THE MYSTERY OF THE BAPTISM OF JESUS
It is in the baptism of Jesus Christ, in his solitude, in his fastings, in his temptations and victories, that the devout person finds sufficient light, grace and strength to enable him/her to work effectively for the salvation of others when called to do so.
After your hidden life,
teach me next the virtues
necessary to dispose myself
for the work of zeal,
the furthering of the glory
of God your Father
and the salvation of others.
You said a tender farewell to your holy mother
who knew your plans
and knew also the loving will
which was urging you
to begin your public life
in order to accomplish
the work of our redemption.
You willed to fulfill the Law,
submitting to the baptism of repentance
which you received
from the hand of your precursor.
You withdrew then into the desert
to undergo a fast of forty days
without food or drink
and in prayer and solitude.
You willed to be tempted there
and to conquer
a powerful temptation
by vigorous resistance.
O good Jesus,
engrave these beautiful virtues in my heart.
Engrave them in the hearts of all those
who are to be instruments
for your glory
and who are to work for the salvation of others.
Make us love tears of repentance.
Then, we will weep unceasingly
over our past sins
which make us unworthy
of the blessings of your grace.
Grant that,
through prayers,
solitude,
fasting,
and continual mortification,
we may dispose ourselves
to receive your Holy Spirit
in order to be guided by him
in our ministries,
and filled with the light of his grace
and the fire of his holy love.
By means of these devout exercises,
may we become
formidable to demons,
overcome all their temptations,
expel them from the hearts of the faithful
and from the countries where,
much to our shameful cowardice,
they still reign.
Finally, O great Jesus,
grant the we may love
without any attachment,
and just as you left your holy mother,
may we be ready to leave those dearest to us
whenever it is a question
of going where we can help others
and work effectively
to promote the glory of your Father."
(Writings of Jean-Pierre Medaille pp. 119-120)
Commentary on Father Médaille's Contemplation on the Mystery of Jesus'Baptism
and Desert Solitude:
This is a "transition" contemplation. Father Médaille situates us in the quiet, unfolding drama of Jesus' life and reveals the most interior of Spirit movements that inspire and activate his life directions. The call to move out of his home in Nazareth, to leave the familiar and the secure way of life, begins with an interior prompting that persists, prods, lures and calls him to make this transition from his hidden life into his public life. Now is the kairos, the right time, and he is interiorly free to move. It was "the loving will which was urging you to begin your public life in order to accomplish the work of our redemption."
Father Médaille invites us to look in upon a most tender familial scene of discernment. Jesus' own interior listening affirms that this is the time to move into his public ministry. His sense of the Father's call to this spiritual "direction" is clear and focused now, and he is ready to move forward. Mary, too, has been pondering and listening, discerning the call of God upon her Son. She is present to Jesus now as a communal support in his own discernment. "Your holy mother knew your plans and knew also the loving will which was urging you to begin." And so "the tender farewells" were a mark of mutual encouragement and abiding on-going love that would support each other in their fidelity of "calls".
Since this was going to be a major shift, a radical change in the direction of Jesus' life and ministry, he presents himself to John the Baptist to undergo his sacrament of initiation. Jesus' willingness to submit to the Law and to submit to a "baptism of repentance" is preparation for his break-through experience of hearing the confirmation of the Father's voice within: "This is My Beloved Son, is whom I am well pleased." (Mt. 3:17) This sets Jesus in his course, confirmed in his identity and destiny... and He commits himself to it with his full being. Father Médaille and Carl Jung seemed to both realize that the strength and conviction of one's vocation call was integral to the individuation process and this interior and exterior "confirmation" were signs that God's call was upon the person.
"What is it, in the end, that induces a man to go his own way and to rise out of unconscious identify with the mass...? It is what is commonly called vocation... (which) acts like a law of God from which there is no escape... Anyone with a vocation hears the voice of the inner man: he is called."
(C.G. The Development of Personality, as quoted in The Christian Archetype, Edward Edinger, p. 45)
Like Jesus, we too will need to submit ourselves first to the outer authority of another (a John, a precursor of the Lord) in preparation for the experience of the transpersonal "Other" within. We, too, need to commit ourselves with our whole being to the unique "vocation" of our lives. Have you heard the Father's voice: "This is my beloved daughter/son in whom I am well pleased"?
Have I humbled myself to be in submission to another person - a spiritual director or spiritual minister? Have I gone down into the waters of the unconscious and sought a re-birth? Am I disposed to a visitation of the Spirit upon me to give me my destiny, my true identity?
The Gospel and this contemplation remind us that immediately after Jesus' baptism at the Jordan he "withdrew then into the desert to undergo a fast of forty days without food or drink and in prayer and solitude." This sequence refers to the danger of inflation that accompanies an encounter with the Self. The "fast" will keep Jesus (and us) grounded in his humanity, interiorly disciplined to the voice of the Father and the promptings of the Spirit. He is being "spiritually exercised" to "do only the things that the Father wills." This desert experience of 40 days and 40 nights is a period of intense preparation for Jesus' public life and ministry. Father Médaille, as a wise father and spiritual director, knew that for Jesus and for us, a time of more intense solitude and prayer would dispose the soul to receive the Holy Spirit, "the Spirit who alone guides us in our ministries."
In the desert, one is emptied, purified... of one's own plans, ambitions, and egotistical desires. The prayer, fasting, and the continual mortification of the senses cause us to undergo a veritable struggle with the "false self". Besides the "desert" being the place of the great purification, it is also the place of the great transformation. Here the soul encounters the living God. From within the solitude emerges the transforming fire of God's love for us personally. Stripped of so much distraction and excess, the purity and clarity of one's "call" emerges into consciousness. There is a strong sense of being called and being sent forth on a particular mission. The soul "knows" God is the guide and shining torch-bearer leading one into one's unique ministry. The "desert solitude" then is a pre-disposition to awaken our listening hearts to our sense of mission and ministry. Father Médaille calls us in this prayer to ponder this essential truth:
"Grant that through prayers, solitude, fasting and continual mortification, we may dispose ourselves to receive your Holy Spirit in order to be guided by him in our ministries, and filled with the light of his grace
and the fire of his love."
