The Deployment of the Soul: Breath

Disclaimer:  This post (and this blog) has absolutely no ecclesiastical endorsement of any kind.

“The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground 

and blew into his nostrils the breath of life,

and so man became a living being.”-Gen 2:7

The Deployment of the Soul:  Breath

One of my more interesting “guilty pleasures” is an app, which is on both my iPad and iPhone, called iFunny.  iFunny collects memes that its users collect and posts them to the app for browsing.  The editors then choose what they call ‘Features’ periodically throughout each day.  I found one many months ago that made me laugh and somewhat gave substance to this piece of the Deployment of the Soul.  The meme is a screen shot of a text message between two friends presumably still in high school.  The text string reads like this:

Person 1:  Hey man whats up?

Person 2:  Just converting oxygen into carbon dioxide.  You know, the usual.

Person 1:  Wtf man?  schools out, why you still doing science?!

Person 2:  -_- breathing, Jake, I’m breathing.

Upon meditating upon the basic need of breath, I first thought of the scripture passage from Genesis.  The source and creator of all life is God, which is held to be to true by the Church.  The next thought for some reason turned to this meme.  From the moment we are born, we breath.  When we breath our last, we die.  

Through the mystery of creation, we have come to understand that our bodies require oxygen to live.  When I took my first Biology lecture in my first semester of college, I could not grasp the biological function of converting oxygen to carbon dioxide as a part of producing energy.  I still could not explain it, other than it happens.  

When considering the deployment of the soul as a spiritual exercise, one must remove all other things from their life:  TV, music, books, food, water.  These basic needs should be appropriately reintroduced whether it is after a few days or a few hours.  However, the one basic need that cannot be removed for any length of time is breathing.  On this deployment during combatives training, we saw very quickly just what happens when oxygen is deprived for even a few seconds.  The person can pass out and create all sorts of medical complications.  

The ancient Hebrew word for “breath” is also the same word for “spirit”--ruah.  So in this deployment of the soul, the breath becomes the focus.  As breath becomes the focus, meditating upon the Word of God creates an opportunity to allow the Spirit of God to find us.  The Book of Job introduces to our meditation an interesting reflection as it is written, “In his hand is the soul of every living thing, and the life breath of all mankind” -Job 12:10.  

God has our souls in his hand and with every breath, it becomes clearer that the gift of life is the result of the immanence of God.  The nearness of God to man has been the fruit of theologians for centuries throughout the history of the Church.  The discovery and rediscovery of faith and a relationship with Jesus comes not just the realization that God is near but the actualization of the act of breathing in itself.  These two concepts must coincide in the heart.  Actually breathing must reveal to us in each breath is spirit and life, both gifts from God.  

The author of the Acts of the Apostles writes, “It is He who gives to everyone life and breath and everything” -Acts 17:25.  Breathing is one of many things that are universal to every human being.  This one act, chosen by God, I believe was deliberately created to ensure that all people can have at the basic level the same need.  The foundation of the Church is universality.  The Catholic Church calls itself the universal Church because of the realization that all people have the same needs.  The Church exists to meet the needs of the people in all situations, whether they are rich or poor, unknown or famous, weak or strong, man or woman.  

The breath is the the most basic need of each person and, through the gift of God, it is also the most basic prayer.  Each breath is a witness to the glory and power of God.  And thus it can be the greatest tool in building up people and communities by offering words of hope, comfort, praise and thanksgiving.  Also each breath can be the vehicle by which our words can wound and inflict some of the most grievous pain upon each other.  

In closing, two songs have lines, which sing to the glory of God, speak of breath clearly and I like to share them.  The first is from Avalon’s song “Testify To Love”:  With every breath I take, I will give thanks to God above.  The other is from Steven Curtis Chapman’s song “Let Us Pray”:  Like breathing out and breathing in, Let us pray.  Like breathing and breathing in, dear Lord, let us pray.  

The Deployment of the Soul

Jesus said to his disciples:

“What is your opinion? 

If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray,

will he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills

and go in search of the stray? 

And if he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it

than over the ninety-nine that did not stray. 

