The Low Hanging Fruit is Ready for Picking!

Why is it in our nature to look for those things which are mere curiosities when we have, in front of us, the answer to our desire?  Think for a minute about going from one grocery store to another, looking for some out-of-season fruit (say, pomegranates) and bypassing bushels of apples which are more abundant and less expensive.  Now, translate that into a religious pilgrimage in pursuit of piety.  Good Thomas teaches us today, that the low-hanging fruit is easier and (in this case) better, than the curious looking fruit higher up in the tree.

9. Many run to various places to visit the relics of the saints, and are astonished to hear of the saints’ wonderful works; they behold the noble church buildings and kiss the saints’ sacred bones, wrapped up in silk and gold.
And behold, I have You here present on the Altar, my God, the Saint of saints, the Creator of men, and the Lord of Angels.

Oftentimes in seeing these things men are moved with curiosity, and the novelty of the sight, and but little fruit of amendment is reaped thereby; especially when persons lightly run here and there, without true contrition for their sins.

But here, in the Sacrament of the Altar, You are wholly present, my God, the man Christ Jesus; where also the fruit of eternal salvation is plentifully reaped, as often as You are worthily and devoutly received.

And to this we are not drawn by any levity, curiosity, or sensuality;butby a firm faith, a devout hope, and a sincere charity.

Thomas now takes us into an ecstatic prayer to the Lord thanking Him for providing easy access to Himself through the Blessed Sacrament:

10. O God, the invisible Maker of the world, how wonderfully do You deal with us! How sweetly and graciously do You order all things in favor of Your elect, to whom You offer Yourself to be received in this Sacrament!

For this exceeds all understanding of man; this in a particular manner engages the hearts of the devout, and en kindles their love.*

For Your true faithful, who dispose their whole life to amendment, by this most worthy Sacrament, frequently receive a great grace of devotion and love of virtue.

*This passage reminded me of one of my favorite prayers to the Holy Spirit:
          "Come Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of Your faithful and kindle in them the fire of Your love. Send forth Your Spirit and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.
          O, God, who by the light of the Holy Spirit, did instruct the hearts of the faithful, grant that by the same Holy Spirit we may be truly wise and ever enjoy His consolations, Through Christ Our Lord, Amen"

Next time, we'll wrap up book 4, chapter 1, where Thomas will tie it all together for us.

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


tim

A Dance of Wild Abandon: Letting Go and Letting God

When you free yourself to worship with your whole heart, mind and strength (Mk 12:30 & Dt 6:5), then you can be like King David.  Try it sometime!

8. King David, a devout servant of the Lord, danced before the Ark of Got with all his might (even with wild abandon) (2 Sam 6:14) commemorating the benefits bestowed in times past on his fathers. He made musical instruments of different kinds; he published Psalms, and appointed these to be sung with joy; he himself likewise often sang them, playing upon his harp, inspired with the grace of the Holy Spirit. He taught the people of Israel to praise God with their whole heart, and to join their voices in blessing and magnifying Him every day.

But that doesn't have to be you.  The more sedate approach is also allowed:

If such great devotion was then celebrated, and such remembrance of the praise of God before the Ark of the Covenant, how great ought to be the reverence and devotion to which I and all Christian people should have in the presence of this Blessed Sacrament, and in receiving the most excellent Body and Blood of Christ!

Here's the point - Letting yourself be steeped in the Presence of Almighty God can easily send you to either expression.  Letting go, and letting God pour through you will change you forever:  for eternity.

Thanks for reading and praying along with me.

'Til next time, be imitators of Christ!
tim

Light the match! What is the potential of a wet wick?

You may want to review the last meditation, which discusses the historical figures of Noah, Moses and David, before continuing.  Click here, or page down to refresh your recollection of who Thomas is referring to in paragraph 5:

5. O my God, how much did they endeavor to do to please You!

Alas! What I do is so little in comparison!  I spend so short a time when I prepare myself to receive Holy Communion, being seldom fully reconciled,  and very seldom free from all distraction!

And yet, surely in the life-giving presence of Your Self, no unbecoming thought should occur, nor anything created take up my mind; for it is not an angel, but the Lord of Angels that I am to entertain within me.

