This article has been read by Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa OFM Cap., Preacher to the Pope, who commented: "Your testimony and teaching are perfectly sound
and can help people grow in holiness and commitment", July 2013.
A Personal Testimony
and can help people grow in holiness and commitment", July 2013.
A Personal Testimony
Having
given up on Christianity at school, I looked at other world religions and
philosophies. I finally concluded that there was no one like Jesus. In the words
of Dostoyevsky: “I believe that there is nothing on earth that is more
beautiful, more profound, more appealing, more virile, or more perfect than
Christ; and I say to myself with jealous love, that greater than He does not
and cannot exist. More than this: should anyone prove to me that Christ is
beyond range of truth, and that this is not to be found in Him, I would prefer
to retain Christ than to retain the truth”.
So I
decided one night in 1966 to kneel down at my bedside and commit my whole life
to Jesus, COME WHAT MAY. I made a prayer of commitment rather like Job’s: “EVEN
IF HE KILL ME, YET I WILL TRUST IN HIM” (Job 13:15). I then went to bed.
The
next morning at breakfast my parents said I looked different! I did not feel
any different – there were no fireworks, no drama, no tongues. I just felt the
same and had a wonderful night’s sleep. Time was to prove my parents’
observation had some substance.
CONVICTION
It is
said that one of the first signs of the working of the Spirit of Jesus in a
person is the conviction of sin. I felt moved by Jesus’ love, His tears over
Jerusalem and for His friend Lazarus. I felt sorry that I had grieved Him and felt
urged to be reconciled with family and cousins. Family feuds and animosities
saddened me as being petty and mean spirited. I decided to go to make a general
confession. Afterwards I felt a bit like John Bunyan’s Pilgrim. It seemed a
heavy burden had fallen off my back!
QUOTES
“It is simply not possible that anyone should accuse
himself or feel displeased with himself except by the gift of the Holy Spirit”.
(St Augustine)
“The Holy Spirit was at work, convincing the
world of sin’ (John 16:8), exactly as Jesus has promised”. (p 124)
“We should not think that we know ‘the love of
God that is poured into the hearts by the Holy Spirit’ if it has not, at least
once, led us to forgive an offence, love an enemy, be reconciled with a brother
or sister”. (p 147)
From: RANIERO CANTALAMESSA, Come Creator
Spirit
THE POOR
The
compassion for enemies real or imaginary extended also to the poor, as Jesus
died for them too, and allowed Himself to be surrounded by them. In the Gospel,
I was reading (Mk. 28) Jesus said that our salvation depends on how we treat
them. So, convicted I joined the local branch of Saint Vincent de Paul Society
to work with the poor. Often their dire poverty (e.g. in winter, poor people
blue with cold) made me realise just how fortunate I was. Compared to them my
problems seemed small and paled into insignificance.
HOPE
If ‘perfect
love casts out all fear’ (1 Jn 4:18), then love for and service of the poor saw
my fear of death recede, and hope increased tremendously. I was so intrigued by
the sudden appearance of hope in my life, which was so bereft of it before that
I did a Bible study on hope that I have to this day. Every word of Romans 15
verse 13 was relevant: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in
believing; so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope”.
QUOTES
“Hope is the difficult one. It is so easy to
fall into despair and we are so inclined to do it; this is the great temptation”....
When the Spirit is present it is impossible not to abound in hope’”. (Come
Creator Spirit, p 124)
JESUS
With
my decision to follow Jesus I became fascinated with him. I became bananas for
Jesus like the Jesus freaks in America at the time whose enthusiasm managed to
get the face of Jesus on the front of TIME MAGAZINE. I cut it out and
stuck it on my wall. When St Francis of Assisi was converted, it was later
written by him:
“He was always occupied with Jesus; Jesus he
bore in his heart. Jesus in his mouth, Jesus in his ears, Jesus in his eyes,
Jesus in his hands, Jesus in the rest of his members... many times as he went
along the way meditating and singing of Jesus, he would forget his journey and
invite all creation to praise Jesus” (1 Celano, 115)
REAL PRESENCE OF JESUS
In
the Gospel I was reading I came across the story of the disciples on the road
to Emmaus: Jesus took the bread, said the blessing broke it and gave it to the
disciples and then disappeared but His presence was still felt and real in the
broken bread. (Lk 24:30) After Jesus returned to heaven, the disciples went to
their homes every day for the breaking of the bread or the Eucharist.
(Acts 2:47) If the apostles needed the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist
daily, I reckoned so did I, and I went to Mass every day. I felt that this side
of Heaven, nothing can give as much consolation in time of need as the
Eucharist.
THE PERSON AND WORDS OF JESUS
I
wanted to know more about the Jesus of the Gospels. So I went and bought the Monsignor
Knox version of the four Gospels. I was consumed with a desire to read the Word
and find out more about the greatest person who ever lived. I had lots of time
now as at my conversion I suddenly realised that I now had an aversion to TV. I
realised eventually that it was excessive watching of TV that got me into a low
faith level and now it was the absence of TV that would get me out again.
JOY
I
read the Gospel on the bus on the way to school and back again. At school I
read it during study periods to the amusement of my peers. Not long before I
had been given a New Testament and I quickly flicked it away dreading they
would think I was becoming a “holy joe”. Now I was amused, not embarrassed, by
their surprise at me reading the Gospels.
JOY AND PEACE
Joy
had begun to surface and fear of others (or political incorrectness) began to
recede. The Gospels warn of the three great dangers to the spiritual life: the
world, the flesh and the devil. (Mt 13) Surely political correctness is
compromise and abject capitulation to the world. Jesus said that cowards would
never enter the Kingdom of God. (Rev 21:8) It is untruth and heresy that we
need to avoid not political incorrectness! That other wonderful fruit of the
Holy Spirit the peace that surpasses all understanding also became a reality.
In the Gospel Jesus gave us a new commandment – not to worry (Mt 6:25) and so I
didn’t – never. Legitimate concern is one thing and debilitating doubt another.
Occasionally
I dipped into the Old Testament and relished what I saw. For example:
The Psalms: (Ps 26 “Lord I love the beauty of your house and the place where
your glory abides”)
Ecclesiastes: “Vanities of vanities” – yes
life is vain without God.
Isaiah 58: “If you pour yourself out for the hungry then shall your light rise
in the darkness”.
Job:
A real soul brother: “Even if He kills
me, yet I will trust in Him” (Job 13:15) I was amused later at the seminary to
discover that Job presented a lot textual problems but not for me then – just
great soul food (like the psalms) and riveting reading.
Rayma: I became aware of Bible words hitting me right between the eyes so
to speak as I read and heard Scripture read. I was later to see these as rayma
(“The individual Scripture which the Spirit brings to our remembrance for use
in time of need, a prerequisite being the regular storing of the mind with
Scripture”. (W.E. Vine,Ex.Dict. p 230) As I experienced them from both the New
and Old Testaments, I became convinced personally that both were God’s inspired
Word.
