Positive Spirituality
THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT
Christian spirituality, or how a Christian goes about living out the calling of the Gospel on their lives, into which they were baptized, originates and is (or should be) informed by Holy Scripture. Or put another way, Christianity is the way we live out the baptized life, the goal of which is to reach or attain God. Christ is the end of all spirituality; he is the pearl of great price, the treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and sells all that he has and buys that field. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Supreme good. He is the object and aim of Christian spirituality. Spirituality is filled with longing because we desire to fully take hold of God and attain true happiness.
The happiness of seeing God is what Christians have (for centuries) called The Beatific Vision. Specifically, The Beatific Vision is that happy state of perpetually gazing upon God in Christ and enjoying Him forever, eternally attached to the Divine God in Christ. For, in finally seeing Christ, man finds ultimate happiness, entering into the ultimate state of beatitude, joy, and bliss. Of that future happy day, St. John writes, "Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared: but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." The goal of spirituality is attaining God; spirituality then, or living out the faith we profess, is how we get there.
Christian spirituality finds its form and intention in Holy Scripture. The Old Testament speaks of 'Two Ways' a person can go. The first of the one-hundred and fifty psalms presents two contrasting paths of spirituality: one leading to God the other to destruction as embodied in the 'Blessed Man' and the 'Wicked Man': The Blessed Man walks in the way of righteousness and attains God. The wicked do not and perish.
The Lord God set two paths before his people Israel saying in Deuteronomy, "See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD, your God, will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it." But, when Israel went the way of the wicked, they perished. From these Old Testament passages, along with several others, comes the New Testament exhortations to "walk" or exercise the Christian life in a manner that pleases God.
In the New Testament, we also find two further aspects of the spiritual life in the persons of Mary and Martha. The story of Martha and Mary comes from St. Luke's Gospel chapter ten, recounting Jesus' visit to the two sisters' home. Martha sets herself to do the work necessary for her guest to reside in her home while Mary sits at the feet of Jesus to behold him without distraction or interference. Martha is a picture of the active spiritual life. Mary, a picture of contemplative spirituality. Where the Two Paths guide the spiritual journey towards the Good (a compass of the soul), Martha and Mary equip us for the journey (tools to aid the soul's journey on the path to God).
Scripture also speaks of spirituality in negative and positive terms. The negative form of Christian spirituality is characterized by the absence rather than the presence of distinguishing features. On the flip side, positive spirituality is distinguished by the presence of features or qualities rather than their absence. Lenten spirituality leans more towards the negative than the positive with its disciplines of intensified prayer, almsgiving, and fasting. Fasting is a helpful example of the negative. We abstain from food for the intended purpose of increasing hunger for God. Remember last week's Epistle when St. Paul exhorted the Thessalonians to abstain from fornication? By abstaining from sexual sin (negative spirituality), they would abound in sanctification or growth in becoming like Jesus. Or the negative is embraced to produce the positive.
Jesus speaks of a house swept clean, which is a metaphor for the soul swept clean by the regenerative power of the baptismal waters. The baptized life is a continual cleaning or decluttering of sin by the power of the Holy Spirit- we keep the house clean, so to speak, by negating sinful choices. But what happens if we don't do the positive work of filling the house of the soul with Christ? We will be like the man in Jesus' parable whose state was worse than the first! The negative: the removal of sin. The positive: loving like Jesus.
Let's continue in this understanding of the negative and the positive from St. Paul's exhortation in today's Epistle reading. "BE ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints."
The negative command is easily discernable: don't engage in the sins of the flesh- don't even let them be "be named among you." Like last Sunday, the epistle reading tells us to fight against concupiscence instead of falling prey to the disordered desires of the flesh. Since I'm fairly certain we addressed this topic last Sunday, we’ll attend to the positive aspects of today's apostolic exhortation.
First, we are to be followers of God. "Therefore, be followers of God, as dear children; and walk in love." Spirituality is responsive in that it looks to the life, words, and actions of Christ as found in the Gospels explained in the New Testament writings and prayed in the liturgies of the Church. Through his thoughts, words, and deeds, Jesus embodies perfect spirituality. We are not the archetype; Jesus is. We cannot imitate what we do not understand, whom we don't know, or can't see clearly.
The spiritual journey is best directed by a clear vision of Christ as the determined destination of the self. We follow God, meaning we do not lead ourselves in the way of faith but are led by God. Paul says we are but "dear children" being led by the hand of our Father and nurtured by Holy Mother Church. Later in the Epistle, he contrasts the dear children of God with the children of disobedience. The main difference between them is the former's willingness to be led by God versus the latter, who are determined to lead themselves. The truth is: children aren't meant to raise themselves. Christian spirituality, therefore, imitates Christ through an openness to the leading and promptings of the Holy Spirit; a child-like soul entrusts itself to the wisdom and care of its Parents.
If what I've described above is the demeanor or the disposition of spirituality, what then is its content? Let's hear the Apostle once more: "Therefore, be followers of God as dear children; and walk in love." There it is: the content of spirituality is to walk in love. Love furnishes and finely appoints the house of the soul swept clean of sin. Sanctification then is walking daily in the imitation of God's love; this is the positive aspect of Christian Spirituality.
