The devout person, stripped of self, seizes the opportunity to be filled with Christ Jesus and his graces by the loving contemplation of his Incarnation.
"I begin with the adorable mystery of your Incarnation.
I see in this sacred mystery the inexpressible love that you had for us.
For us, you condescended to become man and to take upon yourself the sins of humanity, to wash them in your precious blood.
It seems to me, good Jesus, that at the moment of your Incarnation, God your Father or your holy angels might possibly have reminded you that you were about to lay yourself open to great suffering for the sake of creatures far too unworthy of it, and your love would have urged you to reply that whatever it might cost you, your desire was to save them.
In gratitude for such great goodness ought I not likewise say that whatever might be the cost to me, good Jesus, I want to be wholly yours, even if at every moment out of love for you, I must endure sufferings as great and painful as those you were pleased to endure for me. And what more do I learn in contemplating your self-emptying in the womb of the glorious Virgin?
Here I see and admire your ineffable abasement.
Ah, good Jesus, how true it is that there indeed you are an "abbreviated Word."
Here I must adore -the profound adoration and infinite reverence that you offer your Father at the first moment of your Incarnation;
-the offering you make of yourself to him, accepting his will in all things, no matter how severe it may seem;
-your zeal for the glory and the salvation of souls which already begins to inflame your heart and which will never be extinguished until it has consumed it;
-the adorable dispositions of your infinitely perfect soul in all its operations.
It was, O good Jesus, a sovereign purity, an unfathomable humility, an active all-consuming love, a total submission to all the dispositions of your Father's will, and above all, an attitude of continual self-offering and a loving death to self that made of you at each moment a perfect holocaust in the presence of your eternal Father.
Oh, if only I could engrave in my soul these excellent virtues.
If only I could maintain it always in these dispositions.
I desire this with my whole heart, and uniting myself with profound homage to the sacred mystery of your Incarnation, I beg you, good Jesus, to engrave in my soul its beautiful qualities and excellent perfections.
In order to obtain this grace, I want to meditate on these perfections one after the other, pondering them, one at a time, admiring them, imprinting them deep in my heart.
In a word, I want to be filled with them so that I might begin to live out of your dear life and possess the first fruits of the grace of your ineffable self-emptying."
(Writings of J.P. Médaille, pp. 114-115)
Commentary on Father Médaille's Contemplation on the Mystery of the Incarnation:
We intuit just how fondly Father Médaille lived inside this great mystery of Love becoming incarnate. In praying this contemplation with him we are lifted into the innermost chambers of the Trinity where the Father speaks to his Son asking Him if he will go now and "ransom the bride suffering under the hard yoke".
John of the Cross wrote a similar poem on the Incarnation describing this scene in the Trinity) And the overflowing response of Jesus was "whatever it might cost me, I desire to save them." Such love, such zeal for souls, such self-emptying!
We see here in the mystery of the Incarnation, Jesus living in such total dependency upon His Father. This is the interior attitude that will set us free... not dependent on ourselves, not dependent or co-dependent on others, but totally dependent upon God for everything. To the extent that we give ourselves entirely and in all things to God, we experience the reality that God gives himself entirely and in all things to us.
"He emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as all men are; ... but God raised him on high and gave him a name above all other names ... Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God the Father." (Phil 2:6-11)
Similarly, our willing co-operation to be emptied of our "false and wounded self" is lovingly complimented by "God raising us on high" to share a life of intimate union with the Trinity. What an exalted destiny for "creatures far too unworthy of it!"
Father Médaille prays here that he/we might enter into the attitudes of Jesus as revealed in this mystery - attitudes of continual self-offering and total submission to the Father's will and an active and all-consuming love for humanity. Jesus' condescension, "not clinging to his equality with God" comes from his outpouring love, choosing to be fully human, like us, one-with-us without power, arrogance or outward show. This is the kenosis of Jesus: he became as human beings are in order to be with human beings so He could be for human beings. What a gift! Jesus' love of humanity reveals itself as an overwhelming and uncontainable love that caused him to come to us in the form of a human fetus living in the womb of Mary, living on the life of his mother. What ineffable self-abasement for the Son of God!
"Ah, good Jesus, how true it is that there indeed you are an abbreviated Word!"
His human beginnings stir us with the incredible love God has for humanity. What surrender of his divinity, what an emptying, what admirable dependence on a human mother. What an embrace of the human condition - ennobling all of life, from the womb to death. It would seem that our neediness actually cries and calls forth this divine love to manifest itself in the person of Jesus in our midst. "You condescended to become man and to take upon yourself the sins of mankind, to wash them in your precious blood." What love that gives itself for love of the other.
In gratitude, Father Médaille encourages us to ponder this mystery and let our desire be like Jesus':
"Imprint these dispositions deep in my heart... engrave them in my soul... that I might begin to live out of your dear life."
THE MYSTERY OF THE NATIVITY
The devout person profits most appropriately from the humble birth of Jesus Christ in order that the life of Jesus may grow in his/her own life through consideration of the virtues which Jesus actualizes in his.
"In the second place I wish to be filled with the blessings of your loving birth.
What marvels and wonderful lessons I see in this first mystery of your sacred infancy.
I see here the tender love you had for poverty, contempt, and suffering which you espoused at the first moment of your birth and which remained with you to the last breath of your life.
I admire here the perfect and complete poverty in which you willed to be born.
I see here the beginning of your submission and subjection to the wishes of others in the obedience you gave to the edicts of an emperor who was nothing compared to you.
I adore here the wonder of your infancy, when, in infinite wisdom, you allowed yourself to be guided with the same docility as if you were an ordinary child.
O wondrous childhood that teaches us the true way of virtue which lies wholly in submission to superiors, and in the obedience of a child who allows himself to be led without looking for reasons.
Oh, if only I could imitate particularly your holy childhood,
If, in imitation of your life as a child, I might never in any way reason concerning the direction and the orders of superiors.
In imitation of your life, as a child, may I never seek my own glory in anything, may I never make a single choice concerning my present or future employment
but await peacefully and accept without resistance all the dispositions of your divine Providence.
Give me this grace, good Jesus. engrave it in my life and make me a participant in the other virtues which shine out so brilliantly in the mystery of your holy birth."
(Writings of Jean-Pierre Médaille, pp. 115-116)
Commentary on Father Médaille's Contemplation on the Mystery of the Nativity:
The birth of the holy divine child in the lowly stable of a Bethlehem cave marks the unusualness of this birth surrounded by elemental forces and real poverty. There was "no room for him in the inn". Yet, he was in a royal city, Bethlehem of the House of David, which gives some indication of his greatness, but all of this - and more - is hidden in his choice of a hillside cave outside the city. We see here in his beginnings, how he by-passes the "royal road" - the entrance by prestige, power, luxury and security and comes to us by way of lowliness, poverty and submission - the "narrow road". Nativity is the feast of poverty, yet paradoxically, it is the feast of abundance. Never before have we known such great Love amongst us!
Jesus' obedience and submission to others is manifest from the very beginning of his life. How graciously he submits to the wishes of others - the edicts of the emperor for a census. Jesus - you are just newborn to our humanity and one of your first actions is to allow another king to exercise lordship over your life. Yet we observe how docile and free you are to co-operate and work within the ordinary circumstances and events of life as they happen upon you. You do not put up resistance to events, but rather you submit to them and you allow yourself to be guided without looking for any reasons. How analytical and probing for answers our minds become when we are beset with unsettling and troubling circumstances that disturb our plans. We can learn from your example how to handle the existence of "evil" in our life. You remained so in touch with life at your Source and that was enough for you. Your utter dependence upon God your Father allowed you to be so free and submissive for He would "bring all things to good."
In imitation of Jesus' infancy may we never seek our own glory in anything, and await peacefully and accept without resistance all the dispositions of God's Providence. What joy and care-freeness would be ours if we could only live in such close participation in Jesus' docility and obedience to the Father.
"We have not found the answer we have found the Source. And that is enough to start afresh." (St. Augustine)
THE MYSTERY OF THE CIRCUMCISION
In the only 1672 French copy available, this section is listed in the Table of Contents, but the text is missing (p. 116).
