VIRAL THOUGHTS 4 - THE BETHANY SISTERS

ABOUT 18 MONTHS AGO twelve teenage boys, all members of a football team, became trapped in a flooded cave system in Thailand before being rescued after 17 days as the world looked on.  All of them coped remarkably well – that is, all bar one.  For eleven of them were Buddhists, trained in the skills of meditation, whilst the twelfth was a Christian who he found it hard to cope with such sustained solitude.  At his church, no one taught the importance of contemplation.

I mention them because of the place of the contemplative as we enter Holy Week.  According to St. John’s gospel today, Monday, Jesus came to the home of his friends; Mary, Martha and Lazarus in Bethany (Jn.12.1).  The two sisters, Mary and Martha, play quite a prominent role in the gospels; Martha seems to be the active one whilst Mary appears to be more reflective.  Luke’s gospel contains a famous account of a visit Jesus paid to them when Mary sat at his feet whilst Martha was distracted by the many tasks she had to undertake.  This caused Jesus to observe: “Martha, Martha. you are worried and distracted by many things; there is need of only one thing.  Mary has chosen the better part which will not be taken away from her” (Lk. 10.41). 

It’s a statement many consider shows Jesus commending the contemplative way over the active; others disagree.  Whatever the truth, it’s clear he’s is drawing attention to the importance of ‘sitting at the feet of Jesus’ – contemplating him – and the dangers of becoming ‘distracted’ from giving attention to that necessity.  And that would certainly seem to be true when consider the way eleven of those Thai boys had been taught the importance of meditation whilst the one who went to church clearly had not.

Discovering our inner world

As I’ve talked about before, this present period of enforced ‘lockdown’, when many cannot pursue their normal activities, has spawned a whole range of virtual replacements: if you can’t sing and dance, go to parties, play sports and so on there’s a whole range of similar activities being offered online so you never need feel alone, never have to explore alternative ways of living.  Even churches are offering online services, some of which are clearly designed to prevent people becoming bored.  And none of that is bad, it’s just that we’re missing an important opportunity to discover our inner world, an opportunity the church ought to be offering.

A long time ago, at another time of social upheaval, a wise monk said to an explorer: “Go to your cell, your cell will teach you everything.”  Those words strike me as important now we’re instructed to self-isolate.  Some, of course, will relish the monk’s instruction more than others, although it’s clear that even in our ‘cell’ we can do everything to avoid being there, never have to face what the cell might teach us. 

Whilst this crisis is a time of major, world-wide danger, it’s also, by definition, a time of opportunity; some-thing which is a very, very rare gift to humanity.  And whilst none of us want anyone to be affected by this virus, some see one consequence might be that we learn some vital truths about this matter of being human.  We’re offered a time when, unable to connect in real-time with friends, we have the opportunity of deepening our spiritual lives.  Instead of attending events where many gather, we’ve the chance of diving deeper into the cave of our inner-being and find our lost soul, both as individuals and as societies.  Will we take it?  Or is that inner world so foreign we fear going there? 

Many, when they first shut the door of their soul to the outer world find what lies within strange, even fearful, but this is the home of the ‘soul-self’, the one from whom we can never be parted, yet we can easily ignore.  Instead of finding the silence of the cell boring, we have the opportunity to practice ways of prayer which can unite us with the Other – which is one of the great discoveries I made as a Religious (a Franciscan), when I had to spend 30 minutes each day in silence alongside my brothers – and realised a depth of connectivity which no amount of partying enables.

At one with the other

Those of us living in ‘advanced’ societies can forget the wisdom of the ages – forget the deeper truths that, for millennia, sustained our ancestors.  After three or more years when we’ve torn ourselves apart over separating from a Union half the country said they wanted, and the other half didn’t, we’re suddenly realising a need for each other in profound ways.  Life’s no longer about some of the goals we’ve become accustomed to reach for; greatness doesn’t come with wealth but compassion; and that compassion is enabled by more than just a sense of empathy, it’s enabled through opening our self, our soul, to the Other. 

Those contemplative prayer-practices many have forgotten, or of which they’re ignorant, have much to offer, especially for those needing to overcome fear and loneliness.  We’re part of a hidden communion, a communion of saints, who surround us and to whom we can open the door of our heart.  That deep, slow breathing into the heart; holding on to a word and repeating it silently with the breath; being aware of ourselves as part of a beautiful, alive and life-giving creation – all this and so much more – reading those strange books called ‘gospels’ which nurtured humankind for over two thousand years, but which have been discarded in one generation – we have the opportunity of re-connecting with all these ways which touch into the heart of our humanity, the heart of God, during this crisis.  But will we take it?  There are so many resources around to help, and I’d be very happy to share some with you if you contacted me for ways of developing contemplative prayer.

