Dear Brothers and Sisters in Carmel,
1. At the beginning of this New Year and on this World
Day of Prayer for Peace, I want to reflect a little on the connection
between working for peace and justice and the Carmelite vocation. We
form contemplative communities in the midst of the people and in this
way we bear witness to God but who is this God who has called us and
whom we seek to serve? Many barbarous deeds have been done in the name
of God throughout history and in our present day. As was said in the
six-year plan of the General Council, “As children of the Prophets, we
must fight every effort to manipulate the name of God to support the
selfish concerns of any group.” Sometimes religious piety has been
used to hide the lust for power and to provide a sense of security in
a changing world. As we grow and mature, our image of God changes
because no image we can have of God is God. We are challenged to
examine our image of God by the secularism of our times and the rise
of the otherworldly sects in many parts of the developing world. We
speak much of contemplation, which is the transforming action of God
within us, but who is the God of our contemplation?
The Carmelite Charism
2. The Carmelite charism speaks of a deep human hunger
for God. A charism is a gift given by God to an individual or a group
for the benefit of the Church and the world. In the case of our Order,
we of course have no founder, in the strict sense of the term, to whom
we look back; we have our foundation in a group of hermits who
gathered on Mount Carmel. We do not know much about these men or even
when they went to Mount Carmel. It is likely that they went to the
Holy Land at the time of the Crusades and perhaps some of them were
soldiers. However between 1206-14, these hermits had formed themselves
into a sufficiently cohesive group that they wished to seek the
approval of the Church for themselves as a community. They had made a
proposal regarding their way of life and based on this, St. Albert,
the Patriarch of Jerusalem, wrote to them a letter containing a series
of principles on which their life together should be based. They had
no need of the weapons of the Crusaders; instead they were to take up
spiritual weapons in the spiritual combat (Rule, 18-19).
3. After some difficulties, finally Pope Innocent IV
definitively approved the Carmelites in 1247, and the letter of St.
Albert became an officially accepted religious Rule within the Church.
The Pope made some minor modifications to adapt the Rule to cover
friars who were engaged in an active apostolate in the new cities.
However, these small modifications had profound implications for the
Order because our forefathers thus joined the mendicant movement and
identified with the new urban poor and sought to serve them. The Rule
of St. Albert contains in a nutshell all the fundamental principles of
the Carmelite charism. The hermits are named as those who live near
the spring. This was the spring named in honor of Elijah the prophet.
The fact that they also lived on Mount Carmel made it inevitable that
they would have a devotion to the Prophet as all hermits looked to him
as their model. St. Albert laid down: “An oratory should be built as
conveniently as possible among the cells, where, if it can be done
without difficulty, you are to gather each morning to hear Mass”
(Rule, 14). This oratory was named in honor of Our Lady and this is
the beginning of the special relationship between Carmelites and Mary,
their Mother, Sister and Patroness.
4. The fundamental thrust of the Christian, and
therefore the Carmelite life, according to the Rule of St. Albert, is
to live in allegiance to Jesus Christ. The rest of the Rule works out
the way in which Carmelites are to follow Christ. St. Albert uses the
idea of the armor of God (Eph. 6, 10-17) to instruct the hermits. This
concept would have been particularly relevant in time of war and great
uncertainty. Carmelites are to put on the breastplate of justice
(Rule, 19) and later, silence is declared to be the way to foster
justice (Rule, 21). The values of prayer, fraternity and prophetic
service are particularly important for us. The Word of God is central
to our way of life. Like Our Blessed Lady, we are to ponder on this
Word, and it will transform our lives. Indeed the guiding principle of
the Carmelite Rule is transformation in Christ. By allowing the values
of the Rule to shape our lives, we will gradually be transformed and
become a new creation in Christ.
5. The way of prayer, which is not so much taught but
assumed in the Carmelite Rule and which permeates the whole of it, is
Lectio divina. This way of prayer was practiced for hundreds of
years before any attempt was made to define it. The famous four stages
or phases of Lectio divina (reading, meditation, prayer and
contemplation) come to us from Guigo the Carthusian about the year
1150 in his book, The Ladder of the Monks. At the time of the writing
of the Rule, there was not much concern about defining stages of
prayer. Guigo’s four steps of reading, meditation, prayer and
contemplation were intended as teaching aids for young people who
joined religious communities; they were never intended to be hard and
fast definitions. Lectio divina was the normal way of prayer
and it was intended to lead to transformation in Christ. Meditation at
this time had nothing to do with discursive thinking about God and the
things of God; instead it was a practice whereby the whole body became
involved in the prayer. The hermits would murmur the words of the
psalms and repeat them over and over until such time as the words took
root within them and they would come spontaneously to mind during
their daily work. Clearly St. Albert, and the hermits, had meditated
long on the Word of God because the Rule is full of Scriptural
allusions and direct quotes. The Word of God was part of their lives
and so became the heart of the Rule which he wrote.