We will ponder the Scripture texts on this mystery.
When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised they gave him the name, JESUS, the name the angel had given him before his conception." (Luke 2:21)
"Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God's favour Listen. You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him JESUS. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob forever and his rule will have no end." (Luke 1:31-33)
Joseph had made up his mind to divorce her informally, when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because, she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him JESUS, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:20-21)
"God said to Abraham, "You on your part shall maintain my Covenant, yourself and your descendants after you, generation after generation. Now this is my Covenant which you are to maintain between myself and you, and your descendants after you: all your males must be circumcised.
You shall circumcise your foreskin, and this shall be the sign of the Covenant between myself and you.
When they are eight days old all your male children must be circumcised, generation after generation of them, no matter whether they are born within the household or bought from a foreigner... My Covenant shall be marked on your bodies as a Covenant in perpetuity." (Genesis: 9-14)
"Of your sons every first-born of men must be redeemed. And when your sons ask you in days to come, "What does this mean? you will tell him,
"By sheer power Yahweh brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, Yahweh killed all the first-born in the land of Egypt of man and beast alike. For this, I sacrifice to Yahweh every male that first issues from the womb, and redeems every first-born of my sons.
The rite will serve as a sign on your hand would serve, or a circlet on your forehead, for Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand." (Exodus 13: 14-16)
Yahweh, your God, will circumcise your heart and the heart of all your descendants, until you love Yahweh, your God with all your heart and soul, and so have life." (Deuteronomy 30:6)
To be a Jew is not just to look like a Jew, and circumcision is more than a physical operation. The real Jew is the one who is inwardly a Jew, and the real circumcision is in the heart - something, not of the letter but of the spirit.
A Jew like that may not be praised by man, but will be praised by God." (Romans 2:28-29)
As for me, the only thing I can boast about is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.
It does not matter if a person is circumcised or not; what matters is for him to become an altogether "new creature".
Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, who form the Israel of God." (Galatians 6:14-16)
Commentary on Father Médaille's Contemplation on the Mystery of Circumcision:
There is no text found in the primitive manuscript that we have of Father Médaille, but we do know that he chose this as one of the mysteries that he wanted to include in his "spiritual exercises". (It is listed in his introductory table of contents.) Our Abba must have seen how this mystery, when contemplated, could further bring out, "the being emptied of self and at the same time filled with God."
We have only one verse from the Scriptures where this event was recorded of the life of Jesus.
When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised they gave him the name, JESUS, the name the angel had given him before his conception." (Luke 2:21)
Through this sign of circumcision, as prescribed by the Jewish Law, Jesus became a member of the people of Israel. Jesus truly identified himself with humanity, a particular family, a particular homeland, a nation, a people - Israel. Through this action, we learn that God really does want to be identified with His people. God wants to be immersed in creation, in the world. Jesus' spiritual journey home to the Father is going to be a passing all the way through creation.
Jesus shows obedience and submission to the Law. His Father has given this Law to the People of Israel as a "sign" of the Covenant with them. Jesus can submit to this Law even though He participates in a Covenant relationship with the Father that is beyond Law. He accepts the human need for an outward sign of an inward reality. At the same time He points to a living relationship that transcends this outward observance.
"Yahweh will circumcise your hearts." (Deut. 30:6)
It's the inward, spiritual, not the outward, physical action that is important. As we contemplate this mystery with the Scriptures, we ask ourselves:
Are our hearts emptied, so as to be filled with God? Where do I experience the need for a circumcision of my heart?
It is by a stripping away of the clutter, the impurities, the idols, the ego, that God emerges living ever more fully within us.
On the feast of the circumcision, the child was given a name. For Jesus, the being given a name that had already been prophesized before his birth:
"His name will be Jesus, which means Savior." (Matthew 1:21)
Jesus is the one born to lead the people to their eternal Promised Land. He "is the one who is to save his people from their sins." (Mt. 1:21) One's name signifies one's mission.
We might spend some time in reflection upon our name. What does your name mean? What is your particular calling/vocation? "I am called by name." Our vocation too is intimately linked with our being called by a particular name.
"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, I called you by your name, and I consecrated you and sent you..." (Jeremiah 1:4)
Most parents in the anticipation and expectation of a new child coming into the family decide before the moment of birth upon a name for their child. The name announces the child's gift, special and unique, for this time and for this particular mission. Each person's name has a meaning.
WHAT DOES MY NAME MEAN? WHAT IS MY VOCATION IN LIFE?
MYSTERY OF THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE
Meditating upon the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the devout person, in order to be no longer moved by self-interest, finds wonderful possibilities for constant self-emptying and for abandonment to the direction of God and of superiors.
So act, also good Jesus, that I profit from the lessons of your Presentation in the Temple.
It is in this place that you wanted to sacrifice yourself lovingly to God your Father while your holy mother was offering you at the altar.
You offered yourself completely and unreservedly to him for everything that would please him most.
You gave yourself irrevocably and out of the full measure of your love.
And what I admire most in this exalted offering is that in this moment you sacrificed a thousand beautiful and holy deeds which were present to your mind and which might have been the beginning of your preaching of the Gospel - sooner and more fruitfully.
You choose instead to depend totally on the will of your Father and to submit wholly to the direction of the holy Virgin and Saint Joseph.
In the imitation of this sacrifice of your every wish which you immolated in order to depend on the divine will alone, should I not sacrifice my will and my desires, no matter how right they may seem to me and in fact may be, in order that I might submit to the plan of your Father's Providence and to the direction of my superiors.
Grant good Jesus, that I might profit from my meditation in this way.
Grant that, following this sacrifice, I may live without willing, without desiring, without planning, without resisting in the least the plans of my superiors, and that, in imitation of you, I totally accept every expression of the will of your eternal Father."
(Writings of Jean-Pierre Médaille, pp. 116-117)
Commentary on Father Médaille's Contemplation on the Mystery of the Presentation
This mystery of the life of Jesus recounts for us Jesus' first journey up to Jerusalem. This time to fulfill the Law that 40 days after his birth, he is offered to God as Mary's firstborn. We see here Jesus' self-offering, given to God. He is all-given to His Father, all-poured out in a desire to be all for His Father. It is not just this one altar offering but a continual offering of himself to God, his Father.
Why so admirable? Jesus has come up to Jerusalem, the city of promise and it is receiving in its arms for the first time its Promised Deliverer. God is coming to purify His temple and those who greet him, Anna and Simeon, are not even the officials or the chief religious leaders of the people. There are just a holy man and a holy woman who have been "waiting" for this day. These two represent the poor of Yahweh who have been waiting patiently for the "consolation of Israel." These "poor ones", "the anawim" recognize Jesus as the Promised One.
And once again, Jesus is hidden. The divinity of his great works and mission are not made visible here. "You sacrificed a thousand beautiful deeds which were present in your mind... and which might have been the beginning of your preaching. "No, it's not the time. You sacrifice your dream. You surrender to the "kairos", the right time, the moment when God will again bring you up to Jerusalem to carry out the great act of salvation and deliverance for all people. It's simply not the time! You chose to remain dependent upon the Father's will. You surrender to the human process of growth and development. You are but a 40 day old infant and you contain all your grandeur and power within a few pounds of flesh wrapped in a blanket and carried by your mother into this House of God. Your littleness and your hiddenness teach us to respect and love the pedagogical pace of the Father with us as we too must pass through the stages of physical, mental, moral and spiritual growth.
"There is a season for everything..." (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
Father Médaille was also struck in this mystery by the tremendous sacrifice of will on Jesus' part. He gives up his will, his own wishes, his own desires, to be all for His Father's will. In imitation of Him, might we not also be helped to sacrifice our own will, our own wishes and surrender these to the will and wishes of our Father. "No matter how right they may seem to me... and in fact may be." Father Médaille's discernment principle is clear.
One sign of good discernment is always that one's own listening to God will not contradict one's obedience to one's superiors/spouse. Both are to be listening to the same spirit. Eventually the direction will be clear to both parties. "Obedience" means "to listen well."
