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"Someone With Skin"

by Dr. Patricia Cooney-Hathaway

How does God speak with us in our daily lives?

In his book, The Holy Longing, Fr. Richard Rolheiser tells a delightful story about a four-year-old child who wakes up in the middle of the night frightened by a nightmare. She runs to her parents' bedroom for comfort. Her mother, taking her by the hand, leads her back to her bedroom reassuring her.

You needn't be afraid. You are not alone. God is with you.

The child replies, I know God is with me, but I need someone with me who has some skin!

In essence, Father Rolheiser's point is that this story gives us the reason for the Incarnation. God takes on flesh, because, like the little girl, we all need someone with us who has some skin!

Rolheiser claims that most of us probably think about the Incarnation as a one-shot excursion by God into human history. But that is not true. He emphasizes that the IncarnationGod with u—continues to be present through Word, sacrament, and us.

Let's take a look at the various ways in which God continues to be with us, inviting us into relationship, offering us companionship and guidance and challenging us to be men and women for others in Jesus' name.

Through the Word

The Word of Godthe love of the Father, the saving ministry of Jesus, and the continued presence of his Spiritis a channel of God's grace and made available to us through the Scriptures. The Old and New Testaments become revelation for us when we allow them to provide inspiration and guidance, comfort or challenge, as we seek to find God in depths of our being and in the context of the people and events that make up our daily lives.

How does this happen? Here are a couple of examples:

A woman shared with me how anxious and worried she became upon learning that her teenage son was diagnosed with a bipolar disorder. Unable to sleep, she got up and was inspired to attend morning Mass. Upon hearing the Gospel reading from John 14, Do not be anxious or troubled. Trust in God still and trust in me, she burst into tears.

I felt God was speaking personally to me, she told me later. I left Mass more peaceful and determined to be a source of strength for my son.

A man attends a weekend retreat. One of the conferences is centered on Jesus' challenge to forgive seventy times seven. He thinks about the family next door who has deeply hurt his daughter. He is inspired to make amends.

I went to my enemies and I knocked on the door, he shared later, and I said, Look, I'm a Eucharistic minister and I know your father is dying. Would you like me to bring Communion?'

Well, they broke down and so did I. It was a beautiful gift. Later I said to God, You gave me this gift to forgive people that were so injurious to my family. You helped me to forgive them.'

How often in our own lives do we receive a word from the Lord through the Scripture—at times words of comfort; at other times words of challenge. Both providing inspiration and guidance to find God's will in the experiences of daily life.

Through Sacred Reading

A method for praying with Scripture, developed within the monastic tradition but fully relevant for us today, is known as lectio divina, a phrase often translated as sacred reading. Pope Benedict XVI called for a renewed attention to this method of prayer, convinced that it would bring the Church a new spiritual springtime. In his apostolic exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel, Pope Francis echoes Benedict's sentiments by stating that this particular way of listening to the Lord allows us to be transformed by the Spirit (no. 152).

What follows is a short description of this form of prayer that consists of four parts. The first is reading slowly a passage from Scripture. The point is not to finish the text but to let God speak to you, here and now, through it.

The second step is meditation. When a word or phrase grabs your attention and speaks to you, stop reading and simply stay with those words, prayerfully and slowly repeating them, allowing God's inspired Word to enlighten and transform you. Stay with the text as long as it holds spiritual power.

When that experience passes, move to the third partour response.

We may be led to say something to God like, Thank you for . . . or I'm sorry that . . . or Please help me to . . . .

This process normally leads to the fourth aspect of this sacred readinginner silence.

Here no words are used and no thoughts are thought. One is simply present to God in a wordless, loving communion. The regular practice of lectio divina makes us pause, fills our minds and hearts with scriptural passages that nourish our spirit and enable us to see as God sees, hear as God hears, and love as God loves in our everyday lives.

Prayer: Be Still and Know that I am God.

Mount Horebthe location of the loudest whisper ever spoken! Here the prophet Elijah heard God speak not through a gusting wind, terrifying earthquake, or fire, but in a gentle breeze.

Simply put, prayer refers to God's invitation to be quiet enough to hear God's still small voice (1 Kg 19:12). Sometimes our prayer involves conversation with God; at other times a quiet, being with God.

Often God may seem silent. One woman recently complained, I put time aside in the morning to pray, but often I don't hear any still, small voice. Whether we feel God's presence isn't what really matters. What matters is putting ourselves in God's presence and giving God our time, attention, and our love.

I often ask God to let something of God rub off on meloving kindness, the capacity to forgive, extending unconditional loveto be God's blessing to others throughout our day. In faith, we know God is always working obscurely within us, drawing us into deeper intimacy with him, and asking us to share his love and blessing with those who make up our lives.

