SUFFERING

Do you realize with what difficulty surrender will come to a fixing, managing mentality? There's nothing in that psyche prepared to understand the spiritual wisdom of surrender. All of the great world religions teach surrender. Yet most of us, until we go through “the hole in our soul,” don't think surrender is really necessary. At least that's how it is for those of us in developed countries. The poor, on the other hand, seem to understand limitation at a very early age. They cannot avoid or deny the hole in reality and in their own soul.

The developing world faces its limitation through a breakdown in the social-economic system, and any access to basic justice. But we, in the so-called developed world, have to face our limitations, it seems, on the inside. That's our “liberation theology.” We must recognize our own poor man, our own abused woman, the oppressed part of ourselves that we hate, that we deny, that we're afraid of. That's the hole in our soul. This is our way through—maybe the only way, says the crucified Jesus.