We must not therefore examine the suitability of things to mind and body in order to assess their value, for this is of little importance. It is the will of God that gives to things, whatever they may be, the power to shape Jesus Christ in the depths of our hearts.
Abandonment to Divine Providence, Jean-Pierre de Caussade Admittedly, this quote goes straight to the heart of Christian discipleship. I think it goes straight to the heart of healthy living whatever your religious inclinations. Even before I thought of everything in Jesus language, I was confronting the challenge of learning to live in the present moment with an attitude of acceptance and a “willingness to live with what is.” My circumstances—health, household, family—were in a painful state of disarray. It was difficult for me to understand how Spirit (much less the “will of God”) might be present in my life. I just didn’t get it. I hated what I was going through, and that was that. . . Except it wasn’t, because I never got off the path. I never abandoned discipleship. I kept seeking for that door to knock on, the one Jesus mentioned, the one he implied was always there with God waiting to be discovered on the other side, the inside: the present moment where we can find that Spirit which redeems rotten experiences, deteriorated relationships, crappy health. Happily, I can report I finally found a portal through which to crawl towards a new way of being in difficult circumstances. If God’s will empowers each moment with an opening—the door I can knock on and slide through sideways—then discovery of the moment leads to an encounter with Christ, with the Spirit which is the dynamic movement of God, creating, giving birth to Love in me and every lover, in every person I have chance to meet. De Caussade reminds me that the goal and reward of living is possessing Christ, being Christ, incarnating Christ—bringing the Love which powers the world into view. When I remember I want this Love more than anything, I can more easily accept my experiences and focus my attention less on judgements and more on my desire for what is good. We become Love when we love. We become Christ for others when we allow our devotion to the Way to shape our vision, our relationship to our circumstances and the people in our lives. “These are my people,” I say to myself in the company of family, friends, townspeople, peers. But God also says to me: “These are MY people. I have put them in your life. Learn from them!” Sometimes, I have the feeling I want to bow at the feet of every person I know. They are royal. God is in them—for me! They are, these particular people, the ones I have been given to discover, not other people, these. No need to think to myself, “others may be better friends, more intellectual and artistic, more suited to me,” with the adolescent longing for anything other than what I have—other husband, other children, other neighbors, other colleagues—to flee the duties that are mine. God has been and is embedded here. My friends are faithful. They are God’s ambassadors! I need to honor them by being Christ for and with them, by being Love in the world. Karen Jessee
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Recently, again, for the gazillionth time, I wonder whether it is foolish to believe in God. When I was young and inebriated with Divine love, I was convinced of the foolishness of not believing. But that’s a harsh assessment when leveraged against my daughter or my friend Nancy, or a host of acquaintances who are committed non-theists and no more foolish than I am or any of my friends in the faith. The world is roomier than it used to be even if it’s less magical, less celebrated for being intrinsically creative and more celebrated for observable wonders than for mystery.
About mystery: some would say delusion. They are no more right than I was at my least tolerant. They’re "muggles" through and through, the Uncle Vernon’s of Harry Potter’s world, conceited and thick as caked mud---people who, when crushed by circumstance, suggest they'll revert to the dust they’re made of and nothing more will happen. They don't celebrate their share of the fertile dust the rest of us magic folk and sympathizers are made of, capable of nourishing the ground, making our contribution to forest or garden, to cemetery or sea. Some brittle anti-believers sound as if they'll wind up the grey sluice of concrete left over and dumped after a job. We, the willing, thrilled with wonder, assume we are like trees, like grass. We are lilies of the field and mustard plants, sheep and stars and grains of sand. We are, in fact, at one with the universe that atheists and others are so fond of. It is super important to us, too—us fools for Love, us believers. Here is what I say to my daughter: She has a story of life which goes back to the Big Bang and covers history since then; I have a story which precedes the Big Bang and covers all of history and eternity, to boot. “. . . Who was in the beginning, is now, and will be forever” as the Glory be goes. Every person on the planet shares animals and insects as companions. Christian believers, after the example of St. Francis of Assisi, call them brothers, sisters. Native cultures have often done the same, which only proves humans have lived in Narnia since it arose during its first sunrise animated with the breath of Aslan, his mysterious presence the source of all blessing. For those who haven’t read themselves into the fantasy worlds of Narnia and Harry Potter, suffice it to say these elaborate stories are wonderful, if simplified, versions of the Christian myth, its ethos and understanding of reality. Their authors chose language which brings people along into the magic non-believers abandoned when God became just one more character in the Bible books series. But the Bible books are extraordinarily wonderful, infinitely more elaborate and colorful than any fantasy, shot-through with genius and portraits of the ineffably creative universe, full of gifted animals and even more gifted humans. These books haven’t grown old; their living Power never dies. Even if the Bible is fiction, it tells a true story—and I am a believer, a perennial, eternal, fool for God. Iris Reid |
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