I shall lead her into solitude and there speak tenderly to her heart [Hos2:14]

Lent is a time of separation. Separation is one of the basic and fundamental needs of being human. We convert this need in breakaway’s, holidays, the changing of our routines and many more.

In separation we are transformed and rejuvenated through our hearts that became tender.

Not a lot of people follow the separation call of the solitude of the desert, although we yearn for it...

We feel much more comfortable with a road paved with good intentions.

The journey of into the desert finds amazingly uniform patterns in universal mythologies. It is always about separation (simple), encounters (complex) and return (enlightenment).

Christ modeled this pattern and in Lent we seek ways to experience and become part of this discernable pattern. It is called the Pascal Mystery. Richard Rohr says: It is not so much what you learn but rather something that you do. Christ has died, Christ has risen and Christ will come again. The pattern is everywhere - and we struggle to surrender to it.

During Lent we want to understand and experience the teachings and life of Christ who modeled this pattern.

Separation comes as a call. It starts with deep sense of dissatisfaction and that there must be more. It is not about wanting the nice to have’s or give more attention to your spiritual life. It is about giving up life and surrender to God in order to live life to its fullest.

Separation will lead you to a beautiful place. You will be lead into "the smile of the Burning Bush Dweller” Deut 33.

It is only then that presence can emerge.

We fall into grace by walking and not daydreaming.

We have to do the walking - and let God to the talking.

In leaving the desert noise we can hear God's voice.

Metaphors:

"It is like traveling in a sailing ship on the ocean. Our life is like the ship, and we are the captain. All our skill, energy, and attention are necessary to avoid shipwreck and arrive in port, for the ocean is dangerous and inattention is disastrous upon it. Our ship, however, also needs the wind. It is the wind that fills the sails and moves the ship, and when the two are weighed against each other. The skill of the captain seems very small compared with the contribution of the wind. In Origen’s metaphor the wind represents God’s help and grace. Great as that grace is, the human being must work, with all the skill and energy he or she can muster, in order to love. The receiving of grace is never automatic; it depends upon a constant attentiveness and willingness to listen and to look”

Real love is not easy. It is difficult, “something to be learned over a very long time”  Truly, “Learning to love is a slow business”

Allegory of the Cave - Plato

Into The Desert:

Ancient meaning:

• The place of first Love (Hos 2)
• "Thin places" where you can listen (Ps 85)
  
• Confrontation (Matt 4)
• Rest (Ps 131)

 The Need

 It starts with deep sense of dissatisfaction and that there must be more.

Anaxagores, the Greek philosopher from the 4 century BC, was asked "why are we here on earth?"  And he answered: "to see" The phrase "to see" translated into Latin is "contemplare" from which we get out English word "contemplate".

See what I don't want to see, and don't see what I need to see.

 A new social rhythm

"The desert fathers left the chaos of an empire falling apart to follow the way of Israel.  They discovered vast silence and solitude alluring and at the same time terrifying. They found uncertainty, demons, desolation, and even paradise. “To be tried by demons” meant passing through a stage in the growth of awareness of the lower frontiers of the personality.  One’s own or others’ distorted desires can be the demons. They moved deep into a place of unknowing en-route to being remade in God."

Israel's desert spirituality.

John the Baptist.

Jesus Christ

Desert Fathers

A Loving Gaze

Give thanks to him who led his people through the wilderness. His faithful love endures forever. Ps 136:16

Love revived and challenged.

"In contrast to a society that is enslaved to its own needs and desires, those who love God and others gain true freedom. To the Greeks, perfection allows for no improvement. It is unchanging, static, and complete. However, to the Desert Fathers, perfect love means to love God with our whole heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love our neighbor as ourselves. “To be a perfect human being, a human being the way God intends human beings to be, is to be a fully loving person, loving God, and every bit as important, loving God’s image, the other people who share the world with us” . Our contemporary rejection of perfect love causes us to define humanity in relationship to our moral failings: “To err is human.” “But on the contrary, for the sisters and brothers of the desert quite the reverse was true; for them, ‘to love is human; not to love is less than human’”

The desert teaches us that the highest way of living is not self actualization but self-sacrifice.