becoming contemplatives: first day novena jaro carmel

Today as in the next eight days leading to Carmel’s feast we will be invited to become contemplatives.  Contemplative life is not just for nuns and monks.  Every Christian is called to become a contemplative.  All of us.

Today the prophet Elijah is presented to us in our first reading and also in our gospel.  Mary may be the patroness of Carmel but the Prophet Elijah is its spiritual father.  Why?  Because he was a contemplative who changed the world around him.  Let me repeat that – Elijah was a contemplative who changed the world around him.  Sometimes we have this notion that contemplatives are people who flee from the world, they don’t want to do anything in the world, and they don’t want the world to disturb or to affect them.  No, that is not Elijah, and no, that is not a being contemplative.  If you are running away from the problems at home or from the hustles and stress of your business, that is not being contemplative, that is being a coward, not a contemplative.  Because contemplative life is a way of being involved in the world. Not a way of escaping from the world but a way of being involved in the world.  

Living the contemplative life means I commit myself to finding God in all things. This means I am ready to meet God in whatever form he reveals himself to me today, be it in something that will test my patience, or in something that will allow me to carry another extra burden, or in something joyful, or sorrowful, something irritable, a victory, a defeat.  I will eagerly search his presence in all the people and the events of this day.  And with equal importance, I will also seek his will and do it.

When Elijah was asked in our first reading why he was hiding inside the cave he answered God saying, I have been most zealous for the Lord, the God of host. Elijah was actually complaining to the Lord  - Lord, I burn with zeal for you to do what you want and for this I am now in hiding because the evil queen is after me wanting to kill me.  This is what happens when one lives a contemplative life  - when one has that eagerness to do God’s will. That eagerness can have consequences. As Elijah has said, I have been most zealous for the Lord.

The invitation therefore in living a contemplative life is this - that in all the activities of daily life, in the choices that I make today and every day, the basic enduring desire is to search for God, to discover his presence and his will in me, in every person I meet, in every event I encounter - to sense God’s presence not in thunder and lighting, not in power and in the sway of an earthquake, not in dancing suns and unbelievable miracles but in the tiny whispering sound of daily life, sensing God’s presence in the daily humdrum of life. 

How then can we grow to become contemplatives, how can we nourish that contemplative spirit in us?  This can only happen when like Elijah we pray, we spend time to be with God, to encounter him in our daily prayers, in the mass especially.  For this let us now allow the gospel to train us to be contemplatives.  Three practical things found in the gospel. 

First, Jesus took time out.  Taking three of his disciples he went up a high mountain.  We need to balance life.  When work, travel, school, play become excessive, we can never become contemplatives.  Contemplative life develops when life is balanced, when we have time for everything – time to work, time to eat, time for recreation, time to sleep, and especially a time to pray.

Second, notice how Jesus brought his disciples on a high mountain apart – to be apart, to be separate, to be by themselves.  One can develop contemplative life when one has the capacity to be alone at certain times of the day.  Nowadays it is difficult to be alone.  Many of us are so obsessed with our cellphones – we always feel the need to talk to someone, to chat with someone, to text someone.  But to be a contemplative we need to be quiet, to do nothing, to spend a quiet time before or after the mass, or just to walk around or to be there before the blessed sacrament.  Develop the capacity to be alone because God reveals himself in our silence.

And lastly, notice too how Jesus after spending a wonderful time with his disciples on that high mountain, told his disciples to go down when it was time to go down, and even if Peter wanted them to build 3 tents so that they can stay there forever.  Go down. We need to order our lives.  We cannot forever do whatever pleases us, whatever is pleasing to us. We cannot put everything in one day.  We cannot entertain everyone, we cannot respond to every cares.  We need to set realistic priorities in our day to day life.  We need to limit extra-curricular activities.  We need a routine that can accommodate and not sacrifice the most important aspects of our lives.  To order our lives.

Today we start to live out the invitation to live the contemplative life. It is a grace to be able to seek and find God in all things like Elijah, but it also needs an environment where it can grow and develop.  And we have to provide that environment, by living a balanced life, by developing the capacity to be alone and by ordering our lives.

May the spirit of Elijah be with us, a contemplative spirit that will guide us through life.