ministry will be one of acceptance. Judgment will come later. Jesus is on the mission to proclaim the hospitality of a merciful God. Jesus’ action will manifest and declare the welcoming acceptance of God along with the release from all forms of captivity and blindness that make up the human condition.

People will be accepted, not judged, in the agenda of Jesus. The conversion will be necessary. However, even the possibility of conversion, is based on God’s acceptance that Jesus sets out in today’s Gospel. Jesus is inaugurating a program of the hospitality of God for all humankind.

His Gospel message will be in conflict with human efforts to limit the message of Good News to protect entrenched self-interests. We will encounter that conflict with next week’s Gospel and the response and rejection of the people of Nazareth to God’s universal hospitality.

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INTRODUCTION TO CONTEMPLATION

In The Joy of the Gospel, Francis touches on these points. “The best incentive for sharing the Gospel comes from contemplating it with love, lingering over its pages and reading it with the heart. If we approach it in this way, its beauty will amaze and constantly excite us.” (The Joy of the Gospel, #264) We need to enter into our true destiny, to be one with God. Being open to others and their needs is our surest path into God’s loving plan for us. Deep personal prayer is a sure way to facilitate this process.

Ernest Larkin, a Carmelite scholar of spirituality, saw great things in the practice of Christian Meditation, a contemplative form of prayer. He envisioned this method of prayer being the source of renewal of the Church in the 21 st century. At the same time, Pope Francis has laid out a beautiful pastoral plan for our time in The Joy of the Gospel. The message of the papal Exhortation demands a spiritual maturity that calls us into a new future as church members. The more we are in touch with the Spirit by prayer, the more open and more encouraged will we be to embrace the radical call of the gospel in our day. This is where contemplation becomes pastoral and practical. I do believe Larkin’s vision is closely related to Pope Francis’ call for a new day. The message of this blog is offered to individuals, parishioners and pastors. It is one concrete invitation into a future that sees our Christian vocation related to the faith community that goes beyond our personal needs and goals. This why I felt it urgent to begin the search for a pastoral theology of contemplation for our communal Pilgrimage to God.

Carmelite spirituality sees the Christian life as a process of purification, enlightenment and personal transformation. These changes move us steadily toward focusing the hungers in our heart to what God wants. This leads us to a journey away from shallow self-absorption into the center of our being where God dwells. These are truly radical changes. The vehicle of this journey is prayer evolving into contemplation. Contemplation, as a deeper and gifted expression of prayer, brings the love of God to a new and practical maturity in our life. We start to consistently eliminate the limited and selfish patterns of living. Our thinking, our believing, our trust and our actions are transformed. Now our desires are more and more in tune with God’s plans. We gradually live out the consequences in new patterns of behavior.

As this contemplative relationship with God matures, we pray more and we pray more quietly. Listening grows and words diminish. The biggest change, however, transpires in our daily lives. Love becomes the operative mode of action in things large and small. Most of all, we get more real which ultimately means being free in God’s love.

Passage of Purification
In this switch to contemplation, we experience a deep sense of being loved by God. This helps us to accept ourselves in both our brokenness and giftedness. We are more patient in our listening to God. We are more open to be taught by God. The desire to control God continues to lessen. Now our prayer grows in clarity. We petition God to set us free to love with a pure heart.

This experience of purification is both simple and intricate. Distractions and noises develop within the heart and disturb the quiet voice of God. All the events of one’s life, the valleys of darkness and the plains of sunshine, all lead into God’s liberating activity. The struggle is to diminish the interior noises and distractions and enter more deeply into our quiet zone. This is where we hear the voice of God in the sound of the gentle breeze of our personal silence.

