Empowered to Call God “Abba”

Calling God “Abba, Father” is different from giving God a familiar name.   Calling God “Abba” is entering into the same intimate, fearless, trusting, and empowering relationship with God that Jesus had.   That relationship is called Spirit, and that Spirit is given to us by Jesus and enables us to cry out with him, “Abba, Father.”

Calling God “Abba, Father” (see Roman 8:15; Galatians 4:6) is a cry of the heart, a prayer welling up from our innermost beings.   It has nothing do with naming God but everything to do with claiming God as the source of who we are.   This claim does not come from any sudden insight or acquired conviction; it is the claim that the Spirit of Jesus makes in communion with our spirits.   It is the claim of love.

~~

Empowered to Receive Love
The Spirit reveals to us not only that God is “Abba, Father” but also that we belong to God as his beloved children.   The Spirit thus restores in us the relationship from which all other relationships derive their meaning.

Abba  is a very intimate word.   The best translation for it is:   “Daddy.”   The word  Abba  expresses trust, safety, confidence, belonging, and most of all intimacy.   It does not have the connotation of authority, power, and control, that the word  Father  often evokes.   On the contrary, Abba implies an embracing and nurturing love.   This love includes and infinitely transcends all the love that comes to us from our fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, spouses, and lovers.   It is the gift of the Spirit.

~~

The Source of All Love

Without the love of our parents, sisters, brothers, spouses, lovers, and friends, we cannot live.   Without love we die.   Still, for many people this love comes in a very broken and limited way.   It can be tainted by power plays, jealousy, resentment, vindictiveness, and even abuse.   No human love is the perfect love our hearts desire, and sometimes human love is so imperfect that we can hardly recognise it as love.

In order not to be destroyed by the wounds inflicted by that imperfect human love, we must trust that the source of all love is God’s unlimited, unconditional, perfect love, and that this love is not far away from us but is the gift of God’s Spirit dwelling within us.

~~

Choosing Love

How can someone ever trust in the existence of an unconditional divine love when most, if not all, of what he or she has experienced is the opposite of love – fear, hatred, violence, and abuse?

They are not condemned to be victims!   There remains within them, hidden as it may seem, the possibility to choose love.   Many people who have suffered the most horrendous rejections and been subject to the most cruel torture are able to choose love.   By choosing love they become witnesses not only to enormous human resiliency but also to the divine love that transcends all human loves.     Those who choose, even on a small scale, to love in the midst of hatred and fear are the people who offer true hope to our world.

~~

Small Steps of Love

How can we choose love when we have experienced so little of it?   We choose love by taking small steps of love every time there is an opportunity.   A smile, a handshake, a word of encouragement, a phone call, a card, an embrace, a kind greeting, a gesture of support, a moment of attention, a helping hand, a present, a financial contribution, a visit …   all these are little steps toward love.

Each step is like a candle burning in the night.   It does not take the darkness away, but it guides us through the darkness.   When we look back after many small steps of love, we will discover that we have made a long and beautiful journey.

~~

Doing Love

Often we speak about love as if it is a feeling.   But if we wait for a feeling of love before loving, we may never learn to love well.   The feeling of love is beautiful and life-giving, but our loving cannot be based in that feeling.   To love is to think, speak, and act according to the spiritual knowledge that we are infinitely loved by God and called to make that love visible in this world.

Mostly we  know  what the loving thing to do is.   When we “do” love, even if others are not able to respond with love, we will discover that our feelings catch up with our acts.

~~

Witnesses of Love

How do we know that we are infinitely loved by God when our immediate surroundings keep telling us that we’d better prove our right to exist?

The knowledge of being loved in an unconditional way, before the world presents us with its conditions, cannot come from books, lectures, television programs, or workshops.   This spiritual knowledge comes from people who witness to God’s love for us through their words and deeds.   These people can be close to us but they can also live far away or may even have lived long ago.   Their witness announces the truth of God’s love and calls us to act in accordance with it.

