I Will Lead You to the Desert…

This is a computer-generated transcription that has been included to make the homily searchable.  It has not been verified by the author. 

“Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.” Today, I felt drawn to talk about something that might seem strange at first on this day of the baptism, but I think actually it fits very much. Because many of us have experienced what we could call a spiritual desert, an experience like an interior experience that’s long and dry and barren. And I think all of us will, in different ways, at different points in our life, will experience this. And so, obviously, the desert is very important in the Old Testament, the 40 years in a desert, but I was thinking about the New Testament. And I think it’s very present, actually, even though a little bit hidden in this gospel. Because of this gospel, the baptism, right after the baptism, Jesus, we know, is going out to the desert for 40 days. But John the Baptist, has been living in a desert most of his life; that prepared him for this point. That long, difficult, lonely, barren time in the desert was what prepared him to manifest be the one who manifests and proclaims that Jesus, the Messiah is now here. And so, John the Baptist, in a sense, could be called John of the desert. And a couple some weeks ago, on one Saturday, I had read a passage from a message that was from John the Baptist. And then some people were not at Mass, and they said, “Could I read it again?”So, I thought this would be a good day to do that. And so this was, and as I’ve said before, these messages, which were given several years ago, which are originally given just for us, but I think it’s fitting to share them now, because they, because I think that they weren’t meant just for us, but for all those who are responding to the reconquest. And so, this one was, the date, was June 23 of 2022 and our community was making our annual five-day retreat. And so, this was a message that Sister got during that retreat. And again, the message is from John the Baptist. It’s not very long.  “Write, is I John of Jesus who speaks to you.” And here, Sister adds a note. She said that the title, John of Jesus, said surprised her, and she said, I hesitated to write it at first, but he insisted, I think, as a sign of his complete belonging and submission to Jesus, this being more important than his other title, John the Baptist. John the Baptist is what we call him, but like he calls himself John of Jesus. And Sister also noted that she said I sensed him to be serious but kind, even his smiles felt serious and kind, not happy, happy. Because Sister often says that she can, she doesn’t see them, but she can sense like sense when there’s a smile, or sense other, other, some other attitudes. And so that the message goes. So, the message is – “Write, It is I, John of Jesus, who speaks to you. After the master, the servant speaks. My brothers, I walk with you, by your side. Similar missions have been entrusted through us. I walked the desert for many years as a sign for all men of what fidelity to the Lord entails, of the barrenness that absolute obedience brings about, before the offering pierces the heavens and the torrents of grace pour down upon the parched souls. You too live this desert in your spirits. The desert is painful, seemingly interminable, aging, stripping, leaving nothing but the absolute essential. My brothers take courage. Your long pathway through the desert is very close to ending. You will endure until the end, as I did. With the mission, comes the grace to fulfill it, to allow God to fulfill it in us. Our path is hard, but He will always help us. This thought repeated itself in me with each heartbeat. He will help. He will help. Take courage my brothers, my little brothers, yet so great in the eyes of our God, I walk with you to encourage you. May our God be blessed by all creatures in heaven and on earth. All will bow down and worship the Lamb who was slain, the Lamb of God, My Lord and my God before whom I prostrate in adoration with you. All glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the divine spirit now and for all ages, by all creatures, by all His children. Amen, he is coming. I John of Jesus, son of Zechariah, son of Elizabeth.” And so, I just wanted to add a few comments to that message. So, he says, I walked the desert for many, many years as a sign for all men. That is, it wasn’t just for him, but it was to teach us something. And I think we often forget about those – because Scripture doesn’t tell us much about those years. And so, we can forget about what that was like for John. And so, he’s like recalling to us that this is important. There’s a lesson in this for all of us. He says, the lesson of what fidelity to the Lord entails, of the barrenness, the barrenness, the barrenness that absolute fidelity, absolute obedience brings about. And that’s helpful to know, because when we can be experienced, when we’re trying to follow the Lord, we might expect things to be easier and more joyful, but we feel barrenness that can be very disconcerting. And so, he says of the barrenness that absolute obedience brings about before the offering pierces the heavens and the torrents of grace pour down upon the parched souls. So, it’s not that the Lord wants us to live forever in barrenness, but that sacrifice of barrenness is preparing this outpouring of grace and mercy. And he says, you too, live this desert in your spirits. So, John lived in a physical desert, but that physical desert was a sign of the interior desert that he was experiencing. And we might not be living