The Abbot’s Notebook for April 27, 2016
Blessings to you! There have been some challenges in the last week here at Christ in the Desert. Brother Leander had to be taken to the emergency room because of complications with his catheter. He is due to see his oncologist this week, so keep him in your prayers. He is 89 years old and will turn 90 in December. He seems to be recovering well from his health challenges so I expect a good birthday party late in the year!
The father of our Brother Philip Thomas, OSB, has been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer. We are praying for a miracle of healing through the intercession of Saint Alphonsa (Anna Muttathupadathu), the first completely Indian saint canonized and a member of the Syro-Malabar Church. Brother Philip and his family are also Syro-Malabar Catholics. Please join us and pray for a miracle of healing for Thomas.
Brother Juan Diego had surgery on his spinal column to deal with some ruptured discs. Please pray for his recovery as well.
We have begun to discuss how we will be able to accommodate the many vocations who are scheduled to join us this year. If everything goes as it looks right now, we will surpass our total number of available cells, which number 48. We will begin to double up in the novitiate rooms and are seeking funding to construct a new novitiate building, which would be in addition to what we already have.
Last week we had a series of conferences presented by Father Luke Anderson, O. Cist. He spoke to us about the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. It would be difficult for anyone to have a spiritual life without the Spirit! Often I myself don’t spend much time praying for the Holy Spirit or praying to the Holy Spirit. After these conferences, I have been praying a lot more for and to the Holy Spirit.
For me, personally, there is often a challenge of relating to Jesus and to the Holy Spirit. I relate to them, for sure, but often more as magical elements in my life rather than as friends in a close and intimate relationship. When I am in trouble I turn to Jesus mostly but sometimes to the Holy Spirit. At times I even ask God the Father for help. But when I do this, it is often like asking for magic. I don’t sense a deeply personal relationship with the persons of the Trinity, and yet I turn to them when I am in trouble. This is a very common occurrence in the history of spirituality. More importantly, it is my own personal experience. In order to develop a deeply personal relationship with anyone, we have to spend time with them. Without spending time with a person, we simply cannot know them well. We can read about them, for sure, but that is not the same.
As usual, a relationship boils down to getting to know someone, spending time with them, appreciating them and loving them. If we don’t know them, we cannot love them. And yet we cannot really know them without loving them. So the spiritual life always is about knowing and loving God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
As I began to spend more time with reading Scriptures and reading commentaries on the Scriptures—both ancient and modern—I began to see much more clearly that Jesus really does claim to be God. He does this in a very Jewish way and not in the way that we might do it ourselves. Most of us were not raised with an understanding of Jew Scriptures and the way of arguing of the Jewish tradition. Jesus is clearly raised in this manner and so it takes a bit of work for us to begin to understand the important words of Jewish tradition and how Jesus uses them.
It is sort of like in our Catholic tradition when we use words like papal infallibility, or transubstantiation, or Immaculate Conception or even Ascension. These kinds of words have enormous background behind them. Even lots of Catholics don’t understand these doctrines and so if a preacher uses them, he should surely explain them. Or if we read them in some written article, we need to be sure what they mean.
So as we begin to read Scripture and try to understand it, we often need help. But reading Scripture is always about trying to understand Jesus, to know Jesus and to love Jesus. It is an effort to understand the DivineL Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If we are going to embrace our Christian faith, the Christian mysteries, then we need to keep working at understanding them.
One of my classmates from years ago keeps asking me: why does God make it so difficult to be saved? My own sense is that God makes it terribly easy to be saved and that God wants us all saved. On the other hand, God also invites us to continue to know Him and love Him more and more in this life—and that is what many people don’t do, even myself. It takes a real dedication to know and love the Lord.
In the history of the Jewish people, we see various leaders such as Moses who really take the time to know the Lord and then share their knowledge and love and draw others with them. That seems to be a pattern in almost all believing. Always there are some who go deeper into the relationship. In our Catholic tradition, we call such people saints because they have sought the Lord and have tried to live completely in His presence. They radiate God and draw people to God through their knowing and loving Him. You and I and all people are invited to that kind of relationship, but most of us don’t take up the invitation.
Instead, we sort of love God and sort of know God and sort of seek God. I find myself in that position to very often, even when I want to be more fervent. Spirituality is about developing that desire to know and love the Lord more.
As always I promise my prayers for you and for your needs and intentions. Again I will celebrate Holy Mass for you and for your needs and intentions. Please pray for me and for the sisters and brothers of our communities. I send you my love and prayers.
Your brother in the Lord,
Abbot Philip