This is a marvelous "spiritual exercise" of self-emptying to return to in times of interior struggle. To let go control, to let go my will, my plans, to let go my timing - these are major strippings for the self - and they require prolonged prayer to accomplish the desired detachment. This emptying of one's will is, with time, filled with God's will, with God's plan and with acceptance of God's timing. Such a sacrifice made in love bears a marvelous peace and rich hundredfold in one's life and ministry.
Celebrate this "knowing" with your own ritual passage. Honour the Simeon's and Anna's in your life that have "prophecized" your true self's emerging.
THE MYSTERY OF THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT
The flight into Egypt gives the devout person who meditates on it a noble motive for suffering courageously through the emptying of self, all possible wrongs, abuses and contradictions.
"Fifthly, if you deign to give me the grace, I desire to profit greatly from the first persecution you endured and your flight into Egypt.
You were no sooner born, good Jesus, than you were cruelly persecuted.
Although you had power to destroy your persecutors and reduce them to the nothingness from which you had drawn them, you endured their attacks with divine patience.
to escape their violence, you chose a way full of humility, and caused your foster father to be warned by an angel to carry you to Egypt into a place of exile, where, with your dear mother and your foster father, you were to live for seven years in extreme poverty.
O inexpressible gentleness. O patience. O unbounded goodness.
Grant that, like you, I may be able to endure every kind of persecution without complaining or murmuring and even without interior disquiet. May I endure each one with resignation.
Let me receive them as effects of divine Providence on my behalf.
What losses I incurred in my past life Because I did not endure in this spirit the contradictions I met."
(Writings of Jean-Pierre Médaille, p. 117)
Commentary on Father Médaille's Contemplation on the Mystery of the Flight:
Father Médaille presents this mystery of Jesus' life to bring us to a place where we will find the motivation for "Why suffer?" "Why undergo interiorly and exteriorly all that we must undergo in the spiritual journey?" The answer is clearly that suffering "empties us" and suffering "fills us with God's life". This is the purifying and transforming action happening in times of suffering and duress. This becomes then a valuable "spiritual exercise" when we are in a state of intense suffering - either psychological, moral or physical.
"No sooner were you born than you were being persecuted." You, Jesus, enter the human condition to be one with us in all things and almost immediate to your coming, you are subjected to abuse and hardship. All of this is unjust, coming from the dictates of someone in power who is very cruel and evil. What a welcome for our God from humanity. Why suffer like this? Why allow this to happen to you?
The paradox lives again. You, Jesus, had the power to destroy your enemies yet you endured their attacks with divine patience. You had the power to destroy yet you chose to show mercy. You suffered pain, hardship along with Mary and Joseph. You went into exile and poverty. You were a child refugee, driven from your homeland and place of birth. We cannot help but marvel at your patience, gentleness and goodness in suffering this flight into Egypt in the dark passage of the night.
This causes us to reflect upon how we handle similar, even less trying situations of personal suffering and attack. So often, we murmur, complain, rebel, are full of interior disquiet with all kinds of "noises in our heads." Old memories of abuse, degradation and blame surface to ward off more of the same. Our "woundedness" is close to the surface again and we suffer and cry out for a time of healing and wholeness. With this contemplation we pray that we may receive your virtues of gentleness and patience and love for our enemies as effects of God's loving providence on our behalf. We need God in these critical times... only God!
Here is Father Médaille's wisdom on why suffering serves a positive and perfective role in the spiritualization process of each person. God allows this suffering. He does not will it nor does He directly cause it. But God does permit suffering in our lives and God does use it positively to effect our growth in wholeness/holiness. In its purifying elements - suffering empties us of our selfishness and self-centeredness.
In its transforming elements - suffering fills us with qualities of God's very own life so that "as time goes on" we find ourselves responding more and more in the likeness of Christ - with his patience, gentleness and goodness. This is how PURE LOVE grows in us.
The Letter of James records this truth:
"You will always have your trials but, when they come, try to treat them as a happy privilege; you understand that your faith is only put to the test to make you patient, but patience too is to have its practical results so that you will become fully developed, complete, with nothing missing." (James 1: 2-4)
Father Médaille in his maxims on patience upholds this same teaching:
"No matter what disagreeable things happen to you, never see them as obstacles but as profitable and necessary to your daily life. If you consider them as effects of the tender and loving Providence of God, your Father, you will love them tenderly and accept them willingly. (Maxim of Perfection 7:3)
Hence, rather than respond to suffering, contradictions, setbacks, even persecution with a lot of self-pity and anger at the persons inflicting the abuse, desire to be filled with Jesus' virtue of patience and pure love and "see" in our present trial a "hidden grace", God-permitted, to bring us to a deeper self-emptying and a fuller participation in God's divine life.
"These are the trials through which we triumph,
by the power of Him who loved us." (Romans 8:37)
Father Médaille was well aware that we would all have to pass through one or more "flights into Egypt". There will be those traumatic, life-threatening encounters with 'authorities' in our lives that challenge us to fulfill our destiny at whatever the cost. These are times of deadliest peril! In this story Jesus models for us a way through the crisis with violence and abuse:
"To escape their violence, you chose a way of humility, you had your foster father carry you out to Egypt into a place of exile, where you lived for seven years in extreme poverty."
You model for us that distance, non-physical presence and non-engagement in the dysfunctional/destructive relationship is sometimes the only way to endure such persecutions. This takes an incredible strength of character born out of hope and love. Abba Jean, St. Paul and many others who have been moved by this holy inspiration have come to sing this hymn to God's love:
"Nothing therefore can come between us and the love of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food and clothes, or being threatened or even attacked... For I am certain of this... nothing can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Roman 8:31-39)
THE MYSTERY OF JESUS IN THE TEMPLE
The devout soul meditates on Jesus in the Temple when, at the age of twelve he hid himself there and wisely withdrew from his parents in order to serve God his Father.
O gentle Jesus, you willed to return from Egypt only because it was the will of your eternal Father who caused the order to be given to Saint Joseph.
At twelve years of age you were led to the Temple by your holy mother and Saint Joseph.
What lessons have you not given to me in this mystery?
You taught me that we must be attached to the will of your heavenly Father, and that to accomplish it perfectly, we must be weaned from our sweetest consolations and have no regard for flesh and blood nor for our most cherished friendships.
It was to accomplish this adorable will of your Father that you withdrew from the company of Saint Joseph and your holy and loving mother.
You knew quite well the extreme affliction that your loss was to cause them.
You were deeply touched by it. But the designs of your Father made you embrace both the sorrow of your parents and the compassion that you experienced because of it.
Your Father's good pleasure was the sole measure of your life.
It was in order to follow these designs that you wanted to remain lost for three days in Jerusalem and that, among the doctors, with a very gentle and humble simplicity, you revealed some glimmer of the brilliance of your sovereign wisdom which filled those assembled with astonishment and wonder at your teaching and at your divine answers.
Grant, good Jesus, that I may imitate these wonderful examples and profit by your holy lessons.
Let me attach myself solely to your heavenly Father's will and when it is a question of accomplishing it, may I pay no heed to flesh and blood nor to the impulses of my self-love which could obstruct it.
May I obey promptly, joyously, completely, and in perfect fervour of spirit, all the designs that Providence may have for me and make known to me either through interior enlightenment or through the commands of my superiors."
(Writings of Jean-Pierre Médaille, p.117-118)
Commentary on Father Médaille's Contemplation on the Mystery of Jesus in the Temple:
This mystery records the second time Jesus is in Jerusalem. This time Jesus speaks, He reveals himself in Jerusalem at the Temple with the teachers there. God promised He would appear in the Temple.
