News from The Catholic Prayer Club^®

… spreading the message of our Lord one word at a time..

March 2007

CPC’s Mission Statement: CPC shall be a worldwide apostolate with a mission of propagating the Roman Catholic faith. To achieve its mission CPC shall advocate and support education in the Catholic faith in parish, school, college and university communities; advance the educational and catechetical mission of the Church; help individuals achieve a deeper more meaningful prayer life engendering a closer, more intimate relationship with God. Acknowledging that our Salvation, as well as that of our neighbors is paramount, we will go forth to evangelize the teachings of the Catholic faith among all humankind. Visit us on the Worldwide Web www.catholicprayerclub.org

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Our feature article this month….

IMAGES OF LOVE

WORDS OF HOPE

By JEAN VANIER

Human beings right from the beginning of creation have always been extremely ambivalent around the god, frightened of God--a God who is a lawgiver, a God that we can placate, a God that is angry at us, a God that blesses us and lets us do anything we want, and then of course other reactions--of a sentimental God--a reaction against all forms of gods, a whole vision of atheism because these false gods appear as being completely contradictory to the human heart and human reality. We have to go a little bit deeper and try to understand why God is seen as a negative force. . . .

Why We See God as a Negative Force

There's another vision of God which one sometimes finds around our world--is a sort of sentimental, devotional God, a God that's blessing us and saying: Everything's all right, and if you love me, if you want to be with me, well then you'll have a lot of riches, you'll have no more pain, I'll protect you--a very sort of sentimental and romantic God, which is nothing to do with reality. But then there's another vision of God which maybe also has been very prevalent around humanity, is the God of fear. The God that's a lawgiver, a God that's way up there up in the skies but sending down commandments, rigid laws, and then God appearing as a policeman, sort of just to give you a ticket if you speed too much, the God who punishes, the God who hurts, the God who is rigid and a judge--not a lover, not a friend, but somebody who is looking into all the little things we do, and then trying to hit us on the hand because we are disobedient. . . .

People received Jesus and welcomed him in a very mixed way during his life. Some rushed to him because they sensed that he would respond to their cry of pain. But many were threatened by him. And I believe today that many today are threatened by Jesus. So in some ways they try to change Jesus to make him a little bit less threatening. . . .

Jesus was coming to change the whole order of things. And at the heart of that order was the poor, the blind, the lame, and the sick. And so these people would come rushing, all those who were marginal would come rushing to him, seeking strength, seeking compassion, seeking healing. One moment Jesus describes this vision, when he talks about a king giving a wedding feast for the son, and he sends out invitations, and the entire table is beautifully laid, and all the people, the worthy citizens, they all refuse. I cannot come, I haven't time, I bought land and I must go and tend it, I bought a pair of oxen and I must work on them, my daughter is getting married and I have to be there--frequently those who are rich, who are in power, they haven't time. So the king gets angry and he sends the servants into the highways and the byways--Bring in the poor, the lame, the sick, the blind, and of course they come rushing in. So we find that in the whole vision of humanity, God is feared, God is not wanted, and on the other side, God is desperately needed. And so we find that very ambiguous vision towards God. . . .

This image of God, this idol of God, as the lawgiver, chastising and punishing, comes from something very deep in our psyche. I think the pain of the abandoned child or the pain of the child that hasn't been welcomed quickly is transformed into guilt. If there's inner pain it's because I'm no good. And I think it's this inner pain transformed into guilt which creates this image of a God who's going to punish. And I believe deeply that that guilt creates in us a whole world of fear. . . .

Yes its fear that makes us crush inside of us all that the heart is, what is weak in us, because we're frightened that if our weakness is shown well then we'll be abandoned. Its fear that makes us run away from pain. Its fear that makes us run away from those that are poor, who are weak, and who are sick. Its fear that is that terrific impetus that pushes us up the ladder, making us seek power and privileges and prestige. It's fear that brings us to the point of loneliness. And its fear that creates this big fortress of prejudice, these scales of values, this ordered society of ours where the rich and the powerful are at the top, and at the bottom are the weak and the fragile and the crushed. So often we're all governed by this pain which is turned into guilt, and then a guilt which makes in us this terrible fear that I am wrong and that there's something wrong inside of me, and if I reveal myself, well then I'll be rejected and hurt and punished. . . .

