The Novelty of Christianity
My
bishop asked me to give a pre-ordination talk to the deacons based
on the Apostolic Exhortation pastores dabo vobis (I give you pastors)
of Pope John Paul II. So I had to read it and I was thrilled by the
insights into the Blessed Trinity and the encouragement to meditate
what I found there.
"Every
Christian identity," it says (#12) "has its source in the
Blessed Trinity." "Intimate Communion with the Blessed Trinity,
that is, the new life of Grace which makes us children of God, constitutes
the 'novelty' of the believer. A novelty which involves his being
and his acting. It constitutes the 'mystery' of Christian existence
which is under the influence of the Spirit." (46)
The
revelation of the Trinity is the "novelty," what is new
and special, about being a Christian. The gods of other religions
tended to be remote from humankind, entering into their affairs rather
capriciously. In the Judeo-Christian tradition God entered into the
world very actively. He did so first at Creation when he made all
earthly things good and then created man and woman in his own image.
Later, he called Abraham to found a people, and he loved and cared
for that people even though they were often wayward and unresponsive.
Finally, as the Gospel today tells us, "God loved the world so
much that he gave his only son." God entered into human history
very dramatically through Jesus Christ. This son, the Emmanuel - the
God who is with us - was conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit
and, after his life, death and resurrection, left the Spirit behind
in a very special way. This Spirit dwells in us, he is the center
of our being and the source of our doing.
PASTORES
DABO VOBIS, which is an exhortation on the formation of priests in
the circumstances of the present day, goes on to talk of the friendship
with Jesus which is found in praying and meditating the scriptures.
"The
first and fundamental manner of responding to the word is prayer.
Prayer should lead one to know and have experience of the genuine
meaning of Christian prayer as a living and personal meeting with
the Father, through the only begotten Son through the action of the
Spirit, a dialogue that becomes a sharing in the filial conversation
between Jesus and the Father. One aspect of a Priest's mission, and
certainly by no means a secondary aspect, is that he is to be a "teacher
of prayer." However, the priest will be able to train others
in the school of Jesus at prayer only if he himself has been trained
in it and continues to receive its formation.
"A
necessary training in prayer, in a context of noise and agitation
like that of our society, is an education in the deep human and religious
value of silence as the spiritual atmosphere vital for perceiving
God's presence and for allowing oneself to be won over by it."
(#47)
The document says that the first way of knowing this triune God is
through his word and the first response to this word is prayer.
It
defines prayer "as a living and personal meeting with the Father
through the only begotten Son through the action of the Spirit, a
dialogue that becomes a sharing in the filial conversation between
Jesus and the Father." This echoes St. Paul's words that we do
not know how to pray (Rom 8:26) but that the Spirit - the Trinity,
is ever praying within us. It also echoes the words of Jesus to the
disciples in Gethsemani, "You watch while I pray" (Mk 14:34).
It is only God who can pray. Our prayer is just being present to the
prayer of the Trinity within us. The first place of prayer is the
temple of the heart (I Cor.16). We are, each of us in our hearts,
temples of the Holy Spirit. That is why meditation, just being present
to the Trinity at prayer, is called pure prayer.
The
document goes on to say that the high point of Christian prayer is
in the Eucharist which itself must lead to charity.
What
the exhortation pastores dabo vobis tells us about the Trinity can
be summed up in the image of a telescope. Through scripture we first
see the Word - the eyepiece of the telescope. Then we deepen this
in SILENCE. "Silence is the spiritual atmosphere vital for perceiving
God's presence and for allowing ones self to be won over by it"
- this is the center piece of the telescope. This leads us to SACRAMENTS,
sacred signs and the signs of brotherly and sisterly love - this is
the wider part of the telescope looking out into the world. Scripture,
Silence, and Sacrament are three places where God reveals himself.
But we do not see better by looking at the telescope - we must look
through it. Neither do we find God by looking at the different persons
of the Blessed Trinity. Rather, we journey through Scripture into
Silence into Sacrament. We journey from the Word, through the Spirit
into the Father, the three are always one.
Taken
from Sundays
into Silence - A Pathway to Life. Copyright © 1998 by Claretian
Publications
