“remember me when you come into your kingdom”

Outside of Rockefeller Center in New York City stands a bronze statue of Atlas, a titan from Greek mythology that carried the heavens.  Many people say that Atlas is carrying the weight of the world.  Atlas stands on one side of 5^th Ave. facing and, right across, from one of America’s greatest cathedrals, Saint Patrick’s.  Inside of Saint Patrick’s is the Most Blessed Sacrament, the Eucharist, the King of Kings, the creator of the world, Jesus Christ.  The two men, Atlas, and Christ, who is enshrined in a grand cathedral, face each other as in a face off.  Who will win?  A priest, during a homily at Saint Patrick’s, brought attention to a little statue inside Saint Patrick’s of the Infant of Prague.  The Infant of Prague is the Christ child, dressed as a King, and holding the world in his hands.  The priest mentioned the irony and contrast between Atlas and the Infant King.  Atlas, a grown man, a titan, struggles in carrying the weight of the world.  The Infant King, a mere child, easily holds the world in the palm of his hand and with his other hand grants a blessing.  The priest asked the people the question, “Why won’t Atlas cross the street, cross 5^th Ave?”  If only he would walk a few steps, he could bring the weight that he is carrying into Church and give it to Jesus, give it to the Infant King.  How does Jesus and the Church help us carry our burdens?  What keeps us, what keeps many in the world from “crossing the road”, from trusting Christ and His Church?  
 
If Atlas were to walk across 5^th Ave. and try to go through the doors, he would first have to take off the world, for the actual dimensions of the world that he is carrying would not fit through he dimensions of Saint Patrick’s doors.  Jesus says to the rich ruler, “Sell all that you have…and come and follow me”[i]  Jesus goes on to tell the apostles, “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”[ii]  The eye of the needle was a passage way made in the wall of the ancient cities.  Animals would pass through the eye of the needle so that animal feces would not make a mess in the main passage way into the city.  The eye of the needle was just big enough for a camel to pass, but if the camel was carrying a large amount of goods, luggage, then the camel could not pass.  Just as Atlas could not pass through the doors of Saint Patrick’s Cathedral without first taking off the world, the camel could not pass through the eye of the needle without its master first taking off the “things of the world” the “goods”.

It is only by detaching from the “things of this world” from “worldly goods” that we can enter the Kingdom of God.  Atlas will not enter the Kingdom of God because he will not detach.  The owner of the camel who keeps the “worldly goods” on his camel’s back will not enter the Kingdom of God because he will not detach.  Are we willing to enter the Kingdom of God?  If we truly believe that Christ is King, we should want more than anything else to enter the Kingdom.
 
Search: Kingdom of God
 
How do we enter the Kingdom of God?  How do we detach from the “things of this world”?  The Kingdom of God is union with the King.  Saint Teresa of Avila says, “detachment practiced with perfection leads effectively to its goal: union with God.  God alone can bring us to this union, but He will not do so unless…we sell everything, that is, unless we renounce even the smallest attachment to self or to creatures.”[iii] 

How are we attached to self?  We become very attached by our attitudes, our activities, our styles and way of doing things. 

How are we attached to creatures (other people, other things)?  We become very comfortable with those around us; even if they are a bad example and even if they tempt us to sin. 

What are some examples of things you own, you like, you do, that if Jesus said get rid of them, you would have a difficult time?  Why do we have a hard time detaching from things?  We like to be in control of things and in some sense in control of other people and ourselves.  We like what we can control, we like things on our terms, “my stuff” “my life”.  To detach from the “things” that we control is difficult.  In many ways we are all like a little child who clings onto a toy, the child clings on so much that the parent must pry open each finger at a time. The truth is that the things that we think we control can very easily and very quickly end up controlling us.  Examples of this are relationships that people are afraid to get out of, addictions that people refuse to break, routines and attitudes that begin to define who a person is.

Search: Detachment from things
 
Search: Detachment is the first of four steps
 
For the soul that wants to detach from worldly goods and enter the Kingdom of God, Saint John of the Cross asks two things.

One – Decision and Generosity “For anyone who has not the courage to renounce himself in everything will never reach total detachment and union with God.”[iv]  God will not force us to do anything; we have free will.  Saint Bonaventure says that the second most powerful thing in the universe other than God is free will.  Free will enables us to be generous. The most generous decision we can make in regard to our free will is to freely unite our will to God’s will. We do not want to wait until the “moment of choice”, but to freely unite our will with God’s will now, ahead of time, before the “moment of choice”. This is what is prayed for in Saint Ignatius’s famous Suscipe prayer. Suscipe is Latin for receive. We allow God to receive our will so that it may be united with His holy will. Saint Ignatius prayed, “Take, Lord, and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will, All I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours; do with it what you will. Give me only your love and your grace, that is enough for me.” This is a difficult prayer to pray and it is only by the Grace of God that we are disposed or being disposed to pray this, thus free choosing to give or unite our will with the Holy will of God.

The Blessed Virgin Mary was pre-disposed at conception to live out this suscipe prayer. She was full of Grace, and thus so inclined to say to God, “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.”[v] It is always a free choice to give our free will to God. In this free choice we do not loose our will, but rather our will is united to the holy will of God. The will of Jesus was united to the will of the Father by nature, the will of Mary was united to the will of God by Grace. Our will can and should be united with the will of God by Grace. Nothing is lost, everything is gained, when we freely unite our will with the will of God.

