Surrender is NOT Defeat
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The Transfiguration of Jesus on Mt Tabor falls in the middle of Jesus telling the Apostles five times that He must suffer in Jerusalem, die and after three days rise again. It is a good reality check to listen to the words of our Savior:
Immediately before the Transfiguration, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things…and be killed, and on the third day be raised.
Hearing this Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke him saying, “God forbid, Lord! This shall never happen to you.” Jesus turned and said to Peter, ‘Get behind me Satan! You are an obstacle in my path, because the way you think is not God's way but man's.'
Then Jesus told his disciples, “If you want to be my disciple, you must deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me.”
Immediately following the Transfiguration Jesus commanded them to tell no one of the vision, until he had risen from the dead and that he will suffer at the hands of sinful men. And for the fifth and final time, before they set out from Mt. Tabor to Jerusalem, where Jesus will take up his cross He said, ‘The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.’ And they were greatly distressed.
There is an unbreakable connection between the cross and the Resurrection. The cross is the way to Heaven, union with God and the Resurrection. There is no other way. We cannot get to union with God, Heaven and perfect happiness unless we go by way of the Cross.
St Rose of Lima writes: Apart from the Cross there is no other ladder by which we may get to heaven.
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A mountain is a place of Ascent, not only a physical, but also a spiritual ascent.
John of the Cross teaches that we ascend to God and perfect happiness by the path he called “Nada” or “Nothing.”
Nada is to be unconditionally accepting of God and His will.
Nada is to want God and His will above all things and to give thanks to God no matter what happens.
See, God wants to give Himself to us at all times and in every circumstance, but we don’t receive Him as we could. Too often we resist Him, we fight Him by not doing or accepting His will.
Nada is to stop fighting God so that He can empty us of anything that blocks us from Him, that our soul may be flooded by God.
At every moment, God is trying to break in and flood our souls with His Divine Life. But we will not let Him in. We have Blockages
· We cling to what we know, what we are comfortable with, whatever takes the least energy and gives us the greatest safety.
· Pride, envy, sloth, anger, greed, gluttony, lust
· Anxiety, Fear, Gossip, complaining, ingratitude, impatience…
· Disordered attachments to good things that we want or think we need more than God
Whatever the blockage is, the soul must be emptied to be filled by God. John of the Cross says: Contemplation (union with God) is nothing else than a secret and peaceful and loving inflow of God, which, if not obstructed, fires the soul in the spirit of love, (Dark Night of the Soul 1, 10)
The key phrase here is if not obstructed. What are our blockages?
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There are two ways to be emptied of our blockages:
1. The first is the Active Purification where we think and do all that is in our power to do the will of God, receive Jesus in the Sacraments and Prayer, daily fulfilling our responsibilities.
2. The second is the Passive Purification - something occurs in our life that we did not choose, do not like, and cannot change and we accept it, we surrender to God.
This surrender is not defeat nor is it an irresponsible passivity, fatalism or cowardly inactivity.
The surrender we are talking about is a very active choice to submit to the will of God and cooperate with Him to receive His life and cooperate in His mission.
To Submit to God means to be under the Mission of God.
If God wants to carry our His Mission by allowing something in our life and we cannot change it – then He has allowed it – it is His will, it is His Mission.
At that point we can resist God or surrender to him, submit to Him, cooperate with His Mission.
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If you want strong legs you need to work both the quads and the hamstrings and keep a balance. Two muscle groups.
We have worked the muscle of resistance for most of our life and it is really strong. There is no fear we will lose it.
Its time to work the complimentary muscle – Surrender to God – by accepting all the things He allows in our life that are out of our control and beyond our scope of responsibility.
Think and do all that’s in within your power and scope of responsibility.
Then surrender, accept all you cannot change and what is beyond your scope of responsibility.
We must work on both muscles:
A. Resistance – Courageously think and do all that is in your power.
B. Surrender – cooperate with all God, submit to Him in all He wants to give you through what is beyond your control or responsibility.
a. That is the way of Ascent.
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Jesus went up on the Mountain to pray. And as he was praying, the appearance of his face was altered, and his clothing became dazzling white. Pope Benedict the XVI writes: The Transfiguration is a prayer event; it displays visibly what happens when Jesus talks with His Father: the profound interpenetration of his being with God, which then becomes pure light.”
Prayer – talking to God, listening to Him and just being with Him leads us to want and accept God and His will above all. Nothing but God and His will. Nada – this is the way of the Ascent which only prayer makes possible.
Post-Script
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