Sine Glossa: Desire for God

DESIRE FOR GOD

St. Augustine once prayed: “Lord you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you” (Confessions). In a sense he is echoing what we read in Sacred Scripture: “God has set eternity in man’s heart” (Ecc. 3:11). God seems to have placed a spiritual longing, and even thirst, for our eternal home in the human psyche.

In the English speaking world, the best known exponent of this sense of spiritual longing was the Christian writer and critic, C.S. Lewis. In his autobiography entitled Surprised By Joy, Lewis explored his own experiences with what he called ‘the stab, the pain, the inconsolable longing’. He wrote in his essay The Weight of Glory about “this desire for our own far-off country... the secret we cannot hide and cannot tell. We cannot tell it because it is a desire for something that has never actually appeared in our experience... our commonest expedient is to call it ‘Beauty’ and behave as if it had settled the matter”. (1)

‘Now we sigh so great is our desire that our home which comes down from heaven would be put on over us – we groan with a feeling of apprehension’ (2 Cor. 5:2)⁸

GIUSSANI AND RATZINGER

Luigi Giussani, the great 20^th century priest, educator and writer, insisted, Charles Klamut says, throughout his life on our need for beauty, for beautiful real things which have the power to awaken our hearts. At Giussani’s funeral during the homily, Cardinal Ratzinger (the future Pope Benedict XVI) said that Giussani was wounded by the desire for beauty’. He noted how much Giussani loved music (especially J.S. Bach), and said that in looking for Beauty itself, he was looking for Christ – the source of all beauty. The Pope cited J.S. Bach amongst others as ‘true paths to God, the Supreme Beauty’. (2)

Saint Augustine observed in his commentary on the 84^th Psalm: “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 hearts by faith and His vision, when it comes may find our hearts purified”.

Ratzinger spoke of the wound of beauty which inspires and provokes man with nostalgia for his transcendent destiny. Both Ratzinger and Pope John Paul II quote the famous line from Dostoevsky’s ‘The Idiot’ which says ‘Beauty will save the world’.

“With Dostoevsky, they mean not some shallow aestheticism, but rather a beauty which is capable of truly ‘wounding’ exhausted hearts by breaking through the thick clouds which darken so much of contemporary society, awakening us to our original, infinite, transcendent dignity and destiny.” (3)

Wisely does St. Paul exhort us: “Fill your minds with everything that is true, everything this is noble, everything that is good and pure, and everything we love and honour, and everything that can be thought virtuous or worthy of praise this do, then the God of Peace will be with you”. (Philippians 4:8-9)

MORAL BEAUTY:

The above writers would agree with Dietrich von Hildebrand s.f.o. on the primacy of moral beauty over aesthetic beauty. “What is realized and what shines forth in an act of real forgiveness, in a noble and generous renunciation in a burning and selfless love, is more significant and more noble, more important and more eternal than all cultural values”. (4) So would Jane Austen (admired by both Dietrich and Alice von Hildebrand) who attests to moral values ranking higher than cultural ones. This is particularly evident in Austen’s favourite novel: Mansefield Park where the very attractive Fanny Price is very appealing in her humility, purity and mercy, and immovable when others try to divert her from the right path. She is unfavourably contrasted with Mary Crawford, an aesthetic who is a rich, beautiful, highly cultured lady, an accomplished musician, but alas a moral imbecile.

Cardinal Ratzinger’s terminology above is reminiscent of two of the greatest Catholic spiritual writers, Sts. John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila, who speak frequently of the ‘wounds of love’ (cf. Song of Songs 5:8) which God inflicts on the soul to increase the soul’s desire for Him. “The more the soul knows of God, the more the desire and anxiety to see Him increase”. (6) Compare the comparable language of C.S. Lewis above re ‘the stab, the pain, the inconsolable longing’.

Sts. Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross exemplify what C.S. Lewis wrote of the saints: “If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were those who thought most of the next”.

Even a cursory review of ecclesiastical history makes evident that the greatest doers through the centuries have been the saints. The momentous apostolic accomplishments of Augustine, Gregory the Great, Thomas, Bonaventure, Catherine of Siena, Francis Xavier, Teresa, John and Philip Neri (to mention only a few) have had repercussions down to the present day. While sincere, but lesser, men and women make moderate headway in their apostolic endeavours, it is the saintly who ignite fires. A young woman in her late teens told me of a nun who impressed her mightily: “She’s a woman almost visibly on fire with love; talking to her is like holding the straw of my soul close to a fire”. This is the fire the Lord Himself came to cast upon the earth. It is the fire flaming forth from the furnace of mystical communion. (7)

CHRISTIAN SPIRITUALITY NOT FUGA MUNDI:

Christian spirituality is not a fuga mundi, otherworldly pursuit. Not a single Catholic mystic has been canonised for mystical powers as ‘the Devil has his mystics”, the anonymous author of the Cloud of Unknowing says. Rather they have been canonised for heroic virtue (Col. 1:11) and charity.

H. van Straelen writes that in the Christian tradition spirituality and morality are one and the same. It is through the most thorough going morality that the highest spirituality is attained, through the most thorough going morality that it is continually expressed. (8)

True Christian spirituality would never provoke Berdyaev’s perceptive remark that Russian Christianity before the Russian Revolution was ‘so heavenly-minded that it was no earthly good’! Teresa of Avila wrote of so-called mystics that ‘whatever does not engender humility, charity, mortification holy simplicity, silence and so on, of what value is it?’ In a similar vein Mother Teresa says ‘that prayer without action is nothing’. (9)

HOLISTIC v. CEREBRAL:

True Christian spirituality is more holistic than the very cerebral Hindu/Buddhist kinds that concentrate mostly on consciousness transformation and altered states of consciousness, and not transformation of the whole person as in Christianity.

Ralph Martin says that it is important to remember that for Teresa and all the saints, prayer is not something that is primarily about technique, or having certain experiences, but it is about growing in a relationship (10) – with God.

By contrast, the Hindu monk, scholar and ‘mystic’ Agehananda Bharati, says that in Hinduism mystical experience is a skill or technique that does not imply any ‘moral excellence’. (11) Mircea Eliade writes of a certain Haridas, who was a master of yoga with extraordinary power, but was ‘a man of loose morals’. (12)

While on this subject of technique being important in the Christian spiritual tradition, a priest tells of his being invited to meet some American scientists who were doing research into the physiology of meditation involving Eastern swamis and gurus. He asked the scientists why no Catholic clergy were invited and was told that the restless clergymen became a nuisance. The priest says ‘on hearing this I blushed for the Holy Roman Church’. (13)

But he should not have fretted – Christian meditation is not about techniques and methods, but a deepening relationship with God, and great mystics like St. Teresa and St. John, in their writings delineate the safe path and warn of the dangers and self deception possible.

In Hindu/Buddhism what goes on in the head is all important. But in Christianity it is the heart that matters. Aestheticism resides principally in the head, love and compassion mainly in the heart. The founder of Christianity, Jesus, emphasises largely the latter whilst not ignoring the former. He talks of the beauty of the lilies of the field (Mt. 6:38). Saint Jerome said that ‘Plato located the soul of man in the head; Christ located it in the heart’.