Can you not sense Jean-Pierre's passion for ministry burning here? Only from this divine source can anyone "bring fire upon the earth... and Oh how I wish it were burning already." The asceticism of the "desert" only disposes us to receive the fire of the Spirit of Love that moves us into our mission in the world. How clearly Father Médaille grasped and thought that all true, authentic ministry must flow from and be guided by a personal charism, a pure gift of the Spirit given to a particular person for some particular service that the people/community has need of in this time. Jesus' own example of withdrawing into a period of desert solitude to pray teaches us how we can do our ministry discernments. If all authentic ministry is to be born of the Spirit, if ministry is a pure gift of the Spirit, then one must dispose oneself to receive this gift which will of its own, overflow into its complementary ministry.
Our public ministry, our works of zeal for the neighbour must spring form such a pure Source, must come from an awareness of "being sent" to these people. We can contemplate Jesus in his desert solitude being so interiorly at-one-with the Father that he "becomes formidable to demons, overcomes all their temptations." The same strength, power, light and "fire of holy love" can sustain and move us with courage and power against all the forces of darkness and evil that might attack us in our journey to be faithful to God's call. The power-intoxicated devil still active in our collective unconscious and in our culture will try to entice the soul "called by God" to divert to worldly ambitions and the snare of being recognized and honoured. One goes into the desert to be "filled with the Spirit" and to experience how the Spirit "expels the demons" - not oneself! The forces of God and evil, of light and darkness, of love and hate are conquered in God alone.
Now one is ready to leave the desert, "being enabled to work effectively for the salvation of others when called to do so." In the freedom of so much detachment from creatures, in the freedom from co-dependence, one can leave "those dearest to us whenever it is a question of going where we can help others and work effectively to promote the glory of your Father." Father Médaille's spirituality calls us to be always ready to move on to the more, to be free to leave a place, a ministry, when it is discerned that one is being called forward. We are always pilgrim souls, mobile, free, unattached - all God's! Therefore, we have no lasting dwelling place on this earth.
THE MYSTERY OF THE VISIBLE AND PUBLIC LIFE OF JESUS
The devout person is raised to a great holiness of life by contemplation and imitation of the visible and public life of Christ Jesus and by submission and obedience to the maxims and the laws he gives us in his Gospel.
But what holiness do I not learn
from the incomparable examples
that you were pleased
to give me
during the more than three years
of your public life
and in the teachings recorded
in your holy Gospel?
At one time
we saw in you
perfect humility of heart
and at another,
kind and gentle graciousness;
at one time,
the simplicity of the dove
and at another,
the prudence of the serpent.
At all times,
ardent zeal for the glory of your Father
and for the salvation
of those for whom you were to die;
always
a more than human patience,
a sublime moderation,
and a compelling graciousness
in all your relationships
Your life
was not only irreproachable
but it was also a model,
the prototype
and exemplar
of every noble action.
Your doctrine
gave such perfect lessons
that we need only read
your Gospel
to learn about moral conduct
brought to the highest perfection
and to learn the sure and easy way
of acquiring it.
Grant, good Jesus,
that in my relationships with the neighbour
and in all I do
for the furthering of your Father's glory
and the salvation of others,
I may form myself
on your pattern.
May I truly reflect
your moderation,
gentleness,
humility,
patience,
graciousness,
tireless zeal -
in a word,
all your virtues.
Impress them
on my soul
by abiding
eternally
in me."
(Jean-Pierre Médaille, SJ, Writings of Jean-Pierre Medaille, SJ pp. 120-121)
After thirty years in a relatively hidden and simple life, Jesus emerges into his public life and ministry for what turns out to be only three short years. One cannot help but be struck by all that He accomplished in that limited time! Where did Jesus get all his energy, stamina and perseverance? The "soul" of Jesus' ministry came from his intimate communing with His Father. It was such a lasting and fruitful ministry because he took time to "often go apart to some solitary place to pray to His Father." (Mark 6:45-46) It was an "ardent zeal" in his active ministry because it was overflowing from an ardent love for His Father and His plan for his life.
Father Médaille teaches us here in this contemplation of the mystery of Jesus' public life, the integration and inseparability of love and zeal. In one of his Maxims of Love he writes:
Your zeal will always be in proportion to the love of God
you have in your heart.
If it springs from a great love, then it will be great."
(Maxim of Love 11:1)
Jesus is "the true model of ardent zeal" and "the true model of all virtues" for us to imitate and "form ourselves on your pattern." The example of Jesus' life and the "doctrine gave such perfect lessons" that our exposure to the Gospel texts will teach us all we need to know about the highest perfection - Love. However, Father Médaille introduces a word of caution and clarification. This "tireless zeal" must be harmonized with the virtue of "moderation", a word which Father Médaille uses twice in this reflection. I sense that this is quite purposeful. For there will always be the tension between keeping one's ministry limited and balanced with the whole of one's lifestyle. In responding to the needs of others, Jesus said, "The poor you will have with you always." How true it is in all ages and time. There are so many pressing needs and so many genuine concerns that cry out before us with urgency and insistence. It is precisely here that Father Médaille would call us to discernment to see if this particular service is being asked of me by God, for His glory and/or the salvation of another soul, or is it coming from my work compulsion, or my need-to-be-needed compulsion. The virtue of zeal is certainly not "busyness" and needs to be accompanied by moderation and balance.
