152: Lectio Divina in daily life 5: Lectio and Chastity

Continuation of Lectio Divina in daily life 4 (please click here)

b) Lectio and chastity

Scripture and especially lectio – is a great help for chastity¹. If we compare the love for Scripture with that for a woman, the following passage will throw light on several aspects of lectio: “And Isaac brought Rebecca into his tent: and took Rebekah, and she became his wife; and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother's death.” (Gen 24:67). This sentence may surprise or even astonish us, however we know very well that a man has access to the feminine part of his being, to his Anima, through women – and it is in relation to man that a woman has access to her masculine part, the Animus. Now the first woman man encounters in his life is most commonly his mother. Thus, when he loses her, he is destabilised. She is in him, but he cannot find any concrete expression of her being, no “sacrament” of the Anima… and so he is grief-stricken, he no longer lives fully; he is, as it were, separated from himself. This is where we see that the encounter with Rebecca re-establishes the contact with the Anima… man’s balance is restored. When a man loses his mother, he loses energy; he is simply lost.

No psychological help or analysis is necessary at this moment because nature itself heals the man. The woman is a healer for the man, and the man for a woman. Man can enter in contact with his Anima through a woman.

Does Scripture also have this power? People talk about “living in Scripture”. A man also lives in a woman. Through Scripture and in it, a man looks at himself as if in a mirror. A woman is also a mirror for a man, allowing him to see, to reflect his negative aspects. So Scripture and women have a similar function, since both are a kind of mirror or magnifying glass that reveal to a man (or to a woman) the dark side of him (herself). Finally we do find in Scripture what we need. All the saints were passionately “attached” to Scripture! For man there is something vital in this relationship, just like in a marriage. This throws light on the Muslim proverb: “Marriage is half of religion”. This is so because it is the embodiment and facilitator of a therapy, of a change. Without marriage a man cannot evolve. And if he becomes a monk, he uses powerful means (lectio “as a mirror”, etc.), as others do through marriage (the spouse being the revealing “mirror”), in order to sanctify himself. But if one remains without one or the other, it is as if one were severing oneself from a part of one’s being…

We can see how dangerous it is to leave Scripture aside, since without it man is weakened in his emotions. Without Scripture he will look for consolation elsewhere. St. Paul states quite explicitly that Scripture is a source of consolation. St James says that Scripture is a mirror for us. It does appear that it alone can protect consecrated celibacy. And St. Thomas Aquinas was quite right in saying that the contemplation of divine things conveyed by Scripture is a strong remedy for the tendencies of the flesh.

“Thirdly, the study of letters is becoming to religious as regards that which is common to all religious orders. For it helps us to avoid the lusts of the flesh; wherefore Jerome says: “Love the science of the Scriptures and you shall have no love for carnal vice.” For it turns the mind away from lustful thoughts, and tames the flesh on account of the toil that study entails according to Sirach (Eccles 31:1): “Watching for riches consumes the flesh.”” (Summa Theologica II^a-II^ae, q. 188, a. 5, resp.).

The Scriptures actually do direct the eyes of the heart toward the contemplation of divine things. The eyes, impelled by desire (1 John 2:16) to search for beauty, will be fascinated by the beauty of God.

So, man is a deeply sexed being, not only physically but also and especially psychologically. His “Anima” is in his depths, with his “shadow”… He therefore cannot remain alone! “It is not good for man to be alone” (Gen 2:18), i.e. it is not good for him to be alienated from himself, to be without an interlocutor who reflects himself back to him, to his inner being, and incites him to conversion. As we have said, being alienated from one’s “Anima” causes a loss of energy in him. Either a good marriage (lived as a “sacrament”) or attachment to Scripture² are ways of putting him back into touch with himself, with his “Anima”, by restoring the equilibrium and the energy he needs.

Obviously, Scripture needs to be incarnated. And it does not suffice to be attached to Scripture; one must also put it into practice. Otherwise it would be as if one were seeing the truth but not dealing with it. Scripture is a mirror, but daily life is the field in which we deal with what has been seen in the mirror. This means that attachment to Scripture embraces the whole of man, and it necessarily implies practising and dealing with what has been perceived. This attachment is not disincarnated! It is a powerful aid to a fulfilled way of living.

We may of course find other things to replace Scripture. Fr. Congar put it well: “I love the Truth like a man loves a woman”. He put all his energy into his relationship with the Truth. But this does not mean that he neglected the Scriptures. But behind Scripture he sought for and found the One who speaks through them, the One who said: “I am the Truth and the Life”.