The two Bethany sisters reflect our humanity and our society: we have grasped at the outer world of activity and ignored our need to nurture contemplation.   Now, for a few weeks, we have the real opportunity to dive deeper and learn practices that will help all of us – change all of us so that the tectonic plates of our humanity make a profound shift.  Practices that will open us to God in whose image we are made; which will enable us to become more at-one with the world.  Spiritual exercises good for the soul – as well as the body.

Go to your cell, your cell will teach you everything …

MINDFULNESS AND THE CONTEMPLATIVE HEART

According to much Christian teaching the heart is the centre of our being, the focus of our thoughts and feelings which is the locus of the soul.  This challenges a culture which has made the mind – the place of our reasoning faculties – the centre.  Much spiritual teaching has long been concerned with creating a ‘right – clean – heart’ for the heart can become corrupted and so needs to be re-fashioned, re-focussed.  I need to make sure that my heart is focused in God, the source of all goodness, and underlined the need to live a recollected life, a life where the heart, the habitation of the soul, comes alive. 

MINDFULNESS

The recent interest in ‘Mindfulness’, those practices which NHS online says can improve mental well-being, by ‘paying more attention to the present moment, to thoughts and feelings and to the world around you’, has connected with many people estranged from Faith.  Echoing Christian teaching ‘Mindfulness’ is the ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or over-whelmed by what’s going on around us. 

From its use in prisons and schools its benefits are becoming more widely realised.  Yet it draws on practices older than Christianity which, unfortunately, became generally forgotten at the Reformation.  Christianity has taught these practices as aspects of contemplative prayer, practices which encourage us to enter the caverns of the heart as we let go of our thoughts and feelings and descend to our soul.  Unfortunately, our Faith became caught by notions of ‘onwards and upwards’ rather than ‘stillness and descent’, yet the great mystics of the Church always knew that this was the better way.

This ‘prayer of the heart’ is one of the simplest ways in which we can open ourselves to that ‘ground of our being’ which lies beneath the surface of our lives.  It’s a way of praying which is intended to cultivate that interior silence which can calm the raging seas of life and we can overcome the fear of our own hidden depths.  It requires of us nothing more than developing a deep inner stillness and silence as we seek to focus into our desire for God.  At a time when people are beginning to waken to the importance of their inner world the Church needs to re-discover its treasury of contemplative prayer where we can find the most important ‘fresh expressions’ of our Faith which speak to the actual needs people have. 

St Paul recognised the importance of Mindfulness when he prayed that ‘with the eyes of your heart enlightened you may know what is the hope to which (God) has called you.’  The 3^rd century Desert Mothers and Fathers taught that we need to focus into a word which we can gently repeat beneath our breath, which is often spoken of as Centring Prayer; Lectio Divina, taught by the Benedictines, allows words of scripture to enter the heart, and in the 17^th century Brother Laurence taught the importance of living in the Present Moment.  In fact, these practices might be more rightly called ‘heartfulness’ for as St Theophan the Recluse, a 19^th century Russian monk, reminds us:

‘To pray is to descend with the mind into the heart, and there to stand before the face of the Lord, ever present .. within you.’

That reflects a far older teaching that if we gaze deep within our heart, we shall find there the ladder that leads to heaven. (St Isaac the Syrian)

THE HEART OF CHRIST

This reminds us that we need to give far greater attention to the heart.  We need to re-discover the importance of the Heart of Christ, the Sacred Heart of Jesus for His Heart reveals what our heart might be like.  ‘The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and of great kindness’ says the psalmist (145.8) and reveals aspects of the Heart of God which it can be so hard to incarnate in our lives.  Can I be merciful, compassionate and kind?   If that’s the nature of God’s Heart, and if we were created in the image and likeness of God, then this helps to identify what being human is all about. 

We resonate to these human qualities which pierce beneath the shell that we can build around us and invite us to fix our heart upon them.  Yet they’re only emanations of the nature of the invisible and unknowable God whose nature must be greater than these describe.   To fix the heart on the Heart of God involves deepening our desire to reflect the Sacred Heart which doesn’t just call us to devotion to its physicality, any more than devotion to Christ is about tribal loyalty.  Rather, devotion to the Sacred Heart slowly opens us to the fullness of divine life.  I want my heart, my life, to be like His.  That’s what makes the saints so attractive, for they are people whose lives reveal something of the attractive beauty of God. 

God gently invites us to ‘fix our heart’ on His, to be awakened by and to Divine beauty.  To cleanse our heart that it might shine with the beauty in which it was created.   To recollect this call, hear its echoes and resonances.  This fixing of the heart means I’m being drawn out of my-self into the Sacred Heart.   Yet the heart can be distracted, can become enslaved to another who will lead me away from the Light of Love and needs cleansing, liberating and renewing in the image and likeness of the Sacred Heart.

