Weekly Reflection 011109AD

Sunday January 11, 2009AD

Baptism of the Lord

There Comes a Time in Life

People who study human development point out that adults go through predictable stages of psychological development. This is so even though people might not go through such stages at the same time. In essence, what they are saying is that Dr Benjamin Spock was on the right track with his 1948 best seller on child development, but that he only went up to 18 years. Dr Eric Erickson and others have tracked similar patterns of adult psychological development. However, the important caveat is that people do not necessarily go through these stages at clearly set times.

Traditional Hinduism speaks of 3 stages of adult life: 1) the householder; 2) the forest dweller; 3) the wise fool (sophomore). For modern America, this translates as early adulthood, mid-life crisis, integrated (hopefully) later adulthood. Karl Jung said that early adulthood is about finding one’s identity; later adulthood is about self-transcendence or integrity. Through it all, Catholics try to live our lives (or at least, we should) with the awareness of the Divine Indwelling, viz., that God lives in us now and we live in God now.

The transition point from early to later adulthood (for both men and women) is the mid-life crisis. It can happen when we are younger or older, but it happens to all of us. It is the moment of realization that while taking the world by storm is great (provided you follow Jesus’ teachings, it is only in later life that we realize that we all have to make leaps of faith, and to surrender, let go and trust the Holy Mystery through, with and in which we live.

As we celebrate the Baptism of the Lord today, one way of viewing this event (which everyone says was the starting point of Jesus’ public life) as Jesus’ mid-life crisis when He was about thirty. His walk in the woods was the forty days in the wilderness immediately His baptism by John. (Interestingly, the Buddha had his mid life crisis at the age of 29, while he was in contemplation by a river).

In His early adulthood, Jesus, just like His foster father, St Joseph, was a tektonos, an artisan, a craftsman, some would say a construction worker or hardhat. The challenge to move beyond that and see the Big Picture came with the preaching of John the Baptist. After His baptism, Jesus was never the same again. His slogan became, “Snap out of it and smell God’s coffee. With God’s Help, get you relationships in life straightened out and help others do the same.” His programmatic was different than the system’s and it cost Him His life (and triggered His Resurrection).

Just now, because of systemic problems in our culture, American and world economies are experiencing the Paschal Mystery, viz., that all reality is in the process of ascent, descent and transformation. Our economy was ascending, now it is in descent, but it will experience transformation in the future. From what we see as a people, it might be easier to understand that all of us reach transitional points in our individual lives as well.

After Jesus was jolted by the message of John the Baptist, He went into a period of solitude, silence, separation and slowing down. He had the luxury of 40 days to figure what to do next. Very few of us are that lucky. Still, we can do something about it.

On theologian said recently that God is our friend, closer to us than we are to ourselves. All friends like a little recognition now and then. 1) We all have acquaintances. This translates into a routine and perfunctory presence of Mass. It shows interest, but that is about it. 2) We are familiar with some of these acquaintances by taking a little time with them in our lives now and then. This translates for us as perhaps, a Rosary each day, some Bible reading, an extra Mass once in a while. 3) We all (hopefully) have one or two soulfriends, with whom we can be totally honest and straightforward, those who love us even though they know our warts. God in Christ Jesus wants to be your anamchara (as the Celtic Christians call soulfriends). All you have to do is to slow down for a few moments (10, 15, 20 minutes, whatever), to sit in silence, to be in solitude. It may not be the 40 days retreat that Jesus went on after His mid-life crisis, but it is an honest effort to acknowledge that God, my best friend, somehow lives in me and somehow, I live in God my best friend. As theologian-raconteur, Trappist Father Thomas Keating (of NY) says, God speaks supersonic language. We don’t hear audibly, but if we slow down, in silence and solitude once a day for a bit of time, we will notice that in the silence and solitude, God, indeed, has spoken to us. Make transcendental contemplation a part of your life. The children in our religious education program plug right into it; there is no reason why their parents or other adults can do the same. Are we afraid of what we might hear in the silence? 011109AD jfq