Can You Choose? Peace or Busy-ness or Fear



In Chapter 11, Thomas invites us to seek after peace and the pursuits of faith instead of worrying about the scattered activities of our neighbors.  Better to MYOB and develop your spiritual gifts. Thomas then uses the lives of the saints, like St. John of the Cross, to motivate us with their examples of self denial and discipline, to help us walk closer with God.  And going down this path requires us to reform our selfish nature into one of holiness. 



"Be not afraid"

 Acquiring Peace and Zeal for Our Spiritual Progress

1. You would have more peace if you would not be so busy with the comings and going of others and with things which do not belong to  you: attending to your own affairs.



How can you remain inwardly peaceful when you entangle yourself with other peoples’ cares,  seeking involvement in their worldly activities, and not focusing inwardly on your own spiritual growth?


Blessed are the single-hearted, for they shall enjoy much peace1.
2. What was the reason why some of the saints were so perfect and contemplative?

Because they made it their study to focus on mortifying within themselves all earthly desires; and they were then enabled, with every fiber of their heart, to cleave to God, and freely attend to themselves.

3. If you were perfectly dead to yourself, and in no way entangled in your selfishness, then you would be able to relish  divine things and experience something of heavenly contemplation.


The greatest hindrance to emptying yourself is this: that you are not free from passions and fleshly hungers; and yet you strive to walk easily in the perfect way of the saints. And when you meet with any small challenges, you are too quickly dispirited and turn away to seek after human comforts.

Thomas takes us to this place, and then makes some recommendations to keep us moving forward on this journey.  Standing up to our weaknesses builds spiritual muscles. One of Thomas' most often quoted maxims is at the beginning of paragraph 5, which will be highlighted. Thomas advises us to keep our fresh approach to the faith throughout our life.



Battle of Lepanto



4.  If you strive to stand up in the battle valiantly, you will without a doubt see the Lord help us from Heaven.

For He is ready to help those that fight and trust in His grace: He furnishes us with the opportunity of combating these instances that we may overcome and thereby be strengthened.


If your religious progress is only measured in these outward observances, your devotion will quickly be at an end.


Let us, therefore, lay the axe at the root that, being purged of passions, we may possess a quiet mind.



Perfection

 5. If every year we rooted out one vice, we would soon become perfect.


But now we often find it quite otherwise: that we were better and more pure in the beginning of our conversion than after many years of our profession.


Our fervor and progress ought to be every day greater, but now it is esteemed a great matter if a man can retain some part of his first fervor.


If we would use a little discipline on ourselves in the beginning, we might afterward do all things with ease and joy.


6. It is hard to quit your old habits; but harder to go against your own will.


But if you do not overcome things that are small and light when will you overcome greater difficulties?


Resist your inclination, in the beginning, and break off your old bad habits, for fear that little by little the difficulties will increase upon you.

St. John of The Cross

If you were sensible, you would pursue peace yourself and joy with others. By behaving yourself, you will be more eager for your spiritual progress.

Note on  St John of the Cross


1.  Similar to Matt 5:9: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God." 

God and Contract Law: The Invitation to a Promise, the Promise, Accord & Satisfaction vs. A Gift

The Most Blessed Sacrament

Warning: Do not read this series of postings unless you are prepared to see The Sacrament in a whole new Light.  Start slow, and chew on the meditation.  More prayer than thoughtfulness is in order here to absorb the themes Good Thomas is revealing to us.

As we move into Pentecost and Corpus Christi, I'm going to go a bit out of order, skipping to Book 4, on The Blessed Sacrament.  Here goes!   (For those going in order, Book 1, Ch 3,  is here).

Book 4, Chapter 1: On How Great Reverence is to be Shown When Christ is to be Received

Book 4 opens with five New Testament quotes.  While the other books have many Scriptural references in the opening, only Book 4 opens with Christ, as part of a prayerful conversation, directly quoting from the New Testament. 

Thomas always gets it right in that he sees The Word, The Eternal Word (Jesus) and The Blessed Sacrament as intimately intertwined.  You cannot have one without the other and have a complete meal.  Without one, you will always leave the banquet hungry.

Therefore, Thomas opens the book on The Eucharist with a meditation on the Words of Christ, offering an invitation from Jesus to believe and then rely upon His True Presence in The Blessed Sacrament.  The result of that reliance? Spirit and Life. So, first the quotes:

The Voice of Christ:
"Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest." Matt 11:28
"[T]he bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world." John 6:51
"This is my body that is for you. Do this in remembrance of me." 1 Cor 11:24
"Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me and I in him." John 6:56
"The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life." John 6:63

Thomas will now make his case with a question and a comparison: How can we dare to approach the Altar of God and receive Holy Communion when we don’t measure up to the likes and efforts of Noah, Moses, David, Solomon, The Angels, and The Saints? His conclusion will be that we can never be worthy or measure up. But as Thomas will repeat throughout this chapter, God keeps inviting and reminding us: “Of course you don’t qualify to be here, but come anyway! Come because My Son has opened the gates of Heaven and Grace for you.”

Disciple:

The Breaking of the Bread by Ariel Agemian



These are your words, O Christ, the Eternal Truth, though not all delivered at one time, nor written in one place.

Since, therefore, these are Your words, and true, all are to be received by me with thanks and with faith.


These are Your words and You have spoken them; and these words are also mine because you have delivered these for my salvation.


I willingly receive Your words from Your mouth that these may be more integrated, yes even grafted into my heart forever.

Such great and tender words! Full of sweetness and love - this encourages me; but my sins terrify me and my unclean conscience keeps me back from approaching such great mysteries. The sweetness of your words invites me, but the multitude of my sins weighs me down.

I find these words of Thomas particularly personal from Thomas.  He is truly edified by Christ's words and yet fully aware of his unworthiness created by his sins. Still, he believes upon the Promises and joyfully approaches the Altar, aware of his fear, his shortcomings and The Lord's Grace.



Professor Kingsfield from "The Paper Chase"
portrayed by John Houseman

This whole first line of quotes and discussion reminds me of the first year of law school, Contracts class, where we discuss the foundation of Contract law, which is the notions of Offer, Acceptance and Consideration:  An offer is supported by a promise, and has to have consideration (a giving up of something of value).  For the contract to be complete, there must be acceptance by the person the offer is being made to - that's us.



In the opening quotes, we have Jesus' invitation to a promise, the promise, the fulfillment of the promise.  His 'consideration' was his death on the cross.  Our consideration is the 'giving up' of our selfish lives for following Him. In imitating Him, we find out how much more He gives us and how we can never give back enough. 

So God binds Himself to an eternal contract - a covenant, really, which is essentially unilateral (He must do it even if we do not perfectly perform our end of the bargain!).  So, it is an enforceable Gift. Wow!  Who said studying the law wasn't profitable?

Next time, we will look at God's invitation to us....

Thank you for reading and praying along with me. 'Til next time, be Imitators of Christ!

tim