JMJT!
Praise be Jesus Christ! Now and Forever!
Easter season is a time of special graces as we celebrate the ultimate Good News that Jesus is risen from the dead, and that all of humanity and creation has been redeemed. Alleluia! Alleluia!
As I contemplate the profound mystery of this Theo-drama, one word keeps coming to mind. FLOW. I pondered this veiled recurring theme that kept showing up everywhere I went. My husband was unaware of this interior dialogue and mystery stirring within me and started telling me about a new business related book he was reading. He shared, "Yeah. It's about flow, you now? Like being in flow." It has indeed been a long time since I earned my MBA and worked in the corporate world, and I truly had no idea what he was talking about. He then began to explain this concept and compared it to being "in the zone", where time and space seemingly cease and you are one within yourself and in what you are doing. The official definition in the secular world is described as a state of mind in which a person becomes fully immersed in pursuing a goal or an activity. While in this mental state, people are completely involved and focused on what they are doing and perform at very high levels due to an intensive focus and awareness.
This reminded me of a recent conversation I had shared with a group of fellow Carmelites. One member holds tremendous musical talent. She commented that she has experienced rare moments when she has become one with the music and everything just begins to flow in an effortless, seamless and harmonious way. She described it as if one is on the outside looking in at something that is beyond human ability and all time stops. In such moments there is a convergence and an ebb and flow that is otherworldly. We can certainly observe this at times with professional athletes who are like poetry in motion, or when artistry exudes from an individual or group that raises one's awareness and sense of possibility to a higher plane of existence. Perhaps we have experienced such moments in prayer when God's Divine Presence is so infused that everything around us seems to disappear.
All of these examples of flow ultimately point upward towards God. They elucidate the gifts that He has given certain individuals, but perhaps more importantly these moments serve as a reminder of Our Lord's call to each one of us to enter into His Trinitarian Divine Love that flows without ceasing or hindrance between the Three Divine Persons, and beckons each of us as His children to partake in this free flow of love.
If we look at divine patterns it is filled with the divine flow of God's blessings and graces and our responses to it. From the very beginning of creation, we encounter this flow as the ruah breath of God hovering over the waters and the Word and Breath comingling to create in love. Divine Love is flowing through all of Creation and between humanity and God before original sin. All is in harmony and nothing is discordant. After the Fall, such divine flow is still present, but is not as easily accessed in our brokenness. Nevertheless, God is constantly promising flow to His Chosen People- that He will bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey [Num 13:27]. The prophets assure the Israelites that God intends to restore them and will make peace flow like a river [Is 44:3], that "the hills shall flow with milk" [Joel 3:18],and that "justice will flow like water and righteousness like an unfailing stream" [Amos 9:13]. These promises of flow are expanded upon and made permanent by the final promise spoken by Our Lord Jesus that "He who believes in me, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters" [Jn 7:38].
Jesus is the ultimate exemplar of Divine flow. He descended to earth in the flow of the Divine Will and incessantly refilled His cup in the domestic church of the Holy Family in His Sacred Humanity. Simultaneously, He enjoyed ongoing union and communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit who operated His life and to whom he gave His moment by moment fiat. In the Gospels, Jesus is attentive, intentional, and fully present in His words, mighty works, and prayer. His ultimate sacrifice upon the Cross is Divine Flow as He surrenders into the Will of the Father and placed all in His hands. He lets go of everything in an ultimate act of kenosis by emptying Himself completely. Even His blood and water flowed freely from His pierced side as a final act of flow as He birthed Holy Mother Church and released the fullness of Divine Mercy and redemption through such intentionality.
We encounter God's Divine Flow as the First Mover, and then are invited to respond and imitate this dynamism and surrender. Interestingly, St. John of the Cross speaks of the dark night of the soul leading to contemplative prayer as an inflow of God's grace towards transformation and purification of the soul. This
outpouring of Divine Love is received as an inflow of contemplative gifts couched
in holy darkness which trickles into the soul as it begins to let go of the
attachments, personal idols, and silos that divert it from loving attentiveness
towards the Source and summit of all. It
is as a hidden spring that proceeds in silence undetected towards this fount of
plenitude. This is the beginning of the wellspring
of contemplation that flows and run where the heavens and the earth drink, and
satisfy their thirst... [Kavanaugh,
K. Poem #8:3, 10 p. 59-60].
If we desire to be in perpetual flow with the Lord, I propose a 4 step process to prepare our hearts to be ready to receive His movements and invitations. They are as follows:
FLOW
F: Follow in Faith. Flow is not about force or about figuring it all out. We are not called to chart our own path or be self-sufficient, but instead to follow Our Good Shepherd who leads and guides us and to be attuned to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Following requires humility and recognizing our need to be life-long learners and students of the Lord. When we resist we cannot follow or receive the promptings of flow.
L: Listen and Lean: Listening is the disposition of a disciple and requires silence. This means taking breaks from the incessant noise around us and planning technology fasts as needed to recalibrate the ears of our hearts. While listening for the still small voice of the Lord, we want to lean into the Father, the Vinedresser. Our Father knows every hair upon our heads, just as a vine-grower knows every vine in his vineyard. He knows every nuance and trait, our personal histories, and every strength and weakness within us. We can lean into the Father's love as our Abba who desires to hold us, comfort us, and bring us to a place where we are in flow with His Trinitarian love and all of creation.
O: Offering: Being in flow requires a full and total offering of oneself to God. To flow freely in His Divine Will and Spirit is to welcome Him with open hearts and empty hands in a posture of pure receptivity. This means presenting every aspect of our lives to the Lord...every nook and cranny. This includes our identity, our hopes and dreams, professional and educational pursuits, vocation, financial concerns, sexuality, our masculine/feminine genius, strengths and weaknesses, sins and failings, all of our relationships, memory, intellect, will, and the gifts we have been given through His generous hands. We can ask ourselves, "Are there any areas that I am holding back in offering to the Lord?" He waits for you and I.
W: Wait: Flow is about movement, but we do not get to control the pace or timing of such dynamism. Scripture tells us that the Father and the Son are always at work with the Holy Spirit, and that He makes all things beautiful in their time. It is important to recognize that even tiny imperceptible movements can be flow, when we are freely consenting and cooperating with where the drift of His elan wishes to take us. There is high tide and low tide, seasons of rushing of waters as well as trickling, sometimes barely perceptible, dewdrops.
By following in faith, listening and leaning, openly offering, and waiting we can enter into the breath flow and life force of the Holy Spirit and receive His gifts and fruits. We can engage in life with eyes of wonder and gratitude in all the ways that He is beckoning us to take a holy adventure with Him. We can flow in our daily lives with Him indwelling within us and enter into a serenade of love with God, one another and all of creation.
FLOW
F: Follow in Faith
L: Listen and Lean
O: Offering
W: Wait