6. The Rule provides the elements of a spiritually
healthy way of life that leads people towards transformation in
Christ. The Rule does not teach contemplative prayer; it prepares the
way for it. Despite the fact that the words “contemplation” and
“contemplative prayer” are not mentioned in the Rule, other terms are
used that point to this reality for example: “pondering (or meditating
on) the Lord’s law day and night” (10); “your breast fortified by holy
meditations” (19); “The sword of the spirit, the word of God, must
abound in your mouths and hearts. And whatever you do, let it all be
done in the Word of the Lord” (19). The Rule, as we have said, assumes
the rhythm of Lectio divina, which leads towards contemplation.
We can decide to read the Word of God and to ponder on it. Our
response to the Word is usually spontaneous and the fruit of what has
gone before but nevertheless we are still in control. Contemplative
prayer is qualitatively different from any other prayer that has
preceded it. We lose our control when it comes to contemplative
prayer. This is God’s transforming action within us and we are put to
sleep in a sense while God, the great Physician, operates deep within
us to transform the hidden recesses of our hearts into the image of
Christ. Of course this is not completely passive as the Song of Songs
declares: “I slept but my heart kept vigil” (Song 5,2). The process of
contemplation goes on in daily life but reaches a high point in
contemplative prayer. It cannot be grasped; it can only be received:
“So delicate is this interior refreshment that ordinarily if one
desires it or tries to experience it, it will not be experienced;
because, as I say, it does its work when the soul is most at rest and
most free from care; it is like the air which, if one desires to close
one’s hand upon it, escapes” (Dark Night, I, 9,6). At the beginning,
contemplation is so vague and so gentle that the individual will
normally be unaware that anything unusual is taking place. In some
people this awareness grows enormously and we can see the results of
this contemplative awareness in the abundance of mystical literature
throughout the centuries.
Contemplation
7. The Order has always considered that contemplation
lies at the heart of our vocation. The Institutio Primorum
Monachorum, which from the late 14th century was the formation
document for all young Carmelites, says this – “The goal of this life
is twofold: One part we acquire by our own effort and the exercise of
the virtues, with the help of divine grace. This is to offer God a
heart that is holy and pure from actual stain of sin. We attain this
goal when we are perfect and ‘in Carith’, that is, hidden in that
charity of which the Wise Man says, ‘Love covers all offences” (Prov.
10,12). ...The other goal of this life is granted to us as the free
gift of God; namely, not only after death but even in this mortal
life, to taste somewhat in the heart and to experience in the mind the
power of the divine presence and the sweetness of heavenly glory”
(Book 1, chap. 2). St. Teresa and St. John of the Cross were well
formed in the Carmelite tradition and recalled the Order to its
initial inspiration, as did all the other reforms throughout the
history of the Order. Sts Teresa and John of the Cross of course are
original spiritual geniuses and for those who wish to understand more
of the development of contemplation within the individual, study of
these saints is essential.
8. In the current presentation of the Carmelite charism,
the Order says the following in the Constitutions of the friars:
“Carmelites seek to live their allegiance to Jesus Christ through a
commitment to seek the face of the living God (the contemplative
dimension of life), through fraternity, and through service in the
midst of the people” (Const. 14). Another article of the Constitutions
of the friars goes on to say, “ The tradition of the Order has always
interpreted the Rule and the founding charism as expressions of the
contemplative dimension of life, and the great spiritual teachers of
the Carmelite Family have always returned to this contemplative
vocation” (Const. 17). According to the Constitutions of the friars,
contemplation, “is a transforming experience of the overpowering love
of God. This love empties us of our limited and imperfect human ways
of thinking, loving, and behaving, transforming them into divine ways”
(Const. 17). In the Constitutions of the affiliated Congregations and
the recently approved Third Order Rule, there appears the same
insistence on contemplation.
9. The Ratio Institutionis Vitae Carmelitanae
(formation document hereinafter referred to as the Ratio) of
the friars clarifies the role of contemplation in the charism of the
Order: “The contemplative dimension is not merely one of the elements
of our charism (prayer, fraternity and service): it is the dynamic
element which unifies them all.
In prayer we open ourselves to God, who, by his action,
gradually transforms us through all the great and small events of our
lives. This process of transformation enables us to enter into and
sustain authentic fraternal relationships; it makes us willing to
serve, capable of compassion and of solidarity, and gives us the
ability to bring before the Father the aspirations, the anguish, the
hopes and the cries of the people.
Fraternity is the testing ground of the authenticity of
the transformation which is taking place within us (Ratio 23). The
Ratio goes on to say, “Through this gradual and continuous
transformation in Christ, which is accomplished within us by the
Spirit, God draws us to himself on an inner journey which takes us
from the dispersive fringes of life to the inner core of our being,
where he dwells and where he unites us with himself.
The inner process which leads to the development of the
contemplative dimension helps us to acquire an attitude of openness to
God’s presence in life, teaches us to see the world with God’s eyes,
and inspires us to seek, recognize, love and serve God in those around
us” (Ratio 24).
