SPIRITUAL WARFARE, SUFFERING FROM MEMORIES, AND THE PATH TO SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE

St John of the Cross tells us of the veritable paradise of joy and delight awaiting those who are joined to the Lord in Spiritual Marriage. Note the distinction being made between "spiritual" marriage of the human soul with the Holy Spirit, and the "physical" marriage (into one flesh) between a man and a woman:

"We can therefore assert truly that this soul is here clothed with God and bathed in divinity, not as though on the surface, but in the interior of her spirit, superabounding in divine delights. In the fullness of the spiritual waters of life, she experiences what David says of those who have reached God: They shall be inebriated with the plenty of your house; and you will give them to drink of the torrent of your delight, because with you is the fountain of life [Ps. 36:8-9]. What fulfillment will the soul have in her being, since the drink given her is no less than a torrent of delight! This torrent is the Holy Spirit, because, as St. John says, He is a resplendent river of living water that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb [Rv. 22:1]. These waters, since they are the intimate love of God, flow intimately into the soul and give her to drink of this torrent of love that, as we said, is the Spirit of her Bridegroom infused in this union."(Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 26)

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"As you see more clearly that your vocation is to be a witness to God's love in the world, and as you become more determined to carry out that vocation, the attacks of the enemy will increase. And if your vocation is to establilsh a religious order dealing with people mired in suffering and poverty, as in the case of Paul of the Cross, or Mother Teresa, then God may allow you to personally experience a long life of pain and suffering, after the spiritual marriage, holding most joys in abeyance for you until the next life. In this way you will understand, by personal experience, the nature of the depth and breadth of the suffering the Savior undertook for the people served, as well as the religious vocations to which you are giving birth. For the more you sense God's call, the more you will find in your own soul, the cosmic battle between God and Satan. Do not be afraid. Keep deeping your conviction that God's love for you is enough, that you are in safe hands, and that you are being guided every step of the way."(Henri J.M. Nouwen, "The Only Necessary Thing," p.70),

One of the specific sufferings most contemplatives undergo, during spiritual purification, is the shame and pain of humiliation, the pain coming from feelings of rejection and being despised, a share in the same suffering Jesus underwent when He was mocked and treated as a fool during his passion. God allows this pain of humiliation because it is the road to spiritual health. Being rejected and despised cuts into our "pride of life," and self-love in a powerful manner, leaving us psychologically and spiritually "wounded" and dependent on God's love to sustain us, and to compensate for our lost power of natural strength.

As part of the contemplative purification process, the wounds from childhood and our whole life may periodically come alive within us, even when we have forgiven and worked through them, and resurface with the original heat of painful humiliation in order that God may continue the ongoing work of detaching us from this world and fixing our gaze on the other world, where suffering is at an end, and where dwells our Truly Beloved. Through this ongoing process, we move powerfully from our center in ourselves, the Old Man, to our center in God. the New Man.

So we must understand and accept the suffering and the good that periodically recurrs within us from memories and old wounds, as well as new ones, whether they be a natural event or an event caused by a dark angel, and praise God for them, and for all our suffering, as it is one of the greatest gifts of transformation made possible by Jesus' sacrificial love for us through His Passion and Suffering on the Holy Cross. And make no mistake about this, "accepting it," and getting to the stage where we even "thank God for it," is the Royal Road to the end of the power of such memories and humiliations to hurt us, and ultimately, the end of any significant power held by all such suffering, even in this life. St Paul says we are to “embrace the Cross,” and thereby to “fill up what is lacking to the sufferings of Christ in our flesh, for His body, which is the Church.” This was clearly seen in the last fifteen years of the life of Pope John Paul II. Suffering for the Christian, says St Paul, is a sacred thing, something of almost infinite value, by which we become Associates of Christ in the salvation of the human race through the distribution of the graces He earned on Calvary. We can see how this works in the lives of so many parents who embrace physical and mental suffering in their untiring efforts to provide the grace of salvation for their children. We can also see it in the lives of so many clergy and religious who have embraced suffering and sacrifice in order that grace might flourish in the Church, and the souls for whom they are working.