Father Médaille brings out how Jesus hid himself there, withdrawing from his parents. This is a young twelve year old boy growing in consciousness of his unique calling. He is beginning to experience his "vocation" and he needs to break away from the lovely, felt, sensible consolations of being in the security and presence of his loving parents, Mary and Joseph. In order to serve God with all his being, to love perfectly, Jesus must let go, empty himself of all the consolations of sense, to be free for total service to the Father. Jesus must allow nothing - not even his beloved parents - to hold him back. Later, in his public ministry he will instruct his followers:
"I tell you solemnly, there is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or land for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not be repaid a hundred times over, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land - not without persecutions - now in this present time and in the world to come, eternal life." (Mark 10:28-31)
This is Jesus' first leaving of home at some interior level of attachment. Already at twelve, Jesus is experiencing the radical demands of his mission and what it might cost him in human response. Father Médaille brings this "heart" of Jesus' humanity out beautifully in this contemplation. There is the necessary "weaning from sweet consolations", from the attachments to family and cherished friends. This is charged with deep human anguish and emotion. Even Jesus was touched by it. The loss was felt. There is a recognition and an acceptance of human emotion. "You knew quite well the extreme affliction that your loss was to cause them. You were deeply touched by it. But the designs of your Father made you embrace both the sorrow of your parents and the compassion that you experienced because of it." Here, Father Médaille gives us a lovely scene of the commingling of sorrow and compassionate love.
Just what is the "fire" emerging in Jesus' bones that makes him rise above this tremendous pull of the flesh. It is the all-consuming PASSION for the Father's will. Jesus in the Temple feels with all the fibers of his being: "Here, I am home at last!"
A country boy in the big city, the great capital, and he is absorbed by the sight of the earthly majesty of God his Father and by these first intimations of his task in life. Caught up in this new energy of his emerging "vocation", he forgets his parents and his former lifestyle and all that previously occupied him. There is one solitary preoccupation demanding his whole-hearted attention and being.
We see here, Jesus, an intelligent boy just discovering his unique call in life. This is the way to go. This is the way in which God is to come to his temple. The prophecies are fulfilled in an unexpected way: God appears in a growing child. "You revealed some glimmer of the brilliance of your sovereign wisdom which filled those assembled with astonishment and wonder at your teaching and divine answers." But then, NOW is not the hour for you to go forth into full ministry. There is more quiet preparation and more lived experience in Nazareth before you are to continue to fulfill your destiny. You go home with Mary and Joseph in obedience.
This contemplation on the mystery of Jesus in the Temple brings us to the awareness that in "letting something go" - here, his parents, his felt security - he "finds something" - a burning passion to be about His Father's business. The same spiritual dynamic is possible for all followers of Jesus.
"Lose yourself in Me and you will find yourself." (Matthew 10:37-39)
THE MYSTERY OF THE SIMPLE AND HIDDEN LIFE
The simple and hidden life of Jesus in Nazareth abundantly furnishes the devout person who meditates on it with beautiful examples of how to desire not to live for oneself, how to be hidden, and how to be submissive to everyone.
"Having given this obedience to your heavenly Father, you wanted to lead a hidden life, completely subject to your foster father and your holy mother, until you reached the age of thirty.
Blessed are they who enter profoundly into the sublime mystery of a life hidden for so long, the mystery of your adorable docility.
For thirty years you wanted to live unknown to men, submissive to your parents, busy in the lowly tasks of a carpenter shop.
You wanted to contain within this lowliness the inexpressible wonder of your talents which might have captivated a whole world and converted everyone to God your Father.
There is at the heart of it all, this mystery which should fill us with delight. The hidden and submissive life must possess sublime beauty since you cherished it so deeply and lived it so long.
Good Jesus, you devoted only a little over three years in the external ministries of preaching your holy Gospel.
The rest of your life you spent in obedience and in obscurity.
Blessed are they who understand how to profit from this example, and love to be hidden unless the sheer necessity of promoting God's glory obliges them to come forward.
Yes, blessed are they who are not anxious either to know or to be known, to understand or to be understood, to see or to be seen, but rather to love solitude and hiddenness in order to live in it with Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
Blessed are they who are fully content to know You and to be known by You alone; who understand within this solitude, how to lose themselves in contemplation of your wonders, and who live out this divine communing not only in the privacy of a room or study, but even in public and in the midst of highest society.
Finally,blessed are they who want to be always dependent and who flee with extreme horror any position that confers honour and authority.
Grant, good Jesus, that I may live in these practices, this solitude, his dependence, in order to be dead to all creatures and to live only in You, with You, and for You, in the wondrous love of your eternal Father."
(Writings of Jean-Pierre Médaille, p.118-119)
Commentary on Father Médaille's Contemplation on the Mystery of the Hidden Life:
The life of Jesus in Nazareth is full of marvelous lessons for us:
· how not to live for ourselves · how to be hidden · how to be submissive to others
Father Médaille stresses how Jesus "wanted" to lead a simple, hidden life, and that he wanted to "live it for so long at time". Jesus grew up in Nazareth. He practised the carpenter profession along with Joseph in the small village. Until he was thirty, his activities were limited to this social task and to living an ordinary family life. There has to be something extraordinary here!
When we contemplate lovingly this family life at Nazareth we are moved by models of peace, obedience and love. Jesus' life in the village of Nazareth reveals how God acts and how God is. Nazareth signifies that the Son of God has manifested himself to us through the simple ordinary life of humanity. His message: God comes in the ordinary. Look for God in your ordinary life.
Jesus lived this lifestyle for thirty years, long enough to be sure we would really get the point. Out of the life that men and women all over the world lead - be it housewife and mother, computer salesman, skilled labourer, student, office worker or farmer - out of just such a life, the Son of God makes himself manifest. Out of a life that seemingly has no history, no importance, no significance, comes forth the God who gives history and meaning to our lives. Yes, truly, God is the simplest one of all and God acts in the ordinary.
The telling of our own life stories often manifests the presence of God that has been the source of our strength, courage and grace to move on. So many experience that in the "telling of their story" - often perceived as very simple and insignificant, that their "Nazareth" truly is a place of divine encounter. "Can anything good come out of (our) Nazareth?" (Mark 6:1-6)
This contemplation helps us to know God better. He is the God who willed to appear in common things. The hidden God who has always shared the ordinary life of humans. The God-close-by-us in our lives - lives that do not attract the attention of others and seemingly do not make history. There are no words, no history recorded, even for Jesus, of these thirty years of his earthly sojourn. All the Scriptures speak of this:
"He then went down with them and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority... And Jesus increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and man." (Lk 2:51-52)
This is the poverty of the ordinary, the commonplace. This is the poverty of spirit that characterizes the majority of our lives. Out of this poverty, this emptiness, GOD comes and fills us with Himself and with His life so that we too "grow in wisdom and stature, in favour with God and others."
Nazareth shows God-with-us in our life and in our work in our daily family/community life. Obscurity becomes the "meeting place" of God with men and women and children. After one has pondered this mystery for a long while one will come to love solitude and hiddenness; one will find a mysterious attraction to stay away from honours and positions of authority; "one will love it so much one will not want to come out of it unless God's glory demands it of us."
However, Father Médaille stresses that it is important how one lives in solitude and hiddenness. It cannot become an excuse for withdrawing from the world and our responsibility for its care. Rather, it is to be a continuous love relationship with all of creation aware of the Presence of God in all. One can become so lost in this communion even if/when one is busy about many things. One remains in this solitude very focused, very centered on God-within and nothing else matters. Such a one has found the "one Thing necessary." (Lk 10:42)
It seems to me that a Nazareth-life requires a great deal of interior discipline to quieten and harness the energies of the ego-self. The fruit of this prolonged state is a lovely containment of being. True beauty and spiritual freedom are its fruits. Abba Jean saw into the heart of this mystery - lived for thirty years!
"You wanted to contain within this lowliness the inexpressible wonder of your talents which might have captivated a whole world and converted everyone to God your Father... The hidden and submissive life must possess sublime beauty since you cherished it so deeply and lived it so long."
Very often in the lives of persons we relate with daily, we see such fidelity to small, simple tasks of homemaking, caring for family and friends, going to work or school. Like Father Médaille we need to look upon these little ones and call them "blessed".
*You might enjoy watching the movie: "Mr. Holland's Opus" I think this story reveals the fruit of a man of Nazareth's life work in today's language. You will be touched by this love, sacrifice and commitment. He made a symphony with his life work!
MYSTERY OF THE INCARNATION
The devout person, stripped of self, seizes the opportunity to be filled with Christ Jesus and his graces by the loving contemplation of his Incarnation.
"I begin with the adorable mystery of your Incarnation.
I see in this sacred mystery the inexpressible love that you had for us.
