In Yoke

It is here, my daughters, that love is to be found, not hidden away in corners but in the midst of occasions of sin. And believe me, although we may more often fail and commit small lapses, our gain will be incomparably the greater.   – Saint Teresa of Avila From Sri Easwaran: The widest possibilities for growth lie in the give-and-take of everyday relationships. The truth of this is brought out in a story about Saint Francis of Assisi. Three young men approached Francis and asked his blessing to become hermits and seek God, each in his own cave, deep in the mountains of Umbria. Francis smiled. He instructed them to be hermits indeed, but hermits all together in a single hut. One should take the role of father; a second should think of himself as the mother; and the third should be their child. Every few months they should exchange roles. Living in this way they were to establish among themselves perfect harmony, thinking always of the needs of one another. We can al...

" …And straightway He constrained His disciples to get into the ship, and to go to the other side. ..." Mark 6: 45-52. We are apt to imagine that if Jesus Christ constrains us, and we obey Him, He will lead us to great success. We must never put our dreams of success as God's purpose for us; His purpose may be exactly the opposite.   We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal; He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the end. What is my dream of God's purpose? His purpose is that I depend on Him and on His power now. If I can stay in the middle of the turmoil calm and un-perplexed, that is the end of the purpose of God. God is not working towards a particular finish; His end is the process--that I see Him walking on the waves, no shore in sight, no success, no goal, just the absolute certainty that it is all right because I see Him walking on the sea. It is th...

One of my favorite quotes of Fr. Richard Rohr, the Franciscan catholic prophet can be disturbing to the semi fundamentalist ears of Baptists: The way of the cross looks like a way of failure. In fact, you could say that Christianity is about how to lose and win, how to let go creatively, how the only real ascent is a true descent. We need to be concerned with following Jesus, which he told us to do seventeen times, and less with worshipping Jesus--which he never told us once to do. What? Do what he says as the way to worship, not just simply to worship? Yes. The essence of being "in yoke" implies simple trust in his path, his way. Is it easier to place Jesus up on a pedestal-on the front of the sanctuary and worship his doings, his sacrifice, his example as an object worthy of our worship... rather than seeking to obey and follow him with all our heart and soul, as the way to worship the Father? But, then again, the way of descent, is never choosing the easy way, is it? My ...