For Christ did not come to abolish pain and suffering, part of the punishment for Original Sin and the ongoing sins of mankind, but to redeem them, and make of them something holy and transforming when rightly borne. Rightly borne means more than just experiencing pain and suffering, for that is the lot of all human beings. It means, rather, to lovingly, and even heroically embrace physical and mental pain just as Jesus did on the Cross, and as Mother Teresa did for the Sisters of Charity, for thereby the fullness of the redeeming power of God is made manifest in the lives of individuals in the world, as the Life of Jesus spreads from the Vine to the Branches of the Mystical Body. So from the little everyday upsets of our life, to the dark firess of mental and physical agony, we are “other Christs” in the work of salvation when we bravely embrace them as Christians, thus filling up what is lacking to the suffering of Christ in His Mystical Body.

"The neighbor's needs may well draw the Contemplative to the apostolate; something still stronger must constantly draw him back to his Contemplation; because in the last analysis it is there, in his heart to heart union with God that he will produce the true fruits of the apostolate, because the fruitfulness of his life is measured by the purity of his love for God."(Paul Marie De La Croix, O. Carm.)

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A LIFE OF CONTEMPLATION AND THE PSALMS OF DAVID

Let's look for a moment at one of the Psalms, and what the prophet, David, had to say about the value of the power of God's love in transforming all that we do in this life, when we choose to make our primary abode in the love of the Most High, i.e., "living a contemplative life, hidden in God."

Psalm 91

1: He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2: I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
3: Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
4: He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
5: Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
6: Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
7: A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
8: Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
9: Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
10: There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11: For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
12: They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
13: Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
14: Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
15: He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
16: With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

SADLY, MANY CATHOLICS REPLACE THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS CHRIST WITH THE TEACHINGS OF FREUD, OR SPIRITUAL NEW AGERS LIKE CARL JUNG

One salient example of spiritual blindness and misplaced faith, is in the current craze for Carl Jung, a Swiss psychologist, who has usurped the throne formerly held by Sigmund Freud, his one-time, collaborator. Many Catholics in today's Church have replaced Jesus Christ and the authority of the Magisterium with Carl Jung. (see "Carl Jung and Catholic Renewal," Paul Likoudis, Resources)

A few years ago, it was Freud and his "sexual libido" that purportedly explained religious belief and everything else in Life. Many Catholics were intimidated by his psychoanalytical credentials, and gave up their Faith at that time, since it had been supposedly explained away by his "Psychoanalysis" as just a function of natural psychic energy emanating from the unconscious, or "libido." For as one who had no faith, and therefore no capacity to speak on the existence and nature of transcendent realities, Freud, nevertheless, gave us the "benefit" of his considered "scientific" penetration of the matter of religion.

Today, many believers are repeating the same "hero-worshipping" error with Jung, whom some now idolize, since he is more in line with New Age and feminist ideology. Impressed by his "scientific" analysis, which claims to unlock the secrets of dreams and the unconscious, they have again effectively eliminated the supernatural in the Faith, by subjecting it to a "natural psychological analysis" based on a purported superior understanding of the nature of reality found in "Depth Psychology."

For Jung, although not a qualified theologian or philosopher, adopted a philosophical theory that we are all trapped in a "cocoon of the mind" which makes knowledge of supernatural truths impossible, since the supernatural realities they posit are extra-mental and not subject to direct psychological experimentation. At the same time, he says he doesn't deny metaphysical, extra-mental, realities may exist, it's rather just that, according to him, we can never be sure about them.

And in his psychological theory, Jung posits archetypes, or inherited mental artifacts and images, comprising the collective unconscious, which are able to fully account for God, spirit, religion, goodness and evil. These mental artifacts supposedly have nothing to do with the real God, if He exists, or with religion, "they just gradually undermine the possibility of the supernatural and the faith of one who buys into Jung's psychology.