To Want What God Wants
This journey is not easy because getting closer to God comes at a price. Teresa says the life of prayer and the comfortable life are in serious conflict. Our lifestyle, which had some previous challenges, now faces new demands of even deeper conversion. Large areas of negotiation in our personal, social and cultural life come into play. While we usually change only one step at a time, we never imagined the price tag on this new journey to God. This all means changes on the way to profound

Personal transformation.
When change does happen, we begin to see beyond the external, beyond our illusions. Our comfortable little world, held in place in good part by the power of our culture and prejudices, begins to crumble. The center of gravity switches. Our awareness begins to recognize and accept what has always been the reality. God is our center. Things get clearer and more real. Teresa is unambiguous. The purpose of prayer is to find and embrace God’s will. This is the driving force of our personal

Transformation.
As we progress on the pilgrimage to God, we grow in our desire to want what God wants. This changes how we live. We do not accomplish this by our own determination. God’s love frees us to gradually welcome the divine will. Progress on this journey helps us to see that our strength is in our weakness. We are losing control and God is taking over.

We must surrender. This submission holds true both in prayer and in our lived experience. The basic shift, to place God in the center of our awareness, leads to new level of perception never possible before. Situations that were locked into a rigid either/or choice now open to several reasonable options. Barriers of race, sexual orientation and culture melt into insignificance. A less self- centered focus lights up the world in all manner of ways that shatter the former darkness. The new mindfulness opens up both the grandeur of God and discloses the consequences of our dependence on God. God’s mercy engulfs our world.

Teresa says we have to get real. She means we need to recognize the only true goal is to be one with God, to have one singular, dominating love. We need to be purified to experience love in its truest expression. When it comes to love, only God can offer the real deal. All other authentic love is only a degree of participation in the divine love. We need to change a lot of things to accept the consequences of the call to transformation and union. Jesus is the fullness of God’s invitation for us. Teresa insists that we place our eyes on Jesus who is the symbol of God’s passionate love for each of us. He is God’s continuing invitation to loving intimacy. In this context, we learn that all of life is of concern for us. There is no separation of the holy and the ordinary. Everything that happens can help us or hurt us in the quest thatis union with God. Life, we learn, is the greatest grace.

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SECOND SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Jn 2:1-12

Dear Friends,
John’s Gospel always is never in short supply of many new variations and unforeseen developments to its message. John is particularly strong in revealing the eternal in the mundane events in Jesus’ activities. Today’s text centers on Mary and Jesus’ intervention in a small crisis at a village wedding. The routine events of poor planning open up into the divine reality.

There are many elements to this simple story of Cana. The most important is the identity of Jesus. He is the new wine of the long-awaited messianic age. His teachings, his proclamation the kingdom and his message of wisdom all come together to announce a new day. The water becoming wine was an opening challenge to the Jews of his day and to all of us today. The person and wisdom of God have taken flesh among us. We are challenged to respond in faith to Mary’s son, Jesus.

Repeatedly throughout the Gospel of John, Jesus is presented as the new reality. He is replacing the rituals and practices of the Jewish faith experience. Today he is the new wine coming from the purification waters of the Jewish tradition.

This is the first of several replacement stories, events that transition from the Jewish faith to the way, the life and the truth that is Jesus. He is now our sure guide in our quest to encounter God. Jesus’ role is symbolized in the wine transformed from the water which represented all the cleansing rituals of the Jewish religious experience. John the Evangelist is presenting Jesus as the new presence and power of God. In both the quantity and quality of the new wine, we see the beginning of the answer to the long-awaited time of God’s final intervention.

This is similar to Jesus’ opening statement in Mark: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand!” (Mk 1:15) John again invites us to go beyond the surface when we ponder the event’s true love story. For John, the gentle and touching experience of the bridal couple is engulfed and transcended in the love God reveals for all humanity in Jesus.

The true bridegroom of the story is Jesus, the final revelation of God’s love for all of us. This is the incarnation theme of God’s Word being expressed in the flesh and worldly reality of human experience. The village wedding explodes into the great mystery of Jesus as the loving bridegroom of all humanity.

John’s Gospel is always filled with many unexpected twists and turns. The role of the Blessed Mother is another example of these surprises in John. Mary only appears twice in the Gospel. She is here at Cana in the beginning and at the end, at the foot of the Cross. Both times she is addressed by her loving Son as “woman”.