10. The goal of the contemplative journey is to become
mature friends of Jesus Christ to such a degree that his values become
our values and we begin to see with God’s eyes and love with God’s
heart. Authentic contemplation must find expression in a commitment to
serve others, whether this is done by means of an active apostolate or
within a monastery. When God gazes on the world, God sees beyond the
externals; God sees the motivation of the human heart. A contemplative
community’s authentic experience of God necessarily leads us to make
our own “the mission of Jesus, who was sent to proclaim the Good News
of the Kingdom of God and to bring about the total liberation of
humanity from all sin and oppression” (Ratio, 38).
To See With God’s Eyes
11. In the post-synodal document Vita Consecrata,
Pope John Paul II states, “At the beginning of his ministry, in the
synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus announces that the Spirit has consecrated
him to preach good news to the poor, to proclaim release to captives,
to give sight back to the blind, to set the oppressed free, to decree
a year of favor from the Lord (cf. Lk. 4,16-19). Taking up the Lord’s
mission as her own the Church proclaims the Gospel to every man and
woman committing herself to their integral salvation. But with special
attention, in a true preferential option, she turns to those who are
in situations of greater weakness, and therefore in greater need. ‘The
poor’, in varied states of affliction, are the oppressed, those on the
margins of society, the elderly, the sick, the young, any and all who
are considered and treated as ‘the least’. The option for the poor is
inherent in the very structure of love lived in Christ. All of
Christ’s disciples are therefore held to this option, but those who
wish to follow the Lord more closely, imitating his attitudes, cannot
but feel involved in a very special way. The sincerity of their
response to Christ’s love will lead them to live a life of poverty and
to embrace the cause of the poor. For each institute, according to its
charism, this involves adopting a simple and austere way of life, both
as individuals and as a community. Strengthened by this living witness
and in ways consistent with their choice of life, and maintaining
their independence vis-à-vis political ideologies, consecrated persons
will be able to denounce the injustices committed against so many sons
and daughters of God, and commit themselves to the promotion of
justice in the society where they work” (VC, 82).
12. Faithful to the Scriptures, the Church and the Order
have made a preferential option for the poor because Christ was sent
to bring Good News to the poor (Lk. 4,18). We cannot remain untouched
by the cry of the poor (Ex 22,22.26; Sir. 21,5). A commitment to
justice and peace necessarily involves doing something concrete for
the poor but it also involves asking questions. Why is the situation
like this? What can we do about it? Obviously the reasons for the
situation of poverty of so many in the world and the reasons for the
lack of true peace are extremely complex. This preferential option
comes from our contemplative vocation. “The authentic contemplative
journey allows us to discover our own frailty, our weakness, our
poverty - in a word, the nothingness of human nature: all is grace.
Through this experience, we grow in solidarity with those who live in
situations of deprivation and injustice. As we allow ourselves to be
challenged by the poor and by the oppressed, we are gradually
transformed, and we begin to see the world with God’s eyes and to love
the world with his heart. With God, we hear the cry of the poor, and
we strive to share the Divine solicitude, concern, and compassion for
the poorest and the least.
This moves us to speak out prophetically in the face of
the excesses of individualism and subjectivism which we see in today’s
mentality - in the face of the many forms of injustice and oppression
of individuals and of peoples” (Ratio 43).
13. The fundamental reason for the existence of so much
poverty in the world lies in the depths of the human heart. It is a
great mistake to blame only others for the situation because each of
us bears some responsibility. The commitment to justice and peace must
go hand in hand with the contemplative process of putting on the mind
of Christ so that our service of the poor does not become a subtle way
to make the poor serve our own needs. The human heart is very devious,
and, in order to serve others according to the mind and heart of God,
we must submit to the profound purification, which is an intimate part
of the contemplative process (Js. 4,8; Heb. 4,12-13).
The Prophet Elijah
14. In recent years the Carmelite Family has rediscovered
the importance of the Prophet Elijah as an inspiration in the work of
justice and peace. His contemplative experience impelled him to
prophetic action. He denounced without fear the actions of the
powerful people of his day and he brought the light of the Word of God
into situations of sin. The story of Naboth’s vineyard (1 Kgs. 21,
1-29) is a good example of Elijah’s prophetic activity. King Ahab
wanted Naboth’s vineyard for himself but Naboth did not want to sell
his patrimony. The Queen, Jezebel, mocked her husband and challenged
him to show who in fact was King in Israel. The queen had hatched a
diabolical plot to accuse Naboth unjustly of blasphemy and to assume
the control of the vineyard when Naboth was out of the way. The
Prophet Elijah came on to the scene when Ahab had taken the vineyard
into his possession and he condemned Ahab for abusing his authority.
Obviously this was a very courageous step. Proclaiming the Word of God
in certain situations can be very dangerous. In the Prophet Elijah, we
see a man who translated his contemplative experience into prophetic
action.
