ON THIS PENTECOST SUNDAY, THE HOLY SPIRIT REVEALS SOMETHING OF THE MAGNITUDE OF THE SUFFERING THE LORD JESUS ENDURED IN ORDER TO "SEND OUT" HIS SPIRIT.
St. Teresa of Jesus teaches us that when we are drawn by the Holy Spirit to a deeper encounter with God in prayer, we are first enticed into a "cocoon" of interior silence. In our little self-made prison, we, like a little silkworm, suffer in order to be transformed into new life in Christ. Jesus the Lord has passed through such a self-made cocoon of suffering so that we will never be alone in ours and so that He suffers with us in our trans-formation into unity with Himself.
He did not cry "I am LIKE a worm" but "I AM a worm." Jesus, the TOLA'ATH, allowed Himself to be grafted on to wood so that my soul and souls of many may be washed with His crimson blood and in three days be given life through His Willed death.
On the Cross, Jesus had constructed His own cocoon of willed suffering, to enflesh Himself with
every sin, to absorb the horror of every soul's dark night, to confront evil's furious hatred for everything of God.
God owns all time, human and Divine time. Jesus dwells in the painful, silent, dark cocoon of my soul's passage of transformation. As He is in my cocoon, suffering with me, I too am with Him on the wood, because "mine are the sufferings He bore." (Isaiah 53:4; 1 Peter 2:24)
Christ, dwelling in my soul, within my self-made prison of trans-formation, renames my darkness. On the Cross, Christ absorbed all darkness of all humanity of all time and drew it into Himself. Christ became the darkness, the dense fog of my sin which seeks to destroy my soul. Jesus consumes my darkness and when I pray through that darkness, Christ renames it. It is He. When I allow Him to absorb my darkness, He raises me from it. When I offer to suffer with Him in my darkness, He draws me into His Act of Redemption. When I offer those whose burdens I "share" - they too are drawn into Christ's Redemptive act.
Christ, dwelling in my soul, within my self-made prison of trans-formation, renames my darkness. On the Cross, Christ absorbed all darkness of all humanity of all time and drew it into Himself. Christ became the darkness, the dense fog of my sin which seeks to destroy my soul. Jesus consumes my darkness and when I pray through that darkness, Christ renames it. It is He. When I allow Him to absorb my darkness, He raises me from it. When I offer to suffer with Him in my darkness, He draws me into His Act of Redemption. When I offer those whose burdens I "share" - they too are drawn into Christ's Redemptive act.
"Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." (Galatians 6:2)
The conditions for the metamorphosis of St Teresa's little silkworm, the WORM Who was Jesus on the Cross, the worm who is my soul and whom Christ became, are now in place... the gifts of the virtues of the Holy Spirit, present and hidden in our cocoon, have transformed the worm: "... the worm, which was large and ugly, comes right out of the cocoon, a beautiful white butterfly.” (St. Teresa of Jesus)
My soul soars in Christ through unitive prayer.
This is beautiful and so uplifting.
ReplyDeleteThe Holy Spirit is the breath of life, the author of time and the life force in every day. Thank you for this excellent writing on suffering and his never ending love for us. Amen.
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