The role of Mary in this Cana story falls into this pattern of paradox and wonder. The address of Jesus to Mary as “woman” is another twist of the story’s flow. In apparent contradiction to Jesus’ words of seeming unconcern, Mary initiates the whole process by giving the awesome task to the servants: “Do whatever he tells you.” (Jn 2:5) Mary’s role in this story is made much clearer by seeing it in relation to her encounter with her crucified son at the foot of the cross.

The crucified Jesus’ use of the title “woman” rather than being a sign of disrespect opens up a whole new horizon. It connects Mary to Eve in Genesis. Mary is now the New Eve, the mother of all in the new family Jesus summons into existence. His invitation is to accept his call. He is the “new wine” leading to eternal life. Mary’s role in the story of Cana foreshadows her mission.

She is both the mother of all believers and the model and support of all disciples. Like Mary, in the Cana story and at the foot of the Cross, we are called to respond to needs of our neighbor. We need to see and respond with her urgency and sensitivity wrapped up in the declaration, “They have no wine.” (Jn 2:3) Likewise, we need to hear and embrace her words of wisdom, “Do whatever he tells you.” (Jn 2:5)

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A NEW STAGE FOR "PRAYING ALONE TOGETHER"

Introduction

I was the pastor of St. Rafael's parish in South Central Los Angeles for twenty years. (1994-2014) In my retreat in my tenth year, I had a special experience with the Interior Castle of Saint Teresa of Avila. For the next ten years, I continued the study and prayer as an expression of Carmelite spirituality. I also began to invite my parishioners to join me on my journey. At the end of 2014, I finished my stay in San Rafael and went to help a friend, Father David Blanchard, in his parish in El Salvador. After a few months there, I explained to David my desire to continue sharing my experience with Teresa of Avila. He suggested that I start a blog on the topic. I didn't know what a blog was, but I started one in December 2015.

During the first few years, a certain clarity developed in my topic. It evolved into a reflection on deep personal prayer in the Carmelite Tradition of spirituality. I have been steadfast in my messaging, providing a blog every week for almost nine years. In the first four years, I had 117,000 visitors to the blog, Praying Alone Together. Last September 2024, I had more than 128,000 visitors in a month. At this moment, the blog has surpassed 4,000,000 visitors. So, obviously, there has been steady growth. Similarly, I am sure there has been steady growth among some of the faithful participants. Therefore, I am going to expand the nature of my presentation. I will offer material on contemplation, which is the result of a special gift from God on the path of spiritual growth in loyalty to Jesus Christ.

To better understand the contemplative experience, it will be useful to place it in the context of the three stages of growth in the traditional Catholic understanding of development. These periods are the Purgative, the Illuminative, and the Unitive. The Purgative stage begins with a basic conversion, one of the many on the journey. There is a new awareness of one's own sinfulness and the need for forgiveness. Prayer becomes a part of one's life. There is a growth in self-awareness. There is a turning away from sin and towards growth in virtue. This is the stage of beginning a commitment to life and deep, regular personal prayer.

Through this prayer, one begins to experience Jesus Christ as the source of new life and freedom. On the Illuminating Path, one begins to have the experience of contemplation. This new and special encounter with the enriched presence brings many special gifts. There are large areas of deeply rooted selfishness that completely resisted one's previous efforts, no matter how hard one tried. Now, with the special grace of God in the contemplative experience, a new purification takes place and removes the stubborn obstacles to God's call. The journey of the Illuminating Path manifests the enlightening powers of contemplation. From the fourth to the sixth, by Teresa The mansions in the inner castle are related to the process of purification and illumination that leads to transformation. Similarly, John of the Cross has an extensive in-depth description of the consequences of contemplation that leads to the Unitive Way in The Ascent of Mount Carmel and The Dark Night.

Finally, upon reaching the Unitive Way, one arrives at the true destiny of humanity, to be one with God. Here is Christian perfection through the elimination of selfishness to the extent that is possible in this life. The love of God flows through the person's life. seen in such a way that Jesus' commandment to love God and one's neighbor dominates the individual's reality.


