Meditation

I KNOW there’s a nice song by that title. It’s by the famous Brazilian composer, Antonio Carlos Jobim, who captures the strains of sadness in an endearing beat irresistible to anyone who has a feeling heart. He makes melancholy sweet.

But I mean something else. In fact, this is about the serious business of reflecting more deeply on the word of God, allowing the impulses of one’s faith and piety to go winding and branching into considerations that can eventually lead to contemplation.

This kind of prayer is, I think, what we of this modern, fast-paced age need to learn well. From what we can gather, we are wired for this activity. We are not just for action. Though often frustrated, our spiritual DNA intends us to meditate and contemplate.

This gives us a sense of anchor and root, a sense of direction that can bring us where we truly belong—communion with God and with others. It provides us glimpses of the complete view of things, where the eternal becomes current and vice-versa.

Now, we seem so lost in a swelling ocean of developments that we just pretend we are enjoying life’s adventure to lull us or to quell the persistently creeping realization that we are going nowhere.

Or we immerse ourselves in musings of all kinds, romantic, literary, intellectual, etc., that can give us a good measure of joy, but still cannot satisfy our deepest longings. We know that such mental exertions are mainly fictional or functional meant for entertainment, therapy and other merely practical purposes.

In short, we try to equate the thrill and suspense of the life process as the eternal joy our heart will always long. We dare to exercise our creativity outside of the abiding creative moment of God. This error will not do, and will sooner or later be exposed.

We are meant for meditation. If not hampered by undue earthly attachments, our spiritual faculties, namely, our mind and heart, our intelligence and will, will look for their proper objects. That’s their natural appetite.

And these objects are the truth and goodness which make for authentic happiness for us. We squirm at anything that’s not true and that’s not good. We may be deceived for a while by things that appear true and good. But once the deception is uncovered, we repel them.

And this ultimate truth and goodness cannot be found in our material world. It cannot even be found in the best possibilities of our human world that can already include spiritual realities.

These spiritual realities need to be grounded by their proper author, their proper beginning and end, and this can only be God. That’s why, man is called a religious being, because even if he is not aware of it, he tends always toward God. His quest for truth and goodness will give him a sense of God.

Obviously, we have to train ourselves for this. Meditation just does not come about automatically. It has to be developed, and its requirements of attitudes and dispositions, art and skills, time and effort have to be met.

I remember the first time I attended a meditation given by a priest many years ago. I was, of course, struck by the novelty. But I also was aware of the critical thoughts that spontaneously came to my mind.

My experience with sermons during my childhood days made sure of that. I felt I was going through a survival course. I thought the priest was just acting, or was trying to impress. I always discovered defects. Yet I also could not deny that together with these negative thoughts, I discerned something good.

And that was that if I wanted to, I could make that meditation my own conversation with God. Never mind the human quality of the meditation. Things depended on whether I opt to turn that meditation into a human soliloquy or an intimate dialogue with God.

With some prodding from my spiritual director then, I chose to make it a dialogue with God, no matter how imperfect. And again with his help, I made an effort to develop a discipline of doing meditation with others or on my own.

And I must confess that the result has been wonderfully different since then. I was not just thinking about anything. I was talking with God. And the insights and realizations I made were not just my own. I was aware that regardless of their quality they were done with God…