For us, you condescended to become man and to take upon yourself the sins of humanity, to wash them in your precious blood.
It seems to me, good Jesus, that at the moment of your Incarnation, God your Father or your holy angels might possibly have reminded you that you were about to lay yourself open to great suffering for the sake of creatures far too unworthy of it, and your love would have urged you to reply that whatever it might cost you, your desire was to save them.
In gratitude for such great goodness ought I not likewise say that whatever might be the cost to me, good Jesus, I want to be wholly yours, even if at every moment out of love for you, I must endure sufferings as great and painful as those you were pleased to endure for me. And what more do I learn in contemplating your self-emptying in the womb of the glorious Virgin?
Here I see and admire your ineffable abasement.
Ah, good Jesus, how true it is that there indeed you are an "abbreviated Word."
Here I must adore -the profound adoration and infinite reverence that you offer your Father at the first moment of your Incarnation;
-the offering you make of yourself to him, accepting his will in all things, no matter how severe it may seem;
-your zeal for the glory and the salvation of souls which already begins to inflame your heart and which will never be extinguished until it has consumed it;
-the adorable dispositions of your infinitely perfect soul in all its operations.
It was, O good Jesus, a sovereign purity, an unfathomable humility, an active all-consuming love, a total submission to all the dispositions of your Father's will, and above all, an attitude of continual self-offering and a loving death to self that made of you at each moment a perfect holocaust in the presence of your eternal Father.
Oh, if only I could engrave in my soul these excellent virtues.
If only I could maintain it always in these dispositions.
I desire this with my whole heart, and uniting myself with profound homage to the sacred mystery of your Incarnation, I beg you, good Jesus, to engrave in my soul its beautiful qualities and excellent perfections.
In order to obtain this grace, I want to meditate on these perfections one after the other, pondering them, one at a time, admiring them, imprinting them deep in my heart.
In a word, I want to be filled with them so that I might begin to live out of your dear life and possess the first fruits of the grace of your ineffable self-emptying."
(Writings of J.P. Médaille, pp. 114-115)
Commentary on Father Médaille's Contemplation on the Mystery of the Incarnation:
We intuit just how fondly Father Médaille lived inside this great mystery of Love becoming incarnate. In praying this contemplation with him we are lifted into the innermost chambers of the Trinity where the Father speaks to his Son asking Him if he will go now and "ransom the bride suffering under the hard yoke".
John of the Cross wrote a similar poem on the Incarnation describing this scene in the Trinity) And the overflowing response of Jesus was "whatever it might cost me, I desire to save them." Such love, such zeal for souls, such self-emptying!
We see here in the mystery of the Incarnation, Jesus living in such total dependency upon His Father. This is the interior attitude that will set us free... not dependent on ourselves, not dependent or co-dependent on others, but totally dependent upon God for everything. To the extent that we give ourselves entirely and in all things to God, we experience the reality that God gives himself entirely and in all things to us.
"He emptied himself to assume the condition of a slave, and became as all men are; ... but God raised him on high and gave him a name above all other names ... Jesus Christ as Lord to the glory of God the Father." (Phil 2:6-11)
Similarly, our willing co-operation to be emptied of our "false and wounded self" is lovingly complimented by "God raising us on high" to share a life of intimate union with the Trinity. What an exalted destiny for "creatures far too unworthy of it!"
Father Médaille prays here that he/we might enter into the attitudes of Jesus as revealed in this mystery - attitudes of continual self-offering and total submission to the Father's will and an active and all-consuming love for humanity. Jesus' condescension, "not clinging to his equality with God" comes from his outpouring love, choosing to be fully human, like us, one-with-us without power, arrogance or outward show. This is the kenosis of Jesus: he became as human beings are in order to be with human beings so He could be for human beings. What a gift! Jesus' love of humanity reveals itself as an overwhelming and uncontainable love that caused him to come to us in the form of a human fetus living in the womb of Mary, living on the life of his mother. What ineffable self-abasement for the Son of God!
"Ah, good Jesus, how true it is that there indeed you are an abbreviated Word!"
His human beginnings stir us with the incredible love God has for humanity. What surrender of his divinity, what an emptying, what admirable dependence on a human mother. What an embrace of the human condition - ennobling all of life, from the womb to death. It would seem that our neediness actually cries and calls forth this divine love to manifest itself in the person of Jesus in our midst. "You condescended to become man and to take upon yourself the sins of mankind, to wash them in your precious blood." What love that gives itself for love of the other.
In gratitude, Father Médaille encourages us to ponder this mystery and let our desire be like Jesus':
"Imprint these dispositions deep in my heart... engrave them in my soul... that I might begin to live out of your dear life."
THE MYSTERY OF THE NATIVITY
The devout person profits most appropriately from the humble birth of Jesus Christ in order that the life of Jesus may grow in his/her own life through consideration of the virtues which Jesus actualizes in his.
"In the second place I wish to be filled with the blessings of your loving birth.
What marvels and wonderful lessons I see in this first mystery of your sacred infancy.
I see here the tender love you had for poverty, contempt, and suffering which you espoused at the first moment of your birth and which remained with you to the last breath of your life.
I admire here the perfect and complete poverty in which you willed to be born.
I see here the beginning of your submission and subjection to the wishes of others in the obedience you gave to the edicts of an emperor who was nothing compared to you.
I adore here the wonder of your infancy, when, in infinite wisdom, you allowed yourself to be guided with the same docility as if you were an ordinary child.
O wondrous childhood that teaches us the true way of virtue which lies wholly in submission to superiors, and in the obedience of a child who allows himself to be led without looking for reasons.
Oh, if only I could imitate particularly your holy childhood,
If, in imitation of your life as a child, I might never in any way reason concerning the direction and the orders of superiors.
In imitation of your life, as a child, may I never seek my own glory in anything, may I never make a single choice concerning my present or future employment
but await peacefully and accept without resistance all the dispositions of your divine Providence.
Give me this grace, good Jesus. engrave it in my life and make me a participant in the other virtues which shine out so brilliantly in the mystery of your holy birth."
(Writings of Jean-Pierre Médaille, pp. 115-116)
Commentary on Father Médaille's Contemplation on the Mystery of the Nativity:
The birth of the holy divine child in the lowly stable of a Bethlehem cave marks the unusualness of this birth surrounded by elemental forces and real poverty. There was "no room for him in the inn". Yet, he was in a royal city, Bethlehem of the House of David, which gives some indication of his greatness, but all of this - and more - is hidden in his choice of a hillside cave outside the city. We see here in his beginnings, how he by-passes the "royal road" - the entrance by prestige, power, luxury and security and comes to us by way of lowliness, poverty and submission - the "narrow road". Nativity is the feast of poverty, yet paradoxically, it is the feast of abundance. Never before have we known such great Love amongst us!
Jesus' obedience and submission to others is manifest from the very beginning of his life. How graciously he submits to the wishes of others - the edicts of the emperor for a census. Jesus - you are just newborn to our humanity and one of your first actions is to allow another king to exercise lordship over your life. Yet we observe how docile and free you are to co-operate and work within the ordinary circumstances and events of life as they happen upon you. You do not put up resistance to events, but rather you submit to them and you allow yourself to be guided without looking for any reasons. How analytical and probing for answers our minds become when we are beset with unsettling and troubling circumstances that disturb our plans. We can learn from your example how to handle the existence of "evil" in our life. You remained so in touch with life at your Source and that was enough for you. Your utter dependence upon God your Father allowed you to be so free and submissive for He would "bring all things to good."
In imitation of Jesus' infancy may we never seek our own glory in anything, and await peacefully and accept without resistance all the dispositions of God's Providence. What joy and care-freeness would be ours if we could only live in such close participation in Jesus' docility and obedience to the Father.
"We have not found the answer we have found the Source. And that is enough to start afresh." (St. Augustine)
THE MYSTERY OF THE CIRCUMCISION
In the only 1672 French copy available, this section is listed in the Table of Contents, but the text is missing (p. 116).
We will ponder the Scripture texts on this mystery.
