St Paul of the Cross (reprise)

Several years ago I did a reflection for my parish. I noted that all through Advent we sing Veni, Veni, Emmanuel and pray that God will come and really reveal Godself as Emmanuel, the God who is with us. I also noted that we may not always realize the depth of meaning captured in the name Emmanuel. We may not realize the degree of solidarity with us and the whole of creation it points to. There are several reasons here. 

          + First, we tend to use Emmanuel only during Advent and Christmastide so we stop reflecting on the meaning or theological implications of the name. 

          + Secondly, we are used to thinking of a relatively impersonal God borrowed from Greek philosophy; he is omnipresent -- rather like air is present in our lives and he is impassible, incapable of suffering in any way at all. Because he is omnipresent, God seems already to be "Emmanuel" so we are unclear what is really being added to what we know (and what is now true!!) of God.  Something is similarly true because of God's impassibility which seems to make God incapable of suffering with us or feeling compassionate toward us. (We could say something similar regarding God's immutability, etc. Greek categories are inadequate for understanding a living God who wills to be Emmanuel with all that implies.) 

          +  And thirdly, we tend to forget that the word "reveal" does not only mean "to make known," but also "to make real in space and time." The eternal and transcendent God who is revealed in space and time as Emmanuel is the God who, in Christ, enters exhaustively into the most profoundly historical and personal lives and circumstances of his Creation and makes these part of his own life in the process.

Thus, just as the Incarnation of the Word of God happens over the whole of Jesus' life and death and not merely with Jesus' conception or nativity, so too does God require the entire life and death of Jesus (that is, his entire living into death) to achieve the degree of solidarity with us that makes him the Emmanuel he wills to be. There is a double "movement" involved here, the movement of descent and ascent, kenosis and theosis. Not only does God-in-Christ become implicated in the whole of human experience and the realm of human history but in that same Christ God takes the whole of the human situation and experience into Godself. We talk about this by saying that through the Christ Event heaven and earth interpenetrate one another and one day God will be all in all or, again, that "the Kingdom of God is at hand." John the Evangelist says it again and again with the language of mutual indwelling and union: "I am in him and he is in me," "he who sees me sees the one who sent me", "the Father and I are One." Paul affirms dimensions of it in Romans 8 when he exults, "Nothing [at all in heaven or on earth] can separate us from the Love of God."

And so, in Jesus' life and active ministry, the presence of God is made real in space and time in an unprecedented way --- that is, with unprecedented authority, compassion, and intimacy. He companions and heals us; he exorcises our demons, teaches, feeds, forgives and sanctifies us. He is mentor and brother and Lord. He bears our stupidities and fear, our misunderstandings, resistance, and even our hostility and betrayals. But the revelation of God as Emmanuel means much more besides; as we move into the Triduum we begin to celebrate the exhaustive revelation, the exhaustive realization of an eternally-willed solidarity with us whose extent we can hardly imagine. In Christ and especially in his passion and death God comes to us in the unexpected and even the unacceptable place. Three dimensions of the cross especially allow us to see the depth of solidarity with us our God embraces in Christ: failure, suffering unto death, and lostness or godforsakenness. Together they reveal our God as Emmanuel --- the one who is with us as the one from whom nothing can ever ultimately separate us because in Christ those things become part of God's own life.