Ministry is really a matter of the heart. Zeal will flow from the greatness of love in one's heart. Greatness of love in the heart will spontaneously overflow into zealous service to others. So Jesus would counsel, and also Médaille: Be about LOVE more careful than everything else. "If I have all the eloquence of men or of angels, but speak without love, I am simply a gong booming or a cymbal clashing. If I have the gift of prophecy... faith to move mountains, but without love, then I am nothing at all. If I give away all I possess... even let them take my body to burn it, but am without love, it will do me no good whatever..." (1Corinthians 13: 1-13)
From this contemplation of moving through Jesus' public life and ministry I can intuit a strong affective temperament in our Père Médaille. He speaks three times of the "graciousness" of Jesus in his relationships with persons of all classes of society. He describes this quality as a "compelling graciousness", "a gentle graciousness". This lovely, human warmth of presence and capacity to welcome the other into oneself was certainly instrumental in attracting persons to come close to Him and to hear and receive his message. He embodies the hospitality of God! Father Médaille would invite all of us to emulate the same rich, warm humanness in our relationships with those we minister with and to.
Father Médaille urged us to have a genuine love, warmth, sensitivity and graciousness flow through our humanity into the humanity of the other person we were with. We are to trust our own humanity as Jesus did. His "charisma" was the divine Love emanating through him that so attracted others to draw close... and listen... and be healed by Him. And Father Médaille knew that the only way we could go and do likewise was if the "good Jesus, would impress them (all the virtues) on my soul by abiding eternally in me."
The quality and manner of serving others was of great importance to Jean-Pierre... even more important than the act being done. If the action/service was not coming from pure love, from the interior source of divine love burning in one's heart, the action/service was limited in its effectiveness to help the other person. The "sounding brass" and "clanging cymbal" of so much of active service is quite often just our need to be busy, to be needed, to be co-dependent, to be thought important or helpful. Wherever there is too much of "self", God's love cannot pass through. Let us pray to keep our bodies, our vessels of the Spirit, as pure as possible.
The diversity and comfortability of Jesus' personality is reflected in the Gospel stories that show him teaching, healing, fishing, praying, partying and weeping. He was a man of his times, a man at-home in his humanity, a man at ease with others. "At one time we saw you in perfect humility of heart and at another, kind and gentle graciousness; at one time, the simplicity of the dove and at another the prudence of the serpent..." Father Médaille pondered just how important this flexibility and sociability were in Jesus' life and in ours. He wrote in one of his Maxims of Love:
"Always be reserved in your conversations,
but let this be a cheerful and
gracious reserve in which there is neither too little nor too much restraint.
Enjoy reasonable relaxation, at the proper time and with the right persons.
The bow that is always taut
will not be able to stand the strain without breaking."
(M.P. 13-8)
Is there enough relaxation, diversity and leisure in your lifestyle to balance the daily stresses?
I believe that Father Médaille's own success in ministry and in communicating his vision was largely the effectiveness with which he allowed his natural quiet charm and warmth of personality to overflow into all that he did and said and was. Real love is always communicated in the personal, concrete and with a human touch. "The cup of cold water given, the coat shared, the prisoner or patient visited... is done to Me." Oh, would that our humanity might be one with the humanity of Jesus, the Christ. What Love would fill the whole cosmos!
"May I truly reflect your moderation, gentleness, humility, patience, graciousness, tireless zeal - in a word, all your virtues."
As we pray through this contemplation with Father Médaille, we are struck by the tremendous simplicity and single-heartedness of Jesus' entire public life. It was animated and motivated by one solitary desire: the glory of the Father and the salvation of souls. His varied apostolate - healing, preaching, teaching - in varied locales is all centered on the vivid awareness of his being sent by the Father on this one mission. And as He went about "doing good", Jesus models for us all the virtues... all the energy of God's life flows through him and stirs forth new life and new challenges in his listeners. The "energy" is communicated and touches the "energy" within the individual or crowd. How am I responding to that same "energy" when I enter into the Gospel scenes?
Father Médaille concludes our prayer on this mystery of Jesus' public life by asking Jesus to "Impress these virtues on my soul by abiding eternally in me." This language of "impress", "engrave", "imprint" are common throughout these contemplations. They reflect Jean-Pierre's deep desire that these become indelible characteristics, virtues that we are "branded" with interiorly by the burning heat of God's all-consuming fire of Love. Truly, may we be reflections of Christ. "May I be another humanity of Christ." (Elizabeth of the Trinity)
"Let them look up and see
no longer me, but only Jesus."
(Prayer of Cardinal Newman)
THE MYSTERY OF THE LAST SUPPER - EUCHARIST
The devout person receives from Jesus the incomparable and excellent means for living his life and for being intimately united to him: namely, the giving of his own Body as food in the Eucharist.
Toward the end of your life
in the sacred institution
of this holiest of sacraments,
you can teach me
more wonders
than my mind can grasp
or my tongue
or pen can describe
or explain.
Just as this Holy Eucharist,
the mystery you instituted
on the eve of your death,
is the sacrament of sacraments,
the sacrifice of sacrifices,
the love of loves,
the miracle of mysteries,
so too,
does it resume in itself
the perfection
of your teaching
and the sublime virtues
of your life.
Oh,
if I were enlightened by your wisdom
when I contemplate
this sacrament,
what nobility,
greatness
and holiness
would I not discover
in this divine nourishment.
In truth the Holy Eucharist
is the fulfillment
of your self-emptying.
It is the memorial
of your wonders,
and the place
where your greatest virtues
manifested continually
and most brilliantly
in this mystery,
are gathered together,
spread before us
and practised.
However wonderful
your humility,
patience,
gentleness,
and charity,
in a word, all your virtues,
may have seemed to us
during your life,
and even at the hour of your death,
their practice seems to me
more sublime
and more perfect
in this one sacrament.
Also, it is singularly
in and through
this sacrament
that you have shown
your ardent desire
to unite yourself to us,
to live in us,
to abide with us
and to transform us
into your divine life.
O Jesus,
by this miracle of mysteries,
effect in me
a miracle of love.
And as in the hands of the priest
your all-powerful word
changes
the substance of bread and wine
into your Body and precious Blood,
grant that when I have
the happiness
to partake of this sacrament,
your grace
may change
my life
into Your life.
In making me die to the flesh,
to self-love,
and to all my countless faults,
may it fill me
with your divine Spirit,
with the purity of divine love,
and with all the sublime virtues -
in a word,
with your entire self.