So rightly does William Johnston s.j. say that ‘the heart of Christian mysticism is a mystery of love, whereas both in Hinduism and in Buddhism it is primarily a transformation of consciousness’. (14) Buddhist compassion is not the same as the Christian variety. The serene, aesthetic beauty of the faces of Buddhist statues can conceal a lack of charity or cold indifference to the plight of humanity. Nearly 80% of the social work in India is done by the Christian minority of 1.7% by the gentle compassion of Christ, not the indifferent Buddha. (15)

When Jesus Christ says of the future that the love of many will grow cold, the New Age Movement inroads into Christianity may be part of the global cooling as ‘religions of the mind’ come to the fore, not religion of the heart as in Christianity.

The old saying about the journey from the head to the heart as the longest journey in the world, is still applicable today. But the journey has to be undertaken, docile to the Spirit for growth in charity and progress in our relationship with God the source of charity, is demanded of us.

ABSENCE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER:

Daniel Strand, in his article ‘Absence makes the heart grow: longing and the Spirit in the theology of St Augustine’ says that it is the Spirit that places love within our heart but not without the longing that fuels and fans the embers of the heart into a raging fire of charity’. Where charity is weak, and longing absent, there are hearts so cold and silent. (16)

“In the work of Augustine ... longing which is the homesick heart’s deep yearning for fulfilment and rest, is a primary aspect of his understanding of spirituality and moral activity. In his Confessions, Augustine writes: ‘Groaning with inexpressible groaning on my pilgrimage, and remembering Jerusalem with my heart extending up towards it, Jerusalem, my homeland, Jerusalem my mother’”. (Confessions, 257)

“Longing within this mortal life exists because of this tension: that we yearn to be present in the heavenly Jerusalem but find ourselves in a foreign land away from our true home”.

The Psalms are full of hungering and thirsting and longing for the Lord, e.g. Psalms 42:1-2; 84:2; 63:3,8 etc. In Augustine hunger and thirst have a similar connection to longing, and he exhorts his people to cultivate ‘desiring’ for God. “He believes that longing is a spiritual and moral exercise that must be engaged constantly as both an act of preparation for the future manifestation of God’s presence and a reminder of the nature of Christian life sojourning towards the Heavenly City”. Longing thrives and lives only through absence ... for it is by this ‘absence that longing is fuelled’.

For St. Bernard of Clairveaux, another great master of the spiritual life, “the alternating experience of both the presence and absence of God is intended to increase our desire for God”. St. Augustine uses an analogy comparing the human soul to a purse or a bag: Suppose you want to fill some sort of bag, and you know the bulk of what you will be given, you stretch the bag or sack or the skin or whatever it is. You know how big the object that you want to put in and you see that bag is narrow so you increase its capacity by stretching it. In the same way by delaying the fulfilment of desire God stretches it, by making us desire he expands the soul, ad by this expansion he increases its capacity. (17)

Augustine often emphasises prayer as a way to increase longing. Desire and prayer are described in similar terms and sometimes he makes the two equivalent: “as we pray we desire and long for the Lord’s eternal Sabbath rest, and as we desire our heavenly dwelling we are in a state of continual prayer”. But Augustine sees a fully sacramental life (including suffering for Christ) as the way to cultivate longing and desire for God.

THE LITURGY:

The liturgy of the Eucharist and of the Hours, both encourage the infilling of the Holy Spirit which leads to the desire or longing for God. In the Catholic tradition when people start taking prayer and their Christian life seriously by keeping the commandments and growing in virtue God infuses his grace into the soul. “It is something which our efforts can dispose us but never bring to pass simply by our effort or will. It is another example of the primacy of grace in the spiritual life”. (18) The result is infused contemplation or prayer poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit and no technique or method on earth can manufacture or manipulate.

The Second Vatican Council (consisting of the Pope and worldwide bishops) called all Catholics to holiness (Lumen Gentium 39-42) and contemplation or infused prayer (S.C. 10; D.V.8). The revised liturgy of the Hours, and the Eucharist emanating from this Council, stress these things. Thomas Dubay says that over and over in the liturgy we find expressions that can be understood only in terms of a complete maturing in prayer or infused contemplation.

Dubay gives a long list of phrases from the liturgy in this regard:

Lord, fill our hearts with your love... We pray that in this Eucharist we may find the fullness of love and life... Fill our hearts with love for you... May the God of infinite goodness fill you with joy... Lord, may this Lenten observance bring us to the full joy of Easter... Lord, fill our hearts with your light... Fill us with your radiance as you filled the hearts of our fathers... Lord, fill us with the power of your love. As we share in the Eucharist, may we come to know fully the redemption we have received... Fill our minds with your wisdom... Fill us with your Spirit... Fill us with your gifts. (19)

Dubay says that in the liturgical texts we find the strong image of ‘burning’, as an image much favoured by the mystics as they attempt to explain the loftiest of infused prayer. But not only in the great mystics, as we find it also in Scripture: “did not our hearts burn within us as he opened for us the Scriptures?” (Luke 24:32)

In the liturgy all the faithful are invited to pray for ‘the spirit of prayer and penance that we may burn with the love of God and neighbour’ (Lent : Monday 2^nd week) and ‘may we live as he has taught, ready to welcome him with burning love and faith’. (Roman Missal Friday, second of Advent, the Collect) And on Pentecost Sunday the church asks that the fire of the Holy Spirit ‘burn out all evil from our hearts and make them glow with pure light’. (Solemn blessing at Pentecost)

Also the offertory prayer for the Assumption: ‘Lord may our hearts, aflame with the fire of love, constantly long for you’. For the feast of Saint Augustine, the collect goes: ‘May we thirst for you’, as Saint Augustine certainly did.

LITURGY OF THE HOURS:

St. Augustine is one Father of the Church who talks extensively of the need for growth in the desire for God, but not the only one as we can see below from the Divine Office (also known as the Liturgy of the Hours or the Prayer of the Church). It is composed of a Psalter, scripture texts and inspirational readings and prayers for clergy and religious et al. It is now available on the internet in printed or podcast format.

The saints quoted here below are all deeply knowledgeable of Scripture and we can hear echoes of this everywhere in their work, particularly the beautiful Song of Songs which is in praise of the erotic love of a man for his spouse. Traditional Judaism saw it as celebrating the love of God and Israel. Compare Isaiah “as a young man marries a virgin, so shall your God marry you”. (Is. 62:5) The Fathers of the Church adopt the allegorical interpretation of this Song.

