How did the rose ever open its heart and give to this world all of its beauty?
It felt the encouragement of Light against its being; otherwise we all remain too frightened.
- Hafiz, translated by Daniel Ladinsky, Love Poems from God (God as Light warming your being . . . pause awhile to feel the Warmth.)
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Am 7:10-17; Ps 19:8, 9, 10, 11
Mt 9:1-8
After entering a boat, Jesus made the crossing, and came into his own town.
And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher.
When Jesus saw
their faith, he said to the paralytic,
"Courage, child, your sins are forgiven."
At that, some of the scribes said to themselves,
"This man is blaspheming."
Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said,
"Why do you harbor evil thoughts?
Which is easier, to
say, 'Your sins are forgiven,'
or to say, 'Rise and walk'?
But that you may know that the Son of Man
has authority on earth to forgive sins"–
he then said to the paralytic,
"Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home."
He rose and went home.
When the crowds saw this they were struck with awe
and glorified God who had given such authority to men.
Reflection on the Scriptures
In my reflection on this gospel I asked myself several questions. Which of the two wonderful events is the real miracle? Or are they both miracles in their own way? To be assured of forgiveness or to be
“unparalyzed?" Do our sins paralyze us? In what way? Since we all have sinned, do we rely on the faith of our community to release us from those bonds? Surely a faith community is a strong support. Some of us do not have access to the sacraments on a regular basis if at all, and the blessing of the sacrament of reconciliation may be sorely missed. To have a trusted friend in whom to confide may give amazing relief and assurance of God's love and mercy.
Physical healings can be dramatic or subtle. As a physician I have witnessed several that were amazing and unexplainable other than as a direct intervention by God. Others were more interior: a change of heart after years of anger and bitterness, an acceptance of a lingering illness and the suffering that goes along with chronic pain. You can imagine examples of your own.
May we not forget that the goal of any healing is to glorify God, to give thanks and praise and rejoice with our community, our family, friends, and neighbors. Not only is our own faith strengthened, so is that of the community. And we say: “give God the glory."
by Suzanne Braddock
Psychic Energy and Contemplation by James
Arraj From St. John of the Cross and Dr. C. J. Jung, Part III, Chapter 9. Inner Growth Books, 1986. Inbetween Did St. John actually expect everyone to go by the way of contemplation? In one passage in the Dark Night he seems to indicate that there are people who enter the night of sense
in the wide sense, that is, fall into aridities, and yet, though they are seriously pursuing the spiritual life, are not meant to arrive at contemplation: "This night of the aridity of the senses is not so continuous in them, for sometimes they experience the aridities and at other times not, and sometimes they can meditate and at other times they cannot. God places them in this night solely to exercise
and humble them, and reform their appetite lest in their spiritual life they foster a harmful attraction toward sweetness. But He does not do so in order to lead them to the life of the spirit, which is contemplation. For God does not bring to contemplation all those who purposely exercise themselves in the way of the spirit, nor even half. Why? He best knows. As a result He never completely weans their senses from the breasts of considerations and discursive meditations, except for some short
periods and at certain seasons, as we said."(1) Unfortunately, since St. John had his mind on contemplation, he never stopped to explore this dimension of the spiritual life, and this omission was to cause difficulties soon after his death. The creators of the doctrine of acquired contemplation
came to grips with this problem but they did so blindly, much like the alchemists struggled with individuation. They were confronted by the dark night in the wide sense, hence their emphasis on the inability to meditate, but infused contemplation did not come to them, and so they attempted to solve the problem in the only way they knew, which was to make themselves into contemplatives. By inventing an active contemplation they did not find the gold of contemplation, but the problems they
grappled with were and still are very real. That is why the problem of active contemplation has never gone away. Let us return for a moment to the history of acquired contemplation to bring the story into the 20th century.
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