The new goal of my blog:
I will continue presenting material on Deep Personal Prayer every two weeks. In the alternate week, I will add a new section on contemplation. This will address the movement and experience of the second stage of spiritual growth on the Illuminating Path. For the most part, readers will be able to: identify which level is most appropriate for their spiritual life.

Development I am writing all this as a pastor. Consequently, the material on the Unitive Path is well above my pay grade. I will always continue my weekly reflection on the Sunday Gospel. The vision of the blog "Praying Alone Together" What does it mean today to be a good Catholic? A good Christian? A good believer? People are seeking an answer with increasing intensity these days. They want to go beyond the conventional and predictable demands of church members. It is obvious that regular attendance at services has been unsatisfactory for a large number of people, including many individuals of true convictions. Church membership and church attendance have steadily declined in our churches.


The new goal of my blog:
Most of the time, these new ventures emphasize personal needs rather than the more demanding pursuit of God. There are trends towards a fundamentalism and an approach to meditation that seek the satisfaction of indulgent self-analysis instead of the evangelical mandate of sacrificial self-transcendence. Many of these new religious entrepreneurs offer a Jesus free of any personal cost along with no concern for the poor and forgotten. Every search for God must seek God as God is, not as we want God to be. Jesus is our invitation to God, our call to the Mystery of Love. Every authentic religious experience needs to find the true God through the Way, the Life, and the Truth that is Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected. This is the Jesus who invites us to join him on the road to Jerusalem. In our days, all the most authentic spiritual movements, of which there are many, share a common characteristic: a deep personal prayer. This prayer leads to an encounter with Jesus and true self-knowledge. This is the path to a more experiential, insightful, and richer life with God. Our Catholic tradition has an abundance of resources on these practices. All of them lead to the practice of contemplative prayer.

The Carmelite tradition on prayer holds a prominent place among the many spiritualities that enrich and clarify our return to our original innocence. The message of this blog is to offer this movement towards a deeper spirituality as a challenge and opportunity in a pastoral context. We need to return to the call of Vatican II to universal holiness. This will lead us to: Raise expectations for everyone. Any effort that neglects our baptism, the responsibility to seek God with our whole being, is a guarantee of mediocrity. As parish priests and parishioners and those who seek God in any authentic way, we are all called to seek God as the center of our Christian vocation. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross offer us a path, among many, that places contemplation as the most fruitful means to achieve this goal. As Doctors of the Church, they have the approval not only of the Vatican but also centuries of acceptance by the faithful. Their invitation for us on the pilgrimage to God offers a set of concrete and practical guidelines.

My invitation in this blog is for us to incorporate the following into our personal and pastoral programs. The importance of personal prayer is something that can be scheduled in any parish. Our parishes can and should be schools of prayer. People are hungry for something more. Our parishes must take advantage of this desire for a deeper spirituality. Our Catholic Church, which is heritage, has the potential to satisfy this growing hunger for a meaningful experience of God in the most reliable way.

The renewal of the liturgy has been one of the most special blessings of Vatican II. It has also been accompanied by the gift of a new appreciation of the Bible in our times. As a result of biblical studies becoming common in our parishes, people are much more comfortable with the Bible. Lectio Divina and Bible. Reading is constantly growing in the Catholic community. This is the result of a pastoral vision that has taken advantage of a hunger. This practice invites people to seek more, to delve deeper into the Mystery that burns in their hearts. We can continue expanding this pastoral vision by scaling up programs that present a call to a deeper personal prayer. This is the path to contemplation.

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THE BAPTISM OF THE LORD

Lk 3:15-16, 21-22

Dear Friends in Christ, we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord. This feast concludes the season of Christmas in the Church Year. The secular message of Christmas is all finished with the special sales in the few days after the 25 th . The Church has a totally different schedule and a totally different meaning for Christmas.

“The Word was made flesh.” (Jn 1:16) from the Gospel of John read in the Christmas Mass at midday, is our invitation to ponder what it means that God became human. That mystery is made even more challenging in today’s Gospel when Jesus is baptized.

