Spontaneity

At Mass this morning, I was struck by the following passage:

"We want you to know, brothers and sisters, of the grace of God
that has been given to the churches of Macedonia,
for in a severe test of affliction,
the abundance of their joy and their profound poverty
overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
For according to their means, I can testify,
and beyond their means, spontaneously,
they begged us insistently for the favor of taking part
in the service to the holy ones,
and this, not as we expected,
but they gave themselves first to the Lord
and to us through the will of God..."

-2 Corinthians 8:1-5

Here, St. Paul is commending the Christians of Macedonia for their charity in coming to the aid of the Church in Jerusalem. Note what he commends them for:

1. Joy and Poverty - we've all heard the expression that if we don't ever want to be disappointed, we should be pessimists. This is, in fact, a pessimistic twist on a solid Christian principle. True joy, which is never disappointed, is based on poverty of spirit. When we are honest with ourselves, humble and detached from the world of our desires, we begin to realize what we truly deserve. This poverty of spirit, a willingness to accept that we are dust and unto dust shall return, is the key to Christian joy. Only by accepting this can we be filled with an awareness of how much God has given us, a true sense of joy in Christ. This is the opposite of worldy happiness, which we are told comes through asserting our desires and our rights to them.
2. Overflowing Generosity - only a joy flowing from poverty of spirit could produce overflowing generosity. Notice that the Macedonians' poverty is not financial. They have the means to be generous, although certainly they are more generous in their prayers. Their joy fuels their generosity, and so their poverty makes them more giving: "I am but dust, and yet God has given me so much. How can I help but to share it with those around me, even with my enemies?"
3. Service Beyond Their Means - the Macedonians even served. They did not stop at throwing a couple drachmas in the collection plate. They didn't just pray. They submitted themselves in service, and even beyond their means at that! With God, we are capable of giving more than we know. They even begged for the opportunity. That truly is generosity. These folks really and truly wanted to be faithful Christians.
4. Orderliness According to the Will of God - they did not serve God second, they served Him first, and even after serving Him, they served others through the will of God. There is no conflict between serving God and serving others, loving God and loving others, spending time with God and spending time with others, if our serving others, loving others, and spending time with others is the holy will of God. Now God wills that we give ourselves directly to Him in certain ways, first among them the Holy Mass, but for each man, other obligations and devotions vary according to His will. Let us seek to know His will!
5. Spontaneity - what else did we think He meant when our Savior said that the Spirit moves as He wills, like the wind? The Holy Spirit is no hippie, but He and His will do sometimes seem to us to shift around a bit. As Fiat Men, we must be willing anywhere and everywhere to seek His Holy Will, to follow it with spontaneity, with generous service flowing from the joy of spiritual poverty.

So, let's try to discover spiritual poverty, Christian joy, and spontaneity! I know I've got some praying to do!

Pax,

Micah

Reaping the Benefits: Fiat Accompli

Having dedicated myself this last week and a half or so to the Fiat Men experiment, I've found some interesting results. Sometimes, I've failed. Okay, often. Often, I've failed. I'm sure I don't need to tell you how difficult it can be to set aside your will for God's.

If you're just joining us, one of the founding principles I drew on for this blog was the movie Yes Man. If you haven't seen it, please do! It's very amusing. In the movie, Jim Carrey's character, Carl, takes a challenge to say yes to everything. For a year. It takes him on an insanely wild ride, sometimes successful, sometimes not. He discovers a lot of things that truly matter, makes some friends he otherwise would not have, and ends up just having an overall interesting experience.

Here's my twist: what if we men (women are welcome to do this too, by all means!)...what if we men said yes to everything God asked of us? What paths would that take us down? Would we be happier? Would we find real, true, abiding fulfillment? Would we find God? Of course, I know what the answer is. I believe we would find ourselves filled with joy and in love with our Heavenly Father. In fact, that's a doctrine of the Church: following God's will, we will attain to paradise! Why is it we so often choose not to say yes to God, why do we choose not to say, as our Blessed Mother did, "fiat mihi secundum verbum tuum" - "let it be done to me according to your word"? The reason is pride.

What if we all were Fiat Men? I think we would all radiate joy in the Spirit so profoundly the people around us would flock to the Church. The price of water would skyrocket because there'd be so many baptisms going on! A friend of mine, Steve Horvath, a former FOCUS missionary and a subject of the A&E program God or the Girl?, was quoted on a FOCUS pamphlet as saying, "once I saw what they had, I had to have it." He was talking about Catholics alive in their faith.

Let me give you a foretaste. Today was a doozy. I spent the whole day at home alone with my toddlers. My daughter bites...and pushes...and scratches...and pulls hair...and my son, well, he let's her, but whines about it 'til the cows come home. There was screaming and whining and pooping and crying. It was a hard day. So when the Mrs. came home, I decided that I needed to get out. I drove my car down the drive and felt a calling. I felt like I should really go to the Adoration Chapel. This was quite a surprise to me. I was going to go to Walmart and gt some brownies as a little treat to make up for my bad day. I turned left instead of right and off I went toward Jesus. I got into the chapel and felt called to pull out a rosary. I didn't have mine on me (it went missing recently, which saddens me because I really liked it). I prayed, and tried really hard not to think of myself, but to focus on Christ. I found myself praying for some enemies. I didn't find it to be a struggle this time. I really, genuinely wanted these people to get the help of grace. After I finished the rosary, I started looking at the exit and the clock. If you've gone to Adoration before, you probably know what I mean. You start getting antsy. I'm convinced this is because we're still focused on ourself. We've barely even begun to look toward God enough to be doing anything properly called prayer. So I let Him have it. I felt called to surrender. I felt called to stay with Him. So often we say, "mane nobiscum, Domine" - "stay with us, Lord," but we don't consider staying with Him and watching for one hour, as He requested of us. I decided to stay and thoughts flooded my mind. Here was God, before me. Here He was, the fulfillment of my every desire. Everything I wanted in life, everything I feared I would not receive (fear, afterall, is a direct denial of Divine Providence), was nothing compared to Christ. Even if I was to be a complete failure in life. Even if my family and friends abandoned me, I would still have Him. The room grew quiet. I became acutely aware of Him. Not in a "look at me, I'm so holy, watch me levitate...hey, do you smell roses" kind of way. It was as if God was showing me for just a few minutes who He was, reminding me, and re-orienting me from myself and my anxieties to Himself. As I left sometime later, I was filled with peace. I ended up going to Walmart (we needed milk & diapers and I still had a sweet-tooth) and was quiet inside, and joyful outside. I know I brought joy to at least one other customer while I was there.

So here's the challenge renewed: try being a Fiat Man, then write in the comments or send me an email detailing your experiences. Let's always say Fiat to God, and see how many disciples we can make!

Pax,

Micah