In today’s Gospel Story (Mt 18:15-20) Jesus says, “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in their midst.” He also teaches his followers how to deal with conflict. The majority opinion sees this Story as part of a section of Jesus teaching his followers. As usual, the minority opinion can be as personal as I let it.
If I am open to it, the Psalm offers an opportunity to read, or pray, the readings in the setting of my own life as I read or hear them: “if today you hear his voice, harden not your hearts”. Or, to make it more personal, “if today I hear your voice, may I not harden my heart”. Abba, Christ, the Spirit, speak to us all the time. It’s question of being alert, of being faithful to our daily prayer practice that helps us be alert. God doesn’t often speak to us in words or voices. Most of the time it’s an unexpected idea, maybe something we hear or read or experience that suddenly grabs us. Trying to live as Jesus’ followers or disciples leads us on a journey of conversion. As some would say, we are created in the image of God, and on our journey we grow into God’s likeness.
Benedict XVI said there are as many ways to God as there are people. Each of us as we are is created as Abba wants us to be. Each us of is the consequence of a thought in the mind of Abba, each of us is important, each of us as necessary, none of us is an accident”. This is what we have in common, we are of God, of Abba. Each of us reflects Abba in our own unique way. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one can come to the Father except through me. Each of us in our own uniqueness, on our own journey of conversion, or growth, shows the vastness of Jesus’ way to, even in, our living Abba. Following the way of a religion is not the answer, or the destination, but only a start. At some point we have to let go of what we feel comfortable and safe with and go where it all points. Hence the importance of not letting my heart be hardened. “In a world of noise, confusion, and conflict, it is necessary that there be places of silence, inner discipline, and peace; in such places love can blossom.” \Thomas Merton
It is worth remembering that while my relationship with God is personal, it is never private. If I think it is a private matter between God and me, I am missing out on a lot. My relationship with God incudes everybody in my life, whether close or far away, even brief encounters. I may never know the effect that a simple remark, gesture, or glance has on someone else in what is going on in their life. Every one in my life has the right and the need to be there. I don’t have to like or agree with them, just ask the grace to be open to the Spirit coming to me as them, and learn and be amazed. Jesus says, “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” These word are not limited to praying. They include, if I let them, simply walking down the hall with someone, having a simple conversation, or enjoying a meal. Ignatian spirituality invites us to find Abba in everything. While this seems to be unrealistic and make no sense with the evil and suffering all around us, it becomes very real as we try to move in this direction. Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally: “I am convinced that hope is inviting us forward, and for us to build trust is important, because trust is how we learn to walk together despite our deep differences,”
All this hints at the importance of chance encounters with others, a request to pray for someone or something. Prayer is an openness to God happening in what is. We don’t pray to get God to change his mind. Mother Teresa used to say, “we say prayer changes things, but it doesn’t; prayer changes us and we change things”. She knew something. We pray to God for a lot, and sometimes our prayers seem to be answered. When we don’t get what we want we go through mental gymnastics to explain why God didn’t “answer our prayer”. If someone asks us to pray for them and we agree to do so, we are undertaking a serious responsibility. We can’t let it be something perfunctory. We don’t know where this will take us. Again, the need to be open and trusting, and really hold them in prayer, trust, and openness, willing to be involved somehow if that is where our prayer takes us.
Father Arrupe: “The world is too dangerous and too beautiful for anything but love; may your eyes be so blessed that you see God in everyone”. At every point on our journey we honestly don’t know where our next step will take us. As we make the many choices of any given day, a worthwhile question to ask is what choice will deepen our awareness of Abba happening in our life. We don’t often have the luxury of time to make our choices and decisions, so we might ask the grace to cultivate an attitude of this discernment as part of our everyday living, the gift of receiving what Abba, disguised as our life and the people in it, are offering us. In everything Jesus is in our midst. This is how we see life ourselves, not something we impose on others. Abba happens in my life as it is, not as I wish it were, or as others, even church, tell us it should be. Jesus tells us he is in our midst, and so he invites us to listen, to see, to be present to others as he is present to us.
Alleluia verse: “God is reconciling the world to himself in Christ and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation”. This is our journey of our own conversion to live as Jesus’ disciples. It asks us to trust in the Spirit in us every day, to go through our day not necessarily knowing, but trusting, letting go of my need to feel in control and asking the grace of receiving what comes my way, especially the grace of welcoming everything that comes into my life today, simply because in some way it is of Abba, of Jesus being in our midst, of the Spirit showing us how to live as Jesus’ disciples. All a matter of letting go, of leaning into the mystery of what is, and my role in it all. Just sayin . . .