In just the same way, it is not the will of your heavenly Father

that one of these little ones be lost.”-Matthew 18:12-14

A military deployment gives a soldier plenty of time to work, to worry, and to think.  Being on my third deployment has shown me both my age and clarity of thought.  

The “war” in Afghanistan began, in my opinion, as a just police action for the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States of America in order to bring to justice those responsible for that crime.  Many lives were lost on that day and have been lost throughout the entire period of conflict in this country.  

This reflection is more of a postulation on the necessity for a ‘deployment of the soul.’  In this context, the deployment of the soul is a spiritual act which separates one from things in life and reintroduces facets of life that bring meaning.  The American culture is endowed with a sense of consumerism, a fact exemplified during the holiday season.  Thus, the deployment of the soul, timed with the season of advent, creates an opportunity to make Christmas into what the holiday has always been about:  The coming of the Savior so that we may have life.  

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, the most basic needs are:  Breath, food, water, sleep, sex and balance.  These are all things which the Church professes to be necessary and are good for life.  However, each of these has its own limitations.  We cannot breath more than our lungs can take.  We must eat food to continue to live.  Water absolutely necessary to life, but it is possible to cause trauma by excessive drinking of water.  Sleep is necessary for proper neurological function, but too much sleep could indicate laziness or some sort of medical condition.  Sex is necessary to propagate life and is the manifestation of marriage.  Sex, in its proper place, is not to be promiscuous, but rather be the total act of self-giving and the closest thing humanity can find to perfect love.  It is, in itself, the participation in the divinity of God.  

The second group of needs, according to Maslow, are the needs grouped by safety:  Body, employment, resources, morality, family, health and property.  These, too, are not condemned by the Church.  Fitness of the body is an indicator of discipline but vanity to the excess can misconstrue and disfigure the sanctity of the physical body.  Employment is necessary for all people and leads to resources.  Work can be dignified when the needs of the person are met in conjunction with the needs of the employer, however, employment that is exploitative of others is inherently selfish and undermines the dignity of the human person.  The resources acquired through daily labors provide stability to the human in order to fulfill more basic needs.  Family is found in the first three tiers of the hierarchy of needs.  Family is the fullness of love manifested between a husband and wife.  

The pyramid structure of the hierarchy of needs works its way through esteem and self-actualization.  This seemingly tangental thought process speaks directly to the gospel passage for today.  In order to find ourselves spiritually, we must in some respect take on a retreat.  However, to be counted among the sheep as the lost then found requires more than just a retreat.  Most retreats that I have been on have been efforts to show that God is waiting for us to find him.  A deployment of the soul is much more than this. 

On this deployment of the soul, I am learning that being removed for an extensive period of time from my own comfort zone with a group of people who were all foreign to me, stripped me of everything.  The first things to reappear were the basic of needs.  I was fed and given water.  I was assured that my continued breath was utmost in the minds of the leadership.  The denial of sex in this environment by order reveals both its necessity and sanctity.  This deprival also distinguishes between lustful sex and loving sex.  On basic and fundamental level, God provides can be conjectured.  

The security of the body by the squad, platoon, company, and so on also carries with it the security of the steady paycheck and the continued trust that the next level of needs will be met.  Thus God provides.  

Increased familiarity among strangers creates an environment that fosters intimacy and friendships.  This third level of needs lays the foundation for the soul to thrive.  Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical letter Redemptor Hominis, tells us that “man cannot live without love.”  The unspoken love between battle buddies in deployment is far more intimate than the jest which seemingly mocks this bond.  The willingness to do what it takes for the man next to you on the battlefield is a reflection of Lord’s sacrifice.  He tells us, “There is no greater love than this: that a person would lay down his life for the sake of his friends” (John 15:13).  In a deployment, God provides.  

During this third tour, I am finding that there is a decrease in my desire of “things” and that my “needs” will be met.  It is necessary to train my mind, body, and soul to know, believe, and trust that when this deployment is over that these needs will continue to be met.  This renewal of life opens the heart and the mind to allow God to find us.  The scripture passage today tells us how God rejoices over the one that is found.  So when the faith is hard to follow and the world hurls its stones, God may be calling us to more than just a retreat, he may be calling us to the deployment of the soul.  