Jesus comes to the cross having apparently failed in his mission and shown his God to be a fraud. (From one perspective we could say that had he succeeded completely there would have been no betrayal, no trial, no torture and no crucifixion.) Jesus had spoken truth to power all throughout his ministry. On the cross this comes to a climax and in the events of Jesus' passion, the powers and principalities of this world appear to swallow him up. But even as this occurs and Jesus embraces the weight of the world's darkness and deathliness, Jesus remains open to God and trusts in his capacity to redeem any failure; thus even failure, but especially this one, can serve the Kingdom of God. Jesus suffers to the point of death and suffers more profoundly than any person in history we can name --- not because he hurt more profoundly than others but because he was more vulnerable to it and chose to embrace that vulnerability and all the world threw at him without mitigation. Suffering per se is not salvific, but Jesus' openness and responsiveness to God (that is, his obedience) in the face of suffering is. Thus, suffering even unto death is transformed into a potential sacrament of God's presence. Finally, Jesus suffers the lostness of godforsakenness or abandonment by God --- the ultimate separation from God due to sin. This is the meaning of not just death but death on a cross. In this death Jesus again remains open (obedient) to the God who reveals himself most exhaustively as Emmanuel and takes even the lostness of sin and death into himself and makes these his own. After all, as the NT reminds us, it is the sick and lost for whom God in Christ comes.

In perhaps the most powerful passage I have ever read on the paradox of the cross of Christ, John Dwyer (my major professor until doctoral work) speaks about God's reconciling work in Jesus --- the exhaustive coming of God as Emmanuel to transform everything --- in this way:

[[Through Jesus, the broken being of the world enters the personal life of the everlasting God, and this God shares in the broken being of the world. God is eternally committed to this world, and this commitment becomes full and final in his personal presence within this weak and broken man on the cross. In him the eternal One takes our destiny upon himself --- a destiny of estrangement, separation, meaninglessness, and despair. But at this moment the emptiness and alienation that mar and mark the human situation become once and for all, in time and eternity, the ways of God. God is with this broken man in suffering and in failure, in darkness and at the edge of despair, and for this reason suffering and failure, darkness and hopelessness will never again be signs of the separation of man from God. God identifies himself with the man on the cross, and for this reason everything we think of as manifesting the absence of God will, for the rest of time, be capable of manifesting his presence --- up to and including death itself.]]

He continues,

[[Jesus is rejected and his mission fails, but God participates in this failure, so that failure itself can become a vehicle of his presence, his being here for us. Jesus is weak, but his weakness is God's own, and so weakness itself can be something to glory in. Jesus' death exposes the weakness and insecurity of our situation, but God made them his own; at the end of the road, where abandonment is total and all the props are gone, he is there. At the moment when an abyss yawns beneath the shaken foundations of the world and self, God is there in the depths, and the abyss becomes a ground. Because God was in this broken man who died on the cross, although our hold on existence is fragile, and although we walk in the shadow of death all the days of our lives, and although we live under the spell of a nameless dread against which we can do nothing, the message of the cross is good news indeed: rejoice in your fragility and weakness; rejoice even in that nameless dread because God has been there and nothing can separate you from him. It has all been conquered, not by any power in the world or in yourself, but by God. When God takes death into himself it means not the end of God but the end of death.]] Dwyer, John C., Son of Man Son of God, a New Language for Faith, p 182-183.

A Contemplative Moment: Morning Prayer

Morning Prayer

by John Philip Newell

In the morning light, O God,

may I glimpse again your image deep within me

the threads of eternal glory

woven into the fabric of every man and woman.

Again may I catch sight of the mystery of the human soul

fashioned in your likeness

deeper than knowing

more enduring than time.

And in glimpsing these threads of light

amidst the weakness and distortions of my life

let me be recalled

to the strength and beauty deep in my soul.

Let me be recalled

to the strength and beauty of your image in every living

soul.

_______________________________________________________

The dignity of the human person is not easy for some to believe in, or even to glimpse, much less to stay attuned to and live in light of. The inner work I do is strongly oriented towards awareness of the presence of God within us as ground and source of all the potentiality we hold uniquely and realize over time. As we abide in God and God abides in us, this incredible revelation of life and divinity at our very core demands our awareness and cultivation if we are to live life as abundantly and authentically as God desires and wills for us. John Philip Newell's prayer captures all of this as it provides an invitation to get in touch with God's call to live the graced integrity we know as imago dei.

Have Mercy on Us (Porter's Gate)

 

 The paradox of Christianity celebrated in song!! 

