THE THREE MOST TERRIFYING WORDS OF SCRIPTURES.

Last night, or early this morning, my Lectio Divina was about the most terrifying words of Old or New Testaments. Words are important to humans for communicating. Words are not to be trifled with. As Aristotle says in his book of aZswqq, “Trifles are not trifling.” That being said, these next three sets of words evoke a sense of wonder at how quickly they change the scenario from normalcy to a sense of foreboding and confusion.

FIRST WORD: 8c Then a new king, who knew nothing of Joseph,* rose to power in Egypt.

SIC TRANSEAT GLORIA MUNDI — How quickly the fortunes of humans can change. This happens even in our own days, viz-a-viz Ukraine, China, the United States, political parties of all stripes, and movements that come and mostly go. Heraclitus was correct in saying that the only constant is change. In this context, the transition of Joseph and thus the Israelites went from one of influence to one of servitude with the change of one ruler who had very different intentions about the worth of what Joseph had done before. Read this terrifying quote in its context.

Jacob’s Descendants in Egypt.

1 These are the names of the sons of Israel^* who, accompanied by their households, entered into Egypt with Jacob:

2^* Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah;

3 Issachar, Zebulun and Benjamin;

4 Dan and Naphtali; Gad and Asher.

5 The total number of Jacob’s direct descendants^* was seventy.^a Joseph was already in Egypt.

6 Now Joseph and all his brothers and that whole generation died.^b

7 But the Israelites were fruitful and prolific. They multiplied and became so very numerous that the land was filled with them.^*

The Oppression.

8c Then a new king, who knew nothing of Joseph,* rose to power in Egypt.

9 He said to his people, “See! The Israelite people have multiplied and become more numerous than we are!

10 Come, let us deal shrewdly with them to stop their increase;* otherwise, in time of war they too may join our enemies to fight against us, and so leave the land.”

11 Accordingly, they set supervisors over the Israelites to oppress them with forced labor.^d Thus they had to build for Pharaoh^* the garrison cities of Pithom and Raamses.

12 Yet the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and spread, so that the Egyptians began to loathe the Israelites.

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/exodus/1

I always try to tie the Scriptures with the living history or stories and myths of how people tried to come to terms with what it means to be human and not savage. This is still the case, especially in our age of rationalism and the golden calf of what is easy over what is right.

I try to focus on that first terrifying statement for fifteen minutes of meditation and ask the Holy Spirit what that means for me. I don’t claim to know what that means for you because you and I are different persons with different approaches to what it means to be fully human throughout our lifetime. I have assimilated these three caveats into how I think about life, realizing that, at any moment, an asteroid may hit Earth, some crazy politician might set off a nuclear war, or I might have a stroke and become debilitated. With Christ, whatever comes is my reality, my Lay Cistercian way.

SECOND WORD: “And it was night.”

Announcement of Judas’s Betrayal.^m

21 When he had said this, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified, “Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me.”

22 The disciples looked at one another, at a loss as to whom he meant.

23 One of his disciples, the one whom Jesus loved,^* was reclining at Jesus’ side.ⁿ

24 So Simon Peter nodded to him to find out whom he meant.

25He leaned back against Jesus’ chest and said to him, “Master, who is it?”^o

26 Jesus answered, “It is the one to whom I hand the morsel^* after I have dipped it.” So he dipped the morsel and [took it and] handed it to Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot.

27 After he took the morsel, Satan entered him. So Jesus said to him, “What you are going to do, do quickly.”^p

28 [Now] none of those reclining at table realized why he said this to him.

29 Some thought that since Judas kept the money bag, Jesus had told him, “Buy what we need for the feast,” or to give something to the poor.^q

30 So he took the morsel and left at once. And it was night.

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/13

This is a bone-chilling statement, one that is extremely short but powerful. At night, no one can see anything without light. There is no light for what Judas has in mind. Betrayal is darkness, blindness, and the heavy sense of being phony. Again, the narrative in John’s Gospel paints a picture of human nature that is consistent with the default of original sin. Darkness is that default while light must be the exception so that people can physically or mentally see what is before them. My Lay Cistercian way is the exception to the world around me, which is why I must struggle each day against the darkness. Light only comes if I put it there. Love only comes if I put it there. The default of human existence is the darkness of acting our nature, while the next step in my evolution is for me to be aware enough to be a light from my heart being next to the light of the world, Christ, each day. Catholicism, and how I practice it through the contemplative mindset of silence, solitude, work, prayer, and community, is the exception to my humanity. I can only enter into this mindset by dying to that self which is the darkness of original sin and reaffirming my Baptism with its promises, over and over again. Starting over is the norm and not the exception in my spirituality. Reconciliation is making all things new, starting over again. How many times should I start over? Seventy times seven! Dispelling the darkness, which is the default, requires that I light up my life using the only light that will sustain my humanity and fulfill my evolution, The Christ Principle.

THIRD WORD: “…he departed and went off and hanged himself.”

The Death of Judas.

3^b Then Judas, his betrayer, seeing that Jesus had been condemned, deeply regretted what he had done. He returned the thirty pieces of silver^* to the chief priests and elders,^c

4 saying, “I have sinned in betraying innocent blood.” They said, “What is that to us? Look to it yourself.”

5^* Flinging the money into the temple, he departed and went off and hanged himself.

6 The chief priests gathered up the money, but said, “It is not lawful to deposit this in the temple treasury, for it is the price of blood.”

7 After consultation, they used it to buy the potter’s field as a burial place for foreigners.

8 That is why that field even today is called the Field of Blood.

9 Then was fulfilled what had been said through Jeremiah the prophet,^* “And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the value of a man with a price on his head, a price set by some of the Israelites,

10^d and they paid it out for the potter’s field just as the Lord had commanded me.”

Despair is a human emotion that can eat at the very fabric of what it means to be an adopted son or daughter of the Father. Insidiously, despair paints a dark picture of past behaviors that can, if not countered by Hope, become, as in the case of Judas, life-ending. What it means to be fully human is not just existing physically and mentally, although it is that. There is an additional dimension for some that helps to penetrate the darkness of hopelessness. When I think of Christ and the fact that God could, at any moment relieve the lot of the poor (and those in the darkness of their own blindness to the light of Christ), I am reminded of how, without Hope (from the Holy Spirit), life is not worth living if you have cancer, or are in an abusive relationship as spouse or child, or have no money for food, or, as Dr. Viktor Frankl writes, “a will to meaning.” Here are some of his profound insights into hope and despair. http://www.AZQuotes.com

• “Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
• “Forces beyond your control can take away everything you possess except one thing, your freedom to choose how you will respond to the situation.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
• “Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning. The greatest task for any person is to find meaning in his or her own life.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
• “We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
• “When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
• “Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
• “The one thing you can’t take away from me is the way I choose to respond to what you do to me.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
• “Our greatest human freedom is that, despite whatever our physical situation is in life, WE ARE ALWAYS FREE TO CHOOSE OUR THOUGHTS!” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
• “We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one’s predicament into a human achievement. When we are no longer able to change a situation think of an incurable disease such as inoperable cancer-we are challenged to change ourselves.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl
• “It did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us. We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life—daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not of talk and meditation, but in the right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking the responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.” ~ Viktor E. Frankl

An additional resource is http://www.organism.earth. This one is way out there.

How lucky we humans are to know that we know, to be aware that we are aware, to know and be aware that each of us is an adopted son or daughter of the Father through Baptism.

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