From
the New Testament I got words like;
“I know my sheep and my sheep know me” (Jn
10:14)
“Seek first the Kingdom of God and its
righteousness and everything else will follow”. (Lk 12:31)
“Father forgive them for they know not what
they are doing”. (Lk 23:34)
“There is no condemnation for those who are in
Christ Jesus”. (Rom 8:1)
QUOTES
“The word of Scripture, by the action of the
Holy Spirit, is transformed: they glow, they bathe you and your situation in
light. Of all experiences to which the coming of the Holy Spirit into a soul
gives rise, this in fact is one of the most common, most powerful. The Scripture
comes alive. Every sentence seems to be written especially for you, to the
point of sometimes leaving you breathless, as though God were there speaking to
you with tremendous authority but at the same time very, very gently. The words
of the psalms keep surprising you: how new and fresh they seem, and what views
they open up of unending horizons, and what deep echoes they awaken in your
soul. At times like this you can feel how true it is that the Word of God is
living and active”. (Heb 4:12) (Come Creator Spirit p 247)
JESUS IN HIS CHURCH
In studying
the Word I saw that Jesus very definitely established a Church (Mt 16:18) and
He wanted “one flock and one shepherd” (Jn 10:16) and He regarded the Church as
His body. (Acts 9:4)
I
felt compelled to know what Jesus’ Church taught so I dusted down my old Brown
and Nolan penny catechism that had bored me stiff at school but was now
riveting reading. Jesus said “I make all things new” (Rev 21:5) and certainly I
saw the Church’s teaching in a completely new way.
QUOTES
“The Holy Spirit, who makes all things new, can
renew the dogmas of the Church. The Spirit does not make new things; rather,
the Spirit makes things new. The Spirit does not give us new dogmas about
Christ, but rather makes the old dogmas new, making them a pertinent reality
effectively at work today as much as they were in ancient times. Kierkegaard
wrote: “The dogmatic terminology of the primitive Church is like an enchanted
castle where, locked in slumber, lie the handsomest of princes and the
loveliest of princesses. They only need to be aroused, for them to leap to
their feet in all their glory”. The Holy Spirit is the only one who can wake
them from their age-long slumber”. (CCS p 364/5)
JESUS IN NATURE
The
whole of creation began to speak of Jesus for me. I belonged as a teenager to a
Junior Astronomical Society and was invited by the Famous TV astronomer Patrick
Moore to “come for tea” and to meet his mother in Armagh Observatory where he
had recently been appointed. Over the door of the observatory were carved the
beautiful words “THE HEAVENS DECLARE THE GLORY OF GOD”. (Psalm 19) The creation
speaks or manifests God’s glory because “all things were created for Him
(Jesus) and in Him”. (Col 1:16)
Emily
Dickinson’s words have remained true for me since: “Earth’s crammed with Heaven
and every common bush aflame with God”. The Word says: “It was God who made the
great lights for His love endures forever, the sun to rule in the day, the moon
and the stars in the night, for His love endures forever”. (Ps 135) The creation
reminds me today of God’s love which “endures forever”.
I
believe that the true Christian response to the ecological crisis is
evangelisation, leading to conversion, not demanding to know how many energy
saving light bulbs have been installed. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His
righteousness and everything else will follow”. (Lk 12:31) Conversion leads to
a reverence for the creatures God has made, a horror of polluting God’s work or
wasting precious food or resources. Some of the most beautiful hymns written
were by converted Christians e.g. All Creatures of our God and King; Morning
Has Broken; Fairest Lord Jesus, Ruler of all Nature; All things Bright and
Beautiful; For the Beauty of the Earth; Oh the Love of My Lord is the Essence
etc.
Arthur
Mc Cormack said of St Francis of Assisi: “The love of nature seemed only to
come to its fullness with the love of God after his conversion”. I would
agree from my own personal experience. Appreciation of symmetry and aesthetic
beauty seems innate in all human beings. Christians and non Christian alike.
But conversion seems to add another dimension that the appreciation of nature’s
beauty is given to us personally by God: e.g. “All the beauty I see, He has
given to me”. (Estelle White) “Mine is the sunlight, mine
is the morning”. (E. Farjeon)
We
are surrounded by God’s beauty “but only he who sees takes off his shoes, the
rest stand around and pick blackberries”. (Emily Dickinson) The carnally minded
see nothing but what can feed their appetites. “God saw all that He had made
and indeed it was very good”. (Gen 1:31) The Spirit of God helps us to delight
in what God delights in and to relish what God relishes, and so find nature
‘very good’. I have found nature a source of endless awe and wonder and
recreation, and it’s all free!
QUOTES
“Enthusiastic praise of God, admiration and awe
at His works are some of the clearest signs that the Spirit of God visited our
soul”. (c.c.s. p 235)
“Use this visible creation as it should be
used, as you use the earth, sea, sky, air, springs and rivers, and whatever is
beautiful and wonderful in them acknowledge to the praise and glory of God”.
(Pope St Leo D.O.I. p 50)
“All these beautiful things which you see,
which you love He made. If these are beautiful, what is He Himself? If these
are great, how great must He be? Therefore from those things which we love here,
let us the more long for Him, that by that very love we may purify our heart by
faith and his vision when it comes may find our hearts purified”. (St
Augustine, commentary on the 84th Psalm)
SELF CONTROL
One
day coming out of our local cinema in Belfast with my friends after watching THE
GREAT ESCAPE for the umpteenth time, one glorious warm summer evening with
pretty girls displaying their feminine charms to the full, it dawned on me that
something was different: this was no longer an incitement to desire and
possession. I began to grasp much later that the wonderful liberating fruit of
self control was at work (Gal 5:23) where the body is no longer in control of
us but we are in control of the body with all its endless desires and cravings.
It seemed now that I only had to will to do what was right and power came to
carry it through – no more compulsions or addictive behaviour. Raniero
Cantalamessa says that the Spirit “asks us only for docility, free consent and
cooperation”. (Sober Intoxication II, p 10)
I
also detected a growing prolife protective urge instead of the usual self
seeking predatory one common in males at that age. In Albert Schweitzer’s
phrase “Reverence for Life” – from conception to the grave became evident in my
life.
About
this time I was privileged to have the friendship of two beautiful girls – Beth
from our street in Belfast and Rachel at Library School in Aberystwyth Wales.
They were both evangelical Protestants and were people of character and
integrity. They were intrigued by my conversion story as a Catholic. I could
speak freely to them on spiritual matters which were normally shunned by
others. Their friendship was a great inspiration to me as Beatrice was for
Dante.
PURITY
For
the Holy Spirit to work effectively there is a need for absolute purity including
purity from auto eroticism. Sublimation is a way of dealing constructively with
unruly temptations and desires but not something to be deliberately sought in
itself as some artist do who cannot work without the experience of the erotic
whether actual or sublimated – a sort of erotic adrenalin. Some need erotic
stimulants as a junkie needs a fix to continue working. The Spirit cannot work
without absolute purity. “No person can live without delight and that is why a
person deprived of spiritual joy goes over to carnal pleasures”. (Aquinas)
THIRSTING FOR GOD
My
love for prayer and meditation grew and I was led to set aside a quiet time for
prayer and Scripture study. My hunger and thirsting for God grew as well. I
wholeheartedly endorsed the Psalmist’s sentiments:
“O God you are my God for you my soul is
thirsting. My body pines for you like a dry weary land without water...your
love is better than life”. (Ps 63) The Psalmist seemed to have an experience of
God’s love – but more on this later.
