Read this Scripture the other day. Think it was from 1 Thessalonians. [Found it! 1 Thessalonians 4: 9-11]
Brothers and sisters:
On the subject of fraternal charity
you have no need for anyone to write you,
for you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.
Indeed, you do this for all the brothers throughout Macedonia.
Nevertheless, we urge you, brothers and sisters, to progress even more,
and to aspire to live a tranquil life,
to mind your own affairs,
and to work with your own hands,
as we instructed you.
A couple weeks ago, I received a letter from my spiritual father. In it, he reminded of three aspects that carry us through life, in spiritual progression toward union with Christ. He wrote: Be simple. Be wise. Receive the Eucharist.
Of course, being simple and wise require our cooperation with the Holy Spirit, to pray for these graces, and to be patient and accepting in receiving these gifts. There are ways in which we can help the process, too, in our desire to "be" simple and wise, and to promote these aspects within our daily lives.
As for receiving the Eucharist, the spiritual father reminded of the truth of John 6 in which Jesus explains that when we eat His Body and drink His blood, we will have eternal life.... Consuming Jesus' Real Presence in the consecrated Host and also partaking of Him in spiritual Communion at other times, we fulfill Jesus' incredible gift of Himself, tangibly, mystically, and partake of the Trinity in unfathomable immensity.
Life does not need to be complex. I love the idea of aspiring to live a tranquil life, to mind my own affairs, and to work with my own hands. Over the years I have rather wondered about some religious communities I have observed popping up on occasion, in which the members do not work with their own hands but rather expect hand outs as a means of trying to be akin to their perception of poverty and a kind of manipulated view of St. Francis' style. The problem perhaps resides in that in our present moment, circumstances in society and culture are not the present moments of St. Francis' time.
Hermits can run amuck in this aspect, too, if attempting to imitate in daily life, habitat and other externals or as they informed some interior practices, hermits who lived in the desert or caves or huts in the woods.
It does seem that if we stick to the spiritual basics and apply these to our present moments and our current environments and culture, we can do well and progress beautifully if we love one another, aspire to a tranquil life, mind our own affairs, and work with our own hands. On the latter, we can check ourselves if we desire or accept handouts from others rather than fending for ourselves. For one thing, we should not promote the practice of essentially paying others or rewarding them for praying, as we all are called to pray for others, ourselves, and the world.
Add to the above suggestions of St. Paul which cover immense swaths of temporal and spiritual life existence--to be simple, be wise, and to receive the Eucharist rather promote positive progress without much complexity or distraction. Yes, we can in a way, consume His Real Presence by taking in His Living Word into our minds, hearts, and spirits. So in a certain aspect, as is in Scripture recorded of "eating" the scroll or consuming the Word, we do partake of His Real Presence when we read or take in the Word of God in metaphoric as well as literal form.
While not the same, of course, as Holy Communion, of the Bread and the Wine, the Body and the Blood--either in tangible or mystical form--the Living Word is something to truly ponder in light of its being also living and active, life-giving, and to be consumed.
These days, this nothing consecrated Catholic hermit is trying to keep at the efforts of working with my own hands. There is so much work, and the bodily pain has been high; the mind and heart have to counteract temptations to work burn-out. Balance is always blessed, yet in this circumstance, the balance is within the work and between the body's ability to keep at it and the mind's and heart's focus in present moment efforts and progress.
Any work, great or small, is better than no work at all. And work can encompass many facets of active or inactive "effort." I also remind myself that as is so true in the spiritual life, the race becomes far more challenging in the end-run. The unknowns of being able to finish, to get across the final precipice or line or project or trial or to even surmise if one can begin another "race", another "phase" in life here on earth, require increased faith--a kind of blind faith, in fact.
In this thought, praying and striving to be simple and wise interact with playful interest to the follower of Christ. Of course, wisdom is not as tangibly procured as is being simple, if we view being simple as actions in daily life of temporal surroundings and items with which we live in our present moments. But there is something beneath the temporal surface in being simple. And to that point, we verge into the intangibles of being wise, for being simple and wise have depths that beg exploration.
And that, my dear friends and readers, is what I intend to plumb today as I now will rise, dress, hook up more hoses to watering systems and either continue in pole barn work or fill a tray with drywall mud and have at some walls in the hermitage.
God bless His Real Presence in us, one way or another.
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