This love and attachment to Scripture obviously comes to one of its best realisations, if not the very best, in lectio simply because it is the food given to us each day at Mass. The Holy Spirit speaks through it, providing a contemplative light which quenches, fills, strengthens, consoles, encourages and leads man into the depths of God.

The times we live in, which are so strongly “erotic”, are in great need of the remedy offered through the love of Scripture, and most especially through lectio.

1 Although only the man vir is mentioned in this paragraph, both men and women are included.

2 Of course marriage does not exclude the Scriptures, which are just as necessary for each person’s growth!

Note 1: This is an extract from the book: "Lectio divina in daily life" (please click here)

Note 2: To know more about Lectio Divina see: A keynote on Lectio Divina

Note 3: Remember to subscribe to this Blog so you can receive the posts directly to your email.

93: St James explains Lectio divina 3

Not committing mistakes in what we say

“if any one makes no mistakes in what he says he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also” (James 3:2). What is the perfect man? The man who has synergy happening perfectly, synergy between God's action in him and his ation. This means that he is purified and transformed in Jesus, so he became docile to the Holy Spirit: Jesus lives in him, so all what comes out of his thoughts, and of his mouth, is coming from this harmonious collaboration between Jesus and him.

This means that lectio divina transformed him, word by word, brick by brick, until Jesus became alive in Him and started to move him with his Spirit.

Lectio divina is meant to change the soul, act by act, part by part, step by step. A word from Jesus after the other transforms our being to Jesus to become alive in us. In fact each word received burns, transforms that part of the soul that produces that act into a 'portion' of Jesus himself.

"Perfection" is obviously expressed in all sorts of different ways, but the most easy and palpable way to notice it, is speech. What comes out of the mouth, comes from the abundance of what is in the heart says Jesus (see Matthew 12:34). The speech reveals what is in the roots of the human being, his heart. The quality of the speech (and first thoughts) reveals the perfection of the person.

In his third advice to a religious "against the world" (the world with its thoughts and behaviour is considered one of the enemies of the soul), saint John of the Cross quotes St James: "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) which is close to the initial quote: “if any one makes no mistakes in what he says he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also” (James 3:2), but he explains it saying: "This is applicable to the interior, quite as much as to the exterior tongue - to thoughts as well as words."

From three tents to one Tent

The Mystery of the Transfiguration tells a lot about Lectio Divina.

Let us remember that the early christian liturgy took the liturgy of the word of the Synagogue (in the Sabbath) and added to it the Gospel and a letter from the New Testament. We have a trace of this structure in the actual Syriac Orthodox Church Liturgy. So this means, we have: one reading from the Torah (Moses) and one reading from the Prophets (Elijah) + readings about Jesus (Gospel and a letter from the New Testament).

When we listen to this liturgy, we have the impression that the three or more readings are three distinct texts, bearing three different messages. We tend to say with Peter: "Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three tents, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah." (Mark 9:5) In fact, this is clear indication of the sacramental challenge of the Liturgy of the Word. We need to ask ourselves: To whom are we listening? Why do we still have a reading from Moses and another from the Prophets (Elijah)? Do we have 3 texts, therefore three messages?

In fact the supernatural action of God during the liturgy of the Word is essentially led by Jesus himself.

Peter sees division, and offers to build 3 tents, according to his initial perception.

But then, the supernatural action of the Father will happen: a Cloud will overshadow them, and the only voice of the only God the Father will be heard, and it will draw the attention to Jesus only. “And a cloud overshadowed them, and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is my beloved Son; listen to him.” Would this exclude Moses and Elijah? On the contrary, it will unify everything under one, and only one Tent: Jesus himself: “And suddenly looking around they no longer saw any one with them but Jesus only”.

Here is how John will tell us about the Transfiguration: “And the Word became flesh and pitched his Tent among us, full of grace and truth; we saw his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father” (John 1:14).

So, the action of the Father is to 'speak' to us and in us His Son, to utter his Word (the Son) to us, asking us to listen to Him only and essentially. The overshadowing of the Divine Luminous Cloud has this effect, to put us all under the only Tent of the Son. So, in the end, instead of seeing Moses and Elijah with him, we see only Him.

Even if we have two or three texts in lectio divina, in fact, it is one Light that we receive, one message, Jesus speaks to us.