In this way,
it will confirm
the loving promise
of your divine word
that whoever eats your Flesh
and drinks your Blood
abides in you
and you in him/her.
Doubtless
this is so that you may be the soul
of his/her soul
and
the true principle
of all his/her supernatural actions."
(Writings of Jean-Pierre Médaille, SJ, pp. 121 - 122)
Commentary on Father Médaille's Contemplation on the Mystery of the Last Supper:
This mystery is central to Médaillan spirituality. Jean-Pierre seemed to be so caught up into "mystery" every time he contemplated the Eucharist that he speaks about this "holiest of sacraments" as the teacher. Here we are taught "more wonders than my mind can grasp or my tongue or pen can describe or explain." There is something speechless and purely mystical about this mystery. Probably it is Love-Present in its most pure form here on earth. When we eat this bread and drink this cup we are partaking of the food of immortality. Psychologically, this means we come into a consciousness of the Self which allows us to see things "under the aspect of eternity." (Edward Edinger, The Christian Archetype, p. 65) Father Médaille ponders this truth that divine union is effected by the miracle of communion. "It will confirm the loving promise of your divine word that whoever eats your Flesh and drinks your Blood abides in you and you in him/her. Doubtless that is so that you may be the soul of his/her soul and the true principle of all his/her supernatural actions."
The mystics and the depth psychologists both grasped the same realization that "to partake of his Flesh means to partake of the eternal and the transpersonal. The mystery of the Eucharist transforms the soul of the empirical man, who is only a part of himself, into his totality, symbolically expressed by Christ. In this sense, therefore, we can speak of the Mass as the rite of the individuation process." (Carl Jung, p. 65 as quoted in The Christian Archetype) As we shall study in the next Chapter of Médaille's work wherein he speaks of transforming union, we shall read how he sees "the easy method by which I may live in you and through you and have your dear life and adorable virtues live is me... is by reception of Holy Communion." Participation in the immortality of Jesus enters our being in Eucharist:
"Just as through Holy Communion your pure Flesh implants in our
bodies some seed of immortality which gives them a right to the
glorious resurrection, so too, I am convinced that your Soul and
your Divinity implant in the depths of our being, something - I know
not what - of your divine Spirit."
(Chapter 3, p. 125-126, Médaille)
This is awesome to take in and absorb. We need time and grace to marvel at this "miracle of mysteries." Here again is Father's own ordination prayer:
"EFFECT IN ME A MIRACLE OF LOVE."
What a beautiful prayer that we might utter each time we receive this "love of loves, sacrament of sacraments, sacrifice of sacrifices". The miracle is that upon each reception of Jesus' Body and Blood "your grace is changing my life into your life." The trans-substantiation is not only from bread and wine in the hand of the priest into the Body and Blood of Jesus, but the real and substantive change in our beings. "In making me die to the flesh, to self-love, to all my countless faults, may it fill me with your divine Spirit, with the purity of divine love and with all your sublime virtues - in a word, with your entire self."
The divine union is celebrated in each reception of the sacrament. At the Last Supper Jesus knew that this mystical supper would be the real food and nourishment that would sustain his disciples for all time throughout the trials and difficulties they would undergo "in the world".(Jn 15)We are invited to contemplate the "fullness of love" manifest in this sacrament. Jesus is present here as
"the fulfillment of your self-emptying."
"the memorial of your wonders."
"the place where your greatest virtues
are gathered together, spread before us
and practiced."
To gaze upon the Eucharist we see Jesus' humility, patience, gentleness and charity. Yes, they were wonderfully manifested during your whole life, but here in the Eucharist they "seem to me more sublime and more perfect in this one sacrament." Father Médaille contemplates that this sacrament - this outward sign of an inward reality - is where you most singularly reveal "your desire to unite yourself to us, to abide with us, to live in us and to transform us into your divine life."
Father Médaille contemplates our capacity to become mystics, to live in mystical awareness of the Divine Presence and to lovingly receive Jesus in our Holy Communions.
"Take and eat this all of you."
THE MYSTERY OF JESUS' AGONY IN THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE
The agony and anguish of Jesus in his prayer in the garden and his sublime resignation to the will of the Father provide further nourishment to enable the devout person to grow in the life of Jesus which he/she desires to possess.
Good Jesus,
we who by baptism
are rooted in your death,
what profit should we not draw
from your sacred passion.
In this sacred mystery
we have
not only the examples
of all the sublime virtues
but also the graces
to help us practise them.
At the beginning of your Last Supper,
you revealed an intense desire
to suffer and die for us.
"I have desired," you said,
"with desire"...
(but to what excess of ardour this desire went)
"to eat this pasch with you."
Oh, how this ardour
urges me on
until the moment
when I consume it.
In contemplation of this loving desire
and in order to acknowledge
its benefits,
should I not ardently desire
to suffer and die for you?
But what do I not learn
from a consideration
of your prayer in the Garden of Olives.
There
you surrendered
your sacred humanity
to terrors
so great in the face of cruel torments
it was to endure,
that it was reduced to agony
and to shedding
a copious sweat of blood.
Oh,
what wonderful lessons I learn
from this mystery.
Grant, good Jesus,
that I profit from them,
that I learn through them
to have recourse to God
in perfect confidence
in my greatest sorrows,
that I learn through them
courageously
to surrender
to all God's plans,
and in my sorrows
always to say"
"My dear Father,
may your will, not mine, be done."
May your wishes
be fulfilled,
not mine.
May everything happen
according to your will.
It is here especially
that I learn to pray well.
O good Jesus,
what a good example of perfect prayer
you give me.
You withdrew
to a place of solitude.
You went apart
from all your apostles,
even from the three
you had chosen
to witness
your bloody agony.
You humbled yourself
with deep reverence
in the presence of your Father.
You made your prayer to Him
prostrate,
face on the ground,
reduced to agony
under the genuine fear
to which you surrendered
your humanity.
You prolonged
and renewed your prayer
with even greater fervour.
And through the intensity
and deep reverence
of your request,
you merited to be heard.
