NEW BEGINNINGS (12)

NEW BEGINNINGS (12)

BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD.

Be in your prayer space, follow the usual steps and settle into silence.

Take a couple of gentle, slow and deep breaths…becoming aware of your breath going in and out… stay focused on this breath of life……

Breathe in all that is of God and from God…all that is true, honest, pure, admirable, noble, decent, virtuous, worthy of praise, good, loving, kind – all that deserves respect….

Breathe out all that is not of God and from God……..

Settle into silence, into peacefulness, into profound silence, into pure joy. Keep listening in quietness, stillness and serenity. Come to that place, that space within, that place of deep silence and solitude…to just being here and now, without having to accomplish something.

Now from the depth of your heart begin to wish your mind well……

Loving God,

Give us,

A Pure Heart, that we may see You,

A Humble Heart, that we may hear You,

A Heart of Love, that we may serve You,

A Heart of Faith, that we may abide in You. (Dag Hammarskjold)

Our last meditation was on striving to bring our will into harmony with God’s will, on surrendering our desires and opening ourselves to the will and purpose of God.

This meditation is an invitation to reflect on what happens when we fall out of God’s will and purpose, when we fall out of “Grace”, when we go our way, When we set our own purpose, when we try to change God’s will, When we try to bring God’s will inot harmony with ours………

Sacred Scriptures constantly remind us about the consequence of going our way. Rejection and refusal to participate God’s plan resulted in alienation, separation, sin and brokenness. Failure to image God and walking away from God brought about disorder, chaos, “Cosmic disintegration”

Remember the stories of creation in the Book of Genesis….remember how disintegration, chaos, de-creation happened as the couple, Adam and Eve, chose to go their way.

The couple “ate” the fruit – they “took in” that which caused “de-creation”, that which is destructive, death-giving and not life giving.

The couple took into themselves that which was destructive to their true self and this “de-created self” in turn caused “de-creation” in others and in the world.

Take a moment and reflect on the consequences of falling out of God’s will and purpose, walking away from God’s Grace……..

• Alienation from self: the couple ate and realized that they were naked and covered themselves (3:27). Gen.2:25 tells us that they were naked….but without embarrassment, “felt no shame”. Now they are unashamed, after “taking in” destructive stuff. The first tragic effect of falling out of God’s will is “Alienation from self”, loss of inner peace and harmony, loss of the sense of dignity and worth and feeling of shame and guilt.

• Alienation from God: The couple became afraid and hid from God, “I heard you in the garden and…was afraid…and hid…because I was naked”. The second tragic effect of falling out of Grace is alienation from God.

• Inability to accept responsibility: They began to point the finger in other direction than self. They made excuses… “Passing the buck” is not anything new.

• Alienation from nature: The harmony that existed between the couple and nature is destroyed. Even their body rebel – pain, suffering, death, etc. They became vulnerable to suffering and death…they were expelled, alienated, separated from the garden…..

• Alienation from others: One brother ends up killing the other. Falling out of Grace separates us from one another, even from members of the own family.

• Alienation increases – Falling out of God’s will and purpose increases, spreads and causes destruction of the world…causes disintegration of families and communities.

• Falling out of God’s will and purpose disharmony, disunity, disorder. They began to speak different languages…could not communicate with one another.

   

• Falling out of God’s will brought us out of Gracefulness into Sinfulness

   

• And sinfulness is….
  • self-sufficiency instead of faith
  • self-will instead of self-surrender
  • self-seeking instead of benevolence
  • self-righteousness instead of humility

   

   

Falling out of Grace is listening to something less than ourselves, something outside ourselves and desiring something not ours – to be as gods. The result always is alienation from God, from each other and from our own selves. St. Augustine called it “estrangement from the creator, the highest good, for the sake of an inferior good”. This is what we call sin and sinfulness.

Sin is a discomforting and disturbing word…the word is weary, but the reality is energetic and destructive. Sin has receded to the periphery of modern consciousness. Traditional language, themes, models and images of sin don’t seem to be appealing any more. Many regard guilt as a mental “ill-being” rather than a moral “ill-being”.

Sin must be understood as a betrayal of relationship with God or the betrayal of true freedom or the betrayal one’s true self, the way God made it to be rather than as a violation of law. It must also be understood as turning from God to a false sense of freedom and a crippling of the will leading to choices inconsistent with our true nature, our God-given character.

Sin is more than unethical or illegal…it is unholy. It transcends the ethical and the legal and touches the bond between individuals and community and their God….it causes the breakdown of that bond and causes ill health and brings the person and community into “ill-being”.

Sin must be understood in light of the abundance of God’s gift of Grace. “Where sin increased, Grace overflowed” (Rom. 5:20). However, we must talk about sin, acknowledge the existential reality of sin…disobedient freedom must find healing in the obedient freedom of Jesus…if healing has to happen, brokenness has to acknowledged, “those who are well do not need a physician” (Mt.9:12).

Sin is of concern to us not because of its intrinsic value but because it eats away the life and the relationships communicated to us in Christ. Christ’s significance does not come from sin, but sin’s significance comes from Christ, for sin is a measure of our distance from what we are called to be – an image of the Son…. sin is understood in light of the gift of forgiveness, healing and redemption revealed in Jesus.

Take a moment…reflect on God’s will and purpose……God has a plan, a purpose, a will and “God’s will” will happen. God has “ordained” everything with an “end” and given everything the “capacity” to reach the “end”. Man is called to Image God – Walk with the Lord. You are called….We are called to fulfill God’s plan, purpose, will for us.

Take another moment…..Reflect on how you may have fallen out of God’s will and purpose…fallen out Grace.

Take another moment…….Reflect on the need to rise again and again and again……

Take another moment…….Reflect on making new beginnings…..

Be still, rest with God and bless this moment,

Bless this morning, this day and all that is around you!

Fr. Gus Tharappel,msfs