 [Verse 1] 

The goodness of the Lord is the kindness of the Lord 

With ev'ry breath we take, the gift of life and grace 

The power of the Lord is the meekness of the Lord 

Who bore humanity with brave humility 

 [Chorus]

 Let Your mercy flow through us 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

Let Your mercy flow through us 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

 [Verse 2]

 The beauty of the Lord is the suff'ring of the Lord 

Is Christ upon a tree, stripped of dignity 

The glory of the Lord is the mercy of the Lord 

Gives life for us to see a new humanity 

 [Chorus] 

Let Your mercy flow through us 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

Let Your mercy flow through us 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

 [Bridge 1] 

When they see us, may they see 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

When they know us, may they know 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

When they see us, may they see 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

When they know us, may they know 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

 [Chorus]

 Let Your mercy flow through us

 Your mercy, Your mercy

 Let Your mercy flow through us 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

 [Bridge 2]

 Bless the hands and feet 

Of those who serve in need 

Of the broken and ashamed 

Bless the weary soul 

The Lord will make us whole 

God, speak peace to those afraid 

May the words we speak 

Build a bridge for peace 

Your loving kindness shows the way 

Open up our doors 

Giving refuge for 

All the weary and afraid… 

 [Chorus]

 Let Your mercy flow through us 

Your mercy, Your mercy

 Let Your mercy flow through us

 Your mercy, Your mercy 

 [Outro]

 Let Your mercy flow through us 

Your mercy, Your mercy 

Hermiting: A Life Lived Entirely for God is also a Life Lived Entirely for Others

[[ Hi Sister O'Neal, Congratulations on the Camaldolese leading Morning Prayer for the Synod! It must be exciting to know someone there -- almost like being there yourself in some way!! I read your post on readiness for profession and also the post linked to it on basic questions to ask oneself in writing a Rule, which I hadn't read until tonight. They're both very good but also kind of daunting!! I understand that they are part of an ongoing process of dialogue with formators so that sort of helps them seem less daunting. What struck me clearly was the emphasis on the hermit living her life for the other. I don't think it was ever so clear to me as it was in reading your post on readiness, what a difference it must make whether the hermit life is lived for others or whether it is just about oneself and one's own selfish approach to solitude. 

I've read your pieces for a while now and the "for others" dimension of your life is always there at least implicitly. I never got a sense that your life was selfish, but in thinking about a hermit candidate for profession "struggling" with the paradox of "stricter separation from the world" and being able to articulate how this vocation is really lived for the sake of others, I got a sense of how important it is to you and to the Canon governing your life that the hermit life not be a selfish one. How hard that must be!!! You are asked to separate yourself from the world and live a life of silence and solitude and yet to be engaged with it in a way that helps it be redeemed! Wow!! You know, I thought I had a question for you but now all I have is that "Wow"! 

Does it ever cease to be a struggle -- the balance between solitude and living one's life for others? Do all hermits succeed in not living a selfish life by going off into solitude? I don't know if those are the questions I really want to ask but maybe you could say a little more about all of this when you have time. Oh, I found my question! Do you have it in your mind all the time that your life is lived for the sake of others? Is it something that drives who you are and what you do?]]

Thanks for your comments and your (eventual!) questions!! Good that the one you really wanted to ask came back to you!! I'm glad the emphasis on a life lived for others came through so clearly for you. It is one of the most counter-intuitive pieces of the vocation --- at least when we are thinking of hermits the way most folks tend to do. Today we have a term being used by some, "cocooning", that essentially refers to the idea of shutting oneself away from others. It gained real speed during the pandemic and today is recognized, not as a fad, but as an evolving trend. Some recognize three distinct types of cocooning, some speak of hyper-cocooning to measure the way technology has kept up and combined with the drive to cocoon, but most see all of this as a contemporary version of hermiting. One of the things Canon 603 makes very clear is that this is not so, and one element of Canon 603's vision of ALL eremitical life that does this most vividly is its insistence that eremitical life is a life lived for "the salvation of others".

