Doormats, the Devil, and Discernment

A friend has e-mailed some views regarding doormats. They bear thought and response. He points out that doormats are functional; they are used for people to wipe their feet on so as to not drag mud into dwellings. I suppose they effectually replace the foot-washing of Jesus' time. So doormats provide humble service.

My friend disagrees with my declaring that Jesus was not a doormat. Yet later, after I further explained, I think he could see that maybe Jesus was not a doormat in the way I meant. I need to further clarify what I mean. Then I want to share how peace came the other night.

My friend allows me to quote his reasoning. He responds, "I see my Jesus as a doormat when the Father in His gracious love for us asked His only Son to assume human flesh--the Incarnation. Jesus told His Father that He would be that doormat. Jesus in His love for the Father came among us hidden for about 30 years...." My friend also points out that He thinks Jesus was "a doormat in His public life through His trying to help any and all He comes in contact with. He is always trying to lift them up and in almost every case He is stomped down. He plays the doormat so they might find the higher Life. Everywhere my dear Jesus goes, He is rebuked, put down, stabbed in the back, betrayed. Yes, my Jesus is a doormat."

He goes on to eloquently express how Jesus is a doormat especially during the Passion. This is where we weave together in doormat agreement. Then my friend points out that in the Resurrection, all doormats disappear. This is surely meant when we each die and rise in the last day.

Last night the priest next door responded to the question: Was Jesus a doormat? He immediately said, :"Yes." Then he qualified his answer when it became necessary to discuss the definition of a doormat. The priest felt this definition to be critical to the discussion, as Jesus at one time or another was able to be all things. His mission was that of a doormat in laying down His life for our salvation; His will was always aligned with the will of the Father; thus He allowed Himself to be mistreated only when it was the Father's will that this be the case. So, the priest pointed out that suffering has three components as to source: sent by God, allowed by God, and provoked by the devil. In the case of the latter, one should not submit or be a doormat.

I like my friend's analysis of the doormat function. He writes, "Doormats are very durable, even sometimes indestructible. They are strongly made, withstand all sorts of weather and can withstand the pressure when people are trampling on them and wiping their feet on them. Doormats very seldom leave their spots. They are not wimpy but stalwart. Doormats are made to be heavy-duty and resilient."

He concludes, "Was Jesus a doormat? I say, 'Yes.;' I also would like to follow in my Doormat's path. Use me, O Lord, as your humble doormat. Place me where I need to be rather than where I think I should be. Let me be a doormat here so that I will reign with You in glory."

The priest pointed out that "Doormats, the Devil, and Discernment" are in 3-D. We laughed. Does this mean I should podcast this discussion with video component? During this past night, the peace I'd had for a couple of days took a slight dip. It is obvious that discerning God's will makes all the difference in whether or not one should be a doormat in a given situation. Is the ordeal allowed or ordained by God, or is the ordeal coming from the devil? That is the question. The answer determines whether one should lay down his or her life to that situation, at the ordained time, or shake the dirt clods from the doormat and move on, or be plopped down on another stoop.

You can gather that I have been subjected to a time of confusion and tumult in Arsdale. Being around Arsdale has been an up-and-down prospect. I was brought there for a purpose, a mission, and that mission may be at its conclusion. My task was to suffer for someone, and that suffering seems to have brought about a major re-conversion--beyond my wildest hopes and dreams! However, now my remaining there is in question: I question remaining. Why? Because I once more experience the sensation of being buried alive. So in the past two blogs, if I've seemed upset, distressed, or like a human scratching madly at the inside of a closed coffin lid, this is the reason.

The whole matter of being a doormat or not, and if Jesus was a doormat or not, stems from within this realm of death while still being alive. Or, maybe it heralds a resurrection coming.

A question remains: Is a victim soul to endure suffering if it is provoked by the devil, and how would one know?

Suffering which comes from God, which is allowed by God, rather, contains a kind of peace. This may seem odd, but it is true. There is a knowing that the suffering cannot be avoided, and the best way to respond to this kind of suffering is to offer it to God in patience, peace--in all the other gifts of the Holy Spirit.

