{"id":16839,"date":"2016-09-01T17:50:58","date_gmt":"2016-09-01T21:50:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/oratory-toronto.org\/map-year\/?p=16839"},"modified":"2016-11-21T16:48:44","modified_gmt":"2016-11-21T21:48:44","slug":"16839","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oratory-toronto.org\/map-year\/2016\/09\/01\/16839\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on Dispossession and Desire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Not every one who says to me, \u2018Lord, Lord\u2019, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he\u00a0who does the will of my Father.<\/em> Let us consider this. Who are those who say \u2018Lord, Lord\u2019,\u00a0who speak with this apparently religious urgency, but who somehow miss the point?<\/p>\n

What can we hear in their words? Perhaps this: an urgency to possess<\/em> God, to be in a\u00a0relation to Him that they can know<\/em> and experience<\/em>, putting themselves in His presence,\u00a0no doubt, but only so that He can be in theirs, somehow reassuringly before<\/em> them,\u00a0apprehended as the precious object of their gaze. Lord, Lord<\/em> \u00ad- it is almost as if they are\u00a0summoning<\/em> Him, trying almost to force<\/em> Him to be real, to be graspable<\/em>, to give Himself\u00a0<\/em>to them in accordance with their desire to see<\/em> Him and hold on<\/em> to Him. We think of Mary\u00a0Magdalene in the garden, reaching out to touch the Risen Christ, to cling to Him, to\u00a0confirm that He is there for her.<\/p>\n

But in the garden, in that moment when she reaches out to hold on, Mary is resisted. As\u00a0we are resisted, when in this way we say Lord, Lord<\/em> in order to establish the privileged,\u00a0palpable clarity we seek. For it is not in this way that we shall enter the kingdom of\u00a0heaven.<\/p>\n

It seems strange, though, this Divine resistance to our desire to know and experience. For\u00a0this is a very natural<\/em> desire, and a very natural form in which religious longing can\u00a0express itself. Why should this religious desire to experience<\/em> God, to cling to Him as to a\u00a0sacred presence, encounter His mysterious resistance?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s try to think this through. To say Lord, Lord<\/em> is in one way to speak, in a religious\u00a0dialect, the universal language of the heart, the heart that desires to be full, and to know,\u00a0in possession, the plenitude it projects and desires. For some, speaking other dialects, this\u00a0plenitude might be imagined primarily as sexual intimacy<\/em>, or as money<\/em>, or knowledge<\/em>, or\u00a0power<\/em>. All of these we can desire to know and enjoy, to have as our own, in which we\u00a0foresee and reach out towards our own completion, the fullness of being ourselves. In the\u00a0religious dialect God<\/em> is the object of desire, not sex or power, and it is in God<\/em> we seek to\u00a0find ourselves and know ourselves completed. In this religious version, so different in one\u00a0way from the others \u00ad since it promises us God<\/em> rather than the world<\/em>\u00a0-\u00ad the underlying\u00a0movement is nonetheless the same as in more worldly desires. Worldly objects are\u00a0renounced and a Divine object takes their place; but in both cases we are imagining an\u00a0object<\/em>, something to be possessed<\/em>, and by means of it coming to possess ourselves.<\/p>\n

It is in this underlying movement that the problem resides. But in that case the problem\u00a0seems almost inevitable, inescapable. How else can we be, other than as desiring our own\u00a0completion? And religion, we believe, gives the answer to the search for what truly\u00a0completes us. How else can we possibly relate to God, other than as One Whom we desire\u00a0to possess? And yet we find ourselves being told that if we say Lord, Lord<\/em>, in that desiring<\/em>\u00a0way, we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.<\/p>\n

We are told even more, in fact. We are told that saying Lord, Lord<\/em> like that turns us into\u00a0false prophets<\/em>, dressed as sheep<\/em> but inwardly being ravenous wolves<\/em>. Outwardly we seem\u00a0to be disciples, but inwardly, in our hearts, we are hungry, famished and voracious to\u00a0consume<\/em>.<\/p>\n