We have been given our life, our thoughts, our words, our actions.  We can use our free will either for God or for self.  How we use our free will determines how generous we are.  Do we give some to God or all to God?  How generous are we?  It is our decision and the decision has to be made each day.  No one can force us to choose God; we have to make the decision.  Each day we have many choices.  If a person makes five choices each minute, then over 5000 choices are made during the hours you are awake.  “There are over 1000 minutes in the average waking day. At five decisions a minute, a person makes easily 5000 decisions a day.”[vi]  We can use these 5000 decisions to our advantage.  For example if we really want chocolate candy, we say no, we renounce our self, our desire.  If we really want to say something in a conversation that is really not that important, but gives us a chance to show off, bring attention to our self, we can choose to not speak, letting the attention go to another person in the conversation. 
 
ACTIVITY – 1000 minutes in a day
Make a list everything that you do in a day and list them according to importance. Make a pie chart on the other side of the paper. Give a percentage of how much time you give those things in a day. For example texting/cell phone may be a big percentage, deciding what to eat or what to wear maybe a small percentage. What percentage is prayer or studying the Catholic faith?  Is it on the list?  If so what percentage of your day is consumed by that? If we have about 1000 minutes in a day we should take full advantage of the time we have been given.  We can begin to focus not on our desires, but what God desires of us.
 
It is our soul that gives us the ability to “think” and “act”, the “reasoning” and “free will”.  The soul must always be inclined “not to the easiest thing, but to the hardest; not to the tastiest, but to the most insipid (bland); not to things that give the greatest pleasure, but to those that give the least; not to restful things, but to painful ones; not to consolation, but to desolation; not to more, but to less; not to the highest and dearest, but to the lowest and most despised; not to the desire for something, but to having no desires.”[vii]  This seems bazar and is very foreign to us.  We are taught in this world to want the easiest, the tastiest, the greatest pleasure, to rest and relax, to get consolation and comfort, to want more, the highest and dearest and to fulfill your every desire.  Read the following lists and ask which one disposes our soul, enables our soul to want God and cling to God and truly live in the Kingdom of God.  Which list disposes our soul, enables our soul to want self and cling to creatures and truly live in and for this world?

 
Are Christians crazy for wanting “nothing”?  No. Christians know that it is in God and not self that we find fulfillment.  We are making a choice to let God satisfy us rather than satisfying our self.  Jesus gives us a “task that is easy, a burden that is light.” [viii]  The Psalmist writes, “How sweet are thy words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!” [ix]  The Good Shepherd leads us to “rest in green pastures…beside still waters, he restores our soul.” [x]  Jesus promises us in the beatitudes that those how desire, that “hunger and thirst for righteousness…shall be satisfied” [xi] and that “the meek…shall inherit the earth.” [xii]  Make no mistake, Christians are not crazy, we understand that it is God alone and not our self or the world that gives easiness, rest, pleasure, fulfillment, etc.?
 
Are we going to serve and desire the creator or the creature?  The creature is our self and other created things (people and stuff).  The top row of the table above is the goal, the desire of “the world”, the bottom row of the table above is the goal, the desire of “the Kingdom of God”.  When we are ok with less for our self, it makes us able to want more for God and for others.
 
Two – Order and Discretion Order means that the decision to choose Christ has to be a part of our life; it has to be part of the order, the pattern the routine of your day, your life. It has to be a habit.  Discretion means that you must choose and be ready to choose.  There is a time for everything.  If we are told to give up or sacrifice, but then a host offers us a great dessert, that is not the time or place to choose the “bland instead of the tasty”.  If we renounced or chose not to eat the dessert we would offend our host.  If we have worked hard for several days, we will need to give our body the rest it needs.  We do not need to go looking for the “hard, painful, despised, etc.” it is offered to us each day.  “The Saint [John of the Cross] does not expect us always and in everything to choose what is most difficult, painful, or tiring – which would be impossible, both because of the circumstances in which we live and because of our physical constitution, which always needs a certain amount of relaxation – but he does ask that we be disposed to this choice, that is, we must cultivate a desire for it.” [xiii]  We must order our life and be ready and willing for opportunities to be generous, to choose God and not self.  To live in Christ, in His Kingdom, is to die to self.  “You died for me, O Lord.  For love of You make me die to myself, to my desires, to my satisfactions.  I shall die to myself in order to live for You, to attain to union with You.” [xiv]
 
Make of list of ways that we can “die to self” daily.  If you have more than 7 on your list, choose one thing you can do each day in the next week to “die to self”.  For example, showing “right away obedience” without fuss or complaint is a way to die to what we want to do.  You could on, Monday see how many opportunities you have to show “right away obedience”.
 
“For God reigns in each of his holy ones.  Anyone who is holy obeys the spiritual laws of God, who dwells in him as in a well-ordered city.  The Father is present in the perfect soul, and with him Christ reigns, according to the words: We shall come to him and make our home with him.” [xv]  What a merciful God that would choose to make His dwelling within mankind.  When we see a well-ordered city we not only praise the mayor, but also the citizens and other cities want to imitate the success of the city.  When we see a well-ordered soul, with the divine life dwelling within, we not only want to praise the soul but ultimately give praise to the Most Holy Trinity dwelling within the soul and there is a longing to imitate that soul.  It is only the soul which allows Christ to reign that can benefit this Divine Life.
 

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[i] Luke 18:22
[ii] Luke 18:25
[iii] Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD; Divine Intimacy; 8:1
[iv] Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD; Divine Intimacy; 8:2
[v] Luke 1:38
[vi] Askville by Amazon (internet source)
[vii] Saint John of the Cross; Ascent of Mt. Carmel, I, 13, 6
[viii] Concluding Prayer; Wednesday Night Prayer; Liturgy of the Hours
[ix] Psalm 119:103
[x] Psalm 23:2-3
[xi] Matthew 5:6
[xii] Matthew 5:5
[xiii] Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD; Divine Intimacy; 8:2
[xiv] Father Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD; Divine Intimacy; Colloquy; pg. 244
[xv] Spiritual Reading in this Link to Liturgy packet