ST. COLUMBANUS (c. 543-615 A.D.) the great Irish missionary, wrote:

“Though we eat him in loving, though we feast on him in desiring, let us still desire him as though hungering for him.... He who loves drinks of him, he drinks who is satisfied by the Word of God, who sufficiently adores, who longs sufficiently, he drinks who burns with the love of wisdom”. (D.O.3, p.469)

BALDWIN OF CANTERBURY (c.1125-1190 A.D.):

Alluding to the Song of Songs, writes: “That is why he says ’set me as a seal on your heart’ as though to say: ‘love me as I love you; have me in mind; in your memory, in your desire, in your sighing, your groaning, your weeping.’” (D.O.3, p.394)

POPE ST. GREGORY THE GREAT (c.540-604 A.D.):

“Whoever longs for the eternal country lives blameless and upright”. (D.O.1, p.574)

On Mary Magdalene and Jesus:

Afire with love, she yearned for him... While she was seeking, her longing grew stronger and stronger... Holy desires grow with delay; if they fade through delay, they are no desires at all. Such must be the love that inflames anyone who is reaching out for the truth. This is why David says: my soul thirsts for the living God; when shall I come and behold the face of God? And the Church says in the Song of Songs, ‘I am wounded by love’. (D.O.3, p.120*)

ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO (c.354-430 A.D.):

Set your desire on him, and the Father who sees in secret will repay you. This very desire of yours is your prayer. If your desire is continual, your prayer is continual too, “... if you do not want to cease praying, do not cease longing... if the desire is always within, so too is the groaning”. (D.O.1, p.116)

St. Augustine writes of the need for holiness ‘for without holiness, no-one can see God. (Heb. 12:14)

“No-one will be fit to receive the life to come unless he has prepared himself in this life to receive it... since we have not received what He promised, we sigh in longing. It is good for us to persevere in longing, until the promise comes true and sighing is a thing of the past, and unalloyed rejoicing takes its place”. (D.O.2, p.600)

“The whole life of a good Christian is a holy desire. What you desire you cannot see yet. But the desire gives you the capacity so that when it does happen that you see, you may be fulfilled... by delaying the fulfilment of desires, God stretches it by making us desire, he expands the soul, and by this expansion increases its capacity. Then brother, let us desire because we are to be filled. Look at St. Paul stretching wide his heart to make it big enough to receive what was to come.

“Let us always desire the blessed life from the Lord, and always pray. At certain times we bring our minds back to the task of praying, from other cares and occupations which in some way may cool our desire, reminding ourselves by the words of our prayer to concentrate on what we desire. This we do to prevent what had begun to grow lukewarm from going quite cold, and being completely extinguished: the remedy is to rouse it often into flame... praying by long and devout stirring of the heart. Often this task is carried on more by groaning than by speaking. (D.O.3, p.666)

“To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances to seek the greatest adventure; to find Him the greatest human achievement”.

“To my God, a heart of flame, to my fellow men’, a heart of love; to myself a heart of steel”.

ST. BEDE THE VENERABLE (c.672-735 A.D.):

“Jesus rejoices their hearts by the light of his presence in as much as they make more and more progress in their longing for heaven”. (D.O.3, p.279*)

ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM (c.347-407 A.D.):

Just as what brings heat makes things expand, so it is the gift of love to stretch hearts wide open. It is evident in all his writings (St. Paul), he burns with love for the faithful. (D.O.3, p.346)

‘Our soul should be directed in God, not merely when we suddenly think of prayer, but even when we are concerned with something else. If we are looking after the poor, if we are busy with the desire and the remembrance of God... You should not think of prayer as being a matter of words. It is a desire for God, an indescribable devotion, not of human origin, but a gift of God’s grace. As St. Paul says: we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. Anyone who receives from the Lord the gift of this type of prayer possesses a richness that is not to be taken from him, a heavenly food filling up the soul, Once he has tasted this food, he is set alight by an eternal desire for the Lord, the fiercest of fires lighting up his soul’. (D.O.2, p.22)

POPE CLEMENT (d.99 A.D.):

“I adore you as my first beginning and long for you as my last end”. (D.O.3, p.847*)

ANONYMOUS (4^TH CENTURY) Homily 18, 7-11:

Sometimes they (Christians) are, as it were, in grief and lamentation for the human race, and

pouring out prayer for the whole race of Adam, they give way to tears and grief, burning with the love of the Spirit for mankind. At another time they are inflamed by the Spirit with such joy and love that, were it possible, they would take all mankind, good and bad alike, into their hearts. (D.O.1, p.484)

ST. ALOYSIUS GONZAGA s.j. (c.1568-1591 A.D.)

We should at times long for heaven where we may praise the eternal God in the land of the living.

ST. BONAVENTURE (c.1218-1274)

... a fire that completely inflames you and transports you to God with extreme sweetness and burning affection. This fire is God himself; the furnace is in Jerusalem, and Christ kindles it with all the burning fervour of his passion.(D.O.3, p.113*)

The following texts are not in the Divine Office, but are of a similar nature.

ST. BONAVENTURE on Saint Francis of Assisi:

No human tongue could describe the passionate love with which Francis burned for Christ, his Spouse: he seemed to be completely absorbed by the fire of divine love like a glowing coal. The moment he heard the love of God being mentioned, he was aroused immediately and so deeply moved and inflamed that it seemed as if the deepest chord in his heart had been plucked by the words. He used to say that to offer the love of God in exchange for alms was generosity worthy of a nobleman and that anyone who thought less of it than money was a fool. The incalculable worth of divine love was the only thing that could win the kingdom of heaven. He used to say: “Greatly to be loved is His love, who loved us so greatly”.

Francis sought occasion to love God in everything. He delighted in all the works of God’s hands and from the vision of joy on earth his mind soared aloft to the life-giving source and cause of all. In everything beautiful, he saw him who is beauty itself, and he followed his Beloved everywhere by his likeness imprinted on creation; of all creation he made a ladder by which he might mount up and embrace Him who is all-desirable. By the power of his extraordinary faith he tasted the Goodness which is the source of all in each and every created thing, as in so many rivulets. He seemed to perceive a divine harmony in the interplay of powers and faculties given by God to his creatures and like the prophet David he exhorted them all to praise God. (Major Life. Ch.IX)

ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI (c.1182-1226 A.D.)

‘Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven’: so that we may love you with all our heart by always keeping you in mind; with all our soul by always longing for you.

ST. CLARE OF ASSISI:

“She was burning with love of God, continuously in prayer and contemplation”. (Clare’s companion, Sister Benvenuta)

THOMAS ἀ KEMPIS (c.1380-1471 A.D.) whose book the Imitation of Christ is the most widely read devotional book after the Bible. It was loved by C.S. Lewis, Dorothy Day, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Pope John XXIII, Edith Cavell, José Rizal, Saint Ignatius Loyola, Saint Thomas More, etc. Both John Newton (of Amazing Grace) and John Wesley said that this book influenced their decision to become Christians. (www.davidalton.net)

“Had you but once entered perfectly into the heart of Jesus and tasted a little of his burning love... (Imitation, Book 2:1)

ST. THERESE OF LISIEUX (c.1873-1897 A.D.):

“For me, prayer means launching out of the heart towards God; it means lifting up one’s eyes quite simply to heaven, a cry of grateful love from the crest of joy to the trough of despair; it is a vast supernatural force which opens out my heart and binds me close to Jesus”.

THE CLOUD OF UNKNOWING (Anonymous c.1375 A.D.):

For I tell you this one loving blind desire for God alone is more valuable in itself, more pleasing to God and to the saints, more beneficial to your own growth, and more helpful to your friends, both living and dead, than anything else you could do. And you are more blessed... than to contemplate the angels and the saints or to hear the mirth and melody of their heavenly festival. (Ch.9) God can be touched and embraced only by the heart in love, but never by thought. (Ch.6)

AMERICAN NEGRO SPIRITUALS:

These are among the finest examples of the intense desire for God in Christian hymnology – of the desire for the heavenly homeland.

SOME OBSERVATIONS:

1 GROWING IN THE SPIRIT:

When God’s love is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, it is often accompanied by groaning in the Spirit. Having a first taste for God we long (or groan) for more.