Withdrawing from your prayer
and filled with a holy courage
and eagerness,
you went forward
to meet the suffering
that had filled you with fear
to the point
of sweating blood.
That was the manner of your prayer.
That was its fruit.
When will my prayer
have the dispositions and perfections
of yours.
O Jesus,
pray through me and with me.
Grant that I may draw from my prayer
such fruits as you willed
to draw from your own."
(Writings of Jean-Pierre Médaille, SJ, pp. 122-123)
Throughout each person's life there comes a time of deep crisis. This can express itself in either an interior or exterior form, in a physical or spiritual "agony of soul". When this happens our whole humanity participates in the awesome purifying and transforming mystery. It may be that one has lost one's career or one's reputation, or perhaps one has been diagnosed with a terminal cancer or maybe it comes in an intensely felt absence of God. Whatever the "agony" for any particular person, and depending upon the intensity and length of our "night of soul", one's whole mind, body and spirit all share in the anguish, fright and dread of the impending situation and our future.
Father Médaille's contemplation of this mystery of the "agony" in Jesus' life shows us "what wonderful lessons I can learn from this mystery!" He introduces this mystery with a renewal of desire, both Jesus' desire and ours. He recalls: "At the beginning of your Last Supper, you revealed an intense desire to suffer and to die for us. "I have desired," you said, "with desire" (but to what excess of ardour this desire went!) to eat this pasch with you." Oh, how this ardour urges me on until the moment when I consume it!"
We see here how Father Médaille has combined the mystery of self-emptying love in the Eucharist and the mystery of self-emptying love in suffering. The desire to die to oneself and one's will so as to give life and nourishment and salvation to others is what motivates Jesus' action in both. A continual communion in love with the Father is what unites them and brings forth their fruition. "In this sacred mystery we have not only the example of all the sublime virtues but also the graces to help practice them." Father would have us ask ourselves, "Should I not ardently desire to suffer and die for you?" The grace to be able to respond "would acknowledge the benefits" that Jesus' act of redemption accomplished for all persons. It is only by being filled and animated by Jesus that one is enabled to "desire to suffer and die for you, Jesus."
So just how is one to "exercise" oneself in and through this night of crisis. We face obstacles and blocks within our psyche. We seem paralyzed to shift our pattern of thinking. We are engaged in an interior agony that becomes a contest or conflict between flesh and spirit. Like Jesus, we too must return to the Garden of Gethsemane three times before the resolution breaks through. Alone, in prayer the conflict ruptures and we come through to a redeeming and transforming effect which reconciles the conflicting opposites. The source of our new strength constellated by the intense and prolonged prayer is personified by the "ministering angel". We know inwardly a deep peace and can get up and leave the garden... to carry out whatever our destiny calls us to.
We observe with Father Médaille the humanity of Jesus as he undergoes his critical hours and we discover that it has actually driven him into an intense period of physical solitude in the Garden - probably a familiar place of prayer. But this time, Jesus is to be completely alone with his Father. Not even "the three chosen to witness the bloody agony" were with you. The Gethsemane experience is plagued by sleepiness. Even though Jesus pleads with them to stay awake and watch with Him... they sleep, they drift into unconsciousness... maybe to avoid or deny the reality before them. It's just too painful.
It will be true in our own experience that in the throes of our agony of soul we are actually driven into solitude. Family, friends and possibly even our spiritual guides must leave us for awhile. There seems to be only one refuge for the soul in this state - GOD ALONE. With all the heroism one can muster in one's heart, one knows one must plunge into the very core of the crisis in raw vulnerability and humbled reverence before God. There is a starkness to the inner poverty felt in this hour. It smarts to the core of our being! It really is a dying! The body's anguish of "blood, sweat and tears" is the outward extraction from this deep and agonizing reconciliation of wills that is going on in one's soul.
When we contemplate Jesus in his anguish of soul in the Garden we are appalled by "the terrors and horrors your sensitive soul endured and the physical pain that reduced you to an agony of shedding a copious sweat of blood." The humanity of Jesus passed through this night in all the entirety of his person. He taught us what to do in such an hour of crisis:
"Grant, Jesus, that I learn through these examples, to have recourse
to God in perfect confidence in my greatest sorrows.
... that I learn through them courageously to surrender to all
God's plans, and in my sorrows always to say: "My dear Father,
may your will, not mine, be done."
The simple and clear directive is "GO TO GOD." Usually God has brought one into such a solitude and place of deep communion with Him already. It may be a hospital bed, or a desert retreat, or an addiction recovery centre... whatever, God is already in that place waiting to receive us and hear our anguished cry from the depths of our being. There is something profoundly real and essential about this stark aloneness with God. Carl Jung spoke about this radical moment of decision in these words:
"The highest and most decisive experience of all... is to be alone with
one's own self, or whatever else one chooses to call the objectivity of
the psyche. The patient must be alone if he is to find out what it is that
supports him when he can no longer support himself. Only this experience
can give him an indestructible foundation."
(C. Jung, as quoted in The Christian Archetype, p. 74)
Father Médaille has us gaze into the Garden of Gethsemane and see how Jesus prays when he comes into this aloneness with his Father facing fully the realization that he is destined to be crucified! "It is here especially that I learn to pray well." Father Médaille contemplates upon the manner of Jesus' prayer, especially the interior dispositions that filled his communion with His Father. He mentions not a word that they spoke to each other, but the power of the silence was itself enough to bear his soul up to God. The Scriptures give us only these words: "Father, let this cup pass from Me, but not as I will but as you will." Sometimes the interior reality of one's resignation to God's will is simply an intense silence, but one "knows" it is done, it is all done now.
This is how Jesus prayed:
-"You humbled yourself with deep reverence in the presence of your Father.
-You made your prayer to Him, prostrate, face on the ground, reduced to agony under the genuine fear to which you had surrendered your humanity.
-You prolonged and renewed your prayer with even greater fervour.
and
-Through the intensity and deep reverence of your request, you merited to be heard.
