3rd February Trinity 2007, Nodal Points

3^rd Feb. Trinity

(Sunday before Ash Wednesday, 7^th Sunday before Easter)

Luke 18: 18-34

One of the highest spiritual leaders of the people asked him, “Good Master, what must I do to obtain eternal life?”

Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but One—God alone. You know the commandments, you shall not destroy marriage, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not speak untruth, and you shall honor your father and your mother!

He said, “All these I have observed strictly from my youth.”

When Jesus heard this, he said, [Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said… Mk 10:21] “One thing however you lack: Sell all of your possessions, and give the money to the poor; thus will you achieve a treasure in the spiritual world—then come and follow me!

He was sad about these words, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw him thus, he said, “What hindrances must those overcome who are rich in outer or inner possessions, if they want to enter into the kingdom of God. Sooner would a camel walk through the eye of a needle, than a rich man be able to find the entrance to the kingdom of God!”

Those who heard this said, “Who then can be saved?”

He said, “For man alone it is impossible; it will be possible however through the power of God working in man.”

Then Peter said to him, “Behold, we have given up everything to follow you.”

He replied, “Amen, the truth I say to you. No one who leaves home or wife, or brother or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in earthly life, and in the age to come eternal life.”

Then he took the twelve to himself and said, “Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything which the prophets have written about the Son of Man will fulfill itself: He will be given over to the peoples of the world; they will mock and taunt him, they will spit upon him and scourge him and kill him; but on the third day he will rise up from the dead.”

Yet his disciples understood nothing of all this. The meaning of his words remained hidden from them, and they did not recognize what he was trying to tell them.

3^rd February Trinity

Feb 18, 2007

Luke 18: 18-34

When a plant grows, it first forms leaves. Then eventually these leaves metamorphose into the rich beauty of the blossom. The blossom opens to the sun, offers its pollen of its life substance to the sun. In wedding itself to the cosmos, its petals fall away. The blossom dies, but new life is formed in the seed.

The rich young man had followed the commandments. He had become rich in spiritual beauty, blossomed into a perfect flower. He was poised to give himself to the cosmos, to become an offering. But this would involve letting go of the beauteous petals of his outer and inner wealth. To take the next step, parts of himself would have to be shed. It was a necessary condition of his further development, of his movement toward eternal life. It would naturally be accompanied by a sense of loss and grief.

Our lives too come to certain nodal points, although we may not be as conscious of the moment as was the rich young man. When things on one level are about to be exchanged for another level, our destiny involves us in losses and griefs. Things, people important to us seem to fall away. But that is how the cosmos gives us the opportunity to grow, to blossom, to generate life on a higher level.

The Act of Consecration of Man gives us the opportunity to more consciously practice opening our souls, offering ourselves, and dying into a higher life. Sunday by Sunday, we shed the riches of our outer lives for an hour of prayer and inner sacrifice. Drop by drop, morsel by morsel, we build and strengthen our capacity for sacrifice, our capacity to let go and take the next step into the cosmos. Bit by bit we open ourselves and form the seeds of higher life.