90: St James explains Lectio Divina 1

In his beautiful letter, St James explains to us Lectio Divina and its conditions. "Know this, my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God. Therefore put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But he who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing. If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man's religion is vain. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world." (James 1:19-27)

Let us see how this presentation of Lectio Divina goes and let us discover a deeper understanding of this outstanding analysis of Lectio Divina.

Lectio Divina is about listening to Jesus’ Word for us every day. Can we really listen to him? Should we prepare our heart in order to become able to listen?

Original deafness

First and foremost it is important to remember that with the Fall (the Original Sin) we lose the capacity to listen and speak directly to God.

Moses is one of the first human beings to speak directly to God, face to face. People were scared of God.

Sin, separates us from God, and radical grave sin, stops us from hearing, and hardens our heart. We need a deep operation that will change our heart of stone to the heart of flesh.

This is why Jesus will perform a very important act on the Cross: he will open our “hearing” and our “speech” (capacity to talk), so we become, fort the first time capable to hearing the Word of God directly and talk to God directly and personally.

Even if this event happens during Jesus’ ministry, it centrally happens on the Cross where Jesus accomplishes our Redemption, this is why we have this long sigh:

“31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through the region of the Decapolis. 32 And they brought to him a man who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech; and they besought him to lay his hand upon him. 33 And taking him aside from the multitude privately, he put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue; 34 and looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha," that is, "Be opened." 35 And his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. 36 And he charged them to tell no one; but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. 37 And they were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well; he even makes the deaf hear and the dumb speak."” (Mark 7:31-37)

On the Cross Jesus brings us back from our darkness, our deafness to the fluency of communication with God (listening-speaking). It is on the Cross that Jesus opens us to God, changes us, gives us a new heart, a heart of flesh (Ez 36:26), (like Mary’s one), capable of listening. “Give thy servant therefore a heart that listens” (1 Kings 3:9).

The old man, by definition isn’t capable of listening. This is why among many other rites, during Baptism, the Minister performs that same act that Jesus did and touches the ears of the person who is baptised and his or her mouth, saying after Jesus: “Ephphatha” that is: be opened.

When we sit down, in order to listen to Jesus, we need to remember that listening to Him is a Grace, not something obvious and automatic. This is why Jesus gives a very special Grace of the Holy Spirit to us, in order for us to listen to Him, hear his voice, See him in the Scripture: he “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45). Without this supernatural intervention of Jesus in our mind/heart, we can’t really hear him, see him, be touched by his words deeply, be moved by them.

It is important to acknowledge that we can’t take Lectio Divina (listening to Jesus) for granted, and that it is a huge Grace, that we need to ask for humbly and insistently.
Note: For these reasons Mary is considered by Luke to be the only one who was capable of Listening to the Word of God and obey it, put it into practice. This is why we need her, New Eve, our Mother, to generate our new heart, at the image of her heart, capable of listening and putting into practice Jesus' Words.

Impurity makes us deaf

St James will explain to us some of the dispositions in order to become capable of listening to Jesus-God:

“19 Know this, my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, 20 for the anger of man does not work the righteousness of God.” (James 1:19)

The goal is to become “quick to hear”. In order to do so, there are plenty of other operations of our soul (mind and will) that should stop: speaking and being angry. “chatter” could be the expression of anger. We can’t in the same time hate somebody and want to listen to Jesus. Because “hating” is an act of inner silent speech, where with our thoughts we direct the arrows of our anger against this person. The word of Jesus doesn’t have a space in us.

We can’t expect two things that are opposite to dwell in us: anger and God’s action in us. “Anger” has many forms in us. Frustration for instance can makes us angry.

The Word of God needs and awaits for a clean heart. There is a cleanness that we can perform, which is refusing to surrender to anger and ask from God to give us a new heart, a heart of flesh, a heart “quick to hear”.

“21 Therefore put away all filthiness and rank growth of wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls.”

