This set of thoughts, which I hope everyone finds helpful, is more about human nature and God's relationship with humans, than a classic Bible study or commentary type of blogging.
Here's the problem. The Bible states that money is the root of all evil. First you need to understand there are two types of over fondness of money, and hence it's misuse. The first problem is to love money more than anything else, including believing in, fearing and obeying God. Thus many people love money for itself above all other relationships, both their human relationships and their relationship with God. The second problem is to love money for the power that it gives you over other people, or over elements of God's creation. For example, some people do not crave money and its luxuries, as do the first category of people, but they crave money because it buys power and control over others. So this is why St Paul and others trace just about every human evil back to its roots of money.
There is a third problem, whereby decent ordinary people do not love money, or crave its power, but will do evil things because they feel boxed into doing so in order to survive. This is a third category which is involuntary slavery to money or, rather, the people who control and dispense the money. People who dole out money to those who need it in return for making the people do unethical things are the second category of people (the money as power lovers) while those who accept the money out of either genuine or perceived need are this third category, those who are enslaved to money and its power.
Understanding that, you must recognize that there are three inevitabilities that each person with this unhealthy relationship (whether category 1, 2 or e) with money participate in. One is crime. Two is sin. Three is both crime and sin.
By the way, it is tempting to believe that all crime is also a sin. While that is usually true, I need to teach you all thoughtfulness, in order to see the shades of nuances correctly. It is not a sin, for example, to disobey a law or authority (and thus be branded a criminal) if that law or authority is not righteous toward God or fellow human beings. So one can be, like the early Christians, a "criminal" who breaks a "law" or "authority" when one refuses to worship idols. That, then, is a crime that is not a sin and, actually, in this example, a virtue.
The problem is that many people rationalize love of money as being kind of a "Robin Hood," and thus not criminal or sinful. They are wrong because the premise (love of money or its power) is not in service of God because one cannot use a human tool (money) to serve God, who is above and beyond all those things. God wants your attention and obedience; not your money, either to him or in his supposed "service." There is no way that a person can love money and then make rational decisions about "how God would 'want' the money spent." One has to be a good Christian, Jew or Muslim first, with a solid untarnished relationship with God, before one can even make baby steps in deciding "how Jesus" or "how God" would "want" money spent in his service. Remember, the Apostles observed first hand how Jesus taught them these things, yet one still fell, in part due to money, Judas Iscariot. If Judas Iscariot was troubled in deciding "how God would want the money spent," what makes any human alive think he or she is well equipped to know better? Especially a human who is far from being perfected in their relationship with God and God alone? Love of money and power (including the very seductive power to be a "do gooder") is by definition a BARRIER to understand God.
Now, here is something you need to understand about me personally. I have no interest in being a "crime buster," I never have and I never will. Part of my calling and my ministry is to tell everyone the same thing, which is the reality of God's word as it is in the Torah, in the Bible, and in the Qur'an. In other words, there is only one God, and His word is constant, the only truth, and irrefutable. So if I met the worst criminals in the world, I have no concern about their crimes or their sins. I have concern that they do not understand the consequences of those crimes and sins, the consequences that will be rendered by God, and not by human beings. I would sit down face to face with even the worst criminals and say, "Friend, you need more information before you continue, and that information is that God is real, judgment is real, and that hell is real and that, further, unlike jokes and cartoons, hell is un-endurable, and no one there is 'handling' it." I would not be interested in attempting to persuade them away from their crime or sin. I simply deliver God's truth and leave it up to them.
I hope that you have found this helpful.
Showing posts with label spiritual director. Show all posts
Showing posts with label spiritual director. Show all posts
Monday, May 3, 2010
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Debunk cults and answer "Who am I?"
So if there is no reincarnation “Who am I?” LOL, trust me; I understand human nature, so that when all the false beliefs one has been taught and has held fall away, there is a puzzling gap that remains.
If you are asking yourself that question, you have to do two things.
One is that you have to discover for the first time, or rediscover, your own identity, as you would have as a child, where you learn what you like doing, what you dislike, what moves your heart, and what leaves you cold, your biological and cultural roots, and those of your neighbors, and who you love, and who you respect. You learn to find teachers who are not “gurus” but are the type that every human has looked up to throughout history: the man who taught you how to fix a car, the woman who finally made algebra comprehensible to you, the author who has a gift for selecting a topic, such as a period in history, and makes it both interesting and relevant (without pushing an agenda).