"But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (St Paul, I Cor. 2:14)

POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IS RELEASED THROUGH REMEMBRANCE OF THE HOLY PRESENCE OF JESUS, AND BY CALLING ON HIS HOLY NAME.

The Catechism tells us:

"The name 'Jesus' contains all: God and man and the whole economy of creation and salvation. To pray 'Jesus' is to invoke him and to call him within us. "His name is the only one that contains the presence it signifies." Jesus is the Risen One, and whoever invokes the name of Jesus is welcoming the Son of God who loved him and who gave himself up for him.(2666-Catechism of the Catholic Church)

Therefore, as followers of Jesus Christ, let us not be backward in preaching the radical love of Jesus, and calling upon his Name as we learn to follow St Paul's directive to "pray without ceasing!" In the Catechism of the Catholic Church(2668), Pope John Paul II approves: "The invocation of the holy name of Jesus is the simplest way of praying always. When the holy name is repeated often by a humbly attentive heart, the prayer is not lost by heaping up empty phrases, but holds fast to the word and "brings forth fruit with patience." This prayer is possible "at all times" because it is not one occupation among others but the only occupation: that of loving God, which animates and transfigures every action in Christ Jesus."

In regard to the supposed inability of advanced spirituality to pray through the Sacred Humanity of Jesus, St Teresa tells us:

"Some souls also imagine that they cannot dwell upon the Passion, in which case they will be able still less to meditate upon the most sacred Virgin and the lives of the saints, the remembrance of whom brings us such great profit and encouragement. I cannot conceive what they are thinking of; for, though angelic spirits, freed from everything corporeal, may remain permanently enkindled in love, this is not possible for those of us who live in this mortal body. We need to cultivate, and think upon, and seek the companionship of those who, though living on earth like ourselves, have accomplished such great deeds for God; the last thing we should do is to withdraw of set purpose from our greatest help and blessing, which is the most sacred Humanity of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I cannot believe that people can really do this; it must be that they do not understand themselves and thus do harm to themselves and to others. At any rate, I can assure them that they will not enter these last two Mansions; for, if they lose their Guide, the good Jesus, they will be unable to find their way; they will do well if they are able to remain securely in the other Mansions." {Interior Castle: Jesus and Meditation, Sixth Mansion, Ch.7(Resources)}

In this connection, Paul De La Croix, O. Carm., reminds us: "At no instant does St John of the Cross forget that Christ is "the author and finisher of our faith" (Heb. 12: 2). Christ gives us faith and He is the first to benefit from the gift. When the eyes of the soul are fixed on Christ, the Incarnate Word, faith enables them to discover Him as He is in the mystery of His divine and human Person. Before addressing the divine Persons of the Trinity and acquiring a general, obscure and confused knowledge of God, faith turns first to Christ and through faith the soul is in a certain sense made like Him: "All the wisdom of God which is the Son of God is communicated to the soul in faith".(St John of the Cross,The Ascent, Bk II, Ch. 9)

For with this practice of spirituality without Jesus, God becomes some kind of hidden being consisting of "invisible space," and Jesus, as a solid human being, naturally falls below the invisible space level. This divides Jesus Christ the man from His Divinity. Jesus becomes irrelevant as our contemplative prayer goes off to Infinite Divinity. And when Jesus becomes irrelevant, so do the Church, the sacraments, organized religion, and the true path to transforming love. One reason this error is common is because spiritual people undergo periods of "spiritual purgation," such as the Night of Sense, in which they are denied access to all sensory spiritual "sweetness," including that which they had earlier found in thoughts and meditations on Jesus.

For during the prayer of quiet, or the first stage of contemplative prayer, the soul may find itself without sensible affection for the saints, the Virgin Mary, or the Sacred Humanity of Jesus during this Night of the Senses. These persons don't disappear from one's religious practice, however. It's rather that the center of one's love for them is moving from the senses to a much more solid foundation in the spirit.

