Let Go and Be Rich
Recently
I got a card from a friend which said, "May you have success
and all the things that you need to make you happy." It was a
nice summary of the values of this world with which we are all imbued.
We see happiness as coming from things and achievements, whereas real
happiness comes only from the transcendence of our desires, ambitions
and expectations.
It
is consoling to see that Christ himself had to struggle with these
temptations. In chapter four of the Gospel of St. Matthew, on the
First Sunday of the Season of Lent, we have a beautiful psycho-drama
which portrays the interior struggle of Jesus.
The
first temptation is to change stones into bread. Jesus is tempted
not to accept the limitation of being human but to use his 'divine
power' to achieve possessions in a short-cut way. It is basically
a temptation to short-circuit the plan of the Father and not to accept
the poverty of being human. This temptation to short-circuit the plan
of the Father and to seek possessions by fair means or foul is very
obvious in the world around us. It is also evident in our own spiritual
lives. We may have given up material greed but we substitute spiritual
acquisitiveness. We strive for security in spiritual experiences,
virtue, or even in the knowledge that we are good at praying. But
to follow Christ we have to leave self behind and that includes spiritual
selfishness.
Next,
Satan tempted Jesus to jump from the temple and win the adulation
of the crowds. Several times Jesus was challenged to prove by a sign
that he was the Messiah. On the Cross he was also challenged by the
crowd: "Come down from the cross and we will believe." The
chief priests, and in Matthew's account, even the two who were crucified
with him, joined in challenging him to prove himself.
This
temptation is also prevalent in the world. Success and the symbols
of success enslave so many. In the church, too, we have the scandal
of the misuse of ecclesiastical prestige, symbols and titles. In our
own prayer, perhaps our greatest obstacle is our obsession with success.
We want to be able to show off, at least to ourselves, that we are
good at prayer. If we are distracted, we are disgusted with ourselves
and we think that our prayer is of no value. We cannot display it
before God and say, "Thank God I am not like the others."
But in the Gospels, it was not the one who used these words who went
home justified!
The third temptation is to power. "Prostrate yourself in homage
before me and this shall all be yours." It is very hard to gain
power in the world without bowing down to Satan. If some have done
so, it is hard for them to stay on in power without bowing to the
devil. The Christian way is the way of powerlessness and dependence
on God. The model for Christ's Kingdom was not power over others but
the helplessness of the little child. Hunger for power is also apparent
in the world around us and in the Spiritual life.
There
is a great danger in prayer forms that give us power over others:
the power to draw crowds, or to elicit tears, or confessions, or to
speak in tongues or to heal. When these gifts are given they are to
be accepted with gratitude but there is great spiritual danger in
having the power to elicit them. If we exercise power over religious
experiences, we will inevitably be tempted to think we can exercise
power over God Himself. Scripture shows that God will not be controlled
either by our good deeds or our bad ones. Our good deeds will not
force him to cuddle us or our bad deeds force him to punish us. Total
powerlessness before God is the only strength of the Christian.
After
the temptations, in Luke's account, Jesus went back to Nazareth where
he was reared, back to his roots. There he took the book of the prophet
Isaiah and read from it: "he has sent me to bring glad tidings
to the poor, liberty to captives, recovery of sight to the blind and
release to prisoners."
We
are called by Christ, and by his Church today, to make an option for
the poor. The perspectives and the welfare of the deprived must be
ours. If we are to do this we must ourselves be free within, free
from the urgings of the ego for possessions, power and prestige. We
need poverty within.
I
know no better way to prepare to follow Christ in poverty, humility
and powerlessness, than the discipline of the twice daily saying of
the Mantra.
Taken
from Sundays
into Silence - A Pathway to Life. Copyright © 1998 by Claretian
Publications