My
family thought that I was getting too religious and invited me to go on a
holiday trip around Ireland: lots of sightseeing, new acquaintances, wining and
dining left me little time for quiet time or prayer and with an empty feeling.
But then one evening with a grand view of Galway Bay before me, I was listening
to the car radio and Bach’s ethereal Double Violin Concerto came on triggering
off the hunger and thirst mode again: “As the deer yearns for running streams,
so my soul is thirsting for you my God”. (Ps 42)
FRANCISCANS
One
day in Manchester, England, where I was working in the public library service,
I was rummaging in a bookshop and came across a book entitled The Little
Flower of St Francis. I thought that this was St Francis the Jesuit
missionary as I had a desire to become a missionary and bring Jesus to others.
I read this charmingly naive book with its golden dawn radiance about St
Francis (not Xavier) and his early followers.
It
contained a copy of the Peace Prayer of St Francis which included the words “it
is in giving that we receive”. I saw it as a perfect summary and extension of
the sentiments expressed in Isaiah 58:10, a passage that influenced me greatly:
“if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the needy,
then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday”.
I was
fascinated by St Francis and his early followers and wondered if these nature
loving Franciscans were still around today as I had never seen one. Later I was
to see an advert in the English Catholic Universe paper for a Franciscan Easter
weekend at Forest Gate London.
I was
then working on building sites in London as it was well paid and I had debts to
repay before thinking of following my vocation.
After
this very wonderful spiritual weekend I could no longer return to the building
sites with the vulgar cynical language and the pornographic pinups everywhere.
So I got a job with the Clapham Post Office until I entered the Franciscans in
1970. Then I could indulge the call to a deeper prayer life, put on hold by the
brash secular world of the 1960’s “Swinging London”, and its anaemic spiritual
atmosphere.
LIGHT
Of
all the wonderful and totally unexpected changes that happened to my life as a
result of that decision to follow Jesus in 1966, the appearance of inward light
was the most delightful – filled me with light and delight even to this day.
Nicky Gumbel of Alpha quotes someone as saying: “Many people are walking in
darkness, depression, disillusionment and despair, they are looking for
direction. Jesus said: “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will
never walk in darkness but will have the light of life”. (Jn 8:12) Someone said
to me after they had become a Christian, ‘It was as if the light had suddenly
been turned on and I could see things for the first time’”. (Alpha p 25/6)
As I
was dabbling in the occult (I was keenly aware of another entity in myself that
was not me!) and suffered from manic depression, I was really living in
darkness. So my enlightenment was “as if the lights had suddenly been turned on
for the first time”. Then the suicide-prompting entity and eventually the manic
depression disappeared without any medication whatsoever, making me wonder if
there was a connection. Ironically, I was to discover later that I had the
charism of exorcism or deliverance and have used it widely ever since! God’s
sense of humour? I was also enabled to smell the occult (and the New Age) a
mile away! I also believe that when pagans in the early church called baptism
“enlightenment”, they were not just speaking metaphorically.
Since
then I have been fascinated by light as Dante was: Kenneth Clarke wrote of
Dante’s masterpiece The Divine Comedy: “Dante thought of light as a
symbol of spiritual life, and in his great poem, he describes accurately
and economically, light in all its varying effects – the light of dawn, light
on the sea, the light on leaves in spring”. (Civilisation p 87) I have
collected poems on light and love art that captures light in all its varying
hues, especially the French Impressionists.
QUOTES
“We find in the earliest writings on the Holy
Spirit, discussions of ‘Light’ as a title appropriate to the Spirit”. (Come
Creator Spirit p 240)
“The soul enlightened by grace is like the sky
lit up by the rays of the sun” (Come Creator Spirit p 245)
Prayer of St Francis before his
conversion:
Most high and glorious Lord, bring Light to the
darkness of my heart, give me right faith, certain hope and perfect charity.
Lord give me insight and wisdom, so I might always discern your holy and true
will. “Years ago souls were brought to a belief in God by order in the
universe. Today souls are brought to God by disorder within themselves. It is
less the beauty of creation and more the coiling serpents within the human breast
which brings them to seek response in Christ”. (Archbishop Fulton Sheen)
“The demons are our Lord’s bailiffs, meant by Him
to punish misdemeanours”. (St Francis of
Assisi, 2 Celano, 120)
DIVINE OFFICE
With
the Franciscans I discovered one of the Church’s best kept secrets: The Prayer
of the Church, or the Liturgy of the Hours, or The Divine Office. This is a
traditional collection of Psalms, Bible readings, prayers and hymns in three
volumes that cover the whole liturgical year: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter
and Pentecost etc. The earthly year and the eternal one mix and comingle,
sanctifying all time and deifying our humdrum existence as we join in the
perennial praise which is sung in the halls of heaven. The Divine Office is a paean
of praise to the Creator of this beautiful world.
It
was the Jewish practice to rise before the sun and pray when light began to
dawn (Wisdom 16:28) and the morning was regarded “as the time of God’s favour”.
(Ps 5:3) Noon was regarded as “the height of happiness” with the midday sun
dispelling cold and darkness. The new Jewish day began at sunset.
All this is reflected in the Divine Office
where the vigil of a new day begins at sunset and the Office follows the
progress of the sun across the heavens as a sunflower does by keeping its face
always directed towards the sun. The morning sun is greeted as a symbol of “the
sun of justice”. (Mal 3:20) “who visits us like the dawn from on high”.
(Lk 1:78) “whose splendour lights the
morning hour, whose fiery sun at noonday shines. (D.O. Hymn) Yet “day by day the light in due gradation from
hour to hour in all its changes” is guided by God. (D.O. Hymn)
The
light of the beautiful evening star is a call to worship: “and with the evening
star, at hour of sunset our worship bring”. (D.O. Hymn) A Quote from the Prophet Amos reminds us that
it is God “who made the Pleiades and Orion who turns the dusk to dawn and the
day to darkest night”. (Amos 5:8)
Night
prayer is a reminder of Christ “the light of the nations”. (Lk 2:32) With Him
we “will not fear the terror of the night.” (Ps 90) “but long for the Lord more
than watchmen for daybreak”. (Ps 129) for He is “the bright morning star”. (Rev
2:16) Every week the Divine Office on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday reflects
the Paschal Triduum with its allusions to the Last Supper, Good Friday and the
glorious Resurrection when Christ rose again “just as the sun was rising”. (Mk
16:21)
SPIRITUAL LIFE
As
mentioned above going to the Franciscan novitiate was a great opportunity to go
deeper in the spiritual life. The very quiet atmosphere was very daunting at
first after the frenetic activity of “Swinging London”. Unresolved things from
my past life, including forgotten sins, bubbled up to consciousness which was a
bit unnerving. So I went to make a general confession and experienced great
joy.