THE HEART OF THE OTHER

This drawing into the Heart of Christ opens my heart to want to encounter the heart of the other.  In fact, what I have found, like so many others, is that encountering the heart of the other – of all Creation – I find my–self profoundly moved out of that ‘self’ as I gaze on the other.  From the simplest leaf, tiniest insect or most fragile butterfly, to the grandest mountain, vastness of ocean or celestial panoply my heart is moved and drawn more deeply into desiring at-oneness with that ‘other’.  And in allowing my heart to be moved in this way I notice how my own sense of humanity is nourished and affirmed.  I am more ‘me’ as I allow myself to be embraced by the Other.  This seems connected to the way the early Franciscan, St Bonaventure, noted that the very universe is a kind of ladder for ascending to God (cf. ‘The Soul’s Journey into God’) only this is a ladder which takes us into the wonder of the Divine.

BEING AND BELONGING

St Francis of Assisi knew that at heart, we are intimately connected with the heart of all that is.   He taught that we are sisters and brothers with the whole of creation.  The reverence I feel when contemplating the stars connects me to them, for I am made of the same stuff; the fact that I am moved in my depths when I gaze on the animal world should remind me to reverence it - and if it doesn’t, then there is something wrong with my humanity.   If I am not moved it suggests that my heart is closed and needs awakening so that it can be fixed on wonder, love and praise.  I find my sense of belonging widens from the particular (this family, place, nation) to a greater sense of belonging as a creature in creation.  This seems to be what Jesus recognised as he reached out beyond the confines of family (“who is my mother...”) and Paul taught (“circumcision is nothing ... what matters is a new creation”) and calls us to have a heart large enough to embrace the whole.  Slowly the heart needs to break free of its constraints so that it can sing the song of freedom. 

This is what being a Christian is all about - realising myself as a new creation whose heart is fixed on mercy, compassion and love for all things.  I need to be ‘mindful’ of this calling – to recollect this attention in the depths of my heart so that I’m not given to distraction.  And when – inevitably – I am, to collect my attention to its roots in the Heart of God.  This needs to be my well-spring.  And even though I may have a particular love, it is that Sacred Heart of Christ which is to enable all my loving.  As I gaze on His Heart so mine can be warmed.  It can also be challenged to grow beyond the limits of the self; challenged to be renewed (“a new heart create for me, O God...”) and refreshed. 

THE HEART AND DIVISION

This deep and often unconscious yearning for union – at-oneness – which is endemic to our being as a part of Creation will inevitably find the notion of separation a threat and a challenge and it’s experience deeply disturbing.  Yet, at a deeper level, our union cannot be broken – I remain your brother or sister and a brother or sister to the whole of creation whether that is recognised or not.  That recognition was the great gift of St Francis and other saints and their insights need to be recalled at times when we experience brokenness.  The eye of our heart needs to be fixed on the Heart of God which enfolds the whole of creation as we pray: “may you be well; may you be happy; may you know the compassion of Christ.”

MINDFULNESS AND MEDITATION

At a time when people are beginning to awaken to the importance of their inner world the Church needs to re-discover its treasury of contemplative prayer.  Here we can find the most important ‘fresh expressions’ of our Faith which speak to the actual needs people have.  If we want to re-connect with them then why not begin by organising a contemplative prayer group – call it ‘Mindfulness and Meditation’ if you like, but let’s do something!  

DENY YOURSELF AND TAKE UP YOUR CROSS

Sermon preached at the Church of All Saints, Blackheath

at Parish Mass on Lent 2

(March 1st, 2015)

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“If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves

and take up their cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34)

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INTRODUCTION

Some of us have probably been enjoying ‘Wolf Hall’, the story of how Thomas Cromwell’s navigated the corridors of power in the Tudor court to become Henry VIII's chief minister. 

Fifty years ago Paul Schofield starred as S. Thomas More in another account of that turbulent period.  Amongst all the memorable lines he uttered, one always stood out for me.  It was during More’s trial and his old protégé Richard Rich, now Attorney- General for Wales, was testifying against him.  More spotted the gold chain of that office, which he had gained by devious means, and uttered the haunting observation: “Why Richard, it profits a man nothing to give his soul for the whole world... but for Wales?”

Now I apologise to any Welsh people here at that slight on the Principality, especially on this day, but the gospel reading we've just heard concerns the call to live with integrity.  And for us Christians in particular it concerns the cost of discipleship: how we let go of our old self so that Jesus’ identity gradually shapes our own.

DISCIPLESHIP AND THE PASSION OF CHRIST

Jesus’ observation that anyone who wants to follow Him will need to take up their cross is the first mention in Mark’s gospel of that terrible symbol of Roman execution.  So Jesus has to teach His disciples that the Son of Man must undergo suffering and death, a prediction that clearly shocked Peter and the others who may have been in danger of believing that following Jesus would lead to one success after another.  That’s understandable; few of us would want to join a group that courted failure but Jesus clearly needs to point them beyond this superficial approach to discipleship.  So He makes it plain that following Him will involve self-denial and taking up ‘the cross’. 