~~

We Are the Glory of God

Living a spiritual life is living a life in which our spirits and the Spirit of God bear a joint witness that we belong to God as God’s beloved children, (see Romans 8:16).     This witness involves every aspect of our lives.       Paul says:   “Whatever you eat, then, or drink, and whatever else you do, do it all for the glory of God”   (1 Corinthians 10:31).   And we are the glory of God when we give full visibility to the freedom of the children of God.

When we live in communion with God’s Spirit, we can only be witnesses, because wherever we go and whomever we meet, God’s Spirit will manifest itself through us.

~~

The Fruit of the Spirit

How does the Spirit of God manifest itself through us?   Often we think that to witness means to speak up in defense of God.   This idea can make us very self-conscious.   We wonder where and how we can make God the topic of our conversations and how to convince our families, friends, neighbors, and colleagues of God’s presence in their lives.   But this explicit missionary endeavour often comes from an insecure heart and, therefore, easily creates divisions.

The way God’s Spirit manifests itself most convincingly is through its fruits:   “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, trustfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22).   These fruits speak for themselves.   It is therefore always better to raise the question “How can  I  grow in the Spirit?”   than the question   “How can I make  othersbelieve in the Spirit?”

~~

Right Living and Right Speaking

To be a witness for God is to be a living sign of God’s presence in the world.   What we live is more important than what we say, because the right way of living always leads to the right way of speaking.     When we forgive our neighbours from our hearts, our hearts will speak forgiving words.   When we are grateful, we will speak grateful words, and when we are hopeful and joyful, we will speak hopeful and joyful words.

When our words come too soon and we are not yet living what we are saying, we easily give double messages.   Giving double messages – one with our words and another with our actions – makes us hypocrites.     May our lives give us the right words and may our words lead us to the right life.

~~

Growing into the Truth We Speak

Can we only speak when we are fully living what we are saying?   If all our words had to cover all our actions, we would be doomed to permanent silence!   Sometimes we are called to proclaim God’s love even when we are not yet fully able to live it.   Does that mean we are hypocrites?   Only when our own words no longer call us to conversion.   Nobody completely lives up to his or her own ideals and visions.   But by proclaiming our ideals and visions with great conviction and great humility, we may gradually grow into the truth we speak.   As long as we know that our lives always will speak louder than our words, we can trust that our words will remain humble.

~~

Words That Become Flesh

Words are important.   Without them our actions lose meaning.   And without meaning we cannot live.     Words can offer perspective, insight, understanding, and vision.   Words can bring consolation, comfort, encouragement and hope.   Words can take away fear, isolation, shame, and guilt.   Words can reconcile, unite, forgive, and heal.   Words can bring peace and joy, inner freedom and deep gratitude.   Words, in short, can carry love on their wings.   A word of love can be the greatest act of love.   That is because when our words become flesh in our own lives and the lives of others, we can change the world.

Jesus is the word made flesh.   In him speaking and acting were one.

~~

Words That Come From the Heart

Words that do not become flesh in us remain “just words.”   They have no power to affect our lives.   If someone says,   “I love you,” without any deep emotion, the words do more harm than good.   But if these same words are spoken from the heart, they can create new life.

It is important that we keep in touch with the source of our words.   Our great temptation is to become “pleasers,” people who say the right words to please others but whose words have no roots in their interior lives.   We have to keep making sure our words are rooted in our hearts.   The best way to do that is in prayerful silence.

~~

Flesh Become Word

The word must become flesh, but the flesh also must become word.   It is not enough for us, as human beings, just to live.   We also must give words to what we are living.   If we do not speak what we are living, our lives lose their vitality and creativity.     When we see a beautiful view, we search for words to express what we are seeing.   When we meet a caring person, we want to speak about that meeting.   When we are sorrowful or in great pain, we need to talk about it.   When we are surprised by joy, we want to announce it!

Through the word, we appropriate and internalize what we are living.   The word makes our experience truly human.

~~

Words That Create Community

The word is always a word for others.   Words need to be heard.   When we give words to what we are living, these words need to be received and responded to.   A speaker needs a listener.   A writer needs a reader.