The second thing you need to do is to believe in the one God and rediscover your relationship with him. Why is that important? Because the very need to feel “special” and “enlightened” that first drove you to cultist belief is a result of not knowing that all elevation and all loftiness of human spirit comes from God and God alone. Only by realizing that God has unique and loving knowledge of each and every person, regardless of their station in life, can one be elevated and can one feel “enlightened” and “special,” not by making up elitist false history. This is a key understanding of both Christianity and Islam, and that is why they both swept the world with millions of converts and believers, not because of the “sword” or the “Inquisition.” Christianity and Islam shed the light on the truth that God is one, all knowing, and has egalitarian love and concern for each and every human being. Humans realized in both their heads and their hearts the truth of this, and thus threw away their “magical thinking” and their demeaning belief in idols. No babbling self proclaiming “high priestess” of “arcane knowledge” and “past lives” can elevate a single human being one iota in their spirituality and, instead, she demeans her followers by denying them the lofty heritage that is truly theirs: adopted child and beloved of God, able to have a personal relationship with God of worship, service, faith and salvation.
Ha, so I am definitely not unsympathetic, and I never have been. I’m on the side of the angels, who, as Jesus explained, rejoice more at the return of one sinner than in the routine goodness of the faithful. What has distressed me is the stampede toward sin, rather than back toward God, of the past forty years of human history and society. To this day I still wish that even the most vile sinners and disgracefully evil humans find the light and have sincere and total conversion. I have faith and comfort that those who have wronged God and their neighbors so dastardly will be judged by God and thrust into hell, but it’s not like I’m spending my time wishing for their “comeuppance.” Even those who have done personally terrible things to me, I hope that before they are either smited by God and thus are punished in life, or who glide through life on their evil, and then upon death find themselves in eternal hell, hear and understand the truth, repent and make amends with full sincerity (even if being honest and sincere is like a rusty piston in an engine that has trouble working properly at first). It does not make what they did go away, or “OK,” but it would save them from hell and that would satisfy what I consider to be part of my ministry.
So who am I and why do I speak with such authority? If you are sane and well balanced you can relate to me as a human who has a very good understanding of God, but I understand that it’s hard for others to make the flip from thinking we are “reincarnated” players and actors to who we really are. I have both extremes to deal with. One extreme is the New Agers who have had to detox from thinking that I am “reincarnated” whoever they have labeled me with at different times over the past sad and wasted years. They have a gap, where they wonder, “If she is not reincarnated, then how does she know all of these things?” I am sympathetic and will give you an analogy (of course), kind of a literary device to plug the gap while you detox from that way of thinking. The other extreme are those who think they are Bible thumping literalists, but who have actually strayed far from the word of God by assuming that they have individual “insight” into what God “really means and plans to do,” such as having the nerve to interpret Dan and Revelations to assign timing and characters to “the Rapture,” “Antichrist identity,” and “the tribulations.” They ignore that Jesus Christ himself stated very clearly that he himself does not know the timing of the End of Days and that only God knows that. But this does not stop these extremists, who cherry pick the Bible and profane it with their own interpretations and declarations, and also make it into forms of money making entertainment. That extreme actually has the nerve to question me, wanting me to self identify according to the Bible (since that is all they do, assign actors and writing scripts to Biblical prophecy). Well, the analogy and the literary device I will share with the New Agers will also suit the Biblical false prophets just as well.
Before I give the analogy let me point out several things. First of all, as I’ve repeatedly explained, I am not reincarnated and neither is anyone else. Second, people have guardian angels; they are NOT angels. I mean, duh, how hard is that to understand? Humans are humans and angels are angels and they abide in different realms and are totally different from each other. Humans are of matter, energy and time; angels are not of matter, energy or time. So I’m not an angel and neither is anyone else. Third, I am not “revelating.” In other words, I am not adding one iota onto scripture. Instead, I am constantly pointing people back to scripture, to believe it as it is, the final and complete word of God. I am a witness, not a “revealer,” and so, obviously, understand that none of you are revealers of God’s will either. Fourth, I am not a prophet, and neither are any of you. I am not prophesying, either in the sense of conveying God’s words to humans, or in forecasting the future, and neither are any of you. Fifth, I’m not an alien, ha ha ha, that is so stupid I’m embarrassed I have to type this, but hey, I know it needs to be said for that branch of the morons so here it is: I am not an alien and neither are any of you.