15. Elijah won a great victory for Yahweh on Mount Carmel
(1K. 18,36-40) but he was threatened by Jezebel and immediately his
internal voices drowned out his trust in God. He went into the desert,
(1Kgs. 19,3-4) which is traditionally the place of silence (Hos.
2,16). God spoke to Elijah through the angel so that Elijah would
continue his journey. Elijah had difficulty in discerning the voice of
God in the midst of all his troubles but eventually plodded on to
Horeb (1K. 19,5-8). When he arrives, God asks him what he is doing
there. Elijah replies that he is filled with great zeal for the Lord
God of hosts. He tells God that he is the only champion of Yahweh
remaining in the whole of Israel (1Kgs. 19,10). God does not respond
at this point but simply tells Elijah to go out and stand on the
mountain. There Elijah meets God but not in the way he expects nor in
the way that his whole religious tradition has taught him to expect.
Elijah has to silence all his internal voices that tell him what God
is like so that he can receive God as God is (1Kgs. 19,11-12). Once
Elijah has met God on God’s terms, and not on his own terms, he is
open to hear the truth, which sets him free from illusion. He thought
that God really needed him since he was the only prophet left. God
very gently points out that in fact there are 7,000 others who have
not bent the knee to Baal (1Kgs. 19,18). Now freed from illusion,
Elijah receives a new mission from God, which is in fact mostly
carried out by his successor, Elisha, who is the recipient of a double
portion of his spirit (1Kgs. 19,19; 2Kgs. 2,11).
16. God uses everything, big or small, good or bad, to
challenge our normal way of being in the world, just as Elijah was
challenged to let go of his expectations of how God would come to him.
These expectations were deeply rooted in Elijah and our expectations
and perspectives are deeply implanted in us. Before we can receive God
as God really is, we have to learn to let go of all these. This is a
painful process, a real dark night, but essential so that we can bear
the light of day and be prepared for the encounter with God. Our
Carmelite tradition speaks of a journey of transformation. The events
of our life are not meaningless. At the heart of every event, God is
calling to us to take a step forward on our journey. God is calling to
us to take a step forward from our predictable way of judging
situations and people, including ourselves, so that we can begin to
see things from God’s perspective. The end of our journey is our
completed transformation when we are able to look upon all that is as
if with God’s eyes and love what we see as if with God’s heart. We
need to eat and drink lest the journey be too long for us. We find the
necessary food for our journey in the daily celebration of the
Eucharist, pondering the Word of God and in our Carmelite tradition.
Mary the Mother of God
17. Carmel is famous for its Marian devotion, which is
expressed in many ways. The greatest devotion is to be conformed to
the object of our devotion. Titus Brandsma said that the vocation of a
Carmelite was to be another Mary. The “fiat” of Mary gave the
necessary space for Christ to be born and thus she co-operated with
the plan of God. Through her, God now has a human face. Our devotion
to Mary must not stop at the imitation of her virtues, though that is
very important. We must allow Christ to grow within us to the point
that we become transformed in him so that we can say with St. Paul,
“it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me” (Gal. 2,20).
In that way we will be a word from God, a tabernacle of the presence
of God in the world (cf. 1Cor. 3,16; Eph. 2,21-22). In that way we
will live our prophetic vocation.
18. The divine maternity was the subject of much
reflection among the Carmelites from the earliest times. As an Order
with a strong contemplative thrust, the Carmelites sought to gaze on
God even here on earth. Our Lady was the model of all they were aiming
to be. No closer union with God could be thought of than Our Lady
carrying God’s only Son in her womb. The fact that she was sinless
meant that there was no resistance in her to God. Her faith made her
unswerving in her trust in God no matter what happened. She listened
attentively to the Word of God and did what God asked of her. In this
way she came to the fullness of life.
19. Mary had to walk by faith. She had to penetrate the
mystery of God’s plan and the mystery of her Son with loving faith.
She pondered everything that happened to her and stored up everything
in her heart in order to follow where God desired to lead her (Lk.
2,19.51). All the disparate elements of life reveal something of God
and of God’s plan. Mary is presented to us as a model (Lk. 11,28). She
is the woman of faith, the perfect disciple of Jesus Christ. By
imitating her faith, we are enabled to see beyond the external things
that surround us. She was able to “see” God at the heart of the
universe drawing all things and all people to Himself through Jesus
Christ. Mary was a contemplative, which does not mean that she spent
all day on her knees. A contemplative is a mature friend of God who
looks upon reality as if with the eyes of God and loves what she sees
as if with God’s heart. Prayer of course is very important but the
test of the authenticity of prayer is how we live in daily life. Even
prayer can be used as an escape from reality. The reality that
surrounds us is the place of the encounter with the Living God. This
reality can be difficult; it can be challenging but nevertheless it is
the sacred space where we meet God. Prayer is not just bombarding God
with requests and petitions; it is above all an opening of our hearts,
our lives, to God. God has a plan for us and for our world and this
plan is borne out of love for us. God does not impose on us but
invites us to be co-workers in making the divine plan a reality in our
world. We cannot pray with sincerity “Your Kingdom come” unless we
seek to bring the values of the Kingdom to our own little part of the
world.