“The entire creation, as we know, has been groaning in one great act of giving birth; and not only creation, but all of us who possess the first fruits of the Spirit, we too groan inwardly as we wait for our bodies to be set free.” (Rom. 8:22f)

“In this present state, it is true, we groan as we wait with longing, to put on our heavenly home.” (2 Cor. 5:2)

“We groan and find it a burden being still in this tent... we want to be exiled from the body and make our home with the Lord”. (2 Cor. 5:2f)

This yearning of the Spirit needs silence to grow, for there is no spiritual life without it.

“Be still and know that I am God”. (Ps. 46:10)

“The yearning of the Spirit grows in loneliness”. (St. Augustine)

“Oh, the thought of having God all alone to myself and knowing that God has me all alone to myself and knowing that God has me all alone to Himself, truly, my friend, what bliss that is and all it takes is discipline”. (Andrew Murray)

“True culture, true civilisation, does not exist without silence, solitude and recollection”. (Constantine Koser ofm)

“Only to sit and think of God,

Oh what a joy it is,

To think the thought, to breathe the Name,

Earth has no higher bliss”. (Fr. Faber)

2. HEAVEN CAN WAIT:

Living in a profoundly socialist world, we are influenced whether we like it or not by Marx’s sneer about religion as “the opium of the people”. Constantine Koser ofm writes about “absolute ‘here-and-now-ism’. Thought, time or effort dedicated to what does not pertain to the present world of man and to the betterment of the human situation is a waste; it is prejudicial ‘alienation’... the great and only sin. Life with God finds itself on the list of the suspect, if not the outright harmful. The vague sentiment of guilt which many feel when they give themselves to their time to life with God is an inevitable and fatal result”. (Our Life with God, p.11)

But I think a bit of spiritual opium now and then is wonderful as long as we never forget Matthew 25:31-46. We need always to remember, as C.S. Lewis says above, that the Christians who did most for the present world were those who thought most of the next!”

3. CAPACITY:

The Divine Office readings above talk of the need to increase one’s ‘capacity’ for God. These great mystics counsel us to let our desire or thirst for union with God to grow. St. Catherine of Siena says: “If you would make progress then, you must be thirsty, because only those who are thirsty are called: ‘Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.’ Those who are not thirsty will never persevere in their journey. Either weariness or pleasure will make them stop.”

“The Scripture and the teaching of the saints makes clear that when we lack something essential for the spiritual journey – such as a strong desire for God – then we are to ask for it, and it will be given. Not all at once necessarily, but gradually, over time, as we persevere in asking”. Ralph Martin, The Fulfilment of all Desire, p.197.

“How much more will the Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask”. (Luke 11:13) “Make yourself a capacity and I will make myself a torrent”. (God to St. Angela of Foligno) (20) in Thomas Dubay, Deep Conversion, Deep Prayer, Ignatius p.74

“The call to holiness, to progress, to growth, to ‘perfection,’ is rooted in the biblical worldview. What begins in this life ends before the judgement seat of Christ in the next, in an eternity of love or sorrow. To use the biblical language: we first are justified through faith and Baptism; then sanctified through the work of the Holy Spirit over a lifetime of growth; and finally glorified in the blessed vision of heaven. Knowing what we are called to is important, but so is desiring it with all our heart.” (21)

I suggest that growing in our desire for our heavenly home is one of the surefire ways of getting there. Like St. Paul, it enkindles an unquenchable desire to help us persevere and so he could write: “I desire to be gone and to be with Christ” (Phil. 1:23). Also it enkindles delight and we cannot live without it: “No-one can live without delight and that is why a man deprived of spiritual joy goes over to carnal pleasure”. (Aquinas)

4. HEART SPEAKS TO HEART:

There are a lot of references in the above Divine Office passages to the heart which some people of delicate or precious sensibility find distasteful, as they do with references to the ‘Sacred Heart’ or to ‘hearts aflame’ etc. This language is unfavourably attributed to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, but it is very Biblical:

“Did not our hearts burn within us”. (Luke 24:32)

“God’s love is poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit”. (Rom. 5:5)

“My deep feelings for you all comes from the heart of Jesus himself”. (Phil. 1:7)

“Make room for us in your hearts”. (2 Cor. 7:2)

“Open wide your hearts”. (2 Cor. 6:13)

In the Old Testament the patriarch Joseph’s “heart was moved at the sight of his brother, Benjamin”. (Gen. 43:30)

“Your heart throbbing and full” or ‘shall be enlarged’ or ‘will throb and swell with joy’. (Is. 60:5)

In 1642 a book came out in London five years before St. Margaret Mary was born, entitled “The Heart of Christ in Heaven” by a Congregational Minister, Thomas Godwin. Fr. Ronald Knox said of it: “Devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, commonly thought of as a popish superstition from the middle of the seventeenth century, is in fact a form of piety which can commend itself to all Christians”. (22)

One quotation from Godwin to give a taste of his work:

“God stirs up his people and moves their hearts by the influence of the Holy Spirit”.

5. NUPTIAL IMAGERY:

Others may find the nuptial terminology of the mystics distasteful and “struggle” with this ‘spousal analogy’ that compares the love of a man and woman with the love of God for us. Some may argue that such bold and even erotic language goes too far. The opposite, in fact, is true. Although all human analogies to describe the love between God and man are inadequate, Pope John Paul II contended that the spousal analogy is the least inadequate. In other words, it is the best analogy we humans have to describe the bliss of eternal union with God.

In the sixteenth century the great Doctor of the Church, St. Teresa of Avila, helped reform the Church during a time of great confusion and corruption. Known especially for her mystical prayer life, she is the subject of perhaps one of the most beautiful sculptures ever crafted: Bernini’s “The Ecstasy of St. Teresa”. In it, the artist depicts Teresa experiencing the deepest form of mystical prayer. She does not appear sombre and contemplative. Quite the opposite. Christopher West explains:

Memorialized in stone, we see the angel of love poised to thrust his wounding arrow into Teresa’s readied heart. Her face – masterfully sculpted by Bernini – tells the story of a mystic who is tasting, as John Paul describes it, “the paradoxical blending of bliss and pain” as “something akin to Jesus’ experience on the Cross” (NMI27). And one would have to be either blind or ignorant not to notice that she looks like a bride in the climax of her nuptial union.

Such a description of a nun lost in prayer might seem scandalous. But we must remember that the Bible describes the one-flesh union of a husband and wife to be a great mystery as it relates to Christ and His Church (Ephesians 5:31-32). In teaching us this, St. Paul is not implying that God’s love for us is sexual, but rather that God’s love for us is so intimate and fulfilling that, again, of all human experiences, the marital embrace best reflects this reality. Through this intimate union, as through the beautiful spirituality of St. Teresa, God’s love for His Church becomes visible. (23)

In some circles there is confusion about the role of agape and eros in prayer. Annabel Miller writes in one of her articles that “devotion to, and excitement in God can become confused with human sexual love.” The feminist writer, Monica Furlong, is one who admits to hav ing felt a ‘sexual passion for God’. (24)

But perhaps the confusion can arise when prominent secular humanists like Rollo May in Love and Will are taken seriously. He states that “in St. Augustine eros was seen as the power which drives men towards God. Eros is the yearning for mystic union which comes out in the religious experience of union with God”. (25)

Of course he would say that as a secular Humanist Association founder (along with Eric Fromm), opposed to traditional Christianity and a member of the infamous Planned Parenthood Siecus Circle (i.e.Sexuality Information and Education Council of the United States).

