Friday Jan 22 2010 JR Youth Group
“All the world is a stage, and all the men and woman are merely players.”
This is a quote by a writer named William Shakespeare.
As you probably know Shakespeare was a really famous dramatist during the 16th century.
A dramatist is actually a playwright, someone who writes and creates plays.
It’s someone who realistically takes little pieces of our every day reality and brings them to life…
Back in the 16th century there were no movie theaters like we have today so if you wanted to witness a story; it had to be acted out on a stage.
If Shakespeare was the mind behind the play, he had to have actors to act out his stories….they are people acting out little pieces, acting out the Events of our lives before an audience.
The people in the plays are following the script as movie actors do now a days.
They are following a method, a method that the playwright or the director puts before them.
Obviously like in life some plays are about happy things, Comedies, things that make us laugh out loud, or smile..
But others also as in life are depicting sad, traumatic things that SHOCK us.
Those shocking things make us reflect,
if
we are paying attention,
And the same shocking things can help us to identify with what is going on, on in the play.
The purpose of this, this newly named cultural event,
Because that’s what we call it now a days a play, or a production at the theater.
The point of going and watching a play would be to become more cultural… To become more human.
TO become more AWARE. TO be ready for an Encounter.
Imagine you’re not sitting here in this little chapel but in an audience and before you is a brightly lit stage,
You are sitting in darkness and all your attention is focused on what is going on on the stage.
As you are watching the actors bring to life the scene or the story, the piece of life that they are depicting,
Simultaneously You are aware that there is a director behind the stage arranging everyone, to be here, to say this line, to do this action… In a tangible way.
Tangibility, something you can touch, feel, change…
We can’t see the director, but we know using our common sense that he is the one creating the situations that the actors are bringing to life in front of us.
As we watch the interactions between characters, we are learning, we are reflecting unconsciously,
We either identify with them, or we wish to imitate them, or we judge them.
We could say,
That Our life is like a play,
It’s a continuous drama.
And God is our director.
God creates events, “circumstances” that come before us. He forces us to make judgments. To experience.
To experience means to comprehend, to understand, to ask questions, to pursue answers until we are satisfied,
until we find what it is that corresponds to our hearts.
To find what makes us happy, not in the artificial way either but in the way that truly makes known the YOU and squishes down the I.
So not only are we playing the parts, not only do we act out these scenes, we witness others doing the same. We are also spectators, we are called not only to testify but also to witness.
How can we witness what is going on around us? Christ called us to follow him. But he also wants us to be his disciples.
We need to educate our selves to the Human Experience.
I know I repeat this, and Fr Alfie repeated this before me, there is a common thing between all of us, no matter which scenes are being played out in our lives.
We all have different stories and different dramas but the one common thing between each of us here in this room is our Destiny.
There is a piece of scripture it’s from the book of Jeremiah that I love and when I was thinking about what to say tonight, it popped into my head.
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you a part.”
We are part of Gods Plan, we are living our lives according to his time, as we said last week. We do not control time.
The circumstances God puts in front of us are there to educated us, and more importantly to teach us, and to help us follow him.
When bad things happen, or when what is before us is something unpleasant
“According to our measure”,
We dismiss it or question it. And We ask God why?
St John tells us, God Is Love.
This is true above anything in this world. When God puts in our path circumstances that we don’t like, we must trust.
It’s is beautiful and exciting to live this way.
Even in the face of something hard or sad life is not a tragedy, it’s a drama.
It’s dramatic because of the relationship between our I and the YOU of God.
It’s exciting because making this commitment to being ready for the Encounter, to being attentive to the reality and the drama that unfold, You remember the story at the advent retreat, about never crossing the river in the same place twice.
This is true of all of us, in our lives.
Living with this knowledge, the awareness is exciting because with our I we must follow the steps in which God indicates,
Like the director in the play that is our life..
In the morning tomorrow when you pray the Angelus, ask God, beg Him to make known to you his Presence.
TO help you each see that you are the players on
His stage.
The awareness of time brings a summery of how we spend our time. Everywhere we turn today, yesterday for the last three days we are provoked to react in the face of this tragedy of Haiti… What did you do over the last three days? Went to school, Hung out with your friends, your family? Watched from inside your warm homes the rain falling? Did you crack any jokes perhaps about an impending flood coming??? We did many things, and at precisely the same time, there are people, youths very similar to you in ruins, absolute chaos.
Did they plan to do this, their entire world, all which is important to them; all that matters to them, picture it- is in ruins. There are people laying dying in the streets all alone. All their material things, the things that sustain them are now piles of rubbish
Imagine it- No water to take away the thirst, no medicine to take away the pain. They did not expect this; they did not expect to be hurt in this way. They did nothing to cause this.
Time does not belong to us, time is not ours.
Our usual way of living is fixed on images, on movies, on what our friends say and think, this is unconsciously how we attribute the value of time. It’s fixed on projects, or on our dreams, or on our expectations to which we attach life’s “value”. Why do we want to “own” life in this way? Why is everything constantly being measured by possessions, including our time?
