Few souls understand what God would accomplish in
them if they were to abandon themselves unreservedly to Him and if they were to allow His grace to mold them accordingly.
- Ignatius of Loyola (Unreserved abandonment to God . . . Let this be your
prayer.)
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2 Kgs 24:8-17; Ps 79:1b-5, 8, 9
Mt 7:21-29
Jesus said to his disciples:
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’
will enter the Kingdom of heaven,
but
only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.
Many will say to me on that day,
‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name?
Did we not drive out demons in your name?
Did we not do mighty deeds in your name?’
Then I will declare to them solemnly,
‘I
never knew you. Depart from me, you evildoers.’
“Everyone who listens to these words of mine and acts on them
will be like a wise man who built his house on rock.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
But it
did not collapse; it had been set solidly on rock.
And everyone who listens to these words of mine
but does not act on them
will be like a fool who built his house on sand.
The rain fell, the floods came,
and the winds blew and buffeted the house.
And it
collapsed and was completely ruined.”
When Jesus finished these words,
the crowds were astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one having authority,
and not as their
scribes.
Reflection on the Scriptures
When we read in Matthew of the people Jesus tells to depart – people who have prophesied, driven out demons, and done great deeds – it makes me a little nervous. These seem to be good followers who have
done impressive religious works, so what’s the problem? Jesus declares he never knew them, then follows by talking about houses built on rock and sand, which suggests that the works have a foundational problem. I wonder if they were so focused on prophecy, exorcism, or the various “mighty deeds,” they missed the reason, the underlying purpose for those efforts?
So what should be at the
foundation of our faithful work? When asked to name the greatest commandment, Jesus responded that loving God was first, loving your neighbor was second, and that “all the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37-38) I John 4 tells us that all who love know God, but those who do not love do not know God “because God is love.” From the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthians (chapter 13), we know that prophecy, wisdom, faith or charitable acts
without love are nothing.
Loving God, help us to love one another as Christ loves us. Help us continually to love those around us, even the “enemy” who opposes us at work or who espouses views we abhor. Help us so that we walk humbly with you, God Who is love, in our search for justice and mercy, in our attempts to forgive as You have forgiven us. Holy Spirit, work in us and through
us so that all we do is done lovingly and glorifies God.
Psychic Energy and Contemplation by James
Arraj From St. John of the Cross and Dr. C. J. Jung, Part III, Chapter 7. Inner Growth Books, 1986. Contemplation and Individuation James Kirsch, a noted Jungian analyst, once asked Jung whether St. John's dark night of the soul was a process of individuation, and he replied, "John of the Cross' "Dark Night
of the Soul" has nothing to do with this. Rather, integration is a conscious confrontation, a dialectical process..."(28) This brings us to the second question. Though there is a substratum of psychic dynamics underlying St. John's descriptions of the passage to contemplation, it would be precipitous to conclude either contemplation represents some kind of individuation or it is the result of the resolution of these tensions of psychic energy, At the same time it would be a valuable undertaking
if the contemplative life would be examined from the point of view of Jung's psychology. In this way a description that would be tangential to that of the theologians could be developed which would highlight the transformations of psychic energy that take place on this inner spiritual journey. The theologian must assert the transcendent nature of contemplation in itself, but he can no longer do this without any reference to the nature of the psyche in which this contemplation is experienced. If
contemplation demands a thoroughgoing program of mortification and a definite attitude of passivity when it is present, and thus could occasion the outbursts of sensuality that St. John describes, then it is crucial to arrive at a solution to these difficulties. The struggling contemplative needs both spiritual and psychological guidance. St. John provides the spiritual advice by pointing out the danger of ignoring this dawning contemplation because it is not as palpable as the natural working
of the faculties. But from a psychological point of view the degree of psychic tension will be a result not only of the depth of the contemplative gift, as St. John implies in discussing the three temptations of those called to the heights of contemplation, but it will also be a function of the person's own degree of psychological integration. Any psychic weakness or lack of integration will accentuate the tensions occasioned by the impact of contemplation on the psyche. If a program of
individuation could be tailored for the contemplative that would still allow him to maintain the contemplative goal as his central focus, it would, no doubt, ameliorate the trials that he must undergo. St. John, discussing spiritual lust, says: "if these impure thoughts and feelings arise from melancholia, a person is not ordinarily freed from them until he is cured of that humor, unless the dark night flows in upon the soul and deprives it successively of all things."(29) As St. John indicates, there can be both a psychological as well as a spiritual approach to the same question, and in the darkness of his cell in Toledo he underwent a process that transformed him both spiritually and psychologically. In summary, we can trace the interaction of contemplation and individuation in St. John's life, poetry and doctrine about the
beginning of mystical experience. Next this dual perspective will be focused on these questions about the life of prayer.
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