There is a different kind of suffering though, which seems to be provoked solely by the devil. The effects of this suffering are confusion and tumult. It is as if persons have gone out into the deepest muck and mire, dung and defecation, and gobbed their boots full of the stuff, then gone to the doormat and stomped and swiped and scraped with full vent and fury. Maybe they don't even bother going inside but instead go back out into the cess-field to load up again.

Yes, evil, nasty people tried to wipe their feet on Jesus, but He did not always take the mud. Not for a long while. My friend points out that Jesus was a doormat to His parents' requiring His return to Nazareth, to grow in wisdom and stature and obedience. Here I know that my term of doormat took on our current cultural idea of negativity, and my friend most likely means Jesus was "submissive" to His parents. So, we are in agreement with using different terms. Jesus was submissive, and submission is very much a good in Christian life. Yet again, we must be submissive when the submission is ordained by God and not the devil. Jesus submitted to His parents who loved and respected Him; He did not submit to the crowds in Nazareth when, as an adult, He had returned to teach, and they threatened to throw Him over a cliff. He did not submit, He did not allow them to commit mortal sin: He "walked through their midst." In fact, He never returned to Nazareth.

When Herod wanted to kill all boys under age two, Joseph escaped with Mary and little Jesus. They did not lay down their lives under Herod's evil stomping. It was not God's will to do so, not at that time.

As an adult, Jesus did not submit nor allow others to mistreat Him on other occasions, nor did He allow them to insult or abuse that which represents the Father. He overturned tables in the temple, He called rude and disrespectful synagogue leaders "hypocrites" and "broods of vipers". When He got wind that people were trying to arrest Him or kill Him, He went to outlying villages or on to the next town or area. Only when He knew His time was ripe did He set His sights on Jerusalem and head there; but even then He spent time in Bethany, avoiding those who desired Him harm. When He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, He still pleaded with the Father to let the cup pass from Him. But, the time was ordained and come: Jesus then submitted and allowed Himself to be the doormat for the dirty soles of the world's scum to be scraped upon His Sacred Body and to pierce His Sacred Heart.

This was Jesus' ultimate mission, and He agreed when the time had come. Amazingly, His sacrifice crushed Satan and saved souls. Today the battle continues because sin continues. The devil doesn't really believe that we are saved and the battle is over. Evidently we humans don't believe it, either, or we would not be so nasty and sinful. It all takes more faith and the power of virtues over vices.

In my situation, recently, tumult and confusion and upset clouded life. The other night, in talking over the ups-and-downs and the possibilities with someone, I pointed out that when we suffer in a "normal" sense, if we follow Jesus' example, we do whatever we can to avoid the suffering--especially if it means saving others from committing sin against us, or because of us. If we have a cold, we take medication and not let it go into pneumonia. If a man might be tempted to rape a woman, she avoids the bar or the dark alley. If someone is going to be rude or unkind, if at all possible, we avoid that person. But if the offense happens beyond our efforts or control, unexpectedly, then we offer ourselves and the suffering involved.

Often, in these cases, Jesus, Mary, the saints or angels, give forewarning in some way, and consolation follows. Strength is given to the victim to have good triumph over the evil. When the suffering is not avoidable, the fruit of the Holy Spirit prevail, sooner or later, to the victim soul or the Christian who sees the transformation of his life into that of Christ on the Cross.

When the devil is involved (which is often the case in some suffering brought by evil people or even ignorant people whom the devil uses), one must discern the effects. Is there tumult and confusion--a lack of peace?

So it has been with me over the past couple of weeks. The other night I told the person who was listening to me, that Jesus or His designes would have to appear to me and tell me directly if I was to continue in this suffering situation--if it was to be for His glory to do so. There certainly had not been any peace, joy, love, kindness, gentleness, and so forth.

That night peace arrived. I was shown myself to be in a white flannel nightgown, and curled up like a kitten with a white blanket, on the left side of a beautiful Tabernacle in a chapel. The carpet beneath was deep blood-colored; I did not recognize the chapel, but I did recognize Who came to awaken me. Rather than being startled or embarrassed at having been found sleeping there, in a nightgown, I experienced immense love, joy, peace, gentleness, and kindness in the waking. Rather than being startled and jerking upright, I stretched--at ease--and gradually got my bearing, and was filled with peace ever since.

