{"id":1432,"date":"2019-09-13T18:32:48","date_gmt":"2019-09-13T23:32:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/?p=1432"},"modified":"2019-09-13T18:32:58","modified_gmt":"2019-09-13T23:32:58","slug":"lectio-divina-part-iv-contemplation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/?p=1432","title":{"rendered":"Lectio Divina Part IV: Contemplation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Read and meditate; pray and contemplate. \u201cContemplation\u201d is\nthe fourth and final component of Lectio\nDivina<\/em>. It is the passive and receptive dimension, and the ultimate good\nfruit that emerges, as God takes over and does what he wills. He is the one who\nknows our hearts so much more intimately than we do. He knows our joys and\ndelights, our sorrows and struggles. He tunes in to our wants and needs, and to\nour deepest desires. He is the one who placed those needs and desires there in\nthe first place!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contemplation is the highest human experience. It is our\nultimate destiny and the deepest perfection our humanity can attain. Aristotle\nunderstood this. Even without the benefit of divine revelation, he explained\nthat we humans will either sink down to the level of the beasts, mired in selfish\nand vicious habits, or we will rise up to the level of the gods, contemplating\nthe fullness of truth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aristotle understood that being is prior to doing. This truth is a challenging one for our pragmatic American culture, with its Puritan roots. We tend to see value in achieving or accomplishing far more than abiding or receiving or contemplating. We forget that the most precious blessings in life, by their very nature, are \u201cuseless.\u201d Whether listening to our favorite music or enjoying a sunset or spending time with the ones we love, we do not engage in the highest human activities because they are \u201cuseful\u201d for obtaining something else. Rather, all that is good or true or beautiful is worth delighting in for its own sake!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Christians, we can take it a step further. Our ultimate\ndestiny is the Beatific Vision. We will see God face to face and live. Not only\nthat, the experience we will transform us into him. Nor is this simply an individual\nexperience, for God is love. He is a communion of persons and invites us to\nabide forever together in that eternal love and truth. The one Body of Christ\nwill be perfected in glory. We will fully share in his humanity and his\ndivinity, as every tear is wiped away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can sense the awe and the eagerness in the Beloved\nDisciple\u2019s heart as he explains not only how blessed we are in the present \u2013 as\nbeloved children of God \u2013 but also how truly blessed will be our final destiny\nin the eternal contemplation of God: \u201cSee what love the Father has bestowed on\nus that we may be called the children of God. Yet so we are \u2026 Beloved, we are\nGod\u2019s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We know that\nwhen it is revealed we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is\u201d (1\nJohn 3:1-2).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we wish to appreciate \u201ccontemplation,\u201d then, we may need\nto renounce some of the lies of our culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first lie, already exposed, is exalting doing over\nbeing. Our dignity as a human person comes not from what we do, but from who we\nare. We are beloved children of God and already share in a communion with him.\nAs we grow in prayer, contemplation allows us just to \u201cbe\u201d with God, to abide\nin his presence, and to receive from him whatever he wills to give us. We may\nor may not understand what he is up to. We don\u2019t need to \u2013 any more than a\nlittle child needs to understand the delight and nurture and care and\nprotection that his parents are providing. We just need to be receptive and\nopen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest lie, indeed the original lie to our human race,\nis that we can \u201ccreate\u201d the experience, seizing and grasping rather than\ndepending and receiving. The devil enticed Eve, \u201cYou will be like gods\u2026\u201d\n(Genesis 3:5). With this fruit, you can rely on yourself. You can be strong\nenough not to need God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not needing God. It is perhaps the greatest spiritual\nsickness today. More and more, humans in the affluent nations of the world try\nto live as though God didn\u2019t exist, as though we can sustain ourselves by our\nown efforts. And somehow we are stunned at the results. Year by year, month by\nmonth, we witness the unraveling, the disintegration, the chaos, the hatred,\nthe confusion, the descent into darkness. The isolation and despair of hell\nhave become daily news. It need not be so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Herein lies the greatest difference between Lectio Divina<\/em> and some of the\nalternative versions of \u201cmeditation\u201d that are out there today. It is the\ndifference between the golden calf and the living God. Are we creating the\nobject of our own worship, like those impatient Israelites growing restless in\nthe desert? Or are we learning to abide, to wait upon the Lord, and to receive,\nlike Moses on the mountain or Elijah in the cave?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, we are called to do our part, eagerly and actively,\ncarving out space for the Lord to\ndo his work. We can cut the wood, split the wood, and arrange the wood \u2013 but\nGod alone provides the fire. We can plug in the radio, turn it on and tune it\nin \u2013 but God alone decides when and what and how to broadcast. Receiving is so\nmuch different than taking or seizing, grasping or manipulating, dominating or\ncontrolling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over time, for God\u2019s saints, prayer tends to become more and\nmore passive and receptive \u2013 much like a truly happy marriage. Couples married\n60 or 70 years need not say much or do much to cherish each other. Their\npresence is enough. Married love is but a sign and symbol. Jesus teaches that\nno one will be married in heaven (Matthew 22:30). The eternal communion of heavenly\nlove will be infinitely greater. Our contemplative prayer is the next closest\nthing here on earth. If we are faithful in our daily prayer, we will come to\nexperience that heavenly reality more and more, and even now experience the eternal\nlove of God.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Read and meditate; pray and contemplate. \u201cContemplation\u201d is the fourth and final component of Lectio Divina. It is the passive and receptive dimension, and the ultimate good fruit that emerges, as God takes over and does what he wills. He is the one who knows our hearts so much more intimately than we do. He … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Lectio Divina Part IV: Contemplation”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[65,64,57,61,56,55,54,59,63],"tags":[48,210,205,69,198,204,209,114,105,81,206],"class_list":["post-1432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beauty","category-goodness","category-healing","category-reception","category-saints","category-scripture","category-spirituality","category-theology","category-truth","tag-abiding","tag-beatific-vision","tag-contemplation","tag-conversion","tag-lectio-divina","tag-meditation","tag-mysticism","tag-prayer","tag-receptivity","tag-saints","tag-scripture"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Contemplatio.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1432"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1434,"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1432\/revisions\/1434"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.abideinlove.com\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}