How so? Well<\/em>\u00a0-\u00ad we seek God, and despise the world, and yet we seek God only to consume<\/em>\u00a0Him, exactly as others seek worldly things: we seek Him in order to possess<\/em> Him, as the\u00a0completion of our desire to complete ourselves<\/em>. It is this that makes us false<\/em>. We speak\u00a0and act falsely, not because we are falsifying our desire, but because our desire itself<\/em> is\u00a0false: it seems to be about God, but is really about ourselves, or is about God only as a\u00a0means to our own happiness. But God isn\u2019t a means to anything, so in relating to Him in\u00a0this way we relate to Him falsely, turning ourselves into false prophets<\/em>, speaking and\u00a0acting in His<\/em> name, but really in our own<\/em>, for our own<\/em> sake, for ourselves<\/em>: outwardly\u00a0sheep, but wolves in our hearts.<\/p>\n

This seems to be very hard on those who seem very enthusiastic about their religion, and\u00a0who appear to be able to enthuse others. Hard or not, however, the crisis is both clarified\u00a0and deepened in the following lines: On that day many will say to me, \u2018Lord, Lord, did\u00a0we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty\u00a0works in your name?\u2019 And then I will declare to them, \u2018I never knew you; depart from\u00a0me, your evildoers.\u2019<\/em> In these words, the underlying logic of self\u00ad-seeking is ruthlessly\u00a0exposed. We speak of Divine things, we expose and denounce the demonic, we insist\u00a0constantly and dramatically upon God and His Church \u00ad and yet all of it is really about us<\/em>,\u00a0not about God: we contemplate ourselves<\/em>, as in a mirror, exhilarated by the spectacle of\u00a0our discipleship, carried along by a self-\u00adregarding fidelity which is, in fact, in<\/em>fidelity, a\u00a0contradiction of discipleship, because all the time we are merely nourishing self-\u00adregard.\u00a0We desire to see ourselves as model Catholics, and thereby seek the perfection of a self-image: in our hearts, in the name<\/em> of God, we are subordinating Him to our ourselves. And\u00a0so our impressive championing of the Divine cause does not open us up to Him, but\u00a0merely closes us in upon ourselves, where alone we can find the satisfaction we seek. We\u00a0seem to accomplish so much for God \u00ad but all along we are evildoers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Now this is very difficult, but nonetheless it is a truth which we have to face: what it\u00a0means to be a good Catholic<\/em> isn\u2019t something we can contemplate in ourselves as in a\u00a0mirror.<\/p>\n

Being a good Catholic, in fact, doesn\u2019t involve seeing ourselves<\/em> at all -\u00ad except in the\u00a0disposition of penance, in which precisely we do not see an image<\/em> of ourselves, but see\u00a0rather the impossibility<\/em> of such an image, inaccessible in the brokenness, the\u00a0fragmentation, which is exposed to view in the light of the love of God.<\/p>\n

By the love of God<\/em> I mean, of course, not our<\/em> love for God, but His<\/em> for us, and ultimately\u00a0the Love that He is<\/em>. It is in this light that all self\u00ad-seeking, even and especially religious<\/em>\u00a0self-\u00adseeking, is denied us. We cannot seek ourselves in God, because not even God<\/em> seeks\u00a0Himself in God. Because He is Love, He offers no home for self-\u00adseeking, not even His\u00a0own; and if we seek ourselves by trying to ascend to Him, then we will certainly miss Him,\u00a0because He is in fact travelling in the opposite direction: descending<\/em>, coming out<\/em> of\u00a0Himself towards us, leaving Himself behind for our sake, as we must leave ourselves\u00a0behind for Him.<\/p>\n

God, least of all, contemplates Himself as in a mirror. Beyond Himself, He seeks those\u00a0whom He loves. And if we are to be His disciples, we must imitate Him, beyond all self-seeking, in the love that reaches out to the other -\u00ad not for our<\/em> sake, so that the other might\u00a0bring us to completion, but for the sake of the other himself.<\/p>\n

