gratitude and tenderness...

One of the joys I am experiencing at this moment in my life involves going deeper into a spirituality of tenderness. Earlier today I was in conversation with some new L'Arche friends. During our discussion, I was struck by how important this calling into tenderness is for me. It is both an inward celebration of Jesus nourishing and encouraging my heart, and, an outward expression of sharing small acts of welcome and acceptance in a frightened world. It is a way of strengthening the still, small voice of God's love in my soul as well as incarnating this Spirit in my flesh. I couldn't help but recall these words from Isaiah 55:


Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread,
and your labor for that which does not satisfy?
Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good,
and delight yourselves in rich food.
Incline your ear, and come to me;
listen, so that you may live...
Seek the Lord while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near...
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
For you shall go out in joy,
and be led back in peace...

In a time when institutional Christianity is crashing and burning in both Europe and North America - often for very good reasons - I keep discovering new ways to renew my love for Jesus. Today's reading from Scripture on "Pray as You Go" (https://www.pray-as-you-go.org/home/) was a parable from Matthew 22. An invitation from the king to a wedding banquet was extended to the best and the brightest, but they were too busy to respond. So the poor and lame, the wounded and maimed were brought into the festivities - including one who did not put on his party dress. Whatever else Jesus intended by telling this story - and whatever else the early Church hope to accomplish by keeping it within the canon - I heard something about God's radical generosity as well as my responsibility to respond to it. That is, the invitation is free but I need to put on my party dress and join the celebration or I will miss the blessings all around me. That's not God's fault. It is mine.

Such is the focus of contemplation: taking a long, loving look at what is real means making time to be quiet. To listen. To nourish the heart, soul, spirit and flesh. Only then can we share something of that blessing with another. The tender way of Jesus is not about frenzy. Or grand gestures. Or being so over committed that we are too tired to share. Rather, like a dance, it has to do with stillness followed by movement. Reflection and response. Contemplation and action. After my first prayer time I discovered another little resource called the "Three Minute Retreat." (https://www.loyolapress.com/3-minute-retreats-daily-online-prayer) Check it out - it could help.

My heart has been going deeper into L'Arche this year - and I sense it will go deeper still. Jean Vanier expresses what I have been discovering and listening to and gives shape and form to a spirituality of tenderness:

L'Arche is counter-cultural. For many people in our rich societies, where one has to compete and be successful, to live with people who are weak and limited is foolish, even absurd. They are unable to accept the person behind the weakness. Yet the gospel message reveals that it is the so-called foolish and weak that God has chosen (1 Corinthians). It is those that society excludes who come to the wedding feast (Matthew 22; Luke 14). They have a special place in the heart of God. In all their weakness they can lead us to Jesus.

The Gospel of John has helped me to give meaning to the "foolishness" of our lives. We need spirituality, spirit, priorities, motivation, and nourishment in order to live every day what appears to many as meaningless. We need also an anthropology and a theology which put words on what we are living. It is never easy to be constantly close to people who are weak and in pain, whose limits and handicaps are irremediable, and to be with them as friends... The Word of God in John allows us... to enter the places of darkness and anguish within so that we may enter into transformation. Maybe it is not possible to really enter into the full meaning of the Word of God without living anguish and yearning for transformation through the Spirit of God.

I am so grateful.

credits:
+ https://www.pixelle.co/oswaldo-guayasamin/
+ http://www.sanjosecandle.com