Into the Sacred Hills of Jade

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Monday, April 16, 2018

Why do we need to examine ourselves?

Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me and then lead me in the way everlasting! – Psalm 139:23-24

Mr. Pacetti, though he sat in the third pew from the front, always was near the last to come forward and kneel to share in Holy Communion. One day after Church I asked his reason for this habitual delay. After a few moments of reluctance to answer, he said, “It takes me awhile to examine my soul…”

And yes, there it was … in the liturgy for Holy Communion … was the instruction to first examine yourself in readying to take the Communion. And then I wondered … first, why didn’t I take more than a symbolic moment … and then second, why were there not more to linger in self-examining prayerfulness?

I suppose it was the pressure of well-organized ritual, you know … the clockwork precision of the ushers in managing the procession of the pews. I suppose peer pressure contributes to get in line. But even when Holy Communion is in free form … they come quickly for I suspect that most are not sensing a need to look deeply within and to bring what they find into the mercy of the Lord.

Self-examination brings us back from the brink of disastrous pride into the grace of humility. Not to think poor of ourselves, but to be honest with ourselves.

Self-examination makes our spirituality an ongoing process of growth, learning from our past so that we might progress in our maturation.

Self-examination refines our understanding of our sinful nature, not only our transgressions, but also our vulnerabilities, our unknown sins that came by way of enculturation, our self-imposed limitations, our lingering guilt, our persistent anxieties, our thorny regrets.

Self-examination draws deep into our inner places the Presence of the Lord. And there in those inner places, the transforming grace of God can its work.

As a Jesuit, I practice daily communion and also daily self-examination. The first, I do thankfully; the second, I do rigorously. Again, not to wallow in self-denigration or self-flagellation or even self-absorption, but for purpose of personal growth and spiritual maturation.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DISPATCHES FROM FR. CHARITAS

April 15, 2018

IT’S RAINING

My time of contemplation is softened by a gentle rain. My soul loves gentle rains but raging rains they stress me. I love the pattering of the raindrops on the water but not the driven rain that tests the oak trees and the sycamores. I love a whispering rain, but a thundering rain. And, at least for these few moments, I relax in a gentle rain.

They say a storm is headed this way. I do not yet hear it coming, but now and then I sense it coming. I think I am too sensitive to coming storms for so many of those storms never came. But for now, … I pray to the music of rain that means me no harm.

… I close my ears for I fear that I heard a rumble of thunder far away. I do not want that coming storm to steal away my gentle rain. No, I will love the Moment … and not let future Moments draw me away.

In His Service always,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DISPATCHES FROM FR. CHARITAS

Saturday, April 14, 2018

THE PRIDE THAT BLINDS US

Prejudice is almost everywhere, even here in the Hills of Jade in the place and moments when they are not thoroughly sacred. Racial prejudice, national prejudice, religious prejudice, class prejudice but I believe it is sinful pride at the heart of all its forms.

We have this sinful bent to prove our own worth by placing others at lesser worth. We have this sinful bent to prove that we are right but declaring that others are wrong. We have this sinful bent to be numbered among the winners and others, among the losers. And if we cannot prove this by individual achievement then we lump ourselves into the tribe and prove our worth by way of affiliation. We want to see ourselves as winners by defeating others, by smarter and greater. And if we cannot do this in the reality in God’s eyes, we create our own delusions. 

This is why judgment ought to be placed in the courts of God, for God is not half-blinded by our own insecurities, fears, bias and delusions.

We must always be mindful of the misleading pride within ourselves. To take time to open our souls for Divine inspection through our mortal introspection is much a necessity for clear and fair judgment. We must take care of this matter of the dust in our eyes, if ever we have hope of discerning with clear vision.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DAILY DEVOTIONAL

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Will we ever have peace?

