The Mystery of His Transforming Presence

Here are some thoughts from the book When God Says No; The Mystery of Suffering and the Dynamics of Prayer (Lantern Books 2001) by Daniel Lanahan, O.F.M.

Will our prayer change God?

Once upon a time a child was talking to God. "What is a million dollars like to you?" the child asked God. God answered: "A million dollars is like a penny to me." The child then asked: "What is a million years like to you?" "A million years is like a second to me," God replied. Finally, the child boldly begged: "Could I have one of your pennies?" "Yes," God quickly responded, "but could you wait a second?"

Our image of God

Once upon a time there was a little fish in a little pond upstream who kept hearing about the ocean, how marvelous the ocean was, how magnificently wide, incredibly deep, etc. So, the little fish one day set out in search of the ocean. It took the little fish many days and nights to travel down all the streams but, eventually, the fish entered a river and finally arrived at the ocean though the little fish didn't realize it. Going up to some really big fish, the little fish asked excitedly, "Could you help me reach the ocean?" One of the large ones answered, "This is the ocean, you are in it now." The little fish was puzzled and replied, "But this is only water."

A Resurrection Parable

Once upon a time, twins were conceived in the same womb. As time passed, they grew and began to have feelings and some idea of their surroundings. One said, "Lucky are we to have been conceived and to have this world." The other said, "Blessed is the Mother who gave us this life and each other." Arms grew and fingers, legs, and toes. The twins explored their world and found the cord which gave them life from the precious Mother's blood. So they sang: "How great is the Mother that she shares all that she has with us." And they were pleased and satisfied with their lot.
Months passed and they noticed changes. "We are changing. What can it mean?" "It means that birth is coming near." Fear crept over them. Birth meant that they had to leave all their world behind them.
"If it were up to me, I'd live here forever," said one. "We must be born," said the other. "See the scars? There were others here before us. Maybe there's life after birth."
"How can there be life after birth? Have you ever talked to anyone who's been born? Has anyone ever re-entered the womb after birth? This life is absurd if it all ends in birth. If it is so, then there really is no Mother."
"But of course there is a Mother. Who else gives us nourishment and this world?"
"We get our own nourishment and our world has always been here. If there is a Mother, where is she? Have you ever seen her or talked to her? We just invented her because it makes us feel good!"
And so one complained and despaired, but the other placed its trust in the hands of the Mother. Pretty soon the twins knew that birth was at hand. They were scared. They cried as they were born into the light. Then they opened their eyes and found themselves cradled in the warm love of the Mother. All too wonderful to believe.

Five Statements

These five statements have been affirmed with some modifications by Catholics and non-Catholics for ages. (Compare to Buddha's Four Noble Truths.)

1. Suffering is part of life whether its cause is human or natural.
2. God does not ordinarily intervene in creation to prevent suffering.
3. The purpose of prayer is not to change God, but to change us to accept, transform, and be transformed by the suffering.
4. God does not ordinarily deliver us from suffering but is present with power to enable us to bear the unbearable.
5. At the end of all philosophical and theological debate over the mystery of suffering, there is only one thing that remains - to be present to the sufferer with skills to assist and comfort, and with love and faith to journey with them to victory.

Through the mystery of the Incarnation and the Eucharist we see more clearly what Paul Claudel meant when he wrote: "Jesus did not come to explain away suffering or remove it. He came to fill it with his presence." Through his Incarnation, Jesus embraced our everyday existence and made it holy by filling it with his presence. Through the Eucharist, he continues to make our everyday life sacred by transforming it with his presence.

Quest for the Holy Grail

This is a brief summary of eucharistic writing "The Holy Grail" by Father Sergius Bulgakov, published in a book The Holy Grail & The Eucharist by Lindisfarne Books in 1997. It is full of the most profound spiritual wisdom that is giving ground for thought for all Christians. I highly recommend it!

Bulgakov begins his study by referring to the Gospel of St. John directing our attention to the feature that is absent in the other Evangelists, how Jesus' side was pierced with a spear and forthwith came there out blood and water. He points out how this story is given a special significance: "The man who saw it [the beloved disciple] has given testimony, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, and he testifies so that you also may believe" (John 19:35 NIV).

Later on Bulgakov explains the nature of blood: "We know that the soul of animals, the power of life of the body, lies in blood." [...]
"Blood is wholly special substance; what is remarkable about it is that psychical and material, living and nonliving being, the animal soul and body, are united in it. The blood is intermediate between spirit and body, between spiritual and material being, as their living connection." [...]
"In the act of death... With the decomposition of the blood, the animal soul perishes, dies... Only the human spirit is immortal, and it is this spirit that animates the soul and, through the soul, the body."
Then Bulgakov suggests an astonishing fact: Christ's human substance was divided on the cross, the blood and water that had flowed remained in the world, they didn't belong to the resurrected body. Christ's blood expresses his humanity, while water is the protoelement of the cosmic matter out of which the world was created in Gen.1:2, 6. Christ has the Spirit (Logos), the soul (blood), and the body (water) as in 1 John 5:8 it is stated.