-Withdrawing from your prayer and filled with a holy courage and eagerness you went forward to meet the suffering that had filled you with fear to the point of sweating blood."
Quite often our prayer is just such a prostration, an exhaustion, a falling flat on one's face. Oh, that our prayer in such times might be filled with the interior dispositions of Jesus' loving surrender. The sorrows and crisis of our lives have a potential for emptying us of our own wills, our own plans, our own desires and filling us with God's will, God's plan and God's desire. Our only peace in the sorrow or crisis will come when we surrender to God's will. It happens all at once in the moment and we are moved forward in whatever way is according to God's plan for us. It may be a moving forward to our personal death in peaceful acceptance, or a moving forward to a radically new lifestyle in serene faith and trust or it may be a moving forward to gratefully accept a disabling disease or chronic illness. Whatever it is, there will be a peace surpassing understanding in the doing of God's will! Our fears will be transformed into courage and our non-acceptance ("Let this cup pass") will be transformed into whole-hearted loving acceptance "(Let it be done.") With Father Médaille we pray: "When will my prayer have the dispositions and perfections of yours! O Jesus, pray through me and with me. Grant that I may draw from my prayer such fruits as you willed to draw from your own."
Before we leave the Garden Prayer, we might just pause awhile to deepen our contemplation of the graced moment of break-through that the whole person of Jesus underwent. The characteristics of his prayer that night were most important - solitary, humble, reverent, prolonged! We have in these later years gleaned insight and confirmation from the depth psychologists that the source of one's inner strength is constellated by prayer or active imagination. "As a psychological procedure prayer corresponds to active imagination, whereby one seeks to bring into visibility the psychic image or fantasy that lies behind the conflict of affects." Carl Jung goes on to describe just how helpful and necessary it is to find the images that lie behind the emotions we are suffering. He writes in Memories, Dreams and Reflections:
"To the extent that I managed to translate the emotions into images -
that is to say, to find the images which were concealed in the emotions
- I was inwardly calmed and reassured. Had I left those images hidden
in the emotions, I might have been torn to pieces by them... As a result
of my experiment I learned how helpful it can be, from the therapeutic
point of view, to find the particular images which lie behind emotions."
(p. 74 - quoted in The Christian Archetype)
For Jesus "the cup" was the image that his psyche released for him. This image held the terrible emotions of terror, fright, abandonment, failure, dread of pain... These emotions were nearly tearing his humanity to pieces - in the "copious sweat of blood". When he spoke to his Father about drinking the cup "if that be his will", there was an inward calm and courage and consolation that flooded into his whole humanity. He got up and "went forward to meet the suffering that had filled him with fear."
As Father Médaille saw, too, that was the fruit of his prayer." He wanted us to learn how to pray like this especially in the critical hours of our lives. In my spiritual direction ministry, I have invited persons "to find the particular images that lie behind their intense emotions". The images may be given in prayer or in dreams. Relating with "the image" - getting the attention off the intense emotion - the person undergoes a transaction that redeems the situation and moves him/her forward in serenity and consolation.
THE MYSTERY OF THE PASSION AND CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS
The devout person finally resolves to live the kind of life which Jesus, the Spouse, willingly chose to live throughout his passion and sufferings when he willed to let go of life to give it to those who will choose to live by it.
After your prayer,
I can only marvel
at your divine patience
during your arre
and during the extreme torments
inflicted upon you
along the streets of Jerusalem
and in the houses of the high priest,
of Pilate
and of Herod.
You endured a thousand blows
without complaining,
a thousand calumnies
without defending yourself,
a thousand insults and mockeries
without showing
the slightest resentment.
You were like a lamb being led
to slaughter,
silently
and without complaint;
and you sought nothing
but to be crushed
and overcome with shame
and suffering.
Good Jesus,
when will I be able to endure
sorrow and pain
without complaint,
willingly endure
lies and scorn
without defending myself?
I am incapable of this
by myself.
But if you help me
with your grace,
and if you deign to live in me,
it will become natural
since we can do everything
in him who strengthens us,
that is, in you.
But it is not we who have
this power
and strength;
it is your grace
and the grace of God your Father
with us.
Finally, O good Jesus,
engrave in our minds and hearts
the sacred mysteries
of your scourging,
your crowning with thorns,
your carrying of the cross,
your crucifixion
and your sorrowful death.
Grant that I may treat
my sinful flesh
with some severity,
since you willed
that yours,
totally pure and innocent,
should be torn
by such cruel
and numerous lashes.
Grant that I may endure in my head
pain
proportionate to the unworthiness
of my thoughts
and unbridled imaginings.
It was to expiate these
that your head
was pierced with thorns.
Punish my pride
by humiliation
and scorn
since you willed to be treated
with derision
accompanied by
a thousand lashes
as if you were
a mock king,
or rather,
the king of criminals.
May I carry my own cross.
However heavy it may be,
it will always be
much lighter
than yours.
Let me be nailed with you
on your holy cross
so that I may live and die there
in poverty,
scorn,
sorrow,
abandonment by creatures
and even
by your Father.
Deprived of any sensible consolation,
I shall be,
with you,
a "man of sorrows".
Above all, good Jesus,
grant that throughout my life
and especially
at the time of my death,
I may fulfill
in every instance
the last will of your Father,
and with such exactitude
that with my last breath
I may be able to say:
"Consummatum est."
"It is finished."
I have fulfilled the designs
of divine Providence
concerning my life and my death.
I have spent myself in the service
of my Creator
and in the gratitude that I owe
to the boundless love
of my Saviour Jesus.
This the only desire of my soul.
This is the cherished expectation
of my poor heart,
which, after contemplating
your life and death,
has no other affection
but to live and die
for him
who lived and died
for me,
that is yourself,
my good Jesus.
To you
be glory
and honour
forever.
