When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.The dark will be your womb
tonight.The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.You must learn one thing,
The world was made to be free in.Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.Sometimes it takes darkness and
the sweet confinement of your
aloneness to learnanything or anyone
that does not bring you aliveis too small for you.
— David Whyte, from The House of Belonging
Posts Tagged ‘see’
Sweet Darkness
Wednesday, May 27th, 2009The Essence of Purity
Monday, March 30th, 2009I was listening to the homily for today’s morning Mass on EWTN radio as I drove to work. The homilist, Fr. Joseph Mary, paraphrased Dietrich von Hildebrand:
The essence of purity is reverence.
Fr. Joseph Mary added, “…reverence for the person, reverence for my own dignity, and reverence for God. That is what the essential element of purity is.”
reverence = noun, a feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe
To put it in the negative, impurity is irreverence (to the person, to my dignity, to God).
In other words, to be not pure means that I don’t care enough about the good of the other person. I am willing to use the other person for whatever I feel or want. This can be from the typical connotation of purity as lustful thoughts to outright sexual activity, but it also extends to how we treat other people in general—do I manipulate or exploit people, do I gossip about them, etc. It goes back to treating people as persons and not as objects. You use objects; you love persons. Purity is about the whole person, not just about their sexuality as most people refer to it.
Kierkegaard wrote, “Purity of heart is to will one thing.” It is to revere others, to will—to choose—the good for them. It is to be sensitive, mindful as the Buddhist would say, to the needs of others. It is to love them.
So what is missing in me—what hole am I trying to fill when I do not revere other people? I can be so selfish at times. Do I not trust God enough to know that He will indeed give what is needed, in other words, to feed me? Give us this day our daily bread.
Father, I believe. Help my unbelief. Help me to be more open, more mindful, more reverent.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.
Walking on Water
Monday, March 30th, 2009God is everywhere. That’s easy to say, but do we really believe it? Are we willing to admit that God is present even in what looks nothing like holiness or love, i.e. in our sin—before, during, and after?
Here’s a powerful poem from Presence: An International Journal of Spiritual Direction, September, 2008.
After the storm, clouds like blown
milkweed lie in the widening sky.
I still don’t know how we surviveour youth, how in a matchstick boat
we cross the wind-clawed sea. When I
look back, I see no boat. I must havewalked on water, holding fast to false
beliefs: that I was strong;
that the worsthad already happened; that to commit
suicide would disgrace
the memory of my grandparents,who had survived Auschwitz,
so what excuse might I give
for not surviving America?Maybe it’s not truth that save us,
but a half-remembered image:
dimly seeing in the darka luminous, familiar
figure walking on the sea.
And like Peter, you stepout of doubt as out of a boat,
and start walking across the storm—
not on water, not on air,barely even on faith—
toward what you don’t dare
call love.— Joanna Warwick
No Longer Saw A…
Tuesday, March 10th, 2009From Fr. Boyer’s homily on Sunday on the Transfiguration of Jesus (Mark 9:2-10):
If Peter, James, and John no longer saw a man from Nazareth but the glory of his exaltation, then we no longer see bread on this altar; but what it becomes for us.
If Peter, James and John no longer saw the man they followed up that mountain
but saw the glory of divine life in him, then we no longer see each other just a neighbor or a stranger for by grace that same glory shines in each of us.If Peter, James, and John heard a voice that said: “Listen to him.” So have we.
If Peter, James, and John can take the risk of following Jesus even when they did not understand where he would lead them and what it would mean, so can we.
Toward the Mirror
Sunday, August 17th, 2008You will walk toward the mirror,
closer and closer, then flow
into the glass. You will disappear
some day like that, being
more real, more true, at the last.You learn what you are, but slowly,
a baby, a boy, a man,
a self often shattered, and pieces
put together again till the end:
you halt, the glass opens.A surface, an image, a past.
— William Stafford
Angels Tremble…
Sunday, May 25th, 2008“Angels tremble to gaze at things we yawn at.” (Peter Kreeft)
How You See is What You See
Tuesday, November 13th, 2007From Br. Joseph —
There is a philosopher’s axiom that says, “Whatever is received is received according to the mode of the receiver.” In other words, how you see is what you see.
This is best illustrated by a little story.
A fat, overweight Buddha was sitting under a tree one day. An arrogant, young soldier walked by, saw him, and said, “You look like a pig!”
The Buddha looked up at the soldier and said, “And you look like God!”
Surprised, the soldier asked him, “Why do you say that I look like God?”
The Buddha replied, “You see, we don’t see what’s outside us, we see what’s inside and project it outwards. I sit here all day and think about God and when I look out, that’s what I see. You, on the other hand, must be thinking about something else!”
The prism of attitude is how we see the world.