One Great Love Story

Unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies,

It remains a grain of wheat,

But if it dies,

It produces much fruit--John 12:24

One cannot know the hour of death and as an American male, my culture has taught me that death itself is taboo.  We cannot talk about death because it is morbid, sad, and uncomfortable.  However, when inspired by the Saints and encouraged through faith and sacramental inclusion, my life becomes death.  In the Gospel of Saint John, Jesus says that “unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit” (Jn 12:24). 

I have heard at retreats, seminars, conferences, at the Holy Mass, and in conversation about the value of dying to sin.  I must pass away to the things that distract from the Lord and empty myself to become the humble servant.  I’ve reflected and prayed about this often and have even changed my preferred Act of Contrition in confession.  I say “Father, I have sinned against heaven and earth and am no longer worth to be called your son.  May God have mercy on me, a sinner.” 

This statement is based on the story of the prodigal son who returns home after living sinfully, then living penitentially, and he finally comes home to seek forgiveness.  It mirrors my life.  I live sinfully and then I try to atone for my sin myself and fail.  I then come home to Jesus and seek forgiveness in the Sacrament of Confession.  Mercy is God’s way of welcoming me home. 

My life is one great love story between God and me.  I suspect that every single human being shares in this love story.  The tragic part is that there are many people who are deprived of knowledge of the love of God.  Their tragedy opens up the call of Jesus to the Church to engage in missionary work to bring “freedom to the captives” (Lk 4:18).  As a member of the Church and a man baptized in the Christian faith, I, too, bear the responsibility to bring freedom to the captives by opening my life to others as a witness to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  And in failing to do so, I sin most egregiously.  God has given me a gift for speaking, for preaching.  In choosing to live selfishly and not for others, I waste God’s time in his plan for me.  Reconciling this difficulty seems to be a most difficult challenge.  But faith requires constant conversion.  I must daily remember the cross, pick it up and live in such a way as to glorify not myself, but the one who saved me. 

In returning to the story of the grain of wheat, I must die to rise and live.  For the past few weeks, I have been far too trapped in the reflections concerning death.  With a deployment upon my horizon to Afghanistan, it has been far too easy to focus on me as this post does well to point out.  My life for the past few weeks has been about me.  In living for Christ and for the sake of the Gospel, I must remember to serve the people that God has placed in my life.  It is as simple as a phone call or visit.  Sometimes service requires an inward movement of my heart with results in actions that show my love of Christ and the people around me. 

I am going to die and I don’t know when.  So for the sake of the Gospel, I must live as God intends and live in such a way that my baptism is never brought into question.  I have been called to serve as priest, prophet, and king.  This is no different than any other baptized person.  I have been called to live a life of holiness.  This is no different than any other baptized person.  I have been called to witness to the love of God.  Once more, this is no different than any other baptized person.  But, to do so I must allow myself to be ministered to and to minister to others.  I must be open to the Holy Spirit and have the courage to proclaim aloud my faith and to hold my friends accountable to holy living.  I must humble enough to let them hold me accountable to my own personal holiness. 

At the end of the day, I must ask myself, “What did I do for the Lord today?”  And each day, I hope and pray that I can tell him a story that is never ending. 

Reflections on Urban Driving: Part 1

Driving has been a part of the American culture for nearly a century.  From its humble begins as an alternative to the horse and carriage, the phaeton and ponies, the automobile has captured the hearts of Americans and opened the culture to communication and interaction that has since become complacently accepted.  The only reminder of the value of driving for the American culture came with the spike of the price of oil which followed Hurricane Katrina.  As an American male who is particularly fond of the roadways and the scenic beauty that urban sprawl and nature possess, I’ve decided to set aside my thematic mainline blog entries from theological reflections to social reflections on virtuous living vis-à-vis the automobile.  This entry will focus on two items as part of an ongoing series of reflections.  This reflection will focus on driving while distracted and the absence of consideration amongst drivers.