"A ligature has been imposed on the affections so that they are reserved for God, the One, or one of His perfections. The soul is held captive by everything connected with God, Alone...Then, frequently the soul will move to a new stage of love for the Trinity. Following this, there may be a period of powerlessness without delight and happiness, as though God were on the other side of an abyss. Then, after a period of perhaps weeks,(affection for) Blessed Jesus, the Word Incarnate reappears. The soul recognizes how truly He is Mediator between Creator and little creatures. The recognition of Jesus convinces the soul more profoundly than it ever could have hoped, of its eternal debt to Him; and its life with Jesus, enjoyed before for so long in the intimate prayer of simplicity, is lived now anew and magnified a hundredfold in this present, intensive recognition."(Dom G. Belorgey, O.C.S.O., "Practice of Mental Prayer," p.l34)

So the inability to take pleasure in prayer to Jesus is temporary, and part of the sensory purgative process which develops spiritual maturity, as well as a new, and deeply profound, love and respect for Jesus and His Sacred Humanity. St. Teresa confirms that Jesus Christ is the essence of advanced spirituality when she says, "... anyone whom Our Lord brings to the seventh Mansion very rarely, or never, needs to engage in this activity,(working with the intellect to enkindle the will with love for the Humanity of Jesus) for the reason that I shall set down, if I remember to do so, when I come to deal with that Mansion, where in a wonderful way the soul never ceases to walk with Christ our Lord but is ever in the company of both His Divine and His human nature." For the ultimate result of true Contemplative spirituality is to exalt Jesus and His Sacred Humanity, in one's estimation, to a Trinitarian level of Divine Love found in the Heart of the Father, for the Son, through the Holy Spirit.

Fr Grou, S.J. points out:

"Jesus Christ is the centre, not only of our religion, but of our spiritual life. By whatever path the soul may be led, active, passive, ordinary or extraordinary, He is the one guide and pattern, the chief subject of its meditation and contemplation, the object of its affection, the goal of its course. He is its physician, shepherd, and king; He is its food and delight. And there is no other Name under heaven given to men, whereby they may be saved, or come to perfection. ""(John Nicholas Grou S.J., Spiritual Maxims)

"Therefore, it is both absurd and impious to imagine that there can be any prayer from which the humanity of Our Lord may or ought to be excluded, as an object not sufficiently sublime. Such an idea can be nothing but an illusion of the devil. Contemplate the perfections of God, if you are drawn to do so: lose yourself, if you will, in the Divine Essence; nothing is more licit or praiseworthy, provided grace gives wings to the flight and humility is the companion of that sublime contemplation. But never fancy that it is a lower course to look and gaze upon the Saviour, whenever He presents Himself to your mind. Such an error is the effect of a false spirituality and of a refined pride, and whether we are aware of it or not leads directly to disorders of the flesh, by which intellectual pride is almost invariably punished. ""(John Nicholas Grou S.J., Spiritual Maxims)

"For there is no soul, really and truly interior, whether passive or not, but strives to live in Jesus Christ and by Him and for Him, and to have for Him a deep and continuous love. "(Ibid)

"How could it be otherwise? God the Father gave Him to us for this very purpose. He became man in order to unite us with Himself. Sin had separated God and man too widely; Christ assumed our nature in order to repair that separation. No man cometh to the Father, but by Me, He said. No man abideth in the Father, but by Him. To forget that sacred humanity... would be to sever our sole link with the adorable Trinity. How can one conceive that the Father, Who draws us to His incarnate Son, could ever wish to see us in a state of prayer in which it would be an imperfection to think of that Son, or wherein it would be necessary to separate His humanity from His divinity, and neglect the one in order to occupy oneself with the other. The mere thought of such a thing would be both absurd and blasphemous." (John Nicholas Grou S.J., Spiritual Maxims)

