Yes and the Naked Now

What is the secret to knowing God’s will?  It ultimately is extremely simple.  Whether it is extremely hard or not to live depends on me.

We start with the Naked Now.  God’s will for me is not in the past nor in the future.  The past is finished and in His Hands.  Nor has He revealed the future; it does not effect us right here and right now.  Thus, we are left with the revelation of His will, moment by precious moment.  We are asked to accept as from a Master, welcome as from a Lover, trust as from a Father, this moment, this Now as His will for me.  What is past is past.  What will be is not mine to see.  What Jesus is asking me is to follow Him right here, right now, unconditionally.

Unconditionally is part of Now’s nakedness.  No strings attached.  Nor is Now laden with any intention, any purpose, any reason other than Love; no innuendos, no hidden agendas, no trappings of any kind: that is its Nakedness.

It is not evil, it is the goodness of Creation God declared from the beginning, presenting itself to me.  I may not perceive it as good; cancer, illness, being fired, violence, even death, examined in the light of the naked now, are simply challenges for which God has given me grace to “choose life,” choose to Trust Him, choose to get out of the boat and walk through the storm to Him.

To do His will, in this moment, in this instance, in this choice…and the choice is mine, it is mine to receive or reject, to embrace or revile, to trust as God’s will or to attempt to control and change.

I may not understand the choice, I may not grok its implications for the future; God asks me to Trust Him.  On the other hand, I may completely understand the implications, I may, like the witnesses to our faith, be asked to make a choice for or against God, even if that means derision, scorn, suffering or ultimately death.  While we look at the second type of choice as a “defining moment” in life, in a sense, each moment leading up to that moment is a “defining moment.”  The second may be the moment of crystallization, but the other moments are the formulation of the solution, the imminent concentration, until at the fullness of time, a precipitating moment arrives, the choice is made and the rest is history.

Unfortunately, the solution can be contaminated or even completely corrupt and the precipitating moment either never takes place or it may crystallize for evil, not good.  It is in such a defining moment that the Holy Spirit is sinned against; one completely shuts Him out and he can no longer dilute the mixture with the grace of repentance.  God cannot forgive that for which one does not repent.  Though He still loves us “savagely,” with over-the-top type Love,  He regards our freedom of will too highly to impose what is not desired,…and for this reason He is in the anguish of the Garden when a sinner refuses redemption and heaven is in ecstasy for every sinner that repents.

What is the “Yes,” it is the echo of Mary’s Behold the handmaid of the Lord.   Be it done to me according to Your will,[Lk 1:38] and her Do whatever He tells you.[Jn 2:5] It is Dag Hammarskjöld’s For all that has been — Thanks. For all that shall be — Yes.[Musings]

How else can we make sense of Paul’s constant refrain: Rejoice always,  pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you [1 Thess. 5: 16-18].[1] Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. [Phil. 4:4] Each moment I can rejoice for You are with me and we are getting closer to Your coming and I know that whatever moment I am in, You are there loving and caring for me.  For this I can rejoice always!

Paul explains the Naked Now in Philippians, Chapter 4:

• 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.  Peeking through the moment of the Naked Now and saying “Yes” is not only reasonable, but blessed.
• The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  You are indeed at hand, each and every naked now; all I need to do is ask and not be anxious; You are there caring for me.
• 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. This is the peace of God that passes all understanding, knowing and trusting that You are with me every moment of every day, and this peace will guard my heart and mind from fear, from illusion, from anxiety, from distress because I am in You, Jesus, my Christ.
• 11 I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content….13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me and thus it is, by saying Yes in the Naked Now, that I am content and can do all things through You who strengthen me.

An Error in Time

Temptations are generated outside of the Naked Now and are judged and acted upon in the Naked Now.   The Devil uses both the past and future as sources for temptations.  The future is a gold-mine, literally, for avarice, lust, envy, pride, power while the past has both pride, lust, etc as well as the after-effects of sin: anger, denial, distrust, despondency, and despair. Thus, we prepare for sin by contemplating in the Naked Now not what is but what might be or what was.  If we can look at what is straight on, we see it in a different light, not the fire-light of passion, the spot-light of pride or despair, the golden-glow of avarice, the fire-works of power, but in the Son-light of reality.  We are still free to choose against what we see as Truth and Goodness, but we are not forced to do so.

