A Higher Law

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covenant, creation, Deuteronomy, God, heart, Israelites, Jesus, letting go, Lord, love, Matthew, perfect, perfection, Sermon on the Mount, soul, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

Much more comfortable with readings that speak plainly of love than of law, I wasn’t thrilled this morning to see Deuteronomy show up with a first line of “this day the Lord God commands you…” I was pleasantly surprised, however as I read on and heard that the observation of the law was to be not with the mind and will (although that would necessarily be involved) but with “all your heart and all your soul.” The entire section (DT 26:16-19) was based on an agreement that sounded quite mutual, resulting in the Israelites becoming “a people peculiarly his own, as he promised.”

Jesus took this theme and expanded it at the end of the Sermon on the Mount (MT 5:43-48) – an extraordinary section that calls us to love those we would not and sometimes think we could not: our enemies and those who hate us. There is that line at the end that people (including myself) are always trying to translate in a softer way than what we learned as children. It says be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. What dawned on me this morning, however, in putting the two readings together (I really am a slow learner sometimes!) is that the perfection is not the perfection that comes from the mind – working hard at while still resisting internally what the “law” calls for. Rather, Jesus is talking about that law of the covenant in Deuteronomy, that agreement of God with his people that comes from the heart and the soul. That law is not about resisting anything but rather letting go of what holds us back and allowing love to flow through us as God does in the entire creation. The perfection of love is what God already is. It is only in God that we can accept the terms of this law and move toward it each day anew so that, in the end, when we see God “face to face” we will recognize ourselves in God’s eyes the way that God already sees us.

Turn Around

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a new heart, a new spirit, change the world, commited, Ezekiel, God, Lenten practice, Matthew, reconciled, relationships, restore, right relationship, self-surrender, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, turn around

The word conversion comes from the Latin and calls us to turn in another direction. This morning’s gospel verse (EZ 18:31) urges us to “turn away from all the crimes you have committed and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit.” I was interested in the responsibility for those actions whose agent in the Scriptures is often God; in this case it is we ourselves who do the creating of something new. In the same manner, the gospel puts responsibility on us this morning in our relationships with others and adds a twist that calls for even more self-surrender than we might expect. Jesus does not say, “If you have something against your brother [or sister] go and be reconciled.” Rather the text reads, “If you bring your gift to the altar and there recall that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there at the altar, go first and be reconciled with your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” (MT 5:23) So whether or not we think we have been wronged, there is no pouting allowed here. It doesn’t tell us to go and ask for an apology, nor to apologize for something that is not our fault just to get it over with. The command is to go and be reconciled which means to restore to relationship and it clearly says it’s up to us to figure out how to do that.

Both Ezekiel and Matthew this morning speak to something that we might care to work on if we’re looking for a Lenten practice, but it is really something that belongs in our daily intentions throughout the year. Each day we ought to be committed to right relationship with God, with other people and with the whole of creation. We can’t wait for others to take the first step. Make for yourselves a new heart and spirit, Ezekiel says. Don’t wait for the other to come to you, Jesus urges. Turn around and see what can be done to change yourself, to change the world. It starts today.

A New Day!

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companion on the journey, Israel, Judeo-Christian scripture, leap into the adventure, Shalom, spiritual reflection, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

Here I am, home again, looking out at the frigid beauty of the dawning day in Windsor, New York. I dismiss the thought that it is 1:00PM in Israel as I try to re-acclimate to life in the United States. When I awoke in the dark nearly an hour ago, my first thought was a surprise. “Leap into the adventure of this day!” When I looked at my clock to see that I still had time to sleep before the alarm, I tried to convince myself to answer the call to wakefulness but I couldn’t quite manage it. Thankfully, when the alarm pulled me easily out of my dozing, I heard again the invitation to the day as an adventure once again.

The truth of today is that although I am now back in the cocoon of home, the “I” who is “back” is not the same. I have been forever changed by the experience of the past two weeks in ways that I cannot unpack as easily as I will unpack my suitcase. Thomas Merton was a worthy companion on the journey, drawing me deeper into the mystery that is the inner life, even while the learnings from Mike, our guide through the geography and history of Israel, have also left an indelible mark.