Christmas means that God bought into the whole human package in the birth of Jesus. This included diapers and brushing teeth, learning how to walk and to pound a nail. At an even deeper level, it meant love and goodness were to encounter sin and evil. It meant He who is the way, the life and the truth would ultimately bring this life into conflict with ignorance and violence and their consequences in death. That the Word was made flesh means that God opened the way for us out of the darkness of our broken humanity. It was the beginning of our deliverance from death and all of its many manifestations in the evil of our daily life.

When Jesus became a baby there were consequences. Good and evil were in the final and absolute conflict. Light and darkness, so much part of our troubled journey as humans, were to play out the concluding battle. Love and hatred, which saturate our daily struggle within our hearts, within our families, within our communities and within our world have the ultimate and most consequential conflict. That the Word became flesh not only meant it would lead to the Cross but more importantly, it meant the victory of light and truth and love and life in the Resurrection.

Through Jesus, God chose to enter our reality, to share our experience. The baptism is a symbol of that sharing because a very real part of our reality is that we need forgiveness of our sins. In the Hebrew Scriptures three elements of today’s baptism of Jesus had a special role. Water, Spirit and fire were deeply connected to the purifying process. In the baptism of Jesus, these three purifying signs proclaim a new era of holiness and grace.

This beloved Son of the Father will open up a new era of healing and salvation.

In this new day that Jesus will inaugurate, Luke makes clear that prayer has a special role. In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus prays often and at length. In today’s gospel, Jesus is praying when the Spirit comes upon him. Luke has Jesus praying before each of the important events on his gospel journey. Luke displays Jesus’ prayer as the condition for openness to the action of God in one’s life.

In Jesus, the seeds of victory are sown so love overcomes hatred, ignorance is sucked up into the power of the truth, and life is the last word in the conquest of death. The love of God prevails in Jesus, the Beloved Son.

We hear the Good News of this great event again today in the Preface of the Mass for the Baptism of the Lord: “For in the waters of the Jordan you revealed with signs and wonders a new Baptism, so that through the voice that came down from heaven we might come to believe in your Word dwelling among us and by the Spirit’s descending in the likeness of a dove we might know that Christ your Servant had been anointed with the oil of gladness and sent to bring the good news to the poor.”

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THE FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY

Mt 2:1-12

Dear Friends, The Gospel message of the feast is that all peoples are invited to the heavenly banquet. This beautiful manifestation of Jesus to the Gentiles is peculiar to the Gospel of Matthew. His community was Jewish and they had become followers of Jesus. They struggled with their identity. Were they the true Jews following Jesus as the Messiah? Or were they part of the new reality that was identified as Christians? Mathew’s message in the story of the Magi is clear.

The gospel is for all humanity. What the followers of Jesus would be called was not his concern. The manifestation of the Epiphany’s message of universality is at the heart of the Christmas story.

It connects the coming of the Savior and the hunger in the human heart for deliverance from the brokenness of the human condition. The Magi were faithful to the search.

They followed the star. The Jewish leaders did not. We are all called to let go and join the pilgrimage to God where our stars come in all kinds of different forms. Yet they are united in one goal: to lead us to Jesus!

The Epiphany is commonly known as the feast of the Three Kings. The scriptural text says nothing about the number three. It also makes no mention that they are kings nor anything about their racial makeup. These are various cultural expressions developed over the centuries.

Cultural and folkloric expressions have always enriched the proclamation of the Gospel. Often, these additions have been enlightening to the basic message of salvation. On the other hand, the message also has been deeply distorted with the overlay of pietistic exaggerations and even contradictions rooted in national and cultural prejudices which often hide the star which will lead us to Jesus.

One of the major hopes of Vatican II was to get us back to the central Gospel message, to put Jesus at the center. One of the most important developments of that holy gathering occurred a decade later when Pope Paul VI gave us one of the all-time great papal documents. It was on the topic of Evangelization. Paul VI pointed out that the message of the Gospel is never free of cultural expressions but that we have to work to always go beyond any particular cultural, national or racial expression that limits the Gospel.