The paradigmatic example of this is the temptation of Eve in the garden.  The serpent held out to Eve the future of being like God; thus the apple was not seen as a forbidden thing, but as an obstacle; the act not an evil act, but as a means to a “good” end. The moment before she ate the apple, she considered the devil’s temptations placed up against the loving directive of the Father who walked with them in the Garden, the nakedness of the comparison and the deliberateness of the choice was what gave this the title of Original Sin, original because it was the first, and also because all others thereafter were copies of it.

Fortunately, God takes into consideration our frailty and fallen natures.  He reads our souls and knows that we are subject to multiple mitigating conditions and circumstances.  Only He can judge our ability to make a weighed and rational decision, a grace-prompted choice.  For this, we thank Him and beg his continual mercy on us, sinners.

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[1] See also 2 Cor. 13:11, Phil 2:18, 3:1; echoing the Psalms, Wisdom Literature and Prophets

Believe in Love

“For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.” Jn 3:20

Why do those who do wicked things hate light and truth and life and love? Why do they refuse to come to the light? They know that if they come to Jesus, he knows the heart of every man, woman and child, and will know their works and expose their works as evil. They retain the proclivity of our first parents who chose knowledge over life itself. They do not realize that the purpose of this “exposure” is not the exposure itself, but to elicit remorse, regret, sorrow and to encourage faith and the seeking of forgiveness and mercy…

But they do not believe in the goodness of God. If they are judgmental and without mercy, they build their god like themselves, a judge without mercy, a judge who does not love them, a judge who does not care about them, a judge who gives only what is due and nothing more. That is not Jesus who loves each and every one of them, who cares so much that He not only was willing to die for them, but actually did die for them, who gives not what they deserve but mercy and so much more.

This was the sadness which overwhelmed Jesus in the garden, that they wouldn’t accept love, caring, mercy, forgiveness and these, his lost sheep, his own loved ones who might never join Him in heaven.

May we not only believe in the Love that is Jesus but help others to come to believe in their Savior, their loved One, their merciful Brother, their Jesus.  Amen. Alleluia!!!

Jesus’ humanity

Do we appreciate the fact that the Son of God, He to whom all creation owes its existence, He whom is one with the Father, this Divine Person showed us the ultimate patience and humility, first manifested in residing cooped up for 9 months as a fetus in Mary’s womb. This is love, not that we loved him first, but that he loved us, and gave himself up for us, while we were still in our sin! He loved us so much, he became one of us, taking on every lowly and tedious aspect of our existence, the process of growing, the routine of rising, working, resting, sleeping, eating and starting over again and again, taking joy in life’s highlights, the festivals in Jerusalem, the birthdays, anniversaries and weddings at home. Living through life’s sadnesses: Joseph’s death, natural and man-made tragedies, subjugation by Rome and its minions, leavings. And enduring trials: hunger, pain, sickness, poverty, privation.

For us, this is our lot, our existence, unchosen, at times unwanted. He freely, with a freedom so far surpassing our own that there is, in essence, literally, no comparison, a freedom unbounded by limitations or requirements, a freedom the limits of which are self-established by the substance of His Being, e.g. a square circle,…He freely chose finitude, frailty, finality…all the imposed attributes by which we are eternally bound and from which we eternally seek to free ourselves. Perhaps there is a lesson therein, perhaps in these seeming constraints there is goodness, blessing, beatitude. Perhaps there is the essence of becoming like little children, of humility, a grounding in who I am and loving me, embracing me, rejoicing in me. For God created me just as I am, and saw that it was “very Good.” Amen. Alleluia!!!

The “Must”

The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise. Lk 24:7 The critical “must.” From Heaven itself, we learn that it was a “must” that Jesus be arrested, tortured, die on the cross and rise. No way around it, over it, under it, only through it. That was the cup of Gethsemane. The “must.”

But why, why the “must.” God could have wiped away the debt due from sin with one nod, one wave. But with it would have gone all justice as well as mercy, all comfort as well as contrition, all trust as well as love. It would have been the act of a capricious child, not a omniscient Good God. Not a God who loves us as we are, mired in sin and death, who accepts the decisions of our vacillating wills, free as they terribly, ominously are. The most devastating bomb on earth is not made by human hands, it is free will…but at the same time, it is our most precious and sacred gift.

Many creatures have intellects, not as developed or lucid as ours, but intellects. I question whether we can call ourselves “rational animals” if we limit “rational” to simply knowing. No, only if it is tied inextricably to willing, doing, being rational, do we deserve that definition. Therefore, I submit that it is free will, that which indeed makes us most like God, which makes us most human. And it is free will which was surrendered to the “must.” God showed us in His Divine Son the way to Himself is by using that free will to choose “yours be done.”