Who knows where it will all lead? More deeply steeped in the Judeo-Christian Scriptures now because of having experienced them in some of the places and the ancestors of people I met, I know that the foundations of my writing here will not change radically. How the influence of the physical journey will play into the spiritual reflections, however, remains to be seen. I only hope that each day in the eternal present I will leap into the adventure that awaits and find there what God has in store!

Shalom! May it be so!

The Right Road

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alone, desire to please, God, Kathleen Deignan, Lord, lost, no fear, path, road, the shadow of death, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, trust, your will

“My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going. I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing. I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire. And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore I will trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death. I will not fear for you are ever with me, and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.”

~ Thomas Merton
(from Thomas Merton’s Book of Hours by Kathleen Deignan)

The Contemplative Life

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action, cloistered life, contemplative life, creative work, dedicated love, experience, inner discipline, integrity, Kathleen Deignan, personal development, prayer, special dimension, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

When I speak of the contemplative life I do not mean the institutional cloistered life, the organized life of prayer. I am talking about a special dimension of inner discipline and experience, a certain integrity and fullness of personal development, which are not compatible with a purely external, alienated, busy-busy existence. This does not mean that they are incompatible with action, with creative work, with dedicated love. On the contrary, these all go together.

~ Thomas Merton
(from Thomas Merton’s Book of Hours by Kathleen Deignan)

The Cosmic Dance

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cosmic dance, follow Him, garden of creation, hear, His call, Kathleen Deignan, let go, Lord, the meaning of it all, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton

The Lord plays and diverts Himself in the garden of His creation,
and if we could let go of our own obsession
with what we think is the meaning of it all,
we might be able to hear His call
and follow Him in His mysterious, cosmic dance.

~ Thomas Merton
(from Thomas Merton’s Book of Hours by Kathleen Deignan)

Shining Like the Sun

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God, human condition, human race, incarnate, joy, Kathleen Deignan, shining like the sun, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, walking around

“I have the immense joy of being a member of a race in which God became incarnate. As if the sorrows and stupidities of the human condition could overwhelm me, now I realize what we all are. And if only everybody could realize this! But it cannot be explained. There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun.”

~ Thomas Merton
(from Thomas Merton’s Book of Hours by Kathleen Deignan)

Paradise Found

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distractions, farm, Kathleen Deignan, know, merchandise, paradise, secret, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, understand, wisdom

Here is an unspeakable secret: paradise is all around us and we do not understand.

It is wide open. The sword is taken away, but we do not know it:

We are off “one to his farm and another to his merchandise.”

Lights on. Clocks ticking. Thermostats working. Stoves cooking. Electric shavers filling radios with static.

“Wisdom,” cries the dawn deacon, but we do not attend.

~ Thomas Merton
(from Thomas Merton’s Book of Hours by Kathleen Deignan)

A Diversity of Voices

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brothers, diversity of voices, Father, give voice, heart, laud, nature, praise, silence, The Sophia Center for Spirituality

“Today, Father, this blue sky lauds you.
The delicate green and orange flowers of the tulip poplar tree praise you.
The distant blue hills praise you, together with the sweet-smelling air that is full of brilliant light.
The bickering flycatchers praise you with the lowing cattle and the quails that whistle over there.
I too, Father, praise you, with all these, my brothers, and they give voice to my own heart and to my own silence.
We are all one silence with a diversity of voices.”

~ Thomas Merton
(from Thomas Merton’s Book of Hours by Kathleen Deignan)

A Profound Repose

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act without motion, center, deepest activities, everywhere, fulfillment, Kathleen Deignan, loneliness, nowhere, profound repose, standing still, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, Thomas Merton, travelling, vision

“This is a country whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.
You do not find it by traveling but by standing still.
Yet it is in this loneliness that the deepest activities begin.
It is here that you discover act without motion,
labor that is profound repose,
vision in obscurity,
and, beyond all desire,
a fulfillment whose limits extend to infinity.”

~ Thomas Merton
(from Thomas Merton’s Book of Hours by Kathleen Deignan)