When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised they gave him the name, JESUS, the name the angel had given him before his conception." (Luke 2:21)
"Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God's favour Listen. You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him JESUS. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his ancestor David; he will rule over the House of Jacob forever and his rule will have no end." (Luke 1:31-33)
Joseph had made up his mind to divorce her informally, when the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said: "Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because, she has conceived what is in her by the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you must name him JESUS, because he is the one who is to save his people from their sins." (Matthew 1:20-21)
"God said to Abraham, "You on your part shall maintain my Covenant, yourself and your descendants after you, generation after generation. Now this is my Covenant which you are to maintain between myself and you, and your descendants after you: all your males must be circumcised.
You shall circumcise your foreskin, and this shall be the sign of the Covenant between myself and you.
When they are eight days old all your male children must be circumcised, generation after generation of them, no matter whether they are born within the household or bought from a foreigner... My Covenant shall be marked on your bodies as a Covenant in perpetuity." (Genesis: 9-14)
"Of your sons every first-born of men must be redeemed. And when your sons ask you in days to come, "What does this mean? you will tell him,
"By sheer power Yahweh brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, Yahweh killed all the first-born in the land of Egypt of man and beast alike. For this, I sacrifice to Yahweh every male that first issues from the womb, and redeems every first-born of my sons.
The rite will serve as a sign on your hand would serve, or a circlet on your forehead, for Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand." (Exodus 13: 14-16)
Yahweh, your God, will circumcise your heart and the heart of all your descendants, until you love Yahweh, your God with all your heart and soul, and so have life." (Deuteronomy 30:6)
To be a Jew is not just to look like a Jew, and circumcision is more than a physical operation. The real Jew is the one who is inwardly a Jew, and the real circumcision is in the heart - something, not of the letter but of the spirit.
A Jew like that may not be praised by man, but will be praised by God." (Romans 2:28-29)
As for me, the only thing I can boast about is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world.
It does not matter if a person is circumcised or not; what matters is for him to become an altogether "new creature".
Peace and mercy to all who follow this rule, who form the Israel of God." (Galatians 6:14-16)
Commentary on Father Médaille's Contemplation on the Mystery of Circumcision:
There is no text found in the primitive manuscript that we have of Father Médaille, but we do know that he chose this as one of the mysteries that he wanted to include in his "spiritual exercises". (It is listed in his introductory table of contents.) Our Abba must have seen how this mystery, when contemplated, could further bring out, "the being emptied of self and at the same time filled with God."
We have only one verse from the Scriptures where this event was recorded of the life of Jesus.
When the eighth day came and the child was to be circumcised they gave him the name, JESUS, the name the angel had given him before his conception." (Luke 2:21)
Through this sign of circumcision, as prescribed by the Jewish Law, Jesus became a member of the people of Israel. Jesus truly identified himself with humanity, a particular family, a particular homeland, a nation, a people - Israel. Through this action, we learn that God really does want to be identified with His people. God wants to be immersed in creation, in the world. Jesus' spiritual journey home to the Father is going to be a passing all the way through creation.
Jesus shows obedience and submission to the Law. His Father has given this Law to the People of Israel as a "sign" of the Covenant with them. Jesus can submit to this Law even though He participates in a Covenant relationship with the Father that is beyond Law. He accepts the human need for an outward sign of an inward reality. At the same time He points to a living relationship that transcends this outward observance.
"Yahweh will circumcise your hearts." (Deut. 30:6)
It's the inward, spiritual, not the outward, physical action that is important. As we contemplate this mystery with the Scriptures, we ask ourselves:
Are our hearts emptied, so as to be filled with God? Where do I experience the need for a circumcision of my heart?
It is by a stripping away of the clutter, the impurities, the idols, the ego, that God emerges living ever more fully within us.
On the feast of the circumcision, the child was given a name. For Jesus, the being given a name that had already been prophesized before his birth:
"His name will be Jesus, which means Savior." (Matthew 1:21)
Jesus is the one born to lead the people to their eternal Promised Land. He "is the one who is to save his people from their sins." (Mt. 1:21) One's name signifies one's mission.
We might spend some time in reflection upon our name. What does your name mean? What is your particular calling/vocation? "I am called by name." Our vocation too is intimately linked with our being called by a particular name.
"Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, I called you by your name, and I consecrated you and sent you..." (Jeremiah 1:4)
Most parents in the anticipation and expectation of a new child coming into the family decide before the moment of birth upon a name for their child. The name announces the child's gift, special and unique, for this time and for this particular mission. Each person's name has a meaning.
WHAT DOES MY NAME MEAN? WHAT IS MY VOCATION IN LIFE?
MYSTERY OF THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE
Meditating upon the presentation of Jesus in the Temple, the devout person, in order to be no longer moved by self-interest, finds wonderful possibilities for constant self-emptying and for abandonment to the direction of God and of superiors.
So act, also good Jesus, that I profit from the lessons of your Presentation in the Temple.
It is in this place that you wanted to sacrifice yourself lovingly to God your Father while your holy mother was offering you at the altar.
You offered yourself completely and unreservedly to him for everything that would please him most.
You gave yourself irrevocably and out of the full measure of your love.
And what I admire most in this exalted offering is that in this moment you sacrificed a thousand beautiful and holy deeds which were present to your mind and which might have been the beginning of your preaching of the Gospel - sooner and more fruitfully.
You choose instead to depend totally on the will of your Father and to submit wholly to the direction of the holy Virgin and Saint Joseph.
In the imitation of this sacrifice of your every wish which you immolated in order to depend on the divine will alone, should I not sacrifice my will and my desires, no matter how right they may seem to me and in fact may be, in order that I might submit to the plan of your Father's Providence and to the direction of my superiors.
Grant good Jesus, that I might profit from my meditation in this way.
Grant that, following this sacrifice, I may live without willing, without desiring, without planning, without resisting in the least the plans of my superiors, and that, in imitation of you, I totally accept every expression of the will of your eternal Father."
(Writings of Jean-Pierre Médaille, pp. 116-117)
Commentary on Father Médaille's Contemplation on the Mystery of the Presentation
This mystery of the life of Jesus recounts for us Jesus' first journey up to Jerusalem. This time to fulfill the Law that 40 days after his birth, he is offered to God as Mary's firstborn. We see here Jesus' self-offering, given to God. He is all-given to His Father, all-poured out in a desire to be all for His Father. It is not just this one altar offering but a continual offering of himself to God, his Father.
Why so admirable? Jesus has come up to Jerusalem, the city of promise and it is receiving in its arms for the first time its Promised Deliverer. God is coming to purify His temple and those who greet him, Anna and Simeon, are not even the officials or the chief religious leaders of the people. There are just a holy man and a holy woman who have been "waiting" for this day. These two represent the poor of Yahweh who have been waiting patiently for the "consolation of Israel." These "poor ones", "the anawim" recognize Jesus as the Promised One.
And once again, Jesus is hidden. The divinity of his great works and mission are not made visible here. "You sacrificed a thousand beautiful deeds which were present in your mind... and which might have been the beginning of your preaching. "No, it's not the time. You sacrifice your dream. You surrender to the "kairos", the right time, the moment when God will again bring you up to Jerusalem to carry out the great act of salvation and deliverance for all people. It's simply not the time! You chose to remain dependent upon the Father's will. You surrender to the human process of growth and development. You are but a 40 day old infant and you contain all your grandeur and power within a few pounds of flesh wrapped in a blanket and carried by your mother into this House of God. Your littleness and your hiddenness teach us to respect and love the pedagogical pace of the Father with us as we too must pass through the stages of physical, mental, moral and spiritual growth.
"There is a season for everything..." (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8)
Father Médaille was also struck in this mystery by the tremendous sacrifice of will on Jesus' part. He gives up his will, his own wishes, his own desires, to be all for His Father's will. In imitation of Him, might we not also be helped to sacrifice our own will, our own wishes and surrender these to the will and wishes of our Father. "No matter how right they may seem to me... and in fact may be." Father Médaille's discernment principle is clear.
One sign of good discernment is always that one's own listening to God will not contradict one's obedience to one's superiors/spouse. Both are to be listening to the same spirit. Eventually the direction will be clear to both parties. "Obedience" means "to listen well."
