One
thing (or I should say, one Person) is central to cloister of the heart.
Without Him, there is really no point to
either spiritual or physical monasticism.
Oh,
but there are monastics of other faiths besides Christianity, some might
remind me. True. But their focus is not upon a Savior, for
they have none. They do not have a
Messiah who suffered and died to free them from their sins. I think Thomas Merton, in the book The Monastic Journey (Sheed,
Andrews & McNeel Inc., Kansas City), put it well when he wrote: “The pagan has no Christ, no Holy Spirit,
perhaps even no personal God at all. He
has to struggle upward to union with the ‘Supreme Being’ - ‘The Absolute’ - by
sheer force of his own will and by his own fortitude, relying on his own
battery of religious practices. His
task is one of almost unbelievable difficulty - and this explains why pagan
religions are all shot through with compromise and despair…. Besides, with all
the subtlety and heroism of the purest techniques of natural religion - what
does man finally encounter? Not God -
only himself. His purified self, if you
like, but still it is only himself.”
I
do not want to spend my days in the spiritual cloister with only
myself. What a useless, fruitless,
joyless, un-doable stretch of days that would be. My focus is not on monasticism, but upon the Lord of the
Monastery. And who is that Lord?
In
one of His discussions with His disciples, Jesus asked “who do people say that the
Son of Man is?” There were several
answers before Jesus turned the question into something more personal. “And you… who do you say that I am?”
(Matthew 16:13-15)
Scripture
answers this question. Jesus is the
“reflection of the Father’s glory, the exact representation of the Father’s
Being.” (Hebrews 1:3). Jesus is the Messiah (Mark 14:61-62)… .
The
Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us plainly: “He is the only Son of the Father, He is God
himself.” (#454). This is Who Jesus is, in His essence.
What if Jesus were to stand before me, this very day, look intently into my eyes, and ask me
personally: “And YOU. Who do YOU say that I am?......”
How would I respond?
How would I respond?
For
prayer:
“This
Jesus is the stone rejected by the builders which has become the
cornerstone. There is no salvation in
anyone else, for there is no other name in the whole world given to men by
which we are to be saved.” (Acts
4:11-12)
“At
Jesus’ name, every knee must bend, in the heavens, on the earth, and under the
earth, and every tongue proclaim to the glory of God the Father; Jesus Christ
is LORD!” (Philippians 2:10-11)
“And
you…. who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15)
Text not in quotes
(For a brief message from Pope Benedict XVI about the centrality of Jesus, click here)
(This post is part of Catholic Bloggers' Network monthly Round Up)
Text not in quotes
(For a brief message from Pope Benedict XVI about the centrality of Jesus, click here)
(This post is part of Catholic Bloggers' Network monthly Round Up)