St James will clarify his thought: “anger” is for him any “filthiness and rank growth of wickedness”. If we want to receive the “implanted Word” of Jesus, we need to put away all what goes against it. Remember the thorns in the third soil in the Parable of the Sower. It has thorns that suffocate the Word of Jesus implanted in us. These thorns are all what is against the Word of God, all the desires that are not “the desire of God” (richness, worries,…).

God wants to save us. He has two means for that: His Word (his preaching), and His Body and Blood (the Cross). Jesus’ word is capable of Saving our soul, changing it, purifying it, helping it to walk the path from the land of the darkness to God who is Light and Love. God’s Word is powerful and we need it everyday so we can be saved: each day bears its effort, and each day has its own Bread. For man doesn’t live alone from Bread but from the Real Bread: Jesus’ Words.

“A heart quick to hear give me O Lord! A meek heart.”

Putting into practice

One of the characteristics of the heart that can receive the word of God is the heart that from the beginning is ready to put it into practice, unconditionally ready for that. We know that God can fulfil any Word he would say to us. So why are we doubting God? We need to trust him, trust that he knows what is best for us today, we are his children, his dearest children and he wants to “save our souls” with his Word.

Do we really believe that we need to be saved, i.e. changed by him, by his words? Do we really entrust our being into the Hands of Jesus who then will give us each day a Word of Salvation, of change, of transformation, purification? Do we really see Jesus as our doctor, healer? Do we acknowledge the existence of this Grace every day? Are we following Jesus everyday?

So, from start, the process of “listening” bears in it the deep determination to put into practice what we will hear from Jesus, we are totally opened to him: “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.”

Being in front of Jesus is being in front of THE Truth, the truth on us. We expose ourselves to His Light. Wanting to listen to Jesus means that we want to see ourselves in Him: he sheds a light a day on us, reflects it to us, shows it to us. “For if any one is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror” (James 1:23)

Jesus is our Divine Mirror

But we really need to accomplish all the operation of listening: i.e. listening and putting into practice.

Otherwise: “he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like” (James 1:24)

Really we need to be persons who listen and put into practice the daily word of Jesus. This is what characterises us. We believe in the Incarnation, and part of the Incarnation is the incarnation of Jesus’ words in us. This incarnation really changes our life, modifies it radically. This is a fundamental criterion of discernment. One can claim that he or she has a life of prayer, but it can be deeply fake. We can’t fool God by just praying and doing various sacred acts of worship. If the Word of Jesus doesn’t become incarnate in us, our worship is superficial, not made “in Spirit and in Truth”, we just worship Jesus with our words, and body, but our heart doesn’t listen to Him, is not guided by Him and is not transformed by His Word. "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the precepts of men" (Matthew 15:8-9)

Jesus is our living Law, Jesus is our living example and guide, he is our Way. Jesus came to free us from the darkness, bringing us to the Light and transforming our inner being into His Light.

“But he who looks into the perfect Law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer that forgets but a doer that acts, he shall be blessed in his doing.” (James 1:25)

Again and again: otherwise our worship is false, superficial, pharisaic. How can we continue to have a heart that doesn’t listen to Jesus, and is not moved by his words if from our heart come all sorts of thoughts and silent acts?

“If any one thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this man's religion is vain.” (James 1:26)

One can say: but what will Jesus ask me to do? Loving Jesus’ Body:

“He who says he is in the light and hates his brother is in the darkness still. 10 He who loves his brother abides in the light, and in it there is no cause for stumbling. 11 But he who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes.” (1 John 2:9-11) “he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20)

Who are the most vulnerable persons on earth according to the biblical tradition? The persons that have nobody on earth to take care of them? The orphans and the widows. These are the most “poor” persons. Before reaching them, we need to open to the closest persons, then after, we will go deeper and deeper in Jesus’ Body until we reach the poorest of the poorest: “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” (James 1:27) “Religion” is worship, is to love God, is all the acts of worship. Giving what we have, who we are, letting the love of God flow from him, through our heart to the poor, Jesus’ body, is really one of the deepest and most powerful ways of “putting into Practise” Jesus’ Word: Lectio Divina.

