Chapter 4: Guidelines for Christian and monastic good practice (paragraphs 6-8)
Your hope of fulfillment should be centred in God alone. (From para. 6 of Ch. 4 of Saint Benedict's Rule, trans. by Patrick Barry, OSB, 1997.)
John Main teaches that at any moment I may choose where to place my attention, and I'm finding that this applies even to suffering. But what I sense is that there's a difference between real suffering and the representation of suffering.
I mull on these words by Etty Hillesum: "The greatest obstacle is always the representation and not the reality. Reality we can cope with, even with all its suffering, and heave it onto our shoulders. But the representation of suffering -- which is not suffering, because suffering itself is very fertile and can make life itself precious -- we must go beyond it. In going beyond these representations we liberate true life in ourselves, with all its strengths, and we become capable of managing the suffering in our own life as well as in the life of humanity."
Through the practice of meditation, I'm coming to see when suffering is real, centered in God alone.
John Main teaches that at any moment I may choose where to place my attention, and I'm finding that this applies even to suffering. But what I sense is that there's a difference between real suffering and the representation of suffering.
I mull on these words by Etty Hillesum: "The greatest obstacle is always the representation and not the reality. Reality we can cope with, even with all its suffering, and heave it onto our shoulders. But the representation of suffering -- which is not suffering, because suffering itself is very fertile and can make life itself precious -- we must go beyond it. In going beyond these representations we liberate true life in ourselves, with all its strengths, and we become capable of managing the suffering in our own life as well as in the life of humanity."
Through the practice of meditation, I'm coming to see when suffering is real, centered in God alone.
Chittister's translation uses the words, "Place your hope in God alone." This means that I act and actually put, set down, situate my hope in God and no one or nothing else. What is that "hope"? Could it be any hope I may have for my life or perhaps for the good and happiness of another person? In no uncertain terms, my hope cannot have crutches. It is God alone. It involves complete surrender and trust on my part in the God Who so often seems far away. And in today's Gospel reading from John 15:5, "Whoever remains in me and I in him will bear much fruit, because without me you can do nothing", the words of Christ give strength and meaning to Benedict's sentence.
ReplyDelete