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5) God's
inspiration doesn't exempt us from the need to study, consult and
decide. The Spirit doesn't take away from us the
possibility of erring nor the need to learn through trial and
error. When confronted with the responsibilities of family life,
of our own personal problems or the challenges of our profession
it is important to remember that being guided and supported by God
doesn't exempt us from the need to study, work and take decisions.
It is a dangerous misunderstanding to think that when we
"consecrate" ourselves to God we can delegate responsibilities
that are ours.
The product of such a
misunderstanding is belief in MAGIC. Magic is to perform actions,
often holy ones, expecting to win God's protection, independently
of our cooperation. We might even believe that certain religious
practices or persons will be more effective and reliable. Any
human control over God's intervention in our lives becomes magic.
Even to expect God's intervention in our lives, independently of
our cooperation easily degenerates into magic. These are not God's
ways. God works through us, fostering our sense of responsibility,
not taking it away from us.
Another dangerous
misunderstanding is to think that EMOTIONAL PIETY is all the
cooperation God expects from us when faced with problems and
challenges. Family tensions, the education of the children, our
own development, building community or world peace... are very
complex realities and demand from us complex responses. God wants
us to develop wisdom and maturity in dealing with these problems.
God's plans for me may include failures too. Learning from
failures is a source of wisdom. Ignatius, according to
Revadeneira, knew how to balance trust in God and a sense of
responsibility: "In all the projects he undertook at the service
of Our Lord, Ignatius employed, with great care and efficiency,
all the means to succeed honestly that were possible as if the
outcome would depend on them. And at the same time, putting his
trust in God, he abandoned himself to His Divine Majesty as if the
human means he had put to use were utterly irrelevant".
6) God talks to us
through the experiences of life. Experience is an event that
touches us deeply. In prayer we are interested in the experiences
that touch us in the core of the heart. Because that is where God
wants to come and visit us. Very often we do not dare face our own
intimacy and we ignore our deepest feelings. We do not know how to
ask and look for the real answer we need. Behind a busy apostolic
life we may try to hide a painful loneliness.
Loneliness is the pain
of the heart needing acceptance, meaning, hope and love. Only God
can come and touch the substance of the heart. Only God can come
and visit with us in our loneliness, and change it into solitude.
We have to find God's
presence in the beauty and goodness that surrounds us. It is more
difficult to find God in painful experiences, especially when evil
and sinfulness are involved. They too are a meeting place with
God. We have to allow God to visit us in our wounds, in our
weaknesses and failures.
All experiences have
an influence on the way we grow, the kind of person we become. But
before we find out what God wants to tell or ask from us, an
experience is blind, so the blind lead the blind. Only God has
plans of grace and glory for each one of us. God, our Creator and
Redeemer, has willed in his goodness to walk along with us and
talk to us through these experiences. Then the experiences become
meaningful, and blind no longer.
Experiences are
questions raised by life. The deep meaning of every experience is
the radical question it raises: "For whom do I live?", "Whom do I
love?". Thus the experiences of life, both good and bad, bring out
the hidden truth of our Faith, Hope and Love. Our effort in prayer
is to bring all the dimensions of our being, our bodies, minds and
spirits, under the influence of the Spirit of Christ.
As we have said, the
life of our spirit follows a process in which we can discover a
starting point, a development and an outcome. When we inspire our
lives and professional work by idolising people, by greed for
money or desire for success we develop who we are and what we do
in a given direction, and very soon we taste the bitter taste of
God's absence from our lives. Many families discover with sudden
fright the spiritual emptiness in their children only when they
are young adults. But the seeds of unbelief had been sown in their
hearts very long before. The lack of self-denial in the dawn of
love relations becomes lack of intimacy and communication in the
noontide of family life. There are countless examples.
We can start on a
journey in God's company, guided by His Spirit. God wishes to walk
along with us as our friend and guide. God will suggest ways and
paths as invitations. God's invitations often look like subtle
hints. They are always invitations to love, to live, to serve. He
brings out the best in us. These hints come to us in moments of
success or disappointment, of strength or weakness, of love or
loneliness, of our friends' loveliness or misery. The Spirit goes
by at that very moment and addresses an invitation to us, soft but
real, like a dream. If we welcome the movement in the depth of our
hearts we will begin a new love story with Him and life.
With God as our guide
no experience is blind, pushing us into darkness. If we open our
hearts to the lights and motions of the Spirit all experiences
become graces and through them the Spirit transforms us into the
new person, a new living Christ.
If we ignore the
invitation and go on, deaf and mindless, the Spirit will go away
but will not blame us for letting Him down. Eventually He will
come back again and again. He who is master of history will have
new ways to wake us up and invite us to walk in the way of
becoming more like Christ.
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