Conclusion

We really need to meditate these few verses of St James’ letter, in order to deepen our understanding of Lectio Divina.

80: What is holiness? #3

“Imagination” and “faculties”

In our journey toward holiness there are pitfalls and needs for discernment. In the following paragraph, saint Theresa of Avila mentions the difference between the “faculties” and the “imagination”. What does she mean by that? and how can learning this difference affect our understanding of real holiness?

“I like the way in which some souls, when they are at prayer, think that, for God's sake, they would be glad if they could be humbled and put to open shame - and then try to conceal quite a slight failure. Oh, and if they should be accused of anything that they have not done - ! God save us from having to listen to them then! Let anyone who cannot bear trials like that be very careful to pay no heed to the resolutions he may have made when he was alone. For they could not in fact have been resolutions made by the will (a genuine act of the will is quite another matter); they must have been due to some freak of the imagination. The devil makes good use of the imagination in practising his surprises and deceptions, and there are many such which he can practise on women, or on unlettered persons, because we do not understand the difference between the faculties and the imagination, and thousands of other things belonging to the interior life. Oh, sisters, how clearly it can be seen what love of your neighbour really means to some of you, and what an imperfect stage it has reached in others! If you understood the importance of this virtue to us all you would strive after nothing but gaining it.” (Interior Castle, V,III,10)

This passage is taken from saint Theresa’s book “The Interior Castle”, Fifth Mansions, chapter III, paragraph 10. This chapter is of great importance because it addresses the pitfalls of “illusion” and “spiritual pride” in spiritual life, and in our journey toward holiness. (see the whole chapter here)

In spiritual life, striving toward holiness, what is important to achieve for us is a good healthy will, i.e. a healthy virtue. “Virtue” is a “good habit”. A “habit” comes from the “repetition of good acts” (i.e. loving your neighbour). Having a Spiritual Life means that on a daily basis one practises - amongst other things - hours of “prayer of the heart”. If the Prayer of the heart is not accompanied by “lectio divina” (i.e. putting into practise with our will the will of God), we end up entering in deeper and deeper illusions: thinking that we are growing, thinking that by the fact of practising the “prayer of the heart” we are close to God, we are spiritually fine, we are saints.

“thinking that” means fooling myself, imagining something that doesn’t exist. One can lie to himself to the point of starting to believe his own lies. In order to do that one uses his imagination. Today, we easily consider imagination as a “faculty” of the soul.

The most important faculties of the soul, at least for Theresa of Avila are: Mind, Will and Memory. She is following an Augustinian division, as saint John of the Cross as well (while saint Thomas Aquinas will use only: Mind and Will). These are called “rational faculties”, i.e. the faculties of the rational soul (opposed to the animal soul), the higher part of the soul.

Listening to God in order to discover His Will for us, and putting, with our will, His Word and His Will into practise is a key issue in spiritual life. This is why I always stress on the fact that we have always to practise together “lectio divina” and “Prayer of the heart” (but obviously not in the same hour), they are the two legs we use in order to walk. As you can see, the mechanism of the Prayer of the heart is the Action of God in a supra-conscious area in us: the spirit. We can’t see the roots of our being (i.e. the spirit). They are real, but hidden like the roots of a tree. During the Prayer of the heart we are not supposed to see or to feel anything (“seeing” and “feeling” happen in the conscious part), because the Action of God is happening deep in us. And even if we feel or see something (in the conscious part), we don’t have to pay attention to it. We need to remain in the general attitude of love, having our heart/spirit immersed in Jesus. This means that our mind and our imagination are left alone, free, and potential victims of the illusions of the devil. Since we are practising the prayer of the heart, the Devil can try to convince us that we reached the heights of holiness. He can then divert our attention from Lectio divina (thus creating a weakness in our faculties: mind and will). So the time spent in “Prayer of the heart” can make us the pray of the Devil.

