Reflection for July 26th 2011

Part One

How does one transition from the survival dance to the sacred dance? Let me tell you how it starts. Did you know the first half of life has to fail you? In fact, if you do not recognize an eventual and necessary dissatisfaction (in the form of sadness, restlessness, emptiness, intellectual conflict, spiritual boredom, even loss of faith, etc.), you will not move on to maturity. Some form of this is found in most of the great mythologies of the world, as the protagonist “leaves home.” You see, faith really is about moving outside your comfort zone, trusting God's lead, instead of just forever shoring up home base. If you do that, then early religious “conditioning” largely substitutes for real faith.

We will then try to create minor successes to make ourselves feel religious or superior. Often people will get very adamant about one or another moral issue which usually asks nothing of them, only of others. Or they practice some ritual that asks very little of them in terms of real commitment or change (like attending a Sunday service). This is what has to fall apart because it isn’t true faith yet.

Part Two

In order to arrive at the second half of life, one has to realize there is an incurable wound at the heart of everything. Much of the conflict from the age of twenty-five to fifty-five is just trying to figure this out and then to truly accept it.

A Swiss theologian, Hans Urs Von Balthasar (1905-1988), who had real influence at Vatican II, said toward the end of his life: “All great thought springs from a conflict between two eventual insights.”
The wound which we find at the heart of everything is finally incurable.
Yet we still must try! And, in fact, we are driven to try!

This largely unsuccessful effort is itself the training ground for all virtue and growth in holiness.

Amazing, eh? Pure spiritual genius, in my opinion! This “wound at the heart of life” shows itself in many ways in different lives, but your holding and “suffering” of it will make you into a wise and holy person. It makes you patient, loving, hopeful, and compassionate. What else do we need?!