20. In prayer we invite God into our lives to shape and
mould our hearts so that we can be instruments of God’s peace and
love, so that we can be tabernacles of the divine presence. Jesus
himself gave us the model of all prayer (Mt. 6,9-13; Lk. 11,1-4). God
is Father of all and therefore all of us are members of the same
family. We bless and thank God because by our faith we have grasped
something of the divine plan for us and therefore we desire that God’s
will may be done. Mary was eager that God’s will be accomplished and
she was more than willing to play her part. This eagerness for God’s
will remained unchanged despite the sufferings that came to her
because of her acceptance. She proved that her prayer really was an
opening to God by her acceptance and active co-operation with God’s
will.
21. We are asked to be faithful to God in our own
particular situation. We are asked to live the Gospel where we are. We
are asked to be contemplatives at the heart of the world, being aware
of God’s presence not in dramatic ways but in the midst of our
ordinary everyday lives. Each of us then will be a focus for God’s
presence in our own little part of the world. First of all in faith we
need to be aware of the presence of God within us and then in the
people we meet. God lives at the centre of each human being no matter
what that person is like. As we become more and more aware of God’s
presence everywhere, we become more sensitive to the signs of the
presence of God’s Kingdom. This appears clearly in the visit of Mary
to Elizabeth and in the beautiful words of the Magnificat (Lk.
1,39-55).
22. The Hebrew Scriptures speak of watchmen on the
towers. They would be the first to see the dawn of a new day from
their high positions (Is 21,11-12; 40,9). The psalms speak of people
who get up very early in the morning to anticipate the dawn (Ps.
57(56),9; 108(107),2-3; 119(118),147-148). We are to be “Kingdom
spotters” (people who can recognize the values of the Kingdom in
unlikely situations (cf. Lk. 17,20-21; 12,54-56)). Many people with no
obvious religious affiliation live by the values of God’s Kingdom, the
same values that Jesus lived by and taught (cfr Lk. 10,13-14). We will
be able to spot these even in the most unlikely people and encourage
these values wherever we meet them. The visit of the poor shepherds to
the crib and what they said made Our Lady ponder in her heart (Lk.
2,8-20). She recognized the hand of God at work.
Prophets of Justice and Peace
23. God is not deaf to the cry of the poor and neither
must we be deaf. In the words of the Prophet Isaiah, God says, “Is not
this rather the fast which I desire: break unjust fetters, untie the
thongs of the yoke, set free the oppressed and break every yoke? Does
it not consist perhaps in sharing your bread with the hungry and to
bring the oppressed and homeless into your own home, in clothing those
who are naked without neglecting your own people?” (Is. 58, 6-7). We
live in God’s world and creation has been entrusted to us as God’s
stewards (Gn. 1,28; Sir. 17,1-4; Wis. 9,2-3). This does not mean that
we have complete liberty to use or abuse the goods of the earth
without thought for tomorrow or for future generations. We have
certain rights but also certain duties towards the rest of creation.
The Word of God is concerned with the whole of life and not just
spiritual things (Ps 104(103), 27-30).
24. Jesus Christ is for us the primary model of what it
means to be a prophet. We are above all followers of Christ and
therefore we must seek to put into practice his teachings every day.
Jesus Christ is priest, prophet and king because in him all the
promises and roles of the Old Testament are fulfilled. He is the one
in whom the work of the prophets reaches its culmination (cf. 2Cor
1,20; Mt 7,12). The prophets of the Old Testament proclaimed the Word
of God in particular situations. They warned and condemned but also
comforted the people in times of difficulty. They sought to turn the
hearts of the people towards God (Mal. 3,24) and they spoke with
severity or with tenderness according to the situation.
25. The prophets of the Old Testament spoke to the
imagination. They asked the people to imagine another possible future.
For example the prophets Isaiah and Micah spoke in a time of war of a
time of peace when “from their swords they will forge ploughshares and
from their blades, scythes. No nation will lift the sword against
another nation and they will not learn the art of war anymore….” (Is.
2,4; 11,5-9; Mic. 4,3). When the future is very dark, the prophets
bring hope. However in order to do this, it is necessary to see beyond
the present situation to the reality that lies beneath. This is the
faith of Our Lady in the Magnificat who sees the proud cast
down, the hungry filled with good things and the rich sent away empty
when those who see only the external appearances would believe the
opposite to be true (Lk. 1,46-55).
