3rd Johnstide 2022, God's Appalling Goodness

Johnstide

John 1:19-34

 

Tissot

This is John's testimony when the Jewish leaders sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" 

Freely and openly, he confessed. He did not deny but confessed, "I am not the Christ [the Anointed]." 

Then they asked him, "Who are you then? Are you Elijah?" 

And he said, "No, I am not." 

"Are you the prophet?" He answered, "No." 

Then they said, "Who are you? What answer are we to give to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?" 

He said in the words of the prophet Isaiah, "I am the voice of one crying in the loneliness: Prepare the way for the Lord [so that the Lord may enter into the inmost soul [or, inmost self]." 

And those sent by the Pharisees asked him, "Why do you baptize if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the prophet?" 

John answered them, "I baptize with water. But someone is standing in your midst whom you do not know, who comes after me although he was before me. I am not worthy even to untie the strap of his sandals." 

This took place in Bethany near the mouth of the Jordan, where John was baptizing. 

Grunewald

The next day he [John] sees Jesus
coming to him and says, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes upon himself the burden of the sin of the world. He it is of whom I said: 'After me comes one greater than I  for he existed long before me. Even I did not know him; but for this, I have come, and have baptized with water so that human souls in Israel might become able to experience the revelation of his being." 

And John testified: "I saw how the Spirit descended upon him like a dove from the heavens and remained united with him. I did not know him, but he who sent me to baptize with water said to me, 'He on whom you see the Spirit descend so that it remains united with him, he it is who baptizes with the (breath of the) Holy [or, Healing] Spirit.' And I saw this, and so I testify that this is God's Son." 

3^rd Johnstide

July 14, 2022

John 1:19-34 

Both illness and recovery are mysterious processes. Out of the blue, it seems, we “catch” a cold. We run a fever. No matter what we do, we don’t recover until the illness has run its course. Then healing, equally mysterious, arrives too, on its own. We can experience healing as grace. 

In the seasonal prayer, St. John the Baptist speaks in words of flame. His flame words are first described as health-bearing: all human souls are suffering from an illness, the sickness of being separated from their own divine origin. John’s health-bearing flame word is like a soul-fever, designed to aid the process of healing.

His flame words are also ‘guilt-conscious.’ In the light and heat of the fire of his words, we become aware that we are ill. We were created in God’s image and likeness. Our illness means that we are failing to live up to our truly divine human nature and task. The sickness of sin has laid us low. As one of the mystics, Blessed Angela of Foligno, describes it: 

When I enter that darkness, I cannot

recall a bit about anything human,

or about the God-man.* 

Once awareness does arrive, burning shame and guilt are the result. 

But John’s words are also ‘grace-divining.’ In our state of illness, we look for medicine and healing. And it has indeed been given us. It is in the descending of the true Spirit of the human being, the Healing Spirit, into Jesus, the Christ. He takes upon Himself the burden of the sin, the separation of the world from its divine origins. He is the medicine for our illness. 

The burning fever of the longing for healing is found in the depth of the heart. It is this flame of longing that begins the process of purification, in which the heart rises in love toward our Healer. Health-bearing, guilt-conscious, grace-divining describe the interaction between the human and the divine. 

Again the mystic: 

The [healing] embrace of God puts fire to the soul,

by which the soul entire is felt to burn

for Christ, accompanied by a light so great the soul

suspects the immensity of God’s appalling goodness.**

 

*Blessed Angela of Foligno, “The Darkness,” in Love’s Immensity, by Scott Cairns, p. 89.

**Ibid, “His Blazing Embrace,” pg. 88.

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2nd Johnstide 2022, Awaken Gratitude

Johnstide

John 3:22-35 

Johnstide

John 3:22-35

 

After this, Jesus and his disciples came to the land of Judea. There he stayed with them and baptized. John also baptized; he was at Aenon near Salim because there was plenty of water there, and people came to him and were baptized, for John had not yet been imprisoned. 

Ghirlandaio

Then a dispute arose between the disciples of John and the Jews about the path of purification. And they came to John and said to him, "Master, he who came to you beyond the Jordan, to whom you bore witness – here he is, baptizing, and everyone is going to him." 

John answered, "No human being can grasp spiritual power for himself that is not given to him from the higher worlds. You yourselves can testify that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.' The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less. 

"The one who descends from above, out of the spiritual world, is elevated above all beings of the earth. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from the heavens is elevated above all who have arisen from the earthly. What he has seen and heard in the world of the Spirit, to that he can bear direct witness, but no one accepts his testimony.

"But whoever accepts his testimony sets their seal to this: that God is Truth [or, that there is no higher truth than the reality of God]. For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in his hands. 

2^nd St. Johnstide

July 3, 2022

John 3:22-35 

At the peak of its development, the blossom releases its pollen into the air, which rises toward the heights. The sunlight weaves its life into the pollen, which then returns to the world of earth. It joins with other plants to form seeds that carry life into the future. 

