Into the Sacred Hills of Jade

DAILY DEVOTIONAL
Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Why does sometimes the world appear so dismal?

And Christ taught us, “Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your vision is clear, your whole body also is full of light. But when it is poor, your body is full of darkness. Be careful, then, that the light within you is not darkness.…” – Luke 11:34-35

When I remove my eyeglasses that which is in the distance becomes blurry. When I go without my eyeglasses, my eyes are strained, and my mind begins to ache. Truly without the assistance of my eyeglasses, my mortal vision is diminished, and my experience of life is lessened.

We live in a dusty world, people kicking up dust over the slightest disagreement. We live in a smoky world, cannons both actual and figurative firing away. We live in a world of smokestacks and leaf blowers, no wonder our eyes are filled with irritants. And when the eyes are irritated, the world appears all the more irritated and the world within ourselves irritated all the more.

When we focus on the darkness, we are darkened within. When we focus on the evil, all we see is evil. When we focus on the anger, the anger consumes.

But take heart, for when we cleanse our own eyes of the dust of prejudice, bitterness, envy, suspicion, negativity, vengeance, and the smoke of war, when we wash our eyes in the merciful waters of grace, we then can behold the wonders at the work and the beauty that is present all around us and even within us. We have washed the windows of our souls and the Light of God is radiant.

And when the Light is abundant, the latent image of God within us then appears; and when the Light is abundant, we grow.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

Dispatches from Fr. Charitas
Tuesday, May 1, 2018

I watch with amazement a young lad balanced so perfectly on the railing of the dock. He is mimicking what the herons do on that same railing, one leg tucked under, poised on the other. And I am not sure who poses the better, the heron or the lad.

Why does the lad dare do such a thing? What purpose does it serve to mimic the heron? Is it a proving of his daring? Is it a showing of his skill? Possibly. But I tend to believe the young lad does it because the young man can. I think if finds a certain oneness with heron … in doing what herons do.

The human spirit has this blessing within their nature … we can become like other creatures with whom we share this realm. We see the birds fly and we yearn to fly. We see the deer run swiftly across the clearing and we yearn to race with wind. We see the otters tumble and roll and we yearn to know the joy of their being. Yes, there are many of God’s creatures I would like to mimic … but in regard to people … there are only a few.

I am not sure why. Maybe it is upbringing. Maybe it is experience both positive and negative. Maybe it is the virtue I have gained or the people whom I have known … but I am not an envious soul. I never have had a yearning to be a rich man or a famous man or a powerful man. But I have always yearned to be a “good” man, an honest man, an authentic man, a gentle man, a gracious man, a loving man … and, for most of my life, to be a Christ-like man. But nowadays, in these years of fulfillment, I can only think of a few souls I would “mimic”. Possibly, St. Francis of Assisi, possibly Gandhi, possibly Christopher Robin … but assuredly, with the quality of spirit as found in Christ my Lord.

That young lad perched in perfect balance across the inlet on that narrow railing … I do not believe I will try that myself … but I might like to be as Peter Pan.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL
Tuesday, May 1, 2018

Why does Christ command us to be “perfect” when obviously we cannot be perfect?

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.“ – Matthew 5:43-48

At the time of Christ, a popular conservative movement was taking place in Israel, a hearkening to return to the strict adherence to religious values of the past. This was the rise of the Pharisees, a predominantly lay movement that took to heart the words found in II Chronicles 7:14 …”If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” The Pharisees sought to tighten up the rules and return to the strict adherence and then, and only then, would the nation of Israel return to its former glory and privileged statue in the eyes of God. They called for perfect law and order … but Christ could see their hypocrisy and confronted their definition of what it meant to perfect in the eyes of God.

Christ, unlike the Pharisees, did not see the hope for the people in looking back to the past, but rather in looking forward toward a more perfect understanding of the wishes and ways of God. No, the hope was not to be found in keeping more perfectly the letter of the Law but would be found in living out more perfectly the Love of God.

I find it helpful to picture “perfection” not as a desired destination but a desired direction. “Going on perfection” is how my faith community phrases it. Perfection is not the state of our Christian living but rather the vector of our Christian living. And it not about the keeping of rules but rather about the fulfilling of dreams. To love your enemies and to pray for those who strive against you … this is the test if you are living with the Love of God, this is the evidence of whether your love is filled with the Love Divine. Anyone can love a friendly neighbor … but those with Christ-like Love actually in real-life practice go about living with the Providential and Merciful Love of God, a universally applied Love that dares to risk one’s self for the sake of others.

No, we will never be perfect rule-keepers and God has not need of that … but with the Presence of the Lord assisted us … we can more perfectly Love.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

Dispatches from Fr. Charitas
Monday, April 30, 2018

When the wars are too many I like to journey to the Lake of Swans. I sit on the bank and watch their drifting and soon my soul drifts with them. I find them to be a soft nocturne, played on harps or pianissimo pianos. The swans in their quiet do not invite me to nap, but rather to have my inner thoughts drift to the surface of my mindfulness. They invite my soul to stretch beyond the boundaries of my body, to allow the soul to reach beyond my self-imposed limits.

I am enchanted by how the swans waltz with the other swans, circling around each other with seemingly no concern of getting in each other’s way. They sense where the other swans are going, and this somehow guides their own journey without loss of contentment. On the Lake of Swans, peacemaking and peacekeeping come naturally and I contemplate how the swans have mastered this peaceful manner.

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL
Monday, April 30, 2018

Is there such as the power of temptation? If so, what is it?

“Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil (or the evil one).” – Matthew 6:13

Within this plea in the Lord’s Prayer is a confession. “Lord, help me for I struggle with a moral weakness. I want to do right, but I do not always do it; I want to not do wrong, but sometimes I do.” And if we are wise enough to be humble … we all have need of this prayer. And if we think we don’t … then we most assuredly do for the delusion of self-righteousness has come upon us.

In my own human experience, sometimes temptation has made me morally stronger in resisting it, but more often, temptation has slowly worn me down. And it is only in being conscious of the presence of Christ that I can survive those temptation that prey on either my pride or my frailty. Without a vivid, living, powerful sense of the Lord being within me, that I find the power to choose my course wisely.

Thus, each day for me is filled with prayer and with self-examination, not to shame my vulnerabilities but we for me to know well my vulnerabilities. And in thus becoming aware of the limitations of my humanity and aware of the Divine assistance. For in Christ I am A blend and balance of both the human and the Divine, a wholeness sustained by the actuality that where I am weak the Lord is strong.

In His Service always,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DISPATCHES FROM FR. CHARITAS
Sunday, April 29, 2018

Hills beyond hills and hills yet beyond and by way of faith, there will be hills beyond the ones I now see. Always a hill to climb and a descent to the valley, only to climb the next hill to come.

The journey of my life has struggled up so many hills, but oh how many new vistas I have found. Never crossed a plain though a desert or two … but the hills they always beckon. The Scottish in me refers to the call of the Highlands, from where the skirl of the bagpipes does plead. And now, as an old man whose legs have grown weak … the bagpipes still play, and the hills of new ventures wait form. But it has been the weaving of the tartan of my soul, these hills I have climbed, this journey of learning and of gathering soul. I cannot stop now … though the going goes slow … for I am a traveler not a settler … and there wonders I have yet to know.

I find too many of my peers I have settled too soon … and their souls grow faint as they age. But I will continue to be a schoolboy becoming a sage.

In His Service always,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL
Sunday, April 29, 2018

Are we required to keep the Sabbath?

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. – Exodus 20:8-11

Most people think the commandment is simply, “Remember the Sabbath and keep it holy”, but as you can see the commandment is far more than those words. This commandment includes both its how and its why. And yet, in our times, we so disregard it.

As to the how, the commandment goes into much detail. It is not merely a day off for you but also for those who work on your behalf, even the creatures. Keeping the Sabbath is both the implications for your own life but also the implications for how we interact with those around us. It is commandment that is both communal and individual, and I sense the former is foremost.

But the aspect of this commandment that is most underappreciated is the why we ought to honor the Sabbath. It is because God had ordained this day to be a celebration of Creation, a day set apart by its being uniquely blessed by the Lord.