Yes, this idea is in my mind somewhere all the time --- though not always consciously. Usually, my thoughts go this way: [[This life is lived from, with, and for God, that is, on God's behalf in all of these ways. For this reason, it is also lived for the sake of those whom God loves, and for that reason it should edify and be a source of healing and redemption for them as well. It is unlikely that I will do this in the same way the apostolic Sister does, but hermiting should definitely be ministerial.]] Because I believe that hermiting witnesses with a kind of vividness to what it means to be truly human my sense of being human implies a responsibility to become and be that as fully as possible. One does that by allowing God to be God for us and within us as fully as possible --- even to the point of our becoming transparent to God as Jesus was wholly transparent to God. What we show others then is that human being is a task we are given to accomplish by the grace of God and in which relating to and with God is central. 

For some hermits, all of this will necessarily spill over in some way for the direct benefit of others. Some will write about Eremitical Life or Prayer, for instance. Some will teach Scripture to their parish community, some of us have blogs and do spiritual direction, and some serve as EEMs or Lectors. Even when the hermit's presence in these ways is minimal or she rarely leaves her hermitage or speaks to others, the hermit raises questions for those paying attention: How can she live alone like she does? Does God really call some to give their lives to others in this way? Who could pray all day, how silly (boring, empty, meaningless, etc.) is all that; so why does she do this? Why would she come to minister to us in such minimal ways when she is a religious; shouldn't she be doing more (teaching CCD, RCIA, or leading workshops for Adult Faith Formation, etc.)? Is it really true her life is a ministry all by itself? What can I learn from her?

What I hope you hear in all of this is that the hermit's life is first of all, all about God and all about letting God be God. But this also means God will love the hermit into wholeness. And because of this all of it also means that such a life will reveal to others the very nature of being truly or authentically human, whether this happens through active forms of ministry or not. If the hermit focuses on God and on allowing God to be God, she will become an expression of God's love and that will inevitably spill over in some way to others. Perhaps she never leaves her hermitage except for occasional shopping trips or attendance at Church. Even so, her very life is a ministry for those with ears to hear and eyes to see. At other times, the hermit's life with God will spill over into discrete ministries. Still, in either case, it is not about balance so much as it is about what must always come first, and what will invariably also occur in light of that.

And so it is with every disciple, everyone who desires to minister to others. What the hermit says to the entire Church of ministers is that it is always primarily about letting God be God and loving us into wholeness.  Active ministry must always be built upon this. I remember that (Arch)Bishop Vigneron noted in his homily at my consecration that what I was reminding everyone of on that day is that we each need a place within ourselves that is given over entirely to God. I would push that a bit further because I understand the truth is paradoxical. I would say instead that each of us must be, first and foremost, entirely (wholeheartedly) about letting God be God and then too we can and will also be entirely (wholeheartedly) about the other --- each in our own way as our state of life calls us to be. 

What I try to keep in my mind all the time is this paradox. (It is actually made up of the same thoughts I began this piece with above and both parts drive me.) It helps prevent my life from becoming one of self-absorbed navel-gazing and concern with my own holiness or spiritual 'progression', and on the other hand, it also helps me when I am tempted to say yes to too much active ministry. In this paradox, there will be both work and progress toward greater and greater holiness AND there will be significant ministry. I suppose it is the hermit's outworking of the scripture, [[Seek ye first the Reign (or empowering sovereignty) of God and his righteousness (that is, let God be God), and all of these things shall be added unto you (i.e., everything else will flow freely).]] It is also, of course, an exemplar of the Law of Love.

Camaldolese Lead Morning Prayer at the Synod

Excited not only by the Synod, but by the fact that It is Camaldolese monks leading the schola for yesterday's Morning Prayer. (I understand they will lead MP every day.) I only know Fathers Cyprian (Prior, New Camaldoli) and Matteo (Monestero di Camaldoli), but they are with Br Thomas . (Not sure about the fourth monk.) Play to the end and you can access other segments of the Synod session.