Catholic Hermit: to Know Nothing...

Awakened again in the wee hours...by my pal Pain.  The nights are increasingly disrupted as the weather begins its shifting from summer to the cool and damp autumn.  I turned on this little window to the world, my laptop, which I keep on the floor here by my sleeping bag.  

(I've become a floor-sleeper 11 months ago when my back no longer tolerated well a mattress on the floor--another example of how the Lord provides the penances and austerities.  Perhaps ascetics chose as penance a plank or had a stone for a pillow; but the Lord through increased pain as I age, eased me into the austerity for my benefit.  He has sculpted my hermit vocation and spiritual life, thus, over time in various aspects and circumstances.  Praise God Almighty!  I love how He does this!)

With the light of the laptop, I read today's Mass readings on this Feast of St. Gregory the Great.  I prayed for my auto mechanic who lives in the small town of my childhood and a few years of adulthood--the town in which I had the call to become Catholic, and later on God's call to the hermit vocation.  

The man, Greg, is one of the most humble and holy, and I referred to him as St. Greg, to which he'd chuckle.  Although this year Sept. 3 falls on Labor Day in the United States, I am going to leave a message on his mechanic's garage voicemail, thanking him yet again for his goodness, on this his patron namesake's feast day in the Church.

I did not get far into the first reading when I realized the Lord was affirming what has been welling up within me in gratitude, for awhile now.  We have yet again the reminders of thinking with the heart and of the law of God, the law of love.  We have the reminder of what is foremost to "know."  I pray yet again for the grace to be as St. Paul, in 1 Cor. 2:1-5, and as Jesus, in today's Gospel, impart to us.

I know most of you readers follow along in the Bible and read and/or hear the daily Mass readings.  But I want to copy, write out, and share here the words of St. Paul--and which phrases strike me as what the Lord is emphasizing for at least my own lesson to ponder today.  While I am out in the gardens pruning and packing clippings into containers to eventually take to the dump, I will pray and meditate upon knowing nothing except Jesus Christ and Him Crucified.

"When I came to you, brothers and sisters,
proclaiming the mystery of God,
I did not come with sublimity of words or of wisdom.
For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you
except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
I came to you in weakness and fear and much trembling,
and my message and my proclamation
were not with persuasive words of wisdom,
but with demonstration of spirit and power,
so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom
but on the power of God.

To know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him Crucified seems far too little for what our human brains are capable.  We hear it said that as it is, the human brain only functions to 10% or less of capacity.  Yet St. Paul, recognizing his humble weakness as a person and presents himself with fear and trembling in consideration of the power and greatness of God, prepares to give witness to the Christians in Corinth but also, for all time, to people like us--not with persuasive words of wisdom.

Rather, he comes prepared to "speak" with demonstration of spirit and power.

The reason why St. Paul is inspired to not speak as one wise and intellectually endowed (of which we know he was well-educated and well-versed in the Old Testament and Jewish law in his upbringing)?  He demonstrates more in his presentation by demonstrating the spirit and power that comes from Christ in Him so that their faith might not rest on human wisdom but on the power of God.

St. Paul very much imparts his demonstration to us, this very day.

Thus I will meditate on this demonstration of spirit and power that flows through and from God's Living Word.  I pray to have faith that does not rest nor rely upon human wisdom but rather on the power of God.  I pray to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

And these prayers will be answered as we learn to let go of our selves, our egos, our pride in intellect or whatever earthly education we might consider sublimely elevating to others as well as ourselves.  In weakness, in fear and trembling considering our nothingness to God's ALL, we may learn to know nothing except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.  

Our faith can grow and to rest not on our or others' human wisdom but on the power of God.

In the night, I had prayed for God's guidance and considered the plight of African Americans growing up in the inner cities, such as Baltimore, MD, and the efforts and human struggles also of the police in trying to rid out the drugs and other crimes that plague those born into these areas, poverty, and gang rule.  This pain-wearied, old consecrated Catholic hermit found what God desires of me for now, in His Living Word.

Thank You, Lord Jesus; thank you, St. Paul.  Thank you all who wrote on parchment Jesus' and the apostles' words--not of human wisdom but the very Words of God.  May Your Word be fulfilled--demonstrated--in my body, mind, heart, and spirit today and always.

God bless His Real Presence in us!