When Jesus is in the house the dishes can wait

Book 2, Chapter 1

-Part 2-

When the believer recognizes the presence of God, either in a moment of contemplation or in a particular moment of spiritual clarity, (or, indeed, as a lifestyle) everything else will appear to be comparatively spurious.

Caussade makes an impressive list of things that are quite important in the life of the disciple, but is ever insistent that these things matter little when a person knows he is living at hand to God. In other words, as pointed out with Martha and Mary, when Jesus is in the house, the dishes can wait.

The important things to a disciple include good works, methods of prayer, treasured devotional practices, helpful spiritual books, and the guidance mustered from a spiritual director. You would think any or all of these would be difficult to “leave on one side,” as Caussade says. Perhaps this is because we have so little actual contact with God through his divine action that we settle for these means to him, and content ourselves with these half-measures without acquiring the end to which the devices proceed.

We may have lulled ourselves into believing that true contact with God is rarely possible, or that it is really not good for us – being this subjective and all – and so we have a relationship with the book of paper and ink, but possess a poorly-developed personal bond with God that we were created to experience and express. We know of people who have abused the idea of “direction from God,” and we have seen these incidents classed as weirdness, heresy and even mental illness. Just because there is a faulty imitation is not reason enough to reject the genuine movement of God over or within the life of a disciple.

It seems that we would expect a person living this bond with God to be what we would call a solid believer, fixed to the foundation of the faith, unshakeable and unyielding – a living monument to discipleship. It is therefore a little unexpected to have the good father compare such a person to … wind. And not even strong wind at that:

_{“These souls are something like the movements of the air.” (Page 44)}

Those with this developed inner disposition and awareness of their bond with God will be pushed here and there by the very breath of God. Their movements may not make sense to anyone else, or even to the followers themselves.

Jesus told Nicodemus that anyone born of the Spirit would be wind-like: “Do not be surprised when I say: You must be born from above. The wind blows where it pleases; you can hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” (John 3:7-8)

“These souls are something like the movements of the air.”

We have had to find different ways to move like the wind since Jesus (and here Caussade) made it clear that we ought to be unconditionally responsive to the movement of God upon us. Our lifestyle has pinned many of us to mortgages, bills, careers and responsibilities that keep us from the kind of impulsive following that the Twelve managed to enact after Jesus said, “Follow me.”

Father Caussade’s immediate audience was a group of nuns living a cloistered life, which involved a structure that would have set limits on the movements of the women. They would need permission to do something they felt God wanted them to do, and they would be asked by their superiors to do things that would be difficult or tedious for them, or seem to be the farthest thing from spiritual activity. (My own spiritual director, a Cisterician monk, spent years of his life dusting at the abbey where he lives and prays.)

Some among us in the laity are simply unable to move freely due to maladies that require staying at home, or limit our travel.

Is true discipleship a lost reality in such lives, or can God’s will and divine action take place within the confines of our “state of life”? Can the bedridden or the financially strapped or the poor or those with no authority over their own movements or the imprisoned be moved upon by the will of God, or are they excluded from the work of God?

Two things are clear here that are often difficult to bring together. 1.) God expects unconditional response to him on our part. 2.) God will work within the limitations of our state of life to accomplish his will. These two truths have to be believed as an inseparable pair and they coexist in each of us only inasmuch as we carry them wisely together. The Bible and the corpus of Christian spiritual teaching throughout history suggest that the time and place for spiritual life to reach its apex is now and here!

The demand for an explanation and careful planning, while wise in its proper use, is a means to kill the wind-like spirit of one who wishes to respond to God unconditionally. Abram’s response to God’s call to leave Ur is apt to make many of us uncomfortable: “Yahweh said to Abram, ‘Leave your country, your kindred and your father’s house for a country which I shall show you …’” (Genesis 12:1) God was no more specific than this at the time.

The call to leave what we know and go where we do not know is a very fearful enterprise for anyone, unless we have faith in God leading us. Abram’s move into the unknown is mentioned in the “faith” chapter of Hebrews 11: “It was by faith that Abraham obeyed the call to set out for a country that was the inheritance given to him and his descendants, and he set out without knowing where he was going.” (v. 8)

Either Abram or any of the Twelve disciples might have asked where God was taking them, or how long they would be away from their normal duties, or what their responsibilities would be during the journey and at its end. Or they might have even asked what was in it for them. "Jesus, can I please see your five-year plan?" Still, at the risk of being considered flighty or irresponsible, they kept their hope fixed upon God.

Where better to be than with God, even if the demands of journeying with him could lead to suffering and death? Beneath these demands the Christian perceives the unseen life that is given by God. We are aware that we are led and loved by the Lord. Every step we take must enhance this awareness.