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. – Matthew 5:9

I am a soul prone to flashes of anger, yet still, I am a soul called to be a peacemaker. I am a soul who, at times, is boiling with righteous wrath”, yet, I am a soul who works for peace. I am a soul who enters into conflicts more than I ought, yet, I am still seeking to be a peacemaker. And in this world of war, in this culture of war, in this cauldron of conflict, the work of the peacemaker is struggle.

I have caused conflicts and I have been drawn into conflicts and I have conflicts taking place within me. But, by the Lord’s Mercy, I have living within me the Spirit of One who calms the warring seas. When my thoughts take time to sit down with Christ, He begins the conversation with the words, “Peace be with you.” Not merely four words of greeting, they are also words of counsel and reassurance. “Peace be within you. Peace be in the ambience of your soul. Peace be in the motivations in your life. Peace be in your manner. Peace be in your words and your deeds. Peace be in the embrace of your mercy.”

Of late, I find the Lord reassuring me over and over, “Yes, peacemaking is a challenging frustration. Yet, the world is in desperate need of peacemakers.”
Why does the Lord bless the peacemakers? For the world is so much at war.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

Dispatches from Fr. Charitas

Friday, April 13, 2018

I believe in visions. Not the visions that are projections on the mind as if holy hallucinations, but the visions that seem to make reality glow.

As I gaze at the sunflowers soaking up the sunshine, they slowly turn themselves in contemplations on the holy artistry of God. I can witness how Creation creates out of its own will, a will placed within it by the Mind of God. The mathematics of it all, the spiral in in sequential design, the balance of the seeds and the blooms… such a natural, supernatural design. I behold the yellow that somehow grows even more yellow as my eyes take time to behold. With my eyes, I believe that this sunflower yellow is a musical yellow that sings, first singing praise to the Sun, beyond that to the farmer, and further beyond that, the Maker Divine. I see how the sunflowers move with the wind, in yielding a little they endure all the longer, brave in the face of the storm, sensitive in nuance of the breeze.

Yes, as I gaze at these sunflowers they become visions in themselves, they reveal the essence that gives to their expression.

I believe in visions whether they be expressed through sunflowers or sparrows, babies being born and old souls dying, hands being touched, and thirsts being quenched, words being spoken and words being heard, smiles being shared and tears being felt. I find holy vision comes to soul who take time to behold.

In His Service always,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

Friday, April 13, 2018

How does the Christian come to know the Truth?

Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” – Matthew 8:31,32

One person declares, “This is the Truth!” Yet another person reacts, “No, that is not the Truth; this is the Truth!” Pilate made that enigmatic phrase that was probably more a resignation to real-life circumstance than a philosophical question …”What is the Truth!/?” To which Jesus declined to answer, which I interpret, “Pilate, observe what I am about to do.”

Truth? Truth defined in many ways for many diverse purposes. Confessional truth, judicial truth, scientific truth, philosophical truth, logical truth, even scriptural truth, but I offer that Christ is speaking of experiential truth that slowly reveals the wishes and ways of God.

When Christ speaks of “holding to His teaching” in His guidance to His disciples, I believe He is not merely referring to His Words but referring to the living out of His values and His work. When we actually get around to putting into practice His Teaching than that experience itself teaches us all the more.

In the daring to do what Christ asks us to do … we experientially gain a clearer, deeper, broader, fuller understanding of what God holds to be Truth. The scribes immersed themselves in the dissection and reconstruction of the scriptures … but Christ told them that salvation for them and their nation would be found. No, it would be in the act of humble servanthood, in the ministry of healing hearts and broken relationships, in the touching of lepers, in the welcoming of children, in carrying one’s own cross of struggle, in purity of hearts and purity of vision, in the loving truth would emerge in their experience.

