Fear Not

So, welcome to our third session as we move into the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius. And I want to look briefly at an experience of meditation, that is the reflective approach to praying with Scripture. Now, I'm aware as we do this that, whether we've used this word "meditation" or not, we've been doing this all our lives whenever we've been just thinking about the meaning of Scripture. That's really been meditation. And what Ignatius will do is just show us how to do that more richly.

So this is a man whom I'm calling Mark, and an interview with him, which he gave me permission to share. He has entered the Church a year earlier, and he is praying daily with Scripture at this point. Today, he's praying with the parable of the Good Shepherd in John 10, and he writes about what happens as he prays.

"It was a beautiful time of prayer, an intimate time. There was so much in the words." Now you can already hear meditation there. "There was so much in the words. It's so beautifully written. I wasn't reading words. It was alive, almost directly touching my heart." And whether it's meditation or contemplation, as I say, this is where prayer leads. With Saint John Henry Newman's lovely description of prayer, you have it there: heart speaks to heart. The Divine Heart, through the Scripture, speaks to the human heart.

And that's what Mark is experiencing here. "It wasn't just words. It was alive, almost directly touching my heart. I had read this text many times, but it hadn't really spoken to me. The words had just lain there on the page."

"For some reason," let's just note that, "for some reason, this time, I had a deep sense of Christ, of awe, of the Good Shepherd easing my fears and leading me." "For some reason," this is really a very nice way to describe what, in theological terms, we would speak of as grace. So God's grace touches his heart. He opens himself. He's done it other times with this passage. Faithfully, day after day, he's praying. And today, in God's loving providence, God's grace touches his heart as he reads these words about the Good Shepherd, and they come alive for him. They speak to him in a rich way, and you'll experience this from time to time in your daily life of prayer.

"This time of prayer was more meditative and not so much in the imagination." So whether Mark knows it or not, he's using Ignatian terminology here. He's aware that this is more reflective than imaginative.

And this next line is a beautiful description of what meditation is. "I let those beautiful words sort of swim in my heart back and forth. I let those beautiful words sort of swim in my heart back and forth. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Come to me, all you who labor and are heavily burdened, and I will give you rest. I am the Good Shepherd. I know my own, and my own know me. I let those beautiful words sort of swim in my heart, back and forth."

And as he does this, you can see their meaning and their power entering into the deep places within him and touching his heart. "That prayer left me spiritually happy, kind of in consolation for a day and a half. I couldn't stop thinking about those words. I used them in some teaching that I was doing." This may have been catechetical teaching in the parish. "I used them in some teaching I was doing, and I knew that it wasn't just teaching. I was teaching from the heart, from experience."

And this is what can happen in our daily lives if we are open to praying daily with God's Word. If you have ten minutes, that's fine. Fifteen, twenty, thirty, whatever is right.

But this is what God's Word can do in our lives.

So our text for our third session of prayer is Isaiah 43:1–7, which I've summarized as the invitation to fear not, to not be afraid.

So we are moving now into what Ignatius calls the Principle and Foundation. Before we go any further in this journey of prayer, the first central foundational need, the principle from which everything else flows as a consequence, is simply this—simply, it's everything—to know how deeply we are loved in God's heart. For Ignatius, we never look at our own response, our own failures, sinfulness, until first we have let our hearts be warmed by this deep truth of God's love for us.

So I'll read the passage now. And this is in the second part of the Book of Isaiah, and God, through the prophet, is speaking to His discouraged people. They've lost everything. They're exiled. They're humiliated. The future is dark. It can feel like that in our lives at times. And to this discouraged people, God says these words:

But now thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, and formed you, Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. Through rivers, you shall not be swept away. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned, nor will flames consume you.

For I, the Lord, am your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as ransom for you, Ethiopia and Seba in exchange for you, because you are precious in my eyes and honored, and I love you. I give people in return for you and nations in exchange for your life. Fear not, for I am with you. From the East, I will bring back your offspring.

From the West, I will gather you. I will say to the North, give them up. And to the South, do not hold them. Bring back my sons from afar and my daughters from the ends of the earth. All who are called by My name, I created for My glory. I formed them. I made them.

So, again, as we pray, let your heart be quieted. Maybe just a little less troubled by the anxieties and burdens that weigh, and just be aware now of the gaze of love of the Lord upon us.

Ignatius says, do this for about the length of time that it takes to say an Our Father. How long does it take to say an Our Father? I wouldn't know for sure. Thirty seconds, something like that. So this is brief, but this really is blessed in prayer. Lift up your gaze to the gaze of Jesus and see the love that is there.

And now hear His words to you. God speaking to the heart of His exiled people here in Isaiah 43, and not only to them, but to me as I pray this day. I, who am so often discouraged and disheartened. And I sense now the Lord with me. I sense Him speaking these same words to my heart.

I read them slowly. I taste them, as it were. I allow their meaning to enter into my soul. If it feels right, pause the recording, take up the Bible, and let your heart stay with whatever verse or verses in Isaiah 43 that speak to you. It's very important in this kind of prayer that there is no hurry, no agenda, no need to finish the entire passage—let your heart rest wherever you feel the Lord speaking.

Thus says the Lord, He who created you, He who formed you. And like the people of Israel, as I read these words, I again become aware of God at the origin of my being, of my belonging to His people. And I glimpse, I sense the mystery of an eternal love that surrounds my whole being from my beginning, every moment of my life.

And I hear the Lord say to me these words: Fear not. These words, so often repeated by Jesus—do not be afraid—because we are so often afraid.

And now in my prayer, perhaps I speak to the Lord of my own fears and my own fears with regard to myself, my sense of inadequacy, the way I just keep failing. I'm so slow to respond to You, Lord. And over and over, I hear Him say to me, "Fear not, for I have redeemed you." That is, I am your protector. I am at your side. I'm with you. You're not alone. My power and my love accompany you.

I hear the Lord say these words to me, and then these beautiful words: I have called you by name, which is to say I know you deeply, individually. I have called you by name. You are mine.

And I think now, perhaps, of my own name. And as I pray, I hear the Lord pronounce my name. Hear Him say your name.

And as He does so, He gives you your identity. He gives you life. He makes you His own. He tells you that you are not alone. In the silent depth of my heart, I hear the Lord pronounce my name again and again and again, and my heart responds.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned. These are the symbols of the most dangerous situations in nature, situations which threaten even life itself. And these and all they represent will be powerless to harm you because I will be with you. Whatever difficulties I call you to pass through, you are not alone, and I will sustain you.

And a new sense of trust begins to dawn in my heart. And finally, these lovely words: because you are precious in my eyes and honored, and I love you.

Three phrases: you are precious in my eyes and honored, and I love you. With deep attention, ponder each of these three—precious, honored, loved. And if I may say this reverently, dare to hear the Lord say these words not only to His people Israel, but to you today, always. And let your heart respond to the Lord who speaks His love to you.

And with Ignatius now, as your prayer concludes, let your heart ponder these questions: What word in the Scripture most spoke to me? And what touched my heart in this time of prayer? What did my heart feel as I prayed? What did I sense the Lord saying to me as I prayed this day with this passage?

This is another Scripture that I choose because, like so many others, I love it deeply. It is simply—and this is said to a people deeply discouraged and so conscious of their limitations and failures—it is simply God saying to His people, "Don't be afraid because I love you. You are precious in My sight. You're honored. I love you, and I will see you safely through the struggles."

May that sense of hope, of being loved, bless this day. Amen.