Last night my time of trying to just rest in bed and still the mind, with the concurrent high physical pain level, proved quite challenging. I needed some other means simpler, easier, for I am so very human. I put on a documentary about angels, and that was enough to help my mind not at least have it's own busy thought-traffic, as well as to take me out of my physically pained body so the pain was not so horrible to bear.
I recall one statement made that stands out yet, so figure it is something the Lord wants me to remember and share: God intends us to have mutual collaboration, not be in competition. This has to do with our spiritual reasons for existence, but much of it bears well with our temporal situations and relationships. We are on this earth with holy purposes and missions given us.
Today's Mass Scriptures are of major help in the ways in which the Lord lately has been guiding, instructing, and forming my temporal life as well as my spiritual life, including my hermit vocation he chose for me over 20 years ago, but of which I gave my profession and avowed "fiat" over 19 years ago. He is leading me to reminders, of which I am writing and sharing; and one is that of remembering His Real Presence as sovereign: God, Christ Jesus, the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is the alpha and the omega, the first and the last of our focus, our devotion, our obedience, our faith, hope, and our love. God is our All to our nothing.
His Church is that--Christ as Head of His Church. We are the Body of Christ, of His Church. There is a hierarchy within Christ's Church. St. Peter is whom Christ chose of a human of the temporal--the rock upon which to build His Church: Simon, or Peter (Cephas, rock) as Jesus called him. St. Paul became an apostle after much persecuting of Christians, and his genuine conviction that Christ and His Church, the Christians, were wrong, were false.
What makes the spiritual realm what it is, and that which can also frustrate some, is that there is mystery and the unseen, so much based on sheer faith. We can discern, we can have others help discern, but there is simply not going to be the concrete, external, seeable, touchable, visible and knowable aspects that are "signs" that we human beings tend to want and need in order to "believe."
In addition to keeping in mind and heart and soul the primacy of the Trinity, of God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit, is also the reality that Jesus is the Judge. We can get distracted, even when well-intentioned, with the good of the Church, of Christ's Head and Christ's Body, but the Church is made up of us humans yet with the primacy of Christ as Head. Christ built His Church upon the rock and gave the keys to the His kingdom to Peter, recognizing that on earth there needs to be a temporal type of structure of continuance. We human beings are temporal as well as spiritual beings, and in that, some more temporal and some more spiritual.
The Church's readings selected for Mass today, have us entering into the First Reading being that of the Apostle James who calls himself a "slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Did the Church approve of James calling himself a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ? Probably not. But James felt that, knew within himself, that he was God's and Jesus' "slave." Perhaps his angel appeared and used that term, or perhaps James chose it for himself after realizing that, indeed, that is what he is in truth and essence, a slave of God and of Jesus. It is rather a humble and apt term. I tend to consider myself a prisoner of God; or as God has called me in the past, His "nothing," His "poor gray dove."
Thus, I have now come to realize I am His hermit: God's hermit! (Whether or not I will also be, to a more temporal degree, a hermit of a diocese, I know not yet.) We all are of and belong to the Trinity, to and in His Real Presence, and yet we are also members of the Church as the Body of Christ with Christ as Head. There is a primacy beyond the temporal and above event he spiritual, and that is of course God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And there is a hierarchy in the Church which involves the spiritual Headship of Christ and the spiritual aspects of the Body of Christ, as well as the temporal aspects, undeniably present as we are all very much yet human.
"James, a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.... Consider it all joy, my brothers, when you encounter various trials, for you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let perseverance be perfect, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. But if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly, and he will be given it. But he should ask in faith, not doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed about by the wind... (James 1:1-6).
Next I find what St. Mark writes in 8:11-13, regarding Jesus yet again having to deal with the argumentative Pharisees. They seem to persist in viewing matters with temporal perspective and also with wanting to test him with the hopes of tripping him so as to twist his words to discredit him. Those pesky Pharisees were relentless in their trickery and verbal attacks on Jesus; they had little faith in the spiritual and no faith in Jesus Christ, the God-Man, the Father's Son!
Yet today, it can be difficult for us humans to have faith, such as in spiritual experiences or in others' spiritual experiences; or even for people to believe and grasp when people relate such as near death experiences or sightings of angels, or visions. For some, believing what they are told by others or read about is as the Apostle Thomas felt in one instance--too difficult to trust being told by even those known to us. These more temporal mindsets must see it or touch it or experience it themselves in order to believe it as true, as fact: spiritually and mystically true and fact.
"The Pharisees came forward and began to argue with Jesus, seeking from him a sign from heaven to test him. He sighed from the depth of his spirit and said, 'Why does this generation seek a sign? Amen, I say to you, no sign will be given to this generation.' Then he left them, got into the boat, and went off to the other shore" (Mark 8:11-13).
St. Pio of Pietrelcina wrote for us some explanation as to how it is that we people can find ourselves tempted to not be able to understand or grasp, to believe and trust that the Lord, or what the Lord is trying to tell us. "Padre Pio" tells us how to overcome temptation to doubt and how to believe even when we find ourselves in trials and darkness. We must strive and pray for the ability to see and trust in spiritual light, to grasp the supernatural realities, and remain open to faith without needing tangible, temporal signs or proofs.
"The Holy Spirit tells us: Don't let your mind succumb to temptation and sorrow, for joy of the heart is life for the soul. Sorrow is no good for anything and causes our spiritual death.
"It happens sometimes that the darkness of trial overwhelms your soul's heaven; but this darkness is light! Thanks to it, you believe even in darkness; the mind feels lost, it fears no longer being able to see, no longer understanding anything. But this is the moment when the Lord speaks and makes himself present to the soul; and the soul listens, understands and loves in the fear of God. So don't wait for Tabor to 'see' God when you are already contemplating him on Sinai.
"Progress in the joy of a sincere heart that is wide open. And if it is impossible for you to keep that happiness, at least don't lose courage, and keep all your trust in God."
I have personally found in my life when I have not trusted in the Lord and not had faith even in some inner showings or locutions, and did not heed them, that I ended up learning the hard way. What we may think is just our imagination or not really anything to heed, may indeed be our angel or the Holy Spirit trying to help us, to warn us, to keep us from falling to some temptation. It is easy for us to tell ourselves that some person is all right--that we should not feel that little nudge or little something inside us making us wonder. Or in other ways, we do not listen within, or do not stop to consider that perhaps there is a different way to view some aspect in the temporal realm.
So pray for the Holy Spirit to open our minds and hearts, to let us see, hear, feel, touch, smell or whatever other--but with our inner senses. Pray to discern with open heart and mind but with the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. With prayer and listening, with reading Scriptures and the writings of those who are tried by years and proven over time and experiences, we can know that trust and faith develops the more we are in His Real Presence. The more we are in Christ, the more we are able to see as God sees, to experience and trust in Him and to believe what is written in Scriptures, and to discern and apply Scriptures in our daily lives, with faith. Our eyes are opened in Christ Jesus!
God bless His Real Presence in us!
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