Receiving and Giving
By Sr Tamsin Mary o.p.
On 21st December we gave a day of recollection for women. 22 women attended. The day included talks, Mass, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament and opportunity for confession. If you are interested in attending such a day and live near enough to Cambridge (UK!) then do be in touch. The next one planned will be in Lent.
What do we receive?
At the beginning of the day we all heard the reading from St. Bernard of Clairvaux, and learnt afresh about the three comings of Christ. In this session we shall be focussing upon ‘the middle, the hidden coming.’ St Bernard says that ‘the chosen… see him within themselves; and so their souls are saved.’ This ‘middle coming is in spirit and power’, the ‘road that leads from the first coming to the last’ in which Christ is ‘our rest and our consolation.’
St Bernard points to the divine presence in our souls, seeing the keeping of God’s words as the essential element. We are to let the word ‘penetrate deep into the core’ of our soul in such a way that it flows out again in our feelings and in our behaviour. This reflection on the word of God he sees as the nourishment of the soul: ‘if you feed your soul well it will grow and rejoice. Do not forget to eat your bread, or your heart will dry up. Remember, and your soul will grow fat and sleek,’ shaped into the heavenly image. Thus there is a two-way process – we are fed and nourished by the word of God, and we allow this to emerge in inner peace and outward action.
So what do we receive? St Bernard quotes from the Last Supper discourse of St John where Our Lord says “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them…. Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them…. the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid. (John 14.)
St Charles Borromeo, in one of his pastoral letters, comments that ‘The Church asks us to understand that Christ, who came once in the flesh, is prepared to come again. When we remove all obstacles to his presence he will come, at any hour and moment, to dwell spiritually in our hearts, bringing with him the riches of his grace.’
St Cyril writes:
All of us who have received one and the same Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit, are in a sense blended together with one another and with God. For if Christ, together with the Father's and his own Spirit comes to dwell in each of us, though we are many, still the Spirit is one and undivided. He binds together the spirits of each and every one of us, . . . and makes all appear as one in him. For just as the power of Christ's sacred flesh unites those in whom it dwells into one body, I think that in the same way the one and undivided Spirit of God, who dwells in all, leads all into spiritual unity [St. Cyril of Alexandria, In Jo. Ev. 11,11]
So a few questions for reflection:
Does the word of God give me spiritual nourishment? In what way? Do I perceive the indwelling of God in my life? Are there known obstacles to receiving His grace in my life? Do I feed my soul with prayer, the word of God, the practice of the Sacraments? Does anything else strike you?
What do I have to give? And to whom am I sent?
At the outset of Christ’s public ministry on earth he went into the synagogue and read:
‘The Spirit of the LORD God is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good tidings to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the year of the LORD'S favour.’ Isa 61:1-2; cf. Lk 4:18-19.
Christ’s mission is our mission. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church we read ‘The mission of Christ and the Holy Spirit is brought to completion in the Church, which is the Body of Christ and the Temple of the Holy Spirit.’ It is by the Spirit that we are brought into communion with God, that we may "bear much fruit."[CCC737, Jn. 15:8, 16.] As members of the Church we are sent ‘to announce, bear witness, make present, and spread the mystery of the communion of the Holy Trinity’ [CCC738] We do not do this in our own strength: It is Christ who ‘pours out the Spirit among his members to nourish, heal, and organize them in their mutual functions, to give them life, send them to bear witness,’ and to unite them with His self offering to the Father. It is through the new life given in the sacraments that ‘Christ communicates his Holy and sanctifying Spirit to the members of his Body.’ [CCC739] We are in this role, all of us, priests prophets and Kings, through participation in the priestly, prophetic and royal role of Christ. As such we bear 'the responsibilities for mission and service that flow from them’[CCC783]
How are we priests? Through our baptism and through faith we are made partakers in the one priesthood of Christ Who ‘loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father.’ This priesthood is exercised when we pray at Mass, or with our families or communities, when we offer up our suffering for the redemption of the world, making up in our flesh ‘what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.’(Col 1.24) We share in His prophetic office when we ‘contend for the faith’, (Jude 1.3) bearing witness first of all by our lives, and by our behaviour, and then by proclaiming God in season and out of season, giving reasons for the faith that is in us, becoming ‘Christ's witness in the midst of this world.’ [CCC 785]
We also share in Christ’s Kingship. Following His model, our authority is shown not in domination, but in service, as our Saviour Who came ‘not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’ (Mt. 20:28.) Thus ‘for the Christian, "to reign is to serve him," particularly when serving "the poor and the suffering, in whom the Church recognizes the image of her poor and suffering founder." (Lumen Gentium 8; CCC786)
Leo the great writes: ‘The sign of the cross makes kings of all those reborn in Christ and the anointing of the Holy Spirit consecrates them as priests, so that, apart from the particular service of our ministry, all spiritual and rational Christians are recognized as members of this royal race and sharers in Christ's priestly office. What, indeed, is as royal for a soul as to govern the body in obedience to God? and what is as priestly as to dedicate a pure conscience to the Lord and to offer the spotless offerings of devotion on the altar of the heart?’ St Leo the Great Serm 4,1?
The spiritual warfare
Christmas is not necessarily full of joy. Some of us are lonely or sad, or facing a first Christmas without a loved one. Others may wish their many relatives would not fight, and pray fervently for just one peaceful celebration. There are tensions, sadnesses and difficulties to be faced.
Once when I was in a fairly negative frame of mind about visiting my parents (it happens!) I was given a magnificent piece of spiritual counsel: Do the best you can, be there for them and not for yourself, and don’t drink too much gin! Sometimes we are so overtaken with the memory of difficult Christmases, of family rows and of unmet expectations that we forget that we have agency, and that we can turn things around, at least in terms of our own expectations. An expectation that everything will be lovely for ourselves in precisely the way that we want, or else, or that everything will be ghastly in the way that it has sometimes been, so let’s not even try – both of these will undermine our capacity to receive the Christ-child into our hearts and to proclaim Him by our love. These are instances of spiritual torpor. St Ephrem, writing in the 4th century exhorts us to keep watch against spiritual lethargy: ‘When deep listlessness takes possession of the soul, for example, faint-heartedness or melancholy, the enemy overpowers it and makes it do what it does not will. The force of nature, the enemy of the soul, is in control. When the Lord commanded us to be vigilant, he meant vigilance in both parts of man: in the body, against the tendency to sleep; in the soul, against lethargy and timidity. As Scripture says: Wake up, you just, and I have risen, and am still with you; and again, Do not lose heart.’ [From a commentary on the Diatessaron by Saint Ephraem, deacon]
Remember in the coming days that you have a mission – to be Christ’s ambassador, and to serve Him in those you meet. But you do not do this alone. St Ambrose wrote ‘You have with you a stream which flows down on God’s saints like a torrent…a rushing river giving joy to the heart that is at peace and makes for peace’. Those who drink these waters ‘begin to preach the good news of the Lord Jesus. …Drink, then, from Christ, so that your voice may also be heard. Store up in your mind the water that is Christ, the water that praises the Lord.’ [from a letter of St Ambrose] Let in that light of Christ, that makes the universe rejoice ‘with new and indefinable loveliness’ as it feels ‘the unseen presence of God himself, its Creator’ and ‘sees him openly, working and making it holy.’ A sermon by St Anselm.
So let us reflect for a while: In this Christmas season, what do I have to give? What stands in my way? Do I like Christmas? How can I make things better? Anything else?