It is fear then that has pushed humanity and pushed societies to create idols, that is to say, false gods, strange gods, gods that in some way crush humanity and don't bring humanity to freedom, don't bring people to freedom. So I can really understand people who are atheists. I can really understand people who proclaim that they don't believe in God. Because in some way they're saying I don't believe in the false God, I don't believe in these idols, I don't believe in this romantic God that is just blessing humanity if you get rich. I don't believe in a God that's just going to punish us--because these people who don't believe in these idols and these false gods, somewhere they have a deep sense of the human heart. Somewhere they have a deep sense of the human reality, the human heart so vulnerable, and the human reality which is from the weakness of the womb to the weakness of death, the fragility of mankind--the pain is there, the death is there. And so somewhere, those who don't believe in that god, it's because they haven't met the true God. And the true God I believe deeply has been revealed to us by Jesus. And what is Jesus telling us? Jesus is coming to undermine the fortress built on fear. Jesus is coming to touch our hearts in the deepest craving of our being. . . .

Maybe fundamentally you don't want to pray. And maybe we can go into that. Maybe you don't want to get too close to Jesus. You see, I'm beginning to see in myself and in many people a sort of feeling that if I get too close to Jesus, well maybe then he's going to ask of me something I don't want to give. Of course that's a much distorted view of our God and of Jesus: the closer we get to him he's going to hurt us. If we get close to God, well then it's going to be painful, whereas it's totally the opposite, its Jesus calling us into a friendship of love. But we see him sort of calling us and then giving us a smack. Maybe in a way this is what the young man felt, the one we call the rich young man. It says that Jesus looked at him and loved him, and said: If you wish to attain maturity, come and follow me. But of course if you follow me you have to sell all your baggage, because you don't come with too many suitcases if you're following Jesus. So Jesus will say: Sell all you have and give it to the poor, and then come and be with me. It's an invitation. It's an invitation to friendship. So in a strange way for many of us the good news can appear as a bad news. The presence of God can appear as something bad, as something painful. We quickly associate God with pain, with loss, with death, with something that I don't want. . . .

Jesus comes to reveal to us that faith is essentially faith and trust in a person. It's belief in a person, and a person who has a heart, a person who loves, a person who calls us by name. Faith is not first of all faith in a religion, in an institution. Faith is not belief in a set of moral laws. Of course I'm not saying that religion is not important. I'm not saying that a whole vision of our world and ideas is not important. I'm not saying obviously that moral laws are not important. But what I'm saying is that the foundation of faith is my communion, my linking, and my covenant with a person, with the person of Jesus Christ. . . .

You see, the incredible thing with Jesus, far from wanting to hurt us--in order for us to really understand what Jesus wants, we have to look into our deepest desire, because Jesus doesn't come to us from outside, he comes to us from inside. And if he wants us to do something, then he'll give us the desire for it, he'll give us the love for it, because Jesus works from inside. And of course, there are superficial desires in us. These superficial desires can be contrary to the deepest desire in my being. But what Jesus is calling us--is to look into our center, look into our deepest desire. And certainly when Jesus looked at the young man, and that young man that had come to Jesus and said: What must I do to gain eternal life? Jesus somewhere saw in him his deepest desire, that desire for the fullness and the maturity of love. And that's why Jesus said: If you want to attain maturity, leave everything you have and come with me. But this young man, he was frightened of the means. He was frightened of the way. And that way was that he'd have to give up things. But in reality, Jesus, in order to help us to see what he wants--we must look into the deepest part of our being, because there is where he is speaking to us, not only through ideas, and inspirations, but in our deepest, deepest desires. . . .