Whether it is the St. Patrick’s Day Parade or the celebration of the Virgin of Guadalupe, Cristo Negro of Esquipulas, or the celebration of Our Lady of Lourdes they all have a pull to limit the Gospel to some partial view of one group or nation. Today’s feast of the Epiphany opens us up to the vision of salvation for all humanity. We are invited to include everyone. This call to unity has challenged every age of the Christian journey as it does our age today.

Today’s Gospel account of the Magi is much more than a lovely tale about strange visitors coming in an unexpected way to a poor family. This is a message of Good News that informs us that this child is the long- awaited Son of David, the promised ruler and savior of Israel. He will open the gift of salvation to all peoples.

All are welcome at the table. There are no people without residential papers at the crib! All are welcome! Today’s Gospel tells us we need not travel far to seek Jesus. Exotic places do not have to be part of our search.

The Epiphany, the revelation of Jesus, is always taking place in the midst of our life. Jesus is all around us. We need only look with faith to embrace Him in our brothers and sisters especially the poor and needy among us.

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FEAST OF THE HOLY FAMILY

Lk 2:41-52

Dear Friends. It is important to cast off the plastic-statue image of Mary to discover her true beauty in the many trials in her life. She was not walking through life with a pre-arranged script. For her, as for us, life is a long, searching struggle passing through the confusion and brokenness of reality.

One of my favorite authors offered a great insight into the humanity of Mary in his description the family at Nazareth. In the beginning there was the isolation of an overwhelmed pregnant teenager and a betrothed man who felt rejected. The birth of the child was encompassed in poverty and political intrigue. At the presentation the mother received the warning of great suffering to come. The family became political refugees in a foreign country. On their return, they were uprooted again because of fear and insecurity.

The young teenager drove the parents to desperation as he began to clarify his identity in the Temple. The mother was confused by her son’s apparent indifference at Cana. Then she continued to be befuddled as his activities were in such conflict with the traditions of the village and family. He even held others as his true mother.

Then he was rejected and executed in the height of his popularity. She was handed over to someone outside the family at the moment of his excruciating death.

Truly, Mary had no idea what the angel’s message had in store for her. On the other hand, most families cope with these kinds of disruptions and totally unexpected turmoil. It is demanding to walk, the journey in faithful love within the confines of a broken and sinful humanity.

Love demands that the family be both the source of identity and the source of independence. This holds the seeds of the “road to Jerusalem” for all family members. Mary surely did not comprehend the full consequences of her “Be it done unto me according to your word” (Lk1:38).

Yet, she lived life with the continuing openness to the mystery of God’s presence in life. For Mary, as for us, that loving presence starts and is supported by our relations in family. We need to believe and trust that God uses the power of the intimate relations within the family in all their human frailty to be a birthplace of life and love. By its very nature, the family in all its complexities is the font of the deepest love and the most consuming wounds. It is a special place to encounter God continuing to take flesh in our midst. Only love opens it up to be origin of true life and joy.

Today is not a day to bemoan all the difficulties and burdens of family life. Rather, this feast challenges each family to be open to the ever-new horizons that are the gift of family life.

Whether it is the first diaper or the first day in the nursing home, it is a mystery that only opens to its true beauty with love and self-sacrifice. Mary understood the depth of this wonder no matter what her circumstances. She again is our model of the true disciple in her simplicity of truly human life lived in love and self-giving.

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CHRISTMAS REFLECTION

Christmas means He has come to turn the darkness of our night of violence, war, poverty, destruction of our environment, hopelessness and ambiguity into a burning light of freedom, healing, hope and love. Christmas is about the Child that is born among us. It is the celebration of the most consequential event in history.

The Word has become Flesh. When we lose sight of the Child becoming one of us, our celebration quickly fades into a passing illusion. Putting Christ back into Christmas is surely the desire of most Christians. The intensity of the “Black Fridays” and “Cyber Mondays” seems to never let up. It is truly difficult to break through the message to “shop till you drop.” On a personal level, a great number of people try to balance the gross commercialism and the spiritual significance of the feast. An honest and intelligent reading of the Scriptures opens up the chasm between our celebrations and the great mystery of the feast.