"Know, then, that as long as the soul has free use of its faculties, whether in meditation or in simple contemplation, it is primarily to Our Lord that we must turn. Besides, this contemplation is too bare and dry for the heart, which finds no nourishment therein. The abstract consideration of infinite perfection contains nothing to stimulate us to virtue, or sustain and encourage us when low. The repose obtained by this supposed prayer is a false one, and dangerously near to Quietism. It leaves the soul dry, cold, full of self-esteem, disdain for others, distaste and contempt for vocal prayer (which in our weakness we need), and for the common practices of piety, charity and humility, and indifferent even to the most august and holy of the sacraments. "(John Nicholas Grou S.J., Spiritual Maxims)

Karl Adam makes a telling point undescoring the need to balance the unknown "otherness" of God, and negative theology of the via negativa, with the "nearness" of the Incarnate God, Jesus Christ, who has come into the world so that "we might have life, and have it more abundantly."

CATHOLICISM IS A RELIGION OF 'AFFIRMATION'

"We shall have to show in detail that Catholicism, regarded in its special character and as contrasted with non-Catholic Christianity, is essentially decision and "affirmation," an affirmation of all values where-so-ever they may be, in heaven or on earth. ...The history of Catholicism is the history of a bold, consistent, comprehensive affirmation of the whole full reality of revelation, of the fullness of the divinity revealed in Christ according to all the dimensions of its unfolding. It is the absolute, unconditional and comprehensive affirmation of the whole full life of man, of the totality of his life- relations and life-sources. And it is the unconditional affirmation, before all else, of the deepest ground of our being, that is to say of the living God.

"And it would have the whole Christ, in whom this God was revealed to us, the Christ of the two natures, the God- man, in whom heaven and earth possess their eternal unity, and not the mere romantic Christ of the dilettante or the ecstatic Christ of the critic. And it would have the complete community, the "orbis terrarum," as the medium wherein we grasp this Christ. For the fellowship of men is a fundamental fact, and through it alone comes the growth of personality. And Catholicism calls for the whole personality, not merely pious feeling, but also cool reason, and not reason only, but also the practical will, and not only the inner man of the intelligence, but also the outer man of the sensibility. Catholicism is according to its whole being the full and strong affirmation of the whole man, in the complete sum of all his life relations. Catholicism is the positive religion "par excellence," essentially affirmation without subtraction, and in the full sense essentially thesis. (Karl Adam, "Spirit of Catholicism")

For true Contemplation fills one with the life of the Trinity through the Person of the Word, Jesus Christ. And it brings one to know the joyful presence of His abiding companionship as He renews an age-old promise to the stressed and worried people of our age:

CATHOLICISM RESPECTS OTHER RELIGIONS, EVEN THOUGH IT MAINTAINS THAT IT IS THE ONLY CHURCH CONTAINING THE FULLNESS OF TRUTH

"Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."(Matthew 20:28-30)

And as for downplaying the message of Jesus during Dialogue with those of other faiths, the Church says "No," and tells us:

"(Interreligious)Dialogue should be conducted and implemented with the conviction that the Church is the ordinary means of salvation and that she alone possesses the fullness of the means of salvation" (Encyclical Letter Redemptoris Missio, 55).

For as St Peter warned us, "The Lord will come as a thief in the night." And his message to the Church regarding the end times(2Peter 2:1-22) seems to be relevant to the Church in our day:

"The end of all things is at hand. Therefore, be serious and sober for prayers. Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins... For it is time for the judgment to begin with the household of God:

"There were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will introduce destructive heresies and even deny the Master who ransomed them, bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their licentious ways, and because of them the way of truth will be reviled. In their greed they will exploit you with fabrications, but from of old their condemnation has not been idle and their destruction does not sleep..."

