An irresistible and holy desire

Image from Wikimedia Commons

Today is Bastille Day, the French national holiday. So it seems fitting to bring you something from an influential French thinker and mystic. I refer, of course, to Jesuit priest, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who was a paleontologist and a philospopher. He influenced me hugely in the early 70s when there was a revival of popular interest in his work.

There is so much I could quote here. But I bring you two passages which are very meaningful to me today. Here's the first:

In the final analysis, the questions of why bad things happen to good people transmutes itself into some very different questions, no longer asking why something happened, but asking how we will respond, what we intend to do now that it happened.

More and more I am convinced that "Why?" is the most useless question anyone came up with. A better question is, rather, "Why not?" and then for us to move on to "What now?"

And here's a way we can all (any time, anywhere, whether clergy or lay) say Mass and say it rightly:

Since once again, O Lord, in the steppes of Asia, I have no bread, no wine, no altar, I will raise myself above those symbols to the pure majesty of reality, and I will offer to you, I, your priest, upon the altar of the entire earth, the labor and the suffering of the world. Receive, O Lord, in its totality the Host which creation, drawn by your magnetism, presents to you at the dawn of a new day. This bread, our effort, is in itself, I know, nothing but an immense disintegration. This wine, our anguish, as yet, alas! is only an evaporating beverage. But in the depths of this inchoate Mass you have placed —I am certain, for I feel it— an irresistible and holy desire that moves us all, the impious as well as the faithful to cry out: "O Lord, make us one!"

How captivating and awe-inspiring to see the entire earth as one's altar and then to perceive, by faith, the "pure majesty of reality".

What if we said to the Holy One every day, "This bread, this my effort, is my body broken for you."

And then, "This wine, this my anguish, is my blood shed for you."

Really. What if we did this?
~~~

Designer: Monica Van der Mars

The cost of faithfulness

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Oh, there is so much richness in this morning's lessons:

"Righteousness and peace have kissed each other."

"Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people..."

"King David [was] leaping and dancing before the LORD."

But the most dramatic lesson involves the beheading of John the Baptist.

Here's a brief reflection I found on this event:

Here faithfulness and violence, not faithfulness and steadfast love, go hand in hand. This very disturbing scene raises difficult questions for anybody and any community that lives “against-the-cultural-grain.” Should John have said nothing and self-protectively kept his objections to himself? After all, the chances of Herod and Herodias changing their ways just because a locust-eating prophet criticized them were not high. Would silence have been more prudent as well as self-preserving? Or would it have been cowardly and unfaithful, an opportunity to address a significant issue lost? How do we discern which is which?

Just lately, I've had occassion to be very disheartened by the silence and self-preserving prudence of a number of church authorities. It's understandable, of course. (No one wants to get his or her head chopped off!) Still, isn't the Christian faith all about cultivating the fidelity and courage necessary to live out our baptism even when that involves real risk?

What is God's position anyway?

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I found the following comment after an article over on Alternet:

The most dangerous words ever uttered:

"God is ON my side."

The most healing words ever uttered:

"God is AT my side."

Amazing how one little word can make all the difference.

-- Dr. Rick Lippin

Lectio Divina Meditation

I'm not sure that "Lectio Divnia Meditation" is really the best title for the above video but that's what the producer called it and I imagine the video emerged from her lectio.

It is certainly evocative.

And I like it.

UPDATE: Here's a little article on what Lectio Divina is all about.

UPDATE 2: I just found the following video which offers a very clear and accessible summary of the usual lectio steps:

The real problem

Lego Church

Look, I don't mean to come across as cynical or anything but I think this guy really has a point here:

The problem is not that the churches are filled with empty pews, but that the pews are filled with empty people.

-- Charlie Shedd

Awe

Image from Wikimedia Commons

There are many, many wonderful stories about the Ba`al Shem Tov. Here's a teaching that is simple and direct but has great appeal to me right now. I love this first sentence:

When you want to pray, it should be with awe. This is the gate through which one enters before God. Say to yourself, “To whom do I wish to bind myself? To the One who created all worlds with His word, who gives them existence and sustains them.” Think about God's loftiness and greatness, and you will then be able to enter the supernal worlds.