When the flesh – the lived human experience – becomes word, community can develop.   When we say,   “Let me tell you what we saw.   Come and listen to what we did.   Sit down and let me explain to you what happened to us.   Wait until you hear whom we met,”   we call people together and make our lives into lives for others.     The word brings us together and calls us into community.   When the flesh becomes word, our bodies become part of a body of people.

~~

A Courageous Life

“Have courage,” we often say to one another.   Courage is a spiritual virtue.   The word  courage  comes from the Latin word  cor, which means “heart.   A courageous act is an act coming from the heart.   A courageous word is a word arising from the heart.   The heart, however, is not just the place where our emotions are located.   The heart is the centre of our being, the centre of all thoughts, feelings, passions, and decisions.

When the flesh – the lived human experience – becomes word, community can develop.   When we say,   “Let me tell you what we saw.   Come and listen to what we did.   Sit down and let me explain to you what happened to us.   Wait until you hear whom we met,”   we call people together and make our lives into lives for others.     The word brings us together and calls us into community.   When the flesh becomes word, our bodies become part of a body of people.

~~

Spiritual Courage

Courage is connected with taking risks.   Jumping the Grand Canyon on a motorbike, coming over Niagara Falls in a barrel, or crossing the ocean in a rowboat are called courageous acts because people risk their lives by doing these things.   But none of these daredevil acts comes from the centre of our being.   They all come from the desire to test our physical limits and to become famous and popular.

Spiritual courage is something completely different.   It is following the deepest desires of our hearts at the risk of losing fame and popularity.   It asks of us the willingness to lose our temporal lives in order to gain eternal life.

~~

Downward Mobility

The society in which we live suggests in countless ways that the way to go is up.       Making it to the top, entering the limelight, breaking the record – that’s what draws attention, gets us on the front page of the newspaper, and offers us the rewards of money and fame.

The way of Jesus is radically different.   It is the way not of upward mobility but of downward mobility.   It is going to the bottom, staying behind the sets, and choosing the last place!   Why is the way of Jesus worth choosing?   Because it is the way to the Kingdom, the way Jesus took, and the way that brings everlasting life.

~~

Taking Up Our Crosses

Jesus says:   “If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let him … take up his cross and follow me” (Matthew 16:24).     He does not say:   “Make a cross” or “Look for a cross.”   Each of us has a cross to carry.   There is no need to make one or look for one.   The cross we have is hard enough for us!   But are we willing to take it up, to   accept it as our cross?

Maybe we can’t study, maybe we are handicapped, maybe we suffer from depression, maybe we experience conflict in our families, maybe we are victims of violence or abuse.   We didn’t choose any of it, but these things are our crosses.   We can ignore them, reject them, refuse them or hate them.   But we can also take   up these crosses and follow Jesus with them.

~~

Coming Home

In the parable of the prodigal son (Luke 15:11-32), there are two sons: the younger son, who runs away from home to an alien country, and the older son, who stays home to do his duty.   The younger son dissipates himself with alcohol and sex; the older son alienates himself by working hard and dutifully fulfilling all his obligations.   Both are lost.   Their father grieves over both, because with neither of them does he experience the intimacy he desires.

Both lust and cold obedience can prevent us from being true children of God.   Whether we are like the younger son or the older son, we have to come home to the place where we can rest in the embrace of God’s unconditional love.

~~

A Lifelong Journey

Going home is a lifelong journey.   There are always parts of ourselves that wander off in dissipation or get stuck in resentment.   Before we know it we are lost in lustful fantasies or angry ruminations.   Our night dreams and daydreams often remind us of our lostness.

Spiritual disciplines such as praying, fasting and caring are ways to help us return home.   As we walk home we often realise how long the way is.   But let us not be discouraged.   Jesus walks with us and speaks to us on the road.   When we listen carefully we discover that we are already home while on the way.

