Making Room for God
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Two of the great masters of the spiritual life are Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. We have been learning principles from Teresa this week – today, John of the Cross
John was Ordained in 1567. Then he met Teresa of Avila
· She persuaded him to help her reform the Carmelite Order
· From a life of busyness and distraction
· In which they had no time or interest in daily meditation
· To a life of prayer and the pursuit of God.
Well, how do you think the Carmelites responded to this effort to make them change?
December 2, 1577 a group of Carmelite monks
· kidnapped John and took him to Toledo Spain
· Tortured and imprisoned him in a 10 x 6 cell
· With very little light
· No change of clothes
· No bed
· He lived on bread and water for 9 months
John writes: The immense blessings of God can only enter and fit into an empty and solitary heart…
We must be emptied to be filled by God
What do you think God was doing in John during this time?
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God did not send the Friars to kidnap, imprison and beat John
But God allowed it and turned it in John’s favor. And the fruit of this experience was that
· He was totally stripped of every earthly thing he relied upon.
· And being emptied of all things he surrendered himself totally to God - He let God do what He wanted to do through the people and events in John’s life.
· And once he was emptied - God flooded John’s soul with His Divine Life
Finally, on August 15, 1578 John escaped; He and Teresa of Avila formed a new branch of the Carmelites and they became the two most important Doctors of the Spiritual Life
The word that John used to capture his main idea – is Nada
Nada means to be unconditionally surrendered to God and His will – no matter how it comes to us - so that God may empty us, make room in us so that we may be filled by God.
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For John, the most important thing is making room for God
Fr Ian Matthew has the best book on John of the Cross – it is called The Impact of God.
Our effort is not to go in search for God but rather to make room for God to come.
Imagine being lost in a jungle stranded and starving. Somebody has to get packed up and sent off into the unknown to search for food, taking what water is left, hacking a way through the undergrowth, hoping somehow to forge a path to something somewhere. But then comes the noise of a helicopter, and rescue approaching. That changes everything. The one thing needed now is some space, so that what is coming can come…for John, God is an approaching God, and our main job will be not to search and build but to receive; the key word will be not so much ‘achievement’ as ‘space’. ‘Making space for God in order to receive.’
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There are two ways to make space for God:
1. By our Effort
a. We make space for God by taking care of responsibilities and doing our ordinary duties, by practicing daily meditation and a resolution, receiving the Eucharist and Reconciliation often, renouncing sin and its temptations, and the practice of virtue
2. The second way to make room for God is by our acceptance
a. Something occurs in your life that you
i. Did not choose
ii. Do not like
iii. Cannot change
What do we do now?
· Accept it!
· This thing - that you cannot change and don’t want to accept – is the way God is trying to break in and carve out more space in your soul so that He can flood you with His life.
· Surrender to God, let Him do what he wants and don’t resist Him
· Accept it.
This is where God, by heavy trials, particularly interior ones, perfects and completes what the soul has begun on its own, but cannot complete on its own.
That is why it is Passive but not In-Active. Because we cooperate by Faith, trust, acceptance, and love – with a total gift of self to God - rather than resisting Him.
What is it you cannot change but you refuse to accept?
Why are you resisting God?
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Nada – is to be Unconditionally surrendered to God – ready to let Him do whatever he wants so that we may be flooded with His divine life.