Into the Sacred Hills of Jade

Friday, April 6, 2018

Why is it that that some extremes of Christianity seem to become so un-Christ-like?

“Lovingkindness and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth springs from the earth and righteousness looks down from heaven.…”– Psalm 85:10,11

Seldom a day passes when I do not bring to mind this Beautiful bit of understanding and its fruition of wisdom. “Lovingkindness and truth have met together; Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Truth springs from the earth and righteousness looks down from heaven.…” These words remind me that within holiness and the holy life all aspects of God’s nature must be held in balance. The heart overflowing with lovingkindness must yet speak up for what is true; right living and right attitudes must not tatter the fabric of holy peace. I remember to be kind in my declaring the truth and I remember to be peaceful even in when the prophet speaks righteousness. It is in maintaining this balance of justice and mercy, this balance of conscience and graciousness … that I can ever come close to living a holy life.

I am intrigued by the poetic phrasing of the Psalmist when he says that … the truth springs from the earth and righteousness pours down from heaven. On the one hand … we mortals must listen carefully to Creation and to look deeply into the human experience to discover and to perfect an understanding of the truth. Yet, on the other hand … we must look upward to the Perfection Divine with awe and humility to learn what is the righteous way and what is not.

Balance … pure Christianity is not found in the extremes, in the radicalized, in the fury of zealots or in the fantasies of utopian dreamers … but in the balance of many virtues that seem to be at times so contrary to one another. Holiness and the holy life is not found in a world of either/or but in a world of both this and that.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

Thursday, April 5, 2018

“Nevermore!” declares the raven of Edgar Allen Poe, “Nevermore!” At this stage of my spiritual maturity, I say to certain distortions of the Gospel, “Nevermore!”  Much in the manner of a recovering alcoholic or a recovering addict … my reborn Christian life declares, “Nevermore will I return to those ways which did me harm and did harm to those I love.”

Gone are the days of casting judgment on sinners whose sins could never be my own.  Gone are the days of lying to my self and others simply to defend a scriptural inerrancy that scripture itself does not claim to have.  Gone are the days of manipulating crowds to get them to the altar more to prove my own success than to truly redeem their souls.  Gone are the days when doctrine, true or false, is viewed as more important than life and practice.  Gone are the days of Christian nationalism and Christian racism and Christian imperialism.

Now my days are spent in loving souls who are also sinners like myself.  Now my days are spent learning from the lessons the Lord placed within His Creation and finding even clear understanding of the Lord’s ways by so doing.  Now my days are spent reading scripture as scripture was originally intended.  Now my days are being honest and transparent, genuine and authentic in my deals with God and with people, offering holy assistance that is both Divine and humane.  Now my days are spent in the practice of ministry in acts of holy charity.  Now my days are spent in seeking to live purely as Christ would live within me as a citizen in His Realm.

“Nevermore!” sayeth the raven.  “Nevermore!” sayeth those in recovery.  “Nevermore!” sayeth this soul who has been called to the More Perfect Love.

In His Service always,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

April 5, 2018

What is meant by the idea of the “Holy Life”?

“God has made everything beautiful in its time. God has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” – Ecclesiastes 3:11

For me, this is one of the most poetic lines in scripture. I find it filled with grace and hope.

“God has made everything beautiful in its time. God has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” Here resides the first meaning of “holiness”, at least for me. These words provide an understanding of how a mere mortal, a sinner, could ever possibly live a “holy life”.

We can live a holy life, imperfect though it may be, because God created us to be Beautiful. Not in the sense of physical appearance perhaps, but in the quality of our soul and spirit.

We can live with a sense of holiness, imperfect though it may be, for God has placed the flow of our mortal days in the flow of the Eternal River. We can live in a holy manner for we can sense the Divine Perfection that beckons onward and upward toward the Beautiful Life, the Life of Christ embodied in our own. Yes, it is God who placed within us the latent image of all qualities Divine.

At least for me, holiness and the holy life is not about rules and laws, but rather about allowing the Divine Image (the Imago Dei) to emerge more fully into our human existence. At least for me, holiness and the holy life is not about styles of worship or trendy Christian affectations, but rather seeking to live as Divine Grace humanly expressed.

I am a sinner. I am mortal. But I am also Beautiful with eternity flowing through my soul.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

April 4, 2018

As I take in the vista spread out before me of the Sacred Hills of Jade, I notice how the hills more distant are of a fainter shade of blue. The mist that goes unnoticed in the nearby world is added to by each mile of distance. The further away, the more the hills grow misty. The further away, the more the hills grow mysterious. And I have always been drawn to the mysterious for I was born a searching soul.

Almost everywhere a soul could be on this earth that soul is in the midst of mist. Oh, nearby in the familiar, we fail to see the mist for we have grown accustomed to its presence. But some soul standing across the valley, when they search the hills for us … we become part and parcel of the mist that we ourselves fail to see. We are forever living in the mist of our culture, our own experience, our own prejudices, our own preconceived notions, our opinions that we simply accepted as being true. And though we do not realize … we are partially blinded by these mists in which we live.

This leads to a subtle, unexpected aspect of every Christian’s call to be a missionary in some misty place. When we journey to that other place, whether in the distant hills of jade or in the shadows within our own inner selves,… we can begin to see the mysteries in more clarity and we can look to finally the mists from whence we came.

I and many others, possibly even you (I venture to say probably even you) become missionaries into misty places where we learn so much more about other people and so much more about ourselves.