What is Truth? It is in the humility to learn and the humility to serve.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

DISPATCHES FROM FR. CHARITAS

Thursday, April 12, 2018

Though the words of Christ endure, those words are so often neglected. Christ said it this way, “Heaven and earth may pass away, but MY words will endure forever.”- Matthew 24:35 And yet so many of the words take back seat to the words of others in the public debate and in the arenas where electric preachers boldly make claims. So many of the words are troubling for they confound the lace doilies of theological constructs. So many of the words are set on the shelf for they are conflict with cultural values. Yet it was vow, a prophecy of Truth, that it would be His words that would endure, and in enduring take their proper prominence.

“Turn the other cheek” … how ridiculous to take those words seriously. “Share the little you have” … how absurd, how unrealistic. “Give what you have to the poor” … now that makes no sense in our competitive, self-interested world. Over and over … the words we claim sacred are hid away in that dusty trunk in the attic, the one labelled, “SAVE FOR A LATER TIME”.

We claim the Lord’s Promises for they serve as well … but the instruction and the commands, sit waiting to be lived and applied.

In His Service always,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

Thursday, April 12, 2018

As soon as Jesus was baptized, He went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased.” – Matthew 3:16, 17

I offer that Christ at that moment on the Jordan River was baptized with both the water and the Spirit, and that Spirit was as a gentle dove.

We in Christ are not baptized with water and Spirit coming as warring hawk, but, like Christ, we are baptized with healing restorative waters of grace and with the Spirit of the Lord coming as peaceful dove. And I find this distinction to be most significant for I believe it heralds the change in the way of God and humanity work with each other in covenant.

I have known many with the spirit of zealotry, folks believing that they are war with the world. Yet, I recall that Simon the Zealot, a man of swords and warfare, became a man of peace. These zealots love the rush of adrenaline. These zealots love the pageantry of going to war. These zealots sanctify their lust for power by draping it in holy cause. These zealots declare themselves righteous by declaring those others unrighteous.

I am devoted, every moment of my life is in His Service. I am faithful to my work in continuing the work of the Lord and I am faithful day after day until Forever is woven. I seek to be live the holy life, but not one defined by either me or the crowd about me … but by the Lord Himself. I am devoted, totally devoted; I am faithful, ever faithful; I seek to live with the Lord’s assistance a life of Holy Love; but I am not a zealot. I am not a zealot for zealotry has a way of slowly corroding the purity of the cause.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

Tuesday, April 11, 2018

Jesus was a Middle Eastern soul, a Semitic, a Hebrew, yet we have so Europeanize Him that we imagine Him speaking in English. Yet the Jesus I grew up with was not Middle-Eastern at all and we even tried to make Him less Jewish then He was. But He was a Jewish rabbi speaking the dialect of the Aramaic and formal Hebrew in the liturgy of the synagogue. To understand Him more accurately we in the West must translate our cultural Christ back in the Galilean Christ. And yet I offer … Christ is both and universal.

Here in the East, in these Hills of Jade, I am learning how Christ is both the Galilean Christ and the Asian Christ. Christ is both and universal. I am realizing that we must embrace the Christ of His origin and the Christ of His translation into diverse languages, diverse cultures, and even in diverse times.

I have heard the Sermon on the Mount in old-fashioned English from the times of King James and in the new-fangled English of modern America. I have also heard the Sermon on the Mount in Spanish, French, Haitian, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese and even in urban slang. And the spirit of the Sermon on Mount, the spirit of Christ, was present in all translations, though the words were different with their tonality in diverse melodies. And the preachers and teachers of the various cultures illustrated the Faith in different ways.

In my own lifetime, I had to translate the language of my upbringing from a rural agrarian culture to an urban technological culture. I had to translate “Bringing in the Sheaves” into “Bringing Home the Paycheck” and I think I am near the point … where I must translate it once again.

Here in these Sacred Hills of Jade, the Gospel has more a gentle tone, a more patient tone, focused more on the community, with a simplicity that goes against the currents of complexity. Here words more readily yield to quietude and not all mysteries are in need of being solved. Here … serenity and contentment are cherished; harmony is much desired.

The future … possibly even the present … will require translation once again.

In His Service always,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz