MIRACLES OUT OF HOLY DARKNESS - 5TH SUNDAY OF LENT

Lent: a time of the Mystical Presence of God, a time of transformation, powerlessness, spiritual dryness, a wilderness time when our  soul prays without feeling His nearness or experiencing His sweet consolations. If our quest for God during these parched times draws our soul to acts of raw faith then we may thank Him with a holy joy which is an un-felt joy, because in such spiritual drought, we may be certain that our prayer is being nurtured into maturity and our soul is being uniquely perfected by Spirit Lord Himself. 

"Prayer finds its supernatural efficacy in the quality of the faith that animates it" (Blessed Marie Eugene of the Child Jesus).

When the Lord permits us to endure times of painful spiritual darkness, our souls are being de-formed in order to re-form and trans-form us. And the growing pains wound. The quality of our faith seems to be being stretched to breaking point because God needs it to hold a  measure of His supernatural power to join Him in a willing suffering that will win Him many souls.

Such are times of great transformation because our faith is being measured by and empowered by God Himself, animated by the gifts of Spirit Lord. And in this spiritual darkness, we may ever remember ... where are the gifts, so too is the Giver.

We can locate our own Lenten spiritual journey in an event involving the deep suffering of Martha, friend of Jesus (John 11:21-39).

Martha and Mary had sent word to Jesus to let Him know that their brother, Lazarus, was very ill. 

Jesus had great love for these three people.

Yet, when the Lord heard about Lazarus' serious illness, and despite the confusion His decision brought about in the Apostles, Jesus delayed returning to the home of His beloved friends.

When He and the Apostles finally arrived, Lazarus had died four days before and was already entombed:

"LORD, BY NOW THERE WILL BE A STENCH; HE HAS BEEN DEAD FOR FOUR DAYS" (John 11:39).

If ever we have been in a crisis, or immersed in an overwhelming circumstance that shakes our faith, or unable to breathe in a deep hurt that seems to draw only confusing silence from Heaven, we may hear something of our own wounded bewilderment voiced by Martha to Jesus when He finally arrived:

"Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

There had been only silence from Jesus to Martha's message to Him when she pleaded for His intervention. These, her words to Him, seem to suggest that her faith in Him was shaken, a life-time period of four days when Martha may have been immersed in a dense spiritual darkness. 

Perhaps we too may be permitted to endure Martha's spiritual suffering. 

At such times, and during our Lenten darkness, we remember the profound reflection from St. John of the Cross: "God does not fit in an occupied heart."

We plead with Him to help us to see, name and surrender all that is disordered and that occupies our heart, distracting us from His Presence in our souls so that we may make greater space for Him. 

When He draws near to us, our spiritual eyes, unaccustomed to the brilliance of God's Presence in our soul, become temporarily, spiritually blind. This is the time when St John of the Cross guides us and leads us into the "holy darkness," when our blindness causes us to stand still, when we have no prayer formulae to help us to move in the "right" direction to find Him, when our senses are powerless to "feel" our way, where our ability to reason is enfogged, and our will, often fed  by our disordered emotions, begin to be purified, when God's sweet consolations and enlightenments are starkly absent. 

In this precious holy darkness of deeper purification, when our Director is Spirit Lord Himself, we begin to die to self. 

We return to the Gospel exchange between Jesus and Martha to hear Martha's astonishing proclamation of faith in her profound darkness. We hear her living those mysterious words of Blessed Marie Eugene:

"Prayer finds its supernatural efficacy in the quality of the faith that animates it." 

The Lord Jesus tells Martha that He is the resurrection and the life, that whoever believes in Him, even though they die, they will live:

 

And in full hearing of the silent, stunned crowd, He digs deeper into Martha's soul,

"... whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

OUT OF THOSE DEPTHS OF HER HOLY DARKNESS, OUT OF HER DESOLATION, HER ABJECT POWERLESSNESS, HER PROFOUND GRIEF, OUT OF THE SEEMING BETRAYAL FROM A DEEPLY LOVED AND TRUSTED FRIEND. FROM THESE DEPTHS OF HER INTERIOR TURMOIL, WE HEAR MARTHA'S STAGGERING WORDS OF FAITH: 

"YES, LORD, I BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE THE MESSIAH, THE SON OF GOD, WHO IS TO COME INTO THE WORLD."

We may almost see the shocked faces of those crowding around Jesus and Martha, pushing forward to hear every word spoken by them. 

And the Lord Jesus approaches the tomb, commands that the stone be rolled back, and calls Lazarus out from death.

"Prayer finds its supernatural efficacy in the quality of the faith that animates it." 

Jesus, God had probed deep into the soul of Martha, found there a magnificent faith that had been perfected with the spiritual scalpel of suffering, and He, the Lord, had rewarded the "quality of the faith" that He found there, and immediately, He raises Lazarus from the

dead.

We may take to prayer the words of St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face:

"Jesus works miracles for his dearest friends only after he has tested their faith. He let Lazarus die, even though Martha and Mary sent word that he was sick. But after the trial, what rewards! LAZARUS RISES FROM THE DEAD."

From our own holy darkness, where God is re-forming and trans-forming our souls, we may ask: how can we surrender ourselves endlessly when we feel that we have nothing to give Him, only utter powerlessness, desolation? 

We pray again with St. Therese ...

                         "And even when I have nothing, I will give Him this nothing.

                          You, Lord, will descend to my nothingness and 

                          transform that nothingness into living fire."

We will then hear the Lord's reply:

                                

"SEE, I COME QUICKLY. I HAVE MY REWARD IN HAND" (REVELATION 22:12).

LAETARE SUNDAY REFLECTION

"HE HAS CALLED YOU OUT OF DARKNESS INTO HIS OWN WONDERFUL LIGHT" 

(1 PETER 2:9).

Laetare Sunday: the Gospel moment when we glimpse the glorious Light of New Life in the Resurrection, when our Lenten sacrifices are paused and our souls strain toward the splendour of our rising in the Risen Christ.

In the Gospel on this day of joy, when we quietly step into the Gospel scene, we may find ourselves made speechless by what we witness as the events unfold. 

    Jesus Lord "was passing by and saw a man blind from birth" (John 9:1-41).

Perhaps we notice that the blind man did not ask the disciples to lead him to Jesus to ask for healing. We don't hear the man addressing Jesus so we may infer the possibility that he had never heard of this Healer. He was simply a blind man, standing at the wayside, listening to the disciples of Jesus asking the Lord if the man's blindness was the result of the sins of his parents. Jesus reveals to us that, "Neither he nor his parents sinned; it is so that the works of God may be made visible through him." 

The man born blind is completely silent.  

Jesus Lord chose this one to be healed, one who was enduring lifelong suffering and darkness. 

And the healing would give glory to God.

If we take this to prayer, we may be confronted with a question that may unsettle our souls: we are believers in the gratuitous Self-outpouring love of God. Do we accept our sufferings in order to give God glory when He wills to heal us?

 

Or when He wills to withhold His healing, for the salvation of our souls or for the salvation of the souls we pray for?

St. Therese of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face gives us our answer ...        

"Does He not see our anguish and the burden that weighs us down? Why does He not come and comfort us? ... He knows that it is the only means of preparing us to know Him as He knows Himself, and to become ourselves Divine!"

And our souls are quieted in the Presence of the Lord. 

The man born blind is completely silent in the Presence of the Lord.

Our minds may remember the little petition: "Lord, be near to those who seek You without knowing it" ( Liturgy of the Hours). 

And the Lord draws near to the man born blind whose life then changes for ever.

                                              

            We hear the Lord Jesus speak....

                                          

                      "'As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.'

                         ... he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle 

                                 and spread the clay on his eyes" (John 9:1-41).

   And Christ Jesus gives a man born blind the light of life, physical light and, as the remainder of the Gospel testifies, spiritual light; a man who had never known daylight and who had dwelt also in a profound spiritual darkness.

We may pause to ponder in prayer: who are we in this Gospel miracle moment?

At the moment of our Creation ... 

                   "the Lord God formed man from the clay of the earth, 

                       and he breathed into his face the breath of life, 

                                  and man became a living soul" (Gen. 2:7).

            

   At the beginning of time, God, Creator, uses 'clay' and forms us, gives us life from the dust: the Breath of God breathes into our being and our soul is given life in God.

       At that moment in Genesis, we are physically formed into a living being from the 'clay' of the earth.

       At that moment in John's Gospel, Jesus Lord, God, "spat on the ground and made clay." St. Thomas Aquinas teaches us that in this action, Christ is revealing Himself to be the same Creator Who formed man from the clay in Genesis. 

 Christ uses the clay of the earth, made unclean by Adam, and with his own bodily fluids, He sanctifies and repairs the work of creation.

      He touches the blind man ... us. Christ, God, breathes new spiritual life and sight into our souls, opening our eyes to recognise ourselves again as newly created souls in Himself.

     Jesus, Lord, God, "as long as He is in the world," never stops loving us into new life in Him.

We were, we are, and we always will be, spiritually re-formed and re-created, endlessly, in Love, into Himself.         

After Jesus heals him, physically and spiritually, we learn from the Gospel that he became the target of abuse and hatred by the Pharisees.

And, once again, Jesus Lord seeks him out and in his new spiritual sight, the man proclaimed his glorious act of faith in Him: 

            "I do believe, Lord.  AND HE WORSHIPPED HIM" (John 9:1-41).            

Blessed Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus helps us understand why Jesus sought him out again, now that his life in Christ was changed forever.              

"Why are we in this world? The great reason is that God is Love and that He has loved us. He created you out of love, He called you out of love, and this love remains alive. What He has loved, He still loves; what He has given, He will never take away. As St. Paul, who deeply understood God’s nature, reminds us: “The gifts of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29), and what He has begun, He will bring to completion!

God cannot let us go, He cannot abandon us, because He loves us. Our great hope is God; our great hope is eternity! He sees all things in truth and clarity, while we only see appearances. He sees us in our eternal reality. He longs to share His vision with us,  to awaken our hope in this eternal reality" (Blessed Marie-Eugene of the Child Jesus). 

GOD NEVER ABANDONS HIS CHOSEN ONES.

CHRIST IS THE LIGHT LIFTING US OUT OF OUR BLINDING SPIRITUAL DARKNESS.

And in His Love, He transforms us into ...

"THE LIGHT OF THE WORLD; ...

WHOEVER FOLLOWS ME WILL HAVE THE LIGHT OF LIFE"

(John 9:1-41).

                        THIS IS LAETARE SUNDAY: A DAY OF HOLY JOY.