in a physical desert, but we can be experiencing a desert in our spirits. And he says, the desert is painful, seemingly interminable, seemingly without, seemingly endless, like it’s never going to end, when it’s just this barrenness. And so, we can feel like, when is this going to end? He says it’s aging, stripping, leaving nothing, leaving nothing but the absolute essential -leaving nothing but the absolute essential. And then he says, my brothers, take courage. You will endure until the end, as I did. And then he says something like, a very important principle. With the mission comes the grace to fulfill it, because God gives us missions that we can’t fulfill by ourselves. But when He gives a mission, He also gives the grace, or we also call the charism, the grace, the charism, the divine help to fulfill it. And so that’s important to know that if God gives you a mission, He will also give you the divine help, the grace to fulfill it, or then he says, the grace to fulfill it, and then he gives a more clear explanation. He says, to allow God to fulfill it in us. So, it’s not just us who do it, but it’s God working through us. He says Our path is hard, but He will always help us. This thought repeated itself in me with each heartbeat. He will help. He will help. And I think, what that for me, when I read that, what’s coming through there is how difficult it was for him. That he had constantly to repeat himself – He will help. He will help, because it was so hard. And there’s another John, St John of the Cross, the great mystic, St John of the Cross, who helps us to understand this path of the desert. Because he speaks a lot, He uses the Spanish word nada, which means nothing, nothingness. It sounds better in Spanish, nada. And he insists on this nada, nada, nada, that the path that that’s kind of his way of expressing the spiritual experience of spiritual desert, the experience of nada, of darkness, of barrenness. He speaks, John the Cross insists on this experience of God stripping everything away, even spiritual consolations, even spiritual consolations. It’s not like, well, I’m following God and I have to give up a lot of material things, but inside I’m filled with joy and peace and light and happiness. And John says, on this path, often that’s not the case. It might be the case at some points, but then there’ll be places in which we don’t feel happiness, we don’t feel joy. It’s a very barren, difficult experience, and we, often it can even be very dark. John has a famous expression, the dark night of the senses and the dark night of the soul. It can be very dark, and in the sense that we don’t understand, we don’t see clearly what’s going on. And the Lord is stripping us from all human attachments, even the human attachments to our own ideas, our own criteria, our own understanding. But all this is not because God wants us to suffer, but it’s all because it’s so what He wants to give us. It prepares for what He wants to give us, which is so unbelievably great, the infinite joy.  John of the Cross speaks in a very powerful poetic language of the infinite joy that comes from union with God. And he was even given the taste on this earth very intensely. This union with God, this like a foretaste of heaven, and it compares it to a spousal union. But spousal unions, we know on this earth are never perfect, but this is the spousal union that God has prepared the soul for, to be united to God Himself. And so, these words, both of John the Baptist, and also the teaching of John of the Cross, are to help us not give in to fear or discouragement or despair when we are experiencing the desert, when we are experiencing this barrenness which everything is being, we feel everything is being stripped away. And it’s not God abandoning us, but God emptying us of everything that is not Him, so that He can fill us with Himself. And to conclude, I want to share a passage from – this is from one of the two ladies in Monterey who I met first of all, about 30 years ago. And one of them, when we began the Encounters with Jesus, one of them was given, because we were looking for help, and one of them was given a whole series of instructions for us about how to do the Encounters with Jesus, and even how to, what the different talks should cover. And so, this is about, I’m going to read you a little passage from that, which is about what one of the talks would be. Because the Lord wanted one of the talks to be entitled, “I will lead you to the desert and speak to your heart.” I will lead you to the desert and speak to your heart. And that’s taken from the prophet Hosea. It’s slightly adapted from the Prophet Hosea. And so, this is what the Lord said to explain that; He says, “this is one of the most beautiful phrases in the Bible that speaks of God’s love for the soul, for the creature. I will lead you to the desert and speak to your heart. What is the desert, a place where there is nothing but heaven and earth, meaning man and God, God and man, God and the soul, whether man or woman, God who wants to take the soul to empty it of everything that is not God to fill it completely with Himself. I will lead you into the desert and speak to your heart. God, in His infinite goodness and mercy, calls man the soul to live His divine life. God wants to share with the soul His delights, His secrets, His graces, His blessings. God leads the soul into the desert, through the desert to lead it to Him. Our heart will know the secrets of the heart of God. If we accept for Him to lead us into the desert. I will lead you into the desert and speak to your heart.” Amen.

KEYWORDS / PHRASES:
Matthew 3:13-17