IMAGO DEI
Meditations for Spiritual Direction
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Luke 1:41
It happens at various points in our spiritual life that seeds are planted within us in the form of a profound experience of God. It might be an experience of being particularly loved by God, or perhaps a deep sense of peace that settles the soul. Or maybe it is a joy, somehow related to eternity, that fills our heart with new longings. Such epiphanies have the power to reset our lives. They change the course of our spiritual direction from one of searching for “I know not what,” to a more deliberate quest to return to that which “I have once tasted of God.”
Such seems to have been the case with John the Baptist. While still in his mother Elizabeth’s womb, John experienced a profound recognition of Christ which thereafter set the course of his adult life. In response to the sound of Mary’s greeting, Elizabeth exclaimed that the baby within her leapt for joy. This encounter precipitated an experience, for both mother and unborn child, of being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Sensing the presence of Jesus in Mary’s womb, a Divine seed was planted in John’s fetal heart. Such a pre-natal memory likely determined the course of his future life and ministry. His destiny was now to search for the Messiah he had once met while still in his mother’s womb. It was given to this greatest of prophets the task of identifying, in the flesh, that which he had already known in his spirit
We have no records of Jesus and John the Baptist having any contact with each other in their upbringing. Though distantly related, John did not know Jesus by sight when he first met his Lord at the Jordan river. But though he did not know the face of the Messiah he was seeking, John was confident that he would somehow recognize Christ when he saw Him. His own heart would once again leap for joy, as it did over thirty years ago, in the Presence of his Lord.
As God graces our own lives with spiritual experiences, we too naturally seek to return to such places of encounter. Having tasted something of the Lord’s presence we now know that real encounter with God is possible. Such experiences, though fleeting, serve to authenticate what we otherwise can only hope is possible in the spiritual life. As a foretaste of the relationship that our hearts are meant to enjoy forever, they intensify our desires for God through the tangible memories they produce in us. No longer is our spiritual hope a matter of wishful thinking. We have tasted something of God and it has conceived in us a yearning to return to the Source of what remains so delectable in the soul’s memory. Advent, then, is both a longing for that which lies ahead of us as well as a desire to deepen what has already been revealed to us.
John the Baptist spent the rest of his life searching for the familiar knowledge of Christ that he once experienced in the womb. Perhaps the Lord has planted similar memories in our souls as well. As we grow in our knowledge of Christ, it is no wonder that this is often experienced as something already familiar—as though God had hidden an experience of Himself deep in our soul’s memory, knowing that, sooner or later, we would recognize it when we meet Him again.
You breathed fragrance, and I drew in my breath, and I now pant for you; I tasted and now I hunger and thirst; you touched me and now I burn for Your peace.
Rob Des Cotes
Imago Dei Christian Communities
FOR GROUP DISCUSSION:
1. Is there a spiritual experience (or more than one) in your life that has changed your quest from a searching for “I know not what” to a more intentional desire to return to that which “I have once tasted of God?”
2. How have you experienced (or how do you anticipate) your heart leaping for joy in recognition of the real presence of God?
3. Having tasted something of the Lord’s presence how has this intensified your desire for God? In what ways have you responded to this desire?
FOR PRAYER: Consider John the Baptist’s confidence that he would recognize, in his spirit, the Messiah when he encountered Him. Come to your prayer with a similar confidence that you too will recognize the familiarity of what you seek when you find Him.
Imago Dei Christian Community www.imagodeicommunity.ca To receive these weekly meditations by e-mail contact imago@shaw.ca.
Augustine, Confessions
Imago Dei Christian Community – Winnipeg
A Community Drawn To Christ