I also have not returned to the environment where the confusion stirred into the scene of my soul. Jesus did not tell me or show me that I am to continue there in suffering. He showed me a place of respite--about as close to His Real Presence on earth as one can get, other than reception of His Body and Blood in Eucharist. Thus, I have been frequenting the chapel near my house daily, as well as knowing He is near my little nest wherever I am, day or night. I await what is next. I pray it is not to return to the source of upset; however, I suppose my friend and the priest have altered my thinking about doormats. If it is God's will that I return to the place where I do not fit in, then I must do so. It takes discernment of spirits.

St. Ignatius writes in his "Spiritual Exercises," some rules on discernment of spirits. He describes states of consolation versus desolation, and how to respond and react in each condition of the soul. Consolation is marked by the soul's lifting up to God. This includes "all that increases faith, hope, and charity; all that fills the soul with holy joy, makes it more attached to meditation on heavenly things, and more careful of salvation; all that leads it to find repose and peace in the Lord--all this is true and spiritual consolation."

"On the contrary, all that darkens the soul, that troubles it, that inclines it to inferior and terrestrial objects, that disquiets and agitates it, that leads it to despair of salvation, that weakens hope and banishes charity, that renders the soul sad, tepid, languid, distrustful even of the clemency of its Creator and its Redeemer--this is what may be called spiritual desolation."

St. Ignatius goes on to warn that during times of desolation, do not make any resolutions or changes in what had been a decision or state of life determined during times of consolation. Persevere in what had been decided during the days of consolation. The antidote to desolation, he suggests, is more prayer, penance, holy thoughts, patience, calm will, and perseverance in faith, hope and charity.

Why does God give or allow desolation? Three reasons are suggested: 1) We have neglected our spiritual life and exercises; 2) God is trying us to see what we are and how we are serving Him; and 3) God is giving us a lesson, perhaps in humility, to show us that we are helpless without His grace. Desolations leave when God desires, but the devil is perturbed and loses courage in his attack when the Christian goes forth steadily, with firm resolve, heart strong, and repulsing every attack without flinching.

There are further rules for discernment of spirits. One must examine the conscience carefully, as the good angels can be imitated by the bad. Anything that leads us away from good is of the bad. This seems simple, but in times of discernment, the knowing does take analysis. Look to see what has fatigued the soul, cast it into anguish and trouble, made it lose its peace, the repose, the serenity it had enjoyed. Then go back over the steps which led to this sad state of affairs, and unravel the maneovers of the evil one. This helps avoid similar attacks in future.

Both the good spirits and the bad try to insinuate themselves into the soul which is striving for the highway to salvation. The bad is not welcome but can be seen as opposed to the good. "The good angel comes with sweetness, peace, suavity, like a drop of water falling on a sponge; the bad angel rushed in rudely, violently, noisily, like rain in a storm beating on a rock."
However, St. Ignatius points out that the bad spirits figure out which approach to take: if a soul is peaceful, it tries to mimic peace to gain entrance; if the soul is in unrest, it comes in with disquiet. The devil tries to mirror and sneak into the soul with whatever means, like a shadow behind an image. We must remember that the devil causes a blur.

St. Ignatius wisely warns that even when the soul is visited by an angel of God, the peace that follows must be allowed to settle, and any idea or innovation which pops into the mind following this visit of good, must also be discerned to make sure it has come from God and not conceived thoughts which could possibly not have come from God. We can look to Jesus, especially in His Passion, to see how to discern and respond to the will of God, when it is ordained time to be a holy doormat.

Jesus had a peace about Himself when He silently submitted to His death sentence, to His scourging, the humiliations, carrying the cross, and the crucifixion. Those standing at the foot of the cross were silent and strong, although grieving deeply. It was the throngs of demons and the ignorant who the demons used who made the tumult. Jesus did cry out when He felt abandoned, and He sighed later, "It is finished." His mission on earth was complete.

These discernments must be made in times of suffering. Who is behind the suffering? What are the effects within the soul? Has all been attempted to avoid evil aspects of the suffering? When is the mission completed? Has there been an experience of abandonment but also that of peaceful acquiescence?

Perhaps this helps decipher, in word 3-D, doormats, the devil and discernment.