(continuation of "Spirituality 94")
b) The greatest love
Our growing responsibility
The
more we advance in lectio, the more we are transformed into God and
the more we realize that lectio’s aim is not to tell us what to do
nor to answer precise questions. In a certain way, it has the
function of revealing divine love to us and telling us how much Jesus
loves us and thirsts for us. The question then arises: What should we
do? And the answer is simple: Offer ourselves to him each day, by
doing what we do with love and in search of the absolute. The most
important thing is to love Jesus.
We
all go through the process of discerning God’s will and trying to
understand what we are to make of our lives. But, once again, we do
not do lectio in the same way as someone would consult an oracle to
find hopeful indicators for the future. We need to understand that
our heart has its home in heaven whilst we are still dealing with
human instruments. And it is right for us to seek His will; he loves
us for doing so. However, he wants us to act and to make decisions
freely. The Almighty draws
on all men to spread his love,
but
he leaves each person free to act according to his/her capacity and
decisions. He is calling us to Glory! We are responsible for our
actions. If we want to serve him, let us do so by taking stock of our
capacities and using them wisely.
How
much energy are we prepared to spend in fighting for what we want?
Would we go to the ends of the earth to obtain it? Does the Lord not
inspire us with thoughts, dreams and desires? And what do we do with
them? We have been baptized in Him and this new life gives us the
right to believe that our thoughts and desires are immersed in Him.
We often blame ourselves for our desires. But the more we desire, the
more we will receive1.
Childhood
is past. We must now act like adults, by doing what we can and by
doing it well. This means having self-confidence, using our
capacities and will, giving assent and love. May our “yes” be
“yes” and our “no” truly “no”. God will not make our
decisions for us!
Let
us see how the saints lived this kind of relationship with God; they
will help us to understand what we may henceforth expect from lectio.
In
a well-known passage from the Way
of Perfection
St. Teresa of Jesus reveals a surprising aspect of God to us: “He
begins to make such a friend of the soul that not only does He
restore its will to it but He gives it His own also. For, now that He
is making a friend of it, He is glad to allow it to rule with Him, as
we say, turn and turn about. So He does what the soul asks of Him,
just as the soul does what He commands” (The
Way of Perfection
32, 12).
In
the writings of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus we read these words:
“‘whatsoever you shall ask of my Father in my name, he will give
it to you!’ I am therefore certain that you will fulfil my desires,
I am certain of this, O my God! The more you want to give, the more
you stimulate desire” (Prayers
6:2). Elsewhere she says: “He has always given me what I have
desired, or rather he made me desire what he wanted to give me”
(Manuscript C 31b).
We find this same kind of dynamic in the writings of St. John of the
Cross: “The more a soul hopes for, the more it obtains” (Ascent
II
7:2) and “the more He wants to give, the more he makes us desire”
(Letter 15, 8 July 1589).
We
are justified in asking whether, having reached an advanced stage in
communion with God, we might not well find ourselves in a blind
alley. That is to say: at the beginning we have the impression that
lectio will give us precise indications for our lives; yet, the more
we advance, the more we come to realize that we are left with the
responsibility of making our own choices! So we seem to be in the
dark, or at least this is what we think. And our thinking is both
right and wrong. Our sense of responsibility grows, as we have said,
and our experience is that God has made us his friends. Now, He says
everything to His friends, who are henceforth the extension of his
Body on earth, and who, as such, must chose and make the necessary
decisions. He is no longer next to them to tell them what to do; but
he is living and working in them, in such an imperceptible way that
leaves one with the impression of being abandoned without any outside
help coming from the Word of God in the form of indications as to
what should be done. The Lord’s friend knows this, and he or she
must henceforth act in his own name without being afraid to do so. He
knows his friend, he was formed in his school; now the disciple is
like his Master, and it is time for him to set out and walk on the
water.
What
is lectio’s contribution at this stage? Above all, it reminds us
that Salvation depends on us. The Salvation obtained and accomplished
on the cross is waiting for our collaboration so that it may be
transmitted to others. Lectio always shows the piercing manner in
which we were saved by Jesus’ human will and that this was
decisive: “You gave me a body, and I said: Here I am, Lord, I am
coming to do your will”. In the same way the disciple who receives
the Word each day perceives that he is integrated into Christ’s
humanity and has the duty of continuing his action for Salvation.
Then lectio, without being an oracle of what should be done,
continues to instruct the disciple, to enlighten him, confirming him
along the way and above all reveals what is essential: the flame of
Love and the Gift of self. Lectio is not a barrier that keeps the
disciple from making mistakes, but it encourages him to make an
offering of his life and to live in humility. The Gift of self and
total offering: this is the fundamental aim. Lectio calls us to do
this each and every day. It does not however promise infallibility;
it always leads us back to humility and the recognition of the
relativity of the human condition. It constantly refers to trust and
abandonment. Total love then integrates itself in this flow of trust
and abandonment, which permit the disciple to continually advance by
way of new beginnings.
“No greater Love”
“No greater Love”
Love unequivocally leads the disciple to the summit of sharing in the Passion. The Word awakens him every morning, just as it does all the saints, serving to remind him of the heights of charity.
Toward
the end of her life, St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus said that the
Lord had revealed to her a totally new way of living in charity. Does
this mean that she never practised it? No, of course not; but there
are degrees and she tells us about her personal experience while
always putting it in the light of the Word of God.
The
science of charity, or of mankind’s salvation, is of a profound
order into which the disciple is introduced. Since from this point
on, he is oriented by Christ’s humanity, he is called to do what
Christ did. Of, course, he remains a creature, and still differs
greatly from the incarnate Word, however there is nevertheless a
mystery into which the disciple is introduced. In the footsteps of
his Master, and like him, and like St. Paul, he apportions the things
lacking in the Passion of Christ in his flesh.
Lectio
opens up new and unexpected depths in the Word of God. Let us take an
example from the Gospel of John. This
gospel draws us into a much deeper reading, in that of the first
person, the Son of Man.
Now, the reader, instead of meditating on the signs accomplished by
Jesus to manifest his divinity, enters into the role of one to whom
the mission is entrusted and who is called to follow his example. The
depth is extraordinary, as is the responsibility in the face of the
salvation of others.
Lectio,
like the Holy Spirit, sends the one who listens to others, just as
Jesus was sent for their salvation. “No man has greater love than
this, to lay
down his soul
for those he loves2”
(Jn 15:13).
________________
1
This is an idea dear
to St. John of the Cross and St. Thérèse
of the Child Jesus; we will
develop this
further
later on.
2
Here “lay down” implies
total
gift, a mysterious receptiveness of the soul under the influence of
the Holy Spirit in view of a saving action. There is another very
similar
expression: “to be given over into the hands
of sinners”
(Mk 14:41). One may gloss: “into the hands of sin”, since it is
“his soul” that is being layed down and because sin primarily
affects the soul! Likewise, the Spirit gives the Apostle to others
like bread: “someone else will gird you, and take you where you do
not want to go” (Jn 21:18).
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