Driving while distracted can take many forms and varies by the driver.  The two distractions that I personally observe almost daily are texting and driving and the morning application of make-up.  According to the website, textingwhiledrivingsafety.com, in 2011 23% of all car crashes involved cell phone use.  Even more astonishing is the statistic that a single act of texting removes the attention of the driver an average of 5 seconds.  The site states that driving at 55 mph, a text message will have distracted the driver for a distance of an entire football field.  Also texting while driving during periods of heavy congestion can create unnecessary stop and go as the driver is delayed in keeping with the pace of traffic. 

Texting has become a mainstream form of communication and is a valuable mode of communicating thoughts and messages with expediency.  However, the discipline of the driver must overcome the perception that there is an urgency to text while driving.  We have already reviewed one source that details the risk of texting while driving.  The reflection I wish to offer is developing consideration of others on the roadway.  The first consideration is to realize that while on the roadway, we are still in community with our fellow motorists.  

Driving, the action itself, seems rather innocuous.  But it can be a means of developing personal holiness and virtue.  The stress of the modern, urban roadway presents a series of challenges.  During peak driving, we find ourselves sharing the roads with countless neighbors whom we’d never encounter otherwise.  It is during this time, we can find opportunities to be good stewards of the road itself.  Most of drive with a set destination in mind and the urgency with which we seek to arrive there varies.  Consideration of others involves opening our minds and hearts to the needs of others.  We do not have to replace our needs with the needs of the other motorists but can share the need for primacy and right of way.  A simple consideration is during peak congestions of highway travel to not linger unnecessarily in the right lane unless our exit is near to allow for easier merging by motorists entering the highway.  Heightening awareness is a skill which is intended by many defensive driving courses which attempt to ask drivers to anticipate the actions of other motorists.  I have observed that drivers will “drift” towards the side of the lane when they are considering a lane change.  By creating space through altering one’s travel space, the driver with heightened awareness can assist other drivers in making their lane choice more efficiently.  At highway speeds, temporarily altering one’s speed for a few seconds affects the arrival time by only seconds.  This can also mitigate the risk of cutting someone off and preventing road rage. 

We cannot alter the mood of other drivers but we can positively affect the driving environment for all motorists we share the road with.  By reducing or eliminating our desires to drive while distracted and increasing our consideration of other motorists, driving can become less stressful and more enjoyable.  Drive safe, my friends, drive safe.

A Choice

From now on, let no one make troubles for me;

for I bear the marks of Jesus on my body.i

    The second reading of this, the fourteenth Sunday in Ordinary time, St Paul offers an interesting start to this reflection upon the readings and a very good start for considering what the Lord may be asking.  Saint Paul is a not normally where I would begin my own reflection upon readings, but what Saint Paul does is define what can be a Christian.  This weekend shares with me and you vocations.  So let us reflect upon these readings and what possibly could be our application of them in our lives.

     Saint Paul tells us that it does not matter if one is circumcised or uncircumcised.  What this does is tell us that it does not matter is one is Jewish or not when it comes to following Jesus.  Jesus is the only one worth for our lives according to Saint Paul.  His death and resurrection are the principle sources of our eternal salvation.  What I find interesting is that Saint Paul offers “peace and mercy to all who follow this rule and to the Israel of God.”  The word Israel is Hebrew for the chosen of God, or saved by God.  Saint Paul is inviting me and you to become a new creation in Jesus and be saved by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

     The first reading is from the book of the Prophet, Isaiah.  Isaiah speaks of a Jerusalem which overflows with abundance.  Jerusalem is our image of what heaven is to be.  Isaiah uses the imagery of a child and its mother.  This is very fitting for our own understanding of heaven and the nature of our relationship with God.  What we find is our confirmation that God is Father to us all.  Using this imagery of the child should help us to appreciate what it is about heaven that is worth our faith in Jesus.       When we were children, our needs were met and we found love from our parents.  Heaven is the perfect place where are needs are perfectly met and we find perfect love from God the Father.  And this leads us to our Gospel passage.  

