Wednesday, June 18, 2014

Experiencing God - Empying Self 186

"Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in Heaven"
Gospel of Matthew

Why did Jesus single out prayer, fasting and almsgiving to His disciples?  In the Hebrew scriptures, these three were considered the cardinal works of the religious life.  They were seen as the key signs of a pious person, three great pillars on which the good life was based.  In fact, they are still considered so today, and have also been adopted in our Christian tradition.  However, Jesus warns us that it is not enough just to do them.  We must do them with the right intention.  "Beware of practicing your piety before others in order to be seen by them, for then you have no reward from your Father in Heaven."

What does Jesus mean by this?  Is God sitting up there in heaven evaluating everything we do, making sure we have the right intention in our hearts when we do it?  If we do it right, we are awarded, but if we don't do it right, no reward is given?  Of course not.

Our God is a God of relationship.  God wants to enter into relationship with us, and us with God.  God wants us to personally encounter His presence in our lives, to experience the joy of the presence in a relationship of love; but this cannot happen if we do things like our prayer, fasting, and almsgiving for selfish purposes -- that is, to be seen or to be esteemed by others.  It's not that God is absent when we pray with the wrong intention.  God is always there.  It's just that our awareness of God's presence is clouded over by "self", that which seeks its own benefit, and not for glorifying God.

The prayer we do in Christian meditation is a discipline for the purpose of transcending "self" so as to enter into that relationship with the Father.  Christian meditation is a prayer form that many are unfamiliar or have difficulty understanding.  The reason for it is that it is prayer based on silence, stillness and simplicity - of really doing nothing.  The only thing we do is repeat our one sacred word or mantra.  We seek to personally do nothing, achieve nothing.  We have no words, goals or expectations.  And by seeking nothing, having no goals for ourselves, we discover that God is inwardly present with us, and there is a personal uniting of that presence with us.  It is a difficult prayer practice because this inner stillness is so often disrupted by constant thoughts of our own agendas and plans.  We worry about what has happened in the past, we are creating plans for the future, we get caught up in our personal fantasies.  This prayer discipline is the work of letting go of all of this through silence and stillness, of setting these things, ("self"), aside for a few moments.

This is what Jesus means when He says:  "When you pray, go into your private room".  This private room is the room of your heart free from self-absorbing distractions.  "When you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in that secret place, and your Father who sees all that is done in secret will reward you."  In other words, as we empty ourselves, as our self-absorbing thoughts subside, we discover God's presence residing within us.  This is why meditation is often referred to as pure prayer or prayer of the heart. 

In all of our prayer, no matter what form it may take, we pray in a way that leads to that discovery of God's presence.  It is God's presence that transforms us so that we may acknowledge with Saint Paul that it is in Him that we live, and move and have our being. 

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Experiencing God - Unity 185

"Holy Father, keep those you have given me true to your name so that they may be one like us."
Gospel of John

When a parent, a mother or father, is dying, the one hope and dream they have for their family, particularly their children, is that they remain united. Their wish is that they support one another, look after one another, be there for one another.  In fact, this is more important than the individual success stories of each of their children.  Why is this?  I think the answer lies in the fact that a parent knows that if their children are united in love for one another, they will all be safe, all will be cared for.

There's a story in Acts where St. Paul is leaving the people of Ephesus.  "Be on your guard for yourselves," he says;  "Be on your guard for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you the overseers".  In other words, be united in your faith.  Do not allow the outside world with all of its temptations separate you and divide you.  

The focus of the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel of John, from which the above quote is taken, is on unity.  This is written at the time when Jesus is preparing to leave His disciples.

Jesus prays to the one He calls "Holy Father that His followers be joined in oneness, just as the father and son are one.  The central focus of Jesus' prayer is unity, unity of not only the present disciples, but also the future disciples; a unity modeled on that of the Father and Son; a union that takes it roots from the love that exists between the two of them.

What is the cause of disunity, this breaking of the love covenant?  Jesus describes this source of disunity as the world.  In fact, He mentions this seventeen times in these verses of chapter seventeen.  This world that Jesus mentions is the anti-world, the place of disbelief, hatred and unlove; that which is in contradiction to what Christian living should be.  It would include the getting caught up into inordinate desires and attachments to things, the lust for power and ambition, and for worldly pleasures.  Jesus uses Judas as an example of one to whom unity was offered, but was rejected; of one who experienced light and life, but left it for the darkness of the world.

The unity that Jesus speaks about has nothing to do with uniformity.  A parent recognizes that each of his or her children are uniquely different, with different strengths and gifts, different likes and dislikes, different preferences and even different views.  It is this diversity that makes community and family work, that makes Christ visible in the world.  This unity has its foundation in our common belief in Christ, faith in the Holy Spirit, and the mission of love that we are all called to share.  We serve in that mission in unity, using the diversity of our gifts and strengths to move us forward to building God's Kingdom.

St. Paul warns the people of Ephesus: "Be on your guard for yourselves.  Be on your guard for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you the overseers."  A dying parent knows what is the most important thing for his or her children: - care for one another, be there for one another.  Do not let the cares of the world separate you.