71 : Jesus says to you : « Dine with Me »

The Risen Lord says to each one of us, incessantly : « Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me. » (Rev 3 :20)

Where is Jesus standing? Where in us the door He is knocking at is situated?

By our Baptism, Jesus takes our heart as His dwelling place. He is dwelling in the deepest part of our heart.

If our heart is like a Circle, Jesus is abiding in its deepest part (see on the diagram below the area in oval, with the Fire/Jesus in it).

Jesus, is in the deepest part of my heart knocking at the door. On the diagram, you can see the little door between the oval area and the rest of the circle (blue and green area).

Therefore, we might be “in our heart” but not necessarily “in Jesus” (see the diagram below).

Now, do I hear Him, from inside, knocking at my door ?

He speaks to me without an audible voice, He invites me to give myself to Him unconditionally; so He will be able to let me in, and "dine with me": giving Himself to me. He Himself is the Divine Food of that Sacred Dinner. 

Do I understand that the handle of the door is on my side? This is why He is knocking. I am the only one who can open the door. He will not force the door of my freedom. It is by giving myself to Him that I open the door. He will not impose Himself. He awaits patiently… sometimes for years…

The door opened, we enter and dwell in Jesus

Jesus: “Do you want to give yourself to Me today, and in every minute, like a little child?”

Let us meditate upon these words, ponder…. and decide (to give/offer ourselves to Him).

Jesus says: “By doing that (giving yourself to Me), you open the Door immediately and I let you in. Come to Me and abandon yourself in My arms, unconditionally.”

“By doing that my "Door" as well opens immediately: I let you in, I give myself to you, I pour My Spirit in you, nourish you in a Divine “Dinner”.”

The door opened

“From time to time, keep repeating the offering of yourself, in order to REMAIN with Me, in Me.”

When you are with Me, keep calling Me, gently, with my Name: JESUS.”

"I take your heart in My Hands"

“Come inside, where I dwell, and Dine with Me.”

70: The Fullness of the Eucharist

We normally receive the Eucharist once a week, some do more than once, some do receive the Eucharist on a daily basis. "Give us this day our daily Bread". "I am the Bread of Life" says Jesus, "who eats my flesh and drinks my blood"... "will dwell in Me", and become one with Me.

In the Eucharist, we receive all Jesus. There is no half-measure in the way that God gives Himself to us. This is from His side. At each Eucharist.

But from our part, we receive all Jesus yes, but we do so according to our capacity to receive Him, and this depends on the degree of our transformation in Him. This capacity should grow. In order to let our "capacity to receive Jesus" grow, we need to enlarge it by our effort to Listen to His Word (i.e. Lectio Divina). This is why Jesus Himself didn't start by saying: first you receive Me and the Father, but: first you have to listen to My Word, then we come and dwell in you:

“If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word;

and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him." (John 14:23)

One step deeper

Let us go deeper in "who is Jesus?", the "Jesus" we receive in the Eucharist. When I receive Communion, what is happening? Who am I receiving?, what does it mean?, what are the implications?, what more could happen?.

Jesus is our Way. He states it very clearly: "I am the Way". What does it mean? It means that following Jesus is a Journey, a Journey of transformation, of growth. Step by step, we let Jesus grow in us. We put our feet in the footsteps of Jesus. It means that He first went for the full Journey, opened the way, a new way for us, leading us to the Father, to the Fullness of transformation.

In this sense we never receive the Eucharist two times the same way. In between two Communions, we are supposed to grow, and the Eucharist itself is helping us in our journey of transformation as well.

In previous Posts we studied the Journey of growth (see posts "Spirituality 25: The Spiritual Journey 1/11" and the following ones, trough to 11/11).

Let me show you the shape of the full journey of spiritual growth:

Remember that this Journey is Jesus Himself, Jesus-the-Way, Jesus the Goal of our life (Union with Jesus), and the final Goal of our life (the fullness of love: dying of love, giving our life).

Jesus is not only our Life, but He is letting His own life in us grow. This is His will.

So, in each Eucharist, we paradoxically receive all Jesus, but assimilate only one small part, the part that make us make one step ahead: the daily Bread, the spiritual burden of growth of the day (see Mt 6:34).

Do we realise that the One we receive in the Eucharist it this all Journey, and that the Eucharist is the Promise that we are called to reach the Fullness of reception of Jesus?

Indeed, in the Eucharist we receive all Jesus, the entire Jesus-Way, the entire spiritual journey of growth. Each time. At each Communion.

Indeed, we receive all Jesus. This is from God's part.

But we may remain stagnant, not growing spiritually, not having a greater capacity of reception. We are then still in the first steps of the Journey: the "Purification of the sense", and we don't move from that stage.

Is this what we are meant to live? to receive?

Why do we reduce our Eucharist into "crumbs" of "Jesus-the-Way"?

Why we don't really fully believe in the Eucharist? in ALL the Eucharist..

Why we don't work on receiving it always in a fuller way?

Each Eucharist is a Promise to reach the Fullness of the Journey, on earth. We shouldn't be postponing anything to "after-death". Do we really believe in the real meaning of the Eucharist? This is why we are constantly reminded that our vocation as Christians is Holiness. What is "holiness" if not "the fullness of the realisation of the Journey", "the fullness of the efficiency of the Eucharist": a Meal on our way, and as well the Fullness of Jesus Himself, to be received totally one day.

