M. Rebecca
Rom 8:8-11 & Jn 11:1-45
These past
3 weeks our Sunday gospels have been used as teachings for the new members who
will be entering the Church this Easter.
They are familiar Lenten readings that renew “our spiritual longing and
joy” in the hope of receiving Christ more deeply in our lives and hearts. First it was the Samaritan woman at the well
– receiving living waters that brought eternal
delight. Last week it was a blind man by
the roadside – receiving his sight that brought eternal light. This week it
is Lazarus at the tomb – receiving Christ’s word that brought eternal life.
When Jesus
arrives on the scene, his friend Lazarus has been laying dead in a cave for 4
days. This cave is a tomb without life – without
motion or movement. The stone covered the
cave leaving it in utter darkness…a place of absolute powerlessness…a death
that leaves us forever silent and still. St Bernard compares this story of Lazarus to
what our sins can do to our interior life – graphically detailing the stench
and smell as only Bernard can do! It
seems quite permanent…this heavy stone.
Certainly Lazarus could not free himself but neither could others on the
outside. It would be unthinkable after 4
days. Yet this is not just about Lazarus’
predicament…each of us enters this cave!
But there
is another kind of cave that we also enter! It is referred to as the “cave of
the heart”. Nothing could be more
opposite than these two caves for we enter this one willing…in contemplation to
be with God. Unlike Lazarus’ cave, it is
a place of life. It, too, is a cave that
brings us to silence and stillness but not in death but in peace and
energy. We are not alone but in
communion with God. To use St Paul’s
words to the Romans today: this cave of
the heart is Christ’s “Spirit dwelling within you”. “The body is dead to sin but the Spirit is
alive”…in our hearts. So we see quite a
contrast between the cave of Lazarus with its sin and decay and the cave of the
heart with its communion and love.
Why…and
how…we enter the cave determines its character and effects. Do I enter the cave desiring communion with
God or for isolation. In other words, to
be for God alone or to be by myself alone?
What do I do with my time of
solitude? What do I do with my interval
time? What do I do on my hermit
day? Lazarus’ cave can be an image of
what it is like to go interiorly to be alone in solitude – not with God – but
with our self! Not for the sake of union
but isolation. The stone can help in
keeping people out but it also locks us into our self. In our monastic discipline it is our task to
roll away any stones that block the entrance to the cave of the heart.
Pat K(psychologist)
named one of these possible stones that can block the entrance: our anxieties and fears. I would like to recapture some of her key
points as she discussed the four basic human fears we all struggle with from
time to time:
The first is the fear of failure. How do I measure success and failure? Am I motivated by a need to please
others? Is it about doing the work or
about others’ expectations of me? Am I
ruled by not wanting to disappoint others?
How I see myself and where my self-worth is rooted is essential here and
can change this fear into loving service…unclouded by my own or others expectations. Expectations sometimes real but often
imagined!
The second is the fear of rejection. If we are oversensitive to criticism it will
drain us. A 30-second message can be
turned into an “issue” that takes a ton of energy from me. She repeated often, “reality requires
feedback” so we should always embrace it as gift. Framing our stance in gratitude can change
this fear into self-knowledge and growth.
The third is the fear of change. We naturally resist an ambiguous future. But it is fictitious to live thinking that
what is today will be tomorrow. This can
paralyze us, whereas, change is meant to be a source of creativity and life. Living in trust can change this fear from
stagnation into stimulation.
The fourth is the fear of intimacy. This makes us want to hide and remain unknown. Have we ever said interiorly “if they really knew who I was they wouldn’t like
me?”…so we hide. If we want intimacy
with God there will have to be intimacy and vulnerability with others. Humility and self-acceptance can change this
fear into communion.
How we enter is also important. According to John Climacus, “humility is the hardest
virtue to acquire but it is what leads us to the entrance of the cave”. To enter the heart one must go there with the
meekness of Mary and the confidence of Martha.
Martha was confident in faith: “I believe that you are the Messiah, the
Son of God who was to come into the world” and she boldly ran out to meet
Christ. Mary remains in the stillness
and silence of humble devotion until she is called but then she runs to fall at
Jesus’ feet. Together, Martha and Mary
teach us that humility takes courage and strength…and leads us to Jesus.
Since these
two caves are so different, we might think that we can make a choice on which
one we enter. However, there is no
choice…we must enter both!...one by our human condition; the other by the
Divine Indwelling. In 2 weeks we will be
visiting another cave. Jesus himself
will be laid in a tomb, much like Lazarus’ cave, and a stone will be rolled
over the entrance. Jesus in his humanity
took on death and darkness, carrying our sins into the tomb with him. But Christ in his divinity was able to emerge
from this tomb in resurrection. This
changes everything! Through Jesus’
Paschal Mystery we see these 2 caves transformed into one secure and sacred place.
With Easter we come to realize that
these two caves are not as different as we initially thought. When we first enter the heart we meet our sin
– our selfishness, hatred, and violence – but as we continue the interior
journey of the heart we begin to encounter the beauty, goodness, and truth of
our life. We begin to move from the chaos
and the temporal to the unchanging and the eternal. This is what St Teresa of Avila was
describing in her Seven Mansions. We
begin first by going over the moat battling with the beasts. But even the first floors are pretty
disarrayed and in need of much cleaning before moving to the higher mansions…or
deeper into the heart. So we see it
takes both humility and courage to overcome our fears and anxieties to enter
into the cave…but it takes even more courage to come out transformed…to allow
ourselves to change!
I would
like to close with a quote from Isaac of Syria in the 7th century
who knew well what it was like to live in the cave of Lazarus as well as the
cave of the heart. He advises: “Try to
enter your inner treasure house and you will see the treasure house of
heaven. For both the one and the other
are the same, and the one and the same entrance reveals them both. The ladder leading to the kingdom is within
you, that is, in your soul.” So let us
listen today to Jesus calling us out of the tomb to humbly enter into the cave
of the heart…this is the place of transformation…this is the place of intimacy
with God…and this is the place of Easter joy.
No comments:
Post a Comment