Beyond the hall of mirrors, then, to be a good Catholic is to be drawn into a relay of self-dispossession<\/em>. God empties Himself for the other, and we must receive this movement\u00a0from<\/em> Him, emptying ourselves in turn for the other, whom himself we hope to draw into\u00a0self\u00ad-emptying. Such self\u00ad-emptying is another name for Love \u00ad originating in God, and\u00a0poured out into the world.<\/p>\n

At no point, either in God or in the world, does Love permit a return to the self, the\u00a0contemplation of self\u00ad-completion. The Divine Persons, Father, Son and Spirit, eternally\u00a0pour themselves out for each other, and have no selves to which to return, except in the\u00a0form of this eternal self\u00ademptying, selves beyond selves. In this Trinitarian pattern we are\u00a0called to participate, becoming sharers in Love\u2019s own eternal self\u00addispossession. To be\u00a0held fascinated before the mirror, seeking our own completion, is not the kingdom of\u00a0heaven, but something very like hell.<\/p>\n

And so \u00ad Not everyone who says to me \u2018Lord, Lord\u2019, shall enter the kingdom of heaven,\u00a0but he who does the will of my Father<\/em>. The will of the Father is Love<\/em>: the Love in which\u00a0the Son is begotten eternally in the Spirit, the Love by which this Trinitarian life is poured\u00a0out upon creation, the Love by which the world not only receives<\/em> the Trinity but is called\u00a0to share in it. The Word became flesh to embody this call, to manifest the will of the\u00a0Father, the Father\u2019s Love, in the form of the Love of the Son: in this form are revealed to\u00a0us both the Father\u2019s Love for the Son and the Son\u2019s for the Father, an exchange between\u00a0Them which, in the Spirit, we are called to enter, which the Gospel calls entering the\u00a0kingdom of heaven<\/em>. This kingdom is nothing other than the Divine life itself, the\u00a0Trinitarian life of Love, in which, through the Incarnate Son, we come to share. We cannot\u00a0enter there by saying Lord, Lord,<\/em> as to One Whom we desire to possess, as the condition\u00a0of our own fulfilment. We can enter the kingdom only in imitation of the Incarnate and\u00a0Crucified Son, who lives and loves in giving Himself away.<\/p>\n

Which means, finally, that we must approach the Eucharist as sheep, not as wolves: not\u00a0ravenously, to feed ourselves, but as disciples, in love, so that expanding outwards from\u00a0the moment of communion we may draw the strength to leave ourselves behind so as love\u00a0others. In the Eucharist, we<\/em> do not so much feed on Love<\/em>, as Love<\/em> feeds on us<\/em>: it is not\u00a0that we<\/em> draw Love into ourselves<\/em>, so as to fill us up, but Love<\/em> draws us<\/em> into its own ever-expansive dimensions \u00ad transforming us for its work, turning us into places in which it can\u00a0express itself. To those who finally seek themselves, invested in being professionally\u00a0Catholic and who practise a hyperbolic Faith at the expense of love, the Eucharistic Christ\u00a0says I never knew you<\/em>. Lovers alone are those whom Love knows.<\/p>\n

By Fr Philip Cleevely, Cong. Orat.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not every one who says to me, \u2018Lord, Lord\u2019, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he\u00a0who does the will of my Father. Let us consider this. Who are those…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[66],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/oratory-toronto.org\/map-year\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/Prodigal-Son-Cropped.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s8brX6-16839","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oratory-toronto.org\/map-year\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16839"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oratory-toronto.org\/map-year\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oratory-toronto.org\/map-year\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oratory-toronto.org\/map-year\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oratory-toronto.org\/map-year\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/oratory-toronto.org\/map-year\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16840,"href":"https:\/\/oratory-toronto.org\/map-year\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16839\/revisions\/16840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oratory-toronto.org\/map-year\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oratory-toronto.org\/map-year\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oratory-toronto.org\/map-year\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oratory-toronto.org\/map-year\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}