Stories that save lives

The Bible is full of stories. Stories of families that come together that become stories of nations. They are also stories of God, of salvation. Even today this holds true. Stories of my life and yours, our family stories contain stories of God and the seeds of our own salvation, but oftentimes these are obscured, hidden, unless we are alert to them. 

I must therefore create space for these stories, so God can speak in and through them to me first, then I can share fruitfully with others in my life.

Using the story of Mary and Elizabeth, Pia Attard encouraged the women present at the talk in the parish of Saint Teresa last Monday evening how we, as women, can encounter other women and bear spiritual fruit in our lives.

The stories of barrenness in the Bible illustrate the power of God's awesome and saving grace. Only He can orchestrate the impossible. This was so in the story of Elizabeth, an elderly woman past her child-bearing years and Mary, a young virgin. The impossible happened to these two women, fruitfulness hoped for but never dreamed of; fruitfulness that brought great joy, even as it must have brought fear and the pain of sacrifice. 

Drawing on the examples of Elizabeth and Mary, women who went through their fair share of adversity and who in saying yes to God also said yes to uncertainty and loss in their lives, what can we learn from them?

We can learn to trust in God, knowing that our spiritual lives will always imply a lack of control. We can learn that being out of control is not a bad thing for in surrendering control to God, while a scary prospect, can be a liberating one. It can free us for becoming over-anxious and even hopeless when we simply trust God.

As Pia pointed out, Mary is the icon for creating empty space for God. She listened and obeyed. She embraced the revelation of God wholeheartedly even as she must have had many questions and inner struggles within her. She pondered in the sweeping plains of her heart and allowed God to plant a fecund garden brimming with beauty.

If we include this discipline of creating space for God in our lives, we too can conjure space for others and bless them. As contemplatives, we will recognize the hidden presence of God in each other's stories when we come together for we are able to see things essentially. Even when others around us are less than civil and rub us the wrong way, we can still decipher their intrinsic beauty, see beyond the surface of things and treat them with compassion, mustering the necessary patience, wisdom and creativity to draw out their inner beauty. 

Both Mary and Elizabeth had the gift of hospitality. They carried each other in their hearts and prayers, and when they met, they affirmed and edified each other in the life stories they shared with the other. Each woman uncovered the hidden presence of God to the other. We are rarely able to see everything about ourselves and our lives with clarity so we need others to reveal home truths to us, truths that bless us - as Elizabeth did for Mary, and vice versa, I am sure.

From Mary we can also learn how to express gratitude as she did in the Magnificat. The lowliness she shared with Elizabeth was her vulnerability. When we open to each other our imperfections and brokenness, we exercise a mutuality where in giving, we receive, and in receiving, we give.    

Ultimately, when we give ourselves as a gift to others, there in our life stories will God reside, and there will we be saved. Our stories will in turn have the power to save others. As women, we have a gathering, embracing intuition which when we give it full reign with other women, we will become blessed among women and pass this blessedness on, and on. And so it goes. So call your good girlfriend today, share with her your life stories and listen as she shares hers.

Becoming more like John

I have a new role model this year. His name is John the Baptist. Yes, it's that unkempt, ascetic radical who preaches an urgent, unwelcome message to all: Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

 

He used to make me uncomfortable. Who wears clothes made from camel’s hair and lives on locusts and wild honey? Then walks around telling all and sundry change your ways now or else… What’s up with that?

 

Just because he is supremely uncomfortable in his clothes must he make it disagreeable for me as well? I am a good person, surely I will get to heaven without having to step outside my comfort zone? I do not have to go to the extreme lengths that he did, must I?

 

Although I have certainly travelled far from who I used to be, a woman ensnared in worldly values, what lengths do I go to in order to match John’s love and zeal for God? This is the challenge John the Baptist poses to me every day. Make the change - repent - and change the world.

 

Like Jesus, John must have spent much time in prayer as he knew God’s heart well. Although he was a preacher with an ever-growing following (why else would Herod fear him and eventually have him beheaded), he could humbly say without a trace of irony I am not fit to undo the strap of his sandal and even encouraged his own disciples to follow Jesus.

 

Who on earth, especially today says He must increase, I must decrease? Even when we are working for the same cause, boss, organization, country or kingdom, we all clamour for personal recognition and validation for our efforts. We fear that others might steal our glory, forgetting that everything we do should be for the greater glory of God.