Obviously saint Theresa doesn’t use the expression “lectio divina”, but in the end of the day she gives us its real contents, the core of what is needed: we need to love our neighbour and if we don’t do so, we shouldn’t fool ourselves, thinking that we reached the goal of spiritual life. Saint John in his first letter gives us the same warning: how can you pretend to love God whom you don’t see (or feel) (Prayer of the heart) and not to love your neighbour that you see?! (see 1John..,..) There is a big difference between illusion (just the work of imagination) and a human mind and a human will that listen to the Will of God and put it into practise.

On top of that, and she says it in this beautiful chapter III: if we do love our neighbour, the love that God pours in us during the prayer of the heart will increase a lot. Saint John of the Cross will mention this Golden Rule as well in his Spiritual Canticle (See Spiritual Canticle, A, 12,11; Living Flame of Love, I,6,34).

In another place, she says: if you practise the prayer of the heart and don’t work on growing in virtues (activating the mind and the will, according to the Will of God) you’ll remain like dwarfs (spiritual dwarfs, i.e. very weak).

One of the tactics the Devil uses with spiritual persons is to convince them (to fool them) that they reached the Goal (union with God or so), and by doing that, they stop making their efforts of growth, real growth, especially in loving their neighbour – the result is going backward. Living in illusion is a very good tactic of the devil for more spiritual persons. This is why, from the first lines of the Fifth Mansions, saint Theresa of Avila mentions the spiritual illusion: “the Devil appearing like an Angel of light” (quote from saint Paul). Obviously the Devil changes his tactics and adapts them to the spiritual level of the person. He won’t tempt the spiritual person with something clearly evil. On the contrary, now that the person is determined to reach God, the Devil will tempt her with “the appearance of Good”. A fake “good thing”: he tries to convince the person that he/she is with God, that he/she reached Him… “yeyyyyy, now rest and enjoy”. He then won.

Theresa of Avila, as a real Master of Spiritual life, has to warn us about this temptation. And in order to discover it, one of the most important elements of discernment is to be able to distinguish between an act of will from anything else like: feelings, emotions, imagination… i.e. illusions. While an act of the will is real, free, voluntary, any feeling, emotion, imagination is more of a passive, receptive state that doesn’t necessarily involve any change in us, any use of our will.

Therefore, discernment and discipleship (through Spiritual Direction) are vital in certain stages. Seeking Advice/Discernment is an implicit act of proclamation of the Incarnation: God is present amongst us and wants/loves to speak to us through our Spiritual Director (but watch out, we need to choose the right one, because the “spiritual son” will be like the “spiritual father” says the Catechism, quoting saint John of the Cross. There is no magic here.). See Ascent of Mount Carmel book 2 chapter 22, second part.

Important remark: As we can see here, imagination (which is considered as a faculty), can be the easy pray of the Devil. Of course, what saint Theresa of Avila means by “imagination” could be explained as well as an act of the mind (producing thoughts) with no practical application (no implications for the will). Like the one who reads, reads and reads spiritual books and ends up by believing that he reached the state he is reading about. Reading can have a “hypnotic” effect on him (with the help of the Devil). But, but: there is a difference between this illusion and convincing ourselves, strengthening our desire and willingness to serve God, setting high goals, and motivating ourselves with great thoughts: in her writings, saint Theresa invites us on the contrary to motivate ourselves by setting high goals and widening the horizon of our mind. Something will come out of “many good desires”, while nothing will come out from not harbouring “high goals” and “good desires”. In fact, saint Theresa of Avila is very modern: nowadays we do hear a lot about the role of visualisation in order to achieve high, complicated goals/acts. You run it first in your mind: you visualise it. The brain (neurological paths) is then activated accordingly and creates new paths and, by repeating the visualisation, you strengthen these new paths and will be able to put what you visualised into practise. This is not “illusion” or ill imagination, or fooling ourselves. On the contrary, this is opening the way for the mind and will in order to achieve new directions given by God. Saint Theresa of Avila is not jeopardising imagination and creativity, on the contrary; she is warning us of a false “imagination” that doesn’t lead anywhere.

