The Thirty-First Sunday in Ordinary Time, B November 4, 2018
Fr. Albert St. Peter’s, New Iberia
Do you meditate? It’s all the rage right now. Mindfulness meditation, zen meditation, transcendental meditation… meditation seems to be the new health trend. A quick google search will pull up articles that list 12, 20, 78! benefits that come from meditation: better health, increased focus, a longer life. Some say meditation could save your life!
Actually, I’ll do you one better. Meditation can save your soul. Now, that’s a dangerous statement for me to make from the pulpit. Because, when I say “meditation,” many of you probably think of yoga and Buddhist monks and other pagan religions. So why should a Catholic priest endorse such a thing? Like so many questions, the answer to that question requires us to first answer this question: what does that word mean? So many problems and mysteries are much easier to solve once you can pin down the definitions of the most important words being used: love, justice, peace, freedom, and…. Meditation.
So, what do I mean when I say “meditation?” First, what I don’t mean is sitting in the lotus position humming the word “ohm.” I don’t mean a practice of emptying your mind of everything and focusing on the great nothingness. I don’t mean simply paying attention to your breath or any other natural practice meant to help you focus.
I mean Christian meditation. It comes from the Latin word “meditari,” which means to “think, reflect, ponder.” Christian Meditation is not emptying your mind, it is filling it. For over 2000 years Jews and Christians have meditated, but not like Buddhists or Hindus. They have meditated on God and on His Word to us in scripture.
Some forms of so-called mediation might have some natural benefits: learning to focus, to take a breath and relax, and to calm your nerves are all fine in themselves. But there are some with serious spiritual danger. If the meditation comes from a non-Christian religion, don’t do it. Trying to become “one with the universe” or using pagan practices to reach a “higher spiritual plane” are dangerous. Demons are real and often use pagan religions to mislead us. Some of these practices may very well open you up to subtle or not-so-subtle spiritual attacks.
Instead, learn from your own heritage what meditation is and what it can do. Actually, let me be more forceful. You need to practice Christian meditation. Why? Because Jesus includes it in the first and greatest commandment. Let’s break down what he says.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart. A heart is symbolic of emotions, but also of free will. Emotion is an important part of who we are and of the spiritual life but not the most important part. They are often irrational, hard to control, and even misleading. To love God with your heart does not mean just to feel things about him. It means choosing to love him. If you consciously make that choice often enough, your emotions will eventually follow your lead and you will sometimes feel your love for God at the same time that you choose to love Him.
Love Him with all your soul. Your soul is what makes you alive. Love God with your very life. It’s one reason we say grace before meals because the food sustains our life and our life comes from and belongs to God. The greatest example of loving God with your soul is to die a martyr, but it is also seen in a life of prayer and in acts of service.
Love Him with all your strength. Catholics kneel, sit, stand, and even lay prostrate as part of their prayer. We love God through and with our bodies as well as our souls. Scripture tells us to do even the most mundane jobs and chores as if we were doing them for Jesus directly. Doing the dishes, building a house, performing a surgery, running a business all require strength and energy. Instead of spending the strength for money or your boss, do it for God.
Love God with all your mind. The other three are not new, they are in the Old Testament, in our first reading, but Jesus adds this. He does it to help make it clear what the goal of religion is. The entire Jewish religion is founded on sacrifices. The very reason those sacrifices exist was to prepare the world to understand the one, true sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross. But Jesus and the Scribe both agree that keeping these two commandments are worth more than all those sacrifices. Why?
The system of temple sacrifices was essential, but not like some kind of magic. The burnt offerings were meant to symbolize and to help people make real the offering of their whole selves to God. But, if these external offerings do not correspond to an internal offering, they don’t do anything. If they are mere external habit, they are useless.
Catholicism has it’s own system of external practices and rituals. Our memorized prayers are great. Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be, all the prayers you say at Mass and many more. The sacraments and other rituals have real power in them, but they cannot replace your own effort. You have to, have to, have to internalize them for them to really work, for them to save your soul.
That’s where loving God with your mind and where meditation comes in. Meditation, simply put, means to think about God and His word. That’s it. You read and then you think about it. Or you go to Mass and you make a conscious choice to think about the unusual movements and phrases, to think about the candles and incense and bells and what they tell you about God’s love for you and the world. This conscious decision to meditate on scripture and ritual and sacrifice helps you internalize these things and be changed by them. It is one important way that we cooperate with God’s grace and our own salvation.
Hopefully a homily helps you do that, but objectively speaking, it is the least important part of the Mass. It is often optional. The power of the Mass is not in my cleverness or style. It is in the signs that offer grace. You have only to let them in.
So, do you meditate? Do you ponder what we do on Sundays? Do you reflect on what the Bible and Catechism say? Do you think about your faith? Love God with your all your heart, soul, and strength, but please, don’t forget to love him with your mind too.