Reading
the word of God including the ‘hard sayings’ of Jesus was not so joyful. I
realised I was a bit of a Pharisee and Jesus lambasted them. Hard sayings like
“you are neither hot nor cold I will spit you out of my mouth”. (Rev 3:15) Some
days I could not bear to read the Gospels at all! As with looking at TV, so
with looking at Bible commentaries, I felt a slight aversion. Perhaps it was
the Spirit wanting me to read sine glossa
as commentaries often have their own agenda. Later I did use them.
GOD’S LOVE
One
night I had a very vivid dream accompanied by what sounded like ethereal music
and an overwhelming assurance of God’s fatherly love. (An article in the
evangelical Joy magazine a few years ago showed that such dreams are
common enough). After this experience I could confidently say like Job, ‘I know
you by what was said of you, but now I have really known you’ (Job 42:5) and “I
know my Redeemer lives” (Job 19:25) Obviously an experience like this does a
lot for one’s self worth and self esteem! Self esteem does not come from
psyching oneself up in front of the mirror and saying ‘I must have self
esteem’ but from the assurance of God’s love for each one of us as unique beings
created, not by a remote distant God, but one who passionately cares for each
one of his creatures.
QUOTE
“We should not think that we know ‘the love of
God that is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit’ if it has not, at least
once, led us to forgive an offence, love an enemy, be reconciled with a brother
or sister”. (Come Creator Spirit p 147)
EXPERIENCING THE TRINITY
The
words ‘Abba Father’ popped into my mind frequently after that, and I felt in
some mysterious way that I was experiencing the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy
Spirit in a fresh new way.
Fr
Cantalamessa wrote: “Every time someone has a genuine strong experience of the
Spirit, the most vivid memory of the moment that the person retains is of an
intense perception of the Father’s love. Witnessing to this someone said: ‘All
my lifelong I had felt unloved. The next day that feeling vanished entirely. I
felt myself immersed in a new experience of the love of God, and from that day
it has never left me”. (Come Creator Spirit p 45)
Fr Cantalamessa’s
friend and colleague in the Alpha programme Nicky Gumbel concurs: “When the
Holy Spirit fills us, we experience the Fatherhood of God, the love Christ and
the power of the Spirit....To be filled with the Spirit is to experience God as
Trinity”. (Is the Trinity Unbiblical Unbelievable and Irrelevant? p 23)
I
have come to realise that it’s untrue to say that an absent or negligent or
abusive father is how a child will always picture God. By conversion and
through the Spirit we can be affirmed by the Father from whom all fatherhood
takes its name.
Fr
Cantalamessa asks “How did the early Christian community come to believe in the
Trinity?.... Belief in the Trinity was born out of experience” and he quotes St
Irenaeus: “The Holy Spirit gets us ready to receive the Son of God and the Son
then takes us to the Father”. (Come creator Spirit p 340 p 343)
MEDITATION AND ALTERED STATES OF
CONSCIOUSNESS
In
the novitiate my need for prayer and meditation increased dramatically. I could
meditate for hours in the dark Chapel before a burning red Blessed Sacrament lamp
and discovered altered states of consciousness! It seems that if awareness is
restricted to one unchanging source of stimulation (the red lamp) a
‘turning-off’ of consciousness of the external world follows and this can lead
to altered states of consciousness. “In this bare vacancy the rest is pleasant
and great”. (Ruysbroeck) These were not mystical experiences, as so many
mistakenly think today, but self induced. I was to meet these A.S.C’s again
later doing Transcendental Meditation and Centring Prayer with fancy titles
like ‘cosmic consciousness’.
THREE STATES OF THE CONVERTED
According
to Pope Gregory the Great these are: in the beginning: the charms of sweetness;
in the middle: the contests of temptation; and in the end the fullness of
perfection. In my early formation years in the Franciscans I noticed that some
of the many consolations and blessings mentioned above (the “charms of sweetness”)
began to wear off. I only wish I had known then of the Spiritual Exercises of
St Ignatius Loyola as they would have been valuable at the time when the Spirit
was flowing. Fr Jock Dalrymple wrote of his conversion experience: “It is not
exaggerating to say that my life was filled with an inward ardour from waking
in the morning to going to bed at night, an ardour which lasted at least a
year... I am most grateful for the subsequent modifications of that first
joy which have made me dip beneath mere ‘experience’ to reality itself”
Raniero
Cantalamessa says “at the beginning of a spiritual journey grace is experienced
in gifts and great consolations so that a person may become more detached from
the world and make a decision for God. But afterwards, once a person is
detached from the world, the Spirit urges that individual to go the ‘narrow
way’ of the Gospel, the way of mortification obedience and humility”. (Sober
Intoxication of the Spirit Vol1 p 71)
THE CONTESTS OF TEMPTATION
According
to Pope Gregory the second state of the converted is the “contest of temptation”.
One can have the most wonderful Spiritual experiences (like those above) and
still fall away as a warning note in Hebrews 6 makes clear:
“As for those people who were once brought into
the light, and tasted the gift from heaven, and received a share of the Holy
Spirit, and appreciated the good message of God and the power of the world to
come, and yet in spite of this have fallen away – it is impossible for them to
be renewed a second time”. (Heb 6: 3-6) So one must be prepared for Spiritual
warfare so that one can break free from the gravitational forces of the world,
the flesh and the devil. (Lk 8: 1-15)
TROUBLE
Many
signs of true conversion can be imitated or feigned. But one sign is not nor
even tried to imitate for it is literally TROUBLE! Bob Mumford, the American writer said the ‘initial evidence of
Baptism in the Spirit is trouble’! see Mathew 10, and Jesus’ sayings
about ‘counting the cost’ (Luke 14:25f)
When
we are genuinely converted or baptised in the Spirit as Jesus was at the
Jordan, we experience the testing by Satan that Jesus experienced (though, not
to the same degree obviously) when He was driven out into the desert to be
tempted by the Evil One. We, like Him, have to strive to be victorious and win
the battle.
Jesus
promised His disciples: ‘if they persecuted me, they will persecute you’. (Jn
15:20)
If
“all the angels in Heaven rejoice when a soul is saved” (Lk 15:10), then all
the fallen angels in Hell do the opposite – they cringe! Because a really
sincere converted Christian is a threat to Satan’s Kingdom. But as for
wishy-washy, tepid, lukewarm, weak kneed, spineless Christians, Satan leaves
them alone – they already belong to him. The Curé ďArs, St John Vianney
once said: “Satan only tempts those souls that wish to abandon sin (to
convert)..... the others belong to him: he has no need to tempt them”. (Alpha
Questions. p 150) So a bit of trouble in your life may mean you are standing on
the Devil’s tail and he does not like it!
PRUNING AND TESTING
With
conversion comes the period of pruning (Jn 15:2; Heb 12:12) and testing
(Mk 14:38) when the world, the flesh and the devil (Mk 4:13f) will sift us like
wheat to test the purity of our intentions and sincerity of our Conversion. See
Mark 4:17 re ‘some trial coming’.