The Sabbath was not meant to be a tangle of life-complicating rules, but rather a celebration of Divine creativity, a celebration of the Divine gift of Life. It is a Holy Blessing to be used in blessed ways … but in our times we pay it little heed.

I have always loved how Rabbi Abraham Herschel described the Sabbath as a “cathedral in Time”. Sabbath ought to be filled with awe. Sabbath out to be filled with listening prayer. Sabbath ought to be filled with joy and peace. Sabbath ought to be filled with creative time to honor the Divine Creator.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

Dispatches of Fr. Charitas de la Cruz
Saturday, April 28, 2018

I love watching the old ones doing their Tai-chi. I love how somehow slows the pace of Time. I love the poetry of the motion, not in the same way as the dance but in manner of sculptures reaching into the world of the living. I love the old ones doing their Tai-chi for I think they understand its wisdom.

I believe in this world that is obsessed with going faster and faster, faster than human beings were ever meant to go, that we need the mastery of “slowing”. We need the pace that allows one to truly behold; we need the pace that allows one to deeply consider; we need the pace that allows the vision to appear. But we are driven faster and faster by the life-machine we have created … rather than recovering the pace of Eden.

The old ones move slower, these ones who have learned to pray through Tai-chi. And in their moving slower, they seem to be wiser; and in being wiser they seem more peaceful. Like the drifting of swans or the stately walk of the great heron, or like the falling of leaves or the weathering of wood … so is the life of contemplative prayerfulness.

Yes, I love watching the old ones doing their Tai-chi … they have the look of the Peace of God.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL
Saturday, April 28, 2018

What will the Last Times be like?

And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. – Joel 2:28-29

Joel was a Hebrew prophet who wrote somewhere between the 9th century BC and the 5th century BC. Luke has Joel quoted in his Acts of the Apostles. This passage is very popular among those on the Christian Right. And enigmatically, very popular among those on the Christian Left. But as with so many matters, this passage leads them to differing understandings.

Yet both perspectives have this in common: they both focus on the return of Christ and they both focus on the changing of the world as we know it. Those on the Christian Right see it as a dramatic moment when Christ returns, the Christian Left as a patient arrival when Christ finally and fully emerges. Yet all understand that involves the coming of the Spirit in the dreaming of dreams and the envisioning of visions. But are the dreamers dreaming? Are the envisioners envisioning?

This contemplative life of Christian discipleship, this living out the life of the prayerful servant, has drawn into my humanity a deeper experience of the Spirit. No, not with the manifestations of the charismatic movement, but rather with dream and vision of Joel. The Spirit fills me with dreams and visions not of the past but of the future, the way life could be and not the way life was. The Spirit fills me with dreams of how heaven and earth can function as one, not a journey into despair but a journey of hope. The Spirit fills me visions of the latent possibility that has been struggling to make itself known.

Yes, the prophecy of Joel is being fulfilled, not in the doomsayers, but in the dreamers.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

Dispatches from Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

Friday, April 27, 2018

When they say you have butterflies in your stomach, they refer to stage fright; but when I speak of butterflies before my eyes, I refer to dancing joy. I find butterflies are remarkable dancers when they dance before my eyes.

In the tradition that nurtured me was not much into dancing. Years ago, some of the brothers and sisters condemned it completely; those others say no sin in folk dancing. Never quite understood the difference … but that is the way it was.

When I tour these realms in the sacred hills, I find each realm has a different dance. They have dances that are danced in times of joy and they joyful dances when the sorrows our deep. They dance together, the nimble and the awkward, for the dance is a communal rite. It is the coming together to whirl and to twirl, to swing and to shout; it is the celebration of being together as one.

I sense that we were born to dance, to dance with the Lord and with each other. We are to turn, turn until we come out right. We are to dance the dance of Repentance. We are to dance the dance of Hope. And we are to dance in the times of Changing, when people get married, when people come home, and when the seasons arrive and depart.

Weddings have dancing, but funerals, it is rare if they do. Angels sing, but I think they also dance. I think the Spirit dances as it is passed from dancer to dancer. I know lovers dance sometimes slowly and tearfully. And it is wise to dance with your children.

Certain Christian traditions don’t like to dance all that much, but I believe they are the very ones who need to dance all the more.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz