Trusting in God

My heart is overwhelmed, my pity is stirred. I will not give vent to my blazing anger, I will not destroy Ephraim again; For I am God and not man, the Holy One present among you; I will not let the flames consume you. (Hos 11:9)

We have forgotten who we are, me thinks. The whole point of Buddhism, for example, is to not get lost in human, intellectual arguments of who God is and what God expects of us, what His needs are, what His favourite colour is, but rather to perfect our own being in honour of Him: when we are enlightened, we are closest to Him and necessarily also closest to our neighbour knowing both divine compassion and wisdom. So like our Creator, we shall not give vent to anger: how often will we use the excuse of being 'merely human'?

Jesus said to his Apostles: "As you go, make this proclamation: 'The Kingdom of heaven is at hand.' Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons. Without cost you have received; without cost you are to give. Do not take gold or silver or copper for your belts; no sack for the journey, or a second tunic, or sandals, or walking stick. The laborer deserves his keep. (Mt 10:7-10)

Jesus asks us to follow Him, to live as He lives, to do as He does, curing, cleansing, driving away evil and working wonders here on Earth. We are asked to be disciples, saints and apostles, all of us, according to our abilities and gifts received from the Father. We are challenged to be more than just 'merely human', and avoiding the use of our separation from God as an excuse to be lazy and cruel and Selfish to ourselves and others. I have to walk your path; you cannot do it for me. Simplicity, you teach. The world is not difficult. Give. And give some more. And what i sow i shall reap. There is nothing to fear on Earth if we trust in God.

Lord, let me be like you: let me begin with my faith and my works and my efforts until the day i die, day by day growing in your light.

Deo gratias.

St. Benedict

Thank you St. Benedict!

And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life. (Mt.19:29)

The Middle Way he seems to have settled on, realising that other forms of monasticism current at the time were not helpful, not sustainable. A Middle Way such as:

His vision was a life characterised by prudence and moderation rather than severe asceticism and lived within a framework of authority, obedience, stability, and community life. ‘Stability’ meant that a monk would generally stay permanently in the monastery which he had joined. It was a way of life which was complete, well-ordered and practical. The monk’s day was taken up with liturgical prayer, complemented by sacred reading and manual work of various kinds which took care of the community’s needs. (Sacred Space)

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. (Mt 19:23)

It seems to me that God is in every good idea. I have heard it said that paradise is now, we just have to see it that way. St. Benedict saw beyond the bad and created the good, saw beyond the limitations men create for themselves and took a step further. Paradise is now, a state of mind, a vision of the world, God in All Things.

Deo gratias.

Bonded With God

I will espouse you to me forever: I will espouse you in right and in justice, in love and in mercy; I will espouse you in fidelity, and you shall know the LORD (Hos 2:21-22)

Two things i enjoyed from today's reading from the Old Testament is the bond made between God and man, a sign of each others free will. Like 'marriage' or accepting to live together, to bond, to become greater than two individuals, through sickness and health, through the passage of time and life here on Earth, we choose and make an oath on our honour. All very chivalrous, indeed, but there is more. The Jesuit's Sacred Space calls the 'in right and in justice' of the prophet to be simply 'right conduct' (Sacred Space). The Buddhist's call this sila or moral conduct: right speech, right action and right livelihood. Or how one lives in harmony with ones neighbours day by day and moment by moment. No easy task.

A legal contract of sorts? What binds men to property and wealth on Earth is not the same as that which binds men to each other in compassion and goodness. Of course, as Christians we are not bound to Mosaic Law (As St. Paul put it, “For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace." Rom 6:14), but the word for 'law' or 'torah' is also defined as 'instruction'. Thus, our free will is in tact: we must voluntarily accept God's love and grace and mercy if we are to grow as human beings, to grow in compassion and wisdom, to grow in peace and happiness. We have to choose to do the right thing. We can choose to speak kindly, to offer and helping hand and to change the way we live our daily life to the benefit of all mankind.

And this is the 'love' of God's promise. The Hebrew word used is 'hesed', meaning a bond or contract:

...this divine hesed calls for corresponding hesed in man towards Yahweh, consisting of self-giving, loving trust, abandonment, deep affection, ‘piety’, a love (in short) which is a joyful submission to the will of God and an active charity to fellow men (Sacred Space).

Marriage is a 'joyful submission' in many ways. We loose an individual identity and gain something greater, namely 'we'. Mankind comes together with God as One. As He loves us, so can we love Him. And as He is in all things, so too can we love all things as God and know Him. Is this 'knowing' not enlightenment? To stand in the glory of God's light and know loving-kindness in word and deed, day by day and moment by moment?

Today i renew my vows, the promises i made, the mindful effort to keep them and the prayer to God that my faith grow in honour of all that i can be, in His name. Amen.

Deo gratias.