Our model, of course, is Jesus. The Gospels show Jesus frequently at prayer, not only at crucial moments of his lifeat his baptism, before choosing the Twelve Apostles, at the Transfiguration, in the garden of Gethsemanebut frequently withdrawing throughout the day to pray. Jesus withdrew to a deserted place by himself; He went up the mountain by himself to pray; Early in the morning, long before dawn, he found a lonely place to pray.

Jesus sought out time to be with his Abba and to find guidance for his ministry, Let us go elsewhere, to the neighboring country towns, so that I can preach there too, for that is why I came (Mk 1:38-39). As did Jesus, if we want to hear God's voice, we must put time aside to be with him.

Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament

I don't know about you, but when I really want to have a heart-to-heart conversation with someone, I'm careful to choose the right ambiance: a private walk, a stroll on the beach, a quiet corner in the back of a favorite restaurant. For many people today, the environment that offers the best opportunity for conversation with God or a quiet loving attentiveness to God is spending time before the Blessed Sacrament.

A pastor recently told me that following his parishioners' request, his parish has begun a one-day-a-week opportunity from 9 AM to 5 PM to spend time in church before the Blessed Sacrament. The pastor commented happily that people come and go all day long.

Sacraments: Moments of Encounter with God

Along with the Scriptures, the sacramental life of the Church provides us with privileged moments to encounter God's loving, forgiving, and healing presence in our lives. Let me share one example from my own life that involves the sacrament of anointing:

A number of years ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. My brother is a doctor at the Mayo Clinic, so I went there for treatment. One afternoon, anxious and worried, I asked God for a sign that he was with me to help me through this treatment. A few days later, I found myself desiring the sacrament of healing.

That weekend, my family came to visit. After Mass that Sunday, the pastor, Father Mahon, whom I had met previously, came up to me and said, During the week the thought came to me. Would you like to receive the sacrament of healing?

Well, I was blown away! God had indeed heard my prayer.

Together we went to a small chapel and there, with my family's hands on my shoulders, I received the sacrament of healing. I knew then that God was with me in every way God could bethrough the doctors, the treatment, the support of my family and friend—to restore my health. I personally experienced the truth that the sacraments are powerful vehicles of God's love, healing, and forgiving presence. They remind us that everything and everyone, like Father Mahon, is capable of embodying and communicating the divine.

Through the Christian Community

In his book, Ignatian Humanism: A Spirituality for the 21st Century, Dr. Ronald Modras describes a life-size crucifix he saw while visiting a church in Germany. He describes the crucifix as quite ordinary except that, as a casualty of war, the body of Jesus has no arms. The parishioners decided to leave the crucifix in that truncated state as a reminder to themselves and onlookers that they are to be Christ's arms.

St. Teresa of Avila, sixteenth-century mystic and reformer, reminds us of the same in her popular phrase: Christ has no body now but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which Christ's compassion must look out on the world. Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good.

Yours are the hands with which he is to bless us now.

A major difficulty for many of us is we feel too ordinary for God to choose us to be mediators of his presence to others. Consequently, we aren't attentive to God's daily requests for us to do so.

An example of what I mean takes place in an evening class at the seminary. A chaplain, taking one of my courses, stayed after class to talk with me about a situation that was bothering him. To make a long story short, he told me that one of his patients wouldn't die.

I asked, What do you mean, won't die?

He responded, She is in and out of a coma, very restless. Her family has given her permission to die, but she won't pass over.

Right then and there, out of the blue, the thought came to me: Tell her that whatever she has done that she thinks God won't forgive, if she tells God she is sorry, God will forgive her and welcome her home.

When the chaplain returned the following week, he told me that he whispered what I said into her ear. She became quite peaceful and died the next day.

In the Scriptures, we repeatedly read the phrase, The Word of the Lord came to me as Abraham, Moses, the Prophets and John the Baptist share what they believe is a message from God for their people. I believe God asked the chaplain and me to be mediators of his mercy and forgiveness to this woman. I also am convinced that God asks all of us to be bearers of his word to others, but we don't recognize those out of the blue inspirations for what they are: messages from God through us for others.

Jesus, the Word, gifts us with his Spirit so that we may continue the IncarnationGod among u—in our times. Are you listening . . .
and acting?

Dr. Patricia Cooney-Hathaway

Dr. Patricia Cooney Hathaway is professor of spirituality and systematic theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary.

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Sacred Heart Major Seminary is a Christ-centered Catholic community of faith and higher learning committed to forming leaders who will proclaim the good news of Christ to the people of our time. As a leading center of the New Evangelization, Sacred Heart serves the needs of the Archdiocese of Detroit and contributes to the mission of the universal Church.