Jesus
requested His disciples to pray the Lord’s Prayer frequently with the
last verse ‘Do not put us to the test but save us from the evil one’. (Mt 6:13
Jerusalem Bible Version)
Testing
is defined as putting someone in a situation which involves the possibility of
failure. We pray fervently that we may have the faith to come through all
trials that lie ahead. ‘We must enter the Kingdom through many tribulations’.
(Acts 14:22) Christianity is definitely not for cowards. (Lk 12:8; Rev 21:8)
But
in all our trials and tribulations we paradoxically experience that ‘peace that
surpasses all understanding’ (Jn 14:27) the peace that the angels announced to
all people of goodwill at Shepherd’s Field in Bethlehem. (Lk 2:14) Jesus said
‘in Me you will have peace, but in the world trouble’. (Jn 16:33)
However
we need to keep things in perspective because God’s Word promises us that WHEN
TRIALS COME WE WILL NOT BE TESTED
BEYOND OUR ABILITY TO ENDURE (1 Cor 10:13) St James actually says that we
should consider it pure joy when trials come and ‘blessed’ (or
happy) is the man who stands firm when trials come! (Jas 1:2, 12) One good
thing about being always in hot water, Chesterton said, is that it keeps you
clean! Not the trial but the overcoming is regarded as ‘blessed’.
God is not interested in our comfort but in our character – our strength of
character. This was true always even in Old Testament times: “My son, if you aspire
to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for trials’....since gold is tested in the
fire and chosen men in the furnace of humiliation”. (Sirach 2:15) I think this
is the attraction of that most Christian of English novelists Jane Austen: her
characters display strength of character.
In 1
Kings 2:2 we read ‘Be strong and show yourself a man’ (and not a mouse!).
This is repeated in Dan 10:19 and Macc 2:64. Psalm 11 says
that God “tests the just and the wicked”. In the Book of Judith we read: “Remember that our fathers were put
to the test to prove their Love of God. Remember how our father Abraham was
tested and became the friend of God after many trials and tribulations. The
same was true of Isaac, Jacob Moses and all those who met with God’s favour.
They remained steadfast in the face of tribulations of every kind” (Jud 8:21f)
The Jerusalem
Bible footnote to this passage says: “The
lesson of patriarchal history (which the author of Job had not detected); the
suffering of the good person is not punishment but a trial”. (p 631)
The
New Testament also makes this clear in another way in Jesus’ True Vine image in
John Chapter 15:..“every branch that does not bear fruit (the Father)
prunes to make it bear more”. And the Letter to the Hebrews says that
this pruning “in those on whom it has been used later bears fruit in peace and
goodness”. (Heb 12:11)
St
Augustine once remarked that “whenever we suffer some distress or tribulations,
there we find warning and correction for ourselves”. (D.O. III, p 441) and:
“Our pilgrimage here on earth cannot be without trial for it is through trial
that we make progress and it is only by being tempted that we come to know ourselves.
We cannot win our Crown unless we overcome, and we cannot overcome unless we
enter the contest and there is no contest unless we have an enemy (i.e. Satan)
and the trial he brings”. (D.O. II, p 94)
ADVERSITY
Someone
once said that “adversity is only sand on your track to prevent you from
skidding” and St Bonaventure believed that “adversity” is one of the best means
of sharpening a person’s spiritual perception”. The Psalmist would agree as he
admitted that “it was good for me to be afflicted for it taught me your Word”.
(Ps 119:67)
The
heightening of spiritual perception is exemplified in William Shakespeare’s
great play ‘As you like it’ where it talks of the ‘uses of adversity’.
The hero, a Duke, has been ousted from his palace to the Forest of Arden. Even
though it is winter and cold in the forest he gives a rousing speech to his
followers claiming that ‘sweet are the uses of adversity’ for it has opened up
for him the “book of nature’. In the magnificent forest he finds “tongues in
the trees, books in the running streams, sermons in the stones and good in
everything” (Acts 2, Sc 1) He says he would not change it for anything.
“In everything
God works for good with those who love Him”. St Paul rightly says in Romans
8:28
QUOTE
With
our witness to the truth, Christians must cause discomfort in our ‘comfortable
structures’, even to the point of ending up IN TROUBLE....following the
example of St Paul , who fought one battle after another (Acts 22:30; 23:6-11)
(Pope Francis 16/05/2013)
BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT AND
CONVERSION
Since
my conversion in 1968 I have come across many similar stories of the
characteristics of conversion mentioned above. But what is the connection with
the Baptism in the Spirit so much touted today? The evangelical Billy Graham in
his excellent book The Holy Spirit mentions in Chapter 5 that as a young
man he attended a revival meeting given by a Pentecostal preacher. The preacher
asked Graham if he was baptized in the Holy Spirit and when this happened to
him. Graham replied in the affirmative and said that he had received the
baptism in the Holy Spirit “the moment I received Jesus Christ as my Saviour”.
The Pentecostal preacher looked at Graham with a puzzled expression and said
“That can’t be”. (p 66) Evangelical and Pentecostal pneumatology obviously
differ.
Billy
Graham goes on to say that he is convinced that “there is only one baptism with
the Holy Spirit in the life of every believer, and that takes place at the
moment of conversion. (p 67) Other evangelical writers concur:
“I myself prefer to think of baptism in the
Holy Spirit as occurring at conversion”. (C. Peter Wagner, New Covenant, Dec
1983 p 20)
“The Holy Spirit enters our life at conversion”.
(Michael Green, Getting Going Leaders’ Notes No.5)
The
Catholic Church recognises the validity of most Evangelical baptisms, but She
believes that the Spirit enters our life at baptism. Baptism in the Holy Spirit
was a synonym for Christian initiation in the early church fathers like Justin
Martyr, Origen, Didymus and Cyril of Jerusalem.
So
let us look at traditional Catholic Church teaching on this. I quote here at
some length from the Pope’s Preacher at the Vatican, Fr Raniero Cantalamessa
ofm Cap:
BAPTISM: AN “UNRELEASED”
SACRAMENT
“Now
let’s move on to the theme of the baptism of the Spirit. This outpouring is not
a sacrament, but its name implies a connection to a sacrament and even more
than one: the sacraments of Christian initiation. The outpouring actualises or,
in other words, renews Christian initiation. The fundamental connection,
however, is with the sacrament of baptism.
The
term “baptism in the Spirit” indicates that there is something here that is
basic to baptism. We say that the outpouring of the Spirit actualises and
revives our baptism. To understand how a sacrament received so many years ago
and usually administered in infancy can suddenly come alive and be revived and
release such energy as we see on the occasions of outpouring, we must recall
some aspects of sacramental theology.
Catholic
theology can help us understand how a sacrament can be valid and legal but
“unreleased”. A sacrament is called “unreleased” if its fruit remains bound, or
unused, because of the absence of certain conditions that further its efficacy.
In the case of baptism, what is it that causes the fruit of this sacrament to
be held back?
SACRAMENTS: EFFICACY
“Here
we need to recall the classical doctrine about sacraments. Sacraments are not
magic rites that act mechanically, without people’s knowledge or collaboration.