This stark choice is one that we all need reminding of from time to time.  Being a Christian mustn’t be equated with success.  There is a cost to discipleship, a cost that will often involve choices in the way we act.  Sometimes it will be stark, as it is for many Christians in the Middle East right now.  But each day we are faced with choices about how to act in hundreds of different ways. 

Of course, we know that we shouldn’t do anything that is evil, but there are so many subtle choices we are faced with and the question is, which ones will keep us on the path to life?  Sometimes the choice is clear, but at other times it isn’t.  What we are called to do is to seek to have the eye of our heart fixed on the Lord.  To practice the discipline of desiring to be moulded in His image and likeness so that our desires are, gradually, at one with His. 

DENY YOURSELF

This is what lies behind Jesus’ call to disciples that they should ‘deny themselves’.  Now that phrase, or others like ‘self-denial’, are meant to alert us to the way in which the ‘self’ – the overblown-self – needs to be kept in check else it may get out of control. 

At the beginning of Lent, when ash was smeared on our foreheads, it was accompanied with the words: “Turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel”.  So often it is that dominating-self which controls our lives.  Of course, it’s important to have a healthy sense of ‘self’ for once we do then we don’t have to engage in that constant need to dominate others – to always be right, for example.  What it doesn’t mean is to adopt an attitude that is abusive towards our-self.  That would be quite wrong.  Before ever we can begin on a healthy self-denial we have to have a healthy sense of self which comes, for us, from knowing that we are God’s beloved children.

And lying behind the movement towards denying ourselves must be faithful to the gospel – to that call to live out of the goodness of God. 

LIFE THROUGH LAW OR GRACE

S. Paul, in that extract we heard from his letter to the Romans, teaches us that this way of discipleship which leads to fullness of life, cannot be determined by any law but only by living in the grace – the mercy – of God.  God’s promise of eternal life (and that isn’t just about some future paradise but something that is lived now) does not depend on slavishly following a religious code – Paul was no fundamentalist – but by living through faith in God.  ‘Thy will be done.’ 

And how do we know when we are doing God’s will?  By seeking to make Him the centre of our lives.  One of the simplest and most profound means of doing this was devised by Ignatius Loyola.  It’s a practice he called the Examen which many Christians are turning to in their desire to live out the gospel.  It’s an exercise of prayerful reflection on the events of the day in order to detect God's presence and discern how we can ‘flow’ into His desire – His will – for us.  Ignatius recommended that we should constantly reflect on the movements that are directing our lives: not how I can be good, but on the way I have responded to those movements as I seek to freely give myself to God.   

One of the simplest ways of practicing this exercise is by placing your hand on your heart and asking the Lord to bring to your heart the moment today for which you are most grateful.  When were you most able to give and receive love today?  Then ask yourself what was said and done in the moment that made it so special and breathe in the gratitude you feel.   Next ask God to bring to your heart the moment today for which you are least grateful.  When were you least able to give and receive love?  Ask yourself what was said and done in that moment that made it so difficult.  Then, finally, take deep breaths and let God’s love fill you just as you are.

This daily prayerful exercise is designed to consciously re-direct the heart towards giving itself to God’s gracious call to life so that we can give ourselves to living out of the will of God with greater freedom. 

TAKING UP THE CROSS

Of course, living out of His will means letting go of ours which, in turn, means that we are learning to take up our cross and follow Christ.  To lose, or let go of, our life to be open to the life He offers us.  The Examen can help us reflect on that process and so can seeking to be constantly present to God by letting go of the self. 

There are many practices to aid this desire which work with inkling the heart towards God.  From the practice of the Jesus Prayer – that constant repetition in the heart of the phrase: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner” – to just being present to our breathing or to a sacred word: “Jesus” or “Abba” or “Maranatha” for example.  In all of this we are not responding to a demand of God but, rather, an invitation into eternal life – or life in all its fullness.  God does not demand that we discipline ourselves in order to achieve some state of higher moral existence; but He does, graciously, invite us to share in His life by letting go of our over- bearing ego-self and letting His life become ours.

CONCLUSION

Satan – or the force of evil – is constantly at work in the world seeking someone to devour.  Thankfully we don’t face the stark choice of denying Christ or being crucified for our faith.  But we are called to deny ourselves.  As Charles Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher, once said in a sermon: “I have now concentrated all my prayers into one, and that one prayer is this, that I may die to self, and live wholly to Him.”  

Today we have a chance of reflecting on a set of readings that have this in common: that we are called into a new relationship with God.  One not based on keeping a set of rules but of learning to freely give myself into a relationship with Him so that His life becomes my life. 

Perhaps that’s what Lent is all about.

Amen.