By love, Paul means imitation, not formulation. Christian love is both responsive and reflective. St. John rightly identifies the font from which true love flows, saying, "we (that is, Christians) love because [God] first loved us." The Divine love with which we have been loved and that which we have experienced forms the content of Christian love- reflecting that which it knows and understands. The truth is, we cannot give what we have not received.
What then have we received by faith? How has the Father loved you? We could fill volumes of books answering this, couldn't we? Surely we would speak of God's mercy. The giving of the Son, Christ Jesus, is the mercy of God to save sinners as declared by an angel on that first Christmas, "his name will be Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." Like the possessed man in today’s Gospel, we too were bound. We, at one time, were bound in sin and spiritually dumb, not knowing God nor known by Him. And yet God was merciful, "For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God" (Eph 2:8). The mercy of God flows generously to sinners; He bestows gifts to thieves and shows mercy to the merciless.
If we are to follow God and walk in love, then we must be merciful. The word 'mercy' comes from the Latin misericordia, derived from the two words miseria meaning wretchedness, misery, or affliction, and cor, meaning heart. Etymologically mercy means a heart for the wretchedness or a heart for the affliction of another. We call this compassion or pity. Christian love is merciful when it sees the misery of another and moves to dispel another person's troubles as if they were his own; this impulse drives merciful love.
Thomas Aquinas speaks of mercy as the beautiful virtue taking precedence over all the other virtues because mercy moves completely towards the other and away from self, desiring to assist a brother, sister, or stranger in a time of need- desiring God’s bountiful goodness to overtake the day of trouble. The mercy of God isn't an abstract idea, but a concrete reality through which he reveals his love unto mankind, therefore, we walk mercifully, when we love tangibly; mercy has skin, hands, feet, a face... mercy looks a lot like Jesus.
Remember, it's easy to love the loveable, yet how difficult it can be to show mercy to the unlovable. Or to those we love who have done the unlovable. But this is the test of mercy: whether it is human or Divine. For man's mercy will run its course; is short-lived and selective. But the mercies of God are unfathomable, longsuffering, and patient; remember, "God came into the world to save sinners." He is the God whose property is always to have mercy.
The Sermon on the Mount supplies the ethic of the Christian walk. Jesus says, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy." to show mercy to others, especially the undeserving, is how we walk in love; the merciful walk the path of life with the blessed man of Psalm one; like the blessed man, the merciful shall stand at the last judgment and enter the eternal congregation of the righteous because they have received mercy.
Divine mercy expresses itself in forgiveness. To walk in love is to forgive. "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." This prayer is an appeal to God's love for forgiveness; to mercifully look past our imperfections, to forgive us of the wrongs we do against Him and our neighbor as well. Forgiving love is merciful, for in the psalmist's words, "[God] He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us" (Ps 103:10-12). God’s nature is to meet true repentance with mercy, his nature is to forgive and restore. And if Christ be in you, then it is your nature as well.
Yes, the nature of love is to forgive when wronged, but please understand that forgiveness doesn't ignore a wrong done or deny that a sin was committed. Forgiveness doesn't close its eyes to moral atrocities or pretend the offense didn't hurt. Nor is it indifferent to calling to account the offending person; forgiveness must not be without justice. Forgiveness begins when a Christian determines in the heart to let God avenge and restore.
When standing at the crossroads of forgiveness or resentment, one thing must govern the road we chose, and that is the way of Christ: "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you" (Eph 4:32). To forgive those who wrong us is the closest form of imitating Christ, who forgave our trespasses by bearing them upon the desolation of the Cross. For, "while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom 5:8).
The children of God follow him, walking in mercy and forgiveness, on the path of life. We show ourselves to be children of light and not of darkness by producing "the fruit of the Spirit in all goodness, and righteousness, and truth; proving what is acceptable unto the Lord." Positive spirituality produces the fruit of the Spirit. Faith works through love and manifests itself in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. The Apostle says that "against such things, there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires." This brings us back to the beginning. The negation of the flesh with its passions and desires cultivates the soil of the heart from which the fruit of love abounds.
Lenten spirituality embraces both the positive and negative aspects. The purpose is our liberation: for the body and soul to be delivered from servitude to sin and set at liberty to walk in love. And yet, we need a Strong Man to liberate us from sin, for apart from the Spirit, we do not possess the strength to walk in love. Though we desire to please God, desire isn't enough. The Lord must hear our prayer, see our need, and fulfill the godly desires of the heart, for no one does good apart from the enabling grace of God. We need the power of love to love. St. Chrysostom is attributed with saying: "Be a lover then of love; for by this art thou saved, by this hast thou been made a son." No one loves according to the Divine pattern who himself is not filled with the love of God.
Yet we cannot love what we do not know. Neither can we imitate that which we have not received. Love imitates love; it's as simple as that. My beloved may our Lenten fasting increase the hunger to love; may fervent prayer compel the desire to love; and may the giving of alms free us to love. Remember, the end of all Christian love is the attainment of Christ, who is mercy, who is forgiveness, who is love. Amen+
