Thirteenth Week of the Year, June 29
–
Monday, June 29
The Solemnity of
Meditation:
This feast's significance is important for
those who are intent upon the path of contemplative prayer.
At the heart of our union with Christ is our union with the
Church. You cannot separate what some call the
institutional church from the spiritual, mystical reality of
union with God in Christ.
We cannot enter into union with Christ in
his word and sacrament, indeed we would never have had contact
with Him unless it was through those who have borne witness to
Christ and the Kingdom. The witness of the Spirit to Christ
is carried in the preaching of the Word and the administration of
the Sacraments. The “Handing On,” Tradition, with
a capital "T" is entrusted to the apostles and after
them, to their successors, the bishops in communion with the
Pope. In this way, Peter and Paul stand as the great
instruments of this work of salvation and deification
accomplished in grace, in faith, hope and love.
Peter and Paul would not be here in this 21st
century if Christ had not been incarnate among us and chosen
them. It is true to say that Christ would not be now in the
Spirit present to us leading us into the Father if it were not
for Peter and Paul and their fidelity to their mission. The
mystery of the incarnation of the Son of God and the
manifestation of the Church, the Bride of Christ, His Mystical
Body, are of one divine reality. This is the plan of our
redemption. Christ is present to the world through the
witness of his Apostles, as Church.
As the Word is incarnate in flesh, in the
particularity of the Man, Jesus, so the mystery of Christ in the
Spirit is incarnate in the particularity of the Church, and in
its fullness, in the Catholic Church, gathered in communion with
the successor of Peter, the Holy Father, the Pope.
Peter's own personal spirituality, his union
with God, is manifested in his confession of faith in the Gospel
Reading. You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.
But in the mystery of the Church with its gift of hierarchy, that
grace becomes ecclesiastical mission. For my part I
declare to you, you are "Rock," and on this rock I will
build my Church, and the jaws of death shall not prevail against
it. I will entrust to you the keys of the kingdom of
heaven."
Jesus is identified with each and every one
baptized in him and in his Spirit, but to one is given the keys
and upon one is designated the rock upon which the unity and
indefectibility of the Church is founded. That one is St.
Peter. His ministry continues now through the Pope.
What has this to do with my spirit, with my
heart's longing for union with God? It has to do with the
foundation of our life in Christ. The body needs the
structure of the bones to hold its vital organs and to give
mobility. The structure exists that the vital organs
sustain life. Being creatures who must know to love, who
must proclaim the truth out of love, who come to God through His
Revelation, we must have the structure of the teaching authority
to hand on the Great Teaching that is the Truth and to maintain
the unity of Christ's Body. The structure serves the heart
which is the Spirit making alive within us and to the world, the
Presence of the Father in his glorified Son.
When we oppose the guiding light of the
Teaching Authority then we have error, factions, and schism.
It is painful to see those, who see themselves as spiritual, in
opposition to the Church and disobedient to the ecclesial
authority. Christ who was obedient unto death cannot be
found in that condition. The Spirit who enlightens the Word
cannot be in contradiction with Word.
When those in the Teaching Authority
ministry neglect the spiritual life we see a weakened presence of
authority, a self-serving authority as was evidenced in the
recent scandals of the clergy.
What is solemnly celebrated today in the
feast of Sts. Peter and Paul is the manifestation of holiness
with the gift of Apostolic Authority. The Lord will
continue to rescue me from all attempts to do me harm and will
bring me safe to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory
forever and ever. Amen (Second
The Church is called in the Letter to the
Ephesians, "the fullness of Him who fills all things."
It is the one Spirit and the one Lord who fills the Church and
who seek to transform me into the image of Christ. My
surrender must be to those two aspects of the one Mystery of
Christ, the spiritual and the visible authority.
Ultimately we are centered into the Father
with Christ in the Spirit. That is the heart of our
contemplative prayer founded on the Rock of the Church. Blest
are you, Simon son of John! Flesh and blood has not
revealed this to you, but my heavenly Father (Gospel Reading).
