June 2015 – Christ Centered Spirituality

What Moves Our Love?

When St. Augustine says “weight moving me is love”, he means that if his love is heavy like earth then it will be stuck in the materialism of this world. On the other hand when one’s love is light like the fire, it will raise up towards the Heavens where God resides.

I have been reading St. Augustine’s Confessions for a class I am teaching on it. One phrase that grabbed me in Book XIII of the Confessions is, “weight moving me is love.”

In Greek thought, the world is made of four elements – Earth, Water, Air and Fire. Earth is the heaviest so it is stuck at the bottom. Water is lighter so it is above earth. Air is lighter still and raises above water. Fire is the lightest for it sends flames heavenward. When St. Augustine says “weight moving me is love”, he means that if our love is heavy like earth then it will be stuck in the material-love of this world. On the other hand when our love is light like the fire, it will raise up towards the Heavens where God resides.

Of course, this lightening of love does not happen by self-effort. Augustine says…

“By your (God’s) gift we are kindled and borne upward, we are set afire and we go… It is your fire, your fire for good, that burns in us as we go up…”

What is the weight that moves our love? What fires our passion and keeps us moving? Is it the fire of the love of the living God or is it the fire of personal ambition, which entangles us in the web of earthly loves?

Prayer is NOT Extra-Security

Prayer is not extra security that is added so that the Christian, who is already formed by other means, stays safe. Prayer IS the furnace where the Christian is cleansed and forged for God’s great purpose. Prayer makes the Christian into who he/she is. In as much as we miss this, we miss what prayer is about.

Prayer should not be treated as ‘extra security’. Extra security is not a dire necessity. While planning an event, sometimes people add extra security just to make sure any unexpected circumstance that arises is managed. Sometimes, we treat prayer as an extra security measure. Most of our prayers are about preventing something bad or unexpected from happening to us – like losing a job or our children getting sick or getting a flat on the way to work…

Prayer is not extra security, prayer is the blazing furnace fueled by the vision of God that melts us forms us into who God wants us to be. This prayer that yearns for the vision of God and gazes on His beauty will make the Christian.

“Help Me Help You!”, says the Holy Spirit

Sometimes, the Holy Spirit channels a bit of Jerry Maguire in the life of the Christian, so to speak. He is there as the ‘Helper’ who wants to see us become the great Child of God, but in order to do that, He has to help us by convicting us of our sins – by helping us break away fom the prison of our own pride, ambitions and dreams.

In the movie Jerry Maguire, Tom Cruise plays the role of an agent who is helping an NFL player played by Cuba Gooding jr. Cuba Gooding jr wants to make BIG money and is unwilling to accept the low paying contracts that Tom Cruise brings him. Tom Cruise says that if his client is unwilling to take the low paying contracts now he will never have the opportunity to work up to the higher paying contracts later. His client is afraid that if he starts with low paying contracts he will be stuck there forever. Tom Cruise realizes that his client’s own pride, ambition, and dreams are imprisoning him so to cajole him to accept the reality, Tom Cruise says, “Help me, help you.” By this he means “accept the bitter pill of humility now, so that you will be ready for greater glory.”

Sometimes, the Holy Spirit channels a bit of Jerry Maguire in the life of the Christian, so to speak. He is there as the ‘Helper.’ He wants to see us become a great Child of God. To do that He has to help us by convicting us of our sins – by helping us break away from the prison of our own pride, ambitions and dreams. Jesus tells His disciples about the Holy Spirit coming as the ‘Helper’.

John 15:7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment

Of course, the point at which this Jerry Maguire analogy breaks is if someone were to assume that the goal of the Holy Spirit helping is our own self-aggrandizement. In Jerry Maguire, the agent helps the player bask in his self-glorification. The purpose of the Holy Spirit helping us is for us to be in union with Christ so that He is glorified.

Prayer and Transcendence

We leave the obsessiveness and anxiety of finite time that culminates in ending and death, and enter into eternity.

In the introduction to Dostoevsky’s ‘The Brothers Karmazov’, Prof. Marie Jaanus writes describing the experience of reading Dostoevsky…

We leave the obsessiveness and anxiety of finite time that culminates in endings and death, and enter into eternity.

While I was reading it, I couldn’t help but wonder how this describes prayer so well. In our normal life, we are caught in the prison of timely anxieties, and crave for the “two seconds of pure joy” like Ivan Karamazov. Prayer lifts us away from the suffocating anxieties of everyday living. Prayer is a vehicle of transcendence that draws us into an ecstasy giving us a taste of eternity, from within the present life. This ability for transcendence frees us to enjoy our present life enriched.