James 24:7

(Eighth in a series of reflections on a story from the Desert Fathers)

Again...here's the story:

"Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, 'Abba, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?' then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, 'If you will, you can become all flame.'"

"If you will, you can become all flame."

"...you can become..."

Abba Lot went to Abba Joseph with a list in mind.  He recounted the spiritual practices in which he engaged.  He sought to know what else he could do, what other practice he could add to his list.

Abba Joseph worked to disrupt the patterns of Abba Lot's way of thinking.  Rather than accept his agenda, his way of thinking about the spiritual life, Abba Joseph attempted to create a shift in Abba Lot's way of thought.

"If you will, you can become all flame."

"...you can become..."

Abba Lot requested one more thing to do.

Abba Joseph provided the one thing to become.

Joseph introduced Lot to the possible and invited him to embrace it.  To do so would require that Lot undergo a change, a transformative change, and become something other than what he was at present.

Transformative change....

Years ago, when I was studying family therapy, I was introduced to a theory of change.   Family therapists, like Desert Fathers, are into helping people undergo transformative change.  Some, who practice a form of therapy called "strategic therapy" do or say things in such a way as to create a crisis within the person they are helping not unlike the one I have been describing.

The theory I studied suggested that there are two kinds of change.  There is surface change and there is deep change. (They called it "first order change" and "second order change.")

Surface change, as the name implies, is "cosmetic", a word which, in its root, means "arrange".  They are changes that do not change anything.  They are simply arrangments and re-arrangements.

There are books on the coffee table.  Someone has been looking at them and left them scattered on the table.  You walk over and restack them.  You have created a change but only a change on the surface, only a cosmetic change.

You get up in the morning and your hair looks like the Australian outback.  You take a shower.  You comb your hair and do whatever magic you do.  You have made a change but only a surface change, a cosmetic change.

Deep changes are changes that occur beneath the surface.   Deep changes are changes that rewrite the rules, the convictions, the "heretofores", the principles.

Deep changes are "world rocking" changes.  They sometimes create confusion, bafflement, and anxiety but also excitement, a sense of anticipation, or yearning.

When we undergo deep changes we may feel destroyed or renewed.  In the throes of a deep change, the world as we know it fades into the background and we are confronted with what we might call a "new set of realities."

We may find out that we are not all we are cracked up to be.  We may find out that there is more to us than we knew.

We may find that we have been living a delusion.  We may wake up from a dream or even a nightmare.

Surface changes are transitional.  We move from this to that to the other.  We go through changes but the changes are rather predictable. We move from A to B to C to D.

Deep changes are transformative. We move from a world we knew to a world we do not know.  We move from A to 3 to Rock to...

I am reminded of the zen saying: "First the mountain is a mountain.  Then the mountain is not a mountain.  Then the mountain is a mountain."

Think of the Transfiguration.  Peter, James and John are with Jesus when he is transfigured.  Moses and Elijah appear at his side.  Then they are gone and, as the text says, "they looked up and there was no one but Jesus." (Matthew 17:1-8)

First there was Jesus and then there was not-Jesus (at least as they had known him to that point) and then there was Jesus. 

I bet they never looked at Jesus the same way again!

Abba Joseph wanted to create a deep change in Abba Lot.  He showed him his fingers "like ten lamps of flame".  He introduced him to a new possibility.  Rather than add something he could become something. 

Abba Joseph sought to re-write the underlying rules by which Abba Lot lived.  He offered him deep, transformative change.

Lot could go on adding exercise to exercise or he could become a sacramental presence.