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Carmelites OCD OCDS |
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Praised be Jesus Christ! Now and forever! |
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Simon Stock receiving the Scapular from Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
This site is under Her protection |
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Prophetic Era |
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Carmel is Prophetic
This is in fact the real meaning of 'prophetic'. In the truest sense, Carmel is prophetic because it stands for the super-eminence of the life of intimacy with God and in this sense we can consider St. Elijah our patron and model." (Otilio Rodriguez OCD, A History of the Teresian Carmel).
Before his encounter with God, Elijah had to first experience fully the depths of his weakness and helplessness as part of the purification process. It is one thing to admit our weakness with our intellect; it is another thing entirely to experience it. Elijah was a man like ourselves and became ready to give up. Hiding in fear he cried to God, "Yahweh, I have had enough. Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors." (1Kg. 19:4)
Our weakness draws God to us just as a helpless infant draws the attention of all of the adults around him. The parent runs to the child most in need. When we are aware of our nothingness and emptiness, we are ready to admit our need of God and to be filled by Him. Elijah waited for God in silence and solitude. :He went into the cave and spent the night in it....And after the fire came the sound of a gentle breeze. And when Elijah heard this, he covered his face with his cloak." (1Kg. 19:9-12)
The Spirit of Carmel moves down through the Old testament into the New testament, in the person of John the Baptist. In the last book of the Old testament, Malachi, it is written: "Know that I am going to send you Elijah the Prophet before My day comes."
When questioned about this by His disciples, Jesus answered: "True, Elijah is to come to see that everything is once more as it should be; however, I tell you that Elijah has come already {the Spirit of Carmel] and they did not recognize him. The disciples understood then that He had been speaking of John the Baptist." (Mt. 17:12)
"With the spirit and power of Elijah, he [John the Baptist] will go before Him to turn the hearts of fathers toward their children and the disobedient back to the wisdom that the virtuous have, preparing for the Lord a people fit for Him." (Lk. 1:17)
John the Baptist lived the Spirit of Carmel in the desert as a hermit. Through his asceticism and prayer, in silence and solitude, he was gradually prepared for his encounter with Christ. It was his spiritual preparation that enabled John to recognize Christ, for God comes to us in ordinary ways. "John was a lamp alight and shining." (Jn 5:35) Through John's light we are able to see God approaching in human form, when the rest of the crowd saw only a man like themselves.
"He will baptize you with the Holy Sprit, and with fire." (Mt. 3:12) As the Spirit of Carmel had to come before Christ in the person of John the Baptist, it comes to each soul to help prepare the way interiorly for His coming. By increasing our spiritual awareness, it helps us to recognize Him in ourselves, other, and the ordinary events of our lives. The behavior of the people described in the Gospels is repeated through the centuries. Human beings are still the same.
At different stages in our lives we see ourselves as sinners like Damas or Mary Magdalen, doubters like Thomas, denying Christ as Peter did, and fearful and weak like the Apostles. But we are also the strengthened Apostles, the repentant sinners like Mary, as we sit at the Master's feet gazing in living contemplation. We agonize with Jesus in the garden, fall many times beneath our burdens, and die to ourselves, to be united with Him in love.
Through this transforming union we are brought to fullness of life and our divine potential - the joy and power of the Resurrection. As fire transforms into itself everything that it touches, we become living flames of love.
After this interior preparation, John received the grace of spiritual marriage. "The bride [the soul] is only for the Bridegroom [Christ] and yet the Bridegroom's friend, [John] who stands there and listens, is glad when he hears the Bridegroom's voice. This same joy I feel, and now it is complete." (Jn. 3:29) My Beloved is mine and I am His." Sg. 2:16)
From "Welcome to Carmel" Hubertus, WI 53033 |
