This post was partially written this past Fall, and I have now had time to complete it. I am hopeful that it can be helpful for this time of Lent as we are called to grow and wander outside of our comfort zones of thought and behavior in the desert with Jesus at our sides.
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. [Is 55:8-9]
Life is a journey and filled with changing seasons and times. We are now officially in the fall season, although here in the desert one might not see as many noticeable differences as triple digits continue to cling to us in some final hot breaths of air. Nonetheless we feel the changes starting to emerge with cooler mornings and evenings beginning to tease our tired heat-weary bodies as promising relief and hope for the near future. As I look back at this summer, I see that an overarching theme of my spiritual life has been entrustment to God through Our Lady and consenting to God's Divine Will. The pithy theme of consent to be content has been dancing in my head for the past several months, and continues to challenge me in new and unexpected ways as I find areas of entrenched stubbornness and willfulness within my heart. I consent to what God does in my individual life each morning upon awaking, but as I shared in my last blog, I often find myself railing against the sufferings and injustices that I encounter in other people's journeys. This took a mini interior crisis to bring my faulty ways of thinking to the surface and allow Jesus to begin to heal these wounds and to root out these areas of pride in my thinking that I know better than the Lord what is best for others. It has been a deeply etched lesson upon my soul that God reveals in Scripture,
My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts. [Is 55:8-9]
This is obviously an ongoing process that may take significant time to root out, but Our Lord is speaking to me about asking him for His mind and His thoughts. I asked Him how I can begin to surrender into ALL of his plans for myself, others, Holy Mother Church, and all of the cosmos and creation. That is when he brought me to the Scripture verse from St. Paul that exhorts us to "Put on the mind of Christ [Phil 2:5]. He also tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:16 that "You have the mind of Christ." That sounds promising and it sounds like a definite promise. I'll take it. With that in mind, I have been imagining myself suiting up for the Lord. I am putting on His armor- specifically my shoes shod with peace, and the helmet of salvation. This helmet contains Jesus' thoughts and ways of mercy, love, justice, tenderness, and righteousness and not mine. By putting on His helmet, I become His soldier but even more so His student. My Divine teacher tells me, "Learn from me for I am meek and humble of heart." He explains, "No one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wishes to reveal Him." [Mt 11:27]
This means I must stay close to Jesus, and listen to Him and learn from Him. I must part with my faulty thinking and ways, and become radically open to a new way of understanding and living. The good news is that even Jesus was said to have grown "in wisdom, knowledge, and grace before God and men." Of course, this entails study of His Word and the truths that they reveal. For we are told that "Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes forth from the mouth of God." [Mt 4:4]. Jesus lays out the Beatitudes as a schema for life and He presents them in the order of importance as Fr. Jacques Phillipe likes to say. The first thing he shares is "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." There it is. Above intellect, understanding, and reasoning is humility. The first means by which I need to put on that helmet of salvation is not be striving to study my way into heaven and a closer relationship with God, but instead to embrace my littleness and to accept that without Him I can do nothing. Then I can "gird up" my mind in sobriety and filled with hope set "fully upon the grace that is coming" [1 Pet 1:13] to me as from the revelation of Jesus Christ.
St. Paul encourages us in Christ Jesus to "complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfishness or conceit, but in humility count others better than yourselves. Have this in mind among yourselves, which was in Christ Jesus who, though he was in the form of God, did not deem equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant...And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on the cross" [Phil 2:1-3, 5-8]. St. Peter echoes this theme of humility as well by advising us to, "have unity of spirit, sympathy, love of the brethren, a tender heart and a humble mind. Do not return evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called" [1 Pet 3:8-9].
In a culture oozing like an infected wound with its seemingly incessant calls to argue, disagree, attack, point fingers and blame, this is radical advice and healing balm for the soul and mind. It brings us back to our simple humanity and our need for a savior. We cannot figure it all out alone. Quite often our minds play tricks on us, our perceptions and assumptions about others and various situations are ill-formed and downright false, and we find ourselves trapped in our own cages of narrowness of mind and heart.
This is where putting on the mind of Christ in the desert landscape and simplicity of Lent can clear the cobwebs of our thoughts and renew the circuits and neural pathways of our damaged thinking patterns, addictive "go-to" assumptions and personal silos of power and protection. In the desert we leave behind what is unnecessary and we put on garments that are appropriate for the hot days and cool nights. We have permission to remove the earmuffs that prevent our ability to hear, and we shed the extra layers of unnecessary bling, status labels and impractical heavy and obtrusive layers. It is a time for nakedness. It is a time to allow the Lord to re-clothe us in the garments of His grace and to recloak us in robes of truth and righteousness, kindness, purity, and simplicity.
By allowing Our Lord to re-clothe us as little children and to embrace a posture of pure receptivity for His plans, words, wisdom, and understanding we can begin to see God, ourselves and others in a new light. We can accept that His ways are not our ways, and He knows better than we do what we all need, and how to realize that plan. We can begin to truly appreciate that each human being shares in the divine image and Presence of God and is a beloved son or daughter who deserves our respect and who carries beautiful gifts from God even if they are buried deep within or we are unable to see them for whatever reason.
Through wearing these new garments and putting on the mind of Christ, our worldview can begin to change and be transformed into one that has room for all of humanity whose members are all called to live in a beautiful love dance or duet with the Holy Trinity and with one another. By rejecting the short sightedness of narrow and worldly thinking, we can then be refreshed and "be transformed by the renewing of your mind [Rom 12:2]." We will be able to "put on the new self" and recognize that "Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, salve or free, but Christ is all in all. Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with hearts of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with one another and forgive any complaint you may have against someone else. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. " [Col 3:10-12].
The fruit will be a reformed and renewed mind that radiates Christ, that begins to encounter the world with the mind of Christ at work in her and the helmet of salvation upon her head. Then we can truly enjoy the grace of being "able to test and approve what God's will is - his, good, pleasing and perfect will" [Rom 12:2]. This always comes down to love.
