SEEKING GOD EACH DAY: HOW FAITH IS RIPENED ON THE VINE

All living things need food and water to survive, in addition to the right environment. I have learned much from following the Rule of St. Benedict as interpreted by the councils and constitutions of the Cistercian Order of the Strict Observance (OCSO) and further interpreted by Lay Cistercian spirituality. As a professed Lay Cistercian I know that I need the waters of Baptism and the food of Christ Himself in the Eucharist and Sacrament of Penance to move forward from my old (false) self to my new self. I must discipline myself to seek God not only in the times that I pray, but also all the times I look out at nature and whatever comes my way. That in all things, St. Benedict counsels, may God be glorified.

I am sitting at my desk in my office, placing myself in the presence of God on this Saturday morning, wanting to just be present to Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit. Seeking God each day means I transform the NOW, which is the only time in which I have a freedom to choose to do God’s will or my own, into being resonant with who Jesus is. With this mindset, everything becomes an occasion of grace rather than an occasion of sin.

God is a NOW person. “I am the one who is” says God to Moses. Moses had to process what that means. In fact each person born of woman must process what that means. Jesus, being one of us, also had to learn how to love as a human (the divine nature is love itself). That nexus is one of the questions I plan to ask Jesus: “How does your human self feel being joined as one with your divinity as the Son of God?”

My reflections on the NOWness of God come as I look out the window of my office and notice the Japanese Orange tree in my front yard, Satsuma oranges I think they call them. By the grace from the Holy Spirit, I am aware that all things are connected with each other with the golden thread of Christ’s passion, death and resurrection. As I ponder the goodness of God in nature, I think of how the tree begins just with orange blossoms and then buds, then small oranges. The final product takes time to ripen. It reminded me of my own Faith that the words of Christ to me become flesh through Christ but also through my awareness that God is the Lord of Creation, the Lord of Salvation, and the Spirit of Truth, right before me, as I look out at this tree.

Faith ripens every so slowly and inexorably as long as I am attached to the vine of Christ. I am totally dependent on Christ for my growth from false self to true self, but if I choose not to move forward, my growth stops. By myself, I don’t have the divine energy needed for my branch of the vine to thrive. Feel the passion and energy of St. Paul as he challenges the Athenians to see Jesus.

Paul’s Speech at the Areopagus.22Then Paul stood up at the Areopagus and said:^*

“You Athenians, I see that in every respect you are very religious.23For as I walked around looking carefully at your shrines, I even discovered an altar inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’^* What therefore you unknowingly worship, I proclaim to you.24The God who made the world and all that is in it, the Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in sanctuaries made by human hands,^h25nor is he served by human hands because he needs anything. Rather it is he who gives to everyone life and breath and everything.26He made from one^* the whole human race to dwell on the entire surface of the earth, and he fixed the ordered seasons and the boundaries of their regions,27so that people might seek God, even perhaps grope for him and find him, though indeed he is not far from any one of us.ⁱ28For ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’^* as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’29Since therefore we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divinity is like an image fashioned from gold, silver, or stone by human art and imagination.^j30God has overlooked the times of ignorance, but now he demands that all people everywhere repent31because he has established a day on which he will ‘judge the world with justice’ through a man he has appointed, and he has provided confirmation for all by raising him from the dead.”^k32When they heard about resurrection of the dead, some began to scoff, but others said, “We should like to hear you on this some other time.”33And so Paul left them.34But some did join him, and became believers. Among them were Dionysius, a member of the Court of the Areopagus, a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/acts/17#:~:text=27so%20that%20people%20might,’

As Baptized members of His body, the Vine, we are the branches, or orange tree fruit. Our fruit ripens as long as we remain connected to the Vine. Seeking God each day through Lectio Divina and Eucharist Adoration are just a few ways we ripen our faith and keep our fruit from rotting.

uiodg