     Jesus is telling the disciples, and us, what our lives are to be like.  We are to be sent out into the world.  The Lord calls upon each of us to preach the Gospel by our lives.  The Lord tells us that in many places we will not be welcome with our message of salvation and holiness.  He tells us that we will be like lambs among wolves.  But, it would be more tolerable for Sodom on that day for the ones who are not welcoming to the message of the Gospel.  We can hope that the Lord is kind and merciful to those who ignore him, but we hear many times in the Gospel how the pain of the not following the Lord is the lake of fire and here, the Lord the says the same thing for Sodom was destroyed by fire from the heavens.  Jesus tells his disciples, and he tells us, that we should not “rejoice because the spirits are subject to [us], but rejoice because [our] names are written in heaven”.  

     The scriptures for today invite us to accept the call of holiness.  We are given images of what our consequences for the result of our two choices.  Let us hope, and pray that in the course of our Christian journey, we make the right choice.  And that we find our names written in heaven.

You Never Stop Loving Us

May God give to you of the dew of the heavens

And of the fertility of the earth abundance of grain and wine. -Genesis 27:28

     The most difficult for me to do is to discern the will of God for my life.  I know rationally that he desires my obedience and has set before me Sacred Scripture and the teachings of Holy Mother Church to guide me in my life.  The Church gives me things to help me in the present moment on how to live virtuously and to come to have a great understanding of who Jesus is.  

     What the Scriptures and teachings cannot do is form my friendship and relationship with Christ for me.  A relationship with Christ is intimate and personal.  By definition, the relationship with Christ is a two way interaction.  Scripture can bring one half of the equation.  The relationship must come from an inward desire of the soul with the help of the Holy Spirit.  Prayer is the communication of the heart, the instant communication with God.  With this relationship, today’s scriptures for the Mass offer some great insight into our own relationship.

     The first reading is from the book of Genesis where Isaac is seeking to bestow upon his firstborn son his blessing.  His firstborn, Esau, is sent to hunt for game and while he is away, his mother disguises Jacob so that he can receive the blessing instead.  The deception demonstrated in this reading is a great lesson to me and to us all about how we are to go about our relationship with Christ (or rather how we are not to go about this relationship).  Holiness in our lives, sustained and renewed by our relationship with Christ, demands that we live virtuously.  There is a sincere lack of virtue in the actions of Rebekah and the complicit behavior of Jacob.  

     The Church gives us an opportunity in this story to remember that we have sacramental grace to help us know that we are redeemed.  The sacrament of Confession allows me and you to experience forgiveness of the Lord and redemption to rejoin the communion of the Church.  By the grace of God, confessing my sins to the priest and to the Church helps me to try to feel the weight of the sin which Jesus took to the cross for my salvation.  While this causes me to stir a little and feel guilt, I say this prayer as my Act of Contrition:

     Father, I have sinned against heaven and earth and am no longer worthy to be called your son; may God have mercy on me, a sinner.  

     I prefer this as my act of contrition because I feel a sort of kinship with the prodigal son.  I feel as though Jesus is speaking directly to me because in that my sinfulness is the result of my direct choices.  But then I hear these words: 

     God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son has reconciled the world to Himself and has sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins.  Through the ministry of the Church may God grant you pardon and peace and I absolve you of your sins + in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

     This brings us to the Gospel because Jesus is asked directly about the practice of fasting.  Fasting is one of the treasures of the Church for the penitent and contrite of heart.  Our Lord is asked why don’t his disciples fast and the Pharisees and the followers of John fast.  The Lord responds with three images of renewal without directly addressing the lack of fasting.  The bridegroom image calls to mind a wedding.  The patching of a old, torn cloak is the second image of renewal.  The third is the image of the wineskins.  New wine for new wineskins because putting new wine into wineskins risks the wine because the skins can burst.  

     Jesus is the bridegroom.  We cannot mourn his saving act while he was with the disciples.  Fasting is a great spiritual practice, but foregoing food is not in itself enough to satisfy the Lord for our failures.  Jesus is priming the disciples for the truth that salvation is by the grace of God alone and not by our works.  This leads to the old cloak.  We only have our lives and through our daily journey, we can become worn through the trials and struggles of life.  Confession and spiritual exercises, which do not justify us alone, but rather heal our souls and bring us back to how Jesus wants us to be.  And finally, the wineskins make sense.  We are made new by the sacraments and that grace is poured into our lives to help us to combat the temptations and sin we will encounter.  