Thomas Dubay sheds some light on these matters in his book Fire Within:

One of the more surprising and disturbing phenomena that may occur during communion with the Lord is sexual disturbance or arousal. It is “surprising and disturbing” not because the phenomenon is in itself a cause for concern but because most people would never expect that in so holy an occupation there could be sexual repercussions. While they seem not to be common, they do occur. Lorenzo, St. Teresa’s married brother, who had chosen his sister as spiritual director, had experienced these disturbances, and he asked her for guidance. Her response was typical in its accuracy and decisiveness:

Pay no attention to those evil feelings which come to you afterwards (after his deep prayer). I have never suffered from them myself, since God, of His goodness, has always delivered me from such passions, but I think the explanation of them must be that the soul’s joy is so keen that it makes itself felt in the body. With God’s help it will calm down if you take no notice of it. Several people have discussed this with me.

Even though St. Teresa never had the advantage of studying the philosophy of human nature, her analysis of the phenomenon and her recommended reaction to it are entirely correct. Since the human person is not a cartesian soul dwelling within a body but a single body-soul composite, it is entirely normal that an intense spiritual experience may have bodily repercussions. Blushing from embarrassment and tears of joy or sorrow are other examples of this same basic reality, the profound oneness of the human person. Consequently, to experience sexual stirrings within a completely pure delight in God should be neither a surprise nor a source of worry. (26)

“While other cultures were writing homoerotic poetry, the Jews wrote the Song of Songs, one of the most beautiful poems depicting male-female sensual love ever written”. (27)

6. TRADITIONAL PRAYER OUTLINE by J. Benkovic:

Many people desire to come into a deeper relationship with God. The way in which we do this is through prayer. The Catholic Encyclopaedia defines prayer as “the raising of the mind and soul to God.” Prayer generally consists of adoration (recognizing the majesty of God, and our own dependence on Him for all things), praise (honouring God for who He is), thanksgiving (thanking God for all that He has done for us), and petition (asking God for specific favours and blessings).

Prayer takes many forms, but it is most often divided into two categories – vocal prayer and mental prayer. Vocal prayer uses words that have been developed beforehand. Examples of vocal prayer are the Hail Mary, the Our Father, the prayers of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and the Liturgy of the Hours. Vocal prayer can be recited alone (private) or with a group (public). Singing the Liturgy of the Hours and the Holy Mass are beautiful expressions of public vocal prayer.

While vocal prayer uses sentiments and emotions that rise up out of the pray-er’s own mind and heart. Many think mental prayer is only for a select few, primarily for priests and religious; however, mental prayer is for everyone and should be a part of every Christian’s prayer life. There are two types of mental prayer – meditation and contemplation.

Christian Meditation

“Meditation is that form of mental prayer in which the mind is specially occupied with reflecting on divine things. These prayerful reflections become the means of stimulating the will to make acts of confidence and sorrow, of gratitude and petition and of adoring love of God”.

The Church recommends the use of Sacred Scripture for meditation. The lectio-divina method of meditation is an ancient prayer tradition of the Church. Lectio-divina encourages the pray-er to read a passage of Scripture and ask these questions: “What does this mean contextually and in the culture of the time? What is God saying to me personally through this passage? What is my response to God? Through lectio-divina then, we enter into a dialogue with God. We read His Word and hear His Word, and then we formulate a response.

The great saints of our Faith have also recommended that we use Scripture as a basis for mental prayer. St. Ignatius of Loyola suggested that we use our imaginations to place ourselves into a scriptural scene. We imagine ourselves as one of the characters in that scene and dialogue with Jesus about our thoughts, feelings, and emotions. St. Teresa of Avila, the great mystic saint, also advised her nuns to use their imaginations in mental prayer. She particularly suggested that they envision the Passion of Our Lord and be with Him in love during this painful time. St. Teresa herself used the image of Jesus as He was scourged at the pillar. She said this method of mental prayer is very safe and effective.

Contemplation

When our prayer becomes punctuated by impulses of loving sentiments toward God which grow in intensity and frequency, it signals a deepening of our prayer life and becomes preparation for a more intimate loving union with God. It leads us to the second form of mental prayer, contemplation. In this form of mental prayer, “the mind is not so much reasoning about God as looking at God in simple faith and adoration. It may be called the end or purpose of meditation... To contemplate is to see God with the eyes of faith.” As in any loving relationship, the more time we spend gazing into the eyes of the beloved, the more in love we become. So too, contemplation leads us into an ever-deepening love of the Beloved. “By depth here we mean a knowing loving that we cannot produce but only receive .... It is a wordless awareness and love that we of ourselves cannot initiate or prolong.” We enter into a loving communion with the triune God, a communion that is infused and comes from no effort of our own. All faculties of our being are caught up, suspended if you will, in the loving embrace of the Holy Trinity. When this type of prayer persists, it can lead to mystical union or spiritual marriage – a “secret union” with God that takes place in the very centre of our soul.

The first stage of contemplation is called “acquired contemplation”. It flows from meditation. As St. Francis de Sales says, “Prayer is called meditation until it has produced the honey of devotion; after that it changes into contemplation.” Acquired contemplation begins when meditation yields to a simplistic gaze on the object of love – God. It is called “acquired” because the pray-er is still active at this stage. He utilizes meditation, quiets the senses, and yields to devotion. Also called simplified affective prayer, acquired contemplation prepares the soul to receive infused contemplation should God grant it.

Infused contemplation, on the other hand, is pure gift, a special grace of the Holy Spirit. It does not depend upon our efforts, cannot be produced by our efforts, and is freely given by God to whomever He wishes. While we can be disposed to receive this gift, as the saints suggest, through Christian meditation, acquired contemplation, and living a life of virtue, techniques are rendered useless. “Repeatedly, St. Teresa insists that contemplative prayer is divinely produced. She calls this prayer even in its delicate beginnings ‘supernatural,’ meaning by this term what we now intend with the word infused, that is, poured in by God. Entering into the prayer of quiet, or that of union, whenever she wanted it, ‘was out of the question’ ”. (28)

7. TRUE PRAYER AND ITS COUNTERFEITS:

There is a lot of confusion today about prayer due to false teachers.

“Many false prophets will arise; they will deceive many... love in most people will grow cold”. (Mt. 24:11)

“The Spirit has explicitly said that during the last times some will desert the faith and pay attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines that come from demons”’ (1 Tim. 4:1)

“Not every spirit is to be trusted; test the spirits to see whether they come from God, for many false prophets are at large in the world”. (1 Jn. 4:1)

There is a lot of confusion today about prayer due to false teachers. The New Age Movement (NAM) has produced its fair share. This NAM is an eclectic mixture of pantheism, the occult, of magic and myths about the secrets of life mixed in with ideas from astrology, astro-physics and pop psychology. It borrows from all religions, but is under obedience to none. It’s pick and mix or whatever!

The Church has been greatly exercised over the last few decades, counteracting this flood of deception with documents like:

Some aspects of Christian meditation (J. Ratzinger); a New Age of the Spirit? (Irish Theological Commission; Christ or Aquarius: Exploring the New Age Movement (Godfried Danneels) and best of all: New Age: a Christian Reflection: Jesus Christ the Bearer of the Water of Life by two Vatican Pontifical Councils.