Their efficacy is the result of a synergy, or collaboration, between divine
omnipotence (that is, the grace of Christ and of the Holy Spirit) and free
will. As Saint Augustine said, “He who created you without your consent will
not save you without your consent.”!
To
put it more precisely, the fruit of the sacraments depends wholly on divine
grace; however, this divine grace does not act without the “yes”-the consent
and affirmation-of the person. This consent is more of a conditio sine qua non than a cause in its own right. God acts like
the bridegroom, who does not impose his love by force but awaits the free
consent of his bride.
BAPTISM CORNUCOPIA
“Baptism
is truly a rich collection of gifts that we received at the moment of birth in
God. But it is a collection that is still sealed up. We are rich because we
possess these gifts (and therefore we can accomplish all the actions necessary
for Christian life), but we do not know what we possess. Paraphrasing a verse
from John, we can say that we have been sons of God until now, but what we
shall become has yet to be revealed. (see 1 John 3:2) This is why we can say
that, for the majority of Christians, baptism is a sacrament that is still
unreleased.
The
individual’s part, faith, does not have the same importance and independence as
God’s action because God plays a part even in someone’s act of faith: Even
faith works by the grace that stirred it up. Nevertheless, the act of faith
includes, as an essential element, the response-the individual’s “I
believe!”-and in that sense we call it opus
operantis, the work of the person being baptized.
BAPTISM IN TH EARLY CHURCH
“Now
we can understand why baptism was such a powerful and grace-filled event in the
early days of the Church and why there was not normally any need for a new
outpouring of the Spirit like the one we are experiencing today. Baptism was
administered to adults who were converting from paganism and who, after
suitable instruction, were in a position to make an act of faith, an
existential, free and mature choice about their lives.
They
came to baptism by way of a true and genuine conversion. For them baptism was
really a font of personal renewal in addition to a rebirth in the Holy Spirit
(see Titus 3:5). Saint Basil, responding to someone who had asked him to write
a treatise on baptism, said that it could not be explained without first
explaining what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, because the Lord commands,
Go
therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything
I have commanded you. (Matthew 28:19-20)
In
order for baptism to operate in all its power, anyone who desires it must also
be a disciple or have serious intention of becoming one. The favourable circumstance that allowed baptism to operate in
such power at the beginning of the Church was this: The action of God and the
action of man came together simultaneously, with perfect synchronism. It
happened when the two poles, one positive and one negative, touched, making
light burst forth.
BAPTISM TODAY
“Today
this synchronism is not operative. As the Church adopted infant baptism, little
by little the sacrament began to lack the act of faith that was free and
personal. The faith was supplied, or uttered, by an intermediate party (parents
and godparents) on behalf the child. In the past, when the environment around
the baby was Christian and full of faith, the child’s faith could develop, even
if it was slowly. But today our situation has become even worse than in the
Middle Ages.
The
environments in which many children now grow up do not help faith to blossom.
The same must often be said of the family, and more so of our society and
culture. This does not mean that in our situation today normal Christian life
cannot exist or that there is no holiness or no charisms that accompany
holiness. Rather, it means that instead of being the norm, it has become more
and more of an exception.
In
today’s situation, rarely or never, do baptized people reach the point of
proclaiming “in the Holy Spirit” that “Jesus is Lord?” And because they have
not reached that point, everything in their Christian lives remains unfocused
and immature. Miracles no longer happen. What happened with the people of
Nazareth is being repeated: Jesus was not able to do many miracles there
because of their unbelief (see Matthew 13:58).
THE MEANING OF THE OUTPOURING OF
THE SPIRIT
“The
outpouring of the Spirit, then, is a response by God to the dysfunction in
which Christian life now finds itself. But we can say that God is concerned,
even more than the Church is, about this dysfunction. He has raised up
movements here and there in the Church that are proceeding in the direction of
renewing Christian initiation among adults. The renewal in the Spirit (Catholic
charismatic renewal) is one of those movements, and its principal grace, without
doubt, is tied to the outpouring of the Spirit and what precedes it. Its
efficacy at reviving baptism consists in this: Finally a person is doing his or
her part, making a decision of faith that is prepared through repentance. This
allows the work of God to “be released” in all its power.
It is
as though God’s outstretched hand has finally grasped the hand of the
individual, and through that hand clasp, He transmits all his creative power,
which is the Holy Spirit. To use an image from physics, the plug has been
inserted into the outlet, and the light has been turned on. The gift of God is
finally unbound, and the Spirit permeates Christian life as a perfume.
CONFIRMATION
“We
can understand something else about this outpouring if we also see its connection
with confirmation, at least in the current practice of separating it from the
sacrament of baptism and administering it later. In addition to being a renewal
of the grace of baptism, the outpouring is also a confirmation of baptism itself, as a conscious “yes” to it, its
fruit and its commitments. As such it parallels (at least in the subjective
aspect) the effects of confirmation on the objective, sacramental level.
It is
not difficult then, to find the presence of a spontaneous outpouring in the lives
of the saints, especially on the occasion of their conversion. For example, we
can read about Saint Francis at his conversion:
‘After
the feast they left the house and started off singing through the streets.
Francis’ companions were leading the way; and he, holding his wand of office,
followed them at a little distance. Instead of singing, he was listening very
attentively. All of a sudden the Lord touched his heart, filling it with such
surpassing sweetness that he could neither speak nor move. He could only feel
and hear this overwhelming sweetness which detached him so completely from all
other physical sensations that, as he said later, had been cut to pieces on the
spot he could not have moved.
When
his companions looked around, they saw in the distance and turned back. To
their amazement they saw that he was transformed into another man, and they
asked him, “What were you thinking of? Why didn’t you follow us? Were you
thinking of getting married?”
Francis
answered in a clear voice: “You are right: I was thinking of wooing the
noblest, richest, and most beautiful bride ever seen.” His friends laughed at
him saying he was a fool and did not know what he was saying; in reality he had
spoken by divine inspiration.’ (Legend of the three companions, ch 3)
There
is a wonderful text from the apostle Paul that speaks specifically of the
renewing of the gift of God. Let’s hear it as an invitation addressed to each
of us: “I remind you to rekindle the gift of God that is within you through the
laying on of my hands; for God did not give us a spirit of cowardice, but
rather a spirit of power and of love and of self-discipline” (2 Timothy 1:6-7)
(Sober Intoxication I, p 41f)
Confirmation
is understood as a sacrament that develops, confirms and fulfils the work of
baptism. The outpouring is a subjective and spontaneous-not
sacramental-confirmation in which the Spirit acts not from the power of the sacramental
institution but through the power of His free initiative and openness of the
person.
The
meaning of confirmation sheds light on the special sense of greater involvement
in the apostolic and missionary dimension of the Church that usually characterizes
someone who has received the outpouring of the Spirit. That person feels
impelled to help build up the Church, to serve the Church in various
ministries, clerical or lay, and to give testimony to Christ. All of these
things recall Pentecost and actualize the sacrament of confirmation.