AMEN
(Writings of J.P. Médaille SJ, pp 123-125)
Commentary on Father Médaille's Contemplationof the Passion and Death of Jesus:
Here in this mystery we see the self-emptying of Jesus at its climax:
"He emptied himself... even to accepting death on a cross." (Phil. 2:8)
Father Médaille has brought us to the apex of our commitment: "to live and to die for him who lived and died for me." This calls forth a great maturity in one's spiritual life. This, Father Médaille says "is the only desire of my soul", "the most cherished expectation of my heart". What a profound and awesome experience of Love has caused this prayer to burst forth from his heart. Father Médaille admits that one is now living in a spousal relationship with Jesus. "The real proof of love is to endure much for those one loves. Endure much for God and you will show clearly that you love Him very much." (Maxim of Love 5:4) Jesus showed he loved us very much for "the Spouse willingly chose... to let go of life to give it to those who choose to live by it."
In this contemplation of the Passion "we can only marvel at your divine patience" in and through all the cruel and extreme torments you endured "along the streets of Jerusalem and in the houses of the high priest". In Jean-Pierre's familiar superlative language, he elaborates on the perfection of Christian patience:
You endured a thousand blows
without complaining,
a thousand calumnies
without defending yourself,
a thousand insults and mockeries
without showing the slightest resentment."
Seeing such divine patience reminds us of our own imperfections in patience in enduring the suffering that happens to us in the course of our lifetime.
"O good Jesus, when will I be able to endure sorrow and pain without complaint,
willingly endure lies and scorn without defending myself?"
Swiftly, Father Médaille answers his own question. "I am incapable of this by myself. But if you help me with your grace, and if you deign to live in me, it will become very natural, since we can do everything in him who strengthens us, that is in you." This is mystical consciousness. This is living at a higher level of awareness. When one is consciously living in Pure Love, one can "do this naturally". It is not meekly turning the other cheek. It is an individuated ego that can endure the onslaughts of the power principle without identifying with it - that is without succumbing to either a defensive violence or despair. The consequence is a gradual transformation of the collective psyche. As the Suffering Servant hymn describes: "He is despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief... by his knowledge (consciousness) shall my righteous servant justify many." (Is 53) It is into this divine consciousness that Father Médaille invites us to move in our "hour of crucifixion" with the powers of darkness that threaten our very lives and integrity. "But it is not we who have this power and strength; it is your grace and the grace of God your Father with us. "Only in "pure love" will the psyche endure such utter degradation of the ego, physical and psychological torture and punishment. What consoling teaching to be reminded that yes, of ourselves, we can do nothing before the face of such affliction and dread - but filled with Jesus' love and patience and divine help, there is nothing we cannot do. What grace this "nothingness of self" that becomes the fertile ground for such "fullness of being in God." Is that why all the mystics know that suffering is the door to pure love:
"Suffering accepted well is like wood which feeds the fire of divine
love; as you faithfully endure more, using your sufferings well, you
will experience the fire of this love spreading in your heart and
persons who possess this great love are usually led along the path
of great suffering: grasp this truth well and profit from it. A great
fire can hardly keep burning unless one keeps throwing much wood
on it; in the same way, in order to sustain a great love of God
throughout life, one must endure great pain."
(Maxim of Love 5:2)
Father Médaille prays that "Jesus may engrave in our minds and hearts the five sacred mysteries of his passion: the scourging, the crowning with thorns, the carrying of the cross, the crucifixion and your sorrowful death." All throughout the accounts of Jesus' arrest and trial we are moved by the extent and the intensity of the crowds and priests defensive reaction to the psychic threat that Jesus and his teachings provoked in them. It heightens to such a pitch that "Crucify him, crucify him." is their only chant. "The crowd", that part of the collective consciousness that we all bear, vigourously resists the challenging of pure love, of becoming whole. Father Médaille desires that we might willingly undergo some mortification of the senses, some bridling of the emotions in order to restrain those forces within us that want to keep our "shadow" hidden. Encounter with our shadow will always be a painful humiliation. Jean-Pierre's "spiritual exercises" of this "mortificatio phase of our individuation" process are quite descriptive and concrete:
"May I treat my sinful flesh with some severity... Grant that I may endure in my head, pain proportionate to the unworthiness of my thoughts and unbridled imaginings... Punish my pride by humiliation and scorn... Let me be nailed with you on your cross... I shall be with you a "man of sorrows", a "woman of sorrow."
As a sound spiritual master, he knows that we must encounter our "shadow", and our own dark side of personality, before the pure love can be released within us as a "redeeming power" to heal and gradually transform "the collective crowd" - humanity. Father Médaille's longing increases that we all become instruments in the great redemptive work of Christ on the Cross. As Father moves into the mystery and approaches the crucifixion moment, there comes forth an outburst of spontaneous love - a desire for total identification and oneness with Jesus:
"LET ME BE NAILED WITH YOU ON YOUR HOLY CROSS..."
Great lovers are usually led through great sufferings. Médaille himself, lived and taught from his own experience. He understood the elements of struggling with the mystery, wrestling with God and one's own psyche, not giving in to simple, pious platitudes but pressing on to the deeper wisdom. In time, after much blood, sweat the tears comes a break-through - an experience of God within the pain. This alone gives meaning, touches upon something real, something that seems capable of going on forever. No one can take it away. It is pure gift. Suffering leads to spiritual growth and transformation... if we embrace it with a response of faith and an attitude of trust. The Cross is the way, indeed the only way because true spiritualization is accomplished solely through "kenosis" - self-emptying. The Cross purifies and refines until nothing remains but the realization that God's love surrounds me and consumes me even in my nakedness and poverty of spirit. Possessing God's love in its purity and perfection, sets the whole person free from the bondage of ego and self. Like Médaille it cries out:
"Deprived of any sensible consolation, I shall be, with you, a "man sorrows".
Totally one now with the mission and ministry of Jesus, the soul longs to share the redemptive work of bringing all souls to Christ... to the cross... to experience their own personal salvation.
"It makes me happy to suffer for you, as I am suffering now, and in
my own body to do what I can to make up all that has still to be
undergone by Christ for the sake of his body, the Church."