So who am I? First you must read and understand what I wrote about the baptismal priesthood, the common priesthood, of the Catholic faith. I am a member of the baptismal priesthood and thus can proclaim with full confidence my faith in Catholic doctrine. Rather than wonder “who I am” to speak with such authority, I wish more Catholics would understand and embrace their faith and exercise their baptismal priesthood. By the way, in January it will be fifty five years since I was baptized, my fifty fifth anniversary of my baptismal priesthood and I certainly wish that I was received by others as fifty five years of baptismal priesthood rather than what it has felt like, which is fifty five years of martyrdom. It would be funny if it wasn’t so awful, and the abuse of me used to enable demeaning and flight from God, rather than true living in the Spirit of those who stalked me and my family. But back to my main point; understand that the baptized faithful ALL are expected and able to speak with authority to witness to their faith.
Second, you must understand that what seems like “revealing” teaching that I offer on this blog was well known by centuries of humans prior to this poorly formed and ignorant past several generations of humans. With modern mores and technology people have become, honestly, stupider. So I am not revealing new information; I am teaching people how to slow down and READ what is in black and white in front of you, ALL of the Bible (including the books the children of the Reformation discarded) and to understand the Spirit in which it was written, including in the cultural and faith context of the time. Back when people were agricultural and humble, they “got” the scriptures far more than they do today. All I am doing is explaining what even the average educated person knew even fifty years ago. You don’t better understand God by throwing out books of the Bible, cherry picking only certain sections to read as validating your own imagined self righteousness and further, not understanding the basics of the customs of the times that you are reading (worse, sneering that parts of the Bible are “old fashioned” and “oppressive.”) So the second thing to understand about me is that I am explaining what many of the average wise people in any time in Christian history, both educated and unlettered, could have explained to you in my place.
So how can I speak with total confidence and clarity regardless of the question or topic? It is because I speak only with total Fear of the Lord and within the Spirit. I have absolutely no other motivation but one hundred percent purity of Fear of the Lord. My entire motivation and the endless well of my spiritual being is Fear of the Lord. Spiritually I am comprised of one hundred percent Fear of the Lord. I was born with and am filled totally with the first gift of the Holy Spirit, Fear of the Lord. I cannot have either less Fear of the Lord or more Fear of the Lord than I have had with perfect constancy throughout my life. When one has total Fear of the Lord, one has total comprehension of the Lord’s ways.
So what is the Biblical reference and analogy, the literary device that I have promised to help those who cannot grasp the simplicity of what I have explained above? Read this passage from Ezekiel, where Ezekiel is first called by God to be his prophet. In this very well known calling God and the Cherubim appear to Ezekiel. Ezekiel has described the Cherubim, the firmament above them, and is about to describe how he viewed God. The first line of that description is Ezekiel 1:26:
Above the firmament over their heads something like a throne could be seen, looking like sapphire. Upon it was seated, up above, one who had the appearance of a man.
Think of me not as God, or one of the Cherubim, but as the big blue chair that God is sitting in during this one and only appearance as such. In other words, I am not the throne of God, but I can be thought of as the “big blue chair” that he sits in when he calls Ezekiel. God does not derive his authority or his greatness from the throne he sits in, nor does the throne hold any power or authority of its own; only God has that. But you can use the literary device of thinking of me as being of service in the most humble way to the Lord God, by being the blue chair that he “sat” in during one Biblical “event.”
Just as altar servers kneel to hold up the open Bible so the celebrating priest can read from it during Mass, making their own bodies a book stand in service of God, I am perfectly pleased and honored to think of myself, to help you to better understand, those of you who struggle, as a big blue chair used one time in order to provide “seating” while God “sits” and calls one of his greatest prophets. The chair is not talking and the chair is not creating doctrine. The chair is the witness and the lowest servant of God. This is why my gift of the Holy Spirit, Fear of the Lord, allows me to speak with authority, because it gives me humble and perfect witness to God, where I am “the observer” and not “the author.” No analogy is perfect, and this one really isn’t, but it occurred to me as a way that I can explain the fundamentals of my identity to help those who have been deprived of faith and logic to plug the gap in how they view me, a human, while they remediate themselves.
