God Slot: Meditation – a way of meeting God

By Father Declan Boland

We hear a great deal about meditation these days and I have written about it from time to time.

Today I share with you a simple method using the power of the imagination as a basis of deepening our relationship with God. It is important to remember why we meditate. It is not to promote well-being, make us more efficient, experience altered states of consciousness, help us to de-stress or whatever. The primary reason we as Christians meditate is to deepen our relationship with God. If it is accompanied by some of the things just mentioned, well and good, but these will always be secondary.

However the appetite for instant fulfilment will not be gratified. Shopping around for a ‘crash-course’ that will produce enlightenment in seven extraordinary days, or something of that sort, will not nurture a genuine contemplative spirit. The best way to practice meditation is every day, at least once, better twice. There are many methods of meditation and prayer and many of you no doubt are familiar with a number of these. I would like to offer one that seems to me to combine the good features of several methods. Anyone can easily begin and it can go on to whatever heights divine grace opens to it.

You begin with a gospel scene in which Jesus interacts with someone. For instance, take the story of Bartimaeus, beginning at Mark 10-46.

And they came to Jericho, and as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great multitude, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have pity on me!” And many scolded him, telling him to keep quiet, but he cried out all the louder, “Sonof David, have pity on me. “Jesus stopped and said, “call him here.” So they called the blind man . “Courage,” they said “get up; he is calling you.” So throwing off his cloak he jumped up and went to Jesus. Then Jesus spoke, “What do you want me to do for you?” “Rabbuni,” the blind man said to him, “ Master let me see again.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your faith has saved you.” And immediately his sight returned and he followed him along the road.

Now the first thing is to imagine the scene vividly so that the reality of the event is appreciated. Play it out in your imagination as if you were watching a film. Then go through the whole scene again, this timed entering the role of Bartimaeus. Take time to do this very slowly helping you to realise that you are spiritually blind and want to see. How long have you been blind, how much have you missed, how eager you are to see. You have heard of Jesus and the wonderful things he can do for you. So in your need and poverty you cry out, “Jesus have pity on me.” There are many distractions and disappointments but you do not give up.

And then a marvellous thing happens. Jesus sends for you. Dropping your cloak you run to him. Everything is in sharp focus now. Feel the full force of Jesus’s attention on you. When he gives you his attention, the full power of his personal being is turned on you. “What do you want me to do for you?” he asks. There is the central question; the whole meaning of your life is boiled down to one question. Are you ready to answer it? We understand more and more fully that he really is asking it, with the implication that he will do what we ask and we reach into the depth of our being for the answer.

The imagination holds steadily on the realisation of Jesus’s personal being turned towards us and we ourselves are responding with our whole mind that has no other thought than what we are answering to him. Our attention, his and our own, are locked together, each pouring itself fully and strongly into each other. We may want to stay with this scene for a while in silence, just being there and maybe after a while we will use some verbal prayers of praise, gratitude, thanksgiving or intercession, to end the exercise.

I think this kind of prayer is very good because one has less trouble with distractions and it actually brings one right into the presence of God and into a personal relation and interaction. We call this discursive meditation and you can use many scenes in the gospel where Jesus interacts with people to practice this. Meditation is a way of meeting God. Experiencing the presence and reality of God is what it is all about.