26. God has sent us a Savior and in Jesus we see the way
that God works in our world. Jesus preached Good News, healed the
sick, pardoned sinners and welcomed those who were excluded by the
religious leaders of his day. He did not resist violence when it came
to him as a result of his fidelity to the Father. He willingly and
freely gave up his life on the cross so that we may have life and have
it to the full (Jn. 10,10). He faced the full force of evil and seemed
to be submerged by it but the Father raised him to life on the third
day (Heb. 5,7-9). The resurrection of Jesus means that love is
stronger than hatred or evil, life is stronger than death (Rom.
8,35-39).
27. To be a peacemaker is a Christian obligation (Lk.
10,5; Mt. 5,9). It is not an optional extra to our Christianity. What
does being a peacemaker mean for us? First of all I think that we need
to make ourselves aware of the root causes of conflict in our world.
We often cut the heads off weeds and they simply grow again. There can
be no lasting peace until the causes for discontentment have been
addressed. We can go even further back in our search for the root
causes any war or injustice. The name of God is used for many demonic
actions. It is the safest mask of Satan and we must continually tear
this mask off if we are to be peacemakers. The great spiritual tragedy
is that many cruel and inhuman acts are committed in the name of
serving God (Jn. 16,2). Our father Elijah struggled against the
worship of idols and indeed the great danger in his day was that the
people might claim to worship Yahweh but in fact were worshipping the
idol Baal (1Kgs. 18,16-39). Idol worshipping is still prevalent in our
day. The names of the idols may have changed but the substance is the
same. An idol is any person, place or thing, that we put in the place
of God and from which we seek complete happiness. It is very easy to
condemn other people for the evils that they do. It is much more
difficult to see and accept the truth that we are part of the evil
which we protest against.
28. Jews, Christians and Muslims venerate the Prophet
Elijah and so we Carmelites must be ecumenical in our outreach. This
would be a real prophetic action in the situation of our days. We
cannot contribute to peace in our world until we are at peace in our
own hearts, until we are able to live in peace with the people around
us. The lack of peace in our own lives contributes to the lack of
peace in our world.
29. But what can we do? We have no political power. How
can we change the world? We can certainly take seriously the
suggestions that are presented to us by our local and International
Justice and Peace Commissions. As you know, the Carmelite Family has
recently formed a Carmelite NGO (Non Governmental Organization),
associated to, and recognized by, the UN. That has given us a much
wider forum in which to share our charism. The General Chapter of 1995
encouraged the Order to enter the new areopaghi of our world
and the UN is surely one of these. There are many Carmelites involved
in promoting justice and peace as a constituent part of working for
the coming of God’s Reign. We need to be aware of the many signs of
hope that exist. Who would have thought that they would have seen the
tearing down of the Berlin Wall or the dismantling of the Eastern
Block? What was responsible for these major events? Obviously there is
no simple answer to that question. However can we not say that the
thousands of little people who struggled and suffered for justice for
many years had some effect? Ordinary people can change things. Take
the example of slavery. For a time keeping slaves and making vast sums
out of selling some human beings to other human beings was considered
to be perfectly socially and morally acceptable. However several
people in a number of countries decided to do something about this.
Within a few years they had changed the attitude of whole societies.
30. We can certainly also pray for peace and justice in
our world. However, in a situation in which the world is threatened by
annihilation, prayer does not mean much when we take it only as an
attempt to influence God or as a search for a spiritual fallout
shelter or as a source of consolation in stress-filled times. Real
prayer is such a radical act because it asks us to criticize our whole
way of being in the world; lay down our old self and accept our new
self, which is Christ.
The Sound of Sheer Silence
31. Where is God in the midst of all our problems? (Ps.
42(41), 4; 79(78), 10; Joel 2,17). Our faith tells us that God cannot
really be absent from our lives. That would be hell. The Prophet
Isaiah speaks of the hidden God (Is 45,15). Perhaps we need to learn
to discern the presence of God in the apparent absence of God and to
learn a new language, God’s language. St. John of the Cross, tells us
that, “One word the Father spoke, which word was His Son, and this
word he speaks ever in eternal silence, and in silence must it be
heard by the soul” (Maxims & Counsels, 21).
32. We have to cultivate a profound silence within so
that we can hear what God wants to say to us (cf. Is 50,4). We need to
listen to God in prayer of course but also in the events of daily
life. Often we have so much noise going on inside us that we cannot
hear or discern anything else. As Carmelites, this silence should come
naturally to us, or at least the desire for it. This is not just an
ascetic practice and it is not referring merely to an external
silence. It is an internal silence in order to discern the presence of
God in the midst of even the most hopeless situation so that we can
continue our journey with hope. Our Rule tells us: “The apostle
recommends silence, when he tells us to work in it. As the prophet
also testifies, Silence is the cultivation of justice; and again, in
silence and hope will be your strength” (Rule 21).
33. We need to try to identify the noise inside us: the
commentaries on others, on events, and on ourselves. Once we have
become aware of our internal noise, we can begin to let it go so that
it does not influence everything we do, think and say. If we continue
the journey we will be brought face to face with our prejudices, our
irrational fears and our presumptions. This experience is not to
depress us but so that we can be liberated from them.