The truly radical message in Luke and Matthew of the birth of Christ go wildly beyond the catchy slogan, “Put Christ back into Christmas”. We are caught in a conundrum of the incredible cultural pressure of the commercial conquest of Christmas and the simple overwhelming act of love that is the Word made flesh.

We have created a sentimental and flowery description of the birth in Bethlehem that distorts Luke’s story. The commonly accepted version hides the uprooting, poverty and deep bewilderment of Mary and Joseph. How could God allow his Son to enter the world in such destitution?

Our “Silent Night” is the sentimental interpretation of the event that leaves little room for the true message of Luke, and practically no room for Matthew’s description of the story. Both evangelists are inviting us into the deepest and truest dimension of our reality, a graciousness that is always calling us out of the darkness into the light. The evangelists’ harsh and challenging description of the birth offers a suitable backdrop for God’s ultimate conversation with a broken humanity in the person of Jesus Christ.

An important point to remember is that both Matthew and Luke describe the birth of Jesus as an overture for the entire gospel message. The child in the manger is the beginning of a journey that leads to the Messiah on the Cross. God speaks to us in both events that are of the one reality: God’s saving love for us. A few cultures capture this profound truth by using the wood of the crèche for the wood of the cross for their Good Friday celebration.

Matthew’s story emphasizes the connection of Jesus’ birth to the Jewish longing for the Messiah as the Son of David. This Messiah in Matthew is Emmanuel, God with us. The reaction to the birth, seen in the dealings of the Wise Men and Herod, prefigures all the intrigue and violence that will happen in the journey to Golgotha.

While Luke has a strong element of song and joy, the somber note in Matthew continues in the exile into Egypt and the killing of the Innocents. Mary’s infant avoids the slaughter by divine intervention only to face the Father’s will in the Garden.

Matthew’s version of the conflict of good and evil features the Holy Family and Herod. It looks back at Moses and the Pharaoh and looks forward to the saving death that concludes in the resurrection.

The world Matthew is portraying in Jesus’ birth is a portrait of our world today with our unwelcome migrants and sexual slavery, gangs and abuse in families, grossly unjust distribution of wealth and vast investment in arms, the ever-present curse of racism all crystallized in Putin’s war and the horror going on in Gaza. On top of it all, we hardly have a newscast that does not start out with the ravages of climate change.

From the moment of her call to be the Mother, Mary faced the irony of utter joy and wonder in her heart against the continual disorientation, confusion and total displacing of her plans and events in her daily life. Both Matthew and Luke are addressing the question that pervades all the Gospels: What kind of Messiah will Jesus be?

Our cultural and commercial celebration of Christmas is filled with an answer that Jesus challenged at all times in his life, ministry and teachings and especially in his death and resurrection. He will not be a Messiah isolated from the poor and marginalized. He will not be draped in wealth and power. He will be a Messiah of sacrifice and service wrapped in swaddling clothes.

The salvation Jesus offers as a suffering Messiah is not one of the easy fix. It is a salvation that calls for our purification and self-giving leading to a personal transformation. Luke’s message of hope and joy is more wondrous in the context of this full gospel message.

Just a few months before his death, Archbishop Romero captured the spiritual depth of Christmas. He said, “Today, we recall God’s reign is now in this world, and that Christ has inaugurated the fullness of time. Christ’s birth attests that God is now marching with us in history – that we are not alone, and that our aspiration for peace, for justice, for a reign of divine law, for something holy is far from earth’s realities.

Nevertheless, we can hope for all these things, not because we human beings are able to construct that realm of holiness which God’s holy words proclaim but because the builder of a reign of justice, of love and peace is already in the midst of us.”