I hope that you have found this helpful.
If you are asking yourself that question, you have to do two things.
One is that you have to discover for the first time, or rediscover, your own identity, as you would have as a child, where you learn what you like doing, what you dislike, what moves your heart, and what leaves you cold, your biological and cultural roots, and those of your neighbors, and who you love, and who you respect. You learn to find teachers who are not “gurus” but are the type that every human has looked up to throughout history: the man who taught you how to fix a car, the woman who finally made algebra comprehensible to you, the author who has a gift for selecting a topic, such as a period in history, and makes it both interesting and relevant (without pushing an agenda).
The second thing you need to do is to believe in the one God and rediscover your relationship with him. Why is that important? Because the very need to feel “special” and “enlightened” that first drove you to cultist belief is a result of not knowing that all elevation and all loftiness of human spirit comes from God and God alone. Only by realizing that God has unique and loving knowledge of each and every person, regardless of their station in life, can one be elevated and can one feel “enlightened” and “special,” not by making up elitist false history. This is a key understanding of both Christianity and Islam, and that is why they both swept the world with millions of converts and believers, not because of the “sword” or the “Inquisition.” Christianity and Islam shed the light on the truth that God is one, all knowing, and has egalitarian love and concern for each and every human being. Humans realized in both their heads and their hearts the truth of this, and thus threw away their “magical thinking” and their demeaning belief in idols. No babbling self proclaiming “high priestess” of “arcane knowledge” and “past lives” can elevate a single human being one iota in their spirituality and, instead, she demeans her followers by denying them the lofty heritage that is truly theirs: adopted child and beloved of God, able to have a personal relationship with God of worship, service, faith and salvation.
Ha, so I am definitely not unsympathetic, and I never have been. I’m on the side of the angels, who, as Jesus explained, rejoice more at the return of one sinner than in the routine goodness of the faithful. What has distressed me is the stampede toward sin, rather than back toward God, of the past forty years of human history and society. To this day I still wish that even the most vile sinners and disgracefully evil humans find the light and have sincere and total conversion. I have faith and comfort that those who have wronged God and their neighbors so dastardly will be judged by God and thrust into hell, but it’s not like I’m spending my time wishing for their “comeuppance.” Even those who have done personally terrible things to me, I hope that before they are either smited by God and thus are punished in life, or who glide through life on their evil, and then upon death find themselves in eternal hell, hear and understand the truth, repent and make amends with full sincerity (even if being honest and sincere is like a rusty piston in an engine that has trouble working properly at first). It does not make what they did go away, or “OK,” but it would save them from hell and that would satisfy what I consider to be part of my ministry.
So who am I and why do I speak with such authority? If you are sane and well balanced you can relate to me as a human who has a very good understanding of God, but I understand that it’s hard for others to make the flip from thinking we are “reincarnated” players and actors to who we really are. I have both extremes to deal with. One extreme is the New Agers who have had to detox from thinking that I am “reincarnated” whoever they have labeled me with at different times over the past sad and wasted years. They have a gap, where they wonder, “If she is not reincarnated, then how does she know all of these things?” I am sympathetic and will give you an analogy (of course), kind of a literary device to plug the gap while you detox from that way of thinking. The other extreme are those who think they are Bible thumping literalists, but who have actually strayed far from the word of God by assuming that they have individual “insight” into what God “really means and plans to do,” such as having the nerve to interpret Dan and Revelations to assign timing and characters to “the Rapture,” “Antichrist identity,” and “the tribulations.” They ignore that Jesus Christ himself stated very clearly that he himself does not know the timing of the End of Days and that only God knows that. But this does not stop these extremists, who cherry pick the Bible and profane it with their own interpretations and declarations, and also make it into forms of money making entertainment. That extreme actually has the nerve to question me, wanting me to self identify according to the Bible (since that is all they do, assign actors and writing scripts to Biblical prophecy). Well, the analogy and the literary device I will share with the New Agers will also suit the Biblical false prophets just as well.