Here, “imagination” and “mind” are very close. You can almost repeat what saint Theresa said this way: “because we do not understand the difference between the mind and the will…” i.e. we don’t see that thinking about something is not yet doing it. Saint Paul says is bluntly: the good I want to achieve (what my mind sees and knows as “good”) my will doesn’t put it into practise! My will is still ill, not transformed into the will of God. Mind and will are divided.

In other words, it connects with what saint James says in his letter: faith is not enough! Believing is good, it opens us and connects us with God in order to receive His Holy Spirit. But a faith that doesn’t have real applications, that doesn’t spring in real practical acts, remains an illusion. In other words: you may have the Holy Spirit at the reach of your hands, but if you don’t put into practise His Will, then He remains at your door and never really enters. You are fooling yourself.

I hope this helps.

38: The Spiritual Journey 11/11

With this final diagram (see below), you have the full picture of our christian journey. Baptism is a Divine Seed: Jesus in us. He needs to grow and reach His fulness, and pursue, through us, His Mission. The stages of growth of that seed are shown in this simple Diagram.

It took us 11 diagrams to move on, from

1- a static vision of Christianity, or better said: a "binary vision" ("on/off": I am in a "state of grace", or I am in a "state of sin"). Many people live their whole Christian life without even imagining the existence of something more. They just try to live their life, as "good christians", and it ends here. They just look forward to “be with God” only after death, as a recompense,

2- through an incomplete vision offered to all, setting the Union with Jesus as its goal, and then we die a little time after. One thinks that we can't reach higher than that, so we have nothing to do except just aspiring more and more to meet God (to die) and be with Him, during eternity,

3- to finally reach the complete vision, "offered to all" as well: a totally Christocentric Road (at the image of Christ's journey itself). An Ascent, of the Mountain (Jesus) and, with Him and in Him, a Descent.

As you can see, the journey is parted in two parts, putting a Cross in between, where the heart of the Cross (the meeting point of the two bars) coincides with the “Union with Jesus”.

Is that whole picture for all of us?

You might say: - “Objection: why would Jesus today want us to go through that second part of the journey? Well, He accomplished His Mission, and doesn't need us." You can then come up with plenty of quotes corroborating what you say.
- I am not the one who said: “there is no greater love than to give one's life to the others”. I am not the one who set the goal that hight.

If reaching the “Union with Jesus” means "experiencing something so amazing on earth", then reaching the fullness of Love (dying like Jesus), is something even "more amazing". If we consider the fact that Jesus is offering us on earth to be united with Him is an amazing sign of His love for us, and a great work He achieved on the Cross, it is certainly greater to see that He is still offering us something greater.

From the point of view of God, what is greater for Jesus: to "save us, and transform us", or "to make us with Him and in Him, saviours"? (certainly the latter)

Jesus Himself said: “you'll do greater things than the one I did” (John 14:12). “God is glorified in His saints”. The Glory that God receives from His saints, i.e. from "earth", is greater than the glory He receives from "heaven". It is still His glory that appears on earth. But it is greater to make of "a sinner" a "saviour with Him", transformed, purified, capable then of doing amazing things, than making a pure being (Jesus Himself) just Save.

Let us remember that our transformation gives God a greater Glory. Let us remember that transforming a sinner into a person capable of loving his brothers with the Love of God and dying for them, is much much greater manifestation of Jesus' Glory on earth. Again: it is always the same Jesus, and the same glory that work in His Saints. But God achieves much much more glory and victory this way.