34. It is necessary to cultivate an interior silence so
that we will be aware that God is speaking to us through some simple
and humble messenger. If we are not silent within, life passes us by
and we never grasp the true significance of what happens to us (cf.
Mt. 16,1-3). Many of us are not completely at ease with external
silence. We have an internal tape or cd that comments on everything
and everyone throughout the day. The comments on the internal tape are
based on our particular perspective on life, which of course is
usually in our favor. We instinctively defend ourselves if we feel
under attack and we seek the esteem and acceptance of others. We do
this usually without being aware of what is going on inside us. It is
a constant internal noise that makes it difficult to hear any other
voice. The journey of faith towards transformation takes us through
bright sunlight and dark valleys (cf. Ps 23(22),4). God uses all the
events of our life, good and bad, as instruments of purification,
which is essential if we are to become what God has created us to be.
We have to make the effort to attempt to discern the hand of God at
work but this discernment is much easier if we can calm the noise
inside us and hear the voice of God who speaks in the sound of the
gentle breeze, or as some exegetes have it, “ the sound of thin
silence” or “the sound of sheer silence” (I K 19, 12).
Say "No" to Death
35. We are the people of the resurrection. The
resurrection is God’s “yes” to life. If we are to say “yes” to life,
we must say “no” to death in all its forms. Saying “no” to death
starts much earlier than saying “no” to any form of physical violence.
It requires a deep commitment to the words of Jesus - “Do not judge” (Lk.
6,37). It requires saying “no” to all violence of heart and mind. (Mt.
5,22). The judgments I make of people are a form of moral killing (Rm.
14,4). When I judge other human beings, I label them, put them in
fixed categories and place them at a safe distance from me so that I
do not have to enter into a real human relationship with them. By my
judgments I divide my world into those who are good and those who are
evil and I thus play God. But everyone who plays God ends up by acting
like the devil. The words of Jesus go right to the heart of our
struggle, “Love your enemies, and do good to those who hate you. Bless
those who curse you. Pray for those who treat you badly” (Lk.
6,27-28).
36. What my enemy deserves is not my anger, rejection,
resentment or disdain but my love (Mt. 5,44-45). Only a loving heart,
a heart that continues to affirm life at all times, can say “no” to
death without being corrupted by it. Increasing starvation and poverty
around the world, the wars that go on all the time offer us many
reasons to be fearful even despairing. When we hear the voices of
death all around us and see the many signs of the superiority of the
powers of death, it becomes hard to believe that life is indeed
stronger than death. However, it must have been hard to believe in a
bright future on the first Good Friday.
37. Our God is a God of surprises. If we say “no” to
death in all it forms, we may seem to be on the losing side. Indeed at
times it may seem that we are on our own but we are not. There is a
whole army of unimportant people, in the eyes of the world, praying
and working for peace. These people are allowing God to change their
lives from within, to take out of their bodies the heart of stone and
replace it with a heart of flesh, which is able to love (Ez. 11,19).
These people are letting go of the false self which is based on
external criteria e.g. success, wealth, power, the good opinion of
others and so on, and discovering the true self which is found in God.
The true self is created in the image and likeness of God (Gn.
1,26-27) and nothing can destroy it. The true self does not judge
others or label them but it sees another true self struggling to
release itself from the chains of the false self. This army of
peaceful people is having an effect on our world. Jesus said, “Blessed
are the meek for they shall inherit the earth” (Mt. 5,5). The power of
our God is stronger than all human weapons (Judith 9,7; Is. 40,15).
When will the promise be fulfilled? We do not know but fulfilled it
will be.
38. Jesus Christ is the Word of God (Jn. 1,14), God’s
“yes” to the world. God created the world and found everything very
good (Gen.1,31). Through creation we can come into contact with God
(Rm. 1,20) and therefore we have a serious duty to protect it and
nurture it so that it will continue to speak of God to future
generations. By means of the death and resurrection of Christ we are
redeemed and reunited with God (Rm. 6,4-11). The Word of God does not
return to its author without having completed what it was sent to do,
according to the prophet Isaiah (Is 55,11). This is true in a sublime
way in the case of Jesus Christ through whom the whole of creation
finds once again the road that leads to God (John 14,6).
39. To become a word from God it is necessary to enter a
process of interior transformation and consent to the presence and
action of God in our life. This is the work of God but God will not do
it without our consent. This process can be painful because through it
we come to see ourselves as we really are and not as we would like to
be. The great danger is that we will seek to run away from this
encounter with ourselves because we do not want to accept what is
being revealed to us. This process of transformation includes a
disintegration of what is false within us so that the true self can
come to birth.