Jesus asks us, Give me your life! How can we answer him this?
When your parent asks you to pick up your room, or your teacher busts you for throwing erasers, and even though you got into trouble you we not even the one that threw the eraser in the first place… How do you react to that!! Are you agreeable, do you say no sir, yes mam?? OR do you expect something else, to do nothing but gain it all?? It is in these little tiny insignificant moments that Jesus whispers in our hearts, “Give me your life.”
When we turn on the turn on the TV and during the commercial to our favorite show a news break comes across the screen updating the travesty in Haiti, I implore you all to pray. Take action, even a prayer is an action.
Be attentive, to the needs around us. Today we are speaking about Haiti but yesterday it was something else, and tomorrow it will be something else. Do you see that these moments don’t belong to us?
We must be attentive through all the moments. The little moments in our lives that may not be huge natural disasters but could be that time when you walk out of your class and your friends are standing around in a group and are all talking badly about another of your friends, you enter a conversation that moves you.
Did you feel that? That slight unease? That uncomfortable moment that passes through you? That’s Jesus quietly asking you, Give me your life?
Your heart is designed to recognize Him; it doesn’t feel right because you are made for something else. Your greatest desires can not be satisfied truly with things of this world. You can live here, you can participate, but you are a pilgrim or traveler on a journey… Your home is with Him, your father in Heaven. God gave everyone of us free will so that we may choose Him again and again and again.
When we see the pictures of the children laying alone in the streets or the elderly laying lifeless in the rubble that feeling you get in your stomach, when your breath is taken away, that’s your heart moving. It’s in those small movements that we choose Christ. We can say a simple prayer, a prayer to God to help them. “Oh Lord, wrap your loving arms around the poor people of Haiti, bring them strength and comfort through this darkest of nights”
The course of this life is Inevitable. Our life belongs to God. We are so loved, in all our moments, whether we are using our time wisely or not. He doesn’t judge us, nor will he ever, he only asks that we Give him our life, to try, to be attentive.
Imagine those people facing the darkness that’s before them, across the world in Haiti or out side of your classroom in amongst the group of your friends. The people waiting for stones and bricks to be removed from their bodies or that one friend that is being cast out the two experiences are vastly different but Jesus is present in both circumstances.
Neither planned for this today.
You can not plan, you can not possess the knowledge behind time, you can only be ready for the experience, you can put your Hope in God, You can Trust that He will offer us His encounter. We must not measure, we can not measure, yesterday brought an experience, but not something that you created. The things that bring us comfort, that make us happy, that we like- do not come from us at all. We belong to Another, to GOD. It is in Him that the world, our world makes any sense at all.
In the morning, when you are praying the Angelus, ask Him “Show me your face today Oh LORD”, beg that you will hear Him in the simple moments of your life, when you enter the crowd out side the class, when you see the man in rags on the street, when you are asked to clean your room, when you hear of the increasing number of precious people that have died in that awful earthquake..
Be ready, when he asks you, I am here Lord. Everyday ask, because as the people in Haiti did not plan for that experience, nor can we. All we can do is to try to be attentive, you can remember that we don’t own time, it is a precious gift given to us by our Father.
Inevitability, my life belongs to Another..
The awareness of time passed can help us to remain attentive to the Christian Experience, here and now, to be ready.
I am struck by passing time, I am aware of the moments that happen to me, it strikes me as I make my judgements upon how I spend my time. Do you know when you are dreaming? Are you aware if you are in a dream or if you are awake. I spent time, much of my life even- was spent in a dream. I saw faces, I experienced all the shades around me, with out a single conscience judgment. I didn’t see Christ at all. I didn’t know his face. I was daydreaming while aiming for perfection (fr. Giussani)
Where was the effort? There was no effort. What does it mean to “Look Christ in the face?” to me, it means taking a risk, making an effort, it means to recognize him in a very substantial way. To see his presence in my daily life.
This is not an abstract idea, it is an effort! I change; it’s impossible not to change after the encounter with the face of Christ. But I need effort. Constant effort, It is my own free will that this attentiveness can be constructed. What do I desire? What corresponds to my heart, that is to say what makes me happy? Is my deepest desire for good? For truth, for poverty of spirit which leads to a complete abandonment to His will. Am I obedient? Do I have my gaze upon the Mystery? Is that where I am going? “I am with You, oh Lord, I am with You who are my strength. “
The one who made me, knows me, Living the Mystery doesn’t require me to have a perfect heart, He desires only that I ask, that I beg to be made clean. It is in this state of trust, this measure that I impose upon my soul, that in reality corresponds effectively to my soul. I am the prodigal, I am the one that comes home and is welcomed into the great feast.
This return home, this awareness of the Mystery, of desire, of inner poverty is precisely why the passage of time becomes eminent.