We have everyday the same experience Peter had: initially seeing two or three texts, and finally, with the Power of the Holy Spirit (the Divine Cloud), seeing Only Jesus, the only Divine Tent.

So the initial questions we asked ourselves have the following answers:

- To whom are we listening during the liturgy of the Word, when we read the Torah (Pentateuch) and the Prophets? - We are listening to Jesus. Because the Liturgy of the Word is about Him, wanting to speak to us.

- Why do we still have a reading from Moses and another from the Prophets (Elijah)? - We have them because the Old Testament is the Word of God, and as we see in Luke 24, there is a very important experience we need to have, by the Power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus opens our mind, and therefore enables us to see Him in the Old Testament: a Transfiguration of the Text of the Old Testament happens, and its letter (like Jesus cloths) is transfigured, and we start to see his Face in the text of the Old Testament.

- Do we have 3 texts, therefore three messages? - We have 3 texts, but only one message given from Jesus to us, one Tent remains: Jesus' Tent, because he is the only begotten of the Father and he came to talk to us and give us his words that are Spirit and Life, Holy Spirit and Divine Life.

Become a "Doctor"

St James has this advice: "Only a few of you, my brothers, should be teachers/doctors, bearing in mind that we shall receive a stricter judgement." (James 3:1) How does this apply to Lectio divina?

Lectio divina is not about accumulating knowledge on the Bible. It is not about knowing or studying the Bible. It is about listening to Jesus, through the Bible. The difference is huge. In extreme cases, one can have a PhD in Bible (Exegesis) and not doing on single Lectio divina.

One speaks to the mind only, left to itself. The other speaks to the will (all the person), through the mind. Of course it is better to have both, since it helps. But if the amount of knowledge exceeds the amount of "digested" light, it damages more than it helps.

The digested light is the light that we receive in Lectio and becomes flesh in us. This is the listening process made complete (listening and putting into practise). The "non digested light" is the one we contemplate like in a miror, and then leave it and forget: "Anyone who listens to the Word and takes no action is like someone who looks at his own features in a mirror and, 24 once he has seen what he looks like, goes off and immediately forgets it." (James 1:23-24)

Becoming a doctor in a dangerous way is accumulating knowledge without digesting it. It is like greed. One listens but no action is taken.

Lectio divina reminds us of the correct use of the mind. It is not against learning, studying, but it just warns us, like St James, that the more we accumulate (like in greed) the more we have to give account. That word that we accumulate without putting into practice is already judging us.

Lectio divina brings wisdom to a frenetic mind. The majority of us have a frenetic mind, wanting to know, but not applying what we learn. The Word of God, source of knowledge on God, on us, is not always used for that purpose: improving ourselves.

"The same tongue"

St James says: "the blessing and curse come out of the same mouth/tongue" (James 3:10). How this affects our understanding and our practice of lectio divina? As we saw above there is an "inner tongue", i.e. our mind produces thoughts. The mind (pushed by the will) is the main faculty that deal with the Lectio, in the sense that we need to have a clear understanding of Jesus' will. The mind is sacred and should serve the lord...

What the mind and will produce (the inner tongue) require from us a great attention and vigilance.

Our inner speech, our inner acts (acts of the mind and will) are very important. St James is inviting us to watch our acts, the roots of our acts. Only God sees our inner "tongue"... but our inner "tongue" is our judge: watch carefully how you judge things: if you have mercy, mercy will be done to you. The same way you judge people and things will be applied to you.

A great vigilance should be applied on the thoughts and inner acts that we produce and they should be full of God's Grace: Mercy, Compassion, practicing Spiritual Hospitality (receiving everybody, unconditionally, in our heart).

92: St James explains Lectio divina 2

In the second chapter of his letter (James 2:14-26), St James continues to explain to us Lectio divina is.

The act of faith is to receive a word

What is faith? Our understanding today of “faith” might not be the one meant in various passages in the Bible. Plus, each author in the Bible, makes some aspect of “faith” shine. So we might feel that we have different versions of the same topic, but in fact these are only different angles that allow us to grasp better that spiritual reality of faith and of its act.

For many authors of the Bible, faith is an act that allows us to receive a Word from God, and to put it into practice. By this act, we open ourselves to God’s word/message, and we offer for it a space in us (in our existence, in our body, our soul,..), so that that word can “become flesh” in us.