This is a marvelous "spiritual exercise" of self-emptying to return to in times of interior struggle. To let go control, to let go my will, my plans, to let go my timing - these are major strippings for the self - and they require prolonged prayer to accomplish the desired detachment. This emptying of one's will is, with time, filled with God's will, with God's plan and with acceptance of God's timing. Such a sacrifice made in love bears a marvelous peace and rich hundredfold in one's life and ministry.
Celebrate this "knowing" with your own ritual passage. Honour the Simeon's and Anna's in your life that have "prophecized" your true self's emerging.
THE MYSTERY OF THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT
The flight into Egypt gives the devout person who meditates on it a noble motive for suffering courageously through the emptying of self, all possible wrongs, abuses and contradictions.
"Fifthly, if you deign to give me the grace, I desire to profit greatly from the first persecution you endured and your flight into Egypt.
You were no sooner born, good Jesus, than you were cruelly persecuted.
Although you had power to destroy your persecutors and reduce them to the nothingness from which you had drawn them, you endured their attacks with divine patience.
to escape their violence, you chose a way full of humility, and caused your foster father to be warned by an angel to carry you to Egypt into a place of exile, where, with your dear mother and your foster father, you were to live for seven years in extreme poverty.
O inexpressible gentleness. O patience. O unbounded goodness.
Grant that, like you, I may be able to endure every kind of persecution without complaining or murmuring and even without interior disquiet. May I endure each one with resignation.
Let me receive them as effects of divine Providence on my behalf.
What losses I incurred in my past life Because I did not endure in this spirit the contradictions I met."
(Writings of Jean-Pierre Médaille, p. 117)
Commentary on Father Médaille's Contemplation on the Mystery of the Flight:
Father Médaille presents this mystery of Jesus' life to bring us to a place where we will find the motivation for "Why suffer?" "Why undergo interiorly and exteriorly all that we must undergo in the spiritual journey?" The answer is clearly that suffering "empties us" and suffering "fills us with God's life". This is the purifying and transforming action happening in times of suffering and duress. This becomes then a valuable "spiritual exercise" when we are in a state of intense suffering - either psychological, moral or physical.
"No sooner were you born than you were being persecuted." You, Jesus, enter the human condition to be one with us in all things and almost immediate to your coming, you are subjected to abuse and hardship. All of this is unjust, coming from the dictates of someone in power who is very cruel and evil. What a welcome for our God from humanity. Why suffer like this? Why allow this to happen to you?
The paradox lives again. You, Jesus, had the power to destroy your enemies yet you endured their attacks with divine patience. You had the power to destroy yet you chose to show mercy. You suffered pain, hardship along with Mary and Joseph. You went into exile and poverty. You were a child refugee, driven from your homeland and place of birth. We cannot help but marvel at your patience, gentleness and goodness in suffering this flight into Egypt in the dark passage of the night.
This causes us to reflect upon how we handle similar, even less trying situations of personal suffering and attack. So often, we murmur, complain, rebel, are full of interior disquiet with all kinds of "noises in our heads." Old memories of abuse, degradation and blame surface to ward off more of the same. Our "woundedness" is close to the surface again and we suffer and cry out for a time of healing and wholeness. With this contemplation we pray that we may receive your virtues of gentleness and patience and love for our enemies as effects of God's loving providence on our behalf. We need God in these critical times... only God!
Here is Father Médaille's wisdom on why suffering serves a positive and perfective role in the spiritualization process of each person. God allows this suffering. He does not will it nor does He directly cause it. But God does permit suffering in our lives and God does use it positively to effect our growth in wholeness/holiness. In its purifying elements - suffering empties us of our selfishness and self-centeredness.
In its transforming elements - suffering fills us with qualities of God's very own life so that "as time goes on" we find ourselves responding more and more in the likeness of Christ - with his patience, gentleness and goodness. This is how PURE LOVE grows in us.
The Letter of James records this truth:
"You will always have your trials but, when they come, try to treat them as a happy privilege; you understand that your faith is only put to the test to make you patient, but patience too is to have its practical results so that you will become fully developed, complete, with nothing missing." (James 1: 2-4)
Father Médaille in his maxims on patience upholds this same teaching:
"No matter what disagreeable things happen to you, never see them as obstacles but as profitable and necessary to your daily life. If you consider them as effects of the tender and loving Providence of God, your Father, you will love them tenderly and accept them willingly. (Maxim of Perfection 7:3)
Hence, rather than respond to suffering, contradictions, setbacks, even persecution with a lot of self-pity and anger at the persons inflicting the abuse, desire to be filled with Jesus' virtue of patience and pure love and "see" in our present trial a "hidden grace", God-permitted, to bring us to a deeper self-emptying and a fuller participation in God's divine life.
"These are the trials through which we triumph,
by the power of Him who loved us." (Romans 8:37)
Father Médaille was well aware that we would all have to pass through one or more "flights into Egypt". There will be those traumatic, life-threatening encounters with 'authorities' in our lives that challenge us to fulfill our destiny at whatever the cost. These are times of deadliest peril! In this story Jesus models for us a way through the crisis with violence and abuse:
"To escape their violence, you chose a way of humility, you had your foster father carry you out to Egypt into a place of exile, where you lived for seven years in extreme poverty."
You model for us that distance, non-physical presence and non-engagement in the dysfunctional/destructive relationship is sometimes the only way to endure such persecutions. This takes an incredible strength of character born out of hope and love. Abba Jean, St. Paul and many others who have been moved by this holy inspiration have come to sing this hymn to God's love:
"Nothing therefore can come between us and the love of Christ, even if we are troubled or worried, or being persecuted, or lacking food and clothes, or being threatened or even attacked... For I am certain of this... nothing can ever come between us and the love of God made visible in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Roman 8:31-39)
THE MYSTERY OF JESUS IN THE TEMPLE
The devout soul meditates on Jesus in the Temple when, at the age of twelve he hid himself there and wisely withdrew from his parents in order to serve God his Father.
O gentle Jesus, you willed to return from Egypt only because it was the will of your eternal Father who caused the order to be given to Saint Joseph.
At twelve years of age you were led to the Temple by your holy mother and Saint Joseph.
What lessons have you not given to me in this mystery?
You taught me that we must be attached to the will of your heavenly Father, and that to accomplish it perfectly, we must be weaned from our sweetest consolations and have no regard for flesh and blood nor for our most cherished friendships.
It was to accomplish this adorable will of your Father that you withdrew from the company of Saint Joseph and your holy and loving mother.
You knew quite well the extreme affliction that your loss was to cause them.
You were deeply touched by it. But the designs of your Father made you embrace both the sorrow of your parents and the compassion that you experienced because of it.
Your Father's good pleasure was the sole measure of your life.
It was in order to follow these designs that you wanted to remain lost for three days in Jerusalem and that, among the doctors, with a very gentle and humble simplicity, you revealed some glimmer of the brilliance of your sovereign wisdom which filled those assembled with astonishment and wonder at your teaching and at your divine answers.
Grant, good Jesus, that I may imitate these wonderful examples and profit by your holy lessons.
Let me attach myself solely to your heavenly Father's will and when it is a question of accomplishing it, may I pay no heed to flesh and blood nor to the impulses of my self-love which could obstruct it.
May I obey promptly, joyously, completely, and in perfect fervour of spirit, all the designs that Providence may have for me and make known to me either through interior enlightenment or through the commands of my superiors."
(Writings of Jean-Pierre Médaille, p.117-118)
Commentary on Father Médaille's Contemplation on the Mystery of Jesus in the Temple:
This mystery records the second time Jesus is in Jerusalem. This time Jesus speaks, He reveals himself in Jerusalem at the Temple with the teachers there. God promised He would appear in the Temple.
