11.28.2008

Pope's Address to Religious on 11.20.08: The Call to Marriage to Christ

Recently, Pope Benedict XVI addressed the participants of the plenary assembly of the congregation for institutes of consecrated life and societies of apostolic life. Here is the first full paragraph of the body of his address:

This year the Plenary Assembly of your Congregation has focused on a topic particularly dear to me: monasticism, a forma vitae that has always been inspired by the nascent Church which was brought into being at Pentecost (Acts 2: 42-47; 4: 32-35). From the conclusions of your work that has focused especially on female monastic life useful indications can be drawn to those monks and nuns who "seek God", carrying out their vocation for the good of the whole Church. Recently too (cf. Address to the world of culture, Paris, 12 September 2008), I desired to highlight the exemplarity of monastic life in history, stressing that its aim is at the same time both simple and essential: quaerere Deum, to seek God and to seek him through Jesus Christ who has revealed him (cf. Jn 1: 18), to seek him by fixing one's gaze on the invisible realities that are eternal (cf. 2 Cor 4: 18), in the expectation of our Saviour's appearing in glory (cf. Ti 2: 13).

The form of life known as monasticism takes its inspiration from the newborn Church birthed at Pentecost. The aim of this life is seeking God through Jesus. The next paragraph from his address is my main focus; it follows here:

Christo omnino nihil praeponere [prefer nothing to Christ] (cf. Rule of Benedict 72, 11; Augustine, Enarr. in Ps 29: 9; Cyprian, Ad Fort 4). These words which the Rule of St Benedict takes from the previous tradition, clearly express the precious treasure of monastic life lived still today in both the Christian West and East. It is a pressing invitation to mould monastic life to the point of making it an evangelical memorial of the Church and, when it is authentically lived, "a reference point for all the baptized" (cf. John Paul II, Orientale lumen, n. 9). By virtue of the absolute primacy reserved for Christ, monasteries are called to be places in which room is made for the celebration of God's glory, where the mysterious but real divine presence in the world is adored and praised, where one seeks to live the new commandment of love and mutual service, thus preparing for the final "revelation of the sons of God" (Rm 8: 19). When monks live the Gospel radically, when they dedicate themselves to integral contemplative life in profound spousal union with Christ, on whom this Congregation's Instruction Verbi Sponsa (13 May 1999) extensively reflected, monasticism can constitute for all the forms of religious life and consecrated life a remembrance of what is essential and has primacy in the life of every baptized person: to seek Christ and put nothing before his love.

The precious treasure of monastic life is preferring nothing to Christ. “When monks live the Gospel radically, when they dedicate themselves to integral contemplative life in profound spousal union with Christ…monasticism can constitute… a remembrance of what is essential and has primacy in the life of every baptized person: to seek Christ and put nothing before his love.”

When men and women religious have a contemplative prayer life as a spouse of Christ, they are a witness and a reminder to all Christians of what is most important: seeking Christ and loving Him above all else. The point the pope is making here is the main point of all that I am saying in this blog: all of us are called to an intimate spousal union with Christ.

The Holy Father’s next paragraph is here:

The path pointed out by God for this quest and for this love is his Word itself, who in the books of the Sacred Scriptures, offers himself abundantly, for the reflection of men and women. The desire for God and love of his Word are therefore reciprocally nourished and bring forth in monastic life the unsupressable need for the opus Dei, the studium orationis and lectio divina, which is listening to the Word of God, accompanied by the great voices of the tradition of the Fathers and Saints, and also prayer, guided and sustained by this Word. The recent General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, celebrated in Rome last month on the theme: The Word of God in the life and mission of the Church, renewing the appeal to all Christians to root their life in listening to the Word of God contained in Sacred Scripture has especially invited religious communities to make the Word of God their daily food, in particular through the practice of lectio divina (cf. Elenchus praepositionum, n. 4).

The path to a deep, intimate union with Christ is through the Word of God. Our hunger for God grows and is satisfied through immersion into His Word, and we love His Word the more we desire God. We are to make the Word of God our daily food by listening to Him together with His friends, the Fathers and Saints, and through our conversation with Him.

The pope next paragraph is his concluding one. Here is a portion of it:

Let us invoke Mary, Mother of the Lord, the "woman of listening", who put nothing before love for the Son of God, born of her, so that she may help communities of consecrated life and, especially, monastic communities to be faithful to their vocation and mission. May monasteries always be oases of ascetic life, where fascination for the spousal union with Christ is sensed, and where the choice of the Absolute of God is enveloped in a constant atmosphere of silence and contemplation.

Here the Holy Father prays that the “woman of listening” who sacrificed all for the love of her Son may help monks and nuns, “in a constant atmosphere of silence and contempation,” forsake all else for the choice of God and the relationship of Christ as their spouse.

All of what I am saying goes back to this foundation and wellspring: that each person is made to be a spouse of Christ. This is the teaching of the Church as evidenced by this short address by our Holy Father.