The best example that illustrates the act of faith is Mary in the Annunciation. The Angel of God is transmitting to Mary a Word from God, a Message from God. Mary doesn’t immediately say “yes”, bypassing her mind. On the contrary she makes the effort, with her mind, to understand what that Message clearly means, discovering by doing so, her exact part in allowing the word of God to become flesh in her heart and in her flesh. Only then she says: yes, here I am, with all my being, offered to God, and to this word that He uttered to me.

For this reason, Mary is praised, and Zechariah is blamed. The exact reason why Mary is called “blessed” is because she believed that if God utters a word (a message) He can fulfil his Word : “blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” (Luke 1:45) The Angel Gabriel explains to her the exact point of Faith: “no word [uttered by God] is impossible, to [be realised by] God". (Luke 1:37). The majority of the translations say: “for nothing is impossible to God”, which is not what the text says and is not Luke’s purpose: in fact he wants to explain the mechanism of Faith.

How faith is transmitted to us

By Jesus’ Redemption on the Cross, we receive the Grace of Faith i.e. the capacity to open up to the Word of God. By Jesus’ Redemption, Mary was able to say “yes” to the Angel (see the Mystery of the Immaculate Conception). By Jesus’ Redemption, and through his Plan, he wanted Mary to be altogether our Role model (Archetype of the perfect Disciple of Jesus) and our Mother (the one that generates us into God’s Life). Jesus made Mary and Mary’s “yes” (all her “Yes”) capable of holding our “yes”. By the “Yes” of Mary, we receive the Grace, in our turn, to hear a Word coming from God, understand our part in its incarnation, and say “yes” to it, like Mary, and in Mary. This is the full extent of the Act of Faith. This is why Mary is praised this way: “Blessed are you among women” (Luke 1:42) (we are all, by through her, capable of conceiving God’s will, a word from him each day). What do we conceive? “blessed is the fruit of your womb”: Jesus! This is why “all generations will call her blessed” (Luke 1:48). Because all generations will go to her (as our mother) to draw from her the capacity to receive the word of God (to believe, to have faith).

St James explains the act of Faith

God's word for us is to love God and to love our neighbour. So Faith will entail putting that word into practice. With this understanding of faith, let us read St James’ passage:

“What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works/acts? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.” (James 2:14-17)

Having faith itself (i.e. having the capacity to say “yes” to a word sent by God to us) is a grace. But exercising faith, is something that is essential. Faith is not passive. It is a grace, a Talent to be implemented, activated, invested in. Imagine Mary not saying “yes” to God, and not receiving him in her! The fact that she is “Immaculate Conception” gives her Faith the capacity to say “yes”, the capacity to “conceive the word” in her heart and in her womb. But if she doesn’t say yes, if she doesn’t use that faith, then nothing will happen. There is no fruitfulness.

If we don’t say “yes” to the word of God, if we do not receive into our life, in our flesh that “word”, if we don’t give it a space in us, what is then “faith”? Have we allowed the grace of faith to be enacted in us?

St James continues: “But some one will say, "You have faith and I have works/acts." Show me your faith apart from your works/acts, and I by my works/acts will show you my faith.” (James 2:18)

The act of Faith is the capacity to receive a word from God, to give it our flesh.

“You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe -- and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you shallow man, that faith apart from works/acts is barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works/acts, and faith was completed by works/acts, and the scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness"; and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works/acts and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works/acts when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.” (James 2:19-26)

Faith as a grace is something, and the act of faith is something different: it is to receive a word from God and “incarnate” it. “blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of the word that was spoken to her from the Lord.” (Luke 1:45)

The total gift of ourselves to God

It is true as well, that one has to offer himself totally to God when he makes his act of Faith. Let us contemplate Mary: she doesn’t say an intellectual abstract “yes” to God. She commits totally to Him, she puts all her life into God’s hands, and commits to his Word. This is the condition that will allow the Word of God to come into her heart and into her womb.

In order to see God we need to give ourselves totally to God, and this is purity, a purity that we can enact (with the Grace of God).

If we “loose our lives” by giving it to God, we get everything: God, and all the rest. Seek the kingdom of God first, and all the rest will be given to you for free.

Purity is the condition of success of Lectio Divina: offering ourselves to God, completely, unconditionally,… this is the only way to receive God. If we give everything to him, we get everything (him).

Conclusion

Lectio divina is a real act of Living Faith where we listen to a word coming from God to us, where we offer ourselves to God totally and where God incarnates in us his word. Very much like the Annunciation.

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.