In His Service always,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

Wednesday, April 4, 2018

How do we Love Christ?

“On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the Mary Magdalene and the other women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb in which the body of Jesus of Nazareth had been placed.” – Luke 24:1

Mary Magdalene, a woman whose life experienced the healing touch of Christ, a woman who had washed His feet with her tears, went to do “widow’s work” before dawn. She ventured into a place where Roman soldiers were waiting. She ventured into a place of death. While the disciples hid behind closed doors … this woman dared to go into a dangerous, anxious, broken-hearted place. I find Mary Magdalene to be the patron saint of courage. Some might say it was her faith, I believe it was her love, both the love she had received and the love which she gave.

In the musical Jesus Christ Superstar, Mary Magdalene sings “I don’t know how to love Him, what to do, how to move Him, I’ve been changed, yes really changed, in these past few days, when I’ve seen myself I seem like someone else” Near the end of the musical, Simon Peter, the one who struggled with his fears at the arrest of Christ, the one who hid behind closed doors… sings those same words. “I don’t know how to love him.”

I suppose the life of Holy Devotion is a quest to answer that question …how do I love Christ? How do I bring that Essence of Love within my heart into Existence in the living of my soul?

As Time and Experience has slowly formed the living of my soul … I believe the answer is to truly Love others as Christ has loved me. And it is that healing touch of Christ-Love that changes both the one being loved and the one who is loving.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

April 3, 2018

CONQUEST, COLONIZATION, OR CHRIST-IFICATION

For so many decades, for so many centuries, missionaries from European Christendom alloyed their Christian evangelism with their European culture.  Either by way of the Christian conquistadors or the Christian colonialists, the indigenous populations were as much converted to a European culture as they were to Christian Way.  And as a Jesuit … I must confess that even Jesuit missionaries were blind to this alloy of European culture with Christian Gospel.  But of late, some of us including myself have repented of our past insensitive and arrogant ways … and now seek to be about thee work of Christ-ification.

By Christ-ification I mean the allowing of Christ and the Spirit to be at work in the indigenous culture.  To tell the Story and allow that particular culture to be transformed as if Christ were directly speaking to them.  This holds true not only with ethnic cultures but also with socio-economic sub-cultures and even subcultures formed in the flow of Time.  You could add that the Church itself must learn to be a missionary in changing times and circumstances.

As I journey further and further into the Sacred Hills of Jade, into cultures that were not the same as my own origin’s place and time, I pray that those who listen to the story of the Christ and accept Christ’s invitation offered to them will create by way of the Spirit a music and liturgy, ecclesial forms and practices, that are natural expressions of the Christ within their culture.

As a Jesuit missionary into these hills of jade, I go neither to conquer nor colonize … but to bring them the Story of Christ.

Always in His Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

April 3, 2018

What does one do when life brings you into limiting circumstances?

And He said to them, “Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” – Matthew 17:20

If you can no longer speak, write!  If you can no longer walk, take to imaginary flight!  If you are blind, listen!  If you are old, be reborn!  Whatever your circumstance still believe in the moving of the mountain by way of faith!

This indomitable faith is not mere positive thinking.  No, it is far more than that.  This irrepressible faith is not mere living in delusion.  No, it is far more than that.  This Faith is making use of the gift of Christ … to have the power of God within you … the power to create in the midst of any circumstance.

With this Creative Faith so filled with the power to imagine, I can soar among the clouds, I can race with the dolphins, I can sing with the sparrows, I can play amongst the puppies in a sunshine day.

With this Creative Faith, I can make pilgrimage to the far, distant hills, I can sail on the wind-swept ocean, I can climb the mountain and touch heaven above, I can be what the Lord not only hoped I would be but also empowers me to be.

Though one think that one is confined by one’s apparent limitations … we must remember to live with that miraculous power that is given to those who seek it … the power to move mountains … this power potent in Creative Faith.

Always in His Service,

Fr. Charitas de la Cruz

April 2, 2018

OUR TIME OF DAILY SELF-EXAMINATION

In our Ignatian Spirituality, so named after the founder of the Jesuits Ignatius of Loyola, we daily examine our lives through the questions known as the Daily Examen. The five steps in order are:

1) GIVE THANKSGIVING FOR THE BLESSINGS OF THIS DAY

2) ASK FOR THE PRESENCE OF THE SPIRIT TO HELP YOU THROUGH THIS TIME OF SOUL-SEARCHING.

3) REVIEW WHERE YOU STUMBLED, STRAYED, SINNED OR REGRESSED IN LIVING OUT YOUR CHRISTIAN LOVE IN THAT DAY.

4) ASK THE LORD FOR FORGIVENESS AND THEN ASKING FOR THE LORD’S HELP WITH CHANGING YOUR LIFE NOW HAVING LEARNED FROM THE BLESSINGS AND STRUGGLES OF THIS DAY.

5) PRAY FOR THE COMING DAY THAT WITH THE LORD’S ASSISTANCE, YOU WILL PROGRESS IN YOUR MATURING IN LOVE.

Each day and every day, we ask these questions in a time of private and prayerful self-examination not for the purpose of fostering guilt and shame but rather for the purpose of fostering hope and possibility.

For a more detailed explanation of the Daily Examen, I refer you to https://fathercharitasdelacruz.blog/the-daily-examen/.

Always in His Service,
Fr. Charitas de la Cruz