Tuesday
Matthew 8.23-27
My prayer many times is about my fears and
my lack of faith in the power of Jesus to conquer that which that
would destroy me. In my prayer I hear Christ’s rebuke,
“O one of little faith, why do you fear?” I fear
because I hold myself as the source of my rescue. I fear
because I do not allow myself to experience the presence and work
of Christ. Then again, much of my prayer is looking into
the face of Jesus and asking what sort of man is this that even
the seas and winds obey him? My prayer is about sinking
into the divinity of Jesus and going in the Spirit with the Son
into the Father within the mystery of the Trinity. I must
learn to leave aside even the question, “What sort of man is
this?” I must go beyond the questions and answers and
dwell simply in the state of being in Christ, seeing with the
eyes of Christ, loving with the heart of Christ. I must
dwell here in these deep levels of my silence in prayer. I
receive the wordless testimony of the Spirit of Christ within me,
crying: “Abba Father,” “Come to the Father.”
Wednesday
Matthew 8.28-34
The demoniacs who came out to meet Jesus
were so fierce that no one could pass by them. How far from
that picture is the peace and repose of a believer in silent
prayer enfolded in the divine Presence. People should feel
safe passing by such a person in prayer with the fruits of that
prayer wafting out into the spiritual environment. Each
time I pray I share in the exorcism of the world, starting with
myself. The demons cry out that they were being
"tormented before the time." "The time"
that demons refer to, is the time of Christ, the full
reign of God among all people and all creation through the
manifested glory of Christ. Before that fullness of time
comes, there is the gradual expulsion of the demons that dominate
aspects of creation. The demons come out of the possessed
and rush into the swine, into the sea. The sea’s
depths represent the darkness of the outer kingdom. Jesus,
my prayer is not separated from your work to establish the
Kingdom of the Father.
Thursday
Matthew 9.1-8
One of the struggles in my prayer is that I
want to cling to my sins. Not that I would want to repeat
them. But rather that the sorrow over them and the regret
cling to me. It is a form of self-reliance. I cannot
get over the fact that I could sin or that I could fail in
important matters. To be in grace is to be in seminal
innocence restored. God in his forgiveness does not
remember my particular sins anymore. The words of Jesus
have a creative power. If the sea and the wind obey his
word, and if the paralytic takes up his mat and walks, the state
of our troubled souls obey him equally. “Have courage.
Son, daughter, your sins are forgiven.” My life of
prayer is sustained by the sacramental absolution of the Church
in Reconciliation-Penance. The Church is in constant praise
that such power remains with men so ordained. The faith of
the Church carries me on my mat into the presence of the
forgiving Lord. The faith and hope of my prayer open the
flood gates of forgiving mercy. My prayer is to rest in the
total and absolute forgiveness of Christ. All that the Lord
does is total and absolute. Rest in that.
Friday
Matthew 9.9-13
Prayer is my contact with Jesus, the
physician of my soul. He is the one who heals the
distorted, wounded, diseased condition of my person. He is
the one who summons from the depths of my being the goodness, the
truth, the beauty, the resiliency of nature created in his image
and likeness. The summons and empowering flow from the gift
of grace. Grace means the power of Christ's resurrection
made present by the Holy Spirit given by the Father. Jesus
calls me to prayer like he called Matthew to follow him. Immediately
I will respond to every invitation to pray. I will enter
prayer with my being open to all that God will do for me. God
thirsts to fill me with his knowledge and love. He is
intent on filling me with the bliss and blessedness of union.
I come to the banquet as well as to the healing.
Saturday
Matthew 9.14-17
The disciples of John bring up religious
observance and practice of particular followers. Jesus goes
beyond the details of practices. He talks of wedding guests
and bridegrooms, the patching of garments, the pouring of new
wine into skins. There is where I will dwell in my prayer.
My life with God is like being at a wedding feast, with the bride
and the groom. I will gladly patch my garments with the old
rags that God provides. I will fill my wineskins with the
new wine of God's Kingdom. Soon enough will I fast when in
my prayer I experience the Absence more than the Presence. Either
way God comes to me. I am ready to greet the Bridegroom in
whatever form He comes.
--William Fredrickson,
Obl.OSB, D.Min.