Jesus says to his disciples, and he says it with love: Come, and follow me. And so we start to follow him. But where does he lead us? To a comfortable place? To great security? No. He leads the disciples where? To the people who are sick with leprosy. He brings them close to the woman of Samaria. He brings them places where they will meet with the woman taken in adultery. He'll bring them continually to where there is brokenness. Jesus isn't bringing people into a world of dream. Jesus is not helping people to fly away into theories. Jesus doesn't want theories. He doesn't want dream. He wants the truth. He wants reality. So as we follow Jesus, he will bring us into a world of pain. But then we'll begin to see how he doesn't reject pain, but there's going to be the whole mystery of the transformation of pain, that he'll bring light and love into the pain and it will be transformed. And then as we continue to follow Jesus with the disciples, what we will discover is that Jesus is not just the powerful messiah, but he's somebody vulnerable. . . .

It's as if humanity is pulled between two false gods. There's the false god of sentimentalism, a god who is blessing and calling us to be rich, and powerful, and comfortable. And then the false god of ideas, theories, dogmatic truths, the lawgiver, but something very abstract, something far away. And in between: Jesus, a person. And he is looking at me and calling me forth. So it's not the sentimentality, it's not the law, but it's a person who is calling me to grow. And there we touch the whole reality of belief. It's as if we are pulled between on one side a fear which creates the false gods, and the belief in a person. The belief in love. The belief in truth. A belief which doesn't separate us from reality, a belief that doesn't separate us from our own experience. But a belief that brings us deeper into our own experience. A belief that helps us really to go more and more into truth, the devotion to truth, the love of truth. Fear engenders a world of dream. Fear can engender a world of ideas. Fear can engender a reality where we're paralyzed and closed up in a little world of security. Belief, a true belief in a person, in the person of Christ, will pull us to love and to the risk of love. . . .

I remember sharing once with a very special Christian lady, and I said to her: Are you happy? And she said she looked at me very seriously and she said: I feel blessed, but not happy. And I feel very deeply that this is where Jesus is calling us to. The word happiness can have a very sort of superficial connotation. But I think that Jesus is calling us into this world of pain, and to discover that we're blessed. What does that mean? That he is there, he is present. He's calling us to become more and more open, and thus to become freer and freer from fear. He's calling us to become men and women of compassion. To be blessed is: we found our place. We found our call, our vocation. It's okay to be myself, its okay to be there where I am, because I know that God is living in my heart, and I know that he is calling me to give life to others. I'm not living in a superficiality of la-la-la. But somewhere inside of me there's a deep peace. And there, I'm beginning to discover the harmony of the marriage between pain and joy, between death and resurrection. You see joy comes from the unity of my being. Joy comes from the unity of people. Joy comes from the unity of being with God. Joy flows from love. There is no such thing as true joy if it's just a flight from pain. And so as we enter reality, as we enter into the truth, as we enter into the truth together, in love, and in Jesus, well then our hearts spring forth in resurrection. . . .

As Jesus says to each one of us: Come and follow me, and as he calls us by our name with that incredible voice of tenderness, calling us to freedom, he's going to reveal to us four secrets. And I suppose in each one of those secrets--will at the same time reveal and calm our fears. The first secret, it’s about his own self, his own person. Something about his own body, about his own being, that he is the temple of the Spirit, that he is the temple of God. He is that place where God resides. He is the resting place of God, he is God on earth. He is the word made flesh. At one moment when Jesus was standing before the temple he said: Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up; and John puts in a parenthesis he was talking about the temple of his body. . . .

The second secret that Jesus reveals to us is that my body, our bodies, that these bodies are the temple of God also. And this is an incredible secret. At one moment he says: He who loves me and obeys my commandments, my father and I will come and make our home in that person. And Paul says so clearly: Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Spirit, and that the Holy Spirit is residing in you?

Many people do not know this secret, that their bodies are the temple of God. And of course in front of that amazing secret, there is a lot of fear. You see, some people can possibly admire and find something wonderful that the body of Christ--that Christ is the temple of the divinity. But maybe they're frightened of themselves. Maybe they're frightened of their own bodies. They're so filled with guilt. Maybe they have such a consciousness of the tomb inside of them, and that terrible tomb that is there, that they cannot believe that my body is the temple that God resides, my soiled body, that this is a place where God can live? So many people out of fear will refuse that truth. They cannot bear that truth. . . .