(Colossians 1: 24)
Father Médaille concludes his contemplation of Christ Crucified with a fervent prayer of longing for total union of everything in his life, especially the particularities of his personal death, to be in complete unison with the will of the Father. "With my last breath may I be able to say "Consummatum Est. It is finished. I have fulfilled the designs of divine Providence concerning my life and my death. I have spent myself in the service of my Creator and in the gratitude that I owe to the boundless love of my Saviour Jesus." When we gaze upon Christ Crucified we are drawn into the heart of Jesus. "There is no greater love than this, to lay down your life for your friends. You are my friend." Jesus' heart could not be satisfied until it had given everything, down to the last drop of his precious blood. "No one takes it from Me, I give it freely."
With Jesus, with Father Médaille, we too are lifted up, fixed upon the Cross of Christ, looking out with his eyes and his heart upon a broken humanity, longing for healing and wholeness and salvation. Upon the cross of Christ all our own pain, hurts, humiliations, sin and folly are consumed in the great love and "die"! It is finished, all consummated. This has been my destiny to pass through this life with all its s truggles and joys, disappointments and successes, agonies and ecstasies. Nothing has been wasted. All has been contributing to Progress. Teilhard de Chardin spoke of the Cross as the symbol of Progress because it is the Christian sign par excellence of Christ carrying the weight of the world in Progress. For every synthesis, for UNION, there must be a burn-off somewhere. The "cost of suffering" with its intense personal effort and discipline is effecting Progress for humanity. Every time another soul embraces the Cross, more Love-energy spills forth into the universe and joins with Jesus' mission of "May they all be one in us." Father Médaille would draw us to image the heart of Jesus as the converging point of love in which all creation is drawn into unity. He understood that each person's suffering can then be redemptive and contribute actively to the building up of humanity.
"This is the only desire of my soul." Having come to this heightened consciousness of the simplicity and unity of All at the centre, Jean-Pierre is already living in eternity. "He has found his heaven here on earth" as the mystic Elizabeth of the Trinity exclaimed in her wonderful interior 'knowing'. "To you be glory and honour forever." It would seem that Father Médaille himself has come full circle... back to the beginning mystery of the Incarnation... of Jesus showing us how to get into a fundamental attitude of total dependence upon God.
"Now, after contemplating your life and death, there is only one desire
in my soul, one cherished expectation, one affection in my poor heart -
and that is to live and to die for him who lived and died for me."
The whole mystery of Christ's life and our personal life becomes simplified, unified in/by/through LOVE.
"Did 'ere such love and sorrow meet?"
CONCLUSION
A JUNGIAN COMMENTARY ON THE LIFE OF CHRIST
"What happens in the life of Christ happens always and everywhere."
(C.G. Jung, Psychology and Religion)
Much like Father Médaille and all the great spiritual masters of the past, the gifted psychologist of this century, C.G. Jung, tried to rescue the spiritual treasures of the past and give us a fresh interpretation of the Christian myth. He wrote that "the drama of the archetypal life of Christ describes in symbolic images the events in the conscious life - as well as in the life that transcends consciousness - of a man who has been transformed by his higher destiny." He came to see that "the life of Christ, understood psychologically, represents the vicissitudes of the Self as it undergoes incarnation in an individual ego and of the ego as it participates in that divine drama. In other words the life of Christ represents the process of individuation." (C.G Jung, The Christian Archetype, A Jungian Commentary on the Life of Christ, by Edward F. Edinger)
Throughout this study of Father Médaille's contemplations on the mysteries of the life of Christ we have seen how he invited us to superimpose our present life situation with a similar one of Christ's. Was he intuitively aware of the same insight Jung named in this century? The birth of the holy divine child in each person undergoes "an incarnation" and each individual ego-self finds itself caught up in that divine drama until it reaches individuation: "I live, now not I, but Christ lives in me." (St. Paul) Jesus Christ, in his humanity, is that "meritorious", "exemplary" and "vital" cause of our spiritual transformation. We must make connection with His life and process as we undergo all the vicissitudes of our journey.
Carl Jung transfers the symbolism of the life of Christ to the individual. He referred to it by the term "continuing incarnation". The author of the book, The Christian Archetype, has chosen nodal points of Christian art and experience to express the essential stages in the life of Christ and illustrated them in what he calls "The Incarnation cycle: The Christian myth begins and ends with the Descent of the Holy Spirit:
This is how he describes his illustration:
"Pentecost is a second Annunciation. Just as the first Annunciation is followed by the birth of Christ, so the second Annunciation is followed by the birth of the Church. The Church as the body of Christ is then destined to live out collectively the same sequence of images as did Jesus. According to Hugo Rahner, "The earthly fate of the Church as the body of Christ is modelled on the earthly fate of Christ himself. That is to say the Church, in the course of her history, moves towards a death." The death of the Church as a collective carrier of the process transfers its symbolism to the individual."
In this "continuing incarnation" going on within individuals at all times, we are all passing through these various images. Some may be undergoing their "flight into Egypt", others may be in their "Gethsemane hour"; still others are coming forth from their "entombment" into "resurrection/rebirth".
"Insofar as this cycle represents what happens to a man/woman it pictures the process of the ego's coming to consciousness. But, insofar as it represents what happens to God incarnated in man/woman, it pictures the transformation of God. This twofold process has now entered the range of the conscious experience of individuals. Once again the Holy Spirit descends, this time to bring about a "Christification of many." For the individual this means not an "imitation of Christ" but its exact opposite: an assimilation of the Christ-image to his/her own self... It is no longer an effort, an intentional straining after imitation, but rather an involuntary experience of the reality represented by the sacred legend."
(The Christian Archetype, A Jungian Commentary on the Life of Christ, p. 17-18)
If our Father Médaille were alive today to witness this emerging consciousness - "the Christification of many" - I'm confident he would rejoice and exclaim: "Jesus Christ is the same today as he was yesterday and as he will be for ever." (Hebrews 13:8) Mystic and psychologist come to the same truth, three centuries apart.
"Blessed be God!"