"Thinking daytime revelry a delight, they are stains and defilements as they revel in their deceits while carousing with you. Their eyes are full of adultery and insatiable for sin. They seduce unstable people, and their hearts are trained in greed. Accursed children! Abandoning the straight road, they have gone astray, following the road of Balaam, the son of Bosor, who loved payment for wrongdoing, but he received a rebuke for his own crime: a mute beast spoke with a human voice and restrained the prophet's madness."

"These people are waterless springs and mists driven by a gale; for them the gloom of darkness has been reserved. For, talking empty bombast, they seduce with licentious desires of the flesh those who have barely escaped from people who live in error. They promise them freedom, though they themselves are slaves of corruption, for a person is a slave of whatever overcomes him. For if they, having escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of (our) Lord and savior Jesus Christ, again become entangled and overcome by them, their last condition is worse than their first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment handed down to them. What is expressed in the true proverb has happened to them, "The dog returns to its own vomit," and "A bathed sow returns to wallowing in the mire." (2Peter 2:1-22)

Karl Adam, however, warns those in the times of crisis not to lose heart:

"According to the Lord's promises the perfection of the Church is yet to be, that the Church of glory will not appear until the end of time, and that therefore it is according to the economy of salvation that the Church of the present should remain unfinished, incomplete and imperfect until the Coming of the Son of Man. This incompleteness is therefore not something forced upon us for the first time by the cold logic of facts. On the contrary our Lord Himself from the beginning left us in no doubt about it. From the beginning He described the Kingdom of Heaven as a net that contains bad fish as well as good, as a field that contains cockle as well as wheat. When He warned His disciples against coveting the "first places" in His Kingdom He indicated the possibility of jealousy and strife among the leaders of the Church (Newman).

"When He delineates the steward who began to "strike the menservants and maid-servants, and to eat and to drink and be drunk," we think involuntarily of those stewards of the Kingdom of God, to whom as successors of St. Peter were committed the Keys of the Kingdom, and who so grievously abused their sacred office. As Cardinal Newman says, our Lord expressly warns us not to expect the Church of this world to be without spot or wrinkle. And His disciples give us that same warning. In particular it is a favorite thought of St. Paul's that the Church of the present, albeit pervaded by Christ, bears the marks not of His glory but of His suffering, manifests his "dying" (nekrosis, 2 Cor. iv, 10) and His wounds (Gal. vi, 17); that the sufferings of Christ "abound" in His members (2 Cor. i, 5), so that one must speak of a "fellowship of His sufferings" (Phil iii 10) Therefore suffering in all its forms is an essential trait of the Church of this world. As St. Augustine says of the present state of the Church: "It is still night" (Adhuc nox est). And again: "The Church stands in darkness, in this time of her pilgrimage, and must lament under many miseries.(Karl Adam, "Spirit of Catholicism," Resources)

Hans Urs Von Balthasar avers:

"My Church: a sign of contradiction, despised by men for the visible failures, sins, weaknesses, and lack of love seen among my followers, who make up My Body. And yet, My Church, "the blazon of my victory in failure" which, from the ashes of human failure and visible defeat, pours forth a continuous stream of life-giving grace, and the ultimate victory of My Spirit in the battle for the souls of Mankind. "(gloss from "The Conquest of the Bride," Hans Urs Von Balthsar)

And the more noteworthy of the prophecies bearing upon the "latter times" seem to have one common end, to announce great calamities impending over mankind, "the triumph of the Church," and the renovation of the world. All the seers agree in two leading features as outlined by E.H. Thompson in his "Life of Anna Maria Taigi" (ch. 18): "First they all point to some terrible convulsion, to a revolution springing from most deep-rooted impiety, consisting in a formal opposition to God and His truth, and resulting in the most formidable persecution to which the Church has ever been subject. Secondly, they all promise for the Church a victory more splendid than she has ever achieved here below.(Catholic Encyclopedia, "Prophesy")

And in this time of continuing peril for the Church, we grieve for our fallen leader, Pope John Paul II, the "contemplative saint" who, like Jesus, wounded and suffering terribly in his own flesh, continued the good fight to the end, and victoriously refused to let his papal charge be torn asunder and trampled underfoot by the forces of evil. And in our all too human grief, we listen in to words of the poem that reflect Cardinal Ratzinger's sorrow as he calls out to his departed friend, dearly beloved in Christ:

O CAPTAIN! my Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather’d every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

O Captain! my Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon’d wreaths—for you the shores a-
crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;
Here Captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You’ve fallen cold and dead.

