A Hesitant Step? — Easter Week Six, May 13 to May 19, 2012

Did you use the WIT prayer (see last week)? If you did, you had the mystical experience of growing in conscious awareness of the mystery of your lived union with God, the mystery of the “risen life.”

I have only heard one objection to using this prayer. A man in Tupelo, Mississippi, raised it during a parish mission: “If I say all day, ‘Lord, do this with me, do this in me, do this through me,’ I am laying it on myself to act like Jesus all day long.” He added: “That’s a pretty heavy load to carry.” And it seems to be.

On the other hand, this is exactly what Jesus accused the Pharisees of doing by insisting on their strict observance of all the Jewish laws: “They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them.”

Of himself and his Way Jesus said: “Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.

“Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

“For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”

We can’t deny Jesus asks some pretty demanding things. But his “yoke is easy” because he is carrying it with us. That makes all the difference in the world.

We are the risen body of Jesus. Whatever he asks us to do, he will to do it with us, in us and through us. He promised before his death, “I will not leave you orphaned.” Or, in other translations, “I will not let you be without a friend; I will not leave you desolate or comfortless. I will come to you.” He will come with his Spirit:

“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever, the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.”

To live constantly in awareness that Jesus is with us, filling us with his Spirit, acting with us, in us and through us in everything he asks or moves or challenges us to do, this makes all burdens light. His “yoke is easy” because he is carrying most of it.

We are talking about a mystical experience! Without the experience, the conscious awareness, of doing everything with Christ, living “in him” as a branch on the vine, as a limb of his body, and acting always through the power given by him, of course the Christian Way is impossible. It has to be a mystical experience.

Those who reduce it to law observance, who focus only on keeping the law in their own lives and in the way they preach to others, are a death virus in the Church. Those who experience only the burden of the Church’s laws, and the coldness of those who insist upon them, are leaving the Church. Or, if they remain, they are living with so little love, joy and peace that they drive others to leave.

Try the WIT prayer. Whatever you find difficult, say, “Lord, to this with me, do this in me, do this through me.”

And share the results with us in the COMMENTS link.