Thomas concentrates his worship, not by clearing his mind, but by focusing his mind on the Lord. As with the last reflection, we should first realize Who we are to receive and then prepare accordingly. Stop looking at who is passing by, quit chasing the fly around or fiddling with your change in your pocket.  Get busy focusing!

6. An yet there is a very great difference between the Ark of the Covenant with its relics, and Your most pure Body, with its unspeakable virtues; between those sacrifices of the Law, which were figures of things to come, and the true sacrifice of Your Body, which is the fulfillment of all these ancient sacrifices.

Even though the most revered relics of ancient Israel were precious and worthy of being treated with reverence, there is little comparison with Christs atoning sacrifice on the Cross.  The Ark and The Law prefigured Jesus - His Body in the Host fills up the shadows of the past, even today.

And in knowing all of this, Thomas then asks us:

7. Why then am I not more inflamed, considering Your venerable Presence?



Why do I not prepare myself with greater care to receive Your sacred gifts, seeing that those ancient holy patriarchs and prophets, yes – kings and princes, with the whole people, have shown so great an affection of devotion towards Your divine worship?

The answer, as you will see, is that there is a great deal of fruitfulness in the trying. Sometimes we have to dry out the wick before it can be lit. We are all working toward that holiness of the Angels, the Saint, the Patriarchs.
     One of the reasons I come back to The Imitation of Christ time and again, is that Thomas directs his prayerful thoughts toward his own (and my) inadequacies and continues to reach the same conclusion in 1400 that I do in 2011....that my desire to be more holy and reverent is its own consolation, its own foreshadowing of things to come.  "The kingdom of God is like........"  We can only look at how we want to be, then take steps toward that goal of being that humble servant of Christ.  Light the match!

Thanks for praying with me.

'Til next time, be imitators of Christ!
tim

History v. Mystery: How 30 Minutes Can Change Your Life!

Book 4, Chapter 1, Paragraph 4:  History v. Mystery
What if I would even spend one half-hour as I ought to reverencing Him!

This question above is how Thomas ends paragraph 4.  Read it again, then read the passage below.  Put yourself into the context of history.  The answer quickly presents itself:



Noah's Ark - link to wikipedia

 4. Behold Noah, a just man (Gen 6:9) labored one hundred years in building the Ark, that he, with his family, might be saved; and how shall I be able, in the space of one hour, prepare myself to receive with reverence the Maker of the world?



Ark of The Law-wikipedia link

 Moses, Your servant, Your great and special friend, made an Ark out of incorruptible wood, which he also covered with the purest gold, that he might deposit within the Ark the tables of the Law (Ex 25:8-16); and shall I, a corrupt creature, presume so easily to receive you – The Maker of the Law and the Giver of life?



Solomon's Temple -link to wikipedia

 Solomon, the wisest of the kings of Israel, spent seven years in building a magnificent Temple for the praise of Your name:  And he and his people then celebrated for eight days the feast of the dedication of the Temple; offering a thousand cattle and sheep as peace offerings, and brought the Ark of the Covenant in a solemn procession into the place prepared for it, with the sound of trumpets and jubilee (1 Kings 8:6). 

And I, a wretch, and the most unworthy servant, how shall I bring You into my house  who can hardly spend one half-hour devoutly?  What if I would even spend one half-hour as I ought!

Thomas once again brings us to a quick conclusion of where our hearts and minds and spirits ought to be.  He distills the answer for us through the filter of history.  He doesn't guilt us into being ashamed, rather, he challenges us to enter into devout worship of He Who gives us Himself....just for 30 minutes.  Both Thomas and The Lord, promise to change our life in this 30 minutes.

This week's challenge:  30 minutes of devout adoration.  Don't get up to adjust the shades, don't scratch the itch, don't answer the phone (unplug it in advance, turn it off). Prepare in advance (Thomas says, to prepare for an hour!).

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

What Archangels and Centurions and You Have in Common

On the Feast of Corpus Christi, we continue in Book 4, Chapter 1, with paragraph 3.