~~

Becoming Fathers and Mothers

What are we going to do when we get home?   When the two sons of the parable of the prodigal son both have returned to their father, what then?     The answer is simple:   they have to become fathers themselves.   Sons have to become fathers; daughters have to become mothers.   Being children of God involves growing up and becoming like God.     Jesus doesn’t hesitate to say this:   “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect, be compassionate as your heavenly Father is compassionate.”     (See Matthew 5:48 and Luke 6:36).     How?   By welcoming home our lost brothers and sisters in the way our Father welcomed us home.

~~

Welcoming Home

How do we welcome home our lost brothers and sisters?   By running out to them, embracing them, and kissing them.   By clothing them with the best clothes we have and making them our honored guests.   By offering them the best food and inviting friends and family for a party.   And, most important of all, by not asking for excuses or explanations, only showing our immense joy that they are with us again. (See Luke 15:20-24).

That is being perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect.   It is forgiving from the heart without a trace of self-righteousness, recrimination, or even curiosity.   The past is wiped out.   What counts is the here and now, where all that fills our hearts is gratitude for the homecoming of our brothers and sisters.

~~

The Tears of the Father

The father in the story of the prodigal son suffered much.   He saw his younger son leave, knowing the disappointments, rejections and abuses facing him.   He saw his older son become angry and bitter, and was unable to offer him affection and support.   A large part of the father’s life has been waiting.   He could not force his younger son to come home or his older son to let go of his resentments.   Only they themselves could take the initiative to return.

During these long years of waiting the father cried many tears and died many deaths.   He was emptied out by suffering.   But that emptiness had created a place of welcome for his sons when the time of their return came.   We are called to become like that father.

~~

A Father’s As Well As a Mother’s Love

The father in the story of the prodigal son is mother as well.   His running out to welcome his son, his embrace and kisses; his offering of the best robe, the ring, and the sandals; and his throwing a party are not the typical behaviour of a distant patriarch. They express so much tenderness, nurturing care, and self-effacing forgiveness that in them we see both motherly and fatherly love fully present.

The perfect love of our heavenly Father includes as well as transcends all the love that a father and mother can have for their children.     We may think about the two hands of God embracing us as a mother’s hand and a father’s hand: one caressing, consoling, and comforting, the other supporting, encouraging, and empowering.   We too are called to be father and mother to those who want to come home.

~~

Beyond Jealousy

Jealousy arises easily in our hearts.   In the parable of the prodigal son, the elder son is jealous that his younger brother gets such a royal welcome even though he and his loose women swallowed up his father’s property (Luke 15:30).   And in the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, the workers who worked the whole day are jealous that those who came at the eleventh hour receive the same pay as they did   (see Matthew 20:1-16).     But the Father says to the older son:   “You are with me always and all I have is yours” (Luke 15:31).   And the landowner says:   “Why should you be envious because I am generous?” (Matthew 20:15).

When we truly enjoy God’s unlimited generosity, we will be grateful for what our brothers and sisters receive.   Jealous will simply have no place in our hearts.

~~

How Time Heals

“Time heals,” people often say.   This is not true when it means that we will eventually forget the wounds inflicted on us and be able to live on as if nothing happened.   That is not really healing;   it is simply ignoring reality.   But when the expression “time heals” means that faithfulness in a difficult relationship can lead us to a deeper understanding of the ways we have hurt each other, then there is much truth in it.   “Time heals” implies not passively waiting but actively working with our pain and trusting in the possibility of forgiveness and reconciliation.

~~

The Wounded Healer

Nobody escapes being wounded.   We all are wounded people, whether physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually.     The main question is not “How can we hide our wounds?” so we don’t have to be embarrassed, but “How can we put our woundedness in the service of others?”   When our wounds cease to be a source of shame, and become a source of healing, we have become wounded healers.

Jesus is God’s wounded healer: through his wounds we are healed.   Jesus’ suffering and death brought joy and life.   His humiliation brought glory; his rejection brought a community of love.   As followers of Jesus we can also allow our wounds to bring healing to others.