[Pearls Episode 139: Answering atheism Tuesday.]
In this week’s Pearls episode we’ve been looking at how Jesus (in the Parable of the Sower) shows us one way to do our part by taking a look at where the composition of the soil of our heart might be:
– a hardened path (unwillingness to accept God’s truth)
– stony ground (lack of trust in God amidst trials and anxieties)
– choked with weeds (allurements of the world)
The point is that the enemy of our human nature is always trying to steal away the seed of God’s Word – His divine plan for our life.
Near Death Experiences (NDEs) provide an illuminating example of how we must battle to hold onto and cultivate the seeds that are planted in us.
First – NDEs are not just the stuff of bad SciFi and Hallmark movies (we don’t know if they actually show up in Hallmark movies, but doesn’t it seem like they would go together?). While many NDEs may, in fact, simply be psychological artifacts that occur when the brain is wavering on the precipice between here and eternity, there are also many that have stood up to rigorous investigation. Here’s some helpful background on NDEs from the Magis Center.
Today we focus on an NDE account by Ms. Penny Wittbrodt, that is quite popular.
Whatever else you might make of this specific event, it contains a lesson that is key to this week’s Pearls episode (and in the postscript we point out two additional valuable lessons from her NDE).
At about the 19 minute mark in her testimony, Ms. Wittbrodt makes a brief side comment about her experience – “the further out you get, the more you start to question it.”
And that’s the one that gets to the heart of this week’s episode on doing our part to increase our faith. The fallen world, our fallen nature, and satan and his minions are always working to steal the seeds that God plants in us. Think about Ms. Wittbrodt’s experience. She had a Near Death Experience that seems to have been more real to her than perhaps anything else in her life. And yet, as time goes on, she “starts to question it.”
You’ve probably had a similar experience of a time when the presence of God seemed absolutely certain to you. But then layer by layer it becomes dulled and buried under the daily events of life, until you start to question it.
This is why St. Ignatius encourages us to go back to those moments and “taste them again.” And this is why we often talk about “collecting our pearls” and going back and meditating on them.
And this is exactly what Jesus is warning – that if we’re not careful, the seeds of His Word are lost to the worries and distractions of life.
So … when was a time God seemed particularly close to you? Perhaps go back and visit with Him there, and be encouraged that the same loving God is with you now.
Blessings on your journey with Christ –
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life
Postscript: Two more spiritual lessons from Near Death Experiences.
Ms. Wittbrodt’s near death experience provides two more lessons that are axiomatic of the spiritual life:
Lesson #1 occurs around the 12 minute mark. God reviews Ms. Wittbrodt’s life with her – starting with the good. She remembers being in store and a mother ahead of her not having enough money to pay for her groceries and trying to decide what to put back – but Ms. Wittbrodt gave her the money she needed to purchase all her groceries. What God revealed to her was how that one act of kindness caused a ripple effect of grace. When God first brought her to this event, Ms. Wittbrodt was thinking, “I’ve done ‘bigger’ things – but this is what you want to focus on?” A lovely reminder that God’s measuring stick is much different than that of the world.
Lesson #2 follows directly as God then reviewed the bad, and showed Ms. Wittbrodt times when she didn’t show mercy to a troubled co-worker with the lesson that, “You have to control your thoughts – all these negative thoughts… even though you’re not saying things, the thoughts are chaining her and the world.” This has echoes of the Sermon on the Mount – that unloving thoughts can be just as damaging as actual words and actions. Looked at positively, in a related but inverted way, this affirms the power of prayer – that what we do in our Interior has great impact on the world!