Get in the wheelbarrow

I begin with an illustration; it is a true story.  

Jean François Gravelet, “The Great Charles Blondin”, was a famous French tightrope walker and acrobat. 
Blondin’s greatest fame came in 1859 when he attempted to become the first person to cross the rushing and roaring waters of Niagara Falls on a tightrope. 

With a balancing pole, Charles Blondin walked across the 335m long tightrope in only five minutes. He went on to walk across the falls several times, each time with a different theatrical flair. Later crossings were made in a sack; on stilts; on a bicycle, in the dark with sparks flaring from his pole tips; with his hands and feet manacled; and sitting down halfway to cook an omelette! 

On one such occasion a large crowd gathered as word went out that Blondin was going to attempt yet another incredible feat. A buzz of excitement ran along both sides of the riverbank. The crowd “Oooohed!” and “Aaaaahed!” as Blondin carefully walked across one dangerous step after another — blindfolded and pushing a wheelbarrow. 

Upon reaching the other side, the crowd’s applause was louder than the roar of the falls! Blondin suddenly stopped and addressed his audience:  “Do you believe I can carry a person across in this wheelbarrow?” The crowd enthusiastically shouted, “Yes, yes, yes. You are the greatest tightrope walker in the world. You can do anything!” 

 “Okay,” said Blondin, “Get in the wheelbarrow….” 
No one did! 

Later, on Sept 15, 1860, the world was amazed as Blondin made a crossing carrying his manager, Harry Colcord on his back.

Faith as relationship – abiding in Love

I used to think that faith meant adherence to a set of beliefs. That faith is adherence to a set of (correct) beliefs is the unspoken message of our liturgy. Before Baptism, the Creed is affirmed. Confirmation is about delving into the deeper meanings of aspects of the Creed before one makes a statement of belief to a community of faith.

I now see faith more as a relationship of trusting rest in God’s Love. The word “abide” repeated through John 15.1-8 communicates this aspect of faith strongly. That is why I use the image of Charles Blondin safely transporting his friend in a wheelbarrow across a tightrope above the mighty Niagara Falls. Faith as belief is not enough to “abide” in the wheelbarrow. Abiding in the wheelbarrow implies faith is a resting in a relationship of trust and love. Faith is like floating, the harder you try the less you succeed. The moment you give up fighting the water and simply agree to rest in the water, the floating begins. Likewise when we give up trying so hard with what we believe and don’t belief and surrender to rest in God, faith has a chance.

Not only is faith resting in relationship with God it is also resting in relationship with one another. The community is an essential interconnected dimension of our resting in God’s love. Our very identity is shaped through abiding in God and each other.

Faith can be resting in God’s love and the love of others, and this is precisely where the suffering or pruning begins.

My friend and mentor Brother David tells a story of when he was teaching theology in Central Africa. He was at a loss when one of his students asked him why there were so few saints in the Church. David says: “I closed my eyes hoping for inspiration, and this saying of Jesus popped right up to rescue me. I told him, “God wants us all to grow from sinners into saints and gives us the means to do it. Sadly, we pick out the easy and pleasant parts of the program. Anything even a little unpleasant, we push away… and so we shrink from the pruning, the very thing intended to make us into saints... we need to accept and profit from all that God allows to come our way.”  

I notice that David’s insight explains what happens on the meditation journey. Some people really struggle to meditate and actually this struggle is a valuable grace in itself. Many others however, with some guidance, begin the journey of meditation with a sense of intoxication at the experience. Meditation offers a way to experience God firsthand, as the psalmist says, “to taste and see that the Lord is good.” The experience of love, peace, unity or bliss as dimensions of God, draws you into meditation in a regular and disciplined way. Soon however, God weans us off these experiences of God. Our meditation and prayer will seem drier than a drought ridden farm in central NSW. The earlier experiences of love are gone. This is where the rubber hits the road for if we continue a disciplined practice of meditation, the Spirit strips the ego of all that may block the full light of God’s love, we abide deeper in the vine.

 Abiding in love naturally requires pruning so that nothing but the pure fragrance of love may blossom and flower. Francis teaches us to embrace the necessary pruning that allows authentic love, devoid of all ego, to prosper.

Franciscan Joy
“During a winter journey with St. Francis, Brother Leo reflected on the wonderful work the Franciscans were doing and boasted: Is this not perfect joy?

 St. Francis responded: “Brother, if you were to please God by giving the world a great example of holiness and teaching. If you were to perform miracles, chase away demons, heal ills, and raise the dead, this would not be perfect joy.”

 And “Brother, if you knew all languages, were versed in all science, could
explain all Scripture, had the gift of prophecy and could read hearts, you
would not have perfect joy.”

Now after some silence, Brother Leo questioned the saint, he said,
“O.K. Francesco, what is perfect joy?”

Francis answered: “If, when we arrive at our destination, cold and wet, covered with mud and hungry; if, we knock and the porter is rude, asks us who we are even after we have told him, does not believe our story; If he refuses to open the door, leaves us in the cold and hungry, beats us and drives us away repeatedly, and, if we can accept such cruelty, trusting that it is God who causes the porter to speak and behave so, if we can shake the dust from our feet with patience and charity, note, O Brother, that we have found perfect joy.

Above all the graces and all the gifts of the Holy Spirit which Christ grants to his friends is the grace to overcome oneself; to accept willingly out of love, all trial, injury, discomfort and contempt. These and these alone, are gifts to celebrate. In most else, given that such things come from God and not from ourselves, we have no right to boast.”

The Christ Project

 As branches resting in the Vine, we are the Christ project – we are the body of Christ. We are committed to God’s success in us. We are the secret weapon that God has placed in the world. Through the success of God in us, God has created us to be the solution to poverty, world hunger and injustice. The fact that we truly desire a world that is designed where it is easier to be good, a world where all children play and all humans are nourished into the full potential is proof of God in us. Our conviction, our faith is that the world is waiting for us. The natural consequence of love is suffering. There is a straight line from love to suffering. But the point of this suffering is that it is the Grace to overcome ourselves, that our love way prosper even more.