Before I give the analogy let me point out several things. First of all, as I’ve repeatedly explained, I am not reincarnated and neither is anyone else. Second, people have guardian angels; they are NOT angels. I mean, duh, how hard is that to understand? Humans are humans and angels are angels and they abide in different realms and are totally different from each other. Humans are of matter, energy and time; angels are not of matter, energy or time. So I’m not an angel and neither is anyone else. Third, I am not “revelating.” In other words, I am not adding one iota onto scripture. Instead, I am constantly pointing people back to scripture, to believe it as it is, the final and complete word of God. I am a witness, not a “revealer,” and so, obviously, understand that none of you are revealers of God’s will either. Fourth, I am not a prophet, and neither are any of you. I am not prophesying, either in the sense of conveying God’s words to humans, or in forecasting the future, and neither are any of you. Fifth, I’m not an alien, ha ha ha, that is so stupid I’m embarrassed I have to type this, but hey, I know it needs to be said for that branch of the morons so here it is: I am not an alien and neither are any of you.
So who am I? First you must read and understand what I wrote about the baptismal priesthood, the common priesthood, of the Catholic faith. I am a member of the baptismal priesthood and thus can proclaim with full confidence my faith in Catholic doctrine. Rather than wonder “who I am” to speak with such authority, I wish more Catholics would understand and embrace their faith and exercise their baptismal priesthood. By the way, in January it will be fifty five years since I was baptized, my fifty fifth anniversary of my baptismal priesthood and I certainly wish that I was received by others as fifty five years of baptismal priesthood rather than what it has felt like, which is fifty five years of martyrdom. It would be funny if it wasn’t so awful, and the abuse of me used to enable demeaning and flight from God, rather than true living in the Spirit of those who stalked me and my family. But back to my main point; understand that the baptized faithful ALL are expected and able to speak with authority to witness to their faith.
Second, you must understand that what seems like “revealing” teaching that I offer on this blog was well known by centuries of humans prior to this poorly formed and ignorant past several generations of humans. With modern mores and technology people have become, honestly, stupider. So I am not revealing new information; I am teaching people how to slow down and READ what is in black and white in front of you, ALL of the Bible (including the books the children of the Reformation discarded) and to understand the Spirit in which it was written, including in the cultural and faith context of the time. Back when people were agricultural and humble, they “got” the scriptures far more than they do today. All I am doing is explaining what even the average educated person knew even fifty years ago. You don’t better understand God by throwing out books of the Bible, cherry picking only certain sections to read as validating your own imagined self righteousness and further, not understanding the basics of the customs of the times that you are reading (worse, sneering that parts of the Bible are “old fashioned” and “oppressive.”) So the second thing to understand about me is that I am explaining what many of the average wise people in any time in Christian history, both educated and unlettered, could have explained to you in my place.
So how can I speak with total confidence and clarity regardless of the question or topic? It is because I speak only with total Fear of the Lord and within the Spirit. I have absolutely no other motivation but one hundred percent purity of Fear of the Lord. My entire motivation and the endless well of my spiritual being is Fear of the Lord. Spiritually I am comprised of one hundred percent Fear of the Lord. I was born with and am filled totally with the first gift of the Holy Spirit, Fear of the Lord. I cannot have either less Fear of the Lord or more Fear of the Lord than I have had with perfect constancy throughout my life. When one has total Fear of the Lord, one has total comprehension of the Lord’s ways.
So what is the Biblical reference and analogy, the literary device that I have promised to help those who cannot grasp the simplicity of what I have explained above? Read this passage from Ezekiel, where Ezekiel is first called by God to be his prophet. In this very well known calling God and the Cherubim appear to Ezekiel. Ezekiel has described the Cherubim, the firmament above them, and is about to describe how he viewed God. The first line of that description is Ezekiel 1:26:
Above the firmament over their heads something like a throne could be seen, looking like sapphire. Upon it was seated, up above, one who had the appearance of a man.
Think of me not as God, or one of the Cherubim, but as the big blue chair that God is sitting in during this one and only appearance as such. In other words, I am not the throne of God, but I can be thought of as the “big blue chair” that he sits in when he calls Ezekiel. God does not derive his authority or his greatness from the throne he sits in, nor does the throne hold any power or authority of its own; only God has that. But you can use the literary device of thinking of me as being of service in the most humble way to the Lord God, by being the blue chair that he “sat” in during one Biblical “event.”