Father Médaille brings out how Jesus hid himself there, withdrawing from his parents. This is a young twelve year old boy growing in consciousness of his unique calling. He is beginning to experience his "vocation" and he needs to break away from the lovely, felt, sensible consolations of being in the security and presence of his loving parents, Mary and Joseph. In order to serve God with all his being, to love perfectly, Jesus must let go, empty himself of all the consolations of sense, to be free for total service to the Father. Jesus must allow nothing - not even his beloved parents - to hold him back. Later, in his public ministry he will instruct his followers:
"I tell you solemnly, there is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, father, mother, children or land for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not be repaid a hundred times over, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land - not without persecutions - now in this present time and in the world to come, eternal life." (Mark 10:28-31)
This is Jesus' first leaving of home at some interior level of attachment. Already at twelve, Jesus is experiencing the radical demands of his mission and what it might cost him in human response. Father Médaille brings this "heart" of Jesus' humanity out beautifully in this contemplation. There is the necessary "weaning from sweet consolations", from the attachments to family and cherished friends. This is charged with deep human anguish and emotion. Even Jesus was touched by it. The loss was felt. There is a recognition and an acceptance of human emotion. "You knew quite well the extreme affliction that your loss was to cause them. You were deeply touched by it. But the designs of your Father made you embrace both the sorrow of your parents and the compassion that you experienced because of it." Here, Father Médaille gives us a lovely scene of the commingling of sorrow and compassionate love.
Just what is the "fire" emerging in Jesus' bones that makes him rise above this tremendous pull of the flesh. It is the all-consuming PASSION for the Father's will. Jesus in the Temple feels with all the fibers of his being: "Here, I am home at last!"
A country boy in the big city, the great capital, and he is absorbed by the sight of the earthly majesty of God his Father and by these first intimations of his task in life. Caught up in this new energy of his emerging "vocation", he forgets his parents and his former lifestyle and all that previously occupied him. There is one solitary preoccupation demanding his whole-hearted attention and being.
We see here, Jesus, an intelligent boy just discovering his unique call in life. This is the way to go. This is the way in which God is to come to his temple. The prophecies are fulfilled in an unexpected way: God appears in a growing child. "You revealed some glimmer of the brilliance of your sovereign wisdom which filled those assembled with astonishment and wonder at your teaching and divine answers." But then, NOW is not the hour for you to go forth into full ministry. There is more quiet preparation and more lived experience in Nazareth before you are to continue to fulfill your destiny. You go home with Mary and Joseph in obedience.
This contemplation on the mystery of Jesus in the Temple brings us to the awareness that in "letting something go" - here, his parents, his felt security - he "finds something" - a burning passion to be about His Father's business. The same spiritual dynamic is possible for all followers of Jesus. "Lose yourself in Me and you will find yourself." (Matthew 10:37-39)
THE MYSTERY OF THE SIMPLE AND HIDDEN LIFE
The simple and hidden life of Jesus in Nazareth abundantly furnishes the devout person who meditates on it with beautiful examples of how to desire not to live for oneself, how to be hidden, and how to be submissive to everyone.
"Having given this obedience to your heavenly Father, you wanted to lead a hidden life, completely subject to your foster father and your holy mother, until you reached the age of thirty.
Blessed are they who enter profoundly into the sublime mystery of a life hidden for so long, the mystery of your adorable docility.
For thirty years you wanted to live unknown to men, submissive to your parents, busy in the lowly tasks of a carpenter shop.
You wanted to contain within this lowliness the inexpressible wonder of your talents which might have captivated a whole world and converted everyone to God your Father.
There is at the heart of it all, this mystery which should fill us with delight. The hidden and submissive life must possess sublime beauty since you cherished it so deeply and lived it so long.
Good Jesus, you devoted only a little over three years in the external ministries of preaching your holy Gospel.
The rest of your life you spent in obedience and in obscurity.
Blessed are they who understand how to profit from this example, and love to be hidden unless the sheer necessity of promoting God's glory obliges them to come forward.
Yes, blessed are they who are not anxious either to know or to be known, to understand or to be understood, to see or to be seen, but rather to love solitude and hiddenness in order to live in it with Jesus, Mary and Joseph.
Blessed are they who are fully content to know You and to be known by You alone; who understand within this solitude, how to lose themselves in contemplation of your wonders, and who live out this divine communing not only in the privacy of a room or study, but even in public and in the midst of highest society.
Finally,blessed are they who want to be always dependent and who flee with extreme horror any position that confers honour and authority.
Grant, good Jesus, that I may live in these practices, this solitude, his dependence, in order to be dead to all creatures and to live only in You, with You, and for You, in the wondrous love of your eternal Father."
(Writings of Jean-Pierre Médaille, p.118-119)
Commentary on Father Médaille's Contemplation on the Mystery of the Hidden Life:
The life of Jesus in Nazareth is full of marvelous lessons for us:
· how not to live for ourselves · how to be hidden · how to be submissive to others
Father Médaille stresses how Jesus "wanted" to lead a simple, hidden life, and that he wanted to "live it for so long at time". Jesus grew up in Nazareth. He practised the carpenter profession along with Joseph in the small village. Until he was thirty, his activities were limited to this social task and to living an ordinary family life. There has to be something extraordinary here!
When we contemplate lovingly this family life at Nazareth we are moved by models of peace, obedience and love. Jesus' life in the village of Nazareth reveals how God acts and how God is. Nazareth signifies that the Son of God has manifested himself to us through the simple ordinary life of humanity. His message: God comes in the ordinary. Look for God in your ordinary life.
Jesus lived this lifestyle for thirty years, long enough to be sure we would really get the point. Out of the life that men and women all over the world lead - be it housewife and mother, computer salesman, skilled labourer, student, office worker or farmer - out of just such a life, the Son of God makes himself manifest. Out of a life that seemingly has no history, no importance, no significance, comes forth the God who gives history and meaning to our lives. Yes, truly, God is the simplest one of all and God acts in the ordinary.
The telling of our own life stories often manifests the presence of God that has been the source of our strength, courage and grace to move on. So many experience that in the "telling of their story" - often perceived as very simple and insignificant, that their "Nazareth" truly is a place of divine encounter. "Can anything good come out of (our) Nazareth?" (Mark 6:1-6)
This contemplation helps us to know God better. He is the God who willed to appear in common things. The hidden God who has always shared the ordinary life of humans. The God-close-by-us in our lives - lives that do not attract the attention of others and seemingly do not make history. There are no words, no history recorded, even for Jesus, of these thirty years of his earthly sojourn. All the Scriptures speak of this:
"He then went down with them and came to Nazareth and lived under their authority... And Jesus increased in wisdom, in stature, and in favour with God and man." (Lk 2:51-52)
This is the poverty of the ordinary, the commonplace. This is the poverty of spirit that characterizes the majority of our lives. Out of this poverty, this emptiness, GOD comes and fills us with Himself and with His life so that we too "grow in wisdom and stature, in favour with God and others."
Nazareth shows God-with-us in our life and in our work in our daily family/community life. Obscurity becomes the "meeting place" of God with men and women and children. After one has pondered this mystery for a long while one will come to love solitude and hiddenness; one will find a mysterious attraction to stay away from honours and positions of authority; "one will love it so much one will not want to come out of it unless God's glory demands it of us."
However, Father Médaille stresses that it is important how one lives in solitude and hiddenness. It cannot become an excuse for withdrawing from the world and our responsibility for its care. Rather, it is to be a continuous love relationship with all of creation aware of the Presence of God in all. One can become so lost in this communion even if/when one is busy about many things. One remains in this solitude very focused, very centered on God-within and nothing else matters. Such a one has found the "one Thing necessary." (Lk 10:42)
It seems to me that a Nazareth-life requires a great deal of interior discipline to quieten and harness the energies of the ego-self. The fruit of this prolonged state is a lovely containment of being. True beauty and spiritual freedom are its fruits. Abba Jean saw into the heart of this mystery - lived for thirty years!
"You wanted to contain within this lowliness the inexpressible wonder of your talents which might have captivated a whole world and converted everyone to God your Father... The hidden and submissive life must possess sublime beauty since you cherished it so deeply and lived it so long."
Very often in the lives of persons we relate with daily, we see such fidelity to small, simple tasks of homemaking, caring for family and friends, going to work or school. Like Father Médaille we need to look upon these little ones and call them "blessed".
*You might enjoy watching the movie: "Mr. Holland's Opus" I think this story reveals the fruit of a man of Nazareth's life work in today's language. You will be touched by this love, sacrifice and commitment. He made a symphony with his life work!