Gratitude is the opening of our hearts, the blossoming of our souls. Warmly felt gratitude is an invisible spiritual substance that rises upward toward Christ, the Spirit Sun. His spirit light weaves into this substance and enlivens it. Our gratitude returns to earth, to human hearts, transformed, as His power of light and life and love. His power in human hearts is what gives us a future. 

It is important to note that when pollen grains soar, they do not return to their original flower. The invigorated pollen that enlivens a particular plant has come from somewhere else, possibly far away. 

Anton Mengs

So it is with us; the spiritual substance of our gratitude, devotion, and prayers is transformed by Christ and carried to support new life wherever it is needed. My prayers and gratitude, arising from a warm and open heart, do not simply return to me. It is the prayers of others that enliven me.

Christ, the Spirit Sun, keeps His heart open toward the Father. For Him, the Father is His transforming sunlight. John the Baptist, who announces Christ, is also connected to the Father’s Spirit. He, too, is surrounded by the Father’s love. He is a kind of human/angelic mediator, a messenger sent on ahead to announce Christ’s impending arrival. John would shake us awake. He bids us open our hearts to stream forth gratitude so that Christ may send his enlivening power into all of us so that all may continue to live.  

“The Father holds the Son surrounded in his love and has given everything into his hands.” (John 3:35).

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1st Johnstide 2022, Weight of Love

 1^st Johnstide

Mark 1:1-13

 

This is the beginning of the new word from the realm of the angels, sounding forth through Jesus Christ. Fulfilled is the word of the prophet Isaiah: 

Behold, I send my angel before your face.

He is to prepare your way.

Hear the voice of one calling in the loneliness of the human soul

Prepare the way for the Lord within the soul,

Make his paths straight so that he may find entrance into the innermost human being! 

Thus did John the Baptist appear in the loneliness of the desert. He proclaimed baptism, the way of a change of heart and mind, for the acknowledgment of sin. And they went out to him from all of Judea and Jerusalem and received baptism from him in the river Jordan and recognized and confessed their failings. 

John wore a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt around his waist. Fruits and wild honey were his food. And he proclaimed, "After me comes one who is mightier than I. I am not even worthy to bend down before Him and to undo the straps of His sandals. I have baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the fire of the Holy [or, healing] Spirit." 

In those days, it happened: Jesus of Nazareth came to Galilee and was baptized in the Jordan by John. 

And at the same time, as he rose up again out of the water, he beheld how the spheres of the heavens were torn open, and the Spirit of God descended upon him like a dove. 

And a voice sounded from the world of the Spirit, "You are my son, the beloved—in you is my revelation." ["Today, I have conceived (begotten) you." Luke 3:22] 

And suddenly, he felt himself driven by the Spirit into the desert, and he remained in the loneliness of the desert for forty days, tempted by the Adversary. And he was among wild animals, and the angels served him.

  1^st Johnstide                                      

June 26, 2022

Mark 1:1–11 

Memling

During Advent, we heard the angel say to Mary, "The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. The Son of God will be born of you." In today's Gospel, God's Holy Spirit descends again in the form of a dove, this time upon Jesus of Nazareth. The Spirit of God, Christ, descends and remains on Him. 

Just as with Mary, we could imagine that Jesus' Baptism marks the beginning of a pregnancy. His Baptism is the conception of Christ's Resurrection Body. (Indeed, some versions of the Baptism story say, "You are my Beloved Son. Today, I have conceived (begotten) you."*) This new body is conceived in love by the inter-workings of the Trinity and the man Jesus. Jesus offered his body as the womb for this conception of humankind's Resurrection Body that would be birthed at Christ Jesus' death. 

Da Vinci

Such a momentous event had its preparation, of course. John the Baptist prepared this process. His ritual act of immersion and cleansing made a path for the Spirit's descent. John's baptism ritual helped make this conception of the Resurrection Body possible. 

God's Spirit of Healing looks for human souls who, like Jesus, have opened themselves to the heavens. It looks for souls who have immersed themselves in a ritual of cleansing and who are offering themselves. 

The Act of Consecration is our continuous Baptism. The whole of the offering is an act of cleansing. We start, like John, with the acknowledgment of our basic unworthiness. As we immerse ourselves, step-by-step in this ritual of offering, we open ourselves, along with bread and wine and water, to the heavens. We seek to be permeated by God's Healing Spirit. 

For us, the Healing Spirit can descend, though only for a few of us can the Spirit remain permanently. Most of us are not yet strong enough to bear the weight of the Love of the World. But we come faithfully, week by week, to receive the Spirit medicine. We come to strengthen the vessel until the time when the healing Spirit descends on us and remains. 

*Luke 3:22, from Codex D

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