40. We do not fulfill our prophetic vocation simply by
preaching or when we work with the poor and the marginalized, vital
though that work is. We fulfill our prophetic vocation when we become
a word from God and this involves a death in view of a resurrection, a
new life in the image of God. To work for justice is an essential
element of the preaching of the Gospel. This has been underlined
innumerable times in church documents. However those who work in the
area of justice and peace often meet with incomprehension or even
antagonism from their own brothers or sisters. Why is not easy to
explain but this fact has obscured a very important element of our
work as religious.
A Dark Night
41. In our faith journey, there are moments when we are
brought into the desert. Sometimes we walk into the desert following
God’s call or sometimes we just find ourselves there by force of
circumstance. The desert is arid and it can be a frightening place.
What does it all mean? We can be tempted not to go any further on the
journey because we feel it is just not worth all the trouble. Then God
sends a messenger to us (cf. 1K. 19,4-7). This messenger can come in
all shapes and sizes and he or she encourages us to eat and drink for
the journey is long. We are encouraged to eat the bread of life and
drink from Carmel’s wells, that is the Carmelite tradition, which has
given life to many generations before us. But perhaps we are too
depressed to even be aware of this, so God’s messenger nudges us again
and encourages us to eat and drink. It is a great challenge to
recognize what God is saying to us in the midst of daily life and to
recognize the voice of God in and through the voice of some very
unlikely person.
42. Our faith, hope and love, those three essential
Christian virtues, are at the beginning of our journey, based on what
we have learned from others. As we continue on the journey, our human
reasons for belief, for hoping in God and for loving as Christ
commanded, begin to fail us. They are no longer sufficient. We can
throw it all in because the journey is too precarious and the end is
uncertain or we can reject the messenger and stay right where we are.
Or we can continue the journey into the night (1K. 19,4-7). An
essential element on our journey towards transformation is the dark
night. This was never intended to be gloomy and impossible but an
invitation to let go of our human and limited way of thinking, loving
and acting so that we can think, love and act according to God’s ways
(cf. Const. 17).
43. John of the Cross gives masterful descriptions of
various elements that go to make up the night but it is not uniform
for everyone. The night is experienced by each person in a different
way and is made precisely to assist the purification of the particular
individual. The dark night is not a punishment for sin or infidelity
but is a sign of the nearness of God. The dark night is God’s work and
leads to the complete liberation of the human person. For this reason
it is to be welcomed despite the pain and confusion involved. The dark
night can be experienced not only by individuals but also by groups
and whole societies (cf. Lam. 3,1-24).
44. The journey of transformation usually lasts a long
time because the purification and change that is wrought in the human
being is so profound. This is not just a change of idea or opinion; it
is a complete transformation of how we relate to the world around us,
to other people and to God. The Native Americans have a saying about
walking a mile in someone else’s moccasins before we can understand
another person. Jesus warned his followers not to judge (Lk. 6,37; Rom
14,3-4) and the reason is very simple: we cannot see things from
another person’s perspective and therefore we do not know what are the
motives behind his or her actions. The process of Christian
transformation, however, leads the human being towards a profound
change of perspective, from his or her own particular way of seeing
things to God’s way. This involves a profound purification and
emptying of all our attachments so that we can be filled with God.
45. This contemplative journey, both on a personal and
communitarian level, cleanses our hearts that we may truly have room
in our hearts for others and may have the possibility of hearing the
cry of the poor without translating it through the filter of our own
needs. We will then be able to carry out the challenge laid down by
Pope John Paul II:
“Consecrated men and women are sent forth to proclaim, by
the witness of their lives, the value of Christian fraternity and the
transforming power of the Good News, which makes it possible to see
all people as sons and daughters of God, and inspires a self-giving
love towards everyone, especially the least of our brothers and
sisters” (VC, 51).
Our Response
46. Our vocation as Carmelites is very profound. We are
called to serve the people as contemplative communities. By responding
to Christ’s call to follow him, we pledge ourselves to take on his
vision and values but we soon find that we are incapable of living up
to our ideals on our own. As we mature in our relationship with God,
we give space to God to purify us so that we begin to see the way God
sees and love as God loves. This way of seeing and loving is painful
for the human being because it requires a radical transformation of
the heart. The cry of the poor will penetrate our defenses and our
response, freed from the distortion of the false self, will be from a
pure heart.
47. Commitment to justice, peace and the safeguarding of
creation is not an option. It is an urgent challenge, to which
contemplative and prophetic Carmelite communities, following the
example of Elijah and of Mary, must respond, speaking out in explicit
defense of the truth and of the divine plan for humanity and for
creation as a whole. Our community lifestyle is in itself such a
statement: it is founded on just and peaceful relations, according to
the plan outlined in our Rule. Let us pray for one another that we may
be faithful, individually and as communities, to the vocation given us
by God and always remember that “the Christ encountered in
contemplation is the same who lives and suffers in the poor” (VC, 82).
In St. Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus reminds us: I assure you, as often as
you did it for one of the least of my brothers, you did it for me”
(Mt. 25, 40).
1st January 2004
World Day of Prayer for Peace |