Notes from the Retreat 2010 - Part 1
The retreat this year took us on a journey through familiar territory. It was a journey through the Church's year. It began with Advent with stops en route at Christmas, Lent, Passiontide, Easter, Pentecost and Harvest. These notes focus on the journey from Advent to Lent.
Advent looks forward to two comings. It looks forward to the birth of Christ at Bethlehem. It also looks forward to his second coming, when he arrives in great glory to judge the living and the dead. These two events provoke two very different responses. The first gives rise to a response of joyful expectation. The second gives rise to feelings of inadequacy and unworthiness. Such a double focus could be confusing. Are we meant to be happy or sad, hopeful or despondent? In fact, however, the two elements work together to put us in a position to really appreciate what Christmas is all about.
The expectation of the first coming generates a joyful expectation. We look forward to the coming of the Light of the World. It is in this spirit that, week by week, we light in church the Advent Candles. It is in this spirit that day by day, at home, we open the windows of the Advent Calendar. It is a mood that chimes in with the joyful expectation of Mary, which is why churches that wish to emphasise that aspect of Advent use blue as the liturgical colour for the season.
The thought of the second coming of Christ, by contrast, makes us very aware of our own worthlessness. We become acutely conscious of the darkness within ourselves. It was this spirit that prompted the church to keep Advent as a fast. Originally it lasted, like Lent, for forty days. It was even called St Martin's Lent. Churches that wish to emphasise this aspect of Advent use the more sombre purple as their liturgical colour for the season.
The double focus of Advent and the conflicting emotions, to which it gives rise, could make Advent a rather confused and confusing time. In fact, however, the two combine to provide a perfect lead in to Christmas. The first focus speaks of our hopes for a better world, a world shaped by light. The second focus speaks of the darkness that always seems to come between us and the realisation of those hopes. Together they reveal that we are in an impasse from which we are powerless to break free. Together they reveal our need for a deliverer who will break that impasse and show us the way through it. Together they bring us to the perfect position from which to appreciate the significance of the coming of Christ.
The season of Advent sets the scene for the Christian year. It confronts us with the impasse we are in. It shows us a need for deliverance. It prepares us for the coming of God in Christ to offer us that deliverance.
The next station on our journey will be Christmas when we celebrate the coming of Christ, a coming that maps out the way that we must go. The message of Advent was that we are in an impasse. On the one hand, we long to be better people in a better world. On the other hand, we are aware of the darkness in ourselves that constantly frustrates those hopes. We need a deliverer. We need someone who can show us the way through. At Christmas, we celebrate his coming. The Christmas story maps out the way that we must go. It shows us the qualities we need. It shows us what those qualities will come together to produce. It shows us where they will lead.
The qualities that we shall need are the qualities that were brought to the stable. Mary and Joseph brought faith. At the Annunciation, Mary placed her life at God's disposal: "Behold, the handmaiden of the lord. Be it unto me according to thy word.” Joseph laid aside his suspicions and believed the message given to him in the dream. The Christchild brings love. God lays aside all power and majesty, dominion and might, and becomes a helpless child in order to rescue us. The shepherds bring hope. They come to the stable fired by the hope given them by the angels of "Peace on earth, goodwill to all men."
The qualities that are brought to the stable that Christmas night - faith, and love, and hope - have one thing in common. They encourage those who have them to look beyond themselves. Faith puts God first. Love puts others first. Hope looks to the future good of all rather than the short-term advantage of the individual. Together they combine to produce the quality of humility. This is the quality that is perfectly caught in the picture of the kings kneeling before the child in the manger.
Humility is the quality that unites all the figures in the stable scene, including those whom, last but not least, we add now - the ox and the ass. Where that humility leads to is spelt out in the stable scene as a whole. What we see there is paradise regained. We see God and man and all creation once more at one. We see the realisation of all that we long for.
The Christmas story maps out a Via Positiva that leads from where we are to where we long to be. Faith, love, and hope combine to produce the humility that opens the way to the Kingdom of God. But sadly, it isn't quite as simple as that. The Christmas story ends with the flight into Egypt and the massacre of the innocents. They provide a sharp reminder that we not only have to cultivate the light that is within us. We also have to overcome the dark. It is to that aspect that we shall turn next month when we move on to the season of Lent.
The message of Advent was that we were in an impasse. We long to be better people in a better world, but there is a darkness in us that prevents those hopes being realised. The Christmas story mapped out a way through that impasse. It urged the cultivation of faith, hope, and love in order to generate the humility, which is the key to the way ahead. However, in its final acts the Christmas story also issued a warning. We do indeed have to cultivate the light that is within us, but we also have to combat the darkness. Combating the darkness is the theme of the season we turn to now, the season of Lent. Its central story is the account of the Temptations in the Wilderness. That story spells out the nature of the darkness. It shows us what Jesus did to combat it. It also shows us, by implication, the course we have to take.
The story tells us of three different temptations but the essence of them all is the same. In each case, Jesus is tempted to use the powers that God has given him to satisfy the appetites of self. The first temptation is to “command these stones to become bread.” He is invited to use his power to satisfy his immediate hunger, and, by extension, his physical appetites in general. For the second temptation, he is taken to the top of a high mountain and shown all the kingdoms of the world. He is invited to satisfy self’s appetite for power. In the third temptation he is placed on a pinnacle of the Temple and urged to throw himself down, fortified by the assurance that angels will bear him up “least he strike his foot against a stone.” He is invited to satisfy self's craving for attention. He is invited to be a celebrity.
The temptations to which Jesus is subjected in the wilderness all spring from the same source. They spring from self, albeit self embodied in the form of the devil. His strategy for meeting those temptations has two elements. The first element is discipline. By rigorous fasting, he imposes his authority on his own appetites. The second element is an unswerving attention to God. To the temptation to “command these stones to become bread,” he responds, “Man hall not live by bread alone, but by every word the proceeds from the mouth of God.” To the temptation to rule the world, he replies, “It is written. ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’” To the temptation to perform an attention-grabbing stunt, he replies peremptorily, “It is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord God to the test.’”
Jesus' strategy for combating the darkness in himself has two elements - discipline and attentiveness to God. In Lent, we are invited to follow that same strategy. We are invited to discipline our appetites. That is what lies behind the emphasis on giving up things. We are also invited to take deliberate steps to beef up our attentiveness to God. We can do this by Bible reading - perhaps setting ourselves to read a particular gospel. We can do it by devotional reading. But, above all, it is done by prayer. This may involve resuming a habit that has become neglected or lost or it may involve deepening or developing an existing habit. The range of prayer, and the habit of caring that it generates, can be extended outwards to enclose a wider circle, as we are encouraged to do by, for example, the Streatley Prayer Book. The depth of prayer can be increased by moving out beyond the pleases, thank-yous, sorries, and prayers of confiding to include, for example, prayers of meditation.
Lent is a sombre season. There are no flowers in church. The priest is vested in a muted purple. It is a time when we focus on what is dark in us and what we can do to overcome it. The Lent story tells us where that darkness is located. It is located in our own selfish appetites that constantly seek to direct our attention inwards on ourselves and away from the will of God and the needs of others. The Lent story also maps out a strategy combining discipline and attentiveness to God by which to combat that darkness. However, the Lent story, like the Christmas story, ends on a note of warning. Jesus may have overcome the temptations offered to him in the wilderness, but the battle is not over. The final sentence of the episode says, “When the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.” Victory over self and its appetites is not easily won. What the cost can be we shall consider when we come to our next season - the season of Passiontide.