In world religions not all words have the same meaning, e.g. Meditation (cerebral in Hindu/Buddhism), but holistic involving mind, heart, and the moral life in Christianity. Buddhist compassion is not the same obviously, as the Christian variety. Islamic peace (as in ‘Islam is a religion of peace’) is not the same as Christian peace that “surpasses all understanding”. (Philip. 4:7)

The word mantra never appears in traditional Christian spirituality. It is not to be confused with monologistos or one word prayer. St. John Climacus refers to the Jesus Prayer as monologistos. New Agers wrongly claim that mantras can be found in works like the Jesus Prayer, John Cassian’s Conferences, The Cloud of Unknowing, St. Teresa of Avila’s writings etc. But in spite of hijacking these works as mantra-based, they never recommend these so-called mantras as they are too long: Jesus Prayer (15 words); Cassian’s aspirational prayer (13 words). So they are not suitable as meaningless shields against thoughts and for inducing altered states of consciousness! NAM meditators prefer harmonic words to build up a resonance of powerful sound waves to empty the mind and expand consciousness to reach a mental void. ‘Maranatha’ has good vibes but not ‘Come Lord Jesus’ it seems! Altered states and mind voiding, especially for children, are dangerous as they can lead to depression, madness and openness to the demonic.

St. Teresa writing of people in the 4^th Manson, who have progressed beyond the beginner stage to the advanced stage in prayer, when distractions come, can utter a single word occasionally, to solve the problem.

This is not mantra meditation which is used to attain altered states of consciousness (ASC’s) and dissolve stress.

The Church has endorsed the teaching of both St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross. On his feastday (14^th December) the Collect for the Mass goes ‘by imitating him closely at all times, we may come to contemplate eternally your glory’. For Teresa’s feastday on October 15^th, we read “grant that we may always be nourished by the food of her heavenly teaching’.

St. Teresa notes that infused contemplation (for proficients in prayer) is especially subject to mental wondering, even more than discursive meditation. So a proficient can still the mind by a single word. That is not a mantra and the same goes for all the other so-called mantra works above.

The Jesus Prayer (Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner), Johanette Bonkovic says it “expresses a complete thought, thereby putting a thought into our mind. It also places the pray-er in right relationship with Our Lord as one who is a sinner in need of God’s mercy. Further, it tells us who Jesus Christ is – the Son of the Living God. Rather than using the Jesus Prayer to dismiss thought, the pray-er is to meditate on the profound mystery expressed by the words, eventually making them the substance of his life.”(29)

The same is true of the monologistos prayer of Abbot Isaac of John Cassian’s Conferences (O God make speed to save me; O Lord make haste to help me). Like the Jesus Prayer, this formula places us in proper relationship to God who saves us, and its content too, is crucial to the prayer.

The Cloud of Unknowing is often simplistically quoted as mantra-based. But it is spirituality of love like St. Teresa and quotes St. Augustine favourably that “the entire life of a good Christian is nothing less than holy desire (Ch. 75). The Cloud states that “techniques and methods are ultimately useless for awakening contemplative love. This is because God’s love is poured (or infused) into our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Rom. 5:5), not by some anonymous force or by self-induced altered states of consciousness.

8. CENTERING PRAYER:

Centering prayer “is simply transcendental meditation in a Christian dress”.

(Fr. Emil Lafrang s.j. U.S.A.)

“Centering Prayer is Transcendental Meditation and nothing else. It has nothing to do with relationship with God in growing exercise of the theological virtues. It does not matter if you take a Hebrew word (Abba or Jesus or Amen....) instead of a sanscrit one as a mantra because anyway you do not pronounce it with faith, love or contrition as in the Jesus Prayer, but only as a shield, a meaningless shield against thoughts”

(Mother Veronica Le Goulard p.c.c. Lusaka)

One subject that has caused a lot of confusion is Centering Prayer. (Not the centering prayer, with a small “c” and “p”, which is legitimately centered on Jesus). It originates with three monks at St. Joseph’s Abbey, Spencer, Massachusets: Frs. William Meninger, Basil Pennington and Thomas Keating. Most of the monks in the Abbey did Transcendental Meditation (TM) – a form of meditation that is purely cerebral and used a Hindu mantra which was the name of a Hindu god or goddess. This is the background to Centering Prayer.

Most of the monks then did a highly occult TM-Siddhi programme to develop psychic powers. Once the door to the occult is opened it is very difficult to close it again. Confusion began to grow and syncretism which I believe has done a great deal of harm to authentic Catholic teaching on prayer and meditation.

Fr. Pennington praised the Hindu TM as an authentic method of contemplative prayer, and that is ‘corresponds step by step to classical Christian teaching’. (30) This is manifestly untrue. He praised Maharishi Mahesh Yogi as a ‘truly spiritual man and a moral leader. A fellow Hindu, Agehananda Bharati and a prolific writer, described Maharishi as “philistine, uncritical and dormantly Hindu-fascist”. Mael Melvin, a scientist, said ‘Maharishi is flexible in what he considers truth’. (31) John Lennon of the Beatles once stormed out of Maharishi’s Indian home in disgust, where he and his group sat at Maharishi’s feet, and wrote a sarcastic song called ‘Sexy Sadie” against the holy man! After Fr. Pennington’s enthusiastic praise of TM, Fr. Keating’s distancing himself from TM looks like damage limitation to defend the hybrid Centering Prayer.

Both Pennington and Keating sang the praises of a book entitled ‘Meditation on the Tarot’ which was classified by the Library of Congress under “Occult Science”! Fr. Keating warmly endorsed a book by his disciple, Phillip St. Romain, entitled “Kundalini Energy and Christian Spirituality”. The author was puzzled by the effects kundalini had on him until he read books by the Satanic Theosophical Society and was enlightened! Kundalini is a dangerous form of yoga and nearly killed a Hindu devotee, Gopi Krishna, author of “Kundalini : the Evolutionary Energy in Man”. A survey in Latin America of psychologists and psychiatrists into the wisdom of developing mediumistic or psychic powers, as in yoga, concluded in “virtual unanimity in seeing these practices as contributing to madness”. (32)

Fr. Basil also enthusiastically endorsed (33) the discredited EST/Forum programme of New Ager, Werner Erhard, that has been labelled as ‘fascist’ by Professor Paul Vitz of New York University. Erhard was even criticized by the Esalen Institute in Claifornia, the Mecca of the New Age Movement.

Anyone attracted to Centering Prayer should pause to consider the credibility of its progenitors who have made themselves advocates of the Maharishi and other NAM leaders and fads. They now deny any link between TM and CP, but if something looks like a duck, waddles and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck!

With all this dabbling in the NAM and occult by Fr. Keating, with the resulting confusion, an exasperated critic of the NAM, Douglas Groothuis, exclaimed: “New Age theology is often sold as Christianity. Keating and his ilk use the Christian vocabulary but they don’t use the Christian dictionary (the Bible)”. All the warnings on the NAM by the Vatican mentioned above seem to have fallen on deaf ears, especially as regards the danger of “fusing Christian Meditation with non-Christian”.

One is reminded of Gnosticism which Pope John Paul equated with the NAM (34). Gnosticism took Christian words, emptied them of their original meaning and then invested them with new meanings at variance with the original. Same words, different meanings, as in CP etc.

