The Gift

"... No one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father", Jesus says today in John 6:65. The gift of faith, granted, not taken, not developed through study or inherited. Each person receives it as a gift, something freely given and freely accepted.

I meditate on this, and the challenge God's gift brings me: now that He has given me life through the spirit, for It is the spirit that gives life, while the flesh is of no avail (Jn 6:63), and i have accepted His gift of faith, what am i going to do with it?

Why do the temptations of the flesh, this material world known through our senses, distract us so? Buddha called them illusions. Jesus warns that anything gained materially is of no avail, a waste of time and energy, fruitless, perhaps even pointless in truly knowing what life is. The meaning of life can only be exponentially known through the spirit. Jesus reminded us of that earlier in St. John's gospel 6:56-57:

Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me and I have life because of the Father, so also the one who feeds on me will have life because of me.

God is the key. Being God in this material world, Jesus shows us how this unity can work. God is, I AM. Everything comes from Him and returns to Him. There is nothing that is not God. To believe otherwise is indeed, to willingly choose to believe in illusions. With His gift of faith, the mists can clear and the world has new meaning, just as all that i do with my life can have new meaning. To put the gift away or refuse it would be insanity, me thinks, just like those in Plato's cave allegory who choose to believe in the reality of dancing lights on a cave wall because it's more convenient, because it's all they know, because fear binds them, because to turn around and walk up out into the light requires effort. Politics, economics, science and technology, these all seem more important, more real, worthier of our time and energy because we experience immediate pleasure or security in the flesh. We think we are living, but Jesus says we are not living if we choose to believe in life this way. God is life, the True and Absolute Reality.

Jesus asks his disciples to make a choice, to put down the gift of faith and walk away, or embrace it, live it. St. Peter answers for them: Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life (Jn 6:68).

No one said life would be easy. But choosing to live life any other way seems a bit pointless, me thinks. I thank God for His gift of faith and humbly try to be worthy of such a brilliant gift: Life.

Deo gratias.

Queen's Day

From the land of a Protestant monarch, bless her orange heart, a happy Queen's Day weekend from the Netherlands.
And thanks to St. Paul for listening to the Christ on the road to Damascus, because he could have always had just said 'No'. Though a founder of the Church and the Jew who called the gentiles to God, Leviticus and the angry, vengeful God of blood sacrifice of St. Paul still intimidates: 'you can take the boy off the farm, but you can't get the farm out of the boy' ... if you get my meaning.

Deo gratias.

What Religion are You Today?

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draw him (Jn 6:44)

or as the Jesuits explain:

Jesus reminds us that it is not we who find Jesus but rather it is the Father who finds us and leads us to Jesus as the Way to God (Sacred Space).

Or perhaps it is the Trinity, both separate and united, in opening doors, inspiring us to cross thresholds, filling us with the courage to say 'yes' and with the experience of joy after taking those steps forwards. A friend of mine questioned how i ended up with a Christian confirmation. He thought about the various discussions we had had over the years and seemed amazed. I wasn't. In fact, it all made sense to me, one long, unbroken line to the Trinity. One story, perhaps with a few twists and definitely with a Deus Ex Machina or two along the way, but it was the Truth always beckoning. Doors slammed shut in the past were circumvented. My own aversions let go. Through all the religious noise, the Light was always present. Age helps, they say it brings wisdom, but age allowed me to see the effects and the true, crippling weight of a life without love: isolation, abandonment, selfishness, suicide. God is always present, always ready to show us Home. This very human theme has many costumes and props, mantras and songs, leaders and followers. Here and now, Jesus offers to be the Way if i choose to walk with him; it is my cultural heritage and the voice i know best.

God is. 'I AM' is His confirmation. His chosen one, His Son, Our Christ, shows us the Way, carrying the light in darkness, comforting us on our pilgrimage, teaching us to be as full as life as he was, letting us trust in His presence to say the right thing and make the right choices to honour His Father and dignify our lives and all those we touch with His verysame grace, hope, love and mercy.

The road is long, but life is short. I value each day as an opportunity to give thanks and return what was bestowed on all Creation ... or at least, i try to do my best.

With the grace of God.

Deo gratias.

Christ In Us

Peace to all of you who are in Christ (1 Pt 5:14), St. Peter blesses us, though it might be from the pen of  St. Mark.

What is it to be 'in Christ'. Me thinks to be one with Christ, unified, inseparable, connected with bonds that are both anointed by God and freely accepting His grace and love and wisdom. The Eucharist celebration today ("communion" or to be joined with, united with) was different. The presiding priest was unknown to me: old, frail, needing assistance to walk. He was, however, filled with energy and enthusiasm and through out the mass he emphasised our being here together to share in Christ. None of us knew for how long we might be here and able to attend a mass, but now, at this very moment together, this was important. We had come together in Christ's name. And in Christ's name we would know grace and love and wisdom. In His name we ate of his body and drank of his blood that we would remember, that is, be joined with him in our daily life.

