This is the second day of my
community’s annual retreat. What I offer here comes from the conference(s) we
have been listening to.
The Desire for God
As you read this, you need to remember that these addresses are being
given to a monastic community.
Ideally, the desire for God is
the most meaningful aspect of our lives. We normally live in a state of
incompleteness where we are dissatisfied at the root of our being. “Is this all
there is?” is a question we are likely to ask. We become dissatisfies with
where we are in life and desire something more. But this desire is very vague
and undefined. If we set our goal on some achievement or some possession, once
we attain it, once again we ask ourselves “Is this all there is?”
And so we consider until we get
to the point where we realize that the goal of our true desire is God Himself,
although vague, barely glimpsed and unknown. Nonetheless, once we have decided
that the Desire for God is the greatest gift (=grace) we are given, then we
have to order our lives accordingly.
To find God, to make progress
towards God, we always have to adopt a spirit of renunciation. We must
reduce our relationship with what belongs to time and space. We have to let go
of things so that we can advance towards our goal. All you have to do is study
the lives of the saints to see what is meant. Basically, in order to find God,
(or again make progress towards God---I prefer this formulation of the problem),
we have to let go, or separate ourselves, from what is not-God.
You can experiment with this
yourself. Once you let go of something that you sense is getting in your way, a
change takes place. Let me give you an example: consider the pursuit of mindless
entertainments, which has become such a great thing since the arrival of the
Internet. And yet if we can separate ourselves from that, what results is an
increase in spiritual sensitivity. We appreciate things more, things that
before we were hardly aware even existed.
It is also true that once we
have decided that our ultimate goal is God Himself, that ultimate desire will
begin to have an influence on the choices that we make.
I hope I haven’t lost you.
God bless you and enliven your
faith so that may seek Him at all times and in all circumstances.
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