MEDITATION : CHRISTIAN AND HINDU:

True Christian meditation and not its counterfeit, is mulling over Biblical realities like the beauty of creation (cf. Rom. 1:20) or our new creation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17). When the Virgin Mary is said by Luke to ‘ponder’ in her heart the mysteries of her Son’s birth (Luke 2:19), the Greek word used is symballo, meaning that she was putting things together and seeing the pattern in them. As we continue meditation on the Word, especially for St. Teresa, on the passion of Christ, our hearts begin to ‘burn’ as it did for the two men on the road to Emmaus, as Jesus opened up for them the Scriptures (Luke 24:32). This warming of the heart is meant to continue as the Fathers say above as we grow in loving God with all our heart, soul and mind until we become like the Seraphs or “burning ones”!

For us Catholics growth in our union and love for Jesus demands regular attendance at the Liturgy, concern for the poor, keeping the Commandments and growth in virtue as Christian prayer is more holistic than cerebral Buddhist/Hinduism. Prayer before Jesus in the reserved Sacrament in the Tabernacle on the Sanctuary has been described as “Son bathing” or “radiation therapy” (see Malachi 4:2 : ‘But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness will shine out with healing in its rays’.

“O God you are my God for you I long, my soul thirsts for you like a dry weary land without water, SO I GAZE ON YOU IN THE SANCTUARY TO SEE YOUR STRENGTH AND YOUR GLORY. (Psalm 63:2)

MEDITATION : HINDU/BUDDHIST

“..... the heart of Christian mysticism is a mystery of love whereas both in Hinduism and in Buddhism it is primarily a transformation of consciousness” (William Johnston s.j.)

A typical NAM style “Christian” meditation includes usually the following:

1. Sitting down with back straight for good posture, in either lotus or half lotus position.

2. Close eyes lightly with a slight aperture.

3. Recite a mantra.

4. Breathe in such and such a way. (Pranayama or Hindu breathing)

5. Banish all images and thoughts.

6. Meditate twice a day, etc. (35)

Note that there is no reference to pondering on the Word of God which is paramount in traditional Christian meditation, which St. Teresa of Avila said was simply falling in love with Jesus. There is no putting oneself in the presence of God or making the sign of the Cross, or calling on the Holy Spirit. There is no such thing as a mantra (word or practice) in traditional Christian prayer and posture and breathing are irrelevant. Banishing thoughts is not for beginners, but for the well advanced in prayer. Thoughts and images are essential in traditional Christian meditation to stir up love in our heart for God, who is love.

In the Bible, Isaac went out into the fields to meditate (Gen. 24:63). King David meditated on his bed! (Ps. 63:6) In Joshua 1:8 the people are told to meditate on the Law of God, day and night. Timothy is told to “meditate on these things” of God. (1 Tim. 4:15)

The NAM “Christian” meditation has little in common with traditional meditation, but more in common with the secular meditation Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical Faculty calls the “Relaxation response”. Benson has been engaged in studies of physiological responses to meditation since the late 1960s. He was once a prominent TM researcher of the well-known Wallace and Benson team, but refused to become a ‘priest’ in Maharishi’s ‘congregation’ of researchers. Benson believes that we all have the ability to get rid of stress and unnecessary tension by bringing what he calls the ‘relaxation response’ into play. He maintains that this is a natural mechanism or integrated bodily reaction which is the direct opposite of the ‘fight or flight’ response, and which is elicited by meditation. His simple method can be learnt from a book, giving it an obvious advantage over TM. He tested his technique and found that it had the same beneficial effects as claimed by TM for its product. Briefly, his technique is to take a word like ‘one’ as a mantra and to repeat it whilst exhaling, and so on. He believes any word will do.

In his book, The Relaxation Response, Benson points out that there are parallels to TM in nearly all the world religions, and a close examination of the Christian mystical tradition would seem to indicate this. Ruysbroeck, the Flemish mystic speaks of a form of rest that may be purely natural and not induced by the action of God on the soul: ‘..... when a man is bare and imageless in his senses, and empty and idle in his higher powers, he enters into rest through mere nature; and this rest may be found and possessed within themselves in mere nature by all creatures without the grace of God, whenever they can strip themselves of images and of all activity..... now, mark the way in which this natural rest is practised. It is a sitting still, without either outward or inward acts, in vacancy, in order that rest may be found and may remain untroubled. In this bare vacancy the rest is pleasant and great.’

Techniques and methods are ultimately useless for awakening contemplative love (The Cloud).

Our children in Catholic schools, our people in parishes are being duped and sold short by these counterfeit meditation techniques and methods, which can reduce stress as if this is the most important thing in the world! They cannot produce the peace that “surpasses all understanding” (Phil. 4:7) that can exist even in the midst of stress and tribulation. Besides, stress can be very useful in bringing people to God:

“It was good for me to be afflicted, for it has taught me your Word.... before I was afflicted I strayed, but now I keep your Word”. (Ps. 119:71)

God’s love is poured (or infused) into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Rom. 5:5) and not by some anonymous occult “force” or by self-induced, altered states of consciousness.

“New Age ideas sometimes find their way into preaching, catechism, workshops and retreats, and influence even practicing Catholics, who perhaps are unaware of the incompatibility of those ideas with the Church’s faith. In their syncretistic and immanent outlook, these para-religious movements pay little heed to Revelation, and instead try to come to God through knowledge and experience based on elements borrowed from Eastern spirituality or from psychological techniques. They tend to relativize religious doctrine, in favour of a vague world view espressed as a system of myths and symbols dressed in religious language”.

(Pope John Paul II)

PROGRESS IN THE SPIRITUAL LIFE:

“You must go on making more and more progress in the kind of life you were meant to live, the life that God wants”. (1 Th. 4:3)

“What God wants is for you all to be holy”. (1 Th. 4:3)

Ralph Martin, in an outstanding recent book, writes as follows:

Jesus summed up His teaching in a startling and unambiguous call to His followers: “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect”. (Mt. 5:48) Perfect in purity of heart, perfect in compassion and love, perfect in obedience, perfect in conformity to the will of the Father, perfect in holiness – when we hear these words we can be understandably tempted to discouragement, thinking that perfection for us is impossible. And indeed, left to our own resources, it certainly is – just as impossible as it is for rich people to enter heaven, or for a man and a woman to remain faithful their whole lives in marriage. But with God, all things are possible, even our transformation.

Pope John Paul II speaks of three rediscoveries to which the Holy Spirit has led the Church, beginning with the Second Vatican Council, which concluded in 1965. One of these rediscoveries is the rediscovery of the “universal call to holiness.”

All the Christian faithful, of whatever state or rank, are called to the fullness of the Christian life, and to the perfection of charity. (NMI 30; cf. LG 40)

John Paul further emphasizes that this call to the fullness of holiness is an essential part of being a Christian.

To ask catechumens: “Do you wish to receive Baptism?” means at the same time to ask them: “Do you wish to become holy?” It means to set before them the radical nature of the Sermon on the Mount: “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt. 5:48).... The time has come to repropose wholeheartedly to everyone this high standard of ordinary Christian living: the whole life of the Christian community and of Christian families must lead in this direction. (NMI, 31)

Let’s take an initial look at what “holiness” really means. In the Book of Ephesians we read, “He chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (Eph. 1:4). To be holy is not primarily a matter of how many Rosaries we say or how much Christian activity we’re engaged in; it is a matter of having our heart transformed into a heart of love. It is a matter of fulfilling the great commandments which sum up the whole law and the prophets: to love God and our neighbour, wholeheartedly. Or as Teresa of Avila puts it, holiness is a matter of bringing our wills into union with God’s will. (36)

GROWTH IN HOLINESS:

“Various attempts to classify the stages of spiritual growth have been made over the centuries. The predominant classification used by a number of the Doctors we are drawing from and many other writers as well, is the three-stage division of purgative, illuminative, and unitive. (Another major attempt at delineating the stages of growth is that of St. Teresa of Avila who divides the journey into seven “mansions” or stages).