Just as altar servers kneel to hold up the open Bible so the celebrating priest can read from it during Mass, making their own bodies a book stand in service of God, I am perfectly pleased and honored to think of myself, to help you to better understand, those of you who struggle, as a big blue chair used one time in order to provide “seating” while God “sits” and calls one of his greatest prophets. The chair is not talking and the chair is not creating doctrine. The chair is the witness and the lowest servant of God. This is why my gift of the Holy Spirit, Fear of the Lord, allows me to speak with authority, because it gives me humble and perfect witness to God, where I am “the observer” and not “the author.” No analogy is perfect, and this one really isn’t, but it occurred to me as a way that I can explain the fundamentals of my identity to help those who have been deprived of faith and logic to plug the gap in how they view me, a human, while they remediate themselves.
I hope that you have found this helpful.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Spiritual director: Topic- aridity, dark night of soul
People continue to discuss the decades long, extensive spiritual aridity experienced by Mother Theresa of Calcutta as revealed in her recently published letters. I’ve blogged on this before, pointing out that prayer life and communion with God requires time and, yes, leisure, lest it be stifled by a one hundred percent absorption in the suffering of humanity. People say they want to be like Jesus, yet forget that he spent a rich amount of his time in prayer, teaching and ministry to those other than the most afflicted. Like compassion fatigue, experienced by social workers, law enforcement, rescue workers and so forth, one cannot and should not think they are able to be 100 percent immersed in the deepest suffering of humanity. A wise, loving and concerned spiritual director (as I am) would gently help such a person to explore their real motivations to relentlessly immerse in the most unmitigated suffering at the total expense of some of the spiritual compensations of the pleasure of life. It is almost like trying to “out do Jesus Christ at being Jesus Christ.” Even the great Prophets of old did not spend 100 percent of their time screaming at and cursing out the incredibly vile sinners of the day. They prophesied when ordered to by God, but also spent time being husbands, fathers and members of their community and enjoying the extent of life so much as the circumstances of the time allowed. I myself tire of what seems like the constant scolding I seem to be delivering in my blogs. While they take only a small percentage of my actual average day’s time, they take a vast amount of my spiritual resources, which could be spent teaching and preaching the love of the Lord and the attendant mysteries and joys. However, when there is exceptional risk of the direst consequences, as there are nowadays, after decades of people who should have known better who soft shoe the consequences of depravity and sin, then one finds oneself shouting quite a bit. So Mother Theresa was sucked into the quagmire of 100 percent immersion in the deepest suffering of humankind. As spiritual director to her I would have questioned why she felt that she was superhuman in that regard.
Today, though, I want to advise my readers about another reason for her spiritual aridity and indeed for the often quoted “dark nights of the soul” that certain saints documented. First, remember, that just because someone is a saint does not mean they never made a mistake and that their example is 100 percent accurate to follow. Christians who seek to be holy-and who seek a personal relationship with Jesus Christ-are vulnerable to a particular temptation. They frequently fall into the temptation of not only expecting an “answer” from Jesus (a sign, dialogue, or better yet, a miracle) but they fall into the temptation of trying to force or trigger a dialogue. Now I’m saying this kindly, but with concern because people do not realize they are doing this. Temptation is always a very subtle thing, and it is often wrapped in the garb of “good intentions” and “spirituality.” Everyone knows that the devil is the master of warping and twisting good intentions. But people are quite good at doing it all on their own, and it all comes back to that problem of pride instead of humility. For example, most Muslims I know would never dream of hoping to “hear” from Allah when they pray. It has become a peculiarly Christian temptation to expect a personal relationship and dialogue with Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Catholics seem to suffer from it because of their understandable joy in reading about the lives of saints who did receive communion of communication with the Lord. Evangelicals Protestants, Pentecostals, and certain denominations suffer from it when they have an expectation of dialogue based on acceptance of Jesus (and or the Holy Spirit) into their lives. Someone who is in your life talks to you, no, especially if you have dedicated your life to Jesus? So there is an unreasonable expectation by many Christians that they will have communication interaction with the Lord. They then miss where there is the true communion with God, which does not take the form they may expect. I think the passage from the Bible I have to most frequently remind people of is this one:
The He said [to Elijah], “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind was an earthquake: but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire: but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. .. Then the Lord said to him… (1 Kings 11-12, 15).
