Continual Praise
Fr. Donald Macdonald, SMM
CONTINUAL PRAISE
M ount Everest is littered with rubbish, but the summit is reached only by those who have dropped all but what they need to reach the top.
To be at or near its peak, should mean overwhelming gratitude for simply being ‘there’. I try to take in all that is offered in the view, perspective and achievement. The climb is then for ever part of my experience.
RELATIONSHIP
On the path to God I do not travel from A to B. To scale such heights, I need only give myself to God in Christ in the present moment and place. Relationship is the point. As I live for God alone, I am able to receive and respond to the gift of God in Christ through the Spirit.
The Letter to the Hebrews puts it well: “. . . through him (Jesus), let us continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that, confess his name”. (Hebs. 13:15). I am asked, therefore, to understand who I am through baptism. Then, God gave himself in Christ through the Spirit to such effect that God’s Presence is within me. I breathe in God, I breathe out God as I live, graced by a present relationship through knowledge and love.
If I glimpse this now in Christ, I try to live no longer for myself but for him, as I know he rose from a grave to be with me. God in Christ is giving me himself. I am increasingly taken out of myself in wonder. Like the climbers challenged by the mountain, they might call upon reserves they never knew they had. I too wish to receive fully the wonder of God in Christ.
The Watzmann: German Painter: Caspar David Friedrich : 1824
I have now the single aim of the climber. The massive Presence challenges me to give my best to experience the wonder of what is before me. I try to live for God alone.
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ADORE
As I glimpse this gift and savor the relationship, I may well be numb, and instinctively respond in adoration. My entire being taken to a point, is enthralled by who and where I am in Christ. As the climber is more and more held by the magnetism of the challenge, I tend to leave all that comes between me and God. The simplicity of adoration allows God to be God, in no way confined or domesticated by me. To adore, means that my being tries to say ‘Yes’ to the indwelling Presence. If this ever becomes habitual, in time becoming an intrinsic part of who I am at the deepest level of being, I am taken out of myself. I am then ready to be what God wants and go wherever he wishes. As I breathe I adore, and am open to receive and reflect.
Living this way means that I do try to ‘continually offer a sacrifice of praise to God, that is the fruit of lips that confess (Jesus’) name.’ If my present state of being is worship of God in Christ, then will my lips express what is in my heart. At one with the wonder of the gift of God in Christ through the Spirit within me, I respond by giving myself – a sacrifice – in an integrated life of praise to God.
SUPERB HELP
I have now the single aim of the climber. The massive Presence challenges me to give my best to experience the wonder of what is before me. I try to live for God alone.
This reads well on the gospel page, but to make an effective transfer from the page to my heart, where all that is real to me lodges, I know that I need help. This treasure is carried in a fragile vessel. Having accepted the wonder of the challenge of living for God alone, like the climber, I do need support.
St. Louis Marie de Montfort advises the help of Our Lady. She lived by faith, as I do, in a world which crucified her with her son on Calvary. It was for her to trust not to choose. Her fidelity here meant that while she lived through the insight of faith, she continually offered a sacrifice of praise to God.
THE CLOSER . . .
She, supremely, was indwelt by God as his creative Spirit overshadowed her so that she gave birth to God in Christ. In her son, she brought a new creation into the world. No wonder Mary’s being rejoiced in God her Savior as she grew in realization of all that God was to her in Christ through the Spirit. Her lips, in the Magnificat in St. Luke’s Gospel, express a heart almost too full for words. That same Gospel tells us that at the sound of her voice, Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and the child in her womb leaped for joy! She lived only for God and reflected his Presence.
As Our Lady, therefore, continually offers a sacrifice of praise by her way of life, the gospel word has yet again become flesh in her. The closer that I am to Mary, and open to her influence, the more faithfully shall I respond to the baptismal challenge to live for God alone. As the climber is best guided by those who know the way, so I may prudently invite her to help deepen my nearness to God in Christ.
. . . I AM TO MARY . . .
We are not two static poles centuries apart trying to make contact. I know through my baptism into Christ that, “. . . there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus”. (Gals. 3:28). Again, this is about relationship. Those living at the center closest to God are obviously most real, as here lies reality. The interchange must then be through knowledge and love, since this is the way to the heart of a human being.
If my lips are blessed to confess the name of Jesus, surely, like him, I am graced to honor his mother with heart and lips. The relationship is present and personal, part of the wonder of God’s gift to me in Christ. She cannot be a distraction on the way to a deepening relationship with God.
Mary, the divinely chosen means through whom I now enjoy the wonder of the gift of God in Christ through the Spirit, one with me in humanity, faith and grace, can only draw me to what holds her and who she so reflects. To continue with the climbing idiom, it is inconceivable that she could ever put a foot wrong. If I continue to adore in her company, I shall continually praise God both in who I am and in what I do.