In brief, the purgative stage or way includes the initial phases of the spiritual life, including coming to conversion, turning away from sin, bringing one’s life into conformity with the moral law, initiating the habit of prayer and the practices of piety, and maintaining a relatively stable life in the Church. (The first three mansions of Teresa deal with issues connected with the purgative stage).

The illuminative stage is one of continuing growth. It is characterized by deeper prayer, growth in the virtues, deepening love of neighbour, greater moral stability, more complete surrender to the lordship of Christ, greater detachment from all that is not God, and increasing desire for full union. It is accompanied by various kinds of trials and purifications and sometimes by great consolations and blessings, including what are commonly referred to as “mystical phenomena.” (Teresa’s fourth, fifth, and sixth mansions deal with issues connected with this stage).

The unitive stage is one of deep habitual union with God, characterized by deep joy, profound humility, freedom from fears of suffering or trials, great desire to serve God, and apostolic fruitfulness. The experience of the presence of God is almost continual; great insight into the things of God is experienced; and while not without suffering now becomes primarily the grace of sharing in the redeeming suffering of Christ rather than the suffering of purification. This deep, habitual union is variously described as a “spiritual marriage” or “transforming union”.” (Teresa describes the unitive stage in the seventh mansion.)

This three-stage division is a useful way of broadly characterizing the different aspects of the spiritual journey. (37)

Some may find this terminology a bit daunting. But it is really very simple. Fr. Tom Speier ofm refers to the three stages as Conversion, Discipleship and Communion. Fr. Thomas Dubay S.M. gives another way at looking at these stages:

For the purpose of clarity we will distinguish three main degrees of human excellences, natural and supernatural, even though they do occur in numberless shades of perfection. There is a fundamental or basic degree, then the advancing and finally the consummate. We readily see these three stages in singing, ice skating, cooking, teaching and so on. In the moral order we can speak of the basic conversion as a freedom from mortal sins. The advancing level is the giving up of willed venial sins. The consummate or perfect level is the totality of heroic goodness, going all the way with God, loving without limits. (38)

SOME SUGGESTED BIBLICAL TEXTS ON THE THREE STAGES:

FIRST STAGE (PURGATIVE WAY):

“Convert and believe the Holy Gospel” (Mk. 1:14)

“What we have to do is give up everything that does not lead to God”. (Titus 2:12)

“Before the world was made He chose us in Christ to be holy and spotless”. (Eph. 1:4)

“No one can see God without holiness”. (Heb. 12:14)

“We prove we are God’s servants by a spirit of holiness”. (2 Cor. 6:6)

“Anyone not living a holy life is no child of God”. (1 Jn. 3:10)

“You must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect”. (Mt. 5:42)

SECOND STAGE (ILLUMINATIVE WAY):

“No one will be fit to receive the life to come unless he has prepared himself in this life to receive it”. (St. Augustine D.O.II, 600)

“This is eternal life to know you the one true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent”. (Jn. 17:3)

This stage is all about transformation, sanctification and being made holy.

Do not be conformed but transformed by the renewal of your mind (Rom. 12:2). And all of us, with our unveiled faces like mirrors reflecting the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the image that we reflect in brighter glory; this is the work of the Lord who is the Spirit”. (2 Cor. 3:18)

In the Bible, transformation means “change, or renewal, from a life that no longer conforms to the ways of the world, to one that pleases God” (Rom. 12:2). This is accomplished by the renewing of our minds, an inward transformation that will manifest itself in outward actions. The Bible presents the transformed life in Christ as demonstrated through our “bearing fruit in every good work (and) growing in the knowledge of God” (Col. 1:10). Transformation involves those who were once far from God being “drawn near” to Him through the blood of Christ. (Eph. 2:13)

Moreover, evidence of transformation within us is seen in the way we increasingly reflect the likeness and glory of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18). “God doesn’t just want to save us from our sins (though this is a necessary first step); He wants to save us for Himself, for immersion in His own blessed Triune life of love, for a glorious transfiguration wherein our humanity becomes resplendent with His divinity” (Jared Ortiz)

NOT OPTIONAL:

Transformation is not optional, for the Christian, Ralph Martin, maintains. He says that “the source of all our unhappiness and misery is sin and its effects, and the sooner the purification of sin and its effects can take place in our life, the happier we will be and the better able to truly love others. Only then will we be able to enter into the purpose God has for our life. Truly, in this case, better sooner than later.

And finally, it is important to realize that there is only one choice; either to undergo complete transformation and enter heaven, or be eternally separated from God in hell. There are only two ultimate destinations, and if we want to enter heaven we must be made ready for the sight of God. Holiness is not an “option”. There are only saints in heaven; total transformation is not an “option” for those interested in that sort of thing, but is essential for those who want to spend eternity with God. Jesus said “you must be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect”. (Mt. 5:48)

We are to strive for peace with all men, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. (Heb. 12:14)

The whole purpose of our creation, the whole purpose of our redemption, is so that we may be fully united with God in every aspect of our being. We exist for union; we were created for union; we were redeemed for eternal union. The sooner we are transformed the happier and the more “fulfilled” we will be. The only way to the fulfilment of all desire is to undertake and complete the journey to God.

In the Old Testament it was clear that to actually see God in our untransformed human condition was to be destroyed.

Then Moses said, “Do let me see your glory!” God answered, “I will make all my beauty pass before you, and in your presence I will pronounce my name, “LORD” ; I who shows favours to whom I will, I who grant mercy to whom I will. But my face you cannot see, for no man sees me and still lives.” (Ex. 33:18-20, NAB)

It is only Jesus who sees the face of the Father, and it is through Jesus that we can be made ready to share in His vision of the Father. It is through our union with Jesus, our contemplation of His “face”, that we are, little by little, transformed and made ready for the beatific vision, which is so much more than what we commonly understand as “seeing”; it is indeed a participation in the ecstatic knowing and loving of the Trinity, a participation in Love itself.”

Other texts: Phil. 1:6, 9-11); 1 Thes. 3:12-13, 5:23; Eph. 4:13; 2 Pet. 1:3-4)

THIRD STAGE (UNITIVE WAY):

The Son, the radiant image of the Father’s glory (Heb. 1:3), has come to light a fire in us, a burning love, a consuming yearning.

“I have come to cast fire upon the earth and I would that it were already blazing” (Jn. 14:40).

St Paul tells us to be “filled with the utter fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19).

“You will be filled with a joy so glorious that it cannot be described”. (1 Pet. 1:8)

“Such that hearts will be full of joy”. (Jn. 16:22)

“Anyone joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him”. (1 Cor. 6:17)

“I live now, not I but Christ, lives in me”. (Gal. 2:20)

“God is love and anyone who lives in love, lives in God, and God lives in him. Love will come to its perfection in us when we can face the Day of Judgement without fear; because even in this world we have become as He is”. (1 Jn. 4:16)

Monday, 1 February 2016

Desire for God