     Our hearts are made for this grace.  God’s love is poured into our lives and we are meant to overflow with this love and give this love to the world.  If we forget and miss the mark, we run the risk of becoming old wineskins.  That is, stretched and torn and degraded.  But Jesus does not leave nor does his grace.  He never stops loving us and when we remember this and call to mind our transgressions, you and I are called back into his love.  Confession will make you and I new.  It can build and renew our friendship and relationship with Jesus.  And that is what Jesus wants most desperately from us.  He wants to be our friend.

Life and Love

Go and learn the meaning of the words,

I desire mercy, not sacrifice.

     The readings for today call to mind images of life and death, mercy and thanks, and under these images, the Lord presents a subdued tone of justice.  In the first readings, the writer of the book of Genesis recounts the story of the death of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.  

      Abraham, a man of righteousness, fulfills the funeral obligations and has his wife buried in the land.  Not being content with just mourning this period of death, he sets his sights on new life for his son, Isaac.  Abraham calls his most loyal servant and has him swear an oath.  There is some contention among Jewish scholars over the details of this oath, but it is remains a gravely solemn oath.  He tells the servant “put your hand under my thigh”.  The midrash rabbah teaching says this is a literal translation because the king would always has his on the top of his thighs and servants would literally be below them.  However, the Jewish milah teaching delivers an interpretation that is very serious and very uncomfortable today.  The teaching says that an oath in Jewish antiquity is sworn over a sacred object.  Given that God’s covenant with Abraham regarded the terms of his descendants and circumcision, his “male-ness” would be considered a sacred object.  Regardless of the tradition of faith or interpretation, the oath is serious and Abraham sends his servant to get a wife for his son.  If she cannot follow through when the servant finds her, then he would be released from the oath.  We still see that Abraham, certainly suffering through his loss, still looks to bring new life for his family and his son.  The scripture closes with the statement that Isaac did find solace with Rebekah, the woman found by his father’s servant.  

      The response for today is hymn of thanks for the goodness of God.  The Catholic Church always teaches that it is right to give God praise.  From our waking breath to our last conscious thought before we retire at night, we should give praise to God.  All our hope is in God, the light of the world.  The psalm speaks very briefly of our inheritance.  Our inheritance is eternal life with Jesus.  As God is love, so our eternal life is with love.  

     The Gospel today is the loving Jesus.  And I have noted in the past few blog entries I have written, it is also the audacious Jesus.  Jesus sees Matthew and calls to him.  And Matthew responds and comes.  This story in scripture is speaks to us today about our vocations to both holiness and service.  Jesus not only calls Matthew to follow him, but he calls me and you to follow him as well.  The day was full of work for the Lord  and after he called Matthew, he went home to eat.  But he did not go home alone, eating with him were his disciples and tax collectors and sinners.  The pharisees do like this, which is interesting because for them to say this to his disciples indicate they were in the house too.  They may not have been eating for the custom was to remain clean by avoiding these people.  The Gospel writer tells us why this takes place.  It is because Jesus is the good physician and the physician seeks out the ones who are will.  And he did not come to call the righteous, but he came to call sinners.  And when we read this story again, we see that at the table, Jesus has a place for sinners.  And for me, and you, this is our place at the Lord’s table.  

     This story relates the sympathetic Jesus who calls to the ones who are outcast by sin, shame or other systematic rejection.  And so it remains for us.  In our rejection of the world, our lives of faith make us outcasts in the secular world.  We find our place at table with Jesus.  The great call of Jesus to us is mercy.  Within this great call to be the followers of Jesus is our act of mercy.  Being obedient to the Lord is not a sacrifice, although the world would make us think that giving up worldly treasures is a fool’s errand.  But the truth remains that the Lord bestows amazing graces and showers the faithful with his love and mercy.  And though we ought to reject the worldly treasures, when the Lord blesses us with his kindness, we can reconcile worldly sacrifice with divine mercy.  For the God of life and love seeks not see us suffer but to live and live well.  And this life is not just the temporal life, but the eternal life in love.