JESUS, “THE ONE WHO BAPTIZES IN
THE HOLY SPIRIT”
“The
outpouring of the Holy Spirit is not the only occasion in the Church for this
renewal of the sacraments of initiation and, in particular, of the coming of
the Holy Spirit at baptism. Other occasions include the renewal of baptismal
vows during Easter vigils; spiritual exercises; the profession of vows, called
“a second baptism”; and, on the sacramental level, confirmation.
CANTALAMESSA ON CONVERSION
Cantalamessa
says that conversion consists in handing oneself over totally and definitively
to the grace of God, in surrendering the reins of one’s life. It consists in
saying with one’s whole heart, ‘I want God and nothing else!’ In practical
terms, it is a surrender of one’s liberty to God, a matter of saying, ‘I will
say yes to whatever you want’. This is the most stubborn obstacle, for the old
man (Eph 4:22) cries out with all his strength, ‘everything but not my freedom’
(SI II p 6)
This
was also my experience as I bought into the lies of Satan that God was the
eternal spoilsport! I believed in God but I did not want to make a commitment
or submit to Him “lest loving Him I must have nought besides” (The Hound of
Heaven by Francis Thompson). I wanted my autonomy more than I wanted God. In
all of us there lies a spirit of rebellion preventing us from humility before
God, holding us back from bending the knee before the mystery of God and the
Church He established.
PERSONAL FAITH JOURNEY
In my
own faith journey, I saw all that has happened to me since 1966 in terms of
conversion, as I had no special devotion that I can remember to the Holy
Spirit. But my conversion I could rightly call baptism in the Spirit or release
of the Spirit. Cantalamessa says that “in order for baptism to operate in all
its power, anyone who desires it must also be a disciple or have a serious
intention of becoming one”. I can assent to this as I resolutely decided in
1966 to become a disciple of Jesus come what may.
Cantalamessa also writes of “making a decision
of faith that is prepared through repentance. This allows the work of God to
‘be released’ in all its power”. I say ‘Amen’ to this also as well as his
statement that “someone who has received the outpouring of the Spirit... that
person feels impelled to help build up the Church, to serve the Church in
various ministries, clerical or lay, and to give testimony to Christ”. This is
exactly what happened to me as can be seen at the beginning of this essay.
NEW PENTECOST
In
1987 whilst living in the Ladysmith area I was asked to write a series of
articles on the Life in the Spirit seminars which I did but not seminar 5, the
one on the baptism in the Holy Spirit as I did not relate to that at all, so
the editor of New Pentecost, Gerald Armstrong got someone else. But when I look
at the characteristics of my conversion above I see they are the work of the
Holy Spirit e.g. conviction by the Spirit, hope and Rayma. Love, joy, peace and
self control (all fruits of the Holy Spirit. Gal 5), praise of God, the Spirit
of light, prayer by the Spirit (Rom 8:26), God’s love poured in by the Spirit
etc.
RISEN CHRIST AND HOLY SPIRIT
At
the time, I saw all this as the work of Jesus Christ or the Risen Christ. But
we need to remember that often St Paul equates the activity of the Spirit and
the Risen Christ (cf Rom 8:2, 9:11). In St Paul’s letter to the Colossians
there is only one mention of the Holy Spirit (1:8) and this is generic and
vague. Rather the risen Christ himself performs the functions attributed to the
Holy Spirit in the other epistles. But this should not surprise us – God is
after all a Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
SUSAN BLUM – EVANGELIST
What
the American Catholic Evangelist Susan Blum said of conversion could equally be
said of baptism in the Holy Spirit:
“....you could learn how much the Father loves
you; you could learn the joy of knowing Christ personally and intimately; you
could feel the power of the Holy Spirit working actively in your life; you
could learn to love again; you could be healed; you could experience the
fullness and abundance of new life; you
could forgive and be forgiven; you could learn not to be afraid of anything;
your faith and hope could be strengthened and renewed and your life could be
changed forever!”
JESUS AT THE CENTRE
By
conversion we allow Jesus Christ to take the centre of our life. When we do
this we can come to know Him personally. We also find that all the interests in
our lives, all those confusing and disparate things that can confuse us as they
compete and vie for our attention become reconciled, and fall into their
rightful place. Like an un-primed kaleidoscope – (telescope like instrument)
that when viewed first is just a confusion of distorted glass particles. But
when the kaleidoscope is properly focussed all these disparate particles fall
into a beautiful orderly pattern. The same can be true of our lives. “Seek
first the Kingdom of God and its righteousness and everything else will
follow”. For the converted Christian there is a wonderful promise from God’s
Word that can be claimed even in time of trial and difficulty – ‘in everything
God works for good with those who love him and are called according to His
purpose’. (Rom 8:28) We can share in St Paul’s victorious hymn to God’s love.
(see Romans 8:31-39)
NO ONE LIKE JESUS
“The
question in not whether Jesus is an adequate symbol of God; the question is
rather whether any God that does not correspond to Jesus’ symbols is an
adequate God”. (Shubert Ogden)
I’d
like to end where I began with Jesus, phrasing St Polycarp: Many years I have
served Him and never did He fail me! There is no one like Jesus! Other
religious founders gave their followers a mandate to, for example, hate,
kidnap, curse (cf Atharta Veda), self immolate (e.g. Shinto kamikazes, Buddhist
petrol dousers, Muslim suicide bombers) and destroy places of worship (Sunnis
and Shiites), liquidate others and so enter nirvana or paradise with hands
covered in blood.
Of
course Christians have done many of these things but they got no endorsement
ever from Jesus to do so. Yes, Christians have killed too but as Gandhi
observed it was against everything that Christ had preached and stood for. The
Arabs have a saying: “God is beautiful and loves beauty”.
Hatred
of enemies, so common in many world religions can’t be God’s will. A face
contorted in hatred is not a beautiful sight to behold. Yet some religions
propagate hatred and carry on unrelenting violent conversion against
minorities.
But I
have seen lovers of Jesus who have gone to their deaths at peace with their enemies
and with faces radiant with love and forgiveness like that very first Martyr St
Stephen whose face looked like an angel’s to his enemies. (Acts 6:15)
Jesus
gives a peace that surpasses all understanding and great joy when we renounce
sin as well as unrivalled comfort in the Eucharistic presence, and when this is
not available, He sends us another Comforter, the Spirit of Jesus to console us
in tribulation.
By
His grace every element in Creation points beyond itself to Jesus if we have
eyes to see so that surrounded by creation we are constantly reminded of the
Creator, God. So for St Francis a lamb reminded him of the Lamb of God, a worm
reminded him of the Psalms – “I am a worm and no man”. (Ps 22:6) In his
Canticle of Brother Sun, St Francis is reminded of God by creatures like the
sun, moon, and stars, wind, clouds, earth, fire and water, fruits flowers and
grass etc.
CATHOLICS: SLEEPING GIANT OF
EVANGELISATION
When
we receive the wonderful new life in Christ, we have a duty and privilege to
bring Jesus to others. “How can I repay the Lord for His goodness to me?” the
Psalmist asks. (Ps 116:12) The answer is to bring others to Christ.
