A Light Unto My Path

My spiritual director (he is not living any more) was very saintly. As I look back I realize what a gift he was in my life. When I first came home from the cloister he said to me one time, "How would you describe the charism in just one line?" There are so many components to this spirituality because it is the spirituality of Jesus. He knew women and knew particularly that we could be really wordy. We can go round and round. He said, "How would you describe it in one line? What it is you feel God wants to do through you for His people? What is the call in one line?" I said, "Oh that is easy. God is calling us to die. We are going to teach people how to die so that He can live."

We are called to make Jesus visible. That is what happens. As we disappear, He appears. There are so many little ways that we can die to ourselves and our own interests. Scripture says tells us that the Lord will guide us always (Is 58:11). He will guide you if you are laying down your life for others. He also gives this beautiful promise for intercessors especially, in the Old Testament. He said, "The ancient ruins shall be rebuilt for your sake and the foundations from ages past you shall raise up" (Is 58:12). The foundations of the Church are crumbling today. We have known this for awhile. You have probably heard us say it before. I remember the very first time we went to Rome. There were five of us and we would always intercede, "Lord how do you want us to pray?" In that particular city the image was given of the foundation of the Church crumbling. I was absolutely appalled to see the Church come down, because without the foundation it cannot stand. The teaching on it was from that song, "The Church's One Foundation is Jesus Christ our Lord."

Jesus is the foundation. Through intercession, through contemplation we must have that divine visitation of Jesus once again. He has to be reborn again in souls and hearts so that we become a contemplative Church and have that solid foundation built upon the Rock Himself - not upon shifting sand. That is our call now, our mission, and God has given us a promise that it will happen. "Repairer of the breach they shall call you, restorer of ruined homesteads." Ruined homesteads - these are the places where God is not God. He said, "I want My dwelling place to be in earthen vessels (2 Cor 4:7). I want to come forth with the new heaven and the new earth (Is 65:17), the new wine and new wineskins." This is what He wants. "I want My house" (it is His house, His Church) "to be a house (a Church) of prayer" (Is 56:7). Is that too much for God to be asking? No. I think we can all say, "Yes, Lord, yes, Lord!" Your will be done. That is what we want too."

Jesus said, "Live on in my love. Live on in the ministry of My Spirit, in this power, the love power of intercession." Joel says, "Sound the trumpet! Apply the sickle for the harvest is ripe" (Joel 3:13). The sickle is intercession. Apply it; use it because the harvest is ripe. In Ephesians 5:2 we read, "Follow the way of love." It is repeated in verse after verse. No one knew better than Paul the way of love. There is no other way. Jesus said, "I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life" (Jn 14:6). This is the way, follow it. Love is the way of the Cross.

When you read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, Paul starts to define love, but it is really in all of his letters as well as in those of the other apostles. He starts out, "Love is patient." Jesus is patient. John is patient. Well, maybe not all the time. "Love is kind." Jesus is kind and then put your own name there. Am I kind? It is a good way to examine ourselves to see, are we following the way of love. Go through that beautiful litany. What we have done this year for you is to put together a brand new handout that some of you have never seen. It is called "Weapons of Choice." It is about following the way of love, which is the way of the Cross. One of our hermits received this light in prayer one day and shared it with the community. These are the different aspects of love which happen to fit right in with the fourteen Stations of the Cross. We have spelled that out. "Love is patient." This goes with the first Station of the Cross, but we changed one word in it in the litany that we are going to give to you. What we are saying is "Love chooses to be patient. Love chooses to be kind. Love chooses not to be jealous. Love chooses to be humble. Love chooses not to be rude." Let it become a way of life for you. You will be automatically in this kind of prayer, living the way of the Cross. You will be living Jesus and His cross and you will definitely be following the way of love. It gives specifics on how to do that. We want to see the love as gift and to do that we must also see the Cross as gift because it is really one and the same. It gives us a visibility to my own life if I really am living on in His love.

Jesus, remember, is the way. I used to think, "There must be another way for union. There must be another way, other than this way." Sometimes we use so much energy running from pain, running from crucifixion, running from dying. We live in a culture today where everybody wants to live. Have you ever noticed? Doctors' offices are packed. People are heavily medicated. People want life and they are trying to find all ways to live. But Jesus is giving us the pattern which reads, "I am life. Come to Me. I am the way and I will open that door for you into the Father's heart, into eternal life."

There is a little illustration here and it is a true story. Some of you might have heard it, but it comes to my mind right now. A missionary priest, just home for a short time from Africa, shared with me some of his journeys and his hardships. He told me of a time when he and his companions were going from village to village along the river in their little boat. The boat overturned so they swam ashore and knew that they were going to have to keep traveling inland now because he wanted to keep going. That is a real prayer warrior isn't it? You have got to keep going. One of the villagers said, "I can take you inland, through the jungle to the next village." They thought that was wonderful so they packed up their few belongings and were getting ready to set out. There was jungle everywhere. This priest said to the guide, "Do you have a map?" That is what we would say, "Do you know the way before we set out?" The guide looked at him very surprised and said, "No."

"But how are we going to get from here to there?"

"Oh Father, I am the way."

Father told me that right then he really understood for the first time what Jesus meant. There is no other map. Jesus is the way! We keep our eyes on our leader. Be a child and follow the leader.

I want to share with you another little image I had recently. It has to do with resurrection. It was an image of Jesus coming out of the tomb. The stone was rolled away. We hear every year in that Easter Scripture that the stone was rolled away. In my mind I had always thought it was rolled to the right or it was rolled to the left. I had never really had an image of the stone being rolled away. Now He is giving me an image of the stone. In the image the stone was rolled away right in front of Jesus. Not to the right. Not to the left. It was coming right in front of Him and rolling slowly right in front of Him. Jesus was standing in the open door of the tomb filled with light, brilliant light and the light from His body was shining on this path that the stone was making in front of Him as it rolled. Do you kind of get the picture of where the stone is? It is a big stone and it made a narrow path filled with light. There was no other light except the light on this narrow path. I said, "I think I am understanding that we are to follow the straight and narrow path." Jesus talked about that didn't He? I said, "But what is this path called?" He said, "Commitment."

Sometimes we think, "Oh I will be so glad to get off the Cross and get resurrected and then I can just do as I will." You know, St. Augustine said, "Love God and do as you will." That does not mean we are free in the sense to sin or to forget God. It means commitment, commitment, commitment. It means being reigned in even tighter and following that rolling beautiful, gentle rock that is Jesus because as we come forth in this level of commitment our focus is totally on the Rock. This is how He is going to use us now, resurrected, to be those living stones, the new foundation of the Church totally committed to Jesus Christ and His mission and His way of love.

He is the way. He is pure light. This is the little path that I saw coming from Him. We will be walking in the light. We will be one with Jesus with our will conformed to His because the deep purification process with be over and we then, with Him, will conquer all evil with good, with God. We will always be protected in this light in this battle. We need to remember God's own words when He said, "The battle belongs to Me" (1 Sam 17:47). We are in it together, but it is My battle, it is My power, it is My grace, it is My presence.

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