The Advent-Christmas-Epiphany
Season of 2018-2019 has again afforded us another opportunity to delve into the
mystery of who we are, Whose presence we have been called to be, and Who has
done this calling.
This
involves action on our part. Each mass I celebrate I make sure the assembly
repeat, "O god, help me to believe the truth about myself, no matter how
beautiful it is." The thinking behind this is the fact there is an ongoing
struggle, an ongoing battle within the soul of each one of us. Yes, there is a
battlefield in the depths of each soul. On that field a battle rages between
the two voices who are always calling to us, begging for our exclusive
attention. One is quiet gentle voice, calling us, beloved daughter, beloved
son. A voice so gentle, that we have to be immersed in silence to become aware
of its existence. I have always found it very difficult to accept the fact that
silence is, our God’s, first language. It has been a very long, and difficult
journey, to become comfortable in silence, and solitude. I can only thank the
many, many hours of hiking in nature for this gift to become a reality. At one
time I was so very much afraid of the awe-full, and wonder-full silence, that I
listened to music to drown out the silence. Then ever so slowly I became
comfortable in the quiet, accepting, unconditioned embrace of nature. In
nature, each individual is accepted and loved as they are. One does not have to
be anything, but who the person one really is. What a mysterious freedom we are
privileged to gifted with, and called to enjoy. One does not have to earn, deserve,
or qualify for this transformational experience. All we have to do is be the
best we can be, right now. That adage, "We do our best, and God does the
rest, works here." All we have to
do is have the desire, then The Power of Love, finds the way. It is this
simple, yet we want to complicate it, right?
The
other voice can be loud, oh! so very loud. It can cause us to become deaf to
the quiet voice, calling us beloved daughter/son. It is so sad that when we
cease to hear, or pay attention to that quiet voice, we then get lost. Lost in
listening to, and living the lie. The lie is that we have to earn, deserve, qualify
for something which is ALREADY deep within us. We are listening to voice of
negativity blinding us to who we really are, in our Father-God prodigal love. Our
Father sent us His Son, Jesus, Who became The Christ, to reveal to us through
His humanity, life and ministry of Who our Mercy-full Father truly is. It is so
sad when the mercy of God is diluted, and/or denied, because of personal
prejudice, and conflict. Thank God our Pope has returned us to a renewed vision
of The Prodigal Father of the Gospels. There is no, if about His love. There is
no precondition for His acceptance. All there is an open invitation to
welcoming arms. To those who are in the business of measuring, this make no
sense. Scripture warns us, "Our ways are NOT God’s ways." Never have
been, never will. We have to free God
from our narrow thinking. We have to make God, BIG. After all God is
INFINITE??? Why then do we want to make The Infinite into something we can
define and control? This results in us making God in our image, and likeness. Hence
we have NOT a living God, but an idol, a false god. WE have been warned against
worshipping at the altar of false gods, i.e. power, property, prestige, control,
comparison and competition. The ego, the false self demands this of us. There
is a war when we cross the false self, and worship at the altar of The Living
God, The Incarnation reveals to us. I like what I read many years ago, what we
know is not God, what we do not know is God. So God is also called The Unknown,
and The Unknowable. We have to stop spouting out, and believing as the ultimate
fact, our little narrow understanding of God. We are called to journey into the
cloud of unknown. It is a journey into certainty not uncertainty. There is an old classic, "The Cloud Of
Unknowing." (I just love when the anonymous author writes, "God does
His best work with habitual sinners.")
To be continued...
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