Even to Elijah the Lord spoke to him in “a still small voice.” Conversation, in general, cannot be had with the Lord, and it certainly cannot be cajoled or forced. Focusing on expectations of the grand certainty of messages from God causes one to miss the still small voice when it does occur. One expects being slain in the spirit, or a clear sign from God, or Jesus’ voice in one’s head or a miracle (wind, earthquake, or fire) and then misses the still small voice that is the authentic communion with the Lord.
And there is a worse risk than “just” missing out on perceiving the still small voice that is the authentic communion with the Lord. When one tries to force prayer fruitfulness and communion, one opens one’s soul in an unedited and unguarded way, by straining to contact “out there” with the Lord. And this is when the dark spiritual attacks take place. God is not “sending” or “allowing” the devil to torment or “purify through suffering” the saint. The saint has allowed entry by bad spirits into his or her soul by straining to receive an entitlement feeling communication with God. Everyone knows, for example, that playing with a device like an Ouija board allows unedited communication with one’s own dark tendencies and the thoughts of others. Saints and also plain good folk who too avidly seek a verifiable and on demand communication with God, are inadvertently reaching out in the same unedited and unprotected way as the Ouija board user risks. When one prays with an expectation tinged with desperation and some forcing/testing of God one opens the channel in one’s own soul that courts temptation of thought. This is why such holy people have had some incredibly depraved visions and temptations of sacrilege and desecration and called them “satanic attack” and “dark night of the soul.” All humans have that wiring, that problem with custody of the eyes, and custody of thoughts. That is the fallen, broken, woundedness of the human spirit. That is why Jesus taught people how to pray to God. Jesus taught the “Our Father” so that one would always have a perfect way to communicate to God. Jesus did not say you would get a response. When one prays in expectation of a response, one is opening up the channels to anything that is supernatural in feeling. One’s own human wiring and base temptations take a very supernatural feeling and form with very little effort, especially if one is tremendously stressed (either through self deprivation, scruples, excessive religiosity, or tremendous secular stress, such as Mother Theresa type of vocation). The last thing God wants is for wounded people to be in “on mode” all of the time for supernatural communication.
So I hope these further thoughts on this important topic serve as helpful spiritual direction. I’m concerned that there is too much Catholic spin out of a defensive posture without discerning the points I’ve made here. I’m hearing a little too much of “well, we should not be surprised that Mother Theresa had this spiritual aridity, since the saints told us this would happen and we should offer our suffering up to God.” Well, it is true that suffering can be offered up beneficially to God, but that is not the point. The point is that like a doctor with symptoms, rather than saying, “Oh yes, these saints had the same symptoms so it is all good” people should be saying, “Uh oh. Some saints really suffered from this and what might be the problem with what they were trying to do, and what we are trying to do today.” Shared symptoms are not a confirmation of correct action. It is a great tribute to saints and laity who persevere in faith through adversity, suffering, and spiritual aridity. But that does not mean that a good spiritual director should not diagnose the cause of the spiritual attack and alleviate it. The Catholic faith is not so weak that it must never admit that saints sometimes over did it and sometimes pushed too hard. That is why we have a structured set of prayers, such as the Our Father, the Rosary, the liturgy, and a wealth of prayer by the Early Fathers and saints to draw us in communion toward God; not to try to force God in conversation. It really is as simple as it was for Elijah who recognized the still small voice.