We are struck by the awareness of time past, of the time that has passed, of time that passes. I say of time that has passed because this is also a summery of how we have behaved, of how we have used this time, aware of time past, and therefore aware of time that passes..
The awareness of time enlightens us, makes us shrewder time that passes can activate us in a more intelligent way.
To be continued…
EXPERIENSE: THE INSTRUMENT FOR A HUMAN JOURNEY
Over the past months, I have spent a lot of time reading, reflecting, and preparing for a life lived in a new and attentive way. I’d say more than the average person struggling through daily life I am searching. I am searching for an Experience. I am searching for the experience, the realization that He is present. That I am here, for a reason. That I am seeing the world in all it’s true glory the way God has created it, with me in mind from the beginning of time.
Our world today is one of confusion, chaos, bewilderment and discord. That is the way Satan wants it. Divide and conquer. He is dividing nations, peoples, government’s, families, spouses, siblings, hearts… We are in such a state of confusion it truly is a wonder that I am still here searching. Do you know why? I think I do. I think that, like all of you, even though many don’t notice it, I see that my heart does not correspond to the discord. I notice that my heart has a place, and that this world is NOT it.
In the very beginning of the booklet the introductory paragraph Fr Julian Carron states this; ” We all know how needy we are for this energy (the energy of Christ, of the Holy Spirit): the more we’re aware of the disproportion of our resources, the more we are aware that we need something greater than our than intentions and our goodwill, and for this reason there wells up inside us this cry to the Holy Spirit, that the energy of Christ may enter our life and open us to the grace the Lord wants to give us in these days. “
“How often we feel lost without knowing how to face certain things or how to live in the face of certain situations!”
It’s nearly the norm to be drifting. We drift from here to there. We drift in and out of discourse. It’s unsatisfying, yet we do so repeatedly. We all realize it’s no longer enough, It is not enough to merely make the motions. No matter what if you are following along, doing the right things, being the “good Christian” without love, without the acknowledgement of the vivifying Mystery, the individual fades away and dies. Our hope, the salvation of Christ, cannot be something we’ve read and know how to parrot back well.
A few weeks ago now I had the opportunity to help at a Youth Retreat, Of course you know it was Father’s Advent Retreat. While there I kept an open mind and tried to make my judgments more instantaneous. I had freshly read the pages 12, 13, 14 and 15 the lesson on Judgment. What most specifically struck me was the factual structure of our own humanity, that judgment; the judgment we make is NOT something added, but something that comes because of our being. This is where for me the pin unraveled the whole ball because I could see clearly that we need to have a personal experience; Having a true human experience, not just being emotional about things, not just trying, not just going through the motions, but actually making the judgment, every single time, regarding every single thing.
What I have deduced from reading and rereading this bit of text, then looking at my life is that to experience means to comprehend, to understand, means to ask questions, we must ask questions, then pursue the answers until we are satisfied, until a judgment is made. Good or bad, we must discover the purpose so we can continue on to the judgment. If you stop before judgment that would be artificial there for you COULD NOT pass or even accurately make the judgment. We need to experience to really live! This is not a forum people, we do not sit around contemplating whether this is good, or beautiful, of shameful, or hard, I am trying to grasp the truth of the matter right now because I know, I acknowledge the I.
On Page 13 three quarters of the way down Fr. Carron says it’s Loyalty to the experience, I agree. It’s the follow through. We don’t quit half way through, and I am talking in a millisecond here this judgment can be reached; I won’t turn my back in the middle and give up… that would be artificial. How could I make the judgment if I don’t understand the thing fully?!
Commit to Living, keep asking, satisfy your questions, there is more… I know I need to ask more. It comes back to awareness doesn’t it? We must beg, literally beg Christ to be present to us, we can start the motion, without the thing that comes before, with out understanding, judgment ultimately made without knowledge isn’t a true experience, we will end up like the old empty ones, that have lived the half lives. We must verify to live. Fr. Giussani says: the test of experience is that it makes us grow… Isn’t that what we are doing here? Growing in faith, companions on this journey together? This journey some call life??
Would I rather live in a reduced way? Drifting, uncertain, confused or in a superb state of bewilderness? OR do I demand the truth! Useless discourse, living the half life, in and out of enchantments (which with out a doubt happens to us all) will NEVER be enough for me. I must follow the method, in which brings forth within me a True Christian experience. Trust in God, Obedience to Christ, keeping fully aware. Communion and Liberation for me takes my faith to a tangible level. This method nourishes my soul. I need to have personal experiences. I recognize that…
As Father Carron says, the confusion can be defeated… I agree.
[there is quite a bit more I wanted to say about this, but I realize this might not be exactly where you all are in the booklet, there is quite an important part about dualism, on Page 16.. then even more striking to me was the entire Summery.. But I guess as Father SPECIFICALLY requested this to be... "Not too long" I'll end here.]
~
When I encountered Christ,
I discovered my humanity.
~