Living for less, asking for less, hoping for less, working for less is a lack of Love says saint John of the Cross, and it is "hurting the heart of God" and not understanding His Will.

When, at the age of 17, saint Thérèse read the description of the full journey to reach the fullness of Love, she simply believed each word and said: "I want all that (I read) to be realised in me". "I want it all." To me, this is cleverness.

69: The deep meaning of Creation 1/..

By « deep meaning » I frankly think of the “mystical”, “spiritual” meaning. 

You might be surprised, but Philosophy doesn’t address the act of creation itself. Why? Because it supposes a "Creator" and a knowledge about this Creator. And this requires the grace of “faith”, i.e. a superior Light.

So if we really want to understand "Creation", "Nature", all what is created, including ourselves as creatures, we need to accept to make a leap of faith.

Paradoxically, we can touch with our hands all the created things, but we can’t touch with the same hands the Creator. The Creator is certainly bigger and much more beautiful than his Creation, therefore, we need something bigger than our hands to grasp Him. By definition, He transcends his creation, He is of a different nature.

In this post I am not dealing with « proving » that a Creator exists… It is about trying to discover the meaning of Creation.

For that, we have two classical questions :

1- « why are we created ? » and 2- « what is the goal of the Creation of this world ? »

And we have two classical answers that go like that:

1- We are created by God, out His of love for us, we are created in order to know Him and Love Him (and be known and loved by Him).

2- The rest of Creation is there to help us fulfil that Goal (know Him and love Him).

The human being is created "by God" and "for God". You might object: "this is too selfish from God’s part". Well the human being is created “at the Image and at the resemblance of God”, capable of entering in a personal relationship with God. He is created free, as God is free. Free even to say “yes” or “no” to God Himself. In fact, you can only love if you are free. You can’t be forced to love. It has to come from you, not from outside of you.

How the human being is created?

Before Creation (don’t ask me right now “when did it happen?”) we were – as a thought, as a project, as a dream – in God's Mind, in His Thought. We were imagined as sharing His Life, His Love, breathing from the same very “Life” of God.

He Created us according to His Thought, according to what he foresaw and dreamt about us.

Many people think wrongly that the story of “Creation” as it is told in the Book of Genesis (Gn 1-3) is a bit out-dated. I do not share that opinion. For people who want to gather scientific information about planet earth, the Milky-way galaxy, etc., they did open the wrong book. But, for people who are trying to understand "who is God" and "who is the Human being", and "what is the purpose of life", the stories you find in the Bible, especially in first chapters of Genesis, are simply a Golden Mine.

Creation of Eve

For instance, the « days » of Creation are not “days” (we can’t have “days” before having the “sun”), but they still describe the formation of the Human being, who is the highest point on earth, the meeting point between earth and heaven. Man is at the meeting point of two triangles, one from below pointing upwards and one from above pointing downward.

Man is the achievement of the visible Creation, the point where it is aiming, he summarises in himself all Creation, he has in himself all aspects of the visible Creation: water (mineral), vegetation (vegetal), and animal. But he goes further and transcends them.

The Jewish mystical tradition always considered the first chapters of Genesis as being very deep and kept their explanation for people after 40 years old, since they enclose a deep mystical meaning. “mystical” in the sense that it discloses many aspects of the meaning of who is the human being, and who is he in relation to God, and to the intimate relationship with God.

(to be continued)

68 : How to 'dwell in Jesus'

Jesus says to us: 'Dwell in Me as I dwell in you' (John 15:4) How can we dwell in Him ? How does He dwell in us?

First let us see where and how Jesus dwells in us?

By our Baptism, Jesus takes our heart as His dwelling place. He is in the deepest part of our heart.

We can visualise our heart like a Circle. Jesus is in the deepest part of it.

When we enter in our heart, what do we see inside of it?

We have 3 areas where we can be:

1- A green area (see the previous diagram): this area is the place where we are when we are in ourselves, immersed in our thoughts and feelings.

2- A blue area: this area symbolises the effort we make in order to move toward Jesus-God, dwelling inside of us: we knock on Jesus’ door, we ask the Holy Spirit to allow us inside, in order to be with Jesus.

3- A white area: this area is where Jesus is. This is His Kingdom, where He introduces us, putting us in direct contact with the Fire of His Love. (see the diagram below)

Therefore, during the day, and during prayer we can be:

I- Outside of our heart (see the diagram below: the heart to the left)

II- Inside of our heart: in the green area

III- Asking Jesus to enter in Him

IV- Dwelling in Jesus, with the Fire of His Love

As you can see, we are not necessarily “dwelling in Jesus”. This is why Jesus invites us insistently: ‘dwell in Me, as I dwell in you’.

We can easily understand that if we “dwell in Jesus” our daily acts/work will be different. It is from that Meeting inside of us with Jesus that we draw Energy, Light and Love for our daily life.

This is why Jesus says ‘without Me you can do nothing’ (John 15:15)

‘Dwell in my Love’ (John 15:9)