It's a sad secret of Jesus, is that he's hidden in a very special way in the poor, and in the broken, and in the suffering. Whatever you do to the least of my brethren, the smallest of my brethren, the most broken of my brethren, you've done unto me. When I was in prison you visited me, when I was sick you visited me, when I was hungry, thirsty you gave me to drink and to eat, when I was a stranger you welcomed me, when I was naked you clothed me. The mystery that Jesus is hidden in the poorest and the weakest. But then also the mystery that he is hidden in the poverty of my own being, that he is hidden in my poverty. To believe that he is hidden in the poorest, but to believe also that he is hidden in the poverty of my own being. At one moment Jesus taking a little child, and maybe it was a child with a handicap we don't know, but he said: Whoever welcomes one of these little ones in my name, welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the Father--that God is hidden in the face of that little child, that that little child is Jesus. There again, there is fear in our hearts, because if this is true, if Jesus is hidden in the hearts of the smallest and the weakest and the suffering, if he's hidden in my poverty, well then its a revolution. It's a revolution. The poor are at the heart of the church, the poor are at the heart of humanity. They are not meant to be pushed aside. And of course this revolution means a completely disordering of the order. It's the breaking down of the fortress of prejudice, its bringing humanity into one, it's breaking down the walls, and of course all these walls that have been created are the walls of security. It's the security of prejudice: I know who I am and I'm powerful. But in some way Jesus is breaking all this down to bring us into the insecurity of communion, the insecurity of love, the insecurity where God is present and calling us all forth. . . .

The fourth secret of Jesus is around pain. You see we've been taught to use tranquilizers, we've been taught to calm pain, that suffering and pain and loss and grief, that this is the worst thing that can happen to anyone. And the whole of the vision of Jesus is to reveal to us: Don't run away, but walk towards. If you run away, well then you'll enter into a world of dream. You'll cut yourself from reality. If you walk towards--it's not walking towards pain, it’s walking towards the person in pain. It's not walking towards suffering, it's walking towards people. And so there's a completely new vision. It's discovering that pain can be couched in love. That pain can be enfolded in love. That pain and suffering can become a gift that I can give to God, to humanity. But of course, in our hearts there is so much fear of this, and it's precisely this fear that takes us away from the spirit of truth, that takes us into a world of dream. It takes us [away] into a world of loneliness, and the vision of Christ--which is to call us back into reality, and to discover that pain is not opposed to joy, that pain and joy can be married, and in that pain and joy, death and resurrection come together, and we can become men and women fully alive. Not--that isn't that we have no more pain, but pain has been transformed into the truth of my being, and the truth of my being is compassion.

Other Musings This Month

We don’t pray to inform God of our needs because he already knows them (Matthew 6:8). Prayer helps us to get to know God as a loving parent. The more a child experiences the loving care of a parent, the more convinced he becomes of the parent’s love. God wants us to be convinced of his unending love.

The Church intends for us to use this season to turn away from the world and back to God. Show more charity during Lent and refuse to complain, gossip or lose your temper. Act only with love. Carry this spirit of charity beyond Easter.

The CPC Prayer Intention for This Month

That the Word of God may be ever more listened to, contemplated, loved, and lived.

Lord hear our prayer

You can help us spread the good word of our Lord…by becoming a CPC Prayer Ministry Leader in your home area.

As a CPC Prayer Minister (PM) you will form and lead a small Home Based Prayer Community (HBPC) in your hometown.

It’s easy to get started. All you need to do is invite several friends, co-workers or family members to join your HBPC. Local communities are generally comprised of from 3 to 15 members who gather in community every other week to pray, reflect and share our faith. The Catholic Prayer Club will provide you with all of the materials you need to form organize and lead your ministry and Home Based Prayer Community.