These words, on the Christmas message of hope, became very real for me recently. I was at a police station filling a report on my stolen phone. Waiting for my report, a young mother and her six-month-old son sat next to me. I shared how crazy it was to lose your phone. She responded, “If you want to know about crazy, you need to have a violent and abusive husband.” In our conversation I learned she was an immigrant from a Muslim country only here two and a half years. Even though they both still live in the same building, the situation between her and her husband is so bad, they must exchange the child at the police station.

This happens four days of the week when she goes to school. She is pursuing a Doctor’s degree in clinical psychology. What struck me about this scene was how hopeful she was despite being an abused woman, a Muslim immigrant and the mother of a young child in a failed marriage.

It was obvious to me that the message of hope and the grace of the Infant of Bethlehem is for all people and at all times even if they do not have the label Christian. The Word made flesh has exposed a reality pregnant with life and love for all people at all times no matter how challenging the circumstances.

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FOURTH SUNDAY OF ADVENT

Lk 1:39-45

Dear Friends, Advent looks at the coming of Christ in two ways. The first is in the completion of the redemptive reality in the Second Coming. The second is recalling the great coming in Christ’s birth. The season of Advent, like every season of the Church Year, invites us into the great mystery of the Christ event.

For us to truly understand and accept in faith the Advent message, we need to start with the present reality of the world. We live in a world that absolutely needs a savior. Our racial, ethnic and religious divisions, the brokenness of our sexuality, the rampant divisions between the poor and the rich, the pervasive de-humanizing consumerism, the gross neglect of the planet and so many other expressions of injustice scream out the need for a savior.

Add to this all the personal hurts and hungers and turmoil in our lives. We truly find ourselves ready for the Advent prayer, Come Lord Jesus!

Today’s encounter between the young pregnant unwed teenager and the older expectant mother set the scene. This was the definitive intervention of God in our broken human history. These two woman are central to the story of the Christ event. The triple blessing of Elizabeth revealed Mary’s special role. The coming Savior was the blessed fruit of her womb. Mary is blessed among women as the mother and the woman of faith. The final blessing recognized the depth of her faith: “Blessed are you who believed what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled. (Lk 1:45)

Mary’s faith made her the first among the disciples. Her faithful surrender was joyfully expressed in the famous words: “May it done to me according to your word.” (Lk 1:38) This submission modeled a life that all followers of Christ can emulate. She entrusted herself to the journey with her Son against all logic and common sense.

Elizabeth identified these gifts of faith early on with her triple blessing. If we are to imitate the will not be found in a list of teachings and doctrines. It will be in a person. It will be the event of that person’s coming among us. Like Mary, our life experience will be filled with unending questions and situations of confusion and desperation. Yet we must be open to the call to be faithful in our commitment. From the poverty of Bethlehem to the power and beauty of Cana, to the rejection in Nazareth to the ultimate mystery of Cavalry, Mary had no answers. She did, however, have an open and trusting heart. She was, indeed, the true disciple of Jesus Christ.

Advent offers us the challenge that faced Mary: an opportunity to accept the joy of the Lord or to fall into despair and hopelessness. The many questions and bewilderment of our life draw us into the same test of faith that consumed the entire life of May. Faith let Mary understand well a teaching of her Son’s Gospel: what seems to be, really is not, and what does not seem to be, really is. Jesus demonstrated this truth from his birth as Messiah with the poor shepherds in the insignificant town of Bethlehem to the total abandonment and rejection a Calvary. Mary walked in faith and love every step of the way with him. She was present to the all- powerful God and Creator of the universe wrapped is swaddling clothes and nailed to the cross.

It may seem completely out of place to speak of Calvary in this immediate approach to the Christmas event. Yet, Mary’s faith opened her heart to the profound connection between these two events. When pure love entered the world, evil and hatred immediately stirred up the plans for its obliteration. Mary understood in her faith-filled heart that the joyful sounds of Christmas would never be far from the lamentations and sighs of Good Friday. Yet, she always believed that love would win out!

Advent’s message for us is to imitate the surrender of Mary. We are called to embrace the hope and the coming of the Christ event in our Advent prayer, Come, Lord Jesus!

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