Father, help me to polish my prism of attitude to see You in everything and in everyone.
All is gift.
Our Lady of Mercy, pray for us…
The Body of Christ
Sunday, September 2nd, 2007The term Body of Christ means three things: 1) the actual physical body of Jesus; 2) the Church (with a capital “C”) because we as individual persons are church, parts of the Body, branches on the Vine; and 3) the Eucharist, the Blessed Sacrament. (Note: Some believers have issues with the third one. There is a plausible explanation below.)
God seeks us. He wants to have an I-You relationship (or I-Thou if you wish to be more formal). That means person-to-person, subject-to-subject, not subject-to-object. Objects are used and manipulated. Persons are in relation with each other, to communicate, to commune, to love, to be together. God will not—cannot—ever be an object. Unfortunately we often treat Him as an object for our own benefit and desires. We try to cajole and manipulate God into doing things for us like we cajole and manipulate other people. We do not seek relationship, union, community. We use. We manipulate. We are selfish. If we do not even treat other people as persons most of the time, how can we treat God as a person?
Some have described the humiliation that God must have endured to lower Himself to become a mere creature—to be born, to live, and to die as a human. Ah! The mystery of the Incarnation. But there is even more humility hidden within this one act. God not only risked becoming human, He also risked becoming an object. In becoming human, He not only bridged the gap between humanity and God to bring home His lost children, but He also showed us how to be fully human. Also in becoming human, God risked the objectification of His person, of becoming an object that could be manipulated and used, idolized or discarded. By risking to become an object to us, God is another bridge for us to rise above the slavery of subject-object, the I-It way of seeing life, to the freedom of the subject-subject relationship, the I-You of union and community.
There is no love or mutual respect in I-It. This is control, judgment, labeling, which leads to pride. (The Biblical term is slavery.) Only in I-You is there love and mutual respect, and the paradox of union and liberation.
So, in the term Body of Christ, I can recognize the person of Jesus in His actual body. I can recognize the person in other people (when I open my heart). Can I recognize the person in the Eucharist? Do I see the Eucharist as an object, some “thing” to be used for consumption? How do I see this little thin waffer of bread as the Bread of Life, as the person of Jesus, as God? How can I rise above the I-It-ness of this object and recognize the I-You-ness of Jesus?
No wonder so many of Jesus’ followers left Him as described near the end of John 6. No wonder some believers still have issues with the Eucharist today. It is hard enough to believe God came in the Incarnation as a mere creature, but it is even harder to believe God is in what appears to be an object. And neither, man or object, can be made an idol.
When I attempt to contemplate the I-You-ness of the Eucharist, I enter into silence. I am speechless, thoughtless. My thoughts and words fade as the objects they are, gently blown away in the sweet breathe of the Holy Spirit. Part of my mind wants to hold onto those thoughts, but mind only deals in objects. You are above that. And I am in silence.
As the sounds and thoughts return, I see kenosis connecting all three connotations of the Body of Christ. You gave Your life for me. I am called to give my life to others. I see the pattern of the Trinity in this. And in the Eucharist, You once again give yourself to me. You are the gift given to me so that I may give to others. You are the energy for me in this giving like the Holy Spirit is often described as the personification of the love between the Father and the Son. I am to risk being object too for others to manipulate and use, to idolize or discard, in the hopes of raising them above the I-It-ness of this world to the I-You-ness of your Reality.
My Lord and my God, Jesus Christ, purify my heart so that I may see You, so that I may see You in others, and that others may see You in me. Help me to see You in the Body of Christ, within your Church, within your Eucharist. Lead me into proper relationship with all people and all things.
Wishing For
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007I was talking with an older friend whose wife is the middle of battling the second stage of a debilitating disease. They chose to adopt two children years ago instead of passing this 50-50 chance, hereditary disease on to the next generation. Early in their marriage, he witnessed his mother-in-law progress through the disease that prematurely took her life. And now his belove wife is in the middle of it. They knew it was coming. And now it’s here. They have a few years left together, and they both treasure each and every moment of life.
His wife recently had a milestone birthday and all her family (daughters, brothers and their familes, grandchildren, etc.) came to visit and celebrate. This disease stops with her. No more in her family. But she still must battle it, with her husband at her side. Near the end of our conversation, he said, “If I had received everything I had wished for, it would have been so much less than what I did receive.”
Wow! God is a prodigal father. His gifts are always so much more than what we ask for, even when we do not think our prayers are answered. We cannot see.
In the Gospels, Jesus never prayed from a need-base, that is, from what was missing, but always from the abundance of the Father, to fill, to make whole. I am reminded of the line from the “Soul of Christ” prayer:
Jesus, with you by my side enough has been given.
Help me to see this Father; help me to live this. Please continue to bless my friends. Thank You for everything.