Lest we forget that we are always 'in Christ' and He is always in us in the form of the Holy Ghost, the Holy Trinity.

God grant us peace ... that in stillness we might come closer ... in awareness to know our own motives, our strengths and weaknesses ... in steadfastness be more vigilant of 'roaring lions on the prowl' ... in freedom from doubt that we persevere in our desire to serve God and our neighbour as brothers in Christ.

Deo gratias.

Interdependency

Thich Nhat Hahn, Zen Buddhist Master, teaches about inter-connectivity, that all things on Earth are interdependent, that one can't exist without the other.

Bread. The grain for flour must grow: fertile earth, water and sunlight. Born from a single seed, it must be nourished as a crop if there will be enough seeds to make the flour. The seeds must be ground by someone to create flour. With the flour one must mix water. Some salt is also necessary: a mine, gathered from the sea? And some yeast, bacteria, microscopic life-forms, which will allow the bread to rise: a culture often treasured by bakers. These ingredients do not simply combine by circumstance, thus human hands must combine them, kneed them, build the oven and fire to heat the dough and make the bread. Presently, most bread is bought from a baker in a shop, delivered by a driver, through a distribution centre. This is why we give thanks for that which nourishes our bodies and is delicious.

"Sir, give us this bread always."
Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life;
whoever comes to me will never hunger,
and whoever believes in me will never thirst" (Jn 6:34-35)

We may count our blessings if we have daily bread to eat (for not everyone does), a healthy body is important. But no matter how healthy the body, if the mind is corrupt and void of compassion, all nutrition will be in vain. Jesus reminds us that there is more to life than just want the body needs. As i mentioned in my last blog, an animal needs good nutrition too, but knows no unconditional love, no loving-kindness, no grace and no forgiveness. These are the qualities that Christ has come to give us as a gift. He is the bread. He is the wine. Always with us to feed us with His Wisdom and Compassion, to fortify us when we are weak, to nourish our deeds and share in our own mercy. May we daily break bread with him and give thanks.

Deo gratias.

The Fearlessness of St. Stephan

More notes on the different levels of worldly existence, the conventional that is ruled by external factors such as cold and heat, bodily discomforts or pleasures, that what we see and desire or run away from with aversion. This is the conventional reality in which our suffering resides. This is the home of dukkha.

Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. (Jn 6:26)

It is natural for hungry men to want a free lunch, me thinks. A starving man will not see the hand that offers the food, but only the food itself. A starving man, a hungry man, a man who knows only the reality of the daily grind and who dreams of getting rich quick as a solution to all his problems, might miss great wonders and signs.

Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal. (Jn 6:27)

Jesus clarifies and enlightens. He reminds those that would fill their bellies that they will always know hunger. That is the way the body works. Yet, if ruled by hunger, ones master becomes the body and all its whims, cravings and aversions. Thus enslaved by bodily needs and blinded by its sensations, any consideration of what is truly important is forgotten. The hand that offers the food is irrelevant. The blessing ignored. There is certainly no time for fluffy tales of a greater truth, a realm of Love and fearlessness here on Earth, the state of mind and grace of the Absolute Reality or Truth.

As if to make the point still clearer, it is also written :

Do not love the world or what is in the world. If anyone does love the world, the love of the Father finds no place in him, because everything there is in the world -- disordered bodily desires, disordered desires of the eyes, pride in possession -- is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world, with all its disordered desires, is passing away. But whoever does the will of God remains for ever. (1 Jn 2:15-17)

When the world is seen from Absolute Reality, indeed bodily desires become 'disordered'. Though the kingdom of the flesh is necessary and desirable to our species, such as the birth of babies, digestion of food for health, writing and reading and singing psalms of praise and preaching the wonder of letting go of the world to gain the world, a greater world, a holy world, we stand with our human feet on Earth. The apostle reminds us, however, to be very aware of how we stand. Do we stand in that lesser reality of hunger and aversion, taking bread to fill our bellies whilst believing only in staving off death for another day? Or do we stand here and now on Earth, yet fully in the Absolute Reality of fearlessness and compassion, of full knowledge that all shall pass, that all things change, that all of this Earth, however sweet, terrifying or glorious, is finite? Let it go and stand together with that which is eternal, he invites us.

I think of St. Stephan standing before his accusers, angry men, hateful, deceiving men, who would have this disciple killed and thus his threat to their way of life removed. What a life! Living in fear and intolerance. Living in hate and violence. Their life seems to be about taking free bread and ignoring the hand that offers it in grace. Theirs is the conventional reality, the small and immediate reality of existence that is so very close to animals: food, shelter, reproduction, always fear, always hungry. As we know, this existence is still predominant and rules most of humanity. St. Stephan stands before these men of influence and power unafraid. He now lives in the greater Truth of eternal Love. He knows that fear is an illusion, for even these men can see that "his face was like the face of an angel" (Acts 6:15). Most of the world lives in fear and clings to this lesser reality as truth. We still have much work to do for our brothers: it is the only work worth doing!

Deo gratias.