Dedicated to God

Welcome now to session five, and we'll dedicate this session. It will be our final session on the foundational reality on which this whole process of the Exercises is built, and that is God's love for us.

But first, I just want to mention something that is fundamental to prayer as a relationship, and that is something we've seen already in some of the passages. And that is certainly the freedom, but I'd say even more the invitation—the warm invitation when you pray to tell God what is really in your heart. I've always loved this passage in Mark, Chapter 5, of the woman with the hemorrhage.

She does want a healing. It's been many years she's been afflicted, but she hopes to do this anonymously, as a brush of a finger in a crowd. And she's able to do it. She approaches the Lord. She does brush her finger against His garments, and she immediately feels that she's healed.

And Jesus is obviously also well aware of this, and He stops and says, "Who touched Me?" The disciples make the obvious response: "The crowd is hemming You in on every side. How can You even ask, 'Who has touched You?'" But Jesus knows, and the woman knows.

And this wonderful woman—all the details are given. This is not easy for her. With fear and trembling, she takes courage. She falls on her knees at the feet of Jesus and tells Him everything, which is a beautiful thing to do in prayer.

And then she has this response from Jesus: “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. Be healed.” Daughter—which is to say, you’re more than an anonymous brush of a finger in a crowd, even a healing brush of a finger—but one of the lasting and deep and beautiful relationships holds between us, and I want you to know that.

This happens often when I meet with my own spiritual director. I'll raise whatever burden or anxiety or problem that I'm raising, and I've gotten so I know how the director is going to respond, and the director will say, "Well, have you spoken about that with the Lord?" And I get a little bit of a smile and say, "Well, no, I haven't. I kinda knew you were gonna say that." And I'm really grateful to my director because slowly, gradually, over the years, I'm learning to do that—what this woman does at the feet of Jesus—and that is really to tell Jesus, not just to make the human efforts to deal with, you know, to make wise decisions in dealing with whatever the issue may be, which of course we have to do. But above all, to tell the Lord everything, to share with the Lord what's really in my heart.

I've quoted before John Henry Newman's classic description of prayer as "heart speaks to heart." When that's happening, then our prayer is really at the deep point. The image that I sometimes have of this is a husband and wife across from each other at the breakfast table. And let's say she has a burden in her heart about which she has not spoken with her husband, and he knows something is weighing upon her, but she hasn't been able or felt able or just hasn't spoken about it. The two of them will speak, but the conversation will probably remain fairly superficial. You know, these are my plans for today. Did you get that message and so on?

When the moment comes that she feels free to tell him what's really in her heart, then the communication will change completely. And then the communication will draw them into deeper communion. So that's the invitation as we pray: as different things are touched in our heart, to bring them to the love of the Lord, who always invites us to do as this woman does—to tell Him, as we say, everything.

So our passage this time is Jeremiah 1:4–19, which is this rich biblical passage in which God reveals to the prophet and to all of us that we are known from eternity, loved from eternity, given a mission in this life from eternity. And that's why we're in the world, in this place, in this time, in these circumstances, in this vocation.

So again, just let your heart be at peace, quieted. Just be aware of the Lord, and let your gaze lift up to meet the eyes of Jesus and just see the look of love in His eyes for you.

And in this way, let Him say these words to you.

The word of the Lord came to me. Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you. Before you were born, I dedicated you. A prophet to the nations, I appointed you. The Lord answered me, Do not say, "I am too young." To whomever I send you, you shall go. Whatever I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you, oracle of the Lord.

Then the Lord extended His hand and touched my mouth, saying to me, "See, I place My words in your mouth. Today, I appoint you over nations and over kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and to demolish, to build and to plant."

The word of the Lord came to me. "What do you see, Jeremiah?" "I see a branch of the almond tree," I replied. Then the Lord said to me, "You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to carry it out."

A second time the word of the Lord came to me, "What do you see?" "I see a boiling kettle whose mouth is tipped away from the north." The Lord said to me, “And from the North, evil will pour out over all who dwell in the land.

"Look, I am summoning all the kingdoms of the North—oracle of the Lord. Each king shall come and set up his throne in the gateways of Jerusalem, against all its surrounding walls and against the cities of Judah. I will pronounce my sentence against them for all their wickedness in forsaking Me, in burning incense to other gods, and bowing down to the works of their hands. But you, prepare yourself, stand up, and tell them all that I command you.

Do not be terrified on account of them, or I will terrify you before them. For I am the one who today makes you a fortified city with strong walls that no one can pierce, a pillar of iron too strong to be brought down, a wall of bronze, again too strong to be crushed, against the whole land, against Judah's kings and princes, its priests, the people of the land. They will fight against you but not prevail over you, for I am with you to deliver you, oracle of the Lord."

As you pray with this passage, think back to the providence that brought you into this world—how your parents met, your grandparents, maybe as far back as you know, your great-grandparents. In my case, World War II brought my parents together in a way that would have never happened otherwise. And all the providence that God has brought into being over the centuries so that from eternity we would come into this world in the time in which we live, in these circumstances, and with God's call to a specific mission.

What is your call? What has God given you? For many of us, the answer will be marriage, fatherhood, motherhood, the concerns of the family, action, involvement in the world and the business world, in the marketplace, involvement perhaps in the parish in a number of ways or in other ways, involvement in the Church. All of this is the situation that God has given to us, as He gives His particular situation to the prophet Jeremiah. And God's answer-word to us is: Don't be afraid. You will be able to do it because I will be with you.

Saint John Paul II spoke over and over again of the dignity of the human person. Once you begin to see this—that each of us is, as he so often said, unique and irreplaceable, unrepeatable, unique and unrepeatable. Unique—there's no other you, and unrepeatable. There never will be another you.

And you are important in God's plan for the world, to bring human hearts to Him for eternity. And there's no one else who can do what God has called you to do. Just like when Mary says yes to the angel, there's no other Mary waiting in the wings.

And so our invitation is not to let fear stop us, and from our hearts to say yes to God's plan, to God's call, to the providential place He has provided for us in the world.

Jeremiah, like us, feels too weak. I do not know how to speak. I'm just a youth. And the Lord just answers, you know, if you look at the Scriptures, you'll see that Jesus and God in the Old Testament never argue with a person who says, I'm afraid. The answer is simply, no. Don't be afraid because I am with you. I am with you to deliver you.

Let the Lord say these words to you as you pray: I am with you to deliver you. I make you this day a fortified city, a pillar of iron, and a wall of bronze, for I am with you. Maybe focus on just imaginatively seeing each of those images and what they mean.

So as we pray in this stage of the Spiritual Exercises, setting and renewing the foundation, let the Lord speak to your heart again of the eternal love that has brought you into being, of the love that has given you a specific mission and call and a dignity in this world. Bring to Him any fears that may make you hesitate to feel that you really can live this, and hear His word in response: No, don't say that. Do not be afraid, for I am with you to deliver you.

That's the foundation every day, pretty much every day for exercise here in Denver where I live. I'll go out walking, and very often my route takes me by a block in the city where a new building is going up. I've watched them clear away the old building, level the land, and now I'm watching them dig down deep, beginning to pour the foundation. It's beautiful to see that. Once the foundation is solid, the rest of the edifice will stand and fulfill its purpose.

Pray, then, as we go through these days of the Spiritual Exercises, for a renewal of these fundamental, foundational truths that will bless us and guide us every day of our lives.