Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality (CACS)'s Podcast
The Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality (CACS) is a centre for research and formation that promotes spiritual formation and renewal, drawing on the rich resources of the venerable Carmelite tradition.
It is an apostolate of the Anglo-Irish Province of the Discalced Carmelites, based at the Carmelite Priory at Boars Hill, Oxford, England.
OUR MISSION
CACS strives to achieve its mission through structured study and formation programmes in spirituality from the Carmelite perspective, especially Prayer and Spiritual Direction. At the Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality, you are welcome to enter into the silence where God’s voice is heard in prayer, word and sacrament, inviting you to journey ever more deeply into a place of growth and wholeness. Our goal is to bring people to experience a life-transforming friendship with God through a lived experience of Carmelite spirituality that is authentic to its biblical roots.
Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality (CACS)'s Podcast
Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
Word & Wisdom is a weekly reflection on the Sunday’s scriptures and the wisdom of the Carmelite tradition. It promises to offer you real spiritual food to sustain you on the journey.
This WORD and WISDOM Podcast comes to you from the Centre for Applied Carmelite Spirituality, Oxford (carmelite.uk.net).
To receive audio and written copies subscribe by emailing podcasts@cacs.org.uk
To connect with our Living Prayer Podcast on Youtube, kindly click: https://www.youtube.com/@CACSOxford
The readings for today have answered the frequently asked questions about, to whom am I to model my life? Or as some others would ask, what's the best way to model my life? Both questions are geared towards finding a better way to approach life. However, there is something more eternally rewarding that today's readings offer. In the first reading, David says, the Lord repays everyone for his uprightness and loyalty.
In the second reading, Paul tells us that if we model our lives to Christ, we will be like him and become life-giving. In the Gospel, Christ says we will have a great reward as sons and daughters of the Most High. The question is, how might we inherit these rewards? We are presented with two antithetical models in our readings.
There is a Saul and a David, a seeking to take life and a seeking to preserve life, a desire to go against the commandments and a willingness to abide by the commandments, a first Adam and a last Adam, a living soul and a life-giving spirit, an earthly man and a heavenly man, a restrictive love and a love that goes beyond ourselves. To which of these is your life modelled? Precisely, the readings present us with an invitation to participate in the inner life of God. It beckons us to transcend the ordinary human response to situations.
It calls us up to be like the father whose love goes out to the undeserving, whose mercy knows no bounds, whose compassion is infinite. David knew that if he killed Saul, the kingdom of Israel would belong to him. David may have thought of the riches, wealth, and fame of kingship, but he prioritised the thought of the law of God and chose to be faithful to God.
When faced with challenging situations and dilemmas, our natural inclination sometimes makes us act. We are sometimes put in difficult circumstances that might force us to act instantaneously and inappropriately. In these circumstances, can we delay judgment and action for a second? Is it possible to spare a thought and reflect on what happened? Is it not right to take a step backwards, stand away from the toxicity surrounding us and think again? Sometimes, at those moments of stepping backwards, we are stepping into the very life of Christ, the last Adam.
In these times of suspending immediate judgment, we are showing compassion like the father. This is a time to reflect on our judgement patterns and systems. How do I judge? What are the criteria for judging situations? David became a judge over the life of Saul and his men, yet he chose to spare their lives and left them to face the divine judgement.
Looking at the life of Christ, we see an expression of love that moves the heart to repentance, a love that heals the other, a love that draws the sinner into remorsefulness. These are heavenly gifts. As a Christian who has received these gifts at baptism and is rejuvenated by the sacraments, there should be a difference between us and those who are yet to receive the graces of Christ through the sacraments.
If we are journeying towards heaven, we are invited to look up to the heavenly Adam as an ideal model. How might we travel through the road? Saint John of the Cross advises us on how to walk this road to being like the Father. Due to our human inclinations, the journey towards transformation becomes an uphill task.
However difficult it may seem, we need to set out on the road to ascend the mountain to unite our wills to the will of father. John of the Cross, in his ascent of Carmel, tells us that on the journey to becoming like the father, we have to let go of our natural inclinations. We ought to do away with avarice, covetousness, harsh judgments, hate, revenge, unforgiveness, ungratefulness, and all sorts of evils.
Truly, we cannot purge ourselves of these sins, and that is why we need God and need to immerse ourselves in his word, because God's word has the inexplicable power to wash us clean. To be like the father, we have to be merciful. Today, Christ says to us, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another just as I have loved you.