Spirituality for Beginners

Fr. Bede's almost-daily reflections. When it comes to the spiritual life, we're all beginners. I also send these out by email. Contact me at bcamera@anselm.edu. God bless!





Wednesday, October 14, 2015

Dealing with resentments

There are times in our lives when things turn out to be disappointing, or unexpected, or undesirable or even tragic. There are people in our lives who turn out to be agents of these difficulties. There are events in our lives which demand major changes or moves or that turn things right upside down for us.

And then, sometimes, a time comes when all of a sudden things begin to make sense and where all the pieces of the puzzle fit together, and if we look at these times with eyes of faith we can see that God was the master weaver of the tapestry of our lives, fitting all the various strings and stains into sometime beautiful. If we look on one said of the tapestry all we see is disarray and confusion, but if we look at the other side, the artistry of our Creator’s providential care for us is displayed in all its splendor.

Now what, you may ask, does all of this have to do with resentment? Well, go to the first paragraph again, and see how plausible it is that we might develop resentments towards people, and places, and things, and events, and decisions that others have made which effect our lives—especially because we cannot yet see the bigger picture. Once we’ve seen the bigger picture, things begin to make sense and resentments get resolved and washed away.

The trick, I guess, is to realize at all times and under all circumstances that there is a bigger picture, that God is doing the weaving, that his sense of time is the best time of all, and that the day will come—sometimes far off into an uncertain future---when we will see how these things fit together.

Take a look at the resentments you carry around in your life. Take just one of them and try to see it as part of a bigger picture. See if it helps.


God bless you!

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