So, let us, humbly accept our Vocation, in it's fulness, and let us accept to give God a greater Glory, here on earth, on the “earth” of our being.

“Amen, amen I say to you, if you believe in me, you will do the same things that I do. You will do even greater things, now that I am going back to the Father.” (John 14:12)

Accepting the full picture

As you see, we needed 11 diagrams in order to be introduced to the complete vision of our "Christian journey". Do you think it would have been possible to show you the full vision from day one? Would you have been able to “see” the full picture from day one? to digest it? to understand it? And to simply accept it? I really would be very interested to know that. You know why? Because it is of the utmost important for the Church, for the salvation of our brothers to have from day one the full vision. It nourishes our act of Hope, the Theological act of Hope. Without hope, and without clear hope, our act of hope doesn't really work and doesn't really make us grow and walk toward the goal. The "Act of Hope" is the propeller of Christian life.
Each Christian should have a full understanding of the whole journey, in order to prepare himself for it. We need to nourish our act of hope correctly, so we are propelled correctly in Life.

We can't constantly claim that “we are all called to Holiness” and be sort of helpless when it comes to describe the goals, the means, the entire journey. Wouldn't you agree?

We need to find ways and means to help each christian to really know how great is his/her call, how amazing is the love of God that He not only wants to save us (unite us totally with His Son, through a journey of purification) but wants us to help Him, wants us to receive a greater and more powerful love: to love our brothers, working in their salvation, not with our poor vision/means, but with Him in Us, performing “greater things”.

Please do enrol in this complete vision, please do come and help us. Put your energy, put your enthusiasm at the service of the greatest cause of all: showing the Way.

(We continue the journey...)

35: The Spiritual Journey 9/11

The complete shape of our Spiritual Journey

Recapitulation

We are continuing the discovery of the shape of our Spiritual Journey, of our spiritual growth, the new goal and the new stages. The last diagram (8/11) showed us a new part in our spiritual journey. It showed us that the goal of Christian life is not just to reach the “union with God-Jesus” (reaching the top of the mountain). It showed us that, after reaching the Union with Jesus-God, we still have a lot to do, like the Son of God himself when He took flesh. He didn't jut incarnate, he went much further, He realised a mystical union with each one of us, and the final step in this “mystical union” was our Redemption realised during his Passion, especially during the Crucifixion, bringing us from “darkness” to “Light”. We know how much this cost Him.

This is then for us a “turning point”. Our Journey doesn't aim only toward “candies” it aims as well (at the image of Christ's journey) toward Redemption, trial, real love. Instead of aiming to a higher point (God, the very Nature of God, a final Union with the immensity of God, the Beatitude, the Eternal Happiness), we change the angle, and start to look down, and start to “study” the descent... a descent toward a more intense, grounded, serious love to our brothers. We will learn it from Christ, and He will come in us to live it! Pursuing His mission through us.

There is no greater love than to lay our soul, our life, for our brothers and sisters, says Jesus. My new Commandment is to do as I did: to love as I did. You can't do it just by yourself, you can do it only if you are transformed in Me and Me in you. Otherwise you can't bare it, its too heavy! When the disciple will be totally formed, he'll be like his Master (and not “greater than Him”: just seeking Beatitude, not wanting to follow his footsteps). Saint Paul says it: “I am offered like a libation” (2 Tm 4:6), and “I complete in my flesh what lacks in Jesus' Passion “for his Body””. All the Apostles went through martyrdom (even John who didn't die from it, went through it). The perseverance in the imitation of Jesus should reach its full realisation, reaching its end goal.

So, when we reach the Union with Him, we are like brought to the point of His Incarnation (when the Son of God takes flesh). We are ready to start the journey of collaborating with Him in the work of Redemption, or more precisely: we are ready to take our share in the application of the Redemption He acquired for each one of us on the Cross, in its application to the rest of the human beings, our brothers and sisters.

