I
hear the
objection: 'If the Prayer of the Heart
is that important, vital, radically vital, how come Jesus never
talked about it?'
Well
He
talked about it plenty of times, the most obvious one being:
"dwell in Me as I dwell in you" (John 15).
But
before addressing today's point, let us remember that "of entering the Kingdom" of God is a fairly common indication on the
movement itself of the Prayer of the Heart. Entering the Kingdom is
in fact entering into
God's area, God's domain,
where He acts in a sovereign way; in a
word it is to enter into
Jesus' being (Jesus is the Furnace of Love), to be under the
influence of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus
makes
the conditions to enter of
entering into
the Kingdom: "If you do not become like children you can't enter
into
the Kingdom". God is like a child [pure, simple,...], and if we want to enter within
Him, we need to become like Him,
by choosing to trust
Him, totally, without any conditions: and also we need to entrust
ourselves (The best way to love is to give everything and give
oneself).
In
this post, I would like to point out one of the most beautiful, yet
discreet,
descriptions
of the Prayer of the Heart (Matthew
11:28-30):
"Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Let us read it with its own oral swinging rhythm:
"- Come
to Me,
all you who are weary and burdened,
and I will give you rest.
- Take
my yoke upon you
and
learn from me,
for
I am gentle and humble in heart,
and you will find for your souls rest,
for
my yoke is easy
and my burden is light."
-
"come to me"
is the key expression that shows us what we have to do in order to do
the Prayer of the heart, in order to be introduced into
Jesus-Furnace-of-Love. Or at least it indicates the first part of
what we have to do. In fact we need to use our free will (by choosing
to give ourselves to Jesus), otherwise God/Jesus will not force
Himself
into us.
First we need to get rid of our yoke: i.e. all that we are carrying, the idols we have, the other gods in whom we trust, our worries, concerns, difficulties, problems..., we need to give all that to Jesus: He removes them, He takes away the weight from us, so we become free and able to move and fly... we can be in His hands... under the Action of the Holy Spirit.
-
"weary and burdened": Jesus describes our inner state when we are not dwelling in him: we are 'weary and burdened'. Our yoke is our worries and burdens. Instead of carrying our actual Yoke, we are invited to take His one. In fact,
we are not invited to remain yokeless...
The
Yoke is seen as well in the Jewish Biblical and
Talmudic exegesis
as the symbol of Marriage. Husband and wife will carry the same
yoke, they will be married (tie the knot) and they will be bound to
the same yoke.
Please
have a look at a yoke (see below), how it is built and its
purpose: it is a piece of wood made for two animals, and its purpose
is to keep them tightly linked in their movement and journey. Where
one goes, the other will go.
Jesus wants us to dwell in Him, constantly, wherever we go. He wants us to be where He is. In fact he says: "that you also may
be where I am" (John 14:3). Here is the entire sentence: "My
Father’s house [Jesus himself (see John 2)] has many rooms; if that
were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a
place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come
back and take you to be with me that
you also may be where I am."
(John 14:2-3)
This
is achieved by taking His Yoke. The purpose of the Yoke is to be where He
is.
Burdens
make
us heavy, distance
us very far from God...
-
"take my Yoke": This is the second indication Jesus gives us in order to achieve the Prayer of the Heart: "take my Yoke". By offering ourselves to Him, and wanting to do all that
He wants, with no restrictions... something will happen: we will be
introduced into
Him, we will receive REST or, if you prefer, TRUE PEACE... an
overflowing of the Holy Spirit.
This
is why Saint Antony the Great, Father of all Monks, says in one of
his letters that the Yoke of Christ is the Holy Spirit... being
tightened by Jesus' Yoke, we then constantly receive His Holy Spirit.
Let
us see now on the following diagram how it works:
Jesus'
goal is
to welcome us into the Sun (Himself). Our heart is initially heavy and weary, carrying burdens,
carrying another yoke: our heart is sinking in the water of our being, sensations, emotions, imagination, thoughts.
Where is Jesus? Is He like the Sun high up, waiting for us to fly to Him? No, God became incarnate, and Jesus
is at the door of our being (at the surface of the
water/sea), knocking at the door of our free will inviting us to give Him our
yokes and receive His.
By making this act of trust, by entrusting, surrendering, abandoning ourselves into His Hands, being tied to Him, He then takes us and introduces us into His being (the sun in the drawing), so that we receive Peace, we receive the action of the constant outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Here is the key: "come to me" means: come to the surface of the water, rise above yourself in order to love, and give me yourself. This is key to the success of the Prayer of the Heart and the only way Jesus will be able to take us and lift us ("He took-with-Him [...] and went-up" (Matthew 17:1)). Jesus won't force us, so he awaits for us to love Him: give ourselves to Him. "take my yoke" means: allow me to take you, believe in the Power of my Holy Spirit, capable to take you and lift you, introduce you into the depth of My Heart.
Conclusion:
there is
something that Jesus offers. He knows where we are (immersed in the
water, under the weight of our yokes);
He
comes to us (He
doesn't await us high up in the sun, where He
normally is);
He
comes to us and offers to free us from our burdens, yokes, tiredness,
and offers us a lightweight, His
Yoke, the Action of the Holy Spirit, that takes us, with its power,
and puts us in Him.
Let
us experience His
Action, how it makes our life lighter and easier, putting
speed
and power into
our relationship with God, easing
our prayer, easing
our daily life.
Why
delay
taking
up
His Yoke.
Some
people might say: well His
Yoke is His
Cross... and it is heavy. Well this is an erroneous understanding of
His Cross, because Jesus' Cross is the centre
of the manifestation of the all-powerful
transformative action of God, action that lifts us - Crucified
Christ
is the only 'place' where evil is transformed into
a superior Good... the power that lifts the World...
Here
again, with a correct understanding of the Power that flows from
Jesus on the Cross, we experience that amazing uplifting power that
transforms our life into His.
No comments:
Post a Comment