Almost everyone is familiar with the knights of antiquity. These were persons who were taught from a very early age the skills required for individual combat and the art of the war. Selected young men were taught to use a sword, to thrust and to parry. The youths learned to ride a grand horse while protecting themselves with a shield and wielding a long lance. Developing knights practiced for the style of warfare of the times by fighting in jousts at magnificent fairs. They wore gleaming suits of polished armor to protect their bodies and a metal helm to guard their head. These men were the knights of legend, the sort of heroes that are remembered as part of the round table of King Arthur. That was only a part of the story for some of these warriors. The path to full knighthood was viewed by many as the vehicle through which a man grew greater in character and honor by the completion of one or more quests. These very quests themselves also in time became things of legend. The ultimate challenge was the quest for the Holy Grail. However, that quest may have had much more to it than many modern people might imagine. A view of the Grail Quest can be argued over like a work of art. Is it to be taken as it appears or is there another, symbolic meaning to be ascertained? The Grail is traditionally viewed as the chalice or cup that Jesus used at The Last Supper. Into this cup was poured the wine that through the words and actions of Jesus became His blood. Taken literally, the quest for the Grail was the search for the actual chalice that had been used by Jesus on Holy Thursday. The best of the tales trace the voyage of the Grail as being brought to England by St. Joseph of Arimathea. Britain then gets the nod as the place for someone to actively look for the physical cup. However, some of the knights were constantly trying to reach a higher level of perfection. It is likely that for some men this included perfection in their spiritual makeup as well as their physical being. It is very likely that the true Grail Quest was for these knights the active pursuit of the pathway leading to the attainment of spiritual perfection. The ultimate quest was the pursuit of a secret passage to the eternal. I will not enter into the argument over whether this was generally valid or indeed, if it was true at all. The number of orders of knights that were formed solely for the care and/or protection of others, or of a particular religious site, I believe to be convincing enough that self-perfection was a part of the goal. In that case the person was not attempting to locate a physical chalice but was actually trying to follow a way whereby they could empty themselves. The aim was to become a receptacle prepared to be filled by the blood of Christ. Or, in the words of my frequent prayer, that I may “empty myself of me so that I might be more filled with Thee.” This aspiration, then, is another part of the secret passage. How much an individual succeeds in this quest is partially outside of the control of the person. Indeed, it is probably beyond human consideration to even be called to this challenge. As in the era of the jousts, a particular knight would be identified by another as being the object of a certain contest. In a similar way, I feel that some of us are selected to take part in a sort of spiritual journey. It is not something easily done, and at times may require a willingness to suffer for the benefit of others. We can be called upon to willingly unite ourselves with a suffering Messiah and to join our pain to His. As the late Pope John Paul II explained it, we thereby make up for what is lacking in the sufferings of Christ. By no means does this infer that Jesus needs our assistance to save humanity and open the gates of heaven and eternity to us. The reality is perhaps akin to a consideration of individuals who have borne the stigmata. These people bear the wounds of Jesus on their bodies and share in the pain of the Savior. I don’t know if anyone ever considered the question of whether or not they were worthy. I have never read anything written by a stigmatic that indicated that they believed themselves fit to bear Christ’s wounds. All of us are suffering or will suffer to some degree. It is part of the human condition that we inherited from our first parents, Adam and Eve. Through their disobedience, sin and suffering came into the world. Death has been overcome through the suffering, death and Resurrection of Jesus. Nothing more is needed but our acceptance of His mercy and salvation. In His kindness He allows some of us to share in this by uniting our pain to His. It is no different than how He held some individuals like the family from Bethany or Mary Magdalene in special rapport with Him during His public ministry. Not all of the disciples took part in the same closeness with the Messiah as the family from Bethany, St. John the Apostle, the Beloved Disciple, St. Mary Magdalene and certain others. Jesus determined who would be cast in this fashion; for His own purposes and by His own decision. It is not a subject fit for our judgment any more than He tolerated the disagreement of the other disciples about the matter. It was by no means a clique. These people did not all gather separately from the others. In fact there is no instance when they are all represented as being together.
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