"About This Life" (Acts 5:20) # 8
Saints are great lovers of God and
humanity. This is why their intercession is so powerful. They love deeply in
joyful and grateful faith. They also know themselves to be deeply sinful.
Saints know that the inner battlefield of their hearts is the place where
the fidelity of their commitment and devotion to God is tested daily. There
can be no holiness without contemplation. Further, there can be no growth in
authentic contemplation "without renunciation and spiritual battle" (Catholic
Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2015). Saints are not afraid to wage war
within themselves against sin and anything that hinders a deep union with God.
Contemplative intercession today requires the work of saints: Those who love
deeply, who know the inner battlefield of their hearts, and who know
themselves, in truth, to be deeply sinful.
If we keep in mind that "spiritual
progress tends toward ever more intimate union with Christ" (CCC 2014),
then one can understand the essential need to confront sin in one's life
because sin hinders movement forward in the interior life. Sin hinders
spiritual progress. I will never discover my real self, my true identity, as
long as I either justify and tolerate my sins or allow a fear of the pain of confronting
the revelation of my sinfulness to control me. The truth is that the Spirit
wants to reveal my sin to me because God so loves me that He wants nothing to
hold me back from His intimate embrace. It is God's will that each of us
continue to be transformed from glory to glory into the image of Jesus!
Asceticism is an essential
component of any true mysticism. Asceticism "is the practice of penance,
mortification and self-denial to promote greater self-mastery and to foster the
way of perfection by embracing the way of the cross" (see "Ascesis"
in CCC glossary). Interestingly, the word, ascetic, comes from the Greek word, askein, meaning, "to work". Growth in contemplation--hence,
growth in holiness--requires work. Ultimately, sanctification is the 'work' of
the holy Spirit. Yet, I have to be willing to work at personal growth as well.
I need to be willing to cooperate in the process of purification, and willing
to make healthy, disciplined choices throughout the day.
Spiritual progress in contemplation
requires asceticism; Spiritual progress requires the cross. Our charism as
contemplative intercessors is to live Jesus and his Cross (= to allow Jesus to
continue to live his Calvary lifestyle through our humanity)....and Luke
22:60-62 reveals that the cross is precisely what Peter is "deathly" afraid of.
In his three-fold denial of Jesus, Peter reveals his deep fear of identifying
so closely with Jesus during his passion:
"Peter said, "My friend, I do not
know what you are talking about." Just as he was saying this, the cock crowed,
and the Lord turned and looked at Peter; and Peter remembered the
word of the Lord, how he had said to him, "Before the cock crows today, you
will deny me three times." He went out and began to weep bitterly."
In this scene one might say that, in regard
to Peter, Jesus "looking at him, loved him" (Mark 10:21).
Healthy guilt is always intimately
related to encounter, and is always the result of an interpersonal love
relationship. Jesus
looks at Peter with a look of such profound, piercing love. In this gaze of
God's compassionate love there is both a power to reveal Peter's sin and to
pierce Peter's heart to the extent of acknowledging the truth of his sin--to the point of tears. It is one
thing to have my sin revealed to me by the holy Spirit. It is another reality
to humbly acknowledge my sin: "I acknowledge my offense" (Psalm 51:5). Both
revelation and acknowledgment are essential in this respect. The beauty and
power of God's love reveals the sinfulness of my condition, and awakens in my
heart a desire to be much more than what I am currently settling for in life.
Scriptures: Psalm 51:1-19; Dan. 3: 29, 37-39;
1Thes. 5:23
Questions:
1)
Am
I still tolerating sin in my life rather than waging war against it?
2)
Am
I running from "the cross" in an area of my life?