Catholics
have been called the “sleeping giant of evangelisation”. To make matters worse
a spurious saying of St Francis which goes: preach the Gospel and if necessary
use words, is very popular at the moment even eliciting an article in the South
African Protestant “Joy” magazine (August 2001). This saying I fear is confirming Catholics
in their reluctance to speak of Jesus at all. But witness and
proclamation are essential, not one or the other.
Vatican
II stressed that “the work of God accomplished in Christ, should be received by
people consciously, freely and gratefully and shown forth in their whole
lives”. (P.O. 2) We can help people in receiving this by a simple, effective
proclamation of the Gospel as outlined in the 4 basic truths in the Life in the
Spirit Seminars: Creation, Fall, Incarnation and Redemption, endorsed by St
Francis in his Rule of 1221, Chapter 23, no 1-3, and by Eucharistic Prayer IV
(the paragraph after the Sanctus, no 117)
Cantalamessa
says that one reason why “many Catholics abandoned the Catholic Church for other
Christian realities is that they are attracted by a simple and effective
proclamation that puts them in direct contact with Christ and allows them to
experience the power of His Spirit..... We must proclaim the basic message neat
and tidy at least once, not only to catechumens but to all”, he said. (Southern
Cross 14/12/2005)
Pope
John Paul II said that Catechesis “must help people to ‘meet’ Jesus Christ, to
converse with Him and to immerse themselves in Him. Without the vibrancy of
this encounter Christianity becomes a soulless religious traditionalism which
easily yields to the attacks of secularism or the enticement of alternate
religious offerings”. (Address to Lithuanian Bishops, 29/09/1099)
FROM GANGLAND TO PROMISED LAND
One
unlikely person helping people meet Jesus is the English Catholic evangelist
John Pridmore who was once a London gangster. In his bestselling autobiography
he wrote:
“LOOKING
BACK ACROSS MY LIFE – a journey, you might say, from gangland to promised land
– I’ve come to understand that we just need to ask Jesus to reveal Himself in
our hearts and let us know that he’s real and that He loves us. I did, and He
replied. To anyone who is sceptical about this, I would simply say, just do it.
If someone had said this to me when I was involved in all that criminal
activity, I would probably have laughed and told them that they were living in
cloud-cuckoo land. Now I know that Jesus is real, not through reading books or
studying theology, but from personal experience. You don’t have to go into a
church to ask Jesus to reveal Himself. He will come to you in your flat, in the
street, or in the back of a police van!
If
you don’t know God, then I believe you have to put him to the test. What else
can you do? If you do this, God will answer you, in a way only you will know
and maybe when you’re least expecting it. On the night when I sat in my flat in
Leyton and was suddenly hit by all the bad things I’d done in my life, aware
that I’d nearly killed a man, when I told God I’d only ever taken and now I
wanted to give, He couldn’t refuse to show His love for me. God is pure love,
and He doesn’t wait until we’re perfect to love us. He just waits until we ask
Him”. (From Gangland to Promised Land, D.L.T. 2002 p 174)
I
praise God for the excitement, adventure and peace that comes from being “in
Christ”, and I close with part of an article from New Pentecost on life
in Christ (October 1987). St Paul uses the phrase 164 times in his letters.
“First
of all, it is important to note that the phrase indicates the deepest possible
fellowship of the Christian with the living Spiritual Christ. Once “in Christ”
we have a changed consciousness of life. We are new creatures “the old has
passed away, behold the new has come”. (2 Cor 5:17) Previously we had lived “in
sin” (Rom 6:1); “in the flesh” (Rom 8:9); “in Adam” (1 Cor 15:22); “in the law”
(Gal 5:4) and “in the world” (Eph 2:12). Thus life was lived outside of Christ.
However, once in Christ we are free from the old life of selfishness and sin,
and we have a new sense of identification with God and His work. We are joined
to the living Lord, triumphant and risen.
Now He transforms the life of the believer, and we receive from Him
blessing, righteousness and glory as our inheritance. Although we are still
living and working on this earth, our real life is the life of Christ in us,
which will be revealed in the final consummation. In the words of the famous
Albert Schweitzer; “Whilst the outward appearance is still of the transient world,
the reality is that of the eternal world”. Just as Christ rose actually, so the believer dies and
rises with Him mystically. Thus for
the believer to be in Christ is to have the resurrection power of new life, not only at the Parousia, the final
coming of the Lord, but also here and
now. It is by virtue of our baptism that we have been incorporated into
Christ: “We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, so that as
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk
in the newness of life. For if we have been united with Him in a resurrection
like His”. (Rom 6:4-5) The importance of baptism cannot be overestimated: this
is the means by which we are incorporated into the body of Christ. Henceforth
we are no longer isolated individuals, but we form a close-knit unity with
fellow believers. Christ is, as it were, the “inclusive personality” who draws
us all into union with each other.
THE ETHICAL IMPLICATIONS
Of
Prime importance is the fact that the “in Christ” formula implies the ethical
imperative. To be under the domain of Christ means that we enter into an
ethical-religious relationship with Him. Once “in Christ” we have daily
to renew our decision to follow Him as Lord and Saviour and respond to the
demands of the Christian life. We must therefore give proof of our discipleship
by the concrete manner in which we live our lives. (Gal 5:25; Rom 8:12) We are
called to offer ourselves to God to be used by Him.
Paul
uses the related expressions “in the
Lord” and “in the Spirit” to
bring this aspect of the Christian life more fully into focus. To live “in the
Lord” means to submit to His rule, to be under His dominion, to live according
to His demands. (Phil 4:4-10); Eph 5:8 Likewise Paul urges us to walk
“in the Spirit” (Gal 5:6); live “in the Spirit” (Gal 5:25); speak
“in the Spirit”. (1 Cor 14:2) Our whole lives therefore should be spent in
worship of God in the Spirit. We are to live no longer in the sphere of flesh,
but in the sphere of the Spirit. WE are now characterised by a new set of
standards and relationships; our orientation is henceforth God-wards; we have
left behind the former negative passions of this world, in the characteristics
of which are anger, wrath, malice, and so on. (Col 3:8)
CONCLUSION
From
the foregoing, it is clear that for Paul the “in Christ” formula expressed a
profound union with Christ. It is an expression of such deep significance that
it encompasses the whole range of the Christian life. For Paul, to live is
Christ. “In Christ” all believers have a new vitality, a new consciousness of
life, the chief characteristic of which is freedom from the old life of law and
sin, and a new sense of belonging to an utterly different locale of existence
(see Col 3:3). The believer is now a member of a new race of redeemed men. He
or she is characterised by the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22-23), faith (Eph
1:12), wisdom and strength (1 Cor 4:10), boldness (Phil 2:8) and truthfulness. (Rom9:1)
It is
“in Christ” that salvation and reconciliation are accomplished, the gift of
sponsorship is granted, the gift of the Spirit is given, the community formed
and sustained for service, and above all it is “in Christ” that total praise
can be offered to the Father”. (New Pentecost, October 1987)
QUOTE
“For
all practical purposes, to be or to live ‘in the Spirit’ is the same as
to live ‘in Christ’. (Come Creator Spirit p 107)
