The Lenten Path to Inner Peace (part 2)
Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. …
My Dear Friends,
Thanks for coming back to this exploration of the Lenten Path to Inner Peace.
I feel I have set us on a big task, but it is profoundly doable, and if we can walk a little way together we can definitely make some progress.
Seeking an Inner Peace that is going to last will be alien to some of you. After all, many of us grew up hearing phrases like ‘Stiff upper lip’, and ‘Pull yourself together’, and even ‘Snap out of it’.
We also commonly used terms like ‘Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me’.
But even more worrying than that was the concept that feelings were personal, and not to be shared, and that men in particular didn’t express them to others.
I remember getting the cane at school, ironically for fighting! The teacher said, if you cry I will give you more! It was sheer madness.
But things are very different now, and we are all encouraged to be much more open about what is going on in our hearts and minds. It really is good to talk about our feelings, and to get things off our chests.
But as I mentioned last week, sometimes ‘advice’ is not helpful, and on occasions it can just add weight to some feelings that hurt, and make them worse. So these letters do come with a health warning. Slowly slowly.
Today our plan is to try and discern what Inner Peace from a Christian perspective is, and what it might feel like.
2 Thessalonians 3:16
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.
I would like to give three examples of that sense of Inner Peace that I am talking about. The first two are personal, so apologies for a bit of self indulgence, and I offer them only because they make sense to me.
The first was when I was working in the Accident and Emergency operating theatres at the Royal Free Hospital in London as an auxiliary nurse after university and before theological college. I was hoping for ordination, but I loved my job and felt privileged to be part of a team that was dramatically saving lives.
A big part of my job was keeping track of everything used during an operation so that nothing got left inside. Swabs blend in with your insides, and could easily be missed!
I got on really well with the doctors, and sometimes they would ask me to ‘scrub up, and assist by passing the instruments or even putting my ‘finger on that to stop it squirting while they stitched it up’!
Often I used to work at weekends, so couldn’t get to church on the Sunday, so I would go to the hospital chapel during the week. I got very friendly with the Chaplain, and he was very supportive as he knew I was soon to go on my selection conference to see if they would admit me to training for ordination.
Part of my spiritual discipline then, and now, was to make my confession to my Spiritual Director. (I think we call them Spiritual Enabler now) The Chaplain was mine. ( Many folk think that Anglicans don’t do Confession, but of course they may if they wish)
So, let me set the scene, I had gone to make my confession before work. I had poured out my soul, and the Chaplain had been really helpful, and at the end had given me absolution.
I left feeling completely Spiritually Cleansed, and God was very real.
When I got in to the theatres, the surgeon asked me to scrub up and assist with a kidney transplant. This was big stuff. There were of course qualified doctors and nurses all scrubbed up as well, but part of the operation is to prepare the donor kidney, and I just assisted with that while a different surgeon and team prepared the patient who was to receive it.
So I scrubbed up and it takes several minutes following a pattern and putting on your sterile clothes and hair covering and mask and everything, and then you don’t touch anything until you are in the actual theatre. When I was ready I felt inwardly spiritually clean from my confession, outwardly absolutely clean because I was scrubbed, and was part of a team definitely changing someone’s life for the better.
I felt bliss. God was real, I knew I was loved and valued, and all was well.
I experienced a deep Inner Peace.
The second example is much more up to date, and it has to do with our recent Synod.
Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York was a key speaker, and his words just struck such a chord with me that it was like he was affirming what I had always held dear.
Not only did he use words like ‘Beautiful, Wonderful and Amazing’ as he was describing Jesus, but he framed what he said around stories of pilgrimage and poetry, and he so obviously was looking for the best in everything and everyone. But he also pushed it. ‘If you see a wall, knock it down. If you see a barrier, go beyond it’. That kind of thing.
I immediately bought his book about the Camino, which is tales of pilgrimage, and poetry. It is called ‘Striking Out: Poems and stories from the Camino’ and as I read it, I just settled in to a genuine Inner Peace where I was very content with where I am on my spiritual journey.
The third example is from scripture and is the story of the Transfiguration. We had it in church a couple of weeks ago:
Mark 9.2-9
2Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, 3and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. 4And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. 5Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ 6He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. 7Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ 8Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.
9As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead.
What I love about this story is that Jesus gifted Peter, James and John with this expression of Glory. Elijah, Moses, the Transfigured Christ and the voice of God. The mountain top experience to beat any other, and it is no surprise that they wanted to stay. Peter said ‘It is good that we are here, shall I build three dwellings….’
For those disciples at that moment everything was going to be OK. They were not worried, but wanted to hang on to not only the glory that was there, but the Inner Peace which they were experiencing.
You will have your own thoughts on Inner Peace which will be very different from mine.
And to be fair, not everyone scrubs up, or makes their confession. Not everyone enjoys walking, or uses flowery language, and not everyone has that sort of ‘Religious Mountain Top Experience’ and hears the voice of God. But I believe we all have times when things just seem right. They fit. Just for a while things make sense and God seems very real, and we want the moment to last.
I am pretty sure that you have felt that at some stage – well I hope you have. I also hope that you can cherish that feeling, and allow it to nourish your faith journey.
However I am also sure that if you have been there, up that Spiritual Mountain, you have realised that you had to come back down again – back into the real world of life.
My Friends, for this process of walking the Lenten Path to Inner Peace to bear fruit, we need to work on it, and so today I ask you to spend some good quality time just thinking of those different times in your life where you felt an Inner Peace, and try and describe it to yourself.
Did it come as a result of you seeking it, or was it a gift, a Blessing?
Did it allow you to feel that for that moment, all was well?
Were you able to think that although God is too big to grasp or comprehend, he did seem real?
Next time we shall look at just some of the things that get in the way.
Bless you, Bless you, Bless you.
As ever,
Fr Marcus