Thursday, August 5, 2016
Tuesday (I’m sorry I missed
yesterday) I wrote about the 4th Step of humility in the Rule of
Saint Benedict, and about how people outside of the monastery, in the “real
world,” live the 4th step in your regular lives.
I found a passage in another
book which serves well as a segue to Tuesday’s Reflection.
Consider, if you will, this
statement by Richard Rohr:
Religion is largely populated by people
afraid of hell; spirituality begins to make sense to those who have been
through hell, that is, who have drunk deeply of life’s difficulties.
(Things Hidden: Scripture as Spirituality, p.
100. I highly recommend this book!)
Why might that be? I offer a
couple of suggestions, but it would be most profitable if you came up with some
of your own based on your own lived experience rather than on someone
else’s theories. What I offer you here comes from my own lived experience, but
might not resonate with yours. Anyway, here goes:
·
It has been during the roughest times of all
that I desparately reach out for God and for whatever help I can get.
·
During such times, as soon as I have cried out
to God, a profound calmness comes upon me, even though I might still be hurt,
grieving, confused or frightened about the future.
·
The psalms come to life in a way that they never
do before, particularly the psalms of lamentation and pain—which make up about
a third of the Psalter.
·
In our own psalm study in these reflections, I
have been pointing out verses that speak to us of the way God cares for us.
Those are verses which have given me hope in times of despair, comfort in times
of pain, patience in times of uncertainty. I am always left with a keen
awareness of just how much I am taken care of, even though the difficult
situation or circumstances has not yet been resolved, even when I can’t even
see one step ahead of me as to how I am to proceed.
How about you?
God bless you this day.
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