Thomas tells us that we have to prayerfully and intentionally invoke a conscious grace - that of being aware of our humility in coming to the Blessed Sacrament:

3. What do You mean by this most loving condescension and friendly invitation?



How shall I dare to approach You, when I am conscious of none of my own good thoughts or deeds on which I can presume upon Your favor?


How shall I introduce You into my house when I have so often provoked your anger and displeasure?

The angels and the archangels* stand with reverential awe in Your Presence; even the saints and the just are afraid: and still You say, "Come you all to Me."


Only because You, O Lord did say it, who could believe this invitation to be true?


And unless You did command it who would dare to attempt to approach Your Throne?

So our friend Thomas shows a way to imitate him so that we may imitate Christ. 

Condescension here is a positive term, in that Our Lord sets aside His own nature, taking the form of Bread and Wine to be consumed by us.  THAT is humility that we can only begin to grasp and imitate through our own mindfulness of our unworthiness.

In comparison to the Holy Angels and Saints, who you would think God would first invite them to His Table, instead He reaches out to we, the wholly unworthy, to offer Himself. 

Thomas doesn't quote it here, but it is appropriate to refer to Matthew 8:8 and following where Jesus meets the centurion and marvels at the man's faith.   The centurion declares himself unworthy to receive Our Lord in his home. 

Jesus was ready to go the the centurion's house to cure the centurion's servant, but the centurion, being a man of humility and faith, declared his unworthiness. Rather, he believed that if only Jesus spoke a word, his servant would be healed. At this, Jesus marvelled.  He declared the servant healed....and so he was.

This holds great promise for us in that if we follow the centurion's example of faith and humility in receiving Holy Communion, Jesus will enter into the souls of our homes, even though we do not deserve that He should come under our roof.  But first, we must ask Him.  He will heal His servant, that is, our own self, if we let Him.  He will heal us, he will save us (Jer 17:14).

Pray with me: "Lord, I am not worthy to receive You, but only say the word, and my soul shall be healed!  May the Body and Blood of Our Lord Jesus Christ bring me to everlasting life. Amen."

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

*Scripture tells us that the Angels and Archangels are constantly before the Throne of God, worshipping Him (see, for example, Is 6: 1-4), when they are not on a Holy mission (e.g. Rev 12:7-9).

Confident Humilty: Approaching the Unapproachable - and other Contradictions

Book 4, Chapter 1, continues:

2. You command me to approach You with confidence if I would abide with You, and to receive the food of immortality if I desire to obtain life and glory everlasting.

“Come,” You say to me , “all you that labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Matt 11:28.


Oh what sweet and amiable words in the ear of a sinner, that You, O Lord my God, should invite the poor and needy to the communion of Your most sacred Body!

But who am I, O Lord, that I should presume to come to You?

Behold, the heaven of heavens cannot contain You, 1 Kings 8:27 and you say "come you all to Me."

Today, Thomas tells us several contradictions:
1. The Lord commands us to be approach Him with confidence.
    a. He will only spend time with us if we are confident in our approach...this takes faith and a knowledge of our many shortcomings.
2. He commands us to Receive a gift.
a. We give ourselves (up) so we can receive the gift of Him.
3.  He asks us to bring our burdens to Him. 
4.  He will GIVE us rest...usually we TAKE a rest.
5. He invites the poor and needy to a banquet.
6.  The heavens cannot contain Him, and yet He chooses to present Himself to us in the form of Bread and Wine.

One last comment:  This passage from 1 Kings 8 is taken from the dedication of the Temple, by Solomon.  Solomon demonstrates his confidence in several ways.
He has a large cook-out:  Literally slaughtering 22,000 oxen and 120,000 sheep.  He then says a prayer, on his knees, in front of the temple, just after The Lord enters in the form of a cloud. 

He prays that anyone who asks for help receive it, even if a foreigner should do so. He asks for judgment for the wrongdoings of himself and the nation, but at the same time asks that anyone asking for forgiveness of sin should receive it.  Even if all the petitioner does is turn toward the temple and pray...that will be enough.

In short, he turns everything over to God, confidently - knowing that He will do everything Solomon petitions, because He is God.  Because He's done it before.  Because He is a God of Mercy and Forgiveness.  Because He has kept His promises.

Next week:  Loving Condescension - more contradictions!

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

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