The work of “acquiring” Redemption depends totally on Him (because He is the only being who is in the same time God and man, therefore the only Redeemer), but the work of “application” depends on His Mystical Body, us. This is His choice and His will, out the of the mystery of His love for us. He wants us to work with him, to take our share in the work of salvation of our brothers and sisters (its application).

It is already a great love for us, His love that makes us be united with Him (reaching the top of the mountain). But there is even a greater love : to make us share His work of Redemption, so we can work on applying it to our brothers and sisters, and be part of the their salvation.

The full shape of our Journey

The full shape of our Journey is to complete both parts of the Journey: ascending, and descending. With this diagram, we can start from now to see the full shape of the journey: we start our ascent from the bottom of the mountain, we climb the Mountain (Christ himself), being purified by the Holy Spirit, step by step, until we reach the Union with Jesus, and then after a while we start our descent, attracted by the weight of Charity, heading toward a greater love of our brothers and sisters.

Again, going up we are following Jesus' journey in the Gospel, receiving the purification from Him, and going down, we are following Jesus' journey in the Gospel, but this time, He is in us and us in Him, giving Him to our brothers and sisters, participating in their growth, purification, reception of the Redemption realised by Christ.

The full shape of our Journey

Both ways we meet Jesus, His Mission and His Passion; we follow the same journey of His. The first part by receiving Jesus, and the second by rather giving Jesus to our brothers.

We are all invited to reach this great love:  “There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” (John 15:13)

(To be continued...)

14: The mystical dimension of the New Commandment

“One of the scribes came to Jesus and asked him, «Which is the first of all the commandments?» 
Jesus replied, "The first is this: 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone! 
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.' 
The second is this: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." 
The scribe said to him, "Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, 'He is One and there is no other than he.' 
And 'to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself' is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices." 
And when Jesus saw that he answered with understanding, he said to him, "You are not far from the kingdom of God." And no one dared to ask him any more questions.” (Mk 12:28-34)

« you are not far from the Kingdom of God » is a bit disappointing, as a statement. Jesus didn’t say: “you are in the Kingdom of God”.

Nobody can question the validity of the two Commandments of Moses; they are not abrogated by Jesus: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets” (Mt 5:17). But in the same time there is a difference between Moses Law and Jesus “Law”. Certainly there is no contradiction between them, but there is a superiority, a perfection in Jesus Commandment: “I have come […] to fulfil [the commandments]” (Mt 5:17). When Jesus shows the way to the Kingdom to the rich young man, He starts by checking if he fulfilled Moses Commandments, he says: “did you fulfil the Commandments?” the young man said: “yes, from my youth”. Jesus here is speaking about Moses Commandments, summarised by the two commandments mentioned above. In this case, Jesus didn’t say either: “you are in the Kingdom”. He said: still “you lack one thing” (Mc 10:21) to enter the Kingdom.

Saint John says that Jesus Commandment is not new, but it is new “in us” (1John 2:7-8): “Beloved, I am writing you no new commandment, but an old commandment that you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word that you have heard. 8 Yet I am writing you a new commandment that is true in him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining.” (1John 2:7-8)

The question now is to try to understand in what lays the newness of the “new Commandment” and how it is “superior”, “more perfect” than the two Commandments?

“I give you a new Commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.” (John 13:41)

Jesus is very clear: “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt 5:20)

The mystical dimension of our transformation in Jesus, makes Jesus grow, live in us, and act in us and with us: “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Ga 2:20). This is why it is not possible to just “apply” the New Commandment, without being transformed in Jesus, in order to “enter the Kingdom”. This is why saint John in his first letter says that the Commandment is “new in us”.

John states it very well: “the darkness [in you] is passing away and the true Light [Jesus] is already shining [in you].” (1John 2:7-8)

Without the mystical dimension, that implies real transformation of our being, letting the “new man” in us grow (Jesus in us), there is not Christianity.

How are your "taste buds"?