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Copyright 2007.
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11.16.2008

God's Jealousy and the Lukewarm

Did you know that God is jealous? I thought jealousy was a bad thing, so how could God be jealous? There is a bad jealousy and a good jealousy. Jealousy comes about when a person detects that what is due to them in a relationship from another is not given. The jealousy is sinful when one makes a rash judgment and so improperly detects infidelity or when one expects more than is warranted from the relationship. An example of this would be when a guy and a gal are friends, but he really likes her than more than just friends. He might be tempted to jealousy if she starts to date another guy. Their relationship does not warrant the jealousy, but he wants to have a more exclusive relationship, and so he feels hurt that she is with another.

The good and healthy type of jealousy is when a couple are committed, especially in a marriage, and one of the spouses is not faithful. It is right and good for the other to be hurt and jealous for the exclusive love of the unfaithful spouse. Marriage is a permanent, exclusive relationship entailing the complete gift of self to the other for life, and when this is lacking, it is right for the other to cry foul and set things aright.

There are a number of passages from the Bible talking about God’s jealousy. The first two are from the book of Exodus; notice that God is jealous when the people go after false gods; He says that worshipping other gods is harlotry.

Exodus 20:4 “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; 5 you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Exodus 34:13 You shall tear down their altars, and break their pillars, and cut down their Asherim 14 (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they play the harlot after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and one invites you, you eat of his sacrifice, 16 and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters play the harlot after their gods and make your sons play the harlot after their gods.

The next passages come from Deuteronomy. Here God is not only jealous, He is also a consuming fire. The image is of a husband consumed with the fire of his love for his beloved.

Deuteronomy 4:23 Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the LORD your God, which he made with you, and make a graven image in the form of anything which the LORD your God has forbidden you. 24 For the LORD your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God.

The next book in the Bible after Deuteronomy is Joshua. In that book, toward the very end, it states this:

Joshua 24:19 But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the LORD; for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. 20 If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you harm, and consume you, after having done you good.”

Two passages from the prophets come both from Zechariah, and the emphasis here is on the immensity of God’s jealousy. God is not only a little jealous:

Zechariah 1:14 So the angel who talked with me said to me, ‘Cry out, Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion.

Zechariah 8:1 And the word of the LORD of hosts came to me, saying, 2 “Thus says the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath. 3 Thus says the LORD: I will return to Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, and Jerusalem shall be called the faithful city, and the mountain of the LORD of hosts, the holy mountain.

God is so jealous of us because He views us as His spouse. We owe Him our perpetual and exclusive complete gift of self as one spouse to another, and He is jealous when we do not.

I was explaining a passage from the New Testament to my junior high students the other day. We were looking at God’s words to the church in Laodicea that Saint John recorded in the Book of Revelation. Speaking through the angel, God said:

Revelation 3:15 “‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot! 16 So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. 17 For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing; not knowing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. 18 Therefore I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire, that you may be rich, and white garments to clothe you and to keep the shame of your nakedness from being seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see. 19 Those whom I love, I reprove and chasten; so be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. 21 He who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I myself conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”


The point I want to highlight is that it seems that Jesus would rather we were completely bad than being partly good and partly bad. That doesn’t seem to make sense. Wouldn’t He rather that we were at least somewhat good than being entirely bad? Isn’t it better to be a person who does some good but occasionally falls into sin than a person who can’t even be good at times? Isn’t the generous glutton better than the cold-hearted killer? In a juridical sense, certainly, he is. But this is not what Jesus is talking about to the church in Laodicea.

Jesus is not talking juridically so much as He is relationally. In a romantic context, we want either a “yes I am interested” or a “no I am not interested.” The one thing no one wants is the “I’m not sure if I’m interested,” or the “I really like you (as a friend).” What is even worse is someone who is interested one day but not the next. In romantic, spousal relationships, we want all or nothing.

This is the sense of Jesus’ words here. He thinks of the lukewarm as so much vomit that He can’t wait to hurl so He can feel better. He wants the church of Laodicea, and all of us, to be exclusively His, not the one who is a sometimes Christian. The rest of the message to Laodicea makes it more clear: they are the ones who are rich and do not think they need Jesus. They do not think they need to pray everyday. Jesus advises: be zealous and repent and pray: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”


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Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

11.15.2008

"The Heart" by Saint Escriva

I give you thanks, my Jesus, for your decision to become perfect Man, with a Heart which loved and is most loveable; which loved unto death and suffered; which was filled with joy and sorrow; which delighted in the things of men and showed us the way to Heaven; which subjected itself heroically to duty and acted with mercy; which watched over the poor and the rich and cared for sinners and the just.

I give you thanks, my Jesus. Give us hearts to measure up to Yours!

– St. Josemaria Escriva, Furrow, #813

Go here to read my thought on the heart.

Thanks for reading and your prayers.
Copyright 2007.
All rights reserved.

Copyright 2007

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