"Rivers of Renewal"
"Desert Devotion"
Jesus
is always the One who comes in the power of the Spirit of the Lord. His saving
mission was carried out completely in the power of the Holy Spirit. After he
was baptized by St. John the Baptist at the Jordan River, we are told that "the
holy Spirit descended upon him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came
from heaven, "You are my beloved Son with you I am well pleased"" (Luke 3:22).
After this significant mystery in his life, and yet before the start of his
public ministry in the Spirit when he "returned to Galilee in the power of the
Spirit..." (Luke 4:14), Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert. All
three synoptic gospel writers--Saints Matthew, Mark and Luke--tell us that
Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit after his baptism, was immediately "driven"
(St. Mark's version) or "led" (Saints Matthew and Luke's versions) by the
Spirit into the desert. In his desert encounter Jesus experienced the depth
of his identity and relationship with the Father being both tested and
strengthened.
If
one truly believes that Jesus continues to live the mysteries of his life now
from within us in the Spirit, then one should also expect to be led into a
"desert" experience at sometime after receiving the
baptism in the Holy Spirit. Pope John Paul II says:
"Following a path of
conversion and personal sanctification, then, means allowing ourselves to be
led by the Spirit (cf. Rom.8:14), letting him act, pray and love in us"
(Pope John Paul II, General Audience, July 8th, 1998).
For
many of us the baptism in the Holy Spirit--though not a sacrament of the
church--has served to "untie" and activate
the grace we received at our actual sacramental Baptism. Many of us have
experienced a sense of coming under the influence of the Holy Spirit in a
profound way. Each of us has been given a share in the one same Spirit Who
descended upon Jesus at the Jordan River; the one same Spirit that led/drove
Jesus into the desert; and the one same Spirit that empowered him throughout
his entire public ministry. Pope John Paul II has said:
" Jesus, then, is the Son
of God, he who "went forth from the Father and came into the world" (cf. John
16:28) to bring the Holy Spirit. He came "to baptize with the Holy Spirit" (cf.
Mark 1:8), that is, to institute the new reality of being reborn from God..."
(Pope John Paul II, General Audience, August 5th, 1987).
This
desert experience, then, is with God in the "interior desert" of one's own
heart. This experience is not at all superficial, but is rather an intense
encounter with the God of holiness. This encounter is absolutely necessary in
order to form and strengthen one's contemplative inner self. The foundational,
interior disciplines of prayer, penance, silence and solitude also blossom and
grow in this desert experience for the powerful ministry of contemplative
intercession.
In
this inner desert experience God is revealed as loving Father. In the
interior desert of one's own heart a total trust in the Father is forged, and
authentic love blossoms. One is drawn into the Father's devouring passion--His
great love for the salvation of souls--and one begins to feel more intensely
within oneself the spiritual hunger and thirst of Jesus for the Father. Jesus
desires to continue his redemptive mission to the Father now from within us
through his holiness, his uncompromising devotion to and unflinching obedience
to the Father and hence to the Father's will.
There
is a primary importance of love over everything else in the spiritual life
because "God is Love" (1 John 4:8, 16), and Jesus is the incarnation of the
Father's Heart of love. In The Book of the Prophet Isaiah God announces
through the Prophet, "in the desert I make a way" (Is. 43:19B). This way
is the way of holiness which is the way of love. One recalls from another
teaching that the "soul" of holiness is love. Love demands a complete inner
transformation within each of us, and the desert experience is where this
change takes place, the forging of exclusive love. Each of us enters the desert
experience to become a changed human being. Jesus wants each of us to become
more like him, to become a "living icon" of his Presence. Each of us enters
the desert to be formed into a life completely focused on the love of Jesus.
Hence, each of us must be changed at the deepest level of our being. Deep
prayer only blossoms through deep transformation. I am reminded of the title of
a book by spiritual writer, Fr. Thomas Dubay: Deep
Conversion/Deep Prayer.
The
Holy Spirit wants to conform each of us more closely to "the victorious
Christ of the desert" (Pope John Paul II, General Audience, July 21st,
1990). This desert experience is for each of us an awakening encounter with the
God of holiness who calls each of us by name. The desert is the "place" where one
learns to lean full weight upon God and to trust Him completely: "Who is
this coming up from the desert leaning upon her lover?" (Song of Songs
8:5). Indeed, the inner desert experience is where a true religion of the heart
is birthed: "Set me as a seal on your heart..." (Song of Songs 8:6).
God
is most interested in the heart of humanity. For, "the heart is the place of
decision...the place of truth...the place of encounter...the place of covenant"
(Catholic Catechism of the Catholic Church # 2563). At Baptism each of
us has received within us the One who is the "covenant of the people" (Is.
42:6), Jesus. He is the Father's new covenant of love for humanity. Through the
desert experience each of us receives a new heart, the heart of Jesus, in order
to be able to live this new covenant of love. His is the only one, true heart.
Only his heart sees, hears, and knows in a new way, the way of love. In the
desert experience the two wings of the great eagle, the two "heart wings" of
love of God and love of humanity, begin to sprout and grow: The wings of
devoted love.
Scriptures: Is. 42:1; Jr. 2:2; Mark 1:35
Questions:
1)
Have I had an inner desert experience with God yet? Am I in the
midst of one now? If so, how would I describe it?
2)
In honesty are there ways in which I am running away from the
"inner desert" encounter with God, and running from cultivating a lifestyle of
deeper prayer, penance, silence and solitude?