My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor’d safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;
Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

"Captain My Captain," by Walt Whitman

CONCLUSION

So in conclusion, in spite of the loss of an heroic leader, and the crises in the Church, due to the failures of the wounded human beings who comprise the Body of Christ, we must remember that the Holy Spirit lives and works thorugh this Church, and is today calling all Christians to perfection, which means calling them to contemplative prayer, a practice suited to all walks of life. And in genuine, infused contemplative prayer, men come to God through the love of His Son, Jesus Christ, the Godman, who is always central to our spiritual life, at all levels of transformation.

In the words of Bishop Benson:

"Now the consciousness of this friendship of Jesus Christ is the very secret of the Saints. Ordinary men can live ordinary lives, with little or no open defiance of God, from a hundred second-rate motives. We keep the commandments that we may enter into life; we avoid sin that we may escape hell; we fight against worldliness that we may keep the respect of the world. But no man can advance three paces on the road of perfection unless Jesus Christ walks beside him. It is this, then, that gives distinction to the way of the Saint--and that gives him his apparent groetesqueness, too--(for what is more grotesque in the eyes of the unimaginative world than the ecstasy of the lover?) Common-sense never yet drove a man mad; it is common-sense that is thought to characterize sanity; and common-sense, therefore, has never scaled mountains, much less has it cast them into the sea. But it is the maddening joy of the conscious companionship of Jesus Christ that has produced the lovers, and therefore the giants, of history. It is the developing friendship of Jesus Christ and the passion that has inspired those lives, which the world in its duller moods calls unnatural, and the Church, in all her moods, supernatural. "This priest," cried St. Teresa, in one of more confidential moments with her Lord, "this priest is a very proper person to be made a friend of ours." (The Friendship of Christ, Bishop Robert Hugh Benson)

And so all of us in the household of God must rededicate ourselves to preaching and hearing the fullness of Truth in Jesus Christ, as we experience God's refining fire purifying the Church at all levels of the Body of Christ, and as we, once again, shoulder our cross, joining Him on the Road to Jerusalem, and heeding the admonition of John Paul II, to "Fear not.!" For He has not left us orphans, and we are truly blest that He remains with us in the Church, alongside our great new leader, Pope Benedict XVI.

Finally, when He raises us to True Contemplation, and the tide of spiritual warfare turns in our favor, we, looking up from beneath the Cross, should return the smile of Our Saviour, Who rejoices in the company of those who have borne their crosses with Him, and as we remind ourselves that, for all true Contemplatives, today and forever, Jesus remains, "The Way, the Truth, and the Life.!"

SPIRITUAL MARRIAGE: (St John of the Cross)

"We can therefore assert truly that this soul is here clothed with God and bathed in divinity, not as though on the surface, but in the interior of her spirit, superabounding in divine delights. In the fullness of the spiritual waters of life, she experiences what David says of those who have reached God: They shall be inebriated with the plenty of your house; and you will give them to drink of the torrent of your delight, because with you is the fountain of life [Ps. 36:8-9]. What fulfillment will the soul have in her being, since the drink given her is no less than a torrent of delight! This torrent is the Holy Spirit, because, as St. John says, He is a resplendent river of living water that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb [Rv. 22:1]. These waters, since they are the intimate love of God, flow intimately into the soul and give her to drink of this torrent of love that, as we said, is the Spirit of her Bridegroom infused in this union. (Spiritual Canticle, Stanza 26, v.1)