A reader struggles with “making revelation happen”

Last updated on: February 11, 2015 at 12:17 am by Mark Shea

A reader struggles with “making revelation happen” 2015-02-03T20:22:15-07:00 Mark Shea

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He writes:

I hope this email finds you. I truly enjoy reading your article in Northwest Catholic each month. However, your recent writing leaves me with an un-answered question…”How do I truly receive revelation?” This is in reference to your description of John being the recipient of revelation and you go on to write…And when that happens, he does what all who have truly received revelation do:. But here lies my question…”How do I make that happen?” My non-Catholic friends refer to this experience as “born again” and point to the Catholic church as a barrier. I’m trying to increase my time devoted to spiritual reading and prayer but this still leaves me feeling unconnected, not in a deeper relationship with God. I don’t believe my issue lies with my belief and faith but rather in how I relate to God. It’s a big ask to throw at you but what am I missing?

The counsel of Jesus Christ, the Word of God who promises that we are born again in baptism (John 3:5) is both simple and hard: Listen to his word which he gives you through his Holy Catholic Church, receive the grace to obey that word through his sacraments, and then go do it. As Jesus puts it to his apostles “He who hears you hears me, and he who rejects you rejects me, and he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.” (Luke 10:16). Jesus makes clear that revelation is not something you have to have some special private mystical experience to have. It is plain and out in full public view. True, during his earthly ministry Jesus sometime spoke in secret to his apostles and not openly. But he himself made clear to them that once his Church was established, everything would be spoken openly and in public: “Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known. Whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed upon the housetops” (Luke 12:2-3). So, as Paul says, “Do not say in your heart, “Who will ascend into heaven?” (that is, to bring Christ down) or “Who will descend into the abyss?” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach); because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:6-9).

My suggestion (written, mind you, in complete ignorance since I don’t know you) is to stop trying to make revelation happen and realize that it already has. For instance, realize that being “born again” is not an emotional experience (though it might be accompanied by emotion sometimes) but a spiritual and ontological experience. It occurs, not when you have a gush of feelings about Jesus, but when you are baptized. It was done for you as an act of gracious love by God and doesn’t need to be done by you to make something happen in your feelings. Since you are already baptized, you have already been born again the sense the Bible means it. That’s not to say that feelings of love for Jesus are bad. It’s rather to say that putting a demand on you to feel something you don’t happen to be feeling right now is unjust to you and is a function of your friends’ human tradition and not of revelation from Jesus. You have no obligation to gin yourself into a state of emotion about Jesus. Emotions come and go like weather. They are beautiful gifts when they are nice, but nothing you have to achieve to please God. What God cares about is our will to obey Jesus in the here and now through our obedient actions. The way to do that is look to the Church’s tradition which is, as I say, both simple and hard. Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself is the core of it.

So: frequent the sacraments, especially Mass, since that is where Jesus is fully present in the Eucharist and speaking to us in his word. Then find some practical way to love your neighbor, your co-workers, your family in what you do in your daily life. Ask Jesus throughout the way to guide you (it will usually be in little stuff, small acts of politeness, generosity, forgiveness, etc). It’s seldom epic. Find ways to cultivate a prayer life. Some people like the Rosary. Others do lectio divina. Others read lives of the saints to see how they did it. They idea is not so much to keep a law or a set of rules as to practice the Divine Presence (speaking of which, you might try Brother Lawrence’s book). The bottom line is this: God is not a remote goal you are struggling to reach on your own. He has *already* come to you and is already in you working with the grace of the Holy Spirit, or you would not be seeking him at all. Let that revolutionary idea really penetrate your heart and it can have a huge impact on how you strive for God.

Hope that helps!

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