 

We do not allow for diversity of perspectives and we shout down anyone who dares to disagree with us. We use means fair and foul to get what we want even as we simultaneously rationalize our ill motivated decisions and actions, convincing ourselves smugly we are right. It’s funny how we dumb God down thinking we can fool God with clever rhetoric.

 

John never had the problem of ego or hubris for he knew exactly who he was and what his mission on earth was and he worked tirelessly to achieve that end. He was the voice crying out in the wilderness, the frontrunner who prepares the way, the one who baptizes with water not the Holy Spirit, and he lived and worked wholeheartedly for God.

 

If I were him, I would have given up long ago. Why work so hard to play second fiddle? He even recognized Jesus, the younger man and inexperienced preacher (wasn’t he a carpenter for crying out loud), as divine, and accorded Him the requisite respect and worship.

 

Today’s feast day, the Baptism of the Lord, signifies the start of Christ’s public ministry, the revelation of Jesus as God’s beloved son on whom His favour rests, and the descent of the Holy Spirit on Christ in the form of a dove. It reminds me that, likewise, I have been baptized in the Holy Spirit and I am God’s beloved child.  

 

As Father Arro raised in his homily this morning life will always present struggles and difficulties, but I can walk in confidence, hope and joy knowing that the marvellous gift of my baptism has won me the favour of God’s forever love.

 

May I become more like John the Baptist for if I allow Jesus to increase and I decrease, then I will not be tempted to seek my own kingdom but God’s, and I will be content with zero accolades and no external validation. Just as long as I bring God pleasure with silent yet far-reaching humility.

New year freedom

I literally had an epiphany when we celebrated Epiphany this Sunday past (today is the actual feast day, being January 6). Before this, I had been languishing in a funk for after reviewing 2014, I found myself lacking in much too many areas. I despair of ever bringing to life a new, improved version of me, a me I could be proud of, a me that if I were to stand at the pearly gates before Saint Peter tomorrow, I could give a good account of myself.

Many things ran through my mind when I asked for the grace in the new year to act with courage and love in all that I do. My fears are many, which my brother C dismissively told me represented a lack of faith (it annoyed me but he is ultimately correct), and when I think of what I would like to accomplish this year, I marvel at my own temerity.

Epiphany centres around  the manifestation of the Christ child to the Gentiles or the non-Christian world, as represented by the magi. The magi journeyed to where Baby Jesus lay by following an unusually bright star and upon finding him, paid Him homage. While Epiphany is about good news, it reeks of danger, not just for the magi who were told to return via an alternative route, but for the life of the Infant Jesus. We also know that Herod's slaughter of innocent firstborn sons is imminent for here on out.

Why would good news provoke such a negative reaction? As the January 5 reflection in Laudate expanded upon, the good news Jesus brings is:

...the good news of peace - the Lord comes to reconcile and restore us to friendship with God. The good news of  hope - the Lord comes to dwell with us and to give us a home with him in his heavenly kingdom. The good news of  truth - the Lord Jesus sets us free from the lies and deception of Satan and opens our mind to understand the truth and revelation of God's word (John 8:32). The good news of promise - Jesus fulfills the promise of God to reward those who seek him with the treasure of heaven. The good news of immortality - Jesus overcomes sin and death for us in order to raise our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body which will never die again. And the good news of salvation - the Lord Jesus delivers us from every fear, every sin, and every obstacle that would keep us from entering his everlasting kingdom of righteousness, peace, and joy.

This was the epiphany I received, this good news, and that we, as sons and daughters of the Father have been set free by this relationship we have with Jesus and His Father. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit the Lord makes it possible for us to receive his word with faith and to act upon it with trust and obedience.

Faith. Trust. Obedience. It is with good reason I asked for courage, and more love this year. On my own, I will never be able to fulfil any new year resolution I deign to make, or accomplish what I would like to in this year. However, if I rely on the Holy Spirit, I can do it all, and then some.

Life was not easy for Jesus and his parents even before He was born so why should I expect my life to be any different? There will be struggles, justifiable fears, conflicts, and even persecution and burning animosity, but if I nurture my faith and trust through prayer and obedience, then I will always find the heart to keep moving ahead rather than stay mired in fear. With the Lord's help, it will be a good year, a very good one. I just have to hold onto the freedom of kinship I found in Epiphany.