Today, though, I want to advise my readers about another reason for her spiritual aridity and indeed for the often quoted “dark nights of the soul” that certain saints documented. First, remember, that just because someone is a saint does not mean they never made a mistake and that their example is 100 percent accurate to follow. Christians who seek to be holy-and who seek a personal relationship with Jesus Christ-are vulnerable to a particular temptation. They frequently fall into the temptation of not only expecting an “answer” from Jesus (a sign, dialogue, or better yet, a miracle) but they fall into the temptation of trying to force or trigger a dialogue. Now I’m saying this kindly, but with concern because people do not realize they are doing this. Temptation is always a very subtle thing, and it is often wrapped in the garb of “good intentions” and “spirituality.” Everyone knows that the devil is the master of warping and twisting good intentions. But people are quite good at doing it all on their own, and it all comes back to that problem of pride instead of humility. For example, most Muslims I know would never dream of hoping to “hear” from Allah when they pray. It has become a peculiarly Christian temptation to expect a personal relationship and dialogue with Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Catholics seem to suffer from it because of their understandable joy in reading about the lives of saints who did receive communion of communication with the Lord. Evangelicals Protestants, Pentecostals, and certain denominations suffer from it when they have an expectation of dialogue based on acceptance of Jesus (and or the Holy Spirit) into their lives. Someone who is in your life talks to you, no, especially if you have dedicated your life to Jesus? So there is an unreasonable expectation by many Christians that they will have communication interaction with the Lord. They then miss where there is the true communion with God, which does not take the form they may expect. I think the passage from the Bible I have to most frequently remind people of is this one:
The He said [to Elijah], “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind was an earthquake: but the Lord was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire: but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice. .. Then the Lord said to him… (1 Kings 11-12, 15).
Even to Elijah the Lord spoke to him in “a still small voice.” Conversation, in general, cannot be had with the Lord, and it certainly cannot be cajoled or forced. Focusing on expectations of the grand certainty of messages from God causes one to miss the still small voice when it does occur. One expects being slain in the spirit, or a clear sign from God, or Jesus’ voice in one’s head or a miracle (wind, earthquake, or fire) and then misses the still small voice that is the authentic communion with the Lord.
And there is a worse risk than “just” missing out on perceiving the still small voice that is the authentic communion with the Lord. When one tries to force prayer fruitfulness and communion, one opens one’s soul in an unedited and unguarded way, by straining to contact “out there” with the Lord. And this is when the dark spiritual attacks take place. God is not “sending” or “allowing” the devil to torment or “purify through suffering” the saint. The saint has allowed entry by bad spirits into his or her soul by straining to receive an entitlement feeling communication with God. Everyone knows, for example, that playing with a device like an Ouija board allows unedited communication with one’s own dark tendencies and the thoughts of others. Saints and also plain good folk who too avidly seek a verifiable and on demand communication with God, are inadvertently reaching out in the same unedited and unprotected way as the Ouija board user risks. When one prays with an expectation tinged with desperation and some forcing/testing of God one opens the channel in one’s own soul that courts temptation of thought. This is why such holy people have had some incredibly depraved visions and temptations of sacrilege and desecration and called them “satanic attack” and “dark night of the soul.” All humans have that wiring, that problem with custody of the eyes, and custody of thoughts. That is the fallen, broken, woundedness of the human spirit. That is why Jesus taught people how to pray to God. Jesus taught the “Our Father” so that one would always have a perfect way to communicate to God. Jesus did not say you would get a response. When one prays in expectation of a response, one is opening up the channels to anything that is supernatural in feeling. One’s own human wiring and base temptations take a very supernatural feeling and form with very little effort, especially if one is tremendously stressed (either through self deprivation, scruples, excessive religiosity, or tremendous secular stress, such as Mother Theresa type of vocation). The last thing God wants is for wounded people to be in “on mode” all of the time for supernatural communication.
So I hope these further thoughts on this important topic serve as helpful spiritual direction. I’m concerned that there is too much Catholic spin out of a defensive posture without discerning the points I’ve made here. I’m hearing a little too much of “well, we should not be surprised that Mother Theresa had this spiritual aridity, since the saints told us this would happen and we should offer our suffering up to God.” Well, it is true that suffering can be offered up beneficially to God, but that is not the point. The point is that like a doctor with symptoms, rather than saying, “Oh yes, these saints had the same symptoms so it is all good” people should be saying, “Uh oh. Some saints really suffered from this and what might be the problem with what they were trying to do, and what we are trying to do today.” Shared symptoms are not a confirmation of correct action. It is a great tribute to saints and laity who persevere in faith through adversity, suffering, and spiritual aridity. But that does not mean that a good spiritual director should not diagnose the cause of the spiritual attack and alleviate it. The Catholic faith is not so weak that it must never admit that saints sometimes over did it and sometimes pushed too hard. That is why we have a structured set of prayers, such as the Our Father, the Rosary, the liturgy, and a wealth of prayer by the Early Fathers and saints to draw us in communion toward God; not to try to force God in conversation. It really is as simple as it was for Elijah who recognized the still small voice.
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