Now we come to the main point: Bulgakov describes how... "The blood and water that flowed into the world abide in the world. They sanctify this world as the pledge of its future transfiguration", says Bulgakov and continues: "And the whole world is the chalice of the Holy Grail. The Holy Grail is inaccessible to veneration; in its holiness it is hidden in the world from the world. However, it exists in the world as an invisible power, and it becomes visible, appears to pure hearts who are worthy of its appearance."

What about the Eucharist? In the light of the Grail legend it becomes obvious it is not only a repetition in remembrance of the Last Supper but it is deeply rooted in Golgotha - it is also a celebration of the resurrection! This dual-unity is expressed in the Grail legend as the Grail is said to be the chalice of the Last Supper that ended up in the hands of Joseph of Arimathea and into same vessel he collected the blood (and water) out of Jesus' side. I personally find this symbolism particularly beautiful and significant!
It also reminds of Jesus' own words: "I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him" (John 6:53-56 NIV).
Anyway, Bulgakov mentions that as food eucharistic bread and wine are consumed, communion has accomplished its purpose, it ends. However, the Holy Grail (the blood and water out of Christ's side) "abides in the world as the mysterious holiness of the world, as the power of life, as the fire in which the world will be transfigured into a new heaven and new earth."

The meaning of Ascension is brilliantly revealed by Fr. Sergius Bulgakov. Did Christ leave the world orphaned and emptied, he asks; Is the Ascension abandonment? Does the world have a natural connection with Christ besides the Eucharist?
Bulgakov strongly emphasizes the fact that the story of the Ascension is told only by two of the Evangelists, Mark and Luke; in John there is only an indication of the departure in the farewell conversation and St. Matthew is silent about it: Instead Matthew ends with a Lord's promise, "I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen" (Mt.28:20). Bulgakov's conclusion is therefore that "the two testimonies are equivalent or, in any case, compatible: The Lord abides on the earth 'unto the end of the world,' while, at the same time, sitting at the right hand of the Father." Here a remark from James H. Hindes, a priest in The Christian Community, might prove to be helpful: Right is usually seen an active side opposite to passive left. Thus Christ Jesus has united with that side of the Father which actively reaches out to the world!
"Heaven is not a place situated somewhere in astronomical space", says Bulgakov, "Rather, it is the metaphysical state of the perfect glorification and deification of human substance, which thereby becomes inaccessible to human perception."
The Lord appeared to the Apostle Paul even after the Ascension; in fact, His departure from the world would correspond to His total de-incarnation! The Second Coming... "does not signify the arrival from one place to another, from 'heaven' to 'earth'. Rather, it signifies a change in human beings in the case of which the Lord will become accessible to our vision." Indeed, a Greek word parousia means the presence which is revealed!

There is a connection between the Ascension and the Pentecost. The Lord said: "It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, The Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you" (John 16:7 NIV). It might be worth to pay regard to the fact that in Exodus during the journey through the desert, the Lord - identified as I AM - went ahead of Israelites in a pillar of cloud by day and in a pillar of fire by night, just like Jesus Christ was taken up into heavens and a "cloud hid him" from the sight of disciples, and at Pentecost there came the tongues of fire. This is the etheric life force. Christ is abiding in the etheric counterpart of the earth, and the Holy Spirit is also Christ in us: when we get in touch with His aura surrounding the earth, the fire of the Holy Spirit fulfills us.

But let's return to Bulgakov once more: "The whole world is the chalice of Christ's blood and water. The whole world partook of them in communion at the hour of Christ's death." [...] "The world has become Christ, for it is the holy chalice, the Holy Grail. The world has become indestructible and incorruptible, for in Christ's blood and water it has received the power of incorruption, which will be manifested in its transfiguration" (New Jerusalem is made of precious stone, that is, ennobled, spiritualised matter). And concerning human beings: "The fullnes of the Incarnation, includes its effectiveness in nature as well (as is witnessed by Christ's miracles and the answering movements of the natural world: the star of Bethlehem, the eclipse of the sun and darkness at the hour of crucifixion, the earthquake, and so on). And by no means can one allow that human nature as such remained deaf and indifferent to the fact of its adoption by the God-man"... "Human nature is healed by the Incarnation inwardly, organically, by a new creation of it, as it were, a creation that will be revealed in its power and glory beneath a 'new heaven' on a 'new earth.'"

It is remarkable how much in common Sergius Bulgakov's ideas have with those of Rudolf Steiner's. Bulgakov's Sophiology would require a whole new story.